Fashion Anomalies

I was recently talking to a female friend of mine, and the subject turned to areas where men don't react like women expect them to. This is especially true for fashion, and I brought up a classic fashion anomaly. For many men (not all), a woman dressed in a nice pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt can be just as attractive, if not more so, than a woman dressed in a "fashionable" outfit. (Although nothing compares to the classic little black dress). My friend's reaction to this was pretty much the same reaction most women have: total disbelief. I know women that have had guys checking them out while dressed like that, and they are completely puzzled by it. In conversations I have had with guys about this, they agree that it happens, but are not sure why. One theory was that when women are dressed like that, they are much more open and relaxed, and guys find that attractive. Another theory was that it had something to do with the "girl next door" image.

Anyways, my conversation made me think about this a little bit. So I'm curious about opinions from my readers. Is this a phenomenon restricted to the engineering-type guys in my social circle, or is it a wider thing? And for the women, have they experienced guys checking them out while dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt, and what was their reaction to this?

Rights? We don't need no stinking rights!

For those of you who don't follow Slashdot, you might want to know about this exchange between Sen. Specter and US Attorney General Gonzales. While discussing habeas corpus, Gonzales said, "There is no expressed grant of habeas in the Constitution; there’s a prohibition against taking it away." By his logic, the fact that the Constitution says that the government can't take away a right doesn't mean that we have that right. I think this gets my vote for one of the scariest statements made by a Bush Administration official. What's next? Assuming that the right to practice religion freely can be taken away by banning religion in the first place?

On a side note, my luggage came back from its world tour. However, it didn't bring back any pictures from it's exciting trip!

Here it comes, and there it went...

I received an update today on my missing luggage. It left Grand Rapids, stopped by DC, and then went to Miami. Perhaps the weather in Miami was more agreeable to my luggage, or perhaps it was just in the mood for Cuban cuisine. It then proceeded to turn around and come back to Detroit, where someone at the Northwest Luggage Service Office set it aside and called me about it. Hopefully, the luggage will make it back to DC, and then back to my apartment. At the rate that it is going, I think my luggage should start accumulating frequent flyer miles.

I think the whole situation is terribly funny. In today's era of barcode readers and tracking databases, I have no idea how my luggage keeps making it to every destination except where it is supposed to go. As long as it finally makes its way home, I'll be happy, but I don't have much confidence that will happen soon.

O Luggage, Where Art Thou?

There has been a confirmed sighting of my luggage. Apparently, my luggage was bored hanging around DC, so yesterday it managed to make its way on a flight to Grand Rapids, Michigan. I'm not exactly sure why it was in Grand Rapids, and I don't think Northwest Airlines knows either. Perhaps it wanted to buy some furniture from Steelcase, or get involved selling products for Amway. There was a rumor that my luggage made its way back to Detroit, so I arranged to pick it up at the airport on my way back to DC. However, the luggage wasn't there, and Northwest wasn't sure if it had even left Grand Rapids. Who knows what exotic locale it will head to next? I think that there is a chance that my luggage might turn into the Roaming Gnome, and start sending me photographs from places all over the world.


The Huron River in Winter

I had a little time to kill before heading to the airport this evening, so I stopped by the Arb. It was cold and snowing, and since my gloves and scarf are traveling the world in my luggage, I decided to make it an abbreviated visit. The light sparkled on the ice-covered trees, and parents were pulling their kids on sleds through the Arb.


Ice Glistening on the Trees

My flight back to Virginia was delayed by weather, and when I arrived back in town, I was greeted by frozen muck. To be a little more accurate, it was a mix of rain, freezing rain, and sleet. I guess that winter has finally arrived in Virginia. I have a feeling that people are going to have a nasty commute to work tomorrow morning. After all, a little ice and slush is enough to throw this region into a panic.

A Michigan Fly-by

I flew back to Michigan for the weekend. I successfully made it to Michigan, but my luggage did not. Unlike previous instances where Northwest Airlines misplaced my luggage, this time they're not quite sure where it is. All they can tell me is that it didn't make it onto my flight. So I had an unexpected shopping trip in order to buy some clothes for the weekend.

Despite the fun with my luggage, my trip has been pretty good. Winter has actually arrived in Ann Arbor, and we got about an inch of snow on Friday night. As much as I have loved the seventy-degree weather days in January, the snow definitely seems more like winter. My trip will be rather short, since I have to fly back to Washington this evening.


My Northwest Airlines flight waiting at the gate

The great monster MySpace

There was an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal with the title MySpace Moves to Gives Parents More Information. MySpace has developed software that would allow parents to identify the name, age, and location associated with the user profiles accessed from a particular computer. The presumption is that parents could easily identify whether their 14 year-old child is representing herself (or himself) as a 25 year-old. The article states, "The software, code-named "Zephyr", represents MySpace's latest attempt to pacify critics who claim that the site is unsafe for teens." MySpace is attempting to forestall any legal action by a group of 33 state attorneys general, who would like to impose some serious consequences on the site.

However, the data suggests that MySpace is not nearly the threat that the state attorneys general would have you believe. Since MySpace's inception, there have been "dozens of teens" molested, and some murdered, by individuals who met them on MySpace. For the sake of argument, let's round "dozens" up to a hundred. MySpace has 60 million users. Even if you were to assume that half of their users were in the 14-18 age group (which is probably overstating things), that would be 30 million users. So a hundred children out of 30 million is a rate of 0.33 incidents per 100,000 children -- and that is over a three year period. By comparison, according to Department of Transportation statistics, in 2004, there were 5896 children in the 16-20 age range killed in traffic accidents, or a rate of 28.63 per 100,000 -- and that's a single year period. So children on MySpace are 258 times more likely to die in a traffic accident than to be abused by a stranger they met on MySpace.

The reality is, most politicians are older individuals who don't understand modern social networks like MySpace. People fear what they don't understand, and MySpace makes a great target for politicians to grandstand and show that they are "protecting the children".

The new MySpace software might be a useful tool, but it is no substitute for parents being involved in their kids' lives. And that, unfortunately, is the major problem. For the kids who were abused by people they met on MySpace, how many of them had parents that were actively involved in their lives, who knew what their kids were doing, who taught them the risks, and who were willing to set boundaries?

A photo pack-rat

I love taking photographs, but I'm lousy at keeping my pictures organized. iPhoto has been a great start towards me organizing my digital photos, but I need to find a solution for all of my 35mm photos. Beyond just organizing them into scrapbooks, I think I'm going to scan them all in to the computer, so that I at least know what pictures I have. I've been trying to hunt for some specific photos, and have been having a hard time finding them.

I came across the following photo while sorting through my collection. It's a picture of the nuclear reactor at the University of Michigan, and I think it's a rather cool photo.


Phoenix Memorial Reactor, University of Michigan, 1994

A trip to the Udvar-Hazy Annex

Today, I went with a friend to the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum Annex out at Dulles. It was my first trip to the Annex, although I have been to the museum downtown on several occasions. The museum is similar to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. It doesn't quite have the depth of exhibits that the Air Force museum has, but the aesthetics are better. The exhibits are spaced out enough that they could add a fair number of exhibits in the future. The hangar itself is pretty impressive, as it is functional yet nicely architected. The highlights include the Enterprise space shuttle, the Enola Gay, a Concorde, the test version of the Joint Strike Fighter, and an SR-71. The museum also has an observation tower that is about twelve stories high. Unfortunately, the weather was hazy and cloudy today, so I wasn't able to get any good shots from the tower. Some of the photos I took can be found here.


The Space Shuttle Enterprise

Another nature hike

Despite gray skies and a little rain, I went out hiking again this afternoon. I started my hike at the Potomac Overlook Park. Despite the name, the park no longer overlooks the Potomac, as the overlook area was removed in the 1990's. The park is fairly large given its location within Arlington County - who would have guessed that there would be something other than urban sprawl in Arlington? I picked a hiking trail that connected to Donaldson Run Park, which runs along Donaldson Run down to the Potomac River.


Donaldson Run

Once down at the Potomac River, I picked up the Potomac Heritage Trail and hiked south towards Rosslyn. I took the following picture on the trail. The sun peered through the clouds briefly to shine on the Washington Monument, and it looked beautiful. Unfortunately, this photo doesn't really do it justice.


The Potomac Flows Into DC
800x600 version

In interesting timing, this weekend's Wall Street Journal has an article titled "Gem War". Apparently, laboratory-produced diamonds are now exceeding the quality of natural diamonds, much to the dismay of De Beers. De Beers has launched a campaign to persuade consumers that natural diamonds are better, and is trying to persuade the FTC to require lab "cultured" diamonds to carry a "synthetic" label. Meanwhile, the diamond producing labs are fighting back, highlighting the fact that their products don't have the ethical baggage of most real diamonds. Most consumers are unaware of the De Beers monopoly, blood diamonds, worker exploitation, and the environmental impact of the diamond industry. As people become more aware of the issues of real diamonds, it will be interesting to see whether lab-grown diamonds will become popular.

Traversing through Thursday traffic

I lost another several hours of my life to Virginia traffic today. As Northern Virginia's traffic problems grow increasingly worse, I wonder how long it will be before traffic is completely unmanageable. The solutions that the region has attempted to use in the past for traffic management will probably just make the traffic and sprawl worse. For example, High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes are popular in the area. While HOV lanes reduce the number of vehicles present heading to downtown DC, they don't help with the traffic going to most of the newer suburban business areas. Worse, heavy HOV restrictions (such as I-66 within the beltway) have a tendancy to push traffic onto local roads and neighborhoods.

There is also a tendancy in the region to resist attempts at creating useful road networks. For example, the People's Republic of Arlington ensured that I-66 inside the beltway would be built with only two lanes, and that it would be HOV-only during rush hour. Part of this was an assertion that it would reduce sprawl, and part of it was a philosophy (still present today) that if you work in the District, you should live in Arlington and not Fairfax. However, the limitations on I-66 actually helped push commercial growth out to Tysons and the Dulles corridor, where there is no effective mass transit. As a result, spawl is worse, and the impact to the environment is much higher.

There is a plan to run the Metrorail out to Reston and Dulles via Tysons. One of the earlier plans (circa 1996) had been to run light rail (faster and less expensive) out the center of the toll road. But that idea was dropped because it wasn't Metrorail, which just wasn't acceptable here. However, I would have preferred the option of taking a light rail system that ran at 100 mph to West Falls Church, and then transferring to the Metro. I can't imagine how slow it will be to take Metrorail from Reston, wind through Tysons, and eventually make it to West Falls Church. I could probably bike the distance faster. And the current bickering over the Tyson's Metro means that we'll be lucky to see it operational before we all retire.

Expensive chunks of carbon

This evening, while suffering through an agonizing commute home, I turned on the local "all commercials, all the time" station (it's supposed to be news, traffic, and weather) while waiting for the traffic report. A commercial for one of the local diamond shops came on, and amidst the usual advertising blather, it said that diamonds were the "best way to a woman's heart". My first thought was what sexist drivel it was. My next thought was that, sadly, it probably is true for some women. But then I got to thinking about the value of diamonds. What makes a diamond valuable?

Outside of the industrial arena, where diamonds are useful due to their hardness, a diamond has no intrinsic value. Diamond is just carbon in a highly organized fashion. For most people, the main attractive features of diamonds are their high dispersion index and index of refraction -- although most people would say they glitter, sparkle, and have "fire". But is the glitter of a $3000 diamond really 1000 times better than a $3 cubic zirconia? Perhaps. But I believe that the real reason women love diamonds is that they are perceived to be valuable. If one could purchase a caret diamond for $10 at the local department store, do you think that women would still want them as fine jewelry -- even if they sparkle and glitter just the same? Heaven help the man who purchases a synthetic diamond for his fiancee, even if it is indistinguishable except under a microscope.

And as a side note, diamonds aren't scarce at all. If it wasn't for the De Beers cartel which artificially restricts the diamond market, one caret diamonds might actually cost about $10. You might be interested in reading this article in The Atlantic which talks about the realities of the diamond market.

In a sense, diamonds have become the ultimate expression of conspicuous consumption. Diamonds are effectively becoming a socially acceptable way to "wear" money. It's no longer in fashion to wear a simple gold band with a small diamond. In many cases, a person wearing a large diamond is advertising the fact that either she (or he) or someone closely linked to her (or him) has money. Have you ever noticed the frenzy at the office when somone has a new engagement ring? How many diamonds are on it? How big is the largest diamond? People are impressed with the woman who received the three caret engagement ring, even when that three caret diamond looks hideously large on her hands.

These days, the escalation of the diamond wars means that men have to buy larger and larger engagement rings, not to mention anniversary rings, the five year "will you marry me again?" ring, eternity rings, diamond pendants, and earrings. You have to give kudos to De Beers's original PR agency (N.W. Ayers & Son) for having created the monster known as the diamond market. Personally, I don't see this escalation stopping. No man in his right mind is going to refuse to give his fiancee the best diamond that's more than he can really afford. He doesn't want to hear, "You only think I'm worth a 1/8 caret ring to you?"

And some day in the future, I'll probably be there with all the other men, giving my fiancee a diamond ring, just to "prove" that I really do love her. After all, why fight a battle that you just can't win?

Amazing weather

The weather in Northern Virginia was amazing today. The temperature was around seventy degrees all day, and the clouds cleared out early in the afternoon. Given that it is the first week of January, it was really weird walking around outside in jeans and a T-shirt. I decided to check out Fort Marcy, which is located between Rt. 123 and the George Washington Parkway. Other than a couple of cannons, there isn't much to see at Fort Marcy.


A Cannon at Fort Marcy

I drove over to Turkey Run Park and hopped on the Potomac Heritage Trail. I hiked the trail down to the dam, but decided to turn back as the sun was getting low in the sky. Since the weather was nice, there was lots of people hiking the trail today.


The Potomac Heritage Trail Near the Dam

Random photo of the day

I thought that this photo was interesting from an artistic point of view:



In case you are curious, the photo was taken looking upwards through the south tower of the World War II Memorial.

Starting the New Year

Well, the holidays have faded, and it's back to the daily grind. After taking a week off from work, the adjustment back to work has been a little harder than usual. Plus, I seem to have caught one of the bugs going around, which has been bad enough to annoy me, but not bad enough to keep me home. So that hasn't helped with getting back into the swing of things.

I'm still haven't finished my list of New Year's resolutions for this year. I suppose I should add "stop procrastinating" to the list. One of the resolutions that I have been considering is to start working methodically on my list of travel destinations. There are lots of places in the world that I want to visit. In the United States, I want to see Yellowstone, the Everglades, and the Pacific Northwest. I also want to see lots of places around the world, from Ireland to Australia. If I select two or three destinations to visit each year, I just might get to see most of them before I retire.

I'm not sure if most of you caught it, but there was a very cool story in the news today. A construction worker in Manhattan named Wesley Autrey saved the life of a young man who suffered a seizure and fell onto the subway tracks in front of an oncoming train. It's not every day that you hear about an ordinary citizen risking his life to save a complete stranger. Unlike many people who are branded as a "hero" by the media for common everyday activities, Mr. Autrey is a true hero in every sense of the word. The world needs more people like Mr. Autrey.