Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

[fragger]

I'm a bit late to this 2014 program, which is an updated homage to Carl Sagan's original Cosmos series. If you are into this sort of thing, or if you enjoyed Sagan's original series but haven't seen this newer version, it's very much worth a look. Hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson (who was a young protege of Sagan's many years ago), it's very much in the spirit of the original series but not an exact copy - more of a continuation of Sagan's ideas. That is, it isn't just about space, but also about the events, both natural and historical, that have shaped our world, and the key people whose efforts have advanced humanity's knowledge about the universe and informed our place within it.

There is some magnificent photography (certainly not just astronomical) and some of the most wonderful computer-generated animation and "astroscapes" that I've seen to date.

Highly recommended for cosmology buffs

[Art Blade]

will keep an eye out, cheers

[PZ]

Same here 

[Dweller_Benthos]

I watched the original on PBS but always had a hard time staying awake, Sagan's voice is sooooo smoooootttthhhhhh and relaxing that you find out you've been sleeping through half the show.

I did watch the new one with Neil and thought it was interesting, but it didn't go into as much depth as the original, which sometimes would get pretty dense with information. They didn't dumb it down any for the TV audience, which the new one was a little bit.

[fragger]

I agree Dweller, and I still prefer the "old" series (I have it on DVD). I'm not a huge fan of the traditional-type animation of some of the historical personages and their stories either. But I still enjoyed the show generally for its content presentation and visuals, and Tyson is a worthy successor to Sagan as a passionate narrator of all things cosmic, even though he doesn't quite have the same soporific vocal qualities as his former mentor

[Art Blade]

meaning, you still drop dead but just under one hour? 

[mandru]

That series has run here and I enjoyed it.  I like Neil deGrasse Tyson.  His life story about his early encounter when he first communicated with Carl Sagan and was invited to come and spend the day together was very touching.  As it turned out their visit ran so long that public transit had stopped running so Neil had to make an overnight of it at the Sagan residence.


I admired deGrasse Tyson a lot more before the current political situation here in the U.S. has forced him to infuse the current science denying eco-faddist and social opinion doctrine into almost every sentence that comes out of his mouth. 

In a climate where the mob mentality is driven to aggressively seek out opportunities to be outraged by perceived offensiveness any off hand comment or action made decades ago can destroy your occupational, financial, and social life in a single swipe.  That is if your opinion differs from the lynch mob.  I guess that's the price he has to pay to keep his place in the spotlight as well as his livelihood.

If you're one of the mob favored golden children you can brush off all recently exposed past offensive behavior smoothly by claiming to have evolved and get your free pass.

I am of the mind that scientists have to be unfettered by social and political pressures/coercion or they become nothing more than propaganda spouting puppets. 

Try being an independent thinking scientist in America these days and you'll think that in spite of the years of his imprisonment Galileo Galilei still had a pretty sweet deal.