The Pale Blue Dot

[flyfort17]

Here we are.

!

[Adam Baker]

Very cool clip. Thank you for posting that.

[DutyCat]

I actually showed the "classic" version with the piano and synthesizer music in my class today.

Sagan was a great man. I love his work. The Cosmos DVD set is on my X-mas list. I remember watching it in its initial run about 1980 or so and loving it.

Sadly, most of today's kids just flat out don't care about the great Dr Sagan's philosophical space ramblings. Get them alone and show them something cool, then maybe they'll think a bit. However, around other teenagers, they have bigger fish to fry. The articulation and vocabulary alone in this clip goes over the head of most of my 9th graders. I tried showing them Sagan's presentation on Drake's Equation last year and most of them could not hang with it for the 8-9 minutes it takes him to explain it.

I also showed them the orchestral Pan Am Clipper space dock sequence from 2001 and asked them to make observations for discussion (Velcro shoes on the FA, spinning space station for gravity, and a few other things). The clip last about 5 minutes and they were bored because something wasn't getting blown up. Most kids are so jaded today that unless you are putting on a clown show in class, they are apt to just tune out. This is the ADD generation. What you have to say or show them in a classroom is boring and irrelevant to their lives. "Here we are now...Entertain us!"

Oh, and in case you haven't heard, teachers are to blame for modern student under-achievement. Isn't that what the politicians say?

Don't mean to hijack the thread.

Edited December 8, 2010 by DutyCat

[HOLMES]

Here we are.

!

WOW !!

Carl Sagan's Narrative is very moving.LOVED IT.

"To preserve and cherish the ONLY Home WE have ever known ! "

Thank you for posting this AMAZING Link flyfort17.

HOLMES

[GreyGhost]

I too remember seeing it when it originally aired ...

My late Uncle got me interested in looking up at the stars and we would watch all of the COSMOS series together and all of the significant Voyager 'Fly-bys' ...

Great Stuff, thanks for posting the link ...

Gregg

[Les / Creative Edge Photo]

It's coming 2011, maybe it is time we as humans finally grow up. Much of the stuff we are indoctrinated to seeing and believing as normal IS NOT! We need to do better here, we need to change the way we look at ourselves and our world. Too much crap going on here, too much suffering, too much greed, too much selfishness, too much ignorance, too much arrogance, too much privilege, too much apathy, too much of too many things that are just WRONG! Not enough selflessness, not enough compassion, not enough understanding, not enough educating, not enough just talking to each other, not enough exploration in all ways for our betterment, not enough love, not enough respect, not enough of the the things that really should matter.

The world, this blue planet that sits in a typical solar system, around a medium sized star in an average size galaxy, in a vast, vast universe is ours, the time is ours. Films like this to the inspiring words of Sagan should inspire us to release the nonsense we see and live by from our lives.

Simply it can all start if we all just to make a point do just one thing out of kindness, compassion or selflessness to another. It may become rather contagious. Even if what we each did to start does not become contagious, at least we all know we made one thing better for another person(s).

[HOLMES]

It's coming 2011, maybe it is time we as humans finally grow up. Much of the stuff we are indoctrinated to seeing and believing as normal IS NOT! We need to do better here, we need to change the way we look at ourselves and our world. Too much crap going on here, too much suffering, too much greed, too much selfishness, too much ignorance, too much arrogance, too much privilege, too much apathy, too much of too many things that are just WRONG! Not enough selflessness, not enough compassion, not enough understanding, not enough educating, not enough just talking to each other, not enough exploration in all ways for our betterment, not enough love, not enough respect, not enough of the the things that really should matter.

The world, this blue planet that sits in a typical solar system, around a medium sized star in an average size galaxy, in a vast, vast universe is ours, the time is ours. Films like this to the inspiring words of Sagan should inspire us to release the nonsense we see and live by from our lives.

Simply it can all start if we all just to make a point do just one thing out of kindness, compassion or selflessness to another. It may become rather contagious. Even if what we each did to start does not become contagious, at least we all know we made one thing better for another person(s).

Quoted for truth...well said !

[selwyn]

I actually showed the "classic" version with the piano and synthesizer music in my class today.

Sagan was a great man. I love his work. The Cosmos DVD set is on my X-mas list. I remember watching it in its initial run about 1980 or so and loving it.

Sadly, most of today's kids just flat out don't care about the great Dr Sagan's philosophical space ramblings. Get them alone and show them something cool, then maybe they'll think a bit. However, around other teenagers, they have bigger fish to fry. The articulation and vocabulary alone in this clip goes over the head of most of my 9th graders. I tried showing them Sagan's presentation on Drake's Equation last year and most of them could not hang with it for the 8-9 minutes it takes him to explain it.

I also showed them the orchestral Pan Am Clipper space dock sequence from 2001 and asked them to make observations for discussion (Velcro shoes on the FA, spinning space station for gravity, and a few other things). The clip last about 5 minutes and they were bored because something wasn't getting blown up. Most kids are so jaded today that unless you are putting on a clown show in class, they are apt to just tune out. This is the ADD generation. What you have to say or show them in a classroom is boring and irrelevant to their lives. "Here we are now...Entertain us!"

Oh, and in case you haven't heard, teachers are to blame for modern student under-achievement. Isn't that what the politicians say?

Don't mean to hijack the thread.

Taking up your thread on your comments about the kids, we have much the same problems here in UK. I believe one of the main problems is that our teachers are not really permitted to use any sort of dicipline on their pupils, therefore we have a generation that cannot cope when leaving school when they find that they have to get up to an alarm clock and be at work on time. One place that I worked at our new teenage recruit could not understand, couldn't handl;e the fact that he had to do what he was told, and found it most unfair that when he arrived two hours late for work his pay was docked for the hours he was not there! He didn't last long.

One thing I noticed when I visited the US on business quite recently was that there seems top be a two tier education system operating. the people I met were either very well educated or conversely at the point that they could not string a coherent sentence together. they did not seem to be a middle ground.

Apart from everyone believing I was Australian (The Accent?) when asked where I came from, and then being told the UK, it was plain to see that I might as well have said the moon as I don't believe that most Americans when challenged could point out my country on a map of the world. More worrying were the ones that gave the impression that they probably could not point out the USA on the same map!

The incident that gave me the most concern was when I a comment was made to me from a young lady that I had "learnt to speak English really well!" The person in question simply could not grasp the fact that the English speak English as their native tongue. This person was, by the way, a teacher by profession!

Selwyn

[selwyn]

I actually showed the "classic" version with the piano and synthesizer music in my class today.

Sagan was a great man. I love his work. The Cosmos DVD set is on my X-mas list. I remember watching it in its initial run about 1980 or so and loving it.

Sadly, most of today's kids just flat out don't care about the great Dr Sagan's philosophical space ramblings. Get them alone and show them something cool, then maybe they'll think a bit. However, around other teenagers, they have bigger fish to fry. The articulation and vocabulary alone in this clip goes over the head of most of my 9th graders. I tried showing them Sagan's presentation on Drake's Equation last year and most of them could not hang with it for the 8-9 minutes it takes him to explain it.

I also showed them the orchestral Pan Am Clipper space dock sequence from 2001 and asked them to make observations for discussion (Velcro shoes on the FA, spinning space station for gravity, and a few other things). The clip last about 5 minutes and they were bored because something wasn't getting blown up. Most kids are so jaded today that unless you are putting on a clown show in class, they are apt to just tune out. This is the ADD generation. What you have to say or show them in a classroom is boring and irrelevant to their lives. "Here we are now...Entertain us!"

Oh, and in case you haven't heard, teachers are to blame for modern student under-achievement. Isn't that what the politicians say?

Don't mean to hijack the thread.

Taking up your thread on your comments about the kids, we have much the same problems here in UK. I believe one of the main problems is that our teachers are not really permitted to use any sort of dicipline on their pupils, therefore we have a generation that cannot cope when leaving school when they find that they have to get up to an alarm clock and be at work on time. One place that I worked at our new teenage recruit could not understand, couldn't handl;e the fact that he had to do what he was told, and found it most unfair that when he arrived two hours late for work his pay was docked for the hours he was not there! He didn't last long.

One thing I noticed when I visited the US on business quite recently was that there seems top be a two tier education system operating. the people I met were either very well educated or conversely at the point that they could not string a coherent sentence together. they did not seem to be a middle ground.

Apart from everyone believing I was Australian (The Accent?) when asked where I came from, and then being told the UK, it was plain to see that I might as well have said the moon as I don't believe that most Americans when challenged could point out my country on a map of the world. More worrying were the ones that gave the impression that they probably could not point out the USA on the same map!

The incident that gave me the most concern was when I a comment was made to me from a young lady that I had "learnt to speak English really well!" The person in question simply could not grasp the fact that the English speak English as their native tongue. This person was, by the way, a teacher by profession!

Selwyn