All Questions
1,398
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
12
votes
0
answers
462
views
Will half of the human population born in 1960 develop cancer?
It is well known that the incidence of cancer is increasing due to a lower fraction of deaths from other causes. However, there are many articles (probably sharing the same source) stating that the ...
- 481
12
votes
0
answers
500
views
Is Russia generations ahead in hypersonic missile development?
According to a news article on Russia Today, Russia is leading the US in hypersonic missile development by generations:
The bottom line is that Russia – in terms of hypersonic missile development – ...
- 379
12
votes
0
answers
369
views
Do almost half of Londoners think that cutting immigration would help London's housing crisis?
As a Christmas present on the 25th I just got a leaflet from UKIP in my post stating that
44% of Londoners say that cutting EU immigration would help solve the
London housing crisis.
There are ...
- 331
12
votes
0
answers
627
views
Does Bernie Sanders have more individual donors than any candidate in history?
This NPR / article has the headline
"Bernie Sanders Now Has More Donors At This Point Than Any Other Candidate In History"
I am skeptical that this is true especially in the latter part of the ...
- 565
12
votes
0
answers
232
views
Are objects such as towels, bank notes, carpets, shopping trolleys and light switches dirtier than a toilet seat?
Are objects such as towels, bank notes, carpet, shopping trolleys and light switches listed in blogs such as these and these really dirtier than an average toilet seat since Dr Chuck Gerba, professor ...
- 22.7k
12
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0
answers
968
views
Did Saddam Hussein have a Quran written in blood?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Quran
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/19/saddam-legacy-quran-iraqi-government
"The "Blood Qur'an" is a copy of the Islamic holy book, the Qur'an, claimed ...
- 229
12
votes
0
answers
281
views
Can Danish policemen refuse to provide ID when asked?
This Guardian article makes the (unsourced) claim that (emphasis mine):
There is more than a whiff of the police state about the fact that Danish policeman refuse to display ID numbers and can ...
- 18.7k
12
votes
0
answers
222
views
Does wearing linen reduce skin temperature by more than 3°C?
There are many claims around about clothes made of linen being useful in warmer climates. Usually it includes explanations such as a better transportation for sweat so it can evaporate more easily, or ...
- 2,371
12
votes
0
answers
550
views
War veteran who didn't speak for 30 years until he heard a sports match over the radio
In Influence, Cialdini mentions the story of a war veteran who remained silent for 30 years until he allegedly heard during a live radio transmission of a sports event that his home team was ...
- 1,017
12
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0
answers
5k
views
Do fleas jump lower after being covered by lid? If so, do their offspring adjust to this lower height?
This is one of the popular experiments mentioned in motivational books. Here is summary from a motivational webpage:
At the beginning of the experiment a number of fleas are placed in a jar. The ...
- 221
12
votes
0
answers
658
views
Does ignoring the extent of death caused by medical error distort the public perception of the quality of US healthcare?
Despite comparative evidence that US healthcare is very expensive and not particularly good by international standards, Americans seem to love it as evidenced by the debate on Obamacare and questions ...
- 56.1k
12
votes
0
answers
726
views
Are perpetrators in mass killings more likely to play violent video games?
To be clear: I am not asking if violent video games cause violent behavior. That is covered here.
I am more interested if there is any correlation between violent video games and mass killings. I ...
- 1,173
12
votes
0
answers
5k
views
How did Bruce Lee die?
Bruce Lee was an iconic actor and martial arts instructor who died at a young age.
Wikipedia states:
The preliminary opinion of Peter Wu, the neurosurgeon who saved Lee's life during his first ...
- 631
12
votes
0
answers
689
views
What happened at Fatima on 13 October 1917?
It is widely claimed (mostly by religious people) that there was a miracle in Fátima where the sun "danced". It is known as the miracle of the sun.
Is there any scientific consensus that anything ...
- 229
12
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Is a Boeing Honeywell ‘Uninterruptible’ Autopilot System pre-installed on any in-service airliners?
Some sites make the claim that Boeing has installed an uninteruptible ground-controlled autopilot in aircraft such as the 777 with registration 9M-MRO used for missing flight MH370.
Notable claims (...
- 24.8k
12
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Are PC-based players generally superior to console-based players in first-person shooters?
I have heard that the reason that the XBox live games cannot be played with friends on Windows machines is that when MS tried it out, the keyboard-based players were so dominant that Microsoft decided ...
- 15.1k
12
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Did Trump save on taxes by burying his ex wife on a golf course?
This article claims that burying Ivana Trump on a Bedminster golf course eliminates property, income and sales tax.
Trump is accused of burying Ivana at his Bedminster golf club to take advantage of ...
- 229
12
votes
1
answer
829
views
Are expired car seats no longer safe to use?
Many websites will claim a variant of the following claim:
Do not buy a used car seat unless you can verify the age of the seat. There should be a manufacturer's label on the back or bottom of the ...
- 10.8k
12
votes
1
answer
17k
views
Are insulating window films worth it?
I'm curious if tests have been conducted to evaluate the energy efficiency gains and resultant savings produced by insulating window films like these 3M Window Insulator Kits. (There are also films ...
- 21.6k
11
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Is the Greek Orthodox church worth 700 billion Euros?
This Wikipedia list puts the Greek Orthodox church's net worth at 700B Euros in 2011 (about 974B USD), above any branch of the Catholic church or other religion. Its source is France 24, but I am not ...
- 210
11
votes
0
answers
620
views
To what extent does the reported phenomenon of needle spiking in nightclubs and bars exist?
There have been widespread reports in the UK of "needle spiking," where a person, usually a woman, claims to have been jabbed with something in a bar.
This has received increasing attention, ...
- 4,488
11
votes
0
answers
525
views
Did the Chinese government act to suppress news of their Covid outbreak in Wuhan before December 30, 2019?
Wei Jingsheng, a Chinese national who defected in 1997, has written a book (“What Really Happened in Wuhan”) that details how he first heard of a mysterious new virus at the time of the World Military ...
user11643
11
votes
0
answers
715
views
Did Adobe Flash's EOL cause trains to stop running in China?
News website Apple Daily posted on Jan 17 a report, picked up widely on socials, that Adobe discontinuing Flash caused trains to stop running in Dalian, China: As Adobe Flash stops running, so do some ...
- 211
11
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0
answers
307
views
Do for-profit prisons lobby against early childhood education?
This popular reddit comment claims that for profit prisons "...literally lobby against things like early child education..."
I can't find any evidence for or against this claim. I've found ...
- 229
11
votes
0
answers
397
views
Has there never been a virus infection in Chromebook history?
Diamond product expert (maximum level expert for Chromebooks) Jim Dantin stated in a community post that
(quoting user) Chromebooks can be infected by viruses.
(response) It's never happened to a ...
- 226
11
votes
0
answers
553
views
Did the US Park Police have a definition of tear gas that excluded OC prior to the clearing of Lafayette Square?
US Park Police have disputed reports claiming “tear gas” was used on peaceful protestors in Lafayette Square on the basis that they used “oleoresins capsicum” (OC), rather than 2-...
- 1,530
11
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0
answers
951
views
Can a Cuban taxi driver make a doctor's monthly salary in just one hour?
A recent video by the Guardian, 'It's not fair': why Havana's taxi drviers vastly out-earn doctors looks at the difference between public sector workers and the privately employed in Cuba. The video ...
- 731
11
votes
0
answers
539
views
Are the diagnostic criteria of brain death reliable?
There is a large number of sites - particularly fundamentalist Christian sites - claiming that the people who meet the diagnostic criteria for brain death are, nonetheless, capable of recovering.
For ...
- 119
11
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0
answers
170
views
Do coca leaves help relieve symptoms of altitude sickness?
Coca leaves are widely used to relieve symptoms of altitude sickness in some South American countries, either chewed or brewed into a tea. Wikipedia says that no study has studied their effectiveness ...
- 241
11
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0
answers
679
views
Do certain non-verbal physiological signs always precede the use of violence?
http://nononsenseselfdefense.com/five_stages.html
http://nononsenseselfdefense.com/intent.htm
The author here makes an interesting claim: No one - not even habitualy violent people - can start ...
- 2,495
11
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0
answers
617
views
Are Indians immune to Israeli stink bombs?
Russian Television network, RT report that:
An Israeli crowd control stink bomb known as the Skunk, which smells like raw sewage and rotting bodies, destined for employment in the restive region of ...
- 409
11
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0
answers
3k
views
Did ISP "pocket" $400 billion that was supposed to be dedicated toward fiber cable infrastructure?
Bruce Kushnick, author of "The Book Of Broken Promises: $400 Billion Broadband Scandal And Free The Net," makes some pretty major claims. The most prominent article, an ad for his book written by ...
- 1,942
11
votes
0
answers
392
views
Do childrens' playgrounds designed to be safe reduce injuries to children?
In Tim Harford's book-length argument that some degree of messiness is, contrary to much modern opinion, a good thing, he makes an argument late in the book that applies to the spaces where children ...
- 56.1k
11
votes
0
answers
732
views
Are chain gangs a deterrent to crime?
Various states have or recently had chain gangs, in which groups of prisoners perform physical or menial work in public while wearing chains/shackles. Supporters claim that it acts as a deterrent - ...
- 10.2k
11
votes
0
answers
316
views
Can you eliminate La Guardia Airport and still move same amount of NYC passengers by air, but faster?
Joel Spolsky (I think) made this claim on latest Stack Exchange Overflow podcast that you can eliminate La Guardia airport in NYC, and even if 100% of La Guardia flyers started using the remaining two ...
- 31.1k
11
votes
0
answers
609
views
Does the meat industry cause 414 billion dollars in externalized costs?
About 34 minutes into the 2014 Documentary Cowspiracy, there is a statement by David Simon, the author of Meatonomics, about hidden costs of animal food production.
I've added up the costs of ...
- 212
11
votes
0
answers
266
views
Are foaming soap dispensers as effective as regular liquid soap dispensers?
I found these foaming soap dispensers on Amazon.
The seller says you can use regular liquid soap, diluted:
Combine 1 part liquid soap with 5 parts water or Fill with foaming soap solution / Castle ...
- 380
11
votes
0
answers
333
views
Is Edge (significantly) better than Chrome for laptop battery life?
Microsoft recently released the results of a benchmark of four different browsers with respect to battery life. Chrome comes out the worst, then Firefox, then Opera and then Edge, by quite a margin. ...
- 241
11
votes
0
answers
340
views
Can audio played during REM sleep improve recall?
I was reading about sleep-learning - for example of the type depicted in The Simpsons episode, Bart's Friend Falls in Love:
Homer orders a subliminal cassette tape to help him lose weight, but is ...
11
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Were there cases of protesters starting violence at Trump rallies?
During the CNN GOP Debate, Donald Trump gave two explanations for the repeated violent reactions of some of his supporters to protests at Trump rallies. The first one being love for their country and ...
tim♦
- 51.2k
11
votes
0
answers
599
views
Do most women who lose their virginity between 15 and 19 years of age wish they had waited longer?
EnkiVillage writes in Weird Sex Facts:
Most women who lose their virginity between ages fifteen and nineteen actually wish they had waited a bit longer.
Is that claim mainly propaganda to get ...
- 32.8k
11
votes
0
answers
39k
views
Did Maggie Smith compare religion to a penis?
This Twitter post (amongst many other online references) attributes the quote to Maggie Smith:
My dear, religion is like a penis. It's a perfectly fine thing for one
to have and take pride in, ...
- 18.7k
11
votes
0
answers
4k
views
Does sweating help to cure the flu
Many people advise you to put some warm clothes on, get under the blankets and sweat a lot to help cure flu/fever.
On one hand there is a lot of opinion on the Internet saying that it does not work, ...
- 219
11
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0
answers
3k
views
Do Ostrich Eggs repel Spiders?
After someone told me that Ostrich eggs repel Spiders I had to google it. I haven't been able to find a scientific explanation but throughout the Internet there are a lot of articles that mention it ...
- 1,687
11
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0
answers
1k
views
Did Hitler say "Who speaks today of the extermination of the Armenians?"
This article claims that just a week before the September 1, 1939 invasion of Poland, Hitler asked:
Who speaks today of the extermination of the Armenians?
Did Hitler say this quote or something ...
- 608
11
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0
answers
551
views
Is racial income inequality currently in US worse than it was in Apartheid South Africa
As reported here, (and here) white/black wealth inequality is worse now in the US than it was under Apartheid South Africa.
The figures brought up during the segment are backed up, too. America's ...
- 369
11
votes
0
answers
360
views
Would Mefloquine be approved under today's regulations?
The anti-malarial drug Mefloquine (aka Lariam, Mephaquin or Mefliam) is known to frequently induce strong neurologic side effects.
I have heard a number of times that this drug would fail to get ...
- 111
11
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Are excessive selfies a "cry for help" from "sexually abandoned" people?
I just read an article in the Spanish newspaper Hoy (not a great source for scientific knowledge) and that says (translated by me):
Are you a fan of selfies? Well, a study made by a Dutch ...
- 211
11
votes
0
answers
491
views
Do cigarettes emit three times as much particulates as an idling diesel engine?
We can see that cities like Melbourne are pushing far the smoking bans
Often smoking is compared to car pollution, and is said to be insignificant
But, according to this experiment
A turbo diesel ...
- 747
11
votes
0
answers
7k
views
Does a mobile plugged in to the charger produce more EM radiation?
I've been hearing this a lot lately, but I can't seem to find anything to disprove (or prove) this claim. I know that a weak signal means the phone produces more radiation (which makes sense), but a ...
- 177