Good evening Indurrago, and thank you very much.
I really enjoyed those videos by Carl Sagan.
It was back in 1980 when Carl Sagan came out with his 13 episode TV series COSMOS on the PBS Public Broadcasting Stations.
That was back when good ol' Ronald (Bed-Time-For-Bonzo) Reagan was elected president, back when the Reverend Jerry Falwell (Fall-in-the-well) and his so-called Moral Majority (Moronic Minority) was supporting the Republican ticket during that election year, also back when a lot of ultra-conservative whack-packs were protesting in the streets to have many books banned from our schools and public libraries, and also when a lot of religious groups staged public book burnings and singing Christian hymns.
The 1980s was a nightmare for me!
I was already dealing with my own personal issues of mental illness, having to deal with a lot of bullshit that happened to me through out the years I went to school, and during my teenage years. Then things sort of eased off when I was in my 20s, but through out the 1980s I was in my 30s and seeing NEWS clippings on TV of public book burnings which gave me nightmares.
The scenes of public book burnings on the TV NEWS in the 1980s was reminiscent of the scenes of public book burnings in old film clippings of Nazi Germany back in the 1930s and 1940s. The only difference being that the old film clippings from the 1940s were in black & white while the public book burnings as seen on the TV NEWS in the 1980s were in living color.
I suffered from severe depression back in the 1980s and it was back in June of 1985 when my mother passed on, which added even more to my depression.
So, for me, the only good thing about the 1980s was the rock music I would listen to on the radio, and the TV series COSMOS by Carl Sagan.
Also, another good thing about the late 1980s was when the two Voyager space crafts sent back pictures from Uranus and Neptune. It was back in the summer of 1989 when Voyager was sending back pictures of Neptune. I was living in Las Cruces New Mexico at the time and a local TV station was broadcasting nothing but the pictures from Neptune. There was no sound, but only live transmissions from Voyager and new pictures slowly appearing. This went on all night. Since there was no sound on that channel, I had my radio on listening to my favorite rock music while looking at the pictures from Neptune sent back by Voyager, and I had a 12 pack of beer in my fridge, so I was eating Ruffles Potato Chips with dip, drinking beer, listening to rock music, and looking at the latest pictures from the planet Neptune on my TV. I was in 7th heaven!
Anyway . . . . .
I even had the book COSMOS by Carl Sagan.
Here are the titles of the 13 chapters in the book, and also the titles of the 13 episodes on the TV program, COSMOS.
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General Description:
The 13-hour Cosmos mini-series originally aired on Public Broadcasting Stations (PBS) in 1980. Dr. Carl Sagan, as the moderator, is amazing in his ability to explain the "Wonders of the Universe" in terms that anyone can understand and enjoy! If you think that subjects like Einstein's Theory of Relativity, Darwin's Theory of Evolution, the Greenhouse Effect, the Search For Extra-Terrestrial Life, & others are boring or difficult to understand, you must see Carl Sagan's explanation of them in Cosmos! Fantastic special effects! This TV miniseries won an Emmy and a Peabody Award. During its initial airing, 500 million people in 60 countries tuned in to tour the Cosmos with Carl Sagan.
The Episodes Descriptions:
Part 1: The Shores Of the Cosmos
How large is the Earth compared to the universe as a whole? How long have life and humans existed on Earth compared to the age of the universe? How did humans figure out that the Earth is round and how big it is? This episode contains the "Cosmic Calendar" segment.
Part 2: One Voice In the Cosmic Fugue
How did life begin and evolve? What is DNA and how does it work? Complicated questions made simple to understand in this episode!
Part 3: The Harmony Of the Worlds
Take a tour back in time to explore how pre-scientific mankind viewed the universe and then compare that with how the first scientists saw it. Carl Sagan explains how Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton developed their theories.
Part 4: Heaven and Hell
For generations mankind wondered whether the universe came into existence quickly or over a long period of time. Actually, some of the evolutionary processes of creation occurred in a fraction of a billionth of a second and some others took billions of years!
Part 5: Blues For A Red Planet
A total examination of the planet Mars starting with H.G. Wells fiction and Percival Lowell's sighting of the "canals". Learn how we progressed from fantasy to fact through science. What is the future for Mars? Could it be transformed into an Earth-like planet? Contains actual photos from the Mariner and Viking probes.
Part 6: Travelers' Tales
Examines Voyager II's tour of Jupiter and its moons. Many photos of both and learn how the data we received was processed and transmitted.
Part 7: The Backbone of Night
Many people are upset that we stopped going to the Moon. There was another time on the ancient island of Samos when Science flourished for a while, but then faded away. Carl Sagan explains how science almost took off centuries before its rediscovery in Europe.
Part 8: Travels In Space and Time
What is a "Light Year"? Will we ever be able to tour the universe in spaceships, and if so, how will we do it? Is time travel possible and what would be its effects? Einstein's theory says that as a space ship moves faster, time on board would slow down and the mass of the ship would become greater. What's that all about? Carl Sagan makes it easy to understand!
Part 9: The Lives Of the Stars
Did you know that stars are born, evolve, and then die? Did you know that nearly all of the atoms in your body were made inside stars? You will after viewing this episode!
Part 10: The Edge Of Forever
You've probably heard of the "Big Bang" theory for the origin of the universe. You know, where everything that exists today came from a point smaller than the head of a pin - possibly from nowhere? How did we arrive at such an unbelievable explanation for the creation of the Cosmos? Will the universe last forever or disappear back into nowhere? Where does intelligence begin? In a fish? In a dog? In a Whale?
Part 11: The Persistence Of Memory
How does a brain work? When does the structure of a brain produce true intelligence? The relationship between brain size and behavior. How are libraries an extension of our brains?
Part 12: Encyclopedia Galactica
Are we alone in the cosmos or are there other technological civilizations out there? How can we search for them? How would we "decode" a message from them? Is there real evidence that we've already been visited? Are UFOs real?
Part 13: Who Speaks For Earth?
In this final episode, Dr. Carl Sagan reviews the previous episodes and how they relate to each other. What has history taught us? How did we get to the level of understanding we're at now? What's the best way to increase our knowledge of the Cosmos in the future? There have been big mistakes made by mankind in the past and as our knowledge increases our mistakes could lead to our destruction. How can we avoid that?
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Back in the 1980s, Carl Sagan was the spokes person for intellectual and academic freedom while all the ultra-right-wing whack-packs of marching morons were publicly burning books and singing Christian hymns.
I was scared!
Now, back to the present time . . . . .
Last year, back in the summer of 2009, we had the 400th anniversary of when Galileo first used his telescope to observe the sky, and discovering that the moon is another world with mountains, valleys, and craters, that Venus went through phases like the moon, and he could see the 4 largest moons revolving around the planet Jupiter.
I remember, PBS broadcasting a 2 hour special program titled "
400 Years of The Telescope" and before the program started, a voice announced "The following program may not be suitable for all family members, viewer discretion advised"
Like, HUH? Like, SAY WHAT???
I'm so glad I'm not a young kid now, because some strict adults probably would not allow me to watch that program.
But then, back in the 1960s, my 5th grade teacher bashed my head against a brick wall because he didn't want me reading Astronomy books.
Now, if something like this program were going to be shown 20 or 30 years ago on TV, they would not have announced that viewer discretion was advised. Back then, the only time they would ever announce that viewer discretion was advised was when they were going to show a documentary about something, for example: the Civil Rights protests of the 1960s which might show scenes of police brutality, or a documentary of Nazi Germany and the concentration camps. Then, in that case I can understand that viewer discretion might be advised because many such photos or scenes may not be suitable for little children to see.
But to say that viewer discretion is advised for a program on the history of the telescope? Like, COME ON NOW! LETS GET REAL!
Carl Sagan's COSMOS was jam packed with stuff like Darwin's Theory of Evolution, and stuff about Galileo being persecuted by the Roman Catholic church and the Inquisition. And Carl Sagan even openly criticized organized religion as being authoritarian, and yet . . . they never announced on TV that viewer discretion was advised.
But if they were to show COSMOS now, they would probably warn that viewer discretion is advised.
Yeah! Like, we're really losing it!!!
Oh! We must be very careful not to offend right-wing CONservative Christian Fundamentalists! God forbid!!!
Aw! The poor babies!
I say . . . FUCK 'EM! THEY CAN JUST SUCK ON IT!!!
