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Questions tagged [government]

Use this tag for questions regarding "government" as a concept. DO NOT USE in lieu of "United States".

Government is the system by which a nation, state, or community is governed. Use this for question discussing how to govern a country or a community, not for any particular government.

In particular use the country name as a tag if the question applies to the government of a particular country.

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Is the cause for the Berkeley Boom "unknown"?

Articles about the unsolved mystery of the "Berkeley Boom" claim that the loud noises that can be heard throughout Berkeley, California, and in neighbouring cities, might be caused by fireworks, cops, oil companies, nuclear testing, car engines,…
MicroMachine
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In literate countries, does more education lead to more economic growth?

In Matt Ridley's The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge he makes many challenges to widely accepted ideas. He challenges the widely held idea that more education is good. For example: Is there any evidence that it was education that…
matt_black
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Did the Pakistan government accidentally cause YouTube to become unusable in 2008?

From the source of all knowledge On February 22, 2008, Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) attempted to block regional access to YouTube following a government order. The attempt inadvertently caused a worldwide YouTube blackout that…
Celeritas
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Did state actors set fire to buildings during the George Floyd riots?

A Minnesota protestor made the following claim: "Media, you need to cover the undercover cops who have been breaking these windows and breaking into businesses. We have evidence of buildings that have been burnt on fire by specific triangles cut…
Lord Elrond
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Does the IRS claim that 7 out of 7 specific hard-drives crashed in a single month?

A post relating to a political issue is going around saying it is astronomically unlikely that 7 hard drives would crash in the same month, specifically: The odds of a disk drive failing in any given month are roughly one in 36. The odds of two…
Larry OBrien
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Did a firefighter rescue a cat from a still-burning house?

From twitter user @Earth_Pics: Firefighter in Denmark rescues cat from burning house.The way he hugs cat and the expressions of cat says it all. Note: the white stuff is probably snow, not ash. An image of this was posted to Reddit, and has…
Andrew Grimm
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Did Pik Botha Lobby For The Release Of Nelson Mandela?

In a 2013 interview from Al Jazeera, long-time South African Foreign Minister, Pik Botha claims that he long lobbied for the release of the future President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela who spent 27 years in prison. I remember in 1982 I…
Trunk
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Is this urban mosquito drone real?

This picture showed up in my Facebook feed. Is this a mosquito? No. It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and microphone. It can…
Wayne Werner
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Is anything about the 1999 NOAA "Julia" recording prevented from publication as being classified?

The unexplained "Julia" sound is described as: Julia is a sound recorded on March 1, 1999 by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA said the source of the sound was most likely a large iceberg that had run aground off…
Brian M. Hunt
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Does the US government have secret research projects?

At Rense.com, a writer claims: The United States is known to have a huge budget for so called ``black projects,'' because it spends more on defense than can be accounted for by adding up the value of public programs. Are there any good examples…
YungHummmma
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Is Paul Ryan's Congress record of two bills passed unusual?

According to this article, Paul Ryan has passed only two bills during ~13 years in Congress. (By passed, I assume the article means authored or co-authored bills passed in at least the House.) Is this number actually unusual compared to the records…
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Did the Voice of America become more critical of the US after the end of the Cold War?

In a speech given to Voice of America (VOA) staff towards the end of the Trump presidency, Mike Pompeo (who was Secretary of State at the time) stated that after the end of the Cold War VOA (like similar US government-financed posts) had made a turn…
Fizz
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Does insect repellant protect against Covid-19?

The Guardian reported on 26 August 2020 that : Citriodiol-based spray can help protect against Covid-19, says MoD lab Citriodiol sprays were made available to the army in the early phases of the Covid-19 crisis because they were known to kill…
Nigel J
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Does using yellow paper hide the yellow tracking dots that commercial printers put on anything you print?

I just learned about those yellow dots printers put on paper that the government uses to track you in case it doesn't like what you're printing. Does anyone know if using yellow paper like this in order to prevent the tracking dots from being…
Austin Capobianco
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Is Gina Haspel wanted in Europe?

In a tweet from Randy Kennedy, then shared on Facebook by Girl du Jour (and then others) it is claimed that President Trump's pick to head the CIA - Gina Haspel - is wanted in Europe for "war crimes". The posts don't specifically say, but presumably…
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