Monday, September 13, 2010
Not immortal after all.
Interesting news from Japan today. It now appears that Japan's unusually long life expectancy is a myth.
A new investigation finds that around 200,000 officially reported "centenarians" have actually been dead for a long time. Some of them have been dead since 1945, and their officially reported age has reached 150 without triggering any suspicion.
How did this happen? The descendants have kept the bodies at home, avoiding death certificates and cemeteries, in order to keep collecting pensions!
Western medical researchers and nutrition specialists have formed all sorts of theories attributing this abnormal longevity to the Japanese diet, the Japanese mindset, or Japanese genetics. These theories will now have to be re-examined, to put it mildly.
This will kill two other cherished Western notions about Japan: the idea that Japs are less corrupt than most ethnic groups, and the idea that Japs respect their ancestors!
Respect the pension checks of their ancestors, yes.
= = = = =
Sidenote: one of the commenters on this story at WUWT came up with a beautiful parody of delicate PC phraseology to describe death: "adopting the post-vital lifestyle." ¶ 6:05 PM
A new investigation finds that around 200,000 officially reported "centenarians" have actually been dead for a long time. Some of them have been dead since 1945, and their officially reported age has reached 150 without triggering any suspicion.
How did this happen? The descendants have kept the bodies at home, avoiding death certificates and cemeteries, in order to keep collecting pensions!
Western medical researchers and nutrition specialists have formed all sorts of theories attributing this abnormal longevity to the Japanese diet, the Japanese mindset, or Japanese genetics. These theories will now have to be re-examined, to put it mildly.
This will kill two other cherished Western notions about Japan: the idea that Japs are less corrupt than most ethnic groups, and the idea that Japs respect their ancestors!
Respect the pension checks of their ancestors, yes.
= = = = =
Sidenote: one of the commenters on this story at WUWT came up with a beautiful parody of delicate PC phraseology to describe death: "adopting the post-vital lifestyle." ¶ 6:05 PM
