Lifehacker

If witnessing amazing natural phenomenon is something you enjoy, you need to see the northern lights at some point in your life. Formally known as aurora borealis, these colorful displays of light can be seen in many northern locations around the world. Here’s how they are produced, as Travel and Leisure describes:Read more...

We’ve all dealt with co-workers who are bad at their jobs, but very good at making their incompetence your problem—from the boss who over-promises, (only to expect you to do all of the work) to the co-worker who can’t quite do their job, (but is all too happy to pass their work off to you).Read more...

“How to chop an onion” is to food videos as “how to do a perfect cat eye” is to makeup tutorials; both have been done to death, yet people keep clicking, because both topics are critically important. And you never know when you might learn something new. I thought I was quite learned in the ways of onion slicing and…Read more...

If you have been thinking about learning a new skill or already have experience in the tech field, this week is a good chance to take online tech courses for free. From Oct. 10-16, the online tech learning platform Pluralsight is opening its more than 7,000 video and interactive courses for free. To gain access, you…Read more...

Nudity been a big deal in art and expression for millennia, as evidenced by its prominence among the world’s most famous and priceless works. Nudity has been also weirdly controversial, to one degree or another, for almost as long. (Rumor has it there is a room in the Vatican full of all the penises removed from…Read more...

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recalled falafels from the brand Earth Grown, which have been distributed across the United States for potentially having Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. The bacteria can cause illness if consumed, and symptoms include stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea, and vomiting.…Read more...

The iPhone 14 is less than a month old and it’s already stirring up software trouble. If you bought one, you may recall facing an immediate update as soon as you powered it on. Since then, Apple has apparently been hard at work, putting out other fires the iOS 16.0.2 update didn’t fix. That’s where iOS 16.0.3 comes in.

People love to argue about steak. It’s fun, because there are so many variables to disagree over: the cut (ribeye or New York?), the prep method (marinade or salt?), the cooking method (reverse sear? Sous vide? Simple pan basting?)...the possibilities for invective are endless.

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When my wife and I bought our house a few years ago, we were delighted by its century-old charm. Then I fell down the stairs—more than once. Upon sober inspection, it turned out our vintage stairs, designed and built in an era before concepts like “building codes” were a thing, were at an unusually steep incline, and…Read more...

Pull-apart bread never goes out of fashion—just ask any carb obsessed, bread baking nerd, like yours truly—but they’ve had a resurgence recently for those who don’t enjoy proofing dough for hours. Pull-apart bread is an easy, shareable, and cheap snack for your football-watching appetizer spread. Simply grab a tub of…Read more...

You might have given away your Facebook login info without meaning to, if you downloaded one of the more than 400 malicious apps designed to steal Facebook credentials from users. So it might be time to change your password.

Apple Music has its plusses, but most any user will admit Spotify’s playlists are a lot better. Traditionally, listening to a Spotify playlists requires you to use Spotify, which is not fun if you’re already paying for a different service. Luckily, there’s now a way for you to enjoy Spotify’s playlists within Apple…Read more...

It has been over a year since I started using MacroFactor, an app that calculates my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) in real time. It’s a paid app, but as we noted when it came out, there are free tools that handle the same calculations. And whatever the method you use to track your TDEE, the results can be…Read more...

Especially after the last few years, kids’ academic skill levels are all over the place. Depending on how well your child did with online learning (or whatever else was going on in their lives), your child’s reading level may not be at grade level. You may be wondering if this is “normal” or if something else is going…Read more...

I know you’ve been waiting for a long time, but now that President Biden has taken a big step toward federally decriminalizing marijuana, it might finally be time for you to try smoking weed. There’s really not much to it—seriously, any idiot can do it—but there’s still a few mistakes you should avoid so you don’t…Read more...

Raising teenagers is tough. They’re still dependent on you for their everyday needs, but they also have a mind of their own—so while you can nudge them in certain directions, there is only so much you can do if they refuse to do something. When it comes to schoolwork, you can tell them about the importance of working…Read more...

It’s annoying for your Mac to decide, “Hey, we’re not actually going to use this picture anymore,” and revert your wallpaper back to a system default automatically. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to stop your OS from going rogue.

A toxic work environment has a way of eating away at your self-confidence, to the point that even after you manage to escape, the effects can carry with you to the next job. Whether it’s an overly critical boss or a company culture that kept you in constant fear of losing your job, recovering from a toxic work…Read more...

Headaches can range from annoying to debilitating—and when it comes to treating them, you’ll want to use all of the available tools at your disposal, including both medication and non-medication options. While reaching for an over-the-counter headache medicine is an effective strategy, taking them too often can cause…Read more...

My two least favorite kitchen chores are cleaning out the fridge and taking out the trash. Both tend to be a little gross, involve some amount of bending over, and it’s hard to do the former without also doing the latter. I also tend to ignore both until they become un-ignorable, which makes these tasks grosser, and…Read more...

When it comes to fire safety, most people tend to fall into one of two categories: Those who are constantly concerned about fire hazards in their own home and any other buildings they enter (at which point they immediately mentally formulate an optimal escape path in the event of an emergency), and those with a…Read more...

Every season has its Instagrammable moments, but some of the most coveted shots of the year can only be captured during the fall—on the one day when the leaves are at their colorful peak and the temperature has dipped enough to be considered “sweater weather.” And out of all the fall activities, apple picking provides…Read more...

There’s more to buying a dishwasher than finding one that fits inside the rectangular hole under your kitchen counter. In fact, that’s only one of several calculations you should take into consideration when purchasing one of these labor-saving appliances. Physical size aside, buying a dishwasher that doesn’t fit…Read more...

If your online search history is littered with questions on how to clean a variety of surfaces and items, you’ve probably noticed that many of the instructions and tutorials that come up recommend using mild detergent or dish soap. It’s one of those terms that we see so often, but, when pressed, may find it hard to…Read more...

In the early days of the pandemic—back when many people were only leaving their homes when it was absolutely necessary—having any type of outdoor space made a big difference, and helped people feel less trapped. But some outdoor spaces are more pleasant than others: Especially ones that are basically extensions of the…Read more...

When it comes to household chores, few products are as handy and versatile as baking soda. From cooking to cleaning to deodorizing, it does so much for something that costs so little.Read more...

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You most likely won’t find a better opportunity than this: For its 10-year anniversary, the small studio of creatives and programmers from Escape Motions is celebrating by selling their creative apps for $10 until Oct. 13. The deal has been such a success that the website has crashed multiple times from high demand to…Read more...

A slick 55-inch 4K Smart TV for $112? Could that even be a real thing? It might be for Amazon Prime members: Last Thursday, Amazon released some of the deals members can expect to find during its Prime Early Access Sale, a two-day sale intended to kick off the holiday shopping season. And at the top of that list is …Read more...

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If you’ve ever spent any real time perusing your local hardware store, you have probably seen something called Plumber’s Putty on the shelves. Or maybe you hired a plumber to do some work and you spotted it among their tools and materials: It’s typically a compound with a base of clay or dough, combined with some…Read more...

With the amount of straight-up bad news we’re confronted with every day, it’s easy to feel like we’re living in the End Times—and maybe we are. We sure say we’re living in a dystopia often enough, throwing around words like “apocalypse” and “armageddon.” But what do those words mean? Are they the same thing? And what…Read more...

We tend to think that scams happen to other people, and that we’re too smart, informed, or cautious to fall for them. But we all have vulnerable moments when we can slip—it just takes the right message, item, or time. Lately, that’s been happening a lot on Zelle.

Andrew Dominik’s NC-17 Blonde has faced controversy since its inception: for its rating, for its source material (a highly fictionalized Joyce Carol Oates novel), and later for interviews with its director. A lot of things can sink a biopic: pedestrian plotting; bad performances; bad makeup; etc., but sometimes…Read more...

Automated Twitter accounts are responsible for a lot of spam, but there are exceptions. Twitter actually has some great bots that add helpful features, like adding color to photos, solving puzzles, and taking screenshots of tweets. Here are seven of our favorites.

Generally speaking, menopause, which is defined as going a full 12 months without a period, can happen anytime ranging between the late 30s to late 50s, with the average age being 52. In the time period leading up to menopause, which is known as perimenopause, the body can go through a number of changes, with this…Read more...

Maybe your child hates math. Maybe you did, too, when you were a kid, or you got so anxious about math tests that you had panic attacks. While math is hard for some children, there are some who do have an actual learning disability in math, called dyscalculia. We will go over the signs of dyscalculia, how to get…Read more...

After making a mistake, feeling guilt is a good thing—it means you have empathy. Sometimes our guilt is self-imposed and unhelpful, like after you let yourself relax and subsequently don’t feel productive enough. Other times, guilt is a powerful motivator to do better going forward, like after you fail to make time…Read more...

It’s officially pumpkin season, and you know what that means. If you’re a parent in suburbia, not only will you go to a pumpkin patch to enjoy a hayride, corn maze, apple cider donuts, and pay $117 to shlep pumpkins across a giant field, you will also wonder: When can I carve these bad boys to get maximum…Read more...

Interior design trends reflect the times we live in, and nearly three years into a pandemic that’s made eating at restaurants pretty risky, it’s no surprise that kitchen renovations are high on the wish list for many people. In particular, so-called “hidden” or “invisible” kitchens have gotten quite popular over the…Read more...

Halloween is coming, and things are getting very weird. Rapper Lil Yachty is taking a walk to Poland, and TikTokers are putting pumpkins on their heads, buying all the skeletons on earth, and making their pets into demons. Oh, and NFT marketers are entering the TikTok-sphere to lie to kids about the metaverse.

Just like with acne and angst, hickeys don’t necessarily disappear after adolescence. Hickeys are mocked as a teenage whim, but any adult with a healthy sex life knows all too well what it’s like to realize you have an unseemly bruise on your neck. And as adults, we should know what’s fact and what’s fiction when it…Read more...

Google’s highly anticipated Pixel Watch is finally here. After years of speculation, scrapped prototypes, and a Fitbit acquisition, the company has a smartwatch of its own, neatly integrated with its line of Pixel devices. What sets it apart from the competition? What does it do? Here’s everything you need to know…Read more...

One of things everyone loves about their air fryer is how it can make foods crispy without using a ton of oil. This does not, however, prevent people from adding some oil to their food. After all, fat is flavor, and there can be some anxiety over things sticking to the basket tray.Read more...

You might find yourself wondering from time to time: Why is it always you who constantly gets spammed with emails while your buddy Steve—who doesn’t even take the time to unsubscribe from spammy emails—gets to seemingly live his life spam-headache free? The answer isn’t that Steve is just lucky; it’s that you might be…Read more...

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Getting a personal phone call from the Commander in Chief’s office would be impressive, and even better if it’s about forgiving your student loans. Unfortunately, President Joe Biden is not calling you or anyone else to forgive student loans over the phone. It’s a scam.

I’m never going to find buried treasure—that would take a lot of work, and I can’t even find my car keys—but perhaps you are a more meticulous, industrious type. If so, there is nothing stopping you from locating one of history’s most important lost artifacts (except that you don’t know where any lost artifacts…Read more...