Senior Women Web

Americans spent $14.7 billion out-of-pocket on visits to complementary practitioners such as chiropractors, acupuncturists or massage therapists. That is almost 30 percent of what they spent out-of-pocket on services by conventional physicians. They spent more on visits to complementary practitioners than on natural product supplements or self-care purchases, and the mean annual out-of-pocket expenditure for practitioner visits was $433.  more »

"This year's Human Rights Watch Film Festival presents an array of women's rights issues through inspirational and personal stories of remarkable women," said John Biaggi, the festival’s creative director. "From a tenacious women's rights activist in China to a teenage Afghan rapper fighting child marriage to a courageous director of a women’s health clinic in Mississippi — the festival is spotlighting women and amplifying their voices in society through film. more »

Wildlife doesn't recognize country boundaries, and citizen science can help make it easier to track key species. The North American Breeding Bird Survey is an international effort between the US Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and Environment Canada's Canadian Wildlife Service to monitor North American bird populations. Each year, thousands of dedicated birdwatchers collect data on more than 400 bird species throughout the continent.     more »

English novelist William Thackeray observed: "That is not a smear of purple you see yonder, but a beautiful whale, whose tail has just slapped a half-dozen whale-boats into perdition; and as for what you fancied to be a few zig-zag lines spattered on the canvas at hap-hazard, look! they turn out to be a ship with all her sails." Apparently Turner undertook the painting — which was returned to him — for the collector Elhanan Bicknell, who had made his fortune in the whale-oil business. more »