4Tests Blog

One thing that I enjoy doing to stay abreast of current events and expand my knowledge base is to peruse the TIL subreddit on the popular social sharing site. After all, the more you know, the better equipped you’ll be for school … and life. Like any secondary source, this is one that you may want to take with a skeptical eye before you go off sharing things as fact, but luckily, the redditors usually give you all the information you need to verify the things on your own. This is actually a great exercise for those of you looking to hone your study skills and become better researchers — much needed for college.

Step One: Click the TIL subreddit link.

This will take you to the original source used. You can generally figure out from there whether the source is a reputable one or not. It’s important to note that some non-reputable sources may still be useful so long as they link to something with more authority that confirms the information. Wikipedia is a great example of this. Many people rely on Wikipedia for their facts, which is okay as long as they are examining the reference links and checking out the source where that site’s information comes from before sharing.

Step Two: Once arriving at your destination, examine the source.

Is the thrust of the story from actual verifiable research or is it just an opinion piece from one of the site’s writers or is it something reported as fact that links out to a non-reputable source? This is where you get down in the weeds and use a mixture of judgment and knowledge to figure things out for yourself.

Step Three: If it’s interesting, share; if it’s not, correct the original poster with your ‘proof.’ There is enough false information on the Internet. Don’t let it perpetuate.

With that out of the way, here are six facts from recent TIL headlines that you may find shocking.

Susan G. Komen ‘For The Cure’ Ruthlessly Goes After Smaller Charities That Use ‘Cure’

According to Huffington Post, this much loved charity doesn’t play very nice when dealing with “competitors.” Laura Bassett writes that “So far, Komen has identified and filed legal trademark oppositions against more than a hundred of these Mom and Pop charities, including Kites for a Cure, Par for The Cure, Surfing for a Cure and Cupcakes for a Cure — and many of the organizations are too small and underfunded to hold their ground.”

Komen’s general counsel, Jonathan Blum, told the news site “that the fundraising powerhouse tries to be reasonable when dealing with small charities and nonprofits, but that it has a legal duty to protect its more than 200 registered trademarks.”

“It’s never our goal to shut down a nonprofit,” he said, “and we try very hard to be reasonable, but it’s still our obligation to make sure that our trademarks are used appropriately so there’s no confusion in the marketplace over where people’s money is going.”

Taco Bell Proves You Don’t Like Salt As Much As You Say You Do

Taco Bell, the organization, believes that human beings don’t need salt as much as they think, and they ran one experiment, reported by Consumerist, to prove their point. From a company statement:

One of our initiatives has been to reduce the sodium content of food across the entire menu… So we have been working very diligently over the last two years to get out 23 percent of the sodium across our menu.

The first place we actually tested this is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. So 150 restaurants over the last few months have been eating great-tasting Taco Bell food with 23-percent less sodium. And the great news is: No one even knows we’ve done it. That’s when you know you’ve been successful…

The food team back in [Taco Bell’s California base of] Irvine did a great job of replacing the sodium taste with the taste of other spices and other ingredients.

Yep. No complaints!

Shavarsh Karapetyan Was A Real-Life Superhero

In what is perhaps one of the greatest acts of heroism ever recorded, the retired Soviet-Armenian champion swimmer, who is also an 11-time World Record holder, 17-time World Champion, 13-time European Champion and 7-time USSR Champion, saved 20 lives. But it’s not that he did that — remarkable as it is — it’s the WAY he did it. More from ILiketoWasteMyTime:

One cold morning on September 16th, 1976 he was doing his usual run along the dam in Erevan (Armenia), when a large trolleybus carrying 92 passengers lost control and flew off the road into the freezing water. During the impact, most of the passengers fell unconscious – the bus sank approximately 10 meters deep. Without a second of hesitation, Shavarsh leaped into the freezing water to rescue people.

Diving to the depth of 10 meters, Shavarsh used his feet to break the back window of the trolleybus. One by one, he saved 20 peoples’ lives (he actually pulled out more then 20, but not everyone made it). He spent nearly 20 minutes in the frigid water and accomplished 30 dives down to the wreck of the bus. His brother – Kamo Karapetyan – is also a swimmer, and took care of the injured people as Shavarsh brought them up to the surface.

Scientology Is Not A Religion … In Germany

According to Tablet, scientology is not actually a religion in Germany. The site reports that “Since the Church established itself here in 1970, the German government has waged a long-running legal and political battle against it. The government makes its logic plain: Because of its history of Nazism, Germany believes it has an obligation to root out extremists, and not just those of a political flavor. In the eyes of most Germans, Scientology is nothing more than a cult with authoritarian designs on the country’s hard-won pluralistic democracy.”

Tetris Can Help You Live Better

Vocativ reports on a study on the health benefits of — of all things — Tetris. Apparently the highly addicting video game can help you curb other major and potentially more serious, addictions.

From the report:

“Psychologists from Plymouth University and Queensland University of Technology in Australia recruited 31 students to carry old-school iPods around campus for one week. Students received seven text messages per day, reminding them to report their cravings at regular intervals (how badly they wanted to eat, sleep, use drugs or have sex, and whether or not they indulged in their respective cravings), and then a small subset of those students were prompted to play a rousing game of Tetris.

“And as those bit-sized blocks fell, so did the intensity of their cravings. ‘The impact of Tetris on craving was consistent across the week and on all craving types,’ said coauthor Jon May of Plymouth University, in a prepared statement. ‘People played the game 40 times on average but the effect did not seem to wear off.'”

Essentially, playing Tetris can help you reduce cravings for sex, drugs, food, and sleep. Wow.