Month: June 2021

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An Actress Provided a Succinct, Powerful Explanation About Why Women Very Rarely Feel Safe

If you’re not a woman, it can be hard to understand what it’s like to walk around feeling not exactly secure, pretty much all of the time.

Women and girls have to be on their guard, watching their surroundings, picking out exit strategies, prepared to lie or laugh and jokes that aren’t funny or actually run for their lives if something goes south.

Actress Shay Greyson, who lives in London, does a great job illustrating what it’s like on a day-to-day when she describes and encounter with a man in the park who asked to take a picture of her dog.

It was daytime and there were people around, so she figured there was no harm in saying yes.

Until…

“My dog was on a leash, it was daytime, and there were a lot of people around.

With that in mind, I figured he had no malicious intentions, so I said yes.

As he was doing it, I noticed that his hand was holding her collar.

That’s when I realized he was actually taking a picture of my address on the dog tag, not my dog.”

I think many of us would have gone into flight mode at that point, but Shay didn’t – she went after him and stood up for herself instead, insisting that he delete the photos and then verifying that he did.

Then, she insisted that he delete them from his “recently deleted” folder.

“My gut told me to keep insisting, so I told him that I would not stop or leave until he showed it to me.

He then agreed to show me the album, and as I suspected, the three pictures were still there.

I then made him permanently delete them all.”

She shared her story on TikTok, where other women chimed in with their own stories and how they believe their own quick thinking perhaps saved their lives.

@heysheybae

What if I didn’t realize what he was doing? #fyp #safetyprotocol #womensafety #foryou #storytime #feminism #foryoupage

♬ original sound – heysheybae

If you’re not a woman and are wanting to better understand what it’s like to live as one – and why we often have escape strategies and don’t want to be friendly – there are plenty more posts on TikTok like Shay’s.

Women are out there trying to make you understand, so take advantage!

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Was This Person Wrong for Forcibly Removing Her Boss’s Mother From the Workplace?

Employee-employer relationships are as complicated as any other human interactions, and the way this employee describes her boss’s oddities is more than enough to spark your curiosity…and then you hear the rest of the story.

Wow.

This woman has worked as an executive assistant for a man just a few years her elder for several months. At first she found him “strange,” and noted that he’s extremely religious.

I (26F) work for a large aviation company in the US. It is an amazing company to work for and I have been there for the past 4 years as an Executive Assistant.

My role can move around based on where the company needs admins. I started a new rotation at work about 6 months ago and I am now working with my new Boss “James”(32M).

James is a pretty decent guy but at first I found him a little odd. He is very quiet and shy. At first he couldn’t even seem to look me in directly in the eye.

Over time, the two of them have settled into working together, though, and she considers him a friend (who she’s maybe attracted to), and everyone is happy enough.

I noticed right away that he seems to be very religious. He had more crosses in his office than I have seen in most churches. I am from a Christian family as well and it’s quite common in my state to be religious. Some things just seemed a little over the top to me and that’s saying something.

James is a good guy though and over the past six months we have grown close. He has started to let his personality show. We get along well and work great together. We have now become good friends and he has opened up to me a great deal. Sometimes I even feel like there’s a spark between us but neither of us have ever acted on it.

It seemed like business as usual when he said that his mother was going to drop by one morning with lunch, and because he was in meetings all morning, asked that his assistant take the food and put it in the fridge.

No problem, right?

Yesterday James told me that his mother was in town and would be stopping by to bring him lunch today. James has never talked much about his family other than telling me they live out of state. He had meetings all morning and asked me to put it in the fridge once she arrived.

Well, when she greeted the mother, all hell broke loose. The woman screamed Bible verses at her and insisted that she couldn’t be her son’s assistant because her son would never work with a woman who “looked like her.”

She went into her son’s office and locked the door.

At 9:30 am his mom arrived with his lunch. I greeted her and introduced myself as James assistant. She just stared at me and then suddenly started to cry. I tried to ask her what was wrong but she just yelled bible verses at me.

She told me I can’t be James assistant because his assistant is male (My name is unisex so I don’t no if she assumed I was male). She than demanded that I leave her sons office immediately and told me that I am fired. She went into her sons office and proceeded to locked the door.

OP wasn’t sure what to do, as no one is supposed to be in her boss’s office when he’s not there and she didn’t believe there was a way to reach him, as he’s usually out of touch while in meetings.

So, she called security and had her escorted in the midst of a giant fit.

Her behaviour was really frightening and I didn’t no what to do. I am not supposed to allow anyone into his office when he is not present for confidentiality reasons. I tried to get her to leave but she wouldn’t open the door.

My boss is unreachable when he is in meetings, so I panicked and I called security. Security came and escorted her off the property as she threw a fit for everyone to see.

Her boss was upset about the scene, saying that he wishes she’d handled it differently and called him instead of security. He’s embarrassed about what happened.

James was very upset and says he wishes I handled it differently instead of “causing a scene” by calling security. He said his mother is just not used to “women like me being around her son” and that she was very protective. He said I should have called his cell phone instead of security and that I embarrassed him.

Some of my coworkers agree with me while others think that I was an asshole for calling security on his mother. I don’t think that I did anything wrong. I can’t shake this feeling that I’m an asshole for doing this.

If you ask me he should be embarrassed, but not about the way his assistant handled things. Yikes.

What does Reddit say? Let’s find out!

Short, sweet, and wise words.

Image Credit: Reddit

It’s all just a bit creepy.

Image Credit: Reddit

There are so many red flags it’s ridiculous. (2)

Image Credit: Reddit

Image Credit: Reddit

There’s faith and there’s religious fanaticism and the latter is to be avoided at all costs.

Image Credit: Reddit

She’s definitely NTA here.

Image Credit: Reddit

Whew. I think it’s time for her to go job hunting, honestly. How weird.

What are your thoughts? Rant away in the comments!

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A Scientist Thinks the Earth Is Actually Two Planets Fused Together After Colliding

Just when you thought you knew how the world works, science throws something new at you.

There’s a ton of great research coming out of PhD programs these days–new discoveries and new ideas.

One such researcher is Qian Yuan from the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University.

His research suggests that parts of the Earth are not actually Earth at all.

His team’s research was presented at the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference this past March.

For years it has been widely believed that a proto-planet called Theia helped to form life as we know it.

According to Popular Mechanics:

In 2016, UCLA researchers proposed that Earth could actually be two planets that fused together after colliding: itself and Theia. At the time, scientists said they believe the two planetary masses mixed together uniformly. Now, Qian Yuan of Arizona State University and his colleagues suggest the mysterious dense spots in Earth’s interior are the specific pieces of Theia that are still intact.

Theia is thought to be very similar in size and structure to Mars.

Scientists also believe that the Earth’s Moon may have formed during this impact.

You might remember from science class that the Earth is made up of 3 layers: the crust, the mantle, and the core.

The mantle itself is also made up of layers of varying density, and is at the center of Yuan’s research.

In some cases, there are massive pockets that are more dense, called “Large Low Shear Velocity Provinces” or (LLSVPs).

I honestly don’t understand most of Yuan’s science-related tweets, but he compares the Earth to chocolate, which is always a language I can understand:

The team did a lot of math, and they have been able to compare the objects of their study with the mantle on Mars, which can be examined in the form of meteorites that have landed on Earth–over 100 of them.

What the researchers found is that:

“The total mass of the moon, together with the LLSVPs, is almost perfectly matched with [Mars’s] mantle.”

Unlike the original supposition that the two planets fused completely, Yuan’s team believe that the heavier Theia material sank into the deepest part of the Earth’s mantle, closest to the core, and there it stayed, like the gritty dregs at the bottom of a cup of coffee.

Popular Mechanics explains it this way:

How have the dense Theia materials stayed intact for billions of years?

It’s a function of the way Earth’s mantle works, where convection circulates materials that are a certain temperature and density.

The Theia materials are so dense that they sank and never floated back into the convection zone.

Think of this like the stuff that accumulates in a sharp corner that’s hard to reach with the vacuum cleaner.

So now you know. The Earth is like an Easter candy egg with a vacuum cleaner hidden deep inside.

And even though Mars feels very far away, we are all technically walking on a foreign world.

Did Yuan’s research completely blow your mind like it did mine? ? Tell us in the comments.

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Was a Cashier Wrong for Losing Her Cool With an Extreme Couponer?

When we take jobs in customer service – jobs that involve working with human beings we don’t know – we know that we’re signing up for a certain amount of frustration.

Humans, after all, come in all shapes, sizes, and attitudes – and on any given day, we’re all capable of being our worst selves.

This girl is a cashier at a grocery store, and saw a family come in with an army of coupons, ready to make everyone’s life a living hell.

I (18F) am a cashier at a grocery store in my town.

This afternoon we had a large group of people come in together. Turns out they were extreme couponing. For anyone unaware of this, it’s basically people who clip coupons and shop for a shit-ton of groceries and they hope to pay as little as possible.

We see couponers all the time but I’ve never seen anyone go as crazy as this family did.

She ended up with 6 carts of groceries and expected to pay exactly $0 for her haul.

So, basically the mom had hundreds of coupons and a she didn’t bring any money because she thought if she didn’t bring money it would encourage her to do her best and get her groceries for free. Her family stayed by the cart corral while she shopped and every time she needed a new cart they’d give her one and take her full cart.

Eventually she finished shopping and she had about six carts of stuff. My manager shut my lane down and helped me bag and then we started ringing.

She and her manager worked together to try to ring up the order but the machines kept saying there were too many coupons to go through, and the couponer was holding up everyone else’s shopping trip.

We get to the end and I’m ringing in the coupons when I get an error message on my screen that says my POS reached the maximum number of coupons for the transaction. So, my manager voided the transaction and we started again and tried to keep each group items together but we kept having the issue with the coupons.

We even tried multiple transactions but my store only had five registers and there were people waiting to check out and we couldn’t get the coupons to go through properly.

The woman refused to buy anything, leaving it all at the register. OP got angry, letting her know that she had wasted everyone’s time and that now she would have to return everything to the shelves.

Her manager yelled at her and there was generally a whole scene.

So, the lady just decided she didn’t want to get anything after all and wouldn’t be buying anything in her carts. Her total after tax, before coupons, was $789.78. There were roughly 500 items listed on her receipt per diem, and her stuff wasn’t just in carts, she was also purchasing flats of sodas, big bags of dog food on rolling carts, flats of canned food.

And, the rule at my store is if a customer decides not to buy something at the register then the cashier has to put it all back before they can go home. I had been at work since 5am and I was scheduled to leave at noon and because I had to put everything back I didn’t get off work until about thirty minutes ago. She had taken three hours to shop, herself.

Anyway, when she said she wasn’t going to buy anything after all I had a visceral reaction and said to her, “are you fucking serious? I have to put all this back by myself.” I should add that she left the store in shambles. The customer started bitching, so did her group, my manager got in my face, I think the phrase “lazy brat” got thrown around.

Her parents think she was wrong, her coworkers have her back, but what do you think?

Reddit definitely has some thoughts below!

The customer might always be right, but was she even a customer?

Image Credit: Reddit

The woman definitely didn’t care about anyone but herself (and her bank account).

Image Credit: Reddit

Not to mention, she probably wasted a good amount of decent food.

Image Credit: Reddit

Some people didn’t agree there was anything wrong with what the woman was doing, but the computers at the store need to be upgraded (and OP will probably learn more finesse with age).

Image Credit: Reddit

And no, the customer is not always right.

Image Credit: Reddit

Whew. I do believe that a more experienced cashier probably would have handled things better, but this was a stressful and annoying situation.

The computers need to be updated or they need to stop offering coupons.

Agree? Disagree? Drop your thoughts in the comments!

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Is It a Good Idea to Tell Off Your Boss? An Employee Shared His Story.

We all walk a fine line sometimes between keeping our mouths shut to leave feathers unruffled and advocating for ourselves when we deserve to – and it can be hard to figure out which you should do when, especially when you’re young.

This kid is 19 and has been working for the same place since he was 16, mostly doing cleaning duties but also occasionally working in a cafe.

He’s been furloughed during the pandemic because the place has been closed, but since he’s unhappy at home, he’s taken a couple of other jobs to make sure he can stay out of their house.

So some background is needed here; I’m 19M and have worked at the leisure centre in my town since I was 16. It has a gym, a pool, a function room/hall and a café. Up until recently my job was cleaning the gym and hall and working in/cleaning the café, but obviously it’s been closed for a while and I’ve been on furlough.

Thing is my parents’ house is very toxic and it reached a point where I had to get out, which I couldn’t afford to do on furlough alone. I took on two new cleaning jobs to cover my living expenses.

Now his original place of employment is opening, his university is going back to in-person, and he’s realized that he can’t keep all of his previous hours along with the new ones and school.

He’s still returning to his employer who paid his furlough, but spoke to one manager about not wanting to work any hours in the cafe because he’s worried about balancing it all.

She said cool.

The leisure centre opened again last week, all apart from the café part, and I realised just how much I’d be juggling now between work and uni. Since the two new jobs pay significantly better than this one, but I can use all the extra hours I can squeeze in, I elected to stop working in the café when it reopens because I think those hours will tip it over into “too many” territory.

I told this to one of the two café managers and she said that’s fine.

There was a communication issue, though, and when he informed a second manager that his change in duties/hours had already been approved, the trouble began.

So, the issue; this morning the other café manager messaged me about reopening and stuff and asking if I’m okay to work the same hours I was before.

I replied saying: “Sorry I think there’s been some missed communication. I told [other manager] I won’t be working the café any more as I’ve got two other jobs now and it’s just too many hours”.

She was…not happy.

She was rude and he snapped back, telling her that she’s the boss and the one in charge of finding his replacement.

The comment set her off further, leaving OP worried that he might lose his job or cause more trouble than he really wants to deal with going forward.

She began complaining to me that the café is short staffed as is and they don’t have another cleaner on hand to do it. At one point in my life I’d have folded and said I’d do it but I’m trying to be better about advocating for myself so I said “I’m sorry about the inconvenience but I had my notice okayed and sorting a replacement isn’t my problem.”

She then got upset and called me rude and insolent and said she’s going to report me to the overall GM of the place for my conduct.

I’m really being to panic that I’m going to get into big trouble for this and if I could’ve handled this better?

AITA for what I said?

Reddit’s weighing in, and hopefully using kid gloves.

You know, with the kid.

Most people are siding with OP, because the manager needs to her job and not whine about it.

Image Credit: Reddit

And we’re applauding him for standing up for himself – that’s a hard hurdle to clear for many.

Image Credit: Reddit

Pats on the back all the way around.

Image Credit: Reddit

She’s probably not going to fire him. For reasons.

Image Credit: Reddit

This whole thing has been a learning experience for all of us.

Image Credit: Reddit

I’m so proud of this kid and I’ve never met him – if he needs a bonus mama, he knows where to go.

What are your thoughts? Our comments are open!

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This is the Real Reason Why Gorillas Beat on Their Chests

It’s interesting to look at nature and try to figure out why animals do what they do – and how it can (or cannot) be related to human behavior in some way.

The latter is especially true when it comes to the great apes and other monkeys, since they are more closely related to humans in general.

If you’ve ever stood at the zoo and wondered why those huge, male gorillas seem to enjoy beating on their chests, we’ve got some answers for you below – and you know what? They might even be surprising.

Image Credit: Pexels

In a paper recently published in Scientific Reports, researchers at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology say they’ve learned why – and while one reason for the posturing behavior is about intimidating rivals, that’s not the only reason they do it.

The behavior, which includes a male gorilla standing on two feet, cupping his hands, and beating an alternating pattern on his pecs, also serves as a nonvocal way to attract females.

Adult silverback males can send the acoustic and visual cue more than 1 kilometer away – and both juveniles and even infants display the behavior in play, as practice, and in order to gain social feedback from their elders.

Image Credit: iStock

The researchers’ came to their conclusions using a technique called photogrammetry, which allowed them to measure the gorilla’s size in a noninvasive way.

They found that the larger the male, the lower peak frequency of their chest beats. The larger males have a better success rate with females and also sit higher in the social hierarchy.

Other males can gauge whether or not they want to tangle with the chest beater based on this auditory feedback as well, though contact aggression between males is not at all common.

Gorillas live in multifemale social groups, typically with only one adult male, though the females are free to move between groups if they find another male more attractive.

Researchers also found enough variation among males to make them suspect that the number and duration of the beats may be akin to an individual signature.

They’re hoping to do more research to confirm that theory.

Image Credit: Pexels

They don’t do it as often as we might believe, though – the average is only .5 times every 10 hours, though when females are ready to mate, those frequencies do increase.

Now you know – go on and impress your kids the next time you’re at the zoo.

You know you want to. ?

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Do You Know About the Hall of Records in Mount Rushmore? Let’s Learn About It!

Hollywood has posited that there might be secrets in or around Mount Rushmore in at least a couple of films, and while some liberties were taken, there is actually a secret lair inside the giant, carved, monument.

More than meet’s the eye, if you will.

Image Credit: Disney

Mount Rushmore is kind of a strange monument, as these things go. It contains the giant heads of four revered American presidents – Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln – and was never truly finished.

It was created by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, whose original plan was to sculpt the outline of the Louisiana Purchase and then inscribe it with the important events between Washington and Roosevelt’s presidencies (which is arguably even stranger than what we got), and when that fell through, he got the idea for the hidden Hall of Records instead.

That one, to many people’s surprise, did come to fruition.

The Hall of Records was to be a sort of time capsule to store important American documents. Borglum planned it to be 80 feet tall and 100 feet long, lined with brass cabinets that contained the original documents of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, major contributions to art and science, etc, and was to be carved into the canyon behind the president’s heads.

Image Credit: MyCountry955

The only access was to be an 800-foot staircase.

Work began on the Hall in 1938, but was only partially finished (as were the heads) when Borglum died in 1941. His son finished the portraits, though they were never completed to the waists as they was the original plan, and the Hall of Records was abandoned as a big, empty cavern.

It wasn’t until 1998 that 16 porcelain panels were placed inside the chamber. They describe the construction of Mount Rushmore, including the reasons behind choosing those particular presidents, and a document history of the United States – basically a time capsule for some future time when all of that knowledge has been lost.

The panels are sealed inside a teak box inside a titanium vault, covered by a 1200-pound granite slab that contains a quote from Borglum’s original plans.

“Let us place there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces, to show posterity what manner of men they were.

Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and rain alone shall wear them away.”

Yep, that’s what they say. Pretty poignant, right?

And this is what it looks like.

Image Credit: My Country 955

If you’re planning to visit Mount Rushmore you should know a couple of things – it’s a very long drive into the middle of nowhere, and also the Hall of Records has no direct access, so you will not be able to peek inside.

The Native history in the area is fascinating, though, and the Badlands and Black Hills are beautiful – so go and enjoy, and happy travels!

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Things Your Barista Loathes and Things They Love

Now that the world is opening back up, there are places that most of us can’t wait to return to – places like our favorite coffee shops, which maybe we didn’t realize just how much we would miss when we were told we couldn’t go inside.

If you’re heading back, planning to spend time with some delicious coffee and friendly baristas, make sure you help them be as happy to see you as you are to return – here are 7 things you should absolutely keep doing at the counter, and 7 things you should stop right away.

THE DON’T LIST

7. Don’t assume they know you want it iced.

And if you forget to ask, don’t be mad at them for not reading your mind.

6. Don’t scream at them.

It turns out they can hear just fine.

5. Don’t stare.

Look at your phone like you do the other 99% of your life.

4. Pay attention.

They don’t want to have to continually beg people to order their coffee.

Every peak at least 5 times from starbucks

3. Don’t order a frappuccino.

But if you must, order ahead.

2. Don’t put your money on the counter.

Just hand it to them. Were you born in a barn?

It’s called etiquette from starbucks

1. Don’t reach around the sneeze guard.

It’s there for a reason, and that goes double during a pandemic.

Dear customers, this is what happens when you reach around the shields to help yourself. Please stop. from starbucks

 

THE DO LIST

7. Do eat your pastry at room temp when they’re busy.

Seriously, it tastes just as good and you won’t burn your mouth.

My favourite words to hear during a rush from starbucks

6. Do leave a tip.

Everyone loves money. Literally everyone.

When a customer is rude but leaves a $5 tip from starbucks

5. Do treat them like human beings.

And human beings love to commiserate about how terrible other human beings can be.

Image Credit: Twitter

4. Do make sure you leave before closing.

Seriously, they want to go home.

3. Do let them know you appreciate them.

It’s fine if you have an annoying order, just acknowledge it!

The customers who apologize about their “big order” rarely give me any trouble! from starbucks

2. Do give them a break first thing in the morning.

Go easy, huh? It’s early.

When you’ve been open for 2 seconds and someone orders a Venti caramel Frappuccino at 5am from starbucks

1. Do pat them on the back.

Everyone likes to feel the love.

Image Credit: Buzzfeed

I feel like most of these are common sense, but I’m obviously wrong on that front.

If you’re a barista, what else would you add to these lists? Share with us in the comments!

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