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.
Redditor u/SauloJr wanted 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 vhspositive
Giphy
"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 Originals
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"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 HQ
Giphy
"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.com Gives 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-Def
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"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 QuickBooks
Giphy
10 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 GIF
Giphy
"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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When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.
We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.
Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.
These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.
From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.
Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:
"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"
"Tale As Old As Time..."
"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","
"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."
"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."
"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."
"Lol!"
"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom
"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."
"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."
"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."
"I think he was a germaphobe."
"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."
"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."
"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.
"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."
"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."
"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000
Money Burn GIF by nog
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Who Wore It Better?
"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."
"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."
"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."
"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'
"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"
"No."- mertsey627
Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...
"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."
"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."
"It was very low key."
"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."
"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."
"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."
"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."
"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa
south park wedding GIF
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See You In Court!
"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."
'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."
"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."
"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."
"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."
"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin
It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!
"I work in a public library."
"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."
"A popular book that just came out."
"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."
"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten
A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!
"My own."
"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"
"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."
"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"
"Unacceptable!"
"This shall not stand!"
"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."
"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."
"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."
"I got over it."- DeathGrover
homer simpson episode 23 GIF
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Holy Matrimony!
"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."
"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."
"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."
"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."
"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."
"It's just a party."
"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree
When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...
"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore
In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...
"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."
"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."
"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."
"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."
"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."
"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."
"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."
"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."
"We don’t offer wrapping services."
"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."
'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae
Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno Calypso
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Happiest Place On Earth!
"I used to work for Disney."
"That in itself should tell you everything."
"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."
"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."
"Suddenly got worse huh?"
"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."
"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."
"I'm not kidding."
"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."
"My wife worked booking."
"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."
"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."
"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."
"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."
"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."
"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong
Disney World GIF
Giphy
The horror!
Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!
It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...
Said absolutely no one.
For many childhood memories are overrun by living nightmares.
Yes, children are resilient, but that doesn't mean that the things we see as babes don't follow us forever.
The horrors of the world are no stranger to the young.
Redditor -2sweetcaramel- wanted to see who was willing to share about the worst things we've seen as kids, so they asked:
"What’s the creepiest thing you saw as a kid?"
Serious Danger
"Me and my best friend would explore the drainage tunnels under the Vegas area where we grew up. These were miles long and it was always really cool down there so it was a good way to escape the heat of our scorching hot summers. We went into this one that goes under the Fiesta casino and found a camp with a bunch of homeless people."
"Mind you we are like 11 years old lol. And we just kept going like it was nothing. It wasn’t scary then but when I look back at it we could have been in some serious danger. Our parents had no idea we did this or where we were and we had no cellphones. We could have been kidnapped and never have been found."
oofboof2020
Waiting for Food
"I was at a portillos once when I was 12 and I was waiting with my little brother at a booth while my parents got our food. This guy was standing with his tray kind of watching me then after a couple of minutes he started to walk over really fast not breaking eye contact with me."
"He was 2 feet from the table and my dad came out of nowhere and scared the s**t out of him. He looked so surprised and just said he wanted to see if I’d get scared or not. He left his tray full of food near the door and left. My folks reported him but we never went to that location again since we found a better one closer to home."
nowhereboy1964
Captain Hobo to the Rescue
"When I was a pretty young teen, my friends and I were horsing around in San Francisco and started hanging out to smoke with some homeless guys. Another homeless dude came up and began aggressively trying to shake us down for anything (money, smokes, a ride, drugs- all of it) and wouldn’t take no for an answer."
"We got in over our heads and could tell this guy was now riling the other 2 guys up and they were acting like they wanted to jump us. Some grandfather-looking old homeless man appeared out of nowhere and yelled at us to get the f**k out of here- nice kids like us don’t belong down here at this hour!!"
"Captain Hobo saved our lives that night. My parents sincerely thought we were at a mall all day lol."
FartAttack911
Survival
tsunami GIF
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"I was 7 and survived the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Witnessed the wave rise way above the already massive palm trees (approx. 40ft?) and my family and I watched/heard the wave crash into the ground from a rooftop."
faithfulpoo
These Tsunami stories are just tragic.
On the Sand
Scared The Launch GIF by CTV
Giphy
"We were a group of kids who went to swim in a local lake. And there was a dead body on the beach with their hands raised and their legs bent unnaturally that local police just took out of the same lake. I've never put my foot in these waters again."
oyloff
Be Clever
"I was walking to school and I was about 5 or 6 years old and some guy pulled up beside me in his car and asked if I would get in. He also offered me sweets to do so. I said no. The creepy bit was when he calmly said ‘clever boy’ to me, then drove off. I’ve never even told my parents or anyone else about this as it would most likely freak them out."
OstneyPiz
Bad Jokes
"Dad's side of the family pranked me by burying a fake body on our back property and had me dig it up to find valuables. Was only allowed to use a lantern for light. They stuffed old clothes with chicken bones. Sheetrock mud where the head was... Random fake jewelry as the treasures... I was like maybe 10 or 11.. I remember digging up the boot first and started gagging because it became real at that point."
Alegan239
YOU
Who Are You Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
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"Woke up to find my little brother staring at me in the dark, asking, Are you really you?"
PrettyLola2004
Siblings can really be a bunch of creepers.
No one should talk to others in the dark though.