Most Popular
1500 questions
47
votes
1 answer
VHS vs Betamax: How influential was the pornography industry in the format war?
Image Source
For many years I have heard the legend that
the porn industry played a crucial role in the victory of JVC's VHS
over Sony's Betamax.
It resurfaced during the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray.
From Macworld:
Just as in the…
Oliver_C
- 47,991
- 18
- 214
- 208
47
votes
1 answer
Is Donald Trump's ratio of bankruptcy to businesses consistent with the success rate of other entrepreneurs?
Closely related to this question: Did Donald Trump file for bankruptcy four times? Donald Trump has consistently claimed that filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy is not unheard of and 'only' four bankruptcy claims out of all his businesses is a good…
dsollen
- 9,820
- 12
- 44
- 71
47
votes
3 answers
Is watering plants under a hot sun bad?
A couple of people have told me that it's a bad for plants to be watered in the middle of a sunny day, i.e. it's not just that you waste more water due to evaporation, but that there are actually bad effects on the plants itself. I've heard this…
GS - Apologise to Monica
- 571
- 1
- 2
- 7
47
votes
2 answers
Did Esurance put up a billboard saying "Cover your home in a dick"?
This tweet has been making the rounds about the dangers of bad kerning:
Supposedly the letters "c" and "l" are run together so that "click" looks like "dick" instead.
I call shenanigans. Surely someone noticed the problem while the sign was going…
Kevin Burke
- 1,941
- 2
- 15
- 21
47
votes
1 answer
Do polygraphs (lie-detectors) work?
Polygraphs are often used in fiction, but also sometimes in court or by government agencies and corporations. Physiological reactions from the subject are recorded and an operator interprets them to decide whether the subject is telling the truth or…
Mad Scientist
- 43,669
- 20
- 174
- 192
47
votes
3 answers
Is Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster "on par" with Chernobyl?
Many news organizations (e.g. CNN, Huffington Post, etc) are referring to the Japan incident as something as severe as Chernobyl, i.e. a nuclear event with International Atomic Energy Agency rating "7". I'm skeptical of this equivalence because the…
Brian M. Hunt
- 18,069
- 13
- 101
- 177
46
votes
1 answer
Do colour-blind people see through certain kinds of camouflage?
I found this claim in Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins. This is the Google Books link to the relevant page.
Nobody knows whether or how this benefits them, but it may be
suggestive that bomber crews in the Second World War liked to…
Green Noob
- 2,489
- 1
- 21
- 29
46
votes
3 answers
Do children accidentally suffocate themselves with plastic bags?
My one year old daughter picked up a typical plastic supermarket grocery bag and I watched her with it briefly before taking it away, as it's common knowledge that kids aren't supposed to have plastic bags due to a risk of suffocation.
After…
Hendy
- 21,725
- 17
- 117
- 179
46
votes
3 answers
Has it been mathematicaly determined that the Voynich Manuscript is not gibberish?
A post on the CthulhuTech forum makes the following claim about the Voynich Manuscript:
Actually doing abit of digging and the view is very spilt those who feel its a cipher of some kind have shown mathmaticly that its not gibberish. But it can be…
oosterwal
- 4,315
- 1
- 27
- 37
46
votes
3 answers
Does staring at the sun cause significant, permanent harm?
Of course, I think I can safely assume if an eye is left pointing directly towards sun for a long period of time it does get major damage. However, staring at the sun also hurts very quickly. That pain seems like a very natural* defense mechanism…
Ilari Kajaste
- 1,501
- 2
- 16
- 21
46
votes
2 answers
Was plastic from a seaplane shot down in 1944 recently found in an albatross stomach?
The environmentalist website Ocean Sentry makes the claim (citing Calgary Herald) that:
The massive clockwise North Pacific Gyre is carrying plastic that is over 50 years old. Last year, plastic found in the stomach of an albatross had a serial…
March Ho
- 18,698
- 14
- 82
- 111
46
votes
1 answer
Did the CDC say the RT-PCR test cannot distinguish between SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses?
American economist and author Paul Craig Roberts wrote in a blog article, CDC Admits that the Covid Pandemic Was the Product of an Inappropriate Test:
Quietly without media attention, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has…
Martín-Blas Pérez Pinilla
- 1,911
- 1
- 17
- 23
46
votes
2 answers
Did Albert Einstein say he admired the Catholic Church for standing up to Hitler?
The alleged quote would be:
Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth... I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel great affection and admiration... and am forced thus to…
Nacib Neme
- 539
- 1
- 4
- 6
46
votes
2 answers
As of May 2020, are there twice as many deaths from Covid-19 in New York City as there are on a usual day from all other causes combined?
From CNN
Dr. Tom Frieden, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, laid out "10 plain truths" about Covid-19 on Wednesday as he spoke at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the pandemic response. [...]
"Even…
the gods from engineering
- 61,574
- 22
- 195
- 325
46
votes
2 answers
"Applicants for asylum must prove that they have fifteen family members in the Netherlands."
Judea Pearl & Dana Mackenzie (2018) claim in their book The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect:
Applicants for asylum must prove that they have fifteen family members in
the Netherlands.
This seems like a very high bar for gaining…
user52739