Last year, when I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art I noticed several hot dog vendors. Today’s quiz: Guess what these hot dog vendors pay in rent each year?
After you guess, hit this link and be careful to not fall out of your chair.
It’s almost unbelievable. I suppose that too many thinking people were wandering in and criticizing the faux-science exhibits at the “evolution science” museum in Kentucky. Apparently, Ken Ham and his Creation Museum team simply can’t stand it when people talk real science in their “museum.” They’ll shut you up and kick you out. PZ Myers gives a detailed description of his visit, and it’s well worth reading the entire thing.
It’s pretty amazing that a “museum” would so unabashedly attempt to stifle all thinking. Myers almost can’t believe his own eyes and ears. Stifling thinking? But that’s how it is in most fundamentalist churches too. Fall in line or else. Pretend you know things you don’t really know. Pretend that you don’t know things that you do know. This is the foundation for an incredibly screwed up community, and the fundamentalists want to export it to the public schools too.
A few weeks ago, I visited the National Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. I didn’t expect that I’d like the exhibition that much- my eyes tend to glaze over at the discussion of military specs. However, some of the museum, which is on a functioning Air Force Base, really surprised and impressed me. I liked that the museum had seven different Air Force Ones available, four of which could be explored inside and out.
I also really liked looking at the ways in which different air force jets and planes of different eras were decorated. I took many pictures of the cheesecake-style pinup gals, critters and skeletons that adorned these big flying weapons. The gals are not surprising I suppose- they echo the centuries-old tradition of masthead mermaids on ships. What really struck me was the use of contemporary cartoon characters as happy icons of war.
I decided to string together my photos of airplane cheesecake and cartoon characters in another simplistic Youtube slideshow. Check it out, and look out for the Seven Dwarves, Donald Duck, Goofy, The Jolly Green Giant, Dennis the Menace and Dumbo, all emblazoned proudly on the face of military jets.
The place is the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
The outcome is predictable, but this video is nonetheless worth watching to appreciate the extent to which the creationists intentionally deceive themselves. Along the way, the creationist teachers work hard to avoid considering evidence that disproves their bizarre religious beliefs.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D8AeiAamjY[/youtube]
My family and I just returned from a wonderful trip to Chicago. My wife and I have two daughters, aged 6 and 8. All of us learned many new things at Chicago’s spectacular museums. For instance, the Field Museum
has a terrific exhibit, called Evolving Planet, which examines the evolution of life forms on Earth [...]
