Dead Pool 5th February 2017

Welcome all, another week and a few more deaths! As cruel as this game can be, this is possibly the cruelest announcement I have had to make. Last week I awarded an extra 50 points to many of you for ‘the first death of the season’, unfortunately for you I have had to deduct said points as Laura’s dubious choice of a fairly unknown murderer on Death Row has now been listed on Wiki, which unfortunately for some of you, trumps last weeks deaths. However, it’s not all doom and gloom, Mark scores 83 points for listing John Wetton and Paul G gets awarded 60 points for Desmond Carrington. Don’t you just love the drama!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Former South Africa captain Joost van der Westhuizen is in a “critical condition” in hospital as he continues to fight motor neurone disease. The 45-year-old, who helped his country win the 1995 World Cup, was diagnosed with the illness in 2011. “The family and friends of Joost ask that you all pray for Joost,” read a statement on his J9 Foundation website. “When we have updates, we will let you know. For now, we ask that we all bow our heads in prayer.” Van der Westhuizen is regarded as one of the finest scrum-halves in rugby history and won 89 caps for the Springboks between 1993 and 2003, scoring 38 tries. He played in his first of three World Cups in 1995 when the Springboks beat New Zealand in the final, and won the Tri-Nations Championship in 1998.

Former US President George HW Bush has been discharged from a Texas hospital after a spell in intensive care as he was treated for pneumonia. “He is thankful for the many prayers and kind wishes he received during his stay,” said his spokesman Jim McGrath. The 92-year-old was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital on 14th January, experiencing breathing difficulties. His wife, Barbara Bush, 91, was briefly admitted to the facility days later to be treated for fatigue and a cough. The nation’s 41st president was moved to intensive care where doctors inserted a breathing tube, which was removed after a couple of days. He was transferred out of the intensive care unit a week ago and has been recovering since then, taking antibiotics. Mr Bush, who served as US president from 1989-93, spent a week in hospital in the US state of Maine in 2015 after falling and breaking a neck bone. He also suffers from a form of Parkinson’s disease and uses a wheelchair.

A prominent Russian opposition activist has been hospitalised with organ failure, two years after he almost died of suspected poisoning. Journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who works for pro-democracy group Open Russia, fell ill at about 05:00 local time. Mr Kara-Murza’s wife told the BBC she was on her way to hospital where her husband is in a medically-induced coma. The activist nearly died when he suffered sudden kidney failure in 2015. “He is already on life support and in a medicated coma. It’s the same clinical picture [as last time],” Evgenia Kara-Murza told the press. The journalist’s wife said he had suffered the same sudden onset of symptoms as in his previous illness. “The ambulance took him directly to the hospital where the same medical team has since been trying to determine what is happening,” she said. “He was brought there conscious but was put in a medicated coma and on life support later, because his organs began shutting down like last time.” No cause was ever established for Mr Kara-Murza’s last illness, but tests confirmed that he had ingested a poisonous substance. Then aged 33, he was in a coma for almost a week and struggled to communicate when he regained consciousness.

And finally, The founder of video game company Bandai Namco, which released cult game Pac-Man, has died at the age of 91, the firm has announced. Masaya Nakamura established Nakamura Manufacturing, which went on to become the Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company (Namco) in 1956. He started out installing two electric horses on the roof of a department store in Japan as amusement rides. He was known as the “father” of Pac-Man because it was a Namco release in 1980. The game was developed by Toru Iwatani and in 2016 was named the highest-grossing arcade game of all time by the website US Gamer. Mr Nakamura was an honorary advisor at Bandai Namco until his death on 22nd January. He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, a Japanese government honour, in 2007 and was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame in 2010.

On This Day

Deaths

Last Week’s Birthdays

Oprah Winfrey (63), Justin Timberlake (36), Minnie Driver (47), Gene Hackman (87), Christian Bale (43), Heather Graham (47), Harry Styles (23), Morgan Fairchild (67), Tom Select (72), Carol Channing (96), Alice Cooper (69), Isla Fisher (41), Shakira (40), Vanessa Redgrave (80), Lisa Marie Presley (49), Phil Collins (66), Michael C. Hall (46), Natalie Imbruglia (42), Dick Chaney (76), John Lydon (61) and Brett Spiner (68).

Next week peeps!

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