Arthur C. Clarke has died
Author Arthur C. Clarke dies (CNN) -- Science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who co-wrote the epic film "2001: A Space Odyssey" and raised the idea of communications satellites in the 1940s, has died at age 90, an associate said. Clarke had been wheelchair-bound for several years with complications stemming from a youthful bout with polio and had suffered from back trouble recently, said Scott Chase, the secretary of the nonprofit Arthur C. Clarke Foundation. He died early Wednesday at a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since the 1950s, Chase said. "He had been taken to hospital in what we had hoped was one of the slings and arrows of being 90, but in this case it was his final visit," he said. Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick shared an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay for "2001." The film grew out of Clarke's 1951 short story, "The Sentinel," about an alien transmitter left on the moon that ceases broadcasting when humans arrive. As a Royal Air Force officer during World War II, Clarke took part in the early development of radar. In a paper written for the radio journal "Wireless World" in 1945, he suggested that artificial satellites hovering above fixed spot above Earth could be used to relay telecommunications signals across the globe. He is widely credited with introducing the idea of the communications satellite, the first of which were launched in the early 1960s. But he never patented the idea, prompting a 1965 essay that he subtitled, "How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare Time." Clarke wrote dozens of novels and collections of short stories and more than 30 non-fiction works during a career as a writer that began in the 1950s. He served as a television commentator during several of the Apollo moon missions and co-wrote a 1970 account of the first lunar landing with the Apollo 11 crew. He was knighted in 1998. |
Shit, I thought he died a long time ago.
Still, sad news, I guess. |
Two sad deaths of two famous artists on the same day. :(
RIP. <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3qLdeEjdbWE&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3qLdeEjdbWE&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object> |
Damn. Clarke was a legend.
RIP. |
"My God, it's full of stars ..." :(
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Originally Posted by superdeluxe
Damn. Clarke was a legend.
RIP. RIP |
"Welcome, Arthur!"
"Jesus? ... oh, bollocks." |
One of my favorite all time quotes: "The truth, as always, will be far stranger."
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:sad:
RIP I have an idea what might work as a headstone. |
Truly, the passing of one of the best-known writers of science fiction of the 20th Century. :(
And Clarke was more than just a great SF writer, too. He described just after World War II the idea of geosynchronous orbit, where a satellite orbiting the Earth at the equatorial plane orbits high enough to appear to be still in the sky; he used this idea as a means to relay electromagnetic signals between various points on the Earth. His idea led to much of the modern communications satellite industry as we know it today. |
I haven't read as many of his books as I would like, but those I have read ("2001", "Childhood's End", "Rendezvous with Rama") have been marvelous.
He is truly one of the great science fiction authors (and scientists, from what I hear) and he will be missed. |
A legend. One of the few who will be remembered 200, 300 years from now.
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I re-read Rendezvous with Rama a few months ago. I Introduced Mrs Danger to the book. People don't write 'sense of wonder' stories anymore.
My favorite Clarke story is online: http://lucis.net/stuff/clarke/9billion_clarke.html |
Sad.
Clarke is on my Mt. Rushmore of science fiction writers. |
Rendezvous with Rama is an awesome awesome book.
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