Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - GNC Holdings, Inc.,the nation’s largest specialty retailer of health, wellness and sports nutrition products, is proud to partner with Pittsburgh Three Rivers Marathon, Inc. to host the first annual GNC Liberty Mile – expected to be the third largest competitive, one-mile road race in the U.S, where world-class milers will compete for a $25,000 prize purse with both the male and female winners taking home $4000 each.

“For years, GNC has been the leader in providing the fuel for runners to achieve their goals, and we believe it’s time that we bring the quickly emerging world of one-mile road races to Pittsburgh, our home town. To make that happen, we are proud to sponsor the inaugural GNC Liberty Mile and launch it in a way that we expect will immediately make it one of the nation’s largest,” stated, Jeff Hennion, EVP – Chief Marketing Officer and eCommerce at GNC. “The event will provide a racing venue for a wide spectrum of athletes ranging from highly competitive milers to those running in their first professional race. Whether you run competitively at a world class level or simply run around the block, this race is for you.”

The event will take place on August 17 at 7 p.m. on Liberty Avenue, from 17th street in the strip to 6th street, Downtown. Six one-mile heats will be held offering various opportunities such as raising money and giving corporations the chance to participate in a corporate wellness challenge. The heats include:

One for Fun: Recreational mile for ages 5-100 years old.

Giving Back: Participants register and raise money for a participating charity.

It’s All Business- Participants register and participate with their corporate teammates.

Winning…..at 40+: Masters mile participants for competitors 40 years of age and older.

Unstoppable: Ages 13-39 years old. Open to competitive milers-male and female (6 minute mile or under).

Experts: Qualified participants 18 years of age and older-male (4:17 and under and female 5:00 min miler or under).

The announcement is part of the Bring Back The Mile Campaign, a national movement to return the mile race to prominence on the American sports and cultural landscape. In 2012, there will be almost a half dozen new mile road races across the Country.

“Competitive mile road races are increasing in popularity and we are pleased that Pittsburgh will be a part of this trend with the GNC Liberty Mile,” stated Patrice Matamoros, Race Director for Pittsburgh Three Rivers Marathon, Inc. “The mile run is a great entry race for people who are interested in the sport of running and with the competitive heats we are sure to see some of those high-speed crowd pleasing chases as well.”

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Simple Energy has announced its integration with the Green Button, a White House coordinated initiative that will provide more than 10 million PG&E, SDG&E, and Southern California Edison customers with their personal energy data and allow them to view the information across a variety of platforms.

The Simple Energy Customer Engagement Platform transforms this personal energy data into an online game that allows users to compete with friends and win prizes for increased energy efficiency.

Households in the service territories of California’s three largest utilities can now download their energy usage data online with one click, accessing the past year of their energy data. This data can then be seamlessly integrated with the Simple Energy platform, which helps users to understand their energy use with actionable insights and an easy points system that scores them against their Facebook friends.

“We are excited to be able to work with the Green Button initiative to provide millions of customers across California with a social, fun and simple way of understanding their own energy data,” said Yoav Lurie, CEO and co-founder of Simple Energy. “By allowing people access to their energy usage data in a meaningful way on platforms where they are already spending their time such as Facebook, we make saving energy into an easy and enjoyable experience.”

Simple Energy is the first social energy application to go live to the public, with easy data uploading now available to over 15 million homes in California and Texas. The platform is available as a web application, by email and on Facebook, with a mobile application going live this month. Soon, Simple Energy will be available to more users around the country.

The Simple Energy platform normalizes customer’s energy usage, allowing participants to compete with their friends across the country — similar to a golf handicap. In addition, players can form teams in order to compete on behalf of a cause that they support, such as a school or community organization. Finally, the program follows strict privacy guidelines, comparing normalized scores among users without revealing any personalized, individual details about actual energy use.

For Simple Energy’s utility partners, the portal product that allows for seamless integration with their consumer energy data comes standard with the Green Button export and download integration feature. This standard integration will allow utilities that decide to work with Green Button to instantly offer their customers a social, fun and simple way to understand their own energy data.

In addition, the Simple Energy portal product also supports third-party API integration with any outside vendors that utilities may opt to include. The Green Button uses a voluntary industry standard supported by efforts of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, NAESB’s ESPI, that was developed for this more sophisticated use case.

The launch of the Green Button initiative follows the completion of an energy efficiency program piloted in San Diego, where the Simple Energy platform succeeded in more than doubling energy savings among participating residential customers during a three-month period.

“The amazing results from San Diego clearly demonstrate that the Simple Energy approach to motivating people to save energy really works,” explained Lurie. “People are naturally social and they like competing to win points and prizes. This is an intuitive way for people to easily save energy.”

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Tango Buenos Aires started on August 16 and continued until August 30. The event showcases the distinct style of tango dancing.

The signature dance style of South America’s Argentina is undeniably the passionate tango. Professional dancers and lovers of tango head to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the annual Tango Festival and Dance World Cup.

With strong cultural importance and a rich history, tango has been a staple in the Argentine heritage and is close to the hearts of locals. Guided by passionate music and close body movements, tango is often synonymous with the country’s culture. The August festival brings tango enthusiasts through a journey of showcases, classes, documentary films, concerts, conferences and parties, all in celebration of the beloved dance.

Spectators and participants can enjoy a full schedule of activities during Tango Buenos Aires. A popular event spanning the duration of the festival is the interactive dance tango classes. Classes are available in different levels, including beginner, intermediate, and advance. Beginner classes are given for free, while all the courses available are taught by highly respected tango masters.

Coming from a host of different dance schools, these instructors bring with them expert knowledge and a genuine desire to spread the love of dance.

With venues throughout the city of Buenos Aires, performances happen nightly. Many performances are free and open to the public, giving people easy access to the cultural festivities. Famous dancers and choreographers, including special guests Ana Maria Stekelman and Maria Nieves, perform in pieces that illustrate the intense emotions and dance steps associated with tango.

Performances range from showcasing individuals to larger company performances, providing audiences with a wide variety of tango dances to enjoy. International dancers perform in the annual Dance Festival and World Cup, participating in activities that are present during the Tango Buenos Aires Festival. Competitions are held in the categories of Salon Tango and Stage Tango.

Participants are judged by professionals to determine the champions. Competitions are also held in the milonga scene as well. Milongas are essentially dance clubs in the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires where tango is danced on a regular basis. Locals often gather in milongas to express themselves through the language of dance.

Located in the Centro Municipal de Exposiciones, milongas and parties are held throughout the Tango Buenos Aires festival. Live music from orchestras and DJs are played while anyone from the beginning to advanced levels of dance are welcome to step onto the dance floor. Over 400 couples dancing in the World Cup of Dance lit up the dance floor during a welcome ball, kicking off the Tango Buenos Aires festivities.

Documentary films are also a part of Tango Buenos Aires. This years films aim to analyze the way in which tango has changed over recent years. Because tango is often considered to be an important component of Argentine culture, these documentary films showcase how the style of dance has continued to reinvent itself throughout the years, while still remaining true to its roots.

Like many of the performances and concerts, the films shown at Tango Buenos Aires are free of charge. The abundance of tango activities occurring through Tango Buenos Aires is a great chance for visitors and locals to immerse themselves in the passionate dance style.

The celebration of tango as a natural treasure makes the two week festival an exciting way to dance into Argentine culture.

Anibal Trejo / Shutterstock.com

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