Redditors are a snarky, witty bunch. The famous AskReddit has gotten people to confess things that annoy them and even crowd-source solutions to small problems.
One Reddit thread asked commenters if there are any rabbit holes they suggest for people who could use a small distraction.
As always, commenters gave some pretty great suggestions. Here are 17 that stood out.
17. Baking Sourdough Bread
“I’ve been down a rabbit hole to make sourdough bread.. I’m fascinated now. I didn’t realize how the process works. I saw some lady who’s been using the same starter since the 1970s and she got hers from a woman who used hers for the last hundred years.
As I am sure there are thousands, this was what a friend shared with me that started me into this now black hole.
Seems like a good lad making bread.”
16. Survival Tactics For Someday…
“Hello future survivors/zombies!
A few years ago I started building a bug-out-bag, in case everything goes to shit but mostly as a fun little hobby/side-project. I didn’t start making one because I seriously considered the end of the world but deciding what to put in it, what to buy etc etc, that’s a nice hobby!
If you are curious about making one, these are some good places to start:
7 Types of Gear You Must Have in Your Bug Out Bag (March 2020)
15. Death Valley Germans
“I thought reading about the Death Valley Germans was super interesting and took a good few hours to read and do my own research
Edit: if it’s asking for a login/password, that means the site is overwhelmed. I know it’s frustrating but I didn’t realise it would get this much traffic. Try again in an hour or two and it should be fine
Second edit: Web archive really comes in handy in these times. http://web.archive.org/web/20200117201303/https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/ from u/abc_wtf.”
14. The Delphi Murders
“The Delphi Murders.
If even a minor % of Redditors took one minute to view this video/audio (especially if you live in the midwest or know people in the midwest!), there’s a good chance this case could be solved. Today.
Quick Summary: Two young teens, Abby Williams (13) and Libby German (14) had a day off from school & went for a walk on a local trail/bridge in the small town of Delphi, Indiana on February 13, 2017. After walking across an abandoned railroad bridge in a desolate area of the trail system, a man followed them across the bridge and forced them down a hill. He murdered them.
The crazy thing is, Libby had been filming Abby with her phone, and was able to secretly capture the start of her encounter with her killer on video before putting the phone in her pocket. Police have released part of the video/audio. It’s not very good quality, but it is the best they have and captures the killer and his voice. Both NASA & Disney assisted in editing it to make it clearer, but there wasn’t a lot to work with. BUT police really want people to focus on his movement. Even without looking at someone’s head, you could pick out a family member of close friend by their mannerisms, body, way they move, etc. And you would obviously know their voice.
There are a lot of ridiculous conspiracy theories out there that police have debunked, so don’t fall down *that* hole. Stick to what the FBI / State Police have released:
- The killer is a white male between 18 – 40.
- They believe he lives locally in the area, previously lived in the area, or has family there. This isn’t just a place you stumble upon.
- Witnesses who passed him on the trail prior said he had reddish-brown hair, and
- Likely between 5’6″ and 5’8″.
They were not catfished or speaking to anyone online about a meeting….in other words, this was a horrific stranger encounter, they weren’t lured or anything.
Two sketches were released that both look quite different (police now say the suspect most likely looks like a combination of the 2 sketches), but again, I think the most important thing is to watch the actual video. Two of the witnesses that helped with the original sketch said they were unhappy with parts of the first sketch, and don’t believe the second sketch looks anything like the man they saw. The witnesses said they were unable to provide an accurate description on the lower half of the man’s face, since he had a white scarf wrapped around his lower mouth/chin area.
There are multiple people out there who know this man. They grew up with him. Maybe work with him. Maybe he’s their brother in law. But there’s a good chance they just haven’t seen the video yet. The more people who see the video, the higher chance this b*stard will be recognized. I always encourage people to watch it and share it so someone else sees it. The families of these girls are DESPERATE for answers. If you have a tip you can remain 100% anon and email it it. There’s also a 250k reward.
If you’re looking for a new podcast to listen to during quarantine, there are two that I thought were very well done on this. Family and law enforcement gave a lot of interviews on both. One is called Scene of the Crime Delphi, the other is “Down the Hill” Podcast.
There is also a subreddit that has a timeline of the events, witness encounter summaries, that is very well done: https://www.reddit.com/r/delphimurderstimeline
This case made a real impact on me, and I want a resolution for these girls so badly! There’s a dangerous person out there who killed two little girls in broad daylight. I’m afraid he will do it again and another family will go through this horrible pain. It’s SO solvable, it’s almost a numbers game, because all it takes is the video/audio getting seen by one person who knows him and is willing to tip it in!”
13. The Internet’s Hardest Puzzle
“You could always have a go at the internet’s hardest puzzle, Notpron. It’s been online since 2004, but only 67 people ever made it through all 140 levels. I’ve been playing since 2007, am in the 70s now.
Edit: Since many people are asking questions, feel free to check out the main site with rules, FAQ, and hints.”
12. Science Channels—And There’s a List!
“Science channels. From entertaining to informative, science channels have been my favourite types of channels to binge.
Vsauce is one of the best at this. Backyard Scientist, Mark Rober, and SloMo Guys to name a few.
And if you’re up to a mental challenge, go for really heady, concept, theory-laden channels like PBS SpaceTime and Quantum Gravity Research.”
11. Learning Plain Old History!
“Learning history is my best way to time pass.
Currently, I am diving deep into Pyramids. It’s preyty damn interesting to know how they did that stuff. Imagine lifting 2.3 million blocks each the weight of elephants to that height and that too so many years ago when humans were I would like to share a few things that I learnt. Maybe you might like it and go deep into it.
Here you go:
- Pyramid of Giza actually has eight faces.
From ground, viewers will not see the indentations and hence, they can only see four faces. In order to see the indentations and all 8 faces of the pyramid, one needs to go aerial and that too when the lighting conditions are perfect to make the 8 faces visible.
The 8 faces of the Great Pyramid are visible only during autumn equinox and spring equinox during dawn as well as during sunset. Those are the times with the sun casts a shadow on the pyramid, making the indentations properly visible from air.
You can see the eight faces of Pyramid here
- Temperature controlled engineering.
Also, Inside the pyramid, the temperature is maintained at 20 degrees Celsius or 68 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature never changes and is actually equal to earth’s average temperature.
- Unimaginable Accuracy. > The Egyptians used two constellations to align their pyramids in a north-south direction. One was big dipper and the other is the small dipper.
The tombs are aligned in north-south with an accuracy of up to 0.05 degrees. This happened in an era where modern-day precision tools were not even imaginable!
- Alignment with constellation and it’s relevance to equinox cycle
Every 26000 years the pyramid will align itself with 4 constellations which represents the equinox cycle. It is believed (just believed by the Egyptians) that every around 26000 years something devastating happens on Earth. I am not sure but I guess it is when they align. This was believed to be a warning. We are currently close to it. There is a error of maybe 100 years in that.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/11/great-pyramid-tombs-slaves-egypt”
10. Music Channels on YouTube
“If you’re into music, there are a ton of great channels on YouTube.
Rick Beato does a lot of music and song analyses.
Alex ball has done some documentaries about Roland, and the prophet synthesizers. All really interesting history and information.
True cuckoo is a dude who has a ton of videos about synthesizers, drum machines and jams. Not to mention tutorials.
There’s so much that you can learn. I started with guitar and recently I got into synths and drum machines and YouTube is a great place to get to learn from plenty of talented people.
I missed a ton but I guess you can do the exploring yourself.”
9. This Military Time Traveler
“In early 2000s, someone began posting on several message boards claiming to be a military time traveller from the year 2036. He arrived in 2000on a stopover for personal reasons; his primary mission was to return to 1975 to recover an IBM 5100 computer which was needed to debug huge computer issues that would arise in his original time.
Some have disregarded this as an elaborate hoax. The rub is, there is an anticipated y2k style computer frying event (look up UNIX 2038 problem), and only like 5 people in the world knew the IBM 5100 debugging programming existed, which was later confirmed to be true by someone involved with the project.
His stories contained predictions from his timeline, time travel theory, physics of his machine, and even schematics of the time travel device.
All his posts are archived, enjoy your trip down the rabbit hole!”
8. Unusual Deaths (Trigger Warning)
“Normally, I recommend the Wikipedia list of Unusual Deaths. I still do, but with the disclaimer that as we isolate ourselves to protect our physical health, the isolation may be damaging to our mental health. Reading about Unusual Deaths might not be for you right now. If you’re good to go, here’s the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_deaths?wprov=sfla1
Edit: I am aware of Stephen Whinfrey, who died of asphyxiation after getting his head trapped down a rabbit hole, in 2015. BEWARE!!!”
7. Transcriptions For Those Who Need Them
“/r/TranscribersOfReddit is a pretty good way to kill some time by writing transcriptions for people who are vision-impaired.”
6. Growing Mushrooms
“How to grow mushrooms, (not magic mushrooms, pls don’t ask it gets annoying) and the different techniques people use for different species.
Also, the rabbit hole of how many chemical products we harvest from fungi, it just sounds stupid to believe in the power of fungus because there is a fine line between it an all the essential oil homeopathic bullshit and cure all products being marketed by MLMs and facebook anti-vax moms.”
5. An Array of Rabbit Holes!
“Ohhhh man. Been waiting for this day for a long time.
Here’s my list in no particular order:
1. Dyatlov Pass Incident
2. Voynich Manuscript
3. Japan Airlines Flight 1628 (extremely compelling UFO sighting)
4. MK Ultra
5. Project Northwoods
6. Tunguska Event (One of my faves)
7. Aleph formerly Aum Shinrikyo (Japanese death cult)
8. Skinwalker Ranch
9. The Philadelphia Experiment
10. Japanese Unit 731 (fucking gnarly)
11. Alleged Russian Apartment bombings (false flag attacks in the late 90’s)
12. Saudi Arabian involvement in 9/11
13. Gulf of Tonkin Incident
14. Project Azorian
15. Bilderberg Meeting
16. Max headroom TV station hijacking
17. Fast Radio Bursts (aliens?! Maybe… but probably not)
18. Nazi Bell
19. Misplaced artifacts (archaeological artifacts are showing up well out of their understood time range in geological areas they shouldn’t be in; awesome video )
20. Pretty much anything to do with Monsanto, but their Roundup is prolific.”
4. The Archive Website!
“I always love the opportunity to be able to talk about http://archive.org because it is such a wonderful and free resource especially at a time like now when you’re looking for distractions.
It has millions of free downloads for music, movies, books, software, etc. One very popular example is that it is home to a very large catalog of Grateful Dead recordings
There is also The Internet Arcade where you can play a lot of classic games along with the Console Living Room which is similar. They have access to tons of old PC games too and you can even play the original Oregon Trail online. There’s a lot more in their software section too.
It also has The WayBack Machine which has archived more than 396 billion web pages saved over time so you can go back and see how websites were years ago. For example, here’s reddit on July 25, 2005 a month after it was created.”
3. Experimental Hip Hop
“Experimental hip hop, Japanese city pop and other genres of music mostly confined to the internet (in the West at least, city pop is still a thing in Japan).”
2. State Court Opinions
“Reading court opinions from (insert your state here) Court of Appeals.
I’ve learned so much about the legal system, precedence in proceedings, police interrogation, search and seizures and lots of other things.
I’ve also learned there are some seriously messed up people…more than I could have imagined.”
1. Webcomics (With Links)
“Webcomics, there’s a ton out there of every genre you could be into. Personally, fantasy is my favourite genre but I’ve found a ton of comics of many genres to enjoy.
I personally read uh, I assume, over 100 ongoing webcomics on multiple websites and platforms ?
Webtoons (App+Browser) is a great collection of comics which are all free to read, unless you want to pay to read a few episodes ahead, which will be released in a week’s time each, which I don’t do because there’s plenty of content from daily “Originals” updates + Canvas which is the more free model (no time limit once a week) for artists.
A few favourites from there:
Originals:
The Weight Of Our Sky, a historical fiction about a Malay girl, Melati, with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This is set during the time of the race riots in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1969. (These riots ended up in deaths of many hundred because of stupid racism.) I am personally really glad to know there is a webcomic with a realistic portrayal of OCD out there as I suffer from severe OCD (although a quite different type, contamination OCD). This comic is based on the novel of the same name which I am hoping to pick up some day soon.
Tower Of God is an ongoing comic that has been going on quite a while about a well built fantasy universe who’s inhabitants all supposedly live within a enormously large and tall tower. Within it live a large amount of different races, however, one boy is found very abnormal… A boy who came from outside of the tower with very great potential. This is such a well done and complex series that I’ve taken weeks to reread it twice, or thrice ? Can’t remember if it was 2 or 3 times lol
Spirit Fingers, a slice-of-life/drama webtoon about an average south korean teen, Amy Song, who finds herself a love of art and a great group of friends when she joins a colourful group of strangers in their sketching/croquis club.
As Baby Blue Finger, or Babl, Amy learns to grow from her experiences and find her own colour.
coLouR* (Canvas)
A supernatural/dark fantasy with psychological/cultural elements as well about an international organization that works closely with the supernatural, Asterisk. I find this international modern fantasy organization idea which even includes many different languages really interesting.
Tapas/Tapastic (also app+web) has more paid stuff sadly but some of which can be read freely on timers + as well a similar model of many free to read comics that are not “originals”, basically paid. Of course, I don’t think it’s bad to support artists, the money goes straight to them and all but I personally prefer saving my money in general, especially as they have free comic book days unlocking temporarily premium comics and such.
Out Of The Blue on tapas is one of my favourites there, about fishboy stuck in dam meets blindboy dam worker.
https://tapas.io/series/OutoftheBlue
The Witch’s Bakery is a very cozy fantasy comic about Granny Snap’s bakery, which she runs with her grandchildren, Dragon Snap and Ginger Snap.
https://tapas.io/series/The-Witchs-Bakery
Ultramarine Weather
Two childhood friends meet a weather witch who lost his memories.
https://tapas.io/series/ultramarineweather
https://www.howtobeawerewolf.com/ is about Mal, a werewolf who was bitten by a wolf as a kid and then become one. However, one day she actually meets another friendly werewolf, who sniffs her wolfyness after visiting the cafe she works at.
Oscar rented an old house off craigslist, then things got weird…
First it was meeting the ghost of a 1940s mathematician in the upstairs hallway, then it was finding a teenage werewolf in the bathtub. Now Oscar doesn’t know what will show up next. Maybe that’s okay, as long as nothing eats him.
Wilde Life is a supernatural adventure/horror series set in a small town in rural Oklahoma. It focuses on stories about creatures from Native American mythology as witnessed and documented by a journalist from Chicago, Illinois.
Independent comics:
Superhero comedy about a hero and mother who got back to superheroing after raising her kid some… however her daughter’s taken a lot after her.
Ava’s Demon (Also up on Webtoons Canvas, but I reccomend the website for the full experience, with all animations and animated backgrounds)
A gorgeous Sci-Fi/Fantasy adventure about, well, Ava and her demon who is literally inside of her. As she meets other vessels, and forms a pact with her demon after an incident… well… things change for her a lot. Including glowing skin and barfing lava.
https://www.colorlesscomic.com/
Colorless. Similarly to Ava’s Demon, this comic also uses animated scenes.
Colorless is a dark fantasy webcomic that follows the story of Joki, who wakes up in a supernatural city called Aisho, with no memories of previous events. He learns about the creatures lurking Aisho city’s streets and just how unwelcome humans are.
Ok since I have now taken like a hour to write this I better get uppp
Anyways, if anyone would like any other suggestions, I know these are mostly fantasy but I read many others including different topics too, feel free to ask for other recommendations!”
WOW! That took some time! Clearly, Redditors are speaking from experience. Hopefully, these rabbit holes provide you with much-needed relaxation and maybe some additional trivia.
Are there any rabbit holes or topics you might suggest? Want to add them to the comments?
Great! We’d love to kill time with your suggestions!
