Bliss Body Yoga

14 hours ago

Bliss Body Yoga created an Arm Balances & Inversions 101 with Rachel. ... See MoreSee Less

Have you been wondering how to safely incorporate inversions and arm balances into your yoga practice? In this workshop we will work with the wisdom of strength patterns in the body to safely learn ho...

Arm Balances & Inversions 101 with Rachel

Sep 13, 1:00pm

Bliss Body Yoga

Have you been wondering how to safely incorporate inversions and arm balances into your yoga practice? In this workshop we will work with the wisdom of strength patterns in the body to safely learn ho...

Bliss Body Yoga

16 hours ago

It's back to school time and back to yoga! We are offering another round of Early-Bird Yoga with Nancy starting September 15th. Join her for 6 weeks on Tuesdays from 6-7am. Sign up here: goo.gl/qVDyUN ... See MoreSee Less

Bliss Body Yoga

2 days ago

Check out our pretty new studio yoga mats and nifty wall storage system! ... See MoreSee Less

Bliss Body Yoga

4 days ago

All the single ladies! Rockin it out at Beyonce Yoga tonight with @autmist ... See MoreSee Less

Bliss Body Yoga

6 days ago

We are so excited to offer a new Yin Yoga class during lunch time starting next week with Mary. Join her on Tuesdays from 12-1pm for a soothing mid-day Yin practice. Just $10 to drop in! ... See MoreSee Less

See the article here:
Bliss Body Yoga

IMAGES PROVIDED BY: (1)Norman Hollands / Fresh Food Images / Photolibrary (2)Angels Tomas / age fotostock / Photolibrary (3) Anne Ryan / zrImages / Corbis (4)FoodCollection / Photolibrary (5)FoodCollection / Photolibrary (6)Food Image Source / StockFood Creative / Getty Images (7)Joff Lee / Fresh Food Images / Photolibrary (8) FoodCollection / Photolibrary (9) Philip Wilkins / Fresh Food Images / Photolibrary (10) Lew Robertson / StockFood Creative / Getty Images (11) Michael Brauner / StockFood Creative / Getty Images (12) Michael Rosenfeld / Photographer's Choice / Getty Images (13) Patrick Ryan / Stone+ / Getty Images (14) Ulrich Kerth / StockFood Creative / Getty Images (15) Quentin Bacon / StockFood Creative / Getty Images (16) James Baigrie / Riser / Getty Images (17) Martin Hospach / fStop / Photolibrary (18) Anthony Hall / iStockphoto (19) Allison Michael Orenstein / The Image Bank / Getty Images (20) David De Lossy / Photodisc / Photolibrary

REFERENCES: American Heart Association: "Vegetarian Diets." Vegetarian Resource Group: The Market for Vegetarian Foods. WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise: Healthy Eating -- Vegetarian Diets and Organic Foods, Vegetarian Diets -- What is a vegetarian? Vegetarian Diets -- How can vegetarians eat a balanced diet?" U.S. Department of Agriculture: "Vegetarian Diets." WebMD Medical Reference: The Good Protein Chart, Vitamin B-12. WebMD Weight Loss Clinic: Eating Well the Veggie Way, The Part-Time Vegetarian. WebMD Feature: Best-Tasting Vegetarian Foods. WebMD Expert Commentary from DrGreene.com: Vegetarian Kids. Craig, W. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, July 2009. Cabo, J. British Journal of Nutrition, June 2012. Denis, I. AgeingResearch Reviews, March 2013.

Original post:
Vegetarian Diet Slideshow: Food Choices for Beginning a ... - WebMD

Although the intellectual movement called "The Enlightenment" is usually associated with the 18th century, its roots in fact go back much further. But before we explore those roots, we need to define the term. This is one of those rare historical movements which in fact named itself. Certain thinkers and writers, primarily in London and Paris, believed that they were more enlightened than their compatriots and set out to enlighten them.

They believed that human reason could be used to combat ignorance, superstition, and tyranny and to build a better world. Their principal targets were religion (embodied in France in the Catholic Church) and the domination of society by a hereditary aristocracy.

Background in Antiquity

To understand why this movement became so influential in the 18th century, it is important to go back in time. We could choose almost any starting point, but let us begin with the recovery of Aristotelian logic by Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century. In his hands the logical procedures so carefully laid out by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle were used to defend the dogmas of Christianity; and for the next couple of centuries, other thinkers pursued these goals to shore up every aspect of faith with logic. These thinkers were sometimes called "schoolmen" (more formally, "scholastics,") and Voltaire frequently refers to them as "doctors," by which he means "doctors of theology."

Unfortunately for the Catholic Church, the tools of logic could not be confined to the uses it preferred. After all, they had been developed in Athens, in a pagan culture which had turned them on its own traditional beliefs. It was only a matter of time before later Europeans would do the same.

The Renaissance Humanists

In the 14th and 15th century there emerged in Italy and France a group of thinkers known as the "humanists." The term did not then have the anti-religious associations it has in contemporary political debate. Almost all of them were practicing Catholics. They argued that the proper worship of God involved admiration of his creation, and in particular of that crown of creation: humanity. By celebrating the human race and its capacities they argued they were worshipping God more appropriately than gloomy priests and monks who harped on original sin and continuously called upon people to confess and humble themselves before the Almighty. Indeed, some of them claimed that humans were like God, created not only in his image, but with a share of his creative power. The painter, the architect, the musician, and the scholar, by exercising their intellectual powers, were fulfilling divine purposes.

This celebration of human capacity, though it was mixed in the Renaissance with elements of gloom and superstition (witchcraft trials flourished in this period as they never had during the Middle Ages), was to bestow a powerful legacy on Europeans. The goal of Renaissance humanists was to recapture some of the pride, breadth of spirit, and creativity of the ancient Greeks and Romans, to replicate their successes and go beyond them. Europeans developed the belief that tradition could and should be used to promote change. By cleaning and sharpening the tools of antiquity, they could reshape their own time.

Galileo Galilei, for instance, was to use the same sort of logic the schoolmen had used--reinforced with observation--to argue in 1632 for the Copernican notion that the earth rotates on its axis beneath the unmoving sun. The Church, and most particularly the Holy Inquisition, objected that the Bible clearly stated that the sun moved through the sky and denounced Galileo's teachings, forcing him to recant (take back) what he had written and preventing him from teaching further. The Church's triumph was a pyrrhic victory, for though it could silence Galileo, it could not prevent the advance of science (though most of those advances would take place in Protestant northern Europe, out of the reach of the pope and his Inquisition).

But before Galileo's time, in the 16th century, various humanists had begun to ask dangerous questions. Franois Rabelais, a French monk and physician influenced by Protestantism, but spurred on by his own rebelliousness, challenged the Church's authority in his Gargantua and Pantagruel, ridiculing many religious doctrines as absurd.

Michel de Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne, in a much more quiet and modest but ultimately more subversive way, asked a single question over and over again in his Essays: "What do I know?" By this he meant that we have no right to impose on others dogmas which rest on cultural habit rather than absolute truth. Powerfully influenced by the discovery of thriving non-Christian cultures in places as far off as Brazil, he argued that morals may be to some degree relative. Who are Europeans to insist that Brazilian cannibals who merely consume dead human flesh instead of wasting it are morally inferior to Europeans who persecute and oppress those of whom they disapprove?

This shift toward cultural relativism, though it was based on scant understanding of the newly discovered peoples, was to continue to have a profound effect on European thought to the present day. Indeed, it is one of the hallmarks of the Enlightenment. Just as their predecessors had used the tools of antiquity to gain unprecedented freedom of inquiry, the Enlightenment thinkers used the examples of other cultures to gain the freedom to reshape not only their philosophies, but their societies. It was becoming clear that there was nothing inevitable about the European patterns of thought and living: there were many possible ways of being human, and doubtless new ones could be invented.

The other contribution of Montaigne to the Enlightenment stemmed from another aspect of his famous question: "What do I know?" If we cannot be certain that our values are God-given, then we have no right to impose them by force on others. Inquisitors, popes, and kings alike had no business enforcing adherence to particular religious or philosophical beliefs.

It is one of the great paradoxes of history that radical doubt was necessary for the new sort of certainty called "scientific." The good scientist is the one is willing to test all assumptions, to challenge all traditional opinion, to get closer to the truth. If ultimate truth, such as was claimed by religious thinkers, was unattainable by scientists, so much the better. In a sense, the strength of science at its best is that it is always aware of its limits, aware that knowledge is always growing, always subject to change, never absolute. Because knowledge depends on evidence and reason, arbitrary authority can only be its enemy.

The 17th Century

Ren Descartes, in the 17th century, attempted to use reason as the schoolmen had, to shore up his faith; but much more rigorously than had been attempted before. He tried to begin with a blank slate, with the bare minimum of knowledge: the knowledge of his own existence ("I think, therefore I am"). From there he attempted to reason his way to a complete defense of Christianity, but to do so he committed so many logical faults that his successors over the centuries were to slowly disintegrate his gains, even finally challenging the notion of selfhood with which he had begun. The history of philosophy from his time to the early 20th century is partly the story of more and more ingenious logic proving less and less, until Ludwig Wittgenstein succeeded in undermining the very bases of philosophy itself.

But that is a story for a different course. Here we are concerned with early stages in the process in which it seemed that logic could be a powerful avenue to truth. To be sure, logic alone could be used to defend all sorts of absurd notions; and Enlightenment thinkers insisted on combining it with something they called "reason" which consisted of common sense, observation, and their own unacknowledged prejudices in favor of skepticism and freedom.

We have been focusing closely on a thin trickle of thought which traveled through an era otherwise dominated by dogma and fanaticism. The 17th century was torn by witch-hunts and wars of religion and imperial conquest. Protestants and Catholics denounced each other as followers of Satan, and people could be imprisoned for attending the wrong church, or for not attending any. All publications, whether pamphlets or scholarly volumes, were subject to prior censorship by both church and state, often working hand in hand. Slavery was widely practiced, especially in the colonial plantations of the Western Hemisphere, and its cruelties frequently defended by leading religious figures. The despotism of monarchs exercising far greater powers than any medieval king was supported by the doctrine of the "divine right of kings," and scripture quoted to show that revolution was detested by God. Speakers of sedition or blasphemy quickly found themselves imprisoned, or even executed. Organizations which tried to challenge the twin authorities of church and state were banned. There had been plenty of intolerance and dogma to go around in the Middle Ages, but the emergence of the modern state made its tyranny much more efficient and powerful.

It was inevitable that sooner or later many Europeans would begin to weary of the repression and warfare carried out in the name of absolute truth. In addition, though Protestants had begun by making powerful critiques of Catholicism, they quickly turned their guns on each other, producing a bewildering array of churches each claiming the exclusive path to salvation. It was natural for people tossed from one demanding faith to another to wonder whether any of the churches deserved the authority they claimed, and to begin to prize the skepticism of Montaigne over the certainty of Luther or Calvin.

Meanwhile, there were other powerful forces at work in Europe: economic ones which were to interact profoundly with these intellectual trends.

The Political and Economic Background

During the late Middle Ages, peasants had begun to move from rural estates to the towns in search of increased freedom and prosperity. As trade and communication improved during the Renaissance, the ordinary town-dweller began to realize that things need not always go on as they had for centuries. New charters could be written, new governments formed, new laws passed, new businesses begun. Although each changed institution quickly tried to stabilize its power by claiming the support of tradition, the pressure for change continued to mount. It was not only contact with alien cultural patterns which influenced Europeans, it was the wealth brought back from Asia and the Americas which catapulted a new class of merchants into prominence, partially displacing the old aristocracy whose power had been rooted in the ownership of land. These merchants had their own ideas about the sort of world they wanted to inhabit, and they became major agents of change, in the arts, in government, and in the economy.

They were naturally convinced that their earnings were the result of their individual merit and hard work, unlike the inherited wealth of traditional aristocrats. Whereas individualism had been chiefly emphasized in the Renaissance by artists, especially visual artists, it now became a core value. The ability of individual effort to transform the world became a European dogma, lasting to this day.

But the chief obstacles to the reshaping of Europe by the merchant class were the same as those faced by the rationalist philosophers: absolutist kings and dogmatic churches. The struggle was complex and many-sided, with each participant absorbing many of the others' values; but the general trend is clear: individualism, freedom and change replaced community, authority, and tradition as core European values. Religion survived, but weakened and often transformed almost beyond recognition; the monarchy was to dwindle over the course of the hundred years beginning in the mid-18th century to a pale shadow of its former self.

This is the background of the 18th-century Enlightenment. Europeans were changing, but Europe's institutions were not keeping pace with that change. The Church insisted that it was the only source of truth, that all who lived outside its bounds were damned, while it was apparent to any reasonably sophisticated person that most human beings on earth were not and had never been Christians--yet they had built great and inspiring civilizations. Writers and speakers grew restive at the omnipresent censorship and sought whatever means they could to evade or even denounce it.

Most important, the middle classes--the bourgeoisie--were painfully aware that they were paying taxes to support a fabulously expensive aristocracy which contributed nothing of value to society (beyond, perhaps, its patronage of the arts, which the burghers of Holland had shown could be equally well exercised by themselves), and that those useless aristocrats were unwilling to share power with those who actually managed and--to their way of thinking,--created the national wealth. They were to find ready allies in France among the impoverished masses who may have lived and thought much like their ancestors, but who were all too aware that with each passing year they were paying higher and higher taxes to support a few thousand at Versailles in idle dissipation.

The Role of the Aristocrats

Interestingly, it was among those very idle aristocrats that the French Enlightenment philosophers were to find some of their earliest and most enthusiastic followers. Despite the fact that the Church and State were more often than not allied with each other, they were keenly aware of their differences. Even kings could on occasion be attracted by arguments which seemed to undermine the authority of the Church. The fact that the aristocrats were utterly unaware of the precariousness of their position also made them overconfident, interested in dabbling in the new ideas partly simply because they were new and exciting.

Voltaire moved easily in these aristocratic circles, dining at their tables, taking a titled mistress, corresponding with monarchs. He opposed tyranny and dogma, but he had no notion of reinventing that discredited Athenian folly, democracy. He had far too little faith in the ordinary person for that. What he did think was that educated and sophisticated persons could be brought to see through the exercise of their reason that the world could and should be greatly improved.

Rousseau vs. Voltaire

Not all Enlightenment thinkers were like Voltaire in this. His chief adversary was Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who distrusted the aristocrats not out of a thirst for change but because he believed they were betraying decent traditional values. He opposed the theater which was Voltaire's lifeblood, shunned the aristocracy which Voltaire courted, and argued for something dangerously like democratic revolution. Whereas Voltaire argued that equality was impossible, Rousseau argued that inequality was not only unnatural, but that--when taken too far--it made decent government impossible. Whereas Voltaire charmed with his wit, Rousseau ponderously insisted on his correctness, even while contradicting himself. Whereas Voltaire insisted on the supremacy of the intellect, Rousseau emphasized the emotions, becoming a contributor to both the Enlightenment and its successor, romanticism. And whereas Voltaire endlessly repeated the same handful of core Enlightenment notions, Rousseau sparked off original thoughts in all directions: ideas about education, the family, government, the arts, and whatever else attracted his attention.

For all their personal differences, the two shared more values than they liked to acknowledge. They viewed absolute monarchy as dangerous and evil and rejected orthodox Christianity. Though Rousseau often struggled to seem more devout, he was almost as much a skeptic as Voltaire: the minimalist faith both shared was called "deism," and it was eventually to transform European religion and have powerful influences on other aspects of society as well.

Across the border in Holland, the merchants, who exercised most political power, there made a successful industry out of publishing books that could not be printed in countries like France. Dissenting religious groups mounted radical attacks on Christian orthodoxy.

The Enlightenment in England

Meanwhile Great Britain had developed its own Enlightenment, fostered by thinkers like the English thinker John Locke, the Scot David Hume, and many others. England had anticipated the rest of Europe by deposing and decapitating its king back in the 17th century. Although the monarchy had eventually been restored, this experience created a certain openness toward change in many places that could not be entirely extinguished. English Protestantism struggled to express itself in ways that widened the limits of freedom of speech and press. Radical Quakers and Unitarians broke open old dogmas in ways that Voltaire was to find highly congenial when he found himself there in exile. The English and French Enlightenments exchanged influences through many channels, Voltaire not least among them.

Because England had gotten its revolution out of the way early, it was able to proceed more smoothly and gradually down the road to democracy; but English liberty was dynamite when transported to France, where resistance by church and state was fierce to the last possible moment. The result was ironically that while Britain remained saturated with class privilege and relatively pious, France was to become after its own revolution the most egalitarian and anticlerical state in Europe--at least in its ideals. The power of religion and the aristocracy diminished gradually in England; in France they were violently uprooted.

The Enlightenment in America

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, many of the intellectual leaders of the American colonies were drawn to the Enlightenment. The colonies may have been founded by leaders of various dogmatic religious persuasions, but when it became necessary to unite against England, it was apparent that no one of them could prevail over the others, and that the most desirable course was to agree to disagree. Nothing more powerfully impelled the movement toward the separation of church and state than the realization that no one church could dominate this new state.

Many of the most distinguished leaders of the American revolution--Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Paine--were powerfully influenced by English and--to a lesser extent--French Enlightenment thought. The God who underwrites the concept of equality in the Declaration of Independence is the same deist God Rousseau worshipped, not that venerated in the traditional churches which still supported and defended monarchies all over Europe. Jefferson and Franklin both spent time in France--a natural ally because it was a traditional enemy of England--absorbing the influence of the French Enlightenment. The language of natural law, of inherent freedoms, of self-determination which seeped so deeply into the American grain was the language of the Enlightenment, though often coated with a light glaze of traditional religion, what has been called our "civil religion."

This is one reason that Americans should study the Enlightenment. It is in their bones. It has defined part of what they have dreamed of, what they aim to become. Separated geographically from most of the aristocrats against whom they were rebelling, their revolution was to be far less corrosive--and at first less influential--than that in France.

The Struggle in Europe

But we need to return to the beginning of the story, to Voltaire and his allies in France, struggling to assert the values of freedom and tolerance in a culture where the twin fortresses of monarchy and Church opposed almost everything they stood for. To oppose the monarchy openly would be fatal; the Church was an easier target. Protestantism had made religious controversy familiar. Voltaire could skillfully cite one Christian against another to make his arguments. One way to undermine the power of the Church was to undermine its credibility, and thus Voltaire devoted a great deal of his time to attacking the fundamentals of Christian belief: the inspiration of the Bible, the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, the damnation of unbelievers. No doubt he relished this battle partly for its own sake, but he never lost sight of his central goal: the toppling of Church power to increase the freedom available to Europeans.

Voltaire was joined by a band of rebellious thinkers known as the philosophes: Charles de Montesquieu, Pierre Bayle, Jean d'Alembert, and many lesser lights. Although "philosophe" literally means "philosopher" we use the French word in English to designate this particular group of French 18th-century thinkers. Because Denis Diderot commissioned many of them to write for his influential Encyclopedia, they are also known as "the Encyclopedists."

The Heritage of the Enlightenment

Today the Enlightenment is often viewed as a historical anomaly, a brief moment when a number of thinkers infatuated with reason vainly supposed that the perfect society could be built on common sense and tolerance, a fantasy which collapsed amid the Terror of the French Revolution and the triumphal sweep of Romanticism. Religious thinkers repeatedly proclaim the Enlightenment dead, Marxists denounce it for promoting the ideals and power of the bourgeoisie at the expense of the working classes, postcolonial critics reject its idealization of specifically European notions as universal truths, and postructuralists reject its entire concept of rational thought.

Yet in many ways, the Enlightenment has never been more alive. The notions of human rights it developed are powerfully attractive to oppressed peoples everywhere, who appeal to the same notion of natural law that so inspired Voltaire and Jefferson. Wherever religious conflicts erupt, mutual religious tolerance is counseled as a solution. Rousseau's notions of self-rule are ideals so universal that the worst tyrant has to disguise his tyrannies by claiming to be acting on their behalf. European these ideas may be, but they have also become global. Whatever their limits, they have formed the consensus of international ideals by which modern states are judged.

If our world seems little closer to perfection than that of 18th-century France, that is partly due to our failure to appreciate gains we take for granted. But it is also the case that many of the enemies of the Enlightenment are demolishing a straw man: it was never as simple-mindedly optimistic as it has often been portrayed. Certainly Voltaire was no facile optimist. He distrusted utopianism, instead trying to cajole Europeans out of their more harmful stupidities. Whether we acknowledge his influence or not, we still think today more like him than like his enemies.

As we go through his most influential work, The Philosophical Dictionary, look for passages which helped lay the groundwork for modern patterns of thought. Look also for passages which still seem challenging, pieces of arguments that continue today.

Next: Voltaire & the Philosophical Dictionary

Back to on-campus syllabus

Other study guides

This page has been accessed times since December 17, 1998.

Paul Brians' home page

Created by Paul Brians March 11, 1998. Last revised May 18, 2000.

Here is the original post:
The Enlightenment - Washington State University

If you are considering making the military a career or you have already made that decision, and just want to know more about your benefits then this will be of special interest to you.

This article looks at the current Military Retirement Systems and the choices facing most today's active duty members. The following is a summary of what you need to know regarding Military Retirement Systems:

The military retirement system is arguably the best retirement deal around. Unlike most retirement plans, the Armed Forces offer a pension, with benefits, that starts the day you retire, no matter how old you are. That means you could start collecting a regular retirement pension as early as 37 years old. What's more, that pension check will grow with a cost of living adjustment each year.

However there are many factors that determine exactly how much your pension (technically a reduced payment for reduced service) will be. Over the past twenty five years, the government has made some significant changes to the military retirement system.

If you entered the service:

All of these retirement systems have a common thread: if you stay in the armed forces for 20 or more years, you are eligible to receive a pension based on a percentage of your basic pay, and if you stay in for a40 years, you are eligible for 100% of your basic pay. But that's where the similarities end and the confusion really begins, because each of these systems determines your amount of pension differently.

There are four major differences between the retirement systems. If you joined the military after August of 1986 you especially need to thoroughly understand these differences, because when you reach the 15 year mark in your military career you will have to make a choice of a lifetime about which plan you want for yourself.

The major differences are the basis for determining your highest earnings, the multiplier, the Cost of Living Adjustment, and the Career Status Bonus.

Back to Top

Although you have no choice in the basis for calculating your retirement pay, it is a very important detail. For instance the Final Pay retirement system bases the amount of pension on a member's last month of pay.

For Example: if you retired at twenty years of service on the final Pay retirement system, you received 50% of your final months pay as your pension, and that percentage increases by 2.5% for each additional year of service.

Under the High 36 system a member's pension is based on the average of the highest 36 month's base pay. So if you retire under the High 36 system you would get 50% of your highest 3 years (36 months) average base pay plus 2.5% added on for every year of service over 20 years.

Under the CSB/REDUX system a member's pension is based on the average of the highest 36 month's base pay like above, but the main difference is that you will get 40% of your highest 3 years (36 months) average base pay plus 3.5% added on for each year of service between 21 - 30 years, and 2.5% added on for each year of service between 30 - 40.

The multiplier is the percentage of your base pay you receive for each year of service. For the Final Pay and High 36 systems you earn 2.5% per year of service. That means you get 50% for 20 years of service up to a maximum of 100% for 40 years.

The multiplier for the CSB/REDUX system is 2% per year for the first 20 years, but you get an increase to 3.5% for each year of service between 21 - 30 years, and 2.5% added on for each year of service between 30 - 40. That means you get 40% for 20 years, but up to 100% for 40 years. That is a significant difference.

Note: Although rare, those who stay in past 40 years can continue to increase their retirement rate beyond 100%.

Learn more about how your Retired Pay is Calculated including a link to calculators to help you determine your retirement pay.

All three retirement systems have an annual cost of living adjustment. This is a subtle, yet very important detail. Over the lifetime of your retirement the cost of living adjustment could more than double your retirement check.

The COLA for the final pay and high 36 systems is determined each year by the national Consumer Price Index. But the COLA for the CSB/REDUX retirement system is the Consumer Price Index minus 1%.

Note: There is one more twist to the COLA for the CSB/REDUX retiree. At age 62 the COLAs and multiplier are readjusted so that the High 36 and CSB retirees get the same monthly pay.

Back to Top

Now the CSB/REDUX system gets a bit more complicated. Under this latest system when you reach your 15th year of service, you must choose between taking the "CSB/REDUX" with a $30K cash bonus (approximately $21K after taxes) and a 40% pension check, or the High 36 retirement system with no bonus and a 50% pension check. This is a huge decision and cannot be made without some serious consideration and a clear understanding of the details.

Part 2 - Factors to help you make the choice of a lifetime!

See original here:
The Military Retirement System | Military.com

Since there will always be things threatening the market, it is important that employees focus on the items they can control, such as how much they are saving and their asset allocation, based on their time horizon and tolerance of risk.

Lenny Sanicola

Total rewards professional, blogger, author, passionate about employee benefits & employee well-being

Check the fees yourself. Don't just leave it to someone else. Even the best fund managers may do strange things with fees that you only find out about in letters most people don't bother to read.

As a child, we all dreamed about what we wanted to be when we grow up. And now as we near retirement, it's time to dream about our future once again.

Buck Wargo

Buck Wargo, Sr. Editor | NowItCounts.com

As America's baby boomers continue to age and look forward to longer and longer life spans, they are setting their sights on retirement and making their U.S. dollars last as long as possible.

Taniel Chemsian

Puerto Vallarta-based real estate professional and personality on HGTV's "House Hunters International"

We have six grandchildren now ranging from one month to 11 years old, with another due in four months. So what's wrong with us? Are we cruel and heartless grandparents, who don't care about our kids or their kids?

With people remaining healthy and vibrant well into their 60s, the once-mandatory retirement age of 65 no longer makes sense. Those able to continue working benefit greatly from the positive health improvements that comes with keeping their minds engaged.

Sherwin Sheik

Founder & CEO of CareLinx, an online nationwide marketplace that directly connects families with professional and affordable caregivers

Average investors who buy mutual funds, insurance policies, annuities and other types of investments work under the assumption that their financial adviser is working in their best interests. This is a false assumption.

It seems like a silly notion, but we've seen it happen ... people move to some exotic location, like Ecuador or Panama, with perfect weather and interesting culture and, within a few months, find themselves at loose ends.

Regardless of political ideology, educators must reclaim their profession. I know you don't seek attention. You just want to teach, but it's time for a PR offensive of your own. It's time for the experts to drive the narrative, and below are five ways to do that.

Chester Goad, Ed.D.

Dr. Chester Goad is an author and speaker on learning, leadership, and life. Connect with him at chestergoad.com.

Since millennials don't know how much government support they will have during retirement, they need to start saving now. Here are a few good retirement savings tips: Pay off all debt first to avoid accruing interest and put money into an IRA automatically.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes figuring out what the hell to do about Social Security. Retirement planning can be quite complicated for anyone, but the newness of Social Security options for LGBT couples find some of us unprepared.

David Rae

Certified Financial Planner, AIF and fiscal fitness maestro, making dollars and sense for the LGBT community and friends for over a decade.

How financially stressed are you? Here are some major indicators of financial stress with suggestions for taking action.

Nathaniel Sillin

Nathaniel Sillin is the Head of Global Financial Education at Visa Inc.

Studies have shown that sizable numbers of business owners look to transfer their ownership interests in the next decade, and a major concern for many...

In one of the last weeks of my father's life -- though we had no idea at the time that he would be leaving us shortly as a result of a burst blood v...

The healthiest cities for retirement living are in the Pacific Northwest, Colorado and Minnesota, according to a new list that relegates all but one Sunbelt city below the top 20.

Buck Wargo

Buck Wargo, Sr. Editor | NowItCounts.com

For some, retirement still evokes images of a rocking chair on the porch. Some relaxation is OK, but the rocker isn't the best long-term answer for mind or body. Today's retirees are choosing active lifestyles. Many hold part-time jobs, pursue hobbies, and fulfill long-deferred dreams.

Visit link:
Retirement : Pictures, Videos, Breaking News

Pioneering distance education since 1985, Liberty University is now the nations largest private, nonprofit online university. As part of the worlds largest Christian university, Liberty University Online offers a unique approach to online education.

More than 95,000 students around the world enjoy the same quality education as Libertys residential students with the added flexibility of online classes. Offering more than245distance learning degrees from the certificate to the doctoral level, Liberty Online is training students as Champions for Christ through online education.

A distance learning degree from Liberty Online is an investment that will make a lifelong impact. Classes at Liberty's online Christian university are taught in a flexible virtual classroom, designed to be both engaging and challenging. Students who choose online education have access to an incredible array of learning resources and can complete their distance learning degrees on their own schedule.

Liberty is consistently ranked among the top 10 online universities by Online Education Database because of its high retention and graduation rates. Liberty is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the highest accreditation possible.

Read more here:
Online Education with an Online Christian University ...

For over two decadeszen zen GARDEN & HOME has created a unique line of products for home, garden and body. Our designs are inspired by the zen traditions of craftsmanship, simplicity, harmony and the use of natural materials.

With respect to the local artisans' lifestyle, traditions and environment we also work with village communities, educating them in conservation, sustainable development and organic farming. We are a member of the Fair Trade Federation.

Honoring nature, craftsmanship, simplicity and harmony of design, we believe creates an intrinsic value in zen zen GARDEN & HOME products that can inspire the soul and spirit of our customers' home, garden and body.

We are a wholesale company. Trade customers please register to access product detail pages & on line ordering.

Please note - this is a wholesale only website with terms as follows: Opening order: $250 minimum. Re-Orders: $150 minimum, $5 under-the-minimum processing charge. Payment by credit card or pre-pay. Net/30 by application & approval only after established order history. Shipping is typically 10% of the cost of goods with some exceptions; all orders that contain bowls, umbrellas, furniture, poufs, ladders, net plate covers, ceramics, glassware, mirrors, trays, hampers or wooden panels/hangers will be billed at actual cost. We may charge your credit card on a separate transaction for shipping once the order has been packed, weighed and measured. All returns must be in original packaging with item numbers clearly marked and approved by zen zen prior to returning in order to receive proper credit. All returns are subject to a $5.00 re-stock fee, plus $.50 per item. Prices are subject to change. Ex factory Bali prices also available upon request.

For retail customers - please feel free to call our office at 877-905-3310 for a referral to one of the fabulous stores that carries our product in your area, or go to http://www.zenDeluxe.com. Overseas retail customers can also visit our Bali direct website - balizenhome.com

Excerpt from:
zen zen wholesale fair trade home decor and gifts - Home

National Vegetarian Week 2015 is organised by the Vegetarian Society and sponsored by Nothing But. This year its all about sharing and enjoying delicious veggie food with your friends, family, colleagues, neighbours and community. Its a great way to connect with those around you and explore tasty meat-free food together.

Why veggie?

Vegetarian food is vibrant, exciting and flavourful, whether its the plentiful choices at the supermarket or special menu items at a restaurant. On top of satisfying your taste buds, going vegetarian and eating meat-free food benefits animals, the environment and your health and wellbeing.

Take part

Joining in with National Vegetarian Week is simple, and there are many ways to be involved.

You can order your free National Vegetarian Week promotional material and apply for grants to help with your event.

A toolkit is now available with information and advice about setting up your own event.

Also, make sure you view the Whats Happening calendar to find out about events taking place across the UK, and enter the details of your event.

Foodie inspiration

As wellas checking out ourrecipes,download the Vegetarian Society's recipe app, or visit ourVegetarian Society Cookery School in Cheshire.

A downloadabletoolkit is now availableto help you organise your National Vegetarian Week sharing event whether it be for family, friends, colleagues or your local community.

Viewtoolkit or Download(PDF)

Limited stock in hard copies areavailable.

To request one, email nvw@vegsoc.org with your name, address and local group name (if applicable).

Follow Us:

National Vegetarian Week 2015, sponsored by 'Nothing But' runs from Monday 18 - Sunday 24 May. For news and updateskeep an eye on this site and our Twitterand Facebook accounts.

They say the best things in life are free well, you cant get better than free pizza during National Vegetarian Week, sponsored by Nothing But (18-24 May 2015)! This May the Vegetarian Society is visiting seven cities across the UK giving out free pizza slices and celebrating how food brings people together.

The Vegetarian Society and its cookery school will be touring the UK covering almost 800miles and creating delicious pizzas to share. Pop along to one of the venues, watch our cookery school whip up a pizza, help choose the toppings then taste the fruits of their labour. There'll be a chance to chat and pick up a freebie pack.

Here are the seven locations head along between 11:30 and 14:30 to get a slice of pizza:

18 May Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland Street South 19 May Glasgow, Sauchiehall Street 20 May Belfast, SS Nomadic, Titanic Quarter 21 May Liverpool, Church Street 22 May Leicester, Humberstone Gate West 23 May Reading, Broad Street 24 May Cardiff, Working Street

The Vegetarian Societys Chief Executive Lynne Elliot said, We wanted to get out and share delicious veggie food with as many people as possible during the week. Recent studies have shown that around 20% of the population are choosing to eat more meat-free meals so this is great way for us to show how tasty vegetarian food can be - and what better to share than pizza!

Keep up to date withour NVW newsletters.

See the original post here:
National Vegetarian Week - The Vegetarian Society

Meditation relax music is a special and unique application. Some soft fragments of beautiful music have been selected to helps you to relax daily.

Other apps have lower Mb size and only 5 mins of music that is repeated endlessly. This app offers you 3 sessions with more than 2 total hours without any fragment of music repeated. There aren't other app in Android that offers you this.

If you are searching a good app with nice design, customizable and with good quality music, this is the best app you can find at Play store.

Meditation relax music is highly recommended: to relax, for meditation, how anti stress therapy, to sleep, to study, to read, how ambient music, to practise yoga, reiki, kabalah, harmonization, taichi, zen, and more...

Features:

- More than 2 hours of relaxing music divided into three parts without any fragment repeated - Sophisticated and attractive design - You can listen the music in background while you are doing other things - You can customize the app with 9 images and 6 seekbars - Play to play the audio, Pause to stop and again Play to resume - Navigation bar to choose the piece of song you want to listen - Possibility to activate the SLEEP MODE to stop the audio and exit the application, with 9 time options to choose - Installation on SD card - Available for over 99% Android devices, including tablets - Available at English and Spanish language

Now you can get RELAX POINTS and earn 8 different states

Download Meditation relax music right now and start enjoying as soon as possible to this wonderful application.

P.S.: Also you can try the apps: Classic Piano relax music, Nature relax music and Chill out relax music, they will surprise you.

The rest is here:
Meditation relax music - Android Apps on Google Play

Private sessions on Yoga, Pranayama or Meditation

Private Sessions are a great way of meeting your individual needs for bodymind health, recreation and stress management. Availing the private sessions, you can Sessions can take place in our studios, an office or your home and are led by our sen...

Quite like other types of childbirthpreparation classes, prenatal yoga is a versatile approach to exercise targeted at enhancing stretching, mental health and focused breathing. Prenatal yoga is completely safe and offers many benefits to pregnant ...

A Pilates mat class is based on systematic mat based exercises. Each class is designed to improve your posture, core strength, flexibility, muscle tone/contouring and body awareness. This is done by focusing on core stability, including pelvic and sh...

Meditation is a process that helps in bringing our mind into a state where it gets free from restless thoughts and attains relaxation. Its an art that has been in existence since ages; however, its only now that people have turned towards it...

Dance is born out of yoga and is an extension of it, as it goes beyond static postures, incorporating graceful and rhythmic movements. It incorporates traditional Asanas (yoga postures), Pranayams (controlled breathing), Mudras (gestured expressio...

In the present day lifestyle, we hardly get time to strengthen and nurture our relations by spending quality time. This is what gave us the idea for designing Moms & Todds Yoga. Mom Todds class is for Mom and children from 18 months to 4 years. ...

Yoga is a great way of keeping your kids stay away from stress and anxiety. It acts as a stepping stone for helping your kids control their minds and develop more of positivity within. The different yoga postures, designed for kids from all age gr...

Our mind is occupied with different thoughts and even if we sit still, the thoughts keep coming in and we find it really hard to control these thoughts. Chanting is one process in yoga that allows you to bring your mind at ease and control the flo...

Chanting is a form of yoga that is designed using the various mantras as derived from our ancient Vedas. These Sanskrit mantras are aimed at healing human life and have been in existence since many years. The main pillar of chanting is Sound. ...

Our state of mind affects our productivity, the quality of our work, and our ability to work with others. Yet people at all levels of an organization from executives to employees are often expected to boost their productivity while handling e...

Here is the original post:
Yoga Classes | Yoga Ashram