The fat kid spent a romantic couple of days in San Francisco this week. Main purpose was to honor a friend that was finishing his PhD program and moving to the east coast. While I was there I spent some time at the California Academy of Sciences. Had to see what all the fuss was about. And what do you know, it was actually pretty effing sweet. Weather in SF has been bitterly cold, and I was there during the week so crowds were really light. That meant that there weren't as many screaming disinterested kids as usual, and also that I had plenty of time to hang out and see whatever I was interested in. Some highlights:
- The living roof. I took a photo of it. Full-size image attached in all its glory.
- The space itself. There are essentially two large spheres stuck inside a rectangle. One sphere houses the planetarium, and the other houses the rain forest exhibit. The bottom floor houses the aquarium and includes their flagship Philippine coral reef tank.
- The descriptions for most of the non-permanent exhibits (such as the fish tanks) are displayed on little 6" full color LCD screens. Big improvement over the little cards.
- In an homage to the original aquarium, they kept the alligator pit, although it's a "swamp" display now.
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