Swami was surprised and heartened by Waukegan Mayor Dick Hyde’s 80th birthday party on Wednesday. He still can sit up and eat all by himself. Better than the Swami on some days. And it got Swami to wondering, as he often does in his pensive ode, about old things. So we went to extremescience.com to see how old Hyde is in comparison to the really old things.
Say the websters: “Of all the world records profiled on Extreme Science this one has proved to be the most elusive and tricky to keep updated. It seems there are a number of different organisms that hold the record for the "longest lived" and their exact ages are still under investigation. In fact, the only thing we can report for certain is that the records listed here will probably be upstaged by a new discovery in the near future. Below is a listing of what is currently in the literature as some of the oldest organisms still living today:
"October, 1999; 250-million-year-old bacteria were found in ancient sea salt beneath Carlsbad, New Mexico. The microscopic organisms were revived in a laboratory after being in 'suspended animation', encased in a hard-shelled spore, for an estimated 250 million years. The species has not been identified, but is referred to as strain 2-9-3, or B. permians.
"May, 1995; 40-million-year-old bacteria (Bacillus sphaericus) were found in the stomach of a bee encased in amber. These bacteria were also found in a state of suspended animation and were re-animated in a laboratory.
We love record of all kinds.
There’s Edna Parker of Shelbyville, Ind., who’s 114. She’s the current oldest living human, if she hasn’t died since Swami started writing this entry.
And how about 29-year-old Austrian World Cup skier Rainer Schoenfelder went on a ski run naked on Jan. 10, wearing only skis, boots and a helmet. The sportsman appeared on the ski track naked after losing a bet to his doctor. A little Austrian humor, we guess. He’s regarded as the highest ranked skier ever to go downhill naked. As at least deliberately without being drunk at the time.
In fact, Swam I believes all the really interesting worlds records were set by someone doing something while they’re naked. Go to http://www.nakedworldrecords.com/records.htm and you’ll see them.
Several of them look like Dick Hyde.
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