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Why People Don't Live Past 114

Posted by timothy on from the mostly-it's-because-of-tax-benefits dept.

kkleiner writes "Average life expectancy has nearly doubled in developed countries over the 20th century. But a puzzling part to the equation has emerged. While humans are in fact living longer lives on average, the oldest age that the oldest people reach seems to be stubbornly and oddly precisely cemented right at 114. What will it take for humans to live beyond this limit?"

9 of 916 comments (clear)

  1. Additional information. by olsmeister · · Score: 5, Informative

    This has been noticed before. Here is another article on it.

  2. Tell that to Jeanne Calment by characterZer0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_person

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    Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
  3. Mod parent up by tigre · · Score: 5, Informative

    I for one love the Bible, and I found this hilarious, not trollish.

  4. Re:Genesis 6:3 by AJH16 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just fast forward to Song of Solomon. It has plenty of tits for you.

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    AJ Henderson
  5. Matthew 6:4 by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    Some Christian denominations have become more sane about this. Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, don't "pass the hat". Instead, people discreetly put their donations in a slot in a box outside the auditorium so that only the Father needs to see (Matthew 6:4).

  6. Re:yet more biblical contradictions by AJH16 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ok, my bad, the word is yom, it can mean day or afternoon or age or daily or eternity or entire or lifetime or long or perpetually... the word doesn't translate well to a term we have in English, but in short, it roughly translates as "when you eat from the tree you will die". Also, even if you assume the 24 hour day is the correct translation, in a very real sense, Adam did die at that point even if it took time for him to physically die. The Bible clearly refers to both spiritual death and physical death and the spiritual death was at the time of eating from the tree.

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    AJ Henderson
  7. Re:Genesis 6:3 by stating_the_obvious · · Score: 5, Informative

    Length of life (in years) dropped from 120 years to 114 years when the Romans added August to the Calendar...

  8. Re:Genesis 6:3 by sglewis100 · · Score: 5, Informative

    And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.

    Which has nothing to do with how long a human may live, but was a prophecy about the coming flood.

  9. Re:Genesis 6:3 by voidphoenix · · Score: 5, Informative

    January and February were added to the calendar. July and August were just renamed, from Quintilis and Sextilis.

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