Category Archives: Human Longevity

The whole day today my mind had this long question-and-answer session concerning the Muslim Friday prayers and what should change in the way the congregation is spoken to. I had these random questions in need of perspectives, in light of the rising tension emanating from the Allah controversy:

1. Why should Friday sermons put people to sleep and be used to sow the seeds of hatred and ignorance, rather than promote intercultural and inter-racial and international understanding? Have we not have been having enough of violence on the streets as a consequence of these urgings to divide and destroy? Should people boycott religious hatemongers parading themselves as pious people using house of worships as cells to promote hatred?

2. Friday khutbahs will remain hypocritical if they do not talk about the hypocrisy of the ruling class in the way they spend money, consume conspicuously, breed hatred, fight endlessly over power and its insanity, the production of high-brow pornography, etc.

I imagine the jemaah/congregation will finally wake up if these are addressed, since they are the most meaningful topics relating to the reality of things and ones that place religion as a meaningful human invention to alleviate human problems based on scientific, moral and ethical solutions, grounded in radical-ecumenical tradition and not merely a showcase of human obedience .

3. Imams delivering engaging khutbahs should also be postmodernists and transculturalists instead of merely becoming parrots to the dictates of the state.

They should be able to craft their own speech texts true to the ability of their intelligence to share new ideas, promote multiculturalism, bring people of all faiths together, think like a cosmopolitan, well-read in comparative religion, able to extract, extrapolate, and espouse universal values of all religions, be in tune with the pressing matters of the day, speak up against gluttony especially of the rich and the 1 percent of society, and above all do not speak ill of any religion, any race, anyone professing any kind of truth meaningful to them.

How can we create such imams and replace those out to damage society with them?

4. Why should the jemaah/congregation pray for the continued longevity of morally questionable rulers of empires of despots, dictators, demagogues?

Why not pray that those who hath oppressed the people for generations will arrive at a moksha, a boddhisatva, a catharsis, a stage of spiritual peak performance, a personal enlightenment, an illumination, a deep and poignant realisation that they ought to resign from their ill-constructed positions and worldly matters and devote their lives to ceasing all further attempts to create wealth and sustain power for themselves and their families dynastically, so that the poor will be spared of being further used and abused under a system of tyranny sanctioned by religion that continues to blind people, maim and mutilate, and debilitate the mind, body, and soul of the very purpose of existence to connect and to liberate and to break away from all forms of demagoguery.

Why cant we be made to see this picture clearly?

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On the khutbah / Friday sermons

Last week Fox renewed Bones for a 10th season, guaranteeing the quirky procedural starring Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz would live to see its 200th episode and with no mention of No. 10 being its final go-round.

Its an unlikely milestone for a show that has endured multiple moves around the schedule and speculation for the past few seasons about its probable end date.

They always say every year that they expect it to be the last and then they look around and realize the Bones audience is actually growing, executive producer Stephen Nathan tells The Post. We dont quite understand it either. A decade seems like an awfully long time. We will be prepared for a series-ender but we will plan on a season-ender.

On the air since 2005, Bones is Foxs third most-watched drama, averaging 9.1 million viewers behind newer entries The Following (11.2 million viewers) and Sleepy Hollow, (11 million viewers).

And its hardly the only graying drama refusing to quietly retire. For all the buzz that younger, sexier series like Scandal and The Blacklist (rightly) generate, an older class of drama veterans is quietly drawing an equal audience after a decade on the air.

CBS long-running NCIS is the poster child for a drama only growing stronger with age the Mark Harmon headliner still draws an average of 21.8 million viewers a week in its 11th season and is prepping a possible New Orleans-set spinoff (it already has NCIS: LA).

Criminal Minds, which will air its 200th episode on Feb. 5, is averaging an impressive 13 million viewers in its ninth season while the networks oldest series, CSI (14 seasons), still draws 12 million viewers a week.

Greys Anatomy stars Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey recently signed new two-year deals, increasing the likelihood that the ABC medical drama will reach a 12th season. And with good reason though its no longer the networks most-watched drama, at an average of 12.7 million viewers its just behind Scandal (13 million viewers) and Castle (12.9 million viewers its getting up there itself at six seasons).

If theres a secret to keeping a show alive for so many seasons, it seems to be create a family of characters that viewers want to have in their living room year after year, say producers.

People have really connected with those characters, says Criminal Minds showrunner/executive producer Erica Messer. And then on top of that, I think that fans tune in every week because of the battle between good and evil its almost that simple. Out of 200 episodes, about 195 of them weve stopped the bad guy and theres been a satisfying end to that weeks journey.

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Producers share the secret to a TV shows longevity

Please Support Scientific Research Related to Longevity and Life Extension
Please support research related to human longevity and radical life extension. Support SENS Research Foundation. Considering learning enough to conduct resea...

By: Michael Ten

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Please Support Scientific Research Related to Longevity and Life Extension - Video

Long before the age of gene therapy and miracle medical treatments, the secrets of long life were being gathered and revealed in a unique study of 1,500 children born about 1910. By studying these people throughout their lives, successive generations of researchers collected nearly 10 million pieces of observable data and have been able to produce solid insights into human longevity.

"Most people who live to an old age do so not because they have beaten cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or lung disease; rather, the long-lived have mostly avoided serious ailments altogether," Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin said in their 2011 book, "The Longevity Project."

"The best childhood personality predictor of longevity was conscientiousnessthe qualities of a prudent, persistent, well-organized person," according to the two professors (he at the University of CaliforniaRiverside, and she at La Sierra University). "Conscientiousness ... also turned out to be the best personality predictor of long life when measured in adulthood."

[Read: Do You Recognize These Lessons of Longevity?]

Since their book was published, Martin recently told U.S. News, the benefits of conscientiousness have been affirmed and even strengthened in other research studies. "This is still a pretty hot topic," she says. "Work that's come out since the book was published has mainly confirmed the importance of conscientiousness."

In particular, she explained, research being done in Hawaii on personality traits over time is producing similar results to Friedman's and Martin's own research, which chronicles efforts begun in 1921 by Lewis Terman, a Stanford University psychologist. He selected 1,500 bright and generally high-performing children and began amassing detailed information about their personal histories, health, activities, beliefs, attitudes, families and other variables.

Over the next eight decades, other academics maintained the Terman Project and assembled exhaustive details on all facets of the original subjects' later lives. It is this unique depth of detail that has permitted Friedman and Martin to reach what they feel are scientifically sound conclusions about what it takes to live a long life. Now, Martin says, more researchers are reaching similar conclusions.

"It was not cheerfulness and it was not having a sociable personality that predicted long life across the many ensuing decades," she and Friedman wrote in their book. "Certain other factors were also relevant, but the prudent, dependable children lived the longest. The strength of this finding was unexpected, but it proved to be a very important and enduring one."

The book presents three reasons why conscientious people live longer:

1. They are more likely to obey the rules, protecting their health and not engaging in risky behaviors such as smoking or driving without a seat belt. If a doctor tells them to take a medicine, they take every prescribed dose.

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Want to Live a Long Time? Pay Attention

Okinawan Longevity and Health
Okinawan Longevity and Health A documentary about the health and longevity of Okinawa - and a warning of the health dangers posed by modern #39;American lifesty...

By: Bra akolu

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Okinawan Longevity and Health - Video

Final farewell to 109-year-old Ethel - a life of Biblical longevity

3:19pm Friday 24th January 2014 in News By Mark Tallentire, Reporter (Durham)

Ethel Stobbs, pictured in 2010

FAMILY and friends have paid their last respects to one of the regions longest survivors, following her death aged 109.

Ethel May Stobbs was born near Marske, in Cleveland, on May 2, 1904, and one of her childhood memories was of a German Zeppelin warship flying over Hartlepool during the First World War.

She died peacefully in hospital on Friday, January 10, and her funeral was held today (Friday, January 24) at St Oswalds Church, in Durham City, where she had been an active member since the 1940s.

Reverend Peter Kashouris said Mrs Stobbs longevity was reminiscent of Biblical characters almost beyond the span of an ordinary human life.

Although Ethel gave us a feel that her own flesh and blood would go on forever, her faith was resolutely placed in Christ our eternal saviour, he told mourners.

Mrs Stobbs moved to Durham aged 12 and lived in the same house on Whinney Hill for more than 70 years.

A keen poet, she lived independently, tackled The Northern Echos crosswords every day, made marmalade, baked cakes and played along with TV show Countdown well beyond her centenary.

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Final farewell to 109-year-old Ethel - a life of Biblical longevity

As we gradually add more candles to our birthday cake each year, we are reminded that time is passing. However, researchers at Purdue are looking into how the choices and behaviors you make now will affect how long you live.

Ken Ferraro, a distinguished professor of sociology and director of the Center on Aging and the Life Course, grew up in a multi-generational household and took care of his grandfather, who contributed to his interest in aging.

I thought aging would be something that captured my interests and I could build from my own experiences and its something that is important in our society, Ferraro said.

Aging is a biological, psychological and social process, one that isnt entirely within our sphere of influence. A persons physiological state begins to develop as early as the fetal stage of life. If the mother of a child suffers severe stress, that gets passed onto her child and the child enters the world with a different physiological state.

While the environment were born into isnt something we can change, people do have the capacity to change many aspects of their current environment. Bad habits such as smoking and heavy drinking can take a toll on the duration of a life.

Early childhood experiences can also impact well-being on different levels. Something as simple as a sunburn now could manifest into a more serious issue later. Psychologically, if a child has been bullied in the past, that frequent state of arousal could lead to decreased health and behavioral issues that could affect longevity. Extreme levels of stress can depress the immune system, which makes a person more susceptible to diseases.

While no key has been identified to unlock the mystery of why some people live longer than others, people can maximize their time on earth by making good choices now. Most people who live into their 80s, 90s and beyond exercised a lot, found a comfortable routine in their life and ate well. Treating yourself and your body right is a way to get the most out of the genetic cards youd been dealt, Ferraro said. However, ones outlook on life is also a factor.

Positive and negative thought patterns can affect your physiology, said Elliot Friedman, an assistant professor of human development and family studies.

Friedman said there are two main factors that outweigh other factors typically considered detrimental to a persons health, like obesity and smoking. Having a sense of purpose and strong social ties increase your chances of survival.

In a fairly recent meta-analysis on social relationships and mortality, individuals with adequate social relationships have a 50 percent greater likelihood of survival.

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Current and past situations and behaviors can affect longevity

January 22, 2014 12:33 IST

Wipro, Indias third-largest software services company is making a shift in its human resources practice.

While evaluating employees, it will focus more on performance than the tenure of employment.

Though performance has been part of evaluation at Wipro for years, employees tenures at the company also played a role.

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Traditionally, the way our model works is, if you have spent 10 years at the company, you are a delivery manager; if you have spent five, you are a project manager; if you have spent one, you are a rookie. Now, we are saying thats completely irrelevant, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) T K Kurien told Business Standard. What we are doing this year is saying, if you have skills, how many years youve spent at the company doesnt matter.

The company will consider soft and hard skills for assessing performance, to ensure employees are up-to-date with their jobs, Kurien said.

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Today, an employee may be working at the cutting edge of a technology and have great customer interaction skills. But tomorrow, that skill may become redundant. When your skill becomes redundant, your grade will drop.

The new practice, which Kurien expects to bring about a big change at Wipro in two-three years, has already been tried by some of its peers.

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Loyalty is 'irrelevant', it's performance that matters in Wipro

In the last Carletonian of fall term, Anna Schmiel 17 wrote an op-ed titled Wheres the Tofu?: Reflections on Food Privilege. As the person with whom she had a conversation, I would like to reaffirm my message and address some of the problematic statements she made in the article.

I do not intend to suggest that every person in the world can and should go vegan right now. Rather, I believe that people should consume animal products as little as possible. Given the widespread availability of nutritious, affordable vegan food and many peoples (including subsistence farmers) reliance on crops, most people can and should go vegan. However, corporations, our families, and even our government tell us that consuming other species dead flesh, milk, and eggs is good and healthy. To be blunt, theyre incorrect. Countless reputable reports, studies, and books prove and extrapolate on this. Books such as the China Study, one of the most significant works published on human nutrition and longevity, detail how humans are physiologically ill-equipped to be omnivores. Meanwhile, studies such as the United Nations Environment Programmes Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production demonstrate how animal agriculture, particularly via factory farms and commercial fishing, wreaks havoc on the environment and global food security. So, given my space constraint, I will instead discuss the most ignored but most significant privilege in the food system: human privilege. As Anna correctly points out, food privileges exist between people across geography and wealth. But human privilege also prevails. We not only unnecessarily abuse and kill billions of non-human animals on factory, family, and fish farms, but we have the gall to suggest that their sufferings are somehow less legitimate, less tragic, less real than ours. This is human privilege at work.

Anna also exercises human privilege when she suggests non-human suffering is neither actually tragic nor a real-world problem, and fighting for them is fancy- which I take to mean secondary to and less legitimate than fighting for humans. By implying that eating animals is justified if we dont put them in small cages and interact with them on a daily basis, she asserts the dominating party (humans), rather than the victimized party (non-human animals), deserves to define the morality of the domination. This is highly problematic because it permits the dominator to construct morality in such a way that serves itself.

But Anna is hardly alone in exercising her human privilege. We hold that humane slaughter is not an oxymoron when applied to a member of a species besides our own. We criminalize sexual abuse of humans, although we permit, and even subsidize, the exploitation and commodification of the female reproductive system of other animals (Egg farmers use a number of tricks, including starving hens, to boost egg production. Dairy farmers continually artificially inseminate [i.e. rape] female cows to keep them constantly lactating). We publicly fund education and protection programs for human children but we steal newborn calves from their mothers so that we may consume her milk and use the calves for future dairy, beef, or veal.

In a word, we are speciesists. While we have made strides against racism, sexism, ableism, and other forms of prejudice and discrimination, we continue to hold as fact that humans are more important than all others and can use non-humans as we please.

But we dont have to be. Just as we limited and outlawed forms of human suffering, so too can we limit and outlaw non-human animal suffering. We can achieve a world where no one has to walk fearfully into a slaughterhouse, where no mother has to cry out for her stolen baby, and where people live longer lives freer of hunger and diet-related diseases. Further, I have a hunch that if we all started to act more compassionately towards animals, that compassion would spread to the human realm, resulting in less oppression and exploitation among humans. For example, we might think twice before cutting welfare benefits, banning same-sex marriage, and failing to enact universal health care. We might not even have to worry about corporations acting greedily and grain becoming the new symbol of world hunger, as Anna suggests might happen.

We are in a state of cognitive dissonance. We all understand that animals have feelings and self-awareness and are like us in most respects. You wouldnt know it, though, judging by how we objectify (NASDAQ lists live cattle, feeder cattle, lean hogs, and milk as commodities) and otherwise abominably we treat them. But we dont have to live with this cognitive dissonance. Not only that, but I, and virtually every fellow vegan and animal rights/liberation activist I have met, have found the process of abandoning speciesism liberating. The act of choosing every day to reaffirm and live out my values has proven more refreshing than any milkshake, more appetizing than any T-bone.

The author is a member of Compassionate and Sustainable Consuming, a student group that aims to create a dialogue surrounding the ethical, social, and environmental injustices that emerge from participating in a society heavily dependent on animal exploitation. For more information, please contact robinere@, massa@, or zacke@

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Where’s the Compassion? Reflections on Human Privilege

According to a memorable summary of Newtons Third Law of Motion, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Perhaps someday geroscience the study of human aging and its impacts will identify a law similar to Newtons Third.

A recent article by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune described the emerging field of science surrounding aging. An Associated Press article predicting a global retirement crisis reinforced that notion.

The Herald-Tribune article focused on Florence Katz of Sarasota, a 98-year-old woman who remains happy, healthy and active.

She is not alone. Longevity has increased dramatically in the United States and the Western world. For millions of those older adults, life is good.

However, there are downsides to longevity difficulties associated with disabilities, health and memory problems, lack of long-term income.

Experts and demographers debate the details of life expectancies but, in general, there is no dispute about the aging of the planets population. Consider this: There are now more people older than 65 than people younger than 15.

Linda P. Fried, dean of public health at Columbia University, said the increase in life expectancy offers us a new stage ... and were not very well prepared for it.

The AP article focused on a troubling and pervasive lack of preparation worldwide. The news service quoted Norman Dreger, a retirement specialist in Germany, who said, The first wave of underprepared workers is going to try to go into retirement and will find they cant afford to do so.

The political responses to such concerns usually involve debates over whether to raise the age for Social Security benefits or create a new program for younger Americans. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are vital components of the existing social safety net. Yet there are signs that those programs, designed decades ago, will not be sustainable in a radically different era without alterations.

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Editorial: Longevity brings new challenges