Aspects of Montreal

             We started off today by going to the Science Center of Montreal. It was a little too kiddie to be really cool, but some of the stations did talk about state-of-the-art science. Scientists have now developed an artificial heart, eyes that can give sight to the blind, etc. There was one station that if you concentrated enough, you could send enough air into this tube to lift a ball (by measuring specific brain waves)– pretty cool. Also, there is talk of brain prints, like a neural lie detector. It depends on certain waves that indicate that a memory has been evoked; thus, if they presented a suspect with certain images of info about a crime and they recognized it (because they were guilty), then their brain would emit the brainwaves indicating so. It’s kind of scary and cool at the same time.

projection on mist = hologram

Alex's brain waves sending enough air to move the ball upwards

liquid with ferrous (magnets make it spike)

            Our next stop was the McCord Museum. It had two exhibits highlighting some of the cultural heritage of Montreal. Some of the coolest parts were a real totem pole (maybe 25 feet tall) telling of the Chief’s lineage and an alleged headdress of Tecumseh.

old map - I like how distorted it is

foot muff!

Ice castle the Canadians built one year!

horn with a map carved into it

allegedly Tecumseh's headdress

totem pole

            Later, we went to McGill University to the Redpath museum, which had dinosaur skeletons, mammals, and some cool artifacts from around the world. They had a gorgasaurus skeleton, which looked like a mini t-rex and an ancient moose head with humongous antlers. They also had a cross fox (which I’ve never heard of) and a wolverine. They also had samurai armor and shoes from China that women wore who had bound feet. Some of those shoes were only 3 inches long! I can’t imagine fitting my feet into those! I also liked the McGill campus because it was very open, the buildings had cool architecture and it was gated to make it distinct from the downtown area of Montreal.  

Giant Japanese Spider Crab!!!

Gorgasaurus

Samurai Armor

shoes for women's bound feet

mummy with x-ray

dromeosaurus

giant prehistoric Celtic elk

cross fox

wolverine

            Tomorrow I board the MV Explorer, so I don’t know how often or how detailed these posts will be (probably will not have pictures). Wish me luck with my job, classes and everything! I’ll post again when I can!

Just for laughs...

do not pet the taxidermied animals...

this was in the African heritage section...