Skeptics Weekly Newsletter - Thursday, February 26, 2015

Top new questions this week: Has every U.S. presidential election been won by the candidate with the most money? According to Russell Brand: Every election in American history has been won by the party with the most money to campaign. Let's assume that he means every presidential election. Has every ... [ united-states ] [ politics ] [ money ]   asked by gerrit 18 votes Do professional beggars earn six-figure amounts yearly? Sources such as The Metro, Huffington Post and NY Daily News have cited examples of professional beggars, who are said to earn close to six-figure amounts yearly. The Straight Dope mentions ... [ society ]   asked by March Ho 13 votes answered by S Vilcans 1 vote Did scientists in UK find a sphere that is of extraterrestrial origin which contains alien biota? Is there an independent verification of the claims made by University of Buckingham researchers? From http://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/554074/Alien-seed-sent-Earth-aliens-Scientists-baffled: ... [ biology ] [ aliens ]   asked by DVK 13 votes answered by RedGrittyBrick 10 votes Does frequent sex cause vaginas to become permanently stretched? This is a common belief, sometimes used to shame women - that virgins have 'tight' vaginas and women who partake in more sexual intercourse have 'loose' vaginas due to permanent stretching. Is this ... [ sexuality ]   asked by user25130 11 votes answered by tcrosley 19 votes Does the availability of modern contraception only explain 10% of human fertility reduction? It is widely assumed that the most important factor leading to large family sizes and fast population growth is the lack of availability of contraception. But Tim Worstall's book Chasing Rainbows ... [ human-reproduction ] [ contraception ] [ population ]   asked by matt_black 7 votes Does marrying a relative confer fertility benefits? While doing research today I run into this piece: An Association Between the Kinship and Fertility of Human Couples Previous studies have reported that related human couples tend to produce ... [ marriage ] [ fertility ]   asked by Ask4Knowledge 4 votes Is food handled in China but available in Australia less safe than food handled in Australia? Recently, there's been an incident involving frozen berries handled in China spreading Hepatitis A in Australia. People are responding to this by arguing for better labeling of where food products ... [ nutrition ] [ safety ] [ china ] [ australia ]   asked by Andrew Grimm 4 votes Greatest hits from previous weeks: Do spiders intentionally wear water droplets on their heads? I discovered today that there are a lot of pictures of spiders "wearing" water drops as hats. (More research: Warning -- Spiders!) However, I can't find anything related to why they might do this. ... [ animals ] [ ethology ]   asked by Raven Dreamer 22 votes answered by RedGrittyBrick 24 votes Are ceramic heaters more efficient than convection heaters? A colleague is trying to tell me that I should pay more and get a ceramic heater rather than a cheap convection room heater because I'll save money on electricity. I have one like this: Sure it's ... [ physics ] [ consumer-products ]   asked by Coomie 12 votes answered by Thomas O 11 votes Can you answer this? Did a dust storm in Saudi Arabia cause it to "rain" money? The report Video: Storm in Saudi Arabia (or Dubai) causes money to rain. Emirates 24|7 News, February 24, 2015 claims that a recent dust storm in Saudi Arabia contained, briefly, bank notes ... [ news ] [ money ]   asked by E. P. 1 vote

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