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Ivan Silayev dead at 92.

Given that Gorbachev died recently, Ryzhkov isn’t just the last living PM of the Soviet Union, he’s the last living Soviet leader. All Chairmen, General Secretaries, Presidents etc. are dead. Very significant.

Mia Farrow, the famous American actress, the daughter of the director John Farrow and the actress Maureen O'Sullivan, well known for great films, such as "Rosemary's Baby", "The Great Gatsby", and "Hannah and Her Sisters", is 78 today. Rose Leslie, the attractive Scottish actress, who started her television acting career in 2008, whose first credited film appearance was in the drama "Now Is Good" (2012), and best known for her performances as Gwen Dawson in "Downton Abbey", Ygritte in HBO's worldwide smash hit "Game of Thrones", and Maia Rindell on the legal drama "The Good Fight", is 36 today.

Only one former Soviet PM left now then

Le Pen is mightier than the scythe.

Chris Browne, who took over penning the Hagar The Horrible cartoon strip after the death of his father Dik Browne in 1989, reportedly dead: https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2023/02/08/chris-browne-rip/

Zhang Huixia dead at 94. 45 survivors left.

Joe Pesci is 80.

Amazing of how time moves so fast. Another huge event of the 20th century is down to it's last sole survivor

There's been a load of Long March, WWII vets dying since Christmas too. Only three long march vets died between July and 21 December, six between December 21 and January 17. I recall twice the normal amount of Chinese WWII vets were dying at the start of January. When Shi Ping and Feng Zigen survived (or "survived" with tubes going into them for the rest of the weeks or months they have) it, the news said they had it. In China it's only covid when you survive long enough to get discharged, otherwise it's "natural causes", "a lung infection", "illness and failed treatment" or something else.

I'm a claimer, I'm afraid. Not here obvs, not playing this game. Hosted myself, always pleased to see a claim. Some hosts update sporadically, so always good to have a list to double check. We've all seen the updated leaderboards and then someone trots along and says "but you need to give me points for ...". Of course, I don't get many hits due to my innate ability to grant almost certain immunity from death by picking them. I can appreciate it might be annoying for some hosts though. Posters gonna post...what ya gonna do? "shrug"

59 A-ha – The Sun Always Shines on TV 39 The Communards & Sarah Jane Morris – Don’t Leave Me This Way 39 Pet Shop Boys – It’s A Sin 34 Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) +3 32 Pet Shop Boys — West End Girls +1 24 Rick Astley — Never Gonna Give You Up 23 Madonna — La Isla Bonita 21 Bee Gees — You Win Again 19 Falco – Rock Me Amadeus -6 10 George Michael & Aretha Franklin – I Knew You Were Waiting For Me Happy with that top 5. FAO whoever keeps changing Rick Astley to Ashley, the former is correct.

Oscar Lawton Wilkerson died yesterday, one day before his 97th birthday. Death notice from his local church on Facebook.

Fetterman hospitalised again after feeling lightheaded. Being kept overnight.

Approved for posterity just to confirm his fate has been sealed.

On this day 3 years ago in 2020, american actor Robert Conrad died aged 84 . He had a steady acting career in both television and film . His acting credits include television series Highway Patrol,The Wild wild west and Hawaiian Eye . His busy film career was largely as a steadily employed Hollywood B Lister. His films include Breaking up is hard to do (1979), Five Desperate Women, The Fifth missile and Jingle all the way (1996) a Christmas movie starring Arnold Schwarzenger.

1987: Ozzy Osbourne (1/31)  1989: Frank Bruno, Mike Ditka, Ozzy Osbourne, Brian Wilson, David Jenkins (5/32)  1990: Mike Ditka, Rex Williams, Oprah Winfrey, Terry Waite (4/42)  1991: Leo Beenhakker (1/40)  1992: Shaun Ryder (1/37)  1993: Tony Bennett, Henry Kissinger, George Lineker (3/56) 1994: Edmund White, Holly Johnson, Peter Shilton (3/50)  1995: Holly Johnson (1/50)  1996: Mr T (1/50)  1997: (0/50)  1998: (0/50)  1999: Nick Leeson, Carly Simon (2/50)  2000: Louis Farrakhan (1/50)  2001: Liza Minnelli (1/50)  2002: (0/50)  2003: (0/50)  2004: Pervez Musharraf (0/50)  2005: Hamed Karzai (1/50) 2006: (0/50)  2007: Tim Johnson, Louis Farrakhan (2/50)  2008: Russell Watson, Hamed Karzai, Charles Taylor (3/50)  2009: (0/50)  2010: (0/50)  2011: Ali Khamenei, Dick Cheney, Michael Douglas (3/50)  2012: Nigel Lawson, Henry Kissinger, Dick Van Dyke, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (4/50) 2013: Henry Kissinger (1/50)  2014: Dick Van Dyke, Tony Bennett (2/50)   2015: Henry Kissinger, Jake Roberts (2/50)  2016: Prunella Scales, Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Tommy Chong, Sandy Gall, Paul Gascoigne (6/50)  2017: Jimmy Carter, Bob Barker, Sandy Gall, Emperor Akihito (4/50)  2018: Linda Nolan, Bob Barker, Prunella Scales, Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Dick Van Dyke, Stanley Baxter, Mel Brooks, Louis Farrakhan, Ronnie Wood, Joni Mitchell, Paul Gascoigne (12/50)  2019: Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Bob Barker, Emperor Akihito, Alan Greenspan, Dick Van Dyke, Harry Belafonte, Vanessa Redgrave, Cleo Laine, Prunella Scales, Tina Turner, Shane MacGowan (12/50) 2020: Dick Van Dyke, Emperor Akihito, Bob Barker, Alan Greenspan, Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter, Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, Prunella Scales, Jacques Delors, Willie Nelson, Shane MacGowan, Dick Cheney, Imelda Marcos, Joanne Woodward, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Pervez Musharraf, David Attenborough (17/50) 2021: Dick Van Dyke, Emperor Akihito, Bob Barker, Alan Greenspan, Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter, Jacques Delors, Ali Khamenei, Prunella Scales, Tony Bennett, Rosalynn Carter, Dick Cheney, Harry Belafonte, Bob Newhart, Imelda Marcos, Yoko Ono, Linda Nolan, Joanne Woodward, Mel Brooks, Willie Nelson, Betty Boothroyd, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Raul Castro, Burt Bacharach, Stanley Baxter, Vanessa Redgrave, Shane MacGowan, Shannen Doherty (28/50)  2022: Dick Van Dyke, Henry Kissinger, Bob Barker, Alan Greenspan, Nigel Starmer-Smith, Jimmy Carter, Tony Bennett, Dick Cheney, Harry Belafonte, Mel Brooks, Bobby Charlton, David Attenborough, Emperor Akihito, Rosalynn Carter, Sandy Gall, Desmond Morris, Ted Kaczynski, Jean-Marie Le Pen, James Whale, Cleo Laine, Jacques Delors, Denis Law, Prunella Scales, Burt Bacharach, Stanley Baxter, Noam Chomsky, Norman Tebbit, Michael Gambon, Douglas Hurd, Silvio Berlusconi, Marianne Faithfull, Milan Kundera, Linda Ronstadt, Joss Ackland, Shane MacGowan (35/50) Updated for Pervez Musharraf. The 2004 list is now extinct.

Whereas a scholar of Foucault certainly would have a dog in this fight! This is like the Michael Jackson stuff. As soon as the accusations appear, his fans rush to his side. I'm generally against trial by Internet or by lynch mob and obviously he's not here to defend himself. The allegations do however come from multiple sources and have been published by reputable sources. The Spectator, July 2021: How Foucault was shielded from scandal by French reverence for intellectuals The Times, March 2021: French philosopher Michel Foucault ‘abused boys in Tunisia’ Given that millions of men travel to the Far East, Northern Africa, Latin America etc. to abuse children, I don't find it hard to believe that one of them happened to be a philosopher. There's a good Medium article here that puts all the jigsaw pieces together. It seems likely he was.

I bet Joanne Woodward didn’t look so good at 90. If Woodward can make it so close to 93, so can Scales. Meaning Scales can again be dropped in 2024, but should return in 2025.

DDP obit punt Mike Sertich, B-list ice hockey player and coach, here looking a little roughed up by his pancreatic cancer treatment, but not at death's door yet: https://www.startribune.com/mike-sertich-minnesota-duluth-hockey-brett-hull-bobby-hull-patrick-reusse/600248451/

Oh, shite, I forgot about the Pope being picked! @drol: 31 @CaptainChorizo: 26 @John Key: 23 @arghton: 21 @chilean way: 21 @The Old Crem: 19 @Kenny: 19 @theoldlady: 18 @The Daredevil: 16 @P94: 16 @Hell: 14 @Thatcher: 13 Myself: 13 @gcreptile: 10 @Salmon Mousse: 10 @wannamaker: 9 @Great Uncle Bulgaria: 9 (the highest score with a singular hit) @Ulitzer95: 9 @MariNisia: 8 (the lowest score with multiple hits) @Doulton: 8 @LizLemon: 6 @msc: 3 @Bibliogryphon: 0 (sorry!) RIGHT, THAT'S ACTUALLY IT! drol is the winner.

Updated, longer and better list of notable living Hibakusha (survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) Hiroshima Shuzo Teruka (1924-2023, Japanese wiki) Agricultural economist. Bone cancer in 1984, bladder cancer in 1993. Akiko Takakura (1925/1928-) Appeared in docudrama Hiroshima: BBC History of World War II. Survived the bombing 260-300 meters from the hypocentre. Kazuo Nakajo (1926-2023, Japanese wiki) Footballer and sports writer, survived 1.8km from the hypocentre. Takeshi Yoshinaga (1926-, Japanese wiki) Horse racing jockey and trainer Hidenori Murata (1928-2023, Japanese wiki) Animation producer, founder of Eiken anime studio. Atsushi Hoshino (1928-, Japanese wiki) Historian, political scientist, agronomist Hiroko Takenishi (1929-) Fiction writer and literary critic Kikuo Hatashima (1930-, Japanese wiki) Researcher, literature critic and poet Saburo Yamashita (1930-, Japanese wiki) Politician Hashisume Bun (1931-, Japanese wiki) Writer Taeko Nakanishi (1931-) Voice actress Hiroyasu Amase (1931-, Japanese wiki) Writer Shoji Sawada (1931-, Japanese wiki) Physicist Seigo Orii (1931-, Japanese wiki) Author Yukio Shimomura (1932-) National team football player and manager. Setsuko Thurlow (1932-) Nuclear disarmament activist, leading figure and founding member of ICAN Ryusuke Oshita (1936-, Japanese wiki) Businessman Shigeaki Mori (1937-) Historian known for his research on Allied prisoners who died during the air raids on Japan. Also met Obama in 2016 and hugged him. Thomas Takashi Tanemori (1937-) Appeared in docudrama Hiroshima: BBC History of World War II. Masaaki Tanabe (1937-, Japanese wiki) Filmmaker Yumiko Ueda (1938-, Japanese wiki) Poet, essayist, painter Isao Harimoto (1940-) Korean former Nippon Professional Baseball player and holder of the record for most hits in the Japanese professional leagues, only Hiroshima survivor to play professional basketball in Japan. Has suffered from illnesses. Ryuusei Takeda (1940-, Japanese wiki) Buddhist cleric Akiyoshi Kitaura (1940-, Japanese wiki) Actor Kazuo Imanishi (1941-) National team footballer. Miraculously survived and suffers from ailments related to radiation exposure. Aritatsu Ogi (1942-) National team footballer. Kensei Mizote (1942-2023) Politician, former Diet member. Hiroshi Amamoto (1943-, Japanese wiki) Doctor Koko Kondo (1944-) Anti-nuclear bomb activist Hideo Tanaka (1944-, Japanese wiki) Kyoto politician Eiji Oshita (1944-, Japanese wiki) Journalist Hiroko Ougi (1945-, Japanese wiki) Actress and singer. Nagasaki Sunao Sasaguchi (1928-, Japanese wiki) Painter. Heart attack in 1988, stroke in 1998 Michiko Kano (1929-, Japanese wiki) Researcher Terumi Tanaka (1932-) Secretary-General of Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations Masayoshi Ozaki (1932-, Japanese wiki) Painter Akihiro Miwa (1935-) Gay singer, actor, director, composer, musician and drag queen. Has suffered from radiation exposure related ailments and suffered a stroke in 2019. Koichi Kawano (1940-, Japanese wiki) Anti-nuclear bomb activist Masako Wada (1943-, Japanese wiki) Anti-nuclear bomb activist of Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations. Annoys me that some articles, obituaries have already been calling some survivors "one of the last" or even "the last". There's still a load of them and I assume we'll be in "the lasts" in around fifteen, twenty years.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10758175/Sir-Michael-Caine-89-cuts-dapper-figure-date-night-elegant-wife-Shakira-75.html Pictures of Michael Caine spotted out and about on a night out with his wife. He needs some support though given he has recently had back surgery.

Mathematics Professor Emeritus of Oxford's Magdalen College Brian Bellhouse failed to predict the trajectory of a herd of cows.

Peter O'Donnell The novelist and creator of the "Modesty Blaise" cartoon strip has died aged 90. He had been fighting Parkinson's disease for some time.