A strange thing happened on Western Frontier. During the days of Wild West, American pioneers were moving out into untamed and treacherous land. They were building their homes in a virtual war zone, on land stolen from the natives, and that meant that their lives—and the lives of their children—were constantly at risk.

Pioneer children, in the days of the American frontier, would often be kidnapped by raiding warriors. When Native American tribes lost their own children in wars with the settlers, they would even the score. They would raid a white village, take their children, and carry them back to their homes as hostages. But when their families tracked them down and tried to rescue them, sometimes, the children didn’t want to go home.

It was a strange phenomenon the settlers of America struggled to understand. Even Benjamin Franklin commented on it. “They become disgusted with our manner of life,” he once wrote about the white children captured by native tribes, “and take the first good opportunity of escaping again into the woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them.”^[1]

10 Frances Slocum

In 1835, a trader named George Ewing met an elderly woman of the Miami tribe named Maconaquah. She was in her sixties and a respected woman among the tribe, a widowed grandmother whose husband had been their chief. And so you can imagine his surprise when this old woman told him she had born to white parents.

As a child, he soon found out, Maconaquah’s name had been Frances Slocum, the daughter of a Quaker family who had been stolen away from home by Seneca warriors when she was five years old. A Miami family had bought her for a few pelts, and they’d raised her as their own.

57 years had passed since her capture. She’d grown up among the Miami, gotten married, seen her husband rise to chiefdom, given him four children, and raised them until they had children of their own.

Frances’s brothers hadn’t stopped looking for her since the day she was captured. When word got out that she was still alive, her brother Isaac met with the sister he’d lost decades ago and begged her to come home.

Frances, though, had forgotten how to speak English. Communicating through an interpreter, she told him, “I do not wish to live any better, or anywhere else, and I think the Great Spirit has permitted me to live so long because I have always lived with the Indians.”^[2]

True to her word, she stayed with her captors until the day she died—and she was buried next to the man who had been her husband.

9 Cynthia Ann Parker

Cynthia Ann Parker was nine years old when she was kidnapped by Comanche Indians in 1836.^[3] Her family was slaughtered, and she and four other children were dragged off into the night. Incredibly, she survived the whole horrific ordeal—but she wouldn’t survive going back home.

Four years after her capture, a trader named Williams heard that she was still alive, living among the Comanche. He rode into their camp and offered their chief any amount of money he wanted for her freedom. But when he was given the chance to speak to her, Parker simply stared at the ground and refused to say a word.

It took another 20 years before she was freed. A Texas Ranger force attacked the Comanche tribe, and upon seeing the white-skinned Parker among them, brought her back to her family. After 24 years living among the Comanche, though, Parker wasn’t happy about going home.

She had been there so long that she’d married one of the Comanche warriors, a man named Peta Nocona, who the Rangers had killed. As far as she was concerned, these men weren’t her liberators. They were murderers who had killed the man she loved.

They brought her to her uncle’s farm, but Parker didn’t want to be there. She repeatedly tried to run away, and when she realized she wouldn’t escape, she simply stopped eating. Rather than live among the white man, Cynthia Ann Parker starved herself until, weakened and plagued by influenza, she died.

8 Eunice Williams

Eunice Williams’s father got to see her change. After she was kidnapped by Mohawk warriors (reenactment pictured above), her father, Reverend John Williams, tracked her down and tried to get them to let him buy her freedom. The Mohawks refused to sell her, but they did let Rev. Williams talk to the daughter who would never be his again.

Young Eunice was terrified by everything around her. She told her father about the rituals the Mohawks performed, telling him they were “mocking the Devil.”^[4] She’d described a French Catholic missionary who’d been making her pray with him. “I don’t understand one word of [the prayers],” she told her father. “I hope it won’t do me any harm.”

Ten years later, a man named John Schuyler went to see Eunice—but now she was a completely different woman. She dressed and lived like a Mohawk. She had converted to Catholicism, married a warrior, and refused to speak English. He only got four words out of her the whole two hours he spoke to her. When he asked her to come home and see her father, Eunice simply said: “It may not be.”

7 Mary Jemison

Mary Jemison went through one of the most brutal kidnappings of any child. The story of how her Iroquois kidnappers massacred her family is absolutely horrifying—and yet, for some reason, she willingly stayed with her captors until the day she died.

Mary was 13 years old when a raiding party from the Iroquois Confederacy attacked her home. The Jemisons were forced to march through the woods, urged on by a warrior with a whip who lashed them whenever they slowed their step. They were not fed. If someone asked for water, the Iroquois warriors would force them to drink urine.

In the morning, Mary was pulled apart from her family and forced to march another day. She spent the day wondering what had become of her parents. Then, when nightfall came and they stopped to rest, she found out. While she watched, a warrior pulled her mother and father’s severed scalps out of a bag, scraped them clean, and dried them over a fire.^[5]

She remembered seeing her parents’ scalps dry for the rest of her life. In her old age, she would relate the story as if it was a swashbuckling adventure from an exciting childhood, but she never left her home. She moved in with a Seneca family, married a Delaware man, and, for reasons only Mary Jemison truly understood, became so attached to her family that she refused to ever leave their side, regardless of what had happened to her parents.

6 Herman Lehmann

Herman Lehmann didn’t see himself as a white boy living among the Apaches. To him, he was an Apache warrior through and through. He was kidnapped at age ten, and it changed him so much that when he was found eight years later, he couldn’t even remember his own name.

By then, Lehman was a respected warrior in his tribe who called himself “En Da.”^[6] He’d been made a petty chief for his ability to fight, and he’d joined the Apaches in raids and battles, even leading a charge right into a fort full of Texas Rangers.

All that changed, though, when a medicine man killed his adoptive father, an Apache warrior named Carnoviste. Lehman took his revenge and killed the medicine man. He then had to flee into the wilderness. For a year, he lived alone, hiding from the Apaches and the white men alike, until he finally settled down in a Native American reservation.

When his mother heard there was a white-skinned, blue-eyed boy on the reservation, she came out, praying it was her son. At first, she didn’t recognize him, and Herman was less than friendly. “I was an Indian,” he explained, “and I did not like them because they were palefaces.” But Herman’s sister spotted an old scar only he could have and, overcome with joy, cried out, “It’s Herman!”

The sound of the name puzzled him. Somehow, Herman thought he’d heard it before. It took a long moment, Herman would later recall, before he realized that he was hearing his own name.

5 Olive Oatman

When Olive Oatman wrote about her life as a Mohave captive, she called them “savages.” She wrote about them as if they were wild men and her time with them had been hell, but there were hints she wasn’t telling the truth. The biggest clue was as a plain as her face: the large, blue tattoo that covered her jaw.

Oatman had grown up in a Mormon family, but she was captured by Apaches while her family was traveling to California. The Apaches had sold her to a Mohave family that took her as her own, and for five years, she lived as a Mohave.

When Olive’s brother—the sole surviving member of her family—found her, her tribe was suffering through a famine, and many were starving. The people around her were dying, and, worried for her life, her adoptive family let her go home.

Oatman wrote a book about her experiences that criticized the Mohave, but there were signs she wasn’t being totally honest. She dressed like them, lived like them, and had willingly agreed to the blue tattoo on her face. And she’d claimed that the “savages” had not made her “unchaste”—but her name among the Mohave was “Spantsa,” a name meaning “sore vagina.”^[7]

Nobody knew the truth about Olive Oatman’s experience except for her. But some believe that living among the Mohave may have changed her more than she was willing to admit.

4 The Boyd Children

The five Boyd children managed to get away from their captors. After years living with Iroquois and Delaware families, their father brought them back home. Instead of being grateful, though, they bolted into the night. They fled their father’s home to get back to the people who had kidnapped them.

The children had been taken by Iroquois raiders and dragged out so they could be sold to other tribes. On their painful road into captivity, they were forced to watch as the warriors beat their pregnant mother to death for failing to keep up the pace. Her dead body was left behind.

It took four years before their father, John Boyd, was able to rescue any of them. The first one he saved was his eldest son, David. The boy wasn’t as happy to see his father again as John had hoped. David protested and said he didn’t want to leave his Delaware family and, after a short time, snuck out in the night, left his father’s farm, and went back to the tribe.^[8]

Over the next four years, his father went from tribe to tribe, buying his children’s freedom and bringing them back home—and saw nearly every single one sneak out into the night and leave him to go back to their captors. He freed every single one of his children, but he wasn’t able to keep them all at home.

3 Mary Campbell

Mary Campbell is just one name among hundreds of children who were kidnapped during Pontiac’s War. She, and the other children like her, were stolen away from their parents’ homes and sent to live with native tribes as revenge for the deaths of their own people, meant to replace the children the native tribes had lost.

When the war ended, Colonel Henry Bouquet demanded the children be released. He drew up a list of over 200 names of children who had been abducted from their homes, handed it to Pontiac’s warriors, and made them promise to return every one if they ever wanted to see peace in their lives again.

The tribes agreed, and the 200-plus children were sent back to their families. Mary Campbell, though, had to be dragged back to her family by force. She didn’t want to go home—and even once they brought her back, she still tried to escape and run back to the Lenape family that had captured her.

It’s a strange story, but Campbell wasn’t the only one who tried to run from her parents. Of the children Col. Bouquet freed, nearly half tried to escape their biological families, preferring to live with the families that had kidnapped them rather than the ones that had brought them into the world.^[9]

2 Theodore Babb

Theodor Babb, 14 years old, was determined to hate his Comanche captors. They had murdered his mother and dragged him and his ten-year-old sister Bianca into captivity. They could kill him if they wanted, Theodor decided, but he would not live among them.

After days of being beaten for his stubbornness, Theodor tried to escape from his captors, but he didn’t get far. The Comanche dragged him back and beat him brutally. Theodore, though, wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of crying. He wouldn’t even flinch, no matter how hard they hit him.

Frustrated, the Comanche tied him to a tree and started placing grass and branches at his feet, ready to burn him alive. Bianca wailed and cried for her brother’s life, but Theodor still wouldn’t flinch. Throughout it all, he stared the men who were getting ready to kill him in the eyes, daring them to go through with it.^[10]

They didn’t. The Comanche realized this young boy was unusually brave and, instead of killing him, trained him to be a warrior. They armed him, taught him to ride like a Comanche warrior, and showed him how to run raids.

For all he’d resisted it, as a Comanche warrior, Theodore started tapping into a part of himself he’d never been able to touch before. Within six months, he was so much a part of the tribe that when his father tried to buy him back, the Comanche chief was convinced he would refuse to leave.

In the end, Theodore did go home—but he had changed. After just six short months of captivity, he was already a Comanche warrior who had joined in on multiple raids on white men’s farms.

1 Adolph Korn

After Adolph Korn was freed from his Comanche captors, his parents moved him far away from the tribe that had harassed them. Unlike the other children on this list, he had no way to get back to the people who had kidnapped him, so, rather than live with his own parents, he fled into the wilderness and spent his life alone in a cave.

Korn had been captured when was ten years old and sold to a childless Comanche woman. She took him in as his own, and although he was initially distraught over losing his family, he soon started to enjoy it. Living in a frontier home, he’d struggled to get any attention from his eternally busy parents. Now, though, he had an adoptive mother who focused every second of her energy on him. He felt more loved that he had ever felt before.

His parents managed to get him home three years later, but he never stopped being a Comanche. He would raid his neighbors’ farms and steal their cattle. Soon, he’d built up a long police record, and terrified they’d lose their boy to a different type of captivity, his parents moved far away to a remote ranch.

Korn, though, refused to become a white man. Instead, he left his parents’ home and moved into a cave, where he lived in solitude until the day he died. As a family member said, for the rest of his life, “Adolph kept a solitary vigil for the Comanche brothers whom he knew would never return.”^[11]

We tend to think of medieval food as bland or boring. After all, there were no chocolates, potatoes, or tomatoes. (They all came from America.) But some medieval foods were so strongly flavored that we would find them unpalatable today, especially because people back then loved to mix fragrances like rose water or lavender with their dinners.

In medieval times, the very best food was eaten by the king and his court. And no king was more lavish than Richard II, who was known across Europe for his opulence.

So we are lucky that a recipe book written by his best chefs has survived to the modern day, containing no fewer than 196 recipes. It is called The Forme of Cury, and you can read it for free at Project Gutenberg if you can get your head around Middle English.

Let’s dig in.

10 Funges

This recipe—No. 10 in The Forme of Cury—simply calls for funges (the medieval word for “mushrooms“) and leeks to be cut up small and added to a broth, with saffron for coloring. Easy.

However, it also asks us to add “powder fort.” This was a well-known spice mixture in medieval times, much like garam masala is today. Powder fort was usually made from pepper and either ginger or cinnamon.

However, as this food was made for the king, they probably used a more complex mix, likely including cloves or saffron. For a powder fort mix you can try at home, combine 28 grams (1 oz) of cinnamon, 28 grams (1 oz) of ginger, 28 grams (1 oz) of black pepper, 7 grams (0.25 oz) of saffron, and 3.5 grams (0.125 oz) of cloves.^[1]

Pepper was the most common spice in medieval Europe, followed by cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Mushrooms were cheap and widespread in medieval England. So this dish would have been quite affordable but still well outside the reach of most medieval people.

9 Cormarye

Sometimes, kings needed to impress their guests, and the best way to do that was to serve them a big hunk of pork in a rich sauce. Cormarye, which is Recipe No. 53 in The Forme of Cury, would have been the main feature of a royal feast. The red wine and pork loin joint made it an expensive recipe even by modern standards, and the exotic coriander and caraway spices would have cost a fortune back then.^[2]

Make a sauce from red wine, ground pepper, garlic, coriander, caraway, and salt. Roast the pork joint in it. Then add the sauce and the drippings to a broth and serve them together.

8 Toastie

Yes, you read that right. Richard II’s personal cookbook contains a recipe for a toastie—or tostee, as they called it. If someone served us this in a cafe nowadays, however, we might wonder if they’d made a mistake.^[3]

This recipe, which is No. 93 in The Forme of Cury, is more like jam on toast than a modern-day toastie. Mix together red wine and honey in a saucepan. Add ground ginger, salt, and pepper. Cook it until it’s thick, and then spoon it over toasted bread. Chop up some fresh ginger and sprinkle it over the top.

7 Payn Ragoun

If you’ve ever wondered what medieval candy tasted like, this is it. Payn ragoun is essentially a medieval-style fudge, though they would have served it alongside meat or fish rather than as a snack or dessert.

You can find a modern version of the recipe here.^[4] But to paraphrase: Mix some honey, sugar, and water together, and simmer over a low heat. Then add ground ginger.

The recipe actually calls for the cook to dip his finger in it. If it hangs when it drips back down, it’s ready. Add pine nuts, and stir until it thickens. Then leave the mixture to harden, and cool in a bread or cupcake mold.

6 Poached Eggs

The medieval method of cooking poached eggs—or pochee, as they called them—was almost exactly the same as it is today. “Take Ayrenn and breke hem in scaldyng hoot water.” Translation: Take eggs and break them into scalding hot water.

These medieval poached eggs wouldn’t have been served on toast for breakfast, though. They were much more likely to have been cooked en masse and served at a banquet on a plate alongside a specially prepared sauce.

This No. 90 recipe in The Forme of Cury has an accompanying sauce, though it is unlike any we’d make today. Whisk together two egg yolks, sugar, saffron, ginger, and salt. Add milk, and cook until it thickens, not letting it boil. Then serve. Find a modern translation of the recipe here.^[5]

5 Verde Sawse

We all know salsa verde as a key component of modern Mediterranean cuisine. It seems that Richard II was also a fan of this popular sauce because The Forme of Cury contains a recipe especially dedicated to it—Recipe No. 140.^[6]

This medieval version of salsa verde calls for parsley, mint, garlic, thyme, sage, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, wine, breadcrumbs, vinegar, and salt to be mixed together and served as is.

4 Crepes

It seems that crepes were a popular medieval sweet food. They are mentioned in Chaucer’s writings as “crips” and in Recipe No. 162 of The Forme of Cury as cryspes. Medieval French crepes were the closest to what we think of as crepes today, but cakes called crepes also existed in England and Italy.

A French recipe for crepes from 1393 can be found here.^[7] The English version was a dough made of flour and egg whites which was rolled in sugar once it was cooled. The end result was more like a doughnut or powdered cake.

3 Compost

Recipe No. 100 of The Forme of Cury is called compost, though it had a different meaning back then. Short for “composition,” this was the medieval equivalent of throwing all your leftover vegetables in a Crock-Pot and leaving them to simmer. This was probably the closest that royal cuisine got to peasant food but with a much richer sauce.^[8]

This particular recipe called for parsley roots, carrots, parsnips, turnips, radishes, cabbage, and pears to be diced and boiled until soft. Then they were sprinkled with salt and allowed to cool before being put in a large bowl with pepper, saffron, and vinegar.

The cook would then boil wine and honey in a saucepan and simmer for a while before adding currants and spices. This was poured over the vegetables, and then the entire dish was served.

2 Payn Fondew

Bread pudding is a dessert that is commonly eaten in the United Kingdom today. Most people know that it’s old, but few know that it actually dates from medieval times. Recipe No. 59 for payn fondew is effectively an early version of bread pudding.

Fry some bread in grease or oil. Mix egg whites in red wine. Add raisins, honey, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, and simmer until it thickens. Then break up the bread, add it to the syrup, and let the bread soak up the syrup. Sprinkle with coriander and sugar.^[9]

Nice to know the modern craving for sugar isn’t quite so modern, right?

1 Almond Milk Rice

Medieval people loved to cook with almonds. Many recipes in The Forme of Cury contain them, so it should be no surprise that they also enjoyed almond milk. The rice in this recipe would have come from the other side of the world, so only the richest could afford to make this recipe.

This was basically a medieval rice pudding, and you can find a recipe for it here.^[10] Cook the rice, drain it, and place it in a saucepan. Then cover it with almond milk, and simmer for a while. Add honey and sugar, cook until the whole mixture thickens, and voila! Medieval rice pudding.

According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N.), natural disasters are now occurring three times more often than they were in the 1970s and 1980s, also increasing in scale and intensity. This means they are wreaking a disproportionately large amount of havoc and destruction in the least developed and low- to middle-income countries, where people are least able to cope.

What happens when we combine Mother Nature’s propensity for reminding us who’s really in charge every now and again with the massive increase in the use of security cameras, dash cams, and camera phones around the globe? We get to experience—now more than ever—what it is like to really confront one of these disasters for ourselves (from the safety of our own homes, of course!). So here is a list of 10 home videos that recorded deadly natural disasters.

Related: 10 Myths Humans Have Used To Explain Natural Disasters

10 Earthquake—Luzon, The Philippines

The Philippines is an archipelago in southeast Asia that regularly experiences volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, typhoons, and all the terrible things that generally accompany them, such as tsunamis, flooding, and landslides. Given its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is subjected to over 2,000 earthquakes every single year. Since 1951, they have claimed more than 4,800 lives without even counting the tsunamis that often follow them.

This video has no audio but shows a group of friends enjoying some free time in a local swimming pool when a magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes their home of Luzon. The group struggles to evacuate the churning water as the tremors roll through, clearly shaking the trees and structures in the background before eventually subsiding after about a minute.

This was only a small rumble compared to some of the more destructive quakes the Filipino people have had to weather over the years, but the waves created in the pool really highlight how violently the ground moved. Unfortunately, eighteen people lost their lives in the quake, although everybody in this video escaped unharmed.^[1]

9 Volcano—Whakaari, New Zealand

Whakaari, also known as White Island, is a privately owned islet located off of the northeastern coast of New Zealand. It had been a popular tourist attraction for many years, despite being New Zealand’s most active volcano, before disaster struck in December 2019.

An increase in seismological activity had been recorded in the weeks leading up to the event. Still, no official warnings were issued, so two separate tour groups visited the island by boat that afternoon. Just after the first group completed their tour and their boat was leaving the island, Whakaari exploded, spewing a massive plume of rocks, steam, and burning gas across the island and 12,000 feet up into the air.

The video, recorded by Allessandro Kauffmann, shows the tour boat he is traveling on returning to the island immediately after the eruption to try to help any survivors. Official rescue efforts were delayed because of the risk of further eruptions, but three heroic helicopter pilots launched their own rescue efforts, only to later be charged by the New Zealand health and safety authority, WorkSafe.

Unfortunately, a total of 47 people were stuck on the island when the superheated gas enveloped them, 22 of whom lost their lives. Many survivors suffered life-changing injuries as a result of their burns.^[2]

8 Tsunami—Indonesia

Indonesia, like its neighbor, the Philippines, can be considered pretty unlucky geographically. It consists of over 17,500 islands—most uninhabited, though—which are home to 120 active volcanoes. Also located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, it is regularly subjected to earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, and soil liquefaction. In late 2018, the Indonesian people would experience all of these cataclysmic possibilities within a two-month period.

At 6 pm on the 28th of September, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Palu on Sulawesi Island, causing a huge underwater landslide that, in turn, triggered a tsunami. As early warning systems malfunctioned, people were completely unprepared when a 23-foot high wave smashed into the city of Palu. At the same time the wave hit, soil liquefaction occurred over vast areas, swallowing entire buildings whole. In total, more than 2,000 people died in this disaster with more than 4,200 injured. Some news reports included home video footage.

Then, just two months later, on December 22, the Anak Krakatau volcano erupted, which caused another landslide as the southwest flank collapsed into the sea. This massive displacement of water created a tsunami in the Sundra Strait that was also not picked up by early warning systems. At 8:30 pm local time, the tsunami crashed into the shores of western Java and southern Sumatra.

This home video was shot at a seaside concert in western Java. Popular local group Seventeen were performing to over 200 people, mostly families, when the wave struck them from behind. While the singer survived the terrifying ordeal, in later interviews, he claimed he wished that he had died too. He lost all of his bandmates and his wife in this tragic event that took more than 400 lives.^[3]

7 Flood—Henan, China

The term “once in a lifetime weather event” is being thrown around a lot these days, especially when it comes to flooding in areas that may have seen little in the way of disasters in recent years, such as New York or Germany. In July 2021, the flooding in Henan Province, China, though, really can be considered once in a lifetime. The provincial capital of Zhengzhou received an entire year’s worth of rainfall in three days, and as you might expect, the entire city was submerged.

This was a terrifying event for everyone living in the province, but those who faced the most immediate danger were the people who found themselves trapped underground in the city’s metro system as water levels began to rise rapidly up to their necks. In total, 14 people lost their lives in the city’s subway, and many more are thought to have died throughout the province as videos emerged of people being washed away all over the city.

This video shows passengers stuck in a train carriage with the doors closed as brown water quickly rises all around them. Fortunately, they were eventually able to evacuate to safety, although many others were not so lucky that day.^[4]

6 Wildfire—Manavgat, Turkey

Today, Americans are so used to experiencing wildfires in the summer that news of them happening in other countries really doesn’t garner much attention. However, the huge increase in the number of wildfires across the planet over the last few years has meant that people have begun to recognize that this isn’t just an issue in California.

Australia, Brazil, Turkey, Greece, Algeria, Italy, India, Russia, and Cyprus all had millions of acres of land reduced to smoldering ash due to huge forest fires over the last few years. This video comes from Turkey as some restaurant workers are trying to return home following a food delivery to firefighters tackling blazes in the Manavgat countryside. The hellish landscape of blazing forest seems to close in around them until they have nowhere to go and are forced to turn back. Fortunately, they were able to escape the flames unharmed, but many were not so lucky, with at least eight fatalities and hundreds injured across the country.^[5]

5 Hurricane—Florida, USA

Hurricane Michael struck Florida on October 10, 2018, and meteorologists soon realized that they were dealing with one of the biggest category 5 storms to ever make landfall in the eastern United States. Overall, it caused $25 billion in damages and was directly responsible for the deaths of 16 people. Still, despite all this mayhem and destruction, one plucky Callaway resident decided he would make a home movie documenting the damage caused to his community in this incredible video.

In just 15 minutes, you can watch his entire neighborhood get shredded by 150mph winds, and at the end, you get to see a walk-through of a residential street that has been reduced to nothing more than a pile of branches and shattered roof tiles.^[6]

4 Landslide—Kachin, Myanmar

This video was recorded at an illegal jade mine in the Kachin state of northern Myanmar. Kachin state has a long history of resistance against the oppressive Tatmadaw (Burmese Army). As such, the region is in many ways free from centralized Burmese control, meaning drug production, smuggling, and illegal mining are all common in the area.

One such illegal mine was experiencing unseasonably heavy rainfall when a miner decided to pull out his phone and begin recording. The landslide he captured on video sent a wave of mud and rock rolling down the valley like a tsunami and was responsible for the deaths of more than 162 people.^[7]

3 Sinkhole—Florida, USA

The idiom “I wish the ground would swallow me up” was obviously never meant to be taken literally. After all, the idea that you could just be minding your own business, carrying on with your life, and then, in a split second, the ground could open up and swallow you whole would be downright terrifying, no matter how embarrassed you are. Sinkholes happen more often than you might think, though, and every now and again, somebody ends up inside one.

One such unfortunate person was Jeffrey Bush, a 36-year-old Florida man who had just turned in for the night when the ground below him simply collapsed and swallowed him up. He screamed out for his brother, who rushed to his aid, only to find Jeffrey and all the contents of his bedroom had crashed through the floor into a sinkhole below.

This video was made as rescue workers tried to communicate with Jeffrey using a camera and microphone on a long pole to check on his whereabouts and condition. Unfortunately, he didn’t survive, and his body could not be recovered, so the sinkhole was filled in, the house and two neighboring properties were demolished, and the whole area was fenced off. That wasn’t quite the end of the story, however, as just two years later, the sinkhole opened up again, although this time nobody was hurt.^[8]

2 Avalanche—Mount Everest base camp, Nepal

Avalanches can have a variety of causes; sometimes, snow can just gradually pile up before collapsing down the side of the hill under its own weight. Often they are created deliberately with explosions, but sometimes they can be made by other natural disasters that occur many miles away. In the case of the Everest avalanche of 2015, it was the latter, as an enormous earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck Nepal on the afternoon of April 25, 2015, killing over 9,000 people. A video shows just how strong the tremors were, hurling people back and forth as the city of Kathmandu was violently shaken by the quake.

Way up at Mount Everest base camp, the shock waves were not strong enough to hurt anyone, nor were there any buildings to collapse on top of the 2,000 people gathered there. However, minutes after the deadly earthquake struck Kathmandu valley, a huge avalanche of ice and rock came crashing down Mount Pumori, completely burying the campsite at its base.

At least 20 people died, and hundreds were injured by the falling debris. This video shows the ferocity and intensity of the icy blast created by the avalanche and just how lucky the cameraman and his friend were to survive, ducking into their tent just in time.^[9]

1 Tornado—Illinois, USA

This final video shows probably the most terrifying video of a tornado that has ever been recorded. (Please add a link in the comments if you know of any contenders!) It was filmed by 84-year-old Clem Schultz from his bedroom window after he and his wife noticed the twister forming behind their home in Illinois.

Living in an area that sees numerous tornadoes every year, the couple considered their options but decided that they were confident that the tornado would pass by their home to the west, leaving them unscathed. Assuming the power could go out at any time, Clem headed upstairs to grab a lantern when he noticed from his bedroom window that the tornado was gathering pace and growing bigger by the second. He decided to begin filming, and even when he realized that the tornado would not just pass them by, he said nothing at all as it smashed into him with a deafening roar before everything turned black and the video ended.

Somehow, Clem actually survived this incredible encounter with one of the biggest tornadoes that Illinois has ever seen. His wife was not so lucky, though, as she was one of two people killed. Many more were injured, and 24 homes were completely destroyed.^[10]

If you are thinking about having a nice time with your spouse and you are thinking of having it at home, then we are on the same page. Yes, you are thinking right. You can spice up your love at home. So, this piece comes with some stay-at-home date ideas you can take advantage of without breaking the bank or killing yourself with much stress while planning it out.

It also means that a date doesn’t have to be somewhere in the eatery, recreational facilities, bar, club, etc. It can happen in the house too. The essential thing in a date is to have time to share and be together intimately. So, it’s a great idea that you can hang out with your partner right in your home too. You may begin by making some decorations at home to put you guys in the mood and make it different.

Well, the world itself has changed from what it used to be. Moving around for a date may not be advisable. Remember that Covid19 has not backed down. It is safer to do this to avoid being a victim of covid19. With a stay-at-home date ideas, you would have abolished the stress of moving around. Kindly take your time to read through each and choose one for yourself and your partner.

These are 15 Great Stay At Home Date Ideas.

Paint And Sip Idea

Paint and sip is a great date idea for you and your spouse. It’s just the same thing you do in a paint and sip outing. All I am saying is, bring the idea home. Simply get blank canvases, some paints, and bottles of wine. So, make the moment counts with your painting exercise. Enjoy every moment of the painting. You may add other activities to spice up the moment and make it unique.

Food Date Idea

Here is another idea for a home date that you and your partner can try out. Simply get food ingredients ready. You may select a meal type outside your regular. It could be something you eat once in a while. Then make the date happen in the kitchen as you show your skills. Spice it up with light music. You can even make a food manual available. Make sure you rate the outcome, I mean the food.

Video Games Idea

Not a video game fan before now? Well, it is another great stay-at-home date ideas. Just check out one video game and get it ready for a great time. You play, laugh, and have a great time together. There are lots of video games to select from. These may include but are not limited to strategy, sport, etc. Choose any one that will be of interest to you and your partner. Of course with drinks and something to make the moment count.

Backyard Camp Idea

This is a great home date idea. You can make a camp happen in your backyard with your partner. It gives you the two experiences; you feel in a camp and at home. The vegetation in your backyard can give you that camping feeling. You can add other things to make it great.

Puzzle Date

Create a date with your spouse to solve the puzzle together at home. The puzzle may seem old-fashioned or underrated but it’s a great way to catch fun and make the moment great. It can be picture puzzles, an alphabet, or simply arithmetic arrangements. Whichever one, be sure you are in for a nice time. You can spice it up with discussions in between.

Draw Me Out Idea

Make the home date count by making it a draw-me-out challenge. Simply provide drawing materials. Then take a posture of your choice and wait why your partner draws you out. Spice up the draw-me-out date with great drink, music, and conversation. Artistic couples will this more interesting.

See also: TOP 10 Useful Advices For Your First Date.

Family History Idea

This home date idea will not only give you memorable moments but will also bond you and your partner together. So, you have the opportunity to share histories in your family that your partner doesn’t know. Your partner can also share what they think on what they know about your family. Spice the moment with other side attractions.

Sing Aloud

Try out this great idea. All you need to do to make it great and special is to sing along or mime the songs. So, simply get an old playlist of songs. You can as well get the lyrics. You will be shocked at how much fun you will get from this. You can try those miming things and see how you can go with old and new songs. You can begin with college days music.

See also: How to propose a girl? 10 proven ways.

Personality Test

Well, here is another way to get started with the fun. Take your personality test together and have your results. After getting the results, discuss them. But you can take the test together. This is where you maybe be knowing something new about your partner. So, you catch more fun while you know your partner more. You may even get to discover more than you think there is to your partner.

Digital Event Idea

You can make it a date with your partner in your home as you go for the digital event. So, you learn and laugh together especially if it’s an entertainment digital event. It promises to be great as you engage your partner. It can be something like a comedy show, couples night, or anything to get you together. Just connect.

Don’t Forget The Steps

I will advise this, especially for older couples. Remind yourself of the dance steps. Call it any moment but let it take you back to some dance steps in your history. Remember the dance steps that stole your heart then, it can still do the magic now. Try this stay-at-home date idea, I am sure you will be glad you did. You may spice it with other things to make it a great stay-at-home date.

Something New

This is another one to try among the stay-at-home date ideas, here you will need to identify something you can learn together in a few words. Even if you don’t learn it all in one sitting, at least get started in love. You can even see these things on YouTube. There is hardly anything you want to learn that is not there. You will even get a step-by-step video. You only need to select the things that you want to learn that can connect both of you. You can as well get a manual that gives instructions on how to go about understanding that particular thing or subject.

Tie-Dye Craft

Here is another great stay-at-home date idea that can enable you and your spouse to get creative, catch fun and make the moment count. Simply get a kit for tie-dye and some white cloth on which the design will be appearing. Make some great designs with the love of your life as you have a great time out. You can create designs with it that will serve as your souvenir for your home date. Make sure you add some music depending on the genre you love. That’s you making the moment count for you both.

Technology Aside Idea

This is another great idea to experience yourselves and keep the fire of your love burning. Put all forms of technology aside so that you can see just yourselves. There should be no interference with the outside world through SMS, chats, calls, etc. Well, this technology seems to be taking more from our relationship than it is adding. You may either move them aside or pick a venue in your home where you will neither see them nor be influenced by them. It’s a moment for you and your partner. This is a great idea much more than you can ever think of.

Through The Pages Idea

You can as well consider this great date idea for a home date. Get a nice short romantic book you can read together. Take turns to read it to each other while you discuss the book content. Pick a book with a theme or something you and your partner will enjoy together. It will foster the connection with your partner if it is done regularly. Blend it with light music in the background and drinks. It promises to be great.

These are great but simple stay-at-home date ideas for couples. Interestingly, these are not expensive. These ideas can be achieved without you breaking the bank. This list was made with your pocket in mind. It only calls for creativity and it does not necessarily have to be expensive. It can only come with creativity. Just do something outside the box. The more creative you are about it, the more you enjoy it.

Finally, please note that the relationship only works by the extent to which you have worked it. If you see other people’s relationships getting stronger, it is because they decided to work it out. This is part of the strategy to work your relationship with your partner. Try out as many as possible any of these stay-at-home date ideas in this piece. This is the moment for it, at least for now until covid19 infections drastically go down.

Article written by: Adeyemi Bello

If you have ever considered the purchase of a home, you have most likely run into a few different disclosures and rules regarding the residence. You may have wondered why the homeowner specifically mentioned something about where the home sits on the county flood plain line or outlined certain additions over the years. These are all good to know about your home in general, but the reason they have been so precisely noted is not that the homeowner thinks you care about the surrounding water levels, but because they are required by law to disclose the possible dangers of that particular property.

The purchase of something as significant as a house is one of the most important decisions you will make in your life. While the government tries it’s best to do everything in its power to make sure the transaction is fair and you are not buying a lemon of a home, a lot of issues slip through the cracks. Due to the age of laws, new developments, and sometimes honest discrepancies, home sellers do not always have to let you know of the potential risks of a building that you are seriously considering buying. The widely heard term, “Caveat Emptor,” is Latin and refers to the buyers need to diligently also take responsibility in making sure that everything regarding their potential purchase is disclosed. Caveat Emptor translates simply to, “Let the buyer beware.”

SEE ALSO: 10 Deadly Household Foods That Can Actually Kill You

10Radon

Radon is a toxic gas that results from the breakdown of natural radium in the soil. Radium is a byproduct of uranium and is short-lived as it releases harmlessly into the atmosphere. In large quantities though, radon is detrimental to our health and is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. Unfortunately, we cannot see or smell this odorless gas, and although it may be possible to guess as to areas with higher levels based upon the soil composition, it can only officially be detected with special equipment.

Radon is unique in that it is thought to be harmless at low levels in its natural state, but can build up over time. The foundations of homes and basements are the perfect grounds for toxic levels to collect. Interestingly, not all states require homeowners to even disclose that they may have a deadly gas infiltrating their abode. In fact, only thirty-seven states, as of 2017, require the disclosure during a real estate transaction.^[1]

9Lead-Based Paint

We have all heard of the dangers of lead and the warnings about your children eating paint. The warning does not come without reason, the poisonous lead that most paint consists of damages the nervous and reproductive system, as well as development and other areas of the body. Overall, lead paint is considered toxic, so toxic in fact that the government ruled that any home built before 1978 needs to disclose possible use of the stuff.

The seller disclosure is nationwide, however, with any disclosure, there are loopholes that you should look out for. Realize that, if the seller is unaware of lead-based paint that has been painted over before they lived there, then they obviously cannot disclose it. Very few people are going to regularly go around testing sections of paint around their home anyways. Because of this, it is recommended to assume that all older homes are likely to have lead-based paint whether the seller says so or not.

The other issue here is that the disclosure is only for homes before 1978. Paint could have been leftover and still used years later. Some states even continue to sell it off the shelf. For families with sensitivities, particularly those with young children, it may be best to have your walls and furniture tested regardless of the year or disclosure statement.^[2]

8Meth

In the last couple of decades, Meth has become a major issue affecting the poor and rich alike. Drugs and illegal use of substances will always be a problem among the populous, but meth has made its presence known as a particularly harmful substance due to its addictiveness and extremely harmful side effects. Studies have shown that a large number of the population over 12 have used meth at some point in their lives, with the average age of users being in their early twenties. Sadly, the large-scale use extends far beyond the original user. Meth also affects those who are around abusers, as well as the property in which it was used or created.

Deadly chemicals as a byproduct of cooking and use are known to cause everything from sinus problems to cancer. Always left behind when a home has been afflicted with meth use, one would assume that the presence of these toxins would be a mandatory disclosure. Oddly enough, when a residence had been the basis of such activities though, most states lack laws regarding.

Only approximately half the states in the United States are legally made to disclose whether or not a home was a known meth lab, and many of the stipulations only go back a certain number of years. While there are methods of decontamination, this does not mean that the place is safe, especially if you have small pets or children rummaging around in nooks and crannies. If a test does not do enough to ease your fears of a potential purchase, a quick chat with the neighbors will generally be enough to confirm or deny any rumors of methamphetamine.^[3]

7Infestations

Cockroaches, termites, mold, and bed bugs are all very real creatures that can bring down a home if not kept under control. Each of these pests begins as a small issue that, when left to thrive, can overtake a property to the point of condemnation. One would believe that a home seller would disclose such issues, or would be legally obligated to, however, there are a lot of desperate owners out there, along with a variety of different state laws that can be worked around.

Mold is one of the major issues that buyers know of and like to ask about. What most people do not realize though is that mold affects almost all homes to some degree or another. Unless you are allergic, you probably do not even know when it is there. Homeowners are obligated to disclose known issues like mold or pests, but they do not have to look for them. Some states are a little more sophisticated and require testing beforehand, but the laws do not specifically address a lot of important issues, such as a known infestation of bed bugs.^[4]

6Off-Site Problems

Depending on the state you are in, you may or may not have to disclose issues that stem from places other than your property. CIty wide or environmental type problems are usually well known enough and talked about that, if they exist, you will know. Most disclosure forms require buyers to tell sellers about existing problems that they know of, off-site issues are different though.

If your basement regularly floods due to the city water system having problems, then you may not be obliged to tell the buyer about it. The buyer is supposed to be asking about the surrounding area anyways, and a citywide issue a seller may not feel is their responsibility. Another such off-site problem that not everyone will think of is the disclosure of nuisance neighbors. Again, this is dependent on state laws, but a problematic neighbor could be the death of a real estate transaction. The discrepancies here arise from differences in opinion. One person may consider a specific habit an issue, while the practice may be normal to another. Loud parties, barking dogs, and trash collectors could mean nothing, or they could be the bane of a potential buyer’s existence. From this perspective, it is difficult to determine what then needs to be disclosed. Simple disputes over lawn length usually fall into the “no need” category, but a “habitual and obnoxious behavior” might.

If you are the type who likes their peace or often finds yourself in neighborly disagreements, consider visiting with those next door first before making any assumptions as to whether or not you wish to purchase the home.^[5]

5Essential Components

When buying a home, we assume it has all the required essentials. To be listed as a bedroom, for example, a certain number of doors and windows are expected to be there. It is also generally located directly on the listing whether or not the home has a garage, outbuildings, a basement, etc. One would think that any home they were buying then had essential home components too like a heating system, kitchen furnishings, vents, fans, etc., but this is not always the case.

The state of North Carolina, for example, does not require a seller to list any of the essential components of a home. Most people notice and ask about stoves or washers and dryers, but a missing water heater may be one of those overlooked but expensive replacements. In the south, a lack of air conditioning could be a major cause for concern, as could no heat in the northern states. Know your necessities before going into a deal to make sure you do not end up with a costly oversight simply because of an assumption.^[6]

4Asbestos

Like radon and lead-based paint, asbestos is a known material often used in homes and also known to cause adverse health problems. Used in a variety of materials from insulation to piping, asbestos fibers are dangerous when inhaled and can cause scar tissue to build up within the lungs. Besides the typical health problems of asbestos, it is also thought to have other deadly side effects, like cancer.

Despite the known problems, it was not until more recent years that the government finally stopped the use of asbestos building materials in many homes and buildings. The actual material is not banned, however, and is widely found and ignored or dealt with dependent upon the laws of the state.

Because asbestos is most dangerous when airborne, the laws do not go out of their way to make homeowners get rid of toxic materials. It is generally safe to assume that most buildings built within the last fifty years will have a form of asbestos hidden away in a remote location. To be on the safe side, always get the materials in your home tested before going in to do your remodeling. You never know what might be harmless or cancer-causing.^[7]

3Death

There is no doubt that superstitious or otherwise, a death in a house will affect a buyer’s idea of a potential home. Some people are thrilled with the idea of potential hauntings or ghost stories, and others will immediately shy away from the fact. Whether the death was peaceful or otherwise, with such a large emotional connection to historical circumstances, it would behoove a buyer to know whether or not a person died in their new home. Some states believe just that, but others see the other side. Reporting a death in the home could be seen as causing an unfair stigmatism against the seller, and is therefore not qualified as something that needs to be disclosed.

There are certain stipulations, of course. Depending on the state, the laws for disclosing serious crimes, such as violent murders, are a little more transparent. In some circumstances, for example, a peaceful death does not need to be talked about unless asked. In others, the admittance only needs to be made if the death happened within the last three years. The best way to ensure your home is not the scene of some grizzly murder of the past is a quick google search of the address.^[8]

2Sex Offenders

If deaths in the home do not put you at unease, a sex offender living right next door to your children certainly will. Not only does their presence presumably put your family at risk, but the idea of sharing a neighborhood with a known criminal could also put a bad taste in the mouths of potential buyers. Because of this, most states do require sex offenders to register their employment, school attendance, and address.

Although not all states require disclosure of nearby sex offenders to a real estate buyer, there are several cases where the jury was certainly in the buyers favor for lack of disclosure. As the sex offender registry is public knowledge, it is always best to check first if this is a concern of yours.^[9]

1Hauntings

Like an uncertain death disclosure, a haunting may or may not be a reason for a real estate transaction to go sour. There are those folks who specifically seek out spooky places and may even pay extra to be the owner of a home on the haunted registry. In most cases though, this is a small selling niche and is not the best route to go if you are in a hurry to get your home off the market.

To keep possible ghost chasers and superstitious folk from getting too involved in the sale of your home. Laws are surrounding what is known as a stigmatized property. A stigmatized property is one surrounded by rumor, good or bad. When selling a house, a bad reputation is not something that a seller wants. Ghoul disclosures are, therefore, not mandatory in all states. Unfortunately for the seller, you will most likely hear about it soon enough anyways through the gossip chain if you end up with a “haunted” dwelling.

As paranormal activity is rooted in people’s beliefs more than anything, the seller may or may not have to worry about a buyer finding out later on whether a house turned out to be haunted. In most cases, it is best to disclose the fact beforehand as the court rulings on such instances are not usually in the best interests of the non-disclosing seller.^[10]

About The Author: As a full-time freelancer and RVer, Sharon likes to spend her time traveling, looking up weird facts, and checking out the local hubs. Though she mainly writes web copy and SEO based articles, she enjoys the occasional humor and research writing.

You can find out more about her through her LinkedIn.

Your home is your sanctuary, the place you sleep, eat, hang out, and go to every single day. For this reason, it should be the place beyond all others, where most of our efforts go. The place we clean, look to to save the most money, where we try new designs, or other tricks to make our lives easier, and the place we can well and truly call our own and feel comfortable and safe in. In this list, we will go over ten hacks you can use to improve the utility, cleanliness, savings and brightness of your life at home.

Top 10 Cool Car Hacks Every Driver Should Know

10 Stuff Your Fridge And Freezer To Save Money (Jeans In Freezer Bonus)

One of the biggest energy sinks in your home is your refrigerator and freezer, and there is actually a really simple trick you can use to maximize the energy efficiency of your fridge. See, the thing is that the less stuff is in your fridge and freezer, the more often it has to cycle on and off in order to keep your stuff cool — as you might imagine, this uses a lot of energy. The more full you keep your fridge and freezer, the less overall space there is to cool, and there is much less energy used overall.

If you don’t have enough perishable foods to keep your food cooling apparatus full, you can put in canned food, cereal or other such things that normally don’t require refrigeration. Also, while we are at it, filling the freezer with a pair of jeans or two might help fill up your freezer for the trick, but it won’t do any good to your jeans. While the founder of Levi’s may be an expert at making jeans, that does not make him an expert at cleaning them. Scientists have said his weird trick to kill bacteria in jeans by putting them in the freezer not only doesn’t work, it can spread germs around.^[1]

9 Heat Your Home With An Oven, Or Use A Fan And An Ice Bowl For Improvised AC

If you have ever had to live the struggle, you may already be aware of some of these tricks. Some people grew up with little to no heating or AC, or perhaps heat that was actually controlled by an apartment office and was often set at stun instead of kill. There are two tricks you can use to stay cool in extreme temperatures.

If it is really cold in the house, you can always turn on the oven and open the door. This will quickly flood the house with warmth, and once everything is nice and toasty, you can turn it off to save power (as long as your home is decently insulated). If you are too hot and don’t have adequate or no AC, you can setup a strong fan like a big box fan, and put a bowl of ice in front of it. As the ice melts the cool water will be evaporated by the fan and provide a small cooling effect — though it will never be quite as strong as full on AC. However, depending on how much work you put into your setup, you might be able to rig something quite effective together.^[2]

8 Easily Mountable LEDS Are A Cheap Way To Add Some Really Nice Lighting To Cabinets

There are many cheap LED lights out there, from many different brands now, that are easy to clasp with simple adhesives that come off easily later, or magnets for metal surfaces. These LED lights can still be quite strong, and are often sturdier than bulbs, and save a lot of space on lighting. They also allow you to do away with the cost of getting lampshades, that could be destroyed anyway if you have pets.

But most importantly, they provide some really cheap and simple ways to get some really cool lighting effects. You can put them under cabinets, closets or other similar spaces for a convenient way to setup recessed lighting that doesn’t require workers in your home or expensive installation. Using them for recessed lighting also helps diffuse the light so the powerful LEDS are not in a position where they can temporarily blind you or your guests with their luminance.^[3]

7 Dishwashers, Dryers And Washers Are Huge Energy Sinks. Wait For Big Loads

Most people know that one of your biggest energy sinks in the house is your AC, and heat, and usually your refrigerator as well. However, many people forget just how huge a power sink the dishwasher, dryer and washing machine are. These machines take the lion’s share of your power house (again, along with the AC and fridge) and there are easy steps you can take to mitigate the cost.

Many people will run the dishwasher, or laundry for just a few things, but considering how much power they use, you are really just taking money out of your own pocket. Unless you really need to wash or dry something right this minute, you would do much better to wait until you have enough for a full load. As for dishes, if you just have a few, you should hand wash them and save yourself a ton of money on water costs. While it may be luxurious to dry clean sheets just for that nice hot feeling, it is also an incredibly costly addition to your electric bill.^[4]

6 Drilling A Hole In The Bottom Of Your Trash Can Will Help Prevent Sticking

If you have ever had trouble getting a trash bag out of a can, you could use this tip. We all know the struggle. You pull and pull and the bag won’t come out. Sometimes, you manage to finally jerk and yank and it comes out but goes everywhere, or the pressure vacuum is too great and it rips. Now, you have a huge mess to clean up all over your kitchen, and a lot of unnecessary frustration.

However, for those of you who feel the problem is unavoidable (so long as people occasionally overfill trash cans), we have good news. There is a simple trick that will solve your problems. Just drill a small hole in the bottom of the trash can. This prevents air from getting trapped and creating a vacuum that will ruin your day and leave you with a smelly mess all over the place. Just drill the hole high enough up from the bottom that any trapped liquids that leaked from the bag won’t leak out onto the floor, or you could end up with a different messy and smelly problem to solve.^[5]

10 Animals That Have Figured Out Their Own Life Hacks

5 Ran Out Of Toilet Paper? Get A Bidet, Or Use Your Shower (Kleenex Are Also Great)

The coronavirus pandemic is in full swing, and in many countries around the world, people are panic buying large amounts of toilet paper. Some of them are wannabe entrepreneurs hoping to price gouge and quickly getting shut down by sites like Amazon, but many are just people hoarding it for now in case they cannot get it later. The strange thing is how much people have come to rely on toilet paper, as it really only became a household thing in the last 100 years. For those who came from the early days before toilet paper was big, they may remember a time when JCPenney catalogs used to be used instead.

However, like many in Asia and Europe have already discovered long ago, many Americans are now buying bidets because of the toilet paper outages across the country. A bidet cleans you up with a jet of water afterwards, and many countries prefer this to the insane amount of paper we use every year. If a bidet is a little expensive, or Amazon has them on backorder, you can use your shower instead, as a makeshift way to clean up really quick. Also, while they can be almost as hard to find right now, kleenex can also make a great alternative, as they are not too abrasive or uncomfortable to use.^[6]

4 Clean AC Filters In The Dishwasher, Then Spray Them With Air Freshener

AC filters can be hard to clean, but you should keep an eye on them regularly. The dust and other buildup makes it hard for them to function properly. This makes you less cool and spend more energy at the same time. However, most methods for cleaning them are messy and can get a lot of dust spread around. First, if you have a huge amount of dust buildup, you should take it outside and carefully scrape off most of it first, then, you can take it and run it through the dishwasher.

Most AC filters are perfectly safe to run through the machine (although you should still check your particular unit first, as some manufacturers actually recommend against using the dishwasher or even putting it back in while even slightly wet) and it really gets them nicely cleaned like nothing else can. For a really nice, clean, finished feel and smell, you can saturate them in spray bottle air freshener before reinserting them and turning it back on. You can also spray some air freshener in the intakes (not the outtake vents) in order to maximize the nice smell now wafting around your house. Just remember the most important rule — you can damage your air conditioner very quickly if you run it without a filter in place.^[7]

3 Put A Rubber Band On The Handle To Make Your Soap Pump Less At Once

Soap is actually incredibly concentrated, and in larger amounts, isn’t great for your skin. It is also incredibly unnecessary to use as much soap as most people use, and the soap dispenser is not helping. Most commercial soap dispensers are designed to pump out more at once than you really need to properly wash your hands, and this isn’t likely to change anytime soon. If the soap companies know you are using more soap than you need, you will run out and buy more sooner, so they have no incentive to change it.

However, there is a simple trick that many people use in order to save money on soap and not have their dispenser constantly pumping out more than they need. You just wrap a small rubber band around the handle of the soap dispenser. This prevents the pump from pushing down all the way, and allows you to get closer to the amount of soap you actually need to wash your hands (just remember to prevent the spread of the coronavirus you should wash your hands for at least twenty seconds with warm water).^[8]

2 Use Drapes Instead Of Blinds If You Have Cats, To Prevent Quick Destruction

If you have ever had cats (or some dogs) you may find that venetian blinds, which are already one of the most prone to destruction inventions of all time, get easily destroyed and shredded to pieces by your loving fuzzy buddies. See, even if your cat or dog is not badly behaved enough to actually damage your blinds, and is extremely well trained, cats and dogs like to look out windows when they are stuck in the house. If there are blinds in the way, they will usually push them out of the way.

This easily starts to damage them quickly, and make them look unsightly while your pet is frustrated that you forgot to pull the blinds up for them often enough, when they want to be able to look outside. Drapes provide an alternative that allows you to much more quickly and easily give you that view or privacy that you want, and if they are up, a cat can much easier paw their way through to see out the window without causing serious damage. While they can still cause damage to linens of course by scratching, they are less likely to damage them by accident, and their are fabrics you can get that are less attractive to cat claws.^[9]

1 Put A Cat Flap On Bedroom And Other Doors With High Pet Traffic

One of the most annoying things that most cat owners deal with, is the cat pawing or meowing at a high traffic door that it wants to go in and out of freely. One of the biggest offenders for your cat is your bedroom door (although there can be other doors that bother it in a similar way). When you want to sleep, or have some privacy, your cat still wants to be able to come and go as they please, and doesn’t appreciate being cooped up.

However, while cat flaps were mainly a thing on the front door, and were used to allow the cat in and out, they have fallen out of fashion because wildlife can just as easily get in. This is why we say the catflap should make a comeback, but on bedroom or other interior doors. Now, instead of being woken up by your cat meowing incessantly to get out (or in) you can just install a catflap, and have the peace of mind that the little critter can go where they want to without bothering you.^[10]

Top 10 Scientific Ways To Hack Social Situations

Even those who live alone now, at one point had to grow up living with a family of some sort, and we have all had to learn, over time, how to live with others without too much serious strife. And, funnily enough, one thing most of us have probably picked up over time is that sometimes, it really isn’t the bigger things that cause trouble (partly because humans don’t tend to do extravagantly annoying things very much, unless on purpose as revenge), but the smaller, pettier things, that can ruin the peace, and cause roommates and housemates to go after each other over the most petty things imaginable. In this list, we will go over some of the most contentious (and petty) home-life debates of all time.

Top 10 Tips For The Perfect Diet

10 Should You Stare Into The Fridge Deciding, Or Look Really Fast, Close It And Decide?

This is one I personally ran into as a kid, and it is something that electricity saving parents or housemates have been harping on for years. Some people will open up the refrigerator or freezer, and simply stand there perusing it, looking at all the various things inside and trying to decide what they want to make or eat. When I did this as a kid, I was often told by my dad to close the door, and think about what I had seen and decide what I wanted to eat instead of leaving it hanging open to cost electricity.

Of course, like all housemate arguments there is the opposite side. There are those who have heard this argument, but simply disagree. They feel by memory they will be unable to make the best decision, and that they will if nothing else, have to keep reopening it briefly to remember what was there, which might actually cost money overall. They would also agree that the energy being spent probably amounts to cents a month, and isn’t worth particularly worrying about (the thing is though, some housemates care about every cent of possible energy savings).^[1]

9 The Blinds: Should They Be Up Or Down (Or Inverted)?

This is another popular argument and can also apply to drapes or curtains as well as blinds. Many a housemate has argued about how important it is to keep blinds open or closed, and there are various reasons for the particular arguments. Some people are simply worried about privacy, and rarely like blinds or curtains to be open at all. Some people believe it makes the sun get the house too warm, and too hard to heat, or the like.

However, obviously you can imagine similar arguments on the opposite side. Some people feel they are only temporarily, or at least depending on the room, not really inhibiting privacy seriously, and they like to be able to see out and enjoy the view easily without moving the blinds every time. They may also argue that the sun coming in is beneficial at certain times of year and brings down heating costs. On the third hand though, there are those less common people who will argue with you about which way the blinds should face, and at what time of day, year or sun placement, they should kept inverted or regular.^[2]

8 The Toilet Seat: Should It Be Up Or Down? Or Should The Whole Cover Be Down?

Ah, the toilet seat. The age old argument that will never, ever, ever end. Those who live with more women are more likely to put it down out of habit, and those who live around more men or few women are more likely to keep it up. Once again, this debate often divides mostly around gender lines. Women are afraid that if the toilet seat is not put down, they might go to the bathroom when their eyes are adjusting to the light, and accidentally sit in the toilet. Guys counter this by pointing out that they have to poop in the middle of the night themselves sometimes, and sit down, and they avoid this issue by actually looking before sitting down.

Guys also feel they are being asked to do extra work for no reason, just in order to satisfy someone who should look before they leap. On the other hand, there are some who have come up with a compromise position that states that the entire lid should always be down. This ensures, male or female, both people have to do the same amount of work to setup before they go, and no one can fall in the toilet by accident. It also ensures that if you have pets, they won’t be getting their fuzzy little selves sick drinking out of the toilet — of course for some, this compromise will never be enough.^[3]

7 When Should The Soap Be Replaced? Is Adding A Little Water To The Dispenser Okay?

This is something countless siblings and roommates have fought about over the years, and it will likely never stop being a nasty, petty little battle. The argument goes that whoever first makes the soap run out should either get a new one, or refill it, depending on which applies, and while most people agree with this, there are also just the lazy jerks who will go out of their way to not wash their hands if they have to, to avoid being the one to replace it.

On the other hand, there are also those who get to the bottom, and put in a little water to get out the remaining soap. Some roommates or housemates get angry about this, claiming the person should have just replaced it, instead of simply trying to help everyone get that last bit at the bottom. Now, this argument makes some sense if you just use a refill jug anyway to fill up your soap dispenser, but if you get a new one each time, it really does make sense to get all the last from the bottom.^[4]

6 Should Closet And Other Doors Be Kept Open, Or Should They Remain Closed?

This is one I had with one of my siblings growing up, and as a little kid, our reasons were of course demonstrably silly. The truth is, as little kids, both of us were worried about monsters in the closet getting us at night. I felt that the doors should remain closed, as we would know if monsters were coming because they had to open the doors, and we wouldn’t be confused in the dark by clothes and such looking like something frightening. On the other hand, my brother felt that we could better see the monsters coming if the door was open.

Among adults, this is usually more about aesthetic and convenience. Many of the more home fashion conscious feel that everything just looks so much better and neater with all the doors nicely closed. On the other hand, the opposite viewpoint feels that the stuff can still be nicely displayed with the doors open, that it makes the house look more open, and makes the stuff more convenient to get to. Strangely, some people seem to be more weirded out by their roommates bedroom door being open all the time, or the bathroom door being closed/open when not in use.^[5]

Top 10 Tips For Perfect Happiness

5 Should Unnecessary Lights Always Be Shut Off To Save On Electricity Costs?

Both dads and tighfisted roommates everywhere are right now going through their houses to make sure lights are off. Some may have read this title, and have already gone to make sure there are no lights wasting electricity in their house. They will make sure that unless it is truly necessary, it is off, and they will scold or even yell at people who don’t follow these rules. These people feel that the electricity is being wasted and they are having money taken out of their pocket for no reason. As far as they are concerned, what matters the most is utility — whether it is useful in that moment or not.

However, there are also the aestheticists who feel that having more lights on actually brightens up the place, brightens up moods, can make it less likely to have accidents because people didn’t see as well, and really can make a house or apartment feel like a home. These people would also argue that the savings cost of constantly keeping all the extra lights off is extremely minimal, and worth the costs if it means the constant improvement to their mental health from having more lights around to enjoy.^[6]

4 Should The Toilet Be Flushed Every Time, Or Only For Bigger Loads?

This can be a big one depending on the household, and can lead to a lot of strife if the people living together do not agree on this strategy. Basically, the idea is that if you want to save water, you don’t flush unless you have solid waste, or as the saying goes “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down”. For those who don’t have a flat fee for water, this can actually be quite a sizable savings, as your toilet flush is easily one of the biggest money sinks in your entire home. However, there are also counter arguments.

Essentially, there are a lot of people who simply don’t find the increased savings to be worth the potential smell. Now, most houses who do this have very little if any smell and there are always air fresheners you can get for the bathroom, but some people have more sensitive noses and the whole idea really bothers them. There are also those who think not flushing every time is simply gross and unsanitary, and you will probably never get them to see it another way.^[7]

3 Who Controls The Thermostat? When Is It Hot Enough For AC? Cold Enough For Heat?

This is a classic argument, and can get ugly really fast. Now, in most families, it is easily enough decided by the parents, although they may still regularly fight about it as women and men often have different core body temperatures and react differently to hot and cold. Among housemates, it can easily become extremely contentious, especially if there is more than one roommate around who has different temperature desires. While this can be a battle of the sexes, it can also be an ungendered war.

People will change the thermostat without asking others when they think it needs to be changed, and this can easily irritate someone else. Not just women and men but all people perceive temperature a little differently, and what might be just right for someone else, may require adjustment for another. Except for those roommates who only have wall units in their rooms and can set their own temperature, this is an argument you should expect to have if you have roommates, and try to work things out beforehand so you understand each other’s needs and have a plan or strategy for everyone politely coping.^[8]

2 Should The Butter Be Kept In The Fridge, Or Left Out, Covered Or Uncovered?

This is one that a lot of people even get angry at restaurants over. Many restaurants, even if it isn’t technically against health codes, often store butter in the fridge out of an abundance of caution if nothing else, even if there are some safe conditions under which you can leave it out. These are the type of people who vociferously argue that because of its fat content, butter is fine to leave out for hours or days, and they hate with a passion trying to spread cold butter.

On the other hand, the keep the butter in the fridge crowd points out that there are still conditions under which it can go bad outside of the fridge quicker and easier than you think, and that it can quickly go rancid, messing with the taste even if it is okay to eat. For those who are okay with leaving it out, there is always a contentious argument about whether to cover it or not. Some people think leaving it uncovered is fine and actually makes it taste better, while others think it protects it from flies and from going rancid.^[9]

1 Toilet Paper: Should The Roll Be Facing In Or Out? And Who Replaces It?

This is one of the classic housemate arguments of all time, and despite being such a small, silly little thing, can drive people into an absolute frenzy of arguing over it. The argument goes, should the toilet paper be kept with the roll facing out, or should the roll be facing in? This is a debate that is often split more along gender lines, as men, who often are simply standing up, find that it is harder to reach that way and get annoyed about the placement (usually “fixing it” immediately afterwards).

On the other hand, since women have to sit down anyways, many feel that they can reach fine, and that it also looks more aesthetically pleasing overall to the eye, to have it all tucked away like that. However, there are also some women who are shorter and think that tucking it inwards makes it too hard to get too from a sitting down position. Despite how silly this really is, most of you are already thinking about how angry it makes you when someone does it the “wrong” way.^[10]

10 Tips for Success in Everything

Aerial bombardments; labor shortages; and insufficient food, materials, and natural resources were only some of the hardships that men, women, and children faced on the home front during World War II. The devastation of The Great War meant that everyone must do their part, regardless of sex, age, or location.

Back home, ordinary citizens rose to the occasion, their heroic sacrifices and labor on behalf of the Allied nations’ fighters helping their military men and women win the long, hard-fought war against the Axis powers. Without a doubt, the valiant, patriotic contributions of such workers as Land Girls, Lumber Jills, and Factory Girls helped the Allies to win the war.

Unfortunately, there were also undesirable changes on—and to—the home front. Without a doubt, World War II changed the home front, sometimes temporarily, other times permanently, for both good and ill.

While it would take a library to fully document all these changes in detail, this list of ten ways WWII changed the home front provides a glimpse into some of the major transformations that resulted from this devastating global conflict.

10 Aerial Bombardment

The aerial bombardment campaign that the German air force, or Luftwaffe, conducted against the United Kingdom and other countries began at the outset of World War II in 1939 and continued until the end of the global conflict in 1945. For these six years, the Luftwaffe more or less continuously bombed London, dropping both heavy explosives and incendiary devices night after night.

The seemingly endless onslaught was directed at many other British towns as well, including some of the most beautiful cities in England, the Luftwaffe adding rocket attacks to their arsenal during the last two years of the war. The potential number of victims was massive. London itself was home to eight million, but this number swelled to ten million when the population was counted as including the city’s greater metropolitan area.

An observer described the sight of “hundreds of” incoming Luftwaffe bombers as a swarm that was “amazing, impressive, [and] riveting,” filling the sky above and resembling “bees around their queen.”

The city’s East End docks and Central, West, and South London came under successive bombardments, followed by aerial assaults on the suburbs. Neither people, their homes, nor the city’s most beloved architectural masterpieces were spared, including Buckingham Palace, which was struck sixteen times, and the Palace of Westminster, which endured fourteen such attacks during the Blitz of 1940-1941. London’s historic churches and cathedrals were bombed, too, sustaining serious damages. The Luftwaffe also carried out extensive air attacks on rural targets.^[1]

9 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association

Although President Franklin D. Roosevelt supported the continuation of Major League Baseball after the United States entered World War II in 1941, there was a problem. The players were trading their baseball uniforms for those of their country’s fighting forces. In 1943, chewing gum magnate Philip K. Wrigley, who owned the Chicago Cubs, came to the rescue, founding the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association.

Wrigley considered the all-women’s league a temporary wartime measure, certain that it would disband when the conflict ended. Instead, the all-women’s league continued drawing crowds, with more than 900,000 fans attending the 1948 season. The league didn’t disband until 1954, ending a twelve-year run that featured over 500 players and later inspired the 1992 all-star movie A League of Their Own, starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Madonna, among others.^[2]

8 Blackouts

Blackouts were simple but effective defenses against aerial bombardment, preventing the pilots of enemy aircraft from discerning targets due to seeing vehicles’ headlights, streetlights, residential lighting, or, as an archived website’s article adds, even “the red glow of a cigarette.”

In England, lights were banned—period. This resulted in an entire city or coastline being plunged into darkness. Prior to the war, Britain’s Air Ministry had predicted that the UK would be subjected to “sudden air attacks,” resulting in many casualties and massive “destruction from enemy night bombers.” Without ground lights, however, the pilots of such aircraft would find both navigation and target acquisition difficult. And the nation’s Air Raid Patrol called on every citizen to help ensure blackout regulations were properly enforced.

Driving at night without the benefit of headlights proved “confusing, frightening, and dangerous.” Accidents increased, as did drownings when drivers drove off bridges. In one case, after a passenger, mistaking an unscheduled stop for his arrival at a station, stepped off a train, he fell eighty feet into a viaduct, ending up in the hospital.

Another downside to blackouts was an increase in crime as pickpockets and thieves took advantage of the darkness, although the increase was not as drastic as some believed, since criminals feared that, should they break into a house, they might come face to face with the resident.

In the United States and other countries, similar blackout restrictions were enforced until, in April 1945, these measures were finally rescinded for good.^[3]

7 Bomb Shelters

In Britain, underground bomb shelters offered protection against aerial bombardment. For example, an Anderson shelter (named in honor of Home Secretary Sir John Anderson) was essentially a corrugated iron shed, measuring 6ft 6in x 4ft 6in (2m x 1.4m). The government ordered a total of 2,500,000 of them. Although only 100,000 were sold, each of them was effective in protecting up to as many as six adults, and many families survived in their Anderson shelters while their homes were flattened.

Although they protected the people inside, these shelters weren’t comfortable—or comforting, for that matter. Cramped underground spaces, they were not soundproof, a fact that tended to amplify the terrible din of an air raid: the “whistle of falling bombs, the canon fire of RAF fighters, and the thunderous booming of British guns.” In addition, public shelters, some constructed in parks, were made available.

Larger public shelters could pose dangers to those who sought refuge in them. During a mass exodus from the streets into an Underground station shelter, when a woman tripped on the stairs, 173 people were killed, and more than 60 were injured in the crush that followed.^[4]

6 Censorship

On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attacked Pearl Harbor. Twelve days later, President Roosevelt created the Office of Censorship, authorizing the editing or suppression of “any message entering or leaving the United States by mail, cable, or radio.” The government’s domestic censorship policy remained in effect until the Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945. Government censorship also occurred in other countries, including Canada, under its War Information Board directives and guidance.

Although some censorship appears to have been petty and arbitrary, other censored material was significant, such as news concerning the development of the atomic bomb. According to the Office of Censorship’s director, Byron Price, the news media voluntarily agreed to stifle themselves for the good of the country. However, in the words of the Lawrence, Kansas, Daily Journal-World, Price admitted that “there were some [minor] leaks,” the director believing that they were probably “not deliberate.” In all, Price was satisfied that “the long work on the atomic bomb was the best-kept single secret of the war.”^[5]

5 Propaganda

During World War II, propaganda took many forms, including those in films, on posters, and even, oddly enough, in comic books. As Paul S. Hirsh points out in Pulp Fiction: The Secret History of Comic Book Imperialism, comic books, which are visually oriented, easy to read, and exciting, if unsophisticated, were widely read among both soldiers and civilians.

For this reason, among others, such publications attracted the attention of the Writers War Board as a potent means of delivering propaganda. Providing propaganda favorable to the war effort was regarded as a win-win situation by comic book companies, too, whose executives could demonstrate their patriotic credentials while gaining millions of new readers.

One such heroic soldier was DC Comics’ Sgt. Rock, who was described as carrying on the tradition of serving his country by enlisting at the rank of private in the early days of World War II. He then occupied the “same mythical space for enlisted men” as that of Marvel Comics’ Captain America, who epitomized the “officer who could protect you during the war.”

Indeed, on the March 1941 cover of Captain America Comics, the hero in the red-white-and-blue costume is shown punching Adolf Hitler. As Marvel’s editor Stan Lee himself pointed out, just before World War II began, “many of our super heroes, especially Captain America, the Human Torch, and the Sub-Mariner, were already fighting Hitler and the Nazis.”^[6]

4 Factory Girls and Military Auxiliaries and Reservists

In addition to his being a misanthropic madman, Hitler was also quite sexist. As the National World War II Museum website points out, the Führer believed that women’s proper places were the home and the maternity ward: “The role of German women,” he said, “was to be good wives and mothers and to have more babies for the Third Reich.”

On the home front, American women took over the factory jobs that the nation’s men had done prior to joining the military. Not only did women continue to maintain their homes and rear their children, but they also took on jobs in defense plants and volunteered for war-related organizations. Some of them even served aboard trolleys as “conducterettes.”

Nor did these roles define the limits of women’s capabilities. According to Stephen Ambrose, author of D Day, they also “managed the finances and learned to fix the car.” In addition, they served in the auxiliaries or reserves of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, performing the jobs of clerks, truck drivers, aircraft mechanics, lab technicians, parachute riggers, radio operators, photography analysts, military pilots, test pilots, and training assistants.

Although they did not perform combat roles, they did serve as nurses near the front lines, and 16 were killed by direct enemy fire, while 68 were captured as POWs in the Philippines. General Dwight D. Eisenhower attributed the Allies’ success against the Axis powers in part to the valiant efforts of American women, without whose assistance, he suggested, the war might well have had a different outcome.^[7]

7 Land Girls

As John Christopher and Campbell McCutcheon point out in The Second World War in Photographs 1939, with so many men gone to war, the UK was short on farm labor. A call for volunteers, whose numbers would later be bolstered by “conscripts,” resulted in a corps of 80,000 “Land Girls,” as the substitute workers were popularly known.

Although initially, they were not universally appreciated, their hard work won over their detractors. The women proved themselves adept at driving tractors, thatching, sharpening “wooden stakes for fencing, and packing sugar beet into a silo.”^[8]

2 Lumber Jills

One of the ways in which women in the UK aided the war effort was to serve as substitutes for lumberjacks who’d enlisted in the military. Known informally as “Lumber Jills,” these members of the Women’s Timber Corps, established in 1942 as a branch of the Land Army, felled and measured trees, loaded lumber aboard trucks, and drove vehicles. Their effort was crucial in helping to supply timber to wartime industries.

Although their hours were a bit shorter than those of the Land Girls, the workdays were plenty long enough, lasting from 7:00 am to 4:30 pm. Their shorter hours, as compared to those of Land Girls, made some think Lumber Jills had it easier than Land Girls. Still, the fact that Lumber Jills had to pass a stricter medical examination than Land Girls did suggests otherwise, as does an interview with Lumber Jill Joy Smith.

In February 1943, Smith entered the Women’s Timber Corps at age eighteen. During her training at Culford Camp, she lived in a Litton hut and learned to “wield an ax” and a crosscut saw, to operate a buzz saw, to fell trees and cut them into four-foot lengths, and to load the cut section onto “lorries.” After training, she and the other Lumber Jills were deployed to various parts of the UK—where they were housed with local families—to perform logging operations.^[9]

1 Japanese Internment Camps

Probably the most horrendous change that occurred to the home front as a result of World War II was the establishment of Japanese internment camps in the United States, Canada, and Australia. President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, signed in February 1942, authorized the removal of individuals from military areas “as deemed necessary or desirable,” notes Rachel A. Bailey, author of The Japanese Internment Camps. The meaning of military areas was vague, which might have helped the entire West Coast to be defined as one.

Bailey gives a harrowing, first-person account of how her own family was forced to vacate their residence. Her mother had expected such an occasion to occur, Bailey writes, and had sold the family’s belongings, including books, toys, linens, and even their “dog, for next to nothing.”

When the notice to vacate arrived, the family was put on a bus and taken to the Owens Valley Reception Station (later Manzanar) and permitted to bring with them only that which they could carry, usually only duffel bags stuffed with their belongings. The family was identified by the number attached to their bags. The center at which they would be held consisted of 36 blocks, each containing 14 barracks, surrounded by desolate desert.

Their cramped apartment was equipped with “a lone light bulb” hanging from the ceiling and “eight army cots with mattresses stuffed with straw and blankets.” There was no private bathroom, only communal toilets in a separate barracks. The families took their meals in the camp’s mess hall.

A map depicting the layout of the camp to which Bailey and her family were sent shows a hospital, an orphanage, a department store, a Catholic church, a music hall, a Buddhist church, an outdoor theater, a fire station, a judo dojo, a Protestant church, an auditorium, a police station, a sentry house, a town hall, a post office, staff housing, camp facility buildings, garages, picnic grounds and, at intervals along all four walls enclosing the camp, guard towers, all compacted into an area about a mile wide by a mile-and-a-half long (1.6 kilometers by 2.4 kilometers).

Besides California’s Owens Valley, or Manzanar, and Tule Lake, there were nine other camps scattered over various other states.

Under the authority of the War Measures Act, the Canadian government, beginning in 1942, “detained and dispossessed more than 90 percent of Japanese Canadians” for the duration of World War II, seizing and selling the detainees’ homes and businesses to pay for their detention. Detainees were allowed only the belongings they could carry and were detained in camps in various locations across the country or, in some cases, allowed to work on sugar beet farms, where they would be able to “keep their families intact.” Conditions were grim, characterized by overcrowding, a lack of electricity, and running water.

On May 9, 1941, the Australian War Cabinet decreed that, should the country be drawn into the war, “all Japanese males over 16” who lived in Australia or Australian territories “would be interned.” And when hostilities occurred in December, very few first- or second-generation Japanese escaped internment in Australia’s Wartime Internment Camps, including “even elderly people in nursing homes.”^[10]

Working from home is now on trending due to Covid-19. Work from home, also known as remote working, telework, telecommuting, remote jobs, etc. But remote working isn’t a new thing. Working from home was first invented in 1979; as an experiment, five IBM employees were allowed to work from home. By 2000, JC Penny gave its call centre staff the chance to work from home.

The world witnessed a massive shift in the 2020 job market due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While before this pandemic situation, some companies used to offer their employees to work from home, But now it has become usual for most businesses. It’s estimated that By the year 2025, 70% of the workforce will be working remotely at least five days a month. While 2020 may be considered the year of work from home, I think it’s just the beginning as we see the trend continuing in 2021.

It’s no wonder that one of the best ways to make money from home is by picking up a stay-at-home job. Below, I have listed Top 10 highest-paying jobs that you can do at home. So, fasten your seatbelt, and let’s get started.

Top 10 Highest Paying Jobs From Home 2021.

10. Graphic Designer

Average Income: $52,000

The demand for graphic designers is increasing day by day. If you have a perfect vision of what’s appealing to a customer, what would look good together, and if you can draw, then why don’t you become a graphic designer. You can work in any section that you want, like marketing, technology, commercial industries, and many more.

As an excellent graphic designer, you can do pretty much everything from home, such as improve design, deciding about the design, guidelines, draw, etc.

Graphic designers are constantly wanted by many corporations, newspapers, retailers, advertisement agencies, websites, etc. If you’re good at Graphic Designing then soon you can turn one client into many.

9. Writers and Authors

Average Income: $60,000

Bloggers, authors, journalists are all writers in different ways. If you decided to take this path, then you can work from home for sure. There’s no need to explain why novel authors can work from home. You can write whenever you feel inspired, and it’s your story, so you can publish it any time you want.

If you’re not an author, then there’s an option for you; you can go for the media side of writing. There’s a chance that you might have to go to the office from time to time, but 80% of the work you can do from home.

If you’re not interested in the media side of writing, then no problem. There are plenty of freelance opportunities. You can write for online publishing media. With the growth of the Internet, online writing has always been on the rise.

You can write about career, education, health, sports, music, etc. If you can write well, then you’ll always end up finding good content.

8. E-Commerce Store Owner

Average Income: Depends on your sale.

E-commerce is also known as electronic commerce. It’s a business model which is taking place on the Internet. Stores that sell their product online through the Internet are an E-commerce store.

E-commerce is still very profitable if you know what to do precisely. There is still a lot of growth in these markets, as buyers are still shifting from offline purchasers to digital buyers. But due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most people prefer buying a product online. So, there’s a good chance of your profit.

Running your own e-commerce operation can quickly turn into a full-time job. If you set up a good product range and get some good reviews, you could earn an excellent salary.

In the era of the Internet, it’s easy to create your own e-commerce store. Just research the eCommerce space and find your suitable niche. Select your desirable business name and a legal structure. Choose your eCommerce platform and create your website, promote your product on social media, and BooM you are done. Just wait for the revenue.

7. Market and Survey Researcher

Average Income: $61,000

Market and Survey Researcher mainly gather information about what people think. Market researchers help big companies to understand what type of product people actually want from them, determine who will buy them and what price they will buy their products. They analyze data from their past sales to predict their future sales.

Survey researchers also gather information about people and their opinions, but these workers exclusively design and conduct surveys. They work for different kinds of clients. They collect data for their clients to help make fiscal or policy decisions and measure those decisions’ effectiveness.

Market and Survey researchers generally have structured work schedules. They often alone, writing reports, prepare charts on the computer from home. So, guess what, it’s a great way to earn money from home. It may be a hard job to do, but sitting on a couch with family around, drinking a cold beer, isn’t too comfortable? You have to work hard to become rich.

6. Animator or Video Editor

Average Income: $68,000

A freelance animator or video editor is a pretty good job to have, at least for those who dig into their passion and don’t see it as work.

You need expensive resources in animation or video editing software and computer hardware to process faster and export quickly because no client will tolerate extra time for their content to be created. You’re going to need a lot of time to create content if you don’t have suitable computer hardware.

But no marketing campaign or communication strategy is complete without a video element. Streaming has made binge-watching the norm, so the production of film and series is at an all-time high to keep up with demand. So, once you start getting clients, your initial investments will make far greater returns.

If you can produce great animated content and edit video content, then you can work from home for the rest of your life. As your projects get bigger and build a reputation in your workplaces, your hourly rate will increase. Starting rates are around 25 dollars an hour and can be as high as 100 dollars an hour for skilled work. Rates also vary for 2D and 3D animators as well as the film industry or corporate editing positions.

5. Software Engineer

Average Income: $90,000

Software engineers are computer science professionals who use engineering principles and programming language to build or update software, games and run network control systems. The demands of software engineers are projected to grow 22% from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all occupations. The Demands for software engineers depends on the number of people who use this digital platform.

It’s no wonder that the usage of digital platforms is increasing day by day. That’s why the demand for software engineers has been ever-growing. And freelance software engineering opportunities are aplenty in the market.

If software engineers work from home, they have to report their work to a team or management structure. Software engineering is all fun and a lot of money. Statistics say that 17% of computer software engineers work for more than 50 hours a week if they are home-based.

Also, The future of software engineers looks very bright. If you have sufficient skills and experience, you don’t even need a college degree to succeed in this field.

4. Financial Manager

Average Income: $100,000

Financial manager work for the financial health of an organization. Their main job is to produce financial reports, direct investment activities and plans for the long-term financial goals for their organization. Financial managers can get a job in many places like banks and insurance companies.

You need specific skills to become an excellent financial manager, including leadership, problem-solving, communication, analysis, mathematical proficiency, attention-to-detail, etc.

But financial managers can do part of their work from home. Their primary responsibilities are to oversee companies’ finances and provide financial reports, so you get the point, right? They only have to produce their company financial reports; in that case, they can send their work through the mail.

3. Corporate Counsel

Average Income: $115,000

A corporate counsel is also known as a corporate lawyer, works for a business or company providing legal advice to the employer. The requirements to become a corporate counsel include significant educational qualifications and work experience in corporate law. It would also be best if you had good undergraduate degrees, including history, political science, law, philosophy, and English.

But the law isn’t always about all board rooms and courtrooms. There are plenty of advisory roles you can play from home. Corporate counsel is a very consultative role that can be conducted remotely for the most part, and this isn’t the only job in the law that you can do from home.

2. Web Developer

Average Income: $105,000

Web developers make the world wide web go around and work for skill developers are high in demand.

Web developer main job is to create and maintain websites. A full-stack developer is the most lucrative and sought after skill set. That means you can handle the back and front end of development. So, full stackers are the highest-paid. Salaries for web developers also vary vastly based on region. Don’t expect to take home the same size bacon in Ukraine as you would in New York.

If you don’t have the skills to get into web development game, there are ways to still get into the market, and you can learn more advanced skills with online courses as you go.

Also, you can look into a web search evaluator. You’ll work for search engines to analyze search result. You can work from home, and it pays between 12 to 15 dollars per hour.

Or you can test the website for glitches and navigation errors for up to 15$ for a 20-minute test.

1. Physician or Doctor

Average Income: $195,000

Finally, an alternative to dragging your sick self to the doctor when you least feel like leaving the house. Next time you’re feeling ill, dial a Doctor insted of going to the medical center. The physician or general practitioners are moving their practices online to offer remote consultations to patients wherever they are. They offer their usual consultation services to diagnose and prescribe medicine all over a video chat because most common sicknesses present with easy to recognize symptoms. Don’t think Doctors take a pay cut for the luxury of working from home.

Conclusion.

Many people lost their jobs due to Covid-19 pandemic. Because of that, the trend of working from home has grown tremendously and long gone when used to travelling to the office in the morning and returning home at night. Thanks to the advanced technologies now we can work from our home. I think this will change our economy. Who knows?

But you, my mate, no more jackpots and lotteries nor part-time jobs. The only way to getting rich is to sitting back at home and work hard. I hope this list will help you explore more about the Work-From-Home trend.

It is difficult to give accurate statistics regarding the number of children that go missing every year, given that this type of data is not available in many countries. However, an estimated 460,000 children are reported missing every year in the United States alone, and 112,853 children in the United Kingdom.

The term “missing” can encompass a variety of scenarios, from children that have run away to a child that has gone missing under a set of unknown circumstances to children that either family members or strangers have kidnapped.

Regardless of the circumstance behind a child’s disappearance, each passing day, month, and year leaves the family with more questions than answers, especially when there are no solid leads or clues about the child’s whereabouts. Sadly, some cases are never solved.

However, for the families on this list, just when all hope seemed lost, they received a true miracle—a notification that their child had been found 20, 30, or even 50 years after their disappearance.

Here are the stories of ten abducted children who were miraculously reunited with their families decades later.

10 Mao Yin

Mao Yin was born on February 23, 1986, in China and was described as a “very clever, cute, and healthy” baby. However, on October 17, 1988, when Yin’s father was bringing him home from nursery school, the toddler asked for water, so the two stopped near the entrance of a hotel in Xian. Unfortunately, as Yin’s father attempted to cool down some water for the boy to drink, Yin was taken.

Yin’s mother worked tirelessly to find her son by handing out approximately 100,000 flyers, quitting her job, appearing on local TV networks, and even volunteering for a group called “Baby Come Back Home,” which helped parents locate their missing children. While Yin’s mother helped 29 other children find their way back home to their families, her own son was still missing.

Then, on May 10, 2020, Mother’s Day in China, and over 30 years after the disappearance of their son, Yin’s parents received the news they had desperately been waiting for. Yin had been located.

Thanks to an incoming tip regarding a man who had purchased a child from Xian in the late 1980s, police were able to use a photo of Yin as a young boy and create an adult image of what he might look like. The image was then run through a government database which located a man with a similar resemblance. From there, a DNA test was done, confirming the man was indeed Mao Yin.

Yin had been sold to a childless couple for $845 (6,000 yuan) and raised under the name Gu Ningning, never aware that his parents had spent the last three decades searching for him. They were reunited on May 18, 2020.^[1]

9 Melissa Highsmith

Alta Apentenco had put an ad in the local Fort Worth, Texas, newspaper in 1971 searching for a babysitter for her daughter, Melissa Highsmith. Unfortunately, while Apentenco was at work, her roommate allowed Highsmith to go with a woman who answered the ad. This was the last time the 21-month-old girl was seen.

Numerous tips came in over the years, although none of them panned out. Highsmith’s family never gave up hope of finding their daughter. Then, in one final attempt to locate their missing daughter, on November 22, 2022, Highsmith’s father submitted his DNA to the 23andMe website, which matched him to the three children of a couple named John and Melanie Brown.

“Melanie” turned out to be Melissa, who was still living in Fort Worth, Texas, just a few miles from where she was abducted. Highsmith was reunited with her family on November 24, 2022, Thanksgiving Day, after 51 long years.^[2]

8 Holly Clouse

In 1980, married couple 21-year-old Harold “Dean” Clouse Jr. and 17-year-old Tina Gail Linn Clouse, along with their baby Holly left their home in Volusia County, Florida, for Dean to pursue a carpentry position in Texas. The couple wrote letters to their families back home, but the last time anyone received correspondence from the couple was in October of 1980. However, a few months later, Dean’s family received a phone call from someone claiming to have information about the couple.

The caller, who identified herself as “Sister Susan,” stated she was in possession of the couple’s car, which they were willing to return in exchange for $1,000. Dean’s family agreed to meet the caller at a racetrack in Daytona, Florida. It was during this encounter that “Sister Susan,” along with a group of other women, stated Dean and Tina had joined their religious group and wanted no further contact with their families and were giving up their possessions.

Naturally suspicious, Dean’s family contacted authorities, who reportedly took the group of women into custody, although no formal police report was ever recorded.

Then, on January 12, 1981, Dean and Tina’s bodies were found in a wooded area near Houston, Texas. However, at the time, the bodies could not be identified, only known as the “Harris County Does.” It was not until October 2021 that genetic genealogy would provide a break in the case and allow the Clouses to finally be identified.

While their families were glad to finally have answers, the question remained—what happened to Dean and Tina’s daughter Holly? Therefore, in an attempt to find answers, the Hope for Holly Project was launched, and thanks to DNA tests, screening, and the use of genealogy, Holly was located eight months later in Oklahoma. She was finally able to connect with her family 42 years after her disappearance, on what would have been her father’s 63rd birthday.

Investigators in the case have learned that Holly was dropped off at a church in Arizona in November of 1980 by two women belonging to a nomadic religious group. The investigation into Dean and Tina’s deaths is still ongoing.^[3]

7 Li Jingwei

When Li Jingwei was only four years old, he was kidnapped from his village in Zhaotong, China, by a neighbor and sold into a child trafficking ring in 1989. Jingwei was then taken to live with another family in the Henan province, over 1,118 miles (1,800 kilometers) away.

While Jingwei was very much aware of his abduction growing up, given that he had been taken so far and had no recollection of his own name, his parents’ name, or the name of his village, returning home seemed impossible.

On the other hand, Jingwei could remember the most vivid details of his village, such as where trees and bamboo shoots grew, the twists and turns of roads and rivers, and even where cows grazed, and he often drew maps of his village as a child. It would be Jingwei’s photographic memory that would lead him back home.

In a final attempt to find his parents, Jingwei drew a detailed picture of his village on December 24, 2021, and posted it to the video-sharing app Douyin. The drawing went viral and was shared across social media platforms, eventually getting the attention of the Ministry of Public Security, which then began assisting Jingwei in his search.

Shortly after that, authorities were able to locate a woman they believed was Jingwei’s mother, and on December 28, 2021, a DNA test confirmed their findings. Jingwei was finally reunited with his mother on January 1, 2022, more than 30 years after his abduction. Unfortunately, his father had already passed away.^[4]

6 Jermaine Mann

On June 24, 1987, 21-month-old Jermaine Allan Mann was abducted by his father, Allan Mann Jr., during a court-ordered visit in Toronto, Canada. Later that year, Mann moved to the United States, creating a new life for himself and Jermaine using fake birth certificates. He also later told Jermaine that his mother was dead.

Although it took nearly three decades, thanks to more than 200 tips received by authorities in both the United States and Canada, they were able to track down Mann using facial recognition. He had been living in Vernon, Connecticut, under the alias of Hailee Randolph DeSouza. Mann was arrested on October 26, 2018, by officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after discovering his birth certificate was counterfeit. Jermaine and his mother were finally reunited on October 27, 2018, after 31 long years.

Mann was charged with making false statements and making false statements to obtain HUD housing after having received more than $180k in housing and Medicaid benefits during his time in the United States. Mann was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was ordered to be deported to Toronto to face abduction charges after serving his sentence in the United States.^[5]

5 Carlina White

When Joy White and Carl Tyson’s 19-day-old daughter, Carlina, began running a high fever on August 4, 1987, they brought her to the Harlem Hospital in New York for treatment. Little did they know that was the last time they would see their daughter. A woman named Ann Pettway, who pretended to be a nurse taking the baby for treatment, kidnapped Carlina and raised her under the alias of Nejdra Nance.

However, as Carlina grew older, she noticed the lack of resemblance between herself and her “mother.” Her suspicions only grew when Pettway could not produce a copy of her birth certificate or social security card, claiming Carlina had been given to her by a woman who used drugs.

It wasn’t until December 2010 that Carlina went on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s website. Imagine her surprise to find a photo similar to her own baby pictures. Carlina then called their hotline and was put in touch with her mother, Joy White.

DNA tests later confirmed Carlina was, in fact, her missing daughter, and they were reunited in January 2011, 23 years after her abduction. Pettway turned herself in on January 23, 2011, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.^[6]

4 Sun Wei

Four-year-old Sun Wei was walking home from kindergarten in Lianshan Yi when he was given sweets by a stranger, lured into a van, and kidnapped in 1995. He was taken to the city of Jieyang, sold to a couple, and given a new name and birthdate. While Sun Wei’s identity was changed, he never forgot his kidnapping.

The boy’s father, Sun Zhenghua, reported the kidnapping to the police, but given that he and his wife had no photographs of their son, finding him seemed impossible. However, Zhengua refused to give up and began a cross-country journey, working odd jobs across several provinces in hopes of finding his son. Unfortunately, his attempts were unsuccessful. Refusing to be defeated, Zhengua later registered his DNA with the Chinese missing persons’ authorities.

When Sun Wei was 14 years old, he quit school to begin working and was later persuaded by his friends to register his DNA in the missing person’s database as well. The family was reunited in October 2015, 20 years after Sun Wei’s kidnapping.^[7]

3 Dollie Ann Henson

At the age of five, Dollie Ann Henson (who was born Darlene McDaniel) was playing at a neighbor’s house in Houston, Texas, when the woman asked her if she wanted to go on a train ride. Little did Henson realize at the time that the “train ride” was a kidnapping. She was taken to Louisiana before ending up in San Francisco, California, 1600 miles (2,574 kilometers) away from her family.

Henson’s kidnapper changed her name, birth date, and birth certificate, even going so far as to keep any information that would lead to Henson’s past locked in the trunk of her car. While Henson’s kidnapper claimed her biological family never wanted her, that wouldn’t stop Henson from eventually finding them. However, the challenge was a bit harder after a fire destroyed all the documents in the car, and her kidnapper passed away in 1977.

After getting married and having children of her own, Henson told them the story of her abduction. It was her daughter Kia’Ora who contacted a local television station that allowed Henson to go on-air and share her story on November 12, 2009.

Miraculously, Henson’s family members happened to be watching the broadcast, and they were able to connect by phone on November 13, 2009. Unfortunately, Henson’s birth mother had already passed away, but she was able to spend Christmas that year getting to know the rest of her family and making up for the previous 55 years.^[8]

2 Susan Gervaise

Susan Gervaise, born Susan Preece, had a rough beginning as a young child. Her mother was a single mom, and she and her six siblings lived on a traveler’s site, in and out of foster care in Yorkshire, England.

Therefore, when a Scottish couple who also lived on the site offered four-year-old Gervaise the opportunity to go to Disney World in 1969, her mother agreed. The couple asked Gervaise’s mother for her birth certificate as well so “she could be put on their passport.” Unfortunately, this ruse was nothing more than a disguised kidnapping that would take Gervaise from Canada to New Zealand and Australia.

While Gervaise claimed she had “a cherished life where she was spoiled rotten” with her traveling family, it wasn’t until she was 16 years old that she found out she had been stolen from her family. Gervaise later moved to Australia as an adult, got married, and had three children, never thinking much about her “real family.” That is, until a friend of Gervaise’s, who had been adopted, caused her to think about what her family must have gone through all these years.

Gervaise then located a Facebook page dedicated to the auburn of Pontefract, where she had been taken, and posted her story. Within 30 minutes, her family had been found. Gervaise was reunited with four of her six siblings and other family members in September of 2022, 53 years after her disappearance. Unfortunately, Gervaise’s biological mother had passed away eight years prior.^[9]

1 Feng Lulu

At 22 months of age, Feng Lulu was abducted in 1989 while playing outside her home in Xinxing, China. Lulu was later sold to another family and renamed Zhang Qianqian. While her foster family later claimed that Lulu’s parents couldn’t afford her as the reason they sold her, that was far from the truth.

However, thirty years would pass before the All-China Women’s Federation learned of Lulu’s parents’ search for their missing daughter and assisted them in contacting local police. Thanks to a “statistical database,” Lulu was located, and a DNA test confirmed her identity on March 30, 2021.

On April 2, 2021, Lulu was reunited with her parents after 32 long years and was able to meet her younger brothers and sister for the first time.^[10]