Ice Ages and Canals OR The History of Hoosiers

One of the oddities of modern life is that we only go to museums on vacation or field trips. Unless, of course, you're a weirdo like me. In that case, you'll be pleased to follow along with my trip to the Indiana State Museum.

The impressive front entrance that nobody uses
because they all enter from the parking garage.

For those of you who didn't know (I certainly didn't), Indiana was the 16th state, and joined the US in 1816 after being part of the Northwest Territory. Incidentally, the Northwest Territory was part of Quebec that US took from the British after the Revolutionary War. It later became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and parts of Minnesota. Not exactly sure what point I can make with that piece of info, but it's certainly fascinating.

Anyway, the Indiana State Museum wants reminds you that there's a lot of things that happened before Indiana became a state. You know, like 99% of time.

Oh, and the Earth was born in there somewhere.
I guess that's important, too.

This whole sections has all sorts of fascinating geologic information and astronomic information about the forming of the earth and rocks and other such things that don't make good blog reading. (Unless it's a geologist's blog.)

I like to call this section: In the beginning, there was nothing. And then there was Indiana.

Even if it happened to be underwater at the time.

Truth be told, the sequence of prehistoric ocean and land maps was pretty interesting, and the Indiana dot helped keep your oriented correctly. (Though I'm pretty sure they just guessed on a lot of those locations.)

On the bright side, all the time underwater means that Indiana evidently was a lot of undersea fossils.

And they find your puny lungs hilarious.

They go pretty all out with the prehistoric section, which is good, because one can only see so many fossils before they all just look like rocks. Especially if you're a kid on a field trip. (They know their audience.) So they also built large scale exhibits like sections with glacier recreations and various animal models.

They say this mammoth was drowning in ice.
I say he was waving to the mammoth ladies from his hot tub.

Next step on our prehistoric journey? That's right: Mankind.

If these look familiar to you, then you get an Easily Fascinated Gold Star.

If you're mourning your lack of gold star, then you can check out this post for more info about those. Turns out there were a great many sprawling prehistoric structures all over this state, and we have no idea why many of them are the way there are.

So let's declare them fascinating and move on to just before Indiana became a state.

It was a time of guns, horns, and flags...

A time when the clay Native Americans roamed free...

There's a lot of neat stuff about that, most of which I had never even heard about. Turns out that our educational system is pretty focused on the history of our state and our state alone, whatever that state is. (Probably because all the field trips go to State Museums.)

For example, I grew up in California, so my timeline of the US pretty much went like this:

Indians

Spanish Missions

Mexico

Revolutionary War somewhere back East.

Gold Rush, California becomes a state.

People back East fight again, this time with each other.

See what I mean? Nowhere in there was there anything about tribal wars, battles with Canadians, or these things that happened in Indiana.

Look at those old clothes in the background.
Californians started wearing jeans in the Gold Rush and never looked back.

And, it turns out that while those of us out west were digging holes in the ground looking for yellow rocks, Indiana was busy building canals to take advantage of the river that went through Indianapolis.

As shown in the avant garde model photo.

Also, while no major battles of the Civil War were in Indiana, that doesn't mean it wasn't involved. Evidently.

Why else would they have all this Civil War stuff?

I'll stop boring you with each exhibit now, but needless to say, they had a lot of fascinating stuff highlighting the good of Indiana...

Like the many household goods and inventions from the late 1800s & early 1900s

...the bad...

The KKK got a strong footing in Indiana in the early 1920s...
...Fortunately everyone came to their senses around 1927, so it didn't last long.

...and the morally ambiguous.

I forget why there's a trophy next to the illegal still.
Maybe it won the "Most Likely to Make You Blind" award?

We then passed through the history of the 1940s and 1950s, before ending up at the "Hall of Famous People From Indiana."

James Dean, Steve McQueen, and more...
The list of cool people who left Indiana is a long one!

We also happened to go on a gorgeous summer day, so got to enjoy some of the outside trails through gardens that only have native Indiana plants in them.

The path is not native.
...But it is made from Indiana limestone, if that helps.

And remember those canals in the model? They're still there today, and, coincidentally, right outside the museum, winding their way through downtown Indianapolis.

Evidently they made them into a recreation path a few years ago.

Hope you've learned something and enjoyed this romp through Indiana's history. If not, then I suggest getting the other kids together for a field trip. Make sure you have all your permission slips signed!

These Are The Droids You're Looking For OR Klaatu Barada Nikto

Since this is the second post about the Star Wars exhibit (the first post is here), I seriously thought about giving this one a name like "The Exhibit Strikes Back." But in the end, I went with a robot-centric title. Why? Because this time we're looking at puppets, droids, robots, and various other gadgets.

Side note: If you read "Klaatu barada nikto" and thought "What does the Army of Darkness have to do with robots?", then you need to go see The Day the Earth Stood Still. And not the one with Keanu Reeves.

Moving on, let's scan around the exhibit and see if we find something roboty...

Perhaps while scanning the ice planet of Hoth...?

Star Wars just wouldn't be Star Wars without its robots and androids, or, to use the trademarked word: Droids. This word is actually trademarked by Lucasfilm, and if you look at the bottom of any cell phone ad for a "Droid" phone, you'll see a tiny copyright Lucasfilm.

Which is why there were so many droids in the movies, and at the exhibit.

I don't know about you,
but I feel safe trusting the fate of the rebellion to those mechanoids...

These included the actual props and puppets they used in the first three movies...

Being a tall doctor doesn't mean the same thing
to single ladies in the Star Wars universe.

Still not sure why the interrogation droid is so effective.

...And the models they used for close-ups that were largely CG in other sequences for the later movies.

The pit droid was clearly inspired
by the turtles from Super Mario.

Gonna be honest: I mostly remember being
annoyed by these guys in the Lego Star Wars game...

But it was really neat to see the detail put into these models.

Also to picture the days and days
spend soldering all of those wires together.

The exhibit didn't disappoint with the education, either, featuring a bevy of exhibits about robots in the real world.

The last of a three-station robot-programming/building exhibit.

That big green on isn't a toy, but a model of an actual tree-cutting machine.
...Soon to be the focus of a SyFy movie.

The creepy robot can see you...

All of these were of course accompanied by my favorite tool: The informative plaque.

Informative! Also: Random Mark Hamill.

A particular favorite was the exhibit where you get to figure out the mechanics of making a robot walk. Yes, you heard me.

You can tell by the way it uses its walk,
It's a women's robot, to time to talk.

I ostensibly didn't try this because I wanted to let the children learn and discover more myself. But the truth is, I probably would have failed just as much as they did, if not more.

This was the most successful robot operator.
She succeeded it making the robot moonwalk.

Walking is a great segue to the next subject, and not because the Segway is a ridiculous replacement of walking...

...No, it's because pronouncing these next vehicles makes it sound like you're hacking up a hairball.

Go ahead and try it:
AT-AT, AT-ST, AT-TE

As a kid, these walkers were exceptionally cool, and I was always more than a little jealous of the family friend who had an AT-AT toy and (very wisely) wouldn't let me play with it.

So I was overjoyed to see the models up close.

Strengths: Big walking weapon.
Weaknesses: Clumsy as all get out.

Strengths: Side-mounted missiles
and gatling gun that nobody uses.
Weaknesses: Logs of all types.

Like with the rest of the exhibit, I kept having fond treks down memory lane to when I was a child who sang along with the Ewok song at the end of Return of the Jedi. (Like most people, I made up nonsense syllables that sounded vaguely like what they sang. Pretty sure that's what they did when originally recording it.)

And without admitting anything, there may have been some geeky quoting upon seeing certain tiny, round props.

I always wondered just how much those training blasts stung...

Go ahead. Just try to tell me you didn't hear,
"He's holding a thermal detonator!" when you saw this.

Overall, it was a great exhibit which I thoroughly enjoyed and found thoroughly fascinating. And I'll leave you with an extremely cool technology not from Star Wars at all:

Augmented Reality.

Looks like just a normal video game, right...?

A video game made by placing picture tiles on a blank white surface.
How awesome is that?!?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled (slightly) less geeky programming.

Putting the Science in Sci-Fi OR Dressing Up to Go on a Spaceship!

I recently took a bit of a trip down to the State Museum. Which state, you ask?

Evidently they get asked that question a lot.

Now this museum has a permanent exhibit that's quite fascinating (more on that in future posts), but we were there for a specific reason.

Because we are geeks.

The traveling Star Wars exhibit is here through Labor Day, so of course we had to go. After all, this guy:

He finds your lack of faith disturbing, by the way.

The exhibit itself features props, models, and costumes from the films, as well as actual science similar to them. There was tons of stuff, so I split it into two posts, sticking to the costumes and ships on this one.

So let's start with the costumes. Because they had a LOT of costumes.

Like the worst body armor in history...

...Or a Make Your Own Vader kit.

  

Remember, the Star Wars collection
has looks for all seasons. Winter...

...And summer!

Ooteenee!

And these stately robes.
Which look a little ridiculous up close.

Wife shown for scale.

 And of course, what costume display would be complete without these guys:

Even the mannequin swaggers.

Truth be told, I never realized how much Han Solo's costume was inspired by ex-cavalry cowboy wear from the old West. Seriously, those cavalry boots, the low slung pistol, the wool pants with gold striping up the side, the vest...

...Also, these little pockets and doodads all over the belt, which are a lot like the pockets for holding ammunition, firing caps, and other things.

It's a little blurry, but there's a battery of some sort in there.
...And what looked like breath mints or something.
He is a ladies' man, after all.

Now that the pretty pictures of cloth are done, let's look at why you really came here today: The ships.

BAM.

Seen here making the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs.

Don't both trying to zoom that picture for a closer look, because I've got you covered.

You can almost hear someone yelling, "Don't get cocky!"

Why does a spaceship have soot on the outside?
It's not like the wind slipstream blows it down...
...Oh yeah: Because it looks cool.

Yes, that IS a tiny captain's chair and random switches that don't do anything.

As you can see, the model makers of yore were serious about the details on their SFX models. Don't believe me? Check out the X-Wing:

Which is Luke's X-wing. How do we know?

Because you can see him and R2-D2.
Yeah. They put THAT kind of detail in.

And remember that awesome shot at the beginning of the first movie where the star destroyer flies over the camera? (And no, I do NOT mean Episode I, you barbarian.)

You know, this star destroyer.
 

I can almost see a rebel pilot crashing into the shield generators...

...Or the Millennium Falcon hiding on the back of the ship.

As you may have guessed, seeing these models brought an insane amount of scenes flashing through my mind. On a related side note, I might have watched those movies a bit too much when I was a kid. Possibly.

I could almost hear Gold Five telling me to stay on target...

Okay, yes. Yes, I did watch the first three Star Wars movies a bit too much.

But you know what? I'm not the only one. And I'm proud of it. This exhibit was packed. In fact, they had to space out entry to make the exhibit at all workable. That was also the same day as the first football game of the season (preseason?) in a heavily football town. And it was STILL packed.

And we all had a great time.

Especially this guy.

Which brings me to the awesome part of the exhibit, or at least, the part that didn't involve Star Wars props.

They put a lot of time and effort (and I mean a LOT) into bridging the gap between science fiction and reality. How, you ask? By showing the science fiction-type inventions in our world today.

For example, they had an exhibit showing Luke's land speeder...

It may be dented and need an engine cover,
but at least it's paid off.

The actual way it got around: Wheels.
(They used a mirror to make it "hover.")

The model used for far-off shots.

And alongside it they had a whole interactive display about maglev trains.

It's hovering, but with MAGNETS!

This included Legos which allowed you to make your own maglev car and scoot it around the tracks.

Okay, ALONG the tracks, but you get the idea...

They also included an exhibit about our cold weather gear, and how similar it is to the Hoth gear.

Tauntaun not included.

And exhibits about some of our recent designs for spacecraft.

By "our" I mean "smart people at NASA."

Seriously, I have several old high school friends who are either
astrophysicists or work at NASA.
Crazy smart.

And, of course, models of weird flying things.

The label for the flying car says it, "Still faces regulatory hurdles" with the FAA.
I don't think any of us are surprised.

But the neat thing was seeing all of the kids (and adults) who went directly from oohing and ahhing at the Star Wars models and costumes to looking closely at the educational exhibits. And, of course, smashing the Lego maglev cars into the end of the track. But you know what? They were learning.

Even if all they were learning was that Lego maglev cars are really durable.

I'm gonna leave you with a teaser taste of next week, when I go over the robots and puppets part of the exhibit. I don't normally do teasers, but...

THIS GUY.

...I hope you understand. I means seriously, this is the actual Yoda puppet, right there in the flesh whatever they make puppets out of.

Insert your favorite Yoda quote here.
...He's just got too many good ones.

See you next week!