nguirado

http://www.nelsonguirado.com/media/2010-12-21 Prager H3_ Ultimate Issues Hour_ A Darwinian Universe.mp3 Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Thought You Knew by Steve Stewart-Williams Both participants do a good job of coming to logical conclusions based on their starting premise: If there's no God, our lives are only meaningful to the extent that we care about them (why we care about them in the way rats don't is another issue). There's no... Read Full Story

Three kinds of people don't have to worry about upsetting others: the rich, the powerful, and the outcasts who have nothing to lose. One may argue that they'll pay in the ultimate sense or that they'll miss out on the joy of niceness, but those punishments are debatable and much harder to quantify. Anyways, I belong to neither group. I haven't had too much trouble- a journalism unit I was going to join saw the page and said it wasn't suitable for an officer- but I don't necessarily want... Read Full Story

A little more color than the usual taskbar icon. I remove the standard XP icon because it's redundant. I just got a new-old laptop, the Dell D430, and, as I usually do when I make a tech change, I've nerded out a little, fixing up the new device like a mother preparing her daughter for school picture day. Besides the usual new computer stuff , I visit forums and try new software. One of the new programs I tried was something called Battery Bar. It's pretty nice. Nothing revolutionary, but... Read Full Story

“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing. There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and Theocrats. But those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers or real bigots and Juan Williams or Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people, but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate.” The main liberal case against conservatives, from watching liberals on TV... Read Full Story

I have a group of friends who love H.P. Lovecraft. I've read two of his short stories- "Call of Cthulhu" and now, "Rats in the Wall." My impression of the Rat one: Poe-like in it's complete lack of humor and the fact that the guy goes insane ("Tell-tale Heart," "The Black Cat") The writing style is turn-of-the century formal, which I don't mind (Poe-like, again). No dialog, which gives it that rushed, insane horror feeling. Unlike Poe, who mostly deals with the psychological, Lovecraft... Read Full Story

The Queen and Archbishop of Canterbury. What's in taxpayer support? Would same-sex love be less blissful? Would NPR not as pleasantly drone? Would not the NEA-funded piss surrounding a crucifix smell as sweet? Government sanction is important. It legitimizes. People sue over crosses in the desert and Christmas carols in school plays. Why? There's no money involved. It doesn't hurt anybody. The only reason people squabble over religious symbolism on public property is because they don't want... Read Full Story

Woops, wrong clip. Here it is: Original post blogged on b2evolution . Read Full Story

Congratulations to the former Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky! I hope they have a blessed life together. That the marriage was such a big deal got me thinking about marriage a bit. Why do people celebrate marriages? They don't celebrate going steady. I think people do for a couple of reasons. One is the permanent exclusivity of their love and the the other is the justification for the former: the expectation that they'll become a semi-independent, dedicated unit that will contribute to... Read Full Story

Time to redecorate Why ebooks? The computer and the cell phone are two high-tech devices that have become essential for people living in developed societies. The third one might turn out to be the ereader. The ability to acquire hundreds of books cheaply and carry them around on something that fits in your briefcase (next to your laptop and phone) is leaps and bounds more convenient than paper books. The non-obvious advantages over paper books are the lack of page-caused shadow while... Read Full Story

Some tech is fun. In that category, I'd place my portable mp3 player, my son's Playstation. Some tech is useful. Here, my flash drive. Some are both: Laptops, smart phones. My portable media player is such a hybrid device. It's fun because it holds hours of entertainment and allows me to summon that digital pleasure on strange TVs without a computer. That can mean the TV in hotel rooms or the one at my brother-in-law's in Mexico, where my wife saw 10 episodes of Legend of the Seeker from my... Read Full Story