Originally posted by: DrPizza
Because they need enough material to make an entire season that's dumbed down to the average level of their viewers (you're probably well above average) - after the solar system topics, the remaining topics are (probably)
Stars, big, little, quasars, white dwarfs, and black holes
Galaxies, ours is the milky way
Lots and lots of galaxies.
and perhaps an episode on miscellaneous: planets beyond the solar system, expansion of the universe.
Don't get me wrong - I agree with you. But, in the past few years, it's seemed that the history channels and discover channels have really watered down their content. Heck, they have absolute garbage on their masquerading as science, ie. haunted houses, dog psychics, etc.
They might mention something about the big bang, but they don't want to offend the 50% (or greater) of their viewers who don't believe in the big bang. *sigh*
There are probably plenty of people out there who don't know how the sun continues to burn, what with there being no oxygen and space and all.
I remember getting a free pass in 4th grade on the section regarding the planets. By that time, I'd memorized the orbital period, diameter, number of known moons, basic composition, and other attributes of the planets. This was apparently more than the teacher knew about the subject. I guess her knowledge of the subject was just what she was reading out of a textbook, which was also more outdated than what I'd memorized, which at the time was information from the Voyager probes.
Watering down of shows: yeah, I've seen it too. They're also playing the ratings game, trying to get ratings by playing loud, irritating "music" over a lot of the show, or setting everything up like it's a damn competition. Animal Planet: "Most Extreme this-and-that." What next, American Animal Idol? 24 Amazing Animals. Lost Animals. The Office of Animals. And keep dumbing it down: convince the populace that they're being educated, while in fact, they're being educated less and less with each passing year, to the point that it is little more than, as the OP alluded to, review of what you didn't pay attention to elementary school.
Originally posted by: 3NF
Want to read an alternative theory to the formation of our galaxies, planets, etc? An idea that gravity doesn't dominate the cosmos?
Check out,
http://www.electric-universe.org/
Plenty of follow up links from there.
I don't think they are teaching this stuff in school ...
Edit:
Additionally, the following is a good forum with intelligent discussion on EU theory - intelligent in that it is proably a couple of order of magnitudes higher than what you'll find here at ATOT
http://www.thunderbolts.info/f...phpBB/phpBB2/index.php
From The Electric Universe:
"Galaxies are shaped by electrical forces and form plasma focuses at their centers, which periodically eject quasars and jets of electrons."
Galaxies eject quasars? As I understand it, a quasar is a result of a huge black hole at the center of a galaxy, which results in the emission of incredible amounts of energy. Galaxies don't eject them. It'd be like saying that the Milky Way ejects galaxies from its center.
On initial glance, that stuff seems a bit suspect. Redshift is apparently not a valid way of showing that the Universe is expanding? Some of it sounds a bit wishy-washy too.
"We are not hopelessly isolated in time and space on a tiny rock, orbiting an insignificant star in an insignificant galaxy. We are hopefully connected with the power and intelligence of the universe."
Aww, how sweet.
Originally posted by: 3NF
You don't have a clue ... did you even read it, or do you just normally jump to conclusions without justification? All I'm providing is an alternative theory. Don't be so quick to follow the "leaders" ...
The Flying Spaghetti Monster could also be called an "alternative theory." Do you idly dismiss our Noodly Master?
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