Oct. 25 2013
The San Francisco Academy of Science removed all of the interesting exhibits when they remodeled. Prior to the change, they had rocks and minerals which you could see under black light. I spend hours learning about minerals there. They had a room of fossils. They had a real Platinum with the Star Bug Machine that shined real lasers and replaced it with a large flat screen tv, that shows programs you could watch on the Discovery Channel. They also got rid of The Fish Roundabout and all the fun things in back including the courtyard with The Whale Fountain created by Robert Howard was removed along with all the animal sculptures created by Bufano.
They replaced everything that was in the back with business offices so they could collect fund better and give more high paying jobs to their personal friends and family, and they make their living off tourist dollars and parents with little kids who come here. The noise level is appalling. The main room echoes all the noise of children screaming.
They did kept the disturbing dead animals. I guess people don’t know that someone went to Africa and shot all those animals in the African Hall. I never liked taxidermy animals, they creep me out.
People threw pennies on the alligators who died of metal poisoning. Now they have a white alligator who got part of his leg bitten off by another alligator because his enclosure is too small and the gators are stressed.
But, even before the big change, I knew the place was going down hill. They had a very large eel, I called the great eel. I had a membership. I went to see the eel. He was gone. I tried to find someone to ask, but I could only find a membership zombie to speak with. Me: “What happened to the large eel?” Zombie: “I don’t know, but would you like to buy a membership?”
I called them one time wanting to speak to a scientist about my one eyed fish who just died. I thought they would be interested as his other eye was super large. There were no scientists there at all, but just administrators who handle incoming funds and make salaries. They told me to go away, my fish was not important and at any rate they did not care, they were just there to collect memberships and donations. The Academy of Science literally went from an awesome place in which one could stay all day to something you could see in 20 minutes if the line to get into the butterfly exhibit is not too long.
Macy Makes Magic 