People Share the Life Mysteries They Wish They Could Get Answered

Life is full of mysteries. I’m talking about all kinds of things that we really wish we had the answers to.

They could be big, they could be small. They might have something to do with how the universe works, or they might be specific only to you.

AskReddit users revealed what mysteries and questions they want to know…

1. You’re not alone on this one.

“What’s in the Vatican’s secret library?”

2. Maybe a ghost?

“What the hell happened to make my dog terrified of the bed for 3 days last year.”

3. Outer space…

“I would love to know if we have in some form been contacted. Maybe some higher forces know and didn’t tell us or it just went right by us because we were unable to receive the message due to technology. I think there’s a pretty decent possibility that that has happened.”

4. I’d like to know this one, too.

“Who was the Zodiac Killer and what was his complete story.”

5. That’s a real conundrum.

“What kind of job I could actually get and enjoy and still be able to live my life comfortably. Seems to be the impossible question.”

6. Definitely a weird story.

“What happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?”

7. Is anybody out there?

“If there is other intelligent life out there somewhere. I know that we probably will never see another intelligent life form, but it would be nice to know. It is neato some of the radio telescope stuff they are able to do now and look for atmosphere contaminants that could signal intelligent life. Would likely be the best we can do.”

8. Who did it?

“Who killed Jon Benet Ramsey? Also Madeline McCann. I really don’t think those cases will ever be solved and it drives me crazy.”

9. The real story.

“I’d like to have a true and factual account of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth.”

10. Before and after.

“What existed before our universe exploded into existence and how is it going to end??”

11. A true crime mystery.

“Who was Jack the Ripper?”

12. One of the big questions.

“What actually happens after you die?”

13. That’s heavy.

“If there was anything I could have done to save my daughter from being murdered by her ex-boyfriend.”

14. An interesting question.

“How many times has humanity been reset by disaster.”

15. Looking for a partner.

“Who is out there that would be a good husband and want me as much as I want them. I’d move anywhere and change my job and life circumstances to find a partner.”

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Horseshoe Crab Blood Has Saved Millions of Lives

I’m not very familiar with horseshoe crabs. It turns out there’s a lot to learn – because any species that has managed to survive for 450 million years likely has at least a couple of evolutionary tricks up their sleeves.

If crabs had sleeves, I mean.

First up: horseshoe crab blood is bright blue, due to copper-based hemocyanin it uses to transport oxygen (instead of the hemoglobin that makes our blood red). Also, instead of using white blood cells to fight infection, they use amebocytes – and the Atlantic horseshoe crab has evolved to the point where their amebocytes of great value to the medical community.

These amebocytes coagulate around extremely small amounts of bacterial contamination, and the reaction takes only 45 minutes as opposed to the 2 days it takes most mammals’ immune systems to respond. Medical laboratories use it to test equipment and vaccines in a much more efficient manner, which prevents people from dying of infections.

The value of horseshoe crab blood is unfortunately leading to overharvesting – a quarter of a million crabs are harvested for their blood every year – and the population is in a steep decline that may be impossible to recover from, unless extreme measures are taken.

The crabs aren’t killed for their blood, though; 30% of their blood is harvested, then they’re returned to the ocean. That said, around 10-30% of the crabs don’t survive the process, and females who are bled often breed less afterward.

But the blood goes for $15k a liter, so I doubt people are going to stop anytime soon.

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10 Random Facts About All Sorts of Stuff for You to Ponder

We’re serving up some good facts for you here today!

So sit back, relax, and let’s learn about a bunch of different subjects together.

Start now!

1. Do you know anyone who might need this?

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2. That makes sense…

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3. Placebo sleep.

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4. I’ve always wondered about that…

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5. This can’t be real!

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6. You’re not alone, fruit flies…

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7. Two kinds of nostalgia.

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8. I love this!

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9. I did not know that!

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10. Please don’t tell me this.

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Nothing like a good fact set. NOTHING.

Please feel free to share with your family and friends…it might do them some good.

The post 10 Random Facts About All Sorts of Stuff for You to Ponder appeared first on UberFacts.

Here Is Every Western Literary Movement in History Summed up with Single Sentences

Are you a history and literature buff?

Well, whether you do (and will know what we’re talking about here and probably feel a bit superior about the whole thing) or don’t (who has time for that stuff, anyway?) there’s a good chance you’ll get a chuckle out of these “layman’s” summaries of histories literary movements.

Courtesy of World Circus.

Please. Enjoy.

Old English

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Middle English

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Elizabethan

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Jacobean

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Late Renaissance

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Age of Enlightenment

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Sturm und Drang

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Romanticism

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Victorian

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Transcendentalism

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Gothic Literature

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Post-Colonialism

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Literature of the Absurd

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Realism

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The Beat Generation

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The Lost Generation

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The Harlem Renaissance

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Modernist

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Surrealism

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Post-Modernism

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Magical Realism

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There you have it – don’t you feel smarter now? I know I do!

The post Here Is Every Western Literary Movement in History Summed up with Single Sentences appeared first on UberFacts.

Here’s a Silly but Helpful Guide to Identifying the Artist Behind Famous Paintings

Art history is not for everyone, but there is definitely value in being able to look at a painting and know whose brush brought it to life.

And while it takes years for scholars to study the intricacies and subtleties of why the paintings of particular artists look the way they do, you can learn to spot them at a glance with these simple, hilarious tricks.

Van Eyck

Everyone, including the women, looks like Vladamir Putin.

Dali

If you’ve ever had an acid trip, this is what it looked like. If you haven’t, well, use your imagination.

Rembrandt

Everyone is a hobo illuminated by a dim streetlamp. Even himself.

Bosch

Lots of tiny people, lots of other insane crap going on, too.

Picasso

There’s not a single “normal” body in the bunch.

Da Vinci

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#LEONARDESCHI On the occasion of Leonardo Da Vinci’s exhibition at the Louvre museum, let’s discover a masterpiece by Cesare Magni, from the Leonardeschi School. To create this peaceful Virgin and Child, the Italian painter from Milan was inspired by theories of perspective, balance, perception of nature and the use of light. But one of the great interests of this piece is its dating! Indeed, if Magni's well-known 1530s paintings were copies of Raphael or Da Vinci, this painting from 1523 is an original artwork, unique in its own! Hit the link in our bio for further information! . CESARE MAGNI The Virgin and Child – 1523 Estimate: 200,000 – 300,000 € / 220,860 – 331,290 $ . Old Master & 19th Century Art Auction on November 13 at 6pm Exhibitions on November 8 to 13, 11am – 6pm . . . #artcurial #auctionhouse #artcollection #artcollector #cesaremagni #virginandchild #madone #renaissance #oldmaster #italianpainter #milan #leonarddevinci #renaissanceart #leonardeschi #louvre #louvremuseum #leonardodavinci #davinci

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Lord of the Rings featuring wavy-haired Madonnas instead of Hobbits.

Degas

Look for the ballerinas, my friends.

Manet

Are fancy people not having fun at parties? It’s Manet.

Renoir

Fancy people are having fun at parties!

Michelangelo 

Everyone is naked, beautiful, and ripped. We’re talking men with 10-packs.

Monet

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"IMPRESSION SOLEIL LEVANT" obra del pintor francés Claude Monet . En 1874, un grupo de jóvenes pintores rechazados por el Salón oficial decidió exponer sus obras en el taller del fotógrafo Nadar. Monet presentó, entre otras obras, esta marina pintada dos años atrás. Escribió a uno de sus amigos: "He enviado a la exposición una cosa hecha en el Havre desde mi ventana, con el sol entre la bruma, y en primer plano, unos mástiles apenas apuntando. me han pedido que le dé título. Como no podía ser una Vista de El Havre, les he respondido: Llamadla Impresión". Edmond Renoir, hermano del pintor, que fue responsable del catálogo de la exposición, añadió amanecer para hacer la denominación mas figurativa. De esta forma el cuadro quedaba titulado: Impression soleil levant (Impresión del sol naciente) . Para conocer más sobre esta bella pintura visita nuestro blog. #arte #art #arthistory #arthistorian #historians #historiadelarte #historyofart #pintura #picture #artista #artistsoninstagram #artoftheday #artsy #arts #artcurator #artwork #arttoday #monet

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Dappled light and no people.

Titian

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While out hunting, Actaeon accidentally stumbles upon the secret bathing place of Diana, chaste goddess of the hunt, and sees her naked. His fate is foretold by the stag’s skull on the plinth and the skins of Diana’s former prey hanging above her head. The conclusion of the story is shown in another painting by Titian our collection called 'The Death of Actaeon'. The outraged goddess transforms Actaeon into a stag to be torn apart by his own hounds. The paintings were part of a famous series of mythological pictures made for King Philip II of Spain when Titian was at the height of his powers. Works of unprecedented beauty and inventiveness, their subjects were based on the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses – Titian himself referred to them as ‘poesie’ (poems). 'Diana and Actaeon' was designed to be hung together with 'Diana and Callisto' (co-owned by the National Gallery and @natgalleriessco) – a stream runs between them. Detail from Titian, 'Diana and Actaeon', 1556-9 © The National Gallery, London. #titian #dianaandactaeon #renaissance #art #arthistory #painting #gallery #instamuseum #artwork #oilpainting #artmuseum #gallery #nationalgallerylondon #trafalgarsquare

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The world is dark and people are tortured.

Caravaggio

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Concerto di giovani, Caravaggio, 1595. Il committente di questo dipinto è il Cardinale Francesco Maria Del Monte. Il Caravaggio dipinge questi giovani con vesti tipiche dell'antica Roma, per essere più precisi con vesti di età ellenica. I ragazzi sono tre vi è quello "situato" al centro, un altro alle sue spalle e l'altro di spalle, tutti e tre sono impegnati a suonare diversi strumenti musicali. Quello a sinistra della tela con le ali è Cupido che invece è impegnato a gustare un grappolo d'uva. Il ragazzo al centro è Mario Menniti un caro amico dell'artista, il ragazzo accanto Minniti ha i lineamenti che ricordano quelli del Merisi. Gli oggetti di quest'opera sono: vari spartiti musicali sui quali sono riportati dei madrigali (tema esaltazione dell'amore). Il liutista al centro sembra quasi che stia per piangere e si strugge al suono di questi versi d'amore (effetti negativi dell'amore). Vi è un violino in primo piano, nessuno lo sta suonando, per cui sembra quasi che il musicista mancante è l'osservatore di questa scena. #caravaggio #concertodigiovani #barocco #instaday #instadaily #instamood #photooftheday #photo #photography #shoot #igersitalia #art #storiadellarte #likeforlikes

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The men look like curly-haired, big-eyed women.

Frida Kahlo

Everyone has a unibrow. Also, it’s mostly just Frida Kahlo.

Go ahead and thank the internet for making you look super smart next time you head to the museum.

The post Here’s a Silly but Helpful Guide to Identifying the Artist Behind Famous Paintings appeared first on UberFacts.

12 People Share the Conspiracy Theories That They Believe

Do you believe in conspiracy theories?

Somebody on Reddit asked the questions: “What conspiracy theory do you believe to be true? What evidence led you to this conclusion?”

And boy did the people deliver!

Enjoy these 13 VERY questionable conspiracy theories… and please don’t believe everything you read. Okay?

1. The real conspiracy…

I’m starting to think that the really stupid conspiracy theories (vaccines causing autism, flat earth, lizard people, etc.) are intentionally spread by propaganda groups and troll farms.

They don’t care what stupid shit you believe, but they are very interested to know that you’re a gullible mark who will believe anything with no evidence, and won’t do research with authorities on the matter to find the truth.

If you want to spread misinformation, look for the people who do it as a hobby.

2. Oh snap….

The 10 year challenge all over social media is actually a way to record and gather more facial recognition data

11. The strange killing of John Lang.

The Fresno Police killed John Lang.

It’s been a while since I’ve read the story, so forgive me if I get something wrong. John Lang was a journalist who was very critical of the FPD. He wrote an article about how the police went into poor parts of the city and pulled cars over that parked in free parking lots or something like that. Eventually, he started noticing people watching his house, “FBI style.”

One night he asked on Facebook if he could stay in someone’s home for the night, as he knew the police were going to kill him that night. After no one let him, his house caught on fire.

3. F is for Fake

I’ve always speculated that a lot of priceless artwork and historical documents are actually replicas or copies.

Obviously a painting by a world-famous artist using a very specific technique would be very hard to fake, and I don’t think that every art scholar in the world is paid off in some grand conspiracy.

Rather, I just think that either the national treasures never left their vaults or that some national treasures actually were lost to history but they were copied.

4. The OJ theory…

O.J. Simpson didn’t do it, it was Jason Simpson.

Nicole Brown was nearly decapitated and Ron Goldman was stabbed 20+ times and had numerous defensive wounds. The prosecution claimed the injuries were consistent with two knives being used and produced a stiletto knife -good for stabbing but not cutting- and a Swiss Army knife -not really good for hurting anyone other than yourself. O.J. had only a small cut on his hand with no other evidence of having been in a fight. The only blood found in his home were a few drops of his own blood which were contaminated with a preservative used in blood draws.

Jason did it: Means: Jason was employed as a sous-chef and had his own knife set, and also owned a double-edged combat knife.

Motive: Jason was cooking alone at his restaurant that night and had specifically invited Nicole to come see him cook. She stood him up and went to Mezzaluna where Ron Goldman worked. Jason was known to be bothered by Nicole seeing men other than his father.

Opportunity: Jason’s timecard that night was handwritten for a time much later than when the restaurant shut down. His alibi changed multiple times, but the last time anyone can definitely account for him is around 9:30 that night.

The kicker? The day after the murders, O.J. retained one of L.A.’s top criminal defense attorneys for Jason and did not hire his own defense attorney until several days later.

5. The Unabomber was made by the government?!

When Ted Kaczynski (the unabomber) was at Harvard, he participated in a brutal psychological experiment led by professor Henry Murray. The experiment lasted for three years and by many accounts they seemed to have an extreme impact on Kaczynski’s psyche. I think this experiment was part of the CIA’s MKUltra project and destabilized Kaczynski enough to where he eventually went on his reign of terror of sending bombed packages around the country.

During the MKUltra project, the CIA collaborated with university professors on these mind-control experiments but a lot of the documentation was destroyed when people started to look into it.

TL;DR: The unabomber participated in an experiment that was a part of the MKULtra project that eventually led to him becoming a mass-murderer.

6. They’re listening….

All my devices listen in on me.

The other day I was arguing with my Dad about some chicken I thought had gone off (it was frozen for about a month so we weren’t too sure but my Dad was insistent that it was still edible).

Dad decided to ask Google, and low and behold the related searches even from the first letter were: “Is chicken edible after being frozen for a month” and “How long can you freeze chicken before it goes off”.

Also, my Mum and I use this tactic where if we need to ring up a company about something and it puts us in a queue, we swear at it. It then puts you on a priority list and you don’t have to wait as long.

Kinda sketchy on the company’s behalf.

7. What goes on up there?

I believe there is a ridiculous amount of pedophilia among the upper echelons of society.

Whether it is uncovered in the Catholic Church, British parliament, Hollywood, Washington DC, Saudi Arabia, the mainstream media doesn’t seem interested in shining a light on the networks and procurers who allow this practice to thrive.

Remember when Sacha Baron Cohen inadvertently uncovered an underage sex service in las vegas? Imagine the demand required for this heinous practice to exist. Offered by the concierge no less.

Who is the mystery party requesting secrecy in Jeff Epstein’s sex trafficking suit?

Why was Johnny Rotten banned from the BBC for attempting to expose Jimmy Savile for sickening crimes against children?

These types of stories are far too common, and they do not receive the attention they deserve.

8. Flight 370

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 wasn’t an accident.

There were definitely external forces that catalyzed its disappearance.

The flight path was diverted many times and there was a lot of shady stuff about some of the passengers and the pilot of Flight 370.

We may never know unless the plane is found.

9. The never-ending war…

That the USA deliberately gets into an armed conflict every decade or so for the purpose of ensuring that at any given time, they always have a critical mass of soldiers with actual combat experience.

They get in a lot of conflicts, and it seems highly probable that the leadership of a country that spends so much on national defense would highly value the institutional knowledge that comes from that kind of continuity of practical experience, even if it comes at a high human cost.

10. Michael?!?

Sony killed Michael Jackson.

He owned the rights to the Beatles discography.

After he died, Sony had remastered versions of every Beatles album available days after MJ’s estate sold the rights to Sony.

There’s no way they could have remastered the albums and published the CDs in that short amount of time.

11. The art market…

I believe that modern/minimalistic art exists solely for money laundering. It’s just a way for rich people to move money around. There’s a reason why paintings of plain geometric shapes sell for millions of dollars, and it’s not because the buyers are really into shapes.

It’s actually more of a loophole than a conspiracy. All countries, and most cities have “free port” zones. Free ports are areas, usually near a port where goods can be stored duty free because they are ultimately bound for another country.

HOWEVER, these “free ports” can also be used to store art. Art with incredible value, crated away never to been seen again. These free ports become untaxable, untraceable banks for the ultra wealthy.

This is a real thing.

I wanna be an oligarch, i hate having to play by the rules

12. And finally… this insane one about the Titanic

The Titanic/Olympic conspiracy.

It has credibility because there is photographic evidence. It’s really one of the only conspiracy theories I put much belief in.

The sister ships (and their third counterpart, the Britannic) were owned by White Star Line. The Olympic was put into service in June, 1911. She collided with another ship, the HMS Hawke, in September of 1911 and both ships were badly damaged. The accident was a financial disaster for White Star Line, as they were found to be liable for the accident and had to pay for the damages to both ships and legal fees for court cases associated with the accident. Repairs on the Olympic took nearly two months and parts intended for the Titanic, which was still being built during this time, had to be given to the Olympic instead. Only a few weeks after being returned to service, the Olympic suffered another minor incident where one of the propellers broke off and pieces intended for the Titanic were once again cannibalized.

At this point, the Olympic was looking like more and more of a money-drain for the White Star Line, though its achievement in not actually sinking despite a major accident that should have sunk it cemented the Olympic-class liner’s reputation as “unsinkable”, but I’ll get back to that in a moment.

The Titanic was finally finished and ready to leave port on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912, having been delayed while new parts were made and delivered to replace the ones needed for the Olympic, and from there we all know the story. She went first to France, and then to Ireland, and then began her trek across the Atlantic to New York, during which she struck an iceberg and after nearly two hours, sank, taking 1,500 souls with her to a cold, watery grave that would not be seen again by human eyes for nearly a hundred years.

The Olympic went on to have a 24-year career as a successful ocean liner. She served during World War 1 where she earned the nickname Old Reliable for her impenetrable hull, and then in 1919 she was re-outfitted to be a civilian passenger ship and served as an ocean liner until 1935, when she was retired from the fleet. Her ownership changed hands several times and she was eventually dismantled and sold for scrap metal.

But what if it wasn’t the Titanic that sank? What if it was actually the Olympic? What if it was a ploy to remove a faulty ship that was costing them more money than she was bringing in for White Star Line and cash in on her million-pound insurance policy?

So here is the conspiracy theory. At some point after the Titanic was completed, they switched the identities of the ships. The new “Titanic” was actually the Olympic and the “Olympic” was actually the brand-spanking-new Titanic, fresh from the construction yard with zero problems and zero history. They intended for the “Titanic” to suffer some sort of failure that would result in the destruction of the problem ship so they could collect the insurance money. I doubt they intended to also cause the deaths of 1,500 people; the events that transpired which led to the sinking of the “Titanic” possibly happened purely by chance and the iceberg wasn’t part of their plan (i.e., they didn’t hire the captain to specifically ram the iceberg to sink the ship or anything like that). They probably had another plan involving the repairs that had already been made on the ship when it collided with the HMS Hawke.

In any case, it wasn’t really the Titanic that left port on April 10, 1912 — it was the Olympic.

After the sinking of the “Titanic,” White Star Line received a tidy sum of £1,000,000 in insurance money (or £89,289,575 in today’s money). This, of course, ruined the insurer, Lloyd’s of London. There’s an additional conspiracy theory that American financier and banker J. P. Morgan was in on this whole scheme; his company, J. P. Morgan & Co., financed the International Mercantile Marine Company in the hopes of becoming rich off of sea travel, but this turned out to be a bad investment because of the unpredictable nature of sea travel and travelers themselves. J. P. Morgan or one of his associates may have schemed with White Star Line, who was a subsidiary of this IMMC, in order to bankrupt the IMMC and allow J. P. Morgan & Co. to withdraw from the IMMC without breaking a contract. I cannot provide evidence for this beyond speculation.

However, I can provide evidence that backs up my claim that the two ships were switched and it was the Olympic who sank, not the Titanic.

This is an image of the RMS Olympic in drydock (I am currently unable to locate a picture of the Olympic while under construction with the name clear so you can be sure it definitely is the Olympic — I can only assume such a photo doesn’t exist):

http://www.greatships.net/scans/PC-OL35.jpg

Check out the very top row of portholes in the white railing. Count them. Look closely at the grouping of the last five portholes and how they are clustered with two close together, one set apart, and two more close together.

This is an image of the RMS Titanic being built:

http://cdn.history.com/sites/2/2014/01/titanic-bow-construction.jpg

Look at the top-most portholes in the railing on the Titanic. Count them too. Look at the last five portholes and see that they are evenly spaced apart.

This is a picture of the “Titanic” before leaving on its maiden voyage. Check out the portholes in question:

https://timmyatt.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/titanic-harbour.jpg

Here is the “Olympic” in New York after the sinking of the “Titanic”:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Olympic_in_New_York_cropped.jpg/1280px-Olympic_in_New_York_cropped.jpg

There is no reason why the ship builders would have changed the portholes on the Titanic when they were nearly done building it. That piece was not one of the pieces cannibalized from the Titanic to repair the Olympic that would have needed to be replaced by a different piece. The only answer is that the ship in the final picture, which is the ship that left port on April 10, 1912, and was met with a terrible fate near Newfoundland, was not the Titanic, but actually the Olympic. You can find pictures from newspapers further supporting this, as they clearly show the name of the ship and the wrong number/orientation of portholes.

I doubt we’ll ever know one way or another, since the wreck at the bottom of the Atlantic is quickly being covered with sediment and will be completely buried and inaccessible soon and pieces of the ship that was retired in 1935 and dismantled in 1937 are both difficult to find and difficult to authenticate, and anybody who might be able to either confirm or deny this theory are all dead.

If that last one didn’t satisfy your thirst for conspiracy theories, I don’t know what will!

So… do you believe in any of these? Have a better one to share?

Let us know in the comments!

The post 12 People Share the Conspiracy Theories That They Believe appeared first on UberFacts.

Here Are the Origin Stories Behind 5 Iconic Memes

Memes are everywhere!

Whenever we search Google… they’re there! Even if we’re trying to find a serious image, we find that mockery instead. BUT… it is the perfect escape to share how you feel and ROTFL at the same time.

So hve you ever wondered where the most iconic images for memes came from?

Let’s take a look at the history of five memes we’re sure you’ve seen before…

1. Side-Eyed Chloe

Photo Credit: Imgflip

With over 17 million views on Youtube, this video Chloe was captured as maybe a little confused about going to Disneyland, while her sister, Lily, is crying hysterically. It didn’t take long for this to hit the internet and thus her side-eyed glare became a meme sensation.

2. Ermahgerd Gersberms

Photo Credit: Today

Who can’t laugh at the nerdy girl with the Goosebumps books, pigtails, and a retainer? This picture started circulated the meme world in 2012 and has changed text several times, like my personal favorite “ERMAHGERD MERSHED PERDERDER” and the original  “ERMAHGERD GERSBERMS”.

Maggie Goldenberger, the girl in the photo and now a nurse in Phoenix, was 11 when this was taken. She loved acting out made-up characters with friends. So she grabbed her  “costume” and shot a hilarious photo. She later posted on social media and a Reddit User reposted the pic.

3. Disaster Girl

Photo Credit: Distractify

This little girl, Zoe Roth looks like she may have started the fire, amirite? That’s not really the case.

“The fire department in our town was test-burning a house, so we went down to check it out. My dad just got a new camera so he took pictures of me and my brother in front of it. I think I just thought it was super weird and dangerous. I didn’t know it was a test fire until later so I was pretty worried.”

It was later picked up online and eventually made it into JPG Magazine

“Funnily enough, some people asked to take a picture with me the other day at work for the first time ever!” Zoë said, who’s now in college. “It affects me when people make games and books with me in, but mostly my life hasn’t changed.”

4. Doge

Photo Credit: Twitter, @castuco

This picture went full force 6 years ago and since then many other Shibu Inu memes sprung from this idea. The original, Kabosu, an 8-year-old recuse dog was discovered in a 2010 blog post. And the Verge was on a mission to find out more. After seeing her pup everywhere online the Owner, Atsuko Sato said, “I was taken aback. It felt very strange to see her face there. It was a Kabosu that I didn’t know.”

5. Overly Attached Girlfriend

Photo Credit: Pinterest, gattospam

Laina Morris was just a gal trying to get Justin Beiber’s attention. He announced a challenge to his fans to make a video countering “Boyfriend” and thus Morris’ character for “Girlfriend” was born. But when a Reddit user screenshotted the infamous creepy look, the meme caught fire.

Recently, she posted a video about quitting YouTube and the reasons why.

Pretty interesting origin stories, right? Wouldn’t have guessed how simple some of these were, yeah?

Let us know your favorite memes in the comments and maybe we’ll do another story about them!

The post Here Are the Origin Stories Behind 5 Iconic Memes appeared first on UberFacts.

When the Pollen Count Goes Up, Violent Crime Goes Down

Much in the same way you feel like crap when allergies attack, it turns out criminals are less likely to go about their regular day when they’re not feeling up to snuff.

Image Credit: Pixabay

We know this because of a study recently published in the Journal of Health Economics, which found that when large cities experience a drop in violent crime, it typically happens while the pollen count is unusually high.

“Leveraging daily variation in local pollen counts in 16 US cities, we present novel evidence that violent crime declines by approximately 4% on days in which the local pollen count is unusually high. …While this might sound like a small behavioral response, it is on par with the change in crime that would be expected to accrue from a 10% increase in the size of a city’s police force.”

The researchers looked at crime levels in Chicago, Georgia, and New York, and while the results matched up when it came to violent crime – even domestic violence – property crimes did not seem to be affected.

Image Credit: Pixabay

It seems that if a plan to rob a house or a bank is already in progress, no one is going to cancel because they’re under the weather. Gotta pay the bills and all that.

“Given that the effects we observe are driven by a decline in a residential, mostly family violence, despite the fact that, if anything, there is more residential interaction on high pollen days, this is not merely a story about a change in opportunity or routine activities.”

It’s pretty remarkable when you think about it – even though people are more likely to be at home, where domestic violence typically occurs – these violent crimes are still less frequent.

“Violence responds to other situational factors which shift the costs and benefits of offending and precaution: malaise driven by pollen allergies.”

Image Credit: Pixabay

Basically, people may be too drowsy or unwell to commit crimes of passion.

The authors of the study believe that their findings show not just how crime is sensitive to allergens, but how it can be affected by changes to public health altogether.

“Our results do not show evidence of temporal displacement or state dependence, and hence the data are most consistent with the proportion that high pollen days prevent crime rather than delay it.”

So, people don’t “make up” for their drowsy, crime-free days by doing more crime afterward – the high allergy days actually seem to prevent crime.

I’m not sure how local law enforcement could take all of this into consideration, but I feel like they should be able to, don’t you?

Let’s figure it out together in the comments…

The post When the Pollen Count Goes Up, Violent Crime Goes Down appeared first on UberFacts.

Take a Look at This Bizarre Crayfish Species of All Females Who Clone Themselves by the Hundreds

Whoa…

The marbled crayfish looks like a regular crayfish. They live in fresh waterways, rivers and streams like regular crayfish. But they are so much more creepy.

The Procambarus virginalis is a crayfish with an ominous ability. First, they are all female.

Also, they clone themselves.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

German biologist Frank Lyco was the first to notice something amiss about the extra large crayfish. An aquarium enthusiast told him he picked up the creature he called a Texas crayfish (aka a marmokreb) at a pet shop in 1995.

The man told Lyco the crayfish just kept laying eggs. He had so many live crayfish, he started giving them away to friends. It wasn’t too long before they could be found in aquarium and pet stores across Europe.

But the strangest part was that all the crayfish were female. They laid hundreds and hundreds of eggs with no males for fertilization, but the eggs still hatched hundreds and hundreds of crayfish—all females and all exact clones of the mother.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

The females, once matured, would in turn lay her hundreds of eggs…

Yikes (that’s a scientific term).

Aquarium owners reported having hundreds of offspring from one crayfish. In 2003, biologists sequenced the crayfish DNA and confirmed the animals were exact clones.

Twenty-five years ago, these crayfish didn’t exist. Now, they number in the millions, thriving in the wild, throughout Europe, Japan and Madagascar.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

As aquarium hobbyists are finding out, even the largest tanks will fill with marbled crayfish fast. Extra animals often get dumped into rivers, but the dump-ees are hardy and can walk for hundreds of yards to fresh water… where they clone themselves to the contentment of their hearts.

So, where did the first weirdo come from?

Lyco and his team sequenced the marbled crayfish genome and discovered this new crustacean was a result of a major mutation in the form of a copied chromosome in a slough crayfish from the Saltilla River in Florida and Georgia. This mutation meant that there were two of each chromosome in its sex cells instead of the usual one. About 30 years ago, the mutated slough crayfish mated. The offspring was super hardy and had three copies of chromosomes in their sex cells.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

And they could reproduce themselves.

Now what?

Well, Lyco told The New York Times the crayfish could thrive for a hundred thousand years, which is not all that long evolution-wise. Or, because there’s no genetic variation in the clones, one pathogen could bring the whole species down.

So there’s that.

But for the blip in time in which we now live, we’re sharing our space with mutant, self-cloning crayfish.

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Thousands of Tarantulas Are Roaming the San Francisco Area Searching for Mates

Attention: people of San Francisco, don’t freak out—but there are thousands of tarantulas casually roaming your city right now.

The tarantulas are out and about throughout the entire San Francisco Bay Area. They’re making a show not for Halloween, but because the weather has been drier and warmer than usual, causing male Bay Area blond tarantulas, the only tarantulas that are native to the region, to come out and look for a mate.

Residents have been spotting the creatures on trails, roads, and parks.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

After the males successfully mate, they die. “They’re not returning home,” Cameron Morrison, supervising state park peace officer for Mount Diablo State Park, explained to ABC News. “That’s their final voyage, basically.”

The male tarantulas are up to 4 inches in length, while females are the size of a nickel. But experts say not to fear them—they are “gentle giants,” Cameron says. “They’re very reluctant to bite you. I’ve never had someone say that they were bitten by a tarantula.” Also, if one did bite you for some reason, it would be less severe than a bee sting (even though their fangs are quite large). Their hairs can cause skin irritation, though, so it’s not a good idea to handle them.

Photo Credit: iStock

Usually, by this time of year, the male tarantulas have already done their mating and died. But thanks to seasonal weather changes, they’re still on the prowl. Lucky California!

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