r/AskTheWorld

Like for Turkey and Greece they’re both very antagonistic to one another.

In the US we get these handy dandy voter stickers that are sometimes different by state! I have seen in the past paint on people's fingers to show they voted. What about where you live?

This is the Lone Star tick (Amblyomma americana). Native to the southeastern United States, its bite has a random chance to give you Alpha-gal Syndrome, which causes a severe allergy to all red meat.

The symptoms can kill you, and often last your entire life. My mom got bit by one of these 10 years ago, and only found out when she went into anaphylactic shock after eating a hamburger.

In Brazil, "a Gianecchini" serves as an adjective for a handsome man, named after the actor Reynaldo Gianecchini.

it's not a question about who is the most beutiful person in your country, by whose name you can use like this: he is handsome, but he is not a gianecchini

In the U.S, there’s a joke that this map can be used for a lot of different statistics, basically a jab at certain states or regions. Do you guys have versions of this map?

I was watching a video about Whittier, Alaska today and was struck by how diverse the comment section was. Some youtube commenters would say the whole thing is incredibly dystopian while others said it looked cozy. I was wondering if geography had anything to play in it. 

In New Zealand we have something called the quarter acre dream (Kind of like the American dream to a small extent, we are similar cultures at the end of the day). Basically the idea is to own a quarter acre of land with one or two cars. As such outside of big cities there aren't as many apartments as you think. They get viewed negatively, as being “anti new zealand”. Even Medium density (Town houses and the like) housing gets viewed in this way. 

I also think a part of this may be generational but I don't have any proof of that. Just a gut feeling. 

I know in some cultures it’s way more common, and some countries are big enough where there's no one answer for the entire country (Looking at you US.) 

Personally, I’m probably going to try and get a townhouse or apartment when I look for a place to live. I don't need all that space. 

Extra thought: Honestly even though Whittier is probably not ideal, looking at the second slide I like how little it encroaches on the woods around it. Sometimes I worry about the urban sprawl in NZ, as people would rather build out then up. I love our nature.

I live in Sweden where we usually have it in the bathroom or in apartment complexes "tvättstugor", a room you can book to wash your clothes, if you don't have space in your own apartment.

I visited a friend in Ireland and was very confused when I discovered that he had a washing machine in the kitchen. Seems very unpractical.

In Japan, a license is required to butcher and sell certain types of pufferfish because their internal organs contain lethal toxins. Obtaining this license requires several months to a year of training and certifies the holder’s ability to safely butcher pufferfish and dispose of their internal organs.

In the past, dozens of people died each year from pufferfish poisoning, but today there is only one fatality every few years, and most of these occur in the homes of unlicensed anglers.

Considering that over 5,000 tons of pufferfish are landed in Japan every year, the chance of consuming poison at a restaurant with licensed chefs is far lower than the chance of being hit by a car on the street.

For South Korea, there's a running meme that the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (세계평화통일기정연합 / 世界平和統一家庭連合), also known as the Unification Church (통일교), is secretly in control of the country (and in addition, the rest of the world) with their vast network of connections and infiltrations in multiple industries. Basically, they're treated like a Korean Illuminati.

And the cause for this speculation comes from Pastor Moon Sun-myung (문선명), the founder of the Unification Church, and the powerful connections he's somehow managed to build in his lifetime despite being...a literal cult leader.

Other than South Korean politicians, Pastor Moon had also met and befriended multiple presidents and prime ministers from across the globe, including the US, Japan, North Korea, the USSR, the Solomon Islands, Albania, Nigeria, the Philippines, Uruguay, Argentina, East Timor, and many more.

When Pastor Moon Sun-myung passed away in 2012, his funeral was paid tribute to by many powerful figures who were even a part of the South Korean government at the time, including President Lee Myung-bak.

To this day, people have no idea how Moon Sun-myung and his cult managed to become this powerful and gain so many connections (mostly because the Unification Church keeps all their information sealed and classified). We don't know for sure what his backstory is, how he managed to win the Korean cult wars during the Japanese colonial period, how he gained so many followers and amassed so much wealth during such turbulent times afterwards, and just what caused him to start this cult to begin with. It's one of the biggest mysteries of Korean modern history.

Definetly one of the most fascinating (but not in a positive way) figures in modern Korean history.

In Korea, there is a traditional honor guard. It follows the music and appearance of the Joseon Dynasty exactly as they were. This is the unit welcoming the Japanese Prime Minister who visited Korea today.

The main difference between the two(from what I can gather) is that fairy tales are explicitly fictional stories whereas tall tales are exaggerated stories set in real places, but both fall under the category of folklore.

(Lived in Germany for 11 years so I get to share this I think): After german soldiers began catching STDs en masse during the occupation of France, the nazi party started a project called Helga as a sex doll of sorts to keep soldiers "satisfied" without risking their health. People say this is where sex dolls were invented "Hitler invented sex dolls joke here" but thats still up for speculation

I was just looking at the complexities of UK weather and how it seems we get everything in one day at times! Like the sun is trying to come out but it's already rained twice. Some nice sunny pictures would be appreciated as I think we're not having Summer this year