-6
votes
Are guns the number one killer of children in the US?
The short answer here is "No". It is not the #1 killer of children.
The data they want to include conflates several categories with very different root causes and defines "child" ...
- 15
4
votes
Did one of the victims of the Buffalo shooting invent a water-powered engine for cars?
Without knowing anything at all about the shooting or the person, I can state categorically that he did not invent a working water-powered engine for cars.
This is a Physics and Chemistry answer. ...
- 189
1
vote
Can you harvest energy from radio transmissions?
In addition to the other answers, it is the principle by which a crystal radio set (first used by Bose in the 1890's, but not patented until the early 20th centuary) works. This just consists of
an ...
- 111
10
votes
Does this article present an accurate summary of the (in)effectiveness of masks at preventing Covid-19 transmission?
While I can't address all the details in the article it's clearly being very deceptive:
Covid-19 is mainly spread by microscopic aerosols generated by breathing, talking, sneezing, and coughing. The ...
- 1,093
3
votes
Can Russia's Poseidon nuclear underwater drone create a 500 meter tidal wave?
There's a big problem here:
Let's suppose the bomb can actually produce a 500m wave near the point of detonation--what happens? The circumference of a circle is linear to it's radius--double the ...
- 1,093
-1
votes
Is there an unusual distribution of adverse events by lot number for the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines?
There is a very simple, and to me beautiful, explanation. This is original research by me - although I am basing it on facts for which I have sources, though only secondary ones. My main sources are ...
7
votes
Does your stomach shrink if you eat less?
We can learn some things about the stomach from competitive eaters.
Competitive eater Joey Chestnut trains his stomach to expand:
Chestnut practices by drinking up to a gallon of milk in a single ...
- 199
-1
votes
Did Michael Jackson sexually abuse children?
To sum it up: We don't know.
The issue of child molesting is not the same as, say, a bank robbery. It is usually a hidden crime where no others are involved. The evidence comes down to the victims' ...
- 29
4
votes
Accepted
Are these maps captured Russian plans to invade Ukraine?
I'm not really qualified for a full answer, but...
The stuff does look genuine, but it's not sufficient to make conclusions about the actual plans (without knowing more).
The table from the workbook ...
- 196
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Did the Russian 74th motorised rifle brigade surrender in February '22? [closed]
The following statements go around on the major social media networks. However, I have been unable to verify the statements are actually sourced.
Ragıp Soylu (Turkey Bureau Chief for MiddleEastEye):
...
- 475
0
votes
Did Roman jurists rule that "to learn the art of geometry and to take part in public exercises, an art as damnable as mathematics, are forbidden"?
Yes.
First things first: this edict did exist in Roman law, in the Code of Justinian: Corpus Juris Civilis CJ9.18.2.
Artem geometriae discere atque exerceri publice intersit. Ars autem mathematica ...
-2
votes
Is the "Dutch reach" standard practice in the Netherlands?
It probably falls, and I hope it will, into the same category as the other sayings like: "Going Dutch", "Dutch courage"...
Actually there is a whole post related to sayings with '...
- 105
6
votes
Is the "Dutch reach" standard practice in the Netherlands?
I am from the Netherlands and I specifically learned it during my driving lessons from my driving instructor. I thought it was a standard thing. I still consistently do it. In my town if you don't do ...
- 169
44
votes
Is there an unusual distribution of adverse events by lot number for the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines?
The graph gives the impression that there is a bulge over to the right, indicated by a red arrow.
This is because the range of columns 2-3 is a band of "10 deaths" but columns 4-7 have a ...
- 5,464
2
votes
Did Martin Luther King, Jr. say that "I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy"?
Proverbs 24, New International Version translation:
[17] Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,
[18] or the Lord will see and disapprove
and ...
- 209
-4
votes
Is there a 218-year gap in the dendrochronological oak scale of the late Roman Empire?
Dendrochrronological records are wishy washy subjects outside human/urban settings. Tree's planted in gardens, farms are tended to, hence growth data is compromised...
In A dendrochronological ...
- 89
-3
votes
Was the Wuhan Institute of Virology's bat/rodent virus database taken offline on Sep 12th, 2019?
Dr. Shi's own answer to the BBC says that the database was taken offline. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55364445. So we can take that as confirmed. The "cyberattacks" explanation ...
- 103
-1
votes
Have one in four American women had an abortion?
This is likely skewed and inaccurate.
It makes assumptions based on questionnaires response average rate and extrapolates it to the whole population.
Here are just three reasons why this is wrong:
...
- 69
8
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Did Near, a prominent emulator developer, take their own life?
A couple of weeks ago, there was news in the gaming-related media that Near, the developer of SNES emulators, has reportedly died by suicide.
However, the proof of this is an anonymous document posted ...
- 3,001
1
vote
Was "their" a singular pronoun in English before the 16th century?
The question could be answered by comparison of the King James Bible (1611 version) with the Wycliffe Bible (1382) but would require some considerable research.
Here are two examples I found myself, ...
- 568
14
votes
Were Facebook employees unable to enter their own building to fix router problems, during a recent (six hour) outage?
As Robb Watts' answer states, Facebook has acknowledged this was part of the problem, so we know the claim is true. ("...it took extra time to activate the secure access protocols needed to get ...
- 1,127
5
votes
At the current rate are we going run out of fossil fuels by 2060?
While reading the other answers, you might get the impression that fossil fuel availability won't be a problem for 100 years.
According to this Nature paper ("Unextractable fossil fuels in a 1.5 ...
- 498
-3
votes
Is micro rebar a better way to reinforce concrete than rebar?
Helix is just another steel fiber with a good marketing scheme that dupes most people. There is no such thing as micro rebar and all their claims of being ACI certified are fake. ACI does not certify ...
- 7
12
votes
Accepted
Does (diet) soda cause tooth decay?
Summary: Diet drinks are less acidic, but still a problem for dental erosion.
Acids can cause erosion of teeth. Saliva acts as a buffer to prevent it. Saliva is more effective against milder acids. [...
- 133k
17
votes
2
answers
12k
views
Can you breathe underwater using bubbles of air?
A very popular videogame character, which is famous for his sonic speed, is depicted breathing underwater by using air bubbles. Now since I've never heard anyone complaining about this, despite the ...
- 2,509
2
votes
Does the average carbon footprint per bitcoin transaction range from 233.4 to 363.5 kg of CO2?
The transaction rate is a matter of public record, and can be seen here for instance. It varies, but seems to typically be in the range of 200k-300k transactions per day. (This is close to the ...
- 2,307
7
votes
Accepted
Did Near, a prominent emulator developer, take their own life?
I could not find any information that Near (also known as byuu) took their life that does not cite the Tweet by Hector Martin.
All news sources that I could find in both English and Japanese cited the ...
- 292
10
votes
Accepted
Do the lifetime emissions of 'three and a half Americans' kill 'one person'?
As so often, the claim has not been translated well into headlines, and makes a compelling soundbite without a very deep meaning.
The actual central claim is this:
adding 4,434 metric tons of carbon ...
- 5,942
7
votes
Accepted
Can small amounts of exercise build muscle?
Getting "ripped" (or synonym of your choice) is an effort in body recomposition. This usually involves building lean muscle mass and losing excess body fat, although not necessarily at the ...
1
vote
Does the probability of entering and remaining in an intellectually elite profession peak at an IQ of 133 and falls with rising IQ?
The claim directly follows if we assume "elite professions" have a normally distributed IQ with mean = 126, standard deviation = 6.7. I will show that this a plausible hypothesis for the ...
- 119
-4
votes
Did Fauci argue that gain-of-function research is worth risking a global pandemic?
This is what Fauci explicitly argued in 2012:
Putting aside the specter of bioterrorism for the moment, consider
this hypothetical scenario: an important gain-of-function experiment
involving a virus ...
- 32.4k
4
votes
Is this "ancient Hebrew leather manuscript" seized by police in Turkey authentic?
Adding to what @LangLangC said, the text makes absolutely no sense:
Here is a transcription of the text in the following picture:
ההאלאלה
כמחההאלטלעאב
הההאא
תהאהא
מחהטלעא
סמבוא
אדלעףא
בתםההש
בתשההש
...
- 292
-2
votes
Can vaccinating for COVID-19 cause a selection pressure for more virulent strains?
The premises of the claim aren't true, and even if they were, it doesn't follow that we should refrain from vaccinating groups that currently don't spread the disease much.
An "leaky" ...
- 97
0
votes
Did about 150 die from gun violence in the US during the 4th of July weekend 2021?
Nope.
'Gun Violence Archive' has discredited themselves by padding the numbers.
They include defense, suicide, and accidental deaths like this one in their list of "violent" deaths. It can ...
-1
votes
Is this picture taken of the Armenian Genocide fake?
Yes, it was edited (and debunked by Australian historian Jeremy Salt in 2010).
Since when human elbow goes great lengths that is 150% of normal arm length? Especially when its further from camera, it ...
27
votes
Did the 2nd Amendment limit the purchase of cannons from the day it was passed?
Muzzle-loading, black-powder firearms firing solid shot, including cannons, such as the ones used in the US War of Independence and Civil war have never really been subjected to any regulations.
You ...
- 679
9
votes
Do young Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine recipients have 200x the background rate of myocarditis/pericarditis?
tl;dr: The author of those tweets misinterpreted the CDC presentation. Yes, the presentation states that there is a notable increase, but it is only about 1/10th of what the tweet author claims.
The ...
- 2,064
0
votes
Do young Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine recipients have 200x the background rate of myocarditis/pericarditis?
Do young Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine recipients have 200x the background rate of myocarditis/pericarditis?
No.
The CDC has been investigating cases of myocarditis and pericarditis reported to the Vaccine ...
- 14k
2
votes
Do young Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine recipients have 200x the background rate of myocarditis/pericarditis?
It seems the claim is based on data from this slide, looking at Males 18-24 years old:
Image from CDC slide deck found here
The ratio of Observed to Expected counts ranges from 219 to 27.3. The ...
- 137
1
vote
Does this medical study prove that wearing gold is harmful?
The commandment in Islam is that men should not wear gold, I.e. jewelry (https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5864) It is actually not forbidden to swallow gold for medical purposes, which was also occasionally ...
- 127
33
votes
The Arizona Election Recount 2021: Would Chinese paper prove there was an election fraud?
No.
This is a logical fallacy of the form: some men are tall, you are tall, therefore you are the man who stole $20 out of my wallet because because I think I'm supposed to have $20 more.
There's a ...
- 11.1k
-7
votes
Is the incidence of CVST in vaccinated persons any higher than would be expected normally?
107 to 130 cases of potentially deadly blood clots occurred each year per 100,000 Caucasian individuals from 1985 through 2002. This translates into about 1 to 3 cases per 1,000 people.
https://www....
- 2,723
1
vote
Did Abner Schoenwetter spend 6.5 years in jail because he used plastic bags instead of cardboard boxes when importing lobsters from Honduras?
Yes, but only as one of the charges and the fact that the lobster tails were undersized was considered the bigger issue(however, he could technically have been jailed just for the bags).
Prosecutors ...
- 679
6
votes
Do Afghans keep track of their birthdays?
Afghans are Muslims, and Islam requires you to know your exact age for the religious ceremonies and duties. girls for example at 9 and boys at the age of 15 (lunar calendar) will have certain duties.
...
- 169
7
votes
Did farmers adopt cars faster than inhabitants of cities?
You seem to doubt that cars would be more popular among farmers "in remote areas" because you don't think there would be many people in those areas.
The fact is that at the time that cars ...
- 4,553
-1
votes
Do around 2 billion people eat insects regularly?
Lets consider some of the OP's claims.
insect consumption is commonplace in the tropics, while in temperate
zones it is often absent
This just seems to be factually incorrect. Regardless of what you ...
- 1,040
4
votes
Did British journalists keep silent about Russian defections to Germany in WW2?
Is true. The Vlasov army, for example, had thousands of people, all (including the General Vlasov) former Soviet soldiers and officers.
The existence of Russian army soldiers and officers who ...
user58549
0
votes
Has China eliminated local transmission of COVID-19 within its borders?
I am living in one of the major cities in China right now. And I think I'd better stay here for some time. People are still very alerted to the COVID-19 virus. And the television broadcast news about ...
- 117
7
votes
Are fifth freedom flights more often discounted than regular flights?
This statement may have been true before the rise of low-cost carriers, and indeed, in the 2000s I occasionally caught cheap fifth-freedom fares like SIN-HKG on United or KUL-CGK on KLM that were ...
- 1,333
11
votes
Is the British Medical Journal largely funded by vaccine manufactuers?
I am a brit whose family are doctors and am training to be one myself.
The BMJ is run out of advertisements and out of subscriptions like any magazine. It is part of the British Medical Association ...
- 404