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You should see the one in the Irish Hills in Michigan...it's right out 
of Pee Wee Herman.
Beryl

Charles Carlson wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related 
> institutions.
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>
> In the 1970's I had a wonderful time visiting Dinosaur State Park.  My 
> somewhat sketchy recollection is that shortly there after, maybe in 
> the '80s––some industrious creationists carved human footprint in the 
> nearby rock, so that future creationists would have some "evidence" of 
> contemporaneous existence.  Adjacent to the park, and visible from 
> it's higher hills, one can look down on the footprints of dinosaurs 
> and across to the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power plant, an interesting, 
> thought-provoking juxtaposition.
>
> Charlie
> On Mar 31, 2008, at 10:26 AM, Martin Weiss wrote:
>
>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology 
>> Centers
>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related 
>> institutions.
>> ***************************************************************************** 
>>
>>
>> I think this is the "news" item Jeff was referring to re: BC Tours of 
>> the Denver Museum of Nature and Sciences evolution exhibitions.
>>
>> http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/FaithMatters/story?id=4467337&page=1
>>
>> It may have served no useful function to confront them with their 
>> belief that humans and dinosaurs coexisted. However, I might have 
>> been interested in engaging them in conversation about the facts of 
>> the supposed co existence. I guess I'd really like to see the 
>> footprints also.
>>
>> Martin
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> This weekend, I had the pleasure of taking my two sons to Dinosaur 
>>> State Park, southwest of Ft. Worth, Texas.  It is a place I highly 
>>> recommend - there are dinosaur footprints visible in the riverbed.  
>>> In the summer, one can wade and swim in the shallow pools.  The most 
>>> spectacular are two sets side by side - one showing a carnivore, the 
>>> other a herbivore.  While there is no way to know if the hunter was 
>>> stalking its prey, it certainly fires the imagination.
>>>
>>> But this is really about the issue of pseudo museums.  As I was 
>>> watching my boys on the other side of the river, skipping stones, of 
>>> course, two twenty-something men came down to the bank.  After 
>>> exchanging pleasantries, how cold is the water, etc.  they asked a 
>>> question which stunned me:  "Do you know where the set of tracks are 
>>> showing the human footprints right next to the dinosaurs'?"   Of 
>>> course I said no.  To which they replied, "We stopped at the Museum 
>>> on the way in and they have a picture of them (the side-by-side 
>>> tracks).  They're supposed to be near here.  Boy, that's something 
>>> I'd really like to see."
>>>
>>> They had been to the Creation Evidence Museum.  I'm sorry the boys 
>>> and I didn't have time to visit, it would have been fascinating.   
>>> Perhaps I should say it would have been illuminating.  If you have 
>>> time, and the inclination, I recommend perusing their website:
>>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/2rnao9
>>>
>>> It is a wonderful example of obfuscation through scientific language.
>>>
>>> Recently there was a nice piece on the news about how a 
>>> creationist/intelligent design organization uses the Denver Museum 
>>> to take tours of home schoolers to show how they, the intelligent 
>>> designers, are right and the rest of us are wrong.  If someone has 
>>> the link to that, I would love to see it shared.
>>>
>>> Frankly, I don't know why I feel compelled to share the story of 
>>> this encounter.  I have no desire to make fun of these two young 
>>> men.  They are as interested in the pursuit of truth and meaning as 
>>> anyone else.  Nor did I feel any compunction to engage them in a 
>>> conversation about the flaws in what they had seen at the 'museum.'  
>>> I'm not on the front line of the war, or skirmish, or whatever it 
>>> should be called, between intelligent design proponents and those 
>>> who work hard to try and keep pseudo science in its appropriate 
>>> place - outside of science.
>>>
>>> If I gained anything from the experience, it is a deeper admiration 
>>> for those who do wage the war.  If I learned anything from the 
>>> experience, looking at their website, it brings home our collective 
>>> willingness to defer to those who offer themselves as experts.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>> -- 
>> Martin Weiss, PhD
>> Science Interpretation
>> Consultant,
>> New York Hall of Science
>>
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>
> Charles Carlson
> Director of Life Sciences
> exploratorium
> 3601 Lyon St.
> San Francisco, CA 94123
> [log in to unmask]
> Tel:   415-561-0319
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>
>
>
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-- 
Beryl Rosenthal, Ph.D.
Director
Tsongas Industrial History Center
Boott Cotton Mills
115 John Street
Lowell, MA 01854
(978) 970-5081 (t)
(978) 970-5085 (f)
[log in to unmask]
www.uml.edu/tsongas/index2.htm

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