THE MYSTERIOUS MUSLIM CREATIONIST SHIPMENT. As Ezra notes, we at TAP were baffled by the dozen or so expensive creationist books that arrived at our office a few weeks ago. The big question is where does the maker of these books, a Turkish guy who goes by the name Harun Yahya, get the money to send out a mailing like this? The Times article doesn’t reach any conclusions.

But perhaps these books are slightly cheaper to make than it appears. PZ Myers noticed last year that one of Yahya’s creationist websites lifted a good portion of its illustrations from an evolutionist site about fossils. So maybe the book is full of stolen art, too.

–Ann Friedman

Ann Friedman is a columnist for New York magazine’s website and for the Columbia Journalism Review. She also makes pie charts for The Hairpin and Los Angeles magazine. Her work has appeared in ELLE, Esquire, Newsweek, The Observer, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and many other outlets. She lives in Los Angeles, but travels so often the best place to find her is online at annfriedman.com. Follow @annfriedman