gcreptile

Former IRA assassin Kevin McGuigan shot dead in an apparent revenge killing: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/12/ex-ira-gunman-shot-dead-in-apparent-revenge-killing Huh, they still kill each other there?

Makes sense if, by "11th Death of 2015", you assume that there have been only 10 deaths on the globe so far.

Someone on another site mentioned that Carter probably gave heads-up so that Obama can already plan a presidential funeral, which made me think... wouldn't it be in the spirit of political compromise and also good for the taxpayers to euthanise Bush Sr. at the same time, so that there can be a two-in-one presidential funeral?

Absolutely. The rule of thumb, I try to use is that each new year raft of entries are all one in the same. So, now my sheadsheet has a column that tracks if that if names have been used within a Sun Wukong or main DDP and suchlike entries. I don't think theme teams count in this regard. It's still tricky to get it right but it's a long list even with the odd mistake year on year. As for obits. First base is a personal Wikipedia entry. The unwritten rule is at least 15 minutes of fame and a noted write up on death in a publication that has print curclulation more that Farmers Weekly. As an aside, the restriction to remove the long time coffin dodgers even seems to improves team performance. Here, I'm on 11 hits out of my now 48 eligible names where-as my DL shadow list lags with just 8 hits out of 50 names. Thanks! Well, I asked because for newer players like me, there might be a small advantage since I have only one year with about 100 names to disregard. But then I guess that the main benefit of this game comes over time, i.e. once a list of 50 people needs to be replaced completely in the year ahead. But to be completely compliant with the rules above, I guess I should enter before 1st of January 2016... (in fact, I'm thinkinf of Dec 31st, but Jimmy Carter might change that...) Edit: Yes, there probably are benefits to changing names completely. The DDP Drop Forty is a good example of that. It's full of people who are popular to pick if you're out of names, but that tends to accumulate people with a naturally good constitution, i.e. people you already once picked and think it would be a shame to drop them or people who are so famous that each of their little health scares makes the news.

That makes me incredibly sad. He is a good man, probably even too good for the presidency, so people called him weak against Iran, and against his own democratic Congress. America probably didn't like that he was a true man of peace, or that he is one of the few remaining liberal evangelists. After all, in the 80s, U.S. evangelicals took a hart turn to the right, so ideologically, Carter has always been a little alone ever since. But he demanded the turn away from fossil fuels 30 years in advance. Anyway, I also think it's a question of when, not if. That said, U.S. healthcare is pretty good at the top level. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is also still alive, not to mention Dick Cheney. If Carter wants to, the doctors can probably drag his body into 2016. But whether he wants to, that's the question.

What about Cecil's cubs? No, they're not dead, at least 7 of them: http://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/Cecils-cub-has-not-been-killed-Zim-parks-authority-20150811 An eighth one was killed some time ago. Will the 7 cubs unite to hunt Walter Palmer and take revenge?

I noticed that the Daily Mail now pretty much copy/pastes everything from Reuters and AP. So all the American archbishops, arabic writers, philippine warlords, etc... obit. I wonder how much this site is to blame for the apparently valuable traffic to these pages.

Kim Jong-Un about to have a stroke? https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/08/485_184719.html

Ann McGovern, children's book author, for example, 'Stone Soup', has died of cancer at 85: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/12/books/ann-mcgovern-author-is-dead-at-85-she-made-stone-soup-a-school-staple.html

Joe Bates, co-founder of London-based knitwear label Sibling, has died: http://fashionista.com/2015/08/joe-bates-dies

A question: Once I have picked someone for this game here, am I allowed to pick them again for a different deadpool in the future? Oh, also: any obitability requirements?

Depending on the newspaper, some of them will mainly recall his chestburster death in Alien, that's his eternal gift to the history of cinema. And some web magazines will also mention his role in 'V for Vendetta' (those probably also mention his role in 1984). And, of course, as written above, some teenage magazines will only call him "a Harry Potter actor".

Wow, I didn't know it was that much. Honestly, it looks like someone wants him to stay ill so that this person can claim more power for him/herself, maybe a general, maybe even the Crown Prince? Surely the crown prince would gain more power by offing him? Who knows... maybe he tried and failed like he does with everything. True story: The Wikileaks cables showed that the US secret service thinks that the Crown Prince will be unfit to rule. The Crown Prince really is quite a tool, and very unpopular.

Wow, I didn't know it was that much. Honestly, it looks like someone wants him to stay ill so that this person can claim more power for him/herself, maybe a general, maybe even the Crown Prince?

I wish that was true, but Jeff Bernard had pancreatitis, not pancreatic cancer. Oops, I thought it was just a different term for the same thing.

John Jursich, a man who helped McDonalds overcome the danger of bankruptcy and who restructured the company in the 50s in the way it went on to spread across the globe, has died at 87: http://patch.com/illinois/deerfield/man-who-saved-mcdonalds-has-died-0

The brother of former Philippine president Gloria Arroyo has died: http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2015/08/11/Brother-of-Representative-Gloria-Arroyo-passes-away-ahead-of-her-visit.html Gloria herself also isn't doing too well, according to her lawyer. But then again, she's currently imprisoned for corruption.

John Hurt talking about how there is too much political correctness nowadays, and his new radio play: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/aug/11/modern-life-homogenised-not-much-fun-says-john-hurt He briefly mentions the irony of playing someone who was also diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but went on to live for more than thirty more years. He says his own treatment is going "terrifically well". Sorry to interrupt the Doctor Who/wrestling discussion.

Utta Danella, one of Germany's most popular writers with over 70 million books sold, has died at 96: http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/utta-danella-ist-tot-a-1047609.html(link in German) Her books were light entertainment. She already died in July and she really should have been on my radar.

I wouldn't force anybody to retire unless the person wants to. But one should have a right to retire if one wishes after, say, 40 years of work.

Seriously though, if that photo in the story is really from 2-1/2 years ago, he looked damn good for 85. SC I guess the natural tan helps, see also Robert Mugabe.

For him, it's one illness after another: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/10/thai-king-treated-excess-fluid-brain Too much fluid in the brain and a chest infection.

Icelandic-french director Solveig Anspach is dead at 54: http://www.screendaily.com/news/solveig-anspach-dies-aged-54/5091464.article She made a couple of well-regarded european art films and had suffered from cancer for a long time.

I'm on the fence, because coming up with a list will mean that there will be people who I already want to choose for 2016, so I'd kind of want them to die AND survive them this year. I also have to protect possible unique picks, AND I am annoyed that Buddy Baker is already dead because I could have put him here. So let's see: 1. Emma Morano 2. Susannah Mushatt-Jones (joker) 3. Bob Ellis 4. Bhumibol Adulyadej 5. Martin Crowe 6. Christy Dignam 7. John Schlegel 8. Daniel Buechlein 9. Sumner Redstone 10. Zsa Zsa Gabor 11. Billy Graham 12. Joost Van Der Westhuizen 13. Suvra Mukherjee 14. Liliane Bettencourt 15. Phil Spector 16. Rev. Billy Graham (oops, double pick) 17. Helmut Kohl 18. Douglass North 19. Thomas Schelling 20. William Baumol 21. Oskar Groening 22. Ingvar Kamprad 23. Georg Ratzinger 24. George Zimmerman 25. Ilya Yashin 26. Olivia De Havilland 27. Joao Havelange 28. Peter Sallis 29. Cliff Michelmore 30. Jiang Zemin 31. Goran Hadzic 32. Gaston Glock 33. Ilya Ponomaryov 34. Ramzan Kadyrov 35. Mikheil Saakashwili 36. Sergej Pugachev 37. Tom Sinkovitz (US weatherman) 38. James R. Messenger (no points) Mercy replacement: Howard Marks 39. John Huntsman Sr. 40. G. Monty Brinson 41. Phyllis Tickle 42. Mel Stottlemyre Sr. 43. Holly Woodlawn 44. Jay Kallio 45. Louis Stokes 46. Maria Gaidar 47. Irwin Lipkin 48. Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi 49. René Angelil 50. Sir Douglas Slocombe Some thoughts: The obits you allow will make this a relatively US-heavy pool, which is fine by me. 50 names plus coming up with the day of their death is a bit much, in my opinion. I mean, if doctors want to, they can probably always squeeze out a day or two from some comatose, braindead body. Maybe picking the right month is more attractive and already impressive enough? Edit: Just an idea... if the month of death has to be guessed, than a later month should give more bonus points than the early months. I mean, those who picked Little Jimmy Dickens knew he would die in January. It's harder to predict a death a couple of months before.

India's first lady Suvra Mukherjee has been hospitalised and "is not likely to be discharged anytime soon": http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/president-pranab-mukherjee-s-wife-hospitalised/article1-1377671.aspx She has a heart condition.