Re: DINO Commercialization

[dunn1@IDT.NET]

Bettyc@flyinggoat.com wrote

> The Academy of Sciences in SF has a long-running exhibit on the FAR SIDE
> cartoon.  They show original strips and use them to educate kids and
> adults on the wacky world of science.  
  (snip)

> This IS an educational exhibit because they
> demonstrate the humor of the inaccuracies and show what real science the
> cartoons are based on.  The exhibit you are tearing apart as
> inappropriate education is doing the exact same thing-showing 'wrong"
> with "right" to educate people.

I strongly doubt that the SF exhibit is using the strips 
to "educate" people on inaccuracies concerning dinosaurs --no one 
ever said the dinosaurs went extinct because they smoked and cut 
class -- the exhibit is obviously just a display of the humor 
inspired by the natural sciences.  I know his cartoon pretty well; 
their absurd humor primarily derives from putting animals in human 
predicaments.  If as you say they're trying to make serious science 
out of it, that's really sad.

I also disagree that the Lost World "exhibit"/travelling movie 
trailer is just like the Far Side exhibit. It purports to be 
science as it sells you the JP movie, the JP car, the JP toys, the JP 
rectal thermometer.  And there is *no* clear indication that the 
dinosaurs in the movie are anything but 100% accurate.  
Interestingly, the dinosaurs they got most wrong in the movie and 
which were portrayed in the exhibit at all were never duplicated so 
you could compare movie and reality.  That is, a "real" dilophosaur 
is there but no movie dilophosaur; the movie stegosaur but not a 
"real" one.  Interesting . . . .  So much for correcting 
movie-generated misconceptions.

> I love this exhibit and it's always crowded with adults and children
> LEARNING THINGS!
> it's >>FUN<<

I assume you mean the Larsen exhibit.  It does sound like fun 
(although I always considered him to be a rip-off of Kliban), 
but I seriously doubt that people learn anything at all about natural 
science from it.

Larry

"Atheism: a non-prophet organization"