Neil DeGrasse Tyson's _Cosmos_

http://theweek.com/article/index/261042/why-neil-degrasse-tyson-is-a-philistine

don't find the argument compelling, agree 100% with the conclusion

Curtis White's _The Science Delusion_ from last is all about this, the weird borderline-ascetic scraping away of anything not hard sciencey, and putting physics at the top of everything, since physics came out WWII as the victor. White makes the point that the vast majority of science giants until the mid-century had a richer background(and a bit of philosophy mixed in), like Bacon, Descartes, Newton, Spinoza, etc.

It's a book with great points, although White's style is a bit too pointedly cranky at times

Don't forget Bertrand Russell! Lived through WW2 too!

did the original Cosmos feature as many tellings of mythological tales as this one does?

I thought the episode from two weeks ago was the finale, and aside from some eye-rolling utopian daydreaming, it would've made for a very strong ending.

i'm behind and just watched the one from a few weeks ago about plate tectonics and pangaea and mass extinctions and the like. i thought it was the best one of the series so far as it cleverly and simply presenting information that can be confusing in the wrong hands. the fact that it had the fewest animated sequences didn't hurt either

man this show really delivered imo. Newfound respect for NDT. I got kinda teary at the inclusion of Sagan's "pale blue dot" monologue in the finale. Is there gonna be season 2?

No, this was it -- and yeah, thought it ended on just the right note. Also, I like how in the original series it was essentially just the final episode that was the 'downer,' for lack of a better term, while here that feeling was woven through the series but not emphasized at the end.

For people wanting further science/cosmology type tv, there is an excellent old Martin Rees series called What We Still Don't Know. Rees makes intelligent tv that wouldn't alienate older kids or non-academic types, he makes complex concepts like dark matter/dark energy interesting and with very tidy but minimal visual effects and non of that irritating, doe-eyed "isn't it amaaazzing!" Brian Cox type shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqArGW6k5gc

martin rees is the best

his book 'our cosmic habitat' is my default astronomy/cosmology book recommendation

I got kinda teary at the inclusion of Sagan's "pale blue dot" monologue in the finale. Is there gonna be season 2?

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, June 17, 2014 11:31 AM

I think I got something in my eye during that too.

Oh, NDT is touring early next year: http://www.neildegrassetysonlive.com/

jesus

what a nob

But you're the opening act!

It's not like NdT hasn't already been doing live engagements for years and years. This is just the first time more than a few thousand people might be interested.

lol

https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/475811925880610817

Surely the cover art for my nonexistent album of love songs
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BppsbLcCYAAnQaW.jpg

Dude's funny, sorry caek.

his palling around w Dawkins is too bad but eh we all make mistakes

Dude's funny, sorry caek.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, June 17, 2014 5:24 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

aim high, right?

wow caek is such a science hater nagl

glad I wasn't the only one getting choked up at sagan's pale blue dot segment

I was at Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 2010 and there was a youth group in the crowd evangelizing. When this one girl asked me why I was no longer a believer, I told her she should the text of "Pale Blue Dot" and consider how exactly unimportant we are. Then I slammed another hurricane.

*should read

Hearing the Sagan PBD segment kind of shows that NDT doesn't really rhapsodize well.

This was great but I was hoping there would be more new stuff, felt like a lot of retreading stuff form the original series, only with extra "SCIENCE only deals with FACTS" stuff that Sagan never cluttered up his series with.

feel like the cultural climate re: science is p different now than it was in the 70s tho. I don't agree w Tyson's narrow focus (surprise surprise) and am more sympathetic to Sagan's mythic stoner manner but Tyson isn't entirely wrong to be aggressive about scientific principles.

Yeah, sadly shit needs to be said.

Anyone following any of this?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/09/17/if-we-cant-trust-neil-degrasse-tyson-who-can-we-trust/

I thought it was going to say that he beat women or was a nazi. At least it's better than that.

This must mean that science was wrong after all and creationism is right, right?

famous big talker loose with his words, quelle scandale

This is stupid

Next scandal: NDT tells homeless guy he doesn't have any change when he actually DOES have some.

Yeah, this is dumb

there are pedants on the internet?

just want to tip my hat to caek for the ascent of man recommendation

👍

Watching these w my 7yo daughter. A+

One weak part is the "what's inside a black hole" segment which I believe got most of its crazy ideas from Lee Smolin.

https://represent.com/store/startalk

i h8 science

Welcome to Rationalia! https://www.facebook.com/notes/neil-degrasse-tyson/reflections-on-rationalia/10154399608556613

https://twitter.com/ClickHole/status/763037582372507649

I love Neil. I really wish he'd stop frittering the day away on social media and get back to narrating the basic concepts of existence to me in dulcet tones.

^^^

or competing in dance competitions

this dude's version of cosmos sucked

the only thing i liked about it is the illustrations make the concepts a little more accessible to the average person

The concept of Rationalia began when Taylor Milsal insightfully mentioned at a cocktail reception of the Starmus Science Festival in Spain's Canary Islands (July 2016) that, perhaps, a new virtual country should be created: "Rational Land", containing member states that, by and large, embrace rational thinking in their conduct and policies. This idea was prompted by how much irrational conduct currently drives world politics. We discussed what might be charter municipalities, biased of course towards those for which we were most familiar. This list began with the big cities London, Paris, and New York. The countries Switzerland. Denmark. The states of Massachusetts, Minnesota, and California. The conversation spread rapidly through the cocktail party. Each person adding a bit here and there to what Taylor started.

worst party ever

it's a pity for NDG that Auguste Comte and Jeremy Bentham (to name a couple of philosophers) thought of this stuff 150 years ago