Carl Sagan day 2008, and an update

Well, today is the 12th anniversary of Carl Sagan's passing, a date which was commemorated on this blog by blog-a-thons in 2006 and 2007Ann Druyan and Nick Sagan have both already put up posts to mark the occasion, both pointing to a recent NASA video on the new Carl Sagan Exoplanet Fellowship (also discussed in an ETFF interview with Ann Druyan broadcast last month to commemorate Carl's birthday).

I'm sure that some of you are wondering why I haven't done a blog-a-thon this year, and why you haven't heard anything Sagan-related from me in a while.  Basically, what's up: no, I haven't fallen off the planet, and haven't abandoned Sagan-related stuff.  Basically, the blog-a-thon was originally intended to be a one-shot event, and only afterwards did I decide to try to repeat it a year later, and possibly annually.  And while there were some great posts in the 2007 blog-a-thon, I came to realize that doing an annual event wasn't the best way to go to keep the Sagan fans in the blogosphere connected, since a year in blogosphere time is a very long time to go between updates.  After much consideration, I came to the conclusion that the best way to do something regular and Sagan related would be to have something closer to the "blog carnival" format, where there would be a new installment every couple of months or so, and have a theme each time in addition to the basic Sagan one, to give a fresh "handle" to write about.  I haven't been able to iron out the details in time for today, but I do have plans to do so.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I did an unofficial "third annual" bit yesterday; I'd picked up The Varieties of Scientific Experience recently and blogged two quotes from the book that I found timely and important.

Then, a friend of mine wrote about Sagan yesterday as well.

If there is to be a "Carnival of Carl" (needs a better name), that would make for some fascinating reading. One obvious topic comes to mind from my own experience — science-fiction writers who have been inspired by Sagan's work.

Could be fun.

Popular posts from this blog

Announcing the Carl Sagan memorial blog-a-thon

another day, another pair of letters to the editor

AOL Hometown shutting down, and taking a bit of bronze with it