Published: Monday, March 19, 2012 at 8:50 p.m. Last Modified: Monday, March 19, 2012 at 8:50 p.m.

Neither slowed him down for long.

"With one knee replacement, I was back skiing three months later," said Pryor, a Sacramento, Calif., resident who began skiing a half-century ago. "I could have gone skiing sooner, but the snow wasn't any good."

Like Pryor, many of his 130 fellow members of the Sacramento, Calif., area 49er Ski Club average age 72 have dealt with chronic knee and hip problems, and many remain athletically active after joint replacement surgery.

Pryor also walks every day to stay in shape. Bill Anthony, 83, a retired Roseville, Calif., family physician who had both hips replaced and, most recently, recovered from a broken back, likes to bike three times a week and lift weights when he's not skiing.

"We also do a lot of hiking," said ski group member Judy Agid, 73, a hip replacement veteran and retired Sacramento State fencing coach who has hiked hundreds of miles through Spain and biked across America twice.

"And we kayak in the summer," said Anthony.

While that level of activity might sound unusual, experts on aging say it hints at a new norm. For more energetic seniors today, knee and hip replacements provide a break from vigorous physical activity, not the end.

In part, that's because older adults have learned a key lesson: They expect to maintain a good quality of life, because they know that age does not equal infirmity and illness.

"I'd say that age is irrelevant," said Pat Beal, 74, Senior Center of Elk Grove executive director.

Read the rest here:
Joint Surgery Gives Seniors a Leg Up on Activity, Longevity

DUBBO women born before 1930 who bore a brood of children survived longer than their peers who never were mothers or had only one child.

The director of the Dubbo Study of the Elderly, Leon Simons, revealed the gem of information at a conference in the city yesterday, ahead of its publication in medical journals.

Mothers of six or more children had the lowest rating on an all-important measure, when data collected from 2805 Dubbo senior citizens in a 20-year study from 1988 was dredged recently.

Despite the result, the director, who is also Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of NSW, was not about to suggest todays generation live like their great-grandmothers.

Were not saying people should only have six babies in the future; that would not be popular with lots of people, he said.

The academic shared his latest research results at day one of Ageing Well, the rural conference of the Australian Association of Gerontology and the Aged and Community Services Association of NSW and ACT.

The conference, attended by more than 135 delegates from the aged care industry, including some from Dubbo, was an opportunity to share successes and further develop skills.

The Dubbo study director used his 80-minute spot on the program to describe the reasons for the study and how it was done and then moved into findings.

Mothers of six children survived longer for more than just hormonal reasons, Professor Simons said.

I base that on the fact that some of the Scandinavian studies show some similar trends in men as well, he said.

Originally posted here:
Large families the key to longevity

KOLKATA, India - A former Mr. Universe who has just turned 100 said Sunday that happiness and a life without tensions are the key to his longevity.

Manohar Aich, who is 4 foot 11 inches (150 centimetres) tall, overcame many hurdles, including grinding poverty and a stint in prison, to achieve body building glory.

His children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren gathered Sunday in the eastern city of Kolkata to celebrate his birthday the day before.

Hindu priests chanted prayers while a feast was laid out to honour Aich, winner of the 1952 Mr. Universe body building title.

Rippling his muscles and flashing a toothless grin, Aich says his ability to take his troubles lightly and remain happy during difficult times are the secrets to his long life.

That, and a simple diet of milk, fruits and vegetables along with rice, lentils and fish have kept him healthy.

He does not smoke and has never touched alcohol, he said.

"I never allow any sort of tension to grip me. I had to struggle to earn money since my young days, but whatever the situation, I remained happy," Aich said, sitting in a room decorated with posters and pictures of his many bodybuilding triumphs.

Aich, who was born in the small town of Comilla in Bengal, was a puny youngster. But he was attracted to exercising and building his muscles when as a schoolboy he saw a group of wrestlers in action.

In 1942, he joined the Royal Air Force under India's British colonial rulers and it was there that he began his relentless pursuit of body building.

Continued here:
India's former Mr. Universe turns 100, says happiness, stress-free life key to his longevity

Two of the latest gadgets are cases in point. On paper, the Samsung Galaxy Note and the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx have very similar specs. But the two phones are quite distinct, thanks to some unusual features.

The Galaxy Note, available through AT&T, is Samsung's attempt to turn a smartphone into a digital notepad, replete with not only a jumbo 5.3-inch screen, but also a stylus and software that can translate handwritten notes into text.

The Droid Razr Maxx, available through Verizon Wireless, has a more subtle distinction - a battery that the company says will allow users to talk for up to 21 { hours. That's 70 percent longer than the promised talk time on the original Droid Razr, which Motorola released just three months ago and for which the new gadget is a dead ringer.

It's exciting to see smartphone manufacturers exploring new innovations. But in this case, I'd take the subtle over the splashy.

I've not been a fan of the trend toward bigger screens in smartphones. While the extra viewing space is nice, a big-screen device is harder to hold, talk on or fit in your pocket. The Galaxy Note takes this trend to the extreme. It's like the Hummer of smartphones. I felt ridiculous holding this clumsy device up to my ear and found it nearly impossible to use with one hand.

The point of the large screen is to enable the device to behave like a tablet - good for watching movies and composing documents, but in a more portable, than a regular, tablet.

The Galaxy Note's display is bright and crisp, great for viewing videos or reading e-books.

Samsung has included a few applications and built-in features for the device's stylus. You can take handwritten notes in S Memo, finely crop or enhance photos in the device's gallery and direct a ball to its goal by drawing and erasing lines in "Crayon Physics." The game and photo enhancement work OK.

But memo-taking - one of the express purposes of the Galaxy Note - was its most disappointing aspect.

As a reporter, I still often resort to a pen and paper when interviewing subjects or taking notes at conferences. I'd love to be able to replace that antiquated system with a digital notepad that would recognize my handwriting and allow me to take fully searchable notes.

Read the original here:
Droid Razr Maxx's longevity tops Galaxy Note's stylus

You can't predict how long you'll live. Nonetheless, you still need to consider longevity as a key factor in creating and following a long-term investment strategy.

Your projected lifespan may be longer than you thought. Men who turned 65 in 2010 can expect to live another 18.6 years, while women who reached 65 then can anticipate another 20.7 years, according to the 2011 Social Security Trustees Report.

These figures are averages. Depending on your health and family history of longevity, you could well spend two or three decades in retirement.

Possibly because people are now realizing they may have to support themselves far longer than earlier generations did, they seem to be growing increasingly worried about running out of money in their later years.

A poll of people 44-75 years old, sponsored by Allianz Life Insurance, showed 61 percent said they fear depleting their assets more than they fear dying.

If you're worried about outliving your resources or if you think you may become one of those people what steps should you take now and during your retirement?

Here are a few ideas:

Keep investing. Put away as much money as you can afford for your retirement. Take advantage of tax-deferred accounts such as your 401(k) and traditional IRA, or tax-free accounts, such as a Roth IRA. Roth IRA earnings are tax-free if you've had your account at least five years and you don't start taking withdrawals until you're at least 59. Keep investing, year in, year out, despite inevitable market volatility you'll encounter along the way.

Reassess your retirement age. If you enjoy your work, you might consider staying at your job a few years later than first intended. Those extra years of income, not to mention extra contributions to your 401(k) and potentially bigger Social Security payouts, can make a big difference to your retirement lifestyle.

Delay taking Social Security. As laws stand, you can start taking Social Security as young as 62, but your monthly checks will be bigger when you reach your "full" retirement age. You'll get your biggest monthly Social Security checks if you wait until age 70, when they "max out," but many people feel waiting that long may not be worth it when weighing lost years of any payments against the unknown variable of life expectancy.

Link:
How to cope with the ‘threat' of longevity

Women live longer than men, yet speakers at a recent conference asserted that the low status of women and girls results in about 3.9 million excess deaths of girls relative to men.

(WOMENSENEWS)--Women outlive men, while lagging behind.

That was the parallax view presented last week at an annual summing up by the National Council for Research on Women, a New York-based network of 100 leading U.S. research policy and advocacy centers, which held a panel here at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Since 1980, women have lived longer than men in all parts of the world. In low-income countries, women now live 20 years longer, on average, than they did in 1980. In addition, over half a billion women have joined the world labor force.

At the same time, however, girls and women are often still treated as more expendable.

"One of the most egregious gaps is the number of missing women," said Jeni Klugman, director of gender and development at the World Bank, the Washington-based international organization that works with 187 member countries to reduce poverty and provide loans and assistance to stimulate development. "About 3.9 million women are lost each year because of the excess deaths of girls and women relative to men in low and middle income countries."

About two-fifths of girls are never born because of preferences for sons in China and India. One-sixth die in early childhood and over one-third die in their reproductive years.

"Unfortunately, the number of girls who die in early childhood is growing in sub-Sahara Africa," Klugman said. The same was true of child-bearing-age women in countries hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Read more:
Female Longevity Offset by Lethal Gender Gaps

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Derek Lowe learned to throw a sinking fastball when he was in Class AA with Seattle in the mid-1990s. Where would he be without it?

"Without the sinker, I'd be working at McDonald's, supersizing your Value Meal," Lowe said.

Lowe's sinker was on display Wednesday against San Francisco at Scottsdale Stadium. He pitched four crisp innings, as the Indians played to a 2-2 tie after 10.

Half of Lowe's 12 outs came on ground balls.

"I learned how to throw it in Double A," Lowe said. "I was at a crossroad. I had to come up with something to separate myself from the next guy. Our pitching coach, Jeff Andrews, really understood the sinker.

"My grip is about as basic as you can get. I throw extremely far across my body. I do a lot of things mechanically that you wouldn't teach. I think you either do it or you don't [throw a sinker] . . . I don't even know what makes it sink."

Lowe was the first Tribe pitcher to go four innings this spring, and he did it in fewer than 50 pitches.

Before the sinker, Lowe threw harder but not necessarily better.

"I threw in the low 90s, but so did a lot of guys," Lowe said. "It was as straight as a string. I tell people, 'If you can get it to move a skosh, try it.' Then you can throw it in a general area instead of throwing a four-seamer where you have to have really good control."

Lowe, 9-17 last year, issued a warning for the coming season.

See the rest here:
Pitcher Derek Lowe owes his longevity to his sinker: Cleveland Indians Insider

Howard S. Friedman, Ph.D., and Leslie R. Martin, Ph.D., join the Jetsetter show to discuss their landmark eighty year longevity study

Irvine, CA (PRWEB) March 14, 2012

The longest longevity study in history, The Longevity Project tracked over 1,500 people over an eighty year span, measuring health habits, approach to relationships and career. We followed a large number of throughout their whole lives gathering information about what makes some people live long and some people die young, said Friedman. Personality characteristics, social ties, career pathseverything was quantitative.

The results of the study surprised themdebunking many popular myths about what makes for a happy, long life. Whats interesting about the Longevity Project is that it shows why some people stay on healthy pathways and other people fall off, Friedman continued. It has a lot to do with the kind of people you associate with, the kind of careers you get involved with and the kind of personality patterns that you develop.

They found that, over the long term, eating habits and exercisethough importantdidnt matter as much as personality traits and social characteristics.

For instance, their study implied that optimism in childhood doesnt necessarily indicate a long life. When we looked across all those decades, we actually found exactly the opposite, explained Friedman. Kids who were the most cheerful and optimistic led shorter lives. They were more likely to grow up to be heavy smokers. They were more likely to be heavy drinkers. They tended to have riskier hobbies. That pair concluded that children who were optimistic tended to be less well-prepared for lifes disappointments.

What makes for a healthy, long, fulfilling life then? According to Friedman, its the prudent and especially consistent people. The people who stuck to it ended up staying healthier, engaging in better relationships, jobs, marriages, and family life. It wasnt that they lived boring lives because they were carefulit was because they were tenacious and pursued what they really loved.

The study concluded that social ties are very important to longevity as well. People who do things that benefit others tended to live longer and be happier. What we found consistently in the Longevity Project is that the people who were doing things that promoted the length of their life also tended to live happier lives. They would report that they were doing things that they find meaning in, said Martin. We saw a lot of evidence that a good, fulfilling, enriched life comes from the social connections, being committed to work and pursuing your passions.

Physical activity is important to long life. What we found is that consistency is what really mattered though, said Martin. Kids that were physically active and then tapered off into a sedentary life in later yearsthat was problematic. And we found that it really didnt matter what people did. What mattered is that they did it consistently.

The Longevity Project is not really about why some people live into their hundreds, Martin concluded. Its about why some people thrive into their seventies and eighties. In terms of the underlying principles of success in life, its the people who are honest, dependable, hard-working, doing something meaningful, socially involved with others.

Continued here:
The Jetsetter Show Welcomes “The Longevity Project” Authors to Discuss Living Long, Healthy Lives

The first family of taekwondo is alive and kicking. Steven, 33, and Diana Lopez, 27, will be back at another Olympics after winning their weight classes at the U.S. trials in Colorado Springs on March 10-11. While that's a superb feat for a pair of such talented siblings, the result was actually bittersweet; their brother Mark Lopez, 29, lost in the finals to Terrence Jennings, ending what would have been a bid to match the history they made four years ago.

At the Beijing Games, the three Lopezes each won medals -- silver for Mark and bronzes for Steven and Diana. It marked the first time three siblings competed at the same Olympics for the United States since 1904 and the first time three won medals at the same Olympics. The three siblings each won gold medals at the world championships in Madrid in 2005.

Diana defeated Danielle Holmquist, 3-1, in her final match to advance to her second Olympics, despite battling injuries on her road to London.

Having worked his way through the challengers' bracket in Colorado Springs, Mark needed to beat Jennings twice to earn another Olympic berth. He lost in the second match and will instead go back as Steven's training partner.

Now, Steven has reached his own rarefied place in the sport. He won gold medals at the Games in Sydney and Athens and he has five golds at world championships, between 2001 and 2009. "I'm in a constant state of refinement," he says. "You always want the perfect performance. You do get sore and it's hard to give up things in other parts of your life, but it's an opportunity of a lifetime."

Having Mark on the sidelines will be bittersweet for Steven, but the Olympic effort will be a family affair, as always. Oldest brother Jean, also a former world medalist, has coached the younger three throughout their Olympic journey. The bronze in Beijing is still an unpleasant reminder. "After the previous two Olympics and five world championships things have become almost automatic," he says. Almost business as usual where I was going to go out and win the gold medal. It didn't work out that way. I feel I can still improve. In the grand scope of things you don't have that many opportunities to be in the best shape of your life."

Kim Rhode has won a medal in the last four Olympics, and could be the first U.S. athlete to win a medal at five Games.

USA Shooting/Reuters

But as impressive as Steven Lopez' longevity is, consider the staying power of Kim Rhode, an Olympic shooter who is talking about competing for another four or five Olympics after making her fifth appearance in London. "I don't see stopping anytime soon," She says.

Why should she? At 32, Rhode could become the first U.S. athlete in any sport to win a medal at five Olympics. She won gold medals in the double trap event in 1996 and 2004, a bronze in double trap in 2000 and a silver in 2008 in the skeet event for which she has qualified again. Rhode became the first athlete to qualify for the 2012 Games when she earned the berth last year, and she is ranked no. 1 internationally. "No pressure, right," she said from Arizona, where she is preparing for a World Cup in trap shooting.

Read more:
Brian Cazeneuve: 2012 Olympians Steven Lopez, Kim Rhode anticipate longevity in respective sports

There are some strange goings-on in county politics these days.

Jay Urdahl, a Democrat supervisor who has been in office 24 years, is being opposed by another Democrat, John Jaszewski, in the June 5 primary.

Some opponents claim Urdahls long tenure is an example of why there should be term limits for office holders.

Urdahl and other longtime office holders will tell you there already are term limits; voters have the opportunity to oust elected officials every four years.

The challenge of defeating an incumbent like Urdahl in a primary is daunting because it is asking Democrats who have supported him for nearly a quarter-century to suddenly stop doing it.

It is Jaszewskis task to convince Democrats to switch horses.

Gary Blodgett, a conservative Republican former state legislator, has lent his name to fundraising efforts for Urdahl giving credence to the old adage of politics making strange bedfellows.

Urdahls opponents within the Democratic Party cry "foul at the notion of him seeking and accepting help from a Republican.

Urdahl supporters say it is a sign of bipartisan support for him.

There doesnt seem to be much buzz about Jaszewski taking on a fellow Democrat.

Read more from the original source:
John Skipper Column: Urdahl critics cite longevity as key issue

To counter the increasing fault-rates expected in the next technology generations, Desyre develops new design techniques for future Systems-on-Chips to improve reliability while at the same time reducing power and performance overheads associated with fault-tolerance. Ioannis Sourdis, Assistant Professor in Computer Engineering at Chalmers, is the project leader of DeSyRe (on-Demand System Reliability).

We focus on the design of future highly reliable Systems-on-Chips that consume far less power than other designs for high reliability systems, he says. This approach allows by design devices that combine high reliability with small batteries and state-of-the-art longevity. It is perfect for safety-critical applications such as in implantable medical devices, for example pacemakers or deep brain stimulators that treat Parkinsons disease.

Research in reliable systems typically focuses on fail-safe mechanisms that use various redundancy schemes, in which sensitive subsystems are entirely doubled as a fail-safe. Checking for faults in the subsystem increases the energy consumption and decreases the performance of chips, as testing all subsystems cost time and energy.

Enlarge

It sounds perhaps counterintuitive to design a highly reliable System-on-Chip on the basis of components that may fail, and yet this is exactly what we propose to do. Since our subsystems consist of small, interchangeable processing cores, we can test and exclude individual cores while the function of the whole systems stays intact, says Gerard Rauwerda, CTO of Recore Systems, one of the industry partners of Desyre. "The beauty of the Desyre approach is that the system continues to do its job reliably, even if one or more cores fail, extending chip longevity."

The researchers expect this type of fault-tolerance to reduce energy consumption by at least ten to twenty percent compared to other redundancy schemes, while at the same time minimizing penalty on performance.

"People that need implantable medical devices will also benefit from this, as it pays off in a longer battery life and a postponed device replacement without any compromise to reliability," Ioannis Sourdis concludes.

Ioannis Sourdis explains the Desyres approach on Monday March 12 in a tutorial on Hardware and software design and verification for safety critical electronic systems during the Date 2012 conference in Dresden, Germany.

Provided by Chalmer's University of Technology

See the original post here:
New design techniques enable extremely reliable medical devices

Uncle Charlie admits that at one point, cocaine was the love of his life

*Charlie Wilsons career was built to last. Who knew, given his wild past?

The rejuvenated R&B singer has proven to the world hes got what it takes to evolve and stay alive in the industry.

With his foundation as the lead singer of the Gap Band, the singers success wasnt without its trying moments.

And in the wake of Whitney Houstons death, Wilson who knew her, opened up about his drug of choice.

I try real hard, Wilson tells The BoomBox. First of all, I left alcohol and drugs behind me and that was one of the things that weighs a lot on your shoulders. Its been 18 years [of sobriety] for me, nothing but water. It allowed me for all these years to just focus on music.

He added that drugs were also a huge part of his life. It took him on a ride that he does not think about going back to, admitting that his love was cocaine. He ended up homeless, desperate for rescue.

He made it though.

Throughout the years, Wilson has worked with artists like Mystikal, Kanye West, and Snoop Dogg.

And since his return to music, hes leading the charts with his latest project Just Charlie. It doesnt stop there.

Visit link:
Despite Past History of Drugs, Longevity Award Goes to Charlie Wilson

Jonathan Erik Veal

Dr. Gerald E. Jackson

*Though Valentines Day has passed, it does not mean true love between two people stops.

It is more so about the longevity of the relationship; and how to keep the bond with your significant other.

Dr. Gerald E. Jackson, founder and chairman of G.E. Jackson & Associates Inc., is here to help. Not only is he does he provide readers with a strategic planning disciplines; but, he offers couples the opportunity to keep the relationship alive as well as a way to enhance their love for each another.

Dr. Jackson, a Southern California native served six years in the Special Forces within the United States Navys Nuclear Powered, Ballistic Missile Submarine Service as a navigation electronic technician; so, you may wonder what he would know about writing about true love?

I am a romantic at heart, said Jackson. I love all of my life and over the 20 plus years, Ive had some interesting experiences; and the people that I have shared my story with have benefited from it.

Dr. Jacksons new book, True Love & Longevity: Romance Guide andWorkplan provides a road map to the heart and soul of loving, long-lasting fulfillment within each one of us. Additionally, it was helps those in a relationship who have experienced long days, hard work, and a great deal of heartbreak attempting to make their commitment bond healthy and vital.

There are four keys to true love in my opinion which would help anyone who is and who is not in a relationship, said Jackson. He describes the four keys for individuals to genuinely have an understanding of each other, truly bring out the best of each other, speaking to the interpersonal that directs to an establish and encouragement to an abiding relationship with God and his word and to establish the importance of knowing that they truly love each other. My personal definition of true love is the souls recognition of its counterpoint in another, said Jackson.

More here:
Dr. Gerald E. Jackson Tells How to Prolong True Love in New Book

A lifetime of wear and tear on his joints caused Dick Pryor, a 77-year-old retired landscape architect, to undergo not one but two surgeries to replace his knees.

Neither slowed him down for long.

"With one knee replacement, I was back skiing three months later," said Pryor, a Sacramento resident who began skiing a half-century ago. "I could have gone skiing sooner, but the snow wasn't any good."

Like Pryor, many of his 130 fellow members of the local 49er Ski Club average age 72 have dealt with chronic knee and hip problems, and many remain athletically active after joint replacement surgery.

Pryor also walks every day to stay in shape. Bill Anthony, 83, a retired Roseville family physician who had both hips replaced and, most recently, recovered from a broken back, likes to bike three times a week and lift weights when he's not skiing.

"And we kayak in the summer," said Anthony.

"We also do a lot of hiking," said ski group member Judy Agid, 73, a hip replacement veteran and retired Sacramento State fencing coach who has hiked hundreds of miles through Spain and biked across America twice.

While that level of activity might sound unusual, experts on aging say it hints at a new norm. For more energetic seniors today, knee and hip replacements provide a break from vigorous physical activity, not the end of it.

In part, that's because older adults have learned a key lesson: They expect to maintain a good quality of life, because they know that age does not equal infirmity and illness.

"I'd say that age is irrelevant," said Pat Beal, 74, Senior Center of Elk Grove executive director.

Go here to see the original:
Joint replacement gives seniors leg up on activity, longevity

07-03-2012 11:43 Madrid, 7 Mar (EFE).- A group Spanish scientists have discovered that one of the main genes that protects against cancer has two other positive effects: significantly increase longevity and fight obesity.

Excerpt from:
Anti-cancer gene fights obesity and increases longevity - Video

In 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Len set sail in search of Bimini, a mythical land said to house a spring that restored youth to anyone who drank from it. After scouring the Caribbean and Florida, he returned empty-handed, and the Fountain of Youth remained undiscovered. Perhaps he was just looking in the wrong place.

As part of their data collection for the World Factbook, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) combs through death certificates, recording race, gender, cause of death, and other factors to estimate the life expectancy of a nation's entire population. Calculating the average life expectancy of the world's total population at 67.59 years, the CIA has determined which societies live longer.

[See: 11 Health Habits That Will Help You Live to 100]

In the United states, average life expectancy is 78.49 years, well above the world's norm. Many experts attribute this to ongoing medical developments, which have dealt with conditions that used to mow us down early. Meanwhile, nations without advanced medical care report a much shorter life expectancy. For instance, citizens of the Republic of Chad in central Africa are only expected to live until their late 40s.

Despite the fact that the average American lives into his or her late 70s, the United States ranks 50th on the CIA's life expectancy list. According to the World Factbook, these 10 nations seem to have discovered the secret to longevityno magical spring water required.

10. Italy

Average Life Expectancy: 81.86 years

Italians live an average of 3.37 years longer than Americans. Many experts draw a connection between their longevity and dietwhich is more than just pasta, meat, and cheese. The Mediterranean diet is credited with lowering the risk for all sorts of diseases. The antioxidants found in olive oil and red winetwo key features of an Italian mealcan improve cholesterol, prevent blood clots, and stave off heart disease, according to the American Heart Association. Italians also rely on spices like basil, oregano, and garlic to flavor their cuisine, while Americans depend heavily on salt. As such, Italians improve their odds against high blood pressure and stroke.

[See: Mediterranean DietWhat You Need to Know]

9. Australia

Originally posted here:
Top 10 Hotspots for Human Longevity

Chief of Amnat Charoen Industrial Federation Somporn Seehawong talks about his long time client and friend, 85 year-old Sawat Muengaew. Sawat is an Amnat Charoen native who would drive 30 kilometers from his house to "Tuen Chai" Coffee Shop every morning to have coffee with like-minded friends who are interested in politics.

Sawat says Tuen Chai Coffee Shop holds a special meaning for him. Cheerfully, Sawat recounted the history behind the coffee shop for members of the media. Fifty years ago, Sawat and his 6th wife had opened a noodles store where the coffee shop is today. The 85 year-old man said jovially that he is living a full life and enjoys discussing politics with friends, some of whom are as young as his children or nieces and nephews. He revealed he had been married 16 times and fathered as many as 25 children. His eldest child was born in 1947. All of his children either live in Bangkok or have moved to the US.

He added some of his ex-wives have already passed away.

According to Sawat's friends, Sawat is a happy and humorous man. Sawat said his secret to happiness and longevity is never to stop having sex. He said a man should never be alone and when a partner passes away, a man should try to find a new partner immediately.

Read the original here:
Thai-ASEAN News Network - 85-Year Old Man Says Secret to Long Life is Sex

By Mark Miller

CHICAGO (Reuters) - You've done a good job building your 401(k), and retirement is not far off. The question now: how to make sure that nest egg generates sufficient income to sustain you through a retirement that might last two or three decades.

For years, retirement income has been something of a holy grail for retirement experts who worry about longevity - the risk that you will outlive your money. One solution is the income annuity.

An income annuity offers a simple proposition: turn over a chunk of cash to an insurance company, which then sends you a monthly check for as long as you live.

Income annuities don't play a big role on the stage of retirement solutions - but they have been in the spotlight lately. The U.S. Treasury Department has proposed policies that would make it easier to use income annuities within 401(k) retirement plans or Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs).

And income annuity sales rose 6.6 percent in 2011 to a record $8.1 billion, according to LIMRA, an insurance industry research and consulting group. That's still a very small fraction of the overall retirement market, which had $17 trillion invested at the end of the third quarter last year, according to the Investment Company Institute. But it is movement just the same.

Savers may be drawn to the higher immediate rates of return that income annuities provide when compared with traditional fixed-income investments, like bonds and bank certificates of deposit. For example, a 65-year-old man who bought a $100,000 immediate annuity would receive $562 per month for life, according to Vanguard. That is an initial annual payout of 6.7 percent; far higher than any safe bond yields right now.

That's made possible by the "mortality credit" baked into annuities - a term that refers to the money paid in by customers who die earlier than their life expectancy; that money goes into the overall pool and can be paid out to other annuitants.

"With expectations of low market returns for the next decade and longer, immediate annuities may be one of the few investment silver linings for investors looking to make their nest egg last their life time," said Harold Evensky, president of Evensky & Katz Wealth Management.

But income annuities have not taken off. Many retirement investors do not like the idea of handing over their money to insurance companies. And most immediate fixed annuities keep the same monthly payouts forever; they do not rise with inflation. So if the man in the above example lived to be 84, he would still be getting $562 a month, and his rate of return would have dropped to 2.74 percent, according to Vanguard. His rate would fall over the long term because the monthly amount would never increase with inflation or growth of principal.

Here is the original post:
Is an annuity in your future?

The Mayor of Ho-Ho-Kus, Tom Randall, has officially signed the newest contract with the Policemen's Benevolent Association (PBA) that will provide raises for each year, increase the uniform allowance and get rid of longevity for new hires.

The new contract "covers 2011-2013 and will provide a 2-percent raise for each year" to three sergeants and nine full-time police officers employed in the borough, Borough Administrator Don Cirulli said in an interview last week.

The members of the PBA will also "get a $25 increase in uniform allowance," Cirulli said.

Only full-time sergeants and police officers are part of the PBA, the police chief and lieutenant have individual contracts with the borough, which were settled last year.

Ho-Ho-Kus police officers get a minimum salary of $33,000 and a maximum of $92,332. The three police sergeants get a minimum salary of $97,872 and a maximum of $112,000, according to an ordinance to fix the compensation of certain officers and employees in the borough, passed at the Mayor & Council's Feb. 28 meeting.

Another element of the newest PBA contract is not making longevity available to officers hired after Jan. 1, 2011.

"[Longevity] is old-fashioned, most towns are looking to get rid of it," Cirulli said.

The three sergeants and nine police officers will still get longevity, which "will be grandfathered into their contracts," he said.

A 10th police officer is expected to be added to the department in the spring after he completes training at the Bergen County Police and Fire Academy in Mahwah. The soon-to-be officer has worked as a dispatcher in the borough but "will not receive longevity," once he becomes an active Ho-Ho-Kus police officer, the borough administrator said.

Longevity is given on top of a salary after an officer or sergeant in Ho-Ho-Kus has reached the top of the salary level. The salary guide in the borough has three steps, Cirulli said.

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Ho-Ho-Kus PBA contract includes raises; no longevity for new hires

A healthy diet and getting enough rest is good advice for people of all ages. For two Sun City residents who are beginning their second century of living, they're just part of what keeps them ticking.

Amelia Krapfs Williams and Hazel Burger also include playing the piano, taking tennis and tap dance lessons, working puzzles, painting, dancing and reading.

Williams lives with her daughter and son-in-law, Janet and John Garnjost. She will be 101 in September.

"I don't feel 100," Williams said. "I don't act it."

The former Latin andGerman language teacher said her mother taught her to do all things in moderation.

"I think I'm still going because of my diet, keeping active, enjoying life. I did play tennis. I would say that's pretty good," she said. She enjoys fruit and milk. "I like variety. I like my sweets."

The daughter of a Lutheran minister who moved his family to serve at different churches, Williams enjoyed living by the seashore when they lived inAtlantic City. By the time she was in high school, the family had moved to Pittston,Pa., not far from Hershey where she was born.

That neighbor boy

The one thing that stood out in her memory was being able to see the home of a neighbor boy outside her back door across the cemetery. Soon they began dating.

"My mother didn't like that so much,"Williams said with a twinkle. "He worked at the Vulcan IronWorks. My mother sent me off to Susquehanna College to become a teacher."

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There's no secret formula to Sun City's centenarians' longevity