fact
Digital cameras were developed so spy satellites could send images back to earth more quickly. Before digital cameras in 1976, spy satellites used film. After the film was shot, the satellites loaded the footage into capsules and dropped them from orbit into the atmosphere for collection. 00
Zappos offers new employees $1,000 to quit, after just one week on the job! This strategy is used to create a team of dedicated employees who buy into the customer first culture they want to foster. 40
Zappos offers new employees $1,000 to quit, after just one week on the job! This strategy is used to create a team of dedicated employees who buy into the customer first culture they want to foster. 00
Ever wonder what people from other countries think when they visit America?
In this AskReddit thread, European travelers share their biggest WTF moments about America.
“Did a house exchange in New Jersey (from UK) and on the second day a neighbour came to the door with an actual cherry pie to welcome us and ask us to dinner. Was:
A huge confirmation of stereotype
Really touching and sweet (pie was also wonderful btw)
A bit weird because we knew our neighbours wouldn’t give a flying f-ck and we felt bad :/ “
“I really wasn’t prepared for the size of the cars! I’m used to getting into cars by opening the door and sitting down, not climbing up. And we had a rental car, a Dodge of some sort, that was pretty much a tank, with tiny windows so you could barely see where you were going.”
“In 2015 I went to Florida. We walked past a crazy golf place and a guy was holding an alligator in his arms, he also told me he had an 8-foot alligator in the back.
I’m from England, so I don’t think I’ll ever quite get over just how casual he was having a dang alligator in his arms.”
“Went to some diner in Portland, Oregon and I ordered coffee. Half way in my coffee she asked me if I wanted a refill, I politely declined telling her I was short on cash. She laughed and said refills are free of charge, and to top of my amazed reaction she complimented my shirt. Needless to say, she cured my hangover and I fell in love.”
“It was my second trip to California, I was only 18 years old. When I got out of the plane, as usual, I had to go through all those security checks. At the last checkpoint, the officer asked me whether I have anything in my suitcase that I didn’t mention on tis CBP thing. Then he asked for drugs and then for alcohol. I honestly answered all questions with “No” when surprisingly he asked me “Why not?”.
A bit confused, I told him that I knew, I wasn’t allowed to take drugs or drink alcohol in his country. He got interested and asked whether it was different where i’m from (Germany). Here the minimum age is 16 for light beverages like beer and wine and 18 for the other stuff like spirits. He was so interested, he kept asking stuff for like 5 minutes, not even minding the 100 people behind me. When he let me pass, he instantly turned towards the guy in the other checkpoint was like “Hey, did you know … ” “
“While in Florida, we went through a drive through and the lady couldn’t understand what i was ordering regardless of how slowly and carefully i spoke so, i decided to go inside instead where the lady behind the counter couldn’t understand me either, i am a northern brit but not too too broad an accent.
My little sister had to put on her Florida accent to order for us, the manager who eventually took the order said she was sorry as the staff were only used to “normal” English lol.”
“Boston: didn’t notice I had left Europe.
Houston: the people were as friendly as they were huge. And loud. Hugely loud. And loudly huge, I guess.
Nashville and other places I went kinda blend together in my head, except for the delicious food.
Oh, and the person who asked if my country had coins and traffic lights. I.. what.. yes? I mean.. wat.”
“Ordered a BLT sandwich in Las Vegas, I swear that sandwich was 90% bacon. Under a mount Everest of bacon were two tiny lurk warm tomato slices and a single leaf of lettuce almost apologizing for being there. 10/10 would visit America again.”
“First time I flew to America, right at the airport I see this guy walking around just all dressed up like a cowboy and my day was just made right there.
They’ve always just been these fantasy characters from TV or movies, in the back of my mind I knew they’re real but no matter what you can never be prepared to really see one.
He wasn’t even a cowboy, just an American.
“The space. You guys have so much unused untouched space, it’s crazy. In Europe there is barely anywhere that isn’t owned or isn’t being used. In Europe we have protected forests, in America you have some unrestricted, uncontrolled forests that are massive!”
“I’m actually in NYC right now, so that was good timing! I’m from the UK.
Yesterday I went to Central Park and there were literally two guys just driving around on segways with giant a– snakes around their necks. Occasionally they’d take them off and drape them around the nearest random person. I was actually frozen with horror.”
“I’m an Aussie who visited USA, hope it’s okay for me to crash this thread.
We LOVED our visit – loved the whole bloody place, but i was absolutely gobsmacked when I found Froot Loops with marshmallows. I genuinely did not think it was possible to make Froot Loops more unhealthy, but you guys did it – love your work!”
“While walking around Austin, random people would just give me a “Hey, how’s it going” as they walked past. In the UK, if someone even looks like they might glance in your direction, it probably means they’re about to try selling you something. I probably offended a couple of them with how defensive I seemed…”
“In Florida, how amazingly friendly people were whilst talking absolute nonsense to make us happy. We are from Wales in the UK, this guy at a burger store asked where we were from and started to tell us how he loves Wales, then went on about how his mum lives there.
We asked what part of Wales does she live?
His reply, “Paris, I think”. “
“Pretty stereotypical stuff. Couple we stayed with were hugely nice but very religious and overweight. They voted for Obama and then Trump. Also drove us 4 hours for a daytrip! The bread is inexplicably sweet. A nice healthy pancake with blueberries for breakfast was actually five pancakes with blue syrup and whipped cream. I could get used to root beer floats though.”
The post Europeans Share Their Biggest “WTF, America?” Moments appeared first on UberFacts.
Tinder has made it easy to meet new people. But it’s also made it easy to meet weird people. Needless to say, some people have run into some pretty horrifying situations.
How do yours measure up to these horrific tales on AskReddit?
“I went on a date with a guy and the entire time he was talking about how men are superior and how there have been scientific studies to show that “women have an emotional reaction to the color red when they see it”. I wonder why he was single.”
“This was back when tinder first came out and wasn’t quite as known as a hookup app. We met and had a great first date. Second date was even better. Things kept going for about 2 months when she told me she went out with me originally in an attempt for a Dinner with Schmucks type thing where her and all her friends would bring the worst Tinder date. We both really liked each other, but I couldn’t get over how we started.”
“My roommate loves it, and she’s brought back numerous visitors. Which is fine, except for the fact that the apartment is tiny and we share a room. And also the fact that my roommate doesn’t really care what I end up seeing. And, as it turns out, most guys don’t care about having another girl in the room either–some take it as an opportunity for a for a threesome.
My roommate is my tinder nightmare.”
“My buddy isn’t the smartest man. He picked a chick up and drove to a motel. They were walking into the room and she says, “I forgot my purse in the car do you mind if I go grab it?” He says, “yeah that’s fine,” and tosses her the keys. 5 minutes later he walks outside wondering where she is and his car is gone.”
“Went on a date with a girl who had already told her whole family about me, before we even met. And she wanted me to meet them in person on the first date.
Nope.”
“I dated someone I met from tinder for a month. Seemed good on paper: masters student, yoga teacher, cultured, etc.
Found out she was doing heroin and didn’t consider that a big problem. I actually had to explain to her the definition of a high functioning addict because she felt that having a job and going to school meant the heroin thing wasn’t a problem. We broke up and she went back to her junky ex-bf.”
“Matched with my cousin.”
“Showed up to the restaurant, waited about 30 minutes. Ordered myself some food and was about to leave when he texted me: “there’s a liquor store across the street from the restaurant, can you pick me up 2 six packs?”
I told him I wouldn’t. He says he’s decided to play frisbee with his dog instead. Deleted app, went to liquor store, picked up wine and went home.
He texted me for a month or so after to tell me he’s just bought tickets to see me dance (I’m a retired ballerina, haven’t been in anything for a few years). Then he texts me an hour after and tells me how great I was on stage. I never responded.
Dating is too confusing. I’m all done.”
“There was this guy, he was a solid 10 in his pictures. He messages me, asks me if I want to meet up for coffee, so I say yes. He messages me and tells me that I have to pick him up… Okay whatever, I’ll do it. I pick him up, and we decided to go eat instead, he’s super funny and cute so we hangout some more after dinner. Then he pulls out his phone and proceeds to tell me that he has a son and his baby momma took of to Washington (but has no idea what part or anything) with him and he hasn’t seen him in months. So he then takes out his phone and tells me to go through a folder on his phone of pictures of his son.
Like 300 of them.
He sat there and made me look through every single one, and he would tell me the back story to basically every single video and photo in that folder. I felt so bad, but man I was happy when he left. That whole date just got so weird after that, he did some more stuff but those are good stories for another time lol.”
“My Tinder nightmare began on Jan 8 2014 when I started texting with a beautiful woman who I knew was out of my league. I’m a 50’ish Caucasian guy, out of shape, overweight, but otherwise stable and normal. She was a 30 year old Black woman, college educated, stunningly beautiful and very elegant and slender. Nonetheless, after a few days of texting I invited her to join me for dinner at a very nice restaurant downtown. To my dismay she actually accepted my invitation. I was waiting for her at the bar and when she walked in my jaw hit the floor. She was so beautiful I literally lost my breath for a moment. She was taller than me in her heels and was wearing a beautiful short dress with the most amazing legs I had ever seen. She greeted me with a bright smile and a gentle hug and we were escorted to our table. We had a very good date, the conversation flowed, and she seemed to have a good time as well. We decided to continue the date and went to a couple of bars for drinks. Finally she said it was time to go home and, since she had taken Uber earlier, I offered to give her a ride home and she quickly agreed.
All this time I thought that, even though the date was fun, and comfortable, I assumed it would possibly lead to a friendship at best considering the obvious differences. Well when we got to her place we talked for a few minutes more. I offered to walk her to her door but she declined. She then got out and walked around to my door. She leaned through the window and planted a very brief but sensual kiss on my lips. My heart stopped! She then leaned back and smiled. I was able to stammer out an invitation to go out again and she accepted without hesitation. I was on cloud nine! I knew that this remarkable woman would have a profound affect on my life, it seemed pre-destined.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, She and I had been seeing each other nearly every day and I was developing strong feelings already. But, something was wrong. I had a weird nagging sense that she was hiding something. Although she was being very affectionate , something just felt off. Then finally it happened. We were out at a bar together. It was a good time but she seemed distracted. As we were leaving she turned to me and said, in a serious tone, “we need to talk”. I thought, this is it, the differences between us are too much for her and I’m about to be friend zoned. But nothing prepared me for what came next. She asked me to just listen and not say anything, and I agreed. She then started out by saying that she had developed strong feelings for me but there was something that I needed to know about her that might make me want to change my mind about pursuing a relationship. My mind was spinning and so many scenarios raced through my head. Is she married? Is she a criminal? Then I remembered a few day earlier when we were making out and I touched her breast lightly and realized that she had breast implants because it was quite hard. So I thought, is she a trans?
But, as it turns out, she wasn’t but that would have been better than what came next. She looked at me, and with a tear in her eye, she told me that she has stage 4 breast cancer. She was originally diagnosed 4 years earlier as stage 3 and had beaten it back into remission after having a double mastectomy along with radiation treatment and chemotherapy. Now it had returned as stage 4 and she was to start chemo again in two weeks. I was floored! She then stated that she will understand if I wanted to turn and run and she wouldn’t think less of me for it. My response was to re-iterate that I adored her. And I thought she was an amazing woman and if she wanted me to take this journey with her that I would be honored to do so. We kissed and just held each other for a while. Finally she said goodnight and went to her car to go home. I cried all the way home. We had a full amazing year together. I had to go to Japan for work and she met me there in between chemo treatments. She never cried and was always elegant. I learned what the true definition of grace meant. We lived a lifetime in 2014. She died 9 months ago, 15 months after we met. I am a much better man for having met her and shared in her struggle. I love you and miss you so much Genny!”
The post 10 People Dish on Their Worst Tinder Date Horror Stories appeared first on UberFacts.
A good piece of advice can completely change the trajectory of your life. We often find ourselves at crossroads, unsure of what to do or where to go next. But when someone steps in, whether they’re a trusted friend, family member, or stranger, and offers us words of wisdom, we can’t wait to share them with others. Just like these folks did on AskReddit.
“One of my favourite teachers in Highschool told us:” If you need five pages to talk about 20 lines of poetry, you are obviously bullshitting me. State three well constructed arguments for your point of view and I’ll be happy to reward you for that. Claim. Reason. Proof. Nothing more.” He repeated that before every exam and it really helped me to boil my rather confused teenager thoughts into clear statements. I still think of him today while writing reports for work.
TLDR: Keep it short and simple.”
“Probably “If it smells like shit everywhere you go, check your shoes.”
I’m much less of a miserable asshole these days.”
“Be the person you needed when you were young.”
“This was specifically when looking to transition to a significantly higher responsibility role, but I have found to be applicable to any time I’m facing a new challenge. “Don’t be worried if you’re not sure you can do it. You’re not supposed to be sure. If you were already sure you could do the job, you’d be bored within a month.”
“Life doesn’t change, unless you change it.
You can’t sedate your way out of a crappy life, you have to get up and make changes.”
“Years of love have been forgotten in the hatred of a minute”
Really helps whenever I get into an argument with my friends or family.”
“Your success will be largely dependent on the number of uncomfortable conversations you are willing to have – Reddit”
“There will come a time in your life where you’ll have nothing to offer someone but your word. Make it worth something.”
Edit: Oh shit my first gold?! Thank you kind stranger! I really do feel like I’m internet famous.”
“If you lend someone some money and never see them again, it was probably money well spent.
Got told this after I lent a friend $100 and the fucker dropped off the face of the planet.”
“My first great boss told me “never make yourself indispensable or you’ll never get promoted”.
It’s worked for me.”
“Sometimes the worst decision is no decision. Sometimes you just have to make a decision, any decision, then make that be the right one.”
“You can pay now, or you can pay later, but it’s almost always cheaper to pay now.”
It seems like a lot of people think this is only referring to money, it’s not.”
“Don’t make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option”.
“Do something that makes you want to get up in the morning. Find someone that makes you want to go home in the evening.”
“Respect yourself enough to walk away anything that no longer serves you, grows you or makes you happy.”
The post 12+ People Reveal the Best Advice They Ever Received appeared first on UberFacts.
Have you ever dreamed of starting your own business? While some people find success, it’s often a lot harder than it looks. One wrong move could end up costing you everything you’ve invested in. But you just might have a leg up if you read through these 15 honest confessions about the mistakes that were made by others who have gone before you.
“Entered an over saturated market with zero business, marketing or sales experience.
In hindsight, my chosen niche wasn’t specific enough. I’ve had a follow up idea from the experience I had, but I have zero intention of actually executing it.”
“Hired friends.
Didn’t do that this time around. Worked out.”
“In the startup community + have watched many a start up fly and fail (mine is still breathing). Here’s what I’ve learned:
Pick your co-founders like you pick a marriage partner — with the expectation that they may very well screw you over anyway.
Don’t invent a product for a problem that doesn’t exist. If you do, you will have to spend a lot of time inventing the problem as well.
Take your experience and apply it to what you want to do. Don’t jump in to app building b/c all the cool kids are doing it.
Don’t get in it for the money. You will likely be working for AT LEAST two years without adequate (or any) pay.
Don’t try to be a BFF to your employees/boss. It seldom ends well.Specificity and focus are your friends. You can’t be or do everything for everyone.
Your first customers are your employees. If they don’t see value in you or what you’re selling, you’re in trouble.
Working for smart, kind people is totally okay. There are hundreds of ways to do cool things, without entering the startup world.
Take care of yourself first. Throwing everything you have into a biz is no good if you destroy your health in the process.”
“Lots of things:
I sold clothing wholesale:
Had sales experience, but came from a different industry. It took a little bit to learn the law of the land and how things worked.
Made home base where I did (and also currently) live instead of moving to a more regional hub. This caused extra travel time and expenses when I could have been closer to my accounts. There’s a reason why reps work out of those hubs.
I was not prepared for the amount of stores who wouldn’t pay. If an account gives you trouble about placing a deposit or prepaying then you’re probably not getting paid.
Some of the lines we represented were off trend. We were newbies in the market so we kind of went with what we could get, but there are reasons that longer established and larger firms were repping certain lines and not repping other lines.
I didn’t watch my business partner close enough and took him at his word. He was a lying piece of shit who was out for himself and he no problems screwing me over and running off with some of the money we did have.
I learned a lot though, and while I don’t own a business currently, I certainly will be more prepared for when I try again.”
“Lack of self-confidence.
This was about 23 years ago, when the Web was really taking off. I knew it was going to be huge, and I knew that businesses really needed to be online, but my lack of self-confidence kept me from convincing others. It really held me back, and after a year and a half I had to find a full-time job.
But I don’t regret the time I spent trying; in 2001 the web development firm I was working for (and we had done some really high-profile projects) burst in the dot-com bubble and the resulting recession kept me from finding another full-time position. But everything I had learned from them, plus what NOT to do the first time, meant that I was able to freelance for the next 8 years.
So I always tell people to go for it. It may or may not work out, but you learn so much and it takes you where you need to be. It sucked but I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything.
Edited because time flies.”
“Years ago I tried freelancing hooking up electronics. I made a decent amount of mistakes but nothing totally crazy. I also most definitely didn’t know as much as I should have before starting something like that. But my biggest mistake was not getting bonded in any way. I had a really close call where a customer threatened to send me to court for breaking some electronics I didn’t even touch. I doubt he would’ve won but who knows what I do know is I would’ve have been able to afford to find out. I shut it all down after that.”
“I started an independent engineering consultant firm that was made up of only me. Turns out I spent so much time trying to get old customers to pay me, that I didn’t spend enough time looking for new customers. Side note: I will never ever sign a contract with an “Art Collective” ever again. They agreed to pay me a flat rate ($5000) to automate a project they were building that involved some motors spinning some disks or something. The job took me maybe 4 hours not counting the travel (but hey they agreed to a flat rate). They never sold the piece and never paid me, even though my contract had no language tying my compensation to project success. Anyway they dissolved the “Collective” and reopened it under a new name… and I never got my money. Repeat that story about 4 more times and I went back to working for someone else.”
“I was too naive. As an engineer, I just wanted to build a product for the customer and then hope that it would sell itself and I would be on my Merry way. So I built dispatching software for a local truck company. After I finish building it out, I do some research and there are at least 10 other competitors with better fetaures and have been around longer.
Then I try cold calling other truck companies in the hopes of selling my software to them. Lo and behold, they were already using a competitor’s software to power their operations. I also had to price myself lower in order to try to be a compelling offering. So now, here I am with 1 customer getting paid $150 a month.
In essence, I fucked up in not doing enough research, not coming up with a more unique product, trying to be 5% better that competitors, not being able to get help on the sales end, and much more. The only thing I did well was to build good software.
Now, I wake up everyday depressed, not knowing what the right next step is, running out of money and time. The hardest part is the loneliness of it all. I miss having a team.”
“When it came to marketing channels, I didn’t follow what the numbers said was working.
I had my heart set on building a blog to promote my products. But all my sales success came from influencer marketing. If I had to do it over, I would have dropped the blog and put everything I could into the marketing channels that worked.”
“I’ve launched multiple pen names for smut, and a fair few of them have just died in the water. (At least, I hope that’s water…)
The biggest failing was assuming that I could try and use one name for all the fetishes I wrote about, assuming that people who bought in one niche would buy in others. Not so. People like what they like, and they like to know they can buy more of it consistently.
Pick a lane and stick with it. It’s a lot easier to build a reputation for quality in one niche than all niches simultaneously.”
“I didn’t have enough money to operate the first year at a loss. Seriously, it is so important to have that. I mean technically my business could have survived, but I’d have starved. When factoring in year one projections: don’t forget your salary!”
“I never started a business but I work in accounting and have seen a lot of businesses succeed/fail. I think the most simple thing that goes wrong is just people often don’t really do market research and start a business that they are passionate about but it’s for a product or service that the people in that area don’t want or need. Also I think some people have good idea but don’t have any or enough experience in owning or running a business and underestimate the work it takes.”
“Didn’t have enough starting capital. So we shifted our business plan to bring in some small capital to save up for our major plans. During that process, I realized my business partners were not what I was looking for. They just didn’t have the right mentality for what we were doing. The drive was there, but drive isn’t all we needed.
So I bailed out of it before I lost anymore of my money.”
“I got the wrong investor….my dad.
My dad was the kind of parent who couldn’t trust me, and unfortunately still thinks he’s a fellow kid who totally understands today’s tech scene when he’s…….well. Let’s just say his idea of a great app is to load everything with ads, create 50 unnecessary additional steps to force everyone to see what our app can do, and oh…the 80s silver, blue & yellow gradient effect everywhere.”
“I trusted my banker without getting anything in writing.
I had been thinking for a while about leaving the law firm I was with to start my own practice. I spoke with my banker who said it would be no problem for me to get a loan or line-of-credit if I needed it. I had some savings, but I relied pretty heavily on her representations. We had a great history and she had never let me down before. Big mistake.
So I started my own practice, did okay for a few months, then hit some slow months. I went to talk to her and she said there was no way she could do anything to help me until I had shown two years of profit. I got angry and asked her what about our previous conversation when she said that she had multiple ways she could help me. She claimed she never said anything of the sort. I remember standing up and leaning over her desk and saying “You told me you could get me a $15,000 line of credit within 24 hours based on my customer history with the bank. And now you’re telling me I dreamed this conversation?” She basically said she would never had made such a specific promise, and I clearly was trying to bully her. I left her office and immediately went to another branch to close all my accounts.
Every time I think of that conversation, I get furious. I had sent her God knows how many customers over the years, had a long history of banking at her branch, had been to lunch with her numerous times, yet she called me a liar when I had to ask her for a help for the first time in the history of our relationship.
In hindsight, I was stupid and a little arrogant. I knew it would take a couple of years to truly establish my practice, but I thought I had enough in savings and current clients that I could make it. When she told me about the financial options I would qualify for, I knew I had enough of a safety net. I made it 14 months before I had to close up shop and find a job (happy ending though: LOVE my current job).
Still, it’s a little frustrating to be on the verge of making it on your own and have the rug pulled out from under you by someone you considered a reliable ally.”
The post 12+ Entrepreneurs Reveal the Mistake That Cost Them Their Business appeared first on UberFacts.
Seeing homeless people on the street is hard. They have different signs-some are funny, others are sad, but it’s hard to know what to give when you see that very common sign: anything helps.
So here’s some advice from people who have been there.
“Anything to help get clean when showering is not available, like cleansing wipes and deodorant especially. Chapstick, especially in the winter. Women usually need pads or tampons, they are so expensive when you have nothing.”
“Deodorant, water, healthy snacks, razor/shaving cream, couple bucks for food/gift card to taco Bell… I was once given a gift card to the Dollar store that I felt changed my life. They had given me $20 and I was able to buy toiletries, laundry detergent and food. It was my last handout before I got my life together.”
“When I was homeless food was the least of my problems. ANyone can afford a couple Mcdick Mcdoubles to keep themselves alive. You know what woulda helped? Loonies for laundry and detergant to keep my clothes from smelling like piss, Batteries for my cd walkman so i could listen to Watch out by Alexisonfire (some of the tracks helped me turn sadness into anger, which helped motivate me to get my shit together), A bible (if your not religious i get it, but motivational reading material for lonely nights is what im getting at here), a monthly bus pass, day passes to the YMCA so i can take a shower and maybe use their plus rooms for a good steam room sesh, Let me put your phone number on my resume (I didnt have a home or a phone so when i applied places i had nothing for them to get ahold of me so i had to tell them i could be found on the waterfront by the picnic tables). Maybe none of this is practical, but i needed a few impractical things to get my foot in the door….which i did…and im fine now.”
“I used to work with homeless people. For women, you can do up little hygiene packs with pads, tampons, feminine wipes and a little roll-on deodorant. Pads are expensive as fuck and pretty much all women need them.
For a more generic approach, little care packs are doable too. A bottle of water, a snack, a pair of clean socks, bars of soap, a toothbrush and a little toothpaste will go a long way. Grocery gift cards are better than money too. A handwritten note slipped inside the pack too can give it that personal touch.”
“Not homeless, but a great idea I thought worth sharing: A young kid and his parent in my area recently started a charity drive that’s become quite popular. Donors and volunteers wrap warm winter coats around trees with “Take me, I’m free!” signs. It gets quite cold here and it’s a way to get coats to homeless people on their own terms. It’s been pretty successful from what I’ve heard.”
“Homeless guy approached my uncle 15 years back asking for food outside a hotel. Uncle offered to pay his bill.
He said “Can I pack it and take it home, my wife and kids are hungry too?”
Uncle asked the cashier to pack 4 plates of Biryani (costly food with meat), the homeless guy said, “buy me rice and curry for the same amount we’ll get more food for the same price”
He was genuinely homeless.
And also, the amount of money my uncle spent for buying him food was like almost half the price, he and his friends had spent there before the homeless guy came.
We eat junk food and drink coffees throughout the day without giving it a thought. When in the same amount of money these homeless guys can spend almost a week with food.
“I’ve never been homeless nor personally known anyone who was homeless. But one time I passed blankets around downtown Chicago and the most common requests were gloves and hand warmers, ESPECIALLY hand warmers. They may be temporary, but they really help out during the cold nights.”
“Being talked to like a normal person is really, really awesome.
Money is good. But it only goes so far. And some people are scammers or after drugs. And even if not money just buys you some food and supplies you need.
What you really need is an address. And clean clothes. And a way to put together a resume and clean clothes to wear to interviews. And work to do in the meantime.
If there are good services in your area helping someone to them can help them. Resistance doesn’t mean they are one of the bad ones either. It could also mean they have been burned enough that they don’t really trust people anymore.
In the end I say support housing first policies and then point homeless people to where they can get involved in it. If you want to spend money then donate to organizations that help homeless people get in to a home and then help them get back in to the workforce. Or a meal. There are homeless that will take the meal. Food and things like tampons help when you’re still stuck in it.”
“For a female homeless person, I suggest tampons or pads, and feminine wipes. Having her period, living on the streets with no means to take care of herself or keep clean, is difficult and humiliating. It’s a basic human requirement, and those items are kind of expensive, but very much-needed.”
“I was homeless for about 2 years. The most helpful is food. Next is clean clothing of any kind. When you’re homeless you don’t get to wash clothes or have clean ones to put on. Shoes! I’d walk the soles clean off in several months.”
“A genuine smile and food. If you have the time take them to a McDonald’s and talk to them. It was about 6 years ago someone did that for me and it helped me out so much more than I can express.”
“Probably a small hygiene pack, water and a snack.”
“Not homeless but as someone who has made kits the last 4 years to hand out (I keep a stack of totes in my car at all times) I give these things:
Each package has:
BPA free reusable water bottle
Peanut butter crackers
Cheese crackers
Lemon cookies
Dried fruit (Bananas, blueberries, cranberries)
GumAlmonds and Cashews
Wet wipesSport Deodorant
CombSPF 30 sport sunscreen
RazorToothbrush & holder
Toothpaste
Pack of tissuesSewing kit
First Aid kitLip balm
Tylenol
LED light w/batteries (120 hour tealight)
Ink pen
Stamped envelope
Blank cardPersonal note from my family
Winter gets socks, hand warmers, gloves, hats, and those little silver space blankets
I never know everyone’s circumstances so I try to cover the basics and figure they can hopefully trade if they don’t need something.”
“a pass to a $10 gym so they have access to a hot shower everyday, socks, a bottle of ibuprofen…”
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Socks. SOCKS SOCKS SOCKS. I didn’t care if they were too big, at least they were on and protecting my feet. Women, give hygiene products. Those never get donated unless it’s small bursts during awareness things.
If you want to take it a step further, make little packs with underwear/boxers (again, best to be too big than too small), socks, toothbrushes and paste (my teeth are permanently damaged and I’m looking at implants/dentures at 24), small snacks, a reusable water bottle, and little Mio water squirts, just because sometimes I liked being able to slap a few drops in my water and “treat myself”.
If you live in a bus-laden city, bus passes are good, too! Bus passes were always a pain! If a shelter had them, they metered them and only gave you one use only tickets.. once got stranded on the edge of town that way.”
The post Homeless People Share What They Mean By “Anything Helps” appeared first on UberFacts.
We all know how satisfying and powerful a good mom hug can be, and this Austin church made it their mission to give one out to anyone who needed one at a recent Pride Parade.
Jen Hatmaker, a mom and blogger who helped give out hugs, shared the heartfelt images from the parade on her Instagram account. She explained how the church showed up ready to offer everything from “Free Mom Hugs, Free Dad Hugs, Free Grana Hugs, and Free Pastor Hugs like it was our paying job.”
Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker
Jen and other members of the Austin New Church were inspired by the Free Mom Hugs movement created by Sara Cunningham. Church members showed up ready to spread the love with their warm embrace. “And when I say hugs,” Jen explained, “I mean THE KIND A MAMA GIVES HER BELOVED KID.”
Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker
“Our arms were never empty,” she wrote. “We ‘happy hugged’ a ton of folks, but dozens of times, I’d spot someone in the parade look our way, squint at our shirts and posters, and RACE into our arms.” Apparently, there were a lot of folks in attendance who really, REALLY needed a good mom hug.
Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker
Among the comments that she and other members received were things like, “‘I miss this,’ ‘My mom doesn’t love me anymore,’ and ‘Please just one more hug.’”
If that doesn’t give you the warm fuzzies inside (while also breaking your heart a little), I don’t know what will. As someone who hasn’t been able to go back home and give my mom a good hug in a few years, I can definitely relate to how strong the craving for a good mom hug – the kind that gives off pure, unconditional love – can be.
Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker
Strained relationships with unaccepting parents are sadly all too common within the LGBTQ community. Jen and her fellow church members made sure to let every single person they hugged know that they were “impossibly loved and needed and precious.” It’s the kind of simple, free act of kindness that can make all the difference in someone’s day.
Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker
“We hugged until our arms fell off. This is what we are doing here, what we are here for,” she wrote. “The last pic is what you look like at the end of Pride covered in glitter, sweat, and more than a few tears.”
The post This Texas Church Offered “Free Mom Hugs” at Pride Parade for Anyone Who Needed One appeared first on UberFacts.
If you’ve been paying any attention to the news lately, you know that red tide has been particularly bad this year. The problem has been increasing in severity over the past several years, but this year it has led to the death of 267 tons of marine life along the Gulf Coast, according to The Guardian.
Photo Credit: melvil, CC BY-SA 4.0
But what is it that turns the ocean the color of blood and decimates marine populations in its path?
The simple answer is that it’s a particular kind of algae that multiplies and thrives in such large quantities it becomes visible to the naked eye. It’s color is because of the depth at which the algae lives and the fact that green and blue frequencies are absorbed while red is reflected.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia
Karenia brevis, which is the type of algae in red tide found on the Gulf Coast, produces toxic chemicals that cause symptoms in humans ranging from sneezing and eye irritation all the way to vomiting and difficulty breathing. For fish, shellfish, turtles, and other wildlife, coming into contact with too much of the toxin often results in death.
The worst red tide on record happened in 1946 and resulted in the deaths of more than 50 million fish, along with hundreds of dolphins and sea turtles. In bad years, tourism is also impacted, since people generally enjoy their strolls on the beach sans mass corpses, and the local fishing industries can also take a big hit – to the tune of an estimated $1 billion.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Scientists are still working to determine what’s caused the latest bloom of red algae to explode and linger along the Gulf Coat, with leading culprits thought to be heavy rainfall, rising ocean temperatures and fertilizer runoff, all combined with wind patterns that are helping it stay put.
Florida is also dealing with a rise in a different type of blue-green algae that smells like raw sewage and has at times been bad enough to warrant the governor declaring a state of emergency. For this type of algae, scientists again blame warmer waters and fertilizer runoff from local farming communities.
So, while the red tide is “just” algae, it is still deadly – not only for the marine life directly affected, but for the people who live and work in the tourism and fishing industries that support many families on the coast.
And yes, there may be something we can do about it in the future…if we’re not too late to reverse the conditions that allow it to thrive in the first place.
h/t: Mental_Floss
The post What Causes Red Tide – And How Do We Stop It? appeared first on UberFacts.
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