SpiderFarmer

I was incredibly saddened to learn that Brad Graham, founder of the infamous Break Bread with Brad feasts at SXSW, theater publicist and social networking pioneer who is credited with coining the term “blogosphere,” had died in his sleep.

He was so young, vibrant, wonderful, and so beloved by everyone who ever came into contact with him. It is hardly a fair universe that takes people like Brad, when he did so much and was so important to so many people.

He was one of the original members of MetaFilter, and a heartbreaking memorial thread with links and stories provides a fine example of an online wake. I think Brad would have been pleased.

My deepest sympathies go out to his mother and to everyone who was touched by him.

John Michell, who has died aged 76, was an old Etonian who became the standard bearer for the romantic hippy mysticism with his 1969 book The View Over Atlantis, This posited the then original theory of a prehistorical global civilisation linked by leylines, and became extraordinarily popular and influential.

A hugely productive renaissance man, Michell published countless books and articles examining varied topics such as the debate over Shakespeare, the history of Glastonbury, the Jerusalem temple, the science of measuring the earth, sacred England and much, much more, as well as beautiful, mystically influenced geometric art, while eking out a bohemian existence in London’s once countercultural epicentre, Notting Hill.