Ten Times Around The Sun Without Carl

[bananas]

Haven't seen any postings about this.
Carl Sagan passed ten years ago Dec 20 1996,
his wife was on NPR "Science Friday" this morning.
She wrote a blog entry about him http://anndruyan.typepad.com/the_observatory/2006/12/ten_times_aroun.html
and there is a blog-a-thon memorial http://joelschlosberg.blogspot.com/2006/12/carl-sagan-blog-thon-meta-post.html
His son Nick also blogs http://nicksagan.blogs.com/nick_sagan_online/2006/12/dad.html

Ten Times Around The Sun Without Carl
"Today, I want to share with you some things about Carl that are not as well known, moments that have more to do with his goodness than with his greatness. These are recollections that have come to me throughout the past ten years. I offer them to you because these memories make me feel so impossibly fortunate and because I want this personal Carl to live on, as well."
...

[Book Lover]

1. Thank you for the reminder

[Fridays Child]

2. k/r

[ProdigalJunkMail]

3. and to THINK what they did to his book

Contact when they tried to make it a movie...wow.

I did not realize it had been ten years...I STILL get pissed when I think of that movie though.

sP

[HardRocker05]

4. his influence lives on. nt

[Az]

5. Sagan was the closest thing to a hero I had

His loss is still missed. We need another like him in this world.

I still recommend his book Demon Haunted World: Science as a candle in the darkness as a must read book.

[IndyOp]

6. Wow - Nick's blog entry is really powerful

Nick says of Carl: "Though he worried about the state of the world from time to time, it never stopped him. And when we'd talk about what things might be like in twenty-five, fifty or a hundred years, he said he knew there would be difficult challenges ahead, but he believed we were up to the task. He believed in human ingenuity and compassion, in thinking long-term instead of short, in putting our many differences and superstitions aside. He believed in a better tomorrow. He believed in us."

I watched parts of "Cosmos" but the astronomy parts never really grabbed me. I read "Broca's Brain" however and was hooked - that book is part of why I remain fascinated with psychology - my field. Imagining Paul Broca's brain sitting in a jar in a basement of a museum (were Sagan found it) had once been so powerful in its contemplations of how brains work captivated me.

Thank you, Dr. Sagan.

[karlrschneider]

7. OMG...ten years? Where do they go?

...

[Taverner]

8. Carl Sagan was a prophet

The closest thing our secular humanist community had to one at least...

[spinbaby]

9. I just bought the Cosmos DVD set

For my son who is too young to remember it on TV. One of the greatest things ever aired.

[IDemo]

10. I read Cosmos at age 13 and was hooked

Have since read most if not all his other books, including "Dragons of Eden", "Broca's Brain", and "Demon Haunted World". Sagan was a very big influence on me and helped stir a lifetime interest in astronomy and science.

[Dudley_DUright]

11. He was a big reason why I ended up choosing physics as a career

Thanks Carl!

[byronius]

12. Great Person.

[bbernardini]

13. But what about Master Shake, Frylock and Meatwad?

Hey, SOMEBODY had to do it. ;)

Seriously, though, I appreciate Sagan's work. However, there are very few middle school kids who get a "billions and billions" joke these days.

[Az]

14. As I said

We do not have the likes of him around these days. The closest thing we have is Bill Nye and he drifted off the radar some time ago.

Too many scientists lock themself in their labs. Sagan specialized in bringing the fruits of scientific investigation to the people.

[philly_bob]

15. Just got recent edition of Sagan's writings edited by his lover Ann Druyan.

It's published in 2006, called The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. Saw it at my local library.

I was disappointed to see the obligatory reference to the divinity -- perhaps the publisher's idea? --, but I'm curious as to how Druyan handles it. I think it's a kind of pantheism, all of nature and nature's laws = God.

The publication reminded me also of the physical and mental love between Sagan and Druyan, that he communicates so ardently in his later writings.

[IDemo]

16. Ann Druyan was his third wife n/t

[bananas]

17. The Science Friday interview is now online

You can listen to her here: http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2006/Dec/hour2_122206.html
She says "in some ways he was the most devoutly religious person I've ever known".
It's a very good interview.