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Wendy Pollock wrote:

The Washington Post carried a story about this incident in Thursday's paper
("Smithsonian Distances Itself from Controversial Film") which appears to
include somewhat updated information

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/01/AR2005060101986.html>

 From the Washington Post article:
"the film was "reviewed by the Associate Director for Research and 
Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and 
approval was granted for the film to be screened."

I was under the impression that the Associate Director for Research and 
Collections at the Smithsonian was required to have some sort of 
scientific background....  How did this get by him, I would like to 
know?  Was he even awake during the alleged screening? 

"When asked if the Smithsonian had made a mistake in initially agreeing 
to host the event, spokesman Randall Kremer says: "We don't look at it 
in terms of whether we made a mistake or not. Our statement speaks for 
itself.""

What a pathetic disclaimer-- shame on Mr. Kremer!  (And if his statement 
speaks for itself, maybe he should just shut up now...)  Of course it 
was a mistake, and an embarassment for the Smithsonian-- a black mark on 
their credibility, and it isn't going to do the rest of us much good 
either.  Very disheartening.

-- 
Karen Swain
Web Developer
NC Museum of Natural Sciences
http://www.naturalsciences.org
http://www.dinoheart.org
http://www.bugfest.org

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