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Mother’s Day and Father’s Day
I don’t celebrate holidays. I know they exist. I just don’t care about them. I know that Halloween is the last day of October. I know that Thanksgiving is in November. I know that Christmas is December 25th, and I know that New Years is January 1st. But when it comes to Labor Day or Memorial Day, or Mother’s or Father’s Days, or Birthdays, I don’t really pay attention. The only reason I know they’re upon us, is when I see a bunch of Facebook posts.
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How to Utilize Google Music
Back in the long long ago, music was kept on these limited storage capacity devices called records, which were replaced by cassettes, which were replaced by CDs. The main problem of these ancient contraptions was they could only hold a few songs at a time. To listen to something else, you had to PHYSICALLY SWITCH to a different one. With the advent of the MP3, came the MP3 Player. Suddenly, you could hold 100s then 1000s then 10000s of songs. All on one tiny little box.
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MiniRant: God’s Forgiveness
I find the very concept of “God’s forgiveness” utterly repulsive. Let’s assume for the moment that a god exists. Let’s also assume that you have the correct god. We all do bad things, occasionally. Sometimes these bad things hurt others. The people from whom we should seek forgiveness are those we’ve hurt. Why does this god have the authority or ability to forgive you?
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Biography: J. Edgar Hoover
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Some of you don’t recognize this name. Those of you who do will have very polarized opinions of him. J. Edgar Hoover was one of the most powerful people in the country, yet he wasn’t the President, Vice President, or a Supreme Court Justice. He ran the FBI… for almost 50 years. During that time he was either a creative detective, or the beginning of the end of privacy (depending on how you view it). Many of the NSA issues in the news lately, could largely be attributed, or at least inspired by, J. Edgar Hoover.
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Burden of Proof (In Detail)
I don’t mean to beat the proverbial dead horse, but I want to explain in more detail what the Burden of Proof (BoP) is, and why it matters. Every opinion or belief has a reason, even if you’re not aware of it. You may be right, but if you can’t prove it, its not justified. The BoP is a way of getting people to believe you. Now, if you don’t care if someone believes you, then fine. You can skip reading this. But, if you do want people to believe you, then this is the best way to do it.
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The Epicurean Paradox
I recently pointed out that it’s not my job as an atheist to disprove the existence of gods. While this is true, it is a fun mental exercise. My favorite is the Epicurean Paradox. First, let’s examine the claim of a god’s existence. Most theologies attribute God with three traits. He is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and omnibenevolent (all loving). Some schools of thought add or remove from these three, but these are generally agreed upon by monotheists. Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh…
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Password Management
With the latest internet security failure, Heartbleed, everyone’s talking about protecting their accounts. Here are my tips. Keep in mind, there are many ways to keep your accounts safe. Also, and I can’t stress this enough, if someone wants your information badly enough, they will find a way. You’re only defense (besides staying offline) is to make it as hard as you can for people to crack.
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Interview: HIV and AIDS Research
Today we have another interview. This time, I sat down to talk to an AIDS researcher to discuss… well, HIV and AIDS. Not much more of an intro is needed, so let’s jump into it.
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Bad Arguments: Shifting The Burden of Proof
The misunderstanding of the burden of proof is one of the biggest reasons logical arguments with theists fail. The person making the claim has the burden of proof. That’s how it works. It’s your job to prove your point, not their job to prove you wrong. If you can’t defend your argument with proof, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re wrong, but it does mean that there’s no reason to believe you.
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Yet Another Short Story About Me
People sometimes ask why I complain all the time. They usually mistake my chronic whinny lamentations as genuine unhappiness. This isn’t the case. It’s just my super power. Some people are math geniuses. Some are able to rebuild almost anything. I can deconstruct and bemoan anything.
