Do people really "die peacefully in their sleep" or is this a euphemism? I can't imagine, given how painful (eg) a heart attack is, that you could sleep through it.
Maybe it wasn't a heart attack.
Dan McCracken died, peacefully in his sleep
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Re: Dan McCracken died, peacefully in his sleep
#12Do people really "die peacefully in their sleep" or is this a euphemism? I can't imagine, given how painful (eg) a heart attack is, that you could sleep through it.
The current theory goes that dying peacefully in sleep is possible. Elizabeth Simpson of the Virginian-Pilot explored this question further and a nice little article summarizing the excerpts from the AHCJ discussion can be found at: http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2011/07/reporter-explor...
Re: Dan McCracken died, peacefully in his sleep
#13One of the few theologian-programmers. RIP.
Not as rare as you would think. Knuth, though not formally trained, has been doing the same (from his wikipedia page): >In addition to his writings on computer science, Knuth, a Lutheran,[10] is also the author of 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated,[11] in which he examines the Bible by a process of systematic sampling, namely an analysis of chapter 3, verse 16 of each book. Each verse is accompanied by a rendering in call…
3:16 is a beautiful book, and the idea underlying it is a very nice one. Knuth also has a book called "Things a computer scientist rarely talks about", derived from a set of lectures he gave at MIT, which is mostly about the 3:16 project.
I don't think it was exactly "a group of calligraphers under the leadership of Hermann Zapf". I think Knuth worked with each calligrapher individually; Zapf just happens to be the most famous of them (albeit mostly for his work in typography).
Someone -- I forget who -- called Knuth's technique in the 3:16 project "the way of the cross section", which is a lovely pun.
(In case it is relevant to anyone's evaluation of the above: I am an atheist but spent years as a Christian.)
Re: Dan McCracken died, peacefully in his sleep
#14Should there be a Black bar at the top to signified a great person has died?
Re: Dan McCracken died, peacefully in his sleep
#15Do people really "die peacefully in their sleep" or is this a euphemism? I can't imagine, given how painful (eg) a heart attack is, that you could sleep through it.
My father, who passed last winter, showed signs of dying peacefully while awake. He was lying back on his bed, whith his hands behind his head, like he was thinking about something when they found him. There was no sign of discomfort or struggle- only, really, curiosity (but I am probably assuming too much with that).
Re: Dan McCracken died, peacefully in his sleep
#16Do people really "die peacefully in their sleep" or is this a euphemism? I can't imagine, given how painful (eg) a heart attack is, that you could sleep through it.
The current theory goes that dying peacefully in sleep is possible. Elizabeth Simpson of the Virginian-Pilot explored this question further and a nice little article summarizing the excerpts from the AHCJ discussion can be found at: http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2011/07/reporter-explor...
My question is, given the existence of sleep paralysis which is both terrifying and plausibly able to leave "no evidence of thrashing about", if many people died "peacefully" but also awake and very scared.
Re: Dan McCracken died, peacefully in his sleep
#17Do people really "die peacefully in their sleep" or is this a euphemism? I can't imagine, given how painful (eg) a heart attack is, that you could sleep through it.
As I'm sure you've guessed, it's sometimes an emotional defense mechanism on the part of the survivors. Don't know anyone who wants to envision their loved one's last moments in agony, even if true.
Re: Dan McCracken died, peacefully in his sleep
#18Last year I wrote a fan letter of sorts to Professor McCracken, thanking him for his ForTran book, which I credited as my inspiration for what became my life work. (Ref: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1710523 )
He replied to my letter, saying:
===
"I love your story!!! Warms my heart like little else. I am absolutely delighted to have had a hand in your choice of career, given that you are pleased with the choice.
"By golly, I too think my books were clear! I'm still teaching. Not Fortran, but beginning CS. When I get frantic I pick out my first Fortran book, or a later one, and look for a good example. It's usually there!
"Makes me think of writing a book in a modern language. For about two seconds. The energy isn't there any more. Love to teach, but writing a book is a very much bigger deal than it was back then, and I don't see how I could hack it. Well, I am 79.
"Thanks a million for your mail. Definitely made my day."
===
I'm glad today that I got to do that. RIP, Professor.
Re: Dan McCracken died, peacefully in his sleep
#19Do people really "die peacefully in their sleep" or is this a euphemism? I can't imagine, given how painful (eg) a heart attack is, that you could sleep through it.
I've attended dozens of deaths over the years, and many hours of medical training.
Yes, some folks do appear to die peacefully. And some folks don't sleep through it. And some folks will die through particularly ugly and unpleasant processes.
In some specific cases, we do know that the death did not entail any struggling or other manifestations of discomfort.
And you are quite wrong about your concept of how a heart attack can present itself. Some are quite silent. Some - in older men and particularly in older females and reportedly due to differences in and degradations in the cardiac innervation - can be undiagnosed or misdiagnosed or missed - and sometimes these cardiac problems might only trigger a so-called syncopal episode. The person "zones out" for a little while, or "faints". This due to a transient drop in blood pressure.
In cases I'm very familiar with, the person simply stopped talking to me, and appeared to doze off, and the cardiac monitor went into alert.
In others, I've encountered a number of cases where the only evidence of a heart attack was in the cardiac enzymes test, or due to specific artifacts seen in subsequent cardiac monitoring.
Re: Dan McCracken died, peacefully in his sleep
#20I used his FORTRAN book for my first job out of college - very useful.