Yes! I recorded it but haven't had a chance to watch yet (Gosh darn it! I'm in the middle of packing up the house -- probably going to move within a month or two). Btw, on that subject, I did see this... http://www.funnyordie.com/articles/...yson-gets-wrong-in-cosmos-a-spacetime-odyssey
Lol. Nice one. Did he actually say any of the things they are mocking him about? *Edit* Nevermind. I looked around the site. No way. That place could not possibly be serious about anything.
Don't feel bad. Every once in a while a serious news agency (and a lot more often, less serious news agencies) make the mistake of reporting fake news stories from Funny or Die and/or The Onion and other hoax sites as real news. When will they ever learn? I know this is off-topic, but in the same vein:
Back on topic... I got to watch the first episode of "Cosmos", and it was really good. I highly recommend it for both adults and children. I certainly learned from it. The show also does pay tribute to Carl Sagan, using both video and voice recordings of him, both at the start and end of the episode. Anyway, I give it a thumbs up for both it's entertainment and educational value.
Let me just add that there is an interesting discussion going on regarding the show's use of the story of Giordano Bruno, and how accurate it was: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/o...ano-bruno-response-steven-soter/#.UyfWLIXItVA My viewpoint is that it's good that people are actually discussing this, and without the show, there would be no such discussion. So even if the writers made mistakes, it means that people are paying attention, and that's always a good first step. I'm not going to get into the discussion myself, since it delves into religion, at least from an historical perspective.
All I'll say on the subject is that it's very closely related to the reason I ended up not becoming a marine biologist, despite several years of studying for it. Science and religion can be equally close-minded and egotistical, and if you don't think scientists are capable of that, there's a couple of professors in San Diego I'd like to introduce to you I haven't had a chance to view Cosmos myself, either the new one or the old one, and only have a vague idea that it's something science related. Yeah, the only TV I watch is the stuff I get on Netflix or Amazon...
Please, please put the pitchforks and torches down!! I grew up not watching television; I played computer and read books instead. I own Planet Earth on blu-ray and Blue Planet on dvd...does that help my case any? /edit: I must confess, I did watch some TV for the few years we had it. I watched Star Trek and Shark Week. The latter is one of the reasons I wanted to become a marine biologist. Does that help my case any more?
Science, by it's very nature, is anything but closed-minded -- there are close-minded people, but the philosophy of science is against that. The whole point of science is that you reject those ideas that don't hold up to testing and close scrutiny, while only adopting those ideas that do. In other words, if you stick to the scientific method, you are supposed to be ready to reject everything that you believe in if that's how the evidence plays out. That's the very definition of being open-minded. That said, no one is perfect, and yes, there are people who will close-mindedly hold to their beliefs even when confronted with contradictory evidence.
Yeah, I really don't have much of an excuse. I suppose I should watch it one of these days. Is it on Netflix or Amazon, or anybody know of an extremely cheap way I can watch it? Oh, I agree completely. I love science and the scientific method of always searching, always testing, always making sure. And in a perfect world, that's how it would be. But that's not how the business of science actually works. It's all about funding, my friend. If you express opinions, ideas, or even evidence that goes against what the superiors say, in some cases you will lose your funding and be blackballed from labs. Some of the places in San Diego in particular...I can't name names for legal reasons, but if your parents were religious you simply weren't allowed anywhere near the facility, regardless of your own personal beliefs or feelings. You were 'guilty by association' and that was that. In other cases, with some others I talked to around the country, it was even worse. It all came down to money and politics. Interesting areas of study are being ignored because there's "no money in it." Other areas received no funding because the current political party didn't agree with the research or, in the worst cases, were actively trying to suppress things. All you have to do is take a look at the current global warming situation and you can see how politicians try to get their grubby little fingers into everything. You can always take a stand for what you believe in, but then you won't be eating for awhile because you're broke now. There are plenty of examples at the other end of the spectrum, of course, where the open-mindedness and the quest for the scientific method are upheld. But there was too much dirty laundry associated with it, and that's why I left.
Sadly it seems you are not quite correct. http://www.amazon.com/Carl-Sagans-Cosmos-DVD/dp/B0027UY8CW/ In short, it is only available in PAL format with region codes and at a cost of $27.50 or more. (Region 0. Set-top boxes here in the USA require region 1 to play.) Perhaps that is cheap enough for you, but I consider it insulting to have to pay for public broadcasts that my taxes already paid for. (Since it was a PBS broadcast originally, everyone who lives in the USA has a right to see it free of charge. Although to be fair, more money was spent to convert it over to DVD format, but it is clear by the PAL format that it was not for sale to Americans.) *Edit* Hmmmm... That may not be the right version. It is five DVDs, and here is a seven disc version of the "same" thing. (More expensive though.) http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan/dp/B000055ZOB/
Those of you with an Amazon Prime account may benefit from such programming as this: NOVA: The Fabric of the Cosmos It is based upon the book by Brian Greene called "The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality". And there is plenty more documentaries out there free with an Amazon Prime account.
Actually it is here in the USA. PBS = Public Broadcast Service. It is entirely paid for by our taxes, and we are not barred from using recording devices to record the content to watch later if we want to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PBS Though someone bought the rights to Cosmos, it was made for PBS and played there first. No-one can really grab it back and say we are not authorized to watch it.
I have neither the time nor the right computer at the moment (this one hates Youtube and everything Flash-related, for some reason) to check and see if this is the proper one. Can somebody who's seen the series tell me if this is Cosmos in its entirety? I got the link from a documentary site. http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL474A7F1BA0FCEF8C&v=ClPShKs9Kr0
