Month: November 2021

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Designing Attention-Grabbing Print Ads & Displays

The right design can get your ad noticed and lead to more successful campaigns. A lot of people underestimate the power of design when it comes to print ads and displays. And that is a mistake because these advertisements need to catch the eye of the viewer in order for them to be effective. The right design can get your ad noticed and lead to more successful campaigns. This article will discuss some best practices you can use in order to create an advertisement that works for you. It doesn’t matter if you’re creating a free standing poster display, flyer,

The post Designing Attention-Grabbing Print Ads & Displays appeared first on Factual Facts.

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People Share Little-Known Facts About Their Home State

The United States is a pretty a darn big country and each state is commonly known for some specific features like landmarks, spots of natural beauty or specific customs.

Sometimes the things a state is known for aren’t the most interesting things about that state, though.

Redditor FriendoAmigo asked:

“US Residents of Reddit: What is a lesser known fact about the state you live in?”

It Snows In Arizona

“Arizona isn’t all desert. The northern half is pine trees, lotsa greenery, & snow.” -ThatsMyOpiniiiooon

“This actually surprised me so much when I moved here a few years ago. I lived in the PNW before and was shocked that there are places here almost like it, just farther north. I live in the south though so we just have sand. Lots of sand. 😂” -smc0303

“You can ski in Tucson! If they open the road after it snows.” -Redditor

Pennsylvania Used To Be Über German

“Until WWI German was the most spoken language in PA. Papers were printed in it, schools were taught in it, it was spoken in homes and businesses.”

“Then we soured on Germany and in a matter of years it was erased except for place names, last names, and the language of the Plain [Mennonite, Amish, Anabaptist] people.” -tehmlem

Apparently, So Was Texas?

“There is a dialect of German that is only spoken in Texas.” -Implicit_Hwyteness

“Really? What’s it called? Texan German?” -Oiltownboi

“‘Texasdeutsch’, yeah.” -Implicit_Hwyteness

“If you’re interested you can hear it on youtube. Wikitongues has an interview with an older woman speaking it.”

“As a German speaker it’s very strange to hear. She uses really antiquated words. It’s like someone from a time machine” -Fylfalen

Jersey Devil Territory

“New Jersey is home to the Pine Barrens, basically the cleansing apparatus for the entire Northeastern seaboard for the last few centuries. Interesting lore surrounding the New Jersey Devil living there too.” -Kin2monkey

Swiss Cheese Isn’t From Switzerland

“Swiss cheese was created in Ohio, the state ranks number one in swiss cheese production in the country.” -cheesecake_fiend

“Swiss cheese is any variety of cheese that resembles Emmental cheese, a yellow, medium-hard cheese that originated in the area around Emmental, Switzerland.”

“Baby Swiss and Lacy Swiss are two varieties of American Swiss cheeses. Both have small holes and a mild flavor. Baby Swiss is made from whole milk, and Lacy Swiss is made from low fat milk. Baby Swiss was developed in the mid-1960s outside of Charm, Ohio, by the Guggisberg Cheese Company, owned by Alfred Guggisberg.” -BryGuyB

“What !? I’ve been lied to! At least tell me it was invented by a Swiss man in Ohio?” -DatTF2

“Google tells me that a Swiss man named Alfred Guggisberg immigrated to the US and created the cheese in Ohio Amish country.” -cheesecake_fiend

“And if anyone is passing through this area I strongly suggest that they buy some Guggisberg baby Swiss! The best Swiss Cheese I have ever had.”

“Pair it with some ‘trail’ bologna – you can probably find both in the same place if you’re shopping in the area.” -Labhran

Nuclear Oops

“In 1961, a nuclear bomb payload was dropped on Goldsboro, NC when a B-52 started coming apart midair. It was like one failsafe away from detonating, preventing the Piedmont from becoming a crater.”

“We don’t hear about that much and I’m surprised more people I talk to in our state don’t know about it.” -hangtight97

“The part about one of the bombs nearly exploding wasn’t declassified until 2013.” -CedarWolf

Alaska Isn’t All Frozen

“Alaska isn’t just frozen tundra. We also have the largest rainforest in the US, the Tongass.”

“Where I live, you can see old growth rainforest, ocean, fjords, glaciers, and snow capped 10,000 foot mountains all in the same view, while enjoying mild and stable temperatures that only occasionally dip below the 30s or above the 60s (Fahrenheit).”

“Also, because our summertime daylight hours are so long, we grow monster record setting vegetables!”

“I should say Alaska grows record setting vegetables in the Palmer area. Where I live in the rainforest, growing veggies requires cover and lots of fertilizer because there is too much rain.” -ghiagirl13

Iowa Really Is That Empty

“Many people think that Iowa’s emptiness is exaggerated in movies and TV, it’s not. I live in a town of 200 people and the nearest town (about 15 miles away) has 500, if I go to the edge of town, which takes like 3 minutes on foot, then I’d see nothing but corn fields and maybe a house” -Cayden5

“My favorite Iowa fact is that despite its low population, Iowa is actually the most developed state in the country because farm fields still count as development. We have very small % of wilderness left even compared to densely-populated states like NJ and DE.” -Dangerous-Ad-170

You Can’t Have It Back

“Minnesota was not a very populous state during the Civil War, but we sent hundreds of soldiers to fight, including the First Minnesota. The First Minnesota Regiment suffered 80% casualties at the Battle of Gettysburg, but for their sacrifice they won a Virginian Battle Flag as a trophy from the field.”

“Every so often Virginia asks for Minnesota to return it, and every time Minnesota tells them to f*ck off.” -CaptValentine

“I love that story. I read that Virginia sued them saying ‘that flag is part of our heritage!’ and Minnesota basically said ‘yeah, and taking it from you is part of ours 🖕‘” -incredible_mr_e

“Technically there has been a ruling in 1905 to return Civil War relics to their original states but I would like to point out that the CSA does not exist anymore, in part due to the First Minnesota’s sacrifice, so we actually can’t return it to it’s place of origin if we wanted to. Which we don’t. F*ck off, Virginia.” -CaptValentine

“Terrible governor, but I loved Jesse Ventura’s response to Virginia when they asked for it back, ‘why? we won’.” -air-bear1

“Oh Virginia, you silly sausage, that’s not how capture the flag works! (I’m from MN as well btw)” -2_cats_high_5ing

Texas Probably Isn’t Like You Think

“I’m from Texas, but I’ve lived/spent time in the northeast, midwest and Europe. These are the things that surprise people:

“1.Texas is one of the most diverse states in the nation. e.g.. People commonly assume Texas is very conservative, rural, and white, when it’s actually fairly purple, has large urban populations, and many ethnicities and cultures. Some people are surprised to learn Houston is almost as large (pop wise) as Chicago, and Dallas, Austin, San Antonio are some of the largest cities in the US.”

“2. Most Texans don’t have thick accents. If I had a nickel for every Minnesotan that said ‘you can’t be from Texas, you sound normal’ I’d have, idk, like a dollar or something. Only the most rural areas really have thick accents.”

“3. Texas isn’t really culturally part of the south. Louisiana through Texas forms a kind of cultural gradient between the south and southwest.”

“4. A noteworthy amount of Texans want to secede. It’s really rare actually, it’s more of a meme.”

“5. Texas has several varieties of bbq. It’s not just smoked brisket, but also varieties of barbacoa and direct flame grilling.”

“What is true:”

“Texans are willing to fight about bbq and smoking meat.”

“It’s hot as hell.”

“There are a lot of rural populations that have horses, even if most people don’t.”

“Texans are very proud of Texas.” -Fmeson

“The only show I ever saw that even got close to explaining the oddity that is Houston is Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. A lot of cities use ‘diverse’ as a tagline but Houston is on another level.”

“It’s more than the fact that it has a long history of welcoming immigrants from all over the world. Once you are there, you are a Houstonian.” -voice_of_craisin

The things everyone knows about states are often not their coolest or most interesting features.

There might even be cool facts or landmarks about your state that you don’t yet know.

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Lawyers Describe The Most Messed Up Court Cases They’ve Ever Seen

Crime is the one thing we’d all prefer wouldn’t come in many varieties.

Unfortunately, a quick talk with any lawyer over drinks and you’ll hear of some of the worst parts of society they’ve had to defend. While some might venture into the weird, there are those criminal cases which fall under the “horrific” and “depressing” category of humanity, like the stories people shared below.

Reddit user, HolyMotherOfDragons, wanted the inside scoop when they asked:

“Lawyers of reddit, what is the most f-cked up case that you have fought or seen?”

Doesn’t Matter If You’re Dead Or Not

“Client insisted on suing an employee who failed to show up to work which caused a contract to be cancelled.”

“The employee didn’t show up to work because he died.” ~ alejandrosalamandro

Maybe Think About That Before Having Children

“Worse I’ve heard was a divorce case where both parties fought to NOT have the kids stay with them. It’s so depressive to think about the children in that case.” ~ maximef1

Sitting Next To Someone, Knowing What They Can Do…

“In a pro bono program, I was assigned to handle the request of an inmate to be released after serving 2/3rd of his sentence. When I read his file, I discovered that he was convicted for kidnapping a woman, tying her to the right front wheel of his jeep and torturing her to death with some sort of home made flamethrower.”

“When I went to see the guy, he denied everything, and told me he was appealing the verdict (which legally was not possible anymore).”

“It was really weird sitting in a room with this guy, knowing what he was convicted of, and knowing that he’d been denying the conviction for almost 20 years.”

“Needless to say, his request to be released early was denied.” ~ ExistenceisObsolete

Lack Of Follow Through

“A sociopath in a psych ward making suicide pacts with vulnerable people and never following through. Charged with murder, determined he was too out of his mind to be accountable.”

“Gonna be in an asylum for the next two decades unless something major changes within the case” ~ expressiii

A Practical Joke Gone Wrong

“Case told to me by another lawyer on one of my cases: two guys decided to give a marijuana laced brownie to their co-worker without telling him it had marijuana in it… right before he started his shift… as a crane operator.”

“It went predictably badly, resulted in an accident and even their union agreed the guys should be fired.” ~ tintedpink

Keeping It All In The Family

“I am not a lawyer, I work for one.”

“We represented a family who tried to ruin a teenage boy’s life. They fabricated police reports, falsely claimed he stole expensive electronics from them, and took their claims to the very uninterested school the boy attended.”

“When cops tried to investigate, the family evaded the investigator and lied to him.”

“Why do all this? The family’s son was crushing on a girl they were hosting in their home.”

“She chose to date the boy in question over the son. All three kids were classmates.”

“The boy got a hefty settlement from the family. This case was outside our typical areas of practice, but they came from a friend of the attorney.” ~ No-The-Other-Paige

Perhaps Learn A Little Latin?

“Took a pro bono divorce case. The husband tried to attack me in the parking lot claiming I was screwing his wife.”

“He said no lawyer works for free so she must be screwing me.” ~ Thom803

Leaving A List Of Posthumous Demands

“Not my case, but I was sat in chambers waiting to be heard when it came before the judge…”

“A reasonably successful businessman had died, leaving a will in which he left all his business assets to his wife, on the condition that she destroy everything. Inventory, parts, records, office equipment, all of it.”

“If she refused, everything was to be given to the Hemlock Society, an organization in the States somewhere that advocates for assisted suicide.”

“Shortly after making the will, he committed suicide, having arranged for his death to be video recorded and the recording to be emailed to his wife and kids automatically. The lawyer didn’t say what the method of suicide was, but did say that it was traumatic for all who received the video, unsurprisingly.”

“The lawyer sought, and received, a consent order to amend the will to delete the destruction condition. He had the agreement of the Hemlock Society, which wanted nothing to do with a donation under those conditions.” ~ YVRJon

A Little Levity Before The End

“I’m here to provide comedic relief!”

“My buddy is an attorney and was working on a case against some company that was dumping pollution in a large, local body of water that had a direct opening to the ocean.”

“He gets a letter from an incredibly concerned local dude. He wrote this LONG ASS LETTER begging my buddy’s team to do all they can to win the case against the polluting company for the sake of the…mermaids that were living in that local body of water.”

“He had seen them often guys. He had been trying to befriend them for quite a while now and was concerned for their well-being and for the possibility that they would move out to the ocean to find a cleaner home if the company kept dumping pollution into their area. I wish I could find that pic of part of the letter.”

“In case you are as concerned as he was, fear not! My buddy’s team won the case and that company is no longer dumping their waste in that body of water” ~ Raccoon_Army_Leader

You Take The Case. You Keep Working. That’s The Job.

“A woman was alone with her baby after her husband got deployed. This was not long after the baby was born. Then the baby passed away, and the body had some strange bruising. The mother insisted the baby crawled out of her sight and fell down the stairs. The case ultimately got reassigned from our office, and the mother was pissed.”

“She told the primary lawyer on the case that she had indeed killed the baby. She basically bragged about it, and she had zero remorse at all. Seeing the infant’s autopsy photos was absolutely horrific.” ~ Fat-Pat_813

“Was she convicted?” ~ jazzygyal

“Yes, she ultimately got a fair bit of time.” ~ Fat-Pat_813

While it can never be easy to be assigned cases like the ones above, you just hope those involved in the handling of the case, as well as the verdict, are level-headed, reasonable people.

You know?

The complete opposite of the individuals they represent.

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People Break Down The Most Mind-Blowing Facts About Space

Space.

It truly is the final frontier—a place so vast and unknown we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of truly knowing what awaits us out in the cosmos.

Space also has some things in it that are absolutely mind-blowing.  As space essentially holds the answers to the mysteries we humans seek about our existence, we explore—as much as physically possible in this day and age—even if it is dangerous.

Redditor TheLichB*tch asked some space fanatics:

“What are the most mind-blowing facts about deep space?”

Here are some of those answers.

Asteroid Fat, Pockets Full, I’m Going Shopping

“While NASA catalogs all the asteroids in the asteroid belt, they don’t actually take them into account when firing probes and such through it because it’s so spaced out that there’s a very low chance of them actually hitting the probe.”

“Densely packed asteroid fields where you’d have to dodge and weave through them are pretty much sci-fi.”-Tmaffa

“But there is enough mass there that calculations have to be made to account for small gravity perturbations.”

“I had a professor who had worked on the Voyager project on the team that plotted the trajectories.”

“He was disappointed that Voyager 1 reached Saturn on a path that was off by approximately 600 km from what they expected due to some incomplete information about objects in the asteroid belt. A discrepancy of 0.00000007%, so we forgave him.”-TheGooOnTheFloor

“Astronomer here! One thing I don’t think we discuss enough lately is that sharks are older than Saturn’s rings!”

“Explanation: recent research from the Cassini spacecraft indicate that Saturn’s rings are, in fact, very young- as young as 100 million years old.”

“(We can tell this because years of bombardment from essentially tiny soot particles would make the rings much darker than they currently appear.”

“They definitely weren’t around 4.5 billion years, the age of the Solar System.) Sharks, on the other hand, have been around ~450 million years. Ergo, sharks > Saturn’s rings!”

“As for what caused the rings, it was likely an impact of some sort, and people are now arguing over the various details.”

“Here is a simulation of one of my favorites, which involves a comet hitting a large icy moon. Pretty lucky for us though, because TBH Saturn would appear nowhere near as incredible without the rings!”-Andromeda321

 

Zoom Zoom Zoom

“There’s a large cloud of dust and gas near the centre of the Milky Way called Sagittarius B2.”

“It contains a significant amount of alcohol — non-drinkable forms, but also standard ethanol — and also high levels of a compound called ethyl formate, which is used as a flavouring in raspberry flavoured things.”

“It’s also about 150 light years across, which is pretty damn big. The centre of the galaxy smells like a giant raspberry daiquiri… maybe.”-Portarossa

“Hold up your hands and clap them together. Wait one second, then do it again. If you could plot the distance between the first clap and the second clap, it would be more than 800 kilometers.”

“This is because the Earth is moving around the sun, the sun is moving around the center of the galaxy, the galaxy is moving through the Virgo Supercluster, and the Virgo Supercluster is barreling through the universe.”

“When you add up all the velocities and compare the result to the cosmic microwave background (which is the closest thing we have to a universal frame of reference), it comes out to about 800 kilometers per second.”

“Sit still for an hour, and you’ll travel farther than you’ll ever walk in your life.”-RamsesThePigeon

A Big Ole Nothin’

“The concept of voids has always been mind-bending to me. For those who aren’t familiar – our universe is basically formed of galactic groupings called ‘clusters’ and ‘filaments,’ depending on whether they are groupings or long strands.”

“Voids are the space in between these groupings, and are essentially massive zones of near-total nothingness, with something like ten times fewer particles than even interstellar space. Sh*t’s wild.”-KyleAparthos

“If you snap a piece of metal in half in the vacuum of space it will weld itself back together seamlessly if you rejoin the pieces.”

“The only thing that stops it from happening on Earth is because we have a pesky oxygen rich atmosphere that ruins everything cool. Except fire. Fire is cool.”-Tmaffa

“Space is empty, like, really empty. If you flew a spacecraft from one side of the galaxy to the other, what are the chances you run into something?”

“What is ‘something’? If you go through the galaxy you’re guaranteed to hit molecular gas, dust, and maybe up to pebble-sized objects or something.”

“But if you mean hitting anything planet-sized or bigger, you have a 0% chance (within rounding errors).”

“Put another way, if the entire universe had stars as densely packed as they are in galaxies, you’d still have to travel all the way across the observable universe 6300 times before you’d expect to run into anything planet-sized or bigger by accident.”-Syradil

“To add onto how empty space is. When Andromeda and the Milky way collide, there is almost no chance of there being a collision of planets or stars.”

“It will impact gravity, but on a grand scale, not a scale where any solar system will be affected.”-jaytrade21

Out Of Known Space

“I’ll bungle the details, but that a man made object, Voyager, has left our solar system, has gone billions of Kilometers away and that we are able to receive info from it (via radio waves?)”

“This truly boggles my mind. That we can receive a message from that far away. I think someone pointed out that it’s largely because space is mostly empty.”-Tmaffa

“This image is the result of a 10-day exposure by the Hubble telescope pointed at the darkest point of the night sky, the size of Teddy Roosevelt’s eye on a dime held at arm’s length away from your eye.”

“Every blip of light is another galaxy with hundreds of billions of stars and planets.”-FlamingoJump

“That deep space is so ‘far away’ that if we (humanity) ever tried to go there, by the time we got there, we’d have already been there, colonized it, and possibly gone extinct there.”

“Imagine you’re a pioneer. You’re the first person ever who is about to move from the east coast to the west coast. You set out on a journey that’s going to take 10 years by horse and carriage.”

“(Moving very slowly with a family.) 1 year into the trip cars are invented. And so another family sets out and makes it to California in 1 week. By the time you show up, family B has already been living in California for nearly 9 years.”

“Take that scenario, and apply it to space. I’m blanking on the name of the theory but essentially it says that If we tried to travel anywhere of great distance, technology advances too fast for a faster means of transportation to not be invented before we get there.”

“So someone would always arrive before us.”-habeeb51

It’s probably on most of our bucket lists to get to space at some point in our lifetimes.  With the speed at which technology is advancing, that is absolutely plausible.

And once we can get there en masse, who knows what new facts will emerge.

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People Share The Coolest Mathematical Facts They Know

While many of us rushed through our required math classes as quickly as we could in high school and college, some people really found joy in those classes.

After spending several more years studying the subject, they also discovered there were many more fun facts to mathematics than Geometry and Calculus may have suggested.

Redditor xxTick asked: 

“What’s the coolest mathematical fact you know of?”

Two Redditors joked about the Banach-Tarski paradox.

“Banach-Tarski paradox, in a nutshell what it says is that if you take a (let’s make it simpler) 3-dimensional ball, you can partition it in finite number of pieces (which is only true for 3-dim case, otherwise it’s countably infinite).”

“Then if you rotate and translate some of the pieces, you can get two exactly identical balls that we started with. So you might think we doubled the volume, indeed we did.” – I_luv_your_mom

“There was an old Reddit post about this that made me giggle. The user found out that if you order an extra tortilla with one of those massive Chipotle burritos, then separate the contents between the two, you will get two burritos of equal size to the original.”

“They called it the Banach–Tarski burrito.” – buggy65

Others were in awe over the power of doubling numbers.

“I had a coworker how refused to believe that if you multiply a penny by 2 every day for a month that you’d be a millionaire by the end of the month, even after I had walked her through it with a calculator.” – Old_man_at_heart

“This blew my mind, I saw something somewhere saying to start investing a penny on the first and you won’t believe what you’d get by the 30th. I was thinking like $500!! I was wrong.” – DranoDrinker

One Redditor wanted to talk about circles.

“I like to draw this one out to explain to people.”

“Circles (people) and lines (relationships) with every other circle. It’s easy to see how quickly the number of lines increase, which shows that adding more people is not a linear increase in probability, but a … exponential or multiplicative… I’m not sure which one at the moment.”

“1 person = 0 lines”

“2 people = 1 line”

“3 people = 3 lines”

“4 people = 6 lines”

“…”

“23 people = 253 lines”

“24 people = 276 lines”

“25 people = 300 lines”

“26 people = 325 lines” – SalAtWork

Some talked about the Birthday Problem and probability.

“The Birthday Problem.”

“If you have 23 people in a room, there is a 50% chance that at least two of them have the same birthday. If you put 70 people in, the probability jumps to 99.9%.”

“It seems f**king weird to me but I haven’t done math since high school so what do I know.” – honeyimsorry

“The reason this is confusing for most people is that they’re thinking of how many people they’d have to meet to find someone who shares their birthday. You need to think of how many potential pairs there are, which grows fairly quickly.”

“And, you need to do the calculation in negative: as we add each person, calculate the odds that no one shares a birthday, and the odds that there is a match are 1 – that.”

“You start with one. Obviously no match. Second one: 364/365 says they’re different. But when we add a third, there are two potential matches, so only a 363/365 chance he doesn’t match, and 362/365 for the fourth.”

“The odds there is a match are 1 – the product of the other fractions. Since the fractions are close to one, they almost equal one, but as each person comes in, we’re multiplying a number that starts to be significantly less than one by a fraction that each time is more notably less than one, so the odds there is no match start to fall quickly until they dip just below half at the 23 mark.” – TheAlpacaLives

Then there was the Collatz Conjecture.

“The Collatz Conjecture: It’s an unsolved mathematical conjecture that can be summarized as follows; Take any positive integer, or ‘n.’”

“If n is even, divide it by 2 to get n / 2. If n is odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1 to obtain 3n + 1. Repeat the process indefinitely. The conjecture is that no matter what number you start with, you will always eventually reach 1.”

“For example, start with 21. it’s odd so I multiply by 3 and add 1, to get 64. 64 is even so I divide by 2 to get 32, again to get 16, 8, 4, 2, 1. No one has found a number that doesn’t follow this rule.” – AsiaWaffles

One Redditor talked about Rubik’s cubes.

“The maximum number of moves needed to solve a Rubik’s cube from any configuration is a mere 20.”

“Expecting Numberphile subscribers to have a strong showing in this thread.”

“To clarify, I mean the OPTIMAL solution from any given configuration will require fewer than or equal to 20 moves to solve.” – AlexVX_

One Redditor loved talking about multiplication. 

“1 x 1 = 1”

“11 x 11 = 121”

“111 x 111 = 12321”

“1111 x 1111 = 1234321”

“And on it goes” – IAmSomewhatHappy

A few talked about Pascal’s Triangle.

“Also, Pascal’s Triangle gives you the powers of 11 if you look at each row as a number.” – Aurora320

“I realized that in algebra class and tried to explain to my teacher why I thought it was so cool and he just didn’t get it. F**k you, Mr. Chase.” – 1stonepwn

One Redditor talked about Shizuo Kakutani.

“Shizuo Kakutani”

“If you take enough random steps in two dimensions, you’ll always eventually get back to your starting point. The same cannot be said of three dimensions.”

“I just find the idea that you will always get back to where you started by making random moves absolutely mind-boggling, and the fact things change just because you can go up and down is even weirder.” – _9tail_

One Redditor shared how they got into math.

“As a PhD student in mathematics, this is not a sexy answer, but one of the reasons I fell in love with math was in my differential equations course when we discussed modeling epidemic using mathematical equations.”

“It was so incredible to me that back in 1927, Kermack and McKendrick came up with a simple formulation of how to model a disease.”

“This idea has been expanded greatly, but their original version of the S-I-R compartmental model is still one of the coolest things. And it can also model rumors as well!” – hpmetsfan

Mathematics and similar subjects may have not been everyone’s favorite subject while they were going through school, but it’s clear now there was more to it than addition, subtraction and solving for X.

With facts like these, it’s almost enough to want to study math a little more again.

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People Explain Which Discontinued Foods They Wish Would Make A Comeback

Growing up, I was convinced Vienetta cakes were the absolute height of fancy-time. In my kid-brain, each layer meant a level of formality or celebration and since there were clearly a bazillion layers in this thing, it had to be the fanciest dessert of all time.

They discontinued it when I was relatively young, so the impression just sort of stuck. Recently, they made a comeback and honestly, I would rather have kept the memory.

I miss the way kid-me saw things, you know?

Recently, reddit user PixelPervert asked: 

“What discontinued food do you wish was brought back?”

My experience with a food being brought back might be a bitter-sweet one, but that doesn’t mean people can’t dream their own delicious dreams. Here’s what they had to say.

The Flintstones Diet

“Flintstones Push-Up Pops”

– Rose_de_MaiTai

“This brought back something from the deepest corner of my brain.”

“Also brings the question why were the Flintstones such an integral part of our childhood and diet? Push ups, fruity pebbles, vitamins. What else am I missing from the Flintstones?”

– Question_aire

“Until now I kind of half-wondered if my memory of these was just some weird fever dream or something, because no one seems to remember them. Thank you for validating my childhood memories”

– winonachey

Sour Fruit Is A Thing

“Altoid fruit sours. Apparently, we can ask for it back.”

– lirio2u

“The tangerine ones were my favorite! I can recall the taste exactly, even down to little salivary tingly feeling I got right before having one. Those were amazing and should be brought back.”

– MestizaWontons

“Just looked these up on ebay and unopened tins have actually sold for $200+!”

– BobsicleSmith

Taco Bell Trauma

“The Mexican Pizza at Taco Bell.”

“Maybe I should be thanking them for getting rid of it because I have no reason to go to Taco Bell now.”

– GotMoFans

“That’s me and Double Decker Taco Supremes.”

– LakeLov3r

“RIP meximelt and nachos supreme.”

– hesaysitsfine

“Last time I went to taco bell, I sat in the drive thru for a minute looking at the menu. Then I just went to Wendy’s.”

“Taco bell has gotten really bad.”

– Faye_dunwoody

“I had ONE apple empanada from taco bell before I went into labor and it was mind altering – the bubbley texture of the dough and the gooey sweet of the filling.”

“Four days later when I was released from the hospital with my perfect little newborn, ALL I could ask for in the world was a goddamn apple empanada.”

“Little did I know that during my four days hospital stay, the world of apple empanadas had ended.”

– schmoob

Worth Getting Into Trouble For

“Philadelphia snack bars the strawberry cheesecake ones ….so good!”

– kikorellia

“Oh my god the strawberry cheesecake snack bars were that fire. I used to get in trouble by sneaking them because they were my moms favorite sweet.” 

– DeCodurr

“Are you me?! I tell my wife about this all the time.”

“My mom would come back from a 12 hour shift at the hospital just wanting a cheesecake bar… and I’d have eaten a whole box in one night like an animal.”

“I distinctly remember getting my game boy taken away right before a game tournament run because of those things. Worth it.”

– jkennah

No New Recipe, Please!

“Butterfinger BB’s with the Simpsons characters on the package.”

– Harmelion

“I feel like Butterfingers in general don’t taste like they used to.”

“As a kid I remember them being flaky and almost falling apart when you bit into them and now every time I’ve decided to give one a shot they’re not flaky at all and they stick to my teeth something fierce.”

– Imitation88

“I would pay dearly for ANY Butterfinger as long as it is the old Butterfinger by Nestle, because the new company SCREWED IT UP and now it’s nasty.”

“The base has been confectioners cornflakes since I was a kid. Now it’s not. You can’t change a main ingredient like that and then expect it to do well. So I don’t buy them anymore.”

– skpicky

It’s Not Banana Quick

“Nestle Banana Quik.”

“They have Strawberry Banana still, and it’s okay I suppose, but pure Banana Quik was so much better.”

“There’s a way to kinda sorta replicate it – but you need a bottle of “Torani” brand Banana flavoring to mix into your milk. Winco grocery stores sometimes has the Banana stuff, sometimes it doesn’t.”

“Also Soylent makes a Banana flavored “meal drink” – it’s good, I also like their Mint Chocolate version.”

“None of that is Banana Quik, though.”

– Fluffy_Little_Fox

Before Hostess Went Bankrupt

“Ding dongs. They still make them, but they were better before Hostess went bankrupt and was bought out.”

– queen_ofmoons

“I’m a fat bastard that loves snack cakes, pies and anything similar to that. I did notice that something has been off about Hostess snacks since they went bankrupt and subsequently revived however many years ago.”

“I remember Twinkies being so good and delicious, and now they’re just…not, for some reason. I don’t know why though. I can’t tell if it’s something with the ingredients they use now or a change in recipe but it tastes off nowadays.”

“Regarding the Ding Dongs, I personally taste tested and compared Ding Dongs to Drake’s version, Ring Dings. The Drake’s stuff was so much better.”

“Again, I don’t know what changed exactly. But nonetheless I don’t buy Hostess stuff anymore and go for either Drake’s or Tastykake.”

– Mercurydriver

Cheesecake For One

“Maybe this was a dream, but I remember Philadelphia Cream Cheese made single size cheesecakes that I would always see at convenience stores.”

“I finally got the courage to ask my grandma to buy me one and it was my first cheesecake experience…so delicious!!!”

– mossybuttz

“They were real. They were delicious. I miss them.”

“These were complete 2 bite mini cheesecakes. They were just incredible and missed.”

– SouthDakotaGirl

“In college someone ordered a huge box of them and we ate them all year (we froze them). So good lol. It was like a box of 400 or something insane it took up the entire freezer.”

– Rambles_Off_Topics

Taste-bud Tragedies

“My family actually has a running joke when it comes to me and discontinued foods. It seems whenever I start to like something it goes away.”

“A few notable examples have been, Eggo Muffin Tops, Taco Bell’s beefy frito burritos, and, not a lot of people know about this one, but a carbonated yogurt called fizzix that I believe was from gogurt.”

“Now my family won’t let me eat stuff that they like because they’re afraid I’ll like it and it’ll go away.”

– Available_Motor5980

“That’s a thing. It’s called being a Harbinger of failure.”

– batoosie

There we have it, a list of all the deliciousness that Reddit can’t get off of its collective mind.

Someone from Taco Bell seriously needs to get on the apple empanada thing—that was kind of heartbreaking.

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People Divulge Which Inventions Have Done More Harm Than Good For Society

As time trudges on, technology seems to advance at a lightning pace.

Way back when it began with simple tools like wheels and arrows. Then came irrigation and buildings.

After that, industrial machinery was a game changer, followed by computers and the internet.

But despite every generation’s rose-colored descriptions of the future, has it all been for good?

That’s what Redditor idc_aboutusernames wondered when they posted the question:

“What invention has done more harm than good?”

One you may have heard about. 

“Imma go out on a limb and say the polygraph test” — throwrahousearrest

“Polygraph test. Even its inventor, John Larson, regrets his invention upon realizing how law enforcement would exploit the average citizen with it.” — Arctic_Cobra71

More than one person had planet Earth on the mind.

“Coffee pods. Even the creator deeply regrets his invention and the environmental impact it has had.” — Lasting_Wonder

“Individually packaged foods and snacks.”

“I work at a grocery store and it’s abhorrent to me how much crap there is and how well it sells. I mean, Christ, yesterday I stocked ‘Nutella to go’ packs that are… Nutella with pretzel sticks. They’re tiny and come in small plastic tubs.”

“Or those large bags of Reese’s cups that come individually wrapped, or these ridiculous 1oz bags of freeze dried fruit that we sell which are absurdly popular, especially for how relatively expensive they are at $3 a bag.”

“I get that plastic itself isn’t bad, but this is egregious to me, especially with how much my generation (I’m 34) has had overuse of landfills drilled into our skulls.” — drlavkian

One person offered up a surprising choice. 

“There’s been really interesting discourse relating to the cotton gin. Prior to the cotton gin, many farmers did not consider cotton to be a worthwhile crop to grow, as it was so tough to process due to the seeds in cotton that the amount of slaves it would take just to process a small amount by hand would cost more than the cotton they would produce.”

“With the invention of the cotton gin, a few number of slaves could process essentially as much cotton as you could produce.”

“This skyrocketed demand for slaves in the Americas, and while slavery obviously had existed for quite some time in America, the invention of the cotton gin doubled the amount of slaves in 10 years, and multiplied fivefold by 1850.”

“This invention propelled the chattel slavery of the South to new heights, you could make the argument its invention profoundly compounded all racial issues in America since its inception.” — grahamster00

This one may have been written at work. 

“40 hour work week. Who decided you need to work this much in order to make enough money to even be considered worthy of survival?”

“I could understand that regularly having people commit to 40 hours of hard work thats equally distributed would hypothetically improve efficiency and push us toward a better future, but holy fu** is it not working.”

“Mental health issues, goverment dependency, and poverty shouldnt be an issue for the employed. The current wage disparity between minimum wage and livable wage is a joke.” — codeblue94

Recent inventions were on the chopping block too. 

“Airbnb. Started as an opportunity for people to rent out a spare room and meet travellers. Has morphed into a short-term rental platform where wealthy second home owners let entire homes or apartments at the expense of local communities.”

“Residents in once peaceful neighbourhoods are forced to endure all the impacts that come with living next to makeshift unregulated hotels and group accommodation.”

“Loud parties any night of the week, a steady stream of strangers in apartment blocks or residential streets, parking congestion, masses of rubbish, security issues, loss of community all become commonplace.”

“Long-term rentals dry up because Airbnb is more lucrative and local businesses, in some cases even local hospitals, can’t find staff as they have nowhere to live. Long-term locals find themselves kicked out of their rentals to make way for another more lucrative Airbnb.”

“They are left with nowhere to go as other long-term rentals have gone the same way and it’s pushed prices up so much that buying a property is no longer an option.”

“Residential neighbourhoods become a smattering of hotels without the volunteers and local people that once gave the place the sense of community that attracted many visitors to the area in the first place.”

“Most Airbnb users wouldn’t be aware of the detrimental impacts Airbnb can have for local communities.” — Overall-Reception-59

One Redditor went after the mundane. 

“Soft close toilet seats. Either all toilets should have them or none should. The current roulette is too stressful.” — 476c796e

“Those plastic containers that are like crimp plastic stitch welded around the entire edge and it’s super thick plastic that will slice your sh** open.” — RacingboomThePleb

Some things are just too good to be true. 

“Slot Machines. Once you get a taste of winning some money back, it gets eaten up in no time. You might think you can beat the system, but that’s how they suck you in and take you for all you are worth.”

“These things are rigged to payout when a lot of money has been fed into them so you have to be extremely lucky to get the big jackpot.” — Missrcl

A few were clarified within the past year. 

“Data mining and ad delivery services disguised as social media.” — sev1nk

“Facebook. It was a Pandora’s box, but we didn’t realize it until a decade later.” — mrsal511

“The 24-hour news cycle” — BSH72

And there are no shortage right here on the internet.

“Pop-up ads. Think of all the malware and viruses that people have fallen victim to because of pop-up ads, plus they are just annoying. Even the inventor of them apologized for creating them.” — -eDgAR-

“Targeted ads and internet trackers. These have done a lot of bad and practically no good.” — Anzuweeb

Finally, do not forget about the lungs. 

“Cigarettes. Those things ruined my life. I don’t smoke them anymore and have had to resource to other things. Peer pressure and wanting to fit in is an a**hole” — Sam_in_peas

“Asbestos. Now people are getting rid of it” — sc4rii

It’s a list that might make you stop and look around the next time something new and exciting comes out.

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People Break Down Which Gestures May Be Friendly In One Country But Disrespectful In Another

We all try our best to be courteous and not rude—well… most of us do—because, everyone wants to make a good impression in any given situation.

It’s especially important to want to be as respectful as possible when visiting other places, like stranger’s homes and other countries.

But what works in one place may be taboo in another. That’s why we have to keep up on the definition of our gestures in life.

As it turns out, one size, does NOT fit all.

Redditor HeWhoMustBeGay wanted to discuss all the major differences in communication that differ from one country or region to the next.

They asked:

“What’s a friendly gesture in one country but a big no-no in another?”

Let’s make a list so we’re safe for travel.

Touch a touch a touch a… touch me…

“In Brazil we are very pro-hugs even with strangers depending on the situation. Like tight hugs.”

“We have no problems about touching as in the shoulder or arm while talking, or side hugging to take pictures with strangers. We also have the kissing thing (not between men though).”

“We share our life’s story and feelings with strangers pretty easily. Waiting-in-a-line-together micro friendships are a thing.”

“There are many cultures where this level of touching and sharing would be considered incredibly weird.”  ~ deinha

“I had a friend who didn’t like to be touched, it was hard for him because we Brazilians also take a looooong time to say goodbye. It’s in installments.”  

“Like you say once at the house, kisses, hugs. “

“Then the same people move to the door, say again, more hugs and kisses.”

“Then everyone keeps talking until they get to their cars, someone breaks the joke that it’s finally time to go and you have another hug. It was a nightmare for him.”  ~ tdeinha

Which Finger Works Best?

“Thumbs up means ok in America but in Iran it has the same effect as the middle finger.”  ~ Curry12734

“I’ve accidentally flipped off my Iranian relatives so much. Especially with my poor farsi making me want to use my hands more.”

“But it’s been fine. Iranians nowadays know what the middle finger and thumbs up means to the rest of the world.” ~ GNB_Mec

Head Held High

“In the west a lot of people when greeting kids, put their hand in the kids head, ruffling up their hair or something like that.”

“In Thailand the majority of the country is Buddhist and follows the beliefs so some extent. The head is held as a sacred and cleanest part of the body, even if it’s a kid so this practice is considered very offensive.”

“Luckily the Thais are a very understanding and forgiving people and would happily accept an apology for this oversight.”

“And would only hold a grudge if it came from someone who they know to be aware of this.”

“Another thing that we in the west might do without thinking is step across someone in you needed to get past.”

“For example if people were sat on the floor around a fire, or a low table, maybe just chilling on the grass with friends in the park or at a festival.”

“If you needed to get past someone you may step over their body to some degree, maybe stepping over their legs or something innocuous to us.”

“Just as the head is held in high regard, the feet are the opposite, believed to be dirty and it is very disrespectful to point your feet at someone, step over any part of their body etc.”

“A simple excuse me (koh toad khap), with a gesture in the direction you wish to pass will result in the person happily moving out of your way and appreciating your respect of their cultural beliefs.”  ~ fifadex

“Are you Canadian?”

“Took a trip to Australia last summer, and I’m from the US.”

“When people heard my accent they would ask, ‘Are you Canadian?’ and after having replied no to several people, I asked why they never asked if I was from the states.”

“Apparently Canadians are insulted if you ask them if they are American, so it’s just custom to ask everyone if they are Canadian first.”  ~ Lost_Ad_8970

It’s all in the eyes…

“I had a Chinese neighbor who would stare at me. And I mean STARE.”

“There was one time when he was in his front yard and I was getting in my car. I decided to stare back.”

“We just stared at each other for a good 20 seconds.”

“I lost the staring contest because it was agonizingly awkward.”

“I researched Chinese customs and found out that they apparently stare a lot and I guess it’s not really ‘friendly,’ but it’s just a normal thing in China.”

“In the US, staring is considered extremely strange and rude.”

“He didn’t speak English, so I couldn’t even tell him that he was making me and my wife uncomfortable with his constant death stare.”  ~ New_Example7867

Shoes on or Off?

“Not necessarily rude but still weird/surprising.”

“In India when you meet someone who is your elder (like significantly older) you touch their feet as a gesture that you are asking for their blessings and showing respect towards them.”

“I think there is a video of an Indian student who touched the feet of his American Principal on his graduation and left him confused.”  ~ Radiant_Ad5640

Service Standards

“Although tipping is obligatory in the US, but I also heard that in some countries like Japan and China tipping often makes them feel inferior.”  ~ Qrainix_

“I tipped a bar tender in Scotland because he was really friendly and sweet, but he got really embarrassed afterward and kind of shut down.”

“Learned that lesson the hard way.”  ~ International-Pen518

Keep it Chatty

“In America, people talk to strangers on regular basis, do small talk, ask how the other person is doing, etc.”

“In my country if you ask a stranger how is he doing it will be really weird and awkward for the person.”

“You don’t even smile or talk in general to strangers in my country.”  ~ Ellenixie

Let’s all clean it up! 

“My sister in law recently came to stay with me while my husband was out of town.”

“Apparently in my husband’s culture it is a sign of gratitude for guests to help clean around the house and help with cooking.”

“Meanwhile in my American culture having a guest over means busting my butt to clean the house to the point of being spotless, and making sure there is a ton of snacks, and food available before the guest gets there.”

“First morning she got up like an hour before me and swept the whole house and even brushed the cat hair off the cat tree.”

“She also would not let me help cook dinner lol.”

“It made me uncomfortable at first and I tried to tell her that she didn’t need to do all that (nicely not in a rude way), but she was very insistent on wanting to help out so I just let her.”

“Apparently it was making her uncomfortable sitting around while she was here lol.”

“Definitely a conflict of cultural norms there lol.”  ~ Eened

The Decor is LIT! 

“I read once that in some cultures, if you’re a guest in someone’s home, it would be bad form to compliment a household item or decoration, because they will then be obligated to offer it to you as a gift.”

“I can’t remember which countries they cited where this was a thing.” ~ ashfordbelle

So are we more clear on a few things?

Culture varies from place to place and so does verbal and nonverbal communication.

So try to be cognizant of what societal changes you’re entering into and never be afraid to apologize or ask a question.