Do radio waves attenuate and become noise or do they go on forever? [more inside]
posted by MrMulan on May 12, 2009 - 14 answers

I recall something that I believe I heard Carl Sagan say either in an episode of Cosmos or in one of his earlier books, that one could store enough information to hold an entire encyclopedia by putting a notch in a stick, if only one could measure where the notch lies to some absurd astronomically precise figure. Am I imagining this? [more inside]
posted by macinchik on Dec 6, 2007 - 14 answers

Carl Sagan filter: what is the thing that Carl is releasing into the wind so profoundly in this shot from the beginning of Cosmos? I always understood it to be a dandelion seed, but it doesn't look like one I would recognize... What is that thing?
posted by Gankmore on Oct 15, 2007 - 12 answers

What is the name of the tune at the beginning of Carl Douglas' "Kung Fu Fighting"? In that song it is played on a recorder or something, but I have heard it elsewhere played on stringed instruments, etc. I know the tune predates that song because I heard it as a child in old cartoons. Whenever a character was from or sent to a generic Asian destination, they would play that tune to set the location. I have googled every combination of terms I can think of to narrow this down, but come up with nothing. I want it for a ringtone.
posted by Brian James on May 7, 2005 - 4 answers