Author Archive for admin

30 Years, Billions of Miles

The Voyager program turned 30 yesterday. To celebrate this greatest of human accomplishments, Celebrating Sagan has compiled this brief list of articles discussing the splendor and glory of Voyagers I and II.

• NASA: Voyager at 30: Looking Beyond and Within
• Space.com: Voyager Spacecraft Celebrate 30th Anniversary
• UFO.Whipnet: NASA’s Golden Gift to the Aliens: 30 Years Later
• WikiPedia: Voyager program

Also, please listen to the Sounds of Sagan audio player to hear some of the actual recordings on the Golden Record.

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New Homepage

In our slow but dedicated pursuit to constantly improve and expand Celebrating Sagan, we have created a new homepage at www.CelebratingSagan.com.

Next week we will roll out a new page for Sounds of Sagan that will include some original audio from Humanistic Joel.

And as always, Celebrating Sagan encourages your input, advice, memories and content. Please email us at celebratingsagan@gmail.com.

This living tribute would be nothing without help from you all.

Thanks,

Bryan and Dave.

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Planet Walk.

Journalist Larry Kales wrote in with this link to a great Sagan-Blog-a-Thon post featuring Dr. Sagan’s Planet Walk in Ithaca.

The entry was posted by Stephen Frug and appears on his blog, Attempts. Aside from a detailed description and excellent photographs, Frug also links to the podcast audio tour, written by Sagan, and voiced by Bill Nye. Now you can participate from anywhere!

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Oregon Band Performs Original Sagan Song.

Looking around for new Sagan content I came across another song called ‘Carl Sagan’. This tune is written and performed by the Portland (OR) ensemble, Loch Lomond.

It can be a little difficult to understand the vocals at first, but eventually they do clear up.

And if any member of Loch Lomond comes across this post, please know that I’d love to include a recording of this song in the ‘Sounds of Sagan’ audio player.

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a Pale Blue Dot

The Icecore Scientist put together this song and film called Pale Blue Dot. They dedicate it to ‘Carl and his wife, Ann Druyan.’

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Beyond Belief

Before my long holiday train ride, I took the time to download the recent Beyond Belief sessions to watch during the trip. (One of the few bonuses of riding Amtrak is outlets.) This is hardy stuff that would’ve made Carl Sagan proud – the meat and potatoes of existence. If you haven’t already, you simply must check it out. I recommend session 2.

If you’re unfamiliar with the project, here’s their website‘s description:

Just 40 years after a famous TIME magazine cover asked “Is God Dead?” the answer appears to be a resounding “No!” According to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in a recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine, “God is Winning”. Religions are increasingly a geopolitical force to be reckoned with. Fundamentalist movements – some violent in the extreme – are growing. Science and religion are at odds in the classrooms and courtrooms. And a return to religious values is widely touted as an antidote to the alleged decline in public morality. After two centuries, could this be twilight for the Enlightenment project and the beginning of a new age of unreason? Will faith and dogma trump rational inquiry, or will it be possible to reconcile religious and scientific worldviews? Can evolutionary biology, anthropology and neuroscience help us to better understand how we construct beliefs, and experience empathy, fear and awe? Can science help us create a new rational narrative as poetic and powerful as those that have traditionally sustained societies? Can we treat religion as a natural phenomenon? Can we be good without God? And if not God, then what?

This is a critical moment in the human situation, and The Science Network in association with the Crick-Jacobs Center brought together an extraordinary group of scientists and philosophers to explore answers to these questions. The conversation took place at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA from November 5-7, 2006.

Ann Druyan gave a particularly moving presentation. Here it is in three parts:

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Sagan’s Rationale for Human Spaceflight

Alex Michael Bonnici brings to our attention an article in The Space Review called Sagan’s rationale for human spaceflight by Michael Huang. Here’s a short excerpt:

In medieval times, some people kept a human skull in their home to remind themselves of mortality, and to view their priorities against the big picture of life and death. A modern equivalent is the dinosaur fossil. The fossilized remains of a once great and dominant species reminds the human species of our eventual choice: survival or extinction, or as Sagan put it, “spaceflight or extinction”.

It’s a quick and interesting read and a great launch point for discussing our future in space. Thanks, Alex.

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‘Vision.’ – A Tribute to Carl Sagan

Lang Kasranov writes:

Thank you for a wonderful site.
I would be honored if you would watch, and possibly include, my recent video about Dr. Sagan. It is hosted at YouTube and Google video.

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Carl Sagan, gone for "ten trips around the Sun"

Tom Moore emailed us with the link to his blog-a-thon post. Here it is in full:

Carl Sagan was one of the strongest and most enduring influences on my choice to pursue teaching and then science. His view of humans as “a way for the universe to know itself” echoed and extended themes I’d read in Alan Watts. Carl’s many books and shorter articles guided and inspired me up through his untimely death. They shaped my interests and led me to specialize in the science of the solar system. Many were critical of what they saw as Carl’s excessive participation in the cult of personality through the media. But from my perspective, Carl was the ultimate modern renaissance man, with interests that spanned the universe in a way that few others came close to expressing. He excelled not only in communicating the excitement of science to the general public, but also led a generation of scientists in seeing the broader relevance and impact of their work, helping us to get beyond the mentality of the cold war. He is deeply missed.

There is a detectable web competition for the title of “Next Carl Sagan”. It’s a very tough act to follow on the world stage. But we do need others to tell us how wonderful is the world as revealed by science, how little we really need our illusions and superstitions, and how much more sound is a simple reverence for life and all the forces that have created it.

- Tom Moore

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Missing (from China)

We received the following on December 24th, 2006:

Dear Mrs Sagan：

I am from China, the country which has the largest population. Please excuse me for writing to you first.

I know today is the 10th anniversary for Mr Sagan, so I’d rather like to express my regards and sadness to him – the great scientist by this E-mail. I’m so captivated and interested in his loving science and the strive perseveringly for it. Especially the “The Demon-Haunted World” is what I like most, it influenced on me strongly; it is exciting! Sagan is the idol in my heart all life. In the special day, except for giving my respect to you — dear Mrs Sagan, missing the idol, too. Thank you for the construction of science for long long time!

Sorry , my English is poor .If any thing wrong has in this letter or offend you , please don’t care and forgive me, thanks a lot! Because it is my first time to write E-mail in English.

Bai lee
Dalian
China
December 20 2006

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