The Sentinel

I drew this portrait yesterday of one of my all-time heroes, Arthur C. Clarke. He is one of the three men from whom Arthur takes his name. The man who discovered the geostationary orbit thereby ushering in the era of global telecommunication, and the author of so many marvelous science fiction novels, Mr. Clarke is certainly someone worthy of emulation.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.

There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.

I link to this track because it is by Clarke's favourite musician, Jean Michel Jarre, performing a track which derives its title from one of Clarke's novels, Rendezvous With Rama, and Clarke helped design this concert honouring the city of Houston, N.A.S.A. and, in particular, the space shuttle programme and the astronauts who died aboard the Challenger.

Rendezvous IV - Jean Michel Jarre