Gramarye

Grrr.

I was beginning to hope that perhaps when he invented the communication satellite, he got not only “this t-shirt,” but also, I dunno, alien-bestowed immortality, or something. Certainly he went on living long after they named an award for him, which I would normally assume is a clear sign that you’re no longer alive.

Clarke was one of the great writers of science fiction. He isn’t one of my favorites, and I don’t talk about him (or think about him, or blog about him) all that much, but he really was a god in the genre. My lack of attention is probably related to the fact that people mostly associate him with the 2001 universe, the Rama universe, and ??Childhood’s End?? — none of which really do it for me.

On the other hand, ??Songs of Distant Earth?? and ??Ghost from the Grand Banks?? are two of the most moving — and horribly depressing — works in SF, while ??Tales from the White Hart?? is funnier and, in its own way, more nonsensical than Douglas Adams at his best — which is saying something. Those are the three books I’d suggest for someone looking for some memorial reading.

Report: Arthur C. Clarke, Dead at 90 | Danger Room from Wired.com

How is it that no one made me sit down and watch this film before? It’s amazing.

“I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum.”

Ah, 5ives. So hilarious.

5ives » Five terrible fake astronomical pickup lines

Interesting. For you L’Engle nerds out there, compare with the anti-shark poison switchblade that Polly issues the protagonist in ??Arm of the Starfish??.

One of my favorite of L’Engle’s books, by the way; read it many times when I was a kid. Not one of her best, but it combines spies, new age psuedo-science, regular science, travelogue, teenage romantic melodrama, theology, and political commentary.

You can see the appeal to me as a youngster.

Deadly Compressed Air Knife | Danger Room from Wired.com