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.

130 Year Old Man

Here's a 130 year old man... according to his ID.
Of course his son looks about 45, so he would have been 85 when he was born.
Well, you never know...

Oldest Twins Die at 105

Ellen Robertson of Winnipeg and her sister Sarah Jeanmougin of Arizona have died. They were 105 and were the world's oldest twins. Robertson died in late December and Jeanmougin died in February.

Very Old Dutch Crooner To the Nazis

Johannes Heesters, the 104-year-old cabaret performer who was once a favorite of Hitler, returned to his Dutch hometown for the first time in four decades to perform.

His performance was not without controversy. Heesters, a super-star in his own right, said he was not being political when he became a favorite performer for the Germans occupying The Nederlands during WWII.

Oldest Woman: Israeli Muslim

According to her birth certificate, issued by the Ottoman Empire authorities, Mariam Amash was born near her current home in the village of Jisr az-Zarka in 1888.

She has 10 children, 120 grandchildren, 250 great-grandchildren, and 30 great-great-grandchildren.

Nigeria: Oldest Man On Earth Dies

Alhaji Ladan, who was said to have been born around 1873, has died. If his age could be authenticated, he would have been by far the oldest man on earth.

The Igabi man from Kaduna State, Nigeria may have been 135 years old and may have left behind four children, 77 grand children and 182 great grand children.

The Oldest Americans

Here's a good round-up of supercentenarian-ness in a recent Daily Herald story.

Including this:

Oldest Americans

The Gerontology Research Group keeps track of supercentenarians, those who are at least 110 years old. These are the oldest people in the United States.

114 years old:

• Edna Parker, Indiana

113 years old

• Arbella Ewing, Texas
• Gertrude Baines, California
• Catherine Hagel, Minnesota

112 years old

• Beatrice Farve, Georgia
• Elizabeth Stefan, Connecticut
• Mary J. Ray, New Hampshire
• Olivia P. Thomas, New York
• Neva Morris, Iowa
• Maggie Renfro, Louisiana

111 years old

• C. Letitia Lawson, Iowa
• George Francis, California
• Helen Johnson, Oregon
• Eunice Sanborn, Texas
• Florence Busch, Wisconsin
• Besse Cooper, Georgia
• Berta Rosenberg, New York
• Walter Breuning, Montana
• Walter Seward, New Jersey
• Nellie Jones, Michigan
• Beatrice Cooper, Michigan

110 years old

• Hattie Lafayette, Michigan
• Mississippi Wynn, Louisiana
• Dina Manfredini, Iowa
• Viola Koch, California
• M. Chrissie Martenstein, California
• Mary Gentry, Alabama
• Ella Schuler, Kansas
• Ethel Johnson, Ohio
• Noemi Anderson, California
• Ruth M. Lincoln, Arkansas
• Harvey Hite, Indiana

Oldest WWI Veteran has died

Harry Landis, the oldest US WWI veteran has died in Florida at age 108. OK, I said that already in the title of this post. But in December, J. Russell Coffey - the last oldest WWI veteran - died in Ohio at age 109. This leaves one known WWI survivor of the 4.7 million who served. Frank Buckles of West Virginia who is 107 was only 16 when he enlisted - he lied about his age.

Oldest Afghan Man 117 Gone

Khudai Birdy, the oldest man in Afghanistan, has died at age 117. The next oldest is 113.

According to his 15th son Khan Mohammad, Khudai, believed to bethe oldest man in Afghanistan, had married four times and left behind 40 children and 200 grandsons.

100-year-old man stars in conceptual art

A 100 year old man is being paid $100 per day to be a human subject of conceptual art.

In Yazoo City, Mississippi, Walter Carter has been featured in works by New York-based African-American artist Ralph Lemon.

Oldest Native Eyak Speaker Dead

Marie Smith Jones, the last full-blooded member of Alaska's Eyak Indians and the last fluent speaker of their native language, has died. She was 89. The Eyaks live near Prince William Sound, Alaska.

She worked with a linguist to compile an Eyak dictionary and grammar.

Undoubtedly there is a need to provide a record of the Eyak language in digital form on the internet.

There are 7,000 unique languages spoken on this planet. One language is lost every two weeks. Now another human language and part of a culture are gone.

A recent movie, The Linuists, describes the relevance of this, as well as the pursuit of some lesser known languages.

Announcing The Oldest Barber in The World

Anthony Mancinelli, a 96 year old New Yorker, has been declared the oldest barber in the world. He's been a barber for 83 years. Finally, the crazy Guinness World Records has sent Mancinelli a certificate.

L'homme français le plus âgé est mort

The oldest French man and the next to last WWI survivor has died. Louis de Cazenave was 110.

Longevity Calculator #3: getting better

This longevity calculator from MSN, seems to ask the right questions and give me the right answers. It has me living to age 90. Now that's more like it.

This calculator is easy to use. For me who tries to live the "good" life, it has preselected most of the right options - no smoker, constant weight, good diet, etc. But be prepared with your blood pressure and cholesterol level. Also, if you are a man, you'll have to tell it honestly if you have regular proctoscopic examinations. On the negative side, it doesn't ask you marital status or whether you are under stress. Marriage is supposed to be good for you, while stress may not.

Last Oldest Person Dies

Hryhoriy Nestor was the oldest person in the world until his death in December. The Ukrainian was 116 and could be considered one of the oldest people ever, but unfortunately he is not on any official longevity lists.

The world's official oldest living person is currently Edna Parker of Indiana, who turned 114 in April.

Another Longevity Calculator

Here's another calculator, if you don't mind answering many personal questions in the following areas: Social, Health, Nutrition, Medical, Family. This one has me pegged at living to age 88. Oddly by asking me many personal questions, it did about the same as the IRS lookup table.

Longevity Calculator

Here's a simple longevity calculator. It claims to use IRS tables. The IRS thinks I'll live until 84. Not bad.

Oldest Living Twins are 105

Ellen Robertson and Sarah Jeanmougin have just turned 105. Pictured here at a previous celebration, the twin sisters are recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living set of twins in the world.

Robertson who suffered a stroke recently and is hard of hearing celebrated with family her family in Winnipeg. Her sister was for health reasons unable to travel from her home in Arizona.

They were born May 29, 1902 among 10 children in what now is Wolseley, Saskatchewan. At that time the area was still part of the Northwest Territories.

Robertson taught an hour-long aerobics class at her senior home until she turned 93.

One Whopper of a Birthday

An Indian man just enjoyed a huge celebration of his birthday. He is what I consider a double-senior citizen (older than 65 times two). At 138, Habib Miyan's has been entered into the Limca Book of Records. (I couldn't find his entry on their website, and their book is not readily available here in the U.S.)

I just love this stuff!

According to this interesting 2005 story, he might really only be 129 today.

But the problem is that the most widely accepted oldest person died in 1997 at the age of 122.

Is the Guinness (beer) Book of World Records more reliable than the Limca (Coca-Cola) Book of (Indian) Records? Or visa-versa?

There are certainly dozens of people who feel one way and over a billion of people who probably feel the other way?

He might deserve an entry in Ripley's Believe It Or Not!, but they have him beat. The oldest person that they have verified lived until age 166. To their credit, Ripley's discounted familiar reports of longevity from the Bible and a 244 year old Chinese man once featured in Time Magazine.

So here's a big happy 138th birthday to Habib Miyan!

And you can believe it or not!

Oldest Woman Meets Tallest: 114 and 7 foot 7

Last month, Edna Parker the oldest American, the world's 2nd oldest woman and 2nd oldest person, celebrated her birthday with Bertha Fry, 113, and with 7-foot-7 Sandy Allen, the world's tallest woman.

Parker at 114 outlived her husband and children and lives at the Heritage House Convalescent Center in Shelbyville, Indiana.