Category: reddit

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People Divulge Their Best Passive Income Sources

Not all of us make enough money from our jobs to survive. That’s why the side hustle, a means of making money alongside one’s main form of employment or income, has become such a thing.

Everyone seems to have one! But you know the saying, “Work smart, not hard,” don’t you?

That’s ideal… but first you have to figure out what to do and how to do it in such a way that you don’t compromise your main source of income. Oh, and hopefully it’s steady enough that you don’t have to worry yourself too much (or devote too much time to it)!

People told us all their tips and tricks after Redditor Kenneth0233 asked the online community:

“Smart people of Reddit, what are your best ideas for passive income?”

“I’ll give you a serious answer…”

“I’ll give you a serious answer, that did me well. Goes for people learning or that know a second language.”

“Find some public domain books, translate them. You now have rights over the translation. Get it into a library. Profit.”

“Works really well if you’re from an obscure part of the world undergoing political turmoil (Georgia, Armenia, Ex-Yugoslavia) that has been talked about in the media the past 30 years. University students will need primary sources, and there is a lack of supply.” ~ AjdeBrePicko

“Put ads on your car.”

“Put ads on your car. A friend has a large sticker on their passenger side door for a local business and they give him $100 a month to just have it there.” ~ fraxinnus

“Put 15 percent of earnings…”

“Learn to manage your finances and avoid debt.”

“Always be judicial with loyalty to any employer. Blind loyalty can bite you in the ass. If times get hard you are expendable. If you get a different offer of employment don’t reject it out of current loyalties but do weigh your options.”

“Put 15 percent of earnings into investments. An easily obtained seven percent yearly average will double your input in 20 years. 40 years would be near 5 times the principal.

“More aggressive investments could be much higher. 12 percent is a reasonably attainable average and the same 40-year investment would be over 18 times the principal. $400 per month for 40 years at 12 percent will net you $3.5 million on a $200 K investment.”

“Don’t underestimate the power of compound interest. When your money makes money is when true wealth happens.” ~ Birdapotamus

“If you have a bunch of cash…”

“If you have a bunch of cash, the best vehicle for passive income is and will almost always be municipal bonds in the state where you live. Federal tax-free, almost always state income tax-free, and will net you a pretty good chunk of cash if you find the right bonds.” ~ betterthanamaster

“Buy a partnership in a business…”

“Buy a partnership in a business that is already managed. You can be a passive partner in the business, but there are some rules that apply to passive partners that don’t apply to regular partners that can make this a headache, especially if the business losses money.” ~ betterthanamaster

“Not exactly passive…”

“Not exactly passive, but very low effort: house sit. I live in a decent area, near a good-sized city with affluent suburbs.”

“I get paid for basically hanging out, keeping an eye on the place, and taking care of a few pets, which to me is enjoyable, since I love animals and can’t have them where I live. I always choose places that are convenient for me to get to and also to commute to my job.”

“I house sat as a favor to a friend of a friend, and she gave me great references and recommended me to other people in her fairly affluent circle. I end up house sitting quite a lot at certain times of the year, and in really nice places. This might not be NO effort, but it sure as hell doesn’t feel like work.” ~ saltygirltarot

“If you’re artistic in any manner…”

“If you’re artistic in any manner, digital files you put to a marketplace are a good way to make a small side income. Though usually if you are artistically inclined you’ll also spend money on the hobby and so the first few years your income will probably be put straight back into it.” ~ Daelis

“Buy real estate.”

“Buy real estate. You can use tons of low-interest debt to buy it, you get depreciation and other tax benefits, and your tenants will pay off your mortgages and build up your equity in addition to giving you cash flow.”

“There are lots of good strategies, but no need to reinvent the wheel. This one works for dumb and smart people alike.” ~ [deleted]

“Educate yourself…”

“Educate yourself and don’t be afraid of work.”

“If you’re handy, look into real estate. If you’re techy there are ways to invest in dropshipping or Amazon affiliate businesses. If you’ve got the money you can afford to lose look into paper investments and crypto.”

“If you’ve got money you can’t afford to lose but don’t need for a while, look into bond ladders. In the end, educating yourself will pay bigger dividends than asking someone else what to do and nobody can tell you what your risk tolerance or work ethic is.” ~ yanbu

“Pay someone to manage it…”

“Own property and rent it out. Pay someone to manage it for you for a small percentage of your profits and/or in exchange for living there.” ~ [deleted]

“I check for smaller businesses…”

“I check for smaller businesses struggling with their websites/non-existent websites, create one that seems to be fitting for their apparent type of line, and market it to them – if they seem to be fine with it, I give them a contract to pretty much rent the website.”

“A lot of active work goes in, but fairly priced it will pay well in a long run.” ~ lymdyxdx

And there you have it.

If you want to make some money, you’ll have to spend some money.

And some forms of passive income also requite some amount of active work to get going.

So what are you waiting for?

Go make that coin!

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People Confess The Real Reason Why They Quit Their Job This Year

This year, an incredible amount of people quit their jobs. So many people left that media have started calling it The Great Resignation.

In August, 4.3 million workers voluntarily quit their jobs according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some believe that people are quitting in droves because of government supplements available during the pandemic are being taken advantage of, but that may not be the whole story.

While many are calling this a labor shortage, others are pointing to low wages for customer service work like restaurant workers, retailors, and hospitality workers, who are at hire risk for contracting COVID.

With so many people quitting, we wanted to know what was the final straw for the 4.3 million people who walked away.

Redditor daraand asked:

“Why did you quit your job this year?”

Here’s what The Great Resignation is really all about.

Too much stress.

“72 hour weeks, was stressed out constantly. Kept getting passed over for promotions.” – basic-fatale

“…this, plus the a**holes who made everyday miserable for me.” – sirlongbottom441

“Bloody hell. This makes me appreciate some of the employment laws we have in place. Anything above 48 hours is illegal, regardless if it’s on your contract or not. Your employer can ask but you’re in no obligation to accept.”

“This is in the UK.” – steelcity91

Goodbye retail.

“Found one that is Monday to Friday, same hours as my wife so we can carpool, and paid more for the starting wage than my last job did after working there for 2 years and getting a promotion. Win win win. Plus the actual work is more personally fulfilling. Goodbye retail!” – Ghiraheem

“What a huge relief. Good for you.” – LaserTurboShark69

“Because working retail is crap and working retail during a pandemic is just life-draining.” – anarchos1288

“I got out of retail in 19. Couldn’t imagine being in during Covid.” – ogier_79

Low Wages.

“Might do it soon. Wage has not kept up with inflation at all.” – Opie67

“I’m looking forward to my annual 1-2% best we can do right now raise, and giving my notice shortly after. Though I wouldn’t mind being wrong for once.” – tris_majestis

This has been predicted. Year end bonuses will be here and before you know it and January will bring the next wave of walk outs.

Time to switch careers.

“I was so tired of the politics, racism, and anger there. I just finished my second master’s degree and have decided after 20 years I’m switching careers and could not be more excited!!!” – Redditor

“Congratulations! That’s awesome! May your new job bring you a sense of peace and fulfillment.” – Ghiraheem

Left after seven years.

“Got taken off a team I started and was on for 4.5 years and moved to a newly created team with 0 notice. New team is under a different director and also had other people pulled onto it. ‘This team was put together to work on a project that’s very close to the CEO’ we kept getting told.”

“My experience is in a completely different tech stack. No idea why I was moved to this new team. Spent a month doing courses and trainings to learn this new tech stack at the behest of my manager and our lead engineer. Business kept changing their mind on what we were doing, so I had to keep changing what I was learning. (Flutter, Android, iOS, Kotlin, Spring) I was learning all of those from the ground up mostly. Nothing I was experienced in was useful on this new team.”

“Lead engineer submitted his 2 weeks. Was tired of dealing with our management chain.”

“After that, director pulls me into meeting. Says I’m not performing at the expected level. Why don’t I have as many tickets done. etc. I explain that I’ve been doing courses and pair programming with our lead to learn the new code base. That I’m from a completely different tech stack. He doesn’t believe me, says I should be learning outside of work hours. wtf.”

“That’s not how our company culture is at all. Lead engineer hears about this, pulls director into a meeting and yells at him for accusing me of not performing and lays out all the reasons as to why I am. Director pulls me into a meeting the next day to say ‘I guess I didn’t have the full story,’ doesn’t even really apologize. Like bro, I f*cking told you the full story…”

“I had a couple break downs during that whole week, so after that I took 2 weeks of vacation to think about shit and to de-stress. Came back, finished a small project in 2 days and submitted my 2 weeks.”

“And that is how I came to quit a company I had worked at for nearly 7 years that I really enjoyed working at. And how a tool of a director lost a Senior & Staff engineer from his 5 person team in the span of a couple weeks. I hope it reflects poorly on him.” – Shane75776

Your mental health should come first.

“I was in middle management, desperately trying to keep my small team together with no help or support from the higher ups who were content on playing golf and smoking their cigars. My team was overworked, stressed, yelled at constantly by internal and external clients, and were given tools from 1998 to fix 2021 issues.”

“Luckily a former co-worker asked how things were going, I might have an opportunity for you…he’s now my co-worker again, and I’m making 40% more than I was, no longer managing people, and back doing what I like doing: Learning new things and helping people.”

“Two things I learned:”

“Be nice to people because you never know what can happen down the road. They might call on you or you might need to call on them.”

“Mental health first. I had a mental breakdown and my former company said, ‘Are you quitting?’ as their opening statement when I opened up to them. If you’re not getting the support you need, go find it. I promise you, everything else will work out.” – jkra0512

They’re actually wanted as a worker.

“Worked so many hours, took so much on, and then was told I ‘wasn’t engaged’ so I found a job where they are thrilled to have me for 40 grand more a year. I feel like I’ve been de-programmed from a cult. I even have the energy to join a gym.”

“Took a few people to tell me I deserved my success before I started to believe it myself.” – teenabeans

No room for growth.

“I didn’t have any opportunity for personal career development because the business refused to hire another developer for 2 years to help share the load.”

“I was constantly needed to help support legacy systems that were ‘going to be replaced soon’ rather than allowed to work on anything new or things that would’ve helped me to improve.”

“After I gave my 2 weeks, they begged me to stay because they didn’t have anyone left at the company who had looked at the legacy code base within the last 2+ years.” – VonKoob

Hospitality nightmare.

“Constant eight day stretches. Sometimes up to twelve. Often made worse because schedules started on Sunday, but often weren’t posted until Friday, so I never had a chance to plan. Zero oversight from management, zero help or extra training while trying to keep a hotel’s breakfast area running through COVID, BUT others kept getting me in trouble for pointless things. (I was sometimes leaving stuff undone at end of day, and then doing it when I came in, but apparently that’s illegal.)”

“I stayed late often to help out other departments, but was looked at as not wanting to work if I went home an hour early once or twice during my eight day stretches. And then, they hired someone whose sole job was to do MY job, which wound up cutting my hours in half. Couldn’t take it anymore, so I left.” – Balsamwood

Done with CEOs.

“CEOs and journals like the Wall Street Journal keep telling me that it’s because I’m lazy or that unemployment benefits prevent me from going back to work.”

“The one thing that the NEVER mention statistics like the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that CEO compensation has grown 1,322% since 1978, while typical worker compensation has risen just 18%. In 2020, CEOs of the top 350 firms in the U.S. made $24.2 million, on average — 351 times more than a typical worker.”

“In 1980, CEOs at large companies made about 40 times what the average worker made. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, was paid $265 million in 2020. F*ck you, Tim Cook. Chad Richison of Paycom made $211.13 million in 2020. F*ck you, Chad Richison. Amir Dan Rubin CEO of 1Life Healthcare – $199.05 million. F*ck you, Amir Dan Rubin. John Legere CEO of T-Mobile – $137.2 million. F*ck you, John Legere.”

“And f*ck you, business journals who put the blame on the workers rather than the CEOs and executive suite.”

“Occasionally, there are actual righteous business owners, like CEO Dan Price. He raised the salary of everyone at his Seattle-based credit card processing company Gravity Payments to at least $70,000 a year. Price slashed his own salary by $1 million down to the same $70,000.”

“All the business journals claimed, at the time, that CEO Dan Price was a communist, and that his business would go down the tubes. These are supposedly the ‘free market’ people who should be on the side of Dan Price to do whatever he decided to do with his own company. Anyways, as it turns out, their business exploded. The workers appreciate him so much, they all chipped in to buy him a new car, because he couldn’t afford one on his new $70,000 salary. Now, that’s a real man.” – AutodidacticTactic

There’s no shortage of reasons to quit a job: low wages, terrible treatment, poor management, and being forced to keep going through a global pandemic are all valid reasons.

If there’s anything we can learn from this is that laborers have a lot of power, and that power is through their choice to work at companies that actually care about their wellbeing.

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People Share The Best Trivial Facts They’ve Picked Up On The Job

Random knowledge is always being thrown at us and there are some things we’d never hear about if not for our jobs.

The workplace can be one of the best places to learn and thrive.

Case in point, I learn everyday from reading threads like this. I gather knowledge about science, geography, humanity, murder—the list is endless.

It can be useful and useless all at once. And that’s fun.

Redditor HugSized wanted to discuss all of the random knowledge many of us pick up in the workplace.

They asked:

“What trivial fact do you know only because of your job?”

Let’s get ready for Jeopardy…

A Special Time of Season

“The reason many TV shows have ‘holiday special’ episodes is because TV viewership is very low the week of Christmas but if they call it a special they don’t need to include it when they calculate their average ratings for the season.”

“Also the day Americans watch the least amount of TV is the 4th of July.”  ~ thisisanewusername57

Inch by inch by inch…

“Tulips will continue to grow, on average, two inches more after they’ve been cut. Generally not while they’re in cold storage, but once they’re in a warmer environment.” 

“Usually the entire flower will get bigger. They will grow in length, but also as the petals open the petals will become larger as well.”

“Taking them out of cold storage will make them continue to grow, and do they!”

“I think it’s the cells becoming larger as they get warmer. Like they expand and contract with temperature and light.”

“A lot of flowers will open in light and close in dark. There is a point of no return.” ~ marefo

“As someone who worked in floral making arrangements for a while, tulips have become my least favorite flower to work with.”

“Those flimsy ass stems that just flop over because they’re so top heavy, and since they tend to grow at different rates, it is hard to use them in arrangements.”

“Plus the soil is always packed into their leaves, leading to dirty water if you happen to miss a spot when cleaning them.”   ~ amugnai

Buying. Selling. For a bit. 

“The average length of a Real Estate Agent’s career is about four months.”  ~ Bunktavious

“I lasted three years. I didn’t have the money to pay the Realtor fee at the time or the car to impress.”

“Then I moved out of town, got divorced, spent a whole year broke before I was back on my feet, with other 9-5 entry level positions.”

“I’ve wanted to get back into it but with such a bad market where I live and the necessity to make money asap, it is a hard decision.”  ~ LLL84

Better to Breathe

“Babies born vaginally tend to have less respiratory distress than babies via c-section of the same gestational age because the squeeze through the birth canal helps get amniotic fluid out of their lungs.”  ~J ohnnytucf

“This saved my nephew.”

“He would have died if delivered cesarean but being born vaginally, the squeeze pushed his intestines back through the hole in his diaphragm and into his abdomen allowing his lungs to expand.”  ~ neinta

“Also the sudden change from chilling in their own pee to suddenly being squeezed, relatively slowly, through a very small space causes a release of stress hormones which also help absorb fluid in the lungs as well as triggering breathing.”

“Babies born through C-section don’t get as much of that stress.”  ~ kjhwkejhkhdsfkjhsdkf

Shopping in Secret

“In the state of Nevada, only licensed private investigators are allowed to work as mystery shoppers.”  ~ cattemonstre

“I had a secret shopper twice in a row.”

“He was making sure we checked IDs. I asked for his ID when he ordered, gave me a green card indicating I passed, I gave that to my manager, started talking to him.”

“Saw him again the next month, said hello and just asked for his ID before he said anything.”

“He just smiled again, gave me another green card and I bought him an appetizer so he could just sit and relax a bit.”  ~ illgot

“Based on my experience, I think mystery shopping companies that operate in Nevada recruit current PIs to do mystery shopping work on the side, rather than encouraging aspiring shoppers to get licensed.”

“The locations being shopped also have somewhat higher security needs (stores and restaurants in casinos, etc.), so that might have something to do with it.”  ~ cattemonstre

For the price of ink…

“You know those vintage looking shirts at the store that are distressed on the print. It saves the company a ton of money on ink costs.”

“My boss says that trend is what made him a millionaire.”  ~ PlopsMcgoo

“Also makes it easier to print/less waste.”

“Didn’t get solid pressure all the way through the push? No problem, it’s distressed. Didn’t flood the screen fully in one spot?”

“It’s ok, distressed. Pretty much any error is easily hidden in a distressed design.”

“When you need crisp, sharp lines is where errors become majorly obvious and any error can mean recording and printing a new shirt.”  ~r edebekadia

Gimme your grade…

“The most common type of stainless steel is grade 304. The second most common is grade 316, which is used for food and surgical purposes.”  ~ mycatiswatchingyou

“Most common because it’s the cheapest grade of stainless steel, 316 has higher quantities of more expensive elements, 321 more so.”

“You can then kick it up a notch and look at Duplex and Super Duplex stainless steels if you have the budget and the need.”  ~ KarmannosaurusRex

Food Prep Areas

“Ground moles have kitchens just like us!”

“They will paralyze earth worms (their primary food source) by biting its head and will drag the worms to a designated burrow where they store the bodies to save for later.”  ~ GraeBabe

I’lll just take two of these…

“So many companies will let you walk in say ‘I’m with the computer company’ and walk out with a computer.” ~ SirPasta117

“I’ve seen this work at a tech company. Had more than a dozen developers hand their laptops over to a random guy with a cart.”

“I’m from IT doing a laptop upgrade, here to collect the old ones”

“From the security footage, one of the devs ran after the guy to stop him… to hand over the charger that goes with the laptop.”

“We only found out when we started getting angry calls a few hours later from developers demanding to know how long the replacement was going to take.”  ~J uan_Golt

Head Held High! Moooo!

“Cows have a tendon running down the back of their necks that holds their head up.”

“It’s called a paddy whack and you can dry it out and give it to dogs like a rawhide bone.”

“That’s the source of Knick knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone.”  ~ ellipses1

Well that is a ton to process. I don’t know if I’ll ever make an episode of Jeopardy! but it’s good to have knowledge tucked away.

It can be fun to just blurt out random facts at a party.

You know when we do, people might be inspired to follow up in research. And then we’re all learning.

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People Describe The Most Elaborate Scam They’ve Ever Fallen For

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Many victims of scams fail to detect if what someone is pitching is legit. These con artists have the capability of hypnotizing people by talking endlessly about the products they’re selling, or worse, threatening you with legal action if you don’t pay off charges you never knew you had.

During the pandemic, it seems internet scams have increased to prey on the elderly or even the most unsuspecting customer who isn’t even close to retirement age.

But don’t feel bad if you fell victim to an elaborate scam that made you the proud owner of the proverbial snake oil. You’re not alone.

Curious to hear from others whose gullibleness was taken advantage of, Redditor Pissgf asked:

“What’s the most elaborate scam you fell for?”

The Stolen Car

“I put a room up for rent once. Someone applied and said they would be moving in at the first of the month. They said they were military and switching bases.”

“This person said they were going to go ahead and ship their car out and fly in. The car arrived and was offloaded by truck. A few days later the car was gone. The person never arrived.”

“A month or so later the police knocked and asked about the car. Ended up being that the car was stolen by whoever this person was that shipped it and the person who picked it up was a buyer who thought it was legit.”

“Apparently he had a set of keys mailed to him and a fake title. Idk if it ever got sorted but they initially assumed that I was a part of it.” – BLACKMACH1NE

Free HBO

“At the start of college one year when everyone was moving into houses in the usual sh**ty but affordable part of a college town, a guy walked up to us and said he can get us free HBO, he’d just take $20, he knew a guy.”

“We’re like cool, he takes out his cell phone, walks a few steps away out of earshot, says check our TV, we go, and lo and behold, HBO! We give him $20 and he walks away.”

“A week later, it was gone. The dude just called HBO for some free trial week. He must have hit up every college kid moving in that day and made bank.” – StoolToad9

What’s Left On The Gift Card

“I had a visa gift card for $100 I got for my birthday, and wanted to check the balance after a few purchases online.”

“I look up ‘check visa gift card balance’ and clicked on the first thing I saw.” – throwaway74274380

An Elaborate Con

“This will probably get buried, but it’s one of the best scams (felonies?) I’ve ever heard.”

“Someone in my super small town got their grill stolen off their front porch one day. Obviously they were like, what in the hell? And they’re bummed.”

“A couple of days later, the grill shows back up on their front porch with an attached note that reads something along the lines of.”

“Our son has a problem with stealing things which do not belong to him. We found this on our property and got it out of him who he took it from and made sure he brought it back to you. Please don’t call the police to report this and enjoy 4 tickets to the Cleveland Indians game on us. So sorry for the inconvenience.”

“Needless to say, the people who lived there were relieved to have their grill back and went to the game that Saturday to enjoy the tickets some nice parents (presumably) had left for them to make up for their shitty son’s actions.”

“Except.”

“Our town was about 2 hours from Cleveland. Between the drive there and back and the baseball game, I’d say the family was gone for about 10+ hours that day. Guaranteed.”

“When they returned home, they’re house had been BURGLED. Everything. Electronics, cash, jewelry, ANYTHING you could think of as potentially valuable was gone.”

“Someone concocted a hell of an elaborate ruse they knew would get those people out of their house for a good half a day in order to rob the ever-loving sh*t out of them. All for the cost of a couple of Indians tickets.”

“It’s a funny story to tell, but no doubt was incredibly scary and invasive at the time to that poor family.” – kelseamoore

The Meetup

“Ohhh boy, I still cringe about that. Back in the late 90s, early 00s when chatrooms were popular, I met this guy there and we ended up chatting pretty much daily. He had an unusual name for the region, that should have been the first clue.”

“We chatted and sent letters to each other (by actual post)..tried to meet up with him so many times, but he always had something come up. One night on new year’s eve when we were supposed to meet finally, HIS COUSIN shows up and said yea he’ll come soon, he told me to wait here with you.”

“Pretended to call him several times to ask where he was, an hour or so later I just went back home and never talked to the guy again. Turned out the ‘cousin’ was the guy I was chatting with and he had made a deal with another guy to see how long I would believe all this.”

“I can’t believe I fell for it. Keep in mind I was 16 something back then.” – Finewhatever1

Getting An ESTA Visa

“I don’t know if its necessarily the most elaborate scam of all time, but there are a range of fake sites online that offer ESTA visa for entry into the US.”

“The funny thing about the sites is that they actually process your visa, but they just do it by sending your details to the official site and charging you a hundred dollars or so of idiot tax.”

“I got caught a few years back and I wasn’t even really mad. It was such an amazingly set-up grift, and what made it even better was that you really had no recourse because they were actually giving you what you paid for.” – dougieburrows

The “Color” TV

“In the late 50s or early 60s, some guy came into my grandpas shop selling color TVs out of the back of a truck. The family had never had a color tv, and the price was way less than what a store charged, so he bought one.”

“He excitedly brought it home, plugged it in and turned it on. Black and White. He played with the knobs and antenna, nothing. No color. The guy took a bunch of old black and white TVs, slapped a rainbow sticker on them, and sold them as color. Brilliant.” – Jealous-Network-8852

Owing Taxes

“A phone call just as I graduated high school I nearly fell for it. I was maybe 17-18 years old still looking for a job. The call goes as this:”

“HI, my name is John doe, and I am with the FBI. We have a warrant out for your arrest.”

“I’m terrified because it sounded real, so I kept listening.”

“It seems you owe $259.27 in taxes, you may call the IRS, or you may mail it to somewhere to sort the issue.”

“My heart was racing because I though I was wanted for tax evasion before my first job. I asked my dad what I should do and he told me to call the local sheriff’s department so I did. I was relieved to hear that I didn’t have a warrant and that it was a scam.” – somebigdog

I “bumped” into a guy with my umbrella once, when I was walking in Times Square in the show.

Apparently, I knocked him so hard, his glasses fell onto the SNOW-COVERED pavement and cracked.

He demanded I pay him $200 for a new pair and insisted we go to an ATM to settle the damage. I knew his specs were already cracked.

So when I played along and asked him for his name, address, and phone number so I could mail him a check, he yelled, “that will take too long!” and stormed off.

I guess he didn’t need the new glasses that badly. After all, there were other prospective victims to scope out in Times Square.

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People Share Their Best Medical Tips That Everyone Should Know

Medical science has come a long way in the last few decades—to say nothing of the last century.

The rapid innovations and near-constant shifts in the field have left some struggling to catch up.

So Redditor  ATOM-Tomzej decided to get some quick tips and facts about medicine in our modern age.

Of course, just as with anything else medical, please refer to your doctor and not an entertaining Reddit list for advice.

He asked:

“What’s a medical fact or tip everyone should know?”

Do not attempt!

“Please, don’t give an unconscious diabetic insulin.”

“You’re probably going to kill them if you do.”~733094

Also,

“When I complained about physical problems my parents often dismissed it.”

“Don’t ignore physical pain of yourself or others and listen if someone complains about pain.”

“I’ve walked around with a broken bone in my foot for multiple weeks as a child before getting medical attention and later had bells palsy and didn’t say a thing.”~Koroit_

Remember to really push.

“ER/ trauma nurse here.”

“When performing CPR, the compressions are substantially more important than the rescue breaths.”

“If you aren’t comfortable and properly trained in CPR, stick to compressions only.”

“And, you should go ~2 inches deep into their chest with each push.”

“You will be TIRED if you do it right.”~theperipateticnurse

Spotify to the rescue!

“The New York Presbyterian Hospital has a playlist on Spotify called ‘Songs to do CPR to’, which all have that kind of rhythm – it’s well worth a look, and a lot are very catchy!”~cortexaire

Some came with a list.

“First aid”

“Someone’s having a seizure – don’t restrain them, or put anything in their mouth, just move any objects away from them, and place some padding under their head.”

“Once the seizure stops if they’re still not fully responsive, then put them on their side into the recovery position.”

“Someone swallowed chemicals/poison – don’t encourage them to be sick.”

“This can make things far worse as you cause additional burns on the way back up, or they start choking on it.”

“Call an ambulance, try to identify the chemical/poison, and follow any instructions they give.”

“Injured people who can’t move themselves should be left where they are unless there’s an immediate threat to their safety.”

“Motorcyclists helmets – if they’ve been in an accident then as long as they can maintain an open airway and breathe leave the helmet on.”

“Only remove it if it’s causing airway or breathing difficulties.”

“Nosebleeds – you tilt the head forward now, not backwards.”

“This advice changed many years ago but the amount of people I still see saying to tilt head back is frustrating.”~GrumpyOldDan

And,

“Top four:”

“Vaccinations”

“Vaccinations again, because it’s that f*cking important”

“Not shitting in your drinking water”

“Washing your hands”~kjata

Learn the signs.

“Signs of a heart attack in women are not your typical ‘tight chest, arm pain’ symptoms as in men.”

“Women typically experience stomach upsets and cramping first.”

“Likewise, many people experiencing heart attack symptoms do not seek emergency treatment because they are in denial.”~Jay1313

Drink Wisely.

“On an alcohol note, alternate your booze and water. A hangover is your brain being dehydrated.”~I_SH*T_A_BRICK

See the answer clearly.

“If you are drinking enough water, and are still getting massive headaches, get your eyes tested.”

“There’s a good chance you can’t see right and it’s strain headaches.”

“This is how I found out I needed glasses.”~Smecomposers

Always communicate.

“Don’t be afraid to speak up.”

“Learned early on in my Husbands treatment that the Dr.s etc. had what I started calling ‘the go to drugs’ (and I’m not speaking of the chemotherapy ones).”

“Long story short…we had the majority of his drugs changed to benefit HIS goals…he was lucid enough to spend quality time with his family before he passed.”

“Priceless.”

“Don’t be afraid to monitor, question etc.“~f*kcancr

Tests that you can’t study for are still important to take

“Pap tests and prostate exams are harmless and very important.”

“They can save your fertility, can save you from a lot of pain, they can even save your life.”

“And they are so simple and easy.”

“Yes, there is some discomfort.”

“But something tells me cancer causes much more discomfort.”~Lactiz

Always follow the prescription!

“If you’re taking antidepressants, or you know someone who is, and you feel better, IT IS NOT A REASON TO STOP TAKING THEM.”

“You are feeling better because of them.”

“They are not bandaids, they are long haul drugs that really rejig your brain’s chemistry.”~Releaseform

Baking soda fixes everything.

“Mix water and baking soda (small amounts of each/till soupy) and put it on any kind of sting.”

“It soothes and removes some of the poison if there is any.”

“Not sure if everyone already knows this but I have not seen any of my friends do it when they got stung.”

“Your welcome people of Reddit.”~ImThe_RealDirtyDan

There are no shortcuts.

“Calling 911 and going by ambulance is not a fast pass to the front of the line!”

“Only call in a real emergency not for a stubbed toe at 3 in the g*d d*mn morning!”

“Hospitals will still send you to triage and you’re left with a wait to get in and a super expensive bill for a ride that could have cost you a thousand times less by taking Uber.”~jesus-christ-of-ems

There are better ways to lose weight.

“Don’t buy popular diet teas that guarantee weight loss.”

“It’s just a laxative and you’ll spend less money if you just get a laxative from the store.”

“Also don’t use laxatives for weight loss.”

“It can cause bad nausea, and massive stomach cramps that leave you curled up on your bathroom floor and wondering what end sh*t is gonna come out.”

“Only use laxatives as directed.”~volcanic-sass

Medical science has come a long way.

While there are plenty of nuggets of truth in this list, always remember to consult your own doctor for your own medical questions.

But without a doubt, laughter is the best medicine.

Maybe.

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People Share The Most Frightening Facts About The Big Blue Ocean

Most of us have visited a beach next to the ocean at least once in our lives, and it’s fun to spend time there with friends, soaking up the sun, and splashing around in the water.

But also as the AskReddit pointed out, it’s unsettling to think about what else is out there beneath the waves.

Redditor matspud asked: 

“What’s the scariest thing you know about the ocean?”

Some were in awe of the sheer size of the ocean.

“How big it is in all directions. Most people ‘know’ this at least at a factual level, but haven’t really thought of how scary that must be if you ever find yourself in the middle of the ocean deep beneath the surface.” – vivianmay02

“Just how much water there is. If you punched a swimming-pool sized hole in the bottom of the Marianas Trench so that ocean water would drain through it, it would take hundreds of thousands of years to deplete the oceans.” – AdvocateSaint

“Everything about the Marianas Trench scares the s**t out of me. The fact that it’s 36000 feet deep (as far as we know), and that light doesn’t penetrate water past 3200 feet is mindblowing to me.”

“For reference, Mount Everest is 29000 feet tall, which means you could fit Everest into the trench (in terms of height, not necessarily mass) and light wouldn’t even hit it, it would be entirely submerged in darkness.”

“The thought of thousands of feet of cold, dark water is an absolute nightmare in my opinion.” – TheBlueHerron1

“There’s a spot in the ocean called Point Nemo, where on average the closest humans to you are the astronauts on the International Space Station.” – BaffledDonuts420

Others agreed and thought of what hasn’t been explored.

“The majority of the world’s oceans have NOT been explored, and deep-sea creatures of all types have never been discovered.”

“H**l, we don’t even know what whales do most of the time. It’s another world underwater and we know almost nothing about it.” – AAOG666

“That literally anything based on deep-sea monsters could be real in a sense.” – SteveManson4554

“The bottom of the ocean is less searched than the surface of the MOON.” – Shy-Guys-Toast

Some introduced terrifying and deadly sea creatures.

“Right off the coast of Baja, Humbolt squid that are about 4 to 6 feet long, have sharp serrated teeth in every sucker on their arms can take you from the surface and drag you to depths of 900 feet.”

“You would just disappear from the surface and no one would ever hear nor see you again and you’d be mercilessly eaten by their beaks tearing grapefruit sized chunks out of you.” – yoncenator

“Sea spiders exist and they can get to over 2 meters in length.” – Fearless-1265

“There’s this thing called the Pelican Eel which lives deep down. It’s the actual s**t of nightmares.” – Imanol0206

“There’s this f**king 10-foot worm that lives under the ocean floor, except its head, which is level with the ocean floor. It’s got feelers and pincers so if a fish swims over it, it grabs on with the pincers and drags the fish under to eat it.” – mrusmca

A few pointed out how close by some creatures actually are.

“If you frequent the ocean enough you’re bound to swim a few feet from a shark.” – Dannydevitz

“My teacher regularly visits Africa as he owns a safari resort there (real neat guy) and told me how once while swimming, he saw a huge a** tiger shark swim overhead. It was only about 3 feet above him, scary s**t.” – RogueDoodler

“There are blue holes in the Bahamas which are all connected by miles of underwater caverns. Only 8% of it has been explored by humans.”

“The blue holes serve as fun little swimming holes and the water is clear and you can see to the bottom (at least on some I’ve read).”

“Sometimes people just disappear from them while swimming with friends. Like, there are reports of people turning around, then back around and their buddy is gone.”

“There are rumors of tentacles pulling people under.”

“Fun fact: octopi don’t stop growing.”

“Another fun fact: they can fit anywhere their jaw/ beak can fit.”

“Another fun fact: they are bottom dwellers.”

“Not saying Lusca is real… But you’ll never catch me in a blue hole.” – Key_Refridgerator7725

Two were concerned about what’s happening to the ocean.

“I’m afraid its eventual acidification may render it uninhabitable.” – Trepang

“People can’t even wrap their heads around coral bleaching or algal blooms much less the severity of snails and such not being able to sublimate calcium into shells anymore.” – Emotionally_dead

Some urged others to be respectful of nature.

“It’s where the food chain starts. Mankind is full speed ahead, d**n the torpedoes doing our best to completely destroy it with absolutely no regard for anything, even ourselves.”

“Ultimately, we’ll get what we deserve for the arrogant and callous way we’ve treated this planet.” – IfIKnewThen

“As a scuba diver, the most important thing to know is that the ocean doesn’t care about you. It might not be actively out to get you, but it’s also not going to help you.”

“You aren’t really meant to be there and it’s of no consequence what happens to you. Nothing there is conducive to you staying alive.”

“It’s an uneasy truce that you’re the only real party to. So it follows that all the warnings about paying attention, knowing your equipment, and remembering your training are in fact not bulls**t.”

“You’re a visitor, so treat it and yourself with respect. The ocean will continue what it’s been doing for eons whether you’re there or not. You don’t have that luxury.” – bg-j38

Some of these facts, especially the stranger creatures that have been discovered in deeper parts of the ocean, are particularly unsettling, especially when we mostly think about sparkling water and bright, sunny beaches.

While this may not stop all of us from going into the ocean ever again, perhaps it will give us the pause we need to appreciate the vastness of nature and the respect we should have for it.

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Flight Attendants Break Down Their Absolute Craziest Experiences On The Job

What is it about flying that brings out the absolute worst in people?

Take a quick glance at the last year and you’ll see a rise in assaults on the people trying to make your flying experience more pleasurable.

Perhaps it’s the nerves piling up before the passenger gets on board? Or it could be the idea, “I’m paying for this so I can do whatever I want.”

Whatever the reason, if you make a fool of yourself on a flight, they’ll make a fool out of you online.

Reddit user, THESILENTPRINCESS06, wanted to hear some horror stories from the skies when they asked:

“Flight Attendents, What Are Some Of Your Craziest Stories?”

No One Is Getting Food On This Flight

“I did a flight on New Year’s Day a fair few years ago. A older gentleman pass out and his wife thought he had died. The other crew all went to assist and there was a doctor onboard luckily. We had to stop the food service while the gentleman was stabilised which took ages.”

“Once he was stable we tried the food service again. However just as we were getting the trolly from the back galley a woman dramatically collapsed in front of it so we had to deal with her. We get her stable and back in her seat and then go for the trolly only for her to come back and collapse again in front of the trolly. It was news years day so this woman had partied too hard the night before and was why she felt sick.”

“A crew member from the front comes down and says they had to stop the food service as well because a kid had thrown up all over the front galley and the toilet. We also had a parent who kept letting their child press the call bell for fun. I had to explain twice that it was not a toy and to stop lifting your child up to press the button. The paramedics came and the guy was taken to hospital but not before his wife said that the same thing happened on their flight out. Moral of this story is don’t fly if you are very unwell and don’t fly hungover.” ~ posh-old-bird

Enjoy Your Pickles

“I was on a flight from Seoul to Jeju Island in Korea. Jeju Island is a very, very popular honeymoon destination for Koreans in the mainland. Most of the attractions are geared towards couples.”

“Some poor guy had brought a huge jar of pickled eggs wrapped (he thought) carefully. Maybe he needed to bring some of mama’s home cooked food with him?”

“As we took off and began the ascent, liquid started dripping down on the festively dressed passengers. It started in the overhead compartment in the 3rd row and dripped in everyone’s hair and shoulders. All the way back to the last row in the little plane.”

“Lots of little shrieks, then immediately angry voices. The sharp smell of pickle juice (not US style), permeated the plane.”

“An annoyed flight attendant dashed over, reached deep in to the overhead compartment, and removed a very wet, still dripping bag.”

“We could hear the broken glass pieces moving against each other. She stalked off with it, back stiff with disapproval.”

“The very, very red-faced man under the compartment stood up and faced the passengers behind him. He made an apologetic speech and bowed frequently during it.”

“I don’t speak Korean, so I don’t know what the passengers replied specifically, but it was not a great way to start a honeymoon for all the couples onboard.”

“I hope it became a funny story to tell back home later.” ~ meowhahaha

They’re Here To Help?

“The nicest flight attendant I ever had was the one that put in my grandpa’s eyedrops so my grandma didn’t have to. thank you, JetBlue!” ~ superdude311

Fun To See Board

“You come on the plane rocking your Gucci belt, Houston Street-worthy Louis Vuitton duffle, torn True Religions, a killer fade and a swagger that could make a woman’s ovaries cry… and then you take your seat in 22B and play Candy Crush on a cracked screen.”

“I’ve been a flight attendant for almost 12 years and this is a common occurrence.” ~ MSotallyTober

Everyone Making Bad Decisions In This One

“I had a punch-up kick off on a 767 over the Atlantic Ocean once whilst enroute from London Gatwick to Barbados. That was pretty fun to deal with as the only male steward.”

“The fight began following an argument after the woman broke her partner’s iPod. He wasnt happy about it so had a row which developed into a full blown punch-up. Turns out they had never met before until earlier that day when he saw her in London and asked if she wanted to come to the Caribbean on a free holiday (drug mule anyone).”

“They both began to behave once I told them that we will divert and the nearest diversion airport was in the USA, where they take that kind of sh-t seriously. Obviously had to keep them apart and we let the authorities deal with them once we’d landed in Barbados.”

“I’ve had a lot go on on my flights before and seen some sh-t before but that one makes me shake my head with a little chuckle too of course.” ~ Expo737

Don’t Wield It Like A Weapon. Don’t Be That Person.

“My best friends a flight attendant, so here’s the story From her perspective.”

“it was a pretty Normal flight. Most people were already sleeping, while the others were reading a book, but a women had her baby with her, and the baby was crying. not to big of a deal, if we didn’t have a Karen on the flight.”

“she called me over, as I was just about to go to the back, she said “ can you get that baby to stop crying“ ” sorry ma’am, it’s not under my control. I’m sure the mom in trying her hardest to keep the noise down.” She screamed “ I HAVE A MENTAL ILLNESS IF THAT BABY DOESNT SHUT UP ILL DO IT MYSELF!” everyone Stared at her.”

“But, she got up. And was walking with a red face to the baby. I went infront of the baby and mom, she pushed me back, but i held myself up with the two seats in between. By that point, another flight attendant came rushing in. “ ma’am I need you to calm down.“ “ FINE. BUT JUST TO LET YOU KNOW, I HAVE A MENTAL ILLNESS.” ~ IconicDarkness

Like In The Movies, But Sadder

“Cousin is a FA. Had a VERY pregnant woman who was en route to deliver at a different hospital in the last 2 weeks of her pregnancy. Unfortunately, her baby wasn’t waiting.”

“Halfway through the trip, she starts going into labor. They move first class back one row (wasn’t full) so they had room. Luckily, the flight had a shock trauma cardiothoracic surgeon and a Navy corpsman on board. She didn’t know she was having twins(thought they were obligated to tell you?).”

“One didn’t make it. I’m guessing that’s why she went intro labor.” ~ tidytibs

Wait, It’s Allowed…?

“Former flight attendant here.”

“Funniest story always is people who are joining the mile high club. You are absolutely allowed to have sex in a lavatory and we won’t stop you. People slinking out of the bathroom with sh-t eating grins and red faces was always hilarious.” ~ TJeffersonsBlackKid

“It’s allowed? Wait it’s ALLOWED?! you’re telling me this now?!” ~ Deedum78

“Family member used to be a flight attendant. The theory is as long as they’re quiet about it and not disturbing other passengers it’s better to let them screw rather than risk a potential confrontation in a steel tube with no escape.”

“Family member also told me the US to Australia flights had the most f-cking – apparently Aussie gals are wild.” ~ EastGlencoe

…And A Merry Christmas To You

“On Christmas Day we were working the last flight of the night and it was completely full. Every seat. There was a couple in the last row window and aisle seat. He proceeds to diddle her under their coats. We notice but don’t make an issue out of it. Well when she’s satisfied she proceeded to return the favor for him. Once again we notice but don’t want to make a big deal out of it.”

“When we land they were the very last two off the airplane and the grizzly senior lady I’m flying with calls out to them as they were about half way down the aisle. “Just so you know… that’s sh-t you pulled doesn’t put you in the mile high club… that doesn’t count. Merry Christmas.” They just turned beat red and scampered off the airplane as fast as they could. I looked at her like she was crazy, sure we were about to get fired.”

“She winked at me and said what are they going to do? write a letter to the company that we called them out for diddling each other on the airplane? We will be fine now come on kid let’s go get a Christmas cocktail.” ~ canthav814

Be safe up there in the skies.

A lot of misbehavior on board.

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People Break Down The Most Mind-Blowing Facts About Space

Space.

It truly is the final frontier—a place so vast and unknown we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of truly knowing what awaits us out in the cosmos.

Space also has some things in it that are absolutely mind-blowing.  As space essentially holds the answers to the mysteries we humans seek about our existence, we explore—as much as physically possible in this day and age—even if it is dangerous.

Redditor TheLichB*tch asked some space fanatics:

“What are the most mind-blowing facts about deep space?”

Here are some of those answers.

Asteroid Fat, Pockets Full, I’m Going Shopping

“While NASA catalogs all the asteroids in the asteroid belt, they don’t actually take them into account when firing probes and such through it because it’s so spaced out that there’s a very low chance of them actually hitting the probe.”

“Densely packed asteroid fields where you’d have to dodge and weave through them are pretty much sci-fi.”-Tmaffa

“But there is enough mass there that calculations have to be made to account for small gravity perturbations.”

“I had a professor who had worked on the Voyager project on the team that plotted the trajectories.”

“He was disappointed that Voyager 1 reached Saturn on a path that was off by approximately 600 km from what they expected due to some incomplete information about objects in the asteroid belt. A discrepancy of 0.00000007%, so we forgave him.”-TheGooOnTheFloor

“Astronomer here! One thing I don’t think we discuss enough lately is that sharks are older than Saturn’s rings!”

“Explanation: recent research from the Cassini spacecraft indicate that Saturn’s rings are, in fact, very young- as young as 100 million years old.”

“(We can tell this because years of bombardment from essentially tiny soot particles would make the rings much darker than they currently appear.”

“They definitely weren’t around 4.5 billion years, the age of the Solar System.) Sharks, on the other hand, have been around ~450 million years. Ergo, sharks > Saturn’s rings!”

“As for what caused the rings, it was likely an impact of some sort, and people are now arguing over the various details.”

“Here is a simulation of one of my favorites, which involves a comet hitting a large icy moon. Pretty lucky for us though, because TBH Saturn would appear nowhere near as incredible without the rings!”-Andromeda321

 

Zoom Zoom Zoom

“There’s a large cloud of dust and gas near the centre of the Milky Way called Sagittarius B2.”

“It contains a significant amount of alcohol — non-drinkable forms, but also standard ethanol — and also high levels of a compound called ethyl formate, which is used as a flavouring in raspberry flavoured things.”

“It’s also about 150 light years across, which is pretty damn big. The centre of the galaxy smells like a giant raspberry daiquiri… maybe.”-Portarossa

“Hold up your hands and clap them together. Wait one second, then do it again. If you could plot the distance between the first clap and the second clap, it would be more than 800 kilometers.”

“This is because the Earth is moving around the sun, the sun is moving around the center of the galaxy, the galaxy is moving through the Virgo Supercluster, and the Virgo Supercluster is barreling through the universe.”

“When you add up all the velocities and compare the result to the cosmic microwave background (which is the closest thing we have to a universal frame of reference), it comes out to about 800 kilometers per second.”

“Sit still for an hour, and you’ll travel farther than you’ll ever walk in your life.”-RamsesThePigeon

A Big Ole Nothin’

“The concept of voids has always been mind-bending to me. For those who aren’t familiar – our universe is basically formed of galactic groupings called ‘clusters’ and ‘filaments,’ depending on whether they are groupings or long strands.”

“Voids are the space in between these groupings, and are essentially massive zones of near-total nothingness, with something like ten times fewer particles than even interstellar space. Sh*t’s wild.”-KyleAparthos

“If you snap a piece of metal in half in the vacuum of space it will weld itself back together seamlessly if you rejoin the pieces.”

“The only thing that stops it from happening on Earth is because we have a pesky oxygen rich atmosphere that ruins everything cool. Except fire. Fire is cool.”-Tmaffa

“Space is empty, like, really empty. If you flew a spacecraft from one side of the galaxy to the other, what are the chances you run into something?”

“What is ‘something’? If you go through the galaxy you’re guaranteed to hit molecular gas, dust, and maybe up to pebble-sized objects or something.”

“But if you mean hitting anything planet-sized or bigger, you have a 0% chance (within rounding errors).”

“Put another way, if the entire universe had stars as densely packed as they are in galaxies, you’d still have to travel all the way across the observable universe 6300 times before you’d expect to run into anything planet-sized or bigger by accident.”-Syradil

“To add onto how empty space is. When Andromeda and the Milky way collide, there is almost no chance of there being a collision of planets or stars.”

“It will impact gravity, but on a grand scale, not a scale where any solar system will be affected.”-jaytrade21

Out Of Known Space

“I’ll bungle the details, but that a man made object, Voyager, has left our solar system, has gone billions of Kilometers away and that we are able to receive info from it (via radio waves?)”

“This truly boggles my mind. That we can receive a message from that far away. I think someone pointed out that it’s largely because space is mostly empty.”-Tmaffa

“This image is the result of a 10-day exposure by the Hubble telescope pointed at the darkest point of the night sky, the size of Teddy Roosevelt’s eye on a dime held at arm’s length away from your eye.”

“Every blip of light is another galaxy with hundreds of billions of stars and planets.”-FlamingoJump

“That deep space is so ‘far away’ that if we (humanity) ever tried to go there, by the time we got there, we’d have already been there, colonized it, and possibly gone extinct there.”

“Imagine you’re a pioneer. You’re the first person ever who is about to move from the east coast to the west coast. You set out on a journey that’s going to take 10 years by horse and carriage.”

“(Moving very slowly with a family.) 1 year into the trip cars are invented. And so another family sets out and makes it to California in 1 week. By the time you show up, family B has already been living in California for nearly 9 years.”

“Take that scenario, and apply it to space. I’m blanking on the name of the theory but essentially it says that If we tried to travel anywhere of great distance, technology advances too fast for a faster means of transportation to not be invented before we get there.”

“So someone would always arrive before us.”-habeeb51

It’s probably on most of our bucket lists to get to space at some point in our lifetimes.  With the speed at which technology is advancing, that is absolutely plausible.

And once we can get there en masse, who knows what new facts will emerge.

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People Share The Coolest Mathematical Facts They Know

While many of us rushed through our required math classes as quickly as we could in high school and college, some people really found joy in those classes.

After spending several more years studying the subject, they also discovered there were many more fun facts to mathematics than Geometry and Calculus may have suggested.

Redditor xxTick asked: 

“What’s the coolest mathematical fact you know of?”

Two Redditors joked about the Banach-Tarski paradox.

“Banach-Tarski paradox, in a nutshell what it says is that if you take a (let’s make it simpler) 3-dimensional ball, you can partition it in finite number of pieces (which is only true for 3-dim case, otherwise it’s countably infinite).”

“Then if you rotate and translate some of the pieces, you can get two exactly identical balls that we started with. So you might think we doubled the volume, indeed we did.” – I_luv_your_mom

“There was an old Reddit post about this that made me giggle. The user found out that if you order an extra tortilla with one of those massive Chipotle burritos, then separate the contents between the two, you will get two burritos of equal size to the original.”

“They called it the Banach–Tarski burrito.” – buggy65

Others were in awe over the power of doubling numbers.

“I had a coworker how refused to believe that if you multiply a penny by 2 every day for a month that you’d be a millionaire by the end of the month, even after I had walked her through it with a calculator.” – Old_man_at_heart

“This blew my mind, I saw something somewhere saying to start investing a penny on the first and you won’t believe what you’d get by the 30th. I was thinking like $500!! I was wrong.” – DranoDrinker

One Redditor wanted to talk about circles.

“I like to draw this one out to explain to people.”

“Circles (people) and lines (relationships) with every other circle. It’s easy to see how quickly the number of lines increase, which shows that adding more people is not a linear increase in probability, but a … exponential or multiplicative… I’m not sure which one at the moment.”

“1 person = 0 lines”

“2 people = 1 line”

“3 people = 3 lines”

“4 people = 6 lines”

“…”

“23 people = 253 lines”

“24 people = 276 lines”

“25 people = 300 lines”

“26 people = 325 lines” – SalAtWork

Some talked about the Birthday Problem and probability.

“The Birthday Problem.”

“If you have 23 people in a room, there is a 50% chance that at least two of them have the same birthday. If you put 70 people in, the probability jumps to 99.9%.”

“It seems f**king weird to me but I haven’t done math since high school so what do I know.” – honeyimsorry

“The reason this is confusing for most people is that they’re thinking of how many people they’d have to meet to find someone who shares their birthday. You need to think of how many potential pairs there are, which grows fairly quickly.”

“And, you need to do the calculation in negative: as we add each person, calculate the odds that no one shares a birthday, and the odds that there is a match are 1 – that.”

“You start with one. Obviously no match. Second one: 364/365 says they’re different. But when we add a third, there are two potential matches, so only a 363/365 chance he doesn’t match, and 362/365 for the fourth.”

“The odds there is a match are 1 – the product of the other fractions. Since the fractions are close to one, they almost equal one, but as each person comes in, we’re multiplying a number that starts to be significantly less than one by a fraction that each time is more notably less than one, so the odds there is no match start to fall quickly until they dip just below half at the 23 mark.” – TheAlpacaLives

Then there was the Collatz Conjecture.

“The Collatz Conjecture: It’s an unsolved mathematical conjecture that can be summarized as follows; Take any positive integer, or ‘n.’”

“If n is even, divide it by 2 to get n / 2. If n is odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1 to obtain 3n + 1. Repeat the process indefinitely. The conjecture is that no matter what number you start with, you will always eventually reach 1.”

“For example, start with 21. it’s odd so I multiply by 3 and add 1, to get 64. 64 is even so I divide by 2 to get 32, again to get 16, 8, 4, 2, 1. No one has found a number that doesn’t follow this rule.” – AsiaWaffles

One Redditor talked about Rubik’s cubes.

“The maximum number of moves needed to solve a Rubik’s cube from any configuration is a mere 20.”

“Expecting Numberphile subscribers to have a strong showing in this thread.”

“To clarify, I mean the OPTIMAL solution from any given configuration will require fewer than or equal to 20 moves to solve.” – AlexVX_

One Redditor loved talking about multiplication. 

“1 x 1 = 1”

“11 x 11 = 121”

“111 x 111 = 12321”

“1111 x 1111 = 1234321”

“And on it goes” – IAmSomewhatHappy

A few talked about Pascal’s Triangle.

“Also, Pascal’s Triangle gives you the powers of 11 if you look at each row as a number.” – Aurora320

“I realized that in algebra class and tried to explain to my teacher why I thought it was so cool and he just didn’t get it. F**k you, Mr. Chase.” – 1stonepwn

One Redditor talked about Shizuo Kakutani.

“Shizuo Kakutani”

“If you take enough random steps in two dimensions, you’ll always eventually get back to your starting point. The same cannot be said of three dimensions.”

“I just find the idea that you will always get back to where you started by making random moves absolutely mind-boggling, and the fact things change just because you can go up and down is even weirder.” – _9tail_

One Redditor shared how they got into math.

“As a PhD student in mathematics, this is not a sexy answer, but one of the reasons I fell in love with math was in my differential equations course when we discussed modeling epidemic using mathematical equations.”

“It was so incredible to me that back in 1927, Kermack and McKendrick came up with a simple formulation of how to model a disease.”

“This idea has been expanded greatly, but their original version of the S-I-R compartmental model is still one of the coolest things. And it can also model rumors as well!” – hpmetsfan

Mathematics and similar subjects may have not been everyone’s favorite subject while they were going through school, but it’s clear now there was more to it than addition, subtraction and solving for X.

With facts like these, it’s almost enough to want to study math a little more again.

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People Explain Which Discontinued Foods They Wish Would Make A Comeback

Growing up, I was convinced Vienetta cakes were the absolute height of fancy-time. In my kid-brain, each layer meant a level of formality or celebration and since there were clearly a bazillion layers in this thing, it had to be the fanciest dessert of all time.

They discontinued it when I was relatively young, so the impression just sort of stuck. Recently, they made a comeback and honestly, I would rather have kept the memory.

I miss the way kid-me saw things, you know?

Recently, reddit user PixelPervert asked: 

“What discontinued food do you wish was brought back?”

My experience with a food being brought back might be a bitter-sweet one, but that doesn’t mean people can’t dream their own delicious dreams. Here’s what they had to say.

The Flintstones Diet

“Flintstones Push-Up Pops”

– Rose_de_MaiTai

“This brought back something from the deepest corner of my brain.”

“Also brings the question why were the Flintstones such an integral part of our childhood and diet? Push ups, fruity pebbles, vitamins. What else am I missing from the Flintstones?”

– Question_aire

“Until now I kind of half-wondered if my memory of these was just some weird fever dream or something, because no one seems to remember them. Thank you for validating my childhood memories”

– winonachey

Sour Fruit Is A Thing

“Altoid fruit sours. Apparently, we can ask for it back.”

– lirio2u

“The tangerine ones were my favorite! I can recall the taste exactly, even down to little salivary tingly feeling I got right before having one. Those were amazing and should be brought back.”

– MestizaWontons

“Just looked these up on ebay and unopened tins have actually sold for $200+!”

– BobsicleSmith

Taco Bell Trauma

“The Mexican Pizza at Taco Bell.”

“Maybe I should be thanking them for getting rid of it because I have no reason to go to Taco Bell now.”

– GotMoFans

“That’s me and Double Decker Taco Supremes.”

– LakeLov3r

“RIP meximelt and nachos supreme.”

– hesaysitsfine

“Last time I went to taco bell, I sat in the drive thru for a minute looking at the menu. Then I just went to Wendy’s.”

“Taco bell has gotten really bad.”

– Faye_dunwoody

“I had ONE apple empanada from taco bell before I went into labor and it was mind altering – the bubbley texture of the dough and the gooey sweet of the filling.”

“Four days later when I was released from the hospital with my perfect little newborn, ALL I could ask for in the world was a goddamn apple empanada.”

“Little did I know that during my four days hospital stay, the world of apple empanadas had ended.”

– schmoob

Worth Getting Into Trouble For

“Philadelphia snack bars the strawberry cheesecake ones ….so good!”

– kikorellia

“Oh my god the strawberry cheesecake snack bars were that fire. I used to get in trouble by sneaking them because they were my moms favorite sweet.” 

– DeCodurr

“Are you me?! I tell my wife about this all the time.”

“My mom would come back from a 12 hour shift at the hospital just wanting a cheesecake bar… and I’d have eaten a whole box in one night like an animal.”

“I distinctly remember getting my game boy taken away right before a game tournament run because of those things. Worth it.”

– jkennah

No New Recipe, Please!

“Butterfinger BB’s with the Simpsons characters on the package.”

– Harmelion

“I feel like Butterfingers in general don’t taste like they used to.”

“As a kid I remember them being flaky and almost falling apart when you bit into them and now every time I’ve decided to give one a shot they’re not flaky at all and they stick to my teeth something fierce.”

– Imitation88

“I would pay dearly for ANY Butterfinger as long as it is the old Butterfinger by Nestle, because the new company SCREWED IT UP and now it’s nasty.”

“The base has been confectioners cornflakes since I was a kid. Now it’s not. You can’t change a main ingredient like that and then expect it to do well. So I don’t buy them anymore.”

– skpicky

It’s Not Banana Quick

“Nestle Banana Quik.”

“They have Strawberry Banana still, and it’s okay I suppose, but pure Banana Quik was so much better.”

“There’s a way to kinda sorta replicate it – but you need a bottle of “Torani” brand Banana flavoring to mix into your milk. Winco grocery stores sometimes has the Banana stuff, sometimes it doesn’t.”

“Also Soylent makes a Banana flavored “meal drink” – it’s good, I also like their Mint Chocolate version.”

“None of that is Banana Quik, though.”

– Fluffy_Little_Fox

Before Hostess Went Bankrupt

“Ding dongs. They still make them, but they were better before Hostess went bankrupt and was bought out.”

– queen_ofmoons

“I’m a fat bastard that loves snack cakes, pies and anything similar to that. I did notice that something has been off about Hostess snacks since they went bankrupt and subsequently revived however many years ago.”

“I remember Twinkies being so good and delicious, and now they’re just…not, for some reason. I don’t know why though. I can’t tell if it’s something with the ingredients they use now or a change in recipe but it tastes off nowadays.”

“Regarding the Ding Dongs, I personally taste tested and compared Ding Dongs to Drake’s version, Ring Dings. The Drake’s stuff was so much better.”

“Again, I don’t know what changed exactly. But nonetheless I don’t buy Hostess stuff anymore and go for either Drake’s or Tastykake.”

– Mercurydriver

Cheesecake For One

“Maybe this was a dream, but I remember Philadelphia Cream Cheese made single size cheesecakes that I would always see at convenience stores.”

“I finally got the courage to ask my grandma to buy me one and it was my first cheesecake experience…so delicious!!!”

– mossybuttz

“They were real. They were delicious. I miss them.”

“These were complete 2 bite mini cheesecakes. They were just incredible and missed.”

– SouthDakotaGirl

“In college someone ordered a huge box of them and we ate them all year (we froze them). So good lol. It was like a box of 400 or something insane it took up the entire freezer.”

– Rambles_Off_Topics

Taste-bud Tragedies

“My family actually has a running joke when it comes to me and discontinued foods. It seems whenever I start to like something it goes away.”

“A few notable examples have been, Eggo Muffin Tops, Taco Bell’s beefy frito burritos, and, not a lot of people know about this one, but a carbonated yogurt called fizzix that I believe was from gogurt.”

“Now my family won’t let me eat stuff that they like because they’re afraid I’ll like it and it’ll go away.”

– Available_Motor5980

“That’s a thing. It’s called being a Harbinger of failure.”

– batoosie

There we have it, a list of all the deliciousness that Reddit can’t get off of its collective mind.

Someone from Taco Bell seriously needs to get on the apple empanada thing—that was kind of heartbreaking.