NickS writes: I found this story about a Tukwila pastor using her church as a sanctuary moving and an interesting exploration of the challenges that come with that.

Bolerjack isn't a trained social worker and doesn't have a background in immigration or homelessness services. But she's stubborn, likes to work fast and her past pushes her to say "yes."

She couldn't wait to act while government agencies created a plan, Bolerjack said. "But that's really uncomfortable for a lot of people."

It's especially uncomfortable for Tukwila's leaders.

"Pastor Jan continues to say 'yes' beyond her resources," Tukwila Mayor Tom McLeod said in August.

He wants Bolerjack to set firm limits on the number of people living on church property to a level their fire marshal deems appropriate, with that analysis now underway.

To appease Tukwila's leaders and receive their financial support, Bolerjack doesn't accept everyone anymore. She's already turned away hundreds of new arrivals. Her property has about 135 residents and migrants are scattered across the region now. But her church still plays a significant role, and it needs the city's help. Donations are falling and she recently put $8,000 in air conditioning repairs on a credit card.

Still, a low-simmering tension remains between Bolerjack and city leaders.

"Because I'm not saying I'm going to do what they're asking me to do, " Bolerjack said.

Her congregation is small -- she counts 12 who show up and about 40 on the books. But she's not worried about Riverton closing because through its social services -- cars line up at 5 a.m. for their food bank that opens at 10 -- she's been able to maintain relevance.

In seminary school -- after trying careers in physical education and nursing -- Bolerjack was taught ways to get more people in the pews on Sundays.

"That is not my interest," Bolerjack said. "My interest is being the heart and voice of God in the world."

Her church bosses describe her as "strong-willed" and "focused" and say they support the risks she's taken.

Heebie's take: First off, that woman is amazing. But there's also a really unnerving "things fall apart" centrifugal force to the story. The center can't hold.

Mossy Character sends in: 'The data on extreme human ageing is rotten from the inside out' - Ig Nobel winner Saul Justin Newman.

Wow, basically Blue Zones are bullshit:

In Okinawa, the best predictor of where the centenarians are is where the halls of records were bombed by the Americans during the war. That's for two reasons. If the person dies, they stay on the books of some other national registry, which hasn't confirmed their death. Or if they live, they go to an occupying government that doesn't speak their language, works on a different calendar and screws up their age.

and

According to the Greek minister that hands out the pensions, over 9,000 people over the age of 100 are dead and collecting a pension at the same time. In Italy, some 30,000 "living" pension recipients were found to be dead in 1997.

Regions where people most often reach 100-110 years old are the ones where there's the most pressure to commit pension fraud, and they also have the worst records. For example, the best place to reach 105 in England is Tower Hamlets. It has more 105-year-olds than all of the rich places in England put together. It's closely followed by downtown Manchester, Liverpool and Hull. Yet these places have the lowest frequency of 90-year-olds and are rated by the UK as the worst places to be an old person.

I guess you can go back to eating Western slop. Enjoy!