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Cosmos

Fans of Cosmos and electronic music should pick up Vangelis' album "Heaven and Hell," with Jon Anderson (of Yes) on vocals for the achingly beautiful song "So Long Ago, So Clear." The Cosmos theme was taken from this album. It's well worth a listen -- chaos and order battle it out musically over two LP sides. Last Hallowe'en I played this as soundtrack/sound effects. :-}
 
He is actually great to fall asleep to, he has that soothing voice.

Like that one painter guy that died.
"And now we are gonna paint a little tree over here."
 
He looks pretty scary though. (Looked.)
Are these DVDs worth purchasing? I already own most of his books.
 
In my opinion, "Cosmos" was the best science series ever. It made a huge impression on me as a kid. I have been rewatching it, as it is currently being aired on the "Science Channel", and it seems just as fresh as when I first saw it.

Nobody can take a complex subject and explain it in a simple to understand manner like Carl Sagan can. It is easy to see that Sagan loved to learn and understand the workings of the world around us. I think he was comparable to some of the earlier great thinkers from the past; an almost child-like curiousity about the way the Universe works and a passionate desire to know more.

I do hope that in the future, Carl Sagan will be recognized for the genius that he was.
 
I watched the series when I was a child, too, and it impressed me even then. I'm glad to see the Science Channel repeating the series - it's worth every minute one spends on it.

It's also a nice counterbalance to what the "History" Channel offered last night - "The Antichrist: Identifying Satan's Emissary."

Unbelievable.
 
westphalia said:
I watched the series when I was a child, too, and it impressed me even then. I'm glad to see the Science Channel repeating the series - it's worth every minute one spends on it.

It's also a nice counterbalance to what the "History" Channel offered last night - "The Antichrist: Identifying Satan's Emissary."

Unbelievable.
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I agree. How sad indeed. The "History Channel" has been going downhill for some time now. So who was indentified as Satan's Emissary? Anybody we know? Was James Randi mentioned as a possible candidate?:D
 
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Overman said:
He is actually great to fall asleep to, he has that soothing voice.

Like that one painter guy that died.
"And now we are gonna paint a little tree over here."
Click to expand...

It's a happy little tree. And his name was Bob Ross.

"doot doot, doot doot"

Master of 30 minute motel art.
 
senorpogo said:
I could spend my entire day watching Sagan explain it all.
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Me too, he's such a terrific writer.

A new book by Carl Sagan is coming out this November. It's called The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, and is based on on a series of nine taped lectures Sagan gave at the University of Glasgow in 1985.

I found a listing here for those (like me) who immediately want to put this in their shopping cart.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...ref=sr_1_1/002-7991447-4107255?_encoding=UTF8

For everyone else, here's a review:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3217961/

It begins:
Carl Sagan’s spiritual quest: He was often asked whether he believed in God, and his stock answer was that it all depended on what your definition of "God" was.

He's been called an atheist, even though he's also quoted as saying that "by some definitions atheism is very stupid."

When it came to his spiritual perspective, the late astronomer Carl Sagan was always a bit hard to pin down, even though much of what he had to say about the cosmos was filled with spirituality. This year, however — a decade after his death from a rare bone-marrow disease — some of Sagan's deepest thoughts on the ultimate questions are being brought to light in a newly rediscovered collection of lectures titled "The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God."
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my brain

tsg said:
It's a happy little tree. And his name was Bob Ross.

"doot doot, doot doot"

Master of 30 minute motel art.
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My brain misfired!!!

I could not get his name out for the life of me...

TY!
 
Overman said:
My brain misfired!!!

I could not get his name out for the life of me...

TY!
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Actually, I couldn't remember it either, but I googled "happy little trees painter" and his Wikipedia entry was the first hit.
 
"Happy little trees painter" sounds more like a sequel to that awful cartoon with the cute animals chainsawing each other and such.
 
Meffy said:
"Happy little trees painter" sounds more like a sequel to that awful cartoon with the cute animals chainsawing each other and such.
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I thought it sounded like a bad english translation of a Japanese cartoon title.
 
Meffy said:
"Happy little trees painter" sounds more like a sequel to that awful cartoon with the cute animals chainsawing each other and such.
Click to expand...

For some reason Bob Ross parodies have been popping up all over the place lately. Family Guy had one in an episode (Bob: "And if you tell ANYONE about that bush, I will cut you!") and Boondocks had entire episode where Bob Ross teaches Riley how to graffiti houses, it was hilarious.
 
westphalia said:
I watched the series when I was a child, too, and it impressed me even then. I'm glad to see the Science Channel repeating the series - it's worth every minute one spends on it.

It's also a nice counterbalance to what the "History" Channel offered last night - "The Antichrist: Identifying Satan's Emissary."

Unbelievable.
Click to expand...

Wait, counterbalance? I thought he was the proof!
 
My son (11) and I wait with bated breath every Tues night for the Science chan and Cosmos
The eloquence of Sagan’s descriptions of the universe sound fresh every time I hear them.
Religious a**holes and WOO WOOs bleat that atheists and skeptics are close minded or "oh it's so sad that you don't beleive in GOD" but watching Sagan leaves no doubt that it’s those who follow science that love life and have a hopeful vision for the future.
 
Some of the science in Cosmos hasn't aged well. Regarding Sagan's SETI hopes, for example, on the one hand astronomers keep finding more and more exo-planets; but on the other hand they also learned more and more about the inhospitality of much of the universe to life (with those massive gamma ray bursts capable of sterilizing planets over vast swaths of the galaxy, for example).

Sagan as a personality also seems out of step with our times. In the 1970's American culture could welcome Sagan as a role model for the scientifically enlightened cosmopolitan humanist -- but we don't have anybody like that around today as a major media figure, and I doubt one could get traction until we see a shift in our culture away from xenophobia and religious woo-woo about Intelligent Design, the rapture and dominionism.
 
I have just been watching this amazing series for the first time.

It is sad that I can't remember this being on Australian television and I did not know it even existed until I started frequenting this forum.

Does anyone have any recommendations for one of his books?
Is Contact any good?
 
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