This week in science: Think of the children!

What better use of tax incentives in 21st century America than a monument to religious fundamentalism and pseudoscience?

A state tourism board gave preliminary approval on Tuesday for up to $18 million in tax rebates for a proposed full-sized replica of the massive ark as described in the book of Genesis. In the Bible account, Noah and his family used the ark to escape a worldwide flood spurred by the wrath of God.

If the rebates are approved, the project's owners - Crosswater canyon, a nonprofit subsidiary of Ken Ham's Answers in Genesis ministry - would receive up to 25 percent of the $73 million anticipated cost of the project. The owners would get that money over 10 years only after the ark is built and open to the public.

Project co-founder Mike Zovath said organizers plan to use the rebates to invest in more attractions, including a replica of the Tower of Babel and a walled-city modeled after Biblical times - except it would include modern restaurants and shops that Zovath compared to "Downtown Disney."

• My home away from home, FreeThoughtBlogs, home of atheists and skeptics and disgruntled science-y bloggers, has a spiffy new look!
• Congrats to cosmic blogger Sean Carroll for winning the 2014 Andrew Gemant Award, "an annual prize recognizing significant contributions to the cultural, artistic or humanistic dimension of physics."
• This little momma tends her eggs for almost five years.
• For the record, I coined the term Methingoes for the weird hole things in Siberia that look kinda like pingoes and may involve methane.