pastdaily.com
Today is Carl Sagan’s birthdate. He was born on Nov 9, 1934, in Brooklyn, NY, USA.
Check out: https://carlsagan.com/ … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan … https://www.biography.com/scientist/carl-sagan
An amazing communicator and Pulitzer Prize winning author, Sagan is probably most well-known for his groundbreaking (or should I say skybreaking) television show: COSMOS: A PERSONAL JOURNEY, the most watched PBS series until 1990. The show has been seen by 500 million people across 60 countries.
But with intelligence and charisma, Sagan was envied and resisted by peers throughout his life. Two examples include:
- Before the end of high school, he entered an essay contest in which he posed the question of whether human contact with advanced life forms from another planet might be as disastrous for people on Earth as it was for Native Americans when they first had contact with Europeans. The subject was considered controversial, but his rhetorical skill won over the judges, and they awarded him first prize.
- Harvard denied Sagan tenure (perhaps due to envy from tenured professors with less public recognition than him) so he became well-known for his leadership at Cornell University.
Unfortunately, Sagan died at the age of 62 in 1996 due to myelodysplasia. Fortunately, Sagan inspired many others to follow in his footsteps and carry the torch for creative thinking and science communication.
Today’s haiku: HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARL SAGAN
thank you for “billions”,
Neal deGrasse Tyson and your
partner, Ann Druyan
Tyson in 2017, receiving the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication
Druyan, executive producer and writer of Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, accepting the Peabody Award in 2014
Life Matters 
A truly great scientist and communicator. A quote from him I found on reading your post is as follows: “It is the responsibility of scientists never to suppress knowledge, no matter how awkward that knowledge is, no matter how it may bother those in power; we are not smart enough to decide which pieces of knowledge are permissible and which are not.”
Dr C and I lived and studied to this doctrine during our university years and the academics, especially those involved in climatology, who “no platform” those whose research they disagree with will be confined to the inevitable dustbin of history. But not before they have done a great deal of damage!
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It’s surprising how many people who report to seek the truth so quickly dismiss anything that doesn’t fit their preconceived notions. Perhaps that is why our own species may go the way of the 6th mass extinction. Sigh…
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Far out Patrick. Thank you.
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You are out of this world, Ari! 🙂
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