35 Facts That Are Common Knowledge In These People’s Fields But Are Not Known To The Wider Audience
Did you know that crows hold what essentially are funerals? Yeah, hundreds of them flock to the location, but avoid the body and don’t scavenge it. It’s thought that this may be a kind of survival strategy, to make sure that they avoid potential threats even if food is plentiful where the crow’s body was found.
That’s probably something ornithologists (bird scientists) know. Turns out there are a lot of facts only specialists know! Let’s take a look at some of them as shared by Redditors.
More info: Reddit
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Give Truckers Some Breathing Room, Unless...
Trucker here and we don't want to be anywhere near you either.
Go around or stay back don't just ride right beside us. We can't see you very well when you are beside us and if s**t happens you're gonna go splat.
It is very very very rare that any driver wants to slow you down it's not like we get our rocks off on making you late. We work extremely long hours on very little sleep and we just wanna get where we are going without getting in an accident and killing someone.
Trust me if we could go faster we damn sure would.
Also if you give us the fist pump to honk our horn you just made our whole week. That's one of the greatest joys in a truckers life.
Be safe out there!!
Edit: A reoccurring comment is that most of you get it and are very cool but you hate when a truck driver hops in the hammer lane when you're trying to pass them at a reasonable speed. I'm with you on that and Im here to tell you most truck drivers are not a******s like that and the real truckers hate the ones that are. Every profession has a group of a******s that ruin it for the good ones.
Edit Edit: This has gotten an unexpectedly high response and I really appreciate all of you joining in the conversation. If we would all just communicate like this more often we could solve a lot of problems in this world.
my father always told me : "if you can't see his side-view mirrors, he doesn’t see you either"
Movie Horses Deserve Better
In movies they unnecessarily yank on horses’ reins, practically ripping their mouths out. Anytime you see their mouths open with the bit pulled way back in there, they’re not having fun and it’s for no reason other than maybe drama and the trainers are s****y for letting that happen.
Always Keep 2 Exits In Mind
People almost always try to exit through the same door they entered. In a crowded venue ALWAYS take a second to find your exit and then find a second exit. Mark them in your brain just in case. In an emergency most of the crowd is going to go for the main door they came in through. Knowing where another exit is can save your life.
Marketers Know Every Breath You Take
It's not the CIA or the government that's tracking your every move. It's marketing agencies.
Being Nice Will Open Far More Doors Than Being A Douche Canoe
Being nice and patient will give you a bigger chance of getting a refund or a new of whatever is broken, than being angry and blaming the random worker.
People Are Emotional Creatures
People make most decisions based on emotion, then rummage around for logic to back up what they’ve already decided
If You Get Prescription Antibiotics, Finish The Whole Course
You need to finish the entire course of the antibiotics you were prescribed. You don’t suddenly stop taking them after you start feeling better.
It's distressing how many people Act like they don't know this when I Know their doctors emphasized it to them. (not a medical practitioner, just a lover of science).
Turns Out The ER Is For Emergencies, Who Could Have Guessed
The ER is there to keep you from having a catastrophic outcome in the next few hours/days (or next few minutes, in some cases.) If nothing irreversible is going to happen for several days, they don’t really care what the problem is.
High-End Neighborhoods Are Often Built With Low-End Quality
Those "high end" or "expensive" neighborhoods they slap up really fast... Usually, gated communities and other semi-exclusive suburbs full of McMansions are built with the absolute cheapest materials and poorest quality/ untrained labor.
Never buy a "spec" home without some serious research into what you're actually buying. All that "luxury" is barely surface deep.
Quickest way to check - are the baseboards (skirting boards) MDF? If so, run.
Trees Don't Have Magic Regeneration Powers, Actually
Trees do not heal through regeneration like people think they do.
They quite literally just grow over it. The tree can close the wound off in a way not really visible to us but it will never grow back that same tissue in the same way like we would when we cut ourselves.
It would be like growing a second layer of skin over a cut and never really healing the cut. Your body would make it stop bleeding but you’d alway be able to see your cut if you peel the layers of skin that grew over top.
Trees are like onions, just like Ogres! They have layers.
I always think of a jaw breaker when I work with trees.
Did anyone get my Shrek reference? I should go to bed now.
Archaeologists Care More About The Where, Rather Than The What
In Archaeology, it’s super awesome and great that you brought stuff to an archaeologist at a local dig site near you of things you found in your backyard or nearby asking us appraise it - but the thing is, we’re actually more interested in the context the item(s) are found. We need/want to see the bigger picture. Arrowheads, flintknaps, trade beads, etc are super cool but they are worth so much more when we can tell if they are part of a hoard, burials site, ceremonial site, etc.
Lying Is Just A Part Of A Police Officer's Toolkit
Police can lie to you, including about whether or not they’re police.
ETA - In the US. (I’ve offended the Europeans by forgetting they exist. 🇺🇸😎)
You May Try To Fool Them, But Garbagemen Know Better
We have cameras that can see what is in your trash as we dump it. Some companies even take snap shots of every can's contents to catch hazmat items. They bill the city, with the address it came from, and the city could follow up with the homeowner for reimbursement if they choose.
How crappy, in general, people are at making sure they are recycling the right items and properly cleaning some of their items before putting them in the recycling bin.
We remember the houses with issues, people that try to double dump, overfill, and dump hazmat. We watch for those offenders specifically.
We will pull out cans for handicapped people, dump them, and put them back. You have to call and have that setup though.
The garbage man knows whats going on in your neighborhood, almost as well as the mailman.
Oh sorry thank you for doing what seems to be a thankless job meant to type it go distracted.
Websites Aren't Slow Because Of Poor Programming, But Rather All The Ads And Trackers
If a website is slow there’s a big change it’s not because the developers did a bad job but because marketing insisted on putting dozens of trackers and ads on it.
UTIs May Have Some Surprising Symptoms
UTIs will often cause confusion in people over 70.
Eta:
UTI is Urinary Tract Infection and some people can get confused to the point of hallucinations and delirium. It can cause increased weakness which also leads to falls.
Constipation can also cause confusion in older people. There were times older people were admitted to hospital for routine procedures, became constipated (perhaps due to a difference in diet, and the use of pain medication), and seemed to have developed dementia. When the constipation was treated, the dementia disappeared.
Public Defenders Are More Than Capable
Most public defenders are competent actually.
I really admire lawyers who choose to become public defenders. They are overworked, underpaid, and absolutely necessary.
Main Character Animals In Documentaries Are Played By Several "Actors"
In any given nature documentary, the protagonist animal you’re rooting for is ‘played’ by several different ‘actors’ - i.e. that one brown bear’s story is patched together from footage of a bunch of different bears. And in about 90% of the ‘animal reacting’ shots they’re reacting to the camera crew. Nature documentaries are heavily constructed.
You Can't Shock A Flatlined Person To Life
When a person “flat lines” you cannot shock them out of it.
When Elevators Fail, They Go Up
An elevator will go up to the top of the hoist instead of crash to the floor in most catastrophic failures due to the counter weights.
So instead of being squished, you W***y Wonka thru the roof of the building. Cool 😅
Protect Your Hearing At All Costs, Especially When You're In Places Like Broadway
When you go out to clubs or any place with some sort of "strip" (aka Broadway in nashville) the volume is 11 times out of ten too loud. I work at barstool occasionally as AV and at night it's gotten up to 110-115 DB. For reference, the threshold of pain is 120 db. Wear hearing protection people. You can't get that s**t back.
Humans Are The Weakest Link In Cybersecurity
People (users) are the weakest link in most technology systems. 99% of the time.
Way, way back in 1992, at a security convention, there was a prize/reward for anyone who could beat the security on a new machine. A friend listened to the person on the stall, asked for their business card, and phoned the office. The friend impersonated the salesperson and said they had forgotten the password. One of the people gave them the password. This was then used to access the computer. :) Humans are the weakest link.
Shock Old Veggies In Ice Water
If you have sad vegetables(carrots celery)or lettuce that look wilted not bad you can make them crunchy by shocking in ice water.
I have done this multiple times to get an extra day or two out of them
Before You Attack A Manufacturer, Make Sure You Know That Transparent Isn't The Same As Transclucent
I work in acrylic sheet.
The number of people who do not understand what translucent means is astounding.
Translucent =/= Transparent. Translucent is SOLID color that allows light transmission- it glows. Transparent is just that..transparent.
We have customers call us All. The. Time. Telling us we filled an order wrong, that they received “a solid color and ordered translucent red”.
**EDIT: thanks for all the upvotes and thoughts!
For clarification, majority of these customers order online either through our website or Etsy. Both sites have dozens of pictures and videos explaining and showing the differences!
Week one of science lessons. See also, the difference between a clear and colourless liquid.
Cement? Nope, That's Concrete, Baby!
Cement and concrete are not the same thing. Cement is the main ingredient in concrete, but concrete is the whole mixture of cement, sand, aggregate, water, etc.
There are different recipes for concrete depending on how it is going to be used. But I'm not aware of any recipes where cement is the main ingredient. A fairly standard concrete mix would be 1 part cement to 2 parts sand to 4 parts aggregates. For foundations, a mix of 1 part cement to 3 parts sand to 6 parts aggregates can be used.
Just Because You May Have Had Bedbugs, Doesn't Mean You're An Awful Person
Bed bugs don’t make you a nasty person with a nasty home. An infestation isn’t due to a sanitation issue. They’re an imported pest, which means they hitched a ride on something you brought into the house. Usually luggage or furniture
There Is No Less Grim Way To Calculate The Damage Of Severe Burns
Generally speaking, if you add the percentage of the body covered in 3rd degree burns and the persons age together you get the likelihood of it being a fatal burn.
32 and 40% burn coverage? about 70% of people in that condition will die.
Source: Firey, working closely with several doctors from burns units.
Edit: I love the 100 year old people comments and the people with 0% burns but in thier 30s lamenting the 40% death chance.
Does This Mushroom Taste Funny To You?
Mushrooms are genetically closer related to Humans than to Plants
If There's So Much Oxygen In Rocks, Why Don't They Float?
Volumetricly, most rocks are made of mostly oxygen. Most of the entire Earth (crust and mantle) is also nearly half oxygen (by mass).
If you've ever read "OxYgeN DisCoVeReD on mOOn!" ... It's rocks. It means they've discovered rocks.
Who Runs The World? Not Girls, Excel
The world runs on MS Excel
Urban Heat Is Worse Than Bushfires, At Least For People
Urban heat kills way more people in Australia than bushfires. In the 2009 Black Saturday bishfires in Victoria, 173 people died in the fires, but over 300 died of the heat prior to that.
Also, most of those deaths occur at night, not during th day.
Now this is something I didn't know! I wonder what the stats are on deaths from the smoke that was in the air all of the Black Summer too?
Credit Is Not The Same As Debit!
Credit and debit are different. I could not believe how many people did not understand this.
A "Fractured" Bone Is As Good As A "Broken" Bone
There is no "fractured" vs "broken" there are only different types of fractures. It's really a semantic problem but patients get heated about it.
It was only on BP that I found out people didn't know this. Maybe because my mum was a nurse, but I have know this from quite young, and I haven't ever broken a bone.
Explosives Are Shy, So They Need Another, Smaller Explosive To Go Off With Them
Powerful explosives are so insensitive to shock that it usually takes a smaller, more sensitive explosive to set them off.
The Name Is Foam... Polystyrene Foam
Styrofoam is a brand name, it is polystyrene foam.
The All-Seeing Eye Of The Mailman
Your mailman knows a lot about you. More than you think.
Note: this post originally had 47 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
There are a lot more services and information offered to people on your city and county websites than you realize. Also at your local public library. If you are having financial difficulties, there may be local government programs to help you, and if you can't figure out how to apply for them, ask at the library! They often have somebody who knows how to apply for all of it.
Helpful, especially these days. Thank you!
Retail work: If you ask a retail worker if something is in the back of the shop s/he will probably know that they are out, but will walk to storage anyways to indicate interest in the customer's request and wait there for like 10 seconds before returning. - just because it's in your mailbox doesn't mean that the discounted stuff advertised is an legal offer to you, as offers have to be adressed to a SPECIFIC person on the same document in context to the product. - If you find a product that's close to it's "Best before" date it's OK to ask for a discount, selling a product for a lower price is still better than having it being a total loss (just be nice to the employee)
After reading your comment, I remembered three times when I asked a retail worker if they had an item that was empty on the shelf and they were able to find one for me.
It doesn't hurt to ask a seller / employee about a product, so long as you're asking politely.
I've had employees volunteer to look in the back for me without me even asking them to. I figure they just want a break, lol. Doesn't bother me!
Brand vs Generic Meds. The active pharmaceutical ingredient(s) are chemically IDENTICAL. It is the excipients (other ingredients that make the medication up to a swallowable volume) that may vary. If you need to save money, but have issues with generics, look up the generic versions available (or ask your pharmacist to do so) and compare excipients because it will be that giving you issues.
Absorption can vary up to 15% between brand and generics. That's enough to kill in some meds. So, please, if th ebrand name is whatyou need, don't be shy about asking it.
Reference please?
There are a lot more services and information offered to people on your city and county websites than you realize. Also at your local public library. If you are having financial difficulties, there may be local government programs to help you, and if you can't figure out how to apply for them, ask at the library! They often have somebody who knows how to apply for all of it.
Helpful, especially these days. Thank you!
Retail work: If you ask a retail worker if something is in the back of the shop s/he will probably know that they are out, but will walk to storage anyways to indicate interest in the customer's request and wait there for like 10 seconds before returning. - just because it's in your mailbox doesn't mean that the discounted stuff advertised is an legal offer to you, as offers have to be adressed to a SPECIFIC person on the same document in context to the product. - If you find a product that's close to it's "Best before" date it's OK to ask for a discount, selling a product for a lower price is still better than having it being a total loss (just be nice to the employee)
After reading your comment, I remembered three times when I asked a retail worker if they had an item that was empty on the shelf and they were able to find one for me.
It doesn't hurt to ask a seller / employee about a product, so long as you're asking politely.
I've had employees volunteer to look in the back for me without me even asking them to. I figure they just want a break, lol. Doesn't bother me!
Brand vs Generic Meds. The active pharmaceutical ingredient(s) are chemically IDENTICAL. It is the excipients (other ingredients that make the medication up to a swallowable volume) that may vary. If you need to save money, but have issues with generics, look up the generic versions available (or ask your pharmacist to do so) and compare excipients because it will be that giving you issues.
Absorption can vary up to 15% between brand and generics. That's enough to kill in some meds. So, please, if th ebrand name is whatyou need, don't be shy about asking it.
Reference please?