Magere Hein

Mandela's release from prison was one of very few bits of televised politics that moved me to tears. I'm not blind to his past, one man's freedom figther being another one's terrorist, but he's certainly a political hero. Nevertheless, Mr Mandela must go the way of all flesh and is fair game for DL and DDP and such. What a nasty thought. regards, Hein

Well the French do call an orgasm the 'little death'... Arriver, c'est mourir un peu. Fi donc! Hein

Oh, hell, Kirk Douglas comes to mind. regards, Hein

Oh, what the hell, I'll give Al Megrahi a try. regards, Hein

He's more alive than your keyboard skills, numbskull. regards, Hein

Ah, now that we're on the subject of theological thermodynamics, I'd like to add the following (from 'http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/hell.htm'): regards, Hein

So: IF (One believes in that sort of thing) THEN (His divine will be done) Therefore: IF (NOT (One believes in that sort of thing)) THEN (NOT (His divine will be done)) The existence of God is not well-established, but let's for the sake of argument assume that He does exist. There are several people who do, as well as several who don't believe that sort of thing, therefore: God's divine will will both done and not done which is clearly a contradiction. Interesting theology, that. regards, Hein

As I understand it, Higgins is rarely far from a pint of Guinness, so your confusion is understandable. regards, Hein (rather fond of the black stuff)

Shouldn't that be spelt: Artie choke's? regards, Hein

They will get obits when they die, so in principle: yes. Age and health determine whether they're good dead pool material. regards, Hein

Whodunit? The butler, of course. regards, Hein

Sad it is, but IMO it beats the way most 104 year olds spend their final years. regards, Hein

It's not quite clear where she died. Dutch news sites say "the Netherlands" or nothing at all. Dutch Wikipedia claims "West-Friesland", which is an area, not a place. I'll keep an eye on it and report when I know more. regards, Hein

Well, our little DL Dutch lookalike scored its second hit in 2010 with Mrs. Gies' demise. [bRAG]She also scored me my first DDP and HDP points.[/bRAG] regards, Hein

I snipped the rest of this wonderful rant for brevity. I just returned from a bit of shopping. It's not particular cold in Rotterdam (2 below freezing) but a force 6 wind and some light snow makes it uncomfortable, especially as I went by bicycle. Gods, what a lot of whining did I hear in the shop. If you don't like it, move to Equador, or summat. Or just shut up and wait a few years, if we're to believe the climate alarmists. In other news: people (the non-whining part) are skating on the local canals. I think I'll get my skates out of the cupboard tomorrow. regards, Hein

I know, I just used your remark as an anchor for my . regards, Hein

Living till 113 is an achievement of sorts. I'm not sure it's very difficult, although it seems to me that it takes some patience. I have no idea who Mr. Breuning is and what he did in life. Perhaps he was the esteemed undersecretary of his local Vogon Poetry Appreciation Society and a wonderful father. Maybe he's a retired bat catcher who while active had a rewarding and productive life, well regarded by his colleagues. Maybe he's been a school crossing patrol officer for fifty years. Perhaps he led an absolutely bland life doing nothing remarkable. Edit to add: I see it's even worse. According to the fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia, he was a railway man. Since I don't know, I see little reason to include him. It's also a fact that the key criterion for a DL candidate is an expected obit, not being a celebrity. Oldest people do get one. DL has generally avoided picking the world's oldest living person, though. They could be included, but I hope they won't. Boring old farts. regards, Hein

Don't know. Is that a terminal condition? regards, Hein

Welcome to DeathList, Mass, where only the dead are snookered. As far as I'm concerned you can post the photo here, as long as it's OK with the copyright owner. We do like original research here. BTW: posts moved. regards, Hein

Well done, TMiB. My team's got four unique picks, I'm surprised to learn. Nice write-up on Miep Gies. DL, it's not just entertainment... Will you be needing assistance in finding pretty pictures of new picks? regards, Hein

Ehrm, are you sure the results will be work safe? regards, Hein (who doesn't want to know what bum gravy is)

I guess this makes three. If you can't afford a dram of Talisker, I'll be perfectly happy with a pint of stout. regards, Hein

January 2010 Spammers Splatto splatto@campbell-ewald.com (7th Jan 2010) cheactabala jeinakr.isti@gmail.com (18th Jan 2010)

It appears Sylvester Stallone broke his neck while shooting The Expendables. An admirable effort, but I think he can do better. regards, Hein

Even as a sceptic I believe it happened, our climate has always been subject to changes. Of course climate has changed, is changing and will change. Denying that borders on the insane. An argument can be made that we wouldn't be here discussing climate change if it had never happened. It has probably been climate change that forced our ape-like ancestors to leave the woods and start an evolutionary line towards bipedalism, large brains, language and extended tool use (not necessarily in that order). I don't dispute that there is currently a strong trend towards global warming. The evidence points towards human production of greenhouse gases as the cause of it. This evidence is, however, not conclusive and the change we are witnessing may have several causes, some man-made, some astronomical, and possibly changes in the Sun's power output play a role. To give an example of the complexity of this matter: a few years ago I saw a documentary on the Box about a phenomenen called global dimming. This is the result of both man-made (most of it dust and air pullutants) and geophysic agents (volcanoes) and effectively reduces the greenhouse effect. Due to effective measures against global aerosol levels this effect is diminishing, making global warming even worse. Another thing that isn't quite clear is the effect of global warming on sea levels, a subject I have a personal interest in, since I already live several meters below sea level. If global warming causes melting of land ice, the result will be a rise of sea level of up to fifty meters. However, it's far from certain that global warming will cause all land ice to melt. The largest chunk of land ice lies on the Antactic. If global warming causes more snow to fall there, this may well result in a larger amount of ice stored on the Antarctic and a net lowering of sea level. We simply don't know enough of these things to make accurate predictions. That's an even more difficult subject. In a way, there's little need to do that. If we go on burning oil and gas at the current rate, we'll soon run out of those fuels and increasing price levels will force us to find other sources of energy. Coal will be available for a much longer time, though. This has some interesing results. The UK and the Netherlands may well see their coal mines reopened in the next few decades. Unfortunately, coal is even worse a CO2 source than oil and gas, so we're not out of the woods yet. We'll probably sooner run out of woods. regards, Hein