Seemed like a decent guy as well as a talented singer.
The late 70's disco movement wouldn't have been the same without them.
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Seemed like a decent guy as well as a talented singer.
The late 70's disco movement wouldn't have been the same without them.
Amid all the ballyhoo over what a bold visionary Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is, let's pause for a moment to appreciate the work of Eugene Polley, inventor of the TV remote control, who has died at age 96.
Think about it. Before Polley's brainstorm, people actually had to get up out of their seats and cross the room to change TV channels.
Simply put, there would be no couch potatoes without this man.
I don't mean to be snarky. The TV remote truly is one of those rare devices that change the way we live. I'd put it right up there with personal computers and microwave ovens.
Polley earned 18 U.S. patents for his inventions, which include the "Flash-matic" remote control. Introduced in 1955, the gadget "used a flashlight-like device to activate photo cells on the television set to change channels," according to one-time TV powerhouse Zenith.
The Flash-Matic was followed by the Space Command, which was developed by the late Robert Adler, a fellow Zenith engineer who built upon Polley's invention. These early iterations have since given way to more advanced infrared and radio-frequency remotes.
Not content to rest on his laurels, Polley also worked on the push-button radio for cars and on development of the video disk, predecessor of today's DVD.
He received an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 1997 for "pioneering development of wireless remote controls for consumer television."
Gush all you want about Facebook, Twitter and other recent tech innovations. I'd stack Polley and his TV remote against all of them.
After all, which would you be more willing to give up -- Facebook or your remote?
Thought so.
I cut and pasted this.
^ Have they tried turning his batteries round and smacking him against the coffee table?:)
Bugger me, I'm old. I remember using the wire ones.
Quote:
22 May 2012 Last updated at 20:23 GMT
TV remote control inventor Eugene Polley dies at 96
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Eugene Polley earned 18 patents during his 47-year career
The inventor of the television remote control has died at the age of 96, his former employer has said.
Zenith Electronics said Eugene Polley passed away of natural causes on Sunday at a Chicago hospital.
His 1955 invention, Flash-Matic, pointed a beam of light at photo cells on each corner of the TV, turning it off and on and changing the channels.
His invention was a luxury add-on in the days before hundreds of cable television channels.
Born in Chicago in 1915, Polley began his engineering career in 1935. He worked at Zenith for 47 years, earning 18 US patents.
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A 1955 advertisement for Flash-Matic, the first wireless TV remote control
He was a long-time resident of Lombard, Illinois, outside Chicago.
Because the Flash-Matic used light to operate the television, it was temperamental and other lights could interfere with its operation.
It was followed by sonic-controlled remotes and then infrared and radio frequency models.
Before Polley's invention, Zenith's first remote was connected to the television by a wire cord.
Polley was proud of his invention, Zenith spokesman John Taylor told the Associated Press, showing off the Flash-Matic to visitors after his retirement.
"He was a proud owner of a flat-screen TV and modern remote," Mr Taylor added. "He always kept his original remote control with him."
Along with another Zenith engineer, Robert Adler, Polley was honoured in 1997 with an Emmy for his work.
Doc Watson, folk and bluegrass guitarist, dies aged 89
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Grammy award-winning folk and bluegrass guitarist Arthel "Doc" Watson has died in North Carolina aged 89.
The American musician died following abdominal surgery, and had been in a critical condition for several days, his manager said.
Watson, who was blinded as a child, was known for his lightning-fast style of flatpicking which influenced guitarists around the world.
He won eight Grammy Awards including a lifetime achievement prize in 2004.
Watson died at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, where he was admitted recently after falling at his home.
"Doc was a legendary performer who blended his traditional Appalachian musical roots with bluegrass, country, gospel and blues to create a unique style and an expansive repertoire," his management company, Folklore Productions, said.
"He was a powerful singer and a tremendously influential picker who virtually
invented the art of playing mountain fiddle tunes on the flattop guitar."
Blinded by an eye infection before his first birthday, he learned to play the banjo at the age of five before picking up a guitar in his early teens.
He got his musical start in 1953 playing lead guitar in a country-and-western swing band and became a full-time professional musician in the 1960s.
Watson's mastery of flatpicking helped make the guitar a lead instrument in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was often considered a backup for the mandolin, fiddle or banjo.
For much of his career he toured and recorded with his son, Merle Watson, who died in a tractor accident in 1985. He set up an annual fundraising musical event, Merlefest, in his memory.
The musician played at events across the US from folk festivals to the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York and recorded some 60 albums, with his most popular songs including Tom Dooley, Shady Grove and Rising Sun Blues.
Country and bluegrass singer Ricky Skaggs paid tribute to Watson saying: "An old ancient warrior has gone home."
I had the pleasure of hearing Doc Watson play, once in a music hall and once at an outdoor bluegrass festival. He was a wonderful musician.
Goodbye Doc Watson.
TV star Richard Dawson dies at 79
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Richard Dawson, the English-born actor and TV host who found fame in the US at the helm of game show Family Feud and in sitcom Hogan's Heroes, has died.
Dawson, also a former husband of actress Diana Dors, was 79.
Born in Gosport, Hampshire, he played Corporal Peter Newkirk in World War II comedy Hogan's Heroes for six years.
He became a panelist on TV show Match Game before hosting Family Feud for 10 years. Family Feud was copied in the UK under the name Family Fortunes.
He was Family Feud's first host when it launched on the ABC network in 1976 and won a daytime Emmy Award in 1978 for best game show host.
Known for giving the female contestants a kiss, he met his second wife Gretchen when she was a contestant on the programme in 1981.
He left the show in 1985 but returned for one further series in 1994.
And he was not afraid to play on his TV persona when he appeared as the ruthless game show host Damon Killian alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1987 film The Running Man.
Desperate Housewives actress Kathryn Joosten dies
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US TV actress Kathryn Joosten, best known for her roles in Desperate Housewives and The West Wing, has died.
Joosten, who was 72, died in California of lung cancer, 11 years after she was first diagnosed with the disease.
The actress won two Emmy Awards for playing nosey neighbour Karen McCluskey in suburban drama Desperate Housewives.
She had previously portrayed Delores Landingham, the secretary to fictional US President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, on The West Wing.
Joosten's family said in a statement that the actress was "surrounded by love and humour 'til the end", adding: "We are laughing through our tears."
Joosten did not begin her acting career until the age of 42, having worked as a psychiatric nurse at a medium security hospital unit in Chicago.
But after getting divorced and hearing her mother's deathbed regrets at not having pursued her dreams, Joosten decided to revisit her childhood passion for acting and became involved with her local community theatre
Alexander Cassie: Bomber pilot who helped forge false papers for 'The Great Escape': Alexander Cassie: Bomber pilot who helped forge false papers for 'The Great Escape' - Obituaries - News - The Independent
Flight Lieutenant Alex Cassie was one of the forgers whose painstaking work made possible the Second World War prison camp break-out that became known as "The Great Escape."
The impromptu lecture on psychology that Cassie delivered to fellow prisoners to avert discovery by a snooping German guard was the model for the scene in the 1963 film in which Blythe the forger gives a talk on birdwatching.
The character played by Donald Pleasence was a sadder one than Cassie, who neither took part in the escape down the tunnel called "Harry", as Blythe did, nor went blind, nor was shot on the run, as Blythe is. Nevertheless the film's jaunty celebration of rebellion, with its stirring distinctive music, and exhilarating emphasis on Hilts, the irrepressible American played by Steve McQueen largely on a motorbike, lies at odds with Cassie's experience.
"I don't look back with pride at our escape, but with great sadness," he said at a reunion at the Imperial War Museum in London in 2004. "This is the first time I have seen many of my former friends in 60 years. Being here today brings a lump to my throat because so many of my good friends were shot by the Gestapo."
The escape of 76 men on the night of 24 March 1944 from Stalag Luft III, the Luftwaffe's newly built high-security establishment at Sagan in Silesia, gave rise to one of the most notorious of war crimes when 50 recaptured men, including all four of Cassie's room-mates, were summarily shot on Hitler's orders. After the war the RAF spent three years investigating the affair and18 former Gestapo men were tried in Hamburg. Of those 14 were hanged in February 1948. In October that year three more were tried and two convicted of murder, but their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.
Of the 76 escapers only three reached home. The other dozen not shot were brought back to the camp. Cassiedid not join the escape because he ould not overcome feelings of claustrophobia at going down the narrow,340ft tunnel pit-propped through crumbling sand.
He and his fellow forgers had spent months making 400 fake German documents in preparation for the break-out. One document could take five hours a day for a month to produce. The unit, led by Tim Walenn, started work in hut 120 in the north camp, moved to the kitchen block, then to the church room in hut 122, the scene of Cassie's lecture, and lastly to the library in hut 110. It was code-named "Dean and Dawson" after a London travel agency.
Cassie, a distinctive character with a shock of ginger hair and beard, made printing ink from fat-lamp-black mixed with oil, and ran off foolscap travelpermits on a tiny printing press made of a carved piece of wood covered with a strip of blanket. Some passes were made with the help of a "tame" prison guard whose wife in Hamburg typed the stencil and sent it back to him to give to the forgers.
Cassie's fellow Stalag Luft III prisoner Paul Brickhill says in his book The Great Escape (1950): "The forgers worked till their heads were splitting and the points of their nibs and brushes and the letters they were forging seemed to jump and wiggle and blur under their eyes." They sat as close to windows as they could and worked mainly by daylight. Cassie also helped to produce 4,000 maps. He took charge of the forgery unit in March 1944 after Walenn (one of the 50 to die) joined the escapers. Cassie's heartfelt cartoon of his friends entering the tunnel, and of himself left behind, alludes to the London Underground, and the prisoners called the stopping-points for getting on and off trolleys inside it "Piccadilly Circus" and "Leicester Square".
Cassie had been a prisoner since being shot down on 1 September 1942 while flying a Whitley bomber with 77 Squadron on anti-submarine patrols from RAF Chivenor in Devon as part of Coastal Command. He remained in captivity until the war in Europe ended.
The forgers increased output as the day of the escape approached, and in the last few hours put the date on their whole year's work with a stamp made from a rubber boot-heel and distributed the varying papers and chits each man would need. Thirty-seven men fooled examining officials on trains with these forged papers despite a regime of four-hourly searches by the Gestapo. Some reached Berlin, Munich, the Danish border, and stations in Czechoslovakia. One of the three who reached Britain saw genuine papers faulted, but, travelling all the way to the Netherlands, had no trouble with his fake ones.
Alexander Cassie, the son of Scottish parents, was educated at Queenstown School in Cape Province, South Africa, and Aberdeen University, where he studied psychology and graduated in 1938. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1939. Of his art skills, he told theAberdeen Press and Journal in 2000:"I always had a pencil in my hand and had always been a competent artist and used to do covers for the university rag magazine."
After the war he became a military psychologist, rising to be a senior principal psychologist with the Army Personnel Research Establishment at Farnborough, Hampshire, before retiring in 1976. The work included interviewing aircrew to ascertain their suitability to fly. In 1973 he was listed as a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. Cassie, who raised his family at Cobham, Surrey, was a member of Oxshott Arts and Crafts Society and gave lessons in watercolour painting.
Alexander Cassie, RAF officer and psychologist: born 22 December 1916 Cape Province, South Africa; married Jean Stone (one son, one daughter); died Surrey 5 April 2012.
RIP
“Mr. Trololo” has sung his final note.
Little-known Russian crooner Eduard Khil, who gained international fame when a 1976 clip of him performing on Soviet television went viral in 2010, has died, The Associated Press reported on Monday.
He was 77.
He had been hospitalized in St. Petersburg since a stroke in early April that left him with severe brain damage, according to AP. He died Monday.
Khil was a popular singer in the Soviet Union during the 1960s and 70s, but after the fall of the Iron Curtain, he slipped into obscurity.
It wasn't until two years ago when the video of his performance ignited on YouTube, scoring more than two million views.
trololololo (full version with lyrics as seen on the Colbert Report) - YouTube!
:sorry1:
Died aged 91 in California. Most famous for Fahrenheit 451 a novel about book burning.
He wrote “Fahrenheit 451” at the UCLA library, on typewriters that rented for 10 cents a half hour. He said he carried a sack full of dimes to the library and completed the book in nine days, at a cost of $9.80.
In the above work he predicted the use of "sea shells" that played music to keep the stupid occupied. Bit like Ipods.
Orrens
Loved his books when I was a teenager.Quote:
Originally Posted by Orrens
RIP.
The Illustrated Man has always been my favourite book
RIP
The temp at which paper burnsQuote:
Originally Posted by Orrens
great book
Truffaut did a creditable film version as well. Christ I didn't realise how old I am.
Downloading it now.
I liked the film version of The Illustrated Man with Rod Steiger. I'm happy that Ray Bradbury lived to 91.
You'll have to speak up Humbert, I can't hear you.
Good call, I found a torrent of that as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Latindancer
Two good movies to watch over the weekend.
Could you provide the link if handy
Former Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch found dead - MiamiHerald.com
Bob Welch, a former member of Fleetwood Mac who also had a solo career, died Thursday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. He was 65.
Police spokesman Don Aaron said Welch's wife found him with a chest wound at their south Nashville home around 12:15 p.m.
Welch was a guitarist and vocalist for Fleetwood Mac from 1971 to 1974. He formed the British rock group Paris in 1976, and had hits including "Sentimental Lady" in 1977 and "Ebony Eyes" in 1978. Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham did backing vocals on "Sentimental Lady."
Aaron said Welch apparently had had health issues recently. He said a suicide note was left.
Fleetwood Mac's career took off in the mid-1970s after Welch left the band. "Dreams" was a No. 1 hit in 1977 and "Don't Stop" the same year. It later became the anthem for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. "Hold Me" was a hit in 1982 and "Little Lies" in 1987.
Welch, a native of Los Angeles, scored his biggest hit with "Sentimental Lady," which reached No. 8 on the Billboard chart. His other singles included "Precious Love" in 1979 and "Hot Love, Cold World" in 1978.
Not handy, but I used Bit Che to search. You might have to download a couple of links to find one being seeded.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Sawyer
A chest wound? Suicide? I mean this wasn't Thailand.. (where of course it would have been a nose dive from the 23rd floor)Quote:
Originally Posted by S Landreth
Cuban boxing hero Teofilo Stevenson buried in Havana
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Former heavyweight boxing champion Teofilo Stevenson, one of Cuba's greatest sporting heroes, has been buried in the capital, Havana.
Friends, family and other sportsmen at the wake paid tribute to the boxer, who won three Olympic gold medals, and spoke of their shock at the news of his death at the age of 60.
State media said Stevenson had suffered a heart attack.
"Life has left me," said his widow, Fraymaris Arias Melendez.
"For those 20 years I was married to him, I did not want to be interviewed in this situation, ever."
In the 1970s, US boxing promoters offered Stevenson $5m (£3m) to turn professional and fight then world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali.
But the boxer stayed loyal to the Cuban revolution, which outlawed professional sports, and refused. He said: "I prefer the affection of eight million Cubans."
Former leader Fidel Castro, president Raul Castro and Venezuela's left-wing President Hugo Chavez sent floral arrangements
An honourable man and a great boxer.
RIP.