Help OMSI Pick an Exhibit!

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is a museum that I view with both love and mockery.  On one hand, it's hands down one of the best educational institutions in Portland, and compares well to other science museums that we have visited around the country.  On the other hand, there is the occasional sensationalistic twaddle that they bring in just to make a quick buck.  (Can't they just hold bake sales or something?)  Now OMSI  is asking the public to pick an exhibit, with four different options.  Which one do you think has the most scientific merit? Answering this question could really be a challenge. So forget that- which one do you most want to see?  To save you the trouble of researching them, I'm comparing them below.  Don't forget to vote for your favorite!

"Guitar- The Instrument that Rocked the World".  This is a travelling exhibit from the National Guitar Museum, which is supposed to travel for five years.  Then plans are for the museum to find a permanent home where the exhibit will be housed.  I'm guessing that the point of the traveling exhibit is to raise money to make a permanent home possible. Apparently part of their agenda is to promote the idea that the guitar is synonymous with red-blooded American patriotism.  Since they don't even try to pretend the instrument in any way originated in the USA, I'm wondering if we at least have any claim to the air guitar?  (Apparently not- this website has uncovered a video of a Canadian playing air guitar which they claim is the first known recorded air guitar performance.  Oh well...)

"Mummies of the World".  This is pretty awesome, don't you think?  What I love about the promo video is that they don't really bother to make any claim that there's any point to seeing it, except that it's cool to look at dead bodies!  Some were naturally preserved, in many different ways, and some were artificially created by ancient peoples for many different reasons.  There's nothing to unify the show except... dead bodies. And helping people "connect" to them!  My most favorite quote of all:  "We have over 50 human and animal mummies from five continents.  Somebody will find something to love somewhere."  Indeed, what's not to love? I figured this must be a for-profit sideshow-esque kind of thing, but it turns out that it's actually a show from the German Mummy Project, an outgrowth of pure scientific inquiry.  And as we gawk at dead bodies, we have been promised that we don't have to let the whole "dead bodies as spectacle" thing bother us, because it's being presented with "reverence and dignity".  (Wait a minute... isn't Body Worlds also a German thing?  I sure hope there isn't some secret plot to present the mortuary arts as uniquely and proudly German.  That's going a bit far...)

"Planet Shark- Predator or Prey". This is a show created by Grande Exhibitions, a for-profit exhibition company that produces "exhibitions with broad mass appeal".  While featuring memorabilia from the movies"Jaws" and interviews with actual shark attack victims, they heroically try to dispel myths that sharks are truly threatening to humans, and not the other way around.  Sure, I definitely buy that, because what we're doing to the oceans in general and sharks in particular is no joke.  But I'm sorry to say that the statistics that they quote in the promo video, that far more people are killed by automobiles, dogs, etc. than sharks, isn't exactly comforting, if you get my drift.  I mean, I encounter dogs and automobiles pretty much every single day, but sharks, not so much!  I'm just not really giving them a chance. Still, it looks like they have lots of fascinating stuff to share about sharks aside from how terrifying they are.


Ripley Entertainment claims to be the "world's largest chain of walk through tourist attractions".  The closest one to Portland is kept well at arm's length in Newport, OR.  If that's too far to drive, why not bring "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!"  right to Portland?  The Ripley's empire has been on tv for ages, so it's no trouble to find their videos.  But I turned up nothing specifically relating to this exhibit, which is being sold by Science North, a Canadian for-profit exhibition company.  So the video I'm posting is a travelogue segment on a Ripley's museum in Florida, where the public can learn about all sorts of worthy scientific wonders.  Unfortunately, a familiarity with Ripley's franchises will likely lead you to have sky-high expectations for the exhibit, but the exhibit's creators really rained on Ripley's parade by toning down the guts and gore.  Still, they didn't skimp on the science!  Here's a section from their brochure about one of the displays, which is sure to convince you of its unparalleled  scientific value.