Maureen Dowd wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about a study done at the University of Michigan that suggests men want to marry women who are less powerful than they are– in essence, men want to marry the nanny or the secretary. It’s a study that has been published in a journal of evolution and I just heard it on NPR, so it’s getting a lot of attention.

Whoa! A study using college undergraduates? Um, these “scientists” are aware that college males’ mate selection often boils down the drunkest girl left at the party at the end of the night, right? Of course college boys don’t want to marry CEOs. College boys can’t even begin to identify with women, much less successful, motivated women. It’s hard to blame them, too; why would you identify yourself as someone who wants certain characteristics in a mate when you can’t imagine that anyone with those characteristics could possibly ever want you?

Are you seriously going to base a discussion on what “men” want by looking at undergraduate males? And MAUREEN FUCKING DOWD, who I think is awesome, is giving creedence to this line of thought? Look, if you were to survey a healthy cross-section of men from a number of age groups, demographics, and cultures, and you had the same findings (and would that suprise me?– no), then Maureen Dowd should write about it and it should be on “On Point.”

But people, this was a study that looked at 120 college boys. I call that a frat party, not a serious research study. BOO, American media, for reporting this kind of crap.

I’m working on a number of Career-Technical Education courses for high schoolers, including Medical Sciences, Horticulture, and e-Commerce. But I’m not yet to the point of developing curriculum for Exotic Dance I and II.

I’m a huge rail nerd, particularly as it comes to local mass transit systems. (I don’t care so much for national rail systems… you won’t see me getting all hype for some more Amtrak.) I gots books on the history of the NYC subway, I loves me some MetroLink in St. Louis, I like to keep up. So the news that Raleigh/Durham was gonna get some light rail, well, that had me singing in my sleep!

But now, the plans may be in trouble… some fools actually want to know if Triangle light rail would be cost-effective! Step off, budget nazis! I don’t think these guys see the long-term ramifications of light rail in the Triangle:

• Ross can ride the train to the Hurricanes games, assuming hockey is ever played in North Carolina again… and had there been light rail, the Hurricanes would have made enough dough that they could pay the players exorbitant amounts and the strike would not have happened

• Ross can ride the train to Bulls games, where he can hug Wool E. Bull and receive t-shirts that have been launched out of a hot dog cannon
• Ladybug no longer needs to drive to work and park at Park-and-Ride; she leaves a few minutes earlier and now has time to read on the train… increased time to read means more research on her thesis, and Ladybug one day revolutionizes the way immigration is done in the US, promoting new foreign policy and world peace
• Ross purchases Segway scooter for short jaunt from home to rail station, slowly becomes dependent on it for all mobility, and he puts money into economy with subsequent scooter-related purchases; more money in tech economy leads to research breakthroughs, and ultimately, a cure for cancer

I simply see no reason that light rail should not thrive in the Triangle.