Evolutionary Hypotheses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nose

Neanderthals
Clive Finlayson of the Gibraltar Museum said the large Neanderthal noses were an adaption to the cold,Todd C. Rae of the American Museum of Natural History said primate and arctic animal studies have shown sinus size reduction in areas of extreme cold rather than enlargement in accordance with Allen's rule.Therefore, Todd C. Rae concludes that the design of the large and prognathic Neanderthal nose was evolved for the hotter climate of the Middle East and was kept when the Neanderthals entered Europe.

Nose Fetishism (or nasophilia).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nose

Nose fetishism (or nasophilia) is the sexual fetish (or paraphilia) for the nose. The psychiatric condition of extreme nose picking is termed rhinotillexomania.
Jewish people are often portrayed as having large and aquiline noses in antisemitic propaganda.The term "Jewish nose" is controversial. In China and some other locations in East Asia, Westerners (Caucasians) are often designated as having "big" or "high" noses, due to the differences in shape and proportion between noses typical of Caucasians and those typical of Chinese.

Allergic Salute.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nose

Nose-picking is a common, mildly taboo habit. Medical risks include the spread of infections, nosebleeds and, rarely, self-induced perforation of the nasal septum. The wiping of the nose with the hand, commonly referred to as the "allergic salute", is also mildly taboo and can result in the spreading of infections as well. Habitual as well as fast or rough nose wiping may also result in a crease (known as a transverse nasal crease or groove) running across the nose, and can lead to permanent physical deformity observable in childhood and adulthood.

Society and Culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nose

Some people choose to get rhinoplasty to change the aesthetic appearance of their nose. Nose piercings are also common, such as nostril, septum or bridge.
In New Zealand, nose pressing ("hongi") is a traditional greeting amongst Maori people. However it is now generally confined to certain traditional celebrations.
The Hanazuka monument enshrines the mutilated noses of at least 38,000 Koreans killed during the Japanese invasions of Korea from 1592 to 1598.

Shake Shack Files for IPO That Could Value It at $1 Billion .

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-29/shake-shack-files-for-initial-offering-of-meyer-s-burger-chain.html

Shake Shack Inc. is going public and may be worth as much as $1 billion -- not bad considering New York restaurateur Danny Meyer started the joint as a public service.

Founded more than a decade ago to help support the restoration of Manhattan’s Madison Square Park, Shake Shack was an instant success, drawing long lines of urbanites attracted by Meyer’s modern spin on a roadside burger stand. Today, Shake Shack has more than 63 outlets in 30-plus cities from London to Dubai.

Shake Shack started as a hot-dog cart that later became a permanent kiosk and neighborhood fixture. Hungry urbanites have been known to hop on the subway to get their fix of $4.95 burgers and $5.15 shakes. Besides burgers and fries, the chain sells the frozen custard Meyer enjoyed as a boy in St. Louis.

Meyer’s timing with Shake Shack was auspicious. Shake Shack joined a “better burger” boom as foodies from Los Angeles to New York began clamoring for food that tasted good and used sustainably raised ingredients. Much like many fast casual joints these days, Shake Shack advertises “100% all-natural Angus beef, vegetarian fed, humanely raised and source verified.”

Meyer’s Reward

Shake Shack used a $100 million placeholder for the IPO, a figure to calculate fees that may change.

In addition to making a payment to Meyer and early backers including Leonard Green Partners & Partners LP, the company plans to use its IPO proceeds to repay debt, open new Shake Shack restaurants and renovate existing ones.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley are managing the offering. Because Shake Shack filed as an emerging-growth company under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, it must wait at least 21 days before officially marketing its share sale.

A burger, fries, and beverage at a Shake Shack restaurant in New York.

Air-Crash Spate Puts 2014 on Course to Be Asian Aviation’s Worst.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-28/air-crash-spate-puts-year-on-course-to-be-asian-aviation-s-worst.html

Four airline incidents in which more than 600 people died made 2014 one of the worst years for Asian aviation even before the disappearance of AirAsia Bhd. (AIRA) QZ8501.

The unresolved disappearance of Malaysian Airline System Bhd. flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean, the downing of Malaysian Air flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, the crash of a TransAsia Airways Corp. plane as it prepared to land on Taiwan’s Penghu Islands, and an August wreck in Iran have marked a tragic year for Asia’s booming aviation industry.

“It has affected many Asian airlines,” said Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation research firm Endau Analystics. “The danger is that Malaysia has been seen as a country that produces unsafe airlines, which is not the case at all. It’s just unfortunate that three aircraft have been lost and they all belong to Malaysian carriers. I don’t think it’s a reflection of those airlines’ safety.”

This year may end up being the worst for passenger fatalities globally since 2005, when 916 lives were lost, according to air-safety consultants Ascend Worldwide. The missing AirAsia plane carried 155 passengers and seven crew members on a flight to Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia.

Flight 370 vanished from radar screens enroute to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew and traveled thousands of miles off course into open ocean, according to satellite data. No trace of the plane has been found, making it the longest disappearance in modern commercial aviation.

‘Rough Year’

MH17 was shot down in Ukraine in July, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members. The TransAsia crash killed 44 passengers, also in July. In Iran, a domestically assembled turboprop crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 39 out of 50 people on board in August.

“2014 certainly has been a rough year for airlines,” said Mark D. Martin, CEO of Dubai-based Martin Consulting LLC. “An adverse incident and event affecting the safe operation of aircraft can strike almost anywhere at anytime and for this very reason, the aviation industry each year spends nearly $6 billion dollars to ensure pre-emptive actions are created and aircraft fly safer.”

About 100,000 flights a day land without incident worldwide, according to the International Air Transport Association. In 2013, more than 3 billion people flew and there were 210 fatalities.

Air travel remains “one of the safest modes of transport” compared to others, Yusof said.

“One of the things we can see, especially out of Indonesia, is that they have made tremendous progress in improving their safety records,” he said.

The surge in fatal accidents out of Asia this year is unlikely to dampen the growth of low-cost airlines in Southeast Asia and won’t affect AirAsia’s expansion plans, he said.

“We believe that 2015 will see increased pressure on airlines from insurers, leasing companies, safety compliance authorities and the traveler as there still are questions needed to be answered and confidence requiring to be built,” Martin said.

Family members of passengers of missing AirAsia Bhd. flight QZ8501 gather at Juanda international airport in East Java, on Dec. 28, 2014. 

A Malaysian Airline System Bhd. flag flies at half-mast in front of the control tower at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, on July 19, 2014.

Indonesia Says Sure Debris Found Is From Missing Plane.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-30/indonesia-says-sure-debris-found-is-from-missing-airasia-plane.html

Indonesian search crews recovered debris and bodies floating in the sea from the AirAsia Bhd. airliner that went missing three days ago with 162 people on board, as investigators seek to determine what brought down the plane.

Among the discovered objects is what appears to be an emergency door as well as submerged items resembling plane parts, F.H. Bambang Sulistyo, head of the national search and rescue agency, said in Jakarta. Two female bodies and one male body were retrieved, he said. No mention was made of survivors.

The crash site is in an area around Pangkalan Bun, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) southeast of Singapore, the destination of Flight 8501, which started in Surabaya, Indonesia on Dec. 28. Water in the area is shallow, at 25 meters to 30 meters deep, and authorities have prepared divers for the search of the data recorders and further evidence.

“It wasn’t a controlled ditching,” said Paul Hayes, safety director at London-based aviation consulting company Ascend Worldwide Ltd. “That’s clear from the finding of bodies that don’t have life jackets on.”

No Signal

The plane disappeared off radars after the pilot requested a higher altitude because of stormy clouds in the flight path. The last signal from the plane was between the city of Pontianak on Borneo and Tanjung Pandan.

With the plane’s wreckage located, authorities will focus their efforts on finding the recorders, which store cockpit communication and sounds from the front of the plane as well as key data points that can help recreate the last moments of a doomed flight. The boxes, which are bright orange to facilitate their retrieval, are waterproof and fortified and emit an electronic signal to help search crews find the devices.

Clouds, Storm

Losing the AirAsia plane caps what could be the worst year for air-passenger fatalities since 2010. The AirAsia pilots didn’t send a distress signal, drawing comparisons with Malaysian Airline System Bhd.’s Flight 370 that disappeared on March 8 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. No wreckage from that flight has been found in what’s become the longest search for a passenger jet in modern aviation history.

While AirAsia is based in Sepang, Malaysia, it operates with subsidiaries and affiliates in different countries. The missing plane belonged to its Indonesian operations.

AirAsia QZ8501 was at 32,000 feet when the pilots requested to fly higher to avoid clouds, acting Air Transport Director Djoko Murjatmodjo said in Jakarta. Air traffic controllers didn’t respond to the request before the plane disappeared off radar, National Transportation Safety Committee head Tatang Kurniadi said yesterday. There were storms along AirAsia’s flight path,Accuweather.com said on its website.

AirAsia founder and Chief Executive Officer Tony Fernandes said he’s headed to Surabaya to support the mission. His airline, which has never had a fatal accident since he created it from almost nothing in 2001, will do “whatever we can do” to support the effort, he said in a Twitter message.

“Words cannot express how sorry I am,” he said on his official Twitter account.

This aerial view taken from an Indonesian search and rescue aircraft over the Java Sea shows floating debris spotted in the same area as other items being investigated by Indonesian authorities as possible objects from missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 on Dec. 30, 2014.

Family members of passengers onboard the missing Malaysian air carrier AirAsia flight QZ8501 react after watching news reports showing an unidentified body floating in the Java sea, inside the crisis-centre set up at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya on Dec. 30, 2014.