Links for thought

A particularly slanted view on e-waste

This is a big topic lately, getting a story on the Freakonomics site last week as well. It's a puzzling problem. I have an old PC sitting at home, that is ostensibly for James, but he's really not old enough for it. Plus it is really pretty decrepit. And if I ever get the disposable cash for the laptop I want then I will probably look for a good way to dispose of the old PC, as I would then be able to set up James on our current desktop. Does anyone out there have any ideas on how to avoid letting the disposal of old PC's become such a horrific thing?

Food for thought concerning Holiday spending

We stand as examples of this, despite planning every year to start in the summer with paying on lay away, and then Kim's annual fall job change, the planning is never there. Then when Thanksgiving hits, we hit the stores, because we want the kids to have a good Christmas. I know it is outrageous, and maybe not all that smart, but we do it anyway. And I know my parents did it too to a certain extent. Best line in the article:

Archaeologists in Rome recently unearthed the hitherto unknown Epistle to the Keynesians, a fifth-century tract in which an economist frets that an impending invasion by the Visigoths and the lack of a must-have toga would sack the Christmas season.

There is an almost instinctual response to do what we can to make the kids happy. And it is almost impossible to overcome. There is an intellectual feeling that we know it will all come out okay in the end for us, but still spending is one of those things that usually overwhelms sense. One of my buddies volunteers at Ecumenical Social Ministries and he was telling me the other night that he often has conversations with people seeking aid where he explains that for the cost of one month of their cable service they could have a year's subscription to the Gazette, and they always say that 1 month is cable is better.

This story just gets bigger and bigger

Remember the link I alluded to a week ago about the horrors of the Internet. Well this article goes into what has become a dramatic fall out. I believe that the one woman deserved some punishment and calling out for her actions. Although the brick through the window, death threats etc. are out of control. One of the comments here raised a very good point and angle: what if it had been the Dad who was posing as the teenage boy? Boom, straight to jail for solicitation of a minor etc. There is a very deep double standard there which has only been worsened by the Internet. But again, I think the most important point here is that people need to not point there fingers at the "Big Bad Internet" and instead look at the people involved and make them accountable. I have been on both sides of the anonymous mob fights in various Internet forums, and I can attest that people need to realize this is not a perfect media, it lacks the sophistication of even phone conversations. And that the most important thing I would impart to any kid starting out with all of these tools is to explain that things will almost never be what they seem.