This is the time we live in

First

I'd like to mention the inspirations for this post, number one being of course late Carl Sagan, the first face of the science I have met when I was very young, barely understanding English (my first language being Bulgarian). I was then hooked by this, in my opinion, most profound and wide introduction to the scientific world, the most interesting and important for a kid enlisting of all the achievements made for such a short period of time, considering the thousands of years we have been around. It was then when I knew I want to be part of this scientific advancement, I wanted to see us, human race, wandering trough the stars, exploring, looking for anything that awaits up there in the vastness of space and time. It was Sagan, who lighted up my mind and calibrated my point of view for this world, wonderful an magical even without the superstition and spirituality and 'real' magic that floats aroun

d us, obscuring so many real and great ways we can admire and contribute to the miracles of science!

I like to thank also Jill Tarter, the passionate researcher, who has devoted her career to SETI. I was amazed and inspired by her TED talk few years back and I truly believe it takes courage and passion in science to constrain your life to such a wonderful idea as to find the proof that we are not alone in this enormous universe. I hope the institute will get back on its feet, I hope there are still people who are willing to help considering the immense importance of the work those dedicated scientist are doing, regardless of the fact that more and more pressure is building up against spending money on such research, I still believe that even more money is wasted on stupid things, much more money, which used otherwise would have improved our lives beyond anything imaginable. Yet those people having those resource are not willing to help, so I urge anyone who can help to do it now, because as Carl said it - we need to take a look in the future, we need to embrace our unimportance and have the tiniest vision of tomorrow.

I also would like to thank the people behind the wonderful adaptation of Sagan's Contact for the wide screen, which inspired me to give a second thought on mathematics and physics, two disciplines I was not very interested in when I was in high school and in the university, I was barely understanding it, as much as to pass my exams. Now I understand the beauty and importance of those and without blaming it to the teachers and assistants trying to inspire us I now recognize it was a big mistake to just presenting the scientific knowledge without first trying to present its role and importance and beauty and application to the young minds. I am certainly hoping this will change soon and will produce a new generation of passionate scientists. Meanwhile I hope we will see more positive scientists as main characters in movies.

Next are all people that are tributing Carl Sagan all over the Internet, especially the wonderful clips from the young fellow over Milky Way Musings made me such a great impression. If you have the time and you like Sagan, please go and watch the clips.

I also want to thank the people behind the chrome and firefox projects for making the web experience such a joy as to allow me and countless other people to use the World wide web as easily and enjoyable as possible, which on the other hand inspired us to contribute in any way possible. It would have been a terrible experience without your work and I would have not discovered so much without it, so thank you guys and gals for your hard work!