Fact O' The Day

[Krandall]

"Internet pornography contributes to sexual dysfunction."


More and more otherwise young, healthy men are reporting a form of erectile dysfunction that appears to result from heavy use of internet pornography. A study by the Italian Society of Andrology and Sexual Medicine recently investigated the otherwise anecdotal problem. A survey of 28,000 young men determined that "excessive consumption" or pornography led to desensitization, a gradual decrease in real-life libido, and finally diagnosable sexual dysfunction. The "youthful ED" condition is reversible, but recovery is slow, and takes weeks or even months.

[Peelz]

you must be useless in the bedroom

[Krandall]

"Men sleep less -- and fall asleep less readily -- than women."


The circadian rhythms of men and women are markedly different. The average circadian period for a man is 24 hours and 11 minutes, which is six minutes longer than the average for a woman. In day-to-day-living, this means that men tend to want to sleep later and wake up later, a tendency that compounds over time. In addition, twice as many women as men have circadian periods shorter than 24 hours, meaning that their tendencies are more likely to compound in the opposite manner (falling asleep and waking up progressively earlier).

[Krandall]

"22,000 pieces of space garbage large enough to damage satellites and spaceships are surrounding Earth."


It may soon become necessary to clean the massive collection of debris in orbit around Earth. Its orbit was already filled with 50 years of various pieces of trash -- discarded boosters and other pieces of spacefaring objects -- but two recent events have doubled the number of fragments in orbit (a 2009 satellite crash and a Chinese anti-satellite weapon test in 2007). One DARPA study, "The Catcher's Mitt Study," mentions nets, harpoons, magnets, and a large umbrella-like device among its possible cleanup methods.

[Colorado700R]

the reality of this problem is vastly more complex.  The concepts of "catching" and collecting these items cannot be done by a static craft or machine in space. near matching speed and vector would be required to capture most of these objects becuase even with some items releatively small mass, their velocity is extreme.  The extreme velocity effects on a static, and or non co-trajectory capture system would be like putting your hand infront of a gun.
Now, that may not seem like too big of deal....just nearly match the speed and trajectory with a space craft and complete the capture...unfortunately, becuase of their smaller mass, modern space craft (with much greater mass) cannot safely intercept these objects without succumbing to Earth's gravity and uncontrolled re-entery (Burn..burn..splat)

[Krandall]

fish net?

[Peelz]

send Randy up with a butterfly net

[Krandall]

"The Twitter "tweet" button makes a site seven times more likely to have its content shared."


SEO platform Brightedge conducted a study on the efficacy of social media buttons. Sites featuring a "tweet" button saw an average of 27 link mentions in the study's analyzed samples, while sites without one averaged four mentions. Social media buttons of all stripes are becoming more prevalent, with the largest monthly gains coming from Google+ (which currently has 8.1% penetration, up from 7.3% a month ago). Facebook widgets are still the most popular social media buttons, appearing on just over half of top sites.

[Krandall]

"Half of American adults will develop a mental illness."


About 7% to 9% of the population is experiencing depression right now, according to the CDC, and about 16% will experience it at some point. The condition is most common in the Southeast. West Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama had the highest per-capita rates of depression, while North Dakota had the lowest. About 5% of the population experienced "serious mental illness" (defined as a condition that affects the ability to function) in 2009.

[Spartan]

"Half of American adults will develop a mental illness."


About 7% to 9% of the population is experiencing depression right now, according to the CDC, and about 16% will experience it at some point. The condition is most common in the Southeast. West Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama had the highest per-capita rates of depression, while North Dakota had the lowest. About 5% of the population experienced "serious mental illness" (defined as a condition that affects the ability to function) in 2009.

Strangely, 100% of all RS users develop some kind of mental illness as well

[rappyfreak]

You USANIANS are all focked up in the head  but I really like you guys!

[Krandall]

"A strenuous workout continues to burn calories for the following 14 hours."


A study by UNC and Appalachian State University found that men who performed vigorous exercise (biking on a stationary bike for 45 minutes) not only burned around 500 calories during their workouts -- they also continued to burn an additional 190 calories for 14 hours after they'd stopped. Researchers defined vigorous exercise as activity in which "you're sweating, your body temperature is up and your heart beats fast." Less vigorous exercise does not appear to have a similar post-workout effect.

[Krandall]

"Dogs approach men more than women."

According to University of Vienna researchers, dogs owned by men are more likely to approach their owners than dogs owned by women, possibly as a throwback to their wolf ancestry. In the study, dogs and owners who scored high in neuroticism -- typified by anxiety and meekness -- also appeared to have a bond based on mutual needs (men and women who scored high in neuroticism inspired more closeness with their dogs). The researchers stressed that closeness isn't necessarily synonymous with affection; it can also indicate insecurity, and a dog seeking reassurance from its owner.

[Krandall]

"Women generally perceive men interested in casual sex as low-status and uninviting."


A series of four studies by the University of Michigan's Dr. Terri Conley found that when men are approached by an imagined "attractive member of the opposite sex" who offers a sexual encounter, men thought positively of the theoretical woman, while women rated the imagined man as low-status, cold, unlikely to be sexually skilled, and downright dangerous. In fact, when being offered a blunt, unsolicited sexual invitation, women were almost as likely to say yes to another woman as to a man, in part because they concluded that the other woman would at least be sexually skilled.

[Krandall]

"Sleep deprivation makes you less likely to consider moral consequences."


A recent study tasked 71 Norwegian military cadets with taking the "Defining Issues Test," an exam that judges stages of moral reasoning before and after sleep deprivation. Most of the cadets scored highly at first, but when they were substantially sleep-deprived, their behavior became robotic; they followed the rules for making moral decisions, but without engaging in any complex planning or problem-solving for moral situations. Cadets who scored poorly in the first place were unaffected by sleep deprivation.