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Posted on: April 7, 2008 7:06 PM, by Greg Laden
Fifth grader Kenton Stufflebeam is smarter than the Smithsonian Institution. Since 1981, the Tower of Time exhibit has indicated that the Precambrian is an "era" ... when in fact it is not an actual era.
The student informed the museum, and now the Smithsonian is working on plans to paint over the word "era."
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Comments
Actually, as the article states:
"While no previous visitors to the museum had brought up the error, it has long rankled the paleobiology department's staff, who noticed it even before the Tower of Time was erected 27 years ago..."
The Smithsonian, still smarter than a fifth-grader (TM).
Posted by: Ellery | April 7, 2008 11:01 PM
If they knew, why didn't they do anything about it? Were they all just too busy?
Posted by: manigen | April 8, 2008 5:00 AM
Ellery:
I can't tell you how many times I've heard that. "Oh, really, I knew the answer was 'D' ... I have no idea why I chose 'B' ... Can't I get the points anyway????"
Posted by: Greg Laden | April 8, 2008 7:28 AM
Great headline.
Posted by: Becca | April 8, 2008 9:21 AM
Perhaps unfortunately some exhibit designers, like many of those at the Science Museum of Minnesota, are artists or designers by training, not biologists or geologists.
But I'm much more troubled by two exhibits I just saw at the Vancouver aquarium titled "Sharks: Beauty by Design" and "Sea Turtles: Beauty by Design," implying that their forms were designed, not adaptations to their environment.
Posted by: Ellery | April 8, 2008 9:46 AM
Shouldn't it be "Prenoachian"?
Posted by: mark | April 8, 2008 1:01 PM
Ellery: "The Smithsonian, still smarter than a fifth-grader"
...you had better be a fourth grader, or I will forever think that comment was just uncalled for! Now go sit there at the desk by the wall.
Posted by: the real cmf | April 8, 2008 8:31 PM