[osiris]

Arthur C. Clarke has passed away at age 90.

Author Arthur C. Clarke dies - CNN.com

from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/18/a...in-technology/

"Today is a very sad day in our little world. It's been reported that Arthur C. Clarke, among the most influential visionaries in technology and a personal hero of many at Engadget, has died at the age of 90. Along with his many written works (like the infamous and immeasurably influential 2001: A Space Odyssey), Clarke was possibly best known for conceptualizing the geostationary communications satellite -- clearly one of the most important technological innovations in history."

[ghporter]

Oh crap. Now we'll never find out how he knew what Titan looked like before any probes got close enough to photograph it...

It's a sad day.

[RAILhead]

I just saw this and my stomach dropped. Holy crap, he was awesome.

[Pendergast]

It is quite sad. Although I felt his latest books were not as strong, "2001, A Space Odyssey" remains a landmark in litterature...

So looong Arthur! A man of peace and vision!

[peeb]

Didn't he have a reputation for being a bit fond of young boys?

[analogika]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Oh crap. Now we'll never find out how he knew what Titan looked like before any probes got close enough to photograph it...

Iapetus.


Rest in peace, Mr. Clarke.

[Camali]

RIP Arthur C. Clarke!

I think I'll start reading Rendezvous with Rama for a third time.

[Atomic Rooster]

Originally Posted by osiris 

Arthur C. Clarke has passed away at age 90.

"Today is a very sad day in our little world."

WTF! Why is it sad? The freaking guy was in his nineties. He prolly couldn't wait.

Now he's in Heaven with Jesus Christ...well unless he was gay.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by analogika 

Iapetus.


Rest in peace, Mr. Clarke.

I thought he described Titan in "Imperial Earth"... But I don't have it handy so I can't go look it up.

[finboy]

Originally Posted by peeb 

Didn't he have a reputation for being a bit fond of young boys?

Never heard that. You might be thinking of John Maynard Keynes.

[Sherman Homan]

He made the world a better place.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by finboy 

Never heard that. You might be thinking of John Maynard Keynes.

No, no, Clark....
The mysterious Sri Lankan world of Arthur C. Clarke | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com

[peeb]

Originally Posted by finboy 

Never heard that. You might be thinking of John Maynard Keynes.

No, no, Clarke....
The mysterious Sri Lankan world of Arthur C. Clarke | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com

[brassplayersrock²]

one post of the same content is fine peeb

[iM@k]

Paraphrasing the intro of his TV show:

"He has explored this, and now will do so in other worlds"

RIP Sir.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I thought he described Titan in "Imperial Earth"... But I don't have it handy so I can't go look it up.

Apologies - I thought you were talking about the white oval with the little black dot (monolith) on Iapetus in 2001. At that time, all they had was brightness measurements on a little dot of light. It was a couple of years before a fly-by showed that the cause of Iapetus' varying brightness was a large white oval with a little black dot in the middle...

[red rocket]

Originally Posted by peeb 

Didn't he have a reputation for being a bit fond of young boys?

The mysterious Sri Lankan world of Arthur C. Clarke | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com

Classy move, repeating a slanderous allegation by one of the worst rags in Britain, The Sunday Mirror, one that was found to be baseless by the Sri Lankan police and which the ****ers were consequently forced to retract. Thank you very much for not doing your research and trying to smear the memory of a dead person who has done nothing but contribute greatly to the world of science fiction.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by red rocket 

Classy move, repeating a slanderous allegation by one of the worst rags in Britain, The Sunday Mirror, one that was found to be baseless by the Sri Lankan police and which the ****ers were consequently forced to retract. Thank you very much for not doing your research and trying to smear the memory of a dead person who has done nothing but contribute greatly to the world of science AND fiction.

Fixed.

[Rumor]

Never heard of him.

[red rocket]

[lurkalot]

Originally Posted by Atomic Rooster 

Now he's in Heaven with Jesus Christ...well unless he was gay.

Or ... unless there is no heaven.

...and even if there are such things as heaven or gods, who would worship a god who doesn't allow a man like this a place at his side merely because he was gay? Who would want to stay in such a place with such a creature for eternity if men like Arthur C. Clarke are denied admittance anyway?

"Religion is a byproduct of fear, For much of human history, it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary?" Arthur C. Clarke 1917 - 2008.

An important voice silenced. For now.

"The idea was that maybe in a hundred million years or so, an advanced civilization would find this little space capsule containing my hair, an Arthur C. Clarke would be cloned from it, and I would thus pop up in another galaxy in the distant future. Interesting thought."

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by analogika 

Apologies - I thought you were talking about the white oval with the little black dot (monolith) on Iapetus in 2001. At that time, all they had was brightness measurements on a little dot of light. It was a couple of years before a fly-by showed that the cause of Iapetus' varying brightness was a large white oval with a little black dot in the middle...

I'd forgotten about that one. But every time I put cream in my coffee, I think about Clarke and Titan...

And let's not forget that Mr. Clarke is recognized as "the father of the communications satellite" among other things. He was up there with Azimov and very few others who were actual scientists AND visionaries.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Didn't he have a show at some point? I seem to remember something with an opening of a crystal skull on a black background that used to creep the hell out of me when I was a kid.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Didn't he have a show at some point? I seem to remember something with an opening of a crystal skull on a black background that used to creep the hell out of me when I was a kid.

Yep. He introduced and narrated a show that looked at "mysterious" stuff. In the US that show was called "Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers." I'm not sure how much it had in common with the UK show "Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World."

[Dakar the Fourth]

I seem to remember a lot of UFO stuff being mentioned.

[Big Mac]

I had no idea he was still alive.

[Zeeb]

I'm sad he is gone but I often wondered why he went to live in Sri Lanka? What was it that attracted him to that country? Very odd choice.

Nevertheless, RIP.

[Atomic Rooster]

Originally Posted by lurkalot 

Or ... unless there is no heaven.

...and even if there are such things as heaven or gods, who would worship a god who doesn't allow a man like this a place at his side merely because he was gay? Who would want to stay in such a place with such a creature for eternity if men like Arthur C. Clarke are denied admittance anyway?

Sorry lurk, maybe it didn't come across that I was being sarcastic.

I'm not a superstitious person.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Zeeb 

I'm sad he is gone but I often wondered why he went to live in Sri Lanka? What was it that attracted him to that country? Very odd choice.

Commonwealth.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by Zeeb 

I'm sad he is gone but I often wondered why he went to live in Sri Lanka? What was it that attracted him to that country? Very odd choice.

Nevertheless, RIP.

Why do you think it's odd? In many ways it's idyllic.

[Andrew Stephens]

Originally Posted by analogika 

Commonwealth.

1) He was a keen scuba diver and the diving there is excellent

2) He had friends there.

If I hear ONE more uninformed news moron describing him as the inventor of the satellite I'm going to scream!!

[analogika]

The concept of a geostationary orbit is admittedly not suited for a ten-second news-blurb obit.

[glideslope]

My God. It's full of stars.

RIP

[::maroma::]

"1) If you've never seen a U.F.O. you are very unobservant. 2) If you've seen as many as I have you won't believe in them. 3) They have nothing to do with visitors from space. 4) It is impossible to prove #3."

Happy trails.

[lurkalot]

Originally Posted by Atomic Rooster 

Sorry lurk, maybe it didn't come across that I was being sarcastic.

I'm not a superstitious person.

My mistake. I didn't detect the sarcasm.

==========
I hope "they" respect his instructions:
"Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral"

[ghporter]

In reading the rather large obit printed in yesterday's paper, I learned that Clarke suffered from post-polio syndrome. This is a malady that affects people who had polio as children. Basically, the symptoms look like a "relapse" of polio, but in fact they are considered to be the wearing out of nerve fibers that grew during the person's recovery from the original polio infection. Sufferers experience severe weakness and fatigue and often swimming is an excellent way to deal with both these symptoms and the need to keep the muscles that work in good shape. Clarke is noted as having suffered from this since the 1960s-when he moved to what was then called Ceylon and took up scuba. I have to believe that he moved there for the year-round ability to dive and thus maintain his health, along with the ability to dive in itself.

[osiris]

Joy of Tech made a tribute:

[peeb]

Bit of a rip-off of the Penny Arcade Gygax tribute, I think...

[subego]

Originally Posted by red rocket 

and which the ****ers were consequently forced to retract.

Sorry to ask, but does anyone have a link to this? I've been asked a few times now.

I can find the fact cited a bajillion times, but have yet to find anything close to a primary source.

[peeb]

Sunday Mirror:

Arthur C Clarke Confessed to being a Paedophile.

'Paedophile' Arthur C Clarke sparks protests in Lanka
Child right activists in Sri Lanka have expressed shock over science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke's confession in a newspaper interview of a life of paedophilia and called for his deportation just around the time Prince Charles was to knight him.

Clarke, 80, widely regarded as a visionary and author of the celebrated 2001: A Space Odyssey and some 80 other books, was quoted as saying in the interview published in London's Sunday Mirror that having sex with children was all right.

''Once they have reached the age of puberty, it is OK... It doesn't do any harm,'' said Clarke, who has lived in Sri Lanka for 40 years.

"I am trying to think of the youngest boy I have ever had because, of course, you can't tell it here. I think most of the damage comes from the fuss made by hysterical parents afterwards. If the kids don't mind, fair enough,'' he was reported to have said in the interview which was conducted at his house.

''I am amazed why the law has not been enforced as far as Clarke was concerned,'' says Maureen Seneviratne, co-ordinator for a non-governmental organisation called Peace -- Protection of Environment and Children Everywhere.

''Why do we have strong laws in Sri Lanka?'' she asked, noting that such a law had been in place since October 1995 when parliament passed a bill without division on prevention of abuse of children below the age of 16.

She said that a bill replaced a 1983 law, under which abuse of children below the age of 12 was an offence, though the child was equally guilty as the perpetrator. Under the new law, child abuse carries a minimum sentence of seven years imprisonment and a maximum of 20 years. The laws were put in place following a public outcry over paedophilia and child prostitution in Sri Lanka.

Referring to Clarke justifying sex with children who had attained puberty, Seneviratne said even homosexuality was a crime under the country's penal code.

She noted that a German was undergoing prison sentence in the island after being convicted of paedophilia and said, ''It is strange that while some people are sentenced, others are going scot-free.''

She said she intended to take up Clarke's revelations with the presidential task force for the protection of children and inform all concerned, including the police.

She said her group had indeed heard rumours about Clarke's activities, but being a small NGO, her organisation could not take it up as that would be like ''tilting at giants who have written books and been made chancellors of universities.''

''It would have been like signing our own death warrant,'' she said in a reference to the official patronage enjoyed by Clarke, the first foreign celebrity to be given tax-free status on the island. The writer has also been made chancellor of the Meratuwa University in Sri Lanka.

Clarke is to be presented with a knighthood by Prince Charles, who will be the chief guest at Sri Lanka's 50th anniversary of independence on February 4.

Dr Nalin de Silva, a former Colombo university lecturer and an activist of an ultra-Sinhala Buddhist organisation, said he would launch a strong agitation, demanding Clarke's immediate deportation from the country.

''This is child abuse. It is a shame to have him as chancellor of a university. Now it seems Arthur C Clarke not only pioneered the concept of geo-stationary satellites, but also abuse of children. He has not brought recognition to Sri Lanka; he only projected the country to the foreigners as a paradise for paedophiles,'' Dr de Silva said.

[subego]

Originally Posted by peeb 

Sunday Mirror:

I asked for a link to the RETRACTION.

[peeb]

Ah, sorry - I misinterpreted your request. I wonder whether the accusation from Maureen Seneviratne was retracted, or whether it was maintained, and simply could not be proven?
As far as I can tell the Mirror retracted the claim by 3 boys who claimed they'd had underage relationships with him. They did not retract comments attributed to Clarke in an interview ("Once they have reached the age of puberty, it is OK... It doesn't do any harm... I am trying to think of the youngest boy I have ever had because, of course, you can't tell it here (the UK). I think most of the damage comes from the fuss made by hysterical parents afterwards. If the kids don't mind, fair enough."), nor did Clarke take action against the paper for printing them.

[moonmonkey]

You waited till he was dead to announce he was a kiddy fiddler?

[brassplayersrock²]

yeah i know right. real low of peeb to do that, really low

[peeb]

Originally Posted by moonmonkey 

You waited till he was dead to announce he was a kiddy fiddler?

Not at all, not only did I not 'announce' this, but it was over a decade ago, when he was alive.

[moonmonkey]

judging by your previous posts, it didn't seem to upset you when he was alive.

[peeb]

What do you mean, "bother me"? This thread is about Clarke, which reminded me of it.