Coming up, San Diego welcomes yogis to its annual Yoga Journal Conference, while the Reebok CrossFit Games kick off in Carson, California.

Yoga Journal Conference: San Diego July 12-16 San Diego, California, USA

Thousands of yogis will flock to San Diego to stretch, mix, and mingle with some of yoga's top teachers at one of the premier yoga events in the world. More than 100 classes will be taught by more than 35 master and celebrity yoga teachers, including Dharma Mittra, Seane Corn, and Cyndi Lee. A Colorado event happens September 30-October 7. http://www.yjevents.com/ny/index.phpWatch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtj2Vw03w_4

Reebok CrossFit Games 2012 July 13-15 Carson, California, USA

The CrossFit Games event is the final competition in a series in which the world's fittest, who have triumphed in regionals and sectionals around the world, come together to compete for the grand prize. The first place male and female individual winners will each receive $250,000. CrossFit is about metabolic conditioning and combines a series of intense, fast workouts without machines for core strengthening and conditioning including weightlifting, sprinting, and gymnastics. http://games.crossfit.com Facebook

Bliss Beat Festival Piedmont, Italy July 19-22

Devotion, music, and yoga are on tap at this unique international English-language festival in Northern Italy. The program combines hatha yoga, DJs, dancing, and chanting; a sister event happens in London on October 27 and 29. http://www.blissbeatfestival.com/en

World Breastfeeding Week August 1-7 Worldwide

World Breastfeeding Week takes place in over 120 countries to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world. It was begun some 20 years ago by WHO and UNICEF policy-makers to protect, promote and support breastfeeding. Stay tuned to the official site to see what events, from flash mobs to photo contests, are taking place. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/annual/world_breastfeeding_week/en/index.html

Devon Yoga Festival August 10-12 Devon, England

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Health and fitness agenda: Yoga Journal Conference, CrossFit Games

We asked:

Among the bills that moved through Congress last week is one allowing for phased retirement for federal workers. Would such a program, which would allow employees to work part time after retirement, with their salaries and annuities prorated help or hurt agencies? Would you participate in the program?

You said:

I would consider this option. It seems that it would benefit both the agency and the retiree with the transition. When all you know is to get up and go to work every day, then you do not have that [retirement] focus (unless you are fortunate enough to not be a widow/widower and have plans with your mate in retirement). The finality of retirement would be less.

Plus, knowledge and experience sometimes just cant be written in a continuity book!

I work for the Department of Defense with the Air Force and have for the past 28 years.

Katherine N. Lane

resource adviser

Moody Air Force Base, Ga.

I think this is a great idea. It is a win-win. The individual can prepare for retirement at his own pace. The agency benefits because they can still tap into the knowledge that the individual has. This will help agencies from making mistakes that they solved years ago but there is nobody left to remember that solution. Additionally, the agency can have the part time retiree mentor the new people coming into the agency. The agency has a vacancy and can hire a person to do those duties while the retiree mentors him.

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Federal workers: phased retirement sounds good

As kids, they sat on gas lines in the backs of their parents' cars. As young adults, they saw the stock market crash, and when it finally came time to settle down, they bought a house at the peak of the housing bubble and then were faced with the worst economy since the Great Depression. It's no shock that Generation X - those born from 1965 to 1981 - may get short changed in their golden years.

Though they've watched parents and grandparents nestled with pensions, Social Security and strong economic growth, these are no longer guarantees. On the other hand, longer life spans with more medical bills and greater need for cash are the reality for many.

Gen X is the first generation to deal with the fact that the models of American retirement are changing - and its members are flustered. The generation once called "slackers" has been true to form with retirement planning.

"Gen X is a transition generation," says Carol O'Rourke, a certified financial planner and Executive Director for the Coalition for Debtor Education in New York City. "Gen Xers were young during the tech bubble, and when they came of age, housing was a lot more expensive. With all the talk about whether Social Security is going to survive, there is a sense of not having something to look forward to."

According to a 2012 Insured Retirement Institute , IRI, report, only one-third of Gen Xers are "very confident" about having enough money to live comfortably during retirement, cover their medical expenses, and pay for their children's higher education.

Just 41 percent of the group have tried to figure out how much money they will ultimately need to save for retirement, and among those who have saved, half have amassed less than $100,000.

"Even though they have a longer time horizon toward retirement, there has been a tremendous emotional impact on their confidence in the future. What are they going to do to be sure that they have enough?" adds Cathy Weatherford, IRI president and CEO.

Along the same lines, a November 2011 report from the Guardian Life Insurance Company of found 82 percent of Xers believe the economy is headed in the wrong direction.

Skepticism is one of the defining X characteristics, says Robert Wendover, managing director at the Center for Generational Studies in Littleton, Colo.

"Many of the institutions that they were taught as children didn't play out, whether it was political or social or economic. They just kind of unraveled for a variety of reasons," says Wendover.

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Retirement May Be Mission Impossible for Gen X

Javier, who finished second behind Greene at last summers World Championships in Daegu, has been the form athlete all season and won with a world-leading time of 47.78sec, but Greene will be delighted that he was able to run him so close.

It was after that race that Greene chose to go public with the news that he had undergone knee surgery in the winter and had lost a large chunk of training time during his rehabilitation.

But, after several weeks of tough training at his Bath base, he is now clearly firing on all cylinders as he sliced 0.04sec off his previous personal best and came within just 0.02sec of Kriss Akabusis 20-year-old UK record.

Christine Ohuruogu, the defending Olympic 400m champion, is also enjoying a return to form this season after several years of injuries and her time of 50.59sec was her quickest since 2009.

Her problem is that the womens 400m is one of the deepest and most competitive events in the athletics programme and there were still three runners ahead of her. The winner, Botswanas world champion Amantle Montsho, won in 49.77sec.

In the mens 5,000m, Ethiopian Dejen Gebremeskel displaced Mo Farah at the top of the world rankings with victory in a super-fast 12min 46.81sec that proved he will be a big threat in London.

Countryman Kenenisa Bekele, the Olympic champion, is in danger of not being selected for the event after finishing ninth.

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London 2012 Olympics: Dai Greene clocks personal best at perfect time in Paris Diamond League meeting

In anticipation of the release of his debut album, "Channel Orange," R&B dynamo Frank Ocean will make his network television debut with a performance on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" on Monday night (July 9). Although it is unclear what song Ocean will perform, the singer will be backed by the "Fallon" house band, the Roots.

Following Friday's announcement, Ocean also posted a sensual new "Channel Orange" track, "Sweet Life," on his Tumblr blog. Check it out below.

"Channel Orange," due out July 17 on Def Jam, follows Ocean's acclaimed 2011 mixtape "Nostalgia, Ultra," in which the 24-year-old mixed original tracks with reinterpretations of songs by Coldplay, MGMT and The Eagles, among others. The studio album has been preceded by the nearly-10-minute single "Pyramids" and features guest appearances by Andre 3000, Earl Sweatshirt and John Mayer.

First Listen: Frank Ocean Previews 'Channel Orange' in NYC

The "Fallon" booking follows a revealing personal statement from Ocean on Wednesday: on his Tumblr blog, the singer opened up about his sexuality and described falling in love with a man at the age of 19. Since posting the statement, Ocean has received support from Def Jam president Joie Manda, Def Jam founder Russell Simmons and Odd Future band mate Tyler, The Creator, among others.

Ocean's upcoming "Fallon" performance also comes one year after Odd Future made its network TV debut on the late-night, when Tyler and Hodgy Beats delivered a raucous performance of "Sandwitches" in February 2011. Ocean appears on the controversial group's "The OF Tape Vol. 2" album, which was released last March.

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Frank Ocean Releases 'Sweet Life' Song, Announces 'Fallon' TV Debut

July 6, 2012

Connie K. Ho for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are just a few of the social media networks that have become popular in the past few years. Social media networks allow individuals to share photos, stories, video, and other forms of communication with friends and family. Investigators have studied how social media has become integrated in peoples daily lives. In particular, researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) recently found that social networks can stimulate changes in the health behavior of individuals.

With the project, the team of public health researchers was inspired to study the science behind social influence. They believe that an understanding of online and face-to-face interactions can improve disease prevention and help promote public health issues. The researchers concluded that it is necessary to understand a groups social structure and social dynamics to understand the factors that influence a group members decision making.

If I want to go into a high school and change physical activity or other obesity behaviors, I have to understand there are cliques and subgroups of students that exhibit different risks, explained Thomas W. Valente, professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, in a prepared statement. I would design different interventions for the different groups. We constantly are concerned about how ineffective our interventions are this is a big reason why those interventions are not working. We can do a much better job promoting healthy behaviors if we understand the social network contexts and design these interventions with those cues in mind.

In the project, Valente collected a variety of methods that public health advocates utilize to encourage changes in behavior. Through his research, he identified why particular methods are more effective than others for certain situations like quitting smoking or preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

With 24 interventions identified for researchers to utilize, Valente believes that it is important to create a stronger framework that can help choose the tactics that could be most effective. Different methods can have different results based on the social network. For example, word-of-mouth can spread news and create groups of similar friends.

Existing evidence indicates that network interventions are quite effective, Valente, whose research focuses on social networks and influence, commented in the statement. Yet, the science of how networks can be used to accelerate behavior change and improve organizational performance is still in its infancy. Research is clearly needed to compare different network interventions to determine which are optimal under what circumstances.

Valente concludes that, even though behavioral marketing has been used in business, it can be applied in the public health sector. He believes that new media tools like Facebook and Twitter have helped in the collection of data and the spread of information. In particular, Facebook and friends can impact a persons decision making and health behavior. Valentes research project is supported by a National Institutes of Health grant, which was under the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The findings are highlighted in the July 6 edition of peer-reviewed journal Science.

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Social Networks Influence Personal Health Decisions

Published: Friday, July 6, 2012, 12:01 a.m.

By M.L. Dehm,Herald Business Journal

The risk paid off. Since the first location opened six years ago, Elle Marie has not only expanded, it has also won multiple awards from different trade publications. The company took top honors with Salon Today 200 magazine three years in a row.

"We were a top five finalist for 'Evening Magazine's' Best of Western Washington for 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011," Buck said.

In 2009, Elle Marie was runner up for 425 Magazine's Best of 425 and in 2008 it won a Business Excellence award from the South Snohomish County Chamber of Commerce. Buck was runner-up for this year's Herald Business Journal's Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

But how did this Seattle native go from 30 years in the corporate world to running a hair salon? It wasn't through job dissatisfaction. Buck loved her previous career. She started as a banker with KeyBank and later left the world of finance for the high-tech industry.

It was when she was an administrator with McCaw Cellular that Buck felt she made the most growth, both in herself and in her understanding of how to run a successful business.

When McCaw Cellular was unexpectedly sold it left Buck wondering what to do.

By now, she was well experienced with starting up new offices for McCaw. Could she start a business for herself and be successful? Buck decided to start two businesses instead of one.

She went to school and received life-coaching certification. Meanwhile, her daughter, Lorry Green, who was a hairdresser, suggested that they open a hair salon. Initially, Buck envisioned a business run out of her garage. Instead, an opportunity arose to purchase an existing salon south of Mill Creek that she believed had solid demographics.

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Lessons of corporate career helped Mill Creek salon owner to success

Loudes Balepogi, Chispa Marketing and Michelle Villalobos

Everybody is selling something whether its your products, your services, your events, yourself, your ideas, or your cause, but effective selling that result in more sales and money doesnt always come easy. And for businesswomen, selling is even more challenging. The reality is that business is still dominated by men, and while women are starting businesses twice as fast as men are, they only earn 55 cents on the dollar to their male counterparts. So this means that women who break the mold and reach the tipping point of business success have to do more and be better just to even the playing field.

Finding workable solutions to the female business dilemma is what the 2-day Empowered Women Success Summit V The Big Close was all about. Held on May 17th and 18th, 2012 at The Miracle Theater in Coral Gables, businesswomen from all walks of life learned directly from the masters of networking, multi-million dollar entrepreneurs, and personal branding experts on how to earn what theyre worth and close more deals. For many of the estimated 600 businesswomen (and men) in attendance, making the big close is the difference between status quo to a supercharged sales and branding engine.

Take Michelle Wolfe of Halo Branded Solutions for example. Shes done a great job at networking with prospective clients, making the introduction, and positioning her promotional products company as a viable service provider. But when it comes to closing the deal, thats where shes stuck. So she attended the Summit to learn from experts like Nell Merlino of Make Mine AMillion $$ Business.

The truth is that Michelle Wolfe isnt alone. During the Summit, Ivan Misner, Founder & Chairman of BNI, the worlds largest business networking organization with almost 6,200 chapters throughout every the world, said that businesswomen do a great job at building and nurturing relationships with prospective clients, even better than men sometimes. However, men are much more efficient at deal making, according to Misner.

The 2-day Summit hosted engaging panel discussions with topics including: The Badass Guide To Fun, Effective & Lucrative Selling led by Jessica Kizorek, founder of BadassBusinessWomen.org The 8 Secrets To Getting More Customers, To Buy More Things, More Often led by Mike Michalowicz, author of the best selling Toilet Paper Entrepreneur What Motivational Speakers Wont Tell You About Building AMillion Dollar Business led by Nell Merlino, Founder of Make Mine A Million $$ Business From Networking to CLOSING Insights From The Father Of Modern Networking led by Ivan Misner How To Drive Traffic, Generate Leads, Engage Website Visitors, Gather Fans And Close Deals Virtually moderated by Denise Jacobs, author of The CSS Detective Guide VIP pass holders also had the opportunity to attend a mastermind session with Mike Michalowicz, a 30-minute onsite Laser Coaching session with ActionCOACH, Kathryn MacAskill, and a Speed Pitch session led by Christine Pallesen and Scott Garvis of Dale Carnegie Training. This is the fifth Success Summit in Miami created by personal branding expert, Michelle Villabolos. Michelle teaches business concepts and skills to professionals in a fun and entertaining way, and her programs have been delivered collectively to over 80,000 people worldwide. Shes developed 13 programs on sales, marketing, and personal branding that have collectively been viewed either virtually or in person by over 100,000 people. She speaks professionally on the subject of how to leverage your unique personality, knowledge, and assets to drive business and has appeared regularly in the media discussing personal branding as well as how professional women can get along, get ahead, and get promoted.

To learn more about the Women Success Summit, visit michellevillalobos.com/womenssuccesssummit.

Short URL: http://www.communitynewspapers.com/?p=41145

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Women’s Success Summit V: Moving from Status Quo to Supercharged Sales & Branding Engine

ROME, JULY 5, 2012 (Zenit.org).- The first liturgical texts approved for the Personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans have been promulgated by the Holy See. They are the Order for Funerals and the Order for the Celebration of Holy Matrimony.

There are now three ordinariates established: the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom; the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter in the United States and Canada; and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia.

According to a report by Vatican Radio the texts are drawn from the classical Anglican prayer book tradition and incorporate elements of the Anglican patrimony, now in the full communion of the Catholic Church.

This is an important moment in the development of our distinctive liturgical and ecclesial life, said Monsignor Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, in a July 3 press release.

The liturgies were promulgated by the Congregation for Divine Worship on June 22, 2012, the feast-day of the English saints of the Reformation, John Fisher and Thomas More

The new texts were developed under the guidance of Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia OP, who served until recently as the Secretary for the Congregation of Divine Worship. Archbishop DiNoia was recently appointed to the position of Vice President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, and has also been re-appointed as chair of the Holy Sees Anglicanae traditiones Commission, tasked with developing the new liturgical texts for the Personal Ordinariates.

The Reverend Uwe Michael Lang, CO, who also just stepped down from a post with the Congregation for Divine Worship, will also continue his role in the development of the texts.

We welcome with gratitude these texts, which bring into Catholic liturgical life some of the most beloved and memorable texts in the Book of Common Prayer, said Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson, Ordinary for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, in a press release issued the same day.

These texts have blessed and comforted generations of English-speaking Christians and will be deeply appreciated in the Ordinariate communities, he added.

Innovative Media, Inc.

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Liturgical Texts for Personal Ordinariates Approved

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

05-07-2012 04:16 Sophia Denielle Galvan Dumaguin @ Padre gomez elementary school manila Softball try out 5july12 in blue pants and black blouse

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SOFTBALL EXCERCISE P GOMEZ ELEM 5JULY'12 - Video