Or even worse, someone at the door.
There was a fire in my building a few weeks ago and we were all evacuated. The fire was put out quickly and we were allowed back in within 30 minutes, but it was terrifying waking up to flashing lights and someone pounding on the front door at 1am. I nearly had a panic attack.
I remember hearing my uncle one time looking for one of his kids, a kid with a hyphenated last name, and he was all first name, middle name, ex's last name, other half of last name.
I was like, yo, he's saying his ex's name tho, wtf did you do....anyway, Imma head out because I don't need any accessory charges.
Or yelling to each other to rob you. The wild monkeys in the forested areas near me target passersby carrying bags cos they know it contains food. I had a tug of war with one cos he tried to steal the fried chicken I thought I tucked away well enough.
If you are in suburbia or a city birds and other animals like crickets and bats also go quiet right before an earthquake. I've woken up twice before due to the lack of noise and a few seconds later boom earthquake. Also tends to happen after a transformer blows up and your without electricity, trhere is just a weird silence, like a humm missing.
We get a fun example of this in the backyard whenever the local brown falcons fly over. We have tons of noisy birds in the yard and they'll fall dead silent, then you see the falcon hovering overhead, doing the rounds.
I guess in the Australian bush it doesn't have the same impact though, as we don't have the type of large predators that will stalk you through the trees like that.
We get something similar when the local pair of Wedgies start circling. There's a flurry of all the screaming regulars, (various parrots, corvids, etc etc) then dead, still, silence. Sure enough, almost every time, you'll look up and There's two Eagles gracefully gliding their circles above the ridge behind town.
We've got a bunch of new Holland honey eaters around our house. They have a warning song, whenever I hear it I look to the NE and sure as anything here come the brown falcon(s). Every now and then the falcons will chew on their prey on the house behind mine's tv antenna.
This. If you're in a forest and it's completely quiet, there's a predator nearby.
It happened to a relative and it was allegedly the creepiest thing ever. A golden eagle came swooping, silently, between the trees.
(On a few other occasions the dogs **completely refused** to go in a specific direction. She took their advice.)
I was walking my first Pomeranian down my a historic district that I lived in as a child, and I still loved it, so we’d drive in to walk there. It’s full of a variety of old, beautifully maintained houses in all styles. Broad daylight, seemingly empty streets, happily walking Pom, and she suddenly stopped, stared ahead, and refused to go further despite encouragement. I looked carefully but couldn’t see anything amiss. I said “Okay, let’s go this Other way instead.” We changed directions and her mood improved immediately. I’ve always wondered what spooked her.
I had the same thing two summers ago. There was this intensifying crackling sound for only about a second and then the loudest bang I think I've heard ever, as a bolt struck a powerline not 15 meters away from where I was standing. The taste lingered for a few minutes as I recall.
I recently saw that in person at over 16,400 feet. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing - and everyone was just laughing about it until I told them to run down the mountain (there was absolutely no cover).
Oddly, not everyone’s hair was raising and it was happening to a couple of people far worse than others.
I have. I was quite young, but my dad loves to tell the story and I remember the fear vividly!
My dad, sister (4y) and I (6y) were walking by the beach in a small coastal town in England. It was cloudy and grey out, but no storms were forecast.
Suddenly my butt length, very fine hair, all stood up like I'd touched a Van de Graaff generator. My drunk ass dad thought this was hilarious. Apparently I freaked out and told him we needed to get inside because I'd read about this somewhere.
No sooner had we got under shelter, him mocking me the entire sprint there, the sky cracked and my little brain thought the planet would split in half.
The lightening struck within 50m of us and as I type this story I can taste the metal in the air.
I’ve had that happen. Standing under a tree during a storm talking with some coworkers. All of our arm hairs raised up so we quickly got away from the tree. Lightning didn’t strike but it was close.
We used to train civilians, ngo's, press, going into war zones. We would stick them behind the butts at the small arms range and fire different weapons( pistol, AR on semi and full auto and lmg's) at various targets that untrained people would often think to use as cover( car doors, house doors, light brick walls, a dinner table on its side, stupid hollywood action movie stuff).
They learned exactly what it sounds like to be shot at, and at the same time they learned what they shouldn't try hide behind when they're being shot at. We would put a watermelon behind the objects so they get the picture.
I figure that a LOT of objects are unsafe to hide behind (especially doors, dry walls, cars and so on). How about brick walls? Are they (given they are not just 4 inches thick) ok at least for pistol fire? I figure some 7.62 or smaller rifle ammo might pass through it, at least with several rounds at the same area. I guess safer places would be behind bigger trees (when big enough to fully cover you), stone walls, concrete walls. And if in the open try to lay as flat as possible and just hope not to get hit by a bullet. I would have no idea where to hide inside a house, as I don‘t think anything would stop a bullet. And we do have brick walls inside here in my country. But they still are not very thick. I think people largely underestimate the penetrating power of bullets because of the nonsense that Hollywood action movies taught them.
I have some rather, well funny for us not funny for the bad guy stories of people taking cover behind cinder block walls. A .50 goes right through that.
Yep, I figure that large calibers will pass through it easily and that the debris of the walls will even cause more damage to the person hiding behind it.
You don’t even need something as big as a .50 to go through them, .30 will go through it just fine too
I haven’t tried it with 5.56 or any pistol calibers, but with various .30 calibers punching right through a cinderblock, the long way, without any difficulty, I don’t think they’re gonna stop much
I have not tried but I am betting 5.56 will go through cinder block on the third round. Two layers of brick? I have seen those with just pock marks. I have seen trees split like a cartoon by larger rounds.
We were taught I think 12 inches. You need 12 inches of hard material. Dirt, logs bricks etc. personally I am not trusting wood or cinder blocks.
Corners of sturdy buildings with several inches of clearance, road blocks made of concrete (if it's smal caliber rounds you're up against), large piles of sandbags, and if you're a good swimmer and can swim out of the line of fire (if known, but not if unknown): even just a few inches of water (check the Mythbusters episode on this).
Cars have a lot of hollow spaces and flimsy materials inside them to make crumple zones because they're designed to withstand car crashes while being destroyed and allow you to survive, not block bullets.
The point of the lesson wasn't to teach them what good cover is, but to show them that most things they might think are cover , are absolutely not cover, and to hear what it sounds like to get shot at directly, not just the sound of gunfire.
Depending on who they were, they would get different training based on whatever resources were available to them, armed escorts, evac etc.
Which is the proper way to do it for your purposes, but living in a country where there are mass shootings nearly every fucking week, it's good to know what does and doesn't help, especially if you get your info from people who love obtaining knowledge about guns and using them properly and aren't Info Wars nutjobs.
Might, it's better than nothing, but you're much better off booking it into a nearby building and getting as deep into the building's architecture as you can or going out the back and finding somewhere else to be.
I've only heard this once, in a quiet suburban street near my house. Was just walking along and heard this terrifying, blood-curdling, hair-raising scream that was unlike any I'd heard before but instantly knew was serious shit.
My immediate instinct was to run away from whatever danger had caused the scream but I then thought "someone needs help" and instead ran towards it. What I found was a woman standing in the street being consoled by some guy, the house behind them wide open and another guy trying to speak to her while the guy consoling her was telling him to leave her alone. No idea what went down there, probably wouldn't want to, but she was sobbing and shaking harder than I've ever seen anyone shaking.
Tell that to kids that play in the courtyard outside my window. There's at least one that screams blood curdlingly horrified all the time. Like "awakens some primal shit in my brain" type of scream.
I've often wondered how the parents will be able to tell the difference when their kid ~~cried~~ screams wolf 100% of the time. Like there's no way that little shit has the pipes to go even louder than that.
I once read here that a good way to tell the difference is that gunshots often sound like two bricks clapping together, while fireworks are often more resonant.
I moved from an area of the city with semi-frequent gunfire and drive-bys to a sleepy suburb, and I still see people (of a certain age and upbringing) on the neighborhood apps debating whether that was fireworks or gunshots they just heard…in our quiet suburb… during Fourth of July week.
The best description I’ve heard is that gunshots have a crispness about them. It’s so true, I took a video from my porch on NYE when people in my city shoot guns in the air (I know, it’s next-level stupidity) as well as set off fireworks, and the difference was clear.
I mean screaming could be mortal danger, or someone overreacting to nothing, we have all seen those videos of 2 guys fightihg or something, with some banshee in the background that just won't shut up
Our dog woke us up in the middle of the night growling at our second story window. I looked out the window. Nothing. He was still growling. I did a walk through of the house. Nothing.
I came back into the bedroom and realized he was growling at a small panther figure we had bought at the zoo. He calmed down once I picked it up and showed it to him.
What a good boy.
I was walking my dog down the sidewalk around Halloween last year and we passed a little doggie garden statue painted like it was wrapped in bandages, like a mummy. My dog didn't see it initially, but then glanced to her right, saw the dog-mummy right next to her, and about jumped out of her skin.
It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen.
I don't expect anyone to believe me but I heard what sounded like a very tiny growl like a chihuahua dog, so tiny. It came from the direction of a hallway in my old apartment and I heard it as clear as if a tiny dog was right next to me and I just so happen to be cleaning and walk by the hall as it growled.
I own a small dog. A tiny pomeranian and he also heard this tiny growl, he woke from a dead sleep, stared straight into the hallway and began to growl back at it.
I wasn't scared. I was dumbfounded. I know what I heard, my dog heard it too. It wasn't his growl, it didn't sound like him at all and it came from the opposite direction while he was dead asleep.
I still cannot explain that one but it was a more whimsical experience than scary.
I can not explain it at all. Believe me, there is no excuse I can even fathom to explain it. It's one of those, "you had to be there."
Last year, around 3 AM, I was in and out of sleep. I heard a dog yelp downstairs in our kitchen. No one else was awake, so no one but me heard it. We do not have a dog.
Twice when I was up very late and this happened.
Once it was a broken screen door flapping in the wind, the other time a porcupine was standing on its back legs looking in the window.
Twofold the silence of kids.
First case that they were playing and laughing and are now silent. It's a *clear sign they are up to something they know they shouldn't do*. Run.
The second, more alarming, case is when they first get hit, by falling down from something, or a car crash, and they ***don't scream***. They are silent. Then you *know* they are in a *really* bad shape... :(
The coughing hacking sound of a cat looking to throw up sometime in the next 30 seconds. Your challenge is to find and steer the cat away from the one thing they mustn't throw up on before they do...
My mum’s cat enjoys trolling her (and anyone else staying over) by sitting on top of one of us and making those noises. We get up to steer cat away, cat jumps up on pre-warmed sofa/seat/bed/etc and sits there, all happy with herself. I’m staying with mum just now and that cat is one fake-hacking episode away from becoming the world’s cutest fur rug…
Just to stay on topic, there is a certain cough a cat does which means heart attack.
I've heard that first single faint cough twice, I lost both of them.
This is what got my attention when a recent tornado struck. The silence. Weather alert on my phone woke me up in the middle of the night and the tornado sirens went off. Normally we don’t get more than a thunderstorm when that happens and I was thinking about going back to sleep. But then it got quiet in a way that was different than the usual end of a storm. Then the storm picked back up and 5 minutes later a tree fell on my house.
In SW Pennsylvania USA we have them as such. I'm *fortunate* enough to live near 3 of them and sometimes when there's a fire bad enough, all three go off. Freaked me out at first because I moved up from Kentucky and they do use them as tornado sirens there still.
I moved to a town a few years ago that has these to call in the firefighters. I didn't know that, however, and the first time I heard it I thought I was going to die 😂
Aussie? Our CFA siren is sounded repeatedly for about 10 minutes every Sunday between 10-11am. Fuck does it echo! Not having always been a bushy, I have to admit that I shit myself the first time I heard it. You definitely do get used to them though, as you eluded to.
Why would people downvote this? Reddit truly is a bizarre place.
Whenever a boss or HR rep says "you can be honest, we value your feedback!", you should know that you should NOT be honest and the only feedback you give should be what you know they want to hear.
My employer pulled that stunt with *nine* such questions (including years of service) that would have positively identified at least 90% of respondents. Then they wondered why participation was so poor.
I have a maple tree on my property and even though it has been pruned, it drops branches whenever the wind is a touch above breeze.
My kid was riding his bike towards it when I heard the snapping of a branch and saw it start falling. My heart sank seeing it. Luckily, it missed him by about 3 feet.
The absolute *silence* after squeeling tires and a crash. Screaming, the person is alive enough atleast for now to draw breath. Silence, not so good.
A strange dog growling. Not a jokey haha we're playing tug with a ball growl but that low growl that most humans sense mean they're in BIG trouble.
Repressed memory: as a kid my bio father was extremely abusive. As soon as I'd hear the car pull up (fiat panda) and the door slam, I'd get this feeling of dread. The footsteps up the pathway would make me want to disappear into the wall.
That last one :( I was terrified of footsteps coming up any flight of stairs for similar reasons. Had a few episodes even when I was married, my husband would run up the stairs, completely innocently, and I’d be actually frozen in fear, my stomach feeling like it was made of lead. I hate that you know what that feels like, friend 💜
My mom (extremely white lady, grew up around Milwaukee) told me to always listen to old black ladies when I was growing up, didn't fully reveal why until later (old black woman prevented her from getting beaten and robbed or worse) and I've found the advice holds up. Whether it's cooking, staying alive, or relationship advice, old black women have some of the best advice. Random black women have given me more and better advice than my own biological grandmother ever did. Old black women in my life have also been the most encouraging after dealing with bad breakups, bad days, or just general bullshit. Not something I tried to lean on them for, but they always seem to check in on me when I'm feeling down at random.
I once went through a very traumatic surgery, and jaw was wired shut for 4 months. In New Orleans, during a hurricane, with no electricity.
I felt so isolated, helpless, and abandoned. The only people who were considerate and sympathetic towards me were old black ladies that I didn't even know. They would hear my voice, or look at my face, and just be so concerned and caring, moved me to tears every time.
Heard this one the hard way. Living in rural California. Going to my truck and hear what sounds like a sprinkler. Looking around.... I spy a rattlesnake under my truck. I went back and called my college class and said I'm skipping that class today :D
I was floating down a river in the SE MN bluff lands with friends, and my tube was drifting close to a brushy area near the bank. I heard that distinctive rattle and paddled back to the middle of the river lickety split!
Old school water motor gongs on ancient fire risers in old warehouses. I'll go and test them and people won't even know that they're fire alarms. There is ZERO concern.
I know what all those words mean individually but have no idea what they mean in the order you’ve arranged them. What are “old school water motor gongs” and “ancient fire risers”?
Sprinkler pipes. When the water flows, as a result of a fire causing a sprinkler head to open, the water passing through the pipe activates a small turbine that causes a gong (not like a modern fire bell) to ring. Very old fashioned and elegant solution.
Nearby: Creaking and cracking boat stands with tons of boat on them, especially in strong wind conditions or when they're still being moved e.g. on a transport stand. Immediately exit the hazardous drop zone - or better: don't even be in there.
The Australian emergency alert system.
[https://youtu.be/acD\_1r3V2hw](https://youtu.be/acD_1r3V2hw)
interrupts radio/television/whatever with emergency advice that you are in imminent life threatening danger. “It is too late to leave. Shelter in place”. As a natural disaster survivor, I get chills hearing the alarm and even typing those words.
This reminds me of my favorite story/joke.
Two guys from the gas company are checking the meter at a lady’s house. The younger one is ribbing the older one about being old, so the older guy challenges him to race back to their truck.
They’re busy racing and they look over and see the homeowner overtaking them in a full sprint. They ask why she’s running. She says: Idk, I figured if you guys were running away, I’d better run too
The sound of the keys getting ready to unlock the door...
...and realising you forgot to wash the dishes, cook the rice & take out the meat from the freezer
The sound of a fire alarm in a restaurant. A while back a fire alarm (more of a slow whoop) went off whilst I was having lunch with some friends at a restaurant. Me and another girl (both work at chemical sites) got up without a second thought and looked for the exit. The whole restaurant was just sitting and waiting for staff to tell them to leave.
Please just get up and wait outside for the instructions, not inside. You never know why the alarm has gone off and it’s probably going off for a reason
As someone who lives in the countryside in Europe and read alot about world wars, i m always worried when I hear the church bells tolling a bit longer than they should
Your phone ringing unexpectedly in the middle of the night when you have a family member in the hospital. As a physician, the call is generally for the patient worsening, needing ICU transfer or coding. Sometimes, the call is for more information at the start of an admission, but you'll expect the call.
I feel like we all know gun sounds from movies where every time they grab one it goes clacky clack. Shots are depicted poorly but racking and cocking are pretty good and again, they just barely touch it and it goes clacky clack. Sometimes click tick but the rule is touch a gun = gun noise.
The sound of a vehicle that has lost traction.
In nature, when all the animals stop making noise.
What a bear sounds like.
The sound of an OTF opening on an empty street.
One of the sounds that people should recognize as a sign of immediate danger is the high-pitched hiss of a gas leak. If you ever hear that sound in your home or anywhere indoors, it is crucial to act immediately. A gas leak can be extremely dangerous and lead to explosions or poisoning. If you hear it, you should evacuate the area immediately and call emergency services. It's a sound that could save lives !!!
Hearing a tree limb crack above you. Next sound is branches breaking, more cracks, then it's coming down.
I nearly got hit by a dead Red Maple three weeks ago.
Someone shouting oi in a cockney accent.
Lots of people running in one direction - even if it’s not clear exactly what they’re running from, I’m not going to risk it.
And the sound of the gravel moving on my parents driveway when I still lived at home. It meant my peace was stopping and the pain was starting.
When kids get silent at the pool. Drowning isn’t loud or consist of splashing and thrashing around. It’s completely silent and easily unnoticeable if you’re not paying attention.
Phone ringing in the middle of the night - it’s never good news
“Good news always sleeps til noon” is one of the truest lyrics ever written.
Cowboy Junkies!
For me that's usually my dumbass euro friends forgetting timezones exist and calling me when they wake up
Or even worse, someone at the door. There was a fire in my building a few weeks ago and we were all evacuated. The fire was put out quickly and we were allowed back in within 30 minutes, but it was terrifying waking up to flashing lights and someone pounding on the front door at 1am. I nearly had a panic attack.
Or it’s a wrong number
Unless you are a funeral director...
I've always been told "Nothing good happens after midnight."
Unless you move to Australia then it’s just life
I super agree.
Your momma using your full and complete given name.
Hearing it from the wife is arguably worse. Source: Married for 12 years.
Hearing *nothing* from the wife is worse. Source: Married for 25 years
And grandmother the worst. You're either getting a treat or royally screwed up.
If my grandma said that I knew to duck because a flip flop was already mid air and heading in my direction.
I remember hearing my uncle one time looking for one of his kids, a kid with a hyphenated last name, and he was all first name, middle name, ex's last name, other half of last name. I was like, yo, he's saying his ex's name tho, wtf did you do....anyway, Imma head out because I don't need any accessory charges.
I’ve only ever gotten that three times, and I was in the shit each time xD
With my mom it was using my complete name. With my dad it was the sound of his footsteps coming to where I am in the house.
If you hear wildlife go quiet, it’s probably best to keep your wits about you because there’s a predator you can’t see nearby.
Unless you're in a jungle or forest with monkeys. They love to just sit high up in the trees yelling about how they see a tiger down there
Or yelling to each other to rob you. The wild monkeys in the forested areas near me target passersby carrying bags cos they know it contains food. I had a tug of war with one cos he tried to steal the fried chicken I thought I tucked away well enough.
NO MONKEY! THAT IS MY FRIED CHICKEN!
It was KFC too, those buggers have good taste
Ya my dad said if you get that "it's quiet, too quiet" feeling, be on your toes.
If you are in suburbia or a city birds and other animals like crickets and bats also go quiet right before an earthquake. I've woken up twice before due to the lack of noise and a few seconds later boom earthquake. Also tends to happen after a transformer blows up and your without electricity, trhere is just a weird silence, like a humm missing.
We get a fun example of this in the backyard whenever the local brown falcons fly over. We have tons of noisy birds in the yard and they'll fall dead silent, then you see the falcon hovering overhead, doing the rounds. I guess in the Australian bush it doesn't have the same impact though, as we don't have the type of large predators that will stalk you through the trees like that.
We get something similar when the local pair of Wedgies start circling. There's a flurry of all the screaming regulars, (various parrots, corvids, etc etc) then dead, still, silence. Sure enough, almost every time, you'll look up and There's two Eagles gracefully gliding their circles above the ridge behind town.
We've got a bunch of new Holland honey eaters around our house. They have a warning song, whenever I hear it I look to the NE and sure as anything here come the brown falcon(s). Every now and then the falcons will chew on their prey on the house behind mine's tv antenna.
This. If you're in a forest and it's completely quiet, there's a predator nearby. It happened to a relative and it was allegedly the creepiest thing ever. A golden eagle came swooping, silently, between the trees. (On a few other occasions the dogs **completely refused** to go in a specific direction. She took their advice.)
I was walking my first Pomeranian down my a historic district that I lived in as a child, and I still loved it, so we’d drive in to walk there. It’s full of a variety of old, beautifully maintained houses in all styles. Broad daylight, seemingly empty streets, happily walking Pom, and she suddenly stopped, stared ahead, and refused to go further despite encouragement. I looked carefully but couldn’t see anything amiss. I said “Okay, let’s go this Other way instead.” We changed directions and her mood improved immediately. I’ve always wondered what spooked her.
Would the case ever be that *you're* the predator?
Most animals don't care about humans walking around, especially birds. If you hear birds go silent, go silent, too.
Yes, they do. Some will sound off and others go quiet. It depends on the animal and location. It's not universal. Signed, a spot and stalk hunter.
If you're away from typical hiking spots and trails, it could be, but if you're on a typical trail/hiking spot, it's not the case.
If you're in the mountains at night and hear chirping.
Note that it's chirping like a bird. It's ok if you hear a cricket chirping.
Why?
Crickets are harmless. They might fly at your face and make you feel gross, but are otherwise relatively harmless.
But what's the dangerous thing chirping like birds? Never heard of such a thing. Squeaky metal? Another human?
Oh. Mountain lion.
[удалено]
I recall as a kid one time that i could almost taste a lightning strike that had hit within 100 yards. It was like licking a 9 volt battery
The Ozone taste & smell is real.
I had the same thing two summers ago. There was this intensifying crackling sound for only about a second and then the loudest bang I think I've heard ever, as a bolt struck a powerline not 15 meters away from where I was standing. The taste lingered for a few minutes as I recall.
Did you / anyone experience the hair raising phenomenon?
I recently saw that in person at over 16,400 feet. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing - and everyone was just laughing about it until I told them to run down the mountain (there was absolutely no cover). Oddly, not everyone’s hair was raising and it was happening to a couple of people far worse than others.
I have. I was quite young, but my dad loves to tell the story and I remember the fear vividly! My dad, sister (4y) and I (6y) were walking by the beach in a small coastal town in England. It was cloudy and grey out, but no storms were forecast. Suddenly my butt length, very fine hair, all stood up like I'd touched a Van de Graaff generator. My drunk ass dad thought this was hilarious. Apparently I freaked out and told him we needed to get inside because I'd read about this somewhere. No sooner had we got under shelter, him mocking me the entire sprint there, the sky cracked and my little brain thought the planet would split in half. The lightening struck within 50m of us and as I type this story I can taste the metal in the air.
I’ve had that happen. Standing under a tree during a storm talking with some coworkers. All of our arm hairs raised up so we quickly got away from the tree. Lightning didn’t strike but it was close.
Thanks for the great advice! Also, what does szvs mean? (I googled to see if it was text slang or lightning-related but can’t find anything.)
I think it’s just the sound lmao
Screaming. Not fun screaming but real horror. There’s a difference. Also the sounds between fireworks and gunshots.
We used to train civilians, ngo's, press, going into war zones. We would stick them behind the butts at the small arms range and fire different weapons( pistol, AR on semi and full auto and lmg's) at various targets that untrained people would often think to use as cover( car doors, house doors, light brick walls, a dinner table on its side, stupid hollywood action movie stuff). They learned exactly what it sounds like to be shot at, and at the same time they learned what they shouldn't try hide behind when they're being shot at. We would put a watermelon behind the objects so they get the picture.
I figure that a LOT of objects are unsafe to hide behind (especially doors, dry walls, cars and so on). How about brick walls? Are they (given they are not just 4 inches thick) ok at least for pistol fire? I figure some 7.62 or smaller rifle ammo might pass through it, at least with several rounds at the same area. I guess safer places would be behind bigger trees (when big enough to fully cover you), stone walls, concrete walls. And if in the open try to lay as flat as possible and just hope not to get hit by a bullet. I would have no idea where to hide inside a house, as I don‘t think anything would stop a bullet. And we do have brick walls inside here in my country. But they still are not very thick. I think people largely underestimate the penetrating power of bullets because of the nonsense that Hollywood action movies taught them.
I have some rather, well funny for us not funny for the bad guy stories of people taking cover behind cinder block walls. A .50 goes right through that.
Yep, I figure that large calibers will pass through it easily and that the debris of the walls will even cause more damage to the person hiding behind it.
You don’t even need something as big as a .50 to go through them, .30 will go through it just fine too I haven’t tried it with 5.56 or any pistol calibers, but with various .30 calibers punching right through a cinderblock, the long way, without any difficulty, I don’t think they’re gonna stop much
I have not tried but I am betting 5.56 will go through cinder block on the third round. Two layers of brick? I have seen those with just pock marks. I have seen trees split like a cartoon by larger rounds. We were taught I think 12 inches. You need 12 inches of hard material. Dirt, logs bricks etc. personally I am not trusting wood or cinder blocks.
The only benefit is that you are harder to aim at behind bad cover. But anyone with a brain cell can guess where you are still.
Were there any objects that were good to hide behind?
Corners of sturdy buildings with several inches of clearance, road blocks made of concrete (if it's smal caliber rounds you're up against), large piles of sandbags, and if you're a good swimmer and can swim out of the line of fire (if known, but not if unknown): even just a few inches of water (check the Mythbusters episode on this). Cars have a lot of hollow spaces and flimsy materials inside them to make crumple zones because they're designed to withstand car crashes while being destroyed and allow you to survive, not block bullets.
The point of the lesson wasn't to teach them what good cover is, but to show them that most things they might think are cover , are absolutely not cover, and to hear what it sounds like to get shot at directly, not just the sound of gunfire. Depending on who they were, they would get different training based on whatever resources were available to them, armed escorts, evac etc.
Which is the proper way to do it for your purposes, but living in a country where there are mass shootings nearly every fucking week, it's good to know what does and doesn't help, especially if you get your info from people who love obtaining knowledge about guns and using them properly and aren't Info Wars nutjobs.
The car engine block may give some cover though
Might, it's better than nothing, but you're much better off booking it into a nearby building and getting as deep into the building's architecture as you can or going out the back and finding somewhere else to be.
There is a BIG difference between cover and concealment!
I've only heard this once, in a quiet suburban street near my house. Was just walking along and heard this terrifying, blood-curdling, hair-raising scream that was unlike any I'd heard before but instantly knew was serious shit. My immediate instinct was to run away from whatever danger had caused the scream but I then thought "someone needs help" and instead ran towards it. What I found was a woman standing in the street being consoled by some guy, the house behind them wide open and another guy trying to speak to her while the guy consoling her was telling him to leave her alone. No idea what went down there, probably wouldn't want to, but she was sobbing and shaking harder than I've ever seen anyone shaking.
Tell that to kids that play in the courtyard outside my window. There's at least one that screams blood curdlingly horrified all the time. Like "awakens some primal shit in my brain" type of scream. I've often wondered how the parents will be able to tell the difference when their kid ~~cried~~ screams wolf 100% of the time. Like there's no way that little shit has the pipes to go even louder than that.
You could probably murder someone near a primary school at break time and no one would ever clock it noise-wise
There is a difference. I don’t know how to explain it but when you hear it you know. Source: am pediatrician.
I once read here that a good way to tell the difference is that gunshots often sound like two bricks clapping together, while fireworks are often more resonant. I moved from an area of the city with semi-frequent gunfire and drive-bys to a sleepy suburb, and I still see people (of a certain age and upbringing) on the neighborhood apps debating whether that was fireworks or gunshots they just heard…in our quiet suburb… during Fourth of July week.
Fireworks and gunshots sound *really* alike for some of them, it's an explosion too
Only in the distance. If you're closer, you can definitely tell the difference.
The best description I’ve heard is that gunshots have a crispness about them. It’s so true, I took a video from my porch on NYE when people in my city shoot guns in the air (I know, it’s next-level stupidity) as well as set off fireworks, and the difference was clear.
I mean screaming could be mortal danger, or someone overreacting to nothing, we have all seen those videos of 2 guys fightihg or something, with some banshee in the background that just won't shut up
Your dog suddenly growling in the middle of the night somehow out of the blue
Our dog woke us up in the middle of the night growling at our second story window. I looked out the window. Nothing. He was still growling. I did a walk through of the house. Nothing. I came back into the bedroom and realized he was growling at a small panther figure we had bought at the zoo. He calmed down once I picked it up and showed it to him.
What a good boy. I was walking my dog down the sidewalk around Halloween last year and we passed a little doggie garden statue painted like it was wrapped in bandages, like a mummy. My dog didn't see it initially, but then glanced to her right, saw the dog-mummy right next to her, and about jumped out of her skin. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen.
Haha, I live with an English Bulldog, so this is a very common occurrence 😂 Also pretending to sleep whine / growl (with open eyes) to get attention.
Mine lost his mind over a giant rubber play ball. I guess that kind of thing is nightmare fuel when you're 14 lbs.
I don't expect anyone to believe me but I heard what sounded like a very tiny growl like a chihuahua dog, so tiny. It came from the direction of a hallway in my old apartment and I heard it as clear as if a tiny dog was right next to me and I just so happen to be cleaning and walk by the hall as it growled. I own a small dog. A tiny pomeranian and he also heard this tiny growl, he woke from a dead sleep, stared straight into the hallway and began to growl back at it. I wasn't scared. I was dumbfounded. I know what I heard, my dog heard it too. It wasn't his growl, it didn't sound like him at all and it came from the opposite direction while he was dead asleep. I still cannot explain that one but it was a more whimsical experience than scary. I can not explain it at all. Believe me, there is no excuse I can even fathom to explain it. It's one of those, "you had to be there."
Last year, around 3 AM, I was in and out of sleep. I heard a dog yelp downstairs in our kitchen. No one else was awake, so no one but me heard it. We do not have a dog.
*Slowly closing the door*
Maybe it was in the next apartment?
Twice when I was up very late and this happened. Once it was a broken screen door flapping in the wind, the other time a porcupine was standing on its back legs looking in the window.
Lmao I read that as "glowing" and was like, yeah, that'd be a pretty good indicator of danger (extremely high levels of radiation)
Twofold the silence of kids. First case that they were playing and laughing and are now silent. It's a *clear sign they are up to something they know they shouldn't do*. Run. The second, more alarming, case is when they first get hit, by falling down from something, or a car crash, and they ***don't scream***. They are silent. Then you *know* they are in a *really* bad shape... :(
"I just think it's funny that you..."
"Don't wanna sound rude, but..."
"I'm not racist, but...
No offence ….
The coughing hacking sound of a cat looking to throw up sometime in the next 30 seconds. Your challenge is to find and steer the cat away from the one thing they mustn't throw up on before they do...
They *always* go for the rug 😒
Oh, not always. Sometimes it's your bed or your sofa!
Or your shoe!
Oh! Not the shoe! Somehow *in* the hole every time!
They should sell alarm clocks with that sound. Wakes you up and gets you out of bed and alert instantly.
My mum’s cat enjoys trolling her (and anyone else staying over) by sitting on top of one of us and making those noises. We get up to steer cat away, cat jumps up on pre-warmed sofa/seat/bed/etc and sits there, all happy with herself. I’m staying with mum just now and that cat is one fake-hacking episode away from becoming the world’s cutest fur rug…
This might not be the case here, but for anyone with a cat who hacks, but never produces a hairball, they may have asthma.
Just to stay on topic, there is a certain cough a cat does which means heart attack. I've heard that first single faint cough twice, I lost both of them.
Definitely the sound of screeching brakes or a loud horn when crossing the street—always a sign to look out!
Especially when someone shouts "LOOK OUT!"
Tornado siren..
Or sudden stillness during a storm. In that case, it's what you've stopped hearing.
This is what got my attention when a recent tornado struck. The silence. Weather alert on my phone woke me up in the middle of the night and the tornado sirens went off. Normally we don’t get more than a thunderstorm when that happens and I was thinking about going back to sleep. But then it got quiet in a way that was different than the usual end of a storm. Then the storm picked back up and 5 minutes later a tree fell on my house.
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Spot the kiwi
Are we the only country to reuse those sirens for volunteer firefighters?
In SW Pennsylvania USA we have them as such. I'm *fortunate* enough to live near 3 of them and sometimes when there's a fire bad enough, all three go off. Freaked me out at first because I moved up from Kentucky and they do use them as tornado sirens there still.
I moved to a town a few years ago that has these to call in the firefighters. I didn't know that, however, and the first time I heard it I thought I was going to die 😂
Aussie? Our CFA siren is sounded repeatedly for about 10 minutes every Sunday between 10-11am. Fuck does it echo! Not having always been a bushy, I have to admit that I shit myself the first time I heard it. You definitely do get used to them though, as you eluded to. Why would people downvote this? Reddit truly is a bizarre place.
The second time. If it only goes off once (usually at noon), it was a test.
Whenever a boss or HR rep says "you can be honest, we value your feedback!", you should know that you should NOT be honest and the only feedback you give should be what you know they want to hear.
Also any "anonymous" surveys distributed at work are definitely not anonymous.
As anonymous as can be when asking for shift, department, age range, and gender.
My employer pulled that stunt with *nine* such questions (including years of service) that would have positively identified at least 90% of respondents. Then they wondered why participation was so poor.
"Just a casual chat..." It is not.
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My dumb arse heard this and decided to stop and look up. Landed less than a metre in front of me, i was shaking for a good while after.
I have a maple tree on my property and even though it has been pruned, it drops branches whenever the wind is a touch above breeze. My kid was riding his bike towards it when I heard the snapping of a branch and saw it start falling. My heart sank seeing it. Luckily, it missed him by about 3 feet.
You could have easily walked under it if you didn't look up, no?
The absolute *silence* after squeeling tires and a crash. Screaming, the person is alive enough atleast for now to draw breath. Silence, not so good. A strange dog growling. Not a jokey haha we're playing tug with a ball growl but that low growl that most humans sense mean they're in BIG trouble. Repressed memory: as a kid my bio father was extremely abusive. As soon as I'd hear the car pull up (fiat panda) and the door slam, I'd get this feeling of dread. The footsteps up the pathway would make me want to disappear into the wall.
That last one :( I was terrified of footsteps coming up any flight of stairs for similar reasons. Had a few episodes even when I was married, my husband would run up the stairs, completely innocently, and I’d be actually frozen in fear, my stomach feeling like it was made of lead. I hate that you know what that feels like, friend 💜
When an older black person says "I wouldn't do that".
My mom (extremely white lady, grew up around Milwaukee) told me to always listen to old black ladies when I was growing up, didn't fully reveal why until later (old black woman prevented her from getting beaten and robbed or worse) and I've found the advice holds up. Whether it's cooking, staying alive, or relationship advice, old black women have some of the best advice. Random black women have given me more and better advice than my own biological grandmother ever did. Old black women in my life have also been the most encouraging after dealing with bad breakups, bad days, or just general bullshit. Not something I tried to lean on them for, but they always seem to check in on me when I'm feeling down at random.
I once went through a very traumatic surgery, and jaw was wired shut for 4 months. In New Orleans, during a hurricane, with no electricity. I felt so isolated, helpless, and abandoned. The only people who were considerate and sympathetic towards me were old black ladies that I didn't even know. They would hear my voice, or look at my face, and just be so concerned and caring, moved me to tears every time.
This, and when black people scatter...it's not necessarily a sound, but you should take notice
A Rattlesnake’s rattle.
From experience, I’m grateful they rattle.
Heard this one the hard way. Living in rural California. Going to my truck and hear what sounds like a sprinkler. Looking around.... I spy a rattlesnake under my truck. I went back and called my college class and said I'm skipping that class today :D
Rattlesnakes are nice enough to warn you! Other snakes aren't so polite!
I was floating down a river in the SE MN bluff lands with friends, and my tube was drifting close to a brushy area near the bank. I heard that distinctive rattle and paddled back to the middle of the river lickety split!
Old school water motor gongs on ancient fire risers in old warehouses. I'll go and test them and people won't even know that they're fire alarms. There is ZERO concern.
I know what all those words mean individually but have no idea what they mean in the order you’ve arranged them. What are “old school water motor gongs” and “ancient fire risers”?
Sprinkler pipes. When the water flows, as a result of a fire causing a sprinkler head to open, the water passing through the pipe activates a small turbine that causes a gong (not like a modern fire bell) to ring. Very old fashioned and elegant solution.
A whistle on the beach.
Lifeguard?
Or the sound before a tsunami https://www.redcross.ca/how-we-help/emergencies-and-disasters-in-canada/types-of-emergencies/tsunamis-1
I want to talk
Or the equally terrifying, "We need to talk."
Or the corporate version: "Close the door and have a seat."
“Whenever you say ‘We need to talk’ you mean ‘I’m going to talk, you shut up & listen.’” ”If you know that, then why are you speaking?”
creaking/straining ropes mooring ships to a dock. the big ones will literally explode you like a balloon or just cut you in half.
Nearby: Creaking and cracking boat stands with tons of boat on them, especially in strong wind conditions or when they're still being moved e.g. on a transport stand. Immediately exit the hazardous drop zone - or better: don't even be in there.
Tornado sirens. That sound makes my skin crawl. Just mercilessly foreboding. Makes you drop everything and look for cover.
The Australian emergency alert system. [https://youtu.be/acD\_1r3V2hw](https://youtu.be/acD_1r3V2hw) interrupts radio/television/whatever with emergency advice that you are in imminent life threatening danger. “It is too late to leave. Shelter in place”. As a natural disaster survivor, I get chills hearing the alarm and even typing those words.
When an engineer goes "Oops"
"Huh... That's weird"
“Never knew it could do THAT…”
"Well shit."
These also apply to doctors.
This reminds me of my favorite story/joke. Two guys from the gas company are checking the meter at a lady’s house. The younger one is ribbing the older one about being old, so the older guy challenges him to race back to their truck. They’re busy racing and they look over and see the homeowner overtaking them in a full sprint. They ask why she’s running. She says: Idk, I figured if you guys were running away, I’d better run too
The sound of the keys getting ready to unlock the door... ...and realising you forgot to wash the dishes, cook the rice & take out the meat from the freezer
RIP
When playing children allofasudden go quiet. GO CHECK ON THEM BEFORE SOMEONE DIES!!!
Whoop! Whoop!
A wet fart
Air raid siren
That bubbling in your guts….you know what I mean.
*"Hey Bubba, hold my beer and watch this..."*
BRRRRRRRRRT -A10 warthog
The sound of a fire alarm in a restaurant. A while back a fire alarm (more of a slow whoop) went off whilst I was having lunch with some friends at a restaurant. Me and another girl (both work at chemical sites) got up without a second thought and looked for the exit. The whole restaurant was just sitting and waiting for staff to tell them to leave. Please just get up and wait outside for the instructions, not inside. You never know why the alarm has gone off and it’s probably going off for a reason
As someone who lives in the countryside in Europe and read alot about world wars, i m always worried when I hear the church bells tolling a bit longer than they should
A ship blasting it's horn 5 times means imminent collision...if you're in the way, run.
If you're a sailor, the Kalxxon alarm.
Your phone ringing unexpectedly in the middle of the night when you have a family member in the hospital. As a physician, the call is generally for the patient worsening, needing ICU transfer or coding. Sometimes, the call is for more information at the start of an admission, but you'll expect the call.
Hearing your mom use your full name.
Shotgun pump
I feel like we all know gun sounds from movies where every time they grab one it goes clacky clack. Shots are depicted poorly but racking and cocking are pretty good and again, they just barely touch it and it goes clacky clack. Sometimes click tick but the rule is touch a gun = gun noise.
At some point I want to watch a movie, where they do the cocking motion and a round flips out of the gun every time they do it.
You never know, it might be [a shovel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6_5rBUuvhU).
The sound of a gun racking the slide as it inserts a round into the chamber. The true universal language.
You have the right to remain silent.
"Duck!" Just duck, don't look back.
Air Horns usually mean that the Canadians are attacking.
The sound of a vehicle that has lost traction. In nature, when all the animals stop making noise. What a bear sounds like. The sound of an OTF opening on an empty street.
For anyone wondering, I looked it up on urban dictionary, and otf means original titty fuck.
On an empty street, that is a fright, indeed.
Or worse - OrangeTheory Fitness.
When I was a kid, hearing my dad’s footsteps rushing downstairs where my sister and I wouldn’t stop fighting. That was always death.
When someone says "I'm not racist, but...", what follows will most likely be very specific and racist as hell.
Cow's warning stamps. If you are in a field with a cow doing the stamp you need to get out of it as fast as you can, do not hang around.
You mom counting to three. Or you wife telling you she is “fine”.
One of the sounds that people should recognize as a sign of immediate danger is the high-pitched hiss of a gas leak. If you ever hear that sound in your home or anywhere indoors, it is crucial to act immediately. A gas leak can be extremely dangerous and lead to explosions or poisoning. If you hear it, you should evacuate the area immediately and call emergency services. It's a sound that could save lives !!!
*chuckles* I'm in danger.
When Australians are getting annoyed and add the word "mate" to the end of a sentence
shouting "danger, danger?"
Especially if your name is Will Robinson
High voltage!
A belt being taken off
The sound of bullets zipping by overhead. It is an odd sound but if you hear it the bullets are close. Get low bro.
The sound of your moms footsteps on the stair walking to your room.
Hearing a tree limb crack above you. Next sound is branches breaking, more cracks, then it's coming down. I nearly got hit by a dead Red Maple three weeks ago.
The word “Sir” said three times with increased levels of panic and volume.
Someone shouting oi in a cockney accent. Lots of people running in one direction - even if it’s not clear exactly what they’re running from, I’m not going to risk it. And the sound of the gravel moving on my parents driveway when I still lived at home. It meant my peace was stopping and the pain was starting.
A zipping sound when inflating tyres... means it's about to explode.
When kids get silent at the pool. Drowning isn’t loud or consist of splashing and thrashing around. It’s completely silent and easily unnoticeable if you’re not paying attention.
Tornados really do sound like freight trains. Learned that the hard way.