When Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, was diagnosed with breast cancer in late 2008, one of the people who reached out to the couple was newly elected President Barack Obama.

It was one of the few personal interactions between Obama and Romney.

"He was kind enough to call our home when my wife was ill, and he said that he and Michelle had my wife in their prayers," Romney said in an interview after the call. "I said, 'Mr. President-elect, Ann and I have you in our prayers'. And we do."

Even as their political fates have become more entwined, Obama and Romney have had little opportunity to connect directly. In fact, when the Democratic president and the former Republican governor of Massachusetts stand alongside each other during Wednesday night's presidential debate in Denver, it will be their first face-to-face meeting in nearly five years.

"I don't really know him well," Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think Gov. Romney obviously has achieved extraordinary success with his businesses, and he's obviously very focused on achieving the presidency. He cares deeply about his family, and I think he cares deeply about his faith."

Romney has had similarly kind words about the president as a father and family man. But most of their descriptions of each other during the campaign are far less complimentary, and that probably will be the case in the debate.

Romney accuses the president of having "more European than American" views. Obama says Romney has written off half the country.

The two do have a few similarities. They're both graduates of Harvard Law School; Romney also has a business degree from the Ivy League university. Each is a multimillionaire, though Romney's estimated $250 million fortune far exceeds Obama's net worth of about $12 million.

When people get one of their first looks at the rivals standing side by side Wednesday, they'll see a Republican who is 14 years older and an inch taller than the 51-year-old president, who stands 6-feet-1.

Obama and Romney first met in 2004 at a gathering of Washington's political and media elite. Romney, then governor, and Obama, a senator-elect from Illinois, were picked by the Gridiron Club to deliver speeches at a black-tie dinner. The private event's festive atmosphere, however, meant their dueling speeches were more about cracking jokes than outlining their policy differences.

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Obama, Romney: Rivals With Little Personal History

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30-09-2012 17:18 Michelle Pacansky-Brock traces the possibilities the social era holds for transforming online learning.

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Online Learning in the Social Era: Human, Connected, and Inclusive - Video

Domain Invest, S.A. is delighted to announce the launch of OnlineSchool.com, one of the most premier domain names in the world for online education. The website provides a vast amount of valuable advice, tips and relevant facts concerning all aspects of online degrees, careers, schools and more. Each day the site is connecting hundreds of students and interested visitors with the information they need to pick a school and enjoy a rewarding career.

(PRWEB) September 28, 2012

Click here to visit OnlineSchool.com.

This unique and easy to navigate website investigates all elements comprising an online school and especially examines in detail the importance of accreditation. Without proper accreditation from organizations qualified to judge the validity of an online school's ability to provide exceptional instruction, a degree earned from an online school that has not voluntarily asked for accreditation from a regional or national accrediting agency may be useless upon graduation.

About the Importance of Online School Accreditation.

Students with degrees from inferior online schools could be saddled with not only a degree that employers do not recognize but debt that may take years to repay. At OnlineSchool.com, the website provides links and lists of recognized accrediting agencies as well as information about the U.S. Department of Education to prevent this from happening to students thinking about enrolling in an online school program.

Additional information found on OnlineSchool.com includes:

Online High School and GED Programs

OnlineSchool.com also provides information for people who never received a high school diploma and would like to earn a GED online. The accessibility and convenience of online high school classes simplifies the process of earning a GED, which leads to greater employment opportunities and higher wages. Information regarding online schools with high school diploma programs can be found on this new website.

Time-Management Techniques and Study Tips

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Announcing the Launch of OnlineSchool.com, an Education Resource for Degrees, Schools and Careers that Instantly ...

Enlarge Jeff Chiu/AP

Coursera founders Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller are computer science professors at Stanford University.

Coursera founders Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller are computer science professors at Stanford University.

Online education isn't particularly new. It has been around in some form since the 1990s, but what is new is the speed and scale in which online learning is growing.

In barely a year, many of the most prestigious research universities in the world including Stanford, Caltech, Oxford and Princeton have started to jump onto the online bandwagon.

For the students who never, ever would have had access to this kind of quality education from a place like Penn or Princeton or Stanford, they now have access to something.

- Daphne Koller, Coursera co-founder

Those universities now offer classes through consortiums like Coursera, a tech company that's partnered with more than 30 of the top universities in the world to offer online classes from its course catalogue for free. Other companies offering online courses include Udacity and edX.

Earlier this year in Kazahkstan, 22-year-old computer science student Askhat Muzrabayev had a problem.

"The problem is our university is relatively small, it has about 2,000 students, and we didn't have [Artificial Intelligence] classes in the syllabus," Muzrabayev says.

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Online Education Grows Up, And For Now, It's Free

One month to go before the Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (AFCSR), October 25 & 26 in Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok, Sept 27, 2012 - (ACN Newswire) - Following ten successful conference runs in six of Southeast Asia's major cities - Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore, the Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (AFCSR) continues to be at the forefront of CSR development in Asia. This 2012, Bangkok will host the 11th AFCSR on October 25 & 26, Thursday & Friday.

The two-day event, with the theme "Innovative Approaches to Create Value for Business and Society," will allow attendees to interact with leaders and experts from the business, government and civil sectors and to learn about improving business competitiveness through innovative implementation of CSR.

H.E. Anand Panyarachun, Chairman of the Board, Independent Director, and Member of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, Siam Commercial Bank; and Former Thailand Prime Minister will be joining us for the Opening Ceremonies on October 25, 8:30 AM.

We also have 45 confirmed speakers, each an expert on their own field. You will find the sessions very interesting. Please find attached our conference brochure and program agenda to find out more about the sessions we have prepared for you.

We have listed our impressive line-up of speakers from 25 different countries that will share their knowledge about the best CSR practices all over the world.

1. Ms. Emily Abrera - Chairperson, Children's Hour (Philippines) 2. Ms. Anusha Alles - Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Brandix Lanka (Sri Lanka) 3. Ambassador Delia Domingo Albert - Senior Adviser, SGV & Co. (Philippines) 4. Mr. Mohiuddin Babar - Convenor, Nature Alliance (Bangladesh) 5. Ms. Ma. Cecilla Filipinas Calleja-Taufique - VP for Public Relations and Community Affairs, Rapu-Rapu Minerals Inc. (Philippines) 6. Mr. Russell Campbell - APAC Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Intel (Thailand) 7. Mr. Archawat Chareonslip - Director, Public Affairs and Communications, Coca-Cola (Thailand) 8. Prof. Nieves Confesor - Professor, Asian Institute of Management (Philippines) 9. Ms. Marthyn Cuan - Chief Information Officer, Manila Electric Company (Philippines) 10. Mr. John Dasilva - Project Development Manager, Kenan Institute Asia (Thailand) 11. Dr. Steven DeKrey - President, Asian Institute of Management (Philippines) 12. Ms. Marilou G. Erni - Executive Director, Petron Foundation (Philippines) 13. Ms. Suzanne Fallender - Director of Social Innovation, Intel (U.S.) 14. Prof. Bradley Googins - Director Emeritus, Center for Corporate Citizenship, Boston College's Carroll School of Management (U.S.) 15. Prof. David Grayson - Director, Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Cranfield School of Management (U.K.) 16. Ms. Agnes De Jesus - Senior Vice President, Environment and External Relations, Energy Development Corporation (Philippines) 17. Mr. Jonathan Joson - Communications Relations Manager, Sagittarius Mines (Philippines) 18. Mr. Boris Joaquin - General Manager, Team Metamorphosis (Philippines) 19. Ms. Angela Kang - Executive President, Global Competitiveness Empowerment Forum (South Korea) 20. Ms. Amanda Keogh - Director for Sustainability, Fuji Xerox (Asia-Pacific) 21. Prof. Mari Kondo - Professor, Doshisha Business School (Japan) 22. Mr. David Laurence - Executive Director, The Australian Center for Sustainable Mining Practices (Australia) 23. Mr. Chris Levy - Associate Director for Corporate Affairs, GlobeScan (Canada) 24. Mr. Thirawit Leetavorn - Senior Vice President, Double A (Thailand) 25. Mr. Sam Y. S. Lee - Founder and Chief Executive Officer, InnoCSR Co. (China) 26. Mr. Rafael C. Lopa - Executive Director, Philippine Business for Social Progress (Philippines) 27. Ms. Jude Mannion - CEO, Robin Hood Asia (New Zealand) 28. Ms. Monica Marshall - Deputy Director, Global Head Public Private Partnerships, United Nations World Food Programme 29. Mr. Alex Mavro - Executive Director, Sasin Centre for Sustainability Management (Thailand) 30. Mr. Takeshi Miyamoto - Director General, Global Compact (Japan) 31. Ms. Tulip Noorazyze - Director of CSR, Shangri-La Tanjung Aru (Malaysia) 32. Dato Paduka Timothy Ong - Chairman, Asia Inc. Forum (Brunei Darussalam) 33. Mr. Quintin Pastrana - PGPA Manager, Chevron Geothermal Philippine Holdings Inc. (Philippines) 34. Dr. Sopon Pornchokchai - President, Thai Appraisal Foundation (Thailand) 35. Ms. Belen O. Rillo - Vice President, Jollibee Foundation, Inc. (Philippines) 36. Ramon R. Del Rosario - President and Chief Executive Officer, Phinma, Inc. (Philippines) 37. Mr. Joseph Scaria - Area Director for Asia Pacific Region, Habitat for Humanity International (Thailand) 38. Dr. Michael Shafer - Director of Operations, Warm Heart (Thailand) 39. Mr. Ola Jo Tandre - Director of Corporate Responsibility, Telenor Group (Norway) 40. Mr. George Tahija - President Director, PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya (Indonesia) 41. Mr. Thomas Thomas - Executive Director, Singapore Compact for Corporate Social Responsibility (Singapore) 42. Ms. Ambreen Waheed - Executive Director, Responsible Business Initiative (Pakistan) 43. Ms. Miki Watanabe - Leader, Planning Group, Corporate Social Responsibility Group, Fuji Xerox (Japan) 44. Mr. Jochen Weikert - Senior Manager, Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (Germany) 45. Mr. Oliver Yang - Corporate Social Responsibility and Government Relations Manager, AmCham Shanghai (China)

We are committed to making your AFCSR experience as smooth as possible. In this light, we suggest that you make reservations at the soonest possible time to avail of the best rates for you and your colleagues.

We hope that we can count on your attendance for this year's AFCSR. Please contact delegates.afcsr@aim.edu.

Also, please do like us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AFCSR) or follow us on twitter (www.twitter.com/AFCSR2012) as we shall be updating you on developments from time to time.

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Asian Forum on CSR (AFCSR) 2012: 'Innovative Approaches to Create Value for Business and Society'

Thai index tops gain; Vietnam down after Moody's downgrade

BANGKOK, Sep 28 (Reuters) Most Southeast Asian stock markets rose on Friday, racking u p strong gains for the quarter, as global markets welcomed Spain's spending cuts, but Moody's downgrades dented Vietnam's banks and the broader Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange's VN Index.

Thailand's benchmark SET index led the pack, rose nearly 1 percent to end at its highest close since May 1996. It posted a 10.8 percent gain for the July-September quarter, Southeast Asia's best, reversing a 2.1 percent loss of the previous quarter.

Optimism over Thai banks' earnings for the third quarter boosted buying interest, said Bangkok-based strategist Viwat Techapoonphol of Tisco Securities.

Among actively traded, Bank of Ayudhya Pcl rose 3.3 percent, snapping a six-day losing streak. It was under selling pressure early this week after a stake sale by shareholder General Electric Co The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange's VN Index reported a 7.1 percent quarterly fall, the region's worst, adding on a 4 percent fall for the second quarter.

On Friday, Moody's Investors Service downgraded Vietnam's sovereign credit rating by one notch to B2, citing stresses in the banking industry. It cut local and foreign currency deposit ratings of all eight Moody's-rated Vietnamese banks.

Among losers on Friday, Vietcombank fell 2 percent while Military Bank was down 0.75 percent.

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Thai index tops gain; Vietnam down after Moody's downgrade

ChildLight Yoga offers its nationally recognized weekend teacher training, designed to provide yoga teachers, educators, therapists, counselors, parents and others working directly with children and youth with the tools and knowledge needed to share the gifts of yoga with children.

Developed by Lisa Flynn, founder of ChildLight Yoga and Yoga 4 Classrooms, the ChildLight Yoga Teacher Training program is a popular, effective opportunity for educators, therapists, parents and others to learn to share yoga with children. The foundational training and certificate program consistently receive rave reviews from experienced kids' yoga teachers as well as from those new to teaching.

The training will be held in Flagstaff Oct. 19, 20 and 21. The discounted cost of $350 with coupon code CCCY35 includes 17 contact hours, comprehensive ChildLight Yoga Instructor Manual, the corresponding CD of "Yoga Songs for Children," certification administration and materials, and membership in the supportive ChildLight Yoga Instructor community. In addition, participants who complete the ChildLight Yoga Teacher Trainings are eligible to receive CEUs.

To register, visit: http://www.child lightyoga.com

ChildLight Yoga, based in Dover, N.H., provides evidence-based yoga education to children in schools and communities, and to professionals whose work supports the well-being of children. For more information, visit http://www.childlightyoga.com.

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ChildLight Yoga teacher training comes to Flagstaff

London, Sept. 30: A Catholic priest is proving surprisingly unbending in his opposition to yoga ' he will not allow his local church hall to be used for teaching yoga because he views it as an alien Hindu practice that could undermine the Catholic faith.

The hardline attitude on yoga by Father John Chandler has shocked thousands of its practitioners, Indians and non-Indians alike.

He has banned Cori Withell, a fitness instructor, from using St Edmund's Church Hall in Southampton, where he is in charge, for yoga lessons.

"There are other halls she could use in Southampton," was the priest's final word on yoga.

Fr Chandler is not in the mould of the gentle, tolerant priests who run St Xavier's and other missionary schools in India. Fr Chandler is convinced yoga is born out of Hinduism and permitting lessons would be to stray on to a slippery slope.

"Yoga is a Hindu spiritual exercise," he insisted. "Being a Catholic Church we have to promote the gospel and that's what we use our premises for."

"We did say that yoga could not take place," he went on. "It's the fact that it's a different religious practice going on in a Catholic Church."

He explained his moral dilemma: "On one hand we say to our parishioners, 'Be strong in your faith,' and on the other hand there's this other religious belief that's not part of our faith. It's not compatible. We are not saying that yoga is bad or wrong."

But there is no disguising his firm belief that yoga is wrong. He also accused Withell of being devious in the way she had booked her lessons. She had initially pretended she was only going to give lessons in Pilates (a fitness regime which began in Germany), but later slipped in yoga, he alleged.

Far from seeking to control a troublesome priest, Portsmouth Catholic Diocese, Fr Chandler's employer, gave him full support.

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Yoga classes? Not in my church, says UK priest

Yoga postures are very different from ordinary exercise. It is a mistake even to call the postures exercises, in the usual sense of the word. Their purpose is not to strengthen the muscles. They emphasise relaxation quite as much as they do tension. Unlike most physical exercises, they do not excite; rather, they eliminate excitement from the system.

An important difference between these postures and other systems of exercise is that in yoga practice one must never strain. Relax, never force yourself, into the prescribed positions. Stretch only slightly, if at all, beyond the point of comfort. You will be astonished to see how many poses you can accomplish by progressively deeper relaxation.

The yogi should act always from a centre of poise and calmness, of mental and physical relaxation. When I first met my Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, he told me that, while sitting in a chair giving interviews, he was not even aware of his body below the chest. To be able so completely to relax the body when not using it, it is necessary first to be in full control of it; to be able at will to be fully conscious of every muscle.

The yoga postures are not only a series of physical positions but exercises in mental awareness. The yogi must try to become conscious of the energy as it directs the muscular movements.

Between poses, he should calmly withdraw his energy from the periphery of his body; he should rest within himself. Savasana, the Corpse Pose, is particularly recommended for these peaceful interludes.

The yogi is enjoined to practise moderation in everything. He should avoid eating too much, or too little. He should not sleep too much, nor too little. (More than seven hours' sleep at night only drugs the nervous system.) He should be especially moderate in his sex life. Sexual over-indulgence causes tremendous drain on natural vitality. Continence, if it has the full consent of the mind, can be a tremendous factor in helping one to achieve full vigour, mentally and physically, and to attain deep spiritual insight.

Yoga practices help one to live in harmony with the forces of nature. The yoga postures should always, if possible, be practised out-of-doors, or by an open window.

They should be practised on an empty stomach or at least three hours after eating. It is preferable that the body be warm when performing them. But don't practise immediately after strenuous activity; or so long that the postures themselves result in over-exertion and fatigue.

Women should use caution if they wish to do yoga postures during the first day or two of the menstrual period.

The postures should not be practised, save with the greatest of caution, when the body is unwell. Any posture that gives rise to a feeling of pain (other than muscular) in the chest, abdomen or brain should be abandoned until the cause has been ascertained. People with high blood pressure should avoid all but the most gentle poses.

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Yoga is just not exercises, gives higher awareness

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du5Fttcyt24

29-09-2012 16:31 trying on my new Royal blue belly dance costume Please click on my fan page link 🙂 Hello ! how are you? I am on here to try to help everyone eat better and exercise If you need any help with that email me or call 1 (607) 483-8445 please do notforget to eat raw organic fruit (focusing on the fruit) vegetables (especially dark leafy greens) nuts and seeds and exercise two hours or two miles (walking) a day everyday huge hugs remember you are loved huge hugs dedicating all my videos to my mom who passed on to Heaven April 24, 2012 She will be enormously missed. my heart is happy my soul is free my love for you still stands strong freedom is the answer from far beyond time will change people will see that the answer is nature and natural and that life is to be clean to be happier molding one person at a time will make a happier place for us all. no one has all the answers but the key is to try and be what you were meant to be in the first place stand for what you believe in and go after it full circle love binds us and entwines us as one.... Happiness can be achieved if you follow your chosen dream love JuneMarie P. Liddy

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June-Marie Raw Food and Fitness Health weight Loss misc fun videos A quick Hello - Video