Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins dies, aged 61

What a sad loss to snooker. Alex Higgins is dead aged 61 and for me was a snooker genius and the best of his generation - so exciting to watch and always unpredictable he was compulsive viewing for me as a teen and probably, along with Jimmy White, one of the reasons I started playing snooker myself.

In May, the ailing champion former world number one had found the strength to attend a charity event in his honour, where friends and former players hoped to raise money to pay for further treatment. Once described by fellow snooker professional Steve Davis as “the one true genius snooker has produced”, Higgins was considered by many the greatest player ever seen but fought a battle with alcohol.

With so many demons to dispel, now you can finally rest in peace.

Swiss bank to lift lid on hidden Kafka works

It's an interesting question to ponder whether an author has any rights after his death as Franz Kafka clearly didn't.

Franz Kafka was one of the most enigmatic authors of the 20th Century. He died of tuberculosis in 1924 aged only 40 and, if his own last wishes had been followed, novels such as The Trial and The Castle would never have seen the light of day.

Kafka asked his friend and fellow writer, Max Brod, to burn his manuscripts after his death. Brod refused, publishing the novels and taking letters and other writings to Israel where he left them to his secretary Esther Hoffe - who then bequeathed them to her two daughters.

It seems there is very little honour not only in publishing but anywhere these days!

Gunshot survivor gets prosthetic face

You have to marvel at the miracle of science these days! This woman got shot full in the face and which left a gaping hole. Not only did she survive it, but now she's had corrective surgery (was there ever such an understatement?) and has her very own "new" face.

Chrissy Steltz, 27, from Milwaukie, Oregon, was shot accidentally at close range by a friend at a party in March 1999. The shot blew a huge hole in her face where her eyes and nose used to be. Mrs Steltz went into a coma and spent six weeks in hospital. Doctors said it was a miracle that she was not killed but the blast left her badly disfigured. She was also blinded and lost part of her hearing. Mrs Steltz, who married last year and has a one-year-old child, wore a sleeping mask to cover the hole but has now been given a prosthetic replacement 11 years later.

This is an amazing testament to the courage of the human spirit. How many people even if they had survived physically, would have curled up and died inside? how many people would have gone into a deep depression from which they would never have come out again, certainly not intact or in one piece?

I hear a talk show coming along..."Ok, Oprah be right with you in a minute!"

Sucker for soccer: octopus predicts World Cup finalist

You couldn't make this up and has to rank as a crazy story - a British born octopus in Germany called Paul has correctly predicted the results of a number of the World Cup games?

Spain's victory over Germany in the World Cup last night will come as no surprise to those following one of the competition's most successful pundits – for the result had already been foretold by Paul the Octopus, a creature that has achieved celebrity status with the accuracy of its predictions.

Dubbed the psychic octopus, the English-born Paul (hatched at the Sea Life Park in Weymouth) has correctly predicted all of Germany's World Cup results including the 1-0 defeat last night. He predicted Germany's wins against England and Argentina, and even Serbia's defeat of Germany in the group stage.

Such is the popularity of his selections that, on the eve of last night's game, the German news channel n-tv broadcast Paul's prediction live.

What will we have next? A chimpanzeee who can plat chess and beat Grand Masters? A one-legged gerbil that can perform keyhole surgery? A cat that can tell when rabbits are lying?

What is the world coming to eh?

Ageing - New genetic test can predict your chances of living to 100, claim scientists

Just as we always knew- you can drink like a fish, copulate like a rabbit, smoke like a chimney, but what really determines how long you live is how good your genes are - or so says a report into the correlation between length of life and your genes.

"A genetic test that can predict whether a person is likely to live long enough to see their 100th birthday has been developed by scientists. Researchers at Boston University claim the test can identify those who can look forward to an exceptionally long life with 77% accuracy. They designed the test after a major study into the genetic makeup of centenarians highlighted a host of DNA variants that boost a person's chances of reaching a ripe old age."

So that old geezer you used to see down the pub every night knocking back the Guinness and smoking like ciggies were about to be banned wasn't such an idiot after all. he was just lucky - he had good genes. His brothers and sisters also probably enjoyed the same predisposition to be able to avoid regular illness and chronic ailments related to old age, too.

"Many of the genetic markers the scientists found stave off common, and often lethal, age-related diseases, such as heart disease, dementia and high blood pressure. The US researchers investigated the genetic secrets of a longer life after studies showed that living beyond 100 often runs in families."

Ok, gotta go now. Off to the pub and to buy a pack of Marlboro on the way!