Heard in a Bookshop: Militaria Memories

"Tanks! Oh, I love submarines"

Science Suffers

Hooked by the challenge and interactivity, I went to to Ice Station Antarctica, the Natural History Museum's temporary exhibition,. I asked how long it would take to go around and was told it would take 1 hr. For the £7 ticket price, an hour of edutainment seemed reasonable. I'd pay a bit more or a bit more cinematic entertainment.

I went into the exhibition and the first room was about the only place in London that was colder on the inside than on the outside. It was cooled to -10 deg C which I learnt is a hot day in Antarctica.

I was disappointed with the exhibition as there were only 2 interactive exhibits - a snowmobile simulator and a divers' simulator. They were both superficial but fun. I was denied more than 2 goes on each simulator as I needed to get my ticket scanned - so my score can be accessed on a website. I'm not sure why I need to do that.

The rest of the area comprised of photos, text, videos, equipment and a mockup of a room in a polar base.

I finished going around in 1/2 hr and felt ripped-off. I wrong in the comments card that it was only worth £3.50.

It seemed to be an advert for their main sponsor: British Antarctic Survey which I had to pay to experience.

On the plus side, I did learnt that divers work in the Antarctic, people drive snowmobiles to hunt for meteorites and scientists look at penguin droppings to find out what they eat.

I then went to the Science Museum to window shop in the gift shop. There were lots of toys and interactive experiments but I was shocked to see that they had eliminated every single book. In the good old days the shop was lined with books on several walls. I know kids have to be entertained but this dumbing down has gone too far.

Americans don't read

According to Robyn Jackson, 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year. That explains their ignorance of other countries and reliance on TV news for education or should that be edutainment. With the relentless US focus of CNN and the right-wing agenda of Fox News, they end up with a narrow and one-sided view of the world.