Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

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Were Roman engineers required to stand beneath their bridges as they were tested?

"When Roman engineers built a bridge, they had to stand under it while the first legion marched across. If programmers today worked under similar ground rules, they might well find themselves getting much more interested in Ada !" — Robert Dewar,…
Larry OBrien
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Is Alcoholics Anonymous effective?

In my research I've found statistics for spontaneous remission from addiction: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10976668. The statistics for A.A. seem to be a little more difficult to find/interpret. For example:…
user776
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Can an air-bubble in a syringe kill the patient?

I have heard of stories where, while giving injection to patient, a doctor forgot to remove all the air from the syringe. The patient died when the air reached to brain. Can injecting air into a vein with a syringe cause death?
Santosh Kumar
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Is it possible to officially Buy A Star?

There are plenty of companies around that let you purchase a star. They claim that the star will be named as you direct and they issue you a certificate of ownership. I realize that the T&C's for a lot of these deals have disclaimers within them,…
Ian
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Were there only two cars in Ohio in 1895, and they managed to crash into each other?

Currently on Today I Learned, Reddit. TIL [Today I Learned] In the entire state of Ohio in 1895, there were only two cars on the road, and the drivers of these two cars crashed into each other. The source provided is All Fun and Games which itself…
Casebash
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Are humans the only species that hunts down competitors, denies and destroys food for others?

In the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, there's a passage that claims "Takers" (i.e. modern man) are the only thing in nature that hunt down competitors, destroy or otherwise deny someone else food. Are there strong arguments to be made that other…
Kit Sunde
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Did L Ron Hubbard say "The way to make a million dollars is to start a religion."

I have heard various versions of this meme and was tempted to quote it in a comment on another thread. This site appears to do a fairly decent job of investigating the claim but leaves the conclusion based at best on anecdotal evidence that is…
Chad
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Does the G-Spot exist?

There's a lot of talk in magazines about a woman's G-Spot. But does it exist? Or is it a trick to keep men searching?
Carra
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Are only 700 out of 480,000 life scientists creationists?

I've seen this claim stated in many places, for example the talk.origins FAQ: Of the scientists and engineers in the United States, only about 5% are creationists, according to a 1991 Gallup poll (Robinson 1995, Witham 1997). However, this number…
StackExchange saddens dancek
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Do atheists have a better knowledge of religion than theists in the United States?

A Pew Survey from 2010 seems to indicate that this could be the case, with the atheist/agnostic group outscoring all others on a 32-question quiz of religious knowledge. Obviously, this lone survey hardly constitutes definitive evidence, and could…
Monkey Tuesday
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Do we need to wash our glass, plastic, and tin can recyclables?

In the recycling rules for my community, there is an instruction to thoroughly wash all glass, plastic, and metal containers before depositing them into the recycle bin for collection. Is this step really necessary for the recycling process to occur…
ckittel
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Are there mass graves of indigenous children in Canada?

In 2021 there were reports of mass graves in Canada. For instance, CNN analysis quotes Indigenous peoples that tens of thousands of their children were forcibly removed from their families for decades and sent to what some described as more like…
pinegulf
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Did "fossil-fuel pollution [kill] three times as many people as COVID-19 did" in 2020?

Bill McKibben writes for The New Yorker in a March 18, 2022 article titled "In a World on Fire, Stop Burning Things" (emphasis added): Our species depends on combustion; it made us human, and then it made us modern. But, having spent millennia…
LShaver
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Were a large fraction of US Dollars in existence printed since 2020?

For many months now I have heard claims on the internet and radio that some large fraction of USD "in existence" were printed since 2020. The percentage ranges between 40 and 80%. Is it a big deal that 40% of USD was printed in the last 12 months?…
thechimp
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At the current rate are we going run out of fossil fuels by 2060?

British energy company Octopus Energy claims on their blog: If we keep burning fossil fuels at our current rate, it is generally estimated that all our fossil fuels will be depleted by 2060. This doesn't seem very far away. Is this true?
Stupid_Intern
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