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Sales figures through Dec. 23 from 16,000 conventional supermarkets , not including big-box stores such as Wal-Mart or Costco , showed an overall 14 percent drop in spinach sales from a year ago , according to the Perishables Group . But for others , hair pulling is so automatic or habitual that they may do it unconsciously — they do n't realize that they're doing it . If the original circles have curvatures a , b , and c , and the additional circles have curvatures d and d ' , the following simple relationship holds : d + d ' = 2 ( a + b + c ) . Intrigued by the variety of patterns displayed by lady beetles found in Taiwan , physicist S.S. Liaw of National Chung-Hsing University and his collaborators developed a simple mathematical model that generates patterns similar to those found on ladybugs . " " Several common lady beetle patterns , such as spots , stripes , and loops , can be obtained by choosing appropriate diffusion coefficients and simple initial distributions of the morphogens , " they concluded . In mathematical terms , " much of the complexity of the song of the canary ( Serinus canaria ) can be produced from simple time variations in forcing functions , " Tim Gardner of Rockefeller University and his collaborators declared in the Nov. 12 Physical Review Letters . " The starts , stops , and pauses between syllables , as well as variation in pitch and timbre , are inherent in the mechanics and can often be expressed through smooth and simple variations in the frequency and relative phase of two driving parameters , " the researchers concluded . What appears to be the bottle 's inside is smoothly connected with its outside . The storyteller would clean and smooth the ground , then use his fingertips to press into the sand a rectangular grid of equidistant dots .