Thursday, 3 June 2010

the widows web, part 3

The third in my series of notes on websites I've seen and liked... Some of which I'll revisit regularly, others less so. Two of the choices this time are slightly macabre, the other is slightly geeky! Follow the links, browse and enjoy!

Deathlist is essentially a sweepstake of old celebrities who are knocking on heaven's door. As could probably be surmised, the idea was conceived in a student union bar. The inaugural list was created in 1987. Modern lists feature input from an internet forum... who says death can't be fashionable.

The next selection is also related to death. It's a personalised Death Clock which tells you how much longer you have - or not as the case may be. Complete with a countdown of the seconds, you have left, you really can watch your life slipping away. It appears I have a little under 38 years and 3 months left - how about you?

The final selection is a geeky one which feeds my love of statistics and trivia. The Public Profiler worldnames site allows you to check the relative popularity of surnames across Europe and much of the English speaking world (along with a handful of other countries) and to break down these region by region.

For example my surname - Brown - is more widespread in Scotland than the rest of the UK (as you might expect) and relatively uncommon in Wales. Bizarrely, it is most popular in East Lothian.

You can also access local statistics on names too - mine is the 8th most popular first name and 3rd most popular surname in my hometown.
I find that kind of thing fascinating but I can already see you dosing off in the back row...

Andrew

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