All Questions
1,398
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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
726
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 ...
- 78.5k
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 ...
- 488
16
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Is the US Army Field Manual 30-31B a forgery?
Wikipedia describes content of the US Army Field Manual 30-31B:
It identifies a strategy of tension involving violent attacks which are then blamed on radical left-wing groups in order to convince ...
- 32.8k
16
votes
0
answers
4k
views
Breaking the bottom brick with your hands
In the movie Bloodsport, which claims to be based on a true story, the lead character is challenged to break one brick at the bottom of a stack, using only his hands. He successfully causes the bottom ...
- 18k
16
votes
0
answers
1k
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Does Milk in Black tea "completely abolish" all positive effects of the tea?
A few weeks ago my wife told me to drink only black tea with no milk, because she saw somewhere that milk cancels out the benefits of the tea. I did some googling and found this:
"Black tea ...
- 467
16
votes
0
answers
724
views
Is online dating unsafe?
Is there any evidence to support the common conception that one is more likely to be physically injured when dating someone met online as opposed to someone met "offline"?
- 941
16
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0
answers
6k
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If one goes to prison, does beating up someone on the first day increase chances of survival?
Related (slightly): Rape in US prisons
Two movies I know of, one I recently watched, suggest that if one is going to prison, the best way to survive is to find someone on the first day and beat the ...
- 21.6k
16
votes
0
answers
341
views
Have Chinese regulators ordered TV stations not to broadcast crime or time travel shows?
In April a bunch of news services claimed that the Chinese government had banned shows displaying time travel.
In May came this announcement on BBC:
China has ordered TV stations across
the ...
- 18k
16
votes
0
answers
5k
views
Does Nike produce left and right shoes in different countries?
In a story, widely circulated on the Russian internet, Nike (or Adidas, or any other major footwear manufacturer) faced a problem of pilfering on their new factories somewhere in the Third World.
...
- 4,255
16
votes
1
answer
31k
views
Is it possible for people over 25 years old to to grow taller?
Human height growth tends to saturate at age of 15 in females and 18-20 in males. But, many claim (i.e. "How to increase your height with easy exercises") that it is possible to increase your height ...
- 569
15
votes
0
answers
627
views
Were nuclear sub engineers told that when alarms go off they should grab a bar, until they have examined their instrument panel?
The book Debugging: The 9 Indispensable Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems by David J. Agans, which was first published in 2002, contains the following claim:
On ...
- 413
15
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Is Qatar hiring fans to fake public interest in the world cup?
Many news sites (1, 2, 3) claim that Qatar is hiring hundreds of fake fans for the 2022 World Cup.
Guardian
Fans who have travelled to Qatar as part of a controversial paid-for supporters programme ...
15
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Do Mormon teens practice "soaking" and "jump humping"?
According to this popular post on /r/facepalm, and again here
Some Mormon teens have convinced themselves that putting a penis in a vagina and then not moving is not sex. That's called soaking. Jump ...
- 28.3k
15
votes
0
answers
2k
views
At Chernobyl, did someone see the fuel channel caps bounce shortly before the explosion?
The well known 2019 show Chernobyl mentions an operator who happened to walk through the reactor hall of Unit 4 seconds before the reactor exploded. He allegedly saw this:
If this story seems ...
- 1,277
15
votes
0
answers
766
views
Has there been a rise of flat-Earthers?
From this tweet by Neil deGrasse Tyson:
The rise of flat-Earthers in the United States...
And from The Guardian
Researchers believe they have identified the prime driver for a startling rise in ...
- 14k
15
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,...
- 229
15
votes
0
answers
8k
views
Are fat people kidnapped less frequently?
This has been on T-shirts, in a Minions meme, and even some Q&A sites:
Fat people are hard to kidnap.
While the B-flick method of kidnapping (knock 'em unconscious and then carry the mark) is ...
- 3,279
15
votes
0
answers
554
views
Does playing electronic games interfere with a child's healthy dopamine response?
In this August 2015 Psychology Today blog article, a child psychiatrist and author, Dr Victoria Dunckley makes a number of claims about how screen time is causing symptoms of mental health problems.
I ...
- 139k
15
votes
0
answers
614
views
Is a large percentage of Dutch people bothered by cursing?
The Dutch Bond Tegen Vloeken (Association Against Profanity) regularly advertises against the use of cursing, swearing, and profanity.
Their 2015/2016 campaign features 5 posters, each stating a ...
- 3,339
15
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0
answers
2k
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Does masturbation increase self-esteem?
BetterHealth writes about Masturbation:
Some of the general health benefits of masturbation may include that it: [...]
enhances self-esteem.
2KnowMyself writes in Why masturbation lowers ...
- 32.8k
15
votes
0
answers
844
views
Does giving a drug to a former addict cause reestablishment of chemical dependence?
Joel Spitzer, an anti-smoking counsellor, claimed on whyquit.com that there is a law of addiction which is:
The law of physiological addiction states administration of a drug to an addict will ...
- 30.2k
15
votes
0
answers
2k
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Did the Philadelphia Experiment ever take place?
The Philadelphia Experiment forms the basis for a claim that in 1943 the U.S. Navy attempted to use "speculative physics" to render a ship, the U.S.S. Eldridge, invisible. Allegedly, they were ...
- 11.1k
15
votes
0
answers
515
views
Do police issue more citations near the end of each month?
A related question about police quotas suggests there are quotas (some openly, some not) in some jurisdictions.
This Venture Beat Article strongly suggests that more tickets are issued at the end of ...
- 251
15
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Can "Current Mohan" conduct high levels of electrical current through his body?
I saw this episode of Stan Lee's Superhumans featuring Raj Mohan Nair, also known as "Current Mohan". He seems to be able to conduct electric current through his body to power up household electrical ...
- 1,003
15
votes
0
answers
704
views
Are Orthodox Jewish women suffering from a Shidduch (Marriage) Crisis due to an "Age Gap"?
There is a popular opinion in the Orthodox Jewish world that there is such a thing nowadays as a "Shidduch (Marriage) Crisis", and that a major contributor to it is something known as the "Age Gap."
...
15
votes
0
answers
1k
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Does closing a swing-top bottle make recycling more costly?
Here in Germany there are a number of beer brands that come in a swing top bottle:
(picture taken from Wikipedia; copyright by Michiel1972, license GNU/GFDL)
I often heard the claim that you should ...
- 1,223
15
votes
0
answers
8k
views
Does filling a clothing washing machine to the top reduce cleaning effectiveness?
Someone recently insisted that filling a washing machine to the top doesn't get clothes as clean. My washing machine has water fill levels from "Small" all the way to "Extra Large," but no ...
- 21.6k
15
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Does sharing a shower use less water?
From what I found on the Internet, a brief shower is more water efficient than a bath. I was wondering if there is any research about water use with more than one person using a shower? My gut ...
- 369
15
votes
1
answer
77k
views
Was Ross Capicchioni shot by a friend as part of a gang initiation?
Ross Capicchioni was a teenager who was shot several times and required emergency surgery.
He reported that he had been shot by someone he knew who was undergoing a gang-initiation. He claims the ...
- 28.3k
15
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is eating and then going to sleep bad for health?
It is common to hear elderly in Portugal saying that dining and then going to sleep has a bad impact on one's health (apparently it is not only in Portugal).
From a National Institute of Health ncbi....
- 367
15
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Were the majority of people at the Pulse nightclub killed by police?
At the MTV/BET town hall meeting a person mentioned that
Police killed the majority of the people at pulse that night
to which the moderators replied "hmmm".
On the No Agenda Show, they've ...
- 1,189
15
votes
1
answer
685
views
Does the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) provide higher quality, cheaper care than most other US health systems?
The VHA is the integrated health system providing healthcare to US military veterans managed by the Department of Veteran Affairs. It is currently regarded by by some other health systems as a model ...
- 56.1k
14
votes
0
answers
582
views
Did Stalin's son hide the death of a whole hockey team after a plane crash?
According to World Heritage Encyclopedia, in the Sverdlovsk air disaster of 5 January 1950 almost the entire national ice hockey team (VVS Moscow) died, which was covered up by Vasily Stalin (born ...
- 437
14
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0
answers
370
views
Has anyone ever been found either criminally or civilly liable for giving advice on a forum for plumbing/electrical/hvac/other?
I've seen on several forums (and/or members thereof) around trades where they say they don't give advice to non-pros because they're afraid the amateur will do it wrong and they'll be found liable.
...
- 498
14
votes
0
answers
537
views
Is there a detectable bias in drug-sniffing dogs based on handler belief of presence of drugs?
As discussed in the comments of Does normal paper currency contain enough narcotics residue to attract a drug-sniffing dog?, and further explored in the 2017 NPR article, "Eliminating Police Bias When ...
- 6,145
14
votes
0
answers
522
views
Did Churchill urge the US to ‘wipe out’ Moscow with an A-bomb
I read the following article:
https://www.icij.org/blog/2014/10/churchill-urged-us-wipe-out-moscow-bomb/
from a seemingly reputable source (although it is a blog post).
The key claim:
Privately, ...
- 556
14
votes
0
answers
570
views
Is Britain's housing crisis caused by migrants?
In the Sunday Times on 26th November 2017, journalist Rod Liddle makes a case for our need to build new houses being exclusively due to immigration. He claims that the demand for new houses is not due ...
- 887
14
votes
0
answers
457
views
Are the majority of modern cancer drugs useless?
Cancer is one of those diseases that cause dread in its victims and their families. Though many are treatable or even curable, many others are not and there is great pressure on medics to offer any ...
- 56.1k
14
votes
0
answers
9k
views
Does playing basketball help you grow taller?
Some people believe that playing basketball encourages you to grow taller.
For example:
A Scientific Theory On Why Playing Basketball May Indeed Make Young Teenagers Increase In Height And Grow ...
- 389
14
votes
0
answers
3k
views
Is it hazardous to bend one's head backwards to stretch the neck?
I've heard claims that it's bad to stretch the neck by tilting it all the way back, or by doing neck circles. Here is one such article
Research is showing a connection between extreme neck ...
- 2,564
14
votes
0
answers
721
views
Does South Korea have more institutions teaching German literature than Germany?
In the Financial Times article on educational achievement, the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore is noted as claiming in a May 2015 speech that
South Korea has more institutions teaching ...
- 141
14
votes
0
answers
368
views
Did unrestricted speed limits lead to fewer deaths in the Northern Territory of Australia?
Drive reports that a section of highway in the Northern Territory has has been switched back and forth between no speed limit, and 130 km/h speed limits over the past decade or so, with some dispute ...
- 139k
14
votes
0
answers
584
views
Are there around S$800 billion unaccounted for in Singapore's public finances?
Christopher Balding, an associate professor at Peking University, claims in this note that
Given publicly available economic data on Singaporean finances, there is an expected asset gap of more ...
user17967
14
votes
0
answers
496
views
Is the Chinese “Sesame Credit” system a government propaganda tool?
The Sesame Credit system recently announced in China is making the rounds on social media, being touted as a tool of gamified government thought control.
For example, this privateinternetaccess.com's ...
- 1,931
14
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0
answers
2k
views
Is Columbia's Omni-Heat Reflective technology effective?
In this advertising video published by Columbia Sportswear, Omni-Heat Reflective is introduced as a technology which reduces body heat loss by reflecting body heat radiation (back to itself) using ...
- 191
14
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0
answers
7k
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Getting ill because of staying in a draft/draught?
In Germany it’s a common belief that drafts/draughts can make you ill.
Because of that, car and train windows typically get/stay closed, even when it’s really hot; and, for instance, on a warm day in ...
- 1,143
14
votes
0
answers
580
views
Are beggars in the Nordic countries cities typically part of organised networks?
In Sweden and other Nordic countries, the presence of beggars on the streets is a relatively new phenomenon, with many beggars originating from new EU member states. There are frequent claims that ...
- 17.6k
14
votes
0
answers
239
views
Does shampoo containing pro-B5 affect the appearance of hair?
Many shampoos contain vitamins.
Elvive Vitamax shampoo for example, is variously promised to contain "Vitamin pro-B5" which
makes hair full of vitality.
Is this additive useful?
- 430
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votes
0
answers
864
views
Are there benefits to holding a child back a year before starting kindergarten?
My wife and I are having a bit of a debate (I won't reveal which side I'm on!). Our situation is perfect for this question, as we have two daughters: one was born Sept. 15th, and the other on Aug. ...
- 21.6k