Author: Aaron Weber

Bad News

These “boot camps” seemed like a good idea at first, but remember that they’re still basically a cross between summer camp and jail. And that they are populated by the most troublesome teenagers in the area. So it’s not that surprising to find that a kid got beaten to death by the guards at one. I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened more.

At first, I thought this headline read “Bush Defends Mediocre Plan.” But that wouldn’t make sense: I haven’t known him to make any plans that good.

Comments

OK, I’m turning comments back on. We’ll see if I attract spammers.

Next: trying to write something worth commenting on.

Cutting off your nose to spite your face

Spite is often considered to be the one action that truly distinguishes humans from the lower beasts: only we are foolish enough to hurt others even if it hurts us as much, or more. This isn’t technically true– swans are known to engage in spiteful behavior, and I think chimps got caught at it once or twice as well.

Still, it’s worth bearing in mind when you think of the fact that a 100-year-old adoption-oriented charity has shut down rather than comply with state anti-discrimination law.

See the Slate article on family law and gay parents for more detail on what it means to seek “the best interests of the children,” as the legal standard specifies we must do in these sorts of cases.

Current Reading

The Zanzibar Chest, by Aidan Hartley: Fascinating account of a white English boy born in Africa who grows up to be a journalist– he goes into a lot of depth about his family history and how it’s involved in the history of the region, as well. I recommended this to Luis, warning him that it started sad and got sadder. He said, well, it is Africa.

Charcuterie: Some of the recipes in this cookbook require expensive equipment, and some of them require almost none. Many of the items take days or months to make, and some may kill you. They are sausages and preserves and hams. So far I have packed some lemons in salt and put them in the back of the fridge; they’ll be ready in June. The next item I want to make is my own (fresh) sausage, then maybe beef jerky or my own bacon. But first, I need to buy more salt. I used up nearly five pounds last night, and we’re out.

The Paradox of Choice, from a prof at my brother’s school, Swarthmore, covers the fact that more choice doesn’t always make us happy. The idea applies to a lot of areas of life, such as user interface design and the success of specialty grocery stores. Also I think it has something to do with my ongoing pastoral fantasy: if we all just lived like Laura Ingalls Wilder, it’d be so much easier. We wouldn’t have to make decisions. We’d just survive. It’d be so great!

I also like…

I’m also fond of this post, discussing what’s going to happen when people start outlawing abortion.

Once we outlaw it, we’ll have penalties for women getting abortions. Let’s say a woman gets an illegal abortion, and something goes wrong (it rarely happens now, but is more likely with back-alley coat-hanger disasters). She can’t go to the hospital, because she’ll get arrested. So, she bleeds to death.

Abortion isn’t murder, but outlawing abortion is pretty close to negligent homicide.

On Writing Manuals

Lance Mannion has a great post on product design and manuals. The gist is this: the reason you can’t understand the product manual is that it is trying to explain something that is overly complex, and therefore as hard to describe as it is to do.

I found this to be the case in my manual writing for things like Novell Evolution: when I had a hard time explaining something, it was often because the process itself was too complex. Fortunately, I had access to the developers and I could file bug reports (“This dialog box is totally insane”) that people actually listened to.

I guess I’ve been lucky.

Rock Music, Whiskey

Two recommendations:
The Affair, a rock band from Brooklyn. But not like every other rock band from Brooklyn. Worth a listen.

Bulleit Bourbon was the clear winner in taste tests conducted among friends recently: better than Woodford Reserve, Overholt, Michter’s Rye, and Eagle Rare. It’s got molasses and vanilla notes that make it gentle, but enough oak and fire to make you drink it slowly. I liked it enough to apply for a job with their marketing company, Colaneglo Synergy.