Eugene Polley, Inventor Of TV Remote, Dies At 96

CHICAGO — Couch potatoes everywhere can pause and thank Eugene Polley for hours of feet-up channel surfing. His invention, the first wireless TV remote, began as a luxury, but with the introduction of hundreds of channels and viewing technologies it has become a necessity.

Just ask anyone who's lost a remote.

Polley died of natural causes Sunday at a suburban Chicago hospital, said Zenith Electronics spokesman John Taylor. The former Zenith engineer was 96.

Famed Burbank Photographer, 101, Hit and Killed Crossing Street

11:16 a.m. PDT, May 23, 2012
BURBANK, Calif. (KTLA) -- Legendary Burbank photographer and former boxer Otto Jensen, 101, was struck and killed by a vehicle driven by a 91-year-old woman in Burbank Wednesday morning.
...

Johnny Tapia, a prizefighter who won world titles in three weight classes in a chaotic life that included jail, struggles with mental illness, suicide attempts and five times being declared clinically dead as a result of drug overdoses, was found dead at his home in Albuquerque on Sunday. He was 45.

The Albuquerque police said an autopsy would be done in the next few days. Foul play is not suspected.

Tapia, who was 5 feet 6 inches, said the raw fury he displayed in winning his world titles came from the horrific memory of seeing his mother being kidnapped and murdered when he was 8. He said he saw every opponent as his mother’s killer.

[...]

Mike Tyson called Tapia one of the greatest fighters ever. He won 59 fights, 30 by knockout; lost 5; and drew 2. He was knocked out only once.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- Doc Watson, the Grammy-award winning folk musician whose lightning-fast style of flatpicking influenced guitarists around the world for more than a half-century, died Tuesday at a hospital in Winston-Salem, according to a hospital spokeswoman and his management company. He was 89.

Watson, who was blind from age 1, recently had abdominal surgery that resulted in his hospitalization.

Arthel "Doc" Watson's mastery of flatpicking helped make the case for the guitar as a lead instrument in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was often considered a backup for the mandolin, fiddle or banjo. His fast playing could intimidate other musicians, even his own grandson, who performed with him.

A great but very troubled boxer.

Doc Watson has died... http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx ... 234#scpti2

Eduard Khil, 'trolololo' singer.

'Mr. Trololo' Dies in St.Petersburg, Aged 77

Ray Bradbury

A great one passes.

Indeed, at 88, love is the one-word answer this inexhaustible writer offers when asked what drives him to create. What does he love? "Everything."

“People say, ‘Are you a fantasy writer?’ No,” Mr. Bradbury told the Charlotte Observer in 1997. “ ‘Are you a science fiction writer?’ No. I’m a magician.”

He explained, “Science fiction is the art of the possible, not the art of the impossible. As soon as you deal with things that can’t happen, you are writing fantasy.”

Ditto, Verbie. The illustrated Man and Something Wicked This Way Comes, were my firsts, followed by
Farenheit 451.

I has a major sad. I shall honor him for always.

I knew there was a reason I didn't want to view this topic today.

Ray Bradbury

A great one passes.