this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
157 points (99.4% liked)

Ask Lemmy

33238 readers
1236 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] remon@ani.social 140 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Almon Brown Strowger was an undertaker and suspected that a rival buisness used their wife's position as a switchboard operator to steal customers.

So he invented the automatic switchboard and put his competitors wife out of a job.

[–] ValiantDust@feddit.org 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Came here to comment this. Are you a fellow Lateral Podcast listener?

[–] remon@ani.social 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Are you a fellow Lateral Podcast listener?

Indeed, though I have the feeling that I've known about this story longer then that. Maybe it was on QI?

[–] thekidxp@sh.itjust.works 6 points 23 hours ago

QI could be right, I couldn't have recalled that fact but I also learned it and I watch QI but not lateral.

Maybe I should be checking it out though

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 127 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lamborghini was a tractor company before they made cars. Ferruccio Lamborghini was successful and bought 2 Ferraris, one for him and one for his wife. He would drive his business partners to lunch in hhem, but he tended to burn up the clutches. He eventually discovered that they used a same inexpensive part as his tractors, but Ferrari charged 100 times the money for the same part. He spoke to Enzo Ferrari about it and the conversation did not go well. Lamborghini was so insulted by the reply that he started his own car company.

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a25169632/lamborghini-supercars-exist-because-of-a-tractor/

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 19 hours ago

Tricking people to pay 100x its normal cost is pure unadulterated capitalism.

[–] PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 109 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Story time!

I forget the origin of the beef, but I remember a guy who grew up with another dude who was just a complete tool to my friend. It wasn't outright bullying, but general arseholery and making his life difficult when it really didn't need to be.

Anyway, my friend has a long memory and a longer grudge streak. I was finishing college at a time when print media was still king but social media was exploding in popularity.

My friend has decided "fuck this, I'm going to ruin this dude's life for a bit". He put an advert in the local paper or freeads (for non UK spuds: the freeads or classifieds is a newspaper-style private advertisements in one place - like a print version of a snapshot of Facebook Marketplace or Vinted for a local area).

Free TV. Call 07000100100 for details.

Anyone to this day knows that anything advertised for free attracts the most annoying, persistent, and unhinged type of people on earth. The freeads was published the following week. I didn't socialise with the guy on the business end of my friend's wrath on account of him being a massive cockwomble, but I understand his phone started to go wild with texts and phone calls asking about a free television - bear in mind that cheap consumer TVs weren't really a thing and a TV purchase was a "buy it for life" thing at the time, so a free TV was just an amazing deal.

It would appear the demand for a free television was too much for the guy. In true mid 2000's fashion, a social media message went up from the clearly annoyed guy, to the tune of:

Hi all, I've started to get loads of prank calls, so I've changed my number. It's 07000200200 now.

With the internet and social interactions online still in the wild west era, this was fairly common. My friend chuckled to himself. The plan worked. Not satisfied with that though, he put another advert in the following week's freeads:

Free TV. Call 07000200200 for details.

The publication date rolls around a few days later, and tens of thousands of this newspaper gets delivered to stores across the region. Obviously, mere hours after the thin yellow paper booklets are released to the public, the idiot's phone starts going banzai. Dozens of calls a day from all corners of society, relentlessly asking about collection and delivery of a television at no charge.

The guy was livid.

Livid, but not smart. He had gotten pissed off with the calls, and was unable to stop the barrage of bargain hunters hitting his digits to get a gogglebox gratis. He went back to his phone network operator and makes the appropriate changes. Not one for releasing his number in a private, carefully controlled manner - the gist of the following was posted to social media a few weeks later:

Not sure why I'm getting so many prank calls, and my mobile network are useless. My new number is 07000300300. Let me know if someone asks you for it because I'm getting annoyed.

Most normal folk wouldn't have risked being burned a third time and released their number in person or by SMS message. That said, I suspect the Venn diagram of twats like this guy who had spent an elder childhood making people's lives difficult; and those who don't appreciate the drawbacks of one-to-many communication, aren't far off a circle.

My friend sees this status update or whatever it was called back then, cuts out the reply slip of the freeads, enclosed his payment, and sends in the following for publication the following week:

Free TV. Call 07000300300 for details. Shout "camel" when I answer so I know you're genuine.

Hilarity likely ensued. My friend found immense satisfaction that the guy who tried to socially ostracise him and physically manhandle him for "fun" was now getting Guantanamo Bay levels of psychological torture, and 90% of calls that he answered started with someone hollering the name of a type of Saharan quardraped species.

The guy never posted anything after that. Not his new number, not any angry rants, nothing at all.

I respected my pal for that stunt. So much mental torture for so little effort. I lost touch with the friend but I still think of him now and then, and I hope that he still chuckles to himself with that prank under his belt, because I certainly do.

[–] orionsbelt@midwest.social 22 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

this was a great read, HAHAHA!

[–] PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 34 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Cheers. It also made me think of a bit of newspaper advert abuse that an old colleague of mine told me.

Another pair of people, another spat over something minor, but one wasn't to be outdone. In the first week of January, he put an advert into a local popular newspaper, saying something similar to:

Leave your old Christmas trees with me for a charity project! Bring your Christmas trees to 45 Smith Drive, Newport*, if I'm not in then leave them on my lawn!

The net results was days worth of Christmas trees being drive-by yeeted into his garden. Said it was the best 50p per word they'd ever spent.

*edit: I'm sorry if you live at 45 Smith Drive in Newport, and I hope the Christmas tree gods are unkind to you!

[–] orionsbelt@midwest.social 16 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

wow! i will definitely be reaching out to you for spiteful ideas in the future XD

i have a certain building management company (shit landlords) in mind

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

https://getchipdrop.com/

Totally completely unrelated to anything you said. Just a hookup between arborists and people who need an entire dump truck load of free wood chips unceremoniously unloaded in their driveway at a random future time.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 90 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fidel Castro offering to send election observers to the US in 2004.

[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 60 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In the same vein, Joseph Broz Tito sending a letter to the Kremlin addressed to Stalin to stop sending assassins, because they always bungled their ops. He added "If you do, I'll send one to Moscow and I won't have to send a second".

Stalin left him the fuck alone after that.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 35 points 1 day ago

Tito smoking Cuban cigars in the White House while sitting down with Nixon is also hilarious.

Nixon told him, “Mr. President, we don’t smoke in the White House.”

Tito laughed and said, “Lucky you!” and finished his cigar and no one attempted again to make him stop.

[–] jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 83 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I hate scammers. People who call you pretending to be the "IRS" and claiming that you're about to be arrested for unpaid taxes. Sick bastards who make money ripping off (mostly elderly) people.

One time I started getting those phone calls. I went down to the customer service department where I worked, which still had a fax machine, stuck a blank piece of paper in, dialed the scammers number, set retry x100, and hit send.

I called them back an hour later to see if they were getting the message and the guy gave me an earful. I politely explained that every second of his time that I wasted was one less second he got to spend ripping someone else off. He hung up on me but I kept calling back until they finally disconnected that number.

Totally worth it. Fuck scammers.

[–] pdxfed@lemmy.world 14 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

You would enjoy 419eater.com

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ganksy@lemmy.world 72 points 1 day ago

King Harald of Norway, when asked by Trump about getting invited to talk about a Nobel Peace prize, decided to host Obama instead.

[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 54 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

When we were kids, my brother would get mean when bored. Low-grade physical stuff, hard pinches, pulled hair, coming into my room to harass me and break toys, enough to cause pain without evidence if I were to complain. I asked my mom to intervene, she didn't want to deal with it, so she gave me the old phrase, "if you don't know what to do, spit in a shoe and do it again at half past two".

So I spat in my brothers shoe every time he messed with me. And for good measure, I spat in my mom's shoe too for letting him continue to abuse me.

[–] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 14 points 21 hours ago

But did you do it again at half past 2?

[–] TomMasz@piefed.social 38 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Warren Buffett bought Berkshire Hathaway in part to spite its management. He had been buying shares for a while, and at one point offered them a chance to buy them back. They low-balled him on the price, he got pissed, took majority control of the stock, and fired the management.

[–] CybranM@feddit.nu 7 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Wish i har that kind of "fuck you" money haha

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ptz@dubvee.org 34 points 1 day ago (2 children)

One particular spite house in Boston: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinny_House_(Boston)#History

According to local legend, the structure was built as a "spite house" shortly after the Civil War:

... two brothers inherited land from their deceased father. While one brother was away serving in the military, the other built a large home, leaving the soldier only a shred of property that he felt certain was too tiny to build on. When the soldier returned, he found his inheritance depleted and built the narrow house to spite his brother by blocking the sunlight and ruining his view.

Another source states:

Not much is known about the city's narrowest house. Legend has it that ... its unnamed builder erected it to shut off air and light from the home of a hostile neighbor (also nameless) with whom he had a dispute. ... Believed to have been built after 1874

[–] FoolishObserver@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

There's a Spite House in Seattle, WA, too. Spite from coast-to-coast!!

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/montlake-spite-house

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 9 points 23 hours ago

Space Ghost approved

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 33 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

A guy I used to know got annoyed with some student neighbours who were kind of arseholes, but he was mostly annoyed with them for their frequent late, loud parties - like partying until 04:00 in the morning, shouting and screaming, vomitting on the pavement in front of the houses, etc.

Phase 1 spite involved booking in lots of tradespeople to come and visit them early in the morning so, eg, carpet fitters coming to measure up a room in their house at 08:30 on a Saturday morning and so forth.

Phase 2 spite involved pissing in an empty washing up liquid bottle and then squeezing a little stream of piss in through their letter box whenever they weren't home. Not enough that it wouldn't dry in a couple of hours, but that was the aim. Their hallway carpet got smellier and smellier as more and more piss dried on it.

Eventually they moved out and the landlord has to replace the carpet. The only problem. was that no carpet fitters would come out to that property any more.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 8 points 15 hours ago

Sounds like he spited the tradespeople and the landlord. I bet the students didn’t care if their carpet smelled like piss.

However, if he had previously complained to the landlord, and the landlord didn’t do anything to fix the behavior of his tenants, from whom he is collecting money and allowing them to disturb neighbors where he himself does not live, then fuck that guy. Should have pissed on his carpet too.

I’ve had similar neighbors. I complained to the landlord, and those assholes don’t do shit.

[–] moakley@lemmy.world 29 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

The time I won at craps.

I don't gamble. I'll bet on things or play games of chance for money on occasion, but putting my money on a losing proposition isn't my idea of a good time. When I go to a casino I go to the poker tables and that's it.

The whole culture about it just seems so self-defeating and depressing. The superstition, chasing the high of that one-in-a-million lucky event. It's not for me.

My older brother is mostly the same way, with one notable exception: craps. He'd been talking it up to me for years, telling me how it's the most fun he's ever had in a casino, and I should just try it with him and see what it's like.

It seems too complicated, I told him. He said that you can just bet the Pass Line, which basically means you're betting that whoever is rolling the dice doesn't roll a seven. It's a social activity, he explained, because the whole table is betting the Pass Line and rooting for each other.

The way he described it, a group of a strangers drinking, cheering for each other on their wins, commiserating with each other on their losses, I could almost start to see the appeal.

I downloaded an app and started asking him questions, which he answered patiently. Eagerly even.

Then I saw it.

"What's the 'Don't Pass Line'?"

"It's a bet against the person rolling the dice. Nobody really bets the Don't Pass Line. It's a dick move."

A plan formed in my mind. "Ok, I'll play."

That night, I'm sitting at the craps table. To my right, my brother. To his right, our little sister. They sit me on the far left so I can get a feel for it before it's my turn to roll.

The rest of the table is a smattering of dead-eyed gamblers. They looked preemptively disappointed, but ready to be amazed. Like they were ready to get caught up in a run of good luck, but they weren't going to bring it themselves. Not the party I was promised, but there was some promise there.

First up, my sister. She rolls to set the point. We all put our chips on the Pass Line. Some of the gamblers make more specific bets.

She rolls again, and we win! She rolls again and again, and we keep winning. I see the spirits lifting around the table. There's talking, laughing, cheering, free liquor, free money, and suddenly I get it.

Eventually my sister rolls a seven and her turn ends, but that's ok because she already won the table a shitload of money. I'm up like $150 myself.

The table knows us a little by now. I'm new, we're all siblings, and surely my brother will continue the hot streak.

But a plan is a plan.

My brother takes the dice and rolls the point. Everyone places their chips. I place my chips.

The dealer asks me, "Did you mean to put your chips on the Don't Pass Line?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I meant to do."

Silence. Then my sister: "You're an asshole."

My brother rolls again: seven. The Don't Pass Line wins me a couple bucks.

I take the dice and proceed to go on a mini hot streak myself. I win like another fifty bucks, but the table never recovers. The mood is dead. I killed it.

That was probably twelve years ago. To this day, if it comes up, my sister will only call me an asshole again. My brother won't talk about it at all.

[–] Bongles@lemmy.zip 7 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Is that part of the superstition of it? Why are you an asshole for making a different bet? Surely it would've been 7 anyway, so at least you got something.

[–] moakley@lemmy.world 13 points 18 hours ago

I don't think it's because the bet is different so much as it's because the bet is against the person rolling. I'm betting that that person is going to "lose". It's just bad vibes.

But yeah, obviously my bet didn't affect the outcome. That just makes it funnier that it worked out that way.

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 29 points 23 hours ago (5 children)

Equality House, bought and painted to irritate Westboro Baptist Church. It’s a tie with Mott House, listed on the same page.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] onslaught545@lemmy.zip 21 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

I know there's been a few cases of people paying fines with wheelbarrows full of loose pennies.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 19 points 23 hours ago (11 children)

Obligatory caution that that can backfire if the recipient insists that the debtor counts the pennies. Or if the creditor refuses the pennies entirely, which is legal in some jurisdictions. (e.g. in the UK, pennies and 2p coins are legal tender up to amounts of only 20 pence. Anything beyond that is left to the discretion of the recipient.)

load more comments (11 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 21 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (4 children)

I have the best answer ever. FriendlyJordies 'bruz' saga. A corrupt politician (essentially the top person of power in 1/4th of ALL of Australia) pissed off a political comedian and the comedian locked in so fucking hard and exposed so much corruption that the politician made a special task force to spy on him and arrested his camera man illegally.

This only caused the comedian to become even MORE determined to get revenge. He exposed so much corruption the super powerful politician ended up QUITTING HIS JOB because of ""bullying"" and his camera man walked free.

Also, hes a comedian so the video is HILARIOUS and there's an AMAZING punchline like 3/4ths of the way in that's a power move so fucking massive it's INSANE I don't want to spoil it but HOLY SHIT it was sooo good.

This is only like the stuff that I remember from watching it a few months ago, there's even MORE. Dudes house got firebombed for his political advocacy.

10/10 AMAZING video. If you get a 'justice boner' you better cover your belongings in fucking tarps, it's THAT good. If you have ANY time at all it is 1,000% worth a watch.

https://youtu.be/ihoirTYqf2c

Actually his entire channel is worth a watch. Dude does AMAZING work and even as an American it is SO good to watch. Even his non political videos are HILARIOUS and will have you wheezing with laughter.

I sound like a paid commenter from reddit hyping a movie or sthm but my God it's just THAT GOOD

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Little8Lost@lemmy.world 18 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I quite liked the internet vs hedgefunds (gamestop) case

[–] wabasso@lemmy.ca 8 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

That was great, wish it had turned out different. I almost bought some too, knowing I’d lose it, just to claim to have been a part of it.

[–] Bongles@lemmy.zip 10 points 18 hours ago

I got off of robinhood because of that. I didn't participate, I just didn't like that they would shut off trading on a stock. Moved to Fidelity instead.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ReiRose@lemmy.world 17 points 12 hours ago

2007 starbucks, AZ. If a customer was an asshole, the worker they were an asshole to would request a restock of the sugar free classic so the Barista on bar could hear. There was no sugar free classic syrup. The drink would be made decaf.

It's petty, but....dont be a dick

[–] qantravon@startrek.website 15 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Stuart Semple hates Anish Kapoor. He hates him so much that he requires those who purchase his paints to sign that they are not Anish Kapoor, are not buying them for Anish Kapoor, and will do everything they can to make sure they do not end up in the possession of Anish Kapoor.

[–] HatchetHaro@pawb.social 8 points 2 hours ago

Semple is metal as fuck. He made the Pinkest Pink after Kapoor bought exclusive artistic rights to Vantablack, then after Kapoor taunted Semple with a picture of his middle finger dipped in Pink, Semple made Diamond Dust, which is glitter made out of literal glass shards. He also made Black 2.0 and later on Black 3.0 because fuck Anish Kapoor.

It's not just Anish Kapoor he's against; he's against the whole monopolization of art materials and colours. He made TIFF Blue (versus Tiffany Blue), Easy Klein (versus International Klein Blue), and even Freetone (versus Adobe and Pantone).

[–] arnitbier@sh.itjust.works 13 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Comedian who raised 125k for a lady who's house got destroyed in a hurricane. Just to fuck with them basically

He says hate but feels like its just spite he just feels reeeeal strongly about it

Caution: pre 2015 video

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eXzRfVg2edo

https://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2013/12/30/doug-stanhope-crowdfunded-126k-for-atheist-tornado-victim-to-annoy-christians

[–] Hugin@lemmy.world 17 points 5 hours ago

For people wondering like me. He raised the money to buy her a new house. It was to piss off her religious neighbors that the athiest got a new house when they didn't.

[–] Oaksey@lemmy.world 11 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

I was at the cricket and there were two guys sitting nearby. One threw something like a jaffa (solid choclate with a hard shell) into the crowd in front and hit someone. A dick move but unlikely to do any lasting damage. A security guard and then police officer got involved, said he threw a golf ball or something along those lines (similar but worse). He accurately said he didn't but got thrown out anyway.

His friend sat there for a few minutes then tried to start a Mexican wave. He didn't the first few tries but was determined and eventually got one going. I didn't realise until the wave had done a lap of the cricket ground, but during this time he had filled his hand with as much sunscreen as he could, then as it went past he splattered it all over the back of the security guards hair and back before disappearing into the crowd.

Most of the 40,000 people who took part in the Mexican wave had no idea what they were just a part of.

[–] GaMEChld@lemmy.world 8 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

The Killdozer

Heemeyer held various grudges against town officials, neighbors of his muffler shop, the local press, and other Granby residents. Over about eighteen months, Heemeyer secretly armored a Komatsu D355A bulldozer with layers of steel and concrete.

On Friday, June 4, 2004, Heemeyer used the bulldozer to demolish the Granby town hall, the house of a former mayor, and several other buildings. He killed himself after the bulldozer became stuck in a hardware store he was destroying. No one else was injured or killed.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›