Email exchange with "The Federalist"
An email sent to my speaking manager from Sean Davis of The Federalist, and forwarded to me, with my replies to him in bold italic.
From: Sean Davis [The Federalist]
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2014 12:19PM
Subject: Neil deGrasse Tyson Quotes
Hi, my name is Sean Davis and I am a writer with The Federalist, an online news magazine. I have a few questions about several stories and quotes that Tyson regularly uses in his public presentations. I have tried repeatedly, without success, to get these questions answered by Tyson and his representatives, and I hoped you might be able to provide answers.
Thank you for your intense interest in my public statements. Your e-mail is the most civilized inquiry I’ve seen thus far on this subject. Not once is the word “liar” or “idiot” used, unlike other discussions I’ve seen. And so I’m delighted to address your questions.
1) Tyson regularly uses a slide/story with the quote "'Half the schools in the district are below average.' -- Newspaper Headline. "Can you please provide me with the original source of this exact newspaper headline, including the full name of the publication in which the exact headline appeared, the date on which it appeared, and either the page or URL on which it appeared for the newspaper?
The quote was drawn long ago from my memory of a news story that appeared in the New York Post in the early-to-mid-1990s. It was a second-tier headline. The point of my commentary was not to indict a particular publication or journalist but to make a broader statement about STEM illiteracy in America, and how that can adversely affect our future economic stability as a Nation. The exact reference is long lost.
2) Tyson regularly uses a slide/story with the quote "I've changed my views 360 degrees on that issue' -- Member of Congress." Can you please provide me with the name of the member of Congress who said this exact quote, when it was said, where it was said, the name of the publication that recorded and published the quote, the date that publication published it, and either the page or URL on which it appeared for that publication?
I’ve actually heard this quote several times in my life, but only once (in person) with a member of Congress. Again, as with the NYPost, names don’t matter here. My point is not to indict an individual but to cite a broader issue that affects all of American society. A point clear and present to all those who attend my talks and who glean the context in which this information is presented.
3) Tyson regularly tells his audiences about the time that President George W. Bush said, in the week after 9/11, "Our God is the God who named the stars" as a way of dividing people based on religion. Can you please provide me with the original sources of this exact quote from President George W. Bush, including the date on which he said it, the venue, and the full remarks in which the quote appeared?
September 11th2001 affected me deeply, as was true with most people:
http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/tags/subjects/world-trade-center
I have explicit memory of those words being spoken by the President. I reacted on the spot, making note for possible later reference in my public discourse. Odd that nobody seems to be able to find the quote anywhere -- surely every word publicly uttered by a President gets logged.
FYI: There are two kinds of failures of memory. One is remembering that which has never happened and the other is forgetting that which did. In my case, from life experience, I’m vastly more likely to forget an incident than to remember an incident that never happened. So I assure you, the quote is there somewhere. When you find it, tell me. Then I can offer it to others who have taken as much time as you to explore these things.
One of our mantras in science is that the absence of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence.
4) Tyson regularly tells his audiences that he was once kicked off jury duty for asking a judge why a cocaine possession charge listed the amount of drugs possessed in milligrams instead of grams. In Tyson's book, he says the amount at issue was 1.7g. In another instance, Tyson claims the amount was 2g. In yet another instance, Tyson claims the real amount was 6g. Finally, on Twitter, Tyson claimed the actual amount was 3g. Which version of this story is the accurate one?
I actually haven't told that story in a long while. But the number I remember from the court case is 1.7gms, the same as the one in print that appeared in my book. There’s a higher level of precision for what I put in print than for what I simply speak, Twitter included. It’s actually quite hard for the two to match all the time -- I’m not that good. But I’m self-aware of this. That’s why, when I speak publicly, I focus on ideas and concepts more than on quantitative details. In this case the topic was, of course, the deceptive reporting of cocaine possession in milligrams rather than in grams.
Also, I do not use written notes when I give public talks. Instead, my talks are more like conversations with the audience. (Ask anyone who has attended, rather than people who have only commented on transcripts or on posted excerpts.) I’ve found that when talks are read to an audience the content is at risk of being stiff and lifeless. So my goal when communicating is always to convey the message of a story. But now that I know that you are paying such close attention to details, I'll try even harder to have my spoken numbers match my printed numbers.
For the purposes of independent corroboration, can you please provide the jury summons for this particular incident, as well as any other paperwork that might shed some light on which version of the story is the accurate one? Additionally, can you please provide the exact date the incident occurred, the name of the judge involved, the case number, the case name, the name of the prosecutor trying the case, the specific court involved (including its address), and a copy of the court's transcript of the proceeding?
I assess this request to not be a useful investment of my time. I don’t know if all jury cases are public. This one took place in New York County criminal court, around fifteen years ago. I wasn’t selected for that case – or any other for that matter. (I’m still disappointed by this. And by the way, my “grams of cocaine” story is not even the most interesting one of my three failed attempts at Jury Duty.) I don’t know how good the records are for searching. Good luck. Maybe you can put out a general announcement to see if you can find any of the other two-dozen people who were in the courtroom at the time. Including the judge and lawyers. Perhaps one of them will remember and come forward for you, serving as an eyewitness. But the underlying fact here is that I am probably a better eyewitness than any of them because the incident involved me.
Note that the lowest form of evidence in the court of science is eyewitness testimony. In spite of it being a high form of evidence in the court of law. Yet that’s most of what I have offered you here. Me telling you “I said it. I saw it. I read It. I heard it.” So I admire your skepticism. We all share this in the scientific community. The difference is that our urge to run and verify a statement is proportional to how extraordinary the claim is. If my colleague tells me it was cloudy at the telescope last night, I’m not compelled to mount an investigation of its truth. But if my colleague declared that an alien saucer flew over the observatory last night, my need for evidence beyond his eyewitness account increases greatly.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this request.
I add here that I was also criticized in your publication over my use of the word “average” to loosely describe a “median”, which triggered some follow-on blogs that then described me as an “idiot”.
In the physical sciences, an average is a broad concept that can take many forms. There are weighted averages, where you may have information that allows you to invest more confidence in some data relative to others. There are averages taken over differing variables of choice. And there are mathematical entities called “moments”, each a kind of average in its own way. The first moment of a probability distribution function is the familiar “mean”. The second moment is the “standard deviation”(a.k.a. the variance). And the third moment is the “skewness,” a measure of how much the distribution leans to the left or the right. (FYI: A good source of geeky humor when describing politics.) The moments actually continue beyond skewness, each revealing a more and more obscure feature of the distribution. And then, of course, there’s the “mode”: the single quantity most represented in the data. If two different quantities appear heavily in the data, then the distribution is sensibly said to be “bi-modal.”
When a statistical distribution is anywhere near “normal” (a.k.a. the Bell Curve), then the mode, the mean, and the median are very close to one another. So the essence of my comment: “That’s sort of what you‘d expect – about half below the average and half above” in response to the news headline citing “Half the Schools Are Below Average” is 1) unambiguous to anyone attending the talk, 2) colloquially accurate, and is 3) mathematically accurate for a normal statistical distribution.
You could construct a sequence of data for which the mode, the mean, and the median differ wildly from one another. But generally people know better to not take simple averages in that case. My favorite example of this comes from the mathematician John Allen Paulos, who reports: "The average American has one breast and one testicle.” A mathematically accurate but entirely senseless statement.
p.s. I wonder if you view me as your partisan adversary. If so, then President George W. Bush and several current and former Republican members of Congress might be surprised to learn of this -- I was appointed by the Bush White House to serve on two commissions and one committee. (Sorry, didn’t mean to leave you with something else to verify.) Yet I’ve been a guest at the Obama White House twice and I’m actually acknowledged in one of his speeches. Evidence that my scientific perspectives stand apart from partisanship. The view from there allows me to identify (and even measure) groundless hot air emanating from both political extremes. And when I see it, I call it out -- as any responsible educator and patriotic citizen should do.
Respectfully Submitted,
Neil deGrasse Tyson, New York City
Best regards,
Sean
