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Curious? Take a Look
Take a look and find something new. Explore this selection of remarkable materials and the exhibitions that feature them.
Follow where your curiosity leads you!
Illustration of the Infection of a Bullet Wound, 1870
The German born, American artist Robert Kohler (1850-1917) depicts the bone infection that resulted from a gunshot fracture of the femur suffered by American Civil War veteran David Saffern. The osteomyelitis (acute or chronic bone infection) is indicated by the mottled texture of the marrow and green and black hues in this representation of a chromolithograph published in a case study of Saffern's injury in the U.S. Sanitary Commission's Surgical Memoirs of the War of the Rebellion vol. 1 1870-1871. To learn more about veterans of the American Civil War, visit the online exhibition Life and Limb: The toll of the American Civil War.
Private George W. Lemon, 1867
On May 5, 1864, Private George W. Lemon was shot in the leg at the battle of the Wilderness. Following his capture by Confederate soldiers, Private Lemon did not receive treatment for his wounds until freed by Union forces a week later. The soldier suffered repeated infections and poor health as a result of his injuries and subsequent treatment until Surgeon Edwin Bentley amputated the limb. Private Lemon made a full recovery and was fitted with an artificial leg in 1868. This representation of the chromolithograph of Private Lemon appears in Drawings, Photographs and Lithographs Illustrating the Histories of Seven Survivors of the Operation of Amputation at the Hipjoint, During the War of the Rebellion, Together with Abstracts of these Seven Successful Cases, 1867 by George A. Otis. To learn more about this story, visit the online exhibition Life and Limb: The toll of the American Civil War.
Cadaver buried February 7, 1828, and exhumed April 24, 1828, 1831
French artist Jacques Hippolyte van der Burch (1786-1856) represented the effects of putrefactive changes produced in cadavers when exposed to earth, water, air, and fumigation, in a series of chromolithographs that appear in the 1831 treatise on the subject of exhumation and decomposition by Mathieu J. B. Orfila, MD (1787-1853) and Octave Lesueur, MD (1802-1860) titled Traité des exhumations juridiques. [Treatise on legal exhumations, and considerations on the physical transformations undergone by cadavers rotting in the earth, in water, in toilets and in manure], Paris, 1831. To learn more about the history of forensic science, visit the online exhibition Visible Proofs: Forensic Views of the Body.
Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila, ca. 1835
Spanish born, French chemist Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila, MD (1787-1853) was the first 19th-century exponent of forensic medicine, and is often called the "Father of Toxicology." Dr. Orfila worked to make chemical analysis a routine part of forensic investigation. His work included studies of asphyxiation, the decomposition of bodies, and exhumation. This representation of a lithograph portrait shows a decorated and richly adorned Dr. Orphila.To learn more about the history of forensic science, visit the online exhibition Visible Proofs: Forensic Views of the Body.
Der Mensch als Industriepalast (Man as Industrial Palace), 1926
In this representation of a chromolithograph, German artist Fritz Kahn (1888-1968) depicts a modernist visualization of the human digestive and respiratory systems, as an "industrial palace" or chemical plant. Kahn conceived of Der Mensch als Industriepalast in a period when the German chemical industry was the world's most advanced. To learn more about the history of anatomical representations, visit Dream Anatomy.
Elizabeth Blackwell, ca. 1875
Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910), the first woman in America to receive a medical degree, said she decided to pursue medical training after a close friend who was dying suggested she would have been spared her worst suffering if her physician had been a woman. Dr. Blackwell overcame significant social and financial obstacles to pursue her career and, in 1847, Geneva Medical College accepted her application to study medicine. Dr. Blackwell received her degree on January 23, 1849. To learn more about Elizabeth Blackwell and the history of women in medicine, visit the online exhibition Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians.
Susie King Taylor, 1902
Susie King Taylor's memoir, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops Late 1st S.C. Volunteers, is the only known published recollection of the experiences of an African American nurse during the American Civil War. In a letter to Taylor, reproduced in her book, Lt. Colonel Trowbridge, commander of the regiment, praises Taylor's "unselfish devotion and service through more than three long years of war in which the 33d Regiment bore a conspicuous part in the great conflict for human liberty and the restoration of the Union." To learn more about Susie King Taylor, visit the online exhibition Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War Medicine
Go to the Countryside to serve the 500 Million Peasants, 1965
In June 1965, the chairman of the Communist Party, Mao Zedong, called for young women and men to train and serve as community health care workers or "barefoot doctors" to those in need. Millions of peasants were living in the countryside far from fully-equipped medical facilities and the nearest health care center could be a three-day-walk away. These young medical workers would spend half of the day farming, and the rest of the time providing health care to those in the area. By the 1970s, over one million people had been trained. Although the delivery of medicine has changed since then, the low cost and wide distribution of health care made possible by the "barefoot doctors" has never been matched. To learn more about "barefoot doctors, visit the online exhibition Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health.
Ignorance = Fear, Silence = Death, 1989
Keith Haring (1958-1990) created memorable and unique art work during a career that achieved international recognition. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Haring moved to New York City in 1978 and enrolled in the School of Visual Arts. He began creating graffiti art in New York City subway stations in 1980 and within a year had his first solo exhibition. During a brief but intense career that spanned the 1980s, Haring's work was featured in over 100 solo and group exhibitions. He used a primacy of line and directness of message to express universal concepts of birth, death, love, sex and war, using a primacy of line and directness of message, Haring was able to attract a wide audience and assure the accessibility and staying power of his imagery. Haring was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, and then used his imagery to speak about his own illness and generate activism and awareness about AIDS. In 1989, he established the Keith Haring Foundation, its mandate being to provide funding and use of his works to AIDS organizations and children's programs. Keith Haring died of AIDS related complications at the age of 31 in 1990. To learn more about Keith Haring and the history and response to HIV/AIDS, visit the online exhibition Surviving and Thriving: AIDS, Politics and Culture
Half-Hours with the Microscope
This illustration from Half-Hours with the Microscope (1860), English naturalist Edwin Lankester's pocket-sized microscopy guidebook, gives readers a glimpse at cells and organisms too tiny to be seen by the naked eye. Lankester enlisted the help of scientific artist, Tuffen West, to pictorialize his observations under the microscope. In this page, West shows details of plant cells (figures 1-3 and 11-15), animal cells (figures 4-10), and microorganisms like amoebas (figures 16-25). Exploration of the microscopic world helped advance scientific understanding of microbes, which enabled scientists to devise methods of using them for medical and industrial applications. To learn more, visit the online exhibition, From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry.
Advertisement for the film Marihuana, 1936
Marihuana: the Devils Weed was a cautionary exploitation film directed and produced by Dwain Esper. A young woman named Burma (Harley Wood) attends a beach party, smokes marijuana for the first time, and has sex with her boyfriend. After the party, a now pregnant Burma goes to work for a drug dealer and eventually becomes a major dealer herself, after giving up her baby for adoption. In the 1930s, stories about drug-induced recklessness and violence in film, as well as efforts to associate the drug with Mexican immigrants, were part of a crusade against cannabis spearheaded by government officials. By the 1960s, the drug was associated with the urban poor, criminals, political radicals, and social misfits known as beatniks. To learn more, visit the online exhibition, Pick Your Poison: Intoxicating Pleasures & Medical Prescriptions.
Curious? Take a Look page
This cloth bag is from the annual conference of the Nursing Network on Violence Against Women (NNVAW). The NNVAW was founded during the first of these conferences in 1985, with the goal of encouraging the development of nursing practices to address the health and social effects of violence in women's lives. Today, the Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International (NNVAWI) conducts outreach to nurses and others working to prevent gender-based violence, fosters information sharing, creates strategies that support women who experience violence, and sponsors conferences that link professionals across disciplines. The work of the NNVAWI is part of a larger movement spearheaded by nurses to respond to the needs of abuse sufferers and reform the medical profession, which had historically disregarded domestic violence as a serious health issue. To learn more about the efforts of activists and health workers to transform the response to domestic violence, visit the online exhibition.
Last Reviewed: December 4, 2015


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Bourjos, Trout: Who's swiftest?
Thoughts on a few hot topics of the day:
Peter Bourjos vs. Mike Trout
Who's faster? And where will they play when they're in the same outfield?
These are questions I get all the time. There is no definitive answer to the matter of speed. My guess is Trout is more explosive in the first 20 to 30 yards, but Bourjos would catch him and nip him at the wire at 100 yards. Everyone would like to see them race, but it's actually better this way, keeping the debate alive as we watch these two phenomenal athletes grow into whatever they become.
My guess is that Bourjos, with great reads and a better arm, will remain in center field and win close to as many Rawlings Gold Gloves as his mentor, Torii Hunter, who owns nine. Bourjos is already the best, in my view, and can only get better.
Bourjos has the ability to be a highly productive offensive player, hitting in the .280 to .320 range consistently with 50 to 70 steals. He has the hand and bat speed and the willingness to put in the necessary work to make it happen.
Trout's ceiling is Sistine Chapel-esque: colorful and enormous. I'm not sure he'll ever be quite as good as Bourjos defensively, but he'll be close. And he has the talent to be one of the game's best total hitters. Still not quite 20, he won't come into his power for a few more years, at which time I think you'll see him land in the 25-30 homer range with triple digits in runs scored and RBIs. He has the tools to contend for batting titles.
With Hunter, Vernon Wells and Bobby Abreu coming back, there's no need to rush Trout. But he might force his way into the outfield rotation next season. If he does, I see him in left. And that's where I see him for a long time, giving the Angels the best left fielder in the game to go along with the premier center fielder, Bourjos.
Something else to ponder: Bourjos, Erick Aybar and Trout forming the fastest, most electric top third of a batting order anyone has seen in a long time. Maybe ever. Aybar is almost as swift as Bourjos and Trout.
Oh, and the guy hitting behind them, cleaning up by driving in loads of runs? Mark Trumbo. This guy is on his way to becoming one of the game's most feared power hitters. He has the skill and the will and, the most underrated part of the formula, rare common-sense intelligence.
The best is coming for Angels fans. Patience is no virtue, I understand, when it's all about winning RIGHT NOW. But there's a whole lot of gold here waiting to be mined in the future.
Mike Napoli vs. Jeff Mathis
The collision of the front-running Rangers, with Napoli fitting in beautifully behind the plate and in the lineup, and the pursuing Angels, with Mathis doing his customary solid defensive work while scuffling offensively, has touched off an old debate among the so-called faithful.
A small segment of fandom seems to appreciate what Mathis has done for a pitching staff that has been the foundation of the Angels' success. A much larger segment preferred, and still prefers, Napoli's booming bat. Now that Nap also is putting together an impressive catcher's ERA with a superb Texas staff, his supporters – and those who just don't like Mathis – are coming unglued on web sites attacking Mathis, manager Mike Scioscia for playing him, and yours truly for defending him.
The venom is totally out of proportion to the reality, but when emotion gets involved, all logic goes out the proverbial window. I'm an idiot, and so is Scioscia, evidently, for continuing to defend and, in Mike's case, play a guy WHO CAN'T HIT .200.
Numbers, thrown out to defend any position, now hold the game hostage. It's all about all these categories I can't even define. Watching and enjoying the game is secondary now. Sometimes it's as if the stat people would be thrilled if they just stopped playing the game altogether and let them give us the results through their computers. Everything is so cut and dried, preordained statistically, they might as well do that.
In response to all those who insist I am biased toward Mathis, I would ask you to please, if you get a chance, ask Napoli our relationship when he was with the Angels. I'm pretty sure he'd tell you he had no bigger supporter, in or out of the media.
I'm thrilled to see Napoli with a big smile on his face, having a great time. He's a good guy. So is his best buddy, Mathis. Their relationship has remained rock solid through their years of competing for playing time, which tells you a lot about both of them.
They used to joke that if you combined their talents, you'd have Johnny Bench. And that wasn't far from the truth. Given the relative popularity of the two, it's obvious about 95 percent of fandom would take Bench's power over his defense.
Mathis knows he needs to hit. That's his problem. He has to relax and let his natural athletic ability flow. He's one of the five best athletes in the clubhouse, and if that ever happens, if he ever unlocks himself, he can be a decent offensive player.
The Mathis haters, of course, will laugh, as always. Go ahead. It's your prerogative. Just please try not to be so hostile in expressing yourself. It cheapens your position.
Howard Kendrick vs. Howie Kendrick
Most everyone calls him Howie, but I'm sticking with Howard for one reason: Jody, his wife, calls him Howard, and so do other family members, from what I understand. If that's who he is to those closest to him, I'll go with that. Mike Scioscia calls him Howie because he believes there should be a separation between the athlete and the private person. Mike and I sometimes disagree.
At Spring Training a few years ago, another person close to Kendrick told me "there's nothing Howie about him," adding that he's just too nice a guy to even care what people call him.
Kendrick once told me that Howie first surfaced next to his name early in his career when a bubble-gum company put that on his card. I remembered seeing (and hating) Bob Clemente, not Roberto, on a card when I was a kid. So I guess that's another reason why I write Howard Kendrick, not Howie.
No big deal. Just setting the record straight from my perspective. – Lyle Spencer
8 Comments
Lyle, we aren't Mathis haters. At least I am not. I agree he is a very good defensive catcher. I also agree he is a good guy no doubt. There are a segment of fans out here that truly believe that Napoli did not get his just due as a defensive catcher, many believing he is not a good as Mathis…this is simply not so, stats do bear that out. Please don't call us haters, we just like Napoli better and wishing Mathis was the one traded.
So Lyle, one way to quiet down all the Mathis haters would be to come up with a method of comparing the two catchers combined offensive and defensive stats to look at their total + and/or – contributions to the game. Perhaps there's a sybermatic formula out there to do that? It's clear that the scales would tip in favor of Napoli offensively. However, I don't think they would tip in Mathis' favor defensively as radically as Sosh paints the picture. Therefore, the scales would tip slightly in favor of Napoli. Of course, the real answer would be to survey the pitchers that have thrown to each on a regular basis and see how big of a difference Mathis makes over Napoli behind the plate. I guess we would never get answers to that one because the guys would never disrespect either one, regardless of what they really think. Personally, I believe Mathis is too much of a liability at the plate, it's as if the Angels play national ball everyday vs. Ameican League teams when he is in the lineup. Thank God they are not in the National League, with two batters that bad and the mighty little ones sprinkled all around the infield, they would really be at a disadvantage. But that's for another days' comments…..
I always appreciate your comments, and your point of view. You do a great job.
Whatever Jody says…
She's a babe.
Lyle, I don't think anyone dislikes Mathis, it's just how do you justify a Major League Player batting a career .197 ? And as a catcher only throwing out 30% of the runners stealing? Other than working with the pitchers well, please tell me what is so special about Mathis? Why is Soscia so enamored with Mathis? I am sure his work ethic is good but has anyone in the Angel organization thought on hiring someone else to work on his hitting since it looks like he is going to be around for awhile?
Mathis ranks at the bottom of the list in defensive metrics- not just of angels catchers, but in the mlb. I understand that you may not understand things like that, or care, but to put it bluntly, Mathis is a bad defensive catcher.
I attend about 20 Angels games every year, and thus hear both the positives, and negatives. The later start about the 2nd or 3rd inning – seemingly after a small group of late-comers arrive, with beers in hand, and an athletic alpha-male sitting in their midst. Last year their vitriol was aimed at Brandon; this year it's Jeff.
It is very apparent that the hate they spew at the game, or within a blog, is not aimed at helping the player, nor the team. Rather – it is purely a self-aggrandizing outburst (and dare I say by a person with perhaps low self-esteem).
For those of us there to watch "the game" and the very best baseball players in the world (no exceptions) – the negative actions of fans is annoying at best.
I also find it absurdly comical when you get attacked (I've read such within a supposedly pro-Angels blog). Please know that I enjoy your reports; they are fact based, and seasoned with a few grains of kindness, and optimism.
From now on I will say "Howard".
P.S – Isn't it awesome – that Brandon Wood is playing for / contributing to the 1st place Pirates!! Go Brandon!
I'm baffled by the so-called professional ethic of bloggers on a certain pro-Angels site. Since Lyle's name is out there, these people should have to reveal their identities. This flat crosses the line. How in the world can they get money from responsible advertisers and have a respectable national editing staff with this language? I am beyond shock. I'm sorry this needs to be addressed. Speech should be protected at all costs, anonymous speech shouldn't be when it done in public forums and is that personally offensive and defaming.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Richard David Stutzke Foundation has awarded a gift for an undisclosed sum to Unity College in Unity, Maine. The gift will support scholarships awarded to Unity College students with priority given to those pursuing studies as part of the Sustainable Energy Management, and Environmental Policy, Law, and Society programs.
The foundation chose to award the scholarship in large part because of Unity College's decision in 2012 to become the first college in the United States to divest from investments in fossil fuels. The decision was framed by the College as an ethical imperative related to the recognition that the burning of fossil fuels is driving the crisis of global climate change. Since Unity College, an environmental college in Unity, Maine, announced its decision to divest more than 300 college and university campuses across the United States have expressed robust student movements encouraging divestment.
Unity College has decided to turn the gift into an endowed scholarship.
"Under the umbrella of sustainability, we are ensuring that this gift continues to give in perpetuity," noted Dr. Melik Peter Khoury, Senior Vice President for External Affairs.
Dr. Stutzke spent most of his career in the defense industry, working at Science Applications International Corporation in Colorado Springs and later Huntsville, Alabama. A prolific author, Stutzke's 40 years of experience with software development and project management culminated in 2005 with publication of his long-awaited book Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Projects, Products and Processes. According to his wife, Sharon, he was a man of boundless energy, drive and intelligence who lived life to the fullest.
"We never knew Richard David Stutzke but from what we have learned about him since receiving this gift, we wish we had," said Martha Nordstrom, Director of College Development. "We are delighted to be able to honor his name and his work."
Doug Fox, a Professor of Sustainable Agriculture and Director of the Center for Sustainability and Global Change, is focused on the opportunities that the scholarship will create for deserving and talented students who are committed to a life in service to the natural world.
"This scholarship will support students who are committed to creating a more sustainable world," said Fox. "I will enjoy telling recipients of this scholarship its origins in recognition of Unity College's fossil fuel divestment commitment."
In addition to being the first college in the nation to divest from investments in fossil fuels, Unity College has also become the first college in the nation to adopt a Sustainability Science framework. As defined by the National Academies of Sciences, Sustainability Science is the leading edge of 21st century transdisciplinary (collaborative) environmental problem solving. Through its focus Unity College is training students to address the most significant ecological challenges of the modern era, including the mitigation of global climate change.
Known as America's Environmental College, in recent years Unity College has gained national attention for a variety of achievements including: divestment and its focus on sustainability science; its ground-breaking "green" innovations such as the award-winning TerraHaus, the first student residence on a college or university campus built to the Passive House standard, the most energy efficient building standard in the world.
Unity College is a small private college in rural Maine that provides dedicated, engaged students with a liberal arts education that emphasizes the environment and natural resources. Unity College graduates are prepared to be environmental stewards, effective leaders, and responsible citizens through active learning experiences within a supportive community.


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|Top of Notices (100) December 30, 2008
|Print This Notice 1337 CNOG 448
|General Information
|Referenced Items (94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115)
(100) Notice of Complex Work Unit Pilot Program Request for Voluntary Submission of Electronic Complex Work Unit Files Issue Applications containing complex work units such as chemical structures, mathematical formulae, and tables often add significant complexity and cost to the current processes for publishing patents and pre-grant patent application publications. This is largely due to the fact that the Office's publisher must take the complex work unit as filed in paper and convert it to an electronic format that is appropriate for publication. Further, especially in the realm of chemical structures, it is sometimes necessary for the Office to recreate the complex work unit in order to search relevant databases. Accordingly it would be desirable for the Office to obtain an electronic version of any complex work unit that is in a format compatible with Office electronic systems. Background Information Tables In view of the processing problems caused by the submission of applications containing paper or image versions of lengthy tables, the Office continues to encourage applicants to submit lengthy tables on compact disc (CD) in ASCII text as provided in 37 CFR 1.52(e) or via EFS-Web as provided in the EFS-Web Legal Framework, as a part of the specification as provided in 37 CFR 1.77(b)(5). However, the Office continues to receive a significant number of patent applications that include lengthy table information submitted only on paper. The Office has an ongoing pilot program for patent document publishing purposes only wherein, in response to an Office request, applicants may submit lengthy tables in electronic formats other than ASCII text so the lengthy tables can be posted on a separate repository (PSIPS) instead of being published in the full text searchable databases. See Notice that Lengthy Tables will be Published Differently in Patents, Statutory Invention Registrations and Patent Application Publications And Notice of Pilot Program With Respect to Lengthy Tables, 1282 O.G. 108 (2004). Chemical and Three-Dimensional Biological Structure Data The Office published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM) entitled "Acceptance, Processing, Use and Dissemination of Chemical and Three-Dimensional Biological Structural Data in Electronic Format," 70 Fed. Reg. 35571 (21 June 2005) seeking public comment on how best to provide the capability to manage, process, search, and disseminate 3-D biological structure data and chemical structure data as appropriate. In addition to general background information, the ANPRM provided background information specific to 3-D protein crystal data and chemical structure data. In particular, an effort was made to familiarize the public with standards and tools that are currently available to provide a frame of reference. The USPTO anticipates that submission of chemical and 3-D biological structural data in electronic format in patent applications will improve the processing and examination of patent applications that include such data, as well as the publication of such data. Public comments in response to the ANPRM with regard to 3-D protein structure data were generally favorable, with most respondents favoring requiring electronic submission of such data, as it would benefit both the public and the Office without placing an undue burden on applicants, because most structures were already stored in electronic form. While public comments were mixed with regard to requiring the submission of chemical structures in electronic form, the respondents acknowledged that chemical structures appearing in patent applications are usually drawn using either free or commercially available software, and thus are created and stored in electronic form.
|Top of Notices (100) December 30, 2008
EFS-Web With the upgrade to EFS-Web 1.1, the Office is now able to accept text files as part of a patent application submission. Text-based formats are currently available for several of the types of complex work units frequently submitted by applicants. For example, chemical structure information can be created or saved as IUPAC International Chemical Identifier (InChI(TM)) files; mathematical equations can be created or saved using the Mathematical Markup Language (MathML); and three-dimensional protein crystalline structures can be created or saved using the text-based, Protein Data bank (PDB)-compliant format. InChI(TM), MathML, and PDB formats are all comprised of ASCII text strings. As an added benefit, the worldwide PDB has indicated a willingness to start a pilot program to accept, store, and disseminate information from published patent applications which have been received by the USPTO in PDB format, a format commonly used by practitioners in this art. Compact Disc (CD) Submissions With the advent of the Supplemental Complex Repository for Examiners (SCORE) system, the Office is able to receive files in ASCII text through EFS-Web, or in a wide variety of format types via compact disc (CD) submission, and make these files available to examiners through the Electronic Desktop Application Navigator (eDAN) and to practitioners and the public through a link in the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. However, the Office has not yet determined which file formats would improve the efficiency of the publication and/or examination processes. Pilot to Accept Electronic Copies of Complex Work Units Beginning the date of the publication of this notice in the Official Gazette, the Office will begin a pilot program to accept voluntary submission of tables, chemical structures, three-dimensional protein crystalline structures and mathematical formulae recorded in electronic formats not compliant with 37 CFR 1.52(e) on CD as a supplement to (not as a replacement of) submission of these complex work units on paper or as a PDF file via EFS-Web. Effective immediately, applicants may and are encouraged to electronically submit text documents in InChI(TM), MathML, and PDB formats via EFS-Web as separate text files as a supplement to (not as a replacement of) submission of these complex work units as a PDF filed via EFS-Web. Pilot Program Requirements: * The patent application submitted on paper or as a PDF file via EFS-Web must include therein at least one complex work unit, i.e., at least one table, chemical structure, three-dimensional protein crystalline structure, or mathematical formula. * Any CD or text file submitted in accordance with this pilot must be accompanied by a statement that the complex work unit file submitted in electronic form is the same as the file used to create the image of the complex work unit submitted as part of the paper patent application or PDF format patent application filed via EFS-Web. In the event of any discrepancy between the paper or PDF and the electronic version of a complex work unit, the paper or PDF version is the authoritative version. * Each CD must be labeled "CWU Pilot" and only one copy of each CD is required. Each file must be labeled in accordance with the instructions given on the USPTO web site at: http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/cwupilot.html. The requirements of 37 CFR 1.52(e) are hereby waived to the extent that they are inconsistent
|Top of Notices (100) December 30, 2008
with the complex work unit pilot program requirements. Duration and Results of Pilot Program The pilot program is scheduled to run for six months. After the completion of the pilot the Office will evaluate the findings of the pilot and make a determination as to whether or not to (1) implement procedural changes based on the findings of the pilot program or (2) extend the pilot program for an additional length of time. Exclusions from Pilot - Computer Program Listings, Sequence Listings, Tables in ASCII Format, International Applications Computer Program Listings, Sequence Listings, or tables in ASCII format must be submitted on a separate set of CDs and comply with 37 CFR 1.52(e) or must be submitted in accordance with the EFS-Web Legal Framework. In addition, international applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) are excluded from this pilot program. Thus, PCT applicants may not file complex work units on CD as a supplement to a patent application filed either on paper or via EFS-Web. Furthermore, applicants may not file text documents in InChI(TM), MathML, or PDB formats via EFS-Web in international applications filed under the PCT. Effect on Calculation of Application Size Fee The application size fee set out in 35 U.S.C. 41(a)(1)(G) applies to any application the specification and drawings of which exceed 100 sheets of paper.1 However, electronic files submitted in accordance with this pilot are the source code for the complex work units that are included in the specification or drawings and thus are not considered to be a part of the specification or drawings. Accordingly, the following documents, when submitted in accordance with this pilot, will not be included for purposes of determining the application size fee:2 tables, chemical structures, three-dimensional protein crystalline structures and mathematical formulae recorded on CD in electronic formats not compliant with 37 CFR 1.52(e); and chemical structures, mathematical formulae, or protein crystalline structures expressed as a text document in InChI(TM), MathML, or PDB format and submitted via EFS-Web. Further Legal Consideration Currently, 37 CFR 1.52(e) only allows an applicant to file Computer Program Listings, Sequence Listings, or tables on compact disc (with a duplicate compact disc) in ASCII format. Accordingly, for purposes of this pilot program, the Office hereby waives the requirements of 37 CFR 1.52(e) to the extent required to allow applicants to submit chemical structures, mathematical equations, three-dimensional protein crystalline structures, and tables not in compliance with 37 CFR 1.52(e) in electronic format on compact disc as a supplement to a paper copy of a patent application or a PDF copy of a patent application filed via EFS-Web. Information obtained during the pilot will allow the Office to determine the feasibility of accepting and using chemical structures, tables, mathematical equations, and three-dimensional protein crystalline structures in specific electronic formats. Upon successful completion of the pilot, the Office will assess the desirability of proposing rules pertaining to the submission of chemical structures, tables, mathematical equations, and three-dimensional protein crystalline structures in electronic formats that are most useful to the Office (analogous to the current nucleic acid and amino acid sequence rules). Detailed Information More detailed information pertaining to this pilot is posted on the USPTO web site at: http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/cwupilot.html. This
|Top of Notices (100) December 30, 2008
page includes links to the ANPRM and OG notices referenced above, a detailed description of InChI(TM), MathML, and PDB formats, an explanation of the file formats currently used in the publication process, preferred naming conventions for the electronic files, and answers to frequently asked questions. Contact Information Questions regarding this notice may be directed to Lisa Titcomb, CWU Pilot Program Manager, by phone at (571) 272-5723 or by e-mail at email@example.com. 1 Any sequence listing or computer program listing filed in electronic medium is excluded from this calculation. 2 The application size fee is codified in the Code of Federal Regulations at 37 CFR 1.16(s). April 14, 2008 JON W. DUDAS Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office [1330 OG 49]


text: Anemanthele lessoniana siroccoStipa grass Arachnoides aristata 'Variegata'Indian Holly Fern Athyrium filix-femina 'Frizelliae'Tatting Fern Blechnum spicantHard Fern Carex comans Bronze FormHairy sedge-Weeping brown sedge Carex comans Frosted CurlsNew Zealand Hair Sedge Carex morrowii Ice DanceVariegated Sedge Carex oshimensis EvergoldStriped weeping sedge Carex testacea Prairie FireBronze Sedge Chamaecyparis pisifera Filifera AureaGolden Thread False Cypress Chamaecyparis pisifera Filifera NanaDwarf Threadleaf False Cypress Dryopteris affinis cristata The KingKing of the Male Ferns Previous 1 2 3 Next Mypalmshop Erica Beekweg 187887 TN EricaThe NetherlandsTel: +31(0)591744052Route Opening hours Friday and Saturday 10.00 am - 4.00 pm MyPalmShop Wezep Please note: Not all of our assortment is available in Wezep!Zuiderzeestraatweg 4528091 PB WezepThe NetherlandsTel: +31-6-36309230 (Only for info about the store in Wezep)Route Opening hours March - October Wednesday - Saturday 10.00am - 5.00pm November - February Friday and Saturday 10.00am - 4.00pm Contact us You can call us on Monday to Friday 10.00 am - 4.00 pm firstname.lastname@example.com Info Contact Privacy Terms and conditions Gardeners diary Track & trace Order no. See also Caring for your palm trees FAQ Our latest products Payment options Delivery costs Winter protection Why MyPalmShop.com? Sign up to our newsletter! xx © 2019 MyPalmShop | All rights reserved


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We've known for a while that Ford is unleashing a higher performance version of the Explorer this fall.
Dubbed the Explorer Sport, it has 365 horsepower from its twin turbo V6 and gets 22 MPG on the highway, the best of any seven-passenger SUV. It's basically an Explorer SHO. But what's the point?
The Taurus SHO and Explorer Sport share so much in common that it isn't funny. It has the same underpinnings and engine. It just gets worse gas mileage and is higher, which means it handles worse.
This is a Taurus SHO wagon with a lift kit. The biggest issue is that the off road cred that the Explorer used to have is further tarnished due to the gigantic wheels and the unibody construction.
Why does it exist? It's simple: Sales. Ford will sell tons of these to people that want power but not a lame Taurus sedan. They want something bigger that will handle and stop worse, and the Explorer Sport will fill that niche.
On the other hand, if you'd told us a few years ago we'd be able to get something AWD with room for seven, gets 22 MPG and has 365 horsepower we'd have said: in your dreams.
What do you think of it?


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Latest By
"In WWII, they had a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. I think the modern equivalent of that is that there are no jaded, bored people in the high-tech industry, in the land of really good hardcore geeks."
Over centuries, a simple act like preparing and serving tea evolved into a sort of meditation. It might be helpful to put oneself into a contemplative state of mind before entering a virtual space.
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For more than two decades, we have been committed to providing millions of customers with quality flooring that is sustainable, affordable, and beautiful. That's why we've become the market leader. We take pride in our products, we are proud to use them in our own homes, and we are proud to sell them to you.
But here's what else you need to know: We're equally focused on meeting the highest standards of safety, like no other flooring company in this country. From hardwood to laminates, we're investing more than ever to ensure we meet or exceed industry standards and set new benchmarks for product manufacturing, safety and quality assurance. We are committed to being a responsible corporate citizen, by operating in a sustainable way, protecting the environment, and contributing to our communities. We work hard to make sure all of our products meet these high standards.
As part of our efforts, we recognize the need to continuously raise the bar and improve our operations. Working with third-party subject matter experts, as well as state and federal government agencies, we continue to enhance our internal processes to better reflect our values and the expectations of our stakeholders.
As America's long-trusted name in hardwood flooring we won't rest until we've done everything possible to meet your highest expectations. You've trusted our value—and we value your trust.
In 2015, Lumber Liquidators began to systematically enhance our compliance program and sustainability practices everywhere we do business. This started with the hiring of Jill Witter, a skilled and experienced senior executive, as our company's Chief Compliance Officer (CCO). Jill reports directly to our CEO, Dennis Knowles, and has led a team of professionals through an intensive evaluation of our policies, our processes and our supply chain. This evaluation process included:
These initiatives provide the foundation for our rigorous and newly-redesigned compliance program. This program includes product testing, onsite supplier audits, and supplier risk assessments which help us to better identify suppliers who are aligned with our values and principles, even before we initiate business with them.
No. The CPSC did not announce a mandatory product recall.
Lumber Liquidators and the CPSC agreed to a "recall to test", which is the term the CPSC uses to describe a testing program. In this case, Lumber Liquidators agreed to continue the in-home air quality testing program we began in May 2015 for consumers who purchased our Chinese-made laminate flooring between February 2012 and May 2015.
Click here to view the CPSC's Frequently Asked Questions about our agreement.
Through our testing program, we have tested over 2,000 floor samples, without one testing above the CPSC's remediation guidelines.
If you have our Chinese-made laminate floors in your homes and would like to order your free test kit, you can do so here.
First and foremost, we believe that every product Lumber Liquidators currently sells is safe and meets all safety and regulatory standards. In 2015, questions were raised about a small number of our products, specifically certain laminate flooring products sourced from China. Since then, however, no government agency has declared that the flooring in question needs to be removed or returned. In fact, we have worked with over 52,000 consumers to test formaldehyde levels in their homes, and have tested over 2,000 planks of our customers' flooring. None of those tests have found formaldehyde emission rates above the CPSC guideline.
No government agency has raised questions about the safety of any of our other products, including bamboo, hardwood, tile, vinyl, engineered flooring, or laminates sourced from other countries.
No, they aren't. We voluntarily stopped selling Chinese-sourced laminate products in May 2015, and it has all been removed from our inventory.
Lumber Liquidators has voluntarily implemented a customer in-home air testing program to ensure that customers who purchased laminate flooring prior to May 2015 are confident in the laminate flooring they purchased. If you installed laminate flooring from Lumber Liquidators prior to May 7, 2015, please visit https://www.lumberliquidators.com/ll/testkit to check if your laminate flooring qualifies for a free indoor air quality test kit. If you have other concerns regarding the laminate flooring you purchased from Lumber Liquidators prior to May 7, 2015, please contact our Customer Care team through our online form at https://www.lumberliquidators.com/ll/contact-us/request.
No, no government agency has recommended that consumers replace their Lumber Liquidators laminate flooring. The CDC, in particular, encouraged people who are concerned about their floors to take common sense steps such as opening windows in their home, recommendations that we support. If you'd like to learn more about the CDC's recommendations, you can see their fact sheet here.
No government agency has raised questions about the safety of any of Lumber Liquidators' other flooring products, including bamboo, hardwood, tile, vinyl, or engineered flooring. We have also ceased purchasing laminate products from China. We are confident that our products are safe and comply with all applicable quality and environmental standards.
From hardwood to laminates, we're investing more than ever to ensure the safety and quality of all of our products. As America's long-trusted name in hardwood flooring we won't rest until we've done everything possible to meet your highest expectations.
Lumber Liquidators has implemented a robust compliance program to ensure that all its products meet or exceed relevant governmental standards. This compliance program includes:
In addition to strengthening our compliance policies, Lumber Liquidators is working to become more sustainable. We seek to minimize our impact on the environment and find new ways to leave a positive, lasting legacy on the communities in which we operate and on our customers.
Our new company Code of Conduct focuses on the objects on the right.
At Lumber Liquidators, we are committed to making a lasting difference in the communities in which we operate.
We call our community support program "Lay It Forward" and, since 2007, Lumber Liquidators has donated more than 300,000 square feet of flooring to nonprofit organizations, schools, arts facilities, community groups, and more.
Whether it's the responsible harvesting of hardwoods throughout the world, donating time or money to local charitable organizations, or creating jobs in communities around the country and around the world, we are contributing to a better future.


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Comet Catalina
Comet Catalina (C/2013 US10) is a comet from the Oort Cloud currently making its first and only visit to the inner solar system. The comet was first discovered on October 31, 2013 by the Catalina Sky Survey using a 27-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. At the time of discovery, it had an apparent magnitude of 19. Since … [Read more…]


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This is our midweek show. Join us for our live show Wednesday at 5 PM and Friday at 9 PM Central time at http://youtube.com/PackardPokesAt. We invite your comments and for you to call our voice mail at 662-709-PPAP or 662-709-7727. Please feel free to hit the donate button and give what you can or what you feel the show is worth to you. If you wish to donate any hardware to the show contact @Packard_Sonic on twitter or packardpokeasat at gmail.com
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A Sandwich A Day: Adobo Torta at México Blvd.
A new sandwich every day.
In this great city of ours, one could eat a different sandwich every day of the year—so that's what we'll do. Here's A Sandwich a Day, our daily look at sandwiches around New York. Got a sandwich we should check out? Let us know. —The Mgmt.
Hipster taco trucks—bastions of beards, word-of-mouth, and budget eats—have been springing up everywhere, so it's no surprise that one has found its way into the lineup at the Hudson Square Food Truck Court. México Blvd. attracts a long line of hungry, Pavement T-shirt-wearing eaters, for bites like the Adobo torta ($8), a decent sandwich that, as a result of its $8 price tag, leaves a bit to be desired.
Built around a moderate helping of adobo-marinated shredded pork, the sandwich stacks lettuce, tomato, onion, pickled jalapeño, pickled carrot, and avocado (in this case their tasty guacamole) on a slightly pressed white roll. While the roll is fresh and quite good, it's a bit too large for the insides. Moreover, the adobo pork, while perfectly moist, is unassertive and forgettable, though the guacamole/carrot/jalapeño combination does deepen the flavor. Adding one of the three salsas (green, red or extra hot) helps out the sandwich slightly; although they are admittedly one-note (read: hot) sauces. México Blvd. doesn't make the best torta in town, but if a torta craving hits in Tribeca, LIC or DUMBO, it's an adequate choice in a pinch.
México Blvd.
Various Locations (Find Its Current Locations Here) 646-678-0976
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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Shona J. Marshall to Michael A. Miller and Willa B. Baker, 125 Birdwood Court, $135,000.
Kimberly M. and Theodore Korth Jr. to Susan Jallison, 1705 East Market Street, $132,000.
Roger R. and Barbara F. Spencer to Teresa D. Caddell, 800 Castalia Street, $110,000.
Virginia O. Farris to Glenn S. and Tammy K. Drewry, and Aaron M. and Lori Fitzgerald, each a one-half interest in 905 Altavista Avenue, $77,900.
Walker K. and Krista McArthur Davis to Robert A. Diethorn and Jennifer Waine, 1290 Kenwood Lane, $199,900.
Larry J. McElwain, Trustee, to Joseph W. Wright Jr., 41.093 acres on Sunset Avenue, no price given.
Joseph W. Wright Jr., Joseph W. Wright III, Michael K. Wright, and Barbara Donnelly to CHP Virginia LLC, parcel on Sunset Avenue, no price given.
James E. and Karen H. Grogan to Leslie A. Cannon, 2116 Tarleton Drive, $218,000.
James Silliman and Marcy E. Merrill-Silliman to Theodore B. and Christopher H Schroeder andKatharine T. Bartlett, 213 Old Lynchburg Road, $168,500.
Tamara K. Chisholm to Barbara Frost, 636 Watson Avenue, $93,000.
Gary Lee and Alice M. Hanks to Stephen E. and Lauren J. Knott, 128-A Longwood Drive, $93,000.
William J. and Margaret S. Wallace to Harris S. Sidunruang and Hallie E. Smith, 1618 hardwood Avenue, $230,000.
A. Ward and Sallie J. Sims to Michael T. and Kathryn S. Cross, 1714 Mason Lane, $180,000.
Luke E. and Suzanne K. Kitelinger to Theodore J. Corcoran and Elizabeth Sargent, 223 Douglas Avenue, $165,000.
Joseph C. and Lorraine L. H. Garnett to Holbrook Bonney and K. L. Willis, co-trustees, parcel on Steep Hill Street, Woolen Mills, $290,000.
Watson C. and Mary L. Morris to Lorraine H. Garnett, 1341 East Market Street, $191,500.
Novastar Mortgage Inc. to Neighborhood Investments LLC, parcel in Jordan subdivision, $35,000.
Christopher S. and Rachel K. Hockman to Francis C. and Mary F. Buckley, 102 Melford Terrace, $117,900.
John H. Hunter Jr. and Martha L. Saunders to Roger D. Williams, 1451 Kenwood Lane, $267,000.
James N. Dent to Peter L. Boatner and Anne M. Ingram, 1940 Thomson Road, $307,000.
Sidney and Carol B. Milkis to James Kohlmoos and Ruth Goetzer, 115 Robinson Woods, $295,000.
William F. and Peggy J. Nash to Richard R. Poelling, 2742 McElroy Drive, $150,000.
Ann Adair Wenneson to Hazel Lee Bernard and Debra C. Meade, 15 Mobile Lane, $145,000.
Dennis G. Cauchon and Virginia H. Cope to James B. and Katherine N. VanLiew, 1512 Rutledge Avenue, $270,000.
James C. and Joanna Gray to University Station LLC, 118 11th Street SW, $1,180,000.
Gertrude J. Fraser to Reginald R. Butler, 408 Ridge Street, $105,000.
Kevin M. and Sophia R. Cameron to Dale R. and Cynthia K. Haskins, 900 Rougemont Avenue, $130,000.
Kirsten Frank to Michael W. Thrift and Cristina DellaColetta, 2419 Jefferson Park Avenue, $392,000.
Telisa L. Alston to David Carter, 231 Fourth Street SW, gift.
Winona G. Canby to Jana L. Cutlip, 514 First Street, gift.
Timothy J. and Kim M. Finkler to Pamela P. Roberts, 915 Locust Lane, $188,000.
Esther R. Mozie to Janice M. Jackson, 975 Rock Creek Road, $70,000.
Biro Realty Corporation to Gary L. and Janice G. Hunter, 814 East High Street, $200,000.
Joseph F. and Lorella A. Werres to Dobric and Danica Pelar, condominium unit at 511 North First Street, $85,000.
Edward and Donna M. Kriebel to Frederick E. and Yvette A. Schmalz-Riedt, 2305 Gersandy Place, Waveerly, $475,000.
Adrian K. and Deanne P. Shaw to Thomas L. and Jody A. Reilly, 1145 Fox Ridge Drive, Earlysville, $235,000.
R. Wayne and Mary Jo Christian to Sheets Group LLC, 1.875 acres at 4891 Three Chopt Road, $80,000.
Barry Meade Homes LLC to Burton and Kathleen Burkholder, 2.80 acres at 1549 Church Plains Drive, $429,900.
Woodbriar Limited Associates LIM to Jeffrey D. and Dana S. Raynor, 2242 Hummingbird Lane, Briarwood, $137,000.
Winnifred Ann Thornber to Christopher and Yoshiko Arseneault, 1530 Surry Hill Court, Raintree, $221,950.
Gisela R. Seifert-Ley and Klaus F. Seifert, Trustees, to Steven M. and Margaret W. Ball, 1412 River Oaks Ridge, $325,000.
Alexander Hamilton IV to Wesley D. Sturgill, unit at Solomon Court Condominiums, 2527 Hydraulic Road, $42,000.
Forest Lakes Associates to R.D. Wade Builder Inc., parcel in Springridge, $68,000.
Crescent Development Group LLC to R.D. Wade Builder Inc., two parcels in Still Meadow, $215,000.
Craig Enterprises Inc. to Kari Henningsen, 534 Pebble Hill Court, Redfields, $123,000.
Kathleen T. and Burton Burkholder V to Robert J. Viccellio and Erika L. Drescher, 110 Chandler Court, Willoughby, $169,000.
Charles E. Lyons Jr. to Brian and Debra Rizzo, 628 Crumpet Court, Stonehenge, $113,000.
Chris and Rosemarie Colasunno to Gregory A. and Julia C. Horton, 1242 Chatham Ridge Road, RiverRun, $63,000.
Barbara J. Taylor to Kevin E. and Kristina T. Shifflett, 5345 Martin's Creek Lane, North Garden, $65,000.
Maria I. and Walter H. Shifflett Jr. to Jesse G. and Lynne M. Norris, parcel in Watts Passage, $110,500.
Southland Homes Inc. to Tamara T. Walker, 1051 SomerChase Court, Hollymead, $163,000.
Derald P. and Darlinda M. Grice to Bradley G. and Jamie H. Wright, 676 Victorian Court, Village Square, $210,000.
Lillian J. Ward to Alec J. Bateman, 316 Eastbrook Drive, Woodbrook, $182,000.
Marga J. and Christopher D. Cothran to John A. and Mary C. Eberhart, 1203 Chatham Ridge Road, RiverRun, $134,500.
John M. and Linnea Thackston to Jonathan S. and Pinkerton D. McKay, 3142 Old Lynchburg Road, North Garden, $215,000.
Steven R. and Laura M. Frazier to Lisa R. Blake, 2444 Whitney Court, $115,000.
George W. and Nancy V. Wyer to Christopher W. Lewis and Danielle B. Simon, 5.33 acres at 3672 Hobbitt Hill, $530,000.
Sherry A. Lake to Daniel R. and Heather C. Kauffman, 66 Woodlake Drive, Four Seasons, $100,500.
Craig Enerprises Inc. to Helga G. Bisutti, 1329 Stonegate Court, Western Ridge, $260,820.
John H. Smith to Emily P. Leback, 14.92 acres at 9207 Howardsville Turnpike, Schuyler, $55,000.
Philip L. and Kirsten S. Smith to Timothy J. Laverty, 244 Starcrest Road, Lake Reynovia, $220,000.
Lonestar Homes Inc. to Bryan and Sarah Tate Lewis, 963 Fairwinds Lane, Western Ridge, $226,065.
J. Michael Fitzgerald to Eugene E. and Deborah M. Elder, 888 Tanglewood Road, Flordon, $560,000.
Eleanor W. Cartwright to Susan K. Donohue, 5 acres on State Route 708, $88,000.
Craig K. and Margaret M. Littlepage to David E. Strickler and Laura F. Luevano, 2809 Huntington Road, Northfields, $211,000.
Graham L. and Tracy C. Bright to Cynthia Anne Berdon, 1087 Old Fox Trail, Western Ridge, $200,000.
Southern Property to Leo J. Cohen and Dinsmore C. Fulton, 1280 Chatham Ridge, RiverRun, $256,327.
Shannon R. Hall to Tamer Ghanem and Nermeen H. Elnabtity, 398 Wynridge Lane, $145,000.
Harold and Rether L. Davis to Debbie E. Peppers, 4592 Briarwood Place, $158,000.
Jamie L. Fuller to Brice B. and Kerr L. Dille, 50 Stone Mill Court, Mill Creek, $176,200.
Roger R. and Christine T. Katcham to Raymond Keller and Ann Sutherland, 36.78 acres at 1574 Brown's Gap Turnpike, $620,000.
Julie W. and Peter G. Thomas Jr. to Bryant A. and Catrina G. Murphy, 950 Charter Oaks Drive, Dunlora, $369,500.
Michelle E. Dalton-Hunt to Warren Swee, 1352 Wimbledon Way, RiverRun, $157,500.
Leroy H. and Crystal B. Aldridge to Charles W. Armstrong, 1724A and B Solomon Road, Barterbrook Subdivision, $165,000.
Paul S. Gibson to Joannis Chasiotis, 1095 Highlands Avenue at Mechums River, $204,900.
Jeffrey M. Thompson to Camille S. Cooper, 1378 Allister Greene, RiverRun, $188,400.
Tamara S. and Jimmy Correa Jr. to Marta M. Keane, 3153 Saddlebroook Lane, Forest Lakes, $224,000.
Patricia Ann Greway to Ralph K. and Charlotte B. Dammann, 2793 Barrsden Farm, $165,000.
Happy Valley LLC to Robert Hauser homes Inc., parcel in Walnut Hills, $131,250.
Kenneth Nail and Carmel Jones to Marco G. Cavagna and Christine Garnett, 1500 Westfield Court, Wynridge, $152,900.
Craig Enterprises Inc. to Paul S. Gibson, 145 Grayrock Drive, $226,220.
Deal of the Week:
James C. and Joanna Gray to University Station LLC, 118 11th Street SW, $1,180,000.


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Ana Luisa Laws, a second-year student in the master of social work program at the University of Houston (UH) Graduate College of Social Work (GCSW), is one of five outstanding graduate students in Texas to receive the prestigious 2011 Ima Hogg Scholarship for Mental Health.
"Ana Luisa Laws clearly is one of the most exceptional social work students we have ever had in the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work program," said Sandra Lopez, clinical professor, UH GCSW. "Ana was recognized immediately by faculty as one of our top students based on her conscientious and professional behavior, as well as her dedicated nature in submitting outstanding work. She comes to the program with established professional knowledge, skills and behavior from her several years in working with children with chronic illnesses and their families."
Before entering graduate school, Laws was director of professional training at a Houston-based international consulting and training company whose goal is to improve quality of life for children with developmental disabilities. While there she managed 33 supervisors, trained mental health professionals and organized seminars, conferences and webinars. She also served as a consultant to families with children who have developmental disabilities, providing parent education, referrals and assessments.
After Laws graduates from the UH GCSW program in May 2012, she plans to work with families and individuals from diverse populations.
"When I was 5 years old, my family moved to the United States from Guatemala. I personally experienced the feeling of being an outsider and struggled with not understanding the predominant language or the customs," she said. "Texas is a great place to serve diverse populations and, given my experience, I can provide empathetic, yet, professional support."
According to the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, her scholarship comes at a time when Texas is facing critical shortages in the state's mental health workforce. Texas ranks far below the national average in the number of mental health professionals per 100,000 residents. In 2009, 173 counties in Texas were designated as mental health profession shortage areas and 40 Texas counties did not have a single social worker.
The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health awards up to five $5,000 scholarships annually to graduate social work students in Texas who plan to provide mental health services after graduation. The scholarship program was created in 1956 by Houston philanthropist Ima Hogg to attract students to mental health careers.
"These scholarships enable the recipients to finish their advanced studies and begin practicing their profession at a time when these skills and knowledge are sorely needed," said Octavio N. Martinez, executive director, Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.
The Hogg Foundation was created in 1940 by the children of former Texas Gov. James S. Hogg. The foundation advances recovery and wellness in Texas by funding mental health services, policy analysis, research and public education.


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SALEM — "In Conversation: Modern African American Art" comes to the Peabody Essex Museum just as interest in art by black Americans is — belatedly — bubbling to the surface in New England's art museums.
Prompted by the opening of its Art of the Americas Wing, the Museum of Fine Arts, in particular, has spent several years beefing up its holdings of African-American art. To that end, it established a special committee and courted collectors, in particular John Axelrod, whose large collection of African-American art was acquired in 2011.
The MFA put considerably more of these works on display in the new wing, and, earlier this year, it quietly mounted its first ever retrospective of an African-American artist. It was a small show, just 30 paintings and drawings by the fascinating Lois Mailou Jones, but a solid one.
The Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham has meanwhile put on impressive solo displays by John Wilson and Meta Warrwick Fuller, both pioneering African-American artists.
Institutions such as the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln have tapped into more contemporary African-American visions with shows by Sanford Biggers and Laylah Ali, respectively.
That's not all, nor is it enough. But, as the first New England-area museum to present a survey of modern African-American art (from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Era and beyond), the Peabody Essex exhibition helps to congeal these disparate efforts.
The danger of reducing singular, enigmatic works of art to dull, dutiful illustrations of identity politics always lurks behind such efforts. After so many years of neglect, though, visibility matters.
So does social history, and this show, which comes to Salem from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., does a good job of placing compelling, individual visions by leading African-American artists in the context of the upheavals of (mostly) the middle half of the 20th century.
It does this in part by including a great deal of photography. It's not all documentary photography by any stretch, but there are enough images that are tethered to the times to evoke a whole landscape of social change.
Roy DeCarava's "Mississippi Freedom Marcher, Washington, DC," for instance, is a closely cropped portrait of a girl, devastating in its immediacy. Only the image's title and the glimpsed fragments of bodies behind and in front suggest a political solidarity to match the sobriety and purpose that radiate from her face.
De Carava (1919-2009), who grew up in Harlem during the years of the Harlem Renaissance, is one of several photographers represented here with multiple works. He was my favorite: It would be almost impossible to match the compositional clarity and narrative crispness of "Graduation, New York" and "Lingerie, New York" or the shadow-filled poetry of "Couple Dancing, New York" or "Coltrane and Elvin, New York" (jazz lovers will keel over before the latter).
But the 1966 photograph by Gordon Parks (1912-2006) of Muhammad Ali ("Ali Jumping Rope"), showing the great man from behind and below, silhouetted against bright light coming in through a window, is hardly less riveting. And Parks's "Harlem," an exquisitely framed 1948 photograph of residents leaning out of the uniform windows of an apartment block, is superb.
Other photographs mostly eschew social commentary in favor of a profound intimacy: "Holding Hands in Church, Brooklyn, New York," by Marilyn Nance (born 1953) is one of several images by Nance that appear in a section devoted to spiritualism. Some of these works are hung on the walls in a crucifix formation. It's one of many bold, and occasionally dubious, decisions in an audacious display that's complemented by several evocative audio recordings.
But, for sheer, face-to-face electricity, there's little in the show that can compare with a series of portrait photographs by Earlie Hudnall Jr., who grew up in Hattiesburg, Miss. Hudnall was born in 1946, the son of an amateur photographer. He has said he is interested in capturing "the simple things in life. How we live from day to day, what we do on special holidays, family kinds of things and so forth."
The ambitions sound modest. But two of his images of shirtless boys, "Hip Hop" and "Looking Out," give off attitude and emotion in waves that crest and spill into the gallery itself.
But what about the paintings and sculptures? Many are no less convincing. With 2,000 works by more than 200 artists, the Smithsonian American Art Museum boasts that it has "the largest and finest collection of African American art in the world."
I believe it. But to me, 2,000 works does not sound like a lot. In truth, purposeful collecting of African-American art proceeded in fits and starts beginning only in the mid-1960s, originally under the auspices of the Smithsonian's Museum of African Art and then the National Collection of Fine Arts, which was twice renamed.
The collection will doubtless continue to grow. The selection here, made by chief curator Virginia M. Mecklenburg, is necessarily piecemeal. But it includes terrific works by some of my favorite modern American artists, among them Jacob Lawrence, Lois Mailou Jones, Sam Gilliam (whose colorful sculptural collage work is well known to users of Davis Square's T station), Eldzier Cortor, Romare Bearden, and Allan Rohan Crite.
Crite studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and died in Boston in 2007. His painting here, "School's Out," shows a crowd of African-American children, all with different complexions, leaving the annex of Everett Elementary School in Boston's South End.
Sargent Johnson's copper sculpture "Mask," which the Boston-born, San Francisco-based artist made in the early 1930s, is a key work in the collection's history. Donated by IBM, it was the first gift of a work by an African-American artist to enter the Smithsonian's collection. That was in 1966.
It's a fascinating piece to contemplate. Johnson, whose work developed in the intellectual milieu of the Harlem Renaissance, was versed in the European avant-garde's interest in so-called "primitive" art — including African masks. But his own "Mask" combines a powerful distilling impulse with an urge to capture, as the exhibition catalog puts it, "the countenance of an actual person."
It succeeds, incidentally fulfilling Johnson's stated wish to "show the natural beauty and dignity" of the "pure American Negro." (He added: "I wish to show that beauty not so much to the white man as to the Negro himself.")
The show also contains great things by less well-known artists. I was particularly taken with "John Henry," a bold, brightly colored depiction of a freed slave and railway worker ("I ring steel" announces a tattoo on his forearm), painted in a juicy, good-humored idiom by Frederick Brown (born 1945).
I loved "Enchanted Rider," an angelic vision by Bob Thompson, who died in Italy at the age of 28. And I was rewarded by a second look at an untitled abstract painting by the Kentucky-born, Washington, D.C.-based Kenneth Victor Young. The painting's blues and purples, suggesting fluid electricity, circulate around Young's black orbs, and give the allover composition a bobbling, hypnotic effect.
See this show. You will learn a thing or two, yes. But more importantly, you'll be introduced to some complex, captivating, and singular art.
Sebastian Smee can be reached at email@example.com.
Correction: Due to reporting errors, an earlier version of this review misidentified the show's sole chief curator; it is Virginia M. Mecklenburg. Also, the review incorrectly reported plans to move much of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection of African-American art to another Smithsonian museum. No such plans exist.


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International collaboration
COROT was first proposed in December 1996 by the French National Space Agency (CNES). Over the next three years, the project's feasibility was studied. In September 1999, a call for potential European partners was made and in March 2000, CNES gave the green light to build COROT, and is now leading the mission. The other international partners are: the European Space Agency (ESA), Austria, Belgium, Germany, Brazil and Spain.
CNES is responsible for the entire system and for the launch contract with the French-Russian company Starsem, who are providing a Soyuz launcher. CNES appointed Alcatel Alenia Space as Prime Contractor to build the satellite and co-run the launch campaign. CNES is also managing the scientific payload, whose subsystems are managed by French laboratories (LAM, Marseille; Paris-Meudon Observatory; and IAS, Orsay).
ESA has joined COROT by designing and developing the optics for the telescope, which sits at the heart of the spacecraft, and testing the payload. Through this collaboration a number of European scientists have been selected as Co-Investigators in an open competition. They come from Denmark, Switzerland, the UK and Portugal. As a result of ESA's participation in COROT, scientists from ESA's Member States will be given access to the satellite's data. The telescope's baffle has also been developed by a team at ESA's ESTEC site.
ESA's Research and Scientific Support department (RSSD) at ESTEC is a full partner in COROT, having provided the two on-board Data Processing Units (DPU's).
Austria is contributing hardware (the 'BEX' link module between the camera detectors and the on-board computer), and a mission-specific ground station in Vienna.
Belgium contributed the telescope baffle, designed and developed by ESA in the framework of the ESA PRODEX optional programme, and with the COROTcase, a component of the instrument equipment case.
Brazil is participating in COROT through ground-based optical observations from ESO (Chile) and LNA (Brazil), and with a mission-specific ground station in Alcantara.
Germany provided the COROT Data Processing Unit (DPU) on-board software and is contributing ground-based monitoring of the stellar fields that COROT will survey.
Spain is contributing with the ground-based monitoring and calibration of the COROT targets and will supplement the mission with follow-up observations from ground. It is also providing a COROT mission data centre.
All participating countries will also provide science data analysis.
The ground stations used for COROT are located in Kiruna (S), Aussaguel (F) Hartebeesthoek (South Africa), Kourou (French Guyana), with mission-specific ground stations in Alcantara (Brazil) and Vienna (A).


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Lance Armstrong has announced that he's stepping down as chairman of his cancer charity, LiveStrong.
"I have had the great honor of serving as this foundation's chairman for the last five years and its mission and success are my top priorities. Today therefore, to spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career, I will conclude my chairmanship," Armstrong wrote on the organization's blog.
Lance Armstrong faces being stripped of his titles
Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005, came under fire after being accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. In June, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency charged the 41-year-old with using the drugs and in August they announced a lifetime ban from competition and that they'd strip the athlete of all his titles. Armstrong soon announced he would no longer fight the charges.
"In 1996, as my cancer treatment was drawing to an end, I created a foundation to serve people affected by cancer," Armstrong added. "It has been a great privilege to help grow it from a dream into an organization that today has served 2.5 million people and helped spur a cultural shift in how the world views cancer survivors. This organization, its mission and its supporters are incredibly dear to my heart."
To date, Livestrong has raised nearly $500 million to support cancer patients. Armstrong says he will remain on the charity's board, while current vice chairman Jeff Garvey will assume the chairmanship.


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The dishcloth and dog picture parade continues!
Dishcloth #4 for Mom
What: Dishcloth
Yarn: Lily Sugar 'n Cream, partial skein of Sage Green
Needles: 7
Pattern: Squares
Dimensions: 8.25″ x 8.50″
Date started: 12/28/06
Date finished: 12/29/06
Lesson Learned: None.
Destination: My Mom's kitchen
The close up picture shows the true color:
I've got enough yarn left for one more dishcloth. I have to mix the solid and ombre colors, so am not sure yet what I'm going to do with them.
It was another stormy day here in Colorado.
Max spent it being spoiled:
Kishka continued sleeping in odd positions:
Sam hung with me on the couch, watching the snow fly by the window:


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Fidelity Investments says most investors are actively looking at dividend-producing stocks and corporate bonds for higher yields in today's low interest rate environment.
The poll of about 1,200 clients with investable assets of about $250,000 and up was taken during a webcast—Fidelity Viewpoints Forum: Investing for Income—held in Boston on June 13 and released Thursday.
For the next six months, 54% of respondents are bullish about dividend-producing stocks. Fifteen percent are enthusiastic about investment-grade corporate bonds.
As for fixed-income investments, which had returns of about 7% in the last 12 months, only 18% think they can achieve or beat those results over the next 12 months. Some 32% believe their fixed-income returns will drop below 4%, while another 32% expect returns of 4% to 6%.
"This group of high-net-worth investors are realists about this low-interest rate environment, but are not resigned to accepting low returns," said John Sweeney, executive vice president of Fidelity Planning and Advisory Services, in a press release. "They're willing to look to alternative products to find yield, but we encourage them not to stretch too far and lose sight of their underlying investment strategy and encounter unnecessary risk."
Many investors, 44%, say they would put their next investing dollar into U.S. stocks, while 16% would put it into investment-grade corporate bonds, 9% high-yield bonds and 9% "under the mattress."
Portfolio Thinking
Fidelity's forum included discussions with five portfolio managers about the U.S. economy, opportunities in emerging markets and the investment universe.
When it comes to investing in high-yield bonds versus dividend stocks, "if you look at the current yield of the S&P 500 Index, it's nowhere near what you get on high-yield bonds," said Matthew Conti, a Fidelity portfolio manager. "So dividend-paying equities may make sense if you're looking for both income and capital appreciation, but the high-yield universe might make more sense if you're looking primarily for income.
Jeff Moore, another portfolio manager, says investors shouldn't "chase yield;" they should invest in vehicles that they think are solid. In terms of investments he likes today, he suggests that investors looking at U.S. Treasuries consider some agency mortgages, which can have yields of 3%.
"We like them relative to risks in other sectors, even versus Treasuries," Moore said at the forum. "It's a nice place to invest today."
In terms of stocks, the portfolio manager James Morrow points out that stocks have produced about 1% annualized returns with about 16% annualized volatility over the past 15 years. "It's a pretty low bar for them to [beat] in the next 15 years," he said.
He is generally bullish on stocks, which he believes are "cheap" on a relative basis. "And risks are a lot different today—around interest rates, credit risks, et cetera."
When it comes to utility investing, Morrow says that a benchmark utility index has a yield of "just north" of 4%. "In this yield-starved world and in this world of uncertainty … a utility is state-sanctioned, regulated-return vehicle," he said, with returns set at about 9-10%.
"This is a pretty attractive nominal rate of return and an excellent source of yield," the portfolio manager said during the webcast discussion.
"Utilities are having higher yields versus [those of other income-producing] over the past 10 years on average," continued Morrow. "It's a pocket of yield in the market to be sure and is very stable."


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Dick Averitt, who retired as CEO of Raymond James' (RJF) independent-advisor channel on Monday, was recognized at a Chairman's Council event on Thursday night in Orlando.
"I want to thank Dick for his service—besides being a great leader and CEO he is just a great human being," said Paul Reilly, CEO of Raymond James Financial, the parent company of the independent and other channels, in a statement. "We wish him and [his wife] Sandi all the very best."
Averitt remains chairman of the independent channel through 2013, and the daily operations of the organization are now led by President Scott Curtis.
In his remarks on Monday, Averitt described his positive outlook for both the firm and the nation. "We do not have to live in fear of scarcity when there is such hope of abundance," he said.
Now 67, he joined Raymond James (then Investment Management & Research) in 1978 as an advisor from Merrill Lynch. In April 2002, Averitt took the reins from Tony Green as head of the independent-advisor channel.
The executive explained that he'd considered getting out of the business when he was in his mid-30s and realized that he wasn't "driven to make money." A natural problem solver, he chose instead to focus on his desire to help solve problems, including the portfolio issues facing a paraplegic client. "By working on his investments, this allowed him to—over about 30 years—to live a life better than he'd ever expected," Averitt said.
In terms of the Raymond James independent advisors that he's helped to lead, "Your production has soared over the past 10 years," Averitt said, going from about $188,000 a year for average fees and commissions to $360,000. Plus, he said the number of million-dollar producers at RJFS "has increased nearly six-fold from 25 to 147" from 2002 to the present.
Averitt described the key concepts that have guided him, including the idea that everything and everyone counts—from the cleaning staff up to the top levels. "Possibilities are all in our own minds—they rest here," he explained, "so ignore the boundaries and be unreasonable. Don't limit yourself and don't let others limit you." Finally, Averitt said, "Integrity is the critical element … it protects our soul."
A graduate of Duke University, Averitt spent nine years as a regular officer and naval aviator in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving in Vietnam as a Marine helicopter pilot, and another 20 in the USMC Reserves, principally in a reserve attack helicopter squadron in Atlanta. He retired from the Corps in 1994 with the rank of colonel.
(We featured Averitt in our slideshow honoring Advisors Who Serve(d) in the military in May 2011.)
Averitt's decision to retire at this time, he noted, came after a rough day of sailing on Tampa Bay. "It put my choices into perspective," he said. "Life is too precious to put off living."


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The Brazilian parliament is currently analysing a new law proposal that is intended to punish private commercial establishments associated with prostitution or trafficking in persons. The Law proposal 5742/13, by the deputy Guilherme Mussi, is considered another barrier in the affirmation of sex workers' rights in Brazil.
According to the proposal, enterprises responsible for realising, facilitating, conceding property, or contributing to prostitution or trafficking will be obliged to pay a fine up to 60 living wages. Recurrence in such practices will result in more penalties, including prohibition to contract with public institutions or participate in public tender.
Mr. Mussi affirmed: "by impairing the income of these companies, the prohibition will be more effective". The author argues that victims of human trafficking and sex workers are exposed to several human rights violations, thus any commercial enterprise collaborating with these activities are conniving and should be punished. The project still needs to be analysed by two commissions before getting voted by the parliament.
The proposal is considered problematic for a number of reasons. First, it equates prostitution with trafficking, as favouring any of the two activities results in penalties for enterprises. Second, the project does not consider that prostitution is a legal activity under the Brazilian legal system; hence companies that have their income associated with prostitution will be punished for receiving income from legal activity. Third, the project does not specify which forms of association ought to be combatted, creating space for an open interpretation of the judiciary. Fourth, it is not clear in the law proposal how the government expects to benefit victims of trafficking, since the fine is applicable to companies and the money collected will not be geared towards social programmes.
By ignoring the differences between sex work and trafficking, the law proposal impacts negatively on Brazilian sex workers that work autonomously in apartments and/or indoor settings. Real estate agencies will have stricter rules to rent apartments, as they will be targeted by this legal measure if it enters into force. This increases stigma and discrimination against sex workers, and reduces their living and work places. Banks likewise will have stricter control rules to verify income of sex workers.
For more information read here (in Portuguese).


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OTTAWA — About 100 years ago, Bill Edwards' grandfather left Ontario and arrived in Saskatoon.
As Edwards puts it, his grandfather saw a bustling city on the verge of something big and decided to stay in what he believed would be the "Chicago of the North."
A century later, Edwards is watching a city going through a boom that has enveloped the province. People are moving into Saskatoon, rather than away.
"Trains everywhere, buildings going up, new art gallery, new riverfront development . . . If you think back 100 years ago, that was happening," Edwards said.
"It's been a boom year," he said. "The name has been changed to Saskaboom."
On Wednesday, census numbers released by Statistics Canada showed the province had a turnaround in its growth rate over the past five years, actually adding people to its population after years of declines.
It's part of a regional growth spurt that reaffirms once again that the West no longer wants in — it is in.
"This is a pretty amazing growth cycle," said Kent Smith-Windsor, the president of the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce and a lifelong Saskatchewanian. "It has the potential to be truly historic."
In a historic first, the percentage of Canadians living in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia surpassed the combined percentage of Atlantic Canada and Quebec.
As Saskatchewan turned its growth around between 2006 and 2011, census data show, Alberta continued to lead the way in terms of percentage of growth in provincial populations, followed by British Columbia.
In third place in percentage provincial growth was Saskatchewan, which increased by 6.7 per cent, slightly above the national average, and topped one million citizens for the first time since 1986, according to Statistics Canada.
More than 10 million Canadians — just less than one-third of the country's population — live in the West. The region added more than 766,000 residents between 2006 and 2011.
Saskatchewan's turnaround is remarkable considering that, in 2006, it was losing residents and had a declining population. After losing about 22,000 Saskatchewanians between 1996 and 2006, the province has added 65,000 new residents over the five years starting in 2006.
Saskatchewan's surge was a result of more immigrants coming to the province — more than 28,000 new immigrants settled there during the five-year period — and 12,000 new residents coming from other provinces, looking for jobs in a now-robust economy.
"Mining, potash, gold, uranium — you name it, it's all firing on all cylinders," said Edwards, who works at an architectural firm that can't keep up with demand, and runs the family business, one of the local funeral homes.
In the mid-1990s, the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce found that while 90 per cent of new university graduates wanted to stay in the region, Smith-Windsor said, they didn't feel there were opportunities for them.
"They always wanted to stay, they just didn't see the opportunity. Now they do," Smith-Windsor said.
The population changes in the West are largely a result of the economic boom prodded along by a resource-rich economy, and a lifestyle that young workers don't feel they can find in Ontario or the East, said Mark Rosenberg, a demographics expert from Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.
"The boom in the Alberta economy in particular and the lifestyle, especially in western Alberta that has the mountains, and B.C., is attracting certainly young Canadians to the West," he said.
Growth in new immigrants coming to the area has changed the social fabric of the province. At one time, Purdy's Chocolate, a 105-year-old, family-owned icon in B.C., wouldn't have thought about selling products for Chinese New Year. Now it does.
The growth in business has been so substantial for the largest retailer in the West with 57 stores that the company is moving east.
"We moved out into Ontario because it seemed like a market where there was an opportunity, because there were no more places for us (in the West)," said Karen Flavelle, the company's president.
In the East, meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador has also made a turnaround of sorts, showing population growth for the first time since 1986, the census data show.
Two of its Atlantic Canada neighbours, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, recorded growth rates of about three per cent, up from the previous census.
Manitoba and the Yukon had growth rates that doubled from the previous census period.
Growth in the territories was also strong, except in the Northwest Territories where growth was described in the census as nil. However, Statistics Canada said that result reflected the fact Statistics Canada reached more residents in the territory after missing some in 2001.
Provincial populations (percentage change from 2006 in brackets):
Newfoundland and Labrador: 514,536 (1.8%)
Prince Edward Island: 140,204 (3.2%)
Nova Scotia: 921,727 (0.9%)
New Brunswick: 751,171 (2.9%)
Quebec: 7,903,001 (4.7%)
Ontario: 12,851,821 (5.7%)
Manitoba: 1,208,268 (5.2%)
Saskatchewan: 1,033,381 (6.7%)
Alberta: 3,645,257 (10.8%)
British Columbia: 4,400,057 (7%)
Yukon: 33,897 (11.6%)
Northwest Territories: 41,462 (0%)
Nunavut: 31,906 (8.3%)


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Why 'Rosetta'?
The European Space Agency's unprecedented mission of cometary exploration was named after the famous 'Rosetta Stone'. This slab of volcanic basalt - now in the British Museum in London – was the key to unravelling the civilisation of ancient Egypt.
French soldiers discovered the unique Stone in 1799, as they prepared to demolish a wall near the village of Rashid (Rosetta) in Egypt's Nile delta. The carved inscriptions on the Stone included hieroglyphics – the written language of ancient Egypt – and Greek, which was readily understood. After the French surrender in 1801, the 762-kilogram stone was handed over to the British.
By comparing the inscriptions on the stone, historians were able to begin deciphering the mysterious carved figures. Most of the pioneering work was carried out by the English physician and physicist Thomas Young, and the French scholar Jean François Champollion. As a result of their breakthroughs, scholars were at last able to piece together the history of a long-lost culture.
Just as the Rosetta Stone provided the key to an ancient civilisation, so ESA's Rosetta spacecraft is unlocking the mysteries of the oldest building blocks of our Solar System – the comets. As the worthy successor of Champollion and Young, Rosetta is allowing scientists to look back 4600 million years to an epoch when no planets existed and only a vast swarm of asteroids and comets surrounded the Sun.