London Planetarium - A tragedy and a sign of ongoing dumbing down

[DaddyCool]

check it out.

The London Planetarium is now going to be called the London Auditorium and will show a presentation on celebrities and celebrity-ism.

what a load of crap

HOw flipping rubbish. Tussauds group really do try to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Whats wrong with inspiring people to think?

The planetarium imo has been run into the ground by a company whose sole aim is profit.. surprised its lasted this long.
Its sad but whos surprised?
Will make a big effert to go to Greenwich when were next down.
Has Patrick made any comments on The Sky at night??

The planetarium imo has been run into the ground by a company whose sole aim is profit.. surprised its lasted this long.

But hasn't it always been run for profit ?

Fact is that Brits are increasingly less interested in education and science in particular. Homoepathy gets treated by the BBC as if it were real medical science, some schools teach creationism, and places like King's College London are giving up Chemistry degrees because British kids don't want to study it.
One of the most difficult degrees to join these days is media studies.
Look at your school's newsletter. What % is sport ? Read most of them and you get the impression that not only is sport 50% of the curriculum it is the most important subject.
They do that because they are PR sheets. They know that parents like sport, and that a kid doing really well in maths is "elitist". Private schools are no better.

Of course its run for profit, its a business. But the fact remains that people would still be interested if the show hadn't changed. The numbers hadnt dropped that much before the decision was made. It just changed to fit in with a totally invented 5+ year plan, instead of leaving well alone. Now they are employing 2 really talented techies to programme and run complete rubbish.

it's one of my bugbears that too many 'attractions' are changed to cater for school parties, with stupid activities. It's like children aren't interested in anything unless there's loud music and flashing lights.

The planetarium used to run proper schools shows in the mornings before they opened up to the general public, but they stopped them too.

dommiconnor - surely creationism is not being taught in British state schools (even church ones)??

science is science, btw, but homeopathy works. As I am a software engineer, "It works, so what" is the guiding principle of my life.

dommiconnor - surely creationism is not being taught in British state schools (even church ones)??

Yep some of Blair's "City Academies" have fallen into the hands of Christian groups. Actually my kids are taught well enough that they'd realise that this is simply a more obviously dishones part of the superstition, but I worry about less able kids.

science is science, btw, but homeopathy works.

As I am a software engineer, "It works, so what"
Well so am I (debugged O/S code for IBM and MS), but I'm also a scientist who has done chemistry and maths and know that it can't.
You do know about Avogardo's constant don't you ?

is the guiding principle of my life.

Um, there have been some recent high-profile proper studies of homeopathy, which have shown that no, it doesn't work. Not better than placebos, anyway.

that was a genuine question - my children are not at school in UK so Im not really aware of whats on the curriculum. Why on earth arent the parents kicking up a fuss about it? In my book, thats major news.

re homeopathy, Ive also done chemistry and maths and know it cant work...personally I dont care if its the placebo effect if it works.

Im not really aware of whats on the curriculum.
It's not on the curriculum. "City Academies" allow fanatica lgroups to get control of schools for very low cost.

Why on earth arent the parents kicking up a fuss
Actually some are.

In my book, thats major news.
Ah, you have been out of Britain for a long while haven't you ? No celebrities involved, no sport, no story.

you are a mite patronising dommiconnor.
this is a conversation isnt it, not a document review, so why do you keep cutting and pasting my posts?

and debugging an O/S for Microsoft is to be proud of by the way...the biggest beta test in history isnt it?

Message withdrawn

I'm sorry if I'm a bit intense. I'm a semi retired programmer now (though trying to help debug th next version of Excel)
As it happens, I worked on OS/2, recall the one that worked, but no-one bought

My main now job is pimping smart people into banks.
What's scary is the high % that are foreign. I suspect the general view of hiring people who earn >100K for a bank is that Brits with a certain accent do well.

Not really true.
More than one manager has told me he "likes Russians, or that he'd prefer to see more French people. Academics from Oxbridge, Imperial, QMC, Edinburgh et al tell me of having to run remedial courses for kids to get them up to speed in sciences. Even languages are suffering.

We're now in a global labour market, you can see that as good or bad, but it's true. We're a little ahead of the curve, since banks are pretty cosmopolitan, but it's a growing trend. The person your kids will be competing with may be in Britain like the ones we deal with, or in some cheap place with a phone and an internet connection, but there's a lot of them, and many a very well educated.

British kids are coming out of the education system with far less ability to hack into the job market than they should.
Yes, this bugs me, hence the "intense" part, but I'm not looking forward to a 21st century where a large % of people in this country can't do anything that people will pay them for.

Is there something wrong with cutting and pasting? Personally I thought it was the best way to make sure you respond to what people have actually said, rather than what you vaguely remember them as having said. Also to avoid confusion about who you are answering.
But if it's a Mumsnet no-no I will make sure I don't do it either

Its irritating, and people dont normally do it

Im the keeper of the spirit of Mumsnet, its safely locked in the drinks cupboard next to the gin....

dommiconnor,
youve got 2 choices; try and change the system or leave. Not being Lenin, I left.