Tumblr Proved That a Person With a Masters in Animal Science Is Completely Wrong About Horses

Having a fancy degree definitely doesn’t mean you know everything about any subject that technically falls under the umbrella of your degree.

For instance, this person who claims to have a Masters Degree in Animal Science doesn’t even understand how horses work.

Like, at all.

He or she thinks they can totally live with three legs – no prosthetic necessary – so I guess they think we’ve been putting down lame horses all of these years for funsies?

Luckily, there are always people ready and willing to stand up for horses, and one of them used Tumblr to take this “educated” person to task.

The beginning…

Image Credit: Tumblr

On to the horse’s anatomy…

Image Credit: Tumblr

Then… why being unable to run is terrible for a horse…

Image Credit: Tumblr

And horses don’t really lay down. If they do, getting up stinks.

Let’s equate it to what a human would experience…

Because it would seriously suck for a horse….

Image Credit: Tumblr

Soon, it was time for closing arguments…

No money can solve this problem…

Case closed.

Image Credit: Tumblr

So, there you have it! Horses cannot live happily missing a limb, and no, you definitely can’t ride them.

I’m not a horse person and I feel like this was already obvious.

The post Tumblr Proved That a Person With a Masters in Animal Science Is Completely Wrong About Horses appeared first on UberFacts.

30 Trends That People Were Glad to See Go Away

Trends tend to come and go, and thank goodness for that, because some of them get really old really quick.

Redditors discussed the trends that they’re glad have died out, from fake mustaches to “Who Let The Dogs Out,” and here are some of their best answers. This thread is a walk down memory lane!

1. Keep calm and…

“Keep calm and mindlessly regurgitate popular sayings until they have lost all semblance of their original meaning.”

2. Mustaches everywhere.

“That weird obsession with mustaches printed on everything.”

3. Alvin and the Chipmunk remixes.

“Those Alvin and the Chipmunk remixes.

God imagine those high pitched voices haunting you at night.”

4. The milkshake trick.

“Throwing milkshakes back at drive through workers then driving away.”

5. Athletic wrist bands.

“Those stupid “scientifically-backed” athletic wrist bands that were meant to do things like maintain your balance when they were glorified placebos”

6. “Who Let The Dogs Out.”

“There was a 2-year span in the late 90’s when every single movie had “Who Let the Dogs Out” in it’s soundtrack.”

7. Weird makeup stuff.

“Chunky highlights, overplucking eyebrows into that sperm shape and using concealer as lipstick.”

8. YOLO.

“I’m just glad YOLO is something I don’t hear much anymore.”

9. Fidget spinners.

“Fidget spinners. My kids wasted SO much allowance on those things. Now they’re collecting dust under beds and furniture across the nation.”

10. Color changing T-shirts.

“Global Hypercolor t-shirts. For the young’uns, these were t-shirts that changed colour in response to body heat. They tended to show horrible patches around the armpits.

Also they tended to turn a nasty brown-grey after a few washes.

They were called Generra in the states and Global elsewhere.”

11. The “In My Feelings” challenge.

“Dancing out of cars to Drake.”

12. The clown craze.

“In 2016 when those fucking clowns ran around scaring people”

13. Duckface.

“That whole duckface thing that girls used to do.”

14. Damn Daniel.

“”Dam daniel” that shit was so fucking annoying…. just his voice.”

15. Apple bottom jeans…

“Apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur …”

“THE WHOLE CLUB WAS LOOKIN AT HER”

16. Ringtones.

“Ringtones on phones, especially those annoying custom ones you’d have to listen to multiple times a day at the office or elsewhere.

Now you rarely hear a phone ring and when you do it’s something basic.”

17. Selfie sticks.

“Feels like it was only yesterday, when selfie sticks were a fast growing trend.

Maybe some still use them, but weirdly I don’t see those as often as I used to a year or 2 ago.”

18. Alcohol tampons.

“Getting drunk using a tampon full of liquor”

17. Harem pants.

“Those f*cking diaper pants Bieber and his gang of small children were wearing.”

18. Hipsters.

“Not the current iteration of today, but the circa 2008 – 2012 hipster with the curly mustache, suspenders, flannel shirt, and love of indie folk bands.”

19. Game of Thrones.

“Game of Thrones being the most talked about thing in pop culture.”

20. No homo.

“Dudes saying “no homo” before pretty much anything they said.”

21. Zombies.

“the walking dead and the all-zombie all-the-time pop culture shit.

we get it. zombies. cool.”

22. “Friday.”

“People bullying Rebecca Black for that “Friday” music video. She got ripped to shreds and I just felt so damn bad for her.”

23. Bacon.

“a few years back it was “OMG BACON!!!” to a ridiculous extreme. Everyone was acting like bacon was the best thing ever created, like they’d just had it for the first time or something, and I was just sick to death of people overstating how amazing bacon is.

Ok, sure bacon is fine and dandy…no need to oversell it.”

24. The ice cream challenge.

“Licking ice cream and putting it back in the fridge”

 25. JNCO jeans.

“Jnco jeans are still a (niche) thing. And far more expensive than they ever should be.”

26. Pacifier necklaces.

“I remember people during the 90s wearing pacifier necklaces – some as a way to minimize teeth damage due to grinding during drug-induced raves while most did it as a fashion statement or to mimic the preceding demographic.”

27. Skinny jeans on guys.

“Super skinny jeans on guys.

Slim jeans are fine, just don’t have them so that I can see an outline of your junk.”

28. The macarena.

“The Macarena plays on an endless loop in Hell.”

29. Slacker teens.

“The teenage mentality that it’s cool to disrupt classes, fail tests and ultimately become an academic failure. Kids these days seem much more inclined to work for their bucks as long as they’re motivated right. Makes me happy to see, being a teacher and all.
Kids will be kids, of course, but I’ve seen a real mentality shift over the course of the past decade or two.”

30. Fortnite.

“Fortnite, I never hear about it anymore. Idc about the game but goddamn it was annoying when everyone just played Fortnite and Fortnite danced.”
Yeah, I don’t know that Fornite has died out. Maybe it’s not as popular anymore, but I still see magazines at CVS, soooo…
But hey, that’s what reddit has to offer! Any particular trend that you’ve observed that you’re glad just died out?
Let us know in the comments!

The post 30 Trends That People Were Glad to See Go Away appeared first on UberFacts.

Company Makes Life-Sized, LEGO Sculptures of Your Beloved Pet

Does your landlord not allow pets? How about a LEGO-like version of one?

The Hong Kong-based company JEKCA makes toy bricks similar to LEGOs — “building blocks for kidults.” They sell life-size brick sculptures of various pets, including hundreds of dogs, cats and other animals.

Posted by JEKCA – Building Blocks for Kidults on Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Each sculpture is about one foot tall and is made of over 1200 bricks. They come with instructions to assemble them yourself, and you can take them apart and reassemble them.

They come in all types of different breeds, colors and positions, from sitting to pouncing.

Posted by JEKCA – Building Blocks for Kidults on Monday, July 23, 2018

 

Or you could just keep one in your house as an avant-garde sculpture.

They’re secured by screws, so the completed project won’t fall apart easily.

Posted by Kitty Yuen Siu Yee 阮小儀 on Monday, January 14, 2019

If you already have a pet, this is one way to pay homage to them. It’s several levels above a regular old pet portrait! As long as your pet looks like one of the breeds available on JEKCA’s website, the sculpture will be a match.

There’s also a huge range of available breeds, including Yorkshire Terriers, German shepherds, Corgis, Beagles, Poodles, orange tabby cats, Persian, black cats, or Siamese — along with SO many other breeds. Many breeds also come in multiple colors.

Posted by JEKCA – Building Blocks for Kidults on Wednesday, November 20, 2019

There are even other types of pets, like parrots, fish, turtles, horses, and hamsters.

The cats, dogs, hamsters, and other smaller pets come in life-size versions. The bigger animals do not.

Would you want one of these? Let us know in the comments!

The post Company Makes Life-Sized, LEGO Sculptures of Your Beloved Pet appeared first on UberFacts.

5 Ways Google Convinced Their Employees to Eat Better

Sometimes we need a push to make better choices when it comes to food – but not like, obvious ones, because who likes to be told what to do?

No one, a fact that tech giant Google obviously knows, because they’ve used their legendary cafeterias to silently urge their employees and guests into eating more healthy (and liking it, too!).

A five-year study of the eating habits at Google HQ reveal that the cafeteria’s patrons are making smarter, healthier choices, though, so what gives?

It turns our that their food program uses subtle but effective approaches to convincing people to eat more vegetables, fruit, and fish while eschewing empty calories.

Here are 5 simple ways they’re changing the way people eat.

5. Spa Water

Image Credit: iStock

Instead of making soda visible and an obvious choice, Google puts out urns of water filled with cucumbers, berries, and lemons – they’re attractive and beautiful and convince people that water isn’t the boring choice after all.

4. Meat is discouraged.

Image Credit: iStock

There is meat on their buffets, but it is often the last option offered, and only one of several choices ahead of it. Their Indian buffet offers many vegetarian curries, all of which look and smell as yummy as the meat option at the end, so most people’s plates are already full by the time they get there.

3. Smaller plates

Image Credit: iStock

The buffet line features 10-inch plates instead of the standard 12-inch versions, which help with portion control and also, people find their plates are full of healthy stuff with no room for anything else!

2. Vegetables are for all meals.

Image Credit: iStock

In America, we tend to think that breakfast should be made of salty meat, carbs, and sugar, but the truth is, fruits and vegetables should be a staple at every meal.

1. And they go at the front of the line.

Image Credit: iStock

Their buffet line starts with veggies and fruit that are followed by proteins, and finally the desserts. The chefs create delicious plant-based dishes that fill up plates and don’t leave room for sweets!

Okay, so I’m convinced…though I’m not sure these will work on my toddlers (or my husband, to be honest).

I suppose it’s worth a try – are you going to implement some of these in your business or home?

Tell us which options are inspiring you!

The post 5 Ways Google Convinced Their Employees to Eat Better appeared first on UberFacts.

Experts in Their Fields Share Common Knowledge That Most People Don’t Know

All jobs require some form of expertise, whether that’s how to wrangle a two-year-old or how to land a plane. When you’ve been in the same field for long enough, you start to take certain forms of expertise for granted. But when you try to talk about it to someone not in your field, it can sound like total gibberish.

Once in a while, experts give us a glimpse into their world in a way that actually makes sense. On AskReddit, a user asked: “What is common knowledge in your field, but if you told us, we would think you’re next level smart?” The answers are fascinating.

1. Bridges aren’t attached on both sides.

“Bridges aren’t fixed at both sides, they’re traditionally pinned on one side (with two big super-pins), and just rest unfixed at the other end.

This helps avoid additional stress as the bridge flexes during use and expands/contracts with temperature change.”

2. Airplanes are fixed with duct tape.

“Every airplane you’ve ever flown on or ever will fly on has cracks in the structure all over the place. It’s very very common. And to add insult to injury, if an exterior crack or hole is found that could compromise the integrity of some non critical area like the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer or some piece of engine housing, the standard procedure is to just put some fancy duct tape over it until they can get it in a maintenance hanger.

Oh and also in my personal experience every aircraft is also probably missing about 20 or so fasteners or screws without anyone knowing.

(But on the bright side so nobody freaks out, aircraft are also commonly way over engineered with several backup structures so no one failure can down a plane without another failure somewhere else.)”

3. People get hacked, not objects.

“Most hacking is about tricking the user, not the computer.”

“If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard “My credit card got hacked!” I could retire early. No, your credit card didn’t get hacked. You got hacked when you gave your credit card to a stranger with a heavy accent because they told you they could lower all your interest rates to zero percent.”

4. How and when to pick roses.

“When buying roses for someone, give the head a gentle squeeze-if it’s fresh it will be firm. If it’s squishy, it’s no good.

Don’t get married near Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. The flowers will be twice as expensive and twice as shitty.

Lastly, florists don’t jack up the prices on red roses on v-day to mess with you. Our wholesalers raise the prices because they have to put so much energy into growing red roses that will bloom at the right time. We never really use them except v-day and maybe Christmas. So it’s really all the people out there ordering red roses that are driving up the price. I hate them personally. Red roses are like the Budweiser of flowers. Get your sweetie a shit load of tulips, or better yet a live plant. And baby’s breath smells like cat piss and dirty socks. Ask for wax flower, it smells like lemons.”

5. Locks aren’t hard to pick.

“It’s actually super easy to pick most locks used on homes.

I could teach a complete novice the basics in 15 minutes.

It’s a scary thought, but on the other hand that means more people are being law abiding citizens and not breaking into your home.”

6. Why it helps to rub a sore spot.

“The nerves in your body responsible for conveying touch sensory information conduct a current faster than the ones that are responsible for pain signals.

As a result, we believe that the reason a sore spot feels better when you rub it is because the signal from your touch beats the pain signal back to your central nervous system and thus “blocks out” pain.”

7. No website or app actually stores your password.

“Applications with login don’t actually store your password directly. If they are able to show you your password or send it by mail it is not safe.

What safe websites do instead is use a method called salting and hashing. This means doing a 1 way scrambling of your password and then save the scrambled value. When you try to login they take what you wrote in the password field and run it through the same scrambler. If this matches the stored password it means you typed in the correct password. This way if they get hacked or people get access to the database the stored passwords are useless.

Super trivial knowledge in programming and IT but most people I’ve talking to about this outside work have no idea.”

8. How to escape a bite.

“If you’re getting bit by someone, quickly push or jerk the part of you that is being bitten in the direction of the bite and pull back.

The push back expands the jaw causing them to release for a second so you can pull yourself out of the bite.”

9. There’s a tape better than duct tape.

“There’s a tape stronger and more resilient than duct tape, that can be removed without leaving residue behind.

It’s called gaff or gaffer tape. It’s generally only found in theater and film backstages.

It’s more expensive than duct but it’s also better. You can get it on Amazon.”

10. How electronics get assembled.

“Assembly instructions are critical in every assembly manufacturing facility. You don’t just put people in assembly line and expect them to do basic process as fixing a single screw and make no mistake. Assembly process involves assembly sequence, ergonomics, locations of raw materials, location of tools, etc.

For example, if a person’s task is fix three screws on a single machine (a cellphone, for example), screws must be batched by threes so when the next machine arrives and the assembler notices a single screw left on his work station, he/she would realize he missed to fix one on the previous unit.

When a product arrives at the final inspection area and gets rejected for assembly mistake (e.g. missing screw, missing label, scratches, wrong parts installed), it’s the fault of the Process Engineer. You can’t blame a mistake to the assembly operator, you created the process wrong so a failure is always expected.

This is what you refer to as “fool proofing,” you design the process so that even a fool can’t mess it up.”

11. Cocktails are just liquor, sugar, and citrus.

“Citrus helps cut the bite of liquor when mixing drinks (almost common knowledge) but softer citrus helps with stronger liquor. For example, orange juice or pineapple juice is better for cutting tequila or vodka shots instead of lime or lemon juice.

Basically a good cocktail will have 3/4 – 1oz citrus, 1/2 – 3/4 oz of some sweetener, and 1 1/2 oz of liquor. That’s a good ratio to start with if you want to look fancy.”

12. Why plane tickets go up in price while you browse.

“Airlines don’t raise their prices because they see you looking at a ticket in order to panic you into buying.

They use a system from the 70’s that requires you to take a seat out of inventory in order to see the price, and if you don’t buy, the seat doesn’t go back right away.

So if you check the same flight on 10 different sites looking for the lowest fare, there could be 10 seats that have been taken out of their inventory, which triggers an automatic price increase.

About half the time, if you just wait until the next day, the seats will go back into inventory and the price will go back down to what it originally was.”

13. Never rinse after you brush your teeth.

“That you shouldn’t rinse with water or mouthwash after brushing your teeth.

Just spit out Excess toothpaste and leave the rest so the fluoride remains in contact with your teeth for longer for protection.

Rinsing essentially eliminates the reasoning behind making toothpaste fluoridated”

14. How movies are filmed.

“Movies are made in a schedule so you can save as much time and budget as possible.

The big scene are filmed later and the dialog first, usually.”

15. Collision coverage isn’t always worth it.

“I work in insurance. Sometimes I speak to people and I swear they’re hearing a foreign language.

But I guess the best answer to this question involves collision coverage. If you have a 10+ year old car that’s not financed it’s generally not worth it to keep collision on the car. It often doubles the price of your insurance (especially if you’re young) and in the event of an accident the car is likely going to be totaled out anyway.

Explaining this to people and showing them what they should be paying is akin to a miracle to some people.”

What did you think about all of this expert info? Learn anything new?

Let us know in the comments! Or share your expert info.

We’re all ears!

The post Experts in Their Fields Share Common Knowledge That Most People Don’t Know appeared first on UberFacts.

Here’s the Difference Between Forests, Woods, and Jungles

Some people might say that it’s no big deal if you use these words incorrectly because everyone knows what you’re generally referring to, but as someone who makes her living writing, I think that words – and semantics – do actually matter.

Language is hard, but it’s necessary, and the key to doing almost anything in life successfully is communication.

So, let’s all link arms and, in the spirit of using English correctly, find out the key differences between forests, woods, and jungles.

According to Merriam-Webster, a forest is “a dense growth of trees and underbrush covering a large tract.” Woods, on the other hand are “a dense growth of trees usually greater in extent than a grove and smaller than a forest.”

Basically, they are the same but a forest is bigger. U.S. and European scientists would say that it depends on factors like density of trees and other undergrowth, etc, and that it must cover at least 1.24 total acres, with the canopy cover exceeding 10% of the acreage.

Woods must span the same acreage, but they can be less dense, with canopy covers as low as 5%.

In Australia, plant ecologist Raymond Specht’s classification system calls any tree-populated land with less than 30% canopy a woodland, and anything more dense a forest.

Jungles are a different beast, and don’t actually have specific classifications.

In fact, scientists don’t call them jungles at all, but tropical forests. They’re located around the Equator and have the highest species diversity per area in the world, and are s densely populated by flora and fauna that they’re defined as “tangled” and “impenetrable.”

Now, since most of us aren’t walking around with the equipment necessary to measure acreage and the percentage of canopy cover, it’s understandable (and fine) to interchange woods and forests for moderately-sized tracts of trees and vegetation.

If you’re aware that it’s a giant swath of land, you’d be best going with “forest.”

If the setting is tropical, the colloquial “jungle,” would work, though you can be fancy now and choose “tropical forest” instead.

You’re welcome! ?

And now we all know – I, for one, definitely feel smarter for us doing this together!

The post Here’s the Difference Between Forests, Woods, and Jungles appeared first on UberFacts.

8 Mysteries That Might Be Unsolved but Everyone Pretty Much Knows Who Did It

It seems like they did it...doesn’t it?

These high profile crimes may be unsolved as of today, but come on…

Scroll through our evidence and armchair detective work and see if you don’t agree. Some people just look guilty!

1. Kristin Smart

Presumed to have been abducted and killed at the end of her freshman year of college, May 25, 1996, on the campus of California Polytechnic State University. Another student, Paul Flores was the last person to see her.

Unfortunately, he was less than forthcoming about their encounter. His story changed frequently, especially when cadaver dogs picked up a scent on his mattress and he was questioned about his black eye.

Shot by Alexandra Wallace

Posted by Sandee Hunt-Burns on Sunday, January 5, 2020

2. Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman

Simpson, 34, was the ex-wife of football star O.J. Simpson. In 1994, she and her friend, Ron Goldman, were found stabbed to death outside of her residence. O.J. was taken into custody and charged for their murders. After a sensational trial, he was acquitted. Later, he was found liable for the murders in civil court which doesn’t require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. O.J. was almost giddy about the outcomes and swore finding the real killer would be his “primary goal”. In his free time, O.J. likes to play golf and sign autographs.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

3. Patricia Adkins

Adkins was having an affair with a married man and had lent him almost $100,000 over the time they were together.

She told family and friends she and her boyfriend were going camping in Canada. She was never seen again.

The boyfriend had a flimsy alibi, but the good ol’ boy was cleared only on his word and his name was never released by the police.

Posted by Help Find Patricia(Patti)Adkins on Monday, May 7, 2012

4. Dupont de Ligonnes

When an entire family of five, including their dogs, is murdered and buried under a terrace, the only person who is missing is the husband and dad, his suicidal emails are found and bullets, shovels and trash bags are purchased by him, it stands to reason he’s guilty.

However, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès is still missing and was never charged.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

5. Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos

Gone missing in 2004 and in 2003, respectively, the young men were arrested by the same Deputy Steve Calkins.

Deputy Calkins said he dropped both men off at a Circle K.

They haven’t been seen since.

Posted by Disappearance of Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos on Sunday, October 6, 2013

6. Kristine Kupka

Kupka was a pregnant and single Brooklyn college student when she went missing in 1998.

Her professor and father of her baby, Darshanand “Rudy” Persaud, wanted her to have an abortion.

He was also the last person to see her alive.

Posted by Where is Kristine Kupka? on Saturday, October 26, 2013

 

7. Susan Powell

Her husband Josh Powell did it and should have been arrested immediately, but his family members chose to lie for him.

He’s dead now, along with his two small sons who he also killed when he hit them repeatedly with a hatchet and burned them alive.

Posted by Friends and Family of Susan Cox Powell on Friday, March 30, 2012

8. Sherese Walker Bingham

She was shot with her own gun which was found at the scene. Her husband was having an affair and even owned property with his mistress.

Detectives have been unable to gather enough evidence to charge him.

Posted by Matt Belcher on Thursday, December 28, 2017

Everyone has a right to due process, but sometimes we collectively want to throw our hands up and say WHAT??

Unfortunately, these victims haven’t had justice properly served. But investigation methods are improving more each day and we hold out hope that the families of these women and men will one day finally get the answers they so desperately want.

The post 8 Mysteries That Might Be Unsolved but Everyone Pretty Much Knows Who Did It appeared first on UberFacts.

Hand Dryers Spread So Many Germs They’re Basically a Threat to Public Health

There’s not a lot that makes you feel good about public bathrooms, but when the hand dryer replaced towel dispensers that you have to touch, I’m sure people felt pretty good about having clean hands and fingers when they left a restroom.

I mean, you don’t have to touch them, they blow hot air…how could that not be sanitary, right?

View this post on Instagram

Hand Dryer No 1000 Hackney Picturehouse, London, UK. Wow. So here it is. The 1000th post on my beloved Handdryer account. I’ve been waiting to share this for sometime, so without further ado, it is my absolute honour to formally announce the release of my book, ‘Handdryers’. – To say this has been a labour of love is an understatement of epic proportions, and it is of genuine surprise that we have reached this moment, but reached it we have. The wonderful people at Unicorn will be releasing my publication world wide in spring 2020, and do not worry, there will be regular updates reminding you of where and how to buy, as I’m sure you’re all eager to find out. – Thank you to everyone that has helped this to happen. Everybody has been behind me 100% from the beginning, and it means so much to know everyone wants you to succeed. From friends and loved ones waiting patiently while I run off, or letting me create journeys purely as an excuse from me to find more and more hand-dryers, to obsessive levels, which is always a good excuse for a pub-crawl. I have loved every second, and hopefully this is just the beginning, there’s a whole world of hand-drying out there, and I’m ready to snap it up. Stay tuned. . . . . . #picoftheday #architecture #photooftheday #streetphotography #design #handdryers #photographer #urban #wanderlust #photography #dreamermagazine #style #urbanart #instastreetphotography #xt10

A post shared by HandDryers (@handdryers) on

To understand why they’re not, we first need to agree that most people don’t wash their hands correctly or for long enough – which means that when they’re done washing and ready to dry, there are still germs all over their hands.

In 2014, a research team from the University of Leeds announced that they’d found that hot air dryers are disturbingly good at blowing those germs off of people’s hands and into nearby surfaces in fairly large quantities.

They re-created public washrooms in their labs that included jet-air dryers and paper towel dispensers, and found that the dryers introduced 27x more bacteria into the air than the paper towels. Not only that, but the microbes circulated for 15 minutes afterward.

Now, the authors have gone into the real world for their experiments, and the news for hand dryers are even worse.

Professor Mark Wilcox and his team conducted their experiment in hospitals in Leeds, Paris, and Udine (Italy) over a 12-week period, using samples from restrooms frequented by patients, staff, and visitors. They sampled the surfaces in the bathrooms every day for four weeks – only offering a jet-dry option – then waited two weeks and repeated the experiment, offering only paper towels for hand-drying.

The results, reported in the Journal of Hospital Infection, revealed that the total amount of bacteria was consistently higher in the restrooms where jet dryers were being used, with the most dramatic differences seen between the surface of the jet dryer and the surface of the paper towel dispenser – in Italy, it was 100x higher on the jet dryer, in Paris, 33x, and in Leeds, 22x higher.

In Leeds, the worrisome methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacterium was found three times more frequently during jet-dryer periods then when paper towels were stocked instead, and other species of pathogens that are resistant to antibiotic treatment were found in higher instances, too.

Wilcox’s team summarized in their published article.

“Consequently, we believe that electric hand dryers are not suited to clinical settings, and, as such, existing (e.g. NHS) infection control building guidance needs to be amended and strengthened.”

French health officials updated their guidelines after the previous research came out, discouraging the use of air-dryers in clinical wards, and U.K. hospitals have followed.

 

Paper towels are so much better, Wilcox says, because they “absorb the water and microbes left on the hands and it they are disposed of properly there is less potential for cross-contamination.”

So, there you have it – wiping your hands dry is better for you, since there’s a good chance you’re not getting all of the microbes off while washing, and it’s better than everyone else, because a dryer isn’t blowing your germs all over the bathroom.

But, you know, try figuring out how to wash your hands properly. I feel like that’s something more than 10% of the human race should be able to figure out.

The post Hand Dryers Spread So Many Germs They’re Basically a Threat to Public Health appeared first on UberFacts.

This is Why Radio Station Call Signs Always Begin With a ‘K’ or a ‘W’

There are important questions out there that people are always clamoring for answers to, and while wondering how radio stations are named and why they always start with one of two letters might not be all that important, it is one of those things you ponder at some point.

We’re here to give you the answers to all of the big questions, whether the answers are life changing or not. So, if you’ve ever wondered this question fleetingly, but your brain went on to something else before you could Google it, well – today is your lucky day!

Image Credit: Pixabay

There is a short answer: the government deemed that it would be so.

Here’s a longer explanation for those of you looking to kill it at your next trivia night, though!

It harkens back to the days of the telegraph, when operators used short letter sequences as identifiers (this is also when they became known as call letters or call signs). Early radio operators continued the practice, but since no one was coordinating the choices, it was possible to choose letters already in use by someone else.

The Bureau of Navigation (under the Department of Commerce flag) stepped in, assigning three-letter call signs to ships in the early 20th century.

Ships in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico got a K prefix, while those in the Pacific and Great Lakes were assigned a W.

Image Credit: Pixabay

No one today knows why those two particular letters were chosen.

In 1912, at the London International Radiotelegraphic Convention, letters were assigned to each participating nations, and the U.S. kept K and W, with N designated for military stations.

Not long after that, the federal government began licensing commercial radio stations, planning to assign call letters to land-based stations in the same way they had been to those offshore. This time, though, W call signs went to states east of the Mississippi River and K went to those west (though at first, the line ran considerably further west, north from the Texas/New Mexico border.

Image Credit: Pixabay

It’s still not a solid identifier, though, as some stations weren’t made to change their signs when the switch was made but some were, and for about a year in the 1920s the Bureau of Navigation was assigning K signs to all new stations no matter their location.

The other letters in the call sign were assigned at random, or chosen based on an existing station name (ABC, NBC).

So, there you go – it’s mostly a random piece of chance that was signed off on by the government, and that was that!

The post This is Why Radio Station Call Signs Always Begin With a ‘K’ or a ‘W’ appeared first on UberFacts.

14 Secrets About Disney You Probably Didn’t Know

The brilliant minds behind the guest experience at Disneyland, Disney World and their other parks worldwide are called Imagineers. This incredible team raise the realism so you can actually feel immersed as you walk through the parks, take a thrilling ride and even when you’re standing in long lines. Everywhere you look, there’s something to discover.

Scroll through these 14 secrets about Disneyland and Disney World that we bet you didn’t know.

1. Frontierland has raised sidewalks that exactly replicate the old West.

Sidewalks in the old frontier really were raised to protect shoes and skirts from dragging in the muck that made up the roadway.

The sound and feel of it as you walk along adds to the authenticity.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

2. A hidden Mickey that’s actually an inside joke.

Hidden Mickeys are scattered all through the parks, but this one is in plain sight and almost look like someone randomly painted this rather crude, unlicensed (gasp!) Mickey on a wall in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

The real joke, though is the Swahili word underneath. It means “hidden.”

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Oh, Mickey, you’re so fine. Hey, Mickey❗

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3. Stand in the right place and you’ll be first to pick a Doom Buggy on the Haunted Mansion ride.

When you first enter the attraction and you are standing in the room with the spooky portraits and the stretchy walls, find the painting of the girl with the parasol.

The door to the Doom Buggys opens beneath her and then you’ll get your choice of them. Dare to sit in the first one?

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

4. The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! at Hollywood Studios has a warning sign too tempting to ignore.

This looks like a serious warning to not pull the rope that’s hanging on the pulley.

Surely, something bad will happen. But, it’s too tantalizing not to see what.

5. The tallest mountain at Walt Disney World is Expedition Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

It stops at 199.5 feet and could be higher, except the Federal Aviation Authority would slap a blinking red light on it to alert aircraft and that would sort of ruin the effect.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

6. The Enchanted Tiki Room was first imagined as a dinner show.

Imagineers planned the Enchanted Tiki Room as a dinner show with the animatronics.

The dining component never made it to fruition.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

7. At Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, you can see where Han and Leia first kissed.

The intimate space where Han and Leia smooched for the first time is off the main room.

A cast member is stationed there to keep the heat down, but you can still look inside and get inspired for kissing your honey later.

8. Pandora has a couple of fake waterfalls to create the illusion of a larger space.

Pandora The World of Avatar is like stepping into a dream.

However, the tallest waterfalls are actually not freely falling water. They are slowed down by a wheel to add to the ethereal feeling that everything is bigger than it is.

9. The Enchanted Tiki Room is the reason for Disney’s delicious Dole Whips.

Since Dole is a sponsor of the Enchanted Tiki Room, we now have Dole Whips in all their frothy, flavorful, colorful glory.

10. There are porg nests to find while you wait for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.

The lines for many of the attractions are long. But, even the queues have secret fun and games.

Look for Porg nests as you wait to fly to fly the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.

11. There are even secret menu items!

Search the various Disney food blogs to find how to order secret off-the-menu items like this Baby Yoda cocktail.

12. Liberty Square acknowledges the lack of public restroom facilities in colonial times.

Just like in colonial times, Liberty Square doesn’t have any bathrooms.

There is even a brown trail to replicate the raw sewage that flowed through the streets in days of yore.

13. Disneyland’s iconic Mickey balloons last a long time because of this genius solution.

A former park employee came up with a way to keep the Mickey balloons from popping in the heat.

Treb Henning, a Disney “Balloon Boy” in 1969 began enclosing the balloons in bubbles, preventing kid meltdowns ever since.

Photo Credit: Flickr

14. Try to find the door to Disneyland’s private club in New Orlean’s Square.

Club 33 requires a private ultra-exclusive membership. If you can afford the entry fee of between $25,000 and $50,000, and annual dues of $30,000, then join the waiting list.

They’ll get back to you in 10 to 15 years.

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#disneyclub33

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Disneyland and Disney World are chock-full of fun and secrets.

On your next visit, try to find these and the many of the other hidden treasures tucked throughout. Or, at least appreciate the minds behind all the details that add to the immersive experience only found at Disney parks!

The post 14 Secrets About Disney You Probably Didn’t Know appeared first on UberFacts.