It is being reported that Freeman Dyson has passed away at the age of 96. While pop culture will remember him for popularizing the sphere, he worked with subjects in astrophysics, nuclear engineering, and the origins of life. His famous thought experiments are interesting for any sci-fi fan.
Category Archives: Obituary
“Hidden Figure” Katherine Johnson dead at 101
The pioneering mathematician overcame both gender and racial barriers to help humanity reach the moon in the 1960’s.
Johnson spent 35 years at NASA (and its predecessor NACA) where her calculations of orbital mechanics were critical to the success of the Mercury program and subsequent missions.
Monty Python’s Terry Jones passes away at 77
Terry Jones has passed away at the age of 77, after giving us some of our favorite quotes and most entertaining absurdist comedy. Below the cut is a video to see some of his songs. Rest well, Terry. Continue reading →
René Auberjonois dead at 79
René Auberjonois, whose numerous roles include Odo in Deep Space Nine, has died at the age of 79 from lung cancer.
He will be missed.
Star Trek Pioneer D.C. Fontana Has Passed Away
Dorothy Catherine “D.C.” Fontana has passed away at the age of 80 after a brief illness. She wrote for a variety of TV shows, including four Star Trek series, Babylon 5, and much more. She wrote the Star Trek novel, Vulcan’s Glory, which tells of Spock’s first mission aboard the Enterprise and explored Captain Pike’s “Number One” character (played by Majel Barret in the unaired pilot, “The Cage”).
In a male-dominated industry, she hid her gender using her initials (a common practice in those days for women writers).
Fontana wrote one of (if not the best) episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, “Yesteryear” as well as the DS9 episode “Dax” which explored the past hosts of Jadzia’s symbiote. She also wrote “Journey to Babel” for TOS, which introduced Spock’s parents, Sarek and Amanda.
Raise a glass of Romulan Ale, “To absent friends.”
RIP, Aron Eisenberg
Aron Eisenberg, best known for playing Nog on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has passed away at the age of 50 from unknown causes. He brought us a fantastic character and, I would argue, one of the best character arcs of any character in any Star Trek. Eisenberg brought a mischievous charm to the character, taking him from juvenile thief to Starfleet Lieutenant. He was also an ardent fan of Star Trek as a whole and ran a podcast, The 7th Rule along side friend and costar Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko). Continue reading →
Rutger Hauer dead at 75
The Dutch actor’s list of genre credits is long, but Hauer is probably best remembered as Roy Batty from Blade Runner.
Arson at Anime Studio Kyoto Animation kills 34, hospitalizes another 34.
This past week, a 41-year-old man doused the primary office building of the anime studio Kyoto Animation with gasoline, along with people as they left the building, and set it on fire. The blaze (reportedly due to the positioning of ignition sites) raced through the building, killing 34 people (20 women, 13 men, one unknown), and badly injured another 34. The building itself has been badly damaged, with computer servers and art on the site being a total loss. The arsonist was taken into custody at the scene and confessed to the crime to law enforcement.
Kyoto Animation’s work has included several anime series that have been reviewed on the site, including Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu and Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Other genre series they have produced include Violet Evergarden (which is currently available on Netflix), and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid (available on Netflix). They also received tremendous critical acclaim for the films A Silent Voice and Liz and the Blue Bird.
The staff of Bureau42 offers our condolences to the victims and families of the victims of this attack.
The names of the victims have not been officially released at this time. We ask that you refrain from speculating on the identity of the victims, and refrain from stating the name of the arsonist.
Mad Magazine, R.I.P.
After nearly seventy insane years, satiric Mad Magazine will cease publishing new material after August of this summer.
Issues of reprints will contain new cover art, and Mad may survive in some form.
I can’t say that I’ve paid much attention to it in decades, but I speak for many here when I say it played a huge part in my childhood.
But magazines have become difficult to maintain– and real life has grown nearly impossible to satirize!
UPDATE: Tom Richmond chronicles the fall of the House of Mad here.
Peter Mayhew, Requiescat in pace
Peter Mayhew, best-known for playing the 200-year-old Wookie in the Star Wars saga, is dead at the age of 74. The very tall (7’3″) actor leaves behind a wife and three children.