I just got a haircut that turned out pretty well. As usual, though, the barber commented on my thick hair and infrequency of haircuts. I have been telling myself that I need to get on a more regular haircut schedule that won't give the barber (and my friends) as much of a shock when I get more than half of my hair chopped off each time. So, the question is, how often? What is your haircut schedule?

I just arrived at Dulles airport outside of DC for a day trip to northern VA. While in the air over the late evening ground below, I was reminded how inefficiently we use light outdoors. A great deal of the illumination from parking lots, roads, houses, and businesses is partially directed upwards, never to serve its purpose of lighting up the ground. The waste is clearly seen with all the specular lights giving a show for jetsetters. The occasional parking lot or road does it right: the ground is visibly illuminated, but the source of the light is not visible from above. It seems to me that we could save a lot of energy by better directing all of a lamp's output downwards. Simple reflectors on top of lamps would handle this effectively. This would not only allow for lower output lamps, but less light pollution, fewer negative effects on wildlife, and much better stargazing! So, could someone get on this, please?