Author: Thomas Dane

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People Share Facts That Could Actually Save Someone’s Life

For most of our younger existence it feels like survival is just a given and life is forever.

But that truth is soon turned into myth when you realize life is fragile and death can be whenever and wherever.

The good news is we can all be capable of saving ourselves and others in any given situation just by acquiring some basic knowledge and necessary facts.

Any knowledge is good knowledge, whether it’s how to fight a crazed gunman with a twig or the heimlich maneuver.

So get your pads and pencils out kids, time to study triage.

Redditor danikm10 wanted to us all to be prepared so they asked:

“What is a little known fact that can save a life?”

Head Above Water At All Times

“You can still drown up to 72 hours after a non-fatal drowning or other aquatic incident via water remaining in your lungs afterwards and causing edema (swelling).”

“Shortness of breath, wheezing or raspy breathing, chest pain are all signs to look for and one should get medically checked out ASAP.”

“Even without any symptoms after a near-drowning/aquatic incident it is highly recommended.”

“Source: science and 10-year Lifeguard/First Aid Instructor Trainer.”  ~ YourFriendlyUncle

It’s still coming for you…

“If a tornado looks like it’s still, it’s moving towards you.” ~ Reddit

“When we stayed in Tx, we had a little rack that held empty pop cans.”

“Usually when a tornado was brewing, the air pressure would be great enough to start crumpling the cans. I found it fascinating.” ~ osirisrebel

“Learned that one that hard way as a kid.”

“My grandma thought it was a regular dust devil until she realized that it wasn’t getting smaller, and it was picking crap up to throw.”  ~ ClancyHabbard

Good catch Sir

“My mom had a dentist appointment a while back. With novocaine still in effect, she headed to the gym for a workout (this was pre-COVID).”

“One of the trainers greeted her, and when she responded with a slightly lopsided smile and slurred speech, he immediately was concerned and asked her to raise both her arms.”

“It took her a second, but then she realized he was thinking she may have been having a stroke.”

“She explained that she’d been to the dentist, and they both got a laugh out of it. But kudos to that trainer.”

“He’s an observant guy, and he might save a life someday.”  ~ Reddit

Be the Spotter!

“That drowning people don’t flail around and scream.”

“This is why there are usually spotters (the guys and girls in the chairs) and rescue (the guys and girls on the shore/around the edge).”

“Spot the person who comes up and goes down rather than the screaming flailing people who are playing.”  ~ ModsAreHallMonitors

“Secondary drowning, or “dry drowning”, is a serious concern for those rescued from a near drowning as well.”

“If it’s believed the victim has taken any water in their lungs at all, they need to be checked out at the hospital.” ~ NorCalShasta

It’s All Elementary my dears…

“Learn the elementary backstroke. It’s a stroke that requires less energy to swim. Lay on your back. Keep your chest inflated to stay afloat.”  ~ Lark_Iron_Cloud

“Just a backfloat will work. I barely learned to swim in high school, but I got the elementary backstroke down and could do a frog kick decently.”

“Plus they were teaching survival swimming/drownproofing. I hope something like that is still around.”  ~ Sirius_J_Moonlight

Bright Colors and Twilight!

“Preferably wear neon orange if going in the woods.”

“Same for all the joggers, bicyclists and walkers-Including your dog- so many people appear as dappled shadows when you’re driving-all times of the day not just in twilight.”

“I’ve had some scary moments avoiding people and oncoming traffic!” ~ pickalelly

“Dude I have some idiots in my neighborhood.”

“Like to go on walks at like 4am/2am/11pm… freaking whenever it’s dark.”

“I’ve almost ran them over 10+ times because they also like to walk in the middle right side or right middle right side of the lane (to far into the street to be safe).”

“And they where black clothes.” ~ oreo_milktinez

Mixing and matching can be a mess…

“Do not mix household chemicals unless you know specifically what the result will be.”

“Specifically do not mix bleach with anything other than water.” ~ surprise_me_today

“My cat peed on the floor on our concrete basement and my dad (not exactly a science major) was like “pour bleach on it”.”

“So I, being 12, did. I poured bleach onto highly distilled ammonia.”

“I stopped being able to breathe, didn’t know why. I closed the bottle and ran upstairs with my lungs absolutely burning my head aching.”

“I closed that door to keep my cat out of it but refused to go back in.”

“When my mom came home I told her about it and she freaked out.”

“I felt really bad like I did something wrong and my mom just yells up the stairs.”

“YOU TRIED TO GAS OUR DAUGHTER YOU DUMB FOOL!!”  ~ LadyCashier

Keep the Mouth Clear!

“Do NOT put anything in the mouth of someone having a seizure.”

“They cannot choke on their own tongue, but they can choke on a wallet, belt, etc.”

“DO turn them on their side, time the seizure, and call 911 (or your local emergency services if not in America).”  ~ phoria

“Also, check to see if they’re wearing a medical ID bracelet or necklace, or if they have anything with an emergency contact number on it. (Some phones have a medical ID feature, for example.)”

“Often times, they won’t need to go to the hospital and ambulances are stupid expensive in America.”

“If possible, call their emergency contact first.”

“The ambulance should be called if there are many seizures in a row, if the seizure lasts for more than 5 minutes.”

“If they are severely injured themselves during the seizure, or if it is the person’s first known seizure.” ~ Violet112358

Survival is Messy!

“CPR is nasty. 2 inches of compression will break ribs and mash the insides of the chest cavity.”

“It feels gross, it sounds gross, it looks gross, and it’s freaking HARD.”

“There is no way to comfortably give CPR.” ~ Reddit

No Pulling!

“If you get stabbed by something don’t pull it out.” ~ dietderpsy

Well that is a lot to digest.

And a lot to incorporate into my brain. I pray to never have to use any of this.

Being stabbed and drowning haunt my dreams. Of course now I have eight new things to haunt me, but I’m better prepared.

Life is fragile, doesn’t mean we have to be.

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People Break Down The Most Random Science Facts

I love science.

Although I hated it in high school, now that I’m old… I mean an adult, I love it.

Why you ask?

Because the more science you learn, the more you can understand what’s happening around you and live better.

But science has sadly been under attack for the last several years.

So let’s be our own Bill Nye and absorb a bit of science for our own good.

Redditor Look_Under_The_Bed went to Reddit for all the best science on offer and asked:

“What’s a random science fact that you know?”

So let’s talk science…

You never know when you’ll need to spit out some random facts to impress people at parties.

And if nothing else, we’ll be better prepared for Jeopardy!.

Cry me a River…

“When you cry really hard, your nose runs because it’s connected to the same pipes as your tear ducts, so your nose is also helping you get your tears out.” ~ Threspian

“On a similar note, your nose runs when it’s cold out because you have created a heat gradient.”

“Warm air can hold more water than cool air so as you exhale, the water condenses at the end of your nose and so your nose runs.”  ~ wolfmoral

LOOK OUT BELOW!!!

“Squirrels can survive falling from terminal velocity.”  ~ terrariapro117

“I learned this after witnessing a squirrel hit the ground after a presumably long fall.”

“It made a loud SMACK as it hit the ground, scared the crap out of me and the dog, then scampered away, up another tree like nothing happened.”  ~ _cocophoto_

Time after Time…

“Time is slightly slower between higher altitudes and lower altitudes, to infinitesimal fractions of a second.”  ~ Redditor

“The designers of the GPS satellites had to compensate for this, since the entire system is built around ridiculously precise timekeeping.”

“It was calculated theoretically first as a consequence of general relativity, and then confirmed experimentally.” ~ Murgatroyd314

 Strength in opposing directions…

“Muscles can only contract. Muscle tissue can’t push.”

“Doesn’t sound like a big deal until you realize that actions like sticking your tongue out of your mouth are completely the result of pulling, not pushing.” ~ fd1Jeff

“I teach anatomy. Always fun to watch students work through this information for the first time.”

“That is a series of pulling and relaxing and the opposite movements are also pulling and relaxing.”

“i.e…triceps vs biceps.”  ~ Warlock2017

2 every solar system turn…

“Venus the only planet to spin clockwise.” ~ siglawoo

“Sun’s axis rotates a full turn about every 27 Earth days but since the Sun is not solid but a ball of plasma the rotation speeds are different at different latitudes.”

“At the equator it’s surface rotates faster, every 24 days.”

“Another fun fact: the orbital plane of the planets is tilted about 7 degrees in relation to the Sun’s axis mentioned above.”

“This should not be the case because of the way planets form around a star.”

“Astronomer’s suspect that the orbital plane of the planets tilted as a result of the gravity of a large planet size object that is no longer around.”

“Existence of this planet is hypothetical so it was given a name Planet X (or sometimes Planet 9). Other anomalies had been observed that could also suggest existence of such an object.”

“Example: grouping of planetoids on the outskirts of the Solar System.”

“The reason that the planet hasn’t been observed directly is that it’s so far away beyond Neptune that it doesn’t reflect enough sunlight to be seen with available technology.”

“Another proposed explanation for the orbital plane tilt is existence of a nearby planet-sized black hole which orbits the Sun but hasn’t been detected yet.”

“The new James Webb space telescope that will be launched soon should help to answer those questions.”  ~ aykontakt

“Makes you wonder. What if something hit Venus?”

“In Dynamics if two objects hit each other and their center of gravities aren’t along the path each was traveling, one will spin clockwise and the other counterclockwise.”

“Maybe Earth and Venus are the same size because we’re the result of two roughly similar sized objects hitting each other in space. Idk.”  ~ detectiveDollar

Within Reach…

“You’re closer to space than you are to anything more than about an hour’s drive away.”

“Most folks take “space” to be “outside of Earth’s atmosphere.”

“There’s no precise boundary to where Earth’s atmosphere ends and space starts, but a lot of people take the Kármán line to be as good a point as any to split atmosphere vs. space.”

This line is 100km/62 miles up, which is roughly the distance your grandma can drive in an hour on the highway.”  ~ meatfrappe

I see the resemblance…

“Tyrannosaurus was closer in time to Humans than to Stegosaurus.”  ~ jsreyn

“That explains why my arms are so short.”  ~ TransientFeelings

“Haha same! When I sit on a chair, I never know what to do with my arms.”

“If I put them on my legs near my hips, I end up slouching because I can’t sit straight and put my hands on my thighs.”

“So I cross my arms and then people say I look defensive.”  ~ Zealousideal9151

Human Waste in Orbit…

“If you bleed more than 100ml/min on the international space station, they write you off and say any medical supplies spent on you is a waste.”  

“It’s been years since I saw the article but I believe the only plan at that point was ‘get the astronaut to earth ASAP’ which, you know… isn’t done in a few minutes, soooo.”  ~ Wit-wat-4

Square cut or pear shaped…

“Diamonds aren’t forever. In fact, they are dust at 500 degrees in your oven for a few hours.”

“Diamonds aren’t pressure/temperature stable at the surface. If you heat them without also applying incredible pressure, they become CO2 and a little pile of carbon.”  ~ Driftmoth

Veggies keep you level…

“If you ever get a cut and it won’t seem to stop bleeding chances are you’re low on vitamin K as it’s the one that helps your blood clot. Vitamin K can be found in most vegetables.”  ~ orion284

“Especially leafy greens! Which is why people on warfarin (and certain other anticoagulants IIRC) need to be mindful of their greens intake… ideally.”

“They should eat them only in moderation and aim for the same amount every day to keep their warfarin levels stable.”  ~ sheepthechicken

Always Sunny, Everyday

“The sun rises on the ISS every ~90 minutes which is the time it takes to orbit the earth and so astronauts experience about 16 mornings everyday.”  ~ pseud0human

I feel like my IQ points just jumped exponentially.

There is definitely enough information there to make me look a tad more sophisticated at parties.

There is no such thing as useless knowledge! The more you know, the more you grow.

Maybe I should write for Hallmark…

Anyway, knowledge of science can be fun and keep us from making foolish mistakes or bad decisions.

Remember that kids.

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People Explain Which Items Everyone Should Stock In Their Fridge At All Times

I never know what’s in my fridge, until the smell overpowers me.

I know, that’s terrible. So first, I should probably acquire a maid for my fridge.

For me, the first item on my essentials list, for the kitchen’s most essential item, is cleanliness. Then chilled water and fruits, all kinds.

Home Ec life lesson number one… every refrigerator should house a few necessary key ingredients that make the home and life function.

Our meals begin there and it’s how our nutrients stay fresh. So what makes the permanent cut for your cooler?

Redditor connnor4real was also wondering the same thing, they asked:

What is essential to have in your fridge at all times?

Stay High!

“Having just condiments is pretty sad, but not having condiments at all is a whole different level of low.”   ~ 1SweetChuck

“The feeling of buying the ingredients to make something you really fancy.”

“It’s ready and you’re just about to eat so you open the fridge and realise at the last second that you don’t have that one specific condiment you like with it.”   ~ Reddit

Life’s Most Hidden “Treasures.”

“A strange jar of something completely unlabelled and hidden toward the back. It stays there for years and keeps people guessing.”  ~ turboyabby

“When we were renovating our stairs we found a few jars of asparagus from the 1930s.”

“We also threw a lot of old food away after my grandpa passed, but unfortunately I didn’t pay attention to the dates on it.”

“Old houses and old people are always interested in this regard.”   ~ Jidaque

I have nothing to shake!

“I’ll never forget the time I was invited to eat at my aunt’s boyfriend’s house (why, I have no clue). I had to have been around 11 or so.”

“The man had no salt. No salt-like product. How do you not own salt?”

“If you choose not to eat salt for whatever reason, how do you not own salt for people you invite over? It’s like the one basic seasoning.”

“I’m 41 and whenever that comes to mind I still get annoyed at the idea of it.”  ~ manderly808

Don’t be without your shot!

“If you’re a type 1 diabetic, a nicely chilled stockpile of insulin.”  ~ DarthContinent

“It has to be in the butter compartment though, amirite? We call it the insulin penthouse.”

“Edit: lots of people mentioning the butter compartment is a bad spot to store insulin.”

“This is very fridge design dependant. Our insulin penthouse stays a pretty consistent 5-6°C. Most insulin should be stored between 2-8°C.”  ~ xisonc

“I’ve had bottles fly out of butter compartments when I open the door quick. So now I put my insulin and juice in the crisper drawer and call it the diabetes drawer.”

“Any veggies I would keep in there were are gonna go bad before I eat them anyway.” ~ Clynnhof

Keep the Spices Close!!

“Some kinda hot sauce, I go for cholula and sriracha.”

“Yo I’m very aware you don’t need them in the fridge to stay good. Also thanks for the recommendations everyone!”  ~ BewareTheLobster

“We keep El Yucateco, Cholula, Louisiana, Tabasco, Huichol, Valentina, and Tapatío.”

“Also often keep a more home style jalapeño and tomatillo or chile de árbol salsa.”

“Once in awhile the molcajéte will show up with various salsas in it, or whatever was left over from the last trip to the taqueria.”

“I could go for some chile morita salsa. And carnitas.”  ~ CoherentLogic

All that is Left Behind…

“Leftovers that I will never actually eat.” ~ wehosh

“Leftovers go through 3 phases…”

“1) I can still eat this because I just cooked it yesterday but I won’t.”

“2) It’s been 2-3 days, I should really eat that now before it goes bad.”

“3) Why did I even save that, now it’s been 4 days and it’s definitely bad but I don’t want to throw it out and let it sit in my garbage can so might as well wait until garbage day.”

“Edit: Yes I get it. You can eat leftovers after 4 days. That’s great.”

“Personally I have leftover fish in my fridge from Thursday and it’s in phase 3. But if you want to eat food a week after it’s been cooked be my guest.”  ~ Blaine_The_Mono_

Just in case Bugs Bunny swings by…

“Carrots… just because.”  ~ ejsfsc07

“If they need to be in the fridge, why do they not live in the fridge section of the supermarket?”

“I guess it depends how long you plan to keep them before eating them, I never had a problem having them in my room.”  ~ KorhakaFor carrots? 

“For carrots? In the south US at least, the whole carrots are always in the cooled off veggie section (no doors, lower temps, sprayed with water throughout the day).”

“And the cut and shredded bags are definitely in the refrigerated veggie section (even lower temps along with lettuce and salad bags, sometimes with doors depending on store).”  ~ unboundartist

Spreading for the carbs

“Anything that can be used on bread. Cheese, pâté, any kind of savoury spread.”

“I lost all pleasure to cook when my partner died, and bread+spreadables is my usual go-to. Oh, and eggs.” ~ LadyOfSighs

Whenever I Need it… I Need it!!

“Shredded cheese and tortillas. Gotta be able to make a quesadilla at the drop of a hat.”

We get the 50 pack at Costco. They sell it next to the bread, out in the open. It comes in two bags of 25, so one goes in the fridge and one in the freezer.”

“Yeah, they last a lot longer. If you’re getting a smaller quantity and getting through the bag before they grow fuzz, you’re probably ok.”  ~ NoSoul2335

Gotta give the box life…

“Electricity.”  ~ DavosLostFingers

“As someone who lives in one of the areas that have recently been flooded, this is definitely the most importing thing.”

“A lot of the things in the fridge were gone, but the worst part was that we weren’t able to conserve any of these.”  ~ Jeff_the_Officer

I Can’t See!

“Working light bulb.”  ~ SnooPears3006</

“Yes! Mine blew a few weeks ago and that’s never happened to me before. I had no idea what to do.

“I ended up finding a light bulb at the store easily enough the next day but until then, trying to find something in the fridge was so hard!!”

“We take advantage of that little thing!”  ~ Smil3yAngel

Well I now I have to go shopping.

My fridge is a sad, desolate place. I do have butter though, it’s a start.

Oh, and corn. I love corn.

Maybe we all need to start thinking in survival mode when we stock up and not just for our refrigerators, our cabinets too.

If Covid taught us anything, it’s that everything you may want or need, may be gone quickly, so always make sure the essentials are there.

Did anyone else’s shopping list just grow exponentially?

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People Break Down The Facts That Sound Like BS But Are Totally True

Lies and truth are not one in the same, but the are related. That’s because the most fantastical tales are forged in reality.

Which is why they say truth is stranger than fiction.

I mean look at the world we’re living in. Look at the half decade we just survived.

There are things we’ve all been privy to that if we told our younger selves years ago about we would’ve laughed in disbelief.

But facts are facts.

No matter how wild they can seem, the details are real. We just don’t know how anyone is left stunned by truth anymore.

Life is an Onion article, get comfortable.

That is why a shy Redditor wanted to get together and share some shocking, pearl clutching facts we may not have been so willing to originally believe until we got receipts.

They asked for:

“The most BS-sounding-but-true fact you know?”

“The RAM is watching”

“Cosmic rays from outer space cause glitches in your electronics. In some electronics, cosmic rays are the primary source of soft errors.”

“Cosmic rays are one of the main reasons that servers and high reliability computers use error correcting RAM.” ~ random_reddit_accoun

EVERGREEN

“Trees have such intricate root systems that a tree low on one particular type of nutrient will acquire some from his neighbors and make up for it later.”

“This is especially prevalent during the winter months when some trees don’t have leaves and so need extra help from their evergreen friends.” ~ kewlkidmgoo

HOT SUMMER

“In the early 1900’s a wave a molasses rushed through the streets of Boston at 35mph killing 21 people. For decades later, locals said on hot summer days they could still smell molasses in the air.” ~ bartlechoo

I’m Melting

“If you melted down the Eiffel Tower, the pool of iron would be less than 3 inches deep (in a square area the same dimensions as the tower base).” ~ Reddit

“You know those arch things connecting the legs of the Eiffel Tower? If you know anything about architecture, you’d probably assume they make perfect sense.”

“They are there to transfer the load of the tower above down to to the legs. Arches are perfect for that.”

“Nope. They’re a scam. Eiffel designed the thing without them, but the guys holding the money thought it looked too rickety.”

“And people wouldn’t pay to go up in it. So they forced him to bolt on fake arch panels to make it LOOK stronger.” ~ DrColdReality

KABOOM!

“There were people who were killed by the Atom bombs who were born during Japan’s Samurai era.”

“Japans military went from swords, spears and bows to planes, tanks and aircraft carriers in a single humans lifetime. And people say Civilization is unrealistic.” ~ neohellpoet

APPROVED

“The United States in World War 2 created a bomb that used bats.”

“The bats would be carrying small incendiary charges and would be released from the bomb in mid air, causing them to fly and scatter to different buildings in the area.”

“The charges would then detonate and set all the buildings on fire. It was tested and proven to be very effective.”

“This was actually APPROVED by the government for development and production, and then cancelled because of the atomic bomb.”

“The idea was thought up by a Dentist who was friends with Eleanor Roosevelt: Link” ~ DinosaurFriend

Under the Sea

“The Pistol Shrimp can create a cavitation bubble that when collapsing can create a sonoluminescence that can reach temperatures near the temperature of the surface of sun and the sound competes with some of the loudest creatures in the ocean.” ~ DaddysWetPeen

NUMBERS

“If every star in our galaxy had a trillion planets, each with a trillion people living on them, and each of these people has a trillion packs of cards and somehow they manage to make unique shuffles 1,000 times per second, and they’d been doing that since the Big Bang, they’d only just now be starting to repeat shuffles.”

“That was copied from this QI article.”

“The number of ways to shuffle a deck of cards is 80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766, 975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000. ~ ccnova

The Choir Sings

“On March 1, 1950, the West Side Baptist Church exploded at 7:27 p.m., right when the scheduled choir practice was supposed to be occurring.”

“The explosion was powerful and swift, taking a nearby radio station off the air. However, not a single choir member got hurt.”

“All fifteen members were delayed from attending the practice. Two women had car troubles, one had trouble with a particularly difficult math problem, another was listening to their favorite radio station.”

“The list goes on and on. If they had been at the church on time for the choir practice, they would have died.” ~ SecretAgendaMan

Repeat…

“There is an immortal jellyfish. When it gets old it reverts itself back into it’s youngest stage and relives life over and over again!” ~ Rdken13

MICRO

“This is more scary that bull crap but its true nonetheless, there are thousands of micro tumors in your body right now and they only need correct conditions to become cancerous.”

“Your body kicks butt at fighting these micro tumors so you have nothing really to worry about.”

YUM

“Chocolate doesn’t have caffeine. Caffeine is added to chocolate because people, in err, expect it to be there.”

“In actuality it naturally contains theobromine which is a methylxanthine, like caffeine. This is what makes chocolate bad for dogs.”

“Also the toxic dose for them is similar between dogs and humans at around 150g/kg if I remember right.”

“Humans just weigh more and don’t tend to sneak into the pantry and eat a 2 lbs block of bakers chocolate.” ~ IRageAlotInIn

CARGO ISSUES

“In the Age of Sail, piracy was seen as simply part of doing business.”

“When approached by a pirate ship, a merchant vessel would almost never put up a fight, simply turning their cargo over instead. Why?”

“Because, as a cost of doing business, cargo was insured against piracy and there was no point in risking life and limb to protect it.” ~ Blenderhead36

They say don’t believe everything you read, but I just read a lot of stuff that makes sense.

Look at it this way, even if it’s odd, it’s still knowledge.

Collect as much of that as you can.

You never know when Jeopardy! will call.