Lifehacker

If it feels like your mail has been slower to arrive this month, it’s not your imagination (nor is it your mail carrier being lazy). The U.S. Postal Service has been delivering First-Class Mail more slowly since new service standards were enacted on Oct. 1; and at the same time, it’s raising prices for sending…Read more...

How often do you think about your iPhone’s display? Unless you’re a tech nerd (like me), or living with a shattered display (like me in the past), you might not ever give it much thought. Otherwise, it looks nice—what more do you need to know? But you don’t need to be a geek to care about your iPhone’s display. In…Read more...

I don’t know if it’s an east coast Italian thing, a Calabrian thing, or what, but my boyfriend’s Italian family is not into butter as a cooking fat. They are an olive oil family, a fact I learned when I made the man a spaghetti dinner with Marcella Hazan’s three-ingredient tomato sauce with butter and onion.

If you spend any time on Twitter or other social media platforms, you’re bound to encounter words that you usually learn in therapy. “Gaslighting” is one. “Toxic” is another that is thrown around so often it has started to lose its meaning. And lately, a new contender has entered the ring: “Parasocial relationship.”Read more...

Though slightly below projections, No Time to Die’s opening weekend box office grosses in the US—coming hot on the heels of Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s positively pre-pandemic $90-million weekend—suggest people are indeed getting more comfortable with heading back to movie theaters (whether that’s a good idea or…Read more...

A hexagon shelf can hold anything from cell phones to succulents, and even better, it can be built from scrap wood. It’s a clever, stylish way to upcycle any wood that’s leftover from home repair projects, and just might save you a trip to IKEA (plus you’ll earn bragging rights).Read more...

Imposter syndrome—that is, when a person doubts their abilities, in spite of their accomplishments—can create a considerable amount of anxiety, fear, and depression, and it can lead to burnout in the workplace. But sometimes, what might be perceived as “imposter syndrome” is actually the result of a toxic or biased…Read more...

With the iOS 15 update, Apple is improving the Find My feature even further. This feature normally lets you find, locate, and erase lost Apple devices—but now, certain iPhones that are running iOS 15 will be trackable even after the iPhone is switched off (which is the first thing that a thief does). How does it work?…Read more...

The human body is one of the weirdest things around. We’re full of all kinds of squishy fluids, we got our start as a single cell, and we each have a skeleton inside of us. But the weirdness doesn’t stop there: Here are 14 strange facts about the human body that you probably never realized.

With travel bans, increased airline cancellations, and general uncertainty related to the Delta variant, people are booking overlapping vacations to ensure that they’ll be able to travel—what’s known as “trip stacking.” Basically, it’s a back-up plan that ensures you’ll still travel on the days you’ve already booked…Read more...

When discussing cleaning chimneys, it’s hard not to picture a singing-and-dancing Dick Van Dyke and his unique interpretation of a Cockney accent stepping-in-time on the rooftops of London in “Mary Poppins.”Read more...

Those of us who grew up trick-or-treating in the days before the internet had to rely on word-of-mouth, or memories and/or notes from the previous year to help stake out the best Halloween houses. But even then, a house that gave out full bars (in this case, full candy bars) one year might switch to pencils or pennies…Read more...

Though a gallon of paint is technically supposed to cover 400 square feet, that’s not always the case. Plus, you may be painting a space and not know exactly how big it is. Either way, it can be easy to incorrectly estimate how much paint you need for a project, and end up with some leftover when you’re done.Read more...

Remember when deciding whether or not to fly somewhere for work, a family visit, or a vacation wasn’t a moral dilemma, or a choice that could end up having a profound impact on your life and health? And remember how so many other people were traveling within the United States that there was a special line for those…Read more...

Smoke—whether from a cigarette or fire—has an odor that lingers. No matter how much Febreze you spritz, or how many times you wash your hair, that distinctive aroma can seem like it isn’t going anywhere. But that’s not necessarily the case. In an article for Livescience, Katie Treharne shares some strategies for…Read more...

There is no right or wrong way to grieve. Everyone process a loss in their own way, and on their own time. Grief is also very sneaky: You may think you have dealt with it, only to find that a certain song, scent, or memory causes you to experience the sting of loss all over again.Read more...

Dave Chappelle’s latest (and allegedly final) Netflix special The Closer has yet again sparked controversy around the comedian’s determination to keep pushing boundaries with transphobia and homophobia. (Brave!) If this feels familiar, it’s because it is. In response to this special, several trans staffers at Netflix…Read more...

Ask anyone “what they did during the pandemic” and they will most likely rattle off a few hobbies or newly acquired interests. Maybe they got really into making their own kombucha, or learned a new instrument. Or maybe, if they’re like me, they collected several vintage pornography posters.Read more...

In each gardener’s life, there will come a time when you are just throwing shit in jars and are ready to be done. You’ve eaten warm ripe tomatoes until your heart burned, you’ve started handing armfuls of green beans to passersby, and you’ve accepted the fennel just isn’t going to bulb this year. That time is (checks…Read more...

First, allow me to manage your expectations: This is not a comprehensive fall deep-cleaning cleaning checklist. There’s nothing complete or ultimate about it (because frankly those lists give us anxiety).

Arched bench press is second only to sumo deadlifting in sparking angry online debates about what is the right way to do an exercise. So, just as we did with sumo, we’re going to discuss the pros and cons of the arch, and guide you to a decision about what you should do in the gym, and whether or not it’s worth…Read more...

Want to unlock your iPhone with just your voice? Yes, there’s a way to make it happen, as we discovered on TikTok. And no, it doesn’t require you to talk to Siri either. Confused? We’ll show you how to unlock your iPhone using a voice command of your choice, but also why you should only treat this one like a party…Read more...

I take forever to get ready, and I’m chronically late. I don’t like these two facts about me, but facts they are. It’s gotten to the point where even my dream life has been impacted; I can’t tell you how many movie premieres, clandestine meetings with revolutionaries, private jet trips to exotic places, and (my own)…Read more...

It feels like drinking and dating are inextricably intertwined. First dates are often at bars, or at least at restaurants where the parties can order a cocktail to quell their nerves and help them open up. Some coffee shops and movie theaters even serve alcohol. But as ubiquitous as drinking seems, there are plenty of…Read more...

There are a couple of interesting meteor showers to watch for in October: First comes the modest Draconid, which will warm you up for the more impressive Orionid later in the month. Here’s how to see them both from the Northern Hemisphere.

Has anything once cool ever so quickly become less cool than inline skating? Back in the early 1990s, in the wake of the fitness boom of the ‘80s, Americans were still desperate to glom onto any fitness craze that came along, spurred on by those twin pillars of capitalism—consumerism and feeling like something is…Read more...

Your MacBook’s keyboard is probably even more delicate than you think. Of course, one unlucky spill could knock out your whole computer, but even crumbs could mean death for your keys. It might be tempting to put a keyboard cover on your computer to keep both the keys and the MacBook protected, but as it turns out,…Read more...

Defensiveness is a natural reaction when we feel attacked. It makes sense that we want to defend ourselves from physical harm or verbal criticism and blame. In conversations, though, defensiveness can quickly derail any hopes of understanding and moving forward. It’s even considered by relationship researchers John…Read more...

You’ve probably heard that the IRS will never call you under any circumstances, and that anyone claiming to be an agent from the agency is trying to scam you. That’s a myth—the IRS actually might call you, especially when there’s a large backlog of tax returns like we’re dealing with now. Yet scams are rampant, too—so…Read more...

With K-pop leading the way, South Korean art and culture have become incredibly popular globally in the last few years. Netflix, for at least the past year, has been acquiring South Korean dramas by the dozens, with some only just beginning their runs. Squid Game represents a new milestone—a move away from niche with…Read more...

A seamless backup and restore process is one of the key advantages of the Apple ecosystem, and that extends to the Apple Watch as well: If you’re switching from an older model to a new one, you can easily restore all of your watch faces and data. But the process of backing up your Apple Watch is a little different…Read more...

If you enjoy gaming, you likely have friends who enjoy it, too. However, you probably also have people in your life who, well, don’t. No matter which of your favorite games you try to entice them to play, they just aren’t into it. Look, you might never get these friends into Dark Souls or Overwatch, but there are…Read more...

Being in a relationship with a narcissist, whether it’s a significant other, friend, or co-worker, can have an effect that lasts for years, if not a lifetime. The same is true for being raised by a narcissist, although in this case, since the relationship is during a person’s formative years, the effects can be…Read more...

You have to give props to young gamers—they want to play a Squid Game video game, and rather than wait around for it to appear, they’re making it on their own.

A good scary movie makes us afraid of its ghosts; a great one sees ghosts for what they are: specters of the past. That past can be horrific—filled with darkness that we can never quite outrun. Ghosts can also be seductive, drawing us back to a past that we ought to have outgrown, teasing us with the idea that we can…Read more...

We need to get rid of outer space—it’s too dark and too terrifying, and everything out there wants to kill us. Yet some of our most popular billionaires seem convinced that rocketing humanity off into the stars is a more viable longterm survival strategy than simply trying a little less hard to ruin the one planet…Read more...

The choice to go vegan often comes with the pressure to be perfect. There’s no denying that the vegan community has a...particular reputation. And look—I’ve never been someone who is inherently against eating animals. But even for those of us concerned with the meat industry’s impact on climate change and the rights…Read more...

Um, I’m sorry. Did I just read that we lose approximately 30,000 to 40,000 dead skin cells every minute? Totaling about nine pounds of dead skin cells a year? Much to my dismay, yes. And where, pray tell, do these dead skin cells land after I take a gloriously scorching shower? On my towel of course.

For years, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program has struggled to actually forgive student loan debt. But yesterday, the Biden administration announced changes that will immediately erase student loan debt for roughly 22,000 borrowers—and will help hundreds of thousands more reach loan forgiveness sooner…Read more...

You’ve no doubt been carving pumpkins since you were a kid, but there is a level of jack-o’-lantern art far beyond the triangles that plebes slash out of gourds. If you want to enter the rarified air of fine-art pumpkin-carving (or even just get better at picking the right pumpkin), we have some tips from one of the…Read more...

The price of lumber has put many home and craft projects on hold in recent months—but big box home improvement stores aren’t your only option when you’re looking to buy the wood you need. Reclaimed and recycled lumber can be rescued from scrap bins, roadsides, and garages more easily than you might think; and r…Read more...

“No shady privacy policies or back doors for advertisers. Just a lightning fast browser that doesn’t sell you out.” That’s the quote you see from Mozilla when you go to download Firefox for the first time. The company advertises itself as the superior choice for protecting yourself while browsing the internet, but a …Read more...

When I was six, my mom moved from Mississippi to Los Angeles with me and my sisters, and I discovered a whole new world of children’s entertainment. In addition to the Empire of the Mouse, there were water parks, museums, and orchestral performances, all geared towards the children. I, for my part, really wanted to go…Read more...

Are you an uber-organized minimalist whose kitchen looks like Marie Kondo and Pinterest’s love child? We applaud you. If your kitchen resembles more of a disturbing way station for stuffed animals, mail, hairbrushes, stickers, and disembodied Legos, we...have a friend whose kitchen is exactly like that. While we don’t…Read more...

FAFSA—the Free Application for Federal Student Aid—opened on Oct. 1 for the 2022-2023 academic year. Yet every year, many high school grads leave money on the table by not filling out forms like the FAFSA. Maybe you think you don’t qualify for aid, or that it’s simply a waste of time. According to CNBC, this kind of…Read more...

Demons can be a little hard to define, and sometimes in horror the term is used as a catch-all for anything that isn’t a ghost, werewolf, witch, vampire, or other readily definable monster. Satan is sometimes in the mix, but only sometimes.Read more...

Because I am a morbid ghoul, Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I put together a couple of Halloween playlists to share both the joy and the horror. The first is filled with compulsory Halloween spooky-hits designed to get all the boys and ghouls on the dance floor, like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Stevie…Read more...

If you have an iPhone, and your friends mostly have iPhones, you probably use Apple’s Messages app to communicate with them. That’s the nature of things. And aside from the platform’s convenience and ubiquity, one of the iMessage platform’s selling points is that its end-to-end encryption should theoretically ensure…Read more...

Most of us learn not to lie to our parents from a very early age, but if your folks suffer from dementia, lying might actually be the most caring thing you can do. More than 90 percent of surveyed geriatric care managers recommend caregivers use benevolent half-truths as part of an overall strategy of caring for…Read more...

When it comes to time off, it turns out that too much might actually be as stressful as too little—at least according to this new study that suggests there’s a “sweet spot” of how much free time you should have in a day. The research suggests that people start to feel unproductive and even stressed out if they have…Read more...