Longevity War Wages Online

Longevity enthusiasts, researchers and fans are divided or perhaps they have just collided.

Who are the oldest people?

What is the legitimate means of verifying age?
Historical birth records which have not been around for very long and are the legal means of doing so?Oral history should count for something, no? Folklore?
First person testimony?
Scientific analysis?
And then there are the published myths of longevity many of us know from the Bible and elsewhere and those stories we read in Weekly World News which easily could have appeared in The Onion.

And should Wikipedia have an entries for Longevity, Longevity Myths or Traditions? And what about record breaking super-centenarians (individuals who live longer than 100)?

The war goes on here.

Actress Gloria Stuart 1900-2010

Gloria Stuart was the oldest Academy award nominated actress for her role in Titanic (1997) at age 87. She died last month at age 100. Not shabby!

Oldest Twin Controversy

Cao Daqiao and Cao Xiaoqiao will be 105

Twins in France had a birthday last week. They were 98. (No, that's not them in the photo on the right.) Perhaps it was translation from French? Perhaps it's just news on the internet? But they are billed as the World's Oldest Twins.

As you may have guessed, this is not true. There are people out there keeping tabs on the demographics of all 6+ billion of us. Of course, they make mistakes, but according to them (via Wikipedia - which I would trust with all my most precious memories) the oldest Twins are in China and they are much older.

Born on October 5, 1905, Cao Daqiao and Cao Xiaoqiao will be 105 tomorrow!

(They are pictured here in a story from http://www.mirror.co.uk/.)