Talk:Jeanne Calment

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Contents 1 Photos 2 Le bon Dieu 3 To the "no one knows for sure" man 4 En viager? 5 "Unlucky deal for Raffray" 6 Unsourced quotes 7 Titanic?

[edit] Photos

Can someone add a better photo than the one we currently have? Also, with Jeanne being the oldest verified human ever, wouldn't it be a good idea to show her at various life stages (i.e., age 20, 40, 112, etc) → R Young {^yakł_talk} 19:40, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I second this request. -- itistoday (Talk) 04:04, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I can't find any copyright/licensing information on these photos, so I'm not going to add any of them to Wikipedia, but http://www.grg.org/JCalmentGallery.htm has several photos, ranging from 20 years old to 122. — MSchmahl… 01:22, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Le bon Dieu

I wonder, is "I have been forgotten by a good God" a mistranslation of le bon Dieu, which just means "God" in French? — Miguel 22:47, 2004 Mar 7 (UTC)

You are correct, the full quote is "J'ai été oubliée par le Bon Dieu." -- VV 23:18, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)

For those who don't think "good God" makes sense, they don't know Jeanne Calment. She was a joker; she was joking that God had forgotten to come get her, so she had more time here on this earth (mischievous).

It's "I have been forgotten by the Good God" migo 19:50, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

First, the original translation came directly from the Jeanne Calment book by Jean-Marie Robine. It was written by French people, I would suppose they knew what they were saying. For you to presume to know more than the people who were with Jeanne Calment for 7+ years is the height of presumption. Also, calling a difference of opinion 'vandalism' smacks of personal attack.→ R Young {^yakł_talk} 01:53, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Still, "le Bon Dieu" is a regular expression, used as "God", as in "Il faut prier au Bon Dieu".

"un Bon Dieu" would translate to "A good God", whereas "le Bon Dieu" is "(the Good) God", as migo stated.-- megA 21:23, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

---

I can see what is meant by "reliably reported", but the claim of the oldest person in the world sounds a little to confident, since no one knows for sure in a world of billions of people. --65.73.0.137

Well, damn, she was 122. I think it's safe to say. Mike H 19:01, Jul 29, 2004 (UTC)

I like "confirmed" better than "reliably reported." "Reported" indicates second-hand "reports"--that is, we're believing something because someone reliable "vouched" for it. But that is not the case here. The documents for Jeanne Calment have been clearly listed and are available to researchers.

Also, considering that we have the "world's oldest person" currently at 114 years old, age 122 is in fact a very tough record to break--when we're talking about real people, not false and exaggerated claims which never can be proven and often falter under scrutiny. This is not to say that an age above 122 has "never" occurred but Jeanne Calment is the bar, the standard. Like a unified heavyweight crown, virtually all scientific and popular (i.e. Guinness Book) sources agree, something that can't be said for the "oldest man ever" Shigechiyo Izumi.

Statistics show that only 5% of people who celebrate their 90th birthday reach age 100. Of those who reach 100, only 1 in 1000 will reach 110. And of those who reach 110, only 1 in 5000 are expected to reach age 120. So we can say that even a person on their 100th birthday, given the present mortality rates in the most advanced countries, can expect a 1 in 5 million chance to live to age 120. And Jeanne Calment was 122. Ironically, she may have been a genetic mutant, resulting from the inbreeding of the Calment family line--a line which died out with her.

[edit] To the "no one knows for sure" man

Well, no one knows anything for sure, do they? Did the Wright brothers really invent the airplane? No. Did Columbus really discover America? No.

As for Jeanne Calment, I don't think you realize that it's "pretty damn certain." Consider that only 5% of 90-year-olds reach age 100; only 0.10% of 100-year-olds reach 110. Of those who reach 110, it is expected that 1 in 5,000 will reach 120. And yet Jeanne Calment was 122, and the best-proven case of all time.

So, we have her more than 3 years ahead of any other case, with the best proof, and the chances of it happening again for year very slim any time soon (1 in 10 billion, some estimate, which is greater than the world population currently).

Ok, so if we have a 114-year-old world's oldest person, we're not really sure, and we can never be 100% sure about "all-time" either, but why apply standards higher than those applied to other data?

I don't think anyone is disputing the claim that she lived to 122, but rather, that someone else has lived past the age of 122. I've heard of reports of people in africa who have lived past 140 but don't have papers to prove it since no one in Africa made birth certificates 140 years ago, and while I sincerely doubt the truth of these anecdotes, it is entirely possible that someone has lived past 122 and it is simply undocumented.

Well, until a such case is documented, Jeanne Calment will still hold the title as World's Oldest Ever Person. -- Super Sam 02:44, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

All this is essentially worthless semantic debate and would be OR if included. That's never stopped me before. It is safe to say that the oldest living person now is probably the oldest living person ever (unless you are a Biblical literalist, in which case fantasy rules and you can believe whatever you'd like). The average life-span in an industrialized nation now is somewhat higher than double that of "natural" lifestyles (pre-modern, let's say 16th century and previous, perhaps earlier). That means that the chances of someone around 1000 AD living to 90 would be similar to the chances of someone today living to 120 (again, shooting from the hip). By that token, the chances of someone living to 122 then would be exponentially tiny--like really, astronomically tiny. Like "a thousand times the number of people who have ever lived on the planet... to one" tiny. By that same line of reasoning, the chances are excellent that anyone living in a region that would not have birth certificates, a census, and so on, is also going to be living in a region where the average life-span isn't much better than it was a thousand years ago (40-60, at most). Ever seen a picture of the wizened, weathered aboriginal man? He might be younger than you (even as you're still paying off student loans). So even though the majority of the world's population might live out of sight from Guinness and such, environmental and lifestyle factors are going to weigh heavily against their living to 90 or 100, much less 122. Really heavily. Fearwig 17:34, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] En viager?

What does 'en viager' mean? Is this the 'reverse mortgage' agreement described in the next sentence? This should be clarified - and perhaps a wikipedia page should be started that explains what this means.

http://www.sykesanderson.com/articles/french_en_viager.asp describes it well. someone who is more familiar about this should start a wikipedia page on it. (unsigned comment)

That link is dead. Linkskywalker 03:39, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Unlucky deal for Raffray"

"Unlucky deal for Raffray" is rather casual wording for a dictionary. 138.243.228.52 01:52, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

I removed it. --Jersey Devil 20:28, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unsourced quotes

Please, note that these quotes have been removed due to lack of sourcing. In general, lists of quotes belong on Wikiquote unless they are placed within the context of the article. Can't sleep, clown will eat me 01:36, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Actually, those quotes can be found in the sources listed in 'references.'→ R Young {^yakł_talk} 13:53, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I've read in a newspaper that she died at her 121th birthday. (unsigned comment)

I've reverted this change that you made to the 'oldest people' article as it's totally unsourced and goes against all other known reliable reports.--HisSpaceResearch 10:10, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Titanic?

Maybe I'm way off base with this...but I could SWEAR that I've seen this woman (judging from the pic) in a documentary about the Titanic, aboard which she was supposedly a passenger. As I recall the documentary even noted that it was "before her death in 1997." Can anybody verify this or am I way off? Linkskywalker 03:37, 7 March 2007 (UTC)