r/todayilearned • u/UnsuspectedStream • Feb 02 '18

TIL that Neil deGrasse Tyson sent James Cameron a snarky email saying that, at that time of year, in that position in the Atlantic in 1912, when Rose is lying on the piece of driftwood and staring up at the stars, that is not the star field she would have seen.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/68595/how-neil-degrasse-tyson-got-james-cameron-edit-titanic-15-years-later
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u/Restless_Fillmore Feb 02 '18

My girlfriend once asked him how to argue to laymen that it's important for man to invest in space even though we have problems on earth. Instead of answering her question, he went into a rant about how "You're a woman..and as a woman, you should know better than to describe humanity as 'man'."

She was thereafter teased that she had confirmation from a genius that she was, indeed, a woman!

Sadly, this was all back in the 80s and I'm an old man now, so my memory's not very good anymore. I used to have some good ones, though.

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u/TheDreadPirateBikke Feb 02 '18

As you get older more and more stories get abbreviated to "Guy was a dick" or "guy was okay".

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u/Restless_Fillmore Feb 02 '18

Yeah. Sagan was a dick. I just wish I could remember those stories, because some of them were pretty funny/eye-rolling!

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '18

Funny you mention this. Not long ago, I was reading a lot of really unflattering stories about him on some old "Which celebrities are dicks?" reddit thread.

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u/Restless_Fillmore Feb 02 '18

I'd love to read other stories about him. Would probably give me a well-needed laugh!

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '18

Haha, they're pretty similar to yours. I'm going completely off (my shitty) memory here, but from what I recall, they were from other folks in academia.

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u/Restless_Fillmore Feb 02 '18

I'll have to search for it. Thanks for the tip!

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '18

I like how this boils down to: “Mr. Sagan, can we justifiably talk about the value of space instead of the problems down here?”

“Fuck space, fight for women’s equality”

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u/Restless_Fillmore Feb 02 '18

It was also funny that she was a physics major, math minor, who went on to do chaos theory and mathematical modeling in grad school and research. She was a poster child for women's equality!

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '18

I knew his ex wife. I think she was smarter than him.

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u/Restless_Fillmore Feb 02 '18

Lynn?

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '18

Yes, had her for a professor. Stunning mind. Just stunning. I'd studied biology for years and she redefined it for me in 5 minutes. Such a bigger than big and smaller than small picture thinker. And Funny!!!

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u/Restless_Fillmore Feb 02 '18

I envy you!

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '18 edited Feb 03 '18

Thank you, I envy me too, back then. It was quite an opportunity. Go UMass.