SteveMSim

Greg Lake, co-founder of the rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer, died at age 69. His death comes nine months after that of bandmate Keith Emerson. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/greg-lake-emerson-lake-palmer-co-founder-dead-at-69-w454546

Former president of Cuba Fidel Castro is dead at 90. For better or worse, Castro was one of the most influential figures of the latter half of the 20th Century. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-38114953

Florence Henderson, best known as the mom on The Brady Bunch TV series, died at age 82 yesterday. http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2016/11/25/florence-henderson--the-brady-bunch-mom-dies/94411286/

The Millennium Tower in San Francisco, to me, is not the world's ugliest building despite being a top-end luxury high-rise condominium building in the heart of the city, but it is sinking and tilting, and lawsuits are now being filed over that. The building's homeowner's association is suing Millennium Partners, builder of the tower, and the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, claiming that nearby construction is causing the sinking; and now the San Francisco city attorney is suing the building's developer, claiming that they withheld information on the sinking from potential buyers. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-tower-idUSKBN12Y2JV

I haven't been on this site for a while but the last couple times I was here, Nonny was noticeably absent. In the past, when I logged onto Simtropolis, I looked forward to see what the latest topic Nonny commented on, whether it was the SimCity game or something else. I am sorry to hear of his passing.

A voice for the victims of the Holocaust is now silent. Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel has passed away at 87. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/07/03/elie-wiesel-nobel-peace-prize-winner-and-holocaust-survivor-dies-at-87.html?intcmp=hplnws

Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin, killed at age 27 in a freak car accident at his home. Now there is a report that Yelchin's SUV, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, is a subject of a recall because drivers may think the transmissions are in park but in fact are not. http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2016/06/20/anton-yelchins-car-may-have-had-gear-defect/86136310/

I know it has been quiet without Nonny Moose, but nobody has brought up the nightclub massacre in Orlando Florida, which at least 50 are dead, yet. This is the worst gun-related mass murder in U.S. history. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/pulse-orlando-nightclub-shooting/

Christina Grimmie, a rising young singer wantonly murdered by some nutcase with a gun. And in Orlando just a day before the gay club massacre. Also just days after actress Theresa Saldana, who survived a similar attack years ago, passed away. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-christina-grimmie-dead-orlando-20160611-story.html

Now a man is presumed dead after he wandered off a path and fell into a geyser at Yellowstone. Those hot springs and geysers are dangerous and that's a reason visitors must stay onto marked trails and paths. Also, in May, a Canadian film crew walked off a path and went into a hot spring for unauthorized filming. They face charges should they reenter the United States. http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/man-presumed-dead-after-falling-into-hot-spring-at-yellowstone/article_43391959-04ec-5b16-8b94-aabf346a0fa6.html Yellowstone National Park is a wild place and can be unforgiving for those people who disregard that fact and break the rules.

Gold Coast is hardly a small city. It has a population of 527,828. Surfer's Paradise is a district of Gold Coast, which makes it no different than Venice, California, which is a part of Los Angeles or Bronx, New York, which is part of New York City.

I once thought of Muhammad Ali as an egotist, but it is unfortunate that years of boxing may had ultimately shortened his life. Ali had Parkinson's Disease for over 30 years and it is believed that it was the result of all the pounding Ali took on his head during his boxing career.

As if Burmese Pythons in the Everglades were not enough. Florida has more non-native reptiles and amphibians than any other region in the world. Now it can add the Nile Crocodile. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nile-crocodiles-florida-1.3596481

Neither is it smart to build in the California chaparral, where fires are also natural and normal. Some of the most destructive wildfires in terms of property loss in North America have been in California, especially in 2003 and 2007 when thousands of homes burned. Over 900,000 people were evacuated during the 2007 fires. Will Wright lost his home in the 1991 Oakland Hills wildfire; the experience which inspired him to add disasters in SimCity and to create The Sims. The Fort McMurray fire now rivals the worst California has seen.

The Guardian website has been running a series of articles about the history of cities, urbanization, and urban planning for a couple of months. Each article is about a particular city in the world during a particular period of history and how certain events in that period impacted that city. The articles cover a number of cities from ancient Alexandria to the planned cities of the 20th and 21st Centuries. The series is 50 articles long and is currently up to number 34. The series is at http://www.theguardian.com/cities/series/the-story-of-cities