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1500 questions
35
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1 answer
Did Apple sue New York city over the nickname Big Apple?
An article in The Guardian - Apple's rot starts with its Samsung lawsuit win
Makes the following claim:
Apple is one of the most aggressive intellectual property litigators of all time
... It's sued about the lower case "i"; it's sued about the…
Tom77
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Is more than 30% of US healthcare spending waste?
National healthcare spending in the USA consumes more than 18% of GDP and is growing rapidly. Europeans criticise the expense and relatively poor quality of the US system (for example, see this question: Is the US Newborn Mortality Rate higher than…
matt_black
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34
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3 answers
Are we eating too many carbs? And do we need to switch to the primal/paleo diet?
TL;DR
Accepted knowledge is that high carb low fat diet is good. Paleo diet says opposite, the claims seem solid for the Paleo diet but I am still skeptical as Science seems to think that conventional wisdom is correct but am looking to see if there…
Kingannoy
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2 answers
Pirates with a prosthetic hook: Lore or Truth?
Was it common practice for pirates to replace a lost hand with a prosthetic hook? Or was this lore perpetrated by fiction and Hollywood?
It does seem like a reasonable choice, since a hook is a rather cheap and simple to make prosthesis. But is…
Oliver_C
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Is potassium iodide useful in preventing the harmful effects of radiation?
The Los Angeles Times reports sales of Geiger counters and potassium iodide in the United States are skyrocketing:
Sales of Geiger counters and potassium iodide supplements that can block some radiation have surged nationwide since Friday, fueled…
Patches
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34
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2 answers
Do rapists think rape is normal?
I have found the following statement on an article of feminism:
Do you know who think all men are rapists? Rapists do. They really do. In psychological study, the profiling, the studies, it comes out again and again.
Do studies support that a…
Oddthinking
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Is diet soda less healthy than regular soda?
The top 10 worst foods listed at planetgreen.com elects diet soda as the number one worst food/beverage, even worse than regular soda. However, I find it a little hard to believe, since the number of calories is much lower and the sugar content is…
djeidot
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34
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2 answers
Should we drink water before we feel thirsty?
The claim is that we should be drinking water routinely to the point that we never feel thirsty, and that to not be doing so is to our detriment, at least enough for the notion to be popular amongst hikers, gym teachers, athletes and the like.
While…
Christopher Galpin
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1 answer
Will a small cut heal faster when "aired" periodically, or should it always be bandaged?
I've been told to take the Band-Aid off a small cut every once in a while in order for it to heal faster. Is this good advice, or should I try to keep it covered as much as possible?
Daniel
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Was the BBC report of the WTC-7 falling before it happened a scripted event?
A video on Youtube, “BBC Building 7 Collapse” is a televised news report from the BBC that states that WTC Tower 7 (aka the "Salomon Bros. Building") had collapsed. An overlay on the video by the uploader to Youtube, at around 0:42 in the video,…
Brian M. Hunt
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34
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2 answers
Is the Japanese government encouraging the young to consume more alcohol?
In many western countries governments have been issuing advice on how much alcohol should be consumed as medical opinion about safe consumption levels has become more stringent (see NHS advice here). The specific recommended levels are controversial…
matt_black
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34
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2 answers
Did Richard Feynman say that anyone who claims to understand quantum physics is lying or crazy?
Theoretical physicist, Richard Feynman is often attributed with the quote
Anyone who claims to understand quantum theory is either lying or crazy.
Example of the claim.
Is this apocryphal, or did Feynman (or another notable physicist) actually say…
benjimin
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1 answer
What is the use of the questions on the US Visa Waiver form?
Whenever I enter the US, I need to fill out a little green form. The front page asks all sorts of reasonable questions: Name, passport number, date of birth, address I plan to be in the US etc.
The backside, however, asks questions such as whether…
Lagerbaer
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Did Volodymyr Zelenskyy say that "if someone in Ukraine feels Russian, they should leave for Russia"?
In an interview with the BBC on June 16, 2022, Sergey Lavrov claims the following:
[…], whose president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in September 2021 (you didn’t tell your viewers about it, did you?) that, if someone in Ukraine feels Russian, they…
jcdenton618
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1 answer
Can swimming after having eaten make you drown?
Some people, including my mom, believe that it's very dangerous to bathe after having eaten without waiting approximately 1 hour (the amount of time depends on what you have eaten).
I have two questions:
Is this a real danger?
Are the chances of…
smzs
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