RIP Wine as a Nutritious Meal, Oh, Wait, I Mean RIP Jeff Hanneman

Dammit, I was going to have wine for dinner.

Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman's Death Due To Cirrhosis

Autopsy results reveal that heavy metal icon died of alcohol-related disease.

By Gil Kaufman

Despite reports that he may have died following the fatal effects of a spider bite, Slayer announced on Thursday that original guitarist Jeff Hanneman
 succumbed to the effects of fatal alcohol-related liver disease.

The band said Hanneman, who died last week at the age of 49, suffered from alcohol-related cirrhosis, which causes irreversible scarring of the liver.

"We've just learned that the official cause of Jeff's death was alcohol related cirrhosis," Slayer wrote in a statement. "While he had his health struggles over the years, including the recent necrotizing fasciitis infection that devastated his well-being, Jeff and those close to him were not aware of the true extent of his liver condition until the last days of his life. Contrary to some reports, Jeff was not on a transplant list at the time of his passing, or at any time prior to that. In fact, by all accounts, it appeared that he had been improving -- he was excited and looking forward to working on a new record."

Hanneman and Kerry King founded the group in 1981 after King was trying out for another band. The two bonded over their shared love for Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, going on to release their first album Show No Mercy in 1983. They went on to release 11 more albums over the next 26 years; their last release was 2009's World Painted Blood. He contributed both lyrics and music to every one of those albums, and wrote iconic songs like "Raining Blood," "War Ensemble," "South of Heaven" and "Angel of Death," which are staples in Slayer's live shows. The band is working out the details of a celebration of Hanneman's life for later this month, which will be open to the public. Information on that event will be posted on the band's official website.

King posted some personal memories of Hanneman, including remembrances of their early years on the road. "In the early days when we were out on the road, he and I were the night owls, we would stay up all night on the bus, just hanging out, talking, watching movies," he wrote. "World War II movies, horror movies, we watched 'Full Metal Jacket' so many times, we could practically recite all of the dialogue."

Slayer bassist/vocalist Tom Araya added, "When we first formed Slayer, we used to rehearse all the time, religiously, 24/7. Jeff and I spent a lot of time hanging out together, he lived in my father's garage which was also our rehearsal space. When he got his own apartment, he had an 8-track and I would go there to record songs I'd written, not Slayer songs, other stuff I'd written. At a certain point, you still have the band but you start your own lives outside of the band, so that 24/7 falls to the side, you don't spend as much time together as you once did. I miss those early days ... Jeff was a lifeline of Slayer, he wrote so many of the songs that the band will always be known for. He had a good heart, he was a good guy."

source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1707135/slayer-jeff-hanneman-cause-of-death-cirrhosis.jhtml

RIP Zilur Rahman

Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman dies after illness

The president of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman, has died after a long illness, a spokesman for the prime minister's office in Dhaka has announced.Continue reading the main story

The president, 84, had been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Singapore.

President Rahman was elected by parliament to the largely ceremonial role in February 2009.

Mr Rahman was a stalwart of the Awami League - now in power in Bangladesh - and a close friend of the country's first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Sheikh Mujib was the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Mr Rahman was sentenced to 20 years in jail during Bangladesh's 1971 war of liberation from Pakistan and was again imprisoned for four years after Sheikh Mujib's assassination in 1975.

He also briefly went to jail after elections in 1986 while he was an Awami League MP.

He was being treated in Singapore for kidney and respiratory problems.

Source:  BBC News

RIP Hugo Chavez

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez dies from cancer

By Andrew Cawthorne and Daniel Wallis

CARACAS | Tue Mar 5, 2013 5:09pm EST

(Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died after a two-year battle with cancer, ending the socialist leader's 14-year rule of the South American country, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised speech.

The flamboyant 58-year-old leader had undergone four operations inCuba for a cancer that was first detected in his pelvic region in mid-2011. His last surgery was on December 11 and he had not been seen in public since.

"It's a moment of deep pain," Maduro, accompanied by senior ministers, said, his voice choking.

Chavez easily won a new 6-year term at an election in October and his death will devastate millions of supporters who adored his charismatic style, anti-U.S. rhetoric and oil-financed policies that brought subsidized food and free health clinics to long-neglected slums.

Detractors, however, saw his one-man style, gleeful nationalizations and often harsh treatment of opponents as evidence of an egotistical dictator whose misplaced statist economics wasted a historic bonanza of oil revenues.

Chavez's death paves the way for a new election that will test whether his socialist "revolution" can live on without his dominant personality at the helm.

(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne and Daniel Wallis; Additional reporting by Girish Gupta, Mario Naranjo, Marianna Parraga and Patricia Velez in Caracas, David Adams in Miami, Daniel Bases in New York; Editing by Kieran Murray and Sandra Maler)

source: Reuters

RIP Director of Snakes on a Plane, excuse me, MotherFucking Snakes On A Plane

NEWSWIRER.I.P. Snakes On A Plane director David R. Ellis 

By Sean O'Neal January 7, 2013

Deadline is reporting the death of David R. Ellis, the actor turned stuntman turned director with numerous credits on mostly action-oriented, B-movie fare, but who is undoubtedly best known for making the knowingly campy Samuel L. Jackson thriller Snakes On A Plane. Ellis died of as-yet-unknown causes in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was preparing to reunite with Jackson on a live-action adaptation of the Japanese anime Kite. He was 60 years old.

Ellis started out doing small bit roles and stunts in films such as Smokey And The Bandit, Scarface,Road House, and Lethal Weapon before breaking into second-unit work. Over the years he served as second or assistant director on movies like Patriot Games, Waterworld, The Perfect Storm, Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, and The Matrix Reloaded, where he was primarily responsible for overseeing action sequences. His first solo directing gig, Disney's Homeward Bound II: Lost In San Francisco in 1996, was an unlikely false start to a career that truly took off some seven years later with his assuming control of Final Destination 2. That sequel's franchise-cementing success concurrently confirmed Ellis as a go-to guy for providing reliable thrills (he also directed its fourth installment, The Final Destination), and he followed it soon thereafter with the similarly instantly gratifying Cellular and Snakes On A Plane.

While Snakes On A Plane is often recalled as a casualty of its own hype and a cautionary example of the dangers of Internet meme oversaturation, it bears remembering it would be nothing but a cheap, disposable thriller were it not for Jackson and Ellis' willingness to embrace its unpredictable pre-release cult following. Ellis' reshoots incorporated lines spawned wholly from online jokesters—including the infamous, "I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!"—and thus turned the erstwhile Pacific Air Flight 121 into a lasting cult phenomenon that was in on the joke.

Years later, Ellis argued for a similar strategy when it came to promoting his Shark Night 3-D, whichhe wanted to call Untitled 3-D Shark Thriller: " The title says everything you need to know: 'We’ve got sharks.' 'It’s in 3-D.' and, 'It’s a thriller,'" Ellis was quoted as saying, in his typically, admirably unpretentious fashion.  

source: the AV Club

RIP Paparazzo who died trying to get a picture of Justin Bieber

First of all, I owe my ability to spell "Bieber" to our college friend Anna, who used to pronounce is "Bee-eye-ber." Every time I write his name (which is sadly more often than you may think), I hear her saying it in my head and somehow, I spell it right every time, although now that I think about it - Bieber doesn't translate especially well to the phonetic pronunciation "Bee-eye-ber."

Second, this is a tragedy. Death is sad. But dying trying to take a picture of Justin Bieber - in the end it wasn't even him anyway - is even more sad. Sad because when people say, "Oh how did he die?" The answer will always be "Chasing a guy who wasn't Justin Bieber."

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES | Wed Jan 2, 2013 2:20pm EST

(Reuters) - Pop star Justin Bieber on Wednesday called the death of a paparazzo, who was chasing his white Ferrari in Los Angeles, a tragic accident and said he hoped it would spur action to safeguard the lives of celebrities, police and photographers.

Police said the freelance photographer, whose name has not officially been released, was killed by another driver on Tuesday evening after he crossed a busy highway to snap pictures of the Ferrari that had been stopped by police for speeding.

Bieber, 18, was not in the sports car, which was reportedly being driven by a friend.

"While I was not present nor directly involved with this tragic accident, my thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim," the "Boyfriend" singer said in statement.

Bieber, who is followed day and night by photographers, said he hoped the incident "will finally inspire meaningful legislation and whatever other necessary steps to protect the lives and safety of celebrities, police officers, innocent public bystanders, and the photographers themselves."

Celebrity website TMZ.com said the photographer was following the Ferrari after seeing it pulling out of a Beverly Hills hotel on Tuesday evening, believing Bieber was inside the car.

Los Angeles police said the photographer was seen taking pictures of the traffic stop and was ordered by highway patrol officers to return to his car for safety reasons. He was struck by another motorist while trying to cross four lanes of traffic.

Bieber was stopped by police for speeding on a Los Angeles freeway last July, when the Canadian teen sensation told police he was being hounded by paparazzi.

But a Los Angeles judge in November threw out criminal charges against the photographer who was charged in that case under a new California law aimed at cracking down on aggressive photographers and celebrity media. Judge Thomas Robinson called the 2010 law "problematic" and "overly inclusive."

The death on Tuesday brought calls from some other celebrities for a halt to the sometimes 24/7 tracking of their activities at work, home and leisure.

Singer Miley Cyrus, 20, a frequent paparazzi target, sent out a stream of Twitter messages, referencing the death of Britain's Princess Diana in a 1997 car crash while being chased by paparazzi in Paris.

"Hope this paparazzi/JB accident brings on some changes in '13 Paparazzi are dangerous! Wasn't Princess Di enough of a wake up call?!" Cyrus tweeted.

"This was bound to happen! Your mom teaches u when your a child not to play in the street! The chaos that comes with the paparazzi acting like fools makes it impossible for anyone to make safe choices," Cyrus added.

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