MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2006
Tuesday Edition: Commutes Longer, Earlier and Lonelier
A
Transportation Research Board study found that, in the past decade, more people have begun commuting from suburb
to suburb, rather than from the suburbs to downtown areas.
The
number of people commuting alone
is growing, too, and the number of people driving more than an hour to
get to work grew by nearly 50 percent
between 1990 and 2000. The TRB study also found that many more people
now leave home for work before 6:30 a.m. than in the 1990s.
Here are some more resources from the TRB's study, called "Commuting in America III":
Smaller Women's Sizes Appeal to Vanity When
you shop for women's clothing this holiday season, you
may be buying a smaller size than you have in the past, even if the
person you're buying for hasn't changed sizes. Clothing manufacturers are increasingly
playing to women's vanity by renumbering larger sizes to lower numbers.
The Associated Press points out:
The larger picture is that every designer uses their own silhouette,
or "fit model," based on their target audience, says Dan Butler of the
National Retail Federation. There were once government guidelines for
sizing, he says, but they were abandoned decades ago, and were never
mandatory.
The Boston Globe
produced a graphic a few months ago to show how the sizes have changed.
A size 8 dress in the 1950s can be called a size 00 now.
The Globe says:
While Americans have statistically gotten larger, women's clothing
has gotten smaller -- that is, if the numbers on the size labels are to
be believed. It's no secret that retailers have been playing to women's
vanity for years by downsizing the sizes on garment labels, but the
practice has reached an extreme in recent months with the introduction
of the sizes "'double zero" and "'extra, extra small." If vanity sizing
continues on this path, analysts say, it is only a matter of time
before clothing sizes are available in negative integers.
In many ways we're already there, said Bridgette Raes,
an image and style consultant in New York who notes that the sizes
double zero and extra, extra small available at stores like Banana
Republic and Old Navy are essentially negative sizes. Instead of
putting a -2 size on the label, manufacturers use 00, which is the same
thing.
J. Jill introduced its '"extra, extra small" size last year in
response to its petite customers' demands for smaller sizes, said
Lauren Cooke, a public relations manager for the company.
"'We've always had size 'extra small,' but our clothing tends to be
cut more generously because we cater to women over 35," she said,
noting that an extra small at J. Jill is the equivalent of a size 2 or
4 at other stores. Their extra, extra small is equivalent to a size 0.
The downward evolution of sizes illustrates the extent to which
retailers, apparel manufacturers and designers are conforming to
American women's obsession with wanting to be thin -- even if it's only
in their minds, said Natalie Weathers, an assistant professor of
fashion industry management at Philadelphia University.
A September Indianapolis Star column adds:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which apparently
has been spending a lot of time snooping in women's dressing rooms,
says the average woman wears between a size 11 and 14. Who knows what
that really means? We have sadly come to the time when you can't trust
a tag.
A Tool Against Meth
In Iowa, retailers who sell anhydrous ammonia, an agricultural fertilizer, are planning to add calcium nitrate to their tanks, which will make the anhydrous useless in the manufacturing of methamphetamine. It also helps to quiet calls to restrict or ban the fertilizer that farmers depend on. Will other states adopt this?
The additive will reportedly neither harm farm equipment nor the
environment. The governor of Iowa said he hopes the additive will cut
down thefts of anhydrous ammonia from farms.
The discovery that the additive would work to fight meth production was an accidental discovery made by researchers at Iowa State University. Similar research was funded in New York state in 2004.
Click here for past meth coverage on Al's Morning Meeting.
Here are some more resources for you as you cover this story:
Cameras Solve Crimes
KUSA-TV in Denver
takes a look at how, with security cameras seemingly everywhere these days, police departments are solving crimes they could
not have solved before. (We've covered security cameras before on Al's Morning Meeting. Here's a link.)
Does your police department have a specialist who can enhance and analyze video in interesting ways?
And while we are at it, can we explore why so many security cameras
produce such terrible video when, for a few hundred bucks, I can get a nice,
color camera that produces great video?
More Journalists Test School Security
As I predicted, more journalists are marching into schools to test security systems. Today's test comes from The Capital in Annapolis, Md. The story is preceded by an Editor's Note:
Twelve reporters from The Capital
visited half of the county's schools Thursday morning, testing if they
were allowed to enter the building without signing in and seeing how
long they could wander around without being confronted.
Reporters dressed in casual business attire, and included men and
women ages 23 to 51. They visited every high school, every middle
school and two elementary schools from each feeder system.
They were told not to lie about their identities, but only say they were reporters if asked.
School
officials were given the results Friday morning to give administrators
enough time to fix problems before this story was published.
At the end of this story, read about what the reporters
encountered as they visited schools around the county researching this
report.
Click to see a school-by-school chart of the findings.
The story starts out this way:
Dozens of county schools lack some of the most basic security measures to keep out unwanted visitors, a review by The Capital has found.
Even
after a two-week spate of violence at schools around the nation that
left six students dead, nearly a quarter of Anne Arundel schools
allowed visitors to walk in unchecked and roam the hallways -- often
without ever being confronted.
A team of reporters from the newspaper fanned out across the county Thursday morning, testing security at 56 schools.
They
were able to get in through unmanned front or side doors during the
four-hour test in 24 of the county's schools. Employees at the others
stopped reporters from entering the buildings, escorted them to the
office or had enough security to shoo them away.
"It's alarming,
because in this day and age any person with an evil thought can walk in
a school," said Anita V. Owens, president of the county Council of PTAs.
Reporters
found plenty of propped-open or unlocked doors, allowing anyone to
easily slip inside the buildings. Signs warning visitors to check in at
school offices were posted in almost every building, but main entrances
regularly went unguarded.
What Pepsi's New Image Teaches Journalists
Pepsi is about to remake its image under the theme "Feel the Pepsi." The phrase interests me because I believe that people remember what they feel longer than what they know.
It's true for newspaper, TV and online news stories: You can tell me a
lot of details, but if I don't feel something, I won't likely remember
the information you've given me.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting
is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials
from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis.
When the information comes directly from another source, it will be
attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is
fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the
original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
Posted at 7:05:06 PM
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