{"id":7109,"date":"2017-05-07T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T10:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dennygibson.com\/blog\/?p=7109"},"modified":"2017-05-05T09:33:57","modified_gmt":"2017-05-05T13:33:57","slug":"hurrah-for-cosmos-repeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/hurrah-for-cosmos-repeat\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurrah for Cosmos (repeat)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of the blogs I follow repeat a post now and then. Until quite recently, with the exception of an article I’ve posted for the last three elections, I hadn’t. On Easter Sunday, with no ideas handy and no time to develop one if it appeared, I didn’t want to totally ignore the holiday so dug out and re-posted an existing article. This week, as I enjoyed and learned from the recent PBS series The Great War<\/em><\/a>, I remembered another series I had enjoyed and learned from and even blogged about. That series had been about science and the memory made me think about the March for Science that occurred two weeks ago. I honestly can’t decide whether to be disappointed that the education that series provided was incomplete and the march was necessary or encouraged that enough people care about science to make the march possible. Hurrah for Cosmos<\/em> was originally posted March 16, 2014.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Cosmos:Back in 1980, Dr. Carl Sagan wrote a book called Cosmos<\/em> as a companion to a TV series named Cosmos: A Personal Voyage<\/em> which he co-wrote and \u201cstarred\u201d in. I watched the series and read (and still have) the book. Sagan was a smart guy and a darned good communicator. In the book and the program, he set out to share the scientific community\u2019s knowledge of the universe \u2014 the cosmos \u2014 with the masses. It\u2019s generally accepted that he did a pretty good job. Until Ken Burns came along with The Civil War<\/em> series in 1990, Cosmos<\/em> ranked as the most watched PBS series ever.<\/p>\n

\"Cosmos:Now another smart guy and good communicator, Neil deGrasse Tyson, is trying it again. We, the residents of Earth, have learned quite a bit in thirty-four years. The first episode of a new series, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey<\/em>, aired last Sunday, March 9, on the Fox Network and Monday, March 10, on National Geographic TV. Additional episodes will be shown on subsequent Sundays and Mondays until thirteen episodes \u2014 same as the original \u2014 have been broadcast.<\/p>\n

The chances are good that nothing I\u2019ve said so far is news. The original Cosmos<\/em> is legendary and the new one has been getting a lot of press. That first episode was even preceded by an introduction from President Obama. But there is at least a small chance that, like me, you missed the premier and that\u2019s my excuse for making this post. Here\u2019s my Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey<\/em> episode one story.<\/p>\n

It was the first TV show I\u2019ve really wanted to watch in years. I got home from Bockfest in plenty of time and was parked in front of the properly dialed in TV as showtime approached. At this point, the accomplishment of a timely return home was nullified by the thing I returned home from. Last week\u2019s post was on the Bockfest Parade which I had attended on Friday evening. I was back at the festival on Sunday and sampled some of the namesake product. With the odyssey start just minutes away, I dozed off.<\/p>\n

For many, that would not be a problem. They would have had their DVRs all programmed and the show would have been recorded for viewing later. I have no DVR nor do I have access to National Geographic TV so watching the Monday night broadcast was out. Thankfully, Fox has provided a Cosmos On TV website<\/a>. where I was able to watch the first episode, \u201cStanding Up In the Milky Way\u201d, as well as the President\u2019s introduction and other related videos. It looks like future episodes will also be available there which I certainly appreciate since I\u2019m guessing I might miss another broadcast showing or two.<\/p>\n

It is clearly too early to know if \u201cCosmo<\/em>s II\u201d will equal \u201cCosmos<\/em> I\u201d. There are plenty of connections between the two including the fact that Carl Sagan\u2019s widow, Ann Druyan, was a co-writer of the first and an executive producer of the second. And there is a Tyson-Sagan connection, too. They first met when the seventeen year old Tyson was researching schools and the world famous scientist gave the aspiring one a personal tour of Cornell. Near the end of his first Cosmos<\/em> episode, Tyson talks about that day. \u201cI already knew I wanted to become a scientist, but that afternoon I learned from Carl the kind of person I wanted to become\u201d, he says. Tyson also spoke of that day in an interview with Bill Moyers where he recalls thinking \u201cIf I\u2019m ever in a position of influence the way he is, then I will surely interact with students the way he has interacted with me, as a priority.\u201d That excellent interview, spread over three shows, is here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new Cosmos<\/em> has already received some attention and generated some discussion. I\u2019m confident there will be more and I have hope that it will also have some impact. I don\u2019t believe in miracles but having something on commercial TV that I actually want to watch is mighty close.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of the blogs I follow repeat a post now and then. Until quite recently, with the exception of an article I’ve posted for the last three elections, I hadn’t. On Easter Sunday, with no ideas handy and no time … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[123,122,121,119],"class_list":["post-7109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event","tag-carl-sagan","tag-neil-tyson","tag-science","tag-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WE0S-1QF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7109"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7112,"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7109\/revisions\/7112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}