Comments on: The Internet Has Just Justified Its Existence

By: Dave Hall

Dave Hall — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:42:22 +0000

Anon K-A:

Is Eric Idle really that good at astronomy?

Can Sir Patrick Moore sing and play the xylophone at the same time?

Oh.

You mean Scalzi?

He’ll do.

By: Marlon Dean

Marlon Dean — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:58:12 +0000

:’( Yet another thing I want to watch on Hulu that I’m not allowed to coz I’m Australian :’(

By: Sub-Odeon

Sub-Odeon — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:34:02 +0000

I think it’s true: behind every great man, there is a woman…

….lighting a fire under his ass!

Steve @ #40: I credit COSMOS with turning me on to Vangelis. I eventually went on to buy virtually every major (and minor) album Vangelis ever produced. The man was definitely ahead of his time. It’s a shame his production has dropped off since the nineties. I think “Oceanic” and “Voices” were very good.

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:40:46 +0000

36: “Excellent, that hulu is putting COSMOS up for new generations to see. I would think that Ann Druyan is pleased, yes?”

I would think so. My impression from meeting them at the signing, and the interview I did with them about Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, is that she’s the one who made him famous.

By: steve davidson

steve davidson — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:50:37 +0000

What a great show – and the man was perfect for the job. Too bad they watered down his ending in the filming of his novel Contact, but fortunately Cosmos will remain his most enduring work.

The score is by Vangelis in case anyone is looking for it and a more perfect piece of music for cruising the cosmos doesn’t exist (I don’t think).

I’ll be adding this link later on today:

ALSO, there are several downloadable programs/websites you can go to if you are overseas. And I know at least a couple of episodes are also up on YouTube if you care to search.

By: The Pathetic Earthling

The Pathetic Earthling — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:35:57 +0000

Whatever time I spend worrying about America’s role in the world, I spend some non-negligible fraction of that time worrying about humanity’s role in the universe. Thanks, mostly, to reading and watching Cosmos at the age of ten.

Also, for what its worth, the first image I ever had of the Corsu homeworld when mentioned in OMW was of that planet with the fixed ring around it from Episode 12: Encyclopaedia Galactica.

By: Shel

Shel — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 03:16:55 +0000

Heh.. we even got to watch some of Cosmos in one of my first year Astronomy courses at uni :) was awesome.

I have it in book format. Which i assume the tv series was based on…?

By: Jason B

Jason B — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:17:17 +0000

I’m not the biggest science guy around (philosophy is more my thing) but The Demon-Haunted World is a great book. I think Sagan (and Asimov and Vonnegut) would be amused at what Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens are up to at the moment.

By: Sub-Odeon

Sub-Odeon — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:26:46 +0000

I was quite the Carl Sagan fanatic. I remember being enthralled as a boy during the series' initial run, then loving it all over again in my twenties when my wife and I discovered the VHS tapes of COSMOS at the local library. Like Johnny, I even went so far as to hook the VCR up to my tape deck and make "audio books" out of the entire series, for me to listen to at work on the portable. Eventually my wife got me the DVD set as a gift, when at last the series was released on DVD. She also got me the Keay Davidson bio book on Sagan, which killed my hero worship of the man. In the end, Carl was pretty flawed, and probably an average to above-average scientist, whose ultimate -- and sustaining -- gift, was his ability to popularize and communicate complex scientific subjects to the general public. Certainly I feel like Sagan has made a huge impact on my life, via COSMOS and other works like Pale Blue Dot. I took down my Carl Sagan hero worship web page after reading Davidson's bio, and it was a little while still before I could watch COSMOS again with a detached eye. I think I can overlook Sagan's personal flaws simply for the fact that, when it came to his television and books, he was top drawer. Nobody else really came close, as a motivational popularizer. Sagan has literally influenced millions of lives around the globe. He had a gift. Excellent, that hulu is putting COSMOS up for new generations to see. I would think that Ann Druyan is pleased, yes?

By: Misty Massey

Misty Massey — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:19:23 +0000

“Cosmos” hit the airwaves when I was in high school. Other girls were squeeing about Prince and Billy Idol, I was googly eyed over Carl Sagan.

Smart is sexy!