It was interesting, but I don’t think I’d pay that much.

The rest of them have to grub for funds.

That is a lot of money just to stare at an incomplete skeleton. I hate even talking so ignorantly, but this is what a lot of people are going to be thinking, especially those with children and even those living in “enlightened” Seattle.

I hope people can look to the future and not let this economy ruin it because we are all too focused on it right now. It will pass like every other economic crisis in our past. I would like to hope that it will never happen again, but we have whole new generations of greedy bankers and business types just waiting to make that fast buck and to heck with everyone else and the future.

When I lived in San Francisco and thought about taking visitors to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the world’s most wonderful aquariums, I would inwardly wince, mentally calculating the cost of driving, parking, paying $30 per person to get in, a meal,… When I thought about a field trip there for my inner city students, I realized
the costs were simply prohibitive. What does it say about the values of a society when only the well-off can afford art, music, and science events?

When we first moved to Prague, the Czech Republic, I was excited to discover that museums
and science exhibits here have traditionally had extremely low fees for school trips. Children and students of all ages could be seen on the trams or Metro on such outings. Now we are just starting to see “blockbuster” popular exhibits, apparently aimed mostly at tourists, charging very high admission fees and giving no discounts to school groups.

On the issue of behavior: Here in Europe, one can often spot American children by how loud, whiny, and disobedient they are, and how their parents seem to feel this is “normal.” Czech children appear quiet and content for the most part. Very young children get a lot of gentle attention from both their parents and their siblings on outings. I see very few Czech parents having to discipline their youngsters.

Dogs are popular here and go everywhere. They also are quiet and well-behaved, with few exceptions. Breeds that in the U.S. seem to bark incessantly are quiet here, even when they meet other dogs in the park. I find this astonishing.

I attribute the differences to expectations, to the adult modeling of quiet, considerate
behavior, and to the slower pace of life which allows everyone more time to actually enjoy each other. There are also numerous parks, frequented regardless of even the coldest weather.

I would love to see some of this quality of life return to America, and Czechs to realize what they have and hang on to it.

In contrast to this, the (marvellous !) science-museum in downtown London costs a grand total of $zero to enter for a family of 5. And it’s a huge, very active museum with tons of exciting exhibits, infact the main problem is you’ve got no chance to even begin to cover the interesting parts in just a single-day visit.

The precise goal of this scheme, involving Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship, was to shore up the reputations of the disgraced group of conservative Christian monopolists who controlled access to the scrolls for many years.

Further, this group, with the assistance of Pacific Science Center, sought to convince the public of the truth of a highly disputed, religiously oriented theory, which has been rejected by reputable, secular-minded researchers all over the world. Pacific Science Center did not even inform the public of scholarly opposition to the theory in question.

Under such circumstances, what form of scientific integrity can Pacific “Science” Center claim to have? Why should anyone support such an institution, or even believe anything they see in exhibitions put on under its auspices?

Here is a set of items which anyone can consult to see exactly what happened at Pacific Science Center — and then, incidentally, in San Diego:

http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/is/deadseascrolls.html

http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/did-christian-agenda-lead-biased-dead-sea-scrolls-exhibit-san-diego

http://robertdworkin.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/the-ethics-of-exhibition-romancing-the-scrolls/

http://www.forward.com/articles/take-claims-about-dead-sea-scrolls-with-a-grain-of/

http://museum-ethics.blogspot.com/2007/06/chronology-of-dead-sea-scrolls.html

And see now the National Post article on this controversy:

http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/story.html?id=954321

And Wendy — thanks for the correction. I’ve fixed the numbers in the post. But it still adds up to a ton of money for a family outing. My parents took my kids and one of their friends, and were appalled at how much the visit cost them.