It's impossible to prepare for everything but that doesn't mean we have to face uncertainty with our naked butts.
Josh Otusanya is an internet personality who has captivated TikTok with quite a variety of different video series, like 'Small habits that can make someone dislike you' or 'Better questions to ask your crush.'
However, it's his uploads on survival that often get the most attention. Otusanya shares practical advice that can potentially save a person's life in everyday situations (getting chased by a swarm of bees) and extraordinary occurrences (getting kidnapped), and I know we would all like to never have to use these tactics. But it's probably best we know them.
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If you call 911 for an emergency, say your location first. So if the phone cuts off, they know where to find you. "What is your emergency?" I'm at 222, Fake Address Drive, and I'm being held ca-.
If you're swimming and find yourself so deep or disoriented that you don't know which way is up, blow some bubbles, then follow the bubbles. They always go up.
Otusanya describes his TikTok content as a mixture of life advice and comedy. "I have several years of experience as a stand-up comedian so I often use comedy to drive home those life lessons," he told Bored Panda.
"Up to [starting this series], I made a lot of videos related to building up self-confidence, improving communication skills, and more. I wanted to experiment [and create something that could] improve someone's life by potentially saving it one day. I've received a lot of messages from viewers who said tips from that series legitimately helped them avoid danger which is great to hear."
There's an emergency and you or someone else needs help. Don't just yell, "help". Instead be specific like "you with the bad outfit, call an ambulance". You'll avoid the "bystander effect" where if people aren't called out specifically they'll freeze and not know what to do.
If you're ever choking in a public area, don't try to avoid causing a scene by going to the bathroom. Most deaths are people found in the bathroom because there were too polite to seek help. Thank me later.
Of course, such a project requires its fair share of research. Watching a few shows with Bear Grylls is nowhere near enough. It's something Otusanya has to constantly work on.
"I have a master list of potential video topics with random notes/information I come across for future video ideas," he said. "I source my information from a combination of books I read and audiobooks I listen to as well as various videos and documentaries, interesting conversations with people, articles related to random questions I want to know the answer to, and more!"
If you're riding as a passenger in a car, never rest your feet on the dashboard. If an accident happens and the airbags deploy, your kneecaps will fly into your skull.
Reminds me of the x-ray shown in a documantary of a young woman with the volume k**b of the car radio in her head after her car crashed. This was in the 1950s.
If you ever get kidnapped, leave behind as many traces as possible, clothes, jewelry, anything that helps search dogs, pick up your scent and ultimately find you.
Also: be a pain in the ass! Kick, scream, yell that you don’t know this person, fight like you’re life depends on it, because once they succeed in getting you secured/to another location, that may very well be it! The key is to prevent them from taking you in the first place, so always look alert and make yourself a “bad target” to acquire!
If a guy takes a pregnancy test and it comes back positive, go see a doctor immediately. There's a chance that he could have testicular cancer.
If you're getting chased by a swarm of bees, don't jump in a lake or a body of water. They'll just wait for you above the water. Instead, keep running. They'll stop chasing you when they feel like they've won.
If you're in a lightning storm and your hair starts floating, it means you're about to get hit by lightning. So find shelter immediately.
If you're relaxing at your house and you smell something that reminds you of fish or pee, call an electrician immediately, house could be on the verge of having an electrical fire.
That has happened to me, but it turned out I accidentally peed in my pants.
If you see a sign that says beware of pickpockets or thieves, don't instinctively patch your pocket, or check your belongings, thieves, and robbers, use these signs to know who to attack from afar.
When I was about 14, I was on a bus once in a high pickpocketing area and had my money tied around my neck in a little bag that I had tucked under my shirt. I actually felt a dude’s hand creeping under them hem of my shirt and at first I thought he was trying to grope me, but then I remembered the money pouch and realized he was probably trying to rob me instead (or as well as grope me). I alerted one of my friends with a look and then grabbed the guy’s hand before he could go too far, digging my nails into his skin so hard I drew blood as I gave him a look that warned “do it and it’ll only get worse for you.” He immediately dropped his hand back out and fled as soon as the bus stopped, and I kept my money tucked that way the rest of the trip.
Next time you enter a building, look for an exit that people don't use often in an emergency. When everyone's going out the main exit you take the one less traveled. that extra time can make all the difference.
If it's hot outside, avoid leaving plastic water bottles inside your car. If the sun hits the bottle at the right angle, it could eventually start a fire.
If you're cooking on the stove and the stove catches fire, do not use water. First, turn off the stove, then cover the pot with the lid. If you don't have a lid, dump baking soda.
If you wake up in the middle of the night, and smell gas in your house, don't turn on the lights! Just go outside and call for an emergency. Because if your house has a gas leak, a spark from a light switch could blow up the house.
If you're at your house at night and feel like somebody broke in, turn your lights off. So they can't see you. And you know your way around your place in the dark better than they do, use it to your advantage.
This is really bad advice. If someone is in your house, you turn on all lights and make lots of noise to scare them off. If you confront them, chances are you will come off worse as they've a lot to lose.
If you or someone, you know, has a car, always leave the car keys near your bed. So if someone breaks in, you can press your car alarm and scare them away.
If you're cleaning a cat's litter box, avoid using bleach! A cat's pee has a chemical in it called ammonia. If it mixes with bleach, it creates a deadly gas that can kill you.
I do. Once a month it gets emptied, cleaned and bleached to keep the plastic from getting stenchy. Never created a chemical weapon yet.
Load More Replies...If you're cleaning a cat's litter box, avoid using nuclear weapons! They'll melt the box as well as most of the neighborhood. They're also expensive.
Soap and hot water are enough, you don’t need to use bleach. If you can’t get the smell out of the plastic, it’s an indicator you need to replace the litter box itself. Oh, and please use clumping litter and scoop out the box at least once a day—-more if the box is in a room close to the rest of the house. We have an enclosed back porch off the kitchen that we use mostly for storage. We installed a cat door in the kitchen door and put the litter boxes (4 cats, 2 big litter boxes) on the porch, under a window that stays open about an inch or two year round. The litter gets scooped daily, and the boxes are cleaned and litter replaced weekly. We also use scented bags and a bin with a good sealed top to store them, the contents of which are also disposed of weekly. Only in really hot humid weather is there a noticeable smell on the porch—-but not in the house.
Umm.... how much cat urine did you leave in the cat's litterbox? FYI, all urine that I know of will produce ammonia as a byproduct of decomposition, so just how nasty is that catbox? Yuck!
Sorry, this is silly. That's a true risk if you clean with bleach and acidic detergents (which are nearly all of them) at the same time, but not if you clean your cat's litter box and wash it out. Even if you poured pure bleach into the box, let it dry and then your cat would pee directly into it, it would not produce much of the gas. Not to mention that no cat would use a litter box still smelling of bleach.
If you're in an enclosed space ... and cleaning for a significant period of time , not true.
Back when I had cats, Injust put aplastic bag around the litterbox, when it was time to remove the litter, i just remobed the plastuc bag and relaced with another. I did not did rhat much, since usually just scooping the bad parts was enought,
That seems like a lot of waste! You didn't scoop several times a day? You don't have to throw the entire box full of litter out every day if you clean it regularly by removing poop and pee
Load More Replies...With the amounts of ammonia left in the litterbox when you clean it, I highly doubt you create much gas...
Stupid. Assuming you actually empty the litter out first and the litter box is pretty much empty, you aren't in any danger of creating deadly gases that will kill you. Who would use full strength bleach either? Mixing bleach with ammonia can release chlorine containing gases, so that is not a good idea. But it's a question of quantity, concentration, etc., this scenario is just trying to panic people
The veterinary told me to use bleach. The cats (who were peeing all over the house then) will be more tempted to pee there. Dettol has the adverse effect.
Human urine also contains ammonia. When my younger sister was little, my mother was soaking her potty chair with bleach and I was using the bathroom. My sister wanted to go too while I was there. We had no clue and being 6 years old myself and her much younger she used her potty and started screaming because it burned her. She jumped up quickly and was okay but very scared and afraid of her potty at that point. She had just told our mom that she was going to use her potty but she had apparently forgotten that she put bleach in it. Bleach and ammonia can have very hazardous outcomes.
Also DON'T mix bleach with ANY sort of acidic cleaners. They react to highly toxic chlorine gas. Half my city got grounded (with closed Windows of course) when a bit chlorine gas escaped a tank in our industrial area. @_@
so at night, when I herad someomne broke into, just mox the cat litterbox with bleach and trow it at them? :D
Bacteria start breaking down urea into ammonia almost immediately.
Load More Replies...Whenever you're walking to your car, before you get inside, always check your back seat and be aware of your surroundings. In case someone is hiding, preparing to kidnap you.
Some of these are valid. Some I have used ...a few are clearing things someone made up without any real world evidence.
Agree, some of these are valid, some are just..entertaining. But those little hints that could probably save your life are cool-like when you have a blue reflection in your eye instead of a red on a photo could (COULD!!) be a sign that there's something with your brain. Or increasing growth of hair on a woman's upper lip could (COULD!!) be a sign for cervical cancer. This stuff..Or, you can 'read' fingernails-depending on whether the grooves on it are horizontal or vertical, straight or crooked or whatever, you can recognize the state of health and possible deficiencies, like if your body takes too little oxygen or so (not when drowning or choking-haha)..
Load More Replies...Ok I don't know why people are saying these are fake, because most of them are very true. I'm just confused how no one knows them. I can't be the only one who watches crime documentaries and reads Stephen King and Dean Koontz
Two of my favorites! Koontz isn't often cited by women that I know. He does have some odd stuff!
Load More Replies...Here we go again with tikfock bull****. These folks are even more annoying than "influencers".
And yet, here you are, reading an article about them, taking time out of your obviously very busy day to comment on them... :)
Load More Replies...This was a terrifically bad post. half of the suggestions are either stupid, insane or outright dangerous
A fellow panda on here by the name of S says to this "And yet, here you are, reading an article about them, taking time out of your obviously very busy day to comment on them... :)"
Load More Replies...If you are ever trapped in your car during a fire or entering water, breaking the window is very difficult. Remove the front headrest, the metal legs are pointed and can break a side window if you strike it in the corner
As said by my fellow panda S "And yet, here you are, reading an article about them, taking time out of your obviously very busy day to comment on them... :)"
Load More Replies...Some of these are valid. Some I have used ...a few are clearing things someone made up without any real world evidence.
Agree, some of these are valid, some are just..entertaining. But those little hints that could probably save your life are cool-like when you have a blue reflection in your eye instead of a red on a photo could (COULD!!) be a sign that there's something with your brain. Or increasing growth of hair on a woman's upper lip could (COULD!!) be a sign for cervical cancer. This stuff..Or, you can 'read' fingernails-depending on whether the grooves on it are horizontal or vertical, straight or crooked or whatever, you can recognize the state of health and possible deficiencies, like if your body takes too little oxygen or so (not when drowning or choking-haha)..
Load More Replies...Ok I don't know why people are saying these are fake, because most of them are very true. I'm just confused how no one knows them. I can't be the only one who watches crime documentaries and reads Stephen King and Dean Koontz
Two of my favorites! Koontz isn't often cited by women that I know. He does have some odd stuff!
Load More Replies...Here we go again with tikfock bull****. These folks are even more annoying than "influencers".
And yet, here you are, reading an article about them, taking time out of your obviously very busy day to comment on them... :)
Load More Replies...This was a terrifically bad post. half of the suggestions are either stupid, insane or outright dangerous
A fellow panda on here by the name of S says to this "And yet, here you are, reading an article about them, taking time out of your obviously very busy day to comment on them... :)"
Load More Replies...If you are ever trapped in your car during a fire or entering water, breaking the window is very difficult. Remove the front headrest, the metal legs are pointed and can break a side window if you strike it in the corner
As said by my fellow panda S "And yet, here you are, reading an article about them, taking time out of your obviously very busy day to comment on them... :)"
Load More Replies...