🚀 go-pugleaf

On 11 Apr, 07:51, "Mike Vandeman" <....@3.com> wrote:
> From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_sagan
>
> "Sagan was a user of marijuana. Under the pseudonym "Mr. X", he wrote an
> essay concerning cannabis smoking in the 1971 book Marihuana Reconsidered,
> written by Sagan's close friend Lester Grinspoon.[34][35] In his essay,
> Sagan wrote how marijuana use had helped to inspire some of his works and
> enhance sensual and intellectual experiences. After Sagan's death, Grinspoon
> disclosed this to Sagan's biographer, Keay Davidson. The publishing of this
> biography, Carl Sagan: A Life, in 1999, brought much media attention to the
> issue of the use and legalization of marijuana.[36]"
>
> "Sagan and UFOs
> Sagan had some interest in UFO reports from at least 1964, when he had
> several conversations on the subject with Jacques Vallee.[37] Though quite
> skeptical of any extraordinary answer to the UFO question, Sagan thought
> scientists should study the phenomenon, at least because there was
> widespread public interest in UFO reports.
>
> Stuart Appelle notes that Sagan "wrote frequently on what he perceived as
> the logical and empirical fallacies regarding UFOs and the abduction
> experience. Sagan rejected an extraterrestrial explanation for the
> phenomenon but felt there were both empirical and pedagogical benefits for
> examining UFO reports and that the subject was, therefore, a legitimate
> topic of study."[38]
>
> In 1966, Sagan was a member of the Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project Blue
> Book, the U.S. Air Force's UFO investigation project. The committee
> concluded Blue Book had been lacking as a scientific study, and recommended
> a university-based project to give the UFO phenomenon closer scientific
> scrutiny. The result was the Condon Committee (1966–1968), led by physicist
> Edward Condon, and in their final report they formally concluded that UFOs,
> regardless of what any of them actually were, did not behave in a manner
> consistent with a threat to national security.
>
> Ron Westrum writes that "The high point of Sagan's treatment of the UFO
> question was the AAAS's symposium in 1969. A wide range of educated opinions
> on the subject were offered by participants, including not only proponents
> such as James McDonald and J. Allen Hynek but also skeptics like astronomers
> William Hartmann and Donald Menzel. The roster of speakers was balanced, and
> it is to Sagan's credit that this event was presented in spite of pressure
> from Edward Condon".[37] With physicist Thornton Page, Sagan edited the
> lectures and discussions given at the symposium; these were published in
> 1972 as UFOs: A Scientific Debate. Some of Sagan's many books examine UFOs
> (as did one episode of Cosmos) and he claimed a religious undercurrent to
> the phenomenon.
>
> Sagan again revealed his views on interstellar travel in his 1980 Cosmos
> series. In one of his last written works, Sagan argued that the chances of
> extraterrestrial spacecraft visiting Earth are vanishingly small. However,
> Sagan did think it plausible that Cold War concerns contributed to
> governments misleading their citizens about UFOs, and that "some UFO reports
> and analyses, and perhaps voluminous files, have been made inaccessible to
> the public which pays the bills ... It's time for the files to be
> declassified and made generally available." He cautioned against jumping to
> conclusions about suppressed UFO data and stressed that there was no strong
> evidence that aliens were visiting the Earth either in the past or
> present.[39]"

I have to say that I think the Cosmos series really great - we have it
on a DVD, so I trpped through it a bit. He comes across as a very
charming person, Bronx + Hollywood - where he would have made a lot of
dosh! You keep thinking of a French movie star!
--
foolsrushin.