I had the honor of hearing him speak once at a conference in DC a few years back and I’m sad that I won’t have that opportunity again. Suddenly the world seems a little too quiet.

While I’m not sure celebration is really in order; that just somehow seems a bit wrong to me; I do feel a strong sense of relief.  Though, I’m sure there are others that will carry on his legacy, for the moment I am content to breath that sigh of relief.

Cosmos is available on Hulu. If you haven’t seen it – or even if you have – I highly recommend it.  More than highly, actually.  Carl Sagan was a hero of mine and it is in no small part because of him that I am who I am and I am ever grateful.

Oh, and CFI has some new goodies in their store just for the 30th anniversary of Cosmos — handmade necklaces by Surly Amy of  Surlyramics!  You know you want one.  I want them all, but stopped myself at two..

Also, November 9th is Carl Sagan Day.  I wonder if anything is going on around here in celebration…

So, anyway, Happy Birthday Cosmos!!  And thank you Carl Sagan!

Today, he posted at Swift, that he is gay. I can’t say that it does or doesn’t surprise me. I never thought about it one way or the other, to tell you the truth. I am very happy for him that he finally feels, after 81 years, that he can be open about himself.

Well, here goes. I really resent the term, but I use it because it’s recognized and accepted.

I’m gay.

From some seventy years of personal experience, I can tell you that there’s not much “gay” about being homosexual. For the first twenty years of my life, I had to live in the shadows, in a culture that was — at least outwardly — totally hostile to any hint of that variation of life-style. At no time did I choose to adopt any protective coloration, though; my cultivation of an abundant beard was not at all a deception, but part of my costume as a conjuror.

Gradually, the general attitude that I’d perceived around me began to change, and presently I find that there has emerged a distinctly healthy acceptance of different social styles of living — except, of course, in cultures that live in constant and abject fear of divine retribution for infractions found in the various Holy Books… In another two decades, I’m confident that young people will find themselves in a vastly improved atmosphere of acceptance.

His hope for the future of young gay people is encouraging, too.  I hope he is right that in the near future it will simply be no big deal.

Cheers to you, Mr. Randi!

Here’s Pat Robertson, of the 700 Club talking about the earthquake in Haiti:

The Haitians “were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever,” Robertson said on his broadcast Wednesday. “And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ “

Seriously?  He believes that?  Aside from the complete and utter heartlessness of his “explanation”, it doesn’t really sound like his god is all that loving or big on forgiveness.  Mr Robertson seems to be light on the compassion as well.  Not that this really surprises me, mind you,  since he and Jerry Falwell blamed 9/11 on”the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists…” rather than squarely where the blame really was, which was religion and politics.

I never got to meet him, never got to thank him for everything he did for his fellow humans.  Everything he did for me.

If you’ve never read any of his books, I recommend them all, but particularly The Demon Haunted World.  If you’ve never seen Cosmos, it’s on Hulu, you should check it out.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

~~ Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark

We found that even though we are pretty different from one another and have been apart for many many years, we have many similarities with each other. For instance, our sense of humor – we are all absolute smart asses. Also, we are all basically introverts and tend to be shy in unfamiliar situations.

I’ve always known, however, I was the “different” one in many respects (not all of which are genetic, but interesting none the less) – I’m not musically inclined, while the rest are; I’m atheist, while the rest aren’t; my hair is straight, while the rest have curly hair. But that’s not all. It turns out that which thumb is on top when you clasp your hands together is genetic and there I am the different one, too. Of me, my five siblings and our mom, I’m the only one whose right thumb rests on top of my left when my hands are clasped together. The rest are left over right.

From what I can find out, the left-over-right is the dominate configuration meaning most people clasp their hands with the left thumb over their right thumb. Us right-over-lefts are in the minority. The Heredity Project is one of the many websites I found that illustrate it. According to that site, Mom must have both the “L” and the “r” (since “L” is dominant, I’ve put it in upper case) and she passed the “r” to me. My dad could have been either an “Lr” or an “rr” and he passed an “r” to me as well. He’s no longer alive, so I am unable to find out if he’s a lefty or a righty.

There are three possible combination’s: “LL”, “Lr” and “rr”. If you have the “L” at all, you will likely have your left thumb over your right when you clasp your hands together. There are a super small number of people that don’t really have a dominant thumb and those folks will use either configuration. For the rest of us, clasping our hands in the opposite manner than our norm feels quite unnatural and strange. Go ahead, try it yourself — clasp your hands without thinking about it. Are you a lefty or a righty? Now clasp your hands the opposite way — feels weird, doesn’t it.

Anyway, I am back to the normal grind now. I hope we all manage to get together again before too many years pass.

Yes, his music was good — at least what I remember of it — but he did everything he could to distance himself from who he was.  Surgery after surgery after surgery, living out his Peter Pan fantasy; which got more than a little creepy, bleaching his skin…  Maybe he hated himself so much that he figured if he changed himself enough on the outside, it would change who he was on the inside, I don’t know, but he had issues aplenty.

Even through his bizarre obsession with sleeping with little kids – and I don’t know if there was more to it, but it’s hard not to suspect – he remained insanely popular.  In the eyes of so many, he couldn’t do wrong.

I was a big fan of Michael Jackson in the early to mid ’80′s.  Thriller was my favorite album at the time and I wanted to see him in concert in the worst way.  I never got to, but I’m ok with that.  I lost interest sometime in the late ’80′s only keeping up a little bit with his goings on.

One thing I do hope is that his children find some sense of normalcy in their lives.  I don’t have a lot of hope, but some.

I, honestly, feel that if the people that don’t accept evolution would learn more about it rather than listening to the Ben Stein’s of the world, they might find out that it does not at all take away anything of who we are.  If anything it illustrates just how far we’ve come!

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!

So, if you haven’t already, take a look through some excellent resources:

Talk Origins

Understanding Evolution

www.notjustatheory.com

National Center for Science Education

And some excellent blogs:

Why Evolution is True

Pharyngula

EvolutionBlog

And for a bit of fun:

Darwin Optical Illusion

Also, which I think is particulary cool, her family has requested that in leiu of flowers, that donations be made to Precious Paws or CARE.

Rest in peace, Majel.