Sunday, February 25, 2007

Evolutionary contradictions

Recently, my walk to work has looked like this:

While skating to work is rather fun, I'm not a fan of my cheekbones freezing right off my face. This brings to mind a certain oddity: why are Scandinavians known for high cheekbones when they live in such a cold place? One might think that having one's cheekbones freeze off would be evolutionarily disadvantageous. Spherical heads seem rather more practical, as (in three dimensions) they have the lowest possible surface area per unit volume.

I guess we can chalk this up to sexual selection, along with the peacock's tail. Me, I'm thinking of coating my head with putty until I reach spherical perfection.

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