debian.org: The Debian Project has lost an active member of its community. Thiemo Seufer died on December 26th in a tragic car accident.

latimes.com: Best-selling author Michael Crichton, who wrote such novels as "The Andromeda Strain" and "Jurassic Park," and created the popular TV drama "ER," has died at 66, his family said today.

guardian.co.uk: The screen legend Paul Newman has died at the age of 83 after losing a long battle against cancer. Newman died yesterday at his farmhouse near Westport.

latimes.com (AP): A Pink Floyd spokesman says founding member Richard Wright has died. He was 65. Wright died today after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain.

tectonic.co.za: KDE stalwart and African developer Uwe Thiem passed away on Friday afternoon. Uwe was a long-standing developer of KDE and an ardent advocate of free and open source software.

linux.com: Our colleague Joe Barr sometimes described himself as a doddering old geek. Many knew him as a Linux evangelist; others knew him from his ham radio activities. And those of us who worked with Joe knew him in all of his sometime irascible, often funny moods. Joe was always one of our favorite people, and we are devastated to report that he died at home, unexpectedly, last night.

iht.com: George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines died in Los Angeles on Sunday, according to his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He was 71.

news.com.au: Charlton Heston, the Oscar-winning actor who achieved stardom playing larger-than-life figures went on to become a best-selling author, a contentious Hollywood labor leader, an unapologetic gun advocate and darling of conservative causes, has died. He was 84. For us geeks, he is probably best known for barking the order, "Get your paws off me you damn dirty ape!"

news.com: Science fiction impresario Arthur C. Clarke is dead, according to published news reports. Clarke was the author, or co-author, of dozens of fiction and non-fiction books. But he will likely always be best known for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Associated Press: The man who co-created the game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon is dead.

nytimes: Marcel Marceau, the wiry French mime who mostly performed as the chalk-faced Bip and did much to revive the art of pantomime, died Saturday in France. He was 84.

ZDNet: He wasn't one who went with the flow, and was widely regarded as an outspoken advocate of the open source movement in Singapore. Cheok Beng Teck, CIO of the country's Ministry of Defense (Mindef), chartered the way that saw the government body embrace--almost unabashedly--an open source strategy that few in the public sector would have been as comfortable adopting.

AP via Physorg: Samuel Isaac Weissman, a professor and chemist who helped develop the first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project, has died, his wife said Friday. He was 94.

Washington Post: Don Herbert, 89, who as television's Mr. Wizard was for many years one of the nation's foremost popularizers of science, particularly noted for his ability to attract, inspire and hold the interest of children, died June 11 at his home in the Los Angeles area.

One of the original seven Mercury astronauts, Walter Schirra Jr., has died of a heart attack at the age of 84.