Talk:Longevity claims

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Greetings,

To ensure that this page follows a scientific discourse, I am listing below the criteria for inclusion to this article:

1. The case must have been cited in the news media. "I'm 156" or "my grandma is a 143-year-old witch-doctor" won't cut it (and is vandalism). This limitation does not prove the person's age, but proves that a claim exists. It also limits the list from "ghost" listings (for example, the Social Security Administration sometimes doesn't record a death, and on paper the person might be "121" years old, but in reality, no such claim was ever made).

2. The claimed age must be at least 110 but less than 130 years old. Because the number of claims would be too large, claims to less than 110 are excluded. Because the odds of surviving beyond 130 are on the order of trillions to one, 130 is seen as a proper cutoff (and has been cited as such by noted demographers, such as Dr. Jay Olshansky of the University of Chicago).

3. There must be at least a claimed year, month, and date of birth. Because if even the person themselves doesn't "claim" to have a birthdate, we can know that the person's age is more in line with a longevity myth. A longevity claim is presuming that the person's age is neither proven nor disproven.

4. As above, disproven cases should be moved to longevity myths, together with a citation of how the case was disproven and why the age exaggeration occurred in the first place.

NO NEED TO LOWER LONGEVITY CLAIMS TO AGE 110

Unless Wikipedia is set to list the 940+ verified supercentenarian cases, lowering the claims threshold to age 110 is simply unfair and ridiculous. → R Young {^yakł_talk} 22:40, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 TABLES 2 Favorite source of vandalism 3 Biblical claims 4 Oldest modern man and woman claims 5 Anna Borysiewicz 6 Alberta Davis 7 Hrory Nestor 8 Tagging claimants

[edit] TABLES

Can someone table-ize the lists on longevity claims?131.96.70.158 19:33, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Favorite source of vandalism

Why is this article such a FAVORITE source of vandalism? Childish immaturity. I know, the reasoning goes something like this: well, these people just make up fake ages, so why don't I just join in and do the same thing?

WRONG. Even if these ages are fake, they at least are cited in newspaper publications...something your vandalism clearly hasn't been in. Stop the vanity, and grow up and get a brain.→ R Young {^yakł_talk} 09:16, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Biblical claims

There are a lot of Biblical claims that I think should be on Wikipedia somewhere, I'm not looking properly or they're not there. Longevity claims or longevity myths? Well these claims haven't been disproven but there are only ages, no dates of course. Any 200+ categories? I don't know, you guys know what you're doing. --203.97.127.185 07:30, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Biblical claims would be longevity myths because there is a religious meaning attached to their age. A longevity claim is a claim made by or for a single individual that lacks sufficient documentation for verification but, if true, would place the person among the world's oldest people (113+). Hence, Oberia Coffin is a longevity claim. Methuselah is a longevity myth.→ R Young {^yakł_talk} 22:27, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Oldest modern man and woman claims

There are numerous, widely known in the region, claims of the oldest living modern man (at about 160+) and woman (140+) in the country of Azerbaijan. These claims have a long history in the various sources of media and, I believe, they have even been recognized by the Guiness Book of World Records for a while. There is a region in the southern most mountains of the country, where the microclimate has been said to be one of the most life-prolonging in the world, allegedly scientificly concluded. I think this claim should at least be mentioned in the Wikipedia, seeing how it is a much higher age than the majority of other "semi-credible" ones. Someone should look into this and compile a good little summary. Here is an example of the mention of this claim in the media:

http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/62_folder/62_articles/62_centenarianslerik.html —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.80.59.47 (talk) 03:33, 30 December 2006 (UTC).

There's nothing scientific about these claims, and contrary to belief, the ages claimed are not appreciably higher than elsewhere (we've seen age 167 claimed in Nepal, for example). See longevity myths for more.→ R Young {^yakł_talk} 04:54, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Anna Borysiewicz

Dead => look here. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 83.30.194.180 (talk) 06:59, 28 February 2007 (UTC).

Thanks for letting us know, but when exactly did she die then, please? Extremely sexy 12:32, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Someone else said February 23rd, according to this report, hence. Extremely sexy 15:06, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Alberta Davis

Alberta Davis noted in the article as a person still alive has already died on Jan 27, 2007 (look her own wiki-article). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.240.220.40 (talk) 08:04, 1 March 2007 (UTC).

Good point, and so I corrected this. Extremely sexy 14:36, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hrory Nestor

The BBC transliterate Mr Nestor's name as "Hryhoriy". Could a scholar of Ukranian decide which is best? Tevildo 20:59, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tagging claimants

Does anyone want to start tagging the claimants, like I did with Ruperto Hernandez? R Young {^yakł_talk} 08:08, 30 March 2007 (UTC)