There is so much to know and see and learn from being on the web. The amount of apps and sites to visit is endless. And so much traffic is overrun by nonsense that lead to red herrings on ways to spend a good life. T
That is why it is so important to share the places we should see that don't have enough spotlight. More often than not we're missing the best the web has to offer. So let's talk amongst ourselves.
Redditoru/SauloJrwanted to shine a light on a few online sites that need some worthy attention, by asking:
What useful unknown website do you wish more people knew about?
I don't have a ton of sites I visit. The internet unnerves me, but I'm willing to learn from those who navigate it. So give me some ideas. My pen and paper are ready.
Strikes
Vintage Vhs GIF by vhspositiveGiphy"https://www.blitzortung.org/ This one lets you see where lightning strikes in real time! Can be reassuring to see the lightning get further and further away, it's also pretty neat in general!"
- Nihil921
Say Cheese!
"Tineye and Foto Forensics. Do you want to know if an image is shopped, cropped or otherwise altered? Using these two tools you've got a good chance of finding out. Tineye is reverse image search on steroids and foto forensics provides free image analysis tools."
- jekylphd
Literature
"Project Gutenberg. Taking all the books that are copyright free and making digital copies available. In college and the school wants you to buy the complete works of Shakespeare for $40? Forget that noise! Free! https://www.gutenberg.org/"
"See also: Librivox, for free audiobook versions."
- Cocreat
Secure Away
"ID Ransomware https://id-ransomware.malwarehunterteam.com/ - If you ever get Ransomware in your computer you can take a encrypted file and out it into this website and it will tell you if any security researchers have cracked it so you can get your files back. And if it hasn't been cracked you can sign up for email notification so when it is cracked you get an email. I haven't used it but someday it might save me or you."
- ICE0124
Do you understand?
In Love Flirt GIF by OriginalsGiphy"Deepl.com - Best translator I've found. It's quite intuitive and even translates idioms and slang. They've got around 20 languages as of their most recent update."
That lightning strike thing is a great idea. Not that I dodge strikes often, or that I need shelter from them but I it's good to know how to avoid them. And always good to translate. Continue...
Read Through
Oh No Help GIF by CBeebies HQGiphy"Terms of Service, Didn't Read summarizes terms of service and rates them for privacy."
Do you Hear what I hear?
"I ADORE mynoise.net. It's an archive of customizable sound generators with everything from music, nature sounds, sound cancelling, ambiances, and meditative drones etc. I focus best with some kind of white noise, and this website has a ton to choose from and it is free."
"My favorite feature is the customizable, animated sliders so you can listen to storms that ebb and grow automatically. It is great for TTRPGs too. The sound engineer who runs it has put together all kinds of specific settings like churches, cities, forests, faires, dungeons, etc. Seriously, people should check it out."
Linguistics...
"If you're interested in languages or trying to learn a new language I recommend Forvo.com, you can look up a word and hear native speakers pronounce it. It's based on volunteers uploading their recordings of the various words. It's pretty useful for when you're working on your pronunciation."
"https://forvo.com/word/gnocchi/ - https://forvo.com/word/g%C3%B6teborg/ - https://forvo.com/word/%E1%83%9B%E1%83%AC%E1%83%95%E1%83%A0%E1%83%97%E1%83%9C%E1%83%94%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98/"
Finding the X
"https://www.rome2rio.comGives you full directions from any two places from door to door including trains, busses and ferries. With options to fly to nearby places and take transit to get to your final destination."
"I was pretty surprised when it even had local bus companies in out of the way place in Philippines. I use it in all my travel planning now. Extra bonus for me, as it's Australian."
- DotDamo
Wash Away
erase men in black GIF by Animation Domination High-DefGiphy"remove.bg is a great way to remove any background."
"I was gonna write this, but then I saw your comment. Absolutely amazing website, works very well."
- csuvi98
SYNC
"twoseven.xyz -Allows you to watch and sync netflix, prime video, downloaded videos, streaming from browser, youtube with your friends while opting to be on voice/video call with them for FREE and NO ADS. Prime video is kinda glitchy in this website tho. The rest seem perfect."
"PS: Both you and your friend need a netflix account. Basically, both cannot use the same account if the subscription is for a single device only."
Goldmine
"Enjoy cartoons? Please enjoy every cartoon ever made all in one place! - https://www.wcofun.com/playlist"
"End of Evangelion and Death & Rebirth in the OG English dubs and not the horrible netflix redubs. Haven't been able to see these since I lost my dvds years ago. You just made my day thank you so so much. ❤️"
Reading is Fundamental
"https://openlibrary.org/ - You can borrow books across a crap ton of different library systems without having to register for them."
- rednoise
"Our fourth grade teacher made all the nerdy way-above-everyone-else-in-reading bookworms in our class (including me) use this site, bc the one everyone else used was targeted to younger kids, like fourth graders. It's amazing to say the least."
Louder
"everynoise.com : This website contains every obscure sub genre of music imaginable. You can find some great music you've never heard of there."
"Also music-map.com : Search an artist/band and it generates a map of similar artists/bands with proximity indicating more fan base crossover. I've tested it with the most obscure stuff I know and it always finds suggestions."
- Tor-Pedo
"insert email"
Danny Devito Work GIF by QuickBooksGiphy10 minute mail provides a temporary email address for you to cut and paste into those pesky "insert email" to sign up or read the rest of the story or whatever. https://10minutemail.com/"
From all over...
"https://radio.garden/visit - you can hear radios live from all around the world. (I recommend accessing on computer or installing the app on mobile)"
- VRicci92
"I love this site and was just about to post it when I saw you already did! This is one of my favorite rainy day websites, where I just scroll around through radio stations in England and Ireland and Australia and Japan and so forth. Great recommendation!"
Birdseye
"Depending on who you are determines if its useful or not, but https://rsoe-edis.org/ is a very informative site of the on-goings of the world. The event map is interesting to explore."
"Such a tragedy: "Traffic incident - Public road accident United Kingdom - M6 fire destroys lorry full of Birdseye potato waffles." Edit: For anyone concerned here's more information and some photos from the scene"
The Best Bypass
"https://12ft.io/ It bypasses all paywalls and removes all ads from any webpage I have found. Show me a 10ft paywall, I'll show you a 12ft ladder. No install, just copy and paste your link."
"Creator of 12ft.io here! Thanks for all the interest in the site. I know, it's not perfect. I'm going to continue developing it. Y'alls support is greatly appreciated. Here's what i'm trying to do."
"I believe that ads and SEO killed the soul of the web. Websites can throw on popups, email captures, newsletters, inline ads, etc. We have to wade through all this crap just to find out the content is some click bait optimized garbage. It's abuse of your brain. As users of the internet, we have no recourse."
"We have to wait until a new site the publishes similar content to come up, and just hope to god that they aren't as bad. It's completely one sided. I want 12ft to be the suite of tools that allows us users of the internet to fight back against these malicious practices. It starts with a Chrome extension, but it'll grow to much more as long as y'all want it."
- thmsmlr
Follow the Data
Happy GIFGiphy"https://haveibeenpwned.com - Allows you to see if your online accounts have been released in a data breach. You can also get email alerts if you've been in a breach."
- j8hny
Find the Knowledge
"Sci-hub get (almost) any research paper for free, just copy the link/DOI of the document and it'll show you the pdf."
"Library genesis free pdf's of math/physics/chemistry/biology/medicine/etc, finished my degree thanks to this one, a bunch of times a book of a course was just too hard to find or incredible expensive to but, but in libgen I got the digital pdf of the book in a few seconds, very neat."
If someone can read my terms of stuff, I'll pay everything. These are great ideas and sites to have on hand. Make a list. I did. Just in case.
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Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.
