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1500 questions
38
votes
3 answers
Is it legal to hire only beautiful people?
Josephine Fairley wrote a column in the Telegraph claims that it is perfectly legal to hire only beautiful people.
But while it's illegal to discriminate on the grounds of gender, sex, race, religion, age or disability, there's nothing on the…
march
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38
votes
4 answers
Do Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian kids?
My Arabian friend showed me a video of a child getting shot. He also gave me some links after a quick search:
The Independent: I watched an Israeli soldier shoot dead my two little girls
Just Read blog: Israeli soldiers kill 1337 Palestinians
I…
Sebastian Godelet
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38
votes
1 answer
Is spontaneous human combustion possible?
An article from Ireland dated January, 2011 shows that spontaneous human combustion (SHC) remains a hot topic among paranormalists.
Spontaneous human combustion has been defined as:
Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is the alleged burning of a…
Monkey Tuesday
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38
votes
1 answer
Are there more outstanding warrants in Ferguson than residents?
The Guardian quotes Matt Pearce as saying:
Remember that in Ferguson, there are huge, huge, huge numbers of outstanding warrants. More warrants than residents.
Is this true? How could that be possible?
ike
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38
votes
6 answers
Does astrology work?
I have been to astrologers couple of times. Once, whatever he said worked. Not sure if it is a coincidence. Does astrology work?
Vinoth Kumar C M
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38
votes
2 answers
Does a pair of trainers (shoes) hanging on a telephone wire mean the house nearby is a crack den?
I've been told this many times (in the UK). It's even mentioned in a wikipedia article:
Some also say that shoes hanging from the wires advertise a local
crack house where crack cocaine is used and sold
Is there any evidence that this is true?…
user14708
38
votes
2 answers
Are Americans more likely to be monolingual?
From a comment on English Language & Usage, also mentioned in Wikipedia, and Chad Fowler's book The Passionate Programmer (Related blog post by the author: How Learning a Second Language Changed My Life, where he describes it as a joke he heard in…
Golden Cuy
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38
votes
1 answer
Should I cut off black banana ending before eating?
I was always told that I should cut off the black ending of a banana before eating, because it would be dangerous. Sources for this claim can for example be found here (though that source is actually rebuking the claim, but I was not able to find…
Adam Stelmaszczyk
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38
votes
3 answers
Is Matt Ridley's assertion that the most extreme of the IPCC climate projections is based on very implausible assumptions correct?
Matt Ridley, the science writer who is often grouped with global warming skeptics and denialists despite asserting:
man-made climate change is real but not likely to do much harm, let alone prove to be the greatest crisis facing humankind this…
matt_black
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38
votes
4 answers
Can regular cold showers reliably improve health?
I have encountered anecdotal claims that the act of taking a cold shower fairly frequently (e.g. once a day) improves health, or at least, reduces susceptibility to illness.
Is there any scientific evidence that this does indeed work, even if only…
user1802
38
votes
4 answers
Is refusing to decrypt data for the police illegal in England and Wales?
I've been recently downloading PuTTY from the official page and I have noticed a message stating:
LEGAL WARNING: Use of PuTTY, PSCP, PSFTP and Plink is illegal in countries where encryption is outlawed. I believe it is legal to use PuTTY, PSCP,…
MMM
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38
votes
2 answers
Does sexual abuse lead to homosexuality?
An article on the website for from Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment (H.O.M.E.) claims that sexual abuse has been shown to lead to Homosexuality:
It is a well-documented fact that many
many homosexuals were sexually abused
when…
Mark Rogers
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38
votes
1 answer
Can you punch someone's nose into their brain?
A persistent tale in martial arts is that one can strike an unfortunate other on the nose in such a way that you drive the cartilege up into their brain. Is this possible?
I think some points to consider are:
Is there a path from the inside of the…
Grimm The Opiner
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38
votes
2 answers
Is Australian fauna more dangerous?
It's a popular meme, "in Australia everything tries to kill you", often backed up by the list of dangerous animals, such as box jellyfish, variety of spiders, salt water crocodiles and sharks. However it's purely anecdotal, and one could imagine…
vartec
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38
votes
1 answer
Does Germany want their gold back?
There is a meme that is going around that states:
The German government has been storing about half of its gold supply
with the US FED, apparently in the NYC FED vaults. Germany decided to
bring home all its gold, but the FED has said that…
Chad
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