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Articles by March Ho
Have the ending credits of Rambo III been changed?
Original sources from the time of the movie's release, 1988, state that the film is dedicated to the "gallant people of Afghanistan". See the BBC's The Listener volumes 119-120, page 218: When he does pitch in it's only in order to rescue the Colonel, before becoming converted to the cause of the 'gallant people of Afghanistan' (to whom the film is dedicated). And if the previous Rambo films have been replays of Vietnam with...
islam - Is Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" a bestseller in Muslim countries? - Skeptics Stack Exchange
According to the Middle East Media Research Institute's Special Dispatch No. 48, Hitler's Mein Kampf In East Jerusalem And PA Territories: Mein Kampf "is sixth on the Palestinian best-seller list". This was back in 1999, and supports the claim of the BBC article in the OP which is from 2002. Though the title in the OP generalizes to "Muslim countries", there is no corresponding claim referenced in the OP.
Is one guilty until proven innocent in the Mexican legal system?
While reading this Travel SE question, an answer cited this website about Mexican gun laws which states the following (emphasis mine): Remember, once you cross the border with a firearm or ammunition it is too late! Ignorance of this law will not get you leniency from the police. You will be arrested and sent to jail. Also, the Mexican judicial system is governed by Napoleonic Law which states that you are presumed guilty and must prove your innocence, the opposite of the U.S. laws.
Did A&W customers think 1/3 pound burger patties weigh less than 1/4 pound ones?
The source of this image is an article in NY Times Magazine, the text of which (about a quarter down the page) is quoted exactly. Kevin Drum, a blogger for MotherJones, tried to track down the source of this anecdote. He found a tweet by the article's author, Elizabeth Green, saying that she got it from "Threshold Resistance", the memoirs of Alfred Taubman, then-owner of A&W.
Colourful aquatic animal identification
While Ilan's answer has already covered the identification, here are a couple of other techniques which can be used to identify such animals in the future (or at least narrow down the scope of possibilities): 1: The upper left hand corner of the image depicts a fin which has multiple bony protrusions. This is an identifying feature of the Actinopterygii, which all possess such fin structures. 2: The image was not taken by you, but found online.
What security scheme is used by PDF password encryption, and why is it so weak?
The main problem with password-protecting a PDF file with a password is that you are basing the security on a password, which is some piece of data that a human user, somewhere, came up with in his mind, and was arrogant enough to deem "unguessable". It turns out that most passwords are guessable. The situation can be somewhat improved by making the password-to-key transformation expensive (this is called password hashing) but a weak password is still weak.
What prevents a man in the middle from requesting a certificate for your server?
A CA is supposed to make sure that the certificates it issues contain only truthful information. How they do that is their business; serious CA are supposed to publish detailed "Certification Practice Statements" that document their procedures. In practice, when you want to buy a certificate for a domain, the CA "challenges" you, so that you demonstrate that you indeed have control of that domain.
There aren't any animals like hornets that hunt large prey (like a rabbit, or even up to a deer), right? Why not?
They do exist. Many such examples can be found. Such as the most terrifying one, being social groups formed by Spiders, Anelosimus eximius documented here. Colonies of upto 9000 individuals have been documented by the scientists in their report. Also let's not forget Piranhas, another group of social animals, which take down much larger prey due to their larger colony size.
What is the origin of this photo of an unexploded bomb?
Cropping the image with Photoshop, then performing a reverse image search on this image resulted in a hit to this Ukrainian news site, which has additional images of the truck which was hit by the missile. Google Translate of the page has the following information: Ukrainian security officials, who are near the village of Dmitrovka Donetsk region were fired from a Russian "Hurricane." Fortunately, one of the rockets that hit in the staff car, did not explode.
Do London underground drivers earn more and work less than doctors?
The hours seem to be accurate, the salaries not so much. The sources appear to be these for train driver and hospital doctor. Neither of the source documents are specific to London, these are for hospital doctors and generic train drivers across the entire United Kingdom, not specifically London Tube drivers or London doctors. The chart says the "starting salary" for a doctor is £22,636 but the source says this salary is for a "junior hospital trainee".
Knights, Knaves and Normals (Smullyan's Error)
In the kingdom of Boolistan, every inhabitant is either a Knight, Knave or Normal. Knights can only make true statements, Knaves can only lie, and Normals must either tell the truth or lie. Warmup: The local tavern only allows Normals (no one can relax around Knights and Knaves). What can a Normal say to prove their identity? Challenge: Only knights can dine at King Arthur's Round Table. What can a Knight say to prove their identity? If you think the challenge is impossible, you are not alone.
Where does “Anything that can be made by magic can be unmade by magic” come from?
He ticked the situation off on his fingers. "Archie, you've been kicked in the teeth by at least three of the four different types of elementals — earth, fire, and water. Maybe there was a sylph of the air in on it, too, but I can't prove it. First the gnomes came and cleaned out everything you had that came out of the ground, except cold iron. A salamander followed them and set fire to the place, burning everything that was burnable, and scorching and smoke-damaging the rest.
civil engineering - What is the purpose of these "steps" in rivers? - Engineering Stack Exchange
The 'steps' are called weirs, and they are used for a number of flow control reasons in rivers. In the case of the images you posted, they are probably being used to stabilized the grade (slope) of the river.
Do homosexuals have a shorter life expectancy than heterosexuals?
No, there are only few authoritative studies comparing the life expectancy of homosexuals and heterosexuals since death cannot be attributed solely to any group's sexual orientation, ethnic or social factor. Per results of the R.S. Hogg et. al. 1997 study which assessed how HIV infection and AIDS impacts on mortality rates for gay and bisexual men, "The probability of living from age 20 to 65 years for gay and bisexual men ranged from 32% for the 3% scenario, to 59% for the 9% scenario.
Is there an advantage to antibacterial soap?
Short answer: There is no benefit. Long answer: These soaps (see here for the complete list) contain the so called quaternary ammonium compounds Benzalkonium chloride and Cetrimonium chloride which indeed have antimicrobial properties. While they do not promote resistance to these compounds (see reference 1), their use is still not recommended, as their permanent use might dry out the skin, can cause contact allergies and the products released into the environment are also problematic.
What is the mass of a pigeon tail feather?
I just weighed a pigeon tail feather (~10 cm) long. The mass was 0.05 g. Although all tail feathers are not equal in length (and all pigeons are not equal in size), this is probably a good approximation. Measuring the drag coefficient is going to be very challenging, because it will vary with the orientation of the oncoming airflow.
Will the heart keep beating if it is separated from the body?
There is a simple explanation why. As you know every muscle in the body has to receive stimuli from the neuromuscular junction (and subsequently the nervous system) in order to contact. The heart is a bit different in that it is not regulated by the brain, but actually within the heart itself. The heart conductive system contains a special group of cells called the pace maker cells (SA node) fire at regular intervals that cause the heart to beat.
Why is triclosan not considered an antibiotic?
This is more of a comment. Triclosan binds to bacterial enoyl-acyl carrier protein reductase (ENR) enzyme, which is encoded by the gene FabI. This binding increases the enzyme's affinity for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+). This results in the formation of a stable, ternary complex of ENR-NAD+-triclosan, which is unable to participate in fatty acid synthesis.
Can tortoises become deformed by growing up inside rings of plastic?
There has been discussion on the Snopes forums regarding the second image. In the link, they discussed the case of Peanut the tortoise, which appears to be the same tortoise depicted in the first link. Therefore, at least the first image is authentic, and tortoises can certainly be deformed by plastic rings. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources quoting the Missouri Department of Conservation, the first photo is an authentic image.
Can an employer see what I'm doing on my iPhone whilst logged onto wifi
Yes, but much of this depends on the apps themselves. I use apps like whatsapp and iMessages to communicate when I need to, can my employer see the content of those messages (actually read what I'm sending and receiving) or can they just see that I have been logged into whatsapp and iMessages over the wifi signal? Speaking of those two apps specifically, they can perform a man-in-the-middle security certificate attack and read your messages.
Why does an electrical shock freeze up muscles?
An important factor here is the let-go phenomenon, which is defined as the current level in the arm that will cause the hand to involuntarily grip the current source. When the fingers are wrapped around a large cable, most adults will be able to let go with a current of less than 6 mA. At 22 mA, however, more than 99% of adults will not be able to let go. Nearly all cases of inability to let go involve alternating current.
quotes - Did Ray Bradbury ever claim that "Fahrenheit 451" was not about censorship? - Skeptics Stack Exchange
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 mass media and its effect on the populace virtually nobody accepts this as the true theme of the novel, even though it’s an exact-ish quote from the guy who wrote the bloody thing.
Does the Red Cross sell $2.1 billion worth of blood annually?
I assume this is referring to the American Red Cross, because that is where Cracked.com is based. Note also that describing the Red Cross as "a business" is somewhat misleading. It is a foundation. Yes. All the centers that supply blood for transfusions—whether they're part of the American Red Cross or not—sell their products to cover operating expenses. Local hospitals work out contracts with regional suppliers or their local Red Cross facility.
Does Red Cross sell $2.1 billion worth of blood annually
I assume this is referring to the American Red Cross, because that is where Cracked.com is based. Note also that describing the Red Cross as "a business" is somewhat misleading. It is a foundation. Yes. All the centers that supply blood for transfusions—whether they're part of the American Red Cross or not—sell their products to cover operating expenses. Local hospitals work out contracts with regional suppliers or their local Red Cross facility.
Does the Red Cross organisation sell 2.1 billion dollars worth of donated blood yearly?
This recent image on Cracked claims that the Red Cross grosses 2.1 billion dollars a year from selling blood. It also claims that the Red Cross is a business which sells donated blood for $400 a pint. Are there any verifiable sources for this claim that the Red Cross sells such quantities of blood?
Mathematica loop code not behaving as expected
This code returned an array containing three blank arrays {{},{},{}}, meaning none of the Append functions worked. A_ and M_ are two images, A is 24-bit 3-channel colour, while M is black and white. They have the same dimensions, the idea is to use M as a mask to find the average colour of all pixels that are shown by the mask. However, none of the Append functions worked. Append[{}, ImageData[,Byte][[30, 30, 3]]] correctly returned the value, so the syntax should be fine.
Are there words with positive connotations used to describe atheists or other non-religious people?
Most words used to describe the lack of religion of people have negative connotations, for example: infidel, nonbeliever, disbeliever, unbeliever, skeptic, doubter, atheist, agnostic, heathen, heretic, nihilist, goy (Judaism), kaffir (Islam) Many of these can also be applied to followers of other religions in addition to atheists. Other words are at best neutral, for example: secularist, freethinker Are there any words with positive connotations that can be used to describe non-religious people?
Flower (?) identification (Shanghai, China March 2015)
As per the title. The plant appears to have fleshy protrusions resembling flowers growing out of its stem (although I am unable to identify them as such). Anyone has an idea on the identity of those plants?
Could people perceive the color blue in ancient times?
This addresses the second claim. There are 4 types of photoreceptive neurons in your eye. One is the rod, which is sensitive to green but creates a black/white percept (for "scotopic" or night-adjusted vision) and the other 3 are cones with various types of rhodopsin, a receptor that is sensitive to photons. In a normal, unmutated (non-colorblind) person, the 3 types of rhodopsin are attuned to the colors red, green, and blue.
Did Fox News win a court case for the right to lie?
No, pretty much every part of that statement is false: "Fox News" wasn't involved in this case in the first place. The 2003 court case being cited (an appeal) was not about the "right to lie". It was about the right to not pay whistleblower protection money which are independent of the wrongdoing, over accusations of distorting news.
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