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Dr. Dino

I visited the American Museum of Natural History yesterday. Wow! When I read Jurassic Park or browsed through Dinosaurs by Macromedia or watched Steven Spielberg's movie, I always thought there's a lot of fantasy in this. There couldn't have been something so bizarre roaming around - and I never really believed that the dino searches were as dramatic as they were made out to be.

But there it was - almost completely preserved skeletal fossils of such diversity. I whooped when I encountered my first T Rex. What could be more exciting? And the size of the Baranosaurus is something to be seen to be believed. And that complete fossilized nest of eggs that you can touch ...

I'm a dino enthusiast and this was like holy shrine to me.

The space center is also awesome. They have this nice spiral walk which traces the origin of our current universe from 13 billion years ago. Every foot you walk is 45 million years - it is done very creatively. They've made concepts such as quasars and red shift almost accessible.

The only disturbing part was in the anthropological section - tribe after tribe in Africa and Latin America practice clitoridectomy. Of all the barbarous crimes against women! I was shivering when I walked out of those exhibits.

Will the museum will hire a writer with no special area of expertise but a lot of interest in almost everything exhibited there and is willing to learn going for her?

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