For whomever may be interested, I have won the award for the "best  new course" of 2007, sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Center for Respect of Life and the Environment (CRLE). The announcement of the award may be found at: AS Awards. It is for my course "Animals and Human Civilization," taught online for the State University of Illinois at Springfield.

Awards, after all, are generally of interest primarily to those who receive them and who bestow them. For the most part, I think they should be accepted gratefully, but without trying to bestow too much significance on them, for awards, like other accomplishments, always owe a great deal to chance. But one thing that may perhaps give...