Well we tried this last year, but of the 64 individuals named, a grand total of 64 of them are still alive and well. Few were particularly bad guesses, so the inevitable conclusion is that we are simply fated to do badly. Anyone considering refraining from hypothesising should therefore consider that by taking part, they are quite possibly increasing the likelihood of survival for those that they would have picked.

Before I name my guesses, I think it's apt to remember Luciano Pavarotti, Evel Knievel (who I'd have sworn had been dead for years), Kurt Vonnegut and all the others that did leave us in the last year.


The scoring system is as follows. Each correct guess is worth 10 points plus another point for each year below 90 that they were on death (if they were below 90). A 91 year old individual would be worth 10 points, as would a 110 year old. However a 85 year old would be worth 15 points and a 25 year old, a whole 75 points. So you could pick a lot of more likely, low point people; or a set of high value longshots. Or a mixture of the two. Or whatever you want really.

And now on to the picks:

1. Abe Vigoda (86) - although I've read that his death has been foretold for a while now

2. Tony Bennett (81)

3. Kirk Douglas (91)

4. Amy Winehouse (24) - My only real long-shot pick. I read somewhere or other that she doesn't think she can survive without her husband, who I think is going to prison or something. I don't put as much research into this stuff as my canny foretelling suggests.

5. Quincy Jones (74)

6. Roger Moore (80) - It's been 46 years since the first Bond film came out, and unless you count David Niven, they're all still alive. Moore is the oldest, so I'm picking him as the first one down.

7. Ray Wilson (73) - Same as with Moore, I have no desire for this to happen but I figure that it's about the right time for another of the England '66 team to go.

8. Ariel Sharon (79) - This was a toss-up between Sharon and Castro. According to the great, but unreliable source of information that is Wikipedia, Castro is on the mend, so that sorted this choice.

9. Carl Reiner (85)

10. Olivia de Havilland (91) - Even though she's the oldest one on this list, for some reason I don't think this will be her year. I'm just putting her down for the benefit of gender equality.

In the middle of applying for vacation scheme placements for the summer, it was quite nice to find this distracting little mental test. I did pretty badly the first time, but I attribute part of that to being frazzled by the sheer number of forms I'd been filling out.

This is another game to help waste time, where the aim is to type out the alphabet in as short a time as possible. The best I've managed so far is 2.994 seconds and that almost broke my hands. It claims that the record is 2.2 but I'm not angry enough with my fingers to try and break it.

This is a game that I stumbled across a while ago. Fair way to waste a few minutes if you're bored. It's very much worth turning the music off though, it pains the ears.

This is my latest addiction. As opposed to most of my others, it has actually been slightly benefitial, in that it has definitely improved my typing speed and accuracy of touch typing. I can get off the map comfortably on hard, and progress until the really awkward sharks turn up on expert. X-treme mode still kicks my ass though.