We recently discussed Govenor Steve Beshear (D-KY) and his support, and $37.5 million in tax breaks, for a theme park devoted to a recreation of Noah’s Ark called Ark Encounter, here. Who owns Ark Encounter? A private LLC whose membership includes a subsidiary of Answers in Genesis, whose CEO is Ken Ham.
The Governor’s office issued a press release:
A feasibility study by the renowned America’s Research Group has indicated that the Ark Encounter may attract 1.6 million visitors in the first year and is expected to employ up to 900 full and part-time staff.
That’s a lot of visitors, a lot of occupied hotel rooms, a lot of restaurant meals, a lot of local purchases, and a lot of sales taxes. Sounds too good to be true? It is.
Just what is this “renowned America’s Research Group?” From their website:
America’s Research Group is a full service consumer behavior survey research company. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research, America’s Research Group has virtually reinvented the research arena with our distinctive, personalized services, encyclopedic reference of consumer demographics, annual client conferences, and extensive interview database.
Sounds impressive. However, America’s Research Group is run by C. Britt Beemer (left). Beemer is also a personal friend of Ken Ham and coauthor, with Ken Ham, of Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it. Has anyone at the Governor’s office heard of due diligence? How about Google?
There’s much more coming and I’ll keep you up to date.
H/T: Barefoot and Progressive.
-David Drumm (Nal)
Buddha Is Laughing
Yea, verily. And the Lord sayeth unto Moses, “Let them go forth and be silly. Because humorless people suck.
True story.”
BBB –
Totally true story, just one minor correction on the choice of verbs:
I believe it’s “sucketh.”
Excessive Entanglement comes to mind….
Yea, verily. And the Lord sayeth unto Moses, “Let them go forth and be silly. Because humorless people suck.”
That’s the long lost 12th Commandment.
True story.
Pete-
If I use your “cannibis special bee bee que’er sauce”, I won’t have any problem finding an ample supply of Brontosauri to supply my craving for the delicious Bronto ribs. Once you strangle them, the hard part is cleaning the carcass. By the way, “unto my oven” should be “into my oven”. I wasn’t getting Biblical there- as in “the Lord bringeth Brontosaurus ribs unto my oven”. (This is all getting very silly.)
I’m all for their Ark, under the condition they fill it with pairs of all species on the planet. How many pairs?
According to the King James Version, clean animals were taken into the ark “by sevens” (Genesis 7:2). The American Standard Version says that the clean animals were taken “seven and seven.” Newer translations are worded more clearly, but there is general disagreement among them. The New King James and New International Versions both agree that Noah took seven of each clean animal into the ark, whereas the Revised Standard Version, the New English Bible, and the English Standard Version all translate shibb’ah shibb’ah to mean “seven pairs” of clean animals.
No mention of little items like food storage.
So what say we ignore the Church vs State silliness entirely; fund the program; set up TV cameras 24/7 to capture the Answers in Genesis folks walking anacondas and polar bears up the ramp; and just look at this latest reality show as an essential mathematical exercise, which, according to many, ain’t exactly our strong suit.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1571445/World-rankings-for-reading-maths-and-science.html
HenMan
1, December 8, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Buddha-
Brontosaurus ribs? You can eat more than one? I can’t even get one leftover Bronto rib unto my oven to reheat.
WHAT
HenMan, if you try some of my “cannibis special bee bee que’er sauce” there won’t be any leftover bronto ribs.
One thing about the dino ribs. Without knowing if the dino in question is cold-blooded or closer to warm blooded (as some have asserted many dinos to be), the fat, muscle and sinew structure may not take well to slow cooking.
It would be worth trying, thats for sure.
Maybe Ken Ham can score a few for a cook-off. Here’s what Answers in Genesis says about dinosaurs and there so-called extinction:
“If the different kinds of dinosaurs survived the Flood, then they must have come off the Ark and lived in the post-Flood world.”
“Creationists, of course, would not be surprised if someone found a living dinosaur.”
I watched the woman in the Anderson Cooper interview say that she’s not afraid of teaching her children controversy as long as all of the facts are on the table. That got me to thinking, maybe creationism SHOULD be a part of early scientific education – teachers can present the theories and show how one has generated innumerable falsifiable hypotheses which have been validated by experiment and provided enormous advances in our understanding (and technology) and how the other theory has yet to produce a single falsifiable hypothesis (the first step in scientific exploration) or scientific insight. I would be fine with considering cintelligent designist’s theories in order to demonstrate why they are not scientific theories while the theory of evolution is.
Gyges,
Thanks for the ‘science of cooking’ lesson (a chef friend of mine actually had a class in the ‘science of cooking’ which sounded enormously interesting
Buddha-
Brontosaurus ribs? You can eat more than one? I can’t even get one leftover Bronto rib unto my oven to reheat.