Non-Earth-Shattering question thread

[qnr]

Do you have any nagging little questions that just aren't significant enough for you to look up, but someone else might know off the top of their head? I'll start:

Why aren't infants or young kids supposed to be given honey?

[Lavender Brown]

1. It isn't pasteurized or purified enough for them to have it.

My question, what is the difference between a sociopath and a psychopath? :shrug:

[qnr]

5. Thanks - don't know, I could Google, but I like the

off the top-of-the-head idea :)

[AndyP]

6. I think sociopathic

is an antisocial psychopath. They used to be the same thing but sociopath describes "an antisocial personality disorder".

[Lavender Brown]

9. OK

I just saw a TV ad for a movie called "Tales of a Sociopathic Social Climber" or something like that, and I wondered if that meant she was a psycho or what. :dunce:

[Phentex]

2. What was the name of the mailing list groups before Yahoo bought them?...

Was it Excite? I recall a merge and then they just became Yahoo, but it's been bugging me.

[qnr]

7. Sounds right, but I'm not certain n/t

[sbj405]

16. wasn't it egroups? nt

[giant_robot]

3. From mayoclinic.com:

Never give honey to infants younger than 1 year. Honey is a known source of bacterial spores that produce the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. This bacterium makes a toxin that can cause infant botulism. This rare but serious form of food poisoning affects a baby's nervous system and can result in death. Unlike adults, infants haven't developed beneficial bacteria in their digestive tracts that can control botulism spores and prevent growth of the bacterium and production of its toxin.

Signs and symptoms of infant botulism include:

Persistent constipation
Floppy arms, legs and neck
Weak cry due to muscle weakness
Weak sucking and poor feeding
Tired all the time (lethargy)
Botulism spores are also found in uncooked food. For this reason, feeding an infant any undercooked food is risky as well.



http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=HQ00854

[qnr]

8. Thank you n/t

[Kali]

4. It can contain bacteria that their immune systems aren't ready for

when you hear those kind of warnings "safe for most but infants, older people and those with compromised immune systems should avoid"

that kind of thing.

[qnr]

10. Thanks n/t

[giant_robot]

11. Is each different color Froot Loop a different flavor, or do they all

taste the same? It's too non-earth shattering to merit an empircal double-blind study, so I'll take opinions.

[Lavender Brown]

12. I have tried to taste each Loop independently

it is hard to tell the difference. I think they are all the same flavor. I have too much time on my hands, I know. :freak:

[qnr]

13. Same question, but about dog biscuits

And do dogs really care about the color of the biscuits, or is that strictly for the humans? --- I've heard over the last few years that dogs aren't really totally colorblind. (Which is beside the point for my Alinak, who happens to be totally blind)

[giant_robot]

14. I tend to agree

I also wasted time sorting Loops by color (in the name of science, of course) and tasted each one. That damn toucan is lying to us.

[Nikia]

15. I disagree

They do taste similiar but there are slight differences. The sweet, fruity flavor is dominate in all of them, which makes the other flavors harder to taste. I don't know for sure though if they do use different flavors or if it is partly psychological. Part of my job though is food tasting so I am better at telling slight flavor differences than most people.

[qnr]

17. Since there are so many mattress threads,

How come so many mattress companies start with "S"

Simmons
Sealey
Stearns & Foster

etc.

Yeah, I know there is no answer, but I've always wondered/

[Not_Giving_Up]

18. So to soothe you in to sleeping, silly!

See? Surely sleep sounds good now!

[qnr]

19. sure seems such a softly sibilant sound should ....

[AVID]

20. why can't we ever see the dark side of the moon from the earth?

this puzzles me . . . and creeps me out

[St. Jarvitude]

21. From Wikipedia

The Moon has synchronous rotation. As a result, one side of the Moon (the "near side") is permanently turned towards Earth. The other side, the "far side", mostly cannot be seen from Earth, except for small portions near the limb which can be seen occasionally due to libration. Most of the far side was completely unknown until the era of space probes. This synchronous rotation is a result of torque having slowed down the Moon's rotation in its early history, a process known as tidal locking.

The far side is sometimes called the "dark side". In this case "dark" means "unknown and hidden" and not "lacking light"; in fact the far side receives as much sunlight as the near side, but at opposite times. Spacecraft are cut off from direct radio communication with the Earth when on the far side of the Moon.

One distinguishing feature of the far side is its almost complete lack of maria (singular: mare), which are the dark albedo features.

In other words, the moon rotates at the same speed as the Earth. So when we rotate 35 degrees, the moon rotates the same, meaning that we only see one "side" of the moon.