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Or, more precisely, she’s dancing to dubstep music. She’s no Marquese Scott yet, but the 94-year old grandmother of YouTube user chucklepley can bust out the moves.
-via Geekosystem
Joe Johnson has lived at the Morningside retirement center in Greenwood, South Carolina, for about ten years now. He’s been a regular blood donor for most of his life, and sees no reason to stop now.
Johnson said in the same phone call that he began donating after he joined the Army in Tennessee at age 21 and kept it up after moving to Florida, and then later South Carolina. The former infantry soldier said he served in Europe — though not in combat — and back in the United States, training National Guard forces.
“They’d say to us, ‘Line up and give blood’ and maybe out of 200 or so in the company, maybe 40 or 50 guys would do it. Some people would just walk away, but I never did,” Johnson said. “I constantly gave blood. I had a routine going.”
Johnson celebrated his 96th birthday on Tuesday with a cake, which Amerson said he insisted on sharing with some of the other 43 residents at the assisted living home. His most recent blood donation was a week earlier when a mobile unit made one of its periodic visits to the retirement home.
There is no upper age limit for blood donation, as long as the donor is healthy. Johnson plans to continue giving, and says he is “good for a few years more.” Link -via Breakfast Links
(Image credit: AP/The Blood Connection)
The elderly women who dive for seafood off the island of Jeju, Korea, are called haenyo, which means “sea women.” They are carrying on a century-old tradition that began when women realized they could bring home the seafood without paying the taxes that would be levied on men in the same profession. It is a declining way of life, which explains why the remaining haenyo are elderly. Read more about them and see more photos at Kuriositas. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user GlobalCitizen01)
A delightful elderly couple try to figure out how to use their webcam. You don’t have to be tech-savvy to get a lot out of life. -via The Daily What
It’s always reassuring to buy a used car from someone who you think only went for Sunday drives -but appearances can be deceiving! This German Dutch ad for Volkswagen illustrates that point. -via The Awesomer
A good set of dentures came in handy for 92-year-old Lester Matteson. The Washington state man endured was tied up by two men who came to his door claiming car trouble.
The men taped Lester’s legs to his kitchen chair.
But after the thieves snatched his money and his truck, Lester chewed through the tape with his false teeth!
“It took me about two hours,” Lester said with a grin. “Boy, it was sticky!”
Lester was then able to call the police.
The robbers got away with about $400 cash and Matteson’s Ford Ranger. Link -via Arbroath
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Seventy-two-year-old Mohammed Bellazrak dropped his wife off at the airport on December 23rd with no problem, but became disoriented in the snow as he was driving home to Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England from Gatwick airport. He should have made it home in a couple of hours. When he didn’t, his relatives contacted police. Sergeant Jo Spencer tells about the investigation.
“We contacted other forces with no success and then asked for the ANPR systems to be activated to see if anyone spotted the number plate CF53 BHE, the car in which Mr Bellazrak was known to have been when he left Gatwick for the 70 mile journey home.
“We were surprised to discover that ANPR cameras had recorded him in Bracknell, Wokingham, Burnham and High Wycombe – all presumably attempts at finding his way from Gatwick to Wiltshire.
“The last ANPR ‘hit’ we had showed him at about 6pm on Christmas eve in Hiugh Wycombe but then the trail went cold again,” she added.
On Christmas day, a CCTV camera recorded his license plate number in Oxford, where police were able to flag him down. He was reunited with his family. It is not yet known whether Bellazrak drove around the clock or stopped at night. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Flickr user Jeff Van Campen)
Slate has compiled their annual list of the 80 most influential people in America over 80 years old.
For the second year in a row, Mormon President Thomas S. Monson stands atop the list. As the divine prophet, seer, and revelator for 5.5 million Americans and more than 12 million people around the world, he’s the most powerful 83-year-old we could find. Look for Monson to stay on top for years to come—at least until Boyd K. Packer, octogenarian president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, succeeds him as the alpha Mormon.
First runner-up is the senior senator from Hawaii, Daniel Inouye. When West Virginia’s Robert Byrd moved into our “Just Missed” section in June, the 86-year-old Inouye was sworn in as president pro tempore of the Senate—which puts him just three heartbeats away from the Oval Office. He’s also the chairman of the appropriations committee—and responsible for about $400 million in earmark spending in 2010.
See the other 78 powerful octogenarians at the post. Link
Olga Kotelko is an athlete. She holds 23 world records, mostly track records for the category of age 90 and up! Kotelko is 91 years old and runs, jumps, and throws a javelin in “masters” meets for those age 35 and over. Her success has led scientists to study her abilities in hopes of finding out how some bodies age at a predictable rate and others don’t.
Kotelko herself speaks often of the perils of getting carried away. “If you undertrain, you might not finish,” she says. “If you overtrain, you might not start.” But there’s some evidence that, in trying to find the sweet spot between staying in race shape and avoiding the medical tent, a lot of seniors athletes aren’t training hard enough — or at least, aren’t training the right way to maximally exploit what their body can still do.
Kotelko plans to continue competing and is looking forward to a new set of world records -when she reaches the “95 and over” age category. Link -via Buzzfeed
(Image credit: Patrik Giardino for The New York Times)
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This one is a bizarre story of disguise and air travel: a man wore a realistic disguise to turn himself into an elderly man and boarded an Air Canada flight. Mid-flight, he went into the bathroom, took off his mask, and turned himself back into a young man.
The incident occurred on October 29 on Air Canada flight AC018 to Vancouver originating in Hong Kong. An intelligence alert from the Canada Border Services Agency describes the incident as an "unbelievable case of concealment."
"Information was received from Air Canada Corporate Security regarding a possible imposter on a flight originating from Hong Kong," the alert says. "The passenger in question was observed at the beginning of the flight to be an elderly Caucasian male who appeared to have young looking hands. During the flight the subject attended the washroom and emerged an Asian looking male that appeared to be in his early 20s."
After landing in Canada, Border Services Officers (BSOs) escorted the man off the plane where he "proceeded to make a claim for refugee protection," the alert says.
Scott Zamost of CNN has more: Link
Old age in itself is no barrier to fitness. Many people in their 80s and 90s stay fit with regular exercise, and some put many younger folks to shame! Imagine competitive swimming in your 90s.
92yr old Ladislav Nicek has been competing in the annual Winter Swimming Championships in the Vlatva River for over half a century, and has until this point only missed a few events. Up to 70 ‘otuzilci’ (hardy fellows) brave the icy waters in an event which attracts a huge amount of media coverage, a large percentage due to the efforts of Mr. Nicek. He even organises the event every year before jumping in himself.
Nicek is one of five elderly athletes profiled at Vitabits. Link -Thanks, David!
