Died at 91
male
Jerry Nelson (July 10, 1934 – August 23, 2012) was an American puppeteer, best known for his work with The Muppets. Renowned for his wide range of characters and singing abilities, he performed Muppet characters on Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and various Muppet movies and specials. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jerry Nelson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
The twenty-first century was on the brink of nuclear confrontation when the three-hundred-kilometer-long Stone flashed out of nothingness and into Earth's orbit. NASA, NATO, and the UN sent explorers to the asteroid's surface... and discovered marvels and mysteries to drive researchers mad. For the Stone was from space - but perhaps not our space; it came from the future - but perhaps not our future; and within the hollowed asteroid was Thistledown. The remains of a vanished civilization. A human - English-, Russian-, and Chinese-speaking - civilization. Seven vast chambers containing forests, lakes, rivers, hanging cities... And museums describing the Death; the catastrophic war that was about to occur; the horror and the long winter that would follow. But while scientists and politicians bickered about how to use the information to stop the Death, the Stone yielded a secret that made even Earth's survival pale in significance.
