Albert Einstein (have you heard of him?) sings the hits

 

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text.

From a letter Albert Einstein wrote on January 3, 1954 to Eric B. Gutkind (real name). The letter was in German. Did you know Einstein knew more than one language?

I hate when smart people act antagonistically toward religion. It’s insulting. 

More info and context here.

 

Peeper Dee #282

grilling dildos by sunny lee

Can you believe that sunny would grill dildos like that? Seems like a waste of good rubber.

Jude C is pushing and pushing for a Meerkaturday day, but I can’t bring myself to think it would be very popular since none of the rest of you have access to meerkats or meercittens.

Tina’s shot shows that someone is finally (finally!) off their fast.

Won’t you enjoy the rest of Peeper Dee #282 below the fold?

Afternoon view: fall-colored viaducts in Evanston

What Julie Ferwerda is posting

I’ve been wondering how I would handle a new post at friend of this blog and regular reading Julie Ferwerda’s blog all morning.

We all know her as the resident “believer” whom I’ve grown fond of and even heralded here at this blog for being brave enough to ask tough questions about the bible, religion, faith and God.

This morning’s post blew my mind, as she admitted atheism toward the god she was taught to love and fear from an early age.

Did you read what I wrote?

She admitted atheism toward the god that many of you readers believe in.

She’s not going all out, full on, I don’t believe in something higher. That’s how I read her post, anyway.

She named the post, “My Slippery Slide into Atheism.” I would probably rename it, “My slippery slide toward atheism.”

Although I want to point out, that at no point, do I feel some kind of validation for disbelief. In fact, I feel a bit of pain for Julie. She’s going through a lot. Admitting disbelief was — at least for me — the most psychologically stressful and painful period of my life. And while I’m more comfortable now, I mull disbelief over and over and over almost every day.

There was a time when I thought everyone should agree with my views. And yes, I would love it if more people put as much time and energy into researching belief as I did, and as Julie is doing.

But the truth is, disbelief is a fucking painful repetitive kick in the teeth and groin. As it is, I don’t recommend it to anyone.

A free mind isn’t exactly the most healthy one. It’s just free.

For some reason, people aren’t all that accepting of people who think that the big, invisible god described in the bible doesn’t exist. It’s weird. No one on earth can show him to me in tangible or reasoned terms, and I’m the idiot.

I’m glad that it’s cooling off and I can start wearing sweaters over my t-shirt that reads, “IDIOT.”

But back to Julie. Julie writes:

I’m way more agnostic (unknowing, anti-dogmatic) about God and matters of faith than I’ve ever been. This is a little unsettling when I’ve spent most of my life thinking I had God (and the Bible) neatly wrapped up in a little box. Secondly, I’m definitely atheistic about the god I used to know. Let’s recap. My old god…

Later …

People have been misapplying, mistranslating, misinterpreting Scriptures for thousands of years…why would I expect any different in the case of god-killing? Could it be…I wondered…that all the killing recorded in the OT is the result of man’s desire to rule by the flesh and strong-arm the Kingdom of God into existence. Could it be that the freedom, love, forgiveness, and invitation portrayed throughout a lot of Scripture is only and actually God?

Yes, God is sovereign. Perhaps He allowed Himself to be misrepresented in Scriptures to teach deeper truths, or to separate the sheep and the goats in this age—those with ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the called-out will discover a much different God than the unjust and unbelieving.

You can read the entirety here.

I strongly recommend reading it.

 

The O’Reilly vs. Stewart Rumble

Last week, The Daily Show as abuzz with news of the debate between Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly.

I must be a bad listener, because I had no idea it was a paid Internet event and not a TV broadcast until the day of. I texted regular-reading Luis V. to whine about it.

I mean, five bucks to watch something that I wanted available for gratis? Really?

Luis was some help, as he said we could find afterwards in some form. I still didn’t know if I would find it for free.

God, I sound like the 47% of the population that Romney doesn’t care about.

The next day, Tina sent me a review in Chicago Tribune that made the event seem lackluster. It read that O’Reilly’s and Stewart’s shows are much better than this event. It validated our curiosity over whether we should have

Later we learned that the event was streamed onto YouTube, so we checked it out last night.

We couldn’t disagree more with the review we read. I thought the “debate” was highly entertaining and funny.

Tina even made the blasphemous comment that O’Reilly didn’t come off nearly as arrogant as he usually does.

I thought it was hilarious that he used children’s-style visuals to guide his viewers thought his points.

But all in all, I thought it was a great show. One point five hours of non-stop sparring is not easy, and maybe that’s where people felt slighted.

I’d say watch it for yourself, but now there’s a freaking legal dispute. Here’s where the link was.

Anyone else watch it and have thoughts?

UPDATE:

Regular-reading Xina posted a new link on FB for the entire video. Don’t know if it will stay up:

Insider advice: shooting runway and fashion photography with Robert Mitra

One of my favorite photography blogs, From Me to You, recently featured a short interview with a runway fashion photographer who shoots Fashion Week every year.

The photographer is Robert Mitra, and you can read the entire interview here.

Don’t bother going to Mitra’s website. The idiot has it locked down for some dumb reason.

Mitra talks about why he shoots JPGs over RAWs at runways, what lenses, what camera body and the settings he uses. And he talks about what it’s like to be in the photo pits fighting for position.

After shooting in music festivals and runways here and in New York, I can attest to the fighting for position and how difficult it can be.

I don’t agree with Mitra’s camera settings so much. I like a little more depth of field so I try to shoot at 1/320th and at 3.2 to 4.0. Runways are generally slow, and 1/320th is good enough to stop the action. Heck, it’s good enough to stop a drummers arm in low-light, I think it’s more than enough to stop a model shuffling slowly down a runway.

I don’t like the softness that starts on the face with an f-stop of 2.8. I want a little more in focus to go from nose to ears.

The shot above is yours truly fending for position at a Bridal Week pit last October.

Below is a huge pit from fashion week that was featured at From Me to You. How crazy is that! Also below is a short, short video of what it looks like and sounds like in the pit.

It’s essential to chew gum like a champ.

I’ll never live down not having the right lens last year. This year, I’m going to be over prepared. 🙂

Count von Count: Not one, not two, but threeeeeeeeee reasons to save PBS

 

As seen on the Internet, three different messages to save PBS from Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Cecelia Arlene Crawford and PBS.

 

Peeper Dee #281

by Xina

This is Peeper Dee #281, from yesterday, October 7, 2012.