Happy Carl Sagan day everyone!
Let’s remember the only man I can do a relatively good impression of (given the fact that gollum is some kind of corrupted hobbit creature) with a blog post that doesn’t dare to talk about astronomy due to the likelihood of getting the facts so wrong we make Carl Sagan turn in his grave.
Okay then my lovely piles of star stuff, on this special day in the cosmic calendar we’re going to make apple pies from scratch, but seeing as we don’t have the manpower to create the universe I’m rather stumped as to how we’re going to do this.
How about we get ourselves some perspective first.
I’m sure everyone’s seen that video before, and failing having done so before, I’m glad I got the opportunity to rub it into your collective faces.
In the event that you may be interested in watching more however, you should get Cosmos on DVD, it’s cheap and it’s amazing, it’s also probably the most relaxing show I’ve ever seen, the music alone is enough to send you into a happy sleep, so all insomniacs, jump on it.
Now some of you may have read the book ‘Contact’ or seen the movie. This, Carl Sagan’s only fictional work (to my knowledge) has a success that should not be surprising from an astronomer, Isaac Asamov (sp? sorry my internet’s failing me too hard to let me check) took advantage of the knowledge gained from a career in science to write a series of successful science fiction novels that I’m sure better people than I have read over and loved.
As for his non-fictional work however, I am currently two thirds of the way through ‘The Demon Haunted World’ and would highly recommend it.
Carl Sagan’s non-fiction work reads like fiction, which to me is a godsend. I personally find it rather difficult sometimes to make it all the way through non-fictional books, but Carl Sagan’s writing is a different story, his prose is both elegant and fascinating.
Now listen to him sing.
