Today in History (04.07.2013)

* News that Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse, has died at 88 (passed away on 02.07.2013);
* NASA decommissions weather satellite Jason-I (11), because the satellite's last transmitter finally failed;
* King Albert II of Belgium (79) announced that he will abdicate on July 21.

In other news:

Europe
* France apologizes: Je Suis Sorry;
* And now it's been reported that France's own French Fries are not much different from Freedom Fries somewhere far, far away;
* while in

United States
* ...most everyone else rather ungratiously confirms what has been going on all along at the Ministries of Peace, Love, and Truth.
* A huge wildfire in Arizona still remains out of control.

Middle East
* Egypt's military stage a coup yesterday, installing a judge to be acting president today. The U.S. threatens withdrawal of aid to Egypt, while Israel tries to be nice.

Science and tech
* Vine and Instagram fight like a cat and dog: competition in video sharing functionality heats up. Ten years ago we would not have known what these things even are;
* Livers can be grown in laboratory from stem cells. We really are living the future.

Obituaries, John Hughes, and feelings

This is the best obituary that I have ever read so far — one remembering John Hughes, a filmmaker who's films have defined the look and feel of 1980's youth.

The blog post reminded me of an obit poem I once wrote and published (granted, I won't publish the link to it here) to remember a young man who was killed in action. I wrote the poem, because I looked a the released document photo depicting him and suddenly felt infatuated of him. Even though he was dead.

When re-reading the poem I wrote, it now appears a bit cheesy and maybe rough around the edges, possibly a result of my infatuation at that time, but then decided to keep the poem intact, perhaps because it represents a snapshot of how I felt about the loss of a person I didn't know, but knew somehow that he was a good person, nevermind his occupation.