Top 10 Best High School in America 2012

Top 10 Best High School in America 2012,High schools that made it through this analysis were then eligible to be ranked nationally, in terms of college readiness. U.S. News determines the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work by analyzing student success in Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, both of which include college-level courses. U.S. News awarded more than 4,850 gold, silver, and bronze medals to the top-performing schools.

Among the top 20 Best High Schools, four are charter schools, which usually accept a limited number of students through an application process and are also exempt from some of the government regulations of other public schools, so long as they successfully meet the criteria of their original charter. Two schools in the top 20 are magnet schools, which use an application process that typically involves test scores and grade point averages to attract the most talented students in a region.

In the 2012 edition of Best High Schools, parents and students can browse rankings of the country's Best Magnet Schools and Best Charter Schools, which are separate lists from the national rankings. While Connecticut International Baccalaureate Academy (CIBA) in East Hartford is No. 14 nationally, it's ranked No. 1 among magnet schools. BASIS Tucson in Arizona ranks first among charter schools and sixth nationally.

There are also separate rankings of the top high schools by state, as well as lists of all the districts in a state and the schools in each district—ideal for both families who are moving and those who are exploring their neighborhood public schools.

In the state rankings, parents and students can compare schools in terms of student-teacher ratios, college readiness, and proficiency on state math and English assessments. And with the major boost of data that U.S. News collected for the 2012 rankings, specific details about each school are now freely available, such as the enrollment of each grade and the percentage of students who passed AP or IB exams.

Top 10 Best High School in America 2012,These details are important to explore when choosing a high school in which your child will succeed.

10. High Technology High School
Lincroft, NJ
Gold medal

Photo: International School

9. International School
Bellevue, WA
Gold medal

8. Pacific Collegiate School
Santa Cruz, CA
Gold medal

7. Oxford Academy
Cypress, CA
Gold medal

6. BASIS Tucson
Tucson, AZ
Gold medal

Photo: International Academy

5. International Academy
Bloomfield Hills, MI Gold medal

4. University High School
Tucson, AZ
Gold medal

3. School of Science and Engineering Magnet
Dallas, TX
Gold medal

2. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Alexandria, VA Gold medal

Photo: School for the Talented and Gifted

1. School for the Talented and Gifted
Dallas, TX
Gold medal

Big 5 American Tax Havens

Using data from tax service provider H&R Block, CNBC.com lists the top 10 states for low tax burdens. We also spoke to financial experts for insight into things you should think about before you sell your house, pack your bags and drive into the sunset.

1. Wyoming

(Mary Steinbacher | Getty Images)Wyoming is the best place for overall tax rates in the country. It has low taxes across the board, including one of the lowest gasoline taxes in America, at 14 cents per gallon. It also has low property taxes and sales tax, and levies no personal or corporate income tax.

Jerry Lynch, president and certified financial planner at JFL Consulting, urges caution before heading to the Cowboy State in a fit of low-tax-rate fever. “If you get up and move to a state you’re not familiar with, the move could cost you 10 percent of the value of your home,” he said in an interview.

“So if you’re moving to another state, rent before you buy and make sure you want to live there. What you save in taxes is miniscule compared to the cost of selling your home twice.”

2. Alabama

(Walter Bibikow | Getty Images)The property tax on owner-occupied housing in Alabama is .41 percent, second-lowest in the country. However, anyone wishing to start a business in Alabama should be aware of its corporate tax rate.

“Alabama imposes a flat corporate tax of 6.5 percent on all corporate income,” says Kaplan. “That means would-be entrepreneurs and small businesses in the ‘ramp up phase’ would be better off moving elsewhere.”

Alabama has a low gasoline tax, but there’s a catch. “Alabama's municipalities have the right to levy their own ‘local option’ taxes on gasoline,” says Kaplan. “Tread carefully if you settle in a town that adds the local option of imposing an additional gasoline tax.”

3. Colorado

(Altrendo I2mages | Getty Images)Colorado has low tax rates across the board. It levies a relatively low 4.63 percent flat tax on the personal income of its residents and has a low sales tax rate of 2.9 percent.



“Most small businesses are S Corporation or sole proprietorships,” says Kaplan. “They pay taxes for their business at the tax rate of individuals. That means Colorado is an appealing place to run a small business.”



4. Louisiana

(Don Klumpp | Getty Images)Louisiana’s property tax on owner-occupied housing is .43 percent, third-lowest rate in the country.

Louisiana also has a low sales tax rate of 4 percent, which is made up of 3.97 percent state sales tax and 0.03 percent Louisiana Tourism Promotion District sales tax.







5. Tennessee

(Wendell Metzen | Getty Images)Tennessee levies a 6 percent tax on income from dividends and interest. However, the state leaves the salaries and wages of its taxpayers untouched.

On the downside, the state sales tax is 7 percent, one of the nation’s higher rates, and the state has the fifth-lowest median household income in the country, at $41,461.

Today!! Saturday's Full Moon is Biggest of 2012

On Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 p.m. EDT, the moon will officially turn full. And only 25 minutes later the moon will also arrive at perigee, its closest approach to Earth — a distance of 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) away. 

The effect of this coincidence is a stunning skywatching sight called the "supermoon."
In fact, this month's perigee is the closest of any perigee in 2012 (they vary by about 3 percent, because the moon's orbit is not perfectly circular). The result will be a 16 percent brighter-than-average full moon accompanied by unusually high and low tides this weekend and into the new week.
In contrast, later this year, on Nov. 28, the full moon will closely coincide with apogee, the moon's farthest point from Earth. [Amazing Supermoon Photos from 2011]


Spring tides
Every month, "spring" tides occur when the moon is full and new. The word "spring," in this case, is derived from the German springen, to "spring up," and is not — as is often mistaken — a reference to the spring season. At these times the moon and sun form a line with Earth, so their tidal effects add together.  The sun, because of its distance, exerts a little less than half the tidal force of the moon.
"Neap" tides, on the other hand, occur at those times when the moon is at first and last quarter and work at cross-purposes with the sun. At these times, tides are weak.
Tidal force varies as the inverse cube of an object's distance. During the supermoon on Saturday, the moon will be 12.2 percent closer at perigee than it will be two weeks later at apogee, which will nearly coincide with a new moon.  Therefore it will exert 42 percent more tidal force during this weekend's spring tides than during the spring tides near apogee two weeks later.  

Although a full moon theoretically lasts just a moment, that moment is imperceptible to ordinary observation, and for a day or so before and after most will speak of seeing the nearly full moon as "full." The shaded strip is so narrow, and changing in apparent width so slowly, that it is hard for the naked eye to tell whether it is present or on which side it is. 
And while this weekend's moon will be — as the Observer's Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada suggests on page 101 —- the "largest full moon of 2012," the variation of the moon's distance is not readily apparent to observers viewing the moon directly. 
Or is it?


Moon illusion
When the perigee moon lies close to the horizon it can appear absolutely enormous. That is when the famous "moon illusion" combines with reality to produce a truly stunning view.
For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging moon looks incredibly large when hovering near to trees, buildings and other foreground objects. The fact that the moon will be much closer than usual this weekend will only serve to amplify this strange effect.
So, a perigee moon, either rising in the East at sunset or dropping down in the West at sunrise might seem to make the moon appear so close that it almost seems that you could touch it. 


And one final note: Saturday also marks the midpoint of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The exact moment between the March equinox and the June solstice occurs at 10:11 a.m. EDT May 5.  And this spring's big full moon seemingly places an exclamation point on this seasonal benchmark. Traditionally, the full moon of May is known as the "Flower Moon" since flowers are now abundant most everywhere. It is also known as the Full Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon.
Happy moon watching!

5 Mad Myths About the Moon

The biggest full moon of the year will rise Saturday (May 5) as Earth's only satellite swings into its perigee, or closest approach to Earth. This so-called "supermoon" will appear extra big and extra bright.


In honor of the moon's big show, we're dispelling a few myths about the Earth's rocky satellite. Read on for the real scoop on the moon's role in madness, the history of the moon landing, and how that whole green cheese thing got started.

Myth 1: The Moon Makes Us Crazy
The word lunacy traces its roots to the word "lunar," and plenty of people, from nurses to police officers, will tell you that things get wild around the full moon.
But this non-supernatural equivalent of the werewolf myth doesn't hold water. A 1985 review of the literature on the timing of mental illness and the moon found that the folklore that links the full moon with mental breakdowns, criminal behavior and other disturbances has no basis in scientific data. Nor has research turned up a link between the moon's phase and surgery outcomes — though pets are more likely to need a trip to the emergency room during a full moon, likely because owners keep them out and about later on nights when the moon brightens up the sky.


Myth 2: The Supermoon Can Cause Disasters
The reason we have supermoons is because the moon's orbit is not perfectly circular. When it swings closer to Earth on its elliptical path, the moon does exert a bit more of a gravitational pull on our planet. But it's nothing Earth can't handle.
Tidal forces around the world will be particularly high and low, with the moon exerting 42 percent more force at its closest point to Earth than it does at its farthest, according to Joe Rao, SPACE.com's skywatching columnist. This extra force doesn't have an appreciable effect on disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, however.
"A lot of studies have been done on this kind of thing by USGS scientists and others," John Bellini, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey told LiveScience's sister site Life's Little Mysteries. "They haven't found anything significant at all."


Myth 3: The Moon Landing Was a Hoax
We've got video. We've got rocks. We've got a dozen astronauts who have proudly returned to Earth to recall walking on our great satellite. But conspiracy theories claiming that the moon landing was faked just won't die. [Top 10 Conspiracy Theories]
These moon hoax theories are multitudinous and varied, ranging from claims that there was no dust on the Apollo 11 Lander footpads so the Lander must have never left a secret soundstage (In fact, dust on the moon doesn't hang in the air as it does on Earth due to a lack of gravity, so dust kicked up by the landing would have been hurled away from the Lander) to theories about faked rock specimens (In reality, moon rocks have been researched by NASA scientists and independent researchers alike. They're unlike any Earth rocks, lacking water-bearing minerals and bearing tiny meteoroid craters from the specks of dust that would have been burned up in Earth's atmosphere but which landed on the surface of the airless moon.)
As thinly sourced as it is, the hoax theories can be frustrating to those who risked their lives to get to the moon. In 2002, Buzz Aldrin, one of the members of the original 1969 Apollo 11 mission, was dogged by conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel at an event. When Sibrel blocked Aldrin's path and called him a "coward" and a "liar," the then-72-year-old astronaut punched Sibrel in the face.


Myth 4: The Moon Is Made of Green Cheese
The myth to dispel here isn't so much about the moon's makeup — definitely not cheese — but rather the idea that anyone ever believed the old "the moon is green cheese" canard at all. In fact, the cheese myth seemed to have started with a sardonic little couplet by English poet John Heywood (1497-1580), who wrote, "Ye set circumquaques to make me beleue/ Or thinke, that the moone is made of gréene chéese." [10 Beasts and Dragons: How Reality Made Myth]
In other words, the first known mention of the moon being green cheese was actually mocking the idea that anyone would believe that the moon was green cheese. Heywood apparently underestimated early 20th-century children: A 1902 study published in the American Journal of Psychology surveyed young children about their beliefs about the moon and found that the most common explanation for what it might be made of was cheese. Other theories included rags, God, yellow paper and "dead people who join hands in a circle of light."


Myth 5: Cold War-Era America Was Moon-Crazy
Today, Americans remember the 1950s and 1960s-era space race as a time when NASA had broad public support. In fact, levels of support for human lunar exploration were close to what is seen today.
During NASA's Apollo program, 45 percent to 60 percent of Americans believed the U.S. was spending too much money on spaceflight, according to a 2003 paper published in the journal Space Policy. Polls in the 1960s ranked spaceflight near the top of the list of programs that Americans wanted cut, study researcher and Smithsonian space historian Roger Launius found.
"[T]he public was never enthusiastic about human lunar exploration, and especially about the costs associated with it," Launius wrote. The enthusiasm it had "waned over time," he continued, "until by the end of the Apollo program in December 1972 one has the image of the program as something akin to a limping marathoner straining with every muscle to reach the finish line before collapsing."

UFO in Kansas mystery solved

Residents of Cowley County, Kansas caused a sensation last week when they captured video of the military towing a concealed object on a flatbed truck down US Highway 77. It wasn't long before a wave of speculation hit, claiming the object was a UFO.

Depending on the angle from which you spotted it, the 30 foot-wide mysterious craft appeared to be saucer-shaped. It was so large that local law enforcement had to remove roadside signage so it could pass through. But it was covered in a tightly concealed tarp, making any further examination impossible.

However, as Gizmodo points out, the craft does not technically meet the definition of UFO. For starters, even if it were an alien craft, the object was not flying. And more important, it's no longer unidentified.

Local sheriff Don Read announced that the tarp was in fact covering a flying object, but one of decidedly Earthly origins. More specifically, it was a drone aircraft manufactured by Northrop Grumman. After Read's disclosure, Northrop Grumman senior manager of public relations Brooks McKinney stepped forward to provide more details, telling Life's Little Mysteries that the "UFO" is a X-47B unmanned combat drone designed to operate from aircraft carriers. It was headed to the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.

The X-47B unmanned drone (NorthropGrumman.com)

Drone technology, or Unmanned Systems (UMS) have become so commonplace, that Northrop Grumman has a section dedicated to them on its public website. There's even a page for the X-47B itself.

"Clearly people are interested in what's going through town. It's unusual to see a shrink-wrapped aircraft, especially one with that shape," McKinney said.

"We built two for the Navy, they were being tested at Edwards Air Force Base [in California] since March. One is on its way to Maryland, and the other will remain in California."

And the reason they weren't actually flying the high-tech aircraft was even simpler. "It's difficult to fly an unmanned drone through commercial airspace," McKinney said.

Finally, the question "What's the matter with Kansas?" can be answered: A painful lack of alien spaceships.