Lifehacker

When I was a younger man and surviving on budget liquors and hot dogs, getting a “nice” bottle of liquor was a pretty big deal. My natural instinct was to save these gifts; after a sample, I would reverently put the bottle on a high shelf and limit my interactions to gazing lovingly at it and breaking it out for…Read more...

Some families are Greeting Card Families—that is, when an occasion rolls around, be it yearly (birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and the like) or a milestone (graduation, wedding, new home, etc), the cards flood the mailbox. As a member of a Greeting Card Family, I appreciate receiving a piece of mail that lets me…Read more...

Most dyslexic people are diagnosed in childhood, but the disorder can be overlooked and remain untreated into adulthood, which can lead to a different set of symptoms and struggles. There’s more to dyslexia than the common assumption that it simply makes people mirror or flip letters in their brains. Numerous other…Read more...

Rejoice, for today is World Password Day! You don’t get a day off work, but you do get a reminder that your security is likely at great risk. If you recycle the same password for multiple accounts (don’t lie, I know you do), or you use simple passwords because they’re “easy to remember,” you need World Password Day.

Following a recent system update, the PlayStation 5 finally supports VRR (variable refresh rate). VRR is a video setting that dynamically adjusts your TV or monitor’s refresh rate to match a game’s FPS (frames per second). This prevents annoying graphical issues like dropped frames, hitching, and screen tearing that…Read more...

Uh-oh: You have to go to court. Whether you’re a plaintiff, defendant, lawyer, or witness, the results of your trial might depend, at least in part, on how you conduct yourself in that stress-inducing room. As anyone who’s been tuning into the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial knows, courtroom behavior gets people…Read more...

This time next year, the United States government will require U.S. travelers to use REAL ID compliant identification to board domestic flights and enter certain federal facilities. In layman’s terms, this means you’ll no longer be able to board a plane using your standard-issue driver’s license.

If you’re trying to get views on social media, it’s hard to do it by telling people things they already know are true. Instead, you’ve got to surprise them: crunches are bad now, raw meat is good for you, and sunscreen—plain old uncontroversial sunscreen—is now supposedly causing cancer.Read more...

Rarely do I go to bed without something playing on my iPhone, usually a YouTube video. The problem is, I need to make sure the video is long enough for me to fall asleep to, but not so long it wakes up me down the line. Plus, I need to make sure autoplay is disabled, otherwise YouTube will be running through my…Read more...

When assessing a potential long-term partner, many factors must be considered. Their values, emotional management, political leanings—and so much more. One facet that sometimes gets glossed over in new relationships is the subject of money. While you don’t want to kill the vibe by inquiring how much student debt they…Read more...

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Even if your kids eat meat fairly regularly, you may be on a mission to get more plant-based snacks and meals into the regular rotation. At the very least, they may bring home a non-meat-eating friend for a playdate one of these days, and it’s nice to be prepared to hand over something filling and delicious for them…Read more...

You’ve taken the leap and scheduled a first appointment with a therapist. Maybe it’s your first-ever session with anyone, or your last session was years ago, or you’re nervous about switching to a new therapist. Whatever your exact circumstances, you have a calendar appointment to physically (or virtually) sit on a…Read more...

Odds are at some point in your life, you’re going to experience a five-ish year period where you’re getting invited to a bachelor or bachelorette party seemingly every few months. It’s going to be a Groundhog Day-esque scenario where every morning you wake up at your local airport waiting at the gate to fly to…Read more...

While most people have the capacity to have empathy, to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and feel what they feel, empaths feel other people’s feelings or physical sensations as if they are their own. When a child is an empath, it can be confusing for them and often disregulating. As a parent, it can be hard to…Read more...

Insects, spiders, and other small, many-legged creatures—which I will refer to from here on as “bugs,” and will accept no corrections on that point—belong outdoors. Mostly.

As with so much that’s great and terrible about modern pop culture, Star Wars started it all. A clever pun with ties to Margaret Thatcher (read on) gradually evolved into the theme for a made-up holiday now celebrated with at least as much passion as many “real” ones—like Labor Day, it’s really the sales that get…Read more...

Windows 10 gained a bad reputation when it came to updates—the internet is full of frustrated anecdotes about Windows rebooting to install an update at exactly the wrong time, like right when you’re about to start a presentation, or when you’re working on a tight deadline. This is one of the things that Microsoft…Read more...

After you’ve finished eating or juicing an orange, your first instinct might be to throw the remnants away. Of course, what you do with your own food scraps is your business, but you should know that orange peels have so much more to give—especially if you have a garden.Read more...

Have you ever looked at the tag on a plant at your local garden center and been perplexed that it says something like “Zones 5-9”? This number refers to the “hardiness zones” defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that act as a guide to which plants will survive best in which regions of the country. While there…Read more...

Every time a major social justice issue is in the news, the infographics come. You’ll see the same bright, flashy, eye-catching boxes of text shared to numerous friends’ Instagram Stories. Your friends are signaling their interest in a topic and making it clear where they stand—but is that really helpful? There is…Read more...

Being the parent of a young child is hard enough, even before factoring in the additional challenges of living through a global pandemic. And so far this year, that has included a shortage of baby formula.Read more...

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I will begin with a caveat. First and foremost: Please, by all means, get whatever the mother in your life has expressly asked for (or hinted at). Whether it be alone time, a massage, concert tickets, or a new bracelet, oblige. Get her something she loves, cherishes, or covets.

Mozilla just dropped Firefox version 100, and there are several new features to mark the browser’s milestone update including new accessibility options, easier payments, stronger browsing security, and more. The features are split between Firefox’s desktop and mobile versions, so we’ll cover them in their own separate…Read more...

Ferns are nice and all, but they aren’t exactly dynamic. If you’re a person who demands action from your houseplants or wants truly deadly greenery, you should consider growing a carnivorous plant. They look pretty, and as a bonus, these houseplants-that-should-not-be violate generally agreed upon rules of nature.…Read more...

Abortion has always been a major debate in the United States, but it’s about to hit a fever pitch because of a draft opinion leaked this week that shows the Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Everyone knows what abortion is, but before you run straight into a debate with…Read more...

I don’t know who invented the crouton, but they nailed it. Putting a bunch of bread onto a bunch of raw vegetables not only makes that pile of plant matter better tasting and more texturally interesting, it cuts down on bread waste, as the best croutons are made from stale bread.Read more...

It’s normal and expected to be irritable sometimes—when we’re overly tired, when our environment is too loud, when we sit in gridlock, or when someone steals our thunder at work. In some instances, like a traffic jam, there’s nothing we can do to change the circumstances—all we can do is consciously modulate our…Read more...

Traveling alone can be a deeply rewarding, restorative experience. I’m a huge proponent of solo travel. I’ve logged alone time in Cambodia, Germany, Montana, and who knows how many layovers in between. I’m not saying I’ve “found myself” in all these new places, but I’ve certainly learned how to enjoy my own company.…Read more...

For the longest time, it was standard practice to buy a new phone every two years. Some companies even tried to make swapping out your phone once a year the norm. However, the phones of today don’t slow to a crawl after one or two years like they used to. Hardware has progressed to a point where a device can continue…Read more...

If you checked your holiday calendar this morning, you already know we are in the midst of the Parent Teacher Association’s National Teacher Appreciation Week. While many retailers are offering limited-time offers as their way of saying thanks to America’s 3.2 million educators, here are ten companies that offer…Read more...

Divorce is the big “D” word that no one in a marriage wants to think about—but we all know it happens, even to couples whose relationship was once happy and strong. If you’ve been struggling with your relationship—or you’re just someone who’d rather be proactive than reactive when it comes to your marriage—you might…Read more...

I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy because I love it when books take me to new worlds or imagine new realities, but there’s something to be said for writing that connects you with the places you already know. Few things delight me more as a reader than picking up a book and discovering the action is set in a…Read more...

If, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, you’ve recently wondered how long you might survive after the complete collapse of society, the answer was probably troubling. If you’re like most of us, your pantry and fridge are filled with perishable food that might be healthy and delicious, but which will be inedible days…Read more...

As parents, we all want our kids to have better lives than our own. This is especially true when it comes to making sure our kids avoid some of our anxieties, whether it’s a fear of flying, driving, heights, or anxieties surrounding money or socializing.Read more...

Upgrading your home’s security doesn’t have to involve major renovations—to start with, it can be as simple as evaluating your front door and making some small—but key—changes. There are several things you can do to make your home’s main entry point more secure.Read more...

Cinco de Mayo (literally “5th of May”) has a fascinating history, but I’m going to start with what Cinco de Mayo isn’t: It is not Mexican Independence Day. That is celebrated on Sept. 16, and is an important Mexican public holiday. Cinco de Mayo is not a national holiday in Mexico, and how important it is depends on…Read more...

It’s wedding season, and you know what that means. All across the country, people are about to take off work, buy (or rent) expensive new duds, watch that formerly single friend say “I do,” gorge themselves on passed hors d’oeuvres, and get caught up in a Macarena or Electric Slide moment they swore they wouldn’t…Read more...

So many things in our homes that we think of as “single-use” items actually have at least one alternative use—and they often have several of these secret superpowers. A perfect example: sandpaper.

It is ramp season, the season that propels even the most calm and reasonable eaters into a slight panic. Do not get me wrong; ramps are delicious—I like wrapping the broad, garlicky leaves around scallops—but over-enthusiastic and thoughtless foraging can lead to the wild leek being depleted, leaving fewer ramps for…Read more...

Google’s Android 12 security patch for the month of May is here. If you have a Pixel 3a, Pixel 4, Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, Pixel 5a, Pixel 6, and Pixel 6 Pro (including any XL variants), you should see this update hit your device shortly. While it’s called the security patch, the update doesn’t just fix…Read more...

Even if keeping a clean home is important to you, there’s a lot to stay on top of. There’s the obvious: taking out the garbage, unloading the dishwasher, vacuuming—let any of those slide and you’ll feel the impact almost immediately. But they are also so in your face that keeping up with them is easy (or easier,…Read more...

If you ever gaze up at the full moon and think, “It’s OK, I guess, but when does it do something?” May is your month. Most of North America will be treated to a full lunar eclipse, a complete “blood moon,” this month. You can watch the entire show in most of North America, all of South America and Western Africa, and…Read more...

I’ve always cooked on gas ranges. I grew up in a house with a gas stove, I have one in my current house, and I remember the electric-only apartments of my young adulthood with disgust. I will complain about them at length, don’t get me started. But evidence has been mounting that gas stoves and ovens cause enough…Read more...

Sometimes the people who love to give advice the most are the least qualified to give it. One person’s “words to live by” might be your “words that ruined my life.” For instance, I know I roll my eyes at a lot of the conventional wisdom that gets repeated over and over, like “winners never quit.” As a certified…Read more...

Is your job safe from artificial intelligence? As a writer who depends on finding the right words for my own thoughts, I foolishly believed I might be relatively robot-proof. Turns out, with AI copywriting sites like Copymatic, I was dead wrong.

That fact that a film is misinterpreted can’t always be laid at the feet of an audience: director François Truffaut famously suggested that it’s nearly impossible to make an anti-war film, since the job of a filmmaker is to create compelling characters and situations that inevitably make war look exciting. You can…Read more...

My sister is terrified of mushrooms, particularly the gills. This is both slightly annoying and deeply amusing. As someone who likes to feed her family (including this sister), rendering mushrooms past the point of recognizability is tedious; as an older sibling, this phobia offers plenty of opportunities for older…Read more...