The New York Times - 06.08.2019

THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2019 N + C3

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Embroiled Over Tweet

At least 31 people were killed in
back-to-back mass shootings
over the weekend — first in El
Paso on Saturday, then in Day-
ton, Ohio, 13 hours later — leav-
ing the country shaken and
refueling the national conversa-
tion on access to firearms.
On Sunday, Neil deGrasse
Tyson, the astrophysicist who
leads the American Museum of
Natural History’s Hayden Plan-
etarium, tried to put the shoot-
ings in context. In a tweet giving
statistics on other causes of
death for comparison, he wrote:
“Often our emotions respond
more to spectacle than to data.”
For people still reeling from
the tragedies, however, his per-
spective didn’t provide much
comfort. What’s more, the data
he shared was not entirely
accurate.
In the post, Tyson, below right,
listed how many Americans die
on average over two days from
several causes: medical errors,
flu, suicide, car accidents and
homicide by handguns. It was
difficult to determine the accura-
cy of his numbers because he did
not cite a source, a time period
or a methodology.
Many criticized the response
and its timing for coming off as
insensitive. Others condemned
the astrophysicist for implying
that intentional attacks and
accidental deaths are
comparable.
“The flu doesn’t target people
based on their race,” one com-
menter wrote on Twitter, alluding
to the motivation behind the El
Paso shooting, which federal law
enforcement officials are investi-
gating as a hate crime.
“This is the most heartless
tweet in history of social media,”
another responded on Twitter.
Tyson, who has not deleted the
tweet, published an apology on
Facebook early Monday morn-
ing, acknowledging that “I got
this one wrong.”
“My intent was to offer objec-
tively true information that
might help shape conversations
and reactions to preventable
ways we die,” Tyson wrote.
“Where I miscalculated was that
I genuinely believed the Tweet
would be helpful to anyone try-
ing to save lives in America.
“What I learned from the

range of reactions is that for

many people, some information

— my Tweet in particular — can

be true but unhelpful, especially

at a time when many people are

either still in shock, or trying to

heal — or both.”

Tyson, responding to The New

York Times in an email, declined

to comment further and said he

put everything he could think to

say in his Facebook post.

This is not Tyson’s only recent

run-in with controversy. An

article published on the website

Patheos late last year shared the

stories of two women who ac-

cused him of sexual misconduct.

The article also recounted the

claims of a third woman, who

said Tyson raped her when they

were both graduate students.

Tyson has described the first two

cases as harmless gestures and

has denied that the rape

occurred.

The American Museum of

Natural History said last month

that it had completed an investi-

gation into his behavior and that

he would keep his job at the

helm of the planetarium. He was

also investigated by Fox Broad-

casting and National Geo-

graphic, which broadcast his

televisions series, “Cosmos” and

“StarTalk.” Those companies

said in March that his shows

would return to the air.

NANCY COLEMAN

and ELIZABETH HARRIS

Duel Between Rappers

Shakes Out as an Upset

This week’s Billboard album

chart featured two unusual con-

tenders for the top spot: a pair of

independent rappers, each heav-

ily influenced by their Christian

faith, who did well on streaming

services but also moved thou-

sands of albums by bundling

them with deals for merchandise,

concert tickets and even Lyft

rides.

In the end, the victor was an

upset: NF, top, a rapper from

Michigan, edged out Chance the

Rapper, from Chicago, who was

releasing what he called his first

official album after years of

success with streaming-only

mixtapes.

NF’s album, “The Search,”

opened at No. 1 with the equiva-

lent of 130,000 sales in the United

States, according to Nielsen,

giving NF — whose real name is

Nathan Feuerstein — his second

time at the top of the chart.

Chance the Rapper’s “The Big

Day” came in second place with

108,000.

Within those “equivalent”

numbers — umbrella totals that

reconcile the weekly numbers

from various music formats —

Chance had by far the bigger

streaming number. Songs from

“The Big Day” were streamed

104 million times, more than any

other album last week; “The

Search” had just 58 million.

The winner was determined by

album sales, and there NF had

the advantage, moving 84,000

copies. “The Search” performed

well at the iTunes Store, accord-

ing to Billboard. But the album

was also helped by deals that

included copies of it when fans

bought other items, from concert

tickets to $15 baseball caps.

Chance had plenty of merchan-

dise bundles too, and also gave

copies of “The Big Day” to both

drivers and passengers of the

ride-hailing app Lyft. But

Chance’s album total ended up at

only 27,000.

Also this week, Ed Sheeran’s

“No.6 Collaborations Project” fell

to No. 3 after two weeks at the

top; Billie Eilish’s “When We All

Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”

is No. 4; and Chris Brown’s “In-

digo” is No. 5.

On the singles chart, Lil Nas

X’s “Old Town Road” holds at No.

1, extending its historic chart run

to 18 weeks at the top — two

weeks longer than any other

song in the 61-year history of

Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

BEN SISARIO

Aspen Institute Center

To Honor Bauhaus Artist

Herbert Bayer, one of the mas-

ters of the Bauhaus school, was a

polymath: a painter, an architect,

an industrial designer, a photog-

rapher and a typographer who

invented his own alphabet. He

also helped transform Aspen,

Colo., from a mountain outpost to

a cultural hub.

Now, Bayer is getting a perma-

nent tribute in Aspen, where he

lived for more than 30 years and

designed landmark buildings,

including the Wheeler Opera

House. The philanthropists and

entrepreneurs Lynda and Stew-

art Resnick have donated $10

million to the Aspen Institute, a

nonprofit think tank, for a center

dedicated to Bayer (1900-1985) to

be on the institute’s Aspen Mead-

ows campus, which Bayer de-

signed. The planned Resnick

Center for Herbert Bayer Studies

will have galleries, educational

programs and an overall aim to

provide tools for the preservation

and study of Bayer’s work.

The gift comes during the

centennial of the Bauhaus, the

German design school, when a

number of exhibitions have

honored its legacy. The center, to

open in the summer of 2022,will

be built in Bayer’s style. It will

acquire new works, house exist-

ing art and borrow from major

institutions.

“It will be built in the same

way he worked, where form

follows function,” said Lynda

Resnick, who has led both the

donation and the vision for the

center. She has been collecting

Bayer’s work since around 2006,

when she became enamored with

his designs and the Bauhaus

more broadly. She plans to even-

tually donate her collection to the

center.

SOPHIE HAIGNEY

Arts, Briefly

NEWS FROM THE CULTURAL WORLD

AMY HARRIS/INVISION, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

SCOTT ROTH/INVISION, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

BALLET FESTIVALThe Royal

Ballet of Britain begins its

run at the Joyce, starting

with Program A by Kevin

O’Hare, the ballet’s director.

7:30 p.m. at Joyce Theater.

212-242-0800, joyce.org

‘YUM’S THE WORD’A cast of

comedians that includes

Ophira Eisenberg performs a

storytelling showcase. 7:30

p.m. at Le Poisson Rouge.

212-505-3474, lpr.com

MAC DEMARCOThis quirky

singer plays from his latest

album. 7:30 p.m. at Prospect

Park Bandshell.

bricartsmedia.org

Ready, Set, Go

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ACROSS

1 Means of
surveillance, for
short
5 Co-conspirator
with Brutus and
Cassius

10 Banter jokingly

14 “I got it! I got it!”

15 What’s standard,
with “the”

16 ___ breve

17 Litter noises

18 Bottom coat?

20 Slammer

21 Word before and
after “à”

22 Had people over
for dinner, say

23 Habitat for a
walrus

27 “___ seen worse”

28 Actor Dennis or
Randy

29 Sports org. that
plays in the
winter

30 Co-workers of
TV’s Don Draper

32 Spending jags

34 Locale of the
anvil and stirrup

36 Cincinnati
sluggers

37 Its motto,

translated from

Latin, is “If you

wish for peace,

prepare for war”

40 Fill with cargo

43 A.M.A. members

44 Messed with,

with “around”

48 Avoid the

clutches of

50 Early nuclear org.

52 Esther of “Good

Times”

53 TV show set in

Westeros, for

short

54 Drill bit alloy

57 Untouched, as

an artifact

59 Slack-jawed

emotion

60 Good name for

a girl born on

December 24?

61 1963 Bobby

Vinton hit ... or

a hint to both

halves of 18-,

23-, 37- and

54-Across

64 Surgeons’ subj.

65 Focusing aid

66 Something to

believe in

67 Ballet leap

68 Whence the

Three Wise Men,

with “the”

69 Defeated by a

hair

70 Fired

DOWN

1 Pioneering

personal

computers

2 “Come on, things

aren’t so bad”

3 Limousine

4 Bygone kind of

tape

5 Like the numbers

8, 27 and 64

6 How one’s much-

loved nephew

might be treated

7 Periscope site

8 Low island

9 Leader of Athens?

10 Thriller set around

Amity Island

11 Quaint

12 Like LPs and

some dresses

13 Coagulates

19 Actress Chaplin

of 53-Across

21 YouTube upload

24 Like wedding

cakes, typically

25 Posh

neighborhood of

London or New

Yor k

26 Spirit

31 Problem in an old

wooden building

33 Guitarist Barrett

35 British rule over

India, once

38 Spirited steed

39 Part of a biblical

citation

40 Unlike most

physicians’

handwriting,

stereotypically

41 Home of Anne of

Green Gables

42 Old Nissan autos

45 Something that

may be used

before a blessing

46 Put on a pedestal

47 Struck out

49 Outside: Prefix

51 A dependent one

might start with

“that”

55 Unit of measure

with the same

Latin origin as

“inch”

56 Jacket material

58 Superlative

ending with grass

or glass

62 Reprimand to a

dog

63 Big galoot

64 Best-selling

Steely Dan album

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