1. Comment #40401 by ebugogo on May 14, 2007 at 8:31 am

Man, this is the kind of thing they should be showing in schools. Get kids thinking clearly right off the hop.Never mind the sky daddy B.S.

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2. Comment #40421 by killer17112 on May 14, 2007 at 9:20 am

Timeless and eloquent. I miss Carl.

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3. Comment #40458 by Rtambree on May 14, 2007 at 10:07 am

Classic. Immortal. Profound. Poignant.

No one does it better.

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4. Comment #40465 by flyingscot on May 14, 2007 at 10:16 am

Carl lives on indeed.
I wish they would show Cosmos on the television again and give children the chance to learn and understand the wonder of science. Adults could learn a thing or two also!
It was a wonderful series and it is as good today as when it was first aired.

Thank you Carl.

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5. Comment #40466 by firemancarl on May 14, 2007 at 10:16 am

Its too damn bad that we all don't think like Carl did/does in this video.

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6. Comment #40500 by jam007 on May 14, 2007 at 11:18 am

See also this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47EBLD-ISyc

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7. Comment #40508 by nogod on May 14, 2007 at 11:30 am

the cosmos i would say is the most important tv series ever aired .Its a shame that tv today is no where near as good.

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8. Comment #40509 by Friend Giskard on May 14, 2007 at 11:31 am

What a lovely video.

nogod says,

the cosmos i would say is the most important tv series ever aired .Its a shame that tv today is no where near as good.

Cosmos was a blip. An anomaly. There will never be another program like it because TV is run by people to whom this stuff is not important, i.e. humanities graduates.

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9. Comment #40512 by Riley on May 14, 2007 at 11:36 am

I used to skip my High School science class so that I could sneak to my basement at home, turn the lights off, and watch "Cosmos".

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10. Comment #40515 by Logicel on May 14, 2007 at 11:40 am

6. Comment #40500 by jam007 on May 14, 2007 at 11:18 am
See also this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47EBLD-ISyc


That vid is one of my faves, I play it at least weekly and I have subscribed to icecorescientist's channel. That guy is a talented musician who often adds original music to his vids.

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11. Comment #40551 by mikkala on May 14, 2007 at 1:05 pm

I'm just starting to read the "encyclopidea galactica" chapter of the book Cosmos. I can tell already I'm going to feel kinda sad when I finish it. Carl really has that effect on me. He grabs you by your very being and he humbles you.

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12. Comment #40605 by Seti on May 14, 2007 at 3:17 pm

That's beautiful. How can anyone say atheism lacks beauty, poetry? Their god is way too small.

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13. Comment #40630 by Jolly Wally on May 14, 2007 at 3:49 pm

Yes, their God is less than a pale blue dot.

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14. Comment #40724 by Zaphod on May 14, 2007 at 7:39 pm

I have known of this video for some time. Carl Sagan was and still is great. Such passion for science and discovery.

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15. Comment #40743 by tiff_seattle on May 14, 2007 at 9:53 pm

Some thing I always wondered about that video is when he says "suspended in a sunbeam". Was that just Sagan being overly dramatic? I thought the picture was from the vantage point of viewing through one of Saturn's rings.

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16. Comment #40745 by CDG on May 14, 2007 at 10:03 pm

The pale blue dot is beautiful and poetic Atheism.

On the other hand religion comes from the tight brown dot. If you catch my meaning.

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17. Comment #40746 by catchy_nick on May 14, 2007 at 10:09 pm

Its nice to see my video (all credit to Carl ofcourse for his beautiful words) posted here. I had been trying to figure out how to do it for a while. But thanks to whoever did it for me, I watch it everytime some petty shit in my life bothers me. Takes care of it right away. I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. Peace.

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18. Comment #40791 by David Williams on May 15, 2007 at 2:03 am

Carl is one of my greatest heroes and it was a joy to hear his voice again, after hearing him quote the pale blue dot it reminds me how proud I am to be an Atheist.

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19. Comment #40804 by Seero on May 15, 2007 at 2:57 am

A truly humbling and awe inspiring piece of film. I wonder if Cosmos is available to purchase on DVD? I'd love to own it.

You may find the following link amusing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOYfG0QGG0

Thanks

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20. Comment #40809 by Veronique on May 15, 2007 at 3:11 am

I sen this video to everyone in my address book as my reflections on Good Friday.

It makes me weep; it is so beautiful. I must be very squishy and thank you guys for loving it as well.

We all miss him so much. But what a legacy he has left. I need to get this video into our local high school. It should be shown everywhere.

The biggest bummer was a reply I got from a Catholic friend I sent it to. She replied that she didn't see things the way I did, that Christ wanted us to love life and look after our environment. WTF? Some people are blind and no glasses will help them see.

In sorrow and hope
V

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21. Comment #40811 by meepo on May 15, 2007 at 3:12 am

i liked this one better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw

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22. Comment #40845 by ridelo on May 15, 2007 at 4:58 am

Email this video to at least one other person, its your moral duty.

I've forwarded this video to about 20 persons. Did my good deed for today.

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23. Comment #40858 by Rtambree on May 15, 2007 at 5:24 am

21. Comment #40811 by meepo

>i liked this one better

That version is good too - it set it up nicely, and with a good selection of clips, but the music soundmix level was wrong - Carl Sagan's eloquent speech was a little drowned out.

The Cosmos Vangelis music was better and it needs to be soft to emphasise the words.

Can anyone remix it to create a hybrid uber-version?

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24. Comment #40872 by coretemprising on May 15, 2007 at 6:13 am

said Seero:
I wonder if Cosmos is available to purchase on DVD? I'd love to own it.

But of course! Amazon, among other places:
http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan-Jarom%C3%ADr-Hanzl%C3%ADk/dp/B000055ZOB/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-1838519-5331853?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1179234429&sr=1-1

DVD Features:
Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Complete Landmark TV Series - 13 One Hour Episodes
Digitally Remastered, Restored and Enhanced
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Updates
Subtitle Science Updates
New Footage
Bonus 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound Music and Effects Track

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25. Comment #40881 by Kamahuakala on May 15, 2007 at 6:50 am

Cosmos and a history of religion should be required courses for every high school student in this nation and the world.

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26. Comment #40892 by keith on May 15, 2007 at 7:05 am

I can't help thinking that this video would have gained something if the backing track hadn't been so much to the fore and consciously trying to tug at our heart strings. It made me think less of a documentary and more of a TV movie in which the action has become particularly poignant e.g. the death of a young loved one or a faithful dog. At this moment the director chooses to wheel on the big guns and put on the track that Richard Clayderman discarded from his coming CD for being too trite.
Carl Sagan once memorably said that he tried 'not to think with his gut', yet by appealling equally to our intelligence and to the part of us that has been sequestered by Hollywood, I can't help thinking he has fallen between two stools. I would like to believe he wasn't involved in the final choice of music. His voice would have been enough for me, though something less intentionally moving in the background could have been added for those who dislike silences or who find the human voice too stark.
Still, I suspect I'm just an old cynic, especially as this all seems to have gone down a storm with those who say they miss Carl (Really? You miss someone you have never met?) and with those who thank him for giving us such beauty (Was this said with Carl Sagan in mind or was it more for the people of this website to read and marvel at the depth of feeling of the person commenting?). Where and when did we acquire such a cloying sensibility?

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27. Comment #41046 by Vadjong on May 15, 2007 at 12:09 pm

I got my copy of Cosmos years ago from CarlSagan.com, together with the 2-disc set of the music from the series.

In answer to Comment #40892 by keith :
The music used in this clip is a couple of notes from a fragment of an excerpt of a piece from the first half of the album Heaven & Hell by Vangelis, repeated on a loop. The longer fragment is the main title theme of the series and is since often referred to as Heaven & Hell/Theme from Cosmos.

They looped the signature opening notes, because the rest of the piece builds too strong to be used under spoken word. I agree that a lot of the music on the series has not aged well and has been done to death since (The Pachelbel Canon, anyone ?).
Still, this bit would have to be the first choice here.

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28. Comment #41238 by Kakashi_monkey on May 15, 2007 at 5:02 pm

We only get one planet, and one chance.

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29. Comment #41384 by Seero on May 16, 2007 at 4:11 am

Thanks for the link coretemprising.

I have also discovered that when the series was re-issued as a 'Collector Edition', they made the whole lot Region 0 i.e. region free.

I've no excuse not to get this excellent series. It will make a nice accompaniment to Dr. Jacob Bronowski's 'The Ascent Of Man' which is also stunning on DVD.

Incidentally, I did a quick search on YouTube for some Cosmos clips and in the short space of 10 minutes of one clip, I found myself learning things. Things such as: two humpback whales can still communicate underwater at 20Hz even though one is near Alaska, and the other is near Antarctica!

Well I never…

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30. Comment #41590 by jam007 on May 16, 2007 at 11:20 am

Comment #40743 by tiff_seattle on May 14, 2007 at 9:53 pm "Some thing I always wondered about that video is when he says "suspended in a sunbeam". Was that just Sagan being overly dramatic? I thought the picture was from the vantage point of viewing through one of Saturn's rings.
"

The Saturn one is a later picture. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061016.html

Sagan is a slightly dramatic about the sunbeam. The sunbeam is a optical effect in Voyagers camera that was caused by the Sun. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

Anders M

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31. Comment #43150 by arctos on May 20, 2007 at 2:40 pm

I'm very happy to read your comments and realize that there are such good people in the world today.

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32. Comment #44204 by shevek on May 23, 2007 at 3:54 pm

I should be studying at now but I cannot leave this forum without saying that I am 38 and COSMOS (Carl Sagan indeed) series influenced my life as no other person in my life. It sounds bizarre to me but it is true. He is my hero. A romantic hero. I recorded on old VHS tape the complete 13 chapters when I was 19. And many years after that I got a marvelous gift, the DVD collection, from my beloved wife (she knows how important it was to me). And just a couple of years ago I bought the spanish version for my sons. I want them to "fall in love" like I was...

Now I'm delighted with Richard Dawkins; rediscovering him (I'd read "The Selfish Gene" at 17 or so). And I'm also seeing the same *bright* and brilliant kind of person that I saw in Sagan. That gives me hope. Reading comments on these pages makes me feel that I'm not alone. Moreover I think it's time to realize that we cannot stay quiet anymore. We should achieve a critical mass to change the world, the view of the world, our pale blue dot...

Every person here can do things like sending emails (with the video URL), talk to kids about series like Cosmos and other stuff like Dawkins DVDs and books and many others like them, etc.
I'm doing it has a father of two sons and teacher on secondary school. It's our duty!

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33. Comment #47526 by The_Stone on June 4, 2007 at 9:25 pm

That it has an end it what makes human life so precious. Sagan was one of us, the fortunates, who are truly awake, who experience this existence fully and honestly, and who are aware of its utter fragility. I miss him like a father, a dear teacher, who pointed up and showed me how to really wonder at the universe.

As a former Christian, such notions from Sagan move me far more powerfully than any mere biblical quotation.

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34. Comment #47597 by weavehole on June 5, 2007 at 3:43 am

Have bunged one of these vids onto my myspace along with some other 'sentimental and cloying' ones. That guarantees at least one more person watching it and slagging me off or putting up another boring space video. Oh well, there's some old Punk vids up there as well (pretty sure they were fairly godless).

/weavehole if you're bothered...

(does this count as spam?)

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35. Comment #47625 by Ohnhai on June 5, 2007 at 5:01 am

I have embeded the one Meepo linked in a post on my site.. I was weeping by the end of it.

Best production values, audio and simple quality. Carl is audible and the music sets the right mood of breathtaking awe...

Bravo.


Here is to Carl and the pale blue dot.

www.ohnhai.com

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36. Comment #57771 by Kasranov on July 21, 2007 at 1:09 am

Hello everyone.

If you have a moment, please take a look at my video. This isn't "from" the book. This "is" the book..

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2588435272514121795

(Episode one is 40 minutes long.)

I'd love to hear your comments.

Thanks

lk

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37. Comment #65937 by leedowling on August 27, 2007 at 12:44 pm

I have a poster at home with these words and a picture of the 'pale blue dot' but it makes such a difference to hear those words from Carl Sagan himself. Inspirational.

I'll be so much happier when we can successfully reach out to the rest of humanity from our pale dot of sanity.

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38. Comment #78686 by galvintr on October 14, 2007 at 10:08 am

i agree couldn't agree more with the first comment, it seems school children are first taught what to know, rather than how to learn, think and analyze in the first place (myself included). it would be super if videos like this were shown to children at a young age, before adulthood blunts our capacity for awe and wonder. inspiring stuff!

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39. Comment #80113 by Bliss on October 20, 2007 at 3:56 am

I really like the way he talks, strong voice here. Yes, I wished everyone could listen to this instead of rubbish advertisments on tv.

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40. Comment #84162 by LuciferClaus on November 1, 2007 at 10:31 am

I saw him in a video about atheism the other day. I have read some of his quotes but never knew who he was. I just had a weird "religious" moment watching that video and then going to his biographical link. Something inside me felt weird and I couldn't stop crying. We are alone in this life, all we have is each other, and everyone is sitting around waiting for the next life.

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41. Comment #108264 by Jab on January 6, 2008 at 11:07 am

Sad isn't it Lucifer. At least we can be thankful that we at least are awake.

A very moving video.

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42. Comment #113764 by AshtonBlack on January 20, 2008 at 1:24 pm

I've got to admit, despite my awfully gruff and manly exterior this did bring a lump to my throat.

Carl Sagan, poet.

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43. Comment #117354 by Y-bloc on January 28, 2008 at 3:53 pm

Beautiful. But I felt sad after watching it. It reminded me that humans just refuse to learn from the world around them. We (the generalized 'we', of course) think that if it gets really, really bad we will grudgingly change something...Get a compact car, ride a bike, sit-in against the war, start to use our brains for something more profound than getting through another work-day...But it IS already really, really bad, and we don't change...we wait. Fot it to get worse. Because THEN we will change something. Ugh.
On the bright side, I just viewed a moving and profound piece of enlightened rebel poetry. He had a beautiful mind and a voice to match!

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44. Comment #117373 by Richard Morgan on January 28, 2008 at 5:05 pm

Email this video to at least one other person, its your moral duty.

It is.
And I just did.
It's always good to be reminded that the Universe does not revolve around me.

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45. Comment #117679 by ianmkz on January 29, 2008 at 11:21 am

Since this video was put together it seems other people though it would be a good idea to do... well, exactly the same thing. It's like a new hobby: Pale Blue Dotting, like Scrapbooking. Weird.

17April 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw

18 April 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J6DCa3kpj8&feature=related

15 May 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2In7X4OoM8g&feature=related


14 October 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-lgW21hSZw


12 Feb 2007("presaging" as it were, this one)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba3X1toPT-E

And many many more...(I can only include 5 links)

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46. Comment #118746 by Marc Weeks on January 30, 2008 at 10:49 pm

I remember watching Cosmos while I was in the Air Force. I immediately went to a nearby planetarium gift shop and bought a bright red Astroscan telescope. I accidentally "discovered" the Andromeda galaxy (M31) and sprinted back to the dormitory to try to persuade someone else to come out and take a look. No one would come out, unfortunately.

Many years later, with the aid of a home-built 24" reflector on a Dobsonian mount made by a friend, we got over a 1000 people to come out and take a look at Comet Hyakutake. It was the happiest night of my life.

I had just mailed a letter to Carl when I heard he had died. My timing has never been what you would call exquisite. But I hope that Ann Druyan received my letter and took comfort in yet another testamonial, if you will, regarding Carl's influence on someone's life.

Thanks for the video. It is much appreciated in these difficult times.

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47. Comment #121497 by Jon Godwin on February 3, 2008 at 1:50 pm

It is so nice to re-visit my childhood fascinations that were so long systematically removed by the blinders of religion.

Thank you Carl.

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48. Comment #137497 by unsheep on March 3, 2008 at 2:04 am

Just spent half an hour reminding myself of one of the major influences on my love of science. I was about 18 when it first aired in the UK. Brilliant, lucid, able to simplify without trivilising or losing any of the grandeur of science/nature/space - what a mind and what a loss to humanity

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49. Comment #146498 by mind_exploration on March 19, 2008 at 6:27 am

i agree, show it in schools.
x

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50. Comment #146511 by Frankus1122 on March 19, 2008 at 6:46 am

Comment #40809 by Veronique

It makes me weep; it is so beautiful. I must be very squishy and thank you guys for loving it as well.

I am a giant of a man (physically), but me too.

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