Cosmos with Neil DeGrass Tyson

black holes and the age of the universe with a size measured in billions of light-yearshttp://www.cosmosontv.com/brief discussion of Einstein.Edited by RAZD, : No reason given.

edited ... and try thishttp://www.cosmosontv.com/watch/211631683935

Heck most of the Milky Way (our galaxy for the undereducated) lies outside that circle. And briefly touched on a virtually unknown (gasp) black scientist and HIS thought experiments on dark stars aka black holes.And I wish they had balanced Bruno with Ibn al Haytham - The First ScientistEdited by RAZD, : +

and they did in episode 5, spent a good bit of time on him.Also MoTze who I had not heard of before.Mozi - WikipediaInteresting. Possibly the first rationalist socialist ... and then China had their "dark ages" complete with book burnings and whole sale murder of the intelligentsia in the name of "legalism" ... another kind of dogma that brooks no questions.Edited by RAZD, : ...

Indeed. I am looking forward to this. ...... and more creationist howling at the sky ...

and when those patterns from SN1987A match modern spectral lines it demonstrates that the speed of light has not changed, because that would affect the wavelengths and shift the spectral lines.But that's another argument for another day.

Watched "Inner Fish" last night ...(on line at Watch Videos if you missed it)Thought it was excellent. Probably even more problematical for evolution denying creationists, dealing as it does with our evolution and common ancestry with fish.Discusses the history of tree of life (nice graphic), and how homologies show kinship -- the pattern of one bone, two bones, many bones in arms and legs.Wow, two good shows on science ... must be the end of times ,,,

I haven't watched the latest episode yet, but saw this on Facebook:Loading...

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Oklahoma Protesters Threaten to Secdee From Union if Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Cosmos is not Cancelled

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Concerned Oklahomas gather to protest the airing of Cosmos, citing the show’s agenda is ‘clearly anti-Christian and biased against creationist values.’ Citizens have threatened to vote to ‘secdee’ [sic] from the United States during the 2014 gubernatorial and ballot issue election if Cosmos is not formally removed from all Oklahoma based television networks.

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The first protests againstCosmosin the community took place some two weeks ago, after a local paper claimed an airing ofCosmosin a school caused several children to experience ‘demonic possession’. Parents cite one kid became completely enamored with the show during a terrifyingly supernatural event linked with Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s narrative explaining the God of the Gaps theory.

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Several weeks ago,citizens accused Tysonof using hisCosmosprogram to forward other agendas, not limited to a ‘homogay’ agenda, wizardry/haroldry, astrology and other vehemently anti-Christian teachings.

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Concerned parents have accused Neil DeGrasse Tyson of ‘Ra’ worship and iconography, going as far as saying the titular narrator may be involved in a Wiccan Sun occult.

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Delores Simmons, whose child was involved in the prior airing ofCosmosthat precipitated the anti-science scare in Oklahoma, claims petitions are already going about to elect pro-Creation candidates for upcoming elections.

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If we allow this Tyson to keep publicly airing his beliefs, God just may strike us down with a cosmic meteor this summer. That would be ironic justice if you ask me, so we should just take this show off now before that happens.

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Other citizens in Oklahoma agree. The latest Rasmussen polls on the subject show that over 64% people in Oklahoma feelCosmosis dangerous and carries a strong anti-theist and Creation message.

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I wish them sucdess in altering reality ...Where do they get this drivel?Edited by RAZD, : Also see Loading...

Well done. You should see some of the other stuff they have ...

They were surprised by the size of the brain relative to the size of the animal and compared to other reptiles of that time. Cute animations btw. Yes, for humans, not necessary for other organisms.In humans it was likely sexual selection for creativity that led to larger brains (compared to other apes) in a Fisherian feedback process until childbearing became problematic. Evidence of such feedback systems is that they progress to an extreme degree that further development endangers life. Like a peacock's tail. So the selection is obviously not for head size but for some other factor, and head size has come along for the ride as a result.In the case of those early mammals, it would be due to more complex behavior that enabled better survival in a dangerous environment. This would also be self-reinforcing where brain size would increase as a result (go along for the ride).Curiously I am finding this series much more interesting than Cosmos, perhaps because my interest is more in evolution and biology than in physics and astronomy.Edited by RAZD, : clrty

It has been held at a size that can pass the birth canal without killing the mother or causing brain damage in the child ... which is why I feel it is a product of runaway sexual selection like the peacock tail. Not directly. It is more proportional to the surface area of the brain -- hence the convolutions in the brain surface, the wrinkles that add area inside the same volume.This is pretty typical for primates to maximize brain capacity, but not for all mammals: There is also evidence that Einsteins brain had an extra connection between left and right hemispheres.So further increase in intelligence appears to be limited to more interconnections OR to expanded use of C-section births ... and to specific selection for intelligence rather than just creativity (he makes me laugh ... )

Not just in size but in convolutions. Primates and squirrels apparently have more developed sense of 3-D world due to leaping from branch to branch.Last night I watched the "Inner Monkey" episode and was once again impressed by the detail crammed into just one hour, Lucy and Ardi were the stars of course (and I did miss getting to Turkana Boy after they moved to Homo Habilus, but there is just so much fossil history available to fit it all into the time allotment).And I expect the creatortionistas to be howling again ...Anyone wanting links to online streaming of the (so far) 3 shows see
Watch Your Inner Fish Online | Season 1 (2014) | TV Guide Episode 1: Inner FishEpisode 2: Inner ReptileEpisode 3: Inner Monkey(I believe PBS also has links)

The latest episode from Cosmos was interesting on a different level -- pollution (and global warming) from industrial corporations ... as a by-product of determining the age of the earth.http://www.cosmosontv.com/watch/230227523738How lead in the atmosphere was presented as "normal" until the evidence had accumulated to the point that it was pretty irrational to ignore the poisoning of the atmosphere by the big oil companies ... you know, those ones behind the massive funding of disinformation regarding global climate change (same old same old: kill the planet for the last buck to be made).Rather more political than the previous one, so this should have conservatives in a real knot ... aside from showing the age of the earth to be 4.54 billion years (minimum) ...

Cosmos Wars Episode VII: Heir to the Denialist Empire | National Center for Science Education

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... Tyson started the show with a bang. He pulled apart the layers of the Canyon and showed the moments in Earth’s history that they preserve. The idea of stratigraphy, that the layers of the earth are pages in a history book, deserved more time, but Tyson’s brief exploration of the Grand Canyon was a memorable image and sure to shape how geology teachers present stratigraphy to their lucky students in the future.

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... The research Tyson describes, and the entire field that’s grown out of Patterson’s work, is constantly attacked by young-earth creationists. Tyson’s clear explanation of how we know the Earth is billions of years old will be a thorn in creationists’ sides for decades to come.

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As an aficionado of science denial, I can’t believe I never connected this early work on the age of the Earth with the gasoline industry’s attempts at suppressing Patterson’s finding about the pervasive harm caused by leaded gasoline. The story of the battle against leaded gasoline is a bit more complicated than what the show tells (see, for instance, the discussion of leaded gasoline in the American Experience episode The Poisoner’s Handbook), but the basic structure of the story is not only accurate, but eerily familiar. Patterson’s attempts to measure the age of meteorites and Earth were hindered by widespread contamination of samples with lead residue from gasoline. ...

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Science denial is not healthy or rational. It is very dangerous.ps -- Faith should watch the Grand Canyon part ...

And physics, don't forget physics: that bit about radiometric dating methods, all hogwash made up fantasy ...Then there is astronomy with their fantasy about light years and development of stars with the original stars blowing up to make new stars like the sun and the planets like the earth ...Anthropology of course is fantasy with the preposterous claim of true human being descending from apes like chimpanzees ...Paleontology is even worse with pretend relationships of earlier life forms to a common ancestor pool by made up "similarities" in order to force them into an imaginary tree of life ...Genetics is okay as long as they stick to the modern day, but as soon as they go off to talk about nested hierarchies with gibbons and gorilllas it's la la land ...Chemistry is fine as long as they stick to modern day reactions. Talking about reactions in the past is ridiculous because nobody was there to observe it.What have I missed ...? Indeed. What's that German word again? ... ah yes ... Fremdscham ...