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1500 questions
30
votes
2 answers
Is sitting dangerous?
I recently was e-mailed this link: Sitting down is killing you.
Apparently this is based on a medical study and much of what is said in this range of adverts campaigning against sitting down makes sense and they do cite quite a few references.…
DeVil
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Was the Earth one big ocean once?
Many people believe that Earth was one big ocean at some point in its past.
During Noah’s time the earth was completely covered with water.
There are many other examples, not all related to Noah. See here, here, here, here and so on.
Is that…
user32154
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30
votes
2 answers
Will a mere touch kill a butterfly?
I've heard many times that touching a butterfly will remove some "special" powder from its wings preventing it to ever fly again, effectively killing it or condemning it to die of starvation.
Example on a blog:
When you touch a butterfly, you get…
Sklivvz
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Is drug development far cheaper than Big Pharma wants us to believe?
In an article titled "The Make-Believe Billion - How drug companies exaggerate research costs to justify absurd profits" in Slate the author writes about a new study about the costs of drug development.
The common cost for the development of a new…
Mad Scientist
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30
votes
1 answer
Did Albert Einstein say "the only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once"?
The quote
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
is attributed to Einstein with some regularity. (For example, Google returns 47,700 results, of which all except 5,780 include the word Einstein. Google Books…
user95432
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30
votes
1 answer
Do ~25% of Japanese people believe that USSR dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
I have heard this claim a few times from some random people, and recently came across it in pravda.ru as well:
from "Japan will never forgive USA"
There is such a statistics: 25 per cent of young Japanese people
believe that the bombings were…
sashkello
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30
votes
1 answer
Is this picture of Rachel Dolezal reading a book called "How to be Black" genuine?
This picture of Rachel Dolezal has been making the rounds online. Is it genuine?
Ijreview, where it was featured, isn't sure if the image is fake or real.
Twilight Sparkle
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30
votes
2 answers
Do Greeks evade taxes by not finishing their houses?
I've heard this claim several times:
Q: Why are there so many unfinished houses in Greece?
A: as long as the house is not finished, they don't have to pay building tax for it. So the leave it unfinished in order to evade this tax.
Is this true?
oefe
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30
votes
1 answer
Why should we try to reduce swelling after injury?
The very common advice for immediate treatment of an injury is R.I.C.E. — rest, ice, compression and elevation — to reduce swelling. But why should we try to reduce the natural swelling response? When I pose the question on Google, many results…
Martin F
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30
votes
2 answers
Was Pope Francis a Black Sabbath fan in his youth?
Recently I stumbled upon the image of the young Pope Francis wearing a Black Sabbath T-shirt.
Could this be real?
I'm guessing this is fake, but I am at work and can't do a complete research about it. The reason I find this may be fake is mostly due…
streppel
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30
votes
1 answer
Do African countries have to pay a "colonial tax" to France?
There is a claim that as of today, a lot of African countries are forced to pay a significant percentage of their income to France, and this is the cause of widespread hunger in Africa.
14 African Countries Forced by France to Pay Colonial Tax For…
vsz
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30
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2 answers
Do secret societies that wish to bring about a new world order still exist?
Do secret societies that wish to bring about a new world order still exist? Who are they, what evidence points to their existence today, and what are their overall goals? Also, who are the foremost experts on secret societies?
This question…
Eric Sokolsky
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Is Idaho forcing pastors to conduct same-sex weddings or face penalties?
According to this article from "ADF" and this in the Washington Post, the city of Coeur d'Alene is requiring the Knapps, an ordained couple, to conduct same sex weddings or face penalties for discrimination.
Donald and Evelyn Knapp are apparently…
Affable Geek
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Have you shared (one water molecule of) your glass of water with a dinosaur?
I saw on the web:
La probabilité que vous buviez un verre d'eau qui contient une molécule d'eau qui est également passée à travers un dinosaure est de quasiment 100%.
This translates to:
The probability that the glass of water you are drinking…
Pop Flamingo
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30
votes
3 answers
Did a Soviet nail factory produce useless nails to improve metrics?
We've all heard the story, which sounds for all the world like a typical urban legend. It goes something like this:
Once upon a time, there was a factory in the Soviet Union that made
nails. Unfortunately, Moscow set quotas on their nail…
Mason Wheeler
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