Universe just got 80 million years older

This is pretty cool, awe-inspiring stuff. Turns out, the universe is 13.82 billion years old, about 80 million years older than previously thought. And it looks like a rugby ball.

By comparison, spaceship Earth is about 4.5 billion years old.  And it's round.

I wonder: what was God up to for the first 9.3 billion years before he made the Earth, and the first 13.8 billion years (or 13.829999 billion years, if you're a Creationist) before he made us? God must be a very meticulous planner.

Planck shows almost perfect cosmos – plus axis of evil

By Jacob Aron

March 21, 2013 | New Scientist

URL: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23301

Voucher schools: 'That'll larn ya!'

Oy vey!  According to voucher school curricula, Klansmen were moral "reformers," literary titan Mark Twain was "both self-centered and ultimately hopeless," and big-headed dinosaurs breathed fire on men. 

Can we just hand they keys of global leadership to the Chinese now in a friendly official ceremony, so that later they'll remember how nice we were and take it easy on us?  There's no point in dragging out our inevitable, embarrassing decline into an ignorant backwoods theocracy.

14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in Louisiana's Voucher Schools

By Deanna Pan

August 7, 2012 | Mother Jones

URL:  http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/07/photos-evangelical-curricula-louisiana-tax-dollars

Nearly half of U.S. is ignorant

So this is what we're up against.  By we, I mean smart people.  A slim majority of Americans has enough brains and education to know that the human race was not born 10,000 years ago, i.e. Adam & Eve didn't actually bury each and every dinosaur and primate, who once lived side by side, in different sedimentary layers after they expired.

And -- surprise, surprise -- creationists are more likely to be Republican: 58 percent of Repubs believe that "God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years."  

If America wasn't so rich and powerful, it'd be the laughing stock of the world....

46% Americans Believe In Creationism According To Latest Gallup Poll

By Jahnabi Barooah 

June 5, 2012 | Huffington Post

URL:  http://huff.to/KL3waN 

KY: Raiders of the Lost Park

Two Tennessee cities didn't see any financial sense in building a Bible Park, but doggoneit, that's not going to stop Kentucky from encountering an Ark!

Who needs financial sense when you've got horse sense and Yahweh as your pitchman? $37 million in state support shall be done. God shall provide! (Philippians 4:19).

(With the benefit of 4,000 to 10,000 years of hindsight, it's amazing to think the original Ark even got off the ground without a generous subsidy, municipal bond, or at least a greenfield industrial park. It truly was a miracle!)

Biblical Theme Park Plans May Meet Different Fates In Kentucky, Tennessee

By Nick Wing

January 10, 2011 | Huffington Post

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/10/kentucky-ark-encounter-park_n_806734.html

NKY: Mecca for morons?

Great, now add Ark Encounter to the Creation Museum. NKY wasn't the sharpest to begin with, but now it's becoming Mecca for Morons in search of christo-tainment.

(Get this: you can donate a peg for the Ark for $100, a plank for $1,000, or a beam for $5,000. I think a splinter is more my speed....)


Creationist Theme Park Supported By Democratic Kentucky Governor
By Nick Wing
December 1, 2010 | Huffington Post

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/01/kentucky-creationist-theme-park_n_790283.html