Line Out - Comments on Music Of Cosmos http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/04/music_of_cosmos In 1980 PBS aired the TV series, Cosmos, narrated by Carl Sagan. Easy to make fun of now, with his famous line, "Billions and billions of years ago..." Sagan at the time was the leader of the pop scientific community.... Copyright 2008 Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:24:52 -0800 Thu, 01 May 2008 15:56:50 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Paulus Yes! That soundtrack is great. The Vangelis track particularly owns.

Also, as fond as Sagan was of the word "billions", he never actually said "billions and billions" as that would be an incredibly imprecise measurement—3 billion? 957 billion?

Carl would have broken down that range into "billions", "tens of billions", or "hundreds of billions". I think Johnny Carson actually coined the phrase during a Carl Sagan parody skit.

]]> Paulus http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/04/music_of_cosmos#c1010308 http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/04/music_of_cosmos#c1010308 Dust Bin Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:02:40 -0800 Comment by Biggie J Awesome post Terry. Sagan pushed me into astronomy at an early age. For that I will always be grateful.

]]> Biggie J http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/04/music_of_cosmos#c1010524 http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/04/music_of_cosmos#c1010524 Dust Bin Thu, 01 May 2008 07:52:49 -0800 Comment by the man who couldn't blog You have made my day—a day later than you meant to, sure, but still.

]]> the man who couldn't blog http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/04/music_of_cosmos#c1010602 http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/04/music_of_cosmos#c1010602 Dust Bin Thu, 01 May 2008 09:54:04 -0800 Comment by Breklor OH YES, this was an awesome show and a brilliant soundtrack!

I must, however, take exception to your characterization of evolution as a "hot topic", which it really, honestly is not, anywhere except the minds of the ID crowd. In *real* science, evolution is a pretty happily settled topic with some hotly contested details. :)

]]> Breklor http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/04/music_of_cosmos#c1010998 http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/04/music_of_cosmos#c1010998 Dust Bin Thu, 01 May 2008 15:56:50 -0800