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Dead Pool 29th August 2021

As pointed out in our Telegram group, it’s not a good week if you appeared on Gogglebox! They’ve been dropping like flies recently! Anyhow, we have points to dispense. Well done to Fiona, for correctly listing Charlie Watts, a nice 70 points awarded which pushes her towards the top end of the league table. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Igor Vovkovinskiy, the tallest man in the United States, has died in Minnesota. He was 38. His family said he died of heart disease on Friday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. His mother, Svetlana Vovkovinska, an ICU nurse at Mayo, initially posted about his death on Facebook. The Ukrainian-born Vovkovinskiy came to the Mayo Clinic in 1989 as a child seeking treatment. A tumour pressing against his pituitary gland caused it to secrete abnormal levels of growth hormone. He grew to become the tallest man in the U.S. at 7 feet, 8.33 inches and ended up staying in Rochester. His older brother, Oleh Ladan us that Vovkovinskiy was a celebrity when he arrived from Ukraine because of his size and the flickering Cold War of the late 1980s. But Ladan said Vovkovinskiy “would have rather lived a normal life than be known.” Vovkovinskiy appeared on “The Dr. Oz Show” and was called out by President Barack Obama during a campaign rally in 2009, when the president noticed him near the stage wearing a T-shirt that read, “World’s Biggest Obama Supporter.” In 2013, he carried the Ukrainian contestant onto the stage to perform in the Eurovision Song Contest.  

Scottish comedian Sir Billy Connolly has given fans an update on his Parkinson’s battle, saying it’s “getting worse”. The comedian was speaking during a session at the Edinburgh TV Festival, which was honouring the 78-year-old with a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to the industry, when he made the confronting comments. Billy, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2013 and retired from standup comedy last year as a result, said filming for television is getting a lot harder. Speaking remotely from his Florida home, Billy said he was approaching the condition in the same way he always approached filming. “I hardly prepare,” he said. “I turn up unprepared and everything’s a new challenge.” Billy continued: “The challenges lately have been medical. They’re getting worse. You’ll notice I’ve been holding my left hand — it’s starting to jump around. I have to weigh it up and see how bad it gets.” Billy’s new comments come about eight months after he opened up about his condition and decision to retire. The comedian appeared in a touching ITV documentary titled Billy Connolly: It’s Been a Pleasure which paid tribute to his 50-year long career in the spotlight. But, perhaps one of the most touching moments of the evening was when the Scottish comedian emotionally admitted that Parkinson’s will eventually lead to his “end”, and that he’s accepted this. “It’s got me, it will get me and it will end me, but that’s okay with me,” Connolly said.   

Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been admitted to San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, according to our sources. A flying monkey quoted a member from Mr Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party who told it that the former PM went into hospital on Thursday evening for “a thorough clinical check-up”. The monkey gave no further details as to Mr Berlusconi’s condition. The 84-year-old billionaire businessman has been in and out of hospital since contracting coronavirus last September. He was treated for more than a week at San Raffaele after developing double pneumonia, an experience he described as the “worst of his life”. He was last hospitalised in May, when he spent five days at San Raffaele Hospital. Mr Berlusconi has faced a number of serious health issues in recent years. In 2016 he underwent major heart surgery to replace an aortic valve in 2016. He also has overcome prostate cancer and a series of other ailments. He has had a pacemaker for years. He has previously described his bout with coronavirus as “insidious,” calling it the most dangerous challenge he had ever faced.

And finally, the UK’s oldest man has said that his  secret to a long life is having fish and chips for dinner every Friday. John Tinniswood, 109, celebrated his birthday earlier this month and shared some of his tips for living a full life. “Never exceed what you can normally do,” he told us. ‘Otherwise you’re going to injure yourself either physically or mentally. So stay within your limits of what you can do.’ When asked if he had any further words of wisdom for a long life, he replied that would be “impudent” and that we should “let each do as they want”. When asked about the future, he replied: “The future holds what it does – you can’t do very much about it.” To mark his birthday, Mr Tinniswood received a telegram from the Queen – the ninth one he has received since turning 100. Upon receiving the card, he teased that he could “get a couple of hundred quid for this” and asked “she hasn’t put her phone number, has she?” Mr Tinniswood was previously married, having tied the knot with his wife, Blodwen, in 1942. They had one daughter together, Susan, in 1943 and were married for 44 years before Blodwen died in 1986. The UK’s oldest man on record, Henry Allingham, died at the age of 113 in 2009. The oldest woman in the UK on record was Charlotte Hughes, who passed away in 1993 at the age of 115.

On This Day

  • 708 – Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time.
  • 1949 – The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
  • 1997 – Netflix is launched as an internet DVD rental service.
  • 2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing up to 1,836 people and causing $125 billion in damage.

Deaths

Not all Canadians are nice!

Terry Driver was a Canadian murderer who attacked two teenage girls with a baseball bat, killed one, then taunted police in Abbotsford, British Columbia with letters and phone calls. 

On 13th October 1995, 16-year-olds Misty Cockerill and Tanya Smith were walking to a party when Driver broke through a hedge nearby with a baseball bat and ordered the girls to go through the bush. After stumbling into a clearing, Driver told both girls to remove their clothes. While Smith complied, Cockerill attempted to fight back, grabbing the bat and hitting Driver across the back as he prepared to rape Smith. Driver eventually overpowered Cockerill and beat her into unconsciousness. Cockerill regained consciousness in a parking lot and walked to the hospital, where she was immediately rushed into surgery for severe skull fractures and survived. Later that morning, Smith’s badly beaten body was found in a river where she drowned, in addition to unsurvivable traumatic injuries.

After the attack, Driver engaged in a course of bizarre behaviour that eventually led to his capture. He made a series of telephone calls to police and emergency services in which he refused to give his name, but clearly identified himself as the killer, and threatened more crimes. Driver, whose father had been a police officer, had an obsession with scanners, and used one to monitor police responses to his telephone calls. He attended the funeral of Tanya Smith, and then later stole her tombstone, wrote a threatening message to Cockerill on it, and then put it on the hood of a car belonging to a radio station. He also threw a wrench with a note to police through a stranger’s front window. The note mentioned three other similar assaults for which he sought credit. He had left a thumbprint on some tape  around the package, and he had left DNA on the body. Police arranged for the broadcast of recordings of the telephone calls, and Driver’s brother recognised his voice. His mother concurred in the identification. Police determined that Driver’s thumbprint matched the one on the tape, and he was arrested in 1996. 

After his arrest, Driver denied that he had beaten the two girls. He claimed he had happened upon them after the crime, raped the unconscious Tanya, and thrown her body in the river. He claimed he had driven Misty to the hospital. At trial, he did not raise an insanity defence, but claimed he had Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorder, and urged these impairments be considered to explain his actions. He used this argument to explain that the confessions he gave were false and the product of his disorders. Because of the emotional response that was inevitable in a trial, Driver elected to be tried in front of a judge instead of a jury. The judge was unpersuaded by Driver’s arguments and he was convicted in 1997 of the first-degree murder of Tanya Smith and the attempted murder of Misty Cockerill, declared a dangerous offender, and received a mandatory life sentence from Judge Wally Oppal. He appealed, but, in 2001, lost.

In a later trial, Driver was convicted of two of the assaults he mentioned in the letter that he threw through the window.

In 2006, Driver was transferred from protective custody at Kent Institution to the Pacific Institution/Regional Treatment Centre in Abbotsford for treatment. Corrections Canada came under criticism for this move.

Driver died in prison last week on 23rd August 2021.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Carla Gugino (50), Emily Hampshire (40), Rebecca De Mornay (62), Elliott Gould (83), Lenny Henry (63), Jack Black (52), Brian Thompson (62), Billy Boyd (53), David Soul (78), Shania Twain (56), Aaron Paul (42), Peter Stormare (68), Peter Mensah (62), Barbara Bach (74), Reece Shearsmith (52), Melissa McCarthy (51), Chris Pine (41), Macaulay Culkin (41), Alexander Skarsgård (45), Joanne Whalley (60), Blake Lively (34), Tim Burton (63), Tom Skerritt (88), Gene Simmons (72), Billy Ray Cyrus (60), Claudia Schiffer (51), Jared Harris (60), Rupert Grint (33), Steve Guttenberg (63), Stephen Fry (64), Ray Park (47), and Charley Boorman (55).

Posted by  |  29th August 2021 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 22nd August 2021

Those evil flying monkeys have been busy this week although none of us scored a single point. But one of last weeks deaths has made me rather hesitant to send out the little buggers once again, just in case! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

This weeks shocking news is that of the tragic death of comedian Sean Lock; sometimes we wish those evil flying monkeys would miss their mark or maybe get shot down by a local farmer! The comedian’s family confirmed his passing earlier this week at the relatively young age of 58 and his friend and fellow comedian Bill Bailey has now revealed that Sean passed away after a secret battle with lung cancer, which he was diagnosed with a “few years ago”. Bill told us: “He had been diagnosed with lung cancer a few years ago and it was at the time quite a blow, particularly when it was quite advanced. We’ve tried to make the most of the last few years. We spent a lot of time together and went on trips together. And he’s continued to work. He’s amazingly courageous and tough individual who was mentally strong throughout the whole time. I’m just grateful for the time we have had together.” Sean has received many glowing tributes from those on the comedy circuit and Bill is hardly surprised as he praised his late friend’s fearless nature and “determination”. 

The world’s smallest cow ‘Rani’ died on Thursday due to  ‘excessive gas accumulated in its stomach’. Sajedul Islam, livestock officer of Savar, Bangladesh, confirmed the death to us. “The cow fell ill two days ago. It was taken to Savar Upazila health centre at around 11am and the on-duty doctor declared it dead at 12pm,” he said. The dwarf cow of the Boxer Bhutti breed, grew up  in a  farm at Charigram of Savar, near the capital Dhaka. The cow stood  just 51cm (20in) high, and weighed 28kg (62Ib), just enough for 30 Big Mac’s. At the time it was waiting to be recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s smallest cow. The cow turned into a celebrity since the news first broke in the Bangladeshi newspapers back in July and hundreds of visitors had been flocking to the farm to catch a  sight of it. The title for the world’s smallest cow has been held officially by Manikyam, in neighbouring India, which measures 61.1cm from the hoof to the withers.

If you thought Covid has gone away, fear not, it’s still with us and bringing down many a celebrity. Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor has said that he is “very sick” after testing positive for coronavirus. The 47-year-old – who is currently in the middle of a North American tour of his solo album CMFT – was forced to cancel his scheduled appearance at the Astronomican event in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Friday after testing positive for Covid-19. Taylor shared a video to Facebook addressing his absence, stating: “I hope everybody’s well, I wish I had better news. I woke up today and tested positive, and I’m very, very sick.” He apologised to fans, adding that he is “absolutely devastated” and that he hopes “everyone has a good time”. Speaking about his health, the heavy metal rocker said: “I should be okay. It’s just the flu. I’m vaccinated so I’m not worried but I certainly would not want to spread it to anyone else, so everybody be safe out there. I will see you again, promise,” he said. Taylor recently spoke out against concertgoers who refuse to get vaccinated, stating: “People act like getting a vaccine is signing a deal with the devil. It’s been so politicised and spun out of control in these conspiratorial echo chambers that people forget that you can find all the info you want online to educate yourself about everything about these vaccines.” Taylor continued: “Do I think it should be a requirement for people to be vaccinated to go to shows? Yes and no. Here’s the thing: there shouldn’t be mandate, but guess what man, if you’re going to put people at risk of getting sick, you shouldn’t want to go to a show. And if you do put people at risk, then you’re a fucking asshole, and you shouldn’t be let in anyway,” he concluded.  

On the flip side of the above story, a conservative US talk radio host and vaccine skeptic has died in hospital from complications related to a Covid-19 that he contracted last month. Radio personality Phil Valentine’s death was announced in a tweet on Saturday by Nashville radio station SuperTalk 99.7 WTN. “We are saddened to report that our host and friend Phil Valentine has passed away. Please keep the Valentine family in your thoughts and Prayers,” the station said. Mr Valentine, who had been skeptical of coronavirus vaccines and mask wearing, was 61 when he died. Last December, Mr Valentine wrote in his blog: “I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I’m just using common sense. What are my odds of getting Covid? They’re pretty low. What are my odds of dying from Covid if I do get it? Probably way less than one percent”. But on 11th July, Mr Valentine reported that he had tested positive for the virus. Shortly afterwards, he told his listeners: “If I get this Covid thing, do I have a chance of dying from it?”. Now urging people to get vaccinated, he added that he had chosen not to get the vaccine because he thought that he probably wouldn’t die. Later in July, Mr Valentine was hospitalised for Covid-related pneumonia, and near the end of the month he was moved into a critical care unit where he was placed on a ventilator. Mark Valentine, Phil’s brother, said that his brother regretted not being a “more vocal advocate of the vaccination”. He told us: “I know if he were able to tell you this, he would tell you, ‘Go get vaccinated. Quit worrying about the politics. Quit worrying about all the conspiracy theories”. “He regrets not being more adamant about getting the vaccine. Look at the data.” Mr Valentine’s family also issued a statement after the radio host was hospitalised. The statement said: “Phil would like for his listeners to know that while he has never been an ‘anti-vaxxer’ he regrets not being more vehemently ‘pro-vaccine’ and looks forward to being able to more vigourously advocate for that position as soon as he is back on the air, which we all hope will be soon.” As of Saturday 21st August, there have been 977,230 Covid infections and 12,142 related deaths reported in Tennessee alone. Only 41 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated, and 48 per cent have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine.  

Tributes have been paid to the inventor of the Pornstar Martini after he died at the age of 51. Douglas Ankrah, who also co-founded the groundbreaking London cocktail bar ‘Lab’, was dubbed an industry ‘pioneer’. His family shared the news on social media as tributes poured in from across the industry. His cause of death has not been confirmed though the trade outlet Master of Malt reports Ankrah had a history of heart problems and ‘went peacefully in his sleep’. The Ghanaian-born entrepreneur invented the Pornstar Martini in 2003 while he was working at his cocktail bar Townhouse, in Knightsbridge, west London. The cocktail features a mix of vanilla vodka, fresh passion fruit, passion fruit liqueur, vanilla syrup and lime juice, plus a shot of Prosecco on the side. Since its creation, the Pornstar Martini has regularly featured in top cocktail lists and was this month revealed as the World’s most popular cocktail, based on Google search data. Ankrah is said to have come up with the name after a trip to a gentlemen’s club in Cape Town, telling Master of Malt in 2019: ‘The cocktail was so sexy and looked like what a pornstar would drink.’ He added: ‘When I first made it, I had no idea it was going to be neo classic’, but he later created a  bottled version, because he was fed up of tasting badly-made versions of his tipple.

On This Day

  • 1485 – The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet.  
  • 1922 – Michael Collins, Commander-in-chief of the Irish Free State Army, is shot dead in an ambush during the Irish Civil War.  
  • 2006 – Grigori Perelman is awarded the Fields Medal for his proof of the Poincaré conjecture in mathematics but refuses to accept the medal.

Deaths

Last Meals

The 2014 Taipei Metro attack was a mass stabbing spree that took place on 21st May 2014, directed at random civilians on a Taipei Metro train near Jiangzicui Station, resulting in four deaths and 24 injuries. It was the first fatal attack on the city’s subway system since operations began in 1996. The suspected attacker, Cheng Chieh, then 21, was arrested after the attack.

The attack started at around 16:25 local time, inside a Bannan Line train heading west between Longshan Temple Station in Taipei and Jiangzicui Station in New Taipei. The distance between the two stations is the longest between any two stations in the Taipei metro system, lasting three to five minutes. During the attack, the assailant chased and hacked passengers with a 30cm long fruit knife. Before the train could stop at Jiangzicui Station, a group of passengers banded together to distance themselves using umbrellas while others tried to discourage the attacker by loudly taunting him.

When the subway train arrived at Jiangzicui Station, a single suspected assailant was subdued by passengers, police and metro staff and taken to the nearby Haishan police station after a brief standoff. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-pin said police presence on the metro was increased soon after the incident and added that he was requesting reinforcements from the National Police Agency.

On the day after the attack, the suspect was taken to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office for questioning. A prosecutor applied to detain him in the New Taipei District Court, which was approved by a judge around 6:20am.

The train carriage which was the setting of the stabbing attack, was temporarily withdrawn from service after arrival at Jiangzicui Station and underwent disinfection and change of seats. It was then renumbered 175/176 (173/174 was avoided as the number “一七三, 一七四” sounded like “一起殺、一起死”, which literally means “kill together, die together”) and returned to service in 2015. 

New Taipei Police Chief Chen Kuo-en identified the suspected attacker as Cheng Chieh, a 21-year-old second-year student at Tunghai University in the central city of Taichung. Chief Chen said the suspect told police he had wanted to do something “shocking and big” and had plotted to carry out the attack from childhood. Chen said there was no other motive.

During questioning, the suspect said he originally intended to attack after his college graduation, but decided to move earlier since he had “no classes” on 21st May and he had grown tired of living. The suspect stated that he does not admit guilt, feels no regret, wants the death sentence, and that even if his parents were on the train he attacked, he would have killed them, as well as the prosecutors questioning him. 

Cheng Chieh’s parents later publicly apologised at Jiangzicui Station and called for a quick death sentence for their son. 

Cheng was indicted by the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office on 21st July, and charged with four counts of murder and 22 counts of attempted murder. The Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation, the company that runs the Taipei Metro, claimed that ridership was down by 945,000 within ten days of Cheng’s actions, causing them to lose NT$20.61 million, an amount for which they are suing Cheng. 

Cheng was found guilty of four counts of murder and 22 counts of attempted manslaughter on 6th March 2015 in the Taiwan New Taipei District Court. For each count of murder, he was sentenced to death and deprivation of citizen’s rights for life; for each count of  attempted manslaughter, he was sentenced to a jail term of between five years, two months and eight years. His knife was also confiscated. 

On 7th August, the New Taipei District Court ordered Cheng to pay approximately NT$30 million to ten victims of the attack. I have no idea how much of that he was able to pay. 

Justice Minister Luo Ying-shay signed the execution order for Cheng at 17:00 on 10th May 2016. Cheng was executed at 20:47 on the same day. After eating his last meal, a biandang with stewed pork, rice and vegetables, Cheng was given general anaesthesia. Soon after its administration, he was laid in a prone position and shot in the heart three times. The 18-day gap between Cheng’s final guilty verdict and execution was the shortest in Taiwanese judicial history.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Richard Armitage (50), Kristen Wiig (48), Ty Burrell (54), James (The Cunt) Corden (43), Dua Lipa (26), Mark Williams (62), Carrie-Anne Moss (54), Laura Haddock (36), Hayden Panettiere (32), Kim Cattrall (65), RJ Mitte (29), Amy Adams (46), Ben Barnes (40), Andrew Garfield (38), Ke Huy Quan (50), James Marsters (59), Misha Collins (47), John Noble (73), Ray Wise (74), Sylvester McCoy (78), Demi Lovato (29), David Walliams (50), Matthew Perry (52), Jonathan Frakes (69), Jim Carter (73), Diana Muldaur (83), Jill St. John (81), Simon Bird (37), Edward Norton (52), Christian Slater (52), Robert Redford (85), Madeleine Stowe (63), Roman Polanski (88), Denis Leary (64), Robert De Niro (78), Sean Penn (61), Belinda Carlisle (63), Taika Waititi (46), Steve Carell (59), James Cameron (67), and Madonna (63).

Posted by  |  22nd August 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 15th August 2021

Unfortunately no points to award this week, but as always, plenty to read. It’s been a long time since anyone scored, so I reckon it’s time to send out the evil flying monkeys!  

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

An envelope containing three bullets and addressed to Pope Francis has been found near Milan. Authorities are now investigating the source of the envelope and who could be behind it, according to Italian paramilitary police. It was sent from France and intercepted by postal employees working on sorting the mail overnight in the small sorting facility of Peschiera Borromeo in a Milan suburb, the carabinieri provincial command in Milan said. It reportedly contained three 9mm-calibre Flobert-type pellets, according to the Milan-based newspaper Affaritaliani. The envelope was addressed by hand in pen to: “The Pope, Vatican City, St. Peter’s Square, Rome,” and contained a message referring to financial operations at the Vatican, but further details were not disclosed. Last month, the Vatican indicted ten people, including an Italian cardinal, for several alleged financial crimes, including extortion, corruption, fraud, embezzlement, and abuse of power. The accusations included bleeding the Holy See of tens of millions of dollars in donations through bad investments, deals with shady money managers and apparent favours to friends and family. An investigation is ongoing by the carabinieri investigative unit after the command office in Milan has been notified about the envelope by the sorting centre manager, according to the Italian newspaper. There was no immediate comment from the Vatican. The 84-year-old pontiff had colon surgery last month. The Vatican declared after the surgery that the Pope had responded well to the treatment for “symptomatic diverticular stenosis” of the colon. Since then, he returned to his full-time duties.     

A prisoner in Washington state has been jailed for almost 25 years after unexpectedly being placed in the same cell as the man who raped his younger sister. As he spoke to his new cellmate in June 2020, Shane Goldsby, 26, grew certain that Robert Munger, 70, was the man who had repeatedly raped his underage sister. In an interview last year Goldsby said he requested to be assigned to a new cell, but he was never transferred. The inmate said Munger then described how he had violated his sister in detail. Munger had been sentenced to 43 years in prison for child molestation and possession of child pornography. “He kept… giving me details about what happened and what he did. About the photos and videos of him doing this stuff, and it was building up,” Goldsby said. The chance meeting behind bars took place at the Airway Heights Corrections Center in Spokane County in eastern Washington state. Hours later, Goldsby snuck up behind Munger in the common area and knocked him to the floor, punched him fourteen times and stomped on his head over and over, a Washington State Patrol investigation said. Munger died in hospital days later. Pleading guilty to second-degree murder, Goldsby was sentenced to 298 months in prison, which is just under 25 years. At a hearing last week, Goldsby’s lawyer read a statement on his client’s behalf: “I’m ashamed of my actions, I was put into a situation that I don’t wish on nobody. I got a lot of fixing to do.” Questions are now being asked about why Goldsby was put in the same cell as his sister’s rapist. “This stuff doesn’t happen. You’re talking the same institution, the same unit, the same pod in the same cell as this dude. That’s like hitting the jackpot in the casino seven times.” But the Washington State Patrol investigation found that protocols were followed and that “there is no evidence suggesting screening staff should have known about the conflict between Goldsby and Munger”. The report says part of the reasoning was that Goldsby and his sister don’t share the same last name. It also states that Goldsby made no attempt to be transferred out of the cell. Perhaps someone thought some swift justice was in order….  

Tony Bennett has announced the cancellation of all his tour dates through the autumn and winter of 2021. The 95-year-old singer had scheduled concerts in states across the US, including New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Arizona and Oklahoma, as well as Canada. Speaking to Variety, Bennett’s son and manager Danny said: “There won’t be any additional concerts. This was a hard decision for us to make, as he is a capable performer. This is, however, doctors’ orders.” He added: “His continued health is the most important part of this. It’s not the singing aspect but, rather, the traveling.” Earlier this year, Bennett publicly confirmed he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease back in 2016. The musician had continued to perform, however, and last week sung at New York’s Radio City for a two-night stint with Lady Gaga. The concerts were filmed, with the recordings to be released at a later date. Bennett and Gaga also recently announced that they would be releasing a new album together, entitled Love for Sale. The forthcoming record follows a similar collaboration between the pair on the 2014 duet release Cheek to Cheek.  

Christina Applegate revealed on August 10 that she has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. The 49-year-old actress wrote on Twitter that she received her diagnosis “months ago,” calling her experience thus far a “strange journey” and “a tough road.” She also touched on her experience with the MS community, saying she’s been “so supported by people that who also have this condition.” One such supporter is actress Selma Blair — who was diagnosed with MS herself in 2017 and has shared many of her own experiences on social media and elsewhere. Blair tweeted, “Loving you always,” to Applegate after Applegate announced her diagnosis. In a second tweet, Applegate asked for privacy as she deals with her condition. In describing her health journey, she quoted a friend of hers who also has MS: “We wake up and take the indicated action.” Applegate faced another significant health issue in 2008, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy, or surgery to remove both breasts. Her experience with breast cancer makes an appearance in the Netflix series Dead to Me, in which Applegate stars. She plays the role of Jen Harding, who has a preventive double mastectomy after her mother dies of breast cancer. 

On This Day

  • 1914 – A servant of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright murders seven people and sets fire to the living quarters of Wright’s Wisconsin home, Taliesin. 
  • 1939 – The Wizard of Oz premieres at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California. 
  • 1941 – Corporal Josef Jakobs is executed by firing squad at the Tower of London at 07:12, making him the last person to be executed at the Tower for espionage. 
  • 1947 – India gains Independence from British rule after near 190 years of British company and crown rule, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations. 
  • 1952 – A flash flood drenches the town of Lynmouth, England, killing 34 people. 
  • 1963 – Execution of Henry John Burnett, the last man to be hanged in Scotland. 
  • 1969 – The Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in upstate New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era. 
  • 1977 – The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the “Wow! signal” from the notation made by a volunteer on the project. 
  • 1998 – The Troubles: The Omagh bombing takes place; 29 people (including a woman pregnant with twins) killed and some 220 others injured.

Deaths

The Last Execution in The Tower of London

Josef Jakobs was a German spy and the last person to be executed at the Tower of London. He was captured shortly after parachuting into the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Convicted of espionage under the Treachery Act 1940, Jakobs was shot by a military firing squad. He was not hanged because he was captured as an enemy combatant. 

Jakobs, who was a German citizen, was born in Luxembourg in 1898. During the First World War, he served in the German infantry, rising to the rank of Leutnant, in the 4th Foot Guards. In June 1940, ten months after the outbreak of the Second World War, Jakobs was drafted into the Wehrmacht as an Oberleutnant. However, when it was discovered that he had been imprisoned in Switzerland from 1934–37 for selling counterfeit gold, he was forced to resign his commission in the Wehrmacht. Jakobs was demoted to a Feldwebel and placed in the Meteorologischen Dienst (meteorological service) of the German Army. Shortly afterwards, he also began working for the Abwehr, the intelligence department of the German Army. 

On 31st January 1941, Jakobs was flown from Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands to Ramsey in Huntingdonshire. He parachuted from the aircraft and landed in a field near Dove House Farm, but broke his ankle during the process. The following morning, Jakobs attracted the attention of two farmers, Charles Baldock and Harry Coulson, by firing his pistol into the air. Baldock and Coulson notified members of the local Home Guard, who quickly apprehended Jakobs. He was caught still wearing his flying suit and carrying £500 in British currency, forged identity papers, a radio transmitter and a German sausage.

On his person was also found a photo purportedly of his lover, a German cabaret singer and actress named Clara Bauerle, who became a spy because she had spent a few years performing in the West Midlands and could speak English with a Birmingham accent. Jakobs said Bauerle was meant to join him after he had made “radio contact,” but then doubted she would now be sent since he was arrested before he could communicate with his team. Bauerle’s whereabouts remained unknown for several decades, and it was theorised that she may have died under suspicious circumstances in England. In 2016, it was discovered that Bauerle had died in a Berlin hospital on 16th December 1942.

Jakobs was taken to Ramsey Police Station before being transferred to Cannon Row Police Station in London, where he gave a voluntary statement to Major T.A. Robertson of MI5. Due to the poor condition of his ankle, Jakobs was transferred to Brixton Prison Infirmary for the night. The following day he was briefly interrogated by Lieutenant Colonel Stephens of MI5 at Camp 020 before being transferred to Dulwich Hospital where he remained for the next two months. 

Jakobs’ court martial took place in front of a military tribunal at the Duke of York’s Headquarters in Chelsea, London SW3, on 4–5th August 1941. The trial was held in camera because the German agent had been apprehended in a highly classified intelligence operation known as the Double Cross System. The British were aware that Jakobs was coming because his arrival information had been passed on to MI5 by the Welsh nationalist and Abwehr double agent Arthur Owens. After a two-day trial which involved hearing the testimony of eight witnesses, Jakobs was found guilty of spying and sentenced to death. 

Jakobs’s execution took place at the miniature rifle range in the grounds of the Tower of London on 15th August 1941. He was tied and blindfolded in a brown Windsor chair. Eight soldiers from the Holding battalion of the Scots Guards, armed with .303 Lee–Enfields, took aim at a white cotton target, about matchbook size, pinned over Jakobs’ heart. The squad fired in unison at 7:12 a.m. after being given a silent signal from Lieutenant-Colonel C.R. Gerard (Deputy Provost Marshal for London District). Jakobs died instantly. A postmortem examination found that one bullet had hit Jakobs in the heart and the other four had been on or around the marked target area. As three members of the eight-man firing squad had been issued with blanks, only five live rounds were used. 

He was the last person to be executed at the Tower of London.

Following the execution, Jakobs’ body was buried in an unmarked grave at St Mary’s Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green, London. The location used for Jakobs’ grave has since been re-used, so the original grave site is difficult to find.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Ben Affleck (49), Jennifer Lawrence (31), Natasha Henstridge (47), Debra Messing (53), Joe Jonas (32), Jim Dale (86), Tony Robinson (75), Mila Kunis (38), Steve Martin (76), Halle Berry (55), James Buckley (34), Joseph Marcell (73), Sebastian Stan (39), John Slattery (59), Cara Delevingne (29), Jim Beaver (71), Chris Hemsworth (38), Anna Gunn (53), Ian McDiarmid (77), Hulk Hogan (68), Antonio Banderas (61), Rosanna Arquette (62), Anna Kendrick (36), Ashley Johnson (38), Sam Elliott (77), Dan Levy (38), Gillian Anderson (53), Rhona Mitra (45), Eric Bana (53), Melanie Griffith (64), and Audrey Tautou (45).

Posted by  |  15th August 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 8th August 2021

Welcome to the ‘spot the celebrity edition’ of the Dead Pool Newsletter! Yup, some fairly unknown ‘stars’ have died this week, looks like this week is historically a quiet week too. Anyhow, plenty to read, and an Olympic special at the end too, as I like to be on point sometimes. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

  • Bobby Eaton, 62, American professional wrestler (JCP, WCW, SMW).  
  • Terry Davies, 87, Welsh rugby union player (Swansea, British and Irish Lions, national team).  
  • Reg Gorman, 89, Australian actor (The Sullivans, Fergus McPhail, Neighbours), cancer. 
  • Brad Allan, 48, Australian martial artist, action choreographer, and stunt performer (Rush Hour 2, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Solo: A Star Wars Story).  
  • Markie Post, 70, American actress (Night Court, The Fall Guy, Hearts Afire), cancer.  
  • Dennis Thomas, 70, American saxophonist (Kool & the Gang).
  • Carolyn S. Shoemaker, 92, American astronomer, co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9.

In Other News

Kathy Griffin has revealed she has cancer and is about to have half of her left lung removed. The American comedian made the announcement on Twitter on Monday. Griffin told her followers that doctors are “optimistic” the surgery will be a success as she was diagnosed with stage one cancer, which was “contained” to her left lung. “Yes, I have lung cancer even though I’ve never smoked!” she wrote. “Hopefully no chemo or radiation after this and I should have normal function with my breathing.” Griffin said that she “should be up and running around as usual in a month or less”, assuring her fans she is “gonna be just fine”. The actor and TV personality also said she was “fully vaccinated for Covid”, adding: “The consequences for being unvaccinated would have been even more serious.” She told her fans to “stay up to date” on medical checks as doing this “saved” her life. Following her announcement, Griffin’s fans sent love and best wishes to the comedian. Griffin’s comedy career began in the late 1980s, when she joined the Los Angeles improvisational troupe The Groundlings. She has led numerous standup specials for HBO and Bravo. Following her 16th special for bravo, she broke the world record for having the most number of television specials broadcast on a single network.   

Former My 600lb Life star and TikTok dancer Gina Marie Krasley has died at the age of 30. The sad news was confirmed by her family, who shared that she died at her home in Tuckerton, New Jersey on August 1st. Their tribute went on to share her love of dancing and made reference to a movie role from when she was younger, but there was no mention of her time on the TLC reality show. It continued: ‘Born in Galloway, NJ, Gina has been a lifelong resident of Ocean County, living in Forked River, Barnegat and Tuckerton for the last 6 years. Her greatest passion was dancing and she would make up dances with her sister and kids in the neighbourhood growing up. She started the “dancing has no size limit” TikTok trend and she dreamed of one day opening up a dance studio for special needs children. Gina once appeared in a movie when she was younger called Walking to the Waterline and she enjoyed playing video games and spending time with her family.’ Her cause of death has not been shared. Krasley’s popularity on TikTok saw her amass over 200,000 followers on the video clip sharing platform, where she shared her dancing videos. According to reports, her death came just weeks after she revealed she was struggling with an unidentified illness that had left her fingers numb and her legs in pain, rendering her immobile. Krasely appeared on season eight of My 600lb Life, with her episode airing last January, as she sought help from bariatric doctor Younan Nowzaradan at his Texas clinic. During the show, she revealed that she had turned to comfort eating after struggling with the attention her older sister Ali received when she was diagnosed with agoraphobia at the age of 11. Krasely was seven-years-old at that time and by early high school weighed more than 300lbs, before later reaching over 600lbs.  

Hugh Jackman, 52, took to social media to share a health update earlier this week. The Wolverine actor admitted he has had yet another skin biopsy after a cancer scan as he urged his followers to be vigilant. Posting a video on Twitter to his 14.5 million followers, Hugh shared the news. In the short clip, he could be seen wearing a mask which he then pulled down to show a plaster on his nose. He said: “Hey guys, I just want to let you know, I just went to see Lisa and Trevor, my amazing dermatologists and doctors. They saw something that was a little irregular, so they took a biopsy and they’re getting it checked. So if you see a shot of me with this on, do not freak out. Thanks for being concerned, I’ll let you know what’s going on. But they think it’s probably fine.” He then added: “Just remember, go get it checked and wear sunscreen. Hugh has previously undergone treatment for basal cell carcinoma in 2017. Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer and arises from the abnormal, uncontrolled growth of basal cells.  

The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has had to undergo a procedure this week which was “completely successful”, but has unfortunately left him unable to take part in the band’s upcoming tour in America. The musician, who turned 80 in June, stepped down on the advice of his doctors, revealing that his recuperation may “take a while”. In order to avoid delaying the tour any further, Charlie has asked musician Steve Jordan to replace him. “For once, my timing has been a little off,” Charlie said of the disappointing news. Earlier this morning, the band announced that the tour, which was previously postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, will still go ahead. Their official Twitter account wished Charlie a “speedy recovery” and shared further details. “We’re sure you’ll all join us in wishing Charlie a speedy recovery,” the band tweeted, in view of their 3.4 million followers. All 2021 tour dates will go ahead as planned,” the caption continued alongside a statement. “Charlie has had a procedure this week which was completely successful, but I gather his doctors this week concluded that he now needs proper rest and recuperation. With rehearsals starting in a couple of weeks it’s very disappointing to say the least, but it’s also fair to say no one saw this coming,” a spokesman for the drummer said. Charlie added: “I am working hard to get fully fit but I have today accepted on the advice of the experts that this will take a while.  

Val Kilmer’s children have given an update on their father’s recovery from throat cancer, calling the process ‘gruelling’. The 61-year-old actor was diagnosed with stage four cancer in 2015, after a tumour burst, and later got two tracheotomies, which affect his ability to speak clearly. In 2017, Kilmer said he had experienced ‘a healing of cancer’, and last year shared that he had been cancer-free for four years after his tracheotomies and chemotherapy.  His children Mercedes and Jack appeared on TV to promote their dad’s new documentary Val, and shared that the Top Gun star is recovering well. Mercedes, 29, said: ‘He’s doing well. He’s still recovering. The recovery process is just as gruelling as the actual disease.’ When asked who had been supporting Kilmer throughout his illness, Jack, 26, said: ‘Everyone has been so supportive; it makes me so emotional. It’s really beautiful to see people come together.’ Mercedes and Jack, who Kilmer shares with his ex-wife Joanne Whalley, have been promoting the Amazon Prime Video movie Val on behalf of their father, saying their dad was at the premiere ‘in spirit’. The movie follows the personal and professional life of Kilmer through hundreds of hours of home movies and footage, which the star recorded over the years. Mercedes said: ‘He always has been ahead of the curve. He’s always had this need to document things. My dad’s been making this movie for 50 years.’ Kilmer is heard using a voice box to speak in the movie, with the Batman Forever star admitting: ‘I’m still recovering, and it’s difficult to talk and be understood.’ 

On This Day

  • 1908 – Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers’ first public flight.
  • 1963 – Great Train Robbery: In England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal £2.6 million in bank notes.
  • 1969 – At a zebra crossing in London, photographer Iain Macmillan takes the iconic photo that becomes the cover image of the Beatles’ album Abbey Road.
  • 1974 – President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day.

Deaths

  • 1988 – Alan Napier, English actor (b. 1903)
  • 2004 – Fay Wray, Canadian-American actress (b. 1907)
  • 2017 – Glen Campbell, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (b. 1936)

 The Deadly Olympics

If you are all enjoying the Tokyo Olympics, spare a thought for the athletes, as sometimes competing at the Olympics can be fatal!

At the modern Olympic Games, up to and including the 2016 Summer Paralympics, 10 athletes have died while either competing in or practicing their sport. In addition, another 14 participants have died at the Olympics from other causes; 11 of these deaths resulted from the Munich massacre of 1972.

Several incidents related to the Olympics have caused the death of non-participants. Large numbers were killed during the Lima football riot of 1964 and the Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City in 1968. The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Games caused two deaths. 

However, only three competitors have actually died during their event.

  • Francisco Lázaro (21), Portugal – Runner – 1912, Stockholm – electrolyte imbalance/overheating. Like all the Olympic athletes of his time, Lázaro was an amateur sportsman, and his actual job was as a carpenter in an automobile factory in Lisbon. Lázaro was the first athlete to die during a modern Olympic event, after collapsing at the 30-kilometer mark (19 miles) of the marathon with a body temperature of 41 °C. The cause of death was initially thought to be severe dehydration due to the high temperature registered at the time of the race. Later it was discovered that Lázaro had covered large portions of his body with suet to prevent sunburn and to help with speed and lightness while running; but eventually the wax restricted the athlete’s natural perspiration, leading to a fatal body fluid electrolytic imbalance. Before the race, he had supposedly said: “Either I win or I die.”
  • Knud Enemark Jensen (23), Denmark – Cyclist – 1960, Rome – heat stroke. One of the four-man Danish team, Jorgen B. Jorgensen, dropped out of the race due to sunstroke after the first lap, necessitating that all three remaining Danish cyclists finish the race for the team not to be disqualified. Jensen told his teammates that he felt dizzy. Niels Baunsøe clutched his jersey, keeping him from falling, while Vagn Bangsborg held Jensen from the other side. Bangsborg sprayed Jensen with water, leading to an apparent improvement, but when Baunsøe let go, Jensen collapsed and fractured his skull on the pavement.The Olympic 100 km team time trial road race was held in over 40-degree heat on Viale Cristoforo Colombo in Rome. Jensen was brought by ambulance to an overheated military tent near the finish line, where he died that afternoon without regaining consciousness.

Also during the Paralympics

  • Bahman Golbarnezhad (48), Iran – Cyclist – 2016, Rio de Janeiro – cardiac arrest following crash. During the men’s C4-5 road cycling event on 17 September 2016 at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, Golbarnezhad suffered a head injury during a collision with a rock on a mountainous stretch of the circuit in Pontal. Golbarnezhad was treated on-site, and was in the process of being transported to the athletes’ hospital when he died from a cardiac arrest.

During Olympic practice or after Olympic competition

  • Edmond Brassart, (30), France – Fencer – 1900, Paris – Brassard was killed alongside three others in the collapse of the Passerelle des Invalides, a temporary bridge built for the Exposition Universelle de 1900. This occurred two months after he participated in the Olympic Games but also two months before the Games concluded.
  • Nicolae Berechet (20), Romania – Boxer – 1936, Berlin – Berechet died three days after losing his bout against Evald Seeberg. His death was officially recorded as being due to blood poisoning, but it has been suggested that damage caused in the fight may have been a factor in his death.
  • Ignaz Stiefsohn, Austria – Gliding (demonstration event) – 1936, Berlin – killed when his glider crashed during practice.
  • Ross Milne (19), Australia – Downhill Skiing – 1964, Innsbruck – Ski collision in practice.
  • Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypecki, Britain – Luge – 1964, Innsbruck – Luge crash in practice two weeks before the Games.
  • Nicolas Bochatay (27), Switzerland – Speed Skiing (demonstration sport) – 1992, Albertville – collided with a snow machine in practice.
  • Hyginus Anugo (22), Nigeria – 4 × 400 metres relay reserve – 2000, Sydney – struck by a vehicle while training.
  • Nodar Kumaritashvili (21), Georgia – Luge – 2010, Vancouver – Luge crash in practice.

Other Olympic deaths

London 1948 – In 1948, during the London Olympics, Eliška Misáková, one of nine members of the Czechoslovak women’s team in gymnastics, became ill on arrival in the host city. Diagnosed with polio, she died on the last day of the Olympics, the same day her remaining teammates won the competition.

Melbourne 1956 – Arrigo Menicocci, Italian rower who competed in eights, was killed as a passenger in a car crash about 90 km northwest of Melbourne during the Olympics on 1st December 1956, four days after the end of the rowing competition.

Munich 1972 – In 1972, during the Munich Olympics, 11 members of the Israeli team were killed during a terrorist attack by Palestinian terrorists called Black September. The 11 Israeli Olympic Team members who were murdered in the 1972 Olympic Games in  Munich are:

Calgary 1988 – Between the morning and afternoon runs of the men’s giant slalom, Jörg Oberhammer, 47, the Austrian team doctor, was skiing on a recreational slope when he collided with another skier (a CTV technician) and was knocked under a snow-grooming machine, which crushed him instantly.

Deaths of non-participants at Olympic-related events

Lima 1964 – In a qualifying match for the Olympic football tournament, home fans began rioting after a late Peru goal was disallowed. Police fired tear gas into the crowd, exacerbating the situation, which ended with 318 deaths.

Mexico 1968 – The Mexico 68 protests were part of a worldwide series of leftwing student-led protests. While the protesting National Strike Council claimed not to link its demands to the Olympics, some students protested at the perceived extravagance of hosting the games, and some sought to exploit the increased foreign media presence in the city for publicity. The authoritarian government had a secret “Olympia Battalion” to ensure security during the Games. Ten days before the games, the unit swept through a mass meeting in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas making arrests. Estimates of the number killed in the operation range from thirty to several hundred.

Munich 1972 – In addition to the 11 Israeli Olympic Team members that died, West German police officer Anton Fliegerbauer and five Palestinian terrorists were killed during a shootout. Carmel Eliash, cousin of Moshe Weinberg, died of a heart attack during the public memorial service the following day.

Atlanta 1996 (Olympic Park Bombing) – On 27th July 1996 (the eighth day of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games), a bomb exploded at the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, killing two and wounding over 100 people.

Athens 2004 Paralympics – Seven teenagers from Farkadona were killed in a crash whilst travelling to Athens for the Games, when their bus collided with a truck near the town of Kamena Vourla. Out of respect for their death, the cultural portion of the closing ceremonies of these Paralympics was cancelled.

Beijing 2008 – A Hong Kong Police motorcyclist was on a VIP escort to Sheung Yue River for 2008 Olympic Equestrian events and was killed en-route in a traffic collision.

London 2012 – On 1st August 2012, a special bus carrying media from the London Olympic Park was involved in a collision in which a cyclist was killed.

Rio de Janeiro 2016 – German Olympic coach Stefan Henze died on 15th August 2016 after his taxi was hit in a high-speed head-on collision in Rio. 

But which is the deadliest Olympic Sport? Despite the clear risks involved in sports like pole vaulting, javelin or boxing, surprisingly they are much safer than some sports. However, injuries are frequent. Gymnastics isn’t just captivating and beautiful to watch, it can be life-threatening to the Olympians performing. “In our sport, we essentially dive into a pool with no water,” former Olympic gymnast Dominique Moceano said. “When you lose your ability to find the ground … the consequences can be catastrophic.” But such occurrences are very rare.

At the end of the 2008 Olympics, over 1,000 injuries had been reported. The events associated with the most injuries were football, taekwondo, and hockey. In 2016, 38% of BMX cyclists suffered injuries, compared to 8% of Olympians overall. I suppose a sport that requires competitors to propel off a hill before riding over jumps and tight corners at as high as 37 miles per hour is bound to have a few sprains!

For the ones of you who like equestrian events, less than 5% of equestrian athletes suffer injuries, putting it toward the bottom of the risky list — well behind badminton and handball. But when accidents happen with a 1,200-pound animal galloping, weaving, and jumping more than 20 miles per hour, they can lead to permanent injury. Less than 3% of Olympic rowers, shooters, archers, swimmers, golfers, and table tennis players got injured. And such injuries are medically minor, like a nerve issue in a finger or an overuse injury in a golfer.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Dustin Hoffman (84), Keith Carradine (72), Charlize Theron (46), Abbie Cornish (39), Michael Shannon (47), David Duchovny (61), Tobin Bell (79), John Glover (77), Cirroc Lofton (43), M. Night Shyamalan (51), Michelle Yeoh (59), Mark Strong (58), Loni Anderson (76), Kara Tointon (38), Meghan Markle (40), Billy Bob Thornton (66), Sebastian Roché (57), Barack Obama (60), Evangeline Lilly (42), Stephen Graham (48), Martin Sheen (81), John C. McGinley (62), Michael Ealy (48), Mamie Gummer (38), Steven Berkoff (84), John Landis (71), Kevin Smith (51), Edward Furlong (44), and Sam Worthington (45).

Posted by  |  8th August 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 1st August 2021

This week we could almost make up a band with those who have died. However, we have a world first in the news section, an actual video on the Dead Pool Newsletter! You heard right, a bloody video! Quick shout out to Nickie once again for finding loads of stories recently, makes editing the newsletter really easy 🙂  

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

If you remember, we covered the death of a last tribesman by Covid back in March, just so happens there’s more than one last tribe!!!  Karapiru Awá Guajá had survived a massacre that killed most of his family in the Brazilian Amazon and lived for 10 years alone in the forest, but he could not escape the pandemic. Karapiru, one of the last of the hunter-gatherer nomadic Awá of Maranhão state, died of Covid-19 earlier this month. With only 300 Awá thought to remain, they have been called the “earth’s most threatened tribe”. In the 1970’s, Karapiru lost almost everyone he knew in a genocidal attack on his tribe by settlers. His wife, daughter, siblings and other family members were killed, and he was shot in the back. But his resilience became a source of inspiration for activists working to protect indigenous and un-contacted peoples. Awá lands have been under attack since the discovery of iron ore in the late 1960’s. Skilled archers, the Awá live scattered in family groups over a large area, and travel at night using torches made from tree resin. Many have had no contact with the outside world. Karapiru was estimated to be 75 when he died. The Indigenist Missionary Council a Catholic NGO working with indigenous peoples, reported his death as “a victim of Covid-19”, despite him having had the Covid vaccine. Fiona Watson, research director at Survival International, first met Karapiru in 1992. “I just thought I cannot believe this man survived on his own for 10 years, not speaking to anybody,” she says. “He spoke so quietly, he whispered, that really struck me because I thought, of course, he’s had to become invisible in order to survive. He started talking and smiling, and I thought how is he not more traumatised? He knew I wasn’t [an enemy], he had no rancour, no bitterness. That astounded me. That magnanimity. What an extraordinary human being, to be able to sort of forgive people in a way and to be able to carry on your life.” 

Bob Odenkirk has collapsed on the New Mexico set of Better Call Saul and is in hospital. The actor was filming a scene when he “went down, and was immediately surrounded by crew members who called an ambulance.” Odenkirk is suspected to have suffered a heart related incident on Tuesday while filming but is now in a stable condition. His son has issued a statement saying he will make a full recovery. But while the circumstances around his collapse are unknown, anti-vaxxers have decided to blame the coronavirus vaccine. An article by right-wing Big League Politics used the misleading headline: “Better Call Saul Star Bob Odenkirk collapses on set after receiving experimental Covid-19 vaccine.” Odenkirk announced he had got the jab four months ago. Side effects are rare and are more likely to include a “sore arm” or “headache” – as per the NHS website. These effects occur in the first week of getting the jab, if at all, not four months later. But this has not stopped those who wish to discredit the vaccine. It is not the first time there have been unfounded conspiracies about the vaccine. Anti-vaxxers have also claimed the jab makes them magnetic!!!!  

An entitled Ruby Rose has posted a tearful video to fans, revealing that it took her hours to get accepted into an emergency room after she had complications from surgery. The Orange is the New Black star said that “I did have a procedure and I had to have surgery, but it was fine and the surgery went well. But then I had a few complications and I had to go to the emergency room to go to the hospital.” She said that she “called an ambulance and it took hours to find a hospital that would be able to take me or anyone”. Rose began to cry as she told fans emergency rooms were “rejecting taking people and I… and my case was quite serious”. The Australian actress said she believes the difficulty getting into hospital was due to the pandemic. “Please stay safe, try to keep everyone safe. Get vaccinated if you can, please,” she said. “It’s just… it doesn’t need to be this hard for everyone and I just can’t imagine all the other people that are having way more, way, way more serious situations happening right now.” Rose did not disclose what procedure she had originally had that led to complications, but we suspect it was dramatitis.…  

A Scottish climber has reportedly died in an avalanche on K2 – the world’s most dangerous mountain – as he attempted to take a new route to the summit. Rick Allen, from Aberdeen, was attempting to climb the world’s second highest mountain to raise money for the Partners Relief And Development charity. But according to reports from the base camp in Pakistan, the 68-year-old was caught in an avalanche on the mountain’s south-east face. His two climbing partners, Jordi Tosas of Spain and Stephan Keck of Austria, were reportedly rescued without major injuries. The death has not been officially confirmed but a Foreign Office spokeswoman said: ‘The British High Commission in Islamabad is aware of reports that a British citizen has died climbing K2 and stands ready to assist.’ Sadly, if donations equal his life’s worth, the fundraising effort had only received £170 of the £10,000 target at the time his death was reported. Mr Allen had previously been presumed dead in 2018 after falling from an ice cliff during a solo climb to the summit of Pakistan’s Broad Peak that, at 8,047m, is the 12th highest mountain on Earth. However, his rucksack was eventually spotted by a cook at the mountain’s base camp before a drone was used to locate him and to guide rescuers to his location. K2 is considered to be the world’s most dangerous mountain as it has a fatality rate of around 25 per cent compared to just 6.5 per cent on Everest, which is considerably more  than Mount Snowdon in Wales, as rescuers say two women are “very lucky” to be alive after they were hit by lightning on the summit. The pair were in a five-strong group by its 3,560ft peak when they were struck on Wednesday afternoon. The Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team were called out by North Wales Police to help rescue them. The team said one woman “was falling in and out of consciousness”, while the other had minor injuries. Both women were evacuated from the summit to a lower slope, before a coastguard helicopter took them to hospital in Bangor, Gwynedd. Rescuers said neither woman had sustained life-threatening injuries. The rest of their group, which had been visiting north Wales, were “clearly shocked but otherwise uninjured”, said rescue co-ordinator Phil Benbow without a hint of irony. He added: “The advice generally is don’t be on the top of a mountain when thunder and lightning is about.” No shit Sherlock!  

And finally, a tweet this week by @ScarredForLife2 went viral for correctly stating that the life expectancy of a character in a public information film was roughly 4.3 seconds, and had this video to prove it! For those of us who don’t remember, or who might be too young, public information films were a series of government-commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the United Kingdom. They were common place in the 1950’s until the 2000’s however became obsolete with the closure of the Central Office Of Information. The films advised the general public on what to do in a multitude of situations, ranging from crossing the road to surviving a nuclear attack!! Many of these films were aimed at children and were shown during breaks in children’s programmes during holidays and at weekends. Many of them involved or were narrated by celebrities of the day, which included the likes of David Prowse, Donald Pleasance, John Hurt and Jimmy Savile. Some of the more memorable  films included the Charley Says animated series which advised children on the various dangers they might encounter in their daily lives, interestingly, Charley’s growls were voiced by none other than Kenny Everett. You might also remember Clunk Click Every Trip and the ever frightening AIDS: Don’t Die of Ignorance, which stopped a generation of kids from having sex forevermore! 

On This Day

  • 1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen, prior to this everyone suffocated at birth. 
  • 1834 – Slavery is abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force.  
  • 1893 – Henry Perky patents Shredded Wheat. Quite a feat to make straw a breakfast staple. 
  • 1965 – Frank Herbert‘s novel, Dune was published for the first time.  
  • 1976 – Niki Lauda has a severe accident that almost claims his life at the German Grand Prix at Nürburgring..
  • 1981 – MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles.

Deaths

  • 30 BC – Mark Antony, Roman general and politician (b. 83 BC)
  • 1903 – Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman and scout (b. 1853)
  • 2013 – John Amis, English journalist and critic (b. 1922)
  • 2014 – Mike Smith, English radio and television host (b. 1955)
  • 2015 – Cilla Black, English singer and actress (b. 1943)

Last Meals 

The famous Tollund Man ate a modest but nutritious meal before being hanged around 400 BC, a new study reveals. Scientists have re-examined the last meal of the famous Tollund Man, a naturally mummified corpse found in a bog on the Jutland peninsula in Denmark in 1950. The new analysis reveals that he likely ate an Iron Age meal of fish and porridge packed with seeds, consumed sometime between 12 and 24 hours before his death.

Although it sounds fairly ordinary, threshing waste containing the wild seeds was used as an ingredient in the porridge, which is suggestive of ritual practices. They also found Tollund Man had several parasitic infections – likely because he consumed undercooked meat and contaminated water at some point prior to death.

Tollund Man is a bog body – meaning it’s been incredibly well-preserved over more than 2,000 years in the unique conditions of a natural peat bog. Previous research has determined his cause of death as murder by hanging for unknown reasons before his body was placed in the bog. Tollund Man may have been a criminal or was possibly even sacrificed as part of a ritual practice ‘to keep the gods satisfied’. Tollund Man’s gut contents had been analysed forensically when he was discovered in 1950, uncovering traces of cereals and wild plants. When Tollund Man was autopsied in 1950, his intestines were still preserved, and the alimentary canal from the stomach to anus was removed in one piece with its contents still in place.

Now, experts from Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, say they have been able to reconstruct the last meal of Tollund Man in greater detail than ever before – right down to how it was prepared. The researchers used a few millilitres of material from the large intestine for analyses to give the ‘most detailed study’ yet on the gut contents of a bog body.

‘Since knowledge of plant macro-fossils and the methods for analysing gut contents have improved greatly since 1950, we decided to re-investigate the gut contents of Tollund Man,’ said study author Dr Nina H. Nielsen from Museum Silkeborg.

‘In this way, we get very close to a specific situation in the past – you can almost imagine how they were sitting by the fireplace preparing the barley porridge and the fish.

‘We can now pretty much reconstruct the recipe of the last meal of Tollund Man.

Porridge was likely a typical dish in Iron Age northern Europe, and fish was also eaten in this period, although it did not make up a substantial part of the diet. His last meal was cooked in a clay pot, likely using water from a lake or bog, according to the experts.

His ‘quite nutritious’ porridge consisted of barley, flax seeds, pale persicaria seeds and other seeds in ‘negligible amounts’, including gold-of-pleasure seeds. Seeds of Pale persicaria – which grew as a weed – were likely removed as grain was cleaned during threshing and collected along with the grain. The use of threshing waste containing pale persicaria in the porridge could be connected to the human sacrifice ritual, or it might have been part of ordinary Iron Age cooking.

‘As for now, we don’t know whether the use of threshing waste in the Iron Age cuisine was normal practice or whether this ingredient was only used at special occasions like human sacrifices,’ said Dr Nielsen. Threshing waste has also before been found in the Grauballe Man, found in a peat bog near the village of Grauballe in Jutland, Denmark. Together, the plant ingredients alone provided nearly half of the daily caloric intake for a person with limited physical activity.  Traces of a further 20 plant species were also found in the guts, but they made up less than 1 per cent and were probably not an intentional part of the meal. As well as the seeds, threshing waste including sand, charcoal and other detritus seems to have been used as an ingredient in the porridge.

Eggs from whipworm, mawworm and tapeworm were common in the gut contents of Tollund Man and show that he was infected by intestinal parasites. Whipworm and mawworm have previously been found in several bog bodies, but it is the first time that tapeworm is reported. The most likely cause of the tapeworm infection was that Tollund Man at some point had consumed raw or undercooked meat infected with tapeworm cysts. The infestations of whipworm and mawworm reflect poor hygiene, as these are transmitted by eggs present in human faeces, which contaminate the soil in areas where sanitation is poor. The researchers claim their study ‘shows that it can be beneficial to re-analyse bog body gut contents’ to reveal secrets of the past. Because of their exceptionally good preservation, bog bodies can provide detailed insights into how the people looked, dressed and died, as well as their last meal, their health and where they lived.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jason Momoa (42), Adrian Dunbar (63), Michael Biehn (65), Wesley Snipes (59), Emilia Fox (47), Dean Cain (55), Christopher Nolan (51), Arnold Schwarzenegger (74), Jaime Pressly (44), Hilary Swank (47), Laurence Fishburne (60), Frances de la Tour (77), Terry Crews (53), Lisa Kudrow (58), Jean Reno (73), Carel Struycken (73), Sian Gibson (45), Wil Wheaton (49), Stephen Dorff (48), David Warner (80), Elizabeth Berkley (49), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (44), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (51), Taylor Schilling (37), Donnie Yen (58), Kate Beckinsale (48), Jason Statham (54), Sandra Bullock (57), Helen Mirren (76), Kevin Spacey (62), Nana Visitor (64), Eve Myles (43), and Mick Jagger (78).

Posted by  |  1st August 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »