Skeptics Weekly Newsletter - Thursday, May 28, 2015

Top new questions this week: Did Ray Bradbury ever claim that "Fahrenheit 451" was not about censorship? One of the persons I follow on twitter recently linked this article. It contains the following claims: [Ray Bradbury] has always insisted that the main theme of the book is the role of the ... [ quotes ] [ books ]   asked by Federico 49 votes answered by DavePhD 61 votes During pregnancy, do babies send stem cells to their mothers to repair organ damage? This picture is floating around the facebooks with no attribution to an original source (not even a source of the image): The image says: During pregnancy, if a mother suffers organ damage, the ... [ medical-science ] [ biology ] [ pregnancy ]   asked by IQAndreas 34 votes answered by georgechalhoub 38 votes Did BBC ignore 50,000 people protesting against austerity? I saw this on Facebook today: 50,000 people in London protest austerity outside the BBC. BBC completely ignores them. Facebook indicates that the meme was posted on June 22, 2014. The ... [ media ] [ activism ]   asked by dwjohnston 26 votes answered by user568458 32 votes Do GMO companies forbid independent research on their seeds? I was linked to this article on Global Research.ca today which claims that GMO companies (specifically Monsanto, but also naming DuPont and Syngenta) ban independent research on their seeds. ... [ gmo ] [ patents ]   asked by March Ho 12 votes answered by Oddthinking 4 votes Did Chinese philosopher "Tson Tse" anticipate key ideas of evolution 2500 years ago? In his famous book Glimpses of World History, Jawaharlal Nehru writes (p. 610, Penguin 2004 Edition, emphasis mine): As I have been telling you of Darwin's theory of the origin of species, it ... [ quotes ] [ evolution ] [ china ]   asked by pew 10 votes answered by HDE 226868 10 votes Is Israel the only "Free and Democratic" country in the Middle East? I read a lot about the State of Israel being the only Free and Democratic country in the Middle East: John McCain: This is really the worst situation by far that any of us have seen as far as ... [ israel ] [ democracy ]   asked by Jose Luis 7 votes answered by georgechalhoub 5 votes Are confident guys more likely to get a girlfriend? MenHealth.com writes: Simply put, confidence gets the girl. In Learn How You Can Get A Great Girlfriend on the blog DatingPaladin the author writes: Getting a girlfriend is something that ... [ sexuality ]   asked by Christian 7 votes answered by DVK 4 votes Greatest hits from previous weeks: Is it legal to shoot groups of Native Americans in some US States? At a young age, I remember being told by a teacher that if there are five or more native Americans in a group, it is legal to shoot them, because it is considered a war party. The teacher told me that ... [ united-states ] [ law ] [ racism ]   asked by Evorlor 52 votes answered by reirab 64 votes Did Pope Francis say that women are "unfit for political office", and merely the "helper of men"? A popular image going around Facebook claims it to be true. The image was found on the Anti-Theists blog page, currently with 65,000+ followers. The picture reads, Women are naturally unfit for ... [ quotes ] [ pope ] [ christianity ]   asked by Evan Carroll 27 votes answered by user11942 46 votes Can you answer these? Do pesticides containing EDCs cause IQ loss, obesity and cryptorchidism? Recently, there have been news reports about Endochrine-Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) have sprung up, such as this February 2015 Guardian article. Draft EU criteria could have banned 31 pesticides ... [ environmental-health ] [ pesticide ]   asked by Mark Anderson 6 votes Do commercial DNA synthesis labs maintain a "watch list" of dangerous DNA sequences? This New York Times article claims that Their DNA could be put on a watch list, as sequences for anthrax and smallpox are, so any attempt to buy them from DNA supply houses would raise flags. ... [ biology ] [ dna ]   asked by March Ho 5 votes Can abdominal muscles take over 75% of the workload of a diaphragm and restore 100% lung function? This News Report says that the boy mentioned had 75% of his diaphragm removed due to cancer, however as a result of strong abdominal muscles now has 100% lung function. Is this really feasible, or is ... [ medical-science ]   asked by tmaster 1 vote

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