futurebird's Diaryland Diary
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happy birthday
I took this photo Friday night when I was down in the e. village at theatre for a new city to see on of the fringe fest plays. There was a kid sitting on the other side of the walk trying to coax the cat into crossing people�s paths. I thought that was pretty funny.
Today is my birthday. Aug. 19 1979 I was born. I�ve seen 22 years of life on earth. Not much of a perspective I guess. Still I've managed to form a few opinions in this short time.
I went to the Natural History Museum yesterday. To be honest, I had a wonderful time. I think I�ll get a membership (if it�s not too expensive-- and if I can get them to give me a student discount)
Though I liked most of what I saw, I was deeply disturbed by the various �halls of people.� You know like �The Hall of Asian Peoples� and �The Hall of Native American Peoples� There were halls for every people but European peoples and modern American people. Who I suppose we aren't supposed to think of as peoples. But rather as �us� or god knows what. Surprised they can still get away with that. Ahh well, I�ll write them a letter I guess. (some good that will do)
After going to the Natural History Museum one has less of an impression that science is about trying to figure out what is going on, than it is about being this kind of strange religion. There is iconography. Like the metaphors they use to present exhibits. Space is organised by scale, animals by the evolutionary tree, people of the world into sections (or halls)
Why not (I know there must be a reason) organise space by halls �the hall of known planets� and �the hall of celestial bodies about which we are uncertain�
or organise people by time? �people of the earth 2000 BC� then show everything that�s going on then.
That�s one of the main troubles with the halls of culture. They give you the impression that �Asian people� or �African people� are still living like that-- and that they never have changed or will never change. But, really every culture changes.
Then there was a useless exhibit on genetics, that failed to tell me anything that I hadn�t already read.
Honestly, the best part of the museum is still the dinosaur bones. Since they have so little to do with us I they seem to be presented the most objectively and with the most information. I got to see a fossil of a early feathered-lizard-bird-thing and it finally hit me what a big revolution realising the similarities between dinosaurs and birds was.
The halls tracking the evolution of life aren't bad either. They�ve finally gotten over the idea that man is some how at the end of an evolutionary chain. Instead it�s this big tree thing on a wall with all sorts of life shooting out of it (including a fantastic model of some kind of giant jellyfish, whose name I�ll try to learn next time I go.)
I guess I had fun in the end.
Now what can I do for my birthday?
010819_31.html - 2001-08-19
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