Blog Posts by Book of Odds

Attractiveness. We all want it.

We want it for ourselves, of course, so we can attract a mate. And we want attractiveness in that mate, so our friends will be impressed by our magnetism and good taste. We even want it for our children, as the controversial dating site Beautifulpeople.com recognized with their new "beautiful people" sperm and egg bank.

So do we all agree on what makes a person physically desirable? The answer is "yes and no."

A recent study found that while men generally agree on what they find attractive in a woman, women's preferences are more varied. Participants rated photographs of young people for a variety of specific qualities, and for attractiveness on a scale of "not at all" to "very." Men were attracted to the women who looked thin, seductive, and confident. Women's ratings of the men were less tied to physical standards, and their opinions diverged widely on which men were attractive.

This study jibes with our odds, especially for

Breaking up is never easy, and there's only one good way to do it: in person.

But there are all sorts of bad ways. If you can imagine a heart-wrenching, nasty, vengeful, or just plain insensitive way to break up with someone, the odds are someone's done it. Here, for your painful pleasure, is a roundup of some of the worst ways to get dumped-from postmodern to classically tasteless.

By text. It may be the age of iEverything, but breaking up over the phone was never cool, so why would anyone think texting the bomb is socially acceptable? Yet an international survey conducted by the market research company Synovate found that 1 in 8.33 cell phone owners had dumped someone via text message, and 1 in 12.5 reported having gotten the bad news that way.

Seems more than a bit crass. But maybe it's just a consequence of our growing dependence on electronic communication. After all, 1 in 5 respondents to the same survey reported having used text messaging to set up a first date.

"Summer lovin', happened so fast…" A summer fling may be a cliché, but that's because they happen all the time. The odds a person reports looking for romance when he or she travels are 1 in 3.38. Amazingly, the odds a person reports they have ever found romance on vacation are 1 in 2.82. More people find love on holiday than are even looking for it!

A healthy percentage of holiday hook-ups do turn serious. The odds a person who has found romance while traveling reports finding a long-term partner are 1 in 6.62. Kevin Jonas (of Jonas Brothers fame) can attest to that: he met his bride, Danielle Deleasa of New Jersey, while both were enjoying a vacation in the Bahamas.

At the other end of the commitment scale, those who haven't made a Jonas-style chastity-till-marriage vow might be interested to know that the odds a person reports having a one night stand while traveling are a not-too-shabby 1 in 3.17.

Either way, the options and opportunities are almost endless; whatever

It's easy for a mom-to-be craving comfort foods to find comfort of a different sort in the pages of her favorite tabloid. Heidi Klum-who gave birth to her fourth child in October of 2009-says she "always" gains between 40 and 45 pounds during pregnancy. New mom Kendra Wilkinson put on more than 50 pounds. Isla Fisher gained 55 while carrying daughter Olive. Kate Hudson put on 60 while pregnant with son Ryder. And actress/supermodel Milla Jovovich packed on a whopping 70 during her 2007 pregnancy, tipping the scales at 192 pounds by the time she gave birth.

If a supermodel can afford to let herself go for nine months, so can I. Right?

Not so fast. The latest guidelines for gestational weight gain, issued in May of 2009 by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), recommend that no woman carrying a single baby-undernourished underwear model or no-gain more than 40 pounds during a pregnancy. And what's right for Heidi Klum-who, according to this unofficial estimate, normally weighs in

Next time you get angry at a driver checking her makeup in the rearview mirror instead of paying attention to the road, consider this: she might have body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Maybe she's convinced that a couple of tiny acne scars make disfigured, and thus driven to touch up her makeup constantly.

And that heavily muscled guy lifting weights in the gym at all hours? He might just be proud of his physique. But he, too, might instead be suffering from BDD, specifically a subtype called muscle dysmorphia, in which a person (usually a man) thinks he's puny or wimpy-looking, or inadequately muscular, even if he's actually quite built up.

Some BDD sufferers pick at their skin or over-treat it and cause real damage. Some become reclusive and can't socialize, or hold a job, or do the kind of work they'd like to. Some have unnecessary cosmetic surgery to fix perceived flaws-sometimes repeatedly. (The odds a person 35 - 50 will have a cosmetic procedure in a year are 1 in 13.05

These days, you can go home again-right now, 26% of adults 23 - 28, or 1 in 3.85, lives with his or her parents. Thomas Wolfe, eat your heart out.

For some, moving back home soon after college is an appealing way to save money, regroup, and reconnect; for others, parent and child alike, it's a nightmare from which they cannot quite awaken. Often enough, it's both. Bonds are re-established, but space is intruded upon. Responsibilities are shared, but tempers flare. The old parent-child dynamic can conflict with the fact that suddenly everyone in the house is an adult, 1 in 3.85 of whom (26% again) owns a firearm, just so you know. Who does the laundry? What if someone has a date? Who contributes to a restaurant bill? The electric bill? The phone bill?

In the US, the number of young adults who return to the nest, or the roost, or any other bird-metaphor for their parents' house, has been rising, and the reasons are largely financial: of those who move back home, 1 in 3.85 is

Right off the bat, parents of newborn boys in the US are faced with an important and irreversible decision: should their son be circumcised? Currently, the odds a newborn boy will be circumcised are 1 in 1.74, or 57%.

The custom of removing the penile foreskin has existed for millennia as a rite of passage in the Jewish, Muslim, and various other religious traditions. In the 20th century, circumcision became a routine surgery for millions of male infants born in the US whose parents were acting less in response to a religious mandate than to health and cultural concerns.

But the numbers have been falling of late. In the 1930's, about 30% of men were circumcised; 40 years later, 80% were. That large percentage led some doctors in the 1970's to question if the majority of male babies actually benefited from the surgery. As a result, the number of circumcisions began to decline. Today, 57% of US newborns have the operation.

Circumcision rates differ depending on where a