What's to reconcile? You will find character flaws and chronic bad judgement in the most successful/accomplished people–it will just be in some other area than what they're known for.

John Calvin had a man burned at the stake. Henry Ford was an anti-semite. 8 of the first 10 US presidents owned slaves. And, no, I don't think it's a matter of shifting standards. Look at Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart, etc.

Perhaps reconcile was the wrong word . . . I was looking at it more from the "here's a perfect person" image that some historical figures seem to have, versus the fact that everyone (no matter how history makes them out), is still just a flawed human like everyone else.

He may have been one of the most brilliant minds in the last 100 years, but apparently he had a love life that was just as messed up as the rest of us =)

Considering Einstein didn't kill anyone...he did OK. No one is a saint (except for maybe a saint, but then I've heard crazy things about Mother Teresa also).

Agnes Bojaxhiu aka mother theresa is one of the worst media scams out there. Portrayed as a saint, she was actually an extremist religious nutjob. I happen to have visited her hospice in Calcutta and was shocked to see its condition given the significant amount of donations being sent. Victims (not patients, they were poor uneducated rural folk being collected for display) were denied painkillers and modern medication because Agnes believed in the theology of suffering. A quick google will show you that Agnes managed to get most of the donations funnelled back to the Vatican, hence her beatification by the pope. I found the whole thing utterly disgusting and will never trust generic media representations of individuals.

Einstein didn't directly kill anyone, but he did sign a letter to President Roosevelt urging him to fund research into nuclear weapons.

I think this is a rational thing to do -- after all, he was fearful of what would happen should the Germans have completed their nuclear program first.

Sure, but there's a big moral weight on using your fame and influence to get your government to built atomic bombs. Though this was before the advent of strategic bombing, so I'm not sure how obvious it was to Einstein exactly how such a weapon would ever be used.

Yeah, he only helped to build the most destructive weapon ever.

No he didn't. He understood the science - and wrote a highly-public letter to the president arguing it would be better for the US to build one than to have it dropped on them by the Germans - already at work. But he had no hand in building it. Keep in mind, Einstein would have been in his mid-60s during the war, and a German at that.

We'd call him a German. The Germans of the day, indubitably, would have called him a Jew.

There's a reason why he moved to America...

He even became a citizen.

And the Wright brothers helped develop the craft the bomb would be carried on. What a couple of no good murderers they were.

Your comparison is retarded.

I suspect that even a century ago that list of demands would have been seen as very cold and mean.

We don't really know the back story is I guess.

I could see if their relationship had completely fallen apart by this point, but that they both wanted to stay together even though they were no longer in love, that a couple could come up with ground rules like this.

Who knows what her list of demands for him were?

These aren't 'prenup' demands, these are no-love separation demands. What points exactly feel mean to you?

Requests for lack of intimacy are understandable, given the no love situation. It is strange that the household chores are described - at the time it would be 100% understood that it would be so even if it wasn't written down; apparently it was a problem in their past. I mean, at that time and place, wife not cooking for you would be reasonable grounds for divorce. The "no belittling before our children" is natural as well.

i mean, i don't see what's wrong with it, even by today's standards. she probably didn't work, so it's practically just a relaxed maid contract. i mean, hiring a woman you shared kids with solely as your maid would be weird by today's standards, but bigoted? don't see it.

Yeah there was a previous agreement called marriage before which puts that list in a very specific context: it is not a "contractor" relationship.

Maybe I am missing something but since when was Einstein considered as a "popular folk hero" ? I have never heard of him portrayed as anything but a renowned scientist (with controversial political views).

You must live in another world, as Einstein is maybe the most popular scientist/genius in any part of the world.

I do not question the popularity of Einstein, I just wonder why the term "hero" is applied to him in the parent post. Why would Einstein be considered a "hero" compared to other scientists ?

His hair. Seriously.

And his eyes.

And that one equation that's easy to remember and sort of understand vaguely.