Happy Birthday, Arthur

Arthur C Clarke - one of the "Big Three" of science fiction, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov - all sadly dead now - was born today in Minehead, Somerset, England, in 1917, and died in 2007, at 90.

Childhood's End made a huge impression on me when it came out...

And who doesn't love Clarke's laws?

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

4. For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.

Happy Birthday, Sir Arthur!