Lifehacker

If you keep telling yourself you should buy an Instant Pot, today’s the day to pull the trigger, as the 6 qt. Plus model is on sale for a whopping $50 less than usual, today only.

The Muse Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes Is Almost as Cruel as It Is Boring | Deadspin An Interview With The Local TV Producer Fired For A Graphic Calling Tom Brady A “Known Cheater” | Splinter Jonah Peretti Cautions Against Leaks in Leaked Audio of BuzzFeed All-Hands Meeting | The A.V. Club You,…Read more...

News reports are saying the polar vortex hitting much of the United States this week is bringing temperatures that are the coldest in a generation. Which means our kids have the potential to be the most stir-crazy in a generation. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.Read more...

Temperatures across the United States plummeted today, with parts of the Midwest experiencing wind chills of 40, 50, even 60 degrees below zero—and that’s in Fahrenheit. As if frozen pipes and frostbite weren’t dangerous enough, some folks are learning about one of the rarer, scarier side effects of super-cold…Read more...

Dating’s hard enough. Add a severe food allergy and the prospect of a swollen air passage in the middle of a date, and not only have you found the holy grail of romantic disasters, but you’ve landed square on it and without a parachute.

As you’ve probably heard by now, Facebook—in its infinite wisdom—has been running a program that pays your kid (aged 13 to 35) a whopping $20 worth of gift cards each month in exchange for near-unlimited access to the data on their Apple or Android devices. By installing a custom root certificate, Facebook can see…Read more...

Chicken, tuna, and egg salad sandwiches can inspire two wildly different sets of emotions. They’re either deliciously restorative and nostalgic, or sad, boring, and reminiscent of bleak desk lunches (similar to fluorescent lighting). The key components never change—it’s the details that make these sandwiches great.

Advancements in tax software make it easier to file your taxes without the help of a professional, as does this year’s increased standard deduction and simplified 1040. But there are still plenty of circumstances when you’d want to hire someone.

Well, friends, our month of jumping rope has come to an end. How did you like it? Did anybody count their cumulative number of jumps for the month? (I didn’t, but I wish I had thought of that.)

A Polar Vortex is descending upon the midwest, making parts of it literally colder than Mars. This is a potentially life-threatening weather pattern that holds particular danger for people without housing. Here’s how you can help.Read more...

You haven’t seen Bohemian Rhapsody!? That’s fine. The Lifehacker staff gathered our collective 2018 movie-watching experience, and named the Oscar-nominated movies that you can safely skip—including ones we ourselves did not even watch. You can actually safely skip any movie, ever, that’s how entertainment works. But…Read more...

We’re live with etiquette expert Daniel Post Senning until 2 PM Eastern! As host of the podcast Awesome Etiquette, author of Manners in a Digital World: Living Well Online, and the great-great-grandson of Emily Post herself, Daniel is more than qualified to help you navigate the nuances of manners in the age of…Read more...

Although federal workers who’ve gone all month without a paycheck during the government shutdown are expected to be paid this week, diaper banks are still working tirelessly to distribute diapers to their families.Read more...

I’ve heard tell of a big sporting event this weekend and, if you plan on gathering people to watch it at your home, you are going to need some snacks. Luckily, we have a lot of those around here.Read more...

Why spend just three months in Italy when you can live there indefinitely (and get paid a few thousand dollars for it, too)?

Record cold temperatures are hitting much of the US this week. In some places, it’s possible you’ll experience weather that’s colder than you’ve seen in your lifetime. Here’s what to know when the chill hits.Read more...

The Root Exclusive: Clemson’s Black Players Refused to Accept Donald Trump’s Invitation to the McCookout | Deadspin SportsCenter Falls For Fake Instagram Screenshot Showing LeBron James Once Again Tampering With Anthony Davis | Pictorial The Settler Fantasies Woven Into the Prairie Dresses | Splinter Aww, Eric Trump…Read more...

January is winding down, and with it, our No-Spend month is ending. How’d you do?

Hopefully, the first cyber-attack that MacKenzie Brown helps you survive will be a fake one. Otherwise you’ll end up calling her and her colleagues at Optiv Security when you’ve already been compromised by a hack. As an incident response consultant, Brown helps clients prepare for, or recover from, intrusions from…Read more...

I’m not much of a cryer, but when I do, I bawl.

Before you pick what movie you’re going to watch, you have to pick the platform you’re going to use to find it. That can be a tough decision if you don’t already have an idea, but unsurprisingly, it turns out that Netflix may be the best option for making spur-of-the-moment picks on movie night.

Sometimes you just need a break. Maybe a kid kept you up all night or has been hanging off your leg every hour of every waking moment in recent history. Maybe you are out of ideas for how to keep your young child entertained for one more second and all you really want to do is lie down.Read more...

This Sunday, Mr. Bündchen will continue his reign of terror, and all decent people will take to stress eating (or distraction eating, if you don’t care about football). Shoveling food in your mouth is the most effective way to do this, and nothing shovels better than a nacho. All nachos are good, but nachos built on a…Read more...

As you get ready to file your taxes, you may wonder which software is best for you. There are plenty of options, including new-ish players like Credit Karma, but the go-to for many filers is TurboTax. The King of Tax Software, though, has a few problems.Read more...

They say true love never dies, but one could also say that about cockroaches. In fact, if a persistent, petty grudge were to take a corporeal form, it would most likely appear as a cockroach, which is why it makes perfect sense to name one after your ex this Valentine’s Day.Read more...

If you’ve wondered what the dying can teach us about how to live well, Koshin Paley Ellison can tell you.Read more...

Maybe you’re having trouble writing the perfect Tinder bio. Say, for example, you think sending a thank you card to your mother-in-law for that weird sweater you didn’t ask for is is probably a good idea but maybe a little bit overkill. Perhaps you’re hosting a dinner party next week for the first time and you’re…Read more...

A desire path is one worn into being by people walking the same route over and over, off the paved or “approved” path. Some of you will find them calming, some will find them infuriating. The latter should calmly walk away right now, on asphalt only.Read more...

Unless you buy some collectible exotic, you can bet that your sweet new ride is going to depreciate in value as soon as you drive it off the lot. But some cars take that hit much better than others. Kelley Blue Book has released their best resale list for 2019 is it’s mostly what you would expect, except for a…Read more...

Being trapped in a confined elevator is everyone’s worst nightmare. You’re hanging stories above the ground and your only lifeline is the emergency call button in front of you.

Keeping tabs on retirement accounts can be tricky for the average American—more than 25 million workers left at least one behind when they switched employers between 2004 and 2013, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, translating into hundreds of billions of dollars in lost benefits.

Talking to our kids about sex is admittedly a task that most parents don’t look forward to. But to be fair, our kids probably aren’t too thrilled about it, either.Read more...

Splinter The Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point | Jezebel I Don’t Care What ‘Experts’ Say, a Bear Definitely Saved a Toddler From Dying in the Woods | Deadspin Lonzo Ball Would Prefer To Be Traded Where He Can Start Right Away, Just As I Would Prefer To Stalk My Enemies From Atop A Mighty Tyrannosaur | The…Read more...

In professional drone racing, pilots race multi-copter drones around a stadium, wearing FPV—first-person-view—goggles that surround them with their drone’s POV. Drone racing has a very different vibe from older RC racing hobbies. Most competitors are 13-34, says Nicholas Horbaczewski, founder of the Drone Racing LeagueRead more...

Apple has, once again, found itself stuck with an eye-rolling iOS bug that puts your data security and privacy at risk. And, no, this isn’t the usual “someone found a way to bypass whatever authentication method you use” deal that tends to pop up around iOS releases. This one’s a big one: a bug with FaceTime that…Read more...

Three years ago, after leaving a job and with (very) little to do, I used part of my savings on an improv class at Upright Citizens Brigade. By all accounts, I was not very funny or quick. I also couldn’t stop sweating and most people in my class thought I’d dunked my head in the sink during breaks (they weren’t…Read more...

We spend a lot of time worrying about death: our own, and the deaths of those we love. This week we look at our deeply held fears and assumptions about dying and see if we can’t lessen some of our anxiety about it.Read more...

I can’t be the only person who’s parted with hundreds of dollars over the years because I forgot to cancel a service at the end of a free trial (hello, Skillshare) or let subscriptions drag on in the hopes I’d get around to using the product.

I’ve been a pretty good sleeper for most of my life — like the kind of sleeper who, when uninterrupted, will peacefully slumber until 2 p.m. no matter what time she goes to bed — but something changed after I moved to New York City a few years ago. I can still sleep a full day away no problem, but actually falling…Read more...

Funerals are old news, thanks to a recent thread in Reddit. If you’re on the lookout for a splashy burial, this is how to accomplish it.

Once, when my son was about 4 or 5 years old, I was telling him how proud I was of him for something, and how lucky I was to be his mom.Read more...

Today marks the kickoff of tax season, and between the ongoing government shutdown and implementation of the 2017 tax law, it promises to be an interesting one (well...as interesting as tax season can get).

With tax season officially underway, you might be daydreaming about what you’re going to do with your refund: Pay off some debt, stash some away for a rainy day, plan a vacation—most Americans could use a bit more cash for any number of occasions.

I love limoncello, but it is—without a doubt—a capital-L liqueur. There’s nothing wrong with the candy-like sipper, but it’s not exactly refreshing. Oddly enough, the key to fresh-from-the-garden citrus-flavored booze can be found not in the lemon, but in a mostly fleshless, uncanny-valley-dwelling citron.Read more...

One of the biggest questions this tax season is whether to take the standard deduction, a flat reduction in your adjusted gross income, or to itemize, or use applicable tax deductions to lower your AGI. Obviously, you’ll likely want to choose whichever lowers your AGI the most, so you pay less in taxes.

Amazon game day essentials, a LEGO BB-8, Levi’s sale and a Butcher’s Box bonus lead off the Monday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

At first blush, Juan Ayala probably looks like your regular-degular Dominican dude from Brooklyn. But the security guard and radio personality went viral last December after filming, confronting, and then performing a citizen’s arrest on “Subway Susan,” real name Anna Lushchinskaya, a white woman caught assaulting and…Read more...

You don’t need to be a virtuoso to succeed in a choir. You need a willingness to practice and learn, and “the basic ability to hear and emulate,” says Mira Taferner, artistic director of the a cappella chorus Sirens of Gotham. “That, luckily, is a relatively universal skill.” Taferner, along with Sirens associate…Read more...

True story: The title of the 8,011,991th U.S. Patent is “Apparatus for Facilitating the Construction of a Snow Man/Woman,” which certainly seems to imply that there’s a right way to build a snowman, snowwoman, or snowperson.Read more...

When you’re laid up with sniffles and a sore throat, few things offer real relief. (Rest, fluids, and behind-the-counter Sudafed are most of those things.) But there are plenty of “natural” items on drugstore shelves that claim to help. Today we’re looking at one with a teensy bit of scientific evidence behind it:…Read more...