[I know I didn't. Shame on me.]

Perhaps it is simply a reflection of a culture that places a premium on show-biz celebrity. Not to denigrate in any wise the memory of the likes of Prince, Robin Williams, Carrie Fisher and so on, but how many of the following got comparable news coverage?

Vera Rubin (1928-2016) - Confirmed the existence of dark matter.

Roger Tsien (1952-2016) - Nobel laureate for his work with cancer cells and Alzheimer's Disease.

Ray Tomlinson (1941-2016) - Inventor of modern email.

Edgar Mitchell (1930-2016) - Sixth man to walk on the moon.

Marvin Minsky (1927-2016) - Pioneer of artificial intelligence.

Bob Paine (1933-2016) - Marine ecologist, founder of the idea of 'keystone species'.

Ahmed Zewail (1946-2016) - Nobel chemist who invented a method of capturing molecular motions on the scale of 1 femtosecond.

Susan Lindquist (1949-2016) - Discovered the fundamentals of protein folding.

And many other scientists, researchers, engineers, and technologists of all disciplines. Again, not belittling the other celebrities who died, but should the death of the woman who confirmed dark matter, or the man who invented email merit more 'in memoriam' coverage in the news than they got? Certainly at least as much as an actress or a comedian.

Boru

Of course as someone who values intellectual pursuits, I find this unfortunate, but I fear it will ever be so because it appears more people simple prefer to be entertained rather than put in the hard work required for those intellectual pursuits.

(December 30, 2016 at 9:16 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: Of course as someone who values intellectual pursuits, I find this unfortunate, but I fear it will ever be so because it appears more people simple prefer to be entertained rather than put in the hard work required for those intellectual pursuits.

Solution: Ban entertainment!

Alternatively, we could do a better job educating people...I know, I know. Preposterous.

I did know about these, but only because I recently looked up a list of deaths this year. Otherwise, social media would not have kept me up to date on these.

(December 30, 2016 at 9:28 pm)Gemini Wrote: Alternatively, we could do a better job educating people...I know, I know. Preposterous.

It's a common and tired refrain on the Left that if you "educate" people, they will listen to more intellectual pursuits.

Some of the most intellectual people I've met can be rather anti-intellectual. Then there are those who just like stupid shit - they I can get along with, even if we do end up watching Nascar.

People, as a group, will always favor the entertaining over the abstract - probably because entertainment, by definition, entertains. No amount of smarts, book or street, defeats that.

(December 30, 2016 at 9:38 pm)Moros Synackaon Wrote: It's a common and tired refrain on the Left that if you "educate" people, they will listen to more intellectual pursuits.

Some of the most intellectual people I've met can be rather anti-intellectual. Then there are those who just like stupid shit - they I can get along with, even if we do end up watching Nascar.

People, as a group, will always favor the entertaining over the abstract - probably because entertainment, by definition, entertains. No amount of smarts, book or street, defeats that.

I'd compare the prevalence of anti-intellectualism among intellectuals to conservatism among atheists. Yeah, it exists. It's much less of a problem though.

That's only eight deaths.

Fuck, Vera Rubin died??! I wrote about her just recently.

"Father Mulcahy" died.