Announcing the second annual Carl Sagan memorial blog-a-thon

It's that time of the year again. In just over a month, on December 20, 2007, we will reach the eleventh anniversary of Carl Sagan's passing — and the first anniversary of the wildly successful first-ever Carl Sagan Memorial Blog-a-Thon. Far exceeding my wildest expectations, this became a truly worldwide celebration, featuring more than 250 posts in 11 languages! Sagan fans are truly cohering into an online force to reckon with.

For the second blog-a-thon, I'm keeping the format pretty much the same as last time:
  1. First, I start with a post (this one) to announce the blog-a-thon now.
  2. Then, I leave it open to participating bloggers to post something Sagan-related on their blogs sometime near December 20th (a bit late is OK); interested people without blogs or otherwise unable to post on a personal blog are encouraged to submit something to the Celebrating Sagan website (I am able to post material directly to the site, or one could contact the site's webmasters). Let me know about your posts via email or blog comment.
  3. Finally, on December 20th, I will post a second, separate huge "meta-post" that consists solely of links to all the participating posts.
For those who like nice round anniversary numbers, or want to use them as a source of ideas, this year saw quite a number of significant Sagan-related ones:
  • July 11: the tenth anniversary of the release of the film Contact
  • August 20: the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of the Voyager 2 spacecraft
  • September 5: the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of the Voyager 1 spacecraft
  • November 8: the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Planet Walk in Ithaca, NY
For more info, check out Larry Klaes's Tompkins Weekly articles commemorating all three anniversaries:
  1. "'Contact' and the Ithaca Connection"
  2. "Preserving Ithaca for a Billion Years"
  3. "Sagan Planet Walk: 10 Years Later"
See you in a month!

Comments

vjack said…
Sounds great. I missed it last year, but I'm in for this year.
JCE said…
Hmmm...we have a big Saganphile over at our blog. I will make sure he knows about this!
Anonymous said…
please put me on your sagan mail-thanks
sanspotash said…
Coincidentally, I posted about Carl Sagan earlier this month:
http://www.schneiderism.com/carl-sagan-was-cool/

If this is outside the loose guidelines for the Sagan-a-thon, let me know and I will write a new, follow-up post. I will probably do that any way.

Great idea, by the way.

John
www.schneiderism.com
Anonymous said…
Funny, I just posted a quote from Sagan today in one of my blogs.

I'll try to remember to post something on December 20th too.
Anonymous said…
Cool. I've recently bought The Demon Haunted World. I'll have to read it by then so that I'll be able to post something appropriate.
giordano bruno said…
I seem to recall that Carl's first wife, Lyn Margulis, was the artist who drew the image of the man and woman thttp://www.nord-com.net/uj.pfeiffer/sonde_voyager_plaque2.gif

There was originally a line on the female vulva, which NASA censored. LM apparently said "The aliens won't know how babies come out". The couple were originally holding hands, but Carl suggested Aliens might think it was one four-legged individual. (Odd how I was sure the holding hands version was the one that flew)
giordano bruno said…
ps that may have been on the pioneer?

caution: my memory seems faulty.
http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8210497/posts/default/8379041676323267651
says it was Linda Salzman (another CS wife) who designed the plaque. Seems likely since she was (is?) an artist.
KaliAmanda said…
I'm in for a second go-round!
Unknown said…
I believe it wasn't Lynn Margulis that drew the Pioneer plaque picture. According to Sagan's book The Cosmic Connection it was his second wife Linda Salzman who at least drew the human figures that caused so much controversy at the time. Interestingly Salzman's work will probably outlast all the works of all the artists who ever drew all the great works of art on display in homes and museums and government buildings. It will probably outlast the earth itself presuming mankind does not settle other worlds outside the solar system.

By the way there is newer edition of The Cosmic Connection with updates by Ann Druyan and David Morrison. An excellent book that like Cosmos (both the TV series and book) stands the test of time.
Unknown said…
By the way I look forward to reading all the comments on this blog on the upcoming 11th anniversary of Dr. Sagan's untimely death.
Anonymous said…
This is a wonderful event.

He is my first of many contributions...

Reflections on a Mote of Dust
Anonymous said…
Below is one of many contributions I will be making leading up to the second annual Carl Sagan Memorial Blog-a-thon.

Science As a Candle in the Dark
Anonymous said…
Joel - this is a GREAT idea to keep our memory of a GREAT man ALIVE. Count me in for the 20th
Anonymous said…
Very cool! Before last year, I had never even heard of Dr. Sagan, and now he is one of my big heroes. The blog-a-thon is what got me interested.
"Deep in December..."
Anonymous said…
Please include my blog below in the Carl Sagan memorial blog-a-thon.

My Favorite Sagan Quote, and Commentary

Thanks,
Tim Rambo
Bob G. said…
I wrote a post on my blog a few weeks ago for the Film + Faith Blog-a-thon, but it's perfectly suited to this blog-a-thon too:

The beginning of wisdom

I've updated that post to link here.

Cheers,
- Bob
Anonymous said…
I have a post going up first thing on the 19th (NZ time) entitled Carl Sagan
Anonymous said…
Here is my latest contribution to this excellent event.

You Are Here: Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot
JCE said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Luke said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Luke said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Luke said…
I'm happy to contribute

It took me a couple of tries to get the HTML link to work, though.
Mike ... said…
A personal thank you note to Carl from someone who is not an astronomer...

http://passionateatheist.blogspot.com/2007/12/thanks-carl.html
Unknown said…
Here is mine - my second year of this! http://timelady.com/blog/2007/12/20/the-brain-is-like/
FlyingSinger said…
My contribution is just up:
http://flyingsinger.blogspot.com/2007/12/sagan-slaying-invisible-dragons-firmly.html
-Bruce
Anonymous said…
Just a little something.

It's not much, and so I don't expect it to be put on the list, but, I wanted to do something for this.
Even if it was just a toast and a picture.
Anonymous said…
My post is very similar to one I did last year, only last year, I found out about it too late.

So this year I am on time :)

http://erdnase2000.livejournal.com/82656.html

Thank you!
Anonymous said…
I posted my contribution today: http://www.computernewbie.info/wheatdogg/2007/12/20/my-personal-journey-with-carl-sagan/

Sorry for the long link. If it doesn't display correctly, visit http://www.wheatdogg.com.
genexs said…
Joel:

Thanx for keeping this going. Here's my contribution over at my blog witchesandscientists:

Carl's Marching Orders

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