🚀 go-pugleaf

UncleEnglish <dolomite8@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:a5a755b0-06e6-4d11-a03c-bd4fbe365678@x6g2000vbg.googlegroups.com: 

> 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, Grinsp 
> oon
>> disclosed this to Sagan's biographer, Keay Davidson. The publishing
>> of th 
> is
>> biography, Carl Sagan: A Life, in 1999, brought much media attention
>> to t 
> he
>> 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 quit 
> e
>> 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 fo 
> r
>> 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
>> Blu 
> e
>> Book, the U.S. Air Force's UFO investigation project. The committee
>> concluded Blue Book had been lacking as a scientific study, and
>> recommend 
> ed
>> a university-based project to give the UFO phenomenon closer
>> scientific scrutiny. The result was the Condon Committee (1966�1968),
>> led by physi 
> cist
>> Edward Condon, and in their final report they formally concluded that
>> UFO 
> s,
>> 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 opini 
> ons
>> on the subject were offered by participants, including not only
>> proponent 
> s
>> such as James McDonald and J. Allen Hynek but also skeptics like
>> astronom 
> ers
>> 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
>> pressur 
> e
>> 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 UFO 
> s
>> (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 o 
> f
>> 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
>> repo 
> rts
>> and analyses, and perhaps voluminous files, have been made
>> inaccessible t 
> o
>> 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
>> stro 
> ng
>> 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!

I'm a documentary addict, rented it and immediately fell asleep.  When I 
tried again, I fell asleep again, then returned it.  I've been thinking 
of buying it, to see if it will help my insomnia.