Meetings are held at the Princeton Jewish Center, 435 Nassau St. in Princeton. All meetings start at 10 AM unless otherwise noted.

Nov. 5, 2009 The New University Medical Center of Princeton on the Plainsboro Health Campus

Barry Rabner will be presenting the who, what, when, where, why and how of the new University Medical Center at Princeton, to be known as University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. Included will be a description of the state-of-the-art hospital, whose every single feature - from the bathroom doors in the all single patient rooms to the most advanced medical and sustainable/green technological innovations - is literally designed for healing and excellence in healthcare delivery. In addition to the recognition that the project already has received for its design and environmental features, the concept of the health campus is drawing national attention. The campus, a destination for life-long health and wellness care, will include an acute-care hospital, medical office, education, rehabilitation, nursing, long-term acute care, assisted living, fitness and pediatric services. Audience members will learn the answers to frequently asked questions about the decision to move, the selection of this site, transportation accessibility, and financing of the project.

Barry S. Rabner is President and CEO of Princeton HealthCare System (PHCS) that includes University Medical Center at Princeton, Princeton House Behavioral Health, Merwick Care Center, Princeton Rehabilitation Services, Princeton Home Care Services and Princeton Surgical Center. PHCS is a joint venture partner in Princeton Fitness & Wellness Center. University Medical Center at Princeton is an acute care, teaching hospital and a University Hospital Affiliate of UMDNJ — Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. It is a Clinical Research Affiliate of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Princeton HealthCare System also operates several additional affiliates. It has more than 450 beds, 2,800 employees, 45 residents and fellows from the UMDNJ — Robert Wood Johnson Residency Training Programs, and an active medical staff of 950 physicians and dentists. The annual operating budget is approximately $350 million.

Mr. Rabner has more than 25 years of experience in hospital and healthcare administration and has received numerous awards for his professional accomplishments. Most recently, he was honored as Leader of the Year by the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce. According to the Chamber, this award recognizes an individual whose "ideas, vision and hard work have led to significant tangible benefits in our community. By using the resources at their disposal, the actions of this person have led to growth in the stature, reputation and significance of the Princeton region." Mr. Rabner also received the American Jewish Committees Community Relations Award for his exceptional leadership which is characterized by his integrity and ethical conduct

November 12th 55PLUS Computer Group: The Annual Holiday Gadget Guide

3-D TV! Internet everywhere! Wireless everything! Yes, it's time for local “gadget guru” Douglas Dixon of Manifest Technology to present his annual roundup of tech trends and toys. Discover the hot gadgets and gear to put on your gift list (and personal wish list!), from big-screen TVs to tiny media players, HD cameras to mini wireless accessories. We'll demo lots of snazzy devices in this fun talk that will help you keep up with the latest trends.

Douglas Dixon is an independent technology consultant, author, and speaker specializing in digital media. A graduate of Brown University, and previously a product manager and software developer at Intel and Sarnoff, he is the author of four books and has published over 260 feature articles. Doug posts regularly on digital media on his Manifest Technology blog, and makes his articles and technical references freely available on his website www.manifest-tech.com.

Nov. 19, 2009 Personal Genomics: What it Is, Why It Matters.

Our speaker will be Leon Rosenberg, M.D who has been a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University since 1998. From September 1991 to January 1998, Dr. Rosenberg was Chief Scientific Officer of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and President of the company's Pharmaceutical Research Institute.

In 2007, a new industry was born: Personal Genomics (PG). Several small companies now offer PG services directly to consumers who submit samples of saliva. The companies then extract the DNA and carry out sequence analyses aimed at informing the customer about ancestry, susceptibility to a variety of disorders, response to medications, and inheritance of common traits. The cost of such services ranges from $390 to $2500 – depending on the complexity of services provided.

The technology underlying this growing industry is much simpler than the clinical, social, and ethical issues PG raises (e.g. who will be informed of the results; how to transmit the information obtained; how will the information be used; will physicians or other healthcare providers know how to help the customer interpret the results). One thing is clear: PG will become as widely employed in the future as having a blood count, a battery of chemical tests, or an x-ray are now.

Prior to joining Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dr. Rosenberg was Dean of the Yale University School of Medicine, a position he had held since 1984. During his twenty-six year affiliation with Yale, he worked as a research geneticist, teacher, clinician, and administrator. In 1965, he was appointed assistant professor of Medicine at Yale. He was named professor of Human Genetics, Pediatrics, and Medicine in 1972, the same year he helped establish the Department of Human Genetics at Yale and became its first chairman. A specialist in inherited metabolic disorders in children, Dr. Rosenberg and his colleagues conducted pioneering laboratory investigations into the molecular basis of several inherited disorders of amino acid and organic acid metabolism. For example, they discovered that children with a potentially lethal disorder of organic acid metabolism suffer from defective metabolism of vitamin B12. They then went on to demonstrate that supplements of B12 were remarkably beneficial clinically. Using another rare disorder as a model system, he and his associates provided crucial insights into the basic mechanism by which proteins synthesized in the cytoplasm are transported into mitochondria.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1933, Dr. Rosenberg received his B.A. and M.D. degrees, both summa cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin in 1954 and 1957, respectively. He completed his internship and one year of residency training in internal medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. In 1959 he moved to Bethesda, Maryland, to begin a six-year association as an investigator with the metabolism service of the National Cancer Institute.

His honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences and to the Institute of Medicine, recipient of the Borden Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics and of the Kober Medal from the Association of American Physicians, and honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the University of Wisconsin and the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Rosenberg was the medallist for the Australian Society for Medical Research in 2002. He is a past president of the American Society of Human Genetics, the Association of American Physicians, the Funding First Initiative of the Mary Lasker Trust, and the Association of Patient Oriented Research.

Dr. Rosenberg currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Karo Bio AB and Hana Biosciences, Inc. He is married, has four children, and lives in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

12/3/09 Isles of Trenton, NJ: The Role of the Arts in Urban Community Development and Sustainability

Our speaker will be Susan Taylor, former Director of the Princeton Art Museum
Founded in 1981 by a few students and faculty of Princeton University, Isles is an award winning, non-profit, community development and environmental organization. With a mission to foster more self-reliant families in healthy, sustainable communities, Isles:

• Supports personal and community change
• Addresses immediate challenges such as food, shelter, jobs and toxic environments
• Assumes that strengths and assets exist in even the most challenged areas
• Helps people to re-imagine and re-develop older communities
• Brings the wisdom of years of community building to efforts to improve public policy and education
• Offers a variety of self-help tools and services; e.g. "green" housing and real estate development
• Recognizes that the health of people and the place where they live are connected and interdependent

Susan Taylor has recently begun to design, plan and coordinate arts and humanities at Isles of Trenton, NJ.She served as Director of the Princeton University Art Museum from 2000 to 2008. During this time she led the museum through a period of significant growth and transformation. Taylor came to Princeton after serving for 12 years as director of the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College. "Susan Taylor has led Princeton's museum at a critical moment for the arts," said Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman. "She has increased the visibility of the museum locally, nationally and internationally, and she has strengthened the museum as a teaching center for the University, a focal point for research and scholarship, and a vital resource for students, scholars and the general public. We are grateful for Susan's contributions…" Prior to her work at Wellesley, Taylor served at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. She received her BA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies from Vassar College and her graduate degree from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Taylor serves on the boards and committees of many professional organizations, including the American Federation of Arts, The Frances Lehman Loeb Arts Center at Vassar College and the Getty Museum.

12/10/09 55PLUS Computer Group: Create Videos the Free, Easy and Quick Way

Today recording videos of family members, vacation highlights or scenic views is as easy as picking up a digital camcorder or digital still camera, most of which offer a “movie mode,” or even using a webcam. The next important question is: What do I do with the clips I’ve recorded? On Thursday, December 10, Sol Libes will explore how to “Create Videos the Free, Easy and Quick Way.”

No matter whether you are using a digital camera, camcorder or webcam, it is easy to create professional looking videos with the free, user-friendly software available with the Windows operating system on your computer. This software program makes it simple to share your videos with friends and family via email, to record it onto a CD, or to put it out on the Web. During his presentation, Sol will demonstrate just how easy it is.

Libes, who has been a volunteer member of CLC’s faculty for more than 10 years, is a retired Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Programming and the author of 16 books, primarily on computer hardware and software design. He has also written extensively for many magazines and journals, served as a monthly columnist for Byte magazine, and was for eight years the Editor of Microsystems Journal, a publication for computer hardware and software designers. In 1975, he founded the Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey, the oldest personal computer club in continuous existence, and served for many years as President. He also co-founded the Trenton Computer Festival, a personal computer show held in recent years at the College of New Jersey in Ewing, which has taken place annually for the past 35 years ago

12/17/09 Sex and the City in Eighteenth Century London

Today's presentation by Princeton English professor and novelist Sophie Gee addresses eighteenth century flirtation and dating etiquette and the surprises in store when she researched her first novel. "The Scandal of the Season," a charming historical romance published in 2007, retells the true story behind Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock." Inspired by Pope's bestselling masterpiece satirizing social mores among his society's beautiful people, Sophie's novel is a comedy of manners about attraction, flirtation and the rules of play—set in 1711. The world of amorous dalliances she discovered bears little resemblance to the more constrained and straight-laced fictional universe of Jane Austen. Indeed, her portrayal of fashionable dating centuries ago foreshadows a far more modern and unbuttoned era—our own.

Our speaker teaches courses on satire and eighteenth century literature, and is currently presiding over the ever-popular "Princeton Reads." The versatile Sophie has published scholarly articles in academic journals, and also writes for the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement (TLS), and the Washington Post. Sophie is currently working on a ghost story set in eighteenth century London, and a new scholarly book about belief and the rise of the novel. She earned her PhD From Harvard University in 2002, writing her dissertation on pollution, filth and satire in eighteenth century literature. A scholarly book based on that work, and titled "Making Waste: Leftovers and the Eighteenth Century Imagination" is due to be released shortly by Princeton University Press.