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I still maintain that The Sagan Series on Youtube has the best version of Pale Blue Dot.
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Jun 9, 2014 12:55
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MustelaFuro posted:The Pale Blue Dot monologue, I feel, is one of the most beautiful and genuine utterances ever breathed by a human mouth.  The more recent one isn't bad, either:  Click for HUGE
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Jun 9, 2014 15:53
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I find it kind of amusing that anyone could be "underwhelmed" or let down by the original Pale Blue Dot speech. It's a profoundly expressed sentiment about Humanity - not some kind of singular expression that's going to make you fall to your knees weeping. The idea that you could take such information about Earth and being alive at all for granted speaks volumes about how lucky we even are to live in this time and age. Goons.
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Jun 9, 2014 17:16
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The Dark One posted:The real Zwicky, for comparison: Holy poo poo, did they clone him for the episode or what?
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Jun 9, 2014 17:52
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AwkwardKnob posted:I find it kind of amusing that anyone could be "underwhelmed" or let down by the original Pale Blue Dot speech. It's a profoundly expressed sentiment about Humanity - not some kind of singular expression that's going to make you fall to your knees weeping. The idea that you could take such information about Earth and being alive at all for granted speaks volumes about how lucky we even are to live in this time and age. Goons. the Pale White Goon
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Jun 9, 2014 19:52
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I've never cared for the whole Dot thing.
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Jun 9, 2014 23:44
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achillesforever6 posted:I want there to be a second season of it, just because I want to hear more stories about scientists I never really knew about. You could watch Shock And Awe: The Story of Electricity, it's quite illuminating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZY3L50VNps
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Jun 10, 2014 01:13
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I liked the ending. Neil made the case that science and the knowledge we gain through it allow us to better understand the universe and ourselves and that it's okay to admit not knowing everything, even admirable to do so and to pursue that mystery ever further. How much better a world would we inhabit if people were more ready to admit when they don't know the answer, and less ready to be sure of their correctness? You did good Neil. You did good. 
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Jun 10, 2014 01:44
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AwkwardKnob posted:I find it kind of amusing that anyone could be "underwhelmed" or let down by the original Pale Blue Dot speech. It's a profoundly expressed sentiment about Humanity - not some kind of singular expression that's going to make you fall to your knees weeping. The idea that you could take such information about Earth and being alive at all for granted speaks volumes about how lucky we even are to live in this time and age. Goons. I was talking more about the overall ending of the reboot series, not the Pale Blue Dot speech if that's what you mean by my "underwhelmed" statement. Carl Sagan is my homie.
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Jun 10, 2014 01:46
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I nearly started crying watching the disc spin on Voyager, with the words "To all the music makers..." marked around it. I knew it was gonna last a long time, but I didn't realize just how long it'll be. Kind of reminds me of the Mars Rover comic though: Poor Voyager, she'll never get to go home. Are satellites a she? They're ships too right? MustelaFuro posted:The Pale Blue Dot monologue, I feel, is one of the most beautiful and genuine utterances ever breathed by a human mouth. Agreed. I think part of it is simply down to Sagan's voice though, and that it'd lose something hearing it in someone else's voice. His voice sounds both authoritative and friendly at once. While Neil Degrasse Tyson's following speech wasn't as lyrical or pretty, I do think they made the right decision to close out with it regardless. Sagan's "pale blue dot" speech is a really inspiring piece, but it does come from a dark place, or at least a dark time, and comes off as much a warning to me as it does inspirational - not surprising I suppose knowing the atmosphere he was filming it in. NDT's speech rambles around without the poetic beauty of Sagan's, but does come off a lot more hopeful to balance it out. Skyl3lazer posted:NDT said he had no interested in doing a second season, but that it didn't preclude someone else from stepping in (Where are you, Bill Nye??) Maybe it's cause I'm not a Yank, but I've no idea who he is. I'd love to see Brian Cox step up and do one with BBC instead though. Then again, I'd be happy to watch just about anything he put out. His "Wonders of" series is amazing, and in the first episode of "Wonders of the Universe" (I think), his explanation of the just what the heat death of the universe would entail and how long it would take has actually brought me to tears. Both times I've watched it. I think it does an even better job of underscoring just how small we are than a visual aid like the Cosmic Calendar does. Nearly as good a job as the "pale blue dot" itself - though without any of Sagan's poetic writing. Sadly, I can't find a Youtube of the whole thing for those unfamiliar with his work, only part of it, which I didn't find nearly as emotive on it's own. Guess it's just one of those things that works best when taken as a whole, the entire episode building up towards that part. Still, anyone looking for something of his to watch could do worse than try his "Night with the Stars" lecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TQ28aA9gGo It's him giving a lecture in, I'm pretty sure, the Royal Institution, where Micheal Faraday did his lectures to the public and getting help from various Z-list celebrities like James May and Jonathon Ross. He basically gets them to help him do simple, but fun experiments along the same lines, while using them to explain more esoteric scientific principles like Powley's exclusion principle. It's pretty fun as well as informative. I've started watching some of Jim Al-Khalili's stuff after seeing his name bandied around by a few posters here (thanks by the way), and while I am enjoying them - I just don't find him as personable as NDT or Brian Cox. There's something rather stiff and formal about his demeanor that's slightly off-putting to me. Still, I just finished watching a Horizon special he did for BBC in 2011 about the safety of Nuclear Power following the disaster at Fukushima in Japan, and it was a pretty interesting show. Was shocking to find out just how low the deaths from radiation poisoning in Chernobyl in the 25 years since was (less than 50 dead, mostly kids from thyroid cancer) for instance. So besides Carl Sagan, Richard Feynmann, Jim Al-Khalili, Brian Cox and Bill Nye - any other good science documentarians to watch out for? tsob fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Jun 10, 2014 |
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Jun 10, 2014 02:20
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I found the last episode pretty interesting and felt that NdGT's final monologue really tied the series up nicely.
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Jun 10, 2014 02:22
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AwkwardKnob posted:I find it kind of amusing that anyone could be "underwhelmed" or let down by the original Pale Blue Dot speech. It's a profoundly expressed sentiment about Humanity - not some kind of singular expression that's going to make you fall to your knees weeping. The idea that you could take such information about Earth and being alive at all for granted speaks volumes about how lucky we even are to live in this time and age. Goons. As someone who saw the original Cosmos as a 12 year old and was lucky enough to watch it along with extremely interested parents (who were in their early 30's at the time and although not college educated were always extremely open minded and self taught) - I, for one, am still moved when I hear Sagan give the Pale Blue Dot speech. I think NDGT is fantastic and obviously brilliant and they did a great job with this show (despite its nitpicks). I hope it's at least opened up some young eyes and minds - but it's going for such a high benchmark (even with newer production and CGI and even 30+ years later) to match the beauty and elegance of Sagan's poetic themes and delivery. Sagan's quirky but powerful and confident voice still makes the more aware of us stop and think about the universe and fully take in what he is expounding upon whereas as much as we all like NDGT and we know his obvious passion, he just can't replicate the personality of Sagan. If anything, this will make me dig out our old Cosmos DVD's (or a newer copy), which I bought for my father to replace his worn out VHS versions in the early 1990's and give them another view. I'll also get the new version as well and check out the extras.
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Jun 10, 2014 04:33
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Some Numbers posted:I found the last episode pretty interesting and felt that NdGT's final monologue really tied the series up nicely. I did, too. A lot of the complaints seem to boil down to "but he's not the guy that hosted the show I watched 30 years ago as a kid and therefore can never be as good  "The only real nitpick I had with NDT's narration is how he always has this upward inflection in his voice in the middle of sentences, which is probably just a weird personal thing for me. It certainly didn't take away from the show or anything.
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Jun 10, 2014 05:01
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tsob posted:Poor Voyager, she'll never get to go home. Are satellites a she? They're ships too right? I remember one of the Voyager guys saying that he hopes Voyager gets up in a museum. One of the Pathfinder people said she dreams of the day an astronaut picks up Sojourner to bring it home. Everything else is just going to rot where it falls though. Except maybe Hubble. I hope some day it's hanging alongside Discovery at Dulles.
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Jun 10, 2014 05:38
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Nah, Hubble's a goner. IRS orbit will decay long before anything with the capability of the Shuttle comes back. Mostly because those capabilities are extremely unnecessary.
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Jun 10, 2014 06:46
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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Well. I cried. Beautiful. And not just because of the Pale Blue Dot, but that almost always does it for me. Let's see what goons have to say... ... Well, I deeply appreciated that series, at least. I think the whole thing was a wonderful, hopeful antidote to cynicism, without resorting to anything unreal. It was a wonderful portrait of beauty that was not imaginary, or even artistic. It was the pure materialistic beauty of what is. I was moved. I am incredibly happy that this series exists. I'm glad it got the exposure it did.
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Jun 10, 2014 07:14
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I thought it was an excellent ending too. Loved the series overall, and I am amazed that it even got to air. It was beautiful and inspiring, and I hope it gets seen by a lot more people on blu ray or whatever else.
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Jun 10, 2014 07:27
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I feel I would have liked the pale blue dot segment if it hadn't been for the whole CG earth zoom out thing. Part of what makes that picture and Earthrise so powerful is that they're so real. Not only are we small, but we sent something all the way out there and took a picture of us. We are all actually in that dot. By surrounding it by that CG sequence it took that feeling of reality away and it didn't feel much different than all the animated zoom out effects you see in movies and documentaries.
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Jun 10, 2014 08:46
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The zoom out of fine, they should have just faded into the real photograph at the end of it, not a digital re-creation which doesn't explain why it looks like it is, simply glare off the lens to make the pale blue dot suspended within a beam of sunlight.
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Jun 10, 2014 10:13
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The only jarring part of the epilogue for me is that he says "follow these five simple rules" and then says like 8 rules.
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Jun 10, 2014 10:23
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PittTheElder posted:Nah, Hubble's a goner. IRS orbit will decay long before anything with the capability of the Shuttle comes back. Mostly because those capabilities are extremely unnecessary. It's too big. It'll survive reentry and an uncontrolled one at that. We'll use whatever comes out of the HIAD project to bring it down, before we have to use HIAD to drop some of the more survivable ISS modules when its decommissioned.
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Jun 10, 2014 13:38
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Sash! posted:One of the Pathfinder people said she dreams of the day an astronaut picks up Sojourner to bring it home. Pfft, the best initial Mars return mission would be giving Opportunity a ride home. It's earned it.
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Jun 10, 2014 14:54
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raditts posted:I did, too. A lot of the complaints seem to boil down to "but he's not the guy that hosted the show I watched 30 years ago as a kid and therefore can never be as good Neil's voice normally isn't so dramatic, it just seems he has a slightly "reading" delivery or affecting a "talking to little kids" voice in this show. Not a big problem though. There is a reason they used Sagan's voice for PBD, it just works. Again, not a huge nitpick just reality. On second thought I bet Macfarlane can do a kickass Sagan impression while wearing a tan corduroy suit and turtleneck. Maybe they could have done that at the end to troll us. Keyser_Soze fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Jun 10, 2014 |
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Jun 10, 2014 15:45
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Does anybody have any idea just how much input NDT actually had on the show? I paid attention to the credits for the first time and the only thing he gets credited for is hosting. He's not listed as a producer, writer or even consultant. It looks like Ann Druyan, Brannon Braga and Seth MacFarlane were actually in charge of the content. I guess that bodes well for another season even if Neil isn't interested.
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Jun 10, 2014 16:07
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Forget the fact NDT isn't interested. The fact that ratings were really bad will pretty much stop a second season from happening.
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Jun 10, 2014 18:23
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I think I'd be okay with them doing multiple seasons, with a different host each season. That could be pretty awesome.
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Jun 10, 2014 18:32
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It really was constructed as a "once in a generation" show though. While there was a lot of stuff in there that could have been in any science show, the more pointed elements of it (anti-science bias, climate change) were themes that it was building to through the run which are important issues today (much like nuclear proliferation was an important issue in the original run.) Basically, making a multiseason run of this would take away some of the resonance of the message.
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Jun 10, 2014 18:48
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smg77 posted:Does anybody have any idea just how much input NDT actually had on the show? He was originally one of the writers as well, but ditched that to just host.
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Jun 10, 2014 19:03
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NDT occasionally talks about Cosmos on his podcast, Star Talk. It is a really good show and is worth listening to (his most recent episode, as a matter of fact, is an interview with Seth MacFarlane about the show)!
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Jun 11, 2014 06:10
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Hot Dog Day #82 posted:NDT occasionally talks about Cosmos on his podcast, Star Talk. It is a really good show and is worth listening to (his most recent episode, as a matter of fact, is an interview with Seth MacFarlane about the show)!
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Jun 11, 2014 06:21
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:I am totally bookmarking this so I can listen to it tomorrow. You should! He also has an episode where he interviews one of the writers (the male, whose name escapes me at the moment), and maybe one other Cosmos focused episode perhaps? Either way, each episode is about 40 minutes long and makes for a nice science fix during a commute or trip to the gym!
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Jun 11, 2014 06:30
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I'd imagine he may have had some input on the sciences he's specialised in. I think, for the most part, he was humble enough to leave the rest in more capable hands. I think what a lot of people miss when they hear that NDGT isn't qualified to speak on a particular subject, it's pointing out the subject is in fields which he holds very little connection if at all, not that he's not qualified at all. Want to know about astrophysics? He'll talk your ear off. Want to know about quantum physics? You might wanna talk to somebody in that field.
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Jun 11, 2014 06:42
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Was the piece of music at the end (as the camera is looking at the chair from behind) from Contact? It sounded similiar.
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Jun 11, 2014 11:00
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Nail Rat posted:Forget the fact NDT isn't interested. The fact that ratings were really bad will pretty much stop a second season from happening. The climate change episode was the top rated episode among the coveted 18-34 demographic for its time slot
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Jun 11, 2014 11:59
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Hot Sexy Jupiter posted:Was the piece of music at the end (as the camera is looking at the chair from behind) from Contact? It sounded similiar. It wasn't the same music as the Contact soundtrack but given it was the same composer, it had some similar themes, given it was also something by Carl Sagan in a way too.
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Jun 11, 2014 12:29
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raditts posted:The only real nitpick I had with NDT's narration is how he always has this upward inflection in his voice in the middle of sentences, which is probably just a weird personal thing for me. It certainly didn't take away from the show or anything. This is literally the only thing I didn't like about this show. It was an amazing series and it's a shame it had to live in the shadow of the original. I hope it will take less than 30 years for the next one. Some people have suggested some other shows, but if you want to also do some reading, I loved the books by Brian Greene. The Fabric of the Cosmos in particular is amazing, although some people might not agree with how much space he gives to superstring theory (it's his field).
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Jun 11, 2014 12:34
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Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" is a good read if you want to find out more about how weird various scientists over the centuries have been or are looking for something a little lighter. It covers the history of science fairly broadly, but does so by talking about the personalities that drove it and how petty or odd many of them tended to be. I tend to like Terry Pratchett's "Science of Discworld" books for the same reason. They get more informed and technical, but never really mire you in abstract stuff. Plus, all the science is broken up every other chapter by a fun Discworld story.
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Jun 11, 2014 16:52
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drunkill posted:It wasn't the same music as the Contact soundtrack but given it was the same composer, it had some similar themes, given it was also something by Carl Sagan in a way too. MacFarlane on the aforementioned latest StarTalk episode said that it was in fact a nod to the Contact score.
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Jun 11, 2014 18:03
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NDT's podcast is loving awful. Really content-starved, the "comic" co-hosts are completely useless, way too many ads for its runtime and it's very rarely focused on anything actually interesting. Holy poo poo, an entire episode interviewing Laurence Fishburne? A TWO PART interview with Miles O'Brien? No, gently caress no. It's just this weird breathless masturbatory waste of time that very, very rarely manages to be about anything scientifically interesting. The whole thing constantly comes off as people just being on the fake-radio and very impressed with themselves for it. Pick and choose a few eps here and there, maybe. Sometimes the Cosmic Queries eps are good filler for a commute, but generally it's all really disappointing.
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Jun 11, 2014 18:09
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I hope this hasn't already been posted but: http://vimeo.com/56160700 Watch that immediately.
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Jun 11, 2014 22:43
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