Author: Trisha Leigh

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On-the-Job Fails That Remind Us We’re All Just Doing Our Best

We all have a ton of things going on in our lives.

Working a job you don’t love day in and day out can be challenging.

And sometimes, people just don’t quite bring their A-game.

But that’s why subreddits like r/NotMyJob exist, right?

Here are 15 absolute job fails, to make you feel a little better about whatever you did this week that wasn’t quite perfect.

1. When Poorly Drawn Lines isn’t just a fun cartoon

I mean. They tried. Right?

Image credit: r/NotMyJob via Pleated Jeans

2. Sometimes you need coffee more than you even know

OR maybe it’s some secret code, a silent scream for help.

Image credit: r/NotMyJob via Pleated Jeans

3. The ramp to nowhere

I feel like someone could’ve used context with their work order.

I made the wheelchair ramp, boss from NotMyJob

4. The gate to nowhere

Where to begin. I guess it’s a beginning.

Image credit: r/NotMyJob via Pleated Jeans

5. It’s only nonstick until it isn’t

But was the pan at fault? Or the sticker?

Image credit: r/NotMyJob via Pleated Jeans

6. They came, they saw, they painted

It just looks prettier that way, TBH.

It’s part of the bench now. from NotMyJob

7. Taking the term soccer “pitch” literally

Defined as: the steepness of a slope.

Builded boss from NotMyJob

8. The Elsa you need as a conscience

She will silently judge everything you do.

Image credit: r/NotMyJob via Pleated Jeans

9. Close enough

Directions are for tools.

Image credit: r/NotMyJob via Pleated Jeans

10. May have followed the directions too closely

Not their job to question the directions.

Put the wall in, Boss! from NotMyJob

11. Tired Man

It’s the Diet Barbie version of Iron Man.

Image credit: r/NotMyJob via Pleated Jeans

12. Plumbing is not my strong suit

Creative but lazy solutions to mistakes, that’s my bag.

Image credit: r/NotMyJob via Pleated Jeans

13. Job title is pipe-layer

No one said anything about moving boulders.

Ah, good enough from NotMyJob

14. It’s a new way of cutting pizza

Winner gets the little piece in the middle.

Image credit: r/NotMyJob via Pleated Jeans

15. Do you want light, or do you want safety?

You obviously can’t have both.

Installed the railing boss from NotMyJob

The point is, we all have bad days. I’ve certainly had my fair share of doozies.

These definitely made me feel better about the times I didn’t quite measure up.

What about you? Did we leave out any impressive job fails? Drop them in the comments!

The post On-the-Job Fails That Remind Us We’re All Just Doing Our Best appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Discuss Niche Hobbies and Their Surprising Dark Sides

When you think about niche hobbies like knitting, or stamp collecting, or maybe bird watching, you probably don’t imagine there’s a dark side, but listen – literally everything imagined and carried out by humans has an underbelly.

That said, what goes on at say, backstage at a Yu-Gi-Oh convention might truly surprise you – and these 14 people are laying bare some secrets that will probably drop your jaws.

14. I know I’m shocked.

Plant collecting.

People poach them from nature, steal them from nurseries, conservatories and homes, file fake claims against the sellers to get their money back, paint plants to look like a different species, flip plants without proper quarantine and acclimation, and also sell infected plants (be it bugs, rot, mosaic virus etc).

Honestly, it’s SHOCKING how many awful things can go wrong with collecting plants…

13. I don’t know what most of this means.

Ham radio has a fair number of racist a$$holes and outright crazy people. The 80 meter band is like the 4chan of the airwaves sometimes.

My grandfather was racist on his old CB. He had this huge tower in the back yard and was thrilled that he could reach other countries. Provided those foreign people spoke English. Otherwise he’d call them Jabbering Monkeys.

12. The quilters? Say it ain’t so!

Quilting.

Gossip around people with “a fabric habit” can be quite mean!

There are people, I have to say tends to be middle aged or older Southern women (though not all all southern quilters by any means) will go after any modernization in style (by another quilter) hard.

Crazy big controversy a couple years ago because some people found some quilts at a quilting conference (showing basically) “too political” and their reaction was quite over the top. (Politics in quilting isn’t remotely new.) Anyway, yeah, quilting community is not all old ladies sitting around sewing and having tea.

11. Wait, really?

Pokémon Go.

Fights over gyms and PvP battles. Mainly gyms, I think a couple have actually died over it.

They blew it by not having PvP battles in the first release of the game.

That was such a good game but people got tired of just collecting and not battling.

10. That all sounds like a lot of work.

Computer security.

You start out with some naive idea about maybe fixing a bug you found in some software… and slowly become aware of an aggressively boring world consisting of multimillion dollar lawsuits, secretive organizations, politics, and international crime.

It’s good fun when you can ignore all that and fix some bugs or write a neat program though.

9. Even if we’d rather forget.

Remember those giant pants from the late 90s? Well, there’s been an entire reseller market for them for years chock full of dedicated collectors and enthusiasts (mostly ravers because duh lol). The market used to be completely fair and you could usually snag yourself a couple of rare designs off eBay for a reasonable double digit price. All until…

One guy. One f**king guy emerged over the past couple of years that has completely destroyed that market fairness. It’s not even conjecture that it’s just one person, it’s the legitimate source of the demise of our little corner of the world. Essentially, an IG “influencer” started flooding eBay with INSANELY priced pants, like we’re talking almost $1k on common items, and tied it all to his IG so people who had zero clue about our market figured that that’s just what shit was worth. Couple that with skirting platform ToS to buy low/sell high (in this case, straight up scamming) and his penchant for flat out stalking and threatening people who come after him and you have what we have now: zero ability to continue our hobby with new/rare items because now anyone who finds something at a thrift store thinks it’s suddenly a gold mine.

The stupid thing is, the guy claims to be an authority on this kind of fashion but genuinely has NEVER been a part of any related community (especially since he’s known and shunned lol). It’s gotten so bad that there’s even a recent article out about how the dude unknowingly sold something to Drake and it was claimed as a bootleg by another big celeb WHO MADE SAID CLOTHING LINE. So now the guy is getting national attention for selling to a celeb, despite cleanly ripping him off.

8. I need pictures.

Doll collecting.

Fakes are a big business and people are mad!

You know it’s wild when a doll can get canceled.

Thank goodness dolls aren’t sentient because the scrutiny and judgement they get from fans is hard. And I say that as a huge fan who also thinks Mattel has turned Barbie into a cheap piece of crap in the past 10 years. Don’t get me started….

7. I want to know more.

Hands down everyone who collects salt and pepper shakers has a body buried somewhere.

Old ladies will throw down with a motherfucker for salt and pepper shakers. At my former job, we had shaker sets that were exclusive to certain holidays. For Thanksgiving, we had these cute, little turkey sets and every grandma that set foot in that store went home with one. Due to their popularity, we were running low on turkey shakers every goddamn week.

I had to calm disgruntled old ladies who didn’t get any and somehow make more magically appear so they didn’t skin me alive. It was rough.

6. It is a performance art.

Improv is full of predators ?

When I was 16 years old I got into my local improv class because my now ex-boyfriend (also 16) was there. We werent the only teens but most of the class was 30-40 year old men. The amount of sexual jokes directed at me was horrifying. I remember in one of the skits they wanted me to act as a sexy teacher and one older man as a father of a misbehaving kid.

I only went there for two months. Recently I learned that one of these men from that improv class is now in politics so yeah…not cool.

5. How wrong you are.

Lego. It’s a kids toy, right?

Wrong. We have a chronic problem where new releases sell out almost immediately, going for vastly marked up prices while being unavailable to the public for months on end. Also, The Lego Group treats product leaks like murder cases, surgically ferreting out the responsible party. It’s like the “Marvel’s hitmen” joke.

And don’t even get me started on the figure market. This is a relatively new creation, since Covid got a lot of adult fans into the hobby and searching for rare and nostalgic figures. Cue a bunch of absolute jacka$$es going on EBay and buying specific figures in bulk because they think they’re the new r/wallstreetbets.

They will coordinate their attacks, going after somewhat rare but not impossible to find figures like Bail Organa or Captain Rex (this problem is uniquely pernicious in the LSW community which has several very terrible influencers in it) and “sending them to the moon”. Captain Rex is not a genuinely rare figure. He was in one set, yes, but it was a cheap, mass produced set a LOT of people have. His price should be somewhere around 35-40 dollars, like Grand Admiral Thrawn was before a certain M plus R character bought a bajillion. Instead, both Rex and Thrawn can go for upwards of a hundred dollars. It’s fucking mental.

They’ve totally f**ked the third party market, treating it like a damned stocks game when all the general public wants is some cool toys. The Lego Insta and YT communities are absolutely terrible. Surprisingly our Reddits aren’t tho, with the exception of the sales ones (predictably) which have very strict guidelines but still fall prey to drama around counterfeiters and catfish.

4. It’s literally dark.

Astronomy / stargazing.

People will drive for hours just to get to a dark sky, with minimal or no light pollution. And light pollution is getting worse and more widespread every year.

Marines 2003. Was on a flat top carrier in the middle of the pacific working night shift and all the ships worked under wartime night ops. So no white lights. All dark. Only green or red dim lighting. We were on the equator. No moon. My mind was fucking blown.

As a civilization we lost something losing that kind of a view normally.

3. There’s a lot of money involved…

Truffle hunting.

My professor used to talk about how he knew guys that would get murdered just because of truffles.

Or how if you find a way to grow a mushroom like the morel in a farm, people would get murdered over that as well.

2. I’ve seen Whiplash.

I don’t know about a dark side to it as a hobby, but music.

Great hobby, awesome creative outlet. But professional music and music academia is toxic. Expecting students to work for 12+ hours every day, constantly being compared to others in negative ways, the massive drug culture that surrounds music students – I don’t know any music student that wasn’t at least taking Adderall to study, if not coke and other drugs at times too.

And professional music, at least professional orchestras and big bands, require such talent that you basically just have to practice nonstop for decades to get into them. Which you learned how to do in music school – just pop some pills, do nothing but play your instrument, and have no life.

It’s getting better in a lot of schools and for a lot of people, thankfully.

1. Adult toy collectors.

I collect a few different kinds of toys for the nostalgia. And let me tell you, adult toy collectors can be terrible, entitled brats. Contrary to what they believe adults are NOT the target demographic! The companies are catering to children! Stop harassing them on social media! Stop bullying literal children over it!

Scalping can be a huge issue as well. People would buy whole shelves of things just to re-sell at a markup. Adults who aren’t into it sometimes assume the worst of you (and the”worst” varies). I’m just an adult who spends some of their fun money on cute colorful things. Sometimes you’re just trying to make friends and you stumble into a kink community!

People can do what they’d like as long as it safe, sane and consensual, but you can get surprised by it or have it pushed on you. The most frequent kink grosses me out actually and I really have to watch who I interact with.

I honestly can’t say I’m surprised, but I definitely had no idea.

What niche hobby do you have inside knowledge of? Drop the secrets on us in the comments!

The post People Discuss Niche Hobbies and Their Surprising Dark Sides appeared first on UberFacts.

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6 Facts About “The Monster At The End Of This Book”

If you have kids or have ever had occasion to read books to children, there’s a good chance you’ve come across The Monster at the End of This Book.

First published in 1971, author Jon Stone and illustrator Michael Smollin struck gold, and you’d be hard pressed to find a children’s library that doesn’t contain at least one copy.

It’s sold more than 20 million copies worldwide – from the title pages, which freak Grover out, all the way to the hilarious conclusion, we know it cover-to-cover.

Still, there are probably a few things you don’t know about the book – we think the six facts below or definitely worth sharing!

6. It only took a few hours to write it.

The Washington Post claims Jon Stone wrote the book – all 350 words – on a legal pad as he flew home to California in late 1970 or early 1971. He hated flying and would write to ease his anxiety…in this case, by giving his character intense anxiety.

Once on the ground he showed the manuscript to Christopher Cerf, who was helping develop books and other products to fund Sesame Street.

Cerf thought Stone was onto something, and as someone who had worked with several famous children’s authors (including Dr. Suess), he knew what he was talking about.

5. The author was one of the architects of Sesame Street.

 

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As for Stone, he started with CBS after graduating from the Yale School of Drama in 1955. Prior to the debut of Sesame Street he’d written for Captain Kangaroo, and after being recruited by co-creator Joan Ganz, Stone was tasked with assembling Sesame Street’s original, inclusive cast.

He also developed some of its best-known characters, wrote the pilot episode, and helped bring Jim Henson on board.

4. The illustrator was a decorated war veteran.

 

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Illustrator Michael Smollin was born to immigrant parents in 1925 as they fled the chaos of WWI. Smollin himself fought in WWII, earning a Purple Heart for his actions during the Battle of the Bulge.

He was a commercial illustrator for many years with a huge and important client list that included Milton Bradley, TV Guide, and Time magazine.

3. This book has influenced many others.

 

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From award-winning thriller authors like Brad Parks, who said “There is a monster at the end of all of my novels, and I want you to feel this unbearable compulsion to turn pages and find out what it is,” to science fiction novelists like David Burr Gerrard, who say The Monster at the End of This Book taught him what literature “could and should do,” Stone’s small tale has inspired giants.

Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author, expounded on why they believe the book is the force behind so many careers.

“I suspect The Monster at the End of This Book is one of those influences many thriller writers have in common, even if we’re not aware of it. It was certainly my first encounter with suspense – knowing from the title that there’s a monster waiting for us on the last page and feeling both dread and delightful anticipation as I made my way through the book – and of experiencing a twist ending. In hindsight, The Monster at the End of This Book acts as a sly commentary on the sometimes cruel curiosity humans possess. Grover implores us not to turn the page. Yet we do. Every damn time. Which, in a twisted way, makes us monstrous as well.”

2. The Muppet who became Grover first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967.

In the 1967 Christmas Eve episode of The Ed Sullivan Show, a green Muppet with an orange nose – a proto-Grover known as Gleep – starred in a sketch where he and a crew of burglars set about disrupting work in Santa’s workshop.

Grover became a regular on Sesame Street three years later, in 1970, one year before The Monster at the End of This Book was published – blue fur, pink nose, all lovable anxiety and sweet agreeability.

1. The book also inspired many other projects.

Several more Grover books, all created by the team of Stone and Sullivan, were published after The Monster at the End of This Book, and sequels have been published as recently as 2006.

The books has been translated into an award-winning interactive app, which has been downloaded more than half a million times, and in 2013, the official Sesame Street Twitter account warned their followers not to retweet “There is a MONSTER at the End of This Twitter Conversation.”

HBO Max also debuted an animated special called There is a Monster at the End of This Story in late 2020.

This definitely makes me want to read this with my kiddo sooner rather than later?

How many times have you read this book to littles? Drop an educated guess in the comments!

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Why Can’t We Say “I’m Not Educated On That” About Things We Don’t Know About?

When someone asks us a question, I think most of us feel badly if we don’t know the answer – which is crazy, because no one knows everything about everything, right? Or even a little bit about some things, because we all have our specialities and areas of interest.

A person on Reddit wondered why it’s not socially acceptable to just say “I’m not educated about that” when we don’t know the answer, and to not judge people (or ourselves) for not knowing everything.

Here’s the post:

“I’m not educated on that subject” needs to be a more common/accepted response

There’s this idea that every time someone asks a question about anything they expect some form of answer.

I think there’s 2 reasons:

  1. The world today let’s people have an opinion on anything whether they know about the subject or not. While there’s a ton of information it’s all watered down and bias for the most part. Even when talking to people it’s not their opinion it’s them regurgitating an opinion someone else has
  2. When you don’t have an opinion it’s seen as a negative thing as if you don’t care about what’s happening in the world or you’re stupid or something.

One of the most underrated skills is knowing when to shut up especially for us USA-ers. It’s perfect to tell someone I’m not educated in the subject or even IDGAF!

What does Reddit think about that?

We’re about to find out!

12. Not even teachers know everything.

I teach classes to engineers and engineering students. I use this phrase regularly because they can come up with some great questions. Then, I come back later with the answers.

They respect me a lot more for it than giving an answer that’s not correct or vague.

11. As they should.

I’m straight up when I dont know something. I’ll literally say to someone, unfortunately I don’t have much knowledge on that subject so I cant really speak on it. And everyone respects it. No stigma whatsoever

So yeah, more people should definitely admit when they don’t know something. Nothing will happen haha

10. Just be honest.

I use variations of these quite often, my go to is, ‘I believe (X), but let me refer to (the expert source) to get the final answer, just to make sure you’re getting completely accurate information’ or ‘honestly, I don’t know but I’ll gladly look into it and get back to you once I have the answer’

9. It doesn’t mean you’re dumb – the opposite, actually.

It’s a trait I recognized in my father and grew to adore: if he didn’t know something he would say as much. He might have fun hypothesizing over what the answer could possibly be, but he wasn’t married to his guesses and would only do it as a fun exercise until he found out what the answer was.

Growing up with him as the most intelligent man I’ve ever known, and watching him regularly say he wasn’t sure about something or another, and then looking at my friends’s fathers and their reluctance to ever say they didn’t know something made me realize that the truly smart people know when to keep their mouths shut and defer to the experts.

Smart people become smart by learning the answers to their questions instead of simply assuming that their first guess is correct.

8. If you want to get specific.

I prefer “I don’t know enough to have a sufficiently reliable opinion on the matter, so I would be inclined to take the input of those more educated on the topic over my own opinion.

This will allow me to build a more informed opinion on similar situations, and develop a better discernment between wise men and sly men.”

7. Communication skills are for everyone.

It’s funny, (through great effort & many therapists) I have developed the habit. I actually used it earlier today. But I learned it because I never saw it used. My parents used communication skills so poor I was able to eventually extrapolate good skills.

Well… Okay-ish skills. (I’m trying.)

But as a PhD today, I can definitely say that a significant indicator of intelligence is not knowing things but how someone deals with not knowing something.

6. They shouldn’t, anyway.

For real. I do that all the time.

My background is in science and you will get s**t on if you try to talk about things you don’t actually know about. It’s second nature at this point for me to say “this isn’t my specialty, but these are my thoughts…” or whatever.

No one thinks less of you for being aware of your own limitations.

5. What was modeled for you?

I grew up with the exact opposite father. He would constantly make stuff up and acts like he knew everything. Watching his arrogant behaviour growing up (which has now devolved into him being a conspiracy nut who’s wholly anti-vaccine) caused me to vow to never be that way.

I’m not hesitant to admit I don’t know something, and I try to help others find answers if they ask and I don’t know the answer off the top of my head.

4. Make it a team effort.

I was a supervisor of a small parts assembly team for a few years. When I started I had zero experience with their particular assemblies.

For the first few months whenever an employee would come up to me with a question, my response was almost always “I don’t know, but let’s see if we can figure it out”

This worked great to build a relationship with the employees and also allowed me as an outsider to give new ideas when their processes and procedures didn’t work very well.

3. Wise words.

My parents always said “you don’t need to know the answer for every question, just know how to find the answers you don’t know.”

I grew up with a huge dictionary and I always had to look up a word I didn’t know. They wouldn’t tell me the answer.

2. You can go on the offensive, too.

This also chains well into challenging someone who may be talking out of their a$$. “I don’t know enough about that to speak on it. What’s your expertise? How did you learn about it?”

A bulls*%tter’s position will quickly stutter.

1. Learning the hard way.

I learned to do this the hard way. Years ago, a friend of mine and another acquaintance I didn’t know that well were on a walk. My friend asked a question about good exercises for someone with bad knees. Me being the know-it-all and an aerobics instructor, jumped in with some stuff I pulled out of my a$$.

The other guy was patient and didn’t say anything. After I was finished going on and on, he gave his input and really seemed to know what he was talking about. Later that day I found out he was a doctor. Then I realized she’d really meant for the question to be directed towards him.

I felt like such an a**. But from that point on, I never again just jumped to answer a question with the authority of an expert. I always assume that someone else in the room might know more than me. And if I’m not sure about something, I’ll admit it.

And if I do know a little bit about something but it’s all just from googling and not from a formal education, I’ll admit that too and say, “Please disregard this if someone more knowledgeable says otherwise. I learned this at Google University.” I think I’ve saved myself a lot of potential embarrassment this way.

I’m going to adopt this in my life – maybe you could, too, and we could start a trend!

Thoughts? Leave them in the comments.

The post Why Can’t We Say “I’m Not Educated On That” About Things We Don’t Know About? appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Share the Weirdest Facts They Know

Facts are something that we all love and we all have our favorites.

The ones we can’t wait to drop anytime we get the chance, the ones that never fail to get us the reaction we want – and yes, the weirdest things we’ve heard that are just impossible to forget.

Those are the facts Reddit is asking for today, and let me tell you, these 18 people came up with some real doozies!

18. I’ll be listening for that this summer.

When male honey bees orgasm, their penises explode with a “pop!” audible to human ears.

And when winter comes the worker bees (which are all female) kick the male bees out to die in the cold because they do nothing other than mate with the queen and the queen can make more even if she is new and unmated. She needs to mate in order to make more female bees.

17. Consider my mind blown.

Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, Savoy cabbage, kohlrabi, and gai lan are all the same species of plant (Brassica oleracea), just bred to enhance different parts of the plant.

16. Well that’s unfortunate.

The man who invented the match.com website lost his wife to a man she met … On match.com

15. Cremated or just a really big can?

Fredric Baur, the inventor of the Pringles can, is buried in one.

14. This is definitely useful information.

Door knobs that are made out of brass can disinfect itself in about 8 hours.

Copper has the same effect. This early study published in April 2020 demonstrates the SARS-Cov-2 virus particles became non-viable after 4 hours on copper surfaces.

13. I mean there had to be some trick to it.

Woodpeckers tongues wrap around their brain to cushion them from a concussion when they peck against tree trunks.

12. The weight of paint.

If you want to paint a violin red you have to use a Naphthol or Pyrrol Red as a Cadmium Red pigment is too heavy and will alter the sound.

It adds up, the first two space shuttle External tanks were painted white. The external tanks ended up weighing 600 pounds more than the unpainted ones.

11. Now that’s ironic.

We don’t really know who the inventor of the fire hydrant is, because the patent was destroyed…….in a fire.

Homer: Springfield’s never had a hurricane in recorded history.

Lisa: The records only go back to the ’70s when the hall of records was mysteriously blown away.

10. Those things freak me out.

Koalas have fingerprints that are very close to human fingerprints. There apparently have been several “break-in” in Australia by the same “person” based of off fingerprint evidence.

Turned out to be a koala that was responsible for all of these.

9. I bet that’s delicious.

Volkswagen makes a currywurst (a type of sausage) and it has its own Original Part number. #199 398 500 A

No word on whether or not it’s wrapped in a proper pretzel.

8. This does not surprise me about poodles.

There was a genetic bottle neck in standard poodles starting in the 1950s. A kennel called the Wycliffe kennel linebred exceptional show dogs which became highly sought after as studs.

Even today, many standard poodles carry a substantial percentage from this line which traces back to just five dogs.

7. Fungi are amazing.

A fungi grows next to the highly radioactive “Elephant’s Foot” in the Chernobyl reactor. It feeds off the gamma rays emitted by the nuclear fuel in a process known as “radiosynthesis.”

If you were exposed to similar levels of radiation, you would have a lethal dose in 3 minutes.

Radiotrophic fungus was first discovered at the Chernobyl site in 1991, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the start of internationally-aided cleanup/containment efforts. Not so sure about right next to the Elephant’s Foot, but it was definitely found growing in large, flourishing colonies all throughout the site’s cooling water supply.

This fungus appears to use melanin – the same dark-brown pigment that gives humans all their various normal skin tones, except in much, much higher concentrations – to power sugar-producing reactions by deriving energy from nuclear decay the same way plants and cyanobacteria use the green pigment chlorophyll to synthesize sugars by deriving energy from (sun)light.

Basically, this stuff is a mold colony that has the most extreme tan ever, and uses it to eat radiation.

Similar fungi have been found accumulated on the exterior hulls of low-orbit spacecraft, and experiments were recently (2018-2019) conducted to begin investigating if the stuff could be used as shielding to protect astronauts from solar/cosmic radiation. Apparently, results were promising!

6. This is very disconcerting.

The spinal cord has the consistency of a ripe banana.

Yeah our vertebrae are rings of interlocking armor for a reason.

5. Those are fun party tricks.

Sloths can hold their breath longer than dolphins can. They can also die of starvation with a full stomach.

Their gut bacteria is very temperature dependent. Due to Global Warming ™, the temp in the Caribbean can go below its more usual 23C down to about 20C at times, which will kill their digestive bacteria, so they can’t digest what they eat. Sloths can’t regulate their body temperature well, so they can’t maintain an internal temp to stop this happening.

4. Terrifying, if you’re a caterpillar.

When caterpillars make their chrysalises, the don’t just grow wings & change, they dissolve completely into goo which then reforms into the butterfly.

Better yet, if you “train” the caterpillars to dislike certain stimuli, the resulting butterflies retain that memory & will avoid the same stimuli.

I don’t have a source to hand but I asked a relative who works a lot around butterflies.

She said that it has actually been shown that they retain some structure during metamorphosis, including their nervous system which explains the memory retention.

3. Facts about camels.

Most of the camels of Saudi Arabia are imported from Australia.

The largest wild population of camels is also in Australia.

It is illegal to kill wild camels in Arizona.

Back in the day they imported camels to cross Southern Arizona, found horses more reliable so released the camels. There’s a thriving population of wild horses in Arizona but sadly no more camels. ?

Llamas and other camel species can thrive here though.

Lastly, I remember watching Planet Earth for the first time and seeing Bactrian camels on film, for the first time, in their natural habitat. One of my favorite tv memories.

2. Talk about dark.

Anglerfish mate by the male biting the female’s abdomen.

Over time, the male is absorbed and linked to the female’s circulatory system while the male basically melts into a parasite-looking growth that is actually nothing but testicles which the female will use when she’s ready.

Weird enough for you?

1. And they still didn’t see that iceberg coming.

Titanic was fitted with microphones for receiving underwater bell signals. With this system the sound of submarine bells was received through the hull of the vessel.

Submarine bells, used as fog signals, were located on lightships, at lighthouses, and even on some specially equipped buoys. They were actuated by electric signals, compressed air, or simply by wave motion.

Titanic had two submarine microphones on her hull, one on each side. These were the “ears” of the ship. By switching between the port and starboard microphones and comparing the volume of the bells, the navigation officer could determine the direction to the navigation aid. Sound travels much further through water than through air – these bells could be heard over 15 miles away through the headset.

A pretty cool way of navigating at a time when GPS and RADAR didn’t yet exist!

I’m definitely adding some of these to my list.

What’s your favorite weird fact? Share it with us in the comments!

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People Discuss the Secrets They Learned Working at McDonald’s

All jobs have secrets, it’s just that not all of them are required to be kept once you’re no longer employed.

If you work for the CIA, you’ve probably got to take those to your grave, but otherwise…go ahead and spill.

And if you’re someone who goes through that McDonald’s drive thru on a regular basis – no judgement, I promise – you might be interested in hearing what employees learn once they’re given the keys to the castle.

So to speak.

16. That sounds delicious.

Worked there in high school.

Found out that if you put the middle of a Mac bun in the fryer and then add soft serve and strawberry topping, it tastes just like a funnel cake.

Custom creations were the best part of working there.

15. What was down there, though…?

The McDonald’s in my hometown had a basement.

I didn’t work there but on days where they had a shipment in, I’d watch them slide boxes down a slide that covered half the stairs while waiting in the drive through…

14. They get creative after hours.

Ice cream on top of a hot out the oven pie or cookie or cinnamon melt or brownie melt.

Or hot cakes. That shit was my jam.

I used to make quesadillas after close. The southwest mix and dressing was good for that.

We had taco Tuesdays sometimes, with in house toppings. Quarter meat, tomato, lettuce, cheese, tortillas, onions. I think the only thing brought in was the taco seasoning.

I’d scramble or sunnyside up the eggs for my break with the salt and pepper clicker meant for lunch meats and some cheese on top.

Not a “hack” but I miss the OG chicken select strips.

13. Too busy or too stunned?

My first day on the job I was told to be on the lookout for the elderly gentleman who would try to sneak around the counter and pour the entire coffee pot into his mug while everyone was too busy to stop him.

He showed up and I stared him down.

He didn’t get his coffee that day.

12. You never know what you’re gonna get.

I worked there when I was in high school. Not a secret, but I hadn’t known much about franchises before then.

I hadn’t realized that McDonald’s could vary quite a bit in quality and professionalism based on who the owners were and what type of management/workplace they set up. I worked at a really good one (with good management, I mean), but some are s*%t.

have 2 McDonald’s near me, both relatively same distance.

The one I usually go to is more crowded but I feel that the food is better prepared and the drinks taste right.

I’ve been to the other McDonald’s before, not as crowded, but the nuggets tend to have a stale texture and the coke has this weird bubble gum type aftertaste lol.

11. The parking lot is always hoppin.

Depending on which one you work at, the parking lot is basically a meet-up for druggies/drug dealers and (at least where I was in New Mexico) people to meet up and have sex in their cars. As long as they kept their business to the middle of the night and didn’t cause any serious problems, we were told not to call the cops or make a fuss, mostly because they’d come in and buy food after their shenanigans.

Soda and mini pies were really popular with heroin addicts. What I later found out is that management was actually told to let it slide by corporate, since everyone higher up was aware of how much money the “night crowd” brought in. I got to see many, many drug deals.

I’m convinced I saw at least one arms deal, but I of course have no way of verifying that.

10. That’s a lot of sugar.

Former employee here. I found out that, when making 5 gallons of sweet tea, an entire 4-pound bag of sugar goes in.

Sandwiches with round egg use real, cracked eggs. Folded and scrambled come from packaged goods in the freezer or fridge.

I also had a manager that insisted more people purchase Filet O Fish when it’s raining out because they subconsciously associate the watery weather with fish. Anyway, he did some research by poring through sales of Filet O Fish for months and months and comparing it to weather data for each day. Turns out he found something like a 3% increase on rainy days and was very pleased with himself.

Edit: Wow, I will answer some of your questions up here so people can see. The manager voiced his theory one day, and the crews all argued with him about it. This went on for a while. He was committed to proving us wrong, so he secretly pulled the sales numbers at work and did the rest on his own time, never breathing a word until he brought his printed report in to shut us all up.

He did separate Fridays during Lent and compared those days to each other in anticipation of having holes poked in his research. We still did that anyway, of course. As pointless and imperfect as the research was, it was impressive to see his commitment to giving us the middle finger!

9. An upgrade? Really?

Before I worked there , I always thought they used a grill . Turns its more of a heated press machine.

It used to be a grill. Upgrades.

8. That is unacceptable, sir.

My manager used to be on my back all of the time for ‘giving out too much sauce’.

He tried telling me the limit is one per meal.

7. It can be a messy job.

Drop any unopened chicken nugget sauce on the ground once — you’ve got yourself a sauce grenade.

Trash compactor can make for some fun explosions too. We had a volpack of ketchup that needed tossed for whatever reason, someone didn’t realize it shouldn’t go into the compactor. I go back after hearing a bang and a scream, dude is just caked in ketchup and it shot up out of the barrel of the manual compactor and painted the wall, ceiling, and bun rack.

They have since taken away the volpacks.

6. I find this hard to believe.

The official deodorizing spray they gave us is the most pleasant thing I’ve ever smelled in my entire life.

Even now, I wish I could smell it again.

5. The little things you learn.

The pickles are surprisingly aerodynamic. They stick to walls and (if you have the stones) managers shirts pretty well.

Yeah, they fly amazing. Pretty sure me and my old crew cost that store about $1k the entire time we worked there just throwing them things…

lol

4. Who hasn’t heard that one too many times in their life?

I learned that if I have time to lean, I have time to clean.

3. Efficiency wins.

Sauces for sandwiches have the craziest dispensers.

Ketchup and mustard are in these really rudimentary plastic funnel things that have a paddle in the handle, when you squeeze it gravity pushes just the right amount of sauce through holes.

Doesn’t seem like it’d work well but it does if you apply the proper amount of jigglin.

The Mac sauce, mayo, and tartar though, they’re in basically caulk tubes that get loaded into basically caulk guns. You pull the trigger on the handle and a reeeeaally satisfying ratchety clanking delivers a powerfully saucy surprise for the awaiting buns. Problem is, it takes a bit of finesse because if you hit that trigger too hard you’ll blow the bun and the wad of creme right through the condiment station and onto the wall 8 feet away.

No joke, the first couple tarter splurts of a fresh tube came out so hot I’d fire a shot or two in the trash to avoid premature splatulation during the lunch rush. The first salvo, properly elevated and adjusted for wind, could clear the whole kitchen and take out the McInfantry on the cash register.

2. Seriously, a nightmare.

I worked at McDonalds when they first introduced sweet tea and remember that it was brewed in a large bucket mixing hot water with a full bag of granulated sugar.

It makes me sick to think about but I still sometimes crave that disgustingly sweet tasty garbage.

1. The customers are the best part.

Cool story. I worked there in my teens for a couple years. Actually worked at 2 different locations so i saw the difference in standards.

At one store there was a guy who always rode his bike to the store every single day to hangout. He was on the spectrum …”slow” and McDonalds was kind of his castle. Everyone knew him and he got a lot of free food from the employees. He was a daily part of the shift for us.

Anyway, one day he had one too many root beers. (This was a thing he normally did) because he pretended the root beers were like real beers and he would get drunk. Everyone kind of would go along with it because he was funny and never did anything to wild. Unfortunately this day he took it a little too far and ended up in the parking lot throwing bottles at cars driving by.

Long story short. Guy was arrested and he was banned from that McDonalds for life. Kinda felt bad about it because that McDonalds was his favorite place to be. He would pull thru at 3 or 4 on his bike and stay and hang out with employees until like 8. Every. Single. Day. Before that incident one of the managers even made him his own little parking spot for his bicycle, he was happy as hell.

I think about that guy sometimes. Hope he’s found himself a new McDonalds.

Lol

I don’t know how to feel about some of these!

If you’ve ever worked at McDonald’s, do these ring true? Do you have more? We want to hear them in the comments!

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People Talk the Small Movie Roles That Left a Lasting Impression

When we decide on what movie or TV show to watch next, who’s starring in it will often sway us one way or another. We’re looking for the big names, the faces we recognize, and the talent we depend on to keep us entertained.

That said, it’s often the smaller characters who bring those shows or movies to life, and on rarer occasions, they’re also the ones that keep us coming back – or the ones that stick in our minds going forward.

Here are 15 roles that were meant to be small, but that viewers just couldn’t shake afterward.

15. She doesn’t even need a name to be memorable.

Now that’s really something.

14. Every single character in Mean Girls is perfection.

There is no way to complain about this movie. Full stop.

13. Who could have guessed how iconic this role would become?

Not even Drew Barrymore, I bet.

12. She really nailed this.

And elevated it, honestly.

11. I think we sometimes forget how little screen time he had.

He definitely used it to his full advantage.

10. He’s the best part of many of them.

Which I don’t think is saying a lot, but there you go.

9. The maid in the original version was great, too.

It’s just a fun part, I think.

8. Stockard Channing never lets us down.

She’s literally always the best.

7. A great role in a great series.

We’ll never forget it.

6. There are so many great roles in The Office.

This is one of the most underrated, I think.

5. I just love her.

She’s great in everything she does.

4. In a film full of great performances, she shines.

As usual, of course. Just an emotional punch.

3. Some of the most quotable lines in the film, right?

She just made the most of her time, for sure.

2. We’re all just chanting along, right?

I know I am, because yay!

1. She nailed those ten minutes.

The most memorable part of the movie, I think.

I agree with all of these – characters I’ll never forget, to be sure.

What part would you add to this list? Tell us in the comments!

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Small Movie Roles That All Had a Big Impact

They say there are no small parts, only small actors, and if you’ve ever seen a performance that didn’t take up much screen time but still made an impact, you know that’s true.

There are tons of examples out there – my favorite one, I think, is the Riley character from National Treasure (his comedic timing is just perfect!) – and these 17 people have some pretty great favorites, too!

17. Anyone who loves animals is a shoo in.

Just think about it.

16. She really is unforgettable.

Especially in the second one.

15. That is impressive.

And she definitely makes an impact.

Image Credit: Bored Panda

14. He can break your heart.

And it only takes like three scenes.

13. The Doug Judy episodes were the best.

Don’t @ me, you can’t win this argument.

12. Proof that someone can be the best and the worst.

And you still love them at the same time.

11. Poor Barb.

The fact that we feel for her after so few minutes with her speaks volumes.

10. He’s endlessly quotable.

And also quite a good parent.

Image Credit: Bored Panda

9. Honestly, every character in Pitch Perfect.

They were all written like they were as important as the main character.

Image Credit: Bored Panda

8. These movies would absolutely not be the same without her.

Kind of the definition of amazing, right?

Image Credit: Bored Panda

7. Amy Poehler is always unforgettable.

I don’t care if she has no lines at all.

6. She is a queen.

I love how many animated characters are on this list.

5. When you’re interesting, you’re interesting.

No way around that fact.

4. You’ve probably never realized how much time you spend thinking about him.

But now you do, and you’ll never be able to not.

3. Best parents in a teen film, ever.

This entire cast is amazing, tbh.

2. He really nailed those 3-4 jokes.

That’s how you launch a career, folks.

1. How could we forget this one?

We can’t. No way, no how.

What’s your favorite small part?

Tell us what it is and why down in the comments!

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Pairs of Shoes You Couldn’t Help But Notice on the Big Screen

Movies and celebrities often influence things like fashion and sales, but when it comes to shoes, we might not always notice what’s on people’s feet while watching an intense sort of movie.

In the case of these 10 pairs of shoes, though, there’s no way we could miss them – they’re burned in our brains and connected to the film where we first saw them, so let’s take a trip down memory lane, yeah?

10. Kinky Boots.

I mean, it’s literally in the title.

Image Credit: The Chive

9. You can’t have a list about movie shoes without these.

Arguably the most famous pairs of shoes ever.

Image Credit: The Chive

8. The matching black & white shoes.

I wish these two had worked things out in Lala Land.

Image Credit: The Chive

7. Rose’s shoes in JoJo Rabbit.

Depressing, but you definitely won’t forget them.

Image Credit: The Chive

6. Pretty Woman is iconic everything.

But your can’t forget those thigh-high boots.

Image Credit: The Chive

5. Back to the Future had some great shoes.

Like these amazing Nike Mag’s.

Image Credit: The Chive

4. The shoe phone!

We’d all like to Get Smart with one of these.

Image Credit: The Chive

3. It’s not a real brand…

Or is it? #Jumanji

Image Credit: The Chive

2. These red platform sandals.

One of the many wonderful parts of Taxi Driver.

Image Credit: The Chive

1. The Devil doesn’t just wear Prada.

These boots are Chanel.

Image Credit: The Chive

Ahh, classic cinema. Beautiful.

What’s your favorite pair of movie kicks? If they’re not on this list, put it in the comments!

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Night Owls Talk About the Things They Love About Being Awake All Night

There are two kinds of people out there – people who love to get up early and get things done, and people who love to stay up late, work all night, and let the rest of us have the daylight hours to ourselves.

Well, I guess technically there are three kinds of people, because there are always those who would rather be night folks but are forced by society to operate in daylight hours. Boo for them.

If you’re a day person and wondering what it is that night people love so much about the dark, here are 18 people willing to share their very favorite things.

18. It just smells different.

Night air has a different smell, especially in Spring. Flowers, rain, wet earth… all smell different at night to me.

I feel the same about night winter air, particularly when it’s snowing. Everything is calm and quiet, with a slight glow from lights being reflected between houses and clouds, and the soft sound of snowflakes hitting the ground. I used to stand at my bathroom window for ages in the middle of the night, leaning on the windowsill and breathing in the crisp cold air that just smells like snow (if you know, you know), watching the snow fall, with the occasional snowflake making its way through the screen to hit my face.

Such a sense of peace, it slows down my brain and I can stop thinking for awhile, just enjoy the silence and totally relax. Best way to wind down for a good sleep, nothing can match it. I miss that.

17. It would be easier to work from home in the middle of the night, for sure.

I can do whatever I want without anyone interrupting me.

I wish I lived alone in the middle of nowhere so whatever ruckus I make wouldn’t bother anyone.

I have more energy at night than at daytime.

16. Even some flowers come out to play.

I have flowers that bloom at night, so I love to sit on my back porch in the middle of the night, listen to the crickets chirp, and seeing the moonlight reflect off of my garden. 0

There’s nobody else around, it’s quiet, and it’s the only time I feel at peace.

During the day I feel like I need to be productive, there’s traffic and people and kids playing and tons of stuff to do, but like right now, 1:30am, I can sit on my porch and just be.

15. Which is hard to find these days.

Nobody else is awake. It’s true privacy.

Cruising around town at some odd hour of the night is a serene experience. It’s almost surreal.

I do this pretty often. A lot of late nights at the studio or other places and then I’m on my way home at 2 or 3am, enjoying the peaceful drive.

It’s really something else.

14. The pull of the moon.

The peace and quiet, it’s cooler ( temperature wise ) and I love the moonlight shining in my room.

It’s the peace for me. Nothing is more relaxing than being alone to recharge and just exist. No entertaining or compromising, just you doing you

It’s like the inside version of a breath of fresh air.

I prefer the porous rock to the giant searing ball of hatred in the sky.

13. Peace abounds.

the general lack of people. I work 3rd shift, and unlike my daywalking cohorts, I can listen to a podcast and do paperwork in relative peace because there’s a solid 3 hours in the middle of the night where I am left the heck alone.

I work 1930-0800 with a small crew and can pop in earbuds or whatever. Then on days off, I could be found running on one of the random country roads around my house at 2am but it’s rare anyone is out there.

I usually just run in the moonlight and only turn on my headlamp if a car is coming. I like my solitude.

The pandemic has been just fine on me.

12. Just enjoy the present.

The calmness, the serenity.

The night drive with windows open, no music, just the sound of my tires hitting the ground.

Man i could hear the brakes sound, i could hear the wheel turn.

Night time is like, we forget the problem of the world and just enjoy the present.

11. As long as your neighbors sleep.

It’s so quiet. And peaceful.

It feels like during the day the world is so busy and chaotic. At night it’s all zen.

This is why I want a house… my neighbors in the apartment complex are so damn loud. On one side is a twitch streamer and she’s screaming at her games until 4 or 5am most days. Above me is a couple that works opposite shifts so there’s always someone awake listening to music, vacuuming, doing the dishes, or… moving furniture around I guess, in the middle of the night.

If I leave my bedroom window open for some cool air, I’ll probably end up hearing the couple across the way fighting in their bedroom, which then makes other people’s dogs start barking.

I really miss being able to stay up a bit late to get some peace and quiet. Now I gotta turn on all the fans and a white noise machine to drown everything else out enough to sleep.

10. Unrequited love.

The stars.

I’ve got a big crush on stars.

9. The wildlife is adorbs.

The quiet, the lack of people, the wildlife is more active.

There are possums (Australian possums) living in our roof, and at night they like come out and sit on the verandah railings. I love leaving the curtains open so I can watch them play. They’ve all got names, they’ve got their own personalities and quirks.

There’s a family of wombats living in a burrow under the garden shed, and a couple of wallabies that visit at night. We also get visits from flying foxes, owls, tawny frogmouths.

8. It’s a different world.

The calmness and quietness of the surroundings, especially when places that are usually crowded are completely empty.

7. The nighttime sounds are soothing.

I just love the serene feeling during the night.

The gentle sounds of crickets are calming to the ears.

6. Lots of heaven-gazers, here.

The night sky is a huge sell for me.

Especially storm season. That and less people around

5. It eases the anxiety.

No expectations.

Daytime feels like I’m expected to do productive life things.

Nighttime, all I have to do is be quiet and no one expects anything else from me.

I can knit or read for hours and not feel like I’m “wasting the day.”

4. If people just aren’t your thing.

Day people are all asleep. Stores aren’t crowded. Less traffic.

I always do my grocery shopping late at night, so much more peaceful.

I just turn on my headphones and wander around a close to empty store.

3. There is downtime for everyone.

I think I was always a night person vs a morning person.

But it only got to very much be the case after I started working in high-stress jobs with long hours. Where despite being exhausted, I would still stay up for a few more hours into the night than I should have just to watch TV or read or clean or anything. It was my way of carving out at least a few hours of my day that were entirely mine to control and to do what I wanted to do, even if I knew it would make me miserable in the morning.

(I also know for a lot of people the gym can be that period too, and even though I was obviously under no obligation to go to the gym and always felt better after, it never really felt like “me” time as much as something I still felt like I had to do to stay in shape)

2. Nothing is a waste of time.

You have no obligations and no one expects anything of you.

You can stare at a wall for three hours or count blades of grass on your lawn and you don’t feel like you’re wasting time.

i’ve started doing stretches outside in my yard at 1am and i just love the sound and feel of night— the owls hooting, the coyotes howling, the calm of the wind.

I love the stars and the moonlight, it’s like magic to me for 30 minutes

1. You can just relax.

Does anyone else feel anxious that they need to be doing something productive while the sun is out? At night I feel relaxed. Office is closed. Everyone is asleep. No one is going to bug me, and there’s nothing I can do about particular problems even if I wanted to, so no one is going to mind if I’m just here chilling out doing nothing… right?

Only time I’ve really been able to get work done since the pandemic started is at night. My parents have a dog that barks a lot and even with (cheap) noise cancelling headphones, I can still hear him. Before covid, I could at least go somewhere quieter to study. When he and my parents are asleep, I know he won’t be barking. Of course, I can’t do that if I need to be in a call, so I either need to mute my mic and get flack for not participating much, or let everyone hear him bark constantly.

I can definitely see the appeal, but with kids and school and a job, there are only a lucky few who can pull it off.

Are you a night owl? Early bird? Tell us your favorite part of the day in the comments!

The post Night Owls Talk About the Things They Love About Being Awake All Night appeared first on UberFacts.