I really wasn’t talking down to anyone or trying to be nasty and I’m really sorry if it came across in that way. You are right that the BA is only one data point and it was wrong of me to take him as representative of the “interested public” in the US. It was a poor attempt to give an example to justify why those of us under 30 in the UK might not be aware of the great Carl Sagan. In fact, I generally don’t expect folks in the US (or France or Nigeria etc) to be aware of UK factual programming presenters because I don’t expect other countries to show much (or any) of our TV or play our radio programming; they generally make their own.

I am aware that Patrick Moore’s books are sold in the US but I wasn’t aware of his TV programmes being shown (I think they have been shown in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa at various times). So, I didn’t expect him to have had much impact into the popular conciousness as opposed to that of amateur/professional astronomers. In the UK, Patrick has appeared on many kids programmes and chat shows over the years so pretty much everyone knows who he is here. He is the main image of an astronomer (mature man with white hair and monocle) in the minds of most of the UK population. Of that I’m pretty sure because I’ve sampled a large number of random people over the past 10 years

Best not to generalize from one data point. Many of us DO know of Patrick Moore and David Attenborough. It has been my pleasure to read Patrick Moore’s works, and have met him several times. And, I’m one of those colonials, you know.

“Cosmos” is on every Tuesday night on The Science Channel, but I also have the DVD set; I find it uplifiting to watch. Sagan is someone who just exudes joy in learning and gaining knowledge. It’s sad that he died relatively young – if he were alive today he’d be a year younger than my father with so much more life left in him. We need more Sagan-like scientists, or just Sagan-like people in general.

The Unknown Sagan

FYI, Sagan one time in the Cosmos series says “billions” to emphasize over millions, and that gets picked up by anyone imitating Sagan as a recognizable speech pattern.

I did not know this, and I did NOT try to start a flame-war here.

Still, though, my comment holds. Something I like about realists is their sense of scale. If numbers are in the tens, hundreds, millions, billions or whatever scale a realist will tend to refer to them in those terms, not in some wildly exaggerated manner.

Eh, I get a sense I’m being a spoil-sport here.

I suspect that this lack of awareness probably goes both ways. As well as Patrick Moore, another great UK communicator is David Attenborough (brother of Richard Attenborough) who has been broadcasting top quality natural history programmes for about 50 years. People in the UK all know him and love his many programmes. However, I suspect that most people in the US are unaware of him (illustrated by the fact that the BA didn’t recognise him in the video clip he linked to in this post back in June).

Sagan isn’t that famous to the people of the British Isles and Ireland (for example). Patrick Moore is far better known.”

Just about everyone I knew in the UK in the early ’80s watched Cosmos on the BBC and Carl became as well known as Patrick. Maybe those born since about 1978 haven’t heard of him though. Have there been any repeats in the UK? I left for Australia in ’83.

http://www.seasky.org/spacexp/sky5e08.html

That’s still a large number.

- Brian

GAry 7

http://www.inca-productions.com/kennardport.htm

Last night (Sunday) I was at a little Christmas party held by my brother-in-law. He’s the production and media manager for the San Francisco Symphony (you’ll see where I’m going with this in just a couple more sentences). Those of you who watch PBS may have seen the recent 3-part “Keeping Score” series hosted by the musical director, Michael Tilson-Thomas. The producer/director of the series was David Kennard. The series was a big hit and David was there along with his wife and other folk.

If the name isn’t familiar, he’s been a force in science and culture programming for about three decades. He was the senior producer for “Cosmos” and also did a little BBC series you may have heard of called “Connections” with James Burke.

Anyway, I spent about half an hour gabbing with him about all sorts of stuff, but if I’d known about this blogathon, I could have whipped out my digital recorder (don’t leave home without it!) and asked him for some remembrances of Cosmos and Carl specifically.

I don’t have a blog, but I might be able to still contact him and supply some input for yours, Phil. Contact me off line and I’ll see what I can do.

- Jack

PS – He actually lives much closer to you (Marin) than me. Maybe you can make the 1/2 hour car ride down and interview him yourself.

(I’ve never seen Johny Carson. I don’t even know what he looks like.)

Just a 70s/80s American pop-culture reference on BA’s part. He’s pretty good at math, so he knows Sagan didn’t *really* affect billions of people.

Sagan isn’t that famous to the people of the British Isles and Ireland (for example). Patrick Moore is far better known.

I like Sagan, but it’s a big world.

Mr. Ekeli, does the word “flame bait” mean anything to you?