{"id":49427,"date":"2015-01-30T07:12:46","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T14:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/30\/an-evening-with-neil-degrasse-tyson.html"},"modified":"2015-01-30T07:12:46","modified_gmt":"2015-01-30T14:12:46","slug":"an-evening-with-neil-degrasse-tyson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/30\/an-evening-with-neil-degrasse-tyson.html","title":{"rendered":"An Evening with Neil deGrasse Tyson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tyson spoke last night at the Buell Theater, ostensibly for two hours, though with Q&A at the end it was closer to three — a long night, but a good one. +<\/span>Margie Kleerup<\/a><\/span> and +<\/span>Kay Hill<\/a><\/span> were there, along with +<\/span>Stan Pedzick<\/a><\/span> and +<\/span>Mary Oswell<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Tyson's talk was about "The Cosmic Perspective," and amidst the rambling discussion his primary thesis was on cultures of discovery and exploration — human cultures that, consciously or not, seek out new places, new information, new scientific truths. <\/p>\n

Having such a culture, though, doesn't necessarily last. He noted the contrast between the Golden Age of Islam that gave the world such advances in mathematics, astronomy, optics, and other areas — and how it faded when mathematics became devalued as not being a spiritual pursuit, and the explanation "Allah wills it" took the place of scientific inquiry.<\/p>\n

He drew a line from there to changes in American attitudes toward science and discovery, and trends that show the US may on a path of decline if we don't act to reverse those trends.<\/p>\n

That said, the discussion and wrap-up were positive and both entertaining and uplifting. Tyson is an engaging and passionate speaker, and a huge, convincing believer in the ability of science to explain the world, fill us with wonder, and help us improve our lives. Some of his commentary, outside scientific topics, was a bit wobbly, and his (demonstrated on-stage) knowledge of Twitter (@neiltyson) is pretty sketchy, but I'd go back and watch him do his thing any time.<\/p>\n

Good show.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

In Album 2015-01-30<\/a><\/p>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tyson spoke last night at the Buell Theater, ostensibly for two hours, though with Q&A at the end it was closer to three — a long night, but a good one. +Margie Kleerup and +Kay Hill were there, along with +Stan Pedzick and +Mary Oswell. Tyson's talk was about "The Cosmic Perspective," and amidst the … Continue reading “An Evening with Neil deGrasse Tyson”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_20150129_215637914.jpgimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49423,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/29\/queueing-up-to-see-neil-degrasse-tyson-at-the-buell-theater.html","url_meta":{"origin":49427,"position":0},"title":"Queueing up to see Neil DeGrasse Tyson at the Buell Theater","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 29-Jan-15 7:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Queueing up to see Neil DeGrasse Tyson at the Buell Theater Should be fun. 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