Skeptics Weekly Newsletter - Thursday, July 31, 2014

Top new questions this week: Is it safe to stand by the windows during a thunderstorm? There is widespread belief in my culture that we should not stay near door or windows during lightning. So people advise others to stay inside house with doors and windows closed to be safe from … [ physics ] [ safety ] [ weather ] [ lightning ]   asked by AaKASH 38 votes answered by Colin Pickard 35 votes Does the average American unwittingly commit three felonies a day? Harvey Silverglate has written a book, Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, in which he claims, according to the Amazon blurb: The average professional in this country wakes up … [ law ]   asked by Ben Crowell 27 votes answered by Bobson 17 votes Are these quotes by Malcom X, Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict correct? I've seen this image on Facebook, often these image macros are just made up, or misattributed quotes, what about in this case? [ quotes ] [ palestine ] [ misattribution ]   asked by dwjohnston 26 votes answered by georgechalhoub 35 votes Are there enough IPv6 addresses for every atom on the surface of the Earth? There is already a question on this site comparing the number of IPv6 addresses to the number of grains of sand on earth, but my question is different. There is a famous quote that everyone in … [ internet ] [ earth ]   asked by Sufiyan Ghori 21 votes answered by georgechalhoub 29 votes Did Coca-Cola contain cocaine? Is it true Coca-Cola once contained cocaine? To what extent and how similar was this to the street drug cocaine? Until 1903, the world-famous soft drink contained a significant dose of cocaine. … [ drugs ] [ recreational-drugs ] [ drinks ]   asked by Mark Price 18 votes answered by georgechalhoub 21 votes Does the UK has enough wind to power the country five times over? Greenpeace UK tweeted about the UK having enough wind to power the country five times over: MT @1010: The UK has enough wind to power the country five times over. Let's use it! After a bit of … [ energy ] [ wind-power ]   asked by Wilka 14 votes answered by EnergyNumbers 10 votes Was an amendment proposed making everyone in favour of a war liable for military service? Apparently from Ultrafacts.tumblr.com, with a tweet version retweeted 137 times: In 1916 an amendment was proposed to the Constitution that all acts of war would be put to a national vote. … [ united-states ] [ law ] [ voting ]   asked by Andrew Grimm 11 votes answered by Nate Eldredge 15 votes Greatest hits from previous weeks: Does white noise improve concentration? Sites like http://whitenoisemp3s.com and http://www.simplynoise.com, as well as a multitude of "concentration apps" on Android Market and iPhone App Store propose the idea that white noise improves … [ psychology ] [ concentration ]   asked by Zano 19 votes answered by Variable 11 votes Did Einstein say "if you can't explain it simply you don't understand it well enough"? A very popular quote attributed to Albert Einstein but did he really say it? If so, what is the original document containing the original explanation of it? [ education ] [ quotes ] [ albert-einstein ]   asked by Renan 20 votes answered by HappySpoon 2 votes Can you answer these? Has ISIS issued a mandate that stores cover up mannequins' faces? It has been widely reported from the Associated Press that ISIS has ordered shopkeepers in the Iraqi city of Mosul to cover the faces of mannequins. (NBC news, one of many sources:) ISIS Forces Iraq … [ news ] [ media ] [ iraq ] [ syria ]   asked by Cincinnatus 2 votes Determining your ancestry through the shape of your feet? This picture makes its rounds around blogs & forums recently: Does it have any scientific backing? [ biology ]   asked by sashkello 3 votes Does organic food have more antioxidants than nonorganic food? I know that there are a lot of studies out there that claim that organic food is not significantly different than nonorganic food in nutritional content, but this new study seems to challenge this … [ nutrition ] [ organic ] [ scientific-papers ]   asked by Sintrastes 2 votes

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