Chuck, Joe, Kim I'm Greg Taylor, member of SLAS for 2 years now, and recent subscriber to this e-mail list. I agree whole- heartedly with what has been said about the planetarium. I was going to get a job with them as a star-show lecturer until I heard that they were moving the blasted thing to the Gateway Center. That insulted my scientific principals, and admittedly my intelligence, so much that I can hardly think about it without getting sick to my stomach. --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Kim's point about "modern needs" has frightening overtones. What makes "modern" needs different from those of our parents or grandparents? Parking? Citizen's unwillingness to monetarily support learning institutions that they don't understand? Isn't curiostiy, thirst for knowledge, a timeless quality of mankind? What's next, a "drive-up" planetarium?
People today are so steeped in pop culture that they seldom venture beyond it anymore, or are so burdened by the requirements of earning a living that there isn't time to expand their minds through learning.
Chuck, you expressed exactly what I feel about the matter. It isn't just teaching science to the public that pop culture has affected. Music and art are all but dead. Popular music has degraded over the past few decades to become less than mindless drivel. Even Classical 89.1 always plays mediocre music by mediocre composers for the sake of variety. I could go on, but for what purpose. My petty ramblings can do little to rectify the situation. Greg __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com