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Cosmos, with Neil DeGrasse Tyson - In which we learn that FOX is not the same as Fox News

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  • zllehszllehs Hiding in a box, waiting to strike.Registered User regular
    The Cosmic Calender might be the single best bit of Television I have ever seen in my life.

  • MagellMagell Detroit Machine Guns Fort MyersRegistered User regular
    I thought the opening was a little weak, but after that the show picked up and was awesome from there on. The calender thing was fucking awesome.

    Loved the ending with Tyson talking about meeting Sagan as a kid. Just powerful stuff.

  • zllehszllehs Hiding in a box, waiting to strike.Registered User regular
    edited March 2014
    Smrtnik wrote: »
    I liked the animation. What's the relationship between fox and fox news? Because I can't see fox news owners being OK with the Bruno stuff.

    Network basic TV fox and fox news and fox movies and FX and Fox sports are all under the MASSIVE News Corp umbrella along with countless other channels radios stations and newspapers and music studios

    Fox news is just a spec in the grand scheme of things
    Granted Old Rupert Murdoch pays special attention to it and his radio stations and news papers because thats how he chooses to push his pro big bussiness/monolopy agenda

    The other stuff like sports and entertainment are there to just make him money

    zllehs on
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    zllehs wrote: »
    The Cosmic Calender might be the single best bit of Television I have ever seen in my life.

    The calendar was really great. I've seen a similar thing before with a 24 hour clock on, I think, The Universe. The dinosaurs would have died out at around 2350, humans appeared at 2359, etc.

    It was interesting, but the calendar is a way better way to visualize it.

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  • MillMill Registered User regular
    Yeah, I've I've seen the cloak thing used quite a bit. I like the calendar better, bit surprised that this is the first time I've seen anyone use that analogy, given how well it works.

  • SteevLSteevL What can I do for you? Registered User regular
    I haven't seen the new Cosmos yet (and it sounds like I really missed out tonight!), but there was definitely a version of the cosmic calendar in the original Cosmos:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln8UwPd1z20

    I imagine the new one has more impressive special effects.

  • zllehszllehs Hiding in a box, waiting to strike.Registered User regular
    SteevL wrote: »
    I haven't seen the new Cosmos yet (and it sounds like I really missed out tonight!), but there was definitely a version of the cosmic calendar in the original Cosmos:
    I imagine the new one has more impressive special effects.

    It re-airs in 10 minutes on natgeo (and the original cosmos right after it at 1am) and tomorrow at 8pm

  • FireflashFireflash Montreal, QCRegistered User regular
    Mill wrote: »
    Yeah, I've I've seen the cloak thing used quite a bit. I like the calendar better, bit surprised that this is the first time I've seen anyone use that analogy, given how well it works.

    Carl Sagan explains the cosmic calendar in a book of his I read a few months ago: Dragons of Eden.

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  • MillMill Registered User regular
    I kind of figured Tyson wasn't the first one to use the analogy, but I'm still surprised that the clock one sees more usage than the calendar. It's possible I've seen the calendar on the original Cosmos, when I use to watch all the good old shows that my parents had recorded on VHS, but that would have been before I was in 4th grade.

  • zllehszllehs Hiding in a box, waiting to strike.Registered User regular
    Alot of people seem to have disliked the Part in the middle about Giadarno Bruno but upon watching Cosmos again I think I can see why this was put in here

    You see in a way Bruno is Neil deGrasse Tyson... and Hagan... and me and you guys. Seekers of the truth... The full truth
    Those who try to use common sense reason and logic and scientific proof to convince those who still refuse to believe it

    How different are we from bruno when we argue that The universe was not created in 7 days or that it wasn't created for just us and us alone or that we all came from primitive primates

    Look how far science has gone in 400 years and look how little religion has advanced since then.

    I think the part about Bruno was put there as the biggest push back to religion
    A sort of "If you were wrong about that then and we were right than why can't you be wrong about all this now? and why would we be wrong?"

  • frogurtfrogurt Registered User regular
    Really beautifully put together. I'm not going to nitpick anything because the representation in the beginning of just how mindblowingly big the cosmos is was so well done it was emotionally overwhelming.

    I'm sold on watching this every week. I don't care if the majority of it is stuff I know, the presentation of the material too well done to skip. If I can find some free time, I'll go back and read some of Hawking's stuff for the hardcore science fix.

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  • King RiptorKing Riptor Registered User regular
    Always remember: Rupert Murdoch likes money and Seth MacFarlane makes him lots of it, therefore sometimes things like this happen. Other times Dads happens. MacFarlane is a weird dude.

    Dads isnt Macfarlane though.

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  • jeffinvajeffinva Koogler coming this summerRegistered User regular
    Arg I was going to pick up a digital over the air antenna when I grabbed a new new optical cable but I forgot why I needed it - until now. Oh well it's from Fox so hopefully the episodes will show up on Hulu in a week or two.

  • JacobkoshJacobkosh Gamble a stamp. I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
    This was essentially a remake of the first episode of the original Cosmos except that Tyson travels outward from Earth instead of inward from the edge of the universe (I think the new show's choice makes more sense) and the story about Bruno replaces the story of Eratosthenes of Cyrene and the burning of the Library of Alexandria (but narratively serves much the same purpose).

    The new show is absolutely beautiful. The planetary vistas particularly struck me.

    My two biggest worries were that the music wouldn't be up to the standards of the original, and that Tyson's more earthy, prosaic style would keep the new program from reaching the same kind of poetic highs as the first one.

    I was sort of right. As we might expect from a film composer, Alan Silvestri's score works very well during the narrative parts - the music during the Bruno sequences was appropriately daramatic and exciting - but the twinky-dinky theme music is about as inspiring as a wet dishrag. Absemt amu evodemce at all, I choose to blame Brannon Braga for this - it feels very much in the 90s Star Trek "space means generic string music" wheelhouse.

    The second part was kind of a thing and kind of not. Tyson is immensely likeable and charismatic and that carries most of the material. The more high-flown stuff doesn't suit him as well, but his intimate and personal account of meeting Sagan was a wonderfully warm way to come at that feeling from a different angle.

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  • KingofMadCowsKingofMadCows Registered User regular
    This was a great introduction to the show. I really does a good job of keeping the audience's interest while laying the foundation for ideas that will be explored later. The little bits of dramatization/simplification aren't that bad and I suppose they're a necessary evil to keep things exciting for the general audience.

  • CycloneRangerCycloneRanger Registered User regular
    I was really excited to see this and ended up not being able to--it's the first time I've regretted my decision not to pay for cable.

    Is there any way to watch this online legally? My Google-fu is failing me.

  • ClipseClipse Registered User regular
    I think the take-away from this episode is that Neil deGrasse Tyson is the Illusive Man: i.imgur.com/2D9iAWl.jpg

  • ZxerolZxerol for the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't do so i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered User regular
    I was really excited to see this and ended up not being able to--it's the first time I've regretted my decision not to pay for cable.

    Is there any way to watch this online legally? My Google-fu is failing me.

    There's a "Full Episodes" section on the official site, but right now it just 404s on me, so I don't know when it'll be available (or even if).

  • SorceSorce Not ThereRegistered User regular
    I was really excited to see this and ended up not being able to--it's the first time I've regretted my decision not to pay for cable.

    Is there any way to watch this online legally? My Google-fu is failing me.
    It's on FOX, you don't need cable; just something like this (think digital version of the ol' rabbit ears) and you're good to go.

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  • HallowedFaithHallowedFaith Call me Cloud. Registered User regular
    This was a great introduction about Cosmos and what it's going to be. I could listen/watch NDT speak all day. The passion for what he does just pours off him.

    We really really need more TV like this. This kind of stuff should interesting to everyone.

    I wonder how many viewers watched it on TV.

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  • TaminTamin Registered User regular
    I made a point to suffer through the commercials and watch it on Fox.

  • KrieghundKrieghund Registered User regular
    Tamin wrote: »
    I made a point to suffer through the commercials and watch it on Fox.


    Me too. I don't get NatGeo in HD, so I wanted to make sure I saw it in as good a condition as I could.

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    Zxerol wrote: »
    I was really excited to see this and ended up not being able to--it's the first time I've regretted my decision not to pay for cable.

    Is there any way to watch this online legally? My Google-fu is failing me.

    There's a "Full Episodes" section on the official site, but right now it just 404s on me, so I don't know when it'll be available (or even if).

    It's there now, or appears to be. I'm having trouble getting it to run, but I'm not sure how much of that is the site and how much is the truck that hit one of the access boxes down the street - my internet's been spotty all day.

  • cncaudatacncaudata Registered User regular
    The only bad thing about this is that it is on after my 6 year old goes to bed. I can't wait until it's available on Disk/Netflix/Mind-tubes.

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  • DiannaoChongDiannaoChong Registered User regular
    I loved the subversion of using Brunos story. It's framing the evidence as "this doesnt have to interfere with your beliefs, so don't deny it because you want to say it does", like Bruno said 'our god is infinite, why do we limit existence to this planet?' It will serve as a great intro to the rest of the series hopefully.

    Otherwise the show was kind of a mess, the flash and little substance at the beginning. And I loved the sagan part, if you had no idea who sagan was, or that this was based on a previous version, you would have no idea why they are talking about Carl Sagan.

    fake edit: talked to a coworker who watched it not knowing anything going in, and she had the exact same reaction. The first 5-10 minutes was "what the fuck is going on, this is a really long cgi sequence not saying much" and had no idea what was going on during the Sagan tribute.

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  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    For anyone who's watched Planet Earth, Blue Planet, or any of a number of documentary series, the first episode here seems pretty par for the course. It's a kind of broad stroke, giving a little bit of a lot, and introducing all of the topics the series is going to deal with. The later episodes should be a lot more focused.

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  • SamphisSamphis Registered User regular
    I'm pretty sure they at least mentioned that Sagan ran the Cosmos show a generation ago, and was directly involved with almost all of NASAs manned and unmanned projects for 40 years in like the first 2 minutes.

  • KarozKaroz Registered User regular
    edited March 2014
    I hopefully won't start a religion bashing/flame war/etc., but I just loved the statement "Your God is too small."

    I really enjoyed what I saw, having taken a general astronomy and a cosmology class in college. The calender gives a much better perspective of how spread out things are to the eventual microcosm that is human history at the end versus the clock IMO. I am looking forward to future episodes.

    Karoz on
  • MagicPrimeMagicPrime FiresideWizard Registered User regular
    Watching this on Hulu right now!

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  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    Jacobkosh wrote: »
    Absemt amu evodemce at all, I choose to blame Brannon Braga for this - it feels very much in the 90s Star Trek "space means generic string music" wheelhouse.
    I'm more than happy to blame Braga for pretty much anything. Also, I wanted to preserve "Absemt amu evodemce" for all time. :D (or at least until a mod comes along to edit my post. :-P)

    8i1dt37buh2m.png
  • chamberlainchamberlain Registered User regular
    edited March 2014
    Karoz wrote: »
    I hopefully won't start a religion bashing/flame war/etc., but I just loved the statement "Your God is too small."

    I really enjoyed what I saw, having taken a general astronomy and a cosmology class in college. The calender gives a much better perspective of how spread out things are to the eventual microcosm that is human history at the end versus the clock IMO. I am looking forward to future episodes.

    I don't think it will. Tyson has specifically said many times that he has nothing against religion, just keep it out of the science classroom. There was nothing anti-religion in the entire episode. It railed against willful ignorance, but I have no problem with that.

    chamberlain on
  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    I would love to see a comparison with the original.

  • enlightenedbumenlightenedbum Registered User regular
    Always remember: Rupert Murdoch likes money and Seth MacFarlane makes him lots of it, therefore sometimes things like this happen. Other times Dads happens. MacFarlane is a weird dude.

    Dads isnt Macfarlane though.

    He's the EP.

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  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    Karoz wrote: »
    I hopefully won't start a religion bashing/flame war/etc., but I just loved the statement "Your God is too small."

    I really enjoyed what I saw, having taken a general astronomy and a cosmology class in college. The calender gives a much better perspective of how spread out things are to the eventual microcosm that is human history at the end versus the clock IMO. I am looking forward to future episodes.

    I don't think it will. Tyson has specifically said many times that he has nothing against religion, just keep it out of the science classroom. There was nothing anti-religion in the entire episode. It railed against willful ignorance, but I have no problem with that.

    I got the same thing about the religion aspect of the episode, but when you look at who he's working with, McFarlane (who voiced Bruno) and Druyan, you can't help but feel they're going to just try and force some snark/smug into the series at some point.

    Anyway, it's weird to judge ratings on this show because of how it's being rolled out and across so many channels, but it drew a 2.1 in overnights, which was .1 less than the Family Guy lead-in.

  • KingofMadCowsKingofMadCows Registered User regular
    Zxerol wrote: »
    I was really excited to see this and ended up not being able to--it's the first time I've regretted my decision not to pay for cable.

    Is there any way to watch this online legally? My Google-fu is failing me.

    There's a "Full Episodes" section on the official site, but right now it just 404s on me, so I don't know when it'll be available (or even if).

    Universe not found?

  • SteevLSteevL What can I do for you? Registered User regular
  • JacobkoshJacobkosh Gamble a stamp. I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
    Krathoon wrote: »
    I would love to see a comparison with the original.

    the original series is on youtube, legally, right now.

    As I mentioned in my post, this episode was almost identical in structure and content to the first episode of OG Cosmos, escept with the story of Bruno in place of the Library at Alexandria.

    rRwz9.gif
  • VeeveeVeevee WisconsinRegistered User regular
    I work in a university owned hotel, currently in the lobby is a group of 15 PHD candidates for the universities math department, and this show was just brought up. I haven't had a chance to catch the first episode, but all I got from the conversation was that, to a person, they didn't like the show because it was a bunch of computer generated space scenes and a ton of fluff.

    Oh, also that you can't know the past with absolute certainty so it's not real science.

    I'm assuming it's safe to ignore their POV

  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    My girlfriend and I have dubbed the silver flying fried egg as the Starship Tysonprise, NDT-1701 C.

    At the end, I was like "Now I expect the Tysonprise to start flying acro... yup, there it is." :)

    I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the cute little prehistoric amphibian.

    8i1dt37buh2m.png
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