Lifehacker

If you cook with charcoal, you need a charcoal chimney. It’s not that you can’t get your coals hot without one, but using one really speeds up the process, and ensures your coals are consistently scorching every time. Even with a chimney, it takes about half an hour to get them white hot and ready to grill. Instead of…Read more...

Google Bard might not have the catchiest name, but it is powered by one of the biggest names in tech. That makes Bard a major player in the AI space, alongside other giants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing Chat. Now, Google is rolling out new features to Bard, including updates it announced last week at its…Read more...

As a mom, I will always, always appreciate the thoughtfulness of a gift of flowers from my children. Unfortunately, I have no idea what to do with a flower that is smaller than a blade of grass and that I have been instructed to treasure forever. Until now.Read more...

You too, can be one of those people who confidently springs into action when there is a person in need: Save a Life and the National Health Care Provider Solutions (NHCPS) created a non-profit organization to certify people around the world with five different life-saving certifications and re-certifications, which,…Read more...

When it comes to deciding how much cash you should keep in your checking account, the right amount depends on your financial situation. That being said, there’s a good chance that one you hit $5,000 in checking (that is, $5,000 in liquid assets), your money could be put to better use elsewhere.Read more...

Marinated artichoke hearts aren’t quite a pickle, but they feel spiritually aligned with them. They’re a great accent to add to sandwiches, pizza, salads, or antipasti platters, and they come packed in a flavorful liquid that’s part brine and part oil, and is flavored with various seasonings. That liquid isn’t a…Read more...

OpenAI’s ChatGPT kicked off what feels like an AI revolution that isn’t slowing down anytime soon. While other big tech companies, like Google and Microsoft, have entered the AI arena, the conversation is still all about ChatGPT. And that probably won’t change after this week, since OpenAI just rolled out two huge…Read more...

I have a friend who insists on paying for group dinners with his credit card, and the rest of us paying him back. His goal, of course, is to be “the one to get all the points.” When I pressed him on how he maximizes all those hundreds of thousands of points (we eat out a lot), he revealed his grand plan to save up his…Read more...

For as much as they try to enhance it, emails also hamper our productivity a lot. Not only do endless emails bog you down and keep you stuck in a loop of endless replies, but the stress of even having to wade through both the important messages and the junk is enough to make you avoid your inbox altogether. To stay on…Read more...

Whenever you buy something, you’ve already been on the receiving end of somebody trying to sell it to you. They put in effort to make it look really amazing, and you start thinking about all the ways your life will be better if you have it. You’ll look stylish in that coat. You’ll run all your errands on that bicycle.…Read more...

Upgrading your home’s windows is one of the best ways to make your heating and cooling system more efficient and save on utility bills. In the short-term, though, new windows can come with some sticker-shock. Even on the low-end of the average, windows can cost upwards of $300 each, and upgrades necessary to…Read more...

There is so much to do in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but you don’t have to do any of it if you’d rather just fuck around and make weird shit. And certainly many players are coming up with amazing contraptions using the game’s in-depth crafting and physics systems.

The zoo or aquarium is supposed to be a place for children to learn more about the natural world. But over the last few years, the creatures that reside in these sanctuaries have inspired the names of several parenting styles, with tigers, jellyfish, and dolphins dominating the kingdom.Read more...

This Friday, May 19, a rare “black moon” will rise in the nighttime sky, signaling the start of a new age when bloodshed and chaos will reign upon the Earth. OK, the part about “bloodshed and chaos” probably isn’t true, but the black moon is still a neat astronomical rarity, and its presence makes this Friday a…Read more...

Fixer-uppers may typically be considered the domain of house flippers, but prospective homeowners are also getting into the game of buying and restoring properties in need of TLC.

Earlier this year, we told you about a tax credit loophole for the Chevy Bolt that allowed you to buy the vehicle a net price of $19,995 after a tax credit, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). While you can still get that deal today (keep in mind the Bolt line has been discontinued), many electric…Read more...

If you’ve been one of the many Nintendo fans playing through The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom this week, you no doubt have had a blast returning to Hyrule, exploring Sky Islands, and building crazy shit. You might notice, however, that the game takes some more frequent frame rate dips than its predecessor.…Read more...

We’ve told you before about a few ways you can take a video even while playing music from your phone. The app Mideo is a mainstay on my home screen for this reason. If I’m recording a lifting workout in my garage, I’ll use the app so that I can still listen to Hit it Hard by Peaches during my heavy squats. (It helps,…Read more...

From the life-threatening irony department: General Motors is recalling almost a million SUVs due to a defect in their airbag inflators that could cause them to explode during airbag deployment after a crash, shooting metal fragments into the car’s interior and potentially causing injury or death to its occupants.

It is common knowledge that I, Claire Lower, enjoy McDonald’s and their many fine products. The fries, when hot and fresh, are perfect, the Diet Coke is the coldest and fizziest in the game, and their double cheeseburgers are a cheesy, savory, known and predictable commodity. And, when their ice cream machine isn’t…Read more...

Every college scholarship application seems to ask the same questions, or at least variations on the same themes. Why do you deserve this honor? What obstacles have you overcome? What’s your birthdate?Read more...

The headline may sound familiar—that’s because the same potentially contaminated baby formula product recalled back in March “out of abundance of caution” somehow still made it out to a Nashville, Tenn. retailer, which further distributed it to eight states.Read more...

Some folks leave the nest with a solid education in cooking for themselves. Some folks move away from home and can barely microwave a frozen burrito without the risk of burning the house down. Luckily for those of us in the latter camp, meal kits exist.

I love eggplant, but I don’t like futzing with eggplant. I’m not big on soaking, and only salt it half of the time, not because I think I’m too good for all that, but because I’m lazy. Historically, my favorite eggplant cooking method is frying it hot and fast on a of scattering of salt, but my waffle maker has its…Read more...

Neighbors complimenting my garden is 97% of why I grow things to begin with. And when I found Cynthia Stringham and her flower walls on Instagram, I thought, “If you want to get neighbors to comment on your yard, this is how you do it.”

Drip irrigation systems make sense on a number of levels. Because you’re watering exactly where you need to, you’re watering as much as 70% less. That’s because, as you hand water, a lot of what you’re watering is the tops of plants, which generally don’t need or benefit from it. Plants need water at the roots, which…Read more...

Tech startup Telly is making a a huge bet: The company’s business model involves giving away a dual-screen, 55”, 4K TV, plus a sound-bar and a teleconferencing camera, music software, games, and more, to the first half a million people who ask for one. Free tech? Score!

A fine dessert doesn’t always have to be elaborate, or even pretend to be. There’s something a bit fancy about a sweet that owns its simplicity, and parades around in its thrown-togetherness. This four-ingredient crisp is proud, confident, and simultaneously nothing special (in a girl-next-door, no-makeup sort of…Read more...

As much as I like the idea of affirmations, I’ve never felt anything but corny when saying “I can do it!” or any of the other types of positive self-talk that are supposed to motivate me. I have a pair of shoes with “I am enough” printed on the insoles, and I get inexplicably angry anytime I read that message. It…Read more...

If you’re overwhelmed, intimidated, or frustrated by your to-do list or daily routine, this tiny trick might help. You just need to think a little lazier.Read more...

Reducing food waste is an important issue that many people care about, but even the most combative eco-warrior would hesitate to chug a glass of past-its-prime milk. Would a large percentage of those naysayers eat a beautifully plated wedge of spoiled milk (cheese)? Absolutely, myself included.

You can baby your new phone all you want, but sometimes, shit just breaks. Case or no case, screen protector or not—one bad fall marks doom for your Pixel. Traditionally, the move has been to take a broken phone to a repair shop, or the company that made it. But like more and more companies slowly but surely, Google…Read more...

Across all of social media, I keep encountering a certain brand of annoying influencer behavior. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok—all are packed with videos that feature someone (usually a white woman) subjecting fruits and vegetables to an elaborate cleaning and repackaging process, supposedly immediately upon arriving…Read more...

If you’ve been trying to improve your posture and you just can’t seem to do it, let me introduce you to what might be a surprising idea: the way you stand, or the way you sit in your chair at work or school, may not actually matter at all. Or at least not in the way you think it does.

At their simplest, pancakes are relatively mild in flavor. Yet, somewhere down the line, this breakfast quick bread took a hard left to near dessert status. Pancake recipes vary, but most of them include one to three tablespoons of sugar per batch, and flavors that we associate with sweetness, like cinnamon, vanilla,…Read more...

Here’s my two cents: The financial advice doled out by “experts” on TikTok or personal finance “gurus” on Instagram is always going to be a little shitty. Even if what they are telling you isn’t egregiously wrong or an attempt at scamming you, it’s probably oversimplified.Read more...

You might think that learning and mastering one concept at a time is the best way to practice and retain it—but there’s actually a better method. It’s time to stop learning bit by bit and work instead on learning concepts in a way that helps you relate them to other ideas, the way they work together in the real world. …Read more...

If there’s one thing we can all agree on in these divisive times, it’s that food prices are too damn high. As long as you’re in the segment of the population that knows how much a gallon of milk costs, you’ve probably spent the last few years trying different strategies to stretch your grocery budget as far as it will…Read more...

Spreadsheets suck, am I right? Actually, I don’t know. In my line of work, I’ve thankfully avoided the need to use Excel or Google Sheets much. I do most of my writing in a CMS, not the cells of a spreadsheet. But I know many of you use spreadsheets, perhaps with varying levels of enthusiasm. Whether you enjoy working…Read more...

Dating is confusing even at the best of times. Factor in the machinations of a love bomber, and you’ll be left scratching your head for days analyzing their over-the-top behavior and professions of love.

Like everything that costs money, hotel stays have gotten more expensive. But what you see is not necessarily what you have to settle for if you join HotelSlash, a search and booking engine that tracks prices and alerts you to deals and discounts on your existing reservations.Read more...

Video dating started as a necessity during the pandemic, but it’s quickly become a norm. Most dating apps now include audio messages, video messages, or even video calls on their platforms. It not only makes sense but also saves a lot of time, says Zachary Zane, author of Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto and sex expert…Read more...

Tickling your tomato blossoms and brushing your squash flowers probably aren’t regular tasks on your gardening to-do list, but it turns out that hand pollination, in league with natural processes, can actually increase your yield on lots of staple garden veggies.Read more...

Being intimidated at the gym is normal. So normal that the hashtag #shygirlworkout on TikTok has racked up over 370 million views to date. The videos aren’t just trendy but tap into the reality of the anxiety that many people—particularly women—experience while working out at the gym.Read more...

Modern parents are ill-prepared to deal with threats to their families from the fairy kingdom. Kobolds, elves, goblins, pixies, and other fey creatures have a long history of stealing human infants and replacing them with uafs (or oafs), creatures that look like babies, but which are actually sinister monsters with…Read more...

Giant salt flakes are the cool kids of food pop culture. It makes sense, they make a great snacking salt, but they’ve managed to siphon away attention from the other, more subtle forms of sodium chloride. You don’t always have to flaunt your flakes. Sometimes big flakes are too aggressive, or a sprinkle of table salt…Read more...

Early in the pandemic, as people were desperately searching for toilet paper, I was whining about a far less critical asset: SodaStream canisters. They’d become impossible to source, and the bubbly liquid I’d become addicted to was replaced by sad tap water.

Although the law banning the installation of lead pipes in the United States took effect in 1988, that still leaves many homes across the country with plumbing that may contain lead. So, how can you determine if yours is one of them? Here’s what to know about lead pipes, and how to tell if your home has them.Read more...

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted large numbers of city dwellers to reconsider their housing choices, with many opting to move out of their cramped apartments, and into houses with outdoor space and parking. People bought homes for other reasons as well, and before long, there was a serious lack of …Read more...

Pulling weeds growing in your garden, yard, flower beds, or between the cracks in your driveway is tedious work—especially when they seem to grow back overnight.Read more...