According to a Cornell University study, around 40 percent of deaths worldwide are caused by water, air and soil pollution. That should be about 7 deaths caused by pollution every ten seconds, if I’m not mistaken.

However, perhaps an even more alarming fact presented by the study is that around “57 percent [of the world's population] is malnourished, compared with 20 percent … in 1950″. Even if one considers the fact that the world population has in that time climbed from 2.5 billion to 6.5 billion, and that most of the population growth has happened in the so-called “developing countries”, it still sounds quite sad.

BBC reports about a cat who is said to be able to tell who is about to die. The cat, a resident in an American hospital, allegedly gets upset when removed from rooms with patients who are about to die soon.

On a completely different note, but staying with the feline subject, I would highly recommend I Can Has Cheezburger if you like cats and enjoy some good laughs. Updated daily with new images.

Update (31 January 2007): As if to prove my point, Emma Faust Tillman passed away after I wrote this post last week. She held the title of the world’s oldest person for less than a week.

There has recently been what I feel is a relatively high rate of “world’s oldest” people dying.

I know that old people in general tend to die with a higher probability than do younger ones, and that those who reach a grand old age of over 110 are even more probable of kicking the bucket, as I believe the scientific term in use is, but it would seem that this past half a year or so has been especially harsh for the “oldest” people. Let’s take a look.

On August 27 2006, María Capovilla who was the world’s oldest person at that point, passed on at the age of 116. She had been the world’s oldest person for two whole years, which is more or less the average of how long you get to keep the title (see Wikipedia). There are of course counter-examples to this: Shigechiyo Izumi for example held the title for nine whole years and some between 1976 and 1986.

After María Capovilla, the title of the world’s oldest person fell to Elizabeth Bolden, but the 116-year-old was unfortunately only able to hold the title for three and a half months, as she left this world on the 11th of December, 2006.

After this, the honour was given to Emiliano Mercado del Toro, who however died only a little over a month later on January 24th, 2007. The title has now moved to Emma Tillman, who is only 114.

It should furthermore also be noted that while del Toro was still the world’s oldest person, the world’s oldest woman at that point, Julie Winnefred Bertrand, also died on January 19th, 2007.

In summary, the “oldest” people to have died recently are:
María Capovilla (August 27, 2006)
Elizabeth Bolden (December 11, 2006)
Julie Winnefred Bertrand (January 19, 2007)
Emiliano Mercado del Toro (January 24, 2007)
Update: Emma Tillman (January 29, 2007)

Considering that, as I mentioned before, one usually gets to keep these titles for a couple of years, I feel that this is quite a number of casualties. Or then it is just a statistical thing. Or my brain interprets it wrong, making it a quirk of perception.

In any case, add to this also the many famous individuals who have died in the past couple of months — James Brown, Robert Altman, Saddam Hussein, Augusto Pinochet, Gerald Ford, Joseph Barbara, to name a few — and you must clearly agree that these clearly constitute the first signs of Doomsday. I, therefore, urge you all to hide your chickens and slaughter your oxen before your government gets you.

Everyone’s favourite weird news channel Ananova reports about a 94-year old German lady who was pronounced medically dead only to spring back up a moment later and ask when Germany’s next match was going to be.

When she was told about her death, she replied “Not likely, not until I see if Germany wins the World Cup. There’s still life in these old bones yet, and I certainly couldn’t miss the football.”