AUSTRALIA'S newest world-record holders have an average age of 90.

In a swim that brought a crowd of about 200 screaming spectators to tears, the four Melbourne ''golden girls'' set a world masters record in the 4 x 50-metre relay, swimming the race in about five minutes, 45 seconds.

''It was great to hear the applause and think, we're not so old after all,'' said the team's fourth or ''anchor'' swimmer, Hazel Gillbee, 84, the ''baby'' of the team. ''It's pretty good to feel fit.''

The women, members of the North Lodge Neptune AUSSI Masters Swimming Club, recently discovered that no one had ever entered a world record for a relay swim in the ''360'' masters division (representing the total ages of team members).

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As members of the same swimming club, they were eligible to try to set the first record, and chose last night's swim meet at the Jubilee Park Aquatic Centre for their attempt.

While the four women swim at least weekly and were confident of succeeding, the event had all the drama and anticipation of an Olympic meet, with the bleachers packed and TV news crews and local media vying for position at the end of the 25-metre pool.

''We are a bit concerned about the changeovers,'' said Ms Gilbee before the race, ''I said to the girls, 'Make sure you do it right, it doesn't matter about the time - we don't want to get disqualified'.''

Eldest team member Clarise Artis, 97, started swimming competitively when she was 86 (four years after having a quadruple heart bypass) and swims 800 metres twice a week.

But she has recently recovered from pneumonia and said: ''I've not been swimming as well as I could.'' As the team's first swimmer, her nerves were rattled further after the starting gun failed three times.

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Life turns 360 for our oldest world champions

Time's ticking away in the fourth quarter and you're down, but not out. Is it time to throw caution to the wind, put in the spread offense, and start throwing long to the end zone?

If we're talking about football, the answer may indeed be yes. However, if we're talking about your retirement, you'd better think again. A financial advisor with your best interests in mind would likely counsel you to be realistic about your retirement -- that is, if funds are short, smart moves might be increasing your current contributions, planning to retire later, or adjusting your expected budget in retirement. Drastically increasing your portfolio's risk profile, on the other hand, would almost certainly be a gamble not worth taking.

Yet when it comes to the country's major pension funds, many are doing just that in an attempt to overcome recent poor returns and sizable funding gaps. As Reuters reported yesterday, many major pension funds are ditching stocks and bonds, the traditional mainstay of pension funds, and turning to riskier alternative investments like hedge funds, venture capital, and even catastrophe reinsurance.

There may be some upside to the shift -- for instance, many alternative investments aren't correlated to stocks, which means that when stocks zig the alternatives may zag, increasing stability for the funds. But alternative investments tend to be far more expensive, with many hedge funds and private equity funds charging something near the classic "2 and 20" that hits investors for 2% of assets for management and also grabs 20% of profits. Alternative investments also tend to be riskier. As Brad Pacheco of the giant California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS, fund put it: "There is a premium that goes with investing in alternative investments because they typically are a little bit riskier."

For some funds, like CalPERS, the turn to alternatives has been fairly measured. Reuters noted that CalPERS upped its exposure to alternatives to 14% in 2011, up from 12.5% in 2010. For other funds though, the move has been far more drastic.

South Carolina's South Carolina Retirement System, the largest pension fund in the state, faces a 35% funding gap with assets more than $13 billion short of its liability based on actuarial assessments. Back in 2006, that fund had more than 40% of its funds in various flavors of bonds, and 53% in equities through common stocks and trust funds. The 7% of the fund in "Financial & Other" was a small part of the picture. That was hardly the case in 2011, as the SCRS fund is now more than half alternative investments. Stocks now make up just over 12% of the portfolio.

Not only is this change an expensive one -- thanks to the high fees involved with alternatives -- and a risky one -- because of the higher risk involved with the asset class -- it also appears to have been an ill-timed one. Though the fund's annual report lauded hedge-fund and private-equity returns of 11.6% and 20.2%, respectively, as a highlight of fiscal 2011, the return on its U.S. stock portfolio roundly topped both with a 39% return.

Looking at the entire investment universe, it was a pretty terrible year overall to be heavily weighted toward hedge funds. A handy table included in the SCRS' annual report showed that the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index returned 4.2% for the fiscal year, while the S&P 500 (INDEX: ^GSPC) delivered 31% and the Barclays Capital Global Aggregate fixed income index returned 10.5%. Heck, the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate bond index nearly matched the hedge funds with a 3.9% return.

I can't sit here and say that the shift that SCRS made absolutely isn't going to work -- if for no other reason than the fact that even a low-probability gamble can pay off if you're lucky enough. But the moves that they've made provide a good opportunity for retirement investors to remind themselves of a couple of key points:

For the sake of South Carolina public employees -- of which my sister is one -- I hope that the current SCRS portfolio works out. But investors saving for retirement on their own probably don't want to take their cues from its hail-mary approach.

Originally posted here:
How Not to Save for Retirement

They might have called it Occupy New Delhi.

In an Indian incarnation of the burgeoning social protest movement, one of its most celebrated yogis Baba Ramdev this week led thousands of disciples through the streets of the capital, protesting against what he claimed was endemic political corruption.

The focus of his attack is black money the estimated trillions of rupees said to be parked illegally in Swiss and other foreign bank accounts.

Much of it is controlled by the countrys elites, maintains Mr. Ramdev, the bare-chested, richly maned, 41-year-old head of a multimillion-dollar international yoga empire.

The gurus campaign, however, is only the latest manifestation of a growing cultural phenomenon the politicization of yoga.

At first glance, that might seem oxymoronic.

Traditional yoga is about a seeking state of tranquil separation from the world.

The essence of the teachings is to act without motive for gain not to seek the fruit of any action, says Divya Prabha, founder and director of Halifaxs Shining Bay Yoga Studio. And if you are motiveless, there can be no agenda.

More practically, most of the millions of students who have lately discovered the joy of yoga are too busy perfecting asanas in hip leisurewear at hot-yoga studios to join campaigns for reform.

Blessed with an aura of credibility by celebrities Sting, Lady Gaga, Shaquille ONeal, Jennifer Aniston more than 20 million Americans are now flocking to yoga classes. In the United States alone, its a $7-billion-a-year industry, with more than 25,000 studios and all manner of merch.

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How yoga is turning into a protest movement

By Allison Martell

(Reuters) - Lululemon, the hip Canadian chain that made yoga apparel fashionable, has taken its fight for market share to the courts with a patent lawsuit, as new brands of active wear seek to undercut its premium prices.

The lawsuit filed by Lululemon Athletica Inc (LLL.TO), which cultivates a mellow yoga vibe in its stores, comes as investors indicate growing unease over the company's future. Whether the lawsuit, filed in a U.S. court, will shore up the company's position remains to be seen.

Patent lawsuits are uncommon in apparel and can be difficult to win. The suit could deter imitators, and thus help the Vancouver-based company cement its growth. It also highlights how tough the competition is.

"This is a low barrier-to-entry industry. Lululemon, their success, has drawn new competitors throughout the mall," said independent retail analyst Brian Sozzi. "The valuation is so high. It's tough to warm up to a stock when you see so many new competitors."

In the suit filed in federal court in Delaware on August 13, Lululemon accused PVH Corp's (PVH.N) Calvin Klein brand and manufacturer G-III Apparel Group Ltd (GIII.O) of infringing three patents on the design of its yoga pants. Design patents protect the appearance of goods, in contrast to more common utility patents, which focus on how things work.

"What Lululemon is doing here is staking its turf," said Jeremy de Beer, an intellectual property expert and law professor at the University of Ottawa.

Founded in 1998, Lululemon took Canada and then the United States by storm with costly, colorful, fashionable workout gear targeted at professional young women. Its shares are up seven-fold since its 2007 initial public offering, and now trade at 46 times earnings.

De Beer compared Lululemon's suit to tech sector patent wars, such as the high-profile trial between Apple Inc (AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS>, now drawing to a close.

"The business strategy is to deter other people from even trying to copy designs, because it's going to cause them legal problems," he said.

Continued here:
Analysis: Lululemon patent claim highlights cutthroat yoga world

SQUAW VALLEY, Calif. On a crisp summer night, beneath a bright half-moon that illuminates the cliffs of Squaw Valley's dramatic Tram Face, MC Yogi, a yoga teacher and DJ from San Francisco, exhorts a crowd of several thousand: "Take a deep breath and let it all out." Then, "Say namaste!" The crowd, which had been doing both all day long, does them again. But this time they also raise a collective glass and call out with enthusiasm not usually displayed by a bunch of lithe-bodied Lululemon-clad yoginis.

Welcome to the Wanderlust Festival.

This four-day yoga retreat by day, dance party by night is the sort of event that could only happen if a pair of indie rock producers shared office space with an internationally renowned yoga teacher. Which is exactly how Wanderlust, which comes to Santa Monica in abbreviated form in September, was born.

"We realized that there is a crowd that likes to dance and drink, but they are also serious about their yoga," says co-founder Jeff Krasno, who conceived of the festival with his yoga-instructor wife, Schuyler Grant, and college band mate and business partner, Sean Hoess.

That first event, held at Lake Tahoe, featured mostly traditional yoga classes and lectures during the day and music at night. Four years later, Wanderlust is taking on a life of its own, say the founders. "Each year more artists show up they create temporary art installations around the grounds and we've added some alternative yoga offerings." Classes like slack-line yoga and hoops yoga (a combination of yoga, hula hooping and dancing) are packed.

This year's Tahoe Wanderlust featured hundreds of yoga classes, lectures, meditation hikes and music workshops. Many of the instructors are stars of the Western yoga world Shiva Rae, Seane Corn, Baron Baptiste and Jonny Kest who pack as many as 600 people onto mats under huge tents. (Most classes have many fewer participants.)

Today there are multi-day festivals in Lake Tahoe, Vermont, Colorado and British Columbia. This year, the four-day Tahoe event saw about 15,600 people in the ski resort's village, which is usually very quiet during the summer.

One-day free versions of Wanderlust called Yoga in the City are held in several cities across the country; the Santa Monica event is Sept. 9 on the Santa Monica Pier. It will feature an afternoon of classes taught by local instructors, including Katie Brauer, Derek Beres, Brock and Kirsta Cahill and Ally Hamilton and Kumudini. The organizers planned the event in partnership with YogaAid and hope to raise $1 million through donations and sponsorships for charities.

"I like the part of the Wanderlust message that you can practice yoga and still enjoy life," says Sara Ivanhoe, a first-time Wanderlust instructor who does most of her teaching at YogaWorks' Santa Monica locations. (She has another commitment and won't be at the Sept. 9 event.) "In our culture we have lost sight of the fact that the practice of yoga is meant to serve us and make us feel better, spiritually and physically," she says. "Yoga shouldn't be punishment; it shouldn't be about whether you are doing it 'correctly.'"

health@latimes.com

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At Wanderlust, yoga flows into party

By Mike Watkins//Correspondent

Life hasnt been easy or simple over the many years since Anthony Ervin won gold in the 50 freestyle at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

After winning world titles the next year in the 50 and 100 freestyles, Ervin was restless in life and swimming fighting some inner demons and within a few months, was contemplating making a drastic, life-altering change.

Two years later, at just 22 years old, he retired, vowing not to return.

He sank deep into a counter-culture trap, playing guitar, growing dreads, tattooing sleeves on both arms and smoking and drinking. Locked in a world of substance use and depression, he attempted suicide by eating a bottle of tranquilizers and had a high-speed chase with the cops in Berkeley, where he swam collegiately, ending with his motorcycle entangled with a Mustang and his shoulder separated and hanging from a sling.

He was headed nowhere fast, swapping Olympic and world venues for tattoo parlors and record shops and looking for a sign of what the future might still hold for him and his amazing talent wrapped in indifference and self-admittedly, arrogance and entitlement.

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Anthony Ervin: Loving Life and Swimming... Again

Australia's champion hockey player Jamie Dwyer has retired from internatiional duties but has vision of coaching the Kookaburras. Source: Getty Images

JAMIE Dwyer has flagged his interest in coaching the Australian men's hockey team in the future.

Dwyer, a triple Olympian and captain of Australia's only Games gold medal team, has already embarked on a coaching career, having taken up the role leading the men's ones at local club YMCC Coastal City.

The club job is in addition to his DwyerOnline.com coaching business and 1&9 Coaching, a hockey tuition program he runs with teammate Mark Knowles.

Dwyer this week returned to Perth after a London campaign that netted his second Olympic bronze - the team also finished third at Beijing - and the 33-year-old confirmed it was his final Games.

He said coaching the Kookaburras, a side that had been such a large part of his life, was a future goal.

"I love hockey and I'd like to stay involved in hockey.

"(Coaching) is definitely a possibility, but I need to think about whether I'm going to carry on my career first and I've got a few things outside of hockey that I'm interested in as well.

"(Coaching the national side) would be good and I think I'd like to do it.

"I've got a lot to learn before then and I don't think I'd do it in the next 10 years, but after that and down the track, it's definitely a possibility.

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Dwyer wants top job with Kookaburras

I couldnt help but notice that Helen Gurley Brown died on Annie Oakleys birthday this past week. What came to mind immediately was something my mother used to sing to me when I was a teenager:

Oh you cant get a man with a gun, as the Irving Berlin song goes. With a gun, with a gun. No, you cant get a man with a gun.

Relax, NRA sharp shooters, Mom was talking in metaphor. That kind of independence, she figured, was frowned upon when trying to land a man. It was intimidating and emasculating.

But this was a time (the late 1970s) when Gurley Brown and Gloria Steinem and even The Mary Tyler Moore Show were well-entrenched in our culture and delivering other messages to balance that out. It was this Gurley Brown line of thinking that influenced me:

The message was: So youre single. You can still have sex. You can have a great life. And if you marry, dont just sponge off a man or be the gold-medal-winning mother. Dont use men to get what you want in life -- get it for yourself.

It surprises me how even today some of my life coaching clients especially those of my generation -- dont get this way of thinking. Some do and could pretty much teach courses in how to be strong, vibrant, independent and female, but I find others struggle with their identity as it relates to the social order of things. Their self image is often tied up in roles where they are in relationship to others mother, wife, daughter. Not so much seeing themselves as a whole person who may be all of those things.

As a coach, I love the challenge of this kind of client. Sometimes a divorce, illness or death forces them into building their own lives and they thrive. In some cases what is initially loneliness turns to solitude, a wholly different experience. It allows for room to reflect, to attract new things and people, and to reconnect with interests they once loved and began to neglect.

We all have those individuals weve met or admire from afar who have helped propel us along our path. I like to collect examples, from my life and others, so that I can have one at the ready when a client needs a boost from a real, tangible individual who overcame or accomplished something. I want to at the very least get them nodding and at the most give them a push to action on their own goals.

For instance, upon discovering then-New York Times op-ed columnist Anna Quindlen, I was buoyed by the idea of another New Jersey Italian-American woman, also raised Catholic, having a voice in that forum. It validated my own decision to become a columnist.

Ironically one of my earliest female influences -- Roman Catholic nuns -- has resurfaced as a great inspiration this summer. They are currently under fire from a Vatican Doctrinal Assessment with regard to a number of issues, including the question of womens ordination, their approach in ministering to homosexuals and a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith in speakers they invite to conferences.

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Life Lessons from an Editor, a Sharp Shooter and Some Nuns

LEXINGTON, Ky., Aug. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time Tuesday, the word "life coach" appeared in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. "I think it's great," says Michelle Hollingshead, President of the ICF Ohio Valley Chapter. Merriam-Webster picks about 100 additions for their annual update, by gathering evidence of frequently used words over several years. "I think it communicates the legitimacy and the timeliness of our services." Hollingshead continued, "It's great to get global recognition as a profession."

In an economic age where more and more jobs are being cut, the coaching industry is growing. "The industry keeps growing because it's meeting a societal need to make people more effective, satisfied and able to maximize their potential to help humanity flourish," explains Dr. Damian Goldvarg, President-Elect of ICF's Board of Directors. The first-known usage of the word "life coach" was in 1986 according to Merriam-Webster, but since then the professional coaching industry has exploded. The 2012 ICF Global Coaching Study* revealed there are 47,500 professional coaches worldwide bringing in a total annual income of nearly $2 billion. The growth in the professional coaching industry is one indication that coaching is an effective solution to the common economic struggles plaguing many companies today.

Major corporations have turned to coaching to improve their businesses, including IBM, Nike, Verizon and Coca-Cola Enterprises. Studies show that virtually all companies or individuals who hire a coach are satisfied. According to the ICF Global Coaching Client Study (2009), a stunning 99% of people who were polled said they were somewhat or very satisfied with the overall experience.

A key differentiator for the industry is that coaching is seen as an "action plan" rather than an exploratory process. Coaching has become a significant trend in leadership development because it increases productivity, empowers employees, and provides a return on investment (ROI). Professional coaching explicitly targets maximizing potential and in doing this unlocks latent sources of productivity and effectiveness. At the heart of coaching is a creative and thought-provoking process that supports individuals to confidently pursue new ideas and alternative solutions with greater resilience in the face of growing complexity and uncertainty.

The International Coach Federation is the leading global organization for coaches, with over 21,000 members in more than 100 countries and over 7,900 credentialed coaches worldwide. ICF is dedicated to advancing the coaching profession by setting high ethical standards, providing independent certification, and building a worldwide network of credentialed coaches.

* The 2012 ICF Global Coaching Study and the ICF Global Coaching Client Study (2009) were commissioned by ICF but conducted independently by the International Survey Unit of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Full copies of the studies are available upon request.

http://www.coachfederation.org

ICF HEADQUARTERS CONTACT:

Lindsay Bodkin, +1.859.219.3550, lindsay.bodkin@coachfederation.org

This press release was issued through eReleases Press Release Distribution. For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.

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'Life Coach' Added to Merriam-Webster Dictionary

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