Earlier this week Slate ran a story about the origin and evolution of American ranch houses and why many people today seem to dislike them.
Dalhart house May 9, originally uploaded by espeedy123.
What I found most interesting were some of the reasons behind the shift to two-story houses. It’s obvious that two-story homes offer more space on less land. But what’s less obvious is the cost savings achieved by building a smaller roof and foundation. Those two elements make up a huge part of the cost of building a house. And everyone likes to save money, especially builders.
It seems to me this is another reason to like my ranch house. I can now view its single story-ness as an extravagance!
erin covert * hands on 
No wonder the McMansions are so vertical.
I grew up in a bi-level (split-level) and always thought that the ranch my friend’s Steve & Dave grew up in was simple at best. Oddly, it was the most popular style in our subdivision. Who knew that they were more expensive?
As I have grown older, and have started to appreciate aesthetics and pre-fab housing, I have started to like ranches a lot more. The fact that my left knee does not like stairs may have something to do with it too.
You should be proud of your ranch.
You’ll be thankful that do don’t have to go up and down stairs when you get older.
Another reason to be cheerful with your house is that if there is ever a fire, you’ll be able to get out to safety easily.
Two new studies show why some people are more attractive for members of the opposite sex than others.
The University of Florida, Florida State University found that physically attractive people almost instantly attract the attention of the interlocutor, sobesednitsy with them, literally, it is difficult to make eye. This conclusion was reached by a series of psychological experiments, which were determined by the people who believe in sending the first seconds after the acquaintance. Here, a curious feature: single, unmarried experimental preferred to look at the guys, beauty opposite sex, and family, people most often by representatives of their sex.
The authors believe that this feature developed a behavior as a result of the evolution: a man trying to find a decent pair to acquire offspring. If this is resolved, he wondered potential rivals. Detailed information about this magazine will be published Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In turn, a joint study of the Rockefeller University, Rockefeller University and Duke University, Duke University in North Carolina revealed that women are perceived differently by men smell. During experiments studied the perception of women one of the ingredients of male pheromone-androstenona smell, which is contained in urine or sweat.
The results were startling: women are part of this repugnant odor, and the other part is very attractive, resembling the smell of vanilla, and the third group have not felt any smell. The authors argue that the reason is that the differences in the receptor responsible for the olfactory system, from different people are different.
It has long been proven that mammals (including human) odor is one way of attracting the attention of representatives of the opposite sex. A detailed article about the journal Nature will publish.