People Discuss Pop-Culture Revelations You’ll Never Want to Unlearn

You know that moment when you’re watching one of your favorite movies and something new about it just clicks in your head? It’s pretty fun. It can also make you feel slightly stupid if you figure you should have realized it earlier.

Probably the best thing to do with those feelings is to take to Twitter and share your epiphanies with the world.

10. The Backstreet Boys

Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) peaked at number 4 on the American Billboard charts in 1998.

9. American Gothic

Additionally, they were modeled after the artist’s sister and his dentist.

8. Pilot episodes

The pilot of the show Lost was the most expensive ever made up to that point, costing an estimated $14 million.

7. Who Let the Dogs Out

There’s an entire documentary about this song.

6. Lord of the Rings

Ian McKellen has a net worth of around $50 million.

5. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

The phrase is “Open Sesame” in Antoine Galland’s version of One Thousand and One Nights.

4. The Lion King

James Earl Jones was the only actor to reprise his role in the “live action” 2019 remake.

3. Disney Cartoons

The character’s first animated appearance was in 1932.

2. The Lion King (again)

While the story similarities are undeniable, people also point to the more troubling apparent rip off elements from a Japanese series called Kimba.

1. Chuck E Cheese

The bizarre pizza chain filed for bankruptcy in 2020.

And with that knowledge in our minds, we can all go forth, forever changed.

What did you realize when you were today years old?

Tell us in the comments.

The post People Discuss Pop-Culture Revelations You’ll Never Want to Unlearn appeared first on UberFacts.

People Who Grew Up Poor Discuss the Unwritten Rules They Had To Live By

If you grow up with no money, you are instilled with a different set of codes and rules than people who were more fortunate.

Some things that relatively comfortable folks took for granted seem totally foreign to them and there were certain things that they just had to deal with because of their situations.

People who grew up poor talked about the expectations and unwritten rules they had on AskReddit. Let’s take a look.

1. Hide it away.

“Hide money or it will be “borrowed.”

Also, don’t get attached to anything because if it’s any good it’ll be sold in a yard sale, and if it has any value it will be pawned.

I got the same CD player for three Christmases and birthdays in a row…out of pawn for birthday, pawned again a month later, out of pawn for Christmas, pawned again by March, etc.”

2. Hmmm…

“I am the second of 8 kids of high school dropout parents.

“It doesn’t matter of you don’t like the (food, clothes, shoes, toys etc) take it, say thank you and be appreciative.”

“You can do anything you want, as long as it’s free.”

“You will survive. If someone needs it more, let it go.”

“Never tell anyone you are hungry or need something, it makes you seem weak and needy.”

“The second you become working age, 10+. You will help with bills. You have no choice. Your money is everyone’s money.” Which is fine, until you realize the new tattoo mom has and dads new tv.”

3. On the down low.

“Keep your aspirations to yourself.

Telling anyone in your household/social strata about your plans to get out and do better may be met with bitterness and downright ridicule. People will call you uppity for wanting to go to school or stupid for having a career goal that isn’t modest and local and vaguely dead-end.

People will tell you that you have no common sense simply because you refuse to see the world in terms of pure survival.”

4. Be proud of yourself.

“Stand up straight and speak with confidence.

It was so easy for people to look down on the poor kids, so we made it just a bit harder for them.”

5. How sick are you?

“Going to the doctor isn’t an option until your fever is sustained at 104, a bone is broken, or the tooth rotted and won’t fall out on it’s own.

I am in my late 30’s with full insurance and still have a hangup about going for medical care.”

6. It’s all a secret.

“Never tell your friends that you couldn’t afford food or give them any clue about what it’s like at home.

My mother used to ask me if I told anyone how we live and that’s when I started questioning our situation.”

7. Hunger.

“Not eating lunch because it you either “just ate breakfast” or “dinners only a few hours away you’ll be fine”.”

8. Don’t waste anything.

“Nothing wasted!

Mum had a dish called mixed-up stew which was basically a little mince beef, mashed potatoes and any leftovers from the fridge.

Good menu planning – she never called it that but one meal led to the next with last’s night leftovers included. Failing that, she always had a soup on the go using bones from chicken, dried barley and, yet again, leftovers.

Thing is they were all delicious, but that could be me just remembering her fondly.”

9. That sucks.

“We weren’t allowed to do any kind of extra curricular activities.

So, no instruments, no joining any kind of sports or Girl Scouts or anything that required an upfront investment for uniforms or the season.”

10. Embarrassed.

“We were very poor growing up.

You never ate the last of anything without asking first. Portions were small and limited. When I was 11 I was invited over to a then friend’s house. I was floored by their house and furnishings. Very opulent compared to mine. Lunch time came. Her mom had set the table for sandwiches. Everything laid out, 3 different breads, all sorts of meats, condiments and fruit.

At my house lunch was a sandwich with white day old bread with peanut butter and jelly. Sometimes we would have those land o frost thin sliced meats. We were only allowed 2 slices of the meat per sandwich. So, at this friends house, I make my sandwich with one slice of ham because it was way thicker then the stuff at home. The mom kinda freaks out…”what kind of sandwich is that? You need to put more on it, thats not enough.”

I explain that’s what we do at home. They were horrified. Ended up sending me home with a “care package” of food. My parents never let me go to her house again because they were embarrassed I told them we were poor.”

11. A tough one.

“You never brought the field trip permission slips home because you knew better than to make your mom feel guilty.

She couldn’t pay the $5-20 fee to let you go.”

12. Sounds miserable.

“A/C was only for company.

I lived in South Florida and didn’t know I could use the air conditioner without having someone over until I moved out of my parents’ home.”

13. Advice from Dad.

“My father was constantly driving these two things into my head since I was old enough to remember: 1). Hard Work will set you free 2). You WILL NOT get anyone pregnant.

He never meant that hard work would make you rich. He meant that if you’re willing to work hard, you can always work some sh*t job that puts food on the table, and you’ll be so exhausted by days end, you can rest. In my father’s eyes food on the table and a good night’s rest was all a person really needed.

The pregnancy thing was totally about shame. He grew up in the deep south with a Baptist preacher father. My father was around 6-7 in the early 1950’s when his oldest brother (15) got a girl (18) in the church preggo. The resulting shame and shunning from the community that ensued drove my father’s mother to suicide.

I’m sure to some degree he blames his current life on the pregnancy that he had nothing to do with.”

Did you grow up poor?

If so, what were the unspoken rules that you understood and that were expected of you?

Please share your stories with us in the comments. Thanks!

The post People Who Grew Up Poor Discuss the Unwritten Rules They Had To Live By appeared first on UberFacts.

16 Things That Really Bring Out The Worst In People

We usually like to talk about the moments that bring out the best in people.

Those are the times when humans are lifting each other up, and we really shine.

There are two sides to every coin, of course, and there are just as many (if not more) instances that can quickly bring out the very worst that human beings have to offer – and 16 of those moments are listed below.

16. It can go to your head.

Power.

See it all the time in the military.

Just because someone is placed in a position of power doesn’t mean they’re going to be a good leader.

15. A horrible attitude.

People get real stupid when it comes to their kids. The “my baby can do no wrong” attitude when your child is f*cking sh%t needs to stop.

This is the worst, my family is friends with a group of families who’ve known each other for a while. We went to one of their birthdays and the youngest kid ran up and licked the birthday cake???

He was also overall being a little sh%t and everyone was laughing and all like “haha, that’s just his personality!” I got so pissed I wanted to leave.

14. Strike a balance.

Lack of control in ones life can lead to lashing out at partners/family/friends.

It can cause depression and a whole host of problems if you feel you have little to no control of the things in your life.

13. Even if it’s not worth it.

Scarcity.

Ugh. This 100%. It’s bad enough with concert ticket resellers but the scumbags will do it with anything. There’s a new Lego Bonsai Tree set my girlfriend wants and its her birthday soon.

It’s sold out. Everywhere. But there are 100s of them on eBay at inflated prices.

The top one has ’19 sold’ on it.

12. No consequences.

Anonymity. Putting a mask on, being on the internet, or otherwise concealing one’s identity. People do some very f*cked up things when they know they won’t be held accountable.

This reminds me of when Instagram introduced the Questions Sticker to the Stories part of the app in 2018. People thought they could ask questions anonymously, but the app shows you who asked the question.

I’d like to think that hundreds of friendships were broken that week when the feature was implemented.

11. We’re still tribal in our genes.

Not being accepted by other people. Social contact and validation is no different from food or water.

Yes, people can starve on validation too.

That’s why simple things like greeting strangers in the street, or always saying ‘thank you’ are so critically important.

10. Widen your circle.

Echo chambers.

It is easy to dehumanize people who are different than you when you never spend any time interacting with them.

9. Desperate times…

Desperation.

When I was a kid, prolly like grade 5-6, my mom thought it’d be a cool present to open a bank account for me with some money in it already. I was super excited to have my own card like a big kid.

My dad wasn’t in the best place at the time. My parents had divorced because he was going down a spiral of drug abuse, and my mom didn’t want me exposed to that. I saw him on weekends, but lived with my mom.

Fast forward to my birthday, and my mom put 100$ into my account, which was a HUGE amount for a kid. Went to make my first purchase, a game for my xbox360, card declined. Weird. Check my balance, -25$. Found out a week later my dad had stolen the money from my account to fuel his addiction.

He was usually the nicest, most caring, and funny guy out there. But when he got desperate, he’d do some really sh%tty things.

8. Right up there with power.

Money. The moment money is involved, a person’s true nature comes out, and most of the time it won’t be pretty.

This reminds me of all the people who lost their money due to lotteries because so many people thought they deserved some of it till the actual winner had nothing left.

7. You have to face it.

Unprocessed trauma from childhood. As someone that is struggling with mental health, I’m only now beginning to understand why I do a lot of what I do. When our needs for love and acceptance aren’t met, we seek out soothing behaviors that numb the pain.

It’s really easy to end up in midlife with no real idea what it means to be happy and feeling no connection to others. As you begin to work on your issues, you find that the soothing behaviors are no longer as soothing because you know why you’re doing it.

So, you’re stuck with the emptiness that you’ve always felt and no way to get out of the feeling.

6. All kinds.

Pain.

But at the same time it can bring out the strength you never thought you had, too.

This 100% it seems like pain can literally and figuratively make or break you. I have many people in my life with chronic pain. You’d be talking and they’d suddenly go quiet, or politely excuse themselves and later you find out they were in agony.

On the flip side, I’ve been waiting in the ER and heard people screaming and cursing at doctors for symptoms that the person I was with was feeling tenfold. Of course pain is subjective and all that, but definitely so is the response. I’m not as saying those that lash out in pain are nesseccarily bad either.I guess…

I just wonder what the threshold is? What would turn ME into a thrashing ball of pain and fury instead of the graceful martyr. Hope I never find out…

5. Especially this game.

League of Legends.

Something about that game makes people go ape-sh%t.

4. No love left.

Former Legal Assistant here.

I’m telling you, you don’t ever see the worst in someone until you’re in the middle of a nasty divorce fighting for custody of your children.

It’s horrendous how evil some people can be to someone they once loved.

3. We just want to chill, man.

Traffic, the after work rush home is the worst.

Everyone is tired, has generally had a bad day and will do anything just to get home and relax.

I-4 in Tampa is basically mad max fury road but with regular cars.

2. Backed into a corner.

Being challenged or “ganged up on.”

My mother will freak out whenever she feels like either of these happening to her and she starts screaming. At those points, it’s pretty much best to walk away and ignore her.

Though she likes to say I’m “running away” from her. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that I needed to interact with your tantrum.

1. It’s hard to overcome.

Ego.

I definitely agree with these, and think that stress is really at the root of most of them.

What brings out the worst in you? Confessions in the comments!

The post 16 Things That Really Bring Out The Worst In People appeared first on UberFacts.

What’s Better? Wireless or Wired Headphones? People Shared Their Thoughts.

I haven’t taken the big leap to wireless headphones yet, so I feel like I should remain a neutral observer in this debate…

But other folks sure have thoughts about it!

What’s better, wired or wireless headphones?

Here’s what AskReddit users had to say.

1. Overrated.

“AirPods are overrated.

You have to charge them. You have to keep track of many components (both pods, case, charger). You can easily lose them or drop them into an endless abyss that is the subway grate in the sidewalk.

Not wired headphones! You never have to worry about if they’re charged; they’ll never die mid-run! When you drop them, they’re not likely to fall somewhere to their death, and they’re harder to lose!!

Maybe this is the poor grad student coming out on me- but wired headphones have my vote any day!!”

2. That’s a big one!

“Main advantage of wired is that people see them and don’t try to talk to you.

Well, most people don’t…”

3. One person’s opinion.

“As per me, AirPods are earphones and not to be considered headphones.

Now when it comes to technical headphones which go over your head and cover your ears fully, wired will always give you better quality. But for easy of use and flexibility wireless are the boss.

I have a sony xm3, never felt the need to go for the wire. Yes, I’m not a true audiophile though.

Coming back to AirPods, they suck and ae just for making a statement. Any pair of quality headphones would beat the shi*t out of AirPods or any other wireless earphones.”

4. That can be painful.

“Main advantage of wireless vs wired imo:

No snagging on random knobs, corners, even my own hand sometimes.”

5. Some advantages.

Aa good set of wireless over-ears like a pair of Marshall’s can last a long time on a charge.

Bigger batteries, no case to keep track of.

Can be great for use with these headphone jack-less phones.”

6. Not a fan…

“Never liked any type of earbuds as I find them extremely uncomfortable to wear.

For my gaming I prefer wireless as it lets me stay on voice chat if I have to run to the fridge or let the dogs out.

Like someone else said here though, they have bigger batteries so unless you forgot to charge them you shouldn’t have a problem with them dying unless you are on a 24 hour plus marathon.”

7. I’ll take the wired ones.

“I paint murals.

Day one of AirPods they fell out of my ears into a paint bucket. Corded ones have been going strong for years.

It’s definitely situational.”

8. For the music lovers.

“It’s a fact that wired headphones produce superior acoustic quality.

You don’t see music producers rocking AirPods in the studio.”

9. Wireless all the way.

“I use my wireless earbuds with everything I do: Brushing my teeth, cleaning my room, working out etc.

Which is all a lot easier to do with wireless. I’ve been running with wired ones before and they just fall out.

Also, Audio is always much clearer. And battery life should last a while + charging is super quick.

I agree that AirPods are overrated though. My earbuds are made so that they don’t fall out your ears when exercising. I think you just need to buy the right ones.”

10. Good point.

“You gotta also consider that Bungee effect, when your cellphone falls and wired headphones save the phone from total destruction.”

11. No more wires.

“After buying wireless headphones both gaming and AirPods for phone usage I will never ever go back.

Wires are so annoying and you can charge both at night or whenever you’re not using them.

There isn’t a single disadvantage that would counter just the fact that you have no bloody wires.”

12. I’ll take both, please.

“I like to keep both. While I do prefer the wireless as they’re very convenient, I sometimes do forget to charge them.

So having the wired ones as a reliable back up is nice, though they can get in the way of things and you’re overall more restricted in movement, especially during jacket season.”

13. One last thought.

“I held off on wireless headphones for quite some time.

But the reality is AirPods are super convenient (easy to switch between devices, you can get up and walk around without carrying your device, no cord getting tangled up).

In terms of sound quality, voice quality and avoiding the hassle of having another device to charge… yes wireless are definitely better.”

Now it’s your turn.

Tell us what you think in the comments: wireless or wired headphones…

Let the debate begin!

The post What’s Better? Wireless or Wired Headphones? People Shared Their Thoughts. appeared first on UberFacts.

People Debate Whether School Cultivates a Fear of Failure in Children

I can honestly say that school DID NOT cultivate a fear of failure in me personally, but I’m just one example…

I know times have changed at least a little bit since I was in school, but in my school, if you weren’t a great athlete, you were kind of invisible…

I’m not complaining at all, I got good grades and had a blast in school with my friends, but I didn’t feel like the teachers were really all that interested in me in one way or another, so it was all a wash…

Do you think school cultivates a fear of failure in students?

Here’s what AskReddit users had to say.

1. The system…

“I feel like the school system barely does anything to try and spark interest in learning and instead just beats in a fear of failure due to the grading system causing students to fear making mistakes and instead focus on just trying to get good scores.

When a kid who might be a slow learner doesn’t understand something but the class is already moving on to another topic their going to feel embarrassed and anxious and instead of trying to fully understand the topics they’re just going to try and memorize as much as they can for that week just to do well on that week’s pop quiz or whatever and then forget that sh*t right after.”

2. Still haunted.

“I changed school systems a lot as a kid. One of those was between 3rd and 4th grade.

The school I went to during 3rd grade was about a year or two ahead of the school I went to during 4th grade in maths, so I had a really easy time and often ended up very bored, and occasionally made minor errors I may not have if I were paying attention.

Instead of being happy that I understood the material or encouraging me, my teacher berated me for every minor mistake and told my mother that I was causing problems.

This is the same teacher who made me count every book I read as half a book for our class reading challenge because I “read too much and it wouldn’t be fair”.

She haunts me to this day.”

3. That’s not good.

“Isn’t it funny that the one time in your life where you can fail and have almost no consequences is also the time that you are convinced that the world will end if you make one small mistake?”

4. Not encouraging…

“Schools push kids towards “success” by giving them everything ready-made.

Interest and perseverance is induced when they are told to figure out something on their own.

The skill of figuring out a problem helps throughout one’s life. Sadly, schools don’t encourage that.”

5. All about funding.

“Most schools only care about test scores because it’s how they get their funding. Realistically the whole system is geared toward grades and that does not correlate to an education.

I am very tactile when it comes to learning, so regurgitating facts back into a test was never my strong suite.

I did well enough to go to college, but I feel like most people with issues like mine instead begin to think they are stupid, or unable to learn material, because it’s not about teaching anymore it’s only about results and test scores.”

6. And on top of that…

“Not only that, but schools don’t teach sh*t.

They teach you how to memorize. I don’t remember anything I learned after I do a test on it, yet I remember various random lines from an engaging video on YouTube that I looked up because I was interested.

School is not run well whatsoever.”

7. Here’s who to get mad at.

“Schools don’t choose what they teach. Common Core determines that.

Teachers don’t want to teach what they are forced to teach. If you want to get angry at someone get mad at your school board and do some research and you’ll see how it’s basically lobbyists for giant education corporations to make sure they have exclusive rights to this district etc. It’s a business first, your child’s education is last.

And truthfully, if you think the federal government wants what is best for your children… Then you obviously never learned much yourself.”

8. The way it is.

“This is the modern US school system.

Chief culprits are standardized testing and No Child Left Behind, which do a waltz together while f*cking up the whole country.”

9. FAILURE.

“Not just fear of failure, school cultivates actual failure.

I think the bigger problem is it cultivates a fear of doing.

But yeah, the simplest way to do well in school is to already have the answers and that’s not how life works.”

10. Speaks to me.

“This 100% speaks to me as someone who always felt two steps behind compared to my peers in school.

It always took me a little while longer to grasp a concept. I always performed best when given a project over the span of a week or two to really think it through and draft my best work. Opposed to classes that quizzed me on every topic at the end of a week where I’d often fail.

Luckily I had parents at home that saw my potential and really pushed me to continue on into university and eventually graduate school (where I still have to put in many more hours of work to succeed compared to my peers).

But the fact that not every child has this support and has to lean on the school system completely is an issue when that very system fails them consistently.”

11. Even teachers agree.

“As a teacher, I completely agree.

I work in a broken system and every year my passion for teaching and learning erodes away.”

12. It’s about practice.

“This is why I always hated teachers that would grade homework (not a big project, more like a worksheet).

Why would you punish me for practicing something?

Practicing is not about doing it perfect the first time so what’s so different about math, science, etc.”

13. Affected.

“A bad teacher can really affect someone’s life.

I’m almost finished with a degree I don’t want because my teachers convinced me I wasn’t good at the subjects I was interested in.

Also, competition in university for admissions to programs that are small just motivates students to try and get the best grade possible instead of actually enjoying learning.”

Do you think school cultivates a fear of failure in kids?

Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Please and thank you!

The post People Debate Whether School Cultivates a Fear of Failure in Children appeared first on UberFacts.

People Discuss Whether Kids Under 12 Should Have Access to the Internet

Well, this promises to be interesting…

Kids and their access to the Internet has been a pretty divisive issue among parents for quite a long time now and I don’t think it’s going anywhere…because the Internet sure isn’t!

AskReddit users debated whether young kids should have access to the Internet. Let’s see how it went.

1. No reason for it.

“They have no reason to have access to internet.

They will find information that will destroy their innocence

They will start being influenced by d*ckheads on the internet, e.g. Jake Paul.

Which will lead to a bunch of other problems.”

2. Limited access.

“They should have limited access.

When I was like 10-11 my parents monitored me but still let me have fun. Because of that I got to get into gaming, acting (online videos inspired me) and drawing (art you tubers).

Of course I found some edgy offensive humor and s*x jokes but kids still found out about those at that age before the internet.”

3. Depends on the kid.

“I think that’s because really it depends on the child, how they were raised and how naturally vigilant they are. (meaning a lot of active internet people disagree because they turned out fine)

You can’t just say all children need to be monitored, but it may be good to check on ‘em now and again just to be on the safe side.

However it is doubtful you will successfully protect a 11-13 year old from losing their ‘innocence’. This is the age where children start to get curious end will look for stuff whether the parent likes it or not.

Really I believe it’s better to provide a safe environment where they feel they aren’t patronized, but you can be sure nothing really bad happens. The alternative being them sating their curiosity will mean being forced to look for it elsewhere and god knows what they will be exposed to.”

4. Keep an eye on them.

“We monitor our kids fairly closely, and my six year old watches a ton of videos on science and nature.

He probably knows more than me about some topic because of it and it’s really made him even more interested in space, geography, etc.

He also watches videos about video games, but the good has definitely outweighed the time wasting.”

5. Has to be more specific.

“I wouldn’t agree that that is the right way to think of it. It’s like saying that kids shouldn’t read books because some books are not the correct content.

What I would agree with would be more specific. Certain material should be off limits which can be done quite easily with certain programs or firewalls etc. K9 web protection is maybe a good example.

I get what you are saying though.

But I don’t agree with cutting off their ability to watch Netflix (internet) maybe even Google cookie recipes (internet) say they like playing fireboy and watergirl (internet).”

6. Parental controls.

“I suggest parental controls/monitoring your child – it’s kind of hard to block or monitor everything. Like YouTube, there’s everything from children’s cartoons to violence.

I’m not a parent so I don’t know how much it takes to monitor a child on a device, I’m sure it’s not easy though.”

7. Gotta be careful.

“Good luck finding parents that will monitor their children by watching along with them.

Jake Paul is a famous d*ckhead that will get into your child’s head.

The classmates will try to make your kid watch his videos and in the end your kid will start to rebel you by seeing you as an overprotective chopper parent.”

8. Can be amazing.

“Watching my 9 year old son research how to mod Minecraft was amazing.

He literally uses computers and does research more effectively than many baby boomers I know.

He learned way more from that about research than he did at school.”

9. They don’t need it.

“I don’t possibly have the time to monitor their every internet usage.

Also, I don’t want or need to learn all the techno crap involved in blocking them from internet bad stuff.

I didn’t have internet at 12, they don’t need it either.”

10. Times have changed.

“I would’ve agreed with this 15 years ago when the internet was much newer.

But nowadays a lot of schools are even use the internet for learning and teaching. There’s a lot of important content that they may need to have access to.

And honestly, the internet has become a part of our daily lives like electricity is. It’s no longer a luxury or this crazy new thing.”

11. A fine line.

“Overprotectiveness can end in negative outcomes too. Teach your child what is internet, how to use it as a tool and only as a tool.

Internet is a means to an end. It gives you basically 70-80% of human knowledge at the end of your fingertips. Helps you keep in touch with people who are tens or hundreds kilometers away.

Can give you entertainment. But it can also show you things toxic, or be used as a weapon.”

12. As simple as that.

“Children should just be monitored by their parents. It’s really that simple.

There are many tools at a parents disposal to monitor child usage of a computer and of a web browser. If the parents are doing their job then the child won’t have access to anything detrimental to their psyche.

My child has learned so much that I am not capable of teaching him through monitored use of the internet.”

What do you think about this issue?

Sound off in the comments!

We’d love to hear from you!

The post People Discuss Whether Kids Under 12 Should Have Access to the Internet appeared first on UberFacts.

People Talk About How Modern Education Shouldn’t Tell Kids That Wikipedia Is an Unreliable Source

It’s gotta be really tough to be a teacher at any level these days.

Not only are kids probably distracted by their smartphones 24/7, but they also have the entire Internet to pull from when they’re writing papers and doing projects…

And you know Wikipedia is always their first stop on that journey…

So, has it been a failure of the modern education system to convince students that Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source?

Are Wikipedia and other sources actually good for students?

Here’s how folks on AskReddit users responded to this question.

1. Here’s a hot take.

“Wikipedia is a practically unlimited source of free knowledge which is constantly being monitored by an army of nerds.

The fact that we do not have to pay for access is a miracle.

(Near enough) every article has a full and reliable list of references at the bottom.

I understand that students should be encouraged use the references at the bottom for true research but this is not taught. Students are simply told ‘Stay away from Wikipedia, anyone can change it, it’s completely unreliable’.”

2. Some problems…

“There are serious problems with the political parts of Wikipedia, e.g. the current wiki war China has on Taiwan.

Which is ironic because Wikipedia is often blocked in China…”

3. Interesting…

“I’ve learned in the last few years that a few random YouTube videos can teach me more than some of my CS professors ever did.

It’s amazing how random people on the internet are occasionally better than the actual people I’m supposed to learn from.”

4. References on top of references.

“I always used Wikipedia, but I use the Wikipedia’s reference on my references as well.

I had to remake a search because one of my teachers caught me, she said “everyone can write on Wikipedia, just search for mistakes on Wikipedia and you will see that people might put misinformation there for whatever reasons.””

5. Quick and easy.

“Part of learning should be how to find the right information quickly – categorizing Wikipedia as lazy is just plain stupid.

If you’re directly quoting Wikipedia there may be issues with accuracy. If you’re using the sources in Wikipedia your professor probably won’t even know. On top of that if you have access to actual academic journals for your course of study, using Wikipedia for sources may actually take MORE time to sort things out.

I dunno. I’m just grateful Wikipedia exists. It’s content and framework have done so much to educate people in the past 15/20 years, I don’t think it gets nearly enough credit.”

6. Not a primary source.

“Wikipedia is great to get a general understanding of a topic, and while it’s generally reliable, it should not be confused as a good primary source.

The whole point of the exercise is to understand what makes a good source.”

7. Depends on the topic.

“Depending on the topic, Wikipedia is an unreliable source. Even without considering the biased viewpoints of some of the moderators of the site, cytogeneses is a problem for wikipedia.

Years ago I knew someone who worked as a researcher in an educational book publisher. Her job was to identify all statements of facts in a chapter and find two independent sources for each statement of fact from another published work.

From my understanding they couldn’t use most of what would be a source on Wikipedia because you can’t trace it back to the original source.”

8. False info.

“I’m in online marketing and I can tell you for a fact that there are a lot of marketing managers/agencies who spread false information through Wikipedia that benefit their clients.

Wikipedia is often used to manipulate public opinion, so overall it is not a reliable source even though Wikipedia has some good information here and there.”

9. Issues.

“The first problem with Wikipedia is that it’s low key political (not counting articles that don’t involve politics), or even high key in an article with high political issues.

The second problem is that minor articles (not popular, famous, or widely known to most people) can be wrong at times because there aren’t many people paying attention to it to update the information so the information can either be outdated, falsely written because there are no moderators of the article, or not containing enough information.

But otherwise, it’s a very reliable source of information”

10. Influence?

“Another issue is that there’s nothing stopping major corporations from hiring people as full time Wikipedia moderators to steer narratives for either political or financial gain.”

11. Great place to start.

“What I tell my students: Wikipedia is not a reliable academic source. This is because the information can be changed by anyone and citations are optional.

A well written Wikipedia article is a great place to start. It will provide a lengthy list of primary, sources that are academically useful. Be aware of which paragraphs have citations and which do not.

If you just want to know something for personal use it’s not a bad reference, but still be aware of the way that the articles are curated.”

12. Teachers aren’t crazy about it.

“My teachers in school were always annoyed if they saw wikipedia pulled up, but it was a real asset to me when I was looking up stuff I was completely unfamiliar with.

Using info from the wikipedia article, I could find key people, concepts and search terms that I could plug in to find reputable sources discussing my subject matter, like a store map in a mall.”

13. Not good with specifics.

“Wikipedia is unreliable as soon as you delve into the specifics.

There are some topics that a novice with a limited pool of sources just can’t properly describe.

If you are very knowledgable about a certain specific topic you can see for yourself.”

What are your thoughts about this issue?

Talk to us in the comments and let us know what you think.

Thanks in advance!

The post People Talk About How Modern Education Shouldn’t Tell Kids That Wikipedia Is an Unreliable Source appeared first on UberFacts.

What Was the Worst Financial Advice You Ever Got? Here’s How People Responded.

Hearing stories about people making really bad decisions with finances and then suffering because of it always really bums me out.

That’s why the stories we’re about to read are ones that you should remember because they’re things you DO NOT want to do.

Are we clear on that? Good!

AskReddit users talked about the worst financial advice they ever received.

Let’s take a look.

1. It adds up.

“”Just get it at Rent A Center.”

I had a coworker that got pretty much everything there.

“It’s only $20/week, and they’ll replace it if it breaks.”

$20/week for how long? Oh cool, so you’re paying more than double for it? Got it.”

2. Bad idea.

“So when I was 24, I was financially struggling. I had a job that worked me a LOT of hours, but only paid me $10 an hour.

My parents talked me into buying a BRAND NEW 2004 4-Door Honda Civic, the pre-interest price tag on it was about $25,000. A few weeks after getting it, my hours got regulated and it took one entire paycheck to make the monthly note on it – I could NOT afford the insurance on it.

I very quickly realized my parents were bad at money.”

3. You gotta save.

“My FIL when I mention our retirement plan “I never contribute to my retirement account. Money now is always better than money later”.

I needed to have a conversation with my husband how we would NOT be supporting his mom and dad and their insane spending when they have no retirement plan and make huge financial mistakes on a weekly basis (good news is they both make good money).”

4. Terrible advice.

““Spend it quickly or it’ll get stolen.”

Coming from someone with a history of losing and blowing their money.”

5. Pyramid scheme.

“A relative tried to recruit me into Amway. He wound up stuck with a garage full of their products.

My mom joined and ended up having to buy their junk continuously. They also promised to pay her, she never saw a dime from them.”

6. Scammer.

“One of my uncles once told me that I never really had to pay my phone bill.

He suggested that I simply jump to another carrier and let the first company cut you off.

His life has turned out exactly as you’d imagine.”

7. Is that how it works?

“”Once you cut up the credit card, you don’t have to pay it.”

My cousin is not doing so hot.

I’m pretty sure there are warrants out for his arrest in several states.”

8. Get in early if you can.

“1976 San Franciso.

“Keep renting, no one will ever pay $35,000 for a 2 bedroom house and garage with a sweeping view of the East Bay.”

I went back to vist the old neighborhood a few years ago, those $35,000 stucco homes up many flights of steps perched on the top of Potrero Hill were now all gentrified, remodeled, gated, and asking $1M+ and that was 5 years ago.”

9. Hmmmm…

“Don’t take a raise if it puts you into the next tax bracket.

And pay the minimum on your credit card to establish good credit.”

10. Good thing you didn’t listen.

“”Don’t major in computer science. Computer scientists are a dime a dozen.”

I did not take that advice.”

11. But you get an iPad!

“About 5 years ago, I had a friend who was trying to convince me to study through a private college because they “gave her a free iPad”.

She never finished the course, but kept the iPad (you only got to keep it once you pay your fees and graduate. Mind you, the price of the course included the iPad so it wasn’t free).

So last year, four years later, I get a call from the college asking for her contact info. She put me down as a reference and they were chasing her down because she still owed her fees and wasn’t entitled to keep the iPad.”

12. Not smart.

“My cousin bought a camper, went camping once, and then decided camping wasn’t for them.

Rather than selling it they decided to just stop making the payments and “let the bank come and get it.”

Which, eventually, they did.”

13. They’ll go away, right?

“Just ignore the collection call and eventually they will leave you alone….

I didn’t follow this advice.

I had a parking ticket I didn’t know about that ended up on my credit and the guy I mentioned it to gave me that bit of wisdom.”

14. High roller.

“Not me, but my dad’s friend makes a decent more money than him.

He owns boats, takes luxurious trips, buys top of the line clothes and goes to the best restaurant where he orders the most expensive wine he can get. He always tells my dad to live more in the moment, telling him to invest in himself and enjoy his life.

My dad is happily planning his retirement with my mom.

This guy doesn’t have a dime saved. He will work to the day he dies.”

What’s the worst financial advice someone ever gave YOU?

Tell us your stories in the comments.

Thanks in advance!

The post What Was the Worst Financial Advice You Ever Got? Here’s How People Responded. appeared first on UberFacts.

Urban Explorers Share Scary Moments When They Knew It Was Time to Go

If you’re not sure what an “urban explorer” is, it’s someone who enjoys exploring the nooks and crannies of the cities where they live or visit.

Like with any explorer, though, there are bound to be moments when you know you’ve walked into the wrong place at the wrong time, and if you listen to your gut, you turn around, fast.

It’s best to live vicariously in these moments, if you ask me, so that’s what we’ll do with these 16 stories.

16. Well that’s proper creepy.

Boy oh boy do I have a story. Went urban exploring in an abandoned college campus, was pretty cool, due to be demolished and there was some really nice graffiti. At the time I kept sending video messages to a friend of me roaming around looking at everything.

The way the area was set up was pretty much a singular building in this giant lot with nothing on it, right in the middle with it being open area about 100 meters either way. The building was three storeys and on the ground floor had an open area where there appeared to be an abandoned car.

So I was messing around looking at this graffiti and the random junk everywhere and recording videos for my friend when I finally went to record the graffiti right next to the car. I started filming a video of the graffiti when what do you know. The car turns on. I immediately throw my hands up and point towards the gate to gesture “Sorry didn’t realise someone was here, I’ll be on my way.”

When the guy starts blaring on the horn and starts revving the engine, at this point I’m startle and decide to gun it down the driveway back to the gate and WHAT DO YOU KNOW he starts speeding after me in the car whilst still blaring on the horn. Due to being startled and running I apparently accidentally hit send to the video I took on my phone to my friend, whilst all captioning it “1111” as I was running away. (I have the video saved if anyone’s curious.)

At this point I was right in the headlights with him right behind so I turned off the driveway and ran over a pile of rocks, falling down on my way down the other side of them. Scratched my knee really badly, glasses went flying off and got scratched up too. I get the glasses and sprint (more like hobble quickly) to the fence where there’s some bush covering, the guy pulls up near by and winds down the window and you could smell the car from how far I was, it was putrid and the guy for sure looked like he was living out of the car. I have insane adrenaline going and sort of slink further away through the bushes but can’t get over the fence. I figured I could wait the guy out.

I was there for around 20 minutes whilst he sat there with his car idling. By this point my friend was practically having a panic attack thinking I just got murdered and my adrenaline was wearing off and the pain from my leg was setting in so I couldn’t climb the fence and get away quickly without him noticing.

My friend was messaging me like crazy asking if I was okay and she ended up DRIVING to the place to rescue me. She pulled up a bit up the street and the guy drove up towards there which gave me the chance to climb the fence, she rushed down to where I had said I was, picked me up, and we drove off.

Never have I been so scared in my life, and have never appreciated someone more.

15. If you want to get shot…

I used to enjoy exploring abandoned places here in rural Iowa, but I stopped a couple years ago after a couple run ins with some meth labs. Sh%t’s crazy here. Scary as f*ck too.

Those dudes will shoot your ass without hesitation. They’re typically tweaking and/or unstable, too. That makes them unpredictable.

I work for a utility company and have to go on site visits in some sketchy areas of small towns to recon where to put power lines. This puts you in all sorts of abandoned areas sometimes. I’ve heard enough stories from field guys and seen plenty that was a red flag.

New locks and dogs in abandoned areas means GTFO yesterday. Drug epidemic hits the midwest hard, man.

14. Like, yesterday.

I was taking a look at some of those massive smokestacks in an abandoned factory and I heard a radio squelch

That’s time to go, right there

13. One terrifying moment.

I was exploring an old storm water filtration plant once. The lower levels of the main buildings were all flooded (which was super creepy) and it was pretty overgrown.

This was my second time there and I wanted to see more than I had last time. A friend of mine and I had the bright idea to climb into one of the pipes that had an open man hole cover- really stupid for a whole bunch of reasons.

We figured we knew/ had a pretty good guess where it would come out as there was another man hole on the other side of the compound in line with where the pipe was heading. When we got all the way there though, it turned out to be welded shut. The worst bit was when we turned to go back we realized we’d been slowly going down hill. The pipe was fairly slimy and it seemed for a minute like we wouldn’t be able to go back the way we’d come

I’ve never quite felt that level of claustrophobia before or since.

12. Your gut always knows.

I convinced a group of about 5 or so of my friends to go with me into this old house that was in an odd sort of industrial area, like on one of those service roads next to a highway. The only way in was to go through the basement and through a hole in the wall at the top of the stairs.

After exploring for a while I thought I’d do a “scout mission” for fun that involved me just walking around the house to check for cops. Well what do you know, there were cop cars just pulling into the street with sirens on that were pulling into the restaurant next door, someone probably reported us.

The exit was on the other side of the house from the cops, I quickly called up to the others to climb back out and we somehow managed.

I don’t generally believe in intuition but I do find it odd that I had the urge to do a sweep right when the cops showed up

11. Just reading this freaked me out.

Not urban but a mate of mine, his then gf, and I were exploring a cave system we found, 3 hours into a hike in a national park, kilometers from the nearest road access, in a coastal region called Wilson’s Promontory, in southern Victoria, Australia. Now I’m a skinny 6’1″ but rhey were both skinnier and shorter, so we got to this one narrow bit that we could all get down by sliding on our butts.

The cave was pitch black and wet, though we had our phone torches thankfully. Weird ass cave bugs kept dropping on us, and eventually we headed back. So they both climbed back up the tunnel, but it turned out that my shoulders were too broad to actually move my arms enough to clamber up. Thankfully my arms were extended, and my friend could reach my hands.

He almost dislocated my shoulders but thankfully with a bit of wriggling, I was pulled out. The alternative was a long, dark, cold, stay in a hole that would have become a major rescue operation requiring heavy machinery, and possibly the destruction of some pristine wilderness that I’d never have forgiven myself for!

Claustrophobia hits you hard when it’s intense, and boy was that intense

10. They got what they wanted.

Went exploring in an old textile mill in rural Alabama. It was easy enough to hide your car for parking and you could even pull you car onto the site if you had 4 wheel drive. We went often and one time parked right in the middle of the mill’s back lot and decided to climb the ladders to the roof.

Once we got to the roof the sun started setting so we got our headlamps ready, watched the sunset, then decided to head back down from the roof. As we’re walking to the ladder my car alarm down below starts going off, and immediately from the rooftop across from us someone flashed a flashlight at us but they never said a thing.

I was way too nervous about my car being stolen to really care about the other person but they didn’t chase us, yell, nothing, they just kept their light on us so that we could never see them and followed us with their light til we got into the car and left. I never went back after that. It’s torn down now.

9. That’ll do it.

When me and my friends were young, we lived in a trailer park community in a bad part of Phoenix, but we loved exploring anyway, we found a large old storm drain behind our community covered in graffiti and weeds and we decided to explore, walking in with mini flashlights we kept seeing spots of blood and more strange graffiti, after about 30ish minutes we started hearing tapping, we got scared and started to walk back out, when we noticed it seemed to be following us we ran like our lives depended on it.

A few weeks after that our community manager discovered a body near the entrance of the storm drain. That was the last of our exploring.

8. Seems to be common knowledge.

In a building I found the basement. Then the sub basement.

It was dark. Heard a sound. Then an an animal running sound…. and dogs barking. I fucking booked it back up the stairs and closed the fire door and gtfo.

Speaking to some urbex mentors they explained if you hear dogs or see them, to not go in the area as it’s probably used for a drug lab.

7. Pics or it didn’t happen.

Was exploring an abandoned TB hospital. Heard a sound that sounded a lot like a homeless person snoring. It took a while for my friends and I to work up the courage to go in the room where we heard it, but we were rewarded with the sight of a vultures nest.

6. I would have peed my pants!

I came across a bunch of doberman deep in the middle of the woods one time. There was at least 20 of them scattered among the trees next to the dirt road. I thought they were statues at first cuz they were sitting so stock still.

But their heads rotated on a swivel following my car. I noped out of there so f*cking fast.

5. Better than rattlesnakes.

In Oklahoma I was looking around some land that my mother and aunt inherited. I found a foundation and basement for a homestead that had been destroyed. As I got closer to it I started to hear this hissing sound and I freaked out a little because there are like four different species of rattlesnake here and the closest hospital is half an hour away.

I kept going and look into the basement/cellar thing and there are two baby buzzards, turns out they hiss when they get scared.

4. My stomach clenched.

Spooky cement tunnel that seems to lead underground. Very dark and echoes go on for ages. We had no clue what it was, didn’t seem to be any kind of drainage tunnel because it was square/bone dry and out in an open field. There are definitely some old bomb shelters and missile silos on our area that are out of commission, so we decided to take a look.

Only about 20 yards in and the light from outside starts really fading behind us. Someone takes out a flashlight and we start seeing bare human footprints on the ground leading deeper into the dark.

None leaving. We skedaddled.

3. That cat saw something bad.

Not terribly urban, (back when I lived in the rural south) but my friend and I went to an abandoned trailer because she wanted to show me all the old playboys that were left lying around in it.

There were pentagrams painted on the front door and on one wall of the bedroom that was through the kitchen but that wasn’t too spooky. My brother was one of those edgy teenagers and I had seen more than enough crookedly spray painted pentagrams to know it was just idiots goofing off. Nah, the scary part was the half dead cat hung by it’s back legs from the ceiling fan in the back room down the hall.

We went to take it down so we could call the cops and then hopefully get to bury it at her house and give it some peace. And then it woke up and started squalling. It scratched me on my arms and her on the face and tried to get away but it was so weak all it could do was stagger.

We eventually got it wrapped in my shirt and walked home to explain to her mom where we were and how it happened. That crotchety old cat lived like another six years with no teeth, dislocated back legs (fixed by the vet of course, but the cat still limped forever) and horrible cataracts.

2. Wait, what?

 In an old gun range (it was night, so no shooters, completely safe) there was this giant crack in a mountain that led to this weird system of caves and giant pipes. It was a pretty straight shot in, not many branching paths, but as we get further in we start seeing more ominous graffiti—stuff like “Closer…” and red hand prints and stuff.

Then around a corner there was a little shrine with more graffiti and some dead candles all surrounding the words “Shrek 2.” Truly did find god in those mountains.

1. A wise decision.

I was exploring an abandoned mineshaft for the second day in a row.

It was also a 10 minute walk from the nearest road. This time I went with different friends and better flashlights.

The door I had gone through the first day was now padlocked shut, that should’ve been the first red flag, but we found an entrance from the rooftop into one of the main buildings and continued to explore anyway.

After exploring about 3 floors of mineshaft below ground, we were back on the main floor exploring the workshop/garage and I was looking through the cracks of light coming through the rusted metal walls, when I noticed a bright color that stood out from the rest of the area. It was a man looking back at me through the cracks, I was seeing his blue sweater. I could see two sets of eyes looking into the room that we were in.

After whispering to my friends that there were people watching us through the wall. We fucking booked it out of there and jumped off the roof and into the woods.

The men were in a pickup truck and drove around looking for us, even getting out of the truck to look around. We couldn’t see them from where we took cover but we could hear the truck stop, the doors open, and foot steps breaking leaves and twigs only ~20ft away from us.

We hid there for about 15 minutes while the men searched all around for us. It is harder than most people think to try and quiet your breathing after sprinting. It was terrifying.

I’m not going back there.

I love exploring, too, but I get freaked out easily!

Share your own almost-terrifying tales with us in the comments!

The post Urban Explorers Share Scary Moments When They Knew It Was Time to Go appeared first on UberFacts.

People Share Why They Secretly Hate Yoga Pants

Ahhhh, the many joys wearing the same pair of yoga pants three days in a row. There are few things that can beat the comfort and convenience of fashionable athleisure.

However, yoga pants are definitely not a one-size-fits-all kind of deal, especially to the opinionated folks surfing the internet.

Here’s a list of 13 people confessing why they actually hate yoga pants – as blasphemous as that seems.

1. Too much judgement

It’s true. The pro-leggings community can be quite hostile when confronted with a different opinion.

Image Credit: whisper

2. Yikes

This is just straight up hatred.

Image Credit: whisper

3. Oh no…

Don’t worry – there’s always something to strive for.

Image Credit: whisper

4. Super revealing!

But hey, if you’ve got it, flaunt it.

Image Credit: whisper

5. They’re oddly uncomfortable

Some people strangely feel the reverse effect that yoga pants were intended for.

Image Credit: whisper

6. So much for class!

They’re definitely not the move for an in-person interview, but come on – really?

Image Credit: whisper

7. The style is off

Now this complaint is one that I can understand.

Image Credit: whisper

8. They’re indiscreet

Sometimes, yoga pants show just a little too much of what’s going on down there.

Image Credit: whisper

9. Bad vibes

Yeah, I can definitely see how yoga pants would make you think about this unfortunate image.

Image Credit: whisper

10. They’re not not durable

All I can say is this: invest in a pair of Lululemon leggings.

Image Credit: whisper

11. Improper use

Some people are pretty picky about where and when they wear their exercise clothes.

Image Credit: whisper

12. Low self-esteem

Hey, if you feel good in yoga pants, then you look good in yoga pants.

Image Credit: whisper

While all those arguments were very convincing, I’m sure many of us are still defiantly pro-yoga pants here. Sometimes you just need that effortless comfort… and what better way to get that by putting on pants that aren’t even really pants?

What’s your stance on yoga pants? Do you love them or hate them? Share your take with us in the comments!

The post People Share Why They Secretly Hate Yoga Pants appeared first on UberFacts.