Dan Jones VI

Pursuing Curiosity the World Over

Misadventures On the Road to Melaka

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I guess I thought I was already pretty good on my motorbike. I’d put about 9,000km (5,592 miles) behind me in a little under seven months and I had a left side full of road rash scars from my first fall which was a constant reminder to be less of an idiot on the road. Melaka seemed doable.

My village was rural. And rural meant chickens, goats, sheep, cows, water buffalo, monitor lizards, and the occasional horse ran freely. My first week riding my bike, a pair of startled goats darting into the road sent me sliding across the blacktop for an acutely painful but non life-threatening lesson in rural motorbiking. [Read more…]

Your Brain On Grains

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Diet fads are exhausting. The latest and greatest diet crazes have become a virtual staple of today’s pop-culture. If you want to fit in and be able to contribute anything to the conversation among friends or coworkers, you had better know the gist (or at least the name) of the latest seven or so diet trends.

I’m as frustrated as you are, but I would also argue that the combined trajectory of the last decade or so of nutritional research seems to be pointing in a generally unified direction. At least in terms of body image, carbohydrates have become a near-unanimous nominee for food source most likely to add to our waistlines.

But our brains? For some reason we’ve always viewed our brains as a fixed quantity. Either you’re born with a great big powerful one or you’re stuck a shriveled lump of genetically-mutated neurons and synapses destined for disease. You were born with ADD or you weren’t. Your family’s predisposed to Alzheimer’s or they aren’t. Or not? [Read more…]

WWII Honor Flight Phoenix

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Two weeks ago I had an opportunity to be in the company of unparalleled greatness. I was asked to pick up Fred, an old family friend, from Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. Fred had just finished a tour of the World War II monument in Washington, DC.

As I stood just beyond the security checkpoint awaiting Fred’s arrival, the cheers grew in steady succession as our WWII veterans approached. Passengers, family, and airport staff stood around holding signs, waving flags, and clapping as a few dozen of the greatest generation made their way through the airport. [Read more…]

The War On Skinny Women

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I’m confused. When I turn on the TV or read the newspaper, I hear about a society that sets unrealistic physical standards for women. Magazines and clothing brands are routinely boycotted for using photos of models that have been airbrushed too much. Even the most recent winner of The Biggest Loser has been criticized for losing too much weight and apparently setting a bad example for women. [Read more…]

Killers of the Khmer Rouge

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When the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, the weather was a little warmer than the unforgiving heat I experienced during my visit. Clad all in black, two-piece pajama-like uniforms with checkered scarves around their necks and rubber sandals made from car tires strapped to their feet, they marched to cheers from the crowd. After five years of enduring a complicated civil war and periodic skirmishes with Vietnamese military, the people were likely happy just to see a familiar-faced Khmer army seize control from what had been a corrupt government. [Read more…]

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