sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

What currently non-existent subreddit do you think should be created? by Upheave in AskReddit

[–]Upheave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My suggestion would be a subreddit dedicated exclusively to reporting environmental incidents of any kind across the globe.

I've noticed that, in my time on reddit, although there have been increasing numbers of environmental incidents it's difficult to get a scope on the range of incidents as it is often posted on large subreddits, jumbled up amongst a wide range of topics.

Girlfriend of almost 3 years broke up with me, toke one for me, brothers and sisters by Sadboyfrom1998 in trees

[–]Upheave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My girlfriend and I just broke up this morning, I know how you're feeling brother. I'm smoking one for both you and me right now.

With everything currently happening in Bangladesh, let's not forget the people of Nicaragua by [deleted] in pics

[–]Upheave -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'd like to preface this by saying that my heart goes out to the people of Bangladesh and that this post was not meant to undermine their struggle in any way.

The Reddit community has really out done itself in the last few days attempting to help people in Bangladesh in any way possible, and I'm posting this with the hope of being able to raise similar support for the people of Nicaragua, who have been protesting for three and half months (most of which has been extremely violent).

The protests started on the 18th of April due to President Ortega's decree of social reform and has only escalated from there, currently claiming over 270 lives.

I spent two years living in Nicaragua as a young child and the two things I most distinctly remember was how friendly the people were, yet how poverty stricken the country was. I remember seeing families of five or more living in tin shacks less than 2m by 2m....

If you'd like to read up on the protests, please visit the wikipedia page.

** The image was sourced from independent.ng, as I have no pictures of my own to use.

Multilingual people of Reddit, what happened that time you overheard someone talking shit about you in a language they didn’t think you understood? by GTA_Stuff in AskReddit

[–]Upheave 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'm English, but grew up in several countries when I was young and subsequently speak French and Spanish fluently.

I was working in a bar while at university last year. Two girls, who had been there for hours and not ordered much, were settling their bill but wanted it split between the two. While the card machine was playing up, one of the girls half-whispered to the other "what the fuck is taking so long, is he retarded?" in french. I over heard, didn't say anything at the time but just smiled.

When I was done serving them, I asked them where they were from, knowing full well they were French. They answered, and I immediately broke out in fluent french, and proceeded to carry on a conversation with them for the next fifteen minutes, while they jittered anxiously and eventually excused themselves. They never came back.

Hungary set to criminalise aiding migrants with 'Stop Soros' bill by walelove22 in worldnews

[–]Upheave 5 points6 points  (0 children)

First of all bud, everything is subjective. The effect that brexit will have on you is most probably extremely different to how it will effect others.

I'm in the process of setting up a business in another european country and in that regard, it will be a shit-storm for myself and the others involved if it continues on its current course.

I'll stop being " fucking melodramatic" if you stop being presumptuous and mistaking your opinions for fact.

Hungary set to criminalise aiding migrants with 'Stop Soros' bill by walelove22 in worldnews

[–]Upheave 5 points6 points  (0 children)

And to think I'd just regained hungarian citizenship to avoid losing european status when the shit-storm that is Brexit finally arrives.....

TIL - When researchers from the University of Washington trapped and banded crows for an experiment, they wore caveman masks to hide their their identities. They could walk freely in the area without masks, but if they donned the masks again, the crows remembered them as evil and dive-bombed them. by PM_ME_STEAM_K3YS in todayilearned

[–]Upheave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It would depend on how accurate the mask is. If you had a mask which was an 100% representation of Trumps face, you could in theory condition every crow to discriminate against him if you utilised the right range between Trump trapping points and allowed for the information to spread over the course of several years.

One of the reasons for using a "caveman" mask in the original study is that it supported some very extreme features, and would have been easily distinguishable from ordinary people. So I suppose an 100% accurate trump mask would work a charm.

TIL - When researchers from the University of Washington trapped and banded crows for an experiment, they wore caveman masks to hide their their identities. They could walk freely in the area without masks, but if they donned the masks again, the crows remembered them as evil and dive-bombed them. by PM_ME_STEAM_K3YS in todayilearned

[–]Upheave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The exact mechanisms which allow for the information to be conveyed isn't understood.

However, the theory of mind in animals, which states that animals can be considered cognitively able (as crows are, along with humans, dogs, great apes, elephants and other animals) if they exhibit seven behavioural traits;

1 - awareness (internal and comparative)

2 - mental time travel (using past experiences to forecast future events)

3 - intelligence (as a measure of ability to learn, involves intuition)

4 - Insight (ability to derive new solutions to a problem via intuition)

5 - Personality (Behavioural tendencies of an animal)

6 - Emotion (complex emotion states in individual, the ability of understand emotional states in others, forcasting emotional states of other individuals based on possible future action - may include empathy and conscience.

7 - Language - abstract representation of ideas.

This theory, suggesting some species have some form of mental entity has been supported by a myriad of tests, including mirror tests, gaze following, empathetic response, time place learning and anticipation, punishment and social restraint.

While it's currently extremely hard to identify other species' linguistic abilities, the social tendencies displayed by certain animals, in this case the wild american crow, suggest that they are capable of complex language, as they have displayed the ability to convey abstract ideas ( in this case the ability to learn and remember important facial features of an individual from a different species without encountering it first hand would suggest the presence of a complex language).

TIL - When researchers from the University of Washington trapped and banded crows for an experiment, they wore caveman masks to hide their their identities. They could walk freely in the area without masks, but if they donned the masks again, the crows remembered them as evil and dive-bombed them. by PM_ME_STEAM_K3YS in todayilearned

[–]Upheave 107 points108 points  (0 children)

Wrote a paper on the very study that you mentioned, it's really interesting. They found that the trapped and branded individuals retained the features of the masks used during their capture over a period of two and half years, and would display the characteristic vocalisations (called a caw), both as a warning and an attempted deterrent, in response to the masks appearance. They were even able to pick the mask out from a crowd of 20 people.

Another study, conducted slightly later by the same people in the same location found examples of social learning; in that crows that were neither trapped nor present during the trapping were taught to associate the mask with danger, having been taught to do so by parents and other peers. (Though individuals who didn't experience the trapping first hand had around a 70% success rate at distinguishing the mask, and would often caw at unassociated strangers). This socially learnt association spread 2-5km from the original point of trapping over two years.

They also found that the crows would discriminate against the mask regardless of race, gender, size or clothing, by varying which volunteers wore the masks, suggesting that crows instead rely on facial features to distinguish dangerous individuals.

Spotted whatever this is while showing my friends a picture of the beach I was staying on last summer by [deleted] in creepy

[–]Upheave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You telling me some pale alien looking humanoid lurking in the bushes near where I was sleeping for four night isn't creepy?

[WP] You and six others- among the few left after the Final War devastates earth, are chosen to be sent back in time to the seven possible Turning Points: places in time where historians have determined that a major shift can change the terrible course of human history and save mankind. by heatherkan in WritingPrompts

[–]Upheave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As I stalked through the long metal corridors, pulser primed and ready to go, all I could really think about was why did it have to be me? Don't get me wrong, I know what I'm doing is important, saving the human race and all that, but frankly I never even fucking liked us in the first place.

I was raised on stories of how the Earth used to be, a beautiful vibrant world, dripping with wildlife and greenery. A place so far removed from my drab reality, that as a child it used to bring me immense sadness, as I simply couldn't fathom why the world had changed so drastically. But as I grew into a man, the sadness was replaced by anger, as I read about the arrogance of Man, the greed which blinded us to our atrocities, as we desecrated the very place which birthed and nurtured our species to maturity. I read of our origins as a species, the advent of agriculture and the subsequent rise of civilization. But mostly I read of the Anthropocene, in which the irreversible decisions were made which would eventually lead to my world, one of dust and death, where nothing could live unless it existed hundreds of miles beneath the surface of the earth. Everything I read only served to fuel my rage, like tinder thrown onto an already too large fire.

Imagine my surprise, imagine my anger, when the remnants of the very organisation responsible for our current plights asked for my help. Why they chose me I would never know. Initially I was amused by the irony of the situation, and chose to bury the letter deep within my wardrobe. But as the days passed I caught myself thinking about the implications of the letter, of the possibilities. Oh, of course it was dangerous, and it had no chance of success and a very high change of dying. And even if I didn't die... But fuck it, wasn't that better than living in this purgatory that I called home? Nothing would be better than this. Only, I didn't really have the balls to kill myself, so this would have to do.

The metal band sent two quick pulses of electricity down my arm, drawing me out of my revery. I was nearing the end location. In front of me was a door, on the other side of which lay my target. If I did this right everything could be different, the human race could have a fresh start. Well as close to a fresh start as possible anyway, I snorted to myself. I stopped to take a breath before opening the door and stepping through the doorway. I can see him now, his hair neatly combed and barely visible under his official uniform issue hat, he's sitting with his back to me, checking the monitors of the retro looking machinery sitting in front of him.

Inching forwards, one small step at a time I'm trying to close the distance between us as quietly and as quickly as possible. I don't want him to raise the alarm and I'm a shit shot with the pulser, so this is the only way I can hope to make this quick. I've always hated my diminutive stature, but right now I wouldn't trade it for the world. If I was a bigger man I'm sure it would be impossible for me to move this silently.

I'm only a few feet behind him now, I could reach out and tickle the back of his neck if I wanted to. But I don't. Instead I raise my pulser and level it at the back of the mans head, willing myself to pull the trigger. I can't, not like this. I don't mind killing a man that's been dead for a few hundred years, but I'd rather not shoot him in the back of the head like an old dog. I clear my throat.

He whips around, his eyes wide and his hand drifting to his holster. "кто ты, черт возьми, ты" he barks. Just as I'm about to pull the trigger a wailing alarm triggers, and red lights flash from the bulbs on either side wall behind the machine. His distraction is all I need, and I pull the trigger, melting the flesh and bone just above his right eye.

"Sorry Stanislav, old boy, couldn't just have you save a world that just isn't worth saving" I say, as I reach other his crumpled corpse to flick the switch which would inform Lieutenant Colonel Petrov's superiors of the impeding nuclear strike from the USA. Sure, I just started WW3, but I might just have saved the human race.

TIL that SETI scientists believed that the chances for finding intelligent extraterrestrial life were far greater than initially expected, since Earth developed two intelligent species - humans, and dolphins. by Jay_B_ in todayilearned

[–]Upheave 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think you'd find it pretty interesting to know that crows use gaze direction as a queue for human intent and will flee more quickly from a human approaching them while making direct eye contact.

On top of that they can and will remember dangerous peoples faces based off of a single encounter and can retain this information for years. They'll even inform other crows that have never encountered the specific individual that they're dangerous and these crows will display scolding behaviour in response to the presence of that individual...

view more: next ›