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1921 Fact Checker

4 Comments and 7 Shares
POLITIFACT SAYS: MOSTLY WHATEVER
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thelem
2078 days ago
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I now want to fact check this. Does anyone have a copy if the Kansas City Sun from 6th May 1921?
Brighton, UK
wffurr
2078 days ago
Subscription required, can't find a free link: https://www.newspapers.com/image/477982700/
millenix
2078 days ago
Probably some Kansas City library...
fallinghawks
2078 days ago
I suspect it's a hoax. Corn is a new world food, so it would be rather odd to take something that had likely been imported from North America to England back to North America. I guess it depends on whether England had adopted corn as a crop by that time.
satadru
2078 days ago
Maize was being cultivated in the old world by the mid-1500s as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize#Columbian_exchange
millenix
2078 days ago
'Corn' could refer to any grain - cf https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/corn
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CallMeWilliam
2078 days ago
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Predictably, Explain XKCD has already done some fact checking:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2129:_1921_Fact_Checker

Perhaps equally predictable: Randall did his research.
millenix
2078 days ago
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'Corn' could refer to any grain - cf https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/corn
alt_text_bot
2078 days ago
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POLITIFACT SAYS: MOSTLY WHATEVER

Consensus New Year

6 Comments and 13 Shares
The biggest jump is at 11:00am EST (4:00pm UTC) when midnight reaches the UTC+8 time zone. That time zone, which includes China, is home to a quarter of the world's population. India and Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) put us over the 50% mark soon after.
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thelem
2164 days ago
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Seems odd to have times in Eastern rather than UTC, given timezones are always quoted relative to UTC.

Is there a mistake in the caption or alt text? The caption implies consensus new year happens at 6:30 UTC, but the alt text says 5:30
Brighton, UK
HandEFood
2164 days ago
It says UTC+5:30 which is a time zone that has midnight at 18:30 UTC+0:00.
thelem
2162 days ago
Thanks. It's obvious when you put it like that.
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jepler
2164 days ago
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Note: the line appears to reach 100% but some of us will continue living in the past.
Earth, Sol system, Western spiral arm
francisga
2164 days ago
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TIL that one time zone has a quarter of the world's population.
Lafayette, LA, USA
alt_text_at_your_service
2164 days ago
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The biggest jump is at 11:00am EST (4:00pm UTC) when midnight reaches the UTC+8 time zone. That time zone, which includes China, is home to a quarter of the world's population. India and Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) put us over the 50% mark soon after.
alt_text_bot
2164 days ago
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The biggest jump is at 11:00am EST (4:00pm UTC) when midnight reaches the UTC+8 time zone. That time zone, which includes China, is home to a quarter of the world's population. India and Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) put us over the 50% mark soon after.

An Apple for a Dollar

7 Comments and 9 Shares
I'd like 0.4608 apples, please.
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thelem
2332 days ago
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In Europe we just include the sales tax in the price on the shelf. If the label says £1, I hand over £1. When I'm buying something I don't really care how much of that £1 is tax, how much is going to the shop, how much is going to the producer etc.
Brighton, UK
zippy72
2331 days ago
Actually in the entire EU it’s criminal to advertise the price without taxes to domestic consumers, although receipts must display both the net and gross prices.
satadru
2328 days ago
Bravo EU!
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kazriko
2334 days ago
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A lot of places work out their prices so things land exactly on an even dollar amount after taxes. The japanese restaurant I eat at randomly, for example. I'm still an advocate for eliminating the nickel and penny entirely.
Colorado Plateau
jlvanderzwan
2334 days ago
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She should visit the HEMA in the Netherlands
tedder
2335 days ago
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one of a million reasons I love living in Oregon. Though sales tax is slightly progressive..
Uranus
dukeofwulf
2335 days ago
Sales tax is a regressive tax.
2335 days ago
The constitutional ban on sales tax is about the only good thing about living in Oregon. Though sales tax is *entirely* regressive, so kind of amazing it flies in the state that gave us Branch Dildonians, Stormfront and kept putting anti-GLBT measures on the ballot for decades.
fxer
2334 days ago
we also have a tree
olliejones
2334 days ago
In MA, we have a sales tax. But food and clothing aren't taxable. That makes the tax a little more progressive and means we can buy apples for a buck exactly at expensive stores.
2334 days ago
Not having a sales tax on food and clothes doesn't make a general sales tax more progressive. A general sales tax is always just as regressive whether or not there's a food and clothes exception.
mburch42
2335 days ago
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This happens to me all the time in Oregon. (no sales tax)
alt_text_bot
2335 days ago
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I'd like 0.4608 apples, please.
jepler
2335 days ago
what? How am I supposed to make you change of 73/15625 dollars?
alt_text_at_your_service
2335 days ago
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I'd like 0.4608 apples, please.

Birdwatching

2 Comments and 5 Shares
No, tell the park rangers to calm down, it's fine--I put a screen on the front. I just want to get the birds a little closer.
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thelem
2785 days ago
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Click through and you'll see that this comic is meant to be shown much larger than normal size.
Brighton, UK
tsuckow
2785 days ago
I see no difference on mobile. :(
ruffin
2785 days ago
it was just a bug for a few hours. normal size now.
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alt_text_bot
2786 days ago
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No, tell the park rangers to calm down, it's fine--I put a screen on the front. I just want to get the birds a little closer.

Meteorite Identification

7 Comments and 11 Shares
Click for an actual flowchart for identifying a meteorite. My favorite part is how 'Did someone see it fall? -> Yes' points to 'NOT A METEORITE.' This is not a mistake.
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thelem
3025 days ago
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The site it links to is down, but the flowchart is accessible at https://web.archive.org/web/20160110210954/http://meteorites.wustl.edu/check-list.htm
Brighton, UK
lahosken
3025 days ago
Thanks to this, I can see that "Did someone see it fall?" has no "No" option. This is obviously part of the conspiracy to hide the existence of aliens.
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chrisrosa
3024 days ago
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how to identify a meteorite (be sure to check the mouse-over).
San Francisco, CA
manderay
3025 days ago
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I used to work in a lab in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington U, therefore I am (extremely) tangentially related to this xkcd and feeling very pleased with myself. (also I wonder if they've figured out why their site is crashing this morning...)
Chicago
hananc
3025 days ago
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https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/regmaglypt
alt_text_bot
3025 days ago
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Click for an actual flowchart for identifying a meteorite. My favorite part is how 'Did someone see it fall? -> Yes' points to 'NOT A METEORITE.' This is not a mistake.

Degrees

11 Comments and 21 Shares
"Radians Fahrenheit or radians Celsius?" "Uh, sorry, gotta go!"
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thelem
3207 days ago
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As a non-American, Farenheit points 2, 5 and 6 don't make sense to me. Celsius is easy to approximate, and my friends expect me to talk Celsius.
Brighton, UK
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infini
3213 days ago
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Arctic weather
Asia, EU, Africa
kbrint
3214 days ago
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Kelvin.
minderella
3214 days ago
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We just don't have enough ascot weather days here in Sacramento.
jimwise
3214 days ago
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Yup.
satadru
3214 days ago
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The Apollo Guidance Computers used metric units internally, and converted to "English" units for display... so really there was no excuse for losing the Mars Climate Orbiter over this crap 30 years later. Source: http://www.doneyles.com/LM/Tales.html
New York, NY
zippy72
3214 days ago
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I seriously don't understand why people don't want their temperature in degrees Reamur any more... :-P
FourSquare, qv
Covarr
3214 days ago
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I'm the friend that does this on purpose.
East Helena, MT
alt_text_bot
3214 days ago
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"Radians Fahrenheit or radians Celsius?" "Uh, sorry, gotta go!"
eraycollins
3214 days ago
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t-shirt weather, sweatshirt weather, parka weather, umbrella weather, rain suit weather, galoshes weather, waders weather, ad infinitum
tdarby
3214 days ago
ascot weather, jodhpurs weather, hennin weather, morphsuit weather, shako weather, brogues weather, crinoline weather, havelock weather...
fxer
3214 days ago
I'm going to guess you own more than one cape, tdarby
austinstorm
3207 days ago
@tdarby this is amazing.
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