A few months back, I found myself watching Cosmos (the PBS series on science & astronomy by Carl Sagan) again. Produced in 1980, Cosmos was the most watched public television program in America for a decade. It's still surprisingly relevant. Particularly as a general introduction to science. This was early summer, so in between freaking out that Obama had won the nomination and writing furiously about how McCain was a putz, I had the thought that it might be fun to write a diary about why Sagan was/is such a large part of my world view (also known as a doctrine, depending on who you ask). I also found out his birthday (were he still alive) is today. I figured that, being a few days after the election, we'd all be needing either some serious inspiration or be celebrating our asses off. Either way, it seemed like a good time to write something not related closely to the election.
While this is largely an excercise in entertainment for me, if you're interested in reading about why Carl Sagan is a personal hero of some anonymous stranger on Daily Kos, by all means, join me...
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