Malady579

When you first come to Eighth Avenue between 43rd & 44th, it appears to be nothing more than a strip of touristy gift shops.

Swing around the corner on 44th Street, and you’ll just find a row of restaurants.

But look at this intersection from above, and you’ll see something unusual hidden from view…

Nestled behind the outer wall of buildings, an inner structure topped with an eight-sided dome:

What is it? As it happens, you can go check it out in person simply by passing through the doors of one of the few good restaurants in Times Square, John’s Pizzeria.

Head through the entrance hall…

…pass through the arches…

…and step into the main room of the restaurant…

…and it shouldn’t take long before the dimensions start reminding you not of a pizzeria…

…but instead, a church, complete with its former balcony-level seating and stained glass windows.

Oh, and be sure to look up…

…to see one of the most beautiful stained-glass ceilings in New York:

Seriously, how gorgeous is that?

A closer look…

And a little closer…

Nearly 100 years before it was serving the best pizza in Times Square, this was home to the Gospel Tabernacle church, founded by the evangelical Protestant preacher A. B. Simpson. The church was always inset from the street – the attached buildings on Eighth Avenue and 44th Street housed a missionary training college offering three year courses for men and women (separated, of course), as well as a bookstore. Below, the entrance on 692 Eighth Avenue in 1931…

…and today.

The church flourished in the early half of the century (below, a picture of the church in its heyday), but by the mid-90s, it was abandoned and in a state of decay (special thanks to reader Matthew for locating a picture!).

In 1995, the property was purchased by Madeline Castelotti and renovated into a John’s Pizza location.

It’s interesting to search for the remnants of the former church. Clearly, the altar would have been located behind this mural (would love to know if it’s still hidden back there!).

Still lining the walls are stained-glass windows in triplets…

…some still allowing in light…

…while others have since been blocked by exterior walls.

I’d say it’s a safe assumption these are the original chandeliers from the church:

Finally, I love that the balcony area was kept, which really retains the character of the church:

To get a sense of the strange geography of the place, head to the bar…

…where a skylight gives you a sense of exactly where you are amongst the jumble of surrounding buildings:

Unfortunately, I was unable to find any historical pictures of what the interior of the church used to look like (if anyone can find any, please send them my way). I did manage to dig up a picture of the 8th Avenue entrance…

…which today leads into the kitchen.

According to the John’s website, this is the largest pizzeria in the country. While I have no clue if this is accurate or not, I do know that this place serves a damn good pizza, and is one of the few reasons I look forward to making the requisite Times Square tourist visit when relatives come to town.

And lest anyone have a problem with a church being turned into a pizzeria, really stare at the ceiling overhead. Pretty sure it was what God intended from the beginning.

-SCOUT

Grace Ann is a conservative Christian mother (and possible troll) in the process of rewriting Harry Potter into 'Hogwarts School Of Prayer And Miracles', a God-fearing tale her kids can read without turning into witches. Like, that's her concern. You know, because that's happened to other children. Her introduction while I go pound my head against the bathroom mirror:

Hello, friends! My name is Grace Ann. I'm new to this whole fanfiction thing; but recently, I've encountered a problem that I believe this is the solution to. My little ones have been asking to read the Harry Potter books; and of course I'm happy for them to be reading; but I don't want them turning into witches! So I thought..... why not make some slight changes so these books are family friendly? And then I thought, why not share this with all the other mommies who are facing the same problem? So-Ta da! Here it is! I am SO excited to share this with all of you!

She's completed the first seven chapters of the first book so far, and let me tell you -- they're something else. The book starts with Hagrid coming to rescue Harry from his atheist aunt and uncle who just taught Harry about evolution, then goes downhill from there. You can read all seven chapters she's finished HERE, although I've included the first one in its entirety after the jump. Her poor kids. You think she lets them watch Lord of the Rings? Because I've got the feeling she doesn't. Still, I'm sure they'll grow up to be fine, well-adjusted young adults. "Wanna come over for a sleepover?!" Absolutely not, your mom is nuts. Keep going for the first chapter.

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Verily, the Bard of Avon need not limit himself to the stage. He is a songwriter of the highest quality. You can hear his work performed across the world by famous artists, including Lorde, Miley Cyrus, The Backstreet Boys, and Will Smith. You can read all of his greatest hits at Pop Sonnets, a blog updated weekly by Erik Didriksen.

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"Let It Go" from the movie Frozen.

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"YMCA" by The Village People.

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"Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley.

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"Single Ladies" by Beyoncé Knowles.

-via Tastefully Offensive

With a nucleus size of 3.5×4 km, 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko seems like a mere speck. But Michel (@quark1972 on Twitter) shows what the comet would look like if it were gently set down in Los Angeles. I wish the city would commission a life-size replica as public art! (via io9)

Made by redditor Eduardoballestero, a man of great skill and patience.

130 binder-clips in all, and it's heavy. Instructions are forthcoming.

Above are before and after images of Chichen Itza's El Castillo step-pyramid in the Yucatán that the Daily Grail's Greg Taylor shared in a brief post about "How Far Should We Go in 'Restoring' Ancient Monuments?." Below, Stonehenge in the 19th century and now. Read the rest

Here are some photos of George R. R. Martin at the Edinburgh International Book Festival earlier this week. Yes, he still hasn’t hunkered down to finish those books. Part of me likes that he’s enjoying his fame, that a fantasy writer who has been at this for decades is something of a rock star these days. The other part of me wants to know how these GD stories end. Well, while Martin was in Edinburgh, he did some press and fielded some nosy questions about how it all ends and whether he ever takes readers’ requests. You can read the full Telegraph piece here. Some highlights:

He receives letters from women asking him for MOAR SEX: “I put gay characters in the books, but they’re not the viewpoint characters so I did not have any explicit gay sex scenes in the early books. [Since the TV show] I’ve had letters from fans who want me to present particular explicit male sex scenes. Most of these letters come from women. I don’t pretend to understand this, I just read my email. I’m not going to do it just for the sake of doing it. If the plot lends itself to that, if one of my viewpoint characters is in a situation, I’m not going to shy away from it.”

He kills characters on his own time table: “I don’t think I can insert things just because everyone wants them. If it was a democracy, Joffrey would have died much earlier than he did.”

The fantasy/sci-fi literary ghetto: “I’ve certainly been aware of this since I was a kid. I take heart from the fact that it is changing. When I was 12 or 13, I had teachers take science fiction books away from me, and told me you’re a smart kid, you get good grades, why are you reading this sh-t? … There’s a lot of prejudice against science fiction, particularly against genre fiction. And it’s still there but it’s not nearly what it was. I think these things are breaking down. Literary fiction in its present form is a genre itself and we should recognise it as that. The real test is what books are going to survive. Tolkien has certainly survived. All you can do is write the best story you can and put it in the hands of posterity. The fact that people are arguing about my books is a sign that I take very well. A writer’s real enemy is obscurity.”

[From The Telegraph]

He also talked about how he storyboarded the broad strokes of which characters die and when, but he admits that for some of the minor characters, he still doesn’t have everything figured out and he will “make that up as I go along.” As for the issue of fan theories and perhaps even the all-inclusive R + L = J theory, Martin has a lot to say:

“I’ve wrestled with this issue, because I do want to surprise my readers. I hate predictable fiction as a reader, I don’t want to write predictable fiction. I want to surprise and delight my reader and take them in directions they didn’t see coming. But I can’t change the plans. That’s one of the reasons I used to read the early fan boards back in the 90s but stopped. One, I didn’t have the time, but two is this very issue. So many readers were reading the books with so much attention that they were throwing up some theories and while some of those theories were amusing bulls— and creative, some of the theories are right. At least one or two readers had put together the extremely subtle and obscure clues that I’d planted in the books and came to the right solution. So what do I do then? Do I change it? I wrestled with that issue and I came to the conclusion that changing it would be a disaster, because the clues were there. You can’t do that, so I’m just going to go ahead. Some of my readers who don’t read the boards, which thankfully there are hundreds of thousands of them, will still be surprised and other readers will say: ‘see, I said that four years ago, I’m smarter than you guys’.”

[From The Telegraph]

Hm… “at least one or two readers had put together the extremely subtle and obscure clues”…? He’s kissing his own ass and underestimating how popular the R + L = J Theory really is amongst the book-readers (and probably some of the TV series watchers). Or maybe he’s trying to throw some people off the scent. But still, this is good news. At least he’s not going to pull some wacky deus ex machina bullsh-t where all of a sudden the entire saga was just Hodor’s fever dream (HODOR!!). I mean… sh-t, don’t give him any ideas.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Pedro Pascal’s Instagram.

A man in line at a Burger King bought all 23 pies available (links to Reddit post with more info) to spite the little jerk behind him screaming, "I want a f***ing PIE" and punching his mother. You know, because sometimes you need to parent people's kids for them. The whole worthwhile story:

So a while ago I had decided to treat myself and go to Burger King. I hadn't had the greatest of days and I had a headache coming on. It was a very long line and I was at the end of it waiting patiently. When behind me comes this woman yapping on her cellphone with a little monster of a child. This kid was out of control, screaming, punching his mother throwing around a gameboy whenever something didn't go right in the game. The mother didn't seem to pay any attention to him and his continued yelling of 'I want a F***ing PIE'. After about 5 minutes of the line with these people behind me, I had gone from a headache to a full on migraine, but nothing was going to stop me from getting those burgers. I calmly turn and ask her nicely if she can please calm or quiet her child down. Immediately she gets up in my face telling me I can't tell her nothing about raising her child and to mind my own business. I nod and turn around, shes still yelling at the back of my head when the child cries out again how he wants a pie, the mother consoles him, calling him sweety and ensuring they'll get pies for lunch because she loves him so much. Things immediately go back to the they were and I wait another 5 minutes before getting to the front of the line. It turns out it was so slow because they had 1 trainee on cash during the lunch hour rush. All I can think of is how the people behind me ruined my splurge and gave me this headache. I then decide to ruin their day. I order every pie they have left in addition to my burgers. Turned out to be 23 pies in total, I take my order and walk towards the exit. Moments later I hear the woman yelling, what do you mean you don't have any pies left, who bought them all? I turn around and see the cashier pointing me out with the woman shooting me a death glare. I stand there and pull out a pie and slowly start eating eat as I stare back at her. She starts running towards me but can't get to me because of other lineups in the food court. I turn and slowly walk away.

Wow, what a solid performance. I think I need a minute. "Wait -- are you crying?" I'm sorry, this just makes me so happy. I saw we all hit up BK tonight and buy out the pies to honor this brave soul. He also deserves a holiday named after him. I suggest BK Pie Guy Day. It can replace Presidents' Day. Thanks to Silvermidnight and Luc, who are now convinced real-life superheroes do exist.

According to their recently published earnings report, 2.3-million people still pay for AOL internet access. For reference, that is 2.3-million people too many. But presumably they're all going to die soon and the problem will right itself.

...every quarter the company reports its remaining subscription service suckers, a delightful yet depressing nugget of intel. AOL took home $143 million of operating income from that division--more than the rest of the company combined did--meaning those unfortunates pay out, on average, $20.86 per month for a service that's at best redundant and at worst utterly useless. That's up over a dollar from a few years ago. There's some good news, though; the rate of decline in subscribers appears to be strong, down about a third since the beginning of 2011.

As someone in the Gizmodo comments pointed out, there are still some places in the US where dial-up service is the only option. Those places are what most people refer to as "shitholes". We get it, you're stockpiling weapons and trying to start a militia. Luckily for you, the Anarchist Cookbook is a quick download, even on dial-up. Thanks to BBQ, who misses the hissing and screeching of a dial-up modem connecting.

by Jia Tolentino

Michelle Goldberg has a piece in this week's New Yorker about the state of the argument between trans-exclusionary radical feminists and transgenderism writ both large and personal; it reads slightly evasive (lots of "some people say that [insert old offensive idea]" type language; a lingering sense that the advent of trans rights is already "too much") and sort of stunningly gotta-hear-both-sides to this very pro-trans, pro-letting-a-person-be, chillwave-feminist brain over here, but it's a fascinating read.

Some self-described radical feminists [] have found themselves in an acrimonious battle with trans people and their allies. Trans women say that they are women because they feel female—that, as some put it, they have women’s brains in men’s bodies. Radical feminists reject the notion of a “female brain.” They believe that if women think and act differently from men it’s because society forces them to, requiring them to be sexually attractive, nurturing, and deferential. In the words of Lierre Keith, a speaker at Radfems Respond, femininity is “ritualized submission.”

"Radical feminists," writes Goldberg, "now find themselves in a position that few would have imagined when the conflict began: shunned as reactionaries on the wrong side of a sexual-rights issue. It is, to them, a baffling political inversion." God, I'm so glad that I was not in college during the second wave. [New Yorker]

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Marilín Gonzalo, an Argentinian blogger and journalist living in Spain, writes in with news about "a terrible bill the Spanish government passed in Congress last week." Read the rest

Two doctors are pushing for the FDA to add information to drug packaging that explains how the medication compares to placebo.

Jessica Schulberg and Josh Kovensky map the world’s restricted airspaces:

Several of the restrictions in the map above only apply to flights below a certain altitude—usually under 24,000 feet. This varies according to the situation on the ground. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, where rebels possess less advanced rocket technology, the minimum operating altitude is 15,000 feet, whereas planes flying over ISIS-controlled regions of Iraq must remain above 20,000 feet.

But less than two weeks ago, the Ukrainian government declared it unsafe to fly over eastern Ukraine at an altitude below 32,000 feet, because of the presence of anti-aircraft weapons. MH17 was at a cruising altitude of 33,000 feet when it was shot down.

Fallows defends Malaysia Airlines decision to fly over Eastern Ukraine:

Short version: Airlines rely on regulators and national and international bodies to tell them about airspace they should avoid. Absent such warnings, airspace is presumptively legal and safe for transit. MH17 was following the rules by staying out of no-fly and warning zones. A terrible crime and disaster occurred, but that is not Malaysia Air’s fault.

Shorter still: According to Spiegel (German version here), while some airlines, including Air France, had changed their routes to avoid Ukraine, most did not. Many other airlines took a path similar to the one on which MH17 was shot down, notably including Lufthansa. Here is Spiegel’s chart of how many planes had gone this way in the week before yesterday’s disaster;

But Rick McCullough, “a Captain experienced in international flight,” admits he “would have been uncomfortable flying in that region of conflict”:

Military aircraft had been shot down in the recent past, so at least one of the combatants obviously had that capability. Weather deviations might force my aircraft even further into the region of conflict. Flying a route that avoided the conflict zone would have required some additional fuel and time, but would have been the safer course of action in light of the warnings issued by the Ukrainian government and the FAA.

And Jon Lee Anderson worries that a similar event could happen in other parts of the world:

For decades, the Libyan despot Muammar Qaddafi fielded his own proxies in fights across Africa and beyond. The Venezuelan terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (a.k.a. Carlos the Jackal) was on his payroll at one point. Qaddafi’s agents planted explosives aboard a Pan Am jetliner that blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988; a year later, in similar fashion, they blew up a French civilian passenger plane as it flew over Niger. When Qaddafi was deposed, in 2011, a motley group of “revolutionaries,” including some whom he had supported, swarmed into Libya and looted his vast armories. Among the weapons were large numbers of Russian-made heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles. Peter Bouckaert, of Human Rights Watch, documented hundreds of them in unguarded caches, but, by the time weapons inspectors arrived, the missiles were gone. Where they are today, nobody knows. But Libya has become a hotbed of warring militia groups and jihadi extremists, and it seems likely that, sooner or later, the missiles will find a use.

Earlier Dish on MH17′s route here.

by Jia Tolentino

She's the first woman ever to complete this course. Via.

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This is a short 3-second clip of George R.R. Martin responding to a question about what he thinks of the fans who demand he hurry up and finish the Song of Ice and Fire series in case he dies soon. For reference, Martin is 65. "And round." I didn't say that. I will say that Robert Jordan passed away before being able to properly finish the Wheel Of Time series by himself, and, admittedly, that did leave a hole in my heart. But my point is this: you don't get to tell an artist when to finish their work. If George R.R. Martin dies before the series is finished, TOO F***ING BAD, THAT'S LIFE. And what kind of fan tells someone whose work they allegedly appreciate so much what to do in the first place? That doesn't make you a fan, that makes you an impatient dickhead. Just be thankful for what you already got to enjoy. Keep going for your daily dose of STFU. And as a side note, "Martin has noted in the past that he has told Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss major plotlines and how the series will end so they can finish without him if needed." So really, relax. The ones complaining probably haven't even read the books anyways.

Two Popes of Rome and one World Cup Final #Argentina vs #Germany pic.twitter.com/7qb7mIko2S

— Marina Robb (@MarinaRobb) July 10, 2014

by Jia Tolentino

The New York Times has an amazing long piece up about zoo animals, the inadequacy of their "enriched" environments, and a behaviorist who tries to rehabilitate animals when there's no obvious medical problem to solve:

Molly [the Barbary sheep] stood scanning the air for nonexistent insects, dashing between her spots and running away whenever anyone approached. She became uninterested even in food. What troubled Virga was that he hadn’t been able to interrupt her behaviors, which signaled to him that Molly was experiencing something beyond ordinary fear. “Fears can be unlearned, but phobias can’t,” he said. “Conditioning won’t work on a phobic animal.” Virga had already shown me videos of severe psychic suffering at zoos. In one, a brown bear in the throes of obsessive-compulsive disorder takes three paces forward, rotates its head counterclockwise, slams it into a metal door, takes three paces back and repeats the pattern over and over. So, reluctantly, Virga did what thousands of mental-health professionals have done before — he prescribed Prozac. Within weeks, Molly began a gradual return to her preinjury self.

"In scanning for flies when there were none, Molly wasn’t responding to a stimulus," writes Alex Halberstadt. "Instead, I wondered out loud, wasn’t she remembering insects from her past and anticipating them in her future, thereby demonstrating her capacity for memory and prediction? Virga grinned and nodded." I love zoos and visit them everywhere I possibly can, but am currently rereading Casey N. Cep on the obvious case to just fuckin' close them all. [NYTimes, via Longreads]

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When I was in college I began dating (we called it “courting”) a young man who believed that God created the world through evolution. His name was Sean. I had been taught young earth creationism, and it would be hard to find a young earth creationist more ardent than I was. Sean and I spent a good deal of time arguing this point through. We both enjoyed debate and we were both passionate (Sean had been a young earth creationist himself before spending time in the creation/evolution wars online).

Much of the time we spent arguing about creation and evolution involved me throwing out a criticism of evolution that I’d learned from Answers in Genesis and Sean refuting it by explaining how geology, biology, cosmology, etc., actually worked. I was still sure that I was right and Sean was wrong, ultimately, but I was learning a lot of science as we went along. I was homeschooled using young earth creationist textbooks, and while I learned about evolution I was mainly presented with a strawman. Now I was getting to know the actual thing.

One day I found out that Answers in Genesis would be putting on a conference at a local evangelical church. I was very excited because I was sure that this was what Sean needed—that if he heard it from the experts, it would “click” for him. Surely he couldn’t withstand talks by actual Answers in Genesis speakers! He would become an young earth creationist practically overnight, I was sure of it. As for Sean, he thought the experience would be interesting, and so we went.

As it turns out, the conference not only failed to change Sean’s mind, it also made me very uncomfortable. I came away from the experience extremely unsettled. Why? Because the talks sounded completely different when I actually had a handle on the science being discussed. This point and that would be made, and I would sit there squirming, because I knew they were misrepresenting the theory of evolution or making arguments that were simply ludicrous. The entire thing appeared incredibly shallow and uninformed. To say that it was disappointing would be an understatement.

I didn’t tell Sean about how the conference made me feel. I didn’t want to admit weakness. I thought about the Answers in Genesis conference I’d attended as a teenager some years before and wondered how talks that had made so much sense then made so little sense now. Attending this conference was a turning point of sorts for me. It was the moment I actually understood that I might have been very, very misled. Of course, at the time I refused to admit that to myself. At the time, I tried to put a confident face on even as I felt far from confident inside.

Shortly after attending this conference I told Sean I wanted to call a timeout on discussion of creation and evolution. I had gotten to the point where I felt confused and befuddled and wanted to do some independent research of my own. So I did. Rather than just relying on Answers in Genesis for information, I compared their materials to arguments for evolution, especially those located at the Talk Origins archive. I looked up original studies, read the words of scientists, and tried to understand rather than to fight. After about a month, I had seen enough.

The nice thing about Sean is that he never said “I told you so.” Even to this day, he hasn’t uttered those words. He respects it when people are willing to admit they were wrong and change their minds in response to new evidence.

Some time after this, my parents took both Sean and I to the Creation Museum run by Answers in Genesis. I think they honestly thought it would change our minds. It didn’t. Once again I found myself disappointed, but this time I was not surprised. I expected it. It’s not that the displays weren’t beautiful or well put together. It’s that now that I actually understood science and the theory of evolution, what Answers in Genesis said no longer made sense. Half of what they presented involved misrepresenting the theory of evolution and the other half consisted of Bible verses.

I can’t help but return, again, to the Answers in Genesis conference I attended with Sean in the midst of our ongoing discussions of creation and evolution. If asked, I’m sure Ken Ham would say that Answers in Genesis holds its conferences to strengthen evangelicals’ adherence to young earth creationism. In my case, though, their conference did the opposite. It turns out that their presentations and materials are easy to see through when one already has a solid understanding of science and the theory of evolution.

[ By Delana in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

Getting around the city in a wheelchair can be challenging, but a British company called Allgood Trio has devised an interesting way to help wheelchair users get into and out of buildings with steep stairs. Their Sesame Stairs are a brilliant barrier-free way to provide accessibility in buildings which would otherwise be difficult for wheelchair users to enter.

In order to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (in the US) and Disability Discrimination Act (in Britain and Australia), buildings must provide a wheelchair-accessible entrance. For some older buildings with limited space, this can be a rather tall order. Sesame Stairs are a retractable set of stairs that open up to reveal an electric chair lift.

The ingenious chair lifts are tailor made for each building, so even buildings with extremely narrow entrances or historic façades can comply with the law without making major alterations. Since ramps are unsightly and can be difficult to use – not to mention the amount of space they occupy – the retracting stairs can be a brilliant alternative.

In the company’s demo video, they show that the person trying to enter the building needs to push a button to call someone outside to activate the lift. This aspect of the Sesame system doesn’t seem to be convenient for the user, but it may not be the only option offered by the company. The hidden chair lift can help preserve the integrity of historic buildings’ appearances and architecture while providing the necessary access for wheelchair users.

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[ By Delana in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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By Sarah Baker, in response to the Supreme Court decision on Hobby Lobby.

Parenting is a long period of anxiety punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Parenting a baby is a particularly stressful time because a child is at a very physically vulnerable point and the parent may be inexperienced in caring for children.

Parents strap their babies and toddlers into car seats and drive. On rare occasions, a parent may forget that a young child is in the back and accidentally leave him/her in the car alone.

In hot summer weather, this can kill a child.

It's every parent's worse nightmare. When my children were younger, it was a constant source of anxiety for me. Although I never left my kids in the car, I was afraid that I would. Even when I knew that I was driving alone, I would check the car seats.

(Image: Headline News)

Though he is only 11 years old, Andrew Pelham of Nashville, Tennessee understands this worry. That's why he invented the EZ Baby Saver. It's a simple device designed to remind parents that there's a kid in the backseat.

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It's made of duct tape and rubber bands. The driver attaches it to the car door inside handle and the back of the seat. It forms an obstruction which prevents the driver from exiting the vehicle. This, Andrew hopes, will remind the driver to check the backseat.

(Photos: EZ Baby Saver)

Andrew won a young inventors' contest with the EZ Baby Saver. But all he wants to do is save lives: 

I just hope that people can use my design in the real world soon because I just want to save one life and then I can say that my idea was successful.

You can find instructions on how to make an EZ Baby Saver here.

-via Huffington Post

Max Fisher captions:

There are only four countries that escaped European colonialism completely. Japan and Korea successfully staved off European domination, in part due to their strength and diplomacy, their isolationist policies, and perhaps their distance. Thailand was spared when the British and French Empires decided to let it remained independent as a buffer between British-controlled Burma and French Indochina. Japan, however, colonized both Korea and Thailand itself during its early-20th-century imperial period.

Then there is Liberia, which European powers spared because the United States backed the Liberian state, which was established in the early 1800s by freed American slaves who had decided to move to Africa. The Liberian project was fraught — the Americans who moved there ruled as a privileged minority, and the US and European powers shipped former slaves there rather than actually account for their enslavement — but it escaped European domination.

The UK Government has banned the practice of teaching Creationism as science in all UK schools, including the less-regulated, semi-privatised Free Schools and Academies. Previously, all state schools and most Academies and Free Schools were prohibited from teaching Creationism, but existing religious schools were exempted from the rule. Since the new year, the government has closed off these exemptions, and with the latest move, has closed all of them, meaning that no school may teach Creationism any longer. However, state-funded nurseries and lightly inspected private schools are expected to go on teaching Creationism until further changes are made.

The British Humanist Association -- which I joined as a lifetime member -- has led the campaign against the teaching of Creationism in schools, and also campaigns against the Religious Education requirement in English and Welsh curriculum. I believe that RE should be integrated into the social anthropology curriculum and not taught as a standalone subject. Read the rest

Man, that lawn will just have to be totally resodded after that enormous crowd leaves. [via, via]