A New San Diego Homebuilder Takes a Chance and Sets a New Standard

In 2001, SheaHomes, a new national homebuilding company, built 306 homes called the Scripps Highlands development in northern San Diego. Not just another neighborhood of McMansions, Scripps Highlands marks the first time in the U.S. that a builder has set out to design and construct a development of highly energy efficient homes, also known as “high performance homes” (HPHs). Now, almost seven years later, the development has proven to be a success both financially and environmentally.

Set on the lots to maximize the position of the sun, the homes include solar technology to generate electricity as well as an energy-saving package with features such as tightly sealed-ducts, solar radiant barriers, and special heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems. The result: a whopping 30­–60% savings in energy costs.

In addition, the Scripps Highland development is also the first in the country to use “net metering,” an electricity policy in which homeowners receive retail credit for at least a portion of the electricity their systems generate. Watching your energy meter spin backward is not only exciting from an environmental standpoint, it puts money in your pocket.

What's perhaps most surprising about the SheaHomes venture is that according to a study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL):

the Scripps Highland homes were profitable for the builders while still being competitively priced with the traditional homes in the area ($602,000 for a Scripps home; $615,000 for a conventional home)

the Scripps Highland homes have appreciated at a higher rate than the comparable conventional homes in the area (55% versus 44% from 2001 to 2005)

homebuyer satisfaction is higher for the Scripps Highland homes than for the comparable conventionally built homes

So, the builders are making a profit, people are buying and loving the homes, which are in turn appreciating nicely, and the environment is benefiting—sounds like SheaHomes has launched a trendsetting idea.

To learn more, read "A New Paradigm for Zero-Energy Homes: A Comparison Case Study" by Barbara Farhar and Timothy Coburn (Environment, Jan/Feb 2008).

When A Pig Gives Us the Finger, We Pay Attention

From the Yikes This Could Change Our Perception About Everything department comes an article from science writer Michael Rosenwald: "A Doctor, a Pig, and a Magical Pixie Dust That Could Regrow Fingers" (Esquire, September 18, 2007). If the report wasn't from a reputable writer, printed in a reputable source, we'd dismiss this as tabloid nonsense. Regrow a finger. Yeah, sure. But read the article and see for yourself. The before and after pictures on page 2 are vivid, to say the least.

We'll be keeping our nose to this story. If any of you run across any follow-up to this one, we'd love to hear from you! Email us at sueandpam@andnowforthegoodnews.com.

In Search of the Emerald (Green) City

In 1900, 10% of the world’s population lived in cities. In 2007, that number was up to 50%. By 2050, experts predict the number will be as high as 75%. There's a benefit to this migration, says Richard Burdett, director of the Urban Age program, organized by the London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society. While suburban areas demand larger, less-efficient electrical grids and extended public transportation systems, this is not the case with cities.

“The prospect of such an enormous urban boom in just a few generations offers a critical opportunity: to create cities that will improve, not diminish, the standards of living for millions of new city dwellers,” says Burdett (Foreign Policy, “Beyond City Limits,” Jan/Feb 2008).

The really good news is that many cities across the globe already are working toward sustainability. In fact, it seems that cities in over half a dozen countries are competing to become the first “eco-city.” Two cities, in fact, are being built from scratch. AbuDhabi, for example, has begun construction on Masdar, a 2.5-square mile city that will ban automobiles and rely on a solar-powered driverless taxi system for public transportation. In China, Dontang Eco-City, designed to house 500,000 people, is being built on an island near Shanghai. Sixty percent of the land will be designated green spaces and farmland for local food, most energy will be renewable (sun, wind, and biomass fuels), and the city’s design is planned around pedestrian villages, bicycles, and fuel-cell public transportation.

Other established cities are implementing changes that will alter energy use and lower emissions dramatically, including the use of solar, wind, and even tidal power. “Cities have to be competitive,” says William Cobbett, manager of Cities Alliance an ICLEI, a UN Enviromentment Program. Not only is the environment becoming a major factor in more and more people’s choices of where to live (94% of professionals surveyed in Hong Kong, for example, ranked the environment as the top factor in selecting a place to live), it’s also a major factor when cities look for investment money. Cities, says Cobbett, “operate in a global marketplace, competing with other cities and urban settlements around the world for investment. A city cannot compete, however, if it cannot offer investors security, infrastructure, and efficiency. Hardly any city can offer these elements without incorporating environmental issues into its planning and management strategies” (United Nations Environment Program, “Cities Play the Green Card To Achieve Success,” December 11, 2007).

Many think economic considerations will be the ruin of the environment. The reality is, economic considerations may end up being the very thing that helps heal and sustain this beautiful Earth.

To learn more, read the UN’s “Liveable Cities: The Benefits of Urban Environmental Planning” report. It provides 12 case studies of cities around the world that are making important environment-based changes. We can, of course, learn from their example.

"A Major New Study Concludes . . ."

Isn’t it satisfying when we hear “a major new study concludes” something that we already know. Take love for instance. If you’ve read, watched, or heard, any news this week, you’re probably aware of this breaking news: “Nothing keeps the heart healthy like the feeling of being in love, says a Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute cardiologist.”

Yes, it’s Valentine’s week and news media everywhere are pulling out their annual Love Research, this study and that telling us love is good for our heart health. Which, of course, we all know. Hold a newborn baby, meet someone who makes your heart sing, or look at that person you’ve been with for how-many-years-now and still adore, and you just know it’s good for that muscle in your chest.

Sure, Valentine’s Day, like so many of our holidays, can be cheesy and cliché, over the top and commercial. We can become jaded. But, really, is there a better thing in this world to celebrate than love?

So today, let’s be corny and cheesy and over the top, with people we know and people we don’t. Write that letter, make that call, send that donation, or just smile at the person in the grocery line behind you. Radiate love.

Studies show it’s good for your heart.

Daydreaming with Fortune Magazine

Feeling stifled in your current job? Feel you have talents that aren’t being used? Check out Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies To Work For” (February 4, 2008).

Times they are a changin’, so is the workplace. The innovations some companies are implementing will surprise you. Learn which companies are expanding in leaps and bounds and likely to be looking for fresh staff with leadership qualities (hint: see companies number 4 & 7 for starters). Learn which company offers valuable stock options to 99% of its employees (and is, again, #1 on the list); which company offers doggie daycare and an onsite farmers' market (surprise, it’s a techy company); and which medical employer offers an employee volunteer program called “No One Dies Alone.”

Browse and daydream, you’ll soon remember that your work can and should be a place where you contribute and grow and, yes, even have fun. Who knows, the list may even inspire you to initiate changes in yourself and the workplace you’re already in. Imagine the possibilities.

Corporations Are Hiring a New Kind of Executive

"Once top brass decide to integrate environmental goals into their company's business plan, someone has to be in charge of turning press releases into results," writes Dashka Slater in "Keep Your Eye on the Globe: The New World of Corporate Environmental Officers, (Sierra magazine January/February 2008). "Enter the new kids in the executive suite: corporate sustainability officers."

Sierra interviewed six sustainability officers in six different industries—Nike, Dupont, Dell, Herman Miller, Kraft Foods, and Goldman Sachs. Nike, for example, has switched to digital mock-ups of new designs, reducing waste, since most samples often wind up in landfills; Dell "has committed to recycling or reusing 99 percent of the waste from its manufacturing facilities by 2012 (it has already cut out 93 percent)."

What these companies, and many more, are discovering is that finding environmental solutions adds up to piles of that other kind of green. High-end furniture company Herman Miller, for example, found that reducing their waste saves them "about $50,000 per year, while income from recycling last year topped $1.8 million."

Read the full, solutions-oriented report at Sierra.

20-Somethings Send a Message to the Future

What will the future bring? Who will you be in 25 years? AARP recently asked the 20-somethings of America to speculate, via a one-minute video, what their lives will be like at 50.


Click here for our favorite of the winning videos, "Lost Generation."

Our Expert Dr. Bill Holt Reports:

AARP has opened a window for intergenerational contact and discussion by sponsoring a contest for young adults to glimpse into their own future. Using the medium of YouTube, five college students have won cash prizes for their entries. Three of the prize winners were majoring in film or video; two of them were my students majoring in psychology. Taken together, all five winners mixed video-craft with message to produce short films that exhibit not only cinematic panache but their view of tomorrow as seen today.

Watching these videos is fun but also informative as it allows us baby boomers to see how a younger generation sees us as they portray themselves in middle age. What will be their values, their priorities, their hopes and aspirations? I was excited to incorporate this contest into my class last semester and even more excited to find that two of my students placed in the top five. What I've taken away from watching these videos is an increased confidence that these 20-something college students can and will address the challenge of becoming adults in the 21st century. Where they will be at 50 is not a dream but a commitment. After 36 years in the classroom, I certainly am entitled to be jaundiced about the current generation of college students, but these videos have erased my skepticism.

If you feel distanced from those half or even a third of your age, just watch, marvel, and appreciate these videos. Knowing that the next generation share many of our values and are committed to working hard to achieve their place in our society actually is good news!

UNICEF Reports a 60% Drop in Child Mortality Since 1960

The United Nations Children's Fund, better known as UNICEF, reports that solid progress has been made in saving children's lives around the world. In its annual The State of the World's Children report, UNICEF estimates that there's been a 60% drop in the rate of child mortality since 1960.

There's still much to be done, says UNICEF. By using low-cost tools and involving local communities in providing health-care services to mothers and children, many more lives can be saved.

How can you help? Learn about the various ways in which you can volunteer and donate by visiting The United States Fund for UNICEF. Charity Navigator gives this charity its highest rating (four stars). An impressive 90.8% of money donated goes directly to programs that provide nutrition, education, HIV/AIDS prevention and care, and immunization.

By the way, did you know that the United States Fund for UNICEF is the oldest of 37 national committees for UNICEF worldwide? It's been around since 1947 and supports the work of UNICEF, improving children's day-to-day lives in 155 countries, not only providing food, water, and medicine, but also safety, peace, and hope.

Imagine how the children helped by UNICEF must feel knowing that so many people around the world care about their fate.

American Idol Has America Singing a New Tune

Fess up. Are you one of the millions addicted to American Idol? Doesn’t it just make you want to belt out a song? If so, maybe you should learn how to properly use that beautiful instrument in your throat. (Simon Cowell will thank you.)

Several colleges and universities are starting to train instructors for a new type of music course. This weekend, for instance, the University of Massachusetts is offering an instructor certification course called “Vocal Pedagogy in the New Millennium” (roughly translated, "Teaching Voice for Popular Music").

Rock, pop, rap, country, gospel, jazz, and folk—the predominant popular forms of music in the past 50 years or so—all fall under the tag “Contemporary Commercial Music” or CCM. Until recently, however, if a person wanted to sing professionally in these styles the only real option was classical vocal training. Problem is, the vocal skills and style required to sing a classical piece from, say, the opera La Boheme, are different than those required to sing a CCM—say, a tune from Broadway's Sweeney Todd or a country hit like Get My Drink On.

As we reported earlier in “Dr. Bill's Alzheimer’s Reality Check," activities such as learning to ballroom dance, speak a foreign language, or play a musical instrument all exercise the brain, keep the synapses nimble. Learning to sing is no exception. And, as is true when we submerge ourselves in beautiful art, it brings joy to our lives. Whether we’re singing in the shower, in our local choir, or to an audience of millions, music makes us happy. Learning how to use that built-in instrument—our voice—could very well contribute to our overall physical and mental well-being.

So, did American Idol start this trend? There’s no way of knowing, really, but it doesn’t seem a stretch to think so. After all, TV is always shaping popular culture, influencing us in ways we’re not always paying attention to.

(The UMass music course was brought to our attention by our excellent college intern Chandni Patel. )

Former Taliban Fighter Works Toward a Better Future for All

Just 17 when Taliban recruiters came to his impoverished village in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, Shaukat Ali was trained to be a killer and sent to Afghanistan. "It was there, in Afghanistan, that Ali began to question the Taliban ideology in general and its treatment of women in particular," writes Karin Ronnow (Ode, November 2007).

In another powerful, solutions-oriented article from Ode, we meet Shaukat Ali, who went from Taliban fighter to teacher at the Patika Girls’ School in Kashmir. He's making a difference that will affect us all.

The Taliban preys on the uneducated. "Ali is convinced educating girls in particular is the only way his country will change," writes Rannow. "Female literacy in the villages runs at about 4 percent. But educated girls will become educated mothers, argues Ali, and insist on education for their children, which could set the nation on a new track."

Click here to read Karin Ronnow's excellent "The Transformation of an Extremist."

New Year's Resolution Assessment

So how are they going, those new year's resolutions? Here's one we think you should add to your list. It's guaranteed to improve your general outlook and will spill over into all the other things you're trying to accomplish:

Take the Good News Diet Challenge.

What we focus on matters. Call it positive thinking or the law of attraction or conscious creation, or whatever label you choose—what we think about day to day, what we believe, affects our lives. So make this the year you get positive. Take the Good News Diet Challenge and stay informed with positive, solutions-oriented news. We're here to help you with the And Now for the Good News book, Web site, and Regular Dose newsletter.

Take charge of your mind; take charge of your news. It'll make all the difference.

If you're already taking the challenge, good for you! Let us know how it's going by emailing us as sueandpam@andnowforthegoodnews.com.

Spread the news!

Lighten Your Mail Carrier's Load

Browsing catalogs can be fun, but how many of us are really interested in that regular copy of Necessary Stuff for People Who Love Their Iguana?

There's a free, simple way to get off the mailing list of the catalogs filling up your recycle bin. Visit CatalogChoice.org. After a fast and painless sign-up, you can request which catalogs you'd like canceled.

Add the site to your Favorites list and add catalogs as you receive them. You'll save a tree. You'll save that Iguana supply company some cash. You'll save your mail carrier's back. It's all good.

Plan Ahead, Have the Last Word

This year, rather than the usual Lose 10 Pounds, Save Money, Treat the In-Laws Better kind of resolutions, why not do something that'll shake up your life a little? Like, say, plan your last words.

Really, what would you like to be able to say about yourself when your time is winding down?

For inspiration, we recommend The New York Times' Last Word series. Similar to The Last Lecture series, which we told you about in an earlier report, The Last Word is a series of interviews with famous and influential people about their lives, with the specific purpose of being viewed only upon their deaths.

The first Last Word installment, released in January 2007, was an interview with Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Art Buchwald. The interview took place five months earlier and wasn't made public until the day of Buchwald’s passing. Facing the camera with a smile, “Hi,” he says, “I’m Art Buchwald and I’ve just died.”

It’s an amazing interview with a man full of life and wit right up until his last moments on this good Earth. It inspires us to ask ourselves, “What would I like to be able to say about myself when the time comes? And how do I start being that me today?"

The ABCs of Peace

As we're in the season of peace, the time of year when we collectively turn our attention to the idea, let's focus for a minute on one example of how a growing group of adults and children are applying the idea in a very practical and effective way.

"In a city marked by division," writes Donald Macintyre "the Max Rayne school is unique—the only one in Jerusalem where pupils, principals and teachers are from Jewish and Arab communities" ("Peace Studies: Children of Israel," The Independent, October 18, 2007).

Max Rayne is a Hand in Hand school, designed to promote Jewish-Arab coexistence. It's all about balance. The schools feature co-principals, one Arab and one Jewish; each classroom is taught by co-teachers, one Jewish and one Arab; and the student body is a balance of Arab and Jewish children. All classes are taught in both Hebrew and Arabic.

Let children learn and play and even argue together and the result is, well, not all that surprising considering how kids everywhere take to one another.

Macintyre describes talking to Yazid Ershed, an Arab boy, and Aviv Pek, a Jewish girl, who started kindergarten together. "They completed each other's sentences several times," he says. " 'I like the school and I really like the teachers,' says Aviv. 'I have lots of Arab friends. One of my best friends is an Arab girl and, of course, she comes to my house.' "

"It is hard to overestimate the importance, pioneering rather than merely symbolic, of the school in a city whose religious and ethnic divisions are at the absolute heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," says Macintyre.

Hand in Hand launched in 1998 with 40 students. In the 2006-2007 academic year, there were 751 pupils. Some world-wide media attention will not only cause those numbers to rise, it will show the world that coexistence is an option in the middle east, and around the world.

Click here to read personal stories from Hand in Hand students, teachers, principals, and volunteers.

“Get them while they are young!” says our expert Patrice McMahon, political scientist at the University of Nebraska:

Like the Hand in Hand initiative in Israel, reconciliation experts working in post-conflict environments realize how important it is to target young people. In places like Bosnia, Macedonia, and Latvia, for example, there is a similar emphasis on developing multi-ethnic education as well as extra-curricular activities to promote social tolerance and build peace.

The point is not to focus on differences but to bring out the similarities between groups, the common problems they face, or the interests that unite them. In Mostar, Bosnia, the Pavarotti Center Mortar was established because "music is a part of all of us and it erases all differences." The trendy Center not surprisingly attracts Bosnian, Serb, and Croat young people to listen to music and just hang out.

When I asked the Director of this Center how she knew this was an effective approach to national reconciliation, she told me to walk about and remember that this was one of the few places where young people could gather without concern for ethnicity. They were there because of their love of music; it united them much more than their parents' tragic pasts.

With this said, parental involvement and support from the community is crucial for these schools to have the intended impact on tolerance and ethnic reconciliation. Intolerance and hate is nurtured at home, and what some experts are realizing is that schools and youth initiatives and yes, even concert halls are a way of educating parents through their teenage children.

From all of us here at And Now for the Good News, we wish you and yours a peace-filled holiday season and 2008. Let's imagine the possibilities!

Charity Can Really Make You Rich

When we say giving is its own reward we don’t mean financial reward, but that’s just what research is pointing out.

“Emerging evidence,” says economist Arthur C. Brooks, "crunchy statistics from real data, not the mushy self-help stuff—supports the contention that giving stimulates prosperity, for both individuals and nations. Charity, it appears, can really make you rich.”

In fact, says Brooks, research data shows this: “More giving doesn't just correlate with higher income; it causes higher income.”

If you missed him on this weekend's (excellent) Marketplace report (American Public Media) read Brooks' "Giving Makes You Rich" (Conde Nast Portfolio.com, November 2007).

Food for thought in this season of giving.

Ugly American Tourists No More (Well, Almost)

The votes are in. After surveying over 15,000 hoteliers throughout Europe, Expedia has presented the 2007 Best Tourist League rankings. The good news: we Americans have come a long way in shedding our ugly American tourist label.

That's right, Americans placed second in the Overall Best Tourists category. (The Japanese took first place.) One thing that seems to have helped us rise in the overall rankings: Americans rank first in our willingness to attempt to speak the local language, which is seen as a sign of respect for one’s host country. Not to mention it shows we’re intelligent, curious, and open to other cultures.

According to the rankings, with a little effort in two areas, we can take first place next time: Review those 10 Keys to Civility—and leave the velvet track suits at home!

For the complete rankings, click here.

Turns Out High Fashion and Small Town America Work Well Together

Say the name "Plainville, Kansas" and your mind probably doesn't fly to images of glamour or cutting edge style, but something surprising is going on in Plainville. When Chuck Comeau set up his high-fashion business operation in the rural town, it created hundreds of local jobs and is proving to be a very profitable and positive move. Comeau is now encouraging other small businesses to give rural America a try. For the full article and some tips and resources for small-business owners and entrepreneurs, read business reporter David LaGesse's "How to Make a Killing in Small Town America" (U.S. News & World Report, November 12, 2007).

Feed Your Mind, Feed the World

Thanks to our readers Pierre from Canada and Patrice from Nebraska, we have something for you, oh, literate ones: a free online word game that should come with a warning it's so addictive. But, it's an addiction you can feel good about, because for each word you get correct, you donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. Twenty grains of rice—doesn't sound like much, but give it a try. Those grains add up quickly. Who pays for the rice? Advertisers on the site.

Build your vocabulary, exercise your mind, and help feed the world. Simply brilliant. Go to FreeRice.com.

Dr. Bill’s Alzheimer’s Reality Check

For all the times “Alzheimer’s” appears in the news media these days, you’d think we were in the midst of an epidemic. To get a little perspective on the issue, we turned to our expert, psychology professor, William Holt, Ph.D., whose special areas of study includes adulthood and aging.

First of all, Dr. Bill, as we like to call him, points out that there are various forms of dementia, Alzheimer’s being one of them. The good news, he says: “Dementia, or the older term, senility, whether Alzheimer’s or one of the various forms, is not the fate of the vast majority of us.”

In the 65 and older age group, fewer than 7 out of 100 have Alzheimer's disease. Most of the other dementias are either rare—fewer than 1 in 1,000!—or are part of a particular disease such as Parkinson's. Yet there's considerable anxiety among baby boomers approaching 65 that they’re developing Alzheimer's. "Anticipatory Alzheimer's" is the term given to those in their late 50s and early 60s who are convinced that their memories are failing, and that being confined to a nursing home will be their fate.

"We all have what we might call 'senior moments,' " says Dr. Bill, "but just because we can't remember a particular word, who starred in a favorite movie from years ago, or what we were supposed to buy at the hardware store doesn’t mean Alzheimer's is the inevitable result. There are lots of changes in memory function over time which are perfectly normal and do not signal the onset of a debilitating disease such as Alzheimer's."

Sigh of relief, there, huh? In addition, there are things we can do to help keep our minds vigorous and healthy throughout our old age.

Here's Dr. Bill's Prescription for Maintaining Mental Sharpness:

GOOD news! A number of studies show there's a link between what people do and being able to avoid Alzheimer's. These do not provide causal proof, but taken together can provide us with hope and ways that might minimize our risk of developing Alzheimer's. I would put most of these measures under the umbrella of "use it or lose it."

One study concluded that loneliness was a predictive factor in the development of Alzheimer's disease; another found those seniors who played bridge or completed cross-word puzzles had a lesser incidence of Alzheimer's. Add to that studies showing the lesser rate of dementia in those who read, played musical instruments, and even engaged in ballroom dancing! In fact whole Web sites are devoted to getting all of us, regardless of age, to play cognitive games in order to flex our brain muscles.

In other words, we must continue to think, or we’ll lose the ability to think! Which may be the reason grumpy old men (and women) have less Alzheimer's. They work really hard to argue, question, confront, and challenge everyone and everything—their brains never stop working!

I'm not suggesting that we become crabby old people, but I am suggesting that we add mental exercises to our daily routine just as we've been encouraged to exercise physically.

One interesting development along these lines is the “seniors on college campus” trend. Instead of sectioning themselves off in exclusively senior communities in the sunshine states, more and more seniors are opting to live in college-linked retirement communities. Being around physically and mentally active people, of all ages, and having access to lifelong learning and activities—college classes, lectures, and debates, concerts, sports, and more—help keep a mind active and healthy.

So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for those ballroom dancing or piano lessons, learn that foreign language you’ve been talking about, play some of the new games specifically designed to exercise the brain (Nintendo’s Brain Age is one of many in a growing market). You’ll enrich your life and build a stronger brain in the process.

Resources:

PBS has a terrific new 90-minute special, "The Brain Fitness Program."

Computer programs such as MindFit are designed specifically for adults looking to keep their minds agile.

For more about seniors on campus, read “Colleges Offer Retirees Place To Live and Learn,” The Seattle Times and “List of Retirement Communities Affiliated With College Campuses,” AARP.

Meet 100-year-old Harry Shapiro (4-minute video), poster boy for what keeping one's mind active can do! Amazing.

An Inspiring Look at America's Best Public High Schools

There are 18,000 public high schools in the U.S. and public opinion about how those schools are doing is pretty low. So, we'd like to offer a big pat on the back to U.S. News & World Report for their December 10, 2007 cover story, "America's Best High Schools." The magazine's first ever ranking of high schools is in-depth, solutions-oriented, and provides useful resources for parents.

"The top schools are a diverse bunch," says the report, "and each one has found its unique way to best teach our future leaders." The survey unearthed a lot of surprising, positive news:

Like any good photograph, the details of the data gathered for this project reveal a number of fascinating stories. Most notable is the variety among the schools that have earned the highest honor. Our first-place winner, Thomas Jefferson High School in suburban Washington, D.C., picks its students from the children of the nation's leaders. Yet just 10 slots lower, Hidalgo High School on the border of Texas and Mexico has found success educating a student body comprising the children of challenged immigrants. And in Boston, the nation's oldest school carries on an exemplary tradition while a new charter school explores innovations such as housing tutors in dormitories on the third floor of its building.

The report, with its various rankings (100 Gold Medalists, Silver and Bronze, too) and resources, is another good conversation-inducing story to share with your kids.

To find out how the schools in your state ranked, click here.