Performance Kalona is about to celebrate as it approaches its 1-year anniversary. The addition of Tonya Miller to the team brings new classes, expertise and services. Tonyas education in health and sport studies, coupled with her experience working with seniors at Oaknoll Retirement Communities, gives her the skills to work with people of all ages and abilities. She is a certified personal trainer and will also lead group fitness classes with the goal of developing new classes targeting seniors, moms and children.

Currently, Performance offers Yoga, Heat, Cy-Fit, Zumba and BOSU classes and will be adding Senior Fitness Classes and TNT soon.

A familiar face to the Kalona and Mid-Prairie Community is physical therapist, Pat Swancutt. Pat has been a member of the Performance staff since 2005. In addition to his work for Performance as a physical therapist, he has also provided athletic training services for Mid-Prairie High School for the past 10 years. Pat was an integral part of Performances expansion into the Kalona area in April of 2011.

Pat will be running the annual PASS speed and agility camp this summer at Mid-Prairie High School beginning June 4 and running for 6 weeks, Monday/Wednesday/Fridays from 8-9:30 a.m. Please refer to http://www.performance4health.com for those interested in participating.

Team Performance will be running in the Kalona Days Fun Run. Register for the race and join Team Performance at 5:30 p.m. at Performance Kalona and receive a gift with a race warm up by Tonya.

On Saturday June 16, there will be a free Sunrise Yoga at 7 a.m. and Zumba at 8 a.m. before you head down to the Parade. Also, in honor of this milestone the first months membership is $1.

The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of kalonanews.com.

We encourage your feedback and dialog, all comments will be reviewed by our Web staff before appearing on the Web site.

See more here:
Growth at Performance Kalona brings new health and fitness services

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

tenXer, the technology company redefining personal productivity, today announced the launch of the tenXer platform, designed to revolutionize human capital management from the bottom up. Using measurable metrics to power game-like and social motivation systems, tenXer produces dashboards, leader boards and activity streams that are all designed to make employees better at their jobs, regardless of industry.

tenXer CEO and Founder Jeff Ma is the inspiration for both the movie 21 and the book Bringing Down the House by acclaimed author, Ben Mezrich. Ma created the concept for tenXer last fall when he saw a huge opportunity in the human capital management industry. tenXer focuses first and foremost on the everyday individual worker; the employee opposed to upper management. The company built a proprietary, data-driven platform that enables employees to better understand and improve their work performance, allowing them to be more intrinsically motivated and therefore more productive.

Ma has been a pioneer in the use of data in both the gambling and sports industries, and his recent book, The House Advantage, takes these lessons to the business world. After selling his most recent company, Citizen Sports, to Yahoo!, Ma has been fascinated by the concept of how data can be used to motivate people and change their behavior in the work environment. tenXer takes advantage of the shift toward cloud-based services that already collect large amounts of data about what people are doing at work. Accessing this data is becoming increasingly easier and tenXer is the first company to turn this data into motivation.

We are building a platform that allows any employee to easily analyze and understand their daily work habits, said tenXer Chief Executive Officer and Founder Jeff Ma. We believe that this is the backbone to creating a real revolution in human capital management. In our opinion, the feedback loop at work is broken. It is too infrequent, too subjective and too opaque. Our goal is to use measurable metrics to power instantaneous, objective and transparent feedback.

When many executives look at their financial reports, they too often look past one of the largest expenses payroll. Getting smarter productivity out of their workforce is paramount. But often their efforts are ineffective because they are top down and seen as overheard or are too subjective, explained Kevin Compton of Radar Partners, an investor in tenXer. This is exactly what Jeff Ma and his team of tenXers have set out to fix. They are building a powerful tool to help all of us become better at what we do by using objective metrics and intrinsic motivation.

Motivation comes in the form of graphs, charts and activity streams which allow the user to analyze their past performance and see how their current performance is tracking toward their future goals. In addition, the user is able to see how they rank versus their peers in a variety of different lead boards spurring healthy and fun competition.

Currently, tenXer integrates with workforce tools like GitHub, Pivotal Tracker, Jira, Google Mail/Calendar and Phabricator. The company plans to quickly add non-engineering tools like Twitter and Zen Desk.

About tenXer

tenXer is the company redefining personal productivity by building a platform that allows any employee to analyze their daily work habits. tenXer has raised money from investors including Radar Partners, True Ventures, Google Ventures, Webb Investment Network (Maynard Webb), Social and Capital Partnership (Chamath Palihapitiya) and Founders Fund Angel Brian Singerman. tenXer is privately-held and headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Excerpt from:
MIT Blackjack Guru Launches Personal Productivity Platform tenXer

By Andrs Cardenal - June 7, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, BRK-B, BRK-A, FB, GS | 0 Comments

Andrs is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

The investors chief problem -- and even his worst enemy -- is likely to be himself.

Ben Graham

Its not recessions, unscrupulous bankers or even nontransparent business practices what should concern investors the most. The biggest threat to your financial well being, my friend, is no other than yourself.

Fortunately, not only for their mistakes are investors responsible, the same goes for making the right decisions and choosing the best companies to invest in. Contrary to generalized opinion, I believe there has never been a more interesting time to be an investor. For better or for worse, investors have now much more possibilities and flexibility to implement their strategies.

Information has never been so abundant and easy to access as it is nowadays, education about personal finance and investing is widely available for those interested in the topic and willing to do the learning effort. You can access financial statements, recommendations and all kind of relevant news about companies in almost no time and no cost.

The technological revolution has also created many companies which have a tremendous potential to reward investors in an extraordinary way over the long term. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) for example is the biggest company in the world, and last quarter the company reported a 88% unit sales increase in iPhone and 151% increase in sales of iPads, which produced a 94% growth in net income versus the same quarter of the previous year. If the Cupertino giant wasnt such an innovative company making the best use of technological advancements, those kinds of growth rates would be impossible for companies of this size.

The other side of the equation regarding the effects of new technologies on our investments would be the danger of investing in companies like Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), but nobody was forced to do so. Those who paid a stratospheric price for shares of a social network only because they knew it was popular made a huge mistake, but it was their own mistake. Who knows, maybe the company will find a more sustainable way to generate profits, and with more than 900 million users this could still be an opportunity in the future, especially if bought at much lower levels.

Its not only about technology, of course, considering our current environment is quite shaky and uncertain regarding global economic conditions. Times have been much better in terms of economic growth in the past, and there are many structural problems in developed countries which need to be fixed. This will probably generate higher levels of volatility and uncertainty in the future, but that also brings opportunity.

Follow this link:
Investing Success Depends on You

The Orioles will send their hottest pitcher left-hander Brian Matusz to the mound tonight with the opportunity to sweep the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Yes, Matusz, who entered the season possessing the longest personal losing streak in baseball, seems to have things figured out of late.

Matusz (5-5), who is going for his fifth win in his past six starts, is 4-1 with a 2.78 ERA and hes coming off his best outing of the season, a season-high 7 1/3-inning start at Tampa Bay in which he allowed just two hits and one run while striking out seven. His outing Saturday was his longest in nearly 22 months, when he threw eight innings against the Rangers on Aug. 19, 2010.

The 25-year-old left-hander is also using his pitches effectively. Despite issuing three walks Saturday, he didnt labor deep into counts, allowing his 97 pitches get him into the eighth inning.

Hes using his slider effectively 22 of his 29 sliders were strikes in his last outing -- especially a backdoor slider that starts outside to right-handed hitters then enters the zone at the last minute.

Rays hitters swung at his slider 19 times and missed 10 times for a 52.6 swing-and-miss percentage (compared to a 29 percentage on the season).

Its been really big for me, especially since my change-up has been a little inconsistent, so to be able to have that, its been nice, Matusz said. Its just throwing them in the right count. I dont know how many of those sliders were down out of the zone, that started as strikes and ended up being down. Its just depending on the situation and the count and where I want to go with it.

Orioles pitching coach Rick Adair said Matusz showed a lot of confidence using his backdoor slider as an out pitch. Adair has also been impressed with Matuszs ability to throw the sliders at different speeds, with his slider that starts over the plate and breaks down and in to right-handed batters coming in with more velocity.

Hes done a tremendous job with that, Adair said.

Getting a feel for his breaking pitches has also allowed Matusz to get more ground ball outs. Over his past five starts, he owns an impressive 1.04 groundball-to-flyball ratio.

See the rest here:
Throwing slider with confidence a key to Matusz's success

The Class of 2012 at Conejo Valley High School celebrated graduation Thursday afternoon with 53 out of the 77 graduating seniors inattendance.

The ceremony was held on the playfields at the continuation school's Kelly Road campus in NewburyPark.

Principal Martin Manzer commended his students for making it through atoughyear.

"You have overcome personal obstacles that most can only imagine," Manzer told them. "You have persevered and you should be very proud of yourselves. Your success isoursuccess."

Top scholar Daisy Rojas said in her speech that Conejo Valley High School is a specialplace.

"CVHS helped me become an independent person by forcing me to challenge myself. So starting with failure came only success and so it has been with all of us," shesaid.

Student speaker Sarah Dixon said she believed she would never have graduated without the help and support she received at theschool.

"I am so honored to be walking with this class and I am so proud of each and every one of you," Dixonsaid.

"Success is not how high our GPA was or how high our salaries will be in 10 years. Success is knowing we have the power to do anything," she said. "We set our mind to it and worked hard to accomplish ourgoals."

Paul and Patricia Herron said they were elated to see their daughter Jamie, 17, graduate. She plans to attend MoorparkCollege.

More:
Conejo Valley High graduates celebrate success

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhAOL7gkPGs

06-06-2012 17:48 A short video considering the value and/or currency of the term 'the rural idyll' in the context of the modern day sustainable development debate.

Excerpt from:
What Is The Rural Idyll? - Video

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W00Ed9nkl4o

07-06-2012 10:29 Learn Hypnosis Online Internet technology has made online education a popular and convenient way to learn most any subject. Nowadays it is possible to even learn hypnosis online. Online hypnosis courses vary according to media formats and depth of study. You should choose the course that best fits with your reasons and goals for learning hypnosis. It should also be noted that some regions require education from a licensed and approved school so online learning may not be for everyone. For many however, online courses can be the ideal way to learn hypnosis foundations and even techniques. In this video you will discover the common options available to you to learn hypnosis online. For more about how to become a hypnotist see my channel at

Read the original here:
Learn Hypnosis Online - Video

RADNOR, Pa., June 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Quintiq Inc. today announced that American Public University System (APUS), a provider of online higher education focused on serving the military and public service communities and other motivated professionals, has selected Quintiq's Workforce Optimization Solution to help support APUS's current operations and strategic growth initiatives.

"The flexibility of the Quintiq solution will be demonstrated by its ability to be configured to meet the challenging and dynamic nature of a 100% online educational environment," Dr. Victor Allis, CEO of Quintiq, stated. "We are confident that our software will help APUS streamline the course scheduling requirements for its approximately 1,800 faculty members worldwide."

About APUS

American Public University System (www.apus.edu), winner of the Sloan Consortium's 2009 Ralph E. Gomory Award for Quality Online Education and two-time recipient of Sloan's Effective Practices Award, offers 87 online degree programs through American Public University (www.apu.apus.edu) and American Military University (www.amu.apus.edu). APUS's relevant curriculum, affordability and flexibility help more than 100,000 working adults worldwide pursue degrees in a diverse variety of subjects.

About Quintiq

Quintiq provides advanced planning, scheduling and supply chain optimization software solutions. This fast-growing company, established in 1997, offers and implements software for planning and optimizing complex business processes throughout the enterprise. The company's dual headquarters are located in the Netherlands and the USA with subsidiaries in Australia, China, Finland, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. Quintiq systems are implemented in 77 countries worldwide. More at http://www.quintiq.com. Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/quintiq

More information:David Kenneson VP North America Quintiq Inc. Radnor Financial Center 201 King of Prussia Road Suite 110 Radnor, PA 19087 T: 610-964-8111 E: david.kenneson@quintiq.com

Read more here:
Quintiq Workforce Optimization Solution Selected By American Public University System

Staff Writer

Augusta State University will offer its first complete online degree program in the fall, giving students an alternative to the traditional classroom setting and broadening enrollment to students outside the boundaries of Augusta.

The Web-based Master of Education in Educational Leadership is a 12-course program that students can complete in one year in front of a home computer.

It is a degree geared toward educators who want to become administrators or teachers looking to build leadership skills, said Wayne Lord, the chairman of ASUs Department of Educational Leadership, Counseling and Special Education.

The reason for 100 percent online is to reach out and expand our enrollment beyond our geography, Lord said.

Students must apply by July 20 for the Aug. 20 session and Sept. 14 for the Oct. 15 session.

Although Lord said the college has not received applications yet, he expects about 25 students per course, similar to the traditional class loads ASU has on the physical campus.

ASUs move to offer the online degree is atypical in higher education trends, even as enrollment in online courses across the country increases. The vast majority of growth in online degree programs, more than 90 percent, is coming from schools that already have an established online curriculum rather than schools such as ASU just starting to offer online degrees, according to Jeff Seaman, co-director of Babson Survey Research Group.

More than 6.1 million students nationally were taking at least one online course in the fall 2010 term, an increase of 560,000 students from the previous year, according to Seamans 2011 study Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States.

Not all higher education institutions are as interested in offering online courses, however, nor are all faculty members enthusiastic about teaching on the web.

Read the rest here:
ASU to offer first complete online degree program this fall

LYNCHBURG, Va., June 7, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- StraighterLine (www.straighterline.com) announced today that Liberty University Online (www.LUOnline.com) has joined their rapidly expanding network of partnering colleges, welcoming StraighterLine students to transfer credits for enrollment in one of Liberty's online degree programs.

StraighterLine provides a unique path for students to get the basic credits they need at an affordable rate. Through StraighterLine's unique structure and affordable pricing plan, students can complete freshman and introductory-level classes while saving thousands on their college degree.

As a StraighterLine partner institution, Liberty Online is able to offer flexible, affordable, accredited online degree programs, in over 100 programs of study, to StraighterLine students continuing to pursue their educational goals.

Liberty Online is coming alongside StraighterLine and those students seeking to fulfill their basic course requirements in this manner to help them continue to experience the flexibility and affordability they are seeking. With eight-week sub-terms continually offered throughout the year, Liberty's online program affords students the flexibility to complete course work when and where best suited to their needs, while accelerating their degree completion.

Through this partnership, Liberty Online is offering transfer credit to those students who have successfully completed StraighterLine's online college courses. With a wide assortment of course options, StraighterLine currently offers thirty-eight entry-level college courses online including English, math, humanities, business, college prep, and science. StraighterLine courses are evaluated and recommended by the American Council on Education's College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE CREDIT), ensuring a smooth transition to students wanting to take their education to the next level.

About Liberty University

Liberty University, located in Lynchburg, Va., is the world's largest Christian university. Offering courses on its 6,800-acre, residential campus and in online format, Liberty is home to nearly 100,000 students.

Liberty Online strives to meet the needs of students on all fronts. Liberty offers more than 100 fully-accredited online programs of study, from the associate to doctoral level, and embraces the opportunity to assist individuals in advancing their education.

Since 1971, the mission of Liberty University has been to develop Christ-centered men and women with the values, knowledge, and skills essential to impact tomorrow's world. With a unique heritage and an expanding future of influence, Liberty continues steadfast in its mission of Training Champions for Christ.

As part of the world's largest, non-profit, Christian university, Liberty Online is known for its high student satisfaction and retention rates. Liberty Online continues to focus on student success by providing exceptional resources, including an online library, Online Writing Center, a partnership with Tutor.com, Liberty Online Ministries, and knowledgeable Academic Advisors.

Continued here:
Liberty University Online Forms Partnership With StraighterLine to Provide Flexible, Affordable Higher Education