Peter J. Biondi, American politician, member of the New Jersey General Assembly (since 1998), mesothelioma, died he was 69.

Peter J. "Pete" Biondi was an American Republican Party politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1998 until his death in 2011, where he represented the 16th Legislative District  died he was 69..

Biondi was born in Newark, New Jersey.^[2] He graduated from Union High School.^[3]

^{(June 23, 1942 – November 10, 2011)[1]}  

Biondi served on the Somerset County Youth Services Commission from 1996 until his death and as its Co-Chair in 1997. He served on the Hillsborough Township Planning Board from 1986 to 1999, served on the Hillsborough Township Committee from 1983 to 1993, served as the Township's Deputy Mayor in 1985 and as its Mayor from 1986 to 1993. Biondi served on the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders from 1994 to 1997, was its Director in 1996 and its Deputy Director in 1995. He served on the Industrial Pollution Control Financing Authority in 1997. Biondi was a member of the Somerset County Planning Board from 1994 to 1996. Biondi served in the United States Army Reserve from 1961 to 1967.^[4]
He served as the Republican Conference Leader starting in 2006 and was the Assembly's Assistant Republican Leader from 2002 to 2003. Biondi served in the Assembly on the Regulated Professions Committee, the Intergovernmental Relations Commission and the Legislative Services Commission.^[4]
Biondi introduced a bill in the 2006 legislative session which would require operators of all "public forum websites" to gather the full names and addresses of all persons posting on such websites, and turn such information over to anyone claiming the posting of "false or defamatory information", with the penalty for failure to comply being liability for lawsuits relating to the posting of the information (under libel laws). The requirement is specifically on any ISP or similar entity doing business in New Jersey to require anyone using said entity's facilities for website posting to gather and make available said information.^[5] News of this bill has reached outlets as widely read as Slashdot on March 6, 2006.^[6]
In October 2011, Biondi publicly disclosed that he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma about one year earlier, and that he had undergone chemotherapy and believed the disease was in remission. On Election Day, November 8, 2011, Biondi was re-elected to what would have been his eighth term in the Assembly. He died two days later at the age of 69.^[3]
He was succeeded by Republican Donna M. Simon, who is filling out his term. Simon, who was appointed in February, 2012 is being challenged by Democrat Marie Corfield in a special election on November 6, 2012.[1]


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Terry Willers, 76, Irish cartoonist, died he was 76.

Terry Willers  was a noted cartoonist and animator died he was 76.. Willers was born in London but settled in Ireland. He spent most of his later life in Carrigower and for over 40 years in Rathdrum, both in County Wicklow. In 1992, Willers was the co-founder and chairman of the Guinness International Cartoon Festival,^[1] which ran for three years in Rathdrum. He was a winner of the Jacobs Award for his work for television.

(1935 – 9 November 2011)

Writing in the Irish Independent, Tom Mathews recalls, "Nobody who encountered Terry in full flight in his persona as Rathdrum's cartoon ambassador to the world is likely to forget him... Terry must have had three hands because despite having a cigarette in one and a glass in the other, he was always drawing on any surface that held still — even the walls of his beloved Cartoon Inn at Rathdrum village where so many of his exhuberand productions are still displayed." Mathews describes Willers as "a stylish and dapper dresser" who was never seen without a shirt and tie and "the sort of pastel blazer favoured by the gameshow host that he so resembled". Writing in the Irish Times (not available online), fellow cartoonist Martyn Turner wrote, "He was always very happy and full of jokes and was an incredibly talented artist. Most cartoonists become cartoonists because they have to... but Terry could draw anything and everything. In many ways he was an artist more than he was a cartoonist."

Willers career is said to have begun at the age of 15 when he joined what has been described as "a Disney studio in London" and "a Walt Disney animation team.At the age of 17 he was certainly contributing the 4-panel cartoon 'Tich' to TV Comic (1952-53). In 1959 he also contributed to Zip and Jack & Jill comics.
Around this time, Willers began working for the Martin Toonder Studio in Holland, drawing 'Panda' and, from 1963, 'Tom Poes', a hugely popular newspaper strip created by Toonder in 1919. According to Lambiek, "he added a slapstick element to the strips, and intensified the absurdism in the artwork." The strip ran in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant and various regional papers until 1965. He then went to draw 'Kappie', the adventures of Captain Anne Wobke and the crew of his tug, the Kraak for three years. In 1968, he returned to 'Tom Poes', when he did a comic strip for Donald Duck comic.Willers also contributed briefly to British comics during this period, ghosting episodes of 'General Nitt and His Barmy Army' and 'Georgie's Germs' for Wham!.
Willers contributed in the 1970s and 1980s to Hall's Pictorial Weekly, hosted by Frank Hall, and The Mike Murphy Show, broadcast on Ireland's RTÉ,and Hullabaloo. He was also a prolific contributor to magazines, including the Farmer's Journal, Sunday Independent, Evening Herald and Wicklow People. In the 1990s, Willers contributed to The Yellow Press, an Irish anthology comic, and The Beano, drawing 'Minder Bird' in 1995. He also illustrated several books, including Brian Power presents 'It's All Happening' (1970), The TV Generation by Desmond Forristal (1970), Gift of the Gab! The Irish Conversation Guide by Tadhg Hayes (1996, later reprinted as The Wit of Irish Conversation), Twelve Days Of Chaos by Frank Kelly (1997) and Stop Howling At The Moon by Eamon O'Donnell (2007).


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Dani Wadada Nabudere, Ugandan academic, died he was 79.

Dani Wadada Nabudere was a Ugandan academic, author, political scientist and development specialist died he was 79.. He was a professor at the Islamic University and Executive Director of the Marcus Garvey Pan-Afrikan Institute, Mbale. He was a barrister and former member of the Uganda National Liberation Front government. 

(15 December 1932 – 9 November 2011)^[1][2] 

Career

Nabudere obtained the degree of LLB (London) in 1963 and was admitted as a barrister at law, Lincolns Inn, London, in the same year. He was previously Associate Professor at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Visiting Professor at the University of Zimbabwe. Professor Nabudere was Minister of Justice in 1979 and Minister of Culture, Community Development and Rehabilitation in 1979–1980 in the UNLF Interim Government of Uganda. He was President of the African Association of Political Science from 1983 to 1985 and Vice-President of the International Science Association (IPSA) from 1985 to 1988. He was engaged in a collaboration arrangement with the University of South Africa in joint research projects under the umbrella theme of "Reclaiming the Future".^[3] He was the executive director and principal of the Marcus Garvey Pan-Afrikan Institute (MPAI), Mbale, Uganda. Over the last ten years, Nabudere was working on setting up grassroots organisations to assist rural communities and raise their voices over issues that concern their lives.^[4]


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Richard Morant, British actor, died he was 66.

Richard Morant  was an English actor. died he was 66.

(30 October 1945 – 9 November 2011)

Morant was born in Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire. His father was the actor Philip Morant (1909–1993).^[1] He was also a nephew of actors Bill and Linden Travers, and a cousin of actress Penelope Wilton. He enjoyed a long television and theatre career, first creating an impression as the bully Flashman in a BBC adaptation of the Thomas Hughes novel, Tom Brown's Schooldays (1971), and followed this up with a regular role as Dr Dwight Enys in the popular BBC series of Poldark (1975).
Morant also appeared in several BBC classic serials, including adaptations of Walter Scott's Woodstock (1973), as the future Charles II, and The Talisman (1980), as Conrade of Montserrat.
He played Robespierre in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982), and he later played Bunter, the valet of Lord Peter Wimsey, in the BBC's productions of Strong Poison, Have His Carcase and Gaudy Night (all based on Dorothy Sayers's original novels). In 1988 he played Theodore Dyke Acland in the serial Jack the Ripper.
His stage appearances included a starring role in Noël Coward's Private Lives at the Oxford Playhouse in 1984. The following year he co-starred with Stephanie Beacham and Pam Ferris in ITV's rag-trade soap drama, Connie. He also did voice-over, radio, and audio book work including voicing books by Julian Barnes and Julian Fellowes.^[2]

Personal life

His first wife was the actress Melissa Fairbanks, a daughter of the actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr., with whom he had a son and daughter. After that marriage ended he married Valerie Buchanan, with whom he had another son and daughter. ^[3]
He had a sideline as a dealer in Asian carpets and textiles, including running his own gallery in Notting Hill. In 2005 he became the sole owner of an established company specialising in carpets and fine textiles,^[4] headquartered in Notting Hill, London. After suffering a short illness, Morant died suddenly on 9 November 2011.^[5]

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Roger Christian, American Olympic gold medal-winning (1960) ice hockey player, died he was 75.

Roger Allen Christian was an American professional ice hockey player died he was 75..

(December 1, 1935 – November 9, 2011)

Born in Warroad, Minnesota, Christian played for the American 1960 Winter Olympics and 1964 Winter Olympics ice hockey teams, winning a gold medal in 1960. He was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1989. He was also a co-founder of Christian Brother's Hockey Sticks, along with his brother Bill Christian and brother-in-law Hal Bakke.
He died on November 9, 2011 in Grand Forks, North Dakota.^[1]

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Wilfred G. Lambert, English historian and archaeologist, died he was 85.

Wilfred George Lambert FBA was a historian and archaeologist, a specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology died he was 85..

(26 February 1926 – 9 November 2011)

Early life

Lambert was born in Birmingham, and, having won a scholarship, he was educated at King Edward’s School, Birmingham. He obtained two degrees, in Classics and Oriental Languages, at Christ's College, University of Cambridge.^[1]

Academic career

Lambert taught and researched at the University of Birmingham for thirty years, during which period he made weekly trips to work on deciphering cuneiform tablets in the British Museum. After retirement he worked with the Museum on their Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals Project, dealing with the inscriptions on the seals.^[2] In January 2010 Professor Lambert and Dr Irving Finkel identified pieces from a cuneiform tablet that was inscribed with the same text as the Cyrus Cylinder.^[3]
Lambert was an external consultant for the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary.^[4][5] His work, 'Introduction: the transmission of the literary and scholarly texts', in Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art II: Literary and scholastic texts of the first millennium BC, was used as background material for the The Higher Education Academy's project, Knowledge and Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire.^[6] He was also noted for his new discoveries in relation to the Gilgamesh text.^[7]

Personal life

Lambert was a Christadelphian, and a conscientious objector. From 1944 he worked in a horticultural nursery north of Birmingham in lieu of military service and supervised Italian prisoners of war in their work.^[8] Later, in his spare time, he was editor of one of his church's quarterly magazines.^[9]

Appointments and Memberships

• 1959–64: Associate Professor and Chair of Oriental Seminary, Johns Hopkins University
• 1970–93: Professor of Assyriology, University of Birmingham.

Lambert was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1971. He was also a presenting member of the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (International Congress of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology).

Bibliography

This is a partial bibliography:

Books

• Morals in ancient Mesopotamia Jaarbericht 15. Ex Oriente Lux. (1957–58) pp184–196.
• Babylonian Wisdom Literature 1960. (221.849.2 L222)
• A new Babylonian Theogony and Hesiod W. G. Lambert and Peter Walcot (1931–2009). Kadmos 4 (1965) pp64–72.
• Ancient Near Eastern seals in Birmingham Collections (1966)
• Atra-Hasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood by W. G. Lambert, A. R. Millard, and Miguel Civil. (Oxford 1969).
• Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyunjik Collection of the British Museum (Jan. 1992)
• Art of the Eastern World by Geza Fehérvári, W. G. Lambert, Ralph H. Pinder-Wilson, and Marian Wenzel (1996)
• The Qualifications of Babylonian Diviners W.G. Lambert in Festschrift für Rykle Borger (1998).
• Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Volume II: Literary and Scholastic Texts of the First Millennium BC edited by Ira Spar and W. G. Lambert. (2005)
• Babylonian Oracle Questions Eisenbrauns, 2007 (ISBN 9781575061368)

In honour of

• Wisdom, Gods and literature: studies in Assyriology in honour of W.G. Lambert By Wilfred G. Lambert, A. R. George, Irving L. Finkel 2002 462pp

Conference papers

• Babylonian Siege Equipment. 52e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. Krieg und Frieden im Alten Vorderasien, Münster, 17–21 July 2006^[10]

Book Reviews

• Review of Erica Reiner Astral Magic in Babylonia in The Journal of the American Oriental Society 1999
• Review of Charles Penglase Greek Myths and Mesopotamia: Parallels and Influence in the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod. 1997 in The Journal of the American Oriental Society

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Har Gobind Khorana, Indian-born American biochemist, Nobel laureate (1968), natural causes he was 89.

Har Gobind Khorana also known as Hargobind Khorana was a biochemist who shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for research that helped to show how the nucleotides in nucleic acids, which carry the genetic code of the cell, control the cell’s synthesis of proteins. Khorana and Nirenberg were also awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in the same year natural causes he was 89..^[4]
He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1966,^[1] and subsequently received the National Medal of Science. He served as MIT's Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry, Emeritus^[5] and was a member of the Board of Scientific Governors at The Scripps Research Institute.

(January 9, 1922 – November 9, 2011)^[2][3] 

Early life and education

Khorana was born to Hindu^[6] parents in Raipur village in West Punjab, British India, currently Pakistan.^[7][8] His father was the village "patwari" (or taxation official). He was home schooled by his father until high school. He earned his B.Sc from Punjab University, Lahore, in 1943, and his M.Sc from Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan in 1945. In 1945, he began studying at the University of Liverpool. After earning a Ph.D in 1948, he continued his postdoctoral studies in Zürich (1948–1949). Subsequently, he spent two years at Cambridge University. In 1952 he went to the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and in 1960 moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1970 Khorana became the Alfred Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he worked until retiring in 2007. ^[9]
Khorana married Esther Elizabeth Sibler, of Swiss origin, in 1952.^[10] They had three children: Julia Elizabeth (born May 4, 1953), Emily Anne (born October 18, 1954; died 1979), and Dave Roy (born July 26, 1958).^[10]

Research work

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) with three repeating units (UCUCUCU → UCU CUC UCU) produced two alternating amino acids. This, combined with the Nirenberg and Leder experiment, showed that UCU codes for Serine and CUC codes for Leucine. RNAs with three repeating units (UACUACUA → UAC UAC UAC, or ACU ACU ACU, or CUA CUA CUA) produced three different strings of amino acids. RNAs with four repeating units including UAG, UAA, or UGA, produced only dipeptides and tripeptides thus revealing that UAG, UAA and UGA are stop codons.^{[citation needed]}
With this, Khorana and his team had established that the mother of all codes, the biological language common to all living organisms, is spelled out in three-letter words: each set of three nucleotides codes for a specific amino acid. Their Nobel lecture was delivered on December 12, 1968.^[11] Khorana was the first scientist to synthesize oligonucleotides. ^[12]

Subsequent research

He extended the above to long DNA Polymers using non-aqueous chemistry and assembled these into the first synthetic gene, using polymerase and ligase enzymes that link pieces of DNA together.^[13] as well as methods that anticipated the invention of PCR.^[14] These custom-designed pieces of artificial genes are widely used in biology labs for sequencing, cloning and engineering new plants and animals. This invention of Khorana has become automated and commercialized so that anyone now can order a synthetic gene from any of a number of companies. One merely needs to send the genetic sequence to one of the companies to receive an oligonucleotide with the desired sequence.
His lab has since mid 1970s ^[15] studied the biochemistry of the membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin responsible for converting photon energy into proton gradient energy and most recently studying the structural related visual pigment rhodopsin.^[16]

Legacy

The University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Government of India (DBT Department of Biotechnology), and the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum jointly created the Khorana Program in 2007. The mission of the Khorana Program is to build a seamless community of scientists, industrialists, and social entrepreneurs in the United States and India.
The program is focused on three objectives: Providing graduate and undergraduate students with a transformative research experience, engaging partners in rural development and food security, and facilitating public-private partnerships between the U.S. and India. In 2009, Khorana was hosted by the Khorana Program and honored at the 33rd Steenbock Symposium in Madison, Wisconsin.^{[citation needed]}

Death

Khorana died of natural causes on November 9, 2011 in Concord, Massachusetts, aged 89.^[17] A widower, he was survived by his children Julia and Dave.^[18]


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