Maybe the eds or someone already have something planned for the anniversary of MDC's death, or maybe the Coronavirus pandemic has overshadowed everything. I checked the subs queue and didn't see anything about MDC.
I'm sorry I don't have anything proper to submit, just a link to last year's article:
Michael David Crawford Passes Away.
His wish was not to be forgotten to be remembered through his works.
FWIW, I'm not the same AC who submitted that one; just a long-time /. & SN reader who was sincerely saddened by the news of MDC's death.
[Ed. addition follows. --martyb]
As a token of respect and thanks for his active participation on SoylentNews, staff updated our Subscribe page to facilitate making a site subscription in his memory. From Meta: Site News: Holiday Weekend, Staffing, Outage, Finances, Submissions, and Moderations (emphasis added):
When you subscribe, some of the site limits are relaxed and you get a shiny star next to any comments you post. For the humble, you can turn that star's display off in your preferences.
If you wish to help out, click on Subscribe and select whether you want the subscription to start/extend your own subscription or you wish to make a gift subscription. If it is a gift subscription, specify the UID for the recipient. The default of UID==6 is that of Michael Casadevall (another nick NCommander used when setting up the site) or you may replace the UID with 2339 in memory of Michael David Crawford, or any other UID that you want.
Penultimately, select a subscription duration and amount (the suggested amount is a minimum; any in excess of that is greatly appreciated), and click on the Continue button. NOTE: Javascript needs to have been enabled for the following step to work. Lastly, choose your payment method of either Paypal or Stripe, fill in the requested details, and submit.
As I have mentioned before, this site has real expenses with server hosting fees, domain name registration, paying for a CPA to file our taxes, and the like. Those who support us financially help "keep the lights on." Thank You!
Many years ago I came upon a definition that I believe embodies how MDC lived his life: "Honest is the absence of the intent to deceive." He set a very high bar that, though I try, do not know that I will be able to maintain the openness that I saw him exhibit.
Lastly, I find it timely that a fortune I saw on our site this morning seems apropos to his life:
So live that you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.
He may not have been faultless (who is?), but I am sure he would have no fears about what might be revealed by selling "the family parrot."
Previously:
Meta: Site News: Holiday Weekend, Staffing, Outage, Finances, Submissions, and Moderations
'This is how expensive it is to attempt suicide': Patient's bill goes viral
MDC Fortunes
Michael David Crawford Passes Away
Depression Strongly Correlated with Taking Three or More Common Drugs Simultaneously
Related Stories
1 in 3 Adults In The U.S. Take Medications That Can Cause Depression. These drugs already list depression as a possible symptom:
If you take Prilosec or Zantac for acid reflux, a beta blocker for high blood pressure, or Xanax for anxiety, you may be increasing your risk of depression.
More than 200 common medications sold in the U.S. include depression as a potential side effect. Sometimes, the risk stems from taking several drugs at the same time. Now, a new study finds people who take these medicines are, in fact, more likely to be depressed.
The list includes a wide range of commonly taken medications. Among them are certain types of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) (used to treat acid reflux), beta blockers, anxiety drugs, painkillers including ibuprofen, ACE inhibitors (used to treat high blood pressure), and anti-convulsant drugs.
I often take Zantac or Rantab for acid reflux. I used to take the beta blocker propanolol for the hand tremor caused by the anti-convulsant Depakote.
About 15 percent of participants who simultaneously used three or more of these drugs were depressed. By comparison, among participants who didn't use any of the medications, just 5 percent were depressed. Even those who used just one of these medications were at slightly higher risk of depression: About 7 percent were depressed.
See also:
Mike Crawford Is Dead, Contributed to Mac System 7.5.X and Activist
Some of you might know him on the west coast. He worked for Apple fixing/debugging System 7.5.X and attended Cal Tech. He was an activist for the mentally ill and homeless. He was openly bisexual and open about his schizoaffective disorder. His Facebook page.
I had helped him with his project Soggy Jobs which is unfinished. It was his project he needed a business model for.
He was on CNN about the taking away of tax credit from software engineers.
He was a member here at Hacker News.
He had serious physical illnesses that made him suffer and he took his own life.
I was an online friend of his, and I too suffer from schizoaffective disorder.
His wish was not to be forgotten to be remembered through his works. To at least have a Wikipedia article written on him or some other Wiki. Wikipedia named him non-notable about ten years ago. But if you met him, he'd always show you respect and even if he disagreed with you he was nice about it.
takyon: Here is MDC's last post on Warp Life, and Last Will And Testament. User page. Twitter.
As mentioned here on March 26, Michael David Crawford has passed away. One person in the SoylentNews community was concerned that MDC might, instead, be incapacitated and in a hospital somewhere. He spent a few hours calling around and reported back to me:
Just got off the phone with the Clark County medical examiner
"I can confirm that a Michael Crawford died on March 24th"
Further, we received news that there is an obituary page up for him.
Separately, takyon suggested in a comment to that story:
Maybe we can put a quote or two of his in the quotations thing.
"You say that like it's a bad thing."
"I Am Eternally In Your Debt."
"The Mind Simply Reels."
"Thank You For Your Submission. Our customer service personnel will respond to your request in the order it was received."
etc.
Both TheMightyBuzzard and I ran with the idea and independently posted journal stories asking to gather up MDC sayings.
I am happy to inform the community that, as of 2019-03-31 04:20:00 UTC this morning, SoylentNews now has 31 fortunes attributed to MDC in our fortune rotation. Note: fortunes are chosen at random from all of the fortunes we have, so this represents a very small fraction of those available. Point being that it could be quite a while before you actually see one pop up.
Now that I know how to create and update fortune files, it should be simple to add any additional quotes people suggest. Continue to post any sayings of his to either of those journal articles (with a link to the source for verification, please!) In another week or so, I'll take another look through and update the fortune file as needed.
[Updated 2019-04-02 18:29:28 UTC. MDC quotations can be provided us posting a comment to my journal entry or to TMB's Journal entry. Please provide a link to the source so we can validate it is genuine. Thanks. --martyb]
Have you ever wondered what it costs to keep a person alive when they are on the brink of death? Thanks to a post by a suicide survivor who started a rash of posts concerning hospital costs for the mortally challenged we know that the hospital bill for suicide management can be from 10K to 100K. Oliver Jordan clocked up 25,000 likes and hundreds of responses to his post with some people saying it cost them 10K to 20K for a US emergency room visit. Once a patient enters a hospital they can racked many charges often without realising what the end bill will be.
In memory of MDC.
Holiday Weekend: For our international readers who may be unaware, Monday 27 May marks Memorial Day in the United States, a remembrance of members of the military who have passed in the line of service. In reality, if has become the de facto start of summer which runs past Independence Day (July 4) until Labor Day.
Over this 3-day-long holiday weekend, a great number of establishments are closed or run at reduced hours and staffing. Stories appear on the internet at a reduced rate, and many more "fluff pieces" appear as filler.
I have heard quite clearly that, given a choice, the community generally prefers quality over quantity.
SoylentNews runs with approximate story spacings of a bit over 1.5 hours on weekdays and a little under 2.5 hours on weekends. We've been "feeding the queue" 24 hours per day, every single day, for over 5 years (still amazes me it has been that long!)
So, based primarily on those factors, I have suggested the eds adopt weekend story spacing for Monday (UTC) so they, too, can have a bit of a break.
Read on past the break for the rest of the site news.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:35PM (7 children)
Aristarchus, Ethanol, I, and many others labor to keep Soylent wild, but nobody can fill your shoes. Soylent is lesser for your loss.
Hope you're sitting atop a golden pyramid of TP in the sky, smirking down at all of us.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @02:33PM (1 child)
I can kind of relate to MDC having had a major PTSD trigger myself a few years ago. You just don't know how bad PTSD can be if you've never had it before, flashbacks can be so intense that you feel like you are in two places at the same time while reality is fading away. Thankfully, I have a team of specialists treating me that I didn't have 50 years ago. It was a sad day when I saw the post that MDC passed. With all that's going on in the world right now, don't be afraid to ask for help.
#PTSDawareness
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26 2020, @07:07AM
Wrong. Do be afraid to ask for help. They are as likely to help you as do more damage. In my experience.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:00PM
I'll drink to that, tonight.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:00PM (1 child)
There may be those who share many of MDC's experiences. Some of those may share his perspective on life. But, MDC was unique, in that he shared those experiences and perspective with us. Imagine that - a homeless person able to reach out and touch us, half a continent, or even half a world away.
RIP, Michael David.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Thursday March 26 2020, @03:00PM
Definitely affected half a world away. And I'm quite sure I'm not the only one from this neck of the woods.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:58PM
Nice, way to make it about you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @11:56PM
I sometimes wonder if the people writing all the gushy stuff... ever read any of his posts? Will someone put together the Collected Works of MDC so we can all see it in its bare glory.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:55PM
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/will-rogers-quotes [brainyquote.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @01:14PM
I miss you.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @01:40PM (3 children)
I remember when MDC spent his time writing about virtues of homeless life, up until someone slashed their way into his tebt and made him feel very unsafe. It was such a perfectly liberal moment.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:34PM
Yes liberals are all about putting people out on the street and telling them to get a job, loser.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:58PM (1 child)
Found the sociopath! Too bad MDC isn't here, he'd have some kinder words in reply to your hatred, all I've got for you is "fuck off and die, the world will be better without you." No tolerance of the intolerant round these parts.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @06:06PM
There is no hatred here, if nothing else I had plenty of love for the chap. His misguidance was apparent, but I did admire his tenacity, and I felt sorry for his disability. But exercise of freedom requires that he be allowed to cintinue in his erronious ways. And only societies that punish failure, not reward it, survive, so his tribulatuons were necessary.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by FunkyLich on Wednesday March 25 2020, @02:30PM (2 children)
I am a sporadic reader of SN. But I remember reading what MDC wrote with a great interest. I found his comments being a result of logical analysis and well thought.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:36PM
And a ton of drugs - some of them legal I guess.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @11:05PM
Even in his craziest comments, he clearly described his underlying premises and moved from there a step at a time. Sure his conclusions could be wild when he started from his more outlandish starting points. But damn, if the ride wasn't worth it anyway.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @02:49PM (3 children)
Vote in November
Andrew Yang - $1000/month could have really helped, but now off the list
Sanders/Warren- medical for all, but now off the list
Biden - not the first choice but good enough!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:10PM
Send DNC a message that they need to get it right next time. Vote for 4 more years of Trump.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:47PM
Trump - Don't let the dems profit from it.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:07PM
Hillary - it's her turn!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:51PM (1 child)
The fact that people here remember you with all that is happening around the world today is an indication of the mark you made on our lives.
You are not forgotten - you have not died.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:12PM
> You are not forgotten - you have not died.
Pour^wrub one out in memory of our late homie.
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Wednesday March 25 2020, @10:24PM
Just learned today that MDC passed away. Very sad day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @11:09PM
If I spoke perl instead of coherent thoughts, I'd implement that header myself. If enough people supported https://github.com/SoylentNews/rehash/issues/477 [github.com] maybe it will get done.
(Score: 2) by mrpg on Wednesday March 25 2020, @11:57PM
Sad day. We never got to go for a coffee.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mrpg on Thursday March 26 2020, @12:38AM
https://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/ [who.int]
Close to 800 000 people die due to suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds. Suicide is a global phenomenon and occurs throughout the lifespan. Effective and evidence-based interventions can be implemented at population, sub-population and individual levels to prevent suicide and suicide attempts. There are indications that for each adult who died by suicide there may have been more than 20 others attempting suicide.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26 2020, @01:01AM
That's about all I can say about MDC.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Thursday March 26 2020, @02:54AM (2 children)
My parents passed a few months on either side of MDC. Barring untimely passings, eventually everyone has to deal with that loss. Just today, I cancelled another of their magazine subscriptions that had automatically renewed. Been keeping their credit card account open, to tidy up these things. I also engaged in the exercise of stopping all the semi-spammy messages that were delivered to their email accounts. Tough to do. Like turning off a leaky faucet. We've also been keeping one bank account open, to handle their last year of federal income tax. I don't like it, but it's easier than trying to change a whole bunch of numbers around, and worrying that the IRS will screw it up.
We hate losing people so much that we are very bad at saying goodbye. Ought to have better processes for winding down a person's life. Very disjointed, the way things are now. Also mercenary, the way so many businesses push so hard for the annual or monthly revenue stream with automatic renewal types of agreements, and every one of them has to be personally told to stop.
I wish all 3 of them were still with us.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26 2020, @07:50AM
That is why I usually tell people to close all the deceased credit cards and stop autopays they don't need at banks. People like to get paid so they will find you, which makes it easier to tell them someone is dead before too big of a bill ramps up. If you have halfway decent accounting, it won't make a difference in the final distribution and many people find it easier in the end. Plus, having a good probate attorney helps, since they often have a list of common debtors or interested parties you may not think about.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27 2020, @11:29AM
It is too easy for some. There have been people declared dead who have spent a long time trying to be recognized as being alive again.