Sad news today as people awoke to the news that pop superstar Michael Jackson died from a cardiac arrest.

However, from watching and reading news articles throughout the day, I have come to the conclusion that many people simply overreact to this kind of news.

Television showed images of distraught fans who appeared to be inconsolable, but these aren't people who knew him personally. They are simply fans and I don't understand how anyone can get so upset over someone they don't know. Plus it's not as if his career was in full swing.

Of course I'd expect friends and family to be upset and I do feel for them, but those who are simply just fans really ought to pull themselves together.

This is nothing new though. Similar reactions were seen at the death of other stars such as Elvis, John Lennon and Princess Diana. I just think it's a shame that people react this way.

Interestingly, last.fm has published a graph showing the number of times Michael Jackson tracks were listened to on and hour-by-hour basis and there is an almost vertical spike as people learned the news.