David Holbrook, English writer and academic died he was , 88..

 David Kenneth Holbrook  was a British writer, poet and academic. From 1989 he was an Emeritus Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge  died he was , 88.

(9 January 1923 – 11 August 2011)

Life

David Holbrook was born in Norwich in 1923. He was educated at City of Norwich School and won a scholarship to study English at Downing College, Cambridge for a year in 1941, where he was a pupil of F. R. Leavis. He is sometimes identified as a Leavis disciple, but their relationship was slighter than this might suggest (and also ended angrily, though this is a lesser indication). Holbrook was called up for military service with the British Army in 1942 and served until 1945 as an officer with the East Riding Yeomanry. His novel Flesh Wounds (1966) is a lightly fictionalised account of his D-Day campaign experiences with the East Riding Yeomanry.
In 1945 he returned to Downing to complete his degree, which he did in 1947. In 1946 he made a bleak visit to George Orwell on Jura. The actual reason was to see his girlfriend Susan Watson, who was Orwell's housekeeper, but Orwell assumed it was connected with Holbrook's membership of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and gave him a frosty reception.
After Cambridge he became editor, initially with Edgell Rickword, of the communist cultural periodical Our Time. He then took up teaching positions, for the Workers' Educational Association and then at a secondary school in Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire. He became a full-time writer in the early 1960s. He also renewed links with the University of Cambridge, becoming a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge in 1961, a Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge in 1981 and an Emeritus Fellow of Downing in 1988.
The Associated University Presses marked his seventieth birthday by publishing a Festschrift entitled Powers of Being in October 1995. The book of essays is edited by Edwin Webb, Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Greenwich, and held contributions by sixteen academics and teachers from the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, including a portrait written by Boris Ford. In over thirty years his range of publications was prodigious: from `English for Maturity' (1961), his first book on teaching English, to `Creativity and Popular Culture' (1994), he wrote about literature, culture and education, as well as producing his poetry and his novels. His distinguished literary achievements are here suitably celebrated.
He was a Fellow of the English Association.

Works

Novels

Holbrook wrote several novels based on his own life and his family history. These were not romans à clef—most characters were identified by their real names—but they were closely based on real events without the constraints of veracity. The novels were not written in the internal chronological order.
His first novel (Flesh Wounds (1966)) told the story of the escapades of Paul Grimmer (Holbrook's fictionalised persona) as a tank officer in the Normandy invasions. The events of Grimmer's adolescent life up to his enlistment were recounted in A Play of Passion (1978), which told of his involvement with the Maddermarket Theatre and its founder Nugent Monck.
In Going Off The Rails (2003), Holbrook recreates the Edwardian lives of his paternal grandparents in rural Norfolk. His grandfather William built wagons in the Midland and Great Northern Railway workshops at Melton Constable. Holbrook's father worked as a railway booking clerk in North Walsham. He moved to Norwich when he was suspected of theft.
His other novels are Nothing Larger Than Life (1987); Worlds Apart (1988); A Little Athens (1990); Jennifer (1992); The Gold In Father's Heart (1992); Even If They Fail (1994); and Getting It Wrong With Uncle Tom (1998).

Poetry

• Imaginings. London: Putnam, 1960 (Reprinted 1961).
• Against The Cruel Frost. London: Putnam, 1963.
• Object Relations. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1967.
• Old World New World. London: Rapp & Whiting, 1969. ISBN 0-85391-144-4
• Chance of a Lifetime. London: Anvil Press, 1978.
• Moments in Italy: Poems and Sketches. Richmond, England: The Keepsake Press (An edition of 280 signed and numbered copies).
• Selected Poems: 1961-1978 London: Anvil Press, 1980.

Criticism

• The Quest for Love, 1965;
• Human Hope and the Death Instinct, 1971;
• Sex and Dehumanization, 1972;
• The Masks of Hate, 1972;
• Dylan Thomas; the Code of Night, 1972;
• Gustav Mahler and the Courage to Be, 1975;
• Sylvia Plath: Poetry and Existence, 1977;
• Lost Bearings in English Poetry, 1977;
• Evolution and the Humanities, 1987;
• The Novel and Authenticity, 1987;
• Further Studies in Philosophical Anthropology, 1988;
• Images of Woman in Literature, 1990;
• The Skeleton in the Wardrobe: the Phantasies of C.S.Lewis, 1991;
• Edith Wharton and the Unsatisfactory Man, 1991;
• Where Lawrence Was Wrong About Woman, 1992;
• Charles Dickens and the Image of Woman, 1993;
• Creativity and Popular Culture, 1994;
• Tolstoy, Woman and Death, 1997;
• Wuthering Heights: A Drama of Being, 1997;
• George MacDonald and the Phantom Woman, 2000;
• Lewis Carroll: Nonsense Against Sorrow, 2000;

Education

English for Maturity (1961) is a guide for secondary school English teachers drawing on Holbrook's experience in that role at Bassingbourn.
His other books on education are English for the Rejected (1964); English in Australia Now (1964); The Exploring Word (1967); Children's Writing (1967); The Secret Places (1972); Education, Nihilism and Survival (1974); Education and Philosophical Anthropology (1987); and English for Meaning (1980).

List of other works

• Children’s Games (1957)
• Imaginings (1961) poems
• Lights in the Sky Country: Mary Easter and Stories of East Anglia (1962)
• Llareggub Revisited. Dylan Thomas and the state of modern poetry (1962)
• Thieves and Angels (1962) editor, school drama
• People and Diamonds (1962) editor, school short story anthology
• Against the Cruel Frost (1963) poems
• Penguin Modern Poets 4 (1963) with Christopher Middleton and David Wevill
• English for the Rejected. Training Literacy in the Lower Streams of the Secondary School (1964)
• English in Australia Now. Notes on a visit to Victoria and other states (1964)
• The Secret Places. Essays on Imaginative Work in English Teaching and on the Culture of the Child (1964)
• Dylan Thomas and Poetic Dissociation (1964)
• The Quest for Love (1964)
• Visions of Life (1964) four volumes, editor, prose comprehension
• Iron, Honey, Gold: The Uses of Verse (1965) editor, poetry anthology
• Childhood by Maxim Gorki (1965) abridged, Gertrude M, Foakes translator
• Object Relations (1967) poems
• The Exploring Word: Creative Disciplines in the Education of Teachers of English (1967)
• Children's Writing: a sampler for student teachers (1967)
• The Cambridge Hymnal (1967) compiler with Elizabeth Poston
• Plucking The Rushes (1968) editor
• Old World, New World (1969) poems
• Human Hope and the Death Instinct: An Exploration of Psychoanalytical Theories of Human Nature and their Implications for Culture and Education (1971)
• The Mask of Hate: The Problem of False Solutions in the Culture of an Acquisitive Society' (1972)
• Sex & Dehumanization in Art, Thought, and Life in Our Time (1972)
• Dylan Thomas; the Code of Night (1972)
• The Pseudo-Revolution (1972)
• The Case Against Pornography (1973) editor
• Education, Nihilism and Survival (1974)
• Gustav Mahler and The Courage To Be (1975)
• Sylvia Plath: Poetry and Existence (1976)
• A Play of Passion (1977) novel
• Lost Bearings in English Poetry (1977)
• Chance of a Lifetime (1978) poems
• Moments in Italy: Poems and Sketches (1978)
• A Play of Passion (1978)
• Selected Poems (1980)
• English for Meaning (1980)
• Nothing Larger Than Life (1987) novel
• Evolution and the Humanities (1987)
• The Novel and Authenticity (1987)
• Education and Philosophical Anthropology: Toward a New View of Man for the Humanities and English (1987)
• Worlds Apart (1988) novel
• Further Studies in Philosophical Anthropology (1988)
• Images of Woman in Literature (1989)
• What Is It to Be Human?: New Perspectives in Philosophy (1990)
• A Little Athens (1990) novel
• The Skeleton in the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis's Fantasies: A Phenomenological Study (1991)
• Edith Wharton and the Unsatisfactory Man (1991)
• Where Lawrence Was Wrong About Woman (1992)
• Jennifer (1992) novel
• Charles Dickens and the Image of Woman (1993)
• The Gold In Father's Heart (1992) novel
• Creativity and Popular Culture (1994)
• Even If They Fail (1994) novel
• Tolstoy, Woman, and Death. A Study of War and Peace and Anna Karenina (1997)
• Wuthering Heights: A Drama of Being (1997)
• Getting It Wrong With Uncle Tom (1998) novel
• Bringing Everything Home (1999) poems
• A Study of George MacDonald and the Image of Women (2000)
• Lewis Carroll: Nonsense Against Sorrow (2000)
• Bad Trip in a Tired Whale (2001)

Bibliography

• Holbrook, David. Flesh Wounds (London: Methuen, 1966) ISBN 978-1-86227-391-7
• Holbrook, David. A Play of Passion (London: W. H. Allen, 1978) ISBN 0-491-02282-4 Reprinted Norwich: Mousehold, 2004 ISBN 1-874739-33-1
• Holbrook, David. Going Off The Rails (London: Capella, 2003) ISBN 1-902918-14-2

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Clair George, American CIA officer (Iran–Contra affair), died from cardiac arrest he was , 81.

 Clair Elroy George  was a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) clandestine service who oversaw all global espionage activities for the agency in the mid-1980s. According to The New York Times, George was “a consummate spymaster who moved the chess pieces in the CIA’s clandestine games of intrigue.” 

After serving in Korea and Japan as an enlisted man in Army Intelligence, George was one of the CIA’s earliest recruits. As such George challenged the traditional image of early CIA recruits. He was not a son of privilege and lacked an Ivy League pedigree. By many accounts, he developed a loyal following for his ebullient manner and courage working in some of the world’s most volatile regions.^[3]
After a highly-decorated career lasting nearly thirty years, including dangerous assignments in Beirut and Athens, George served for three years in the Reagan Administration as Deputy Director for Operations.^[4] He was the third-ranking official at the CIA under William Casey.
George made headlines when he became the highest-ranking target of investigation and prosecution in the Iran Contra Affair. After a first mistrial, George was eventually found guilty by a jury on only two counts of false statements to congressional committees investigating the Iran-Contra Affair. He was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush two weeks later along with others involved and was never convicted. The special prosecutor immediately thereafter moved to vacate the indictments against George altogether. In 1996, one of the laws used against George was held unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in an unrelated case.^[5]
After his retirement from the CIA, George continued to hold legendary hero status in the intelligence community and was a successful consultant on international matters. He also volunteered nightly for the Suicide Hotline. He died in Bethesda at age 81 of cardiac arrest.^[6] His wife of 45 years, Mary, a figure in her own right as a model CIA wife, died in 2008.


(August 3, 1930 – August 11, 2011)

Beginnings

Clair Elroy George was born Aug. 3, 1930 in Pittsburgh. His family moved several times, ending up in the western Pennsylvania steel-mill town of Beaver Falls, Pa., when he was 9. George would often proudly point out that he was raised in Beaver Falls.
His father was a dairy chemist who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture.
The younger George, nicknamed “Red” because of his hair color, was an academic standout and a flamboyant drummer in his high school swing band and president of the student council. He would later have to join the union to work as a drummer in local dance bands. He worked in a steel mill.
Later he majored in political science and debated at Pennsylvania State University, graduating in 1952. He was set to enroll in Columbia Law School when he joined the Army instead in the midst of the Korean War. He learned Chinese and worked in counterintelligence. He joined the CIA after being impressed by agency officers he met in the Far East.
In 1960, George married a CIA secretary, Mary Atkinson. She died in 2008.^[8] They had two daughters both born in Paris while George was assigned to Bamako, Mali.

Long CIA service

As the CIA’s deputy director of operations for three years of the Reagan administration, the third-highest post in the spy agency, George was responsible for cloak-and-dagger activities worldwide. He reached this pinnacle after three decades of working as a spy around the world, specializing in recruiting foreign agents to spy on their own countries for the United States.
After the Korean War, George joined the CIA in 1955. Through cunning and mettle, he advanced through the ranks of the clandestine service, working in Cold War proxy zones in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. He went from Hong Kong to Paris, from Mali to New Delhi.
The Washington Post Magazine in 1992 quoted a colleague as calling George “a top-notch street man” who operated in what spies call the “night soil circuit” — the less desirable posts of the world.
George served as the CIA’s station chief in Beirut when civil war erupted there in 1975. His successor would be kidnapped and assassinated. The following year he volunteered to replace the Athens station chief, who had just been assassinated by left-wing terrorists. This gesture, perhaps more than anything, brought him recognition as a dedicated officer willing to make his safety secondary to the needs of the agency.^[9]
George returned permanently to Washington in 1979. He placed first out of 100 candidates in a promotions ranking and was put in charge of the agency’s African division. William J. Casey, whom Reagan had named director of central intelligence, appointed George to successively higher positions, among them as the CIA’s liaison to Congress. He served later as deputy director from 1984 until his retirement in 1987.

Distinctions and medals

George was highly decorated by his country. He was the recipient of three Distinguished Intelligence Medals from 1983 to 1988 and was awarded the Intelligence Medal of Merit.

Iran-Contra Affair

George was the highest-ranking CIA official to stand trial over the biggest White House scandal since Watergate: a White House-led operation to covertly sell weapons to Iran and divert the profits to right-wing Nicaraguan rebels known as the Contras.
The operation had been engineered out of the White House by Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, who served on the National Security Council staff. North was then aided by CIA Director William Casey.
Aspects of the operation violated a congressionally-mandated restriction of overt U.S. support of the Contras. George initially told Congress that CIA was not involved in the operation, and he later apologized for being evasive. He said he was trying to protect the agency.
George would later explain that he had reservations about the operation all along but said he did not push hard enough to stop it outright. “At no time — which maybe I should have — did I dash into the director’s office and say, ‘Hey, Bill, we have got to stop all this stuff,’ ” George testified before Congress in 1987.^[10]
In the early 1980s, Casey brought George into the top management ranks, and he became unwillingly — some said unwittingly — embroiled in the Iran-contra affair.
As deputy director for operations from 1984 until his retirement in 1987 — essentially the man who presided over the agency’s multibillion-dollar cloak-and-dagger activities in every cranny of the world — George became a target for congressional and independent investigators looking into the imbroglio.
The Iran-contra operation began to unravel after an American cargo plane ferrying arms to Nicaraguan rebels was shot down in October 1986 by Sandinista forces. Congress, which had prohibited military aid to the contras, asked George and others at CIA to explain what had happened.
George said he “categorically” denied CIA’s involvement to Senate staff. This boomeranged on him as the extent of Iran-contra began to unfold.
Called back to Congress in 1987, George said he’d been “almost megalomaniacal in trying to prove one thing: that we were not involved in that activity because it would have been illegal.”
Motivated by loyalty to CIA, he said he had not answered as fully as he might have. He said he had “perceived my charter too small” when initially hauled before Congress, but he added, “I don’t lie, and I did not mean to lie.”
Casey died in May 1987. FBI Director William Webster took over CIA with a mandate to clean house. That December, George was asked to retire. In September 1991, George was indicted on 9 counts, including making false statements to Congress. After the first court case ended in a mistrial, a federal jury at a second trial found guilt in December 1992 over two charges, but George was never convicted. On Christmas Eve, President George H. W. Bush pardoned George and several other former administration officials, including former defense secretary Caspar W. Weinberger. The special prosecutor immediately thereafter moved to vacate the indictments against George altogether. In 1996, one of the laws used against George was held unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in an unrelated case.^[11]
Amid the Iran-contra investigations, George seemed to take the long view of a seasoned operative who knew the nature of politics and spycraft — and their shadowy nexus. He told congressional Iran-Contra investigators in 1987: “This is not the first administration and will not be the last that becomes totally frustrated with its spy service.” ^[12]

Professional reputation

Bob Woodward, in his 1987 book, Veil: The Secret Wars of CIA 1981-1987, said veteran spies regarded George as “an old warhorse symbol of the CIA at its best and proudest.” ^[13]
Jack Devine, who oversaw CIA operations in Afghanistan and Iran under George, told the Washington Post that his former boss was widely admired for shunning self-promotion and self-aggrandizement.
Devine described George’s management style: “If you wanted Paris, he’d send you to Somalia, and when you were done in Somalia, he’d send you to Paris. He wanted to know if you were a committed operator, or are you a dandy who wants to be pushing cookies around the diplomatic circuit? That’s how he sized people up.” ^[14]
Richard Viets, a Foreign Service officer who was in India at the same time as George and who went on to become an ambassador, said George had the perfect personality for the agency. “He exudes trust and friendliness,” he said, “but in fact is duplicitous as hell.”
George’s devotion to CIA was appreciated by agency employees and retirees, who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his defense and came to his trial to show support. Some, who came to be known as “the Readers,” volunteered to pore through mountains of classified material assembled for the trial in search of useful evidence.
During George’s trial, the defense repeatedly tried to inform the jury of his espionage achievements, which prosecutors tried to quash because they might impress jurors. Finally, Judge Royce C. Lamberth told prosecutors they could admit “something equivalent to war-hero status” and leave it at that.^[15]

After the CIA

After his distinguished CIA career, George worked as a consultant for a variety of international interests from Halliburton to Ringling Brothers to European aristocrats. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus found George’s talents especially useful as they sought the defection and recruitment of performers and athletes from totalitarian countries. The secretive Feld family that owns the circus also drew George again into headlines for his alleged role in efforts by the Felds to spy on critics of the family and its circus. George testified in court that he worked as a consultant in the early 1990s for Kenneth Jeffrey Feld and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus where he was involved in the surveillance of a journalist who was writing about the Feld family, and of various animal rights groups such as PETA.^[16]
In his retirement, George also volunteered nightly for the Suicide Hotline from his Bethesda home, receiving calls anonymously and again using his well-honed people skills literally to cheer people up. At the end, Clair George was most of all a devoted father and a grandfather.

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Jani Lane, American musician (Warrant) died she was , 47

Jani Lane , born John Kennedy Oswald, later changed to John Patrick Oswald, was an American recording artist and the lead vocalist, frontman, lyricist and main songwriter for the hard rock band Warrant died he was , 47.

(February 1, 1964 – August 11, 2011)

Childhood and youth

Jani Lane was born John Kennedy Oswald^[1] (later changed to John Patrick Oswald) on February 1, 1964 in Akron, Ohio.^[1] The youngest of five children to Robert and Eileen Oswald, John grew up just east of Akron in Brimfield Township along with his older brother (Eric); and three older sisters (Marcy, Michelle, and Victoria). Lane's older brother Eric was an accomplished guitarist; Lane himself learned to play drums at the age of 6 with his brother guiding and teaching him. Lane grew up listening to Cleveland rock station WMMS (100.7 FM, "The Buzzard"), and was introduced to various bands by his family, and parents Bob and Eileen.^[2][3] Lane played drums under the name "Mitch Dynamite" in clubs by age 11 ("Mitch Dynamite" is listed as the drummer in the credits for Warrant's Latest and Greatest CD). Throughout the years, Lane would sometimes jump behind the kit to play with his band, and he had played the drums in various formats and gigs.^[2][3]
By the time Lane was 11, his older siblings had left for college or marriage except Vicky. He graduated from Field High School in 1982.^[4]

Career

Early years

After graduating from high school, Lane joined the band Cyren, featuring vocalist Skip Hammonds, guitarist John Weakland, bassist Don Hoover (and later, Rusty Fohner), with Lane on drums. After making a name for himself and his band in Ohio, he relocated to Florida in 1983, Lane played drums for Dorian Gray, before forming Plain Jane with future Warrant bandmate Steven (Chamberlin) Sweet. It was at this time that Lane adopted the stage name "Jani Lane." Lane got the name by his German grandparents' pronunciation and spelling of Johnny as "Jani." They said it as Yay-nee and that stuck. While playing drums with Dorian Gray, Lane began vocal training with Central Florida vocal coach/trainer Ron Feldman. Feldman introduced Lane to Creative Engineering, Inc. in Orlando where he worked as a programmer of the animatronic character, Dook LaRue, the drummer for the Rock-afire Explosion. His vocal debut was at Fern Park Station in Fern Park, Florida.
Lane and Sweet later relocated to Los Angeles, California, where they took various odd jobs to survive. Struggling to make ends meet as a musician, Lane resorted to working in a pornographic video warehouse.^[5]
By 1986, Plain Jane had become a regular feature in the L.A. club circuit. Erik Turner, who had founded Warrant in July 1984, was impressed by Plain Jane's songwriting and vocal performance, and invited Lane and Sweet to jam with his band at Hollywood's db Sound in September 1986.

Early years with Warrant

After generating notoriety on the club circuit, Warrant began to attract the attention of record labels. Following an abortive deal with A&M records over a contribution to the soundtrack for the motion picture Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, the band signed with Columbia Records. The Columbia deal came via the partnering of Warrant and manager Tom Hullet (known for working with The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, and others). Tom became Lane's mentor and friend until his death from cancer in 1993.
As lead vocalist with Warrant, Lane wrote all of the bands material including four Top 40 hit singles: "Down Boys", "Sometimes She Cries", "Big Talk" and the #2 Billboard Hot 100 hit "Heaven" for Warrant's debut double platinum album Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich in 1989, which peaked at number 10 on The Billboard 200.^[6] Lane also wrote another four Top 40 hit singles: "Cherry Pie," "I Saw Red," "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Blind Faith" for the second album, the double platinum Cherry Pie in 1990, which peaked at number 7 on the Billboard 200.^[7] Lane also co-wrote and performed with Warrant the song "The Power" in the 1992 movie Gladiator. The band also released their third album in 1992, the critically acclaimed Gold record Dog Eat Dog which peaked at number 25 on the Billboard 200.^[7]

Later years with Warrant

Lane left Warrant in March 1993 to pursue a solo career but returned to the band in September 1994, helping the band to secure a new record with Tom Lipsky of CMC International. The band then recorded Ultraphobic in 1995, Belly to Belly in 1996, Greatest & Latest in 1999 and a cover album Under the Influence in 2001.
Due to personal and business disagreements, Lane left Warrant in 2004. In January 2008, the band's agent, The William Morris Agency issued a new photograph of the band with Lane prominently featured, confirming his return to the band. It was the first time that all original members had been in the band since 1993. The band's first show with all original members was in May 2008 in Nashville. Warrant then performed a series of shows during the summer of 2008, but by September 2008, Warrant and Lane agreed to move forward separately, due to "too much water under the bridge." Warrant and Lane both continued to perform Lane's compositions live and Lane continued to write for himself and other artists.

Solo career

Lane became involved in acting in the early 1990s. He made a brief appearance in Caged Fear, and also appeared in High Strung in 1991.
Between 1997 and 2000, demos of Lane's solo material began surfacing on the Internet, with some bids on eBay reaching an estimated $US100.00 per copy.^{[citation needed]} The project, titled Jabberwocky, represented a significant musical departure from Lane's previous work. The CD has never been officially released.
Lane lent his vocals to numerous tribute CDs during the beginning years of 2000. Lane also had success with the VH1 Metal Mania Stripped discs where an acoustic version of "I Saw Red" is on disc 1, and an acoustic swinging version of "Cherry Pie" is on disc 2.
Lane's official debut solo album, Back Down to One, was released on June 17, 2003 through Z Records and (2006) in the US on Immortal/Sidewinder Records. It carried a "power pop" sound which was more closely aligned with the sound of Warrant than the unreleased Jabberwocky project. Shortly after the albums release Lane was admitted to a rehab center for alcohol and drug-related exhaustion.^[8]
In August 2004, Lane withdrew from the Bad Boys of Metal tour after only eight shows.
In Fall 2004, Lane contributed the lead vocals for the first ever theme song to a novel, The Devil of Shakespeare, by author, Billy McCarthy, along with JY from Styx, Ron Flynt 20/20, Chip Z'Nuff of Enuff Z'Nuff.
Lane contributed vocals on the track "Bastille Day" and "2112 Overture/Temples Of Syrinx" for the Magna Carta 2005 Rush tribute album Subdivisions.
In 2005, Lane was featured on VH1's Celebrity Fit Club 2. In 2007 Lane released a solo cover album titled Photograph.
Keri Kelli and Lane wrote a song for Alice Cooper, titled, "The One That Got Away." It was recorded by Cooper on his 2008 record, Along Came a Spider. Lane also finished work on his side project, Saints of the Underground. This project also consists of Bobby Blotzer and Robbie Crane (both from Ratt), and Keri Kelli (from Alice Cooper). Their album, Love the Sin, Hate the Sinner was released on April 22, 2008 by, Warrior Records and was mixed by legendary producer/engineer Andy Johns, who worked with such bands as The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, and also featuring additional bass work by Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot, House of Lords) ^[9].
In the Summer 2010, Lane went on tour with Great White, filling in for singer Jack Russell, who was recuperating from surgery after suffering internal complications. Also Lane had plans to make a new solo album and tour to support it, but it all got scrapped in early 2011.

Death

On August 11, 2011, Lane was found dead of acute alcohol poisoning at a Comfort Inn hotel in Woodland Hills, California.^[10] He was 47 years old.^[11][12]
Since his death the hit song Heaven has been used in the soundtrack of the 2012 movie Rock of Ages.

Discography

With Warrant

• 1989 Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich
• 1990 Cherry Pie
• 1992 Dog Eat Dog
• 1995 Ultraphobic
• 1996 Belly to Belly
• 1997 Warrant Live 86-97
• 1999 Greatest & Latest (New versions)
• 2001 Under the Influence

Solo

• 2002 Back Down to One
• 2007 Photograph (cover album)

With Saints of the Underground

• 2008 Love the Sin, Hate the Sinner

With Liberty N Justice

• 2007 Addiction
• 2011Sin(Single)

Soundtracks

• 1992 Gladiator OST: "We Will Rock You" (Queen cover)
• 1992 Gladiator OST: The Power
• 2001 Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure OST : "Game Of War"

Songwriting

• 2008 Alice Cooper Along Came a Spider

Other Work

• 1998 Forever Mod: Portrait of a Storyteller - Tribute to Rod Stewart: "I Was Only Joking"
• 1999 Not The Same Old Song And Dance - A Tribute to Aerosmith: "No Surprise"
• 2000 Tribute to Van Halen 2000: "Panama"
• 2000 Cheap Dream: Cheap Trick Tribute: "I Want You to Want Me" (The Mission UK Remix)
• 2000 Leppardmania- A tribute to Def Leppard: "Photograph"
• 2005 Hell Bent Forever - A tribute to Judas Priest: "Electric Eye"
• 2005 Metal Mania Stripped VH1: "I Saw Red"
• 2005 VH1 Classic Metal Mania Stripped 2: Anthems "Cherry Pie"
• 2005 Subdivisions: A Tribute to Rush: "2112 Overture/Temples of Syrinx", "Bastille Day"
• 2006 A Tribute to Bon Jovi: "Lay Your Hands on Me"
• 2007 Monster Ballads Xmas : "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"
• 2008 Led Box - The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Tribute: "The Ocean"
• 2010 Siam Shade Tribute: "1/3 no Junjou na Kanjou"
• 2011 Sin-Atra: A Metal Tribute To Frank Sinatra: "That's Life"

Singles

As Jani Lane

• 1991 Voices That Care (Various) U.S. #11, U.S. AC #6 CAN #61 non-album song

Music videos

Year	Video	Director
1991	Voices That Care (As Jani Lane) (Various)	David S. Jackson

Notes

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George Devol, American inventor, creator of Unimate, the first industrial robot died he was , 99.

George Devol on the right

George Charles Devol, Jr.  was an American inventor who was awarded the patent for Unimate, the first industrial robot. Devol's patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represented the foundation of the modern robotics industry died he was , 99..
As an inventor he had over 40 patents and was president of Devol Research. Devol has resided in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Wilton, Connecticut operating a robot consulting business.

(February 20, 1912 – August 11, 2011)

Biography

Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1912, Devol was interested from boyhood in all things electrical and mechanical such as boats, airplanes, and engines.
He got some practical experience at Riordan Prep, where, in addition to studying traditional subjects, he helped construct some buildings and run the school's electric light plant. Although he wasn't very scholarly he read everything he could about mechanical devices, trying to discover what, besides building radios, could be done with vacuum tubes when applied as control devices.

United Cinephone

Choosing to forego higher education, in 1932 Devol went into business, forming United Cinephone to produce variable area recording directly onto film for the new sound motion pictures ("talkies"). However, he later learned that companies like RCA and Western Electric were working in the same area, and decided to discontinue the product.

Phantom Doorman Automatic Door

At that time, Devol asked himself "what else can we do with all these photocells and vacuum tubes?"
Devol decided that United Cinephone needed inventions in order to sell its photoelectric switches. One of Devol's first inventions was the automatic door. United Cinephone licensed Devol's invention to Yale & Towne who manufactured the "Phantom Doorman" photoelectric door. This was the first automatic opening door, now ubiquitous in grocery stores and elsewhere. United Cinephone also manufactured many of its own products using photoelectric cells and vacuum tube control systems. Among these was a very early bar code system that was used for sorting packages at the Railway Express Company, years before others would separately come up with similar technology.

Orthoplane Lighting

United Cinephone also manufactured Orthoplane lighting, another product Devol patented, for garment factories. United Cinephone also invented the first optical registration controls for color offset printing presses and packaging machinery. The company also manufactured phonograph arms and amplifiers. In fact, Devol installed amplifiers at the Cotton Club and enjoyed watching Count Basie, Fred Waring and others, occasionally taking in the after-hours jam sessions.
In 1939 United Cinephone installed automated photoelectric counters at New York World's Fair to count customers entering the fairgrounds.

World War II

In 1939, Devol applied for a patent for proximity controls for use in laundry press machines, based on a radio frequency field. This control would automatically open and close laundry presses when workers approached the machines. Once the war began, Devol was advised by the patent office that his patent application would be placed on hold for the duration of the conflict.
Around the time the World War II began, Devol sold his interest in United Cinephone and approached Sperry Gyroscope to see if they were interested in his ideas on radar technology. He was retained by Sperry as manager of the Special Projects Department that developed radar devices and microwave test equipment.
Later in the war, he approached Auto-Ordnance Company regarding products that company could produce aside from their primary product line, which were Thompson submachine guns. Devol told them that the field of radar counter-measures was about to emerge as an urgently needed defense technology.
In 1943, he organized General Electronics Industries in Greenwich, Connecticut, as a subsidiary of the Auto Ordinance Corporation. General Electronics produced counter-radar devices until the end of the War. General Electronics was one of the largest producers of radar and radar counter-measure equipment for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Air Force and other government agencies. The company's radar counter-measure systems were on allied planes on D-Day.
Over a difference of opinion regarding the future of certain projects, Devol resigned from Auto Ordinance and joined RCA. After a short stint as eastern sales manager of electronics products, which he felt "wasn't his ball of wax", Devol left RCA to develop ideas that eventually led to the patent application for the first industrial robot. In 1946 he applied for a patent on a magnetic recording system for controlling machines and a digital playback device for machines.

Other post-war work

Speedy Weeny Automatic Hot Dog Machine

Devol was part of the team that developed the first commercial use of microwave oven technology, the Speedy Weeny, which automatically cooked and dispensed hotdogs in places such as Grand Central Terminal.
In the early 1950s, Devol licensed his digital magnetic recording device to Remington Rand of Norwalk, CT and became manager of their magnetics department. There he worked with a team to develop his magnetic recording system for business data applications. He also worked on developing the first high-speed printing systems. While the magnetic recording system proved too slow for business data, Devol's invention was re-purposed as a machine control that would eventually become the "brains" of the Unimate robot.

The first industrial robot: Unimate

Main article: Unimate

Photo of the first static magnetic recorder that used a saw blade to record information

In the 1940s, Devol wasn't thinking about robots. Instead, he was focusing on manipulators and his patent on magnetic recording devices. He felt the world was ready for new ideas as he saw the introduction of automation into factories during this time.
In 1954, Devol applied for patent on Programmed Article Transfer that introduced the concept of Universal Automation or Unimation; U.S. Patent 2,988,237 was issued in 1961. At the suggestion of Devol's wife, Evelyn, the word "Unimate" was coined to define the product, much the same as George Eastman had coined Kodak.^[3]

U.S. Patent 2,988,237, issued in 1961 to Devol.

When he filed the patent for a programmable method for transferring articles, he wrote, "the present invention makes available for the first time a more or less general purpose machine that has universal application to a vast diversity of applications where cyclic digital control is desired." Devol's patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represents the foundation of the modern robotics industry.^[1]
After applying for this seminal patent — which had not a single prior citation — Devol searched for a company willing to give him financial backing to develop his programmable articles transfer system. He talked with many major corporations in the United States during his search. Through family connections, Devol obtained an audience with a partner in the firm Manning, Maxwell and Moore. Joseph F. Engelberger, at that time, was chief of engineering in the aircraft products division at Manning, Maxwell and Moore in Stratford, Connecticut. Engelberger was very interested, and Devol agreed to license Manning, Maxwell and Moore his patent and some future patents in the field.^[4] Just as this decision was being made, however, Dresser Industries bought Manning, Maxwell and Moore and didn't see the need for its aircraft division and its industrial robot patent licenses.
This development prompted Engelberger to seek a backer to buy out the aircraft division and found one in Consolidated Diesel Electronic (Condec), which agreed to put up the financing for the continued development of the robot. This new Condec division was called Unimation Incorporated with Joseph Engelberger as its president.^[5]
The first Unimate prototypes were controlled by vacuum tubes used as digital switches though later versions used transistors. Further, the "off-the-shelf" parts available in the late 1950s, such as digital encoders, were not adequate for the Unimate's purpose, and as a result, with Devol's guidance and a team of skilled engineers, Unimation designed and machined practically every part in the first Unimates. They also invented a variety of new technologies, including a unique rotating drum memory system with data parity controls.
In 1960, Devol personally sold the first Unimate robot, which was shipped in 1961 from Danbury, Connecticut to General Motors.^[6] GM first used the machine for die casting handling and spot welding.^[7] The first Unimate robot was installed at GM's Inland Fisher Guide Plant in Ewing Township, New Jersey in 1961 to lift hot pieces of metal from a die-casting machine and stack them.^[8] Soon companies such as Chrysler, Ford, and Fiat saw the necessity for large Unimate purchases.
Approximately $5 million was spent to develop the first Unimate^{[citation needed]}. In 1966, after many years of market surveys and field tests, full scale production began in Connecticut. Unimation's first production robot was a materials handling robot and was soon followed by robots for welding and other applications.
In 1975, Unimation showed its first profit. In 1978, the PUMA (Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly) robot was developed by Unimation from Vicarm (Victor Scheinman) and with support from General Motors.
In 2005, Popular Mechanics magazine selected Devol's Unimate as one of the Top 50 Inventions of the Past 50 Years. ^[9]

Additional work

Devol later obtained patents on visual and tactile sensors for robots, coaxial connectors, non-refillable containers, and magnetostrictive manipulators or "microrobotics", a field he created.

• Elected to honorary member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (1985)^[10]
• Inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame (2011)^[1]
• Member of the Automation Hall of Fame^[11]
• Henry Ford and Smithsonian Museum collections both include Unimate robots

Death

Devol died on August 11, 2011, age 99, at his home in Wilton, Connecticut. He was survived two daughters, two sons, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. His grave is in Bald Hill Cemetery (Wilton, Ct). ^[12]

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Don Chandler, American football player (New York Giants, Green Bay Packers) died he was , 76.

 Donald Gene Chandler  was an American college and professional football player who was a punter and placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) for twelve seasons in the 1950s and 1960s died he was , 76.. Chandler played college football for the University of Florida, and thereafter, he played professionally for the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers of the NFL.

(September 5, 1934 – August 11, 2011)

Early years

Chandler was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa.^[1] He attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma,^[2] and he played for the Will Rogers Ropers high school football team.

College career

After graduating from high school, Chandler first attended Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and then transferred to the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played halfback, punter and placekicker for coach Bob Woodruff's Florida Gators football team in 1954 and 1955.^[3] As a senior in 1955, Chandler led all major college punters with an average kick of 44.3 yards, narrowly beating out Earl Morrall of the Michigan State Spartans.^[4] Memorably, Chandler also kicked a 76-yard punt against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in 1955, which remains tied for the second longest punt in Gators history.^[3] Woodruff ranked him and Bobby Joe Green as the Gators' best kickers of the 1950s.^[5]
Chandler graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in 1956, and was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."^[6]

Professional career

After college, he was selected in the fifth round (fifty-seventh pick overall) of the 1956 NFL Draft,^[7] and played with the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers.^[8] He played in the first two overtime games ever in the NFL, in 1958 with the Giants against the Baltimore Colts and again in 1965 when he kicked the winning field goal for the Packers against the same Colts in a Western Conference playoff game at Green Bay. Chandler's fourth-quarter field goal that tied the game at 10–10 stirred controversy, as many Baltimore players and fans thought he missed the kick to the right. Chandler was named the punter on the NFL 1960s All-Decade Team. He went to the Pro Bowl after the 1967 season.
He led the NFL in average yards per punt with 44.6 yards in 1957 and led the league with a field goal percentage of 67.9 percent on nineteen of twenty-eight attempts in 1962. Chandler still holds the record for most field goals scored in a Super Bowl with four in the 1968 Super Bowl against the Oakland Raiders, clinching the championship for the Packers.
Chandler helped Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers teams win Super Bowls I and II. Memorably, he kicked a ninety-yard punt against the San Francisco 49ers in 1965. He was named to the All Pro team in 1967.
In his twelve-season NFL career, Chandler played in 154 regular season games, kicked 660 punts for a total of 28,678 yards, 248 extra points on 258 attempts, and ninety-four field goals on 161 attempts.^[1] He also rushed for 146 yards on thirteen carries, and completed a perfect three passes on three attempts for a total of sixty-seven yards.^[1]

Life after football

He was inducted into the Packer Hall of Fame in 1975, along with tight end Ron Kramer, defensive end Willie Davis, guards Jerry Kramer and Fuzzy Thurston and Vince Lombardi. Chandler was selected as the premier punter for the decade in the 1960s. In 2002, he was named to the Oklahoma Team of the Century by The Oklahoman and in 2003 to the list of Oklahoma's Greatest Athletes by the Tulsa World. Chandler is also a member of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and the New York Giants Wall of Fame.^[9]
Chandler died at his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma on August 11, 2011; he was 76 years old.^[10][11]

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Francisco Solano López, Argentine comics artist (El Eternauta), died from complications from a stroke he was , 83

Francisco Solano López was a comics artist. Acknowledged as one of the most influential Argentine comics artists, he was best known as the co-creator of El Eternauta died from complications from a stroke he was , 83.

(October 26, 1928 – August 12, 2011) 

Career

López began his career in 1953 working for the publishing house Columba where he illustrated the series Perico y Guillerma. Working for Editorial Abril he met Héctor Germán Oesterheld, assigned to illustrate his series Bull Rocket for the magazine Misterix.^[1] They collaborated on the series Pablo Maran and Uma-Uma, before joining to start Oesterheld's publishing house Editorial Frontera.^[2] For the Frontera first publication of the monthly Hora Cero, the team produced the series Rolo el marciano adoptivo and El Héroe.^[3] López also alternated as artist on the Ernie Pike series with Hugo Pratt, Jorge Moliterni and José Muñoz.^[4] On September 4, 1957 in the publication of Hora Cero Suplemento Semanal, the science-fiction series El Eternauta made its first appearance.^[5]
A success, El Eternauta came to the attention of the authorities as the series featured commentary of the political situation of Argentina and neighbouring Chile, prompting López to flee for Spain to avoid possible arrest.^[2] In 1959 López began working for Fleetway in Madrid and later London, producing artwork for a host of series, including Galaxus: The Thing from Outer Space, Pete's Pocket Army, The Drowned World, Janus Stark, and Kelly's Eye.
Having returned to Argentina, López resumed collaboration with Oesterheld on El Eternauta II in 1968 with a new publishing house, Editorial Records. He also started work on science-fiction saga Slot-Barr with writer Ricardo Barreiro, and the police series Evaristo with Carlos Sampayo.^[4] In the late 70s López again fled Argentina following persecution from the authorities, and from Madrid he arranged the publication of both El Eternauta and Slot-Barr with the Italian magazines LancioStory and Skorpio.^[2]
In the 90s, Solano Lopez produced work in the erotic comics genre, achieving hits with El Prostíbulo del Terror, from a story by Barreiro, and Silly Symphony, made for the magazine Kiss Comix.
Solano López died on August 12, 2011 from a cerebral hemorrhage.^[6]

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Robert Robinson, English radio and television presenter died he was , 83.

Robert Henry Robinson  was an English radio and television presenter, journalist and author.

(17 December 1927 – 12 August 2011)

Biography and career

Robinson was born in Liverpool,^[2] the son of an accountant father, and educated at Raynes Park Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford. He then became a journalist for the Sunday Chronicle (TV columnist), the Sunday Graphic (film and theatre columnist), the Sunday Times (radio critic and editor of Atticus) and the Sunday Telegraph (film critic).
He began working on television as a journalist in 1955. During the 1960s and 1970s, he presented the series Open House, Picture Parade,^[3] Points of View, the leading literary quiz Take it or Leave it, Ask the Family,^[4] BBC3 – including the discussion during which Kenneth Tynan became the first person to say "fuck" on British television (Robinson told Tynan that this was "an easy way to make history")^[5] – and Call My Bluff.
In 1967 it was Robinson who presented the edition of 'The Look of the Week' in which classical musicologist Hans Keller was brought face to face with the young Pink Floyd. He wrote and presented The Fifties on BBC1. Robinson was the presenter of The Book Programme on BBC2 from 1973–80 and a number of spin off documentaries, notably B. Traven - A Mystery Solved (1979). He wrote and presented several BBC1 documentaries under the title Robinson's Travels, among them The Mormon Trail (1976), Cruising and Indian Journey. In 1986 he wrote and presented The Magic Rectangle, one of the BBC1 documentaries marking the fiftieth anniversary of television.
On radio, he presented Today, BBC Radio 4's flagship morning news show, and Stop The Week, a fiercely competitive talk programme.^[6] Robinson fronted Brain of Britain on BBC Radio 4 for many years, but was replaced by Russell Davies during the 2004 series owing to illness.^[7] He returned to host the new series in 2005 until handing over the reins to Peter Snow in 2007. In September 2008 Robinson chaired the special Brain of Brains and Top Brain editions of the quiz and returned to host the series in 2008; Davies then replaced him for the 2009 shows.^[8] In August 2010 it was announced that Robinson was to step down permanently from Brain of Britain to be replaced by Davies.^[9]
Private Eye used to lampoon Robinson under the nickname 'Smuggins'. In a sketch on the BBC's Not the Nine O'Clock News he was impersonated by an actor wearing a cricket box over his forehead. Robinson has also been the subject of a sketch by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in the second series of A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and Fry occasionally does an affectionate impression of Robinson when hosting the quiz show QI. He has also been lampooned by comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb in the second series of That Mitchell and Webb Look, where he was shown as the presenter of an early version of their fictional gameshow Numberwang. He appeared in a Viz comic strip under the name Robin Robertson. He was the father of the actress Lucy Robinson.^[10]
He was married to Josee from 1958 until his death^[2] in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington on 12 August 2011, aged 83, after a long period of ill health.^[11] He is survived by his son Nicholas and daughters Lucy and Susie,^[2] who said: "He had a very long, productive and successful life and we'll all miss him terribly".^[11]

Books

• Inside Robert Robinson (journalism)
• The Dog Chairman (journalism)
• Prescriptions of a Pox Doctor's Clerk (journalism)
• Landscape with Dead Dons (mystery novel)
• The Conspiracy (novel)
• Bad Dreams (novel)
• The Everyman Book of Light Verse (as editor)
• Skip All That (1997) (autobiography)

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