fact
When Roald Dahl attended school, the nearby Cadbury chocolate factory would occasionally send boxes of new chocolates to the school to be tested by students. It is believed that this likely inspired him in writing his third children’s book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
7 year old Stella Berndtsson drowned in icy water Dec 23 2010. Her body was found after 3½ hours by a rescue helicopter and was taken to hospital. Her body temperature was 13°C/55.4°F. Despite this the doctors succeeded in saving Stella by warming her slowly. Stella made a remarkable recovery. Stella still lives with her […]
In addition to Father Christmas, Icelanders are visited by the 13 Yule Lads (including Sausage-Swiper, Spoon-Licker, & Door-Sniffer), as well as their giant pet cat Jólakötturinn, who eats children who don’t receive new clothes for Christmas.
During WW2 the Japanese built a deathray inspired by ideas from Nikola Tesla, the problem was that enemies would have to stand perfectly still for 10 minutes before it would work.
They say the best way to understand the world is to travel around and see as much of it as you can. Having grown up crisscrossing the glove due to my father’s job, I have to say I agree. While sitting around in trains, planes, and buses may not always be pleasant, the destination and experience is always worth it in my opinion.
And just in case you’re making a bucket list or planning a trip (jealous!) here are 15 spots seasoned travelers say you can’t miss.
“I’ve been to 49/50 states so people ask me a lot which ones were my favorites (just missing Alaska). People always scoff when I say South Dakota is up there, there’s so much beauty in that state it doesn’t get the credit it deserves. The badlands and the black hills. And the corn palace is just a bonus.
Honorable mention: Wyoming for the same reasons as above.”
“Edinburgh, Scotland. With all that different architecture from over nearly a thousand years, it’s easily the coolest place I’ve ever been.”
“The Louvre.
I’m not a huge art buff. I dropped art history class back in college because I literally couldn’t stay awake. Still, the majesty of seeing hundreds of paintings twice as old as my country with such breathtaking detail that has held up for centuries… indescribable.
If I could, I would go back and spend a full day or two there. Four hours is certainly not enough.”
“Cliffs of Moher.
The view is absolutely stunning and really puts our size in perspective.”
“Zanzibar….its heaven on earth.”
“The Amalfi coast. Positano is the most magical place I’ve ever been.
And reminded me of Mario Sunshine, for all the right reasons.”
“Iceland. Its so peaceful, Especially for people who live in busy cities, Iceland will be a breath of fresh air, Literally.”
“Hands down, New Zealand. I’ve been there in 2016 and we’ve traveled from Auckland to Christchurch and I wanna go back there so so bad to see it all again and even more. The landscape is absolutely breathtaking, the people there are all so damn fucking friendly it’s sickening adorable. I honestly can’t think of a place where the landscape can change so fast, where you can see so so much, like, okay we’re in Franz Josef now with these big ass mountains and snow and everything and now let’s just gonna drive two hours and we’re back at the beach going swimming. I absolutely loved Kaiteriteri Beach, we’ve had the most lovely little motel there, they handed us fresh milk as our welcome gift. We took a sideseeing tour in Wellington and our guide was so damn proud to have been in LOTR and showed us a picture where you could actually see him in the movie. There was this cute little Italian restaurant in Auckland where we’ve had some of the best pizza ever and on our way to Rotorua we went shopping at a supermarket and had trouble finding water. In the end four people were helping us finding it, all of them costumers of course. In Rotoura we went to the see a Maori village, I still get goosebumps when I think back to their Haka they did for us. We couldn’t go hiking in Tongariro because of bad weather but man that motel was cozy as hell and their spareribs were the best. It was so lovely and tiny we would have stayed for longer if we could have. And man, don’t let me get started about Te Anau! That glowworm cave? You have to see it for yourself, it was the most beautiful and amazing thing I’ve ever seen. It was so dark you couldn’t see a thing and then above your head, hundreds and hundreds of tiny glowworms making it seem as if you look into another galaxy. We did sky diving in Queenstown, went to Fangorn forest and saw the Misty Mountains, had the best burger in the world at Fergburger and drove in a fucking Hummer limo to a small restaurant in Franz Josef for free just because they were new and it was my sister in law’s birthday. We saw penguins and sealions at the Milford Sounds, we saw dolphins at the Marlborough Sounds, we saw so many adorable mischievous Keas, it was amazing. It was the best trip I’ve ever done and I would go again and again and again because there is so much to see. Go to New Zealand, seriously. Nothing can top it.”
“Your own hometown.
There are so many people who would never consider to be tourist where they live, but haven’t been in the local cathedral, haven’t been at ‘that tourist trap’, or haven’t taken a museum tour ever.”
“I visited south east Asia recently and Vietnam was by far my favorite.
Started in chau doc then Saigon, then worked our way up the coast to Hanoi.
My favourite place was Hoi An, it was the most beautiful town I’ve ever seen in my life. I see why they call it ‘the city of lanterns’. I also got a tailor made suit there too.”
“Greece. Not the touristy islands but the mainland and less visited islands. Seriously my favourite country in the world. Rich with history (there are literally ancient ruins in the most random places, it’s insane), breathtaking nature (gorgeous mountains and the stunning sea), great food and it’s actually relatively affordable if you don’t go where all the tourists crowd around. I’ve been all over Europe and Greece was definitely my favourite place to visit. Something about it separates it from everywhere else. I would go there again in a heartbeat.
Edit- I always see people asking whether they should go to Italy or Greece. I would choose Greece. Italy was also beautiful, but it was incredibly expensive and packed with tourists. Already planning my next trip.”
“The Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany.
It’s impossible to imagine how impressive this cathedral is without seeing it in person. It also has a super interesting history, consisting of literal hundreds of years of construction.
Also, Cologne is a very cool city, in general.
Pretty much every place I would recommend is in Germany or Austria. Such astoundingly beautiful countries, and completely unlike anything you could see or experience in the United States (where I live/am from).”
“Tokyo, biggest city you’ll see, yet the cleanest and one of the safest. Unlike any other city.”
“Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai Thailand.
In the north of Thailand there are a lot of elephant camps for tourists. With some of them it’s pretty obvious they mistreat the animals, they let you ride them which is a big no-no. In other parks it’s more subtle but doing some deep googling I’ve discovered problems with most of the other camps as well (including the very well known Elephant Jungle Sanctuary).
Except ENP. This place is the only one I found to be really ethical. They save abused elephants from other camps and from farmers. A lot of their elephants are wounded or disabled from past abuse. Babies are cute and bring visitors but still they are not so happy if one is born in the camp because the resources could instead go for an abused elephant in need. Everything is focused on the elephants, they come before the tourists.
As an elephant lover I did one of the more expensive packages and I am still in love with the place, planning to come back in later years and do the week long volunteer program.”
“The three most impressive “pictures don’t do it justice” places I’ve visited: (1) Iguazu Falls. You have to see it up close on the Argentine side. Not just see it, but hear the roar of the water, feel the mist in the air. (2) Lake Morraine in Banff. I had seen pictures and wondered if it was truly as beautiful as it looked. Did not disappoint. It was an emotional experience seeing it for the first time. (3) Bay of Kotor in Montenegro. The hike to the fort overlooking the bay is not easy, but well worth it.”
The post 15 Travel Junkies Share the Places You Must Visit Before You Die appeared first on UberFacts.
Losing a loved one is always terrible, but it’s even worse still when their passing starts to reveal some unsettling truths about their life. Learning something unexpected after a loved one is gones can add a whole other level to unpack before you’re able to move on.
“We very recently found out via ancestry.com that my grandfather had an illegitimate child that was born the year he married my grandmother. I have a half-aunt, blood test confirmed.
She’s 50, and only knew who her father could be (my grandpa) because her mother told her what his name possibly was; went looking, and she eventually found us. My mother sent her DNA test in to confirm, and it was a match.
Edit: he passed away 19 years ago, after a car accident.”
“After his death I found out my Biological father sent a bomb to his ex-wife’s work. My mom was pregnant with my baby sister at the time. Luckily ex-wife had some weird feeling and reported the package. A bomb squad was able to do a controlled detonation.
He got away with it.
This is what I know. Remember I was a very small child so all my info is second hand.
From what I’ve heard there were no prints, no unique parts, nothing really all that special about what was recovered from the bomb after detonation. The only sort of tie was a portion of the label which was apparently a really odd/specific size and manufacturer. The only local/semi local places that purchased them were a place he volunteered for and some random law office or similar. They got the ex to tip him off that there was a lead on the labels and they were trying to find places that kept them. Then they set up a camera in the supply closet to see if they could catch him destroying evidence. Apparently he went in, reached for them, dropped his hand, grabbed a pen or something instead, smiled to himself and walked out. The place was very easily accessed by a large and varied group of people from around the city.
I have no fucking clue how was able to get off Scott free. But my mom said the police and FBI never came to the house again. It seems bizarre that when I was 3 years old the FBI was at my house for a bombing case while I probably played with my cabbage patch kid and my my little ponies.
When I cleaned out his house a couple decades later I found a wooden cigar box hidden in a closet full of wires, very small pliers and such. I thought it was really weird. About a week later I found out about the bombing.
Again I’m not 100% on all the details. I’ve heard all this info from my half brother, his mom the ex, and my mom. It was so long ago and before internet news was much of a thing. If really at all a thing in our town. I would dig up more but I really think the fuck face deserves as little thought as possible.”
“My dad was an Air Force pilot who was killed in a crash during a plane malfunction. I grew up thinking he couldn’t do anything and couldn’t land and that was it. 20 years after he died, I found out he had the choice between jettisoning to safety and risking the plane landing on the base and killing people or steering the plane as far away from people as he could and going down with it. I hate that I grew up without a dad but I’m glad he at least died saving people.”
“My mom’s step-grandpa told everyone he was an electrician and that he was always being called out of town to do various repair jobs.
After he died, the family received a letter from the president of the United States, revealing that he was actually a demolitions expert and worked in some sort of special ops bomb squad for the military. Even his wife had no idea.”
“My grandpa was a CIA operative during the cold war whos job it was to intercept Russian transmissions. Nobody except my grandma knew and she never told a soul. When he died, we found all his documents and she finally had to tell us. Huge shock to everyone.”
“When my grandma died, a lot of homeless people showed up to her funeral. Turns out she was or had fed/helped them. They were crying so much, it was really sweet.”
“I had an aunt who was severely disabled most of her life and confined to a wheelchair. I was surprised to find out after she died she had a lover most of her life with similar disabilities who passed away shortly before her. I’m glad she had someone in her life like that.”
“A few years after my great aunt passed away, we found out that she had a daughter no one in our family knew about. The daughter, who I’ll call M, had been put up for adoption when my aunt was very young.
M had been searching for her missing side of the family since she was young, and was in her fifties when she finally found us. Unfortunately, she never got to meet her biological mother, but she and her daughters couldn’t be happier to have found us, and we have welcomed them in with open arms.
My family is very musically inclined and several of us play(ed) instruments, my great aunt included. M’s daughter is very musically talented and always says that she never knew where she got it from until she met us. Her daughter told us that learning there was this whole side of her family who is just like her was one of her greatest moments in life.
M acts and talks exactly like my aunt did, always saying quirky stuff and being very animated, which fascinates me because she never was able to grow up and live with my aunt. My family is very close knit, and it hit really hard when my aunt passed away, so finding this woman who is my aunt made over has been such a blessing.
Sorry for the long story, I just love telling it.”
“My Great Uncle raised my mother on the family farm, He wrote the will so that the farm would be in a trust for my mother, and if it were sold the money would held in an account with the interest going to my grandmother until she died, then my mother could do as she pleased with it.
Years go by and the area undergoes massive expansion and housing and property is at a premium. He turned down multiple multi-million dollar offers because he wanted to die there and told the developers to come back after he was gone. He passes away, then my grandparents contest the will and have it changed to become their property.
They get in touch with one of the developers and start trying to sell, in the middle they declare bankruptcy and take the first offer…..$250000 instead of holding out for the big numbers. Best part is they go and buy a new house and pay cash, then promptly lose it a few years later for not paying taxes.
So in closing I got to witness my family get ripped apart, my families property that had been in the family for since the early 1800s get sold for a song and to top it off it all got pissed away for stupidity.
TLDR: Money makes people do horrible things.”
“An elderly man at church lived alone (a widower) and was thought to be quite poor.
Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, parishioners would bring him food baskets and practical things he could use for daily living.
To everyone’s amazement, when he died, he left the church just under $2 million with a letter expressing his gratitude for the years of care the church had shown him.”
“After my brother’s suicide, I pieced together that he had planned his suicide for years and used this long period of time to set my mother up to have a mental break down.
He was a junior high teacher and also intentionally messed with his students by claiming that he knew his date of death. He gave them hints (which of course came true) and his death fucked them up too.”
“I learnt 2 hours before my partner committed suicide that almost everything he ever told me was a lie.
The hours after his death I learnt that myself and our daughter were actually his second family. I had been with him for 13 years. He had been with his wife and sons for almost 30 years.
I have no idea how it was possible that he kept 2 completely separate lives going for so long.”
“That my great aunt had a baby in the backyard and buried it. This was in the 40’s, she was a teenager and she became pregnant due to rape and she didn’t know what to do.
Edit: To answer the most asked question, nobody knows if the baby was alive when it was born but if it was, she most likely smothered it to stop its cries and then buried it.”
“I had a great aunt that lived with her son. Actually her son lived with her. But we found fucking nasty pictures of them fucking. I think my mom had a suspicion it was going on. They both died around the same time and my mom ended up as executor or whatever of the estate. I remember her specifically saying not to look at any pictures we found, but I had no idea why until I looked at them.”
“My great aunt died about a year ago. She was in her mid 70s. We were unpacking all her things and we found her diaries, some from years ago and some just before her death. In her diaries she had mentioned that she despised her sister (to be honest, non of us liked her), and didn’t like a lot of my cousins.
Most shocking, she kept on talking about a man who she called, ‘monster’. This man had been sexually harassing her and abusing her for years. She never mentioned it nor indicated that anything was wrong. We suspect that it was her boss.
I loved her dearly, she was so sweet.”
The post 12+ People Reveal Shocking Truths They Learned About a Loved One After Their Death appeared first on UberFacts.
Fear of public speaking is a real thing. In fact, it’s actually one of the things people apparently fear more than death itself! What is it about speaking to a room of people that fills so many of us with the worst kind of existential dread?
I have found that practice and experience make everything easier (even public speaking), but advice from people who have been there can’t hurt, either. So, the next time you’re sitting down to write a speech, keep these no-no openers in mind!
“Top 13 reasons clickbait works. Number 10 will blow your tits clean off.”
“I was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of “I know your all want to get out of here, and aren’t interested in a long speech, but that’s too bad, here we go…”
“I’m imagining you all in your underwear, and it’s not pretty.”
“So I was reading on the internet the other day…”
“Just flew in from LA
boy are my arms tired.”
“When I in grade 4 the teacher told us opening line of speech should get people’s attention. So, my friend made a speech, and he yelled, “SEX! Okay, now that I’ve got your attention, I would like to talk about the environment.”
“Once I was giving a speech and the podium wasn’t attached right, so just as I was about to start and I leaned on the podium it lifted up and the microphone hit me in the mouth.
When it was an inch away from my mouth, I had just finished the first word of my speech:
FUCK”
“Webster’s dictionary defines <topic> as…reads dictionary definition in its entirety.”
Well this is going to be a stunner of a speech in already sure of it.”
“As a mother…”
“An hour from now you’re all going to be asking yourselves ‘Is this guy EVER going to get to the point ?’ and an hour after that you still won’t know.”
“I am much smarter then you so hopefully you get what I am about to say.”
“Hello, my name is <name> and I’m going to talk to you about…..”
“So like, uhhhh…”
“Well… as a insert zodiac sign I think that…”
The post 10+ Experts Give Advice on the Worst Things to Say in Your Next Speech appeared first on UberFacts.
To say that “Game of Thrones”, the HBO adaptation of a series of Fantasy books by George R.R. Martin, is a success would be putting it mildly. The show has inspired millions of fans worldwide and is easily among the most successful mainstream crossovers of the Fantasy genre.
While no new episodes were released in 2018, HBO announced that the show will return with its grand finale season sometime in 2019, most likely before summer.
If you think waiting that long is impossible (you sweet, summer child), then take a few minutes and ruminate on these 6 fan theories about how things may end for our friends in Westeros.
I mean, if the past is any indication, the general answer is ‘not well,’ but some folks like to get a bit more specific. Here we go!
Photo Credit: HBO
One Redditor (and mom) thinks that Daenerys’s love for Viserion will free him from the Night King’s spell, and he will return to her side — with a little help from the Red Woman. She’s got to be hanging around for some reason, right?
Photo Credit: HBO
We know Cersei and Robert had a child — a “black-haired beauty” — who supposedly died shortly after his birth. Even though Cersei is a devoted mother, she never visits the child’s crypt or appears to mourn his loss. According to this theory, it’s because she knows he’s alive and well. Cersei placed him with a family and has been looking out for him all his life, even securing his apprenticeship and getting him out of the way of Joffrey’s purge of competitors.
Gendry only remembers that his mother had “yellow hair,” which, of course, also fits. If this is true, he has a legitimate claim to the Iron Throne. However, the jury’s still out on why Cersei faked his death and hid him in the first place.
Photo Credit: HBO
Even though most theories predict that Jamie will reprise his role as Kingslayer and take out his sister himself (and fulfill the Volanqar prophecy in the process — the one where she’s to be killed by a younger sibling), this Redditor predicts Arya will kill them both — Jamie first, then Cersei while wearing Jamie’s face. The prophecy will still be (technically) fulfilled and Arya will have her revenge. #TheNorthRemembers
Photo Credit: HBO
It might seem unlikely after the events of last season, but if Jon Snow really is the Prince Who Was Promised and the reincarnation of Azor Ahai, it could spell doom for everyone’s favorite Mother of Dragons. After all, Ahai wasn’t that intimidating until he plunged his fabled Lightbringer into his wife’s chest to imbue it with her power. If history repeats itself, Jon Snow will have to kill his one true love in order to save the realm.
I don’t know about you, but this theory sure leaves the feminist in me with a gross taste in her mouth…but it’s far from the first time that’s happened with this show.
Photo Credit: HBO
Poor Daenerys — it seems that many fans have no faith in her ability to survive the series and take her ancestor’s place on the Iron Throne. This Reddit theory goes way back to Season 2, when Daenerys has a series of (possibly prophetic) visions in the House of the Undying. In one of them, she sees Khal Drogo beyond the wall waiting for her. It seems to point to her going to fight the White Walkers and not returning.
Photo Credit: HBO
Some have waited with great anticipation for the eventual throwdown between brothers Sandor and Gregor Clegane, and the Season 7 finale hinted at the possibility of its coming to fruition when Sandor told his brother, “You know who is coming for you.”
The post 6 “Game of Thrones” Fan Theories to Ponder Over While Waiting for the Last Season appeared first on UberFacts.
“Sad” is, of course, a pretty subjective term. It could mean a lot of different things to different people. Still, there are some things that just about everyone can agree are sad.
Today, we’ll be checking out what scences 15 film and television buffs found to be especially heart-wrenching.
“Jesse’s flashback in Toy Story 2. It fucked me up then and it fucks me up now.”
“When Jesse finds out that Leslie died in Bridge to Terabithia.”
“In Fresh Prince when Will’s deadbeat father runs out on him yet again after a brief reunion and after he explains to Uncle Phil how he didn’t need his father to be the man he became, Will tearfully asks “how he come he don’t want me?”
Such a powerful scene. I feel such strong emotions every time I watch it.”
“When the wife dies in Up. The end of Stepmom when she’s giving her children the gifts.”
“The Green Mile when they had to put the big fella down
”
“I’m a leaf on the wind. Watch how…”
“Wash aint comin…”
“Mufasa dying. I’ve seen The Lion King soo many times but I still tear up everytime I see young Simba trying to wake up his father.”
“Buffy- the Body. Still can’t watch that episode with polite company around. It’s the “Mommy?” that gets me. Because we see this strong young woman who has saved the world half a dozen times over, the one everyone else looks to for strength and resolve, and in that moment, she’s just a little girl looking for her mommy. Tearing up as I write this.”
“Dumbo visiting his mom in jail.”
“When Wilson falls off the raft.”
“Van Gogh in gallery scene from Doctor Who. Nothing on TV has ever made me cry. I weeped like a little bitch after that.”
“Uncle Iroh’s short story in Avatar the Last Airbender, where he sings ‘Little Soldier Boy’. It gets me every time.”
“How the heck has no one said Forrest talking to Jenny’s grave?”
“Potential spoilers for “About Time” which is a movie where all the men from a family have the ability to travel through time to a past memory and the “secret” is passed down from father to son.
Throughout the whole movie the son will periodically visit his father in his memories and slowly come to realize that his father has been revisiting him at various points as well. He learns eventually that he doesn’t just have the ability to revisit his past, but he can alter it and change his future.
This leads to him breaking things for the worse and him going back and fixing everything again. At some point the son learns that certain things are truly random, however, and can’t be controlled. In one timeline, the son has a daughter with his wife. In another, he has a son. This leads the father to teach his son to never go back before certain points, because you can’t control the dice roll of genetics. Changing your past in a way that alters who your kid will be is super risky, so it’s best not to risk it.
At the end of the movie, the son is about to have another kid with his wife, but his father has also died. He goes back to a memory that has played in the movie multiple times where he and his father are playing ping pong.
Instead of hitting the ball back at his father like he has countless times, the son lets it drop and his dad just looks at him. There is silence for a moment. Then he asks the son if he has died.
The son says yes and that he’s about to have another kid so he can’t come back to this memory anymore.
The dad says something like, “fancy another go?”
Then there’s a montage of home-movie-style clips where it shows the father and son essentially reliving their entire lives together once again before the son returns to the present never to see his dad again.
I’m a grown ass man and that shit made me cry fucking buckets.”
“Oskar Schindler: I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don’t know. If I’d just… I could have got more.
Itzhak Stern: Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them.
Oskar Schindler: If I’d made more money… I threw away so much money. You have no idea. If I’d just…
Itzhak Stern: There will be generations because of what you did.
Oskar Schindler: I didn’t do enough!
Itzhak Stern: You did so much.
[Schindler looks at his car]
Oskar Schindler: This car. Goeth would have bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there. Ten people. Ten more people. [removing Nazi pin from lapel]
Oskar Schindler: This pin. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. One more person. A person, Stern. For this. [sobbing]
Oskar Schindler: I could have gotten one more person… and I didn’t! And I… I didn’t!”
The post 15 Film and TV Fans Rank The Saddest Scenes of All Time appeared first on UberFacts.
