Author: Matt Gilligan

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You Can Learn New Languages With the Scientifically-Proven Method of Spaced Repetition

Do you remember sitting in high-school Spanish class struggling to understand exactly what page your teacher told you to open your book to? Join the club.

Learning a new language is a difficult task for anyone. After all, some people struggle with English alone!

Even if you spent years in a foreign language class, chances are you forgot most of what you learned.

Don’t fear. You’re not alone. In fact, it’s probably not your fault at all.

As is the case with the field of education, new scientific data can reveal hiccups in how we are taught. As it turns out, mastering a second language can be made much easier through a specific approach called spaced repetition.

This unique, scientifically-backed study technique relies on increased time intervals before you review the information you’re learning. As for its origins? We can all thank German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus for this helpful concept.

Ironically, spaced repetition isn’t even his most popular discovery. That honor belongs to the learning curve—a familiar term to anyone who’s tried to acquire a new skill.

Of course, on the flip side of that is the forgetting curve, which Ebbinghaus introduced in a revolutionary study in 1885. The scientist discovered a steep decline in his ability to retain information after a period of only 20 minutes. Just think about what happens when you don’t practice a foreign language for months or years!

So what’s the secret to utilizing spaced repetition for maximum information retention? Here’s an easy breakdown of how you can learn more efficiently:

  1. Use flashcards for vocabulary words.
  2. Review your cards only once per day.
  3. When you get a card wrong, place it in a pile (hopefully a small one) of cards that you need to take extra time to review.
  4. If you get a card right, put in a separate pile of ones you don’t need to spend as much time on.
  5. Follow your review schedule based on a scale you set for the cards that require more time.

Here’s a video to explain more…

Try out this handy technique with more than just a foreign language. Whether you want to get ready for your next biology test or want to remember the notes in a scale, spaced repetition can help you become an expert much faster.

What new skill do you want to learn? Did you have a tough time mastering French or Spanish in high school?

Tell us about your toughest classes in the comments!

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Here’s How to Tell the Difference Between Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals

Fact: dogs are man’s best friend.

Animals may not be able to communicate with us directly, but that doesn’t mean they can’t understand our thoughts and feelings. In fact, there are some animals specifically dedicated to helping people in distress.

Both service animals and emotional support animals play important roles in helping people overcome certain challenges. But do you know the difference between the two distinct types of friendly, furry creatures?

Service Animals

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, service animals are “dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.” Now that sounds like a wide-ranging spectrum because it is. Service animals serve many different purposes and are vital for some people’s everyday survival. Incredibly, their list of job responsibilities sounds like a full-time job that they should get paid for.

Some service animals are utilized to help calm people with post-traumatic stress disorder—an unfortunate but very real issue that many people have to face. Other responsibilities could include helping guide a deaf or blind person, or even alerting others when their owner is about to have an anxiety attack or seizure.

There is a distinction, though. According to Texas veterinarian Sara Ochoa, “Service animals are used to make their owner’s lives more normal and easier.”

However, she added that service animals do not receive professional training.

Emotional Support Animals

On the other hand, emotional support animals are trained to follow basic commands and can help alleviate stressful situations for their owners. Ochoa pointed out that these animals are not trained to complete specific tasks, so technically speaking they are a bit behind service animals in that regard.

That doesn’t mean emotional support animals are any less important. They can be incredibly helpful healing tools for people who have undergone significant trauma, abuse or depression. And as any pet lover can attest, our furry friends can simply put a big smile on our face after a long, stressful day.

Legal Distinctions Between the Two Types

From a legal standpoint, service animals are allowed to be in many more places than their emotional support counterparts.

The ADA outlines the policy as such:

State and local governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations that serve the public generally must allow service animals to accompany people with disabilities in all areas of the facility where the public is allowed to go.

No matter the reason, it’s clear that both emotional support animals and service animals play a significant role in helping people through tough times.

Do you have any experience with either emotional support animals or service animals?

Tell us your favorite story about your furry friend in the comments below!

The post Here’s How to Tell the Difference Between Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals appeared first on UberFacts.

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iPhone Screen Time Reports Are Sparking Some Very Funny Twitter Jokes

If you have an iPhone, you’re all too familiar with the Weekly Screen Time Report tool. Just when you’re feeling pretty good about your week, you’ll get a friendly reminder that you probably wasted a ton of time on Twitter, Instagram and other apps.

Of course, with people stuck inside scrolling and double-tapping away, that’s led to some seriously impressive screen time reports. Naturally, that’s led some Twitter users to have fun at their own expense at the hours they’ve wasted away staring at a screen.

Nobody loves being on the big screen more than Kris Jenner. But even she can’t deal with the harsh reality of wasting so much time on an iPhone.

Blink twice if your phone is holding you hostage. That’s assuming your eyes still work after how much time you’ve had your eyeballs glued on your Instagram feed.

Does Apple really need to make us feel bad about ourselves? Maybe it’s time to turn off this weekly update after all. My self-esteem needs a boost.

Do I really need my iPhone hovering over me with my embarrassing screen time report? Seriously, stop being so shady, Apple.

https://twitter.com/LauraJaneGrace/status/1246802074219819010?s=20

I still feel my legs, so I mustn’t have made the total transformation from human to device. But the lines are starting to get blurred.

Cuddled up in bed in my PJs sounds like a heck of an idea. But my mattress is starting to get a dent from how much I’ve been laying around on my phone.

What have you done with your life???

What even is time anymore?!?

Okay, only one thing left to do…

I guess time flies when you’re…having fun? Seriously, let’s find something better to do.

How much time have you been spending on your iPhone? Tell us about your most embarrassing Weekly Screen Time Report in the comments section.

The post iPhone Screen Time Reports Are Sparking Some Very Funny Twitter Jokes appeared first on UberFacts.

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A Landlord Forgot to Hide Email Addresses When Demanding Rent, so Everyone Went on a Rent Strike

You don’t have to be an expert to know that you probably should check twice before hitting send on an email. That’s especially the case when you’re sending something to multiple recipients.

For one California apartment management company, that concept apparently didn’t get covered during onboarding. And it cost them. Big time.

Recently, the landlords sent out an email to 300 tenants demanding full rent payment or else they’d be evicted. However, in a truly boneheaded move, the company forgot to use the BCC feature.

Let’s just say that simple mistake turned into a highly regrettable (and money-draining) one.

Nailah Howze works as a freelance photographer, videographer and event planner, but she recently lost her entire income. And with only a month’s worth of rent saved, it’s not like she was swimming in cash to cover her expenses.

That didn’t matter to Saturn Management. This is part of the email they sent, which reads as if it were written by a cartoon villain.

“The governor of California has instituted an emergency ordinance relating to the payment of rent, that although delays eviction for non­ payment of rent, it does not prohibit an eviction for non-payment of rent in the future.

Rents are still due pursuant to your lease agreement with your landlord & management company.”

Unfortunately for the management company, all the tenants banded together over the ridiculous demand. And utilizing programs like Zoom and Slack, they communicated with each other and ended up striking against their landlords.

The group received plenty of support for sticking up for themselves on Twitter:

The massive mistake by Saturn Management made some people chuckle.

Considering how Nailah and her fellow tenants are facing serious financial hardships, the ultimate karma move drew praise from one Twitter user.

We’ll see if the strike pays off. Don’t they always say there’s strength in numbers?

Have you ever made a similar email blunder? Tell us about your worst email moments at work below!

The post A Landlord Forgot to Hide Email Addresses When Demanding Rent, so Everyone Went on a Rent Strike appeared first on UberFacts.

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20 Creepy Two-Sentence Horror Stories

It takes a creative person to boil down a scary story to just two sentences. Or any kind of story, for that matter.

But these folks on Reddit sure hit the nail on the head.

Ready to be scared in very short fashion? Then read on…

1. I’ll be right back…

Photo Credit: Reddit

2. What just happened?

Photo Credit: Reddit

3. What’s feeding you?

4. The living dead.

Photo Credit: Reddit

5. We lost you.

Photo Credit: Reddit

6. Don’t worry about that.

Photo Credit: Reddit

7. What does the future hold?

Photo Credit: Reddit

8. Tales from a killer.

Photo Credit: Reddit

9. Alien intruder.

Photo Credit: Reddit

10. Don’t panic…

Photo Credit: Reddit

11. Splat!

Photo Credit: Reddit

12. Scattered all around…

Photo Credit: Reddit

13. From the past.

Photo Credit: Reddit

14. I’m outside.

Photo Credit: Reddit

15. Get out of the house!

Photo Credit: Reddit

16. Burial site.

Photo Credit: Reddit

17. Oh no…

Photo Credit: Reddit

18. What have you done?

Photo Credit: Reddit

19. Creepy stalker.

Photo Credit: Reddit

20. She has returned.

Photo Credit: Reddit

Spooky stuff! Do you think you can creep out readers in only two sentences?

In the comments, give it a shot!

Let’s see what you can come up with!

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People Share Shortcuts That Helped Them With Menial Work Tasks

You know there may be processes that take too long for no reason at every job. As a new employee, sometimes you quickly think of a way to simplify these menial tasks—much to the chagrin of managers or people who’ve been there longer.

One Reddit thread asked people to share small ways they improved work processes or random boring tasks.

Turns out you can save a lot of time if you know how to use Excel!

20. Using Basic Knowledge of Excel

“I once was a temp at a tiny office on a construction site in around 2003. I was only there for one day while the regular person was on some training.

They sat me down and told me that I just needed to copy all these numbers from one program to another. So I selected them, hit ctrl c and ctrl v. They stared at me.

Turns out about 60% of this woman’s time had been spent manually typing numbers from one place to another.”

—jaymeekae

19. Use The Hole-Punch Setting on the Copy Machine

“I worked a summer at a mortgage company as an assistant to the underwriters. My only job was printing documents and then hole-punching them to put in folders.

They had a super fancy xerox printer that basically did my entire job for me, but the underwriters at this company didn’t know how to click through printer settings to make the machine hole-punch as it was being printed. I showed them how to do it, and they resisted it suuuuper hard (like they didn’t trust it? Idk). So I got to keep my job, but what was supposed to take me all day literally took me about 20-30 minutes first thing in the morning. So they started assigning me real tasks, and even offered to keep me on to eventually become an underwriter, too. Because I was “so sharp” (i.e. I knew how to use the very expensive printer they already had). I was just about to start grad school, so I had to politely decline… but I’m pretty sure they didn’t hire someone to replace me when I left.

Tl;dr: they had a printer that already did my job for me but didn’t know how to use it. I showed them.”

—PaddyPumpkin

18. Getting Help in Exchange For Beer

“Maybe not the most impressive story here, but I thought it was a great side-step of effort nonetheless:

Co-worker of mine had to get rid of a smaller junk fiberglass boat with no trailer. Our other co-workers are all telling him how much time and money he’s going to need to spend to get rid of it, and he’s just saying “Oh, is that so?”

He took off one day, and sat down on his lawn with a cooler of beer. That day was garbage day. Inevitably, the trash guys roll up. He hands each of them a cold beer, and says “Hey boys, got $50 for each of you if you help me out real quick.”

They fed the entire 12ft boat into the packer, crushing two feet at a time.”

—NoCountryForOldPete

17. Use a Genius Bar Code Hack

“Worked as a cashier during the holiday season back when i was 16. The supermarket was selling drinks by the boxes and at that time, we only had barcode scanners that was at the front of the computer. No gun type scanners existed.

I was lazy and didn’t want to carry boxes up to the scanner. So i politely asked my customers if i could carve out the barcode from their box to scan and keep. Some agreed some didn’t want to but eventually i managed to amass all the barcodes needed. Labelled them and kept them in a file for easy reference.

Apparently some other cashier got green eyed at my “smart” move and complained to the chief cashier who promptly lectured me on (bullshit alert) how its dangerous for me to scan such barcodes as i might scan the wrong things. She told me to throw it all away and carry the boxes like i was meant to. I mean, i was young so i could but the other cashiers were older and some were elderly and needed the customers themselves to help carry the boxes to the scanner. But whatever i guess jealousy trumps common sense.”

—precipiceblades

16. Carry Extra Beer!

“I used to deliver beer. I did not like delivering beer.

I may have ended up with 30 stops in a day, including deliveries that the customer would call in to our office for. I used to bring extra beer and blank invoices with me on the truck, to prevent having to drive back to my warehouse to deliver one keg to a place that I was currently across the street from.

7 years later, the driver of that route is still doing that.”

—Fromhe

15. Using a Drone to Herd Yak!

“Herding yak with a drone takes the cake for me.

They run from it, and oddly fear it. Which is surprising considering they have literally zero aerial predators. We only did it a few times because it really makes them uneasy, and doesn’t treat them well. But it is very effective and easy, and you can herd them from over 1/2 a mile a way from inside the house. edit: Im really surprised how much this blew up. I’ve never had some many post replies, but I’ll try to get around to answering as many questions as possible.

My post history is predominantly yakking off and tower climbing stuff, so I’d suggest going there if you’re curious.”

—Nametoholdaplace

14. Use Division At Work!

“At my last job, a truck suspension shop, we did inventory every December and it was someone’s job to count all the washers and screws of every size.

It was my first inventory and I casually mentioned that they should just weigh one screw or washer, then weigh them all and divide the weight to get the count. Everyone looked at me like I had given them the key to the universe.

Counting washers and screws went from a day or two, to just a few hours.”

—codymreese

13. Put Two Things in The Same Place

“A long time ago I was sent to help a team that was designing some analog test equipment.

Big problem was when two of the parts were at different temperatures the calibration would go off. They wanted me to design a circuit to measure the temperatures of the two parts and apply a correction. I solved the problem by putting both parts on the same heat sink so they would be at the same temperature.

It worked.”

—BobT21

12. Just Some Toilet Engineering

“A few years ago my mom was tasked with fixing my grandparent’s toilet while we were visiting for the holidays. The toilet reservoir was constantly filling and running, and thus flooding the bathroom, because the buoy arm wasn’t lifting high enough from the water in the reservoir to switch off the water flow.

My mom (who is normally a very practical person) had been tackling the issue for hours. She was pretty distraught, thinking we would have to order a new buoy arm, maybe even a new sensor, or switch and pull the whole assembly apart to replace everything. She was planning out a trip to Lowes’ and pricing things out when I walked in.

I took one look at it and bent the metal arm the buoy was attached to, down, so the arm had a slight upwards curve. The buoy still reached the same level in the reservoir, but registered on the sensor as ‘higher’ because of the curve in the arm.

Problem solved, Rangers lead the way.

I watched it dawn on her what I had done, and she just looked at me like I had a third eye and said “You little fucking shit! I’ve been getting my ass kicked by this thing for 4 hours and you fix in in 4 fucking seconds?!”

She was very happy I saved her from more work and spending more money. She calls me “her little toilet engineer” from time to time. I work on Aircraft. It’s mildly demeaning.”

—Aerodim101

11. Learn Python and Excel

“Automated 70% of my job in a large finance firm as an intern. Never disclosed it and got paid easy money for 6 months.

I spent the time doing courses and applying for my grad school. Got my admission letter during the final 2 weeks of my internship and never looked back.

Pro Tip: Python and Excel can be your best friend.

Obligatory edit: I went to sleep and this thread blew up. Thank you for your stories, questions and comments. I’m trying to get to as many as possible!”—clickerroy

10. This Camp Counselor Hack

“I was working a kids’ chess summer camp with this guy who just smoked pot like you wouldn’t believe (still a far, far better chess player than me).

One day, the kids were being particularly rambunctious and I told him he had to take them outside to get their energy out.

He had them spend the next hour doing “American Ninja Warrior” on the jungle gym/playground. I hadn’t even heard of the show, but it was a group of young boys like 6-12, so they all adored it.

This coworker loved to get super stoned and watch it. Don’t know if he was high at the camp, but he just got to sit on a bench and tell kids their time was getting slower when they did “stunts” and they just scurried and jumped around faster.”—BreatheMyStink

9. Pro-Type: Dynamic Named Ranges

“I had an excel order form in my last job that required us to enter all hardware items from all suppliers in by hand

I had to completely rewrite the existing script that pulled the hardware for the one supplier that it worked on but it went from being a time consuming, mistake prone job to clicking a button on the order form and it doing everything and taking maybe 2 seconds for a huge job.

Figuring out dynamic named ranges and getting them to work with drop down boxes was also great. No more manually updating named ranges and drop down boxes when new items were added.

I also added in conditional formatting everywhere to let the user know if there was an incomplete section on the form. No more rework when the next person down the line sent the form back to us incomplete.

The thing I was really happy with was being able to cut the length of that script down by about 65% from what it originally was.”

—shaneo88

8. Better Yet: Make Customers Do It!

“Worked in a huge hotel by the airport*. We had layover with over 400 people, I think we were 3 employees. They had buffet for dinner and then left to go to bed since it was 1 or 2 am. Rule was, we should always go to the room and pick up as many plates as we could and then bring them to the cleaner. Took for ages and I wanted to go home.

I decided to roll out the cart and collect the plates and put them on the cart. Guest were seeing it and started putting their plates on the cart when they left. All of a sudden hundreds of people cleaned up their own stuff.

Duty manager saw it and I thought he would blast me, since the hotel was a 5 star place.

He just looked at me, smiled and said ‘that’s why I like to hire lazy people, they think of ways to finish work faster.’”

—explision

7. Use The Collate Button

“Was a temp.

Got hired for the day to print 30 packets with 100 pages each.

Why would it take a day? I asked

‘Our printer doesn’t collate the pages so it will take you the day to sort the pages into the 30 packets” they said.

Right.

It was a standard office Xerox printer. It took me all of 30 seconds to find and click the ‘collate’ button. Clicked the ‘staple’ button while at it.

All got printed by itself into nice stapled packets and I got paid to browse internet for the day. They thought I was a genius for ‘fixing’ their printer and gave me glowing recommendations to the temp agency that led to more jobs.”

—wilksonator

6. Find Software That Can Help

“During my intern, my professor gave me line graphs made on paper and asked me to find the coordinates by drawing horizontal and vertical lines. It would have taken hours if not days.

I thought to myself – “I couldn’t be the first one who is lazy af”. So I googled it, found this cool free to use software “Web Digitizer”.

Step 1 – Scan the graph. Step 2 – Mark the X and Y axes in the picture. Step 3 – Grab a beer cause you got the the nicest mf graph that you couldn’t have drawn by yourself in a million years.

My professor was so happy she asked me to document the method and mail it across the entire department.

Edit : I am so sorry people for not replying earlier. I had no idea this would blow up, so I didn’t bother to check Reddit at work.

To answer your question, yes, I did share my original method with my professor and the entire department. One, she was a really supportive professor and I wanted to return her favors (even if this software might have been the tiniest help to her work). Two, the original developer of this software made it available online for FREE. He could have made it a paid service, and believe me, researchers would have paid because it is that good. But he kept it free for all of us to use, and it was my responsibility to share his work as much as I could.

Link for those interested to try this software. Cheers to the developer – Ankit Rohatgi.”

—Batman_In_Peacetime

5. Make An App

“Worked construction right out of high school to save money for school.

Once every other week, we’d get a shipment of 100’s of door parts, and they made me match serial numbers to parts and orders and confirm we got everything, then organize it all. It literally took 16 hours AT LEAST. And time moved so slowly. So I got fed up with it and made a python app that would take a list of pictures, extract text from the pictures, compare it to a order receipt, then spit out a list of all missing parts and extra parts. So it knocked it down to an hour process of just throwing the door parts in the correct pile while waiting for the script to run.

The worst part is that I didn’t even get a raise for doing it.”

—KataKataBijaksana

4. Outsource The Work

“A programmer outsourced his own job overseas, paying Chinese programmers one fifth of his salary to write code for him, while he spent his days surfing Reddit and watching cat videos.

His performance reviews praised him for clean, well-written code and called him “the best developer in the building.”

https://www.cnn.com/2013/01/17/business/us-outsource-job-china/index.html”

—cramias

3. Ask Your Significant Other

“My girlfriend is lawyer and I’m developer.

At her place they manually compare documents they received after the other party signed them. It is not uncommon the other party to add something or remove something from contract without track changes etc. So I taught her how to use diff/compare program that works not only with code, but all kind of docs. She already caught some attempts for the other side to modify long contracts without consent.

So comparing docs went from hour long to minute long task.”

—bassta

2. Take The Easy Way Out

“I did this.

A few years back, I was roommates with a super mechanically inclined dude.

Our top-loading clothes washer stopped working well because the lid got a little warped and didn’t trip the safe switch for the spin cycle to run anymore.

He was all geared up to pull the washer out, take it apart, bend the lid back into proper shape, and reseat the sensor so it would run properly.

I told him to hold off; I put a load of laundry in, and popped a quarter inch shim under the lid.

It ran perfectly.”

—FastWalkingShortGuy

1. Okay… Don’t Do This

“I have an example of how the truly lazy will sabotage tracking so no one knows shit is broken.

There was this guy at a software company that does integrated software systems. He hated his boss and his job and apparently most of his team. Every time he was assigned a bug to fix, he would mark it resolved and assign it to a no-reply email address associated with the team. The odd thing that I don’t understand is how he managed to keep issues from getting escalated to other real people.

At any rate, no one caught on. When he found a new job and a couple people on his team took him out for drinks he said, ‘You should look into all the bugs I fixed. I never did any of that.’ So the guys who took him out for drinks went back and audited his work and were like ‘Holy Fuck!

He not only did nothing, he hid identified issues for like…a year.’”

—TacticalLeemur

Fixing small bugs at work, learning how to use certain software, and even using a little math can help anyone get work done just a tad faster.

Do you have any stories about how you made your job a bit more effective with just a few small tricks?

Please! Share with us. We’re sure others would love to figure stuff out faster too.

The post People Share Shortcuts That Helped Them With Menial Work Tasks appeared first on UberFacts.

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Internet Rabbit Holes You Can Lose Yourself in When You’ve Got Time on Your Hands

Redditors are an interesting bunch. The famous AskReddit has gotten people to confess things that annoy them and even crowd-source solutions to small problems.

One Reddit thread asked commenters if there are any rabbit holes they suggest for people who could use a small distraction.

As always, commenters gave some pretty great suggestions. Here are 17 that stood out.

17. Baking Sourdough Bread

“I’ve been down a rabbit hole to make sourdough bread.. I’m fascinated now. I didn’t realize how the process works. I saw some lady who’s been using the same starter since the 1970s and she got hers from a woman who used hers for the last hundred years.

As I am sure there are thousands, this was what a friend shared with me that started me into this now black hole.

Seems like a good lad making bread.”

—snowbellsnblocks

16. Survival Tactics For Someday…

“Hello future survivors/zombies!

A few years ago I started building a bug-out-bag, in case everything goes to shit but mostly as a fun little hobby/side-project. I didn’t start making one because I seriously considered the end of the world but deciding what to put in it, what to buy etc etc, that’s a nice hobby!

If you are curious about making one, these are some good places to start:

7 Types of Gear You Must Have in Your Bug Out Bag (March 2020)

Ultralight backpacking is a style of backpacking that emphasizes carrying the lightest and simplest gear safely possible for a given trip.

The Ten Essentials are survival items that hiking and Scouting organizations recommend for safe travel in the backcountry.

—Dark_Tsar_Chasm

15. Death Valley Germans

“I thought reading about the Death Valley Germans was super interesting and took a good few hours to read and do my own research

Edit: if it’s asking for a login/password, that means the site is overwhelmed. I know it’s frustrating but I didn’t realise it would get this much traffic. Try again in an hour or two and it should be fine

Second edit: Web archive really comes in handy in these times. http://web.archive.org/web/20200117201303/https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/ from u/abc_wtf.”

—tahsii

14. The Delphi Murders

“The Delphi Murders.

If even a minor % of Redditors took one minute to view this video/audio (especially if you live in the midwest or know people in the midwest!), there’s a good chance this case could be solved. Today.

Quick Summary: Two young teens, Abby Williams (13) and Libby German (14) had a day off from school & went for a walk on a local trail/bridge in the small town of Delphi, Indiana on February 13, 2017. After walking across an abandoned railroad bridge in a desolate area of the trail system, a man followed them across the bridge and forced them down a hill. He murdered them.

The crazy thing is, Libby had been filming Abby with her phone, and was able to secretly capture the start of her encounter with her killer on video before putting the phone in her pocket. Police have released part of the video/audio. It’s not very good quality, but it is the best they have and captures the killer and his voice. Both NASA & Disney assisted in editing it to make it clearer, but there wasn’t a lot to work with. BUT police really want people to focus on his movement. Even without looking at someone’s head, you could pick out a family member of close friend by their mannerisms, body, way they move, etc. And you would obviously know their voice.

There are a lot of ridiculous conspiracy theories out there that police have debunked, so don’t fall down *that* hole. Stick to what the FBI / State Police have released:

  • The killer is a white male between 18 – 40.
  • They believe he lives locally in the area, previously lived in the area, or has family there. This isn’t just a place you stumble upon.
  • Witnesses who passed him on the trail prior said he had reddish-brown hair, and
  • Likely between 5’6″ and 5’8″.

They were not catfished or speaking to anyone online about a meeting….in other words, this was a horrific stranger encounter, they weren’t lured or anything.

Two sketches were released that both look quite different (police now say the suspect most likely looks like a combination of the 2 sketches), but again, I think the most important thing is to watch the actual video. Two of the witnesses that helped with the original sketch said they were unhappy with parts of the first sketch, and don’t believe the second sketch looks anything like the man they saw. The witnesses said they were unable to provide an accurate description on the lower half of the man’s face, since he had a white scarf wrapped around his lower mouth/chin area.

There are multiple people out there who know this man. They grew up with him. Maybe work with him. Maybe he’s their brother in law. But there’s a good chance they just haven’t seen the video yet. The more people who see the video, the higher chance this b*stard will be recognized. I always encourage people to watch it and share it so someone else sees it. The families of these girls are DESPERATE for answers. If you have a tip you can remain 100% anon and email it it. There’s also a 250k reward.

Link to Indiana State Police page that has all the info, audio / video files and how to send in a tip.

If you’re looking for a new podcast to listen to during quarantine, there are two that I thought were very well done on this. Family and law enforcement gave a lot of interviews on both. One is called Scene of the Crime Delphi, the other is “Down the Hill” Podcast.

There is also a subreddit that has a timeline of the events, witness encounter summaries, that is very well done: https://www.reddit.com/r/delphimurderstimeline

This case made a real impact on me, and I want a resolution for these girls so badly! There’s a dangerous person out there who killed two little girls in broad daylight. I’m afraid he will do it again and another family will go through this horrible pain. It’s SO solvable, it’s almost a numbers game, because all it takes is the video/audio getting seen by one person who knows him and is willing to tip it in!”

—ElyseVierra

13. The Internet’s Hardest Puzzle

“You could always have a go at the internet’s hardest puzzle, Notpron. It’s been online since 2004, but only 67 people ever made it through all 140 levels. I’ve been playing since 2007, am in the 70s now.

Edit: Since many people are asking questions, feel free to check out the main site with rules, FAQ, and hints.”

—sedermera

12. Science Channels—And There’s a List!

“Science channels. From entertaining to informative, science channels have been my favourite types of channels to binge.

Vsauce is one of the best at this. Backyard Scientist, Mark Rober, and SloMo Guys to name a few.

And if you’re up to a mental challenge, go for really heady, concept, theory-laden channels like PBS SpaceTime and Quantum Gravity Research.”

—Classic-Fold

11. Learning Plain Old History!

“Learning history is my best way to time pass.

Currently, I am diving deep into Pyramids. It’s preyty damn interesting to know how they did that stuff. Imagine lifting 2.3 million blocks each the weight of elephants to that height and that too so many years ago when humans were I would like to share a few things that I learnt. Maybe you might like it and go deep into it.

Here you go:

  • Pyramid of Giza actually has eight faces.

From ground, viewers will not see the indentations and hence, they can only see four faces. In order to see the indentations and all 8 faces of the pyramid, one needs to go aerial and that too when the lighting conditions are perfect to make the 8 faces visible.

The 8 faces of the Great Pyramid are visible only during autumn equinox and spring equinox during dawn as well as during sunset. Those are the times with the sun casts a shadow on the pyramid, making the indentations properly visible from air.

You can see the eight faces of Pyramid here

  • Temperature controlled engineering.

Also, Inside the pyramid, the temperature is maintained at 20 degrees Celsius or 68 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature never changes and is actually equal to earth’s average temperature.

  • Unimaginable Accuracy. > The Egyptians used two constellations to align their pyramids in a north-south direction. One was big dipper and the other is the small dipper.

The tombs are aligned in north-south with an accuracy of up to 0.05 degrees. This happened in an era where modern-day precision tools were not even imaginable!

  • Alignment with constellation and it’s relevance to equinox cycle

Every 26000 years the pyramid will align itself with 4 constellations which represents the equinox cycle. It is believed (just believed by the Egyptians) that every around 26000 years something devastating happens on Earth. I am not sure but I guess it is when they align. This was believed to be a warning. We are currently close to it. There is a error of maybe 100 years in that.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/11/great-pyramid-tombs-slaves-egypt”

—shampoo_and_dick

10. Music Channels on YouTube

“If you’re into music, there are a ton of great channels on YouTube.

Rick Beato does a lot of music and song analyses.

Alex ball has done some documentaries about Roland, and the prophet synthesizers. All really interesting history and information.

True cuckoo is a dude who has a ton of videos about synthesizers, drum machines and jams. Not to mention tutorials.

There’s so much that you can learn. I started with guitar and recently I got into synths and drum machines and YouTube is a great place to get to learn from plenty of talented people.

I missed a ton but I guess you can do the exploring yourself.”

—gardeniasoutside

9. This Military Time Traveler

“In early 2000s, someone began posting on several message boards claiming to be a military time traveller from the year 2036. He arrived in 2000on a stopover for personal reasons; his primary mission was to return to 1975 to recover an IBM 5100 computer which was needed to debug huge computer issues that would arise in his original time.

Some have disregarded this as an elaborate hoax. The rub is, there is an anticipated y2k style computer frying event (look up UNIX 2038 problem), and only like 5 people in the world knew the IBM 5100 debugging programming existed, which was later confirmed to be true by someone involved with the project.

His stories contained predictions from his timeline, time travel theory, physics of his machine, and even schematics of the time travel device.

All his posts are archived, enjoy your trip down the rabbit hole!”

—Slickdilla

8. Unusual Deaths (Trigger Warning)

“Normally, I recommend the Wikipedia list of Unusual Deaths. I still do, but with the disclaimer that as we isolate ourselves to protect our physical health, the isolation may be damaging to our mental health. Reading about Unusual Deaths might not be for you right now. If you’re good to go, here’s the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_deaths?wprov=sfla1

Edit: I am aware of Stephen Whinfrey, who died of asphyxiation after getting his head trapped down a rabbit hole, in 2015. BEWARE!!!”

—Awdayshus

7. Transcriptions For Those Who Need Them

“/r/TranscribersOfReddit is a pretty good way to kill some time by writing transcriptions for people who are vision-impaired.”

—hexsy

6. Growing Mushrooms

“How to grow mushrooms, (not magic mushrooms, pls don’t ask it gets annoying) and the different techniques people use for different species.

Also, the rabbit hole of how many chemical products we harvest from fungi, it just sounds stupid to believe in the power of fungus because there is a fine line between it an all the essential oil homeopathic bullshit and cure all products being marketed by MLMs and facebook anti-vax moms.”

—MoefsieKat

5. An Array of Rabbit Holes!

“Ohhhh man. Been waiting for this day for a long time.

Here’s my list in no particular order:

1. Dyatlov Pass Incident

2. Voynich Manuscript

3. Japan Airlines Flight 1628 (extremely compelling UFO sighting)

4. MK Ultra

5. Project Northwoods

6. Tunguska Event (One of my faves)

7. Aleph formerly Aum Shinrikyo (Japanese death cult)

8. Skinwalker Ranch

9. The Philadelphia Experiment

10. Japanese Unit 731 (fucking gnarly)

11. Alleged Russian Apartment bombings (false flag attacks in the late 90’s)

12. Saudi Arabian involvement in 9/11

13. Gulf of Tonkin Incident

14. Project Azorian

15. Bilderberg Meeting

16. Max headroom TV station hijacking

17. Fast Radio Bursts (aliens?! Maybe… but probably not)

18. Nazi Bell

19. Misplaced artifacts (archaeological artifacts are showing up well out of their understood time range in geological areas they shouldn’t be in; awesome video )

20. Pretty much anything to do with Monsanto, but their Roundup is prolific.”

—joemamallama

4. The Archive Website!

“I always love the opportunity to be able to talk about http://archive.org because it is such a wonderful and free resource especially at a time like now when you’re looking for distractions.

It has millions of free downloads for music, movies, books, software, etc. One very popular example is that it is home to a very large catalog of Grateful Dead recordings

There is also The Internet Arcade where you can play a lot of classic games along with the Console Living Room which is similar. They have access to tons of old PC games too and you can even play the original Oregon Trail online. There’s a lot more in their software section too.

It also has The WayBack Machine which has archived more than 396 billion web pages saved over time so you can go back and see how websites were years ago. For example, here’s reddit on July 25, 2005 a month after it was created.”

—-eDgAR-

3. Experimental Hip Hop

“Experimental hip hop, Japanese city pop and other genres of music mostly confined to the internet (in the West at least, city pop is still a thing in Japan).”

—bigcheese212

2. State Court Opinions

“Reading court opinions from (insert your state here) Court of Appeals.

I’ve learned so much about the legal system, precedence in proceedings, police interrogation, search and seizures and lots of other things.

I’ve also learned there are some seriously messed up people…more than I could have imagined.”

—Inaka_

1. Webcomics (With Links)

“Webcomics, there’s a ton out there of every genre you could be into. Personally, fantasy is my favourite genre but I’ve found a ton of comics of many genres to enjoy.

I personally read uh, I assume, over 100 ongoing webcomics on multiple websites and platforms ?

Webtoons (App+Browser) is a great collection of comics which are all free to read, unless you want to pay to read a few episodes ahead, which will be released in a week’s time each, which I don’t do because there’s plenty of content from daily “Originals” updates + Canvas which is the more free model (no time limit once a week) for artists.

A few favourites from there:

Originals:

The Weight Of Our Sky, a historical fiction about a Malay girl, Melati, with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This is set during the time of the race riots in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1969. (These riots ended up in deaths of many hundred because of stupid racism.) I am personally really glad to know there is a webcomic with a realistic portrayal of OCD out there as I suffer from severe OCD (although a quite different type, contamination OCD). This comic is based on the novel of the same name which I am hoping to pick up some day soon.

Link to The Weight Of Our Sky

Tower Of God is an ongoing comic that has been going on quite a while about a well built fantasy universe who’s inhabitants all supposedly live within a enormously large and tall tower. Within it live a large amount of different races, however, one boy is found very abnormal… A boy who came from outside of the tower with very great potential. This is such a well done and complex series that I’ve taken weeks to reread it twice, or thrice ? Can’t remember if it was 2 or 3 times lol

Link to Tower Of God

Spirit Fingers, a slice-of-life/drama webtoon about an average south korean teen, Amy Song, who finds herself a love of art and a great group of friends when she joins a colourful group of strangers in their sketching/croquis club.

As Baby Blue Finger, or Babl, Amy learns to grow from her experiences and find her own colour.

Link to Spirit Fingers

coLouR* (Canvas)

A supernatural/dark fantasy with psychological/cultural elements as well about an international organization that works closely with the supernatural, Asterisk. I find this international modern fantasy organization idea which even includes many different languages really interesting.

Link to coLouR*

Tapas/Tapastic (also app+web) has more paid stuff sadly but some of which can be read freely on timers + as well a similar model of many free to read comics that are not “originals”, basically paid. Of course, I don’t think it’s bad to support artists, the money goes straight to them and all but I personally prefer saving my money in general, especially as they have free comic book days unlocking temporarily premium comics and such.

Out Of The Blue on tapas is one of my favourites there, about fishboy stuck in dam meets blindboy dam worker.

https://tapas.io/series/OutoftheBlue

The Witch’s Bakery is a very cozy fantasy comic about Granny Snap’s bakery, which she runs with her grandchildren, Dragon Snap and Ginger Snap.

https://tapas.io/series/The-Witchs-Bakery

Ultramarine Weather

Two childhood friends meet a weather witch who lost his memories.

https://tapas.io/series/ultramarineweather

https://www.howtobeawerewolf.com/ is about Mal, a werewolf who was bitten by a wolf as a kid and then become one. However, one day she actually meets another friendly werewolf, who sniffs her wolfyness after visiting the cafe she works at.

wildelifecomic.com

Oscar rented an old house off craigslist, then things got weird…

First it was meeting the ghost of a 1940s mathematician in the upstairs hallway, then it was finding a teenage werewolf in the bathtub. Now Oscar doesn’t know what will show up next. Maybe that’s okay, as long as nothing eats him.

Wilde Life is a supernatural adventure/horror series set in a small town in rural Oklahoma. It focuses on stories about creatures from Native American mythology as witnessed and documented by a journalist from Chicago, Illinois.

Independent comics:

Miss-Melee.com

Superhero comedy about a hero and mother who got back to superheroing after raising her kid some… however her daughter’s taken a lot after her.

Avasdemon.com

Ava’s Demon (Also up on Webtoons Canvas, but I reccomend the website for the full experience, with all animations and animated backgrounds)

A gorgeous Sci-Fi/Fantasy adventure about, well, Ava and her demon who is literally inside of her. As she meets other vessels, and forms a pact with her demon after an incident… well… things change for her a lot. Including glowing skin and barfing lava.

https://www.colorlesscomic.com/

Colorless. Similarly to Ava’s Demon, this comic also uses animated scenes.

Colorless is a dark fantasy webcomic that follows the story of Joki, who wakes up in a supernatural city called Aisho, with no memories of previous events. He learns about the creatures lurking Aisho city’s streets and just how unwelcome humans are.

Ok since I have now taken like a hour to write this I better get uppp

Anyways, if anyone would like any other suggestions, I know these are mostly fantasy but I read many others including different topics too, feel free to ask for other recommendations!”

—RosabellaFaye

WOW! That took some time! Clearly, Redditors are speaking from experience. Hopefully, these rabbit holes provide you with much-needed relaxation and maybe some additional trivia.

Are there any rabbit holes or topics you might suggest? Want to add them to the comments?

Great! We’d love to kill time with your suggestions!

The post Internet Rabbit Holes You Can Lose Yourself in When You’ve Got Time on Your Hands appeared first on UberFacts.

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Blue Light Damaging Your Eyesight is a Myth. Here’s Why.

The advent of cell phones and tablets and screens that emit blue light has sent health experts scrambling to figure out whether or not it’s damaging our bodies or making it hard for us to turn off and sleep – and while the latter may be true, it turns out the former is not.

Blue light has a short wavelength, which means it’s high-energy and has the potential to damage delicate eye tissue. Not only that, but it also passes through the eye to the retina, which houses the foundation of all sight.

Image Credit: Pixabay

In lab studies, prolonged exposure to high-intensity blue light has been shown to damage retinal cells in mice, but in people? It’s a whole different story.

Scientists have suspected this for years, given that sunlight is mostly blue light, and there’s never been any study linking sunlight exposure with age-related macular degeneration. Basically, if being out in the sun over the years doesn’t damage your eyesight, and sunlight is 100,000 times brighter than the light from your screen, then your screens probably aren’t going to make you go blind.

So if you’re interested in protecting your vision and keeping your eyes healthy, even if you sit in front of a computer screen all day, blue light isn’t your biggest concern.

That said, even if staring at screens all day isn’t going to negatively impact your vision, blue light can still cause harm. The wavelength of blue light does disrupt healthy sleep patterns – it basically tricks your brain into thinking it’s daytime, and that you should be alert, even when it’s dark.

Image Credit: Pixabay

So, the science telling you to avoid screens in the hours before bed is solid. The dimmer your environment while you’re preparing to sleep the better.

If a better night’s sleep – and a more rested feeling in the morning – is what you’re after, make sure you turn off your devices before bed, and when you’re looking at them in the evening hours, lower their brightness levels. Make sure you’re wearing the correct glasses or contact lens prescription and keep eyedrops around for when your eyes are feeling dry after staring at your computer for too long.

Image Credit: Pixabay

The American Optometric Association recommends following the 20-20-20 rule: take a 20-second break every 20 minutes to look at something 20 feet in the distance. It’s meant to allow your eyes to blink and relax, and there are apps out there meant to remind you to follow the advice.

So don’t waste your money on those “blue light blocking” products – they only block about 15% of blue light, anyway, and it’s not behind your tired eyes or anything else. You can get the same effect by just holding your phone farther from your face!

The more you know!

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Funny Tweets That’ll Make You Laugh When You’re Bored

I know what’s up…you’re bored and you’re desperately in need of a good laugh.

That’s where Twitter comes into play!

As you probably know, Twitter is full of humor and hilarity. And we all know that’s a great cure for boredom.

So let’s dig into some funny tweets and say bye-bye to your boring blues.

1. Funny how that works.

2. I get it!

3. That’s a huge letdown.

4. It’s a good one!

5. Start blending!

6. Hey o!

7. Abs won her over.

8. He’s gone forever.

9. Not a bad plan.

10. Historically accurate.

11. Where have you been?

12. That is unfortunate.

13. Holding on by a thread.

Not as bored right now, are you?

Will you do us a big favor? Share a funny joke, tweet, or meme with us in the comments so we can keep on laughing!

Please and thank you!

The post Funny Tweets That’ll Make You Laugh When You’re Bored appeared first on UberFacts.

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KFC Offers 70-Piece Popcorn Chicken Bucket…and Some Are Not Impressed

Fried chicken lovers should be salivating over KFC’s latest foray in the fowl game. After all, anyone who’s crunched into their irresistibly peppery, crisp chicken knows how addicting it can be.

But the big brand’s latest offering kicks things up a notch. KFC is going bigger (but not necessarily better) by reintroducing its “extra-large serving” of popcorn chicken nuggets. Just take a moment to let your taste buds come back down to earth.

Yes, folks. KFC’s signature popcorn chicken is available in a 70-piece bucket that has more than a few fried chicken fans salivating over the idea of stuffing themselves silly with the delectable finger food.

According to BRAND Eating, the offer won’t be around for long. This limited-time nationwide rollout at participating KFC locations makes this a deal you just can’t pass up. In fact, some people are already planning out their entire day based around taking down the gigantic bucket of crispy, delicious goodness.

Others see the 70-piece bucket as an honor worth achieving. Someone sounds pretty motivated to me:

However, some loyal KFC eaters have been lucky enough to try out the 100-percent white meat offerings. The early reviews have been mixed.

https://twitter.com/TangChus/status/1248371344372191234

Apparently KFC needs to do a recount because more than a few customers have been left disappointed at their supposedly stacked 70-piece bucket. I’m no food or math expert, but it certainly looks like a few buckets are a couple of nuggets short (and that’s being generous).

Still, that hasn’t stopped everyone from celebrating the famous friend chicken restaurant’s amazingly economical deal.

Even if they are a few nuggets short, 70 pieces—or anything close to that—is sure to fill you up and keep you from taking flight off your couch.

Do you think you could take down 70 KFC popcorn chicken nuggets? Let us know about your craziest food challenges below!

The post KFC Offers 70-Piece Popcorn Chicken Bucket…and Some Are Not Impressed appeared first on UberFacts.