Here are 20 things you should know
1. Regardless of whether or not you are vegan, you may very well have B12 deficiency.
It’s a common misconception that just because you consume animal products you don’t need to take B12 supplements. B12 isn’t produced by animals but is synthesized by bacteria and archaeons. Farm animals need access to soil (cobalt) in order to produce this bacteria, which means that in many cases they themselves are injected with supplements. Combined with the fact that protein-bound B12 is harder to absorb by the human body and that fruit and vegetables are sanitized before they reach your table, you may very well not be getting the recommended amount of B12. This is regardless of what kind of diet you are on, although vegan and vegetarian diets can put you at higher risk.
Factors such as age and health also play a role in how much B12 our bodies absorb. Nonprotein-bound B12 which is found in supplements is easier to absorb and may be beneficial to battle deficiency.
If you struggle with low energy and feel tired you may need to check your B12 levels.
Sources:
https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article/73/2/106/1820655
2. In psychological reactance, people will often do the opposite of what you ask them to if they feel that their autonomy is taken away from them.
Oftentimes we’re completely oblivious that the things we say or the way we say them can produce an oppositional response in other people. If we want to communicate effectively, to persuade someone, or to even get our message heard, it pays to keep in mind that individuals have a need for autonomy – to feel like they’re doing things their way. So if someone feels like you’re imposing your own view on them, they might (consciously or not) resist it.
One way to avoid psychological reactance is to invite people to share their perspectives – e.g. a simple “What do you think?” can often be enough to create a sense of collaboration, yet it’s so easy to miss and drone on about what *we* want and think.
Another way is to present options, rather than orders: e.g. “You can think about X if you want to do Y.” And finally, a good way to preface conversations is to say “These are just my thoughts; feel free to ignore them if they’re not useful to you”.
3. Longer grass helps shade its own roots from heat and harsh sun. Consider raising your lawnmower during the warmer months in order to keep your lawn healthy.
With summer fast approaching for many people, the yard work will start soon. Many people will cut their grass very short in the summer months to save them the trouble of mowing it as often. In reality, cutting your lawn short could be harming it more than you think. The intense heat from direct sunlight all day will dry out and often kill your lawn’s roots, making it difficult to build a thick lawn and avoid weeds.
4. Apple Maps and Waze allow you to sometimes see hidden police cars that are tracking for speeding.
Both Apple Maps, Waze, and Google Maps allow you to sometimes see hidden police cars that are tracking for speeding.
Certain cars will also alert you via audio if your iPhone is connected to your car.
And if you see one, you can always report it in the app to let other people know.
5. Ikea Spare Parts.
Ikea will typically give you small spare parts if you lose or break anything. Find the item you bought online. Navigate to the assembly instructions, and find the part number(s) for the parts that broke or got lost. You can either go to the physical store or order them online. It’s usually free!
6. “Trauma bonding” doesn’t mean bonding over shared trauma.
A lot of people use the term “trauma bonding” to mean a bond shared by two (or more) people bonding over shared trauma, or becoming close by talking about trauma together. While this makes intuitive sense, the term actually refers to the bond between an abused person and their abuser.
When someone is abused, they may have a psychological trauma response that results in a trauma bond. This is usually caused by an unhealthy attachment, the victim feeling dependent on the abuser, feeling sympathy for the abuser, or the cycle of abuse and positive reinforcement (“I’m sorry, I won’t do it again, you know I love you, right?”).
This typically manifests as the victim excusing/justifying the abuser’s behavior, isolating themselves to hide the abuse from outsiders, maintaining hope that the relationship/the abuser’s behavior will improve, and feeling unable or unwilling to leave despite detriments to the victim’s mental/physical health and wellbeing. Victims also may equate abuse with love and not recognize abusive behaviors as abuse (because “they still love me” or “they’re doing it because they care”).
Many victims of abuse who form a trauma bond with their abuser find it particularly hard to leave the relationship/remove the abuser from their life, can suffer intense distress when they do leave, and are more likely than non-trauma-bonded victims to return to their abuser.
Source: Verywellmind.com link
7. A majority of cars in the US made since 2002 have a glow-in-the-dark handle that opens the trunk and is located inside the trunk.
Source: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-V/part-571/subpart-B/section-571.401
8. If sending a greeting card, printed photos, or a child’s artwork, include the date somewhere on the piece.
Many people hold on to sentimental items for years after they were received. Including dates helps a lot with recall years later. On photos, including names may also be helpful.
9. Platinum has had a lower price than Gold since 2015.
When shopping for jewelry, I’ve noticed that Platinum jewelry is still priced higher than the same piece in Gold despite the relative deflation of Platinum’s price vs Gold.
10. There’s a browser extension called Unhook, which removes every feature from YouTube that you feel distracts you from your productivity.
Many times you watch a YouTube video to do something productive, like a tutorial or an educational video. But then there’s the list of Recommended Videos on the right side of the video with a lot of videos that seem more fun than whatever you’re doing (since they’re recommended by the YouTube algorithm itself). So this extension allows you to remove that list altogether, along with anything else you think you waste too much time on (comments, home feed, mixes, etc). It can also be useful if you want to reduce your screen time.
Here’s the link for Chrome and Chromium-based browsers (Edge, Opera, etc), and here’s the one for Firefox.
11. You can use Siri to call from someone’s phone even when locked.
If you find someone’s phone, you can try calling their mom or some relative using Siri and asking it to call “mom” or something like that.
Since many people are pointing it out, you can still use Siri without voice recognition by long pressing the power button/home button.
12. Occasionally dressing up at work can help you stand out in a good way, especially when you’re interviewing for other jobs.
When you do have job interviews, your change in attire won’t raise eyebrows in the office.
It can also remind your superiors of your potential value to other employers, which might prompt them to reevaluate your current role and contributions.
It can also subtly influence your coworkers’ perception of you. Looking sharp can make you seem more professional and competent.
13. A house is a mechanical and structural system that shouldn’t be remodeled or added on to without knowing about those systems.
Remodeling or adding on to your house can compromise the integrity of the building and its performance if not done properly.
A house (or any building) is more than a collection of building materials.
1. Structure.
It stays standing during hurricanes and earthquakes and aging (yes, houses age like people) because the roof, the walls, the floors, and the foundations are all connected to each other to resist those forces or flex with them. Removing walls or cutting windows/doors into the walls, digging deeply near the foundation, or adding new materials (like tile roofing on a house not designed to handle the weight) can compromise the strength of the building’s structure and should be evaluated by an engineer to determine if the structure of the building is adequately strong enough.
That being said, most modern homes are over-engineered enough to handle much revision so no additional structural strengthening may be needed. But you want to know (and any permits will require a structural engineer to sign off on it as will your insurance company. It could even torpedo a house sale if you’ve made changes you can’t prove are safe).
2. Proper ventilation is vital to the long-term health of you and your building.
A house has what’s called a “dew-point” of the roof and wall systems (floors less so because they are typically near or directly in contact with the earth which is a fabulous insulator).
In short, the air has moisture in it. Like when you have a cold glass of water in a warm room, the water drops (dew) that form on the outside of a glass are condensed water from the warm air. It’s the temperature difference that causes that.
So when a building is designed (properly), the place where warm air meets cold air should never be inside the walls or the roof. That’s the primary point of having wall or roof insulation: to slow the movement of heat into or out of the building so that cold/hot air never meets inside.
You can imagine what happens when it does: mold, rot, etc. (especially in modern buildings that are built with very air-tight/waterproof systems).
Again, getting a professional evaluation from an engineer or architect before hand is crucial. Just slapping a different material on the outside or covering up roof or soffit vents (or even adding them in the wrong places) is a recipe for failure. Expensive failure.
14. SSRI/SNRI antidepressant withdrawal can last for months or years.
A lot of patients aren’t correctly informed by their doctor of withdrawal risks when going off the medication. Some people get no withdrawal, some get mild/moderate withdrawal lasting a few weeks and others get severe withdrawal lasting many months. Tapering slowly may help!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7768871/
15. “Bi-Weekly” is a nonsense phrase that means both “twice per week” AND “every two weeks”.
This can really end in disaster if you mean it one way and the listener takes it the other way.
Never use the phrase “bi-weekly” because it is an irregularity of the English language that has two very different meanings; both “twice per week” and “every two weeks” simultaneously.
Instead, use the phrase “twice weekly” or “fortnightly”.
16. Keys can be duplicated from photos.
Keys should be treated like a physical password, as the bumps and grooves on a key are what interface with the pins in a lock and give you access to your home. Additionally, with 3D printers now being quite common, it wouldn’t even need to be done by a locksmith. Someone with ample knowledge and ability could potentially copy your key in just a couple of hours. A 3D-printed key is dangerous because it leaves little to no forensic evidence compared to other methods such as picking.
An experience shared: “Recently somebody I’m close with escaped an abusive relationship, and then posted a picture of their new house keys on social media to celebrate their new-found freedom, only to have to pay to change their locks shortly after.
You wouldn’t make your passwords public on social media, so don’t share photos of your keys!”
17. If you’re using your car’s Bluetooth, everyone outside can hear your phone call.
You probably don’t want people listening in on sensitive calls, especially if you’re taking them in your car to keep it private.
18. Google Messages has built-in message scheduling.
Holding the SMS button that appears allows you to schedule the message for whenever. Once sent it can still be adjusted to update the text, send now, or reschedule.
19. Gum can be toxic to dogs in small amounts.
Many gum brands contain a sweetener called xylitol which is safe for humans but can be fatal to dogs in small amounts. Our 65-pound doodle might not make it through the night because he ate a pack earlier today. Hoping others can learn from this post instead of the horrible way we did.
20. Spotify’s shuffle feature isn’t random by default and you need to turn off Automix for it to be.
Automix curates your playlist and groups related songs.
