Skeptics Weekly Newsletter - Thursday, April 30, 2015

Top new questions this week: Are LDS missionaries taught languages to a level of fluency in under three months which takes other schools years? In How do Mormon missionaries learn foreign languages so quickly? it is claimed that LDS (Mormon) missionaries spend only up to ten weeks in languge learning, and that most are "fluent" within one ... [ language ] [ christianity ]   asked by curiousdannii 24 votes Did Edgar Allan Poe predict a shipwreck? Edgar Allan Poe predicted the future. His only novel is about 4 shipwrecked men who run out of food and eat the cabin boy, Richard Parker. 46 years after it published, a yacht sank in real life ... [ history ] [ psychics ]   asked by Chris Loonam 21 votes answered by nico 47 votes Did Freeman Dyson say that atoms have awareness? A video uploaded on YouTube, Richard Dawkins irritated by irrationality, pictured a debate with Richard Dawkins and Deepak Chopra on whether God exists or not. Chopra: You said that atoms get ... [ quotes ]   asked by georgechalhoub 20 votes answered by coleopterist 24 votes Did the Ottoman government kill ~1 million Armenians during and after World War I? The Armenian Genocide is explained in Wikipedia as the Ottoman government's systematic extermination of its minority Armenian subjects inside their historic homeland, which lies within the ... [ history ] [ turkey ]   asked by georgechalhoub 13 votes answered by Oddthinking 11 votes Does this line appear in 50 Shades of Grey? Just saw this on Facebook, thought I'd better check that it's for real before sharing. "His pointed finger circled my puckered love cave. 'Are you ready for this?' he mewled, smirking at me ... [ books ]   asked by dwjohnston 11 votes answered by georgechalhoub 23 votes Was measles vaccine introduced after the disease was under control Recently, I have been arguing with people opposing the use of vaccines. One google search query led me to an article claiming that are death cases by measles vaccines. The article goes on claiming ... [ united-states ] [ vaccines ]   asked by Xitcod13 11 votes answered by ChrisW 13 votes Is there any archaeological evidence for Norman Invasion of Britain in 1066? This article by Joshua Berman claims that "The Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain in the 5th century, the Arab conquest of Palestine in the 7th century, even the Norman invasion of England in 1066: all ... [ history ] [ archaeology ]   asked by Jayson Virissimo 8 votes answered by ChrisW 11 votes Greatest hits from previous weeks: Can anything remove fingerprints from your fingers? Here's where it gets interesting; I don't mean erase them from an object, I mean from your fingers directly. Some people claim there is a way to do it, some people claim it's impossible. I have a ... [ biology ] [ criminology ]   asked by Monkey Tuesday 42 votes answered by Oliver_C 36 votes If American churches paid taxes, how much revenue would that generate? A recent Cracked.com photoplasty contest produced this image: Is this image correct? Would taxing churches generate that much money, and would that much money be enough to cover food stamps and ... [ united-states ] [ taxes ] [ christianity ]   asked by Avi 47 votes answered by DJClayworth 71 votes Can you answer these? Is it unhealthy to lick the lid of a yogurt cup? I've heard that it's unhealthy to eat the yogurt that sticks to the lid because it contains aluminium. Scraping it off with a spoon is even worse than licking it. Is there any evidence that this is ... [ nutrition ]   asked by Cephalopod 8 votes Are coffee grounds effective as a cat repellent? It is one of those "remedies" you can find everywhere: if you have trouble with cats in your flower beds, cats leaving their droppings in your garden (or burying their poop) you should use your coffee ... [ animals ] [ household ]   asked by Nanne 5 votes Did a 700 percent increase in pencil sales occur in Britain on the back of the Sudoku boom? A The Independent of London article, The rise and rise of Sudoku, claimed that: [...] sales of pencils in Britain are reported to have risen 700 per cent on the back of the Sudoku boom. A 700% ... [ games ]   asked by Carlo Alterego 8 votes

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