Big Nose

Taking selfies warps your face.  Not your actual face.  The image it captures is a bit warped.  Most notably, smartphone selfies make your nose appear bigger than it actually is.

According to Boris Paskhover, an assistant professor Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, people are increasingly seeking plastic surgery to make their noses smaller.  To support the need for surgery, many people will use smartphone selfies as justification for surgery.

“Young adults are constantly taking selfies to post on social media and think the images are representative of how they really look, which can have an impact on their emotional state,” Paskhover noted.  “I want them to realize that when they take a selfie they are in essence looking into a portable funhouse mirror.”

Paskhover and another researcher named Ohad Fried developed a mathematical model to quantify the selfie distortion.  They discovered that a selfie taken at a distance of twelve inches from the face makes the nasal base appear approximately 30 percent wider and he nasal tip will appear 7 percent wider than an image captured a distance of 5 feet..   

Up next: men taking smartphone images of their junk from a distance of 12 inches.

-- Mitchell Hegman 

Source: ScienceDaily

Switching Channels

Robotics are disrupting our jobs market in many sectors.  Wealth is not evenly distributed across the population. Cryptocurrency might be forming a bubble in the financials.  As a taxpayer, my personal share of the U.S. national debt has grown by $4,000.00 in the last year.

All of this discovered by watching business channels for ten minutes this morning.

On the brighter side, the movie Toxic Shark is playing on the SyFy channel.

-- Mitchell Hegman 

Hissing

I never believed I heard the ocean

When I pressed a seashell against my ear

I knew it was something bigger

Not God exactly

Maybe me hearing the whole universe at once

The hoosh of galaxies scooping aside time as they spin

Flung particles of star stuff hissing against my inner ear

A friend suggested I was hearing myself in the shell

The rush of my own blood reflected back at me

Like a sound mirror

But how can that be?

How can I be louder than the universe?

Me

Soft and pale as bread dough

And quiet on the inside

A speck holding a seashell

-- Mitchell Hegman 

More Odd Facts

—Cats have an extra eyelid (called a ‘haw’) that is seen only when a cat is not feeling well.

—Oysters can switch back and forth between genders.

—‘Jaws’ is the most common name for a goldfish.

—Bumblebees have hair on their eyes.

—Crocodiles regularly eat stones.

—You are more likely to be killed by a flying Champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.

—Somewhere near two dozen people are killed by Champagne corks each year.  Weddings are the most common place for such deaths.

-- Mitchell Hegman

Initial Sources (some facts verified and supplemented elsewhere):  https://www.thefactsite.com/2010/09/300-random-animal-facts.html, https://www.glassofbubbly.com/death-by-champagne/

Stranded Alone on an Island

In previous renditions of my life, I often thought about what “one thing” I would want to be provided with if stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean.  A fire-starter most often seemed the perfect choice.   Sometimes, I thought a tent for shelter might be best.  These days, I’m thinking toilet paper is the one thing.

-- Mitchell Hegman

Limits

It is said a human can live for only 8 to 21 days without food or water.  I have an additional limit.  I cannot endure for a minute without the support of my friends and family.

-- Mitchell Hegman 

Morning Report, Sunday, February 25, 2018

Woke sideways in my bed.

Rolled out of bed and staggered around the house a bit.

Fed my 20 pounds of housecat.

Peeked outside to test the day.  Warmer than recent days.  A little windy.

Sat on the sofa with my first of cup of coffee and stared at the nearest wall wondering, vaguely, what I should do next.

Decided to turn my head and stare at another wall.

End of report.

-- Mitchell Hegman