Life

Life The New Yorker

Was Jeanne Calment the Oldest Person Who Ever Lived—or a Fraud?

Jeanne Calment was 122 years of age when she died in France in 1997, and the oldest person in the world. It was only some years after her death that people started to question whether 1875 was in fact the year of her birth, and suggesting that the woman who claimed to be Jeanne Calment was in fact her daughter Yvonne. This is a fascinating story of gerontology (including such alarming nuggets as the the Gompertz law which states that “the mortality rate for adult humans roughly doubles with every additional eight years of age”) and social history.

Life The Atavist

The Ghost Hunter

The story of how the shipwreck of a galleon laden with treasure in 1690s Oregon continued to capture people’s attention centuries after it was lost.

Life The Paris Review

The Horsewomen of the Belle Époque

A story describing the world of the écuryères, “transgressive horsewomen of turn-of-the-century Paris” who played starring roles in the circuses of the time and were amongst the subjects of notable artists and authors.

Life New York

Worst Roommate Ever

It started with a refusal to contribute to bills, then with bulbs started disappearing from her room and appearing in his. It got a lot worse.

Life The Huffington Post

Death Of A Freelancer

The tragic story of a freelancer killed whilst reporting in South Sudan sheds light on the vulnerability of those reporting in conflict zones without the backing of a major media organisation.