156
votes
Have China and India more than doubled carbon emissions since 2000 while U.S. emissions have fallen?
The gross emissions numbers are essentially accurate
Here's a chart from the U.S. Energy Information Administration:
The World Bank and the International Energy Agency have similar values, but ...
- 10.2k
77
votes
Did Pakistan lose each and every war it fought with India from 1947 to 1999?
According to Wikipedia, there have been four declared wars between India and Pakistan. None of them were "won" or "lost" in that neither party in any of these wars was forced into ...
70
votes
Did 64,000 married Indian men take their own lives in 2012 after charges of domestic abuse?
It seems highly unlikely. The person making the claim claims there are about 64,000 suicides every year, "due to alleged misuse of section 498a of IPC against them."
He then goes on to quote the ...
- 9,683
68
votes
Were the women of Travancore, India, taxed for covering their breasts by breast size?
This appears to be a myth manufactured by S. N. Sadasivan from oral history. He wrote:
The breast tax was levied as soon as a woman of the Ezhavas and castes below, attained puberty and more ...
- 46.4k
61
votes
Can venomous snakes be determined by these pupil, nostril and scale patterns?
No, this is not true. Not even for just India, as Indian cobra (Naja naja) has round pupils and subcaudal (tail) scales are divided. There is also no pit visible. It is venomous species of snake.
...
- 671
45
votes
Have China and India more than doubled carbon emissions since 2000 while U.S. emissions have fallen?
The first point of the question about the actual emissions statistics has already been answered but let me add some information relevant to the second point
Secondarily, is it the implied claim that ...
- 537
40
votes
Accepted
Did 64,000 married Indian men take their own lives in 2012 after charges of domestic abuse?
There were a total of 79,773 deaths by suicide of Indian men in 2012, in which 63,349 were due to non-illness, regardless of false claims of Section 498a or not.
For suicide victims by marital status ...
- 530
31
votes
Accepted
Was the Speed of Light known in 13th century India?
This looks very much as if the units may have been converted to obtain the desired result. Indeed the different conversion factors but similar result in your second link increase the likelihood that ...
- 13.5k
26
votes
Can venomous snakes be determined by these pupil, nostril and scale patterns?
... maybe a bit more education hurts even less... but the answer is still no.
So to me the description with pits and slit pupils (and also the head drawing) looks like indicating pit vipers. I don't ...
- 3,546
26
votes
Accepted
Did Biden claim that the Boeing-Air India deal will support 1 million jobs? Is the claim true?
Well, Statement from President Joe Biden on Air India’s Historic Purchase of Boeing Aircraft is the official press release from the White House:
The United States can and will lead the world in ...
- 63.7k
22
votes
Can venomous snakes be determined by these pupil, nostril and scale patterns?
That is a diagram for identifying pit vipers. There are many, many venomous snakes in the world, including I believe all of the most deadly ones, that are not pit vipers.
The advice is particularly ...
- 1,568
21
votes
Accepted
Did Narendra Modi tweet this?
This tweet is almost definitely fake, for multiple reasons.
According to the screenshot, the tweet was sent on March 31st, 2014.
Taking a look at Mr. Modi's tweets between Mar 30 and April 1 2014 ...
- 22.4k
21
votes
Accepted
Was the Babri Mosque built by Emperor Babur by destroying an ancient temple?
TL;DR: It's inconclusive. i.e cannot be sufficiently answered.
There is a massive amount of information on Wikipedia articles. Here I will only do a limited analysis of a few statements on Wikipedia.
...
- 46.4k
18
votes
Accepted
Does drinking cattle urine have health benefits?
This is a religiously motivated idea. And it is very probably a quite terrible idea from a health perspective. It is definitively a terrible idea from a taste perspective. After reviewing the ...
- 44.1k
17
votes
Is there any evidence of Dr. Zakir Naik paying people to convert to Islam?
A Mumbai police report found that Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF):
lured the youth to convert to Islam by paying them anything between Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 50,000
Source: Zakir Naik's ...
- 109k
17
votes
Accepted
Have Indian forces been shooting hundreds of Kashmiris in their eyes, with pellet guns or shotguns?
782 is near the minimum with eye injuries
The title of A series of 777 pellet gun ocular injuries over a 4-month period in Kashmir is pretty self-explanatory. The authors reviewed records from 777 ...
- 33k
15
votes
Accepted
Was the ancient Indian city of Mohenjo-daro destroyed by a nuclear weapon?
That there was increased levels of radioactivity above the background level found at Mohenjo-Daro.
This is unsourced and very vague. "In certain areas of that site, you find increased levels of ...
- 15.2k
14
votes
Accepted
Did an Indian king claim to witness the moon split?
This claim can be traced back to a work of original Muslim scholarship by Muhammad Hamidullah, in his book Muhammad Rasulullah (1979). It appears that he grabbed a manuscript description out of the ...
- 46.4k
14
votes
Accepted
Do Kaziranga National Park workers shoot and kill poachers?
As far as we can tell, yes. Rangers in Kaziranga park have killed 72 suspected poachers between 2007 and February 10th, 2017
Here is a report from the BBC from February 10th regarding the park and ...
- 22.4k
14
votes
Did the Indian Mathematician Aryabhata state that the earth was round and calculate diameter of earth
What the text says
There is an English translation of The Aryabhatiya with notes is available online.
Regarding the spherical Earth, the text says (page 64 of the book)
The sphere of he Earth, ...
- 1,103
13
votes
Are there only 1,200-1,900 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in India and Japan, as of March 30, 2020?
Yes but be careful
You're looking at 'confirmed cases' - this isn't a good comparitive measure of actual cases as each country has their own approach to testing. Japan and India have been noted for ...
- 2,198
13
votes
Was the Nazi Hakenkreuz logo based on the Indic swastika?
tl;dr:
The words "Hakenkreuz" and "swastika" describe one and the same symbol, one time in Sanskrit and English, one time in German. Some believe that this 'is' an ancient Germanic ...
- 44.1k
11
votes
Were the women of Travancore, India, taxed for covering their breasts by breast size?
I've found two recent peer-reviewed publications that suggest that such a breast tax did exist in Travancore in the early 19th century. However, the wording used in the Economic Times "article" is ...
- 9,528
11
votes
Accepted
Is the stone used for Ram temple construction 65 million years old?
"Shaligram Shila", or Shaligram stone, mentioned in your links, are a specific kind of fossilized ammonite remains found in the valley of the Kali Gandaki river (they are considered sacred ...
- 1,579
10
votes
Is the United Kingdom funding forced sterilization in India to combat climate change?
According to the UK government, £174,500,790 was provide for Reproductive and Child Health Programme Phase II with a start date of 15 December 2006.
Then, according to an India government site, a cash ...
- 109k
10
votes
Accepted
Was Hoysaleswara Temple built with lathes?
Were these pillars built using lathe?
Yes, or more precisely given the lack of primary documentation, there is no reason to presume otherwise and is not considered controversial see here and here
...
- 216
10
votes
Did an Indian man make an airplane or flying device in 1895?
No. It seems that accounts of Talpade's work originate in a book that appeared around 1904 and which has been long discredited by Indian scientists.
The article mentioned by DaaaahWhoosh says ...
...
- 25k
10
votes
Is India drastically undercounting covid deaths?
I'm honestly not sure how one could answer this question. The CGDEV paper you've quoted that from used 3 different methods to estimate the excess deaths in India... because there's no official data on ...
- 63.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible