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Museum of Science visit
Jun. 4th, 2006 06:43 pmI went to the Museum of Science (http://www.mos.org/) in Boston today with a newly made friend. We checked out a lot of the natural history-type displays I guess you'd call 'em, and early technology (steam engines, pumps and pistons and water), dinosaurs, mineral specimens and some good fossils. Then, to the Imax theater to watch a film on dolphin communication. I found most of the cutesy Imax-specific effects to be overwhelming and annoying. But Leonard Nimoy is on the pre-show "audio testing" clip, and I'll forgive Mr. Spock almost anything.
Dolphins! *was* quite good, and I couldn't watch the bootleg footage of dolphins being trapped in a purse seine net. I turned away. Oddly, for a story I just finished, I had to learn some basics of tuna trawlers, long lines and purse seine fishing, which included, I think, still shots from the same or similar bootleg footage.
When I was a kid, after I found out about dolphins dying due to fishing, I told my parents we couldn't eat tuna anymore. My mom-or-stepdad (memory is a murky beast, friends and neighbors) asked why. And that was the first time I recall really having to take a position and defend it logically. At the age of...mumblety-mumble-something.
We didn't eat tuna again until they came out with "dolphin-safe" tuna.
Now, of course, there's mercury in my tuna, and overfishing the world over, and fishfarming that costs more fish than it produces.
I don't get a lot of dead animal these days. It's too expensive, and I don't just mean the upfront price tag.
After the film, we had a snack and went up to the third level to see all the human body stuff. There were some neat maps on genetics and indigenous populations the world over (mtDNA, Y-chromosome, lactose intolerance, PTC tasting, and skin color), some bits on handedness, and various take-apart models of eyes and hearts and all kinds of fun stuff.
And then, we got kicked out when the exhibits closed. All in all, a successful museum visit.
Dolphins! *was* quite good, and I couldn't watch the bootleg footage of dolphins being trapped in a purse seine net. I turned away. Oddly, for a story I just finished, I had to learn some basics of tuna trawlers, long lines and purse seine fishing, which included, I think, still shots from the same or similar bootleg footage.
When I was a kid, after I found out about dolphins dying due to fishing, I told my parents we couldn't eat tuna anymore. My mom-or-stepdad (memory is a murky beast, friends and neighbors) asked why. And that was the first time I recall really having to take a position and defend it logically. At the age of...mumblety-mumble-something.
We didn't eat tuna again until they came out with "dolphin-safe" tuna.
Now, of course, there's mercury in my tuna, and overfishing the world over, and fishfarming that costs more fish than it produces.
I don't get a lot of dead animal these days. It's too expensive, and I don't just mean the upfront price tag.
After the film, we had a snack and went up to the third level to see all the human body stuff. There were some neat maps on genetics and indigenous populations the world over (mtDNA, Y-chromosome, lactose intolerance, PTC tasting, and skin color), some bits on handedness, and various take-apart models of eyes and hearts and all kinds of fun stuff.
And then, we got kicked out when the exhibits closed. All in all, a successful museum visit.