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User:Ryoung122

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I am currently the Gerontology Consultant for Guinness World Records and the senior claims investigator for the Gerontology Research Group (www.grg.org). I also run the web group "World's Oldest People" at Yahoo groups. I am a founding member of the Supercentenarian Research Foundation, and I have been featured in hundreds of newspapers, including "The Wall Street Journal" and "The New York Times". I have worked on several books, the first of which, the "Wisdom of the World's Oldest People," was out in bookstores in Oct 2005. Two more books are soon to follow. I have been cited in scientific journals, including "The Gerontologist" and "Rejuvenation Research".

I am also an editor at www.emporis.com, which is the #1 web resource for high-rise buildings. I have contributed to the Guinness Book of Records (including the 1987, 1997, 2003, 2004 and 2005 editions) and the anticipated 2007 edition. I also contributed to the "World Almanac 2004".

Wikicontributions

Although I only adopted the current identity Ryoung122 in Feb 2005, I have edited articles in Misplaced Pages for several years prior. I have contributed heavily to the supercentenarian and associated articles, and started several. While this remains my first area of focus, my interests are not limited to this, and I have on occasion contributed to a plethora of articles over a great many topics. My first goal is to further the "education" of the world, and correcting errors is something I do quite a bit.

Articles I've started (since Nov 20 2005):

References

http://www.grg.org/Adams/E.HTM

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Worlds_Oldest_People/

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/ed/?id=101302

http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/368496.html

http://www.supercentenarian-research-foundation.org/organizers.htm

In search of the elders Man travels around the world looking for people 110 and older

Korky Vann, The Hartford Courant Call Jerry Friedman a "senior" sleuth. For the past five years, the Kent, Conn., resident has circled the globe in search of the world's oldest citizens, talking to individuals 110 and older. Traveling throughout Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Japan, Mongolia and Spain, as well as cities and towns across the United States, Friedman has met, interviewed and photographed 50 "extreme" elders, ranging from a former cotton-picker in rural Georgia to a Tibetan lama in Mongolia. The results of his unique journey are reported in Friedman's new book, "Earth's Elders: The Wisdom of the World's Oldest People." The book provides a window into the lives of "human time capsules," who have reached the outer edges of longevity. Their experiences -- the torching of the all-black town of Rosewood, Fla.; the atom-bomb attack on Hiroshima; the fall of the last Chinese Dynasty; the assassination of President McKinley and new inventions such as the washing machine or the automobile -- give new meaning to the term "living history."

Friedman, an award-winning television and advertising photographer, says his project was inspired by his mother, a 92-year-old nursing home resident.

"I went to my mother's long-term-care facility and 'embedded' myself for four days to see firsthand what my mother was experiencing," Friedman says. "It was like drawing back a curtain on a hidden society, and the reality was shocking. What I found was a group of well-cared-for people who were isolated in an elder ghetto. Here were people with extraordinary history and knowledge, but they didn't go out, and for the most part, the world didn't come in. I wanted to learn more about this invisible population."

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Spurred by curiosity, Friedman began to research supercentenarians, the oldest of the old, and discovered John McMorran, born in 1889, living in a nursing facility in Lakeland, Fla., and Ann Smith, born in 1891, living in a retirement home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass. After interviewing the elders and their families, Friedman was hooked. He tapped his savings to finance his travels and set out to document the untold stories of individuals whose lives span more than a century. Friedman was assisted in his discoveries by gerontology expert Robert Young of the Gerontology Research Group, who verified the records of the people documented in the book. Young, who validates records for the Guinness Book of World Records, says his group recognizes 65 living individuals ages 110 and older, 58 women and seven men. Friedman thinks there are hundreds more and continues to seek them. So far, he's met and photographed 60 individuals.