Lifestyle
The secret of ‘Blue Zones’ where people reach 100? Fake data, says academic
For a quarter-century, researchers and the general public have sought to understand why people in so-called “Blue Zones” live to 100 at far greater rates than anywhere else.
Saul Newman, a researcher at the University College London (UCL), believes he has the answer: actually, they don’t.
Despite being popularised in news articles, cookbooks and even a recent Netflix documentary series, the Blue Zones are really just a by-product of bad data, argues Newman, who has spent years debunking research about extremely elderly populations.
Rather than lifestyle factors such as diet or social connections, he says, the apparent longevity of people in five regions – Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California – can be explained by pension fraud, clerical errors, and a lack of reliable birth and death records.
Dan Buettner, the American author and explorer credited with coining the term Blue Zone, did not respond to a request for comment.
For his research into the claims around Blue Zones, Newman, a senior fellow at UCL’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies, analysed reams of demographic data, including United Nations mortality statistics for 236 jurisdictions gathered between 1970 and 2021.
The figures, he found, were simply not believable.
Some of the places reported to have the most centenarians included Kenya, Malawi, and the self-governing territory of Western Sahara, jurisdictions with overall life expectancies of just 64, 65, and 71, respectively.
Similar patterns cropped up in Western countries, with the London borough of Tower Hamlets, one of the most deprived areas in the UK, reported to have more people aged over 105 than anywhere else in the country.
“I tracked down 80 percent of the people in the world who are aged over 110 and found where they had been born, where they died, and analysed the population level patterns,” Newman told Al Jazeera.
“It was absolutely striking because the more old age poverty means you get more 110-year-olds.”
Newman believes that clerical errors – whether intentional or inadvertent – have been compounded over the decades, severely undermining the reliability of statistics related to old age.
Some governments have acknowledged serious flaws in their record-keeping related to births and deaths.
In 2010, the Japanese government announced that 82 percent of its citizens reported to be over 100 had already died.
In 2012, Greece announced that it had discovered that 72 percent of its centenarians claiming pensions – some 9,000 people – were already dead.
Puerto Rico’s government said in 2010 that it would replace all existing birth certificates due to concerns about widespread fraud and identity theft.
More prosaic reasons can explain the apparent longevity of residents of jurisdictions such as Monaco, according to Newman, where low inheritance taxes are a draw for older Europeans, skewing the demographic data.
Still, the idea of Blue Zones has been hard to shift, even in the face of reliable data.
Japan’s Okinawa prefecture has often been lauded in the media for its diet and cultural practices.
Okinawans, however, have some of the worst health indicators in Japan, according to the Japanese government’s annual National Health and Nutrition Survey, which has been carried out since 1946.
While the traditional Okinawan diet is widely seen as healthy, a 2020 study found that the island prefecture today has a higher prevalence of obesity and higher rates of mortality among those aged 40–65 than mainland Japan.
Newman believes that the apparent longevity of Okinawans is the result of many deaths going unregistered.
“It’s almost like we are so determined that there is a secret to longevity that we’ll listen to anything – a secret to longevity that isn’t going to the gym, that isn’t giving up drinking,” Newman said.
“We want there to be some magic blueberries, and we want it so much that we can live in this sort of realm where cognitive dissonance is possible.”
Newman said that his research has not necessarily won him friends in academia, though he has been gratified with the support he has received from colleagues at UCL and Oxford, where he is a fellow at the Institute for Population Ageing.
He said that much of his work has received little notice from fellow academics and that a study he recently submitted for publication was subjected to nine peer reviews, instead of the usual two or three.
Newman did receive some notable recognition – and a legion of fans online – earlier this month, though, when he was awarded the first-ever Ig Nobel Prize in Demography for his work.
The Ig Nobel Prize was created in 1991 as a satirical award for unusual research “achievements that make people laugh, then think”.
The prizes are handed out by genuine Nobel Laureates at an annual ceremony in Boston.
“I’m very happy that it’s getting more attention, because I think, I think deep down, everyone also knows this smoothie is not going to save them,” Newman said.
“I think it’s the safety blanket that you cling onto, and so to have that overturned in a way that’s hopefully funny, I think that gets a lot of attention and people enjoy it.”
Despite drawing attention to the problem of pension fraud, Newman said he doesn’t fault people resorting to such measures.
“To be clear, I like that people are doing this because they’re being left behind by their governments in these places. They are not being given a sufficient pension. They’re not being given a sufficient retirement net,” he said.
“The fact that they are just saying, ‘Well, I’ll just keep collecting Barry’s pension from down the road.’ I think this is an indicator of the difficult pressures these people are under.”
A television camera operator is dressed as Santa Claus during the Baltimore Ravens and San Diego Chargers game on Dec. 18, 2011, at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.
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Netflix is gearing up to stream two NFL games this Christmas Day: the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers at 1 p.m. ET, followed by the Baltimore Ravens vs. the Houston Texans at 4:30 p.m. ET.
These football games will mark the streaming service’s latest test at live programming for events that will likely draw millions of viewers.
Last year, an average of 28.7 million viewers tuned in to one of the three NFL football games on Christmas Day — the Las Vegas Raiders vs. the Chiefs; the New York Giants vs. the Philadelphia Eagles; and the Ravens vs. the San Francisco 49ers. The matchups ranked among the top 25 most-viewed TV programs of 2023.
“We couldn’t be more excited to be the first professional sports league to partner with Netflix to bring live games to fans around the world,” said Hans Schroeder, NFL executive vice president of media distribution, in a statement.
But it’s not just the touchdowns and tackles that are expected to drive viewership.
Before the Ravens take on the Texans, Grammy-winning group Pentatonix will sing the national anthem. At halftime, Beyoncé will take the stage, preforming tracks from her 2024 album Cowboy Carter live for the first time, along with special guest appearances.
Netflix says it learned from Tyson-Paul boxing match glitches
Netflix’s move to stream NFL games comes just weeks after the platform’s attempt to broadcast live boxing between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson was rife with technical glitches.
Many fans reported on social media experiencing long buffering times or being booted from the stream. According to the website Down Detector, at least 85,000 viewers experienced streaming issues. The disruptions were so frustrating to one Florida man that he filed a class action lawsuit against Netflix over the “unwatchable” livestream.
At its peak, the fight reached 65 million concurrent streams globally, which was an unprecedented scale for Netflix.
A Netflix spokesperson said the platform has learned a great deal about streaming from the Tyson vs. Paul fight, adding that Netflix has adjusted its “content delivery, encoding, and streaming protocols accordingly” to prevent technical issues for the football games.
“We now know from experience what are the main pressure points in our infrastructure and are promptly addressing them ahead of the NFL games,” the spokesperson said in an email.
A lot is at stake for Netflix to get livestreams right and glitch-free. The platform is already set to air NFL games on Christmas Day in 2025 and 2026. Netflix will also begin broadcasting WWE Raw, SmackDown and other WWE programming weekly starting Jan. 6.
On Friday, Netflix secured a deal with FIFA to gain exclusive streaming rights to the Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031. The two groups said it is not only a score for the streamer, but a win for FIFA, which is hoping to reach a wider audience, especially in the U.S.
“This agreement sends a strong message about the real value of the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the global women’s game,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino in a statement.
Whether it’s a comedy special, a late-night talk show, or a dating show reunion, it has been hit or miss as to whether Netflix’s broadcasts will run smoothly.
But it’s clear that live programming is here to stay on Netflix. In recent years, the streamer has been experimenting more with live programming — an area largely dominated by traditional TV platforms. It’s a sharp pivot from the binge-watching trend that helped Netflix rise to popularity.
Netflix has the largest subscriber base of any streaming service worldwide. But mastering live streaming will be crucial for its future as concerns about stagnation and subscriber growth continue to loom.
Now that he has a baby, Kyle Mooney doesn’t leave a certain L.A. radius much if he doesn’t have to. And he’s content with that. The “Saturday Night Live” alum spends most of his time in Pasadena, Glendale, Highland Park and, most of all, Eagle Rock, where he lives with his wife and their infant daughter. “I felt like the ‘artsiness’ of it was something I could relate to,” says Mooney, explaining why he was drawn to the neighborhood. “Highland Park 1734839354 feels a little bit like what Silver Lake did when I was in my 20s, but we were really struck by the neighborhood in Eagle Rock. I think it’s pretty special and quaint in an awesome way.”
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Mooney has been revisiting the past lately, both on and off the screen. The actor and comedian made his directorial debut with “Y2K,” an early aughts set horror movie that imagines a world where machines actually do rise up against humanity as feared at the turn of the millennium. The film, in theaters now, will arrive available to watch at home on Dec. 24.
Outside of work, Mooney has been revisiting the past lately. He recently reinstated a love for baseball that was born during his childhood days in Little League. “It’s such a nerdy sport but for some reason it does something for me, it’s something that tickles my brain,” he says.
Mooney’s ideal Sunday includes baseball trivia, the hottest of hot sauces and multiple walks around the neighborhood. “Sundays have a very special place in my heart because when I worked on ‘SNL,’ that was my only day off,” he said. “So we would really take advantage of it and try to get as much fun stuff in as possible.”
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
8:30 a.m.: “Late” morning wake up
Throughout my 20s, I used to try to sleep in as late as possible so that if I woke up at 4 p.m., I could get away with only having to pay for dinner. And then when I was on “SNL,” the schedule is built for late night so you’re pretty used to sleeping in as late as you can just so you can handle [working] into the early morning.
Our schedule now is pretty much based around the baby. My wife and I switch off every couple days who wakes up with her. She gets up typically around 6-ish, sometimes as early as 5:30 a.m. So if I could sleep in until 9 a.m. or 9:30 a.m., that would be rad.
8:35 a.m.: Baseball trivia games in bed
When I wake up, I always play this [mobile] game called Immaculate Grid that’s a baseball stats game. It’s just recollecting stats that players have had and [recalling] the history of baseball. When baseball season’s going, I have like three other friends [who also play] and we send each other our scores. So I’ll play that and then I’ll hang with the baby.
I loved baseball as a kid. I got really into collecting cards and the history of it. There’s a Ken Burns documentary on baseball and they produced this big old book that my dad would read with me at bedtime when I was in fourth or fifth grade.
I really got back into baseball in the last couple years — I am from San Diego and I’m a Padres fan — and it was a funny feeling as the Dodgers were amid a World Series run to be wearing a San Diego baseball cap. Never before had I felt like a bad guy. This year was the first year where I was like “You know, I’m actually not going to wear my hat [in public].”
10 a.m.: Me-time while baby naps
I try to go to the gym when I can, but if not, I like to jog around the neighborhood. Being able to say that I jogged a mile or a mile and a half feels like a win.
When I’m on my jog, I’ll always listen to music and sometimes try to edit a playlist. That’s something that relaxes me. I turned 40 this past year and my wife and I had a shared birthday party so there was a lot of prep for building the playlist. Around that time, on these jogs I was adding songs to a massive playlist that was like 14 hours long and then making cuts, dwindling it down until it was like six hours of music that we could pass off to the DJ to pull from. The music I love the most for a party environment is ’80s R&B and funk, maybe Italo disco and yacht rock.
11 a.m.: Venture outdoors for brunch and margaritas
One of the places down the street from us is called Relentless, they’re great. They have a great margarita. And we almost every time get the cauliflower wings. They also occasionally have natural wine, which is something that both my wife and I are really into. They’re always good about making a scrambled egg for our baby that sometimes she’ll eat, which is a major win.
We also like to go to the Hermosillo, which is a bar in Highland Park that has great food. I love their cheeseburger, hot dog and fried pickles. They have a great outdoor area where you can hang with kids and there’s a lot of families so you don’t feel like you’re spoiling anyone’s time by having a loud child. We also sometimes go to Mijares in Pasadena for margaritas, chips and salsa and that classic, old-school Mexican cuisine.
11 a.m.: Alternate plan? Have a burning meal
We also go sometimes to the Greyhound, which is a bar and restaurant in Highland Park and Glendale. These days they have a great selection of wings and various sauces. The last time I got the hottest one. I like trying whatever the “fire, extreme danger, high voltage” wing is, especially if I’m at a new place. When we order takeout, if we’re getting Indian food or Thai food, I’ll put in a note like “Please make this as spicy as possible.” One of the spiciest dishes I’ve ever tasted was at Jitlada and they have a competition surrounding it. That was one that I probably had maybe four or five bites and was like “I actually can’t handle it.” I think it’s only happened maybe twice in my life where I’m like, “I can’t go any further.”
I did a Hot Ones Versus recently with Fred Durst, who’s in our movie. He was suffering. They claim we had their spiciest wing. I was grabbing them when I didn’t even have to, just enjoying them. I’m like “it’s not that spicy” but I looked like a clown with a big red ring around my lips.
3 p.m.: Second walk of the day
Both in the morning and [before dinner] in the evening, we’ll work in a walk with the whole family. I put her in the Baby Bjorn and we’ll walk around the neighborhood and look at birds and doggies and squirrels. One of the really awesome parts about Eagle Rock is that it’s full of nice people, so we see a lot of familiar faces and know a lot of the folks that we run into. And my wife and I can catch up on gossip if we want to.
4:30 p.m.: Dinnertime
Going out to eat twice in a day, I don’t know how often we do it. A place we love to go to a lot is Colombo’s down the street from us. It is definitely walkable but we typically drive just because it’s pretty hilly. I love Colombo’s, we’ve just figured out our order: I like the sausage and peppers dish, the steak, the fried mozzarella. My wife tends to do a make-your-own pasta with angel hair, garlic and butter. And then if I can handle it, I’ll get a cocktail martini.
6 p.m.: Gradual wind-down back home
Hopefully baby’s had food at dinner. If not, we’ll make her a little something. Maybe we’ll allow ourselves to watch a little TV, all of us together. Right now she’s really into the “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,” she will also watch “Ms. Rachel.” And then we’ll get her ready for bed and read some stories and sing some songs. And then depending on our level of exhaustion, sometimes we’ll have friends come over and play Quiplash or something like that.
Usually we will just try to watch a movie on demand or rent one. We’re very bad at finishing them the same night. It almost always takes two days to the point that sometimes we’re paying twice to watch it.
Right now we’re in Christmas zone, so we’ll probably start revisiting the Christmas classics: There’s this animated movie from the ’70s that Rankin/Bass did called “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” that’s about a broken clock, essentially. And I love “A Garfield Christmas.” I’m a “Love, Actually” fan as well. And there’s always a black-and-white Christmas movie that I’ve never seen so sometimes we’ll find something that’s old but new to us.
8 p.m.: YouTube rabbit hole before bed
I like to shower [before bed] and sometimes I’ll go on baseballreference.com and learn about some baseball players. It’s just something to constantly be studying for the competition with my friends.
I truly can entertain myself on the internet for several hours. One recent YouTube search was “’80s Christmas specials.” I’m really obsessed with the idea that there are all these specials that aired on TV that just became lost media, they’re not on DVD or streaming or anything like that. “Flash Beagle” was a Charlie Brown cartoon from the early ’80s that was a spoof of the movie “Flash Dance.” Snoopy’s in a headband dancing and for some reason I’m obsessed.
Lifestyle
'Wait Wait' for December 21, 2024: With Not My Job guests Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone
Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone attend the 35th Annual Producers Guild Awards at The Ray Dolby Ballroom on February 25, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Elyse Jankowski/WireImage)
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This week’s show was recorded in Chicago with host Peter Sagal, judge and scorekeeper Bill Kurtis, Not My Job guests Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone and panelists Dulcé Sloan, Hari Kondabolu, and Roy Blount, Jr. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.
Who’s Bill This Time
New Jersey State of Mind; Warped Wraps; His Holy Hilariousness
Panel Questions
Dill Sparklers
Bluff The Listener
Our panelists tell three stories about new kinds of outdoor activities, only one of which is true.
Not My Job: Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone answer questions about Melissa & Doug toys
Hollywood power couple (and creators of the podcast Hildy the Barback and the Lake of Fire) Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone play our game called, “Melissa and Ben, meet Melissa And Doug.” Three questions about the wooden toy company.
Panel Questions
Doctors Thought; The Most Germiest Time of the Year; A Frosty Arms Race
Limericks
Bill Kurtis reads three news-related limericks: Knitting With Fido; Pasta Princes; How To Get That Medium-Rare Look
Lightning Fill In The Blank
All the news we couldn’t fit anywhere else
Predictions
Our panelists predict what will be the best Christmas present of the year.
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