So long, and thanks for everything, Arthur C. Clarke!

It is with fond nostalgia and a bit of sadness that I report, belatedly, the passing of one of the true great minds of our age, Sir Arthur C. Clarke. His hard science fiction novels were instrumental in shaping my childhood dreams and aspirations. Kevin Murphy's comments were the first to inform me of his passing today, closely by Hotspur's. Clarke's "3 Laws of Technology" should be a guiding light for scientists everywhere, and it's a shame that it's obviously not the case. There is no group more religious and calcified than a group of scientists or technologists. If you doubt this statement, crack any biography of Einstein, Newton, Galileo, or, for instance, anybody who proposed the theory of plate tectonics in the first half of the 20th century.