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.

Oldest Inmate Dies

Wisconsin’s oldest inmate, Ellef Ellefson, died at age 103. Ellefson, a serial sex offender, spent a lot of time behind bars. At age 95, he was committed by the state beyond his sentencing.

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.

Oldest Oscar Nominees

This just in on Oscar news:

Ruby Dee, 83, is the second oldest Oscar nominee for acting ever. Gloria Stuart, nominated for “Titanic” in 1998, was 87 at the time of her nomination. If Dee wins, she becomes the oldest Oscar winner for acting ever. There’s an age difference of 70 years between her and fellow supporting actress nominee Saoirse Ronan, 13.

Hal Holbrook, meanwhile, is the oldest male actor ever nominated. (He's 82).

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.

Live Bishop On the Landing

At age 95, Peter Leo Gerety is the oldest American Catholic bishop. He attained this status when a 96 year old bishop passed away this past summer.

Windy City Gets Oldest Voter

114 year old Virginia Call just registered to vote in Chicago. A friend helped her sign an 'X' on the form. It's anyones guess how she'll do on those hanging chads.

Oldest Woman To Climb Tallest Mountain

At 77, Ann Windh is the oldest woman in the world to ever climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest peak in Africa. The Canadian ascended the 20,000 foot Tanzanian mountain in October.

The Oldest Immigrant In The World

102-year-old Englishman Eric King-Turner is moving to New Zealand. His wife of 12 years is a citizen.

Feats of the oldest

At 71, the Oldest one up high

A 71-year-old Japanese climber Katsusuke Yanagisawa became the oldest person to scale Everest.

Oldest People on 7 Summits

A 69-year old Werner Berger from Newmarket,Ontario became the oldest North American to reach all seven of the world's highest summits. These include Mt. Everest, Mt. McKinley and Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Speaking of climbing over world records, Jeanne Stawiecki at age 56 completed seven marathons and climbed the summits on the highest peaks on seven continents. I'm not sure why she is so modest.

79 Year old Triathaloner

In Texas, Phyllis Mann will become the oldest woman to compete in the Danskin Women’s Triathlon in Austin, Texas, at the age of 79.

A Cricketer No More at 96

The world's second oldest living test cricketer has died. Former New Zealand batsman Jack Kerr was 96 and only 10 days younger than the oldest.

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.

Old News: Oldest US Mother of Artificial Twins

A 60 year old New Jersey woman went through a lot of trouble to get into the history books to become the oldest American mother of twins this week. The twin boys were conceived via artificial-insemination in South Africa at a center which specialized in fertility in older women.

The newest babies are healthy, although they were born somewhat prematurely (35 weeks), somewhat under-weight (4 pounds 11 ounces), and via c-section.

The story is getting old fast, so fast in fact that you can read a reasonable account here from the Iranian Alalam News.

Though a record of some sort, Freda Birnbaum is not the oldest mother in the world (age 66), nor the the oldest American mother (age 63, in which the mother lied to the fertility clinic about her real age). This record is simply for being the oldest American mother of twins.

The new baby boys A and B have older siblings, brothers ages 6 and 33 and a sister age 29.

Birnbaum is now friends with Lauren Cohen who was the previous record holder having her kids exactly one year earlier at age 59.

Oldest Blogger

Somewhere out there is the world's oldest blogger. Like everything else in the oldest business, there are some grey areas.

Donald Crowdis of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada is 93 and has a blog called Don To Earth.


Olive Riley is 107 and blogs, but as she can no longer see, she is assisted by Mike Rubbo. She lives way down under, and her blog is called The Life Of Riley.

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!