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Hearing rumours that Artie has gone, at the age of 90. Worked on radar during the second world war, came up with the idea of satellites, and wrote dozens of books, including the classic Childhood's End, and worked with Kubrick on the story for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But no word on a drumming career.

Gave real meaning to the label science fiction

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. local time after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.

Clarke moved to Sri Lanka in 1956, lured by his interest in marine diving ? which he said was as close as he could get to the weightless feeling of space. ?I?m perfectly operational underwater,? he once said.

Yeah, he was a scientist, so he provided his books with science. Was caught out on more than one occasion, though. Imperial Earth was published in 1976 and was set in 2276, and included a portable library/communications device/music player that was the size of a book. As he said later, the silicon chip caught him out completely.

Fountains Of Paradise included the idea, suggested by someone else, for a space elevator. Because his books were grounded in science, they were believable.

Popbitch will probably be open all night now. They have implied for years he was a pederast, who lived in Sri Lanka not because of marine diving, but of the 'generosity' of local laws about little boys....

"Pederast" - I learn a new word every day.


Can't see me using it much somehow......

You've obviously never read Bored Of The Rings. Frito Bugger asks his uncle Dildo what he's been up to, and he responds, "A little Scrabble, a little pederasty---I'm retired, you see."

The word also appeared in the lyrics of a song from Hair. "Sodomy, felatio, cunnilingus, pederasty. Mother, why do these words sound so nasty?"

From the Beeb's obituary:

"After a failed marriage Sir Arthur moved to Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon, in 1956, where he lived with a business partner and his family, and pursued his interest in scuba-diving.

His status as the grand old man of science fiction was threatened when, in 1998, allegations of child abuse, which he strenuously denied, caused the confirmation of a knighthood to be delayed.

Although cleared by an investigation, Sir Arthur's unconventional lifestyle continued to cause some raised eyebrows."

Couldn't write for shit . . . yup, true, I'm afraid. But then neither could the other giants of 20th century sci-fi---Asimov and Heinlein. Someone who's classed as sci-fi, but isn't (Farenheit 451 excepted), is Ray Bradbury. Boy, can that man write.

He liked little Sri Lankans I heard.He was probably more reserved than Glitter........