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1500 questions
181
votes
4 answers
Does YouTube delete video dislikes?
On some YouTube videos, particularly highly downvoted ones, I often see comments asserting that their dislikes on the video are being deleted, either by YouTube or the channel itself.
From the Gillette "We Believe" ad:
Fake dislike count: 761k of…
mic
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179
votes
4 answers
Does a webpage with a black background save energy?
Blackle is a search engine that claims to save energy because it uses a black background. Is there any evidence to back up their claim that a website using a black background will save energy, and if so, how much energy will be saved?
user1936
177
votes
4 answers
Do 90% of employees who accept a counteroffer still end up leaving after a year?
According to a very highly upvoted post on Workplace.SE that says you should never accept a counteroffer:
80% of people who accept counter offers are gone from that company within 6 months, at the 12 month mark that goes up to 90%
I looked at the…
pacoverflow
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177
votes
2 answers
Is Google using ReCaptcha as a free source of human-intelligent labour?
Having worked at the Amazon Mechanical Turk for a long time, I find that some ReCaptcha questions are very similar to the 1c tasks there. Identify this, identify that.
A search shows that several web authors share the same suspicion. Most of them…
Mindwin Remember Monica
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174
votes
1 answer
Did NASA invest a million dollars in the research of a space pen, when the USSR simply used a pencil?
I encountered this picture of the "Russian space pen" from the MIT Museum gift shop
When NASA first started sending astronauts into space, they realized that the ball-point pen would not work at zero gravity.
A million dollar investment and two…
SIMEL
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172
votes
5 answers
Would the top 100 men in most physical sports beat each of the top 100 women?
In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins makes the following statement about sexual dimorphism:
Our sexual dimporhism is moderate but undeniable. Lots of women are taller than lots of men, but the tallest men are taller than…
I. Haage
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166
votes
4 answers
Does being cold increase your chances of catching the common cold?
"Everyone knows" - a scary statement - that you get "a cold" from being cold. Now it seems to be a fact that you don't, because you get a cold from a (rhino)virus, not from the temperature.
But is there any correlation between temperature and…
Nanne
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165
votes
1 answer
Is it illegal to own a rabbit in Queensland unless you're a magician?
From all that is interesting How Bunny Rabbits Took Over Australia — And What The Government Is Doing About It
In Queensland, Australia, it’s illegal to own a pet rabbit unless
you’re a magician. Why? Because for the past 150 years, rabbits have
…
Andrew Grimm
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162
votes
2 answers
Do victims of rape have biological defenses that prevent pregnancy?
Pro life Rep. Todd Akin, who was running for Senate in Missouri, said:
“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Needless to say, this claim is quite controversial. Is there any truth to it?
samthebrand
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160
votes
4 answers
Is bread bad for ducks?
This image has being going around (e.g. Facebook with a message attributed to The Friends of Bushy and Home Parks:
Transcript:
Please don't kill us with bread!
Bread is actually a danger to us ducks and other water birds
It causes Angel Wing,…
user48565
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160
votes
9 answers
Is closed-source code more secure than open-source?
My computing teacher told us that closed source software is more secure than open source software, because with open source "anyone can modify it and put stuff in." This is why they do not want to use open source alternatives for learning to…
Thomas O
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159
votes
5 answers
Was Einstein a poor student?
I've heard this repeatedly over the years, that Einstein was bad at math, that he was bad at history, that he was dyslexic. I also read somewhere in my youth that some of the " bad at math" stuff was based on a poor exam score he once received -…
Dogmafrog
158
votes
6 answers
Are people of Nordic Nations "happier, healthier" with "a higher standard of living overall than Americans"?
Ernest W. Adams wrote in the answer to the question "Why are people so negative about Nordic nations, especially Sweden?":
There are a lot of right wing Americans who have been preaching for the last 70 years that the welfare state can’t work, it's…
Sakib Arifin
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157
votes
4 answers
Did Donald Trump say that "global warming was a hoax invented by the Chinese"?
In the Presidential debate of 26th September, Hillary Clinton claimed that "Donald Trump said that global warming was a hoax invented by the Chinese" . Trump replied several times "I did not say that".
Did he say (or write) that?
DJClayworth
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156
votes
4 answers
Can you only trace a phone call if they don't hang up?
In movies and television shows, you often see law enforcement (or hacker types) attempting to trace a phone call that they have received. The typical scene plays out with one party trying to keep the other party on the phone long enough for them to…
Luke
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