The 2012 Off Topic Celebrity Dead Pool

[Ming]

I think I need to rethink my list

INTERESTED? HELL YES!

[SlowwHand]

Ooh. Ming has been rejuvenated. Hope springs forth.

[SlowwHand]

Zig Ziglar

[DaShi]

I should be one rank higher and Ozzy lower over the Abu Yahya al-Libi incident. I also suggest opening an investigation on Coldwizard.

[SlowwHand]

I'd advocate investigating anything Cold Wizard is involved in. He's a bad egg.

[embalmer42]

I'd advocate investigating anything Cold Wizard is involved in. He's a bad egg.

Pot, meet kettle

(sorry, couldn't resist. Not that I tried that hard.)

[Hauldren Collider]

It's getting close to that time again. If there is to be a 2013 edition of the Dead Pool prep work will need to be done and a signup posted within a couple weeks...

Is there still enough interest to carry this abomination forward another year?

Absolutely! I'm in.

[DaShi]

I'd advocate investigating anything Cold Wizard is involved in. He's a bad egg.

Indeed.

[SlowwHand]

Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck dead at 91. Brubeck died Wednesday morning of heart failure after being stricken while on his way to a cardiology appointment with his son Darius, said his manager Russell Gloyd. Brubeck would have turned 92 on Thursday.

[-Jrabbit]

RIP to one of the great jazz pianists and bandleaders...

That's Paul Desmond on alto sax btw.

[Krill]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20657939

British astronomer and broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore has died, aged 89, his friends and colleagues have said.

He "passed away peacefully at 12:25 this afternoon" at his home in Selsey, West Sussex, they said in a statement.

Sir Patrick presented the BBC programme The Sky At Night for over 50 years, making him the longest-running host of the same television show ever.

He wrote dozens of books on astronomy and his research was used by the US and the Russians in their space programmes.

Described by one of his close friends as "fearlessly eccentric", Sir Patrick was notable for his habit of wearing a monocle on screen, his idiosyncratic style and his outspoken, and sometimes controversial, views.

Sir Patrick presented the first edition of The Sky at Night on 24th April 1957. He last appeared in an episode broadcast on Monday.

A statement by his friends and staff said: "After a short spell in hospital last week, it was determined that no further treatment would benefit him, and it was his wish to spend his last days in his own home, Farthings, where he today passed on, in the company of close friends and carers and his cat Ptolemy.

"Over the past few years, Patrick, an inspiration to generations of astronomers, fought his way back from many serious spells of illness and continued to work and write at a great rate, but this time his body was too weak to overcome the infection which set in, a few weeks ago.

"He was able to perform on his world record-holding TV programme The Sky at Night right up until the most recent episode .

"His executors and close friends plan to fulfil his wishes for a quiet ceremony of interment, but a farewell event is planned for what would have been Patrick's 90th birthday in March 2013."

'Father figure'
Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore was born at Pinner, Middlesex on 4 Mar 1923.

Heart problems meant he spent much of his childhood being educated at home and he became an avid reader. His mother gave him a copy of GF Chambers' book, The Story of the Solar System, and this sparked his lifelong passion for astronomy.

When war came he turned down a place at Cambridge and lied about his age to join the RAF, serving as a navigator with Bomber Command and rising to the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

But the war brought him a personal tragedy after his fiancee, Lorna, was killed when an ambulance she was driving was hit by a bomb. He never married.

Sir Patrick, who had a pacemaker fitted in 2006 and received a knighthood in 2001, won a Bafta for services to television and was a honorary fellow of the Royal Society.

Queen guitarist Brian May, who published a book on astronomy written with Sir Patrick, described him as a "dear friend, and a kind of father figure to me".

He said: "Patrick will be mourned by the many to whom he was a caring uncle, and by all who loved the delightful wit and clarity of his writings, or enjoyed his fearlessly eccentric persona in public life.

"Patrick is irreplaceable. There will never be another Patrick Moore. But we were lucky enough to get one."

'Charming and hospitable'
British space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock said she was first inspired to "look at the night sky" through Sir Patrick.

"Through his regular monthly programmes he was telling us what to look for and what was out there and that was a real inspiration.

"Why [The Sky At Night] was so successful is because of his passion. He branched an amazing era, he was broadcasting before we actually went into space and so he saw a change in our understanding of the universe and he took us all the way through that, right up to today."

Television presenter and physicist Professor Brian Cox posted a message on Twitter saying: "Very sad news about Sir Patrick. Helped inspire my love of astronomy. I will miss him!"

Space scientist Dr David Whitehouse said Sir Patrick was "the monthly source of information for youngsters interested in astronomy".

"We relied on Patrick to tell us about the moon landings, the probe to the planets, the developments in astronomy, before the internet age."

And Dr Marek Kakula, public astronomer at Royal Observatory in Greenwich, described him as a "very charming and hospitable man".

"When you came to his home he would always make sure you had enough to eat and drink. He was full of really entertaining and amusing stories.

"There are many many professional astronomers like me who can actually date their interest in astronomy to watching Patrick on TV, so his impact on the world of professional astronomy as well as amateur is hard to overstate."

Picked for me and Wezil (you bastard I needed the extra 25 points there).

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

That really is the end of an era. Presenting the same regularly-scheduled TV show from 1957 to 2012 takes some beating.

[Wezil]

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 5(Reuters) - Oscar Niemeyer, a towering
patriarch of modern architecture who designed the main buildings of Brazil's futuristic capital Brasilia and left a worldwide
legacy of design, died on Wednesday, aged 104, according to
Brazil's Globo television.

Niemeyer left his stylistic imprint around the
world with distinctive and often curvy space-age style. His
glass and white-concrete buildings include the United Nations
Secretariat in New York, the Communist Party headquarters in
Paris and Brasilia's Roman Catholic Cathedral.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-brazil-niemeyer-urgentl1e8mj6gh-20121205,0,1199232.story

Niemeyer was 104 (missed his 105th by 10 days) and a choice of 3 players:

OzzyKP (2) = (171 - 2) + (100 - 104) = 165 points
Robert Plomp (6) = 161 points
MRT144 (8) = 159 points

A new record for oldest celeb death. Congrats I guess...


This would probably be a good time to ask the players to check the more obscure celebs on their list to see if they are indeed still breathing. Points can only be claimed in the year they die so let's make sure we aren't missing anyone.

[Wezil]

Sir Patrick Moore was 89 and a pick of two players:

Krill (14) = (171 - 14) + (100 -89) = 168 points

Wezil (14) = 166 points

[Robert]

My unique pick "Dom Mintoff" apparently already left the building on August 20th this year!
I hereby officially delayed mourn his death. How many points did I win?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dom_Mintoff

edit:
171-9 = 162
100-96 = 4
unique pick: 25
---------------
191 points


Seems like Nelson Mandela is also in a bad shape at the moment.