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1500 questions
56
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3 answers
Did the UK slip to sixth largest world economy from fifth, less than 24 hours after the EU referendum vote?
Some news sources have reported that in the 24 hours after the UK's results on the EU referendum came through, the UK dropped from 5th largest economy in the world, to 6th, being overtaken by France.
For example, this headline in the Metro:
France…
user56reinstatemonica8
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56
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Can cats survive a fall from any height?
So here's the premise.
A cat reaches its terminal velocity after around 10meters of free fall.
A cat can survive a landing from a speed equal to its terminal velocity.
Therefore a cat can survive a fall from any height.
This seems actually quite…
user2869
56
votes
2 answers
Does a pear contain 600 times more formaldehyde than a vaccine?
There is a common pro-vaccination argument that attempts to equate the amount of formaldehyde injected into the body when receiving a vaccine, with the amount of formaldehyde ingested into the GI tract when eating a pear.
Here is a classic…
Oddthinking
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A century ago, was giving birth a major cause of death?
When reading this article on BBC News I was surprised by the following claim:
Just compare now to what happened 100 years ago or so. Then, many women died in their 40s because of having to give birth many times. Lots of people died young.
This…
AndyT
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1 answer
Is Starlite a hoax?
About 40 years ago, Maurice Ward, a hairdresser and amateur chemist, developed a plastic that was said to be resistant to extreme heat. Able to withstand a laser beam that could produce a temperature of 10,000 Celsius. He called it Starlite.
The…
Quaxton Hale
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1 answer
Are humans the only species to have homophobes?
Here's a quote that's being passed around:
Homosexuality is found in over 450 species. Homophobia is only found in one. Which one seems unnatural now?
With all the good intentions behind what's being said -- and as much as I'd really want to…
Sal Rahman
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5 answers
Is a writer named Lisa Holst responsible for the belief that everyone eats eight spiders a year?
If you're reading this there's a good chance you're fan of Snopes.com, and I certainly count myself as the same. However, an issue recently came up a with particular Snopes article that was invoked on this very site to explain where the belief that…
Scott Hamilton
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Are American media controlled mostly by Jews?
The image "Who controls your mind? 2013" below claims that a very large proportion of the US media companies have Presidents, CEOs, Founders, Owners, Vice Presidents and Chairs that are Jewish.
It can be found on many antisemitic sites such as…
valodzka
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Is LSD more harmful than alcohol?
Having read this Guardian article it seems LSD is a much less harmful drug (both to the user and to others) than alcohol. I live in the UK, where alcohol is legal to buy from age 18 (and to drink from even younger), but LSD is a class A drug - the…
fredley
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3 answers
Do we need 8 hours of consecutive sleep a day?
It is said that an adult human needs around 7-9 hours of sleep per day.
Do human beings need around 8 hours of consecutive sleep a day? Is it prejudicial to the body and brain that you don't? Or is that a myth?
Bruno Pereira
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votes
2 answers
Did Barack Obama keep 33 million pages of documents, including nuclear weapons documents?
A public statement from former U.S. president Donald Trump claims that former president Barack Obama kept 33 million documents from his presidency, most of them classified and many of which contained details of nuclear weapons.
Statement by Donald…
jla
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55
votes
1 answer
Do surgeons refuse to operate "to keep their own statistics clean"?
I was curious about this thrice-upvoted comment, which says: Surgeons are also known for refusing to operate in order to maintain their ratios. So I Googled it and it seems surgeons can refuse to operate, but it's not immediately obvious they do so…
Rebecca J. Stones
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Did Truman say this about helping whichever of Germany and Russia were losing during the war?
Taken from Good Reads:
If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any…
JonathanReez
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55
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Was a four year-old forced to sleep on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary?
I'm referring to this article, where a four year old with suspected pneumonia was, due to overcrowding after the NHS cuts, forced to sleep on the floor of the hospital.
Numerous Twitter accounts, all of which claim to have a sister there, claim this…
Comic Sans Seraphim
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2 answers
Did the British navy fail to take into account the ballistics correction due to Coriolis force during WW1 Falkland Islands battle?
In Natural History magazine article, Neil DeGrasse Tyson claims the following:
The military normally knows all about the Coriolis force and thus introduces the appropriate correction to all missile trajectories. But in 1914, from the annals of…
Zeick
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