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We went to Dinosaur State Park in July. Gol-dang it was hot! If you go, take
a pair of swim trunks and a pair of swim shoes. The camping is good too.
{Beware of raccoons.]

There is nothing like sticking your hands into a fossilized foot print and
feeling all the way down to the tip of the claw. Very, very cool.

John Kelton



> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
> 
> 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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