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1500 questions
39
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1 answer
Do Chinese drivers intentionally hit to kill pedestrians (after injuring them)?
Disclaimer: the article actually contains a gruesome enumeration of cases, you might wish not to read it.
According to Slate the Chinese law is:
should you hurt someone (with a car?), you will provide for their care until death
should you kill…
Matthieu M.
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5 answers
How dangerous is a broken compact fluorescent lamp (CFL)?
The energy-saving compact fluorecent lamps (CFLs) contain some amount of mercury. If they break, it might be released. I've heard claims that they are really dangerous, and claims that the amount of mercury is completely harmless.
So how dangerous…
Mad Scientist
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39
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1 answer
Can people read much faster than 400 words per minute?
While investigating the topic of speed reading for a school project, I came across this Slate article. The general idea (which I encountered in most articles I read which discussed this topic) would be that speed reading is not a skill that can be…
Mihai Rotaru
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39
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1 answer
Does extremely high intelligence correlate with poorer social skills?
The Psychology.Wikia page Correlation between intelligence and social deficiency states:
Abnormally high intelligence, 3 or more standard deviations above the mean, tends to correlate strongly with poor social skills.
Is this claim backed by…
Christian
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39
votes
2 answers
Did David Blaine hold his breath for 17 minutes?
David Blaine (born David Blaine White; April 4, 1973) is an American magician, illusionist and endurance artist. He is best known for his high-profile feats of endurance, and has made his name as a performer of street and close-up magic. He has…
Online User
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39
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3 answers
Are 1 in 5 college women raped?
In this article, it is claimed that 1 in 5 college women are raped (at least around the 2013-2014 time period). I have heard the claim repeated from other sources (such as the BBC, which was apparently quoting a White House figure), so to say the…
user19074
39
votes
1 answer
Is xenoglossy a scientifically verified phenomenon?
It has often been said that people can speak in languages that were not formerly known to them. Arguably the most often recited example of this is in the context of demonic possession. For example, those supposedly possessed by malevolent spirits…
Brian M. Hunt
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39
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1 answer
Are Kinder Surprise eggs banned in the US?
I just came across this info-graphic:
(source: adsoftheworld.com)
Is it true that Kinder Surprise eggs are currently, or previously, banned in the US?
Jamiec
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39
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3 answers
Is this map of Israel-occupied territory accurate?
There's an image going around Facebook, showing Israel's occupied territory over the last few decades:
I have seen at least two people (both Christian Zionists) criticize this map as "very biased" because it was created by an anti-semite. My…
Flimzy
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39
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2 answers
Is voter fraud practically non-existent in the United States?
The issue of voter fraud comes up very often at election times. In the media, it is nearly always pictured as a really important and urgent problem. It ranges from whether photo identification should be required, to rigged voting machines, to…
Andreas Bonini
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39
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4 answers
Are rape victims forced to marry their rapist, according to the Old Testament?
(Copied from http://www.theliberaloc.com/2012/05/14/traditional-marriage-according-to-the-bible/)
Relevant portion of the text:
Marriage = Rapist and His Victim (Deuteronomy 22:28-29)
Virgin who is raped must marry her rapist.
Rapist must pay…
Golden Cuy
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39
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1 answer
Does aloe vera help cure sunburn?
I'm on vacation and got sunburnt, so someone said I should go get Aloa Vera since that apparently helps. There seems to be a plethora of made-for-adsense-sites that claim the same.
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/caring-for-a-sunburn.html
For…
Kit Sunde
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38
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1 answer
Did a nuclear blast devastate Port Chicago on July 17, 1944?
On July 17, 1944 at the Port Chicago naval base, near the San Francisco Bay area, an explosion of epic proportions occurred on a dock handling munitions.
The Evening Independent, Jul 18, 1944, via Google News makes mention of the following:
~350…
Paul
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38
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1 answer
Did Albert Einstein sleep 10-11 hours daily?
I heard many times that Albert Einstein needed a lot of sleep. For example, this BBC article claims that he typically needed eleven hours of sleep:
People's sleep needs can differ significantly.
At the extreme, Margaret Thatcher managed on four…
Piotr Migdal
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38
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2 answers
Does the tongue have different taste zones?
I've seen quite a few of these "tongue maps", showing discrete borders between taste zones and often conflicting setups, like these two:
Anecdotally, I can feel all tastes all over the tongue, more or less equally well, so I don't really…
Zano
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