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Sir Terry Pratchett Succumbs To "the Embuggerance," Aged 66
New submitter sp1nl0ck writes Sir Terry Pratchett, the creator of Discworld, has died aged 66, following a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease. Sir Terry announced that he was suffering from The Embuggerance in an open letter to fans over seven years ago, and recently had to cancel a planned appearance at the International Discworld Convention last summer, and donated over £500K of his own money to research into the condition. He also spoke in favour of a euthanasia tribunal, the members of which would consider the case of each '...applicant...to ensure they are of sound and informed mind, firm in their purpose, suffering from a life-threatening and incurable disease and not under the influence of a third party'. Sadly, he didn't survive long enough to see such a tribunal — or indeed any kind of assistance for those suffering from an incurable condition who wish to end their own life — come into being. More at the BBC.
I'd realised of late that Sir Terry's light would probably go out soon, and that there couldn't be all that many more Discworld books to come; It's still sad to know it's happened. Thanks for the many, many hours of pleasure, Terry; I shall miss keeping an eye on the bookshop window your latest book.
He appeared on a TV show in the UK basically arguing just that. When the time came, he wanted to be able to press a button or whatever and choose himself, and it was long after he started down the road to Alzheimer's that he appeared and argued that.
Actually he barely said a word. He was too far gone down the Alzheimer's route by then, and Tony Robinson (Baldrick) had to say the actual words he'd prepared for him, if I remember correctly.
One of my favorite books, and he co-authored it with Neil Gaiman. Going to be rereading it this weekend.
Terry Pratchett, absolutely fantastic author. You will be missed.
For those interested, the show I'm talking about, with the man himself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Sir Terry Pratchett was the greatest humanist I knew in my life. ...
He managed to touch the souls of great number of people through his uniquely clear worldview and managed to infuse great human values in the best possible way.
Needless to say, reading and living with his books was one of the most enlightening experiences I have ever had with the written letters.
His wisdom and approach to life will be dearly missed. Him being of the most famoust atheists, I can only say he left this earth forever, to finally settle in our hearts and the souls of those to come after us, growing up to be better human beings, through his books and ideas.
Because ideas never die
RIP Sir Terry Pratchett
Long Live Sir Terry Pratchett
Now, Make Your WISE Move...
there is always some f'tard left wing ...
The strongest opposition to euthanasia comes from right wing religious conservatives. Democrats are more likely to support euthanasia than Republicans. The only state where it is legal is Oregon, a blue state.
Ignorance is bliss.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
The "original" KJV contains translation errors, and also translations that are very pointed interpretations of verses that are very vague.
Some examples:
"Lucifer" is a Latin word. The prophet Isaiah did not write in Latin, but in Hebrew. The only reason the word "Lucifer" ever entered Christian vocabulary was because of the more-original-than-KJV Latin formalization of the Bible. When translated to English, that word was left in its Latin form so it would sound more like a proper name (which it is not, as is made obvious by reading the 11 verses before the single verse in the Bible that contains this word).
The greek pneumos means "breath." That's what it means. But through the KJV, it is rendered as "spirit" or "ghost." Grammatical words surrounding the word which could correctly mean "it" are all rendered "he." This makes it very clear, to an English speaker, that the "Holy Spirit" is actually a person. In the Greek texts, it neither says nor implies personhood. The phrase seems to imply a vital animating force...one that all humans have and that can be made more divine. The translation robs us of the poetry in the language and gives us a pointed interpretation that is extremely dubious.
Also, "sozo" means "heal." But it is consistently rendered as "save." All verses that say things like "Jesus the Savior" can be correctly translated as "Jesus the Healer." "saved" implies a boolean state, "heal" implies a sliding scale.
Blah blah, I will stop now because nobody is going to read this or care anyway.
Pratchett's death is the most depressing news for me since I read of Banks' demise.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
The problem is that it's so damn difficult to get an easy suicide
Nitrogen tank: $100
Nitrogen refill: $60
Trash bag: $2
I could convert to pounds if that would help. But seriously, death by inert gas* is cheaper than a cheap gun, which is $200.
* OK, nitrogen is not technically inert, but it is functionally so in your lungs.
We put animals down to save them suffering, because it's the kind thing to do.
Except we often use CO2 in a bag to kill them, which is inhumane because they die gasping for breath. That's why you have to use something the body doesn't notice. CO2 buildup is what causes you to feel the need to breathe.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"