I.R.Baboon

I'm pretty sure he will still be obitable. There have been some more Islam-critic cartoonists-related incidents in recent years.

After seeing the images from last month, I didn't expect him to leave his house ever again (except for the hospital of worse) so this is surprising. But he's still old and frail.

My newspaper had an interview with A.B. Yehoshua, the last remaining great Israeli writer of his generation after Amos Oz and Aharon Appelfeld died (i'm just quoting the article, i'm not very much into the Israeli literal landscape..), and it said he's tired because his cancer has returned.

My dutch newspaper had a very in-depth obit: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/01/06/een-voor-nederland-te-uitgesproken-gigant-a4026328. He always seemed like a nice guy to me, very smart and very stubborn. The obits mentions him wearing cowboy boots and driving a motor cycle. I read somewhere else he named his software (which would eventually lead to his nobel prize) schoonschip to annoy non-dutchies cause it would be impossible to pronounce the ch, which makes a scraping g-sound in dutch.

That last photo reminds me of the brilliant David Thomas of Pere Ubu, who (apart from looking really unhealthy and hardly being able to walk anymore) said he almost died twice the past few years. Might not be famous enough, but at least DDP-worthy.

Fun fact: Beenhakker means leg chopper in Dutch.

With all those survivors from early lists dying this year I really think it's time for a Leo Beenhakker thread, the sole survivor of the 1991 list. Been willing to start one for many years (in fact, every time I read a snippet of news on him) but never really took the time, but I will for sure regret it if he passes away without thread. He's the former football trainer of (among many many other clubs) Real Madrid, Ajax and Feyenoord and of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago and Poland national team. I have no clue why he was on the 1991 list (i hope anyone else can shine a light on that) but but he's an avid cigar smoker, has had skin cancer in 2015 and he looks pretty pale nowadays. Plus he's 78 years old. He announced his retirement from the football world in 2015 but most likely he still is some kind of off-the-radar technical advisor at Sparta Rotterdam. Last news i can find is a radio interview in april this year, with Beenhakker complaining about sitting at home and feeling his life was over without being able to meet people and watching football.

Louis Andriessen has Alzheimer's and vascular dementia: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nu.nl/muziek/6094441/componist-louis-andriessen-81-lijdt-aan-dementie.amp (in Dutch) . He finished his last piece last year, but entered a care facility in march this year. In interviews from 2 years ago he sounded extremely lucid and erudite, so I guess his decline is pretty fast paced.

Science philosopher Bruno Latour has pancreatic cancer (cannot find an English source yet, but he says so in my Dutch newspaper today). Guaranteed obit, I guess.

Most likely dead (but I guess he expects us to remain sceptic) .. I really enjoyed the documentary An Honest liar, seemed like a nice (and eccentric) guy.

Yeah I know not every political leader is a statesman and well, the bar has been lowered but WTF dude, this is just bizarre nonsense.

Ria van Dijk AKA Luchtbuks Ria (Airgun Ria) turned 100 yesterday. She won't get an UK Obit but well, it's a more-or-less interesting story and - to my surprise - the Daily Mail has covered it in 2012 (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2095400/Ria-van-Dijk-takes-photograph-fairground-rifle-range-year-1936.html) Long story short: since 1936, she goes to the fairground in Tilburg to shoot at a shooting gallery. You would get a picture if you shoot the target. She just collected the pictures until around 2007 someone made an art book out of it and 2 years later she sold her collection to the Stedelijk Museum (spending the few thousand euros she received on a bus trip with friends to an organ museum and eating at a trout restaurant). She keeps on shooting every year. This year, the fairground was cancelled this year due to COVID, but as a surprise it came over to her care home.

My (Dutch) newspaper already has a very decent obituary (https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2020/04/12/wiskundige-conway-was-een-speels-genie-en-kenner-van-symmetrie-a3996590) , so I think at least SOME British paper should follow. But we'll see.. edit: added link

Well he's not an average mathematician. I hardly know of any mathimatician at all but Conway's game of life is one of my favorite 'i love the internet because of all the weird niches and subcultures' subjects. I absolutely love blogs like (from http://pentadecathlon.com/lifeNews/index.php ). No idea what it means, but it fascinates me, all those people spending hundreds of hours to develop a more efficient oscillator.

Still hanging with his homies