Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man.

- James Thurber
 

A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep,
and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist.

- Stewart Alsop
 

How Long Can We Live? - When Jeanne Calment of France died in 1997 at 122 years of age, she was acclaimed as the longest-lived person.  But there are unverified accounts of people living even longer...

Physical Feats by people aged 70 - 105 - including skydiving, marathon, sprint, paragliding, karate black-belt - lots of shining examples...

Getting What We Deserve - When the face of Jeannette Sleever of Morris Plains appeared, even those who didn't know her burst into applause.  "I'm 95 years old," the graduate said proudly.  "You're never too old to learn."  With wisps of reddish hair peeking out from under her mortarboard, Sleever collected her degree - cum laude - along with 2,100 other graduates...

Old Cruisers - Luxury liners offer many of the same amenities as old folks' homes: meals and housekeeping, laundry and hairdressing services, and even an escort to dinner.  They have handgrips in the toilets and walk-in showers.  And they also provide plenty of things that land-based facilities do not - such as nightly entertainment and round-the-clock access to medical care...

Longevity - As aged populations grow, scientists are taking the opportunity to find out what makes some people live longer...

Downhill from Here - It seems I have no choice but to pay attention, pace myself, parcel out my physical and mental energy and try not to do anything too stupid.  I want to be able to walk in the wilderness, to participate in the world and to copulate once in awhile without seizing up...

The Biology and Philosophy of Growing Old - The dream of winning takes on an obsessive quality in the medical sciences once the subject of scientific study becomes the mind and body, and the reality of bodily mortality becomes unavoidable.  The obsessive response to the certainty of biological death is the promise that a big enough win in the game of science will beat death itself, by conferring a form of immortality on the winner...

Science and Longevity - Exercise regimes that focus on high-intensity resistance training of the arms and legs go a long way toward countering disabling frailty in the elderly.  Older people who have done weight lifting over the last 15 to 20 years will have muscles the same size as someone who is 20 and sedentary...

Saying Goodbye - ...what are a patient's best interests, and how can we know?  Against the principle of state interest looms the equally weighty principle of autonomy: a person's right to privacy and to direct his own life.  In the end, principles sometimes lean toward life, not death.  Can anyone say, on behalf of a patient unable to speak for himself, that his life is not worth living?

The Death of a Child - Starved of water and food, Tabitha Cox lay down on the living-room floor next to the body of her New Zealand mother, Joy, and drifted towards death.  Mother and daughter lay there for days, undisturbed, until police and social workers broke into their little flat...

"Fun" Funerals - Among the gallery's unusual wares: a chrome rhino's head with a hollow horn for a loved one's cremated remains; an urn made into a liquor cabinet that, when opened, plays "How Dry I Am"; funerary jewelry in silver, crystal and porcelain that allows survivors to wear a bit of the deceased; a bronze reliquary cast from the fangs of prehistoric carnivores; a marble columbarium with room for a whole family's remains; and a blinking 3-ft robotic sculpture with comically tiny light-bulb head concealing a container of ashes...

Cork Coffin Display with a Difference - Apparently more and more people are opting to leave with a flair...

More Unusual Coffins - Bags, bins and a guitar case...

Exhibiting a Sense of the Absurd - barges, carriages and a sarcophagus...

Potpourri - coffins, compost, pints and plots with stolen body parts and a couple of book reviews thrown in for good measure...

Keeping Costs Down - "The urge to keep our loved ones protected and safe is fundamental to all of us.  No wonder so many families are comforted by the ability to protect their loved ones with the Batesville Monoseal protective casket."  (Advertisement)  It's going to keep out air, water, and other elements, we're told.  But Batesville doesn't bother to reveal that, by keeping air out, a sealed casket (in anything but the most frigid weather) becomes a crock-pot that is likely to turn the body into a smelly stew, whether it's embalmed or not...

Rituals versus Reality - The author states, "An exuberant communal alcoholic wake was a central aspect of bush burials.  Other aspects included stoical acceptance of the inevitability of death, commitment to accord human remains a decent burial where practicable, and a casual, non-conformist attitude."  (That sounds imminently pragmatic to me.)  The author, however, says this showed a lack of respect for institutional codes of conduct.  All I can say is perhaps he needed to be there to fully understand how practical this response was...

Row upon Row - 20,000 crosses are aligned across 30 acres, and eight ossuaries hold more than 22,000 unknown soldiers.  Victor Hugo said, "The day will come when the only battlefields will be markets open to commerce and minds open to ideas."  That day has come...

Mausoleums Go Upscale - "...driven in part by baby boomers who are planning their parents' burials or preplanning their own, high-end mausoleums now contain amenities like waterfalls, interactive technology, elaborate chapels, gazebos and even cafes.  Some tout computer chips that contain photos, bios and in some cases the voice of the deceased..."

Body Worlds Exhibit - All of the bodies on display in the exhibit - arrayed in various poses, including a rider on a fully plastinated horse - agreed to have their bodies preserved, von Hagens says.  On average, five people attending the exhibit every day sign up to have their bodies donated as well, bringing the total number who have made this commitment to 3,700...

Deep Freeze - Instead of preserving the finest physical specimens of 21st-century humanity - the athletic, the attractive, the physically fit, the Adonis and Venus de Milo types whose bodies are so well deserving of eternity - we seem to be conserving geeks with taped-up glasses and bad haircuts, whose idea of dinner ranges little further than Frito-Lays, Cheetos and Jolt.  "What a warped view the 40th century will have...

Death Wish - is compensation for bodies or their parts such a bad idea?  Leaving one's body to science is an act of pure generosity, but if the human tissue shortage is so dire that biotechnology companies and medical researchers are resorting to black market purchases, then maybe the system should be rethought.  If anyone is going to make money from it, it should be me or my family.  Perhaps a financial incentive for donating will inspire more people to do it.

The Silent Army of Xian - The emperor spent years searching for the elixir of life, ultimately dying on one of those endless, fruitless expeditions.  All the emperor's concubines were buried with him, as were the workers who built his mausoleum...

Odds Are You'll Die Like This - Statistically, do you have more of a chance of falling off a ladder or getting food poisoning?  Well, everyone eats, but not everyone climbs ladders - does that influence the outcome?...

Even Humour - Well, you might as well laugh...

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