The video you click on is nothing like what you expected. Instead of a helpful video teaching small shortcuts in tedious classes, you get a comedy of stupid and disgusting fails, all branded as DIY lifehacks. The truth is, these lifehacks are mostly all just made for the views. Thus, with no real conviction to care about if the lifehacks are useful or not, as long as they garner views, many times the hacks are impractical, downright fake, completely useless, or tedious, requiring more materials than a simple fix like buying a clip.

The sad reality is that lifehack channels like 5-minute crafts are useless. Occasionally they will have one good hack, but many are ridiculous flops. Such as someone who couldn’t reach high enough to clean a ledge, so their fix was to take two stools, and instead of using the stools to stand on them, they DUCT TAPED THEMSELVES to the stools. THEIR FEET WERE COMPLETELY DUCT TAPED. So what happens when they lose balance or have to get down? Another hack was giving yourself……artificial pimples…… why? you ask? There is no why. Not only are these laughable fails yet aggravating that they try to trick people, they DO. Many people believe that such “life hacks” are even useful. However, the majority of those who watch life hack videos or DIY videos rarely do the actual hacks. Maybe once or twice, but the majority of the hacks seen are unattempted by most people. And when they are, they tend to be a letdown.

This shows that on the internet there can be many deceiving people. It also shows that some things might sound good on paper but are really, really, stupid in the real world.

At first glance, they appear alienlike, perched atop a stringy stalk clustered in groups. Upon closer examination, it becomes apparent that they can be split into two sections, the cap, and stalk.

Many people might believe due to their lack of movement and plantlike look that mushrooms are more closely related to plants than animals. However, one who is well versed in these depths of biology would say otherwise.

While the mushroom may behave and look similar in some fashion to plants, indeed they are more closely related to the animal side of biology. Much like many animals such as coral, they appear at first glance to be much more like a plant than something like an animal. However, by carefully dissecting the details of the animal or fungi, you can determine whether they are more like a plant than an animal.

This shows that sometimes you should look further beyond the first details and take a glance at the more subtle ones.

Alfred Nobel was a famous Swedish chemist who became renowned when he invented dynamite.

He bequeathed the remainder of his fortune to the Nobel Prize Institution, named after him. Out of his innumerable patents and amazing accomplishments, he was most famed for the invention and patenting of dynamite, as well as his turning of the company Bofors into a cannon and other weapon producing company. 

Dynamite has a myriad of uses. It can be used to make or break things, to tear down buildings as well as mining. Dynamite has literally shaped the world. As an invention, it took a highly volatile and therefore partially useless in everyday things material called nitroglycerin and made it less dangerous, and therefore more applicable.

This shows that some things like nitroglycerin are normally a bad idea to use, but if slightly changed it could alter the world forever.

To say the least, coronavirus has been one of the worst disasters in human history, decimating human populations and leaving the race as a whole crippled. Yet in the midst of the chaos sowed by a rampant virus, many have turned away from their senses and have tried to rationalize along irregular lines of logic why such a thing had happened. These people are conspiracy theorists. Some people, misguided ones believe the coronavirus to be a hoax. Many think the whole pandemic is just a government attempt to control them, and thus are suspicious and paranoid. 

These people have tried to take something that they cannot comprehend and explain it in a way that makes sense, sometimes exclusively to them. The fact is, they do not take into account firsthand experiences and other’s world, believing a narcissistic point of view that only they are right. Others follow what they say because they are gullible and fall prey to the rule that any information told repeatedly will eventually make someone think otherwise if they are not naturally inclined to not believe false hoax theories.

Nevertheless, regularly, such schemes would be accepted as a part of society. Everything has its highs and lows, and nothing is perfect, least of all humanity’s common sense. The thing is, people making theories like this completely disrespect people who have experienced the coronavirus, as well as who they theorize let loose the virus. One idea is that Bill Gates let out the virus, and the conspiracy theories don’t get more sensible than that. This shows that even though people represented the truth in front of their noses, they feel it is too outside of what they believe is their small box in which they live. Anything outside of their box that would tear down what has always been believed is rejected. To make a better world, we have to reject this “small box” mentality and always look for truth, instead of conspiracies.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low but the debts are high,

And you want to smile but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit…

Rest if you must, but don’t you quit!

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many failures turn about

When we might have won had we stuck it out.

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow…

You may succeed with another blow.

Often the struggler has given up

When he might have captured the victor’s cup;

And he learned too late when the night came down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out…

And you can never tell how close you are

It may be near when it seems so far.

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Nowadays the words “Achilles heel” are used to describe weakness. It is used in phrases like, “His (or Her) Achilles heel is being gullible.” However, the story behind this is even more interesting.

The Illiad and the Odyssey were two epics depicting a possible fictional war reportedly spanning ten years. Written by Homer, it brought to life the story of the Trojan War, in the Illiad, and the fateful journey of a lost hero who participated in the war, Odysseus, in the Odyssey. 

The Trojan War was supposedly a war between Troy, a city inhabited by the Trojans, and the Greeks. To simplify a bunch of convoluted plot lines, a guy named Paris was asked by a whole bunch of the female Greek gods who were all the prettiest. Soon enough, they turned to bribery, with them offering stuff like Athena offering wisdom, and etc. Aphrodite said Paris would get the prettiest girl ever, and so he took the bait and proclaimed Aphrodite the prettiest. Problem was, the prettiest girl WAS ALREADY MARRIED. 

So after some sneaky kidnapping, the promise was fulfilled. But said girl’s name was Helen, and her husband was this guy called Menelaus, who happened to be a king of a Greek state. He called together all his bros in other Greek states and together they set siege to Troy. Also, funny story, there was a prophecy that whoever set foot first on the beaches would die first. Everyone kind of just sat in the boats waiting for someone idiotic enough to fall overboard when Odysseus, who was like this really smart guy, threw his shield on the ground and jumped on it. He didn’t set foot, but another guy thought the coast was clear and ended up impaled. 

Anyways, there was this guy called Achilles. Basically, he’s good at fighting. Purportedly, he was invulnerable, because his mom sensibly took baby Achilles and dunked him into the waters of the River Styx. Somehow, it made him invulnerable, with arrows bouncing off and swords shattering from striking his abs. He was a one-man army. BUT, he had a weakness. 

You see, Achilles was held by the heel when dipped in the River Styx by his mom. So when his Greek bros went to fight he did, and was a whirlwind, laying waste to anybody foolish enough to get close, besides Hector, Troy’s best fighter. Achilles was single handedly turning the tide, but then Paris, who was a massive coward and a wimp, who ran away from a duel with Menelaus, somehow managed to hit Achilles’ heel with an arrow. And thus, the greatest fighter of Greece died. And that is why we call it an Achilles Heel.

By far one of the most famous places in America, sporting all sorts of nature, Yellowstone National Park is well renowned for its beauty and wonderful scenery. Underneath this facade of wonder lies something that could certainly spell doom for America, and perhaps the whole world.

Beneath the treetops and hot springs as well as geysers and waterfalls of Yellowstone reside a volcano. A volcano unlike any other. Hidden by the fascinating nature of the earth is a massive supervolcano.

The Yellowstone supervolcano has always been a source of fascination for apocalyptic scenarios. Truth is, the chance of yet another massive eruption from the Yellowstone Caldera is low. Nevertheless, the possibility still ignites fear within anyone well educated in the aftereffects of a volcano. Imagine Pompei-except the dark umbra of settling ash cloaking the entire US. So much ash in the air could blot out the sun-causing frigid temperatures and disrupting flights. Several states near the caldera in the worst-case scenario would be buried by several feet of ash. The ash would massively deteriorate air quality and crush anything unfortunate enough to go below it.

This shows that no matter where you live, how safe you feel, how powerful your military is, you can never be 100% safe. This means that you should use whatever amount of life you have left doing things that are worth it, things you want to be remembered by the whole world.

World War I was an experimental war in which many new technologies were exploited and tested. One of these was the fighter plane.

However, by World War II, technology had evolved, and the antiquated biplanes had evolved to the point where ground forces were dependent on airplanes.  

Hitler’s chief ground forces consisted of his feared Panzer tank divisions and Wehrmacht soldiers. Due to the fact France and Britain had grown lax in the interwar and Phony War period, they had let Hitler build up a tank force. They themselves did not possess heavy enough tanks to take on the heavy Tiger and Panzers. Hitler’s armor columns at first found no resistance to challenge them. The one sure-fire way the Allies could take out the Panzers were from aerial attacks. This meant that bombers and close-air support were key.

Everything in war is hard to maintain. A plane needs a smooth runway, scrap parts to repair themselves, fuel, a crew, ammo, tanks need fuel, maintenance on their tracks and ammo, and troops need food, clothing, guns, and etc. These do not just suddenly appear in an outpost. They come from the industrial heartland of their countries. Airlifts deliver items and truck convoys bring much-needed supplies. Once the convoys are severed and ports are blockaded the enemy will be vulnerable. Aircraft were vital for this, to sever supply routes. Naval bombers sink ship convoys ferrying loads of supplies, close-air-support blow up trucks that carry vital supplies, and interceptors frag supply planes. And most importantly long-range bombers can blow up the factories that produce the supplies in the first place.

Of course, the enemy won’t let you run around bombing them. By using interceptors such as the Messerschmitt BF 109 and the Focke-Wulf 190 the Nazis countered in thrusts against bomber air raids. Meanwhile, Nazi Stukas turned British cities into rubble. In response, the British parried with RAF Hurricanes and the famed Spitfire while bombing with Avro Lancasters. America entered late into the air war but their Rolls-Royce-powered  P-51 Mustangs and Republic P-47 Thunderbolts gained dominance over Europe. And against the Japanese Zero, planes like the Grumman F6F Hellcat, P-38 Lightning, and Corsairs downed scores of planes and ships. The planes with longer flight times were also used to guard bomber formations on raids to protect them from enemies.

In conclusion, it can be said definitively that airplane pilots were vital to the war effort. Whoever controlled the skies controlled the sea and land. In the end, the invasion of Britain which would have surely spelled doom for America was thwarted when the overmatched RAF’s resistance against the German Luftwaffe put a wrench in the plans for landings across the English Channel. Landing craft full of German soldiers would be an easy target for the RAF if Hitler proceeded with his invasion without control of the skies, and the bombing of Europe, the involvement of the US, and Russia’s counterattack with help from the winter constricted Germany. In the Pacific, the US defeated the Japanese the way the war started with: a bombing. The aerial control created by Admiral Nimitz and his carriers allowed for the US to advance island by island in bloody battles, eventually putting Japan in range of their bombers. By targeting Mitsubishi’s main plant the Japanese Air Force was crippled, and the finishing strike on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended World War II

It’s common knowledge that some humans love to feed ducks. Yet when a lady yelled at my dog for chasing the ducks at a pond, little did she know that the big bag of Mrs. Baird’s bread was causing more harm to the ducks than my dog was since my dog hates swimming and the ducks stayed in the water, and that my dog doesn’t poison the ducks. 

Some people genuinely believe that feeding ducks tons upon tons of bread will help them. Even so, while they feed ducks some people can turn into nasty personas when informed that all they are doing is promoting feeding of ducks which can, of many things, cause ducks to rely on humans, meaning their own skills for foraging are underdeveloped making them starve when outside of human contact, therefore weakening the gene pool. 

Feeding ducks also causes unnatural mood swings which makes the ducks either become even more aggressive or much less competitive, therefore causing the deaths of the ducks. Due to the fact ducks naturally are attracted to the food humans will be feeding them, more ducks will flock to a small habitat, making it over crammed with ducks. This is bad because duck feces are extremely harmful, polluting entire lakes if there are too many ducks. Because the bread floats in the water and the ducks don’t know better than to eat old bread that has been floating for hours. This means the bread can accumulate diseases that will spread quickly throughout the ducks and can easily kill them. 

And since more ducks are in the habitat than normal due to the food, more ducks will be infected. And since the food is abundant, the ducks’ migration patterns will be delayed. Not only do all these things threaten the duck population, but bread, birdseed, chips, popcorn, and etc are basically junk food to ducks. They adore being fed, of course, because they love the bread, but younger ducks, when humans aren’t around, never learn to find food because they were always catered to. Feeding them human food can cause malnutrition and deformities. And too many ducks in one place means all the toxic feces pollute said pond/lake.This shows that some things shouldn’t be interfered with by humans. We think it’s harmless, but all we are doing is harming them. The human equivalent of this is feeding somebody who doesn’t know better massive amounts of candy.

In 1692, a group of girls who allegedly said they were possessed by the devil accused several local women of persuing the world of witchcraft. What followed next was a frenzy in trying to determine who was a witch and who wasn’t. 

However, the understanding of the world at the time was limited, so the trials conducted were very lopsided. For one, they would call people witches and test by seeing if they burned, or floated, and etc. However, they had no way of knowing that a normal human could do all the same. 

But the thing that made the court system so rigged was because of how they used proof. Basically, if I was transported back in time then, I could say, “You’re a witch.” Of course, you’d be like, “No I am not!” Then I’d say, “What’s your proof that you aren’t then?” Basically, they assumed the charges were true and had to be disproved. It’s like saying, “The Moon’s core is made of rubber” and when somebody challenges that then you say, “Oh really? Prove it isn’t.” 

This shows that you shouldn’t assume you are always 100% correct. Innocent until proved guilty.