With the noise being made about how one of MOSI in Manchester, the National Railway Museum in York or the Media Museum in Bradford would "almost certainly" be shut should the cuts continue; now is the time to visit, spend, donate, petition and see how you can help keep museums open.
If you are unaware of the situation, it boils down to increasing cuts which the Science Museum Group have been meeting. Having done all they feel possible thus far with regards to cutting staff etc, SMG director Ian Blatchford said: “We are investigating a range of options but if an additional 10% cut is made when the spending review is announced at the end of this month, there would be little choice other than to close one of our museums, since our structural (year on year) deficit would rise from £2m to £6m.” This closure would come alongside further cuts to the London based museum.
Find out more: BBC News and the interview with Ian Blatchford on Radio 4's The World at One: 

I sometimes hate the whole North/South debate, but the conclusion that it's best to shut a northern museum, rather than one in an area already well covered for museums and tourist venues, feels a bit off. Not to mention MOSI's unique value as a heritage site in it's own right, being much more of a genuine industrial hub than South Kensington, York's unique status as the first national museum outside of London, and the immense cultural and tourism benefits for Bradford being UNESCO's City of Film and hosting the National Media Museum. The benefits these three sites bring their communities and across a much broader area, I feel, outweigh the value of a site in London. No offense to London, the Science Museum there is sterling, but the entire loss of one of the northern museums would have far greater impact than say, downsizing London and spreading some of the collection out.

There are three petitions for the three venues/against the proposal overall:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/petition-save-museum-science-industry-4050167
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/indepth/savethenrm/petition/
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-national-media-museum-bradford

As well as signing online though, Go And Visit. Currently all free to enter due to their national museum status, it's a great free day out for all the family, or without the family as then you can have fun without the kids around. Visitor numbers and secondary spending are key, so visit, get a cup of tea, and try to help keep these venues open.

My friend asked if she could clean the Giraffe at Wollaton Hall, as everything else was spotless, she had training on the conservation hoover, and had the conservation hoover. The response was a lengthy one about how delicate the taxidermy was, the level of training needed, the scaffolding, the expert equipment. As the giraffe isn't behind any glass, and is only on a small raised plinth, the day to day level of non expert contact he comes under puts him in dire need of even the smallest expert help!

t's been a while, but here's more NEW and EXCITING! tales of badly applied SCIENCE in the MUSEUMS of the FUTURE! This is instead of a comic, as I've been to busy to draw recently :(


Issue #1 here.
Issue #2 here.
Issue #3 here.

"It can guard artworks, provide directions to the toilets, hand out leaflets and vaporize cameras!"
"What about that 11% part?..."
"Did we mention they don't sleep and don't take holidays, compassionate leave or sick days?"
"We'll have 6."
 
Go and have a go at making your own pulp tales covers,  as it's very easy to edit once you prod it a bit, and has great potential for entertaining things to stick on the staff notice board.