In an earlier interview on Charlie Rose, Carl Sagan explains the context and issues related to manned and unmanned space exploration and poses critical questions to justify it.

Sagan also describes humanity’s current context in the environment and universe and the challenges ahead of us as an intelligent species.

In 1996, Carl Sagan was interviewed on the Charlie Rose Show where he warned about the dangers of being ignorant of science in an age when society is practically based on science and technology. When the general public is ignorant of science, who makes the decisions on science and technology?

Sagan also describes the proliferation of psuedo-science (e.g. UFOs), superstition, and literal interpretations under religion as problematic to society. He encourages skepticism as a way forward both to accumulate knowledge, and as a way to keep society from self-destructing.

Michael Shermer discusses Carl Sagan, science, pseudoscience, and the paranormal on PBS’s Charle Rose, during his book tour for Why People Believe Weird Things.

In these times of crisis, there’s an ever growing risk of making snap judgements based on present concerns without regard for longer term ramifications.

It’s only been two months (since September) that Congress debated and passed the original bailout plan proposed by US Treasury Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke. In this segment from Charlie Rose, Rep. Barney Frank expounds on the criticism of the bailout plan and its implications.

Founder of CNN talks on Charlie Rose:

Notable comments:

• It will be catastrophic.
• We’ll be eight degrees hotter in 30 or 40 years
• None of the crops will grow.
• Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals.
• Civilization will have broken down.
• The few people left will be living in a failed state.
• Living conditions will be intolerable.
• The droughts will be so bad there’ll be no more corn grown.
• We’ve got to stabilize the population.

Talk about reductio ad absurdum anyone?

Veteran interviewer Charlie Rose features legendary bond trader Michael Milken (of the 80s junk bond era) and economist and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus who founded Grameen Bank which pushed micro-credit in Bangladesh.

These two distinguished individuals share fantastic insights on the Bangladesh micro-credit experience and how lessons from self-employment are relevant to the global financial crisis and credit crunch of 2008.

A taste of some topics covered on the interview:

• The problem caused by credit rating agencies.
• How leverage and margin have contributed to the crisis. Also the problem with loans higher than collateral.
• How micro-credit experience in Bangladesh translates to insights on where the global financial system went wrong.
• What are ways forward to restore confidence in the financial system and avoiding future repeats of the crisis.
• And much much more.