'The Machine That Made Us' is a documentary in which Stephen Fry examines the story behind the printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg, to find out why he did it and how, a story which involves both historical inquiry and hands-on craft and technology.
Fry travels across Europe to find out how Gutenberg kept his development work secret, about the role of avaricious investors and unscrupulous competitors and why Gutenberg’s approach started a cultural revolution. He then sets about building a copy of Gutenberg’s press.
"When Tyler Clementi told his parents he was gay, two days before he left for Rutgers University in the fall of 2010, he said he had known since middle school.
“So he did have a side that he didn’t open up to us, obviously,” his mother, Jane Clementi, said, sitting in her kitchen here nearly two years later. “That was one of the things that hurt me the most, that he was hiding something so much. Because I thought we had a pretty open relationship.”
In her surprise, she had peppered him with questions: “How do you know? Who are you going to talk to? Who are you going to tell?” Tyler told a friend that the conversation had not gone well. His father had been “very accepting,” he wrote in a text message. “Mom has basically completely rejected me.”
Three weeks later, he jumped off the George Washington Bridge after discovering that his roommate had used a webcam to spy on him having sex and that he had sent out Twitter messages encouraging others to watch.
An international spotlight turned the episode into a cautionary coming-out story, of a young man struggling with his sexuality and the damage inflicted by bullying. . . . . "
It is unfortunate that the Climenti's were not aware of the 2009 TV film, "Prayers For Bobby". The true story of Mary Griffith, gay rights crusader, whose teenage son committed suicide due to her religious intolerance. Perhaps it might have made a difference . . . .
"The Book of Abraham is a 1835 work produced by Joseph Smith that he said was based on Egyptian papyri purchased from a traveling mummy exhibition. According to Smith, the book was "a translation of some ancient records ... purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus". Smith's translation of the papyri describes a story of Abraham's early life, including a vision of the cosmos.
The work was canonized in 1880 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) as part of its "Pearl of Great Price". Thus, it forms a doctrinal foundation for the LDS Church . . . . . " [Wikipedia]
Egyptologists and contemporary historical researchers are in agreement that Joseph Smith's 'translation of the papyri' was nothing more than a fantasy and fabrication. And if his 'translation' of the 'Lost Book of Abraham' is a fake, what does that say about his transcription of the 'Golden Plates' which became the 'Booki of Mormon'. The Book of Mormon insists that all native Amerindians [American Indians and Mesoamerican groups] are the 'lost tribes of Israel', the Lamanites and Nephites. Contemporary scientific DNA testing has shown the Amerindians came from Siberia via the Bering Strait, NOT from Israel.
Sorry, my Morman friends, but it would appear that your 'Prophet' was a fake.
The Lost Book of Abraham [Video]
"The Lost Book of Abraham is an award-winning documentary that investigates the remarkable claim that Mormon founder Joseph Smith translated a lost book of scripture from an Egyptian papyrus scroll he obtained in 1835. Hear the views of Mormon believers and World-class Egyptologists and decide for yourself."
The New Yorker has published a quite objective article, albeit rather lengthy, on the history of the Mormon church [of presidental hopeful Mitt Romney]. A rather bumpy ride for all concerned, especially when the LDS founder, Joseph Smith, was a consumate lier, cheat, more than questionable translator and well known confidence man. But in his defense, he did have a very active imagination, as attested to by his invention of 'The Book Of Mormon'.
"Stereotypes and pigeonholes can, in a stable multiethnic society, act as sanctuaries as much as cells. In the heyday of urban ethnic immigration, even anti-Semites allowed that Jews were good at selling drygoods and producing movies, just as Irish Catholics were known to keep a good saloon and walk a decent beat. The ugliest of these pigeonholes suggests a comparative advantage, anyway: to be thought to tap-dance well implies that you can, at least, do that.
American Mormons, in this sense, seem to have been rather flatteringly typed. The Mormon executives and advisers around Howard Hughes were famous for their probity, their clean living, and their loyalty. As with the blond Scandinavian bodyguards who attended the Byzantine emperors, their uprightness was all the more starkly evidenced by the shiftiness of the guy they were protecting. The details of their religious views had nothing to do with the social role they played. The Osmond family was the Mormon family: too many kids and too many teeth, maybe, but always solid, always smiling, always temperate—no alcohol, no tobacco, not even caffeine. In an entertaining new autobiography, “The Book of Mormon Girl: A Memoir of an American Faith” (Free Press), Joanna Brooks recalls ecumenical birthday parties as a young Mormon in California, and the anxiety she felt about simply seeing a bottle of Coke; Mormon parties featured (non-caffeinated) root beer. Nor were the Osmonds an outsider’s image: to this growing girl’s self-conception, the Book of Marie—“Marie Osmond’s Guide to Beauty, Health & Style”—seemed far more important than the Book of Mormon. Be perfect even as Marie on television is perfect, and you will be happy. ......
Mark Twain read the Book of Mormon and, knowing what Smith would have read, not to mention knowing about frontier fakery, came to conclusions about both the sources of its prose and the sequence of its composition:
The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history, with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint, old-fashioned sound and structure of our King James’s translation of the Scriptures; and the result is a mongrel—half modern glibness, and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained; the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern—which was about every sentence or two—he ladled in a few such Scriptural phrases as “exceeding sore,” “and it came to pass,” etc., and made things satisfactory again. “And it came to pass” was his pet. If he had left that out, his Bible would have been only a pamphlet."
"Moisés Kaufman and members of New York's Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, Wyoming after the murder of Matthew Shepard. This is a film version of the play they wrote based on more than 200 interviews they conducted in Laramie. It follows and in some cases re-enacts the chronology of Shepard's visit to a local bar, his kidnap and beating, the discovery of him tied to a fence, the vigil at the hospital, his death and funeral, and the trial of his killers. It mixes real news reports with actors portraying friends, family, cops, killers, and other Laramie residents in their own words. It concludes with a Laramie staging of "Angels in America" a year after Shephard's death."
The next time you encounter a news report about some 'Christian' preacher ranting about gay people, remember the events portrayed in this moving film. 'The Laramie Project' is about American intolerance, fear and hatred. A cultural hatred based on their narrow, warped interpretation of christianity.
On a technical note, this HBO production is a seamless and near perfect blending of professional actors and TV clips from the time of the incident. Powerful and thought provoking film.
This time the date is May 27, 2012. And Ronald Weinland is the most recent of god's 'end time prophets'.
"As readers of this site know, May 27, 2012, is the time that I have stated as being the date Jesus Christ will return as King of kings over all government on this earth. For such an event to come to pass, the Trumpets of Revelation must all sound, the United States and dollar collapse, the ten nations of Europe arise to fulfill the final revival of the Holy Roman Empire, and Russia with China must unite against Europe in WWIII."
As can be seen in the following video, at least evangelical christians are consistent - they are certainly comitted to doom and destruction. Sounds to me llike yet another 'great disappointment' for the christians. Tsk, tsk.
[FYI, did I neglect to mention that the good Rev. Weinland is also facing a criminal trial for federal tax evasion this month?]
"In this excerpt from NOVAs two-hour special, The Bibles Buried Secrets, archeologist William Dever describes evidence that the ancient Israelite God, YHWH, had a female counterpart. "
In the complete 'Bibles Buried Secrets' [available on YouTube] Nova shows how ancient Judaism changed from polytheistic to monotheistic, and along the way Jehovah [YHWH] got rid of his wife. Contemporary Judaism, Christianity and Islam would all probably prefer to ignore this newest archeological and historical evidence.
"Right-wing fundamentalists such as Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum hate public schools, which he suggests are government schools wedded to doing the work of Satan, dressed up in the garb of the Enlightenment. Santorum, true to his love affair with the very secular ideology of privatization, prefers home schooling, which is code for people taking responsibility for whatever social issues or problems they may face, whether it be finding the best education for their children or securing decent health care.
Actually, Santorum and many of his allies dislike any public institution that enables people to think critically and act with a degree of responsibility toward the public. This is one reason why they hate any notion of public education, which harbors the promise, if not the threat, of actually educating students to be thoughtful, self-reflective and capable of questioning so-called common sense and holding power accountable. Of course, some progressives see this as simply another example of how the right wing of the Republican Party seems to think that being stupid is in. But there is more going on here than the issue of whether right-wing fundamentalists are intellectually and politically challenged. What makes critical education, especially, so dangerous to radical Christian evangelicals, neoconservatives and right-wing nationalists in the United States today is that, central to its very definition, is the task of educating students to become critical agents who can actively question and negotiate the relationships between individual troubles and public issues. In other words, students who can lead rather than follow, embrace reasoned arguments over opinions and reject common sense as the engine of truth. What Santorum and his allies realize is that democracy cannot function without an informed citizenry and that, in the absence of such a citizenry, we have a public disinvested from either thinking reflectively or acting responsibly. There is nothing more feared by this group of fundamentalists than individuals who can actually think critically and reflectively and are willing to invest in reason and freedom rather than a crude moralism and a reductionistic appeal to faith as the ultimate basis of agency and politics. What Santorum and his appeal to theocracy longs for is a crowd of followers willing to lose themselves in causes and movements that trade in clichés and common sense. This is the Tea Party crowd with their overt racism, dislike for critical thought and longing for outlets through which they can vent their anger, moral panics and hatred for those who reject their rigid Manichean view of the world. This is a crowd that embraces the likes of Santorum and other fundamentalists because they provide the outlets in which such groups can fulfill their desire to be amused by what might be called the spectacle of anti-politics. ,,,,,"
Ho hum. Religious people never cease to annoy me with their babble about an intimate knowledge of hell — especially American Evangelical Christians. Hell is a mythologica lconcept first recorded by the ancient Egyptians and was later adopted by other cultures in the Middle East. But it really took off when the American Puritans and Evangelicals jumped on the hell bandwagon.
I much prefer Satre's vision of hell in his play 'No Exit', in which he contends that "L'enfer, c'est les autres," translated as "Hell is other people.".
"Bill Weise is a clean-cut real estate agent from Southern California. His wife, Annette, describes him as emotionally stable, churchgoing and certainly “not a complainer.”
Yet Weise can’t stop talking about what happened to him on Nov. 23, 1998, the night he tumbled into one of the raging theological debates of modern times, the night he was plucked from his bedroom and sent straight to hell.
“We came home from a prayer meeting on the night of the 22nd, went to bed, and at 3 o’clock in the morning, the Lord picked me up and dropped me off in a prison cell in hell,” Weise explained in a recent television interview. “I did not realize where I was, but I noticed immediately the heat.”
Sharing his cell, Weise says, were two 13-foot-tall reptilian creatures, pacing around and cursing God. When they noticed Weise arrive, the first one set about breaking Weise’s bones against a stone wall, and the second one used its huge claws to tear the flesh from Weise’s body. Later, Weise beheld a lake of fire crammed with sinners, and was carried up a long tunnel to kneel at the feet of Jesus before being returned to his house in California. It’s a story Weise has spread worldwide since the release of his book: 23 Minutes in Hell: One Man’s Story of What He Saw, Heard and Felt in That Place of Torment.
The funny thing about hell is that a decisive majority of Americans believes it is an absolutely real place, but those who try to describe what goes on there come off sounding like lunatics. . . . . . "
"The Pennsylvania General Assembly this week passed a non-binding resolution that declares 2012 as “the year of the Bible.”
“As not only Pennsylvania, but the United States, continues to face great tests and challenges, House Resolution 535 serves as a reminder that we must look to our faith in God and the Holy Scripture to provide us with the strength, wisdom and courage to conquer these great trials,” Rep. Rick Saccone (R), who sponsored the resolution, said.
“All over the Pennsylvania Capitol, one can easily see the tremendous influence that Christianity and the Bible have had over our founders and predecessors,” he added. “These images and quotes illustrating the beliefs and morals that have shaped our great Commonwealth must never be forgotten.”
The symbolic resolution was approved by a unanimous 193 to 0 vote. “[The] House of Representatives declare 2012 as the ‘Year of the Bible’ in Pennsylvania in recognition of both the formative influence of the Bible on our Commonwealth and nation and our national need to study and apply the teachings of the holy scriptures,” it states.
Not surprisingly, the move upset the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a group dedicated to keeping religion and government separate. “Our constitution grants sovereignty not to a deity or a ‘holy book,’ but to ‘We, the People.’ There is no reference to God, the bible, the Ten Commandments or Jesus in the U.S. Constitution, just as there are no references to ‘consent of the governed,’ ‘civil liberties’ or ‘democracy’ in the bible,” the group said.
“Those who have truly studied the bible realize that it is a moral quagmire, a behavioral grab bag, which has been used to justify automatic rule, tyranny, slavery, the degradation of women and gays, child abuse, war, atrocity and mayhem.”
