Author: Aaron Weber

Talk Down to Me, I’ll Respect You More

Doin’itRight.org is a website about how you should not have sex if you are a teenager. The information on STDs comes down to “you’ll never know if you have one, and you can get them even if you use a condom.”

Best part? Doin’itRight.com is a travel site oriented mostly (although not entirely) to gay travelers to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with convenient information about prostitution and drugs.

The teen anti-sex site does have the version with the missing G, although the properly-spelled .com version is a redirect to a yachting and diving website.

What else are you doing wrong?

Another Election Results Chart

Insightful as always, my brother Joel sends me a table of state election results sorted by per-capita income. Basically, the higher the per-capita income in a state, the more likely it went for Kerry.

Other ways of looking at the data: the less advantageous the ratio of money contributed to the Federal budget to money received from it, the more likely a state was to go for Kerry. That’s right, the states most in favor of the “small government” argument are those that benefit most from it.

The less likely a state was to actually be hit by terrorism, the more likely it was to favor Bush’s “keep us safe from bees by throwing rocks at the nest” terror policy.

I haven’t checked this data to see if it’s accurate, I’m just posting it. What am I, a reputable news source?

Reading list, Numbers

I’ve been thinking about how numbers run my life more than I know, and how I don’t necessarily understand them as well as, say, any of the other boys in the office, who are all good at math. Things like blood sugar levels and their fluctuation from the norm, the measurement of horsepower and torque, baseball stats, psychology. For example, it’s presumably OK to have a certain number of negative thoughts about one’s job, partner, life, meals, favorite television shows… but how many? If I chart them and notice them going up, is my relationship becoming dysfunctional?

So I’ve added “A mathematician reads the newspaper” to my reading list. Other items: “Dirty Havana Trilogy,” because there has to be some fiction in there, “* A Brief History of Everything” because Bill Bryson is hilarious, and “Something for Nothing” which is about luck and American’s obsession with it (again, stats). Plus some business books which are as dry as the day is long.

Notes from Inside the Beltway

My brother, known on this blog mostly for funny pictures, is also a political science expert working in international development, and one of the most articulate and well-thought-out voices I’ve heard about politics recently:

His comment on the divisions within parties: “The piece from The American Conservative mentioned a civil war within the Republican party during the next four years. A similar struggle is going to take place within the democratic party as it tries to connect with middle America. I worry that the dems will turn to protectionism to find a more populist message.”

On the religious left: “I think there is something to be said for (and hopefully some way to reinvigorate) the Kennedy Catholics- those who look to their faith to press social issues, a faith-based concern for the poor, in the grand tradition of liberation theology and of course Jesus. Unfortunately I think we have a brand of Christianity that has forgotten the proverb “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” Instead many think their is no better indication of divine blessing and righteousness than being obscenely rich. Interesting that this strain of American Christianity had its origins in New England, but has migrated south.”