It’s Carl Sagan day – the tenth anniversary of Carl Sagan’s death, and blogger Joel Schlosberg is leading a Carl Sagan Memorial Blog-a-Thon that’s already proving to be very popular.

If you’re not familiar with Carl Sagan, it’s likely that you weren’t alive in 1980 when his acclaimed television series Cosmos hit the airwaves.

Cosmos was a popular introduction to astronomy, astrobiology, history of science, the scientific method, the search for life in the universe, and whatever else struck Sagan as interesting. It was a massive hit for public television, one of its most-watched series of all time.

Sagan also worked as an advisor to NASA, wrote hundreds of scientific papers, dozens of books and even published a novel, Contact, that was made into a movie.

For those that do remember Sagan, though, it wasn’t his particular achievements that made him special, but the passion and poetry he used to explain our strange and fascinating universe.

Here are five reasons that we think you should take a moment to remember Carl Sagan today.

Microsoft has announced that the Zune software has been updated to be compatible with Vista:

Today (Tuesday the 19th of December) we’re issuing a 22 MB update to make Zune compatible with Windows Vista. The update also improves the Zune software installation process, addressing the issues that some of the known issues users reported. Like Jason R said recently “It is plumbing stuff, but it is stuff customers will notice and appreciate.” So you should install the update, even if you’re not running Vista.

You can install it via Microsoft auto-update, or go to Zune.net to get it.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment will pay $1.5 million, and kick in thousands more in customer refunds, to settle lawsuits brought by California and Texas over music CDs that installed a hidden anti-piracy program on consumers computers without consumer’s knowledge.

The settlements, announced Tuesday, cover lawsuits over CDs loaded with one of two types of copy-protection software — known as MediaMax or XCP.

Under the terms of the separate settlements, each state will receive $750,000 in civil penalties and costs.

In addition, Sony BMG agreed to reimburse consumers whose computers were damaged while trying to uninstall the XCP software. Customers in both states can file a claim with Sony BMG to receive between $25 to $175 in refunds.

Remember Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron’s recent critique of ABC’s new Amanda Congdon video blog? One of his chief complaints was the show’s “irrelevant pre-roll ads that outlast many people‚Äôs curiosity.”

While Baron’s critique may not be completely impartial, his experience as a video podcasting pioneer gives him insight into what works and doesn’t work in video podcasts. And new research suggests that Baron is right about intrusive video advertising.

Burst Media has released a study that found 69.5% of survey respondents actively view video content on the web and 56% recall seeing ads in content they have watched.

The study also found that 52.7 percent say they typically continue watching video content once they encounter an advertising unit. That means video publishers could be losing nearly half their potential audience with the use of intrusive ads.

Land’s End has invited Santa Claus to blog on their catalogue website.

In addition to a scavenger hunt activity, photo contest, downloadable gift tags and story workshop, visitors can subscribe to the jolly old elf’s podcast. There is also a catchy holiday folk song, “Hi Santa,” that you can listen to here (MP3).

Caveat listener, though: this may require industrial-strength brain cleaner (or a masochistic listening to Lena Horne’s “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer”) to get the tune dislodged.

Podcasting News’ editorial team suspects that this may be the first of many holiday-themed podcasts we’ll encounter during our (typical) last-minute online shopping.

From the Good Things Happening To Nice People We Know Department:

Austin (Texas) musician and songwriter Jeffrye Tveraas has been producing a podcast for the last year. His Austin Connection podcast features some of the best songwriters in the Austin area performing their tunes and offers insight into their careers and music.

“My own musical production Mac is 5 years old and was rather long in the tooth compared to today’s computers,” Tveraas said. “My status as a full-time working musician here in Austin (which everyone knows means underemployed) makes it unlikely that I’d be able to afford a new Mac anytime soon.”

Enter Austin radio station KGSR. The station, which features a mix of rock, Texas, and “Americana” (according to my friend SAK), conducted a contest for local musicians. The prize? A snazzy new a new MacBook laptop, “a spin for one of my songs” on the radio and an MP3 plus video hosted on their website.

The contest was aimed at musicians and artists and “they simply asked us to write in and tell them why we should be one of the winners,” Tveraas said. “I mentioned three things: the podcast series and my desire to be able to make recordings ‘on-location'”, and the elderly state of his studio computer.

“I guess they liked what I said,” Tveraas laughs, speaking of his recent win.

Tveraas will be using his prize to continue podcast recordings at his Cheshire Moon Studios, for editing on-location recordings, and for recording his own music, like recent CD offering Lake Effect.

As competition for listeners’ attention intensifies and time spent listening to radio continues to decline, how to stand out amid the many choices available? A panel of media research expertsat the Arbitron Consultants Fly-In held Thursday in Columbia, Md. insist that content is still king — but that broadcasters need to continue creating compelling content, and deliver the content in innovative ways (um, like podcasting).

“It’s the content. Providing compelling content wins,” said Critical Mass Media’s Carolyn Gilbert. “Devoting the energy to finding out what they want and delivering it is the future of radio.”

The panel emphasized that “podcasting will play a much larger role in radio‚Äôs audience growth” (emphasis mine) in the coming year. To keep up, the radio industry has to get in the game quickly.

Edison Media’s (who does an annual media consumption survey with Arbitron) Larry Rosin said he spends more time consulting in London where podcasting is popular. Arbitron’s Bill Rose encouraged broadcasters to make more of their content available to postcasting and build a following.

via Jeffrey Yorke, Radio and Records

Sine Ministries, a California religious organization, is offering “The Story of the Messiah.” The story weaves significant events from the four Gospels into one tapestry telling the life story of Jesus, “the greatest life ever lived.” ‚Ä®‚Ä®The complete story is presented in 28 episodes that are each approximately 15 minutes.

The podcast is available through Annex Audio, at $1.29 per individual episode, or $24.95 for the whole series of 28. For the old school gift recipient, the series is also available as a 6 CD set.

Sine Ministries originally was organized to support evangelism in Latin America, and now works to provide resources for spreading the Christian gospel throughout the world.

Digg, a popular social networking news bookmarking site, introduced an update today that makes podcasting a major feature of the site. The site is also emphasizing video bookmarking, making multimedia much more prominent than it had previously been.

The change could dramatically change the face of podcast discovery, as Digg focuses on the viral spread of new podcasts. It may also tend to draw listeners away from podcasters’ sites, because you can listen at the site. Community discussions may be more active at Digg than at podcasters’ sites, too, because Digg has hundreds of thousands of active visitors.

Digg also announced several other changes.

This year, we’ve had the fortune and misfortune to see hundreds of new iPod-related gadgets, clothing and other accessories.

Some, like the microphones from companies like Belkin and Griffin, are something than any iPod user could use. Others, like the $180 uber-remote from Keyspan, Koyono’s iPod clothing or the expensive-but-cool tube iPod amp may not be essential, but are pretty sexy, nonetheless.

A lot of readers are probably getting and giving iPod-related Christmas presents this year. With this in mind, here’s a list of iPod accessories you may want to avoid.

And if you happen to get any of these under your tree, you have our condolences.

iPod Toilet Paper Dispenser

Here’s something that we thought we should flush out of our system right away – the iCarta toilet paper dispenser/iPod player. The last thing we want anyone doing in the Podcasting News bathroom is making a #$#@ playlist for using the toilet.

iPod Panties

Next up are the iGroove iPod panties, made by Sexy Society. These are sexy panties that feature a built-in iPod pouch.

These might be the world’s greatest iPod panties, but who wants to open them or try them on in front of their family? Even worse, the incident could get captured on camera and end up on Flickr.

iPod Jeans

Equally annoying to receive would be Levi’s iPod jeans. These are like regular jeans, except that they feature built-in iPod support.

Not too bad of an idea, but don’t even think about giving these as Christmas presents!

Instead of thinking that Levi’s iPod jeans are cool, the recipient will be angry that you spent $250…..and bought them a pair of #$%@ iPod jeans.

iPod Chairs

Another holiday no-no are the iPod chairs available at Pottery Barn and other stores.

The iChair rocks your rear, but it’s also a massive, expensive accessory for a music gadget that will be out of date in a couple of years.

iPod Bras

Back to underwear….Guys, getting your significant other an iPod bra is a good way to ruin Christmas.

The iPod bra has been called “the single most important iPod accessory ever”, but it’s also potential disaster for your relationship.

If it’s the wrong size, things could get ugly. If it actually fits, she’ll think that you think she needs to exercise, and things could get ugly. If she loves it and people start staring at her because of that boxy lump between her breasts, things could get ugly.

Buying iPod accessories as presents can be like walking a mine field.

Think you’re safe if you avoid these five accessories in your Christmas shopping?

Think again….