So, Ken Ham’s Biblical theme park “Ark Encounter,” which has cost many millions of dollars to complete (much of it footed by Kentucky taxpayers), recently opened to the public. How’s it going?

Here’s the entryway at 1PM on opening day:

Sometimes things actually give me hope.

Scenes from Ark Encounter’s Opening Day (Inside the Ark)

Some videos at the link. The place seems… I dunno. It’s a big structure, but it seems like a bit of a wasted effort. The “Ark” is supposedly the size of the Ark from Biblical tales; it is full of cages and boxes for all the millions of different species that the ark was supposed to carry, but they all seem to be populated with *statues* of animals rather than the real thing. Machines making animal noises rather than animals making animal noises. Now, if less than a dozen people could take care of the total animal population of the ark, you’d think the army of employees the Ark Encounter surely has would be able to *easily* keep a boat full of critters fed, watered clean.

Overall it seems like a rather barren form of entertainment for a $40 entrance fee. I wonder how long it’ll be before it goes bust, and what it’ll end up as next. I can see Trump buying it and turning it into a casino. It’s big enough, and there are certainly some wide open spaces in it *now* that could be filled with slot machines.