NewspaperDirect Inc., the world leader in multi-channel newspaper and magazine content distribution and monetization, has introduced new powerful reader comment and community features into the hundreds of digital editions available on PressDisplay.com and SmartEdition e-papers. By opening up hundreds of electronic editions of some of the world's most prestigious newspapers to reader comments, NewspaperDirect enables publishers to instantly add advanced 'social media' features to their publications and let their readers be a part of the story.

Online Singles, LLC (http://www.matchdoctor.com) is pioneering the online dating space by combining popular features of social networking sites (such as Myspace, Friendster, and Facebook) with online dating.

Major social networking sites have broad user demographics, and the great majority of their users are not seeking love or new relationships, or are teenagers. Sifting through thousands of profiles to find new relationships on a general social networking site is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Central Florida-based Blue Orb, Inc. and Full Sail University announced today a national promotion that will let gamers win a powerful Alienware PC and free trials of the new SwitchBlade™ PRO product. This event coincides with the rollout of new features for Blue Orb's SwitchBlade PRO, the popular software that enables today's most widely played PC games to be played with a game controller. The Alienware giveaway begins today and runs through the end of February 2009.

SwitchBlade PRO Alienware GiveawaySwitchBlade PRO provides the industry's most comprehensive pre-programmed support for PC game play using a controller. Customizable controller layouts are created by Blue Orb game testers and packaged with SwitchBlade PRO, giving the gamer a true plug-and-play console experience when playing their favorite PC game. SwitchBlade PRO is intuitive, easy to use software that brings the fully configured controller experience to more than 25 of the most popular PC games, including World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Half-Life 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Call of Duty 2 and 4, and the new Call of Duty: World at War.

Rucker Performance, a leading designer and manufacturer of custom and production motorcycles, introduces a new comprehensive line-up of 2006 American Muscle and Chopper motorcycles.

The Rucker Performance motorcycle has almost twice the horsepower of a stock Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Utilizing only top quality components, the company offers motorcycles with unique sheet metal and gas tank design, an eye-catching paint job and cutting edge designs.

The Assassin has the advantage of the latest technology available in the motorcycle industry today. The Assassin is created out of a carbon fiber composite body that decreases the weight of the bike and increases the durability of the motorcycle. The fuel tank is made out of Super-Form® aluminum used by Boeing, Lockheed, and British Aerospace. One of the most critical features on the Assassin is the new Rucker Performance patented Windlink suspension, an Indy style-cantilever suspension. The Assassin is the first OEM produced motorcycle to run the all new S&S 124 twin cam VFI fuel injected high horsepower motor. The motorcycle also includes an all billet swingarm and the remarkable Goldammer front suspension.

The Pro Drive Regional Races led off Portland's Independence Day holiday this weekend with a series of 12 regional championship races at Portland International Raceway. This is the fifth of six event weekends comprising the 2007 Oregon Region SCCA Road Racing Championship presented by Fluge Global Adventures.

Sanctioned by the Oregon Region of the Sports Car Club of America, nearly 150 race drivers will compete in eight Regional Championship race groups on the 1.967-mile road course in North Portland. Race cars range from purpose-built sports racers and open-wheel formula cars, to GT, sedan and vintage car classifications.

Sales Gravy Press, The Sales Book Publisher™, announced today that Mike Brooks, who is known to 27ec thousands of Sales Professionals as Mr. Inside Sales, has joined their family of authors.

Brooks is one of North America's top experts and consultants in inside sales. In his new book, "The Real Secrets of the Top 20%", Mike provides proven and effective tools and techniques that have helped thousands of inside sales professionals double their income selling over the phone.

"We are very pleased to have Mike Brooks on board with Sales Gravy Press," stated Jeb Blount, founder of sales powerhouse SalesGravy.com. "Mike brings over 25 years of experience to the table and has a loyal following among the thousands of sales reps and hundreds of companies he has trained and worked with over the years."

Mark Granville-Smith and Bob Hagel announced today that demolition and site clearing of the Gaslight Landing development on the site of the former Prince William Marina on Mill Street site has been completed and construction will begin soon. Granville-Smith and Hagel are the developers of Gaslight Landing’s 20 luxury townhomes, which will be built on the waterfront property between the Occoquan Inn and Mamie Davis Park. The homes are expected to be completed in summer/fall of 2006.

“We’re excited about starting the construction of Gaslight Landing, which will complement the town’s historic downtown area,” said Granville-Smith, chairman of the board and chief operating officer of Classic Concept Builders and a partner in the project. “Two groups of five homes will face Mill Street, and two groups of five homes will face the Occoquan River. Because of the buildings’ unique design, all units will have river views.”

The Lowbrow movement has many names and definitions with one common goal: To bring about a creative change in the art community.

Its origins are attributed to 1950s hot rod culture (Ed Big Daddy" Roth), auto pin-striping (Kenneth Howard Von Dutch"), original comics, (R. Crumb, Rat Fink, Zap) rock and roll, independent pop culture, and Salvador Dali meets tattoo art.

Today it is a brilliant blend of pop culture, graffiti art, street culture, pop art, and surrealism. This new force in the art world has amassed a popularity and staying power that have become undeniable. It has a sense of humor. The artists may be classically trained, or self-taught. They know the rules" of convention; yet consciously choose not to abide by them.

The author of Burke’s Law, A New Fitness Paradigm for the Mature Male, Paul Burke says that the reason that the United States leads the world in chronic illnesses (per capita) is because we have done two things horribly wrong in the past forty years: “One,” says Burke, the huge and muscular natural bodybuilder and author of over 500 peer reviewed articles and a great new book, “We have turned evolution upside down by taking both men and women, who, during our era that anthropologists call the “Paleolithic Era,” once used both fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers all day and then ate once or twice a day; and now, not only have women become sedentary to the point where every other women is obese by middle age, but men also, who during this great era of hunter/gatherers were powerhouses of human athleticism and strength, now have become too sedentary and eat twice as many calories as they burn in a day," says Burke, who stuggles to keep fit with a weight training and dietary program, that he devised because of being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. "When you get something like MS, you start researching about everything, and really focusing on a new way of living as if your life depends on it--because it does" Burke concludes.

Ashley Thompson will open the doors of her NYC shopping hotspot Owl's Lab for the "Spring/Summer 2008 Rebecca Minkoff Trunk Show" on Saturday, April 19th, 2008 from 12:00pm - 6:00pm, where over 30 new handbags will be debuted.

Saturday's trunk show will provide a unique opportunity for Minkoff fans to meet the designer whose handbags have been spotted on the arms of such celebrities as Hilary Duff, Sarah Jessica Parker, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan.

Online shoppers won't miss out -- Owl's Lab will send a special discount code to their e-mail list on Saturday morning, allowing customers to take part in the trunk show online. To receive the exclusive trunk-show code, send an e-mail to shop @ owlslab.com with "trunk show" in the subject line.

Owl's Lab -- one of the few exclusive retailers to carry Minkoff's high-end handbags -- is located at 20 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10003.

About Owl's Lab:

Style expert and entrepreneur Ashley Thompson, 28, enjoys a life immersed in the international fashion scene as both a forecasting fashionista as well as the owner of New York City's highly reputed women's boutique, Owl's Lab. Some of those sporting her goods include such industry icons as Mary-Kate Olsen, Jessica Alba and Paris Hilton.

Owl's Lab has been featured on TLC's "What Not to Wear" and in such publications as Vogue, Teen Vogue, WWD, Lucky, Us Weekly, In Touch, NY Post and Daily Candy. It also holds the title of one of the Top 100 Boutiques in New York City (Lucky magazine, August 2007) and is listed as one of NYC's five "Best Bets" boutiques along side Phillip Lim and other such notable women's fashion destinations.

Owl's Lab's aesthetic shopping atmosphere makes it a must for locals and travelers alike who desire what only such designers as alice + olivia, Botkier, Graham & Spencer, J Brand, Kooba, Paul & Joe, Rag & Bone and Rebecca Minkoff (to name a few) can offer.

For those unable to visit its NYC location, an online shopping experience is offered at Owl's Lab's official website: www.owlslab.com.

Media contact:

Marlan Willardson

MWPR

marlan at mw-pr.com

Whether they're Millennials, GenXers, Boomers or Matures, American women are actively considering their future retirement and financial security -- countering conventional wisdom that retirement is an "over 50" issue, according to a study issued today by Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU).

Prudential Women's Study Fast Fact

A surprising 36% of Millennials (ages 25-29) and 34% of GenXers (ages 30-42) are giving serious thought to what it takes to prepare for retirement, Prudential's fifth biennial study on The Financial Experience and Behaviors Among Women found. Retirement is also a top-of-mind consideration for 28% of Boomer women (ages 43-61) who participated in the study.

The Kennedy Center's (www.kennedy-center.org) International Committee on the Arts (KCICA) welcomed guests from around the world on February 23 to celebrate the launch of Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World, a three-week long festival showcasing the rich artistic and cultural diversity of Arab artists and art forms. Presented in cooperation with the League of Arab States, the festival features artists of international renown as well as indigenous performers making their US debut. KCICA co-chairs and major contributors Mr. A. Huda Farouki, CEO of Nour USA, Ltd. (www.nourusa.com) and Mrs. Samia Farouki, President of HII-Finance Corporation (www.hiifinance.com) were commended for their extraordinary commitment to Arab programming at the Kennedy Center during the evening's opening celebration.

Ever wonder why so many relationships, even those that begin on a healthy note, ultimately end in turmoil? Richard Watkins, author of the new book The Ultimate Alternative: When One Chooses Lust Over Love, has the answer.

"A lot of it is because people choose unhealthy, lustful relationships instead of those rooted in the love of Jesus Christ," he says. The Ultimate Alternative: When One Chooses Lust Over Love examines the myriad of reasons why people make such a disastrous choice and end up ruining what could have been a healthy relationship.

Workamajig (http://www.Workamajig.com), the leading worldwide software program for ad agencies and others in the creative and design industries, announced the next version of its project management software, with new Drag & Drop Flash Gantt Charts and improved support for Apple's latest Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.4.

The new version, due out toward the end of August, will allow users of the Workamajig software to manage their schedules directly through the graphical Gantt chart. Additional features include:

Moving of tasks via drag and drop

Drag and drop start and end date of tasks

View graphical representation of predecessors

Allows for dynamic zoom of any aspect of the Gantt chart

View original and actual schedules

This will be the second upgrade, following the huge May upgrade of the integrated Ad Agency system which converted from Creative Manager Pro to Workamajig. The May upgrade included a major foundation upgrade to its Ad Agency management software, addressing interface improvements based on months of research, client interviews and user feedback. All of the improvements are a direct result from many man-years of research and direct client feedback from actual users of the Creative Management Software.

Since its debut in 2004, reviewers, educators and authors have praised the Beacon Street Girls® book series for its empowering, honest perspective on the middle school years. Now, with more than 300,000 books in print and a new release on shelves, independent publisher B*tween Productions will showcase all eight Beacon Street Girls books at Book Expo America (BEA) on May 19-21 in Washington, D.C. as well as previewing the latest in the series.

The Beacon Street Girls series features five lively seventh-grade friends who express their individuality, work through problems, make smart choices, and develop positive self-images. Lucky Charm, the eighth book in the series, will be available nationwide on June 5. Additional volumes are scheduled for release in September and October of this year.

Addie Swartz created the award-winning series after struggling to find age-appropriate contemporary fiction for her two pre-teen daughters. According to Swartz, too many books aimed at young female readers contain adult messages and themes that can undermine girls' self-esteem.

"Our society pressures girls to go from age 8 to 18 overnight. My goal is to give girls a few years to become comfortable with who they are, before they're thrust into the adult world. The tween and teen book market is flooded with cynical, sensationalistic novels that paint a distorted picture of how young girls live. Why not offer our daughters a better vision?" asks Swartz.

Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out, calls the Beacon Street Girls "an authentic snapshot of middle school life that resists destructive cultural trends ... with flawed characters and true-to-life moments of embarrassment, anger, jealousy, and learning from mistakes ... the Beacon Street Girls is a welcome and important addition to girls' literature."

Lucky Charm emphasizes the importance of friendship and responsibility. When Marty goes missing, the girls immediately organize a search for their beloved dog. At the same time, Beacon Street Girl Katani’s autistic sister Kelly begins hippotherapy, a promising new therapy involving horseback riding. But soon the girls discover the stables are in danger of closing. When a famous Red Sox player reports that he has found Marty and will pay the BSG $10,000 to keep his lucky charm, the Beacon Street Girls are faced with an extremely difficult choice: save the horses or keep Marty.

Visit Booth #5732 on May 19-21 at the Book Expo America at the Washington Convention Authority In Washington, DC, to meet Addie Swartz and learn more about these empowering books for girls.

Okcontractor will build a profile of a contractors business and get them listed in four online directories for free. Contractors receive call in customers looking for their products and services within their local market. Contractors will also be able to pick and choose from an entire network of lead providers and choose the plan right for their business in their local area. No obligations! In addition, new contractors will receive an enhanced listing valued at nearly $500 for free.

Standard sign up service: Okcontractor.com's most popular service. Just one application and contractors start receiving leads from up to ten lead providers and get call-in business from four online directory listings; no memberships, no win fees, no renewals, preview the leads prior to purchase, no obligations! Pure performance based and pay-as-you-go! Contractors only pay for the leads they really want. This service has a one-time setup fee.

Effective Trainings fall line-up of GD&T public workshops includes training events in Michigan, Florida, California, and Texas. The hands-on workshops are open to the public and feature courses on geometric dimensioning and tolerancing fundamentals, tolerance stacks, and solid model tolerancing. All of the courses were developed by GD&T expert Alex Krulikowski, and they approach the subjects from a design perspective.

The September schedule features a three-day tolerance stacks workshop in Westland, Michigan. October GD&T fundamentals and solid model tolerancing courses are planned for Orlando, Florida. The 2005 workshop series comes to a close with November and December workshops that include fundamentals and Y14.41 solid model tolerancing courses in San Francisco, Houston, and Orlando. Tolerance stacks workshops are planned for San Francisco and Houston.

Technesis (www.technesis.com) is proud to introduce Technesis Print Assessments, part of the Technesis Print Control System. The software is setup and managed from one location, and deployed globally. Technesis software passively records printing from network print servers, remote network printers, along with LPT1, COM and USB printers. Print statistics are collected, summarized and automatically distributed via Technesis' reporting engine. Technesis reports provide decision makers the number of print jobs, color pages, monochrome pages printed to each device, by each user, for every workgroup. These print assessments are critical for any equipment reallocation or print rightsizing initiatives.

Google will hold a special early evening reception at WebmasterWorld's PubCon, December 4-7, 2007 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Search SEO SEM

This special event will focus on Google's webmaster service offerings, with numerous Google engineers on hand to answer individual webmaster questions.

"This event is the opportunity for attendees to put their specific site questions and issues direct to the engineering teams responsible for Google's search and technology offerings, and these sessions prove to be very popular with all attendees," said Brett Tabke, PubCon Chairman and WebmasterWorld CEO.

Horizon Textbook Publishing (http://www.htpublishing.com), the leaders in custom textbook publishing with over 20 years experience, today announced the upcoming release of Understanding American Government, fifth edition, by D. Grier Stephenson Jr., Charles C. Turner, Robert J. Bresler, Robert J. Friedrich, and Joeseph J. Karlesky. The new edition will be available in January 2009.

This fifth edition of Understanding American Government will include the following updates:

Coverage of the 2008 national elections

A new feature on the 2008 presidential campaign

Discussion of recent Supreme Court decisions

Current public opinion data

Coverage of changes in the Iraq War

Presentation of the most recent budget figures

The Authors

D. Grier Stephenson Jr., Franklin and Marshall College

Charles C. Turner, California State University, Chico

Robert J. Bresler, Pennsylvania State University

Robert J. Friedrich, Franklin and Marshall College

Joeseph J. Karlesky, Franklin and Marshall College

About Horizon Textbook Publishing

With over 20 years of experience in textbook publishing, Horizon's staff and customer service representatives allow authors to quickly and efficiently create quality textbooks perfectly tailored for their classroom needs. While Horizon continues to expand its offerings, they remain committed to their vision of providing one-on-one support, attention to detail, professionalism, and quality.

NewspaperDirect Inc., the world leader in multi-channel newspaper and magazine content distribution and monetization, has introduced new powerful reader comment and community features into the hundreds of digital editions available on PressDisplay.com and SmartEdition e-papers. By opening up hundreds of electronic editions of some of the world's most prestigious newspapers to reader comments, NewspaperDirect enables publishers to instantly add advanced 'social media' features to their publications and let their readers be a part of the story.

Online Singles, LLC (http://www.matchdoctor.com) is pioneering the online dating space by combining popular features of social networking sites (such as Myspace, Friendster, and Facebook) with online dating.

Major social networking sites have broad user demographics, and the great majority of their users are not seeking love or new relationships, or are teenagers. Sifting through thousands of profiles to find new relationships on a general social networking site is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Central Florida-based Blue Orb, Inc. and Full Sail University announced today a national promotion that will let gamers win a powerful Alienware PC and free trials of the new SwitchBlade™ PRO product. This event coincides with the rollout of new features for Blue Orb's SwitchBlade PRO, the popular software that enables today's most widely played PC games to be played with a game controller. The Alienware giveaway begins today and runs through the end of February 2009.

SwitchBlade PRO Alienware GiveawaySwitchBlade PRO provides the industry's most comprehensive pre-programmed support for PC game play using a controller. Customizable controller layouts are created by Blue Orb game testers and packaged with SwitchBlade PRO, giving the gamer a true plug-and-play console experience when playing their favorite PC game. SwitchBlade PRO is intuitive, easy to use software that brings the fully configured controller experience to more than 25 of the most popular PC games, including World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Half-Life 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Call of Duty 2 and 4, and the new Call of Duty: World at War.

Rucker Performance, a leading designer and manufacturer of custom and production motorcycles, introduces a new comprehensive line-up of 2006 American Muscle and Chopper motorcycles.

The Rucker Performance motorcycle has almost twice the horsepower of a stock Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Utilizing only top quality components, the company offers motorcycles with unique sheet metal and gas tank design, an eye-catching paint job and cutting edge designs.

The Assassin has the advantage of the latest technology available in the motorcycle industry today. The Assassin is created out of a carbon fiber composite body that decreases the weight of the bike and increases the durability of the motorcycle. The fuel tank is made out of Super-Form® aluminum used by Boeing, Lockheed, and British Aerospace. One of the most critical features on the Assassin is the new Rucker Performance patented Windlink suspension, an Indy style-cantilever suspension. The Assassin is the first OEM produced motorcycle to run the all new S&S 124 twin cam VFI fuel injected high horsepower motor. The motorcycle also includes an all billet swingarm and the remarkable Goldammer front suspension.

The Pro Drive Regional Races led off Portland's Independence Day holiday this weekend with a series of 12 regional championship races at Portland International Raceway. This is the fifth of six event weekends comprising the 2007 Oregon Region SCCA Road Racing Championship presented by Fluge Global Adventures.

Sanctioned by the Oregon Region of the Sports Car Club of America, nearly 150 race drivers will compete in eight Regional Championship race groups on the 1.967-mile road course in North Portland. Race cars range from purpose-built sports racers and open-wheel formula cars, to GT, sedan and vintage car classifications.

Sales Gravy Press, The Sales Book Publisher™, announced today that Mike Brooks, who is known to 27ec thousands of Sales Professionals as Mr. Inside Sales, has joined their family of authors.

Brooks is one of North America's top experts and consultants in inside sales. In his new book, "The Real Secrets of the Top 20%", Mike provides proven and effective tools and techniques that have helped thousands of inside sales professionals double their income selling over the phone.

"We are very pleased to have Mike Brooks on board with Sales Gravy Press," stated Jeb Blount, founder of sales powerhouse SalesGravy.com. "Mike brings over 25 years of experience to the table and has a loyal following among the thousands of sales reps and hundreds of companies he has trained and worked with over the years."

Mark Granville-Smith and Bob Hagel announced today that demolition and site clearing of the Gaslight Landing development on the site of the former Prince William Marina on Mill Street site has been completed and construction will begin soon. Granville-Smith and Hagel are the developers of Gaslight Landing’s 20 luxury townhomes, which will be built on the waterfront property between the Occoquan Inn and Mamie Davis Park. The homes are expected to be completed in summer/fall of 2006.

“We’re excited about starting the construction of Gaslight Landing, which will complement the town’s historic downtown area,” said Granville-Smith, chairman of the board and chief operating officer of Classic Concept Builders and a partner in the project. “Two groups of five homes will face Mill Street, and two groups of five homes will face the Occoquan River. Because of the buildings’ unique design, all units will have river views.”

The Lowbrow movement has many names and definitions with one common goal: To bring about a creative change in the art community.

Its origins are attributed to 1950s hot rod culture (Ed Big Daddy" Roth), auto pin-striping (Kenneth Howard Von Dutch"), original comics, (R. Crumb, Rat Fink, Zap) rock and roll, independent pop culture, and Salvador Dali meets tattoo art.

Today it is a brilliant blend of pop culture, graffiti art, street culture, pop art, and surrealism. This new force in the art world has amassed a popularity and staying power that have become undeniable. It has a sense of humor. The artists may be classically trained, or self-taught. They know the rules" of convention; yet consciously choose not to abide by them.

The author of Burke’s Law, A New Fitness Paradigm for the Mature Male, Paul Burke says that the reason that the United States leads the world in chronic illnesses (per capita) is because we have done two things horribly wrong in the past forty years: “One,” says Burke, the huge and muscular natural bodybuilder and author of over 500 peer reviewed articles and a great new book, “We have turned evolution upside down by taking both men and women, who, during our era that anthropologists call the “Paleolithic Era,” once used both fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers all day and then ate once or twice a day; and now, not only have women become sedentary to the point where every other women is obese by middle age, but men also, who during this great era of hunter/gatherers were powerhouses of human athleticism and strength, now have become too sedentary and eat twice as many calories as they burn in a day," says Burke, who stuggles to keep fit with a weight training and dietary program, that he devised because of being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. "When you get something like MS, you start researching about everything, and really focusing on a new way of living as if your life depends on it--because it does" Burke concludes.

Ashley Thompson will open the doors of her NYC shopping hotspot Owl's Lab for the "Spring/Summer 2008 Rebecca Minkoff Trunk Show" on Saturday, April 19th, 2008 from 12:00pm - 6:00pm, where over 30 new handbags will be debuted.

Saturday's trunk show will provide a unique opportunity for Minkoff fans to meet the designer whose handbags have been spotted on the arms of such celebrities as Hilary Duff, Sarah Jessica Parker, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan.

Online shoppers won't miss out -- Owl's Lab will send a special discount code to their e-mail list on Saturday morning, allowing customers to take part in the trunk show online. To receive the exclusive trunk-show code, send an e-mail to shop @ owlslab.com with "trunk show" in the subject line.

Owl's Lab -- one of the few exclusive retailers to carry Minkoff's high-end handbags -- is located at 20 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10003.

About Owl's Lab:

Style expert and entrepreneur Ashley Thompson, 28, enjoys a life immersed in the international fashion scene as both a forecasting fashionista as well as the owner of New York City's highly reputed women's boutique, Owl's Lab. Some of those sporting her goods include such industry icons as Mary-Kate Olsen, Jessica Alba and Paris Hilton.

Owl's Lab has been featured on TLC's "What Not to Wear" and in such publications as Vogue, Teen Vogue, WWD, Lucky, Us Weekly, In Touch, NY Post and Daily Candy. It also holds the title of one of the Top 100 Boutiques in New York City (Lucky magazine, August 2007) and is listed as one of NYC's five "Best Bets" boutiques along side Phillip Lim and other such notable women's fashion destinations.

Owl's Lab's aesthetic shopping atmosphere makes it a must for locals and travelers alike who desire what only such designers as alice + olivia, Botkier, Graham & Spencer, J Brand, Kooba, Paul & Joe, Rag & Bone and Rebecca Minkoff (to name a few) can offer.

For those unable to visit its NYC location, an online shopping experience is offered at Owl's Lab's official website: www.owlslab.com.

Media contact:

Marlan Willardson

MWPR

marlan at mw-pr.com

Whether they're Millennials, GenXers, Boomers or Matures, American women are actively considering their future retirement and financial security -- countering conventional wisdom that retirement is an "over 50" issue, according to a study issued today by Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU).

Prudential Women's Study Fast Fact

A surprising 36% of Millennials (ages 25-29) and 34% of GenXers (ages 30-42) are giving serious thought to what it takes to prepare for retirement, Prudential's fifth biennial study on The Financial Experience and Behaviors Among Women found. Retirement is also a top-of-mind consideration for 28% of Boomer women (ages 43-61) who participated in the study.

The Kennedy Center's (www.kennedy-center.org) International Committee on the Arts (KCICA) welcomed guests from around the world on February 23 to celebrate the launch of Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World, a three-week long festival showcasing the rich artistic and cultural diversity of Arab artists and art forms. Presented in cooperation with the League of Arab States, the festival features artists of international renown as well as indigenous performers making their US debut. KCICA co-chairs and major contributors Mr. A. Huda Farouki, CEO of Nour USA, Ltd. (www.nourusa.com) and Mrs. Samia Farouki, President of HII-Finance Corporation (www.hiifinance.com) were commended for their extraordinary commitment to Arab programming at the Kennedy Center during the evening's opening celebration.

Ever wonder why so many relationships, even those that begin on a healthy note, ultimately end in turmoil? Richard Watkins, author of the new book The Ultimate Alternative: When One Chooses Lust Over Love, has the answer.

"A lot of it is because people choose unhealthy, lustful relationships instead of those rooted in the love of Jesus Christ," he says. The Ultimate Alternative: When One Chooses Lust Over Love examines the myriad of reasons why people make such a disastrous choice and end up ruining what could have been a healthy relationship.

Workamajig (http://www.Workamajig.com), the leading worldwide software program for ad agencies and others in the creative and design industries, announced the next version of its project management software, with new Drag & Drop Flash Gantt Charts and improved support for Apple's latest Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.4.

The new version, due out toward the end of August, will allow users of the Workamajig software to manage their schedules directly through the graphical Gantt chart. Additional features include:

Moving of tasks via drag and drop

Drag and drop start and end date of tasks

View graphical representation of predecessors

Allows for dynamic zoom of any aspect of the Gantt chart

View original and actual schedules

This will be the second upgrade, following the huge May upgrade of the integrated Ad Agency system which converted from Creative Manager Pro to Workamajig. The May upgrade included a major foundation upgrade to its Ad Agency management software, addressing interface improvements based on months of research, client interviews and user feedback. All of the improvements are a direct result from many man-years of research and direct client feedback from actual users of the Creative Management Software.

Since its debut in 2004, reviewers, educators and authors have praised the Beacon Street Girls® book series for its empowering, honest perspective on the middle school years. Now, with more than 300,000 books in print and a new release on shelves, independent publisher B*tween Productions will showcase all eight Beacon Street Girls books at Book Expo America (BEA) on May 19-21 in Washington, D.C. as well as previewing the latest in the series.

The Beacon Street Girls series features five lively seventh-grade friends who express their individuality, work through problems, make smart choices, and develop positive self-images. Lucky Charm, the eighth book in the series, will be available nationwide on June 5. Additional volumes are scheduled for release in September and October of this year.

Addie Swartz created the award-winning series after struggling to find age-appropriate contemporary fiction for her two pre-teen daughters. According to Swartz, too many books aimed at young female readers contain adult messages and themes that can undermine girls' self-esteem.

"Our society pressures girls to go from age 8 to 18 overnight. My goal is to give girls a few years to become comfortable with who they are, before they're thrust into the adult world. The tween and teen book market is flooded with cynical, sensationalistic novels that paint a distorted picture of how young girls live. Why not offer our daughters a better vision?" asks Swartz.

Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out, calls the Beacon Street Girls "an authentic snapshot of middle school life that resists destructive cultural trends ... with flawed characters and true-to-life moments of embarrassment, anger, jealousy, and learning from mistakes ... the Beacon Street Girls is a welcome and important addition to girls' literature."

Lucky Charm emphasizes the importance of friendship and responsibility. When Marty goes missing, the girls immediately organize a search for their beloved dog. At the same time, Beacon Street Girl Katani’s autistic sister Kelly begins hippotherapy, a promising new therapy involving horseback riding. But soon the girls discover the stables are in danger of closing. When a famous Red Sox player reports that he has found Marty and will pay the BSG $10,000 to keep his lucky charm, the Beacon Street Girls are faced with an extremely difficult choice: save the horses or keep Marty.

Visit Booth #5732 on May 19-21 at the Book Expo America at the Washington Convention Authority In Washington, DC, to meet Addie Swartz and learn more about these empowering books for girls.

Okcontractor will build a profile of a contractors business and get them listed in four online directories for free. Contractors receive call in customers looking for their products and services within their local market. Contractors will also be able to pick and choose from an entire network of lead providers and choose the plan right for their business in their local area. No obligations! In addition, new contractors will receive an enhanced listing valued at nearly $500 for free.

Standard sign up service: Okcontractor.com's most popular service. Just one application and contractors start receiving leads from up to ten lead providers and get call-in business from four online directory listings; no memberships, no win fees, no renewals, preview the leads prior to purchase, no obligations! Pure performance based and pay-as-you-go! Contractors only pay for the leads they really want. This service has a one-time setup fee.

Effective Trainings fall line-up of GD&T public workshops includes training events in Michigan, Florida, California, and Texas. The hands-on workshops are open to the public and feature courses on geometric dimensioning and tolerancing fundamentals, tolerance stacks, and solid model tolerancing. All of the courses were developed by GD&T expert Alex Krulikowski, and they approach the subjects from a design perspective.

The September schedule features a three-day tolerance stacks workshop in Westland, Michigan. October GD&T fundamentals and solid model tolerancing courses are planned for Orlando, Florida. The 2005 workshop series comes to a close with November and December workshops that include fundamentals and Y14.41 solid model tolerancing courses in San Francisco, Houston, and Orlando. Tolerance stacks workshops are planned for San Francisco and Houston.

Technesis (www.technesis.com) is proud to introduce Technesis Print Assessments, part of the Technesis Print Control System. The software is setup and managed from one location, and deployed globally. Technesis software passively records printing from network print servers, remote network printers, along with LPT1, COM and USB printers. Print statistics are collected, summarized and automatically distributed via Technesis' reporting engine. Technesis reports provide decision makers the number of print jobs, color pages, monochrome pages printed to each device, by each user, for every workgroup. These print assessments are critical for any equipment reallocation or print rightsizing initiatives.

Google will hold a special early evening reception at WebmasterWorld's PubCon, December 4-7, 2007 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Search SEO SEM

This special event will focus on Google's webmaster service offerings, with numerous Google engineers on hand to answer individual webmaster questions.

"This event is the opportunity for attendees to put their specific site questions and issues direct to the engineering teams responsible for Google's search and technology offerings, and these sessions prove to be very popular with all attendees," said Brett Tabke, PubCon Chairman and WebmasterWorld CEO.

Horizon Textbook Publishing (http://www.htpublishing.com), the leaders in custom textbook publishing with over 20 years experience, today announced the upcoming release of Understanding American Government, fifth edition, by D. Grier Stephenson Jr., Charles C. Turner, Robert J. Bresler, Robert J. Friedrich, and Joeseph J. Karlesky. The new edition will be available in January 2009.

This fifth edition of Understanding American Government will include the following updates:

Coverage of the 2008 national elections

A new feature on the 2008 presidential campaign

Discussion of recent Supreme Court decisions

Current public opinion data

Coverage of changes in the Iraq War

Presentation of the most recent budget figures

The Authors

D. Grier Stephenson Jr., Franklin and Marshall College

Charles C. Turner, California State University, Chico

Robert J. Bresler, Pennsylvania State University

Robert J. Friedrich, Franklin and Marshall College

Joeseph J. Karlesky, Franklin and Marshall College

About Horizon Textbook Publishing

With over 20 years of experience in textbook publishing, Horizon's staff and customer service representatives allow authors to quickly and efficiently create quality textbooks perfectly tailored for their classroom needs. While Horizon continues to expand its offerings, they remain committed to their vision of providing one-on-one support, attention to detail, professionalism, and quality.