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travelleler
a horse-fart in a hurricane



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Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life
#18710407 - 08/15/13 05:43 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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and he continues to do so very well for his age
http://news.yahoo.com/bolivia-records-aymara-herder-123-years-old-202553434.html

FRASQUIA, Bolivia (AP) — If Bolivia's public records are correct, Carmelo Flores Laura is the oldest living person ever documented.
They say he turned 123 a month ago.
The native Aymara lives in a straw-roofed dirt-floor hut in an isolated hamlet near Lake Titicaca at 13,100 feet (4,000 meters), is illiterate, speaks no Spanish and has no teeth.
He walks without a cane and doesn't wear glasses. And though he speaks Aymara with a firm voice, one must talk into his ear to be heard.
"I see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming," he tells Associated Press journalists who visit after a local TV report touts him as the world's oldest person. View gallery."
Hobbling down a dirt path, Flores greets them with a raised arm, smiles and sits down on a rock. His gums bulge with coca leaf, a mild stimulant that staves off hunger. Like most Bolivian highlands peasants, he has been chewing it all his life.
Guinness World Records says the oldest living person verified by original proof of birth is Misao Okawa, a 115-year-old Japanese woman. The oldest verified age was 122 years and 164 days: Jeanne Calment of France, who died in 1997.
Guinness spokeswoman Jamie Panas said it wasn't aware of a claim being filed for the Bolivian.
"I should be about 100 years old or more," Flores says. But his memory is dim.
Flores' 27-year-old grandson Edwin says Flores fought in the 1933 Chaco war with Paraguay but he only faintly remembers. View gallery."
The director of Bolivia's civil registrar, Eugenio Condori, showed The Associated Press the registry that lists Flores' birthdate as July 16, 1890.
Condori said birth certificates did not exist in Bolivia until 1940. Births previously were registered with baptism certificates provided by Roman Catholic priests.
"For the state, the baptism certificate is valid," Condori said. He said he couldn't show Flores' baptism certificate to the AP because it is a private document.
To what does Flores owe his longevity?
"I walk a lot, that's all. I go out with the animals," says Flores, who long herded cattle and sheep. "I don't eat noodles or rice, only barley. I used to grow potatoes, beans, oca (an Andean tuber)."
The water Flores drinks originates on the snow-capped peak of Illampu, one of Bolivia's highest.
He says he doesn't drink alcohol, but imbibed some in his youth. He's eaten a lot of mutton, and though he likes pork it is hardly available. He fondly remembers hunting and eating fox as a younger man.
Flores says he has never been farther afield than La Paz, 80 kilometers (50 miles) away, and has never been seriously ill.
He sorely misses his wife, who died more than a decade ago. Of their three children only one is still alive: Cecilio, age 67. There are 40 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren but most have left Frasquia, a dozen homes a two-hour walk from the nearest road.
Edwin Flores, who lives next door with his wife and their two children, says his grandfather worked for the rancher who owned Frasquia until 1952, when the state seized major holdings in an agrarian reform and parceled them out to peasants.
Although electrical power arrived three years ago, time seems to have stood still in Frasquia. Peasants still prepare chuno, or dehydrated and chilled potatoes, and till the soil with ox-driven plows. Donkeys bray and sheep and cattle graze.
Most everyone is elderly or middle-aged. The young people are mostly gone.
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Associated Press Writer Frank Bajak in Lima, Peru,
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travelleler
a horse-fart in a hurricane



Registered: 08/30/08
Posts: 3,955
Loc: yonder mountains
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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: travelleler]
#18710456 - 08/15/13 05:51 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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I think this should illustrate something to us about healthy living... simple pleasures, and good eating habits... the agrarian lifestyle may not seem exciting but if you stop and think about it, people still get bored with entertainment and connectivity from time to time.
obviously there are some dramatic changes in our societies that may or may no be healthy.
whole coca leaf taken as an herb tonic contains balanced minerals and nutrients and a very small ammount of the alkaloid cocaine---- roughly .1-.8% of the alkaloid per gram--- or less than 10mg per gram of herb.
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"Whales have deep thoughts"
Dreams are the fuel of the soul
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Toe_Jam
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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: travelleler]
#18710655 - 08/15/13 06:28 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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I don't know that I want to live to be that old. Seems kind of depressing.
Kudos to him though.
-------------------- God lay his finger at the Mouth of the Serpent March 1984   A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye, And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, For ever flushing round a summer sky. -Castle of Indolence
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weshroom



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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: Toe_Jam]
#18711188 - 08/15/13 08:15 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Thats awesome.
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stanski
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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: weshroom]
#18711620 - 08/15/13 09:41 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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And another article that points out the sham of an organization Guiness is... "we weren't aware of a submission" i.e. we only care about white people records or records that help out our P.R., and outwardly publish records that are verified elsewhere as not being the actual record. I seriously cannot stand that organization and that somehow they are an "expert" on everything just because they have records submitted to them when they are a white, english and western society based organization that somehow claims to keep "world records."
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Darwin23
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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: stanski]
#18711705 - 08/15/13 09:59 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Is there any other organization doing a better job?
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Take a look at my journal
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jack_straw2208
Doctor



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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: Darwin23]
#18712756 - 08/16/13 01:40 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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yeah dude, in societies that dont keep birth records, anyone older than 70 is can be plausibly passed off as 200 or older.
-------------------- If you can’t tell what you desperately need, it’s probably sleep.
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gulper2323
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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: jack_straw2208]
#18712854 - 08/16/13 02:28 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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I think it's sad that most of the young people have left that land and gone to other places. I wonder what that area will become in 50 years or 100 years
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dokunai
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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: stanski]
#18712871 - 08/16/13 02:38 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
stanski said: And another article that points out the sham of an organization Guiness is... "we weren't aware of a submission" i.e. we only care about white people records or records that help out our P.R., and outwardly publish records that are verified elsewhere as not being the actual record. I seriously cannot stand that organization and that somehow they are an "expert" on everything just because they have records submitted to them when they are a white, english and western society based organization that somehow claims to keep "world records."
If his age was never submitted to be a world record, how the fuck is guiness supposed to know about him? Oh right, because they are white, they clearly won't accept a non-white. You know, except for the 115-year old Japanese woman they currently list. They are obviously also required, because they are "white, english, and western" to know of every person who lives in every village on earth who has never contacted them. You, sir, are apparently quite butthurt and I have no desire to speculate why.
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allseeingike



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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: dokunai]
#18713697 - 08/16/13 09:15 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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That's awesome
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Sham87
hella


Registered: 05/16/11
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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: allseeingike]
#18713716 - 08/16/13 09:20 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Man I need to get me some coca leaves.
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   ...once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest places if you look at it right...
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Synthe
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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: Toe_Jam]
#18714588 - 08/16/13 12:59 PM (10 years, 8 months ago) |
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I doubt he's actually 123...
Quote:
Toe_Jam said: I don't know that I want to live to be that old. Seems kind of depressing.
Kudos to him though. 
Normally I'd agree, but unlike the average ~100 year old American or European, he's not bedbound. He's walking around and whatnot.
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stanski
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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: dokunai]
#18715309 - 08/16/13 04:09 PM (10 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
dokunai said:
Quote:
stanski said: And another article that points out the sham of an organization Guiness is... "we weren't aware of a submission" i.e. we only care about white people records or records that help out our P.R., and outwardly publish records that are verified elsewhere as not being the actual record. I seriously cannot stand that organization and that somehow they are an "expert" on everything just because they have records submitted to them when they are a white, english and western society based organization that somehow claims to keep "world records."
If his age was never submitted to be a world record, how the fuck is guiness supposed to know about him? Oh right, because they are white, they clearly won't accept a non-white. You know, except for the 115-year old Japanese woman they currently list. They are obviously also required, because they are "white, english, and western" to know of every person who lives in every village on earth who has never contacted them. You, sir, are apparently quite butthurt and I have no desire to speculate why.
I am butthurt because I used to compete for world records in video games/have friends who still compete and guiness has done an absolutely horrific job with video game world records. There is an organization in Japan called "arcadia" that they have not recognized as official because a lot of their scores were not recorded, yet they publish records that are literally 1/100th of the actual record score. Its a joke handed down by the legacy of Twin Galaxies and their sham of a verification system for records (completely ignoring japanese records and claiming "world records").
There are some other troublesome things about the organization and the way its run (for example, I had a friend who set the record for longest continuous time bowling. He used his own bowling ball, did not take the maximum amount of time for breaks, actually tried to bowl for real. His record was beaten by someone who used a 6 pound (regulation is 15-16 pounds) bowling ball and by 24 hours in was throwing 75% gutterballs). No, there is not an organization doing it better, but i do like to raise awareness wherever possible at how shitty of a job they do for being such an "official" record keeping organization.
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Stonehenge
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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: stanski]
#18715654 - 08/16/13 05:35 PM (10 years, 8 months ago) |
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There was a village in russia where they claimed people were up to 160 years old, more or less. They had photos of the generations and each one seemed older. They said this one is the son, this one the father, grandfather, gg grandfather and so on. It was found to be a fraud.
There was an anthropologist who claimed to have found a stone age society a few years back. It turned out to be a fraud by the local government anxious for an influx of tourist dollars. People admitted they were forced to go around naked, live in palm frond shacks and speak a made up new language.
I'm not saying this is a fraud but it does bring in the tourists. I doubt the old man knows how old he is. I wouldn't mind living to that age as long as i had my health. Being blind and mostly deaf does not sound good. Probably cataracts.
-------------------- “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” (attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville political philosopher Circa 1835) Trade list http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/18047755
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travelleler
a horse-fart in a hurricane



Registered: 08/30/08
Posts: 3,955
Loc: yonder mountains
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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: gulper2323]
#18716085 - 08/16/13 07:23 PM (10 years, 8 months ago) |
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people miss the point chronically.
people seem to be in some big fucking hurry to be the biggest and the best the mostest of the fastest or the "something"-est. The "Guiness Records" thing is ironic because here's a guy who could give a flying fuck about being anything other than what he is. That was the fucking point. You dont get to be like him by trying. the world just doesn't work that way. We are a PART of nature and not the masters of it. Nature is not some fucking tool to be used by us to do whatever we want. it's a system into which we are an infinitesimally small slice of.
Quote:
gulper2323 said: I think it's sad that most of the young people have left that land and gone to other places. I wonder what that area will become in 50 years or 100 years 
sadly:
--------------------

"Whales have deep thoughts"
Dreams are the fuel of the soul
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Toe_Jam
Bluefoot Bandit



Registered: 04/15/10
Posts: 3,693
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Re: Native Bolivian confirmed oldest living man chewed coca all his life [Re: Synthe]
#18716151 - 08/16/13 07:45 PM (10 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Synthe said: I doubt he's actually 123...
Quote:
Toe_Jam said: I don't know that I want to live to be that old. Seems kind of depressing.
Kudos to him though. 
Normally I'd agree, but unlike the average ~100 year old American or European, he's not bedbound. He's walking around and whatnot.
I was more referring to the fact that all his friends and a good deal of the family he grew to know/love are dead. Including some of his own children. He does look like he's in great shape though, I wouldn't mind to be an idle mobile old man I guess, except the depressing part I just described.
Which makes me say I'm not sure.
Sorry about the rambling ass post.... Kinda baked.
-------------------- God lay his finger at the Mouth of the Serpent March 1984   A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye, And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, For ever flushing round a summer sky. -Castle of Indolence
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