Author: Alan Herrera

Posted on

People Break Down The Most Random Animal Facts They Know

Did you know that the blue-and-yellow macaw can live between 65 and 70 years? To put it simply: it will likely outlive a bunch of you (including me). It can also talk and bond very closely with humans.

It’s a pretty striking and fascinating animal. They’re also pretty readily available. I ran into a woman in the park the other day who had one perched on her shoulder!

But guess what? That’s just one of the multitudes of animals on this planet, and each one is cooler than the last.

That’s what we were so kindly reminded about after Redditor SerialNarcissist asked the online community:

“What random animal fact should everyone know?”

“If you’re camping…”

“If you’re camping and you hear an animal moving around, it’s probably a skunk or a beaver or a porcupine. Bears, moose, and other large animals are surprisingly sneaky.” ~ TypicalCricket

“The ones who don’t make it…”

“A Tasmanian Devil gives birth to dozens of babies, however, the mother only has four nipples. So it’s a race for those babies to reach one of them. The ones who don’t make it are then eaten by the mother.” ~ downvotecitybitch

“Dragonfly nymphs…”

“Dragonfly nymphs are aquatic and can launch their lower jaw like a grappling hook. They use this for hunting other pond-dwelling creatures before they leave the water. Probably the most badass thing in nature for a set of wings.

“That said they have a ridiculous hunt success rate, somewhere above 90%, so you best watch out if you’re a fly just enjoying your day.” ~ TheMadMellom

“You can tell which one…”

“Elephants can be left tusked or right tusked, similar to how humans are right or left-handed. You can tell which one an elephant is by the shorter tusk, if it’s a short right tusk then they’re right tusked and vice versa.” ~ CubsFan30

“A drone bee dies…”

“A drone bee dies immediately after mating with a queen due to powerful ejaculation, causing his penis to eject from his abdomen. He dies having the best orgasm of his life.” ~ insideoutcollar

“If a male clownfish loses his partner…”

“If a male clownfish loses his partner, he will develop female reproductive parts and mate with his male offspring.” ~ [deleted]

“An owl’s eyes…”

“An owl’s eyes are so large that they are immobile, they never develop any muscles for moving their eyes inside their sockets. Instead, they move their entire head.” ~ i-throw-socks-at-a-cat

“Penguins have a gland…”

“Penguins have a gland behind their eye that converts salt water into freshwater.” ~ Ozymandias200

“Leave them alone.”

“A moose will kill you. Like… Leave it alone.”

“It will gore you. It will kick you. It will headbutt you until you’re just a shredded corpse hanging from its antlers.”

“It will kill you in your car. It will kill you in a forest. It will kill you in a swamp.”

“You can’t just run one over with your car if it’s on the road. You can’t run away once it’s spotted you.”

“They are not nice, calm, or gentle creatures. They are massive, terrifying beasts. Leave them alone.” ~ [deleted]

“If you get bitten by a cat…”

“Cat bites are way more dangerous than most people think. A cat bite might not look like much from the outside, but their long, pointy teeth penetrate deep and are much more likely to cause an infection than a dog bite.”

“If you get bitten by a cat (like when trying to pet their tummy), always disinfect the wound, even if it doesn’t look bad.” ~ WarKiel

“They are part of a group of birds…”

“European magpies are the only non-mammal species able to recognize themselves in a mirror test.”

“They are part of a group of birds called Corvids which is basically the crow family, birds such as crows, ravens, rooks, magpies, jays, and jackdaws. Corvids are the most intelligent of all the birds and some of the most intelligent animals on earth.”

“Studies are revealing more and more about this amazing group of birds and their cognitive power easily rivals apes and monkeys –– if not surpasses them. Go check out some documentaries or read up on them… it’s fascinating!” ~ Spawkee

“Orcas hunt out of boredom…”

“Orcas hunt out of boredom and will often toss the dead body of a seal around as if it was just a ball.” ~ IDAbaffal

“Some species of shark…”

“Some species of shark, like the grey nurse shark, eat their siblings (or the egg cells that would have become their siblings) while still in the uterus, meaning they become cannibals before they’re even born.” ~ Poorly-Drawn-Beagle

“They don’t even have feet…”

“Maggots can climb walls. Those don’t even have feet but god damn they hustle around the room.” ~ iremovebrains

“Call ducks were bred…”

“Call ducks were bred to aid their owners in hunting. They make loud noises to lure predators.”

“They’re cheeky, scared cutie-pies. They waggle their tail when they’re happy. They have oil from their butt which they use to clean themselves and keep themselves dry.”

“In some areas, it is illegal to own only one call duck because they’re a very social bird. They’re the cutest pets with personalities of their own.” ~ cteduck

“They are fertile only…”

“Female pandas ovulate only once a year. They are fertile only two or three days of the year.” ~ awesomecutepandas

“Generally…”

“CATS DO NOT DRINK ENOUGH WATER!!! Generally, cats don’t drink enough water to keep themselves properly hydrated.”

“In addition to the fact that their tongues aren’t designed to scoop water like dog tongues, it’s also possible for them to feel too anxious to drink from their bowl.”

“Cats in the wild derive most of their water intake from the moisture in their food. If all you feed is kibble, your cat is in a perpetual state of dehydration, which can lead to an overwhelming amount of health issues for them.” ~ OhBee86

How many of these awesome animal facts did you know?

All of them?

None of them?

Few of them?

The world is a fascinating place, isn’t it? We truly take it for granted.

We should probably stop that, especially if we want others to enjoy the wonders of the animal kingdom for years to come.

Posted on

People Divulge Their Best Passive Income Sources

Not all of us make enough money from our jobs to survive. That’s why the side hustle, a means of making money alongside one’s main form of employment or income, has become such a thing.

Everyone seems to have one! But you know the saying, “Work smart, not hard,” don’t you?

That’s ideal… but first you have to figure out what to do and how to do it in such a way that you don’t compromise your main source of income. Oh, and hopefully it’s steady enough that you don’t have to worry yourself too much (or devote too much time to it)!

People told us all their tips and tricks after Redditor Kenneth0233 asked the online community:

“Smart people of Reddit, what are your best ideas for passive income?”

“I’ll give you a serious answer…”

“I’ll give you a serious answer, that did me well. Goes for people learning or that know a second language.”

“Find some public domain books, translate them. You now have rights over the translation. Get it into a library. Profit.”

“Works really well if you’re from an obscure part of the world undergoing political turmoil (Georgia, Armenia, Ex-Yugoslavia) that has been talked about in the media the past 30 years. University students will need primary sources, and there is a lack of supply.” ~ AjdeBrePicko

“Put ads on your car.”

“Put ads on your car. A friend has a large sticker on their passenger side door for a local business and they give him $100 a month to just have it there.” ~ fraxinnus

“Put 15 percent of earnings…”

“Learn to manage your finances and avoid debt.”

“Always be judicial with loyalty to any employer. Blind loyalty can bite you in the ass. If times get hard you are expendable. If you get a different offer of employment don’t reject it out of current loyalties but do weigh your options.”

“Put 15 percent of earnings into investments. An easily obtained seven percent yearly average will double your input in 20 years. 40 years would be near 5 times the principal.

“More aggressive investments could be much higher. 12 percent is a reasonably attainable average and the same 40-year investment would be over 18 times the principal. $400 per month for 40 years at 12 percent will net you $3.5 million on a $200 K investment.”

“Don’t underestimate the power of compound interest. When your money makes money is when true wealth happens.” ~ Birdapotamus

“If you have a bunch of cash…”

“If you have a bunch of cash, the best vehicle for passive income is and will almost always be municipal bonds in the state where you live. Federal tax-free, almost always state income tax-free, and will net you a pretty good chunk of cash if you find the right bonds.” ~ betterthanamaster

“Buy a partnership in a business…”

“Buy a partnership in a business that is already managed. You can be a passive partner in the business, but there are some rules that apply to passive partners that don’t apply to regular partners that can make this a headache, especially if the business losses money.” ~ betterthanamaster

“Not exactly passive…”

“Not exactly passive, but very low effort: house sit. I live in a decent area, near a good-sized city with affluent suburbs.”

“I get paid for basically hanging out, keeping an eye on the place, and taking care of a few pets, which to me is enjoyable, since I love animals and can’t have them where I live. I always choose places that are convenient for me to get to and also to commute to my job.”

“I house sat as a favor to a friend of a friend, and she gave me great references and recommended me to other people in her fairly affluent circle. I end up house sitting quite a lot at certain times of the year, and in really nice places. This might not be NO effort, but it sure as hell doesn’t feel like work.” ~ saltygirltarot

“If you’re artistic in any manner…”

“If you’re artistic in any manner, digital files you put to a marketplace are a good way to make a small side income. Though usually if you are artistically inclined you’ll also spend money on the hobby and so the first few years your income will probably be put straight back into it.” ~ Daelis

“Buy real estate.”

“Buy real estate. You can use tons of low-interest debt to buy it, you get depreciation and other tax benefits, and your tenants will pay off your mortgages and build up your equity in addition to giving you cash flow.”

“There are lots of good strategies, but no need to reinvent the wheel. This one works for dumb and smart people alike.” ~ [deleted]

“Educate yourself…”

“Educate yourself and don’t be afraid of work.”

“If you’re handy, look into real estate. If you’re techy there are ways to invest in dropshipping or Amazon affiliate businesses. If you’ve got the money you can afford to lose look into paper investments and crypto.”

“If you’ve got money you can’t afford to lose but don’t need for a while, look into bond ladders. In the end, educating yourself will pay bigger dividends than asking someone else what to do and nobody can tell you what your risk tolerance or work ethic is.” ~ yanbu

“Pay someone to manage it…”

“Own property and rent it out. Pay someone to manage it for you for a small percentage of your profits and/or in exchange for living there.” ~ [deleted]

“I check for smaller businesses…”

“I check for smaller businesses struggling with their websites/non-existent websites, create one that seems to be fitting for their apparent type of line, and market it to them – if they seem to be fine with it, I give them a contract to pretty much rent the website.”

“A lot of active work goes in, but fairly priced it will pay well in a long run.” ~ lymdyxdx

And there you have it.

If you want to make some money, you’ll have to spend some money.

And some forms of passive income also requite some amount of active work to get going.

So what are you waiting for?

Go make that coin!

Posted on

Process Servers Break Down The Craziest Ways They’ve Ever Served Someone A Subpoena

It can be said that we live in a very “sue happy” society. It’s remarkably easy to engage in litigation against someone—it’s the American way!

But suppose you have a case (or think you do). You still need someone to serve the defendant the papers (it’s highly advised you don’t do that yourself, of course).

This is where process servers come in. They meet all sorts of people from all walks of life, as you can imagine.

They were keen to share their stories after Redditor CharlotteLucasOP asked the online community,

“Process servers, what’s the most bizarre way in which you’ve served someone?”

“When I got a divorce…”

“When I got a divorce, my lawyer recommended I hire a process server just in case my ex tried to dodge/deny service. She knew I was filing so it wasn’t like it would be a surprise, but better safe than sorry.”

“One problem: This was during a Covid lockdown, so neither of us was leaving home. The process server comes, I let him into the building, he follows me to the apartment but then says he can’t follow me into the apartment to serve her.”

“So I have to shut the door on him then wait for him to knock so that my ex can answer the door. Probably the most awkward five minutes of my life.” ~ gloveonafoot

“One guy really hated this other lady…”

“One guy really hated this other lady he was suing, and she kept avoiding the server so he paid me $300 to serve her on Christmas. He knew for sure she was home because she was having a party there in an hour.”

“He wrapped it up in this huge present. So I showed up at her door, and yelled ‘Christmas delivery!’ She thought it was some great present, and had this huge smile.”

“Once she opened the door, I told her she had been served, and it was like she got hit by a brick wall. She just silently took the giant present and walked back in her house with it.” ~ Selbereth

“I worked as a process server…”

“I worked as a process server for a couple of years during/after college. It was through a private investigation agency so it was a little more intense than the typical process server.”

“Anyways… one time I was hired to serve a stripper, and since we couldn’t find a valid address for her the PI had me go into her work and serve her there.”

“I didn’t want to cause a scene and get jumped by the bouncers so I purchased a private dance from her then served her in the back room. I even got reimbursed for the cost of the dance when I collected the paperwork.”

“All in all, it was a memorable experience!” ~ ggb123456

“When my mother was a Family Law attorney…”

“When my mother was a Family Law attorney and I was in college, I used to do some process serving for her.”

“She’d never give any that she felt would be dangerous, but In hindsight is probably another poor decision by my mother, and by me who just needed the money. It’s ridiculously easy to get an about-to-be divorced man to open his door to an 18-year-old girl.”

“I once made an appointment and got my nails done. Paid and gave a tip, and the papers to the same tech. She was pissed.” ~ coyotecantspell

“I am a paralegal.”

“I am a paralegal. I once had a client who was in her 70s and her husband had her served with divorce papers while she was recovering in the hospital from surgery. Brutal.” ~ BlackWidowww

“I watched my Little League coach…”

“I watched my little league coach get served by a guy selling hotdogs. He owed like $75,000 for destroying a garage he didn’t own behind his property.” ~ suitology

“They asked me to…”

“Many years ago I interned at a law firm when I was on summer break from college. They asked me to serve papers on occasion while I interned there.”

“Once I was sent to a nursing home to serve papers to one of the elderly patients. He seemed so pleasantly surprised to see me, to have a visitor. He looked so excited and curious.”

“Then I explained that I had some papers to serve him, and the expression on his face went from excitement to sadness in like two seconds. It was depressing.” ~ Kevbo_Kev

“The job could easily get to you…”

“I had the pleasure of serving some of my county’s finest for the better part of 3 years. The job could easily get to you if you let it. Got a bunch of stories though.”

“Mostly sad ones but there are some funny ones in there too. The craziest reaction, however, goes to Mr. Belisle. I believe I am missing an accent in there.”

“Long story short-ish, he has the papers, I start walking away, 20 steps, 30 steps, he yells after me, I turn…. he is pooping on his papers. This man was between 45-55 years of age, with quite a distinguished look. So weird to see him crapping in the street.” ~ CanuckPhuck

“Someone she was trying to serve…”

“My mother is a lawyer. Someone she was trying to serve wouldn’t acknowledge who they were to a process server nor would they touch the summons.”

“Took a few weeks before they finally could serve them. It’s quite funny how much legal procedure gets held up by the inability of a server to serve someone a document.” ~ WayPastInfatuation

“I spent years…”

“I spent years as a process server in Los Angeles. One time I served Rob Zombie in a dispute over a catering bill for a video shoot. He went bonkers.”

“Another time I served divorce papers on an 18th Street shot caller. I found him in a bar at Pico and Bonnie Brae. He cried like a baby and wanted to buy me a drink.”

“Another was a witness in a murder trial who was living in a homeless camp in Long Beach. I was surrounded by hardcore hostile homeless folks. I’m not sure how I got out of that in one piece.” ~ Babelaze

It’s hard out there for your friendly neighborhood process servers!

Something to remember—a process server is not your enemy.

Their presence implies nothing whatsoever about your moral character or legal standing. All they’re there to do is confirm your identity and deliver paperwork.

Wouldn’t you want to have adequate notice that you are party to a legal proceeding? You need time to plan and show up to participate.

It’s a good service process servers perform, though there’s no doubt they run into weirdos out there like the rest of us.

Posted on

People Who Were In A Coma Describe What It Was Really Like

A coma is a period of prolonged unconsciousness brought on by illness or injury. The person in a coma is unable to respond to external stimuli.

The person is very much still alive but the brain is functioning at its lowest stage of alertness.

Having a family member in a coma can be a devastating experience. Will they ever wake up? And will they ever be the same person again, with the same quality of life?

But what’s it like for the person actually in the coma?

Some people have described it as a dream-like state, though the experience can vary from person to person.

People went into further detail after Redditor portlover91 asked the online community:

“People who have been in coma, what was it like? Do you dream? Does it feel like you’ve been asleep for a long time?”

“I was in a coma for over three days…”

“I was in a coma for over three days but was in the hospital for over two months. The doctors were trying different procedures for my brain to kickstart the short-term memory. I literally couldn’t remember anything.”

“I would routinely reintroduce myself to nurses, not remembering them from a few minutes prior. I would start a conversation, only to forget what I was saying mid-sentence, and just stop talking. It was so frustrating.”

“I don’t remember anything from that time, but I remember how I felt about certain situations when they are brought up by others. As an example, a person who I’m no longer with yelled at me, with nurses present, and was banned from visiting.”

“I don’t remember that exchange, but I remember feeling extremely hurt and sad, but didn’t know why.”

“When I was speaking with a relative, she brought up the ‘yelling situation’ and the feelings came flooding back, but not what was said or who was there.”

“I’m getting better and I’m able to retain new memories, overall… just not during any extremely stressful moments.”

“My brain protects itself and stops “recording” when I find myself in a stressful situation. It’s really not fun and can be truly challenging.” ~ Everythings5

“Was in an induced coma…”

“Was in an induced coma for 6 weeks due to pancreatitis. What I remember was so scary. I guess it was a nightmare or something but I dreamt I was being held in a basement by a demon.”

“It felt so real. When I told the doctors they said it was the Propofol that made me hallucinate.” ~ summerswifey

“I have very few vivid memories…”

“I was in a coma for 6 weeks with double pneumonia, sepsis, and kidney failure.”

“I have very few vivid memories from being under but had some very strange visions once I woke due to the number of drugs I was pumped full of. I had no concept of time and thought I had only been out for a day or so.” ~ Zodiackillerstadia

“He said it was like…”

“My husband was placed in an induced coma following a motorcycle accident. He said it was like time stopped in his mind, and he was stuck in a loop of the accident.”

“He was conscious and remembers when he was loaded onto the flying doctor’s plane at the scene of the accident, but he doesn’t remember arriving at the hospital.” ~ FormalMango

“A good friend of mine…”

“A good friend of mine was in an accident this past summer and ended up in a coma for about two weeks. He said the only thing he really remembers is dreaming he was walking around in the dark.”

“After walking for a few minutes, he saw his eyelids as if he were inside his own head. As he approached them, they opened, and that’s when he woke up.” ~ Platonus44

“He thought we were in a spaceship.”

“My boyfriend was in a coma for three days. We sat with him and talked to him the whole time. He doesn’t remember any of it.”

“When he woke up, he didn’t know who I was, but he recognized his mother. He hallucinated for several days after that. He thought we were in a spaceship.

“I asked if there was a Wookie aboard and he said ‘Yes! You!’” ~ PersonMcNugget

“But I just remember it being dark…”

“It was only a few days in a medically induced coma.”

“But I just remember it being dark, short blips of family being in the room, and when the doctor first tried telling me where I was and asking me if I knew my name, I was tempted to answer it as Brittney Spears.”

“But I didn’t want my parents freaking out.” ~ PM_Worst_Fart_Story

“Five days in total.”

“Five days in total.”

“They pulled me out of it after two or three days and I extubated myself, ripped out my IVs and punched a nurse before they sedated me again and restrained me.”

“Day five I woke up and the first thing I remember is not knowing anything. Had to describe, but my brain was basically at a primal level. The only thing I could process was fear.

“Then I ‘remembered’ I was human. At that point, it was ‘okay, my name is X, I’m alive. I’m in a hospital. Those are nurses. Holy s*** I fell off a cliff!’ and I calmed down.”

“After that things are blurry. I think they pushed something to relax me after my initial panic. I apparently signalled to ask for a pen and paper (I was retubed so I couldn’t speak) and wrote, ‘Can I have a whiskey IV?’ And ‘I feel like a salad.’”

“As far as while I was under, my last memory was being loaded into a helicopter and the medic asking ‘X, you’re in the bird, it’s gonna be okay. Do you understand?’ And me saying ‘Yeah, this s*** hurts, knock me the f**k out.’”

“And something got pushed in my IV and next thing I know I’m experiencing what I said above. No dreams, no locked-in syndrome, nothing.” ~ TacosArePeopleToo

“I just remember…”

“I was in a diabetic coma and don’t remember any of it and most of the bit before. I just remember waking up feeling amazing (morphine) and zero pain, which was lovely.” ~ JustPassingShhhh

“When I (slowly) woke up…”

“I was in a diabetic coma for two days. No dreams, no nothing, just out. When I (slowly) woke up I had some kind of mild/minor amnesia.”

“I didn’t know where I was, or who I was, but I recognized my mom immediately when I saw her. TMI but the doctors were just about to put in a catheter when I woke up, then I peed for like two minutes straight.”

“The nurse was impressed.” ~ MingusMonz

“I had a C-section…”

“I had a C-section and woke up four days later in the ICU. Amniotic fluid leaked into my lungs during the C section. I also lost a lot of blood and needed three blood transfusions.”

“I was only in a coma for four days. It was black, no dreams, no time passing. My memories of before the coma don’t have a timeline nor make any sense.”

“To me, it happened in surgery, I was fully awake and started getting tired and then black. The family says it happened differently, that it was after and had visitors for those days. I don’t remember any of those days at all.”

“I still have issues with short-term memory.” ~ NotBadSinger532

We’ve all seen movies about people who fall into comas after an accident or following a grave illness.

Hopefully, these stories give the rest of you some more insight into the experience.

And hopefully, hopefully you don’t ever have to experience it for yourselves.

Posted on

People Explain What They Realized Only As They Got Wealthier

There’s no doubt that making more money can change the way you think and feel.

Research into this field has only increased in the years since the 2008 recession while high rates of income inequality and limited socioeconomic mobility have become more apparent than ever.

Psychologists found having more money can drastically affect the way we see and experience the world.

Why is that?

Well, wealth gives you more autonomy and freedom. And with that can come other changes, too.

The wealthier someone is, the less empathetic they are to others. By contrast, those who make much less money tend to be much more empathetic, generous and compassionate.

Wealth can cloud your moral judgment, according to one UC Berkely study.

But guess what? So can merely thinking about money, according to a study conducted by researchers from Harvard and the University of Utah.

We haven’t even gotten to the way other people treat you when they know you have more money!

We were reminded of all the ways money can both simplify and complicate life after Redditor SheelahSchimek1980 asked the online community,

“What are some things you realized as you got wealthier?”

“There’s a lot less stress…”

“Money doesn’t buy happiness so much as it buys security. There’s a lot less stress about really critical issues with money, which has the unfortunate effect of freeing up your brain to be worried about more trivial things.”

“But not having to worry about certain expenses or fret over whether a minor indulgence will set you back is simply relaxing.” ~ AmigoDelDiabla

“You’ll always want one of those things…”

“Time is money.”

“You’ll always want one of those things more than the other. I’m not wealthy, but my income is enough to cover my expenses and still save a little bit, and I now realize that time is worth far, far more than money.”

“It’s why I always use my PTO time for vacation instead of cashing it out for extra money like all the dupes I work with.” ~ Polumbo

“Also, the cushion of safety…”

“Fortune and luck are not ignorable… they matter more than a lot of people are willing to admit, perhaps for ego reasons, or perhaps they’ve simply fooled themselves.”

“Also, the cushion of safety and ability to have most of what you need provides a lot of dignity that can’t be ignored either.” ~ ZookeepergameNo4680

“The difference in quality…”

“The difference in quality between cheap crap and middle range is often far larger than the difference between middle range and very expensive, even though the price gap is about the same or more.” ~ Arctelis

“Buying things in bulk is cheaper…”

“I realized how being poor makes you poor. Everything costs more when you’re poor.”

“Paying six or 12 months at a time on car insurance is way cheaper than month to month. So, when I was poor I spent more on that because I couldn’t save or plan ahead.”

“Buying things in bulk is cheaper, aka Sam’s Club. But when you’re poor, you’re not buying a toothpaste multipack. Too much upfront.”

“When you’re poor, you’ll buy a $50 pair of boots every year. When you have a financial cushion, you’ll buy a $300 pair of boots that last ten years.” ~ foodzillavsgothra

“The Dollar Store chains…”

“The Dollar Store chains are literally the biggest ripoffs you’ve ever seen. When you do unit pricing for things like toilet paper, diapers, etc. it’s amazing they’re allowed to market anything as saving.” ~ PetiePal

“I started hiding my wealth from people.”

“Wealth changes relationships and not in a good way. I lost friends because they found out I had wealth and felt that they were entitled to it and I was a bad person because I wouldn’t pick up the check for everyone at a restaurant.”

“They never expected this before but now they did. I started hiding my wealth from people. I drive beaters. I live in a small house. I became more conscious of people who just hate wealthy people.”

“Found out that I have several friends who believe they are poor because other people are rich and they blame rich people in general for all their problems not knowing that they’re literally talking to someone they hate and loathe.”

“The thing I really found more than anything though is that money doesn’t really make you happy. I’m just as lonely and isolated as I was when I was broke and money doesn’t help with that.” ~ agreeingstorm9

“I realized that time…”

“I realized that time is my most valuable asset. That’s why wealthy people pay someone else to do things like cleaning their house, mowing the yard, etc.”

“That’s low-value work. Wealthy people use that time to make more money.” ~ [deleted]

“As someone who’s moved over time…”

“As someone who’s moved over time from sleeping in my car and ‘staying late’ at the office just to have a place to rest my head to someone with a mortgage and a family, I’d say that it takes such a short time for improving circumstances (housing, decor, employment, financial freedom) to become ‘the new normal.’” ~ Following_the_Sun

“My effective tax rate…”

“How unfair the tax system is. My effective tax rate went down as I made more money. My lowest effective tax rate was 17% in my highest earning year (I was in the top 1% of earners). Tax regulation around real estate is absurd in particular.” ~ greeperfi

“We keep financial information very private…”

“I realized that you can’t talk about raises, promotions, or bonuses with certain people.”

“Those certain people will either not be happy for you at all or will expect to be able to borrow money from you. Or both.”

“We keep financial information very private for this reason. There are still people who are mad at us for not being their personal ATM. It sucks but you learn quickly how people see you.” ~ SnooSketches63

Is the grass always greener? Perhaps.

The fact of the matter is, don’t expect money to suddenly fix all your problems. It sometimes creates some entirely different ones.

But wouldn’t it be great if you or I could just find that out for ourselves?

Who do I have to give my bank account information to?

I’ll be here, just waiting patiently.

Posted on

Sleepwalkers Break Down The Scariest Thing That’s Happened To Them While Asleep

Are you somnambulant?

If you are, you probably know this phenomenon by a different name—sleepwalking.

It mostly happens at night… mostly, and repeated occurrences can be a sign of an underlying sleep disorder.

A few years back, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers found about 3.6% of American adults are prone to sleepwalking. That’s more than 8.4 million adults, by the way.

And according to The Mayo Clinic, “sleepwalking appears to run in families” so if you happen to sleepwalk a fair amount, you might be genetically predisposed to do so.

Sleepwalking occurs more often in children than adults, however, so if you engage in sleepwalking as an adult, you could have some other underlying condition.

Sleepwalking itself is not harmful.

But it can be hazardous, and there have been quite a few horror films over the years that incorporated sleepwalking into their narratives.

But don’t worry, it can be quite funny, too!

Given sleepwalking’s comedic (and horrific) potential, it makes perfect sense that Redditor michaelw619 asked the online community:

“Sleepwalkers of Reddit, what’s the scariest/funniest thing that has happened to you while sleepwalking?”

“I don’t sleepwalk much anymore…”

“I don’t sleepwalk much anymore but about a year ago I put several pairs of shoes in the fridge.” ~ marleej

“I was met in a dream…”

“Only ever happened one time. I was met in a dream by my doppelgänger. She was a mirror image of me, but more beautiful.”

“Her eyes were bluer, her teeth whiter, her complexion clearer, her hair a shinier, longer blonde. She said, ‘When you dream, you’re in my world. I want to live in your world. I want to trade places with you.’”

“I grabbed my cellphone, backing out of my apartment with my eyes on her when a black shape exploded from a nearby closet flying straight at me.”

“I turned and ran out my front door, and was headed down the narrow staircase of the old house I lived in when I heard a low, gravelly voice say ‘Where ya goin’ Dolly?’”

“The black shape whisked around the corner and then it was upon me. I awoke in a crumpled heap on the staircase, my cellphone gripped tightly in my white fist.” ~ [deleted]

“One time, he woke up one morning…”

“My dad used to sleepwalk. One time, he woke up one morning and had about six cats sitting with him on the couch. They all had owners.”

“According to his next-door neighbor, who was very nosy, she saw my dad running around luring these cats with food and bringing them home with him in the middle of the night.”

“He has no memory of doing that and can’t explain why he didn’t wake up to the meowing and scratching the cats made.”

“Luckily he didn’t get charged with animal kidnapping but had to start tying his feet to the bedpost so there weren’t any more incidents for a few years.”

“We also learned that my dad was allergic to cats, so there’s that.” ~ [deleted]

“I have an Ambien prescription…”

“I have an Ambien prescription and I often cook ambitious meals at night, with no memory in the morning. It’s not unusual for my roommates to find me cooking bacon at 3 a.m.”

“At first it was concerning–what if I burn down the house? However, my unconscious self is extremely diligent–I ALWAYS clean up entirely and usually end up cleaning the entire kitchen.” ~ [deleted]

“When I asked what the hell he was doing…”

“My boyfriend sleepwalks. A couple of nights ago he ripped the duvet off me and threw it in the hall. When I asked what the hell he was doing he just replied that it’s full of spiders and then just stood facing the wall.” ~ Eliza109

“Not my finest moment.”

“So one time I had a dream that my brother (who was too young to swim at the time) jumped into a swimming pool so I dived in to save him… Yeah in reality I just dived off my bunk bed… Not my finest moment.” ~ UkuleleRequiem

“She asked me if I was ok…”

“My mom told me that I stood over her till she woke up. She asked me if I was ok and I just turned around and went back to bed.” ~ th3_pope

“Around 4 a.m. the other night…”

“Around 4 a.m. the other night my girlfriend let out a violent scream and sprinted to the door where she began beating on it!”

“I ran over, grabbed her, and when I did she began screaming even louder and started flinging her arms around until she finally realized it was me and she woke up.”

“She said she was having a dream and there was a stranger trying to kidnap her. I’ve never been so terrified in my entire life!”

“Also found out that if something ever did happen to me in my apartment, my neighbors don’t give a s*** and I would definitely die.” ~ robmacgar

“Apparently I had an imaginary phone call…”

“Apparently I had an imaginary phone call with someone for fifteen minutes about what I was going to have for breakfast in the morning.” ~ ITomza

“I took an entire carton of milk…”

“I took an entire carton of milk from my fridge then proceeded to return it after much deliberation with myself.” ~ CatchingSomeZs

 “He didn’t know our room number.”

“One time in a hotel, my little brother left the room and walked down the hall before waking up. He didn’t know our room number.” ~ sadafasadafagafagada

“The only time I did that…”

“The only time I did that, I walked into the kitchen and started digging around in the junk drawer looking for scissors.”

“My dad asked what I needed scissors for, I grumbled ‘Never mind,’ and went back to bed. Remembered none of it the next day.” ~ Okaylasttime

Humans are wild, man.

Well, that settles it. None of us are safe.

We can’t even enjoy a little bit of sleep without getting ourselves into danger!

This is truly why we can’t have nice things.

Posted on

People Divulge The Most Disturbing Facts They Almost Regret Ever Learning

I’m a big fan of horror movies and quite a few of my favorite films happen to be depressing, hard-hitting dramas the average person might not choose to watch.

But truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction and real life can often be much more disturbing than anything we might see on our screens or read in books.

For instance, have you ever heard of the Kaimingjie germ weapon attack? During World War II, the Japanese bombed the Chinese with fleas infected with the bubonic plague.

The attack is just one of the many war crimes the Japanese committed against the Chinese, and that’s including the atrocities, among them human experimentation, committed at Unit 731.

If you have the stomach for it—and I have rarely been more serious in my life—the film Men Behind the Sun dramatizes many of these crimes.

It turns out there’s no shortage of disturbing facts out there.

Let’s face it, humans are messed up.

We heard quite a few of them after Redditor Ddeddffddvvf asked the online community:

“What was a fact you regret knowing?”

“From personal experience…”

“From personal experience… just how fast pigs… process… a corpse.”

“Had an old goat die in the barn and didn’t find her for a couple of hours. At the time we had two pigs that were a few months old. Didn’t realize just how much we had messed up by letting them be in with the goats that day.”

“Come evening, we go to close up and do the evening chores, and find half of a goat spilled all over the floor with our pigs rooting around the guts. And that’s the story of how fifteen-year-old me learned to respect pigs.” ~ CalamityJay

“More people jumped…”

“More people jumped from the burning World Trade Center on 9/11 than you think. Do yourself a favor and don’t Google it.” ~ GoreyFeldman

To which this person replied:

“Seriously. I was on a 9/11 kick recently, if you want to call it that, and I came across a documentary on YouTube of footage stitched together from the first plane hitting to the final building collapsing, lasting about 1 hour and 40 minutes.”

“No interviews, just cellphone footage, old home cameras, and some news footage sprinkled in. There’s a section in the documentary of people beginning to jump one after another. It continues on for the rest of the documentary and it’s very disheartening.” ~ TheChubbyBuns

“The Challenger space shuttle…”

“The Challenger space shuttle astronauts were most likely alive and awake on the way down.” ~ thezoidberg

“An octopus penis…”

“An octopus penis is actually one of their tentacles. So if you would go and pet an octopus at Sea World or some other place you could be groping their penis.” ~ TillyOTilly

“Every year thousands of children…”

“Every year thousands of children write to Santa Clause. One of the most requested things children ask for on their Christmas lists is a dad.” ~ jadedgenie

“There was an experiment…”

“There was an experiment once where, every hour, a rat had to choose between getting fed or having the pleasure nerve of its brain stimulated. And the rat being tested starved every time. It’s pretty interesting but also kind of sad.”

“Thanks, Freeman’s Mind.” ~ Superflamegameplays

To which this person replied:

“Yes, but for those experiments, they keep the rats isolated in cages with nothing else to do. So of course they choose that option all the time.” ~ hammermuffin

“Male ducks…”

“Male ducks gang-rape female ducks.” ~ PopcornVT

To which this person replied:

“Male and female ducks are also in an evolutionary arms race to develop more and more convoluted genitals to prevent/enable the rape. I am not kidding.”

“Female ducks develop more and more convoluted vagina shapes to make it more difficult, and males respond by developing ever longer explosive spiraling corkscrew dicks.

“The females that can control when they mate (only relaxing their vaginal shape when it’s consensual) are more successful and the males who are better at raping are more successful (in the sense of passing on their genes/having more living offspring), so they just keep evolving in that direction.” ~ holysh*treddit

“Your child is more likely…”

“Your child is more likely to be abused by someone you know than a stranger. You literally have to protect children more from their own family and friends than random criminals.” ~ CerseiLemon

“The fact that at literally any second…”

“The fact that at literally any second you could lose someone you love. Everyone “knows” this but once it’s happened a few times you’re acutely aware of it. A car wreck, a miscarriage, a heart attack, stroke.” ~ SaltyTapeworm

“This is dark, but…”

“This is dark, but in the U.S., police are not legally obligated to protect you.”

“There was a case where a police department refused to enforce a restraining order or act after a father kidnapped his three daughters because they assumed he would bring them back to his wife eventually.”

“He ended up killing them and driving their bodies to the police station, where he was then shot and killed. The police department was sued for not acting, but was found not guilty.” ~ ecoseeker

“That there are…”

“That there are anywhere between 25-50 active serial killers in the United States, according to the FBI.” ~ nmacro

“So when they land on your sandwich…”

“Flies don’t have teeth. So, when they land on your sandwich and want to eat some, they barf up the contents of their stomach (often containing another animal’s s***) so the digestive enzymes can get on the food and then they eat.” ~ Tmbgkc

We apologize in advance if any of these truly scared the hell out of you. It’s a big, beautiful world out there, but we’d be lying if we told you it’s not without its horrors.

While we’re at it, we’ll leave you with this—did you know that a brain aneurysm can happen at any time?

Aneurysms are unpredictable and may not show any symptoms until they rupture.

That’s a fact that has kept me up at night sometimes. And if you didn’t know about it, then you certainly know now.

Be afraid… be very afraid.

Posted on

People Share Their Favorite ‘How The Hell Did They Discover That?’ Facts

Humanity, for all its faults, is pretty amazing. We’ve learned a lot of really cool things in our time on this planet.

But how did we learn some of it?

Like… who thought it’d be a good idea to prepare a venomous or otherwise dangerous creature for consumption? Didn’t the thought of some rather deadly trial and error frighten them away?

The answer to that is “nope,” in case you’re wondering, and we are referring to fugu, a dish prepared from a pufferfish that can be lethal for human consumption and can also sting when its spines enter the skin.

Fugu’s tetrodotoxin can be so lethal, in fact, it must be carefully prepared to remove the toxic parts and to avoid contaminating the meat.

The Japanese and other countries have strictly regulated fugu’s preparation, just in case you’re feeling adventurous.

But how did that first person grab the stinging, spiky fish blown up like a balloon and discover how to eat it without dropping dead?

Well, we don’t have an answer for that.

And what about other curious things human beings discovered?

Redditor Justoneaccount1234 asked the online community:

“What fact makes you think ‘What the f**k were they doing to discover that?’”

“She wasn’t too disgusted.”

“My mum was diagnosed with glaucoma a while back. She had to use eye drops which she said were derived from bull semen. She wasn’t too disgusted.”

“She was a nurse, she was just endlessly baffled with HOW anyone ever came up with that idea.”

“Like, you’d have to know a fair bit about semen to even think of its uses beyond the obvious one.”

“How do these people describe themselves on LinkedIn?” ~ SuzyJTH

“You know…”

“Hákarl.”

“You know, that shark that is usually poisonous unless you leave it to rot for months.” ~ ObscuraNox

“Chewing the nuts…”

“Coffee can be explained. Chewing the nuts gets you hyper, so someone distilled it.”

“Now black ivory coffee… that had to have been a prank, dare, or the most confusing chain of events for a bean farmer.”

“For those that don’t know, black ivory coffee is coffee made from beans passed through the digestive tract of elephants.”

“The enzymes in the elephant break down the protein in the bean, giving it a less bitter taste.” ~ chocki305

“I have an acquaintance…”

“I have an acquaintance who worked as a dog handler, showing purebred dogs in dog shows.”

“She swears that putting the tip of a wooden match into a dog’s anus is the preferred method for making the dog defecate before going into the show ring.”

“All I can think of is: Who was the drunk idiot that discovered that? How much alcohol was involved?”

“Why did they tell anybody what they’d done? (“Hey, you guys wanna see a trick? Here, Fido!”)” ~ NightmareGerbil

“Just to clarify…”

“I never understood why people started eating onions. I mean, I’m glad they did, but if I’m a caveman and try to eat a ‘food-like substance’ that if I break open makes me cry, I’m probably not ingesting it.”

“I mean, it doesn’t even want me to look at it and punished me for breaking it open. I don’t eat aggressive vegetables.”

“Just to clarify, I really love onions. I just wouldn’t have been the first one to try them.” ~ CanEyeBshy

“In the past two weeks…”

“Anything involving baking soda. In the past two weeks, I’ve used it to make banana bread and pretzels, as well as to disinfect a litter box and clean silver.” ~ _solarmax

“I mean, they figured out…”

“Toast. It had to be an accident, surely.”

“I mean, they figured out to grind the right grains, the right ratio of yeast and water and sugar, etc., and how to cook it to make beautiful beautiful bread.”

“I swear, it must have been an accident that someone was too close to a fire and because of, I dunno, poverty or ignorance, it got eaten and the nirvana that is toast was achieved.

“Who would ever think, ‘This bread is great, I’ll cook it again’?” ~ kiki73

“One presumes…”

“The ancient/medieval alchemists left a lot of records of the substances they studied.”

“They cataloged all the properties they observed for each one – including the taste. One presumes that for the data to be passed on, one had to record the taste test promptly.” ~ schleppenwolf

“The process to make it properly…”

“Chocolate. The process to make it properly is incredibly finicky and takes a long time from start to finish.”

“What’s more, it’s not like a lot of things mentioned here that were probably just the result of being desperately hungry.” ~ mechanate

“Maybe I don’t understand…”

“The complex chemical processes to make certain drugs.”

“Maybe I don’t understand chemistry well enough, but how would they have known the effect that certain drugs, like cocaine, would have on a person?”

“Or was it made for some other purpose and someone said, ‘Hey, this looks like a good thing to crush up so that I can snort it up through my nose.’”

“It just seems weird.” ~ goodietwoshoe

“For those who aren’t familiar…”

“Casu marzu.”

“For those who aren’t familiar with it, it’s a cheese made from sheep’s milk with live maggots in it.”

“It’s actually illegal under EU regulations but there is still black market production because apparently, people want to eat live maggots.” ~ adeon

“They were lucky…”

“When saccharine was first synthesized, the creators didn’t know it was going to be safe to consume.”

“And yet, against the most basic law of the chemistry lab (do not under any circumstances eat that thing you just created, everything can and WILL kill you), they decided that meh, a little bit couldn’t hurt.”

“They were lucky and it was sweet and safe, but seriously don’t eat the stuff you just made from tar – it literally didn’t exist an hour before.” ~ coelicolored

The funny thing about a lot of these responses, at least to me, is the number of people who rest on the assumption that starvation wasn’t a common way to die for many millennia.

You’d be surprised what human beings will eat—and certainly figure out is okay to eat—when they are hungry and there is no other option.

I suppose we should thank them for their discoveries.

Oh, and while we’re at it, be even more thankful we didn’t have to be the ones to do all of these experiments.

Posted on

People Describe The Most Badass Historical Figures Of All Time

History is very rich and full to the brim with stories of people who led full and interesting lives. The problem, of course, is that you probably heard about the same ones over and over again.

You’re probably tired of hearing about George Washington by now, and that’s okay.

But what if people told you that as cool as Washington’s life was—it would do you good to learn about how he tackled a smallpox outbreak that could have decimated his troops—there are others out there who are just as cool, if not cooler?

We heard about Raoul Wallenberg, Ben Salomon, and others after Redditor Master_Mudkip asked the online community:

“Who would you consider the most badass person in history?”

“He got away with it…”

“Raoul Wallenberg.”

“During World War II, he posed as a Swedish ambassador and confidently lied through his teeth to Nazis for years to save tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust.”

“There were instances of him flagging down trains bound for death camps, and yelling at the machine-gun-toting SS men that Swedish citizens were on board, handing out homemade fake passport documents to as many Jews as possible as he went.”

“He got away with it for so long because Fascists have a thing for confident authority figures.”

“The guy was captured by the red army in 1945 and likely died in a gulag.” ~ crappyentrepreneur

“They say when his body…”

Ben Salomon.”

“The dude was just a dentist who got drafted into World War II. He was tending to injured soldiers when four Japanese soldiers entered the tent and killed a man he had just saved.”

“This man killed all four of them, then grabbed a machine gun and fired upon the incoming Japanese forces, letting the injured escape.”

“They say when his body was discovered, 98 enemy troops lay dead in front of him. He had been shot 72 times and bayonetted over two dozen times before he died. What a legend.” ~ DarkwingDave007

“I’m sure most of us have thought…”

“Welles Crowther, aka The Man In The Red Bandana.”

“I’m sure most of us have thought about what it must have been like in the World Trade Center on 9/11 and it must have been debilitatingly petrifying.”

“He was 24 years old working on the 104th floor as an equities trader.”

“Made his way down to the sky lobby of the South Tower and found a badly burned woman, carried her down 17 floors, then went back upstairs to help guide others to the only passable stairwell.”

“Stayed up there helping others and working with the fire department until the towers collapsed. He’s responsible for saving around 20 lives and died a damn hero.” ~ FrankSkapopolous

“She went undercover…”

“Nellie Bly.”

“She went undercover and endured abuse to cover neglect and abuse in Blackwell’s asylum.”

“She then went to Mexico and called out the dictator for going after the press and oppressing his people and then fled/was exiled from Mexico because of that.”

“She traveled the world in 70-something days to prove you could travel the world in 80 days or less (based on the Jules Verne novel), also did some reporting on the Eastern European front in World War I, and was arrested after she was mistaken for a British spy.”

“And she did so much more! Such a badass and one of my historical heroes.” ~ Cheshire_Cat8888

“No one…”

“Witold Pilecki volunteered to enter the Auschwitz death camp and escaped it to report what was happening there to allies of Poland. No one gave a f*** at that time.” ~ Buckszpryt

“Then when he landed in Okinawa…”

“Desmond Doss, an army medic in World War II who was constantly belittled and abused by his battalion and superiors for refusing to use a weapon as it went against his beliefs.”

“Then when he landed in Okinawa and more than half of his battalion were shredded by Japanese machine-gun fire, Desmond Doss crawled through the dirt over the course of several days to as many of his injured allies as he could and dragged them all the way back to the 40-foot cliff they had scaled up from, and lowered them to safety.”

“Some of these injured men were lying 15ft from the enemy machine gun itself, and all the while Doss wore his medic helmet, which stood out like a giant bullseye on a battlefield where the Japanese soldiers were ordered to kill doctors first to crush morale.”

“In the end, he saved the lives of 75 men and survived with an arm fracture from a sniper round and several pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body from when he tried to kick a grenade away from him and his men.”

“He was the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor.” ~ -CorrectOpinion-

“He is widely known for his exploration…”

“Peter Freuchen. He was a Danish explorer, journalist, author, and anthropologist.”

“He is widely known for his exploration of the Arctic Circle and discovery of vast areas of Greenland.”

“He was an Indigenous rights activist, having married an Inuit woman. He escaped a death warrant issued by the Third Reich for punching Nazis.”

“Won the $64,000 question as a contestant on the game show. He wrestled a polar bear and won. And as if this all wasn’t enough, he escaped a near-death encounter in a blizzard by fashioning a spade out of his own frozen feces.” ~ SpaceMonkeyXLLII

“That teenage girl…”

“That teenage girl that was the sole survivor of a plane crash and made her way through the Amazon…. She’s definitely up there!” ~ smokeandlavender

To which this person replied…”

“Julianne Koepke.”

“While injured, bleeding, and functionally blind nonetheless. She had a strong prescription and lost her glasses in the crash.”

“I remember reading that she waded through a river, using a shoe to tap in front of her and scare off possible snakes. She was then found by a native tribe boating in the river.” ~ lordoftoastonearth

“It’s common to be brave…”

“Definitely Major Hugh Thompson. I’m sure there are people who have done similarly brave things, but not that I know about.”

“In 1968, Thompson managed to stop the My Lai massacre almost single-handedly. He arrived after many civilians had already been killed, and couldn’t understand how they had died.”

“After realising his fellow American soldiers were firing on unarmed civilians, he landed his helicopter between the Vietnamese and the soldiers.”

“He then told the troops that if they continued to do what they were doing, he and his crew would open fire on them. After getting back to base, he filed a complaint about what he had witnessed.”

“His complaint was covered up, and he was shunned as a traitor. It wasn’t until 1998 that the army acknowledged he did the right thing.”

“It’s common to be brave in war when you know that you’ll be lauded as a hero – it’s another thing entirely to do it knowing you’ll be seen as a traitor.

“He turned against his troops and country to protect innocent lives, despite what it would cost him, and I think that’s about as brave as you can get.” ~ hellebellet

Well, I don’t know about you, but I definitely feel enlightened after reading these.

Wouldn’t it be great if you had heard about these when you were in school at some point?

Perhaps that would have made history class more interesting for many of you.

We all know the basic memorization model isn’t necessarily the most conducive way to learn.

Posted on

People Share The Craziest Conspiracy Theories That Have Been Proven True

Conspiracy theories are attractive.

It might be easy to dismiss someone who believes that the moon landing was faked or that Covid-19 vaccines aren’t safe, but it’s a bit more complicated than that.

According to the Fight Fake News initiative at Louisiana State University (LSU), “Conspiracy theories are captivating because they provide explanations for confusing, emotional and ambiguous events especially when official explanations seem inadequate.”

People “naturally want to make sense of the world,” the initiative notes, observing that conspiracy theories “provide structured narratives of events that comport with how some people process information.”

So what happens when a conspiracy theory turns out to actually be true? Your brain just exploded at the thought, huh?

People were keen to share information after Redditor BrilliantKrill asked the online community:

“What are some popular conspiracy theories that have been proved?”

“The United States…”

“The United States really did engage in a secret and illegal bombing campaign in Cambodia during the Vietnam war.” ~ Redditor

To which this person replied…

“Yep. Led to the rise of the Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge. If you don’t remember, Pol Pot instigated a massive genocide in Cambodia.” ~ tface23

“He was a world-class drinker…”

“Hemingway went off the grid at the end of his life believing that the FBI was tracking him. He was a world-class drinker and not the best individual.”

“He wasn’t wrong about that.” ~ thatthingdo

To which this person replied…

“The sad part is that being tracked fueled his anxiety which eventually contributed to his decision to kill himself.” ~ TXR22

“The Black Hand…”

“The Black Hand did give Gavrilo Princip the gun he used to kill Archduke Ferdinand. They had other assassins on that route.”

“And even though this hits up all the marks of a conspiracy theory, it’s true.” ~ Bitlong_Salad

To which this person replied…

“The Serbian prime minister knew about the plans and tried to discreetly warn about it but was misunderstood.”

“The original assassination plan included grenades, but every assassin failed, Princip actually intended to kill one of his fellow assassins, who was caught and failed to commit suicide, when the archduke happened to pass by on his way to visit wounded officers in the hospital.” ~ GrandTheftPony

And on that same note…

“When you hear the full story of Ferdinand’s death, it’s much harder to consider it a conspiracy.”

“I mean, everything about it was so poorly thought out down to the fact that Ferdinand was the highest-ranking ally the Black Hand’s cause had within the government at the time.” ~ HandicapperGeneral

But what about phones, eh?

“That older Iphones are purposely being slowed down.” ~ mark484877

But hold up!

“It’s not so black and white, but you are correct. What a lot of people fail to mention is that Samsung does the same thing if not worse because you can ‘speed it back up’ for a fee.” ~ tireddrew

And then this happened:

“Have you heard of Verizon or Google doing the same? My Pixel 2 battery used to last me 2+ days easily before the phone was paid off.”

“Within a week of paying it off, my battery suddenly started lasting me about half a day with minimal use, and the phone started running slowly as well. Come to think of it, the GPS issues started around then too.”

“When using maps, the GPS can tell me where I am, but doesn’t update location once I start navigation.”

Looks like there’s some disagreement here.

“Service providers have no control over when your phone’s hardware clocks out. But a lot of Android phones usually die when they hit the 2-3 year mark.”

“As much as people hate on Apple, I’ve been a user since 2012 and have had an excellent experience. I used to be Android, but I had an LG phone that really soured the experience and now I’ll never go back.” ~ tireddrew

“A proposed CIA operation…”

“Operation Northwoods: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods“

“A proposed CIA operation to train Cuban refugees to commit mass shooting sprees in cities like Miami, to help convince the public that we should invade Cuba and kill Castro. Luckily, JFK had the sense to reject the idea.” ~ Redditor

Oh, and speaking of that:

“Operation Northwoods is a classic example of a Western government planning a false flag against civilians to justify war.”

“I do see this example ‘refuted’ in the sense that it was merely in the brainstorming stages and not operationally ready, but it was meant to be implemented fairly soon after the memo was written – US planners anticipated Cuba would sign a defense pact with the Soviet Union in the coming months.”

“Such a pact would’ve tied America’s hands behind its back in trying to thwart the Cuban revolution.”

“I think it’s noteworthy how the generals casually throw in a reference to ‘Remember the Maine’, in connection with planning a false flag. I wonder if it’s an open secret in military/intelligence black ops circles that such incidents were actually carried out from the inside.”

“One scenario from Northwoods – the swapping of civilian airliners with drone aircraft – is thought by some 9/11 Truthers to have been used to carry out the September 11th attacks.” ~ 50YearPlanBro

Okay, okay… just hear me out for a moment here—just one more about this, okay? Okay? Good.

“As in it never got past the memo phase and was never close to being implemented? Have you even read the actual memo the Joint Chiefs of Staff gave JFK.”

“It’s so badly written that it reeks of someone telling their subordinates the government version of ‘I need pictures, pictures of Spiderman’. DoD wanted to prove it could come up with something and it was just….awful.” ~ CitationX_7N11C

And just listen to this observation:

“The term “conspiracy theorist” was coined during the JFK assassination to discredit the people that had a different interpretation from the official story.” ~ OttoManSatire

Is there something here?

“They turned ‘conspiracy’ into a dirty word. People act like it is some mythological creature but it is simply a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.” ~ OMGhateallofyou

According to Karen Douglas, Ph.D., a professor of social psychology at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, “Believing in conspiracy theories and being suspicious about the actions of others is in some ways quite an adaptive thing to do.”

We don’t necessarily want to trust everyone, she points out, so conspiracy theories have always been around.

Which one will surprise us next by turning out to be true? We have no way to know, but there are at least a few people out there who are bound to feel vindicated.