Americans Share the Most Absurd Medical Bill They Ever Received

Healthcare is on many people’s mind these days, and the 2020 election is full of ideas on how to take our broken system and hopefully improve it.

Senator Bernie Sanders is and has been passionate about the topic for much of his career, and is championing a controversial Medicare for All plan that would see the end of private insurance offerings for good.

Regardless of what you think about Medicare for All, I’m sure we can all agree that healthcare costs are too damn high, and something has to be done.

Recently on Twitter, he asked his followers to share the most absurd medical bill they ever got in the mail, and you guys.

They delivered.

 

20. Always decline the ambulance ride.

19. Nobody should be worrying about the bill.

18. Yeah, that’s not a choice.

17. This one might win for most ridiculous.

16. I’m not sure that’s really science.

15. Heartbreaking AND absurd.

14. A whole new level of insult to injury.

13. We need equal opportunity healing.

12. I’ll bring my own Band-Aid.

11. Only the rich get to live.

10. I mean what else can you do?

9. It would be funny if it wasn’t so infuriating.

8. Answer: hardly anyone.

7. That’s a pretty penny for stuff you could have gotten at Walgreens.

6. You need a surgeon for that?

5. That’s a pretty high price for wielding a pair of tweezers for under 5 minutes.

4. Kidney stones are the worst and if $16k would help, I would have paid it.

3. I think they’re billing the wrong person.

2. Everyone should have a problem with this.

1. What on earth does most of that even mean?

 

I’m not here to discuss politics, but I think we can all agree that most of these are pretty darn silly.

If you were running for president, how would you solve the problem of rising healthcare costs, access to care, care for veterans, and all the rest?

There’s no easy answer, of course, but give it a go!

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A Man Brought an ‘Emotional Support Clown’ to a Meeting Where He Knew He Was Gonna Get Fired

This might be the best story of 2019 so far.

The emotional support animal craze has officially gone from “weird” to “terrifying”.

A man in New Zealand brought a professional clown to a layoff meeting at work, claiming that it was his emotional support person.

Joshua Thompson worked at an advertising company in Auckland. He was recently called in for a serious meeting with his bosses. Sensing bad news, he opted to bring a clown to, uh, brighten up the event.

Employees in New Zealand are allowed by law to bring a support person to layoff meetings, but a clown is surely a first!

“I thought it’s best to bring in a professional and so I paid $200 and hired a clown,” Joshua told MediaWorks. “I mean I did get fired, but apart from that it was all smooth running.”

A while ago, I got a job. A short while later, I lost it. For anyone who hasn’t been fired, what happens is they…

Posted by Joshua Jack on Thursday, September 12, 2019

During the meeting, the clown blew up balloons and folded them into animals, including a unicorn and a poodle. He even mimed crying when Joshua got his paperwork.

“It was rather noisy him making balloon animals so we had to tell him to be quiet from time to time,” he said.

Joshua paid $200 for the clown, who is reportedly one of the best in the city. He says the presence of the clown didn’t jeopardize the meeting at all.

“They were getting a free service, they were also getting the entertainment from Joe the Clown,” he said.

The adman has spoken about what unfolded when he took a professional clown – as a support person – to his restructuring meeting. 🤡

Posted by nzherald.co.nz on Friday, September 13, 2019

Joshua has now gone viral for this cheeky move.

And in a classic maneuver, since losing his job, he’s obtained another job in advertising in Australia—possibly with the assistance of his new viral fame.

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This Year’s Annual Running of the Wieners Was a Huge Hit

I need to do this next year.

The Oktoberfest celebration in Cincinnati, Ohio – Oktoberfest Zinzinnati – is one of the biggest Oktoberfest celebrations outside of Germany. More than 500,000 people attend the three-day event, and around 100 of them bring their dachshunds along for the ride.

Every year, the “Running of the Wieners” kicks off the event – it’s 100 dachshunds dressed in hot dog costumes running to compete to see who’s the fastest wiener dog in the Midwest.

The dogs compete in 10 heats that all last 75 feet (or about 5 seconds) apiece. The winner of each heat advances to the final round and then runs in a final heat to determine the overall winner.

But let’s be honest – anyone who gets to see this in person is a winner.

This year Maple, a one-year-old dachshund with long hair took the crown.

Leo and Bucky placed second and third.

Maple’s owner told the local news that Maple is just one of 5 dachshunds in the family, and he learned to run fast by chasing the others around the yard.

If you head to Cincinnati next year to witness this amazing spectacle for yourself, you can also stick around and treat yourself to the World’s Largest Chicken Dance.

I honestly can’t think of a better place (outside Bavaria, of course) to spend your Oktoberfest days.

Can you?

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A Man Was Tested and Has the Oldest American DNA Ever Recorded

A lot of us who have sent in our DNA to be tested are expecting results that tell us where we came from before our ancestors immigrated to America – if our families have been here a very long time (since the “beginning”), then perhaps we’ve been on American soil for 7 or 8 generations.

My own family came here on the Mayflower, but, obviously, folks met us when we arrived.

When Montana native Darrell “Dusty” Crawford sent in his DNA at his late brother’s request, he was expecting to find Native American heritage. His family lived on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Heart Butte, and their oral traditions were that they came to North America during the Ice Age, perhaps over the Bering Land Bridge.

What the DNA company, CRI Genetics, found, though was something far, far more incredible.

The results, they said, were so unprecedented it was “like finding Bigfoot.”

Crawford’s line could be followed back 55 generations.

The company has never traced anyone’s DNA back that far, making his the oldest American DNA ever found.

The DNA also indicates that the Crawfords’ ancestors came from the Pacific, not over the land bridge, settling in South America before traveling north. Though it’s still just a theory, it is one that has some science behind it.

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Browning is built on a vast open prairie, backlit by the jagged skyline of the Rocky Mountain Range. Cattle, horses and dogs roam freely. Cheap, wind-worn houses are scattered along rolling hills, amidst tall grass and endless fields of wheat. The gas station north of town also serves as a convenience store, grocery, restaurant and gift shop—teeming with residents of the reservation and a few passers by. In this place the historical consequences of an institutionalized doctrine of manifest destiny are palpable—boundless westward expansion by white settlers and the subjugation of the American Indian having generational effects. Further into town I find the Sleeping Wolf Campground. I lay on the grass and am both cooled by the steady winds and warmed by the eternal sun. #sleepingwolfcampground #browning #blackfeetindianreservation #blackfeet #montana #rockymountains #horses #prairie #roam #ontheroam #manifestdestiny #westwardexpansion #subjugation #bicycletouring #sleepingwolf More at www.tecumsehclark.com

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There are four major Native American groups that populated North America, each of which trace back to a female ancestor – Ai, Ina, Chie, and Sachi. Crawford and his family hail from the Ina clan, or the mtDNA Haplogroup B2, and CRI genetics isn’t sure how that particular line migrated around the world.

“Its path from the Americas is somewhat of a mystery as there are no frequencies of the haplogroup in either Alaska or Canada. Today this Native American line is found only in the Americas, with a strong frequency on the eastern coast of North America.”

Other experts, like professor Shelley Eli, dismisses the idea that this or any other Native American line migrated to the Americas from elsewhere at all, since their oral histories and indigenous histories cite nothing of the sort.

“There’s no oral stories that say we crossed a bridge or anything else. We’ve always been here, since time immemorial.”

She gets her information from 2017 research that dated human activity in North America back more than 100,000 years.

The truth isn’t likely to be uncovered any time soon, but Crawford’s results remain an important moment for the scientific community. Before his tests came back, the oldest American DNA was 17,000 years younger than Crawford’s, and with new information comes the opportunity for better understanding.

As for Crawford himself, it’s a personal validation that what his family has always believed is true.

He does wish, though, that he and his brother could have marveled in that reality together.

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Study Blames a Lack of ‘Economically-Attractive’ Men for Declining Marriage Rates

This sure doesn’t sound good. I know fewer people have been getting married, but I thought the cultural shift was due to other things.

Once again, I was wrong.

Researchers at Cornell University released a study with a pretty sobering conclusion: there aren’t as many “economically-attractive” men as there used to be for unmarried women to pick from.

Ouch.

The researchers looked at data from marriages between 2007-2013 and 2013-2017. They then looked at the financial and sociodemographic data of the potential husbands for unmarried women by creating economic profiles based on real husbands who had already married similar women. Then, the “potential husbands” were compared to real population data of men across the United States.

After they crunched the numbers, the researchers found some grim data: the “potential husbands,” aka the ones who don’t exist, had an average income 58% higher than the actual, real population of unmarried men currently on the market in the U.S. The “potential husbands” also were 19% more likely to have college degrees and 30% more likely to be employed.

In a media release, the study’s lead author Dr. Daniel T. Lichter said:

“Most American women hope to marry but current shortages of marriageable men–men with a stable job and a good income–make this increasingly difficult, especially in the current gig economy of unstable low-paying service jobs. Marriage is still based on love, but it also is fundamentally an economic transaction. Many young men today have little to bring to the marriage bargain, especially as young women’s educational levels on average now exceed their male suitors.”

Man, reality can be a real bummer sometimes…

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Denmark Dominates the World Happiness Report Rankings Year After Year. Here’s Why.

America, let’s get it together. I don’t know if it’s arrogance or ignorance, but some Americans think that we are hands-down the best, the happiest, the “number-one” at everything imaginable.

I love living in the United States, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else (permanently), but I have to admit that a lot of people here aren’t necessarily happy.

But in Denmark, folks are incredibly happy. In fact, the country ranks at or near the top of the World Happiness Rankings year after year. So what’s behind the happiness in that Scandinavian country of just under 6 million people?

The rankings are based on statistics including crime, income, health, and civic engagement. People were also asked questions about how often they experience positive and negative emotions.

But there’s more than that when it comes to figuring out why Danish people are so happy. They have access to good health care and education, they have a stable government, and they happily pay the highest taxes in the world because they believe this helps create a better society.

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Beautiful Copenhagen 🇩🇰 ⠀ How many bicycles do you see on the photo? 🚲😄 _________ ⠀ Сколько велосипедов вы видите на фото?🚲 ⠀ Дания поистине страна велосипедистов 🚴 По статистике их здесь в два раза больше, чем автомобилей, представляете?🙈 ⠀ Я уже второй раз за год в этом чудесном городе, и каждый раз он мне нравится всё больше ❤ ⠀ К тому же нам дважды везло с погодой, а как вы знаете, Скандинавия в этом плане очень непредсказуема 😅 Вы были в Копенгагене?)

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But there’s something else in the character of the Danish people that makes them so happy: it’s known as “hygge.” The word is sometimes translated as “cozy,” and Danes value it highly. It basically means having comfortable, high-quality social interactions with family and friends and being content with enjoying the simple things in life.

A hygge evening could consist of a family playing board games, having coffee with a friend in front of a fireplace, or eating a quiet, easygoing meal with someone. Hygge is so important to the Danish character that the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen called it “a defining feature of our cultural identity and an integral part of the national DNA.”

Places can also be described as “hyggelige”, such as a person’s home, which is obviously a compliment and means that it is cozy, comfortable, and welcoming. Danish people use hygge to combat everyday stress and to build camaraderie.

I don’t know about you, but I love this concept.

FYI, in the 2019 World Happiness Rankings, Denmark came in second place and was edged out for #1 by Finland. The U.S. sits at #19.

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Apparently, Cemetery Selfies Are Quite Popular

I kind of understand how the world works: trends come and go. Some are good, some are bad, some are absolutely cringeworthy. Let’s go ahead and put this one in the last category.

Cemetery selfies are quite odd, aren’t they? It’s one thing to pay your respects to a deceased loved one, but it’s quite another to take a selfie in a cemetery trying to look FABULOUS.

It’s just plain weird…but it’s also popular. As you’re about to see.

1. She’s enjoying herself.

2. Think he brought a photographer or used a timer?

3. The #fun hashtag is interesting.

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Cemetery selfie #cemeteryselfie #fun #wedding

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4. A stroll among the dead.

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#cemeteryselfie 💀💀💀

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5. Some duck lips never hurt anyone.

6. We’re loving it!

7. Look deep into his eyes.

8. You’ve reached the Underworld.

9. His happy place…

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My Pine Grove <3 #myhappyplace #cemeteryselfie

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10. Deuces wild, y’all!

People sure are strange, aren’t they? Or maybe I’m the weird one, I don’t know.

Share your thoughts with us about cemetery selfies in the comments!

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There’s a “Ghost-Detecting” Stone for Sale That Claims to Sense Visits from the Beyond

October is right around the corner, which means those of us who revel in all of the Halloween goodness are about to have their month in the sun (or the darkness).

If that means doing a little ghost hunting, well, you could always pick up this Baketan Reiseki from Amazon.

The stone, which allegedly detects the presence of ghosts via “crystals” and colorful lights, could be the perfect addition to your holiday decorations – and it just might let you know why it always sounds like someone’s knocking on the walls at night!

Image Credit: Amazon

According to a press release, the ghost detector became “a big hit in the sub-culture market” in Japan, with people everywhere sending in “ghost reports” after having the little device in their homes.

They sold more than 200,000 of the Baketan Reiseki in Japan before trying their luck on Amazon.

The name of the device has a literal meaning: Baketan = to search for a monster, Reiseki = stone. So it’s a stone that searches for ghosts.

If you’re looking to check your immediate surroundings for paranormal visitors, the stone uses a color-coded light system to do just that. It lights up green when there’s nothing unusual around, turns blue if there’s an “angel” present, and flashes red if a “ghost” enters the area.

Image Credit: Amazon

You can also operate your stone in three different modes. The first is “search mode,” activated by pressing a button, for when you want to manually check the area around you. Next is “automatic search mode,” which means the stone scans the area every ten minutes and flashes the appropriate color afterward. Lastly, you can run it in “barrier mode,” which claims to protect you from spirits (no word on how).

The makers of the Baketan Reiseki claim its power comes from a center made from cracked quartz (the most abundant mineral on Earth), which many believe harbors supernatural healing powers.

Image Credit: Amazon

Website Energy Muse states that quartz is “versatile and multidimensional,” functioning as “a stone of amplification, clarity, and focus.”

Cracked quartz, however, represents “the life lessons, barriers, and obstacles.”

So, you know…it might work. Or it might not do anything. But even if the latter is true, it’s still a fun thing to keep on your coffee table during the month of October.

And if it turns red, well, then you might need to invest in some sage and learn how to use it.

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Every Single Part of This Tree Could Kill or Maim You

Beware of this tree!

The manchineel tree is one of nature’s mysteries that no one is likely to solve anytime soon – every single part of it is toxic to animals (including humans).

Also known as the beach apple, la manzanilla de la muerte (the little apple of death), or sometimes arbol de la muerte (tree of death), the manchineel lives along the coast in brackish waters, occurring in tropical North, Central and South American settings and living in clusters.

The tree itself looks pleasant enough, even beachy, and its small, greenish-yellow fruits have surely been tempting to more than a few hungry, thirsty, unwitting travelers.

You definitely don’t want to eat the fruit, though. Or touch the trunk. Or a branch. Or stand under the tree when it’s raining or touch your eyes or the leaves or really even breathe in while you’re standing too close to it.

You could ask Juan Ponce de Leon why not, had the tree’s poison not (we believe) spelled his demise.

A brief guide to the tree, written by Michael G. Andreu and Melissa H. Friedman, minces no words.

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Wow, found this tree I’ve been dying to see right here in st kitts at the #tciawmc2019 !! The Manchineel Tree is considered the most poisonous tree in the world! It causes painful blisters if you stand under it during rain, blinds you if the smoke from its burned wood touches your eyes, can poison water with it’s leaves and will cause death if you eat it’s fruit!! #manchineeltree #deadly #spotted #poisonous #tciawmc2019 #tcia #isa #bts #bofingers #bofingerstreeservice #treecare #treework #treebiz #treeclimber #arborist #welovetrees #weekend #stkitts @husqvarnausa @arborwear @treecareindustry @carhartt @isaarboriculture @truewerk @allthingsarb @slattrax @treecaretips @treestuffdotcom

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“Warning: all parts of manchineel are extremely poisonous. The content in this document is strictly informational. Interaction with and ingestion of any part of this tree may be lethal.”

Reports from people who have been unfortunate enough to eat the fruit claim inflammation and blistering around the mouth and severe stomach and intestinal issues – accounts backed up by the unfortunate Nicola Strickland, who wrote about her taste of the fruit for posterity.

I rashly took a bite from this fruit and found it pleasantly sweet. My friend also partook (at my suggestion). Moments later we noticed a strange peppery feeling in our mouths, which gradually progressed to a burning, tearing sensation and tightness of the throat. The symptoms worsened over a couple of hours until we could barely swallow solid food because of the excruciating pain and the feeling of a huge obstructing pharyngeal lump. Sadly, the pain was exacerbated by most alcoholic beverages, although mildly appeased by pina coladas, but more so by milk alone.

Over the next eight hours our oral symptoms slowly began to subside, but our cervical lymph nodes became very tender and easily palpable. Recounting our experience to the locals elicited frank horror and incredulity, such was the fruit’s poisonous reputation.

While the fruit may not always be deadly, the milky white sap certainly is – it causes burn-like blisters, temporary blindness, and, if it finds its way under the skin and into the bloodstream, death.

Native peoples were thought to have used the sap to tip their arrows – arrows that killed Ponce de Leon on his second trip to Florida in 1521.

Natives have also used the manchineel and other trees in the spurge family for medicinal purposes (mostly as a laxative, hence the name).

Though the manchineel is the deadliest tree in the lower 48 (it can be found in Florida), it’s not the deadliest plant – that title belongs to the spotted water hemlock.

“A quarter-inch of the stem is enough to kill a person,” confirms botanist and naturalist Roger Hammer. “It’s probably the most violently poisonous plant on the North American continent.”

It is also found in Florida.

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#FunFactFriday: this is #TheMostDangerousTree in the 🌎 ! The #ManchineelTree (Hippomane mancinella) is so toxic it can cause SKIN BLISTERING if you stand under it in the rain ☔ with minute droplets of it’s sap landing on you. The fruit is also known as #BeachApple or #PoisonGuava and in Spanish the tree has been called “arbol de la muerte” or the 🌳 of 💀! The tree is found in our FL Everglades, the Caribbean, and South America. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND 🤣 🤓 👻 💀 🎃 . . 🌟ZocDoc.com or 📞 to book an appointment w/ me, Dr. Dan Ilkovitch, for skin checks, medical concerns, and cosmetic desires 😄 👍! . 🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹 Dan Ilkovitch, MD, PhD, FAAD 2320 NE 62nd Street Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33308 📞 954-500-3376 🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹 . #florida #fortlauderdale #miamibeach #miami #sobe #southbeach #aventurafl #lasolas #Davie #westonfl #bocaraton #southflorida #wiltonmanors #ftlauderdalebeach #pompanobeach #pompano #delraybeach #oaklandpark #wynwood #brickell #floridaderm #BoardCertifiedDermatologist #ASDSskinMD #clearlyderm

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The moral of this story seems to be that when traveling to wonderful foreign places (or Florida), take as much care with the flora as the snakes and gators – just because plants don’t have teeth doesn’t mean they aren’t going to murder you before you know what happened.

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Take a Look at the World’s First Cheese Conveyor Belt Restaurant

I remember my first sushi experience like it was yesterday: it was in San Francisco, and the little plates went around on a conveyor belt, and you could just grab off whatever you wanted and then pay at the end.

I thought it was amazing; my 15-year-old mind was well and truly blown!

Well, now it looks like I’ll need to make a trip across the pond to England to check out a place called The Cheese Bar. Located in London’s Camden Market, the restaurant specializes in fine cheese that is delivered to customers on a conveyor belt, making it the first cheese conveyor belt restaurant in the world.

Customers can choose from 25 different cheeses off the moving belt while they sip wine. The plates are color-coordinated by price, and customers are encouraged to gorge until they are content.

The restaurant also offers grilled cheese sandwiches and, for dessert, blue cheese soft serve.

Wow, never heard of that one before, but it sounds amazing.

The founder of The Cheese Bar, Matthew Carver, said, “We want to show that cheese and wine bars don’t have to be boring and can be enjoyed by everyone, whether you’re dropping in for a quick plate of British cheese and a glass of something unusual, or settling in for a cheese flight and a bottle of natural wine.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m on board with this idea. I can’t get enough of the stuff, even though I know I should cool it on my dairy…

Pass the cheese, please! All of it!

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