This is from an interview with the National Geographic Daily News.
This may be the most frustrated that I have ever seen Professor Tyson,
And really who can blame him?
He is watching the thing he loves, science, under constant attack by politicians and religious leaders, while also seeing that one of the attacks comes in the form of the dumbing down of education in this country.
If I were him I would be yelling about this everyday.
Hell I'm not him, and I still do my fair share of yelling about it.
The video didn't want to play for me, but I'll comment anyway.
ReplyDeleteTime was, things didn't change much in a hundred years. Now things change daily, and a big chunk of the population, of the world, can't keep up. They run back into fundamentalist Christianity, Islamic states, and gun ownership if their parents didn't teach them religion. They long for a Golden Yesterday when all the answers were handed to them and lazy thinking was good enough.
There seems to be a real split in humanity (revolution?) and race isn't part of it.
Well, more and more kids WON'T be ok with this going on...
ReplyDelete310 Million Guns in America: Highest Gun Violence in the Developed World. Coincidence? Hell No.
The good people over at Face the Facts USA have produced a video that is putting cold, hard numbers on the very established fact that America has an alarming amount of guns. The clip covers growth in handgun, rifles, and shotgun ownership over recent years, and the obvious relationship this trend has with our abnormally high number of gun mortalities.
http://aattp.org/310-million-guns-in-america-highest-gun-violence-in-the-developed-world-coincidence-hell-no/
Guys With Guns
Delete...According to the FBI, the United States experienced five mass killings a year between 2000 and 2008. Since 2009, however, we've gone up to 16 such killings a year. The FBI defines a "mass killing" as an incident in which more than four people are killed. The Las Vegas and Portland killings don't even qualify.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-feffer/guys-with-guns_b_5510817.html
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_deGrasse_Tyson. He's been busy over the last fifty-five years. Watch the video in this article if you haven't already—it's important. His great concern is that he (and we) can't wait for well-educated kids to grow up and take over. There are scientific illiterates, science antagonists, in Congress now, and millions more who—unlike the kids—can vote.
ReplyDeleteWe picked up Cosmos on BluRay yesterday at Costco. It's a bit pricey ($C 39.79) but well worth it, with lots of additional material and no commercials. We're going to do what we can to get people watching it.
I adore him, and the more he's out there, the more we learn and understand. Good, brave, and smart people are out there; he's the best.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteAnd I think he needs to continue expressing passion for protecting our children from misinformation and fairy tales and to push a comprehensive scientific agenda that will create a stronger smarter America.
He has to accept that fact you can't fix the adults. They are a lost cause. So get over it.
ReplyDeleteThere will be no quick fix.
Fix the kids. It will take decades to overcome The Stupid. Because you can't fix all the kids. You just have to keep fixing a majority of them every year. As the adults age and die, those kids will become more and more of a majority.
Then next thing you need to do is make sure you elect officials who are not STUPID and will not vote stupid at the direction of their STUPID puppetmasters.
It will be a long haul. It will take constant pressure and diligence. We can only hope to see positive movement by the time we die. Success will come long after we are all dead.
He's absolutely correct on all points, especially "intellectually deficient". People from other countries flock here to learn science, when they leave, their countries benefit from the education they received here, especially in the sciences.
ReplyDeleteHe takes his field seriously, and understands the repercussions of how and where it's presented and why. He's a national treasure and someone I've always respected.