Age of death as a degree classification

[Gavin Chipper]

<70 - Fail
70-74 - Non-honours pass
75-79 - Third
80-84 - 2:2
85-89 - 2:1
90+ - First

All agreed?

[Howard Somerset]

I definitely do not agree with that.

After a certain point, I'd reverse the table. If I go to 90 I'll regard myself as having failed. My target for a first class death is late 70s.

[Michael Wallace]

Given that 2.i is the modal class (I think), and life expectancy (in the UK) is just under 80 years, it seems a bit odd to make the average a high third.

Unless you wanted to compare it with life expectancy of graduates, which is presumably a bit higher.

[Marc Meakin]

Fuck, having just (last friday) had a heart attack at 47 I think my performance in the university of life is not looking so rosy.
Hopefully if I survive the Aortic valve replacement I can aim for at least a 2.2.

[Jon Corby]

Fuck, having just (last friday) had a heart attack at 47

Sorry to hear that. Was it the Ghana/Uruguay handball/penalties brouhaha that did it?

[Marc Meakin]

Fuck, having just (last friday) had a heart attack at 47

Sorry to hear that. Was it the Ghana/Uruguay handball/penalties brouhaha that did it?

Lol, no,just running for a late train, turned out my asthma attack turned out to be a heart attack caused but a congenital heart condition (Aortic Stenosis) that has taken 47 years to diagnose.
I'm gutted, I only renewed my Apterous subscription last week aswell.

[JimBentley]

Depends on quality of life, though. I'm happy to live as long as I have full control of my faculties and that's about it. I wouldn't want to live to 90 if it means spending the last fifteen years of it shitting and pissing myself in some nursing home somewhere.

[Lesley Hines]

I came within 8 hours of dropping out the university of life altogether at 25. Does that mean I'd have failed spectacularly, or that to still be here I'm achieving a first?

[Howard Somerset]

Depends on quality of life, though. I'm happy to live as long as I have full control of my faculties and that's about it. I wouldn't want to live to 90 if it means spending the last fifteen years of it shitting and pissing myself in some nursing home somewhere.

Precisely my feeling. 79's my target, so on Gavin's reckoning, I'm hoping for a third.

[Gavin Chipper]

Given that 2.i is the modal class (I think), and life expectancy (in the UK) is just under 80 years, it seems a bit odd to make the average a high third.

Unless you wanted to compare it with life expectancy of graduates, which is presumably a bit higher.

I think that with averages, people who die young probably skew things. I'd be interested to see the medians. But I wasn't really thinking in terms of averages, more about what I see as reasonable. When I hear of someone dying before 70, I tend to think that they haven't even reached proper old age, so it's definitely a fail. 70s I think of as too young to actually die. It's only when you reach your 80s that I think it becomes reasonable, and the figures I gave fit in quite well with my views on the various ages. Also while the average might be under 80, I think it's generally accepted that if you have a good diet and lifestyle, most people will easily exceed it.

Depends on quality of life, though. I'm happy to live as long as I have full control of my faculties and that's about it. I wouldn't want to live to 90 if it means spending the last fifteen years of it shitting and pissing myself in some nursing home somewhere.

Precisely my feeling. 79's my target, so on Gavin's reckoning, I'm hoping for a third.

While I agree about quality of life, I think most people will go through a period of decline before they die and I'm not sure it's true that people who live longer have a longer period where they can't look after themselves. I think I've read stuff at some point on it, but basically, if you live to 100, the chances are you're going to have been fairly healthy at 90. So I don't see any particular advantage in picking an early age of death without knowing in advance how healthy you will be up to that point. So if I had to pick an age to die without knowing anything else, the higher the better!

[John Bosley]

Well whatever happens I get a non-honours pass as I'm 73 this year. If I could hang on a bit I shall beat my other degree standards.

[Paul Howe]

I think that with averages, people who die young probably skew things. I'd be interested to see the medians. But I wasn't really thinking in terms of averages, more about what I see as reasonable. When I hear of someone dying before 70, I tend to think that they haven't even reached proper old age, so it's definitely a fail. 70s I think of as too young to actually die. It's only when you reach your 80s that I think it becomes reasonable, and the figures I gave fit in quite well with my views on the various ages. Also while the average might be under 80, I think it's generally accepted that if you have a good diet and lifestyle, most people will easily exceed it.

It depends on which life table you use, but, in the UK:

Blokes, Life Expectancy = 77.5, Median Age = 80.6
Birds, Life Expectancy = 81.8, Median Age = 84.8

Sneaky edit there for those of you who saw me buggering up year 7 statistics

[Howard Somerset]

Depends on quality of life, though. I'm happy to live as long as I have full control of my faculties and that's about it. I wouldn't want to live to 90 if it means spending the last fifteen years of it shitting and pissing myself in some nursing home somewhere.

Precisely my feeling. 79's my target, so on Gavin's reckoning, I'm hoping for a third.

While I agree about quality of life, I think most people will go through a period of decline before they die and I'm not sure it's true that people who live longer have a longer period where they can't look after themselves. I think I've read stuff at some point on it, but basically, if you live to 100, the chances are you're going to have been fairly healthy at 90. So I don't see any particular advantage in picking an early age of death without knowing in advance how healthy you will be up to that point. So if I had to pick an age to die without knowing anything else, the higher the better!

Certainly not all go through period of decline. Of my male blood relatives, there's only one I know of who's reached 80, and the two closest to me both died of a fatal heart attack having been fit and healthy right up of day of death. I've already passed my cousin (63), just got my father (79) in my sights, and that's my target.

[JimBentley]

Slightly going off-topic (sorry Gavin), I remember something called "One Million People Alive Today Will Never Die" and thinking what a great title it was. Thing is, I can't remember what it was the title of. It might have been an album or a book or a story, but I really don't know what. Anyway, Google is totally not helping me and I wondered if anyone else had ever heard of it?

[Charlie Reams]

Slightly going off-topic (sorry Gavin), I remember something called "One Million People Alive Today Will Never Die" and thinking what a great title it was. Thing is, I can't remember what it was the title of. It might have been an album or a book or a story, but I really don't know what. Anyway, Google is totally not helping me and I wondered if anyone else had ever heard of it?

Maybe this or, knowing your proclivities, this?

[JimBentley]

Slightly going off-topic (sorry Gavin), I remember something called "One Million People Alive Today Will Never Die" and thinking what a great title it was. Thing is, I can't remember what it was the title of. It might have been an album or a book or a story, but I really don't know what. Anyway, Google is totally not helping me and I wondered if anyone else had ever heard of it?

Maybe this or, knowing your proclivities, this?

Haha cheers Charlie. It was the Tortoise album, but the 1925 pamphlet is interesting too. My Google skills are poor, though.

[Charlie Reams]

Slightly going off-topic (sorry Gavin), I remember something called "One Million People Alive Today Will Never Die" and thinking what a great title it was. Thing is, I can't remember what it was the title of. It might have been an album or a book or a story, but I really don't know what. Anyway, Google is totally not helping me and I wondered if anyone else had ever heard of it?

Maybe this or, knowing your proclivities, this?

Haha cheers Charlie. It was the Tortoise album, but the 1925 pamphlet is interesting too. My Google skills are poor, though.

I just searched for the words I thought you were most likely to have remembered exactly ("million today never die") and it was the first result. Clearly I have the Google-fu.