Alisa.wray

By: GDB Breeding Manager Jenna Bullis

Recently we posted a litter announcement for the Auberge x Tom litter and shared with you all that “Jicama” was career changed due to a prominent facial mismark.  Since then we have received many questions and comments so we thought we would give you some more “Fun Facts from the Breeding Department”. Get ready for your biology lesson for the day!

In order to understand what caused Jicama’s mismark, we have to cover some basics first…there are spots on the canine genes called “loci” (or “locus” for a single spot) that deal with different coat colors. There are thousands of these loci, and it gets pretty complicated really quickly. Fortunately for us, in Labradors (and Goldens) we really only need to focus on two loci to determine whether a dog will be black, chocolate, or yellow: B and E.

B comes in two varieties: black and brown. Black (B) is dominant, brown (b) is recessive, and the color applies not only to the dog’s fur, but to some extent all of the areas of pigment we see: nose, lips, foot pads, and around the eyes. If the dog in question has even one copy of the dominant (B) gene, s/he will have a black coat and black nose, etc. Only if the dog has two copies of the recessive gene (b) will their coat and nose look brown.

So where do yellow Labradors and Golden Retrievers fit in? For them, we need to go to a different locus: E, which works a little differently. In recessive form (e), it suppresses or prevents the coat color of the B locus from expressing itself. In other words, the black or chocolate color won’t show up in the fur if the dog is carrying e/e. Instead, their coats will be yellow. Recessive (e) doesn’t remove the other areas of pigment however – they should have black noses, or at least a black rim around their noses, if they have B/B or B/b on that first locus. If they have b/b on that first locus, then those other areas of pigment will be liver colored. Couple that with e/e for recessive yellow coat color and we see a yellow coated dog with liver b/b pigment.

In a way, the coat colors are like a ladder. The first rung (or loci) tells you if the dog is black or brown, then the 2nd rung takes that black or brown dog and if double recessive, turns its fur yellow.
Golden Retrievers are genetically black (BB ee) but look golden (yellow) to reddish due to their (ee) genes restricting the development of black pigment.

So how does all this relate to Jicama? Sometimes when an embryo is developing one of its skin cells undergoes a mutation. Any cell that is produced by this mutant cell dividing also contains the mutation.  Jicama had mutation in a skin cell in which (ee) became (Ee). This allowed the black pigment to form in cells descended from that one original mutant cell. This phenomenon is well documented in Labrador Retrievers and Golden Retrievers. These dogs are sometimes referred to as Mosaics. This same phenomenon has also been observed in domestic cats and in ranched foxes. It’s not a really a birthmark, it’s just a somatic mutation.

The cells responsible for reproduction originate from a different place than the skin cells therefore are not affected by this mutation and thus a dog which has a somatic mutation (or mismark) will not produce its dual color in offspring. 

These types of color mismarks are not incredible unusual in our colony, but they are not typically as prominent and noticeable as Jicama’s. Phew!  As you can see, genetics is a complicated business!  In the end, as we said in the original post, we felt that Jicama’s mismark was prominent enough to draw significant comment from the public, which could be a distraction at best, and a potential burden for a graduate.  She is enjoying her life as a pet in a loving home. 

If you’re anything like me, you feel like death every single morning. My favourite remedy? Melt that feeling away with a pipin’ hot cup of coffee.

Snow Violent must have been feeling the same way about the dreadful a.m. when they designed these morbid skull & bones sugar cubes. Now you can literally dissolve the death out of your day. Or perhaps you’d like to imagine that tiny skull is the last remains of your caustic boss or your arrogant brother-in-law. I mean… that’s pretty horrifying, but I’m not judging you.

 

 

This is a guide I made for myself before starting cross cover as an intern. I figured it might be helpful for those of you just starting internship:

Altered Mental Status

First ask: “Is this actually altered? Or are they always completely insane?” Often it’s the latter. Then you better go examine them or something.

Get the usual labs first. This person has probably had ten zillion fingersticks, chem panels and CBCs, so one more set can’t hurt. Also, an EKG. Why not?

Get oxygen saturation and maybe an ABG. Newsflash: not being able to breathe can affect your mental status.

Infections can also make you act weird, especially if you’re old. Is the patient running a fever of 106? That might also be a clue. Check the urine, check the blood. Get a CXR. If you’re really desperate, check the spinal fluid, although this will likely be low yield since most interns are unable to do a successful tap on their own.

Another thing that can cause a patient to be altered is giving them 20 mg of ativan. Did you OD your patient on ativan today? Think hard. Other meds can do it too. Especially the ones that can cause a urine tox to be positive.
Maybe a head CT too… what else are you going to do with $2,000?


Chest Pain

Get cardiology consult… haha, just kidding.

Ask a buttload of questions about the patient’s history, but likely get the same tests regardless.

Get the chem panel, the CBC, the cardiac enzymes, the EKG. If you suspect a PE and you want to order something really useless and annoying, get a d-dimer.

If it hasn’t already been done, do the usual fun stuff, like giving aspirin, oxygen, morphine, and nitro.

If there are changes on EKG: panic.

If everything else is negative: GI cocktail


Hypotension

Uh oh.

The differential for this is wide. Could be an infection with sepsis (yah!), could be just dehydration, could be a bleed, could be some cardiac shock, could be medication related.

Is the person peeing? Peeing is always a good sign.

First give some fluid, cuz why not. Shove in those two large bore IVs.

Does the patient look sick? Have a fever? Vomiting up huge amounts of bright red blood? Having massive diarrhea? Chest pain radiating to the left shoulder? Look for clues that will spare you the annoyance of having to think on your own.


Decreased Urine Output

First, has the patient peed less than you have in the last six hours? If yes, then you’re in trouble (both of you).

This is kind of similar to the hypotension thing in that a lack of fluid in the body can cause it. Or it can be that there’s enough fluid, but it’s not getting turned into pee. Or it can be that it’s getting turned into pee, but the pee isn’t coming out.

Is the foley plugged? Flush that sucker!

Treating this usually involves some combination of checking the BUN/Cr, and a balance between giving fluids and giving lasix.


Hypokalemia

Huh? Why’s this on the list? Just give potassium, what’s the big deal?


Hyperkalemia

This is a little scary, depending how high the K is. Get an EKG and if there’s anything that looks like peaked T waves or something like that, better give some calcium.

If the patient can poop, give some kayexelate. Or you can go the insulin/glucose route.

Maybe dialyze if really bad.

And for god’s sake, stop adding K to the IV fluids.


Hyperglycemia

This is my favorite thing to go wrong.

Me: “Give patient insulin.” (now I’m the hero)

I guess it occasionally requires a little bit of analysis, if the patient looks DKA-y. So maybe consider a chem, acetone, UA check. If there’s an anion gap and ketones, you probably need to transfer the patient to the ICU so that someone more experienced than you can take over.


Hypoglycemia

Drink some juice.

Or take an amp of D50, whichever.


GI Bleed

Ugh, I hate GI bleeds.

First off, it depends how much they’re bleeding. A drop of blood on the toilet paper is not a GI bleed. Blood gushing out of the mouth probably qualifies.

Remember the ABCs. Make sure the patient is stable, stick in those two large bore IVs. Give fluids. Type and cross. All the fun bloodwork, especially a CBC, coags.

At this point, the source decides the treatment. But either way, you should probably stop the heparin drip.


SOB

No, this doesn’t mean the patient is being an asshole…

A lot of people are SOB at baseline. Is this new SOB. Or is he an old SOB?

I could write a page-long list of things that cause SOB, so it’s important to narrow it down with history and physical. You’re probably going to want to get labs, a CXR, an EKG. Definitely a pulse ox, maybe an ABG.


Hypertension

Generally it’s good to find out a little bit more about the patient’s history of high BP and if this is a new thing. Or if it’s symptomatic hypertension and there’s evidence of end-organ damage. (Uh oh)

Mostly, I just give hydralazine. I love that shit.

Good luck!!!

We’re not getting a new Firefly but we are at least getting more of Shepherd Book as actor Ron Glass joins the cast of S.H.I.E.L.D. Joss Whedon is known for taking actors that he’s worked with on one series and bringing them on in another, so it’s not surprising to see Glass and Whedon together again. It doesn’t look like he’s playing an agent, but hopefully he’s in a role that still gives him plenty of screen time.

That’s not the only new casting announcement. Fans of Ghost Whisperer will be happy to see David Conrad appearing as a recurring character described as a “brilliant and quirky scientist.” This show can’t get here fast enough. Is it September 24th yet?

See another picture after the break…

(MTV and blastr via The Mary Sue)

Sour cherries have long been one of my favorite fruits for preserving. I mostly missed the season last year and so spent much of late June and early July this year trying to make up for my lackluster show in 2012. I picked at least 15 pounds on my own and when that didn’t prove to be quite enough, I bought a flat from Three Springs Fruit Farms.

Towards the end of my sour cherry extravaganza, I found myself with both sweet and sour cherries. I could have made a duo of small batches of jam, but instead decided to combine them for a sweet and tart preserve. I used a lower than usual (for me) amount of sugar and turned to Pomona’s Pectin to help me out in the set department. The finished jam has much of the sour cherries tangy bite, but with the deep richness of the sweets. I am very happy with the result.

I realize that cherry season is rapidly drawing to a close throughout the country, but I wanted to get this one published to the blog in the hopes that maybe it will still be of use to some of you. Plus, I want to remember it for next year, as it’s a recipe truly worth repeating.

Speaking of cherries, the folks at Fillmore Container are hosting a giveaway this week, featuring this fun cherry pitter and one of the new blue heritage Ball jars. It screws on to a regular mouth mason jar and catches the cherry pits there (perfect if you want to use them for an infusion project). To throw your hat in the ring for a chance at it, head over to their blog.

Related Posts:

• Notes on a Batch of Sour Cherry Pie Filling
• Pear Cranberry Jam
• Sour Cherry Jam Recipe

I am alive and managed to keep my arm but I am on drugs and they make it hard to write to the point where most of the time I'm just staring at the pores on the back of my hands, so bear with me. This is the $100 Sharkini, a bathing suit that makes it look like you're being attacked by a shark. Not a very realistic shark attack though, so if you start flailing your arms yelling 'HELP!" people are just going to think you're a crazy person. A crazy person IN A REALLY COOL BATHING SUIT. They will be jealous. Hit the jump for a shot of the rear.

There is a thing in the world… it’s called Really Bad Sangria.  This is not that.

Really Bad Sangria is a mixture of  cheap red wine (not cool, but not a crime), sliced oranges (fairly benign), and grapes (questionable, but tolerable).  The combination of bad wine and boring fruit… that’s Really Bad Sangria.

Let’s talk about Really Good Sangria!

Really Good Sangria is pink.  Really Good Sangria contains fruit that feels like a treat!  See: watermelon and fresh strawberries.  Really Good Sangria is layered with wine, and vodka, and lemon or orange liquor.  Really Good Sangria is REALLY GOOD!  This is that.

It’s the weekend!  Get at that melon!

Dreamy dreams!

This sangria is a muddled mixture of the following radness:

-  fresh strawberries  -  watermelon juice from fresh watermelon  -  great pink wine  -  vodka  -  limoncello (or cointreau)  -  fresh lime juice and slices  -   and fresh orange juice and slices.

Let’s do it!

Toss a few strawberries in the jar.  What could go wrong?

Mish-mash.  Smish-smash.

Pour in that pink wine.  The whole bottle.  Don’t you be shy.

Pour in four cups of fresh watermelon strawberry juice.

This juice smells better than anything ever.

Yea… we’re adding vodka.

We’re also adding a nice dose of limoncello (or cointreau).  Whatever you have on hand.

As long as the mixture stays pink, you can toss it in.  We’re vain about our sangria.

After adding a splash of orange juice, lime juice and all sorts of sliced fruit, we’re allowed to call this giant jug sangria.  It’s sweet and summery.  It’s boozy and pink.  What more do we need?  (Don’t say chocolate… mostly because you’re right.)

Grab the ice and a big ol’ glass.  We’re worth it.

Thank you to Jon for styling mo-jo, pouring skills, and being my partner in sangria consumption.

 

 

The most-requested tutorial from last week's laundry room reveal was by far and away the concrete counters. Many of you asked if this treatment is durable enough for a kitchen. It definitely is! If you have laminate or formica counters and want something to get you by for a couple years until you can splurge on stone, this is a really great option. The best part is it costs about $15 and it's incredibly easy to tackle as a solo project!


Let's jump in...
There are a few of these concrete overlay tutorials floating around the web. I used this search on Pinterest to find the best ones (this one from Kara Paslay Designs was my favorite). You might want to look around yourself and find a tutorial that works with your existing countertops, though the concept is pretty much the same across the board.


The hardest part (which is not all that hard) might be hunting down the concrete. The stuff you need to find is called Ardex Feather Finish. You can look on the Ardex website for local distributors, but it's easiest to just call their toll-free line for the info. There were like six distributors in Phoenix, so I'm sure you'll be able to find some in your area. A 10-pound bag cost me only $15 and I needed about half a bag for my laundry room. So cheap, right!?


I was talking to a contractor friend about this product (which is a concrete-PVC mixture I guess) and he said he uses it all the time and that everyone he know has been raving about this stuff for the past couple years - it layers on top of and easily binds to just about any surface. He said that any time you see a concrete floor in a retail space it's more than likely this product, which made me feel good about it's durability.


Even though the Feather Finish binds to flat surfaces, it's a good idea to really rough up your old counters before layering on the concrete, just to be safe. I used a wallpaper scoring tool and that worked pretty well. I think even just a good sanding with course-grit sandpaper would work.

I’m going to say something here, and it might shock you: These were too rich, and they were too chocolately. I know, you’re thinking that that isn’t possible because you love rich food. Or you’re thinking that the easy solution is to serve small pieces. But the problem goes beyond that – it’s an issue of balance, of mimicking everything that’s good about a s’more, but in an elegant way that doesn’t require a campfire.

S’mores are mostly marshmallow, a generous amount of graham cracker, and just a small wedge of chocolate. Any more chocolate and the heat of the marshmallows won’t be able to melt it. It’s a ratio that’s pleased people for generations; we don’t need to change it now.

These bars, on the other hand, were reversed: almost all chocolate and a smidgen of marshmallow. Both layers on their own were everything you could hope for, the chocolate mousse airy and smooth with enough bitterness to balance the fluffy toasted marshmallow topping. This wasn’t an issue of quality, just of relative quantities.

So, for the recipe below, I’ve mixed around the ratios. No, I haven’t tried it myself, but each portion is basically the same recipe as the original, just scaled up (in the case of the marshmallow) or down (the chocolate). With these new proportions, you’ll have a treat to please everyone, with plenty of marshmallow and graham cracker and still more chocolate than you get in a real s’more, but not so much that it’s the only thing you notice. All that with no sticky fingers afterward.

Printer Friendly Recipe
All-Grown-Up S’mores Bars (adapted from Jill O’Connor’s Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey)

For the graham cracker crust:
3 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs (from about 26 full crackers)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

For the chocolate filling:
6 large egg yolks
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons cognac or brandy
2 tablespoons Kahlua
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
⅛ teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter
1½ tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder
9 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks

For the Marshmallow Fluff meringue:
5 large egg whites
Pinch of salt
⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1½ cup Marshmallow Fluff

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13-inch baking pan with oil.

2. To make the crust: Combine the graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter and granulated sugar until well combined. Press into the bottom of the prepared ban. Bake the crust until it starts to brown and become crisp, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

3. To make the filling: Using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and confectioners’ sugar together in a large bowl until they are thick and the color of butter. Beat in the cognac, Kahlua, vanilla, and salt.

4. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Remove the pan from the heat, add the chocolate, and stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Let cool slightly, then gradually beat into the egg mixture.

5. Fold the softly beaten heavy cream into the chocolate mixture just until combined. Spoon the chocolate cream over the graham cracker crust, smoothing it evenly with a spatula. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very firm, at least 4 hours or up to overnight.

6. When ready to serve, make the meringue: Using an electric mixer set at low speed, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the salt and cream of tartar and beat at medium speed until soft peaks form. Beat in the vanilla. Add the Marshmallow Fluff to the egg whites a little at a time, beating constantly until stiff peaks form. Spread the meringue on the chocolate layer, using the back of a spoon to create peaks. Toast the meringue using a kitchen torch or the broiler. Cut into squares and serve immediately.

I’m Like:

This microscope was built by veteran Lego builder Carl Merriman who’s been making Lego creations for 27 years. It’s not going to replace a lab microscope, but it does have a magnifying glass and an adjustable lens. He writes:

This build was originally inspired by the LEGO X-Pod sets. While trying to find a use for the pod itself, I realized that it was very close to a deep petri dish. I used a planetary gear system to allow both coarse and fine adjustment of the objective “lens”. A little more tinkering and I connected the focus to a magnifying glass and fiber optic light in the eyepiece, so adjusting the focus knobs would actually bring the writing on a LEGO stud in and out of focus.

Too bad this one isn’t a kit because I’m sure there are legions of budding scientists who’d love to have one. Lets hope it submits it to CUUSOO.

See a picture of the interior mechanism after the break…

(Brick Laboratory via Lego Gizmodo)

You've got to give it up to McCann Melbourne for creating this awesome and effective public service announcement for Metro Trains. On Saturday, "Dumbs Way to Die" became the most awarded campaign in the 60-year history of the Cannes International Advertising Festival with five Grand Prix Lions as well as 18 Gold Lions, three Silver Lions and two Bronze Lions.

Created to help keep Melbourne citizens from getting hurt in and around Metro train service areas, the video became a viral sensation racking up an astounding 50 million views on YouTube with its catchy theme song and funny animation. Not only was the McCann agency recognized for its ingenuity, its campaign is also credited with helping drop the rate of suicide train jumpers a whopping 21%.

Now, take a look at the morbidly hilarious illustrations and then watch the video, below. Warning: You might not be able to get that song out of your head!

McCann website

This is a cross section of a colony of Pyura chilensis, a brainless filter feeding organism found in shallow waters off the coasts of Chile and Peru. They resemble squiggly rocks made out of cooked ground beef with nasty guts inside. Do people eat them raw? DAMN YEAH PEOPLE EAT THEM RAW.

...it eats by sucking in water and filtering out microorganisms -- and its clear blood mysteriously secretes a rare mineral called vanadium. Also, it's born male, becomes hermaphroditic at puberty, and reproduces by tossing clouds of sperm and eggs into the surrounding water and hoping they knock together. Locals eat it raw or in stews, and non-locals describe the taste as "bitter" and "soapy" with a "weird iodine flavor."

Mmmm, bitter and soapy with a weird iodine flavor. I'm gonna be honest, I'm not sure God intended for us to eat these things. Of course you could argue the same thing about actual rocks, but a friendly giant told me they help aid digestion so I do eat a little parking lot gravel on the way to my car in the morning. Hit the jump for several more shots, including a bunch on a plate, and a video of a dude cutting some open.

Artist Greg Guillemin has released another set additions to his Secret Lives of Superheroes prints, only this time he’s expanded his reach. There are heroes and villains like Captain America and Catwoman, but he’s added a touch of Disney with Alice, Peter Pan and even Snow White.

See more after the break…

Product Page ($20 via Cool Material)

Fun news, jar lovers! Today, the folks that make the Cuppow have released a new product that I predict will have a giant impact on how we use canning jars to tote meals and snacks. Called the BNTO (a nod to the Japanese bento boxes that served as inspiration), it’s a 6 ounce cup made in the USA from recycled and BPA-free plastic, that nests into a wide mouth mason jar.

What it does is give you the ability to stash both wet and dry ingredients in a single jar. This means that your granola won’t get soggy, you can keep your peanut butter off your apple slices or crackers, and you can even pack up chips and salsa in a single container.

It’s designed to work with a canning jar lid and ring. The rim of the BNTO has raised strip which nestles into the sealing compound in the lid and creates a leakproof seal. You’ll notice that the ring doesn’t tighten quite as far as it does with just a lid, but there’s still plenty of space to ensure security.

For more on BNTO, click over to the Cuppow website. There’s a video here that will give you a peek at all BNTO can do.

Disclosure: The folks at Cuppow sent me a couple of samples of the BNTO to try out. They are also a sponsor of this site. Even if I had no relationship with them, I’d still think that this was a super cool product. 

Related Posts:

• Links: Rose Petal Preserves, Garlic Scape Vinegar, and Winners
• Giveaway: New Cuppow Colors
• Cuppow and EcoJarz are Having Cyber Monday Sales

(Text would normally go here but I am speechless.)

From Kasia Nowak.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: puppy

Recipe: Sparkling Lemonade with Fresh Berry Ice

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

Directions:

 

This might look like nothing more than an image of a Dalek scratched into the gel of a petri dish, but it’s far more dangerous. It’s actually an image of a Dalek grown inside the dish using E. Coli bacteria. Yup, the bacteria in poop that can make you sick. I think this makes the Petri Dalek far more dangerous than the ones the Doctor fights.

(via Obvious Winner)

If you’re one of those people who saw the word “pickled” in the title and said “Ugh, no, sorry, not for me,” do know, I was the same not too long ago and encourage you to fight the good fight for as long as you can, because once your tastes cross over to the vinegar side, there’s little going back.

Something of a gateway pickle, these should be eyed suspiciously as well. The thing is, one day you’re eating the foods you’ve always liked — sandwiches, salads, tacos, cheese — and you wouldn’t change a single thing. And then, once day, the quadruple-threat crunch/sweet/salty/punch of a pickle gets under your skin and suddenly, the food landscape is a bleak, depressing place without them. You need pickled red onions on your tacos, pickled celery in your tuna and egg salads, cucumber slices in your potato salads, grapes with your sharp cheeses and pickled carrot sticks in the fridge whenever the mood strikes, and nothing’s ever quite right without them again. I can find a clear demarcation in my pre- and post-pickle junkie days (it’s just about 10 (!) years ago, when I took up with this Russian I married) and think there’s still hope for you. Here, how about some granita instead?

... Read the rest of pickled vegetable sandwich slaw on smittenkitchen.com

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© smitten kitchen 2006-2012. | permalink to pickled vegetable sandwich slaw | 220 comments to date | see more: Photo, Pickled, Picnics, Salad, Sandwich, Side Dish, Summer, Vegetarian

Family fun, a rockin’ good time and a professional fireworks show return to Clark Avenue and the Lakewood Civic Center on Saturday, June 29. The Lakewood Civic Center Block Party begins at 4:00 p.m. with the Family Fun Zone fun activity area for kids and families and the always popular "Taste of Lakewood.” Live entertainment from pop band Haute Chile starts at 5:00 p.m. The evening ends with a with a fireworks program at approximately 9:15 p.m.

A while back, PetaPixel posted some features about image averaging and faces. Richard Prince created a composite portrait of the 57 faces of girlfriends on Seinfeld. This led to Pat David exploring the averaging of faces with Martin Schoeller’s portraits of celebrities.

I’ve long been interested in image averaging as well; as a measure of central tendency, I like that image averaging can highlight similarities and differences across an array of seemingly equivalent images.

I first came across image averaging in college, about three years ago, and more recently while studying psychology at degree level. Initially, my interest was spurred by Jason Salavon and Krzysztof Pruszkowski. Salavon averaged images from particular ‘sets’. For example, ‘Kids with Santa’ is an average of 100 pictures of which children pose with Santa.

Pruszkowski, much earlier, used modified cameras in a process called ‘photosynthesis’ to create such averages. You can see this in ‘60 Passagers de 2e Classe du Metro’.

What interests me, is that averaging can be used as a comparative tool. It can illustrate both the formulaic and inconsistent – as you can see in Salavon and Pruskowski’s images. I found, recently, that averaging is used extensively in face research in the psychological field.

Francis Galton used averaging, as early as 1878, to discern links between physical appearance and psychological traits. Aside from his eugenicist motive, he did find that average faces tended to be deemed more attractive. Later capitulations showed that 32 averaged faces were considered more attractive than 2.

Face averageness and it’s relation to physical attractiveness has been explained in terms of genetic heterozygosity. Average features, such as faces, may point to overall genetic health and resistance to parasites.

Subsequent research has shown attractive individuals are seen as more trustworthy and having lower levels of stress. I’m saying this, because it’s possible that attractiveness is not arbitrary and may provide cues we aren’t aware of. If you were to take a Darwinian perspective, you could assume that attractive faces are a result of mating success and that typically attractive faces follow a certain pattern.

A ‘model’ of such nature does exist. The Marquardt mask devised by Stephen Marquardt uses the golden ratio of 1.618 to display the archetypal attractive face for males and females. Although it seems to be the gimmick that would appear as a cut-out in low-end gossip magazines, it does seem to hold some truth. You can see this with Angelina Jolie below.

This all leads me to my little ‘experiment’ using averaging. Essentially, I wanted to see if ‘attractive’ faces conformed to a sort of beautiful framework and if ‘unattractive’ faces did not.

To do this, I had to gather my sources of attractive and unattractive faces for both males and females. To avoid the beauty-in-the-eye-of-the-holder debate, I took names of celebrities that appeared most across opinion polls in terms of most and least attractive. I’m not saying that Maxim’s hot 100 is an entirely reputable source, but having cross-referenced the names across various other lists and polls; at least I can say the faces used are not based on my opinion.

As per the finding that 32 faces are seen as more attractive; I used this as the threshold for the amount of faces to average. The selection of images to use was based on my own criteria: facing forward, eyes looking into the camera, limited facial expression, decent size and decent colouration.

For each ‘category’ (Male and female, attractive and unattractive) I aligned and resized the images, until the internal features of the face (eyes, nose, lips and chin) were as aligned as feasibly possible. Then they were averaged.

These are the averaged images in sets of females and males. They’re comparisons of attractive (left) and unattractive (right) averages:

Here are those same attractive and unattractive faces with a Marquardt mask overlay:

What’s interesting is that attractive male and female faces seem to have similar structures and similarities. When aligning the images in Photoshop; I could see that faces which appeared completely different actually have similar basic proportions. You can see this in the averages and in relation to conformity with the Marquardt mask.

The most interesting aspect, to me, is the incoherence seen in the ‘unattractive’ averages. Attractive faces seem to conform to a basic attractive structure, with little variance of internal features. Unattractive faces have more varying features – this would explain why the unattractive averages are less coherent.

I tried to make this little exploration as objective as possible, which is difficult when judging attraction can be seen as a subjective process. But, it is interesting to see that attractive faces follow a particular pattern (according to the opinions of the polls I used). Maybe it is the case?

Maybe pure physical attraction to faces has conventions; that is, without factoring in socialization, culture, personality and individual desires. But since we are rarely separated from those factors; I couldn’t draw a definite conclusion.

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About the author: Bill Lytton is a photography enthusiast and psychology student at Goldsmiths College in London. Visit his Flickr page here.

Pet Store | GA, USA

(I’m ringing up a customer buying a bag of dog food, and a small toy. When customers pay by credit card, the screen automatically asks if they want to make a donation to help homeless animals.)

Me: “Would you like to make a donation to [store charity]?”

Customer: “No, I hate all animals; this is for a friend.”

Me: “Okay then. Would you like a bag for that?”

Customer: “Yes, I hate the environment too.”

I'm always on the lookout for a smart cocktail. So this Kickstarter immediately grabbed my attention. The Periodic TableWare collection, designed by Marshall Jamshidi, is a line of drinkware based upon the iconic look of laboratory glass. Now, it doesn't get much smarter than that...

 

 

Vampires beware, there's garlic in every bite! And if that's not enough garlic, I like to serve this with roasted broccoli with smashed garlic and skinny mashed potatoes... in my house, there's never too much garlic.


With Father's Day right around the corner, I thought it was time to re-shoot this recipe which means this is what's for dinner tonight. I make roast beef quite often in my house because it's pretty simple to make and we all love it. Roast beef is really hard to mess up as long as you have a meat thermometer and you let it rest before slicing.

For lunch today I made a delicious carved roast beef sandwich with melted cheese and sweet caramelized onions that I will be sharing tomorrow here, it was sooo good!

Click Here For The Recipe...

What if the crew of Firefly got mixed up with Calvin and Hobbes? It would be freaking adorable – as artist Karen Hallion has shown us. She’s got Kaylee with a wrench, Wash with dinosaurs, and Mal in charge (as he should be). It’s already fabulous, and it’s still a work in progress. I can’t wait to see the final, shiny version.

(via Karen Hallion)

However unlikely it might seem, Star Wars action figures can be art. David Eger has been photographing the toys for a few projects including “365 Days of Clones” and “52 Weeks of Star Wars.” He’s turned his attention to a new series called “Cloned Photos” which manages to be cooler than his other awesome works. He takes historical/cultural images like the E.T. poster, V-Day in Times Square, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima and replaces the people with Clone Troopers and other figures. The results are striking.

Check out more photos after the break.

(Free York via GoA)

Dear American public,

I apologize.

I accidentally cost you $470 last month, and so I owe each of you a $0.000000076.

I actually feel quite bad about this, but more in terms of the money lost and the inconvenience to the patient.

What happened, you ask? Well, I meant to order a lumbar spine CT scan. But due to a busy day and multitasking, accidentally wrote an order for a cervical spine CT. No one questioned it, and so it got done. I didn't realize the error until the report showed up on my desk. I apologized to the patient, and ordered the correct study.

The whole thing is overall harmless. The patient is elderly, and a few additional units of radiation are inconsequential. The 1 week delay in getting the proper test didn't have an adverse impact on his condition.

But still, I feel bad. I'm certainly not out to rip anyone off, especially other taxpayers.

This is, as far as I know, only the second error I've made in ordering the wrong imaging study in the last 10 years. I assume I have the same error rate as other docs for this sort of thing, and the total for mine is around $1100. Given that there are roughly 900,000 practitioners in the U.S., that comes out to $990 million dollars wasted every 10 years. That's enough to pay 20,000 school teachers for a year, or buy the Air Force eight F-35 fighters. Even by government standards it's still a decent chunk of change.

I don't have an easy answer for this. Should I be responsible? If a doc orders the wrong test, should he have to eat that cost? I guess that makes some sense, but someone is going to argue at some point that a test shouldn't be ordered. What happens if I did order a correct test, but then an insurance company claims it wasn't necessary - so should I pay for it?

Or what if the patient (after getting a test bill, of course) claims that I shouldn't have ordered a test, and wants me to pay for it? I've had that happen (I refused) and have learned it's common. I know another doctor who was threatened with a malpractice lawsuit to get her to pay for a study (she stood her ground, and they backed down).

So, I guess the only easy answer is to leave it as it is, and accept the fallible nature of humans. If ordering the wrong CT scan (at no harm to the patient) is the worst mistake I ever make in this business, I'll take it.