Darwin and the brown fluffy things

Current mood: Friday-night-happy (whole weekend stretching out ahead... aah!)
Current music: What The Funk, aka 'WTF' - the best jazz/funk band in the world

I'm currently listening to some fantabulously cool jazz/funk by my friend's band, WTF. They're a bunch of 6 incredibly talented guys who are, to my mind, the Next Big Thing in the jazz genre. If you're in London you should go to their gigs, because they're amazing when performing live. Check out these websites:

http://www.wtfmusic.com/
http://www.garageband.com/artist/wtfjazzfunk

I was pondering at work today (seeing as I have nothing much else going through my brain whilst performing the more mechanical tasks in my job) on the oft-heard complaint by women that there are more beautiful women than good-looking men about. Outside of Hollywood, there does seem to be some truth to this. The question is, why? I suppose there are several approaches one can take:

(1) The perhaps-you're-mistaken approach: Maybe we only get the impression that there are more attractive women than men, because female models are used in advertising a lot more than male models. Just as there seem to be far more paintings and sculptures of female nudes in art galleries than males. This might have something to do with the fact that most of the artists are male... hrrrmmmph.

(2) The cynical approach: Women have make-up. Applied correctly and with care, this stuff can work wonders (though never as much as the make-up companies would have you believe!).

(3) The Darwinistic approach: It is possible that when a guy chooses a girl, he places more emphasis on her looks as part of his selection criteria, so in terms of 'natural selection', more beautiful women get married and have kids. A girl choosing a guy, on the other hand, considers other factors such as wealth, status, potential ability to look after her kids, etc in addition to his attractiveness, which means that guys who aren't handsome can try to make up for it by being handsomely rich. Hence you end up with more lovely ladies and fewer gorgeous guys...

Well, you can discuss this interesting question amongst yourselves, and write me a dissertation on the subject, if you so choose...

Speaking of natural selection, I recently found out why kiwis are such a highly endangered species. It would appear that their primary predators are humans, who are well known for having insatiable appetites. Kiwis are sold in almost every supermarket across the globe, so our consumption of the juicy little furry things is decimating the kiwi population in New Zealand...

How to Prepare Kiwi

Wonderful cartoon, isn't it? I found this on a website featuring lots of random things:

http://www.geocities.com/david_charles_curran/

By the way, the paragraph on the kiwis was a joke. I say this for the benefit of any humourless or gullible people who might wander across my blog. I don't want supermarkets around the globe suing me when hundreds of thousands of people start campaigning to "Boycott the Kiwi". Let me say this loud and clear: Kiwi birds are not the same as kiwi fruit.

Kiwi birds really are endangered, though. Mainly because we keep destroying the lovely forests where they live. Aww, the poor things.

Anyway, I shall go home and have some dinner. And try out the new bread-machine (yet another little-used cookery gadget to loaf around the kitchen, gathering dust on the counter). I might let you know how my experiment goes, provided I don't get swallowed up by expanding dough...

Have a great day!