‘Every Food Fits: Thanksgiving Edition’
courtesy of ‘staceyviera’
Every now and then you splurge with food, usually it being something with a lot of butter and a high calorie count. After the jump you’ll find a little roundup of some food events that are not only worthy of the extra calories but also of breaking the bank a little.
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Photo Credit: Cheryl Stepanek
Tomorrow, QVC will officially launch a new jewelry line inspired by the Smithsonian‘s gem collection at the National Museum of Natural History. This is the first time that the Smithsonian has offered licensed products through a multimedia retailer. Gemologist Christine Webb of the gems and minerals department in the museum is scheduled to appear during the broadcast to present a wide-range of jewelry designed exclusively for QVC.
Prices will range from $65 to $950 and your baubles can be purchased on Tuesday, September 14th from 7 to to 9 p.m. (EDT) on QVC.
By jasmine
‘P1060302’
courtesy of ‘pondman2’
The National Museum of Natural History is going macro with its new exhibit, The Hidden Life of Ants. Natural History is already one of the bigger draws on the Mall, especially with the recent release of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (which they are playing on their IMAX, btw), but this exhibit adds just one more reason to stop by. There’s a live ant colony, a 6-ft cast of an underground colony, and tons of pictures just in case the real ones aren’t up to anything interesting. It opened last weekend and runs through October 10.
By Tom Bridge
Five years ago, the Museum of Natural History got together a group of people with the goal of expanding the Museum’s reach beyond just the land. The incredible wealth of life below the water’s surface, and the great span of the ocean, was a missing spot in the museum’s coverage. Thus, they began the most extensive renovation in the Museum’s History. Tomorrow, the NMNH opens the brand new Sant Ocean Hall. The ceremonies kick off at 11am out front of the Museum, where the Aloha Boys & Halau O’Aulani Dancers, as well as the Tlingit community, who will be performing a drum ceremony to bless the exhibit.
Once inside, the centerpiece is Phoenix, the Right Whale, suspended in the dead center of the exhibit about 10 feet off the ground. Phoenix is a model built off a living Right Whale living in the North Atlantic that scientists from the New England Aquarium have tracked for the last 21 years. Right whales represent one of the North Atlantic’s most endangered species, though their population is on the rebound with some of the more recent preservation efforts.
The Ocean Hall is 23,000 square feet, the largest single exhibit space in the Museum. It features a central corridor that features exhibits on coastal ocean life, and leads back toward the Open Ocean exhibit, featuring a couple of specially displayed giant squid. See, the fire marshall just about had a conniption when he found out the Smithsonian wanted to put a bunch of jars of flammable, toxic alcohol in the middle of a bunch of children. So, they went to the 3M corporation and they came back with their Novec 7100 Engineered Fluid, by the tankful. See, it still allows for neutral buoyancy, and the preservation of the specimen, it just doesn’t catch fire easily, or poison people.
By Tom Bridge
Wow, what a morning. I spent the morning walking through the new Sant Ocean Hall at the National Museum of Natural History on the Mall. We got an introduction from the direct of the museum, and a great tour through the 23,000 square-foot space. We’ll have a full review up on Friday as part of our Tourism column.
However, there was one bit that was way too cool to wait for Friday to share: Science on a Sphere®. The Smithsonian’s new exhibit features this cool technology from NOAA which involves multiple projectors and a suspended gray sphere. It’s based on four desktop computers running Linux and some multiple projectors. It’s just amazing. Click on for the full size video.
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