The world bids Arthur farewell:
AP: Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8HwFP933Y_Q
Arthur C. Clarke: 1917 – 2008
http://youtube.com/watch?v=971EprF6-BA
REMEMBER THE STARS: R.I.P. Arthur C. Clarke
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KWsjpdWVeBg
CNN SciFi : Arthur C Clarke : SciFi VS Reality
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iz03L2n0U7Y
Named after Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev, the Kardashev Scale “is a general method of classifying how technologically advanced a civilization is”. The scale makes provision for three categories, ranging from Type I to Type III, and is largely based on the amount of energy at the civilization’s command and their degree of space colonisation.
Type I: the civilization has mastered the resources of its home planet.
Type II: the civilization has expanded to master its solar system.
Type III: the civilization has succeeded in mastering the resources of its galaxy.
Us? We’re nowhere near achieving Type I status.
Tim Berners-Lee on the scheme by three British ISPs to use Phorm to deliver targeted advertising to their users:
Different people have different attitudes. I myself feel that it is very important that my ISP supplies internet to my house like the water company supplies water to my house. It supplies connectivity with no strings attached. My ISP doesn’t control which websites I go to, it doesn’t monitor which websites I go to.
anomaly noun (anomalies) 1 something that is unusual or different from what is expected. 2 divergence from what is usual or expected.—Chambers Reference Online
As a skeptic, I’m well aware of the power of anomalies to persuade people that something extraordinary or supernatural is happening. I’m also aware of the combined powers of probability and chance to explain the existence of most anomalies.
You dream of Aunt Margaret, and in the morning you hear the old dear has died. Or you think of an old school friend, and hey presto, the person in question turns up at your local supermarket. But we dream of countless of numbers of people, both real and imagined, and sooner or later someone you dream about has to make an appearance in your day. If it was the late Aunt Margaret who turned up the supermarket, that would be significant, but otherwise unrelated coincidences have a way of just happening.
So anomalies happen, yet prove nothing. Rolling dice and coming up with a dozen sixes in a row isn’t an anomaly. It’s simple chance.
But how many sixes can you roll before it becomes unlikely? Before it becomes impossible? Circumstances surrounding the 11 September 2001 attacks in America have been rolling sixes for quite a while now. So many coincidences, so many questions. In isolation, these are not anomalies. They’re simply people making human mistakes, or misunderstandings, or civil servants trying to cover their asses. Yet the events keep on rolling sixes, one after the other…
Tape of Air Traffic Controllers Made on 9/11 Was DestroyedAt least six air traffic controllers who dealt with two of the hijacked airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, made a tape recording a few hours later describing the events, but the tape was destroyed by a supervisor without anyone making a transcript or even listening to it, the Transportation Department said Thursday. [...] A quality-assurance manager at the center destroyed the tape several months after it was made, crushing the cassette in his hand, cutting the tape into little pieces and dropping them in different trash cans around the building, according to the report.
