What’s it like to die and come back to life?
About 6 years ago my friend and I were on our way to pick up another friend from work at around 10pm. He was the driver and I was the passenger. We approach the intersection of my friends work traveling about 55mph (88kph) and as we’re entering the intersection a girl on her phone ran the red light at about 70mph (113kph) and we T-boned her. My seatbelt ripped the buckle from its housing and I went through the windshield.
I’m awake and conscious. I stand up and reach for my phone in my pocket; my arm feels like it’s on fire but I get my phone out and dial 911 through the lock screen. I look down and I’m pouring blood onto the street, as in a nice steady stream is making a puddle. People that had seen the accident, including the friend we were picking up, stop and watch me in horror as I walk around and hand my now blood covered phone my friend who is still stuck in the car. He takes it and I proceed to lean against the car.
An ambulance shows up, straps me to a board, and starts to load me into the back. As the as the stretcher is being loaded into the ambulance my mom showed up at the scene of the accident. I never saw her but I heard her yell “I love you, *****,” I tried really hard but I wasn’t able to reply.
While I was in the ambulance, I started feel odd and, although it’s weird to say, I could tell that my body was giving up on me.
In the beginning my fingers started to go numb, at first in the pins and needles sense and then I couldn’t feel them at all. I remember touching them with my thumbs and thinking about how weird it was. My vision blurred and would go in and out of blackness. I coughed out a “thank you” and for some reason an “I’m sorry” to the person who was working on me in the ambulance. I closed my eyes and I thought about my how my friend would probably blame himself and how my Mom would handle it (I was 21 and still lived with her.) My body started to feel really light, and I tried to touch my thumbs to my fingers again but my hands wouldn’t move. Everything seemed quiet to me, I could see that the person was trying to talk to me but it was like I was selectively tuning him out. Instead I could hear my heart beat steadily getting further and further apart.
My final though was “I wish I had replied to her.” (referring to my mom’s “I love you.”) After that everything went black, just like falling asleep.
I was defibrillated, and let me tell you, it’s a total sensory overload. It’s like being kicked in the chest, it tastes and smells like hot copper, you see a blinding white flash, and you hear an enormous BANG all at the same time.
After I was defibrillated I had 4 shots of Epinephrine to make my heart beat steady. The guy in the ambulance was literally crying because I had apologized to him before he had lost me. I later found out that my heart had stopped for 113 seconds.
Not an experience that I’d recommend to anybody, but interesting to know about nonetheless.
– A_wicked_tale
Why should you never co-sign a loan?
In 2011, when I was young and dumb, my older sister asked me to sign for a car loan for her and her husband for a 2011 Infiniti QX56 totaling about $60,000. At the time, her husband was the sole earner while my sister didn’t work for religious reasons even though she has like 2 masters degree. I had pretty good credit while they had very bad credit. At the time, I was saving money along with my then girlfriend to buy a home. I initially turned down the request from my sister but my family pressed me and I stupidly relented and signed the contract which cost me my relationship with my then girlfriend. At the same time, I also signed a contract to rent a home in Texas for them (i lived in DC at the time and now Seattle) because of their bad credit. They kept up with the payments on the car and home until about 19 months ago. Due to financial issues, they started slipping up in their payments eventually leading up to them being evicted (and I only found out about the eviction after the fact due to an alert on my credit report). The landlord sued them (me) and got a default judgment against me for about $5000. In addition, the financial institution I got the car loan for contacted me today trying to repossess the car. My sister and her husband failed to inform me that they were 96 days past due to the tune of $4,000. I had to pay $4000 to have the repossession activity halted.
My sister and her husband can’t make payments so I have to now. The car loan is valued at $29000 with a monthly car note of $1054.
– redshrek
What is the internet ‘Echo Chamber’ and how has it contributed to growing poltical divide of America?
While the pursuit of better, more customized content is certainly worthwhile to the consumer, it has far-reaching consequences in ways we never imagined.
We humans tend to be comfortable around those who share our core beliefs, be they religious, political or even our taste in food. So we often cocoon ourselves in this soothing echo chamber of like-mindedness.
As you engage online with content that relates to your interests, you’re reinforcing your own world view and preferences to the personalization algorithms. Very soon, you’ll start seeing more content online that shares that viewpoint. You’ll get recommendations on new Facebook pages to follow based on the ones you already do. Everything you see makes sense to you because everything appearing is, well, you. At least the cyber-you revealed to the algorithms.
These personalized feeds are everywhere from Facebook to your smartphone apps. Most users have no problem letting their computer determine the best content for them at any given time. Let’s face it, when the newsfeed reinforces your world view you feel validated. That’s no surprise; we are social animals that need our beliefs affirmed, if only by a faceless mathematical formula.
But at what cost? What is the price of being surrounded by your beliefs and passions? What if you’re wrong, perhaps horribly wrong, and the unblinking newsfeed says you’re right? And how can you think or argue intelligently if you have no idea what the other side even believes?
The algorithm has in many ways killed discourse in this country. Of course, there are other factors, but I firmly believe personalization algorithms have played a huge role in the degradation of rational debate, one based on facts rather than unsupported beliefs or outright fallacies.
It’s not that they don’t want to understand one another. It’s because their views have been stridently reinforced by this technological echo chamber. They are not only right and their opponents wrong, they are righteous and their opponents are reprobates.
This begs a simple yet disturbing question. How can we ever come together and have meaningful discourse if we can’t even clearly understand what the issues and facts actually are?
– Matthew Kaskavitch
How do you fact check articles in an increasingly fake-news driven world?
- Make sure you get news from sites that are reputable. And make sure you’re consistently checking at least one neutral news source. AP and Reuters are good neutral options, but they don’t always cover everything. It’s fine to check less neutral (but still reputable) sites, but be conscious of their bias and be sure to check multiple sources to make sure you’re hearing both sides of each argument.
- Read the complete article if a headline intrigues you and don’t ever take headlines as fact. Often times the headline will be misleading, confusing, or take things out of context. Reading the article will give you the whole story and increases your knowledge on the subject. If you don’t have time to read the whole article at least try to read the first few paragraphs and skim the rest. Ctrl+F is your friend here.
- Look for sources. If an article makes a claim, especially one that seems outrageous, check the source. If there is no source, or if the source is a shady looking website you’ve never heard of, there’s a good chance it’s fake news. Otherwise investigate the source to make sure the original article you clicked is interpreting it fairly and accurately.
- Not sure if the news you’ve found is legitimate? Google the headline (or something close to it). If you’ve stumbled upon an article that is saying something that seems suspicious, google the title or some of the keywords that the article is about. If no reputable news sources pop up (but plenty of new sites you’ve never heard of do), there’s a high chance you’ve found fake news. If reputable sources appear, read an article or two to make sure it’s about the same thing. If it is, chances are it’s legitimate news.
- Look at government sourced statistics. Government statistics are thrown around all the time. But they are very often misinterpreted (and often intentionally so). When reading about things like unemployment, welfare, minimum wage, or climate change, have a look at the raw data. It’s often not too difficult to understand and it can give a lot of clarity.
- Check Wikipedia on topics you’re unsure of, and check the annotated sources. Wikipedia is great for getting a brief overview of topics. It often shows criticisms of various topics, and allows you to easily dig deeper into concepts you want to learn about. If you’re hesitant to believe something, check the fact’s source, which should be annotated right on the page.
- Be skeptical, honest, and malleable. Remember, you’re looking for the truth. And sometimes the truth might not line up with what you believe or even want to believe. Be skeptical of things, but also receptive to new information. Be willing to change your view in light of new, accurate information. Usually the truth is in the gray areas. It’s up to you to piece the various narratives together so that you can be informed and have a holistic view of the world.
What’s it like being attacked by an IED
Imagine driving down a dirt road, not so much a road as a strip of dirt surrounded by other dirt. Nothing around for miles but meager scrub and the sound of trickling sound.
Then, bam! Explosion. Overturned truck. Small fire. Screaming. Blood. One guy is crying, wailing. He’s just a kid from Alabama, told you a few weeks ago he’s never really been laid. His leg’s gone. Another isn’t crying, he isn’t doing anything but fighting to breathe. You can’t even really see what’s wrong, but the side of his face is peppered black. It isn’t even bleeding. It doesn’t look anything like his wedding picture, smiling.
Your XO is on the radio, because he wants the medevac now goddammit! The FOB is saying something back, it doesn’t sound like they’re trying all that hard. They want a sitrep.
You and the other rifles deploy out, scanning the nothingness. Eyes out! Eyes out! Looking for what? Doesn’t matter, see it before it sees you.
The docs are working on your buddies. Hey, I need hands! They pull you off the line because you did a little extra training before deployment. You’re packing gauze into a mangled, makeshift, cavity. More gauze. More! Now pressure!
Shit, we need a tourniquet.
Tell my wife, tell her I love her.
No, you’ll tell her yourself.
Where’s that bird?
Nothing from the line.
One guy gets quiet, and doc moves into him, cutting his pants and his boots off. He’s naked now, naked and silent. Doc slides a massive needle in his arm and your naked friend doesn’t even flinch.
The bird appears, just as doc starts quietly pressing the XO. It won’t land, it just keeps circling. Are you sure it’s clear down there?
Damn right, set her down?
The PJs jump out. Doc starts barking clinical and cold. Dobbs is now the 20 year old CAT One, so is Jackson. Lewis is a CAT Two. The difference eludes you, because they’re all loaded to the bird and flown off.
Scavenge that fucking truck and burn it!
You get back to base, having seen no enemy. Having made no headway. Having only lost friends. And your friends have lost limbs. And your friends are lost altogether.
The chaplain says they have moved past suffering. That doesn’t help you, your suffering. That won’t help you when you drive the same road next week.
And the new boots come in, fresh out of Georgia, all hoo-ah’s and zipper boots. Tac-lites and paracord. Taking bout firefights, and seeing the shit.
Ain’t shit to see, it’s invisible shit.
It’s that slight curve in the road where Stegman got his belly split. The rise where Olson lost his hand, then his wife. The flat where Carver’s eye got blown out, abd he cried for you to push it back in.
You try to point it out, hey here’s that shit you wanted to see. And they don’t see it. They don’t see until it’s too late.
Olson sends you a letter, yeah he’s home. Got a new girlfriend. She’s cute as a button, missing a leg from a car wreck, met her at rehab.
That’s great man.
Fucker. Bastard.
Why is he home?
Why do I hate him?
Nine months of this. Nine more months.
Then home.
What’d you see? What are firefights like?
I don’t know. I don’t wanna talk about it.
That bad, huh?
I dunno. I spent the last nine months turned the other way. Ignore it. Block it out. Space from leaving the FOB unto back in the FOB.
Pretend it’s not happening.
Pretend you’re not here.
That’s the mindset they’re trying to put soldiers in, they want to waste the reserve of will, until soldiers become ineffective abd the war effort loses steam.
It may not be super effective, but if they can break any soldiers without losing one, they’ve made a gain.
That’s what the IEDs are for.
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