REALITY IS SUBJECTIVE

I suppose that most educated people understand that neurology, psychology and philosophy have pretty much nailed down this idea. There are entertainments based on the premise, which will only get more sophisticated and disconcerting with time. This is another VR amusement at our Science Center. There are two rows of seats. Ellie and Mrs. C are in the front and I'm in the back flailing around with my camera. Ellie chose a simulation of a roller coaster-ish mine train careening through an arid landscape in the American west. 

It's been a difficult week, for reasons too complex to discuss here. I've been listening to the Mahler 6th really loud as I write this. It feels right. Maybe I'll have time to get out onto the street today.  

WHO NEEDS META?

Back at the Science Center again. There are a couple of high tech amusements like this. You wear a VR headset while the machine shakes you around in sync with the video. The rider gets to pick one of four simulations. After these young men left Ellie got to ride by herself. To my surprise, she chose a jet fighter simulation and said it was just great.

I'm running thin on material. Various family medical issues are limiting my time on the street. May need to recycle some images.            

J. K. IN THE DARK

The St. Louis Science Center is open for the evening on the first Friday of the month. Last night had a Harry Potter theme and a certain small person I hang around with insisted on going. The place has a wonderful planetarium with one of those special projectors. They showed what turned out to be a somewhat tedious one hour documentary about Harry, the author J. K. Rowling and the history of magic. Even Ellie got a little bored with watching Ms. Rowling cooing over artifacts.             

MADELEINE MONDAY

We usually take the kid on some kind of outing on Saturday. There are plenty of choices here. This weekend we went to the St. Louis Science Center, a technical fun zone for children. This big drum/treadmill powers a screw that lifts colored balls into what some people call a Rube Goldberg machine (here's a really good one). Ellie isn't very big and she had to work hard but she got the job done.

           

SNACK

Ellie loves to go to the St. Louis Science Center. It's sort of a science playground for kids. I don't know how much knowledge she absorbs but she dives into it madly.

It has a two-level, semi-animated T. Rex that appears to have just taken a bite out of a triceratops lying at its side. (Did those two creatures exist at the same time?) I'd find it frightening if I were her age but I guess that's how inured children are now to the horrid (a skill that may be very valuable as they grow older). I wasn't frightened by the full-sized models of a T. Rex and brontosaurus in the Museum of Natural History in NY when I was young but they were just statues. No one ever dreamed that monsters could stalk Central Park West until Ghostbusters came out.                  

Light Tube

It seems like all of the outdoor holiday light displays have an arched tunnel of colored lights. Maybe one of them is a wormhole to escape this administration. The one at the Science Center is a bit dull, straight and unchanging. The one at the Botanical Garden is much more interesting, curved with changing colors. We'll get there soon.

        

The Hospital At The End Of The Universe

Hope the Douglas Adams reference isn't too obscure. This was taken from the Science Center grounds and looks science fiction-y. The bright sign in the background is by far STL's biggest hospital, whose name reflects the merger of two adjacent institutions. I've been repaired there a few times. It is the hub of the mighty Washington University Medical Center and goes on for blocks and blocks.

There is a bit of university snobbery here. We have two old major schools, Washington University and St. Louis University, 200 years old in 2018. Wash U, as everyone calls it, is usually ranked in the nation's top 10. SLU, where I went, is in the upper middle ranks and has one of the weirdest mascots in American higher education.  All of my many doctors are affiliated with Wash U.           

Fireballs

It seems like everybody around here is doing outdoor nighttime Christmas lights displays. We have taken Ellie to Wild Lights at the Zoo, which was so crowded we'll never go back. Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Garden is the big one. We may go next weekend. 

However, the St. Louis Science Center got into the act this year. They call it Science Illuminated. There were a couple of demonstrations to amaze the kids. This woman, a chemist, is spraying solutions containing magnesium and, um, I forget what else, into a flame. Great balls of fire.          

Bite Me

Another scene from the St. Louis Science Center. Rexie here is semi-animated. The neck and head move up and down and side to side. The jaws open and close. It doesn't even bother the little kids.

This seems to be the STL T Rex district. The Science Center is connected to the planetarium by a bridge over a big highway. Just outside of that are a couple of life-size fiberglass dinosaurs, including a cousin of the one in the picture. Good thing the largest local emergency room is very close by.   

Madeleine Monday

We have a very good children's science center. Madeleine wanted to visit on Saturday so off we went. The amount of stuff competing for attention can be dizzying. General admission is free but all the stuff they really want to do has an extra charge. One small step for a kid, one giant leap for my credit card.     

Landscape With Dinosaurs

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A bug's eye view of a fiberglass triceratops and tyrannosaurus rex outside the St. Louis Science Center in Forest Park. Just fooling around. At least they existed in the same geologic era so I suppose they could have bumped into one another. (I didn't bother to look up the land range in which each of them lived). I'd prefer to be small enough to hide in the grass if they were passing by.