The Ulster Museum, first opened in 1929 (at it’s current location) , but closed 3 years ago for major renovation. 

Free Celebratory Balloons

I remember going to the museum as a child, I was fascinated by it, it was my first experience of a museum. I loved seeing the dinosaur bones, the Egyptian mummy, and all the other artifacts. 

The museum opened it’s doors again to the public on Thursday past. I couldn’t get down for the opening, but I headed down in the evening with Lorraine.

Museum Atrium

The new museum is so open and airy now, compared to what is used to be like. It would take quite a while to go round all the exhibits in detail, so we just went round the main ones.

It’s still free to get in, so you should take an afternoon and go for a walk around. 

Visitors - Lensbaby

Information - Lensbaby

See these photos bigger on flickr.

Check out this post and photos about the museum opening as well.  

“We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.
Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home
and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics
arrived. Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.”

This was the news broken yesterday evening by entertainment news website TMZ. They were the first, and for a while the only, media outlet who had confirmed the death of the 50 year old star. However over the course of the next hour and a bit, other media agencys then confirmed the reports.

When I first heard about him being rushed to hospital (via @pinkhairedgirl on twitter), I didn’t think much of it. When I switched on BBC News 24 though I realised that this wasn’t just a minor heart attack, it was full blown cardiac arrest. I watched the story develop over the course of the evening, until the BBC  confirmed that Michael had indeed passed away.

How will he be remembered though? Strange, creepy, odd? Or as one of the best musicians the world has seen? Obviously he didn’t get the name ‘Wacko Jacko’ for no reason, and yes he was eccentric, and a really strange person. The oddness of his character is not something that people will forget, but setting that all aside he was a fantastic musician. I am not a HUGE Michael Jasckon fan, I don’t have his full back catalogue or anything, but even still I loved his music. His songs always get me either singing along (much to the dismay of those around me) or attempting to dance and moonwalk (to the embarassment of those around me).  So here’s hoping that he will be remembered as the King of Pop, more than Wacko Jacko…

One of my favourite MJ songs… Man in the Mirror

Its really sad that society has become so utterly materialistic that we seem to care about grabbing a great bargain, more than we care about human life…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7755278.stm

So Barack Hussein Obama is going to be the next president of the United States, completely thrashing John McCain, he is the first African American President, will this be a significant change from the Bush era? We will have to wait and see …