98 year old woman just got her 10th level black belt in Judo. Only three people in the world, all men living in Japan, have ever reached that mark. The martial arts promotion by USA Judo brought 98-year-old Fukuda to tears at the women's dojo where she still teaches in Noe Valley. Last week, Sensei Keiko Fukuda of San Francisco became the first woman to be promoted to judo's highest level: 10th degree black belt. Video about Fukuda Keiko. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Aug 9, 2011 - 102 comments

I am a 91-year-old bodybuilder (SLgrauniad)
posted by Tom-B on Apr 29, 2011 - 43 comments

"When [700] hundred years old *you* reach, look as good *you* will not, hmm? " Face of incredibly preserved 700-year-old mummy found by chance by Chinese road workers.
posted by Fizz on Mar 6, 2011 - 30 comments

Working on the Ending. Writer Gail Godwin reflects on the way she works now: "Inevitable for the old writer is the slowdown of word retrieval... All it once took was the slightest tug at the bell for the vigorous servant, accompanied by backup synonyms, to report for duty... You can rail at your 'senior moment' like those tiresome people who bring a conversation to a halt because they can’t remember the name of a place or person... Or you can leave a blank, to be filled in later... For me, a consolation prize of word delay has been an increased intolerance for the threadbare phrase. I don’t want anyone on my pages to 'burst into tears' or 'just perceptibly' do anything, ever again."
posted by ocherdraco on Dec 10, 2010 - 12 comments

Olga Kotelko is 91, and she has probably set more athletic world records—and will continue to set more—than most of us will in our lives. We all age, but she is aging differently. Scientists are trying to figure out why...but she is just trying to find someone who can keep up.
posted by dubitable on Dec 8, 2010 - 25 comments

The lives of transplanted elders are largely untracked, unknown outside their ethnic or religious communities. “They never win spelling bees,” said Judith Treas, a sociology professor and demographer at the University of California, Irvine. “They do not join criminal gangs. And nobody worries about Americans losing jobs to Korean grandmothers.”

Older Immigrants, Invisible and With ‘Nobody to Talk To’ in the New York Times. Elderly immigrants, the US's fastest growing immigrant population [pdf], have been hit hard by the rough economic climate. Changes in welfare law in the mid-90s made it harder for immigrants to receive benefits. Long resisting the trend towards nursing homes, elderly immigrants have enrolled in greater numbers in recent years.
posted by Kattullus on Aug 31, 2009 - 8 comments

Listen, can you hear them talk? They might be soft spoken, and not easy to get along with, but they can still command (previously) our respect. Read how they are looked after around the world, and the stories which affect their daily lives. Also, here (pdf) is a comprehensive study of their living conditions in different kinds of societies across the globe.
posted by hadjiboy on Jul 18, 2008 - 9 comments

What is SENS? It stands for Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence. Confused? Aubrey de Grey believes that it is possible. His research has been in the news recently. De Grey is the co-founder of the The Methuselah Foundation, and they are offering a prize to anyone who can demonstrate healthy life extension in mice. More information at The Longevity Meme and Better Humans, among others. He recently spoke in Edmonton. Is it just me, or does he remind anyone else of a cult leader? There is something that strikes me about the way his writing sounds. The idea of anti-ageing treatment was convincingly suggested by Kim Stanley Robinson in his Mars Trilogy, which also addressed its potential social consequences, such as overpopulation and longevity as an option exclusively for the wealthy elite.
posted by dazedandconfused on Feb 16, 2005 - 12 comments

Castration extends life??? Not that I frequent this site, but the current Playboy reading list includes the Sex Lover's Book of Lists by the authors of the "How to Succeed With Women" and "How ... Men" books. Note the factoid in the review, in the 2nd paragraph, "men live longer without testicles (13 years longer, on average...)". (involuntary crossing of legs here) I've never heard that before, and I am not sure I believe it; I am only sure I don't want to believe it.
posted by JParker on Apr 18, 2001 - 11 comments