Read about the glories of the Quatnum Cheneyverse

*to me at least. This makes me laugh.

Some very creative solutions to basic problems that millions of people around the world face every day:

Slide show: Socially reponsible design – style – International Herald Tribune

Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists

If I didn't pass some of these things along I think I would explode.

I saw Carl Sagan was on top of the Technorati popular search list today. I wondered why, and after a quick minute of searching I saw this post:

Joel's humanistic blog: Announcing the Carl Sagan memorial blog-a-thon

Sounds like a plan.

Here are five things I love about Carl Sagan:

1. Cosmos. What more is there to say, really? By any measure it's one of the great science shows of all time, and personally it's right up there with James Burke's Connections, as one of the really seminal TV watching experiences of my youth. My brain was so fired up by Cosmos it's not even funny. It's been on recently (on the Science Channel) and I still get wrapped up pretty easily when I catch it while channel surfing. I'm pretty sure my love of both the "Cosmic" Marvel Comics stories (think Thanos/Warlock/Captain Marvel/Galactus) and Physics both stem (at least partially) from my early viewing of Cosmos.
2. He smoked pot. You could kind of tell in books like The Dragons of Eden where he describes, with the knowledge of an insider, why people might experience music a little better when they're high, but it still brought a smile to my face when I read about it after his passing. It's just such a funny thing to see him, one of the country's true intellectual stars during his lifetime, outed as a pot smoker in the face of the sluggish, brain dead stoner image put forth in the popular culture (especially in the hands of the war on drugs crowd)
3. His book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark is easily one of my favorite books on science. That book rules the school.
4. He was a wildly accomplished man. Just check the list of awards he won at Wikipedia. The list is as long as my arm and the really cool thing about it is the balance between the scientific and popular worlds that it represents. While we're looking at it, there's one award that sums up his life to me: Joseph Priestley Award – "For distinguished contributions to the welfare of mankind." Sounds about right.
5. SETI. I've been a Seti@Home user since July 6, 1999 and Sagan was the impetus for me signing up. It's good, clean, passive fun.

SEFORA
"Today a group of scientists and concerned citizens launch a new organization, Scientists and Engineers for America, dedicated to electing public officials who respect evidence and understand the importance of using scientific and engineering advice in making public policy."

I'll poke around, check them out and then, if it's all kosher, send them a couple of bucks. Science is battered and bruised in this country and that's just got to stop.