Great man and great owner. Dead at 65.

Paul Allen, for those who don't know, was the owner of the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trailblazers.

He, along with Bill Gates, was the co-founder of Microsoft.

Sixty-five is way too young to die. He passed away from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He had battled the disease in 2009, and announced last month that it had returned.

He was quite a visionary, to say the least. He often referred to himself as an "idea man". Right offhand, I'd say that's a huge understatement.

Sad day for the Pacific NW. Thoughts to his family.

As a history buff, I've followed Mr Allen's efforts to find wrecks of sunken ships.

His Research Vessel (R/V) Petrel and it's expedition teams discovered:
IJN Musashi
USS Indianapolis
USS Lexington
USS Juneau
USS Helena
USS Astoria

Also, his team recovered the ship's bell from HMS Hood and returned it to the Royal Navy.

From a very selfish perspective, I hope the work of the R/V Petrel and it's team continues after Mr Allen's passing.

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USAF 1981 - 2001

It's sort of sad more people aren't paying more attention to this thread and Paul Allen's passing.

Chances are pretty good that a whole bunch of you access the Internet and are looking at this forum right now using something he helped create.

O.K., I'll give your thread the attention you want. Paul Allen's passing is wonderful news for gun enthusiasts and especially Washingtonians. It is unfortunate that he did not kick the bucket before he had a chance to donate millions to help pass anti-gun Washington Initiatives 594 and 1491. A couple months ago the news headline here was his million dollar donation to help get anti-gun initiative 1639 on our ballot. Do not waste bandwidth asking Washington gun owners to weep. That would be both futile and absurd.

To the moderators: Paul Allen never was a political candidate or government official.

Thanks for clarifying that.


Well it is pretty shocking that not all people obtain the latest news and events from posts in the Lounge

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Still Running Against the Wind

This isn't my thread. You should go back and read the original post.

I haven't asked anyone...including Washington gun owners...to do anything. If that's what you think, you're reading something into my post that isn't there.

If you want to talk about Initiative 1639, the Second Amendment forum would be a better place to do that. Unless they've looked it up, I'd guess most forum members don't even know what Initiative 1639 is, but it'll be on the November 6 ballot in Washington.

I too live in WA and have some unique insights owing to professional...attachments to both the Allen and Gates families. Due to some airtight NDAs I can't go into a whole lot of detail, but it's unlikely there's another member of this forum with the knowledge I have.

Paul Allen had his hands in so many things, anyone can find things they both like and dislike. Even gun enthusiasts! It's always a struggle with WA enthusiasts because in the Venn diagram, there's a ton of overlap between the good things he did and the bad.

I-1639 is probably going to pass 55%-45% and the money on both sides will have very little to do with the outcome. It's far more generational and values-based than a massive propaganda campaign (which is being conducted to help guarantee that wide margin result).

RIP Mr. Allen.

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Psalm 27:2

A lot of fine people die sooner than him. He is not any more special because he was rich and famous. I guess I'll keep my guns if he doesn't mind. Condolences to his family.