Those Old People are Dropping Like Flies

BBC

I read this article out of confusion as I thought it was old news, but apparently not. The oldest person in the world died last week too. Mrs Tillman was only the oldest person in the world for one week. What I found interesting though is that one the side they list related articles. Apparently on December 12th the oldest person died, on January 19th the oldest woman died, on January 24th the oldest person died, and now on January 29th the oldest person died. At this rate, by the end of the year, the oldest person in the world will be 36.

Also, there's a typo at the bottom of the page (as of 2PM) that has the new oldest person in the world as 9 years older than the one that just died.

Name Trends for 2006

Social Security Online

At the end of February, the Social Security Administration will update its list of the most popular baby names. Using the data available, here are my predictions on the top 10 boy and girl names of 2006.

Alexander will replace Joseph in the boy's top 10.

Sophia and Mia will replace Samantha and Ashley in the girl's top 10.

Joshua will replace Micheal as the second most popular boy name.

Ava will greatly increase in popular and may replace Emma as the second most popular girl name.

Emma Wins!

Svenska Namn

Reading Swedish news, I found this site which ranks the most popular baby names in Sweden. "Top 100 Flickor" is the girl list and "Top 100 Pojkar" is the boy list. There are quite a few interesting names on the lists, although what most caught my attention was that nearly 3/4ths of the girl names end with "A".

Wikipedia

Doing farther research to see if there was similar information for other countries I went to Wikipedia and discovered an interesting trend. Emma has became a popular name throughout Northern Europe and Anglo nations. Emma is the most popular name in New Zealand, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Norway, and Sweden. It is the second most popular in Denmark, Netherlands, Scotland, Canada, and the US (first in 20 states). It is also third in France and tenth in Australia. It seems I'm going to be meeting a lot more Emmas in the next few years.

This Town is Going Places

The Local

Thanks to the sinking land caused by decades of mining, the northern Sweden city of Kiruna will have to be moved 4 km to the Northwest. I've been there before, it would a nice place to live if it weren't so cold, or imperil of sinking.

It Has Been Foretold

I went to an Asian restaurant today and my fortune cookie read, "an airplane ride is soon in your future sending you to fun!" For those unaware, I'm going to Shanghai in February.