Why YSK: it’s not ok to tell someone how their body works or doesn’t work. Understanding each other is an important step in respecting each other.

Let me start by saying that no one should ever coerce anyone else to have sex against their will. Period.

But over the past several months I’ve had numerous women on Reddit tell me that blue balls isn’t real. Let me assure you from first-hand experience, blue balls is fucking real and it fucking sucks. No, that doesn’t make it anyone’s responsibility but mine. But it is not imaginary.

It’s called epididymal hypertension and it makes it so that it hurts to even have your balls touch the inside of your pants.

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10155057/

Why YSK: Many people have a fear reaction to snakes. But understanding the true behavior of snakes is immensely beneficial for humans. Contrary to common belief, snakes try to avoid human interactions rather than initiate them. By recognizing that snakes are likely to retreat rather than attack, people can feel more at ease and manage encounters without panic. If a snake feels threatened or cornered they will try and defend themselves, but the moment they are given the opportunity - all they want is to get away from us. Personally when I see a snake, I can safely allow it to move off my property on its own, which it will naturally do when given space and not provoked. Literally has saved me hundreds of dollars because I let the snake remove itself instead of paying a snake catcher to relocate it.
This video below completely changed my mindset on snakes and has made me go from fearing them to hoping to see them.
https://youtu.be/EeLUpbHrXB0?si=lKWlsMVom8G9GG92

Why YSK: When you wash your hands with regular bar soap or plain liquid soap, you add water to create suds. If you put just a few drops of dish soap in a sink and turn on the tap, the soap and water get aerated and agitated by the force of the stream and create foam.

The little reservoir on foaming soap bottles is an aerating device that creates foam out of the preexisting, precise mixture of soap, air and… water.

Having experimented a lot, I can usually refill a foaming bottle with 25% soap and 75% water, and get perfectly good foam out of it. All you are doing is adding the water earlier in the process compared to using non-foaming soap normally. Do your own experiments and start small. You’ll be surprised how little soap it actually takes and how much extra water goes into the formula for most foaming soaps: method, dial, whatever your choice.

The companies that make these found a way to sell us less for more. Save money. Save plastic. Clean your hands with a cleaner conscience. Don’t buy foaming hand soap dispensers more than once, and never buy “foaming” refills.

Why YSK: people who live in cold countries or stay indoors frequently and eat non-nutritious food are at a high risk for developing depression and anxiety due to a lack of vitamin D. It's important that you get check for this deficiency before taking on any psychoactive medicines because they can be a masking a problem that could possibly be fixed. Normally doctors are supposed to screen a patient for it before prescribing expensive medication but unfortunately this isn't a standard practice for every psychiatrist and over diagnosis is becoming a problem. We shouldn't be surprised by this given what happened with the opioid crisis

Adding from the comments that magnesium is required for vitamin D absorption so even with plenty of sunlight it's still crucial to have it. Throwing in that a lack of vitamin K & B can cause mental decline and psychosis

Source for vitamin D: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9468237/#:~:text=Low%20vitamin%20D%20levels%20are,planning%20of%20these%20mood%20disorders.

Source for magnesium: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7861592/#:~:text=Magnesium%20is%20Required%20to%20Activate,and%20to%20activate%20vitamin%20D.&text=Magnesium%20deficiency%20can%20also%20reduce,and%20impair%20parathyroid%20hormone%20response.

Source for vitamin B: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8858590/

Opioid crisis: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33760335/

Edit: Magnesium is crucial for activating vitamin D

Why YSK- When I travel, I'm constantly trying to find local eats and things to do, and CVBs have been a big find. CVBs typically have tourism information from a local area about the areas food, attractions, shopping, etc and have it all on their websites.

They will occasionally have coupons or discounts too- I saved $20 on Legoland last month!

You can find them generally by searching for city/county/area "CVB". Not every area has them- but I haven't found many that don't.

Edit: CVBs seem to be US based. But tourism offices, department of tourism, etc would be similar. I think CVBs are often overlooked because their names are so confusing.

Why YSK:
There is a common scam for online sellers to create fake counterfeit stamps and sell them as real, usually for half the price of the post office.

The websites pop up overnight on platforms such as Shopify and are usually sketchy and easy to spot when you look at their website template and notice how much is boilerplate, but sometimes people want it to be true so badly or are in a hurry that they overlook the basics, and these fraudsters count on that so they can profit.
Just because these sites buy ads on legitimate platforms doesn’t make them legitimate themselves.

If you get caught using counterfeit postage, you will be on the hook—not the store that popped up, scammed you, and disappeared, only to be resurrected under another name a week later.
To protect yourself from these scams, you should only buy stamps from the post office, or authorized postal retailers.

Why YSK: if someone who is choking (or about to be) takes a big drink to try to wash down food, the first thing YOU notice will be the beverage coming back up when it has nowhere to go. Time will tick by while everyone is responding to vomiting, and, if you think you already know what’s happening, it makes it much harder to realize something else is at play.

Here is what to do if someone is choking: https://www.redcross.ca/blog/2021/9/what-to-do-if-an-adult-is-choking

Edit: alternate source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/first-aid/first-aid-choking/basics/art-20056637

I can’t find a “source” for this tricky sign of choking but it happened at the big family dinner last night. I always pictured the person so silent, from the blocked airway, and it was absolutely nothing like that.

And don’t forget about the “sign for choking” of holding your throat with both hands to indicate what kind of distress you’re in. And never leave the company of others if you’re coughing to loosen something; if it gets more stuck you are now alone.

I remember that when I was a teenager whenever I hoped on to group chats there would be random people who would demand nudes then threaten to hurt themselves if they don't get any

I thought that this was a weird quirk of my platform at the time (Kik) I never gave in into it thankfully. However, after going through some stories about groomers online this threat became a pattern. Unfortunately younger teens and kids are more likely to fall for this especially if they've been friends with the person for a while

Why YSK: It's the perfect lie because it forces the victim to prioritise their friend's life over some uncomfortable photos. They're using their "least-evil" moral compass to sway them. This can bypass some basic teachings against stranger danger

It's a difficult topic to broach and I'm disturbed that this has to be talked about to begin with but it's important to let your kids know that this is 100% BS and it's perfectly fine to prioritize their own comfort even if they do actually go through with it. I really dislike how difficult the internet made parenting

Why YSK: Scummy tax prep companies will try to bait you with “free filing” and then will steal your refund by forcing you to upgrade to “premium” products. Use IRS FreeFile partners to file your state and federal taxes for free.

Background: I was helping a friend do their taxes yesterday, and I figured “TurboTax offers free filing to people who have a lower income.” No problem, right?

We enter the W-2s, everything is going well. We cruise through deductions, easy peasy. And then we hit the credits… and this is where things got stupid.

For reference, my friend works a retail job and makes less than $30k annually. The retail company provides a 401k option, to which my friend contributed $590 dollars. Because of their income status, this qualified them for the Retirement Savings Contribution Credit — a credit that gives lower income individuals approximately 10% back (up to $1000) on their contributions to a qualifying retirement plan. So this credit gave him a whopping $59 back off his taxes.

The catch? As soon as we hit “next”, TurboTax informed us that because we had added the tax credit, we would need to upgrade from the Free edition to the Deluxe edition. The cost? $69 (heh, not so nice). So in order to save $59, we had to pay $69 (net of -$10). But that’s not all! Because we were now using TurboTax deluxe, they were also going to charge him $64 to file his state taxes (net of -$74). And to put the cherry on top, we couldn’t (at least not easily) figure out how to simply remove the retirement credit and downgrade back to the free edition.

Now, we could have followed the path of least resistance at this point and allowed TurboTax to just take these costs out of his refund, and he would be getting back a few hundred dollars, minus the cost of filing. But I decided that it was ridiculous to allow a full 20% of his tax return to go to TurboTax in exchange for an overall net loss in tax savings.

So I went to Google and searched for free tax filing tools. And I came up with the following website: https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free

This site offers several options, including a native IRS tool that handles simple tax situations. But more importantly, it offers information about a FreeFile program that partners with half a dozen different providers that can help you e-file both your state and federal taxes at no cost. We selected FreeTaxUSA, made an account, and within 20 minutes had reached the exact same return amount (including the retirement savings credit!) as TurboTax. Total cost to file? $0 — literally free.

In conclusion, YSK that you can say “f*** TurboTax” (and all the other predatory companies that try to bait and switch low income folks into paying to do simple returns), and use an IRS FreeFile partner to actually do your taxes for free.

Disclaimer: I do not work for the IRS or any FreeFile affiliate company, nor do I stand to benefit financially from this in any way — I am just a guy who did a first round of taxes in TurboTax and was pissed at how much they wanted to charge me to file, so I looked for alternatives and found IRS FreeFile.

Why YSK: www.manualslib.com It's a rich resource for finding any user manuals for any products. A lot of people misplace or lose instruction manuals for items that aren’t regularly used. Inheriting a hand-me-down or can’t remember how to use an old kitchen gadget? This website is an easy time and effort saver.

Manuallibs is a free, no sign-up required library of product manuals available for anyone to use.

Why YSK: Amazon UK accounts having made no purchases via the main website for six months are marked as 'inactive' and receive significantly limited account recovery support. This still applies even if you have regularly logged in during the six month period and have accessed Amazon content and services. Only purchases from the Amazon website reset the timer. Amazon does not warn you ahead of the change in status via email or their message centre before it happens.

Amazon will refuse outright to modify or remove email addresses, passwords, phone numbers, or two-factor authentication associated with the account. If you lose access to the email, phone, or 2FA then you most likely cannot recover your account at all. Amazon will instead direct you to open a new account under a different phone number and email address. Customer support aren't allowed to redirect you to the accounts team who usually carry out the necessary changes with ease for 'active' accounts.

This means the total loss of all digital purchases on the account as well as a lockout for any services that require an Amazon account to be linked. When websites, games, apps, etc. link to Amazon, it is Amazon who handles the login to complete the link. As your account still exists but you are unable to recover it, you are unable to unlink most services to associate them with any new account. This means the loss of whatever services or content were provided by the link. Amazon will not refund or compensate you for anything lost as a part of their policy.

Keep your information up to date regularly.

Eclipse Glasses USA is collecting used but undamaged eclipse glasses for schoolchildren in Latin American so they can witness the October 2024 annular eclipse

You can mail them to:

Eclipse Glasses USA, LLC PO BOX 50571 Provo, UT 84605

https://eclipse23.com/pages/donate-eclipse-glasses

Why YSK: You don't have to throw away your used glasses, they can be put to good use!

Why YSK: There's no need to worry about crop damage or being bitten by a cicada. They aren't even related to locusts, which are the swarming form of a species of grasshopper.

Cicadas do not have stingers or biting mouth parts. They literally can't eat plant leaves, stems, or flowers. They can only suck juices from trees.

At most, the females do slight damage to small tree branches, when they deposit their eggs. But overall, emergences do more good to trees than harm. All the cicadas die at the end of mating season, and their bodies are beneficial compost.

This comes up every time there's a large emergence.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/14-fun-facts-about-cicadas-180977361/

The brain adapts rapidly to the stimulant effects of caffeine, making it useless for stimulation/wakefulness when consumed daily. That's the reason many people say they can drink coffee and fall asleep right after - the stimulant effect is lost in them due to daily use. Sporadic use of caffeine preserves its stimulant effects.

Source:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19241060/

Caffeine withdrawal, acute effects, tolerance, and absence of net beneficial effects of chronic administration: cerebral blood flow velocity, quantitative EEG, and subjective effects

Why YSK: Caffeine is a drug. Avoiding its daily use will help maximize its benefits for those days it's truly needed on.

Why YSK: You don't need to suffer alone. There are books and support groups. One treatment is graduated exposure therapy and many people see an improvement.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22208-shy-bladder-syndrome-paruresis

Why YSK: When associates stock the shelves, the new items get put in the back while the older items are moved to the front. This helps prevent the older items from sitting in the back and expiring before they can be sold.

You can save money and prevent food wastage at home by simply buying an item that has a farther away expiration date from the back, which is especially good for items like packaged salads, milk, bread, yogurt etc. I regularly save about a week longevity for bread and even found a tub of hummus once that expired a whole month after the ones in front of it.

Edit: Calling poor people selfish, petty and evil for wanting to save is kind of wild folks.

Edit 2: To debunk those saying how awful this practice is... Many stores donate their recently expired foods to local food shelves, charities and homeless shelters, what is thrown out is often what is not salvageable or too overstocked unless you work for a very irresponsible store (in this case, your issue should be with the store, not the handful of customers looking for a deal). On top of that, popular items are going to be bought regardless of those of us taking from the back.

Most people trust that a store is not going to sell them expired food and will take the last available item if it's the item they are looking for. These people making these claims either don't know the system they work for very well, or are taking this as an opportunity to virtue signal.

Before the umpteenth person says "don't do this cuz u bad for it", please list how many plastics you use, how often you drive your car, whether or not your shoes are made of recyclable materials, etc, then sit down and let the rest of us purchase the food we want in peace.

Edit 3: Do to some emotional outbursts in this post from employees, I'm going to leave the SAMHSA hotline number here. It's 988

If you feel as though you are going to lash out at a customer the way you have felt comfortable lashing out here, I highly suggest reaching out to a mental healthcare professional who can evaluate you and share tips and tricks to handling and directing anger. It is not healthy or ok to name call and degrade a person or their character because you disagree with them. It is not normal to be this emotional over some randoms trying to save money by buying fresh food.

Why YSK: After being in a rut, I started to look at myself a bit in the mirror and helped boost my mood. I decided to take a few new photos. It took the wind out of my sails and thought that’s how people would see me. It’s discouraging and I’m sure many others can relate.

Your mirror image is how you are perceived in person. Cameras have all sorts of quirks and couple that with looking at a 2D depiction of yourself, it’s not what you know you look like.

Lenses distort the image(think about how a fisheye looks wonky) and can make your features look different. Cameras don’t show the depth your eyes perceive further distorting features.

The lighting will change how you see everything as a whole and shadows can obscure features or make you look unwell. Flash can help but then produces the opposite effect overexposing certain parts. Speaking of flash, it’s a single frame in a moment, our eyes are continually processing an image and not just one iteration.

Photos are usually the reverse of our mirror image adding another layer of unexpected dip.

It’s not what we expect and the nature of photography warps your self image making your photos bad. If you like your mirror self, don’t worry. A trick I always use for better photos, particularly selfies is to reverse the image again. For photos taken with your phones, usually there’s a setting you can toggle to automate it if desired.

Why YSK: prevention is key + some species are vulnerable to things that are harmless to people.

It's highly recommended that all pet owners familiarize themselves with items in the home that can result in intoxication. The ASPCA's poison control center has online education resources for this purpose. This guide helps people identify toxic (and non-toxic) plants in the home and yard.

For example, xylitol is a newer product increasingly used in a variety of products that we ingest but can cause severely low blood sugar, liver failure, and death in dogs + rabbits. Look at ingredient lists and keep xylitol far away from your dog(s). Chewing gum is a big one.

Also, all parts of a lily are highly toxic to cats and even a few grains of pollen or nibbling a leaf will almost certainly cause kidney failure. Consider this if gifting flowers to a cat owner. It's Easter o'clock + we've already seen pet cats die of acute kidney injury soon after lilies were brought into the home. Hence, taking a break to post this and hopefully prevent accidental intoxications. There's no specific test for lily tox so your guess is as good as anyone's re: why your outdoor cat gets severely ill.

And no, animals do not inherently know what's unsafe for them. PSA done ✅

Why YSK:
I discovered today that there are bots running that are scanning reddit for people looking to buy tickets, any tickets, of any kind. As soon as you post you are looking for a ticket, a bot creates a new reddit account, and then messages you and says it has one for sale. Now, it's not perfect, but it says something like "Hi there, you still interested in the ticket?" leaving it a little vague. And then, no matter how many you want, it says "yes" and repeats it back to you. it then offers a price that is low, which is what first made me suspicious, and then you can tell by the language it's not quite right. This is only going to get worse people, be vigilant.

Here's a post of it in action (the bot in this case is hiphop51450, you can look to see that's it's just one post):

hiphop51450 9:25 AM

Hi there

You still interested in the ticket ?

Difficult_Eggplant4u 9:45 AM

Yes

You have 2?

hiphop51450 9:47 AM

Yes got 2

Can you buy for 40

Difficult_Eggplant4u 9:48 AM

$40 each?

hiphop51450 9:49 AM

Yes

Difficult_Eggplant4u 9:50 AM

Yes, I will take them!

Are they early access or regular

Just curious

hiphop51450 9:53 AM

You have nothing to get worried about it’s legit and real okay

What’s your email ?

{This is where I closed it down after looking there was no history}

You can poke at it if it's still running. But I noticed that you can post almost anywhere in reddit and this will pop up and try to sell you a ticket. Sometimes it takes a bit before it happens, but be careful everyone.

I bet there are dozens if not hundreds running now.

When you have the right of way, take it and move predictively.

Why YSK: waving a person or driver into traffic is dangerous and potentially causes accidents.

I’m referencing the driver that stops to allow a pedestrian jaywalk or cross at an intersection against a light, but is only stopping one lane of a 2 or more lane road.

At a stop sight, take your turn when it is yours. Other drivers are also crossing or turning if appropriate and are assuming the actions are being taken.

Allowing a driver to pass in front of you out of a drive or side street does not stop other vehicles in other lanes.

Don’t be a jerk, but not being predictable following the rules is dangerous.

SOURCE - dog walker that gets waved into oncoming traffic at least once a week then is met with a “you are stupid” stare from the “wave of death” driver when I don’t move.

Why YSK: because the health effects of microplastics are largely unknown and if you drink tea you are regularly dosing yourself with them.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10389239/

People who drink tea frequently are continually dosing themselves with billions of plastic particles, some of which may be tiny enough to enter human cells. Most paper tea bags also have plastic fibers used in the sealant in addition to these nylon and PET plastic tea bags. Even paper tea bags have an unsettling substance called epichlorohydrin added to them in order to keep them from bursting. According to a recent study, each cup of tea produced by one plastic tea bag steeped at brewing temperature included roughly 11.6 billion MPs and 3.1 billion nanoplastics (NPs)

This is why I always cut my tea bags open and drop the contents into a strainer when I have to buy bagged tea.

Resubmitted to comply with formatting!

Why YSK: some people not into tech think going from 0% to 100% is still the best way, whereas nowadays it's the worst you can do to your battery, especially with a fast charger. Some apps can send you a notification when the battery's charged to the level you want, same for smartwatches.

Why YSK: Once a new air mattress is fully inflated, the weight of someone laying on it will cause the material to stretch out, making the mattress appear deflated. An air mattress may need to be used a handful of times before the material is fully stretched and can be used through the night without deflating.

Why YSK: A lot of people seem to buy books on Amazon because they assume their local library won't have it. Ask the front desk. They can probably get it for you.

Most libraries have book sharing agreements with other libraries. If your local library doesn't have a specific title, you can probably request it. The book will be shipped to your library for pickup.

YSK how to hard boil eggs perfectly

How I do it: *insert eggs with cool water into pot

*bring water to a near boil(so eggs don’t crack) and start 12 minute timer

*immediately bring temp to simmer (2-3 on electric stove

*after timer is up run cool water in pot in sink for about a minute

*take a few handfuls of ice and insert in water/eggs

*let sit until eggs are cold to touch

I make at least 10 every two days and it works every time without fail

Why YSK - so it’s easy to peel

Edit: I don’t use a lid which is why I keep the temp on low during the timer. I also find that keeping some heat on them during the time helps make the egg shells softer and easier to peel. I don’t use a rolling boil because i find it easier to start with eggs in the pot and I’ve cracked them before. Also 12 minutes without a lid on low heat gives me a firm yolk, not dry or too hard. I dislike soft yolks. I am using a Samsung electric stovetop. Also I add salt into the water. I eat hb eggs everyday because I’m into fitness and they’re undoubtedly one of the best sources of protein. I buy 60 eggs from Costco for $12 and cook 10 in a pot.

Why YSK: You may have access to a lot of books at home. Check if you library has a partnership with the apps Libby and/or hoopla. Between the two, I haven’t bought a book in years. Although I do love going to the library and physical books, it’s a huge convenience /time saver.

Libby is especially great because you can typically send a book to your kindle.

Why YSK: if you have your location turned on if you go to google maps timeline you can see eveywhere you have been with timestamps and map of directions. Its turned on by default and is hard to turn off. If you use shared accounts or if someone has access to you phone they can see each and every place you have been and when. If your google account is ever compromised they can look at this data and get an idea of your daily routine. When you are where etc. Furthermore, police courts and companies can use this as evidence or for snooping.

This is a grave privacy concern and i have no idea why it is on by default. Another thing is if you turn it off. You can no longer see your maps search history.

Why YSK: Because you're giving them an opportunity to rob you.

If I had a dollar every time marketplace sellers told me they wouldn't be home between certain hours when trying to arrange a pick-up, I'd be rich (literally). Never ever tell strangers you're on holiday or you're not home, especially if they already know your address. Always tell them you won't be available or you're busy. Be vague and don't get robbed people.

Why YSK: These airlines serve a market niche, but operate on a business model of very low fares with very high fees. Often after add-ons they are a worse product than what is offered by legacy mainline carriers Basic Economy Service.

One of the primarily complaints about these airlines are those who are not aware of the baggage policy and get hit for what is sometimes fairly substantial bag fees. At a typical airline bag fees only account for 4% of revenue, but on a low cost carrier it's 21%. On a typical Spirit flight there is an average of $66.60 per passenger in non-fare revenue.

As a general rule Ultra Low Cost Carriers only allow you a personal item 18 x 14 x 8 inches, about the size of a briefcase, computer case, or kid's backpack. Anything larger than this and you will need to buy a checked bag or carry-on which will typically run you $54 to $70 per flight getting more expensive the longer you wait to book, at the gate they charge $100 per bag each way.

Why YSK: The collapse of the Key Bridge in Baltimore seems like a good time to remind people that most front windshields are laminated -- not tempered -- and you won't be able to break through. Furthermore, even though it might work on the side or rear windows (typically tempered), if it's laminated it won't work there either.

In a 2019 AAA study (https://newsroom.aaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Vehicle-Escape-Tool-Fact-Sheet-FINAL-6-27-19.pdf) not one of the 6 tools they tested were able to break through laminated glass and only 4 of the 6 tools were successful in breaking tempered glass.

If trapped in a vehicle, remember there is a S-U-R-E way out:

• S tay calm, but work quickly and cautiously to ensure everyone gets out safely.

• U nbuckle seat belts and make sure everyone is ready to leave the car when it’s time.

• R oll down before trying to break windows (if they're tempered).

• E xit the vehicle quickly and move everyone to safety

Remember that once the water changes, you can’t break the window anyway, even if you had a hammer. And once the window is open, the water will rush into the car at a faster rate.

In short, don't look for that tool. Reach for the automatic switch to get the window open and GTFO.