Some Sunday Stuff: December 9th.

Albert Einstein (via Bored Panda)

It’s been a while since I posted a “Some… Stuff”. My bad. Allow me to rectify that today with some links that I find interesting, and I hope you will, too. First up, this post on a letter written by Albert Einstein in 1954 that recently sold at auction for millions. From Bored Panda: 

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who transformed humankind’s understanding of nature and the universe. He laid the foundation for modern physics and changed the views on space, time, energy and mass. He is best known for proposing the theory of relativity and his mass-energy equivalence formula. In 1921 Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics “for his services to theoretical physics and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”.

However, his achievements in physics were not his only contributions people took interest in. Einstein’s views on religion have always been of interest, as many people sought to understand his beliefs. Finally, in 2008 a letter was released to the public, in which the famous scientists made a powerful statement on religion.

This testimonial of the famous scientist’s views on religious was written in January of 1954, just a year before his death. The so-called “God letter” was addressed to Gutkind as a response to his book “Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt”.

The first page of Einstein’s letter to Gutkind. (via Bored Panda)

From the English translation of the letter:

Fascinating. Read the whole post in its entirety here. Over at Esquire, they covered the story with more detail on Einstein’s complex views on religion:

Einstein’s faith was a complicated mix of religion and science, and he wrote about it many times as it evolved through the years. He described his beliefs as “agnostic,” and firmly denied being an atheist. But he did scoff at the idea of a “personal God,” one who took on human form and meddled in the intricacies of day-to-day lives on Earth, handing out great rewards and gruesome punishments like candy. He proposed instead that the concept of God was beyond anything that human minds could even comprehend, much like how we still marvel at the universe while barely understanding it. In 1931 he wrote:

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. This insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive form—this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of devoutly religious men.

To put it more succinctly, as Einstein wrote in 1954: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

So yeah, Einstein’s beliefs on this topic is not easily labeled. Which I think, is just how he liked it. 

I’m a fan of Film Noir. I’m also a fan of Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy. So imagine my happiness to have discovered this cool video from Screen Prism that argues that The Dark Knight is the only post 9-11 Noir film.

Have you ever wished you could walk around classic television homes like Lucy and Ricky’s Manhattan apartment or the Tanners’ ever-expanding San Fran abode? Or maybe you wondered how they’d look if updated for the 21st Century. Or maybe, like me, you didn’t know you wanted this but now that you know it’s a thing, your curiosity is piqued. Well if yes, check out Mockingbird Lane, cinematically- inspired design!

Check out this short walk through of the place DJ, Steph and little Michelle called home (and where DJ, Steph and Kimmy took up residence again on Netflix).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrchZsWSvMo&feature=youtu.be

(via Fox News)

Friday was the 77th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and from Fox News, this story about how all these many years later, some soldiers are finally being laid to rest:

After nearly eight decades, the lost victims of the infamous Pearl Harbor attack during World War II will finally be laid to rest this week thanks to DNA testing.

Nearly 2,400 members of the U.S. military were killed in the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, out of those 429 sailors and Marines were killed on the USS Oklahoma, which was capsized after it was struck by several torpedoes during the attack on December 7th, 1941. Only 35 were identified in the years immediately after the attack. The rest of the remains were exhumed when the ship was raised in 1942 and found to be unidentifiable. They were then buried in graves marked as unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.

In 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency started exhuming nearly 400 sets of the remains after determining advances in forensic science and genealogical help from families could make identifications possible. As of earlier this month, the agency has identified 186 sailors and Marines from the Oklahoma who were previously unidentified.

Slowly, the remains are being sent to be reburied in places like Traer, Iowa, Ontonagon, Michigan, Omaha, Nebraska and Arlington Cemetery. Many were buried on Friday during the anniversary of the attack with other to be laid to rest throughout the weekend. Among those to be buried include:

WILLIAM BRUESEWITZ

Bruesewitz, of Appleton, Wisconsin, is to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery with nearly 50 family members from Wisconsin, Florida, Arkansas and Maryland will attend. “It’s a real blessing to have him returning and we’ve chosen Arlington because we feel he’s a hero and belongs there,” Bruesewitz’s niece Renate Starck said to the AP. “We were too young to know him but we’re old enough that we felt his loss,” she added. “We know some stories. There’s this stoicness about things from that time that kept people from talking about things that hurt.”

BERT MCKEEMAN

The former Navy Fireman 1st class, whose remains were exhumed nearly six years ago for DNA testing, will be laid to rest in his hometown of Council Bluffs, Iowa on Saturday. “[J]ust a young man waiting to start a life,” she said. “He was a very handsome man. To us, he’s our hero,” McKeeman’s niece, Kathy Rollin, 71, said to Omaha World-Herald. “This finally puts things to rest,” her brother, Bill McKeeman, 56, said to the newspaper.

Read the rest here. And finally, my song for the week, “Echo’s Answer” by Broadcast. Have a great week, Friends!