jueves, 13 de octubre de 2016

MercatorNet: Longevity. Modern girls and their careers | MercatorNet

MercatorNet
Karl Stephan's discussion of the limits to human longevity in today's issue of MercatorNet led me to newspaper accounts of Jeanne Calment, a French woman who died in 1997 at the age of 122 -- the oldest person on record. 
Madame Calment was quite a character. She was born before the telephone, lived her whole life in the Mediterranean city of Arles, and died at the birth of the internet. As a young girl, she met Vincent van Gogh during his two-year stay in Arles in 1888 and 1889. She was unimpressed by the famous artist. "Very ugly," she said. 
Madame Calment outlived her husband (who died in 1942 after eating spoiled preserved cherries), her daughter, her grandson -- and her landlord. When she was 90, this unlucky gentleman purchased her flat on a contingency contract, agreeing to pay her 2.500 francs a month until she died. She outlived him, but not before he had paid her twice what the flat was worth. ''In life, one sometimes makes bad deals,'' was her comment.
Madame Calment quit cycling at 100 and smoking at 116. She had a sardonic wit. ''Until next year, perhaps,'' a visitor told her, to which she retorted: ''I don't see why not! You don't look so bad to me.'' Toward the end of her long life, she began to look her age. But she maintained otherwise to visitors, telling them: ''I've never had but one wrinkle, and I'm sitting on it.''

Michael Cook 
Editor 
MERCATORNET


As medicine improves, how long can we expect to live?
By Karl D. Stephan
We seem to have a built-in expiration date of about 115 years
Read the full article
 
All the boxes have been ticked, but single career women are still not happy
By Julia Vidmar
Today's young women are over-achievers and the young men are under-achievers.
Read the full article
 
Siblings with benefits
By Tamara El-Rahi
A little gratitude for my siblings as I settle into motherhood.
Read the full article
 
Let’s cut Donald Trump some slack
By Michael Cook
Yes, he's lewd and crude. But Clinton's policies will further sexualise America's moral ecology
Read the full article
 
Eugenics: could screening for Down Syndrome bring us full-circle?
By Peter Saunders
Cost-benefit analysis of the lives of disabled people could lead to a dark future
Read the full article
 
Japan’s cure for the heartache of childlessness
By Marcus Roberts


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