People Debate Whether School Cultivates a Fear of Failure in Children

I can honestly say that school DID NOT cultivate a fear of failure in me personally, but I’m just one example…

I know times have changed at least a little bit since I was in school, but in my school, if you weren’t a great athlete, you were kind of invisible…

I’m not complaining at all, I got good grades and had a blast in school with my friends, but I didn’t feel like the teachers were really all that interested in me in one way or another, so it was all a wash…

Do you think school cultivates a fear of failure in students?

Here’s what AskReddit users had to say.

1. The system…

“I feel like the school system barely does anything to try and spark interest in learning and instead just beats in a fear of failure due to the grading system causing students to fear making mistakes and instead focus on just trying to get good scores.

When a kid who might be a slow learner doesn’t understand something but the class is already moving on to another topic their going to feel embarrassed and anxious and instead of trying to fully understand the topics they’re just going to try and memorize as much as they can for that week just to do well on that week’s pop quiz or whatever and then forget that sh*t right after.”

2. Still haunted.

“I changed school systems a lot as a kid. One of those was between 3rd and 4th grade.

The school I went to during 3rd grade was about a year or two ahead of the school I went to during 4th grade in maths, so I had a really easy time and often ended up very bored, and occasionally made minor errors I may not have if I were paying attention.

Instead of being happy that I understood the material or encouraging me, my teacher berated me for every minor mistake and told my mother that I was causing problems.

This is the same teacher who made me count every book I read as half a book for our class reading challenge because I “read too much and it wouldn’t be fair”.

She haunts me to this day.”

3. That’s not good.

“Isn’t it funny that the one time in your life where you can fail and have almost no consequences is also the time that you are convinced that the world will end if you make one small mistake?”

4. Not encouraging…

“Schools push kids towards “success” by giving them everything ready-made.

Interest and perseverance is induced when they are told to figure out something on their own.

The skill of figuring out a problem helps throughout one’s life. Sadly, schools don’t encourage that.”

5. All about funding.

“Most schools only care about test scores because it’s how they get their funding. Realistically the whole system is geared toward grades and that does not correlate to an education.

I am very tactile when it comes to learning, so regurgitating facts back into a test was never my strong suite.

I did well enough to go to college, but I feel like most people with issues like mine instead begin to think they are stupid, or unable to learn material, because it’s not about teaching anymore it’s only about results and test scores.”

6. And on top of that…

“Not only that, but schools don’t teach sh*t.

They teach you how to memorize. I don’t remember anything I learned after I do a test on it, yet I remember various random lines from an engaging video on YouTube that I looked up because I was interested.

School is not run well whatsoever.”

7. Here’s who to get mad at.

“Schools don’t choose what they teach. Common Core determines that.

Teachers don’t want to teach what they are forced to teach. If you want to get angry at someone get mad at your school board and do some research and you’ll see how it’s basically lobbyists for giant education corporations to make sure they have exclusive rights to this district etc. It’s a business first, your child’s education is last.

And truthfully, if you think the federal government wants what is best for your children… Then you obviously never learned much yourself.”

8. The way it is.

“This is the modern US school system.

Chief culprits are standardized testing and No Child Left Behind, which do a waltz together while f*cking up the whole country.”

9. FAILURE.

“Not just fear of failure, school cultivates actual failure.

I think the bigger problem is it cultivates a fear of doing.

But yeah, the simplest way to do well in school is to already have the answers and that’s not how life works.”

10. Speaks to me.

“This 100% speaks to me as someone who always felt two steps behind compared to my peers in school.

It always took me a little while longer to grasp a concept. I always performed best when given a project over the span of a week or two to really think it through and draft my best work. Opposed to classes that quizzed me on every topic at the end of a week where I’d often fail.

Luckily I had parents at home that saw my potential and really pushed me to continue on into university and eventually graduate school (where I still have to put in many more hours of work to succeed compared to my peers).

But the fact that not every child has this support and has to lean on the school system completely is an issue when that very system fails them consistently.”

11. Even teachers agree.

“As a teacher, I completely agree.

I work in a broken system and every year my passion for teaching and learning erodes away.”

12. It’s about practice.

“This is why I always hated teachers that would grade homework (not a big project, more like a worksheet).

Why would you punish me for practicing something?

Practicing is not about doing it perfect the first time so what’s so different about math, science, etc.”

13. Affected.

“A bad teacher can really affect someone’s life.

I’m almost finished with a degree I don’t want because my teachers convinced me I wasn’t good at the subjects I was interested in.

Also, competition in university for admissions to programs that are small just motivates students to try and get the best grade possible instead of actually enjoying learning.”

Do you think school cultivates a fear of failure in kids?

Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Please and thank you!

The post People Debate Whether School Cultivates a Fear of Failure in Children appeared first on UberFacts.

People Discuss Whether Kids Under 12 Should Have Access to the Internet

Well, this promises to be interesting…

Kids and their access to the Internet has been a pretty divisive issue among parents for quite a long time now and I don’t think it’s going anywhere…because the Internet sure isn’t!

AskReddit users debated whether young kids should have access to the Internet. Let’s see how it went.

1. No reason for it.

“They have no reason to have access to internet.

They will find information that will destroy their innocence

They will start being influenced by d*ckheads on the internet, e.g. Jake Paul.

Which will lead to a bunch of other problems.”

2. Limited access.

“They should have limited access.

When I was like 10-11 my parents monitored me but still let me have fun. Because of that I got to get into gaming, acting (online videos inspired me) and drawing (art you tubers).

Of course I found some edgy offensive humor and s*x jokes but kids still found out about those at that age before the internet.”

3. Depends on the kid.

“I think that’s because really it depends on the child, how they were raised and how naturally vigilant they are. (meaning a lot of active internet people disagree because they turned out fine)

You can’t just say all children need to be monitored, but it may be good to check on ‘em now and again just to be on the safe side.

However it is doubtful you will successfully protect a 11-13 year old from losing their ‘innocence’. This is the age where children start to get curious end will look for stuff whether the parent likes it or not.

Really I believe it’s better to provide a safe environment where they feel they aren’t patronized, but you can be sure nothing really bad happens. The alternative being them sating their curiosity will mean being forced to look for it elsewhere and god knows what they will be exposed to.”

4. Keep an eye on them.

“We monitor our kids fairly closely, and my six year old watches a ton of videos on science and nature.

He probably knows more than me about some topic because of it and it’s really made him even more interested in space, geography, etc.

He also watches videos about video games, but the good has definitely outweighed the time wasting.”

5. Has to be more specific.

“I wouldn’t agree that that is the right way to think of it. It’s like saying that kids shouldn’t read books because some books are not the correct content.

What I would agree with would be more specific. Certain material should be off limits which can be done quite easily with certain programs or firewalls etc. K9 web protection is maybe a good example.

I get what you are saying though.

But I don’t agree with cutting off their ability to watch Netflix (internet) maybe even Google cookie recipes (internet) say they like playing fireboy and watergirl (internet).”

6. Parental controls.

“I suggest parental controls/monitoring your child – it’s kind of hard to block or monitor everything. Like YouTube, there’s everything from children’s cartoons to violence.

I’m not a parent so I don’t know how much it takes to monitor a child on a device, I’m sure it’s not easy though.”

7. Gotta be careful.

“Good luck finding parents that will monitor their children by watching along with them.

Jake Paul is a famous d*ckhead that will get into your child’s head.

The classmates will try to make your kid watch his videos and in the end your kid will start to rebel you by seeing you as an overprotective chopper parent.”

8. Can be amazing.

“Watching my 9 year old son research how to mod Minecraft was amazing.

He literally uses computers and does research more effectively than many baby boomers I know.

He learned way more from that about research than he did at school.”

9. They don’t need it.

“I don’t possibly have the time to monitor their every internet usage.

Also, I don’t want or need to learn all the techno crap involved in blocking them from internet bad stuff.

I didn’t have internet at 12, they don’t need it either.”

10. Times have changed.

“I would’ve agreed with this 15 years ago when the internet was much newer.

But nowadays a lot of schools are even use the internet for learning and teaching. There’s a lot of important content that they may need to have access to.

And honestly, the internet has become a part of our daily lives like electricity is. It’s no longer a luxury or this crazy new thing.”

11. A fine line.

“Overprotectiveness can end in negative outcomes too. Teach your child what is internet, how to use it as a tool and only as a tool.

Internet is a means to an end. It gives you basically 70-80% of human knowledge at the end of your fingertips. Helps you keep in touch with people who are tens or hundreds kilometers away.

Can give you entertainment. But it can also show you things toxic, or be used as a weapon.”

12. As simple as that.

“Children should just be monitored by their parents. It’s really that simple.

There are many tools at a parents disposal to monitor child usage of a computer and of a web browser. If the parents are doing their job then the child won’t have access to anything detrimental to their psyche.

My child has learned so much that I am not capable of teaching him through monitored use of the internet.”

What do you think about this issue?

Sound off in the comments!

We’d love to hear from you!

The post People Discuss Whether Kids Under 12 Should Have Access to the Internet appeared first on UberFacts.

People Talk About How Modern Education Shouldn’t Tell Kids That Wikipedia Is an Unreliable Source

It’s gotta be really tough to be a teacher at any level these days.

Not only are kids probably distracted by their smartphones 24/7, but they also have the entire Internet to pull from when they’re writing papers and doing projects…

And you know Wikipedia is always their first stop on that journey…

So, has it been a failure of the modern education system to convince students that Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source?

Are Wikipedia and other sources actually good for students?

Here’s how folks on AskReddit users responded to this question.

1. Here’s a hot take.

“Wikipedia is a practically unlimited source of free knowledge which is constantly being monitored by an army of nerds.

The fact that we do not have to pay for access is a miracle.

(Near enough) every article has a full and reliable list of references at the bottom.

I understand that students should be encouraged use the references at the bottom for true research but this is not taught. Students are simply told ‘Stay away from Wikipedia, anyone can change it, it’s completely unreliable’.”

2. Some problems…

“There are serious problems with the political parts of Wikipedia, e.g. the current wiki war China has on Taiwan.

Which is ironic because Wikipedia is often blocked in China…”

3. Interesting…

“I’ve learned in the last few years that a few random YouTube videos can teach me more than some of my CS professors ever did.

It’s amazing how random people on the internet are occasionally better than the actual people I’m supposed to learn from.”

4. References on top of references.

“I always used Wikipedia, but I use the Wikipedia’s reference on my references as well.

I had to remake a search because one of my teachers caught me, she said “everyone can write on Wikipedia, just search for mistakes on Wikipedia and you will see that people might put misinformation there for whatever reasons.””

5. Quick and easy.

“Part of learning should be how to find the right information quickly – categorizing Wikipedia as lazy is just plain stupid.

If you’re directly quoting Wikipedia there may be issues with accuracy. If you’re using the sources in Wikipedia your professor probably won’t even know. On top of that if you have access to actual academic journals for your course of study, using Wikipedia for sources may actually take MORE time to sort things out.

I dunno. I’m just grateful Wikipedia exists. It’s content and framework have done so much to educate people in the past 15/20 years, I don’t think it gets nearly enough credit.”

6. Not a primary source.

“Wikipedia is great to get a general understanding of a topic, and while it’s generally reliable, it should not be confused as a good primary source.

The whole point of the exercise is to understand what makes a good source.”

7. Depends on the topic.

“Depending on the topic, Wikipedia is an unreliable source. Even without considering the biased viewpoints of some of the moderators of the site, cytogeneses is a problem for wikipedia.

Years ago I knew someone who worked as a researcher in an educational book publisher. Her job was to identify all statements of facts in a chapter and find two independent sources for each statement of fact from another published work.

From my understanding they couldn’t use most of what would be a source on Wikipedia because you can’t trace it back to the original source.”

8. False info.

“I’m in online marketing and I can tell you for a fact that there are a lot of marketing managers/agencies who spread false information through Wikipedia that benefit their clients.

Wikipedia is often used to manipulate public opinion, so overall it is not a reliable source even though Wikipedia has some good information here and there.”

9. Issues.

“The first problem with Wikipedia is that it’s low key political (not counting articles that don’t involve politics), or even high key in an article with high political issues.

The second problem is that minor articles (not popular, famous, or widely known to most people) can be wrong at times because there aren’t many people paying attention to it to update the information so the information can either be outdated, falsely written because there are no moderators of the article, or not containing enough information.

But otherwise, it’s a very reliable source of information”

10. Influence?

“Another issue is that there’s nothing stopping major corporations from hiring people as full time Wikipedia moderators to steer narratives for either political or financial gain.”

11. Great place to start.

“What I tell my students: Wikipedia is not a reliable academic source. This is because the information can be changed by anyone and citations are optional.

A well written Wikipedia article is a great place to start. It will provide a lengthy list of primary, sources that are academically useful. Be aware of which paragraphs have citations and which do not.

If you just want to know something for personal use it’s not a bad reference, but still be aware of the way that the articles are curated.”

12. Teachers aren’t crazy about it.

“My teachers in school were always annoyed if they saw wikipedia pulled up, but it was a real asset to me when I was looking up stuff I was completely unfamiliar with.

Using info from the wikipedia article, I could find key people, concepts and search terms that I could plug in to find reputable sources discussing my subject matter, like a store map in a mall.”

13. Not good with specifics.

“Wikipedia is unreliable as soon as you delve into the specifics.

There are some topics that a novice with a limited pool of sources just can’t properly describe.

If you are very knowledgable about a certain specific topic you can see for yourself.”

What are your thoughts about this issue?

Talk to us in the comments and let us know what you think.

Thanks in advance!

The post People Talk About How Modern Education Shouldn’t Tell Kids That Wikipedia Is an Unreliable Source appeared first on UberFacts.

What Was the Worst Financial Advice You Ever Got? Here’s How People Responded.

Hearing stories about people making really bad decisions with finances and then suffering because of it always really bums me out.

That’s why the stories we’re about to read are ones that you should remember because they’re things you DO NOT want to do.

Are we clear on that? Good!

AskReddit users talked about the worst financial advice they ever received.

Let’s take a look.

1. It adds up.

“”Just get it at Rent A Center.”

I had a coworker that got pretty much everything there.

“It’s only $20/week, and they’ll replace it if it breaks.”

$20/week for how long? Oh cool, so you’re paying more than double for it? Got it.”

2. Bad idea.

“So when I was 24, I was financially struggling. I had a job that worked me a LOT of hours, but only paid me $10 an hour.

My parents talked me into buying a BRAND NEW 2004 4-Door Honda Civic, the pre-interest price tag on it was about $25,000. A few weeks after getting it, my hours got regulated and it took one entire paycheck to make the monthly note on it – I could NOT afford the insurance on it.

I very quickly realized my parents were bad at money.”

3. You gotta save.

“My FIL when I mention our retirement plan “I never contribute to my retirement account. Money now is always better than money later”.

I needed to have a conversation with my husband how we would NOT be supporting his mom and dad and their insane spending when they have no retirement plan and make huge financial mistakes on a weekly basis (good news is they both make good money).”

4. Terrible advice.

““Spend it quickly or it’ll get stolen.”

Coming from someone with a history of losing and blowing their money.”

5. Pyramid scheme.

“A relative tried to recruit me into Amway. He wound up stuck with a garage full of their products.

My mom joined and ended up having to buy their junk continuously. They also promised to pay her, she never saw a dime from them.”

6. Scammer.

“One of my uncles once told me that I never really had to pay my phone bill.

He suggested that I simply jump to another carrier and let the first company cut you off.

His life has turned out exactly as you’d imagine.”

7. Is that how it works?

“”Once you cut up the credit card, you don’t have to pay it.”

My cousin is not doing so hot.

I’m pretty sure there are warrants out for his arrest in several states.”

8. Get in early if you can.

“1976 San Franciso.

“Keep renting, no one will ever pay $35,000 for a 2 bedroom house and garage with a sweeping view of the East Bay.”

I went back to vist the old neighborhood a few years ago, those $35,000 stucco homes up many flights of steps perched on the top of Potrero Hill were now all gentrified, remodeled, gated, and asking $1M+ and that was 5 years ago.”

9. Hmmmm…

“Don’t take a raise if it puts you into the next tax bracket.

And pay the minimum on your credit card to establish good credit.”

10. Good thing you didn’t listen.

“”Don’t major in computer science. Computer scientists are a dime a dozen.”

I did not take that advice.”

11. But you get an iPad!

“About 5 years ago, I had a friend who was trying to convince me to study through a private college because they “gave her a free iPad”.

She never finished the course, but kept the iPad (you only got to keep it once you pay your fees and graduate. Mind you, the price of the course included the iPad so it wasn’t free).

So last year, four years later, I get a call from the college asking for her contact info. She put me down as a reference and they were chasing her down because she still owed her fees and wasn’t entitled to keep the iPad.”

12. Not smart.

“My cousin bought a camper, went camping once, and then decided camping wasn’t for them.

Rather than selling it they decided to just stop making the payments and “let the bank come and get it.”

Which, eventually, they did.”

13. They’ll go away, right?

“Just ignore the collection call and eventually they will leave you alone….

I didn’t follow this advice.

I had a parking ticket I didn’t know about that ended up on my credit and the guy I mentioned it to gave me that bit of wisdom.”

14. High roller.

“Not me, but my dad’s friend makes a decent more money than him.

He owns boats, takes luxurious trips, buys top of the line clothes and goes to the best restaurant where he orders the most expensive wine he can get. He always tells my dad to live more in the moment, telling him to invest in himself and enjoy his life.

My dad is happily planning his retirement with my mom.

This guy doesn’t have a dime saved. He will work to the day he dies.”

What’s the worst financial advice someone ever gave YOU?

Tell us your stories in the comments.

Thanks in advance!

The post What Was the Worst Financial Advice You Ever Got? Here’s How People Responded. appeared first on UberFacts.

Urban Explorers Share Scary Moments When They Knew It Was Time to Go

If you’re not sure what an “urban explorer” is, it’s someone who enjoys exploring the nooks and crannies of the cities where they live or visit.

Like with any explorer, though, there are bound to be moments when you know you’ve walked into the wrong place at the wrong time, and if you listen to your gut, you turn around, fast.

It’s best to live vicariously in these moments, if you ask me, so that’s what we’ll do with these 16 stories.

16. Well that’s proper creepy.

Boy oh boy do I have a story. Went urban exploring in an abandoned college campus, was pretty cool, due to be demolished and there was some really nice graffiti. At the time I kept sending video messages to a friend of me roaming around looking at everything.

The way the area was set up was pretty much a singular building in this giant lot with nothing on it, right in the middle with it being open area about 100 meters either way. The building was three storeys and on the ground floor had an open area where there appeared to be an abandoned car.

So I was messing around looking at this graffiti and the random junk everywhere and recording videos for my friend when I finally went to record the graffiti right next to the car. I started filming a video of the graffiti when what do you know. The car turns on. I immediately throw my hands up and point towards the gate to gesture “Sorry didn’t realise someone was here, I’ll be on my way.”

When the guy starts blaring on the horn and starts revving the engine, at this point I’m startle and decide to gun it down the driveway back to the gate and WHAT DO YOU KNOW he starts speeding after me in the car whilst still blaring on the horn. Due to being startled and running I apparently accidentally hit send to the video I took on my phone to my friend, whilst all captioning it “1111” as I was running away. (I have the video saved if anyone’s curious.)

At this point I was right in the headlights with him right behind so I turned off the driveway and ran over a pile of rocks, falling down on my way down the other side of them. Scratched my knee really badly, glasses went flying off and got scratched up too. I get the glasses and sprint (more like hobble quickly) to the fence where there’s some bush covering, the guy pulls up near by and winds down the window and you could smell the car from how far I was, it was putrid and the guy for sure looked like he was living out of the car. I have insane adrenaline going and sort of slink further away through the bushes but can’t get over the fence. I figured I could wait the guy out.

I was there for around 20 minutes whilst he sat there with his car idling. By this point my friend was practically having a panic attack thinking I just got murdered and my adrenaline was wearing off and the pain from my leg was setting in so I couldn’t climb the fence and get away quickly without him noticing.

My friend was messaging me like crazy asking if I was okay and she ended up DRIVING to the place to rescue me. She pulled up a bit up the street and the guy drove up towards there which gave me the chance to climb the fence, she rushed down to where I had said I was, picked me up, and we drove off.

Never have I been so scared in my life, and have never appreciated someone more.

15. If you want to get shot…

I used to enjoy exploring abandoned places here in rural Iowa, but I stopped a couple years ago after a couple run ins with some meth labs. Sh%t’s crazy here. Scary as f*ck too.

Those dudes will shoot your ass without hesitation. They’re typically tweaking and/or unstable, too. That makes them unpredictable.

I work for a utility company and have to go on site visits in some sketchy areas of small towns to recon where to put power lines. This puts you in all sorts of abandoned areas sometimes. I’ve heard enough stories from field guys and seen plenty that was a red flag.

New locks and dogs in abandoned areas means GTFO yesterday. Drug epidemic hits the midwest hard, man.

14. Like, yesterday.

I was taking a look at some of those massive smokestacks in an abandoned factory and I heard a radio squelch

That’s time to go, right there

13. One terrifying moment.

I was exploring an old storm water filtration plant once. The lower levels of the main buildings were all flooded (which was super creepy) and it was pretty overgrown.

This was my second time there and I wanted to see more than I had last time. A friend of mine and I had the bright idea to climb into one of the pipes that had an open man hole cover- really stupid for a whole bunch of reasons.

We figured we knew/ had a pretty good guess where it would come out as there was another man hole on the other side of the compound in line with where the pipe was heading. When we got all the way there though, it turned out to be welded shut. The worst bit was when we turned to go back we realized we’d been slowly going down hill. The pipe was fairly slimy and it seemed for a minute like we wouldn’t be able to go back the way we’d come

I’ve never quite felt that level of claustrophobia before or since.

12. Your gut always knows.

I convinced a group of about 5 or so of my friends to go with me into this old house that was in an odd sort of industrial area, like on one of those service roads next to a highway. The only way in was to go through the basement and through a hole in the wall at the top of the stairs.

After exploring for a while I thought I’d do a “scout mission” for fun that involved me just walking around the house to check for cops. Well what do you know, there were cop cars just pulling into the street with sirens on that were pulling into the restaurant next door, someone probably reported us.

The exit was on the other side of the house from the cops, I quickly called up to the others to climb back out and we somehow managed.

I don’t generally believe in intuition but I do find it odd that I had the urge to do a sweep right when the cops showed up

11. Just reading this freaked me out.

Not urban but a mate of mine, his then gf, and I were exploring a cave system we found, 3 hours into a hike in a national park, kilometers from the nearest road access, in a coastal region called Wilson’s Promontory, in southern Victoria, Australia. Now I’m a skinny 6’1″ but rhey were both skinnier and shorter, so we got to this one narrow bit that we could all get down by sliding on our butts.

The cave was pitch black and wet, though we had our phone torches thankfully. Weird ass cave bugs kept dropping on us, and eventually we headed back. So they both climbed back up the tunnel, but it turned out that my shoulders were too broad to actually move my arms enough to clamber up. Thankfully my arms were extended, and my friend could reach my hands.

He almost dislocated my shoulders but thankfully with a bit of wriggling, I was pulled out. The alternative was a long, dark, cold, stay in a hole that would have become a major rescue operation requiring heavy machinery, and possibly the destruction of some pristine wilderness that I’d never have forgiven myself for!

Claustrophobia hits you hard when it’s intense, and boy was that intense

10. They got what they wanted.

Went exploring in an old textile mill in rural Alabama. It was easy enough to hide your car for parking and you could even pull you car onto the site if you had 4 wheel drive. We went often and one time parked right in the middle of the mill’s back lot and decided to climb the ladders to the roof.

Once we got to the roof the sun started setting so we got our headlamps ready, watched the sunset, then decided to head back down from the roof. As we’re walking to the ladder my car alarm down below starts going off, and immediately from the rooftop across from us someone flashed a flashlight at us but they never said a thing.

I was way too nervous about my car being stolen to really care about the other person but they didn’t chase us, yell, nothing, they just kept their light on us so that we could never see them and followed us with their light til we got into the car and left. I never went back after that. It’s torn down now.

9. That’ll do it.

When me and my friends were young, we lived in a trailer park community in a bad part of Phoenix, but we loved exploring anyway, we found a large old storm drain behind our community covered in graffiti and weeds and we decided to explore, walking in with mini flashlights we kept seeing spots of blood and more strange graffiti, after about 30ish minutes we started hearing tapping, we got scared and started to walk back out, when we noticed it seemed to be following us we ran like our lives depended on it.

A few weeks after that our community manager discovered a body near the entrance of the storm drain. That was the last of our exploring.

8. Seems to be common knowledge.

In a building I found the basement. Then the sub basement.

It was dark. Heard a sound. Then an an animal running sound…. and dogs barking. I fucking booked it back up the stairs and closed the fire door and gtfo.

Speaking to some urbex mentors they explained if you hear dogs or see them, to not go in the area as it’s probably used for a drug lab.

7. Pics or it didn’t happen.

Was exploring an abandoned TB hospital. Heard a sound that sounded a lot like a homeless person snoring. It took a while for my friends and I to work up the courage to go in the room where we heard it, but we were rewarded with the sight of a vultures nest.

6. I would have peed my pants!

I came across a bunch of doberman deep in the middle of the woods one time. There was at least 20 of them scattered among the trees next to the dirt road. I thought they were statues at first cuz they were sitting so stock still.

But their heads rotated on a swivel following my car. I noped out of there so f*cking fast.

5. Better than rattlesnakes.

In Oklahoma I was looking around some land that my mother and aunt inherited. I found a foundation and basement for a homestead that had been destroyed. As I got closer to it I started to hear this hissing sound and I freaked out a little because there are like four different species of rattlesnake here and the closest hospital is half an hour away.

I kept going and look into the basement/cellar thing and there are two baby buzzards, turns out they hiss when they get scared.

4. My stomach clenched.

Spooky cement tunnel that seems to lead underground. Very dark and echoes go on for ages. We had no clue what it was, didn’t seem to be any kind of drainage tunnel because it was square/bone dry and out in an open field. There are definitely some old bomb shelters and missile silos on our area that are out of commission, so we decided to take a look.

Only about 20 yards in and the light from outside starts really fading behind us. Someone takes out a flashlight and we start seeing bare human footprints on the ground leading deeper into the dark.

None leaving. We skedaddled.

3. That cat saw something bad.

Not terribly urban, (back when I lived in the rural south) but my friend and I went to an abandoned trailer because she wanted to show me all the old playboys that were left lying around in it.

There were pentagrams painted on the front door and on one wall of the bedroom that was through the kitchen but that wasn’t too spooky. My brother was one of those edgy teenagers and I had seen more than enough crookedly spray painted pentagrams to know it was just idiots goofing off. Nah, the scary part was the half dead cat hung by it’s back legs from the ceiling fan in the back room down the hall.

We went to take it down so we could call the cops and then hopefully get to bury it at her house and give it some peace. And then it woke up and started squalling. It scratched me on my arms and her on the face and tried to get away but it was so weak all it could do was stagger.

We eventually got it wrapped in my shirt and walked home to explain to her mom where we were and how it happened. That crotchety old cat lived like another six years with no teeth, dislocated back legs (fixed by the vet of course, but the cat still limped forever) and horrible cataracts.

2. Wait, what?

 In an old gun range (it was night, so no shooters, completely safe) there was this giant crack in a mountain that led to this weird system of caves and giant pipes. It was a pretty straight shot in, not many branching paths, but as we get further in we start seeing more ominous graffiti—stuff like “Closer…” and red hand prints and stuff.

Then around a corner there was a little shrine with more graffiti and some dead candles all surrounding the words “Shrek 2.” Truly did find god in those mountains.

1. A wise decision.

I was exploring an abandoned mineshaft for the second day in a row.

It was also a 10 minute walk from the nearest road. This time I went with different friends and better flashlights.

The door I had gone through the first day was now padlocked shut, that should’ve been the first red flag, but we found an entrance from the rooftop into one of the main buildings and continued to explore anyway.

After exploring about 3 floors of mineshaft below ground, we were back on the main floor exploring the workshop/garage and I was looking through the cracks of light coming through the rusted metal walls, when I noticed a bright color that stood out from the rest of the area. It was a man looking back at me through the cracks, I was seeing his blue sweater. I could see two sets of eyes looking into the room that we were in.

After whispering to my friends that there were people watching us through the wall. We fucking booked it out of there and jumped off the roof and into the woods.

The men were in a pickup truck and drove around looking for us, even getting out of the truck to look around. We couldn’t see them from where we took cover but we could hear the truck stop, the doors open, and foot steps breaking leaves and twigs only ~20ft away from us.

We hid there for about 15 minutes while the men searched all around for us. It is harder than most people think to try and quiet your breathing after sprinting. It was terrifying.

I’m not going back there.

I love exploring, too, but I get freaked out easily!

Share your own almost-terrifying tales with us in the comments!

The post Urban Explorers Share Scary Moments When They Knew It Was Time to Go appeared first on UberFacts.

People Recall Funny Things They Weren’t Allowed to Laugh At

I’m not sure there if there are many things more difficult for a human being than trying not to laugh when something strikes you as funny – I know that as a parent of toddlers, I am faced with this particular conundrum pretty regularly these days.

No matter the reason you’re not supposed to laugh – the time, the place, the joke, what have you – trying to hold it in only makes you want to laugh, more right?

You’re gonna be so glad that you’re allowed to laugh, at least, when you read through these 13 responses.

13. I could not have kept it together.

A guy was acting as his own attorney. He was questioning himself in court by standing up, asking a question, then sitting down to answer it.

The judge finally looked at him and said, “Sit down, Mr. X.”

I almost lost it, but managed to hold my court demeanor.

12. I think he would like that.

Great Uncle’s funeral.

The vicar was doing his thing, but when he said “our soul”, in his posh-ish accent it sounds just like “arsehole” and it got me. I managed to keep it together the first time, but after the second one I could barely hold it back….

It was something like, “our soul is something we should cherish, it defines who we are…

I was stifling laughter to the point of tears, my mum said after she thought I was crying.

There’s an Oasis song called Acquiesce where the same things happens and me and my cousin, who was sitting away from me inside the church, used to make each other laugh by singing that (we were about 13 or 14 at the time). After the service had finished we met outside and were rolling about it fits of laughter – he had had the exact same reaction.

It’s something we still laugh about 20 years later.

11. That is not what he wanted to say.

Our teacher was scolding the class but in his rage induced lecture he accidentally knocked over a stack of graded papers onto the floor ruining the perfect by name order he had them in. That’s not what was funny.

What was funny was he immediately said out loud aw shucks since he wouldn’t swear. This came out of a man who’s face was red as a lobster. I almost choked trying not to laugh

10. This is amazingly terrible.

I was giving a hitting lesson to a 9 year old kid before the pandemic.

After the lesson his dad mentioned that when you get older you can get whatever name or nickname printed on your wood bat.

The kid asked if he could get “c*ck sucker” printed on his bat. I had to put my glove over my mouth so he wouldn’t see me laughing!

9. Insult to injury.

My normally pretty chill, easily distracted science teacher at secondary school went off at a kid for slamming his books on the desk.

“HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID?!”

Punctuating “stupid” by slamming his fist down on the paperwork in front of him.

However, as he slammed his fist down, I heard a slight tinkle that struck me as odd.

Ten or so minutes later I notice the teacher’s face went bright red as he moves the paperwork that was in front of him to discover the freshly broken glass plate from overhead projector…

8. Well this is awkward.

So the Dean of our college had recently passed away due to cancer, and he was a nice/popular guy so he was well liked by students and faculty.

During an event to commemorate him, all the students and faculty gathered and some people went on stage to share their memories of him.

This one guy (a new student who barely knew him) goes up on stage and starts giving this really emotional speech. The only problem was that he was talking about another faculty member, who was very much alive and had just gone abroad for a few months for training. The dude went into all the details about his life and even called him by name to make it evident what was happening. Turns out he thought the wrong guy was dead, and his attempt at an overly emotional speech made it worse.

Looking at all the confused people on stage, the situation was very funny; but just before him, other students and teachers had given heartfelt eulogies for the Dean so it felt wrong to laugh at the time…

7. The important stuff.

Paramedic here, watched a drunk falling down a bunch of stairs.

He had several broken bones and looked like a pretzel.

He then just screamed at his friend to get him a new beer because he dropped his.

Nearly pissed myself.

6. Kids are always bringing the fun.

You’re not allowed to laugh at a funeral, right?

Well we all did, so I guess this counts: at my grandmother’s funeral, when the priest asked us all for a moment of silence to remember my grandmother, my 5 year old brother, amidst all the silence and hushed crying and tears saw the priest lighting candles and started singing at the top of his lungs, “happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!”

He turned one of the saddest moments of my life into the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

5. Was this an episode of South Park?

While having dinner with my friend who has a 5 year old and a 3 year old:

5yo: “you know what Wyatt said in class today? He said ‘f*ck you!’”

3yo: “f*ck me…..”

4. An excellent question.

There is always hilarity when you have young kids at funerals.

I can still feel the dirty looks from my relatives when I burst out laughing at my grandfather’s funeral and it was damn near 25 years ago!

We were all milling around at the funeral home for the after service wake when my young cousin came up and had this confused look on his face. I asked what was up, expecting him to ask why people were sad or something. Nope. He pointed to the security bars on the windows and asked “are those to keep people in or keep people out?” I laughed so hard that I damn near wet myself.

3. Stop it.

At my friend’s grandfather’s funeral. The first sentence of the pastor’s speech was “We are all here because we love Dick so much.” His name was Richard.

This holy man gave a 15 minute speech about his love of Dick and how Dick changed his life. My wife and I did not make eye contact through the entire thing for fear of busting out laughing in a quiet, crowded church.

It took me about a year to ask my friend his thoughts about it and apparently he was close to losing it too.

2. He got the last laugh.

I was in a cadaver lab for an anatomy class, and that week we were learning hip and upper leg muscles.

My group were at the table and one of the guys proceeded to roll the cadaver leg over, from looking at the hamstring to study the quads.

We didn’t realize that the leg belonged to a male until its d*ck slapped him straight on the back of his hand.

Entire group was breathing super hard trying not to laugh and appear disrespectful in the eyes of the tutors, but I honestly reckon the guy would’ve been laughing with us.

1. I think I would have lost it.

Helping a Grade 2 class (~8 year olds) and one of the kids was just so loud.

He was running around the class when one of the girls held out her arm and clotheslined him.

I was able to keep a straight face for that but she kneeled down and yelled, “Boom!” at him.

He started crying, they both got a detention, and I almost bit through my tongue.

I don’t know whether I love or hate this feeling, to be honest.

What’s your story along these lines? Share it with us in the comments!

The post People Recall Funny Things They Weren’t Allowed to Laugh At appeared first on UberFacts.

Women Talk About When They Knew They Wanted to Marry Their Husbands

Hey, there!

Today I met the boy I’m gonna marry…

Remember that song? It’s a good one! A golden oldie, if I do say so myself…

And we love it because it reminds folks about when they first knew that The One was really gonna be THE ONE.

Women on Buzzfeed talked about when they knew they were gonna marry their husbands.

Let’s take a look!

1. Comforting.

“A week after our first date, I got knocked over in a bike accident and ended up at the hospital with a broken neck and a fractured spine.

While visiting me in the hospital, he wasn’t allowed anywhere near my head, so since he couldn’t reach my hand, he held my foot the whole time instead.”

2. That’s nice.

“We were at brunch when a disabled vet came over and started a conversation with him about his motorcycle jacket.

My man had just gotten laid off, but he looked at his budget and bank app right there at the table to figure out where he could cut a corner to pay for that vet and his wife’s meals.

I almost cried.”

3. No walk of shame.

“I thought I was going to have to do the ‘walk of shame’ from his place at 6 a.m. one morning after we’d been out.

I was putting my dress back on when he got out of bed and put on jeans and a dress shirt to walk me home instead.”

4. First date.

“My (now) husband and I were on our first date, and we wandered into a café with a live band that was so loud we couldn’t hear each other at all.

Well, the music was really good, so rather than ignore me or suggest that we leave, he started texting me questions about my dreams, fears, and hopes for the future.”

5. The One.

“I found out I had cancer on our third date, and I found out a few months later that I probably couldn’t have kids.

I was crying during our car ride home when he took my hand and said, ‘We can always adopt.’”

6. A stand-up guy.

“We were supposed to have a fourth date when I called to tell him I couldn’t make it because my dad had just gone to the ER with metastatic colon cancer.

Well, he could tell in my voice how stressed I was about it, so he drove two hours to be with me at the hospital. And we had that fourth date in the hospital’s cafeteria.

We’ve been married for six years and have been through hell and back together. But we find new ways to love each other all the time.”

7. Animal lover.

“When I saw him chasing a random stray cat because he wanted to pet it.”

8. That came later.

“When we were chatting about amusement parks and he said, ‘I love…Universal Studios,’ and I realized that I thought he was going to say, ‘I love you,’ and that I wished he did.”

9. All about the soup.

“Neither of us likes soup. But we attend a lot of events that have soup courses.

So without a word, he’ll eat all his soup and quietly switch his finished bowl with my full bowl then eat mine, too.

Then he’ll whisper sweetly, ‘Good job eating your soup, hun!’”

10. Huey for the win!

“We had just moved in together, and I wanted to blast some Huey Lewis while washing my car, but my ex always made me feel silly for liking ’80s music, so I was embarrassed…

Well, I finally decided to just do it — and he looked at me and said, ‘Oh my god, I LOVE Huey! Are you playing ‘Hip to Be Square’?!’ I knew then that we were meant to be together.”

11. No problem.

“We were visiting his parents in the Bay Area, and just as we were leaving, his mom — who was very ill — asked him to cut her toenails.

Most men wouldn’t do that in front of a new girlfriend, but he just went into her bathroom, got the clippers, and cut her nails.

I knew that if he took care of her like that, he’d take great care of me. And he did.”

12. Authentic.

“My husband won my heart when he jokingly called me an *sshole on our first date.

I had been internet dating for a while, and first dates were usually stiff and felt like job interviews. So it was refreshing for someone to be authentic.

I felt like I knew him well as soon as I met him.”

13. That’s the good stuff!

“The first day I met him I noticed that the way he talked about the things he was passionate about was so moving.

His eyes lit up, and he smiled the whole time in a way that made my heart melt.”

14. Part of the family.

“My dad died a month ago at a routine hospital visit, and we had just signed the DNR when my husband walked into the waiting room and immediately took my mom into his arms.

That’s when I realized it isn’t just me he loves and cares for.”

Alright, folks, now we want to hear from you.

In the comments, tell us about when you knew that your partner was THE ONE.

Let’s get all lovey dovey!

The post Women Talk About When They Knew They Wanted to Marry Their Husbands appeared first on UberFacts.

People Share the Crazy Crimes Committed By Their Family Members

Just because people share your blood doesn’t mean you have to claim them – and if someone in my family committed one of these 14 crimes, I’m not sure I would claim them anymore, either.

Then again, sometimes people are just dumb…and you can hardly blame them for that, right?

14. That seems excessive.

My grandfather’s cousin stabbed a waiter to death because he wouldn’t let him use the employees-only restroom in his restaurant.

13. Through the mail?

Something similar happened to my uncle, except he wasn’t terminally ill. He was working in China and his longtime partner was trying to poison him (in food/pills she sent him).

Meanwhile at home she got Power of Attorney and put him hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, buying expensive stuff…paying off her kids debt…etc. She went to the bank and got a friend to forge the POA.

He finally realized that he felt sick whenever he took the items she gave him and found out what she was doing. He came home and tried to get her arrested but I don’t think she ended up doing much time at all.

He’s still in huge debt from her and mainly lives in the Philippines.

12. Her poor parents.

Cousin was taking care of a woman in coma. He raped her. Little he knew was that her parents had set a webcam to check regularly if she would wake up…

He deserved every single day he spends in prison

11. This whole story though.

My friend got blackout drunk and stole a bulldozer that had the keys left in it.

He turned it on and obviously didn’t know how to drive it so he just ended up making the scoopy part go up and down for a bit before the cops came.

They actually let him go too.

10. Bad genes.

My husband’s dad killed the guy who his then girlfriend was cheating on him with. He was supposed to serve a life term but got out because of a clerical error. He did manual labor on a local park and apparently the guys who helped were suppose to get a reduced sentence. However he was not suppose to. (I think – my husband talked about it once).

Also, my husband’s half-brother, same murderous dad, killed his business partner. He would have gotten away with it however, he moved the body when he found out construction was going to start in that spot. And what were they going to build there? A prison. He’s currently serving a life sentence.

My husband has never met his half-brother. He also has 2 half-sisters from the same dad who are law abiding citizens.

9. As he should.

He’s dead now. But years ago my relative got in a bar fight and lost so he went to his vehicle to get his rifle.

Fortunately the police arrested him on the way in to the bar so his charges were a lot less. Still did jail time.

8. That’s quite a scam.

I worked at a movie theatre when Back To The Future was originally released. We used to take the entire movie ticket instead of tearing them and re-sell them to the next group coming in. The old theatre was massive. Sat 600 people.

We probably made about $15k between two of us in month or so. Adjusted for inflation, it’s about $37k. We were the richest high school kids in our town.

7. Just some kids messing around?

When I was a young teen, the boys from the neighborhood and I loved playing pinball and video games at our local bowling alley. Problem was we didn’t have enough money to enjoy our new addiction. We decided to do something about that little problem.

We started with a very rudimentary system. We actually scotch taped a piece of thread to a quarter and were able to fish it up and down a couple times before the string would break, or the tape would give out. This worked fairly well, but we wanted and needed more.

Our next plan was a little more professional. We somehow concocted a scheme to “make” quarters. A few lessons in science class had actually stuck, and we realized that we needed something to fool the coin mechanism in the pinball machine into thinking that whatever it was we made our quarters with was an actual quarter. We ended up deciding that lead would be our material of choice. We used lead for a couple of reasons. A couple of the guy’s father was an avid hunter. He even reloaded his own shotgun shells. Because of this he had a burner setup in his shop to melt down lead. Another reason is that lead is not magnetic (science!). We made a mold out of plaster and used the burner to melt lead to make our quarters. But where to get more lead??

One of us came up with the brilliant thought that tire weights were made of lead! Carrying screwdrivers and pliers we scoured the parking lots of shopping centers. We would wander through and drop down out of sight between cars. Using the tools we had brought we would manage to get the tire weights off with little trouble. We were in business!

Our production line was soon up and running. We would melt lead, pour it into our mold, cool it and then move on to finishing our new “quarter”. The finishing process was crude, but effective. We would snip off the burr where the lead was poured. We would then file down the edge, making sure it stayed mostly round. Using steel wool and a polishing cloth we would then shine the quarters. Now came the trial run.

We went to the bowling alley with a few quarters to see if our harebrained scheme would actually work. In they went, and the pinball machine lit up and was ready to be played. Success! We intensified our production and soon we had bunches of quarters. We were thrilled! We could play video games any time we wanted! Every day after school you’d find us at the bowling alley, happily playing our games. But our downfall was soon to come.

We never thought of the fact that someone might notice a bunch of fake quarters being used in their video games and pinball machines. It literally never crossed our early teenaged minds. We just knew we were having a blast. One fateful day we went to the bowling alley as usual. We started playing games and soon some men approached us. They started questioning us and accusing us. We were scared to death! One of the guys yelled “Run!” and we took off as fast as we could. We made it to the doors and down the steps we went. We all lived on the same cul-de-sac and that’s the direction we headed. Running as fast as we could, we briefly split up. The men that were chasing us only followed one of us kids. He made the colossal mistake of running straight to his house and through the front door. From there our crime spree ended.

A few days later I was in class when I was called to the office. When I got there my father was sitting with a man I’d never seen before. He was wearing a black suit with a black tie. I had to go before the principal, my father and a member of the United States Secret Service! Although they take the counterfeiting of US currency very seriously, they understood that it was just a bunch of knucklehead kids making quarters to play video games. He actually told me that he was impressed with the quality of the quarters. He also said that they had recovered over $75 in fake quarters! We had made, and used, over 300 quarters! We had to make restitution for the money and the charge was placed on our juvenile records. It was explained to us that if we kept our noses clean the charge would be expunged. Luckily for me I learned my lesson and stayed on the straight and narrow for the rest of my young adult life.

And that, fellow redditors is how I was charged with counterfeiting US currency. If that doesn’t define the meaning of a crazy crime, I don’t know what would.

6. Bless his heart.

My dad got into a bar fight around 21 or so, hit a guy so hard he killed him. He went to prison of course but while working along the road he stopped another prisoner that attacked a guard and tried to escape. My dad was released for that.

He never drank after that and if he got angry he just walked out of the house to cool off. He turned 81 a week ago and he’s the nicest, easiest going guy you would ever meet. He never judges anyone. He once said to me, we all make mistakes.

*for the record I only heard the story about 10 ys ago from my brother. He told him during a road trip. He lived in a small town and I have no idea what prison he was at or the official reason he was released but considering it was probably around ‘61/‘62 – they probably used whatever reason they wanted to for his release.

5. So much information.

My uncle sold Tim Allen the cocaine that got him sent to prison in the late 70’s.

Then my uncle ratted out others. I honestly don’t know much about it beyond that, don’t have much contact with that part of the family.

My uncle was a pathological liar and a very troubled guy. He died by suicide about 10 yrs ago.

4. What did I just read?

This was a couple of generations back (early 20th century) but there was this guy who was constantly getting drunk and harassing my great aunt.

So, one of her male friends dressed up in an Easter Bunny outfit, put a bat in its giant fake carrot and beat the dude with it.

He got away with it but I’m sure it helped that half the community was waiting for the day the guy’s liver finally gave out.

3. A little hero.

My grandfather’s father was a mean, abusive, hateful drunk, who would come home from working in the mines long enough to terrorize his children and impregnate his wife and then leave again for mine work.

He tried to set the house on fire, with wife and kids (13 of them) inside…twice.

One day my grandfather and a couple of his siblings were picking berries across the road from the house and his drunk father started taking potshots at them with a rifle. My grandpa, one brother, and his oldest sister took off running for the house with the agreement that the first one there would kill him (their father).

My grandpa’s sister got there first and shot him to death. She was never charged with a crime, due to her age and the fact that everyone knew my great grandfather was a mean son of a bitch and had it coming.

2. Some people never learn.

Cousin got busted robbing a bank. Got sentenced to jail. Proceeded to break out of jail with his cell mate and went on the run. Fast forward a few months and he’s living in a hotel room with his cell mate.

ell mate orders a pizza to the room (bad idea). Delivery guy recognized them and reported them to the police. They get arrested again and shortly after my cousin killed himself in prison.

My cousin had a wife and a kid and got into a nasty coke habit. We don’t bring him up anymore.

1. That was close.

I used to drive for my weed dealer. I was a new buyer but I never asked questions and was cool with him. His car broke down and asked if anyone could drive him. I said I would, and he liked that. I have my back windows tinted but not my front windows.

I’d pick him up and we’d drive almost all day. It was pretty chill. He’s give me free weed and pay me $250 a day. I still worked my part time delivery job so I was very happy.

He got his car fixed and didn’t need me to drive him around anymore. Which is fine, considering his ex snitched in him and he got busted a couple weeks later.

These are killing me (but thank goodness they didn’t actually kill me).

If you’ve got a good story for this list, share it with us in the comments!

The post People Share the Crazy Crimes Committed By Their Family Members appeared first on UberFacts.

People Shared Crazy Crimes Committed by Family Members

There are three types of people in this world – those who relish walking outside the law, those who would never dream of it, and people who just need the right set of circumstances to push them over the line.

These 12 stories are a lot of the first kind and a few of the third, and they’re told by family members who just can’t believe who they’re related to – a recipe for fun!

12. Unfit, for sure.

It’s not a bad crime or anything, but it was illegal at the time.
So, in Germany, up until a few years ago, we still had a general draft for the army. And a generation ago it was very hard to get out of it.

My uncle was a hardcore pacifist, so going to the army wasn’t an option for him. But being accepted as a conscientious objector at that time basically required you to be a devout Christian and use the bible as an argument for why you couldn’t kill another human. And my uncle was also atheist.

He couldn’t realistically object, didn’t want to go to the army and didn’t want to go to jail, too. So he waited…

He got sent his draft notice, passed the physical and got a letter telling him to report to X company under sergeant Y.

He wrote back a reply, on rose-colored paper, scented with perfume, about how much he was looking forward to serving under the strong leadership of Y, promising to obey every one of his orders, and that he can’t wait to experience life in the barracks together with so many strong and muscular men.

He was declared unfit for service shortly after.

11. What did he do to them?

My dad told me he once snuck into a tire warehouse, he cut the alarm and came in through a window on the roof, and stole a bunch of tires.

10. What is wrong with people?

My mom’s father was a Vietnam vet. He married my grandma he met while in Germany, adopted her oldest son and they had three daughters.

He physically, emotionally, and sexually abused all of them. When they were toddlers, he’d wake them up at 5am for PT (like basic training for adults). When they walked into a room he was in, he’d throw knives at them to “check their reflexes”.

When my Aunt graduated high school, she moved out and he lost his mind. He kept trying to convince her to move back in, and actually convinced her to come home to “talk” about it.

That day she was sitting on the couch and told him she would never come back. So, he pulled a gun shot her three times (once in the hand as she was trying to block her heart, once in the stomach as she stood up, and once in the ass as she turned to run). Then he walked to his back bedroom, and shot himself twice, once in the heart and once in the head.

I wasn’t alive but I read the newspaper article and it was horrible.

Side note, my family is really messed up bc my grandma would take us grandkids to his grave site and tell us what a great man he was….

9. There is nothing I like about this story.

My parents’ horse got loose, and somebody hit and killed it.

The horse disposal people wanted some relatively reasonable amount of money to come pick up the carcass, but my parents were like “fuck that. Hey, /u/hendergle – load that shit up on the flatbed and find somewhere to dump it.”

Me: “OK. Sure, pops.”

[calls stoner friend]

Me: “Hey, want to go dump a horse somewhere?”

Stoner Friend: “Sure. I have nachos.”

Me: “Cool”

Stoner Friend: “Cool”

So Stoner Friend and I got even more stoned than usual and took my parents’ flatbed truck out and tried to winch the horse up onto it. Turns out you really can’t winch a dead horse onto a flatbed. It’s not the winching that’s the problem so much as the 5ft lift up to the edge. We fucked up a lot of that horse trying, though.

Attempt #2: We went home and built a big-ass ramp out of plywood and 4x4s. It took most of a day and half a dime bag of weed. We argued a lot about whether or not we should bevel the part of the 4x4s that touched the ground. Final decision: neither of us knew how to do that, so we opted for no bevel.

Back at the horse, we wrapped the winch line around the head this time. Fun fact: Steel cable looped around a horse head in a slipknot arrangement is a good way to re-enact a famous scene from The Godfather. We didn’t quite decapitate Mr. Gooseberry (long may he gallop in the heavenly fields). But it wasn’t pretty. Nothing about a dead horse is pretty, but that bit in particular was remarkably not pretty.

We decided to go with our original idea: lash the front hooves together with rope. Small problem: We’d cut the rope at some point. Neither of us could remember why, or who did it. But nothing for it- we had to go home. Finding more rope required smoking half a joint, which I think is quite reasonable given the task we were set to.

Back at the horse again. Our engineering marvel worked. We had some initial worry that we would pull one or both of the horse’s forelegs out of its socket, but apparently dead horse sinew has quite a bit of tensile strength.

We used tiedown straps to lash the horse and ramp to the flatbed, initiating a discussion about why we hadn’t used those in place of rope, leading to an argument over whether or not that would have worked, leading to an awkward hostile silence as we drove around the ass end of South Dakota looking for a place where we could dump a dead horse.

I’m sure there were many places one could dump a dead horse in the middle of rural South Dakota. Strangely enough, though, we were both feeling a little paranoid. Every car that passed us was a plainclothes cop car. Every person standing out in their field was heading straight to their house to report us as soon as we went around the bend.

Finally, we found a field in the Black Hills National Forest that looked like a good spot. It had trees, which we thought the horse would like, and there was a nice parking area next to a snowmobile trailhead. Goose had never liked snowmobiles, so the idea of his skeletal carcass scaring the shit out of some Ski-dooer coming off the trail seemed like something that would have appealed to the old fella.

We backed the truck a little ways into the ferns next to the trail. Then we used a come-along to pull the dead horse off the flatbed.

About a mile into the way home, Stoner Friend said “Does your horse have tattoos?”

I was like “it’s a horse, not a fucking chief petty officer in the merchant marine. Why would it have fucking tattoos?”

Well apparently some horses have tattoos, according to Stoner Friend. It’s how they identify them if they’re stolen. (Note: Subsequent research revealed that this was usually only something done with thoroughbreds, which our horse was definitely not.)

Back at the horse again. “I think they put them on the lip, inside,” says Stoner Friend. Have you ever pulled back the lip of a dead horse to look for tattoos? Worst never-have-I-ever ever. There were no tattoos. But then Stoner Friend says “it’s probably one of those tattoos that only lights up under UV.”

By then, most of the weed had worn off, but there was that tiny bit of paranoia still holding on for dear life. “What if there’s a UV-light lip tattoo on your horse /u/hendergle? They’re going to catch you for sure!”

So there I was, in the early South Dakota summer evening, cutting the lips off of a day-old dead horse with a dull pocket knife. Bonus: we just threw the lips into the woods a little ways because:

“Nobody’s going to go looking for horse lips in the woods”
-Stoner Friend

And that’s how “illegally dumping an animal carcass on federal property” is the craziest crime I or anybody in my family have ever committed.

8. A complicated man.

My dads side of the family grew up as New Hampshire hicks.

My grandfather was stabbed in two different bar fights and burned down an entire country club because he thought they were too stuck up.

He was never caught and went on to earn a bronze and silver star in the Korean War, but unfortunately lost his leg too.

7. What a dork.

An uncle robbed a bank (or was an accessory to the robbers, idk).

His brilliant escape when the police showed up was to go to the roof and jump off.

He didn’t do time, just had to go to the hospital for a broken leg.

I’ll have to ask my mom when I get a chance, she knows the story better than I do.

6. That took a turn.

My cousin in Youngstown, Oh used to rob people selling goods on facebook.

Got caught after him and accomplice murdered a man over a PS3.

Good times.

5. Freaking hero.

My aunt had a boyfriend – let’s call him Mike, cuz that was his name. He was always the life of the party, everyone loved him. Always holding my aunt from behind and kissing her neck. A little too much PDA but hey, they were happy.

Turns out Mike was abusive. Like, very abusive. Physically and mentally. The neck kissing was him whispering in her ear, berating my aunt for making a fool of herself dancing. My grandfather found out about the abuse.

Went over to Mike’s place, knocked on the door. When Mike answered, my grandfather put a gun to his head and said “if I find out you ever touch my daughter again I’ll fucking kill you.”

Welp, a few weeks later my aunt shows up with a black eye and a sling. Mike.

He was found dead on the roof of his apartment building the following weekend. We all have zero doubt it was my grandfather’s doing. As a successful lawyer I am sure he had connections who could help.

4. Kids, man.

My Dad (when he was much younger and infinitely more stupid) regularly used to drink drive with his friends. It was the early 70’s, and no-one really cared. To hear him speak about it now, he can’t believe how stupid he was.

One night, he and his friend were out drinking. They heard there was a party going on at a pub across town and decided to head over. On the way they go past a large club with a queue of people waiting to go in. My dad decides to show off a bit and pull a skid. He miscalculated, hit a curb and flipped the car, sliding down the road on his roof. The car stops, they get out and leg it, to the cheers of the people in the queue! They get the bus back home and immediately call the police to report the car as stolen.

The police knew what had happened, but couldn’t prove anything.

3. Who could prove it?

Not sure if it should be considered a crime, but one of my great aunts was in an abusive marriage with a war vet who took to beating her and forcing her to play Russian roulette when he drank.

One night she managed to rig the gun so when he took his turn he blew his brains out.

She wasn’t charged.

2. The dregs.

My uncle was a small drug lord in Northern California in the 90s. He had a compound out in gold country, had to drive through 3 gates with guards to get to his house. I like never questioned it as a kid, just enjoyed heading up so I could fish in the stocked bass pond (which also had snapping turtles (as a line of defense)). He’d take me out shopping at the mall with a film canister full of coke that he’d take hits off of occasionally, shadowed by some bodyguards. One time we were out for a ride in his corvette going well over a hundred and got tagged by highway patrol. He talked his way out of the ticket (told the officer he was showing off for his nephew and got carried away, the officer thought it was hilarious), and told me it was lucky since he had a ton of illegal guns and drugs in the trunk and would have made a run for it.

He got arrested when I was 15. It was a full blown; Feds descended upon the compound in helicopters and swung through the windows with flashbangs. The whole nine. He was arrested, and since if he snitched on anyone above him he was, very bluntly, a dead man, he took the rap, was extradited to Lee in VA to serve a bit over 10 years. All he asked for while he was there was protein powder, he got prison ripped, and apparently beat someone near to death with a sock full of quarters for cutting in front of him at the payphone.

At some point in my life all 4 of my uncles on both sides (+ my dad) have spent time in prison for drug related offenses, but this particular uncle takes the cake

1. That’s definitely terrible.

My uncle went to prison for chaining a cop to the back of his bike and driving down the highway

I feel like an edit is needed here because I want to say I am not glorifying what my uncle did, I simply answered the question asked.

This happened in the 1960s before I was born, so I do not have many details due to the timing and fact he married into the family (and that side of my family is not very close at all).

What I do know is my uncle was apart of a very violent gang, I know nothing about what led to the attempted murder (yes, the cop survived somehow), so I do not know if the cop was good or bad.

But, I do not believe very many people, if any, deserve to be tortured in such a manner (or any manner).

I’m glad I don’t have (t00 m)any stories like these to share about my family.

If you’ve got one to tell, our comments are open!

The post People Shared Crazy Crimes Committed by Family Members appeared first on UberFacts.

People Discuss the Most Hypocritical Things They’ve Ever Witnessed

There aren’t too many things in life that people as mad as hypocrisy…especially when it’s a real WHOPPER…

But if you spend enough time on this planet, you quickly realize that a lot of people out there are, unfortunately, big hypocrites.

I guess it’s just part of life and we have to deal with it…

AskReddit users talked about the most hypocritical things they’ve ever witnessed.

Let’s check out their responses.

1. Calling the kettle black.

“I was having a hard time getting a job after college.

My step grandmother called me every single name in the book. Every variation of “deadbeat dependent loser” you can possibly think of. Almost every singe time I saw her.

“No self discipline, no drive, too dependent on others. I cant believe you can’t get a job. I taught my daughters how to work. You’re definitely your mothers child. I had expectations for my own kids. All I knew is I had to work.”

This is the same person who never had a job in her life, wasn’t able to collect her own social security since she never paid into it, and was 100 percent dependent on my grandpa.

Way to call the kettle black. It got so bad, I had to stop talking to her all together since each convo would just be putting me down.”

2. Yikes. Sorry.

“My ex-wife, shortly after we separated, told me when/if I started seeing someone that she would want to meet them before our kids did. Which makes perfect sense.

Two months later the guy she had an affair with moved from NC to FL and in with her and my two kids. I still haven’t met him and it’s been six months.”

3. The rules don’t apply to me…

“My friends who b*tch about people who break lockdown, then go on to break lockdown for “sleepovers” and “girly nights” the same day they were criticising others.

Infuriatingly entitled.

“Others must follow the rules but they don’t apply to me”.”

4. Typical.

“When I was going through my college party phase I ended up hanging with kids who graduated from a local Christian school.

They drank, did drugs, and bragged about premarital s*x like a lot of college students.

When you talked about politics though, they immediately would go on and on about the moral failings of society and how it needs to be more Christian yadda yadda.”

5. Your dad sounds like a blast.

“Just my dad in general. Here’s some highlights.

As a child, he’d often tell me I had to think for myself, but then he’d beat me if I said things he disagreed with. Sometimes, he’d pose questions to me, and then hit me until I guessed the chain of logical jumps that led to the conclusion he was looking for.

He once went on a 4 hour rant about how my generation are all dirty communists and Muslims are all terrorists and a big gay conspiracy and other such nonsense. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise, but he had the gall to end with “I’d be willing to change my mind if anybody were willing to have a discussion with me, but nobody’s willing to talk with me”.

In high school, he sometimes made fun of me for being a creature of habit. He’s had the same routine, worn identical oufits, and eaten the same lunch every day for the past 20+ years at least. I didn’t have much say in my routine back then anyway. School ate up most of my time, and it’s not like my parents allowed me to get together with my friends.

Similarly, he’d make fun of me for not having friends. I did have friends, but to him they didn’t count because he’d never met them, because he never allowed them to visit, because he’d never met them. He has one friend that he sees outside of work once a year, and often times not even that.”

6. Pretty bad.

“Televangelists preaching how we should live modestly while they own several private jets to fly around the country spreading the word of The Lord.

Sometimes they’ll come on TV saying God came to them in a dream saying they needed more.

Jesus would fly coach if he flew at all.

I believe Jesus also preached about taking in the displaced, etc?

In 2017 Joel Osteen was not allowing hurricane evacuees into his megachurch.”

7. Harrassment.

“I’ve been repeatedly s*xually harassed by a gay man before and have even had to make sure he didn’t find out where I lived so he couldn’t keep doing it. When I explained this one time to my co-workers one sneered and said I was just being homophobic and assuming it was harassment.

I said the man has repeatedly attempted to convince me to sleep with him despite my refusals, attempted to find my home, and once tried to trap me in a public restroom to make sure he couldn’t lose track of me. If I was a woman in this situation would my coworker even think of telling me that I was overreacting?

Fortunately the rest of my crew supported me and tell him it was hypocritical to assume s*xual harassment can only happen to women.”

8. Bad move.

“A girl who posted about how she doesn’t eat beef because she loves cows.

The next day she posted a photo of her new designer leather handbag.”

9. That’s bad.

“My dad hates illegal immigrants…

And he was once deported from the US from entering illegally as an immigrant.”

10. You’re right!

“People wearing Blue Lives Matter regalia beating police officers with an American flag.

That’s peak hypocrisy.”

11. Come on, people!

“My brother wouldn’t let his kids go to school because of covid, but they went to hockey practice and games.

All 3 of them got Covid.”

12. Point taken.

“People who get really upset about animal abuse and claim to be “animal lovers”…

And then go eat a double cheeseburger at McDonald’s.

Cognitive dissonance is alive and well.”

13. Always goes this way.

“My ex would get mad at me for having guy acquaintances – not even friends really, just from classes or work .

He policed my phone and my life and the f*cker was CHEATING on me.”

Kinda makes your blood boil, right?

And now it’s your turn!

In the comments, tell us about the most hypocritical thing you’ve ever seen. Thanks in advance!

The post People Discuss the Most Hypocritical Things They’ve Ever Witnessed appeared first on UberFacts.