Re: [scifinoir2] An alternative to the Bush speech tonight

2005-07-01 Thread Amy Harlib

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
  I saw a superb filmed drama of this story that had been made in the 70s.  
http://imdb.com/title/tt0073029/
  Cheers!
  Amy



  While I try to follow our leaders at all times, I simply haven't been
  able to force myself to watch any news conferences by the idiot in the
  White House.  So, while channel surfing to find something good on TV, I
  came across a great two hour program on PBS. It's a documentary on the
  life of Galileo, done as an historical drama with actors portraying the
  scientist and others in his life. Astronomy nut that I am, I couldn't
  resist sitting down and watching the whole thing, reliving again the
  wonder that Galileo must have felt as his telescope literally revealed a
  whole new view of the cosmos. The moons of Jupiter, closer views of
  Mars, stars never before seen, the surface of the moon, sunspots.
  Amazing.   And then of course comes the Inquisition, when the Church
  rebuts his theories of a Sun-centered system where the Earth, rather
  than being the center of the universe, moves around the sun. Galileo was
  ultimately forced to basically recant his theories or face life in
  prison as a heretic. As it was he spent the rest of his life in virtual
  house arrest, kept there by a Church afraid of Truth.  So I end up
  watching a show about a man whose revelation of the Truth was quenched
  by close-minded moralistic unyielding fools who supressed the facts in
  order to keep alive a lie, advance their agenda, and keep power
  centralized in their own hands? Men who didn't hesitate to condemn and
  destroy some of the best and brighest people of their time?

  Hmmguess I could have watched Bush's speech after all.



  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/galileo/about.html
  In this two-hour special, NOVA celebrates the story of the father of
  modern science and his struggle to get Church authorities to accept the
  truth of his astonishing discoveries. The program is based on Dava
  Sobel's bestselling book, Galileo's Daughter, which reveals a new side
  to the famously stubborn scientist-that his closest confidante was his
  illegitimate daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun. The actor
  Simon Callow plays Galileo in dramatic reenactments of key moments from
  his life: his pioneering telescopic observations of the Moon and
  planets, his revolutionary experiments with falling objects, and his
  fateful trial before the Inquisition for heresy. Born in 1564, Galileo
  lived a generation after Nicolas Copernicus published his controversial
  theory that the Earth was not the center of the universe around which
  the heavens revolved. Galileo supported the idea that the Earth turned
  on its axis and that it, along with the planets, revolved around the
  sun. The view was considered absurd by most scholars since it
  contradicted certain passages in the Bible and challenged the
  commonsense experience of the Earth as a solid, unmoving object. But
  Galileo found merit in the idea, especially after he aimed a newly
  invented instrument called the telescope at the night sky and saw that
  the Moon and planets were far from the perfect realms accepted by the
  Catholic Church. His discovery of moons orbiting Jupiter and phases in
  the appearance of Venus, analogous to the phases of the Moon, supported
  the Copernican view. 

  The Church insisted that Galileo couch his speculations in hypothetical
  terms only. But he stepped over the line in 1632 when he published his
  Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, in which a simpleton mouths the
  views of the then-reigning pope, Urban VIII. This was too much for the
  Pope, and Galileo was hauled before the Inquisition, which had tortured
  and burned to death malefactors for far less. Galileo's clash with the
  Vatican put Sister Maria Celeste in an awkward position, but she
  continued to correspond and meet with her father and even served as his
  editor. Though his life was spared, Galileo was put under house arrest,
  and the Dialogue was banned. But it was a Pyrrhic victory for the
  Church. Galileo's arguments eventually won the war for the Copernican
  theory, making it intellectually respectable to believe that the Earth
  in fact moves, says Harvard professor Owen Gingerich. 

  Previously an obscure branch of philosophy, science was now on the road
  to becoming the preeminent method for discovering how the world
  works-thanks to Galileo.



  [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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[scifinoir2] An alternative to the Bush speech tonight

2005-06-29 Thread Keith Johnson
While I try to follow our leaders at all times, I simply haven't been
able to force myself to watch any news conferences by the idiot in the
White House.  So, while channel surfing to find something good on TV, I
came across a great two hour program on PBS. It's a documentary on the
life of Galileo, done as an historical drama with actors portraying the
scientist and others in his life. Astronomy nut that I am, I couldn't
resist sitting down and watching the whole thing, reliving again the
wonder that Galileo must have felt as his telescope literally revealed a
whole new view of the cosmos. The moons of Jupiter, closer views of
Mars, stars never before seen, the surface of the moon, sunspots.
Amazing.   And then of course comes the Inquisition, when the Church
rebuts his theories of a Sun-centered system where the Earth, rather
than being the center of the universe, moves around the sun. Galileo was
ultimately forced to basically recant his theories or face life in
prison as a heretic. As it was he spent the rest of his life in virtual
house arrest, kept there by a Church afraid of Truth.  So I end up
watching a show about a man whose revelation of the Truth was quenched
by close-minded moralistic unyielding fools who supressed the facts in
order to keep alive a lie, advance their agenda, and keep power
centralized in their own hands? Men who didn't hesitate to condemn and
destroy some of the best and brighest people of their time?
 
Hmmguess I could have watched Bush's speech after all.
 
 
 
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/galileo/about.html
In this two-hour special, NOVA celebrates the story of the father of
modern science and his struggle to get Church authorities to accept the
truth of his astonishing discoveries. The program is based on Dava
Sobel's bestselling book, Galileo's Daughter, which reveals a new side
to the famously stubborn scientist-that his closest confidante was his
illegitimate daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun. The actor
Simon Callow plays Galileo in dramatic reenactments of key moments from
his life: his pioneering telescopic observations of the Moon and
planets, his revolutionary experiments with falling objects, and his
fateful trial before the Inquisition for heresy. Born in 1564, Galileo
lived a generation after Nicolas Copernicus published his controversial
theory that the Earth was not the center of the universe around which
the heavens revolved. Galileo supported the idea that the Earth turned
on its axis and that it, along with the planets, revolved around the
sun. The view was considered absurd by most scholars since it
contradicted certain passages in the Bible and challenged the
commonsense experience of the Earth as a solid, unmoving object. But
Galileo found merit in the idea, especially after he aimed a newly
invented instrument called the telescope at the night sky and saw that
the Moon and planets were far from the perfect realms accepted by the
Catholic Church. His discovery of moons orbiting Jupiter and phases in
the appearance of Venus, analogous to the phases of the Moon, supported
the Copernican view. 

The Church insisted that Galileo couch his speculations in hypothetical
terms only. But he stepped over the line in 1632 when he published his
Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, in which a simpleton mouths the
views of the then-reigning pope, Urban VIII. This was too much for the
Pope, and Galileo was hauled before the Inquisition, which had tortured
and burned to death malefactors for far less. Galileo's clash with the
Vatican put Sister Maria Celeste in an awkward position, but she
continued to correspond and meet with her father and even served as his
editor. Though his life was spared, Galileo was put under house arrest,
and the Dialogue was banned. But it was a Pyrrhic victory for the
Church. Galileo's arguments eventually won the war for the Copernican
theory, making it intellectually respectable to believe that the Earth
in fact moves, says Harvard professor Owen Gingerich. 

Previously an obscure branch of philosophy, science was now on the road
to becoming the preeminent method for discovering how the world
works-thanks to Galileo.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



 
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[scifinoir2] An alternative to the Bush speech tonight

2005-06-29 Thread Keith Johnson
While I try to follow our leaders at all times, I simply haven't been
able to force myself to watch any news conferences by the idiot in the
White House.  So, while channel surfing to find something good on TV, I
came across a great two hour program on PBS. It's a documentary on the
life of Galileo, done as an historical drama with actors portraying the
scientist and others in his life. Astronomy nut that I am, I couldn't
resist sitting down and watching the whole thing, reliving again the
wonder that Galileo must have felt as his telescope literally revealed a
whole new view of the cosmos. The moons of Jupiter, closer views of
Mars, stars never before seen, the surface of the moon, sunspots.
Amazing.   And then of course comes the Inquisition, when the Church
rebuts his theories of a Sun-centered system where the Earth, rather
than being the center of the universe, moves around the sun. Galileo was
ultimately forced to basically recant his theories or face life in
prison as a heretic. As it was he spent the rest of his life in virtual
house arrest, kept there by a Church afraid of Truth.  So I end up
watching a show about a man whose revelation of the Truth was quenched
by close-minded moralistic unyielding fools who supressed the facts in
order to keep alive a lie, advance their agenda, and keep power
centralized in their own hands? Men who didn't hesitate to condemn and
destroy some of the best and brighest people of their time?
 
Hmmguess I could have watched Bush's speech after all.
 
 
 
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/galileo/about.html
In this two-hour special, NOVA celebrates the story of the father of
modern science and his struggle to get Church authorities to accept the
truth of his astonishing discoveries. The program is based on Dava
Sobel's bestselling book, Galileo's Daughter, which reveals a new side
to the famously stubborn scientist-that his closest confidante was his
illegitimate daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun. The actor
Simon Callow plays Galileo in dramatic reenactments of key moments from
his life: his pioneering telescopic observations of the Moon and
planets, his revolutionary experiments with falling objects, and his
fateful trial before the Inquisition for heresy. Born in 1564, Galileo
lived a generation after Nicolas Copernicus published his controversial
theory that the Earth was not the center of the universe around which
the heavens revolved. Galileo supported the idea that the Earth turned
on its axis and that it, along with the planets, revolved around the
sun. The view was considered absurd by most scholars since it
contradicted certain passages in the Bible and challenged the
commonsense experience of the Earth as a solid, unmoving object. But
Galileo found merit in the idea, especially after he aimed a newly
invented instrument called the telescope at the night sky and saw that
the Moon and planets were far from the perfect realms accepted by the
Catholic Church. His discovery of moons orbiting Jupiter and phases in
the appearance of Venus, analogous to the phases of the Moon, supported
the Copernican view. 

The Church insisted that Galileo couch his speculations in hypothetical
terms only. But he stepped over the line in 1632 when he published his
Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, in which a simpleton mouths the
views of the then-reigning pope, Urban VIII. This was too much for the
Pope, and Galileo was hauled before the Inquisition, which had tortured
and burned to death malefactors for far less. Galileo's clash with the
Vatican put Sister Maria Celeste in an awkward position, but she
continued to correspond and meet with her father and even served as his
editor. Though his life was spared, Galileo was put under house arrest,
and the Dialogue was banned. But it was a Pyrrhic victory for the
Church. Galileo's arguments eventually won the war for the Copernican
theory, making it intellectually respectable to believe that the Earth
in fact moves, says Harvard professor Owen Gingerich. 

Previously an obscure branch of philosophy, science was now on the road
to becoming the preeminent method for discovering how the world
works-thanks to Galileo.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



 
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