The tragic events of September 11, 2001, occurred on my second day in office as the new Ambassador to Germany. Nearly all previous preparations for assuming this role were rendered obsolete, as the historic post World War II relationship between the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany was redefined in ways no one had foreseen. "Caught in the Crosshairs" could easily be the title of this new chapter in trans-Atlantic relations.

Managed care was the nation’s response to rising health costs in the 1990s. Patients and doctors rejected this because of limitations in provider choice and perceived violations of the doctor-patient relationship. A milder hybrid of managed care, preferred provider organizations (PPOs), survived and now dominates the U.S. health care system. Costs, though, continue to rise at an unmanageable pace. Larger employers now push consumer-based health plans as the newest way to attack costs. Employers purchase high deductible insurance plans for their workers and deposit cash in health savings accounts to meet most of the deductible. The system encourages families to shop for better health care and take more responsibility for healthy lifestyle choices. As more employers implement these types of plans, health care will take on the characteristics of a retail market where better, lower cost care is rewarded with better money for the provider. A system of public vouchers can provide universal insurance coverage without adoption of a socialized system like that found in Europe and Canada. Economic analysis suggests that consumer-based health care may be the medical “win-win” for which everyone has been searching.

Two recent events have sparked considerable discussion and debate among bioethicists, public policy makers, and the general public. The first was the birth of “Dolly,” the first cloned mammal. The second was the completion of the Human Genome Project, which provides medical researchers with a roadmap for charting the relationship between our genes and various diseases and other traits. This presentation will outline the ethical pros and cons regarding the future possibilities of cloning human beings and also altering the human genome. Addressing these ethical issues requires us to define our understanding of “human nature” and what it means to be a “person.” While this presentation will not provide any definitive answers to these issues, it will highlight the relevant questions that we need to ask and attempt to answer in order to determine how we should ethically evaluate these biotechnological innovations.

The good news regarding physical fitness is that more and more people are aware of how important it is to health and quality of life. Because of this increased awareness the diet and exercise industry is flourishing and information on these topics can be found just about anywhere you look. Unfortunately, a lot of this information is confusing, misleading or just plain incorrect. The purpose of this presentation is to help the audience sort through some of the more popular exercise and diet claims and to identify what’s fact and what’s fiction. In addition, time will be allotted for open discussion of fitness and exercise questions from the audience.

In its efforts to prevent terrorist attacks and fight crime, the government has unparalleled access to the "digital footprints" we generate as we live our lives. Records on our financial accounts and transactions, internet searches and browsing history, location, travel, entertainment, reading and viewing habits, and communications are all fully accessible to the government. Moreover, new government data collection and analysis programs, and an extraordinary investment in digital audio and video monitoring devices, provide the government with an ever more complete and informative account of how we live our lives. How does the government use personal data today for national and homeland security? Does access to all of this information really contribute to our security? What limits exist on government access to and use of our most intimate data?

"What is the lawful relationship between religion and government in the United States? When is it legal for politicians to lead sectarian prayers in the legislature? To place a monument to the Ten Commandments, or a nativity scene, on the statehouse lawn? Does the law require that the phrase 'under God' be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance? Is it legal to spend public tax dollars to pay for vouchers to private sectarian schools, or to support religious charities? Beth Cate, Associate General Counsel at Indiana University and an adjunct member of the faculty at the School for Public and Environmental Affairs, will lead a lively and interactive debate on what the law says, and what it should say, about the appropriate place of religion in government and public life."

Whether you are a painter or a collector this demonstration will be of interest. Follow an oil painting demonstration of a landscape painting by artist Mary Ann Davis, see how a piece of artwork evolves from the initial composition through to completion.

Mary Ann is an award winning artist represented by galleries in Naples, Florida; Zionsville, Indiana; and Boulder, Colorado. Her work can be found in collections throughout the United States. She has her studio and graphic design business in Indianapolis.

She will auction off her painting at the Saturday Night Dinner Cruise with the proceeds going to the IUPUI Alumni Association.

Urban designers and public health officials have hypothesized that modern approaches to urban design in America have inadvertently contributed to sedentary lifestyles and the problem of obesity. Recent evidence indicates that physical activity in urban populations may be associated with urban form. Many designers propose urban greenways as an approach to increase recreation, provide alternative transportation, and increase physical activity. This presentation summarizes a multi-year study of use of urban greenway trails in Indianapolis and some of the impacts of the trails, including their impacts on property values.

This simple presentation will give a review of our current understanding of the building blocks of nature and the basic forces between them. We will discuss the Standard Model of elementary particle physics in which the basic constituents are quarks and leptons which interact via exchanges of gluons, photons and other gauge bosons. The large accelerators and detectors used for making new physics discoveries will be described.

Heat waves, flooded cities, extinction of polar bears—sound familiar? Are these actually possible? The Earth is a complex web of systems that will have an equally complex response to global warming. As responsible citizens of the planet, we need to be aware that some of the changes caused by global warming are important even if they are beyond our every day experiences. We will explore the predicted global impacts of a warming climate, as well as local environmental changes here in Indiana.

There is no more pressing issue in contemporary foreign relations than U.S. policy toward the Islamic world. How should Americans understand the “rise of Islam” on the world stage? This presentation examines the role of Islamic religion in Muslim political history but focuses on the changing dynamic nature of Islam and politics from the 1970s until today.

Preparing contemporary students for transformative "real world" social work practice and family life education with diverse populations requires that they engage with front-page issues facing individuals, families, communities, and the social work profession (Boyer, 1990; Curry & Wergin, 1993, Hooks, 1994: Oulette, 2005).

In 2005, graduate students in a course on social policy and others studying families, theories, and cultures, in addition to undergraduate family life education students researched the problem of several mass media stories of children murdered by child sexual predators. This session will explore what the students learned, how they learned it, and how they used their learning for community service.

In this presentation, I explore how remix culture is impacting the 2008 Presidential Elections. In particular, I examine the role and effectiveness of Political Video Mashups. The first major mashup using an old Mac Ad and Hillary Clinton Footage made a huge splash in 2007.Sine that ad there have been additional attempts for user-generated content to influence voters in the 2008 election. My presentation also involves a brief history of remix culture and its relevance in the production of political media.

The talk will focus on several court decisions, statues, and collective bargaining agreements that had the effect of dramatically changing some aspect of the sports landscape and significantly changed the games that fans see on the field, court, or ice.

"Buffet and Gates, You and Me: Different Approaches to Philanthropy" will focus on different approaches to and new trends in philanthropy and will seek to dispel the myths of old and new philanthropy. We will discuss the differences between Buffett and Gates; donor decisions in making large vs. small gifts; funding for causes close to home vs. causes far away; and, disaster responses vs. giving toward ongoing community needs.