upworthy

community

Joy

Pizzeria owner spots people eating from his dumpster, and has an entirely unexpected response

“I don't even know how to start this but here goes..Please do not eat out of our dumpster."

Heights Pizza Man/Facebook

A photo of the pizza left out for anyone who needed it along with a thank-you letter

After Chris Kolstad, owner of Heights Pizza Man in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, noticed more and more people fishing out pizzas from his dumpster, he decided it was time to take action. Not out of spite, but out of kindness.

On a Facebook post, Kolstad wrote:

“I don't even know how to start this post but here goes..Recently, we've noticed a rapidly increasing volume of evidence of people eating out of our dumpster. Please do not eat out of our dumpster. Nobody deserves that.

heights pizza man, pizza, pizza delivery, pizza near me, kindness, free pizza Kolstad's first Facebook postHeights Pizza Man/Facebook

If you are that desperate for food, please come ask. If you are too embarrassed to ask, find a way to call us and ask if there is a way to leave a small cheese pizza outside the back door or something. You don't even have to see us. If you are the ones doing so, leave me a note and we will find a way to leave any extras or mistakes out back so you have something to eat without going through the trash.

If you see this, I will be leaving a cheese pizza outside the back door in the spot you've been leaving boxes.”

Sure enough, Kolstad showed a picture of the cheese pizza left in the back, free to whoever needed it.

heights pizza man, pizza, pizza delivery, pizza near me, kindness, free pizza A photo of the cheese pizza left out by Kolstad.Heights Pizza Man/Facebook

But that’s not where the story ends. In fact, it was only the beginning. Pretty soon, other businesses began offering help as well. And when Kolstad put up a Venmo donation link that would go to fund local organizations that support people in need, individuals chipped in too, to the tune of $4,000.

One of the organizations being helped is Southern Anoka Community Assistance (SACA), a nonprofit food shelf that serves 55,000 individuals each year, giving out over 950,000 pounds of food annually, according to this website.

Kolstad would later post a handwritten thank-you letter he received from one of the anonymous families he fed, which commended him for helping those who are “struggling.”

heights pizza man, pizza, pizza delivery, pizza near me, kindness, free pizza A thank you note written by one of the families Pizza Man helped. Heights Pizza Man/Facebook

“What you guys are doing is amazing…this act of kindness from you to our family is so appreciated.”

“This is why we do what we do,” Kolstad wrote in the caption.

Needless to say, people who saw this story were more than a little uplifted.

“One small act of kindness can change the entire community. Here is the proof. Thank you for what you are doing, it’s so inspiring and I hope other businesses follow your lead.”

“One of the best things in the world is people helping people, thank you Pizza Man!”

“That is so awesome of you to acknowledge what’s happening and offer to help people without putting them in a situation that might make someone feel uncomfortable and offer alternatives. When I was in high school I worked at a pizza place and they always kept all of the mistake pizzas & leftover pizzas from the buffet, and set them aside for a local food shelf & homeless shelter. You guys are the best!”

Here’s to the business owners just like Kolstad, who never forget to put compassion first.

From Your Site Articles
community
JoyHeroes
Community

Do you cry at concerts and other group events? Welcome to 'collective effervescence.'

This concept explains so much.

Photo credit: Canva

Collective effervescence is one of the best parts of being human.

Have you ever found yourself getting emotional over a shared experience with a group of strangers? Maybe you're watching a parade with a bunch of families, or enjoying a concert with a stadium crowd, or witnessing a flash mob break out in a town square, and you suddenly find yourself tearing up.

If you tend to cry at weddings (even if you don't know the people) or during a haka (even if you're not from New Zealand) or when you're part of a sing-along (even if the song isn't sad), you've likely experienced "collective effervescence."

Collective effervescence can be defined as "a state of intense shared emotional activation and sense of unison that emerges during instances of collective behavior." Still, in the simplest terms, it's communal joy. The term was initially coined in 1912 by French sociologist Émile Durkheim, who described the phenomenon in the context of religious rituals. But any gathering of people around a common purpose can lead to collective effervescence, and for many people, it's one of the best parts of being human.

Folks on social media have been sharing their collective effervescence experiences after learning there's a name for it, and it's a veritable celebration of our interconnectedness.

@momsalwaystired

I cry for the first song of EVERY concert. Can’t help it.

"I cry at fireworks shows and literally anything where a group of people are there for the same reason and just enjoying themselves I never knew there was a name for it other than I’m a baby."

"It’s the cultural ones for me- Haka ceremonies, and Native American songscapes 3 seconds into the video and my chin is quivering I know it’s all over from there 😭"

"Sporting events where the whole crowd stands and applauds someone who was hurt 😭 😭 I cry every time and I’m so far from a sports person."


"I ALWAYS cry at curtain calls for musicals or shows when everyone is cheering for the actors. It’s overwhelming."

"That’s why i LOVE raves. everyone just there to enjoy the music and feel it all as one, it’s beautiful."

"A gentlemen at a table i served last night stood up for the restaurant and announced it was his moms 92nd birthday and the whole restaurant sung happy birthday and i had tears the entire time during and when i was trying to take another tables order. 😭"

"I never felt this way until I had kids. It didn’t click to me how interconnected we all are until I faced the realization that everyone is someone’s mother or someone’s baby. It’s so humanizing. We all want to be in inclusion & connection with one another. It’s overwhelmingly beautiful."

As one person shared, "It’s like mass hysteria but in a good way."

The very fact that we gather together awakens a shared consciousness that is more powerful than any individual will.— Émile Durkheim

One of the best examples of collective effervescence is when people spontaneously start singing or dancing together. We've seen thousands of people burst into song, like this stadium full of concertgoers in Poland who randomly sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" while waiting, moving people to tears.

- YouTube youtu.be

These moments remind us of our shared humanity, and the more we celebrate what unites us, the easier it is to imagine a world where we finally figure out how to live in peace with all people.

From Your Site Articles
humanity
CommunityJoy
Animals & Wildlife

A scientist created a 'utopia' for mice and then they all started dying

The results are fascinating, but are they relevant to humanity?

Canva Photos

How could Mouse Heaven go so terribly wrong?

In 1968 John Calhoun, a scientist and animal behavioralist, decided to create a "utopia" for mice. It would have unlimited food and water, with beautiful nesting spaces and plenty of materials for the mice to make cozy homes with. Sweet experiment! the mice were probably thinking. Much better than the Maybelline trials we're used to.

However, there was a catch, of course. There was one thing the utopia would be lacking, and that would be physical space. As the mouse population grew, overcrowding would become an issue, and Calhoun wanted to study the problems this would potentially cause. That sound you hear is the collective sigh of the disappointed mice who were stoked about the 24/7 all-you-can-eat buffet.

The experiment, dubbed Universe 25, began when Calhoun introduced four mouse "couples" into the utopian complex. A year or so later, it was overrun and the conditions had turned hellish, even though the mice had not run out of food or water.

mouse, mice, animals, science, research, studies "The conditions had turned WHAT?" Giphy

Initially, for just the eight original mice, the square box Calhoun built included 256 nesting boxes (or apartments) stacked on top of one another. Water bottles and food dispensers were located all along the nesting spots, and mice could travel throughout the complex at will via mesh tunnels. The starter mice were also screened for diseases and the population was obviously protected from predators. The climate was controlled and comfortable. Conditions were perfect.

The first mouse pups showed up a little over three months later, with the population of the colony doubling every 55 days. Nineteen months later, there were 2,200 mice living inside the box. With such perfect surroundings, the infant mortality rate was practically zero, leading to the rapid rise in numbers.

mice, mouse experiments, scientific research, animal experiments, overpopulation John Calhoun poses with his rodents inside the mouse utopia. Yoichi R Okamoto, Public Domain

By month 19, this rodent utopia had become an overcrowded hellscape. Calhoun noticed three alarming trends, in particular.

In short, everything was devolving into chaos and the very society of the mice began to collapse at a rapid rate.

The "Beautiful Ones" and the "Dropouts": Mice have a complex social hierarchy ruled by dominant alpha males. Sam Kean of Science History Institute Museum & Library notes that, in the wild, non-dominant males (the ones who lose macho showdowns) can skip town and start over somewhere else. But in the close quarters of Calhoun's experiment, with nowhere to hide, they were forced to hang around and viciously battle with each other over scraps. Eventually, non-dominant male mice, which Calhoun called the "Beautiful Ones," withdrew from society completely and only ate, slept, and groomed themselves.

Though resources were unlimited, certain aggressive males hoarded them anyway: The alpha males ruled over everything in the once-utopian mouse society. They kept harems of females in the apartments to mate with and fought fiercely to defend their territory. But new waves of hungry young male mice kept coming and coming, and eventually even the most dominant alphas abandoned their posts. This led to more attacks on nursing females, which in turn led to more mothers kicking their pups out of the nest early.

Birth rate declined dramatically: With the non-dominant males giving up completely and focusing on #SelfCare, dominant males too exhausted from endless battles, and females sick and tired of it all (many became asexual hermits by the end), stopped mating and giving birth entirely. Once this happened, the society was doomed. Even with plenty of food still available, cannibalism was rampant.

Calhoun was not shy about drawing parallels between his research and humanity. "I shall largely speak of mice, but my thoughts are on man, on healing, on life and its evolution," he once wrote.

mice, mouse experiments, scientific studies, universe 25, sociology, overpopulation Alpha male mice, anyone? Photo by Kanashi on Unsplash

There are aspects of his wild experiment that certainly sound familiar.

We live in a world with plenty of resources for everyone, but a few select people hoard more than their fair share. When you think of the rodent "apartments," it's hard not to picture densely packed urban environments where people are stacked on top of each other at every turn. Maybe on some level some of us can relate to the “Beautiful Ones” and their urge to not participate in all the ugliness and just sequester and groom themselves. You can make an argument that when the mice stopped having to worry about food and shelter, it removed the element of challenge from their lives and left them lost. Similarly, many of us are lucky enough to not have to wonder where our next meal comes from, and maybe that has something to do with our never-ending search for meaning. Some even go so far as to link more people choosing to delay having children, or not have children at all, with the collapsing society of the mice.

But Calhoun's work has also been heavily scrutinized, with some claiming it's based on shaky science. And in the end, there’s the small matter that humans are not mice. We are infinitely more complicated, and so much better suited to adapting to our environments. Kean writes, "Ultimately Calhoun’s work functions like a Rorschach blot—people see what they want to see."

It's fascinating and thought-provoking nonetheless. Watch this breakdown of the experiment shared by the National Library of Medicine in the early 1970s.

- YouTube youtu.be

This article originally appeared in April. It has been updated.

From Your Site Articles
experiments
Animals & WildlifeScience
Pop Culture

15 of the wildest things average folks have witnessed at uber-rich people events

It's a whole other world.

Fandom.com

People share the wildest things they've seen or heard at "rich people events."

So many of us love to binge the exotic, exorbitant lives of characters in shows like Succession, White Lotus, and The Gilded Age, but it’s another thing altogether to see it play out in real life.

Recently, average joes who have borne witness to people who simply have way too much money to burn (usually as their hired hands) shared some stories likely to leave you with equal parts awe and disgust. Stories of last minute jet setting for seasonal truffles, car accident “fall guys,” full-on backyard carnivals, and more.

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money Jessica Walter in 'Arrested Development.' media4.giphy.com

Below are a few glimpses into just how the other half lives.

1. Truffles in Tokyo

“I was a server at a really nice restaurant and ended up working a dinner in our private room for the president of a major movie production studio's birthday…At one point in the dinner his assistant (one of three assistants sitting at the end of the long dinner table) informed him that the first truffles of the season had been delivered to some chef in Tokyo. So producer guy goes ‘Great! Anyone want to go to Tokyo this weekend for a truffle tasting?’ A couple of people said yes so he instructed the assistant to ‘make sure one of the jets is available’ for the trip. They stayed 3 hours after we closed. Bought every bottle of the same brand of wine we had in our cellar ‘for the road,’ let me taste a 1989 Chateau Haut-Brion and tipped $3600 for the lateness of their departure. Wild night.”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money Andrew Skarsgard in 'Succession.' media1.giphy.com

2. Hired Fall Guy for Car Accidents

“My friend had a friend who is one of those ‘Crazy Rich Asian’ type of dudes…One day, this rich dude was driving his Ferrari on the toll road. My friend was in another car following him for a car meetup event. This dude crashed his Ferrari into another car, and then stopped on the side of the road…[and] called someone. In 10 minutes there was a yellow Lamborghini. The Lambo driver went out, took the Ferrari key from the rich dude's hands, and then sat inside the crashed Ferrari. The rich dude drove the Lambo and continued the journey. Apparently the new driver will take the fall for every single crash related problem. Oh yeah, the police were there the whole time, and they didn’t bother to talk or approach the rich dude before the lambo driver came up.”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money Ryan Gosling in 'The Fall Guy' media0.giphy.com

3. A Yacht…Just In Case

“I once had super wealthy bosses and they were talking about their friend who owned several buildings. And who had a big yacht [that] always ready to go [with] a full complement of personnel, paid full time… It was basically a hotel at sea. The thing is, the guy rarely used it. So you had a boatload of bored people who had nothing much to do. If the guy goes to Europe, he would rather fly there -- and have the yacht head there ahead, just in case he felt like using it. Which wasn't all the time.”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money Leonardo DiCaprio in 'Wolf of Wall Street' media2.giphy.com

4. Two African Safaris, Please

“When we were poor our daughter went to a private preschool that was great for her disability and they accepted us at hardly any tuition in exchange for speaking at fundraising events for them on our daughters benefit from being at the school. At their big fancy yearly ball dinner we were speakers and they sat us at a donor table. We were literally stealing dinner rolls to make our Carl Buddig sandwich meat better. At the auction portion one of the ladies explained that last year she bid on and won the African safari but she didn’t have anyone to go with her so she donated it back to this years event. As that vacation came up for bid she goes ‘wait my niece loves animals and travel, I’ll take her’ and she went and bought it for he second year in a row.”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money Goldie Hawn in 'The First Wives Club' media3.giphy.com

5. 20K Rehearsal Dinner

“I worked a private event as a waiter, it was a rehearsal dinner. The father of the bride was telling everyone he chartered a private jet for his daughter and son in law to fly to Bali for their 6 week honeymoon, which he has also paid for. The jet was to stay there for their use for the duration of the trip in case they wanted to visit other places if they got bored. The rehearsal dinner for 20 people was about 20k.”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money Martin Short in 'Father of the Bride.' media3.giphy.com

6. Secret Service Wedding

“It was a ritzy wedding and someone there was a congressman. So we had secret service throughout the wedding pretending like they were guests while also not engaging with anyone to be distracted. They were like real life NPCs.”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money Hopefully they were paid well. media3.giphy.com

7. Losing 10K Like It's Nothing

“I was in the Peace Corps in Zambia. We used to hang out at the casino in Lusaka cause they gave you free food, drinks, and cigarettes while you played. We would play like $2 hands of blackjack just to get fed. But I went to the roulette table and some guy put down $10,000 in USD all over the table. Lost his spin, and just shrugged his shoulders and walked away…I was floored by the amount of wealth that existed right around us.”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money I can't imagine even betting with $10. media3.giphy.com

8. A Family's Worth of Ferraris

“My buddy took me on a cruise with our local Ferrari club. The house we went to was owned by a member who had 8 Ferrari's in his garage… While we were there he unveiled his new car, a custom built Daytona SP3 that was all completely custom. The base price of the car is around $2.2 million so with the customizations it was closer to $3 million the way he had it. The crazy part was the story he told about it. This was supposed to be an early build number car but it was delayed. He had to ask Ferrari about why his $3 million dollar car was taking so long while he was putting in another order for a different completely custom Ferrari that is probably worth even more than that. Spending more money on 2 cars than I'll probably make in my whole life was a pretty wild story to hear while in a garage with cars that collectively are worth more than my family has made all together for a couple of generations. Really puts the wealth gap into perspective.”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money You can never have too many Ferraris… media4.giphy.com

9. Friends in High Places

“The CEO of my company came down to visit our office and took all the managers out to lunch. He asked for an update on projects going on, and one person mentioned having been stuck in limbo because of the state agency not getting us the approval. He asked if anyone had tried calling the governor. After he looked around and saw a table full of blank stares, he pulled his phone out and did just that. Apparently the governor is a buddy, and the situation was resolved the next day.”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money A still from 'Home Economics.' media1.giphy.com

10. Night At The Museum

“I was invited to a corporate party in NYC. The party was at the Museum of Modern Art. They rented the museum for the evening. There was a caviar table you could go to and get as much caviar as you wanted. I was told that the caviar cost $5,000."

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money Doesn't sound like a bad night, honestly. media1.giphy.com

11. 24/7 Butler

“I was hired to be a photographer at a wedding. They had rented the venue at a very expensive vineyard. There was a mansion there and as part of the deal the bridal party got to stay at the mansion. The owner is almost never actually there. He lives in a big White House, if you know what I mean. I show up early the morning of the wedding and I’m greeted by the butler…He said it’s shift work, that there are basically three of them…and it’s 8 hour shifts. So I [asked] ‘if I showed up at 2am in January one of you would be here, all alone in the mansion, just knocking around on the odd chance the big guy shows up?’ And he was like ‘yeah, someone’s always here.’ That just kinda blew my mind. Can you imagine just being the dude who sits alone in someone else’s mansion polishing the silver waiting to see if they show up?”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money You never know when someone might visit your mansion. media1.giphy.com

12. Throwing Away Perfectly Good Fillet

“Not at an event, but at my then 9yr old son's friend's house. They were VERY wealthy, and it was the Dads birthday dinner. They were having fillet steak, seafood etc. Their two sons were disgusted that hey were having fillet steak-AGAIN. And one threw his away, and the other huffed off to his room and demanded his Dad (whos birthday it was) take him to get a pizza. Dad actually DID! And my macaroni eating kid sat there scarfing his steak and witnessing the majesty of life.”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money Who throws away fillet? media0.giphy.com

13. Racing Porsches

“I attended a rich person dinner in Bel Air… I began to make small talk with the guy seated next to me. We started talking about traveling, and he said his friend recently ‘raced with the Porsches in Germany.’ I looked at him, and said ‘oh, you mean he raced Porsches in Germany, that's great.’ He looked at me confused and said ’"no, he raced with the Porsche family’ and rattled off a couple names of the Porsche heirs that apparently they were friendly with.”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money Barry Keoghan in 'Saltburn.' media1.giphy.com

14. Owning Politicians

“I was at a political fundraising dinner around 20 years ago. There were many affluent rich people there but only one billionaire. At one point I naively asked him why he didn’t run for office. He laughed and looked me directly in they eyes and said, ‘son, why would I be a politician when I can own one?’”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money Paul Giamatti in 'Billions.' media4.giphy.com

15. Backyard Carnival…For a 4-Year-Old

“My dad cooked a small dinner at a very privately wealthy family's house, in which Dick Cheney was a guest and they flew in Elton John to play piano for the night. That same family put on a birthday party for their 4 year old granddaughter, who wanted “a carnival” for her birthday, so they invited all of the country club staff's families to ‘make the place look alive.’ Free carnival rides and food all day and night. In their backyard.”

white lotus, gilded age, succession, rich people wealth, reddit, ask reddit, tax the rich, money An image of a carnival media2.giphy.com

Of course, what also makes many of our beloved rich-centric shows so watchable is the fact that these characters, even with their excessive wealth, cannot escape grief, loss, or retribution for their wrongdoings. I'm not to say that any of the wealthy folks from these stories should face comeuppance simply for having what many others want, but it’s no secret that the working class sees this stark contrast more and more each day, and will not stop calling for more equality in one way or another.

From Your Site Articles
community
Pop CultureInternet
Trending Stories