At 07:56 1999-05-12 -0400, Todd wrote:
>in the last week or so indicates that "mitochondrial Eve" lived
>some 300,000 years ago, rather than 150,000 years ago, as
>previously thought.  Or maybe she didn't exist at all.
>
It is a mathamtical fact that any group of living things with two parents
have _one_ common ancestor of each sex. One group is for example all
at this moment existing humans. One second later these ancestors might
have changed.



>Until recently, all
>extra-somatic knowledge was transmitted orally and stored in
>living libraries: people.  The most important "volumes" in the
>library would have been the elders, for the simple reason that
>they had the most time to accumulate knowledge.

Agree!!


>Walford
>and the CRON researchers have a body of evidence that a lifespan
>of 114 years is plausible given sharply reduced caloric intake.

If reduced caloric intake is applied from birth, and also most probably
resulting in no breeding, not even mating.

>Iit's very hard to know how
>long a human should live.
>
From the personal point of view there is no interest in longevity.
Once You are dead, You don't know what You could have missed the
rest of the years, good or bad.
But health while living matters.
So I think these long living longevity discussions are of no interest.

- Hans