So I was just checking my Hotmail account for the first time in a couple of days, and I noticed that there's a crapload of "date me" banners all over my browser window. While this makes me more thankful to have my GMail account, or my own mail service for that matter, I had a thought.

Most of the time, there are chicks on these banners that are attractive. Given the population of the world, how did they determine that these particular females belonged on the banners? Was there some set of guidelines as to what shape their eyes should be, how big their nose should be, or what color their hair should be, or did they just pull all the pictures out of a database using stereotypes?

My thought is this: Is it possible to define "attractive" with mathematical functions and determined properties? Most everything else in the world can be, so why not this?

If this is possible, then it would allow for computer programs to be written to sift through massive quantities of photos, determining who should actually be on those banner ads and who shouldn't.