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Rhod Gilbert interview, confirms stage 4 cancer but ‘feeling positive’. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63921611

Kenneth Branagh, the remarkable actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, Emma Thompson's ex-husband, who made his debut as a film director with a 1989 adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Henry V", and was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is 62 today. Gloria Loring, American actress, well-known for her work in the soap opera "Days of Our Lives" for six years, and exceptional pop singer who began her music career singing with the folk group "Those Four", is 76 today. Over the years, the versatile Gloria Loring, has shared the stage with remarkable performers including Al Jarreau, Frank Sinatra, Mel Tormé, and the Pointer Sisters. Her first husband was Alan Thicke, remembered for "Growing Pains", and Robin Thicke, the successful singer-songwriter and judge on The Masked Singer US, is her son.

American sports journalist Grant Wahl dead at 48. Was in Qatar covering the World Cup. Likely to be a huge story given his prominence and his recent detainment for wearing a rainbow shirt

Interesting one this, especially for those of us around at the time. Death Notice for former Detective Chief Inspector Brian Woollard of the Metropolitan Police, aged 88: http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/261148/woollard Effectively, in the mid-1980s, he was uniformed after discovering possible corruption between the police and the local authority in Islington involving their common freemasonry. He found he had no means of redress, he claimed, because senior officers who could have taken the investigation further were also freemasons. Articles reproduced here https://spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/police-action-urged-over-mason-network-30-03-84/ and here https://spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/power-of-the-masons-myth-or-a-menace-13-07-86/. The late Austin Mitchell presented a petition of behalf of the aggrieved officer to Parliament: https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1985/dec/20/chief-inspector-brian-woollard but it wasn't until 10 years later the Home Affairs Select Committee decided to look into the matter of conflict between officers' duty and their membership of the Freemasons, which to some extent overlapped with the then Nolan Inquiry. The matter was discussed on the Channel 4 show "After Dark", but the freemason reps pulled out of that at the last minute. While Mr Woollard never seems to have had a Wiki page, this was a huge controversy at the time, and no doubt he will get I assume a Times Obit.

@arghton So far, two facts can be reliably stated: 1. Bedros Kirkorov is in hospital 2. Access to the hospital is closed 360tv.ru There is a swine flu outbreak in Russia in 74 regions, there are dead people, so hospitals are only accepting "transfers" - food, clothes, missing medication.

American singer Donny Osmond celebrates his 65th birthday today. American actor Beau Bridges, son of Hollywood golden era actor Lloyd Bridges and brother of actor Jeff Bridges, celebrates turning 81 today.

Bit harsh, what's he done to you?

Just been reading that poor old Baz is in hospital for chest pains. His PR person says its due to stress and the doctors are trying to get his heart rate back down to normal. He has been in hospital a few days now, undergoing various tests, so every chance that these stress related pains could turn out to be something more sinister. I don't think he can be that old either. One to watch. DWB

Thread for discussion about Martti Ahtisaari, former Finnish president (1994-2000), peace negotiator and global elder emeritus. Ahtisaari is overweight and recently survived COVID-19. He or his wife Eeva have not been seen in public much since that. He's one of the five global elder emeriti along with Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, Fernando Cardoso and Ela Bhatt.

Not looking healthy at all Decide for yourself if there is anything to this. It's not true until the Kremlin denies it after all.

Yeah, she only did that because she knew she had no chance of surviving a democratic primary.

Looks like I was the only one to pick Jet Black. BBC obit confirms 6 December.

When Uranus is deeply embedded in the Earth

Why is this a shock?Was evident from reports earlier this year.

I think he'll make 2023

I am usually loathe to update the scoreboard on account of a single death at this time of the year, lest I be accused of running this pool properly. However, as James Lovelock's demise has seen a shake-up of the top 5, I will make an exception in this case. 26th July - James Lovelock. Death Impends retains the lead, but the chasing pack bunches up behind. Wormfarmer becomes the second player to scale to 1000 peak. Death Impends (1094 points) 8 hits [Art Rupe, Carleton Carpenter, George Perez, Joe Krush, Kane Tanaka, Larry Storch*, Monty Normal, Nehemiah Persoff] Wormfarmer (1015 points) 10 hits [Art Rupe, Boris Pahor, Everett Lee, Francis Jackson, Gail Halvorsen, Gary Burgess, Guy Lafleur, James Lovelock, Luis Echeverria, Susie Steiner] Guy From Future (936 points) 6 hits [James Caan, Jean-Louis Trintignant, June Brown, Norman Mineta, Pedro Ferrandiz, Susie Steiner] Wannamaker (898 points) 7 hits [George Perez*, James Lovelock, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Russell Bishop, Tom Parker, Tom Smith, Vic Elford] Joey Russ (846 points) 7 hits [George Perez*, James Lovelock, Jana Bennett, Jean-Louis Trintignant Kane Tanaka, Saturnino de la Fuente Garcia, Tom Parker] The full updated scoreboard is on Page 1. As always, feel free to point out any deaths which I may have missed.

9 to 5 and The Magic School Bus actress Lily Tomlin is 81 today. "Conga" singer Gloria Estefan is 63 today. BTS member Jungkook is 23 today.

Your missing out! Lots on there to give you a nice warm happy feeling!

May appoints Hammond as Chancellor. Still nothing for Clarkson.

Linda Ronstadt too, she's not in the best of health. Same with Meatloaf. Liza Minnelli is 69 also and has always struck me as someone who won`t reach a great age. Going a tad off topic here, but if they've renamed J.D. and Coke to be known as a Lemmy, then I think bottles of cherry cough syrup should be known as a Minelli.

Copyright troll lawyer Paul Duffy is dead at 55, reasons not yet declared: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/08/prenda-linked-copyright-trolling-lawyer-paul-duffy-dead-at-age-55/ He was a lawyer for the multimillion dollar company Prenda, which shamed porn downloaders into lawsuits and then trusted in their desire to settle instead of enduring the embarrassing lawsuit. Eventually, the company's business fell apart among its own legal problems. Hmm, now I know where the German copyright trolls with the exact same "business plan" got their ideas from...

Looks like I've invested fairly well...

The Telegraph reporting it with that Times death notice apparently their only source. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11335642/Lance-Percival-dies-aged-81.html I did actually consider him for my DDP team this year, but couldn't find any recent info on him.

Holy fuck. I think I vaguely remember seeing that one at the time....... however, despite it being old it just made me PMSL..... Oh, and yes "dear" Deathray, there are often stories from years ago that top the "most read" chart on the Beeb's website. Because what happens you see is, er... people find them from time to time and....... then link to them on forums (ahem) and everyone clicks them and shares them on Fecesbook etc, and that's how the old stories get another "day in the sun". Many more in fact, some of them, in fact some of them are on there so often it's downright tedious.

I suppose it's an indication of our wide spectrum of interest. So, about those orgies... regards, Hein