COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY, an update of Carl Sagan's PBS series, first aired in the fall of 1980, premieres tonight at 9 PM on Fox Network, and repeats Monday on National Geographic Channels.
Here's part of a long review from today's Washington Post:
Updated 'Cosmos' is a fond return to the vastness of space
By Hank Stuever,
Published: March 7, 2014
When astronomer Carl Sagan's landmark PBS series "Cosmos" first aired in the fall of 1980, the Voyager 1 spacecraft was flying past Saturn and its moons, sending back astonishing images of worlds never seen up close.
Some 33 years later, both Sagan and Voyager 1 (and its mate, Voyager 2) have left the realm of the reachable. He died in 1996, and, sooner rather than later, we'll lose the faint communications from the resilient Voyagers as they travel into interstellar space.
As just about everyone knows, each craft bears a human greatest-hits disc of our languages, music and understanding of numbers, among other assorted audio-visual samples of Earth's inhabitants. The thought of anyone or anything ever finding and playing the disc inspires great wonder; just as much, the thought of our little gizmos floating off forever into eternity brings on a chilling sense of loneliness.
To both soothe and stoke those feelings, "Cosmos"is back Sunday night (airing on Fox and then repeating on Monday nights on the National Geographic Channel). It's a 13-episode remake/update lovingly shepherded by Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan, who worked on the original series, and hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, a worthy heir to Sagan's legacy, even if he doesn't quite possess Sagan's natural ability to captivate viewers.
© The Washington Post Company
:confused:
Although I've done a lot of proofreading in my time, I have trouble proofreading my own stuff. But, the minute I go final I see the errors. As in the title of this post: the astrophysicist is Neil deGrasse Tyson, not "deGrasse." :-[
Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of my favorite people. He's a brilliant man. I've had one of his quotes as my tagline around here for awhile now.
I watched the show last night and, although they went over material I have seen dozens of times, I loved the show. That stuff never gets old with me.
Quote from: Locutus on March 09, 2014, 11:36:34 PM
Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of my favorite people. He's a brilliant man. I've had one of his quotes as my tagline around here for awhile now.
I like to listen to him...I find him refreshing and honest. He is not in your face with his opinions, but just lays them out there.........very well spoken.
Creationists are up in arms about Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's science documentary television series, because they say the show does not present their beliefs alongside evolutionary theories.
Danny Faulkner, an astronomer who works with Answers in Genesis, a Christian ministry and its Kentucky-based Creation Museum, spoke out against the program Thursday on The Janet Mefferd Show. He took issue with many aspects of Cosmos' first two episodes, including its positive stance on biogenesis and its assertion that the universe is billions of years old.
"Creationists aren't even on the radar screen for them," Faulker said on the faith-based talk show. "They wouldn't even consider us plausible at all."
Cosmos has already been under fire from creationists for its stance on evolution, climate change and the Big Bang theory, but Tyson told CNN earlier this month that he believes the media should no longer give equal airtime to those who deny climate change and evolution in an effort to balance coverage.
Faulkner claimed the 13-episode series has a distinct "evolutionary bias," and agreed with Mefferd's concern that Cosmos doesn't even present creationism as an alternative theory.
"That was struck in the first episode where [Tyson] talked about science — how everything's up for discussion, it's all on the table — and I thought to myself, 'No, consideration of special creation is definitely not open for discussion'," he said.
A television station in Oklahoma was criticized for cutting to a news promo while Tyson spoke about evolution in Cosmos' premiere episode, but the later claimed in a tweet that this was a mistake.
Neither Fox nor National Geographic, which broadcast the show, immediately responded to a request for comment.
This isn't the first time creationists have bumped heads with the scientific community. TV personality Bill Nye debated Ken Ham, founder of the Creation Museum, on evolution last month.
http://mashable.com/2014/03/24/creationists-cosmos/
^^ Of course the idiots at the Creation Museum are whining about it. :rolleyes:
Quote from: Locutus on March 25, 2014, 12:32:28 PM
^^ Of course the idiots at the Creation Museum are whining about it. :rolleyes:
Friggin' morons! :rant:
Quote from: Locutus on March 25, 2014, 12:32:28 PM
^^ Of course the idiots at the Creation Museum are whining about it. :rolleyes:
Off topic: Did you see the debate between Bill Nye and and Ken Ham re: creationism? Awesome! If not, it should be on YouTube and it's worth a watch.
Quote from: Sandy Eggo on March 25, 2014, 09:01:07 PM
Off topic: Did you see the debate between Bill Nye and and Ken Ham re: creationism? Awesome! If not, it should be on YouTube and it's worth a watch.
Yes, I watched the debate on YouTube. I forgot that it was on the night it was originally broadcast. I think Bo D and I discussed that somewhere around here.
In case anyone missed any of the episodes, they're available in their entirety at this website:
http://www.cosmosontv.com
Look under the "Full Episodes" link. I think they're online for 40 days after the original episode date.
The 4th episode is now available at the above URL for streaming.
Quote from: Locutus on March 31, 2014, 10:20:40 PM
The 4th episode is now available at the above URL for streaming.
Thanks. I've been watching it on Fox and National Geographic, but resent the commercials.
Unfortunately, the commercials are in the stream too. ;D
Quote from: Locutus on March 25, 2014, 12:32:06 PM
Creationists are up in arms about Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's science documentary television series, because they say the show does not present their beliefs alongside evolutionary theories.
Danny Faulkner, an astronomer who works with Answers in Genesis, a Christian ministry and its Kentucky-based Creation Museum, spoke out against the program Thursday on The Janet Mefferd Show. He took issue with many aspects of Cosmos' first two episodes, including its positive stance on biogenesis and its assertion that the universe is billions of years old.
"Creationists aren't even on the radar screen for them," Faulker said on the faith-based talk show. "They wouldn't even consider us plausible at all."
Cosmos has already been under fire from creationists for its stance on evolution, climate change and the Big Bang theory, but Tyson told CNN earlier this month that he believes the media should no longer give equal airtime to those who deny climate change and evolution in an effort to balance coverage.
Faulkner claimed the 13-episode series has a distinct "evolutionary bias," and agreed with Mefferd's concern that Cosmos doesn't even present creationism as an alternative theory.
"That was struck in the first episode where [Tyson] talked about science — how everything's up for discussion, it's all on the table — and I thought to myself, 'No, consideration of special creation is definitely not open for discussion'," he said.
A television station in Oklahoma was criticized for cutting to a news promo while Tyson spoke about evolution in Cosmos' premiere episode, but the later claimed in a tweet that this was a mistake.
Neither Fox nor National Geographic, which broadcast the show, immediately responded to a request for comment.
This isn't the first time creationists have bumped heads with the scientific community. TV personality Bill Nye debated Ken Ham, founder of the Creation Museum, on evolution last month.
http://mashable.com/2014/03/24/creationists-cosmos/
If you didn't see tonight's COSMOS, you missed a stunner. :science: I plan to watch it again on Monday night on the National Geographic Channel. It was all the more :spooked: because of Neil deGrasse Tyson's matter-of-fact presentation.
Quote from: libby on April 20, 2014, 11:29:30 PM
If you didn't see tonight's COSMOS, you missed a stunner. :science: I plan to watch it again on Monday night on the National Geographic Channel. It was all the more :spooked: because of Neil deGrasse Tyson's matter-of-fact presentation.
I actually haven't been watching them at all on TV, but streaming the episodes later in the week from the website listed above. I actually look forward to the new episodes each week. Too bad there are only 13 of them in total.
Quote from: Locutus on April 20, 2014, 11:51:42 PM
I actually haven't been watching them at all on TV, but streaming the episodes later in the week from the website listed above. I actually look forward to the new episodes each week. Too bad there are only 13 of them in total.
Thanks, Locutus. Last night's program made me fully appreciate Neil de Grasse Tyson's brilliance from another point of view. Sure, we know him as a renowned scientist, but who knew that he could take a complicated subject like cosmology and, in layman's language, explain how/when our Earth came into existence, and manage to offend and scare so many people from all walks of life?
Quote from: libby on April 21, 2014, 10:37:18 AM
Thanks, Locutus. Last night's program made me fully appreciate Neil de Grasse Tyson's brilliance from another point of view. Sure, we know him as a renowned scientist, but who knew that he could take a complicated subject like cosmology and, in layman's language, explain how/when our Earth came into existence, and manage to offend and scare so many people from all walks of life?
I think you hit on it, whether you realized it or not. It is exactly because he can express these things in layman's language, as to what makes him different and able to understand things. Even the zealots, which is why they fear him! :yes:
However, this is only part of the root cause; the other being the prevalence of technology and information flow across the globe helps things along.
After watching Cosmos and seeing the Universe there are people who believe there's a little invisible man up and out there watching us 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And if we sin and break his stupid laws he will send us to the fiery pits of hell, because he loves us. Let us :pray: :preach: :pope:
Well, you all know my position on humankind's great "Sky-Daddy"; a.k.a. religion. . .
But what baffles me is how a human being can look upon the great vastness of the infinite universe, and have the gall to assume that we on this planet equate to the totality of life contained within it. . .
Pretty arrogant don't you think? :yes:
Even as a believer in God as our Creator..........I think HE could do whatever HE pleases.....and there very well could be life elsewhere. If we think there is a Creator who can create a universe, I think He could do as He wants.
This universe could have come into existence by whatever way He chose. Perhaps Neil has it right to an extent.
All I know is, that "I" don't KNOW.
At least that is the way I clearly see it.
Reasonable response HH. :yes:
Quote from: Locutus on April 21, 2014, 05:31:19 PM
Reasonable response HH. :yes:
Well said, HH. :yes: There are people, and I am one, who when faced with the idea of a seemingly endless incomprehensible universe, revert back to childhood belief in God the Creator, and get on with life by hanging out with people who feel and believe the same way.
Quote from: Palehorse on April 21, 2014, 02:43:16 PM
Well, you all know my position on humankind's great "Sky-Daddy"; a.k.a. religion. . .
But what baffles me is how a human being can look upon the great vastness of the infinite universe, and have the gall to assume that we on this planet equate to the totality of life contained within it. . .
Pretty arrogant don't you think? :yes:
:yes:
Quote from: libby on April 21, 2014, 10:37:18 AM
Thanks, Locutus. Last night's program made me fully appreciate Neil de Grasse Tyson's brilliance from another point of view. Sure, we know him as a renowned scientist, but who knew that he could take a complicated subject like cosmology and, in layman's language, explain how/when our Earth came into existence, and manage to offend and scare so many people from all walks of life?
I just streamed the episode and he's punching all the right buttons.
Anyone who was around for the leaded/unleaded gasoline debate, with a catalytic convertor thrown in for good measure, should stream the episode.
Those same forces of greed, and the almighty dollar, are in play today. People will make money selling shit that's bad for everyone. They don't give a fuck if they poison a million people to make a million dollars. To hell with science, logic, and any evidence to the contrary.
For some unknown reason people who couldn't understand something believe that it had to be a god of some kind causing it. Pagan gods, Roman gods, Egyptian gods, Greek gods. Christian god and Muslim god and they won't agree which one is the real god. But science almost has proved that there is no god and Carl Sagan was a atheist and it seems that he couldn't find a god out in the Universe. :yes: I'll take his stand. :yes: :smile:
But Henry won't even open up his mind to think that there is a possibility that there is no god, he has just blind faith. Blind faith in god and blind faith in the Republican Party. :wall: :pray: :jc:
Quote from: The Troll on April 22, 2014, 10:38:42 AM
For some unknown reason people who couldn't understand something believe that it had to be a god of some kind causing it. Pagan gods, Roman gods, Egyptian gods, Greek gods. Christian god and Muslim god and they won't agree which one is the real god. But science almost has proved that there is no god and Carl Sagan was a atheist and it seems that he couldn't find a god out in the Universe. :yes: I'll take his stand. :yes: :smile:
But Henry won't even open up his mind to think that there is a possibility that there is no god, he has just blind faith. Blind faith in god and blind faith in the Republican Party. :wall: :pray: :jc:
Lord forgive me for even TRYING to respond to this.........BUT.....
Troll, lets talk about "blind faith". As a child, I most certainly did have this trait. I was eager to believe anyting and everything my parents told me and taught me. I'm sure you did too. As I grew older, I began to understand exactly what they were teaching me. It was that "blind" faith I had in them that allowed me to accept the truth.
The same is true with my God. I have read what He has taught me. But, it was the implication of those teachings that has built my FAITH. Over the coarse of years, I have found that my FAITH has kept me on the straight and narrow. It was personal moments I had experienced throughout my life that has built confirmation to accept there IS a greater being that exists. GOD. I don't expect YOU or anyone else to accept it. I'm cool with that. YOU live YOUR life and I live mine. THIS works for me and has brought me a great deal of pleasure, peace and confidence.
As far as the "republican" party.....I don't HAVE nearly as much to brag about as I do my God. But, I do have more confidence in the general platform of the way they govern than I do over the democrat partys platform of governing. NO BLIND FAITH at all, but faith. ;)
I've been watching the program from the start, but I missed the last episode and haven't had time to stream it as yet.
Two small critiques.
1. I do understand this but you'll understand my point when I get to my second critique. The show has many segments aimed directly at children to which as an adult I want to say "c'mon, move it along!".
2. As the show is aimed in part towards children, why is it starting at 9 p.m. instead of 8 p.m., a time that should be far more beneficial for children to watch, and for parents to be able to sit and watch and discuss with their children?
Other than those, I like the program - though I do have to admit to preferring Sagan's original.
Tonight's episode of COSMOS was another good one. From Mars to what is now Iraq, with
a bit about Gilgamesh thrown in, and much more. :smitten: Neil deGrasse Tyson .
Well the last episode has aired and I hope at least some took some messages from the series to heart and actually help change things. In part of the closing of the last episode, it went back to this:
(http://home.honolulu.hawaii.edu/~pine/bluedot_files/bluedot.jpg)
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
Quote from: Locutus on June 09, 2014, 10:07:35 PM
Well the last episode has aired and I hope at least some took some messages from the series to heart and actually help change things. In part of the closing of the last episode, it went back to this:
(http://home.honolulu.hawaii.edu/~pine/bluedot_files/bluedot.jpg)
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
:yes: The current COSMOS took me back to my interest in Astronomy and Cosmology, and one thing led to another and I ended up with a book,
The Cosmic Code, by physicist Hans R. Pagels -- quantum physics without the math -- and even then, it's been hard reading -- a line or two at a time, thinking, dictionary at hand, not sure I want to continue. :spooked: :spooked: Why? Carl Sagan said it well, without too much about the science of why. I have his book somewhere -- my daughter bought it for me years ago -- but I never got around to reading it. Now's the time.
This topic hasn't been posted to in quite some time. However, I would like to let everyone know that the entire COSMOS series, hosted by Dr. Tyson, is now available for streaming on Netflix. So if you missed it the first time, you can now catch it. I personally am going to watch the entire series again from start to finish. :yes: