An Emerald, almost as nice as mine.
1,000 Carat flawless aquamarine.
Looks like the brain of an evil genius--possibly a robot.
Is this Superman's house? AKA Fortress of Solitude
Brown Bear.
Posts
USA fact of the day
3 hours ago
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Museum of Natural History
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Conservatory (greenhouse)
Right in the same neighborhood as the Capitol, Supreme Court and Library of Congress is the National Conservatory. A nice break from all of those stuffy buildings with lines and security screenings.
Orchids
Our little family taken on an upper level catwalk by a friendly woman.
Cacao tree
Another orchid
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
Groton Road Race
Place.....Name..............Time...Pace...Age...Place/Men....Place/age group
66.......David Pecchia.....44:14...7:08...49....62/253..........20/68
66.......David Pecchia.....44:14...7:08...49....62/253..........20/68
I don't think I have ever run this race as fast and yet I don't think I did as well as I have in the past. Here is last year's stats: I came in higher is a field that was slightly larger, came in 44th out of 284 men versus this year when I came in 62 out of only 253 and so forth. I think the key is that the median time this year was a whole minute faster than last year's race, so even though I took 30 seconds off of last year's time, it wasn't enough to maintain my rank.
Last year's stats:
Place----Name----------Time---Pace--Age--Place/Men----Place/age group
52-----David Pecchia---44:47--7:13--48---44/284-----------22/104
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Art somewhere...
We went to a bunch of museums on Tuesday; the Freer, Sackler and the National Gallery, so I don't remember which this one was--I think the National Gallery.
Every once in a while I took a detail shot of a painting and it is well worth it, I really wish I had done more of that.
Every once in a while I took a detail shot of a painting and it is well worth it, I really wish I had done more of that.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Out Of This World
In the center of the top circle is a little black dot. This is an actual rock from Earth's Moon. The window commemorates the mission to land on the Moon.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Streams of Light
You can almost picture the trillions of photons rushing in through this window.
I like the subtlety of president Washington's location here.
The real question is why this holy light does not scorch her skin.
I like the subtlety of president Washington's location here.
The real question is why this holy light does not scorch her skin.
National Cathedral, Washington DC
National Cathedral Washington DC: It looks really big on the outside.
Inside, it is rather cozy.
Inside, it is rather cozy.
Saturday, April 07, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Daughter's High School String Orchestra
My daughter tells me the piece is called;
Capriccio espagnol, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Actually, she only gave me the name and I googled the rest of the information.
It is really kind of funny: A Russian makes classical versions of Spanish folk music which is later adapted by American High School string orchestras. Small world & etc.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Thursday, March 08, 2012
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
A Chain Reaction With a Little Side-Note
As part of the HHS mandate requiring all insurance, even from Catholic organizations, to offer contraceptives with zero co-pay: The Democrats had Sandra Fluke, a 30 year old Georgetown law student testify on the subject. I won't get into the weeds on the value of her testimony from a legal standpoint since she was not called as an expert witness, but rather as a representative victim. The real controversy came about when talk radio personality, Rush Limbaugh called the student a prostitute and a slut. He has since apologized for his words.
--I apologize for taking so long to get to my point, which still requires some set-up.--ed
President Obama ended up phoning the student and among other things said that he thinks her parents should be proud of her.
Ann Althouse, found someone who called the student a "coed" and this was determined to be insulting too! As for me, I think the president and the users of the term "coed" are pulling from the same well, we commonly think of a student as young and so coed is a diminutive term, just as is the use of proud parents.
When I had read the blog posting from Alhouse, I did a little web searching to see if it is at all common to see the use of "coed" as insulting. I didn't come up with any controversy surrounding its use other than the inclusion of a hyphen or not.
Naturally, I commented that I prefer co-ed with its hyphen intact.
Added Notes:
--A common argument against contraceptives being part of insurance is that they are not an unexpected cost. This is probably true most of the time, but I could easily think of a case where it would be true. Say a coed has no plan to become romantically involved while in school and so does not go on the pill. Then, sometime in the course of her studies, she falls in love, gets married and wants to go on the pill. In this sense it would be an unplanned expense.
--Why the insistence on a zero co-pay? Birth control is rarely life-or-death, for the woman that is. Meanwhile, other drugs that treat heart disease, hypertension and diabetes are essential for preserving health and life and yet co-pays are allowed for these. I would class birth control in about the same way I would class my running shoes: Excercise is healthy and athletic shoes are a necessary* cost associated with this healthful activity. My pet hypothesis is that the Obama administration wanted a fight. They could have put all of this off till after the election if they wanted to.
*Frequent readers know that I am increasingly running barefoot, though I don't think it weakens my argument, though possibly my credibility.
My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.
--I apologize for taking so long to get to my point, which still requires some set-up.--ed
President Obama ended up phoning the student and among other things said that he thinks her parents should be proud of her.
Ann Althouse, found someone who called the student a "coed" and this was determined to be insulting too! As for me, I think the president and the users of the term "coed" are pulling from the same well, we commonly think of a student as young and so coed is a diminutive term, just as is the use of proud parents.
When I had read the blog posting from Alhouse, I did a little web searching to see if it is at all common to see the use of "coed" as insulting. I didn't come up with any controversy surrounding its use other than the inclusion of a hyphen or not.
Naturally, I commented that I prefer co-ed with its hyphen intact.
Added Notes:
--A common argument against contraceptives being part of insurance is that they are not an unexpected cost. This is probably true most of the time, but I could easily think of a case where it would be true. Say a coed has no plan to become romantically involved while in school and so does not go on the pill. Then, sometime in the course of her studies, she falls in love, gets married and wants to go on the pill. In this sense it would be an unplanned expense.
--Why the insistence on a zero co-pay? Birth control is rarely life-or-death, for the woman that is. Meanwhile, other drugs that treat heart disease, hypertension and diabetes are essential for preserving health and life and yet co-pays are allowed for these. I would class birth control in about the same way I would class my running shoes: Excercise is healthy and athletic shoes are a necessary* cost associated with this healthful activity. My pet hypothesis is that the Obama administration wanted a fight. They could have put all of this off till after the election if they wanted to.
*Frequent readers know that I am increasingly running barefoot, though I don't think it weakens my argument, though possibly my credibility.
Monday, March 05, 2012
Low Carb Dinner
Or it would have been, had I not accompanied the salad with five pieces of rustic bread with brie spread on them.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Odds and Ends
I spent the last week in the Raleigh Durham area of North Carolina and even though this Winter has been mild, it was still nice to have an even better climate for a bit.
I went running a couple of times after work while I was there. I had no energy and was pathetically slow. It was warmer than here, but I don't think it was so warm that it slowed me down. I think that I was slower due to the unfamiliar routes. It is easy to really push hard when you know your way and don't have to worry about the course ending up being a couple miles further than you expect or a big hill coming along before the finish.
It was encouraging yesterday when I did a reasonably fast barefoot run the Saturday after my return home. I don't do barefoot running for accolades, it is more of an experiment to see if it will help with nagging injuries and make me a faster, healthier runner. Along the path of my course, a man came riding on a bike in the opposite direction with a portable radio blaring music. I could see that he noticed my unshod condition, he looked at me and said, "You win". He might have been sardonic, but I still enjoyed it.
We went to a number of interesting places to eat and drink in NC. One place was called, Flying Saucer. One (long) wall was lined with beer taps. The walls and ceiling were covered in plates. Many were china but most were to commemorate beer drinking. You can sign-up and get a plate of your own once you have had 200 different beers. Probably for liability reasons, you can only earn two per day, though they will serve you far more than two beers in a sitting; I had three when we were there. Pints. Another detail I could not resist noticing was that the waitresses had a kind of meta-uniform. I don't recall if any single girl wore all of these motifs, but the common theme was: Sheer knee-high black socks, plaid pleated short skirts, black t-shirt. Some of them had tights or a hoodie, but there was enough commonality that you could tell who was a waitress pretty easily.
Speaking of t-shirts. When we were about to leave the hotel for dinner, my colleague pointed out that the place we were going was business casual and I was wearing a t-shirt. No problem: I quickly changed into a normal shirt. On the way to the car, he was very apologetic about making me change, but it was really no problem and certainly better than finding out once we were already at the restaurant, trying to get in with my "business casual-tee".
The place we went to was Sullivan's Steakhouse and was only a couple of blocks from the beer joint so we walked over. Sullivan's had a kind of typical dark swankiness that is comforting when you plan to drop some serious change on a big tender steak. The darkness extended even into the restroom as well. The urinals were either black or a very dark color like navy blue. The lights must have been either incandescent spotlights or possibly LED lights. It had a kind of bluish intensity. The overall effect was that my stream reminded me of what diamonds look like when displayed on black velvet.
I went running a couple of times after work while I was there. I had no energy and was pathetically slow. It was warmer than here, but I don't think it was so warm that it slowed me down. I think that I was slower due to the unfamiliar routes. It is easy to really push hard when you know your way and don't have to worry about the course ending up being a couple miles further than you expect or a big hill coming along before the finish.
It was encouraging yesterday when I did a reasonably fast barefoot run the Saturday after my return home. I don't do barefoot running for accolades, it is more of an experiment to see if it will help with nagging injuries and make me a faster, healthier runner. Along the path of my course, a man came riding on a bike in the opposite direction with a portable radio blaring music. I could see that he noticed my unshod condition, he looked at me and said, "You win". He might have been sardonic, but I still enjoyed it.
We went to a number of interesting places to eat and drink in NC. One place was called, Flying Saucer. One (long) wall was lined with beer taps. The walls and ceiling were covered in plates. Many were china but most were to commemorate beer drinking. You can sign-up and get a plate of your own once you have had 200 different beers. Probably for liability reasons, you can only earn two per day, though they will serve you far more than two beers in a sitting; I had three when we were there. Pints. Another detail I could not resist noticing was that the waitresses had a kind of meta-uniform. I don't recall if any single girl wore all of these motifs, but the common theme was: Sheer knee-high black socks, plaid pleated short skirts, black t-shirt. Some of them had tights or a hoodie, but there was enough commonality that you could tell who was a waitress pretty easily.
Speaking of t-shirts. When we were about to leave the hotel for dinner, my colleague pointed out that the place we were going was business casual and I was wearing a t-shirt. No problem: I quickly changed into a normal shirt. On the way to the car, he was very apologetic about making me change, but it was really no problem and certainly better than finding out once we were already at the restaurant, trying to get in with my "business casual-tee".
The place we went to was Sullivan's Steakhouse and was only a couple of blocks from the beer joint so we walked over. Sullivan's had a kind of typical dark swankiness that is comforting when you plan to drop some serious change on a big tender steak. The darkness extended even into the restroom as well. The urinals were either black or a very dark color like navy blue. The lights must have been either incandescent spotlights or possibly LED lights. It had a kind of bluish intensity. The overall effect was that my stream reminded me of what diamonds look like when displayed on black velvet.
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Odds And Ends
A car in our work parking lot has a constellation of bumper stickers. And yes, I know; when there are a lot of them it's a sure sign that the owner is a radical of one stripe or another. Still, I couldn't resist looking...
One struck me in a number of ways--risky, wrong-headed, Yes. But mostly it was the kind of thing likely to backfire. I did a Google search and could not find the exact same image but the gist, if I may put it that way, is that if you drive a Hummer you likely have some physical shortcoming.
1. The first thing I thought of was the rejoinder: You, the owner of the sticker, know this because you have seen such vast acreage of these parts? You still invite intimate knowledge of men who own Hummers? Or are the figures so vast that a statistically relevant number of times, after you had "inspected" this part, you came to find out later that they owned a Hummer? There just isn't a way in which the owner of the sticker comes out looking good.
2. Or maybe it is to mean that they suppose it's true on logical grounds even if they have no empiric knowledge. So, manly men stereotypically engage in macho pursuits and so all owners of this kind of vehicle must be trying to seem manly. But if that is a stereotype, then most of the time it must be true (or at least largely thought true) since that is how such notions form. So, technically it is more likely that a guy drives a Hummer because he is macho and is attracted to macho things.
3. I'm just teasing the person in the above two items. I think the real aim is to demean or bully people who make different (wrong) car buying decisions. But the ugliness doesn't end there. What if a guy is not well-endowed? This is hardly something that he could control--you are born with the genes you get. To be proud or ashamed of that which you have no control over is irrational. To tease people over that which they cannot control is someplace between thoughtless and odious.
4. What is so bad about a Hummer? I have had many a left-wing acquaintance blurt-out how they hate them. But I have never heard anyone say the same thing about exotic sports cars. They both get about the same mileage--though the exotics are worse in the sense that they all need premium fuel. The Hummer may never go off road, but it can go on-road when it has snowed and they carry more than two people. They are ostensibly far more practical than sports cars and yet where's the hate for Porsche?
I think that while these "progressives" feel like they are enlightened and the targets of their scorn are Troglodytes: Their moral "superiority" is more akin to the Mrs. Grundys and mutaween of the world than anything approaching enlightenment.
One struck me in a number of ways--risky, wrong-headed, Yes. But mostly it was the kind of thing likely to backfire. I did a Google search and could not find the exact same image but the gist, if I may put it that way, is that if you drive a Hummer you likely have some physical shortcoming.
1. The first thing I thought of was the rejoinder: You, the owner of the sticker, know this because you have seen such vast acreage of these parts? You still invite intimate knowledge of men who own Hummers? Or are the figures so vast that a statistically relevant number of times, after you had "inspected" this part, you came to find out later that they owned a Hummer? There just isn't a way in which the owner of the sticker comes out looking good.
2. Or maybe it is to mean that they suppose it's true on logical grounds even if they have no empiric knowledge. So, manly men stereotypically engage in macho pursuits and so all owners of this kind of vehicle must be trying to seem manly. But if that is a stereotype, then most of the time it must be true (or at least largely thought true) since that is how such notions form. So, technically it is more likely that a guy drives a Hummer because he is macho and is attracted to macho things.
3. I'm just teasing the person in the above two items. I think the real aim is to demean or bully people who make different (wrong) car buying decisions. But the ugliness doesn't end there. What if a guy is not well-endowed? This is hardly something that he could control--you are born with the genes you get. To be proud or ashamed of that which you have no control over is irrational. To tease people over that which they cannot control is someplace between thoughtless and odious.
4. What is so bad about a Hummer? I have had many a left-wing acquaintance blurt-out how they hate them. But I have never heard anyone say the same thing about exotic sports cars. They both get about the same mileage--though the exotics are worse in the sense that they all need premium fuel. The Hummer may never go off road, but it can go on-road when it has snowed and they carry more than two people. They are ostensibly far more practical than sports cars and yet where's the hate for Porsche?
I think that while these "progressives" feel like they are enlightened and the targets of their scorn are Troglodytes: Their moral "superiority" is more akin to the Mrs. Grundys and mutaween of the world than anything approaching enlightenment.
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