The world is full of surprises. One moment you might be having a relaxing swim and the very next a rip current is dragging you away from the shore.
But that doesn't mean that we have to stop enjoying ourselves. Instead, we should focus on what we can control and prepare for all the curveballs.
And surprisingly, social media might be a good place to start. TikTok user Knowledgesaurus has been creating a video series that he calls "Facts that can save your life" where he explains how to escape dangerous situations or at least greatly improve your chances of staying safe.
Each of his uploads has received millions of views.
Continue scrolling to check out the videos and tell us if you think they're useful or not in the comments.
TikTok user Knowledgesaurus has been creating a video series, called "Facts that can save your life"
@knowledgesaurus Facts That Could Save Your Life #fyp #facts #funfacts #hacks #lifehack #lifehacks #survivalhacks
♬ original sound - Knowledgesaurus
The clips already have millions of views
@knowledgesaurus Facts That Could Save Your Life Pt.2 #fyp #facts #funfacts #hacks #lifehack #lifehacks #survivalhacks
♬ original sound - Knowledgesaurus
And his tips seem really useful
@knowledgesaurus Facts That Could Save Your Life Pt.3 #fyp #facts #funfacts #hacks #lifehack #lifehacks #survivalhacks
♬ original sound - Knowledgesaurus
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If you ever find yourself buried in rubble and can't get out, don't yell. You'll end up just wasting energy and losing your voice. What you should do is grab something and start tapping in intervals of three. Humans are great at noticing patterns and the rescuers will start to move towards that. Once you hear them, then you can start yelling.
. . . - - - . . . = SOS, especially changing constant patterns get noticed
Or 3 short signals every 10 seconds for a minute, then silence for a minute before starting again - alpine distress signal
Load More Replies...I was stuck in an elevator and I did 'shave a haircut' and that worked...people notice that!
I am not familiar with that expression, but I guess it refers to “pa padadaaaaadam... pam pam”?
Load More Replies...This is commonly known to anyone who was in Boy Scouts, had a military parent, etc., and applies also to being lost in the wild. Set up anything in a pattern of three, and people realize there is/may be trouble. (E.g., three bonfires)
I've been thinking about this all week after the Florida tower collapse. So tragic :'(
If a tornado looks like it's not moving, that means it's heading towards you.
In my part of the country, if it's to the west of you, it's moving toward you, if to the east, it's moving away.
Load More Replies...If you're looking at a tornado, you should always be moving to underground shelter!
Also, if you want to put out a fire with your pee, check the wind direction first.
Most of the time it's not difficult to get out of the path of a tornado. They usually move in relatively straight paths. You don't have to outrun them, just move perpendicular to their path.
Load More Replies...And in the middle of the night, when that weather radio alarm goes off BELIEVE IT! Night tornadoes are the scariest. We were tired of severe storms and tornadoes every spring...and horrible snow and cold every winter...we got smart and bought a ranch in NM!
I’ve spent 70 years in tornado alley & although it is technically possible for a tornado to move in any direction they almost always move southwest to northeast. There’s a reason they call them storm “chasers”. If you wanna get close get behind ‘em.
A lot of backpacks have a hidden built-In whistle. The actual clip on many modern day backpacks that are meant for hiking or camping have that built-In whistle.
A quick look around the house got me a 0/12 success rate. May be a US thing?
Load More Replies...*gasp* I had this one backpack from kindergarten to 6th grade and the buckle always had a little hole and I would blow in it like a whistle. Everybody thought it was cool but nobody thought it was ACTUALLY supposed to be a whistle
Yes, this must be advertised because i saw this on my backpack and i didn't knew what is for!
Load More Replies...This feature is not hidden.. on he contrary its stated in the feature list of the product since more often than not you find these on hiking/trekking backpacks and all features are on the forefront in their product page.
If you think you'll need one, get a real rescue whistle -- they're bigger than a backpack clip, but they are also much louder. I had one of these and I could whistle more loudly than it with just my lips.
Rescue whistle is of course a great feature to have, but those backpack-whistles are surprisingly loud. So it's definitely better than having nothing at all.
Load More Replies...If you're ever at the beach and you see the water receding or far away from where it normally is, run. This normally means a tsunami is coming. And someone who paid attention in school in 2004 used this and saved their own life by getting out of there.
Tilly Smith was 10; saved her own life, her family and many more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilly_Smith
This is a constant fear for us in the Caribbean. We're on a fault line and on an island. Worse yet, my office building overlooks the ocean. The only plus is that I'd know if the water is receding so I can high tail it the hell out of there.
For that you have to know where it normally recedes to. When on vacation you often do not. There are parts of the world where it recedes very far naturally and regularly without tsunami.
Yeah, I remember. I think I read about the girl who saved the beach by remembering a recent geography class.
This won't make a lot of people happy, but people who like to explain Biblical events say the parting of the sea may have been a tsunami.
Young lady Tilly Smith recognized what the surf was going and warned her family and others. She had been watching the weather channel and knew what it meant!
If you ever see square waves in the water, get out immediately. These waves have powerful currents under the water that can sweep you out and take you away.
I was once caught in an undertow in a lake in Canada... never want to experience that again! [In mere seconds I was whipped around underwater like a ragdoll and hit my chin on the bottom. I swallowed a few gulps of lake water and had no idea which way was up, so I waited to float... and up I went].
Happy to see you here! That Sounds super scary
Load More Replies...This is more rare. Learn what riptides look like, they are more common
My grandfather taught me how to swim in riptides. We lived down the shore every summer and I was at the beach a lot by myself so he wanted me prepared. It's very scary when you think you might not break out of it
Load More Replies...Little explanation: the squares indicate that there are two strong currents meeting at angles to each other and that they are so strong that they don't dampen each others' surface waves.
It’s called „cross sea“, Wikipedia has some better pictures: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_sea
Here's a video showing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLBwfm8SBVs
Load More Replies...In case you ever get swept out by currents, don’t panic and stay still. The odds that the current will go back to the beach are very likely
if i saw square waves without knowing this i'd freak the hell out, but now i know what they mean thanks
And if you get caught, swim diagonally. The waves will take you back if you follow them. Saved my life more than once.
Load More Replies...If your car ever goes into water, open a window or door immediately. If you don't do this, the pressure differential is too great and it will keep everything shut and you have to wait until your car is completely filled with water in order to get out.
As an ice fisherman I've learned that if you choose to drive your car on ice, regardless of how thick it is, keep your seatbelt off and your windows down. That said, I don't care if the ice is 2 feet thick, I'm walking or snowmobiling, not driving a truck on it.
*high five* I grew up ice fishing. You walked, or even a couple times we dog-sledded, but no way we went out on that in a car/truck even if the ice was supposedly thick enough. Sure. Then you get teh one patch it ain't... *sploosh*
Load More Replies...Or just carry a window-breaking tool with you (they're $5 at the local store) so if you end up in water (by accident, I would hope?).... you can break a window, swim out, and live. RIP, MsMc. We miss you, and you are why we all carry those things now.
You can also remove the adjustable headrest and use the metal poles to pop/break the windows... but much better to be sure the door/windows are open
Load More Replies...This scenario is one of my worst nightmares, especially with kids in the car.
Yes, especially with kids and even more if they are still in car seats! More work to (try to) get them out. Yikes, I don't want to think about it. But you never know what happens.. So on the other hand you have to be as prepared as possible. Though you can't ever fully prepare, because at the moment it will overwhelm you and shock you. I think even for people who are trained to get out of a car under water. The moment it really happens unexpectedly, there is no way of truly preparing.
Load More Replies...Better yet, don't do stupid things which end with your car underwater.
OF COURSE avoiding the problem is the best solution. This list is for if your precautions didn't work. And people can end up going into water when they weren't doing "stupid things". Victim blaming shows up everywhere, don't it?
Load More Replies...You can get a keychain/tool with a dull but pointed edge to smash the car window open as well.
The head rest of the front seats have metal on the base and can be used to try and break the windows.
Load More Replies...Mythbusters proved this and it eventually saved the life of a viewer who ended up in this situation and remembered the episode.
Learned this as a child. Pet peeve that they NEVER do this in movies. Glad they still teach it in some places.
If you ever get caught in a rip current swim sideways, a rip current is a strong flow of water that moves directly away from the shore. And if you get caught in one and you try and swim straight in, it's just going to keep pushing you back and you're going to lose energy. So you need to swim sideways until you're out of it and then you can swim in.
And I read forward and see the riptide thing. Still, learn what they look like from the shore. Easy to see from above.
well, riptides don't look like square waves. They look like smooth and calm water, and are normally surrounded by normal waves. People who are not good swimmers choose to go in at the smooth part as they feel the waves are too rough. They really have no chance!
Load More Replies...My son was able to swim out of one just last week because he remembered this fact. A couple of his friends were nearly lost at sea because they could get out of the same wave, and a stranger-hero came and rescued them. Super scary!
Actually, let the current take you out till it weakens! Trying to swim sideways out of one doesn't always work that great, they can be pretty tough according to my hubby (who tried it).
This is not wise advice. You need to swim parallel to the beach, a rip current is also called an undertow and people drown every year from being caught in one. The trick to the undertow is that it is a current going out to the ocean and they can keep you under long after your breath goes.
Load More Replies...Random factoid: lifeguards often use rip currents to quickly get to swimmers in distress.
When I lived at the beach and was surfing we hoped for them to help take us back out through less wave strewn areas.
Load More Replies...This saved my life when I got sucked out to sea while cliff jumping in Jamaica. I randomly remembered it from a terrible Australian tv show that was kind of like Baywatch. I live in the US so what are the odds I would have even seen that show in the first place?!
Were you watching Bondi Rescue? It wasn't like Baywatch as it was real but that was where I learnt about riptides etc.
Load More Replies...When I was 10, I was out boogie boarding and got caught in the rip current. Didn't realize something was wrong until I saw the lifeguard swimming out to me. It was pretty scary how far out I was from shore.
My friend and I almost got caught in a rip-current when we were 12. Luckily, a guy that looked like Owen Wilson saved us before we were dragged out too far
Yup. There's a real risk of rip currents/rip tides at the North Carolina coast (where I went for vacation as a kid). The rule is swim sideways or diagonal to the shore.
This happened to me when I lived in Daytona beach. We swam for 30 min straight back to shore and never got any closer. We were tired and barely able to keep swimming and then the life guards saw us and swam out to rescue us and drag us back to shore. We could barely stand when we got back in.
If you ever get lost or in an emergency situation, you have your cell phone, but you have no service. You can still call 911. Emergency calls will go through any connection, whether it's your carrier or not. And the same thing goes for any payphones. You don't have to pay. It's free to make a call to 911.
True only if there is at least one network with some signal. If you really are out in the wilds, with zero signal on any network, it is not going to work. Your phone should tell you whether you can do this - mine says "Emergency Calls Only".
True, but it's still a good idea to try. Even if it shows that there's zero signal you don't lose anything by trying to call anyway. Worst case scenario it doesn't work and you're out a few seconds of battery life, best case scenario there's a sliver of signal and you get through.
Load More Replies...In the UK 112 does the same as 999 and will piggy back on any available service. As long as there's some charge in your phone 112 will get through.
Same in Greece. You can call 112 even without SIM card. I always found it strange in US movies when they could not call an emergnecy line without signal.
Load More Replies...And don't call 911 in other countries, Americans. Not everywhere in the world uses the same #
Here's the complete list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_numbers If I were a programmer for a major phone manufacturer, I would design the software that if you dialed an emergency number in a location where that was not the emergency number, it would forward to the correct one automatically.
Load More Replies...I live on a part of an island with zero cell service. While the majority of the island has decent to good service, I’m in the 20% of area that has none. This has been tried by locals & visitors alike during emergencies & has never worked. It’s why we have landlines and most of us two-radios and hand-crank emergency band radio.
Is the population density high enough that a mesh network might allow emergency communications? Hypothetically an emergency message (text, not voice) could hopscotch its way device-to-device until it got to a network connection.
Load More Replies...This is only the case in the United States, Canada and Mexico. 911 will not work in most of the world. 112 works throughout most of Europe (can even be used in the UK), but please check the emergency number for the country you are visiting.
Have we really gotten to the point where people don't know emergency calls are free on payphones?
We're almost at a point where people don't know payphones.
Load More Replies...I always carry a back up flip phone on any long car trips just in case. The antenna in the flip phones has a better chance of getting reception especially in the boondocks.
If someone falls in cold water and is close to hypothermia, don't put them next to a fire. They need to be warmed up slowly. Otherwise it could be potentially fatal and they could experience something called afterdrop. And this is due to the fact that your blood flow cannot adapt quick enough to that change from extreme cold to extreme hot.
Also, keep them in a lying position. Sitting puts too much stress on the heart (unfortunately, this tidbit was discovered by Nazi experiments that killed the test subjects)
Rolling them in the snow immediately after they get out helps to remove excess water drying the clothing!
Load More Replies...The explanation is bullsh*t. The problem about having them next to a fire is that the skin senses the warmth, so your brain wants to expand your blood vessels. The warmth is, at that point, only superficial though (skin is warm, muscles etc. below are still cold), so instead of absorbing heat from your extremities, your body will pump a lot of relatively warm core blood to your arms and legs, resulting in drastically sinking core body temp. Why do so many people - especially on tikfock - feel the need to explain stuff they don't understand themselves?
Thank you for your explanation!!
Load More Replies...If you're in the wilderness with only a fire for heat, putting them close to the fire may be your only option to warm them. Your best bet in such a situation is to seek professional help, but if you're out in the wilderness with no help, pretty much anything you do is going to be sub-optimal, but will almost certainly be better than doing nothing.
And realize hypothermic bodies aren't able to warm up each other. Not enough body heat left.
there's an old story about some people off the coast of Scandinavia in a fishing boat that capsized. they got picked up within an hour by a cargo boat, and were fine when they got on the ship. they went downstairs to get hot coffee and died on the spot.
Oh no. That's awful. How sad. (The waters near Scandinavia would be bloody cold).
Load More Replies...Then what should you do? Body warmth? If I have no blanket or anything but myself and the cold person.. then what?
Before natural disasters make sure to fill your tub up and your sink with water that is clean. According to the FDA, after major disasters, water's either cut off or heavily contaminated. So it's important to make sure you have enough supply of clean water.
It would be better to fill up containers rather than to have the water in contact with the air. Algae starts growing immediately in water, but the more you can slow it down enough so that it won't be dangerous to drink for several days.
Still a good idea to fill the tub/sinks though since you can use that water for other things like flushing the toilet.
Load More Replies...Fill the tub and buckets for water to flush and wash with, store potable water jugs for drinking and brushing teeth.
If you live in a house, then you also have a hot water tank that has 20-30 gallons of usable water as well.
Be careful though, if the water service fails, it's possible to contaminate your home water supply (because a water line break or backflow can contaminate the water in the pipes, water which you draw into your water heater. If you shut off your home water service at the start of the disaster, you should be safe.
Load More Replies...I didn't know this was a thing. Just looked it up and I'm going to order. Thanks.
Load More Replies...I have 10 gallon jugs of water in the basement. The only proper use of bottled water, IMO.
we used to refill 10 gallon jugs in our basement once a month in case we lost power. It came in handy quite often.
Load More Replies...I live in California, earthquakes, fires, floods, wind storms..we get it all. Everyone has three emergency kits. One in the house (camping gear with a lantern, water filters body wipes, flashlights, cook stove are all stored with at least a 72 hour supply of food and three 5 gallon bottles of water. One for the car, smaller everything and sol insulated blanket or good sleeping bag, and one for your person. Make certain you have water. It may be difficult to obtain after a disaster.
I usually let the washing machine fill with water and then shut it off
I mentioned this to my other half, and he reminded me that the washer was front loading. 🤣
Load More Replies...If you're somewhere and you don't have the right size battery, you can use a smaller battery and put aluminum foil in that extra space and it will still work. The aluminum foil will transfer the electricity and get the job done.
This one is too short. You need the right voltage. AA and AAA are both 1,5V per cell, so it works, but this is no universal truth.
Or by doing this you could cause your whole house to burn Down be very careful
Alkaline batteries, even in a worst-case scenario do not have a sufficient energy density to cause a fire, the plastic case will distort and contact will be lost before a meltdown occurs. On the other hand, lithium batteries have much higher energy density and must be handled with care.
Load More Replies...While technically true, DO NOT DO THIS. You're creating a major fire hazard by doing this.
Also, if your device takes 3 alkaline batteries you can adapt it to be powered off of USB with no modification other than stripping the end off of a charging cable. Red is +5V, black is 0V, white and gray are data and can be ignored, or twist them together to enable if your charger is smart enough to limit current.
When you walk back to your car and you see something like a dollar bill or something on it, don't touch it. This is a common method for kidnapping where while you're going to grab that, they'll come up and grab you. So do not grab it, just drive. And the most common with this is T-shirts around a mirror or a dollar bill.
Urban legend. If someone is going to "grab you" that extra 2 seconds you take to grab something under a wiper or around a mirror is not going to make a difference.
I'm so fed up with those tikfock douches that repeat some stuff they read/heard somewhere without having any clue if or how it works.
Load More Replies...Kidnapping by strangers in parking lots almost never occurs. It's too high-risk to try to snatch a random stranger in a public place. Human traffickers prefer to prey on already at-risk victims like homeless or troubled youth that they can groom and lure into slavery.
If this is such common knowledge, wouldn't the dollar bill alert the police every time? Would the parking ticket cop thwart this every time? It doesn't make sense that a kidnapper would just advertise that they're hanging around somewhere waiting to commit a crime.
If you see this on your car, it's almost certainly a promotional flyer - sometimes they print one side to look like money so you actually take it. I've never seen a documented case where this was used as a kidnapping technique - if a kidnapper is going to brazenly come up and grab you, he doesn't need to distract you first, and slipping the money under your windshield first just gives another opportunity where he'd be spotted by someone else. Rather than be hypervigilent about something under your windshield, be hypervigilant about your surroundings in general, look for people nearby, running cars, etc. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/warning-kay-jewelers-free-ring-gift/
More probably a flyer for the local pizza, or a legitimate parking ticket. (unless maybe if you're driving in a high-risk neighborhood)
What’s a high risk neighborhood? How would you get kidnapped driving through it? If there’s anyone to fear, it’s an adult male you already know, not some scary imaginary stranger.
Load More Replies...I'd love to know where in the world MONEY on your car is just left alone and not taken long before you get to your car? Also, if you see this from a distance, just don't go near your car. Or call 911 and report vandalism. Or call a friend to come get you and wait inside a safe place. Or or or....
People only leave fake money that’s actually ads for a church or a political candidate. But this is fake, it’s been debunked so many times. It’s not a thing that happens.
Load More Replies...While all true, why does it take TikTok to push these again? Further, I remember when BP was telling us that TikTok is a really bad app to use
I really hate the embedded TikTok videos while I'm using a mobile browser. I try to scroll by it, but the video loads three or four times & makes me jump back to it & I have to scroll again.
Load More Replies...If BP staff constantly steals content off reddit or tiktok, why bother having writers at all?
I kind of appreciate it, because I don't have Reddit or TikTok (I hate TikTok with a passion, but there are some occasionally good TikToks out there). Both Reddit and TikTok are blocked on this computer, so BP is like my second resort lol
Load More Replies...Only remove the eyes from a potato, not yourself Don't bathe in gasoline and dry off with a match Don't dress in bacon pants and run past a pack of wolves Hey, I'm just as good as this guy, I should be an influencer too!
There are so many more things closer to home that are potentially dangerous....cleaning products that are very toxic and should be kept out of reach for young children....and many plants sold in supermarkets or garden centres.They should be sold with a label describing the level of toxicity and emphazise the need to washing your hands after touching..i.e Datura,Nerium,certain dwarf-palms etc can bring on serious poisoning or death.
Everybody knows not to let children near cleaning products, & there are directions on them that tell you what to do if someone touches or ingests it. As for the plants, that's up to the plant-owner to research before making a purchase. I thought people took the time to learn about the living thing they want to buy so they can take care of it properly instead of purchasing on a whim. Warning labels on plants would be handy for impulsive people but I thought it was standard procedure to do a quick Google anyway.
Load More Replies...Seriously! Does this guy think we all live in a disaster movie. The majority of people's lives are pretty monotonous, and would benefit more from day-to-day tips, such as road safety, using a ladder correctly, and helping someone choking.
True. But how boring would a post be that told us how to use the indicator before turning a corner. On the other hand, if that's what it takes to make people use it more, I'd really appreciate it.
Load More Replies...Facts can save your life years ago watch a program call survival tack ticks had all these topic Far better then this.
While all true, why does it take TikTok to push these again? Further, I remember when BP was telling us that TikTok is a really bad app to use
I really hate the embedded TikTok videos while I'm using a mobile browser. I try to scroll by it, but the video loads three or four times & makes me jump back to it & I have to scroll again.
Load More Replies...If BP staff constantly steals content off reddit or tiktok, why bother having writers at all?
I kind of appreciate it, because I don't have Reddit or TikTok (I hate TikTok with a passion, but there are some occasionally good TikToks out there). Both Reddit and TikTok are blocked on this computer, so BP is like my second resort lol
Load More Replies...Only remove the eyes from a potato, not yourself Don't bathe in gasoline and dry off with a match Don't dress in bacon pants and run past a pack of wolves Hey, I'm just as good as this guy, I should be an influencer too!
There are so many more things closer to home that are potentially dangerous....cleaning products that are very toxic and should be kept out of reach for young children....and many plants sold in supermarkets or garden centres.They should be sold with a label describing the level of toxicity and emphazise the need to washing your hands after touching..i.e Datura,Nerium,certain dwarf-palms etc can bring on serious poisoning or death.
Everybody knows not to let children near cleaning products, & there are directions on them that tell you what to do if someone touches or ingests it. As for the plants, that's up to the plant-owner to research before making a purchase. I thought people took the time to learn about the living thing they want to buy so they can take care of it properly instead of purchasing on a whim. Warning labels on plants would be handy for impulsive people but I thought it was standard procedure to do a quick Google anyway.
Load More Replies...Seriously! Does this guy think we all live in a disaster movie. The majority of people's lives are pretty monotonous, and would benefit more from day-to-day tips, such as road safety, using a ladder correctly, and helping someone choking.
True. But how boring would a post be that told us how to use the indicator before turning a corner. On the other hand, if that's what it takes to make people use it more, I'd really appreciate it.
Load More Replies...Facts can save your life years ago watch a program call survival tack ticks had all these topic Far better then this.
