Joe, every one of the episodes were connected with astronomy. But if you stopped watching it, how do you know? I'm reall sorry you guys were expecting something else. If you had read some of Tyson's writing for the general public, or Druyan's, or Sagan's, for that matter, you might not have expected something that some of us, anyway, were not. I knew it would be heavy on social commentary and the history of certain discoveries related to astronomy, as was Sagan's version. And properly so, in my opinion. Neither COSMOS 1 or 2 were intended to be classical astronomy lessons. The whole point then, and now, is humanity's relationship with the cosmos. Not a discussion of the H-R diagram, or galactic evolution, or whatever. You guys are both good friends of mine, but you weren't the target audience, apparently. Better luck next time. On Tue, Jun 3, 2014 at 10:46 AM, Siegfried Jachmann <siegfried@jachmann.org> wrote:
Joe, I actually agree.
Chuck, I wouldn't say, Cosmos is "so much more," I would say, it is so much less.
On Tue, Jun 3, 2014 at 10:41 AM, Joe Bauman via Utah-Astronomy < utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
Yes we're all part of the cosmos, of course. That kind of goes without saying. But you could use that rationale to launch into any number of topics that have little connection to the cosmos or astronomy. We could segue into a bIg episode on auto manufacturing or the Israeli wars
because,
after all, they are part of the cosmic cosmos. It gets rediculous. This is one planet in the indescribably huge universe. I don't want to hear about fights over lead pollution on this one part of the cosmos in the supposed context of finding out about new research into the universe. A large portion of the series is padding, silly history animated cartoons and p.c. pontificating. The producers sold it as 12 episodes, so had to drag it out that long. If they didn't have enough meaty scientific material to fill 12 they should have reduced the number of episodes.
------------------------------ On Tue, Jun 3, 2014 7:08 AM MDT Chuck Hards wrote:
Joan, you hit the nail on the head.
COSMOS (both the original and this one) was never intended to be merely a video astronomy course. Those desiring just black holes and galaxies are bound to be disappointed. It is so much more.
The message then, as now, is that we are a part of the universe. As Carl Sagan said, we are here so the universe can know itself. We are as much a part of space and time as a billion-solar-mass black hole, or an icy ring orbiting a distant planet. Life is one of the more interesting properties of hydrogen, if you give it enough time and the right conditions. To fully appreciate the universe and our place in it, we have to shed old habits such as greed, ignorance and intolerance of new, sometimes uncomfortable ideas. The histories NdGT has presented give context to where we stand today on the topics, and how we got there. How inspired individuals have made a difference in how we see the universe, and our place in it, often to their own personal detriment. Good stuff.
I plan to purchase the DVDs, will keep them next to COSMOS v1.0 Insurance against inadvertantly wiping them from the DVR (and no commercials to have to zap through!).
On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 6:30 PM, CenturyLink Customer <jcarman6@q.com> wrote:
I hope it has reached a wider audience and left many thinking about
how
everything fits together from the atom to a galaxy and our precious blue white piece of cosmic dust so important to the sentient life residing on it.