World's oldest woman / man

[Richard W]

The page above (http://www.grg.org/Adams/E.HTM) wouldn't even have put that guy in the top 40, let alone "oldest". They've not recorded his death yet, but he was at 66 on their list... They have recorded the death of the person he supposedly replaced, Arturo Licata, and even that guy would only have been number 40.

I know that no site can be exactly up-to-date - they say it was last updated on May 14th this year - but it looks like they do make some effort to check things. I wonder who the people doing the "certification" in the other story are, and why there's such a difference?

(eta) Oddly, it appears to be the same people - although maybe the Torrance Gerontology Research Group isn't affiliated to the "Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, Atlanta" GRG...

(eta again) D'oh! I think I'm still being confused by this "man" versus "person" thing. He is the first man on that list. Just that there were 65 known women who are / were older.

[ganzfeld]

Clearly the best time for male to female gender reassignment is at 111.

[Furienna]

Japan, the US and Italy seem to have many supercentenarians. Only one Swedish person, a lady named Ruth Engström, is recorded on the first page. She became 111 years old and passed away last year.

[Richard W]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/27794411

Experts generally agree that the first two years of a cat's life are equal to 25 human years. After that, every three months is said to be a year.

This theory would make Poppy 114 in cat years.

[Furienna]

That would make my cats 75 cat years old.

[snopes]

The United States wasn't the only one celebrating a milestone birthday Friday: Gertrude Weaver from south Arkansas turned 116, making her the oldest person in America and second oldest in the world.

http://www.today.com/news/oldest-wom...day-1D79887208

[UEL]

Holy Krap!

She was my age just as WWII was starting.

Happy Birthday to you!

[BrianB]

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...rld-180951976/

Since 1990, the Gerontology Research Group has assumed the role of record keepers for the world's supercentenarians, or persons older than 110. Previously, research groups, individual countries and private hobbyists tracked supercentenarians for studies or for census purposes, or simply out of personal interest. But that information was not compiled into a central, standardized database, and it was largely closed to public viewing. "I thought, this ought to be available online, so everyone can know about it," [L. Stephen] Coles says.

Brian

[lord_feldon]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/m...oldest-person/

Gertrude Weaver, who became the world’s oldest person last week, died Monday morning in Arkansas after suffering complications from pneumonia.

[Richard W]

It really is a dangerous position... the number of people who have managed to survive being the oldest person in the world and come out the other side must be small...!

[GenYus234]

I was just coming in here to make a similar joke about how it is suspicious how many of the world's oldest people keep dying.

Curse you sun!

[lord_feldon]

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/new...eath/28923101/

Jeralean Talley enjoyed, for two and a half months, the notoriety of being the world’s oldest person.

But at 116 years and 25 days old, the woman who loved bowling, fishing and fancy hats “was ready to go home and rest,” said her daughter, Thelma Holloway.

[snopes]

Woman, thought to have been the last person left in the world born in the 1800s, dies at her home in northern Italy.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-dies-aged-117

[thorny locust]

On a diet of raw eggs, yet.

A very good run, Emma Morano; and you got to stay at home, too.

[Richard W]

I just searched for this thread to post the equivalent BBC article about Emma Morano's death, but snopes is on the ball as usual...!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39610937

The fact that she was (the last known surviving person to have been) born in the 1800s is pretty amazing, really. She was born in the 19th century and lived through the entire 20th century regardless of when you think it started, and we're quite a long way into the 21st now. The last First World War veteran died a few years ago, but this woman was older than him - she'd not have needed to lie about her age in order to fight.

Her doctor of 27 years, Carlo Bava, had told AFP news agency that she rarely ate vegetables or fruit.

[Richard W]

She's not the oldest in the world, she's "only" 112; but this is an interesting article anyway, not least for the fact below:

Mrs Jones is not the first Grace, nor even the first Grace Jones to take the title of oldest person in the UK - she shares a name with a former oldest person in the UK, who died aged 113 in 2013.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-45500594

It looks like being called "Grace Jones" is as reliable indicator as any that you're going to live to an extreme age! The more famous Grace Jones still has 40+ years to go. Also:

Mrs Jones, whose daughter is organising a party to mark her 112th birthday, knows exactly how the day will end.

"I always have a little drop of whisky and water in bed at night," she says. "Just a drop, and that's all, but I never miss it."

[ChasFink]

Interesting. A friend of mine bought a house that belonged to a Grace Jones who died at an advanced age. I'll try to find out just how old she was.