Author: SeniorWomenWeb

In the Gusher of Super PACs, Even One Named ‘The Internet’

by Kim Barker, ProPublica

Sure, there’s the GOP symbol, but the real elephant in the room at any of the Republican debates since December has been the super PAC, the turbocharged political action committee able to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on political ads — as long as that spending isn’t coordinated with a particular campaign.

Mitt Romney supporters used Restore OurFuture to tank Newt Gingrich in Iowa, while Gingrich supporters relied on Winning OurFuture for revenge in South Carolina.

Jon Huntsman’s campaign would probably not have lasted as long as it did without Our Destiny. Now that Rick Perry is out of the race, throwing his support to Gingrich, the real question is what will happen to the war chest of Make Us Great Again.

But those are just the super PACs you’ve already heard about — the ones that candidates grouse about at debates, with Romney calling one Winning Our Future ad that portrayed him as a corporate raider “probably the biggest hoax since Bigfoot.”

As the countdown continues to the South Carolina primary, it’s worth taking a step back and considering all the confusing names, and all the confusing money that might be spent in the coming months. It’s also worth considering how we got to this new frontier, which even campaign operatives say is messy: Two years ago on Saturday, the Supreme Court, in its ruling on Citizens United vs. FEC cracked open the door for super PACs. Two months later, a federal appeal court’s decision in Speechnow.org vs.FEC threw it wide open. Now, registering as a super PAC is as simple as sending a letter and a form to the FEC.

So far, at least 283 super PACs have registered, although 60 are run by one Florida man, Josue Larose, and seem to serve no other purpose but piling up paperwork for the FEC. And so far, super PACs have spent more than $18 million on the presidential race. (You can follow the money with our PAC Track application .) Although it’s not yet clear how that compares with overall spending by the candidates themselves, reports indicated that super PAC spending in Iowa outstripped the candidates’ by 2-to-1, said Paul Ryan, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center.

More spending, likely the most ever in an election season, is on the horizon. And even though some super PACs seem to be parodies (like comedian Stephen Colbert’s Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, which has probably done more to deliver “super PAC” into the American lexicon than any politician), the groups insist they are real.

“There’s all kinds of games going on,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a nonprofit pushing to rein in super PACs. “Some group has put up a website telling you how to get around disclosure. Look, we have huge problems on our hands, and we get to celebrate the cause of many of these problems on Jan. 21, the second anniversary of the Citizens United decision. We have to deal with them as best we can.”

Here’s a rundown of some new super PACs and examples of how confusing things can get:

The Patriot SuperPAC, which registered with the FEC on Tuesday, boasts a website promising to be the “future home of something quite cool.” It will work to defeat President Barack Obama, but it shouldn’t be confused with the conservative Patriot PAC , which promises to be the “point of the spear” and asks people to sign a petition without providing the text. Nor should either be mistaken for the Patriot Majority USA PAC , which supports Senate Democrats.

January 20, 2012
Happy 150th Birthday Edith Wharton!
We’re a fan of the author Edith Wharton, having read most all of her ‘popular’ novels including Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Custom of the Country, Old New York and The Buccaneers. We’ll break out our DVD copies of the last book cited and Age of Innocence in the next few days, and celebrate, perhaps wearing a Victorian black jet beaded jacket we found in a vintage shop in Connecticut.

For a birthday present, we requested a copy of Wharton’s Decoration of Houses, a classic. Another present to myself was a version of Italian Villas and Their Gardens. And, we attended a dramatic reading of Wharton’s works in the drawing room of her home in Massachusetts.

In the meantime, take a look at some of the events and a competition The Mount has arranged for a further step back into the turn of the century that so epitomized the world Ms. Wharton profiled and explored.

Edith’s home in Lenox, Massachusetts, presents ways to celebrate Wharton’s birthday. Please note that the Mount, although welcoming visitors daily, but the house, stables, and bookstore are open from May 5th through October, only. The grounds are open to the public at no charge throughout the winter. Woodlands can be explored on foot, snowshoes, cross-country skis or while walking your dog::

“We’re inviting celebrations around the globe to honor this amazing woman who continues today to inspire and delight legions of readers, writers, entertainers, and designers.”

“As part of the birthday festivities, we invite you to submit your birthday wishes to Edith. And to make it more fun, we’d love for you to tell us — or better yet, show us — how Edith might be celebrating her birthday in 2012.”

“Would she be reading on a Kindle on a Florida beach? Would she be entertaining friends with sushi, sake, and soccer games on the Wii? Maybe she’d be practicing yoga or learning a new hip-hop routine. Remember, Edith wasn’t a prude then — and she certainly wouldn’t be a prude now. She’d be adventurous and open minded, and willing to embrace new opportunities.”

“We welcome videos, photographs, slide-shows, essays, poems … You name it, as long as it’s a celebratory shout-out to Edith Wharton created in good, clean fun. Our goal is to collect 1,000 birthday wishes, sparking wide conversation about one of the nation’s most accomplished and acclaimed writers whose talents cascaded far beyond literature. (Of course, you’re also welcome to take a more serious tone with your birthday wishes, explaining why Edith Wharton still matters to you or to the world at large.)”

“Here’s how to submit your creations:
- On The Mount Facebook page (click on the “Happy Birthday Edith” tab on the left side of the page)
- Via email to info@edithwharton.org, with a link to your online birthday wishes
- Via YouTube, using the title “Happy Birthday Edith Wharton” (you might also want to send an email to info@edithwharton.org with the link)
- On national television: the next time you find yourself on Good Morning America or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, mention Edith Wharton!
- Any other innovative way that might work”
“Most of the photographs of Edith Wharton found on the Internet are in the public domain, so you can download and manipulate them to create your own version. Here are a few in The Mount’s online galleries:http://www.edithwharton.org/gallery-detail.php?gallery_id=3&subCatId=3 andhttp://www.edithwharton.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=58103.”

“We’ll plan to assemble and share as many wishes as we can. Check our blog for regular updates.”

Note: Many of the books and films can be found at
Works of Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, Sanctuary, The Custom of the Country, Summer & more (mobi) by Edith Wharton

Illustration from Wikipedia of Lily Bart, House of Mirth, original edition.
January 20, 2012
Befogged

by Julia Sneden

Fog

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

— Carl Sandburg

In checking my memory of this poem, I discovered that people have messed around with that first line. In the original version, it is simply, as above, “The Fog comes….” In other versions, the poem begins: “The fog creeps in…”

Apparently some fanciful person thought “creeps in” was an improvement over the simple use of “comes,” but to my ear, “creeps in” sounds dangerously close to cute. A cat’s feet are notoriously silent, but unless the animal is stalking something, it probably doesn’t creep. Nor does the fog: it comes, steadily and silently, without intention, pulled by air currents and dispersed by sunshine. It really needs no metaphor, and although I do love those “silent haunches,” I have to question the bit about its “looking over harbor and city.” In my recollection, it doesn’t often look over: the pertinent verb is more like swallows up, at least until the sun burns it off.

1943: A MEMORY

When I was a child, living on a high hill on the San Francisco Peninsula, I had lots of first-hand experience with fog. Looking west, there were low coastal mountains officially named the Sierra Morena, but simply called “Skyline” by everyone we knew. On the far side of the mountains lay the Pacific Ocean, its waves endlessly chewing away at the land.

Often, as evening approached, great waves of fog came curling over Skyline like a giant comber pouring down the slopes and reaching into the valley at the foot of our hill. By morning, it had usually piled up nearly to our house, and spread over the entire valley below. The bay and the towns along its edge disappeared under a blanket of fog, but up in the sunshine as we were, we looked top-down on a moving carpet of soft gray and white. Here and there, a small hill, or perhaps the tip of a tall radio antenna, red lights a-flash, poked through. Across the valley, the high peaks of the mountains on the east side of the bay looked like islands floating on a white ocean.

On other mornings, we were exactly on the top edge of the fog, and could watch damp wisps and tendrils floating by our windows and winding through the branches of the live oak trees.

Every once in awhile, there came a morning when we, too, were buried deep within the fog. On those mornings, we couldn’t see much beyond the low wall at the edge of our driveway. Gone were the fruit trees in the little orchard below; gone was the whole world beyond our living room windows; vanished too was all but a few feet of the path our feet had long ago worn as we skipped down or trudged up the field on our way to or from our school bus stop, a quarter of a mile below.

On the foggiest mornings, our mother made sure we had on our jackets before we hurried out to catch our bus. We ran the whole way down, glad of the path to follow, for we could see little else around us.

On those days, I arrived at the bus stop very damp despite the jacket. My fine hair was plastered to my head, and my braids, having escaped from their soggy ribbons, began to unbraid themselves. I well remember the day my new red ribbons, the product of cheap, war-time dyes, got so fog-wet that the color ran, staining the ends of my blonde braids pink.

Photograph, from Wikipedia: Redwood National and State Parks

January 18, 2012
Youthful Healing, Old Bodies: A Surprising Journey into Biotechnology

Researchers Helen Blau and Juan Santiago

Understanding the biological process of aging is essential to improving it. Stanford researchers and Faculty Affiliates Professor Helen Blau (who leads the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology), and Professor of Mechanical Engineering Juan Santiago (who leads the Stanford Microfluidics Laboratory), as well as PhD candidate John Ramunas, each aim to improve this understanding through their combined expertise. The story of their ongoing research project, seed funded by the Center on Longevity, exemplifies the organic evolution of research itself and the unexpected value of interdisciplinary collaboration.

THE STORY OF A PROJECT

The story begins with understanding how we heal. As we age, our healing process deteriorates until it is slow and incomplete in comparison with our younger selves. This gradual decline is linked to the deterioration of the rest of our system with age, and understanding how to slow — or even halt — its advance could have promising implications for longevity research.

When it comes to the nature of the healing process, there are some key elements that we already know: There are certain molecules crucially involved in healing (though to what extent remains uncertain), and the presence of these molecules diminishes with age. It is also known that the timing of the molecules’ delivery to an injured area is pivotal to successful recovery. Thus timing, as well as quantity, can impact the ultimate success of the healing process.

Is it possible that our deteriorating healing process is caused by the diminishing presence of these molecules in our system? Might there be a way of artificially mimicking the natural delivery of a younger organism, to achieve the same youthful healing process? These are the questions of aging, healing, and longevity that Blau, Santiago, and Ramunas sought to address: By creating a mechanism that would successfully deliver the crucial molecules to injured and old animals (in this case, the ubiquitous and much-studied lab mouse), the research team sought to pinpoint the biological underpinnings of rejuvenation.

PRACTICAL CHALLENGES

In the natural healing process of a young animal, the molecules involved are delivered at specific times, and in specific quantities. In order to successfully mimic the natural delivery, the artificial mechanism needed to be similarly exact. This was the first of a range of challenges:

First, a precise and reliable delivery method necessitated a pump mechanism, propelling the molecules into the system. Second, the lab mice, being both live and lively, needed to carry the pump with them as they went about their daily lives, requiring the pump to be small and portable. Third, the mechanism needed to be remotely controlled, as timing was of the essence.

These criteria resulted in the project’s first attempt at a pump, designed to be held in place by a “mouse backpack.” From this early stage, the project depended on the combined expertise of the three researchers — Blau brought a body of research in the healing responses of mice to injury, Santiago his expertise in mechanical engineering, and Ramunas his interdisciplinary experience which allowed him to support and intertwine both fields. It was at this point that the team approached the Center on Longevity, which in turn supported the innovative and multidisciplinary effort with seed funding.

Unfortunately, a significant challenge sprang up right away. It turned out that mice are not only very small creatures, but incredibly agile ones. Despite a range of designs, the mice could not be induced to keep their packs in place.

“Mice can squeeze through tiny spaces,” Ramunas described, explaining how the mice quickly and consistently dislodged their packs. “There was no way to keep the backpacks on them.”

This challenge left one option: implantable pumps.

January 18, 2012
When Women Are Scarce: Men Become Impulsive, Save Less and Increase Borrowing

The perception that women are scarce leads men to become impulsive, save less, and increase borrowing, according to new research from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.

“How do humans compete for access to mates? What you find across cultures is that men often do it through money, through status and through products,” says Vladas Griskevicius, an assistant professor of marketing at Carlson and lead author of the study.

To test their theory that the sex ratio affects economic decisions, the researchers had participants read news articles that described their local population as having more men or more women. They were then asked to indicate how much money they would save each month from a paycheck, as well as how much they would borrow with credit cards for immediate expenditures. When led to believe women were scarce, the savings rates for men decreased by 42 percent. Men were also willing to borrow 84 percent more money each month.

In another study, participants saw photo arrays of men and women that had more men, more women, or were neutral. After looking at the photographs, participants were asked to choose between receiving some money tomorrow or a larger amount in a month. When women were scarce in the photos, men were much more likely to take an immediate $20 rather than wait for $30 in a month’s time.

According to Griskevicius, participants were unaware that sex ratios were having any effect on their behavior. Merely seeing more men than women automatically led men to simply be more impulsive and want to save less while borrowing more to spend on immediate purchases.

“Economics tells us that humans make decisions by carefully thinking through our choices; that we’re not like animals,” he says. “It turns out we have a lot in common with other animals. Some of our behaviors are much more reflexive and subconscious. We see that there are more men than women in our environment and it automatically changes our desires, our behaviors, and our entire psychology.”

Sex Ratios Affect Expectations of Women

While sex ratios do not influence the financial choices women make, they do shape women’s expectations of how men should spend their money when courting. After reading a news article informing women that there are more men than women, women expected men to spend more on dinner dates, Valentine’s gifts, and engagement rings.

“When there’s a scarcity of women, women felt men should go out of their way to court them,” adds Griskevicius.

In a male-biased environment, men also expected they would need to spend more in their mating efforts.

January 17, 2012
A Blushing Bride (Again) – at 62

by Linda Jay Geldens

I believe now that I was in shock for three years after Dick died, despite the fact that we had been preparing for his death for over a year. For the first several months, like most new widows, I was operating on autopilot — just going through the motions of living. I found that hospice and widows’support groups had a very negative effect on me, making me even more depressed.

The most help I got in grieving and healing was from one-on-one counseling, talks with trusted friends, reading, thinking, lots of time alone, and talking to others in the AOL Widows and Widowers Chat Room. I only had two girlfriends who were widows. Later, I found out through research that the average age of widows in the US is 56.

I started dating 8 months after Dick died (much to some friends’ surprise) because that’s when I was ready. I had not dated in nearly 25 years, and did not know how to go about it. I also did not know that all the dating rules of 25 years ago had disappeared. But I was angry and outraged that I was single again in my late 50s. It did not feel right. Being part of a couple felt right. My first date came from an ad I put in the Bay Guardian newspaper, in which I said I adored jazz. A nice divorced guy from Palo Alto who also adored jazz responded to the ad and we dated for several months.

Read more at http://www.seniorwomen.com/articles/articlesGeldensBride.html

January 15, 2012
In Mississippi, Identities of Pardon Applicants Must Be Public

by Dafna Linzer, ProPublica.Org

The legality of last-minute clemency decisions by outgoing Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour appears to hinge on whether the recipients gave sufficient public notice of their intent to seek release. The state’s attorney-general, Jim Hood, has said there was not proper notice. A state judge, responding to the attorney general’s request,temporarily blocked the release of 21 prisoners, ordered by Barbour.

In Mississippi, public notice is a constitutional requirement for acts of clemency, which include pardons, or acts of forgiveness after the completion of a sentence, and commutations, or shortened prison sentences. Under Mississippi law, the notification onus appears to be on the applicant and allows time for victims to comment on a potential pardon or early prison release before it takes effect.

At ProPublica, we recently reported on bias and transparency in presidential pardons, which require no such public notice. The Justice Department keeps the identity of an applicant secret until the president has granted or denied the pardon. But sometimes victims are privately given an opportunity to weigh in. The Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, which processes pardon claims and makes recommendations to the White House, can seek comments from victims.

At the federal level, most successful pardon and commutation applicants go through a rigorous application and interview process conducted by the pardon office. Although it is rare for a pardon to be granted for someone who has not applied through the pardon office, presidents can pardon anyone charged with or convicted of a federal crime at any time, with or without paperwork.

Marc Rich, for example, did not file an application through the Office of the Pardon Attorney when he sought a pardon in late 2000 from then-President Bill Clinton. Clinton granted the pardon to Rich, a fugitive financier, on his last day in office in January 2001. The Rich pardon was controversial because he had not applied through the pardon office and because his ex-wife was a major donor to Democratic causes and the Clinton presidential library.

Clinton granted nearly 400 pardons during his two-year presidency. George W. Bush granted 189. So far, President Barack Obama has pardoned 22 people.

ProPublica’s examination of pardon decisions from 2001-08 found that white applicants were nearly four times as likely to receive pardons than minorities. Other factors, such as financial stability, employment, marital status and the support of a member of Congress, also increased the likelihood of receiving a pardon.

Presidents have also granted few commutations in recent years. Bush granted 11, including one to I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who had served as chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in a leak case. Obama has commuted the sentence of one person.

Not all governors have the power to pardon. In some states, the power is shared by the legislature and the executive. Some states have set up pardon boards to review applications and either act independently or advise governors of their recommendations.

Pardons are more common in some states than at the federal level. During the period in which Bush pardoned fewer than 200 ex-felons, the governor of Pennsylvania pardoned more than 1,000 people.

January 13, 2012
What if the Mayan Calendar is Right?

by Roberta McReynolds

It’s become an annual tradition for my husband and me to create a calendar for an intimate group of friends who share a common interest; the husbands all build detailed model railroads and the wives are ‘patient and understanding’. Candid photographs are taken throughout the preceding year and Mike writes captions for each one, ranging from hysterically funny to rather insultingly bizarre ‘insider jokes’ (a peculiarity that only close male friends can ever hope to completely appreciate). My job is to arrange the pictures into groups of 3-5 per month and insert a small calendar on the page; it is, after all, intended to be somewhat functional.

Our group meets for a holiday dinner each December. Originally this was at a restaurant, but the past couple years we’ve opted for a potluck. This has worked out especially nice, since once the calendars are distributed any social decorum flies out the window. Rowdy side-splitting laughter can spoil the ambience of restaurant diners unfortunate enough to be seated at tables in close proximity to our gathering, although I suspect a few were curious, if not jealous, about our folly.

This year, in a last minute surge of creativity, we decided to add an extra page. Inserted after the month of November 2012 is an illustration of the Mayan calendar with a three-week ‘bucket list’ of things to do before the world is predicted to end on December 21st. Suggestions included cashing out retirement pensions, purchasing his and hers matching red Ferraris, running naked through the streets, and dining at a fine Italian restaurant … in Roma, Italia of course. It’s not difficult to recognize that we were inspired by the principle of ‘eat, drink and be merry’ while developing our list. Then, just in case the Mayan’s are wrong and the world doesn’t end, with a flip of the page the calendar resumes life as usual with a standard Julian-style month of December.

All joking aside, pondering the Mayan doomsday contingency left me thinking about, “What if?” It’s rather like having your physician give you grim news after the results of some medical testing, “I’m sorry. There’s no cure. You have less than a year to live.” What do you do next? Buy that flashy sports car, or are you a ‘run naked in the streets’ type of individual? (Before you answer, let me point out that’s a rhetorical question. I really don’t want to know or be left with disturbing mental images!)

Just to clarify my position on the subject, I do not believe the advanced Mayan civilization actually intended to predict the end of the world. I suspect that although these people were obviously phenomenal mathematicians, especially when it came to chronology and astronomy, they were just as human as we are today.

Imagine some poor stonecutter toiling for an undetermined number of years, if not decades, on this project. He finally ran out of space on the rock (the actual reason why the Mayan calendar suddenly ends on winter solstice in 2012, in my humble opinion) and thought his assignment was finally complete. All set to punch his timecard and collect his paycheck from the payroll department, Pajarito Ixch’umil Tinaalto (intending no disrespect, we’ll call him ‘Pajar’ for short) is informed he must report to the foreman’s office. Pajar is hopeful that a bonus for meeting his deadline and staying under budget will be forthcoming, but Mr. Xamancab has different news.

January 13, 2012
A Web Resource Helps Doctors Calculate Life Expectancy of Older Patients

A team led by researchers from the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco has completed the first systematic review of prognostic indices used to calculate a patient’s life expectancy, and created a website that puts these indices in one central location.

The review concludes that the most accurate and usable indices might have value when used in conjunction with other clinical information.

Alexander K. Smith, MD, MPH

The review appears in the January 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The prognostic indices are collected at www.eprognosis.org.

Many medical interventions have guidelines recommending that doctors take a patient’s life expectancy into account, said senior investigator Alexander K. Smith, MD, MPH, a palliative medicine doctor at the UCSF-affiliated SFVAMC.

Given this goal, he said, “It would be ideal if there were one index that would allow you to plug in your patient’s information — age, diseases, functional impairments — and get an accurate long-term prognosis,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, there is not. In the absence of that, we have this systematic review and corresponding online compendium, which we hope physicians will find a useful adjunct, along with patient preferences and their own professional judgments, in making clinical decisions that involve life expectancy.”

The authors note that the 16 indices need further independent testing for accuracy in different settings, and that further studies are needed to show whether use of the indices improves clinical outcomes. In the meantime, they have made the indices more accessible to clinicians and patients who are interested in the information they provide.

“We often don’t talk about prognosis with our patients, and, as clinicians, we are, frankly, not trained to think about it,” said lead author Lindsey Yourman, MD, a medical student at UCSF at the time of the study. “This can lead to unnecessary suffering when we order invasive interventions for patients who may not live long enough to benefit from them.”

At the same time, she noted, prognostic indexes are not intended to limit care for elders. “In some instances,” she said, “they may lead to more interventions. For example, some older patients may not be offered cancer screening due to their age, but a prognostic index may suggest they are healthy and likely to benefit from cancer screening because of long life expectancy.”

Website Prognosticates for Typical Geriatric Patients

There are already websites with prognostic calculators, said Smith, but they exist for patients with specific diseases. “This is the only site we know of that helps physicians prognosticate for older adults with multiple conditions,” he said. “So it’s applicable to the typical geriatric patient.”

January 12, 2012
Bicentennial of Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel; Nation’s Oldest Natural History Museum

The history of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, the nation’s oldest natural history museum, mirrors the evolution of the relationship between the American people and the natural world. The Academy was founded when the United States hugged the Atlantic coastline, and Philadelphia was the cultural, commercial and scientific center of the new nation.

In early 19th-century Philadelphia, the collection and identification of natural specimens were popular activities. The New World, abundant with undiscovered plants and animals, provided a great deal of uncharted territory for anyone interested in exploring. In 1812, seven amateur naturalists formed a nucleus of resources with the hope of encouraging serious scholarly exchange as well as important scientific contributions to natural history. Initially meeting at one founder’s home, the founders created the Academy of Natural Sciences for “the encouragement and cultivation of the sciences and the advancement of useful learning.”

The Academy’s first home consisted of one room on the second floor of a house at Second and Race Streets. With eight books and a map of Switzerland, the group began a library, which currently holds hundreds of thousands of books, maps, manuscripts and artworks, and ranks among the world’s finest natural history libraries. Each founder also contributed a few specimens, initiating the Academy’s collections. Today those collections number more than 17 million specimens and include Thomas Jefferson’s fossils, Lewis and Clark’s plants, and many of the birds collected by John James Audubon.

Under the leadership of the new Academy, many new and developing disciplines put down their American roots — botany, entomology, geology, mineralogy, ichthyology, malacology, and paleontology. Early members included Thomas Say, a founder and “father” of both American entomology and conchology, Audubon, William Bartram, Alexander Wilson and Henry Muhlenberg. The Academy was the first American scientific organization to recognize the significance of Charles Darwin’s research and elected him to associate membership in 1860.

Over the years, the Academy coordinated or participated in many explorations of uncharted territory, including Ferdinand Hayden’s expedition, which discovered what is now Yellowstone National Park and laid the foundation for the national park system. Through nearly 200 years of global exploration, which continues to this day, Academy researchers have studied living organisms and how they are affected by people. Their probing scientific inquiries and carefully documented research have propelled the Academy into the top echelons of research institutions.

January 11, 2012