RIP the master maven: William Safire dead at 79 of cancer. As someone who worked with him behind the scenes to help him with research for his language columns, I'm thankful for his attempts to bring discussions of language into popular discourse, or as he called it, his work in "the language dodge." [more inside]
posted by Mo Nickels on Sep 27, 2009 - 61 comments

Every evening since July 2nd 1928*, at precisely eight o'clock, the Last Post has been played under the Menin Gate in Ieper (Ypres, "Wipers" as it was known to British tommies), Belgium. The ritual - performed by buglers from the local fire brigade - honours British and Commonwealth soldiers killed in the five battles at Ypres in the First World War. Today is the 27,888th day of the Last Post ceremony. [more inside]
posted by MuffinMan on Sep 26, 2009 - 16 comments

Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. and Robotic Technology Inc. have sent out a press release denying that their new robot will feed on the dead. "It's a vegetarian!", they claim. Desecration of the dead is a war crime under Article 15 of the Geneva Conventions, and is certainly not something sanctioned by DARPA, Cyclone or RTI. “We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission,” stated Harry Schoell, Cyclone’s CEO.
posted by dejah420 on Jul 22, 2009 - 48 comments

Walter Cronkite is dead.
posted by the dief on Jul 17, 2009 - 269 comments

Free Solo climbing - climbing without a rope, partner or protection - is clearly the most dangerous form of rock climbing. When practiced at the highest level it demands peerless physical skill and stamina and unshakable nerves. Few climbers have ever taken soloing to the extremes that John Bachar did. [more inside]
posted by tim_in_oz on Jul 7, 2009 - 79 comments

Billy Mays dead at 50 But wait, there's no more! [more inside]
posted by majikstreet on Jun 28, 2009 - 176 comments

Dead people having sex Immoral? Illegal? Shocking? Gunther von Hagens latest exhibit in London is again not without controversy. His website is here
posted by halekon on Jun 25, 2009 - 55 comments

NYT article 4/12/09 Interesting article about the Dead on the eve of their tour. Bonus: link on the sidebar that shows reader photos. Find your friends. Or not.
posted by mnb64 on Apr 14, 2009 - 25 comments

Wonder how many of the original Woodstock performers are still alive? The Woodstock Death Count reveals that the percentage is not as low as one might imagine after Jeff Kay steps up to the plate and crunches the numbers, again. FYI: He is also responsible for counting the number of f-words in the HBO series Deadwood (which Drudge Report linked to) and this (previously mentioned) internet sensation.)
posted by will wait 4 tanjents on Mar 17, 2009 - 45 comments

Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboardist Billy Powell, dead of an apparent heart attack, was 56.
posted by VicNebulous on Jan 28, 2009 - 21 comments

Left 4K Dead. Just you, in a dark corridor, with a torch, and a gun. And zombies. So many zombies.
posted by Happy Dave on Dec 23, 2008 - 33 comments

Keyboard wizzard and Jerry Garcia Band collaborator Merl Saunders dead. More in the Wiki entry.
posted by fixedgear on Oct 24, 2008 - 25 comments

Two cities in two days. Multiple injuries and several fatalities. The BJP has of course come out strong against the [ruling] Congress party for not trying to do enough to stop the menace of "terrorism" in the country, after having lost its fight to overthrow the government. Now, it is up to the Prime Minister to pick up the pieces and move on. [more inside]
posted by hadjiboy on Jul 26, 2008 - 11 comments

Peculiar corpses: "Incorruptibles remaining free of decomposition have baffled scientists to this day. These bodies are discovered in many different environments, including environments that would typically cause an accidental or deliberately preserved corpse to decompose rapidly." The photographed examples seem to all be associated with Christian faith. Hmm. "[At Oratorio di San Lorenzo] in Palermo, however, corpses are treated as characters in a play": The Museum of the Dead, reassuringly less preserved.
posted by nthdegx on May 30, 2008 - 67 comments

Four Thousand.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Mar 23, 2008 - 126 comments

Frozen Dead Guy Days. Thousands of waving spectators line the streets of Nederland, Colo. (pop. 1,394), as a parade filled with skeletons, helmeted Vikings, pompadoured Elvises and antique hearses makes its way down First Street to mark the beginning of Frozen Dead Guy Days—a celebration that’s part Mardi Gras, part county fair, and all tongue-in-cheek. The 2008 celebration will be held March 7-9.
posted by amyms on Feb 23, 2008 - 9 comments

Pere Ubu guitarist Jim Jones dead. Jones also played in The electric eels. [more inside]
posted by klangklangston on Feb 20, 2008 - 33 comments

Mixed With Love: The Musical World Of Walter Gibbons: "This tale begins with a skinny white DJ mixing between the breaks of obscure Motown records with the ambidextrous intensity of an octopus on speed. It closes with the same man, sick with Aids and all but blind, fumbling for gospel records as he spins up eternal hope in a fading dusk. In between, Walter Gibbons transformed the art of DJing and marked out the future co-ordinates of remixology." [more inside]
posted by Len on Feb 7, 2008 - 6 comments

A "thriving necropolis" - The North Cemetery in Manila is populated by thousands of families - many living in mausoleums and even making their livings in the service of the dead. [more inside]
posted by honeyx on Jan 24, 2008 - 11 comments

Hell’s Kitchen duo wheel friend’s corpse around midtown Manhattan to cash his Social Security check.
posted by Dave Faris on Jan 10, 2008 - 41 comments

Colma, CA is a necropolis created when San Francisco banned burials within the city limits in the late 1800's because of space and public health concerns. A town of 2.2 square miles, 73% is devoted to cemetaries and the dead outnumber the living thousands to one. Buckethead named an album after it. There's a musical about it (sort of). Other necropolises around the world.
posted by rollbiz on Dec 7, 2007 - 22 comments

Taxidermia! Animal furniture! Via tanned hides!
posted by parmanparman on Aug 16, 2007 - 5 comments

A milestone in the Iraq conflict.
posted by bobbyelliott on Aug 12, 2007 - 81 comments

Tommy Makem has passed. May a craic wake follow. Tommy Makem, he of the Clancy Brothers, and solo fame, has died of lung cancer. He will be missed. Raise a pint and sing a wee bit in his honor.
posted by bigskyguy on Aug 2, 2007 - 33 comments

[NewsFilter] Jerry Falwell was found unconscious in his office today and has since died. Exactly what did they mean by "heart challenges" ?
posted by scblackman on May 15, 2007 - 573 comments

Disco cellist Arthur Russell is the subject of a new documentary. MP3s for those who don't know him: Sidebar here, here, here (photo may be NSFW), more here.
posted by klangklangston on May 3, 2007 - 10 comments

Still lifes of dead animals.
posted by dios on Apr 4, 2007 - 39 comments

Nearby residents didn't seem too upset. No one claimed it was the work of aliens or a secret cult. 250 animal carcases dumped. Included coyotes, dogs, cats cows, the usual stuff. "I'm a little concerned about it,""Stuff like that happens," she shrugged. But the folks in the forums think otherwise and have opinions as to what should happen to the deed doers and the cause of their actions.
posted by mss on Mar 27, 2007 - 24 comments

The 50 Craziest Pop Stars Ever - unsurprisingly, there is some crossover with the 50 Most Awesomely Dead Rock Stars.
posted by madamjujujive on Feb 25, 2007 - 51 comments

Barbaro is dead. He was a horse. A horse with fans. Enjoy some fan videos. [mostly via]
posted by Sticherbeast on Jan 29, 2007 - 50 comments

James Brown ...just died
posted by hortense on Dec 25, 2006 - 284 comments

Adios Viejo! Pinochet dies!
posted by DieHipsterDie on Dec 10, 2006 - 111 comments

Blood-painting the inside of your car has got to suck. Ever wonder what happens when you hit a moose? Hint: it appears worse to your car than hitting a kangaroo. (warning, if you can't stand the sight of dead animals [even when they look cute in deathly repose], stay away)
posted by Kickstart70 on Oct 2, 2006 - 39 comments

Osama bin Dead for a month? PARIS (Reuters) - A French regional newspaper quoted a French secret service report on Saturday as saying that Saudi Arabia is convinced that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan last month.
posted by gregschoen on Sep 23, 2006 - 105 comments

Sven Nykvist leaves us. A master at the subtle manipulation of light, the multiple academy award winner and longtime Ingmar Bergman collaborator (including Persona, and the Through a Glass Darkly/Winter Light/The Silence trilogy) has passed away at 83.
more obits [1] [2] more about him [1] [2]
posted by juv3nal on Sep 21, 2006 - 22 comments

Sam Brown's powerbook lies a-mouldering in the grave. (Via Daring Fireball.)
posted by timeistight on Sep 20, 2006 - 51 comments

"Poor George. He can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth." Ann Richards, former democratic governor of Texas, has passed away from esophageal cancer. She was 73.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow on Sep 14, 2006 - 119 comments

"Life is wise to deceive us," he once wrote, "for had it told us from the start what it had in store for us, we would refuse to be born." --Naguib Mahfouz, RIP --and more from when he won the Nobel in 1988
posted by amberglow on Aug 30, 2006 - 20 comments

Casper the Friendly Ghost video One of the oddest animated characters still popular since the 1940's, Casper the Emotionally Needy Dead Boy continues to elicit uneasiness and distress in viewers. On the other hand, his catchy theme song* has inspired some*. *warning: sound
posted by maryh on Aug 17, 2006 - 37 comments

My post-mortem to-do checklist, so far: 1. Study marine biology. 2. Accessorize my hot, wealthy widow. 3. Relay a few spooky telegrams to my spooky new friends. 4. Try to look as suspicious as possible. And that's even before rigor mortis sets in!
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Aug 8, 2006 - 37 comments

"Good food, cold beer and pretty girls never go out of style." Robert H. Brooks, the 69-year-old Chairman of the 425-restaurant chain Hooters, has gone tits up has passed away.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow on Jul 17, 2006 - 68 comments

The Internet Before its Time. Telidon was a novel "two-way TV" system that debuted in Canada in 1978. It used NAPLPS, a basic vector-graphics protocol, for presentation and operated over a 1200 bps modem. It was never a commercial or technological success, but I was 10, it was 1981 and I was playing hangman... ONLINE.
posted by GuyZero on Mar 30, 2006 - 25 comments

Buck Owens 'Hee Haw' country star dies at 76
posted by hortense on Mar 25, 2006 - 58 comments

RIP Baruchito. The flagship hamster of Baruchito's homeCage has passed away after struggling with the stress of a flea infection and the medication applied to it. Baru was just a couple of months shy of three years -- which is a venerable old hamster age. While he may not have been as notorious as certain late pancake-stacked pets, Baru still lived a full life of fuzzy cuteness and aaaawww-inspiring photos. Those of you with hamsters, won't you arrange them now in missing-man formation?
posted by brownpau on Feb 7, 2006 - 17 comments

the dead puppet show - a brief photographic essay for those who are sated with seasonal saccharinity.
posted by madamjujujive on Dec 19, 2005 - 13 comments

Nipsey Russell, comedic "poet laureate of television," dead
The opposite of pro is con
That fact is clearly seen
If progress means move forward
Then what does Congress mean?
posted by me3dia on Oct 4, 2005 - 33 comments

Barbarism or good ole American capitalism? If you want to see the true face of war, go to the amateur porn Web site NowThatsFuckedUp.com. For almost a year, American soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan have been taking photographs of dead bodies, many of them horribly mutilated or blown to pieces, and sending them to Web site administrator Chris Wilson. In return for letting him post these images, Wilson gives the soldiers free access to his site. American soldiers have been using the pictures of disfigured Iraqi corpses as currency to buy pornography.
posted by halekon on Sep 23, 2005 - 136 comments

Novelist Saul Bellow is dead. "Goodness is achieved not in a vacuum, but in the company of other men, attended by love." Interviews: 1965, 1982, 1987. Partial bibliography. Saul Bellow Society. Wikipedia entry.
posted by Mo Nickels on Apr 5, 2005 - 53 comments

Ivan Noble has died. In a follow-up to this thread, Ivan Noble has died of a brain tumour, aged just 37.
posted by salmacis on Feb 3, 2005 - 13 comments

An Indonesian man was recently jailed for digging up and eating his neighbour's corpse and a Zambian man has been arrested for exhuming, cooking and eating his grandson's corpse. Most cultures have a strong taboo against eating the dead, even indirectly. This taboo has been exploited for intimidation and torture and by artists, writers and even game programmers (the latter resulting in bizarre code documentation). The practice of corpse eating is the subject of ancient myths and is embraced by at least one contemporary religious sect.
posted by Deepspace on Feb 1, 2005 - 14 comments