Category: askreddit

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Items That Cost A Pretty Penny Despite Being Cheaply Made

All of us know that the vast majority of companies in this world worship nothing more than the almighty dollar. Sure, they give back to the community when its in their best interest, and they give us “deals” from time-to-time, but the prices on their items have far more to do with what people will pay than what they’re actually worth.

If you need some examples (and things to avoid in the future), here are 16 items that are far, far cheaper to make than what the price tag might suggest.

16. The cheap stuff works just as well.

Alcohol.

Costs manufacturers pennies to make, and the government makes the biggest cut.

15. You’re paying for the label.

Most luxury brands with huge obvious logos on them.

14. And they’re probably made by children.

Those $350 Nikes cost maximum 20 bucks to make, shipping included.

Oh, and the 15 hundred dollar ones also cost about 20 bucks to make.

13. All prescription eyedrops are ridiculous.

Glaucoma eyedrops – about $379 for a tiny bottle of the prescription treatment.

you could fly to a country like India and get a bunch of bottles (same if not better quality) and fly back and it would save you money (would have to be like a dozen or more but you get the point)

12. The placebo effect.

Homeopathic pills.

There is nothing in it, no money used for clinical trials. Sold for around 7- 10 euros per box.

11. This should be illegal.

Insulin.

It’s criminal how much they charge compared to the manufacturing costs.

10. A tourist trap.

Crêpes.

We make them often at home here in France. 250g of flour, two eggs some milk, maybe butter, you get 25 crepes for what, 4 euros of groceries. Some street foods in Paris or other big cities will sell them 4 or 5 euros sometimes. And they buy the ingredients in big bulks at cheaper prices so they make an even bigger margin.

They make 100 euros of crêpes for 3 euros of batter and add the toppings, let’s say 7 euros for a pot of nutella, sugar and lemon or whatever. 100 euros for 10 euros. Stonks.

It’s well known by people who work in restaurants in France that crêpes are highly profitable.

9. It’s funny because it’s true.

Babies.

Both adopting and buying a baby on the black market takes serious money.

The biggest cost associated with a baby is the ongoing maintenance costs.

8. Just spring for the Bose.

Beats headphones cost $17.00 to make, and are sold for $100 – $500

That’s insane

If you want a better suggestion , my skullcandy hesh 3’s sound 3x better than my old beats, at only $100. I have a fairly large head, and having the headphones be able to stretch to fit is very important, and these work perfectly for that.

7. This is pretty interesting.

Volkswagen ignition cylinders.

When I worked at Vw, we had to constantly order ignition switches because either they are cheaply designed or cheaply made. So when we would place the order from Volkswagen North America, it gets shipped directly from the manufacturer (either Huf or Valeo). And they would include the invoice in the box.

Well, Vw would charge the dealerships $99.95 and set MSRP at 129.95. The invoice from the manufacturer to Vw, showed cost to Vw being $14.95

6. What if it’s pink, though.

Himalayan Salt – in Pakistan, we get that shit in like 0.20 cents but I’ve heard it being expensive in UK & US.

5. Robbery. I knew it.

Most fast fashion.

A pair of jeans that costs $4 to produce but costs $40 for you to buy is a 1000% markup.

4. Someone is always looking to make a buck.

Face masks.

I would imagine it doesn’t take much to make 15 of them, and with the virus, they have jacked the price up.

3. A total con job.

Diamonds.

Natural diamonds are made for free in nature and harvested using slave labor. Lab created diamonds still cost 45% less.

2. We just want to have smooth skin!

Razor blades.

They are produced at like 15 cents but are sold for 3$ per blade.

1. It’s so yummy, but still.

Popcorn at movie theaters is I think the most expensive commodity.

Some of these actually surprised me, but not most.

What else belongs on this list? Put it down in the comments!

The post Items That Cost A Pretty Penny Despite Being Cheaply Made appeared first on UberFacts.

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Scams That Are So Normalized People Don’t Even Recognize Them For What They Are

Pretty much anything starts to seem normal if you see it, hear it, or do it often and for long enough.

Like staying at home and going nowhere and cleaning your groceries, for example.

Sometimes people stop and take stock of life, though, and realize things that everyone is doing are actually a scam – which is the case in these 15 instances.

15. Just say no.

Payday loans.

I used to work as a debt collector for a payday loan company in the UK… I was not a very good debt collector… people used to find out about the various loopholes that stopped interest being added really easily…

I worked there just before christmas… it is the job that made me go back into education… because.. my soul

14. Make print stores the new normal.

Ink cartridges. printer company’s make barely any profit off of actual printers, they’re just vessels to make you buy unreasonably priced cartridges

“Hey please print this document in black and white” “F*ck you give magenta”

13. Smart phones are the future.

Back to base security system monitoring

Huge scam.

My smart home security system alerts me faster than ADT ever did (biggest offenders) When you don’t answer the call, they will send out someone and will charge you a fee

And every-time your system messes up, it will send false error codes to the monitoring station, which they will charge you a huge fee to fix

And oh if you want to disconnect it, they guy i spoke to from ADT was going to charge me $250 call out + $50 for every 15 minutes he was at my house, and the job would of taken at least an hour he they said, they may need to go into the roof

no i just called a security installation Electrictian and he said $50 call out and $30 for every 30 minutes he was there but that was depending on the type of job

He was at my house for 5 minutes

Power off Remove power wires from control box* Protect the wires so its safe Replace cover on control box Done

He only charged $50. Compared to ADTs service which would of cost about $450

(ADT Hardwired it into our power system… without telling us what circuit they plugged into, basically one flip of a switch outside and the system turns off)

12. Artificially inflated.

The diamond industry, specifically as it relates to jewelry.

Everything that the average person “knows” about it stems from propaganda and advertisements created by DeBeers.

They aren’t rare, they aren’t worth what you pay for them, they don’t appreciate in value and are a terrible investment. They aren’t special.

11. There’s no magic pill.

EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the Internet that sells some sort of „millionaire education“ it’s all bullsh%t.

Every single one of them. They are all liars, most of them are not even rich to begin with! They fake it enough that some idiots buy it. You are customers to them. Nothing more.

10. Nothing is truly unlimited.

Internet Data Cap. F*cking scammers.

We’re living in our RV, and “unlimited” cellular internet is a fraudulent lie.

They all throttle your speed and de-priorize your data packets for using too much of your “unlimited” data. I hate these f*ckers with the fire of a thousand suns.

9. Why are there no other options?

Ticketmaster.

Basically scammers adding huge marks up but making it impossible to use anyone else.

Not to mention allowing mass purchasing bots to scoop up tickets only to offer a third-party market platform for those same scalpers to resell the tickets at increased prices to the fans actually going to the show — TM takes a cut twice!

8. No way around it.

Those Keymaster games that usually have something like a Switch and a pair of Beats and stuff.

I work part time at an arcade and you physically cannot win a prize until the machine has taken it’s retail equivalent in cash.

7. When you do the math…

Starbucks. I pay $9.99 for 51 oz of Folgers Ground Coffee, roughly 380 8 oz cups. That comes out to about $0.02 per cup of coffee. At Starbucks, a Tall Dark Roast costs $1.85.

I could have 92.5 cups of Folgers at home before I pay for 1 Starbucks.

My tub of Folgers is worth $703.00 if I were to sell it at the same price as Starbucks. AND I’m using reusable cups every day.

6. Just walk away.

I just paid for the privilege of setting up my router.

My cable company recently started trying to charge me for my router. Which I own.

I got a notice saying “we noticed an error in billing and we will be charging you for the equipment rental starting in December”.

The f*ck you will, I have every receipt from every cable or phone transaction I’ve ever done for that exact reason. I paid outright for my router so I wouldn’t be renting their sh%tty equipment at $12/month.

Now they want to charge me for my own property. After receiving that notice I hopped right on to customer service to get it resolved, and they directed me to their “loyalty department” because “they could best handle it over there”.

I cut off the conversation and just cancelled my service. Cable companies are pure scum.

5. Human nature.

What’s worse is when the companies try to do right and we force them back into scamming.

Stores like JC Penney sell $10 shirts for $20 at a %50 discount. They also inflate the price of belts, wallets, and underwear but then lower the price of pants. It all evens out but the customer gets the satisfaction of getting a deal.

Once they tried to get rid of that with a “fair and square” pricing strategy but it almost bankrupted the company and it never fully recovered. People don’t want to buy cheap stuff. They want to buy “expensive” stuff at a discount so they feel like they’re getting a bargain.

4. No idea why these are still a thing.

The school picture industry. $80 for an awkward picture of my baby? Nah, thanks.

3. Not a good deal.

Rent-to-own furniture and appliances.

There was an episode of Hotel Impossible where the owner rented the couch in her lobby on a weekly basis for years. She could have bought multiple couches with the money she spent on that one couch she doesn’t even get to keep.

2. And it’s no better than tap water.

Bottled water, like Dasani.

Especially in places like an amusement park that mark ups the price a shocking amount. Also the average markup of bottled water is 4000%, which is outrageous, bc water is literally free most places

1. Definitely should be widely available.

Scientific journal memberships.

Where academics pay journals to publish their papers which are than peer reviewed by volunteers and the journals themselves are then sold by subscription?

Not to mention that a huge part of scientific research, breakthroughs, and discoveries are often subsidized by the tax payer. So even though I helped indirectly fund their research through the NIH, I can’t read the results without a $200 monthly subscription.

I’m sure some academic ethicist could probably speak to this issue in more detail that I can, but that’s always bothered the fuck out of me.

Wow, I have to say, my mind is kind of blown on some of these.

Is there something you would add to the list? Share in the comments!

The post Scams That Are So Normalized People Don’t Even Recognize Them For What They Are appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Discuss the Statement, “I’m Not Responsible for What Your Kids Hear Online, Even if I’m the One Saying It.”

The Internet and social media have completely revolutionized how we do almost everything in our lives.

The way we interact with each other, the way we do business…all of it has been impacted by this technology that was not available to us about three decades ago.

And, as you already know, the atmosphere online can be toxic, offensive, and troublesome, especially to kids.

So is it up to parents to shield their kids from this kind of material? Or do individuals have a responsibility to keep it clean and civil online?

Here’s what AskReddit user had to say about this.

1. Up to the parents.

“It’s the parents’ responsibility to protect their children from the Internet.

I say a lot of f*cked up sh*t while gaming and if you don’t block voice chat on games that your eight year old plays, that is your fault not mine.’

2. Agree to an extent…

“I agree to an extent.

Being on twitch, and most internet places, at 12 and under is usually against TOS. If the parent is already doing the streaming or they are internet savvy and know the ins and outs, then I feel it could be ok to stream as long as the parent and child are doing it together.

With the parent very strictly monitoring all communication first. And teaching the kid what is acceptable/unacceptable on the internet.

But I do also agree adults should not have to worry about censoring themselves in online interactions. As long as they aren’t harassing or engaging in illegal content, adults should not be compelled to cater to children.

Which is why I think it’s absolutely stupid that YouTube has been marking vids as unfriendly for advertisers if they have cuss words.”

3. MY JOB.

“My son wants to stream and do tournaments and stuff with me cuz both me and my partner play. We told him no.

Also he isn’t very good at it yet but he has potential. And the last and probably biggest reason is he’s f*cking annoying and people will tell him.

You’re right it is my job to monitor his sh*t not your job to watch what you say and I have had f*cking kids tell him they’ll murder me not realizing I’m in the party chat playing too.”

4. Keep an eye on them.

“Parents shouldn’t assume the internet is kid friendly and should vet what their kids are allowed to do online, especially online games where other gamers are over 18 and can say whatever they want.

That said, for kid friendly websites or direct message chats to an underage person, the overage person is responsible.”

5. Not kid-friendly.

“I grew up in the 2000s with the internet.

The internet was and never will be kid friendly, up to parents to implement parental controls.”

6. Nasty stuff.

“I always thought this was obvious till my kids were playing among us.

Sure they have the words bleeped out but they can still be exposed to nasty stuff.

I guess I still feel this way but want them to be able to experience fun online games without the smut.”

7. Do the research.

“If it’s a game marketed to kids and not like Fortnite but like specifically for kids then I hold you responsible.

Because in that case the parents did their research and you just played the wrong game.”

8. It can be toxic.

“I simply don’t let my kids play adult oriented games or any games with voice chat because I know some people kids AND adults can be toxic over chat.

It totally sucks for the kids who just want to chat and have fun. Toxic folks kinda ruin it for everyone and themselves.”

9. Cowardly excuse.

“Why do you feel not responsible for what others hear you saying?

Sounds like a cowardly excuse to me.

I mean sure, you are indeed not responsible for other peoples parenting to protect their child from toxic areas on the internet.

But it is still you “saying f*cked up sh*t” degrading everyones else experience. It is your responsibility keeping those places toxic.

I am not a kid. I still love to play online. I love anonymous team play interactions with strangers. But I am grossed out by the general low standards of communication in most games putting me off.”

10. Mute yourself.

“If I hear a kid, I’ll just mute them most probably and mute myself too cuz I f*cking hate children’s voices while gaming.

It just doesn’t go well with me but ik others who could just swear or say profane things while the kids is there.

I don’t give a f*ck, there’s a reason the games are rated a certain rating y’know. + Toxicity should be a well known thing nowadays.”

11. Take responsibility.

“Ultimately, parents need to take more responsibility for what their children see, hear and do.

When I was 13, I had already spent the last couple of years begging my parents to let me play WoW after watching them run around playing vanilla, but they always said not until I was older. When they finally caved, I got the biggest “people on the internet are weird” kind of talk.

A lot of the current generation of kids would have parents that spoke in chat rooms, on msn messenger, had a myspace account and probably stalked something fierce on omegle. So how are there so many parent oblivious to the imminent chaos found on any kind of online game?”

12. Good one!

“Here’s an unpopular opinion for ya…

You could also TRY to be a better person?”

13. Pretty crazy.

“I am in a PC builders group on facebook. The amount of parents that will join and ask:

“What is a good mic and headset for my son? He is 8 years old and plays Fortnite. He is really good so I want to help him start streaming. He wants a separate mic and headset but I’m not sure what that means.”

ITS INSANE.

And every time I try to say something like:

“I don’t mean to tell you how to parent, but I’m 32 and I don’t even want to get into streaming because it can be a pretty toxic environment. And recently there has been a lot of issues with younger kids being groomed by weird older and more popular streamers.

I highly suggest holding off on letting an 8 year old stream. The internet is very vast and you don’t know who they will start talking to and ultimately “entertaining”. They can see your son, tell your son to do things, and you son might do the things if he thinks he will get money or tricked by other means.

I highly highly suggest looking into what is involved in streaming. If it were my son I would not let them stream at 8 years old… if they were 16 I would consider it but it would have to be where I can monitor it… even at like 16.”

And that always gets a negative response about how they know all about streaming and what it is… yeah then why couldn’t you ask a streamer what mic to buy your son?

Clowns raising clowns.”

What do you think about this issue?

Please share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Thanks in advance!

The post People Discuss the Statement, “I’m Not Responsible for What Your Kids Hear Online, Even if I’m the One Saying It.” appeared first on UberFacts.

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This Revenge Story Proves You Shouldn’t Mess With Someone’s Christmas – Even if They’re Family

It’s fair to say that every family does the holidays differently.

You might do Santa up big, or play him down (or ignore him totally). Everyone might buy each other all of the gifts they can afford, or you might draw names from a hat to keep things less expensive (but still loving). There might be so many kids that you just stop buying for everyone period, because it costs a crazy amount of cash.

Whatever you decide when it comes to gifts, as long as your entire family is ok with it – or gets ok with it – you should still be able to enjoy the holiday together.

It’s about family, after all, not presents…right?

That’s what this guy thought, at least, when he and his father agreed that it was no longer necessary for everyone to buy for everyone else’s kids, only their own parent/siblings – great news for OP (original poster), since he was the only childfree dude in the bunch.

Image Credit: Reddit

Here is the cast of characters (I really appreciate this guy’s way with words!)

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Image Credit: Reddit

Things begin to go awry when OP hands over his Nintendo DS, goes to get a drink, and hears trouble brewing.

Image Credit: Reddit

No one else is concerned about the situation, but the stepsister eventually wanders in to “handle” things.

Spoiler alert: she handled nothing.

Image Credit: Reddit

6 months later, the stepbrother calls with the news that OP should really buy Christmas gifts for the kids this year.

Image Credit: Reddit

They have a discussion about it that really doesn’t go all that well.

Image Credit: Reddit

And ends with OP thinking they understand each other, and that now no one is getting gifts.

But of course that wasn’t all, because then his father called.

Image Credit: Reddit

The same sort of conversation happened, with OP expressing continued disinterest in impressing the kids.

Image Credit: Reddit

In the end, OP agrees to buy small gifts and bring them to Christmas.

Image Credit: Reddit

OP promises that the kids will definitely enjoy his gifts.

Image Credit: Reddit

Enter Christmas, with not 1, but 4 gifts under the tree for each of the four children. He’s excited and can’t wait, so he encourages the kids to open his gifts first.

Image Credit: Reddit

The parents agree, and of course, the kids do love their gifts.

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Then all hell breaks loose.

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Then, the beautiful parting shot.

Image Credit: Reddit

Here’s your TL;DR if you skimmed up until this point.

Image Credit: Reddit

Do you agree with how this guy handled his stepfamily?

I have to say, I do think this guy could be nicer about his nieces and nephews, because they’re family and also just because they’re kids, and really don’t deserve this kind of judgment.

That said, gifts should be optional and no one should be forced to buy them if they’re not moved to do so, right?

Tell me your thoughts on the topic down in the comments!

The post This Revenge Story Proves You Shouldn’t Mess With Someone’s Christmas – Even if They’re Family appeared first on UberFacts.

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Inexpensive Items That People Claim Drastically Improved Their Lives

There are some things we buy and we know that they’re frivolous.

Other items we expect big things from (because maybe they came with big price tags) only to be disappointed, the thing relegated to the back of a closet where we don’t have to look at it and be reminded.

Then there are the times – rare as they may be – when we buy something inexpensive that we want to try, and our lives end up the better for it every single day.

These 16 people claim these items – all less than $50 – drastically changed their lives for the better.

16. I hate cleaning it and putting it away though.

A non-stick electric griddle. You can cook a bunch of stuff on that thing.

adding to the list:

A coffee maker and a knock off Yeti tumbler. You can save a crap ton of money that way.

15. Anyone else want to jump ship?

Affinity Photo on sale for 25$, I could leave Photoshop and the whole Adobe Creative suite nonsense behind me. No more monthly payments. Just these 25$ once and I won the thing.

Other thing was a used line tool for architects for 3€ (normal price is 25€), making comic panels never was easier

14. If you don’t already have one.

Pocket/Swiss army knife or multi tool

I have 2 that I keep on my at all times and use them pretty much daily

13. The longer the better (heh).

3 metre long charging cable.

I got a 10 ft USB extension cable to a friend who was recovering from surgery at a hospital. He told me that was the best present he ever got, his words “in my life”.

12. It is revolutionary.

Electric toothbrush.

Speaking of oral care, I bought a tongue scraper on amazon 8 years ago on a whim. I can’t believe I wasn’t scraping my tongue before. The amount of plaque that I get off with that thing every morning is astounding and my breath is so much better now.

11. As someone with a bad back, this sounds nice.

Something called “the helping hand”. Its basically a litter picker (which was actually invented for the disabled btw).

I am disabled and a wheelchair user. My occupational therapist gave me this years ago to help me get things out of high up kitchen cupboards etc.

I still have it and it has been a life changer!

10. For the writing nerds.

This one mechanical pencil that I bought in high school or earlier. I’ll graduate college soon which means I’ve been writing with the same pencil for somewhat 10 years. It fits perfectly between my fingers.

I’ve kept a traditional diary since I was a kid and it has become more and more important since hardly anything requires paper and a pencil today. So many memories from the happiest moments to the absolute worst have been written down using this pencil.

I have a few other pencils as well but they don’t feel right and eventually I’ll put them away and return to my old friend.

9. Learned this from my parents.

A butter dish/butter tray. Room temp butter always available. No more fucking with trying to spread hard butter out of the fridge.

8. Is he on YouTube?

About 20 years ago I bought a 3 VHS tape set that showed me this guy, Sepp Holzer, doing pond and gardens and raising animals in a way far better than I imagined. It has been the core of my life ever since.

7. They almost make winters bearable.

A heated blanket, dont know how I ever survived winters before this.

My bedroom is in the attic and it gets cold. Due to how stuff is wired the heating in my room only goes on when it’s cold downstairs, but since it doesn’t get that cold downstairs my heating never starts up.

This has saved me so much cold nights curled up in a ball at night trying to warm up, it’s amazing

6. I didn’t know there was a way to fix that!

Sheet suspenders!

I toss and turn a lot and would have to fix the fitted sheet every morning

5. Omg this is a thing?

Try a heated mattress pad. They are more efficient has the heat rises and gets trapped by the blankets. Most also have a zone for your feet.

4. If that’s your sort of thing…

A $1 corkscrew that I keep in my car.

The amount of times I have been the hero because of this you wouldn’t believe

3. For people without small children.

A coffee grinder. Buying whole beans and grinding them yourself gives infinitely better coffee than buying pre-ground.

2. I like the enthusiasm.

I do a lot of IT-ish things, so I decided it would be a good idea to get a backpack for my laptop. And backpack means IT’S KIT TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!! All kinds of pockets and whatnot for all life’s basic concerns.

Stanley 6 way screwdriver? Done. Chargers & battery packs? Yep. Whatever random crap? Probably!

The amont of times I’ve been The Guy with whatever completely basic thing is insane. It’s not like the pack is busting with tools.

1. That’s quite an endorsement.

Rainex

If there is one product I would sell door to door, this is it (please don’t let it come to that)

 

Definitely putting some of these things in my cart to try.

What would you add to this list? I would say a battery jump box to replace your jumper cables!

The post Inexpensive Items That People Claim Drastically Improved Their Lives appeared first on UberFacts.

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Items That Don’t Cost Much, But That People Say Improved Their Lives

When you’re thinking about spending your hard-earned cash on something, many people hem and haw regardless of the price tag. The more we spend, the more we expect our purchase to work out the way we imagined – to make our lives easier or more fun or more colorful or just more streamlined, maybe.

If you’re looking for those magical items – the ones that don’t cost much but are 100% worth the money – these 18 people have some solid leads.

18. Hey, old people things work.

My 9$ pill organizer.

Friends have laughed at me because it seems like an old people thing, but I‘ve finally managed to stick to my meds (yes, ironically my ADHD is so bad I couldn‘t even get that done). To me this was a real life changer!

Bonus points: I‘m the only one who knows which day it is during the pandemic.

17. It’s always the little things.

It’s a small thing: a closet rod installed above my washer/dryer, and extra hangers.

Now clothes get taken out of the dryer and put on a hanger right away rather than end up as a pile on the floor, or in a basket never to be properly put away.

16. Comfortable beds are always worth it.

Fluffy duvet covers

My bed was always cold but now it’s not £12 for single £15 for double.

15. Just like a hotel.

Curved shower rod.

14. Electric kettles come in SO handy.

A rice cooker and electric kettle.

I used to sometimes eat rice and drink tea.

I now eat rice and drink tea all the time!

13. A game changer.

A cheap microwave and coffee maker for my work van.

I have an inverter for my tools that I use to run them.

Hot coffee and hot lunches make a huge difference, especially on bad days.

12. This sounds sensible.

Solar power battery pack. Power went out during the hurricane and I was still up and running for 5 days.

11. A simple solution.

My apartment has like no counter space, in reality only a total of 5 feet spread through three areas next to the sink and stove.

I spent like $15 on a 4 foot table. That now holds all my kitchen stuff like toaster, distiller, crock pot, and instant pot. It has just enough room for all that.

Since it is a common question, the distiller is for purifying water. It boils water then collects the steam and condenses it back to water in a pot on the side. It is the exact same process as how to make stronger alcohol, but this is a higher temperature so it leaves behind solids that I clean out once a week. I like pure water and I get all my minerals from my foods. I enjoy cooking so I choose menu items that get all my minerals.

10. Buy them for cons, keep them for life.

Battery pack to charge your phone.

We’ve all been in situations where having your phone on is super important, and not having to be tied to an outlet is even better.

9. You can’t go wrong.

11 pound capacity digital kitchen scale. For baking, cooking and correctly identifying portion sizes.

It has changed the way I bake. No more trying to make the measuring cup level, or worrying about the compactness of my flour. I even buy the large block of butter instead of the more expensive 1/2 cup sticks because I can just weigh it out. Just put the mixing bowl on the scale and tare after each ingredient

8. All of these are on point.

Gonna sound silly but a good set of three different sized stainless steel whisks. You would not believe how much easier making sauces and eggs are with these.

Also a whiteboard to keep on the fridge, makes it easier to note down what you are low on or out of.

7. Pet owners everywhere rejoice.

A rubber bristled broom. I have two dogs and two cats, and my house is all hardwood and tile.

A regular broom just sends the fur floating everywhere, but my rubber broom keeps it all nice and tidy and easy to pick up.

It works on my area rug and upholstered furniture, too!

6. Cheaper than noise-cancelling headphones.

Earplugs.

They saved my final exams in high school when my sister and her 1.5 and 3yo kids tornadoed through the whole house.

5. Like a bath, but less germy.

Shower chair.

I’ve got a f**ked up back and I initially got it for that but even if my back was fine I’d still have one, they’re so useful.

If you shave your legs, you won’t regret it.

4. I would definitely like to try this.

A wake up light alarm clock. The light turns on gradually and wakes you up gradually rather than waking up to obnoxious beeping. Makes the start of my day more positive.

3. I need one of these.

Hot water bottle. I live in cold Scandinavia and have chronic pain. It gets used pretty much all year around.

I recently backed a Kickstarter campaign for the heat bag. It’s made by the guys that also made the ostrich pillow.

It has a clay core you can boil or put in the microwave. When heated, you can put it into a kind of pillow. Thick, soft and insulated on one side and silky on the other side. It feels amazing and keeps the heat longer because of the insulation.

This thing is amazing! I gifted it to my girlfriend for Christmas and she loves it.

2. A good night’s sleep is worth a million bucks.

Weighted blanket and/or A Good Pillow.

Your sleep quality will improve.

Being well rested has to be one of the few good things to happen to me in 2020.

1. Both will definitely improve your life.

A foldable laptop stand for $15.

Always thought you didn’t need this stuff, how different from without one can it be – but it does wonders for my neck.

Travels everywhere with me now.

Also: a 2mm phone cable. It’s the s**t.

I’ll definitely be following up on some of these, how about you?

Which ones are already in your Amazon cart? Tell us in the comments!

The post Items That Don’t Cost Much, But That People Say Improved Their Lives appeared first on UberFacts.

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Weird Events People Absolutely Can’t Explain

Weird things happen every day.

That said, about 99% of those events can, with enough consideration and time and space, be explained by logic and common sense.

The 1% of the time they can’t are where the fears of the paranormal, of roaming ghosts, of invisible hands, and other things that go bump in the night live – and these 14 people with some seriously strange stories.

14. Well that sounds terrible.

I had a sleep paralysis nightmare when I was a kid, where I saw a red-eyed dark figure standing in the doorway. It’s always stuck with me, and I’ve called him the boogeyman ever since.

One day I was browsing Reddit and somebody painted a picture of their “sleep paralysis demon”. It was like the guy had painted my exact dream. And then a bunch of people commented that they had seen the same creature.

It always makes me uneasy to think about.

13. That’s definitely unique.

When I was younger, in elementary school, I used to have the same dream every weekend starting on Saturday (when I would go to sleep) and then waking up in the middle of the night (on Sunday) and throwing up.

The dream was always a bunch of numbers. Not even anything happening just a bunch of random jumbled up numbers all over the place. I never understood why that happened where the same dream would happen on the same night every week and I would throw up every single time.

I always think about it and wonder what it was or if it was just some weird coincidence. Also I would not have any signs of being sick before or after. Maybe someone else has experienced this???

12. Out of the blue.

Both of my lungs collapsed at the same time (almost over 50% collapsed) and I was walking around like I was perfectly normal. Until I decided to go to the ER for bubble sounds in my chest. None of the doctors could figure out why this had happened to me. They didn’t know how I was just up and walking around and laughing

1. I am a 5’7” thin woman. I have heard it is very common in tall and thin men. 2. Yes, it was bilateral pneumothorax, Dr. just couldn’t figure why it happened. 3. I ended up having four more spontaneous pneumothorax within the span of two years. I am still a mystery in that hospital 4. I was aged 19-21 when this was happening. 26 years old now. 5.

They did pleurodesis procedure to get it to stop happening.

Hasn’t happened since.

11. A past life.

I have a vivid memory of being at the Statue of Liberty as a child, on my dad’s shoulders, seeing the skyline of NYC. I remember what we ate for lunch that day, etc. I remember the ferry we took. I’ve always thought about this memory and talked about it, but my family denies I ever went to NYC.

I didn’t go for the first time until I was 23, but strangely enough, when I went, I remembered everything just how it had been when I was there with my dad.

10. Like it was nothing.

When I was in college, a drunk dude fell from a 3rd floor balcony and got up and walked away like it was nothing.

Seriously one of the weirdest/freakish things I’ve ever seen in my life.

9. Maybe it was the cat?

 in my teenage years I lived in a townhome owned by my then-stepdad who freely admitted he thought the place was haunted. He was self employed as a sound equipment installer and often would come and go during the day & my mom worked 9-5 at a law firm. It was summer break, but I wasn’t driving yet. I spent a lot of time outside and this was before the time everyone had a cell phone, so I’d often take our cordless home phone outside with me. I went outside one day, and realized I’d forgotten the phone. When I tried to go back inside to get it, the door was locked. Not the handle – which I may have written off as something I accidentally did on my way out – the deadbolt. The handle freely turned but the deadbolt was engaged. The deadbolt that requires a key to lock from the outside, which I did not have.

I stood there dumbfounded for a few minutes. Nobody else was home, & the only other entrance to the house was a set of sliding doors in the basement that were always locked. What the fuck just happened. I kept trying to open it like an idiot for a while before finally resigning myself to borrowing the neighbors phone & calling my stepdad. He was in town & after asking me if i was sure 1,000 times, came by to unlock the door. I’ll never forget him saying “yep, the deadbolt was completely thrown. I can’t explain that.” I spent the rest of the afternoon inside, trying to recreate the situation. I slammed the door shut so many times in an attempt to get the deadbolt to wobble and lock itself. But it never did, & honestly I didn’t expect it to.

8. Better safe than sorry.

On Reddit one night, I read that thread where the OP hallucinated weird stuff until a commenter suggested that he check for a carbon monoxide leak. The commenter probably saved his life. I went to bed thinking, “Oh yeah, I never did check whether my new house’s smoke alarms also detect carbon monoxide. I need to check that out in the morning.”

At maybe 6 AM, my wife and I awoke to our fire alarms screeching, with a recorded voice telling us carbon monoxide was detected. We grabbed the baby and the dog, piled into our car in the driveway, and called the fire department to check it out. After they tested, they told us no carbon monoxide was detected, but sometimes fire alarms behave unexpectedly when their batteries are low.

This was maybe 5 years after moving into a house that’s new construction, so yes, I was super delinquent in checking it. It wasn’t even the first time I’d read that story on Reddit. Anyway, there is absolutely a logical explanation: an improbable but possible coincidence. But that’s how I ended up spending huge piles of money on a bunch of Nest Protect units, so I could at least get a pleasant phone notification when my alarms’ batteries are low.

7. They didn’t believe her.

This afternoon I had about 30 minutes between class and practice and I drove home to get a snack. When I got there, my mom was at work & my stepdads van was gone so I assumed he was gone as well. The door was locked. Now when you walk into this home, right in front of you to the left is the kitchen, the right is my bedroom, & the middle has a staircase going downstairs. I unlocked the door, came inside, and turned into the kitchen with my back to the staircase. As I was making a sandwich, I heard someone downstairs. I turned back around & the staircase door was open, stairwell light was on, & someone was clearly downstairs.

At the time I thought “wasn’t that door closed when I got here?” but I also rationalized, because my stepdads van was a cargo van & it wasn’t uncommon for someone to borrow it to haul things. So I assumed he was home, his van was borrowed, & I went to the top of the stairs. I stood there, looking down the stairs, eating my sandwich & I almost said something. It was almost out of my mouth, but something stopped me. I still don’t know why I didn’t yell HI JAY down the stairs. Instead I turned around & left, and I left the door unlocked because he was home, right??

When I got back from practice my mom was mad at me because Jay said he came home around 5pm to an unlocked house. He had a lot of expensive equipment in the basement. I was always to lock the door. I tried telling her what I’d seen. He was home at 4. She said he wasn’t. I swore he was. Something was home. My brother believed me, but my mom never did.

6. Who was he?

My dad owned a small garden shop, so I’d stay behind the checkout after school till the shop closed. This was until I see a tall man wearing all black, like a trench coat, walking past my dad and smiling at me before going into a staff only area.

I jump up to stop him, even though I was 7. This back area filled with new shipments. I turn the corner but nobody is there. There was nowhere he could’ve gone.

I ask my dad to check the CCTV after closing, but it’s only shown me jumping up and running, and running out of frame. Weird stuff, never felt comfortable there again.

5. There was ice in her veins.

I lived in a shitty trailer in my early 20s when I was poor with 2 young kids. It had 2 bedrooms, which I’d given to the kids, & I slept on the couch in the living room which was in direct line of sight to the front door. I put the kids to bed around 9pm, and I always locked the door. Always. I still to this day clearly remember locking both the handle & deadbolt & checking to make sure it was fully locked before taking a shower. Eventually I fell asleep. I woke up suddenly around 3am on high alert. As my eyes cleared & I started thinking sensibly… I realized I was staring into the street. My front door was wide open. Not like oh it’s a little open or cracked or I didn’t quite close it all the way and a strong wind came along… it was fully open. Like 90 degree angle here. Plus I had a glass storm door that was fully closed and latched, blocking any wind we might have had, which we didn’t have anyways.

I got up & walked to the door to close it, and that’s when I lost my shit. Y’all. The deadbolt was still in the locked position. It was fully turned to lock, sticking out into the living room air for god and everyone to see. You ever have those moments where you swear there’s ice in your veins? That was it for me. I’ve never been scared like that in my life. In a closed door, you can’t even turn the deadbolt to “fully locked” without it being lined up in the door jamb properly. I knew I’d locked that door. And yet here it was, staring me in the face. I didn’t sleep without the lights on for a week.

4. The sound was so real.

One time when I was little I had a similar experience.

I had fallen asleep on the couch and woke up in the middle of the night, when I got up to go to the kitchen I saw a black silhouette of a woman with a bun and glasses and she went into the kitchen and I heard all of pans fall, i rush into the kitchen no one is there and everything is in its place.

I know I could’ve imagined the figure but I can not explain the sound of the crashing pans and no one else heard it they were all asleep.

3. It was the lady.

My girlfriend got out of the shower and called me into the bathroom to show me the mirror. There was a very strange, distinct handprint placed on the mirror.

I lived alone and she was the only adult that had been to my house in about two years. We each placed our handprints on the sides of the mystery handprint for reference and neither look anything like the mystery print. I still have no idea how it got there.

  • I’ve lived in this house for over a decade.
  • The mirror isn’t newly installed.
  • The mirror is cleaned pretty regularly.
  • I’ve taken many showers and fogged up the mirror and have never seen it.

Not the person I bought the house from but the previous owner, she died in this house.

I was watching my neighbor’s 5 year old kid a few years prior to this and she was eating at the kitchen table. She asked me “Who was that lady that just went up stairs?” There was no lady or any other person in the house.

2. Weirdness usually reserved for twins!

I turned to the other person in the room, who I barely knew, and said “My sister is getting engaged right now,” without having the intent of speaking at all.

He politely asked why I said that, and I had to shake my head and say “I don’t know.”

A few days later I found up that, sure enough, ah that exact moment on the far side of the world, she had said “yes” to Mr. Right.

I hadn’t even known she was dating.

1. He made it happen with his mind.

When I was in primary school (like year 1-2) ;in the cafeteria there was all these cups filled with milk every lunch. Red, green, blue BUT ..only one yellow cup. Everyone would fight to get the yellow cup like it was the holy grail and it had been this way for years.

One night I had a dream that the cafeteria had gotten more yellow cups in, and low and behold the next day…

Hundreds of yellow cups.

I do not like any of these, not even the innocuous ones. I like answers!

If you’ve got a story that would fit on this list, please tell it to us in the comments!

The post Weird Events People Absolutely Can’t Explain appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Who Work For Dating Apps Talk About the Tricks of the Trade

I’ve barely used any dating apps. My history with them generally involves installing, swiping for a few minutes, feeling self-conscious, and uninstalling again.

But despite my non-committal interest, it’s a huge industry, and one Reddit user wanted to peek behind the curtain.

Redditors that worked with a dating company (Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, etc.), what’s the most insane user stat or behind-the-scenes fact you found out about? from AskReddit

There were THOUSANDS of insights. Here are some of the most interesting!

1. What a job.

I have a friend who works for… I wanna say Tinder. Anyway, the company isn’t important; what is important is that her ENTIRE job is to remove inappropriate images.

Her JOB is to look at d*ck pics all day. Five days a week. That’s all. No stat.

Just a weird f*cking job.

– Lettuce-b-lovely

2. Going undercover.

My ex bf worked for the Yahoo Italy dating site back in the earlyish 2000s.

His job was to pretend to be a woman, and message male customers just as their accounts were going to expire. This would encourage them to pay to renew their subscriptions. Once they renewed, he would ghost them.

He only lasted for a few months due to how unethical it was.

– visualisewhirledpeas

3. Some solid stats.

Guys swipe right on 47% of profiles.

Women only swipe right on 12%.

I knew some guys would swipe right more than women, wasn’t prepared for how little women swipe right!

– elatedate

4. Let’s dig deep.

I ran operations for an online dating company (notably not affiliated with Match). From database analytics I can tell you a few things.

Men initiate contact around 80% of the time in straight matchmaking, and if you are a woman looking to date other women and you simply initiate contact with another woman you have a good chance of success simply because it’s very very very common for women to match but then neither initiates contact.

IIRC we were able to determine that it takes on average about 3 dates before sex happens (I don’t recall how we worked that out, I’m not a data analyst, but presumably it was some keyword based algorithm looking at chat messages).

We got so many requests for information from the police that we had an informal system with them, to save them from wasting time getting warrants for information about people who we didn’t have data on, they would ask about a particular name/email/whatever other identifier and we would just say yes we have data about them or no we don’t, and if we did they’d then go get the warrant to get a copy of it.

The other thing I can tell you from our analytics, that really shouldn’t be at all surprising, is to get some decent profile photos. Go get your talented friend or just hire a photographer to take some really nicely-lit well-composed photos of yourself and watch your match rate soar.

– jamesinc

5. Lotta fakes out there.

My old boss was the financial controller of a big dating site.

He kept on seeing these big invoices for modeling agencies and initially thought it was because of the big parties they used to host.

When he asked about it it turned out it was just content for the fake profiles they created to lure in users.

– jimpez86

6. It’s more powerful than you think.

Most dating sites and apps are owned by one company The Match Group.

They have a near monopoly.

I think bumble is one of the few not owned by them.

– HueJass84

7. Talk about ghosting.

This was years ago now, but I used to work with a guy who had been an engineer for Match.com. He said 99% of the profiles were inactive, and that 80% of the active profiles were men.

He didn’t provide numbers but also said the was a huge disparity between the average number of messages sent to women versus those sent to men.

According to him, all told the site was mostly men reaching out to dead profiles and never getting responses.

As I said however, this was years ago, so it’s entirely possible that they’ve cleaned the site up since then.

– CastSeven

8. A heartbreaking story…

A couple met on the dating app I worked on.

Unfortunately, the man passed away and the lady returned to the app where they met for remembrance.

One day, a bug in the system made some profile likes to be sent again after months and she received one from her deceased boyfriend.

Her bug report was heartbreaking.

– Sighne

9. Not so subtle.

Lots of gay guys get banned from grindr selling weed. Would get a lot of emails of “why am I banned”.

Go to their profile and will say “HMU for that ?

– PayneTrayne

10. You WHAT?

We used to create fake accounts and chat with users.

It was everything from someone having a premium account that wasn’t getting responses to bored employees.

– SupermanistheDR

11. Careful about the pics.

I never “worked” at OkCupid but years ago I reported a few profiles and then they made me a mod.

There were more fake or scam profiles than d*ck pics.

We think some profiles were reported just because someone didn’t like how they acted, but once you start image searching, you would typically find that those profiles are fake, or belong to real people that are definitely not on a dating site.

There were a bunch of accurate and proven catfish reports, and a lot of cute pets (pictures have to be of you, not your dog) and we would comment for the other mods “cute dog but breaks rules”. Also google the image of the dog and sometimes find out that it’s someone else’s dog.

– taffypulller

12. Why oh why.

I used to work at a dating site in the UK. I was on the tech side but most of the staff was a group of young women who manually approved images and text changes to profiles. There was about 10-15 of them and the turnover rate was about one a week. The work was just so mind numbing.

About 10 times a day they’ed shout that they’d “got another one”. Which basically meant one of the hundreds of thousands of men on the site has differently thought “I’ve thought of something nobody else has tried, I’ll upload a picture of my c*ck” at which point they’d all laugh at it, cancel the profile upload and go back to reading about people’s choice of pets or whatever else they thought was interesting

– mvrander

13. Everybody lies.

I worked for Match for a couple years.

This is probably widely known but women frequently lie about their age and weight and men lie about their height and salary.

Also, it’s a big problem that women are inundated with DMs while most men get none.

– ChickumNwaffles

14. Yikes.

A dude with over 2000 right swipes and no matches

– [user deleted]

15. Oh, the irony.

The creator of Match.com got cheated on.

She left him for a man she met on Match.com.

– GreyFoxNinjaFan

So the next time you use a dating app, remember, it’s a business. And when dealing with a business, you gotta look out for yourself.

Do you have a crazy dating app story?

Tell us in the comments.

The post People Who Work For Dating Apps Talk About the Tricks of the Trade appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Share the Childhood Mysteries That They Solved Years Later

Do you remember a childhood mystery that stuck with you…

Maybe it had something to do with a weird relative or a secretive neighbor or something that was never to be spoken of in the house.

I think most of us had something in our lives like this, right?

Folks on AskReddit talked about childhood mysteries that they ended up solving later in life. Let’s see what they came up with.

1. You were lied to!

“That the brown part of bread doesn’t contain the nutrients.

It’s just the more cooked outer layer.

My brother lied to me to get me to eat crust when I was a kid.”

2. The truth comes out.

“My dad used to occasionally burst out with this one line of a song:

“…said Barnacle Bill the Sailor…”

Only ever that line. When I was 6 or so I asked him why and he said it was an old drinking song that was absolutely filthy and I was too young to hear the rest of it. This continued once or twice a year until I was 18.

I told him I was an adult now and he could tell me the rest of the song. I distinctly remember him looking up from the newspaper, sighing and folding it then going “The truth is I can never remember the rest of the song.”

And then went right back to reading the newspaper…”

3. Makes sense now.

“The weird smell that I referred to as a “stinky cheese smell” were probably a symptom of seizures.

I would happen maybe twice a year, it’s not really like cheese, it’s like a smell that isn’t a smell. Idk how to even describe it. It was so minor parents disregarded it. I can remember it starting in 2nd grade.

I suddenly started having it a lot more as an adult when I hit 28 and got diagnosed two years later after symptoms became way more extreme. Makes so much sense now!”

4. The secret recipe.

“Growing up I always insisted I liked the mashed potatoes at my grandma’s house better than the ones my mom made at home. My grandma once told me it’s because she uses a special recipe.

I found out last year that my mom hand mashes her potatoes. My grandma just gets the Betty Crocker boxed sh*t. Her special recipe I was gonna get what she dies is Betty Crocker.”

5. Name that tune.

“I remember being about 8, and in the car with my dad. I was in the front seat and we were driving somewhere, and this song came on the radio.

He cranked it and said something about it being the best guitar playing ever. He really jammed out, which was really uncharacteristic because he was usually so stoic. It was the only time I heard the song, and he died before I could ever ask him what song it was. When I asked around, no one knew wtf I was talking about or what song I was thinking of.

So I had this melody in my head for years, but how do you look up a song that has no lyrics? So for years and years, this song stayed on the back burner in my brain. I was afraid to forget it. Somehow this story pops up when I’m like 26 or so, chatting with my husband and we searched YouTube for “best guitar songs”.

After about 15 minutes, we find it. Cliffs of Dover was the song that I’d burned into my brain on repeat for 16 years. Now I jam out to it with my kids.”

6. I knew it!

“When I was in elementary school, I always wondered what the teachers staff room was like. It seemed so mysterious – and I remember trying to get a peek anytime I walked by and the door would open.

Later became a teacher and can fully confirm they’re dull, often toxic spaces full of cranky teachers complaining about students.”

7. You did this!

“When I was younger, like 4 or 5, my family had a pet turtle.

One day the turtle went missing and my parents told me it climbed the wall in our backyard and went to the creek behind our house. I, being a naive toddler child, did not question this logic.

Fast forward to when I was 17 and driving with my mom in the car. We saw a tortoise crossing the street and I was suddenly thrown back to my memory of us having a pet turtle. I pulled over to save the tortoise and was all “OMG MOM TURTLES CAN’T CLIMB WALLS! WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR TURTLE?!”

Came to find out it had burrowed a hole in our lawn and my dad didn’t notice it until after he ran it over with a lawn mower ? obviously it was easier to pick up the pieces and tell your kid it climbed the wall than admit you murdered it with a lawn mower.”

8. Doing time.

“I visited my dad when I was 7-years-old at the place where he worked, or so I was told.

I remember people laughing at me because I said it looked like a prison.

The people laughing were the guards and I was indeed visiting my dad at Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution where he was
an inmate.”

9. Don’t drink that!

“Once when I was about 7 or 8, my family was having a pool party and my twentysomething aunt was sitting by the pool with a glass of clear liquid.

I was hot and thirsty, so I reached for her drink, and she said, “Don’t drink that, it’s pool water!” I wondered why in the heck she’d have a glass of pool water, but left it alone.

Years later, as my family’s alcohol consumption habits became clearer to me, I realized that she was probably drinking vodka.”

10. Nice and wholesome.

“We grew up poor and at the age of 10 my friends were all having these crazy birthday parties with petting zoos, bounce houses, clowns, etc. so my mother who is very resourceful decided I would have a sleepover for my 11th birthday.

It was great and we were gonna make ice cream cones! So we got all the stuff out with my mom, and my mother opened up the box of cones, and they were all smashed up. She said that we weren’t having regular ice cream, we were having “magic castle sundaes” (because the broken ice cream cones resembles the sections of a castle).

We all thought this was great and we had them. When my friends went home, they asked their parents to make magic castle sundaes. Two days ago I found out that my mother was getting the past sell by foods behind the grocery store (they were not expired, just past sell by date).

She had no idea that the cones were brown up until she opened them with us. She thought of the magic castle idea quickly, and we all loved it. Just goes to show how stupid kids are.”

11. Stretching the dollar.

“Growing up, I could never figure out what my dad’s obsession was with ham hocks and beans. I mean, once a month, my mom would make a huge batch of ham hocks and beans, and we would feast on it for days. Days.

It wasn’t until I turned 17-18 that I figured out the reason: times got tight towards the end of every month and this was my parents way of stretching the almighty dollar.

My dad told me one night before he died – – we were reminiscing – – “I actually hated ham hocks and beans…”

12. Ghosts!

“I live and grew up in the Deep South.

As a child from earliest memories until about 8, we would take a winter trip up to Stowe, Vermont to see the grandparents. I would have scary nights hearing ghosts wailing outside the windows. it was terrifying! GPs moved south and we stopped going.

When I was in my 30’s I took another trip up to Vermont. first-night stay, I heard the ghosts!!! Turns out the winter winds up north are waaay different than the winds of southern nights.

Suddenly my general fear of the dark disappeared as I realized fully what the source of the sound was.”

13. The big punch.

“The reason my aunt punched her husband at the pool during a huge family vacation.

It was because she found out that the long distance charges to the hotel room they shared had a ton of calls to a woman he was known to…think were swell…”

14. Kleptomaniac.

“When I was 10 my godfather gave me 20 dollars as a christmas gift.

At the end of the dinner the money had disappeared. For years my parents blamed me for being irresponsible with my money.

Years later we figured out, after she was caught stealing stuff from my aunt’s house, that my cousin’s fiancée at the time is a kleptomaniac. Turns out she was the one that stole the money.”

Now it’s your turn!

In the comments, tell us your own childhood mysteries that you solved when you were older.

We’d love to hear from you!

The post People Share the Childhood Mysteries That They Solved Years Later appeared first on UberFacts.