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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'...
Andrew Grimm's user avatar
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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-...
J.R.'s user avatar
  • 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 ...
user avatar
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 ...
Hugo's user avatar
  • 491
28 votes
0 answers
2k views

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 ...
Quassnoi's user avatar
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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 ...
Flimzy's user avatar
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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 ...
Barry Harrison's user avatar
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 ...
Carra's user avatar
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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 ...
Zebrafish's user avatar
  • 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 ...
user avatar
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 ...
PointlessSpike's user avatar
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'...
ff524's user avatar
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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 ...
JamesTheAwesomeDude's user avatar
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 ...
Napoleonothecake's user avatar
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 ...
pkamb's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Brian M. Hunt's user avatar
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 ...
Zano's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Ruben's user avatar
  • 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 ...
pacoverflow's user avatar
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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 ...
gerrit's user avatar
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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 ...
VSO's user avatar
  • 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 ...
loopbackbee's user avatar
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, ...
Hendy's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Elmy's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Fizz's user avatar
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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 ...
Mehdi Haghgoo's user avatar
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 ...
JasonR's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Quassnoi's user avatar
  • 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 ...
matt_black's user avatar
  • 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 ...
March Ho's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Juan Carlos Silva Mendoza's user avatar
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 ...
Kaj_Sotala's user avatar
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 ...
user avatar
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 ...
Kevin McCormick's user avatar
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 ...
going's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Kristopher Johnson's user avatar
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 ...
joshuahhh's user avatar
  • 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 ...
toddddos's user avatar
  • 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 ...
templatetypedef's user avatar
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 ...
Oddthinking's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Frank Fanelli's user avatar
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,...
FifthArrow's user avatar
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 ...
Anders's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Akli's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Lie Ryan's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Angelo.Hannes's user avatar
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 ...
Christian's user avatar
  • 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 ...
sashkello's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Sklivvz's user avatar
  • 78.6k
16 votes
0 answers
3k views

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 ...
Skylar Saveland's user avatar

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