Photos from Sunday's Hike

I went hiking on Sunday with friends at Maryland Heights, which overlooks the Potomac River and Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. I have posted some of the pictures online.

After our hike, we went into Harper's Ferry for a little bit. Oddly enough, it was only the second time I have ever been in West Virginia. I thought that this was a little unusual, given how often I'm within a couple of miles of the West Virginia border.

Maryland Heights

A tour of Mason Neck

The weather was a bit gray and gloomy this afternoon, but I still made it outside for some nature walks. I decided to try out a new location today, and started the afternoon down at the Mason Neck Wildlife Refuge. Mason Neck is about twenty miles south of DC, and is surrounded by Gunston Cove, the Potomac River, and the Occoquan Bay. George Mason's former estate, Gunston Hall, is located on the north side of Mason Neck. It sits across Gunston Cove from Mt. Vernon. The Wildlife Refuge is located on the south side of Mason Neck, and is home to Bald Eagles and Great Blue Herrons.


The Woodmarsh Trail wanders through the Refuge


The trees reach for the sky

The Great Marsh is directly north of the Bald Eagle nesting habitat, and is supposedly a good spot to see Bald Eagles flying. The nesting habitat is closed from December through June in order to encourage the growth of the Bald Eagle population.


The Great Marsh at Mason Neck

After I finished my tour of Mason Neck, I headed over to the Occoquan Regional Park.


Houses along the Occaquan River


The flowers are in full bloom

Talking but not communicating

As most people figure out early in life, men and women tend to have very different communication styles. Many books have been written on the subject, such as those written by Deborah Tannen. In general, men usually have a very blunt and direct style of communication, that tends to work well in hierarchical relationships. Women often have a more indirect communication style that lends itself well to cooperation and consensus building. The differing communication styles can conflict. Women often perceive men's communication as being hurtful and rude. Men often perceive women's communication as being pointless or complaining.

Obviously, if men and women understand each other's communication styles, they are probably less likely to be offended by the other person. Unfortunately, it's difficult adjusting one's behavior. Despite the fact that I know that women aren't looking for solutions when they share their problems, I still find myself doing exactly that. It's a hard habit to break, and I think it is one that's compounded by me being an engineer. I spend my entire day finding solutions to problems, and I still find myself in that mode when I talk to people.

But what happens if people attempt to communicate to the opposite sex using the language of the opposite sex? I've observed that women who know how to be direct in talking to men are usually successful at it. They often are treated as "one of the guys". But what happens if a man tries to be more nuanced and subtle when he communicates with women? From what I have seen, it's not a terribly successful strategy. Women are used to men being blunt, and when men aren't, women totally miss the message. And for those few women do grasp the message, they assume that the guy must be gay. I guess their assumption is that straight men can't relate positively with women.

Given all of these communication differences, I sometimes think that it is a wonder that our society works at all.

Divided loyalties

I went to my accountant this afternoon to sort out my Virginia tax return. The prinicpal matter was to resolve the issues of my residency. It was determined that until I switch my legal residency, my presence in Virginia is considered an "assignment". While a man can't serve two masters, according to the vultures at the Virginia Department of Taxation, a man can be a resident of two states at the same time. So, I am legally a resident of the State of Michigan (based on a multipart test), but also a resident of Virginia. In other words, this means that I have the joy of paying Virginia taxes. Ordinarily, this situation would be totally lousy, but thanks to Michigan's tax laws (have I mentioned how cool Michigan is?), I'm not quite as screwed as I would have thought. Michigan's tax code understands that many of its snowbirds would be doubly taxed, so it ensures that its citizens aren't penalized for it. The downside is that I get to pay Virginia's taxes now, and receive my Michigan refund once they have processed my ammended return. Still, it is a bit of relief to know exactly where I stand from a tax perspective, and that my i's are dotted and t's are crossed.

Sex selection in India

The Wall Street Journal had an article today describing the battle over ultrasound machines in India. In India, prenatal ultrasounds are often used to disclose the sex of the child (a practice which is illegal in India), and parents abort female unborn children. According to a BBC article last year, it is estimated that half a million female babies are aborted each year. As a result, in some areas in India, there are only 793 girls for every 1000 boys. Suprisingly, families that are well off are more likely to abort their female children, most likely because they can afford the ultrasound tests.

From a Western point of view, it seems bizzare that an increasing standard of living would lead to more discrimination against women. One would think that with increased wealth, the pressure would relax for needing male children as workers on farms. But in India, it seems that the sex selection is mostly a cultural issue.

I wonder what will happen as the gender ratio skews over time across the entire population. What will happen when there are large quantities of men who cannot find a bride? Will crime increase, and social structures break down? Perhaps this problem will eventually self-correct, as the rarity of women increases their perceived value in India.

I just don't understand how India can stand by and watch the wholesale slaughter of unborn female children. Are women really that worthless to them?

A sad day

My heart goes out to everyone affected by today's massacre at Virginia Tech. The shootings were senseless and tragic. How can someone be so angry at the world that they kill over thirty innocent bystanders?

Justice (sort of) at last

Yesterday, North Carolina Attorney General Cooper dropped all remaining charges against the three former Duke University lacrosse players. In his statement to the press, he said, "Based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges." It was hard to come to any other conclusion. There was no DNA evidence, the "victim" constantly changed her testimony, and one of the players even had an ATM receipt (and was photographed by the ATM camera) timestamped from when he was supposedly at the house attacking the woman.

Reade Seiligmann, one of the accused players, said yesterday, "If police officers and a district attorney can systematically railroad us with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, I can't imagine what they'd do to people who do not have the resources to defend themselves." Sadly, this statement is so true. If the men had not had the resources of their families, they would have likely ended up prison for many years. Would a legal aid attorney have discovered that the prosecutor was conspiring with the DNA lab to withhold test results? If the men had been convicted, they would have served prison time, and then would have been registered sex offenders for the rest of their lives.

I am disappointed with Attorney General Cooper's decision not to prosecute the accuser, Crystal Mangum. This woman has done a huge disservice to all of the women (and men) who have been raped. Women who have been raped have a hard enough time being believed, and this woman just made it that much harder. Further, the woman's false statements almost deprived three men of their liberty for years. The AG stated that "she may actually believe the many different stories that she has been telling." In other words, he thinks she might be delusional. If the AG were to prosecute her for filing a false criminal complaint, then she would either be convicted of lying to the police (if it was intentional), or be sent off to a psychiatric ward due to "mental disease or defect." But she certainly doesn't belong out on the streets.

Hiking on Easter Sunday

Some pictures from today's hike along the Potomac Heritage Trail:


Flowers along the Potomac Heritage Trail


Gulf Branch


A military helicopter flying along the Potomac

All hail the unitary executive!

Conservatives have long held that the United States Constitution must be interpreted as closely to the wording and original intent of the Founding Fathers. The current Administration tossed that philosophy out the window a long time ago. It believes in the "unitary executive" theory, it believes that the President is not subject to laws passed by Congress, it has stated that there is no express grant of Habeus Corpus in the Constitution, and it has twisted the words of the Constitution to meet its own ends. But even despite this track record, I was still dismayed by President Bush's latest brazen disregard for the Constitution.

As noted in this Fox News article, President Bush nominated Sam Fox to be Ambassador to Belgium. However, it was clear that the Senate was going to reject the President's nominee, so the President withdrew the nomination. Once the Senate went on spring break, he appointed Sam Fox as Ambassador as a recess appointment. It was the ultimate end run around the "advice and consent" of the Senate.

Article II, Section II states:

with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for

and also:

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

The post of Ambassador to Belgium didn't suddenly go vacant while the Senate was out of town, which is clearly the intent of "vacancies that may happen during the recess of Senate". Further, not only did the President not ask for the advice of the Sentate on Mr. Fox's appointment, it was obvious that the Senate was going to withhold consent. So President Bush is clearly flipping off the Senate and the Constitution.

Oddly enough, President Bush is behaving very much like the man that most neo-conservatives loath: former President Clinton. President Clinton made an art form out of parsing language to make it mean what he wanted it to. After all, it all depends on what the meaning of "is" is. President Bush is just following in President Clinton's footsteps. I'm just waiting for the man to define "the term of four years" as four Plutonian years, and stay in office forever. After all, the Constitution doesn't strictly define what constitutes a year, now does it?

Salt Lake City Photos

It took me a while, but I finally put up some of the photos I took of Salt Lake City here.

Now that's fast!

A French TGV train broke the rail-speed record today with a train going 357 mph. This YouTube video shows the train passing under a bridge. This is a pretty amazing engineering feat. Now if only the lame Amtrak trains outside of the Northeast Corridor could go faster than 60 mph...

April wanders in

It was a chilly, gray, depressing sort of day here in Washington. However, it was the first day of the Cherry Blossom festival in DC, and people didn't let the lousy weather dampen their spirits. I biked down to the Tidal Basin area to check out the Cherry Blossoms and do a little people watching. The Cherry Blossoms were beautiful, and were enough to chase away a little of the DC gloom.


Cherry trees blossom along the Potomac


FDR Memorial