Category: World Culture

Posted on

A Man Paid off the Entire School Lunch Debt for 400 Kids in His Town

Children should never go hungry in the United States, but the sad fact is that it happens every day to thousands and thousands of kids. And sometimes we forget there are actually things we can do to help – but there are.

Andrew Levy, a real estate agent in Jupiter, Florida, decided to take things into his own hands after he saw a list detailing the outstanding lunch debt owed by 400 kids in 9 schools in his area.

The debt totaled $944.34, which is not so much, all things considered. Levy decided to pay the entire debt off for the kids and their families.

One man in Jupiter, Florida, decided that he could make a difference in his town by paying off the lunch debt for every child in the system.

Posted by 5NEWS on Monday, October 14, 2019

A woman in Jupiter named Angie Vyas-Knight got the ball rolling when she shared a post on Facebook talking about the school lunch issue and how kids were going hungry. She then got the local stats from the Palm Beach County school board and compiled a list outlining the debts. This list eventually reached Andrew Levy, who said, “I thought that’s crazy. Food is something you shouldn’t have to think about. Children shouldn’t learn hungry.”

After he paid off the debt, Levy started thinking about the issue in a bigger context. Levy realized that many more kids in his area, not just in Jupiter, need help paying for their school lunches. In fact, students in Palm Beach County, a district with more than 180,000 students, currently have an outstanding lunch debt of $50,000 .

Levy said, “I’m going to do either a GoFundMe page or a fundraising page that can raise money every quarter, so lunch debt never accumulates so that children never have to worry about a hot meal and parents never have to worry about paying the bill.”

If you want to help out, visit the district’s website to get more information.

Unfortunately, this is a major issue that many school districts have to address. We can only hope that more people like Andrew Levy will step up to the plate to help out the kids in need.

It’s called thinking BIG!

The post A Man Paid off the Entire School Lunch Debt for 400 Kids in His Town appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

This Man Studied Photography in Prison. He’s out Now and His Work Is Quite Impressive.

Every single person deserves a second chance in life, and Donato Di Camillo is definitely making the most of his opportunity.

Di Camillo found himself in and out of jail when he was younger, and he became very interested in photography when he was serving a sentence in a federal prison in Virginia. Di Camillo says, “I was always interested in magazines like National Geographic and LIFE. When I was a child I used to dream about being on adventures, exploring, always fascinated about other cultures in different parts of the world.”

He also said about his upbringing, “I was always interested. I was exposed to art early on. My uncle Dominic, he was an art director for many years before the computers took over. He was also a painter. He still is. He’s more like a Renaissance painter. We grew up in a four-tenement home, you know, so it was a close-knit family.”

Di Camillo was released from prison in 2012, and since then he’s dedicated himself to learning how to use a camera and to improving his art each and every day.

He takes a lot of wonderful photos of street scenes around New York, capturing a side of life that most people either ignore or tend to shy away from. He often focuses on people who are homeless and mentally ill.

Di Camillo says, “These people walk around, and they’re faceless. I feel that everybody deserves a face. I think we all relate to each other in one way or another, whether someone’s laying in the street or running a Fortune 500 company.”

Look for Di Camillo’s first book in 2020 and check out more of  his work on his Instagram page and his website.

Fantastic work.

The post This Man Studied Photography in Prison. He’s out Now and His Work Is Quite Impressive. appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Good News! You Can Build a ‘Gingerbread’ House out of Oreo Cookies!

It’s a time-honored winter tradition to make holiday-themed houses out of cookies and frosting. Now there’s a brand new type of cookie house that is, frankly, making gingerbread houses look very boring in comparison. The Oreo Holiday Chocolate Cookie House is here, folks, and it comes in a ready-to-use kit.

The Oreo Holiday Chocolate Cookie House kit comes with pre-baked chocolate cookie pieces, pre-made icing, and of course, plenty of miniature Oreo cookies. There are also some fruity gummies and candy jewels to decorate your house to true Christmas-y perfection (I know, it’s October, but the thing was released, and it’s AWESOME, so get over it).

Photo Credit: Nabisco

The kit is available for $10 at Big Lots, or you can buy a mini version for $6.

“Get the family together this winter for some afternoon fun!” the item’s description reads. “This kit includes everything you need to build and decorate your very own OREO holiday chocolate cookie house. Just open the box and start building!”

Gingerbread houses are great and all, but man, doesn’t an Oreo house sound amazing? It’s basically a giant house-shaped Oreo. What’s not to love?

Shoppers have also spotted the kits at select CVS stores. Christmas is still many weeks away, so hopefully as the holiday gets sooner, these kits will start popping up at more locations.

Traditional gingerbread houses aren’t always the tastiest, especially once they’ve been sitting out for days. But an Oreo house? Probably won’t remain uneaten for long.

The post Good News! You Can Build a ‘Gingerbread’ House out of Oreo Cookies! appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

A Beekeeper Turned Thieving Bears into (Unpaid) Honey-Tasters

If you’re a person of a certain age, then there’s a good chance the characters from Winnie the Pooh are near and dear to your heart.

Which also means that you’ve been aware for basically your whole life that bears really, really love honey.

Like Pooh, giant bears will go to great lengths to get to honey they’ve sniffed out – and even though the ensuing videos may be adorable to the masses, for to bee farmers…not so much.

The bears can cause damage to hives that can cost thousands of dollars to repair, so most keepers work hard to keep them away. But when Ibrahim Sedef’s ideas of putting up metal cages and leaving out different bear-fare like bread and fruit didn’t work, he had a rather adorable lightbulb moment.

Maybe the bears could be brought on as quality control.

View this post on Instagram

Beekeeper turns honey-stealing bears into taste testers #FACTS AUG. 29, 2019 – These #bears just wanted a little smackerel from the honey pot. And #beekeeper Ibrahim Sedef is using their honey-loving palates to his advantage Sedef, an agricultural engineer in #Turkey, is constantly trying to protect his hives from the many sweet-toothed bears in his neighborhood, on the country’s #BlackSea coast. His efforts got downright scientific when he began experimenting with various tactics to divert their paws away from his liquid gold Ever the scientist, Sedef eventually decided that if he couldn’t beat them, he could at least learn from them — particularly their expert taste for #honey So he set up a night-vision camera on his bee farm, and laid out a table with five varieties of honey for the bears to taste test Sedef told Turkish outlet DHA that the bears, in fact, had a very refined sense of smell that led them first to the rare Anzer honey from the Ballıköy plateau region, which they slurped up the most. According to Ahval News, the Turkish honey goes “1,000 liras ($171) per kilo,” and is considered “among the most expensive honeys on the market.” #Anzerhoney is the most famous of all Turkish honeys, said to be, of course, the best honey in the world Of course, New Zealanders say manuka honey is the best, Australians say it’s berringa honey, Indians say it’s Maharishi honey, Russians say it’s Bashkir honey, Arabs say it’s sidr honey, Malaysians say it’s gelam honey or tualang honey and the list can continue. Basically each country can pretend it produces the best honey in the world #FOODNINFO #FOODNETWORK #FOODANDWINE #TASTY #TOPCHEF #LEFOODING #huffpostgram #HUFFPOSTTASTE #EATER #LAEATS #EATERDENVER #NETFLIXFOOD #CHEFSROLL #chefsofinstagram #SAFOODIE #EATERLA #DISCOVERY #NATURE #ANIMALPLANET

A post shared by FOOD AND INFO (@foodninfo) on

He installed photo trap cameras that could track the bears roaming his farm, mostly at night, and then set up a table topped with labeled bowls of different kinds of honey.

It worked.

The bears didn’t disturb the hives, since the honey was ready and waiting, and now Sedef – and the rest of us – know which honey a true connoisseur would prefer.

It turns out bears have expensive taste, because they devoured the Anzer honey first – it goes for around $150 a pound in Turkey – while leaving the cherry blossom honey untouched.

Now you know that the “good” honey really does taste much better – even the bears agree that you get what you pay for (even if they’re not technically paying).

The post A Beekeeper Turned Thieving Bears into (Unpaid) Honey-Tasters appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

This Is Kind of Scary. Antibiotic Resistance in Germs Has Doubled in the past 20 Years.

There are a lot of things to worry about these days, but if you’re a germophobe (like my husband) or someone obsessed with the idea that we’re all going to die in a pandemic (like me), then you’ve probably spent at least some time wondering what’s going to happen when antibiotics stop being widely effective.

I mean…the world before antibiotics was a pretty harrowing place.

And now, research is finding that the number of cases in which people experience infections that are resistant to antibiotics is sharply on the rise.

Preliminary findings, which were presented at United European Gastroenterology Week Barcelona 2019, focused on conditions related to the Helicobacter pylori bacteria – gastric ulcer, lymphoma, and gastric cancer – and found that resistance to the typical antibiotic treatment has risen to nearly 21.6% (from 9.9% in 1998).

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Гастроэнтеролог | Ульяновск (@dr.kornilova) on

Similar rises have been seen with other common antibiotic treatments.

Antibiotic resistance happens when bacteria evolve a tolerance to the drugs we use to eliminate them from our bodies body. Recently, the issue has gotten attention from the WHO, as well as national and regional health organizations in the U.S. and the EU.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Environmental Research Lab (@bacteriagram) on

Right now, around 56,000 people die worldwide every year when antibiotics fail to treat their infections. Of course, according to this research, we can expect that number to rise, says lead author Francis Megraud.

“With resistance rates to commonly used antibiotics such as clarithromycin increasing at an alarming rate of nearly 1% per year, treatment options for H. pylori will become progressively limited and ineffective if novel treatment strategies remain undeveloped. The reduced efficacy of current therapies could maintain the high incidence rates of gastric cancer and other conditions such as peptic ulcer disease if drug resistance continues to increase at this pace.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by WildTalks Philippines (@wildtalksph) on

Not being able to counter the effects of H. pylori is especially telling – and bad, as children are often the ones infected.

“The findings of this study are certainly concerning, as H. pylori is the main cause of peptic disease and gastric cancer. The increasing risk of H. pylori to a number of commonly-used antibiotics may jeopardize prevention strategies.”

If you’re worried about yourself or your family, the best thing you can do is not take antibiotics for infections that are likely viral, not all that bothersome, or will run their course on their own without excessive discomfort.

Easier said than done, I know, but you’ll be toughing out a lot worse if these bacteria evolve faster than we do.

Real talk.

The post This Is Kind of Scary. Antibiotic Resistance in Germs Has Doubled in the past 20 Years. appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

10 Interesting Facts to Help You Get Through This Loooooong Week

Will this week ever end.

It feels like it’s taking FOREVER.

But, wait! I have a good idea about how to fix this.

Facts! Great facts that will challenge your brain and soothe your soul.

Let’s get started!

1. It’s mostly water weight.

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1

2. Rejection leads to later problems.

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2

3. That’s totally disgusting! Yay humans!

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2

4. Oh, it’s real…

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2

5. Typical male behavior.

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2 Source 3

6. Are you good at this?

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2 Source 3

7. This is amazing.

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2 Source 3

8. Be on the lookout…

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2

9. A symbol of grace and poise.

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2 Source 3

10. Wow…that’s really something…

Photo Credit: did you know?

Source 1 Source 2 Source 3

That’s a little better, right?

Now let’s power through the rest of this damn work week together!

The post 10 Interesting Facts to Help You Get Through This Loooooong Week appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Here Are the 20 Companies That Produce over 1/3 of the World’s Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Many people and governments and companies around the world are doing their best to mitigate some of the effects their lives and business dealings have on the planet, so that hopefully we can have a future that doesn’t include a complete apocalypse and the extinction of human beings.

These 20 companies, though, appear to not give a rat’s a** how much they harm future generations, as long as they’re still making the big bucks.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Superhumanspread (@superhumanspread) on

According to the Climate Accountability Institute, a handful of oil, gas, and coal companies are responsible for 480 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and energy-related methane pumped into Earth’s atmosphere since 1965 – that’s 35% of all greenhouse gas emissions since then.

The report also states that half of all greenhouse gas emissions in recorded history have been released into the atmosphere since 1990, with 1.35 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide (or equivalent GHGs) emitted since 1965.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Educated Earthling (@educatedearthling) on

The CAI had this to say about their findings in a recent press release:

“Although global consumers from individuals to corporations are the ultimate emitters of carbon dioxide, we focus on the fossil fuel companies that, in our view, have produced and marketed the carbon fuels to billions of consumers with the knowledge that their use as intended will worsen the climate crisis.”

Here’s a list, from worst to…less worse.

20. Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia) — 4.38 percent
19. Chevron (USA) — 3.2 percent
18. Gazprom (Russia) — 3.19 percent
17. ExxonMobile (USA) — 3.09 percent
16. National Iranian Oil Co. (Iran) — 2.63 percent
15. BP (UK) — 2.51 percent
14. Royal Dutch Shell (The Netherlands) — 2.36 percent
13. Coal India (India) — 1.71 percent
12. Pemex (Mexico) — 1.67 percent
11. Petroleos de Venezuela (Venezuela) — 1.16 percent
10. PetroChina/China Natl Petroleum (China) — 1.15 percent
9. Peabody Energy (USA) — 1.14 percent
8. ConocoPhillips (USA) — 1.12 percent
7. Abu Dhabi (UAE) — 1.01 percent
6. Kuwait Petroleum Corp (Kuwait) — 1 percent
5. Iraq National Oil Co. (Iraq) — 0.93 percent
4. Total SA (France) — 0.91 percent
3. Sonatrach (Algeria) — 0.91 percent
2. BHP Billiton (Australia) — 0.72 percent
1. Petrobras (Brazil) — 0.64 percent

If we hope to achieve the goals set by the Paris Climate Change Agreement in 2017, all of these companies would have to recognize their current levels as a “peak” and immediately begin to taper them. The report says that these fossil fuel giants, and others like them, have “a significant moral, financial, and legal responsibility to help curtail and compensate for the runaway effects of climate change.”

View this post on Instagram

Without action now, climate change will exacerbate the inequalities that children already face, and future generations will suffer. On our 5th anniversary Pressman's pledges to donate 50% of the total Dine-in Sales at all outlets to Emirates Nature WWF towards the cause of Climate Change. Join us on 3rd November. #pressmansforenvironment #pressmansanniversary #youthforclimate #climatejustice #climatechangeisreal #globalwarming #strikeforclimate #connect2earth #environment #voicefortheplanet #ourplanet #naturealert #makeahealthyplanet #savetheplanet #climatechange #climatecrisis #lowcarbonfuture #saynotofossilfuels #saveenergy #savetrees #savewildlife #supportemiratesnature #emiratesnature #saveourplanet #zomatouae #deliveroo_ae #talabatuae #ubereats_uae #dubai #uae

A post shared by Pressmansme (@pressmansme) on

It’s time for people to stop plowing ahead like horses plodding a field with blinders on, eyes on nothing but the row of money to be reaped ahead. If the world wants to survive long enough to leave something other than smoking ashes for our kids, the time is nigh to stop, look around, and start to take several million steps back.

The post Here Are the 20 Companies That Produce over 1/3 of the World’s Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

A Mom Wrote an Open Letter to the Man Who Shamed Her for Looking at Her Phone Instead of Her Kids

Parenting is tough, and most of us are genuinely doing our best. If you see people out and about with their kids, the truth is that you’re only getting a snapshot of their day – and their lives – so if you have an opinion about what you glimpse in that moment, you’re probably better off keeping it to yourself.

Cell phones make life both easier and harder, and while sometimes we are looking at our phones while with the kids, it’s really none of your business why.

Maybe we need a mental break. Or, like Tracy Bennett, we could be using our phones in an attempt to thwart the very outcome you’re so concerned with happening.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by James Han (@asianjameshan) on

She was standing in a customer service line because she’d forgotten her Costco card, and as it was taking forever, she decided to grab her phone and see if she could use the app to check out.

Which is when some random stranger decided to inform her that she should be paying attention to her fidgety kids instead.

Excuse me. What?

Her post, shared in the group Breastfeeding Mama Talk, is getting plenty of well-deserved attention.

"To the man at Costco today who glanced over at me on my phone while my babies were fussing and felt the need to say,…

Posted by Breastfeeding Mama Talk on Sunday, September 29, 2019

“To the man at Costco today who glanced over at me on my phone while my babies were fussing and felt the need to say, ‘You see these babies? They fuss like that because they want your attention. Maybe you should get off of your phone and give them your attention.’

First of all, I had no idea the toddler saying, “Mama, pizza, mama, pizza” over and over and the baby making pre-cry warnings to alert me that if we don’t move soon he’s going to lose it wanted my attention. Thank you for that brilliant analysis of the situation.

Secondly, I had been in the Membership line for 15 minutes already. I pulled out books, snacks, patty cake, and even took to creepily pointing out items in buggies as customers left the store to entertain them.

Thirdly, you had been in the Refunds line next to me for a total of two minutes or else you would have seen the smiles and laughs and interaction.

Lastly, after 15 minutes, these babies got a bit fussy. And on the meltdown scale, they were barely even at a 1. Sensing the meltdown brewing, I took out my phone, downloaded the Costco app and texted my husband to ask what our log in is in an attempt to just get my membership card on my phone. Because I ran out of tricks and my kids ran out of patience and now my goal was to just get us out of this line as quickly as possible before they released the kraken.

But thank you for your parenting advice. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to shame a young mother with two tiny children. Thank you for seeing a stressful moment and deciding, ‘I think I’ll make this worse for her.’

Everyone, if you see a mother (or father) with young children out in public ANYWHERE, assume she is stressed out. Assume she is trying her damndest to get through the situation. Assume this is the very last place she wants to be. Assume she’d rather be home cuddling, playing, running around with her babies. Assume she probably has had no sleep since her first child was born. Assume she is hungry because her toddler decided he wanted extra eggs this morning so she gave him her breakfast in addition to his own. And if you have nothing kind or supportive to offer her, please mind your own business.

Our babies are healthy, our babies are happy (despite the fact that they are not currently pleased with standing in line at Costco), and our babies are loved fiercely by us. And for the love of God, our babies can wait 2 minutes while we try to solve a problem on your phone.”

Take our advice – the next time you want to make a face or a judgement when you spot a parent doing something you would “never” do, remember this article.

And definitely, do not, ever be this guy.

The post A Mom Wrote an Open Letter to the Man Who Shamed Her for Looking at Her Phone Instead of Her Kids appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Check out the Air-Breathing Snakehead Fish That’s Invading Georgia

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s going to look like when nature finally rises up to finish off human beings once and for all, well, this air-breathing fish that’s able to trade water for land seems like a good candidate.

It’s called the Northern Snakehead, and wildlife officials in Georgia are advising residents to kill them on sight.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Captain Scott Rose 📷🎣 (@scottrosefishing) on

The fish, which can breathe air long enough to traverse short distances on land, is not native to North America. That means it’s invasive, and can easily upset local ecosystems by outcompeting endemic species for food and habitats if it is allowed to reproduce and spread unchecked.

There are several varieties of snakehead fish – this particular one is native to East Asia, not in privately owned ponds in Gwinnett County, Georgia, where the first one was spotted.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by ThomasHardenFishing (@thomashardenfishing) on

The fish is nightmarishly long – it can reach up to 3 feet in length – and a mottled or splotchy brown color. If you catch or see one, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division would like you to kill it and then freeze it until someone from the agency’s fisheries office can come and collect it.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by William B (@va_flyfisher) on

No one knows for sure how it first arrived in North America, or in Georgia specifically, but the aquarium trade or the food industry are the most likely culprits.

Georgia is not alone in this battle – varieties of snakehead have been spotted in 14 states so far.

The post Check out the Air-Breathing Snakehead Fish That’s Invading Georgia appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

This Is Why ‘Walt Disney World’ Got Walt’s Name and Disneyland Didn’t

There are a lot of differences between Disney World and Disneyland. One small difference that you may not even be aware of is in their names. Disney World’s full name is Walt Disney World, while Disneyland is just Disneyland. What’s up with that?

Let’s start at the beginning: Disneyland came first. It opened in 1955 in California. The name, Disneyland, was likely chosen because it was a natural choice for a theme park at the time. Other contemporary parks bear names like “Fairyland” or “Playland,” so “Disneyland” just makes sense.

Over a decade later in 1966, Walt Disney released a promotional video to announce that there would be a second Disney theme park in Florida. This one would be called Disney World, likely because it was on a much bigger plot of land than Disneyland.

It’s not clear why he went with two words for Disney World, while Disneyland is just one word, other than the fact that “Disneyworld” doesn’t look quite right.

Disney World wasn’t originally going to have Walt’s first name attached, but he passed away in December 1966, before the park even got into the construction phase. His brother, Roy Disney, postponed his  own retirement to help out with the Disney World project, and he decided to add Walt’s name to the park as a tribute.

And that, folks, is the only reason that one of the parks’ names has Walt in the title – as a tribute from a sibling to his recently deceased brother.

The post This Is Why ‘Walt Disney World’ Got Walt’s Name and Disneyland Didn’t appeared first on UberFacts.