The Goat Pen

hedge wrote:"Thankfully, the chances of that happening in our lifetimes are slim."

What are the chances you'll get slim in our lifetimes?

Saint wrote:Good lord:


WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. (AP) — A 510-foot-long, $100 million Noah's ark attraction built by Christians who say the biblical story really happened is ready to open in Kentucky this week.
Since its announcement in 2010, the ark project has rankled opponents who say the attraction will be detrimental to science education and shouldn't have won state tax incentives.
"I believe this is going to be one of the greatest Christian outreaches of this era in history," said Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, the ministry that built the ark.
Ham said the massive ark, based on the tale of a man who got an end-of-the-world warning from God about a massive flood, will stand as proof that the stories of the Bible are true. The group invited media and thousands of supporters for a pretty review Tuesday, the first glimpse inside the giant, mostly wood structure.
"People are going to come from all over the world," Ham said to thousands of people in front of the ark.
The ark will open to the public Thursday and Ham's group has estimated it will draw 2 million visitors in its first year, putting it on par with some of the big-ticket attractions in nearby Cincinnati.
The group says the ark is built based on dimensions in the Bible. Inside are museum-style exhibits: displays of Noah's family along with rows of cages containing animal replicas, including dinosaurs.
The group believes that God created everything about 6,000 years ago — man, dinosaur and everything else — so dinosaurs still would've been around at the time of Noah's flood. Scientists say dinosaurs died out about 65 million years before man appeared.
An ark opponent who leads an atheist group called the Tri-State Freethinkers said the religious theme park will be unlike any other in the nation because of its rejection of science.
"Basically, this boat is a church raising scientifically illiterate children and lying to them about science," said Jim Helton, who lives about a half-hour from the ark.
Ham said the total cost of the ark surpassed $100 million, a far cry from a few years ago, when fundraising for the boat was sluggish and much larger theme park plans had to be scaled back.
Millions of people first learned about plans for the ark during a debate on evolution between TV's Bill Nye "the Science Guy" and Ham in early 2014.
A few weeks later, a local bond issuance infused tens of millions of dollars into struggling fundraising efforts. And earlier this year, a federal judge ruled the ark could receive a Kentucky sales tax incentive worth up to $18 million while giving a strict religious test to its employees.


http://www.sfgate.com/news/nation-world ... 343077.php

hedge wrote:Actually, with regard to #1, I expect nothing less of political leaders. Machiavelli covered all of this centuries ago...

Owlman wrote:SHOOTING IN BATON ROUGE

I drive past this place every day doing the school year after I drop my son off. I know the dead guy peripherally. He and I go to the same barber where like every one else, we've argued about sports. He's known as the CD guy because every day he's out there at this convenient store selling CD's.

2 videos
[youtube]jBZPCDqymyo[/youtube]

and

[youtube]oIqE7Jv_0Vk[/youtube]

Owlman wrote:There will be more video as the police were reportedly wearing body cams and the store also had video