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1500 questions
31
votes
5 answers
Is playing sport at your 'home ground' a benefit?
As Wikipedia puts it...
In team sports, the term home
advantage (also called home
field/court/diamond/ice advantage)
describes the advantage–usually a
psychological advantage–that the home
team is said to have over the visiting
team as…
kieran
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31
votes
1 answer
Was this Indian from British India the first to strike Berlin during World War I?
This article (since deleted, backup here) came to my eye recently.
The article glosses over the exploits of a citizen of British India who, purportedly, rose from utter obscurity to becoming an ace flier. A quote of some of the article is as…
Everyone
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31
votes
1 answer
Was Harrison Ford the janitor or carpenter on the set of Star Wars?
There is an old urban legend that Harrison Ford was actually the janitor on the set of Star Wars, and was standing in for the actor that was supposed to play Han Solo. The execs liked him so much they cast him on the spot.
Is there any truth to…
Scottie
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31
votes
2 answers
Does baking soda remove odors?
I have always been told that an open box of baking soda will "absorb" odors and make a fridge smell less. I have even seen people with three boxes in one fridge. My question is whether there is any scientific evidence for this claim.
It seems…
Brad
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31
votes
1 answer
Did the NYPD use an ambulance to trick protesters into cooperating?
I saw this tumblr post (with over 50,000 notes, so it's notable), which says:
Tonight the NYPD tricked protesters into helping them by driving empty ambulances through the crowd. We thought they were transporting real sick people and let them…
ike
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31
votes
2 answers
Has a human ever been eaten by an anaconda?
In an article, Yes, Forcing an Anaconda to Eat a Human on TV Is a Bad Idea, the "world’s foremost expert on anacondas", Jesús Rivas claims:
"The concern is that all that these shows do is to paint the snakes as
the bad guys," he added. "While…
Franck Dernoncourt
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31
votes
1 answer
Are there more than 50,000 people in Japan over 100 years old?
I recently read this article and although majority of the items are believable, #5 is really shocking.
Is it true that there are more than 50,000 alive people in Japan already over 100?
Zaenille
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31
votes
3 answers
Do lemmings commit suicide by jumping off cliffs?
Lemmings have become widely known for their supposed tendency to run en masse off of cliffs to their deaths. The term "lemming" has even become a commonly used metaphor to describe the behavior of those who would mindlessly follow the crowd,…
Monkey Tuesday
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31
votes
1 answer
In the USA, is AIDS most prevalent in the gay male population?
Back in the early 1980s, AIDS was originally named Gay-related Immune Deficiency (GRID). Researchers renamed the disease as they became aware of the spread of the disease in other demographics. For the non-USA population that may not be aware of…
user1873
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31
votes
1 answer
Is Shaolin monk Hu Qiong using "Chi energy" to withstand an electric drill?
In one of the episodes of Stan Lee's Superhumans (the excerpt in question can be viewed here) a Shaolin monk named Hu Qiong claims that by training his body and "transfering Chi to the right part of the body" he can make his body so tough that it is…
MMM
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31
votes
2 answers
Do some casinos use extra oxygen to increase gambling, or is this a myth?
(Image: Source)
It's no secret that casinos are designed to encourage visitors to stay (and hopefully gamble). But how far do casinos really go?
10 Tricks Casinos Use On you:
free drinks
no clocks
no windows
labyrinth design
alluring…
Oliver_C
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31
votes
2 answers
Did a group of U.S. women propose to send black kids instead of dogs to space?
In his 1964 book "The third side of the dollar", Lithuanian journalist Albertas Laurinčiukas writes:
After Laika's flight, a group of women from Mississippi, U.S., sent a letter to the United Nations. They demanded to condemn USSR's inhumane…
Quassnoi
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31
votes
1 answer
Do Asian (esp. Japanese) people have longer intestines than people of European descent?
It appears to be a common strain of folk wisdom in Asia (or at least in Japan) that Asian people traditionally have had diets based on plants while Westerners have had diets based on meat, and therefore Asians have longer intestines that are suited…
ssb
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31
votes
2 answers
Was Columbus involved in sexual slavery?
The Oatmeal claims that Columbus engaged in sexual slavery.
Columbus began rewarding his lieutenants with sex slaves -- particularly young girls who had been forced into sexual slavery. In a letter to a friend, Columbus remarked upon how girls…
Andrew Grimm
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31
votes
2 answers
Does this graph show climate-change predictions don't meet observations?
Dr. Roy Spencer, a climate change contrarian, posted this graph on his blog claiming that observed temperature trends are much lower than what climate models predict:
Is Spencer misrepresenting what the mainstream models predict? If so, how?
Is…
James Christopher
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