RIPs

[Professor Bear]

Moore was a real character and if it had been someone more dry or less distinctive, I don't think I'd have paid attention to all that poncy science stuff.  Did anyone catch that radio play tie-in to Independence Day where he starred as himself and had a bare knuckle brawl with an alien?  Also Gamesmaster: I don't think I can understate how huge that was with those of us of a certain age, poking fun at gaming and gamers in a good-natured way from within long before gaming became mainstream and flooded with failed "real" media arseholes whose only contribution was to sneer on cue.

* Coincidentally Patrick led at second-hand to my son getting into trouble in school on Friday, for (no doubt rudely) insisting that there were constellations called the Little Bear and Pegasus (only 'the Big Dipper' is on the curriculum ,it seems), and what's more he could point them out (he can), and that a micro-planet called Cruithne shares our orbit (it does).

So basically someone in the Irish education system has got into trouble for actually learning something?  I suppose it's a slippery slope: stars in the sky today, but tomorrow the little devil could be saying evolution is real, or that only doctors should practice medicine.

[shaolin_monkey]

Patrick Moore had mean xylophone skills.

[TordelBack]

..I asked for and received this magnum opus

I have the same book, from about the same time!

So basically someone in the Irish education system has got into trouble for actually learning something?

I briefly flared bright red with anger with thinking the very same thing, but then I visualised the relentless, implacable way my son (6) would have delivered these facts, loudly, forcefully, and preventing any forward progress in the lesson until his utter rightness was acknowledged, and I quickly sided with his teacher.  We have both felt the sting of his all-knowing scorn, she and I.

[vzzbux]

Patrick Moore is a british institution and seemed to have been around forever. He is looking down on us from among the stars now.




V

[shaolin_monkey]

Check out the xylophone skills in the last half of this clip:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngVAfMDtqf8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Spikes]

I've been pleasantly amazed to see him soldiering on for ages now, but that doesn't mean I can believe he's actually gone.

Still hasnt quite sunk in.
Really enjoyed catching the Sky at Night the last couple of years, after not having watched it for so long.I hope itll continue.
And chuckled at that recent-ish Radio Times interview were he warned us all to never trust the Germans!

[A.Cow]

Every month I sit and watch Sky At Night... and wonder how much longer we have this truly inspirational man.  Sadly,  no more.

It's no understatement to say that he was pretty much responsible for starting the careers &  hobbies of thousands of astronomers & scientists.

[Frank]

chuckled at that recent-ish Radio Times interview were he warned us all to never trust the Germans!

They did murder his fiancée, so you can understand the odd Stan Boardman-ism.

[Spikes]

They did murder his fiancée

Yes indeed. His fiancée was killed during an air raid, if i remember the interview correctly.
So, as you say, totally understandable.
And certainly it wasnt my intention to make like light of that, if thats how my post read.

[Heath C Ackley]

Its a shame. He was a great man and a true intellectual who brought astronomy to the masses. And he was a Star Wars fan! 

[Adrian Bamforth]

Did any papers run the headline "No more Mr Night Sky"?

[A.Cow]

Did any papers run the headline "No more Mr Night Sky"?

Took me a while to work that one out.  A puntastic career in newspaper editing awaits you...

[I, Cosh]

Ravi Shankar, at the tragically young age of 92. Apparently, when I was a very small child his music was guaranteed to get me to stop crying. I don't know whether he should take that as a compliment or an insult.

[Charlie boy]

Ravi Shankar, at the tragically young age of 92.

That is a shame. Does anybody know what the surgery was for? All reports only seem to say they hoped it would extend his life.

[Adrian Bamforth]

Apparently, when I was a very small child his music was guaranteed to get me to stop crying.

He must have been playing a baby sitar. I'm here all week...