Some recent Methuselah results.

The page http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~dean/RLE/methuselahs.html
is really the best reference at the moment; this just summarizes
some of the new ones I've found.  As far as I can tell I've
improved the results for 8, 10, 11, and 12-18.

Records Summary:

Start  Run
Pop    Length
 5     1,105      R-pentomino relative
 6     1,108      R-pentomino relative
 7     5,206      Acorn
 8     7,467      See below
 9    17,410      Bunnies relative
10    17,423      Bunnies relative; see below
11    17,465      Bunnies relative; see below
12-15 23,334      See below
16    23,335      See below
17-18 24,146      See below
19+   28,786      Iowana: World record holder

Nick Gotts shared some absolutely amazing patterns that, with as
few as 16 cells, last far longer than anything listed here.
They work by constructing a puffer that shoots backwards gliders
at a mass of junk; the puffer outruns the growth of the junk
and the gliders just keep coming in and perturbing things.
They have much larger bounding boxes however, so it's not clear
if the qualify as "compact" patterns.  It's like, we need for
every value of (area of bounding box) x (number of on cells)
the best result.

14 February 2005:

#Life
....*
....**
**.**
*

Eight on-cells, stabilizes at generation 7,467, final population
952, which puts it squarely between acorn and bunnies.

#Life
.*
**.*
....**
*..*
*
*

Ten on-cells, stabilizes at generation 17,423, final population 1749.

16 February 2005:

#Life
***...*
.*.*.**
.**....*
.***

This one has an initial population of 14, final population of 2501,
and runs 19,084 generations.

#Life
*.*.*.*
***..**
*...**
.*..*
*

Another; initial 15; final 2327; runs 18,342 generations.

#Life
*.*.***
**.*
**.*.**
*.*.***
*

Another; initial 19; final 3195; runs 20,533 generations.

17 February 2005:

#Life
....****
****...*
*.*.**
.**.*.*
*

Another; initial 18; final 2323; runs 17,870 generations.

#Life
**..*.*
*.*.***
*.**..*
.***..*
*

Another; initial 18; final 2364; runs 18,194 generations.

#Life
..**.*.*
**....**
*.**.*.*
*.*.*

Another; initial 16; final 2475; runs 17,642 generations.

#Life
.**...**
**.....*
*..***.*
**..**

Another; initial 16; final 2390; runs 19,523 generations.

#Life
.**.**.*
**..*..*
*.*...**
***...**
*

Another; initial 19; final 2862; runs 18,648 generations.

#Life
*.***
*....*
*.*.*
.*..*

Another; initial 11; final 1749; runs 17,465 generations.

19 February 2005:

#Life
....***
...*
*.....*
.**..*.*
.*.*

Another; initial 12; final 2898; runs 23,334 generations.

20 February 2005:

#Life
......**
..*.*.**
...**..*.*
**.*.*.*
.
...*

Another; initial 16; final 2898; runs 23,335 generations (predecessor of
the one listed above)

27 February 2005:

#Life
*...***
.*.*..**
*.*.**.*
*..*.*
..*

Initial 17; final 2418; runs 24,146 generations.