The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., created quite an uproar in 2007 when it opened with exhibits showing early humans co-existing with dinosaurs. Five years later, the public fascination with that take on paleoanthropology seems to be fading.   

The Lexington Herald Leader today reported that the state of Kentucky will give a 75-percent property tax break to a sweet biblical theme park that will have a full-sized replica of Noah's Ark. The state has already given $43 million in incentives to the Answers in Genesis folks who brought you The Creation Museum, which you and your friends always planned on getting stoned and visiting but never did.  

Those of us who long ago replaced our iPods with the one Apple invented that also has a phone in it don’t have to worry about getting our cars broken into for leaving our 8-gig sitting on the seat (in which case we’d only really care about the broken window and change missing from the console). Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis today broke Rule No. 2 when it comes to leaving electronics in plain sight of thieves: Don’t forget about the charger.  

Was the man who burned to death trying to stay warm in Queensgate, William Floyd, another throwaway Cincinnatian? Had he died in a house fire in a better neighborhood, we probably would have learned about his family, his education, trade or profession, his military service, health/mental problems, possible addictions or alcoholism and funeral/burial plans. We might even have learned what bank was accepting donations for his funeral. [Thanks to Kevin Osborne's Dec. 2 blog post on CityBeat.com, I do know some of that information now about Floyd.]  

It's a fresh, warm Friday morning in early August and I'm deep in "God's Country" near Petersburg, Ky. Today, however, "God's Country" has a few strange bedfellows: a congregation of atheists, all gathering at the Creation Museum, the best-known and most controversial monument to Creationist beliefs in the Midwest and perhaps the world. The large turnout at the Creation Museum isn't unusual: Greater Cincinnati has a burgeoning and thriving atheist community and is responsible for large contributions to both the national and global atheist/secular humanist movements.  

Those of us who received frantic text messages reading the likes of "MJ died today … FUCK!" were surprised and relieved to find out later that basketball legend Michael Jordan was, in fact, alive and well. The news wasn't so great for Pop icon Michael Jackson, who died suddenly at his Los Angeles home at age 50 and received hours of TV news tributes, tweets and descriptions of his "troubled" life in his honor.  

Returning to work after Thanksgiving I had more than a dozen e-mails with "Cincinnati Zoo and Creation Museum" in the subject line. Apparently last week the zoo started marketing a promotional tie-in with the Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky, offering discounted admission at each facility. Zoo officials reportedly were barraged by local media and citizen complaints