Obituaries

[pbrower2a]

Stansfield Turner, CIA director under Jimmy Carter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stansfield_Turner

[pbrower2a]

President of the former Bophu... Bupho... Buthu... bubu... Bophuthatswana (a political entity so much a sick joke that it doesn't pass my spell-check device):

Kgosi Lucas Manyane Mangope (27 December 1923[3] – 18 January 2018)[4][5] was the leader of the Bantustan of Bophuthatswana and the founder and leader of the United Christian Democratic Party, a minor political party based in the North West of South Africa.

Born in Motswedi, Mangope worked as a high school teacher until 8 August 1959, when he succeeded his father Lucas as Chief of the Motswedi Ba hurutshe-Boo-Manyane tribe. On 1 May 1971, Mangope became Chief Minister of the Bophuthatswana Legislative Assembly and retained his post following the first Bophuthatswana elections on 4 October 1972. Initially leader of the Bophuthatswana National Party, Mangope left the party following what was officially referred to as 'internal strife' and formed the Bophuthatswana Democratic Party, which then became the governing party. He became President in 1977. In 1988 he was briefly overthrown by members of a military police unit, and was reinstated following intervention by the South African Defence Force. South Africa's government stated that it was responding to a request for assistance from the legal government of a sovereign nation.

Sasha Polakow-Suransky wrote that Mangope was "widely considered a puppet and a joke in South Africa" during his presidency.[6] Mangope was nevertheless given some recognition during visits to Israel, meeting with prominent figures such as Moshe Dayan. (Bophuthatswana had an unofficial "embassy" in Israel in the 1980s despite objections from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which did not recognize the bantustan as a state.)[6]

Mangope was accused of using his Defence Force and Police to suppress protests, and had been accused of police brutality when a student protest was suppressed by his police force. Mangope's supporters, however, have argued that Bophuthatswana was comparatively more successful than other Bantustans in social and economic development, owing to its mineral wealth.[7][8] Although designated as an ethnic Tswana homeland, Bophuthatswana was more or less an integrated society where Apartheid legislation did not apply, in common with other homelands.[9][10]

Main article: Bophuthatswana coup d'état of 1994

At the Kempton Park negotiations in 1993 that led to the first non-racial elections in South Africa in 1994, Mangope had made clear that Bophuthatswana would remain independent of the new and integrated South Africa and that he would not allow the upcoming elections to take place in "his country". With most residents in favour of reintegration, the defence force mutinied. Mangope called on outside help, but was eventually forced to flee the homeland, and shortly thereafter, the homelands were reincorporated into South Africa.[11]

More from Wikipedia
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Bophuthatswana was a Bantustan that the racist Apartheid government of South Africa established as a means of denying citizenship in the South Africa in which the black majority lived. These were essentially puppet states without recognition outside of South Africa. They typically had nearly no economic viability, no history, and no real independencee. They were typically patchwork entities  with no geographic cohesion.

All of them were reincorporated into the post-racial South Africa.  
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Mangope]

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Connie Sawyer (born Rosie Cohen, November 27, 1912 – January 20 or January 21, 2018) was an American stage, film and television actress, affectionately nicknamed "The Clown Princess of Comedy".[1] She had over 140 film and television credits to her name, but was best known for her appearances in Pineapple Express, Dumb and Dumber and When Harry Met Sally....[2] At the time of her death, she was the oldest working actor in Hollywood and oldest member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[3]

Sawyer's mother had wanted to be an actress herself and encouraged Sawyer to learn singing and dancing, and entered her into talent competitions as a child. In her first competition, at the age of 8, she won third prize.[5] Following high school, Sawyer began performing on stage, beginning with a San Francisco variety show titled “Al Pearce and His Gang,” a show which gave her the opportunity to develop her own comedy routine.[5]
At the age of 19, Sawyer moved to New York and performed in nightclubs and vaudeville theaters. There she met Sophie Tucker, who connected Sawyer with a comedy writer, and she began to travel with her show.[5] In the 1950s she began to appear on television, including The Milton Berle Show and The Jackie Gleason Show.[7]

In the late 1950s, agent Lillian Small, who worked for Frank Sinatra, saw Sawyer in the Broadway show A Hole in the Head as the character Miss Wexler. Sinatra later optioned the rights for a film version and hired Sawyer to repeat her role in the 1959 film production, which also starred Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson and Eleanor Parker.[3][5]

She continued to appear regularly on television, in such series as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laverne & Shirley, The Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-O, Dynasty, Murder, She Wrote, Home Improvement, Seinfeld, Boy Meets World, Will & Grace, Welcome Back, Kotter, ER, How I Met Your Mother and Ray Donovan.[5][7][8] In 2007 Sawyer appeared in the HBO series Tell Me You Love Me with Jane Alexander, however later expressed regret as she considered the show to be pornographic.[5] When she turned 100, in 2012, she was a guest on The Jay Leno Show.[9] In 2012 she appeared on 2 Broke Girls, in 2013 she appeared on NCIS: Los Angeles and in 2014 she appeared opposite Zooey Deschanel in New Girl as "the Oldest Woman in the World".[3][10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Sawyer

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"Tinkie Winkie" from Teletubbies:

Tributes have been paid to actor Simon Shelton, best known for playing purple Teletubby Tinky Winky, following his death at the age of 52.

Actress Emily Atack said her "wonderful uncle" had been "taken so suddenly" and was "the kindest and most talented man you could ever wish to meet".

Shelton took over the role of handbag-carrying Tinky Winky after original actor Dave Thompson was sacked in 1997.

Other roles included The Dark Knight in children's TV show Incredible Games.

According to the actor's son Henry, Shelton - who was also known as Simon Barnes - died on 17 January.

The original Teletubbies ran on the BBC from 1997 to 2001 and spawned a number one single, called Teletubbies say 'Eh-oh!', in December 1997.

Speaking in 2008, Shelton said he had little inkling Teletubbies would be the success it was when he was cast as Tinky Winky.

"I didn't know it would be as big as it was, but I did know as soon as I started working on it that it had something special," he said.

The original Teletubbies series was watched by around one billion children in more than 120 countries in 45 languages.

Shelton, a father of three, lived in Ampthill in Bedfordshire.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-42788001

[gabrielle]

Ursula K Le Guin (October 21, 1929-January 22, 2018): American writer, mainly of science fiction and fantasy.

Ursula K. Le Guin, the spiritual mother of generations of writers; John Scalzi pays tribute

Quote:On and on and on goes this immediate and real-time outpouring of grief and remembrance of a woman who gave us Earthsea, "The Left Hand of Darkness" and the short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," which is as much a parable for our time as anything that anyone has written, or likely will.

She was a supporting column of the genre, on equal footing and bearing equal weight to Verne or Wells or Heinlein or Bradbury. Losing her is like losing one of the great sequoias. As the unceasing flow of testimonials gives witness, nearly every lover and creator of science fiction and fantasy can give you a story of how Le Guin, through her words or presence, has illuminated their lives.

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Hugh Ramapolo Masekela[1] (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018)[2] was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer and singer. He has been described as the "father of South African jazz." Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for writing well-known anti-apartheid songs such as "Soweto Blues" and "Bring Him Back Home". He also had a number 1 US pop hit in 1968 with his version of "Grazing in the Grass".

Masekela was born in KwaGuqa Township, Witbank, South Africa to Thomas Selena Masekela, who was a health inspector and sculptor and his wife, Pauline Bowers Masekela, a social worker.[3] As a child, he began singing and playing piano and was largely raised by his grandmother, who ran an illegal bar for miners.[3] At the age of 14, after seeing the film Young Man with a Horn (in which Kirk Douglas plays a character modelled on American jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke), Masekela took up playing the trumpet. His first trumpet, from Louis Armstrong, was given to him by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, the anti-apartheid chaplain at St. Peter's Secondary School now known as St. Martin's School (Rosettenville).[4][5]

Huddleston asked the leader of the then Johannesburg "Native" Municipal Brass Band, Uncle Sauda, to teach Masekela the rudiments of trumpet playing.[6] Masekela quickly mastered the instrument. Soon, some of his schoolmates also became interested in playing instruments, leading to the formation of the Huddleston Jazz Band, South Africa's first youth orchestra.[6] By 1956, after leading other ensembles, Masekela joined Alfred Herbert's African Jazz Revue.[7]
From 1954, Masekela played music that closely reflected his life experience. The agony, conflict, and exploitation South Africa faced during the 1950s and 1960s inspired and influenced him to make music and also spread political change. He was an artist who in his music vividly portrayed the struggles and sorrows, as well as the joys and passions of his country. His music protested about apartheid, slavery, government; the hardships individuals were living. Masekela reached a large population that also felt oppressed due to the country's situation.[8][9]

Following a Manhattan Brothers tour of South Africa in 1958, Masekela wound up in the orchestra of the musical King Kong, written by Todd Matshikiza.[10]King Kong was South Africa's first blockbuster theatrical success, touring the country for a sold-out year with Miriam Makeba and the Manhattan Brothers' Nathan Mdledle in the lead. The musical later went to London's West End for two years.[11]

At the end of 1959, Dollar Brand (later known as Abdullah Ibrahim), Kippie Moeketsi, Makhaya Ntshoko, Johnny Gertze and Hugh formed the Jazz Epistles,[12] the first African jazz group to record an LP. They performed to record-breaking audiences in Johannesburg and Cape Town through late 1959 to early 1960.[13]

Following the 21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre—where 69 protestors were shot dead in Sharpeville, and the South African government banned gatherings of ten or more people—and the increased brutality of the Apartheid state, Masekela left the country. He was helped by Trevor Huddleston and international friends such as Yehudi Menuhin and John Dankworth, who got him admitted into London's Guildhall School of Music.[14] During that period, Masekela visited the United States, where he was befriended by Harry Belafonte.[15] He briefly moved to London in 1960 and attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama,[3] before securing a scholarship to attend[3] the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he studied classical trumpet from 1960 to 1964.[16] In 1964, Makeba and Masekela were married, divorcing two years later.[16]

He had hits in the United States with the pop jazz tunes "Up, Up and Away" (1967) and the number-one smash "Grazing in the Grass" (1968), which sold four million copies.[17] He also appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and was subsequently featured in the film Monterey Pop by D. A. Pennebaker. In 1974, Masekela and friend Stewart Levine organised the Zaire 74 music festival in Kinshasa set around the Rumble in the Jungle boxing match.[18]



Masekela in Washington, D.C., 2007

He played primarily in jazz ensembles, with guest appearances on recordings by The Byrds ("So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" and "Lady Friend") and Paul Simon ("Further to Fly"). In 1984, Masekela released the album Techno Bush; from that album, a single entitled "Don't Go Lose It Baby" peaked at number two for two weeks on the dance charts.[19] In 1987, he had a hit single with "Bring Him Back Home". The song became enormously popular, and turned into an unofficial anthem of the anti-apartheid movement and an anthem for the movement to free Nelson Mandela.[20][21]


A renewed interest in his African roots led Masekela to collaborate with West and Central African musicians, and finally to reconnect with Southern African players when he set up with the help of Jive Records a mobile studio in Botswana, just over the South African border, from 1980 to 1984. Here he re-absorbed and re-used mbaqanga strains, a style he continued to use following his return to South Africa in the early 1990s.[22]
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In 1985 Masekela founded the Botswana International School of Music (BISM), which held its first workshop in Gaborone in that year.[23][24] The event, still in existence, continues as the annual Botswana Music Camp, giving local musicians of all ages and from all backgrounds the opportunity to play and perform together. Masekela taught the jazz course at the first workshop, and performed at the final concert.[25][26][27]

Also in the 1980s, Masekela toured with Paul Simon in support of Simon's album Graceland, which featured other South African artists such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Miriam Makeba, Ray Phiri, and other elements of the band Kalahari, with which Masekela recorded in the 1980s.[28] He also collaborated in the musical development for the Broadway play, Sarafina![29] and recorded with the band Kalahari.[30]



Masekela in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 26 June 2013

In 2003, he was featured in the documentary film Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony. In 2004, he released his autobiography, Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela, co-authored with journalist D. Michael Cheers,[31] which detailed Masekela's struggles against apartheid in his homeland, as well as his personal struggles with alcoholism from the late 1970s through to the 1990s. In this period, he migrated, in his personal recording career, to mbaqanga, jazz/funk, and the blending of South African sounds, through two albums he recorded with Herb Alpert, and solo recordings, Techno-Bush (recorded in his studio in Botswana), Tomorrow (featuring the anthem "Bring Him Back Home"), Uptownship (a lush-sounding ode to American R&B), Beatin' Aroun de Bush, Sixty, Time, and Revival. His song "Soweto Blues", sung by his former wife, Miriam Makeba, is a blues/jazz piece that mourns the carnage of the Soweto riots in 1976.[32] He also provided interpretations of songs composed by Jorge Ben, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Caiphus Semenya, Jonas Gwangwa, Dorothy Masuka and Fela Kuti.

In 2006 Masekela was described by Michael A. Gomez, professor of history and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University as "the father of South African jazz."[33][34]

In 2009, Masekela released the album Phola (meaning "to get well, to heal"), his second recording for 4 Quarters Entertainment/Times Square Records. It includes some songs he wrote in the 1980s but never completed, as well as a reinterpretation of "The Joke of Life (Brinca de Vivre)", which he recorded in the mid-1980s. From October 2007, he was a board member of the Woyome Foundation for Africa.[35][36]

In 2010, Masekela was featured, with his son Selema Masekela, in a series of videos on ESPN. The series, called Umlando – Through My Father's Eyes, was aired in 10 parts during ESPN's coverage of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The series focused on Hugh's and Selema's travels through South Africa. Hugh brought his son to the places he grew up. It was Selema's first trip to his father's homeland.[37]

On 3 December 2013, Masekela guested with the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Matthews_Band]Dave Matthews Band in Johannesburg, South Africa. He joined Rashawn Ross on trumpet for "Proudest Monkey" and "Grazing in the Grass".[38]

In 2016, at Emperors Palace, Johannesburg, Masekela and Abdullah Ibrahim performed together for the first time in 60 years, reuniting the Jazz Epistles in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the historic 16 June 1976 youth demonstrations.[39][40][41]


Masekela was involved in several social initiatives, and served as a director on the board of the Lunchbox Fund, a non-profit organization that provides a daily meal to students of township schools in Soweto.[42][43]

From 1964 to 1966 he was married to singer and activist Miriam Makeba.[44][45] He had subsequent marriages to Chris Calloway (daughter of Cab Calloway), Jabu Mbatha and Elinam Cofie.[16] He was the father of American television host Sal Masekela.[43] Poet, educator, and activist Barbara Masekela is his younger sister.[46]

Masekela died in Johannesburg on the early morning of 23 January 2018 from prostate cancer, aged 78.[44][47][48]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Masekela

[beechnut79]

(01-15-2018, 11:18 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Very old actress, largely forgotten now because she retired from screen acting in her late 30s in the early 1960s.  Important in her time enough to get high billing:

Bennie Jean Porter (December 8, 1922 – January 13, 2018) was an American film and television actress. She was notable for her roles in The Youngest Profession (1943), Bathing Beauty (1944), Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945), Till the End of Time (1946), Cry Danger (1951), and in The Left Hand of God (1956).

Porter was notable for her marriage with Edward Dmytryk, who was one of the Hollywood Ten, the most prominent blacklisted group in the film industry during the McCarthy-era.[1]

In addition to Ms. Porter, another long forgotten actress of the same time frame passed over the last weekend. Dorothy Malone, 93, was perhaps best known for her portrayal of the nymphomanic daughter of a Texas oil tycoon in "Written on the Wind", a movie largely thought to have set the stage for later TV dramas of dysfunctional well-off families such as "Dallas" and Dynasty".





Porter was born in Cisco, Texas.[2] Porter was named the "Most Beautiful Baby" in Eastland County when she was 1.[1] At age 10, she had her own half-hour radio show on the WRR station in Fort Worth and landed a summer vaudeville job headlining with Ted Lewis and his band.[1]
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At the age of 12, Porter arrived at Hollywood and was discovered while taking dancing lessons at the Fanchon and Marco dancing school.[3] Porter was discovered by director Allan Dwan, who gave her an uncredited role in his musical Song and Dance Man (1936), starring Claire Trevor.[4]



Porter in the trailer for Twice Blessed (1945)

Beginning with a bit parts in movies such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) and One Million B.C. (1940), she eventually established herself as an actress for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941.[5][6]

While never a big star, she was active throughout the 1940s, appearing in almost 30 motion pictures alongside MGM stars like Esther Williams, Mickey Rooney and the comedy duo Abbott & Costello.[1] In the 1950s, Porter appeared mainly in television series such as The Red Skelton Show, Sea Hunt, and 77 Sunset Strip.[3] She retired from acting in 1961.[1] MGM had loaned out Porter to RKO so she could step in for Till the End of Time.[3]

She was married to film director and writer Edward Dmytryk, who was one of the Hollywood Ten, the most prominent blacklisted group in the film industry during the McCarthy-era.[1] The two married May 12, 1948, in Ellicott City, Maryland.[7] They had three children.[8] Porter and Dmytyrk had fled to England in the late 1940s after he was blacklisted as one of the Hollywood Ten for refusing to answer charges that he was a communist.[1] They returned to the U.S. in 1951, and he served six months in prison for contempt of Congress.[3]

Porter wrote several books, including the unpublished The Cost of Living, about her and her husband; Chicago Jazz and Then Some, about their L.A. neighbor, jazz pianist [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jess_Stacy]Jess Stacy; and, with Dmytryk, On Screen Acting.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Porter

[beechnut79]

In addition to Ms. Porter, another long forgotten actress of the same time frame passed over the last weekend. Dorothy Malone, 93, was perhaps best known for her portrayal of the nymphomanic daughter of a Texas oil tycoon in "Written on the Wind", a movie largely thought to have set the stage for later TV dramas of dysfunctional well-off families such as "Dallas" and Dynasty".

Another recent passing was that of soul and blues singer Denise LaSalle. While never attaining much commercial chart success, she neverless enjoyed a cult following among afficiandos of this type of music ala Irma Thomas.

[pbrower2a]

A warning to America's youth and young adults: no matter how easy the job looks, how enticing the money is and whatever promises some porn impresario offers (this is the fast track to the movie studios!), stay clear of the porn biz. There are plenty of exploitative employers who will work you as hard as possible for a travesty of a living, but at least those prove character including the one attribute that the Master Class cherishes in the common man: the willingness to suffer for the gain, indulgence, and power of the cruel bastards who really rule America.

Yes, pornography attracts troubled people... but so does all hard, ill-paid work. Farm laborers do not have a high suicide rate.

....................................

Adult actress Olivia Lua died Thursday in Las Vegas. Lua's agency, LA Direct Models, announced her passing in a statement quoted by XBIZ.

In many of the photos she posted on her Instagram, Olivia Lua looked thoughtful. Maybe appraising her look in a selfie, maybe wondering how her followers would react to her pics.

It's hard to figure out what was on her mind, and it's also hard to determine why people—men or women—go into porn at all. What does seem clear is that it's consuming them. And killing them.

LA Direct Models head Derek Hay reportedly acknowledged something that is obvious at this point: This kind of tragedy is becoming commonplace.

“Much comment has recently been made on the number of adult stars having passed in the last year," Hays reportedly said, "and with great sadness we must inform that the list has grown longer. May she rest in peace.”

In the last month and a half alone, the following deaths have hit the porn world hard:

- Adult actress August Ames committed suicide after an avalanche of cyber-bullying.

- 20-year-old LA Direct Models client Olivia Nova died, her cause of death unknown.

- Yuri Luv died from a drug overdose.

- And Shyla Stylez, 35, also passed from unknown causes.

Rolling Stone reports that these performers dying in the prime of life has the porn industry at large understandably concerned:

But the rash of sudden, consecutive deaths has prompted some performers to call for change in an industry with a low barrier to entry, minimal oversight and nearly non-existent job security despite extreme working conditions. Unlike pre-Internet porn stars, performers today face the added pressures of social media interactions, increased competition without increased pay and a demand for more physically taxing sex scenes – all of which can exacerbate existing mental health or substance abuse issues. So is the adult industry doing enough to protect its performers?

AVN Hall of Famer Ruby told Rolling Stone that as far as she's concerned, the porn industry "really don't care whether we die or not."

"In fact," Ruby continued, "I'm going to be probably a little crass here, but this is true: They'd prefer we die because they can make money off of us forever."

https://www.maxim.com/news/porn-star-oli...-23-2018-1

At least if you work in a fast-food place:

1. You have protection from sexual harassment. Porn is sexual harassment at its purest.
2. No embarrassing photos of you from your work will haunt you for the rest of your life.
3. You will not feel pressures to participate in the mindless consumerism that degrades life.
4. You can make money for college, preparing for a trade, or starting a business.
5. Work assignments will be varied, but you might find out what specialization to enter. Specialization, whether in clerical work, customer service or in operating a machine may lead to sub-average pay, but at least that is not poverty.
6. You can live in a low-cost area if you so wish if you think that big cities are human jungles.
7. You learn good habits useful in life.
8. You will be around more people that you can trust.

[pbrower2a]

Mort Walker, cartoonist (Beetle Bailey)

Addison Morton "Mort" Walker (September 3, 1923 – January 27, 2018) was an American comic strip writer, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954. He signed Addison to some of his strips.


Walker was born in El Dorado, Kansas, and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri.[1] He had his first comic published at age 11 and sold his first cartoon at 12.[2] At age 14, he regularly sold gag cartoons to Child Life, Flying Aces, and Inside Detective magazines.[1] When he was 15, he drew a comic strip, The Lime Juicers, for the weekly Kansas City Journal, and at age 18, he was the chief editorial designer for Hallmark Cards.[3]

Graduating from Northeast High School, he attended the University of Missouri, where today a life-sized bronze statue of Beetle Bailey stands in front of the alumni center.[4]
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In 1943, Walker was drafted into the United States Army and served in Italy, where he was an intelligence and investigating officer and was also in charge of an Allied camp for German POWs.[2] After the war he was posted to Italy where he was in charge of an Italian guard company.[5] He was discharged as a first lieutenant in 1947.[5] He graduated in 1948 from the University of Missouri, where he was the editor and art director of the college's humor magazine, Showme, and was president of the local Kappa Sigma chapter.[1]

In addition to books about comics and children's books, Walker has collected his strips into 92 "Beetle Bailey" paperbacks and 35 "Hi and Lois" paperbacks, plus writing his autobiography, Mort Walker's Scrapbook: Celebrating a Life of Love and Laughter.[1]

In his book The Lexicon of Comicana (1980), written as a satirical look at the devices cartoonists use, Walker invented a vocabulary called Symbolia.[6] For example, Walker coined the term "squeans" to describe the starbusts and little circles that appear around a cartoon's head to indicate intoxication.[2] The typographical symbols that stand for profanities, which appear in dialogue balloons in the place of actual dialogue, Walker called "grawlixes".[2]

In 2006, he launched a 24-page magazine, The Best of Times, distributed free throughout Connecticut and available online.[1] It features artwork, puzzles, editorial cartoons, ads, and a selection of articles, comics and columns syndicated by King Features.[6] His son, Neal Walker, was the editor and publisher. Between 2006 and 2010, they published 27 issues.[11]

More from Wikipedia.
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mort_Walker#cite_note-11]

[pbrower2a]

IKEA founder

Ingvar Feodor Kamprad (Swedish: [ˈɪŋːvar ˈkamːprad] ( listen); 30 March 1926 – 27 January 2018) was a Swedish business magnate. He was the founder of IKEA, a multinational retail company specializing in furniture. He lived in Switzerland from 1976 to 2014.


Kamprad began to develop a business as a young boy. He started selling matches at the age of five. When he was seven he began travelling further afield on his bicycle to sell to neighbours. He found he could buy matches in bulk very cheaply from Stockholm, sell them individually at a low price, and still make a good profit. From matches, he expanded to selling fish, Christmas tree decorations, seeds, and later ballpoint pens and pencils. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him a cash reward for succeeding in his studies.[6]

IKEA was founded in 1943, selling replicas of Kamprad's uncle Ernst's kitchen table.[7] In 1948, Kamprad diversified his portfolio, adding furniture. His business was mostly mail order.[7] The acronym IKEA is made up of the initials of his name (Ingvar Kamprad) plus those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born, and the nearby village Agunnaryd.[8]
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In June 2013, Kamprad resigned from the board of Inter IKEA Holding SA and his youngest son Mathias Kamprad replaced Per Ludvigsson as the chairman of the holding company. Following his decision to step down, the then-87-year-old founder explained, ”I see this as a good time for me to leave the board of Inter IKEA Group. By that we are also taking another step in the generation shift that has been ongoing for some years.” Mathias and his two older brothers, who also have leadership roles at IKEA, work on the corporation's overall vision and long-term strategy.[9]

The Dutch-registered Stichting INGKA Foundation is named after Ingvar Kamprad (i.e., ING + KA) who owns INGKA Holding, the parent company for all IKEA stores. In May 2006 the charitable foundation was reported by The Economist to be the world's wealthiest charity, however the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has since become larger. Despite its large endowment its primary purpose is corporate tax-minimisation and anti-takeover protection for IKEA.[10] Kamprad was chairman of the foundation.

According to an article in the Swedish business weekly Veckans Affärer in 2004,[11] Kamprad was one of the world's wealthiest people. This report was based on the assumption that Kamprad owned the entire company, an approach both IKEA and the Kamprad family rejected. Kamprad retained little direct ownership in the company, having transferred his interest to Stichting INGKA Foundation and INGKA Holding as part of a complex tax sheltering scheme that leaves his actual degree of control vague.[10]

In March 2010, Forbes magazine estimated Kamprad's fortune at US$23 billion, making him the eleventh richest person in the world. A year later, he fell to 162nd after his lawyers produced documents proving that the foundation he established and heads in Liechtenstein owns IKEA, and that its bylaws bar him and his family from benefiting from its funds.[12] In June 2015, Kamprad was listed as the eighth wealthiest person in the world in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of $43.2 billion.[1] Forbes reported Kamprad's net worth as of February 2016 to be $3.4 billion.[12]

More at Wikipedia.
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvar_Kamprad#cite_note-Forbes-12]

[pbrower2a]

IKEA founder

Ingvar Feodor Kamprad (Swedish: [ˈɪŋːvar ˈkamːprad] ( listen); 30 March 1926 – 27 January 2018) was a Swedish business magnate. He was the founder of IKEA, a multinational retail company specializing in furniture. He lived in Switzerland from 1976 to 2014.


Kamprad began to develop a business as a young boy. He started selling matches at the age of five. When he was seven he began travelling further afield on his bicycle to sell to neighbours. He found he could buy matches in bulk very cheaply from Stockholm, sell them individually at a low price, and still make a good profit. From matches, he expanded to selling fish, Christmas tree decorations, seeds, and later ballpoint pens and pencils. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him a cash reward for succeeding in his studies.[6]

IKEA was founded in 1943, selling replicas of Kamprad's uncle Ernst's kitchen table.[7] In 1948, Kamprad diversified his portfolio, adding furniture. His business was mostly mail order.[7] The acronym IKEA is made up of the initials of his name (Ingvar Kamprad) plus those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born, and the nearby village Agunnaryd.[8]
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In June 2013, Kamprad resigned from the board of Inter IKEA Holding SA and his youngest son Mathias Kamprad replaced Per Ludvigsson as the chairman of the holding company. Following his decision to step down, the then-87-year-old founder explained, ”I see this as a good time for me to leave the board of Inter IKEA Group. By that we are also taking another step in the generation shift that has been ongoing for some years.” Mathias and his two older brothers, who also have leadership roles at IKEA, work on the corporation's overall vision and long-term strategy.[9]

The Dutch-registered Stichting INGKA Foundation is named after Ingvar Kamprad (i.e., ING + KA) who owns INGKA Holding, the parent company for all IKEA stores. In May 2006 the charitable foundation was reported by The Economist to be the world's wealthiest charity, however the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has since become larger. Despite its large endowment its primary purpose is corporate tax-minimisation and anti-takeover protection for IKEA.[10] Kamprad was chairman of the foundation.

According to an article in the Swedish business weekly Veckans Affärer in 2004,[11] Kamprad was one of the world's wealthiest people. This report was based on the assumption that Kamprad owned the entire company, an approach both IKEA and the Kamprad family rejected. Kamprad retained little direct ownership in the company, having transferred his interest to Stichting INGKA Foundation and INGKA Holding as part of a complex tax sheltering scheme that leaves his actual degree of control vague.[10]

In March 2010, Forbes magazine estimated Kamprad's fortune at US$23 billion, making him the eleventh richest person in the world. A year later, he fell to 162nd after his lawyers produced documents proving that the foundation he established and heads in Liechtenstein owns IKEA, and that its bylaws bar him and his family from benefiting from its funds.[12] In June 2015, Kamprad was listed as the eighth wealthiest person in the world in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of $43.2 billion.[1] Forbes reported Kamprad's net worth as of February 2016 to be $3.4 billion.[12]

More at Wikipedia.
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvar_Kamprad#cite_note-Forbes-12]

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(WJBK) - Author and MoCAD founder Julia Reyes Taubman passed away Sunday morning at her home in Bloomfield Hills, after a courageous battle against cancer. She was 50 years old.

Julia, active in the national arts community, was a founder and board chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MoCAD), a member of the Board of Governors of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and a former board member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

An accomplished documentary photographer, her book, Detroit: 138 Square Milles, was published in 2012 with a forward by bestselling Detroit author Elmore Leonard, with whom she developed a great friendship.

Born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, Julia, known best to her friends as "Julie," was a member of the Reyes family, owners of Chicago-based food and beverage distributors Reyes Holdings LLC, one of the nation's largest privately held companies. She married Robert Taubman in 1999.

"I and our children were blessed to have her in our lives," said Robert Taubman.

"Julie's extraordinary strength, free spirit, deep love for her family, and her memory will forever be a comfort and inspiration for us all," he said.

WJBK-TV, FoX 2, Detroit.

http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-ne...-of-cancer

[pbrower2a]

Louis Zorich (February 12, 1924 – January 30, 2018)[1] was an American actor. He is perhaps best known to television audiences for his portrayal of Paul Reiser's father, Burt Buchman, on the NBC series Mad About You. He played the role from 1993 to 1999.

Zorich was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Croatian immigrants Anna (née Gledi) and Christ Zorich.[2] He attended Earle Elementary School[3] before going on to attend Roosevelt College and Goodman Theater School of Drama in his hometown of Chicago.[4] Zorich has been married to Academy Award winning actress Olympia Dukakis since 1962. They have three children together. Louis' nephew, Chris Zorich,[5] is a former defensive tackle who played in college for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and in the National Football League for the Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins.

In 1965, Zorich recorded and released an album on Folkways Records, entitled Moby Dick: Selections Read by Louis Zorich. One of Zorich's first major film roles was the Russian Constable in the 1971 film Fiddler on the Roof. He was featured in Popi and For Pete's Sake and played the role of Pete in the 1984 film The Muppets Take Manhattan. In 1986 he played a Swiss businessman in Club Paradise with Robin Williams, and in 1988 appeared as Nikos, the Greek millionaire, part of a group arriving in a yacht party, in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Steve Martin and Michael Caine. He also had a co-starring role in the critically acclaimed, albeit short-lived, TV comedy Brooklyn Bridge playing family patriarch Jules Berger.

He also starred in the 1976 Broadway play Herzl.

He also edited the anthology What Have You Done: The Inside Stories of Auditioning from the Ridiculous to the Sublime.

Zorich was on the faculty of HB Studio in New York City.

from Wikipedia

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Son of Fidel Castro:

Fidel Ángel Castro Díaz-Balart (September 1, 1949 – February 1, 2018) was the eldest son of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Castro's first wife, Mirta Diaz-Balart.[1][2][3][4] The couple divorced prior to the Cuban Revolution in which Castro seized power in that country, and Mirta moved to Miami, United States, with the Diaz-Balart family,
taking her son with her. Castro Diaz-Balart returned to Cuba as a child to visit his father, but was kept there thereafter for the rest of his childhood.[5] Mario Diaz-Balart, his cousin, is a U.S. congressman, representing Florida's 25th district.
Castro Díaz-Balart studied in the Soviet Union, and was placed in charge of Cuba's nuclear power program for a time, until he had a falling out with his father. He led the Juragua Nuclear Power Plant construction program from 1980 to 1992. He had three children — Mirta María, Fidel Antonio and José Raúl — with Natasha Smirnova, whom he met in Russia. After divorcing Smirnova, he married María Victoria Barreiro from Cuba.[6]

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Castro Díaz-Balart committed suicide on February 1, 2018, aged 68. He had previously received outpatient care for [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_depressive_disorder]depression.[7][8][9]

He died 1 years and 68 days after death of his father.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Cast...Daz-Balart

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Nicholas von Hoffmann

Nicholas von Hoffman (October 16, 1929 – February 1, 2018) was an American journalist and author. He worked as a community organizer for Saul Alinsky in Chicago for ten years from 1953 to 1963.[1] He wrote for the Washington Post. Later, TV audiences knew him as a "Point-Counterpoint" commentator for CBS's 60 Minutes,[2] from which Don Hewitt fired him in 1974. He was also a columnist for The Huffington Post.

Much more here.

[pbrower2a]

This Chinese man must have an interesting (and quite possibly harrowing, at times) story in view of what he studies, as such was not 'politically correct' under Mao:

Su Bai (Chinese: 宿白; Wade–Giles: Su Pai; 3 August 1922 – 1 February 2018) was a Chinese archaeologist who served as the first head of the Department of Archaeology of Peking University from 1983 to 1988. Known for his pioneering research in the archaeology of Buddhism, he won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chinese Archaeology Society in 2016.[1][2]

Su Bai was born on 3 August 1922 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province.[3] He was admitted to the Department of History of Peking University (PKU) in 1940, and after graduating in 1944, he pursued graduate studied in archaeology with PKU's Institute of Humanities.[1] In addition to archaeology, he studied related subjects under famed scholars who taught at PKU, including history of Sino-foreign relations under Feng Chengjun (zh), Chinese mythology with Sun Zuoyun (孙作云), oracle bones from Rong Geng (zh), and history of Buddhism from Tang Yongtong (zh). His student Zhang Zhongpei (zh), the future president of the Beijing Palace Museum, described his knowledge as "encyclopedic".[1]

In 1950, Su began working in field research and excavation. In 1951–1952, he led the excavation of three Song dynasty tombs in Baisha, Yuzhou, Henan, and published the excavation report, The Song Tombs at Baisha, in 1957. Combining his expertise in both history and archaeology, the report made incisive analyses of the Song dynasty society and customs based on the discovery,[1], although he failed to consider the possibility that the paintings in the tomb might depict an imaginary spiritual world rather than the occupants' real life.[4] The report remains influential in academia 70 years after its publication.[1]

Su was recognized as a leading authority in the archaeology of Buddhism.[1] He began studying Chinese Buddhist grottoes in 1947. In 1978, he published an article in the journal Acta Archaeologica Sinica, which questioned the dating and periodization of the Yungang Grottoes by Seiichi Mizuno (ja) and Toshio Nagahiro (ja), authorities of archaeology of Buddhism in Japan. After a few rounds of debate in academic journals, Nagahiro changed his position and accepted Su's arguments.[1][5]

Su also proposed groundbreaking dating of the Kizil Caves in the Silk Road oasis town of Kucha, revising the dating by earlier German archaeologists.[6]

When Peking University established its Department of Archaeology in 1983, Su was named its first head.[1] Many of his students became renowned archaeologists, including Hang Kan (杭侃), head of the School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University; Zhang Zhongpei, president of the Palace Museum; Fan Jinshi (樊锦诗), president of the Dunhuang Research Academy; An Jiayao (安家瑶), fellow of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and head of its Xi'an Station. He retired in 2004 after a career lasting more than 50 years.[1]

He was known as a strict teacher and a meticulous scholar. Even after Fan Jinshi became a renowned expert, Su disapproved of the first drafts of her archaeological report of the Dunhuang Grottoes. it took another five years' revision before the report was finally published in 2011.[1]

Despite a lifelong career in archaeology, Su collected not antiques but books. Out of four rooms in his house, three were dedicated to his book collection, which by 2010 had exceeded 10,000 volumes and included many rare books.[1] In that year he donated all his books to the Peking University Library, which established the Su Bai Reading Room to host the collection.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Bai

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Olympic sprinter, gold medalist, from 1948:

Clifford Frederick Bourland (January 1, 1921 – February 1, 2018)[1][2] was an American athlete who won a gold medal in the 4x400 m relay at the 1948 Summer Olympics.

Born in Los Angeles, California, of a German mother and an American father, Bourland ran in a competition for the first time in 1932. Graduating from Venice High School in Los Angeles, Bourland enrolled to University of Southern California and was coached by the famous Dean Cromwell. Bourland won the AAU championships in 400 m and the NCAA championships in 440 yd in 1942 and 1943. During the World War II, Bourland served in the Navy as a captain of a landing craft tank. At the London Olympics, Bourland was fifth in 200 m and won the gold medal as a member of American 4x400 m relay team, running the second leg in 47.3 seconds.[3]

After the Olympics, Bourland retired from sports. After a failed attempt to start a career in municipal politics, he was hired by an insurance company. In 1984 he was a part owner of the mortgage banking firm called Norris, Biggs and Simpson.[1]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Bourland

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He sounds important in his field even if his achievements are out of my range even of understanding.

Joseph Polchinski (May 16, 1954 – February 2, 2018) was an American theoretical physicist and string theorist.[2][3]



  Polchinski graduated from Canyon del Oro High School in Tucson, Arizona in 1971, obtained his B.S. degree from Caltech in 1975, and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1980 under the supervision of Stanley Mandelstam. After postdoctoral positions at SLAC (1980–82) and Harvard (1982–84) he was professor at the University of Texas at Austin from 1984 to 1992. Since 1992 he has been professor in the Physics Department of the University of California, Santa Barbara and a permanent member of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics there.[4]

Polchinski wrote the two-volume textbook String Theory, published in 1998. Among his many contributions to theoretical physics, D-branes are the best known. In 2008 he won the Dirac Medal for his work in superstring theory.[5] He won the 2017 Fundamental Physics Prize.[6]

In an unpublished communication to Kip Thorne circa 1990, commenting on the Novikov self-consistency principle (in relation to sending objects or people through a traversable wormhole into the past, and the time paradoxes that could result), Polchinski raised a potentially paradoxical situation involving a billiard ball sent through a wormhole which sends it back in time. In this scenario, the ball is fired into a wormhole at an angle such that, if it continues along that path, it will exit the wormhole in the past at just the right angle to collide with its earlier self, thereby knocking it off course and preventing it from entering the wormhole in the first place. Thorne dubbed this problem "Polchinski's paradox" in 1994.[7] Later students of the whimsical problem came up with solutions which managed to avoid any inconsistencies, by having the ball emerge from the future at a different angle than the one used to generate the paradox, and deliver its younger self a glancing blow instead of knocking it completely away from the wormhole, a blow which changes its trajectory in just the right way so that it will travel back in time with the angle required to deliver its younger self this glancing blow.[7]

In an unpublished communication to Kip Thorne circa 1990, commenting on the Novikov self-consistency principle (in relation to sending objects or people through a traversable wormhole into the past, and the time paradoxes that could result), Polchinski raised a potentially paradoxical situation involving a billiard ball sent through a wormhole which sends it back in time. In this scenario, the ball is fired into a wormhole at an angle such that, if it continues along that path, it will exit the wormhole in the past at just the right angle to collide with its earlier self, thereby knocking it off course and preventing it from entering the wormhole in the first place. Thorne dubbed this problem "Polchinski's paradox" in 1994.[7] Later students of the whimsical problem came up with solutions which managed to avoid any inconsistencies, by having the ball emerge from the future at a different angle than the one used to generate the paradox, and deliver its younger self a glancing blow instead of knocking it completely away from the wormhole, a blow which changes its trajectory in just the right way so that it will travel back in time with the angle required to deliver its younger self this glancing blow.[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Polchinski

A letter from the Chancellor of the Unioversity of California, Santa Barbara:

February 2, 2018
Dear Members of our Campus Community,

I am deeply saddened to share with you the news that Professor Emeritus Joseph
Polchinski passed away this morning, at home with his beloved wife, Professor Dorothy
Chun. I had the honor of visiting with Joe and Dorothy on January 21 and expressing
our enduring gratitude for Joe’s leadership, collegiality, and monumental contributions to
our campus and the global scientific community.

Dr. Polchinski joined our Physics faculty in 1992. He was a permanent member of our
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Pat and Joe Yzurdiaga Professor of
Theoretical Physics. Prior to joining UC Santa Barbara, he was on the faculty at the
Univ
ersity of Texas at Austin, and served as a research associate at the Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center (SLAC) and at Harvard. He received his B.S. in Physics from
Caltech and his Ph.D. in Physics from UC Berkeley. He became professor emeritus in
March 2017, but continued to visit campus, attend lectures, and talk with colleagues.
His memoir, Memories of a Theoretical Physicist, was published last year.


Professor Polchinski was a brilliant and original thinker, renowned for his discovery of
D-branes, extended structures that appear to be central to the mathematics and physics
of string theory, and most recently for his advancement of the black hole firewall
hypothesis. He was the author of a widely used text on string theory, published by
Cambridge University Press. Early career recognitions, including a Hertz FoundationGraduate Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, were followed by numerous honors for his leading
contributions to fundamental physics. He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society
and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the
National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He
was awarded the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics from the American
Physical Society in 2007, the Dirac Medal of the International Center for Theoretical
Physics in 2008, and the Physics Frontiers Prizes in 2013 and 2014. Just last year, he
was awarded the 2017 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, a $3-
million prize shared with two other physicists, “for transformative advances in quantum field theory, string theory, and quantum gravity.”



Joe was known for climbing mountains, both intellectual and literal. Many of our
colleagues fondly remember epic bike rides with him to the top of Gibraltar and Old San
Marcos Pass, discussing life and physics all the way. He set his sights high and navigated fearlessly over all obstacles in order to achieve the extraordinary, encouraging and inspiring others along the way.


His research has had a profound and lasting impact on our understanding of the universe. Throughout his career, he demonstrated tremendous creativity and insight not only in discovering new scientific truths, but also in communicating these complex ideas in a highly accessible and thought-provoking way. I still vividly remember his lively Faculty Research Lecture in 2014 on “Space-Time Versus the Quantum.” Through his bold ideas, unique insights, and rigorous pursuit of the deepest and most challenging questions, he left an indelible mark on all who were fortunate enough to learn from him and collaborate with him.


Professor Polchinski will be dearly missed by our entire UC Santa Barbara family. Our hearts and thoughts go out to Dorothy and their sons, Steven and Daniel, and to all of Joe’s family, friends, and colleagues around the world. Our campus flag will be lowered

in his honor. 



Sincerely,

Henry T. Yang
Chancellor

https://chancellor.ucsb.edu/memos/?2.2.2...Polchinski

[gabrielle]

Dennis Edwards (February 3, 1943 – February 1, 2018) was the lead singer for the Temptations from 1968 to 1976, 1980 to 1984 and 1987 to 1989.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Edwards