195
votes
Accepted
In the American west—the world of cowboys and cowhands—was ammunition traded for alcoholic “shots” of a drink?
The answer seems to be no on all accounts.
In general, Snopes says:
Although the meme is of recent origin, Internet mentions of this alleged historical fact date to at least 2003. Significantly, ...
- 30.7k
42
votes
Is vodka (or alcohol solutions with less than 60% concentration) an effective hand sanitizer against Covid-19?
A more recent study (also published by the CDC) seems to indicate that 30% might be a good enough concentration against SARS-CoV-2:
[Figure legend:] Effect of commercially available alcohols in ...
- 59.6k
34
votes
Were postal pneumatic tubes in Berlin (Rohrpost) cleared with wine?
Annual report of the Postmaster General, 1891 is as close to a primary source as I could find:
In working the line of Berlin tubes a number of defects became apparent in course of time, caused partly ...
- 30.7k
34
votes
Accepted
Were postal pneumatic tubes in Berlin (Rohrpost) cleared with wine?
Landrath, "Die Rohrpost-Anlage in Berlin und Charlottenburg." Archiv für Post und Telegraphie , Vol. 16, No. 12, Jun. 1888, pp. 354-369 describes, among other items, the initial version of ...
- 456
33
votes
Is the Japanese government encouraging the young to consume more alcohol?
Yes, here is a decent article about it:
Why Japan is asking its young people to drink more
The country’s National Tax Agency (NTA) has introduced content named ‘Sake Viva’ where it has invited ideas ...
- 44.9k
28
votes
In the American west—the world of cowboys and cowhands—was ammunition traded for alcoholic “shots” of a drink?
The word "Shot", a corruption of the Late Old-Engish "Scot" or "Secot", itself a corruption of the old Norse "skot", was a word meaning a Tax or measure. This means it pre-dates not just the "Wild ...
- 396
23
votes
Did Christine Ford testify both that she drank alcohol and didn't drink alcohol at the party where she was assaulted?
No, when she said "Not at all" she was answering the question:
Do you recall prior to getting there — so I’m — I’m only talking about up to the gathering — had you had anything to drink?
...
- 105k
18
votes
Is it harmful to sip a little alcohol in the cold?
The main harm from ingestion of alcohol in cold weather is the risk of hypothermia. Alcohol is known to affect body temperature during cold weather as well as hot weather.
Drinking alcohol may ...
- 22.7k
17
votes
Is tequila a probiotic?
No.
A probiotic food, as defined by the dictionaries (1) (2) (3) must contain benefical live bacteria (regarding the human organism). Scientific literature calls those bacteria probiotic (4).
...
- 3,299
15
votes
Are 3 in 4 attenders at hospital emergency departments on weekends there because of alcohol?
No. Unless the weekend is redefined to cover a few quiet hours on friday and saturday night.
The sensational newspaper headlines are based on a relatively reliable piece of research which is ...
- 56.1k
12
votes
Accepted
Does honey contain traces of alcohol?
The article author of the article that you linked to wrote an earlier article in 1994 where he measured the ethanol content of unspoiled honey.
This article of Journal of Agricultural Food Chem from ...
- 374
12
votes
Accepted
Were there ice-cold whiskey vending machines in the 1950s?
The caption is not true, but it's a real photo -- of a prototype.
Actual caption: "At the Second Automatic Vending Exhibition in London, a woman helps herself to a vending machine-mixed whisky and ...
- 44.9k
11
votes
Does the body get rid of alcocol first before metabolizing food?
It is not that our body "focuses" on alcohol but alcohol being a liquid gets absorbed and metabolized quickly (or first in relation to your question), whereas food needs to be broken down first into ...
- 111
11
votes
Accepted
Have the UK official alcohol limits been reduced to a quarter of the levels recommended in 1979?
I tried to follow the trail, but was unsuccessful.
In 1994, an (not peer-reviewed) letter by was published in the British Medical Journal by G Winstanley (representing an organisation that represents ...
- 141k
10
votes
Accepted
Is breastfeeding while drunk dangerous?
All of this answer is based on what I found on a recent review on the subject of alcohol and breastfeeding Haastrup, M. B., Pottegård, A. & Damkier, P. Alcohol and Breastfeeding. Basic Clin. ...
- 785
9
votes
Did the military start the "No alcohol after vaccines" meme?
According to the November 1899 Journal of Medicine and Science, Volume 5, at page 440:
Deléarde in experimenting with tetanus and anthrax found that animals treated with alcohol after they had been ...
- 105k
9
votes
Have the UK official alcohol limits been reduced to a quarter of the levels recommended in 1979?
No. But for the simple reason that the UK in 1979 did not have a country wide guideline. Yes, in the sense that in 1979 one such guideline was proposed. From that starting point the trend for a ...
- 44k
8
votes
Accepted
Is alcohol beneficial in small amounts?
It seems to depend on the way the observational, epidemiological and correlational data is used. That is: how the data is gathered, analysed and interpreted. And how puritan the belief systems of the ...
- 44k
8
votes
Do societies that are less abstemious have more sensible drinking patterns?
In short: No. But it is a bit more complicated than that.
It is probably a bad way to phrase it like "The more alcohol a society consumes, the fewer alcohol-related problems and alcohol-related ...
- 44k
7
votes
Are the 2016 UK guidelines on alcohol consumption evidence based?
The recommendations come from this report to the Chief Medical Officer:
Alcohol Guidelines Review – Report from the Guidelines development group to the UK Chief Medical Officer
The headline ...
- 1,767
7
votes
Did Russia use drunkenness to promote soldier aggression in WW2?
Here is a Wikipedia article in Russian on the subject.
Basically, each soldier started to receive 100g of vodka during the Soviet-Finnish War (in 1940):
Ещё в январе 1940 года во время Советско-...
- 171
7
votes
Is the Pareto Principle applicable to national alcohol consumption?
A long time has passed since this question popped up, but I have found evidence that yes, the Pareto Principle is valid for alcohol/ beer consumption.
Quoting this paper (BMJ 2016;353:i1860):
...
- 785
6
votes
Is Alcoholics Anonymous effective?
It's time to give an answer that is updated for 2018 (make that 2020):
The 2020 Cochrane Review of Alcoholics Anonymous shows a small but significant increase in full abstinence from alcohol using ...
- 169
6
votes
Does more than one unit of alcohol a day damage your long term brain function and increase the risk of dementia?
The newspaper headlines exaggerate the paper's conclusions, but they, in turn, are not justified by the data shown
The paper itself does not make any attempt to measure the occurrence of specific ...
- 56.1k
6
votes
Accepted
Do more DUIs occur the morning after drinking rather than the night of?
I couldn't find anything about the US as a whole, but there are statistics for DUI (or DWI, among other acronyms) arrests for smaller parts of the US by time of day. (For information about the ...
- 30.7k
6
votes
Does Cristiano Ronaldo drink or smoke?
The drinking and tattoo claims seem to be true.
Does Ronaldo not have any tattoos so that he can donate blood more freely?
This seems to be correct. Various places report it online, for example ...
- 22.4k
6
votes
Does reported alcohol intake, according to population surveys, only account for half of the alcohol sold?
Do populations (as a whole) under-report the amount of alcohol they drink on simple surveys?
Oh, yes.
This 1983 experiment with 49 men, Diary gives more accurate information about alcohol consumption ...
- 141k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible