[PLUG-TALK] On getting older

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Mon, Aug 29, 2016 at 04:02:14PM -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
>   Many of us are not the spring chickens we used to be. Heck, we're roasters
> or boiling chickens now. But, there is apparently an incredible record for
> human longevity: an Indonesian man who has apparently valid documentation
> that he's 145 years old. <http://tinyurl.com/gsb7d4s>.

For many years, old men in "Russian" Georgia were 
regularly "documented" to be very old.  It turns out
that by claiming to be elderly, they could avoid
being drafted into the Tsar's army during World
War 1.  When it pays to be old, some people pay
officials to be counted as old.

I don't know the situation in Indonesia.  We have
sparse data on extreme old age because so few
people make it there (and all of those are women). 
The death rate increases exponentially with age.
It is equally likely (or unlikely) that the
Indonesian man is an alien from another star
system - another documentation problem.

That said, we will go hiking with my 98 year old
father-in-law in a couple of weeks, and may visit
a favorite Berkeley professor who recently turned
100.  That is vastly more likely than 110 or 120,
but we are hoping for that.  These wonderful men
have great-grandchildren, and we hope they live
to meet their great-great-grandchildren.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com