Posted by
CmdrTaco
on from the hope-they-sell-billions-and-billions dept.
calags noted that CNN is reporting that the very cool "Cosmos" is finally going to be available
on DVD. I'm curious to see how well the 20-year-old mini- series
has aged. I loved it when I was little tho. They're also going to
air an hour "Highlights" show on PBS.
140 comments
Re:Others
by
Anonymous Coward
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Connections 2 and 3 are available on tape, but you can only buy the first series if you're an educational institution...and you get charged $BIGNUM for it. (My SO looked into this as a Christmas gift for me, which is how I know.)
Re:How Well Will It Sell?
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Anonymous Coward
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Although he acknowledged that the phrase "Billions and billions" has become closely associated with his name, Sagan wrote that he never actually said "Billions and billions...". In fact he said it was Johnny Carson, in one of his many Saganesque skits that actually said it. Nevertheless, it stuck.
Just FYI.
Re:What about the soundtrack?
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webcrafter
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1. I wanted to know about the CDs, I don't care for the DVDs. That's why I ask without RTFA
2. I wanted to know where to buy them. Where in the article says where are they for sale? I haven't been able (last time I checked, ~2 yrs ago) to find them.
Victor
What about the soundtrack?
by
webcrafter
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Does anyone know whether the soundtrack for the series was ever published as a CD? And if it was, where could I buy it online?
I've got the vinyl, but I'd like to listen to it when on the road, and I've been unable to find it on CD:(
Victor
Re:What about the soundtrack?
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techmage
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A 2 CD remastered soundtrack is also available.
--
- We dream of the stars. Now let us return to them.
Re:What about the soundtrack?
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Paradise_Pete
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Does anyone know whether the soundtrack for the series was ever published as a CD? And if it was, where could I buy it online?
It's too bad there's no way you could possibly find that out on your own. If only there were some sort of searching apparatus for this internet thingie.
Re:What about the soundtrack?
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Lawbeefaroni
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RTFA. It says: There is a two-CD set, "The Music of Cosmos -- Collector's Edition," featuring old and new music by Vangelis, composer of the "Cosmos" theme.
Doh! I'm confused... oh well, its been a LONG time (almost maybe 10 years?) since I watched that show on the Discovery channel back before they had all the affiliated channels. I also loved "Beyond 2000", which I won't attempt to tell you the host of.:)
Heck, ever notice how British shows are so much better than American shows?
-- A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
Connections was one of my favorite shows. I also loved Secret Life of Machines that James Burke hosted as well.
BTW, about the book, I found the original Connections book (from the 70's) at a local used bookstore. If you don't already have that one, I'm sure you could find it at a local used bookstore or on Ebay. Its worth a read.
-- A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
Hey! The Secret Life of Machines was hosted by Tim Hunkin, one of Britains' great eccentric geniuses. He proceeded to do a stint as eccentric-in-residence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
To the extent that I could believe in a God, it'd have to be the type of God who'd design a set of physical constants and behaviors (including all that quantum and stringy stuff we're still trying to understand) and sit Himself back to see what unfolded over a few billion years.
Sounds like Deism. Deism is the believe that God created the universe in one shining moment, perfectly constructed to unfold in the manner he wanted, and has not done a damn thing since. (Why would he need to? The only reason to make later adjustments would be if you didn't get it right at first, which would contradict the notion of a perfect god.)
--
-- "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Thanks for mentioning that. I just ordered the 5 disc box set from blackstar.co.uk. Amazon US does not have the boxed set and some of the discs are not out yet. Amazon UK though does have the boxed set for 8 pounds less than the blackstar site (damn). Of course you need a region 2 player for the UK release (Apex anyone:) ).
That's fundy Protestantism, actually. Jesuits, to name but one group in the One True Church, have always cherished science as a way to understand Creation and marvel at the power of God.www.va --
-- Information wants to be beer, or something like that.
Some of the graphics are tacky
by
thaths
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I watched it a couple of years ago. Some of the graphics and "special effect" (like Sagan cruising through the solar system) are highly tacky.
Re:Some of the graphics are tacky
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mrfiddlehead
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You mean that they didn't hire Lucas to do the computer graphics for 80 million dollars. This series has stood up amazingly in terms of science - which is what's most important here not the quality of the bloody computer graphics in a, PBS for god's sake, miniseries. A lot of his writing for the series is based on earlier work like Brocha's Brain in which he deals with issues surrounding both current, at the time, science as well as pseudo science with aplomb but without being preachy. Most of that has stood the test of time and while it is showing some signs of age it is almost certainly going to remain relatively current for the next 50 years.
Unless some smart ass comes along and disproves general and special relativity:)
-- :wq
Re:It wasn't my favorite
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Mr.+Flibble
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In a related note Segan's "Deamon Haunted World", published a few years before his death, is wonderful.
"Wonderful" is clearly the understatement of the year. The book took me 3 months to read, and its not all that long of a book. It took me some time because the book does what few can, and it actually makes you think.
The chapters that are my particular favorites are "The Baloney Detection Kit" and "Dragon in my Garage" The Baloney Detection Kit can be found on the internet as well here is one link. Anyone whom I respect has a grasp of the kit and how it works, while they may not know of the kit directly, they use its rules just the same.
Re:Great Thinker's work released on draconian form
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ElrondHubbard
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The "DVD format" is a format designed to control the ideas exchanged between students and professors, and serve as a model for the day when all information exchange can be controlled by a central authority.
Except when it's released region-free, or did you not bother to inform yourself before your knee jerked?
Not that I love the MPAA, but geez, you've got options. I bought a DVD player that plays any/all regions, and I get to have my cake and eat it, too.
-- "The deep-fried Mars bar is a symptom of a wider crisis."
-- Nutritionist Ann Ralph, on the Scottish diet
Oh wait, I did! Now look what you've done, Slashdot Staff That Reviews Submissions!!!
I bought the first A&E set (2 discs) off a friend who ordered two by mistake.
Wait, 5 disc? That can't be the whole series, can it?
--
--
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Was Anyone Else Scared...
by
LordMyren
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When Sagan begins the thing by dicing himself open with a rose for the purpose of spilling blood?
My astronomy class was puzzling for a bit over that.
Myren
Re:It wasn't my favorite
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Black+Parrot
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> I didn't like it much.
Me neither. I didn't even bother watching all the episodes.
Way too overhyped, IMO.
--
-- Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Re:How Well Will It Sell?
by
0xdeadbeef
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Watching the highlights episode recently on PBS, I was reminded just how distinctive his pronunciation was. It isn't the phrase that is so Sagan-esque, but the way you're suppost to say it. And, damn, does he say the world "billion" a lot. -- Bush's assertion: there ought to be limits to freedom
Not only was it interesting to once again hear his pronunciation, but it was fun to see his clothing...
Other than the clothing, some of the computer graphics, etc., it was amazing how well this has held up over 20 years. Carl was talking about the amazing possibilities and responsibilities that would arise when we decoded the human genome...which is where we are today.
I was a little kid when this series first aired on PBS, and it was great to see those highlights again. It made me realize just how much I learned and was influenced by this series.
And watching the highlights now, it's interesting to hear how much Pink Floyd was used for music....
Ah, the weak anthropic principal... The principle that says that the probablility that all the fundamental laws of nature that allow for atoms, galaxies, stars, planets, and people is so small that life in the universe couldn't possibly have happened by chance. This is somewhere on the order of some fraction of 1 percent chance that all the fundamental constants to have fallen to the right values (if it were a random happening) to allow for complex atoms and complex structures (like galaxies, stars, planets, and nucleic acids) to form. (That's the cosmotologists speaking).
<BR>
<BR>Then there are the more simple minded that argue that the Earth has an Ideal Year, day, seasons (tilt), and moon (for tides), to make things diverse enough but also sane enough for such complex inteligent life to come into being (humans)...
<BR>
<BR>Makes you wonder if there wasn't some grand master plan.
Every rule has an exception, and this is the only rule with no exceptions! Huh? -- Spatch
--
Every rule has an exception, and this is the only rule with no exceptions! Huh? -- Spatch
>Sounds like Deism. Deism is the believe that God created the universe in one shining moment, perfectly
constructed to unfold in the manner he wanted, and has not done a damn thing since.
Yeah, I knew I didn't explain "the kinda God I could consider believing in" very well, because I didn't want to spoil the ending of the Rama series.
Spoiler Alert - The Big Secret of Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series revealed
Basically, the thesis in the Rama books is "What if God gave Himself more than one shot at it?" -- that is, an (imperfect) God keeps mucking about in his workshop, creating universes left, right, and center, until he gets something that he finds interesting.
Like I said -- totally useless from a scientific standpoignt; it's all metaphysics. But a neat idea to juggle around with in your head, and the type of God required is a helluvalot more interesting (well, to me) than the ones traditionally worshipped by humans.
(If God made me in his own image, as a compulsive tinkerer, I'm just returning the favor;-)
>If the Earth was a planet where the complex interactions weren't balanced 'just right', we wouldn't be
here!
I think Spatch's point about the weak anthropic principle is "so what?"
If the Earth hadn't gotten whacked with an asteroid 65 million years ago, there might be intelligent spacefaring reptiles colonizing the galaxy by now.
You prove Spatch's point when you say:
>if the universe weren't balanced as it is, [...] there wouldn't be ANYONE here to argue about it!
This still doesn't imply design. Consider the probability that all the particles in your cup of coffee will simultaneously jump three feet to the left in accordance with the uncertainty principle. Astoundingly improbable; it'll happen every one-in-a-$FLOATING_POINT_EXCEPTION trillion years.
Now consider the probability that a universe-sized mass with physical constants suitable for the evolution of sentient life will pop out of nothing in the same sort of quantum vacuum fluctuation. Even more stunningly improbable.
But if you've got an infinite amount of time to wait for it to happen, it's not just possible -- it's inevitable.
(The thing I most enjoyed about the HHGTTG is that the bits about improbability physics were remarkably close to the mark:-)
>Islam, as I understand it, uses science to discover more of the wonders...
(BTW, thanks for the numbering system, for preserving the works of the Greeks, and for everything else we "borrowed" from Islam during the Dark Ages;-)
From the Christian side, "The heavens declare thy glory" is merely a religious expression of the same kind of awe Sagan expresses.
I agree wholeheartedly that fundie Christians have completely lost sight of this, and that this is a great pity indeed. (Weak anthropic principle applied to fundies: "but if they had clue, they wouldn't be fundies, would they?";-)
That is incorrect. CSS is an optional part of the DVD format. You can master a disc without it (although the evil MPEG consortium still gets their pound of flesh via patent royalties.:)
Some players, like the Apex AD-600, let you turn off their CSS decoder. Doing this will render most, but not all DVDs unplayable. I don't know about Cosmos, though. Certainly they didn't have to use CSS if they didn't want to.
-- Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
I saw some segments from the DVD on a pbs fundraiser and it looks like they have replaced a lot of the cheesy special effects with more modern space photography and the like. It's still the same old Carl Sagan, though, and BOY does he look young!!
I don't agree. The only way to defeat the studios is to wage the adoption war. Don't touch the format with a 10-foot pole, and it will die. DVD is inextricably linked with CSS. 99.9% of consumers don't understand what's happening inside their DVD player. The slashdot community is far from representative. To get a message to the people, you must simplify. Start ranting about encryption keys and content scrambling and people won't understand.
So, if you need to get a message out, and you want to keep it simple, assume that 99.9% of DVD players are licensed by the CSS, and make the blanket statement that DVD IS evil.
I choose to make this statement, because I believe that only by keeping the DVD standard from being adopted will the industry be taught a lesson it won't forget: keep your standards open, or people won't buy them.
I'm not ignorant, I'm just a lot more pissed off at having lost my first amendment rights than you are.
Re:Do Slashdot care about their own rights at all?
by
mwalker
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are you aware that until content providers stop using CSS, pushing the format in any way pushes buying a player which puts money in the pockets of the people who hauled a 16 year old kid out of his house in Norway?
I'm talking about a total boycott of the system. Don't touch it until they go out of business or give up.
Cosmos is not region coded. Yes, content scrambling is ev[il]. No, Cosmos is not content scrambled!
Yeah, but does it have that damn FBI warning you can't skip past?
Note to DVD makers:
Do you actually believe that not being able to skip that warning has resulted in even one less pirate disk? Why do you go to so much trouble to make a nice presentation, then right out the box the first thing you do is annoy the user?
Re:It wasn't my favorite
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Paradise_Pete
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It's really not a very good troll if you have to point out that it was one, now is it?
god forbid if we mention that a DVD is region free, that will demisih the power to change the world and show that MPAA arn't a bunch of bastards ALL the time. --
What you didn't ask is does it point out a problem that needs to be addressed? YES.
While I like both/. and Linux what I don't like is those with a love so blind they are unwilling to admit when they have problems, and if these problems are not addressed we will soon lose them. I like Linux because of what it stands for and what I can do with it, and that it is the best alternitave for my needs. I can't stand those who like it because it is NOT Microsoft. We need to admit when we have a problem and fix it. Take the 2.4 kernel, it's not ready and Linus is willing to hold it back till it is regardless of pressure to send it out. That means Linux has a resonsible leader in charge, It's time that slashdot got the same thing.
The official soundtrack is also being rereleased on CD.
--
max
Re:is it available on tape?
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Ella+the+Cat
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People can play VHS tapes on inexpensive consumer devices. People can play DVD on inexpensive consumer devices. Must everything on/. be reduced to the same tired old cliches? Sigh.
Re:is it available on tape?
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Ella+the+Cat
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You're right, but I never said anything about a DVD decoder that works in Linux, legal or otherwise, did I? Tee hee!
Re:is it available on tape?
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Ella+the+Cat
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I'll take what you wrote at face value (Hi Dr Awktagon!)... "mtv" (here) has a "Play VCD" option on the menus, but I haven't tried it (no VideoCDs to hand).
Re:Promoting the work of an Athiest
by
ellem
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No No No! This is all wrong! No more! I need to scrub my eyes with brillo ever time I see the damn URL!
Yes, that happens in one of the episodes. On the tape I rented a while back, that episode featured an bit at the end with an older Sagan telling about a computer simulation that one Cosmos fan created. It shows a non-relativistic flight through a lattice of sticks and balls, followed by a relativistic flight through it. Quite interesting.
-- Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
Already available at amazon...
by
quandary
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Amazon currently has it in stock:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000055ZO B/ qid=977943642/sr=1-/103-7399141-6200629
Anyone want to buy it for me?:)
Heh, I was actually arguing FOR your points:)
I'm just glad all these probabilities added up to what they did so that I can enjoy a good stary night and a cup of coffee.
An even more interesting thought would be to let your perfectly organized and rational universe do whatever it wanted and see how it turned out every few million years.
The problem with those arguments are that:
If the Earth was a planet where the complex interactions weren't balanced 'just right', we wouldn't be here!
Also, if the universe weren't balanced as it is, fairly helpful to life and with many complex interactions, there wouldn't be ANYONE here to argue about it!
--
-- Soma: because a gramme is better than a damn.
Re:is it available on tape?
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MR.Gates
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you should know what you are talking about before you open your mouth and stick your foot into it. DVD decoder that works in linux and it legal.
--
A few hours grace before the madness begins again.
I agree totally, I never got a chance to smoke a big green bowl w/him and talk philosophy for endless hours. Alas, Cosmos is the only way.
The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all, is the person who argues with him.
-- I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
Re:Do Slashdot care about their own rights at all?
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SquadBoy
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No no it does not. It only supports the MPAA if the content was made by a MPAA member if you buy a VHS tape of something that was produced by a MPAA member you have given money to the MPAA if you buy a DVD of something that was not produced by a MPAA member you are not giving money to the MPAA it is about content *not* media.
--
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics.
Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
A good reason to buy a dvd!
by
curious.corn
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Well folks,
I still haven't bought a dvd player... but this news makes me think about it. Is this dvd region coded?
-- Mi domando chi à il mandante di tutte le cazzate che faccio
- Altan
Re:On the topic of evolution
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Yunzil
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I don't know if this is a troll or not, but what the hell...
Although the theory of evolution has many supporters, such as Sagan, this has no relevance to the truth of the matter.
"Evolution" is a fact as much as "gravity" is a fact. There are several theories of evolution to explain how it works, just as there are theories to explain how gravity works.
Today we can see evolution's supports slowly crumbling, because of new evidence.
Such as....?
In immense numbers of years it took to evolve these features, they would have simply served as a useless hunk of flesh that made life difficult.
Re:The only USEFUL thing ever to come from Sagan..
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BenJeremy
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I do believe he has been in on the deception, and willfully perpetrated it on the people of the world.
As for what we COULD have done? Well, ASSUMING we aren't already in contact with extraterrestrial intelligences, we should concentrate on the technology that will bring mankind to the stars.
SETI's probability of success is, for all practical purposes, ZERO.
Consider:
The sheer power a transmission must achieve to cross interstellar distances and remain coherent.
The narrow timeframe that radio will be used, just among humans... 200 years, maybe 300 years? What's that in the scale of BILLIONS of years?
Even the scale of mankind's achievements... it's all happened in a cosmic "blink of the eye" The chance of that happening to another civilization are infinitely small.
Multiply that with the "billions and billions" of stars out there, only a handful are even within the range that a PURPOSEFUL, DIRECTIONAL signal sent here could reach. That assumes somebody wantgs to talk to US.
I firmly believe that exploration is the ONLY way mankind will ever encounter such intelligence, unless it's already happened to us by way of THEM visiting us. If that's the case, then they've already decided to keep it between them and the powers that be - so we are still SOL.
Sagan maintained a high profile, and reiterated his thought that UFOs were hogwash and it was unlikely we had ever been visited. Oddly, there IS evidence that something has been going on. To ignore that, and continue to make such pronunciations is odd indeed - unless he had knowledge we didn't and was part of a "greater plan".
"Contact" only seems to further the propaganda.
Re:Mark me a troll, it doesn't change the FACTS.
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BenJeremy
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Great... just because the high and mighty moderators worship the gorund Carl Sagan walked on, I get tagged a troll.
The truth is that Carl Sagan knew more than you or I will EVER know about the extraterrestrial presence here on Earth, and served the government to disinform the public and keep that secret. "Look to the skys!" because the truth is under your nose, and we don't want you looking there!!! SETI was a joke. Sagan was behind it all, and for someone with his insight and knowledge, there is no way he could not have seen that.
For you people to worship him is a disgrace. Call me a troll all you want, but the TRUTH is out there, even if you yourselves DENY it.
I remember seeing the entire Cosmos series played straight throough on PBS about a month ago. They were doing it as part of their annual fund-raising event. here's the kicker: one of the things they were offering (for a pledge, of course) was:
the entire series, ALREADY ON DVD.
now, i'm in charleston attending naval nuclear training, so watching tv is a rarity for me:P but, i definately remember seeing these being offered.
anyway, just thought people would want to know.
t14m4t
-- 67.5% Slashdot Pure
I guess I need to work on that....:)
I don't think so. It would be quite an expensive collection. I think there were 20 (or maybe even more) hour-long episodes. The last time I saw it, I think it was broadcast on one of the specialty channels like The Learning Channel or similar.
--
"If I have seen further than other men, it is by stepping on their glasses." - Michael Swaine
I saw this series when it was originally telecast, and I was an adult at the time. I didn't like it much. There was too much trembling awe at the majesty of the heavens and not enough factual information. I'll be interested to see what others who saw it as kids think of it now. Now, for a science series that really was well done, I don't think that you can beat The Mechanical Universe. If you ever get a chance, catch it.
--
"If I have seen further than other men, it is by stepping on their glasses." - Michael Swaine
Re:It wasn't my favorite
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DreamingReal
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I did learn some things and it may have rekindled a passing interest in astronomy I have
I think this was exactly Dr. Sagan's purpose. The series was not so much about the bleeding edge of cosmology but cutting to the heart of what drives scientists - discovery of the unknown. Sagan was most successful as a popularizer of science. To most people who are educated in the sciences, popularized treatments come off as shallow and, as you said, a little boring. But he was aiming the series the great masses of the world who are not educated in the sciences.
This time I could plainly see how he stressed the wonder and amazement of all we don't know as opposed to telling me a bunch of interesting and exciting stuff we (humans) do know.
I also think part of the point was to fire your interest in the great mysterious Universe and then send you off on your own to find the answers yourself. He was, in effect, using the series to set a whole new generation of future scientists on their way.
-------
-- We want some answers and all that we get
Some kind of shit about a terrorist threat
- Ministry
Re:It wasn't my favorite
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nurikochan
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The ironic thing is, when you say "too much trembling awe at the majesty of the heavens," I think you forget that Sagan lived and died an aethiest. Don't these two things contradict?
Re:It wasn't my favorite
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MAXOMENOS
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In a related note Segan's "Deamon Haunted World", published a few years before his death, is wonderful. He does a great job of debunking psuedo-science through the ages. In my mind he makes a sucessful agruement as to why science is Superior (my words not his) to religion. Highly recommended!
I second this. The Demon Haunted World is a classic of skepticism, a light shining in the darkness against the kind of new-age postmodernist bullshit we see dominating contemporary intelligent discussion.
William S Burroughs and others in certain occult organizations (IOT for example) are fond of saying, "Everything is permitted, nothing is true." Still think that, Bill? But if that's true, then the statement "everything is permitted, nothing is true," must be true. Oops. Any system which is self-contradicting is false, and only a fool would believe in something he or she knows to be false. The whole new age house of cards colapses, a result of having been founded upon intellectual bankrupcy.
Science is superior to religion, art, pure creation...insofar as science can answer questions about the measurable world. Religious and spiritual people may forget this little factoid only at their own peril....
[...] this is the same Church that took nearly two millenia to finally admit that Galileo was correct.
What you wrote makes no sense unless you purport to affirm that Galileo was a contemporary of Jesus Christ, hardly a popular notion. Quip aside, you may also notice that the horrible Crusades were pursued more for political and economical reasons (disenherited Norman noblemen seeking a kingdom to call their own, basically) than for religious motives per se, and that Arab and Turk monarchs had as much part as the Europeans in the treason and bloodshed that characterizes those cruel wars.
Let me also add that if it weren't
for the Muslims a lot of the ancient Greek texts on philosophy, art, culture, would never have been
preserved. In fact, most of the early Christian philosphers studied in Muslim universities.
Your historical notions are horribly twisted and lie upon a foundation of common prejudices about the Middle Ages and the history of the Church. Early Christian philosophers and theologioans, like St. Paul and (especially) St. Augustine lived and worked way before there were any Muslims on the planet, let alone Muslim universities.
Let me add as a final note that, despite being a Catholic, I deeply respect the Islamic faith and the early cultural achievements by Arabic civilizations, but you'll have to look a little deeper than that to find, for instance, who delivered the Library of Alexandria its doomed fate.
Anyways, my jab was aimed at correcting the popular (in the US) notion that Christianinty Protestantism, and that devout Christians are close-minded bigots willing to go back to the Neolithic. --
-- Information wants to be beer, or something like that.
Re:It wasn't my favorite
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Mr.+Slippery
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Any system which is self-contradicting is false, and only a fool would believe in something he or she knows to be false.
It's only self-contradicting and false when certain axioms are accepted. No mathematical/logical system exists independent of certain fundamental asumptions.(Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance has some interesting thoughts on this topic.)
Now, the traditional asumptions of arithmetic, Boolean logic, Euclidean geometry are certainly very useful for getting pracial things done in this physical world. But they don't help much in dealing with subjective existence. In that realm, only direct experience suffices, and words are at best "a finger pointing to the moon"; their truth is artistic and mythological, not literal and logical. Consider the statement "Everything is permitted, nothing is true." as a sort metaphor for something. For what? You'll know if and when you see it; then you might just say "Ah! Everything is permitted! Nothing is true!"
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/
-- Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog You cannot wash away blood with blood
I, too, would recommend Demon-Haunted World (along with Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors). Sagan's awe for the universe wasn't limited to astronomy; humans are pretty interesting creatures too.
> It goes to show that science can evoke the kind of deep
meaningful experiences many religons do.
To the extent that I could believe in a God, it'd have to be the type of God who'd design a set of physical constants and behaviors (including all that quantum and stringy stuff we're still trying to understand) and sit Himself back to see what unfolded over a few billion years. The type of God who bangs something out of a cookie cutter in six days and sleeps in on the seventh just doesn't interest me. He's a cheapskate.
For another look at the kind of theism I'm imagining, I recommend the last book in Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series. (But read all the books in the series, in order, for the full effect.)
I'd have loved to have sat down with Sagan and discussed the inter-relationship between awe, religion, and science from an anthropological perspective. Humans seem to have a need for awe, and a need to explore. What a pity most of us use it to follow charlatans instead of digging the real stuff the universe has to offer.
You fundies reading this - don't take my crack about "six days" as being a cheap shot at Judeo-Christianity. Imagine some schmuck in 4,000 BC watching the episode of Cosmos where Sagan walks us through the "modern" creation story by mapping the history of the universe from Big Bang to evolution of Homo Sapiens onto a one-year calendar. Your 4000-BC yokel, who's just mastered writing, might very well end up with something akin to Genesis.
In the interests of fairness, of course, it's much more likely that the author of Genesis just guessed lucky.
But having known some fundies who referred to him as "Sagan the Pagan" back in the 80s, I have very fond memories of doing just that -- sitting one such fundie down in front of that episode and, one hour later, asking "Now, what was that you were saying about basic science being wholly incompatible with your religion?"
>this is the same Church that took nearly two
>millenia to finally admit that Galileo was
>correct.
This is just confusing. Galileo lived in the 16th century, i hope that was a poorly done hyperbole.
>Up until the horrible Crusades
You have to understand that the underlying reason for the crusades was to unite Europe. Without them it Europe may still be a land run by thousands of small feudal lords, and the renaissance would not have happened. The problem was that far more people with no millitary training showed up than expected, and mob mentality carried on from there.
Some people spend so much time trying to hurt christianity by twisting everything they hear that they end up being 'fundimentalist atheists'.
I remember having that same feeling when I first saw it (I was 7). But I've been watching it again on PBS recently. Segan does a great job of displaying his awe for the universe to the general public. It is hard to believe he was an atheist. It goes to show that science can evoke the kind of deep meaningful experiences many religons do.
In a related note Segan's "Deamon Haunted World", published a few years before his death, is wonderful. He does a great job of debunking psuedo-science through the ages. In my mind he makes a sucessful agruement as to why science is Superior (my words not his) to religion. Highly recommended!
I saw it as a young one, don't quite remember how young, but it really boosted my interest in science. I won't say it made me a geek for life, but it was a contributing factor.
-- As x approaches total apathy I couldn't care less.
I have to agree in part. I was very excited about this release and bought a copy. I got it a few weeks ago and watched some before I gave it to my brother for Christmas. We then watched some more together.
Viewing it this time was quite different for both of us than watching it when it first aired when we were kids. This time I could plainly see how he stressed the wonder and amazement of all we don't know as opposed to telling me a bunch of interesting and exciting stuff we (humans) do know.
That aspect of the series may be one thing that made it so memorable. It may have helped a lot of my generation become scientists of some kind by increasing our curiousity. I, however, found it to be a bit annoying, and frankly a bit boring.
Additionally, viewing this series again some 20 years later did give me a few good laughs at the special effects of the Spaceship Imagination or whatever it was that he flew around the Cosmos.
Those complaints aside, I found that by viewing this series again, I did learn some things and it may have rekindled a passing interest in astronomy I have. I also forgot how much history was in the series. Some of that was pretty interesting.
I would reccommend this series to young teenagers who have never seen it before, but not to those who wish to see the series that they enjoyed in childhood. Unfortunately, I don't think that it will live up to your memories of the series.
> The ironic thing is, when you say "too much trembling awe at the majesty of the heavens," >I think
you forget that Sagan lived and died an aethiest. Don't these two things contradict?
As Sagan himself put it:
How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science
and concluded, 'This is better than we thought! The Universe is
much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more
elegant'? Instead they say, 'No, no, no! My god is a little god,
and I want him to stay that way.' A religion, old or new, that
stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern
science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and
awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.
- Carl Sagan
I see no contradiction whatsoever. You do not need to be a theist to understand awe.
Re:Mark me a troll, it doesn't change the FACTS.
by
centauri
·
· Score: 1
for someone with his insight and knowledge, there is no way he could not have seen that.
Sagan was great, but he wasn't the only great one. I won't try to list names, but if Sagan knew what you claim he knew, then hundreds of his colleages would have known it, too, and would have to be in on the cover-up.
Besides, I can't recall Carl Sagan actually writing that the Earth has not been visited. I do recall him writing that claims of such extraordinary visits would require extraordinary proof, which, so far, has yet to surface.
-- Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
Re:The only USEFUL thing ever to come from Sagan..
by
centauri
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· Score: 1
Sagan met claims of extraterrestrial visitation with an open mind and summarily debunked them.
"Contact" was Sagan's way of countering all the tales of visitation and abduction. He proposed a story of how contact might actually proceed.
When you say that "exploration is the ONLY way mankind will ever encounter such intelligence," you seem to be implying that transporting ourselves or our machines around the galaxy will have a much better chance of succeeding than other methods of detecting. This indicates to me that you don't have a grasp of how much easier it is to listen to a billion stars via radio, than to travel to one of them in less than a hundred generations. You speak of the power concerns of a radio message, which is nothing in comparison to what it takes to move matter to another star.
Right now, radio is what we have. It's reasonable to assume (as far as it's reasonable to assume anything about ETI) that other minds in the galaxy will acquire radio and see how it can be used to communicate between the stars. A very powerful race might have a few members who decide to build their own radios as part of an ongoing SETI contact project.
If there is something other than radio suitible for interstellar communication (please don't suggest entangled particles or some kind of FTL communication), then we can start SETI with that. In fact, optical SETI projects are currently underway. Perhaps we'll figure out how to detect artificial gravity waves, though I doubt we'd really want to meet people capable of communicating with binary neutron stars, or what not.
Funny that, Mine's a desktop PC in the bottom of my equipment rack, with my ATI video card outputting the computer video signal, and the RealMagic Hollywood Plus outputting the DVD signal...
It's easier to play mp3s to the surround sound that way...
"Titanic was 3hr and 17min long. They could have lost 3hr and 17min from that."
--
IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS, And everywhere the language went, it was a total loss...
"I guess I'll just have to stick to the inferior, lower quality and lower choice, VCDs and VHS tapes until content providers are required to be as honest and forthright as they pretend they want the buying public to be."
that's why I collect LaserDiscs... I've got 68 titles on Laserdisc, everything from "Casablanca" to "2001: A Space Odessy", and almost all are "Widescreen Special Edition" versions or director's cuts... and it's hard for people to just walk off with 'em hidden in a coat!:)
"Titanic was 3hr and 17min long. They could have lost 3hr and 17min from that."
--
IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS, And everywhere the language went, it was a total loss...
I really wish DVD disk manufacturers were obligated to say in what way they've crippled their content.
I guess I'll just have to stick to the inferior, lower quality and lower choice, VCDs and VHS tapes until content providers are required to be as honest and forthright as they pretend they want the buying public to be. But, frankly, I can see Dubya passing laws forcing the buying public to phone up DVD manufacturers for permission to watch their content happening before the buying public are allowed to find out whether they'll be able to watch a DVD on their equipment, without buying it. --
-- You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
was wondering when someone would mention that
by
Dr.+Awktagon
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· Score: 1
Though it seems people with bushy beards and long hair all tend to look the same anyway..
Re:is it available on tape?
by
Dr.+Awktagon
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· Score: 1
Aww, heck and I thought you were going to point out that I can't play tapes on my Linux machine either.
is it available on tape?
by
Dr.+Awktagon
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· Score: 1
Why are we talking about DVDs here? It's not like we can play them on our Linux machines, at least not without breaking laws.
That's not news, it's been available for a while. I've gotten a copy two weeks ago.
Yaroslav
Re:The only USEFUL thing ever to come from Sagan..
by
MillionthMonkey
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· Score: 1
Carl Sagan is "guilty of perpetuating this farce of searching for life using the most unlikely method possible"...? How do you figure that?
And what would you propose as a more efficient method of searching for extraterrestrial life? Running around chasing UFOs?
SETI might have a low probability of success but it is arguably not zero.
Gentry Lee and Jon Lomberg...
by
lowflying
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· Score: 1
The producer and art director for Cosmos collaborated a few ago on a multimedia CD-ROM project called "Exploring the Planets". It was completed and they shopped around for a distributor, a process that took dramatically longer than anyone anticipated. Cinegram Media just picked it up a few months ago, and I was amazed to get my own personal courtesy copy in the box last month!
Caveat is that it only runs on Win95/98/NT (except for the beginnings of a port I did for my kids to Macintosh while waiting on a distributor).
This would be a shameless plug if I was getting any royalties from it, but I am not... so it is just a plain old plug... it is available at Exploring the Planets. It was an exceptionally cool project to work on. My first day on the job, as we were getting the office set up, I answered the phone and tried to take a message for Gentry (Chief Engineer of Viking I & II and Galileo). The guy just said to let him know that "Buzz called". It just got better from there.
Dave
Re:Do Slashdot care about their own rights at all?
by
Faulty+Dreamer
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· Score: 1
The typical corporate mentallity now is "if the public isn't buying, they must be getting it illegally."
Of course, they would never stop to think that maybe, just maybe, someone out there woke up from the induced mental haze and said, "hey, I'll bet we could live without that techno-marvel"! No, none of us would do that now would we? After all, we are just sheep, and without those big corporations telling us what to do, what to buy, and how to use what we buy, we would all degenerate into a bunch of pirating, stealing degenerates.
Sorry for the rant. Too much coroprate influence today.
--
------------
Rights are not the issue
by
zodiacdigital
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· Score: 1
MAXOMENOS,
You are missing the point that the "Source Code vs the first Amendment" issue is of interest to
a very, very small group whereas the availability of high quality content on DVD is of widespread interest.
It is doubtful that the studios would even notice a DVD boycott encouraged by the open Source community.
Damn! And I'm nearly finished converting all my 13 year old VHS tapes of 'The Prisoner' to VCD format....
-- Hay thar.
Which version will it be ??????
by
rmdyer
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· Score: 1
What i'd really like to know is, which version will it be? The original, which air'ed in Sept-Nov 80 on PBS was great. Turner bought the rights to sell the series later and trashed it. The music is changed and various selections have been modified. How do I know? I've got the originals and I've compared to Turners version. Its a damn shame I tell ya. A damn shame!
Rod
this is actually quite a neat little bit of trivia(and BTW: I'm a Mac user, and I still love Sagan). anyway:
When the PowerPC first came out, Apple released three machines: the 6100, the 8100, and the 7100. The code names for these machines were PDM(for Piltdown Man), Cold Fusion, and Carl Sagan, respectively.
Sagan was pissed at being grouped with the two hoaxes(or gaffe at least, in the case of PDM). Sagan got pissed, called his lawyer, and Apple changed it to BHA. This is where most of the stories end. But in fact, Sagan found out, as did most people, that BHA stood for butt-head-astronomer. When he learned this, he again called his lawyer.
Apple finally rested on the name LAW(lawyers are wimps). One might find some irony of the 1995 Apple saying lawyers are wimps when the present-day Apple sues anyone who makes something bondi blue, but...
Re:Do Slashdot care about their own rights at all?
by
Jeff+DeMaagd
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· Score: 2
VHS is as closed source as DVD is it not? It never became an issue because few cared to hook them up to a computer. There are licence fees for any other common media format, why rant only about DVD?
If I can find this series on LD I will get that. In no way will I touch VHS as if you haven't noticed, only supports 1/2 the line resolution and 1/6 the color resolution that a good TV can handle.
Re:Great Thinker's work released on draconian form
by
Jeff+DeMaagd
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· Score: 2
Actually, the decryption key costs less than $6 per player, and that is a one-time charge for the life of the player. The DVD-ROM drives are still fairly expensive, and the MPEG / DD decoding circuitry / software isn't exactly a picnic.
Macrovision is easy enough to legally get around.
It'll take a lot of education to get people to dis-embrace the latest format. Right now I think about 85% of US homes have yet to get a DVD player, so you have a solid chance with them.
I'll echo part of my other post, if I can find this series on LD I will get that. In no way will I touch VHS as if you haven't noticed, only supports 1/2 the line resolution and 1/6 the color resolution that a good TV can handle.
Do Slashdot care about their own rights at all?
by
MAXOMENOS
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· Score: 2
This is the Nth story that I've seen Slashdot post announcing the release of some movie or another onto DVD. It makes me seriously wonder whether Hemos, CmdrTaco and company are even aware that every DVD that you buy puts money in the pockets of the MPAA to argue that source code is not protected by the First Amendment. It's awful damn hard to argue for a boycott of this technology when one of the main geek pages out there is jumping for joy every time it gets applied to another one of their favorite cultural phenomena.
Don't get me wrong; I love Cosmos and I'm very glad that it's being re-released, on VHS. It's getting the props it deserves. I'm going to get this for a friend of mine when she has her kid in, oh, three weeks. The point is that DVD technology, as it stands right now, is a threat to the development of free software. It is against our best interests to keep supporting DVDs.
Re:Do Slashdot care about their own rights at all?
by
Steve+B
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· Score: 2
I AM saying that a publisher has the right to protect their deals by restricting where the content can be viewed, as long as that restriction is done in accordance with the law.
Those last five words are the catch:
Section 109 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 109, permits the owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under title 17 to sell or otherwise dispose of possession of that copy or phonorecord without the authority of the copyright owner, notwithstanding the copyright owner's exclusive right of distribution under 17 U.S.C. 106(3). Commonly referred to as the "first sale doctrine," this provision permits such activities as the sale of used books.
/.
-- /.
If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
Re:Do Slashdot care about their own rights at all?
by
mwalker
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· Score: 2
every DVD that you buy puts money in the pockets of the MPAA to argue that source code is not protected by the First Amendment.
I couldn't have put it better myself. When you push this standard, you push the adoption of the region-encoded DVD player. We're at war against the adoption of this standard right now - the MPAA has not won yet. It is important that the word is spread - buying a DVD player, bringing this standard into your home, is a step towards a world where they know what you read, when you read it and they control who reads what.
Make no mistake, DVD technology in its current form is a tool for consumer control. Don't be the product.
For god's sake, stop pushing this Orwellian shit on slashdot.
Carl Segan is rolling in his grave. "And they controlled the masses with billions and billions of encrypted keys..."
Re:Do Slashdot care about their own rights at all?
by
DreamingReal
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· Score: 2
every DVD that you buy puts money in the pockets of the MPAA
The Cosmos DVD set is produced and distributed by Cosmos Studios, Inc and from what I can tell is not related to any of the major motion picture studios that make up the MPAA. Maybe you can explain how purchasing these DVDs will support the MPAA?
Besides that the set is Region 0 encoded, meaning it will play on any DVD player from any region. Very cool and definitely holds true to one of the main themes of the series - We are one world.
While buying this will not put money in the pockets of the MPAA, it will put money in the pockets of Cosmos Studios, which is committed to producing quality science programs, that can educate and excite the layperson. And 10% of the sales from carlsagan.com will go to the Carl Sagan Foundation.
-------
-- We want some answers and all that we get
Some kind of shit about a terrorist threat
- Ministry
Re:Do Slashdot care about their own rights at all?
by
Robert+Hutchinson
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· Score: 2
...
[E]very DVD that you buy puts money in the pockets of the MPAA to argue that source code is not protected by the First Amendment... it's being re-released, on VHS... I'm going to get this for a friend of mine...
Because, of course, the MPAA doesn't get any money from VHS sales.
I would think that anyone who had true convictions about DMCA et al. would be more confident in buying DVDs while being fully prepared to break laws that violate rights. If Congress started regulating consumption of Oreos, I wouldn't cower in the candy aisle if I wanted some damn cookies.
Robert Hutchinson
"Well, no, Mr. Attorney, we can't afford you any longer... Slashdot drained our legal budget dry."
Re:Do Slashdot care about their own rights at all?
by
IronChef
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· Score: 3
I'm going to voice a very unpopular sentiment: I am OK with region encoding.
I'm not saying you all have to roll over and take it. I am not saying that it should be the law that players are region encoded. I am not saying that as a consumer I LIKE it. I AM saying that a publisher has the right to protect their deals by restricting where the content can be viewed, as long as that restriction is done in accordance with the law.
If I publish a movie, and I cut lucrative distribution deals in other nations, why shouldn't I use the region coding mechanism to protect that? That's what it's all about, you know; "They" don't want foreign DVDs from wrecking a theatrical release in yet another country. It is all about control. Yes, it sucks for the consumer. I know that, and I fully expect clever, motivated people to circumvent the region coding, and I think that should be allowed. But if the content publishers and the hardware makers want to work together to make playing foriegn media harder, that is their right. At least in the US.
I know that in other countries region restrictions are illegal in the hardware. Good for them. If US citizens want that as well, they need to start using the political process to make it happen.
I used to be on the other side of the fence, ranting about how region coding shold be illegal. Then I started a publishing company, and we are approaching a foriegn licensing deal. Now I understand why region codes exist in a very personal way.
OK, mod me down. My karma can take it. C'mon, HIT ME! DO IT!;)
Re:Do Slashdot care about their own rights at all?
by
ElrondHubbard
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· Score: 5
Are you guys aware that the _Cosmos_ DVDs are *not* region encoded? One set, one world. Get informed before you start bitching.
http://www.onecosmos.net/
-- "The deep-fried Mars bar is a symptom of a wider crisis."
-- Nutritionist Ann Ralph, on the Scottish diet
Re:How Well Will It Sell?
by
Mr.+Slippery
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· Score: 2
It isn't the phrase that is so Sagan-esque, but the way you're suppost to say it.
He talks about this in his last book, actually entitled Billions and Billions. (Wonderful book.) The term "billion" wasn't then in the sort of everyday use it is now - we didn't have so many billionaries running around, etc. So he over-emphasized Billion to distinguish it from Million.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/
-- Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog You cannot wash away blood with blood
Re:Great Thinker's work released on draconian form
by
mwalker
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· Score: 2
Except when it's released region-free, or did you not bother to inform yourself before your knee jerked?
See my Other post on this already. There's no "except" here. The DVD format, region encoded or not, still needs a DVD player to view it. And 99% of the people out there buying DVD players are going down to Best Buy and picking up their encryption keys for $129.99. It's still Cosmos coming out of the back of your Macrovision-scrambled player, and you've still lost another home to the CSS-adoption war. I don't care if you sell the DVD region free with a complimentary Macrovision scrubber. The format is tainted, and pushing it advances the goals of the some very scary people.
All I'm saying is, can't we have "Cosmos released on VHS! (and, dear lord, DVD too)" as our headline?
Great Thinker's work released on draconian format.
by
mwalker
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· Score: 2
IT (IRONY TODAY):
News Flash! Carl Sagan's Cosmos, a modern masterpiece of Science (science is a "movement" founded on "principles" such as "the free exchange of ideas") was released on the "DVD format" today. The "DVD format" is a format designed to control the ideas exchanged between students and professors, and serve as a model for the day when all information exchange can be controlled by a central authority.
Later on our program, a special feature on "Cops running red lights".
Re:It's been updated too...
by
Apotsy
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· Score: 2
I agree that "Cosmos" has held up extremely well. I was a bit disappointed to find that the DVD contains the "updated" version that aired on PBS in 1991. I would much rather have had the original version.
Better yet, it would have been nice if they had used DVD's "seamless branching" features to allow the viewer to choose which version (original or updated) they wanted to watch, as with the DVDs for "The Abyss" and "Terminator 2".
What bothers me most about the updated version are the changes made during some of the sequences when he is flying through space in his "spaceship of the imagination". There are a few places where they have inserted pictures from the Hubble telescope, which is good, but they are not animated, which is bad. In the new footage, instead of being animated, is just made up of simple camera pans across a flat photograph, which looks cheap. It's jarring and incongruous. The original footage was animated with a multiplane camera (not CGI), which produced a nice effect of flying through space. The new stuff looks too simplistic next to that.
There are also some amazing video effects in Cosmos. Watch the part where he is walking through the Great Library of Alexandria. That's a model he's walking through. He's just superimposed. And it's video superimposing, too. Who knew the "chroma-key" technique used in the days of analog video could look so good? I'm still impressed with how good that looks.
If only there could be a commentary audio track to hear the words behind the show from the man himself.
I guess we'll have to settle for some lame impersonation of some guy going "billions and billions" over and over again for the length of the series.
Re:Great Thinker's work released on draconian form
by
alexburke
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· Score: 2
And 99% of the people out there buying DVD players are going down to Best Buy and picking up their encryption keys for $129.99. It's still Cosmos coming out of the back of your Macrovision-scrambled player, and you've still lost another home to the CSS-adoption war.
My DVD player has no region protection and no macrovision generation, and it came from the factory with those abilities waiting to be enabled. Must be some unknown Chinese brand, you say? No, it's a Sony DVP-S7000. The MPAA can shove its Orwellian shit right back up its ass from whence it came. (Sorry, that just slipped out.)
--
If SETI is crap, what about distributed.net?
by
yerricde
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· Score: 2
and SETI is an incredibly worthless disinformation campaign run to keep Earth in the dark about the presence of intelligent life outside of our solar system
And distributed.net is incredibly worthless disinformation campaign run to keep Earth in the dark about the presence of unbreakable strong encryption, correct?
then get it from Project Gutenberg
by
yerricde
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· Score: 2
Flatland, like most popular works of classic literature written before 1923, is available from Project Gutenberg. It's also available from Project Nodeberg (Everything's partial PG mirror) here.
Sadly, nothing written on or after January 1, 1923, will ever expire into the public domain because of atrocities like the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Every 20 years, Disney buys another 20 years of copyright in every major jurisdiction.
Flatland taught me dimension theory
by
OwnedByTheMan
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· Score: 2
Am I the only one who felt the episode entitled "Flatland" was one of best examples of how to simplify basic dimensional theory? Of course, I claim no indepth knowledge of dimension beyond the Flatland episode but to imagine a bunch of 2 dimensional shapes only able to comprehend the 2-d "plane of contact" made it extremely easy for an inquisitive 12 year old to grasp.
It made me wonder just what that thing I comprehended as my mother really was if you were to extrapolate her into the fourth dimension.
Scary.
Can anyone point me to a purchase link? I would like to buy it now!
Met him just before the end
by
Sebastopol
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· Score: 2
Carl came to speak at my college, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, back in 92 or 93. I didn't recognize him at all because my last memory of him was his moppy haircut and bellbottoms. He was light gray, very thin, tall and somewhat hunched. I was a little unnerved by how aged he looked.
He spoke about comets colliding w/the earth, that was his big thing at the end of his career. He had some interesting slides, and sat on a big easy-chair on our stage. All three lecture halls were filled (one live, two broadcast), and the lobbies were packed by people from three other colleges.
Sadly, the technical crew at my school were a bunch of fuckups because they constantly failed to advance the slides when he asked, and when he did, sometimes they went in the wrong direction. They even left him in the dark twice. It was very embarassing, and he even became irritated by it, ultimately scorning them. The audience chuckled uneasily.
Anyway, he was a very dramatic and passionate speaker, even in his old age. We were lucky to have him, and other flamboyant personalities, like Feynman. He may not have penned any important constants or equations, but he was definitely one of the heartiest thinkers of his discipline in our generation.
The great thing about networks releasing entire shows on DVD is:
1) More people become aware of the show because of the limited number of DVD titles (not so much anymore)
2) Fans don't have to talk about the "good ol' days of network broadcasts." Waiting for NBC or CBS or whatever to replay these on air would be insane
3) DVD makes jumping between episodes easy! Oh, shoot the show about when Mr. Wizard comes to visit Carl is episode #42 not #32.
...and finally...
4) The children of a new generation are able to appreciate some of the finest achievements of television.
I wonder if the BBC is going to release a DVD with the Connections or Connections 2 series.
Man that was a great series!
Sagan's Cosmos changed mine
by
eon(36.0)
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· Score: 2
When I was a little girl, my older brother and I would have the usual bitchfests about who got to watch what TV program. Well, one night the contest came down to some Disney movie (me) and Cosmos (him).
It was one fight that was won more in the losing...It was the fabled Flatland episode that riveted a hyper little girl to the screen for an hour. It was the first time that any teacher in my life had connected science to the beloved worlds of art and poetry. He must have inspired other in the same way that night, and that kind of teaching doesn't dim with age.
Thank you for the opportunity to relive that little memory!
Sincerely, Kathryn Aegis
If all you want is "Flatland"
by
OlympicSponsor
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· Score: 2
Just buy the original book by Edwin Abbott (or A. Square) -- MailOne
--
Non-meta-modded "Overrated" mods are killing Slashdot
(Hey Ryan! Here's your proof!)
Finished watching my copy the other night; I'd forgotten how impressive this show was, especially for it's time. Some of the CGI is a bit dated by today's standards, but that's only to be expected, but equally some still looks good. Right, that's the obligatory CGI comment over with...;-)
The "Cosmos Updates" are present; from the re-edit done ten years after the initial broadcast, as might be expected. But there has been some further editing too, how much I'm not sure I only noticed one spot that gave the game away. There is a rapid sequence of images near the very end which includes a screen shot of the M$ Windows SETI@Home client! I had to rewind and take another look to make sure; it looked like version 2.04 to me!
Sure, Carl Sagan stuff and anything ANIME you post. But that The Prisoner is finally available on DVD, that you ignore???
No justice, I tell you.
--
--
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Cosmos was a financial disaster
by
Mr.+Protocol
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· Score: 4
KCET, the PBS station here in El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula, was flying high at the time Cosmos was made. This big, fancy production was supposed to be their crowning achievement and make them all a boodle of money, or rather, make back the boodle they'd spent producing it and a bunch of other expensive stuff.
It cratered in.
The disaster was so great that, combined with the other losses, it drove the station into near-bankruptcy. Everyone running it was replaced and the new regime turned it into a standard, fiscally responsible PBS station, i.e., everything was subordinated to begging and pleading for membership subscriptions. Paradoxically, that's when I allowed my membership to expire. Although they have always claimed that they show things "complete and uncut", they started dropping off introductory material from at least one program and replacing it with begging and pleading.
Several years later the station finally managed to claw its way out of the hole.
Slashdot Mirror
Connections 2 and 3 are available on tape, but you can only buy the first series if you're an educational institution...and you get charged $BIGNUM for it. (My SO looked into this as a Christmas gift for me, which is how I know.)
Although he acknowledged that the phrase "Billions and billions" has become closely associated with his name, Sagan wrote that he never actually said "Billions and billions...". In fact he said it was Johnny Carson, in one of his many Saganesque skits that actually said it. Nevertheless, it stuck. Just FYI.
1. I wanted to know about the CDs, I don't care for the DVDs. That's why I ask without RTFA
2. I wanted to know where to buy them. Where in the article says where are they for sale? I haven't been able (last time I checked, ~2 yrs ago) to find them.
Victor
Does anyone know whether the soundtrack for the series was ever published as a CD? And if it was, where could I buy it online? :(
I've got the vinyl, but I'd like to listen to it when on the road, and I've been unable to find it on CD
Victor
What about "The Day the Universe Changed", "Connections", and "Connections 2"? Are they available in this format?
...yellow number five, yellow number five, yellow number five...
Sounds like Deism. Deism is the believe that God created the universe in one shining moment, perfectly constructed to unfold in the manner he wanted, and has not done a damn thing since. (Why would he need to? The only reason to make later adjustments would be if you didn't get it right at first, which would contradict the notion of a perfect god.)
--
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Thanks for mentioning that. I just ordered the 5 disc box set from blackstar.co.uk. Amazon US does not have the boxed set and some of the discs are not out yet. Amazon UK though does have the boxed set for 8 pounds less than the blackstar site (damn). Of course you need a region 2 player for the UK release (Apex anyone :) ).
Hedley
I guess he'll have to resort to getting it in streaming RealVideo format... that works under Linux, right? :)
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
Or 'the Day the Universe Changed' series from James Burke.
While I agree with the sentiment, because he clearly had a LOT to contribute to this world...
I have to mention only 3 letters: B H A .
(Apple people know what I'm talking about ;)
SlashSigTheorem: Humorous, Political, Critical, Constructive- If you have a
That's fundy Protestantism, actually. Jesuits, to name but one group in the One True Church, have always cherished science as a way to understand Creation and marvel at the power of God.www.va
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Information wants to be beer, or something like that.
I watched it a couple of years ago. Some of the graphics and "special effect" (like Sagan cruising through the solar system) are highly tacky.
In a related note Segan's "Deamon Haunted World", published a few years before his death, is wonderful.
"Wonderful" is clearly the understatement of the year. The book took me 3 months to read, and its not all that long of a book. It took me some time because the book does what few can, and it actually makes you think.
The chapters that are my particular favorites are "The Baloney Detection Kit" and "Dragon in my Garage" The Baloney Detection Kit can be found on the internet as well here is one link. Anyone whom I respect has a grasp of the kit and how it works, while they may not know of the kit directly, they use its rules just the same.
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
The "DVD format" is a format designed to control the ideas exchanged between students and professors, and serve as a model for the day when all information exchange can be controlled by a central authority.
Except when it's released region-free, or did you not bother to inform yourself before your knee jerked?
Not that I love the MPAA, but geez, you've got options. I bought a DVD player that plays any/all regions, and I get to have my cake and eat it, too.
"The deep-fried Mars bar is a symptom of a wider crisis." -- Nutritionist Ann Ralph, on the Scottish diet
Oh MAN! I should've mentioned it earlier!!!
Oh wait, I did! Now look what you've done, Slashdot Staff That Reviews Submissions!!!
I bought the first A&E set (2 discs) off a friend who ordered two by mistake.
Wait, 5 disc? That can't be the whole series, can it?
--
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
When Sagan begins the thing by dicing himself open with a rose for the purpose of spilling blood?
My astronomy class was puzzling for a bit over that.
Myren
> I didn't like it much.
Me neither. I didn't even bother watching all the episodes.
Way too overhyped, IMO.
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Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Watching the highlights episode recently on PBS, I was reminded just how distinctive his pronunciation was. It isn't the phrase that is so Sagan-esque, but the way you're suppost to say it. And, damn, does he say the world "billion" a lot.
--
Bush's assertion: there ought to be limits to freedom
Islam, as I understand it, uses science to discover more of the wonders of G-d. It's a pity that fundie Christianity seems to believe the opposite.
dave
Folks interested in purchasing this series on DVD (region 0 encoding, i.e. it works in any region), VHS, or CD can do so here.
Full Disclosure: I work for OneCosmos Networks, the latest incarnation of Carl Sagan Productions, the ones who are selling this thing.
Oh man, this is so cool ;) Now, if they'd only issue DVD versions of James Burke's "Connections" (1, 2 and 3) on DVD I'd be a truly happy guy!
Not only was it interesting to once again hear his pronunciation, but it was fun to see his clothing...
Other than the clothing, some of the computer graphics, etc., it was amazing how well this has held up over 20 years. Carl was talking about the amazing possibilities and responsibilities that would arise when we decoded the human genome...which is where we are today.
I was a little kid when this series first aired on PBS, and it was great to see those highlights again. It made me realize just how much I learned and was influenced by this series.
And watching the highlights now, it's interesting to hear how much Pink Floyd was used for music....
Ah, the weak anthropic principal ... The principle that says that the probablility that all the fundamental laws of nature that allow for atoms, galaxies, stars, planets, and people is so small that life in the universe couldn't possibly have happened by chance. This is somewhere on the order of some fraction of 1 percent chance that all the fundamental constants to have fallen to the right values (if it were a random happening) to allow for complex atoms and complex structures (like galaxies, stars, planets, and nucleic acids) to form. (That's the cosmotologists speaking).
<BR>
<BR>Then there are the more simple minded that argue that the Earth has an Ideal Year, day, seasons (tilt), and moon (for tides), to make things diverse enough but also sane enough for such complex inteligent life to come into being (humans)...
<BR>
<BR>Makes you wonder if there wasn't some grand master plan.
Every rule has an exception, and this is the only rule with no exceptions! Huh? -- Spatch
Every rule has an exception, and this is the only rule with no exceptions! Huh? -- Spatch
Yeah, I knew I didn't explain "the kinda God I could consider believing in" very well, because I didn't want to spoil the ending of the Rama series.
Spoiler Alert - The Big Secret of Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series revealed
Basically, the thesis in the Rama books is "What if God gave Himself more than one shot at it?" -- that is, an (imperfect) God keeps mucking about in his workshop, creating universes left, right, and center, until he gets something that he finds interesting.
Like I said -- totally useless from a scientific standpoignt; it's all metaphysics. But a neat idea to juggle around with in your head, and the type of God required is a helluvalot more interesting (well, to me) than the ones traditionally worshipped by humans.
(If God made me in his own image, as a compulsive tinkerer, I'm just returning the favor ;-)
I think Spatch's point about the weak anthropic principle is "so what?"
If the Earth hadn't gotten whacked with an asteroid 65 million years ago, there might be intelligent spacefaring reptiles colonizing the galaxy by now.
You prove Spatch's point when you say:
>if the universe weren't balanced as it is, [...] there wouldn't be ANYONE here to argue about it!
This still doesn't imply design. Consider the probability that all the particles in your cup of coffee will simultaneously jump three feet to the left in accordance with the uncertainty principle. Astoundingly improbable; it'll happen every one-in-a-$FLOATING_POINT_EXCEPTION trillion years.
Now consider the probability that a universe-sized mass with physical constants suitable for the evolution of sentient life will pop out of nothing in the same sort of quantum vacuum fluctuation. Even more stunningly improbable.
But if you've got an infinite amount of time to wait for it to happen, it's not just possible -- it's inevitable.
(The thing I most enjoyed about the HHGTTG is that the bits about improbability physics were remarkably close to the mark :-)
(BTW, thanks for the numbering system, for preserving the works of the Greeks, and for everything else we "borrowed" from Islam during the Dark Ages ;-)
From the Christian side, "The heavens declare thy glory" is merely a religious expression of the same kind of awe Sagan expresses.
I agree wholeheartedly that fundie Christians have completely lost sight of this, and that this is a great pity indeed. (Weak anthropic principle applied to fundies: "but if they had clue, they wouldn't be fundies, would they?" ;-)
Ditto. "A scientist is an atom's way of thinking about atoms."
Connections really was wonderful - I enjoyed it much more than Cosmos and I would guess that it ages much more gracefully.
Cosmos was very broad and forward looking, relying on scientific beliefs which may have changed.
Connections was rooted in historical facts, the majority of which have not changed. It was a fantastic history lesson - everybody should see it!
I think you need a CSS license in order to produce a properly formatted DVD disc, and that is something you pay The Man to get.
I saw some segments from the DVD on a pbs fundraiser and it looks like they have replaced a lot of the cheesy special effects with more modern space photography and the like. It's still the same old Carl Sagan, though, and BOY does he look young!!
Let's agree on one thing: DVD is not evil.
I don't agree. The only way to defeat the studios is to wage the adoption war. Don't touch the format with a 10-foot pole, and it will die. DVD is inextricably linked with CSS. 99.9% of consumers don't understand what's happening inside their DVD player. The slashdot community is far from representative. To get a message to the people, you must simplify. Start ranting about encryption keys and content scrambling and people won't understand.
So, if you need to get a message out, and you want to keep it simple, assume that 99.9% of DVD players are licensed by the CSS, and make the blanket statement that DVD IS evil.
I choose to make this statement, because I believe that only by keeping the DVD standard from being adopted will the industry be taught a lesson it won't forget: keep your standards open, or people won't buy them.
I'm not ignorant, I'm just a lot more pissed off at having lost my first amendment rights than you are.
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
are you aware that until content providers stop using CSS, pushing the format in any way pushes buying a player which puts money in the pockets of the people who hauled a 16 year old kid out of his house in Norway?
I'm talking about a total boycott of the system. Don't touch it until they go out of business or give up.
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
Does the MPAA have anything to do with a PBS special filmed circa 1980?
I don't know for sure, but I suspect they do not.
-Peter
I know who they are, I am just questioning if they are involved in any way with the Cosmos DVD set.
If not, they hardly deserve kudos for not region encoding something that they have no authority to region encode in the first place.
-Peter
Yeah, but does it have that damn FBI warning you can't skip past?
Note to DVD makers:
Do you actually believe that not being able to skip that warning has resulted in even one less pirate disk? Why do you go to so much trouble to make a nice presentation, then right out the box the first thing you do is annoy the user?
Well, that's the slashdot mentality anyway.
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Free Mac Mini
ewps, I'm just silly slashDUH.org
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Free Mac Mini
Good luck finding a region 0 player.
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Free Mac Mini
What's illegal about leading a boycott?
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Free Mac Mini
Where did you pick up a region free DVD player?
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Free Mac Mini
"Region Free"
god forbid if we mention that a DVD is region free, that will demisih the power to change the world and show that MPAA arn't a bunch of bastards ALL the time.
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Free Mac Mini
What you didn't ask is does it point out a problem that needs to be addressed? YES. While I like both /. and Linux what I don't like is those with a love so blind they are unwilling to admit when they have problems, and if these problems are not addressed we will soon lose them. I like Linux because of what it stands for and what I can do with it, and that it is the best alternitave for my needs. I can't stand those who like it because it is NOT Microsoft. We need to admit when we have a problem and fix it. Take the 2.4 kernel, it's not ready and Linus is willing to hold it back till it is regardless of pressure to send it out. That means Linux has a resonsible leader in charge, It's time that slashdot got the same thing.
iRepairIT - iPhone, Mac, & PC Repair
+++
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NO CARRIER
The official soundtrack is also being rereleased on CD.
max
People can play VHS tapes on inexpensive consumer devices. People can play DVD on inexpensive consumer devices. Must everything on /. be reduced to the same tired old cliches? Sigh.
You're right, but I never said anything about a DVD decoder that works in Linux, legal or otherwise, did I? Tee hee!
I'll take what you wrote at face value (Hi Dr Awktagon!) ... "mtv" (here) has a "Play VCD" option on the menus, but I haven't tried it (no VideoCDs to hand).
No No No! This is all wrong! No more! I need to scrub my eyes with brillo ever time I see the damn URL!
This
...where he gets on a bicycle and pedals to light speed is gone for a minute and everyone he knows is old?
This
Amazon currently has it in stock:O B/ qid=977943642/sr=1-/103-7399141-6200629
:)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000055Z
Anyone want to buy it for me?
Did I slip in a grits joke? Did I put in that link?
Some would argue that my original post was informative but apparently not.
Quoting the header of the article. That's funny, though. Not redundant either.
Kudos moderators
and kudos again.
come for the naked robots, stay for the zombies
Heh, I was actually arguing FOR your points :)
I'm just glad all these probabilities added up to what they did so that I can enjoy a good stary night and a cup of coffee.
--
Soma: because a gramme is better than a damn.
An even more interesting thought would be to let your perfectly organized and rational universe do whatever it wanted and see how it turned out every few million years.
--
Soma: because a gramme is better than a damn.
The problem with those arguments are that:
If the Earth was a planet where the complex interactions weren't balanced 'just right', we wouldn't be here!
Also, if the universe weren't balanced as it is, fairly helpful to life and with many complex interactions, there wouldn't be ANYONE here to argue about it!
--
Soma: because a gramme is better than a damn.
you should know what you are talking about before you open your mouth and stick your foot into it. DVD decoder that works in linux and it legal.
A few hours grace before the madness begins again.
The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all, is the person who argues with him.
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
No no it does not. It only supports the MPAA if the content was made by a MPAA member if you buy a VHS tape of something that was produced by a MPAA member you have given money to the MPAA if you buy a DVD of something that was not produced by a MPAA member you are not giving money to the MPAA it is about content *not* media.
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
Well folks,
I still haven't bought a dvd player... but this news makes me think about it. Is this dvd region coded?
Mi domando chi à il mandante di tutte le cazzate che faccio - Altan
Although the theory of evolution has many supporters, such as Sagan, this has no relevance to the truth of the matter.
"Evolution" is a fact as much as "gravity" is a fact. There are several theories of evolution to explain how it works, just as there are theories to explain how gravity works.
Today we can see evolution's supports slowly crumbling, because of new evidence.
Such as....?
In immense numbers of years it took to evolve these features, they would have simply served as a useless hunk of flesh that made life difficult.
Wrong. See the talk.origins website.
I wish I had moderator privs today. :-b
As for what we COULD have done? Well, ASSUMING we aren't already in contact with extraterrestrial intelligences, we should concentrate on the technology that will bring mankind to the stars.
SETI's probability of success is, for all practical purposes, ZERO.
Consider:
I firmly believe that exploration is the ONLY way mankind will ever encounter such intelligence, unless it's already happened to us by way of THEM visiting us. If that's the case, then they've already decided to keep it between them and the powers that be - so we are still SOL.
Sagan maintained a high profile, and reiterated his thought that UFOs were hogwash and it was unlikely we had ever been visited. Oddly, there IS evidence that something has been going on. To ignore that, and continue to make such pronunciations is odd indeed - unless he had knowledge we didn't and was part of a "greater plan".
"Contact" only seems to further the propaganda.
Great... just because the high and mighty moderators worship the gorund Carl Sagan walked on, I get tagged a troll.
The truth is that Carl Sagan knew more than you or I will EVER know about the extraterrestrial presence here on Earth, and served the government to disinform the public and keep that secret. "Look to the skys!" because the truth is under your nose, and we don't want you looking there!!! SETI was a joke. Sagan was behind it all, and for someone with his insight and knowledge, there is no way he could not have seen that.
For you people to worship him is a disgrace. Call me a troll all you want, but the TRUTH is out there, even if you yourselves DENY it.
the entire series, ALREADY ON DVD.
now, i'm in charleston attending naval nuclear training, so watching tv is a rarity for me :P but, i definately remember seeing these being offered.
anyway, just thought people would want to know.
t14m4t
67.5% Slashdot Pure I guess I need to work on that....
I don't think so. It would be quite an expensive collection. I think there were 20 (or maybe even more) hour-long episodes. The last time I saw it, I think it was broadcast on one of the specialty channels like The Learning Channel or similar.
"If I have seen further than other men, it is by stepping on their glasses." - Michael Swaine
I saw this series when it was originally telecast, and I was an adult at the time. I didn't like it much. There was too much trembling awe at the majesty of the heavens and not enough factual information. I'll be interested to see what others who saw it as kids think of it now. Now, for a science series that really was well done, I don't think that you can beat The Mechanical Universe. If you ever get a chance, catch it.
"If I have seen further than other men, it is by stepping on their glasses." - Michael Swaine
for someone with his insight and knowledge, there is no way he could not have seen that.
Sagan was great, but he wasn't the only great one. I won't try to list names, but if Sagan knew what you claim he knew, then hundreds of his colleages would have known it, too, and would have to be in on the cover-up.
Besides, I can't recall Carl Sagan actually writing that the Earth has not been visited. I do recall him writing that claims of such extraordinary visits would require extraordinary proof, which, so far, has yet to surface.
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
Sagan met claims of extraterrestrial visitation with an open mind and summarily debunked them.
"Contact" was Sagan's way of countering all the tales of visitation and abduction. He proposed a story of how contact might actually proceed.
When you say that "exploration is the ONLY way mankind will ever encounter such intelligence," you seem to be implying that transporting ourselves or our machines around the galaxy will have a much better chance of succeeding than other methods of detecting. This indicates to me that you don't have a grasp of how much easier it is to listen to a billion stars via radio, than to travel to one of them in less than a hundred generations. You speak of the power concerns of a radio message, which is nothing in comparison to what it takes to move matter to another star.
Right now, radio is what we have. It's reasonable to assume (as far as it's reasonable to assume anything about ETI) that other minds in the galaxy will acquire radio and see how it can be used to communicate between the stars. A very powerful race might have a few members who decide to build their own radios as part of an ongoing SETI contact project.
If there is something other than radio suitible for interstellar communication (please don't suggest entangled particles or some kind of FTL communication), then we can start SETI with that. In fact, optical SETI projects are currently underway. Perhaps we'll figure out how to detect artificial gravity waves, though I doubt we'd really want to meet people capable of communicating with binary neutron stars, or what not.
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
Funny that, Mine's a desktop PC in the bottom of my equipment rack, with my ATI video card outputting the computer video signal, and the RealMagic Hollywood Plus outputting the DVD signal...
It's easier to play mp3s to the surround sound that way...
"Titanic was 3hr and 17min long. They could have lost 3hr and 17min from that."
IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS,
And everywhere the language went, it was a total loss...
... at Amazon.com for $118 US, I've not found it listed anywhere else. 7 DVD Discs.
"Titanic was 3hr and 17min long. They could have lost 3hr and 17min from that."
IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS,
And everywhere the language went, it was a total loss...
"to boldly encode where no one has encoded before."
It's regionless actually, at least that's what Amazon.com has to say...
"Titanic was 3hr and 17min long. They could have lost 3hr and 17min from that."
IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS,
And everywhere the language went, it was a total loss...
Though it seems people with bushy beards and long hair all tend to look the same anyway..
Aww, heck and I thought you were going to point out that I can't play tapes on my Linux machine either.
Why are we talking about DVDs here? It's not like we can play them on our Linux machines, at least not without breaking laws.
That's not news, it's been available for a while. I've gotten a copy two weeks ago. Yaroslav
Carl Sagan is "guilty of perpetuating this farce of searching for life using the most unlikely method possible" ...? How do you figure that?
And what would you propose as a more efficient method of searching for extraterrestrial life? Running around chasing UFOs?
SETI might have a low probability of success but it is arguably not zero.
Caveat is that it only runs on Win95/98/NT (except for the beginnings of a port I did for my kids to Macintosh while waiting on a distributor).
This would be a shameless plug if I was getting any royalties from it, but I am not... so it is just a plain old plug... it is available at Exploring the Planets. It was an exceptionally cool project to work on. My first day on the job, as we were getting the office set up, I answered the phone and tried to take a message for Gentry (Chief Engineer of Viking I & II and Galileo). The guy just said to let him know that "Buzz called". It just got better from there.
Dave
The typical corporate mentallity now is "if the public isn't buying, they must be getting it illegally."
Of course, they would never stop to think that maybe, just maybe, someone out there woke up from the induced mental haze and said, "hey, I'll bet we could live without that techno-marvel"! No, none of us would do that now would we? After all, we are just sheep, and without those big corporations telling us what to do, what to buy, and how to use what we buy, we would all degenerate into a bunch of pirating, stealing degenerates.
Sorry for the rant. Too much coroprate influence today.
------------
MAXOMENOS, You are missing the point that the "Source Code vs the first Amendment" issue is of interest to a very, very small group whereas the availability of high quality content on DVD is of widespread interest. It is doubtful that the studios would even notice a DVD boycott encouraged by the open Source community.
Damn! And I'm nearly finished converting all my 13 year old VHS tapes of 'The Prisoner' to VCD format....
Hay thar.
What i'd really like to know is, which version will it be? The original, which air'ed in Sept-Nov 80 on PBS was great. Turner bought the rights to sell the series later and trashed it. The music is changed and various selections have been modified. How do I know? I've got the originals and I've compared to Turners version. Its a damn shame I tell ya. A damn shame! Rod
this is actually quite a neat little bit of trivia(and BTW: I'm a Mac user, and I still love Sagan). anyway:
When the PowerPC first came out, Apple released three machines: the 6100, the 8100, and the 7100. The code names for these machines were PDM(for Piltdown Man), Cold Fusion, and Carl Sagan, respectively.
Sagan was pissed at being grouped with the two hoaxes(or gaffe at least, in the case of PDM). Sagan got pissed, called his lawyer, and Apple changed it to BHA. This is where most of the stories end. But in fact, Sagan found out, as did most people, that BHA stood for butt-head-astronomer. When he learned this, he again called his lawyer.
Apple finally rested on the name LAW(lawyers are wimps). One might find some irony of the 1995 Apple saying lawyers are wimps when the present-day Apple sues anyone who makes something bondi blue, but...
VHS is as closed source as DVD is it not? It never became an issue because few cared to hook them up to a computer. There are licence fees for any other common media format, why rant only about DVD?
If I can find this series on LD I will get that. In no way will I touch VHS as if you haven't noticed, only supports 1/2 the line resolution and 1/6 the color resolution that a good TV can handle.
Actually, the decryption key costs less than $6 per player, and that is a one-time charge for the life of the player. The DVD-ROM drives are still fairly expensive, and the MPEG / DD decoding circuitry / software isn't exactly a picnic.
Macrovision is easy enough to legally get around.
It'll take a lot of education to get people to dis-embrace the latest format. Right now I think about 85% of US homes have yet to get a DVD player, so you have a solid chance with them.
I'll echo part of my other post, if I can find this series on LD I will get that. In no way will I touch VHS as if you haven't noticed, only supports 1/2 the line resolution and 1/6 the color resolution that a good TV can handle.
This is the Nth story that I've seen Slashdot post announcing the release of some movie or another onto DVD. It makes me seriously wonder whether Hemos, CmdrTaco and company are even aware that every DVD that you buy puts money in the pockets of the MPAA to argue that source code is not protected by the First Amendment. It's awful damn hard to argue for a boycott of this technology when one of the main geek pages out there is jumping for joy every time it gets applied to another one of their favorite cultural phenomena.
Don't get me wrong; I love Cosmos and I'm very glad that it's being re-released, on VHS. It's getting the props it deserves. I'm going to get this for a friend of mine when she has her kid in, oh, three weeks. The point is that DVD technology, as it stands right now, is a threat to the development of free software. It is against our best interests to keep supporting DVDs.
ObJectBridge (GPL'd Java ODMG) needs volunteers.
Finding God in a Dog
He talks about this in his last book, actually entitled Billions and Billions. (Wonderful book.) The term "billion" wasn't then in the sort of everyday use it is now - we didn't have so many billionaries running around, etc. So he over-emphasized Billion to distinguish it from Million.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Except when it's released region-free, or did you not bother to inform yourself before your knee jerked?
See my Other post on this already. There's no "except" here. The DVD format, region encoded or not, still needs a DVD player to view it. And 99% of the people out there buying DVD players are going down to Best Buy and picking up their encryption keys for $129.99. It's still Cosmos coming out of the back of your Macrovision-scrambled player, and you've still lost another home to the CSS-adoption war. I don't care if you sell the DVD region free with a complimentary Macrovision scrubber. The format is tainted, and pushing it advances the goals of the some very scary people.
All I'm saying is, can't we have "Cosmos released on VHS! (and, dear lord, DVD too)" as our headline?
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What happens when you outlaw guns
IT (IRONY TODAY):
News Flash! Carl Sagan's Cosmos, a modern masterpiece of Science (science is a "movement" founded on "principles" such as "the free exchange of ideas") was released on the "DVD format" today. The "DVD format" is a format designed to control the ideas exchanged between students and professors, and serve as a model for the day when all information exchange can be controlled by a central authority.
Later on our program, a special feature on "Cops running red lights".
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
Better yet, it would have been nice if they had used DVD's "seamless branching" features to allow the viewer to choose which version (original or updated) they wanted to watch, as with the DVDs for "The Abyss" and "Terminator 2".
What bothers me most about the updated version are the changes made during some of the sequences when he is flying through space in his "spaceship of the imagination". There are a few places where they have inserted pictures from the Hubble telescope, which is good, but they are not animated, which is bad. In the new footage, instead of being animated, is just made up of simple camera pans across a flat photograph, which looks cheap. It's jarring and incongruous. The original footage was animated with a multiplane camera (not CGI), which produced a nice effect of flying through space. The new stuff looks too simplistic next to that.
There are also some amazing video effects in Cosmos. Watch the part where he is walking through the Great Library of Alexandria. That's a model he's walking through. He's just superimposed. And it's video superimposing, too. Who knew the "chroma-key" technique used in the days of analog video could look so good? I'm still impressed with how good that looks.
Free Hans!
If only there could be a commentary audio track to hear the words behind the show from the man himself.
I guess we'll have to settle for some lame impersonation of some guy going "billions and billions" over and over again for the length of the series.
And 99% of the people out there buying DVD players are going down to Best Buy and picking up their encryption keys for $129.99. It's still Cosmos coming out of the back of your Macrovision-scrambled player, and you've still lost another home to the CSS-adoption war.
My DVD player has no region protection and no macrovision generation, and it came from the factory with those abilities waiting to be enabled. Must be some unknown Chinese brand, you say? No, it's a Sony DVP-S7000. The MPAA can shove its Orwellian shit right back up its ass from whence it came. (Sorry, that just slipped out.)
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and SETI is an incredibly worthless disinformation campaign run to keep Earth in the dark about the presence of intelligent life outside of our solar system
And distributed.net is incredibly worthless disinformation campaign run to keep Earth in the dark about the presence of unbreakable strong encryption, correct?
Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Flatland, like most popular works of classic literature written before 1923, is available from Project Gutenberg. It's also available from Project Nodeberg (Everything's partial PG mirror) here.
Sadly, nothing written on or after January 1, 1923, will ever expire into the public domain because of atrocities like the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Every 20 years, Disney buys another 20 years of copyright in every major jurisdiction.
Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo.
Will I retire or break 10K?
It made me wonder just what that thing I comprehended as my mother really was if you were to extrapolate her into the fourth dimension.
Scary.
Can anyone point me to a purchase link? I would like to buy it now!
Carl came to speak at my college, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, back in 92 or 93. I didn't recognize him at all because my last memory of him was his moppy haircut and bellbottoms. He was light gray, very thin, tall and somewhat hunched. I was a little unnerved by how aged he looked.
He spoke about comets colliding w/the earth, that was his big thing at the end of his career. He had some interesting slides, and sat on a big easy-chair on our stage. All three lecture halls were filled (one live, two broadcast), and the lobbies were packed by people from three other colleges.
Sadly, the technical crew at my school were a bunch of fuckups because they constantly failed to advance the slides when he asked, and when he did, sometimes they went in the wrong direction. They even left him in the dark twice. It was very embarassing, and he even became irritated by it, ultimately scorning them. The audience chuckled uneasily.
Anyway, he was a very dramatic and passionate speaker, even in his old age. We were lucky to have him, and other flamboyant personalities, like Feynman. He may not have penned any important constants or equations, but he was definitely one of the heartiest thinkers of his discipline in our generation.
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https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
The great thing about networks releasing entire shows on DVD is:
1) More people become aware of the show because of the limited number of DVD titles (not so much anymore)
2) Fans don't have to talk about the "good ol' days of network broadcasts." Waiting for NBC or CBS or whatever to replay these on air would be insane
3) DVD makes jumping between episodes easy! Oh, shoot the show about when Mr. Wizard comes to visit Carl is episode #42 not #32.
...and finally...
4) The children of a new generation are able to appreciate some of the finest achievements of television.
I wonder if the BBC is going to release a DVD with the Connections or Connections 2 series.
Man that was a great series!
When I was a little girl, my older brother and I would have the usual bitchfests about who got to watch what TV program. Well, one night the contest came down to some Disney movie (me) and Cosmos (him).
It was one fight that was won more in the losing...It was the fabled Flatland episode that riveted a hyper little girl to the screen for an hour. It was the first time that any teacher in my life had connected science to the beloved worlds of art and poetry. He must have inspired other in the same way that night, and that kind of teaching doesn't dim with age.
Thank you for the opportunity to relive that little memory!
Sincerely, Kathryn AegisJust buy the original book by Edwin Abbott (or A. Square)
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MailOne
Non-meta-modded "Overrated" mods are killing Slashdot
(Hey Ryan! Here's your proof!)
The "Cosmos Updates" are present; from the re-edit done ten years after the initial broadcast, as might be expected. But there has been some further editing too, how much I'm not sure I only noticed one spot that gave the game away. There is a rapid sequence of images near the very end which includes a screen shot of the M$ Windows SETI@Home client! I had to rewind and take another look to make sure; it looked like version 2.04 to me!
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
to boldly encode where no one has encoded before.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Sagan is one man who was taken from us far too soon.
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seumas.com
Sure, Carl Sagan stuff and anything ANIME you post. But that The Prisoner is finally available on DVD, that you ignore???
No justice, I tell you.
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In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
KCET, the PBS station here in El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula, was flying high at the time Cosmos was made. This big, fancy production was supposed to be their crowning achievement and make them all a boodle of money, or rather, make back the boodle they'd spent producing it and a bunch of other expensive stuff.
It cratered in.
The disaster was so great that, combined with the other losses, it drove the station into near-bankruptcy. Everyone running it was replaced and the new regime turned it into a standard, fiscally responsible PBS station, i.e., everything was subordinated to begging and pleading for membership subscriptions. Paradoxically, that's when I allowed my membership to expire. Although they have always claimed that they show things "complete and uncut", they started dropping off introductory material from at least one program and replacing it with begging and pleading.
Several years later the station finally managed to claw its way out of the hole.
I'm still not a member.
No one around KCET mentions Cosmos any more.