RIP

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

We've never wished a man dead, but we read this obituary with great pleasure.

One should only speak good of the dead, so: he's dead ---- good.

[Dr Sardonicus]

James Watt

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - James Watt, the Reagan administration's sharp-tongued, pro-development interior secretary who was beloved by conservatives but ran afoul of environmentalists, Beach Boys fans and eventually the president, has died. He was 85.

Watt died in Arizona on May 27, son Eric Watt said in a statement Thursday.

In an administration divided between so-called pragmatists and hard-liners, few stood as far to the right at the time as Watt, who once labeled the environmental movement as "preservation vs. people" and the general public as a clash between "liberals and Americans."

In that sense, Watt foreshadowed combative Interior secretaries like Ryan Zinke and David Bernhardt, who, like Watt, aggressively pushed to grant oil, gas and coal leases on public land, increase offshore drilling and limit expansion of national parks and monuments.

[Batalov]

An American mathematician, the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski

[Batalov]

Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian PM

[firejuggler]

I'm sorry but those last two leave me... hummm un-affected...
I mean, I know them but...

[rudy235]

Originally Posted by firejuggler

I'm sorry but those last two leave me... hummm un-affected...
I mean, I know them but...

Yeah the balance is good, about 3 awful people for every one valuable that passes away.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Cormac McCarthy

US Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy has died aged 89, his publisher has announced.

The writer died of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Tuesday, Penguin Random House said.

McCarthy's novels included The Road and No Country for Old Men, both of which were turned into successful films.

Many of his novels were violent tales describing the American frontier and post-apocalyptic worlds. In real life, he was said to be a very private man.

Paying tribute, fellow author Stephen King called him "maybe the greatest American novelist of my time".

He tweeted: "He was full of years and created a fine body of work, but I still mourn his passing."
<snip>

[xilman]

John Romita

[Dr Sardonicus]

Roger Payne

Roger Payne, the scientist who spurred a worldwide environmental conservation movement with his discovery that whales could sing, has died. He was 88.

Payne made the discovery in 1967 during a research trip to Bermuda in which a Navy engineer provided him with a recording of curious underwater sounds documented while listening for Russian submarines. Payne identified the haunting tones as songs whales sing to one another.

He saw the discovery of whale song as a chance to spur interest in saving the giant animals, who were disappearing from the planet. Payne would produce the album "Songs of the Humpback Whale" in 1970. A surprise hit, the record galvanized a global movement to end the practice of commercial whale hunting and save the whales from extinction.

Payne was cognizant from the start that whale song represented a chance to get the public interested in protecting an animal previously considered little more than a resource, curiosity or nuisance. He told Nautilus Quarterly in a 2021 interview that he first heard the recording in the loud engine room of a research vessel and knew almost instantly that the sounds were indeed whales.

"In spite of the racket, what I heard blew my mind. It seemed obvious that here, finally, was a chance to get the world interested in preventing the extinction of whales," he told the magazine.
<snip>
Payne founded Ocean Alliance in 1971 to advocate for the protection of whales and dolphins. The organization operates to this day in Gloucester, Massachusetts. It has played a role in watershed moments in the history of whale protection, such as the 1972 passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act by the U.S. Congress and the 1982 commercial whaling moratorium passed by the International Whaling Commission.

The world has lost a giant of environmental conservation with Payne’s death, said Iain Kerr, the chief executive officer of Ocean Alliance and a longtime collaborator with Payne. Payne retired two years ago.

"He had a presence and a way of connecting to people that led them to dedicating their lives to protecting whales and our planet Earth," Kerr said.
<snip>

[xilman]

Glenda Jackson: Oscar-winning actress and former MP dies aged 87

[Dr Sardonicus]

Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who exposed the extent of US involvement in the Vietnam War, has died, aged 92.

He died at his home in Kensington, California, of pancreatic cancer, his family said.

The former US military analyst's 1971 Pentagon Papers leak led to him being dubbed "the most dangerous man in America".

It led to a Supreme Court case as the Nixon administration tried to block publication in the New York Times.

But espionage charges against Ellsberg were ultimately dismissed.

Indeed they were - due to government misconduct, which included government thugs breaking into his psychiatrist's office trying to dig up dirt on Ellsberg from records of his sessions with his psychiatrist.