Category: life

Posted on

People Divulge The Absolute Best Questions To Ask In A Job Interview

The job interview process is almost always stressful, and that’s only after you’ve sent in enough resumés and applications to get someone to offer you an interview in the first place.

Knowing what to ask your interviewer when they ask you “Do you have any questions for us?” is often the most nerve-wracking part of the interview itself.

But below, you’ll find some great questions to ask your potential employer during your next interview.

Reddit user fmgame asked:

“What is THE best question to ask on a job interview?”

Ask About Your Predecessor

“One that has always gone over well for me: ‘What were some qualities that the previous employee in this role brought to the job that you would like to see carried forward?’”

“Another good thing to do is research the company you are interviewing with and you can ask things about what they may be involved in or you could drop that while reading about the company, you wondered this.” –uneasyandcheesy

Ask For Your Interviewer’s Expertise

“When you were interviewing here, what would you have liked to know before you joined?” –BeBackInASchmeck

“This worked for me. I asked my interviewer a question about how she had personally dealt with a company policy she had just explained.”

“She bragged about her stellar adherence to the policy. I nodded my approval. I got the job.” –slowbreaths

“This sounds like it allows too much room for them to promote themselves or the company. It’s not a bad question, I just think it will be hard to get an honest answer.” –Dukeronomy

“But are we looking for an honest answer, or just trying to get hired?” –DungeonsAndDragonsD*ldos

What Do They Want From You?

“Ask them what is the biggest problem you can solve for them in your first six months with the company. Similar to ‘don’t think of a purple hippo,’ this forces them to imagine you succeeding in the position.” –stack_cats

“I asked this question in the interview for my current job. The answer I got was great:”

“‘Nothing. Just settle in, find your feet, concentrate on doing the basics right. We’ll sort out some challenges for you next year’.”

“It meant that I felt really relaxed and at ease when I started, knowing that I didn’t have to make any grand statements early on in my career here.” –SamwiseTheOppressed

This One Can Help You Weed Out Places That Aren’t A Good Fit

“What do you like best about working here?” –SJExit4

“This question has helped a lot to get an accurate view on the employer” –HurricaneHugo

“‘Good work-life balance, open and transparent communication, and a healthy work environment,’ even if none of those things are true.” –reallydarnconfused

“In February I asked this question in a job interview and the immediate response of the guy interviewing me is to look down and laugh a bit.”

“He then told me the likes the ‘balance’ and the ‘comradeship’ and that it feels like ‘family’.”

“That didn’t satisfy me but they proceeded to hire me a week later and I accepted. That comradeship he was talking about was true.”

“It was a group of 15 people and they were all 45+ and older and we’re highly racist towards everyone not German enough.”

“I quit after 2 months after listening to daily right wing conspiracies and whining about foreigners.” –Shaawny

Are They A Good Manager?

“A question that landed me a job once was: ‘If I asked your direct reports about your management style, what do you think they’d tell me?’ Stumped a hiring manager and he emailed me personally to tell me about it, no one ever asked him that question but I got the job.”

“In my current interviews I’m asking ‘what did your company do for its employees during COVID to improve their day to day, work life balance, etc.’ and I ask ‘Is there anything your company adopted during COVID that they plan to keep post COVID?’”

“These questions give a lot of insight into whether a company treated their employees well.”

“Other questions that I’ve been complemented on are:”

“‘If we were currently sitting in my 1 year review, what would I have done in this year for you to say I excelled in my role?’”

“‘If I could snap my finger right now and change anything about your job or the company, what would it be and why?’” –Ophelia_AO

“When I’m interviewing, if it’s not offered proactively, I ask to meet some of the team I would be working with – and have a meeting where the hiring manager was not present.”

“When I’m talking with my potential coworkers I can them ask them about daily tasks/projects, any challenges, and what it’s like to work with the hiring manager. Not being able to meet with them separate from the hiring manager would be a red flag.”

“But then a couple of years ago I was interviewing and was offered a job where I would be the first employee at a company. The owner had previously done a lot of his business with contractors, and wanted to bring on an employee.”

“Obviously there were no coworkers for me to interview, since I would be the first one hired.”

“I did a couple of interviews with the owner, and he said he definitely wants to offer me the position, and he asked me to email him my references.”

“I said I would, and then I noted that normally I would want to speak with coworkers, but since that was not really possible I asked him for references of his own – specifically some who could speak to his management style.”

“He apparently loved that I did that. Said he had never been asked that before, and I could see he was surprised and hadn’t even thought about it.”

“But he agreed to send me an email later that night.”

“What I really appreciated was that he didn’t just give me people who were his direct reports in past jobs. He gave me a couple of levels of people to speak to.”

“One reference was someone who he directly managed previously. This one could speak about his long term experience with my prospective boss, and management style, and whether or not he was a micromanager (was not one, yay).”

“One reference was someone who was currently a managing partner at a pretty big Australian company. They had been VPs at the same time, managing different divisions at a previous company.”

“This one could speak to the leadership style, how my prospective boss approached business problems, and about his vision for the company. They had a long history, and it was really valuable to understand that my boss had a 5 year and 10 year plan for the business that was well thought out.”

“And I think the third reference was a current contractor at the company I was thinking about joining. This one was able to speak about current management style, and current projects I would work on.”

“Got valuable info from all of those references, and I accepted the job”

“Absolutely all of them were accurate about him as a manager.”

“A year or so later told me that me making the request for his references stood out – he took it as a sign that I was a good choice.”

“I don’t work for him anymore, but he’s still one of the best managers I have ever had.”

“The only manager I ever had who when he was trying to hire more people, came to me and said that in trying to hire he had come to realize that he was underpaying me, and gave me a $10k raise on the spot.” –LadyCiani

This One’s Important

“Why is this position open?” –TXJOEMAMA

“The position was ALWAYS hiring (call centre) so I asked them what their turnover rate was… 20% per month.”

“I lasted a good while. I had the highest call ratings in the company, and several customers spoke to or sent letters to my manager about how much they appreciated my help.”

“But I also had the lowest amount of calls taken per shift. Because of that, they never gave me my monthly award in front of the other staff.”

“They didn’t want anyone else to think they could get away with it.”

“Quantity, not quality.” –blameitonmyouth

Not Everyone Wants To Move Up

“Perhaps not the best but very interesting. A candidate asked me if it is possible in our company to get a significant raise without climbing up the career ladder in our company.”

“This guy never wanted to be a manager, he wanted to do what he applied for but wanted to know it will be well paid.”

“We hired him. He’s introvert, working alone in his ‘basement’ but he’s great at what he does.” –Nathaniel66

Job interviews are often stressful, but hopefully these suggestions about what to ask your interviewer make at least part of the process easier.

Happy job hunting!

Posted on

People Explain What You Should Never Do On A First Date

First dates can feel trickier than they actually are.

What starts out as a memorable first encounter can quickly turn south if you put too much thought into it. At most, a first date should attempt to establish a line of connection and if there’s the chance for something more serious to occur.

Turns out, not everyone gets this and that’s where terrible first dates come from.

You’ve heard of them.

You’ve had them.

Now, hear what you can avoid to skip that first date awkwardness.

Reddit user, Couch_Licker, wanted to know what to skip when they asked:

What should you NEVER do on a first date?

Put Them Away

“Be on your phone the whole time” ~ beforesunset1010

“Put it on vibrate and don’t look at it except when you go to the bathroom. I walked out on a date because she was constantly replying to messages. They did not take it well.” ~ [usernamedeleted]

“But what if it is a “let’s play Pokemon GO together” sort of date?” ~ zetta_baron

Keep It On The Present

“Only talk about your previous relationships” ~ Nevlu

“She talked about him so much I started to miss the guy” ~ 2x4x93

“Discuss any particular ex for a length of time. In my experience it’s a big red flag that they’re not over someone or carrying that baggage. And I mean everyone has baggage – it’s normal. I have some and expect the people I’ve dated in the past to have some.”

“But a first date should be about exploring each other and whether you like the person, are attracted to them, want to continue getting to know them. You can mention previous relationships but unless both parties have known each other during previous relationships – do not vent or over explain your exes.” ~ meowowomeow

Don’t Be Egg Hands

“Once had a dude grab some of my food off of my plate with his bare hands. He was trying to do a cutesy sharing food thing but it was a poached egg. He grabbed a poached egg with his bare hands right off of my plate. Please do not be like that guy.” ~ bubblebubbeleh

“I was picturing fries or something. I was not ready for the mental image of a guy trying to grab poached egg with his bare hands. Attempting to be cute or not, what part of that seemed like a good idea?” ~ themightybearorrist

Be Up Front About It, At Least

“invite your spouse. It’s just so awkward” ~ ickysam

“You think Im kidding but at least 10% of Tinder is two people looking to add someone else.” ~ Stories_for_days

Watch Your Strength, Bro

“Break her nose. My now husband hugged me the way Lenny petted rabbits.”

“He was happy to finally meet me in person after online relationship, was a virgin, and thought harder hugs mean more love. They do not.”

“He still apologizes when it’s brought up, lol.” ~ Fact_Even

“So you’re saying it worked?” ~ DunderBearForceOne

“WARNING: THIS IS THE WRONG TAKEAWAY FROM THIS STORY!” ~ a-horse-has-no-name

Believe In Science

“Revealing that you’re a flat earther. This serious happened to me.”

“This guy I met online seems okay. We went on a date and he started asking ‘those type of questions that make people fall in love with you’.”

“Idk if you know what I’m talking about. If that didn’t weird me out enough, he went on and claimed that we worked for NASA and they lied to everyone.”

“The earth is flat and those images we saw of earth are CGI renders. The US never landed on the moon and conspiracy sh*t like that.”

“Needless to say there was no second date.” ~ pink0205

Monitoring Your Breath

“Well, don’t do what I did: order the French onion soup.”

“This was a lunch date and I’m not sure what the hell I was thinking ordering something that both makes a mess (all that melted, stringy cheese) and gives you bad breath.”

“My wife still gives me crap about that boneheaded decision to this day.” ~ Southern_Snowshoe

A Quiet Opening

“Go to the movies. I think going to the movies should be reserved for people in relationships.”

“Why? Because if you go to the movies on the first date you’ll practically have wasted two hours watching something, not being able to talk and get to know each other.” ~ YogurtSocks

“Going to see a film then going for a meal after isn’t the worst option. At least then you have one thing to talk about.”

“However, the theater on its own seems silly. You can’t get to know much about a person that way.” ~ [usernamedeleted]

Keep Your Head On Straight

“Show up wasted.”

“This guy was obviously drunk or on some sort of drugs. His date was being so polite but was clearly uncomfortable.”

“Her server managed to pick up her signals and when she got up to ‘go to the bathroom’ he ushered her to our service elevator to make her getaway.”

“After about 15 minutes he let him know his date had left, he seemed surprised, then a bit upset, finally confessing that it was the second time this had happened to him this week.”

“I kind of felt sad for him in the end, dealing with addiction is tough.” ~ omgbbqpork

Have A Little Bit Of Confidence

“Don’t dump out every single unappealing thing about your life on a first date. There is plenty of time to get to know someone, and plenty of time to be honest about those things – but a first date isn’t the time for it.”

“I feel like sometimes people do this as a defense mechanism, to ‘rip off the bandaid’ and test if someone will accept them completely – but it is far too much all at once and creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of rejection.”

“As an example: on a first date, a guy disclosed to me he’s living with his parents who are homeless and refuse to move out of his apartment so almost all his income goes to them, he has zero sex drive, and he struggles with severe body image issues.”

“He also had plenty of great qualities, and if I’d had a chance to slowly get to know him we may have been able to navigate around some of that stuff… but honestly it was way too much to process all at once.”

“I also have my own family/medical/mental health sh*t to deal with too – I just didn’t dump it all on him in one day – so all I could think about was how much of his sh*t he was asking me to take on, and I didn’t even know him.”

“I ended up not accepting a second date, then watched him post about how women won’t give him a chance on social media… I felt bad because he’s a really nice guy and he’s absolutely sabotaging himself with that first date etiquette.” ~ cebogs

Know Where The Boundaries Are

“Speaking as a woman who dates men: getting offended if she doesn’t want you to pick her up/drive her home.”

“Basic safety there and you look like a creep even if you were just trying to be nice. Offering is fine– but don’t push.” ~ catmos

Something To Be Proud Of?

“Reveal your collection of used panties you’ve bought online.” ~ RedShaun21

You don’t have to do much to have a good first date.

Just don’t show up drunk and skip sharing your panty collecting hobby.

It can be that easy.

Posted on

People Share Little-Known Survival Tips That Could Save Your Life

In a perfect world, none of us would need to know or use any of the information we’re about to go over.

We don’t live in anything remotely close to a perfect world.

Tragedies happen, accidents occur, life gets heavy. In those moments, the thing that tips the scales might be something as seemingly unimportant as “that random factoid I read on the internet.”

Reddit user GlumExcitement9 asked: 

“People of Reddit, what is a surprisingly unknown survival fact that everyone should know?” 

So listen, we sincerely hope you never need this stuff.

We hope you never find yourself waiting to be rescued, facing down a person determined to hurt you, or falling off of a ship in the middle of the open ocean.

But just in case …

Whistle While You Wait

“Pack a whistle.”

“There’s no chance your voice will hold out yelling at the top of your lungs, and whistles carry long distances. Especially handy if you’ve injured yourself, and need to rely on others finding you.”

“SOS in Morse code is … – – – …”

“So three short blasts, three longer ones, three short, pause….and repeat.”

“This is an especially handy and harmless device to give kids that are along for a hike (along with, ‘if you get separated, stop walking and blow the whistle lots, and we’ll come to you’).” – Bubbafett33

Don’t Climb

“Contractor and someone who has designed quite a few subway and stations here.”

“Here’s something we’re taught during the first day of security clearance classes and this is how we design stations as a standard feature on every new platform being built. Older platforms may not have this or will have some other safety feature.”

“Having said that – many subway platforms have a space big enough for a person to fit under in case they fall onto the subways tracks.”

“So if you fall off the edge of the platform and onto the tracks and there’s a train coming, roll to the side. There’s likely a gap you can fit in.”

“It might be tight, and you’ll certainly get dirty, but better than standing up, scrambling to try and climb out, and dying.” – IndianInferno

“I work for NYCT. There are niches you can stand that are safe if you fall.”

“As long as there isn’t a red and white stripped board, you’re good.”

“Another fatal and idiotic piece of advice I hear a lot is to lie down flat between the running rails. This may work in a few stations and in specific spots in those stations but do not try this!”

“Just look along the wall for niches and flatten yourself against the wall in there. If there’s no wall then stand next to a column and hold onto it with one hand.”

“Then just try to stand flush with the column.” – CrankBar

Self Defense Is Cowardly

“My family runs self-defense classes. They include multiple black belts and lawyers.”

“In terms of ‘fights’ – bar brawls, people in the street, muggings, etc.:”

“- If they have a weapon, any weapon, run. Seriously, you will die, no matter how good you think you are or how many test-disarms you’ve done in a dojo.”

“Run like f*ck and be prepared to kill if cornered.”

“We’ve witnessed experienced black-belts hurt themselves with a real knife (after signing disclaimers!) so badly that they were hospitalized when they were JUST SPARRING, not fighting for real.”

“It’s just not worth it.”

“- If the fight is just ‘brewing’, repeatedly announce that you don’t want to fight them (attracts help, shows you’re not trying to one-up them, covers you legally, and doesn’t prepare them if you do fight).”

‘ Say things like ‘Nah, man, I don’t want to fight you. I don’t want to fight you. Look, I don’t want to fight you. Whatever, man, I don’t want to fight. I’m just gonna walk away, alright, I don’t wanna fight you’.” 

“- If it’s not immediately life-threatening and you can avoid it, try not to throw the first punch. Again, legal coverage, but also means you’re not the guy who gets into something they didn’t want to.”

“The first punch is the trigger for everything to kick off. Up until that point you can still defuse everything back to harsh words and idle threats.”

“Once a punch is thrown, someone’s getting really hurt and you literally have no idea if the other guy is more experienced or better at it that you. No matter who you are.”

“However, you can *react* to anything that appears to come towards you perfectly legitimately… if he’s “faking out” a punch, you have no idea of that but can act as if it was real.”

“- If you’re surprised, ‘attacked’, etc… without warning… it’s no holds barred.”

“Literally, who cares about his eyesight, his future fatherhood prospects, whether his kneecaps will ever work again or if he can breathe.”

“You can’t afford to end up on the floor, be incapacitated yourself, stunned, reeling, unconscious, for him to summon aid, or even just to fall to the ground awkwardly.”

“And YES, that guy could stab you and you wouldn’t know until after he walked away, things are really that quick!”

“Your brain doesn’t notice some subtle movements, your body won’t scream out in pain because of the adrenaline, and someone who knows what they’re doing will not attract attention to the weapon until it’s in you, etc…”

“You can’t take that risk.”

“Once it gets physical, don’t stop until you’re sure he’s not able to harm you, and then run away anyway for good measure (legal hint: report to the police at the first opportunity, don’t wait).”

“Once they have shown they have an intention to hurt you, and they’ve started to act on it – nothing is out of line.”

“And to quote the legal people in our clubs who were always asked the questions: If you feel your life is genuinely in danger, you can do almost anything to protect it until the point it’s no longer in danger. Worry about the legalities later.”

“But if your life is in danger, you would act to protect.”

“Going back in for another kick, or using a weapon when he’s already down and you could run, or anything else? Yeah, that’s not self-defense.”

“You’re not *defending* yourself by walking back into a fight you could have easily escaped.”

“Victims who ‘just tried to punch him once, but he punched back, so I shot him’ are also often harder to take seriously for self-defense than ‘he was three times my size, I was on my own, he attacked, I was in a struggle for my life at that point’.”

“That’s especially true if they were heard trying to stop the fight from happening, ran away immediately when they could, and called the police as they ran.”

“You can also act in defense of others, but again – you are defending. You’re giving them time to run away – wife, child, friend, whoever.”

“If there’s a threat, that’s what you’re giving them; the opportunity to escape the threat.”

“But there’s literally nothing wrong with breaking the guy’s knee as your first action (kick it so it goes sideways) – in fact, from a self-defense point of view, it’s perfectly legitimate. It’s a perfect way to prevent pursuit and allow you to escape.”

“Self-defense is cowardly, at its heart.”

“Do everything you can to capitulate, avoid the fight, etc… but if it escalates, take the quickest, most effective way to incapacitate them and then run away.”  – ledow

You Vs. The Ocean

“If you are ever caught in a rip current, swim perpendicular to it. If you swim into it, you will die.”

“If you let it carry you out to sea and aren’t a strong swimmer, you will die.” – [Reddit]

“I’ve been caught in a rip current. This advice is incredibly useful to know, because without it you’re also going to panic real hard when swimming towards the shore doesn’t work.” – homarjr

“I was caught in one, too, during my freshman year of college. I almost died.”

“I would have if it weren’t for my friend, who was a lifeguard, that was nearby. I tried the whole swimming parallel to the beach method, but what everyone conveniently forgets to mention is that you STILL have to swim back to shore.”

“This task is seriously exhausting. If you’re not VERY in shape, you’re pretty much f*cked if you’re caught in a rip current with no one out there to help rescue you.” – enginerd12

“Been a sailing merchant for 12 years. If you ever fall off a ship/ferry at sea and you’re lucky enough to be spotted – don’t try to swim your way to safety. The ocean will win.”

“The more you try to swim, the lesser your chances of survival. Just try to keep afloat and conserve energy (and body heat) while rescue team do what they’re supposed to.”

“Unless you are in hypothermic waters, the best bet always is to stay afloat without trying to swim to somewhere.” – trendz19

Snakebite Position

“Lead the pack if you’re scared of snakes. You’ll disturb them but the person behind you is more likely to get bitten.” – knittingtaco

“Mountain biker from southern Arizona here.”

“In the summer, we trail ride at night to avoid the heat. When on single track, whoever is behind the guy in front is in ‘snakebite’ position.”

“We’ve all at one time or another had to bunnyhop a rattlesnake” – tucsonyeti

The Star

“Elevator stuff: The STAR symbol on the elevator panel indicates the floor that is the most direct route to outside. It’s not always the first floor.” – AtopMountEmotion

Leave It To The Professionals

“Don’t f*ck with garage door springs.” – SpitefulShrimp

“Used to work on commercial and residential doors and openers. Seen a broken spring go through a cinderblock wall.”

“The main thing to look for are the red bolts.(assuming the door was installed correctly.) Those are the ones holding tension on the springs/lines.”

“Screw with something else you might break it. Screw with the reds they might break you.” – ThePrevailer

“THIS is what almost killed me!”

“I was trying to fix a gap in my garage door a couple of years ago and started to unscrew a couple of bolts with the door closed.”

“One of them flew right by my face. I almost pissed my pants and couldn’t sleep that night just thinking about how I almost won a Darwin award.” – Lapare

Sure, some of this is stuff we’re not really likely to use, but how many elevators have you been in.

Did you know what that star was for?

Had you even noticed it?

Exactly.

Posted on

People Break Down The Most Likely Reasons Humanity Will Go Extinct

We all know the story of the dinosaurs extinction. An asteroid hit the earth and caused great environmental impact that wiped out their world.

When we think about our world today and what could possibly cause the end of human life, there’s so many more possibilities beyond an asteroid.

Some scientists predict it could happen in 100 years due to the crumbling political and social climates, while others believe it will be climate related which places the end of days anywhere between 5,100 to 7.8 million years from now.

Redditor TwoTimeToj wanted to know:

“What is the most likely to cause humanity’s extinction?”

This question stirred up quite the debate.

Our own doing.

“Humanity.” ~ LopensLeftArm

“This reminds me of the time last year May 2020. When due to lockdown, a lot of pollution went away, and then everyone on the internet declared: ‘We, humans are the real virus.’” ~ tadxb

“It’s not worth arguing because that alone will bring us to the brink. its us fighting ourselves.” ~ Moglist

“I like to think that when the baby boomer generation currently in charge of companies and politics all die off, we’ll be in a better world because the millennials will take over who have more realistic views and understandings and actually seem to give a sh*t about the future, having had such a hard time for their own futures.”

“But at the same time I know it’s just a dream. ‘Man, I’ve had it so sh*t for so long but now I’m in charge and can screw everyone else over to live a really comfortable, extravagant life I always wanted? Why change the wheel when I can abuse it too and live on a beach driving fast cars?’”

“Aaaaaaand nothing’s changed. Big f*cking surprise.” ~ Dynasty2201

“‘We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning, since the world’s been turning.’ – Billy Joel” ~ Guardanapkins

Some think it’s not that easy.

“I think people really underestimate what it would take to actually completely exterminate our entire species. We already bounced back from a population collapse down to under 10,000 once, we could do so again.”

“Nuclear war, ecological collapse, incurable disease; I highly doubt that any of them could kill everyone. Even if it’s just a few isolated pockets in the outback or the jungle that survive, that’s still not extinction.”

“Honestly, I think it would take a cosmic catastrophe (asteroid/comet impact, gamma ray burst, etc) to completely obliterate us and that assumes that it occurs soon enough that we don’t have viable populations outside of Earth.”

“I’m not for a minute saying that ‘Everything will be fine.’ If we nuke ourselves back to the stone age, or completely alter the planet’s climate such that agriculture becomes impossible, then of course human civilization would probably never recover.”

“The questions is explicitly outright extinction, which I think is big step further.” ~ GalacticNexus

“What’s the event that brought us down to 10,000 if I may ask?” ~ madmenrus1

“I believe it was a supervolcano eruption which initiated a mini ice age, correct me if I’m wrong.” ~ elik2226

A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

“A bad-tempered, bureaucratic alien species of space engineers deciding to construct a hyperspace bypass through our solar system.” ~ -o0_0o-

“I mean, the plans have been on display in Alpha Centauri for quite some time.” ~ itsf*ckingpizzatime

“On display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.’” ~ PeterLemonjellow

Genetic modification.

“I’ve always thought that humans will begin modifying DNA and making cyborg-like modifications to the human body until we reach the point that the concept of human will be so diluted that we will have to call ourselves another way, leading to the extinction of humanity as we know it.” ~ -exekiel-

“You should read the book Homo Deus basically the same idea.” ~ ZeusFarous

“The Omnissiah would be proud.” ~ ctank01

Climate change.

“Climate change, pandemics, etc will probably just make a dent of a smaller or bigger size. For an extinction level event, there’s fewer options:”

  • “Asteroid impact.”
  • “Global thermonuclear war.”
  • “Gamma ray burst.”

“…that kind of thing.” ~ arkaydee

“How about solar flares? What if there comes a solar flare that fries all electronics?”

“Suddenly, we’d have no transportation, no food because it relies on transportation, no running water, no pacemakers, etc.?” ~ 101st_kilometre

“We won’t go extinct, it will just collapse society.” ~ Elbonio

“Back to stone age.”

“Exciting.” ~ Entry-

“It won’t be the stone age. There is a lot of accumulated knowledge that would allow us to be way better off than any time prior to the 1800’s.”

“Just the idea of washing your hands before a medical procedure was revolutionary and not recognized by doctors until after the mid 1800’s.” ~ Alatain

“Can’t wait to get back to the good old days, when you cut your lawn using a giant lobster, and your shower was an elephant that complained a lot!” ~ TheAllyCrime

“If tech suddenly went awry there would still be plenty of people able to live in local farms. It would destroy our civilization but people would survive.”

“The only thing that would truly send humans extinct is the earth becoming entirely uninhabitable for us and the food we eat, like an asteroid boiling our oceans or something like that.” ~ tredli

Probably something so ridiculous.

“Probably the dumbest f*cking thing you can imagine.” ~ jks_david

“Like yogurt or giving cats opposable thumbs in love death and robots.” ~ fox_office

“The yogurt will leave us behind.” ~ uncalledforgiraffe

“At least we will be cultured.” ~ AdAny287

A rogue planet.

“Astronomical phenomenon like a rogue planet, or an asteroid.” ~ Tink2013

“I’m apparently fuzzy on the definition of a rogue planet. I believed they were simply planets that formed outside of or somehow escaped a star system.”

“Simply a planet without a star. How might that bring about humanities extinction? Through a collision?” ~ QiKS

“If one came close enough to disrupt our orbit around the sun and kick us out of the ‘goldilocks’ zone, we could die by heat or cold.” ~ spauldhaliwal

Ancient bacteria.

“Polar ice cap melts, releases bacteria from 5 million years ago and it’s p*ssed.” ~ tuscabam

“There’s a really good book about this. The trick is that it kills the livestock as well, transmitted by insects.” ~ KarmaEeleon

One just to lighten the mood.

“A.I. And by ‘A.I.’ I mean Auto Insurance.” ~ 6_String_Slinger

“Flo takes her job seriously. If you’re not on the plan, plan to die.” ~ yankstraveler

Whether it’s climate change or nuclear war, the end of humanity may come one day.

Hopefully, none of us will be around to see it.

Posted on

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?

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.