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On Fri, 25 Aug 1995, N. MacLeod wrote: > Date: Thu, 24 Aug 1995 17:30:36 -0700 > From: peterr@violet.berkeley.edu (Peter Rauch) > To: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk > Subject: Re: real museums > > With respect to one paleonet writer's comment "to visit some real > museums", I would ask, as I did on MUSEUM-L, Is that where one finds > tanned skins sewn onto wire and plaster forms, standing in plastic > grass, staring through the glass window at you? Oh, and can you smell that > animal's droppings? What? No real smell? Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus. This is the trend in real museums. Visitors don a backpack and go collect data, or get blasted by the heat as they enter the cone of a volcano, they are immersed in darkness and a cool breeze rushes by them as they enter a cave. They walk among beasts that roar and leaves that flutter. Paleo museums that simply display bones do most people a disservice as they don't have the training to add the flesh and muscle. A brief review of the literature will indicate how little the average public truly understands about science. As museums become more interesting to people they will spend more of their time in museums. > > Reality, as the other person suggested, is a philosophical and varied place. Reality can be found by looking at the demographic statistics of the museum's vistors. Reality is not only white middle class. > Peter > > > >
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