Have you ever been crammed into the window seat in a plane and, while gazing down at the terra firma beneath you, noticed that there was a tiny hole in the window? According to Petter Hörnfeldt, aka Mentour Pilot, a Swedish commercial airline captain, those holes could one day save your life.

In a TikTok video, Hörnfeldt explains that there are three layers to the windows on a commercial airliner. The outside window is the strongest because it was designed “to handle any impacts as well as the pressure difference between the thin high altitude air outside of the plane and a pressurized air inside,” Hörnfeldt says.

Then there is the middle layer, with a tiny hole, designed to protect the outer layer. The final layer is the one you can touch or press your nose up against to see what you’re flying over.

@mentourpilotofficial What Are The Tiny HOLES in Aircraft Windows? #aviation #airplane #aircraft #pilot #mentourpilot ♬ original sound – Mentour Pilot

What Are The Tiny HOLES in Aircraft Windows? #aviation #airplane #aircraft #pilot #mentourpilot ♬ original sound – Mentour Pilot

Why do airplane windows have tiny holes?

“So why the hole then? Well, because there is air between those layers. Differences in pressure and temperature would otherwise start causing forces to build up between the layers, trying to bend them inwards or outwards, which is something that we obviously do not want, since especially the inner two layers are not designed to take those kind of forces. So that little hole is put there to allow air to flow through slowly and relieve that potential pressure difference. Hence the name breather hole,” Hörnfeldt says.

“Now, the inner window layer, the one that’s closest to you, doesn’t really need a hole because it’s fitted in a way that allows air to flow around it. But that breather hole also serves a different job, which is to make it more difficult for moisture to become trapped between the layers and start fogging up your window, stopping you from admiring the view outside,” Hörnfeldt continues.

In his most popular video, Hörnfeldt admitted that commercial airline pilots know when you’ve flushed the toilet on a plane.

Do pilots know when you flush the toilet on a plane?

@mentourpilotofficial Do Pilots Know When You Go to the Toilet? #Aviation #Pilots #aviationtiktok #Airplane MentourPilot ♬ original sound – Mentour Pilot – Mentour Pilot

Do Pilots Know When You Go to the Toilet? #Aviation #Pilots #aviationtiktok #Airplane MentourPilot ♬ original sound – Mentour Pilot – Mentour Pilot

According to Hörnfeldt, pilots don’t know that you’ve flushed a toilet based on an alert, security camera footage, or a sudden power surge. They know that the toilet has been flushed because of a slight change in cabin pressurization. Airplane toilets use a special vacuum flushing mechanism to suck the contents out. The vacuum system is calibrated to the cabin air pressure. “But that flushing actually does show up on our instruments as a sudden cabin climb on our cabin vertical speed indicator,” Hörnfeldt says. “So we can see it. And it kind of makes sense, if you think about it.”

Next time you see the tiny hole in an airplane window as you gaze upon your hometown at 35,000 feet, you know that it’s not a manfcatingring mistake. It’s here to keep you safe in a cabin with a pressurized system that also knows if you used the bathroom. Aren’t airplanes just incredible?

A single door can open up a world of endless possibilities. For homeowners, the front door of their house is a  gateway to financial stability, job security, and better health. Yet for many, that door remains closed. Due to the rising costs of housing, 1 in 3 people around the world wake up without the security of safe, affordable housing. 

Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has made it their mission to unlock and open the door to opportunity for families everywhere, and their efforts have paid off in a big way. Through their work over the past 50 years, more than 65 million people have gained access to new or improved housing, and the movement continues to gain momentum. Since 2011 alone, Habitat for Humanity has expanded access to affordable housing by a hundredfold. 

A world where everyone has access to a decent home is becoming a reality, but there’s still much to do. As they celebrate 50 years of building, Habitat for Humanity is inviting people of all backgrounds and talents to be part of what comes next through Let’s Open the Door, a global campaign that builds on this momentum and encourages people everywhere to help expand access to safe, affordable housing for those who need it most. Here’s how the foundation to a better world starts with housing, and how everyone can pitch in to make it happen. 

Globally, almost 3 billion people, including 1 in 6 U.S. families, struggle with high costs and other challenges related to housing. A crisis in itself, this also creates larger problems that affect families and communities in unexpected ways. People who lack affordable, stable housing are also more likely to experience financial hardship in other areas of their lives, since a larger share of their income often goes toward rent, utilities, and frequent moves. They are also more likely to experience health problems due to chronic stress or environmental factors, such as mold. Housing insecurity also goes hand-in-hand with unstable employment, since people may need to move further from their jobs or switch jobs altogether to offset the cost of housing. 

Affordable homeownership creates a stable foundation for families to thrive, reducing stress and increasing the likelihood for good health and stable employment. Habitat for Humanity builds and repairs homes with individual families, but it also strengthens entire communities as well. The MicroBuild® Initiative, for example, strengthens communities by increasing access to  loans for low-income families seeking to build or repair their homes. Habitat ReStore locations provide affordable appliances and building materials to local communities, in addition to creating job and volunteer opportunities that support neighborhood growth. 

Everyone can play a part in the fight for housing equity and the pursuit of a better world. Over the past 50 years, Habitat for Humanity has become a leader in global housing thanks to an engaged network of volunteers—but you don’t need to be skilled with a hammer to make a meaningful impact. Building an equitable future means calling on a wide range of people and talents.Here’s how you can get involved in the global housing movement:

Speaking up on social media about the growing housing crisis 

Volunteering on a Habitat for Humanity build in your local community

Travel and build with Habitat in the U.S. or  in one of 60   countries where we work around the globe

Join the Let’s Open the Door movement and, when you donate, you can create your own personalized door 

Shop or donate at your local Habitat ReStore

Every action, big and small, drives a global movement toward a better future. A safe home unlocks opportunity for families and communities alike, but it’s volunteers and other supporters, working together with a shared vision, who can open the door for everyone. 

Visit habitat.org/open-door to learn more and get involved today. 

After going into space for the first time, astronauts experience a profound shift in perspective known as the overview effect. When they look down on Earth, they no longer see borders, politics, or religion. Instead, they see a beautiful blue marble floating in space where everything on its surface is magically connected. After seeing the Earth from afar, many of humankind’s squabbles and battles seem petty and inconsequential. This incredible shift in perspective can be exhilarating, but also isolating.

The four astronauts who were aboard the recent Artemis II mission, NASA‘s first trip around the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, shared their experiences of the overview effect upon returning home on April 10. Astronaut Reid Wiseman struggled to find words to express his incredible, unique experience.

Seeing Earth from space was life-changing for astronaut Reid Wiseman

“I’m not really a religious person, but there was no other avenue for me to explain anything or experience anything,” Wiseman said. “So I asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship to just come visit us for a minute. When that man walked in, I’d never met him before in my life, but I saw the cross on his collar, and I just broke down in tears.”

Wiseman added that it is “very hard to fully grasp what we just went through.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid)

A post shared by Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid)

“When the sun eclipsed behind the moon, I turned to [astronaut Victor Glover] and said ‘I don’t think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we are looking at right now,’” Wiseman said.

Astronaut Jeremy Hansen also said that he had trouble “trying to find words” to describe his time in space accurately. “But what kept grabbing my attention, when the lighting was right, and we were looking out the window, is that I kept seeing this depth to the galaxy,” he said. “That was mind–blowing for me. The sense I had of fragility and feeling infinitesimally small.”

A thin blue line separates life on Earth from the darkness of space

Another profound realization astronauts have is that Earth’s atmosphere appears remarkably thin from space. “You see the thin blue line of the atmosphere, and then when you’re on the dark side of the Earth, you actually see this very thin green line that shows you where the atmosphere is,” Mission Specialist Christina Koch said, according to NASA. “What you realize is every single person that you know is sustained and inside of that green line, and everything else outside of it is completely inhospitable.”

Ultimately, when someone experiences a major shift in perspective, the important thing is how they incorporate it into their lives. “You come back to sea level, and then you have a choice,” Glover told NASA. “Are you going to try to live your life a little differently? Are you going to really choose to be a member of this community of Earth?”

When Jorge Alvarez arrived at Rutgers University as a first-generation college student, he couldn’t find anyone who looked like him, a Latino man, talking openly about mental health. “I felt very lost,” he later said. So he decided to be that change. He revived the Active Minds........

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