Interesting that this particular letter was "locked up" in a private collection for so long. I am not suggesting a conspiracy to silence Einstein's opinion on religion, but it is curious, isn't it?

Perhaps Einstein's family and friends wanted to keep this "inflammatory" statement quiet for a while. Who could blame them?

Religious people hate hearing things like this. It makes them feel bad, and that makes them feel persecuted, even when they hold the reigns of power and dominate the debate. Better to just shut up and leave the religious to their delusions.

Think I'm exaggerating? Read Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion to hear some of the wonderful sentiments that prominent American religious leaders had for Einstein's statements on religion while he was alive.

This Zion City stuff is really amazing -- check out this from their own Zion Historical Society site. Here's a brief summary: Founded in 1901 as a planned city by John Dowie, a Scottish-born immigrant by way of Australia and New Zealand (!), Zion City never really became the "shining city on a hill" that Dowie planned. A faith-healer, Dowie had set up shop around Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair, where he attained fame and followers. He bought land and set up Zion City to be god-centered in every way. Financial problems set in soon -- does this sound familiar -- and Dowie convinced his followers to sign 1100 year leases to the land rather than purchasing plots. Cuz Jebus was coming within 100 years and then what with the millenium after that, who'd need stinkin' leases then? Right?
Dowie also had ideas about profit-sharing that would sound downright communistic if they were suggested by anyone but a god-fearing zealot and solid citizen like Comrade Dowie. Er, Brother Dowie. Moving on.
Eventually it all lead to financial woes, serious dissension, a power of attorney, a stay in Jamaica for "recuperation", jah manh, a court fight, and later a physical stand-off between factions of the town over the dying stroke-victim, our own faith-healer, John Dowie. RIP.
And so stands Zion City today, proud and strong, Christian to the end.

Zion sounds like quite a trip -- though whoever wrote saying the town is shaped like a wagon-wheel was pretty off. It's got a big "roundabout" I suppose, and some streets named after Bibilical locations, but that's not very unusual. Sounds pretty midwestern to me.
Checked the website of the school and discovered that being from Illinois, their senator is none other than Barack Obama. OK. Now I'm trying to wrap my head around what exactly the demographics are like in this part of Illinois.

Another point missed by modern "scholars" like those mentioned in the article: the streets of Washington were formed with circles and radiating streets in order to form convenient artillery sight lines in case of an attack on the capital.

Set up your cannon in the circles, and command the major access points to the city. Easy and not obvious to most modern people.

Other US and European cities built at the same time bear similar layouts, for the same reason.

OK -- nobody has made this obvious point -- if you could scroll the map down a little bit, then you'd notice the GINORMOUS FRAKING CROSS formed by lining up the Lincoln Memorial and the Capital, crossed by the line going from the White House to the Jefferson Memorial. The Washington Monument sits firmly in the middle of said cross. Yes?

Is that not the MUCH MORE OBVIOUS religious geomancy built into the layout of Washington, DC?

Love this idea, and now it makes me want to scavenge more fridge boxes.

On our last foray to a local discount appliance warehouse, we came home with 11 identical refrigerator boxes crammed in the van, and built one of these: a cardboard castle. The kids held epic battles and coronations and banquets in it for most of the summer. It is now disassembled and stored flat in the garage. But this edifice will rise from its repose again this spring.

I'm all for cardboard pulled from the recycling stream -- you just need to find appliance dealers who have some flexibility. I've been able to schmooze my way in to the good graces of a dealer a few miles away. I'm not going to say where because it's my source of cardboard, damn it! Find your own.

Seriously, all you need to do is say your kids want to build a project with it. Bring 'em along on the cardboard collection trip. Making your own toys is much more satisfying, and this will set your kids on the right path.

And while duct tape does work for a while, if you really want to hold such structures together, one should always keep a box of Mr McGroovy's Box Rivets on hand for just just eventualities.

Cool -- but what really blew me away was the digital version of CRAFT magazine that was linked above. Wow! Amazing look, speed, controls, and nary a PDF in sight. How do they do that? Anybody know? I'd love to get any scoop on that beautiful code.

One of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. Meh right on back to Palindromic and Clabber Grrl -- you don't know funny.
This is funny.

Sorry -- just seeing so many fall for this "libertarian" false flag campaign has me paranoid. If BoingBoing goes Paultard, what hope is there?

Paranoia will di-stro-ya, and all that.

I'm not sure what you intend by posting this. Have you not looked at Paul's positions on real issues?
Ron Paul opposes a woman's right to choose.
He opposes affirmative action and universal health care.
He wants to dismantle nearly everything funded by the government in favor of privatized solutions. Like KBR and Halliburton.
He opposes the use of contraceptives.
And you are concerned about what sort of comic book he would prefer?
Fuck.

Boodle33:
In my experience working with beginning writing students for many years, I've discovered a few things you might want to consider.

One, spelling, grammar, and punctuation count.

Two, errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation are almost always accompanied by errors in logic, structure, and coherence.

Three, any student who can't spell, punctuate, or correct the grammar of what he or she writes does not get to sit at the big table with the adults.

No, a student like that needs to stick to writing descriptions of oranges or summer vacation or the far upper left brick on the first building on Main Street.

A student who fails so miserably at basic writing tasks does not get to express his or her "political judgment" until he or she learns the basics. "Opinion" just gets in the way of much more fundamental things.

Frickin' Finlanders. Every mother-loving Swedish Minnesotan knows you can never trust the Finns. Sheesh -- you people don't know nothing.

(I'm trying to joke here son -- this comment is an attempt at levity).

<ashamed>a resident of MPL-STP</ashamed>

Sounds like these "researchers" need to take some some internet stealth precautions. Surely it can't be that hard to use proxies and other roundabout anonymizers to stay safe?

The View is irrelevant to most readers of BoingBoing, but not to the huge audience of mostly undereducated women who watch it. And by celebrating the purposeful ignorance of such a host, the View provides comfort to the audience who were so poorly served by the American educational system. Which interestingly enough would be a great segue for these conservatives into starting an argument for instituting a voucher system to fund private religious schools. You know, I'm the perfect evidence that education in America has failed?
Except for the part which would require ignorant fools who don't know that the earth is an oblate spheroid to be the same ones arguing for vouchers for private religious education.
Damn, bitten in the ass by irony.

Oooo --- bad bad bad Zoot -- why don't you just pick up any old random bit of food stapled to a pole? Arghh! What could possibly go wrong if you stuff a cd you found on a telephone pole into your computer? I mean, why not just pick up old cigar butts and try to smoke 'em? Yeah, that sounds good!
Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "viral marketing", no?