Trick Photography from Photo Extremist

I'm reading Evan Sharboneau's new Ebook on "Trick Photography" and having a blast trying out some of his hundreds of ideas for having fun with your DSLR (he stresses that it's not important to have anything more than an entry level DSLR). Many of his suggestions don't require any version of Photoshop (for instance, "light painting"). Other tricks he offers (like layer masks--see the attached photos I took today) use Photoshop, but they most don't require anything more than the $70 version --Photoshop Elements. Pretty cool stuff. Evan is an excellent teacher--he looks like he's only in his 20's, but he is bursting with creative ideas. Check out "PhotoExtremist" on YouTube for many of his ideas. Here's his site if you're interested his Ebook. banana floating-Final Multiple erich on porch layer masks lo res

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Ex-nun who worked with Mother Teresa gives the pros and cons of the Catholic Church

Mary Johnson, now an atheist, used to be very much a Catholic. No more. As published in the Friendly Atheist, here is how she characterizes the modern Catholic Church:

The Catholic Church has a two-thousand year history of liberation and oppression, education and superstition, inspiration and exclusion. Today, in areas of the world where the rights of women and children and the poor are routinely denied, or where medical and educational facilities are woefully inadequate, the Catholic Church can provide a step up — when it’s not acting as a tool of repression. It’s clear to me that much of the Western world has outgrown the Church, though Church members often remain fiercely attached to a group they consider family. I believe the Catholic Church is becoming less influential, and I think that’s a good thing. The Church hierarchy is becoming increasingly less tolerant of dissent while Catholics in the pews are thinking more for themselves.

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FBI entrapment revs up “terrorism” prosecutions

From Alternet: In the ten years following 9/11, the FBI and the Justice Department indicted and convicted more than 150 people following sting operations involving alleged connections to international terrorism. Few of these defendants had any connection to terrorists, evidence showed, and those who did have connections, however tangential, never had the capacity to launch attacks on their own. In fact, of the more than 150 terrorism sting operation defendants, an FBI informant not only led one of every three terrorist plots, but also provided all the necessary weapons, money, and transportation.

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New documentary on the Iraq War Hoax

Why did the U.S. spend $3 trillion and squander thousands of live in Iraq. For no good reason. A new documentary titled "Hubris." Here's an excerpt of the review at Huffpo:

The yellowcake uranium supposedly bought by Saddam in Niger, the aluminum tubes supposedly used to process uranium into weapons-grade material, the supposed connection between Saddam and Osama bin Laden—the documentary features intelligence analysts and experts who at the time were saying and warning that the intelligence on these topics was wrong or uncertain. Yet administration officials kept using lousy and inconclusive intelligence to push the case for war.

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