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1500 questions
36
votes
3 answers
Did the White House fabricate an Iranian attack on the American Navy?
According to this Anti Media news article, Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary, fabricated an attack on a US warship by Iran.
At a press briefing on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer asserted that Iran had attacked a U.S.…
user38505
36
votes
4 answers
Are we in a low CO2 period, compared to the last 590 million years?
In 2012 Burt Rutan, the aircraft designer, posted these slides summarizing his take on global warming/climate change.
Slide 14 is
In the big picture we are now in a low CO2 period. The 20th century increase shows as an insignificant dot at this…
Mike Dunlavey
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36
votes
2 answers
Did fewer Jews die of the Black Plague because of ritual washing?
I've frequently heard the claim that fewer Jews died of the Bubonic Plague than their Christian neighbors in the Middle Ages because Jews took regular ritual baths (mikva) and ritually washed hands before eating (netilat yadaim), while the…
Malper
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36
votes
1 answer
Does sexual activity burn a significant amount of calories?
Are there any reviews out there of scientific studies conforming or invalidating the common claim that sexual activity is a good way to burn calories? Have quantitative measurements of work exerted (i.e., energy spent) during sex ever been…
F'x
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36
votes
3 answers
Did Noam Chomsky make the statement on privatisation that's attributed to him?
There's a quote keeps doing the rounds on Facebook and the like. It claims to be from Noam Chomsky and reads
"That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private…
Craig Graham
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36
votes
1 answer
Does the Dvorak keyboard increase typing speed?
I've read somewhere, I can't seem to find it now, that in an experiment involving people learning to type, that the Dvorak keyboard didn't have a tangible typing speed benefit in comparison to the QWERTY keyboard. Do you know of any studies about…
Peter Olson
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36
votes
1 answer
Do trackers hold their ears to the ground?
There is a trope (in movies and cartoons and elsewhere) of Native American (or other) trackers are sometimes depicted as listening to the ground to presumably hear far away horses or other animals moving.
Examples:
TV Tropes: Scarily Competent…
User
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36
votes
2 answers
Is this a genuine 1965 literacy test?
According to the Michigan-based Ferris State University's Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, this is an excerpt of the text of the 1965 Alabama Literacy Test:
If it were proposed to join Alabama and Mississippi to form one state, what groups…
Toro
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36
votes
1 answer
Can the placebo effect be observed in experiments conducted on animals or babies?
In a paper defending homeopathy, it is argued that the observed benefits of homeopathic treatments cannot be attributed to the placebo effect because the treatments elicit similar benefits when used on babies and animals, who can have no…
Monkey Tuesday
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36
votes
1 answer
Is this 90 year old mummy "not dead, just meditating"?
Here is a news headline so unusual it can't be true:
Buddhists claim mummified monk is 'not dead, just meditating'
Senior Buddhists say a mummified monk found preserved in Mongolia last week is actually in a deep meditative trance and not…
Coomie
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36
votes
2 answers
Is alcohol for consumption tested for carbon-14 radioactivity to be considered legal?
I just viewed this interesting video about radioactive ethanol from plants as opposed to non-radioactive ethanol from crude oil. In it, the professor says he's heard it's illegal in the USA to sell alcoholic drinks if they are not radioactive from…
Decent Dabbler
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36
votes
1 answer
Were the Space Shuttle's computers incapable of handling end-of-year roll-overs?
There is a claim circulating on Facebook that space shuttles couldn't fly near the end of the year because its onboard computers could not handle a year turnover.
Searching for the claim, I found Y2K-like fears create shuttle scheduling crunch,…
Calmarius
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36
votes
1 answer
In the movie "Life of Brian", were the guard extras told that they couldn't laugh?
I came across the following image today(I'm just posting it as a link because the image is fairly large):
http://themetapicture.com/why-monty-python-was-so-great/
The image says that in Monty Python's Life of Brian, during "Biggus Dickus" scene, the…
Sam I am says Reinstate Monica
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36
votes
1 answer
Does fastening airplane seatbelts reduce the risk of death and injury?
The FAA states
To keep you and your family as safe as possible during flight, FAA
regulations require passengers to be seated with their seat belts
fastened:
When the airplane leaves the gate and as it climbs after take-off.
During landing…
user17967
36
votes
1 answer
Does rubbing a rejected coin against the ticket machine make it likelier to be accepted?
When a rapid transit ticket machine in Germany refuses to accept a coin, I've often seen the ticket-buyer scratch the same coin on the machine's metal surface before re-trying it. Some scratch with the coin's edge, some with a flat face.
It doesn't…
Anko
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