POSTED // Oct 15,2012 - The difference between nominal and true size was known as "scant" allowance.

POSTED // Oct 9,2012 - The nuns in Catholic school taught us there was such a thing as sanctuary—the police cannot arrest a suspect in a church. Does this concept have a basis in law, or is it just a social custom that can be discarded on a whim?

POSTED // Sep 24,2012 - I am five, and have been wondering about this for almost half my life now: How many ice cubes would it take to put out the sun? My mum found your website and thought you must know the answer, since you know everything. —Rei Mordue

POSTED // Sep 17,2012 - The science fiction movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman—that could never happen, right? Her bones would cave in under the weight of all that meat.

POSTED // Sep 10,2012 - Space companies looking to mine asteroids are thinking of bringing them into orbit for easier access. Wouldn’t several of these asteroids eventually pull on the planet so much they would change the orbit of the earth

POSTED // Sep 1,2012 - No significant difference between the lifespans of intact and neutered animals of either sex

POSTED // Aug 27,2012 - So ... after all those decades of physics and chemistry, can science transmute base substances into gold?

POSTED // Aug 18,2012 - In a recent Straight Dope Message Board thread about transsexuality, one commenter offered the following: “People who have gender identity disorders ... are just dudes dressing up as chicks and/or dudes

POSTED // Aug 6,2012 - A Government Accountability Office review of the current military Base Realignment and Closure program found that its estimated implementation cost had risen from $21 billion when it was approved in 2005 to $35 billion

POSTED // Aug 6,2012 - Evolution as I understand it favors selection of traits giving a species the best chance of reproductive success. Mates who are healthy, strong, faithful, hard-working, generous and so on seem more apt to produce offspring who survive till reproductive age than those who aren’t.