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Tags for this video have been changed from 'Adaptation, Brian, Cox, Nick, Cage, Seminar, Screen, Writing' to 'Adaptation, Brian, Cox, Nick, Cage, Seminar, Screen, Writing, charlie kaufman' - edited by blankfist

Love Brian Cox. Great actor.

Your video, Adaptation: Brian Cox brilliantly Destroys Nicholas Cage, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

>> ^Trancecoach:
Cox's character is based on a real screenwriting teacher, Robert McKee.



And here's his classic book: http://www.amazon.com/Story-Substance-Structure-Principles-Screenwriting/dp/0060391685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249724210&sr=8-1

LOL

In reply to this comment by deputydog:
*promote for cocks

A most excellent promote if I do say so.

In reply to this comment by deputydog:
*promote for cocks

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Thanks for the boost! This will be my first 15 sifted vid I reckon.

In reply to this comment by eric3579:
*promote *talks

In reference to what i am getting from this thread is there is no God and this is all just one big cosmic coincidence? Now how much belief does that take?

2 points here, firstly, How much belief it takes? well, to me, its not really a matter of belief or "faith", its a matter of evidence. Scientists have studied the universe for a long time and concluded, based on EVIDENCE, that the universe is expanding at an exponential rate. By comparing stars at various distances, we can look back in time, literally, and see how the early universe looked and behaved. Which brings me to point number 2: "cosmic accident" is a gross oversimplification of our current understanding of the universe.

We have deduced, based on evidence that the early universe was much denser and hotter and simpler than it is now. Brian Cox used a snowflake as a metaphor, this old, "frozen" universe is complex and interesting, where as the early universe, like a melted snowflake, would just be a dense , hot gass of sorts, ultimately with only hydrogen in it. As Carl Sagan said: This (meaning us humans, earth and every living creature on it) is what you get when you give Hydrogen atoms 14 billion years to evolve.

Right now, our Sun with its immense gravitational pressure fuses 700 million tons of hydrogen into 695 million tons of helium, EVERY SECOND. 5 Million tons of pure energy is released, equaling something like 200 million Hiroshima bombs EVERY SECOND. Yet these extreme numbers are peanuts compared to the events that shaped our universe. Our sun simply isnt powerful enough to fuse helium and create heavier elements. For that, we need bigger "Weapons of Cosmic Destruction Creation" Supernovae, red giants, galactic collisions and supermassive black holes, nebulae and gas clouds beyond all imaginations. From cosmic events like this, all the ingredients we take for granted here on earth, (like carbon etc) were originally created. Again when talking about grand stuff like this that I know little about, it is best to qoute Carl Sagan again:

We are the Stuff Of Stars.

I love that quote because it is literally true.

So thats the "accident" before life arose. The exact chemical reactions that gave rise to the first self-replicating molecule is not fully understood, but once that first barrier was crossed (achieving high-fidelity replication) Evolution by natural selection is INEVITABLE.It still took a good 2 billion years before cells start grouping into multi-cellular organisms, but when that revolution happened, we went from flatworm to primates in a measly 700 million years.

That account of the Cosmic accident is a far to brief, incomplete and rough draft of what happened, of course, I only mean to point out that this isnt some mad scientists guesswork. The processes and events above have been predicted, discovered, tested and examined and calculated and peer-reviewed and-- you get the point. They are our current best shot at understanding the universe, based on the available evidence. Naturally, much is left to discover, and thats what makes science interesting.

I really like Brian Cox. He's the best thing that's happened to us dolts trying to understand the world around us since Carl Sagan.

>> ^Chaucer:
good choice of music.


Whenever I watch BBC programs I often seem to find myself listening to my playlist. I think the BBC has an archive of music all their programs can use without paying royalties, so that helps. Top Gear is another program where the music choice seems to be nicked from my PC...

The actual documentary...goes very slowly. Cox is a great teacher, but if you ever took physics you'll probably wish he would skip on a little bit or go into more detail. There are some great points here explained eloquently. I particularly liked the Scientist in the Air Traffic Control Tower and the notion of civilisation running on fossil fuel batteries, points that everybody should fully understand regardless of how it relates to Fusion Power.

Overall Cox makes a good case for the investment into Fusion Power, and indeed new technology in general. The urgency of impending energy crisis doesn't seem to be filtering into the public so this documentary is a much needed alarm call, I really hope enough people hear.

sifted: http://talks.videosift.com/video/First

i still watch this when i need to chuckle and it makes me laugh til i cry nearly every time. the fact that he nearly laughs at one point just makes it more spectacular, plus the slow-mo "fiiiiiiirst" at the end. everyone who's ever used the intertubes will be able to relate to it. genius.

pqueue: http://talks.videosift.com/video/Can-We-Make-A-Star-On-Earth-Presented-by-Prof-Brian-Cox

it's presented by brian cox, one of the most enigmatic physicists i've ever seen (not that i study physicists) and it's about incredible machines. fucking love it. it should be top 15, let alone sifted.

Originally Broadcast on the 17th February 2009.

For those who haven't heard of Brian Cox, he's the fella from this awesome TED Talk and is working on the Large Hadron Collider. I want to be him.