Our Daily Dead

We ODDfellows like the above quote from Steve Mizerak, National Pool Champion who is dead at age 61 from heart disease following gallbladder surgery. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, “Scary places those hospitals.” Mizerak gained national fame for his trick shots in Miller Lite beer commercials. He also played the character that got beaten in a pool tourney by Paul Newman in “The Color of Money.”

Speaking of sinking balls (now that is totally lame segue), Raymond Davis spent years underground in South Dakota’s Homestake gold mine, sitting next to a 100,000 gallon vat of dry cleaning fluid, trying to capture neutrinos from the sun. Check this out! When a neutrino hits a chloride ion, it produces radioactive argon, a sort of atomic “ding.” Davis had to work deep in the mine to get away from those pesky cosmic rays that would muck up his experiment. (Anyone who gets our little pun, please send us a comment. First winner gets a recording of Tuva throat singing of the Tasty Freeze jingle.) Davis, who received a Nobel prize for his work, died of Alzheimer’s at age 91.

It appears that 91 is a popular age to die today. This is the age of Perry Bass, Texas oilman and major league philanthropist. Bass, along with other members of his family, was a billionaire with a conscience. He made mega millions, and gave a lot of it away. In 2001 the Bass family had a little financial miscue, and had to sell Disney stock worth $2 billion to cover loans and margin calls. Gad, we ODDones felt devastated when we had to hold a garage sale to cover the veterinary bills for our Eclectus roratus after she ate one too many Papaver somniferum.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Steve Mizerak, Miller Lite, The Color of Money, Raymond Davis, Tuva throat singing, Perry Bass

from the NY Times
Isaac Asimov, the pre-eminent popular-science writer of the day and for more than 40 years one of the best and best-known writers of science fiction, died yesterday at New York University Hospital. He was 72 years old and lived in Manhattan.

He died of heart and kidney failure, said his brother, Stanley.

Mr. Asimov was amazingly prolific, writing nearly 500 books on a wide range of subjects, from works for preschoolers to college textbooks. He was perhaps best known for his science fiction and was a pioneer in elevating the genre from pulp-magazine adventure to a more intellectual level that dealt with sociology, history, mathematics and science. But he also wrote mysteries, as well as critically acclaimed books about the Bible, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, limericks, humor, Shakespeare, Gilbert and Sullivan, ancient and modern history, and many other subjects.

Mr. Asimov’s first book, ‘Pebble in the Sky’ (Ballantine), a science-fiction novel, was published in 1950. His first 100 books took him 237 months, or almost 20 years, until October 1969, to write. His second 100, a milestone he reached in March 1979, took 113 months, or about 9 1/2 years — a rate of more than 10 books a year. His third 100 took only 69 months, until December 1984, or less than 6 years.

‘Writing is more fun than ever,’ he said in a 1984 interview. ‘The longer I write, the easier it gets.’

Technorati Tags: Isaac Asimov, popular-science, writer, science fiction

from the Seattle Post Intelligencer
SEATTLE — A University of Washington medical professor who moved to Botswana to alleviate a doctor shortage was killed when a crocodile dragged him from a canoe, his family and colleagues said.

Dr. Richard K. Root, 68, was on a wildlife tour Sunday of the Limpopo River after visiting a clinic in the area.

He was in a lead canoe with tour guides when the crocodile thrust from the water, grabbed him and pulled him under, said Steve Gluckman, medical director of the Botswana program. He was not seen again.

The tour guides were wary of hippos, but there had been no reports of crocodile attacks in the area, Gluckman said.

Root was a nationally known expert in infectious disease and the former chief of medicine at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center.

He had moved to the southern African nation only this month to train health care workers to deal with AIDS.

Technorati Tags: University of Washington, Botswana, crocodile, Richard K. Root, Limpopo River