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March 18, 2008
Arthur C. Clarke RIP
Arthur C. Clarke is dead at 90.
Science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died aged 90 in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, it was confirmed tonight.
Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30am after suffering breathing problems, his personal secretary Rohan De Silva said.
"Sir Arthur passed away a short while ago at the Apollo Hospital [in Colombo]. He had a cardio-respiratory attack," he said.
His valet, W. K. M. Dharmawardena, said funeral arrangements would be finalised after his close family returned to the island from Australia.
Mr Dharmawardena said Clarke's condition had begun to deteriorate in recent weeks and he had been in hospital for the past four days.
The visionary author of over 100 books, who predicted the existence of satellites, was most famous for his short story "The Sentinel," which was expanded into the novel on which Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" was based.
He was also credited with inventing the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality.
Rest in peace, in the stars!
Picture above, appropriately enough, is NASA's Image of the Day, an amateur photograph of the Endeavor's most recent launch.
Posted by caps at March 18, 2008 07:40 PM