On A Pale Horse

Collector, Painter & Author of Das Boot

He passed away from heart failure

February 6, 1918 - February 22, 2007
RIP


sources
Buchheim Museum der Phantasie
Lothar Gunther Buchheim

Labels: 1918 births, 2007 February deaths, author, heart failure

Who knew the world of professional wrestling was so dangerous? The past few years a number of wrestlers or people closely associated with the wrestling circuit have died rather young. Miss Elizabeth, Eddie Guerrero, Mr Perfect, Owen Hart, British Bulldog Davy Boy Smith, too many others to mention and now Mike Awesome or as his momma named him Michael Alfonso.
Mike's wrestling career took off in Japan in the late 90's under the moniker of The Gladiator. From there he moved on to the ECW in 1998 and had great success with a fued between his character and Masato Tanaka. In 2003 he moved onto the WCW and his final career stop was in 2001 with the WWE. He retired in 2005 and concentrated on his real estate career.

Mr. Alfonso was found dead from an apparent suicide by hanging.

January 24, 1965 - February 17, 2007
RIP


sources:
Mike Awesome

Labels: 1965 births, 2007 February deaths, suicide, wrestler

Ok, Tim Hardaway, what's the big f-ing deal. So someone's different then you... so what? But it's not really my place to judge him like that... isn't this America, freedom of speech, as long as it's not in a burning theater? Whatever, the world is so fractured at this point it's going to take a lot more then me bitching on an itty bitty blog. I mean really, what the hell can I do? What the hell can anybody do?
Barbara Gittings didn't feel like that. She was one of the pioneering lesbian activist in the United States. During her first year at Northwestern she became close to another female student, this prompted her to examine her own sexuality. In 1958 she founded the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis. Later she became an editor of The Ladder, a lesbian newsletter. During the 1970's she joined the movement to have the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality as a mental disorder. Ms. Gittings also championed the movement to include gay literature in the American library; in 2003 she was made a honorary member of the American Library Association.

Ms. Gittings passed away from breast cancer. She was with survived by partner of 46 years, Kay Tobin Lahusen and her sister.

July 31, 1932 - February 18, 2007
RIP

sources:
Philadelphia Citypaper
GLBT History Month

Labels: 1913 births, 2007 February deaths, activist, cancer

Where oh where does the time go...
Oh yeah, I know, sitting in front of the damn TV, watching every bad basic cable show known to man, that is if I can stay awake long enough to actually make it to the final credits. As of late I've been spending more and more time on the love seat with the cat on my chest and one of the dogs at my side (no easy feat considering dog in question weighs 63 lbs at his vet appointment this past week); but at least I'm not stuck with one channel as it was back in the day.

Alder, originally born in Vienna, Austria, migrated to the US via England during World War 2 and started his career with Zenith in 1937. He worked with military communications until the war ended and then directed his attention to television. In 1955 the first concept of the TV remote invented by Eugene Polley, this was called the Flashomatic. The Flashomatic was popular but flawed. Robert Adler improved on the concept by having a remote that worked on ultra high frequencies that were generated by clicking on aluminum rods, this early version didn't require batteries at all. In the 1960's he further tweaked his invention by having the remote create ultra frequencies sounds electronically.

Adler continued working outside of the television industries and was granted 180 US patents, his most recent on February 1st of this year. In 1998 he, along with other Zenith engineers, were presented with an Emmy for "pioneering work in the development of the remote control".

Mr Alder passed away from heart failure in a Boise, Idaho nursing home.

1913 - February 15, 2007 - R.I.P.

sources:
Alder web information
Yahoo News

Labels: 1913 births, 2007 February deaths, heart failure, inventor