There is a story that Carl Sagan was asked by one of his colleagues if a piece of music should be included inside the Voyager spacecraft. He said, "what type of music?" His colleague replied "how about some Bach?" Sagan replied, "that would just be bragging."

If you liked the Universe Scale then you will probably find this fascinating:

I certainly hope not. I have tickets for Disney starting on May 31st. On the other hand, if the Rapture occurs, the lines might be shorter for the rides.

Yes, you can go here for full details:
http://www.ebiblefellowship.com/outreach/tracts/may21/

Pirates of the Caribbean comes out in theatres May 20th, does this mean I have to see it the day it opens? I hate going opening day, the seats are always so packed.

My new piano is supposed to withstand extreme Australian temperatures. I wonder if Нell is too hot for it in case I have been too naughty?

Will the rapture hit Australia before or after it hits North America? How does that work exactly, does God have his own time-zone?

We are well ahead of the rest of the world (several hours).
Don't worry. We will be here to let you know if the prophecy is true or not. If you don't hear from us, something could have happened. Be prepared.

AH! Now I understand the full meaning of the word "rapture" in your previous post!

Thanks for that!

I hadn't seen the flash animation before but have seen plenty of examples like this...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Planet-star-sizes-01.jpg


This CGI sequence from a Stephen Hawking series was pretty cool. Similiar to the ending of Men In Black. Crappy quality on youtube though. The good quality clips were pulled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyvzdcnRC0s&feature=player_detailpage#t=72s

Now, this IS fun! Absolutely mind blowing indeed! Thanks for a great find!

gonna see another day,

ya mean some were taking that seriously?

How serious are you ?

let it rain, let it shine

Excellent. Thanks for passing that along.

A beautiful story-- not quite true, though.

I did a little internet research, and the line actually comes from Lewis Thomas, the great science essayist. When Sagan asked him what music to send, he answered "I would send the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach. But that would be boasting." On another occasion, he wrote "I would vote for Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging of course, but it is surely excusable to put the best possible face on at the beginning of such an acquaintance. We can tell the harder truths later."

By the way, here is a list of the music included with the Voyager craft. Bach, Beethoven, Rite of Spring, Chuck Berry. I was always surprised that they sent the WTC C major from Book II; I would have thought the Book I C major prelude an obvious choice.

-Jason

Kind of depressing when Germany has Bach, Beethoven and Mozart in space while the best we could do is Chuck Berry.


http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/music.html

It seems that they should have also selected some pre-Bach Western music. How about Palestrina?

Maybe you overlooked Willie Johnson?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNj2BXW852g