Live a Month At the Museum of Science and Industry 70
theodp writes "Even usually snarky Gawker loves the idea of living in a science museum for a month. Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry is 'looking for someone to take on a once-in-a-lifetime assignment: spend a Month at the Museum, to live and breathe science 24/7 for 30 days. From October 20 to November 18, 2010, this person's mission will be to experience all the fun and education that fits in this historic 14-acre building, living here full-time and reporting your findings to the outside world.' Oh, and if you're The Chosen One, you'll also walk away with $10,000, a package of tech gadgets, and an honorary lifetime membership to MSI. Visit the Month at the Museum site for details and to apply — the deadline is August 11th."
Not what it used to be (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to do this, but since we've been taking our kids to the museum (their favorite as well as mine), I've noticed that a lot of the exhibits I loved have been replaced by dumbed-down equivalents. Take the original computer exhibit that used to be there; yes it was sponsored by IBM (who provided all the equipment), but that exhibit taught the actual nitty-gritty about how computers work; I can still remember "getting" how binary worked standing there and to a 10 year old geek-wannabe, that was awesome. Now they've got a half-hearted "net" exhibit that is more on "wow" than the specifics of how it works. Did they feel that really trying to explain things would turn people off?
I'm also disappointed that they removed so many of the planes; I *loved* walking in and seeing that F-104 right above my head, now there's just empty space. Why? The whole place was stuffed with ... stuff ... to look at and be excited by, and somewhere along the way they decided to rip so much of it out; they turned many an exhibit area into offices or "swing" spaces that are just empty.
On the plus side, they ripped out the ancient model train layout and replaced it with a sweet HO gauge one that is a lot cooler (Chicago to Seattle), and they have more than one or two trains running now..
All in all, I'd sign up and stay for a month. Wouldn't think twice. It's just that great a museum, even if, IMHO, it just isn't as great as it was.
Sigh...now get off my lawn!