Two men dressed as Batman and Captain America were teaching kids at an event when they noticed a nearby home on fire. They ran to the house, rushed inside, and rescued a cat that had inhaled smoke. “Batman” gave the cat mouth-to-mouth breaths until it recovered, then it hissed and “freaked out.”
This Is Why Dice Are a Lot Better Than Computers at Generating Truly Random Numbers
We have a lot of ways to do things at random: roll a die, flip a coin, pick a number – but one thing that actually doesn’t work so well: computers. Computers struggle to truly be random, even when they’re programmed to do exactly that.
You’ve probably noticed that even if you have thousands of songs on your phone, your shuffle function will “randomly” choose some songs more often than others.
The reason? Your computer follows an algorithm, which is essentially a list of instructions they use to carry out a task. They don’t know how to deviate from the set path (when they figure that out, the robot revolution will be upon us).
So, while engineers have come up with some ways to write algorithms that help computers pretend to generate random numbers, when it comes down to it, they really can’t be truly random because they are following instructions that lead them to their outcome.
The best we can do is a pseudo-random number generator, which honestly, is good enough to fool anyone who isn’t a computer programmer. But if you had the coding skills, you could, say, figure out the randomness behind an online poker program and make some serious cash.
True random number generators use physical phenomena akin to rolling a die – things like radioactive decay, background noise, or even the amount of time between your keystrokes. But again, we can’t even really call them truly random, since they’re still following an algorithm that has the physical phenomenon at its root.
Which means I’m going to just keep rolling a dice for my numbers.
Not that I often need truly random numbers anyway…
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A Man Died of Sepsis After His Dog Licked Him
I routinely let most dogs I encounter lick me as much as they want. Now, after learning about this story, I can say that maybe I need to back off a little bit…
A 63-year-old man in Germany began to feel ill and ultimately died – and the culprit might freak you out a little bit: the man’s dog licked his face. A couple of weeks later, he got a fever, started experiencing muscle pains, and then had trouble breathing. He decided to go to the hospital to find out what was going on and he received some awful news: he had advanced kidney damage and liver dysfunction.
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He was admitted to the hospital but things took a turn for the worse. The doctors realized he was suffering from gangrene and that he had a terrible sepsis infection.
Of course correlation is not causation, so how do we know it was the dog licking that did it?
The man’s bloodwork showed that he was infected with Capnocytophaga canimorsus, which is a bacteria usually found in the saliva of cats and dogs.
No treatments worked on the poor man, and he suffered for 16 days as multiple organs failed. Sadly, his family eventually decided to turn off his life support and the man passed away.
Man dies after licked by his dog & contracting rare infection.
Capnocytophaga canimorsus, from mouths of dogs & cats, can cause (rarely) a flu-like illness followed by severe sepsis. Zoonotic diseases can't be forgotten; actually on the rise globally.https://t.co/xDqIhGepIx
— Christopher Lee (@chriskc_Lee) November 26, 2019
This may sound like something that has never happened before or that would never happen again, but there were two other cases of humans contracting Capnocytophaga canimorsus from dogs in 2018 alone. A 58-year-old woman in Wisconsin died after her dog nipped her, and a man, also from Wisconsin, contracted the bacteria after spending time with eight puppies. The man had to have both of his legs amputated and parts of his hands removed because of the infection.
Our advice: if you happen to be bitten by a dog or a cat, wash the area immediately with soap and water, and have a doctor take a look at the wound just to be on the safe side. Yikes…
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10 Cute Cat Bleps That Might Warm Your Heart
Cats on social media give us all kinds of sweet little moments, but the bleps have been winning big lately. What are bleps, you ask? It’s when a kitty has just a little bit of their tongue hanging out of their mouth and it is freaking adorable.
Here are some perfect examples.
1. Good morning!
Good morning blep from Blep
2. Looks like a drawing.
3. A snoozin’ blep.
Meet my cats blep from Blep
4. A real beauty.
5. I thought I heard something.
6. Extreme close-up.
One handsome blep from Blep
7. It sure is magnificent…
Caught this magnificent blep the other day. It has taken a few years but we caught one in the end! from Blep
8. Bleppy boi, bleppy boi.
9. The muppet blep.
October looks like a a scruffy muppet with a blep. from Blep
10. Just a little one…
A tiny blep from Blep
Don’t hold out on us!
We know you have some great blep photos that we’d love to see in the comments!
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10 Tweets That Prove Cats Also Like to Play Fetch
This may surprise you, but playing fetch isn’t only for the dogs anymore.
All kinds of cats are getting in on this action!
But that’s a good thing, right? The more, the merrier, we like to say!
1. Look at her go!
fetch is all this cat ever thinks about. she cried outside my door for an hour for this pic.twitter.com/k7URVcPAJx
— rii abrego (@riibrego) September 21, 2019
2. A hair tie will work, too.
My cat has been making me play fetch with this hair tie for an hour. Best hour of my life tbh pic.twitter.com/lGR97F24ud
— Summer (@summer95) December 2, 2018
3. Keep practicing.
How to play fetch with your cat . Practice makes perfect! #MajulahSukanUntukNegara pic.twitter.com/cvWWPgLeTk
— Rewan Ishak (@rewan_ishak) December 7, 2017
4. Your cat’s ears were burning.
We were discussing getting a dog soon and our cat suddenly started playing fetch???? pic.twitter.com/hNHck4EXuB
— juliet (@youngblondemom) January 3, 2019
5. Here’s the proof.
Y'all have questioned if I really play fetch with my cat. I brought receipts. pic.twitter.com/vsxPu54ggx
— Charlotte Clymer (@cmclymer) October 5, 2017
6. A pawsome game.
Staff have taught me a pawsome new game called fetch and retrieve do any of my other furpals do this? I know @LunaBelle_Cat does #CatsOfTwitter pic.twitter.com/lzHAVT0EEC
— Dax Cat #MeowStrong (@Dax_Cat) January 14, 2019
7. Just like a doggo.
A cat who likes to fetch the ball just like a dog does pic.twitter.com/Iu6MZIt7ap
— .Chelle. (@MichLdogs) August 15, 2019
8. Magical, indeed.
Finding out my cat likes to play fetch with Nerf darts was the best discovery of my entire life.
This is magical. pic.twitter.com/jVmI1osmna
— Everett (@EvGres) September 11, 2019
9. Three-legged fetch!
If y'all have never seen a three legged cat play fetch here it is. Don't mind her, she got a little camera shy on the second one pic.twitter.com/ndtAjXzlde
— c (@ceirramanning) June 25, 2019
10. You gotta love it.
If y'all have never seen a three legged cat play fetch here it is. Don't mind her, she got a little camera shy on the second one pic.twitter.com/ndtAjXzlde
— c (@ceirramanning) June 25, 2019
Do you have any videos or photos of your pet THAT ISN’T a dog playing fetch?
Share them with us in the comments! We want to see these animals in action!
The post 10 Tweets That Prove Cats Also Like to Play Fetch appeared first on UberFacts.
Nurse’s Video About Fake Symptoms of Patients Has Twitter in an Uproar
This is pretty good.
A nurse and content creator created a viral video about patients who pretend to be sick. But rather than laugh along with her, Twitter users made an entire hashtag about how wrong she is: #PatientsAreNotFaking.
In Danyelle Rose’s video, a patient (played by Danyelle) coughs and is short of breath. The nurse (also played by Danyelle) dances to the beat of the patient’s strained breathing. The caption: “We know when y’all are faking.”
Twitter users were not happy about the video, which implies that patients regularly fake symptoms just to… Get attention from hospital staff? It’s unclear.
We know when y’all are faking pic.twitter.com/uBV9LjXN3W
— D Rose (@DamnDRoseTweets) November 19, 2019
In a world where countless patients — especially women of color — experience harm because doctors and nurses don’t take their symptoms seriously, the video is especially offensive.
Many people immediately replied to Danyelle’s video with stories of not being believed by health professionals.
“I swear this was my labor and delivery nurse at @OUMedicine Children’s hospital when I told her I felt like I needed to push and she said I was ‘overexaggerating’ and 3 min later I had my baby NATURALLY without an epidural like I requested because she felt as if I was ‘FAKING,’” one user wrote.
“I had several white doctors/nurses think I was faking some serious mofo pain, because they assumed I wanted drugs,” another woman, Joy Henderson, wrote. “Turns out I had an ovarian cyst burst. Not a giant emergency, but easily pain worse than childbirth (I have three kids).”
Here are a few more:
Please listen to patients. Even if you feel we MIGHT be lying, check us out anyway to be 100% sure.
Research endometriosis. I have had so many horrible nurses treat me like hell because of it.Thank you for caring.
— RogueDungeonMistress⛦ (@DisabledPlumbob) November 21, 2019
Even 7 yrs post-diagnosis I seek evidence I'm not sick
I question whether symptoms exist
I seek reasons to nullify my diagnosis
I ask if I truly have this pain#PatientsAreNotFaking is important because we discount our own bodies already; we don't need Drs/nurses to do it too
— BeingCharis (@BeingCharisBlog) November 27, 2019
An 8 year old girl died because doctors told her that her agonizing rare bone cancer attacking her spine was “growing pains.” #PatientsAreNotFaking pic.twitter.com/FzQs1pZ5Jd
— glorms (@keybindcowboy) December 15, 2019
here's a little collection of people you'd have thought were "faking". https://t.co/l14uGdgps2
— skye (@disabilisaur) November 21, 2019
The hashtag #PatientsAreNotFaking draws attention to all of these concerns. Because yes, patients are not faking — and it’s dangerous to assume that they are.
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Sexually Transmitted Disease Rates in America Are out of Control
Isn’t that a headline you just love to see?
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the sexually transmitted disease rate in the United States continues to rise in 2019. The report that the CDC released in October of this year shows historically high rates of chlamydia and the worst rates of gonorrhea and syphilis in almost 30 years – since 1991.
In 2019 in the United States, a record 2.3 million new STD cases were reported, according to the CDC. Since 2013, gonorrhea cases increased 67%, primary and secondary syphilis cases increased 76% and chlamydia cases increased 22%. pic.twitter.com/GKZLsykMHl
— STD Labs (@stdlabs) October 31, 2019
One of the most alarming statistics in the report concerns congenital syphilis, which has seen a 40% rise since 2017. The condition is potentially fatal and is passed from mother to fetus through the placenta.
This marks the fifth year in a row that sexually transmitted infections have been at an all-time high.
In a press release, the CDC addressed the situation:
“Data suggest that multiple factors are contributing to the overall increase in STDs, including:
Drug use, poverty, stigma, and unstable housing, which can reduce access to STD prevention and care.
Decreased condom use among vulnerable groups, including young people and gay and bisexual men.
Cuts to STD programs at the state and local level – in recent years, more than half of local programs have experienced budget cuts, resulting in clinic closures, reduced screening, staff loss, and reduced patient follow-up and linkage to care services.”
Three STDs reach all-time highs in the US, new CDC report says https://t.co/4rou1pqnav Three STDs reach all-time highs in the US, new CDC report says
submitted by /u/rytis
[link] [comments]https://t.co/nV4bMMdREt October 09, 2019 at 03:29PM https://t.co/NlCwNnXCdp pic.twitter.com/mZTJOMyYsz— Health Tips (@HealthT21793947) October 9, 2019
The states with the highest rate of chlamydia infection: Alaska (nearly 800 cases per 100,000 people), Louisiana (742), Mississippi (707), New Mexico (651), and South Carolina (649). The states with the lowest rate of infection are West Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Utah, and Maine.
These statistics are pretty frightening, to say the least…
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Woman Who Wore a “Hail Satan” T-Shirt Onto a Plane Was Forced to Change It or Get Thrown Off
I would probably never wear a shirt like this, but we live in a free society where people can wear whatever they want, wherever they want…actually, never mind, this shirt is pretty cool and I admit it that I would probably wear it in public.
A woman named Swati Runi Goyal was recently flying from Florida to Nevada, and, not thinking of potential consequences, she donned a t-shirt that said “Hail Satan. Est. 666” for the trip. The shirt also featured an upside-down cross (for good measure).
But when Goyal boarded her flight, she was told by an American Airlines crew member that she had to change her shirt or she would be removed from the plane.
A woman wearing a "Hail Satan" shirt on an American Airlines flight was told to either change or get off the plane https://t.co/SHsgRXlMVs
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) December 6, 2019
Goyal is a member of The Satanic Temple, and she bought the shirt to support the organization. Despite the name, the Temple is known for activism on such issues as the separation of church and state, religious freedom, and free speech. Goyal said, “It’s an ironic shirt. People usually laugh at it, or they give me a thumbs-up because they understand the meaning behind it.”
Goyal said about the incident, a crew-member “said, ‘Our crew has found your shirt to be offensive.’ We initially just thought it was a joke. But he repeated the directive, and there was another female crew member who was behind him with her arms crossed looking very angry.”
Goyal and her husband refused to get off the plane. She continued, “The man said, ‘Your shirt is offensive. Do you know what that means?’” I said, ‘I’m a foreign-born minority woman, I understand ‘offensive,’ and this shirt is not offensive.’”
A Key West woman called out American Airlines for religious discrimination after a flight crew demanded she cover up her “Hail Satan” T-shirt, or get off the plane. https://t.co/LDLznOVngS
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) December 10, 2019
A standoff ensued and the flight crew brought on a customer service agent to tell Goyal she would not be able to fly while wearing the shirt. Eventually, Goyal’s husband gave her a layer of the clothing he was wearing, and she reluctantly agreed to cover up the language on her shirt so the flight could take off.
Goyal said she was humiliated over the incident. “I’m just an ordinary-looking person.I’m not goth. I don’t have piercings. I wasn’t wearing a shirt that had a goat being beheaded on it. [I was] wearing L.L.Bean hiking pants and vegan sneakers. I mean, I couldn’t look like more of a nerd.”
After the flight, Goyal complained to American Airlines. The airline initially refused to apologize and sent an email that read in part that they “have policies in place to ensure that no passengers are subjected to objectionable situations while on board. Our flight attendants have a responsibility to all passengers in our care, and we must sometimes make difficult decisions associated with the application of our policies.”
After Goyal tweeted about her experience and the story went viral, the company said “Discrimination has no place at American Airlines” on Twitter. A spokesperson for the airline said, “We apologize to Ms. Goyal for her experience, and we are reaching out to her to understand what occurred.”
American Airlines apologises to woman for banning her 'HAIL SATAN' shirthttps://t.co/4AXyY4BUty pic.twitter.com/MvC4Qv2Sfz
— Secret Flying (@SecretFlying) December 12, 2019
What do you think about this story? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
The post Woman Who Wore a “Hail Satan” T-Shirt Onto a Plane Was Forced to Change It or Get Thrown Off appeared first on UberFacts.
The Time Record for Driving Across America Was Just Broken
If you haven’t heard of it, the Cannonball is a race from New York to Los Angeles that racing aficionados are constantly trying to win. There are no official rules or regulations because…well, it’s pretty much illegal; in order to break the record for the fastest cross-country time, you have to break a whole lot of traffic laws.
Just like the movie The Cannonball Run, remember?
But the fact that it’s illegal doesn’t stop people from trying to break that illustrious record all the time. And some guys in a 2015 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG just demolished the previous record, in place since 2013, by driving from New York to L.A. in 27 hours and 25 minutes.
The previous record? 28 hours and 50 minutes.
The two drivers, Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt, and their “spotter,” Berkeley Chadwick, left the east side of Manhattan at 12:57 A.M. on November 10 and reached Redondo Beach, California in literal record time.
'Cannonball Run' race record broken with 27 hour, 25 minute drive across US https://t.co/UDmyDaPbKt pic.twitter.com/cb25m6l46C
— New York Post (@nypost) December 4, 2019
They drove on I-80 through Nebraska, took I-76 to Denver, I-70 to the middle of Utah, and then took I-15 to Southern California’s interstate system. They drove a grand total of 2,825 miles, and Toman and Tabbutt averaged a very illegal 104 miles per hour during the journey. Incredibly, they managed to spend only 22-and-a-half minutes on fuel stops. I’m assuming they ate and went to the bathroom in the car.
Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.
The group was obsessed with beating the previous record, so they outfitted the car with a custom-fabricated fuel cell and all kinds of electronic gadgets. Berkeley Chadwick acted as the spotter using gyro-stabilized binoculars to look out for police.
Here’s a cool video about the newly-broken record.
Let’s see how long this record stands…
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These Are 7 of the Hardest Countries for Americans to Visit
Americans are fortunate to be able to travel most of the globe with minimal restrictions. That said, there are some spots that are less-than-welcoming to people from the States (sometimes, understandably so). Just a warning: you might want to think twice before attempting to stamp your passports in these 7 countries.
7. Iran
The State Department says “There is a very high risk of kidnapping, arrest, and detention of U.S. citizens in Iran.” If you’re dying to visit the Middle East, don’t choose Iraq, either – but Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is totally safe (and has killer authentic Iranian food).
6. Libya
This northern African nation is a hotbed of crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict. That’s a trifecta+, so do not go. Nearby Egypt and Morocco are much more popular, but not entirely safe, either.
5. Mali
The State Department says Mali is rife with terrorism, kidnaping, and crime – consider heading to the much safer Senegal, instead.
4. South Sudan
With crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict risks, you should consider the somewhat-safer Ugandan mountain region. Gorillas!
3. Venezuela
Here, you’re looking at the potential for violent crime, like armed robbery, homicide, and carjackings, along with civil unrest, poor healthcare, and arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens. But there are plenty of beautiful South American countries (almost all the others, in fact) waiting to safely welcome you to their shores.
2. Yemen
With a years-long proxy war being waged between Saudi Arabia and Iran here, there is heightened risk of targeted terrorism, civil unrest, disease, kidnapping, and, of course, getting caught in that. armed conflict. Unless you’re with Doctors Without Borders, there’s really no reason to feel pulled to Yemen – it’s one of the most dangerous places in the world.
Oman is also on the Arabian Sea, and it’s supposed to be lovely, though, so consider that!
1. Central African Republic
More crime, more civil unrest, and risk of being kidnapped wait for you in this land-locked African country. And to make matters more dangerous, it’s sandwiched between other countries that come with warning labels.
You can hang out in the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda, instead – there are gorillas and everything.
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