‘He belonged in the place where your thoughts are what matter’
Doctorow at BoingBoing writes:
I met Aaron when he was 14 or 15. He was working on XML stuff (he co-wrote the RSS specification when he was 14) and came to San Francisco often, and would stay with Lisa Rein, a friend of mine who was also an XML person and who took care of him and assured his parents he had adult supervision. In so many ways, he was an adult, even then, with a kind of intense, fast intellect that really made me feel like he was part and parcel of the Internet society, like he belonged in the place where your thoughts are what matter, and not who you are or how old you are.
This morning, a lot of people are speculating that Aaron killed himself because he was worried about doing time. That might be so…. But Aaron was also a person who’d had problems with depression for many years. He’d written about the subject publicly, and talked about it with his friends.
We Had Him
Angelou writes a poem in memory of Michael Jackson, and asks Queen Latifah to read the poem at Jackson’s funeral.
Gay man’s murder sparks vigils
Shepard’s death sparks outrage, spawns vigils, produces calls for Federal hate-crimes legislation. In Denver, mourners write messages on a graffiti wall as part of national Gay Awareness Week. In San Francisco, the giant rainbow flag that symbolizes the gay rights movement is lowered to half-staff in the Castro district. National gay and lesbian rights director:
There is incredible symbolism about being tied to a fence. People have likened it to a scarecrow. But it sounded more like a crucifixion.
‘The whole world is poorer’
Queen Elizabeth II speaks on Churchill’s death to his wife.
The whole world is the poorer by the loss of his many-sided genius while the survival of this country and the sister nations of the Commonwealth, in the face of the greatest danger that has ever threatened them, will be a perpetual memorial to his leadership, his vision, and his indomitable courage.