Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

[Lago PARANOIA]

So. What are all of the causal factors towards domestic crime, esp. violent crime, and how strong is the correlation and how temporally plausible are the explanations?

So far, I've seen, in no particular order of importance:

Abortion Policy
Recreational Drug Use
Ingested Poisons, esp. Lead
Income Inequality
Media Violence
Police and Prison Brutality
Machismo

And some others that I'm leaving off.

[Starmaker]

And some others that I'm leaving off.

Religion, obviously. Spare the rod and spoil the child.

[Shiritai]

While we're on medical things, this isn't something that worries me, I just want to know what it is: the little lumps that occasionally form under the skin, they feel kind of hard and rubbery, and are probably a couple of mm across. I used to have one on a toe and it just went away, and I have one on my shoulder, which I think started back when I wore a heavy backpack and the straps rubbed and irritated the area. It doesn't cause pain, it doesn't stick out - I just feel it when washing my shoulders and it's simply "there".

As I said, I'm not worried that it's cancer or that it's a pearl and I'm turning into an oyster, I'm just curious as to what that most likely is.

Since it feels hard and rubbery, and you didn't mention any inflammation or change of texture of the skin, my first guess would be a cyst, probably an epidermoid cyst going by the location and commonness. So, just a small sac of tissue surrounding what's probably a bit of keratinized skin that got in the dermal layer. They sometimes spontaneously resolve; other times not. So yeah, probably not cancer; yay!

[Lago PARANOIA]

Religion, obviously. Spare the rod and spoil the child.

I don't know if this is supposed to be snark or not, but even if it is religious folk -- especially from those of revealed religions -- are over-represented across the criminal spectrum even controlling for class and race. So it's as good an explanation as any.

[fectin]

Religion, obviously. Spare the rod and spoil the child.

I don't know if this is supposed to be snark or not, but even if it is religious folk -- especially from those of revealed religions -- are over-represented across the criminal spectrum even controlling for class and race. So it's as good an explanation as any.

My grandfather was a social worker in New Orleans. He has many strong opinions.
Among these, he notes that it was always Baptists from out of town who ended up drunks: New Orleans natives were raised around booze and knew how to handle it; it was those idiot teetotalers who came in and screwed themselves up. I.e. religion causes alcoholism
However, I've also heard a persuasive alternate explanation: assume arguendo that alcoholism is genetic. If it ran in your family, you would be much more likely to decide that alcohol was evil, have nothing to do with it, and associate with like-minded people. I.e. alcoholism causes religion.

I tend to lean towards the first explanation, but I think it's probably a mix of both.

The same may apply to other social maladies.

[Koumei]

It sounds like you're talking about either a growth of skin (in which case we're talking about a callous or wart) or fat tissue (in which case we're talking about a herniation of fat into the dermis). But it could be something more exciting like fibromatosis.

Thanks. I am quite callous (and I thought warts were all viral things?), so I'll go with that. Though Shiritai's explanation also seems likely.

[Starmaker]

Religion, obviously. Spare the rod and spoil the child.

I don't know if this is supposed to be snark or not, but even if it is religious folk -- especially from those of revealed religions -- are over-represented across the criminal spectrum even controlling for class and race. So it's as good an explanation as any.

No, I'm serious. It's like the #1 reason why the CPS in Russia is powerless.

If we forbid parents to beat children, children will blackmail parents into doing their every bidding on pain of false accusations. Also, unbeaten boys won't build character, unbeaten girls won't learn their place, and everyone will have gay sex, gay babies, and gay abortions. Obviously, the corrupt government is doing this in order to steal moar babbies from God-fearing families and sell them, under the guise of adoption, to pedos and/or degenerate Westerners, to supplement their dwindling gene pool (infected with gay feminism) with noble Aryan genes.

It's three links higher than the official CPS site.

edit: and, duh, while I'm more concerned about children, there's a de facto ban on divorce among churchgoers. "If your husband is beating you, ask for forgiveness and pray to God to be able to please him better so as not to deserve more punishment."
(Note: Muslim women in Russia have it worse on the average, but there's more to it than religion.)

[ishy]

What the hell are 'gay abortions'?

[Username17]

What the hell are 'gay abortions'?

You would think that abortion would have literally nothing at all to do with gayness. On account of gay sex producing zero abortions or opportunities for abortion by definition. But the kind of people who think the "gay agenda" is an actual thing overwhelmingly believe that abortion is part of the gay agenda somehow. Of course, people who think that there is more on the gay agenda than "have sex with sexy dudes" tend to believe some fairly outlandish conspiracy theories.



-Username17

[RobbyPants]

It sounds like you're talking about either a growth of skin (in which case we're talking about a callous or wart) or fat tissue (in which case we're talking about a herniation of fat into the dermis). But it could be something more exciting like fibromatosis.

Thanks. I am quite callous (and I thought warts were all viral things?), so I'll go with that. Though Shiritai's explanation also seems likely.

Warts are the symptom of a virus. The actual wart itself is a tumor (a foreign growth).

[OgreBattle]

Garlic helps reduce warts, try rubbing your lump with garlic.


Do Eastern Europeans have wet or dry earwax?

[Starmaker]

What the hell are 'gay abortions'?

Part of the corrupt West's plan to sabotage the gene pool. It's top secret and has something to do with cubic time. Basically, the "gay lobby" wants to introduce sex ed to schools, which means telling kids gay people are normal, and that will turn everyone gay and result in more teen pregnancies and more abortions. Somehow. Looks like the corrupt West hasn't thought their plan through all that well.

(After an initial 90s free-for-all, the only "sex educators" allowed into schools were tampon marketers. In mid-00s, condom producers were briefly allowed to put up billboard ads promoting safe sex (as in, STD prevention) and their own brand. These quickly got replaced with anti-condom AIDS PSAs for True Love and Faithfulness, which didn't last long either. So now sex ed doesn't exist at all.)

[RobbyPants]

No no no no, the gays want straight people to have lots of abortions to slowly kill off the straight people. The whole agenda is to raise the chances of running into any random attractive person on the street and having them be gay. It's just common sense.

They're called "gay abortions" because all of the abortion doctors are gay.

[Grek]

Do the girl scouts actually support those things that the poster says they do?

[Username17]

Do Eastern Europeans have wet or dry earwax?

That is the worldwide distribution of alleles. White is dry earwax, and wet earwax is a dominant trait. So the percentage of people with dry earwax is the square of the white fraction of the pie in each location.

Do the girl scouts actually support those things that the poster says they do?

I don't think the United Nations actually has an anti-population agenda to support or not support, so obviously there are things on that poster that are just crazy.

Girl Scouts of the USA and its local councils and troops value diversity and inclusiveness and do not discriminate or recruit on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, national origin, or physical or developmental disability.

This is apparently considered a declaration of culture war by some of the more extreme elements of right wing hysteria. But it is a major difference between the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts.

If you want the whole breakdown of that particular branch of crazy, there's a Snopes Article about it.

-Username17

[Kaelik]

Do the girl scouts actually support those things that the poster says they do?

Well obviously not some of them like anti-population, but I could see them supporting "information-based" sex education. I'm not sure why you would put scare quotes around "information-based" aside from being crazy.

But since Real Life, Real Talk is a real sex education movement that has absolutely nothing to do with the Girl Scouts I'm not sure how Regional Girl Scout Councils "across the country" are "openly supporting" it. But if it has any basis in fact at all, I could see that being based on the fact that a florida and california council both mentioned it in a newsletter that no one read.

[name_here]

The organization is kinda decentralized, so I wouldn't be surprised if some subsections support the non-crazy things on that list. And the Girl Scouts are notably pro-LBGT.

[Koumei]

Clearly it's an alliance of abortions and homosexuality to gradually reduce the world's population to nothing! (And Putin is helping that part by murdering absolutely everyone he possibly can.)

As far as plots to wipe humanity out go, it's... not that effective by the looks of it, and also basically requires everyone to take part in it, whereas just throwing the Earth into the Sun means all those people who disagree don't get a say in it.

The gay agenda has been foiled like the lamest cartoon villain ever, we'll need to start again!

[fectin]

Godspeed, Ignatius J. Reily.

[OgreBattle]

I've always wondered why the greeks and romans never made statues of large breasted women.

[name_here]

They did.

[Ancient History]

Depends on what you're talking about.



Generally it appears to be a matter of aesthetics - the surviving and popularly known Greek and Roman sculpture was often "serious" and focused on ideal forms, whereas exaggerated sexual characteristics are considered comical more noted for more transient depictions like painting and pottery.

[radthemad4]

How do you minimize the total amount of sleep you need to get in a day while still feeling awake and alert the rest of the time?

[Lago PARANOIA]

Exercising.

[radthemad4]

Exercising.

That would explain it. I've been feeling unusually tired lately and I haven't been moving much. I should start jogging or something. Time to get some podcasts and audiobooks.