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British computer pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair dies aged 81;

Sir Clive made a name for himself in the 70s and 80s by producing a wide range of high technology products at prices ordinary people could afford, and without his influence on the industry, we would not have seen the enormous home computer boom that defined the UK in the early 80s and then spread across the rest of Europe. This is why games consoles from the likes of Nintendo and Sega never really gained significant UK market share until the latter half of the 80s despite ruling the roost for years across the pond. Compared to real computers, the consoles were (and still are in any meaningful way) closed platforms that were not accessible to enthusiast programmers, and that caused huge delays in console adoption in Europe. I have never owned a console, but I've owned a lot of computers, including Sir Clive's masterpiece, the ZX Spectrum.

RIP Sir Clive - You brought computing to the masses in a way that nobody else ever has, at a time when very few people had any real disposable income to spend on such luxury items
 
Probably not much known outwith UK - or has 'Only Fools and Horses' made the rounds in the USA?
But a well-loved comedy character:

Something I didn't know about 'Only Fools and Horses' - it's hugely popular in Serbia, especially Boycie -
they're going to name a street in Belgrade in his honour! :D

 
Although being a pessimist concerning the future of our human civilisation, I usually think, some things could not happen because human beings like us simply cannot be so silly or aggressive or simply mad.

But: Yes, we can! And I would like to remember these victims, because this worst case could also have happened to me or all of my colleagues who are working at the receptions of hotels or other service sectors all around the world. During the last two years, I think we all have rejected and denied possible guests or customers from entering our hotels or becoming our customers, because they were not wearing masks - no matter if they were drunk, silly, mad or fanatics or something different. For this and like all my colleagues, I was also called an idiot and an asshole - but I was lucky because I am a man and I can also be aggressive, but my female colleagues were sometimes so insulted that they cried later in the bureau of this hotel when they were alone - and after the last week-end, some are really now in fear to work at night in the hotels.
We all were only trying to protect our guests but many, many idiots cannot accept this.

And on Sunday evening, an absolutely senseless murder happened in "my" German governing district of Trier in West-Germany's federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate and no one here would have believed this could be possible in such a small city like Idar-Oberstein where still the most neighbors know each other:

A 20 year old male student who was working at night in a German gas station was shot dead by a mad customer who did not like to wear a protection mask against Covid-19 and this is the first time that something like this happened in Germany.


This is similar crazy and senseless like this crime which happened in France last year:


Even more incredible, in both cases, you still can find a lot of idiots in the internet, who feel pity for the murderers "fighting against Corona-dictatorships", not for their victims!

To be honest, I am glad that I will quit my job at the hotel's reception at the end of this month because in this moment, I do not like to see too many of us "human beings" for a long time.
But I feel a lot of pity for my colleagues there and in all kinds of service companies who are now even more living in fear than before.
 
Former England International player Jimmy Greaves MBE has passed away,at the age of 81,after a long illness. :(
His profilic goalscoring career was with the likes of Chelsea,Tottenham,A.C.Milan and West Ham.(pictured)
After he retired,he became a celebrated TV pundit with Liverpool's Ian St.John.
R.I.P Greavsie. 20/2/1940 - 19/9/2021

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I also find it frightening that he calmly went home, took the gun and then brutally murdered the young man.
Presumably the murderer will be released after 3 years because of good behaviour.
I feel so sorry for the student.
s/I am sure that he was just about to turn his life around/S- Sarcasm off.
 
I see, it is still a topic here, so I would like to add a few final thoughts about such senseless crimes because I also talked about this and other crimes yesterday with my hairdresser who emigrated from Odessa (Ukraine) to Germany.
She said that we in our German and French nations are almost too human in her opinion with such people because there is right now also a legal trial going on in the German city of Trier against the amok-driver who killed 5 persons on 1st December 2020 and in Paris, there is right now the legal proceeding against the supporters and on terrorist of them who killed so many persons in the "Bataclan"-Music-Event.
She thought, in Russia or in Ukraine, the policemen there would probably not have arrested this driver or the killer of the student in Idar-Oberstein or any of those terrorists in Paris, they would probably have killed them "by accident" or "on their flight".
Now, they would live a nice long life in a comfortable Western prison and have no problems.
I replied: "I know what you mean, but on the other hand, in our democracies, the people have the right to know everything which happened on those terrible days and if you hear in these legal proceedings the stories of the policemen and the witnesses, you will hear stories of true heroisms and really human helpers of all races and ages and this can help the survivors and all witnesses and all the audience to relieve the pain - and this can give you again a little hope for the future because without hope, you cannot really live or survive in this world."
She nodded and said: "Yes, this is also right and correct, but the expenditure for this kind of justice is very high."
And here, she was right, too, because I have seen unintentionally the expenditure for the legal proceeding against the amok driver in Trier. There were hundreds of witnesses and many of them will be interviewed by the court judges.
I was driving a few days ago in a slow city bus right in front of the court building of Trier. My bus was slowed down by policemen in order to let the public audience cross the street to the building before the proceedings started and I had never seen before so much people in front of this building: Heavily armed policemen everywhere, journalists with their TV broadcast vans, interested public inhabitants of Trier, witnesses already with tears in their eyes and talking to them persons with special vests on which you could read "Seelsorger" (= "Carers for Soul" = psychologists and sometimes priests who try to help persons in psychological crises) and even I thought:
Incredible and all this for the crime of one mad person who killed 5 innocent persons and hurt dozens more in an amok drive!
But then I thought again: "In spite of all the costs, it is worth it, when the relatives and the witnesses can find relief and their peace again."

And in Paris, everything is even a hundred times bigger and everything was much, much worse than in Trier and there, too, it is worth it when a democracy can show its power in a legal proceeding and justice will be done according to the laws of our states. And you will hear everywhere the stories of real human heroes who helped their fellow human beings against the madness and this is worth all the expenditures because - as I said - it gives you hope:



 
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Oh yes, you are absolutely right, and I think it is perfectly all right that such people should be judged and punished under our legal system. If they are accidentally shot while arrested, they are gone and have nothing to regret. Then rather, as possible in Germany, life sentences with a particular severity of guilt. So early discharge is not possible!
 
After Idar-Oberstein was mentioned here only because of the sad news with the mad murder of last week, I think, also because I am living only 60 km away from it, it should still be remembered as a rather small German city which was famous before for three "things", which almost every West-German knew about this city before:

1. It was and still is one of the relatively few traditional German centers for gemstone cutting because of its natural occurence of semiprecious stones like agates and other gemstones.

2. It is famous for a strange location of a church which was build into a massive rock-mountain below the ruin of a castle:

Ashampoo_Snap_2021.09.26_00h56m10s_001_.jpg Ashampoo_Snap_2021.09.26_00h57m12s_002_.jpg

3. If you do not know it by now, you will find it hard to believe, but because of his German mother who married his father - an US-American soldier - Bruce Willis ("Die Hard") was born here in Idar-Oberstein in 1955 and every German fan of his movies knows this fact.


 
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One time Disney child star, Tommy Kirk, has died at age 79. He starred in films like "Old Yeller" and "The Shaggy Dog", but, a drug possession arrest and the knowledge that he was gay lead to his firing. He latter made a string of B-movies before retiring from the business.
These obits don't mention his starring role in the 1967 sci-fi classic "Mars Needs Women".
 
One time Disney child star, Tommy Kirk, has died at age 79. He starred in films like "Old Yeller" and "The Shaggy Dog", but, a drug possession arrest and the knowledge that he was gay lead to his firing. He latter made a string of B-movies before retiring from the business.
These obits don't mention his starring role in the 1967 sci-fi classic "Mars Needs Women".
I remember him. Sorry to hear he had difficulties in life after hollywood fame. He's not the first child actor to have their lives affected negatively by the industry.
 
French businessman, politician, actor, singer, ... Bernard Tapie (1943 - 2021) has died. A controversial and flamboyant character, who spent time in parliament, even in a (socialist) government, and in jail. Since, for every success he had achieved, there seemed to have been 'fixed' something.
Or did he just always take a bad lawyer?
 
Abolhassan Banisadr (1933-2021). He was the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, after Khomeini took over power in 1979.

In June 1981, he was put asside during a putch of the fundamental islamic clergy, which destroyed the last 'democratic' fractions in Iran. Many of his allied politicians were arrested, some executed and Iran became a theocracy, ruled by mollahs.

Banisadr could flee the country, and lived in exile in France, all the time protected by police.
 
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