Cosmos Reboot: Running Discussion Thread

I would actually love it. He'd be much better live than on Cosmos.

This episode was a substantial improvement, NGT seemed more natural.

I so wanted it to be the 80's CGI time travel scene from Star Trek IV when he hit the event horizon.

He just had to zing the Young Earthers!

Christians want equal airtime on a show about science? Start your own show - you already have entire networks of church services, fundraising, lectures, etc. etc. so I think you can afford to present your own scientific views on your dime.

They've HAD their say.
2000 years isn't enough?
Nope, their turn is done.
Next.

FTFY

Loved this episode, and Patrick Stewart makes something already good just that much better. I am particularly fond of the event horizon scenes. Normally, looking at black holes make me feel itchy, like there's a deep seated fear there that I can't quite shake, but during the whole sequence where the Ship of the Imagination crosses the event horizon, I couldn't look away.

loved that

but then, when one chooses to ignore science for an interpretation (!) of an old book it's probably no real problem to 'explain' stars and galaxies and why they are visible. holes in heaven to let $deity's light shine through. there you go.

Son of a bitch! It's always the simplest answer every time. Good thing a big ass hole didn't rip in our cosmic tent, or we'd all be blind - guess we dodged that bullet....for now anyway.

Sinking like a stone.... another awful week. Not many nerds watching hoop so we can't blame it on that.

If even one child becomes interested in science, and learns to employ critical thinking as a result, then it will have all been worth it.

According to this site, viewership is up 55% among certain demographics. That's hardly sinking. In general, looking across the breakdown of numbers, it doesn't look to have varied much over the run. http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...east-tops-percentage-gains-in-week-25/249329/

Man, Neil ain't fuckin' around!
He's going right for the throat of every liar scumbag.
First creationism, now heavy industry.

Tonight's episode was an excellent example of the scientific method winning out over corporate interests, and also shows that not all corruption comes from the church. In this case, there are people with science degrees who can be bought, and it takes someone with a genuine interest in getting the facts and the data to everyone in order for such corruption to be exposed.

It's also a good example for people to see that one shouldn't just trust authority, even a scientific authority, without examining the data. Critical thinking, and the use of the Scientific Method, will bear out success, though it might be an uphill climb against prevailing "wisdom."

Meh. It was interesting learning how we figured out the age of the Earth. The rest of the ep was a boring waste of time. Sure, it was worth a mention that it lead to an understanding of what leaded gas was doing, but it wasn't worth wasting half an episode on the politics of it.

I think it's a puzzle piece building towards something.

It's definitely a foundation piece toward something bigger.

Its been ages since I watched the whole of the original series, and I can't remember during the original run if there was a sense of it building towards a conclusion, or if it only seems that way in retrospect. I remember my mother telling me about one of her coworkers who liked the show as much as I did, but complained about falling asleep during the episodes. When I rewatched the first episode of the original, I couldn't help but notice that an inordinate amount of time seemed to be consumed by shots of Sagan staring out of the ocean and other elements which didn't seem to have any purpose. Once this version's done, I'm going to go back and rewatch the original to compare the two.

It will be interesting to see if they're building to a point which draws upon elements raised in episodes like this one. I wish that they'd mentioned during the 1920s that for the Congressional hearings about adding lead to gas, one of the execs demonstrated how "safe" lead was, by washing his hands in front of Congress in leaded gas, while failing to mention that he'd been treated the previous year for lead poisoning and had been incapacitated for months.

Two things I couldn't help but notice about this particular episode. One was that it was directed by Braga, and the other was that the animation seemed to be of lower quality than the previous episode's.

Braga directs all of them.

Bill Pope directs some of them. The problem with IMDB is that on something as new as Cosmos, the specifics of who directed what, or who starred in what, is pretty hit and miss in the accuracy.

Fixed that for you.

I wonder what FOX would scream about it from the top of their lungs if that show wasn't on FOX

On the latest episode of StarTalk, NDT interviews the co-writer of the series, who says that he has not been deliberately poking the fundies. That part of the conversation comes in at around the 33 minute mark.

I listen to StarTalk every week.

any form of science that doesn't agree with an old book one hundred per cent is offensive to those idiots. normally i'd say just leave them in their fantasy world. ignorance is bliss after all and they have to live with their easy answers.

but then, the literalists (who have to know in their hearts that they are wrong) get whole states to teach their crap in schools. and that is why they must be fought teeth and claws. it's like teaching children how blue is really red because it's written so on an ancient greek stone tableau.

Willful ignorance should always be countered, and in every way possible.

That's actually pretty close to how he uses twitter.

I love it when he stings like that, because I think he states it perfectly. It's not an outright accusation, but it is meant to goad us into thinking about the answer.