Dead Pool 13th December 2015

Good afternoon all, no points to award this week with only 18 days left to go! So no change in the league table and Paul C looks very strong there in the lead, which shows how important it is to pick successful Cert’s and Women. So far, four of us have handed in lists for 2016, so we will be continuing with the whole escaped again.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Nicholas Smith, 81, British actor (Are You Being Served?, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Doctor Who), complications from a fall.
• Holly Woodlawn, 69, Puerto Rican-born American actress and Warhol superstar, brain and liver cancer.
• Shirley Stelfox, 74, British actress (Emmerdale, Keeping Up Appearances, Coronation Street), cancer.
• Martin E. Brooks, 90, American actor (The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Dallas).
• Douglas Tompkins, 72, American conservationist and businessman, co-founder of The North Face and Esprit, hypothermia following kayak accident.

In Other News

Former US president Jimmy Carter announced that he was cancer-free on Sunday, just four months after revealing that doctors had found four spots of melanoma on his brain. “My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones,” Carter said in a statement on Sunday. “I will continue to receive regular three-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab,” he added, referring to a common cancer drug. Carter, 91, shared the news on Sunday with worshippers at the Baptist church in Georgia where he teaches Bible study. The news was confirmed by two grandsons. When he announced the diagnosis in August, the former president’s outlook did not appear so rosy. His entire nuclear family from childhood – two sisters, a brother and both parents – died from cancer. Carter said he had been diagnosed with melanoma on his liver and that he had told his wife of 69 years, Rosalynn, 88, months earlier. An operation to remove growths on his liver had discovered the additional growths on his brain. In November, Carter told the AP he had reacted well to treatment. “I haven’t been uncomfortable or ill after the treatments were over. So that part of it has been a relief to me and I think to the doctors. But the final result of how well the treatments are combatting or controlling the cancer, we don’t know yet.” Carter has lived 34 years post-presidency, longer than any of his peers. Both presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan lived to be 93 while former president George HW Bush turned 91 in June.

An attempt by Lord Lucan’s son to obtain a death certificate for the peer who disappeared more than 40 years ago reached the high court in London, on Tuesday. The legal move by his only son, George Bingham, is at an early stage and senior official Master Teverson is expected to deal with preliminary issues about how it should proceed. Lucan vanished after Sandra Rivett, nanny to his three children, was found murdered at the family home, 46 Lower Belgrave Street, central London, on 7 November 1974. Even though he was officially declared dead by the high court in 1999, there have been reported sightings in Australia, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand, and even claims that he fled to India and lived life as a hippy called “Jungly Barry”. Lord Bingham has applied under the Presumption of Death Act, which came into effect a year ago, so he can inherit the title as eighth earl. Bingham said the 1999 declaration had not proved death “for all purposes” and the new law allowed for a more complete process. But his application in London faces an objection from Rivett’s son, Neil Berriman. Berriman, 47, has told the Daily Mail: “I don’t know if Lord Lucan is alive or not – but I want justice. “There have been too many coverups already and he should not be declared dead. If Lord Lucan is still alive, he should be prosecuted.” On the night of Lucan’s disappearance, the nanny’s attacker also turned on Bingham’s mother, Lady Lucan, beating her severely before she managed to escape and raise the alarm at a nearby pub. Lucan’s car was found abandoned and soaked in blood in Newhaven, East Sussex, and an inquest jury declared the wealthy peer the killer a year later.

Late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son Hannibal has been freed after being briefly kidnapped by an armed group in Lebanon,  security sources say. In a video shown on Lebanese TV, the captive businessman was seen appealing for more information concerning the 1978 disappearance of the prominent Lebanese Shia cleric Musa al-Sadr. He was freed in the city of Baalbek and dispatched to Beirut, police said. The 40-year-old former playboy was given sanctuary in Oman in 2012.

And finally, A burglary suspect has been attacked and killed by an 11-foot alligator while trying to escape from police officers. The remains of 22-year-old Matthew Riggins, a resident of Palm Bay, Florida, were found in a lake in Barefoot Bay on November 23rd, ten days after he was reported missing. On the evening of November 10th local residents in Barefoot Bay had called the police to report two men dressed in black who’d been acting suspiciously behind their homes. Police launched a search with a helicopter and a dog unit and, according to deputies, Riggins called his girlfriend on the phone to tell her he and an accomplice were being chased by authorities. Police believe Riggins then jumped over a fence to hide in a lake – at which point he encountered the alligator. “He probably went into the lake to hide from the officers and the dog, and came across that gator,” said Major Tod Goodyear of Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. “To hide somewhere to try and get away, and then meeting up with an animal like that, no, I’ve never had that happen before.” Riggins’ body was found by police dive teams searching the area. While they were recovering the remains, a spokesman said, they were ‘aggressively approached’ by an 11-foot alligator near the body. The animal was caught and put down by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. According to reports, forensic examination of the alligator “located remains consistent with the injuries to Riggins inside the alligator’s stomach.” Barefoot Bay resident Chuck Stotes told reporters: “I would say it’s poetic justice, you want to sit there and steal from people.”

On This Day

• 1577 – Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.
• 1642 – Abel Tasman reaches New Zealand.
• 1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or “Moonwalk” of Apollo 17. To date they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon.

Deaths

• 1466 – Donatello, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1386)
• 1784 – Samuel Johnson, English poet and lexicographer (b. 1709)
• 2007 – Floyd Red Crow Westerman, American actor, singer, and activist (b. 1936)
• 2008 – Kathy Staff, English actress (b. 1928)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Nicki Minaj (33), Kim Basinger (62), Teri Hatcher (51), Sinead O’Connor (49), Judi Dench (81), Kirk Douglas (99), Beau Bridges (74), Bob Barker (92), Jennifer Connelly (45), Dionne Warwick (75), Dominic Monaghan (39), Ann Coulter (54), Donny Osmond (58), John Malkovich (62), Kenneth Branagh (55) and John Kerry (72).

Next week peeps!