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This article focuses on how high school students are best served by researching colleges to find their perfect match, rather than getting caught up in the prestige of an Ivy League name. Research shows that success in the job market is based on a student's success at the college of their choice, not on the brand of their education. The article suggests that parents should adopt a more open approach to the college search, understanding how much has changed since they were students. INSET: Free Tuition for Smart Kids.

Looks at the influence of teenagers on the U.S. cellular telephone industry. Influence of popular culture on graphics and ring tones developed for cell phones; Efforts of wireless technology makers to market their products and services to youth; Development of devices which provide cellular phone service and other types of media, including music, movies, and games; Impact of camera phones on the cellular phone market; Investments of large cellular phone companies in new products and technology; Profitability of small technology companies on the cellular phone industry. INSET: Mobile Magic.

The article examines how the 2004 presidential election could deepen the partisan split in the U.S., leaving the winner with the challenge of reuniting the country. The last time an incumbent President ran for re-election, in 1996, the mood was so droopy that Jay Leno described one debate as must-sleep TV. Even people who bothered to vote weren't sure it mattered much who won. But this campaign has turned out to be a passion play, with millions more people prepared to paper their yards with signs or make calls at night or write a check to a candidate for the first time ever or offer to drive an elderly neighbor to the polls. Given the questions on the table--war and peace, freedom and safety--it ought to be a relief to see so many Americans come out of their little gated tribal compounds and engage in the fateful debate, hand to hand, door to door. But voters now are having to confront the prospect that this campaign, rare in its combination of passion and poison, may end neither quickly nor well. Four years ago, a constitutional crisis, bruising as it was, at least felt like a freak accident. If it happens again, it may feel like an assault. Each side has declared that the other will do anything to win, which means that if this race stays tight, whichever candidate loses is less likely to think that he was beaten than that he was robbed. Already the planes are fueled, the legal SWAT teams ready, the recount office spaces reserved and provisions made for staplers and coffeemakers in the event that Election Day does indeed become Election Month. All of which suggests that if the election comes up a tie, the two campaigns will take no prisoners. The Democrats especially--convinced they were outmaneuvered, outlawyered and outhustled last time--say they are not going to let it happen again. INSET: WARY OF ANOTHER ELECTION MESS.

Discusses precautions and preparations to take in the event of a terrorist attack on the United States. Dirty bombs, Chemical, and biological attacks which are expected to occur; Locations which may be unsafe; Precautions which should be taken; Water and food supplies that should be stored; Subway systems which are vulnerable. INSETS: WHAT TO LOOK FOR--AND WHAT TO DO;…AND ARE WE REALLY ANY SAFER THAN BEFORE?;Tale of the Tape;How to Talk to Your Kids

Examines the implications of eroding pension benefits, longer life-spans and sliding stock prices on the older U.S. population. Examples of how retirement plans are falling apart; Concerns of American retirees and baby boomers over their financial future; The prospect that faces many older workers; Outlook for the bear market; How the situation has changed, in light of lower expected rates of return and smaller nest eggs; Advice for retirement planning; Erosion of guaranteed benefits; College costs. INSETS: How to Retire Cheaply--and Well, by Nick Pachetti;The New 'Staged' Retirement;Seven Top Executives with No Retirement Woes.

Discusses the outlook for employment in the U.S. as the baby boom generation ages and retires. Expectation that there will be a shortage of workers by 2010 despite help from labor-saving technology and immigration; Idea that there is opportunity for workers to go back to school and prepare for a change in careers to fill the expected skills gap in teaching and other fields; Occupations with the largest and smallest growth projections for 2000-2010.

Focuses on aggrieved patients and mistakes made by physicians. Background on the apology given to the St. Paul, Minnesota parents of Owen Olson for mistakes in his treatment; How administrators and doctors explained how the error happened and offered to help with medical bills; Why apologizing for medical mistakes may be a step in the right direction; Issue of malpractice lawsuits; Ways that some states are encouraging openness, including passing legislation; Efforts of some hospitals to establish formal policies requiring medical staff to admit and apologize for mistakes; Topic of emotional redemption.

Discusses the implications of a weak U.S. dollar for the world economy. Concerns over the dollar's long slide; Options for cutting the federal deficit; Why the weak dollar is a big factor in the revived manufacturing sector; Possibility that a weak dollar could lead to inflation, higher interest rates and a global recession; Benefits of a strong dollar, which helped finance the budget deficit and kept interest rates low; How the weak dollar is causing pain overseas, in particular Europe; Concerns of Asians; Views of economists; Outlook. INSET: TIME AND MONEY.

Reports on the emergence as China as the world's factory and how that hurts U.S. manufacturers. Advantages for the Chinese in cheaper labor, excessive government protection, and underpriced currency and exports dumped below cost; Highlights Chinese business Asset Underwear; Growth of Chinese workers for technology markets; American political considerations of protectionism; Role of China's consumption of American goods; Effect of the U.S. need for Chinese cooperation on a diplomatic level; How China reached its global market role; What options the U.S. has in dealing with the problem. INSET: CASUALTIES OF THE CHINA TRADE.

Discusses high anxiety levels among workers in spite of a surging American economy in the third quarter of the year. Contributions of strong exports, consumer spending and housing-related expenditures to a rise in the gross domestic product; Workers' issues which include job security, benefits costs and puny raises; Increasing health care co-pays and loss of other benefits.

Offers advice to investors on how to deal with the economic slowdown in the United States as of January 2001. Poor performance of the NASDAQ; Tips on investment in the stock market; Career choices to avoid layoffs; Car buying as opposed to leasing; Advice on insurance and credit cards.

The article presents information on the record home prices in the U.S. real estate industry as a result of economic boom. The boom has categorized the society as owners and renters. The median U.S. home price jumped in April 2005 to $206,000, with a 15% increase over 2004 and 55% increase over the past five years.

The article focuses on the growing number of people worldwide suffering from hypertension. By conservative estimates, at least 600 million adults worldwide are thought to suffer from hypertension. In the U.S., the battle against hypertension was touted as one of the great public-health success stories not all that long ago. In the cause-and-effect universe of epidemiology, societies get the blood pressure they deserve, and the industrialized world has earned itself some huge problems.

The article discusses the effect of giving psychotropic drugs on children with mood and behavior problems in the U.S. The majority of medicines have been okayed for adults only, but are being used off label for younger and younger patients at children's menu doses. The practice is common and perfectly legal but potentially risky. What worries some doctors is that if you medicate a child's developing brain, you may be burning the village to save it.

Evaluates the acceptance of the World Wide Web and the readiness of consumers to wireless advertising in the United States. Projections from analysts at the Jupiter Media Metrix company; Key factor affecting the success of wireless advertising; Significance of consumer response to the wireless technology market.

The article reports on the rise in the number of premature births in the United States. Premature birth--by which doctors mean at least three weeks early--is the leading cause of developmental disability in children, including cerebral palsy and mental retardation, according to Dr. Eve Lackritz of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. It is also a significant cause of blindness, chronic lung problems and birth defects. For a combination of reasons, 1 out of 8 babies in the U.S. is born at least three weeks before it is due. Even more alarming, that ratio represents a 27% increase since 1980. Advances in neonatal care have saved many children who might otherwise have died. The goal, as doctors and nurses who treat ultrafragile preemies will tell you, should be to keep infants from ever needing extraordinary measures in the first place. Much of the jump in premature births in the U.S. can be tied to the growing number of multiple births that result from infertility treatments. Assisted reproduction isn't the only problem. Doctors have long known that smoking, uterine infection, high blood pressure and a prior history of preterm delivery also place an expectant mother at greater risk of delivering early. They're looking into the possibility that other factors, such as stress, diet (both before and after conception) and inflammation may also play a role. A drug called Ritodrine, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1980, successfully stops preterm labor in many women, but subsequent studies have shown that it has no overall effect on a baby's health or survival. One intervention has shown some promise in early trials of women with a history of premature delivery and no other known risk factors. Injecting these women once a week with the hormone progesterone reduces their chance of delivering early by a third.

Focuses on the professional job opportunities for college graduates in the United States as of spring 2001. Impact of a slowing economy on hiring; Demand for nurses, civil engineers, business and finance students, and computer science students; Topics of wages and employee loyalty.

Reports on increases in heating costs in the United States, as of January, 2001. Effects of electricity deregulation in California, including a perceived lack of competition between electricity suppliers; Increase in natural gas consumption; Opinion that the United States' energy crises will not be resolved until more capacity becomes available.

Focuses on the two annual surveys conducted by The NPD Group aimed at tracking the tastes of consumers in the United States. Survey on NET (what we eat at home) and CREST (what we order in restaurants); Introduction of Create-A-Meal, a frozen combo of vegetables, pasta or potatoes; Information on `Eating Patterns in America'; Increase in the percentage of people who have a drink with dinner.

The article informs that the U.S. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has provided the genius behind a world of commercially successful products. The agency has won numerous patents for breakthrough mechanisms. One-fifth of the agency's budget goes to find ways to employ unused agricultural products in places other than landfills. For many ARS researchers, the future is all about waste, particularly as an alternative to petroleum.

The article reports that death-defying rites are making funerals more personal in the United States. Funerals today are less about mourning a death than about celebrating a life. Margaret Cosey celebrated death of her husband because her husband didn't want a sad funeral. According to Bill Burns, a funeral-services analyst, boomers have changed every market they've come across.

Focuses on the plans of senior citizens to continue working after retirement in the United States. Ways to maintain an active lifestyle; Need to link work with pleasure; Concept of the phased retirement. INSET: EARNINGS LIMIT REPEALED.

Offers reasons why importing cheap prescription drugs from Canada on a large scale is not possible. Many U.S. local governments and individual citizens who save big money by ordering their drugs from Canada where prices are set by the government; Inability of the Canadian system to handle the numbers of the U.S. demand; Efforts by Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline to cut off the Canadian supply by threatening Canadian vendors with supply cut off if they sell to the United States; Obvious reasons the pharmaceutical companies do not want to see price controls in the U.S.; Alternative options for getting cheaper drugs to Americans as seen in Michigan; Belief of many that the drug debate is obscuring the larger health care problem of 45 million uninsured.

Groups of children from schools, summer camps and Girl and Boy Scout troops are taking organized tours through establishments ranging from Sports Authority stores to Saturn dealerships to Krispy Kreme outlets. Leading the boom is Field Trip Factory, a five-year-old Chicago outfit founded by former marketing consultant Susan Singer that designs educational tours for corporate clients. At stores where kids received free samples of V8 Splash Fruit Medley, it became the top-selling flavor, according to Field Trip Factory. In another case, sales of children's toothpaste shot up 18%. "These field trips are nothing more than a way to clobber a captive audience of impressionable children with ads," says Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert, a watchdog group. While companies are eager to polish their community image, critics say the real goal is to turn kids into brand-loyal consumers.

Evaluates housewares that debuted at the International Housewares Show in Chicago, Illinois, during January 2003. Westinghouse cord-free vacuum; Pizza fork; Cooper cooler that chills win in six minutes or a can of soda in one; Internet refrigerator; Garbage can that automatically opens its lid via a motion sensor; Cordless clothes irons; Digital displays; Scales; Oven mitts; Light bulbs.

Reports on the popularity of a dice game called bunco, which originated as a Victorian parlor game, and how it is played in the United States. Marketing of the game to women by toy marketer Leslie Crouch in 1996 under the title, It's Bunco Time!!!; Idea that women use bunco parties for nurturing camaraderie; Self-publication of the book, 'Dice with Spice: A Bunco Cookbook,' by Cathleen Rodriguez; Amount raised for research by the Bunco for Breast Cancer group in Illinois.

Discusses the crisis faced by many Americans with college-age children, in light of the falling stock market. Response to their dwindling college savings,; Alternatives for families whose stocks have dropped, including postponing their children's education or choosing state schools; Increases in requests for college financial aid; Losses in the 529 college savings plans; Advice on how to cope; Financial options, including borrowing.

Focuses on physicist Richard Seed who wants to start a commercial clinic in Chicago, Illinois to clone humans. His role in forcing a national debate on the issue of human cloning; Biographical data on Seed; His work with infertile couples; His eccentricity in relating cloning to communion with God; Why the media suggests a comparison of the man to Dr. Jack Kevorkian, proponent of physician-assisted suicide.

Features the investment strategies of the Women's Investment Growth Club. Buying stock in companies they are familiar with; Membership; History; Following an investment strategy developed by the National Association of Investors Corp.; Investment research; Examples of the group's investments. INSET: Setting up your own club..

Presents information on the selling of Girl Scout cookies in the U.S.