Saturday, November 23, 2013

People Worth Your Attention / BibleName Foto's Camera Needs Your Help

The atheist movement is jam packed with hidden heroes.  JT Eberhard's talk at Skepticon 6 was about this not well enough known fact.  One of those hidden heroes was a friend, someone who I've mentioned here before.  He's someone I've been meaning to do a People Worth Your Attention post on for a long time, so this post will double as that.

Photo credit:  @aparticularA
He tries to stay relatively hidden but cannot because his talent is on display in some notable places.  Although, it's still not what I think he deserves.  The way JT put was spot on.  He puts a face on atheism.

The thing that makes him worth your attention isn't that Keith Lowell Jensen has used his photos.


It's not that both Keith & Shelley Segal are currently using them as their profile pictures.  The magic of Biblename Foto is that his Facebook page & Flickr (for higher resolution pictures) are a constant example of the fact that atheists are real people with real personalities and real emotions.  He does photograph theists too, but him being at an atheist conference is the single best way to get a great picture of everyone there not wearing that conference's code for "do not photograph me".

My post about Apostacon being done was only a fraction of the pictures that came from that weekend.  I ended up doing another post, with more pictures, and it was still not even close to all of them.  Just for Apostacon, he had to separate it out into 5 albums.

Apostacon, Day 1! (Friday evening)
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Apostacon Saturday, Part I
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Apostacon, Sat (part II)
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
The Meat Ball!!! (And Dueling Pianos)
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Sunday Is Apostaday
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
He worked his magic at Skepticon 6 too.

Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
Photo credit:  Biblename Foto
It's ridiculous how much longer I could go with this string of pictures, but I've got to cut it off somewhere and finally get to the reason this post is happening tonight instead of later down the road.

This weekend, Biblename's camera got broken.  Not only does did it give us all of the above photos (except for the first one, which I took and intentionally put first to show the clear difference in quality a good camera provides), but it's also his primary means of income.

With the help of a friend who works at a camera store, we can get the camera repaired for roughly $500.  An effort to raise this money has been started, with a variety of ways to donate.  If you're able and willing, the primary method is to use PayPal to send money to jcrouch702@yahoo.com.  Anything beyond what it takes to get him camera capable again will also go to him, as a "thank you" for all the work he puts into this, most often for free.

However, I do not make this request without bias.  He is one of my favorite people, after all.  But would it not be a tragedy if these photos were to end?

As mentioned above, his work can found on Facebook & Flickr.

Friday, November 15, 2013

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Greece v Galloway Plaintiff Joins Secular Coalition For America Weekly Conference Call

The Secular Coalition For America[1] does a weekly conference call each Thursday at noon (Eastern time).  This week, they were joined by Linda Stephens,[2] one of the plaintiffs for Greece v. Galloway[3], a case challenging prayer in public meetings which has been taken all way to the Supreme Court[4].

Stephens talked about how prayer, and Christianity has apparently been used in the town of Greece by a town official to increase his own political power, including how a mega church in town passes out biased voter guides.  I only have her word to go on here, but it's definitely something worth investigating further for anyone in the area who cares about Church, State Separation.

It's not far fetched to think what Stephens said is happening could be true.  It's not like churches aren't doing shady things in regards to elections[5].

She also spoke briefly about some of the harassment she and Susan Galloway received as a result of the case, including mentioning that the harassment made one of the other plaintiffs back out.  This also isn't unsurprising, considering what happens to atheists who don't want to pray even without suing[6].  And we all know Jessica Ahlquist's story[7].

For more on the case, see Americans United[8].  For updates, follow SCOTUS Blog[9].  Or just pay attention, because once the decision is announced, it'll be hard to miss.  Especially if they actually do the right thing, which would cause Fox News, and the rest of the right wing media, to lose their minds.

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1.  http://secular.org/
2.  http://secular.org/event/national-secular-movement-update-call-48
3.  http://www.pewforum.org/2013/11/04/in-brief-supreme-court-revisits-legislative-prayer-in-town-of-greece-v-galloway/
4.  http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/12-696_6j37.pdf
5.  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wwjtd/2013/11/i-suspect-theres-no-way-this-is-legal-theres-certainly-no-way-its-ethical/
6.  http://youtu.be/sTRDRP2n4Sk
7.  http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/09/atheist-student-who-sued-school-you-cant-imagine-the-things-ive-heard/
8.  https://www.au.org/our-work/legal/lawsuits/galloway-v-town-of-greece
9.  http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/town-of-greece-v-galloway/

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Skepticism And Local News

I'm not a fan out how media in Omaha promotes woo[1].  And, of course, all local news stations used Halloween as an excuse to do stories on ghosts.

KMTV, our CBS affiliate featured Omaha's ghost hunter team PRISM, investigating the supposedly haunted Hummel Park[2].  Fortunately, they Omaha historian Howard Hamilton, who debunked the claims.  Although, they didn't air the actual debunking and left it open for people to believe anyway, despite having just reported that it had been debunked.

KPTM Fox 42 did a better job of it[3].



Although, I'm probably biased since the 2 skeptics speaking in this video are friends, and the 3rd one is me.

Both of these aired on Halloween night.  It was a fun excuse for them to talk about ghosts, and I commend them for actually giving skeptics some air time.  I wish they'd do it more often.  I wish they'd stick to it

It only took them one day until one of the channels went back to promoting woo, with no correction[4].  Given the amount of people on KETV's Facebook[5] who believe this guy enough to give him money, they completely failed in their duty to inform the public.

Unfortunately, I fear being responsible reporters was merely a Halloween costume.  My only consolation was the interest KPTM's Laura Berry showed in potentially doing more debunking reporting.  Only time will tell if she follows through on it and if her lets her do it.

Past experience has me skeptical[6].

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1.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/2013/10/radio-host-gives-psychic-his-due-while.html
2.  http://www.jrn.com/kmtv/news/230152121.html
3.  http://youtu.be/f9UrKVCjtoI
4.  http://www.ketv.com/news/local-news/omaha-man-says-he-can-talk-to-the-dead/-/9674510/22748378/-/n09dtnz/-/index.html
5.  https://www.facebook.com/ketv7/posts/10151721523916977
6.  Pun intented