Responsibilities

"The nose knows," goes the old saying. But does it?In a breath-taking discovery, Stanford University researchers are reporting that your left and right nostrils perceive smells slightly differently.The difference is probably too subtle for you to notice most of the time. But it's significant enough to be detected in careful lab experiments, researchers Noam Sobel and John Gabrieli reported this past week in the science journal Nature.For decades, scientists have known that the human brain allocates different responsibilities to the left and right halves of the brain.

`A healing process' in Manchester?The recent election in Manchester has given the citizens a new mayor, Chris D'Amario, who after running unopposed states that although he was a different person than the previous mayor, Elmer Lippy, "we think a lot of the same ways, so I don't think a lot of things will be different."This recalls the statement that Mr. Lippy made when he was re-elected four years ago following some fierce squabbling among council persons in previous administrations. He pledged to bring a "healing process to Manchester."

One of the most recognizable names dotting the Baltimore real estate landscape is stepping away from daily control of the brokerage he helped build into the area's largest.James P. O'Conor, chief executive officer of O'Conor, Piper & Flynn ERA, is relinquishing day-to-day responsibilities of the company he co-founded 15 years ago and joining OPF's parent, NRT Inc., to oversee its mid-Atlantic operations as senior vice president.NRT, based in Parsippany, N.J., announced the move yesterday.

NEW YORK -- She doesn't bother with a phone at home. She has never voted. She doesn't own a car, and wears shoes only when she must. When prime-time television is on, she is often fast asleep.Esther Dyson is a creature of the Internet. And while her name is unknown to the average American, Dyson's thinking is closely watched by the leaders of software and new-media companies, as well as by the government officials who seek to regulate them.Dyson publishes Release 1.0, a tech-industry newsletter obscure enough to have just 2,000 subscribers and important enough to command $695 a year for the subscription.

SUPERWOMAN is dead. And Cathleen Gray, therapist and lecturer, thinks she died of exhaustion.Superwoman did it all for so long -- she got up at 4 a.m. so she could start doing it early and stayed up late to finish doing it -- that she finally just dropped over dead.An autopsy revealed Superwoman had worked her fingers to the bone, walked her legs off, run herself ragged and worried herself sick until finally she was dead tired. Then she was just dead."The work is never done," says Gray, who also teaches in the department of social work at Catholic University in Washington.

WASHINGTON -- It was probably inevitable that the Oklahoma City bombing tragedy would find its way into the political dialogue and debate over whether government is the friend or foe of the American citizenry, and particularly of this year's political poster boy, "the angry white male."Once the assumption was dispelled that the tragedy was the work of foreign terrorists, with the arrest of a white male linked to a gun-toting militia group of white men with various hates against the government, it was only a short time before the charges and countercharges would start flying.

"If you find an endangered worm there, are you going to buy my farm as habitat, or am I going to find myself a serf on a worm farm?"The worm lady, among 350 people who packed Rep. Wayne Gilchrest's recent forum in Annapolis on the Endangered Species Act, never got a good answer to her question.From her tone, I'm not sure she cared. I suspect she's made up her mind to support Republican-led attacks in Congress that aim to cast the 22-year-old act as the bogeyman of landowners everywhere -- and to weaken it drastically.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- The United Nations began its first full day of formal peacekeeping here yesterday, with nearly 6,900 soldiers and police officers from more than 30 countries donning blue berets and moving in to replace the U.S.-led military force that has been responsible for Haiti's security since last fall.The mood in the capital was calm as the troops took up their mandate, which is to maintain order as this poor and volatile nation struggles to build a democracy and a functioning economy.

I'd like to pass on some advice to smokers on the subject of smokers' rights.Smokers' rights don't exist. They never have. They never will. The notion is a fantasy spawned by the current American frenzy in which everyone has rights and no one has responsibilities.I challenge you to find a passage in the U.S. Constitution that explicitly refers to "smokers' rights." You won't find it. I challenge you to find a passage in the document that even obliquely implies the existence of "smokers' rights."

A 59-year-old Annapolis resident has been named the city's equal employment opportunity/minority business enterprise coordinator.Vaughn T. Phillips started work Thursday in the $25,246 position. He will be responsible for the coordination of minority recruitment throughout the city and working to increase minority participation among vendors who do business with Annapolis.Mr. Phillips replaces Sharon Renee Cager, who resigned recently to work with the Anne Arundel County Board of Education.

Top administrators in the Baltimore City school system were used to staff meetings with fluid agendas that left time for all to speak. But now, Andres Alonso was presiding. And class was in session. When I send you an e-mail, the schools' new chief executive told them on that summer day in 2007, I expect a reply within 20 minutes. Twenty-four hours a day. Seven days a week. This wasn't a conversation, but more like a lecture, one in which students keep quiet for fear of being admonished for falling behind on their homework.

Published in 1995, William Bridges' JobShift lingers today around No. 400,000 on Amazon's sales list. The book's central idea deserves more attention than that. Mr. Bridges argues that the "job" - a defined set of responsibilities that remains constant and is fulfilled by one or more people over time - is disappearing right in front of us. Work is being reorganized without jobs. Employees are being let go, then engaged as consultants. A major bank projects that only 19 percent of its work force will be considered permanent full-time employees.

The ball slammed into Daniel Cabrera's lower back, and manager Sam Perlozzo was the one hurting. Shannon Stewart's line drive in the third inning yesterday nailed Cabrera as he turned away from it. Cabrera recorded the out and was hunched over in pain as Perlozzo and head trainer Richie Bancells raced from the dugout. Perlozzo immediately feared he would have to go to his bullpen early, with no long man at the ready. But Cabrera stayed in the game, went six innings and earned the decision in an 8-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

The whirlwind hit Chris Chester hard and fast. When the Ravens selected the offensive lineman from the University of Oklahoma in the second round of April's draft, Chester was suddenly confronted with - among other responsibilities - learning a new playbook, developing a rapport with his new teammates and becoming familiar with a city that is much different from his former home of Norman, Okla. Ravens@Browns Sunday, 4:05 p.m., Ch. 13, 97.9 FM, 1090 AM Line: Ravens by 6 1/2

Lt. Cmdr. Kimberly Sawatsky fills many roles as a Naval Academy chaplain. She is one of the main religious advisers for more than 1,200 incoming freshmen, or plebes, during an arduous summer indoctrination period. She shares preaching responsibilities each Sunday for three congregations, performs weddings for academy alumni and brings in religious speakers to address the brigade. But of all these duties, she most relishes being a spiritual and emotional counselor to sailors and Marines, a daunting responsibility that has allowed her to see the survival of struggling marriages and struggling warriors.

Mayor Ellen O. Moyer and two city council members are seeking a new ordinance they say would crack down on residential landlords who fail to adequately maintain their properties. The measure, prompted by concerns raised by a downtown community group, would clarify landlord responsibilities and tenant rights. "Many of these rental properties are old, and they are conjoined," said Jan Hardesty, a spokeswoman for the mayor's office. "That means when there is any kind of issue, it affects more than one property.

Start with a purpose: Is it a special occasion or just a friendly gathering? Sort out duties to avoid collisions: Communicate. Before divvying up responsibilities, figure out cooking strengths of each individual -- who's best at side dishes, hor d'oeuvres, main dish and desserts. If holding a get-together for friends, it's fine to be more restrictive on invitations and invite only friends who know each other. Have a menu in mind and ask guests only to bring wine or beer. Keep in mind, the more formal the occasion, the less helpful it is to share responsibilities.

Issue: -- The Anne Arundel County Health Department recently sent a warning to public high school students after four teenagers contracted a rare and hard-to-treat skin infection while getting tattoos in a tattoo artist's home. Two of the teens were hospitalized for several days. According to the Health Department, tattoo artists aren't required to have licenses in Maryland, and their establishments aren't routinely inspected. Last week, The Sun asked Anne Arundel readers whether regulations regarding tattoo artists and where they work were too lax. Here is a sampling of responses: Lax parenting, not regulation It's unfortunate when we have to punish free enterprise in this country because our children's parents are not stepping up to their responsibilities of parenting their kids.

Mark Smolarz, the Baltimore school system official who had become the lightning rod for criticism of the district's financial problems, resigned yesterday saying he was "worn out." The system's chief financial officer, Smolarz had assumed many responsibilities over the past three years and is considered by some to be the schools' most effective problem-solver. He said yesterday he was not asked to resign by either a board member or the interim schools Chief Executive Officer Bonnie S. Copeland.

Problems are so pervasive at the organization responsible for bringing conventions and tourism to Baltimore that it will take at least three to five years to turn around, experts say. The troubles are so deep and have been ignored so long that a complete overhaul of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association's staff may be required, those experts add. Further, they say, it is evident that the organization's board of directors failed in...