Fauna & Flora

Back in 2011, it was announced that scientists and biodiversity experts estimate that there are around 8.7 million species living on our planet.

The complicating factor? We know about hardly any of them. In fact, predictions suggested that humans had only actually discovered and identified around 14% of the species count – and in the oceans this was lower, at around 9%.

Incredibly, the process of finding, identifying, and describing all of the millions of suspected species would take thousands of years. So it goes without saying that no one is targeting completing that in their lifetime.

But in the years since – as has been ongoing for centuries – scientists have been hard at work locating, identifying, and describing new species. And a recent examination of rocky areas of Cambodia proved particularly fruitful.

Fauna & Flora

In a recent report, the researchers noted that during their biodiversity study of the Battambang and Stung Treng Provinces of Cambodia, they were able to identify a wide range of creatures – from cave bats and invertebrates to snails and reptiles – painting a picture of a biodiversity hotspot.

This is a particularly fascinating study since the karst landscape of western Cambodian is largely unexplored, with researchers hoping that the area will be home to plenty of unidentified creatures.

And the study didn’t disappoint, with plenty of new species – including three geckos, two micro-snails, and two millipedes – discovered and described for the very first time.

Amongst the most eye-catching species discovered though has to be a blue-green pit viper, who manages to take this quite feared species to a new aesthetic level.

Fauna & Flora

These species are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the biodiversity in this province of Southeast Asia. In fact, the region is home to plenty of endangered species, with conservationists urging policymakers to protect it into the long future to ensure that flora and fauna continue to thrive there.

Why? Because its landscape isn’t just picturesque, it’s a complex system that houses endemic and endangered species – including the Sunda pangolin.

This is because the unique features on the land are formed of limestone, with hills and caves housing springs and pools that nurture creatures that struggle to thrive elsewhere – with the absence of humans a significant factor in their survival too.

It’s more important than ever that places like this are allowed to thrive.

Thought that was fascinating? Here’s another story you might like: Why You’ll Never See A Great White Shark In An Aquarium

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Some people think they’re better than everyone else, and those people suck.

But the people who actually act like they’re better than everyone else?

Those people are the worst.

For the checkout operator in this story, being friendly to customers – no matter who they were – was just part of the job.

But the response from one older customer stayed with her.

Read on to find out why.

I’m sorry, I didn’t realize being friendly was so gauche.

In my seven years in retail, I was called many different things.

These ranged from the traditional monosyllabic go-to slurs to the more unusual “sugar britches,” and many other entries in the long list of slights and insults in the English language.

For the most part, after a year or so it stopped bothering me.

But this one lady was rude to me in a way that utterly floored me.

Let’s see what caused the woman to speak to her so rudely.

Now, one of the things we were required to do by company policy was to “engage the customer in light, pleasant conversation” when they came up to the register.

On this particular day we were expecting a visit from Corporate (they came around about twice a year for “inspections”), so we were being super-vigilant about sticking to policy.

So this lady enters my checkstand; older, but not elderly, dressed very well.

I greet her: she doesn’t respond. I ask if she found everything she was looking for: no response. I start ringing up her groceries and try once or twice more to get a conversation going.

Then, after the third time of trying, the woman spoke.

Finally, the lady sighs heavily, raises her eyes to the ceiling, and says: “You know, there was a time when the help were well-trained enough to know not to talk to their betters.”

I swallowed all the things I wanted to say to her; instead I smiled and said, in the mostly annoyingly bright and chipper tone I could muster, “Well, ma’am, we here at Hypermarket are supposed to talk to you! Our bosses want to make sure that you feel welcome and appreciated when you come in!”

She glowered and refused to say another word for the rest of the transaction, which was fine with me.

I’d had plenty of people make it obvious through their attitude that they thought I was beneath them while I was in retail, but that was the only time a person stated it out loud. “Their betters.” If you have to say stuff like that, you are obviously not better than anyone.

Yikes! This old lady’s attitude was astounding.

You’d think that people would welcome someone being nice to them, not talk down to them like this.

If you think you’re too good to be spoken to by Hypermarket staff, you probably shouldn’t be shopping there at all.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

Many people were staggered by the woman’s rudeness.

While others suggested appropriate responses.

Meanwhile, this Redditor took issue with the policy itself.

It’s absolutely the case that some customers might not feel super comfortable with an upbeat chat with a stranger, but that doesn’t warrant the way this rude older lady spoke to the checkout operator.

This reeks of entitlement and an unwarranted superiority complex.

Because sure she might be rich or have status, but there is no way she’s the better person.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.

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Your home is supposed to feel like a sanctuary.

In this story, this wife is feeling uneasy with her in-laws’ plans to move the whole clan into their large house. She wanted to keep her apartment and her sanity, but her husband is not on her side.

Read the full story below.

AITAH for refusing to sell our apartment because I want privacy from my in-laws? ​

My husband’s family is planning for all of us to live together in a large, three-floor house.

The household would include my husband and me, his parents, his aunt, his brother, and my sister (who is married to his brother), plus their children and frequent guests.

On paper, a three-floor house sounds huge, but I am firmly against selling our current apartment.

I told my husband that we need to keep our apartment as a private sanctuary, and here is why:

This woman’s reasons are quite simple.

Physical Comfort: I literally cannot wear a bra for more than five hours without feeling physical distress and like I can’t breathe. In a house full of in-laws, brothers-in-law, and guests, I would feel forced to stay “presentable” and covered up 24/7.

I want to be able to walk around my own home in a robe, a s**y dress, or even nothing at all without worrying about who might see me.

True Intimacy: I don’t feel comfortable being intimate with my husband when I know his entire extended family is just a floor away or in the next room. Intimacy should be private, and a crowded house feels like a “community center,” not a romantic home.

Mental Health: My sister (who is also my sister-in-law in this house) agrees with me. Some days, we are tired, sick, or stressed from work and study.

We aren’t always in the mood to entertain guests or interact with a house full of people. We need a place where we can “shut the world out.”

She refused to sell their apartment, but the husband does not agree.

I told my husband directly, “We can spend the whole day with your family, but the night belongs to us.”

I believe it is his responsibility to ensure I have a space where I feel truly free and relaxed.

He thinks I should be able to just “live with his parents” in the big house, but I feel like I’m losing my autonomy.

My sister and I both feel that having two separate spaces is the only way to keep the family peace and our own sanity.

AITA for insisting we keep our private apartment instead of fully moving into the family house?

Husband needs to have his wife’s back on this one.

Let’s read what other people in the comments section have to say about this.

Here’s a solid response.

This user is chiming in.

This is a zoo, comments this person.

Another reader describes the situation as a nightmare.

And people are supporting her decision.

Always choose your own peace over pleasing your in-laws.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.

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Imagine being a child with divorced parents, but you only live with your mom. If your dad moved back to town and told you that you could have your own bedroom in his house, would you want 50/50 custody, or would you want to stay with your mom?

In this story, one teenage girl was in this situation, and she was excited to spend time with her dad at his house with her own room. But then her dad told her that things have changed, and somehow now she’s the one who feel guilty about how everything worked out.

Let’s read all about it.

AITAH for telling my dad to never contact me again after he chose his wife’s mom over me?

I (17F) am only really posting this since my dad’s family and even my mom are telling me that I’m in the wrong.

My parents got divorced when I was 12 and they had 50/50 custody so I would stay with my dad for a week then my mom.

When I was 14 my dad got married to my stepmom (I refer to her as his wife) and I would only see them on the weekends until they moved and I only saw them whenever they visited (my mom got full custody)

Talk about getting her hopes up for nothing!

Anyways last month they moved back to our city and got a 2 bedroom house, my dad had promised me the room before he moved back and told me he could do 50/50 again if me and my mom were okay with it and we were.

I was so excited and even picked out furniture and bought stuff to decorate it.

Anyways they move into the house and invite me, they give me a tour and show me my “room”

I asked when I could start putting things in it and that’s when they told me that they were actually going to give the room to his wife’s mom, and since I was going away to college soon, it wasn’t like I was going to use the room much.

But that wasn’t the only thing they changed their minds about.

They also told me that instead of staying the full week that I can go on the weekends and sleep on their couch if I wanted to.

I said no to that and texted my mom to pick me up.

It’s been a month and I ghosted my dad fully.

He even came to try to talk to me but I was at school, he’s been contacting my mom too which he hates doing.

She’s done.

So I just decided that I didn’t want to be in his life anymore or have him in mine, even though I barely did.

I talked to my mom and for someone who hates my dad, she told me that I should just talk to him and spend time with him since I barely got to for 2 years.

I just decided to cut him off, it sounds impulsive I know but I sent him a long message detailing how emotionally neglected and unwanted he made me feel and to never contact me again.

I blocked him and blocked his side of the family.

Then the messages started.

In the morning my mom woke me up at 5am and asked what I did, almost my dads entire family have been blowing up her phone asking what she said/did that made me want to cut off my dad.

During school I even got a few messages from my cousins on insta that I forgot to block insulting me.

My mom showed me some of the messages and some are insulting both of us.

She feels guilty.

My dad even sent a message apologizing to me and said I broke his heart.

His wife is sending disgusting messages towards my mom.

I feel awful because I didn’t expect them to attack not only me but my mom, harshly at that.

I feel like I messed up and want to know if what I did was the right thing.

Here’s the thing. Her dad broke her heart. He got remarried and left. Then he comes back promising her 50/50 custody and her own room only to change his mind about both. He seemed to make it pretty clear that he doesn’t care about her. I don’t blame her for cutting him off.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Her feelings are valid.

Here’s a suggestion to contact CPS.

They could’ve at least given her advance notice.

This is a good way of putting it.

It’s no loss since he wasn’t really in her life anyway.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.

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Sometimes there’s nothing you can except accepting the fate!

This guy shares how his company is trying to kick him out and asks for some advice.

Check out the full story.

I think I’m being pushed out after I flagged something that looked inappropriate at work. How do I protect myself?

My company merged with a competitor last year, and after the restructuring, everyone on my team except me was let go. I was given a new title and a different set of responsibilities.

I wasn’t surprised by that. When companies merge, redundant roles get cut, and I was honestly just glad I made it through.

This is where it gets interesting…

We also ended up with an almost entirely new C-suite.

Around the time of the merger, I started hearing rumors from multiple people that one member of the C-suite, let’s call him Jason, might be having an inappropriate relationship with someone on my now-combined team, let’s call her Trisha.

I never saw anything inappropriate myself, and when people brought it to me, I told them not to repeat it because rumors like that can ruin careers.

What did bother me was this: during the merger, we were told that Trisha managed an entire workflow for the company, and that seemed to be part of why she was kept while someone from my original team was let go.

UH OH…

About a month ago, I found out that Trisha does not actually manage that full workflow. She manages one vendor, and that vendor does the day-to-day work.

That was the first thing that made me feel like leadership had not been honest with us about roles and responsibilities.

Then something else happened.

Jason sent me a Slack message asking me to make sure Trisha was coming to an upcoming event. For context, this was not a company-wide event. It was a conference that only about 6–7 people were attending.

Things get worse!

Part of my role includes helping with booking and staying within budget, so I asked about costs. I was told that Trisha could take Jason’s hotel room budget because the conference was supposedly close to his house.

He told me he was planning on driving in each day of the conference and then home each night.

At the time, that seemed reasonable.

About a week later, I found out Jason actually lives a little over two hours away from the conference venue.

At that point, I felt uncomfortable enough that I raised it with my direct manager. I brought it up on a phone call and also sent him a screenshot of Jason’s Slack message and the related conversation.

That’s INSANE!

My manager thanked me for sharing it and told me not to worry about it.

I also mentioned the situation to one of the employees from the other side of the merger who had originally brought the rumor to me. They were the person who told me how far away Jason actually lives from the conference.

Since those conversations, I’ve started getting boxed out of meetings I used to be part of. I’m being left out of things that were previously in my lane.

If I’m being honest, it feels like they may be setting me up to eventually say my role is “redundant.”

He knows he was just trying to help…

For context, there is no real performance issue here. Before the merger, I was delivering strong results. After the merger, my scope actually got smaller, and I’ve been able to focus even more on what is still my job.

My question is: if they do fire me, how do I prove whether it was retaliation for raising a concern? What should I be documenting right now, and what should I avoid doing?

I’m not trying to create drama. I’m trying to protect myself.

Thanks for your help.

YIKES! That sounds bad!

Why has he been taking so much crap from his workplace!

Let’s check out what people on Reddit think about this one.

This user suggests documenting everything!

This user knows this guy needs more evidence.

That’s right! This user knows the company can easily cover up.

This user knows who fits well with this question.

This user suggests applying for other jobs!

Somebody needs a backup plan here!

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.

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If you live in an HOA, there are a lot of rules you have to follow, and going against these rules can result in fines.

What would you do if you wanted to make a change to your home that wasn’t allowed by the HOA? Would you do it anyway, try to convince the HOA to change the rules, or simply comply with the HOA rules?

In this story, one family figures out a way to get what they want and overthrow the HOA board.

Keep reading to see how they did it.

While we’re on the subject of Home Owner’s Associations— here’s the story of how my parents’s HOA tried to use a 40-year-old rule to stop them from repairing hurricane damage and got the shaft for their trouble.

A few months back, Florida got pretty beaten up by a couple of hurricanes. My folks live down there, and while none of the damage that they sustained was life-alteringly horrible or home destroying, home owners insurance kicked in and they had some water damage through the roof.

They also needed a new one because of all of the shingles that had come off/debris that had punctured it.

My folks looked through roofing options and determined that a metal roof would be a great option to reduce damage/maintenance on their home. Plus, it would serve as a more energy-efficient option with passive solar collection and fewer thermal losses in the summer/winter.

Its more expensive, but my dad was basically r/personalfinance incarnate while I was growing up. He’s in his 60’s and has finally concluded that he has a lot of money so long as that community is concerned, so the roof was a good investment. It looked like a win-win-win with that roof.

HOA rules can be so annoying.

Then they reviewed the HOA and saw that, as of 1989, metal roofs are prohibited in the neighborhood, subject to fines and mandatory removal.

Reviewing the bylaw further showed that it was clearly referring to older, crappier tin roofs, not a proper metal one like today’s market provides, which looks great and has all of those other benefits.

My folks wanted to play by the rules, though, and called up the HOA to explain the situation.

HOA was friendly and said that they would be looking into that bilaw, and that my folks weren’t the only ones who requested that they be allowed to have a metal roof.

The HOA was in no rush to get back to them.

My parents couldn’t get a roofing contractor in for a few months anyway (too much demand since everyone else’s roof got wrecked), so they waited a few weeks and got nothing new out of the HOA.

Tried again a few weeks later. Nothing.

After two months of this, they said forget it and started construction on the metal roof.

Popular opinion in the neighborhood was on their side, and the roof was covered with a tarp that wouldn’t last forever. The new roof got installed over the course of a few days— and then we found out the HOA’s awfulness.

The HOA had an ulterior motive.

The neighborhood has a nice brick sign out front that says “WELCOME TO (Neighborhood name).” It’s very classy, very nice— and was very damaged in a hurricane.

The HOA was strapped for money due to other repairs/dues, and some jerk had the bright idea to impose as many fines as they could on the neighborhood to pay for these repairs— starting with my folks.

They served my folks with a letter claiming that they were in violation of the HOA, and demanded a $25,000 fine and that they remove it. Which is, of course, absurd.

His parents had very different reactions to the situation.

My poor mother is very much a play-by-the-rules sort, and she was worried sick.

Dad’s ex navy and a contract negotiator. He essentially checked his 60-year-old knuckles and said, “oh, you little jerks wanna play, do ya?”

So they set about researching and making some calls.

Poor mom kept waking up at 1 am unable to sleep, and I felt terrible for her as she went through this.

But then, they had a breakthrough.

Then there was an HOA meeting.

A few weeks after being served (I’m fuzzy on the timeline since I don’t live in Florida, it may have been less) there was essentially a “burn them at the stake” meeting of the HOA where my parents could defend themselves for an absurdly short amount of time and the HOA could rip into them for daring to defy their wrath.

So my mom (because she’s more social/has a better temper than dad) comes up to speak, and let’s the HOA know that they can’t do this.

HOA smirks and says that they sure can, they have a 40-year-old statute saying that they can.

But she knew something the HOA didn’t.

Mom says, “you do. But I have State Law on my side, which supersedes your statute.”

Turns out, there’s a law in Florida stating that an HOA (or really, any regulation) cannot be used to prevent a n eco-friendly improvement from taking place on anyone’s private property. And wouldn’t you know it— the passive solar of the metal roof counts as an eco-friendly improvement.

Turns out, the roofing contractors have dealt with similar stuff before. When dad mentioned what was going on to them, the contracting officer pulled out a few letters of accreditation and a few past cases where the court had determined that their product was eco-friendly and forced the HOA to pay all legal fees.

My mom produced all of this for the awful HOA, who had to admit that this was in fact iron-clad. Strapped for money as they were, they couldn’t afford to pay a lawyer.

It gets even better!

HOA head growls, “is that all?”

Mom turns up the sweetness to 11. “No. I see in the bylaws that we can vote to impeach board members at any HOA meeting and to elect their replacements. I move to impeach all of you. I nominate my husband, and…” she rattles off a list of names.

HOA is stunned.

It worked out really well!

While dad looked into the legal, mom looked into the new neighborhood.

Popular opinion was on their side, and the hearing was public for the neighborhood.

Mom convinced a majority of the home owners to attend and remove the board for their crappy policy.

With that, my parents are now on the all new board, and dad is putting his contract negotiation skills/own craftsmanship skills to work repairing the front entrance. And metal roofs are now allowed by the all new HOA.

It’s amazing that wanting to install a metal roof resulted in overthrowing the HOA board!

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

One person offers some advice.

This is a good point.

It was a team effort.

It’s actually closer to 40 years ago.

The HOA definitely messed with the wrong homeowners!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.

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Imagine finding your dream home but realizing you can’t afford all the repairs it needs. Would you be willing to pull money out of an account that is intended for something else in order to buy the house, or would you find a house you can actually afford?

In this story, one couple is in this situation. The bride to be knows this money is not intended for a house fund, but her fiancé wants her to use it for that purpose anyway.

Let’s read all about it.

AITA for not using the money I saved for my brother to pay for a house with my fiancé?

My fiancé (46m) and I (40f) have recently started to discuss building our own house.

We currently live in my four bedroom apartment and it is too small for us.

The plan is for me to sell my apartment and put the profits from that into buying a house big enough to have separate bedrooms for my two daughters and his two sons and daughter.

My fiancé doesn’t earn as much as I do, so the majority of the money will come from me and I don’t really have a issue with it as we do split the cost of everything fairly and since I earn more I pay a higher percentage.

Her fiancé thought they found their dream house.

Now here comes the issue.

The house we originally wanted was in our price range but after inspection we realized to bring it up to code was just way too much and so we opted to just build our own instead.

My fiancé was very keen on that house. He considered it our dream house and so he was very disappointed when we couldn’t get it.

But maybe they could afford it.

Then a few weeks ago he was going through some paperwork with me and he found out that I have another savings account I share with my sister.

He accused me of having hidden it from him.

And I reminded him that he was always aware that I put money aside every month.

He said he didn’t realize how much we had saved.

This is a nice thing to do.

Me and my sister have a joint savings account for our brother who is currently in prison (he will be released in a few months).

My sister and I agreed to put in 10% to 25% of our salaries into that account and we have done that for nearly 16 years.

The account has grown to a significant amount.

It’s not really her money.

Since he found out exactly how much money is in that account he has been really upset about me not using that money to buy the house.

I’m also very frustrated with him for constantly bringing it up because I don’t consider that money to be mine.

We had a massive argument on Sunday and since then he and his children have been staying at his parents.

I had a conversation with two mutual friends and since that conversation I’ve been thinking that I might be wrong.

She’s saving the money for her brother. It’s not a fund to fix up a house.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Here’s a vote for ending the engagement.

This person sees red flags.

So many red flags!

Here’s a good suggestion and a good point.

Talk about greedy!

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.

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Whatever your overall opinion of AI, there’s no doubt about the fact that it has issues.

Inherently problematic for many reasons, AI has drawn criticism for its effects on the job market, the huge and polluting datacenters required to power it, and its tendency to ‘hallucinate’ (in other words, to lie) when it doesn’t actually know the answer to your question.

But the problematic nature of AI programming is much deeper than this. And it all comes down to its people-pleasing nature, and the fact that we’re suckers for it.

Let’s be clear, that’s not our fault. How are we supposed to know to have mental guardrails against the emotional manipulation of a technology that has been designed specifically with our psychology in mind?

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When it comes to AI hallucinations (lies), it isn’t just an accident or a weird glitch in the technology. In fact, this proclivity to pretend it knows more than it does is by design. After all, it is programmed to please its user – and why would you return to a chatbot that openly admitted it didn’t know many of the things you need it to?

And it’s not just the fact that it’s giving you incorrect information masquerading as the truth, it’s the flattery and sucking up that has you believe that it is smart but you are smarter.

This tactic used by manipulative humans to get to the top might just have you relying more and more on the LLM, believing it is making you a better, smarter version of yourself – when really, your dependency is causing the opposite to be true. Moreover, you’re not working the critical thinking parts of your brain, potentially even making you more reliant on the technology instead of your own rationality in the long run.

A recent study published in the journal Science has uncovered just how complicated and problematic this is. Because LLMs aren’t just people-pleasers, designed to build a relationship with you so that you keep coming back. Rather, they’re openly sycophantic.

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As the researchers explain in the study, this isn’t just annoying, it can be quite dangerous. Not for everyone, and less likely if you’re more discerning or aware of the ways in which the technology is trying to manipulate you, but for vulnerable users in particular, AI can be inherently problematic.

Welcome to the Shirk Report where you will find 20 funny images, 10 interesting articles and 5 entertaining videos from the last 7 days of sifting. Most images found on Reddit; articles from Digg, Kottke, WITI, Facebook, Twitter, and email; videos come from everywhere. Any suggestions? Send a note to submit@twistedsifter.com.

20 IMAGES

– Friday!
– Close-up photo of the moon from NASA’s Artemis II mission
– Clean smarter, not harder
– Just because you can do something…
– To crush a manhole cover like it’s nothing
– Austria in October
– The perfect gift for any Minecraft addict
– How Pete Alonso improves his swing sequencing
– Insane recovery
– Dinner date
– Found a miniature typewriter
– This old steam tractor can pull 44 ploughs at the same time
– Provacative oil
– For love of the acoustic guitar
– You find some strange formations deep in the forest
– Radical!
– Disguise in the skies
– Easily tie a tie
– Apt book shop display
– Until next week

10 ARTICLES

– Pizza Slices: The Best Way to Document a Baby’s First Year
– Flight Path Data Shows How Mosquitoes Target Humans
– Your Scent Screams That You’re American — Here’s The Dead Giveaway
– How Jay-Z Altered the Course of American Fashion
– The best college graduation gifts for life in the real world
– This Memory Chip Survives Temperatures Hotter Than Lava
– Hope vs. optimism, explained
– Why Biologists Think Animals Have Tails
– Elton John’s Favorite (And Least Favorite) Elton John Songs
– Nearly a century of wondering: The American UFO saga, in reality and in fiction

5 VIDEOS

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Imagine living in a house you’re renting while you’re going to college. If you heard noise in the wall, would you ignore it, investigate, or talk to your landlord?

In this story, one young woman is in this situation. She tries talking to the landlord, but when that doesn’t help, she decides to get revenge.

Keep reading for all the details.

Revenge on Evil Landlord

When I was in University, I’d heard stories about horrible landlords of student housing but hadn’t experienced it myself… Until third year, when it felt like we got 3 years worth of bad landlords all in one go.

It began when I heard noises in the wall behind my bed at night, I brushed it off for a while until I realised that it was an animal in the wall.

I told the landlords the next day, and they immediately played dumb, acting as if I was stupid in front of my housemates for suggesting that something could fit inside of a wall.

That was the first alarm bell, why immediately try to embarrass me into dropping it?

The landlord was no help.

After explaining that I know what a cavity wall is, she asked if we’d seen anything in the kitchen (oddly specific, we didn’t think about it until later).

From then on her husband delt with us, we weren’t aware that he was our landlord too.

A little time passes, still nothing done about the noise in my wall, not that it was a surprise.

I’d worked out by then that it was probably something like a mouse, and that it could run through the terrace of houses, as long as it didn’t chew its way through my wall or die in there I put the whole thing on the backburner.

Then they saw what was in the wall.

Until we were all sat in the sitting room, and heard a thud in the kitchen.

Then squeaking.

There was a giant rat in our kitchen.

The rat disappeared into a hole in the (completely crumbling) kitchen wall and the landlord claimed that we made it up, and that they’d never had a rodent problem (I contacted the previous tenants through facebooking names I found on letters for them that had been posted to us by mistake; the property had had a rat problem for the last 3 years before we moved in at least).

Again, the landlord was no help.

I set a rat trap and caught one, took photos, and sent them to the landlord to tell him to sort the problem out.

He told us that because there was a line in our contract about the landlord not paying for pest control (the contract specified wasps nests etc., we didn’t even think about rats when we signed it) that we’d have to pay the hundreds of pounds to fix it.

He’d knowingly written that into our contract so he wouldn’t have to pay out, instead of fixing the kitchen wall and the exterior wall where the rats were getting in.

It got pretty intense.

To cut the rest of the setting the scene part of the story short; we called the council who sent a pest control team, while on their visit one of the men took my housemate to one side and told her that our landlord is evil and he is known for getting nasty.

They told him that it wasn’t our fault that there were rats, it was his, and he screamed in my face until he was bright red about how I was a terrible person and was trying to take him down for no reason (one of my housemates had to leave because she was scared.

I wasn’t, we were in a room full of men – who were backing us up – making himself look worse for screaming in my face like that. I’m f and was 22 at the time, about half his size).

He tried to sue us for slander (it isn’t slander if it’s true, so swing and a miss).

She didn’t want anyone else to end up in the situation she was in.

Now, for the revenge.

It was written into our contract that we had to be notified 24 hours in advance if anyone needed access to the house, which included house viewings.

I began my mission; stop any other students from getting stuck in this hellhole.

The house was being shown by agents so it made it fairly easy.

She was overly honest.

I left the rat traps in prominent places, casually explaining why we needed them if asked, and if I felt I was being too subtle, making a fake show of “oh gosh, please ignore the rat traps! The landlord said he’d fix the kitchen wall where they get in but hasn’t gotten around to it, so we have to catch them”.

I was honest about the mould problem in the bathroom.

When I found out they were planning on increasing the rent by £100 a month(!) I made a point of saying something like “well, it’s just about worth the [rent I was paying]”.

I made sure to say his name, so they wouldn’t get away with using his wife’s name as a front while his reputation for aggression stayed hidden.

She knew her rights.

The agents never said anything to me directly, and because we had to be notified I could always make sure I was home when there was a viewing (my housemates fully supported my revenge, but I was the woman of action in the house, when I’m sure I’m in the right I will do what’s necessary to make things right).

That was until they tried to turn up unannounced one day, not even knocking, just unlocked our front door and walked in.

Luckily I was in the house, and kicked them out for not informing us, and told them that they were in breech of our contract (if the bad landlord could use it to beat us with, two can play at that game).

No new tenants had signed for the house by the time we were free of that hell hole, it’s been two years now though so I have no idea what happened to the rat house.

I hope the landlord finally called a pest control company and fixed the wall.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

It might be illegal.

One person thinks the landlord should’ve been forced to fix the problem.

This person would’ve gone even further.

Another person compliments her.

Talk about a horrible landlord!

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.

TikTok/@kristibcassidy

The biggest tragedy of owning a dog is knowing that they’ll only be in our lives a short time, so it’s up to us to give them the best lives possible.

A woman named Kristi did just that for her beagle Cooper and she showed TikTok viewers how she spent her final day with her pooch before it was time to say goodbye.

TikTok/@kristibcassidy

The video’s text overlay reads, “Bucket list day for my dog.”

Kristi showed viewers how she gave Cooper a wonderful last day.

It included a walk to say goodbye to the cows, scrambled eggs with cheese, and a car ride with the windows down.

She then gave Cooper a lot of pets, a McDonald’s cheeseburger, and a Starbucks pup cup.

TikTok/@kristibcassidy

Cooper then took one last walk around the yard, made a painting, ate lots of steak, and got a t-bone to chew on.

Finally, the pooch ate some chocolate and got more pets on the couch.

In the video’s caption, Kristi wrote, “How every dog should live their last day.”

TikTok/@kristibcassidy

Take a look at the video.

@kristibcassidy

How every dog should live their last day Thank you @McDonald’s @Starbucks @Kit Kat for his last treats #beaglesoftiktok #dogsoftiktok #seniordog #bucketlist #dogadventures

♬ Stuff We Did (from ‘Up’) – Piano Version – your movie soundtrack

Now let’s see what viewers had to say about this.

This person weighed in.

Another individual spoke up.

And this TikTok user nailed it.

She gave this lovely pooch a great life.

If you liked that story, check out this video about a Dollar Store cashier who has had it with customers who argue over $4 products.

Shutterstock, Reddit

It is great when you get along with your coworkers, but sometimes someone wants more of a relationship with you than you are comfortable with.

What would you do if one coworker expressed interest in being with you even though you are married, and even after telling her no multiple times, she kept insisting?

That is what happened to the guy in this story, so he finally had to report her to HR and she got fired, so he isn’t sure if he handled it properly.

AITA for getting a coworker fired?

So, I (29M) started a new job about 3 months ago. It’s been super nice and I love my work.

Office romances can be awkward when they don’t go well.

The only issue has been between a coworker (mid 20s F, Jenny) and me. She was not shy in letting me know that she is interested in me.

I am, however, married. I have done my best to shut it down and told her that I’m very happy in my relationship and that I’m not interested in her.

Yeah, he needs to shut that down immediately.

However, some of her friends have started referring to her as my “work wife” and me her “work husband”.

I have expressed my discomfort with this and have stopped responding when they say it.

This is wildly inappropriate.

A little while back my coworkers and I went to a bar and throughout the night her friends kept trying to get us to hookup. At one point Jenny told me that my wife doesn’t have to know.

I was done at that point, went home, talked with my wife (she was very understandably hurt I didn’t tell her about this sooner, but I didn’t want to upset her, dumb reason I know) and came to the conclusion that I needed to go to HR.

He did the right thing.

I told HR about the incident, told them I felt uncomfortable working with her in the future and that my other coworkers were encouraging it. I also gave them some correspondences I’ve had with her that were relevant.

Over the course of the investigation, HR found more evidence of misconduct and ended up firing her for sexual harassment.

HR handled it properly, this is her own fault.

I didn’t expect that and just wanted her to be transferred or something.

Now my coworkers are giving me the cold shoulder and walk on eggshells around me.

AITA?

All the coworkers should get in trouble. Trying to ruin someone’s marriage is a pretty terrible thing to do. This guy and HR handled it perfectly.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

Here is someone who says he did the right thing.

This commenter asks what would happen if the roles were reversed.

He was harassed and handled it the only way he could.

This was a serious violation.

This commenter says he followed the right steps.

She really left him with no choice.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.

Shutterstock/Reddit

Respecting each other’s time is invaluable in relationships.

This man told his friend that he might not make it to their meetup depending on how his workday turns out. His friend seemed to understand at first. But when he canceled at the end of the day, his friend did not take it lightly.

Read the full story below for more details.

AITA for canceling plans due to work? Turned into a massive argument.

A few months back, my friend and I made plans to meet up and watch a new season of a show.

Fast forward to a few days before the planned day: I was notified that I needed to work that day so my manager could have it off.

I told my friend that I didn’t want to commit to anything because my workday could end up being very busy, and I might just want to go home afterward if I was worn out.

He reassured me that it was fine and that we could play it by ear.

This man was exhausted after the workday.

Fast forward to the day of the plans. He called me several times, all excited to watch the show with me. I explained again that I wasn’t sure how I would be feeling after work.

He told me he was patient and wouldn’t mind waiting until closer to the end of the day to see how I was feeling.

I asked him several times, “Are you sure you don’t mind waiting?” because I know he can be a hot-headed person, and I didn’t want to cause any problems.

He reassured me that he could be patient and didn’t mind waiting to see how I felt. So we set a time for him to call me back and go from there.

Some time passed, and sure enough, I ended up having an insanely busy day at work on top of dealing with a rude customer, so I was mentally exhausted.

His friend had a lot to say after he canceled their plans.

Fast forward to the scheduled time: I explained that I had a long day and that he could start the show without me. Again, I would like to reiterate that he was 100% okay with waiting to see how my day went.

He started blowing up on me with these comments:

“Not a huge deal, but if you didn’t want to hang out, just be upfront with me.”

“I can’t stand waiting around for people to just bail.”

“I didn’t expect to have to wait a few hours for you to get back to me.”

“It seems like you were just looking for an out the whole time.”

There’s more to this, but he even went out of his way to throw shade in another group chat with a meme about canceling plans, and then ghosted everyone.

Ummm, dude? We literally went over all this, and now it feels like I’m being gaslighted. AITA?

Well, his friend has a point.

Let’s read what other people in the comments section have to say about this.

Be honest, says this one.

Here’s a fair perspective.

A sensible suggestion from this user.

Here’s an idea.

And another person chimes in.

“Might cancel” usually means “will cancel.”

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.