European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 28, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                . Economy bounces Back with 2.1 % Rise Washington apr the . Economy which ended last year on a weak note rebounded during the first Quarter of 1990 at a surprisingly healthy annual rate of 2.1 percent the government said Friday. The Commerce department said the Gross National product a the total output of goods and services a Rew nearly twice As fast As the feeble 1.1 percent gain rom october through december. But the faster growth was accompanied by a worrisome pickup in inflation As a Price gauge tied to the Gnu jumped at an annual rate of 6.5 percent. The rate was up from the 4.5 percent rate for last year and posted the biggest gain since a 7.7 percent Advance in the fourth Quarter of 1981. While the Bush administration is counting on a growing Economy this year to help close the Federal budget Gap Many private analysts Are pessimistic about whether the first Quarter rate can be sustained. These analysts believe the first Quarter Gnu strength resulted from special one time factors and Many fear the Federal Reserve could slow it Down by boosting interest rates to curb inflation. In fact for the entire year the consensus forecast is for a meager Gnu growth of 1.9 percent far below the 3 percent increase of 1989 and a half percentage Point below the administration s 2.4 percent forecast. Still the first Quarter performance was a far cry from economists forecasts at the beginning of the year. At that time Many experts forecast that Gnu growth in the first Quarter would improve Little Over last years fourth Quarter rate the slowest in three years. Some even said the economic recovery now in its eighth year was in danger of toppling into a recession. The unexpected strength in the first Quarter was credited in part to the unusually warm weather which boosted construction and helped to hold Down . Demand for foreign Oil. But the weather was also partly responsible for the jump in inflation. December was the fourth coldest on record destroying fruits and vegetables and driving up prices in the following months. The frigid temperatures also resulted in higher fuel costs As dealers sought to replenish their stocks. The in pm a 2.1 percent Advance was the fastest since a 3.0 percent gain in the third Quarter last year. The various changes left the Gnu after adjusting for inflation growing at an annual rate of $4,196 trillion in the first three months of the year. Saturday april 28, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 9bedtime for Matthew too a amps Dvo Kirtio the Book is a bedtime for Frances and 5-year-old Matthew Hobin is about to nod off As he listens at Wiesbaden West Germany. Reading the bedtime stories As a National Library week project is Wiesbaden a librarian Mary Daniel. Matthew is the son of capt. David Hobin and Bis wife  your face average then you re attractive new York apr alluring eyes and a sunny smile Are not enough. If you want to find an attractive face a new High tech study indicates just look for one that is basically average. A average Ness is probably a necessary condition for attractiveness a said researcher Judith Langlois of the University of Texas at Austin. The bad news for Ordinary Joes and Janes is that As Langlois put it there Are a probably not that Many faces that Are exactly average in the Way she studied. Langlois and a colleague used a computer to construct faces that blended facial features of up to 32 people averaging out such features As nose length and chm prominence. In this Way the More faces that went into a composite the More it represented an average face for the population of College age students from which it was drawn. _ when other students judged the attractiveness of the composites and of individual faces without being told which was which they found the composites made from 16 or 32 faces to be More attractive than the real faces that went into them. And the More faces went into a composite the More attractive it became. Although other factors probably make movie stars unusually handsome or Beautiful a a in la bet their faces have the fundamental attribute of average Ness a Langlois said wednesday. A and without that they would not be very  a we done to know yet about All the other components of attractiveness but i would say this is a major one and its a required  Langlois presents the study in the March Issue of the journal psychological science with Lori Roggman who is now at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. A i think the research is absolutely fascinating Quot commented University of Minnesota psychologist Ellen Berscheid. A i would say this is about the first time anyone has even begun to unravel what the standards of Beauty Are a she said. But she cautioned that the Experiment a a computer generated a attractive face is a blend of the features of 32 male faces. Involved faces of while collage age students and said similar work Musl be tried with faces from other racial and age groups to Sec if the results still apply. If the principle does apply generally Langlois said it might help dentists and surgeons in reconstructing faces shattered by accidents or disfigured by abnormalities. Langlois said the Appeal of an average face might be explained by evolution. Individuals Best exhibiting the Central tendencies of a population might be preferred for mating because their genes might be less Likely to contain harmful mutations she suggested. Another possible explanation is that in a sense average faces might be the most fact like. If humans evolved to respond to faces to get social information they May respond most strongly to the most face like faces they see the researchers wrote. Previous studies show that even infants prefer faces that adults consider More attractive. Langlois said. The new study used faces of 192 undergraduate psychology students at the Texas University plus the composites. For each sex a computer built composite photos that blended two. Four eight 16 or 32 faces. Attractiveness was judged by a different group of 300 students using a scale of one to five with five being the most attractive. Male individual faces averaged a rating of 2.51, compared with 3.27 for composites of 32 male faces. For females individual faces averaged 2.43, compared with 3.25 for 32-face composites