100. CARL SAGAN: Pale blue dot

The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth (click here to see it) taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft at a distance of 3.7 billion miles away. The spacecraft had completed its primary mission and was passing Saturn, hurtling through space at 40,000 mph. Carl Sagan requested that the spacecraft turn around and take a photo of Earth, not for any scientific purpose, but as a sobering reminder of our planet’s insignificance. The resulting image inspired Sagan to write this now famous and breathtaking passage.

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63. CARL SAGAN: Books are awesome

63. CARL SAGAN: Books are awesome:


Another gem from Carl Sagan (read my first Sagan post on why I love him so much). My initial idea was to set the story in the very near future in a classroom. A teacher would tell the class it was reading time and the students would all take out their iPad 6.0 and open up the iBooks3D app. Each student would select a different book in the app and a 3D hologram of the historic person would project from their screens and the money shot would feature the classroom filled with these 3D projections. I rejected the idea because I didn’t want it to be one big ad for Apple and I also wanted to create a tribute to the printed book. I don’t think the 3D projection idea is too far from actually happening, especially after that Tupac hologram we all gushed over at Coachella.
Thanks to tablets and e-readers, the printed book is fighting a uphill battle to stay alive. How can they hope to survive when I’ve got dozens of books on my iPad (not to mention hundreds of comics, magazines, music, games, photos and movies) that I can carry around with me anywhere I go? So yes, this is my love-letter to printed books – those chunky, faded, smelly and yellow parcels of knowledge and fun I used to check out from my school library that helped shaped the person I am today (those and cartoons, lots and lots of cartoons).
It was really hard picking five books from the history of the written word. What helped me choose was not only how well-known the authors and books were, but also how easily recognisable their costumes and appearance would be to readers. I had to have someone thousands of years old because that’s what Sagan mentioned, which is why I picked Lao Tzu. Also, I had to have Teddy Roosevelt because he’s my guy.
- Now it’s your turn – which five books and/or authors would you have chosen?

- Thanks to Janice and Renee for suggesting this quote. Here’s the clip from Cosmos.

- Coincidently, just yesterday Brain Pickings posted Carl Sagan’s reading list from 1954. Check out what this great man fed his brain with.
BUY THE PRINT

Via:  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zenpencils/~3/b9LDGmnGAV4/

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