Learn About the Landmine-Detecting Rat That Received a Medal for Bravery

Most of us think that rats are dirty, invasive rodents that creep around alleys and our trash cans, freaking us out. Which is true, but rats are also very intelligent animals and they supposedly make great pets.

My eyes were opened when I read the book Rats by Robert Sullivan and let me tell you, they are pretty impressive creatures. And here’s another reason to like these little fellas.

Meet Magawa, a rat that has been awarded a gold medal for exceptional bravery by the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) in the UK for detecting landmines.

Magawa now joins the ranks of dogs, horses, pigeons, and cats that have received the prestigious honor over the past 77 years that the organization has been giving out awards.

He was trained to detect landmines by an organization called APOPO and so far has been able to sniff out 39 landmines along with 28 other pieces of unexploded weaponry.

Because of his work, over 1.5 million square feet of land in Cambodia has been deemed safe for the local population. And Magawa even received a miniature medal to wear around his neck for his efforts!

Amy Dickin of the PDSA , said,

“Because of the impacts COVID has had on the UK—and wider world—our original presentation plans had to be completely re-worked.

Meaning Magawa actually brings two firsts to PDSA—the first rat honored with a PDSA Medal and our first-ever virtual presentation.

We’re thrilled to be shining the spotlight on his amazing work and can’t wait for everyone to see him in action!”

Check out this video about Magawa’s great work!

Have you seen any interesting animal stories lately?

If so, please share some links with us in the comments.

We’d love to hear from you!

The post Learn About the Landmine-Detecting Rat That Received a Medal for Bravery appeared first on UberFacts.

Greyhound Lets Runaway Kids Return Home for Free

It’s hard to wrap your head around, but an estimated 2.8 million children run away from home in the United States every year. And it’s even more staggering that the majority of them are between 10 and 14-years-old.

But it’s a sad truth in this country.

So it’s good news that Greyhound works in coordination with the National Runaway Safeline to help kids get back home to safety.

The Home Free Program allows young people from the ages of 12 to 21 a free ride home to reunite with their parents or guardians.

All that young people need to do to qualify for the program is to call 1-800-RUNAWAY (1-800-786-2929) to see if they are eligible for a free ticket home.

As you can probably imagine, kids who run away from home can find themselves in all kinds of precarious and dangerous situations, so we want all young people who have a chance to go back to a safe environment to take advantage of this opportunity.

FYI, there are a couple of stipulations about the program. In order to get a free trip home, there must be a runaway report filed for a person.

Also, a ticket can only be used twice by the same young person.

Here is a link to Greyhound stations around the country.

Here’s that number one more time for kids to call: 1-800-RUNAWAY (1-800-786-2929).

Let’s hope a lot of young people take up the company on this offer.

Have you seen any good stories lately that you think we’d enjoy?

If so, please share them in the comments. Thanks!

The post Greyhound Lets Runaway Kids Return Home for Free appeared first on UberFacts.

Is It Bad to Tell a Friend That You Don’t Care if She Likes How You Look?

I like to say that one of the best days of my life was the one when I truly stopped caring what other people think – and while that’s true, I do think that some people’s opinions matter.

If you trust someone and their thoughts on certain matters, then of course, you might care what they think about a certain topic. Everyone else, though, can suck it.

This woman is wondering whether or not she was wrong to tell a friend she didn’t care about her opinion on clothes, though, and the backstory is that her friend and roommate is super into the body positivity movement – to the point where she’s not afraid to police where her friends go to the doctor or buy their clothes.

I (24f) live with 2 other women Claire (23f), and Joan (24f).

Joan spent most of last week helping her boyfriend find and move into a new flat, so we haven’t seen much of her.

Joan is a bigger girl (a UK 22) and is very into the body positivity movement, in particular the health at any size movement but to a dangerous and quite toxic degree (ie she recently complained about discrimination to our GP practice after a nurse told her she couldn’t have the combined pill due to her weight).

One if her major bugbears is when brands only sell straight sizes (6 to 16/18) it is her opinion that if brands don’t sell a larger size range that they should be boycotted, and anyone who buys from them is approving of their size exclusivity.

While that roommate was out of town, OP and her other roommate bought cute sundresses from an “unapproved” retailer – someone who doesn’t sell plus sizes – and planned to wear them for an at-home tea that might lift their spirits.

Earlier this week to cheer ourselves up Claire and I each ordered a dress sundress from House of CB, living in Britain in March that may seem a bit hopeful but they are pretty and a girl can dream of summer!

They arrived Friday night, and Claire and I decided that on Sunday we’d have afternoon tea and wear them (it would also act as a distraction from the fact it was mother’s day and we couldn’t be with our mums). We text Joan to see if she wanted to join but she declined.

Then the third roommate came home, asked about the dresses, and then began shaming the other girls for supporting that retailer.

Joan came home during the tea, and all was fine at first she had a scone and chatted away until she asked about the dresses, we told her they were House of CB and she looked them up, then she said “why the f*ck are you guys supporting somewhere like this?”, we said “what?”, and she started ranting about the sizing (XXS to L+, UK 4/6, to 14/16).

OP told her in no uncertain terms that she didn’t care whether or not the roommate approved of her dress, and that the last thing anyone needed during a pandemic was more people trying to steal their joy.

Which… I definitely agree with.

I told her to calm down, and that the dresses are pretty, she told us that she was appalled at us wearing them, then started ranting.

I stopped her and said that her opinion on clothes sizing does not affect me and should not affect if Claire and I are trying to find some happiness in these times, that we should be allowed to shop wherever we want and that she needs to stop obsessing over it.

The roommate stormed off and declared she wasn’t speaking to the other girls unless they returned the dresses, leaving OP to wonder whether or not she was an a$shole for stating her opinion.

Joan then stormed off to her room, and is still refusing to speak to either of us.

Only texting us once to say “I’m only talking to you if you send those dresses back and apologise”.

Are we the a**holes here?

I know weight and clothing is a sensitive topic, and I know that she has a thing about it, but I don’t see why that should affect what Claire and I are allowed to buy and wear, however I am aware I was a few cocktails in so could have been a bit more sensitive about it myself.

I’m only really questioning it as her reaction is so extreme.

So, was the roommate’s reaction extreme?

Reddit, of course, is weighing in.

This person pointed out that you’re allowed to have your own moral guidelines when shopping, but to try to force them on other people is gross.

Image Credit: Reddit

There was plenty of (warranted) snark to be found.

Image Credit: Reddit

Pretty much everyone said they should keep the dresses (if they like them).

Image Credit: Reddit

It’s almost like she doesn’t want to have any friends.

Image Credit: Reddit

Everyone deserves to feel fabulous in their clothes, no matter the size!

Image Credit: Reddit

This could probably have been handled a bit more delicately, but in the end, she wasn’t wrong.

I hope the friend wises up and realizes that she won’t win anyone to her size by bossing people around – yeesh.

Drop your thoughts in the comments!

The post Is It Bad to Tell a Friend That You Don’t Care if She Likes How You Look? appeared first on UberFacts.

A Pet Groomer Shared Videos About Things All Animal Owners Should Know About

We might think that we know our pets well and we know what’s best for them, but when professional groomers talk, we should all listen to what they have to say.

A groomer in Canada named Vanessa De Prophetis has made several TikTok videos for pet owners highlighting things that she thinks they need to know about their pets.

This video she shared shows some behind-the-scenes realities of pet grooming and how it’s not all fun and games. And also how it isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination.

@girlwithedogs

Don’t forget to tip your groomer #petlife #foryou #fyp #viral #foryourpage #dogsoftiktok #petthings

♬ Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked – Cage The Elephant

One video she posted is full of tips about how to properly brush your pets, which every owner should know about.

And here’s another video from De Prophetis where she talks about some of the things that pet groomers might not be comfortable telling owners about their animals.

@girlwithedogs

Sadly this has happened more than once. And one time…there was worms in it.? #petlife #foryourpage #dogsoftiktok #viral #fyp #groomersoftiktok

♬ Splish Splash – Good Timers

In this video, she talks about how it can be hard for her to get her point across to pet owners when she talks about their health care needs.

@girlwithedogs

The struggle with skin allergies and ear infections is real. Don’t give up trying to find solutions❤ #dogsoftiktok #foryou #fyp #groomersoftiktok

♬ Iris – Natalie Taylor

De Prophetis also made it clear that groomers get attached to the pets they take care of just like their owners do.

@girlwithedogs

We also wonder, what did we do wrong? #groomer #foryourpage #groomersoftiktok #fyp #viral #foryou #petlife #dogsoftiktok

♬ Lean on Me – Bill Withers

And one of the most important videos that De Prophetis posted is directed towards people who want to have an “end of life” grooming for their pets and why that really isn’t a good idea. This is really good to know.

@girlwithedogs

We know your intentions are pure #foryourpage #groomersoftiktok #fyp #viral #dogsoftiktok #foryou #petlife #dogsoftiktok

♬ original sound – salem

Now we want to hear from you.

What do you think of this groomer’s videos? Did they give you any new perspective on your pets?

Talk to us in the comments and let us know. Thanks!

The post A Pet Groomer Shared Videos About Things All Animal Owners Should Know About appeared first on UberFacts.

An Entitled Karen Tried to Force This Person Out of Guitar Lesson

Karens really never cease to amaze me.

They’re rude, they’re crude, they’re ignorant, and most of all…they’re ENTITLED.

And this story that someone shared on Reddit is a real beauty.

Let’s see what happened…

Guitar Karen DEMANDS my time slot because her son needs “something to do after school”.

“This happened a couple of days ago and I thought you guys would enjoy it. As a bit of backstory, I play the electric guitar. I take lessons from a teacher that is absolutely the best in the area at what he does. He’s been doing it for about 30 years now so he’s really, really good. Understandably, he’s also really, really booked up.

When COVID hit and everyone started doing online classes for school, he lost a bunch of students because they’d typically go to his class after school and since they weren’t in school or doing extracurricular activities, their parents I guess decided to yank them from guitar lessons too.

One of the things that makes my teacher awesome is that he tends to give scheduling priority to his older students (like me, 41) because they don’t give him the headache of having to manage every little thing between this and that thing for school. It kind of sucks for parents but he’s had enough of the headaches of rearranging everyone’s life because little Johnny has to play his leading role of being a rock in the school play.

Now this matters because now that kids are starting to go back into the classrooms where I live, parents are blowing up his phone trying to schedule their little darlings back into lessons, while us older folks have been dutifully attending (or doing online lessons) and paying the whole time. So if you’ve been doing that all this time and you’ve got the 3:30 slot and you like it, that’s where you stay.

This matters because of Guitar Karen. Guitar Karen’s son used to take lessons but she pulled him out for the last 9 months or so. In-school classes are starting up, and Guitar Karen wants as little to do with her kid as possible, so she has apparently enrolled him in every possible after school activity that exists. I know this because my teacher rolls his eyes as our lesson is about to begin because his phone is pinging like crazy.

I thought it might be an emergency or something so when he returned to the room, I said, your phone has been going crazy (he normally turns it off during our session) and he just mutters something and turns it off, talking about how this woman has signed her kid up for track, baseball, art, band and now guitar and in order to ensure he has something to do every single day of the week, he absolutely MUST have this 4:00 slot.

You can imagine where this is going. Guess who’s slot that is. Mine.

I’m super flexible with regard to the days of the week, just not the time of day (because I work until then). I told him as much but he’s like “no, I’m not moving you, don’t worry.” He turns off his phone and we continue on our lesson. Within like five minutes, his computer is going Ping! Ping! pingpingpingping! and he’s like “holy mother of f*ck.”and shuts the lid.

Blissful silence for the remainder of our lesson. Until he opens the classroom door and there stands Guitar Karen: A kind of heavyset woman with her lips pursed like she’s gonna give you a kiss, and her brow looking like it has permanently stuck itself in the scowl position and a “Mama Bear” t-shirt on (I sh*t you not)

“YOU!” she yells at me. Now I’ve never seen this lady in my life but she’s got no mask on so my instinctive reaction is to social distance my *ss right the hell away from her but she just Godzilla stomps her way in, knocking over a music stand and sending papers everywhere. She turns and shouts at the teacher.

“WHY WON’T YOU GIVE MY SON THIS TIME SPOT. HE NEEDS IT. YOU NEED TO RESCHEDULE YOUR OTHER STUDENTS AND STOP SINGLING ME OUT BECAUSE MY SON HAS OTHER ACTIVITIES.”

The poor guy can’t get a word in edgewise. She’s standing in the doorway so I can’t leave.

She looks me up and down. Me, who is very much a t-shirt and jeans kind of lady and is wearing a shirt that says “I like heavy metal, coffee, cats, and maybe 3 people.” and is like I BET YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE A JOB. YOU’RE PROBABLY SOME WASHED OUT COLLEGE DROP OUT. WHY’D YOU PICK THIS TIME SLOT ANYWAY. IS IT BECAUSE YOU KNEW SOMEONE LIKE ME MIGHT NEED IT? YOU NEED TO GIVE IT TO MY SON.

I also can’t say a d*mn word because this woman just won’t shut up.

Now let me reiterate that my teacher is the chillest guy on the planet. But he nearly died last year from sepsis on top of the whole COVID thing, so he’s REALLY understandably p*ssed when someone gets in your face and is stabbing your chest with their long-nailed finger and spraying insults without a mask on.

He gets between me and her and says YOU NEED TO BACK UP OR GET OUT. They take their confrontation out into the hallway. He tells me to go ahead and leave and he’ll handle her. I hear him tell this lady.

“Listen, loves_spain has been with me for years and I’d better never hear you insult her or any of my other students ever again. Your behavior is disgusting and you need to leave the premises now before I call security.” (We don’t have security in the building but she doesn’t need to know that — he was so fired up, I think HE could’ve landed her flat on her *ss in that moment).

She turns completely meek and is like “What about lessons for my son?” And at this point the teacher was like “absolutely not.” And she’s like “but he needs this!” and the teacher said “not my problem.” and acted as if he were dialing security on his phone. She scuttled out of there as I was leaving the parking lot. I wanted to give my teacher the biggest high-five.

He later told me he didn’t hear from her since then, but he thinks this isn’t the last encounter. I imagine she’s the type of person that will come down there every weekday at that time to berate whichever poor student has that spot because her son obviously NEEEEDS IT!!!

Here’s how folks on Reddit reacted after reading the story.

This person said that they think the guitar teacher was a hero in this scenario.

Photo Credit: Reddit

Another reader said that the guitar teacher should put the woman and her kids on blast for not following safety protocol.

Photo Credit: Reddit

This Reddit user said that this Karen might just be upset for actually having to spend time with her children…they might be right…

Photo Credit: Reddit

Finally, a person argued that Karen’s kid in this situation seems to be way over-indexed and it’s probably the mom here who is making her kids do too many activities.

Photo Credit: Reddit

Okay, now we want to hear from you.

Have you had to deal with any Karens and their crazy behavior lately?

If so, tell us your stories in the comments. Thanks a lot!

The post An Entitled Karen Tried to Force This Person Out of Guitar Lesson appeared first on UberFacts.

An Entitled Karen Tried to Force This Person Out of Guitar Lesson

Karens really never cease to amaze me.

They’re rude, they’re crude, they’re ignorant, and most of all…they’re ENTITLED.

And this story that someone shared on Reddit is a real beauty.

Let’s see what happened…

Guitar Karen DEMANDS my time slot because her son needs “something to do after school”.

“This happened a couple of days ago and I thought you guys would enjoy it. As a bit of backstory, I play the electric guitar. I take lessons from a teacher that is absolutely the best in the area at what he does. He’s been doing it for about 30 years now so he’s really, really good. Understandably, he’s also really, really booked up.

When COVID hit and everyone started doing online classes for school, he lost a bunch of students because they’d typically go to his class after school and since they weren’t in school or doing extracurricular activities, their parents I guess decided to yank them from guitar lessons too.

One of the things that makes my teacher awesome is that he tends to give scheduling priority to his older students (like me, 41) because they don’t give him the headache of having to manage every little thing between this and that thing for school. It kind of sucks for parents but he’s had enough of the headaches of rearranging everyone’s life because little Johnny has to play his leading role of being a rock in the school play.

Now this matters because now that kids are starting to go back into the classrooms where I live, parents are blowing up his phone trying to schedule their little darlings back into lessons, while us older folks have been dutifully attending (or doing online lessons) and paying the whole time. So if you’ve been doing that all this time and you’ve got the 3:30 slot and you like it, that’s where you stay.

This matters because of Guitar Karen. Guitar Karen’s son used to take lessons but she pulled him out for the last 9 months or so. In-school classes are starting up, and Guitar Karen wants as little to do with her kid as possible, so she has apparently enrolled him in every possible after school activity that exists. I know this because my teacher rolls his eyes as our lesson is about to begin because his phone is pinging like crazy.

I thought it might be an emergency or something so when he returned to the room, I said, your phone has been going crazy (he normally turns it off during our session) and he just mutters something and turns it off, talking about how this woman has signed her kid up for track, baseball, art, band and now guitar and in order to ensure he has something to do every single day of the week, he absolutely MUST have this 4:00 slot.

You can imagine where this is going. Guess who’s slot that is. Mine.

I’m super flexible with regard to the days of the week, just not the time of day (because I work until then). I told him as much but he’s like “no, I’m not moving you, don’t worry.” He turns off his phone and we continue on our lesson. Within like five minutes, his computer is going Ping! Ping! pingpingpingping! and he’s like “holy mother of f*ck.”and shuts the lid.

Blissful silence for the remainder of our lesson. Until he opens the classroom door and there stands Guitar Karen: A kind of heavyset woman with her lips pursed like she’s gonna give you a kiss, and her brow looking like it has permanently stuck itself in the scowl position and a “Mama Bear” t-shirt on (I sh*t you not)

“YOU!” she yells at me. Now I’ve never seen this lady in my life but she’s got no mask on so my instinctive reaction is to social distance my *ss right the hell away from her but she just Godzilla stomps her way in, knocking over a music stand and sending papers everywhere. She turns and shouts at the teacher.

“WHY WON’T YOU GIVE MY SON THIS TIME SPOT. HE NEEDS IT. YOU NEED TO RESCHEDULE YOUR OTHER STUDENTS AND STOP SINGLING ME OUT BECAUSE MY SON HAS OTHER ACTIVITIES.”

The poor guy can’t get a word in edgewise. She’s standing in the doorway so I can’t leave.

She looks me up and down. Me, who is very much a t-shirt and jeans kind of lady and is wearing a shirt that says “I like heavy metal, coffee, cats, and maybe 3 people.” and is like I BET YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE A JOB. YOU’RE PROBABLY SOME WASHED OUT COLLEGE DROP OUT. WHY’D YOU PICK THIS TIME SLOT ANYWAY. IS IT BECAUSE YOU KNEW SOMEONE LIKE ME MIGHT NEED IT? YOU NEED TO GIVE IT TO MY SON.

I also can’t say a d*mn word because this woman just won’t shut up.

Now let me reiterate that my teacher is the chillest guy on the planet. But he nearly died last year from sepsis on top of the whole COVID thing, so he’s REALLY understandably p*ssed when someone gets in your face and is stabbing your chest with their long-nailed finger and spraying insults without a mask on.

He gets between me and her and says YOU NEED TO BACK UP OR GET OUT. They take their confrontation out into the hallway. He tells me to go ahead and leave and he’ll handle her. I hear him tell this lady.

“Listen, loves_spain has been with me for years and I’d better never hear you insult her or any of my other students ever again. Your behavior is disgusting and you need to leave the premises now before I call security.” (We don’t have security in the building but she doesn’t need to know that — he was so fired up, I think HE could’ve landed her flat on her *ss in that moment).

She turns completely meek and is like “What about lessons for my son?” And at this point the teacher was like “absolutely not.” And she’s like “but he needs this!” and the teacher said “not my problem.” and acted as if he were dialing security on his phone. She scuttled out of there as I was leaving the parking lot. I wanted to give my teacher the biggest high-five.

He later told me he didn’t hear from her since then, but he thinks this isn’t the last encounter. I imagine she’s the type of person that will come down there every weekday at that time to berate whichever poor student has that spot because her son obviously NEEEEDS IT!!!

Here’s how folks on Reddit reacted after reading the story.

This person said that they think the guitar teacher was a hero in this scenario.

Photo Credit: Reddit

Another reader said that the guitar teacher should put the woman and her kids on blast for not following safety protocol.

Photo Credit: Reddit

This Reddit user said that this Karen might just be upset for actually having to spend time with her children…they might be right…

Photo Credit: Reddit

Finally, a person argued that Karen’s kid in this situation seems to be way over-indexed and it’s probably the mom here who is making her kids do too many activities.

Photo Credit: Reddit

Okay, now we want to hear from you.

Have you had to deal with any Karens and their crazy behavior lately?

If so, tell us your stories in the comments. Thanks a lot!

The post An Entitled Karen Tried to Force This Person Out of Guitar Lesson appeared first on UberFacts.

Things You’ll Relate to if You’re Over 30 and Really Tired

I used to roll my eyes when older folks would complain about how hard simple tasks were. Even though we’re only in our 30s, my peers and I now relate to what they were talking about.

Here are 11 hilarious memes you’ll understand if you’re over 30 tired, and struggling to adult.

1. Hello Pain

I remember when I only needed painkillers for playground injuries. (Sigh) Now everything hurts for no reason.

Image Credit: Someecards

2. Major fridge jealousy

I break out into a sweat when I imagine winning an oven with convection cooking. The possibilities!

Image Credit: Someecards

3. Oh, kids

I’m not insulted, just saddened. Fortunately, my 30s aren’t quite this hard, but close.

Image Credit: Someecards

4. They’re useful, ok?

I should be an affiliate marketer for anything that fries, bakes or roasts food.

Image Credit: Someecards

 

5. Simple pleasures

Image Credit: Someecards

I can use my last scrape of energy to play Candy Crush instead of cook = win.

6. So many questions

Image Credit: Someecards

I don’t recall hating dust with the fire of a thousand suns until now, but alas. Here we are. Oh well.

7. Delicious and practical

Image Credit: Someecards

Don’t judge me. I find chilli super romantic now. Maybe because it’s red?

8. My hero

His name is Steve and we make delicious dishes that keep my children alive, so shut it.

Image Credit: Someecards

9. Midnight BLT

Who am I kidding, even eating a sandwich at 10:30 pm makes me feel like a gangster.

Image Credit: Someecards

10. Another chore

Like I would throw away money. Pfft. Those things are expensive! Waste not, want not.

Image Credit: Someecards

11. Tired and distracted

Before you ask, the lack of heat and steam didn’t tip me off because I was distracted, thinking about nachos and the meaning of life.

Image Credit: Someecards

What changed in your life when you reached your 30s?

Leave us a comment.

The post Things You’ll Relate to if You’re Over 30 and Really Tired appeared first on UberFacts.