Cheers and Boos: Archaeologist goes deaf, QR at the BM and baboons get a boost.

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Archaeologist goes deaf!
An archeologist was declared clinically deaf the other day after giving a speech in which he rejoiced that the Ashmoleon Museum had raised the necessary £7.83 million to save Manet’s Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus for the nation. Culture Minister Ed Vaizey had placed a temporary export ban on it and made it available to be bought by a British public institution for just 27% of its market value of £28.4 million.

The archaeologist was halfway through saying it might be a good idea to reduce Treasure rewards by the same amount when he was knocked off his feet by a mighty shout of “NO!” from almost eight thousand heroic artefact hunters.

“Sorry, no can do” Mr Vaizey later shouted down the poor chap’s ear trumpet. “We’d love to, but we have to settle for policy inconsistency when it comes to national treasures. It’s horses for courses, see? There’s heroics, and then there’s hero-oiks. Get it?”

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QR at the BM
We’ve featured the idea of iBeaken QR codes in the past, so kudos to the British Museum who are using the codes to run youth workshops in their Anglo Saxon gallery gallery.

Groups of young people, guided by Digital Learning Programmes Manager Shelley Mannion, whirl through the exhibit with Samsung phones, scanning iB codes in order to fulfill a variety of challenges. Shelley creates iBeakens in the morning, prints out the codes and runs her sessions the same afternoon. It’s that easy and fast!

How long now before we see these more widely used in the UK?

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National Trust to allow “intellectual baboons” to retain a toe-hold!
There has been an unholy row over the National Trust having given in to pressure to mention creationism in the same breath as science when presenting its exhibition on the formation of the Giants Causeway. (Richard Dawkins said they shouldn’t have given “any consideration whatsoever to the intellectual baboons of young Earth creationism”!)

Under massive public pressure the Trust said it would review its presentation. Its taking an age and confidence it will do what is needed isnt high. Professor Brian Cox has neatly signalled how they should approached the issue: “I don’t mind creation stories presented as mythology, but to suggest there is any debate that Earth is 4.54 billion years old is nonsense”. Yet its hard to see how the Trust can go back on their claim that the Giant’s Causeway has been and still is a focal point in the debate about the age of the earth. Their Project Director has even “refused to classify creationists in the category of those who believe in Finn MacCool mythology”

So its official, for everyone, forever (unless they say they were entirely wrong), The National Trust believes there’s a DEBATE about whether the earth is 6,000 years old, just like there’s a debate about the existence of fairies. And the idea of the Earth being created in seven days isn’t to be categorised as mythology and isn’t to be put in the same category as “myths” about giants!

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