Archaeologists working in the Bolivian Andes discovered three skulls of people who had been beaten, beheaded, and defleshed. The violent deaths add up to political torture dating back to the first millennium AD. read

A commencement speech for the already graduated summarized in two words: be courageous. But why is the tale. read

While long term depression in adults older than 50 may double the risk of stroke, this risk still remains elevated--even when depressive symptoms ease up, according to a new study conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health. read

Beyond money, you need to talk about independence and basic preferences for the way they want to live or die. read

by Arthur L. Caplan & Lee H. IgelNYU Sports & Society read

We need a dad, an acquaintance recently remarked about an executive search happening at his company. He went on to explain what he was hoping for was that theyd choose someone for a C-suite role who, when the metaphorical you-know-what hits the fan, has seen enough actual you-know-what to be able to deal with it competently. Of course, he wasnt directly involved in the hiring process and his company knows better than to flout employment laws with questions on family status,[...] read

Two medical doctors propose a radical new diagnosis for Julius Caesar's health issues: cardiovascular disease. Their theory calls into question a centuries-old suggestion that Caesar had epilepsy. read

Obamacare's 40% Cadillac excise tax is supposed to raise billions to pay for the law. But most businesses are cutting coverage to avoid the whopping tax hit. Who will pay for Obamacare now? read

No matter whether Aetna (AET) makes a run at rival health insurersCigna (CI) or Humana (HUM), the coming consolidation among those picking up the tab for medical care will continue thanks in part to the move away from fee-for-service medicine to value-based care and population health. The health insurance industry deal [...] read

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At Vitacost, we take the cost out of healthy living.

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Discount Vitamins, Supplements, Health Foods & More | Vitacost

Alternative therapies for hot flashes are hit or miss

Managing menopausal symptoms like hot flashes may be possible without taking hormones, but the evidence supporting most alternatives is weak, European researchers say.

When your child is miserable with seasonal allergies, a cold, or even just a bug bite, all you want to do is make it better. Yet many of the common over-the-counter products...

It's one thing to notice an uptick in appetite if you've been training hard at the gym, or if you're pregnant or PMS-ing. But when you always feel like a bottomless pit for no...

Sun worshippers, beware: Not all are sunscreen lotions and sprays are created equal.

People who take illegal drugs only on the weekend often wind up becoming daily users, new research suggests.

If you thought meditation was only good for your emotional well-being, think again. A new study shows that meditation may actually alleviate the symptoms of two gut disorders...

The most common killers in the United States are well known heart disease and cancer.

Guinea has seen a spate of new Ebola cases due to transmissions at funerals, a worrying sign for the African nation as it seeks to stamp out a year-long epidemic that has...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday warned that a widely used newer class of type 2 diabetes drugs sold by AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly in...

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Health News | Latest Medical, Fitness, Healthcare ...

A secure, comfortable retirement is every worker's dream. And now because we're living longer, healthier lives, we can expect to spend more time in retirement than our parents and grandparents did.

Achieving the dream of a secure, comfortable retirement is much easier when you plan your finances.

This planner provides detailed information about your Social Security retirement benefits under current law. It also points out things you may want to consider as you prepare for the future. If you are:

You are exiting the Social Security Administration's website.

Select OK to proceed.

Disclaimer

The Social Security Administration (SSA) website contains links to websites not affiliated with the United States government. These may include State and Local governmental agencies, international agencies, and private entities.

SSA cannot attest to the accuracy of information provided by such websites. If we provide a link to such a website, this does not constitute an endorsement by SSA or any of its employees of the information or products presented on the non-SSA website.

Also, such websites are not within our control and may not follow the same privacy, security or accessibility policies. Once you visit such a website, you are subject to the policies of that site.

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Retirement Planner: Plan For Your Retirement

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: 2015 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2015. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poors Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2015 and/or its affiliates.

2015 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy. .

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Retirement Planning and Savings Plans - Retirement ...

Louisiana

Good housing deals, warm weather and great culinary culture are drawing boomers to Louisianaand not just to New Orleans.

For many retirees, Minnesota Nice and a booming economy make up for the states cold weather.

A hip food scene and cultural attractions enhance Oregons natural beauty, in Portland and beyond.

For retirees, New Mexico offers a cultural melting pot with a friendly year-round climateand a lower cost of living than Arizona or Colorado.

Taking advantage of New Yorks cultural buzz without paying Manhattan-like real-estate prices.

Mild weather, affordable real estate and college-town culture draw retirees to the Bluegrass State.

Good deals on real estate are helping boomers retire to the Riviera of the Midwest.

A comfortable climate and reasonable real-estate prices lured the Vanderbilts in the 1890s; now those same assets are luring boomer retirees.

Tucked away among the cornfields are some great real estate bargains and cultural destinations for retirees. We look at the pros and cons of retiring in Cedar Falls, Decorah, Ames and Urbandale.

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Retirement Planning - Financial Planning for Retirement ...

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled unanimously on May 8, 2015 that the 2013 state law overhauling Teachers Retirement System benefits is unconstitutional.

The high court decided that changes in retirement benefits enacted by the law violated the Pension Protection Clause of the Illinois Constitution. This decision upholds a 2014 ruling by a Sangamon County Circuit Court and is the final chapter in the legal challenge to the law.

With this decision, TRS members in Tier I and Tier II will see no changes in the administration of their retirement benefits. The current retirement benefit calculation, cost-of-living-adjustment calculation, active member contribution rate, eligibility standards for retirement and all other current laws governing teacher pensions will not be changed.

To read the Illinois Supreme Courts decision in this case, select this link: Supreme Court Decision

During this year's Teacher Appreciation Week, your retirement system would like to thank you for choosing a career in education. As you continue to prepare children for their futures, TRS will continue to work diligently to preserve your well-deserved retirement. We join schoolchildren and parents throughout Illinois in saluting your professionalism and dedication to your students. Thank you!

Andrew J. Hirshman of Oak Park and Cinda J. Klickna of Rochester were elected by active TRS members on May 1 to the Systems Board of Trustees, according to preliminary results released by TRS. In addition, Daniel Winter of Decatur will fill a seat on the Board selected by retired members.

For more information on the election results, please read the press release.

The annual Benefits Choice Period for the Teachers Retirement Insurance Program (TRIP) will be May 1 through June 1, 2015. Detailed TRIP information booklets are mailed by the Illinois Department of Central Management Services during this time.

The Benefits Choice Period is the time that TRIP participants not currently enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug insurance plan may change health insurance carriers or add an eligible dependent to their insurance coverage, provided that the dependent has not been enrolled in TRIP previously.

For more information please visit the TRS TRIP page or the CMS Benefit Choice website.

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Illinois Teachers Retirement System

It's been almost ten years since Mike Robertson and I introduced our Magnificent Mobility DVD set. This popular DVD set certainly helped a lot of people, but as with all aspects of the incredibly dynamic strength and conditioning and rehabilitation f

I'm a huge fan of incorporating landmine press variations into strength training programs. These awesome exercises are great for building scapular upward rotation, core stability, upper body strength, thoracic mobility, and a whole lot more. Unfortun

I just wanted to post a quick heads-up on some Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales: 1. The entire Functional Stability Training series is on sale for 25% off. To get the discount, just head to http://www.FunctionalStability.com and enter the coupon code BF2014

I hope everyone is having a great week and is excited for a great Thanksgiving. It might be a holiday week, but it's still super busy at the new Cressey Sports Performance facility in Jupiter, FL. Luckily, I've got some great content from around the

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performance appraisals purpose - and how to make it easier

Performance appraisals are essential for the effective management and evaluation of staff. Appraisals help develop individuals, improve organizational performance, and feed into business planning. Formal performance appraisals are generally conducted annually for all staff in the organization. Each staff member is appraised by their line manager. Directors are appraised by the CEO, who is appraised by the chairman or company owners, depending on the size and structure of the organization.

Annual performance appraisals enable management and monitoring of standards, agreeing expectations and objectives, and delegation of responsibilities and tasks. Staff performance appraisals also establish individual training needs and enable organizational training needs analysis and planning.

Performance appraisals also typically feed into organizational annual pay and grading reviews, which commonly also coincides with the business planning for the next trading year.

Performance appraisals generally review each individual's performance against objectives and standards for the trading year, agreed at the previous appraisal meeting.

Performance appraisals are also essential for career and succession planning - for individuals, crucial jobs, and for the organization as a whole.

Performance appraisals are important for staff motivation, attitude and behaviour development, communicating and aligning individual and organizational aims, and fostering positive relationships between management and staff.

Performance appraisals provide a formal, recorded, regular review of an individual's performance, and a plan for future development.

Job performance appraisals - in whatever form they take - are therefore vital for managing the performance of people and organizations.

Managers and appraisees commonly dislike appraisals and try to avoid them. To these people the appraisal is daunting and time-consuming. The process is seen as a difficult administrative chore and emotionally challenging. The annual appraisal is maybe the only time since last year that the two people have sat down together for a meaningful one-to-one discussion. No wonder then that appraisals are stressful - which then defeats the whole purpose.

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performance appraisals and sample appraisal form templates ...

No matter how well trained people are, few can sustain their best performance on their own. Thats where coaching comes in. Credit Illustration by Barry Blitt

Ive been a surgeon for eight years. For the past couple of them, my performance in the operating room has reached a plateau. Id like to think its a good thingIve arrived at my professional peak. But mainly it seems as if Ive just stopped getting better.

During the first two or three years in practice, your skills seem to improve almost daily. Its not about hand-eye cordinationyou have that down halfway through your residency. As one of my professors once explained, doing surgery is no more physically difficult than writing in cursive. Surgical mastery is about familiarity and judgment. You learn the problems that can occur during a particular procedure or with a particular condition, and you learn how to either prevent or respond to those problems.

Say youve got a patient who needs surgery for appendicitis. These days, surgeons will typically do a laparoscopic appendectomy. You slide a small cameraa laparoscopeinto the abdomen through a quarter-inch incision near the belly button, insert a long grasper through an incision beneath the waistline, and push a device for stapling and cutting through an incision in the left lower abdomen. Use the grasper to pick up the finger-size appendix, fire the stapler across its base and across the vessels feeding it, drop the severed organ into a plastic bag, and pull it out. Close up, and youre done. Thats how you like it to go, anyway. But often it doesnt.

Even before you start, you need to make some judgments. Unusual anatomy, severe obesity, or internal scars from previous abdominal surgery could make it difficult to get the camera in safely; you dont want to poke it into a loop of intestine. You have to decide which camera-insertion method to usetheres a range of optionsor whether to abandon the high-tech approach and do the operation the traditional way, with a wide-open incision that lets you see everything directly. If you do get your camera and instruments inside, you may have trouble grasping the appendix. Infection turns it into a fat, bloody, inflamed worm that sticks to everything around itbowel, blood vessels, an ovary, the pelvic sidewalland to free it you have to choose from a variety of tools and techniques. You can use a long cotton-tipped instrument to try to push the surrounding attachments away. You can use electrocautery, a hook, a pair of scissors, a sharp-tip dissector, a blunt-tip dissector, a right-angle dissector, or a suction device. You can adjust the operating table so that the patients head is down and his feet are up, allowing gravity to pull the viscera in the right direction. Or you can just grab whatever part of the appendix is visible and pull really hard.

Once you have the little organ in view, you may find that appendicitis was the wrong diagnosis. It might be a tumor of the appendix, Crohns disease, or an ovarian condition that happened to have inflamed the nearby appendix. Then youd have to decide whether you need additional equipment or personnelmaybe its time to enlist another surgeon.

Over time, you learn how to head off problems, and, when you cant, you arrive at solutions with less fumbling and more assurance. After eight years, Ive performed more than two thousand operations. Three-quarters have involved my specialty, endocrine surgerysurgery for endocrine organs such as the thyroid, the parathyroid, and the adrenal glands. The rest have involved everything from simple biopsies to colon cancer. For my specialized cases, Ive come to know most of the serious difficulties that could arise, and have worked out solutions. For the others, Ive gained confidence in my ability to handle a wide range of situations, and to improvise when necessary.

As I went along, I compared my results against national data, and I began beating the averages. My rates of complications moved steadily lower and lower. And then, a couple of years ago, they didnt. It started to seem that the only direction things could go from here was the wrong one.

Maybe this is what happens when you turn forty-five. Surgery is, at least, a relatively late-peaking career. Its not like mathematics or baseball or pop music, where your best work is often behind you by the time youre thirty. Jobs that involve the complexities of people or nature seem to take the longest to master: the average age at which S. & P. 500 chief executive officers are hired is fifty-two, and the age of maximum productivity for geologists, one study estimated, is around fifty-four. Surgeons apparently fall somewhere between the extremes, requiring both physical stamina and the judgment that comes with experience. Apparently, Id arrived at that middle point.

It wouldnt have been the first time Id hit a plateau. I grew up in Ohio, and when I was in high school I hoped to become a serious tennis player. But I peaked at seventeen. That was the year that Danny Trevas and I climbed to the top tier for doubles in the Ohio Valley. I qualified to play singles in a couple of national tournaments, only to be smothered in the first round both times. The kids at that level were playing a different game than I was. At Stanford, where I went to college, the tennis team ranked No. 1 in the nation, and I had no chance of being picked. That meant spending the past twenty-five years trying to slow the steady decline of my game.

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Personal Best - The New Yorker