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PICS (Profitable Inventory Control Systems) was incorporated
in January 1985. The company's primary purpose was and continues to be the marketing, production
and support of complete turn key inventory control and data collection solutions. The PICS' systems
are designed to track raw materials, finished goods, process flow and assets using barcode, RFID,
and wireless technology. Over the years PICS has developed specific, vertical marketed solutions
that continue lead their individual market segments. PICS has continued to grow our business
over the years through continued product development, marketing and, most importantly, strong customer
Please select your area of interest or business and allow PICS the opportunity to show you why our
solutions are some of the best on the market.
Our solutions are being used in many successful companies, here are a few:
If you are a distribution company or have a distribution division of your business then it is our
understanding your goals from a technology perspective include solutions that allow for a smooth movement
of good throughout your facility, strong and secure wireless communications, and RFID compliance if you
are shipping to the government or any compliance based customer.
Inventory Control - First in First out for perishables, movement from one receiving truck to multiple shipping trucks, wireless handheld terminals running a PICS thin client eliminating the need to use a desktop computer, these are some of the highlights of what our inventory control solution has done for distribution centers across North America.
RFID Compliance - Manufacturers and distributors who ship product to the DOD, Homeland Security, and a host of retail giants are under strict contracts to become RFID compliant to avoid fines and shipment returns. PICS is fully aware of what the different RFID requirements are for your customers and can help you become compliant is a very short amount of time. PICS' other goal is to show manufacturing and distribution companies how you can make the investment in RFID beneficial to your business, not just another cost of doing business.
Wireless - PICS can source, configure, install, and support any wireless network infrastructure for any size distribution center. We can provide the necessary software to run your wireless hardware or spec hardware needed to support your current emulation or system requirements.
PICS has been working with fund raising distributors in the fund raising business for nearly 10 years. Since our enterance to the fund raising market we have had the opportunity to work with the market leaders as well as new businesses to the market.
The PICS solution for fund raising distributors is called FundTrackerSQL. FundTrackerSQL has been developed and designed from the ground up by our existing and growing customer base. As the industry matures and looks for new and creative ways of being profitable, PICS moves and changes with the market.
Today, FundTrackerSQL supports multiple warehouse locations, home delivery, web based reporting, remote order entry, remote packing, basically everything a fund raising distributor needs to run their business in today's competitive marketplace.
PICS prides itself on providing the best software solutions on the market coupled with the strongest hardware offerings at competitive rates.
Point to Point Wireless – Used to connect two or more points together on one wireless network. Experience includes wirelessly enabling municipalities, secure point to point solutions to help facilitate time and attendance solutions for construction companies.
Enterprise Wireless – Internal networks for wireless computing and mobile data collection devices. PICS has extensive experience designing and deploying secure wireless networks for a host of manufacturing and distribution companies. Our clients utilized the wireless network normally for wireless, real time data collection. The wireless networks were also utilized by employee laptops and desktops with wireless cards.
AutoID Data Collection Hardware – PICS has strong ties and experience with all the major brands of barcoding hardware including: Motorola (Purchased Symbol), Intermec, Cisco, Zebra, Loftware, SATO America, Handheld Products, and many more. Coupled with our various software solutions, PICS has been able to use a host of different devices designed to work in different environments and by different types of businesses. What may work for some may not work for you. PICS can help determine the exact hardware solution needed for your specific use and enviroment and connect that hardware device into our software.
As stated in an article from Healthcare Purchasing News:
No matter how you slice and dice it inventory control represents the guts of effective materials management. All the charisma, communication skills and confidence won't cut it if you can't get the fundamentals right so that doctors, nurses and administrators have what they need when they need it. Smart inventory control is as simple as the acronym IOU--identify your needs and opportunities, optimize your data and information management tools and understand the nuances of the supply and demand chains. "Inventory control is about product availability and balancing the costs of ownership with the costs of procuring, which includes purchasing, receiving and paying," said Dave Kaczmarek, vice president, The McFaul & Lyons Group LLC, Horsham, PA.
PICS has addressed the inventory control challenges of a hospital or medical clinic while at the same time bringing patient and procedure validation. PICS has, in one application, relieved two major needs of a medical facility who wants to utilize their inventory while at the same time adding additional validation for their patients. PICS' software product VICSMD offers both inventory control and patient procedure validation for a fraction of traditional software solutions providing just one of those services. Please view our VICSMD information and give us a call so we can answer any other questions you may have.
Asset management is a crutial need for many hospitals and clinics. By using one of several available technologies a hospital or clinic can track, manage, maintain, and locate all assets within their facility. PICS has several asset tracking solutions available based on the requirements of the client.
PICS has extensive experience in all aspects of the manufacturing vertical from communicating with legacy AS/400 systems to the lastest in manufacturing MRP systems. PICS has created some of the most advanced methods for tracking inventory, process tracking and automation and asset tracking in the market.
Inventory Control – Tracking raw material from the receiving door until it is picked and used in a manufacturing process. The systems then updates the raw materials inventory by backflushing and then enters into inventory the finished product.
Process Control – By using either RFID or barcoding or a combination of both, PICS and allow a manufacturer to track virtually anything through any manufacturing process.
RFID Compliance – Manufacturers and distributors who ship product to the DOD, Homeland Security, and a host of retail giants are under strict contracts to become RFID compliant to avoid fines and shipment returns.
Wireless – PICS has a long history of providing some of the most advanced wireless network solutions in the manufacturing industry.
One of the most important components of a successful manufacturing company is a controlled and efficent manufacturing process. If a manufacturing process is not running at or near 100% then each percentage point below 100% equates to hundreds to thousands of dollars in lost profits.
The PICS solution for manufacturing process management is called ProcessTrakker. ProcessTrakker was developed as an efficent and affective way of collecting data from the manufacturing floor and delivering the data in a clean, easy to understand format directly to managers and decision makers within your business. ProcessTrakker combines the use of intelligent software with RFID and barcoding technologies to help identify and solve issues before they become problems and will contribute to your process becoming as close to 100% as possible.
PICS has extensive experience with all aspects of RFID technology including site design, software integration, and compliance requirements.
RFID Compliance – Manufacturers and distributors who ship product to the DOD, Homeland Security, and a host of retail giants are under strict contracts to become RFID compliant to avoid fines and shipment returns. PICS can help you become compliant and discuss how RFID can do more for your business than cost you money to become compliant.
Maximize Investment – PICS can show manufacturing and distribution companies how any "necessary" investments in RFID can be beneficial to your business, not just a cost of doing business with the government or a big box.
Where to start/Where to go – RFID technology can usually create a lot of questions as to how will it affect my business including: Can I get ever get ROI on this investment? Which technology will be best for my business? What are other businesses doing that are similar to mine? All these questions PICS can help with including onsite demos using RFID hardware and software to show a business exactly how the technology will affect their business. PICS' has actually identified large enough issues during a demo to justify the investment in the technology…
PICS has expertise in all types of wireless installs including point to point solutions from 11 and 54MB connections to Fast Ethernet (100MB) and wireless Gigabit. Every situation is different so let PICS review you needs and suggest the best solution.
PICS does not believe one-size-fits-all, the term "Service Provider" means PICS has access to a variety of manufacturers, each with their own unique connectivity options and specifications. Whether you are a business with multiple locations, a city with needs for free wireless access, a school district needing to connect schools, or in an unserviceable location, PICS has a wireless solution customizable to your terrain, demographics, and business case needs.
PICS supports, sells, and configures wireless hardware from the following manufacturers:


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An international band of programmers is about to release software that will bypass World Wide Web restrictions imposed by various countries, including China, Cuba and Iran. The programmers, who call themselves "The Cult of the Dead Cow," are a 16-year-old international group of anonymous "hackers" — so named because of their expertise in breaking into computer networks.
The technology will work much like Napster, the software that allows users to pass digital music files among themselves via the Internet, bypassing mainframe computers. According to "Oxblood Ruffin" — a pseudonym for one of the group's founders — the as-yet untitled software will allow users to bypass local servers that block access to certain Internet sites.
Cindy Cohn, an attorney with San Francisco's Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet free speech organization, said the software will help break through government censorship. "Governments are, more and more, blocking access to the Internet to guard against information that's critical of them or offensive to the culture," said Cohn. "Tools like this can counteract that trend."
Since 1996, the Chinese government has banned access to some 100 websites, ranging from those carrying outside news reports to sexually explicit pictures. Cuba, Iran and other countries also limit access to various websites they deem inappropriate to their citizens.
Ruffin said the program is small enough to be stored on a single floppy disc, and will be distributed by human rights organizations. "We're not doing anything illegal," said Ruffin, who cites the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a 1948 UN declaration urging access to information, among other rights, as his motivation for creating the software. Ruffin said the program should be available by March after final testing. — (AFP, San Francisco)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)

subset: commoncrawl


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As I wrote Tuesday:
Egypt's president Mubarak is a yes-man to the U.S., and the fall of the Tunisian and now Egyptian leaders are really the ouster of U.S. puppet regimes in the Middle East.
Indeed, Egypt was for many years the second-biggest recipient of American aid in the Middle East, behind Israel). As leading military publication Janes notes:
Egypt is reliant on US military aid to finance major equipment and this is worth just over 25 per cent of the total defence spend in 2008, US Foreign Military Financing (FMF) is fixed at USD1.3 billion annually.
America has also long provided training to Egypt's army. See this and this.
And as Free Press notes, American companies have helped to maintain Egyptian leaders' dictatorial powers:
An American company — Boeing-owned Narus of Sunnyvale, CA — has sold Egypt "Deep Packet Inspection" (DPI) equipment that can be used to help the regime track, target and crush political dissent over the Internet and mobile phones.
The power to control the Internet and the resulting harm to democracy are so disturbing that the threshold for using DPI must be very high. That's why, before DPI becomes more widely used around the world and at home, the U.S. government must establish clear and legitimate criteria for preventing the use of such surveillance and control technology.
In addition, Egypt has long tortured prisoners, and the U.S. used extraordinary rendition to fly prisoners to Egypt to be tortured. As Wikipedia notes:
In a New Yorker interview with CIA veteran Michael Scheuer, an author of the rendition program under the Clinton administration, writer Jane Mayer noted, "In 1995, American agents proposed the rendition program to Egypt, making clear that it had the resources to track, capture, and transport terrorist suspects globally — including access to a small fleet of aircraft. Egypt embraced the idea… 'What was clever was that some of the senior people in Al Qaeda were Egyptian,' Scheuer said. 'It served American purposes to get these people arrested, and Egyptian purposes to get these people back, where they could be interrogated.' Technically, U.S. law requires the CIA to seek 'assurances' from foreign governments that rendered suspects won't be tortured. Scheuer told me that this was done, but he was 'not sure' if any documents confirming the arrangement were signed."[30] However, Scheuer testified before Congress that no such assurances were received.[31] He further acknowledged that treatment of prisoners may not have been "up to U.S. standards." However, he stated,
- This is a matter of no concern as the Rendition Program's goal was to protect America, and the rendered fighters delivered to Middle Eastern governments are now either dead or in places from which they cannot harm America. Mission accomplished, as the saying goes.[32]
Thereafter, with the approval of President Clinton and a presidential directive (PDD 39), the CIA instead elected to send suspects to Egypt, where they were turned over to the Egyptian Mukhabarat [Egypt's intelligence service].
Vice President Biden's attempt to defend President Mubarak by saying he's "not a dictator" is like Nixon saying "I am not a crook."
And the statement of CNBC's Erin Burnett to the effect that the U.S. must support Middle Eastern dictators to keep cheap oil flowing doesn't really help.
Make no mistake … a revolution in Egypt is a refutation of American policy.
And see this.


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A 21-year-old Pennsylvania man convicted of harassing Sarah Palin's Alaska lawyers has been sentenced to two years in prison for a probation violation.
Shawn Christy of McAdoo, Pa., received credit for time already served.
His sentence Wednesday also included one year supervised release on a guilty plea of running from federal authorities in Pennsylvania. Christy was arrested in November for leaving a community re-entry facility before completing his six-month term there.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Retta-Rae Randall in Anchorage says Christy has almost a year left to serve.
Christy was sentenced last year to five years' probation after he and his father pleaded guilty to making harassing phone calls to Palin's attorneys. .
The Christys were accused of threatening the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate and her attorneys.


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A little over a year ago, I wrote an article about the IPv4 address consumption with the subtitle IPv4 Address Space: 2.46 Billion Down, 1.25 Billion to Go. A week ago, we reached the magic number of 2.7 billion IPv4 addresses used. With 3.7 billion possible addresses,¹ this means we now have less than a billion unused IPv4 addresses left. There are 39 blocks of 16.78 million addresses in the IANA global pool and another 339 million addresses that have been given out by IANA to the five Regional Internet Registries, but not yet delegated to ISPs or end-users.
So, how long will a billion quench our thirst for addresses? Geoff Huston at the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre has written a script that downloads the relevant information and creates daily predictions. The current ones target 10 February 2011 as the moment that IANA will give out the last of its blocks to one of the regional registries, and 17 December 2011 as the day that the last RIR will hand out the last IPv4 address to an ISP (or end-user).
Personally, I've always thought that Geoff's model is a bit pessimistic; in order to run out of addresses in a little over three years, we'd have to increase the rate at which addresses are handed out by 30 percent each year. In 2007, the increase over 2006 was 19 percent. The year before that there was no increase to speak of.
However, we're now so close to running out that the exact figures don't really matter anymore. Regardless of whether we see our yearly IPv4 use stay flat or increase by 70 percent, the results all point in the same direction:
|Yearly increase
|Run out date
|0 percent
|December 2013
|10 percent
|November 2012
|20 percent
|April 2012
|30 percent
|December 2011
|50 percent
|June 2011
|70 percent
|February 2011
In other words, unless something unexpected happens, we'll be out of IPv4 addresses at some point in the neighborhood of 2012. So when the next Olympics come around, it's very possible that some of us will have to watch them online over IPv6. (Actually the official website of the 2008 Olympics is already available over IPv6.)
If all of this inspires you to try out IPv6 on your own system, have a look at SixXS.net. The people at SixXS run a "tunnel broker" and have developed an Automatic IPv6 Connectivity Client Utility (AICCU) that make it possible to get an IPv6 address and tunneled connectivity that works through Network Address Translators and most firewalls. Unfortunately, the AICCU utility isn't particularly easy to install and configure, so only give this a try if you're comfortable debugging network connectivity issues and running programs from the command line.
¹ IPv4 addresses are 32 bits long, which allows for 4,294.97 million unique combinations. However, the addresses starting with 0 and 127 (33.55 million in total) can't be used because those address ranges are shortcuts for the default route and localhost address. Addresses starting with 224 - 239 are multicast addresses (268.44 million) and those starting with 240 - 255 are "class E" addresses (another 268.44 million), which are reserved for future use. Unfortunately, almost all operating systems and routers block these addresses in some way, so in practice they're unusable. The three ranges of private addresses (10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x - 172.31.x.x, and 192.168.x.x) add up to 17.89 million addresses, making for a total of 588.32 million unusable addresses.


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Follow RFF News on your cell phone. Text follow rff to 40404 you will receive txt messages with RFF News
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And the park where Lance is terrorizing the kids??
Pinky and the Brains running along the river? Swan boat thingy
"party animals"... close, puddin...but I suspect it's something connected with the popular Vietnamese Mid Autumn Festival for children. giraffeMid Autumn FestivalChildrens FestivalHence the giraffe (and ram?) and dancing lions (popular in any festival). they were a few months early, but that never stopped BVM or maybe not
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Click on any standard to search for aligned resources. This data may be subject to copyright. You may download a CSV of the Iowa Social Studies Standards (2010) if your intention constitutes fair use.
Plan, assess, and analyze learning aligned to these standards using Kiddom.
Learn more: How Kiddom Empowers Teachers.
Understand the changing nature of society.* Understand that a large society may be made up of many groups, and these groups may contain many different subcultures.* Understand various institutions influence people.* Understand various institutions influence elements of culture.* Understand that technology is important in spreading the ideas, values, and behavior patterns within a society.* Understand the role of institutions in furthering both continuity and change.* Understand the means by which individuals, groups, and institutions may contribute to social continuity and change within a community.
Understand how personality and socialization impact the individual.* Understand the ways family, gender, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic factors and institutional affiliations contribute to personal identity.* Understand the influence of perception, attitudes, values, and beliefs on personal identity.
Understand the influences on individual and group behavior and group decision making.* Understand that various factors affect decisions that individuals make.* Understand role, status, and social class affect interactions of individuals and social groups.* Understand that each culture has distinctive patterns of behavior that are usually practiced by most of the people who grow up in it.* Understand that standards used to judge behaviors vary for different settings and societal groups.* Understand that technology is important in spreading ideas, values, and behavior patterns within a society and among different societies.* Understand that the media may influence the behavior and decision-making of individuals and groups.
Understand the process of how humans develop, learn, adapt to their environment, and internalize their culture.* Understand that all behavior is affected by both inheritance and experience.* Understand values, language, beliefs, and behaviors contribute to the transmission of culture.* Understand that language and tools enable human beings to learn complicated and varied things from others.* Understand that technology is important in spreading the ideas, values, and behavior patterns within a society.
Understand current social issues to determine how the individual is able to formulate opinions and respond to those issues.* Understand that personal values influence the types of conclusions people make.* Understand the concepts of bias, prejudice, stereotyping, power, role, status, justice.* Understand group and institutional influences on people, events, and elements of culture.
Understand how to evaluate social research and information.* Understand that human behavior is studied using scientific methods.* Understand basic distinctions between information that is based on fact and information that is based on opinion.
Understand the role of scarcity and economic trade-offs and how economic conditions impact people's lives.* Understand the cost and benefits of economic trade-offs and how scarcity of resources affects costs and benefits.* Understand economic trade-offs at different levels (personal, business, local government).* Understand the short term and long term impact of economic trade-offs on society.
Understand the functions of economic institutions.* Understand the services that are available at banks and credit unions.* Understand the process of interests and payments for goods.* Understand the role banks play among savers, borrowers, and investors.* Understand the types of specialized economic institutions found in market economies (corporations, partnerships, cooperatives, labor unions, banks, and nonprofit organizations).
Understand how governments throughout the world influence economic behavior.* Understand goods and services that the government provides.* Understand the government's purpose in preventing monopolies.* Understand how taxes are used at the local, state, and national levels.* Understand revenues and expenditures in the federal budget.* Understand the concepts of balanced budget, budget deficit, budget surplus, and national debt.* Understand the role of the Federal Reserve on the economy.* Understand the process of filing personal tax returns.
Understand factors that create patterns of interdependence in the world economy.* Understand the impact of imported and exported goods and services in the local community.* Understand the concepts of free trade and trade barriers.* Understand trade barriers imposed by the United States from a historical perspective and the impact of those actions.* Understand the interdependence of America and other regions of the world in terms of imports and exports.* Understand balance of trade and trade deficits and their impact on the price of goods.* Understand that the increased interdependence of the world market causes economic conditions in one country to affect others.
Understand the impact of advancing technologies on the global economy.* Understand the evolution of technology over time.* Understand the role of technologies that interlock the global economy.* Understand the role of investment and government support in advancing technologies.
Understand how universal economic concepts present themselves in various types of economies throughout the world.* Understand the different types of economies and universal economic concepts (supply and demand, production, consumption, labor, capital, etc.) and their influence on each other.* Understand how the laws of supply and demand affect price and consumers' responses to prices.* Understand how the change of price for one good or service can affect the price for other goods and services.* Understand causes of inflation, deflation, and recessions and who gains or loses from them.* Understand the relation between gross domestic products and standards of living among countries.* Understand unemployment.* Understand the role of profit in motivating entrepreneurs in starting new businesses.
Understand the function of common financial instruments.* Understand checking accounts.* Understand that bank accounts, loans and other services vary from one bank to another.
Understand the use of geographic tools to locate and analyze information about people, places, and environments.* Understand the characteristics and purposes of geographic tools and representations of the earth such as maps, globes, graphs, charts, models, grid systems, aerial and other photographs, GIS, satellite-produced images and databases.* Understand mental maps of locales, regions and the world.* Understand geographic relationships such as population density and spatial distribution patterns.
Understand how geographic and human characteristics create culture and define regions.* Understand human and physical characteristics of place.* Understand the concept of region.* Understand the physical environment affects life in different regions.* Understand communities reflect the cultural backgrounds of their inhabitants.* Understand patterns of cultural diffusion.
Understand how human factors and the distribution of resources affect the development of society and the movement of populations.* Understand physical and cultural patterns and their interactions, such as land use, settlement patterns, cultural transmission of customs and ideas, and ecosystem changes.* Understand world patterns of resource distribution and utilization.* Understand the role of technology in resource acquisition and use, and its impact on the environment.* Understand the development and widespread use of alternative energy sources have an impact on societies.* Understand physical and human geographic factors have influenced major historic events and movements.
Understand how physical processes and human actions modify the environment and how the environment affects humans.* Understand human systems develop in response to conditions in the physical environment.* Understand major processes that shape patterns in the physical environment.* Understand the environmental consequences of both the unintended and intended outcomes of major technological changes in human history.* Understand technology influences the human capacity to modify the physical environment.* Understand the environmental consequences of people changing the physical environment.* Understand ecosystems in terms of their characteristics and ability to withstand stress caused by physical events.
Understand historical patterns, periods of time and the relationships among these elements.* Understand concepts such as chronology, causality, change, conflict, and complexity.* Understand historical periods and patterns of change within and across cultures, such as the rise of civilizations, the development of transportation systems, the growth and breakdown of colonial systems, and others.
Understand how and why people create, maintain or change systems of power, authority, and governance.* Understand political events that shaped the development of governments.* Understand patterns of nationalism, state-building, religious and social reform.
Understand the role of culture and cultural diffusion on the development and maintenance of societies.* Understand the ways groups, societies, and cultures have addressed human needs and concerns in the past.* Understand how information and experiences from the past may be interpreted by people from diverse cultural perspectives and frames of reference.* Understand language, literature, the arts, architecture, other artifacts, traditions, beliefs, values, and behaviors have contributed to the development and transmission of culture.
Understand the role of individuals and groups within a society as promoters of change or the status quo.* Understand that specific individuals and the values those individuals held had an impact on history.* Understand significant events and people, including women and minorities, in the major eras of history.
Understand the effect of economic needs and wants on individual and group decisions.* Understand economic concepts that help explain historical and current developments and issues in local, national, or global contexts.* Understand reform, revolution, and social change in the world economy.
Understand the effects of geographic factors on historical events.* Understand that historical events have been influenced by, and have influenced, physical and human geographic factors in local, regional, national, and global settings.* Understand the forces of cooperation and conflict that shaped the divisions of Earth's surface.* Understand geography is used to interpret the past.
Understand the role of innovation on the development and interaction of societies.* Understand technology has influenced the course of history through revolutions in agriculture, manufacturing, sanitation, medicine, warfare, transportation, information processing, and communication.* Understand the impact of new inventions and technological developments in various regions of the world.
Understand cause and effect relationships and other historical thinking skills in order to interpret events and issues.* Understand processes such as using a variety of sources, providing, validating, and weighing evidence for claims, checking credibility of sources, and searching for causality.* Understand relationships between and among significant events.* Understand facts and concepts drawn from history, along with methods of historical inquiry, to inform decision-making about and action-taking on public issues.* Understand how and why events may be interpreted differently depending upon the perspectives of participants, witnesses, reporters, and historians.
Understand the rights and responsibilities of each citizen and demonstrate the value of lifelong civic action.* Understand rights, roles and status of the individual in relation to the general welfare.* Understand issues regarding personal, political, and economic rights.* Understand what is meant by the 'scope and limits' of a right.* Understand participation in civic and political life can help bring about the attainment of individual and public goals.* Understand the functions of political leadership and why leadership is a vital necessity in a democracy.* Understand the importance of voluntarism as a characteristic of American society.
Understand how the government established by the Constitution embodies the principles of democracy and republicanism.* Understand the essential ideas of American government that are expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other documents.* Understand the concepts of constitutional government as fundamental principles of American democracy.* Understand the essential characteristics of limited and unlimited governments.* Understand the basic concepts of a federal system of government.* Understand values such as individual rights, the common good, self government, justice, equality, diversity, openness and free inquiry, truth, patriotism are fundamental to American public life.* Understand the type of citizenry needed to establish and maintain constitutional government.
Understand the purpose and function of each of the three branches of government established by the Constitution.* Understand the primary responsibilities of each branch of government in a system of shared powers (legislative, executive, judicial) and ways in which each branch shares the powers and functions of the other branches.* Understand how the legislative, executive, and judicial branches use checks and balances.
Understand the similarities and differences among the complex levels of local, state and national government.* Understand the relationship between state and local governments and the national government.* Understand the powers and responsibilities of local, state and national governments.
Understand strategies for effective political action that impacts local, state and national governance.* Understand the concept of civic responsibility.* Understand the importance of political leadership, public service, and a knowledgeable citizenry in American democracy.* Understand the concept of political leadership in the students own school, community, state, and the nation.
Understand how laws are established at the local, state and national levels.* Understand the concept of public policy.* Understand the sources, purposes, and functions of law, and the importance of the rule of law for the protection of individual rights and the common good.
Understand how various political systems throughout the world define the rights and responsibilities of the individual.* Understand constitutions protect individual rights and promote the common good.* Understand the essential characteristics of limited and unlimited governments.
Understand the role of the United States in current world affairs.* Understand conditions, actions and motivations that contribute to conflict and cooperation within and among nations.* Understand current foreign policy issues and the means the United States is using to deal with them.


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December 2010
DISCLAIMER: Fertile Thoughts allows advertisers to publish information about their services. Fertile Thoughts does not provide medical advice or endorse any particular service or approach to treating infertility. We encourage people to learn as much as possible about the range of options available before committing to any one. We also encourage users to share their thoughts on all fertility options on our forums.


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Mother-to-be Emily Blunt has thrown a star-studded baby shower ahead of becoming a first-time mom.
The actress is weeks away from welcoming a baby with actor husband John Krasinski, and her celebrity friends attended a special party ahead of the big day.
The couple opened up their Los Angeles home on Saturday as their pals Jennifer Aniston, her fiance Justin Theroux and Kristen Bell were spotted arriving at the bash.
Blunt and Krasinki, who have been married since 2010, confirmed the pregnancy in September.


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Luckily I keep track every day of the work I do and record it here: http://wgsdsciss.blogspot.com/
Thanks to my good friend, colleague, mentor, guide and general inspirer of all things awesome Josh Stumpenhorst. He inspired me to write this post and I thank him for getting me back to my blog!
Here's his post calling me out: http://stumpteacher.blogspot.com/2013/12/more-homework-meme.html
For starters, here are 11 random facts about me many people may not know.
- I'm scared of heights, closed in spaces, and being underwater. Yes I'm a BIG scaredy-cat but I'm overcoming my fears every day. I owe that mostly to my amazing wife who constantly pushes me to overcome my fears.
- While in high school I thought it was a good idea to have a mullet. It was not a good idea.
- I'm against stinky cheeses.
- I'm the one in charge of cooking and doing the laundry in our house. On top of that I fold my t-shirts using a folding board I was given from when I worked at The Gap.
- As a baby/toddler I was entered into a beauty pageant, and won.
- My mom LOVED halloween. She made the best costumes of any kid I knew. She made this Voltron costume. Pretty awesome!
- I'm a "Friends" nut. I've seen every episode and can quote almost every line. I also own the "Friends: Scene it" game, no one will play with me.
- My favorite color is blue.
- When I was in High School I worked at Pizza Hut and was a "Production Leader." Fancy!
- I am committed to having fun, no matter the age. I do understand this comes with a trade off of not always being taken seriously. I accept those consequences.
11. My dad and I once got into a fight about grades. He said I wasn't applying myself. I disagreed. I ended up running away only to return because I was cold. I'm such a wuss.
Here are Josh's questions for me:1. What was your favorite children's book as a child or favorite to read as a parent?
A. As a parent I have not had much of an opportunity to read to my daughter (she's only a couple months). When I was younger I loved this book about cars and trucks (seen here with my dad purchasing the same one for our daughter.
2. If you had won that insane lottery jackpot, what is the first thing you would buy?
A. Google Glasses. They are ridiculous but I think they're so cool. I'm sure I'd also get a GoPro Camera and a new house.
3. Can you touch your tongue to your nose?
A. No, but I can touch my nose and tongue simultaneously. Does that count?
4. If I were to meet you up at a bar, what drink would I buy for you?
A. Scotch on the rocks....
5. When was the last time you laughed so hard it hurt, and what was it that made that happen?
A. Between my wife and I this happens often. Most of the time for no apparent reason. Also any time we are with good friends of ours that live in Chicago. We always end up laughing until our cheeks hurt.
6. What is that one movie that shows up on TV that even though you have seen it a hundred times you still leave it on and watch?
A. Pretty Woman. It's so emasculating to admit that.
7. If you could sit down and interview one person, living or dead, who would it be?
A. Martin Luther King Jr. How cool would that be?
8. Paper or plastic?
A. Neither, reusable bags. That way we can ring the bell at Trader Joe's.
9. What is something you have always wanted to do but continue to procrastinate and make excuses as to why you have not done it yet?
A. Skydive. See the random facts number 1 listed above.
10. Have you been able to unlock the code and figure out what a fox says?
A. I'm sure it has something to do with the "one thing."
11. If you could pack it all up today and move, where would you land?
A. That's tough. I love vacations in paradise, on a beach with a cold beverage, but I couldn't imagine living there. Spain was amazing, Madrid was beautiful, but if you live there does it all become noise? I'm happy where I am, I say I'd stay right here. Lame but true.
Here are 11 bloggers I want to answer this next:
- Justin Tarte
- Robert Dillon
- Steven Weber
- Kyle Pace
- Rebecca Morrison
- Greg Lawrence
- John Simpson
- Josh Mika
- Tim Brown
- Krissy Venosdale
- Dan Pink
Here are 11 questions for them to answer:
- Does the toilet paper go over the top or under the bottom? NOTE: there is only one right answer for this.
- If you were a superhero, which one would you be?
- What was your favorite project when you were in school?
- Which color Starburst/Skittle/Jelly Belly is your favorite?
- What quote inspires you every day?
- What's your favorite sandwich, ever?
- What is the most played song on your iPod?
- What's your favorite sound?
- If you could invite anyone over for dinner, living or dead, who would sit at your table?
- What celebrity do you often get mistaken for?
- What is the best gift you've ever given/received?
Here's how it works:
- Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
- Share 11 random facts about yourself.
- Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
- List 11 bloggers.
- Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer, and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. Don't nominate a blogger who has nominated you.


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Positioning enzymes with ease
Virtually all processes in the human body rely on a unique class of proteins known as enzymes. To study them, scientists want to attach these molecules to surfaces and hold them fast, but this can often be a tricky undertaking.
Now Jinglin Fu and his colleagues at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have developed a superior method for immobilizing enzymes on surfaces, deftly controlling their orientation, improving their efficiency and rendering them more stable. The group's results appear in today's advanced online issue of PLoS ONE.
Enzymes are essential for the normal functioning of cells, and are involved in tasks including cell regulation, metabolism and signal transduction. They are also necessary for muscle contraction and the transport of ions and other materials throughout the cytoskeleton.
Enzymes like amylases and proteases are central players in the digestive systems of many animals, breaking down starches and other large molecules into smaller parts that can be absorbed by the intestines. Herbivorous animals make use of the enzyme cellulose, to break down plant fiber. "No wonder enzyme function has been a topic of longstanding concern for biochemistry and medicine," says Fu.
Like other proteins, enzymes are composed of linear chains of amino acids. They can range from tens to thousands of amino acids in length. The job of the enzyme is to increase the rate of the desired reaction, without increasing the rate of undesired reactions. Here, a molecule known as the substrate interacts with a given enzyme to produce a product. Without enzymes, many reactions essential to living things could not proceed.
Such catalytic activity has also been adapted and broadly applied in the biomedical arena (especially for various diagnostic testing), as well for industrial applications ranging from photography to the brewing of beer.
Enzymes are also critical for the study of disease. Given their central role in maintaining homeostasis, any single enzyme aberration, including mutation, overproduction, underproduction or deletion can have dire consequences for health. Phenylketonuria, for example, is a disease linked with a single amino acid mutation in the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase. If untreated, the condition can lead to mental retardation. Malfunctioning of DNA repair enzymes is associated with a number of forms of cancer.
To properly study enzymes, particularly their catalytic activity, it is necessary to fix them in place on a surface. While researchers have used several techniques for enzyme immobilization, existing methods suffer from several shortcomings. Enzymes need to be properly oriented on the surface with respect to the molecule they are catalyzing in order to work properly. The non-specific binding of proteins can contaminate the reaction and lower or block its efficient progress. Finally, proteins are prone to becoming unfolded and deactivated over timea process known as denaturation.
In the current study, Fu first generated a high-density array of peptides on a glass slide, each peptide composed of 20 randomly assembled amino acids. A specific enzyme, β galactosidase, was then screened against this array. This method identified two peptides that covalently bound to the enzyme with high affinity, and these were used for the subsequent experiments.
When compared with low-affinity binding peptides and with preexisting surface immobilization techniques, the group found that the high affinity peptides not only were more effective at holding the enzyme in its proper orientation on the slide, they also produced higher specific activity in the enzyme. The enzyme was also less subject to denaturation, compared with controls.
In a further refinement of the technique, the group created mutations of the high affinity peptides, by deleting a single amino acid along the peptide's length and replacing it with a different amino acid. This procedure was repeated with all 20 amino acids in the peptide chain, with the resulting mutations once more screened against the β galactosidase enzyme. The technique, known as single-point variant screening, improved both the binding affinity and specific activity of the bound enzyme.
"This development gives us a new tool, both for enhancing the function of surface bound enzymes, which are of ever-increasing importance to industry, and also for studying the interactions between multiple enzymes in a metabolic pathway," said Neal Woodburry, a co-author of the PLoS ONE study.
Explore further


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The Vandoren traditional 2 baritone saxophone reed produces a rich pure sax sound due to a thin reed tip design which allows maximum vibration of the reed. The Vandoren traditional reed is the favoured reed of classic saxophonists worldwide and has a great record of success with many legendary players.
The Vandoren traditional 2 baritone saxophone reed main features include:


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The Dumbing Of America
"The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself." Ralph Waldo Emerson offered that observation in 1837, but his words echo with painful prescience in today's very different United States. Americans are in serious intellectual trouble -- in danger of losing our hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations.
This is the last subject that any candidate would dare raise on the long and winding road to the White House. It is almost impossible to talk about the manner in which public ignorance contributes to grave national problems without being labeled an "elitist," one of the most powerful pejoratives that can be applied to anyone aspiring to high office. Instead, our politicians repeatedly assure Americans that they are just "folks," a patronizing term that you will search for in vain in important presidential speeches before 1980. (Just imagine: "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain . . . and that government of the folks, by the folks, for the folks, shall not perish from the earth.") Such exaltations of ordinariness are among the distinguishing traits of anti-intellectualism in any era.
The classic work on this subject by Columbia University historian Richard Hofstadter, "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life," was published in early 1963, between the anti-communist crusades of the McCarthy era and the social convulsions of the late 1960s. Hofstadter saw American anti-intellectualism as a basically cyclical phenomenon that often manifested itself as the dark side of the country's democratic impulses in religion and education. But today's brand of anti-intellectualism is less a cycle than a flood. If Hofstadter (who died of leukemia in 1970 at age 54) had lived long enough to write a modern-day sequel, he would have found that our era of 24/7 infotainment has outstripped his most apocalyptic predictions about the future of American culture.
Dumbness, to paraphrase the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has been steadily defined downward for several decades, by a combination of heretofore irresistible forces. These include the triumph of video culture over print culture (and by video, I mean every form of digital media, as well as older electronic ones); a disjunction between Americans' rising level of formal education and their shaky grasp of basic geography, science and history; and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism.
First and foremost among the vectors of the new anti-intellectualism is video. The decline of book, newspaper and magazine reading is by now an old story. The drop-off is most pronounced among the young, but it continues to accelerate and afflict Americans of all ages and education levels.
Reading has declined not only among the poorly educated, according to a report last year by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1982, 82 percent of college graduates read novels or poems for pleasure; two decades later, only 67 percent did. And more than 40 percent of Americans under 44 did not read a single book -- fiction or nonfiction -- over the course of a year. The proportion of 17-year-olds who read nothing (unless required to do so for school) more than doubled between 1984 and 2004. This time period, of course, encompasses the rise of personal computers, Web surfing and video games.
Does all this matter? Technophiles pooh-pooh jeremiads about the end of print culture as the navel-gazing of (what else?) elitists. In his book "Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter," the science writer Steven Johnson assures us that we have nothing to worry about. Sure, parents may see their "vibrant and active children gazing silently, mouths agape, at the screen." But these zombie-like characteristics "are not signs of mental atrophy. They're signs of focus." Balderdash. The real question is what toddlers are screening out, not what they are focusing on, while they sit mesmerized by videos they have seen dozens of times.
Despite an aggressive marketing campaign aimed at encouraging babies as young as 6 months to watch videos, there is no evidence that focusing on a screen is anything but bad for infants and toddlers. In a study released last August, University of Washington researchers found that babies between 8 and 16 months recognized an average of six to eight fewer words for every hour spent watching videos.
I cannot prove that reading for hours in a treehouse (which is what I was doing when I was 13) creates more informed citizens than hammering away at a Microsoft Xbox or obsessing about Facebook profiles. But the inability to concentrate for long periods of time -- as distinct from brief reading hits for information on the Web -- seems to me intimately related to the inability of the public to remember even recent news events. It is not surprising, for example, that less has been heard from the presidential candidates about the Iraq war in the later stages of the primary campaign than in the earlier ones, simply because there have been fewer video reports of violence in Iraq. Candidates, like voters, emphasize the latest news, not necessarily the most important news.
No wonder negative political ads work. "With text, it is even easy to keep track of differing levels of authority behind different pieces of information," the cultural critic Caleb Crain noted recently in the New Yorker. "A comparison of two video reports, on the other hand, is cumbersome. Forced to choose between conflicting stories on television, the viewer falls back on hunches, or on what he believed before he started watching."
As video consumers become progressively more impatient with the process of acquiring information through written language, all politicians find themselves under great pressure to deliver their messages as quickly as possible -- and quickness today is much quicker than it used to be. Harvard University's Kiku Adatto found that between 1968 and 1988, the average sound bite on the news for a presidential candidate -- featuring the candidate's own voice -- dropped from 42.3 seconds to 9.8 seconds. By 2000, according to another Harvard study, the daily candidate bite was down to just 7.8 seconds.
The shrinking public attention span fostered by video is closely tied to the second important anti-intellectual force in American culture: the erosion of general knowledge.


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My motivation to the following question stems from the discussion at Zeros of "exponential" function about the real zeroes of Stirling numbers of the second kind, I am curious in exploring the complex zeroes of Stirling functions of the second kind.
Define: $S_{(x,n)}=\frac{1}{n!}\sum\limits_{k=1}^{n}{n\choose k}(-1)^{n-k}k^{x}$ for integer $n$ and complex $x$.
I conjecture that for $n>2$, $S_{(x,n)}$ has exactly $n-1$ complex zeroes. I realize this is a much stronger claim than the fact that $S_{(x,n)}$ has $n-1$ real zeroes. However, I have noticed after examining a large amount of mathematical data that for $x>n$, both the real parts and the imaginary parts of $S_{(x,n)}$ seem to alternate for increasing integer $n$ when $x$ is a complex number.
When $x$ is a real number, the imaginary part of $S_{(x,n)}$ is zero and we can say that the imaginary part alternates as well for real $x$ from $+0=0$ to $-0=0$. My question becomes the following. If we consider $S_{(x,n)}$ for complex $x$ as a linear combination of integer exponential functions that are defined for complex $x$, does it follow that for $n>2$, $S_{(x,n)}$ has exactly $n-1$ complex zeroes?
$n=2$ is an exception because $S_{(x,2)}$ is periodic in the imaginary part $b$ of $x=a+bi$ with period $\frac{2\pi}{\log{3}}$. This is an exception because the equation $S_{(x,2)}=0$ is equivalent to the equation $2^{x}-2=0$ which only has one exponential term that is non-constant. Since $a_{2}\frac{2\pi}{\log{2}}=a_{3}\frac{2\pi}{\log{3}}=a_{n}\frac{2\pi}{\log{n}}$ presumably does not have a solution for $a_{2}, ..., a_{n}$ all integers except for when $n=2$ it is unlikely that there are any other complex zeroes of $S_{(x,n)}$ in the case that $n\ne 2$ other than $x=1$, ..., $n-1$.
Can someone help me think of a way to show that $a_{2}\frac{2\pi}{\log{2}}=a_{3}\frac{2\pi}{\log{3}}=a_{n}\frac{2\pi}{\log{n}}$ does not have a solution where $a_{2}, ..., a_{n}$ are all integers except for when $n=2$?
Furthermore, I want to clarify the fact that I am only considering whether $S_{(x,n)}$ is periodic in the imaginary part of $x=a+bi$, because for any complex zero of $S_{(x,n)}$, x=a+bi, $\sum\limits_{k=1}^{n}{n\choose k}(-1)^{n-k}k^{a}\cos{(b\log{k})}=0$ and $\sum\limits_{k=1}^{n}{n\choose k}(-1)^{n-k}k^{a}\sin{(b\log{k})}=0$.
We note that in each equation $a$ and $b$ are real. Therefore, as Elkies already argued, the maximum number of real zeroes of an equation $\sum\limits_{k=1}^{n}{n\choose k}(-1)^{n-k}k^{a}\cos{(b\log{k})}=0$ or $\sum\limits_{k=1}^{n}{n\choose k}(-1)^{n-k}k^{a}\sin{(b\log{k})}=0$ with $n-1$ sign changes is $n-1$. In each case, there are at maximum $n-1$ values of $a$ that satisfy the equation. For each value of $a$, it can be observed that there is at most $1$ value of $b$ that satisfies both equations (this is equivalent to the fact that $a_{2}\frac{2\pi}{\log{2}}=a_{3}\frac{2\pi}{\log{3}}=a_{n}\frac{2\pi}{\log{n}}$ does not have a solution where $a_{2}, ..., a_{n}$ are all integers except for when $n=2$).
Thank you for your help in advance. I hope this makes my line of reasoning more clear.


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Afilias manages the .INFO, .MOBI, .PRO, .PINK, .BLUE, .RED, .KIM, .BLACK, .SHIKSHA, .ORGANIC, .LGBT, .POKER, .LOTTO, .BET, .PET, .PROMO, .GREEN and .移动 (dotChineseMOBILE) gTLDs.
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Must-Have Items for Every Beatles Fan's Collection
If you're a Beatles fan, there are some things that you absolutely need in your collection. Maybe there's someone in your family who's just getting into the music of the Fab Four. Here are some can't-miss items to check out:
1. Beatles U.S. CD Catalog
The best place to start is with the Beatles U.S. CD Catalog. Recently, Apple records released all the U.S. albums in a box set. 'The Beatles Story,' 'Hey Jude,' 'Yesterday and Today' and the U.S. versions of 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'Revolver' are available for the first time in this box set.
Now you may notice that this collection is missing six VERY important albums. This is because the above albums were only available in the U.S. from 1964-1970. For 'the missing pieces' let's move on to the next item on the list.
2. Remastered Beatles CDs
Here is the entire collection of the remastered Beatles CDs as released in the U.K. This set DOES include the six missing pieces from the U.S. Box set. The albums 'Sgt. Pepper' through 'Let It Be' were released exactly the same in both the U.K. and U.S. You also get the 'Past Masters Volume One and Two,' plus a bonus disc. The mini documentaries disc combines all the five minute docs, which are individually available on each CD, if you bought them separately.
3. The Beatles Anthology (Documentary)
This documentary aired on ABC as a three-night special event on television in November 1995. Updated interviews with the surviving Beatles (Paul, George and Ringo) along with George Martin are included, along with archived concert footage. Premiering during the original broadcast were two 'new' songs that came from demo cassette tapes of John Lennon (given to Paul from Yoko Ono). 'Real Love' and 'Free As a Bird' were produced by ELO mastermind and Beatles fan Jeff Lynn. When this DVD collection was released in 2003, an added disc of 81 minutes of special features were included.
4. The Beatles Anthology Book
This is the companion piece to the above documentary. This coffee-table piece features over 1,200 rare photos along with interview quotes that were featured in the documentary. You will also find additional interviews that were conducted just for this book. You can still find the original hard cover version and the newer large format paperback on Amazon.
5. A Hard Day's Write
Ironically, my favorite item is the least expensive. 'A Hard Day's Write' takes your from the first recorded Lennon-McCartney song all the way through the Anthology's 'Real Love' and 'Free As a Bird' recordings. This places you as "a fly on the wall" as some of the greatest songs in rock-and-roll history were created. The book breaks things down by album, followed by track listing order. You'll also gain a new appreciation for the songs you know so well as you learn the inspiration and writing process of each song.
There are so many more Beatles items available for your collection, that the above list doesn't even scratch the surface, but these are some of the ones that should be on any Beatles fan's wish list.
Let us know what some of your favorite Beatles items are.


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Nokia's newest economically-friendly offering, the Lumia 520 has showed up for sale on eBay. This black or red, factory unlocked version looks to be the first 520 to be offered in the US and can be purchased outright for $239.99 using the Buy It Now option. Shipping is free.
Seeing the Lumia 520 for sale in the US is a bit of a novelty, but it may not be the wisest purchase to make. Being factory unlocked, the phone will only work on AT&T's and T-Mobile's EDGE speeds with limited 3G and no 4G LTE. For much less money, one could get any number of higher-end Windows Phone 8 handsets running full 4G on either AT&T or HSDPA+ on T-Mobile.
Having said that, as a second, backup phone and for something to kick around on the weekends, it's one viable option.
Featuring a 1GHz, dual-core Snapdragon CPU, Windows Phone 8, 512MB of RAM and a 4" Super Sensitive display, the Lumia 520 is one sharp phone. For $239.99, it's a steal if you ask us.
But if you are still hellbent on owning a Lumia 520, you can follow the source link to purchase it directly on eBay.
Source: eBay-Black; eBay Red; Thanks for the tip, Juan!


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Environmental Groups Question Obama's Support for Nuclear Industry
(WASHINGTON) -- Just as President Obama was publicly addressing the fallout from the cascading nuclear power plant disaster in Japan Thursday, the CEO of one of the largest nuclear power suppliers in the U.S. was lined up to speak at a closed-door gathering of top fundraisers for President Obama's reelection.
James E. Rogers, the CEO of Duke Energy, the nation's third largest nuclear energy supplier, was asked to lay out his fundraising plans for the 2012 Democratic National Convention, an effort he is undertaking as the host committee co-chair. The evening before, he was among those invited to join a discussion of the president's re-election fundraising plans at a private dinner in downtown Washington, D.C.
"It's troubling," said Dan Hirsch, a nuclear safety advocate in Southern California. Obama "is cozying up to large financial interests that might become donors and who wish our policy to be blind to the implications of this catastrophe."
Since his earliest days in the U.S. Senate, President Obama has had a close relationship with the nation's nuclear energy suppliers, and he brought his support for nuclear power with him to the White House. In his 2010 State of the Union address, he laid out his ambitions without ambiguity, calling for "building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country."
Obama has not only championed nuclear power, he has set aside millions of dollars for loan guarantees aimed at helping spur that new construction. His 2012 budget proposal calls for an additional $36 billion to triple the amount of money used to guarantee loans for nuclear plants.
So far one proposed plant in Georgia has been given a loan guarantee, completing a process that requires independent regulators to sign off on the design.
The White House points out that nuclear energy is just one piece of its portfolio as the president attempts to address global warming and curtail greenhouse gas emissions -- but that it accounts for 70 percent of the carbon-free energy currently being produced. And administration officials have long rejected suggestions that Obama is influenced by donors, noting that the president has had so many donors, supporters can be found on either side of just about any contentious issue.
"The administration's energy priorities are based solely on how best to build a 21st century, clean energy economy," said Clark Stevens, a White House spokesman. "That policy is not about picking one energy source over another, in fact it is about setting a bold but achievable clean energy goal, and providing industry the flexibility on how best to increase their clean energy share."
That includes, he said, the "responsible development of a broad range of energy sources -- including renewables like wind, solar, and homegrown biofuels, as well as natural gas, clean coal, and nuclear power."
Still, Obama's contact with top executives in the nuclear industry, in particular, has attracted criticism from some quarters of the environmental community -- even from those who otherwise support him. The bulk of that attention has been focused on the nation's top nuclear supplier, the Exelon Corporation.
Exelon is a Chicago-based energy giant that has invested heavily in Obama's campaign, with two executives serving as top fundraisers in 2008, and more than $200,000 in contributions coming from the company's employees. Since the inauguration, Exelon Chairman John W. Rowe's name has appeared at least twice on White House visitor logs for appointments with then chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel, and USA Today reported that he was tapped by the Obama White House to help lobby Congress on climate change legislation.
Another major utility, Duke Energy, also has been building a record of support for Obama. In addition to overseeing the Democratic convention host committee, Rogers is also personally a donor, and his company recently agreed to guarantee a $10 million line of credit to help get convention planning underway -- an arrangement first reported by the Charlotte Observer last week.
Both Democratic National Committee officials and Will Miller, who is acting executive director of the committee overseeing the convention, said Duke Energy's offer to back the line of credit was intended to help Charlotte win in its bid to host the convention, and had nothing to do with the president.
"They thought it was good business to help secure the convention, which is good for the region," said Will Miller, acting executive director of the committee overseeing the convention. "Duke was interested in helping the bid and said they'd be glad to put up credit security to help enhance the bid."
Duke Energy spokesman Tom Williams said Rogers's efforts are less about supporting Obama's reelection than they are about economic development for Charlotte, N.C., where the convention will be held. "He has supported both Republicans and Democrats," Williams said. "Duke supported the effort to attract the Republican convention in 2000. This is all about promoting Charlotte."
That said, Williams acknowledged the company does have a policy agenda in Washington, and has not been shy about pursuing it. Among the company's goals are climate legislation -- backed by the president -- that includes efforts to promote nuclear energy. They also support Obama's efforts to promote federal backing for nuclear plant construction. The company is considering building two reactors in South Carolina.
Some environmentalists tell ABC News the overlap of Obama's agenda and the industry's has at times made them uneasy. Now, scenes of smoldering nuclear reactors in Japan have heightened their concerns that the nuclear industry may have too much sway with this administration.
"Unfortunately, I think they have committed themselves to this position," said Dave Hamilton, the director of the Sierra Club's global warming and energy program. "Even today, they seem resolute."
The president addressed the Japanese disaster and the fears it has stoked in the U.S. during remarks to the press on Thursday. From a podium in the Rose Garden, the president announced he has ordered a comprehensive review of the safety of domestic nuclear plants.
Obama reiterated his belief that nuclear power remains "an important part of our own energy future." He repeated a message that has been offered by the nuclear industry in recent days, saying that U.S. "nuclear power plants have undergone exhaustive study and have been declared safe for any number of extreme contingencies."
"When we see a crisis like the one in Japan, we have a responsibility to learn from this event, and to draw from those lessons to ensure the safety and security of our people," he said.
Williams, the Duke Energy spokesman, said the company agrees. "We need to continue to develop and advance it and learn from what happened in Japan," he told ABC News, adding, "You're not going to be able to address climate change without nuclear energy."
The president's remarks brought a different reaction from the group Friends of the Earth. "President Obama has talked a lot in the past about humility, but his continued support for dangerous new reactors looks more like hubris," said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth U.S. "It's irresponsible and puts the public at risk."
Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio


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Palos Verdes Drive East neighborhood real estate and home sales report for Rancho Palos Verdes, CA in October 2010.
Active listings: 23 Homes are listed for sale in the PVDE area priced from $725,000 to $1,999,000.
Pending sales: 8 Houses are in escrow priced from $775,000 to $1,399,000.
October sales: One home sold in October 2010:
- Starline Dr $1,100,000
Norma Toering & Team RE/MAX Palos Verdes Realty
(310) 493-8333 / Office Phone: (310) 831-0800
PalosVerdesLifestyle - Nominated by Relocation.com as one of the top ten Los Angeles area real estate blogs. Ranked by Technorati in the top 1% of all blogs. As seen in the Daily Breeze newspaper.
South Bay Los Angeles cities I sell real estate, property, houses and homes in: Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, San Pedro, Long Beach, Torrance, Lomita, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
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Homes In Palos Verdes - Palos Verdes Realtor Home
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Sell Smart, Buy Wise and Live Well
Norma Toering & Team
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PalosVerdesLifestyle - Norma's award winning site as the best Palos Verdes homes and real estate blog since 2007.
- Selected by Relocation.com as one of the top ten Los Angeles area real estate blogs.
- Chosen by MovingCost.com as one of the best Los Angeles realty blogs.
- Awarded 5 out of 5 stars by Lender411 blog review.
- Ranked by Technorati in the top 1% of all blogs.
- As seen in the Daily Breeze newspaper.
- Rancho Palos Verdes Top Real Estate Agent
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Based on information from the Association of REALTORS®/Multiple Listing as of the initial date of this article/blog publication and /or other sources. Display of MLS data is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed accurate by the MLS. The Broker/Agent providing the information contained herein may or may not have been the Listing and/or Selling Agent.


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Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of a mystery convention? Shaking your head no? That was my initial response in March, 2009, when Robin Burcell asked me to co-chair LCC 2012 in Sacramento. I don't know whether it was a lack of caffeine or too many piña coladas but I said yes, and raced off to share the good news with my agent. She immediately responded with something unprintable which boiled down to "Are you nuts?"
Chairing a convention provides unique insights and mass quantities of emails. For instance, it took at least 250 emails before we discovered that dessert choices for a banquet should not be democratically decided by committee. This, of course, forced Robin and me to submit to a dessert tasting. A tough job, we know, but those carbs kept us fueled for weeks, and just in time to begin the huge task of preparing the program which means moving panelists around a huge matrix in order to provide the best panels for them as well as the attendees. Our program chairs, Marlyn Beebe and Elaine Yamaguchi, worked night and day, and despite a deluge of 2:00 AM emails, maintained their sense of humor.
Determining the price of a convention is always a challenge. Initial registrants lucked in with an early bird fee of $150 and the price gradually increased to the 2012 rate of $225. It might surprise people to know that the meals that were included (2 breakfasts, one reception and an awards banquet) ran $168 per person. Then there are the free book bags, books, cool LCC promo items and program books.
You don't need to be a math whiz to see that the bottom line for a convention can easily turn into something resembling the national debt (minus a few zeros.) Fortunately sponsors such as the MWA, the Sacramento and NorCal chapters of Sisters in Crime, and HarperCollins stepped in to share some of the expenses. A number of publishers graciously donated a truckload of books to fill the book bags to overflowing and to ensure shoulder dislocations among the weak.
I could go on and on (we all know my babbling skills are excellent) but the bottom line is that running a convention is like strategizing a military campaign. And the real bottom line is represented by the incredible group of people who were willing to put in thousands of unpaid hours to make this a wonderful event. Shout outs go to Sue Trowbridge, our webmaster; Noemi Levine, Treasurer and Fan GOH; Toby Gottfried, official book snarer; Janet Rudolph, publicity chair and master tweeter; Verna Dreisbach, who brought in ad revenue; and Vallery Feldman, who skillfully displayed the ads in the program. A personal thanks to Volunteer chairs, Pat and Larry Morin who worked through the duration of LCC, and without whose assistance, I'd be locked up in a padded cell. Stan Ulrich and Lucinda Surber not only handled awards, signs, and room monitors, but also took care of everything I forgot.
The financial benefactor of our convention was the Sacramento Library Adult Literacy Program. Library Director Rivkah Sass provided a stirring tale of the people benefited by this wonderful program. Jean Utley's auction committee wrapped and tied ribbons for 75 donated silent auction items. Between those items, the raffle for the beautiful quilt created by Pam Dehnke and Vallery Feldman, and excellent auctioneering by Donna Andrews and Harley Jane Kozak, almost $8,000 was raised for this program.
Running a convention means you're exposed to the good, the bad and the annoying. What never ceased to amaze me was the number of volunteers who not only paid the registration fee but also worked tirelessly and cheerfully. Putting on a convention is a labor of love and these folks, and there are many, will hold a place in my heart forever.
I'll always be grateful I had this opportunity to work with Robin, to make new friends, to create a congenial networking atmosphere for mystery authors and fans, and to leave everyone with wonderful memories.
Plus I lost 4 lbs. in 4 days running up and down those darn stairs. Heck of a fitness program!
Some folks say e-books will make conventions disappear but based on our 600 attendees, I disagree.
The bigger, burning question is whether you attend conventions and if so, what do you get out of them? And if by chance you're interested in chairing one, please let me know. I have a bridge I'm looking to sell.
Behind the Scenes at Left Coast Crime
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of a mystery convention? Shaking your head no? That was my initial response in March, 2009, when Robin Burcell asked me to co-chair LCC 2012 in Sacramento. I don't know whether it was a lack of caffeine or too many piña coladas but I said yes, and raced off to share the good news with my agent. She immediately responded with something unprintable which boiled down to "Are you nuts?"


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Richard Bell Auto Sales & Powersports
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I hereby consent to receive text messages from or on behalf of dealer at the mobile phone number I provided above. I understand that I am opting in to receive text messages from dealer or their employees. I include consent to receive phone calls at the mobile phone number I provided. I understand that message and data rates may apply.


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3235.3.55.001 - Population by Age and Sex, Queensland, Jun 2002
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 14/08/2003
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The preliminary estimate of the resident population of Queensland at June 2002 was 3.7 million, an increase of 78,200 people since June 2001 and an increase of 312,500 people since June 1997. Queensland's average rate of growth was 1.8% per year during the period 1997 to 2002 making Queensland the fastest growing State or Territory. Queensland's growth resulted from net interstate migration of 29,000 people, net overseas migration of 24,900 people and natural increase of 24,300 people.
Queensland's population is concentrated in the south-eastern corner of the State in the Statistical Divisions (SDs) of Brisbane and Moreton, which have 45.6% and 20.2% of the population, respectively. The growth of the proportion of the Queensland population living in this south-east region continues to increase steadily from 64.3% in 1997 to 65.7% in 2002. The mainly pastoral areas in the west of the State are sparsely populated, with the North West, South West and Central West SDs collectively containing only 2.0% of the State's population.
The south-east corner of Queensland (the Moreton and Brisbane SDs) experienced an increase of 61,900 people in the year to June 2002, accounting for four-fifths (79.1%) of Queensland's growth for the period.
Low to moderate growth was recorded in most of the remaining SDs in Queensland in 2001-2002. Northern, Mackay and Wide Bay-Burnett SDs recorded increases of 3,700 (1.9%), 2,100 (1.5%) and 3,300 (1.4%) people respectively.
For the period 2001-02, North West and South West SDs recorded small declines of 232 and 15 persons respectively.
The two most populous LGAs in Queensland, the cities of Brisbane and Gold Coast, experienced the largest increases in population in Queensland and Australia as a whole in 2001-02. Brisbane (C) with a population of 917,200 increased by 20,600 people (or 2.3%) and the Gold Coast (C) with a population of 438,500 people, increased by 14,800 people (or 3.5%).
Growth within the City of Brisbane continued to occur predominantly in new housing estates in the fringe Statistical Local Areas (SLAs), particularly in the south.
The Queensland population is continuing to age, following the national trend, with the median age of the population rising to 35.3 years at June 2002, up from 33.7 years in June 1997. A contributing factor to this is the lower than replacement fertility rate (1.8) for Queensland women. Queensland had the fourth lowest median age of all States and Territories, which was lower than for the whole of Australia (35.9 years).
Within Queensland, Wide Bay-Burnett and Moreton SDs had the highest median ages of 39.8 years and 38.2 years respectively, both well above the median age for the whole of Queensland. North West SD had the lowest median age at 30.0 years, which was more than 2 years below any other SD in Queensland and was similar to the median age for the Northern Territory of 29.9 years at June 2002.
The dependency ratio is the number of children aged 0-14 years and persons aged 65 years and over per 100 persons aged 15-64 years. A reduced value for the dependency ratio indicates that there is a larger population of working age to support the population of non-working age. The dependency ratio for Queensland was 48.8 in 2002, decreasing from 49.1 in 2001 and 49.5 in 1997. Queensland had a lower dependency ratio at June 2002 than for the whole of Australia (49.1). In Queensland in 2002, the Brisbane and Northern SDs recorded the lowest dependency ratios with 45.6 and 47.2, respectively. Wide Bay-Burnett (59.1) and Darling Downs (55.3) continued to record the highest dependency ratios. This is partly a reflection of the substantial numbers of retirees residing within these Statistical Divisions.
Children (aged under 15 years) numbered 779,600 in 2002, an increase of 37,800 over 1997. Although the number of children has increased, the proportion of children has decreased, from 21.9% of Queensland's population in 1997 to 21.0% in 2002. The proportion of children decreased in all SDs over this period.
In 2002, the lowest proportion of children was recorded in the Moreton (19.6%) and Brisbane (20.5%) SDs. The highest proportions of children were found in the North West and South West SDs with 26.4% and 24.1%, respectively. The Aboriginal and Island Council SLAs had the highest proportions of children with Cherbourg (AC) and Woorabinda (AC) recording 40.8% and 38.9% respectively, while Moreton Island and City - remainder recorded the lowest proportion of children at 5.7% and 5.8% respectively.
Persons aged 65 years or more numbered 436,183 in 2002, an increase of 53,900 persons since 1997. The proportion of aged persons increased from 11.3% in 1997 to 11.8% in 2002. In 2002, the lowest proportions of persons aged 65 years or more occurred in the North West (6.0%) and Far North (9.5%) SDs. The highest proportions of aged persons occurred in the Wide Bay-Burnett and Moreton SDs (15.8% and 14.4%, respectively) while the Brisbane SD recorded 10.9%. All the SDs experienced an increase in the proportion of aged persons since June 1997.
Persons aged 85 years or more numbered 47,600 an increase of 12,200 persons since 1997. The proportion of the population aged 85 years and over is increasing, rising from 1.0% of the Queensland population in 1997 to 1.3% in 2002. The size and the distribution of this population may be of particular interest to planners as this age group requires greater support from social and medical services.
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We are welcoming room booking requests & People's Kitchen is available for fundraising meals. In case of event changes, please check back here or The Sumac Centre facebook group before setting out.
Forest Fields Social Club – Fridays TBC
Friday May 8th, 2020 @ 7:30 pm - 11:00 pm
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An event every week that begins at 7:30 pm on Friday, repeating indefinitely


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There are events in life which occur with such resounding force that the shock waves are felt for decades. The ripple effect of these events can be felt by those who where never present or even born when the event occurred. December 14, 1970 is the date of one of those events in my life and that of my family.
Its the day my brother died.
He was 1 month, 26 days old.
Derek was born in mid-October during the brilliance and splendor of Autumn in New England. I remember going to visit my mother and Derek in the hospital the day after he was born. My aunt and I drove over to Saint Margaret's hospital in Dorchester braving a chilly fall rain. As we made our way to the maternity ward we stopped at the gift shop. I begged her to buy a little doll dressed in baby-boy-blue, for my new brother. After what probably seemed like hours of groveling to her, she relented. I can't recall presenting him with my gift, but it became a fixture in his crib, at our home.
A new baby adds spice to a home, sometimes mild and sweet and at other times hot, unbearably hot. My mother was born high strung. If she were in school today she would be diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, PTSD or one of the myriad of other afflictions, abbreviated with letters. The month following Derek's birth was a mish-mash of highs and lows. The tenor of the household mirrored my mother's mood.
I can remember her crying uncontrollably, while smoking at the kitchen table while Derek was lying on the couch, surrounded by pillows.
I can remember sitting with my mother on the front steps of our apartment in Hyde Park. It was a warm Fall day and the trees were shedding their leaves. She allowed me to hold my brother while she watched, tentatively. I remember the smell of crisp fallen leaves while I cradled his tiny head.
I remember my mother and I laughing uncontrollably while I "helped" her change his diaper. He peed all over the two of us.
I remember my father (who was usually no where to be found) and mother fighting loudly, while I rubbed my brothers head while he lay in his crib.
The night of December 13, 1970 was a typical night in my childhood home. My mother downstairs smoking cigarettes and drinking tea. My sisters playing in their room. My brother Mark and I jumping on our beds in our room. Mark and I took Derek out of his crib and put him on my bed. We jumped around him while he lay in the middle. He didn't cry, he just seemed content watching us. We assumed he enjoyed the gentle jostling.
The next few days were a blur.
Who knows what traumas we block out of our minds. If we knew then they wouldn't be locked in, but open for examination. Some memories are best hidden from our consciousness.
I don't remember much about the day my brother died. I recall sadness, grief. I recall standing across the street from my house with the snow lightly falling, telling a schoolmate from my kindergarten class about my brother. I recall my mother promising me that they would bury my gift, the baby-boy-blue doll with him, so he wouldn't be alone. My mother brought me a flower from his funeral. We pressed it in plastic, and put it in an encyclopedia. From then, through my high school years, I would come across it when looking up something beginning with an "S" or a "T" and think of him.
My mother was never the same. From mid-October to December 14th every year until the day she died was torturous. She blamed herself for his death. The morning he died she got him from his crib for his morning feeding. She tried to get him to latch on, but he just wouldn't take her breast. She tried again and noticed that he was cold, motionless. He was gone.
"Crib Death" we were always told. When my mother passed in 1999 we found Derek's death certificate amongst her belongings. Cause of death: acute cardiac failure, emaciation.
That explained the years of autumnal depression. The years of self loathing and self destruction. I, myself, thought I played a role in his passing. For decades I thought that maybe that night we were jumping on my bed that we hurt him, somehow. It was no ones fault. Our frolicking on the bed had nothing to do with it. My mother gave him everything she had, unfortunately she barely had enough to care for herself. The well had run dry.
Christmas time was always bittersweet. Ghosts of Christmas past were not friendly specters guiding my mother toward redemption, but haunting reminders of inadequacies and failure. Someway, somehow, my mother was able to emotionally detach immediately the day after the anniversary of Derek's death each year and get ready for Christmas. I don't know how she did it, but she was always able to pull off Christmas without her emotions getting in the way of our enjoyment of the holiday. As the years went by her grief became more and more transparent until it got to the point where she was paralyzed by her loss and unable to find any joy in the season
The year Derek died and for many years following, there was a Christmas special on TV titled "The Littlest Angel". It was the story about a boy (played by Johnny Whitaker, Jodie on "Family Affair") who dies and goes to Heaven, but is allowed to go back to earth to get his cherished treasure box, so he may give it as a gift to the Christ child on Christmas. Each Christmas I imagined that Derek was the "littlest angel" and gave his favorite toy, his doll dressed in baby-boy-blue, to baby Jesus.
In August of 1999, when I received the news of my mother's death my thoughts immediately turned to Derek.
I imagined him welcoming my mother into heaven.
I imagined her sense of relief when he forgave her for not having enough to give.
I was comforted by the thought of them being together again.


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Maxwell School Dean Mitchel B. Wallerstein Appointed President of Baruch College
The Maxwell School has been ranked for the past 15 years by U.S. News & World Report as the nation's leading graduate school of public affairs. It is the nation's oldest school of public affairs and also serves as the social science division of Syracuse University, annually teaching approximately 5,000 undergraduates and 850 graduate students in eight disciplinary departments. Dr. Wallerstein thus oversees the social sciences at Syracuse University, and he also serves as a Professor of Political Science and Public Administration.
In a joint statement, Board of Trustees Chairperson Benno Schmidt and Chancellor Goldstein stated: "Dean Mitchel Wallerstein brings to the University exceptional administrative, academic and governmental experience together with outstanding public service, scholarly accomplishment, a strong commitment to students, and a deep belief in the mission of Baruch College."
Dr. Wallerstein said: "I am deeply honored that Chancellor Goldstein and the CUNY Board of Trustees have offered me the opportunity to lead Baruch College, which has a storied tradition as one of the top level colleges of the CUNY system. While there are many challenges facing public higher education, especially in this difficult budgetary environment, I know that Baruch has an outstanding and dedicated faculty, staff and student body, and highly successful and loyal alumni. I am looking forward to working with them to move the College forward in the coming years."
Dr. Wallerstein, whose term will begin on Aug 2, 2010, succeeds Dr. Stan Altman, who has served as Interim President of Baruch College since 2009. The search committee for a new president was chaired by CUNY Trustee Peter S. Pantaleo and included trustee, faculty, student, alumni and presidential representatives.
Prior to joining the Maxwell School, Mitchel Wallerstein was Vice President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago, Illinois, one of the world's largest philanthropic organizations with assets in excess of $6 billion. He directed the Foundation's international grantmaking program, known as the Program on Global Security and Sustainability, from 1998-2003. The MacArthur Foundation makes more than $85 million in grants each year throughout the world in the areas of international peace and security, conservation and sustainable development, population and reproductive health, human rights, and issues related to globalization.
From 1993-1997 Dean Wallerstein was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counterproliferation Policy and Senior Defense Representative for Trade Security Policy. He was nominated as the first Presidential appointee in this position and was responsible for the development and implementation of U.S. defense policy to counter the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their means of delivery. In this capacity, he helped to found and subsequently co-chaired the Senior Defense Group on Proliferation at NATO. He also had direct management oversight of the Defense Technology Security Administration and represented the U.S. on export control matters as the Senior Defense Representative for Trade Security Policy.
In 1995, he received a personal Letter of Commendation from President Bill Clinton for his "outstanding leadership in achieving the indefinite, unconditional extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." In 1997, Dr. Wallerstein was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, and he received the Bronze Palm to that award in 1998.
Prior to his government service, Dean Wallerstein was the Deputy Executive Officer of the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, a private, non-profit organization in Washington that is the research and operating arm of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering and the Institute of Medicine. The NRC advises the U.S. Government on policy matters involving science and technology. While at the NRC, Dr. Wallerstein directed a series of highly acclaimed studies on issues pertaining to science, technology and national security.
In addition to his time at Syracuse University, Dean Wallerstein's academic career includes five years on the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as an earlier appointment in the Department of Political Science at Holy Cross College in Massachusetts. He has also taught at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University; the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University; and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. Immediately prior to joining the MacArthur Foundation in 1998, Dr. Wallerstein was a Distinguished Research Professor at the National Defense University in Washington, DC.
Dean Wallerstein is the immediate past president of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, and he continues to serve on its board. He is an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and in 2006 he was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. His most recent book, Combating Terrorism: Strategies and Approaches, co-authored with William C. Banks and Renée de Nevers, discusses terrorist motivations and tactics, as well as approaches for dealing with the ever-changing terrorist challenge. His most recent article, entitled "Losing Controls: How U.S. Export Restrictions Jeopardize National Security and Harm Competitiveness," appeared recently in the influential journal, Foreign Affairs. He is the author of numerous other books, articles, monographs and research studies.
A native New Yorker, Dean Wallerstein holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Political Science from M.I.T., a Master's in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, and an A.B. from Dartmouth College.
Baruch College, located in the heart of Manhattan's financial and cultural center, was established 91 years ago and is one of the most competitive senior colleges in the CUNY system. Baruch earned a 2010 gold badge from U.S. News & World Report as one of America's best colleges, and was ranked sixth among best master's degree granting public colleges. In addition, Forbes named Baruch as one of the nation's best colleges.
A thriving, urban, multicultural institution, Baruch is home to the Zicklin School of Business, the largest graduate and undergraduate business school in the nation accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business; as well as the Mildred and George Weissman School of Arts and Sciences; and the School of Public Affairs. Each of the schools offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees, and CUNY's Ph.D. programs in business and industrial/organizational psychology are housed at Baruch. The College's highly ranked business program has a strong liberal arts foundation and has produced many of the nation's top corporate business leaders.
The City University of New York is the nation's leading urban public university. Founded in New York City in 1847 as The Free Academy, the University's 23 institutions include 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E. Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, the Graduate School and University Center, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the CUNY School of Law, the CUNY School of Professional Studies and the CUNY School of Public Health. The University serves 260,000 credit students and 269,808 adult, continuing and professional education students. College Now, the University's academic enrichment program for 32,500 high school students, is offered at CUNY campuses and more than 300 high schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The University offers online baccalaureate degrees through the School of Professional Studies and an individualized baccalaureate through the CUNY Baccalaureate Degree. More than 1 million visitors and 2 million page views are served each month by www.cuny.edu, the University's website.
See this release on the CUNY site