Month: November 2021

Posted on

Teachers Divulge The Creepiest Things Students Have Brought In For Show And Tell

When I was young I LOVED show and tell. I would bring in all sorts of nonsense.

I loved to “present” to everyone. It’s still one of my favorite childhood pastimes.

Of course there would always be those few kids who ruined it for everyone, and left the teacher scrambling to cover.

Let’s talk show and tell…

Redditor Salmonerd_ wanted to hear from educators out there about the times students made show and tell weird.

They asked :

“Teachers, what’s the worst thing a kid brought for show and tell?”

Let’s hear all about it…

Diamond in the rough…

“When I was in elementary school there was a kid from a different class who brought his mom’s diamond engagement ring to show and tell.”

“I know this because I found a Diamond engagement ring in the wood chips under the swing set.”

“I turned it in and later got a $10 reward, dumb 7 year old me probably should have pawned it!!”  ~ GoBuffaloes

MOOOOOO!!!

“In 5th grade, we were studying human anatomy.”

“When we got to the eyes, a kid brought in a bag full of cow’s eyes. His dad worked in a slaughterhouse. Teacher was horrified.”

“I should add that my classmate brought them in, unannounced. The teacher had no plans for dissection, was going to show us a filmstrip about eyes or something.”  

“I should add that the teacher put them in the staff refrigerator for the day (this was in the Arizona heat).”

” Afterwards, when teacher returned the bag of eyes to my classmate, he took them home, and on the walk home, gave them out to any kid who wanted one.”

“I’ll leave all that to your imagination.”  ~ alvinathequeena

The Dead

“Wasn’t show and tell but once during morning break while I was a student teacher, two 6 year olds came to find the class teacher in the staff room.”

“They had something to show her.”

“She came back with pictures, these boys had found half a dead and decomposed hedgehog and decided to pick it up and put it on her desk.”

“Needless to say hands were thoroughly washed and drenched in sanitiser.”  ~ drwhogirl_97

“I took a skeletonized animal from my back yard in for show and tell. I don’t know what animal it originally was and I think I kind of sneaked it past my mother.”

“The teacher was a bit surprised!”

“My cousin took a dead bat in a jar to school once. It was in the house.”

“They hit it with a broom, which killed it, then they put it in the jar.”  ~ whatyouwant22

Too Sharp. Too Dangerous.

“I brought 2 knives.”

“My dad is from a region in France where they make famous knives (Laguiole) and I owned two of them (one made of horn and one was bright orange).”

“It didn’t cross my mind it could be a problem, but they called my parents (who weren’t mad at me).”  ~lyscity

“My dad tells a story about when he brought his dad’s bird hunting shotgun and ammo to school for show and tell.”

“It was rather uneventful.”

“My grandpa walked out to the bus with him and told the bus driver that he was taking it in for show and tell.”

“Dad got to school, put the gun in his locker, and went and got it when it was time for show and tell.”

“He put it back in his locker after the presentation, then took it home on the bus.”

“Very different times.”  ~ wedapeopleeh

Lucky

“The teacher across the hall from me had a student who brought what he thought was a lucky rabbit foot to show to the class and excitedly announced he had enough for everyone in the class.”

“The rabbit foot was a tampon.”  ~ Saerica22

“My brother sent me a picture the other day of a sword one of his younger boys made out of the plastic part of a tampon applicators.”

“They have 2 teenage daughters and my friend that was on the text asked if he washed them.”

“The consensus was probably not.”  ~ Nate0110

“This reminds me… as a child I had an actual rabbit’s foot. My step dad at the time got it (I don’t know from where), but it wasn’t taxidermied (?) properly, basically just cut off, so there was still some blood and meat inside.”

“I carried it around in a plastic bag for at least two weeks, showing everybody very proudly, until the stench just got too much!”

“To this day I don’t know where he even got it from or how he or I thought this was a good idea.”  ~ Reddit

High Alert

“My brother found a scorpion at our house and captured it to bring for show and tell.”

“The scorpion got out somehow and the teacher had everyone on high alert to look for it and capture it.”

“Several children returned to the teacher having ‘found’ the scorpion.”

“That was the day we found out our school was infested with scorpions.”  ~ Youaresoogoodlooking

The Skull

“I had a student bring in ‘her grandfather’s skull.’”

“The class was horrified. It turned out that he was a doctor and it was the skull that he kept in his office as a model.”  ~ NinjaGinny

Got Tide?

“In my school some kid brought in his collection of ‘laundry rocks’ which were crumpled up pieces of paper that he put in his pockets and when his mom did the laundry they would turn hard like rocks.”

“He said he did it by accident once, liked it, and started deliberately putting crumpled paper in his pockets to make more.”  ~ Pro_Gamer_Queen21

Rotten on the inside…

“I taught 5th grade in a school with really rich kids and really low income kids bussed in.”

“One of the low-income kids brought a coconut for her show and tell about Trinidad, where her dad was from.”

“She cracked it open — it was completely rotten inside and smelled awful.”

“I was so worried about the kid being embarrassed, but then one of the rich kids (who was also of a pretty low intellect) looked at it with wide eyes and said “It’s like the earth: the core, the mantle and the crust!” which is something I think he had never really understood before.”

“So it actually turned out pretty well.”  ~ sanmateomary

Gas

“1993, grade 3 primary school in Australia.”

“My show and tell was rotten egg gas, I had a class mate hold a test tube that contained sulfur power while I added hydrochloric acid, no protective gear used. None of the adults saw any issue with this.”  ~ Unshavensmoe

Show and tell sounds like a game of survival in some of these cases.

But it’s clearly never dull.

Posted on

People Break Down The Most Overrated Historical Figures

One of the coolest things about reading history is realizing just how bananas all those real people were.

Kings, military leaders, pioneers of art, and explorers—there are countless examples of people who, if they’d been dreamed up in a book or a movie, would be too far-fetched to even believe.

And yet they were very real.

But with all those stories come the tendencies to over-hype, omit key details, or just buy into false narratives entirely.

Redditor ReallyRealMaoZedong apparently was in the mood for skepticism when he asked:

“Who is the most overrated person in history?”

One person called out the youth. 

“King Tut. He didn’t really do much, he was just a boy who unfortunately died young. We just happened to find his tomb and that made him famous lol.”

“The tomb itself, while amazing and much to learn from, is a result of his culture and the line he happened to be born into, not really anything HE chose to do.” — barbaramillicent

Another King was in the crosshairs too. 

“King Arthur. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.”

“Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.” — bozwold

This guy, while not a king, was still on the chopping block. 

“I don’t know about ‘most overrated’ but MaoZeDong was a brilliant guerrilla leader who transitioned into be very good at retaining power while being very bad at running a country.”

“I would not hang giant portraits of the guy all over my country.” — dieinafirenazi

One person went after someone so often idealized. 

“Gandhi.”

  • “He didn’t really win India freedom – WW 2 did.”
  • “His support of the Khilafat movement gave a big boost to Muslim separatism in India”
  • “His agreement to partition resulted in 1 million deaths”
  • “His idea of ‘self sufficient villages’ resulted in India continuing to remain poor and backward and failing to industrialise.”
  • “His promotion of Nehru over far more competent leaders in the Congress”

“I can go on…” — 00__starstruck__00

Even the folk heroes out there were worthy targets.

“Not in all history, but Chris McCandless was a f’king moron who does not deserve to be romanticised.”

“Against all advice, he strolled out into the Alaskan wilderness with no idea what he was doing, with no map, underprepared, undersupplied and with no research into seasonal dangers, smashed up some cabins, shot a moose despite not being able to preserve or store the meat…”

“…thought he could teach himself to identify edible wild mishrooms, didn’t look beyond the river crossing he initially used where he would have found a hand-operated cable car half a mile away and died – probably from eating strange seeds – in an abandoned bus on a known hunting trail.”

“He was not pioneering, or inspiring, or bold, or free, he was f’king stupid and somehow this inspires people!” — Mischief_Makers

Then came a surprising choice.

“Hitler. Hear me out!”

“National Socialism and Antisemitism was not something he invented and I am pretty sure that if it wasn’t for him somebody else like Goebbels or Hess would have become German dictator.”

“When people say, oh if only Hitler wasn’t born then WW2 or the Shoa would not have happened, that’s utter bullsh*t. I wish while teaching about the Holocaust, people would put it into context.”

“The climate of polarization in the 1920s in Germany is very similar to what is going on now in the USA. People were and are seeking out extremists with conspiracy theories to follow because they look for scapegoats.”

“The man on the top is just a symptom for a systemic problem which lies much deeper.” — marlenshka

One person added some truth to an all-too simple legacy. 

“Ben Bradlee. He was lionized for going after Nixon as editor of the Washington Post.”

“But he lied under oath during the trial of a Black man who was accused of murdering one of Kennedy’s mistresses, all because he was friends with JFK and wanted to cover up his indiscretions. An innocent Black man nearly went to the electric chair.”

“He only pursued the truth when the president was a Republican.” — The_Bee_Sneeze

Then some so-called shrewd navigating was called into question.

“Charles de Gaulle. MF was an officer of the army that lost half of France in 2 weeks to the Germans in WW2. Flees like a cockroach to the UK where somehow embodies the spirit of the resistance, somehow receives the title of General, even though his tasks were not dangerous nor fundamental.”

“When the allies take over France, he is not in any of the strategic discussions among generals of different armies, nonetheless he walks into Paris as their great liberator. Couple of years later gets elected president (because somehow he has managed to keep his popularity??).”

“While president, North African colonies declare war (and independence) from France. Many people die, and the french economy and territories takes a huge blow. Also he managed to dismantle the oldest European university of the world (Université de Paris)…”

“But nooooo! His name is on an airport, many avenues and countless plazas accross France.” — KarmaWhoreRepeating

Oh, and remember those summer reading books?

“Ayn Rand. Elitist prick, complete nutbag, husband abuser, most likely committed infidelity. Moreover, her ideas are terrible. So dumb.”

“She clearly thinks poor=dumb and useless, when she doesn’t realize how privileged education is what makes someone ‘productive’ in the way that she imagined.”

“She even says it in Atlas Shrugged, John gault and Francisco wouldn’t have become who they were if they hadn’t had that one philosophy teacher who became a short order cook because the world is so mediocre and undeserving of his genius.”

“And the saddest part is so many people after reading Atlas Shrugged are like ‘yeah, selfishness is the best, anyone who is poor is weak and stupid. My life is good and it’s impossible to have a good life unless you won it for yourself so I must be the best person ever and all you plebs can eat my sh**.’ “

“Randian economics is a conflict in terms.” — Begotten_Glint

One case illustrated the power of martyrdom. 

“John F. Kennedy.”

“Pill-popping, booty-slaying, trust-fund, back alley politician who conveniently only took an interest in civil rights in preparation for re-election.”

“He was handsome, charming, and his tragic death made him seem much better than he actually was.” — Way_2_Go_Donny

So there you have it.

Hope this list didn’t deflate any of your heroes.

But if it did, consider the value of being in the know.

Posted on

People Break Down The Geography Facts That Totally Blow Their Mind

Sure, the world is a fascinating place, but planet Earth itself is just as fascinating on its surface.  The bodies of land and water that cover our mother Earth are as much a character in the story of our lives and the story of humanity as humans themselves.

Also, sometimes looking at a map doesn’t quite convey accurately what those places are LIKE, geographically.

We know in general where they are and what shape their borders take, usually, but do we know some of the cooler things?

Redditor storm1902 asked:

“What geography fact blows your mind?”

Here were some of those answers.

Is Bigger Better?

“Australia is wider than the moon.”-fouryinthehouse

“There are 14 mountains over the height of 8000 metres. All of them are in Asia.”-victoryofsamothrace

“Texas is large enough that I could fit Copenhagen, Brussels, Zagreb, and Warsaw with their real life distances from each other inside the State lines.”

“The Great Lakes contain enough fresh water to flood an area the size of Great Britain in over 100 meters of water.”-whatifevery1wascalm

“Alaska is actually HUGE. It’s larger than Montana, Texas, and California combined. Yet, illustrated on maps as being tiny.”-Maximum_Mountain_446

Far Across The Distance And Spaces Between Us

“The distance between New Zealand and Australia is roughly the same as the distance between The Netherlands and Libya.”

“Came up in this thread comparing chocolate milk around the world.”

“One redditor made the assertion that NZ’s choc milk was probably as bad as Australia’s, because of the proximity of the two countries”-Javanz

“When I worked for FedEx back in the 90’s, one of the reasons why they chose Anchorage as a global hub?”

“Apart from the fact that aircraft use less fuel due to it being cooler, it was that it is one of the only places in the world that is within 10 hours of the three biggest global markets; North America, Europe and Asia!”

“Who would have thought that a place considered in the middle of nowhere is actually the centre of the world.”-Geronimo2U

Is A Geography Oxymoron A Thing? A Geoxymoron?

“Despite Canada being the US’s ‘neighbor to the north,’ the majority of Canadians live south of Seattle.”-Slant_Juicy

“My parents in Canada live closer to me in England than they do to my in-laws in Canada.”-Kurgan1536

“If you took a boat out of Reykjavík and sailed directly south, the first land mass you’d hit would be Antarctica.”-RyzenRaider

“-The Appalachian mountain range formed before the North American continent broke away from Europe, so there’s a little chunk of the Appalachians in France.”

“-Relatively speaking, we live on the skin of an apple. That’s about how thick the Earth’s crust is in proportion to its volume.”

“-The Australian tectonic plate is drifting north at a rapid rate relative to other plates. The whole continent is moving north and slightly clockwise at around 2.7 inches a year, which is fast enough that GPS systems have had to compensate for it to stay accurate.”

“In a few hundred million years, Australia will probably collide with Asia, creating a mountain range even taller than the Himalayas when it does.”

“-It’s also easy to forget how recent some of our research and discoveries are. Though the idea of ‘continental drift’ was first proposed in 1915, the theory of plate tectonics wasn’t really well developed until the 1950s, continuing into the 1970s.”

“And while we currently understand pretty well that an asteroid impact caused most dinosaurs to rapidly go extinct, down to the exact location of the crater and the size of the asteroid and everything, the asteroid-impact theory wasn’t proposed until 1980.”-Taman_Should

“The most southern piece of land of Canada (Middle Island) is further south than the entirety of 13 US States. As well as partially of another 14.”

“Also even though its located in Canada’s territorial waters and always been a part of Canada:”

“Up until 2000 it was privately owned by the owner of an Ohio Car Dealership and was purchased by (edit; a private charity for $867k and donated to) Parks Canada when he died.”-GreyGonzales

The Continents

“Antarctica is the world’s largest desert, since it doesn’t get all that much rainfall. Also, if you put a cherry on top of it, Antarctica is the world’s largest dessert.”-CrabbyBlueberry

“How far north Europe is. I always pictured Europe as roughly parallel to the US, so northern Europe would be the same latitude as Minnesota and southern Europe as Florida.”

“Not even close. The UK is almost entirely north of the lower 48 states and Rome is further north than New York City.”-mordeci00

“In Iceland, you can see where the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasia tectonic plate are moving away from each other.”

“Another place that is similar, but not as intense, is Point Reyes National Seashore in California. It is separated by the San Andreas Fault, where the North American and Pacific plates come together.”-[username deleted]

“The earth is remarkably smooth.”

“Everest at 8.85km above sea level compared to the Marianas trench at -11kms. A net difference of 19.85kms on a sphere 12,742kms. 0.156% of the planets circumference contains all terrain heights.”

“The surface of a cue ball (2.25in), has a tolerance for surface finish allowing pits or grooves to be up to 0.005in. 0.222% of its circumference.”

“Earth is smoother than a cue ball, even if you put Everest next to the Marianas trench or dug the trench another 9km deeper, it would still be within scaled cue ball tolerance for smoothness.”-Jtothe3rd

торопить ее? Я почти не знаю ее

“Russia’s western most border and city in Europe is farther west than Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria. The city is also farther west than Warsaw, Poland.”

“Not really mind blowing per se, but people forget about Kaliningrad Oblast, lol. For all the ‘Finland/Bielefeld doesn’t exist’ jokes, I’m surprised no one ever tried it with Kaliningrad given the weirdness of the Oblast.”

“Kaliningrad is closer to Berlin than Gusev is to Pskov or Smolensk.”-Legion213

“Even though on the maps, and how people describe Russia, it seems like a really, really big country. In reality, it’s less than twice the size of the U.S. (It’s still a large country, I just over-estimate it).”

“Also: The largest country (Russia) is over 38.8 MILLION times larger than the smallest country in area (Vatican City).”-Pingu277

“Astronomer here- also, Russia has more surface area than Pluto!”-Andromeda321

“I was always told growing up that Russia and Alaska are only 2 miles apart from each other at their closest point.”

“They are, but not the mainlands. The Diomede Islands are 2 islands, 1 owned by each country, and only about 2 miles apart.”

“The mainlands are closer to like 50 miles apart, which is still closer than most people might realize.”-whatifevery1wascalm

Like we said, looking at a map doesn’t tell the entire story.

Some parts of Alaska are closer to Russia than New York City is to Washington DC or Boston.

Australia and Asia will one day collide.

No matter what field you choose to inspect when it comes to our mother Earth, gold and fascinating subject matter await you at every turn.

Posted on

People Share The Best Facts About Language That No One Seems To Know

Language may seem like a pretty boring subject—we all had to study it throughout our school years, after all.

But languages are way weirder—and way cooler—than you might think.

Redditor FamousTeam90 asked:

“What is a fun language fact you know?”

Italian Is Newer And Older Than You Might Think

“The official Italian language is both new and old. It is based on an old dialect that was only adopted by the Italian state after unification in the late 1800’s.”

“It’s based on a literary language spoken by upper class Tuscans in 11th-12th 13th century. Most regions in Italy still speak their own dialect and the official Italian taught in schools.”

“Here’s a brief history for the curious.” –TrevArts

“My mother’s grandparents immigrated to the US from northern Italy around the turn of the 20th century. They apparently didn’t speak standard Italian, they spoke Lombard, which is a funky looking language/dialect. My mom said her grandparents kind of cut off the end of words like the French do.” -SagiTsukiko

“My grandparents originally lived near Napoli and spoke Neapolitan. Compared to standard Italian a lot of the pronunciations are totally different. My mother learned it from her parents and when we went to Italy to visit relatives who didn’t immigrate she got comments from people on how she spoke the old language instead of the new one.” -PrivateVasili

Finnish Has A Lot Of Homophones

“The Finnish phrase ‘kuusi palaa’ can be understood in 9 different ways:

“Six pieces / Six of them return / Six of them are on fire / The number six returns / The number six is on fire / A spruce is on fire / A spruce returns / Your moon is on fire / Your moon returns”

“A piece = pala / (multiple) pieces = palaa / A moon = kuu / Your moon = kuusi / A spruce = kuusi / Six = kuusi / To be on fire = palaa / To return = palata / Return(s) = palaa” -InfamousChibi

“‘How many do you want?’ ‘Kuusi palaa.’ ‘My moon is what?’” –joha130

English Is Changing

“We think of English, particularly American English, as becoming more homogeneous over time (usually attributed to the prevalence of national-level media), but in fact, the fastest vowel shift in the history of the English language is currently underway. It’s called the Northern Cities Shift, and is taking place from Chicago to upstate New York.” -HungryLikeTheWolf99

“The pronunciation of short vowels have shifted from their common sound, for example short o is now pronounced as short a, so the word block sounds more like black. It is happening around the great lakes and linguists aren’t sure why it has happened.” -maryxchristmas

“This short video shows people who demonstrate the accent but were filmed for other reasons (i.e. they were not trying to accentuate the Northern Cities Vowel Shift).”

“Edit: I wanted to add this video as well. It does a good job of actually explaining the phenomenon.” -Cat_Man_Dew

German Elements Can Be A Bit Strange

“Sauerstoffe, the German word for oxygen, literally translates to ‘sour material’.” -PersonWhoExists50306

“This isn’t the only weird element name in German.”

“Hydrogen = Wasserstoff = ‘Water stuff’”

“Nitrogen = Stickstoff = ‘Choke stuff’”

“Carbon = Kohlenstoff = ‘Coal stuff’” -GeneralDarian

“‘Oxygen’ means acid forming. Acids taste sour.” –GozerDGozerian

Not All Medical Terms Are Latin

“Many people think that the medical names for organs of the body are derived from Latin, but only the muscles and bones are. For example, ‘gluteus maximus’ is Latin for biggest muscle. But, ‘pulmonary’ is derived from the Greek, since it is not a muscle (i.e. pertaining to the lungs).” -Ex_Nihil

Fruity Confusion

“In French, grape is ‘raisin’ and raisin is ‘raisin sec’ (which roughly translates to ‘dry grape’).”

“F**ked me up as a child.” -_aft3rlif3_

“My parents always interchanged French and English, but would only use raisin for the dry type and I never knew if I was getting grapes or raisins.” -notyetcommitteds2

ASL Is Quite Complex

“American Sign Language (ASL) is one of many signed languages around the world and has very little relation to the English language.”

“Also, when confronted with a proper noun, name or a concept that needs to be clarified because of the lack of a sign, we use fingerspelling. While you might think this is like speaking the letters of a name, signers spell so quickly that you aren’t supposed to catch every letter, just notice the general shape of the word as it’s spelled.”

“Some signs for ‘bank”dog’ and ‘what’ are fingerspelled so hurriedly that you omit a letter or two, leaving a quick motion in place of what would have been B-A-N-K.”

“Fingerspelling in general is bananas. Watch a Deaf person spell their own name (especially something long like Josephine) and you’ll see what I mean. It’s probably the toughest part of the language to learn since it’s nearly all intuitive.” -ICantHearYoo

Why Pineapple?

“Pineapple is some variation of ‘ananas’ in most languages…except English” -yeEEeEeeEeee3eeeeEet

“In Mexican Spanish, pineapple is piña, while in most other varieties it’s anana” -ThePeasantKingM

“It’s ananas in Kannada, a smaller language of a state of India. So weird, considering I doubt that there is any shared roots with other languages.” -Redditor

“Its ananas in Marathi too. I think it is that for PIE [Proto-Indo-European] root languages. Kannada isn’t one but maybe interacting with Sanskrit and other Indo-Aryan language probably gave it ananas.” -AdiSoldier245

Arabeezy

“When people type Arabic using Latin letters, they substitute some numbers for letters because they look similar. It’s commonly called “Arabeezy” as a portmanteau of the Arabic word for English, Engleezy, and Arabic. Examples include ew3adni, 2ool, 7abibi, 3li, 6arab. So sometimes you’ll see sentences like, ‘Eh a5bar sho3’lak?’ and wonder if their cat jumped on their keyboard.” -H0use0fpwncakes

“Been learning Arabic for two years and I had no idea the numbers were chosen because they looked like the letter, I just thought it was because English had no equivalent for that Arabic letter so we used numbers. This makes much more sense haha” -laika_pushinka

Don’t Interrupt

“You can’t really interrupt someone who use a language that places the verb at the end of the sentence because you won’t understand what he wants unless he’s finished” -OmarAdelX

“I mean to a certain extent. Japanese is that type of language but some sentences are even made not to be finished.. You don’t need the verb always.” -elrulestheworld

“Sure you can…if you know what they are going to say (context). Source – speak Japanese. People interrupt all the time.” -bless_your-heart-

“I’ve always wondered how translators work with this?”

“Like in German, for example, where you place the verb at the end.”

“For example, ‘I want to run quickly through the green grass.’ is ‘Ich möchte schnell durch das grüne Gras rennen.’”

“If someone was translating that it would seem like they’d hear ‘I want to quickly through the green grass run,’ so how do they know it’s going to be run?” -liamemsa

“Interpreter here, though in Spanish not German, but Spanish works the same way where I have to untangle the sentence to get it to make sense in English. When a client is talking, I usually wait for them to finish the thought before rendering it in the other language. This is called consecutive interpreting, one person talks, stops, and lets me do my thing. The other form, simultaneous, is when one person talks and once I can’t remember any more I start talking too, taking in info while I’m actively interpreting. Most of us don’t work in this mode often, unless you’re interpreting a conference or something. Most interpreter’s working memory is 4 ish sentences, so we know what you said and we just flip it around as we go. We also take notes depending on the type of session. It takes practice and a very high degree of fluency, but I honestly don’t think about the grammar much anymore. I’m trying to find the vocabulary that will get the message across best or remember a medical term.” -GrayGhoast

Language is even more fascinating than a lot of people think. Even if you take your native language for granted, there are probably a whole lot of really cool things you don’t know about it yet.

Posted on

People Explain What Makes Them Nervous No Matter How Many Times They Do It

The world is a dangerous place sometimes.

According to a study by the CDC in 2018, nearly 24.8 million doctor’s visits were the cause of some sort of accident. While the odds are still in your favor of nothing happening to you when you step outside the door, the chances of it happening at all are enough to make people a little panicked whenever they do anything.

Driving behind a service truck with a lot of dangling equipment? Walking through a grassy field filled with sprinklers which haven’t been turned on all day? Going for that big meeting with your boss?

A lot can happen.

And you never really know, do you?

Reddit user, WinstonChurchillin, wanted to know what never gets easier.

They asked:

“What makes you nervous no matter how many times you do it?”

They’re Going To Disappear Into The Land Of Elves

“Walking over a storm drain with my keys in my hand” ~ Groovy_Chainsaw

Even When It’s Your Job

“Using my table saw. Even though I am a Carpenter.” ~ jakobrivers

“Handling an angle grinder makes me nervous. I have to use it frequently because of my job, but it never gets easier.” ~ CatCatRatRat

“For a couple months I had a job in a college machine shop. I was always healthily scared of those machines. You’d get trained up hearing the story of the lathe-hair girl and worse bloodcurdling tales.”

“Always follow procedure, always double-check, always know the emergency stops, and if possible always have someone within shouting distance.” ~ dishonourableaccount

It Could Mean Lots Of Things

“When my boss goes ‘can we just have a quick chat?’” ~ zagreus9

“Or “Come into my office when you get a chance. There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.” ~ DareWright

Teacher? Don’t Be This Teacher.

“Let’s break ourselves into small groups and…” ~ mayoroftheed

“And also, “Before we start, let’s go around the room and say a little bit about ourselves…” ~ ylssa26

“At meetings when they say, ‘Ok, everyone, let’s go around the room and introduce yourself’. Even worse when they require stupid things like, ‘Include your favorite food and why you like it’ or ‘Tell us why you’re here’. Uhhh…because it’s mandatory?” ~ DareWright

“The problem I have with this is I suddenly forget everything about myself.”

“Favorite food? ‘Oh god what have I eaten ever?’ Favorite movie? ‘I watch movies?’ Hobbies? ‘Is sleep a hobby, did I even sleep last night?’ Typically how it goes in my head.” ~ shermanerma

Nerves, Yes, But Perhaps A Little More Justified

“Driving in between two semi trucks on the freeway. Bonus points if one or both is carrying a bunch of logs…”

“…For the record, I am very aware that this is something one should not do unless you have to. The only times this happens to me is if I am in one of the middle lanes on a 4 or 5 lane highway and semis come up on either side.”

“In those cases, I speed up as quick as I can to pass one or the other. Always drive defensively!” ~ princess_mediocrity

“Driving behind a truck with an overhanging load too. I’m always terrified my depth perception will fail me and I’ll ram it with my windshield” ~ SxeySteve

“My fear is driving behind a car with even a mattress attached to roof….my former boss died after a mattress came off the car in front of him….I sure miss him as he taught me to drive a stick, which was cool, though the truck was older, 1992 type truck. :)” ~ shana104

Are They Clocking My Speed Or What?

“Drive in front of a police officer when I have no reason to be nervous.” ~ DapperCam

“sit next to one at traffic lights. Do I look at them? If I don’t does it look suspicious? do I pretend like I’m bored? WHAT DO I DO” ~ Jcit878

Wasting Everyone’s Time

“Walking out of a store without buying anything!” ~ KillerJupe

“I’m always paranoid that I’ll trigger the security alarm for no reason” ~ Violet_Hill

Anyone Ever Seen Children Of The Corn?

“Using a mandoline slicer.”

“Even using the safety guard I get a little queasy when I have to use it.” ~ yourtemporaryBFF

“I sliced my thumb open once because I thought I was too good for the guard. I never ever use it without the guard now and still get too nervous to cut that far down with it.” ~ TeamToaster2014

Your Entire Wobbler In Your Joinster Is Shot

“Anything that has to do with my car. I have been scammed even over a simple oil change.”

“even if I try to be confident, it’s very clear once I start talking that I have no clue about cars. Literally had someone quote $400 to change an air filter.”

“I said no because I could not afford it…. found out later how insane that quote was. Sadly that just fueled my fear.” ~ sebastianrileyt2

“I love it when they pull out my air filter to show me how dirty it is so they can charge me $100 to change it, and I’m like oh wow yeah I’ll have to change that. Now go put it back.” ~ SirWigglesVonWoogly

Concert Performers Everywhere Know What’s Up

“Tuning my violin.” ~ TheLettre7

“Ugh, when that E string snaps and whips you in the face…” ~ dailysunshineKO

“The E string is the worst, had one time it snapped while tuning before a concert. I was able to get a backup, but still it’s nerve racking.” ~ TheLettre7

How Do You…Use…Speak…Things?

“Calling someone on the phone. I’m a fairly outgoing person and I love talking to people, but I rely a lot on seeing a person’s face and observing their body language, which isn’t possible on the phone.”

“Voicemails are less terrible, but I still panic a little because if I mess up while leaving a message, the other person has a freaking recording of me being really awkward. I’m so thankful texting exists.” ~ smugmisswoodhouse

Double Check, Triple Check, Unplug It

“Sticking my hand inside the disposal when I drop a fork In it.”

“I’ve seen people telling me to unplug the disposal, how does one do that?” ~ The_Point-Man

Most of this is in your head.

Still, it never hurts to be a little extra cautious out there and make sure the disposal is unplugged.

Posted on

People Explain Which Things Are Far Deadlier Than Anyone Realizes

When we’re sick, we take medication. When we’re not looking our best, we might seek out a cosmetic surgical procedure.

And when we sit in the same position for hours, we don’t think twice about the gradual effects being sedentary can have on our bodies.

The seemingly innocuous activities we don’t think twice about being potentially harmful to our health got dissected here when Redditor ILikeIceCreamSoMuch asked:

“What is far deadlier than most people realize?”

Take notes.

Some of these examples could potentially save your life.

The things you usually don’t associate with death may surprise you.

Affording Proper Care

“Being poor. You can’t afford basic health care basic dental basic decent anything and your health pays for it. Not going to the dentist can kill you. Not being able to afford medication can kill you. Not being able to afford a day off to rest when you’re feeling bad.”

“Being broke doesn’t just suck because you can’t do ‘fun stuff’ being broke sucks because you have to choose between your health and your immediate well being. And hard work alone won’t lift you out of that deadly negative cycle.” – TaysteePotayto

Dangerous Fruit When Mixed

“Grapefruit in combination with many — MANY — prescription drugs. Basically, grapefruit can affect the way your medications work.”

“With some meds, adding grapefruit screws up the way your body metabolizes the drug, so you end up with far more than the prescribed dosage. It can also work in the opposite way with other drugs, leaving you with less than the prescribed dosage.”

“This is especially bad if you have high blood pressure or arrhythmia.”

“This article on the FDA site explains it way better.” – A-RovinIGo

Abruptly Quitting

“Quit drinking. Been an EMT for a while and work with a lot of the homeless population. Will gets calls for people who decided today is the day to finally quit drinking and do it cold turkey.”

“As soon as the next morning people can present with delirium tremens, severe withdrawals can induce seizures and can also lead to death. A lot of these people will think because they quit hard drugs like heroin or meth cold turkey alcohol would be the same without knowing the major effects it can have on your health.”

“Guess I should add this is only for people with alcohol dependency and not all your casual or even heavier drinkers.” – DiscountSheriff

Beware The Great Outdoors

“Vacation. Particularly in nature if you’re not used to being in nature. There’s a book called Death in Yellowstone and talks about all the weird ways people have died there.”

“Walking off cliffs, falling trees, falling into boiling water… there’s the obvious wildlife attacks but there’s plenty of less obvious ways. The thing is, people are relaxing for once on vacation and they put themselves in different environments than they’re used to. They have their guards down.” – kitkatpaddywat

A good night’s sleep can be hard to come by, especially when you’re not in the proper place for one.

Stay Alert Behind The Wheel

“Driving while tired. All you need is that one slow part, or that one part that lulls even a little to put you out.” – ChryWolferyn

Sleeping Disorder

“Not sure if it’s been said, but untreated sleep apnea. You literally stop breathing, and get little quality sleep. The stress on your cardiovascular system is immense. Get tested. Period.”

“Then wear the CPAP no matter how unsexy it is. Or maybe surgery to eliminate or reduce the problem.” – mengelhart

Being sedentary while awake, however, can lead to tragic consequences.

The Risk For Pilots

“Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a well documented effect of long haul flights too. Which is why pilots who fly long haul and ultra long haul (flights lasting more than 10 hrs) wear pressure socks.”

“Passengers are advised to walk around the cabin once every few hours. With flights lasting up to 18 hours, this is a necessity. Get the blood moving. If any of these clots somehow dislodge and reach your heart, it is goodbye.” – Deepimpact1234

The Risk For Truckers

“Trucker here. I’ve had two blood clots in my legs from driving long distances and having my leg pressed against the corner of the seat for hours on end. One almost killed me.”

“Apparently it’s very common with truckers. You’re supposed to stop and walk around every hour and a half to keep things circulating (which almost nobody does due to time constraints).”

“The same thing happens in gaming chairs apparently – people forget to move their legs because they’re so focused on the game. You don’t need to worry so much if you’re younger, but if you’re a gamer who’s a little older, please be aware.” – tjfergusen

Beware of these below-the-torso ailments

Mood Killer

“Penile Fracture – if this happens to you do not hesitate to get medical help. 12 weeks ago this happened to me. The tissue that fills with blood and makes the penis erect can fracture when impacted awkwardly.”

“Bend at 45 degs and a huge hematoma and swelling. I went the ED and after the poor student doctor saw it, I was rushed into hospital. I was informed if it wasn’t surgically fixed it could mean necrosis and removal!”

“The surgical procedure involved de-gloving the penis, removing the hematoma, stitching up the fractured tissue under the skin and then stitching the skin back on.”

“Still having nerve pain not mention the effect it’s had on our sex life.” – Benellibro

Consequences Of Getting That Perfect Instagram Shot

“A Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) gives people a figure reminiscent of the Kardashians and is hugely popular for getting that instagram body. But a paper in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal found that 1 in 3,000 BBLs resulted in death, making it the world’s most dangerous cosmetic procedure!” – jamestxt

Don’t Drop The Ball On This One

“Testicular torsion – don’t be embarrassed to ask for help. In ALL honesty, the embarrassment is ALL IN YOUR HEAD. Doctors & nurses REALLY don’t give a f’k, they really don’t care, and aren’t judging you one bit.”

“They have seen EVERYTHING, and then some more. But they WILL judge you if you make the foolish decision not to seek help coz of made-up embarrassment and lose your balls.”

“The pain might not be severe, but you have a few hours tops before your balls die.”

“To put some numbers to this – if you wait longer then 6 hours, permanent damage may occur. After 12 hours, there’s a 75% chance of losing the testicle.” – CircleBox2″

Just because there is potential harm in almost anything around us as we go about our daily lives doesn’t necessarily mean we should constantly live in fear.

Thankfully, the examples above could inspire further research into the things you found particularly alarming.

Which example were you most surprised by and how did it change your initial perspective about it?

Posted on

People Share Facts So Ridiculous They Almost Sounds Fake But Are Totally Real

Knowledge is power, and there is so much to take in.

What’s funny though, is that in some situations, some knowledge we acquire can sound more like made up storytelling.

There have been plenty of times where an Onion article became reality.

Go figure.

Redditor SuruchiSushi wanted to discuss all the fascinating facts about life that leave us reeling because it sounds more like fiction.

They asked:

“What is a fact so ridiculous that it sounds fake?”

Let’s talk about what’s really real.

Pre-Zombie Menu

“We’ve eaten mummies into rarity.”  ~ Daylight_The_Furry

“Yep, it was all the rage a few hundred years ago in Europe. Largely for medicinal purposes, ground up into powder and mixed with stuff, mostly.”  ~ Reddit

“I mean, this was around the same time that British scientists categorized aboriginals as fauna. I don’t think they had a very good sense of who counted as people.”  ~ Callmecaesar1

“Not only eaten, but they used to be ground up to make pigment for paints. Literally called mummy brown.”  ~ThatOneAsianGuy33

Missing Parts

“Some moths emerge from the cocoon without a mouth or anus.”  ~happy_cake_babe

“Serious response: a lot of what we think of as ‘insects’ are actually the adult forms, and often don’t live very long as adults.”

“Basically they emerge as adults, go find another to make babies with, and then die once the eggs are laid.”

“If they’re only going to live a few hours or days, they can get by without mouths or buttholes.”

“A lot of insect species spend most of their time as little maggoty things, and only take their distinctive adult forms for a brief portion of their life.”

“Insects are weird, yo.”  ~ AndAzraelSaid

Bad Words

“The term ‘prime minister’ was first used as a slur.” ~ ____andresito____

“The term ‘Prime Minister’ as we know it today emerged in the 18th century, during the prolonged conflict between Britain and France.”

“It was first applied insultingly to Sir Robert Walpole, who is now considered the first Prime Minister of Great Britain.”

“It was used by members of Parliament against Walpole, who served for 21 years and oversaw the increasing power of his role and simultaneous withdrawal of King George I from cabinet meetings.”

“The derogatory nature was derived from its comparison to France’s Chief Minister, Cardinal Richelieu.”

“The British were proud of not to be an absolute monarchy, like France, so the comparison was intended to be offensive.”

“Source” ~ Zhyko

Among the Stars

“When two galaxies merge, almost nothing collides despite each having trillions of stars.”  ~mrbigmac61

“Yep, it’s because there’s really just far too much space between objects when you zoom in.”

“Even the asteroid belt has thousands of miles of empty space between each asteroid.”

“If you flew through the asteroid belt, you’d only crash if you did so on purpose.”  ~ nsci2ece

Hey Rubber Ducky

“In 1992, shipping containers with around 28,000 rubber ducks were lost at sea(in the Pacific Ocean)…. they’re still being found today.”  ~ BlueSparkle2810

“Imagine being lost at sea for a few days, you see something in the water in front of you.”

“Maybe a clue to where land is? No. It’s a friggin’ rubber duck.”  ~ DancingDoggos

A Massive Population

“Bangladesh, a really tiny country has a population larger than all of Russia.” ~ R4zerSins

“Just scanning over Bangladesh on Google maps satellite view is incredible.”

“Even in areas that look green from zoomed out, there’s villages absolutely everywhere when you zoom in.”

“And then when you do get cities, they’re mega-densely populated metropolises with huge slum areas. It’s mad.”  ~PillarofSheffield

Give me the keys…

“It’s legal to own, and drive a tank in the USA.”

“You can even drive it on the road if you replace the steel tracks with rubber tracks. The guns and cannon must be disabled though.”  ~ KKKKOOOOBBBBRRRRAAAA

“Actually that last ‘fact’ is untrue. You do not need to disable the gun, in fact you can buy tank shells.”

“The reason however most are disabled (there are a few not disabled) is its ridiculously expensive and requires a lot more paperwork.”  ~corbear007

Flying High

“On the 29th of September 1940 two planes had a mid-air collision, got stuck together and successfully landed.”

“The pilot used the controls of the top plane and the engines of the bottom plane.”

“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp478Tgm5gg“. ~ alphaechothunder77

Meeting your maker…

“France didn’t stop executing people by guillotine until 1977.”  ~ whereismattdamon

“Yeah, like all the modern execution methods. And the guillotine is even more sure than getting shot in the head.”

“The ol’ chopper is the method I’d choose if I had to be executed.”

“Course, I’d request that they quickly grab my chopped head and show me my body. That’d be sick.”  ~ 4_P-

The Missing

“20% of foster children are missing at any given time.”  ~ SagiTsukiko

“20% of foster care children are missing.”

“A lot of this is due to runaways.”

“My girlfriend works in foster care and every week she has at least one foster child runaway, mind you these are just her cases and not her coworkers cases who also have constant runaways.”  ~ skuzzlebut90

“98%. 2% are unaccounted for. It’s still a major issue that so many foster kids are running away, though.”

“A glimpse into how inadequate the system and many foster parents are.”

“It’s not always their fault that they cannot adequately care for a foster child, though, and many foster parents who are not abusive simply just were not prepared for a lot of the issues that may arise with a traumatized child who has been removed from their birth family and shuffled around.”  ~ SagiTsukiko

Playing the Devil

“2 actors have died playing Judas in live biblical productions by accidentally hanging themselves for real in his death scene.”  ~ acronicality

Death

“The last time an inmate in the USA was executed by firing squad was on June 18th, 2010.”  ~bob4for4

“Ronnie Lee Gardner (January 16, 1961 – June 18, 2010) was an American criminal who received the death penalty for shooting a man in the face and killing him during a robbery in 1985, and was executed by a firing squad by the state of Utah in 2010.”

“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Lee_Gardner“. ~ Reddit

Well that was a lot of knowledge to devour at once. Some fascinating, the rest surprising.

We were still using firing squads in this century?

I have no words.

Now we’re all one step closer to Jeopardy.

Posted on

People Share The Facts That Completely Changed Their Perspective

“You never know.”

That is an age old saying that may also be one of life’s truest truths.

We do never know. Because there is so much out there to know and learn and sometimes random things happen.

And sometimes your new knowledge changes everything.

Redditor ettleboy wanted to discuss the knowledge some of us have acquired over time, that lead our thoughts and opinions in a different direction.

They asked:

“What fact totally changed your perspective?”

Let’s share some perspectives…

Switching Metals…

“It took mankind 4 times longer to switch from copper swords to steel swords than to switch from steel swords to nuclear bombs.”  ~ Im_gonna_fart

“This sucks because I am having way harder time cutting my steak with my nuclear bomb, compared to when I used to do it with my steel sword.” ~ hyelander

resist, Resist, RESIST!!

“The longest a nicotine craving will last is 180 seconds. That means all I need to do is resist for 3 minutes.”

“My last cigarette was January 25 2008.”  ~ nivla73

“YMMV. I saw this fact (have no idea if it’s true) when I was a heavy smoker and it helped me ease back on my intake.”

“I decided that if this is true then what I’d do is think back to my last craving.”

“If I had a cig last time then I’d skip this one and wait for the next craving to go have one.”

“As my body got used to only smoking 5 a day instead of 10 then I was smoking 4 or 3, then 2 until finally I was only smoking when I was out with friends or particularly stressed.”

“Now I only smoke on occasion and while I want to eliminate that entirely.”

“I also don’t think it’s unreasonable to have one every so often (maybe once a month now) as long as I don’t go buy a pack and start back up smoking regularly.”

“This approach simply doesn’t work for some people. No solution is one-size-fits-all.”  ~ ej255wrxx

“I quit, after 30 years of smoking, in 1995. Even after 23 years I sometimes (rarely) get a craving.”

“Mine last less than a minute and are not intense. I will never go back to smoking. Smoking killed my wife before age 70.”

“She just didn’t have the willpower or motivation to give it up.”

“At the end, after being released from the hospital because she had almost died from COPD, she went back to smoking.”

“Two days later she was taken in Emergency and she died about a week after. “

“By that time we had been divorced for 14 years.”

“The divorce was partially caused by her inability to change her bad habits.”  ~ La_Lanterne_Rouge

With each passing minute…

“Time doesn’t stop.”

“That speech I’m about to give in front of my class and I’m sweating balls over, in the next 2 minutes, it’s going to be done with. 2 minutes is two minutes.”  ~ DinoTerrorisT

“This has helped me so very much in life. I always tell myself the same thing – this time tomorrow, it’ll be in the past, a distant memory.”

“I’ve just got to get through it, but it will be over.”

“I hope your speech went well!”  ~ BasketballShooter

“I love thinking like this.”

“I kind of adopted it from the movie ‘We Bought a Zoo’ where they talk about how all it takes is just like 30 seconds of insane courage to do something.”

“You wanna ask someone out on a date? You want to ask for a raise? You want to try something crazy like skydiving?”

“All it takes is 30 seconds where you are just unstoppable and you just do it!”  ~ Reddit

“Hope your speech went well.”

“One of my favorite sayings related to a speech is, ‘For every speech you gave, there will be 3 versions. The speech you were prepared to give.”

“The speech you actually gave. And the speech you wished you gave.’”

“Unrelated to the question. But felt like sharing it here.”  ~ tempemailacct153

Truths…

“I’m capable of being entirely convinced of something false.”

“As a result anything I’m convinced of doesn’t necessarily reflect reality.”  ~ AssadTheImpaler

“The one thing we all had in common is that we all think we’re right.”

“Now you’ve gone and fucked it up.”  ~ briffobroffhouse

Back in the Day…

“Can’t remember exactly where I saw this, but the first Western movies filmed in Hollywood were made around 1915, when the industry moved there.”

“At the time much of the area outside of Los Angeles was ranchland and there were still some sizable cattle drives going on.”

“Directors would hire actual cowboys for a pittance to train horses or be extras.”

“Basically they made movies fantasizing these big cattle drives and gunfights as American history, while people who had actually done all those things irl were chilling in the background.”  ~ bradthaphoend

“They also used trained sharpshooters to fire real bullets at things before the invention of the squib.”

“All the cannon fire in the 1915 film ‘The Birth of a Nation’ were live. Blanks were available, but not pyrotechnics.”

“Someone was killed during the filming of Cecil B DeMille’s ‘The Captive’ because they forgot to swap out their live ammo for blanks in one scene.”

“The Captive (1915) Silent film review.”  ~ behemuthm

All the Money in the World…

“There are real life castles that are less expensive to buy than a New York City apartment.”  ~ yerrrdoobie

“You can actually get a free castle in France as long as you can provide a plan for how to keep up with upkeep of the castle so that it won’t become a ruin.”  ~ Christian__N

“There are planets out there without suns, planets that are hurtling through space in absolute total darkness.”

“Imagine being there.” ~ Reddit

Run Faster…

“Balto only ran the last leg of the route.”

“The dog that ran the longest and most treacherous parts of the route (and at night) was named Togo.”

“Balto toured the U.S. as a hero, but couldn’t be bred because he was neutered.”

“Togo’s owner was pissed Balto got so much attention, and then his story got out and Togo got to tour the U.S. and was bred like crazy, so most Huskies are descendants of the greatest sled dog in history.”  ~ FnkyTown

The Pull Around Us…

“How strong gravity is at a neutron star. If you were to stand on top of one, you’d be flattened at the subatomic level.”  ~ verymuchlol

“What’s really cool, is that it wouldn’t just crush you, it would crush you so hard that the molecules that make up your body would stop obeying what we typically think of as fundamental laws of particles.”

“Everyone goes on about black holes, neutron stars are cool as crap.”  ~ contrivedpanda

Shuffle Along…

“If you shuffle a standard deck of cards, it is most likely the only time that sequence of cards has ever been shuffled in the history of cards.” ~ Leaves_1991

Pets on Pets…

“An example of being mutually beneficial.”

“Giant tarantulas keep tiny frogs as pets.”

“The tarantula protects the frog from predators – and the frogs, in turn, eat insects that could possibly harm the tarantula’s eggs.”  ~ Back2Bach

Well my brain is full for the time being.

I love new knowledge.

You just never know all there is to know.

Posted on

History Buffs Share The One Fact That Always Makes Them Laugh

Prehistory became history when we were able to start recording and conveying what humans were doing.

Some say it started with cave paintings or rock carvings, some believe it started with Sumerian cuneiform, or the Egyptian hieroglyphs which happened around the same time. Some say the many cultures that used oral histories continued our first real form of recording the past.

It’s said history repeats itself and sometimes that history is hilarious.

Historians have been finding weird and random facts about our species old way of life and now we can share the funniest ones through the internet.

Redditor Axel_Ambrose asked:

“History nerds of Reddit, what’s a historical fact/tidbit that will always get you to chuckle?”

It’s unbelievable that some of these things actually happened.

Three way excommunication.

“That time when around 3 men claimed to be the pope and all excommunicated each other.” – sad_barrett_

“Or that time a pope sold his position. Or that time the king of France straight up had the pope murdered. Lots of great pope stories out there.” – Magmafrost13

“Or the time an honest to god pirate was elected pope.” – 1-1-19MemeBrigade

“He was one of the Popes during the Western Schism mentioned by sad_barrett_.” – A_Blessed_Feline

Romans loved their dogs.

“Ancient Romans loved their dogs as much as we do. There are entire surviving texts of people talking about their daily, monotonous life with dogs. In some cases, we have more information about their dogs and what they did with them than other aspects of Roman life.”

“On a less funny but sweet note; when their dogs died, many of them were given elaborate graves with highly decorative tombstones. They often carved poems about them or wrote in length about how much they’ll miss them or what they loved about them most. These dog graveyards were considered sacred and vandalizing them was a major offense.”

“The YouTube channel Historia Civilis has an awesome video on the subject of surviving Roman manuscripts, including some other funny moments of Roman history.”

“For more information on Dogs in ancient Rome, including the touching epitaphs, I’ll point you guys towards Invicta on YouTube with this video.” – KnightCaptain_Bob

“Here’s the link showcasing some of the epitaphs.” – legothief

“‘Myianever barked without reason, but now he is silent.’” – Myfourcats1

WWII toilet paper.

“In WW2, Germans were dropping demoralizing letters on London… British used them as cheap toilet paper.” – salttrooper222

“Apparently the Germans also dropped a bunch of papers on allied positions showing their wives cheating on the soldiers while they were away. The soldiers just used it as porn.” – MeiNeedsMoreBuffs

“TBF didn’t we do the same thing in return. I just laugh at the idea that during the whole period of rationing, the one thing both sides had plenty of was toilet paper.” – Soppydog

“Fun fact: During ww2 the British diet was the best it had ever been until then. They had never been fed a more healthy and well balanced diet.” – Scamsurvivor

“The Allies dropped food packages on Germany (why, I can’t recall, but I think they were trying to ‘sow goodwill) and they wrote ‘gift’ on them. ‘Gift’ means ‘poison’ in German.” – Vajranaga

Adopting a bear.

“A Polish Artillery supply Corp adopted a bear, made him a soldier, and kept him for the duration of the war.” – nerdykate100

“His name was Wojtek.”

“After the war he retired to Edinburgh Zoo where his old comrades would come and give him cigarettes.”

“There’s a statue of him in Edinburgh as well.” – sAindustrian

“Better than that, he used to play-wrestle the men, and his old comrades would climb down into the enclosure to give him beer and cigarettes – and wrestle him.” – Brickie78

“He scared away an entire company of Germans. Two scouts saw him carrying artillery shells in the middle of the night and told their commander that the Polish had a company of bears which made them retreat lmao.” – lowhangingfruit12

Viking runes.

“Maeshowe’s runes. Archaeologists explored some old Viking chambers and found inscriptions that were 14 feet tall, and unreadable. After years deciphering these runes, they translated to, “this is very high.”

“We haven’t changed.” – duerlort

“I wish I could see the look on the face of the archaeologist who translated it.” – 1-1-19MemeBrigade

“Aren’t there some carvings like that in the Hagia Sophia? I seem to recall that some of the Vikings serving as the Varangian Guard got up to some amusing hijinks there.” – Almainyny

“Yeah the runes on the Hagia Sophia are ‘halfdan carved these runes.’” – thedankestyeet

Being the first to see an animal.

“Imagine patrolling the Alps and you see elephants rolling up. But you don’t even know what an elephant is.” – TomasSchmieder

“Hannibal of Carthage with his War Elephants I presume? Traveling over the Alps on his way to destroy Rome and bringing Elephants into Europe for the first time. Imagine how terrifying it must’ve been for the Roman Legionaries, seeing five tons of pure muscle barreling down at them at speeds equaling horses. Yet, they availed Hannibal nothing. Rome vanquished him and annexed Carthage.” – ThatBada**online

Third wheel on the moon.

“In all the Apollo missions three guys were sent to the moon. But only two guys got into the lander and went down and walked on the moon. The third guy stayed in the command module in orbit and had to listen to the radio chatter of the the other two guys talking about how badass it was to walk on the moon.” – stanley_leverlock

“Didn’t Collins lose all radio contact when he was on the far side?” – redopz

“All of the landing zones were on the near side of the moon. Every CM pilot lost complete contact with both mission control and the lander when they orbited the far side, as there were no relay satellites in lunar orbit.” – Redditor

“The loneliest man in the universe.” – ATF_Dogshoot_Squad

“I seem to recall reading somewhere that he found it very peaceful:”

“‘I don’t mean to deny a feeling of solitude. It is there, reinforced by the fact that radio contact with the Earth abruptly cuts off at the instant I disappear behind the moon, I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what on this side’.” – elcarath

Napoleon’s brother.

“Napoleon had a brother who lived in New Jersey.” – NotAJewishMother

“Must have made family reunions real depressing for that guy.” – Almostatimelord

“He moved to New Jersey after his brother’s fall from power. When Napoleon was emperor, he made him King of Spain.” – MooseFlyer

“Joseph Bonaparte was his brother and was made King of Spain. After the Peninsular War he retired to New Jersey when he was dethroned.” – MassiveFajiit

The war over Toledo.

“There was a war between Michigan and Ohio over Toledo, and the Ohioans evacuated so fast there weren’t even any casualties. As a result, the government gave Michigan the upper peninsula and Ohio got to keep Toledo.” – typhondrums17

“Michigan won the war, which is why Toledo is now part of Ohio.” – Distantmind88

“Damn, Michigan giving out the harsh punishment.” -BarryMacochner

A record holding election as the “most rigged.”

“The most rigged election, where the winner received 243000 votes, except there were only 15000 registered voters.” – 18270

“Gotta get that 1,680% voter turnout.” – fa1afel

“Someone commented the last time this was posted that its sort of a power move. ‘I’m going to fake this election, and make it really obvious. Everyone will know that the election is rigged but no one will do anything about it.’” – river4823

Modern humans haven’t changed much in the few hundred thousand years we’ve been around.

In relation to the Earth’s existence (4.4 billion years), we are barely even a blip on the timeline.

History will repeat itself, even the funny things that humans do.

Posted on

911 Operators Describe The One Call That Haunts Them To This Day

WARNING: mentions of violence, suicide, death

Though many of us have difficult, exhausting jobs, most of us are fortunate enough to be able to say our work is not especially scarring.

Emergency dispatchers, on the other hand, have terrible stories they could tell.

Redditor Onatic420 asked: 

“911 Operators, what call scares you till this day?”

Some remembered being there for someone’s worst moment.

“My sister called 911 and while she was trying to do CPR, she was begging, ‘Daddy, please wake up!’ and that’s something that’s been branded into my mind ever since then.”

“I still think about that a lot, even though it was 4 1/2 years ago already.” – Enuke2003

“Every call where someone is reporting an unresponsive relative. Some will let you walk them through the CPR process if they don’t know it, some won’t.”

“Every one of them, you hear the caller at some point pleading with the patient to not leave them. Most times they do though.”

“Parents, spouses, children, I’ve had them all call. Never gets easier.” – RaisinBranCrunch

“My husband died of a sudden heart attack. I feel terrible for the 911 operator who took my call.”

“He had passed by the time paramedics got there, so the guy on the phone with me had to listen to me scream and cry and beg. I cannot imagine having to hear that at my job.” – LivingDeadCode

Others had gutwrenching stories about children and families.

“I was a 911 operator.”

“When I asked for the address, I got an angry man yelling, ‘Just get the f**kin’ ambulance here!’”

“When I asked what happened, the caller said, ‘You don’t need to f**kin’ know that!”’

“‘I just need to know what happened so I know who to send and what equipment to bring, sir’.”

“‘Just send a godd**n ambulance, my kid’s having a seizure! Don’t send any f**kin’ police’.”

“‘Don’t send police’ coming from a caller is basically them telling on themselves. Please send police, because the patient or the EMS crew or both could be in danger.”

“So I passed a note to my partner, who was dispatching: ‘Send PD. Extremely uncooperative caller’.”

“I tried my best to get through the rest of the questions (how old is the kid, are they conscious, are they breathing, has the seizing stopped, etc…). I got nothing but verbal abuse.”

“All I knew is that a pediatric patient had a seizure when the call started, there was yelling in the background, and there was some terrible yelling in the foreground.”

“‘PUT YOUR HANDS UP’.”

“‘HEY, WHAT THE F**K, B***H’.”

“And that was it. Police had the caller.”

“The patient ended up being a toddler, who had been beaten to within an inch of their life by that a**hole. That was terrifying and sad and I hugged my own kid a little tighter that night.” – insertcaffeine

“Not scary, but I think about them often.”

“Mother of 4 called in saying the trailer was on fire and her bedroom door was locked from the outside. I could hear her kids screaming and coughing in the background.”

“I asked her if she could open a window, but they were nailed shut for some reason. Then we had her shove blankets under the door to stop the smoke from coming in before the fire department gets out there.”

“After about 5 min the coughing dies down and she stops responding to me. Nothing at all.”

“Then the fire department comes over the line saying the homeowner came out and that no one else was inside so we could slow the ambulance. We kept telling them we’re on the phone with people inside but they assured us there was not.”

“Eventually, they pulled the people out, mother and 2 of the kids died. The man who came out was letting this family stay with him and he torched it and left them in there.”

“The second was a woman calling on her husband while they were fighting, she was screaming, saying he was in the room and had a gun and wasn’t sure if he was going to shoot her or himself.”

“Seconds later I hear a gunshot and blood curdling screaming. I asked who had been shot and she said he shot himself in the head.”

“Impossible to get that 1 minute of chaos out of my head and it was months ago” – raegirlheygirll

“Got a 911 call with just screaming. Nothing intelligible, just the loudest screaming you’ve ever heard. I started officers to the house.”

“Then a kid started yelling that her uncle was trying to kill her, her sister, and her grandmother. She started screaming again, there was a thud, and then no more sound.”

“Officers got there and a man walked out into the driveway and said, ‘I did it. I killed them’.”

“He was mentally ill and lived with his mother. She had been trying to get him committed, with doctors saying he wasn’t a danger to himself or others. His 9-year-old twin nieces were visiting from out of state.”

“He snapped that morning. Bludgeoned them all with blunt objects, including a large vase. His mom and one niece died. One twin survived with extensive injuries. It was a horrifying call.” – IWantALargeFarva

“A guy in my neighborhood killed his whole family, then called 911 and told them what he had done before killing himself.”

“I always wondered what it was like for the person who took that call and the cops who showed up to find the scene.”

“I knew the son pretty well. I was on my way to school that morning when the cops were rolling in and blocking off the street.” – markitf**kinzero

There were awful break-ins.

“A family member worked as a police dispatcher and received a call from an elderly woman.”

“Her husband had just been killed in their garage by an intruder. She heard it happening. She’s wheelchair-bound but the phone was next to her.”

“She frantically begged my family member to help her. While he was on the phone with her, the criminal cut her throat. My family member stayed on the line three more minutes until the cops got there.”

“He could hear the sounds of the attack, her gasping and gurgling noises. He kept telling her help was coming and to hold on.”

“Amazingly, she survived.”

“The criminal was later caught. A 17-year-old who just wanted the thrill of killing someone and picked them at random. He’s on death row now.” – peeweemax

And there were tragedies.

“My neighbors when I was a kid, Mrs. C had dementia, possibly Alzheimer’s, and Mr. C was like a third grandfather to me.”

“We hadn’t seen him in a week so my mom went over to see if they were ok. Mrs. C told us Mr. C was still asleep, so my mom called 911.”

“I’m glad we didn’t go in there because apparently Mr. C had passed in his sleep a few days before and Mrs. C didn’t realize.”

“Very sad for us, but I’m very grateful for the police officers who were so kind and made sure a little kid like me didn’t have to see the details. Great memories of him, though! He taught me a lot about gardening that I still use today.” – ahw34

“Former 911 operator here.”

“Sometimes the calls that stick with you aren’t the most physically traumatic. I once had a call from a 17-year-old kid who came home from a sleepover to find that his mother had moved.”

“Just packed up his sister and everything in the house and left while he was gone with no forwarding address or information. She also turned off his cell phone that morning so literally, the only number he could call was 911.”

“He was trying so hard not to cry and his voice was shaking as he kept apologizing to me for calling 911. He just didn’t know what else to do and had no other family.”

“She also took everything so all he had was a couple of things that he had taken to the friend’s house. He told me his 18th birthday was in a couple of weeks and he literally had nothing.”

“The officers that responded took him to a shelter. I think about him often and I hope he’s ok. Even if he was a kid who got in trouble or had behavioral issues, I can’t imagine coming home to find your mother has abandoned you.” – gabbobbag

These stories will surely stay with us for a while—we can only imagine how the dispatchers felt.

These are the kinds of stories, whether horrible or heartbreaking, that make us want to hold onto our loved ones a little tighter.

If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/