not making things even more public by refusing to attend and shifting more attention/speculation to yourself probably has its appeal

I don't know. I'm going to applaud the first shat upon wife who wakes up from that press-conference stupor they all appear to be in (mandated sedation?), shakes her head and says, "WHAT am I doing here?" then walks off.

Appearances are one thing, compounding your pain by furthering whatever facade your marriage has turned out to be, seems quite another.

Huh. And now I know something about Damascus steel, and why stainless steel is (mostly) stainless, and... stuff!

Share with the class, Emily!

Er, okay. Damascus steel, also called "Wootz steel", seems to have been made (in India, Sri Lanka, and China) by using a furnace powered by monsoon winds (I don't know, I just think that's cool for some reason). It produced almost pure steel and was known for its ability to hold an edge, maybe because of carbon nanotubes (whatever those are).

Alternately, it refers to a steel used in Middle Eastern sword-making in the, er, second millenium AD. These are I guess different types of steel, and Damascus here refers to the visible grain pattern. Maybe.

And stainless steel contains chromium, which forms an invisible layer of chromium oxide on the surface impervious to water and air and quick to reform when scratched.

Neat! Go, go, chromium oxide!

Neat!

I think I want to put my eyes out. I really don't go anywhere to talk on the internet except here, TWOP and livejournal, but I have become obsessed with Gossip Girl, and I have read everything on TWOP, so I ventured out and there are twelve thousand posts with exclamation points and all caps and emoticons, when I want to talk about the symbolism of Blair's headband. Why do I like teen shows?????

Aluminum does the same thing (without needing to be in an alloy) - a thin layer of aluminum oxide quickly forms up exposure to the air, which prevents further oxidization (i.e. rust).

Go, go, chromium oxide!

This somehow got the song "Air" from Hair in my head... Hello, carbon dioxide....

I just saw that! It says, "According to the apparent thermodynamics of the reaction, an aluminum airplane could dissolve in a rainstorm ...[but it doesn't] due to the formation of a thin, adherent layer of aluminum oxide." So... sometimes oxidation is what protects it from corrosion, sometimes oxidation is the corrosion? I'm a little confused.