All Questions
1,423
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
53
votes
0
answers
5k
views
Are a large proportion of programming job applicants unable to implement FizzBuzz?
On the blog Coding Horror, Jeff Atwood quotes individuals as saying that a large number of programming job applicants are unable to implement FizzBuzz. Why Can't Programmers.. Program?
[Quoting Don'...
- 38.9k
49
votes
0
answers
3k
views
Are neo-Nazis calling for the murder and torture of Stack Exchange members?
Earlier today, a question was posted on the Meta Stack Exchange site. Here is an excerpt from that question:
Several right-wing websites have started reporting and thus directed attention of far-...
- 615
43
votes
0
answers
6k
views
Is this shoe lacing technique effective at preventing blackened toe nails?
See:
Reddit: LPT: How to lace your running shoes (June 7, 2015)
Reddit: Black toes from ultimate? (May 20, 2015)
Runner's World: How To Lace Shoes: Prevent Black Toe Nails (March 4, 2011)
They link ...
user16797
29
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Does heavy exercising increase beard growth?
The claim that exercise promotes beard growth is common around the Internet. The explanation that is the most common is that heavy exercising increases the testosterone levels in the body and that in ...
- 491
28
votes
0
answers
2k
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Can scaring a person cure hiccups?
There is a popular belief that scaring a hiccuping person would cure the hiccups:
This Straw Is Designed to Instantly Cure Hiccups
Lots of folks will try to scare hiccups away with a shock or ...
- 4,353
28
votes
0
answers
4k
views
Does polygamy result in less infidelity and prostitution?
An answer (now deleted) at the new Islam.SE site made the following claim:
If one takes a look at society where polygamy is banned or discouraged, you will see that some men will always try to ...
- 15.5k
27
votes
0
answers
6k
views
Is pollution the main cause of Notre Dame Cathedral's deterioration?
A 2017 Time article discussing the crumbling, wearing out, and water damage of France's Notre Dame Cathedral prior to the 2019 fire writes (emphasis added):
Notre Dame, which looms over the capital ...
- 14.1k
27
votes
1
answer
6k
views
Can you tell if you're dreaming by pinching yourself?
Just yesterday I read how Tyrion tries to figure out if he's sleeping by pinching himself. And this seems to be a commonly held truth which often comes back in tales.
But I'm not so certain. So can ...
- 1,971
24
votes
0
answers
21k
views
Was it illegal in Venezuela for doctors to list starvation as cause of death for children?
In this video Jordan Peterson says the following:
Do you know that it is now illegal for physicians to list starvation
as the cause of death for a Venezuelan child in a hospital. That's how
...
- 3,783
24
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Was there a Soviet anti-motorcycle-helmet campaign in the late 1950s and early 1960s?
Lessig (1995, pp. 964–965) writes:
Before the 1960s, motorcyclists in Soviet Russia did not wear helmets. In part this was because of a lack of any perceived need to wear helmets; in part it was ...
user17967
24
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Is sexual harassment of girls increasing in schools?
This article claims that experts told UK MP's that sexual harassment is increasing in schools because of internet pornography. However, I haven't seen any references to studies done on the subject so ...
- 1,492
24
votes
0
answers
721
views
Does the H-1B visa program cause a net decrease in the employment prospects of skilled U.S. job applicants in STEM fields?
It is widely claimed that the H-1B program "takes away jobs from Americans." For example, here's a message posted in the Academia chat room by SSimon not long ago:
The way I understand it when H-1B'...
- 10.2k
22
votes
0
answers
497
views
Do soccer players suffer a “3%–5% drop in performance” after their first tattoo?
In a 2017 article in The Sun, “Top footballers are wrecking their performances by having tattoos, claim experts” it is claimed:
Dr Ingo Frobose, of Cologne’s German Sports University, urged clubs to ...
22
votes
0
answers
3k
views
Are "banana traps" effective at catching monkeys?
There is a famous claim that says the way to trap monkeys is by placing a staked container with a hole cut into it just wide enough for a monkey to stick its empty hand into.
The container is baited ...
- 1,077
21
votes
0
answers
856
views
Did Burmese typewriters contain an upside-down character, which subsequently became proper typewriter style?
I was reading about the Internet Archive's work to archive the materials of a famous New York City typewriter family:
http://blog.archive.org/2020/08/26/an-archive-of-a-different-type/
I was ...
- 399
21
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Were three journalists (Bob Simon, Ned Colt and David Carr) investigating a plausible relation between the CIA and 9/11?
Apparently these three journalists all died within a couple days of each other (Feb. 11 to 12, 2015). The implication of some rumours going around is that these folks were killed because they have ...
- 18k
21
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Is "Behind The Veil" an accurate representation of secret Mormon rituals?
In the hidden-camera clip Behind The Veil: Never-Before-Seen Footage of Secret Mormon Temple Rituals we supposedly see never-before-seen footage of secret Mormon Temple rituals.
A longer version of ...
- 3,085
21
votes
0
answers
8k
views
Is the Predictive Index® personality inventory for hiring based on scientific research?
I just heard of it (a friend has to take it) and it seems obvious that it's a product marketed directly to business people.
I'd expect that the test isn't worth much because it was made in 1955 and ...
- 2,813
20
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Did Coinstar add a delay and fake noises because people didn't believe a machine could count coins quickly?
I saw a post on Reddit claiming that Coinstar machines are extremely fast at counting coins, but that the company had to introduce a delay and fake noises to the machines because customers didn't ...
- 2,934
20
votes
0
answers
3k
views
Is the U.S. Tea Party astroturf or a genuine grassroots movement?
According to The Wikipedia article on the United States Tea Party movement (emphasis mine), TeaParty.org defines the Tea Party as "a grassroots movement that calls awareness to any issue which ...
- 17.7k
19
votes
0
answers
5k
views
"Relax and Win" - Classified military method to fall asleep quick?
The book Relax and Win by Bud Winter (a track coach) claims to reveal relaxation techniques developed by him and others for the US military:
Based on mental and physical training methods used to ...
- 99
19
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Is using vim faster than a mouse-based editor for source code?
Many people claim that editing text using the vim editor is faster than using a mouse-based one, for experienced users.
There seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence for this claim, but considering ...
- 299
19
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Does listening to rap music increase violent behavior?
Related
(Kind of) Classical music in public places: does it affect violence?
Do violent video games cause violent behavior?
Can music incite murder?
I've heard many people say that listening to rap, ...
- 21.7k
18
votes
0
answers
934
views
Is the average office worker only productive for 3 hours a day?
A recent answer on StackExchange linked to a blog post claiming that:
Research suggests that in an eight-hour day, the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes.
According ...
- 771
18
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Does masturbation (or sex) help one focus better later?
From a NY Post article:
Kit Maloney, the founder of O’actually, a feminist porn production company, said that “masturbation [and] orgasm is like meditation. It allows the space for the brain to ...
- 59.6k
18
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Are most women incapable of orgasm through vaginal stimulation alone?
In Wikipedia's article of Orgasm it suggests vaginal stimulation isn't sufficient for women's sexual pleasure:
Kinsey found that most of the women he surveyed could not have vaginal orgasms.[59] He ...
- 349
18
votes
0
answers
5k
views
Do gas pods improve fuel efficiency?
I ran into this claim today about detachable car fins, and was wondering if there is any validity to it:
about a five percent reduction in drag and corresponding five percent boost in fuel ...
- 9,257
17
votes
0
answers
3k
views
Did Yuri Gagarin eat a lemon out a cup of tea when dining with the English Queen?
There is an anecdote, popular in Russia, about Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, who was served tea with lemon when dining with the English Queen.
After he had had the tea, he reached into the ...
- 4,353
17
votes
0
answers
856
views
Was the UK's drive to acquire civilian metals to use in WW2 necessary for the war effort?
This question was asked here recently:
Were World War II scrap drives in the United States truly necessary for the procurement of raw materials?
And it has produced some very solid analysis and ...
- 56.1k
17
votes
0
answers
439
views
Are more than half of scientists who have ever lived alive today?
This Washington Post article quotes Brian Nosek as making the claim that:
Brian Nosek offers up a stunning factoid: More than half of the scientists who have ever lived are alive today.
It then ...
- 18.7k
17
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Did JFK say that "you can win with half the people's votes but cannot govern with half against you"?
According to Al Jazeera:
Jose Miguel, president of the Institute of Legal Medicine, told Al Jazeera: "The most worrying thing is the intolerance and deep divisions within the population, so the ...
17
votes
0
answers
976
views
Does science fiction inspire significant amounts of people to pursue STEM careers?
It's a common belief within the science fiction community that sci-fi has motivated a lot of people to pursue careers as scientists and engineers. A brief search finds many anecdotal accounts where ...
- 512
17
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Do long-haired men have better intuition?
I found an article on Worldwide Hippies which describes a military experiment on the intuitive abilities of Native American trackers:
Then they would pair two men together who had received the same ...
user16405
17
votes
0
answers
11k
views
Is fish-flavored cat food bad/dangerous to a cat's health?
Our (two male) cats normally eat turkey and chicken flavoured canned wet cat food from our favorite cat food brand. However, we don't feed the cat's any other flavours which all contain fish, such as ...
- 275
17
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Which position is healthiest for sleep?
If you believe the internet, there is no healthy way for you to sleep: front, back, side, fetal; they are all going to cause you problems like acid reflux, spinal problems, skin problems, problems ...
- 18.1k
17
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Was there a peak in suicides associated with the release of Pokémon red and green?
My 13-year-old stepson just told me this story: When Pokémon Red and Green was first released in 1996, there were dozens or hundreds of suicides of children caused by high-frequency sounds in the ...
16
votes
0
answers
624
views
Are scammers using AI voice cloning to fake kidnappings?
There have been numerous news reports of scammers using AI voice cloning to trick people into thinking that their kid has been kidnapped:
NY Post
An Arizona mom claims that scammers used AI to clone ...
- 261
16
votes
0
answers
909
views
Are North Koreans banned from laughing for 11 days?
This article states that North Koreans face similar consequences of the leader's death anniversary as in previous years, now being banned from laughing for 11 days. Is the regime so authoritarian that ...
- 281
16
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Is the skeleton in the grave in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” that of a recently deceased actress?
In one of the final scenes of the movie “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” the titular characters dig up a grave in a cemetery to reveal a skeleton.
Several sites online report that this is a real ...
- 269
16
votes
0
answers
495
views
Are conversation-starting memes on social-media harvested by criminals?
There have been a raft of warnings circulating on Facebook for years (but seem to have had a recent uptick) warning that memes that are shared on social media that encourage people to post trivia ...
- 141k
16
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Are more than half of all new PhDs in the U.S. from diploma mills?
John Bear, co-author of Degree Mills, a book that delves into the topic of fake degrees in higher education has claimed that more than half of all new PhDs in the United States are issued from diploma ...
- 271
16
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Did Donald Trump stop a mugger in 1991?
Claim
In the year 1991, Donald Trump witnessed a mugging from his limousine. He told his driver to pull over, got out, confronted the attacker, and caused him to stop.
Sources
I googled this a bit,...
- 239
16
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Was John F Kennedy accidentally shot by a secret service agent?
In the book Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK, Bonar Menninger argues that the third shot that hit John F Kennedy was fired by accident by a secret service agent. The book's Wikipedia page ...
- 279
16
votes
0
answers
925
views
Does mixed-sex education increase violence in schools?
TSA-Alerie reports [French] that a poster on a conference at the National Library of Algeria has a controversial claim:
La mixité sexuelle à l’école est la cause numéro un de la violence scolaire
...
- 1,453
16
votes
0
answers
18k
views
Is rice water a good fertilizer?
When rice is washed, the wash water becomes whitish due to the starchy powder in the skin of unwashed rice. I've often heard or read, usually in water-saving, money-saving, or gardening tips, that the ...
- 897
16
votes
0
answers
830
views
Does a monkey/ape flee from half peeled bananas?
There is a claim by a German philosopher, named Max Scheler.
Ein Affe, dem man eine Banane halb geschält in die Hand gibt, flieht vor ihr, während er sie ganz geschält frißt, ungeschält aber selber ...
- 261
16
votes
0
answers
476
views
Should you regularly replace your pillow?
According to an article in the Guardian:
Out of 2,200 men and women, only 18% knew they should replace their pillows every two years. The average person uses the same pillow for three years and two ...
- 33.3k
16
votes
0
answers
5k
views
Do crabs exemplify "crab mentality" behaviour?
Is there any verifiable evidence that crabs, in fact, behave as if they possess "crab mentality"?
The term “crab mentality” is used to describe a kind of selfish
thinking that runs along the ...
- 3,762
16
votes
0
answers
729
views
Do mechanical keyboards improve accuracy?
A famous mechanical keyboard site claims that:
Many mechanical keyboard fans rave at the loud, clicky sound they produce when using one of these keyboards. As mentioned above, the mechanical switches ...
- 78.6k
16
votes
0
answers
3k
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Do 6-month old babies ingest more aluminum from formula milk than from vaccines?
This blog post claims that vaccines given to infants contain less aluminum than is typically ingested from milk - especially formula milk. A more prestigious source of this claim is the Children's ...
- 478