100 Industry Claims, Checked Against the Record

Some insider claims survive scrutiny, others become accurate only after narrowing, and many are disputed or incorrect. Readers need the verdict, correction and authoritative source on the same card so the checked answer never becomes detached from its evidence.
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100 Industry Claims, Checked Against the Record

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Start with what the record supports

Some insider claims survive scrutiny, others become accurate only after narrowing, and many are disputed or incorrect. Readers need the verdict, correction and authoritative source on the same card so the checked answer never becomes detached from its evidence.

What you will find
  • Incorrect and corrected claims
  • Disputed claims
  • Accurate but narrowed claims
  • Safety-corrected claims
  • Highest-consequence health, digital and public-system claims
  • Named authoritative sources on each card

Complete numbered catalog — all 100 entries

The title promises this exact number of normalized answers, so the complete catalog appears before category navigation.

1

half the sites you use every day are held together by a handful of exhausted on-call engineers, a pile of scripts nobody fully understands anymore, and duct tape. a surprising amount of the internet is one expired certificate or one fat-fingered config push away from going down for an afternoon.

1 source record
2

The chances of your children's private info, including SSN, birthdate, birthplace, address, etc being leaked and out there on the dark web is fairly high because most school districts in this country have shit network security and work with SaaS vendors that house all this data and are also vulnerable. People heard about the big Canvas hack earlier this year. What people dont seem to realize is that hack wasn't unique and similar events happen fairly often across our country and sometimes to individual school districts. Its a real problem thats just being ignored by our government.

1 source record
3

I have been in academic research for almost 30 years, and the amount of cherry picked or just completely made up data in research papers should concern everyone. In the past it was very rare and now it is almost common practice. It's driven by the pursuit of increasingly scarce funding sources.

1 source record
4

How much personal information people willingly broadcast without realizing it. You don't need fancy dark web hacks or breach databases. 90% of a person's digital footprint, routine, and history can be fully mapped just by stitching together completely public, harmless-looking breadcrumbs.

1 source record
5

Software is terrible not because of bad developers or bad testing. It's the CEOs who make business decisions to placate stockholders by releasing too soon and/or ignoring known bugs.

1 source record
6

AI is a big lie. We built an autonomous agent pipeline internally because our CEO saw that Stripe did the same thing and automated 80% of PRs. We built it. It doesn’t work and still requires major human intervention to get production ready code. A team at my company just presented at a conference how we’ve automated most work using said tool perpetuating the initial lie that tricked us into building the damn thing.

1 source record

Limit: AI is a big lie. We built an autonomous agent pipeline internally because our CEO saw that Stripe did the same thing and automated 80% of PRs. We built it. It doesn’t work and still requires major human intervention to get production ready code.…

8

Free Wifi is a trap. Its data mining. They dont put it in as a favour to you, they're collecting i formation and corporations are using it. I dont know how it works but the amount of information they can glean from you is... Frightening. I was at a seminar on guest wifi where the company selling the access points was telling us about all the information gathering they are capable of... To them it was a selling point. To me it was a good reason never to log on to free wifi again

1 source record
9

Astrophysics. People publishing data from space instruments rarely have a good grasp on the details of how that instrument actually performs, especially if it's been in space for awhile. They'll still assume it's performing the same as it did when it launched, which is usually a more idealized version of that instrument. Results in general should have far larger error bars than published and it greatly weakens them. This can even extend to the teams that build the instruments. I was doing a in-depth analysis of two separate space-based instruments that SHOULD agree with each other and they never did. Two spectrometers, observing the same events, giving different results, with errors that don't cover each other's results.

1 source record
10

Prosecutors employ investigators who routinely check social media during pre-trial prep. Stop posting to your social media and delete your history. It’s low hanging fruit to use your public posting history against you. That goes double for divorces and triple for bankruptcy fraud.

1 source record
11

I used to work in cybersecurity. So much of the misery you are subjected to? Theatre, as part of a project built solely for some "senior leader" to be able to put their name on something. Much of the 'technology' is Emperor's New Clothes. Things like 18FA just to read today's lunch menu, or your corporate laptop seeing 99% CPU usage because of some ZTNA bullshit that blocks absolutely everything and prevents you from doing your job? Nah. That is a classic example of sealing all the exits only for the robbers to depart via the entrance. A lot of these hacks and data breaches happen because some teenager has spearphished your IT manager, or phoned up your helpdesk and talked his way into the VMWare estate. And nobody ever learns from it. The whole thing made me miserable and I began to seriously ask why I bothered.

1 source record
12

Your college saves lots of data on you, including your birthdate, where you were born, where you went to high school, previous addresses, your mother’s maiden name, and other key data points. Basically most the things that allow identity verification. This data is captured when you’re a student and kept for decades/indefinitely after you graduate. Colleges are also non-profits and those with access to these databases aren’t always well trained in data security. Employees aren’t always fully vetted. These databases are a big liability to society, IMHO.

1 source record
13

In social media, most of the posts that ask open form questions are made by bots with a fuck ton of karma in order to make more karma so that they can sell that account to an advertiser later. You'd think that the mods of said social media would simply see right through an obvious marketing scheme, but they'd rather just ban the truth instead.

1 source record
14

Market research The figures that look different at a glance might not be statistically different depending on a sample size and how close the proportion is to the "center" (e.g. 45% and 55% probably wouldn't be statistically different on a usual sample size). Speaking of a sample size, for many businesses it's enough to ask around 50-75 people to make a conclusion about a good share of population. And these people usually paid for their answers (though we are trying to hide the brand behind the study), so it's barely representative at all.

1 source record
15

How many big name companies are storing things like credit card details and personal information in plain ass text in a database.

1 source record
16

Your online profile, collected from everything you touch electronically knows more about you than anyone you know. It knows more about you than you do. Any kind of IQ test, personality test, which celebrity am I quiz is a psychological profiling tool used to enhance the complete list of all your online activity. Think using a landline telephone helps? A hack called Salt Typhoon has permanently installed software to record every phone call made worldwide. It can't be fixed.

1 source record
17

People don't understand. Not even close. What advertising knows. Like. We know you better than you know yourself. We can make you depressed. Happy. Addicted. We can destroy your relationship. We can make you believe you want something. Machine learning algorithms with the amount of data we have on you are so fucking good at exploiting every tiny weakness in your psyche that you'd install adblockers in a hurry if you grasped even a fraction of the capabilities. And even then it's only moderately effective.

1 source record
18

The biggest open secret in computer science is that the entire modern digital world is a fragile house of cards held together by copy-pasted code, duct tape, and unpaid open-source volunteers. While the public assumes massive banks, airlines, and tech giants run on hyper-optimized code, billions of dollars in infrastructure actually rely on obscure software libraries maintained by solo developers in their spare time. Furthermore, a shocking amount of global financial transactions still run on ancient, 1960s-era COBOL code underneath slick modern apps. Because fixing every bug is too expensive, tech companies regularly ship software filled with hundreds of known glitches, simply filing them away as long as they don't completely crash the system.

1 source record
19

Not my industry, but tapping a card that doesn't ask for a PIN is not secure. A Subway near me was caught stealing cards by capturing the RFID for customers that tapped the POS pad. Happened to me twice before I started using my phone's tap pay instead and keeping the card locked.

1 source record
20

I work in building profiles of reddit users. We post leading questions to get users to give demographic data about themselves so we can package it and sell it. Rinse and repeat. every day. It's all clearly explained in the T&C page 272 paragraph 6b.

1 source record
21

microsoft PCs done slow down because the machine is old. It’s designed to do that so you’ll buy another super fast PC and start it all over again

1 source record
22

Algorithm is a terrible word, used as a filler by non technical folks to describe anything they don’t understand. Algorithm is anything a program does. Basically any set of instructions is an algorithm.

1 source record
23

Digital entertainment served via algorithms often includes deliberate frustrating experiences, designed to keep users more engaged. People don't get addicted to static experiences, much like a Casino where you lose 100% of rolls would garner 0 patrons. So they employ random reinforcement techniques, deliberately choosing when to show quality content, garbage content, ragebait content, etc... modeled after a pattern to get users addicted to apps. --- It's pretty commonly known in social media. But multi-player video games employ the same concept, called an: "EOMM" system: Engagement optimized matchmaking. Which is basically the video game publisher profiling users into buckets depending on communication styles/skill/playstyle. And then purposely fitting them into match-made lobbies designed around specific predictive outcome patterns (User will be more likely to play if next X games are X/Y/Z pattern) to milk engagement.

1 source record
24

Telecommunications providers store audio-recordings of all calls for a certain period of time. If a customer reports a voice quality problem, they can access that specific recording to diagnose issues like bad audio or dropped connections. The recordings are also made available to law enforcement authorities for criminal investigations when legally requested. Once the retention period expires, the recordings are automatically deleted according to the provider's data retention policy.

1 source record
25

All those talking about data security is bullshit, your data is stored in clear text in databases where the developer have full access, to. (And all intruders) And it kind of has to be this way, because you simply can't search for an address or anything else on a database if the data is hidden.

1 source record
26

I work in cybersecurity. Almost every company has been hacked. If they haven’t, they’re going to be hacked in the next year or two. Most (like >70%) are social engineering. Phishing. It is surprisingly easy to get people to click on something and have them give their credentials in a fake login window. L

1 source record
27

They (anyone paying for the service not just the government) can playback a recording of your session on a website. Not just the links you clicked, but like a screen recording showing what you saw on your screen while scrolling, where your mouse moved even without clicking, etc. it can be played back like a recorded video. You don’t have to click anything at all to give your “data”

1 source record
29

I work in education and most of the decisions are made based on legal and funding issues, not child development or learning. We call them the "box people" who sit in cubicles 10 miles away from the nearest child and make decisions without a whit of experience or concern for the practicality of it all. It's especially bad for kids with IEPs or early childhood, where the whole thing becomes a tangled mess of licensing, SPED law, and funding. The actual children become data points, not people with needs. I really believe in public education but it is not currently functional. The bureaucracy alone is failing the kids before they even set foot in the building.

1 source record
30

Elementary school teachers and staff get assaulted by students everyday in every school. Not each teacher, everyday but in every school, everyday, at least one teacher/staff is assaulted. Parents don't think it's happening bc we're not allowed to talk about it (or they just don't care - as long as their work day isn't getting interrupted and they have free child care)

1 source record
31

Most faculty have little to no training in how to teach effectively. Student ratings have zero correlation with learning. Most of the time they are completely ignored. Adjuncts are usually only paid a few thousand for teaching a semester long course, have no health insurance, and many are on food stamps and do gig jobs to survive. 80% of students go to community college with the intention to transfer to a 4-year university and graduate with a bachelor's. Only 15% succeed in doing so. Only 60% nationally graduate from universities, 40% in STEM disciplines.

1 source record
32

My dad works as a high school teacher, he says “Parents and students think that the system of education works in the best way but actually the bad behaviors of some students in the class make teachers unable to show their full experience although they have it”.

1 source record
34

If you’re an academic researcher, working on federal grants such as the ones awarded by NSF, DOE, NIH or others, the academic institution will skim 50-75% of that grant in assessments and overhead. The PI usually receives 25-30% of the award.

1 source record
35

I work in recycling. Metal recycling to be precise, but I have connections in plastic/e waste/landfills/residential/etc recyling as well Even if you recycle every possible thing you could and think you're doing your part, I'd say a solid third of it goes straight to a landfill without even the attempt to recycle it. Of what's left, maybe a third of that is rejected for whatever reason also to be sent to a landfill. The remainder is actually recycled in some way. There's a lot of reasons why but the biggest by far is simply greed Metal recycling is one of the better, if not the best industry as far as recovery and we still operate with the expectation of significant loss

1 source record
36

I worked in the parks industry in Colorado. A certain amount of water is allowed for a city like Denver to keep its golf courses top-notch. That water comes from the western slope, up to several hundred miles away. If only a percentage of that water is used, then you are allowed that new, lesser amount. So they will just keep sprinklers running to avoid having any amount taken away. While the mountains might experience a drought and get hit with wildfires, devastating wildlife, farmlands and homes (due to excessive water use in the front range), the golf courses look great.

1 source record
37

Work in trash, most of yalls recycling goes to the dump. Sometimes straight into a trash truck, sometimes the recycling truck just dumps at the landfill while these 2 examples are rarer it does happen. Most of the recycling at recycle centers just don't make it through and wind up at the dump for some reason or another. Like most plastic, except the shit milk jugs are made of, are just not cost effective to recycle anymore and when it was it was being shipped over seas to be used as fuel... Then you have paper/cardboard, this shit is easily contaminated. Wet? Cardboard has tape? Trash. Someone put a bunch of shit in their recycling can that also contaminate the paper products, shit some neighborhoods I've serviced was 60%+ regular trash in their recycling cans. And that shit wrecks the machinery that sorts that shit if it wasn't caught during hand sorting. Now with that said glass, cans, and milk jugs are consistently recycled properly. The rest is a crapshoot and highly depends on the center it's sent too and what your neighbors put in their cans. Fun bonus info shit you can't recycle but most people think you can: Shredded paper Bubble wrap Wood Styrofoam Plastic bags Electronics Rubber/tires Fabric Garden hoses

1 source record
38

Oil & gas industry - after the BP blow out in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, there were immense efforts to clean up all the spilled oil floating on top of the sea water. BP outsourced the clean up efforts to a company called Nalco which utilized a “dispersant” called Corexit. The dispersant is basically a fancy version of dawn dish soap. AKA, the oil attaches itself to the dispersant and becomes too heavy to float and essentially sinks to the bottom of the ocean out of view of any cameras and news networks. Yes, you guessed it, the oil is still there. Just sunk at the bottom of the ocean.

1 source record
39

sooo much soil is polluted, it's crazy, and the governement would need a loooot of money to remove it all responsibly. meanwhile it all threatens our soilwater (our drinking water), flora and fauna. there's so much going on.

1 source record
40

State environmental permits for discharging contaminants into a body of water are often written in terms of concentration, not quantity. In order to continue to operate while remaining compliant with the permit sites often just increase the amount of water they are discharging, lowering the concentration of the contaminant. Doesn’t make a damn bit of difference in the large body of water it ends up in.

1 source record
41

Most water fountains don’t have a filter. You’re just drinking regular city/county tap water. The same water that flushes the toilet.

1 source record
42

Most trees don't need to be trimmed. Big tree trimming companies that work for municipalities are the worst scum bags who lobby the cities and city tree guy to pay them to trim trees they sometimes don't or take a branch or two off. The only time trees need to be trimmed is if they are a danger to the public or infrastructure but just having a heavy/natural top is no danger. These trees have been around longer than humans and some how there's an industry profiting off of their abuse. We need more trees and it's great when these companies promote planting them where they'll survive but the shady side none of them admit is it's a for profit business and they need to be trimming regardless of whether trees need it or not

1 source record
43

A lot of the drinking water you get from the tap is just the wastewater from upstream that has been treated.

1 source record
44

An overdraft fee is actually an incredibly high interest rate loan but, since they call it a fee and it doesn't vary with the charge amount it doesn't have to follow interest rate caps. For example, if you pay a $35 fee to cover $100 and have to pay it back with your next paycheck (assume 2 weeks) that is an interest rate of 913%

1 source record
45

I work in finance. typically helping people with debt, budgeting, investing - most people don’t know that credit card interest accrues on a daily basis and that their APRs skyrocket to 30% when their accounts get maxed out. Most clients think the credit card companies on our their side….yeah they want you in the 40 year interest cycle lol. credit card companies are not your friends

1 source record
46

Ex auditor of big 4. The audited report isn't as "yay no fraud" as most people think. There is even a line stating along the phrase "reasonably confident the report is not materially misstated". Don't take it as bullet-proof.

1 source record
47

Tax accountant. No the the IRS does not know how much you owe. You want to be try to be precise as possible though incase you are audited. If you are audited then they will know exactly how much you should owe for that year.

1 source record
48

I’m an accountant and worked for the IRS. I don’t think most people realize how common tax avoidance is, whether that’s just not filing a return or filing a return that understates the tax liability. The IRS studies something known as the tax gap. Simply put, it’s the difference between what the IRS calculates the country’s tax liability is versus what actually ends up being collected. The latest data from 2022 puts the tax gap at over $600 billion per year.

1 source record
49

Public Libraries have to beg local and state (mostly state) governments for funding. Most of the cool stuff your local library has added? Yeah that came from either grants or donations. The actual funding is fought for very hard every single day. The best thing you can do to support public libraries? 1) get a library card most importantly, 2) get involved and vote in local and state elections, 3) go utilize all the free shit available at libraries so we keep getting money to continue having that cool stuff for you guys.

1 source record
50

I'm a social worker in a medium sized city with a bad reputation for having a lot of homeless people. I frequently interact with homeless folks, as well as people who are on the verge of losing their housing. You will often hear people say things like, they don't want to get help, they chose this, they're all on drugs, etc etc. Yes, sometimes that's true, but from my experience it is not the majority of cases. The most common thing I hear for why people become homeless is an unexpected loss of income. This could be getting fired or laid off, or an income earner in the home leaves or dies, or a medical situation makes it impossible for them to work. Things like this happen all the fucking time. So many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and if you lose that paycheck for even a month or two, everything falls apart. People can lose their housing in the blink of an eye. To add insult to injury, once you become homeless, it is so fucking difficult to get out. There are nowhere near enough resources for all homeless people to get sheltered. Even if they are determined to get into a shelter bed, it often takes weeks or even months. Even, and sometimes especially, families with children. There are just are not enough resources, funding, beds, counselors, etc etc etc. It's hard as fuck to find work as a homeless person. You don't have an address to put on a resume (or a laptop to make the resume). Homeless folks often lose all of their belongings in tent sweeps, including documents like IDs, birth certificates, etc. Folks living on the streets are frequently victims of theft and sexual assualt. They are exposed to the elements. Their bodies break down faster. And all of this is before we even get to the subject of how homeless folks are treated by everyone else, despite the fact that they may themselves be one or two missed paychecks away from being in the same situation.

1 source record
51

Government agencies will blow money on shit that’s not necessarily needed at the end of the year to burn up the rest of the money in their budget. If they don’t spent all the money their budget will get reduced next year.

1 source record
52

Screenwriters who write for TV don't really write specific episodes. The union requires that someone be credited for each episode and they technically do actually sit down and write it, but between the writers room thourouly outlining the episode and all the extra drafts and revisions afterward (sometimes even full rewrites) it would be much more accurate to say that the whole room writes every episode.

1 source record
53

Military and commercial manufacturers bid for jobs. Much like getting a house remodeled by a handyman over a remodeling company. The projects go to the lowest bidder and budget restrictions are made for any improvement ideas from the workers that’ll produce better or faster results. All in the means to keep the management pockets full with bigger bonuses. So all the projects for commercial or military applications are therefore built half-assed and under budget. Quality is still there but with what you can make out of it. All these companies value innovation and efficiency yet when it comes down to it. They lack severely. So when you’re flying or using a specific hardware heavy technology. It’s very possible it could’ve been manufactured better or faster but it didn’t because someone’s pocket got full instead of the actual project. This issue also stems into every aspect of our lives. From doctors to lawyers to police to anything with a management oversight. They’d rather focus on their bonuses being hefty while our processes continue to be mediocre.

1 source record
54

The amount of money made in video games over encouraging dopamine and gambling addiction in children is so large that I'm honestly surprised there's been no serious attempts at legislation.

1 source record
55

Those commercials for pharmaceuticals everyone says they hate? The odds someone sees an ad and asks their doctor about the drug? 80%. The odds that the doctor will subsequently prescribe it? 70%. Those are really big numbers. Notice how all the ads are for long term chronic conditions? No one-off 5 day courses of antibiotics getting air time. All the ads are for new drugs, of course. That being said, 95% of them are “me too” drugs. No better than what’s already available and likely generic: just another drug company wanting a piece of the pie and making you think it’s the greatest invention since sliced bread. Only 5% are novel, meaning superior or first of a kind. Big Pharma may be evil and pernicious, but they ain’t stupid.

1 source record
56

Almost no small businesses do what they should for cybersecurity of your data. They aim to check the minimal number of boxes to meet agreements and insurance requirements (and even then it may be more theatre than substance) Independently owned healthcare organizations are often even worse. HIPAA and other compliances are often incompletely implemented . If it doesn’t make money for the business and/or the risk doesn’t seem imminent- investments in security and even changes in basic behaviors are often ignored.

1 source record
58

Farmed salmon are so overcrowded that they get sick and develop sores. It's absolutely disgusting, and it's awful to see them suffering.

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59

The housekeeping industry. Housekeepers are under such tight time restraints (30 min per room) and given like 15 rooms to clean in 8 hrs that they are forced to cut corners. Never trust the coffee pot, towels, bedding (the duvet is never changed only if there’s a strain on it or it smells really bad or something), don’t trust the glasses, and don’t walk around barefoot. I’ve seen housekeepers using the toilet brush to clean the bathtub. And touching the clean towers after touching the toilet. Unfortunately there’s not enough time to really clean so we give the illusion of a clean room. Management only cares that the metal is shiny with no water spots, there’s no hair anywhere, and everything is in its place and looks organized. But really it’s gross!

1 source record

Limit: The housekeeping industry. Housekeepers are under such tight time restraints (30 min per room) and given like 15 rooms to clean in 8 hrs that they are forced to cut corners. Never trust the coffee pot, towels,…

60

Fountain soda machines are disgusting 90% of the time. Even the places that claim to clean and service them regularly. The amount of time it takes to properly clean them along with poor placement means it's usually to much hassle for everyday employees to properly clean and replace filters of they do it all. I work with technicians that do service calls to restaurants and gas stations daily and the condition of almost all the machines is sickening.

1 source record
61

If you are ever on a long term care insurance plan to receive assistance from a home health aide, DME, etc. There are two facts: 1. Case managers are actively being told to give you the least amount of hours of assistance per week as possible. 2. If you become the ultimate Karen you will ALWAYS get what you ask for. It will take time to go up the chain but you will win. 50 hours of care per week? Complain. New shower? Complain. New Wheelchair? Complain. I'm talking daily conversations with the worker, supervisor, regional manager, etc. I promise you, it will get done. So be the squeaky wheel. Insurance banks on you giving up the fight and they don't want to deal with a judge in a hearing over the issue. They'll give in eventually.

1 source record
62

Chefs in restaurants don’t wear gloves hardly ever- because gloves are dirty and gross. Corporate places that insist on gloves result in cooks wearing the gloves for a long period of time, resulting in cross contamination. If I’m making your food without gloves I am very clean and tidy and I wash my hands a lot. I only wear them when dealing with sloppy wet stuff. What I’m saying is that gloves are in absolutely no way a sign of cleanliness or lack of contamination.

1 source record
65

I don’t know how shocking it is but at least in the US, all those regulations on chemicals like PFAS’ and other environmentally dangerous compounds? Those regulations rely on the manufacturers reporting their hazards to the DOT. If a company is, say, wrong about a hazard due to a lack of testing because they keep their labs stocked with out of date equipment, those reports aren’t necessarily gonna be accurate.

1 source record
66

Lots of vodka and gin from “craft” distilleries is just bulk neutral spirits from larger more industrial distilleries redistilled to recut the heads and tails and incorporate botanicals. No starch conversion, sugar extraction, or fermentation is taking place on premises to create of these products.

1 source record
67

Agriculture. The amount of farmers and pest control/crop advisors who lie about what pesticides are being used on their crops is staggering. Even on crops that are technically organic, or are exported to other countries with stricter regulations. I work in one of the most strictly regulated states in the US and the reporting and auditing process basically amounts to "just trust me bro"

1 source record
68

Rabies testing (if required) means after an animal is euthanized, we have to sever their head, and one of us has to deliver the head (in a cooler on ice) to the state health department.

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69

The biggest open secret in insurance that the public doesn’t realize is that most carriers aren’t really making their money off your premiums—they are essentially massive hedge funds wearing a hard hat. The actual goal of an insurance company is to collect billions in premiums, pay out as little as possible in claims for as long as possible, and invest that massive pile of money (the "float") into real estate, private equity, and high-yield markets. The premiums you pay just give us the chip stack to play Wall Street, which is why a company can technically lose money on coverage for years and still report record-breaking profits. Because of this, the entire claims process isn't just about verifying if your loss was real; it's heavily engineered as a game of administrative attrition. Initial denials, endless requests for repetitive paperwork, and confusing policy jargon aren't always accidental red tape—they're calculated friction. Regulators know it, and the industry knows it, but the business model relies on the fact that a massive percentage of people will simply get exhausted, frustrated, or confused and give up on pursuing a payout they’re fully entitled to. On top of that, your loyalty to an insurance carrier is actively weaponized against you through something called "price optimization." Actuarial algorithms don't just calculate your actual risk of having an accident or a house fire; they calculate how likely you are to notice a rate hike and shop around. If the data shows you’re a passive customer who has stayed with the same company for five years, your rates will steadily creep up simply because the system knows you won't leave, while a brand-new customer with the exact same risk profile gets a vastly cheaper rate next door.

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70

I'm a produce clerk. The amount of times that something has hit the cooler floor and I've just swept in back into it's container like nothing happened is pretty bad. Wash your produce folks.

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71

In an ophtamology med. Many people believe the blue filter of the glasses helps with vision protection. This is essentially a "yes, but actually no" situation. Blue filter is recommended for people whose prescription is relatively low and/or work or study a lot with computers or like using screens (gamers, desingers, etc.). While blue filter does block a certain type of color, the reason why people feel they vision gets damaged is because they don't blink enough. Blinking bathes the cornea and the sclera with a new tear film and protects and nourishes them, but sometimes people are so focused on the screens that they forget to blink. This is also why people with these problem often have symptoms of dry eye. Interestingly, another reason the blue filter is recommended is because part of the electrochemical impulse that transforms light from outside into images in the retina (and then goes to the brain) doesn't go to the brain 100%. Part of it also goes to the sector of pupila retraction (Edinger Westphal nucleus) to regulate the pupila according to the amount of light present, and the other part goes to the sector of the brain which regulates melatonin (cicle of sleep). And yes, there are studies that say that some of the cells in the retina, depending on how close they are to the macula, have more affinity with blue light. So, people with blue filter should also be recommended to have breaks of 20 minutes for each hour of screen usage (if we're generous) and never use the screen with 100% illumination. The warm color mode is also a good alternative and kids most of all, should never use screens more than 1 hour and a half daily in general. Less if younger. But we all know how most parents are with that nowadays. TLDR: Blue filter in glasses won't really help you if you don't use screens responsibly yourself.

1 source record
73

Worked in a pharmaceutical manufacturing and shipping plant. Almost all over the counter medicine is simply relabeled and sent to the corresponding company. All the big chains use the exact same product, just with their label on it.

1 source record
74

I used to work at a 24/7 McDonald’s. all cooked product has a shelf life of about an hour and then you have to throw it out. after 10pm, that doesn’t happen because orders are too unpredictable and food wastage would get the manager fired if we actually followed the procedure, and also drunk idiots won’t tolerate waiting for fresh stuff to cook. also grills have to be cleaned at some stage, but we’re on skeleton crew levels of staff until 7am, so if orders come in you’ve got to stop cleaning to make the orders so if you’re one of those drunken idiots that come in between 2-3am, your beef patties could have been sitting there since about 9pm

1 source record
76

Most people think supplements are FDA approved before they’re sold. They’re not. “Natural” doesn’t automatically mean safe. Plenty of natural ingredients can have side effects or interact with medications. Expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better. A lot of the price is just marketing and branding. “Clinically proven” often sounds more impressive than it is. Sometimes it’s based on one small or weak study. Third-party tested and FDA approved are completely different things, but a lot of people use them interchangeably.

1 source record
77

Airline. Don't check a bag with lithium batteries in it. Carry them on. People don't pay attention to this requirement when checking the boxes, and it's the next disaster waiting to happen.

1 source record
78

A lot of money spent on cancer research is wasted off the bat because a lot of the the originating stock for the cell lines people use for research are contaminated, and no one is willing to deal with it. It's a lot more complicated than that for sure, but I tried to distill it to a relatively short sentence.

1 source record
79

In agriculture there is an insect called psylla. The bug eats the fruit on the tree and then sh*ts on the fruit which causes the fruit to be sticky.

1 source record
80

I managed a family florist and gift/events and wedding services business for over 15 years. Several "open" known secrets within the trade. 1. Flowers usually come shipped to a florist "dry packed" which means they are cut at the farm (usually Equador, Columbia, etc) wrapped in bundles depending on size and packaged into large boxes for shipment. The travel route for Florida is usually FARM (south america) > miami (where many will go to the miami flowers market where florists can go in person and bid on/purchase them or bid and purchase online and have them shipped) > florist. If the florist buys from a wholesale florist and not directly from the farm or company importing them, the route adds a stop, Miami > wholesaler > florist. The wholesaler can be in the same city or close by but is often out of the city or even state, depending on which one is used. For example, flowers purchased in North Florida can come from Dothan, or Montgomery Al, or other places. It is MUCH cheaper to order them directly from the farm, but it is more convenient to get them from the wholesaler because there is usually a wholesaler running each day of the week so if a florist needs flowers for a special order or just more of something, they can pay more and get it same day. When they come from the farm, and bypass the wholesaler, sometimes the flowers have cold packs which help keep them fresh (especially in the hottest months of summer) but most of the time they are shipped as is, fresh cut, and by the time they reach the florist (sometimes 2-3 days later) they have still not ever been put in water. When the florist gets them, they "process" the flowers, which entails cutting them a second time at an angle so they drink better and allow more oxygen in, stripping the extra leaves or foliage off, and placing them in a bucket of clean water which has flower preservative in it. This is called "hydrating" when they drink for the first time. Flowers can last usually up to a week in coolers after processing but should be used much quicker for best results. ~~ When the flowers are ordered early to avoid holiday increased pricing, they are held in coolers in the original boxes and dont see water for up to an extra week, which means by the time the flowers go out to the customer, they are already over a week old, even if they have only been in water for 24 hrs. 2. In the summer, certain roses run between .25-.35c/head (rose). In the winter, they are a bit more but usually do not pass $1/head unless it is a specialty rose. Holidays and special seasonal times, roses can climb to $2-2.5/per head; Vases can run anywhere between $1-5/per container, sometimes more for the specialty items. ~ My point here is, a florist can charge $75-$100/dozen or more for roses arranged in a vase throughout the year. During a special season or holiday, (especially Valentines) roses can go for $100-200/dozen depending on the occasion and way they are arranged, variety of rose, vase used, etc. The most a florist ever has in a normal dozen roses is usually $20-25 and that is if a really nice vase or container is used (we're including wire, ribbons, cards and card holders, etc) and often the florist has as little as $8-10 in a dozen. So the markup is extremely high on roses, and it is not uncommon for a florist to make over $25k JUST in dozens/half dozens, etc of roses on Valentines. With an average of only $2500 in product, that is a huge profit of over $22k. JUST FOR ROSES, then there are mixed dozens with other flowers added in, assorted arrangements like daisies, carnations, etc, and of course the more exotic flowers such as lillies, orchids, etc. A single valentines (just three or four days) can make a good florist over $50k in PROFITS. 3. If a florist waits until holiday pricing kicks in for a holiday or special season, such as Valentines, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc, prices can more than double for flowers and hard goods (vases, ribbons, basically anything not live and perishable) Florists should NOT do this, but often will place their order for flowers BEFORE the holiday increase in pricing takes affect. This in turn means they pay sometimes half as much or even less than if they were on holiday pricing, and also means the flowers come even earlier than they would have. Which means they have to be held for up to a week or maybe longer before they are used. 4. Funerals are one of the times that florists make the most money (profits) per order, because a florist might sell a standing spray or casket spray for $150-$1000 and they prolly only have $30-250 in it. A large funeral can make a florist thousands in profits, but one bad funeral piece can cost reputation because people expect a loved one's final flowers to be perfect and last until the funeral is over and the body is buried. 5. It is not uncommon for some funeral homes to hold the body of the deceased for up to a week until the family has paid for the costs of burial and other things. Sometimes people make arrangements and do not have the money to fulfill the order. Instead of burying the person and collecting later, some funeral homes will hold the body and only continue with services when the bill is paid in full. This causes extra odors and other issues (like more than one service at the same time) when people do not pay up front or on time. 6. Florists are supposed to wire every rose, which entails sticking a small gauge wire into the head ot the rose and wrapping it widely around the rose stem, bending the wire back on the stem when reaching the bottom or close to it. This makes the head of the rose stand taller and for longer, even after the rose dies if it is done properly. Often roses do not get wired. Wire is expensive, because it comes in very large, heavy boxes. Florists save alot if they do not wire their flowers. 7. Corsages and boutineers for weddings, prom, etc, are supposed to be wrapped and wired, and the stems stuck down into a water tube. This allows the flowers to drink water even after they are made and in use. Often Florists do not use water cubes and just wrap the stem, making it where the roses do not properly drink. 8. Florists often use "wire services" which are basically 1800-flowers, Bloomnet, teleflora, etc. These services cost alot and these are what is being used when you call one of those numbers and order through them. The florist is actually making the order, the "flower gatherer" as they are called such as teleflora, or 1800flowers, just is the platform used to order the flowers.

1 source record
81

I work in agricultural industry and the “organic” label is a hoax. Another way to make more money for the same product. They are not treated special nor are grown different. Similar concept to clothes “made in Italy”, as long as the end serves the “organic” approval which could be hand plucked instead of machine. No real way of identifying organic vs not organic. Sometime those that are not as fresh or have not been sold after a certain time, will be labeled as ready to eat. Such as avocados where they say “ready to eat today” etc. All produce is a way to make sure they are not wasted while trying to make more money off of expiring produce.

1 source record
82

My previous industry: Every single health or bodybuilding supplement is a lie. One way or another it is wildly impotent with falsified claims barely squeezed through legal requirements

1 source record
83

Employer Sponsored Coverage can still exclude pre existing conditions. The Employer Group healthcare plans are not governed by the ACA nearly as much as people expect. They are still governed by ERISA which hasn't been updated in decades. That is why healthcare costs can continue to rise. Because the stuff the ACA governs is still a minority player. Employers have no problem paying the increase in costs because it is all pre tax expenses. The plans are self funded so the government really can't do much to stop them from sheltering more and more money every year from taxes. Until they replace the tax benefits of Employer Sponsored Health Insurance by reforming ERISA, healthcare will not improve. They need to offer other financial products that can be pre tax or else they will have a tax increase and that just is not going to happen.

1 source record
85

Every single restaurant is constantly fighting an uphill battle to keep pests out. Even the cleanest, most well maintained restaurants will occasionally get roaches or less commonly, rats. Most of the time they come in on deliveries - especially cardboard boxes. Roaches fucking love cardboard. The only thing that separates good restaurants from bad ones is how diligent they are at maintaining proper pest control habits to prevent a stray visitor from becoming an infestation.

1 source record
86

Most restaurant ice machines are a health hazard. A very high risk to your gastrointestinal health. They are not cleaned and sanitized nearly often enough, if ever, until they stop working altogether. To most restaurant owners and managers it’s an unnecessary expense and out of sight out of mind.

1 source record
87

There is an FDA handbook for allowable number of insect parts, and sometimes maggots, in food production that we eat everyday. [link removed]

1 source record

Why it matters: There is an FDA handbook for allowable number of insect parts, and sometimes maggots, in food production that we eat everyday. [link removed]

88

The companies selling peptides use Chinese knock off peptides that sometimes aren’t from an FDA approved facility

1 source record
89

Prescription dog food is garbage- same process as making wonder bread: firebomb all the actual nutrients out, add synthetic vitamins back in, pour the slurry into a mold and burn it to a crisp. Clinics get a percentage of the food sales, vets are paid on a percentage of the clinic's annual gross, so it's in the vets best interest to prescribe the food. Everybody makes money, especially when they sell the client on a reorder/subscription plan.

1 source record
90

Servers will often go for hours without washing their hands. Some restaurants do not have hand washing sinks handy, even if they're supposed to. Front of house staff, especially while busy, will be touching money, payment machines, dirty plates etc, and then touch your dinner plates, cutlery, cut your bread etc. Germ farms.

1 source record
91

Food that you buy in large supermarkets is left out at room temperature for hours while the shelves are restocked. It's almost never checked to see if it's over the 8°C tolerance that would allow bacteria to grow. Frozen food is the same. When supermarkets go through the night it's often the case that the products that won't fit on the shelf will be left warm all night. Smaller stores have less stock and also are less likely to fill at night so the cold chain is broken less often.

1 source record
92

At the pharmacy if they drop any pills on the floor they just pick them up and put them in the bottle again. No the floors are not cleaned regularly.

1 source record
93

The U.S. has over 624,000 highway bridges. 42% are 50 years or older, exceeding their operational lifespans, but most are still safe to drive over. 42,000 (or about 7% of all bridges) are in “poor” condition and require significant repair or rehabilitation. Many of these are heavily traveled. **In fact, this amounts to 168.5 million trips, every single day, across structurally unsound bridges.** Most people have no idea the condition of the bridge they’re driving on and will never give it a second thought.

1 source record
95

I'm in the nuclear industry; public would be shocked to truly learn that its way safer than most other industries.

1 source record
96

The airplane you are flying on fails all the time during flight but you don’t know it because of the way redundant systems take over. Flight critical systems often have triple redundancy with systems that operate differently (like primary hydraulic and secondary electromechanical) so the same mode of failure can’t affect the backup system.

1 source record
97

The corruption in public construction contracts is built in. Change orders, claims, and other mechanisms are legal ways for contractors to screw the funding agencies on public projects. This is the real reason things like trains, highways, schools, etc go so badly over budget.

1 source record
98

There's no checks and balances to make sure your airline pilot is mentally healthy, and they would risk losing their license if they thought something was wrong and sought help. The regs were written in the 60's and have never been updated and the FAA refuses to do anything about it.

1 source record
99

Airliners get struck by lightning all the time. It's not a big deal. If you fly there's a real possibility you've probably been on one when it got struck.

1 source record
100 catalog entries
Digital systems & data28 index entries28 source-checked claim records
Source-backed index report

Fact-checked claim card with verdict, corrected or narrowed claim, concise explanation, named HTTPS sources, checked date and original source record: Digital systems & data

Source-backed answers are shown before diagnostics; the complete source archive remains below.

half the sites you use every day are held together by a handful of exhausted on-call engineers, a pile of scripts nobody fully understands anymore, and duct tape. a surprising amount of the internet is one expired certificate or one fat-fingered config push away from going down for an afternoon.

♥ 3,953

Claim context: Digital systems & data

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Open-source dependency risk is real, but the numerical and single-error outage claims are unquantified. Sources: Linux Foundation Census II

The chances of your children's private info, including SSN, birthdate, birthplace, address, etc being leaked and out there on the dark web is fairly high because most school districts in this country have shit network security and work with SaaS vendors that house all this data and are also vulnerable. People heard about the big Canvas hack earlier this year. What people dont seem to realize is that hack wasn't unique and similar events happen fairly often across our country and sometimes to individual school districts. Its a real problem thats just being ignored by our government.

♥ 6,459

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✓ Accurate, narrowedWhat the record supports: K-12 entities hold sensitive data and face cyber risk; do not claim a child's data is probably on the dark web. Sources: CISA K-12 cybersecurity report

I have been in academic research for almost 30 years, and the amount of cherry picked or just completely made up data in research papers should concern everyone. In the past it was very rare and now it is almost common practice. It's driven by the pursuit of increasingly scarce funding sources.

♥ 9,919

Claim context: Digital systems & data

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Research misconduct is formally investigated, but 'almost common practice' is unsupported. Sources: HHS Office of Research Integrity case summaries

How much personal information people willingly broadcast without realizing it. You don't need fancy dark web hacks or breach databases. 90% of a person's digital footprint, routine, and history can be fully mapped just by stitching together completely public, harmless-looking breadcrumbs.

♥ 277

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✓ Accurate, narrowedWhat the record supports: Public posts can support OSINT and social engineering; the 90% figure is unsourced. Sources: CISA social-media safety guidance

Software is terrible not because of bad developers or bad testing. It's the CEOs who make business decisions to placate stockholders by releasing too soon and/or ignoring known bugs.

♥ 2,497

Claim context: Digital systems & data

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Secure-development guidance requires release-risk management; CEO causation is not corroborated. Sources: NIST SSDF

AI is a big lie. We built an autonomous agent pipeline internally because our CEO saw that Stripe did the same thing and automated 80% of PRs. We built it. It doesn’t work and still requires major human intervention to get production ready code. A team at my company just presented at a conference how we’ve automated most work using said tool perpetuating the initial lie that tricked us into building the damn thing.

♥ 278

Claim context: Digital systems & data

Limit: AI is a big lie. We built an autonomous agent pipeline internally because our CEO saw that Stripe did the same thing and automated 80% of PRs. We built it. It doesn’t work and still requires major human intervention to get production ready code.…

⚠ DisputedDisputed: AI needs documented human oversight and evaluation; the anecdote and 'AI is a big lie' are opinion. Sources: NIST Generative AI Profile

Data privacy is a myth On Reddit too.

♥ 276

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✗ InaccurateCorrection: Privacy is not a myth; Reddit defines collection, sharing, and user choices. Sources: Reddit Privacy Policy

Free Wifi is a trap. Its data mining. They dont put it in as a favour to you, they're collecting i formation and corporations are using it. I dont know how it works but the amount of information they can glean from you is... Frightening. I was at a seminar on guest wifi where the company selling the access points was telling us about all the information gathering they are capable of... To them it was a selling point. To me it was a good reason never to log on to free wifi again

♥ 1,115

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✗ CorrectedCorrection: Public Wi-Fi is not automatically a data-mining trap; HTTPS is usually protective, with standard account/device precautions. Sources: FTC public Wi-Fi guidance

Astrophysics. People publishing data from space instruments rarely have a good grasp on the details of how that instrument actually performs, especially if it's been in space for awhile. They'll still assume it's performing the same as it did when it launched, which is usually a more idealized version of that instrument. Results in general should have far larger error bars than published and it greatly weakens them. This can even extend to the teams that build the instruments. I was doing a in-depth analysis of two separate space-based instruments that SHOULD agree with each other and they never did. Two spectrometers, observing the same events, giving different results, with errors that don't cover each other's results.

♥ 91

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✓ Accurate, narrowedWhat the record supports: Calibration and uncertainty are essential; researchers cannot be generally accused of ignoring instrument drift. Sources: NASA calibration and validation overview

Prosecutors employ investigators who routinely check social media during pre-trial prep. Stop posting to your social media and delete your history. It’s low hanging fruit to use your public posting history against you. That goes double for divorces and triple for bankruptcy fraud.

♥ 56

Claim context: Digital systems & data

⚠ Accurate, safety noteSafety correction: Public social content can be evidence; do not advise deletion because preservation duties may apply. Sources: DOJ electronic-evidence manual

I used to work in cybersecurity. So much of the misery you are subjected to? Theatre, as part of a project built solely for some "senior leader" to be able to put their name on something. Much of the 'technology' is Emperor's New Clothes. Things like 18FA just to read today's lunch menu, or your corporate laptop seeing 99% CPU usage because of some ZTNA bullshit that blocks absolutely everything and prevents you from doing your job? Nah. That is a classic example of sealing all the exits only for the robbers to depart via the entrance. A lot of these hacks and data breaches happen because some teenager has spearphished your IT manager, or phoned up your helpdesk and talked his way into the VMWare estate. And nobody ever learns from it. The whole thing made me miserable and I began to seriously ask why I bothered.

♥ 23

Claim context: Digital systems & data

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Phishing and social engineering are recurrent intrusion paths; 'technology is theater' is unsupported. Sources: CISA phishing guidance

Your college saves lots of data on you, including your birthdate, where you were born, where you went to high school, previous addresses, your mother’s maiden name, and other key data points. Basically most the things that allow identity verification. This data is captured when you’re a student and kept for decades/indefinitely after you graduate. Colleges are also non-profits and those with access to these databases aren’t always well trained in data security. Employees aren’t always fully vetted. These databases are a big liability to society, IMHO.

♥ 36

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✓ Accurate, narrowedWhat the record supports: Education records contain PII and breaches are a known risk; indefinite retention and poor vetting cannot be generalized. Sources: U.S. Department of Education student-privacy guidance — source 1 · U.S. Department of Education student-privacy guidance — source 2

In social media, most of the posts that ask open form questions are made by bots with a fuck ton of karma in order to make more karma so that they can sell that account to an advertiser later. You'd think that the mods of said social media would simply see right through an obvious marketing scheme, but they'd rather just ban the truth instead.

♥ 7

Claim context: Digital systems & data

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Platform rules restrict account transfer; this does not establish that question posts are mostly resale bots. Sources: Reddit User Agreement

Market research The figures that look different at a glance might not be statistically different depending on a sample size and how close the proportion is to the "center" (e.g. 45% and 55% probably wouldn't be statistically different on a usual sample size). Speaking of a sample size, for many businesses it's enough to ask around 50-75 people to make a conclusion about a good share of population. And these people usually paid for their answers (though we are trying to hide the brand behind the study), so it's barely representative at all.

♥ 8

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✗ CorrectedCorrection: A 50–75-person study is not automatically representative; design, variance, and weighting determine inference. Sources: U.S. Census ACS methodology

How many big name companies are storing things like credit card details and personal information in plain ass text in a database.

♥ 13

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✗ InaccurateCorrection: Universal plaintext storage is unsupported; encryption and access controls are established safeguards. Sources: NIST SP 800-111

Your online profile, collected from everything you touch electronically knows more about you than anyone you know. It knows more about you than you do. Any kind of IQ test, personality test, which celebrity am I quiz is a psychological profiling tool used to enhance the complete list of all your online activity. Think using a landline telephone helps? A hack called Salt Typhoon has permanently installed software to record every phone call made worldwide. It can't be fixed.

♥ 4

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✗ InaccurateCorrection: Salt Typhoon is a serious telecom compromise, not permanent recording of every phone call worldwide. Sources: FBI IC3 Salt Typhoon notice

People don't understand. Not even close. What advertising knows. Like. We know you better than you know yourself. We can make you depressed. Happy. Addicted. We can destroy your relationship. We can make you believe you want something. Machine learning algorithms with the amount of data we have on you are so fucking good at exploiting every tiny weakness in your psyche that you'd install adblockers in a hurry if you grasped even a fraction of the capabilities. And even then it's only moderately effective.

♥ 18

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✓ Accurate, narrowedWhat the record supports: Advertising can use extensive tracking and profiling; deterministic emotional-control claims are unsupported. Sources: FTC social-media surveillance report

The biggest open secret in computer science is that the entire modern digital world is a fragile house of cards held together by copy-pasted code, duct tape, and unpaid open-source volunteers. While the public assumes massive banks, airlines, and tech giants run on hyper-optimized code, billions of dollars in infrastructure actually rely on obscure software libraries maintained by solo developers in their spare time. Furthermore, a shocking amount of global financial transactions still run on ancient, 1960s-era COBOL code underneath slick modern apps. Because fixing every bug is too expensive, tech companies regularly ship software filled with hundreds of known glitches, simply filing them away as long as they don't completely crash the system.

♥ 7

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✓ Accurate, narrowedWhat the record supports: Widely reused dependencies and legacy-code exposure are real; do not claim every critical firm relies on a solo volunteer. Sources: Linux Foundation Census II

Not my industry, but tapping a card that doesn't ask for a PIN is not secure. A Subway near me was caught stealing cards by capturing the RFID for customers that tapped the POS pad. Happened to me twice before I started using my phone's tap pay instead and keeping the card locked.

♥ 6

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✗ InaccurateCorrection: Contactless payments without PIN are not inherently insecure; the named theft allegation is unsupported. Sources: EMVCo contactless technology

I work in building profiles of reddit users. We post leading questions to get users to give demographic data about themselves so we can package it and sell it. Rinse and repeat. every day. It's all clearly explained in the T&C page 272 paragraph 6b.

♥ 4

Claim context: Digital systems & data

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Reddit uses some personalized advertising but says public content may not be used for surveillance or advertising datasets; the claimed operation is unverified. Sources: Reddit privacy page

microsoft PCs done slow down because the machine is old. It’s designed to do that so you’ll buy another super fast PC and start it all over again

♥ 4

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✗ InaccurateCorrection: PC slowdowns have many maintainable causes; no evidence supports intentional degradation to force replacement. Sources: Microsoft performance guidance

Algorithm is a terrible word, used as a filler by non technical folks to describe anything they don’t understand. Algorithm is anything a program does. Basically any set of instructions is an algorithm.

♥ 8

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✗ CorrectedCorrection: An algorithm is a defined sequence of instructions for solving a problem, not simply anything a program does. Sources: NIST glossary

Digital entertainment served via algorithms often includes deliberate frustrating experiences, designed to keep users more engaged. People don't get addicted to static experiences, much like a Casino where you lose 100% of rolls would garner 0 patrons. So they employ random reinforcement techniques, deliberately choosing when to show quality content, garbage content, ragebait content, etc... modeled after a pattern to get users addicted to apps. --- It's pretty commonly known in social media. But multi-player video games employ the same concept, called an: "EOMM" system: Engagement optimized matchmaking. Which is basically the video game publisher profiling users into buckets depending on communication styles/skill/playstyle. And then purposely fitting them into match-made lobbies designed around specific predictive outcome patterns (User will be more likely to play if next X games are X/Y/Z pattern) to milk engagement.

♥ 3

Claim context: Digital systems & data

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Engagement optimization and randomized rewards exist, but deliberate universal addiction/ragebait claims are not established. Sources: Engagement-optimized matchmaking patent publication

Telecommunications providers store audio-recordings of all calls for a certain period of time. If a customer reports a voice quality problem, they can access that specific recording to diagnose issues like bad audio or dropped connections. The recordings are also made available to law enforcement authorities for criminal investigations when legally requested. Once the retention period expires, the recordings are automatically deleted according to the provider's data retention policy.

♥ 2

Claim context: Digital systems & data

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Call recording and retention are provider-, jurisdiction-, and purpose-specific, not universal telecom practice. Sources: FCC consumer privacy guide

All those talking about data security is bullshit, your data is stored in clear text in databases where the developer have full access, to. (And all intruders) And it kind of has to be this way, because you simply can't search for an address or anything else on a database if the data is hidden.

♥ 3

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✗ InaccurateCorrection: Searchable data need not be plaintext; encryption and access controls protect stored data despite implementation trade-offs. Sources: NIST SP 800-111

I work in cybersecurity. Almost every company has been hacked. If they haven’t, they’re going to be hacked in the next year or two. Most (like >70%) are social engineering. Phishing. It is surprisingly easy to get people to click on something and have them give their credentials in a fake login window. L

♥ 3

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✓ Accurate, narrowedWhat the record supports: Phishing is a major recurrent risk; do not publish universal breach claims or an unsourced >70% share. Sources: CISA phishing guidance

They (anyone paying for the service not just the government) can playback a recording of your session on a website. Not just the links you clicked, but like a screen recording showing what you saw on your screen while scrolling, where your mouse moved even without clicking, etc. it can be played back like a recorded video. You don’t have to click anything at all to give your “data”

♥ 3

Claim context: Digital systems & data

Hospitals have notoriously shitty IT security and frequently get hacked/their systems encrypted.

♥ 2

Claim context: Digital systems & data

✓ FactConfirmed: Healthcare entities experience hacking and ransomware breaches, but breach data does not establish that every hospital is insecure. Sources: HHS Office for Civil Rights — source 1 · HHS Office for Civil Rights — source 2

Where commenters report limits

Explicit limit or counterpoint

AI is a big lie. We built an autonomous agent pipeline internally because our CEO saw that Stripe did the same thing and automated 80% of PRs. We built it. It doesn’t work and still requires major human intervention to get production ready code. A team at my company just presented at a conference how we’ve automated most work using said tool perpetuating the initial lie that tricked us into building the damn thing.

source record 365♥ 278

Source-record spotlights

Most engaged source

I have been in academic research for almost 30 years, and the amount of cherry picked or just completely made up data in research papers should concern everyone. In the past it was very rare and now it is almost common practice. It's driven by the pursuit of increasingly scarce funding sources.

source record 198♥ 9,919
Later-arriving source

They (anyone paying for the service not just the government) can playback a recording of your session on a website. Not just the links you clicked, but like a screen recording showing what you saw on your screen while scrolling, where your mouse moved even without clicking, etc. it can be played back like a recorded video. You don’t have to click anything at all to give your “data”

posted about 40.0 hours after the source♥ 3
Low-like source

Hospitals have notoriously shitty IT security and frequently get hacked/their systems encrypted.

posted about 23.3 hours after the source♥ 2

Related evidence elsewhere in the index

What the counts show

Across 28 source records, the most common observable tactic structure is “Attach it to an existing routine” (3 records). This is a wording pattern, not a measured outcome.

28index entries
28distinct source records
28%of parent category
28%of the complete index
28top-level comments
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Browse the original comments28 preserved records · 28 of 28 source records accounted for
half the sites you use every day are held together by a handful of exhausted on-call engineers, a pile of scripts nobody fully understands anymore, and duct tape. a surprising amount of the internet is one expired certificate or one fat-fingered config push away from going down for an afternoon.♥ 3,953source record 28↑ Open the fact-check
The chances of your children's private info, including SSN, birthdate, birthplace, address, etc being leaked and out there on the dark web is fairly high because most school districts in this country have shit network security and work with SaaS vendors that house all this data and are also vulnerable. People heard about the big Canvas hack earlier this year. What people dont seem to realize is that hack wasn't unique and similar events happen fairly often across our country and sometimes to individual school districts. Its a real problem thats just being ignored by our government.♥ 6,459source record 40↑ Open the fact-check
I have been in academic research for almost 30 years, and the amount of cherry picked or just completely made up data in research papers should concern everyone. In the past it was very rare and now it is almost common practice. It's driven by the pursuit of increasingly scarce funding sources.♥ 9,919source record 198↑ Open the fact-check
How much personal information people willingly broadcast without realizing it. You don't need fancy dark web hacks or breach databases. 90% of a person's digital footprint, routine, and history can be fully mapped just by stitching together completely public, harmless-looking breadcrumbs.♥ 277source record 309↑ Open the fact-check
Software is terrible not because of bad developers or bad testing. It's the CEOs who make business decisions to placate stockholders by releasing too soon and/or ignoring known bugs.♥ 2,497source record 344↑ Open the fact-check
AI is a big lie. We built an autonomous agent pipeline internally because our CEO saw that Stripe did the same thing and automated 80% of PRs. We built it. It doesn’t work and still requires major human intervention to get production ready code. A team at my company just presented at a conference how we’ve automated most work using said tool perpetuating the initial lie that tricked us into building the damn thing.♥ 278source record 365↑ Open the fact-check
Data privacy is a myth On Reddit too.♥ 276source record 368↑ Open the fact-check
Free Wifi is a trap. Its data mining. They dont put it in as a favour to you, they're collecting i formation and corporations are using it. I dont know how it works but the amount of information they can glean from you is... Frightening. I was at a seminar on guest wifi where the company selling the access points was telling us about all the information gathering they are capable of... To them it was a selling point. To me it was a good reason never to log on to free wifi again♥ 1,115source record 372↑ Open the fact-check
Astrophysics. People publishing data from space instruments rarely have a good grasp on the details of how that instrument actually performs, especially if it's been in space for awhile. They'll still assume it's performing the same as it did when it launched, which is usually a more idealized version of that instrument. Results in general should have far larger error bars than published and it greatly weakens them. This can even extend to the teams that build the instruments. I was doing a in-depth analysis of two separate space-based instruments that SHOULD agree with each other and they never did. Two spectrometers, observing the same events, giving different results, with errors that don't cover each other's results.♥ 91source record 433↑ Open the fact-check
Prosecutors employ investigators who routinely check social media during pre-trial prep. Stop posting to your social media and delete your history. It’s low hanging fruit to use your public posting history against you. That goes double for divorces and triple for bankruptcy fraud.♥ 56source record 436↑ Open the fact-check
I used to work in cybersecurity. So much of the misery you are subjected to? Theatre, as part of a project built solely for some "senior leader" to be able to put their name on something. Much of the 'technology' is Emperor's New Clothes. Things like 18FA just to read today's lunch menu, or your corporate laptop seeing 99% CPU usage because of some ZTNA bullshit that blocks absolutely everything and prevents you from doing your job? Nah. That is a classic example of sealing all the exits only for the robbers to depart via the entrance. A lot of these hacks and data breaches happen because some teenager has spearphished your IT manager, or phoned up your helpdesk and talked his way into the VMWare estate. And nobody ever learns from it. The whole thing made me miserable and I began to seriously ask why I bothered.♥ 23source record 453↑ Open the fact-check
Your college saves lots of data on you, including your birthdate, where you were born, where you went to high school, previous addresses, your mother’s maiden name, and other key data points. Basically most the things that allow identity verification. This data is captured when you’re a student and kept for decades/indefinitely after you graduate. Colleges are also non-profits and those with access to these databases aren’t always well trained in data security. Employees aren’t always fully vetted. These databases are a big liability to society, IMHO.♥ 36source record 475↑ Open the fact-check
In social media, most of the posts that ask open form questions are made by bots with a fuck ton of karma in order to make more karma so that they can sell that account to an advertiser later. You'd think that the mods of said social media would simply see right through an obvious marketing scheme, but they'd rather just ban the truth instead.♥ 7source record 2273↑ Open the fact-check
Market research The figures that look different at a glance might not be statistically different depending on a sample size and how close the proportion is to the "center" (e.g. 45% and 55% probably wouldn't be statistically different on a usual sample size). Speaking of a sample size, for many businesses it's enough to ask around 50-75 people to make a conclusion about a good share of population. And these people usually paid for their answers (though we are trying to hide the brand behind the study), so it's barely representative at all.♥ 8source record 2276↑ Open the fact-check
How many big name companies are storing things like credit card details and personal information in plain ass text in a database.♥ 13source record 2318↑ Open the fact-check
Your online profile, collected from everything you touch electronically knows more about you than anyone you know. It knows more about you than you do. Any kind of IQ test, personality test, which celebrity am I quiz is a psychological profiling tool used to enhance the complete list of all your online activity. Think using a landline telephone helps? A hack called Salt Typhoon has permanently installed software to record every phone call made worldwide. It can't be fixed.♥ 4source record 2348↑ Open the fact-check
People don't understand. Not even close. What advertising knows. Like. We know you better than you know yourself. We can make you depressed. Happy. Addicted. We can destroy your relationship. We can make you believe you want something. Machine learning algorithms with the amount of data we have on you are so fucking good at exploiting every tiny weakness in your psyche that you'd install adblockers in a hurry if you grasped even a fraction of the capabilities. And even then it's only moderately effective.♥ 18source record 2413↑ Open the fact-check
The biggest open secret in computer science is that the entire modern digital world is a fragile house of cards held together by copy-pasted code, duct tape, and unpaid open-source volunteers. While the public assumes massive banks, airlines, and tech giants run on hyper-optimized code, billions of dollars in infrastructure actually rely on obscure software libraries maintained by solo developers in their spare time. Furthermore, a shocking amount of global financial transactions still run on ancient, 1960s-era COBOL code underneath slick modern apps. Because fixing every bug is too expensive, tech companies regularly ship software filled with hundreds of known glitches, simply filing them away as long as they don't completely crash the system.♥ 7source record 2427↑ Open the fact-check
Not my industry, but tapping a card that doesn't ask for a PIN is not secure. A Subway near me was caught stealing cards by capturing the RFID for customers that tapped the POS pad. Happened to me twice before I started using my phone's tap pay instead and keeping the card locked.♥ 6source record 2440↑ Open the fact-check
I work in building profiles of reddit users. We post leading questions to get users to give demographic data about themselves so we can package it and sell it. Rinse and repeat. every day. It's all clearly explained in the T&C page 272 paragraph 6b.♥ 4source record 2465↑ Open the fact-check
microsoft PCs done slow down because the machine is old. It’s designed to do that so you’ll buy another super fast PC and start it all over again♥ 4source record 2468↑ Open the fact-check
Algorithm is a terrible word, used as a filler by non technical folks to describe anything they don’t understand. Algorithm is anything a program does. Basically any set of instructions is an algorithm.♥ 8source record 2507↑ Open the fact-check
Digital entertainment served via algorithms often includes deliberate frustrating experiences, designed to keep users more engaged. People don't get addicted to static experiences, much like a Casino where you lose 100% of rolls would garner 0 patrons. So they employ random reinforcement techniques, deliberately choosing when to show quality content, garbage content, ragebait content, etc... modeled after a pattern to get users addicted to apps. --- It's pretty commonly known in social media. But multi-player video games employ the same concept, called an: "EOMM" system: Engagement optimized matchmaking. Which is basically the video game publisher profiling users into buckets depending on communication styles/skill/playstyle. And then purposely fitting them into match-made lobbies designed around specific predictive outcome patterns (User will be more likely to play if next X games are X/Y/Z pattern) to milk engagement.♥ 3source record 2522↑ Open the fact-check
Telecommunications providers store audio-recordings of all calls for a certain period of time. If a customer reports a voice quality problem, they can access that specific recording to diagnose issues like bad audio or dropped connections. The recordings are also made available to law enforcement authorities for criminal investigations when legally requested. Once the retention period expires, the recordings are automatically deleted according to the provider's data retention policy.♥ 2source record 2542↑ Open the fact-check
All those talking about data security is bullshit, your data is stored in clear text in databases where the developer have full access, to. (And all intruders) And it kind of has to be this way, because you simply can't search for an address or anything else on a database if the data is hidden.♥ 3source record 2606↑ Open the fact-check
I work in cybersecurity. Almost every company has been hacked. If they haven’t, they’re going to be hacked in the next year or two. Most (like >70%) are social engineering. Phishing. It is surprisingly easy to get people to click on something and have them give their credentials in a fake login window. L♥ 3source record 2625↑ Open the fact-check
They (anyone paying for the service not just the government) can playback a recording of your session on a website. Not just the links you clicked, but like a screen recording showing what you saw on your screen while scrolling, where your mouse moved even without clicking, etc. it can be played back like a recorded video. You don’t have to click anything at all to give your “data”♥ 3source record 2637↑ Open the fact-check
Hospitals have notoriously shitty IT security and frequently get hacked/their systems encrypted.♥ 2source record 2655↑ Open the fact-check

Archive: 28 index entries preserve 28 distinct source records · Every displayed synthesis count resolves to source-record IDs

Education & research6 index entries6 source-checked claim records
Source-backed index report

Fact-checked claim card with verdict, corrected or narrowed claim, concise explanation, named HTTPS sources, checked date and original source record: Education & research

Source-backed answers are shown before diagnostics; the complete source archive remains below.

I work in education and most of the decisions are made based on legal and funding issues, not child development or learning. We call them the "box people" who sit in cubicles 10 miles away from the nearest child and make decisions without a whit of experience or concern for the practicality of it all. It's especially bad for kids with IEPs or early childhood, where the whole thing becomes a tangled mess of licensing, SPED law, and funding. The actual children become data points, not people with needs. I really believe in public education but it is not currently functional. The bureaucracy alone is failing the kids before they even set foot in the building.

♥ 265

Claim context: Education & research

Elementary school teachers and staff get assaulted by students everyday in every school. Not each teacher, everyday but in every school, everyday, at least one teacher/staff is assaulted. Parents don't think it's happening bc we're not allowed to talk about it (or they just don't care - as long as their work day isn't getting interrupted and they have free child care)

♥ 40

Claim context: Education & research

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Staff victimization is documented; ‘every school, every day’ is not. Sources: National Center for Education Statistics

Most faculty have little to no training in how to teach effectively. Student ratings have zero correlation with learning. Most of the time they are completely ignored. Adjuncts are usually only paid a few thousand for teaching a semester long course, have no health insurance, and many are on food stamps and do gig jobs to survive. 80% of students go to community college with the intention to transfer to a 4-year university and graduate with a bachelor's. Only 15% succeed in doing so. Only 60% nationally graduate from universities, 40% in STEM disciplines.

♥ 59

Claim context: Education & research

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Postsecondary outcomes vary by cohort and measure; do not reuse the comment’s national percentages without dataset-specific definitions. Sources: National Center for Education Statistics

My dad works as a high school teacher, he says “Parents and students think that the system of education works in the best way but actually the bad behaviors of some students in the class make teachers unable to show their full experience although they have it”.

♥ 8

Claim context: Education & research

✓ FactConfirmed: NCES tracks school climate and disruptive behavior; retain as a documented instructional challenge, not proof all schools are failing. Sources: National Center for Education Statistics

Most professors have no formal training in teaching.

♥ 15

Claim context: Education & research

⚠ DisputedDisputed: No national primary dataset establishes that most professors lack teaching training; use only as a prompt about research incentives, not a statistic. Sources: National Science Foundation

If you’re an academic researcher, working on federal grants such as the ones awarded by NSF, DOE, NIH or others, the academic institution will skim 50-75% of that grant in assessments and overhead. The PI usually receives 25-30% of the award.

♥ 5

Claim context: Education & research

✓ FactConfirmed: Universities may apply negotiated indirect-cost rates for facilities and administration; do not call them ‘skim’ or assign universal 50–75% figures. Sources: National Science Foundation

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Most engaged source

I work in education and most of the decisions are made based on legal and funding issues, not child development or learning. We call them the "box people" who sit in cubicles 10 miles away from the nearest child and make decisions without a whit of experience or concern for the practicality of it all. It's especially bad for kids with IEPs or early childhood, where the whole thing becomes a tangled mess of licensing, SPED law, and funding. The actual children become data points, not people with needs. I really believe in public education but it is not currently functional. The bureaucracy alone is failing the kids before they even set foot in the building.

source record 315♥ 265
Later-arriving source

If you’re an academic researcher, working on federal grants such as the ones awarded by NSF, DOE, NIH or others, the academic institution will skim 50-75% of that grant in assessments and overhead. The PI usually receives 25-30% of the award.

posted about 33.8 hours after the source♥ 5
Low-like source

My dad works as a high school teacher, he says “Parents and students think that the system of education works in the best way but actually the bad behaviors of some students in the class make teachers unable to show their full experience although they have it”.

posted about 10.2 hours after the source♥ 8

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What the counts show

This report keeps all 6 source records for Education & research together and surfaces traceable examples without converting anecdotes into proof.

6index entries
6distinct source records
6%of parent category
6%of the complete index
6top-level comments
0replies
Browse the original comments6 preserved records · 6 of 6 source records accounted for
I work in education and most of the decisions are made based on legal and funding issues, not child development or learning. We call them the "box people" who sit in cubicles 10 miles away from the nearest child and make decisions without a whit of experience or concern for the practicality of it all. It's especially bad for kids with IEPs or early childhood, where the whole thing becomes a tangled mess of licensing, SPED law, and funding. The actual children become data points, not people with needs. I really believe in public education but it is not currently functional. The bureaucracy alone is failing the kids before they even set foot in the building.♥ 265source record 315↑ Open the fact-check
Elementary school teachers and staff get assaulted by students everyday in every school. Not each teacher, everyday but in every school, everyday, at least one teacher/staff is assaulted. Parents don't think it's happening bc we're not allowed to talk about it (or they just don't care - as long as their work day isn't getting interrupted and they have free child care)♥ 40source record 412↑ Open the fact-check
Most faculty have little to no training in how to teach effectively. Student ratings have zero correlation with learning. Most of the time they are completely ignored. Adjuncts are usually only paid a few thousand for teaching a semester long course, have no health insurance, and many are on food stamps and do gig jobs to survive. 80% of students go to community college with the intention to transfer to a 4-year university and graduate with a bachelor's. Only 15% succeed in doing so. Only 60% nationally graduate from universities, 40% in STEM disciplines.♥ 59source record 437↑ Open the fact-check
My dad works as a high school teacher, he says “Parents and students think that the system of education works in the best way but actually the bad behaviors of some students in the class make teachers unable to show their full experience although they have it”.♥ 8source record 2355↑ Open the fact-check
Most professors have no formal training in teaching.♥ 15source record 2590↑ Open the fact-check
If you’re an academic researcher, working on federal grants such as the ones awarded by NSF, DOE, NIH or others, the academic institution will skim 50-75% of that grant in assessments and overhead. The PI usually receives 25-30% of the award.♥ 5source record 2854↑ Open the fact-check

Archive: 6 index entries preserve 6 distinct source records · Every displayed synthesis count resolves to source-record IDs

Environment & materials9 index entries9 source-checked claim records
Source-backed index report

Fact-checked claim card with verdict, corrected or narrowed claim, concise explanation, named HTTPS sources, checked date and original source record: Environment & materials

Source-backed answers are shown before diagnostics; the complete source archive remains below.

I work in recycling. Metal recycling to be precise, but I have connections in plastic/e waste/landfills/residential/etc recyling as well Even if you recycle every possible thing you could and think you're doing your part, I'd say a solid third of it goes straight to a landfill without even the attempt to recycle it. Of what's left, maybe a third of that is rejected for whatever reason also to be sent to a landfill. The remainder is actually recycled in some way. There's a lot of reasons why but the biggest by far is simply greed Metal recycling is one of the better, if not the best industry as far as recovery and we still operate with the expectation of significant loss

♥ 231

Claim context: Environment & materials

✓ FactConfirmed: EPA documents low U.S. plastic recycling rates and substantial disposal, but it does not establish the commenter’s exact facility-level fractions. Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

I worked in the parks industry in Colorado. A certain amount of water is allowed for a city like Denver to keep its golf courses top-notch. That water comes from the western slope, up to several hundred miles away. If only a percentage of that water is used, then you are allowed that new, lesser amount. So they will just keep sprinklers running to avoid having any amount taken away. While the mountains might experience a drought and get hit with wildfires, devastating wildlife, farmlands and homes (due to excessive water use in the front range), the golf courses look great.

♥ 615

Claim context: Environment & materials

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Colorado has abandonment rules, but the named golf-course practices and wildfire causation cannot be generalized or proven from this comment. Sources: Colorado Division of Water Resources

Work in trash, most of yalls recycling goes to the dump. Sometimes straight into a trash truck, sometimes the recycling truck just dumps at the landfill while these 2 examples are rarer it does happen. Most of the recycling at recycle centers just don't make it through and wind up at the dump for some reason or another. Like most plastic, except the shit milk jugs are made of, are just not cost effective to recycle anymore and when it was it was being shipped over seas to be used as fuel... Then you have paper/cardboard, this shit is easily contaminated. Wet? Cardboard has tape? Trash. Someone put a bunch of shit in their recycling can that also contaminate the paper products, shit some neighborhoods I've serviced was 60%+ regular trash in their recycling cans. And that shit wrecks the machinery that sorts that shit if it wasn't caught during hand sorting. Now with that said glass, cans, and milk jugs are consistently recycled properly. The rest is a crapshoot and highly depends on the center it's sent too and what your neighbors put in their cans. Fun bonus info shit you can't recycle but most people think you can: Shredded paper Bubble wrap Wood Styrofoam Plastic bags Electronics Rubber/tires Fabric Garden hoses

♥ 26

Claim context: Environment & materials

✓ FactConfirmed: Recycling outcomes vary by material and locality; EPA data supports low plastic recycling, not ‘most recycling goes to the dump’ everywhere. Sources: U.S. EPA

Oil & gas industry - after the BP blow out in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, there were immense efforts to clean up all the spilled oil floating on top of the sea water. BP outsourced the clean up efforts to a company called Nalco which utilized a “dispersant” called Corexit. The dispersant is basically a fancy version of dawn dish soap. AKA, the oil attaches itself to the dispersant and becomes too heavy to float and essentially sinks to the bottom of the ocean out of view of any cameras and news networks. Yes, you guessed it, the oil is still there. Just sunk at the bottom of the ocean.

♥ 14

Claim context: Environment & materials

✗ InaccurateCorrection: Corexit is an oil-spill dispersant, not simply Dawn; it disperses oil into smaller droplets rather than proving all oil sank out of view. Sources: U.S. EPA

sooo much soil is polluted, it's crazy, and the governement would need a loooot of money to remove it all responsibly. meanwhile it all threatens our soilwater (our drinking water), flora and fauna. there's so much going on.

♥ 8

Claim context: Environment & materials

✓ FactConfirmed: Contaminated sites can threaten groundwater and ecosystems and require expensive cleanup; avoid claiming all soil is contaminated without a defined geography. Sources: U.S. EPA

State environmental permits for discharging contaminants into a body of water are often written in terms of concentration, not quantity. In order to continue to operate while remaining compliant with the permit sites often just increase the amount of water they are discharging, lowering the concentration of the contaminant. Doesn’t make a damn bit of difference in the large body of water it ends up in.

♥ 3

Claim context: Environment & materials

✗ InaccurateCorrection: NPDES rules generally require mass-based limits except in defined cases and prohibit dilution as a substitute for treatment. Sources: U.S. EPA

Most water fountains don’t have a filter. You’re just drinking regular city/county tap water. The same water that flushes the toilet.

♥ 3

Claim context: Environment & materials

✓ FactConfirmed: Fountain water may be municipal tap water, which is regulated drinking water; ‘same water that flushes toilets’ is rhetoric, not a safety finding. Sources: U.S. EPA

Most trees don't need to be trimmed. Big tree trimming companies that work for municipalities are the worst scum bags who lobby the cities and city tree guy to pay them to trim trees they sometimes don't or take a branch or two off. The only time trees need to be trimmed is if they are a danger to the public or infrastructure but just having a heavy/natural top is no danger. These trees have been around longer than humans and some how there's an industry profiting off of their abuse. We need more trees and it's great when these companies promote planting them where they'll survive but the shady side none of them admit is it's a for profit business and they need to be trimming regardless of whether trees need it or not

♥ 2

Claim context: Environment & materials

✓ FactConfirmed: Improper pruning can damage trees and qualified arboriculture matters; remove allegations about municipal contractors’ motives. Sources: U.S. Forest Service

A lot of the drinking water you get from the tap is just the wastewater from upstream that has been treated.

♥ 2

Claim context: Environment & materials

✓ FactConfirmed: Downstream systems can draw from waters receiving treated effluent; treatment standards and source-water controls are central context. Sources: U.S. Geological Survey

Source-record spotlights

Most engaged source

I worked in the parks industry in Colorado. A certain amount of water is allowed for a city like Denver to keep its golf courses top-notch. That water comes from the western slope, up to several hundred miles away. If only a percentage of that water is used, then you are allowed that new, lesser amount. So they will just keep sprinklers running to avoid having any amount taken away. While the mountains might experience a drought and get hit with wildfires, devastating wildlife, farmlands and homes (due to excessive water use in the front range), the golf courses look great.

source record 269♥ 615
Later-arriving source

Most water fountains don’t have a filter. You’re just drinking regular city/county tap water. The same water that flushes the toilet.

posted about 3 days after the source♥ 3
Low-like source

Most trees don't need to be trimmed. Big tree trimming companies that work for municipalities are the worst scum bags who lobby the cities and city tree guy to pay them to trim trees they sometimes don't or take a branch or two off. The only time trees need to be trimmed is if they are a danger to the public or infrastructure but just having a heavy/natural top is no danger. These trees have been around longer than humans and some how there's an industry profiting off of their abuse. We need more trees and it's great when these companies promote planting them where they'll survive but the shady side none of them admit is it's a for profit business and they need to be trimming regardless of whether trees need it or not

posted about 33.5 hours after the source♥ 2

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What the counts show

Across 9 source records, the most common observable tactic structure is “Use a sensory reset” (2 records). This is a wording pattern, not a measured outcome.

9index entries
9distinct source records
9%of parent category
9%of the complete index
9top-level comments
0replies
Browse the original comments9 preserved records · 9 of 9 source records accounted for
I work in recycling. Metal recycling to be precise, but I have connections in plastic/e waste/landfills/residential/etc recyling as well Even if you recycle every possible thing you could and think you're doing your part, I'd say a solid third of it goes straight to a landfill without even the attempt to recycle it. Of what's left, maybe a third of that is rejected for whatever reason also to be sent to a landfill. The remainder is actually recycled in some way. There's a lot of reasons why but the biggest by far is simply greed Metal recycling is one of the better, if not the best industry as far as recovery and we still operate with the expectation of significant loss♥ 231source record 186↑ Open the fact-check
I worked in the parks industry in Colorado. A certain amount of water is allowed for a city like Denver to keep its golf courses top-notch. That water comes from the western slope, up to several hundred miles away. If only a percentage of that water is used, then you are allowed that new, lesser amount. So they will just keep sprinklers running to avoid having any amount taken away. While the mountains might experience a drought and get hit with wildfires, devastating wildlife, farmlands and homes (due to excessive water use in the front range), the golf courses look great.♥ 615source record 269↑ Open the fact-check
Work in trash, most of yalls recycling goes to the dump. Sometimes straight into a trash truck, sometimes the recycling truck just dumps at the landfill while these 2 examples are rarer it does happen. Most of the recycling at recycle centers just don't make it through and wind up at the dump for some reason or another. Like most plastic, except the shit milk jugs are made of, are just not cost effective to recycle anymore and when it was it was being shipped over seas to be used as fuel... Then you have paper/cardboard, this shit is easily contaminated. Wet? Cardboard has tape? Trash. Someone put a bunch of shit in their recycling can that also contaminate the paper products, shit some neighborhoods I've serviced was 60%+ regular trash in their recycling cans. And that shit wrecks the machinery that sorts that shit if it wasn't caught during hand sorting. Now with that said glass, cans, and milk jugs are consistently recycled properly. The rest is a crapshoot and highly depends on the center it's sent too and what your neighbors put in their cans. Fun bonus info shit you can't recycle but most people think you can: Shredded paper Bubble wrap Wood Styrofoam Plastic bags Electronics Rubber/tires Fabric Garden hoses♥ 26source record 442↑ Open the fact-check
Oil & gas industry - after the BP blow out in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, there were immense efforts to clean up all the spilled oil floating on top of the sea water. BP outsourced the clean up efforts to a company called Nalco which utilized a “dispersant” called Corexit. The dispersant is basically a fancy version of dawn dish soap. AKA, the oil attaches itself to the dispersant and becomes too heavy to float and essentially sinks to the bottom of the ocean out of view of any cameras and news networks. Yes, you guessed it, the oil is still there. Just sunk at the bottom of the ocean.♥ 14source record 490↑ Open the fact-check
sooo much soil is polluted, it's crazy, and the governement would need a loooot of money to remove it all responsibly. meanwhile it all threatens our soilwater (our drinking water), flora and fauna. there's so much going on.♥ 8source record 2277↑ Open the fact-check
State environmental permits for discharging contaminants into a body of water are often written in terms of concentration, not quantity. In order to continue to operate while remaining compliant with the permit sites often just increase the amount of water they are discharging, lowering the concentration of the contaminant. Doesn’t make a damn bit of difference in the large body of water it ends up in.♥ 3source record 2470↑ Open the fact-check
Most water fountains don’t have a filter. You’re just drinking regular city/county tap water. The same water that flushes the toilet.♥ 3source record 2642↑ Open the fact-check
Most trees don't need to be trimmed. Big tree trimming companies that work for municipalities are the worst scum bags who lobby the cities and city tree guy to pay them to trim trees they sometimes don't or take a branch or two off. The only time trees need to be trimmed is if they are a danger to the public or infrastructure but just having a heavy/natural top is no danger. These trees have been around longer than humans and some how there's an industry profiting off of their abuse. We need more trees and it's great when these companies promote planting them where they'll survive but the shady side none of them admit is it's a for profit business and they need to be trimming regardless of whether trees need it or not♥ 2source record 2658↑ Open the fact-check
A lot of the drinking water you get from the tap is just the wastewater from upstream that has been treated.♥ 2source record 2715↑ Open the fact-check

Archive: 9 index entries preserve 9 distinct source records · Every displayed synthesis count resolves to source-record IDs

Finance & workplace incentives5 index entries5 source-checked claim records
Source-backed index report

Fact-checked claim card with verdict, corrected or narrowed claim, concise explanation, named HTTPS sources, checked date and original source record: Finance & workplace incentives

Source-backed answers are shown before diagnostics; the complete source archive remains below.

An overdraft fee is actually an incredibly high interest rate loan but, since they call it a fee and it doesn't vary with the charge amount it doesn't have to follow interest rate caps. For example, if you pay a $35 fee to cover $100 and have to pay it back with your next paycheck (assume 2 weeks) that is an interest rate of 913%

♥ 475

Claim context: Finance & workplace incentives

✓ FactConfirmed: The annualized-cost math is valid; CFPB describes paid overdrafts as extensions of credit, but a fee is not automatically a conventional APR loan. Sources: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

I work in finance. typically helping people with debt, budgeting, investing - most people don’t know that credit card interest accrues on a daily basis and that their APRs skyrocket to 30% when their accounts get maxed out. Most clients think the credit card companies on our their side….yeah they want you in the 40 year interest cycle lol. credit card companies are not your friends

♥ 26

Claim context: Finance & workplace incentives

✓ FactConfirmed: Explain daily periodic rate and actual card disclosures; drop the unsupported ‘40-year interest cycle.’ Sources: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Ex auditor of big 4. The audited report isn't as "yay no fraud" as most people think. There is even a line stating along the phrase "reasonably confident the report is not materially misstated". Don't take it as bullet-proof.

♥ 5

Claim context: Finance & workplace incentives

✓ FactConfirmed: An audit provides reasonable—not absolute—assurance against material misstatement, including fraud. Sources: Public Company Accounting Oversight Board

Tax accountant. No the the IRS does not know how much you owe. You want to be try to be precise as possible though incase you are audited. If you are audited then they will know exactly how much you should owe for that year.

♥ 5

Claim context: Finance & workplace incentives

✓ FactConfirmed: IRS receives extensive third-party reports but does not necessarily have complete information to calculate every return; audit does not always yield an exact liability. Sources: Internal Revenue Service

I’m an accountant and worked for the IRS. I don’t think most people realize how common tax avoidance is, whether that’s just not filing a return or filing a return that understates the tax liability. The IRS studies something known as the tax gap. Simply put, it’s the difference between what the IRS calculates the country’s tax liability is versus what actually ends up being collected. The latest data from 2022 puts the tax gap at over $600 billion per year.

♥ 3

Claim context: Finance & workplace incentives

✓ FactConfirmed: IRS projects a $696B gross and $606B net tax gap for tax year 2022; define which measure is used rather than saying only ‘over $600B.’ Sources: Internal Revenue Service

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Most engaged source

An overdraft fee is actually an incredibly high interest rate loan but, since they call it a fee and it doesn't vary with the charge amount it doesn't have to follow interest rate caps. For example, if you pay a $35 fee to cover $100 and have to pay it back with your next paycheck (assume 2 weeks) that is an interest rate of 913%

source record 361♥ 475
Later-arriving source

Tax accountant. No the the IRS does not know how much you owe. You want to be try to be precise as possible though incase you are audited. If you are audited then they will know exactly how much you should owe for that year.

posted about 21.8 hours after the source♥ 5
Low-like source

I’m an accountant and worked for the IRS. I don’t think most people realize how common tax avoidance is, whether that’s just not filing a return or filing a return that understates the tax liability. The IRS studies something known as the tax gap. Simply put, it’s the difference between what the IRS calculates the country’s tax liability is versus what actually ends up being collected. The latest data from 2022 puts the tax gap at over $600 billion per year.

posted about 9.9 hours after the source♥ 3

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What the counts show

This report keeps all 5 source records for Finance & workplace incentives together and surfaces traceable examples without converting anecdotes into proof.

5index entries
5distinct source records
5%of parent category
5%of the complete index
5top-level comments
0replies
Browse the original comments5 preserved records · 5 of 5 source records accounted for
An overdraft fee is actually an incredibly high interest rate loan but, since they call it a fee and it doesn't vary with the charge amount it doesn't have to follow interest rate caps. For example, if you pay a $35 fee to cover $100 and have to pay it back with your next paycheck (assume 2 weeks) that is an interest rate of 913%♥ 475source record 361↑ Open the fact-check
I work in finance. typically helping people with debt, budgeting, investing - most people don’t know that credit card interest accrues on a daily basis and that their APRs skyrocket to 30% when their accounts get maxed out. Most clients think the credit card companies on our their side….yeah they want you in the 40 year interest cycle lol. credit card companies are not your friends♥ 26source record 2241↑ Open the fact-check
Ex auditor of big 4. The audited report isn't as "yay no fraud" as most people think. There is even a line stating along the phrase "reasonably confident the report is not materially misstated". Don't take it as bullet-proof.♥ 5source record 2463↑ Open the fact-check
Tax accountant. No the the IRS does not know how much you owe. You want to be try to be precise as possible though incase you are audited. If you are audited then they will know exactly how much you should owe for that year.♥ 5source record 2603↑ Open the fact-check
I’m an accountant and worked for the IRS. I don’t think most people realize how common tax avoidance is, whether that’s just not filing a return or filing a return that understates the tax liability. The IRS studies something known as the tax gap. Simply put, it’s the difference between what the IRS calculates the country’s tax liability is versus what actually ends up being collected. The latest data from 2022 puts the tax gap at over $600 billion per year.♥ 3source record 2620↑ Open the fact-check

Archive: 5 index entries preserve 5 distinct source records · Every displayed synthesis count resolves to source-record IDs

Government & public systems9 index entries9 source-checked claim records
Source-backed index report

Fact-checked claim card with verdict, corrected or narrowed claim, concise explanation, named HTTPS sources, checked date and original source record: Government & public systems

Source-backed answers are shown before diagnostics; the complete source archive remains below.

Public Libraries have to beg local and state (mostly state) governments for funding. Most of the cool stuff your local library has added? Yeah that came from either grants or donations. The actual funding is fought for very hard every single day. The best thing you can do to support public libraries? 1) get a library card most importantly, 2) get involved and vote in local and state elections, 3) go utilize all the free shit available at libraries so we keep getting money to continue having that cool stuff for you guys.

♥ 608

Claim context: Government & public systems

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Funding mix is state/local and library-specific; the source does not support ‘mostly state’ funding or that every added service is grant-funded. Sources: Institute of Museum and Library Services

I'm a social worker in a medium sized city with a bad reputation for having a lot of homeless people. I frequently interact with homeless folks, as well as people who are on the verge of losing their housing. You will often hear people say things like, they don't want to get help, they chose this, they're all on drugs, etc etc. Yes, sometimes that's true, but from my experience it is not the majority of cases. The most common thing I hear for why people become homeless is an unexpected loss of income. This could be getting fired or laid off, or an income earner in the home leaves or dies, or a medical situation makes it impossible for them to work. Things like this happen all the fucking time. So many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and if you lose that paycheck for even a month or two, everything falls apart. People can lose their housing in the blink of an eye. To add insult to injury, once you become homeless, it is so fucking difficult to get out. There are nowhere near enough resources for all homeless people to get sheltered. Even if they are determined to get into a shelter bed, it often takes weeks or even months. Even, and sometimes especially, families with children. There are just are not enough resources, funding, beds, counselors, etc etc etc. It's hard as fuck to find work as a homeless person. You don't have an address to put on a resume (or a laptop to make the resume). Homeless folks often lose all of their belongings in tent sweeps, including documents like IDs, birth certificates, etc. Folks living on the streets are frequently victims of theft and sexual assualt. They are exposed to the elements. Their bodies break down faster. And all of this is before we even get to the subject of how homeless folks are treated by everyone else, despite the fact that they may themselves be one or two missed paychecks away from being in the same situation.

♥ 2,165

Claim context: Government & public systems

Government agencies will blow money on shit that’s not necessarily needed at the end of the year to burn up the rest of the money in their budget. If they don’t spent all the money their budget will get reduced next year.

♥ 1,667

Claim context: Government & public systems

✓ FactConfirmed: GAO recognizes year-end spending can create waste incentives, but fourth-quarter spending is not itself proof of waste or automatic next-year cuts. Sources: U.S. GAO — source 1 · U.S. GAO — source 2

Screenwriters who write for TV don't really write specific episodes. The union requires that someone be credited for each episode and they technically do actually sit down and write it, but between the writers room thourouly outlining the episode and all the extra drafts and revisions afterward (sometimes even full rewrites) it would be much more accurate to say that the whole room writes every episode.

♥ 246

Claim context: Government & public systems

✓ Accurate, narrowedWhat the record supports: TV writing is collaborative and credit is governed by rules; writers still write credited episodes. Sources: WGA television credits manual

Military and commercial manufacturers bid for jobs. Much like getting a house remodeled by a handyman over a remodeling company. The projects go to the lowest bidder and budget restrictions are made for any improvement ideas from the workers that’ll produce better or faster results. All in the means to keep the management pockets full with bigger bonuses. So all the projects for commercial or military applications are therefore built half-assed and under budget. Quality is still there but with what you can make out of it. All these companies value innovation and efficiency yet when it comes down to it. They lack severely. So when you’re flying or using a specific hardware heavy technology. It’s very possible it could’ve been manufactured better or faster but it didn’t because someone’s pocket got full instead of the actual project. This issue also stems into every aspect of our lives. From doctors to lawyers to police to anything with a management oversight. They’d rather focus on their bonuses being hefty while our processes continue to be mediocre.

♥ 108

Claim context: Government & public systems

✗ InaccurateCorrection: Federal procurement may use lowest-price technically acceptable evaluation, but also permits best-value tradeoffs; the claim that all projects are built poorly is unsupported. Sources: Federal Acquisition Regulation

The amount of money made in video games over encouraging dopamine and gambling addiction in children is so large that I'm honestly surprised there's been no serious attempts at legislation.

♥ 102

Claim context: Government & public systems

✗ InaccurateCorrection: The claim of no serious regulation/enforcement is false; FTC action restricted loot-box sales to minors. Sources: FTC HoYoverse action

Those commercials for pharmaceuticals everyone says they hate? The odds someone sees an ad and asks their doctor about the drug? 80%. The odds that the doctor will subsequently prescribe it? 70%. Those are really big numbers. Notice how all the ads are for long term chronic conditions? No one-off 5 day courses of antibiotics getting air time. All the ads are for new drugs, of course. That being said, 95% of them are “me too” drugs. No better than what’s already available and likely generic: just another drug company wanting a piece of the pie and making you think it’s the greatest invention since sliced bread. Only 5% are novel, meaning superior or first of a kind. Big Pharma may be evil and pernicious, but they ain’t stupid.

♥ 171

Claim context: Government & public systems

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Prescription-drug advertising is regulated; the 80/70/95 figures are unsupported. Sources: FDA prescription-drug advertising Q&A

Almost no small businesses do what they should for cybersecurity of your data. They aim to check the minimal number of boxes to meet agreements and insurance requirements (and even then it may be more theatre than substance) Independently owned healthcare organizations are often even worse. HIPAA and other compliances are often incompletely implemented . If it doesn’t make money for the business and/or the risk doesn’t seem imminent- investments in security and even changes in basic behaviors are often ignored.

♥ 2

Claim context: Government & public systems

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Small organizations can have resource gaps; 'almost no small businesses' and the HIPAA generalization are unsupported. Sources: FTC small-business cybersecurity guidance

the computer code for banks is basically spaghetti held together with chicken wire and tape.

♥ 7

Claim context: Government & public systems

✓ Accurate, narrowedWhat the record supports: Legacy systems and COBOL skills remain modernization risks; do not say all bank code is spaghetti. Sources: GAO legacy-systems report

Source-record spotlights

Most engaged source

Government agencies will blow money on shit that’s not necessarily needed at the end of the year to burn up the rest of the money in their budget. If they don’t spent all the money their budget will get reduced next year.

source record 295♥ 1,667
Later-arriving source

Almost no small businesses do what they should for cybersecurity of your data. They aim to check the minimal number of boxes to meet agreements and insurance requirements (and even then it may be more theatre than substance) Independently owned healthcare organizations are often even worse. HIPAA and other compliances are often incompletely implemented . If it doesn’t make money for the business and/or the risk doesn’t seem imminent- investments in security and even changes in basic behaviors are often ignored.

posted about 21.0 hours after the source♥ 2
Low-like source

the computer code for banks is basically spaghetti held together with chicken wire and tape.

posted about 11.2 hours after the source♥ 7

Related evidence elsewhere in the index

What the counts show

Within 9 source records, 1 explicitly report a benefit and 0 explicitly report a limit or failure. These are attributed experiences, not effectiveness data.

9index entries
9distinct source records
9%of parent category
9%of the complete index
9top-level comments
0replies
Browse the original comments9 preserved records · 9 of 9 source records accounted for
Public Libraries have to beg local and state (mostly state) governments for funding. Most of the cool stuff your local library has added? Yeah that came from either grants or donations. The actual funding is fought for very hard every single day. The best thing you can do to support public libraries? 1) get a library card most importantly, 2) get involved and vote in local and state elections, 3) go utilize all the free shit available at libraries so we keep getting money to continue having that cool stuff for you guys.♥ 608source record 96↑ Open the fact-check
I'm a social worker in a medium sized city with a bad reputation for having a lot of homeless people. I frequently interact with homeless folks, as well as people who are on the verge of losing their housing. You will often hear people say things like, they don't want to get help, they chose this, they're all on drugs, etc etc. Yes, sometimes that's true, but from my experience it is not the majority of cases. The most common thing I hear for why people become homeless is an unexpected loss of income. This could be getting fired or laid off, or an income earner in the home leaves or dies, or a medical situation makes it impossible for them to work. Things like this happen all the fucking time. So many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and if you lose that paycheck for even a month or two, everything falls apart. People can lose their housing in the blink of an eye. To add insult to injury, once you become homeless, it is so fucking difficult to get out. There are nowhere near enough resources for all homeless people to get sheltered. Even if they are determined to get into a shelter bed, it often takes weeks or even months. Even, and sometimes especially, families with children. There are just are not enough resources, funding, beds, counselors, etc etc etc. It's hard as fuck to find work as a homeless person. You don't have an address to put on a resume (or a laptop to make the resume). Homeless folks often lose all of their belongings in tent sweeps, including documents like IDs, birth certificates, etc. Folks living on the streets are frequently victims of theft and sexual assualt. They are exposed to the elements. Their bodies break down faster. And all of this is before we even get to the subject of how homeless folks are treated by everyone else, despite the fact that they may themselves be one or two missed paychecks away from being in the same situation.♥ 2,165source record 257↑ Open the fact-check
Government agencies will blow money on shit that’s not necessarily needed at the end of the year to burn up the rest of the money in their budget. If they don’t spent all the money their budget will get reduced next year.♥ 1,667source record 295↑ Open the fact-check
Screenwriters who write for TV don't really write specific episodes. The union requires that someone be credited for each episode and they technically do actually sit down and write it, but between the writers room thourouly outlining the episode and all the extra drafts and revisions afterward (sometimes even full rewrites) it would be much more accurate to say that the whole room writes every episode.♥ 246source record 389↑ Open the fact-check
Military and commercial manufacturers bid for jobs. Much like getting a house remodeled by a handyman over a remodeling company. The projects go to the lowest bidder and budget restrictions are made for any improvement ideas from the workers that’ll produce better or faster results. All in the means to keep the management pockets full with bigger bonuses. So all the projects for commercial or military applications are therefore built half-assed and under budget. Quality is still there but with what you can make out of it. All these companies value innovation and efficiency yet when it comes down to it. They lack severely. So when you’re flying or using a specific hardware heavy technology. It’s very possible it could’ve been manufactured better or faster but it didn’t because someone’s pocket got full instead of the actual project. This issue also stems into every aspect of our lives. From doctors to lawyers to police to anything with a management oversight. They’d rather focus on their bonuses being hefty while our processes continue to be mediocre.♥ 108source record 410↑ Open the fact-check
The amount of money made in video games over encouraging dopamine and gambling addiction in children is so large that I'm honestly surprised there's been no serious attempts at legislation.♥ 102source record 415↑ Open the fact-check
Those commercials for pharmaceuticals everyone says they hate? The odds someone sees an ad and asks their doctor about the drug? 80%. The odds that the doctor will subsequently prescribe it? 70%. Those are really big numbers. Notice how all the ads are for long term chronic conditions? No one-off 5 day courses of antibiotics getting air time. All the ads are for new drugs, of course. That being said, 95% of them are “me too” drugs. No better than what’s already available and likely generic: just another drug company wanting a piece of the pie and making you think it’s the greatest invention since sliced bread. Only 5% are novel, meaning superior or first of a kind. Big Pharma may be evil and pernicious, but they ain’t stupid.♥ 171source record 2246↑ Open the fact-check
Almost no small businesses do what they should for cybersecurity of your data. They aim to check the minimal number of boxes to meet agreements and insurance requirements (and even then it may be more theatre than substance) Independently owned healthcare organizations are often even worse. HIPAA and other compliances are often incompletely implemented . If it doesn’t make money for the business and/or the risk doesn’t seem imminent- investments in security and even changes in basic behaviors are often ignored.♥ 2source record 2499↑ Open the fact-check
the computer code for banks is basically spaghetti held together with chicken wire and tape.♥ 7source record 2852↑ Open the fact-check

Archive: 9 index entries preserve 9 distinct source records · Every displayed synthesis count resolves to source-record IDs

Health, food & consumer systems35 index entries35 source-checked claim records
Source-backed index report

Fact-checked claim card with verdict, corrected or narrowed claim, concise explanation, named HTTPS sources, checked date and original source record: Health, food & consumer systems

Source-backed answers are shown before diagnostics; the complete source archive remains below.

Farmed salmon are so overcrowded that they get sick and develop sores. It's absolutely disgusting, and it's awful to see them suffering.

♥ 6,061

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Farmed salmon can develop disease and skin lesions; do not retain the universal causal claim about overcrowding. Sources: NOAA; Government of Canada — source 1 · NOAA; Government of Canada — source 2

The housekeeping industry. Housekeepers are under such tight time restraints (30 min per room) and given like 15 rooms to clean in 8 hrs that they are forced to cut corners. Never trust the coffee pot, towels, bedding (the duvet is never changed only if there’s a strain on it or it smells really bad or something), don’t trust the glasses, and don’t walk around barefoot. I’ve seen housekeepers using the toilet brush to clean the bathtub. And touching the clean towers after touching the toilet. Unfortunately there’s not enough time to really clean so we give the illusion of a clean room. Management only cares that the metal is shiny with no water spots, there’s no hair anywhere, and everything is in its place and looks organized. But really it’s gross!

♥ 1,583

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

Limit: The housekeeping industry. Housekeepers are under such tight time restraints (30 min per room) and given like 15 rooms to clean in 8 hrs that they are forced to cut corners. Never trust the coffee pot, towels,…

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Cleaning lapses can create risk, but anonymous observations cannot establish that hotels generally provide only an illusion of cleanliness. Sources: CDC

Fountain soda machines are disgusting 90% of the time. Even the places that claim to clean and service them regularly. The amount of time it takes to properly clean them along with poor placement means it's usually to much hassle for everyday employees to properly clean and replace filters of they do it all. I work with technicians that do service calls to restaurants and gas stations daily and the condition of almost all the machines is sickening.

♥ 1,612

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Food-contact equipment must be cleaned, sanitized, and maintained; no evidence supports the claimed 90% prevalence. Sources: FDA Food Code 2022

If you are ever on a long term care insurance plan to receive assistance from a home health aide, DME, etc. There are two facts: 1. Case managers are actively being told to give you the least amount of hours of assistance per week as possible. 2. If you become the ultimate Karen you will ALWAYS get what you ask for. It will take time to go up the chain but you will win. 50 hours of care per week? Complain. New shower? Complain. New Wheelchair? Complain. I'm talking daily conversations with the worker, supervisor, regional manager, etc. I promise you, it will get done. So be the squeaky wheel. Insurance banks on you giving up the fight and they don't want to deal with a judge in a hearing over the issue. They'll give in eventually.

♥ 1,737

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✗ InaccurateCorrection: Appeal rights exist, but complaining does not guarantee approval, a particular number of care hours, or equipment. Sources: Medicare; U.S. Department of Labor — source 1 · Medicare; U.S. Department of Labor — source 2

Chefs in restaurants don’t wear gloves hardly ever- because gloves are dirty and gross. Corporate places that insist on gloves result in cooks wearing the gloves for a long period of time, resulting in cross contamination. If I’m making your food without gloves I am very clean and tidy and I wash my hands a lot. I only wear them when dealing with sloppy wet stuff. What I’m saying is that gloves are in absolutely no way a sign of cleanliness or lack of contamination.

♥ 942

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Gloves alone are not proof of hygiene: the Food Code controls bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food and requires handwashing. Do not call gloves inherently dirty. Sources: FDA Food Code 2022

Vegetables that come canned are cooked in the can.

♥ 570

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Commercial canning uses heat processing to make shelf-stable food; processing details vary by product and facility. Sources: USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service

I don’t know how shocking it is but at least in the US, all those regulations on chemicals like PFAS’ and other environmentally dangerous compounds? Those regulations rely on the manufacturers reporting their hazards to the DOT. If a company is, say, wrong about a hazard due to a lack of testing because they keep their labs stocked with out of date equipment, those reports aren’t necessarily gonna be accurate.

♥ 32

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✗ InaccurateCorrection: Manufacturers and importers do classify hazards for OSHA labels and SDSs, but DOT is not the whole chemical-regulation system and EPA has separate authority. Sources: OSHA; EPA — source 1 · OSHA; EPA — source 2

Lots of vodka and gin from “craft” distilleries is just bulk neutral spirits from larger more industrial distilleries redistilled to recut the heads and tails and incorporate botanicals. No starch conversion, sugar extraction, or fermentation is taking place on premises to create of these products.

♥ 26

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Gin can be made by redistilling neutral spirits with juniper and other botanicals. The source does not show how common this is or make it deceptive. Sources: Electronic Code of Federal Regulations

Agriculture. The amount of farmers and pest control/crop advisors who lie about what pesticides are being used on their crops is staggering. Even on crops that are technically organic, or are exported to other countries with stricter regulations. I work in one of the most strictly regulated states in the US and the reporting and auditing process basically amounts to "just trust me bro"

♥ 18

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✗ InaccurateCorrection: Certified organic operations maintain traceability records and undergo annual review and inspection. Violations require case-specific evidence. Sources: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service — source 1 · USDA Agricultural Marketing Service — source 2 · USDA Agricultural Marketing Service — source 3

Rabies testing (if required) means after an animal is euthanized, we have to sever their head, and one of us has to deliver the head (in a cooler on ice) to the state health department.

♥ 17

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Animal rabies testing generally requires euthanasia and brain tissue. Do not over-specify decapitation or every state's courier procedure. Sources: CDC

The biggest open secret in insurance that the public doesn’t realize is that most carriers aren’t really making their money off your premiums—they are essentially massive hedge funds wearing a hard hat. The actual goal of an insurance company is to collect billions in premiums, pay out as little as possible in claims for as long as possible, and invest that massive pile of money (the "float") into real estate, private equity, and high-yield markets. The premiums you pay just give us the chip stack to play Wall Street, which is why a company can technically lose money on coverage for years and still report record-breaking profits. Because of this, the entire claims process isn't just about verifying if your loss was real; it's heavily engineered as a game of administrative attrition. Initial denials, endless requests for repetitive paperwork, and confusing policy jargon aren't always accidental red tape—they're calculated friction. Regulators know it, and the industry knows it, but the business model relies on the fact that a massive percentage of people will simply get exhausted, frustrated, or confused and give up on pursuing a payout they’re fully entitled to. On top of that, your loyalty to an insurance carrier is actively weaponized against you through something called "price optimization." Actuarial algorithms don't just calculate your actual risk of having an accident or a house fire; they calculate how likely you are to notice a rate hike and shop around. If the data shows you’re a passive customer who has stayed with the same company for five years, your rates will steadily creep up simply because the system knows you won't leave, while a brand-new customer with the exact same risk profile gets a vastly cheaper rate next door.

♥ 46

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Insurers invest premiums and reserves, but call neither all insurers hedge funds nor all administrative friction deliberate attrition. Sources: National Association of Insurance Commissioners — source 1 · National Association of Insurance Commissioners — source 2

I'm a produce clerk. The amount of times that something has hit the cooler floor and I've just swept in back into it's container like nothing happened is pretty bad. Wash your produce folks.

♥ 10

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Wash fresh produce under running water; FDA advises against washing it with soap or bleach. Sources: FDA

In an ophtamology med. Many people believe the blue filter of the glasses helps with vision protection. This is essentially a "yes, but actually no" situation. Blue filter is recommended for people whose prescription is relatively low and/or work or study a lot with computers or like using screens (gamers, desingers, etc.). While blue filter does block a certain type of color, the reason why people feel they vision gets damaged is because they don't blink enough. Blinking bathes the cornea and the sclera with a new tear film and protects and nourishes them, but sometimes people are so focused on the screens that they forget to blink. This is also why people with these problem often have symptoms of dry eye. Interestingly, another reason the blue filter is recommended is because part of the electrochemical impulse that transforms light from outside into images in the retina (and then goes to the brain) doesn't go to the brain 100%. Part of it also goes to the sector of pupila retraction (Edinger Westphal nucleus) to regulate the pupila according to the amount of light present, and the other part goes to the sector of the brain which regulates melatonin (cicle of sleep). And yes, there are studies that say that some of the cells in the retina, depending on how close they are to the macula, have more affinity with blue light. So, people with blue filter should also be recommended to have breaks of 20 minutes for each hour of screen usage (if we're generous) and never use the screen with 100% illumination. The warm color mode is also a good alternative and kids most of all, should never use screens more than 1 hour and a half daily in general. Less if younger. But we all know how most parents are with that nowadays. TLDR: Blue filter in glasses won't really help you if you don't use screens responsibly yourself.

♥ 6

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

Worked in a pharmaceutical manufacturing and shipping plant. Almost all over the counter medicine is simply relabeled and sent to the corresponding company. All the big chains use the exact same product, just with their label on it.

♥ 8

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Private-label OTC products may share an FDA-monograph formulation, but identity, inactive ingredients, and manufacturers vary; no evidence establishes almost all are identical. Sources: FDA

I used to work at a 24/7 McDonald’s. all cooked product has a shelf life of about an hour and then you have to throw it out. after 10pm, that doesn’t happen because orders are too unpredictable and food wastage would get the manager fired if we actually followed the procedure, and also drunk idiots won’t tolerate waiting for fresh stuff to cook. also grills have to be cleaned at some stage, but we’re on skeleton crew levels of staff until 7am, so if orders come in you’ve got to stop cleaning to make the orders so if you’re one of those drunken idiots that come in between 2-3am, your beef patties could have been sitting there since about 9pm

♥ 3

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Hot food must meet time and temperature controls; do not present one restaurant's claimed practice as a chain-wide fact. Sources: FDA Food Code 2022

Cows have to be actively pregnant to produce milk

♥ 7

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Dairy lactation follows calving; do not imply that a cow must be continuously pregnant while producing milk. Sources: USDA Economic Research Service

Most people think supplements are FDA approved before they’re sold. They’re not. “Natural” doesn’t automatically mean safe. Plenty of natural ingredients can have side effects or interact with medications. Expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better. A lot of the price is just marketing and branding. “Clinically proven” often sounds more impressive than it is. Sometimes it’s based on one small or weak study. Third-party tested and FDA approved are completely different things, but a lot of people use them interchangeably.

♥ 2

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Dietary supplements are not FDA-approved before sale, and natural products can interact with medicines. Third-party testing and FDA approval are distinct. Sources: FDA — source 1 · FDA — source 2

Airline. Don't check a bag with lithium batteries in it. Carry them on. People don't pay attention to this requirement when checking the boxes, and it's the next disaster waiting to happen.

♥ 2

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Spare lithium batteries and power banks belong in carry-on luggage, not checked bags; installed devices have conditional rules. Sources: FAA — source 1 · FAA — source 2

A lot of money spent on cancer research is wasted off the bat because a lot of the the originating stock for the cell lines people use for research are contaminated, and no one is willing to deal with it. It's a lot more complicated than that for sure, but I tried to distill it to a relatively short sentence.

♥ 2

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Cell-line contamination and misidentification can compromise research; do not claim a quantified amount of cancer funding is wasted or that no one addresses it. Sources: NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; PubMed Central — source 1 · NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; PubMed Central — source 2

In agriculture there is an insect called psylla. The bug eats the fruit on the tree and then sh*ts on the fruit which causes the fruit to be sticky.

♥ 2

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Psyllids excrete honeydew that can leave fruit or foliage sticky; this is a crop-pest fact, not a food-safety allegation. Sources: UC Integrated Pest Management

I managed a family florist and gift/events and wedding services business for over 15 years. Several "open" known secrets within the trade. 1. Flowers usually come shipped to a florist "dry packed" which means they are cut at the farm (usually Equador, Columbia, etc) wrapped in bundles depending on size and packaged into large boxes for shipment. The travel route for Florida is usually FARM (south america) > miami (where many will go to the miami flowers market where florists can go in person and bid on/purchase them or bid and purchase online and have them shipped) > florist. If the florist buys from a wholesale florist and not directly from the farm or company importing them, the route adds a stop, Miami > wholesaler > florist. The wholesaler can be in the same city or close by but is often out of the city or even state, depending on which one is used. For example, flowers purchased in North Florida can come from Dothan, or Montgomery Al, or other places. It is MUCH cheaper to order them directly from the farm, but it is more convenient to get them from the wholesaler because there is usually a wholesaler running each day of the week so if a florist needs flowers for a special order or just more of something, they can pay more and get it same day. When they come from the farm, and bypass the wholesaler, sometimes the flowers have cold packs which help keep them fresh (especially in the hottest months of summer) but most of the time they are shipped as is, fresh cut, and by the time they reach the florist (sometimes 2-3 days later) they have still not ever been put in water. When the florist gets them, they "process" the flowers, which entails cutting them a second time at an angle so they drink better and allow more oxygen in, stripping the extra leaves or foliage off, and placing them in a bucket of clean water which has flower preservative in it. This is called "hydrating" when they drink for the first time. Flowers can last usually up to a week in coolers after processing but should be used much quicker for best results. ~~ When the flowers are ordered early to avoid holiday increased pricing, they are held in coolers in the original boxes and dont see water for up to an extra week, which means by the time the flowers go out to the customer, they are already over a week old, even if they have only been in water for 24 hrs. 2. In the summer, certain roses run between .25-.35c/head (rose). In the winter, they are a bit more but usually do not pass $1/head unless it is a specialty rose. Holidays and special seasonal times, roses can climb to $2-2.5/per head; Vases can run anywhere between $1-5/per container, sometimes more for the specialty items. ~ My point here is, a florist can charge $75-$100/dozen or more for roses arranged in a vase throughout the year. During a special season or holiday, (especially Valentines) roses can go for $100-200/dozen depending on the occasion and way they are arranged, variety of rose, vase used, etc. The most a florist ever has in a normal dozen roses is usually $20-25 and that is if a really nice vase or container is used (we're including wire, ribbons, cards and card holders, etc) and often the florist has as little as $8-10 in a dozen. So the markup is extremely high on roses, and it is not uncommon for a florist to make over $25k JUST in dozens/half dozens, etc of roses on Valentines. With an average of only $2500 in product, that is a huge profit of over $22k. JUST FOR ROSES, then there are mixed dozens with other flowers added in, assorted arrangements like daisies, carnations, etc, and of course the more exotic flowers such as lillies, orchids, etc. A single valentines (just three or four days) can make a good florist over $50k in PROFITS. 3. If a florist waits until holiday pricing kicks in for a holiday or special season, such as Valentines, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc, prices can more than double for flowers and hard goods (vases, ribbons, basically anything not live and perishable) Florists should NOT do this, but often will place their order for flowers BEFORE the holiday increase in pricing takes affect. This in turn means they pay sometimes half as much or even less than if they were on holiday pricing, and also means the flowers come even earlier than they would have. Which means they have to be held for up to a week or maybe longer before they are used. 4. Funerals are one of the times that florists make the most money (profits) per order, because a florist might sell a standing spray or casket spray for $150-$1000 and they prolly only have $30-250 in it. A large funeral can make a florist thousands in profits, but one bad funeral piece can cost reputation because people expect a loved one's final flowers to be perfect and last until the funeral is over and the body is buried. 5. It is not uncommon for some funeral homes to hold the body of the deceased for up to a week until the family has paid for the costs of burial and other things. Sometimes people make arrangements and do not have the money to fulfill the order. Instead of burying the person and collecting later, some funeral homes will hold the body and only continue with services when the bill is paid in full. This causes extra odors and other issues (like more than one service at the same time) when people do not pay up front or on time. 6. Florists are supposed to wire every rose, which entails sticking a small gauge wire into the head ot the rose and wrapping it widely around the rose stem, bending the wire back on the stem when reaching the bottom or close to it. This makes the head of the rose stand taller and for longer, even after the rose dies if it is done properly. Often roses do not get wired. Wire is expensive, because it comes in very large, heavy boxes. Florists save alot if they do not wire their flowers. 7. Corsages and boutineers for weddings, prom, etc, are supposed to be wrapped and wired, and the stems stuck down into a water tube. This allows the flowers to drink water even after they are made and in use. Often Florists do not use water cubes and just wrap the stem, making it where the roses do not properly drink. 8. Florists often use "wire services" which are basically 1800-flowers, Bloomnet, teleflora, etc. These services cost alot and these are what is being used when you call one of those numbers and order through them. The florist is actually making the order, the "flower gatherer" as they are called such as teleflora, or 1800flowers, just is the platform used to order the flowers.

♥ 2

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Cut flowers can be dry-packed during shipping and then rehydrated. Drop universal route, markup, and florist-practice claims. Sources: UC Davis Postharvest Technology Center

I work in agricultural industry and the “organic” label is a hoax. Another way to make more money for the same product. They are not treated special nor are grown different. Similar concept to clothes “made in Italy”, as long as the end serves the “organic” approval which could be hand plucked instead of machine. No real way of identifying organic vs not organic. Sometime those that are not as fresh or have not been sold after a certain time, will be labeled as ready to eat. Such as avocados where they say “ready to eat today” etc. All produce is a way to make sure they are not wasted while trying to make more money off of expiring produce.

♥ 5

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✗ InaccurateCorrection: USDA organic is a production and certification standard, not a guarantee of taste, freshness, or nutrition. Sources: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service — source 1 · USDA Agricultural Marketing Service — source 2

My previous industry: Every single health or bodybuilding supplement is a lie. One way or another it is wildly impotent with falsified claims barely squeezed through legal requirements

♥ 5

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

Employer Sponsored Coverage can still exclude pre existing conditions. The Employer Group healthcare plans are not governed by the ACA nearly as much as people expect. They are still governed by ERISA which hasn't been updated in decades. That is why healthcare costs can continue to rise. Because the stuff the ACA governs is still a minority player. Employers have no problem paying the increase in costs because it is all pre tax expenses. The plans are self funded so the government really can't do much to stop them from sheltering more and more money every year from taxes. Until they replace the tax benefits of Employer Sponsored Health Insurance by reforming ERISA, healthcare will not improve. They need to offer other financial products that can be pre tax or else they will have a tax increase and that just is not going to happen.

♥ 2

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✗ InaccurateCorrection: ACA protections broadly prohibit pre-existing-condition exclusions; discuss any lawful coverage limits only under the applicable plan and law. Sources: CMS

There is no standard for what constitutes a food safe pottery glaze.

♥ 2

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✗ InaccurateCorrection: FDA has ceramicware lead-leach and labeling guidance; food-safe marketing is not a license to disregard food-contact safety. Sources: FDA — source 1 · FDA — source 2

Every single restaurant is constantly fighting an uphill battle to keep pests out. Even the cleanest, most well maintained restaurants will occasionally get roaches or less commonly, rats. Most of the time they come in on deliveries - especially cardboard boxes. Roaches fucking love cardboard. The only thing that separates good restaurants from bad ones is how diligent they are at maintaining proper pest control habits to prevent a stray visitor from becoming an infestation.

♥ 1

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Food establishments must control pests; an isolated sighting does not prove an infestation or unsafe kitchen. Sources: FDA Food Code 2022

Most restaurant ice machines are a health hazard. A very high risk to your gastrointestinal health. They are not cleaned and sanitized nearly often enough, if ever, until they stop working altogether. To most restaurant owners and managers it’s an unnecessary expense and out of sight out of mind.

♥ 3

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Ice equipment must be protected, cleaned, and sanitized; no prevalence or GI-risk rate supports the comment's broad claim. Sources: FDA Food Code 2022

There is an FDA handbook for allowable number of insect parts, and sometimes maggots, in food production that we eat everyday. [link removed]

1 source record

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

Why it matters: There is an FDA handbook for allowable number of insect parts, and sometimes maggots, in food production that we eat everyday. [link removed]

The companies selling peptides use Chinese knock off peptides that sometimes aren’t from an FDA approved facility

♥ 3

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Online peptide products can be unapproved or misbranded; do not state country of origin or identify sellers without direct enforcement records. Sources: FDA

Prescription dog food is garbage- same process as making wonder bread: firebomb all the actual nutrients out, add synthetic vitamins back in, pour the slurry into a mold and burn it to a crisp. Clinics get a percentage of the food sales, vets are paid on a percentage of the clinic's annual gross, so it's in the vets best interest to prescribe the food. Everybody makes money, especially when they sell the client on a reorder/subscription plan.

♥ 25

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✗ InaccurateCorrection: FDA distinguishes complete diets and disease-treatment claims; there is no basis for the asserted manufacturing process, profit arrangement, or universal prescribing incentive. Sources: FDA

Servers will often go for hours without washing their hands. Some restaurants do not have hand washing sinks handy, even if they're supposed to. Front of house staff, especially while busy, will be touching money, payment machines, dirty plates etc, and then touch your dinner plates, cutlery, cut your bread etc. Germ farms.

♥ 2

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✓ FactConfirmed: Food workers need handwashing facilities and must wash hands at required times; remove the unverified claim that servers commonly go hours without washing. Sources: FDA Food Code 2022

Food that you buy in large supermarkets is left out at room temperature for hours while the shelves are restocked. It's almost never checked to see if it's over the 8°C tolerance that would allow bacteria to grow. Frozen food is the same. When supermarkets go through the night it's often the case that the products that won't fit on the shelf will be left warm all night. Smaller stores have less stock and also are less likely to fill at night so the cold chain is broken less often.

♥ 1

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

✗ InaccurateCorrection: For U.S. Food Code framing, cold-held time/temperature-control-for-safety food is 5 C/41 F or below; there is no general 8 C tolerance or proof of universal noncompliance. Sources: FDA Food Code 2022

At the pharmacy if they drop any pills on the floor they just pick them up and put them in the bottle again. No the floors are not cleaned regularly.

♥ 0

Claim context: Health, food & consumer systems

⚠ DisputedDisputed: cGMP requires controls to prevent contamination; do not state a universal pharmacy practice based on anonymous testimony. Sources: Electronic Code of Federal Regulations

Where commenters report limits

Explicit limit or counterpoint

The housekeeping industry. Housekeepers are under such tight time restraints (30 min per room) and given like 15 rooms to clean in 8 hrs that they are forced to cut corners. Never trust the coffee pot, towels, bedding (the duvet is never changed only if there’s a strain on it or it smells really bad or something), don’t trust the glasses, and don’t walk around barefoot. I’ve seen housekeepers using the toilet brush to clean the bathtub. And touching the clean towers after touching the toilet. Unfortunately there’s not enough time to really clean so we give the illusion of a clean room. Management only cares that the metal is shiny with no water spots, there’s no hair anywhere, and everything is in its place and looks organized. But really it’s gross!

source record 152♥ 1,583

Source-record spotlights

Most engaged source

Farmed salmon are so overcrowded that they get sick and develop sores. It's absolutely disgusting, and it's awful to see them suffering.

source record 56♥ 6,061
Later-arriving source

Servers will often go for hours without washing their hands. Some restaurants do not have hand washing sinks handy, even if they're supposed to. Front of house staff, especially while busy, will be touching money, payment machines, dirty plates etc, and then touch your dinner plates, cutlery, cut your bread etc. Germ farms.

posted about 3 days after the source♥ 2
Zero-like source

At the pharmacy if they drop any pills on the floor they just pick them up and put them in the bottle again. No the floors are not cleaned regularly.

posted about 21.3 hours after the source♥ 0

Related evidence elsewhere in the index

What the counts show

Across 35 source records, the most common observable tactic structure is “Swap instead of subtract” (4 records). This is a wording pattern, not a measured outcome.

35index entries
35distinct source records
35%of parent category
35%of the complete index
35top-level comments
0replies
Browse the original comments35 preserved records · 35 of 35 source records accounted for
Farmed salmon are so overcrowded that they get sick and develop sores. It's absolutely disgusting, and it's awful to see them suffering.♥ 6,061source record 56↑ Open the fact-check
The housekeeping industry. Housekeepers are under such tight time restraints (30 min per room) and given like 15 rooms to clean in 8 hrs that they are forced to cut corners. Never trust the coffee pot, towels, bedding (the duvet is never changed only if there’s a strain on it or it smells really bad or something), don’t trust the glasses, and don’t walk around barefoot. I’ve seen housekeepers using the toilet brush to clean the bathtub. And touching the clean towers after touching the toilet. Unfortunately there’s not enough time to really clean so we give the illusion of a clean room. Management only cares that the metal is shiny with no water spots, there’s no hair anywhere, and everything is in its place and looks organized. But really it’s gross!♥ 1,583source record 152↑ Open the fact-check
Fountain soda machines are disgusting 90% of the time. Even the places that claim to clean and service them regularly. The amount of time it takes to properly clean them along with poor placement means it's usually to much hassle for everyday employees to properly clean and replace filters of they do it all. I work with technicians that do service calls to restaurants and gas stations daily and the condition of almost all the machines is sickening.♥ 1,612source record 234↑ Open the fact-check
If you are ever on a long term care insurance plan to receive assistance from a home health aide, DME, etc. There are two facts: 1. Case managers are actively being told to give you the least amount of hours of assistance per week as possible. 2. If you become the ultimate Karen you will ALWAYS get what you ask for. It will take time to go up the chain but you will win. 50 hours of care per week? Complain. New shower? Complain. New Wheelchair? Complain. I'm talking daily conversations with the worker, supervisor, regional manager, etc. I promise you, it will get done. So be the squeaky wheel. Insurance banks on you giving up the fight and they don't want to deal with a judge in a hearing over the issue. They'll give in eventually.♥ 1,737source record 242↑ Open the fact-check
Chefs in restaurants don’t wear gloves hardly ever- because gloves are dirty and gross. Corporate places that insist on gloves result in cooks wearing the gloves for a long period of time, resulting in cross contamination. If I’m making your food without gloves I am very clean and tidy and I wash my hands a lot. I only wear them when dealing with sloppy wet stuff. What I’m saying is that gloves are in absolutely no way a sign of cleanliness or lack of contamination.♥ 942source record 248↑ Open the fact-check
Vegetables that come canned are cooked in the can.♥ 570source record 377↑ Open the fact-check
Retired now, but your health insurance routinely denies anything out of the ordinary - challenge it!♥ 48source record 385↑ Open the fact-check
I don’t know how shocking it is but at least in the US, all those regulations on chemicals like PFAS’ and other environmentally dangerous compounds? Those regulations rely on the manufacturers reporting their hazards to the DOT. If a company is, say, wrong about a hazard due to a lack of testing because they keep their labs stocked with out of date equipment, those reports aren’t necessarily gonna be accurate.♥ 32source record 425↑ Open the fact-check
Lots of vodka and gin from “craft” distilleries is just bulk neutral spirits from larger more industrial distilleries redistilled to recut the heads and tails and incorporate botanicals. No starch conversion, sugar extraction, or fermentation is taking place on premises to create of these products.♥ 26source record 439↑ Open the fact-check
Agriculture. The amount of farmers and pest control/crop advisors who lie about what pesticides are being used on their crops is staggering. Even on crops that are technically organic, or are exported to other countries with stricter regulations. I work in one of the most strictly regulated states in the US and the reporting and auditing process basically amounts to "just trust me bro"♥ 18source record 460↑ Open the fact-check
Rabies testing (if required) means after an animal is euthanized, we have to sever their head, and one of us has to deliver the head (in a cooler on ice) to the state health department.♥ 17source record 468↑ Open the fact-check
The biggest open secret in insurance that the public doesn’t realize is that most carriers aren’t really making their money off your premiums—they are essentially massive hedge funds wearing a hard hat. The actual goal of an insurance company is to collect billions in premiums, pay out as little as possible in claims for as long as possible, and invest that massive pile of money (the "float") into real estate, private equity, and high-yield markets. The premiums you pay just give us the chip stack to play Wall Street, which is why a company can technically lose money on coverage for years and still report record-breaking profits. Because of this, the entire claims process isn't just about verifying if your loss was real; it's heavily engineered as a game of administrative attrition. Initial denials, endless requests for repetitive paperwork, and confusing policy jargon aren't always accidental red tape—they're calculated friction. Regulators know it, and the industry knows it, but the business model relies on the fact that a massive percentage of people will simply get exhausted, frustrated, or confused and give up on pursuing a payout they’re fully entitled to. On top of that, your loyalty to an insurance carrier is actively weaponized against you through something called "price optimization." Actuarial algorithms don't just calculate your actual risk of having an accident or a house fire; they calculate how likely you are to notice a rate hike and shop around. If the data shows you’re a passive customer who has stayed with the same company for five years, your rates will steadily creep up simply because the system knows you won't leave, while a brand-new customer with the exact same risk profile gets a vastly cheaper rate next door.♥ 46source record 477↑ Open the fact-check
I'm a produce clerk. The amount of times that something has hit the cooler floor and I've just swept in back into it's container like nothing happened is pretty bad. Wash your produce folks.♥ 10source record 2258↑ Open the fact-check
In an ophtamology med. Many people believe the blue filter of the glasses helps with vision protection. This is essentially a "yes, but actually no" situation. Blue filter is recommended for people whose prescription is relatively low and/or work or study a lot with computers or like using screens (gamers, desingers, etc.). While blue filter does block a certain type of color, the reason why people feel they vision gets damaged is because they don't blink enough. Blinking bathes the cornea and the sclera with a new tear film and protects and nourishes them, but sometimes people are so focused on the screens that they forget to blink. This is also why people with these problem often have symptoms of dry eye. Interestingly, another reason the blue filter is recommended is because part of the electrochemical impulse that transforms light from outside into images in the retina (and then goes to the brain) doesn't go to the brain 100%. Part of it also goes to the sector of pupila retraction (Edinger Westphal nucleus) to regulate the pupila according to the amount of light present, and the other part goes to the sector of the brain which regulates melatonin (cicle of sleep). And yes, there are studies that say that some of the cells in the retina, depending on how close they are to the macula, have more affinity with blue light. So, people with blue filter should also be recommended to have breaks of 20 minutes for each hour of screen usage (if we're generous) and never use the screen with 100% illumination. The warm color mode is also a good alternative and kids most of all, should never use screens more than 1 hour and a half daily in general. Less if younger. But we all know how most parents are with that nowadays. TLDR: Blue filter in glasses won't really help you if you don't use screens responsibly yourself.♥ 6source record 2294↑ Open the fact-check
Alcohol is not "empowering," in fact its addictive and quite damaging.♥ 8source record 2375↑ Open the fact-check
Worked in a pharmaceutical manufacturing and shipping plant. Almost all over the counter medicine is simply relabeled and sent to the corresponding company. All the big chains use the exact same product, just with their label on it.♥ 8source record 2424↑ Open the fact-check
I used to work at a 24/7 McDonald’s. all cooked product has a shelf life of about an hour and then you have to throw it out. after 10pm, that doesn’t happen because orders are too unpredictable and food wastage would get the manager fired if we actually followed the procedure, and also drunk idiots won’t tolerate waiting for fresh stuff to cook. also grills have to be cleaned at some stage, but we’re on skeleton crew levels of staff until 7am, so if orders come in you’ve got to stop cleaning to make the orders so if you’re one of those drunken idiots that come in between 2-3am, your beef patties could have been sitting there since about 9pm♥ 3source record 2486↑ Open the fact-check
Cows have to be actively pregnant to produce milk♥ 7source record 2532↑ Open the fact-check
Most people think supplements are FDA approved before they’re sold. They’re not. “Natural” doesn’t automatically mean safe. Plenty of natural ingredients can have side effects or interact with medications. Expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better. A lot of the price is just marketing and branding. “Clinically proven” often sounds more impressive than it is. Sometimes it’s based on one small or weak study. Third-party tested and FDA approved are completely different things, but a lot of people use them interchangeably.♥ 2source record 2538↑ Open the fact-check
Airline. Don't check a bag with lithium batteries in it. Carry them on. People don't pay attention to this requirement when checking the boxes, and it's the next disaster waiting to happen.♥ 2source record 2540↑ Open the fact-check
A lot of money spent on cancer research is wasted off the bat because a lot of the the originating stock for the cell lines people use for research are contaminated, and no one is willing to deal with it. It's a lot more complicated than that for sure, but I tried to distill it to a relatively short sentence.♥ 2source record 2543↑ Open the fact-check
In agriculture there is an insect called psylla. The bug eats the fruit on the tree and then sh*ts on the fruit which causes the fruit to be sticky.♥ 2source record 2545↑ Open the fact-check
I managed a family florist and gift/events and wedding services business for over 15 years. Several "open" known secrets within the trade. 1. Flowers usually come shipped to a florist "dry packed" which means they are cut at the farm (usually Equador, Columbia, etc) wrapped in bundles depending on size and packaged into large boxes for shipment. The travel route for Florida is usually FARM (south america) > miami (where many will go to the miami flowers market where florists can go in person and bid on/purchase them or bid and purchase online and have them shipped) > florist. If the florist buys from a wholesale florist and not directly from the farm or company importing them, the route adds a stop, Miami > wholesaler > florist. The wholesaler can be in the same city or close by but is often out of the city or even state, depending on which one is used. For example, flowers purchased in North Florida can come from Dothan, or Montgomery Al, or other places. It is MUCH cheaper to order them directly from the farm, but it is more convenient to get them from the wholesaler because there is usually a wholesaler running each day of the week so if a florist needs flowers for a special order or just more of something, they can pay more and get it same day. When they come from the farm, and bypass the wholesaler, sometimes the flowers have cold packs which help keep them fresh (especially in the hottest months of summer) but most of the time they are shipped as is, fresh cut, and by the time they reach the florist (sometimes 2-3 days later) they have still not ever been put in water. When the florist gets them, they "process" the flowers, which entails cutting them a second time at an angle so they drink better and allow more oxygen in, stripping the extra leaves or foliage off, and placing them in a bucket of clean water which has flower preservative in it. This is called "hydrating" when they drink for the first time. Flowers can last usually up to a week in coolers after processing but should be used much quicker for best results. ~~ When the flowers are ordered early to avoid holiday increased pricing, they are held in coolers in the original boxes and dont see water for up to an extra week, which means by the time the flowers go out to the customer, they are already over a week old, even if they have only been in water for 24 hrs. 2. In the summer, certain roses run between .25-.35c/head (rose). In the winter, they are a bit more but usually do not pass $1/head unless it is a specialty rose. Holidays and special seasonal times, roses can climb to $2-2.5/per head; Vases can run anywhere between $1-5/per container, sometimes more for the specialty items. ~ My point here is, a florist can charge $75-$100/dozen or more for roses arranged in a vase throughout the year. During a special season or holiday, (especially Valentines) roses can go for $100-200/dozen depending on the occasion and way they are arranged, variety of rose, vase used, etc. The most a florist ever has in a normal dozen roses is usually $20-25 and that is if a really nice vase or container is used (we're including wire, ribbons, cards and card holders, etc) and often the florist has as little as $8-10 in a dozen. So the markup is extremely high on roses, and it is not uncommon for a florist to make over $25k JUST in dozens/half dozens, etc of roses on Valentines. With an average of only $2500 in product, that is a huge profit of over $22k. JUST FOR ROSES, then there are mixed dozens with other flowers added in, assorted arrangements like daisies, carnations, etc, and of course the more exotic flowers such as lillies, orchids, etc. A single valentines (just three or four days) can make a good florist over $50k in PROFITS. 3. If a florist waits until holiday pricing kicks in for a holiday or special season, such as Valentines, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc, prices can more than double for flowers and hard goods (vases, ribbons, basically anything not live and perishable) Florists should NOT do this, but often will place their order for flowers BEFORE the holiday increase in pricing takes affect. This in turn means they pay sometimes half as much or even less than if they were on holiday pricing, and also means the flowers come even earlier than they would have. Which means they have to be held for up to a week or maybe longer before they are used. 4. Funerals are one of the times that florists make the most money (profits) per order, because a florist might sell a standing spray or casket spray for $150-$1000 and they prolly only have $30-250 in it. A large funeral can make a florist thousands in profits, but one bad funeral piece can cost reputation because people expect a loved one's final flowers to be perfect and last until the funeral is over and the body is buried. 5. It is not uncommon for some funeral homes to hold the body of the deceased for up to a week until the family has paid for the costs of burial and other things. Sometimes people make arrangements and do not have the money to fulfill the order. Instead of burying the person and collecting later, some funeral homes will hold the body and only continue with services when the bill is paid in full. This causes extra odors and other issues (like more than one service at the same time) when people do not pay up front or on time. 6. Florists are supposed to wire every rose, which entails sticking a small gauge wire into the head ot the rose and wrapping it widely around the rose stem, bending the wire back on the stem when reaching the bottom or close to it. This makes the head of the rose stand taller and for longer, even after the rose dies if it is done properly. Often roses do not get wired. Wire is expensive, because it comes in very large, heavy boxes. Florists save alot if they do not wire their flowers. 7. Corsages and boutineers for weddings, prom, etc, are supposed to be wrapped and wired, and the stems stuck down into a water tube. This allows the flowers to drink water even after they are made and in use. Often Florists do not use water cubes and just wrap the stem, making it where the roses do not properly drink. 8. Florists often use "wire services" which are basically 1800-flowers, Bloomnet, teleflora, etc. These services cost alot and these are what is being used when you call one of those numbers and order through them. The florist is actually making the order, the "flower gatherer" as they are called such as teleflora, or 1800flowers, just is the platform used to order the flowers.♥ 2source record 2546↑ Open the fact-check
I work in agricultural industry and the “organic” label is a hoax. Another way to make more money for the same product. They are not treated special nor are grown different. Similar concept to clothes “made in Italy”, as long as the end serves the “organic” approval which could be hand plucked instead of machine. No real way of identifying organic vs not organic. Sometime those that are not as fresh or have not been sold after a certain time, will be labeled as ready to eat. Such as avocados where they say “ready to eat today” etc. All produce is a way to make sure they are not wasted while trying to make more money off of expiring produce.♥ 5source record 2597↑ Open the fact-check
My previous industry: Every single health or bodybuilding supplement is a lie. One way or another it is wildly impotent with falsified claims barely squeezed through legal requirements♥ 5source record 2609↑ Open the fact-check
Employer Sponsored Coverage can still exclude pre existing conditions. The Employer Group healthcare plans are not governed by the ACA nearly as much as people expect. They are still governed by ERISA which hasn't been updated in decades. That is why healthcare costs can continue to rise. Because the stuff the ACA governs is still a minority player. Employers have no problem paying the increase in costs because it is all pre tax expenses. The plans are self funded so the government really can't do much to stop them from sheltering more and more money every year from taxes. Until they replace the tax benefits of Employer Sponsored Health Insurance by reforming ERISA, healthcare will not improve. They need to offer other financial products that can be pre tax or else they will have a tax increase and that just is not going to happen.♥ 2source record 2646↑ Open the fact-check
There is no standard for what constitutes a food safe pottery glaze.♥ 2source record 2659↑ Open the fact-check
Every single restaurant is constantly fighting an uphill battle to keep pests out. Even the cleanest, most well maintained restaurants will occasionally get roaches or less commonly, rats. Most of the time they come in on deliveries - especially cardboard boxes. Roaches fucking love cardboard. The only thing that separates good restaurants from bad ones is how diligent they are at maintaining proper pest control habits to prevent a stray visitor from becoming an infestation.♥ 1source record 2672↑ Open the fact-check
Most restaurant ice machines are a health hazard. A very high risk to your gastrointestinal health. They are not cleaned and sanitized nearly often enough, if ever, until they stop working altogether. To most restaurant owners and managers it’s an unnecessary expense and out of sight out of mind.♥ 3source record 2694↑ Open the fact-check
There is an FDA handbook for allowable number of insect parts, and sometimes maggots, in food production that we eat everyday. [link removed]♥ 3source record 2700↑ Open the fact-check
The companies selling peptides use Chinese knock off peptides that sometimes aren’t from an FDA approved facility♥ 3source record 2857↑ Open the fact-check
Prescription dog food is garbage- same process as making wonder bread: firebomb all the actual nutrients out, add synthetic vitamins back in, pour the slurry into a mold and burn it to a crisp. Clinics get a percentage of the food sales, vets are paid on a percentage of the clinic's annual gross, so it's in the vets best interest to prescribe the food. Everybody makes money, especially when they sell the client on a reorder/subscription plan.♥ 25source record 2866↑ Open the fact-check
Servers will often go for hours without washing their hands. Some restaurants do not have hand washing sinks handy, even if they're supposed to. Front of house staff, especially while busy, will be touching money, payment machines, dirty plates etc, and then touch your dinner plates, cutlery, cut your bread etc. Germ farms.♥ 2source record 2898↑ Open the fact-check
Food that you buy in large supermarkets is left out at room temperature for hours while the shelves are restocked. It's almost never checked to see if it's over the 8°C tolerance that would allow bacteria to grow. Frozen food is the same. When supermarkets go through the night it's often the case that the products that won't fit on the shelf will be left warm all night. Smaller stores have less stock and also are less likely to fill at night so the cold chain is broken less often.♥ 1source record 3500↑ Open the fact-check
At the pharmacy if they drop any pills on the floor they just pick them up and put them in the bottle again. No the floors are not cleaned regularly.♥ 0source record 3541↑ Open the fact-check

Archive: 35 index entries preserve 35 distinct source records · Every displayed synthesis count resolves to source-record IDs

Infrastructure & transport8 index entries8 source-checked claim records
Source-backed index report

Fact-checked claim card with verdict, corrected or narrowed claim, concise explanation, named HTTPS sources, checked date and original source record: Infrastructure & transport

Source-backed answers are shown before diagnostics; the complete source archive remains below.

The U.S. has over 624,000 highway bridges. 42% are 50 years or older, exceeding their operational lifespans, but most are still safe to drive over. 42,000 (or about 7% of all bridges) are in “poor” condition and require significant repair or rehabilitation. Many of these are heavily traveled. **In fact, this amounts to 168.5 million trips, every single day, across structurally unsound bridges.** Most people have no idea the condition of the bridge they’re driving on and will never give it a second thought.

♥ 6,471

Claim context: Infrastructure & transport

✓ FactConfirmed: 2024 inventory totals 623,218 bridges. ‘Poor condition’ is not synonymous with structurally unsound or necessarily unsafe. Sources: Federal Highway Administration — source 1 · Federal Highway Administration — source 2

Cruise Ships. You think the entire crew is well trained to handle emergency situations? Well…

♥ 2,273

Claim context: Infrastructure & transport

✗ InaccurateCorrection: Passenger-ship personnel have required STCW safety/emergency training and regular drills; compliance does not prove every crew member performs well. Sources: IMO / U.S. Coast Guard — source 1 · IMO / U.S. Coast Guard — source 2

I'm in the nuclear industry; public would be shocked to truly learn that its way safer than most other industries.

♥ 227

Claim context: Infrastructure & transport

⚠ DisputedDisputed: Risk comparisons require defined hazards and measures; the source does not support an unqualified ranking against every other industry. Sources: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The airplane you are flying on fails all the time during flight but you don’t know it because of the way redundant systems take over. Flight critical systems often have triple redundancy with systems that operate differently (like primary hydraulic and secondary electromechanical) so the same mode of failure can’t affect the backup system.

♥ 476

Claim context: Infrastructure & transport

✓ Accurate, narrowedWhat the record supports: Aviation systems have redundancy requirements; 'every airplane fails all the time' is too broad. Sources: 14 CFR 25.1309

The corruption in public construction contracts is built in. Change orders, claims, and other mechanisms are legal ways for contractors to screw the funding agencies on public projects. This is the real reason things like trains, highways, schools, etc go so badly over budget.

♥ 137

Claim context: Infrastructure & transport

There's no checks and balances to make sure your airline pilot is mentally healthy, and they would risk losing their license if they thought something was wrong and sought help. The regs were written in the 60's and have never been updated and the FAA refuses to do anything about it.

♥ 15

Claim context: Infrastructure & transport

✗ CorrectedCorrection: FAA medical and mental-health assessment procedures exist; concerns about treatment incentives are policy debate. Sources: FAA Pilot Mental Fitness

Airliners get struck by lightning all the time. It's not a big deal. If you fly there's a real possibility you've probably been on one when it got struck.

♥ 3

Claim context: Infrastructure & transport

✓ FactConfirmed: Aircraft are designed and certified for lightning effects; do not make unquantified claims about how often any individual passenger has flown through a strike. Sources: Federal Aviation Administration

Cement is not concrete and concrete is not cement.

♥ 3

Claim context: Infrastructure & transport

✓ FactConfirmed: Cement is an ingredient/binder used to make concrete; preserve as a short factual correction, not an industry exposé. Sources: Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Source-record spotlights

Most engaged source

The U.S. has over 624,000 highway bridges. 42% are 50 years or older, exceeding their operational lifespans, but most are still safe to drive over. 42,000 (or about 7% of all bridges) are in “poor” condition and require significant repair or rehabilitation. Many of these are heavily traveled. **In fact, this amounts to 168.5 million trips, every single day, across structurally unsound bridges.** Most people have no idea the condition of the bridge they’re driving on and will never give it a second thought.

source record 98♥ 6,471
Later-arriving source

Cement is not concrete and concrete is not cement.

posted about 39.3 hours after the source♥ 3
Low-like source

Airliners get struck by lightning all the time. It's not a big deal. If you fly there's a real possibility you've probably been on one when it got struck.

posted about 12.2 hours after the source♥ 3

Related evidence elsewhere in the index

What the counts show

Within 8 source records, 1 ask a question and 0 explicitly say they intend to try the idea; neither signal is treated as an outcome.

8index entries
8distinct source records
8%of parent category
8%of the complete index
8top-level comments
0replies
Browse the original comments8 preserved records · 8 of 8 source records accounted for
The U.S. has over 624,000 highway bridges. 42% are 50 years or older, exceeding their operational lifespans, but most are still safe to drive over. 42,000 (or about 7% of all bridges) are in “poor” condition and require significant repair or rehabilitation. Many of these are heavily traveled. **In fact, this amounts to 168.5 million trips, every single day, across structurally unsound bridges.** Most people have no idea the condition of the bridge they’re driving on and will never give it a second thought.♥ 6,471source record 98↑ Open the fact-check
Cruise Ships. You think the entire crew is well trained to handle emergency situations? Well…♥ 2,273source record 213↑ Open the fact-check
I'm in the nuclear industry; public would be shocked to truly learn that its way safer than most other industries.♥ 227source record 321↑ Open the fact-check
The airplane you are flying on fails all the time during flight but you don’t know it because of the way redundant systems take over. Flight critical systems often have triple redundancy with systems that operate differently (like primary hydraulic and secondary electromechanical) so the same mode of failure can’t affect the backup system.♥ 476source record 444↑ Open the fact-check
The corruption in public construction contracts is built in. Change orders, claims, and other mechanisms are legal ways for contractors to screw the funding agencies on public projects. This is the real reason things like trains, highways, schools, etc go so badly over budget.♥ 137source record 450↑ Open the fact-check
There's no checks and balances to make sure your airline pilot is mentally healthy, and they would risk losing their license if they thought something was wrong and sought help. The regs were written in the 60's and have never been updated and the FAA refuses to do anything about it.♥ 15source record 2228↑ Open the fact-check
Airliners get struck by lightning all the time. It's not a big deal. If you fly there's a real possibility you've probably been on one when it got struck.♥ 3source record 2356↑ Open the fact-check
Cement is not concrete and concrete is not cement.♥ 3source record 2528↑ Open the fact-check

Archive: 8 index entries preserve 8 distinct source records · Every displayed synthesis count resolves to source-record IDs

How this catalog was built

Source: Reddit comments — one AskReddit thread

Where the review found the most claims

Counts show reviewed source records, not unique secrets or verified personal experiences.

Health, food & consumer systems

35 checked records

Each record is shown verbatim, then narrowed, corrected, or corroborated against the listed authority.

  • Farmed salmon are so overcrowded that they get sick and develop sores. It's absolutely disgusting, and it's awful to see them suffering.♥ 6,061↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
  • If you are ever on a long term care insurance plan to receive assistance from a home health aide, DME, etc. There are two facts: 1. Case managers are actively being told to give you the least amount of hours of assistance per week as possible. 2. If you become the ultimate Karen you will ALWAYS get what you ask for. It will take time to go up the chain but you will win. 50 hours of care per week? Complain. New shower? Complain. New Wheelchair? Complain. I'm talking daily conversations with the worker, supervisor, regional manager, etc. I promise you, it will get done. So be the squeaky wheel. Insurance banks on you giving up the fight and they don't want to deal with a judge in a hearing over the issue. They'll give in eventually.♥ 1,737↑ Fact-checked in the answer index

Digital systems & data

28 checked records

Each record is shown verbatim, then narrowed, corrected, or corroborated against the listed authority.

  • I have been in academic research for almost 30 years, and the amount of cherry picked or just completely made up data in research papers should concern everyone. In the past it was very rare and now it is almost common practice. It's driven by the pursuit of increasingly scarce funding sources.♥ 9,919↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
  • The chances of your children's private info, including SSN, birthdate, birthplace, address, etc being leaked and out there on the dark web is fairly high because most school districts in this country have shit network security and work with SaaS vendors that house all this data and are also vulnerable. People heard about the big Canvas hack earlier this year. What people dont seem to realize is that hack wasn't unique and similar events happen fairly often across our country and sometimes to individual school districts. Its a real problem thats just being ignored by our government.♥ 6,459↑ Fact-checked in the answer index

Environment & materials

9 checked records

Each record is shown verbatim, then narrowed, corrected, or corroborated against the listed authority.

  • I worked in the parks industry in Colorado. A certain amount of water is allowed for a city like Denver to keep its golf courses top-notch. That water comes from the western slope, up to several hundred miles away. If only a percentage of that water is used, then you are allowed that new, lesser amount. So they will just keep sprinklers running to avoid having any amount taken away. While the mountains might experience a drought and get hit with wildfires, devastating wildlife, farmlands and homes (due to excessive water use in the front range), the golf courses look great.♥ 615↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
  • I work in recycling. Metal recycling to be precise, but I have connections in plastic/e waste/landfills/residential/etc recyling as well Even if you recycle every possible thing you could and think you're doing your part, I'd say a solid third of it goes straight to a landfill without even the attempt to recycle it. Of what's left, maybe a third of that is rejected for whatever reason also to be sent to a landfill. The remainder is actually recycled in some way. There's a lot of reasons why but the biggest by far is simply greed Metal recycling is one of the better, if not the best industry as far as recovery and we still operate with the expectation of significant loss♥ 231↑ Fact-checked in the answer index

Government & public systems

9 checked records

Each record is shown verbatim, then narrowed, corrected, or corroborated against the listed authority.

  • I'm a social worker in a medium sized city with a bad reputation for having a lot of homeless people. I frequently interact with homeless folks, as well as people who are on the verge of losing their housing. You will often hear people say things like, they don't want to get help, they chose this, they're all on drugs, etc etc. Yes, sometimes that's true, but from my experience it is not the majority of cases. The most common thing I hear for why people become homeless is an unexpected loss of income. This could be getting fired or laid off, or an income earner in the home leaves or dies, or a medical situation makes it impossible for them to work. Things like this happen all the fucking time. So many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and if you lose that paycheck for even a month or two, everything falls apart. People can lose their housing in the blink of an eye. To add insult to injury, once you become homeless, it is so fucking difficult to get out. There are nowhere near enough resources for all homeless people to get sheltered. Even if they are determined to get into a shelter bed, it often takes weeks or even months. Even, and sometimes especially, families with children. There are just are not enough resources, funding, beds, counselors, etc etc etc. It's hard as fuck to find work as a homeless person. You don't have an address to put on a resume (or a laptop to make the resume). Homeless folks often lose all of their belongings in tent sweeps, including documents like IDs, birth certificates, etc. Folks living on the streets are frequently victims of theft and sexual assualt. They are exposed to the elements. Their bodies break down faster. And all of this is before we even get to the subject of how homeless folks are treated by everyone else, despite the fact that they may themselves be one or two missed paychecks away from being in the same situation.♥ 2,165↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
  • Government agencies will blow money on shit that’s not necessarily needed at the end of the year to burn up the rest of the money in their budget. If they don’t spent all the money their budget will get reduced next year.♥ 1,667↑ Fact-checked in the answer index

Infrastructure & transport

8 checked records

Each record is shown verbatim, then narrowed, corrected, or corroborated against the listed authority.

  • The U.S. has over 624,000 highway bridges. 42% are 50 years or older, exceeding their operational lifespans, but most are still safe to drive over. 42,000 (or about 7% of all bridges) are in “poor” condition and require significant repair or rehabilitation. Many of these are heavily traveled. **In fact, this amounts to 168.5 million trips, every single day, across structurally unsound bridges.** Most people have no idea the condition of the bridge they’re driving on and will never give it a second thought.♥ 6,471↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
  • Cruise Ships. You think the entire crew is well trained to handle emergency situations? Well…♥ 2,273↑ Fact-checked in the answer index

Education & research

6 checked records

Each record is shown verbatim, then narrowed, corrected, or corroborated against the listed authority.

  • I work in education and most of the decisions are made based on legal and funding issues, not child development or learning. We call them the "box people" who sit in cubicles 10 miles away from the nearest child and make decisions without a whit of experience or concern for the practicality of it all. It's especially bad for kids with IEPs or early childhood, where the whole thing becomes a tangled mess of licensing, SPED law, and funding. The actual children become data points, not people with needs. I really believe in public education but it is not currently functional. The bureaucracy alone is failing the kids before they even set foot in the building.♥ 265↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
  • Most faculty have little to no training in how to teach effectively. Student ratings have zero correlation with learning. Most of the time they are completely ignored. Adjuncts are usually only paid a few thousand for teaching a semester long course, have no health insurance, and many are on food stamps and do gig jobs to survive. 80% of students go to community college with the intention to transfer to a 4-year university and graduate with a bachelor's. Only 15% succeed in doing so. Only 60% nationally graduate from universities, 40% in STEM disciplines.♥ 59↑ Fact-checked in the answer index

Finance & workplace incentives

5 checked records

Each record is shown verbatim, then narrowed, corrected, or corroborated against the listed authority.

  • An overdraft fee is actually an incredibly high interest rate loan but, since they call it a fee and it doesn't vary with the charge amount it doesn't have to follow interest rate caps. For example, if you pay a $35 fee to cover $100 and have to pay it back with your next paycheck (assume 2 weeks) that is an interest rate of 913%♥ 475↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
  • I work in finance. typically helping people with debt, budgeting, investing - most people don’t know that credit card interest accrues on a daily basis and that their APRs skyrocket to 30% when their accounts get maxed out. Most clients think the credit card companies on our their side….yeah they want you in the 40 year interest cycle lol. credit card companies are not your friends♥ 26↑ Fact-checked in the answer index

High-resonance claims from the thread

These comments are included verbatim; their accompanying source checks keep vivid language from becoming unexamined fact.

Farmed salmon are so overcrowded that they get sick and develop sores. It's absolutely disgusting, and it's awful to see them suffering.
source-checked♥ 6,061
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
Public Libraries have to beg local and state (mostly state) governments for funding. Most of the cool stuff your local library has added? Yeah that came from either grants or donations. The actual funding is fought for very hard every single day. The best thing you can do to support public libraries? 1) get a library card most importantly, 2) get involved and vote in local and state elections, 3) go utilize all the free shit available at libraries so we keep getting money to continue having that cool stuff for you guys.
source-checked♥ 608
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
I have been in academic research for almost 30 years, and the amount of cherry picked or just completely made up data in research papers should concern everyone. In the past it was very rare and now it is almost common practice. It's driven by the pursuit of increasingly scarce funding sources.
source-checked♥ 9,919
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
I'm a social worker in a medium sized city with a bad reputation for having a lot of homeless people. I frequently interact with homeless folks, as well as people who are on the verge of losing their housing. You will often hear people say things like, they don't want to get help, they chose this, they're all on drugs, etc etc. Yes, sometimes that's true, but from my experience it is not the majority of cases. The most common thing I hear for why people become homeless is an unexpected loss of income. This could be getting fired or laid off, or an income earner in the home leaves or dies, or a medical situation makes it impossible for them to work. Things like this happen all the fucking time. So many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and if you lose that paycheck for even a month or two, everything falls apart. People can lose their housing in the blink of an eye. To add insult to injury, once you become homeless, it is so fucking difficult to get out. There are nowhere near enough resources for all homeless people to get sheltered. Even if they are determined to get into a shelter bed, it often takes weeks or even months. Even, and sometimes especially, families with children. There are just are not enough resources, funding, beds, counselors, etc etc etc. It's hard as fuck to find work as a homeless person. You don't have an address to put on a resume (or a laptop to make the resume). Homeless folks often lose all of their belongings in tent sweeps, including documents like IDs, birth certificates, etc. Folks living on the streets are frequently victims of theft and sexual assualt. They are exposed to the elements. Their bodies break down faster. And all of this is before we even get to the subject of how homeless folks are treated by everyone else, despite the fact that they may themselves be one or two missed paychecks away from being in the same situation.
source-checked♥ 2,165
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
Chefs in restaurants don’t wear gloves hardly ever- because gloves are dirty and gross. Corporate places that insist on gloves result in cooks wearing the gloves for a long period of time, resulting in cross contamination. If I’m making your food without gloves I am very clean and tidy and I wash my hands a lot. I only wear them when dealing with sloppy wet stuff. What I’m saying is that gloves are in absolutely no way a sign of cleanliness or lack of contamination.
source-checked♥ 942
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
If you are ever on a long term care insurance plan to receive assistance from a home health aide, DME, etc. There are two facts: 1. Case managers are actively being told to give you the least amount of hours of assistance per week as possible. 2. If you become the ultimate Karen you will ALWAYS get what you ask for. It will take time to go up the chain but you will win. 50 hours of care per week? Complain. New shower? Complain. New Wheelchair? Complain. I'm talking daily conversations with the worker, supervisor, regional manager, etc. I promise you, it will get done. So be the squeaky wheel. Insurance banks on you giving up the fight and they don't want to deal with a judge in a hearing over the issue. They'll give in eventually.
source-checked♥ 1,737
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
The U.S. has over 624,000 highway bridges. 42% are 50 years or older, exceeding their operational lifespans, but most are still safe to drive over. 42,000 (or about 7% of all bridges) are in “poor” condition and require significant repair or rehabilitation. Many of these are heavily traveled. **In fact, this amounts to 168.5 million trips, every single day, across structurally unsound bridges.** Most people have no idea the condition of the bridge they’re driving on and will never give it a second thought.
source-checked♥ 6,471
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
The housekeeping industry. Housekeepers are under such tight time restraints (30 min per room) and given like 15 rooms to clean in 8 hrs that they are forced to cut corners. Never trust the coffee pot, towels, bedding (the duvet is never changed only if there’s a strain on it or it smells really bad or something), don’t trust the glasses, and don’t walk around barefoot. I’ve seen housekeepers using the toilet brush to clean the bathtub. And touching the clean towers after touching the toilet. Unfortunately there’s not enough time to really clean so we give the illusion of a clean room. Management only cares that the metal is shiny with no water spots, there’s no hair anywhere, and everything is in its place and looks organized. But really it’s gross!
source-checked♥ 1,583
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
The chances of your children's private info, including SSN, birthdate, birthplace, address, etc being leaked and out there on the dark web is fairly high because most school districts in this country have shit network security and work with SaaS vendors that house all this data and are also vulnerable. People heard about the big Canvas hack earlier this year. What people dont seem to realize is that hack wasn't unique and similar events happen fairly often across our country and sometimes to individual school districts. Its a real problem thats just being ignored by our government.
source-checked♥ 6,459
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
I worked in the parks industry in Colorado. A certain amount of water is allowed for a city like Denver to keep its golf courses top-notch. That water comes from the western slope, up to several hundred miles away. If only a percentage of that water is used, then you are allowed that new, lesser amount. So they will just keep sprinklers running to avoid having any amount taken away. While the mountains might experience a drought and get hit with wildfires, devastating wildlife, farmlands and homes (due to excessive water use in the front range), the golf courses look great.
source-checked♥ 615
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
half the sites you use every day are held together by a handful of exhausted on-call engineers, a pile of scripts nobody fully understands anymore, and duct tape. a surprising amount of the internet is one expired certificate or one fat-fingered config push away from going down for an afternoon.
source-checked♥ 3,953
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
I'm in the nuclear industry; public would be shocked to truly learn that its way safer than most other industries.
source-checked♥ 227
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
Software is terrible not because of bad developers or bad testing. It's the CEOs who make business decisions to placate stockholders by releasing too soon and/or ignoring known bugs.
source-checked♥ 2,497
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
Cruise Ships. You think the entire crew is well trained to handle emergency situations? Well…
source-checked♥ 2,273
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
AI is a big lie. We built an autonomous agent pipeline internally because our CEO saw that Stripe did the same thing and automated 80% of PRs. We built it. It doesn’t work and still requires major human intervention to get production ready code. A team at my company just presented at a conference how we’ve automated most work using said tool perpetuating the initial lie that tricked us into building the damn thing.
source-checked♥ 278
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
I work in education and most of the decisions are made based on legal and funding issues, not child development or learning. We call them the "box people" who sit in cubicles 10 miles away from the nearest child and make decisions without a whit of experience or concern for the practicality of it all. It's especially bad for kids with IEPs or early childhood, where the whole thing becomes a tangled mess of licensing, SPED law, and funding. The actual children become data points, not people with needs. I really believe in public education but it is not currently functional. The bureaucracy alone is failing the kids before they even set foot in the building.
source-checked♥ 265
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
I work in recycling. Metal recycling to be precise, but I have connections in plastic/e waste/landfills/residential/etc recyling as well Even if you recycle every possible thing you could and think you're doing your part, I'd say a solid third of it goes straight to a landfill without even the attempt to recycle it. Of what's left, maybe a third of that is rejected for whatever reason also to be sent to a landfill. The remainder is actually recycled in some way. There's a lot of reasons why but the biggest by far is simply greed Metal recycling is one of the better, if not the best industry as far as recovery and we still operate with the expectation of significant loss
source-checked♥ 231
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index
If you’re an academic researcher, working on federal grants such as the ones awarded by NSF, DOE, NIH or others, the academic institution will skim 50-75% of that grant in assessments and overhead. The PI usually receives 25-30% of the award.
source-checked♥ 5
↑ Fact-checked in the answer index

What survives a 100-claim review

The pattern is not that commenters invent every problem. Public records often confirm a narrower core: systems have constraints, regulations have exceptions, and risks are real. The anonymous claims become useful when their scale, certainty, and causation are tested rather than repeated.

Dataset, coverage, and methodology
3,577
comments archived
100
source-checked claim records
62
claims narrowed or corrected
7
industry contexts

How this was counted

Working unit: one independently reviewed top-level Reddit claim record; the index contains all 100 selected records, each once.

Denominator: 3,577 canonical comments from one thread (665 top-level and 2,912 replies). The archive retains all records; replies and unselected top-level answers are outside this reviewed selection.

Selection rule: a claim required a specific authoritative source that could corroborate, narrow, or correct its factual framing. No row authenticates an anonymous commenter’s employment or lived experience.

No semantic deduplication was performed. The category counts are source-record counts, not unique facts, secrets, or incidents.

Member discussion

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