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Study Explains Explains Why We're Not All Beautiful
Live Science ^ | 3-28-2007 | Andrea Thompson

Posted on 04/04/2007 1:06:34 PM PDT by blam

Study Explains Why We're Not All Beautiful

By Andrea Thompson
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 28 March 2007
09:47 am ET

A new study explains why we aren't all born with Brad Pitt’s perfectly chiseled features or Angelina Jolie’s pouty lips.

A long-standing thorn in the side of biologists has been the difficulty in accounting for the enormous variation between individuals when sexual selection by females for the most attractive mates should quickly spread the “best” genes through a population.

“It is a major problem for evolutionary biology,” said study team leader Marion Petrie of Newcastle University.

The lek paradox

For some species, females select the most attractive males to mate with: female peacocks will choose males with the longest tail feathers—the peacock version of George Clooney. These more attractive features usually indicate some other level of genetic fitness, such as disease resistance, that the female’s offspring will then also inherit.

According to this method of sexual selection, if females only bred with the most attractive males, then all males should be equally attractive and sexual selection could not take place. (In the peacocks’ case, all males would have similarly long tails.) But clearly this isn’t the case: for every Johnny Depp out there, there’s a George Costanza—in humans, birds and other animals alike.

This so-called “lek paradox” (a lek is a group of males congregated for mating) has plagued evolutionary biologists for decades.

“If you had no variation at all, you wouldn’t get evolution,” Petrie told LiveScience.

But a group of British scientists think they have found the answer to the paradox in the human body’s “DNA repair kits.”

DNA repair kits

A cell’s DNA repair kit is not really a kit but a set of molecular processes that routinely repair the damage

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: beauty; evolution; lek; paradox; selection; sex; study
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To: jmc813

Hey count me in on that. I have NEVER thought her beautiful. And after the Pitt/Anniston mess even less.

Jane Russell - beautiful. Liz Taylor - beautiful. Jolie? Nope. I just don’t get it. (neither does my husband). Of course to him Lynda Carter was the most beautiful woman he ever saw (after me, of course).


141 posted on 04/04/2007 4:35:09 PM PDT by greccogirl
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To: DCPatriot

Oh my. I just had to readjust my seat.

The other day my wife was asking me to define the term, “built like a brick #### house.” I will print these pictures and put a picture to the definition.


142 posted on 04/04/2007 4:35:15 PM PDT by Vermont Lt (I am not from Vermont. I lived there for four years and that was enough.)
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To: blam

Your dogs are lovely! I am the proud owner of a minature schnauzer that just turned 1. She is the love of my life and has the heart of a lion. She has seen me through some terrible times and my latest bought with cancer.

If someone could tell me how to post a pic, I’d post her.


143 posted on 04/04/2007 4:36:47 PM PDT by greccogirl
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To: colorcountry

I love you, you little ex mo devil! Alcohol increaseth thy desire but diminishith thy performance. Diabetes takes everything but thy tongue strength away.


144 posted on 04/04/2007 4:36:57 PM PDT by Utah Binger (Southern Utah, where the world comes to see America!)
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To: blam

I ran across the ugliest woman I EVER saw in a grocery store the other day. She had two kids with her and I pleasantly said “ Lady, are those kids twins?” She said, (overjoyed) “NO. Why? Do you think they look alike?” I said “No. I just can’t imagine you got laid twice.”


145 posted on 04/04/2007 4:37:30 PM PDT by Safetgiver (Stinko De mayo, Stinko to the Commies.)
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To: Vermont Lt
There's beauty...and then there's Salma Hayek.

Game...Set...Match!!!

146 posted on 04/04/2007 4:38:09 PM PDT by DCPatriot ("It aint what you don't know that kills you. It's what you know that aint so" Theodore Sturgeon))
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To: DCPatriot

Selma Hayek - truly beautiful and curvy. She just conceived a child by a guy who is average looking and way older than her - but I think he’s rich.


147 posted on 04/04/2007 4:40:26 PM PDT by greccogirl
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To: Vermont Lt

Ladies and Gentlemen...presenting...
SALMA HAYEK


148 posted on 04/04/2007 4:43:31 PM PDT by DCPatriot ("It aint what you don't know that kills you. It's what you know that aint so" Theodore Sturgeon))
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To: greccogirl

I read he’s 43 and controls a few famous designer clothing lines...a multi millionaire.


149 posted on 04/04/2007 4:44:51 PM PDT by DCPatriot ("It aint what you don't know that kills you. It's what you know that aint so" Theodore Sturgeon))
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To: blam

Why we’re not all beautiful?

Money. Men pick beauty. Women pick survival.

Pretty women will stay with an ugly man if he has money.

And before there was money, it was the ugly guy with lots of arrowheads and the longest spear.


150 posted on 04/04/2007 4:45:41 PM PDT by ryan71 (You can hear it on the coconut telegraph...)
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To: jslade
Her nose looks like the head of a penis.

Actually, the penis' balls look like Barbra Streisand's boobs.

151 posted on 04/04/2007 4:46:18 PM PDT by quark
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To: Tijeras_Slim; blam

152 posted on 04/04/2007 4:48:19 PM PDT by Larry Lucido (Hunter-Thompson '08)
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To: Thumper1960
Rosie never did men..........sheesh.

Or vice versa...

153 posted on 04/04/2007 4:49:24 PM PDT by null and void (To Marines, male bonding happens in Boot Camp, to Democrats, it happens at a Gay Pride parade...)
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To: sageb1
I don’t see any sign of evolution in modern man.

Seems of late, all I see is de-evolution

154 posted on 04/04/2007 4:55:20 PM PDT by Popman ("What I was doing wasn't living, it was dying. I really think God had better plans for me.")
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To: greccogirl
If someone could tell me how to post a pic, I’d post her.

Nully's Quick FR HTML Guide:

(In all cases remove the space between the < and the following character)

Basic formatting:

Line break < br>
Paragraph break < p>
< u> underline < /u>
< i> italics < /i>
< b> bold < /b>
< font color=red> Red font < /font>
< blink> blink < /blink>

Posting a link:

General:
< a href=[web address]>[title]< /a>
Example:
This: < a href=http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1179145/posts>Iran starts atom tests in defiance of EU deal< /a>
Posts as this:
Iran starts atom tests in defiance of EU deal

Posting an image:

General:
< img src="[web server location">

Clarity is needed - you can't just snag a favorite picture from a desktop folder...it has to be hosted someplace to be transferrable to our posts. ~ ErnBatavia

Example:
This: < img src="http://www.notablebiographies.com/images/uewb_09_img0611.jpg">

Posts this:



Tip: control the size with "height=nnn" like so:

This: < img height= 200 src="http://www.notablebiographies.com/images/uewb_09_img0611.jpg">
Posts this:

While This: < img height= 100 src="http://www.notablebiographies.com/images/uewb_09_img0611.jpg">
Posts this:


155 posted on 04/04/2007 5:01:26 PM PDT by null and void (To Marines, male bonding happens in Boot Camp, to Democrats, it happens at a Gay Pride parade...)
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To: jmc813

I believe the reason I wouldn’t defend Angelina Jolie is that hse is too freakish and her recent penchant when it comes to adopting children creeps me out. I’m female, but not so blind that I would defend someone beautiful if they had a revolting personality.


156 posted on 04/04/2007 5:11:14 PM PDT by Niuhuru
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To: rlmorel
A more scientific look at how drinking beer would help.

The "beer goggle effect", beta, can be quantified as follows:

An = number of units of alcohol consumed
S = smokiness of the room (graded from 0-10, where 0 clear air; 10 extremely smoky)
L = luminance of 'person of interest' (candelas per square metre; typically 1 pitch black; 150 as seen in normal room lighting)
Vo = Snellen visual acuity (6/6 normal; 6/12 just meets driving standard)
d = distance from 'person of interest' (metres; 0.5 to 3 metres)

A value of less than one means virtually no effect. Values of 1000 or more would be needed to even glance in the general direction of Helen Thomas.

157 posted on 04/04/2007 5:38:44 PM PDT by Boss_Jim_Gettys
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To: Boss_Jim_Gettys

THAT'S GREAT!


158 posted on 04/04/2007 7:25:19 PM PDT by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
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To: null and void

Just wanted to say thanks for posting that...I have made a note of it...:)

Much appreciated!


159 posted on 04/04/2007 7:41:09 PM PDT by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
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To: TommyDale

I’ll get you for this : )


160 posted on 04/04/2007 7:43:00 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker ( Hunter/Thompson in 08! Or Rudy/Hillary, if you want America finished off!)
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