Category: life

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People Share The First Thing They’d Buy If They Had Unlimited Funds

No matter how hard we work, put in the overtime and save our hard-earned cash, the money we have in the bank never seems to be enough.

Aside from spending on necessities like groceries and putting money aside just in case of emergencies, there doesn’t always appear to be enough cash to treat ourselves to luxury items.

But what if stressing about lack of funds is eliminated from your daily life?

Curious to hear about the first things strangers online would purchase if money was no object, Redditor ApArAmY asked:

“What is the first thing you would buy if you had infinite money?”

Not-so-humble abodes were the first things that came to people’s minds.

To Own…

“A house.” – potatowarrior1

A Family Commune

“That was my first thought too.”

“I’d buy a big piece of land, and build my sister a house, myself a house and my parents a house – then my sister and her kids would still be near me but we could all move out of our parents house.”

“I’d build a house for my parents so it was fully accessible for my severely disabled brother, with a roof hoist so my mum wouldn’t continue to damage her shoulder lifting him.”

“I’d give them a fully heated swimming pool so my brother could swim whenever he wanted to, he loves swimming but we only have outdoor pools where we live.”

“I’d give them a big fancy spa so my mum could relax when she needed it and the swelling in her feet would go down. A sensory room for my brother, and a real train caboose for my dad for his model trains.”

“My sister’s house would have a bedroom for each of her kids, plus another room to act as their play room, and it would be fully fenced so the kids could go outside and play as much as they liked without any worries about them running on to the road.”

“I’d make sure it had a room just for her for all her crafts with enough storage room for wool and material, and a stationary section so she could geek out all she liked over pencils and quills and pens and stamps.”

“And I’d have a two bedroom place with a built in movie theater and a room just for my DVD and book collection with a table large enough to play board games at.”

“I’d have an aviary for my birds, and a knitting/crochet nook, and a large kitchen with every baking utensil, and a bath large enough for me to be submerged fully without either my knees or boobs being out of the water, and I’d enjoy living in a house again instead of a rented room on my parents property with no bathroom or cooking facilities without having to go outside and up a flight of stairs regardless of the weather.”

“And if there was enough room, I’d add a guest cottage and a little house for my nana.” – ngatiara

Aiming Higher

“A f’king castle. Gimme that sh*t.” – SylverTheKnight

Indulgences.

We seldom treat ourselves with things that aren’t necessarily essential in life.

Stargazing

“Telescope but I mean a really good expensive one.” – [deleted]

Freshest Posh Food

“Idk I kinda feel like sushi so probably that.” – littlewing2733

A humble snack

“It sounds silly, but an ice cream sandwich.”

“Several years ago, I was living paycheck to paycheck and had a fair amount of credit card debt. I fell behind in my mortgage and lost my home to foreclosure.”

“Shortly after I was notified, I drove over to a 7-11, bought an ice cream sandwich, and ate it while crying in my car.”

“Unfortunately, every time I eat an ice cream sandwich, it’s still a bittersweet feeling. I always think of the day my favorite childhood comfort food became forever intertwined with my sense of complete and utter failure.”

“After coming into life-changing money, I would hope that an ice cream sandwich would taste as good again as it did when I was a kid.” – Steve-in-rewrite

Motivators

“A personal trainer to get me in shape and an assistant to follow me around and slap food out of my hand.” – Neither_Most

These may not be essential, but they certainly would some Redditors very satisfied.

Bathing In Comfort

“This very moment if I were given unlimited money, I would go and purchase a freestanding bathtub. I think that’s what they’re called. Like one that can fit my 6’4 ass. I take extremely frequent bubble baths after work and I need a tub that actually fits me.”

“Yes, I know I don’t have to work but I still stand by my first purchase. I f’ks with bubble baths.” – Quit_your_dayjob

Revenge Rain

“Amazon. I’d make all the workers pee in bottles… then I’d take those bottles and make it rain anywhere Jeff Bezos is. I’d pay them an extra $15/hr too.” – megapuffranger

“Sounds ridiculous but a dog nanny. I have two dogs and they are my babies. However, they really limit what I can do.”

“Want to get away for a weekend? Ok, who is going to take care of the dogs? Need to work late? Great, they are going to piss everywhere when no one let’s them out.”

“I would definitely do more but my first purchase would be a full time dog nanny for sure.” – thatotherchicka

Senator For Sale

“A US Senator! Or several of ’em. I’ve always wanted my own Senator.” – a_dangerous_noodle

The Price Range

“They’re pretty cheap I believe. When we find out about bribes I’m always shocked at how f’king cheap these whores will sell us out for.” – poopy_poo_poopsicle

I love to travel.

Ever since I started working on cruise ships and I worked with hundreds of staff members from different parts of the world, I became fascinated to learn about their history and our cultural differences.

Because I have so many international friends because of this wonderful experience, I would love to visit them and spend some time in their country.

This goes well with the fact that I also love food.

I would indulge in the culinary delights of the countries I’m visiting without worrying about making a dent in my wallet.

So, I’d travel to my heart’s content.

What would you buy?

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People Divulge The Coolest Facts About The Human Body They Know

It’s easy to dismiss everything going on inside of us as unimportant and anyone who didn’t pay attention in high school biology class might agree with that statement, but the human body is a wonder of science and nature.

 

By all accounts, we all appear mundane on the outside.

We are all of us just a walking, talking bag of bones, electrical impulses and chemical reactions in a meat suit with an appetite for excellent television and an addiction to overpowered, miniature super computers we carry with us everywhere.

But there’s more to us than that.

For example, did you know your liver is capable of regenerating itself like Wolverine or that you can produce enough spit in a lifetime to fill up two entire swimming pools?

WARNING: some of it is kind of gross to those with weak stomachs.

Just when we think we know everything about the human body, the internet goes and surprises us with a bit of blood and gore.

Redditor Actionkat63 asked:

“What’s a strange, but true fact about the human body?”

We’re All Queens

“The acid in your stomach could burn your skin! I always thought that was pretty interesting, and reminds me of the scene in Alien, where the alien blood burns everything.” ~ RebaRocket

Get Your Running Shoes On

“Humans can outrun almost every animal on long distance.” ~ WantedJOCZ

“Long distances only. Humans have been known to jog for days at a time without sleeping, and we seem to have evolved as endurance predators (ie, jog after an animal until it’s literally too tired to fight back).”

“In cold weather the only animal that beats us is huskies, and in hot weather we can be outdistanced by camels and IIRC kangaroos, but otherwise we tend to win in the end.” ~ Pseudonymico

They Can’t Wiggle Out Of This

“Your intestines are in near constant motion, wiggling like a worm.” ~ EasilyForgotten1

But Are We Still Allowed To Lick Things?

“We know what everything would feel like on our tongues without even licking it.” ~ meh2557

“I’ve read this before and it blew my mind looking around at everything and realizing how weirdly, fascinatingly true it is. I’m assuming it’s a combination of you know textures from your fingers and that stage of infancy when babies put everything in their mouths.” ~ ablondedude

Care Package: Incoming!

“When pregnant, if a mother suffers a heart attack or other large physiological issue, the fetus will release a swarm of stem cells that move to the affected area, greatly helping in survival and healing.” ~ SugaBear9001

Flip The Switch

“that the brain operates on the same amount of power as a 10-watt lightbulb” ~ boringg-moon

Shut It All Down!

“Our immune system is so strong it can kill our own bodies’ cells: so techinically we do have a self destruct sequence” ~ SheepSh-t2525

“Our cells have a self destruct sequence also. If things start getting weird, your mitochondria send a signal to the brain which sends a signal to the cells lysosomes which then burst open and destroy the cell.”

“It’s called apoptosis or programmed cell death.” ~ callisstaa

Every Adults’ Kneecaps Feel This One

“Until the age of like 2 ish babies don’t have real kneecaps, they are made of a squishy cartilage type thing” ~ Bunchnivski

Lots of their bones are squishy cartilage stuff, and only grow into bone as they age. Compare this baby hand with this adult hand x-ray.”

“We can actually use this development of cartilage into bone in the wrist to figure out roughly how old somebody is.” ~ elcarath

We Just Need To Keep Believing And Soon We Can Also See Over Tall Walls

“We have the same number of bones in our neck as a giraffe.” ~ Team_Captain_America

“Giraffes’ neck vertibrae are just really big.” ~ KaityKat117

It Truly Is Liquid Gold

“Human breast milk adapts it’s nutritious content to fit the need of the offspring. Baby lacks iron?”

“Next dose of milk will contain more iron. It’s amazing.” ~ Grimms_tale

“how does that work?”

“like.. how does the body of the mother know what the baby needs?”

“or is it more a ‘the ingredients of milk change over time, as the baby goes through different stages of grow’?” ~ Chepi_ChepChep

“Breastmilk is SO cool!! There’s a reason why it’s called liquid gold!”

“More fun facts:”

“1- breastmilk can be dripped into babies eye/ear/nose to treat infections (as mentioned by someone below, it works best as an anti-inflammatory, which can help! Also, it’s more of a preventative than a cure.)”

“2- breastmilk does change depending on babies needs and as they grow”

“3- breastmilk contents differ depending on babies gender”

“4- breastmilk can help with cradle cap”

“5- it works on mild eczema!”

“6- the components of breastmilk could lead to treatment for cancers! possibilities still under trial”

“7- it’s “made” out of the mother’s blood”.

“Milk is made inside glands from the blood stream. Breast milk is NOT made from the mother’s stomach contents”

“The foods mom eats are broken down in the digestive system. Blood reaches the milk glands where it delivers carbohydrates, nutrients, white blood cells, enzymes, pro- and pre-biotics water, fat, and proteins into the gland. link!”

“8- mothers can detect issues with the baby through all of that kissing, which tells her body what to produce (like more antibodies ect) whoa!“~ Exotic-BlueBird

And That’s Enough For Today…

“It’s possible for your bowel movements to go backwards, causing you to poop from your mouth” ~ ipakookapi

“Just a way your body adapts to changes. If, for some reason you can’t poop, your body will attempt to expel it like its other waste products. You’ll find your breath will go rank, you’ll throw up poop and you urine will smell strong.”

“This will happen shortly before you die of sepsis, since all of these methods collectively aren’t good enough to dispose of everything you need.” ~ Gh3rkins

Never forget the human body is a fascinating and marvelous wonder of biology, chemistry and physics.

Just never be surprised when it does something surprising and/or upsetting to learn about.

We’re only human, after all.

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People Break Out The Best Facts To Impress A Little Kid

Little kids are incredibly impressionable. Their minds are still learning and growing, which is a prime opportunity to tell them facts that will absolutely blow their little minds.

Whether you’re a parent, an aunt or uncle, a cool older sibling, or another adult in their life, there are a few facts you can tell them that will make you seem like you know everything about the world.

If you want to impress a young person in your life, this list will give you facts of all sorts that may even blow your own mind.

A Redditor went to Ask Reddit to ask:

“What are some cool facts to tell a 5 year old?”

Take notes!

Watch them try to do the impossible.

“You can’t lick your elbow.”

“Then you get a good 5min watching them try.” ~ CriticallyNormal

“Nah you wanna tell them that you can. Then they’ll try for the whole day and get increasingly p*ssed off.” ~ harkat82

“Actually a lot of kids can lick their elbow. Since they’re younger and more flexible they can bend their arms in weird directions in order to lick their elbow.” ~ chickenugget814

“You’re absolutely right. I just tried it on my 6 y/o nephew and promised him that he could have my phone (he always wants to play games with it) if he could do it. So yeah, bye Reddit!” ~ ninjatoes36

If you’re happy and you know it.

“Astronomer here! Clap your hands once, and then clap them again a second later. The two claps were actually done about 30,000 miles apart thanks to the Earth’s motion in space!”

“I did the calculation once and interestingly most of the stuff you think of, like the rotating Earth or out orbit around the sun, is a negligible part of it. The real contributions are from our star orbiting the galaxy, and the galaxy’s motion itself in space.” ~ Andromeda321

“Is that the earth moving around the sun or the sun moving around the center of the galaxy? Hey, are we aware if galaxies are rotating around a central universal point?” ~ whohw

“The earth moving around the sun is much, much less distance at any moment than the distance we get from the sun orbiting the galaxy.”

“Galaxies do not orbit around a central point, but galaxies around us are heading in the direction of the ‘Great Attractor’ which is outside our visible universe. It’s probably just an even bigger group of galaxies.” ~ Andromeda321

A free, new pet.

“The ducks at the park are free, you can take them home.” ~ NotDaWaed

“I tried this last week. Park police were not too impressed.” ~ mavinochi

“I caught one when I was a kid! And that’s how I got bitten by an angry mama duck.” ~ ZarquonsFlatTire

“Gotta be careful with them ducks. Some belong in gangs n sh*t.” ~ mavinochi

The Pacific Ocean.

“Every ‘c’ in ‘Pacific Ocean’ is pronounced differently.” ~ UWYO-Agent-7

“I just repeated Pacific Ocean several times in a really exaggerated manner just to be sure.” ~ AnRudIsAnamh

“Just told my wife ‘every c in Pacific ocean is spelled differently’… Whoops.” ~ Curran919

Numbers are weird.

“There are numbers below zero.” ~ Sergeant_Dimitri

“And other numbers orthogonal to the real number line entirely.”

“You might have to explain exponents/squaring things but some kids are precocious.” ~ 7788445511220011

“Are those imaginary numbers?” ~ rushingkar

“Yes. There might even be more examples that I’m not aware of tbh, but that was what I was thinking about.” ~ 7788445511220011

“Yep, we can get weirder. Real number exist in a line, complex numbers exist in a plane, and quaternions exists within a volume.”

“So, there exists a range of numbers orthogonal to both the simply real numbers and the simply imaginary numbers. Numbers above zero, numbers below zero, numbers to either side zero, and … hmm, before and after? back and forth from?”

“I dunno, I’m already disoriented.” ~ Haven_Stranger

Advice for dealing with bullies.

“If your being chased by a bully, run until there right behind you then drop into a ball and they’ll trip over you.”

“Then kick ’em in the d*ck.” ~ Lucidpotato666

“Did this as a kid. It worked SO well like it was a movie or something. I can still see him in the air.” ~ Mission_Huckleberry

“Will he ever land?” ~ PurpleVein

“That must have been one hell of a kick in the d*ck.” ~ striped_frog

Our top teeth may or may not be immobile.

“You can’t move your upper teeth.” ~ SNOUMANN

“Some other person on here said my upper teeth are moving at 30,000 miles per second.”

“Get your stories straight reddit. ComeOn!” ~ vitium

“My 7 year old can move one of her upper teeth- it’s loose and we’re waiting for it to fall out.” ~ linuxgeekmama

“Canadian dentistry simply consists of taking part in a hockey match where the offending teeth can be smashed out of your face by a large stick.” ~ imagine_amusing_name

“You can if you have dentures :D” ~ sodapopzero

Put ’em all together and what do you got?

“A group of zebras is called a dazzle and a group of giraffes is called a journey.” ~ Magicbean96

“Don’t Stop Believin’ this.” ~ termiAurthur

“I thought a group of giraffes was called a Tower…” ~ MyCatsAreDumb

“Eiffel for that every time…” ~ PawnedPawn

Today’s yesterday is yesterday’s tomorrow.

“We will never experience tomorrow as by the time it’s ‘tomorrow,’ it will be today.” ~Redditor

“You can say this about right now. There is never a right now bc once you even say it or think about it, it’s gone.” ~ thedopestantelope

“I keep trying to explain to my almost five year old that no, it’s not tomorrow now.” ~ linuxgeekmama

“Easy: promise you’ll take him to the zoo (or Disneyland or whatever) tomorrow. Then, every day: ‘Are we going to the zoo today?’ ‘No, it’s today. I said we’d go tomorrow.’”

“Eventually, they’ll catch on: My parents don’t love me. Also, the concepts of today and tomorrow. The important things.” ~ theAlpacaLives

It’s all in what you eat.

“Flamingos get their pink colour from shrimp they eat.” ~ cthullu-and-the-maid

“But how many shrimps do you have to eat, to make your skin turn pink?” ~ greccojunior

“I have never eaten a shrimp and my skin is pink.” ~ diablorious

We tend to think we know it all.

But sometimes we are learning just as much as the little ones in our lives.

Truly, we do learn something new every day.

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People Who Work For Dating Apps Share The Best Behind-The-Scenes Facts They Know

Online dating seems to be the norm for finding a partner these days, but the process can seem a bit esoteric and confusing for those who haven’t been using the apps all along.

Working for the companies that run dating apps and websites is more interesting than the average person might expect, too.

Reddit user brunetteht3 asked:

“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?”

Try Reaching Out

“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

Not The Best Job

“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

This One Isn’t Either

“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

More Than One Word Per Text Is Probably Good

“I used to work at Bumble, although this was about 4-5 years ago. Globally, about 90% of the users are men, so there is a huge male to female disparity, although it’s not that bad on a per country basis (for some countries).” 

“The most depressing stat though was the histogram of word count in messages. Something like 91% of opening messages were just one word ‘hey’, and ~85% of conversations were just one exchange long (‘hey’ -> no reply ever).”

“Looking at human, digital mating habits splayed out in data science form was really depressing.” 

“The countries which had better male-female ratios (which I can remember) were the Nordic ones, Sweden and Norway were close to 50/50, and for a time, one of them even had more women on the app than men.”

“Not sure how it is now.” –trias10

It Might Not Always Work Out

“[There was] A dude with over 2000 right swipes and no matches.” –Deleted Account

“Bless him – that’s quite sad actually. Hope he found someone eventually.” –brunetteht3 

Maybe Don’t Use Dating Sites For Your Side Hustle

“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

“At my bachelorette party in New Orleans someone wanted weed and was going to try to find someone on Burbon Street. My friend said it was way easier and safer for him to use Grindr ?” 

“Took less than ten minutes!” –mathlady89

Too Bad They Don’t Take Monopoly Money

“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

“Funny you should say that, Bumble is owned by a woman who was also a co-founder of Tinder. The rest of that founding team owns The Match Group.” –zadeon9

“To be fair, she (Whitney Wolfe Herd) launched Bumble as a more comfortable and empowering alternative to Tinder and later sued them for sexual harassment. This comment seems to imply that she’s somehow in cahoots with Tinder/Match.” –spacemanaut

 So Many Unsolicited Pics

“I used to moderate OK Cupid. The amount of unsolicited dick pictures men would send women, not even accompanied by any words was horrifying.”

“I mean, you’d expect it because online dating is a cesspit but the sheer amount would still surprise you.”

I had to look at each reported picture and say ‘Yes, that’s a penis’.” –Jimmypeglegs

“99% of the time, the dick pic doesn’t work. What happens after it’s reported?” –IsThisNameTakenThen

“I’m guessing they think it’s a numbers game? I’d only ever see the picture if it had been reported by the recipient, but if they liked it then fair enough.” 

“As to what happens afterwards, usually their account would be banned. OKC were usually quite quick at getting rid of surprise dick piccers.” –Jimmypeglegs

Everybody Lies, But About Different Things

“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

Dating Life Pro Tips

“Ok so I didn’t work with a dating company per se… But I helped software engineers optimize their profiles.” 

“Men get VERY FEW matches, regardless of how good their profile is. Women get A LOT of matches, but most of those matches are useless.” 

“1) Don’t try to appeal mildly to EVERYONE. Appeal strongly to a small subset of people. Emphasize who you are.” 

“2) Show don’t tell—what makes a person want to date you? Will you impress them with your volunteer work?”

“Will you bring them fun places? Will you make them laugh?” 

“3) Get good photos. If you have to, get a friend with a good camera to take photos of you multiple times over a day with several changes of clothes.” 

“4) Be brutally honest. Do you need to go to the dentist because your teeth are gray? Go.”

“Do you need to get a haircut? Go somewhere that charges $50 a haircut and tell them to do what they want (if male).”

“Do your clothes fit? Ask a fashionable friend.”

“Remember: people are judging you on your appearance as much as you are judging them. They can’t see you’re kind of funny or interesting.”

“They can see if you’re well groomed and making an effort.” –Katamende

While online dating might seem even scarier after reading these facts, it’s still worth giving it a try if you’re looking for love.

Just remember to put your best (online) foot forward!

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People Who’ve Taken A DNA Test Share The Biggest Family Secrets They’ve Uncovered

The human story is an impossibly long and yet relatively short period of history.  And most humans are met with an insatiable desire to figure out their purpose in life—something sometimes their past can shed a light on.

In our infinite curiosity, we’ve updated technology to the point we can now trace our very own DNA back generations and find members of our extended family from all around the world.

However, digging up our genealogy can unearth some secrets we may have never wanted to hear.

So, when Redditor VideoFork asked:

“People who have taken an ancestry DNA test and accidentally uncovered a family secret, what was it?”

People shared their stories from inception to thrilling conclusion.

Deceptive Parents

“Not my story, but someone very close to me discovered that none of the ethnic background that they were expecting was present in the results.”

“This person, whose father was deceased at the time, questioned their mother. The mother admitted that the person’s father was not biological as they believed their entire life (they were older than 40).”

“The mother gave the name of the biological father. My friend then found the biological father, contacted him, and then discovered that they had several 1/2 siblings.”

“The biological father was unaware he had another child and accepted my friend into his family as did the siblings.”-galtsgulch232

“My bio-dad left his family and two daughters in Washington and married my mom in Los Angeles 5 weeks later.”

“I found his first marriage certificate but nothing about a divorce. I’m pretty sure he was a bigamist.”-khegiobridge

“I have an uncle that was put up for adoption. He contacted my grandma and she thought he was going to extort her (they’re well off). Turns out he’s a multi, multi millionaire on his own.”

“They still have limited contact, though my dad has reached out and formed a relationship.”

“Apparently they look exactly alike and have the same personality (which sounds kind of stupid now that I’m writing it out, but they’re only half-siblings).”-RolandDPlaneswalker

New And Nearby

“I exported my raw DNA from 23andme and threw it through promethease to find out why I have porphyria, which is supposed to be hereditary.”

“My mom and dad are definitely my mom and dad, but neither of them have this, which means it was environmental exposure that caused it.”

“Discovered a rare AMPD enzyme deficiency in mom, found out dad carried a recessive LUPUS gene and gave it to my sister. DNA is WILD.”-djspacebunny

“A woman over in Chicago decided to find out who her real parents were. She was getting close to 60 and realized that there may not be much time left to find her father.”

“So through the magic of ancestry she was matched to my grandfather.”

“She reached out to him and told him who her mother was. He didn’t recognize the name but dug up his little black book and lo and behold…there she was.”

“So now I’ve got a new aunt!”-dazeyd

“My male cousin did one and found a female cousin we did not know about. He reached out to her and apparently our deceased uncle was good friends with her mother.”

“Mom wanted a baby so uncle got her pregnant simply as a sperm donor.”

“Female cousin lived a few blocks away from my grandmother. She had met her a few times going around selling Girl Scout cookies or something.”

“My grandmother had no idea that she was buying cookies from her granddaughter.”-OrangeTree81

A New Extension Of Family

“Not me, but a friend never knew who his father was (mom had a weekend fling in college and never contacted the guy after) and his wife helped him use ancestry.com to try and track him down.”

“My friend reached out and the guy was obviously surprised, but flew across the country to meet him.”

“They have a great relationship now, the dad attended his wedding, and they try to get their families together a couple times a year or so.”-djsquidnasty

“A full 100% older brother. My mother got pregnant by my father before the were married. Scandalous in 1960.”

“So, with my father’s knowledge of the situation, mom left town, and lived with my aunt until the birth. Mom gave the baby up for adoption, and then returned home.”

“A couple years later, she married my dad and had three more children together, including me.”

“Fifty five years later, after both my parents had died, my aunt let it slip that me and my siblings that were not the only children of our parents.”

“To paraphrase from Star Wars, there is another. My sister took a DNA test, and a couple of year later she got a hit. Soon thereafter, we met our new big brother and his family (wife, kids) and have become quite close.”-Freeagnt

“My great gran (who I knew) was an orphaned live in servant in Greenock, Scotland in 1900, got pregnant by her employer, kicked out, ended up in the poorhouse where she abandoned the baby.”

“DNA turned up the granddaughter of the baby. Met her in Glasgow a couple of years ago. She turned up as a cousin via DNA.”-TheRealMommaG

A Life-Changing Secret

“So, I did the health DNA one 18 months ago because I wanted to see if I had the breast cancer gene, as there is several incidences on both sides of my family.”

“Got my results and became very confused, it claimed I had no Italian despite my father’s grandma literally coming over from Sicily in 1920. It took me a few minutes to realize what that actually meant.”

“My parents have been together since my mother was 14, I was born when she was 17, and my father joined the military and married my mother.”

“Called my mom and she literally said ‘that’s interesting.’ Then she asked me not to talk to my father and she would explain everything the next time I visited. She did not, and just refused i talk about it.”

“Honestly, I was just shook. I did not see it coming and it was never even presented to be a possibility to me. My sister ended up doing a DNA test and it showed that we were half siblings.”

“I went no contact with my mother 4 months ago, due to this incident and several others. I haven’t told my dad but I realize at some point the truth is going to come out, my sister matched with some of my fathers relatives while I did not so if anyone checks that sh*t, they’re gonna be asking questions.”-sunshineykris

“That my grandmother was biracial. She was abandoned shortly after birth at a church by an older white lady, adopted by a white farmer with 11 kids, stopped talking to most of that family due to nondescript unpleasantness as an older teen.”

“She died 20 years before I was born and looks like Maya Rudolph in the few photos I’ve seen but insisted she was part-Sicilian.”

“My father and his brother both look more white than not; my father worshipped the ground she walked on and never questioned her ancestry.”

“My uncle was always pretty sure she was Black and argued with her a lot (both dad and uncle ended up being super active in the civil rights movement and still are devoted to antiracism work nearly 60 years on, which largely stemmed from these discussions growing up).”

“Anyway, my mom (divorced from my dad) got me a DNA test a few years ago. My grandmother was definitely half-Black, I have no Sicilian or Italian DNA.”

“I’ve connected with a few Black distant cousins over email and zoom, am waiting for the pandemic to mostly end to talk to my dad about it and introduce him to more family.”-ReddishWedding2018

“Not me, but a friend. My friend (34F[emale]) decided to get her twin sister and parents a DNA testing kit for Christmas.”

“When her parents opened the gift they looked at each other and said ‘Oh…thanks.’ They quickly tried to move on to other presents. My friend was slightly confused, but dropped it.”

“Later they went for their Christmas Day walk. The mom and sister were walking ahead while she walked with her dad. Her dad spilled the beans! Her and her sister were adopted.”

“The mother looked back and started crying – she couldn’t believe her husband told her daughter without them talking about it first. They were going to keep it a secret forever.”

“She had never suspected she or her sister were adopted because they look a lot like their parents. They are also very short, as are their parents. Whoops!”-hyggelady

With new technology comes great opportunities.  However, this is a clear case of “be careful what you wish for.”

Not everyone finds out that their whole life is a lie, but still-an opportunity to trace your heritage is not something to take lightly.

Be prepared for it if you decide to do so.

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People Share Science Facts That’ll Change The Way You See The World

Most grownups think they’ve got it all figured out.

Life experiences may have made them more street-savvy, but when it comes to science, it turns out we all still have plenty to learn.

We never stop learning, and isn’t that a wonderful thing?

Redditors were intellectually stimulated when Redditor jdgiabajwbdidb asked:

“What is a science fact that not many people know that will change the way they look at life?”

How well do we know the species with whom we share our planet?

The Thing About Elephants

“Elephants are known to bury their dead under foliage and remain with the bodies for some time afterwards, exhibiting behaviour not dissimilar to human mourning.”

“Indeed, it is the association of apparent grief or mourning that is considered to indicate a ‘burial’, as opposed to simply covering up or disposing of a body.”

“I also read somewhere that they have buried humans.” – ErrorCodeTaken

The Thing About Spiders

“Not a single Tarantula species is able to kill you with venom, so if you see a big hairy boi just know, it can’t kill you, not yet, also link to a picture of my escaped Tarantula” – MeGaPP-_-

The Thing About Mosquitos

“Most people know that the mosquito is the deadliest animal when it comes to total human deaths ever. Next to humans of course.”

“And this is due to the malaria parasite spread by mosquitoes. It is estimated that four to five per cent of all humans that have ever lived died from malaria (rather than half as some sources state).”

“The treatment for malaria is quinine, which was known since the 1700’s. This is often contained in tonic water, which is bitter and not that palatable.”

“The anecdotal story is that during the days of British colonization of India, the British East India Company had of course problems with malaria.”

“Drinking tonic water was not popular with the British, so what’d they do? add booze, i.e. gin. And this is where you get gin and tonic.”

“Of course modern research has shown that the amounts of tonic water you’d need is quite large (~1 liter for a minimal effect) to make that story apocryphal at best (although I know some people who probably managed to meet the necessary quota to ward of malaria).”

“But it is interesting to think that we managed to make the treatment for one of the worst disease humanity has known into a cocktail.”

“What is real though is that malaria can be used to treat syphilis. Malaria causes a high fever which kills the syphilis bacteria.”

“In fact, Dr Julius Wagner-Jauregg received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1927 for this discovery (but he later became a hardcore Nazi and eugenisist. Of course we no longer use this because the mortality rate was 15%, but this was much lower than the death rate for syphilis.”

“Unfortunately, many parts of the world still suffer from malaria, where it is still a major killer.” – monkeypie1234

We have lived on one planet our entire lives and yet there are many facts about our home that elude us.

The Thing About H20

“Water does not innately conduct electricity, it is all the dissolved stuff that allow electricity to pass through it.”

“Water is fascinating stuff.” – Nicholi417

The Thing About Tremors

“Earthquakes can happen literally everywhere on Earth, however humans rarely feel anything below a 2.5 in magnitude.” – botchman

The Thing About Our Atmosphere

“The Amazon Rainforest isn’t actually the lungs of Earth.”

“Almost all the Oxygen generated by the Amazon is used by the life found in the Amazon.”

“40% of Earth’s oxygen is actually produced by tiny Organisms called Diatoms.”

“These organisms can replicate at an incredible rate and trillions of them spread throughout the Oceans and create Oxygen through photosynthesis.”

“When the Diotoms die they transform into underwater snowflakes that remain on the sea floor.”

“When these seas dry up, the dead Diatoms create a salt desert, like the one in Northern Africa.”

“Huge sandstorms pick the Diotoms up and carry them across the Oceans and drop them down on the Amazon and are used as a fertilizer for the rainforest.”

“Where are Diatoms born? The rainforest, they spread to the sea, create Oxygen through photosynthesis, die, create salt deserts, get taken back to the rain forest and help create the rainforest that creates them.”

“That’s the circle of life right there.” – LordTopley

The Thing About Our Celestial Neighbor

“On average, Mercury is the nearest planet to every planet in our solar system.” – MoguoTheMoogle

We already know we are very complex organisms.

But just how complex is our species?

Keep reading.

The Thing About Our Ancestry

“Everyone on earth is at least 50th cousin with everyone else on earth.”

“And if you are currently dating or married to somebody who is from your own country and is of your own ethnicity, there’s a one in five chance that the two of you share a common family member fewer than 10 generations ago.”

“Happy investing!” – ArmstrongBillie

The Thing About Our Flesh

“That the human skin Is quite heavy Its around 16% of your body weight.” – Idontknowtbhsss

“The first cellular life derived from highly complicated chemical reactions in inert matter. Thus, you could say, that all matter tends towards complication: and once a level of complexity is reached it is then ‘considered alive’.”

“This being true would indicate over time that most atoms in the world, including the ones that make you up, have transitioned through of living systems and inert matter, and if not bound by time, complex information tends towards constructing life, thereby, all matter in the universe could have been potentially alive during its existence before being broken down again—simplified—returning to non life, in a cycle that repeats infinitely.”

“We got stuff from stars in us. And you won’t be remembered but the matter you give life to will exist for unknowable trillions of years, potentially becoming the same matter in another being.” – jert3

The Thing About Our View Of The World

“The retinas of our eyes capture things ‘upside down’. Our brains correct for it and turns the image ‘the right way up’.” – lardill

One fascinating factoid I learned was that we had more bones when we were born.

We basically had 300 bones with cartilage between them, making us flexible enough to pass through the birth canal.

As we grow older, our skeletal bodies end up with 206 bones, as many of them fuse together through our early rapid development.

When you think about it, our mere existence is, in itself, a true miracle.

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What’s a Situation You Were Prepared for Because You’re an Overthinker? People Responded.

It’s better to overthink and to be over-prepared…

Well, maybe not ALL the time, but there are definitely some situations where overthinking can really come in handy.

AskReddit users talk about situations they were prepared for because they are over-thinkers.

Let’s see what they had to say.

1. Got it covered.

“All the teachers at the Middle School I taught at knew I was a pack rat and one day a kid split his pants and the school counselor came to me and said ‘Mr. Thehogdog, would you happen to have a pair of sweats or gym pants in your truck’. YEP.

So the the kid spent the rest of the day in a pair of nylon pants I had behind my seat. He is lucky because if he didn’t fit he would have spent the rest of the day in a white disposable ‘coverall’ I had in case I had car trouble in nice clothes.

Icing on the cake: It was a student I really liked who was super helpful to other kids and teachers, so it was nice to do something nice for him.

I also carried a ‘Swiss Army’ brand soft side brief case (yard sale find) STUFFED and it had a few of each size of battery.

One day Phil Niekro and 2 Braves players were there for an assembly and Phil’s mic battery was dy**g so I SPRINTED upstairs to my classroom, grabbed a 9 volt from my bag, then basically rolled across the panel and switched out his battery and got back to the PA avoiding getting on TV News cameras.”

2. Thank God!

“When my son was still a baby, we had to take an 11 hour flight. As an over-thinker, I brought at least 25 diapers for him to go through.

He didn’t need that many, but the mom sitting close to us was very grateful when she ran out of diapers not even halfway through the flight and I gave her a few.”

3. Wow.

“I found a nickel-sized lump on my fifteen month old daughter’s temple, freaked out, obsessed over it, researched it exhaustively, and concluded it was a dermoid cyst that had worn through the skull.

I was told by a pediatrician that it was a bone bruise that would fix itself over the course of three to six months, no imaging was needed, and I shouldn’t make an appointment at the children’s hospital because it would resolve on its own. I got an X-ray done anyway and the radiologist confirmed every one of my suspicions, but the pediatrician still said to wait and see because that’s what you do with dermoid cysts and it was definitely not through the skull despite what the radiologist said.

Made an appointment at the hospital anyway, and the surgeon swore up and down that although it was a dermoid cyst as I’d suspected, it would not be through the skull since in all his years of practice it never had been. Well guess what? It WAS through the skull, and it was pressing on the membrane between the skull and the brain, a hair’s breadth from breaking the membrane or pressing on the brain.

A couple more weeks of waiting and my daughter could have had seizures, a brain infection, lasting damage. I overthought it and now she’s a happy, healthy three year old.”

4. Fire.

“This was at 9 years old. We had driven home and seen the beginning wisps of smoke for the California Cedar fire in 2003.

Naturally, I assumed the worst, and packed up all my clothes and spent about an hour making a travel cage for my guinea pigs. I tied their water bottle to the side so they could drink, packed up their food and their favorite furniture just in case.

I then spent the next few hours monitoring the fire on the news and out in the distance from our window, periodically asking my parents if we needed to evacuate.

At some point in the night the fire sped up like crazy and was literally on the hillside across the street. I went in to my parents room and said “the fire is across the street are you sure we shouldn’t evacuate?”

At this point we all went crazy grabbing important documents and supplies and as we were about to lock the doors and drive I realized I forgot my guinea pigs. My parents told me it was too late and I didn’t have time to grab them, but when I cried and explained I had them packed up, I was able to grab them and go.

The house ended up ok thanks to a neighbor putting out embers before they took, but we were gone long enough my pigs wouldn’t have made it.”

5. There you go.

“I was supposed to get married at the end of May last year.

At the beginning of the year, before any of the pandemic stuff happened, I became obsessed with thinking about all the things that could go wrong and how we would lose our money spent on the event.

As a result, I purchased a very high coverage insurance policy for the event. As luck would have it, this type of insurance had no clause that prevented collecting if there was a pandemic. We got all of our money back.”

6. That’s impressive.

“Getting lost in a foreign country. Relying on phone GPS to navigate, data stops working.

I had over-prepared and memorized the map of the downtown area ahead of time.”

7. Perfect!

“I always carry a small sewing kit whenever I go to a wedding.

I have sewed two brides into their dresses so far!”

8. Creepy.

“Mace.

A person I worked with was a registered s** offender and he had a thing for me. I told him multiple times that he made me feel uncomfortable and to stay away from me. For some reason I had nightmares about this dude, he was 6 and half feet tall and f**king hideous. Anyways, he said he was going to stop at a store that I stopped at all the time after work, and it was obvious he knew my direction when I left.

I pull up to this store and he’s already there, walks up to my car and I just roll down my window and spray this dude, and he dropped a billy club out of his sleeve. Everyone always told me to stop being paranoid and stop thinking he’s going to attack me or r**e me, that “he’s been to jail and learned his lesson”.

F**k that dude. He should’ve never been let out of prison. For reference, I’m also a 6 foot tall dude who is always prepared for the worst.”

9. Terrifying.

“My school went into lockdown because of a potential active shooter.

I’ve thought about that scenario a thousand times in my head so when it actually happened and we went into lockdown I barricaded the doors just how I imagined a thousand times.”

10. Getting easier.

“Being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after researching it thoroughly and knowing I had it, but everyone in my family telling me I was just being a hypochondriac.

Was prepared for the diagnosis, not so much the life with it, but it’s getting easier.”

11. What a relief.

“I built a first aid kit once in which I tried to imagine every wilderness emergency scenario. I was a wilderness whitewater guide.

A client going into a diabetic episode asked me, “ you wouldn’t happen to have any sugar packs would you?” I replied, “as a matter of fact, I do!”

She was so relieved and thankful that my planning included persons with her affliction.”

12. Lifesaver.

“My boyfriend who has zero history of seizures narrowly escaped dy**g from one because my overthinking led me to break into his house when he didn’t answer the phone.

My overthinking had begun a few nights prior. He mentioned that he but his tongue in his sleep and woke up with a bloody pillow and sore mouth- but he had no memory of it happening.

That for some reason led my overthinking brain to question ‘Wow, did he have a seizure and not realize it?’ He has zero history of seizures, and we had been together multiple years (didn’t live together but spent nights together) and I had never seen a hint of a seizure. But for some reason, this stuck in my mind.

Fast forward two days. We usually don’t hang out in the morning because he likes to sleep in late, but on this day we had an appointment to go see a specific dog at the shelter I was thinking of adopting.

He wouldn’t answer the phone that morning. I called multiple times before I went to his place, but he never picked up. I started getting a bad feeling but quelled the ‘He’s having a seizure’ thought, because that was clearly SO unlikely, meanwhile making an action plan for that very scenario.

I got to his house and he wouldn’t answer, so in a completely NOT ME crazy girlfriend move, I climbed over his fence. Luckily his door was unlocked.

I found him unconscious and unresponsive, lying in his back with the sticky remnants of foam all around his mouth.

I jumped into action- I rolled him on his side to help curb aspiration, put a pillow under his shoulder to keep him in that position, and called the ambulance.

Had I not hopped the fence to get in- had I not driven over when he didn’t pick up the phone- had we not had plans to meet up hours earlier than we usually did- he would have been d**d by lunch. His kidneys were already shutting down by the time he reached the ER.

If he had never mentioned biting his tongue in his sleep, I don’t think I would have been overthinking at all. No crazy worries about seizures would have pushed me to go over and find him.

Turns out to be a weird brain disease that’s bizarrely endemic to New Mexico kind of- cerebral cavernous malformations .

Several days later, after we got home from the hospital, I got a call from a friend who said the dog, against all odds, was still at the shelter- as in the very dog we were supposed to be seeing that day. I had given up hope on getting her, pushed it out of my priorities while he was hospitalized- but they had forgotten to take down my 24 Hour Hold sign on her cage, so no one inquired about her.

She’s now our miracle dog and is the sweetest animal I’ve ever owned. My boyfriend wouldn’t be alive today if we hadn’t made an appointment to meet her.”

Are you an over-thinker?

And have you had an experience like this?

If so, talk to us in the comments and fill us in. Thanks!

The post What’s a Situation You Were Prepared for Because You’re an Overthinker? People Responded. appeared first on UberFacts.

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Overthinkers Discuss About Situations They Were Preparing for Their Entire Lives

Overthinking can be a good thing…sometimes.

Yes, it can also be annoying and drive your friends and family members up the wall, but when you get that little victory once in a while because you were prepared, you save the day!

What situation were you prepared for because you’re an over-thinker?

Here’s what folks on AskReddit had to say.

1. Got it covered.

“I carry some of just about everything, in my purse. We were at a beach, during off season, and a kid wiped out. I

had everything needed, to clean, and bandage him up.

I carried that stuff, (renewing when it got old), for almost 20 years before actually needing it.”

2. Get comfortable.

“I keep a change of clothes in my car at all times and a wool blanket in case my car breaks down or I’m stuck in undrivable conditions.

Sure enough, about 11 years ago it snowed juuuust heavily enough that my pavement princess of a car couldn’t drive safely in it and I was too far away from town to turn back, so I pulled over and waited out the snow in comfort (I had snacks and water remaining from the trip I was still on at the time) until the street sweepers came through.”

3. Don’t panic.

“My company was in shambles financially and was laying off (bit before Coronavirus).

I kinda sensed my number will come soon, so I applied for masters degree. I got laid off and 2 weeks later I had my acceptance letter for a masters degree.

Saved me the panic of finding a job in a post corona economy in 2020.”

4. You never know.

“In college I was on my university’s equestrian team. I’d been riding long enough to know that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong at a horse show, especially if you’re not prepared for it.

My car was always full of gear, and I was always poked fun at for it, but I saved so many team mates butts. Your crop broke? I got you. I always carried two. Got horse slobber all over your show coat? I got you. I always carried two extra pairs of show pants and there was at least one show where both of them were needed.

Then there was also the situation where the billets broke ( a strap that helps hold the saddle on) on one of the horse’s saddles and it was either a dressage saddle or mine. We made it work with mine.

Who brings their own saddle to an away horse show? I do because you never know what you’re gonna need.”

5. Fear of not being prepared.

“Growing up, my dad really instilled the fear of not being prepared in my head. If you have ever watched Freaks and Geeks, the dad at the dinner table recounting someone he knew who d**d as a result of their actions was a pretty spot on impression.

It extended beyond “don’t run with scissors” to, “don’t carry things on your lap when you’re in a car or you’ll be cut in half”, “walk opposite of traffic so if someone tries to kidnap you, you can kick their door in and run away”.

I instinctively catalogue items when entering a room based on what would be a good weapon, and have had to familiarize myself with preserving evidence. The last one is what came in handy.

Unfortunately, one of the worst case scenarios befell our family two years ago. My oldest daughter disclosed that she had been m**ested by my then FIL. I went into full auto-pilot here: took my daughter to a safe room, had family pick up my dog and youngest daughter, made sure she didn’t wash her hands. When she had to use the restroom, I asked her not to wipe. We didn’t change her clothes, we didn’t have her brush her teeth.

The DNA evidence they were able to collect off of her put him in prison and will keep him there.

Surprisingly, this has helped my overthinking. We all are getting a lot of therapy now and I’ve started to learn that it’s ok to not be for everything. Sometimes life sucks, and most of the time it’s completely out of our control.”

6. Already readjusted.

“My ex boyfriend of 3 years and I were seemingly totally fine, but he was just not texting back at his usual speed for a few days.

Any normal person would say “oh he’s just busy with work”, but I went straight to he’s clearly going to break up with me. Well, after 4 days of slow texts back, he breaks up with me.

I was completely prepared, had my ice cream in the freezer, chocolate in the fridge, tissues and lavender oil in the bedside drawer and bath bombs at the ready in the bathroom. I was so prepared that I didn’t even really need all of that though, because I had already readjusted to the mentality of having been broken up with.

That was my quickest bounce back from a relationship ever, 2 days and I was fine.”

7. Sticky icky icky.

“I hid a few grams of weed once.

I knew my adhd stoner brain would forget about it and sometimes it can be hard to come by if it’s dry.

My husband called the idea stupid and it wouldn’t come in handy.

Guess who ran out of weed a month later and couldn’t find any more, then suddenly remembered our secret little stash? This guy.

Kept us going until we could find some more and now my husband never gives me c**p when I hide things.”

8. That’s random.

“I slipped on the ice and shattered my femur.

Luckily I stuck my phone in my pocket before I took the garbage out for the explicit reason of “what if I slip on the ice and break my femur?”.”

9. Trust your gut.

“Overthinker here.

Dealing with a very corrupt local police force here in Orange County California, I thought of this far-fetched scenario where the police officers tried to raid my offices with a SWAT team over building code violations, so I installed a DVR system and just waited, I thought it was so far fetched that I never bothered to tell any of my colleagues what I was doing out of fear that they would laugh at me.

3 days after it was installed, 12 tactical units came in and busted down the door, they were laughing the whole time. All caught in glorious high definition video. It made local news even. Of course their claims were baseless and a fairly large civil suit was launched against the city. Trust your gut…”

10. Jeez…

“I saved 2 voicemail messages from my mentally ill father, who was coached by the woman who controlled him and financially abused him for 15 years to tell me never to call him again.

Her voice can be heard telling him what to say and he repeats her words verbatim. He passed away in 2019, but now those messages are the ‘slam dunk’ in the 400 pages of evidence I’ve collected to not only stop her collecting life insurance, but also demand she repay some of the tens of thousands in “unconscionable procurement.”

I’ll be giving the whole pile of evidence to her local police because there is no way my father was her only victim.”

11. Good move.

“I occasionally fear someone is following me when I’m driving. One night I leaned on my horn for someone who cut me off.

When I turned into a neighborhood to drop off my friend I noticed the same car behind me. Instead of stopping at her house to drop her off I drove past and did a circle around the block to see if they’d follow, which they did.

That turned into us being chased by them for about 30 minutes which is another story altogether.

I don’t want to think about what would have happened if I assumed it was another car from that neighborhood and stopped when I got to my friends house.”

12. Pandemic life.

“The pandemic.

I had been watching the news and new there was a virus spreading that was freaking officials out way more than normal. The day they announced a case in my county I made a trip to the store to stock up on the essentials like booze, food, and TP.

The lines were moderate but not at panic levels. A week later they announced the lockdown. Thankfully I had bought enough to last me 2.5 months without needing to leave my place.”

13. Have to be careful.

“Riding a motorcycle.

I always assume every car around me is going to wildly pull out in front of me or swerve into my lane. multiple times these assumptions have saved my life.

I’m a pretty crazy over thinker and a lot of times it’s needless worry.

But I feel like sometimes it prepares me for something that DOES actually happen.”

Have you ever found yourself in a situation like this?

If so, please tell us about it in the comments.

Thanks a lot!

The post Overthinkers Discuss About Situations They Were Preparing for Their Entire Lives appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Discuss the Statement, “A Lot of People Only Care About a Cause When It’s Trendy”

I’d like to believe that people support causes because they believe in helping folks out.

But, as I’m sure you already know, we live in a social-media-obsessed world where image is everything for some people.

And sometimes people latch onto the popular causes of the day because of how they think it will make them look…but how widespread is that phenomenon?

AskReddit users talked about whether or not most people only care about causes when they become trendy.

Let’s see what they had to say.

1. What’s up with that?

“Hence why literal g**ocides have been going on in China for years now and yet most people in my day-to-day life have no idea whatsoever.

Even when I tell them, they barely give it more than a seconds thought because IT ISN’T TRENDY and there’s nothing for them to gain socially by pretending to care.

But you better believe they’re radical followers of whatever Tik-Tok and their television screen is pushing at the moment.

Also, where are all of those young people who were suddenly civil-rights revolutionaries last summer? The trend d**d down and I haven’t seen them post anything about any of that ever since… It’s back to non-stop selfies and photos of Starbucks coffee.

What’s up with that?”

2. Inauthentic.

“This is why I didn’t do the ‘black out’ social media posting last year. I didn’t want to inauthentically hop on a trend.

I always sign petitions/ signal boost / etc any good cause I see, but I wasn’t going to intensively commit to something I wasn’t prepared to keep up when it comes to social media. It felt fake to do so.

I keep learning and growing as we all do, but that isn’t gonna take the sum of one summer when literally everyone else is talking about it for the same length of time.”

3. A lot of issues out there.

“Part of the issue is that there are so many issues that are important. Enough of us are working most of the time and can barely manage ourselves that even if we care about something, we don’t have time to be active, without potentially putting our own welfare at risk.

When “cause” trends go around, especially if it’s not your primary concern (for example maybe you’re more of an animal rights activists or environmentalist) posting a black square is like the easiest lift for people to say, yeah I’m solidarity.”

4. All support is good.

“Any form of support is good. Whether monetary or otherwise, just showing solidarity is important.

To me, that’s what the black square thing was about, showing the people on the street and, more importantly the white supremacists that are actively combatting that movement in that specific scenario, that the public is on their side.”

5. A hot take.

“I don’t care about social issues.

I know, I know. I should care about everyone and everything. I just can’t mentally handle it.

Sorry no matter how manipulative your language is I can only physically care about a certain amount of issues.

I know I am not cool and trendy, but I’m fine with that. Most people who support every social issue going on in the world tend to be miserable.”

6. Some perspective.

“At a certain point, there’s just so much s**t that is and has always been going on in the world so to assert that you have to care about all of it all the time is, I think, pretty naive.

You can’t only care about things that affect you but at the same time those things should be like 90% of your focus. You’re just begging for a poor mental state in exchange for not really being able to change much.

My personal view is that the ones out there railing about X Issue tend to be young people from wealthy families who haven’t had much adversity of their own to deal with but just want some instance of adversity to get emotionally invested in.”

7. The man in the mirror.

“It is much more effective to just be a better person than yesterday and help everyone around you whenever you can.

No need to find and stay 100% updated on all the highlighted issues of the society on the internet and exhaust your brain and energy on learning manipulative stuff and propagandas of big corporation’s/leaders to make some more bucks or gain some more control/power, while the homeless near you starves for the 2nd day.

The only thing that people should feel the need to change is the man in the mirror.”

8. Overwhelming.

“I don’t think it’s fair how we’re expected to care about everything.

I think if every person cared about one cause then that would be enough, instead of expecting people to advocate for every single group.”

9. Woke.

“Welcome to the 21st century my friend , where people only care about something when it benefits them in some way or are socially pressured into thinking they need to care about something when they really don’t .

Honestly pretty much everyone ( obviously an exaggeration because there a few who genuinely care about the cause ) only care about something when it’s popular to support it , care or h**e on it for some reason or another .

And they couldn’t care less to get to the root of these issues or why they even exist in the first place , because all they care about is looking morally superior/woke or whatever and riding on their moral high horse while looking down on others , as if they’re so superior.”

10. Hashtag activism.

“Hashtag activism gives the individual a dopamine rush with minimal effort.

Basically it’s just a drug hit of self-righteous feel good bullc**p.”

11. Wouldn’t that be nice?

“There are many world problems people don’t talk about. I wish caring about all injustice and pain in the world was trendy so more people could be informed.”

12. Isn’t helping.

“It is called virtue signalling. Celebrities do this all of the time.

Wokeness is also the same thing and hurts certain campaigns rather than helping them.”

What do you think about this?

Talk to us in the comments and let us know.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The post People Discuss the Statement, “A Lot of People Only Care About a Cause When It’s Trendy” appeared first on UberFacts.

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15 Times When People Shared WAY Too Much Information With Other Folks

Have you ever been in a situation where you’re just thinking “why is this person talking to me and when will they stop?”

Reddit certainly has. I mean, holy crap, just look at this:

What’s the most fucked up thing someone has told you about themselves after barely getting to know them? from AskReddit

A lot of these stories are pretty disturbing, so, proceed at your own risk.

1. The worst depths of the closet

In third year university, heading home from a late night of studying for midterms, i met a kid crying in one of the stairwells of the university centre.

I asked him if he was alright and sat down with him, he was a foreign student, his english wasn’t strong, but he said his life was over, family was going to disown him, he had nowhere to go, etc.

So i asked some more questions and then he came out and said he thinks he’s gay, and his parents are from a conservative culture which says it’s NOT Ok, he doesn’t know anyone here other than a few ultra conservative foreign students from his country, and he felt like there was nothing he could do, nowhere he could go, all that.. I felt so bad for the guy, he asked if he could hug me, which was a bit awkward, but i said ya and held him for a bit.

Then we spoke for another like 30 mins and i told him all about the free counselling options at the school, and how nice and understanding they were for my mental issues, told him that his sexuality wasn’t as rare as he thought, and there were plenty of gay people at the school, some of whom felt just like him. I gave him a business card for the councillor i was seeing, gave him my number if he wanted to talk, and headed out.

He called me to talk and meet up on campus and thank me a few weeks later, and then i never saw him again.

Hope the dude’s found comfort in his skin and a happy life in canada.

– avanross

2. The troubled adventurer

I’m a female, and I met a girl at A local coffee joint. There were regulars coming there for months. So we chatted casually..

But one day I was going to drive to see friends 3 hours away for a fun filled weekend. She said it sounded fun and I don’t know why but I invited her. She said yes and I picked her up the next day. Mind you, we were both around 19.

Well it was a three hour journey of hearing her life stories. She told me she was bulimic and used to hide jars of vomit under her bed from her parents so she wouldn’t get in trouble. She ran away and left them there.

Then I heard about an Amtrak ride she took when running away that was three days long. She met an older couple on there and spent the three days doing drugs and having threesomes with them. I’m sure there was more but those things stuck with me.

She ended up getting pregnant by another guy at the coffee joint who she constantly told everyone how big his d**k was. I never saw her after that.

Naive 19yo me just sat there driving and thinking, holy f**k. Me now is still thinking holy f**k to be honest. I hope she’s ok. 19 year old me had no idea how to support her.

– milf_2sugars

3. The self-aware addict

Moved to a neighborhood not to long ago first person I meet was a older woman in her 50s.

She told me all about her drug use and how sometimes she ends up outside naked and asked if I would help her back inside and put clothes on her.

This was all in 5 minutes of saying hello.

– Horribleheadaches

4. “I’m just here to work”

Used to work at a ski resort and was working in a different area than I normally work.

Well this lady who I was working with found out I was slightly acquainted with her fiance and proceeded to tell me all about how his family hates her and is mean to her and all about his substance abuse issues.

I don’t remember all the details because it was a few years ago but she unloaded on me with every issue of her relationship and I’m like I’m just here to work. I didn’t really even know her fiance. I avoided that lady after that.

– beau8888

5. The weekend warrior

My favorite ever was some stranger outside a bar.

Seemed normal enough until she said “My husband and I used to do meth, but we don’t anymore.”

I applauded her on this and then she followed up with “Yeah, now we only have meth weekends.”

– FaintCommand

6. The ghost whisperer

Worked in a catalogue store and sold a middle aged lady a dictaphone after she sheepishly asked me if there was something she could use to record people without them knowing. It was weird, but who am I to judge, I just work the tills and suggest the items. However she then decides to tell me she needs it, because she’s being bullied or harassed in her home. So she buys the dictaphone and I think nothing of it.

On my next shift, she is back in and demanding to speak to me about the device. First words out her mouth are “should there already be voices on it”. I was kind of weirded out and surprised to hear that the device had already been used.

But then she leans across the counter and suddenly begins telling me (in whisper tone) that she is being attacked by spirits in her home and she needs proof. She plays the dictaphone without being prompted to do so. Anyway there’s nothing ghostly on it, just some mundane household sounds and eastenders (a british soap opera).

She became quite fond of me, came in repeatedly to tell me about the ghosts, but it just seemed so crazy that within like two shifts she had unloaded all her delusions. She even asked to know where I had went after moving away. My old colleagues obviously didn’t tell her. She was a harmless lady, just a bit odd.

– conorb_93

7. Well that escalated quickly…

Hired an older plumber (in his 60s) at the company I worked at when I was an apprentice and I got put with him during his first week.

Within 10 minutes of meeting him the small talk topic of his choice was that his mail order Thai wife had died a few months ago and that he’s been plowing through prostitutes and he recommends hiring a Cambodian woman as they are by far the best in bed.

– Slignig

8. The kink master

We were 17, first year of uni, and I had known the guy for a week or two tops.

Out of f**king nowhere, he tells me he had a kink for getting farted in the face by girls. I p**sed myself laughing and we became good friends for a while.

– I_hate_traveling

9. The massage enthusiast

At a work Christmas party, it was mentioned we were going to Vancouver for a meeting next month.

New guy is so excited he’s losing his mind. He proceeded to tell us about how they have the best massage (happy ending kind) parlours. He went on and on about how great they were last time he went, he also told us about etiquette and what to expect.

He was married with three kids, and all I could think of, is what kinda s**t is he not telling me if he is this open about this

– emotionalsupporttank

10. The listener

A friend of a friend of mine and I were sleeping on some couches after a party and we got to talking. More so her than me, I’m definitely a better listener than talker. She confided in me that she watched her boyfriend (might have been fiance?) pull a gun and shoot himself in the head in front of her.

She also told me how she and her best friend of years, someone I knew for a very short time, and her had been urban exploring on a smoke stack catwalk in an abandoned paper mill and she watched her friend miss a step and fall to her death.

She wasn’t making these things up either, the next day I mentioned to our mutual friend that she had opened up to me about this stuff and he confirmed it was sadly true about the boyfriend committing suicide. The accidental death I had known about through the news, I didn’t know she was the person with her though.

Poor girl witnessed the loss of two very important people to her and at the time she was only 19-20 when she told me this. I hope talking to a near stranger helped though, even if all I did was listen.

– mrdotkom

11. The realities of addiction

When I was in rehab, my roommate whom was only 18 told me that she had been stripping and selling herself since she was 11 to get her dope. And that you can “connect the dots” of the abscess scars on her arm. She’d continually shoot up in a spot till she got an abscess and then she’d just cut it out of her arm herself.

Being an ex-heroin addict myself, abscesses weren’t anything new but the fact that this tiny little 18 year old girl (she couldn’t have weighed more than 90 pounds,) had nine abscess scars on just one arm, I just couldn’t even wrap my head around that.

You hear some of the worst f**king stories ever in rehab (and I’ve been to ten during my entire addiction) but this was one of the worst I had ever heard. Especially because she was so nice and had such an innocent way about her. It was heartbreaking.

– buttononmyback

12. The baggage of grief

I started working at a flower shop as a delivery driver and on the very first day of training the woman I was paired with proceeded to tell me all about how she was still processing her parents’ deaths. Went into great detail, explained the stresses of funeral arrangements and how she had to dress her mother for the viewing because her siblings weren’t able to handle it. Even told me about a text message she believes she had gotten from her mother after she passed.

I did my best to be sympathetic but we were out on a 4 hour delivery drive and she definitely took the opportunity of a captive audience to dump a serious amount of baggage. At a certain point I just didn’t know what to say anymore.

– redradbot

13. The frightening smile

I met a guy once at work, we talked for about 5 minutes and he was suspiciously way too nice.

After a few minutes later and just to give me “context”, he told me he had attempted suicide several times and that he could be violent sometimes.

We kept talking like it was nothing for like 15 more minutes. During al the conversation he never stopped smiling

– TotalCardiologist793

14. Monsters, Inc

I grew up somewhere that gets very cold and dark in the winter months. In my mid 20’s I worked for a medium sized local bank that had bought an even smaller bank.

Right before close, during a snow storm, a woman came in with really old financial documents that smelled of mildew. She claimed her husband had accounts with the current bank and that she needed all the money out and close accounts.

Problem was the paperwork she had was not for either of the banks described and her husband was not in the system.

Then she proceeded to tell us how her husband had died after being attacked by a werewolf who was actually her husband’s brother. And that her husband was also a werewolf. She claimed she needed the money for protection.

After muttering a little more and randomly walking around the lobby agitated, she left.

Luckily my manager was really cool and dealt with talking with her and I was a bystander but it was still a very weird thing to hear especially under the circumstances.

Gave bad vibes for sure.

– Ortuatra

15. The sadist

Dude got hired at my job and within the hour, not only was he saying massively homophobic and racist s**t, he also told a story.

A story about how, at his second job the day before, his coworker got his hand caught in a machine. This dude absolutely delighted in telling us that, not only did he openly laugh in his face while the dude sat there sobbing in pain with a missing hand, he also kept telling the guy that he was going to be in debt for the rest of his life because no one’s going to pay for the accident, his wife is going to leave him, he was going to lose his job, etc.

Basically whatever he could say to make this dudes awful day even worse. And he got glee out of it!

The second he finished that story I told him to gtfo and never come back (i was M.O.D) because what the actual f**k

– D**dosinthesky

What can I say but yikes.

Have you had an experience like this?

Tell us about it in the comments.

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