Gawker: valleywag, arthur c. clarke

Valleywag brought down by outage — editor blames sci-fi fans

Owen Thomas — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:42:58 EDT

Coincidentally, the Valleywag crew was chatting in Campfire about how much we loved a new site we'd discovered, Downforeveryoneorjustme.com, right before we had to use it on our own site. Some theories we came up with: Nick Denton, Gawker Media's owner and publisher of Valleywag, likes to bring down his sites occasionally just to watch how his editors deal with the unbearable pressure of not being able to write. As part of Jason Calacanis's new Valleywag charm campaign, Mahalo guides posted so many links to us that it brought the site down. Or, most plausibly, outraged Arthur C. Clarke fans launched a denial-of-service campaign against the unremarkable observation that the deceased sci-fi writer was an admitted pedophile.

Best Buy's Geek Squad celebrates death of noted pedophile Arthur C. Clarke tonight

Owen Thomas — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:00:07 EDT

Best Buy's Geek Squad is holding a memorial tonight to honor Arthur C. Clarke. Alas. Everyone was far too polite to say this about the recently deceased sci-fi writer: Had he lived in the U.S. rather than Sri Lanka, he'd be a prime membership candidate for the North American Man-Boy Love Association. "Once they have reached the age of puberty, it is OK... It doesn't do any harm," Clarke told the U.K.'s Sunday Mirror in 1998. More or less exiled from Britain over his underage affairs, he continued to pursue them in the South Asian island nation. Authorities there turned a blind eye. This is all well known among the more sophisticated realms of fandom — but not, apparently, Best Buy headquarters in South Richfield, Minn. At 8:01 p.m., every Geek Squad repairman will pause to think reverently of a champion of child abuse. The press release:

Tonight the Geek Squad is going to hold a moment of silence at 8:01 pm to remember the venerable Arthur C. Clarke (in army time, that's 20:01). Memo's regarding Mr. Clarke's passing have been posted at Geek Squad precincts around the nation...See below for the memo the Agents created...best...CK
ARTHUR C. CLARKE
1917 - 2008

Yesterday, the worlds of science and science fiction lost one of their true visionaries, the inestimable Arthur C. Clarke, author of seminal works like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama. Through the writings of Mr. Clarke, all these worlds are yours.

It isn't easy to overstate Mr. Clarke's contribution to increasing the public's fascination with science and technology. In fact, Mr. Clarke's imaginative fiction, profoundly insightful futurist thinking and boundless optimism played no small part in shaping the formation of our company, Geek Squad.

Out of the deepest respect for Mr. Clarke, Geek Squad personnel will be observing a moment of silence this evening at 20:01 military time. Many thanks for your understanding. The sky is filled with one more star tonight.

Chris Kooluris
Ketchum
1285 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10019

Arthur C. Clarke, Futurist and Scifi Legend, Dies

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:20:42 EDT

Arthur C. Clarke, author of scifi classics Rendezvous with Rama and 2001: A Space Odyssey, died today at the age of 90 in Sri Lanka. Not only did Clarke create a legend with 2001 (he worked on the film with Stanley Kubrick too), but he also predicted many of the scientific inventions of the twentieth century such as telecom satellites. He was even knighted in recognition of his many mind-bending contributions to the worlds of literature and science speculation. [LA Times]