WORLD'S OLDEST PERSON!!!!

cant wait

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16867942/

omg she was born exactly 90 years before i was (my dob: november 22, 1982)!

Which reminds me, YOU CAN RAISE THE FLAGS BACK UP TO FULL STAFF NOW.

Youngest world's oldest person since 1988.

Meanwhile, the current oldest person in the world, someone from Japan, has died, so the new oldest person in the world is Edna Parker, who just happens to live in the same retirement home as Sandy Allen, the world's tallest woman.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070813/LOCAL0602/70813043/-1/RSS

How's Rock Hardy's granny doing?

As good as ever, except for the whole not-knowing-anybody thing.

This is the thread where I say "Happy Birthday" to...

Oh! I didn't know that was the oldestpersonintheworld thread. Sorry.

Meanwhile, the current oldest person in the world, someone from Japan, has died, so the new oldest person in the world is Edna Parker, who just happens to live in the same retirement home as Sandy Allen, the world's tallest woman.

"She fell in with that Guiness Book of Records crowd. I wore a 15-pound beard of bees for that woman!"

That one retirement home is the new Ark

in this article: a crass picture http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090329/tuk-war-veteran-becomes-britain-s-oldest-45dbed5.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/7970710.stm
Mr Allingham, who has dedicated much of his time in recent years to giving talks to schoolchildren about his experiences, will be 113 years old on 6 June.

Dennis Goodwin, his close friend and founder of the First World War Veterans' Association, said: "He has achieved another milestone in his long life and is raising the bar of longevity.

"To be honest the last two years have been littered with milestones but this one is nice for him.

"The next one will come when he becomes a 'teenager' again when he reaches 113 in June."

All these world's oldest persons ever do is die - can't one of them do something original? Like rob a bank or rape someone or get tasered or win a life-long something or other?

...

StanM, I now have a new life goal – thanking u.

<3

Headline in about 100 years: WORLD'S OLDEST WOMAN KNITS HATS FOR HER PROSIMIAN PETS

http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/7256/walterwebmedium.jpg

http://watch.montanapbs.org/video/1486986189/

just watched this longish interview with Walter Breuning, who's now the third oldest person in the world. I'm sure millions of men from his era had similar life stories — born in East Butthole Montana in 1896; quit school in tenth grade to support his family; got a job on the railroad in 1913; managed not to be drafted during World War I; stayed employed (with a pay cut) throughout the Depression. the difference is that most of his peers died about 50 years ago, and for him to be able to speak for an entire, nearly extinct generation is a strange thing. he doesn't come across as fogeyish or resistant to new technology in spite of witnessing crises like the loss of thousands of railway jobs due to diesel and computers.

key nugget of wisdom from a guy who's been asked "meaning of life"-type questions countless times:

"If you don't think about some of these things [i.e. politics & social issues], you lose your perspective. If you don't use your mind a little bit, it's going to deteriorate to beat the devil. the more you use your mind and your body, the longer you're gonna understand what's going on in the country. and don't just sit down in the rocking chair, 'cause if you do, you won't last too long."

those hearing aids and Coke bottle glasses probably make a huge difference w/r/t staying sane and alert at that age, too.

it will sadden me when nobody born before 1900 is alive

only 58 (validated, documented) people born in the 19th century are alive today, says Wikipedia; I doubt any will be left in another six years, and why not let 'em rest? all the ones on record are from either Japan, Western Europe, the USA, or some other part of the English-speaking world, partly because of the long lifespans and exhaustive record-keeping in those places and partly because claims from countries like China and Russian tend to be written off as fraudulent attempts to flaunt their high standards-of-living. to be fair, the USSR did a lot of lifespan-related fibbing back in the day. and so did Thomas Parr.

Walter Breuning RIP

shouldn't there be a way to carbon test the unverified oldest people in the world?

read this as WORLD'S OLDEST PROFESSION!!!!!

This thread prompted me to go back and reread the thread I made about my grandmother, and recall how cool ILXors can occasionally be.

the patronizing respect given to elderly people is kind of depressing

it's like people being kind to animals b/c they are so non-threatening

if i can't envy you then i will feel sentimental towards you

for about the past year now, the world's oldest person has been 115-year-old Besse Cooper, of Georgia.

http://i46.tinypic.com/1zvzv2d.jpg

Besse, a daughter of Richard Brown and Angie Berry Brown, was born in Sullivan County on Aug. 26, 1896, and lived on the banks of the Watauga River for several years. She and her siblings enjoyed the benefits of living near and playing in the river.

According to Besse's son Sidney: "In November 1900 while Mother was four years old, her aunt and uncle convinced her parents to move to Arkansas, known as the 'Land of Opportunity.' The two families built a large houseboat alongside the river for the journey. It was fabricated upside down, turned over and then placed on the river. This attracted a lot of attention from neighbors and friends.

"Their journey took them down the Watauga River and into the Tennessee River. They had a rudder and guided the boat with a big pole. They docked at night and traveled by day. Besse remembered being tied around the waist to keep her from falling off the boat. One night, the weather was so cold that the river froze delaying them for three days."

When the two families reached Chattanooga, they became stuck on a sandbar at low tide causing Mr. Brown to go into town to get assistance. He was advised against going to Arkansas because of a high number of Yellow Fever cases there. They abandoned their journey, sold the houseboat and rented a house for about a year while Mr. Brown worked in the city as a carpenter.

They decided to return to the Johnson City area. In 1906, the Brown family moved to the Boones Creek community where they built a two-story wood house on 15 acres of land on a hill along what is now called Brown Road. Besse attended Boones Creek School, graduating in 1913.

Miss Brown enrolled at East Tennessee Normal School (which had opened just two years prior). She rode the CC&O train between Gray Station and Johnson City on weekends and boarded with her aunt in Johnson City during the week. She commuted to and from the Normal School on a trolley. She greatly admired school president, Sidney J. Gilbreath, later naming a son after him.

After earning a teacher’s certificate, Besse taught at a school in Tiger Valley, TN, between Hampton and Roan Mountain, and rode the Tweetsie narrow gauge railroad to and from there each weekend. When she exited the train, she had to walk and carry a suitcase another five miles to her boarding house in all kinds of weather.

the world's oldest man (Jiroemon Kimura, of Japan) seems to be in great shape for his age. He even said a few words in English at his 115th birthday party in April.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeYpPXAySNg

it's still kinda humbling (or something) that only one person we know of has ever lived past the age of 120, and that was 15+ years ago. I wonder how long it will be before someone else comes close to breaking the record.

actually here he is speaking English ("thank you very much. you are very kind man!")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgSoycOKZv8

seems like a cool dude to me

RIP Besse Cooper :(

Jiroemon Kimura continues to be a cool dude (now the world's oldest person and the oldest man on record)

http://i50.tinypic.com/namaq.jpg

RIP Jiroemon Kimura :(

now there are only 9 people left from the 1800s

I was sad to see this dude go. He seemed much more vibrant and with it than most of the recent oldest living people

eminently quotable, too:

"It's important to let things happen naturally. Even if you have strong ambitions, things won't always go the way you hope."

"I cherish each day. What I most desire is for people across the world to recall my name just for a moment."

"Thanks to everyone, I'm able to keep breathing. Let me stay in this world as long as possible."

it must be a surreal experience (for someone who's still "with it") to get yearly visits from reporters who want you to divulge the secret to your long life and drop some snippets of your supreme wisdom (which usually just amounts to sayings you've known since you were a kid, like "mind your own business" or "be kind to others" — being really really old doesn't necessarily make you a sage). but it's interesting to see a world's oldest person who can appreciate his celebrity and engage with the media in a playful way, or use his position as a chance to make political statements like Henry Allingham did. the idea of becoming a million times more interesting just by breathing for a really long time appeals to me, not that I plan to ever live that long.

by coincidence, the '127-year-old' Chinese woman Luo Meizhen died on the same day as Kimura, but it's very unlikely that she was as old as she said she was.

123 year old Bolivian man:

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-bolivia-oldest-person-123-20130815,0,4445976.story

As for Flores, he says he very much misses his wife, who died more than a decade ago. One of his children is still living, 67-year-old Cecilio. Most of his 40 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren have moved away from his small Bolivian hamlet.

kanu is 25

obligatory "world's oldest person turns 116 for the third year in a row" post:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/worlds-oldest-person-116-birthday-japan

http://i.imgur.com/nHsLNwO.jpg

and now there are only 5 living people who can prove they were born in the 1800s

Oldest people are full of shit. They're confidence that how they specifically chose to live is why they are the oldest. Like they've figured out the secret formula! And they never get sick.

yeah, it's shocking that people born in the 1890s don't understand how genes affect longevity, and it's even more shocking that British tabloid writers are using "oldest azn person cites sushi, rice, meditation, and those little zen sand gardens as the secret to a long life" as the angle for their stories

that doesn't really make for much of a story though

Breaking: Oldest Person in the World Always Bragging About Age, Doesn't Understand They're Simply Lucky, and is Full of Shit

lol

funny tho how the worlds oldest person never chows down on bacon and cheese like

in a parallel universe the oldest person in the world brags that they smoke every day and drink heavily and it never affected them, and the world takes them seriously and everyone starts drinking and smoking constantly in an effort to live longer. strict global regulations go into effect mandating heavy drinking and smoking, and the first causalities are the people who can't hold their liquor and are immediately disappeared by the govt. over the years liver and lung cancer rates skyrocket but no one is willing to admit the mistake. the new oldest person in the world is 74 and addresses a massive tv audience in a room that's so smoky that she's practically invisible. her poisoned raspy voice brags

also in this parallel world the Big One actually happened and the bragging old tyrant lives on the Island of California. The Island of California!!

ppl that develop tolerance to these new conditions will eventually beat the diseases, it's the only way

http://i.imgur.com/wnQYr7D.jpg

"oops I lost my birth certificate ¯(°_o)/¯" ~ 127-year-old Leandra Becerra Lumbreras, the oldest person to have ever lived

Family say secrets to her long life are lots of sleep, keeping active, singing to relatives and eating sweets.

And the birthday girl's secret to a long life is eating well, chewing on chocolate, sleeping for days on end and never getting married, according to her family.

OLDEST PEOPLE STILL FULL OF SHIT.

I want to know how your life is miserable, oldest person. Riddle me that oldest person.

114 yr old digestive system obv

Some day an interviewer will ask the same old inane question of an extremely old person, "to what do you attribute the secret of your living so long" and the extremely old person will answer, "go away, you're an idiot". Some sweet day, I can feel it coming.

"The secret is to have been born an extremely long time ago."

I don't know if it's going to suck or not when the World's Oldest Person is all hep and meta and self-aware of the century-old narrative of being the World's Oldest Person and answers back to the reporter, "Oh, you know. Smoke weed every day, drink a gallon of bleach once a year and keep pullin' on that pork -- amirite? *winks at camera, dies*"

the only reason to become very old is to take pleasure in fulfilling the lifelong goal to really tell off an inept journalist who asks stupid quesitons

Weird to think that for me, that person won't be born until 2070 or so.

if they even still have journalists then, haha amirite? *winks, dies*

you 2070'er why i oughtta, you weren't even there for the great space rebellion of the 2060s, why i'm so old i was old then and i'm old now, i'm ooooooold and miserable and you don't even know how to ask good questions

wait, this chick is a full 5 years older than the previous oldest person ever?? i am skeptical

no spring chick

yeah, the odds that she's actually 127 are vanishingly small. dubious 120+-year-old claims like hers make the news several times a year (like the amazing 123-year old Bolivian man and the amazing 126-year-old Brazilian man) without amounting to anything. almost all of them come from countries with poor or nonexistent birth documentation where the government makes little effort to keep track of its citizens' ages. this lady has a government ID card from 2009 that says she was born in 1887, but who's to say that she didn't add 15 or 20 years to her age (possibly using the identity of her mother or older sister) so that she'd be eligible for a pension earlier in life? now that she's reached a record-breaking age, it's too late to change her story, and her local government and media are unlikely question her claim because they stand to benefit from the publicity.

it's possible that the real world's oldest person is some 118-year-old from a developing nation who doesn't have any records to back up their claim, but Guinness isn't going to verify their age just because they "seem honest".

tl;dr this lady is probably 105-ish years old but she is FULL OF SHIT and she needs an internet person like me to put her in her place

They'll just have to count the growth rings in her femur after she dies.

there are a bunch of premier league football players who are older than that woman but passed off as being 28

tick.jpg

Q: what's the secret
A: come closer
Q: *leans forward*
A: closer
Q: *scoots forward*
A: *farts loudly* hahahahaha

Q: Tell me the secret!
A: You must squeeeeeeeeeze the life out of the lemon *pees and dies*

RIP Ethel Lang (the last surviving British person born during Victoria's reign)

Sounds like a mostly reasonable oldest person. Attributes long life to not smoking and drinking. Not some bullshit like eating chocolate before bed and singing to relatives. RIP reasonable oldest person.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/20/secret-to-long-life-avoiding-men_n_6508870.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

This oldest person is probably on to something. At least with the avoiding men part, her goddamn porridge hasn't done anything.

More old person full of shit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/world/raw-eggs-and-no-husband-since-38-keep-her-young-at-115.html

Secret to long life, raw eggs and misandry.

Also in today's NYT, the downside to longevity: Germany: Man, 93, Is Charged as Accessory in Auschwitz Murders

sj cru heading for hte eggs section as we speak huh

secret to long life, participation in genocide :(

get yr hits in first kinda thing

that case has come up a few times. idk was it ever confirmed/not that he'd p much had v little option for survival than to join, or was it that he was one of v few survivors from his village of the holodomor. idk, maybe all this is exactly what one would expect a former deathcamp guard to say on his deathbed too.

can't wait till i'm the world's oldest person so i can finally make this reference

http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/content/lists/newspaper/news_064.jpg

That makes three articles itt that mention avoiding marriage/men. This must be the secret.

oh well.

Many of them were married at one point though, they just are so old they outlived their husbands but then were told old to snag another.

Misao Okawa turns 117

http://i.imgur.com/FurqRJO.jpg

that's an impressive age — she's the 5th oldest person of all time, the oldest Japanese person of all time, and the first person to reach age 117 since the 1990s.

Not aware of any secret. Respectable oldest person.

she was in her 90s when i was born

Asked for the secret of her longevity, she joked, "I wonder about that too!"

Born on 5th March 1898 in Tenma, she has previously said the key to a long life is eating sushi and getting at least eight hours sleep a night.

^hoping this is reasonable by Jeff's standards

those two things seem potentially true, unlike most of the b.s. supercentenarians say on that topic. i think they don't want people to live as long as them, and bump them off the list, so they give misleading advice

sounds great tbh xp

Alexander Imich (who was briefly the world's oldest man) had an extremely complicated 'secret':

http://www.lef.org/magazine/2008/10/Alexander-Imich/Page-01

i.e. calorie restriction, healthy diet, exercise, a happy marriage, a goal-oriented life, curiosity, optimism, good genes, a steady routine, and the following supplements:

vitamins: A, C, D, E, B1, B2, B6, and B12; minerals: calcium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, copper, manganese, and chromium; and supplements: inositol, ginger, phosphatidylcholine, bromelain, milk thistle seed extract, grape seed extract, flaxseed lignan, ellagic acid, bilberry extract, olive leaf extract, apple polyphenol, bromelain, lutein, panthetine, lycopene, sulforaphane, resveratrol, zeaxanthin, sunflower seeds, coenzyme Q10, garlic, mangosteen, pomegranate, noni complex, ashwagandha, hyaluronic acid, glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, seaweed vegetable complex, and turmeric extract

of all the oldest people I've read about, he's the only one who credited his old age to modern life extension techniques. most supercentenarians lead healthy but more-or-less unremarkable lifestyles.

Misao and her older sister

http://i.imgur.com/aQC2QBT.jpg

in 1900.

And whoa, here she is in 1972.

http://i.imgur.com/1abosjf.jpg

Maybe I made that last one up.

Wow, only five 19th century kids left:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_people#Ten_verified_oldest_people_living

just read on wiki that the woman who lived second-longest in history, sarah knauss, was born in 1880 and died on 30 december 1999. what a pisser to miss out on living across three centuries by a single day :(

sad that her age is melting her

I pointed that out maybe in this very thread xp but then NV got all smartass about 2001 being the millennial year

I still say it was 2000.

I didn't turn 1 until a year after I was born, but I was definitely alive and kicking the 365 days before then.

sleeping a lot and eating a lot of sushi sounds like a good life

It is. Trust me.

she probably has access to much better sushi than i do, being japanese and all

personally I would rather enjoy some sake as well and live half a century lesser than her, but each to their own.

She doesn't look a day over 116

by contrast, Jeralean Talley, the world's third oldest person, looks about 80:

http://i.imgur.com/6sLs7cS.jpg

it does seem like a lot of the "world's oldest people" are african-american women. i wonder why that is.

113-year-old people who have figured out how to live:

http://i.imgur.com/nECTnLb.jpg

it does seem like a lot of the "world's oldest people" are african-american women. i wonder why that is.

the mortality rate for African-Americans past the age of 80 actually increases more slowly than the mortality rate for white Americans in the same age range, and black people actually have a lower mortality rate than white people at extreme old ages (110+). there's no clear reason why, but this is an interesting read.

"actually"

RIP Misao Okawa :(

her successor is presumably 116-year-old African-American woman Gertrude Weaver, whose exact birthdate is hotly contested (it could be either April or July 1898).

Eat and sleep. Got it, oldest person.

I can't wait to bump this thread when I'm the oldest person.

I think you might have to. Wait, that is.

Birth registration in the United States was not compulsory until 1933.

So Americans have 30 more years of this "paperwork? what paperwork?" b.s. to go through every time.

New oldest person: http://time.com/3768338/worlds-oldest-person-gertrude-weaver-misao-okawa/

Secret for this oldest person, kindness. wtf stupid.

Welp….

http://www.thv11.com/story/news/2015/04/06/worlds-oldest-woman-dies-at-116/25369525/

Her granddaughter is 79.

media attention can be dangerous when you're that old. she died of pneumonia, so it's possible that she caught something from a reporter or some other visitor last week. but at least she had a little bit of time to appreciate her position.

Hopefully the media won't be so intrusive in Jeralean Talley's case, although she seems to be in much better shape:

http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/wayne-county/inksters-jeralean-talley-is-now-the-oldest-verified-person-in-the-world

The two oldest people in the world during the past week have both been African American women - one living in rural Arkansas and the other in metro Detroit.

These ladies are taking "Get Tough or Die" to an incredible extreme.

Venture Capitalist Promises http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhedgecock/2015/04/21/venture-capitalist-promises-1m-to-first-person-to-reach-123rd-birthday/M To First Person To Reach 123rd Birthday

this is mainly of interest to fraudsters: shady '140-year-old' goatherds will be climbing down from the Caucasus by the hundreds to claim their prize money, whereas it's doubtful that any actual (super)centenarians will be moved to break the world record because they're holding out for a cash prize that they'll be too old to properly enjoy. of the thousands of people who have reached the age of 110, only one has ever made it past 120, so survival at that age is most likely a matter of genetics rather than lifestyle or 'motivation'. there's a good chance that nobody will reach age 123 within that Moldovan billionaire's lifetime, which means he can raise awareness about lifespan extension without having to worry about paying out the prize money. good on him, I guess.

in other relevant news, the world's oldest person turned 116 today. unsurprisingly, she doesn't cite 'living in Inkster, Michigan' as her secret to a long life.

21:18, 23 September 2014 Black Kite (talk | contribs) deleted page Dmitry Kaminsky (Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Dmitry Kaminsky)
13:05, 8 September 2014 Randykitty (talk | contribs) deleted page Dmitry Kaminsky (G11: Unambiguous advertising or promotion)

well that was short-lived

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-the-oldest-person-in-the-world-keeps-dying/

it's almost like being the world's oldest person is some kind of death sentence

You know, for like a second maybe, they

were also the world's youngest person.

I'll be telling that joke all the time in 2093.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/06/18/jeralean-talley-dead-oldest-woman/28923509/

welp, RIP Jeralean Talley

the 19th century is soon to depart the living human world

for some reason I dread that day; it is terribly irrational

I feel like I'll lose a lot of my interest in these records once the last 1800er dies, even though 'last World War I veteran' and 'last person born before Kitty Hawk' are arguably more meaningful milestones than last surviving person of the century (and it's not like either of the two oldest women have any memories at all of that era)

the new world's oldest person is 115-year-old Susannah Mushatt Jones, who has had an interesting life:

Susannah Mushatt was born on July 6, 1899 in Lowndes County, Alabama. Her parents were sharecroppers who farmed the same land as her grandparents (one an ex-slave). As a young woman, she worked in the fields, and was determined to escape that hard existence. On March 4, 1922, she graduated from the Calhoun Boarding High School and the graduation roster recognized her for studying 'Negro Music in France'. After graduation, she wanted to become a teacher and was accepted to Tuskegee Institute's Teacher's Program. Her parents couldn't afford tuition, so in 1923, she moved to New York during the early stages of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1928, she married Henry Jones. She divorced him five years later, saying she 'didn't know what became of him,' and she had no children.

she and Emma Morano (born in Italy in 1899) are the last two 1800ers standing. Susannah is somewhat frail, but Emma still lives independently in her apartment and eats a lot of eggs. interestingly, she also got divorced/separated at a young age and never remarried, which was almost unheard of in Italy at the time.

so eggs?

Probably not.

In general (and animal studies) high protein diets activate mTOR (and anabolic processes) and suppress catabolic processes like autophagy (which plays a role in clearing cellular trash). In human cohorts, those on low protein diets (<10% E) have a survival advantage over those on high-protein diets (>20%) through about age 70.

However, after age 78, most consume so little calories in any case that higher amounts (as a percent of diet) is beneficial, to keep what's left of the immune system going and prevent sarcopenia. But the longest lived populations in the world aren't heavy egg eaters.

So far, the only thing that I've seen consistent among supercentenarians is light eating in earlier life, though heavy cocoa consumption is disproportionately common.

third para should read "However, after age "70..."

All you have to be to live this old is full of shit. FULL OF SHIT OLD PEOPLE.

though heavy cocoa consumption is disproportionately common

http://i.imgur.com/L8IzKVL.gif

Mind, that's mostly just anecdotally based on Jeanne Calment, Leandra Becerra Lumbreras, Stella Nardari-Vecchiato, Helen Reichert and the Kuna Indians of Panama, but its backed up by laboratory experiments that demonstrate all the catechins in cocoa reduce chronic diseases of aging, though they don't seem to have much effect on other fundamental aging processes (stem cells exhaustion, cellular senescence, disregulated growth signaling, etc.). Ie, they offer a greater chance of dying from aging directly, rather than prematurely from aging accelerated chronic diseases.

http://i.imgur.com/L8IzKVL.gif

"the only thing that I've seen consistent among supercentenarians is light eating in earlier life"

damn

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2016/3/guinness-world-records-announces-holocaust-survivor-israel-kristal-as-worlds-oldest-man

er, http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2016/3/guinness-world-records-announces-holocaust-survivor-israel-kristal-as-worlds-old

His reason for longevity is dumb. Stupid oldest people.

ha, jeeze if that's what you take away from that. such cynicism.

p crazy to think how infinitesimal the chances of him being alive now are considering what he endured and how old he is. also strange to think that a man who was sent to auschwitz the year he turned 40 is still alive and kicking in 2016.

i mean jeez that guy was older when WW2 ended than i am now, and there he is. it makes you consider how much the world can change in your life too. i think abt that with my father in law, who was basically in the queue to a camp in poland when his whole family got out thanks to a schinder-like italian diplomat. and now he's living out in the San Fernando Valley tending his garden and chilling out 24/7.

The two oldest people in the world during the past week have both been African American women - one living in rural Arkansas and the other in metro Detroit.

These ladies are taking "Get Tough or Die" to an incredible extreme.

― pplains, Tuesday, April 7, 2015 8:21 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This guy giving those two a run for the money.

I'm not a cynic I just don't like World's Oldest People!! I've been complaining about those assholes for years!

i love the world's oldest people

my favorite was the japanese man, a mail carrier who retired in 1960 and lived another 53 years

I remember a short interview in the Times, probs about 15 years ago, with that French lady who lived to 122. She mentioned meeting Van Gogh and commented how he looked like his brain was gone and he stank of booze.

Some of these living fossils seem like horrible people, the best ones go down with their era imo.

Apparently Van Gogh was a jerk to her though

She worked at her family's general store and he'd come in all drunk and weird and short tempered

He probably was a bit of an arse, but I still didn't like the cut of her jib and others of her type. Gl to people that live healthy enough to span multiple eras, but I don't want to meet ya!

RIP Susannah Mushatt Jones

her successor as world's oldest person (as well as the last person born in the 1800s) is the Italian woman who eats two raw eggs a day, and her successor as oldest American is the American-Italian nun who voted for Obama.

One left from the 1800s

Have always dreaded the end of direct human connection to that century, although recently discovering that the world's oldest cat is only a year older than me has given that dread a rival

lol

sorry to see her go, but she wasn't getting any younger.

that Scooter case smells like a fraud to me tbph. who's to say his mommy hasn't owned two or more phenotypically identical Scooters over the past 30 years? I feel like the feline age verification process is overdue for an upheaval; 38-year-old Creme Puff is the Old Tom Parr of the cat world, and Guinness is making a mockery of itself by continuing to recognize his claim.

otoh I live in fear that the actual last survivor of the 1800s will be some 118-year-old Azerbaijani woman that everyone calls bullshit on because all she has to back up her claim is a 20-year-old passport that says she was born in 1898. I wouldn't be surprised if at least a couple of these claims were genuine (in the 115 to 117-year-old range, anyways...Alimihan Seyiti is a blatant fraud)

("last human survivor", if that part isn't clear)

sucks i won't ever get to be the last survivor of a certain century.

unless... #TRUMP16

i want to become a supercentenarian. going to cut out the heavy drinking and start riding my bike everywhere in new york city. if i keep that up for 83 years i'm in the 110 club.

30 y/o cat doesn't seem so crazy. surprised that's the record. xp

there's a cat in my old neighbourhood who is 24 or so. buddy looks rough as hell (so much so that there is a sign on the block he hangs out on saying "im not neglected, im just really old, please don't call the spca" or words to that effect) but he likes to stroll on a sunny day and likes head rubs still.

30 isn't such an outlandish age for a cat, but where are the birth/baptismal/marriage/census/pension records to support that particular claim? I just don't think it's fair that cats should be held to a lower level of scrutiny than humans.

sad, though

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/14/worlds-oldest-cat-tragically-dies-just-days-after-breaking-recor/

interview with Emma Morano, who had a tough early life:

I worked so hard and I'm still here now, I take my pension and I'm fine. My doctor told me to eat raw meat, preferably ground so I can eat it.

I left home with calm; I took my things and I left. My husband would beat me every day, and I was not doing anything wrong. I went to work and he worked little, I always had to support him. Then an old man who lived near my house one day stops me and tells me, "Emma how can you be with that man there?" I did not go along with most anyone, I was always alone, there was my niece with me who looked after me.

Not exactly per the title and hardly a deep article, but it piqued my interest so I though it might do the same for others following this thread. Holding out for that family photo they have planned: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jan/21/nought-to-103-in-six-generations-bradford-hanson-family-claim-uk-record

the dreaded day arrives

it must be a trip to be a really old person

that was the last person born in the 1800s, i'm told

Well, the last person born in the 1800s would've had a birthday of Dec. 31.

thank's

Dec. 31, 1899.

people in American Samoa, Midway Islands/U.S.A. and Niue have an unfair advantage when it comes to being born last on a particular day

https://twitter.com/richardmarcj/status/852521411725885440

only 58 (validated, documented) people born in the 19th century are alive today, says Wikipedia; I doubt any will be left in another six years

― the loneliness of the dexys midnight runner (unregistered), Sunday, January 30, 2011 2:04 PM (six years ago)

RIP Emma Morano

fwiw when I wrote "19th century" I meant "1800s"; I wasn't too far off in thinking that the last survivor of the 1800s would pass away at some point in 2016. tiresome pedants will have pointed out that there are at least 2 remaining survivors of the ‹‹‹19th century›››, including Violet Brown, the last living former subject of Queen Victoria (whose 97-year-old son sadly just died today).

could the 19th century refer to any other set of years other than the 1800s?

Having struggled with basic algebra and geometry while trying to do something extremely simple for the last hour, I feel like everything I once knew by heart is in doubt

Those tiresome pedants have been on my nerves for about 18 years now.

^

but fyi Karl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century#Debate_over_century_celebrations

Not even relating to Britain's oldest person, let alone the world's, but a nice wee article nonetheless: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/25/britain-oldest-men-bob-weighton-alf-smith-110-years-old

"Unlike some fellow supercentenarians, (Bob) Weighton offers no clues to his longevity – no daily whisky or fresh air or game of Scrabble. “I have absolutely no idea why I’ve lived so long. I just haven’t died yet, that’s all.”"

Finally! An oldest person that is not full of shit.

Excellent bowel movements at his age are commendable though

Scientists unravel secrets of ‘superagers’ - "they are usually total dicks" says egg-spurt

I continue to pollute the thread with people who are nowhere near the world's oldest, but deserve note nonetheless ... https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/mar/09/oldest-person-world-ride-rollercoaster-experience His 106th birthday challenge was a zip wire ride.

there is no WORLD'S OLDEST SPIDER thread so posting this here

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/30/worlds-oldest-known-spider-dies-at-43-after-a-quiet-life-underground

The spider did not die of old age but was killed by a wasp sting, researchers said.

Fuckin' Oz, man.

Dead at 43 after a quiet life underground? Bet he was a big Jawbreaker fan.

Wonder what bullshit excuse he had for his longevity.

Staying off the web.

nailed it

Spider was female, so no doubt she never married... to another spider... er....

kinda bums me out that this extraordinary spider didn't have a more imaginative name than 'number 16'

rip teenie, heaven needed a quadragenarian arachnid

Spider was female, so no doubt she never married

Already calling her a spinster, show some respect.

The fact that the original source is apparently The Sun makes me think I shouldn't even be posting this one, especially as her age is likely utter nonsense, but going ahead anyway for the deliciously miserable outlook.

"Long life is not at all God’s gift for me -- but a punishment.”

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/worlds-oldest-human-ever-never-happy

Onionesque or is this Putin trying to mess with our minds again?

she was 55 when WWII ended

I did wonder if I may have been duped by satire.

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/historys-oldest-woman-a-fraud-theory-says-122-year-old-jeanne-calment-was-actually-a-99-year-old-imposter

(Her daughter posed as her because of her money)

this is a well-written article because it doesn't get very far before pointing out the potential issues with this allegation. tristin hopper, you did a good job.

I always thought there was something a bit shifty about those eyes. And she badmouthed V van Gogh, nah deffo fake!

This is a better story.

And it’s hilarious that, making up a story about meeting van gogh, she decided the thing to do would be to trash him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xh0KqhgNvw

the only good record

(also if you google her, the first option that isn't just her is "jeanne calment diet" -- which was chocolate, olive oil, cigarettes and cheap red wine. so it's important that this story not be false at all)

I think she just meant a wee noggin of red wine as opposed to finishing off the bottle and then some, but I want to believe as well.

one bottle of red for every bottle of olive oil, works for me

this was actually always my favourite part of the story:

In 1965, at age 90 and with no heirs, Calment signed a contract to sell her apartment to lawyer André-François Raffray, retaining a life estate.[13] Raffray, then aged 47 years, agreed to pay her a monthly sum of 2,500 francs (€381.12) until she died. Raffray ended up paying Calment the equivalent of more than €140,000, more than double the apartment's value. After Raffray's death from cancer at the age of 77, in 1995, his family continued the payments until Calment's death.[13] Calment's comment on this situation was reported to be, "In life, one sometimes makes bad deals."[6]

i know a lot abt her bcz i'm a music journalist

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Geert_Adriaans_Boomgaard_op_100-jarige_leeftijd_-_J.G._Kramer_%281888%29.jpg/320px-Geert_Adriaans_Boomgaard_op_100-jarige_leeftijd_-_J.G._Kramer_%281888%29.jpg

Geert Adriaans Boomgaard at the age of 100, in 1888, convincing few, i feel

Living from 1875 to 1997 seems ridiculous.

I could imagine some ill-fed gang of cheeky little gap toothed scamps hooking that syrup off his head with a fishing rod, and then holding it hostage.

until they died, while he watched on and laughed

another supercentenarian story i like wz abt a woman who'd been put in an asylum by her asshole husband in her 30s, and then outlived him by like 50 years. asked late on how she felt abt it all she said, "it's been nice here, it's peaceful and i've done a lot of knitting"

^ people who seem to have figured out how to live

"According to the July 20, 1876 edition of The New York Times, a man arrested in Newark, NJ named Colestein Veglin claimed to be 615 years old and to have 6 wives, all living."

quick thinking there

another supercentenarian story i like wz abt a woman who'd been put in an asylum by her asshole husband in her 30s, and then outlived him by like 50 years. asked late on how she felt abt it all she said, "it's been nice here, it's peaceful and i've done a lot of knitting"

― mark s, Wednesday, January 2, 2019 5:47 AM (eighteen minutes ago)

you're probably thinking of Carrie White, whose title was revoked after it came to light that she was only 102 when she died (though she really did spend 75 years in an asylum):

https://en.everybodywiki.com/Carrie_C._White
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1990-11-18-9002260315-story.html

In 1909, her husband, a blacksmith, took her to Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee, a mental facility, complaining that the 35-year-old woman was showing her arms inappropriately and saying that somebody was out to harm their twins. The couple apparently had no children. She also threatened to do harm to herself.

That was the last time anyone at the hospital, including Carrie, saw or heard from the husband.

For the next 75 years, the pretty, brown-haired piano teacher would be locked away in an institution that eventually would be investigated by the state for brutal and inhumane patient abuses.

ok that version of the story is less pleasing possibly

Maybe she was talking about her arms?

per the guinness book of records (break-out 1970 edition) the world's oldest ever no-longer-living person when i was a kid was a french-canadian tailor who had lived to the age of 113

on the internet today i can find no record of his even having existed (it wd probably help to remember his name but i don't)

Li Ching-Yuen or Li Ching-Yun (simplified Chinese: 李清云; traditional Chinese: 李清雲; pinyin: Lǐ Qīngyún) (died 6 May 1933) was a Chinese herbalist, martial artist and tactical advisor, known for his supposed extreme longevity.[4][5] He claimed to have been born in 1736, while disputed records suggest 1677, implying an age at death of 197 and 256 years, respectively. Both far exceed the highest verified ages on record.

His true date of birth was never determined, and his claims have been dismissed by gerontologists as a myth.[6] While his claims have never been verified, they have been widely circulated as an Internet hoax.[7]

this guy was also 7 feet tall, reportedly

chinese have smaller feet tho

He claimed to have been born in 1736, while disputed records suggest 1677

"i'm 197!"
"lol don't be ridiculous, i think you'll find yr 256" *flourishes records*
"i dispute those!" *dies*

in 1928 the new york times went there and talked to old men who claimed they knew him as a child, and he was an old man back then

per the guinness book of records (break-out 1970 edition) the world's oldest ever no-longer-living person when i was a kid was a french-canadian tailor who had lived to the age of 113

on the internet today i can find no record of his even having existed (it wd probably help to remember his name but i don't)

― mark s, Wednesday, January 2, 2019 11:18 AM (forty-six minutes ago)

ha, this is another debunked case. a 19th century researcher conflated French-Canadian bookmaker Pierre Joubert (1701-1766) with his son Pierre Joubert Jr. (1732-1814), resulting in a "113-year-old man" who only existed on paper. Guinness stood by the finding until the mix-up was discovered in the 1990s.

https://www.demogr.mpg.de/books/odense/6/04.htm

a "113-year-old man" who only existed on paper.

strong mood

i think some of these people who get mixed up with their parents are just confused

https://lifeandbuilding.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/methuselah.jpg?w=700

xp v def a strong mood

"old parr's head" still a name you see for pubs:
https://strangeremains.com/2018/01/02/dissecting-the-true-age-of-old-tom-parr

strong horny mood:
"When he was 105 years old, he was forced to do penance for adultery in a “sheet of bastardy” at his parish church"

Goodness knows those two had to be the only Pierre Jouberts in Quebec.

exhaustingly deep dive on this very topic aka "validation of extreme longevity cases in the past: the french-canadian experience":
https://www.demogr.mpg.de/books/odense/6/04.htm

Li Ching-Yun's advice for a long life was “keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a pigeon and sleep like a dog”

good news: the first person that will live to be 1,000 years-old has already been born
bad news: it's lord custos

thinking that me ilx deadpool could just be this list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_living_people

then realised it might be interesting to see how it changes in, say, a year.

1  Kane Tanaka                   116 years,   5 days 	Japan
2  Maria Giuseppa Robucci        115 years, 293 days 	Italy
3  Shimoe Akiyama                115 years, 233 days 	Japan
4  Lucile Randon                 114 years, 330 days 	France
5  Shin Matsushita               114 years, 283 days 	Japan
6  Maria Vikentyevna Kononovich  114 years, 225 days 	Belarus
7  Lessie Brown                  114 years, 107 days 	United States
8  Maggie Kidd                   114 years,  30 days 	United States
9  Jeanne Bot                    113 years, 358 days 	France
10 Shigeyo Nakachi               113 years, 340 days 	Japan 

(5 of the top 100 oldest ever people died in 2018)

I think you'd actually owe points at the end of the year though.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/01/12/how-madame-calment-worlds-oldest-person-became-fuel-russian-conspiracy-theory/

Russia!

I believe the report anyway. Living to 122 is absurd, she is like four years older than the next in line.

It's a solid theory on the face of it but it requires the complicity of an entire village.

The thing that made it plausible was the disruption in the town during world war 2

checking my list above ( WORLD'S OLDEST PERSON!!!! )

Lessie Brown has died

World's oldest living man, Masazo Nonaka, dies at age 113 years and 179 days.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/20/worlds-oldest-man-masazo-nonaka-dies-in-japan-at-113

they could have found a more flattering picture ffs

He looks like he was pretty happy enjoying his birthday cake.

that mouth would definitely terrify children and possibly dentists and anyone with an aversion to staring into oblivion.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/133-year-old-man-buried-in-scotland-could-be-oldest-ever-1-533494

Aye, right.

i feel ppl aren't not working the "typo on the gravestone" angle hard enough

"yes i know it says he died aged 76 -- the stonemasons made a mistake, he was actually 876"

i found out about that guy watching an episode of weir's way - my gf got me the complete boxset on dvd for xmas.

episode focused on leadhills, lanarkshire. surprisingly, as part of the lowlands, the second highest village in scotland (neighboring wanlockhead the highest). also the birthplace of William Symington, who built the the Charlotte Dundas, which was the basis of later steam powered boats.

No change, but Kane Tanaka officially recognised as oldest living person by Guinness World Records.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/09/japanese-woman-116-named-worlds-oldest-living-person

Keeping an eye on koogs's list of the top ten oldest living people at the start of 2019, Shimoe Akiyama also died at the end of January at age 115 years, 255 days, making two of that ten now gone.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-47744752

Mr Weighton said the most common question he was asked was about the secret of his longevity.

But his only advice on the matter was "to avoid dying", he said.

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/456ae75d-c218-4721-9847-0c25bf260e9b

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/704080v1

The observation of individuals attaining remarkable ages, and their concentration into geographic sub-regions or ‘blue zones’, has generated considerable scientific interest. Proposed drivers of remarkable longevity include high vegetable intake, strong social connections, and genetic markers. Here, we reveal new predictors of remarkable longevity and ‘supercentenarian’ status. In the United States, supercentenarian status is predicted by the absence of vital registration. The state-specific introduction of birth certificates is associated with a 69-82% fall in the number of supercentenarian records. In Italy, which has more uniform vital registration, remarkable longevity is instead predicted by low per capita incomes and a short life expectancy. Finally, the designated ‘blue zones’ of Sardinia, Okinawa, and Ikaria corresponded to regions with low incomes, low literacy, high crime rate and short life expectancy relative to their national average. As such, relative poverty and short lifespan constitute unexpected predictors of centenarian and supercentenarian status, and support a primary role of fraud and error in generating remarkable human age records.

Kane Tanaka turned 119 on Sunday. Not that long now for her to pass Sarah Knauss's 119 years 97 days, but it still feels such a massive stretch to match Jeanne Calment.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/03/worlds-oldest-person-celebrates-119th-birthday-in-japan-nursing-home

^ RIP

https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/japan/kane-tanaka-oldest-person-death-age-b2064718.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucile_Randon : 118

2019

1 Kane Tanaka 116 years, 5 days Japan
2 Maria Giuseppa Robucci 115 years, 293 days Italy
3 Shimoe Akiyama 115 years, 233 days Japan
4 Lucile Randon 114 years, 330 days France
5 Shin Matsushita 114 years, 283 days Japan
6 Maria Vikentyevna Kononovich 114 years, 225 days Belarus
7 Lessie Brown 114 years, 107 days United States
8 Maggie Kidd 114 years, 30 days United States
9 Jeanne Bot 113 years, 358 days France
10 Shigeyo Nakachi 113 years, 340 days Japan

today

1 Lucile Randon 118 years, 73 days France
2 Tekla Juniewicz 115 years, 319 days Poland
3 María Brañas Morera 115 years, 52 days Spain
4 Casilda Ramona Benegas de Gallego 115 years, 17 days Argentina
5 Fusa Tatsumi 115 years, 0 days Japan
6 Anonymous of Hyōgo 114 years, 361 days Japan
7 Sofia Rojas 114 years, 255 days Colombia
8 Bessie Hendricks 114 years, 169 days United States
9 Mila Mangold 114 years, 162 days United States
10 Irene Dunham 114 years, 130 days United States

she's the only one from 2019 top 10 who is still alive. also, happy birthday Fusa!

On 16 January 2021, Randon tested positive for COVID-19 in an outbreak at her retirement home in Toulon that saw 81 out of the 88 residents there infected with the disease. Randon did not have any symptoms and on 8 February, just days before her 117th birthday, it was reported that she had recovered, making her the oldest confirmed person to have both been infected with, and survived, the virus.

Aw, sad about Kane Tanaka, she seemed cool.

She did just surpass Sarah Knauss in the end, so was the second oldest person ever to have lived.

Not good enough.

where is jeff i need his scorn

I think I've softened in my old age.

However when I myself become the world's oldest person, I'm going to come to this thread and scorn myself.

i'm satisfied enough with having been the world's youngest person

nun had a good run

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/centenarian-nun-thought-worlds-oldest-person-dies-118-rcna66227

I appreciate ciderpress’ perspective on this

Lucile Randon, who took the name of Sister Andre when she joined a Catholic charitable order in 1944...

...when she was FORTY.

living really long doesn't seem quite as impressive a trick since the last ones born in the 19th century died off.

Being the world's oldest person almost seems like a bit of a poison chalice at this point

The Curse of Being the World's Oldest Person - how many of them are still alive, eh?

Ashwatthama, the superhero of the Mahabharatha, is said to be over 6,000 years old and still alive.[citation needed]

Myrtle Dorsey, born in 1885, was the oldest person on Jan. 1, 2000.

Sarah Knauss, born in 1880, was the oldest person before Dorsey, but died on Dec. 30, 1999!

Either way, I'm never going to see any tri-century folk again.

Anna Eliza Williams was born in 1873, 100 years before me, and died in 1987.

2087 is a very tall order on my end.

Hey, let's not be negative here, 2087 here you come!

I'd have to get through 2077 first with all of its glitches.

Old poepl!

it always blows my mind that in one's lifetime you could go from not having penicillin to being able to order it from a tiny electronic device and have someone else drive it to your house.

my great grandmother lived to be 100 - she was just always old the whole time I knew her (about 20 years) and pictures of her from the 70's were old too - it's like after 68 you are just OLD and if you keep living you are just PERMA_OLD

sounds bad

i'm cool w/ getting to 55

i can't drive etc

pictures of her from the 70's were old

Well hell, pictures of me from the 70s are now old too!

my grandma looks old in pictures from the 70s, even though she was only in her 50s. it's the wrinkles and the perm, nobody born after 1930 ever had a perm like that.

my great-grandmother was born in 1889 and died in the early 90s.. but she was still writing me mostly legible letters right to the end

Oh and in third grade, my afterschool babysitter's husband was a WWI vet - the only one I've ever met (that I know of)

I'll check the obituaries sometimes and see some suave tan mfer wearing a polo shirt and pastel jacket from 1984. I'll think, how can this guy have been 85 years old? Picture should be in black-and-white with him wearing a straw hat or something?

Then I'll realize that he was in his mid-40s 40 years ago, and think, damn, I remember when old people were much older.

I remember when people my age looked like Wilford Brimley and wore tweed hats

Lol

Now those assholes are in their mid-30s, drinking IPAs at the boutique bowling alley.

"shoes? we aren't actually HERE to bowl. it's about the ambience, the rich history of bowling."

it's like after 68 you are just OLD

great! so, I have like a whole ten months of being 68 before OLD AGE hits?

I don't think crown green bowling is quite as popular with hipsters in their mid 30's in the UK. And the oldies that were into it back in the day wouldn't drink no fancy overpriced IPA. I remember going into a smoky wmc as a kid with a friend + his dad, and they were drinking something they all called Blue, can't remember what brand it was. It was very weak and cheap bitter that the landlord probably also watered down for good measure I think, because I couldn't even get pissed on it when I was 11 yrs old. There is the secret to longevity - as long as you don't chainsmoke rollups as well as drinking 15 pints of Blue a day!

somewhere in the early to mid '10s, around here hookah smoking just like, took off. I had several friends inviting me to hookah bars, and I haaaated it but I loved my friends enough that I did it once or twice.

I think it died down because a lot of the people that I knew that were into it apparently mistakenly thought it was safer than cigarette smoking. the hookah bars in town are like ghost towns now.

Not being a man is one of the secrets to longevity.

I'd wager there won't be many future oldest people in the world that huff on pipes in bars! Although that previous title holder, the French woman who recollected meeting Van Gogh, had a one cigarette a day habit up to a hundred iirc

I've actually never smoked a tobacco cigarette in my life. I was in a production of Odd Couple once where we were supposed to mime smoking on stage, and the director stopped rehearsal to say "Neanderthal, you're holding it like a joint" as that's the only frame of reference i had.

somehow skipped over tobacco and went to wacko tobacco

yeah i remember a bunch of hookah bars appearing in like 2011 and then they were gone by a few years later

I've never smoked at all, and had to light a prop cigarette in a play I was in, and I tried to light it in my hand rather than in my mouth.

Wasn’t the French lady who claimed to have met Van Gogh a fraud though?

there was a campaign to debunk her yes -- only 99 when she died, added her mum's life-span onto hers and co-opted mum's stories -- but it has not been decisive and the record still officially holds afaik

the debunker made the mistake of being a bit of a dick

weirdly just read about her a day ago. yeah, it was 'suspected' but never explicitly proven.

hard to prove with people born in 19th century for a variety of reasons. hell, my great grandfather born in 1898 (died in 1992) and my parents argued over what her actual birthdate was as she had no birth certificate.

*grandMOTHER

All she had to say about Van Gogh was something really shrill and judgemental like he stank of booze and he looked like his brain was gone. I thought at the time she was lacking a bit of centenarian gravitas and wisdom for saying some shit like that!

Just the opinion of a judgemental teen!

van gogh cancelled, followed immediately by jeanne calment

perhaps by the time you are 110 (or even faking it) you give up with elucidations like: well I was young and quite a little shit at the time!

technically the atoms that make up our body are probably much older than our physical age so we are even older.

68 is the new 62

i found an article where her unkind comments on vvg are quoted ("he was ugly") and this is the headline they went with: jeanne calment: the supercentenarian who met van gogh and lived to see tony blair elected PM

All she had to say about Van Gogh was something really shrill and judgemental like he stank of booze and he looked like his brain was gone. I thought at the time she was lacking a bit of centenarian gravitas and wisdom for saying some shit like that!

Maybe he did stink of booze and look like his brain was gone though? As well as being ugly.

old is just older than me

when you are old and have interesting old memories that have been stewing in your brain for a century, at least try and be a bit less facile and more broadly descriptive when chatting shit about them to national newspapers. That seems a reasonable enough request, says I - who'd probably say something just as shit if I lived that long, lol.

idk i bet what keeps these people alive so long is minimal reflective engagement, as it is a well known fact that too much brain energy is bad for longevity

well Van Gogh certianly stinks now

in van gogh's era the most popular drink among artists was absinthe which can definitely rot your brain

Just think in 100 years some centarian will say "I was alive to meet (fill in some astounding personality) "

But who? WHO!?

WHo indeed

good news: the first person that will live to be 1,000 years-old has already been born
bad news: it's lord custos

― mark s, Wednesday, 2 January 2019 22:49 (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I love how scammy this thread title looks

the most popular drink among artists was absinthe

I'm glad it's now legal in the U.S., so everyone can see what a mediocre beverage it really is

thread title should probably read LIVING oldest person -= I don't know who the oldest dead person is

most drinking Americans don't care about how 'good' a drink is, quality wise

you could piss in a cup and mix it with coke and tell people it's Jack and diet and they'll just shrug and say "seems legit" and chug it

in van gogh's era the most popular drink among artists was absinthe which can definitely rot your brain

Strindberg's "Inferno" suggests as much.

shocked to discover that some late 19th century painters were frequently getting pissed on absinthe in Parisienne cafes.

Relevant to our interests here. The tips for a good life idea is obviously a well-worn cliche, but it's interesting to hear from and see such a broad range of possible future contenders for WORLD'S OLDEST PERSON!!!!

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/18/100-centenarians-100-tips-for-a-life-well-lived

reading the entries of the folks who died between interview and publication and sadly moving their suggestions from the good column to the bad

I noticed some gray hairs this morning. Pretty soon I’ll be posted about here I guess.

Who is the oldest person on ilx

robert christgau

Dick Van Dyke, but he posts under a display name you wouldn't expect

CerebalCaustic?

no that's Jordan Peterson

Who is the oldest person regularly posting on ILX?

The world's oldest living man is now a britisher. It's the fish & chips that do it.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/05/briton-says-becoming-worlds-oldest-man-at-111-is-pure-luck

That’s a good old person!

John Alfred Tinniswood, who was born in 1912 – the same year the Titanic sank – insist the secret to his long life is “pure luck”. He obtained the title of world’s oldest man after 112-year-old Gisaburo Sonobe, from Japan, was confirmed to have died on 31 March.

actually, Grauniad, the chronology was more like

-March 31: the world's second oldest living man, Gisaburo Sonabe (112, Japan), dies, never having made it to the #1 spot (cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Lucky_(Daft_Punk_song)#Commercial_performance)

-April 2: the world's oldest living man and fourth oldest man ever, Juan Vicente Pérez Mora (114, Venezuela), dies. his death is announced later that same day

-April 4: Sonobe's death is announced. later that same day, Guinness rushes to John Tinniswood's nursing home to award him the title of world's oldest living man

retired British-Indian marathon runner Fauja Singh, whose claimed 1911-04-01 birthdate would make him more than a year older than Tinniswood, sighs and jogs another lap around his couch

Let's organise a fight to the death between these two to settle the issue. On December 31, 2026.

world's oldest rapper jeanne calment was three kids in a trench coat: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/17/was-jeanne-calment-the-oldest-person-who-ever-lived-or-a-fraud?

this is from 2020 but i hadn't read it before and it's not linked up above i don't think (content warning: mentions peter thiel)

it doesn't prove she wasn't a fraud but it does prove her chief would-be debunkers are annoying and dislikeable

Loved the recent Ig Nobel awarded to the researchers who examined data from so-called “blue zones” of longevity and found that they were attributable to poverty-driven welfare fraud, along with poor record keeping for deaths.

David Letterman once presented a woman on his show he billed as the world’s oldest rapper, but I believe she was German and she basically did a comically skewed version of “Walk on the Wild Side.”

it's a much-sought-after title!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/25/im-always-working-italys-centenarian-barista-on-her-longevity

"Possi is among Italy’s growing number of centenarians. According to figures from Istat, the national statistics agency, there were 22,552 people aged over 100 by the end of 2023 – the highest number recorded. The vast majority of Italian centenarians are women."

"The vast majority of Italian centenarians are women."

I wonder how many of them are also relatively unstressed and comfortable petite-bourgeoisie business owners, if she was still trying to do grinding shifts at whatever coffee franchise at a 100 it would be a much more remarkable story. Or in that scenario she might have decided to give up living decades ago!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/04/worlds-oldest-person-tomiko-itooka-dies-in-japan-aged-116

I am sure we can get this drink in some shop in east London

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calpis

I actually think I know where I can get it gonna live forever fellas

Big respect to Fauja Singh, sadly killed at 114.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/19/fauja-singh-marathon-running