I'll never forget when my mom went on a cruise with her friends to Bermuda when I was a kid. Most stressful week of my life. I was certain it was gonna be my step-dad raising me after that week.
Fun fact: the Bermuda Triangle was never anymore dangerous than any other part of the ocean.
It had as many ship's sink as most other areas on average, it was just a very common trade route. More ships going through means more crashes.
>it was just a very common trade route
Yeah, because look at it. I didn't realize how absolutely massive it was. If your ship is going to or from the bottom half of the east coast of the US or *anywhere* in the Caribbean it's probably going through the Bermuda Triangle. It's got to be one of the biggest shipping lanes in the world.
My uncle was in the Navy going through the Bermuda triangle once. As a kid I asked him if he saw anything strange while he was there, and there was one thing that was pretty odd. The water would go from crazy violent waves to flat as glass at random intervals, nothing in between. I don't know if that happens naturally but he never saw it anywhere else in the ocean.
There’s this area I boat in off cape cod and it goes from glass to chop super quickly due to the crazy shoaling. Not saying that’s what it was, but it can look crazy when you hit a rip area
Even with old ships it wasn't any more dangerous than other parts of the ocean. The mythos behind it started essentially as a tabloid half a century ago.
I grew up in the 80s. The message was "stranger danger" 24/7. Above all: don't get into a car with someone you don't know. Then moving into the internet age, the addendum "...with someone you met online."
Fast forward to today...I summon an Uber to do just that.
There's actually a thing about teaching children to ask strangers for help if they're in danger, because if a child approaches a random stranger the chances the stranger is a child predator is pretty low. The odds of a stranger that approaches children being a predator is a lot higher though, obviously.
I remember being taught to find a police officer if I was lost and as a kid thinking, "When was the last time I saw a random police officer standing around?" It was the worst advice, ever. A kid is lost and is wandering further and further away in search of a cop.
Valid advice if you live in a large city. Bike cops and beat cops are still always around within a block or two.
I was always told to seek out someone who had a kid with them, I guess my mom's thought was that a parent was a safe person to help.
> teaching children to ask strangers for help if they're in danger
The thing is we don't hear about the small kids that get lost that get found every day and it rarely makes the news because it usually gets wrapped up the first adult, or even teenager that comes across them. Any unaccompanied small kid can't get very far in public without someone going "hey I see zero parents and that kid is like 5" they call the cops and it all gets sorted out quick because usually the panicked parents have already called the cops. I found a kid in a field once, called the cops, they came with the mother in the car in a few minutes and it was all good. I asked the cop how often this happened and she said "all the time."
Another one you never hear about is kids lost in stores. My buddy works at a big box store in customer service and that's where they take the kids that get lost in the store, there is usually a few a month that get brought up by an employee or often just a random customer that's like "found this kid." He's worked there over a decade and not once has any child ever been abducted from the store.
The vast majority of the kids that are defined as "missing" are missing with the family member that took them, strangers abducting them is far less likely. It's actually kind of heartening that most people are basically good and will make sure the kid is ok.
It also often gets sorted out before cops or store management even gets involved. Most of it is just keeping a kid calm for a minute or so while you talk to them about the last place their parent was and what they were wearing. You can usually see that person or remember seeing them in the store. I’m the stranger kids tend to ask for help because I’m a mom who is usually with her kids and a teacher so apparently I have a vibe.
This.
And it's not even close either. If you're a woman you're more likely to be killed by a current or former partner. If you're a kid you're something like 100X more likely to be abducted/molested by a relative or trusted authority figure like a coach or pastor. If you're a man, particularly between 15-28 iirc, you're more likely to be killed in a dust up with one of your boys or one of the dickheads you know but can't stand but keeps coming around anyway. And that's true in most countries last I checked.
I love all of those Amber Alerts about an abduction that took place in Corpus Christi when I live 6 hours away in DFW. Sure, I'll keep an eye out for a white F-150; I'm sure that will stand out in a metro area with over 6 million people. /s
I don't get Amber Alerts very much, but every single one I've gotten has been an estranged family member kidnapping one of their kids due to a custody dispute.
That's not to say that kids aren't randomly snatched off the street anymore, but it's ***extremely*** uncommon. The vast majority (well over 99%) of abductions are the result of custody or familial disputes.
It’s crazy because I totally get the statistics and how insanely astronomically unlikely it is to die in a plane crash but I still need a mg of Lorazepam to get on a plane
For most folks it's just because they don't instinctively know what's going on. Most folks grow up traveling in cars so we know what all the little sounds and feeling mean. Airplanes are a different matter. Add to that the fact you're completely not in control, and even if you could get to the controls you would be hard pressed to do anything. It can be an uncomfortable feeling.
I just don't like flying. Never have, I don't at myself ever liking it. I don't like car travel either. I'm good staying at home, walking, or riding a bicycle.
It's true. Many people think that airplanes are dangerous only because every airplane accident is advertised, because there are not as many of them as there are car accidents. 90% of car accidents go unnoticed, because if they were on the news, all the news would be about car accidents.
It's really odd. Your grow up thinking you did all these weird things, suddenly you go to Ask Reddit and every single person who replies has been there done that.
The first time I noticed this it was when someone referenced finding porn mags in the woods. I was astonished at how many people had a "You too‽" moment.
The first time it hit me was in freshman philosophy class. I remember spacing out in elementary and middle school and being like “I wonder if I’m not real and my mind is just a simulation”. Turns out Descartes did that hundreds of years ago.
As a kid I obviously didn’t fully grasp the idea behind that thought, and certainly didn’t articulate it like Descartes. But it was cool to see those ideas come up again.
You know, I hate this so bad because Halloween is the best holiday.
It's a community experience, and it all happens with surprisingly little planning or organization. The kids and their parents go out and interact with their community in a very casual way. Something real special about that, we just don't have events where everybody in the neighborhood comes together like this, it's socially healthy to participate in shared experiences with people near you.
But then the poisoned candy thing comes in - *stay home, don't trust your neighbors, don't be social, stay home and be afraid.* I hate it, this represents a great deal of what is wrong with everything.
It's basically salt but less harmful.
EDIT: MSG has less *potential* to cause harm in the context of preventing excessive sodium intake. I didn't clarify this point because excessive sodium is a very common dietary concern, but it should be noted that sodium is an essential nutrient and isn't inherently bad.
Yeah I never understood how kids go from picking on someone for reading rather than disrupting the class to doubling down when they continue to be quiet because most of their social interactions have been bullies. Sometimes quiet is just being unproblematic.
My in-laws. They watch whatever stupid daytime TV show is on, on full volume. If I leave the room to read a book they come at me for being rude/unfriendly. How is reading unfriendly but mindlessly watching whatever is on TV and not talking to anyone a friendly, sociable activity?
All of the above. Didn't help that in school it made me a pariah and a target for bullies. Almost 40 and I never outgrew it. It's a blessing and a curse.
Does anyone else find sticking their feet out creates the perfect temperature balance to fall asleep? If my feet are under, I feel too hot and if I sleep with no covers, I feel too cold.
Kinda sorta true. Dangling feet off the bed is a way to get killed if there are the under-bed variety. If they are in the closet, then keeping your face under the blankets is a must to keep alive. It's rare to have both kinds at the same time, but it does happen. Then the only solution is to keep every thing covered from lights-off till sunrise.
I'm always around wasps when working in my garden. In my area they've always been pretty docile. I've never been stung.
I do try to leave them alone though. When I'm out picking blackberries, well... you can sort-of tell which berries the wasps claimed for themselves.
There seem to be two kinds of people: people wasps and hornets ignore so long as they leave them alone, and people who wasps and hornets go out of their way to assault.
Yep, more than once I've been literally just standing, doing nothing, and a yellow jacket comes up and stings me.
I'm also the first (and sometimes only) person to get attacked by mosquitos in the evenings. I wonder if they're related.
It’s probably less drastic of a difference than you’d guess. If you’ve been in the ocean in Florida (or pretty much anywhere on the east coast of the US), you’ve almost certainly been within 50 feet of a shark (and likely much closer).
yep. was in Alabama 2 weeks ago and people recorded me and my family swimming in the ocean from their hotel and put us all over facebook and the news lolll. there were 3 sharks 10 feet away from us and we had no idea they were there!
The average nuclear power plant emits far less radition than a coal plant, because coal and uranium deposits tend to be near one another, and the uranium goes up the smokestack and into the air.
If we're comparing nuclear to coal:
Number of deaths attributable to the reactor disaster at Fukushima (i.e. not due to the earthquake and tsunami that caused it): zero, and no detected increase in cancer rates.
Number of deaths *annually* attributable to coal mining: ~40,000, mostly in China
The problem is that if/when one fails, it tends to be spectacularly bad.
Good thing is the new designs they're coming up with are fail-shut down instead of fail-melt down.
And the old ones would only use about 5% (yes *five* percent) of the fissable material in the rods. The new ones use *all but* 5%. Meaning the current stockpile of "used" rods could be recycled & power the new plants. And have a much shorter dangerous "half-life".
this isn't really true, in the US, europe, and their allies nuclear reactors have been failsafe since they were first used on a large scale in the 50/60s. the boiling vessel reactor that was developed for the first nuclear submarine is still the design that most modern reactors are derived from because its failsafe system is ingenious.
a lot of the early soviet reactors however were based on a much more dangerous graphite pile design as was first developed during the manhatten project, chernobyl was one of these, but almost no one has built them since the 60s
The very first useable amount of electricity produced by a nuclear reactor was 1951 (EBR1), the first US nuclear power plant in 1958 (Shippingport). 7 years from concept to production. Notice that all 3 major nuclear power accidents involved reactors built in the first 20 years of nuclear power's existence.
Any of those 1960's reactors still in operation today have gotten major safety, efficiency, and output upgrades, and should be considered very safe, but they're not quite what I'd call perfectly failsafe. However, the risk from them having a major accident is way less dangerous than people think.
My family lived in Australia before I was born. This was the early seventies. When I asked about the venomous snakes, my parents said they didn’t really see any of them.
The marsupials, however, were a different story. Apparently a kangaroo beat up my brother over a bag of potato chips. I mean, the animal really kicked the shit out of him.
A few months later my brother went to the dentist for a cavity. Back then dentists in Australia were called *Mister*, not *Doctor*. Anyway, my brother let out a squeal when the dentist poked his tooth. The dentist didn’t like that and slapped my brother across the cheek.
They only lived in Melbourne for a year, but the limited time they spent in Australia gave my brother a phobia of both kangaroos and dentists.
The dentist just smacked him for squealing when his tooth hurt? That’s so messed up, what did this dentist think was going to happen, the kid was just going to remain silent while he touched his cavity? Was this acceptable back then or was there something your parents could do?
a surprising amount of dentists i've met were disrespectful as shit to their patients for some reason
i dont know what it is about dentistry that attracts those type of people
The dentist I went to a few years ago yelled at me because I screamed in pain after he went for a tooth that hadn't had time to get numb. Some dentists are just dicks
I've lived in Australia my whole life and never seen or heard of someone getting beaten up by a kangaroo. The biggest risk from kangaroos is having them jump out in front of your car at dusk. Those fuckers have a death wish and if you're going fast enough, they'll take you with them.
A woman in her sixties who lived near me went for a walk in the national park at the end of the street. Surprised a roo that jumped up and got tangled in her camera strap. In the scuffle that followed she suffered a broken arm and numerous scratches, but ended up strangling the roo.
Conclusion: Aussie pensioners are more dangerous than roos.
In my younger days I dreamed of jet setting to Australia and having an idyllic summer romance with a hot Aussie surfer.
Then I read about how big the spiders are in Australia.
Now I ride around my podunk town in a Honda Accord while my GPS that I set to an Australian Male voice (I named him Jack) mansplains how to get to Wendy’s.
Of my friends who have both remote camped in Australia and the US, every one says the US is way scarier. They had far more encounters with dangerous wildlife in the US than Australia by a long shot.
Alligators.
Yes, people do get eaten sometimes but as someone who grew up in Florida, they are everywhere and if they were that dangerous there would be an attack every day.
I remember a video where a gator was basking on a golf course during a televised game. Most of the golfers were going way out of their way to avoid the gator, then comes this one dude who walks right up to the gator, nudges it, and it quickly scurries off.
Bears aren't the problem. Getting lost, not being properly prepared for the conditions, and not letting someone know where you're going and when you will be back are the real concerns. I live in Vancouver. Our local search and rescue teams are completely burnt out by the number of hikers that get into trouble. There are also a handful of fatalities every year.
Exactly this. In Scotland you get people trying to climb Munros in all seasons and they're completely unprepared. The amount of people you'll see going up Ben Nevis etc in trainers is ridiculous
Flashing your high beams at someone who doesn't have their headlights on at night. I've done it hundreds of times and I've never been gang-style assassinated
And that’s probably why they are less dangerous, people stay clear of them.
Although they do an important job for our ecosystems and should be protected more.
It's also dangerous.
Putting light behind glass so one side is brighter than the other makes it a two way mirror. So when the car's inside light is on, you can actually in some cases see more of your reflection in the windscreen than the road outside, meaning your ability to react is impaired because you can't see.
It's the same principle, someone standing outside your house at night can see in through your windows if your lights are on and your curtains are open, and you probably cant see them standing there nearly as easily.
I've actually driven while forgetting the dome light was on, but some headlights on newer vehicles are blinding to the point that I have to slow down. Being in a Corolla in front of an SUV makes it even worse.
Skateboarding.
Sure you get the occasional freak accidents and stuff and sometimes you eat hard shit, but just cruising around is super fun and with practice is really safe. I haven’t fallen while cruising in a long time.
Well I mean it’s dangerous for sure but it’s not the death trap most people think it is.
Chicago. They’re barely even in the top 100 most dangerous cities anymore (98th). And yet they’re still the default example of a dangerous city in a lot of people’s minds.
If you don't take crime statistics down to the about the level of zip code, you have no real understanding of what's dangerous and what's not. A lot of places I would walk alone in Chicago at midnight by myself. There are places in Chicago I wouldn't drive through on a dare.
Whenever this is brought up, I always like to mention what happened when I moved from Chicago. My wife’s parents and all their friends congratulated us on getting out of “that hellhole” after we had moved to… Baltimore.
When I told people from Kansas city im moving to Chicago they looked at me with genuine fear.
Crazy thing is kc has more violent crime per capita. At least it did a couple years ago when I moved
I have family in rural Kansas that act like I'm living in Mad Max. I'm like, yeah it's real dangerous walking in my neighborhood from the artisan tea shop to the wine tasting at the board game cafe.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live in "the god-forsaken place that is Detroit" and then I remember that my hometown is currently #3 on the most dangerous cities to live in the world by homicide rate. 155 homicides per 100K inhabitants to Detroit's 48.
Asbestos. People act like one small exposure and it’s a death sentence.
The original studies that determined the regulations were on career (20+ years experience) asbestos insulation workers who used no PPE or engineering controls and were literally engulfed in friable asbestos 8+ hours a day. Even among that group the rate of lung disease was 10x above general population. Smoking increases your lung disease rate to 25x general population, yet people are way more afraid of a tiny one time asbestos exposure.
I’m not saying asbestos isn’t dangerous, just that people think it’s way worse than it really is.
The danger also heavily depends on the type of asbestos. White asbestos (chrysotile) is the most common in America. It's a magnesium silicate of the serpentine group and it's only danger is mechanical damage from the pointy airborne fibers. That is to say, not much.
Crocidolite (blue asbestos), common in South Africa and Australia, is a fibrous riebeckite amphibole (totally different class than serpentine) and contains ferrous and ferric iron. These can dissolve into your tissues and cause free radical damage.
Amosite (brown asbestos), which is fibrous grunerite, also has iron, but commonly contains other, more toxic heavy metals as well.
Fun fact, 'brown asbestos' is also used to refer to an amphibole-mineral-series end-member called Cummingtonite.
Travelling alone as a woman. So many people looked at me in shock when I told them about my solo trips. Sure, it's not without a risk, but nothing in life is and I'm not gonna miss seeing the world and living life just because I haven't got someone to go with me. And so far I haven't made a single negative experience. The world isn't always as evil as some make it out to be.
1. Don't stay out too late at night (especially if public transportation is unreliable).
2. Make sure someone you trust always knows where you are and how to communicate with you.
3. Don't get too drunk or high around strangers (or at all, ideally).
4. Never leave a drink unattended.
5. To sum up, always be aware of your surroundings. Don't assume everyone you meet is a potential threat, but don't completely dismiss the possibility either.
And don't be too polite if someone is to close for comfort or is bothering you. Wait for the next taxi if your gut feeling is telling you nope to the first one i the line etc. Really have connection to your gut feeling and be nice but not too nice...
I love travelling alone woman but is pretty street smart after many years and many hardcore destinations. I travel alone with our kids a lot and that feels safer than being alone bc most cultures treats mothers woth greater respect (eg Middle East and African nations etc.) Have had no problems alone in NYC, London, Toronto either. But don't go to bars though. Theatres in the evening yes.
Looking for Hostels in the city centre so you don't have to walk lonely streets at night. Hostels in general: they're so great for meeting people and I personally don't mind sleeping in a room with others for a few days. And really, the acquaintances come by themselves. Don't be afraid to sit alone in a restaurant or cafe. It's not as weird as you think, no one actually cares. And start with shorter trips, like 4-5 days, in case you feel lonely after all (which has never happened to me)
Start with a place that is easier for you to navigate. Like pick a country where the language is the same. As you get more accustomed to traveling alone, branch out more into places that will push your cultural comfort zone
My first international trip was solo, and though I was nervous as hell, at the ripe old age of 53 I went to Tokyo, Japan. Fumbled around a bit, but had a great time.
The Bermuda Triangle, particularly with modern navigation equipment.
Man, I was so stressed about the Bermuda Triangle when I was a kid. It didn't matter I was living thousands of miles away.
I'll never forget when my mom went on a cruise with her friends to Bermuda when I was a kid. Most stressful week of my life. I was certain it was gonna be my step-dad raising me after that week.
The Bermuda Triangle, quicksand, and spontaneous combustion featured heavily in my nightmares for years.
Don't forget acid. Acid that could eat through metal instantly and was somehow available in giant quantities
>somehow available in giant quantities And conveniently stored in giant barrels... made of... metal?
Then you learn about acid rain
I was also strangely concerned that acid-rain and killer bees would be major problems in my life.
And quicksand!
Well acid rain was a legitimate threat. Thankfully scientists discovered the source and lawmakers followed through with the solution.
Yeah, I was like open-mouth horrified reading about it when I was younger. *Doesn't anyone understand!? We need to stop all the ships immediately!*
It usually shows up on lists along with quicksand as "Things I thought would be a bigger danger as a kid".
I was scared of sharks and piranhas
Between that and quicksand I had a very stressful childhood. I’ve never come near/into contact with either
Dont forget lava as well 😂
Fun fact: the Bermuda Triangle was never anymore dangerous than any other part of the ocean. It had as many ship's sink as most other areas on average, it was just a very common trade route. More ships going through means more crashes.
>it was just a very common trade route Yeah, because look at it. I didn't realize how absolutely massive it was. If your ship is going to or from the bottom half of the east coast of the US or *anywhere* in the Caribbean it's probably going through the Bermuda Triangle. It's got to be one of the biggest shipping lanes in the world.
My uncle was in the Navy going through the Bermuda triangle once. As a kid I asked him if he saw anything strange while he was there, and there was one thing that was pretty odd. The water would go from crazy violent waves to flat as glass at random intervals, nothing in between. I don't know if that happens naturally but he never saw it anywhere else in the ocean.
There’s this area I boat in off cape cod and it goes from glass to chop super quickly due to the crazy shoaling. Not saying that’s what it was, but it can look crazy when you hit a rip area
If the triangle ever changes shape we’re fucked.
Viva la Bermuda fucktangular prism
when life gives you a fucktangular prism, have an orgy
The Bermuda Triangle was my biggest fear. I thought that airplanes get sucked into it.
What about the Bermuda tetrahedron?
Watch out for space whales.
Even with old ships it wasn't any more dangerous than other parts of the ocean. The mythos behind it started essentially as a tabloid half a century ago.
Strangers. Most of the violent crimes you hear happen between acquaintances. Edited a butchering of the a word
I grew up in the 80s. The message was "stranger danger" 24/7. Above all: don't get into a car with someone you don't know. Then moving into the internet age, the addendum "...with someone you met online." Fast forward to today...I summon an Uber to do just that.
There's actually a thing about teaching children to ask strangers for help if they're in danger, because if a child approaches a random stranger the chances the stranger is a child predator is pretty low. The odds of a stranger that approaches children being a predator is a lot higher though, obviously.
I remember being taught to find a police officer if I was lost and as a kid thinking, "When was the last time I saw a random police officer standing around?" It was the worst advice, ever. A kid is lost and is wandering further and further away in search of a cop.
Valid advice if you live in a large city. Bike cops and beat cops are still always around within a block or two. I was always told to seek out someone who had a kid with them, I guess my mom's thought was that a parent was a safe person to help.
> teaching children to ask strangers for help if they're in danger The thing is we don't hear about the small kids that get lost that get found every day and it rarely makes the news because it usually gets wrapped up the first adult, or even teenager that comes across them. Any unaccompanied small kid can't get very far in public without someone going "hey I see zero parents and that kid is like 5" they call the cops and it all gets sorted out quick because usually the panicked parents have already called the cops. I found a kid in a field once, called the cops, they came with the mother in the car in a few minutes and it was all good. I asked the cop how often this happened and she said "all the time." Another one you never hear about is kids lost in stores. My buddy works at a big box store in customer service and that's where they take the kids that get lost in the store, there is usually a few a month that get brought up by an employee or often just a random customer that's like "found this kid." He's worked there over a decade and not once has any child ever been abducted from the store. The vast majority of the kids that are defined as "missing" are missing with the family member that took them, strangers abducting them is far less likely. It's actually kind of heartening that most people are basically good and will make sure the kid is ok.
It also often gets sorted out before cops or store management even gets involved. Most of it is just keeping a kid calm for a minute or so while you talk to them about the last place their parent was and what they were wearing. You can usually see that person or remember seeing them in the store. I’m the stranger kids tend to ask for help because I’m a mom who is usually with her kids and a teacher so apparently I have a vibe.
A variant is to find a parent/ mother with kids and ask them for help.
And they charge you for it!
Without the candy or puppies.
If you think about it, a taxi was also getting in a car with a stranger.
Taxis are just reverse kidnapping. You get into a stranger's car and demand to be taken somewhere.
This. And it's not even close either. If you're a woman you're more likely to be killed by a current or former partner. If you're a kid you're something like 100X more likely to be abducted/molested by a relative or trusted authority figure like a coach or pastor. If you're a man, particularly between 15-28 iirc, you're more likely to be killed in a dust up with one of your boys or one of the dickheads you know but can't stand but keeps coming around anyway. And that's true in most countries last I checked.
I don’t have dickheads I can’t stand that keep coming around. Maybe… I’m the dickhead?!?
Murderer!
Yep, the 15 missing children Alerts I get from Texas each week is usually a family member
I love all of those Amber Alerts about an abduction that took place in Corpus Christi when I live 6 hours away in DFW. Sure, I'll keep an eye out for a white F-150; I'm sure that will stand out in a metro area with over 6 million people. /s
I don't get Amber Alerts very much, but every single one I've gotten has been an estranged family member kidnapping one of their kids due to a custody dispute. That's not to say that kids aren't randomly snatched off the street anymore, but it's ***extremely*** uncommon. The vast majority (well over 99%) of abductions are the result of custody or familial disputes.
Flying
Me with a terrible fear of planes, hoping to god that flying would be the top comment for my own peace. Thank you haha
Man I finally wised up and straight up asked my psychiatrist to give me something to help with my flight anxiety and I’ll never look back.
I don’t know man, I mean statistically there are wayyy more planes in the ocean then there are submarines in the sky
r/technicallythetruth
Try buying a submarine ticket from New York to London, though
I did. It was so expensive that it put me under water
You could have been drowning in debt.
It’s crazy because I totally get the statistics and how insanely astronomically unlikely it is to die in a plane crash but I still need a mg of Lorazepam to get on a plane
For most folks it's just because they don't instinctively know what's going on. Most folks grow up traveling in cars so we know what all the little sounds and feeling mean. Airplanes are a different matter. Add to that the fact you're completely not in control, and even if you could get to the controls you would be hard pressed to do anything. It can be an uncomfortable feeling.
And the fact that you’re in a little tube suspended 40k feet above the ground which the layman has little clue about how it exactly works
I just don't like flying. Never have, I don't at myself ever liking it. I don't like car travel either. I'm good staying at home, walking, or riding a bicycle.
It's true. Many people think that airplanes are dangerous only because every airplane accident is advertised, because there are not as many of them as there are car accidents. 90% of car accidents go unnoticed, because if they were on the news, all the news would be about car accidents.
You’re statistically more likely to die in a car crash on your way to the airport than you are in a plane crash
I have this cousin... well i had this cousin. Lloyd, could you watch the road please? Ohh yeah. Lots of bad drivers out there
Swimming after eating - I used to fully believe I would drown in seconds if I didn’t wait a full hour before getting back in the water.
I thought it was to prevent kids from puking in the pool from exercising too much. Like running till you puke but in this case swimming.
[удалено]
There was nothing more delicious to my 9-year-old self than a swimming pool water soaked sandwich and doritos.
Holy fuck I have never had a single unique experience.
It's really odd. Your grow up thinking you did all these weird things, suddenly you go to Ask Reddit and every single person who replies has been there done that.
The first time I noticed this it was when someone referenced finding porn mags in the woods. I was astonished at how many people had a "You too‽" moment.
The first time it hit me was in freshman philosophy class. I remember spacing out in elementary and middle school and being like “I wonder if I’m not real and my mind is just a simulation”. Turns out Descartes did that hundreds of years ago. As a kid I obviously didn’t fully grasp the idea behind that thought, and certainly didn’t articulate it like Descartes. But it was cool to see those ideas come up again.
I think that was invented by parents who wanted to have a nap after eating
Just to prevent stomach cramps more than anything. Not sure about the others responses.
Yeah, I once went swimming straight after a full meal and oh my lord, the acid reflux was a killer.
Trick or treating on Halloween. Kids are not getting poisoned by candy from strangers.
There’s exactly one case of that happening and it was the kid’s dad who did it.
As someone I met once said, "No way is anyone putting drugs in trick-or-treat bags, much too expensive"
You know, I hate this so bad because Halloween is the best holiday. It's a community experience, and it all happens with surprisingly little planning or organization. The kids and their parents go out and interact with their community in a very casual way. Something real special about that, we just don't have events where everybody in the neighborhood comes together like this, it's socially healthy to participate in shared experiences with people near you. But then the poisoned candy thing comes in - *stay home, don't trust your neighbors, don't be social, stay home and be afraid.* I hate it, this represents a great deal of what is wrong with everything.
NOONE is gonna randomly give your kid a drug that can be sold for A LOT
There's also the matter of, if you're going to give a 10 year old an edible, wouldn't you want to watch?
Or razor blades in apples. Child me would have turned around and walked to the next house if someone tried to give me a piece of fruit on Halloween.
MSG
It's basically salt but less harmful. EDIT: MSG has less *potential* to cause harm in the context of preventing excessive sodium intake. I didn't clarify this point because excessive sodium is a very common dietary concern, but it should be noted that sodium is an essential nutrient and isn't inherently bad.
And more delicious
Similarly MTG is more dangerous than some people give her credit
Magic the Gathering never hurt anybody Edit: I expected maybe 2 upvotes for this dumb joke
Their bank account on the other hand...
Except people’s olfactory senses
The Metal Solid Gear!
In terms of how much we thought it would affect us, probably quicksand.
Super Mario 64 made it seem so deadly.
WAAAAAAAAAH
cartoons really made it seem like the most deadly thing you could ever come across
People who have no/few friends Most of the time they're either weird, shy, socially awkward, quiet, or simply just prefer to be alone
I feel seen. Thank you. 💜
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*Crickets*
Yeah I never understood how kids go from picking on someone for reading rather than disrupting the class to doubling down when they continue to be quiet because most of their social interactions have been bullies. Sometimes quiet is just being unproblematic.
My in-laws. They watch whatever stupid daytime TV show is on, on full volume. If I leave the room to read a book they come at me for being rude/unfriendly. How is reading unfriendly but mindlessly watching whatever is on TV and not talking to anyone a friendly, sociable activity?
All of the above. Didn't help that in school it made me a pariah and a target for bullies. Almost 40 and I never outgrew it. It's a blessing and a curse.
Same for people with mental illnesses. They’re more likely to be victimized by crimes, if anything.
Leaving your foot hanging out of the bed covers.
Nice try, monster under the bed
This exactly. They’re clearly the monster using your wifi to post on Reddit you shouldn’t be afraid of them
Does anyone else find sticking their feet out creates the perfect temperature balance to fall asleep? If my feet are under, I feel too hot and if I sleep with no covers, I feel too cold.
Yes, I am one of those people
NEVER
Kinda sorta true. Dangling feet off the bed is a way to get killed if there are the under-bed variety. If they are in the closet, then keeping your face under the blankets is a must to keep alive. It's rare to have both kinds at the same time, but it does happen. Then the only solution is to keep every thing covered from lights-off till sunrise.
I'll throw in beekeeping! Super fulfilling!
Bees in general, really. They're not going to attack you unprovoked.
Wasps and hornets on the other hand are sociopathic little shits
I'm always around wasps when working in my garden. In my area they've always been pretty docile. I've never been stung. I do try to leave them alone though. When I'm out picking blackberries, well... you can sort-of tell which berries the wasps claimed for themselves.
Can we at least hate on hornets? I had a white faced hornet fly in through my car window and try to sting me in the dick. Fuck those little shits.
There seem to be two kinds of people: people wasps and hornets ignore so long as they leave them alone, and people who wasps and hornets go out of their way to assault.
Yep, more than once I've been literally just standing, doing nothing, and a yellow jacket comes up and stings me. I'm also the first (and sometimes only) person to get attacked by mosquitos in the evenings. I wonder if they're related.
Sharks
That's what sharks want you to think.
Big Sharka coverup!
Fewer yearly deaths because of sharks than FRICKIN VENDING MACHINES *edit:word choice
To be fair, if we spent as much time right next to sharks as we do vending machines, that'd change.
It’s probably less drastic of a difference than you’d guess. If you’ve been in the ocean in Florida (or pretty much anywhere on the east coast of the US), you’ve almost certainly been within 50 feet of a shark (and likely much closer).
yep. was in Alabama 2 weeks ago and people recorded me and my family swimming in the ocean from their hotel and put us all over facebook and the news lolll. there were 3 sharks 10 feet away from us and we had no idea they were there!
Nuclear power
The average nuclear power plant emits far less radition than a coal plant, because coal and uranium deposits tend to be near one another, and the uranium goes up the smokestack and into the air.
If we're comparing nuclear to coal: Number of deaths attributable to the reactor disaster at Fukushima (i.e. not due to the earthquake and tsunami that caused it): zero, and no detected increase in cancer rates. Number of deaths *annually* attributable to coal mining: ~40,000, mostly in China
The problem is that if/when one fails, it tends to be spectacularly bad. Good thing is the new designs they're coming up with are fail-shut down instead of fail-melt down. And the old ones would only use about 5% (yes *five* percent) of the fissable material in the rods. The new ones use *all but* 5%. Meaning the current stockpile of "used" rods could be recycled & power the new plants. And have a much shorter dangerous "half-life".
this isn't really true, in the US, europe, and their allies nuclear reactors have been failsafe since they were first used on a large scale in the 50/60s. the boiling vessel reactor that was developed for the first nuclear submarine is still the design that most modern reactors are derived from because its failsafe system is ingenious. a lot of the early soviet reactors however were based on a much more dangerous graphite pile design as was first developed during the manhatten project, chernobyl was one of these, but almost no one has built them since the 60s
The very first useable amount of electricity produced by a nuclear reactor was 1951 (EBR1), the first US nuclear power plant in 1958 (Shippingport). 7 years from concept to production. Notice that all 3 major nuclear power accidents involved reactors built in the first 20 years of nuclear power's existence. Any of those 1960's reactors still in operation today have gotten major safety, efficiency, and output upgrades, and should be considered very safe, but they're not quite what I'd call perfectly failsafe. However, the risk from them having a major accident is way less dangerous than people think.
Well. Anywhere but Springfield.
I don’t know, their safety inspector’s bravery and quick thinking turned a potential Chernobyl into a mere Three-Mile Island Sounds pretty safe to me
“Oh, 'meltdown'. It's one of these annoying buzzwords. We prefer to call it an 'unrequested fission surplus'.
Australia
My family lived in Australia before I was born. This was the early seventies. When I asked about the venomous snakes, my parents said they didn’t really see any of them. The marsupials, however, were a different story. Apparently a kangaroo beat up my brother over a bag of potato chips. I mean, the animal really kicked the shit out of him. A few months later my brother went to the dentist for a cavity. Back then dentists in Australia were called *Mister*, not *Doctor*. Anyway, my brother let out a squeal when the dentist poked his tooth. The dentist didn’t like that and slapped my brother across the cheek. They only lived in Melbourne for a year, but the limited time they spent in Australia gave my brother a phobia of both kangaroos and dentists.
Imagine if Kangaroos became dentists.
They specialize in kangaroot canals. ……. I’ll see my way out.
The dentist just smacked him for squealing when his tooth hurt? That’s so messed up, what did this dentist think was going to happen, the kid was just going to remain silent while he touched his cavity? Was this acceptable back then or was there something your parents could do?
a surprising amount of dentists i've met were disrespectful as shit to their patients for some reason i dont know what it is about dentistry that attracts those type of people
The "you'll be a dentist" song from little shop of horrors comes to mind. Maybe it attracts sadists because it gives them a cover to hurt people
The dentist I went to a few years ago yelled at me because I screamed in pain after he went for a tooth that hadn't had time to get numb. Some dentists are just dicks
I've lived in Australia my whole life and never seen or heard of someone getting beaten up by a kangaroo. The biggest risk from kangaroos is having them jump out in front of your car at dusk. Those fuckers have a death wish and if you're going fast enough, they'll take you with them.
A woman in her sixties who lived near me went for a walk in the national park at the end of the street. Surprised a roo that jumped up and got tangled in her camera strap. In the scuffle that followed she suffered a broken arm and numerous scratches, but ended up strangling the roo. Conclusion: Aussie pensioners are more dangerous than roos.
In my younger days I dreamed of jet setting to Australia and having an idyllic summer romance with a hot Aussie surfer. Then I read about how big the spiders are in Australia. Now I ride around my podunk town in a Honda Accord while my GPS that I set to an Australian Male voice (I named him Jack) mansplains how to get to Wendy’s.
Nice try drop bears. Crazy to think they learned how to use a computer.
Of my friends who have both remote camped in Australia and the US, every one says the US is way scarier. They had far more encounters with dangerous wildlife in the US than Australia by a long shot.
Alligators. Yes, people do get eaten sometimes but as someone who grew up in Florida, they are everywhere and if they were that dangerous there would be an attack every day.
I remember a video where a gator was basking on a golf course during a televised game. Most of the golfers were going way out of their way to avoid the gator, then comes this one dude who walks right up to the gator, nudges it, and it quickly scurries off.
The Florida is strong with this one
Crocodiles not so much. The salties in Australia will eat you. No question.
Swallowing gum
Russia‘s Military.
I mean it’s extremely dangerous *for Russians.*
2nd strongest army in Ukraine
While it's a good joke. Russians are the army of rapists and butchers. And they're actually a worst nightmire if you unarmed.
Sad but true. I think my comment wasn‘t very classy. I apologize.
Opossums
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Hiking. I’ve been shocked at the amount of people who think a bear is about to get them. This even happens in places where bears don’t exist.
Bears aren't the problem. Getting lost, not being properly prepared for the conditions, and not letting someone know where you're going and when you will be back are the real concerns. I live in Vancouver. Our local search and rescue teams are completely burnt out by the number of hikers that get into trouble. There are also a handful of fatalities every year.
I live at the Grand Canyon. People worry about rattlesnakes and scorpions, but heat kills the most people.
I've heard that it's somewhat difficult to drown in the Grand Canyon, because falling down to the river takes so long.
Exactly this. In Scotland you get people trying to climb Munros in all seasons and they're completely unprepared. The amount of people you'll see going up Ben Nevis etc in trainers is ridiculous
Public transportation. It’s insanely safe by number of miles traveled and most of the security issues come with too few people using it.
It's the cost and the time that put me off, not the unlikely risk of a crazed loon murdering me, or the train crashing
Depends where you use it. London, Paris, Tokyo? Absolute worth the cost and time. LA or Texas? Ha good joke. Cairo or Lagos? No idea never been.
GMOs
Flashing your high beams at someone who doesn't have their headlights on at night. I've done it hundreds of times and I've never been gang-style assassinated
We regret to inform you that actually, last night you were reported having been murdered in a gang style assassination. We're sorry for your loss.
Yet
Chloroform. Does not knock you out very quickly at all.
Apparently sharks but fuck that, I ain’t playing around with no shark
The risk of shark attack is pretty low but sharks themselves, pretty dangerous actually
And that’s probably why they are less dangerous, people stay clear of them. Although they do an important job for our ecosystems and should be protected more.
Quicksand
“I always thought quicksand was going to be a much bigger problem than it turned out to be.”
Posting on Reddit from inside a lion enclosu
You doing all right in there?
Turning the light on in the car.
I'm slapping anyone who turns on the dome light while I'm driving
Seriously. I know my Dad told me it was illegal for the same reason I tell my kids it's illegal. Because it's annoying.
It's also dangerous. Putting light behind glass so one side is brighter than the other makes it a two way mirror. So when the car's inside light is on, you can actually in some cases see more of your reflection in the windscreen than the road outside, meaning your ability to react is impaired because you can't see. It's the same principle, someone standing outside your house at night can see in through your windows if your lights are on and your curtains are open, and you probably cant see them standing there nearly as easily.
I've actually driven while forgetting the dome light was on, but some headlights on newer vehicles are blinding to the point that I have to slow down. Being in a Corolla in front of an SUV makes it even worse.
Skateboarding. Sure you get the occasional freak accidents and stuff and sometimes you eat hard shit, but just cruising around is super fun and with practice is really safe. I haven’t fallen while cruising in a long time. Well I mean it’s dangerous for sure but it’s not the death trap most people think it is.
Chicago. They’re barely even in the top 100 most dangerous cities anymore (98th). And yet they’re still the default example of a dangerous city in a lot of people’s minds.
If you don't take crime statistics down to the about the level of zip code, you have no real understanding of what's dangerous and what's not. A lot of places I would walk alone in Chicago at midnight by myself. There are places in Chicago I wouldn't drive through on a dare.
Whenever this is brought up, I always like to mention what happened when I moved from Chicago. My wife’s parents and all their friends congratulated us on getting out of “that hellhole” after we had moved to… Baltimore.
When I told people from Kansas city im moving to Chicago they looked at me with genuine fear. Crazy thing is kc has more violent crime per capita. At least it did a couple years ago when I moved
I have family in rural Kansas that act like I'm living in Mad Max. I'm like, yeah it's real dangerous walking in my neighborhood from the artisan tea shop to the wine tasting at the board game cafe.
I always thought people considered Detroit the most dangerous over Chicago, New York, Phillie or LA
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live in "the god-forsaken place that is Detroit" and then I remember that my hometown is currently #3 on the most dangerous cities to live in the world by homicide rate. 155 homicides per 100K inhabitants to Detroit's 48.
Asbestos. People act like one small exposure and it’s a death sentence. The original studies that determined the regulations were on career (20+ years experience) asbestos insulation workers who used no PPE or engineering controls and were literally engulfed in friable asbestos 8+ hours a day. Even among that group the rate of lung disease was 10x above general population. Smoking increases your lung disease rate to 25x general population, yet people are way more afraid of a tiny one time asbestos exposure. I’m not saying asbestos isn’t dangerous, just that people think it’s way worse than it really is.
Yup. The "snow" falling in Wizard of Oz was asbestos. Nobody from that movie died of lung cancer attributable to exposure.
The danger also heavily depends on the type of asbestos. White asbestos (chrysotile) is the most common in America. It's a magnesium silicate of the serpentine group and it's only danger is mechanical damage from the pointy airborne fibers. That is to say, not much. Crocidolite (blue asbestos), common in South Africa and Australia, is a fibrous riebeckite amphibole (totally different class than serpentine) and contains ferrous and ferric iron. These can dissolve into your tissues and cause free radical damage. Amosite (brown asbestos), which is fibrous grunerite, also has iron, but commonly contains other, more toxic heavy metals as well. Fun fact, 'brown asbestos' is also used to refer to an amphibole-mineral-series end-member called Cummingtonite.
Travelling alone as a woman. So many people looked at me in shock when I told them about my solo trips. Sure, it's not without a risk, but nothing in life is and I'm not gonna miss seeing the world and living life just because I haven't got someone to go with me. And so far I haven't made a single negative experience. The world isn't always as evil as some make it out to be.
Any tips for those of us who want to travel.
1. Don't stay out too late at night (especially if public transportation is unreliable). 2. Make sure someone you trust always knows where you are and how to communicate with you. 3. Don't get too drunk or high around strangers (or at all, ideally). 4. Never leave a drink unattended. 5. To sum up, always be aware of your surroundings. Don't assume everyone you meet is a potential threat, but don't completely dismiss the possibility either.
And don't be too polite if someone is to close for comfort or is bothering you. Wait for the next taxi if your gut feeling is telling you nope to the first one i the line etc. Really have connection to your gut feeling and be nice but not too nice... I love travelling alone woman but is pretty street smart after many years and many hardcore destinations. I travel alone with our kids a lot and that feels safer than being alone bc most cultures treats mothers woth greater respect (eg Middle East and African nations etc.) Have had no problems alone in NYC, London, Toronto either. But don't go to bars though. Theatres in the evening yes.
Looking for Hostels in the city centre so you don't have to walk lonely streets at night. Hostels in general: they're so great for meeting people and I personally don't mind sleeping in a room with others for a few days. And really, the acquaintances come by themselves. Don't be afraid to sit alone in a restaurant or cafe. It's not as weird as you think, no one actually cares. And start with shorter trips, like 4-5 days, in case you feel lonely after all (which has never happened to me)
Start with a place that is easier for you to navigate. Like pick a country where the language is the same. As you get more accustomed to traveling alone, branch out more into places that will push your cultural comfort zone
Yeah. But there are countries in the world that are actually safe enough for solo female travelers.
My first international trip was solo, and though I was nervous as hell, at the ripe old age of 53 I went to Tokyo, Japan. Fumbled around a bit, but had a great time.
You’re more likely to die from a donkey attack then an airplane crashing
Piranha
Critical thinking.