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Hier — 28 mars 2024Lifehacker

What to Do If Your Neighbor’s Tree Hangs Over Your Property

Sometimes it seems like living in a society would be much better if we didn’t have to deal with all these other people all the time. If you own a home, you know that your neighbors are both one of life’s great blessings and often the biggest pain in your ass. On the one hand, sometimes you wake up and they’ve shoveled the snow from your sidewalk, and when you go on vacation they check on your cat! On the other hand, things can get really tense when disputes crop up unexpectedly—like when your neighbor’s tree hangs over your fence.

At first glance this might not seem like a big deal, but those overhanging branches can cause problems. They mess up your property by dumping leaves everywhere; they can scrape your roof shingles, smack into windows during high winds, and get tangled in power lines. Underground, the tree's roots could be worming into your sewer and water lines. That tree might be pretty, and you might enjoy its borrowed shade on sunny days, but if it starts to be a problem, what can you do?

Tree law

America is not so much a large country as a collection of tiny countries standing on each other’s shoulders wearing a trenchcoat, so the laws governing trees and property will vary from state to state—you’ll have to do some local research if you’ve got a situation brewing with a neighbor’s tree. That said, there are three things that are almost certainly true about your neighbor’s tree:

  • It has value. Sure, it’s a tree, and apparently grows for free out of the ground as if by elven magic. But a tree on your neighbor’s property has monetary value. For one thing, your neighbor may have paid for the tree and had it planted. Then there are other benefits, like the carbon dioxide offset of that tree, the cooling effect of its shade, or fruit that it provides. The USDA Forest Service offers a free calculator that estimates the economic benefits of a tree, which isn’t definitive but gives you some idea of how someone might define its value.

  • It’s your neighbor’s property. If the tree’s trunk is entirely on your neighbor’s property, no matter how much it overhangs yours, it belongs to them just like anything else in their yard. If the trunk straddles or crosses the property line, it’s probably considered a boundary tree—community property. That means that you have as much say and responsibility for it as your neighbor, but you still can’t unilaterally make decisions about it.

  • You have the right to defend your property. If the tree’s branches cross the property line, you have the right to trim them, especially if they threaten to damage anything. But you can’t go past your property line under any circumstances.

That last bit might make this all seem very clear and simple: If the tree is causing havoc on your side of the fence, get out there and cut it back to the property line. While you have the right to do that, you should think twice for one simple reason: If you touch your neighbor’s tree and damage it, destroy its aesthetic value, or kill it outright, you could be held liable for the loss and the cost of treating or replacing it. This can run to the thousands of dollars—especially if it’s an expensive ornamental tree that’s part of a cohesive landscaping design.

How to trim

So you have to be careful if your neighbor’s tree is invading and needs trimming. Here’s your best approach:

  • Talk to your neighbor. That liability goes both ways: Since the tree is your neighbor’s property, if it damages your property you can hold them liable. Approach your neighbor and ask if they’ll help trim the tree or grant explicit permission to do the work on your side, releasing you from liability—they might be incentivized to do so if the tree is causing damage. If it’s a boundary tree, you’ll need to negotiate with your neighbor anyway to get anything done.

  • Call the power company. If the offending tree is near power lines, you can probably call your local utility and schedule a free tree trimming. Most utilities have arborists on staff, and they are more than happy to clear branches away from power lines to avoid damage. That being said, keep in mind that the utility may trim more aggressively than you want. Also, keep in mind that once alerted to trees near power lines on your (or your neighbor’s property), the utility can come and trim them any time they want without your permission. Electric utilities have an easement on all private property to allow them access for maintenance and repair.

  • Hire a professional. The more you distance yourself from the tree trimming, the less likely you’ll run into trouble. You’ll want a company that has a certified arborist on staff, because trees are living things and they come in a wide variety of species. An arborist can identify the tree and prescribe the right way to trim it without damaging it or leaving it vulnerable to disease.

A tree growing right by your property line offers a lot of free benefits—but also free problems. If the latter is starting to outweigh the former, be careful—trimming your neighbor’s tree can open up a can of worms.

You Can Get This 4K Dual-Camera Drone on Sale for $75 Right Now

You can get this dual-HD-camera drone on sale for $74.99 right now (reg. $129.99). It's a budget drone that is excellent for beginners who want to experiment with flying: it has one-key takeoff and landing, altitude hold mode, and four-channel movement with a rolling 360-degree function. You can pair with your smartphone to take pictures and videos or see a real-time feed through the drone's two 1080p cameras; the front with 90-degree views and the bottom with 120-degree views. It also comes with four spare blades and two batteries for 26 total minutes of flying time.

You can get this dual-HD-camera drone on sale for $74.99 right now (reg. $129.99), though prices can change at any time.

À partir d’avant-hierLifehacker

How to Start a 'Backdoor' Roth IRA (and When You Should)

If your income exceeds the limits for contributing directly to a Roth IRA, there's still a way to fund one through a strategy known as the "backdoor Roth IRA." This technique allows high-income earners to take advantage of the tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals offered by Roth IRAs.

What is a "backdoor" Roth IRA?

A backdoor Roth IRA is not an official type of account: It's simply a strategic maneuver that involves making contributions to a traditional IRA and then converting those funds into a Roth IRA. This bypasses the income limits that normally restrict high-earners from contributing directly to a Roth.

If you file taxes as a single person, your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) must be under $153,000 for tax year 2023 and $161,000 for tax year 2024 to contribute to a Roth IRA, and if you're married and filing jointly, your MAGI must be under $228,000 for tax year 2023 and $240,000 for tax year 2024.

How the backdoor Roth IRA works

Here are the basics of taking advantage of this backdoor strategy:

  • Make a non-deductible contribution to a traditional IRA. Since your income exceeds the Roth IRA limits, you can contribute to a traditional IRA without taking a tax deduction.

  • Convert the traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. After contributing to the traditional IRA, you can then convert those funds to a Roth IRA. This conversion is a taxable event, but since you didn't get a tax deduction on the contribution, you'll only pay taxes on any earnings.

  • Pay taxes on the conversion. When converting, you'll owe income tax on any earnings in the traditional IRA account. If the conversion happens quickly after the contribution, there likely won't be significant earnings to tax.

IRA eligibility and limitations

There are no income limits for contributing to a traditional IRA or converting to a Roth IRA. The limit on annual contributions to an IRA are $7,000 in 2024 (up from $6,500 in 2023). Remember these contribution limits apply to the grand total contributions you make each year to all your traditional and Roth IRAs. As always, you can and should max out these limits, if possible.

It's important to note that if you have existing pre-tax funds in other traditional IRAs, the conversion will be partially taxable based on the pro-rata rule.

Getting started with your backdoor Roth IRA

To set up a backdoor Roth IRA, you'll need to open a traditional IRA account if you don't already have one. Then, make your non-deductible contribution and initiate the Roth conversion process according to your provider's requirements.

Consulting a tax professional is recommended, especially if you have existing IRA funds, to ensure you understand the tax implications. While the backdoor Roth strategy involves some extra steps, it can be a valuable way for high-income individuals to enjoy the benefits of a Roth IRA.

What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: Political Half-Truths

It’s an election year, so naturally there are virtual firehoses of misinformation pointed at potential voters. While there are encouraging signs that people are getting better at spotting misinformation, there’s a kind of “fake news” that seems particularly pernicious on both sides of the political aisle: drawing a conclusion based on omitted information or missing context. It’s a favorite tactic of politicians that explodes during an election year, so let’s dig into a couple of widely spread examples—one from the right and one from the left.

Gas Price Meme
Credit: Snopes

The picture above, from Snopes, who culled it from my aunt's Facebook page, is not Photoshopped and it's not a lie. The national average price of a gallon of gas really did dip to $1.77 in April of 2020. But the meme text suggests that this had somehow had to do with decisions Donald Trump made while in office.

The answer is always "supply and demand"

People like to discuss the reasons gas prices fluctuate, probably because we are confronted with it every time we go to the pumps, but whether you blame high gas prices on corporate greed, or credit low gas prices to Donald Trump being awesome, you're equally wrong. The main driver of gas prices is basic supply and demand. The real reason gas was so cheap in 2021 was a global drop in demand for petroleum caused by economic activity due to COVID-19 lockdown. It would not have mattered who was president; it's not like there's a lever in the Oval Office that sets commodity prices.

This isn’t to say that governmental policy has no effect on prices. The inflation spike of 2022 was caused in part by the $2 trillion American Rescue Plan signed in 2021. It’s complex and there are a lot of other factors at work, but as a general rule, supplying more money to the economy to prevent or reverse a recession results in inflation, but i it also causes the economy to grow and stay out of recession (a much worse result than higher inflation.) Again, it's supply and demand.

Politicians on both sides lie

It’s not just right-wing people who fall victim to the allure of jumping to conclusion fallacy though, though. Check out this chart posted on Twitter by Kamala Harris:

Biden job growth chart
Credit: Kamala Harris - Twitter/X

Like the right-wing meme, this chart isn't inaccurate or Photoshopped, but it leaves off the same thing the gas price photo omits: COVID. Most of the jobs “created” during the Biden administration were the result of people returning to work following lay-offs during the pandemic. Adjusted for COVID, the net job-gain from Biden’s first day until February 2024 was 5.5 million jobs. Nice work, but a lot less sexy-looking on a chart. 

During his State of the Union address, Biden said, "The only president other than Donald Trump that lost jobs during an administration was Herbert Hoover," which is half-true (maybe), but only if you ignore the economic devastation that COVID wrought, and also ignore that we don't really know the number of jobs lost during Hoover's administration—the Bureau of Labor Statistics didn't exist until after Hoover was out of office.

How the same numbers tell a different story

While Biden put an overly positive spin on his job numbers and bagged on Trump's, it’s possible to look at the same basic information and draw the opposite conclusion. At a speech on August 5th, Donald Trump said: “During Biden’s first 30 months in office, just 2.1 million new jobs were created, and by contrast, during my first 30 months in office we created 4.9 million new jobs.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, when Trump took office, there were 145.6 million non-farm jobs in the U.S. Thirty months later, there were 150.8 million (in a first, Trump gave himself slightly less credit than he deserved during this speech). When Biden took office, there were 143 million nonfarm jobs. By his 30th month in office, the number of nonfarm jobs had risen to 156.2 million. 

Trump isn't totally lying (this time)—he's trying to eat his cake and have it too. He gives Biden no credit for jobs that returned after the coronavirus pandemic, and assigns himself no blame for jobs that were lost due to COVID, limiting his assessment to the 30-month window of the Trump administration before COVID shook up the economy. As Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research told Politifact, Trump is saying "everything that was bad is Biden's fault, whereas everything that is good would have happened anyhow.”

Spinning numbers to make yourself look better is nothing new, but what if you really want to know the truth? You probably can't.

Which administration has the stronger economy?

Despite polls showing Trump with an 11- to 20-point lead over Biden on the question of which candidate would better handle the economy, the economy did well under Trump, if you don’t take the shocks of COVID into account, and the economy is doing well under Biden, if you don’t assign blame for the COVID shock on Biden. (It also depends on what you mean by the economy "doing well.")

Even if you wanted to base your vote solely on which administration would be “best for the economy,” (instead of, say, which candidate is being tried for nearly 100 felonies) it’s probably not possible, even though we have recent data on how each handled it. The effects of public policy on the economy is such a complex subject, and there are so many people pushing so many agendas—weirdos sharing gas price memes on Facebook, vice presidents sharing slanted job charts on twitter—that it’s probably not possible to understand with any degree of certainty. Even if you devote your life to studying macroeconomics, other economists will have diametrically opposed views to yours.

This leaves us with tribalism and vibes, two factors that have probably always decided U.S. elections. If you're thinking "that's true of most politicians, but not my favorite one! They're a straight-shooter!" the wool has been pulled over your eyes. A political candidate who was really honest, who refused to engage in deception and self-puffery, would be dead in the water in any election larger than the local school board. Imagine a presidential candidate running on a platform of "There's not much I can do about the economy; it's supply and demand."

How to Make Sure Your Solar Eclipse Glasses Will Actually Block the Sun

Par : Jason Keil

Despite what Bruce Springsteen says in his hit song "Blinded By the Light," it's no fun looking into the "eyes of the sun." According to Prevent Blindness, exposing your peepers to the sun's rays during a solar eclipse without proper eye protection can cause "eclipse blindness" or retinal burns, also known as solar retinopathy, and the damage to your sight can be permanent.

With the next occurrence of the Moon passing between the Earth and the sun not expected for another 20 years after the upcoming solar eclipse on April 8, you might be tempted to gaze at the heavens without proper eye protection. However, even a brief glimpse of the sun during a solar eclipse can cause irreversible damage to your eyes. I'm not your parent, but I strongly advise you to take charge of your eye safety by investing in a pair of solar eclipse glasses. 

However, some unscrupulous third-party sellers sell fake pairs of glasses through Amazon and other online vendors, which can put your vision at risk. (Just ask the man in California who suffered significant vision loss thanks to a pair of counterfeit glasses, according to the Indianapolis Star.) To help keep your eyes safe to see another day, here are some tips to help you know that the pair you picked up will do their one job. 

Check the ISO number

To determine whether your solar eclipse glasses will block ultraviolet and infrared radiation, check the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) number on the frames. According to the American Astronomical Society (AAS), compliant glasses will bear the label ISO 12312-2 (sometimes written as ISO 12312-2:2015) to show they reduce sunlight to safe levels.

Wait, counterfeiters put that number on there too, right?

They sure can! To ensure you are buying solar eclipse glasses from a reputable source, the AAS has created a list of manufacturers, vendors, dealers, and importers they have vetted to help you with your purchase. 

While the AAS points out they are unable to investigate all sellers, they do offer this sage piece of advice:

We do not recommend searching for eclipse glasses on Amazon, eBay, Temu, or any other online marketplace and buying from whichever vendor offers the lowest price. Before you buy a solar viewer or filter online, we recommend that you make sure that (1) the seller is identified on the site and (2) the seller is listed on this page.

Can I just test them myself?

According to the AAS, you can use sunlight reflected off a mirror or a metal object to test if your solar eclipse glasses work. If the light reflected seems very dim through the lenses, you should be safe. However, if you can see any light through a lamp, light bulb, or other household light fixture, you may have a pair of counterfeit glasses.

Additionally, check your glasses to see if the lenses are torn, scratched, punctured, or coming loose from their frames. If so, discard them.

10 Garden Upgrades You Can DIY for Less Than $100

As the weather warms up, it’s a great time to get your garden set up for planting and consider anything you can do to make the most of your space. That said, new garden features and updates can quickly get expensive. If you’re not aiming for a total landscaping redo, there are plenty of DIY garden upgrades you can undertake for less than $100.

Direct your climbing plants with an expandable lattice

To train climbing plants along a fence line, the edge of a porch, or along the side of a pergola, you can use an expandable lattice ($36.98/ 13 by 78 inch section) to fit your lattice to your desired space. An expandable lattice can also be hung vertically along a post to train vines upwards. The lattice will shrink to a narrower, three or four foot section if you have a smaller stretch with no cutting necessary.

Build an arched trellis

To build a dreamy arched trellis for your climbing plants, you can use galvanized welded fencing ($50.52 for a 3 foot by 50 foot section) attached to t-posts ($6.98/each). Drive the t-posts into the ground, three feet apart, on either side of your intended arch, then unroll your galvanized fencing over the posts, creating an arch connecting the two sides. Use the built-in metal clips or some wire ($5.93/250 feet) to attach the fencing to your posts.

Make a hula hoop trellis

You can also make a climbing trellis using hula hoops ($21.99/10), a garden stake ($26.99/25), and some twine ($4.99/400 feet). By tying the hula hoops to the garden stakes using twine, you can suspend them in the air. The hula hoops are adjustable, so you can create a graduated trellis for climbing plants by arranging them with the smallest hoops at the top and the largest at the bottom. You can also arrange the hoops vertically by hanging them from a stake, post, or fence to make a circle trellis for climbing flowers.

Use pavers to build your raised beds

One of the cheapest and most popular ways to make raised beds is by using concrete patio pavers ($.48/each for a seven-inch by three-and-a-half inch by one-and-three-quarter-inch paver). You can stack the pavers in rows like bricks around the area of your bed to create an edge, then fill it with your own compost. The advantage of a paver-bordered garden bed versus a traditional box is that you can shape it however you like, or account for an existing slope in your garden.

Make a stock tank raised bed

Stock tank raised beds ($49.99 for one five-foot by three-foot by one-foot bed) are a popular choice for DIY raised beds because they’re durable and simple to install. Using a metal raised bed is a lighter and leaner alternative to wooden framed beds, but they can be susceptible to heat, so keep that in mind when choosing what to plant in them.

Make raised beds with cedar boards

A raised bed is simple to build using cedar boards ($9.25/each for a three-quarter inch by eight-foot by four-inch board), “l” brackets ($3.48 each), ¾ inch screws ($6.87/box), and 1 ⅝ inch screws ($10.97/box). Cut your boards to the desired length for each side of your bed, then screw the ends onto the sides of the bed using the 1 ⅝ inch screws. Use the ¾ inch screws to add “l” brackets to the inside of each corner to reinforce the joints. If you want a taller bed, use a piece of board cut to the desired height at each corner to join the boards vertically.

Make a mobile planter using a cart

You can use a metal cart ($37.02) and some flower pots ($13.99/three) to make a rolling planter/plant stand for your porch or patio. You can also use a thrifted piece of furniture and add your own castors ($11.99/four) to create a cart. A rolling planter can make it easier to water and maintain your plants, and ensure they get the right amount of sunlight.

Use a mold to make a pathway

If you want an cheaper concrete pathway, you can use a paver mold ($25.29/two) and some concrete mix ($21.88/ten pounds) to pour your own pavers. Using a mold allows you to create a path in the shape you want and save some money doing it. You’ll need some basic concrete tools ($14.99) for this project if you don’t already have some.

Make a path with mulch

To make a mulch pathway, first, define your path by staking some landscape fabric over the intended area using landscaping staples ($9.99/50). Once you have your path laid out, you can either lay down store-bought mulch ($4.97/two cubic feet), or you can use free mulch from Chip Drop. (Just be aware that Chip Drop will leave your mulch in a parking space or driveway and it will be up to you to move it to your desired pathway area.)

Plant a container garden

To create some different layers, you can try a container garden. You can use almost any type of container, but something like this stainless steel tub ($54.99), this terracotta pot ($21.44), or this concrete planter ($38.41) will be durable outdoors. SOme gardeners have success upcycling old cooking pots, tool boxes, and paint cans into containers for garden plants as well. Really anything that will hold some dirt and stand up to the elements is a good candidate for a low cost planter.

The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: Dogs Vs. Lemons

This week's youth culture report is all about conflict: Dogs are fighting lemons, Gen-Z is fighting Millennials, and everyone is fighting artificial intelligence.

Dogs vs. lemons on TikTok

The newest pet-related trend on TikTok is posting videos of dogs eating lemon slices. They are hilarious clips, because dogs don’t like lemons, so their excitement at catching some food from their master’s hand quickly turns into a sour-faced look and a side-eye look of dog-disappointment.

But because no one is allowed to have fun, some vets were quick to warn against this trend, pointing out that citrus can cause "gastrointestinal upsets" or even "severe clinical signs like collapse.“ Throwing food at a dog for them to catch is a choking hazard too, "particularly if the piece of food is too large to swallow whole," according to Dr. Anna Foreman of Everypaw Pet Insurance. So no one should ever huck a slice of lemon at their dog. Still, if you watch the videos, dogs almost never eat the lemon slices. They either give the 'em a quick lick and go, “nah," or they catch the fruit slice in their mouth and spit it out, because dogs aren’t stupid. 

What is the "Zoomer Perm"?

From the 1980s mullet to the ubiquitous “Rachel” of the '90s, every generation eventually develops and popularizes a ridiculous haircut they’ll be embarrassed about in the future. For Gen Z, it’s looking like the "Zoomer Perm" is going to be the generational ‘do. Sometimes called the "broccoli cut" or "bird's nest," the Zoomer Perm is shaved on the side and back and long and bushy/curly on the top. If you have straight hair, you gotta get it permed to do the look right. It’s a very dumb-looking haircut, but according to WikiHow, Zoomers like it because they “tend to not be as self-conscious or serious as other generations, so the funny things you can do with the broccoli cut are actually an upside, not a drawback.”  

Gamergate 2 update

Last week I brought you the regrettable news of the resurgence of Gamergate, but now there’s a new wrinkle: Gaming news site Kotaku’s editor-in-chief, Jen Glennon, resigned late last week, leading some to imagine the resignation was because of Kotaku's coverage of Gamergate 2.0.

Gamergate degenerates are, of course, wrong about this (and everything else). According to Glennon, the resignation was because the site’s owner, G/O Media, decided to change Kotaku's focus from news and editorial content to game guides, adding that G/O Media's CEO Jim Spanfeller is a herb. Lifehacker was once owned by G/O Media, so I say this with an insider's knowledge: There is no way G/O had any interest in or knowledge of what Kotaku was writing about.

Late Night with the Devil's AI controversy

In the first of what will probably be years of stories that ask “How much of this movie is AI?” The internet film community noticed that some images used in recently released indie horror flick Late Night with the Devil appear to be AI-generated. The film’s directors, Cameron and Colin Cairnes, quickly confirmed they had “experimented with AI for three still images” that appear as brief interstitials in the film. Reaction from the fan community is mixed. Some have called for a boycott of the movie or said they’d never see it. Some defended the movie. Some moderates called on people to sneak into theaters to see it. Totally apart from AI-generated art, Late Night with the Devil is one of the most innovative, creative, and unique horror movies I’ve seen in years. It will be streaming on Shudder starting on April 19. 

What is a "Quirk Chungus"?

Since the publication of Douglas Coupland’s Generation X in 1991, generational conflict discourse has been dominated by everyone agreeing that Baby Boomers suck. While that trend is alive and well on subreddits like r/boomersbeingfools, the new hotness is Generation Z bagging on Millennials for being lame. Generation Z has turned the withering eyes of youth on slightly older folks and found that liking Buzzfeed and Harry Potter, using words and phrases like “doggo,”“I just did a thing,” and “adulting” are actually lame—old-people shit. Some Gen-Z members are using the phrase “Quirk Chungus” to describe the “lol so random” aspect of Millennial culture. As a Gen Xer, Im glad no one ever blames us for anything or regards us as important enough to bother hating on, but I'd also like to point out that the most recognizable expression of Zoomer culture is Skibidi Toilet. Check out this YouTube video from KnowYourMeme for a deeper dive into the newest generational conflict.

Viral video of the week: I Used Only Vintage Technology for a Week

In this week’s viral video, YouTube comedian Kurtis Conner tasks himself with only using outdated tech for a week. It’s objectively funny to watch someone fully decked out with antique gear that barely works, and Conner is an amusing guy, but on another level, this video says something about the value and meaning of tech. Most of the gear he’s rocking would have been early-adopter-only when it was new 20 years ago, but now literally everything, from the wristwatch camera to the portable TV, the tiny voice recorder, Palm Pilot, to every function of the Xbernaut wearable computer, is available to everyone on even the cheapest smartphone. Is anyone happier? More fulfilled? I’d say “no,” but that’s what I’d always say to anything. 

How to Start a Book Club for Your Kids and Their Friends (That They’ll Actually Enjoy)

Par : Jason Keil

Whether it is Oprah Winfrey's, Resse Witherspoon's, or Mindy Kaling's book club doesn't matter: The selections are always for adults. But maybe its the kids who would really benefit from a book club, both socially and academically—after all, according to the Department of Education, two-thirds of children in the United States are not proficient readers. Luckily, it doesn't take an industry insider to get a local book club off the ground. While you may not have the clout of Winfrey or the star power of Witherspoon, you easily start a book club for your kids and their classmates to enhance their reading and social skills.

Establish expectations early

My 7-year-old is in a book club, and at their first meeting, everyone was so excited to talk about the book they read that they forgot all about conversational norms and started talking all over each other. Establishing ground rules early on, like giving everyone a turn and not talking over anyone, ensures everyone is heard and respects what each other has to say. Establish a no-cell-phone policy if your group has tweens or young teenagers so no one unintentionally interrupts or ignores anyone.

Keep things short and simple

Adult book club selections sometimes come with lengthy questions to start the conversation. That might work for you, but it's best to keep things short and simple for kids. Three or so questions about their favorite characters or the funniest parts of the story should generate a good amount of conversation to see what they took away from their reading.

Add an activity related to the book's plot

In the book Stuart Little, the titular mouse participates in a boat race. One way my son's book club tied in that scene was with an activity where attendees made a small boat themselves out of aluminum foil, popsicle sticks, and paper. It unleashed their creativity in a totally different way, giving them another method to remember the book's story. 

Find a craft or activity members can try that ties in with the book's theme, like listening to the music Chester performs in The Cricket in Times Square or making bird pies out of paper plates and pipe cleaners for Roald Dahl's The Twits.

Get other adults involved

There's no shame in asking for help, especially when taking on something as fun as a book club. You can work with other parents to develop ideas, assemble crafts, or rotate duties for each meeting. You can even reach out to your child's school teacher to see if they'd be willing to assist. In the case of my son's book club, his teacher recorded herself reading each chapter of the month's selection in her backyard and put them on YouTube. 

Honor every child's reading ability

If your child's book club consists of second graders, maybe now isn't the time to break out Judy Blume's Tales of A Fourth-Grade Nothing. A book club is meant to be fun, not for a grade, so try to find selections everyone can enjoy. Remember, it doesn't matter if they're reading Harry Potter or Captain Underpants, as long as they're fostering a love of reading.

Keep everything consistent

Children thrive on routine, so keeping a schedule and sticking to it is essential for consistent attendance. Also, considering other activities vying for a child's attention (playdates, birthday parties, sports leagues, etc.), keeping to the same day every month will ensure other parents make time in their schedule well in advance. 

Bring snacks

Getting creative with the goodies is key to a successful book club meeting. For example, bring Turkish Delight to the discussion about The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or a chocolate gummy worm cake to the meeting about How to Eat Fried Worms. 

9 Types of Outlets You Might Find in Your House (and What They’re Supposed to Power)

Every time you plug something into a wall receptacle, you’re leveraging the awesome power of the electron to power your video games and chill your beverages—which makes knowing something about those outlets an important aspect of home ownership. Plugging an appliance into the wrong receptacle or replacing one with an incorrect choice is an easy way to destroy your property and injure yourself, after all—so here are 9 receptacles you might encounter in your house that you should know about.

Outlets, receptacles, amps, and volts

Everyone knows what you mean when you say you’re going to plug something into an outlet, but technically the outlet is a location where you have access to wiring. The spot where you install a light fixture is an outlet. A receptacle is where a plug is inserted. In practice, people use them pretty interchangeably.

Power receptacles are described in terms of amperage (amps) and voltage (volts). You don’t really need to know too much about this in your role as Person Who Wants Their Toaster to Stop Tripping the Circuit Breaker, but it matters because your appliances and devices all need specific amps and volts to operate correctly and safely. You can think of volts as the “strength” of the electricity, kind of like water pressure—the force that’s pushing the power along—and amps as the “speed” or volume of the electricity. Some appliances need a lot of electricity very fast, some need less at a slower rate. Plugging them into the wrong receptacle can be exciting! But also very dangerous.

Ungrounded

ungrounded, two-prong outlet
Credit: Adurable Creations / Shutterstock.com

If you have power outlets in your home with just two prongs, your home’s electric infrastructure is old and needs some attention. These plugs lack a grounding prong and they’re pretty dangerous because any kind of short circuit can send electricity flowing into you if you touch it, and can even cause fires if they spark. They stopped being standard in the 1960s and were prohibited outright in the early 1970s, so even if yours have been working perfectly for years, you should seriously consider replacing them.

15 amps, 110/120 volts

three-pronged receptacle
Credit: studio23 / Shutterstock.com

This three-pronged receptacle is the most common one you’ll find in your house, providing 110 or 120 volts of power with a maximum current of 15 amps to a long list of standard devices and small appliances like phone chargers, computers, toasters, and lamps. The bottom prong is the ground, which is what prevents electricity from leaping out of your power receptacle. And if you see a face here, it’s a phenomenon called pareidolia.

20 amps, 120/125 volts

receptacle for 20 amps, 120/125 volts
Credit: ZikG / Shutterstock.com

These outlets have a top left prong that looks like a letter “T” on its side. They provide slightly zippier amperage for appliances that draw more power than most, like your microwave oven. The amp and voltage ratings are top ends, though, so you can also plug in devices that need less power.

20 amps, 240/250 volts

receptacle for 20 amps, 240/250 volts
Credit: ZikG / Shutterstock.com

Larger appliances (like an electric stove) that need more power to operate will plug into one of these. You can tell a 250-volt 20-amp plug from a 125-volt plug by the right prong, which is sideways. That means you can’t plug smaller things into this receptacle because of the higher voltage.

30 amps, 240/250 volts

receptacle for 30 amps, 240/250 volts
Credit: gunawand3570 / Shutterstock.com

The 30-amp, 240/250-volt receptacle (third from the left on top in the image above) has two sideways prongs. It’s intended for appliances that need a lot of power. You’ll often find one installed near the windows in your home because they’re used for large window-mounted air conditioners.

30 amps, 125/250 volts

This receptacle (top line, far right in image above) has two slanted prongs and one prong that resembles a letter “L.” You’ll see these referred to as “appliance outlets” because they’re used by washers, driers, and other larger appliances in the home.

50 amps, 125/250 volts

receptacle for 50 amps, 125/250 volts
Credit: Corosis_Varanus / Shutterstock.com

This is an industrial-strength power receptacle rarely found in a residence—there’s just really no need for it in the house. You might find one in the garage, or if the house has a dedicated workshop of some sort, especially if a previous owner had some serious hobbies, like welding. Chances are if you have one you won’t have a use for it.

GFCI and AFCI

GFCI and AFCI receptacle
Credit: Lost_in_the_Midwest / Shutterstock.com

Available in a range of amperage and voltage, these receptacles look very similar and offer similar functionality, and can be identified by the reset buttons on the front of the receptacle. Ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) receptacles are designed to detect when the current has gone somewhere it shouldn’t (for example, into your body) and will shut down. They’re required in damp areas like kitchens and bathrooms to prevent water from shorting out the receptacle. Arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCI) don’t prevent electrical shocks, they prevent electrical fires by detecting power leaks and shutting down accordingly.

USB Outlet

USB Outlet
Credit: yakiniku / Shutterstock.com

If your house is fairly new or recently had the wiring updated, you might find a USB receptacle. This is pretty straightforward: It’s a 15- or 20-amp, 120- or 125-volt receptacle that has USB connections in addition to or instead of a three-prong plug. This can be handy if you have a lot of devices that need charging.

Why You Should Open a 401(k) at a Short-Term Job

If you're taking on a short-term job, you might be wondering whether it's worth the effort to open a 401(k) retirement account. After all, you're not planning to stick around for long, and the thought of leaving that money behind when you move on to your next opportunity can be unsettling. However, there are compelling reasons why you should consider contributing to a 401(k), even if your tenure at the job is brief.

The money is yours, no matter what

One of the biggest misconceptions about 401(k) accounts is that the money belongs to your employer. This couldn't be further from the truth. Any contributions you make to your 401(k) are yours, and you can take them with you when you leave the job. When you move on, you have a few options:

  1. Roll your 401(k) into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA): This allows you to consolidate your retirement savings into a single account, making it easier to manage and track your investments.

  2. Roll your 401(k) into your new employer's plan: If your new job offers a 401(k) plan, you can transfer your existing balance into the new account, keeping your retirement savings in one place.

  3. Leave your 401(k) with your former employer: While this option is available, it's generally not recommended. By leaving your 401(k) behind, you may be subject to higher fees and have limited investment options.

The importance of rolling over

While leaving your 401(k) with your former employer is an option, it's much better to roll it over when you leave your job. Many people forget about these small accounts, and over time, they can accumulate significant fees for account maintenance and management. By rolling your 401(k) into an IRA or your new employer's plan, you'll avoid these fees and keep your retirement savings growing.

One of our Lifehacker editors found success in consolidating her retirement accounts: She has an IRA that essentially consists of all her old 401(k)s, plus her current 401(k). This streamlined approach means she only has two login accounts to worry about, making it easier to manage her retirement savings.

The power of compound interest

Even if your short-term job only allows you to contribute a modest amount to your 401(k), the power of compound interest can make a significant difference over time. By starting to save early, even small contributions can grow substantially, thanks to the compounding effect of investment returns.

Tax advantages

The most obvious perk of a 401(k) is the tax advantages it offers. Contributions to a traditional 401(k) are made with pre-tax dollars, reducing your taxable income for the year. This can result in significant tax savings, especially if you're in a higher tax bracket.

So while short-term jobs may seem like an unlikely time to open a 401(k), the benefits of doing so can be substantial. By taking advantage of the tax benefits, the power of compound interest, and the ability to roll your savings into an IRA or a new employer's plan, you can ensure that your retirement savings continue to grow, no matter how often you change jobs.

Seven Ways to Spruce Up Your Outdoor Dining Space (for Less Than $100 Each)

As the weather gets warmer, many of us are ready to get outside and grill. Elevating the al fresco dining experience by having an outdoor place to eat is a great addition for entertaining, but creating one can be expensive. If you don’t have the budget for a total patio renovation, here are some budget ideas for creating an outdoor cooking and dining experience that can boost your BBQ hosting game.

Create some counter space

Adding an island or a counter for your grilling space can make cooking outdoors that much easier. You can upcycle a rolling cart ($37.99) into a work table or counter space by adding some countertop material to the top. You can usually get discounted scraps of countertop from cabinet or building supply outlets. You can also opt to use a finished kitchen cart ($85.49) or a thrifted set of shelves and then add some more robust casters ($25.19) for outdoor use. Having your countertop on wheels allows you to move it easily indoors for seasonal storage as well as double your work surface as a dining surface if you have a smaller space.

Add a mini fridge

A small fridge can up your outdoor cooking game by giving you a place to keep food chilled while you do prep or keep a few cold beverages on hand. You can add a truly tiny fridge ($46.27) that accommodates up to 15 12oz cans or you could opt for a slightly larger, 1.6 cubic foot fridge ($98.00). Make sure you have an outdoor outlet nearby to keep your fridge plugged in.

Add an ice bucket

If you don’t have an outlet for an outdoor fridge, you can still serve up some frosty beverages with an ice bucket to keep them cool. You can add a pair of simple, four-gallon ice buckets ($25.98) or you can choose to use a drop in tub ($37.50) that you can add a cutout for in an existing countertop or table. You can also opt for an ice bucket that doubles as a side table ($54.99) for some extra table space along with your cold drinks.

Shed some light

Adding lighting both for food prep and ambiance can help you to upgrade your outdoor space from a plain old cookout location to an outdoor kitchen. You can add some wired outdoor industrial sconces ($29.99/two) if you already have power in your outdoor area. If not, you can opt for solar sconces ($29.99) as long as you have a place to hang them with sun exposure. For ambiance, you can add a solar pendant light ($22.95), or some lanterns (29.99/two) to your seating or dining area to brighten it up.

Turn a shelf into a bar

You can add a shelf to the side of your house or shed by hanging a 12-inch board ($14.22) with some shelf brackets ($69.99 for four) or fold-down brackets ($13.99 for two) to create a surface for drinks and plates without taking up a ton of space or blowing your budget. You can also choose to upcycle a thrifted console table, shelf, or desk into a bar space by adding some good quality exterior paint ($28.04/quart) to protect it from the elements and make it easier to clean. Adding some bar stools ($61.99/set of four) can help to give your outdoor bar a more finished feel.

Add color to your table

Adding textiles like an outdoor table runner ($5.90) or a new table cloth ($29.99) can give your old table a whole new look and make your outdoor dining space that much more inviting. If you have a table that’s showing some wear, you can choose to update the surface by giving it a good sand and some paint ($15.96) as well. If the surface is great, you can also freshen up an old piece by painting the legs instead.

Use planters or benches to delineate your space

In order to define your outdoor kitchen as well as give people somewhere to sit, using benches ($54.99), planters ($35.99), or a combination of both to outline your space can be very effective. Planning out the shape of your outdoor kitchen can be crucial to keeping the space feeling inviting as well as functional. If you’re handy, you can build some benches from cedar boards ($9.25 each for a ¾ inch by 4 inch by 8 inch board) supported by some wooden planter boxes ($60.99/set of two). Make sure that your bench seat has some support every two feet or so, to keep it sturdy.

'Likewise' Can Help You Finally Figure Out What to Watch

Entertainment enjoyers have been asking “What should we watch tonight?” since TV existed, but over the last few decades, technology has expanded the options from “whatever is on the three channels we get” to “almost everything that has ever been broadcast in human history”—leaving many paralyzed with choice, but no closer to answering the key question. Enter Likewise, an app aimed at giving you the best answer possible.

Founded by a team of ex-Microsoft employees with an investment from Bill Gates, Likewise has been working to improve entertainment recommendations for movies and TV, books, and podcasts since 2017.  “We were created to solve the absolute mess that is content discovery,” Likewise co founder and CEO Ian Morris told me. “Our mission is to provide every single person out there with their own personal entertainment.”

Likewise’s most recent addition is a fun-to-use TikTok-like infinite scroll interface and deeper integration of AI into its recommendation process. In press-release speak, Likewise works by “seamlessly integrating its AI-powered personal agent and leveraging advanced algorithms and 600 million consumer recommendations.” In practice, you download the Likewise App for iOS or Android, tell it some of the genres, movies, TV shows, books, and/or podcasts you like, and start poking around. 

How Likewise works

Likewise attacks the “what do I watch” problem from a couple of angles at once. It compiles an extensive profile of individuals users’ taste preferences and recommends based on that; it also links you with its community of over 2.5 million users, specifically to users who share tases with you, then lets you ask the community for its favorites. You can check out the lists curated and compiled by Likewise’s editorial staff, or use its AI agent to search using natural language.

Unlike the recommendation algorithms from a single streaming service, Likewise is cross-platform and community-driven, so it’s going to try to give you the best horror movies for you based on more than the formula Netflix uses, instead of providing the best horror movies for you that are also on Netflix (unless that’s what you ask for). 

“It’s designed to be action-oriented,” Morris explained. “If you see something you like, you can click the save button and save it to your watchlist, then see where it’s available for streaming. You have the Rotten Tomato ratings, and the IMDB rating, and community reviews, then you can play it on your Roku. So it’s not just a query engine.” 

Breaking out of the app

You can also use Likewise outside of your phone. A Likewise app is available on Roku, AppleTV, and Firestick, and can be used as a central hub for accessing media on those devices.  You can also contact Pix, Likewise’s AI agent, directly from the website, send it a text from your phone at (877) TEXTPIX, or send a question via email. Unlike asking ChatGPT, Pix will add the results of your query to your Likewise list.

Testing Likewise's AI with a ridiculous query

I like to mess with artificial intelligence, so I emailed Pix the following: "Compile a list of a movies that housewife in 1981 might enjoy if she was contemplating leaving her husband and children in order to pursue her dream of becoming a professional surfer."

Here is what Pix returned.

"Sounds like you're looking for some cinematic inspiration to catch that dream wave, am I right? 🏄‍♀️ I've whipped up a list of movies that would have resonated with a housewife in 1981, contemplating a wild life change towards professional surfing. Hope these help stir up that beachy ambition! 🌴

  • The Endless Summer (1966): A timeless classic in the world of surfing films. It's all about chasing summer around the world. Talk about surf's up, right? 🌞🏄‍♀️

  • An Unmarried Woman (1978): It's about a woman rediscovering herself after a divorce. It should resonate well with the idea of starting anew. 💔🔄💖

  • Breaking Away (1979): It's a coming-of-age story about chasing dreams, which might be a great source of inspiration for our 1981 housewife. 🏁🚲

  • Kramer vs. Kramer (1979): While it's about a divorce and custody battle, it puts a good perspective on the family aspect for someone considering leaving. 👪⚖️

  • Norma Rae (1979): This one's all about a woman standing up for what she believes in, despite the odds. Kind of the feel we're going for, right? ✊💪

  • Ordinary People (1980): This one would resonate well, as it's about a family trying to cope with the loss of one of their own. Might give some perspective on what the family might go through. 🏠💔

  • On Golden Pond (1981): An ageing couple's journey might just help our protagonist see her existing life from a fresh lens. 👵👴💖

While I absolutely loathe the writing style of AI when it's trying to be "casual," the movies are all in the ballpark, at least.

The Best Sales on Home Improvement Tools During Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

Upgrade your garage workshop, lawn care, and DIY game with these deals from Amazon's ongoing Big Spring Sale, which we've been keeping our eyes on this week. If you have a project you’ve been eyeing around the house, these deals on home improvement tools can help you get it done for less.

Cordless tool sets

Cordless tool combo sets are a good way to build a new kit if you don’t already have one, or upgrade if you have older, corded tools. Bosch has a 12-volt drill and driver combo kit that comes with two batteries, and charger, and a case that is on sale for $106.99, 40% off its usual price. This set is good for small projects and repairs around the house, but isn’t suited for larger projects like decking.

Dewalt has a heavier duty 20-volt drill and driver combo kit that comes with 2 20 volt batteries, a charger, and a case along with the drill and driver for $139, 42% off its regular price. You can upgrade the kit and get a bundle that also comes with an impact bit set for $156.49, 40% off the regular price.

For a more comprehensive kit, you can find the DeWalt five-tool combo kit that comes with a drill, impact driver, oscillating tool, reciprocating saw, circular saw, two batteries, a charger, and a tool bag for $449.00, 30% off its regular price.

Tool batteries

Since batteries and chargers can be an expensive part of a cordless tools system, getting a deal on new batteries can be a game changer. DeWalt has some deep discounts on its tools, including a set of two 20 volt, 2AH MAX batteries for $129, 46% off the regular price. For larger batteries, the two pack of 20-volt, 6AH MAX batteries from DeWalt are on sale for $178.76, 38% off their usual price.

Bench tools

If you’re doing wood or metal working (or if your DIY projects just need a sturdy clamp), vises, bench mounted tools, and accessories can help keep you fingers safe and your parts steady while you work. The Craftsman 15-amp benchtop planer is on sale for $299, 36% off its regular price. It can accommodate boards up to 12.5 inches wide and can adjust to cut as thick as 6 inches.

The Wilton utility bench vise with a 4-inch opening and 4.5-inch jaws is on sale for $101.57, 58% off its regular price. The utility vise also has a small anvil work surface for metal working.

For larger projects and more versatility, the Wilton reversible bench vise has 6.5-inch wide jaws and can open to 12.75 inches when reversed. It also has pipe jaws that can accommodate up to a 3-inch pipe and two anvil surfaces for metal working. The reversible vise is on sale for $257.80, 56% off its usual price.

Hand tools

Adding to your hand tool collection can up your repair and DIY game. Luckily, there are some deals that can help you expand your set for less. The Craftsman socket extension and adapter set is on sale for $49.98, 36% off its normal price. It comes with several extension adapters as well as an angle adapter for tight spots and quarter, three-eights, and half-inch drive sockets.

The Craftsman quarter-inch drive extension set is also on sale for $9.98, 56% off its usual price. This set comes with one driver handle and three sizes of driver extensions for getting into tight spots.

The Sunex three-eighths inch drive imperial socket set is on sale for $31.30, 62% off its usual price, and has 13 deep sockets and a keeper.

The General Tools pipe cutter is on sale for $13.90, 35% off its regular price.

Measuring tools

Measuring and marking accurately can make all the difference on your next DIY job, so a few tool deals to help you build with accuracy are vital. If you can get past the obnoxious "gadgets for men" descriptor on Amazon, the General Tools contour gauge for tracing tile, flooring, and molding cuts is on sale for $10.04, 56% off its regular price. The General Tools depth and angle gauge is on sale for $4.56, 79% off its regular price.

Extension cords and electrical tools

Having the power you need when working in the shop or outdoors is indispensable, but cords and tools can get expensive. Here are some deals to up your electrical game. The Southwire 50-foot outdoor extension cord is on sale for $29.60, 33% off its regular price.

The Woods 25-foot, multiple outlet outdoor extension cord is on sale for $23.80, 30% off its normal price.

The Woods one-to-three splitter is on sale for $20.30, 32% off its usual price. It can spread as far as 20 feet between ends, and each cord measures approximately 13 feet.

The Kasa outdoor dimmable smart plug is on sale for $17.99, 40% off its regular price. It’s compatible with Google assistant, Alexa, and SmartThings.

The Astro Multimeter for testing continuity, voltage, and resistance in electrical wiring and components is on sale for $26.98, 37% off its regular price.

The Best Deals on Coffee Makers and Accessories During Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

Attention, coffee (and tea) drinkers: Whether you love the simple pleasure of picking up your java on the way to work or you take brewing at home very seriously, you should pay attention to Amazon’s Big Spring Sale. There’s quite a bit of discounted stuff for you there. Here are some of the best deals for casual sippers and connoisseurs alike that I've found so far.

Best Big Spring Sale deals on at-home coffee goods

If it’s time to upgrade your brew setup or drinkware, give these a shot. 

  • If you like to grind your own beans, the Shardor electric burr grinder is marked down to $33.99 (originally $39.99). A bit of advice: Before you pick one of these up, make sure you’re familiar with how to clean it so your coffee doesn’t start to taste bad. 

  • Keurig is having a lot of deals during this sale, like the K-Express single-serve coffee maker, which is on sale for $69.99 (originally$89.99). This is also the kind of machine you'll want to know how to clean regularly, because they can get pretty gross.

  • The Mueller drip coffee maker is on sale for $23.78 compared to the typical price of $34.99. This one lacks some higher-end features, like the ability to schedule batches for the following morning, but it's a cheap, solid pick if you need something simple.

  • This bag of Four Sigmatic coffee is an organic, half-caf blend that's usually a little spendy at $17.09. During the sale, it's down to $14.52, but be aware that it comes pre-ground. Given the lower caffeine amount, it might be a good bag to have on hand when you need a little afternoon pick-me-up, but still want to be able to get some sleep that night.

Best Big Spring Sales for coffee on the go

Busy bees, you are not forgotten. Whether brewing at home and taking a cup for the road or stopping by your local cafe, here are some deals on items you can use.

  • Grab a 20-ounce vacuum insulated travel cup for $9.62 instead of $13.99 so your coffee stays hot (or cold, depending on your preferences) while you're out and about. Reviewers say it holds more than the usual to-go mug and maintains temperature well. It also comes with a metal straw and a cleaning brush for when the aforementioned straw inevitably gets gross. 

  • CamelBak’s popular 16-ounce Horizon tumbler is also on sale, down to $17.26 from $22. Reviewers have been praising this camping mug for years.

  • If you prefer your coffee cold and like a fashionable but sustainable option to drink it from, Simple Modern’s insulated tumbler with lid and straw is $20.79 instead of $25.99. It’s chic and comes in multiple colors, but not all of them are included in the Big Spring Sale, so double-check the prices before you buy.

  • If you like a hefty cup of java, pick up a Seven Sparta car cup holder expander for $19.99 instead of $24.99. To see it in action, check out this review, which concludes that it’s a quality product that solves a very specific—but annoying—problem.

  • The JavaPresse manual coffee grinder is discounted from $46.99 to $27.98. This grinder is small and uses a manual crank, which makes it ideal for someone who’s particular about their coffee, even when they’re camping—or simply can’t stand the thought of skipping a cuppa during a power outage.

10 Ways to Update Your Porch or Patio on a Budget

Spring is upon those of us in the Northern hemisphere (even if it doesn't feel like it), and if we're lucky enough to have an outdoor space, we're probably thinking about sprucing it up. But whether you want to make your porch or patio more comfortable, or just give it a fresh new look to usher in the season, updates can be pricey. Luckily, there are a few things you can do, even if you don’t have the budget for a total overhaul, to spruce up the place and make your yard, deck, etc. that much better.

Add some lighting

If you have outdoor outlets or fixtures already, it’s simple to add some string lights ($35.99) or you can update your outdoor wall sconce ($42.65) with a new one. If you don’t have outdoor outlets, solar options will allow you to give your porch or patio a glow up. Adding a solar lantern (two for $23.99) or a set of fairy lights ($9.99) is as simple as finding a sunny spot in your outdoor area to set them up.

Lay down a rug

To make your space more comfortable for morning coffee or after-sprinkler lemonade in your bare feet, an outdoor rug ($28.95 for a 3-foot by 5-foot rug) is just the thing. You can also use a larger rug ($59.49 for an 8-foot by 10-foot rug) to delineate space for outdoor furniture and entertaining space. A good outdoor rug is waterproof and can be cleaned with a hose for convenience.

Hang shades or curtains

Hanging some curtains can help to create some shade and to make your space feel more dressed up. You can add weatherproof curtain panels ($13.29 per panel) by hanging some outdoor curtain rods ($17.99 for an expandable 66- to 120-inch rod). You can also choose to use roll-up shades ($49.98 for a 7-foot by 6-foot-tall panel) instead of a stiffer sun shade. Shades can also help to cut wind a little bit for a more comfortable outdoor dining experience.

Add a planter

Adding a large planter ($49.99) that you can plant a porch-sized tree ($44.00) in can give you a focal point and add some greenery to your patio or porch. Remember that if you plant a tree, you will either need one that’s suited to your local climate or one that can come indoors for winter. An alternative to one large planter is a few smaller ones (set of three for $58.03) to scatter some greenery ($9.99 each) or flowers ($19.47 each) through your space.

Make your furniture cozier

Porch furniture is a must for warm spring days, but to keep cozy when the weather is still a little chilly, you'll need reinforcements. Using some outdoor blankets ($15.99) along with some cushions ($49.99 for two) and pillows ($18.99 for four) can make your time outdoors in the spring a little warmer as well as prettier. If you have an uncovered patio, even if your textiles are waterproof, using a tarp or bringing pillows and blankets indoors when it rains will keep your furniture more comfortable without needing to wait for dry time.

Give your furniture a fresh coat

Outdoor furniture gets a lot of abuse. It’s exposed to sun, moisture, and lots of barbecue guests (if you’re lucky). If your furniture is solid but starting to show some wear, you can use paint to give it some new life. Painting metal furniture with spray paint ($6.19) is a fairly simple DIY, but you’ll likely need a drop cloth ($9.99) to contain overspray and a wire brush ($3.47) to prep the surface. If you have wooden furniture, you can also use acrylic paint ($34.98/gallon) to give it some protection as well. If you don’t want to paint your whole piece, you can opt for a color dipping treatment using acrylic or latex, or you can paint some accents instead.

Paint your floor

To freshen up a concrete floor or some old deck boards, a coat of paint can really do the trick. Using a stencil ($15.99) and some paint ($18.99), you can give your old concrete floor a pattern. For decking, you can opt for a paint color ($17.49) with added no-slip grip ($9.24) to make your porch safer as well as more colorful.

Get a bar cart

Whether it’s coffee or spirits you prefer, a little outdoor bar can go a long way to making your outdoor space more comfortable. Consider this bar cart ($39.99) for serving cocktails or lemonade, to elevate the porch or patio experience.

Include a fire feature

I love a fire feature for outdoor entertaining. You can choose to add even a small, pedestal-style fire feature ($99.99) for a little warm glow, or you can opt for a table-sized fire feature ($156.99). Remember that a fire feature needs to be kept at least three feet from flammable objects and you should observe all safety information from the manufacturer.

Or maybe a heater

When the mornings and evenings are still cooler, a patio heater is a great way to get your outdoor space going in spring. You can choose to use a small infrared heater ($55.99) that uses electricity for efficient energy use, or you can opt for a propane burning heater ($99.99). Make sure to follow all manufacturer safety instructions to avoid any possibility of fire.

The Hidden Benefits of a Robotic Lawn Mower

If you hate yard work, you might have dreamt of getting a robot to mow your lawn for you, saving you the hassle of once or twice per week mowing during the height of your lawn’s growing season. While the prospect of a robotic lawnmower might seem too good to be true, there are new models out that can mow your lawn—saving you time and, if you have a larger lawn and/or need to mow frequently, money in fuel costs over the long term.

How do robotic mowers work?

The basic premise of a robotic lawn mower is that it will do to your grass what a Roomba does indoors to your floors. While some models operate using a perimeter wire and are set to travel until they come into contact with it and then turn, eventually covering the whole lawn, newer models like Husqvarna Automower (currently $1,499.99) use GPS and sensors to operate the mower on a planned path for your yard. Mowers that use a programmable path for optimal efficiency are more likely to save money in the long run.

Save short-term on fuel

The main savings from using a robotic mower over a traditional mower is in the cost of fuel. Because robotic mowers run on batteries that are recharged with household electricity, they use much less fuel than riding mowers or walk-behind models. In a study commissioned by Stihl, robotic lawnmowers performed better than their traditional counterparts when mowing took place twice a week. According to the study, a traditional mower uses about $25 in fuel to mow once per week for a growing season and $50 to mow twice per week for a growing season; a robotic mower uses about $41 in fuel for a twice weekly mow per season.

Save on labor costs

If you’re deciding between using a robotic mower or a lawn care service, the robotic mower is the more cost effective option, hands down. To hire a service to mow your lawn, it costs between $50 and $200 per acre. A robotic lawn mower can mow an acre for an entire cutting season for just $41—a significant savings.

Save on lifetime costs for fuel and maintenance

Overall, the long-term savings associated with using a robotic mower are the real draw. While a good robotic mower for a residential lawn can cost between $1,000 and $1,500 to buy, a battery-powered push mower comes in at around $380. So the initial cost difference is substantial. But in a study from the International Journal of Sustainable Engineering that compared the total cost to operate over 10 years of several types of mowers, the programmable robotic mower that had an optimal path designed for it was less than half the cost of its closest competitor, the gas-powered riding mower. The total lifetime operating costs for 10 years of use for the robotic mower were about $6000, while the gas-powered riding mower came in at about $14,000. Importantly, the random-walk style of robotic lawnmower with no optimal path set was the most expensive mower, costing about $23,000 to operate for 10 years.

Other advantages of robotic mowers

Robotic mowers are cheaper over time than regular mowers if you need to mow frequently. In addition to being cheaper, a robotic mower will save you time (if you normally mow your grass yourself). Robot lawn mowers are designed to mulch grass clippings back into your yard automatically, making your grass healthier as well as eliminating clipping waste. Since they don’t burn fossil fuels, robotic mowers produce fewer emissions than their traditional counterparts. They’re also significantly quieter than regular mowers since the blades are smaller and they don’t have internal combustion engines.

Disadvantages of robotic mowers

Robotic mowers are a big upfront cost and for folks who don’t need to mow frequently, they might not be cost-saving. In addition to the cost, they need a charger to be plugged in outdoors where the mower can dock, so having a place in your yard to secure the mower and charger when you’re not home is key. If you live in an area where yard equipment can be a target for thieves, your mowing robot will need an enclosure of some kind with an outlet to keep it secure. Robotic mowers often have a limit to the slope they can operate on, so they won’t work in some yards that have hills or uneven terrain.

Future prospects

While robotic mowers aren’t ideal for everyone now because of their price and terrain limitations, as the technology develops, the price will likely fall, and the more efficient optimal path mowers will likely become more affordable. Also, the development of better sensors and better travel equipment will likely allow robotic mowers to move over increasingly uneven yards. As battery technology improves, the rechargeable batteries that robotic mowers use will likely become more efficient and cheaper as well.

What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: Good Vs. Bad Movies

March is Oscar’s month, when Hollywood's attractive millionaires gather to congratulate each other for being so awesome while they embark on the fool's errand of declaring for posterity which movies are the best ones. So it's the perfect season to talk about bad vs. good films, and how no one, even awesome film industry professionals, can really know whether a movie is good or not.

In an inspired act of Oscar counter-programing, The Criterion Channel released a collection of 14 “Golden Raspberry” winning films to stream in March. These “worst of the worst” movies prove that that "badness" of a movie can be as unknowable as its "goodness."

Crash: When the “best picture” is actually horrible

If you consider the history of the Academy Awards (and ignore the subjective nature of our response to art), most Best Picture winners are “good” movies, in a flabby, middlebrow way, and most stay that way over time. Titanic is a good movie, I guess. So is Chariots of Fire, kind of. But some movies, for cultural reasons that can rarely be predicted, swing wildly from "the best" to "the worst" or vice versa based on the cultural world we live in when we see them. Sometimes critics, audiences, and “the industry” all think a movie is not only good, but the best, only to learn it's actually terrible later on. Crash, for example, went from best to trash in fewer than 20 years.

When it was released in 2005, Crash was seen as a courageous examination of race in America, a movie that was not afraid to "go there," as we said back in 2005. But Crash is really bad—it’s not “kind of OK, but didn’t deserve Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain” bad, but actively, undeniably, aggressively terrible. 

Even though the frames are same then as now, few people noticed how obvious, trite, and amateurish Crash was in 2005. It’s a movie populated with paper-thin characters who exist to wander into shallow, melodramatic, “racially charged” vignettes and preach at us. Crash has a message, and that’s where it goes from mediocre to odious. Despite its promise to "keep it real," as we said back in 2005, Crash is designed to comfort its liberal white audience, not confront it. Its message is something like “racism is bad, mmm-kay, but you are good because you totally give a shit.” Or, as critic Clarisse Loughrey pointed out: “Crash is the dad from Get Out’s favorite film.” 

So how did Crash manage to hide its mawkish mid-ness well enough to win a best picture Oscar? It was partly through the then-hot narrative device of non-linear storytelling, but it was mostly because the Academy is made up almost exclusively of the dad from Get Out. The target market for sensitive, middle-budget movies about race are the dad from Get Out too, and he's not going to miss an opportunity to congratulate himself for being not-racist, especially on Oscar night.

Cruising and Freddy Got Fingered: When “bad” movies are actually great

I’ve watched all of the Criterion’s Razzie collection, and a case could be made for the worthiness of any of these movies (with the exception of Gigli, a movie that has a 6% Rotten Tomatoes score and is still overrated), but two films stuck out to me as most deserving of reconsideration: Cruising and Freddy Got Fingered.

Directed by William Friedkin—whose credits include The Exorcist, Boys in the Band, and The French Connection—1980s Cruising is a hard-hitting crime drama/neo-noir set among the BDSM crowd in pre-AIDS New York. Al Pacino plays a detective who goes undercover in the leather daddy scene to catch a serial killer. 

Cruising is a tense, fast-paced, and fascinating thriller, but critics hated it. At first I thought maybe the graphic portrayal of violence and kinky man-on-man sex were a little much for critics in that less-enlightened time, but it turns out there was a different reason for Cruising’s critical beatdown: it was mostly a victim of events surrounding it. 

While it was in production, Cruising was at the center of a now-forgotten controversy. Gay activists protested over the fear that the film would stereotype all gay men as hedonistic, violent fetishists. Upon the film’s release, many critics decided Cruising’s enigmatic ending and its main character’s inscrutability were the result of a director knuckling under to outside pressure. Some panned it for the portrayal of gay men—and some critics, presumably, were just homophobes.

But seen through a 2024 lens and ignorant of the controversy it once caused, viewers can consider Cruising on its merits, and finally see the unflinching, taut, and fascinating thriller/psychological exploration that was always there. This is a matter of opinion, but Cruising seems to go to great pains to fairly represent the struggle and alienation gay men faced at the time, while making it clear that a small subculture doesn't represent gay people as a whole. The unclear resolution and Al Pacino's inarticulate main character's is-he-or-isn't-he journey doesn't seem like waffling from a scared filmmaker as much as a stab at illustrating how complex sexuality, violence, and identity can be. Three thumbs up.

Freddy Got Fingered is a masterpiece

Upon its release, Tom Green's 2001 comedy (I guess) Freddy Got Fingered was panned nearly as roundly as Gigli. Critics said it was scatological, puerile, annoying, and unfunny. As Roger Ebert put it: “This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels.”

All of that is true, but it was also ahead of its time. Green’s schtick was the first wide appearance of the wave of anti-comedy that went on to fuel The Eric Andre Show, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, and most of the internet. His shtick is not supposed to be “funny” in a traditional sense, but more off-putting and meta-funny. It’s funny because he keeps doing weird things that aren’t funny, leading us to question the nature of comedy and maybe chuckle at how stupid and excessive it is. 

But even if you don’t buy the anti-comedy pioneer angle, there’s a deeper level to Freddy Got Fingered in which the boundaries between life and art are stretched and shredded in a way that’s never been done before. If you strip away the gags about fellating horses or drinking toilet water, Freddy is the story of an unfunny weirdo who manages to annoy Hollywood jerks into giving him millions of dollars to make a TV show, which he promptly wastes on annoying people. This is the real story of Tom Green, and Freddy Got Fingered is both a fictionalized account of his journey and the result of it. It’s Tom Green saying, “People in suits actually gave me $14 million dollars to make this movie, and I’m going to blow it on a comedy with no jokes, no characters, and no point beyond me being annoying for 90 minutes. Now watch me roll around in deer guts.”

Lots of movies aim to be subversive, but not many actually subvert the artistic expectations of their genre. Freddy Got Fingered does, but the audiences and critics of 2005 saw Tom Green's antics and missed his larger point. "That's not even a joke" meant "this movie is bad" back in 2005, but it "hits different" now, as I'm told some people say in 2024. I don’t know if Freddy Got Fingered is genius, exactly, but it’s way more interesting than Crash.

The Six Ways You Need to Maintain Your Chimney

Chimneys are one of those parts of the house that are so prevalent they’re invisible—you see them all the time, and probably rarely think about them. Even if you have one in your own home, if you don’t have a fireplace you might assume that your chimney is a useless artifact poking up out of your house—but that old chimney might still be serving a purpose. Even without a fireplace, your chimney is very likely serving as ventilation for the house, letting dangerous gases from your furnace, water heater, or other infrastructure escape the house instead of killing you.

Whether that old chimney on your roof is in use or not, it’s a huge mistake to ignore it. Like everything else in your house, your chimney needs to be properly maintained, even if it’s no longer in use. There’s one obvious reason why: The cost to remove or replace a chimney is steep: About $4,100 on average, and sometimes more than $6,000. Rebuilding instead of removing will still run you anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 depending on its size and condition. Ignoring your chimney is an easy way to damage your roof and other areas of your house—sometimes disastrously.

Inspect it

Unless you’re a chimney expert yourself, you should have your chimney inspected on a regular basis—annually, if you can. You’ll want to hire someone certified by the Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA), who will check out the structural integrity of your chimney, check to see if it’s clogged with debris or flammable residue like creosote, and ensure that it’s still performing its functions properly.

Sweep it

If the words “chimney sweep” conjures up visions of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, you might be surprised to learn it is very much still a thriving profession. “Sweeping” a chimney is basically cleaning it out—over time, every chimney gets clogged up with ash, debris, and other substances. Even if you don’t have a fireplace, your chimney can become clogged up over time, and probably needs a good cleanout.

If you schedule an annual inspection of your chimney, the company probably includes a sweeping service, or offers it at a small additional cost.

Cap it

Whether your chimney is in constant use or you were recently surprised to discover you have one, it should be capped. A chimney cap is a cover that is attached to the top of your chimney to prevent rain and snow from pouring down into it, damaging the interior. Some also have mesh screens incorporated to prevent animals and birds from building nests in there or migrating down into your walls. They’re not particularly expensive—this one from Master Flow is less than $60—but they can save you a ton of money and stress in the long run. If you’re somewhat handy and follow proper safety precautions when working on a roof, installing a chimney cap is a fairly straightforward DIY job.

Seal it

Your chimney pops up out of your roof, so it gets hit with all the weather and rain. Over time, water penetrating the brick and mortar will inflict some serious damage, so it’s a good idea to seal it against water intrusion using a penetrating water repellent product. This is an easy and cheap job that can help preserve your chimney structure so it doesn’t crumble and magically transform into an expensive repair.

Line it

A chimney liner is fitted inside your chimney, made of metal, clay, or a concrete-like mixture that’s poured into the chimney to set in place. It can serve two vital purposes: protecting the interior of your chimney from corrosion and damage, and making your chimney more efficient. If your chimney is too large (older chimneys sized for old-school furnaces or fireplaces can be way too big for a modern, more efficient furnace, for example), the gas outflow can cause condensation and moisture inside the chimney, which can damage masonry and other materials. A liner can “resize” the chimney so that doesn’t happen, while also protecting those materials.

Close it

If you are absolutely sure you don’t use that chimney for anything—furnace outgassing, ventilation, etc.—but you don’t want to go through the trouble and expense of removing it, you might consider closing it up entirely. This involves sealing it up at the top and bottom so that there’s no chance of water intrusion or other problems. Keep in mind you’ll still need to maintain the structure of your chimney with inspections, capping, and water sealing if you choose to do this.

The Difference Between FIRE and FILE (and Which Is Right for You)

The FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement has gained significant traction in recent years, inspiring many to double down on saving and investing with the goal of being able to retire decades before the traditional retirement age. However, an alternative approach called FILE (Financial Independence, Live Early) has now emerged for those who don't necessarily want to retire completely, but still crave more flexibility and freedom in their lives.

Understanding FIRE

At its core, FIRE is about aggressively saving and investing as much as possible, often upwards of 50-70% of income, to be able to leave the workforce and maintain your lifestyle through investment returns alone. FIRE adherents typically aim to reach financial independence and have the option to retire by their 40s or 50s.

The FIRE mindset treats work sort of like an on/off switch—you either continue on the daily grind of full-time employment to fund your lifestyle, or you yank that ripcord and retire once you've amassed enough investments to cover your living expenses for life. Many are drawn to FIRE as an escape from the daily 9-to-5 and ability to pursue other interests and passions.

What is FILE?

FILE shares the same fundamental goal as FIRE: Reach a point of financial independence where your investment income can cover your desired lifestyle expenses. However, instead of fully retiring, the focus is on creating more flexibility and breathing room in your life.

Rather than an on/off switch of working or not working, FILE treats work more like a dimmer switch. The idea is to scale back to part-time work, transition to your own business or consulting, or simply have a financial runway to take extended career breaks without being tethered to a job for the paycheck.

Proponents of FILE still save and invest diligently, but may have lower "financial independence" target number than FIRE adherents, since they plan to continue earning some income. The "Live Early" aspect refers to having the ability to live more freely on your own terms well before traditional retirement age, rather than having to entirely retire.

Which approach is right for you?

Both FIRE and FILE require upfront sacrifice through reducing expenses and boosting savings rates in your wealth-accumulating years. Your savings target and investing horizon will ultimately determine which path makes more sense.

FIRE may be a better fit if you truly have a strong desire to fully retire from the workforce as soon as possible. But if you still want to stay engaged in some form of work or entrepreneurial pursuits, just with more flexibility and optionality, then FILE could be a good middle ground.

There's also a range of variation within each approach. Some may use FIRE principles to retire from corporate life by 50, but keep earning income through freelance projects or small businesses. Others may use FILE to slowly transition from full-time to "coasting" on a very modest lifestyle.

The commonality is prioritizing financial independence to live life more on your terms, with or without a traditional paycheck. Your personal lifestyle, interests, and savings discipline will help guide you towards which path is most suitable.

Five Surprising Ways You Can Use Plasti Dip Around the House

Plasti Dip is a rubbery coating made to bond to most surfaces, and is commonly used on handles for tools. It’s meant to stand up to outdoor applications and extreme temperatures, and it can extend the life of metal surfaces by protecting them from moisture. In addition to adding some color, there are lots of other practical uses for Plasti dip. Here are a few of my favorites.

Tool handles

By far the most common application for Plasti Dip is tool handles. For this application, using the traditional dip container of Plasti Dip to coat tool handles is the best approach. In addition to adding color, Plasti Dip is an insulator against electricity and heat, making metal tools safer and more comfortable to use. For a smooth finish, you should set up a way to hold your tools in place while the handles dry. For this step, you can use a clamp or even a clothesline with some clips.

Knobs

Knobs on equipment like adjustable-height tables, tool accessories, and clamps can all be coated with Plasti Dip to make them more comfortable to use. You can also use Plasti Dip on knobs for cabinet hardware, doorknobs, and drawer pulls to give an older knob some new life or to make them easier to grip. For best results, take the handles completely off and dip them without submerging the hardware that attaches them to your furniture or equipment. Steer clear of applying Plasti Dip to any moving parts or to the surfaces of screws and bolts.

Car parts

To use Plasti Dip successfully on car parts, you will need the rattle can, spray-on type to cover the areas you want to target. You can also choose to use a paint sprayer with the type of Plasti Dip meant for sprayers for larger areas, although applying this type of paint does take some practice to get it right. For smaller areas, like splash guards inside your wheel well or rims, you can use a spray can after cleaning the surface thoroughly with soapy water and masking off the surrounding areas that you don’t want to get paint on. Plasti Dip can help to protect the undercarriage of your vehicle from rust, and it can also improve the look of your rims. For a more professional-looking finish, you can choose an automotive kit that comes with a specialized spray nozzle and a glossy finish spray.

Rugs

To give the bottom of your carpet a non-slip coating, you can use super grip Plasti Dip spray. Prep the surface by vacuuming the rug and use a drop cloth outdoors to apply the coating. Make sure to tape off the edges of your rug as well as any tassels to avoid accidentally spraying them. Once the coating is dry, your rug will no longer slide about, preventing tripping and slipping accidents.

Safety glass

For use on almost any type of glass, from jelly jars to windows, clear Plasti Dip can be applied for a safety coating. In addition to providing a little bit of resistance to breakage for glass bottles, a Plasti Dip coating will hold shards of glass together in the event the glass is broken, reducing the danger. Applying Plasti Dip to glass needs proper ventilation and masking, but you should also make sure that the glass can dry in a fairly low wind environment to get the best possible finish. Be aware that using Plasti Dip to coat glass, even if it’s clear, will at least partially obscure the glass—it isn’t a fully transparent layer.

The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: Timothée Chalamet Memes

This week's trip into the world of young people culture takes us from the heights of a PSA that signals a positive shift in cultural ideas about Down Syndrome to the depths of a new incarnation of "Gamergate." Along the way we'll take a look at some memes about Timothée Chalamet and learn why, exactly, the music was so much better when you were young.

Timothée Chalamet: a generation’s most meme-able actor

Twenty-eight year old actor Timothée Chalamet starred in Dune, Wonka, and Dune 2 and has been nominated for an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and three BAFTAs. But he looks like a shoe. 

Since as early as 2020, people have been pointing out Chalamet’s resemblance to footwear. “Timothee Chalamet looks like a pointy italian shoe that was turned into a real boy by a witch's curse,” reads the first tweet about the phenomena. Check out this video and see if you agree. Or these side-by-side photos.

Shoes aren’t the only things Chalamet resembles, however. The first photos were released last week of the actor dressed as a young Bob Dylan for upcoming biopic A Complete Unknown, It looks like this: 

Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan
Credit: Crave Media - X

According to the internet, Chalamet looks like Fievel Mousekewitz from An American Tail. Or like “every single character in love actually.” Or like he’s “On his way to become a governess to a captain with seven children. Seven!” Or like “a Charles Dickens character with a jam band.”

I generally don’t celebrate bullying people online, but it’s all pretty good-natured, and he really does look like a shoe; plus, if Chalamet is mad, he can cry into a big pile of money.

This is why you hate young people’s music

Have you ever had a younger person play current music for you, and it sounds wrong and bad? It happens to me regularly. My teenager will pull up the Soundcloud of some underground rapper or bedroom producer he likes, and my (unspoken because I’m not an asshole) reaction is usually something like, “How can anyone like this shit?” 

It’s not the music itself necessarily; it’s the production—the mix. The drums are too low. The vocals are sludgy. There’s no separation. Etc, etc. “Why would anyone release something that sounds like this when professional production tools are easily available to anyone with a PC?” I’d think. But I think I figured out the reason. 

Since at least the 1950s, the music young people like was identifiable partly because older people hated it. The distorted, dissonant guitars of rock and roll and the hard-edged minimalism and obscenity-laden lyrics of hip hop sounded wrong to squares and parents, like mistakes or like something dangerous, so artists heaped it on. 

But at some point musicians ran out of runway. For rock, I’m going to say the 1987 release of Big Black’s Songs About Fucking marks the moment where no more distortion or noise could be applied to a recording and have it still reasonably be called “music.” You could pick a similar, arbitrary date for hip hop, too. Maybe NWA’s first album. As extreme as the content was at the time, though, both Songs About Fucking and Straight Outta Compton are expertly produced. 

Big Black’s Steve Albini went on to produce Nirvana’s culture-defining In Utero, an album today’s parents grew up on, rendering “noise and distortion” forever incapable of giving offense. NWA’s Straight Outta Compton is practically cuddly nostalgia in 2024. But in a glorious piece of teenage subversion, young artists recently (maybe unconsciously) recognized that they could still make music that sounds wrong and bad to squares like me, even if they can't do it through noise or curse words. The ingenious solution is the sludgy, imperfect, unlistenable mixes of today’s underground music. So the next time you catch yourself thinking about how music was so much better in your day, remember that it’s really just your old-ass ears; when your kids are old, it will be played in dentist offices.

Is Gamergate making a comeback? 

If you were lucky enough to have missed the first incarnation of “Gamergate” in 2014, I have bad news. The second version of the harassment-masquerading-as-activism movement is brewing within in the fetid hangouts of a new generation of online cranks and assholes. Gamergate 2.0 has dropped the faux concern about “ethics in video game journalism” in favor of just being against things it considers “woke,” but the tactics remain the same: Choose a target, make up things about them, then turn on the harassment hoses and fire up the death-threat cannons. This time around, the focal point of the anger is a small narrative design company called Sweet Baby Inc. The cover story for Gamergate’s harassment campaign involves the belief that this 16-employee company is dictating the editorial choices for the entire $214 billion game industry, including deciding the race of the main character in Alan Wake 2, the choices Kratos makes in the last God of War, and is responsible for basically every not-white, not-straight character in all of gaming. 

Encouragingly, the industry seems to be responding more aggressively this time, with the heads of game development companies pointing out that Gamergate jerks don’t understand how the games industry (or anything else) works, as companies hire consulting firms because they want the services they provide; consulting companies don’t dictate terms to their employers. So if Sweet Baby is providing woke-if-cation, it’s at the request of an industry that wants to be more woke, not less.  Another encouraging difference between this and the original Gamergate: The movement seems much smaller and sadder, with the Discord server where the harassment is organized having only around 2,000 members. 

Cheating in the connected age

I don’t have sympathy for them, but today’s cheaters have a harder time covering up their indiscretions than any previous generation. The number of apps and platforms which can gives you away is always increasing, and one small slip will give away the game. You can even get busted through fitness app Strava. 

In a recent video, TikToker meg.c.mcgee recounts the story of how she found proof of her husband’s infidelity through the running maps on Strava. His jogging route led directly from the home he shared with his wife to an illicit partner’s house a half mile away, and the unnamed dude didn’t set it to “private” or delete the data. Commenters on the post tell stories about catching cheating partners though Airbnb, Venmo, the AMC app (he took too many trips to movies she hadn’t seen), and secret calculator apps that look like innocent math aids but act as repositories for hidden photographs. 

Viral Video of the Week: Assume That I Can

This week’s viral video is a public service announcement from the National Down Syndrome Society that’s really hitting a nerve with people—the ad has been viewed nearly 30 million times on TikTok and even more on Instagram. It challenges viewers to consider how the limitations we place on people with Down syndrome become self-fulfilling prophesies. “Coach, you assume that I can’t hit harder,” actress and model Madison Tevlin says in the vid, “so you don’t train me to hit harder.”

The ad basically plays out like a standard do-gooder PSA, the kind of thing that might get 5,000 views, but then Tevlin informs us she can, in fact, “recite fucking Shakespeare.” After a pause, she asks, “You assumed I couldn’t swear, right?” 

I didn’t assume that, but I did assume that the people making a PSA about Down syndrome would infantilize its subjects in the name of good taste or respectability, so it’s refreshing and powerful that they refuse to, and instead acknowledge that cursing, drinking, and having sex aren’t special privileges for the neurotypical or something that we should never talk about in connection with people with intellectual disabilities, but are basic human rights that everyone should have the option of enjoying.  

The Easiest Ways to Make Your Home Network More Secure

While there’s no foolproof method for keeping everything on a wireless network completely secure, there are some things you can do to make it safer. In addition to setting up devices that don’t depend on a wireless network, you can use a few other tools to discourage hacking and keep your wireless network more private. Taking a few practical steps can give you some peace of mind when using your home security system or your wifi network.

Use a wired connection to prevent jammers

Wireless cameras for home security are convenient and cost-effective, but it’s a good idea to include some devices that don’t depend on a wireless network—just in case. Because any wireless network is vulnerable to jammers, using devices that don't use a wireless signal is a good backup measure to take. These can be as simple as window alarms, or can be as extensive as a wired security camera system that records to a DVR. For most people, one or two wired cameras at key entry points like the front and back doors or focused on a garage entrance is sufficient.

In addition to hardwired security devices, you can also choose to use an ethernet internet connection with a firewall to prevent sensitive information on your home computer from being accessed without physically connecting to your network. Ethernet is a wired internet option that is often faster and less glitchy than a wireless connection, and it has the added benefit of being resistant to jamming and hacking as well.

Change your frequency frequently to prevent jammers

Wifi jammers work by interrupting a particular signal frequency. Changing the frequency that your network operates at can help to prevent jammers from latching onto your signal. Frequency-hopping spread spectrum devices are an option that will automatically change the frequency of your wifi signal, making it more difficult to use an RF jammer to disrupt the wifi connection to your home security devices. While FHSS is considered an older, outdated technology for many wifi devices because more modern wifi protections are geared to data protection, it's useful for preventing jamming attacks. Consumer Reports tested several home security systems for jamming resistance, and there are a few devices that tested well for resistance to frequency jamming including the Honeywell Smart Home Security System. If you're considering a home security upgrade, you should look for devices that use FHSS technology or a similar frequency changing feature to deter jamming attempts.

Create unique passwords

When you set up your home wireless network, your router likely comes with a password for initial access. Additionally, the administrative password is also generated by the manufacturer as a way to access the settings on your router. These passwords are notoriously easy to discover and are not intended to be a long term solution for network security. Create a password that’s different from the one that came with your device and that also doesn’t contain things like birthdays, addresses, or important dates that could be easily discoverable to strangers.

Create a new name for your network

When you install a new wireless networking device, it likely has a name it was given by the manufacturer. This is a placeholder so that you can set up your network, but you should come up with your own name that isn’t associated with your name or address once you activate it. This will help make it more difficult to find and break into your wireless network.

Turn off remote access controls

Most routers have the option to change settings remotely, allowing you to manage device permissions and settings from a computer not hardwired to the device. In addition, many routers also offer universal plug and play, letting any device that’s plugged into the router access its settings without using a password and WPS (wifi protected setup), allowing you to press a button on your modem for instant connection without entering a password. While all of these features can be convenient, they’re also great ways for someone looking for valuable data or access to security devices to access your network without your knowledge. Disabling these features can help make your wireless network more secure.

Use encryption

Encrypting your network is as simple on newer routers as selecting WPA 3 personal or WPA 2 personal on your network settings. Older routers don’t have these options and are much less secure than newer ones as a result. Using an outdated router makes your network less secure because they aren’t capable of higher level encryption.

Don’t stay logged in

While it’s convenient to stay logged in to your wifi administrator account, you should log out once you’re done setting it up. That’s because anyone who has access to your device—even remotely—can use the administrator account to change your wifi settings and access connected devices including your home security system. If you’re logged out, a would-be hacker needs your password to get into your wifi settings.

Use your firewall

One default setting that your router usually comes with is actually good to leave the way it is, and that’s the firewall. Most routers come with a firewall that’s already switched on to help protect your wi-fi network and connected devices. You should check to make sure it’s on to improve the security of your wireless network.

Your Home Might Need External Insulation, Too

A home that’s warm and cozy in the winter and cool in the summer is a place you can relax—a refuge. A home that’s too hot or too cold all the time will never be comfortable, and can be a drain on your pocketbook: Up to 70% of the energy you pay for in your home is used to heat or cool it, and heating your house likely accounts for about 30% of your utility bills.

How well your home is insulated has a huge impact on its energy efficiency, and on your monthly bills. Adding more insulation to your home can cut heating and cooling costs by an average of 15%, making it a no-brainer home improvement project. Typically homeowners focus on adding insulation inside the house (in the attic or inside the walls), but there’s another strategy to make your home even more energy efficient and comfortable: adding insulation to the exterior of your home.

Upping the R-value

Considering exterior insulation makes sense if you’re going to be removing or adding siding or cladding to the house; the exterior of the home will be exposed anyway, making it the ideal opportunity to improve your home’s overall insulation economically.

Exterior insulation is like putting a sweater on your house, creating an additional barrier to heat loss or gain. It’s a straightforward concept: Once your home’s exterior walls are exposed, you can affix a material like rigid foam insulation or mineral wool batts to the walls, seal it, then cover it with the siding or cladding of your choice. If your home is always chilly in winter or too warm in summer, adding this extra layer of insulation can potentially offer a dramatic improvement.

The benefits depend on the R-value you’re adding, and the climate zone you live in. If you live in Nebraska, for example, you’re in Climate Zone 5, and if your home has 2x6 exterior walls, you’re shooting for an R-value of 19-21. R-values are additive, so any insulation you add to the outside of your house will improve its overall R-value—and a single inch of foam insulation can increase the R-value of your home by 5. If your home already has an R-value of 20, that would represent a 20% increase.

What to consider

One huge benefit to adding insulation to the outside of your home is that you can avoid disruption inside the house. You won’t need to drill holes in your walls or remove the drywall entirely. All the mess and trouble stays outside while the interior of your home remains clean and undisturbed. If you are replacing your siding or cladding anyway, the project shouldn't add to the disruption at all.

There are a few things to consider before you jump into adding exterior insulation, however:

  • Cost. The cost of adding insulation to a siding project will depend on how much wall you need to insulate. For example, a 4x8 polyisocyanurate board from Johns Manville costs about $26, so you can measure the square footage of your exterior walls to get an idea of how much the materials will cost. But you also have to factor in complexities like windows, soffits, and other quirks that can add or subtract materials. And then there are the labor costs of installing it, which will vary greatly; you can expect to add a few thousand bucks to a siding project by including exterior insulation.

  • Thickness. Adding insulation means everything else gets bumped out by a few inches, which can have an impact on things like trim pieces around window wells or exterior outlet boxes. There are plenty of products that can compensate for these complications, but you’ll want to be sure that your contractor is aware of potential issues and has a plan to address them.

  • Moisture. Adding insulation between your siding and the framing of your home can improve the moisture infiltration, because it adds an extra gap between the surface and the interior. However, if you use a rigid foam board that has a vapor barrier of some kind on the outside, this can cause problems because you’ll be sandwiching the insulation between two vapor barriers, trapping moisture below the siding. That’s why it’s vital that you consult with an expert when choosing insulation materials for a project like this.

If you’re already going to be removing the siding or other cladding from your home, taking the opportunity to add some exterior insulation can make a big difference in the comfort level of your house—and the size of your utility bills, all without a lot of mess inside.

Build Your Own Tiny Backyard Wildlife Pond

Par : Emily Long

If you're looking for your next garden project and want something low maintenance that's also beneficial for the entire ecosystem, consider building a tiny wildlife pond.

Backyard ponds have a handful of ecological benefits, but even if you don't have space for a full-sized water feature, you can still increase the diversity of beneficial insects, amphibians, and native wildlife in your garden. Tiny ponds can attract and support dragonflies, damselflies, bees, frogs, birds, and more. They also don't require a pump, a filtration system, or complicated upkeep—the plants and wildlife just do their natural thing over time, ideally keeping everything in check on their own.

How to create a tiny wildlife pond

A mini wildlife pond requires only a few materials and very little maintenance. Here's what you'll need:

  • A watertight container, such as plastic liner, bin, or bucket, though you can also use a wash bin, barrel, or old sink

  • Gravel to line the bottom of the container

  • Bricks, pebbles, and stones to create surfaces at varying depths

  • Native pond plants

  • Aquatic pots

  • Rainwater

Note that when selecting plants for your pond, you'll need several types to keep your pond's ecosystem healthy and balanced. Submerged plants live at the bottom of the pond, emergent plants have their roots submerged in shallow water, and floating plants, well, float. Search for native pond or water plants specific to your area (do not just pick things from your yard or garden). Some emergent plants will do best in aquatic baskets, and loose submerged plants can be bundled, tied, and weighted to the bottom of your pond container.

Select a spot in your yard or garden that gets good light—it should not be full sun or full shade. You can either dig a hole and place your container in the ground or let it sit on the surface. Add gravel or small rocks to the bottom of the container, then place bricks and rocks of varying heights around the edges to create surfaces for plants to sit and birds and insects to land. If your container isn't in the ground, add a ramp on the outside so frogs and other wildlife can easily climb in and out. Next, fill your pond with rainwater and start planting. If you have to use tap water, wait several days before adding any plants so chemicals can dissipate.

For a visual demonstration, and some inspiration, Instagram user Martha @marfskitchengarden demonstrates how to build and maintain a tiny wildlife pond.

Once your pond has been planted, all you have to do is wait. The tiny ecosystem will develop on its own—you don't need to introduce frogs, fish, or other wildlife. Simply check on it regularly to top off the water (again, use collected rainwater), especially if you live in a dry climate, and remove excess debris. If winter brings freezing temperatures, you may need to bring the pond inside, but otherwise it can survive year-round.

You Can Get This Poputar T2 Smart Guitar on Sale for $324 Right Now

You can get the Poputar T2 Smart Acoustic Guitar on sale for $323.99 right now (reg. $430). The guitar comes with an app with a large library of songs your instrument can show you how to play using LED guides built into the fretboard. From the app, you can also access video guitar lessons and other learning materials to help you play. The guitar itself is made with a solid spruce top panel and mahogany on the back and sides, and its compact 36-inch design is lightweight and can be stored in the included guitar bag. Fully charged, the Poputar's battery can last up to 10 hours, but you can also use it as a standard acoustic guitar after the battery dies. 

You can get the Poputar T2 Smart Acoustic Guitar on sale for $323.99 right now (reg. $430), though prices can change at any time. 

The Best Tools for Surviving Allergy Season

Allergy season is right around the corner, and if you’re someone who’s affected by that, you likely don’t need to be told. There are some effective tools out there that can help you through it, though, so maybe this is the year you stock up and show pollen what you’re made of (or at least what you’re willing to buy to take it on).  

Best household products for allergy season

First, you need to get your home in order so you’re not suffering when you’re in your place of solitude. These should help. 

  • Humidifiers moisten the air and improve the health of your airways, which makes them a valuable source of comfort when your nose and throat are scratchy. The one I use is the Hey Dewy Wellness Humidifier ($99.95), which is prettier than others on the market (my preference) but also has a radius of 500 square feet and a 1.54-liter capacity, meaning it’ll moisten up a big room. 

  • You’ll also need an air purifier. PC Mag recommends the Dyson Cool TP07 ($605). It’s pricey, but it’s also a Dyson, which signifies quality, and PC Mag highlights its air quality measurements, voice control support, and fully sealed HEPA 13 enclosure. I use a cheaper one, the GermGuardian ($79.99), and can confirm it’s quiet and, as far as I can tell, effective in its goal of yanking 99.97% of germs, dust, and pollen from the air. 

  • Grab some AllerEase pillow protectors ($13.28 for two), which are made of tightly woven fabric designed to stop household particles from collecting in your pillow—and making you sneeze and cough. Reviewers say it actually works.

  • Finally, you need a vacuum that can actually handle the kinds of particles that are affecting you. According to Health, the best vacuum for allergy sufferers is the Kenmore Pop-N-Go ($350) because of how effectively it sucks up debris and dog hair. 

Best personal use products for allergy season

Getting your home under control is one thing, but managing yourself is another. These tools will give some personal relief. 

  • Try a Vicks personal steam inhaler ($42.98) for fast, direct sinus relief when you’re stuffy. Hold it to your nose for a blast of warm mist designed to combat allergies. You can also use it with Vicks VapoPads for extra sinus-clearing power. 

  • Allergy sufferers and pros regularly compare tips on forums, and one thing that always crops up is nasal sprays. Flonase is a well-respected brand, and you can get a 60-spray device for $14.51. Looking for a non-medicated option? Amazon Basic Care has saline nasal moisturizing spray ($3.19) that can also help you clear out some gunk.

  • Itchy, watery eyes are also a major pain, but you can try a gel eye mask to relieve some orbital pressure and depuff those bad boys. Consider the Consgiji set ($11.99), which has one mask with eye holes and one without, so you can choose your coverage.

The Best Solar Generators You Can Buy Right Now

Whether you're hoping to ride out the next blackout in style and comfort, play video games in the middle of the woods, or live an off-the-grid lifestyle, a solar generator is becoming a modern must-have. They’re lighter and more mobile than gas generators, and you don’t need to keep a supply of degrading gasoline on hand to power them.

You have a lot of options for solar generators, and choosing the best one for you involves considering factors like capacity, weight, output and input options, and charging time and efficiency. But above all of those factors, your choice will come down to how you intend to use it. Whatever you buy, the solar generators on the market right now are generally better options than what was available just a few years ago—and the following are some of the best, based on different use cases.

Product image
Credit: Product image courtesy of Amazon

Jackery Explorer 1000

Great for: Flexible use

With a capacity of 1002 watt-hours and the potential to charge at 200 watts for relatively fast recharges, the Jackery Explorer 1000 has enough juice to be a great short-term backup generator for the house. It has three AC outlets, a DC outlet, two USB A and two USB C outlets, so it’s capable of powering up to eight things at once. That 1000-watt output means it could run your fridge for a day or so without needing to be re-charged (longer if it’s hooked up to solar panels simultaneously), so it’s a workable solution for getting through a blackout without spoiled food.

At the same time, the Explorer 1000 weighs just 25 pounds—which isn’t exactly light, but makes it portable enough that it’s also a good solution for outdoor uses like camping or just powering your patio. It’s got a durable (and fireproof) casing designed to take a little punishment, too, so this is a solar generator that can sit at home in case of emergencies or come with you on your next road trip. The interface isn’t exactly rich, however, providing just the bare minimum of information, and the lack of a DC input isn’t ideal.

Product image
Credit: Product image courtesy of Amazon

Goal Zero Yeti 1500X

Great for: Off-grid use

The Goal Zero Yeti 1500X can charge at a 600-watt clip, and has a 1,500+ watt capacity, making it an ideal choice if you’re going to be far away from a wall outlet for a while. It can put out enough juice to run a camper, and if you invest in the panels to get that full input, it can recharge in just a few hours.

The 1500X is also equipped to integrate into your house so it can be a true home backup unit, and it can even charge off your car’s alternator, so you can top it off while you’re traveling without having to ziptie your solar panels to the roof. It’s also built with an incredibly tough exterior, making it a perfect choice if you’re going to be living in relatively rough conditions but want to be able to run a small army of gadgets and appliances while you’re out there.

It’s a little confusing to navigate the interface, but the availability of a smartphone app helps a little in that department. If you’re routinely off the grid, this is your best choice.

Product image
Credit: Product image courtesy of Amazon

EcoFlow Delta 2

Great for: Blackouts

If your main concern in this life is what happens when the power goes off, the EcoFow Delta is a great choice. With 1000 watt-hours of output (the Delta 2 Max model offers 2000), you’ll never need to break out the candles again, because you’ll have enough power to light up the house and run many of your appliances for the duration. And if the blackout lasts longer than expected, it can charge up in a few hours in full sun.

It’s heavy (about 50 pounds), so you’re not lugging this one around on your camping trips, but its power, fast charging time, and ease of hooking into your home’s electrical panel (if you have a transfer switch installed) make it ideal for those occasional emergencies. Plus, it’s easily expandable with batteries chained together, which can increase your power output to 3000 watt-hours if you need it.

Product image
Credit: Product image courtesy of Amazon

Bluetti AC200Max

Great for: House backup

If you’re thinking beyond blackouts and want a whole-house solution that can keep everything humming any time you lose the grid, the Bluetti AC200Max is an ideal choice. It can punch into a transfer switch, making it easy to jump over to battery power in a pinch without having to run extension cords all over the place, and it starts with 2200 watt-hours of power—but it’s expandable to a whopping 8000 watt-hours by chaining in some batteries. It’s pricey with all those batteries, but that kind of power means you can run your whole house off of the AC200Max for a couple of days.

The whole system is controllable via an app, and it offers 16 outlets so you won’t have to agonize over what gets powered during a storm. It can take a long time to charge up if you go for the full capacity, but you can use solar panels simultaneously with an outlet to get up to 1400 watt-hours of charge and cut the charging time down considerably.

Product image
Credit: Product image courtesy of Amazon

Anker SOLIX C1000

Great for: Small spaces

Maybe you want a solar generator for emergencies, but you live in a shoebox-sized apartment, and many solar generators are big enough to be problematic for storage. The Anker SOLIX C1000 provides solid power (1000 watt-hours or so) in a very small footprint, which means it’s easy to store when not in use.

A great feature that makes it a good choice for a home generator is the LED light bar, which provides quick emergency lighting. If you’ve ever been surprised by a blackout and found yourself stumbling around in the dark, you know that having an easy source of light is a very good thing. It also charges up exceptionally quickly—the SOLIX C1000 can reach full capacity in an hour in strong sunlight or when plugged in. That means if your blackout situation lasts more than a day you should be able to charge the battery back up during the daylight hours without much trouble, making it a great choice for a small place.

Solar generators are getting more powerful, more sophisticated, and more necessary every day. Buy one of the best solar generators available and sleep easy tonight.

You Can Get a Lifetime Subscription to Plantum on Sale for $15 Right Now

You can get a lifetime subscription to Plantum on sale for $14.97 right now (reg. $60) until March 17. Plantum is an AI-powered plant identification and care app available for iOS devices with iOS 13 or higher. It helps identify, diagnose, and care for over 33,000 different plant species, and it's both an identification tool and a garden management app. It offers guidance on soil selection, watering schedules, fertilizing, and temperature conditions, as well as reminders for when to water a plant, rotate it, and run triage. Plantum also helps diagnose what's wrong with plants and recommends treatments.

You can get a lifetime subscription to Plantum on sale for $14.97 right now (reg. $60) until March 17 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.

Why You Shouldn't Bring Firewood With You on a Camping Trip

If you’re planning on doing some camping, a beachside bonfire, or even traveling to a backyard fire pit, bringing some wood you already have lying around might seem like a great idea. Finding a source of wood close to your event might be tricky, after all, and you might want to be extra prepared. But you shouldn’t travel more than a few miles with firewood: You could inadvertently spread tree-eating pests.

Firewood isn’t as dead as it looks

Firewood might seem like it’s totally lifeless by the time it’s been cut and cured, but it’s actually a lively ecosystem that can host a variety of relatively harmless species as well as wood boring beetles, insect eggs and larvae, and mold spores. Although you can’t see them, these tiny hitchhikers can cause big trouble for trees in the surrounding area. Bugs and mold can both infest trees, in some cases killing them, so you don't want to give them a free ride.

Don’t move firewood long distances

Using firewood that comes from within 10 miles of your intended destination will help ensure that your wood isn’t carrying invasive species into the area you’re planning to use it. Checking in with your camp ground or local branch of the National Parks Service for acceptable places to find firewood is a good way to find some that’s locally sourced. Don’t forget that the same rule applies on your return trip: If you’ve traveled more than 10 miles from home, don’t bring any firewood home with you.

Get certified heat-treated wood

If you buy wood that’s certified by USDA APHIS (US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) as having been heat-treated and inspected, you can be relatively sure you’re not bringing along any pests with your wood. Wood that has a USDA APHIS certification is usually packaged and shows a seal to show it’s been inspected. If you’re not sure, you can ask the seller for clarification. If you plan to travel with wood, certified heat=treated wood is the safest option.

Invasive species that can accompany your firewood

The biggest threats to forests in the US from invasive species are the Emerald Ash Borer Beetle, the Asian Longhorned Beetle, and the Spongy Moth. In addition to insects, mold spores that can cause beech leaf disease, Dutch Elm disease, and oak wilt can all be spread on or in firewood. There are dozens of other, lesser-known species of pests that can be spread through carrying eggs or live borer beetles within untreated wood. To help curb the spread of these non-native and hazardous insects, follow the 10-mile radius rule.

Know before you go

In some states, stricter quarantines limiting the traveling distance for firewood are in place, as well as other restrictions that can help stop the spread of plant diseases and invasive species. Before you travel, it’s a good idea to check with your local state government concerning firewood rules. Be sure to note where you are and are not allowed to gather your own wood as well as any other restrictions. You can also check the Don’t Move Firewood website for local updates and news about how to help control the spread of invasive species.

What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: The Fruit of the Loom Logo

I haven’t talked about “The Mandela effect” in this column because it’s silly. People think they saw a movie called Shazaam where Sinbad played a Genie because there was a movie called Kazaam where Shaq played a genie. People remembered Nelson Mandela’s funeral before it happened because they half-watched coverage of Nelson Mandela being freed from prison years earlier and are remembering that. There’s no alternative universe necessary to explain any of it. 

That said, it’s easy to explain away other people’s fake memories. When it comes to memories that I have, things get weird. I remember things I would have staked my life on, that are shared by thousands/millions of other people, yet all available evidence says they are false. I know that Johnny Carson's co-host Ed McMahon did not appear in super bowl ads for Publisher’s Clearing House, but I remember the commercials anyway, and can describe the van, the house, and the bunch of balloons that Ed brought to go with the comically over-sized check. I know that in the James Bond movie Moonraker, there is no shot of Dolly, Jaw’s love interest, smiling at him to reveal that she wears braces. But I remember it.

There are explanations for both Moonraker and Ed McMahon, but personally accepting them instead of what I know I remember is difficult. Still, I can’t argue with the facts:

  • The Publisher’s Clearing House commercials existed, but didn’t star McMahon. He was spokesperson for a rival, less well known company. So I’m mixing up his ads with theirs

  • Dolly isn't wearing braces, but if you look at the scene, she clearly should be. This is a case where our collective memory improved a mistake by Moonraker’s producers. 

But then there’s the Fruit of the Loom logo.

The enduring mystery of the Fruit of the Loom logo Mandela effect

That underwear vendor Fruit of the Loom’s logo once featured a cornucopia is as close to a universal Mandela Effect as I’ve seen. Just about everyone seems to remember it, but the company says it never happened. As this article on Snopes makes clear, there’s no evidence of this alternative logo ever having existed. There are photos (easily faked), and a supposed trademark application, but those fall apart under scrutiny. 

Unlike most Mandela effects, there’s been actual research on the Fruit of the Loom logo. Overall, this University of Chicago study indicates that people are just bad at remembering logos, but the research can’t find any reason people tend to mis-remember logos in specific ways. I suspect some of it is like Moonraker, people substituting a “better” design—the Monopoly man should be sporting a monocle in keeping with his “old-timey-rich-guy" character—but why would we, collectively, put a cornucopia behind the fruit on our underwear? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cornucopia in real life, so I don’t associate it with fruit. When researchers showed study participants a Fruit of the Loom logo with a plate behind the fruit, (plates and fruit being something we've all seen linked) they still largely regarded the cornucopia as the legit Fruit of the Loom mark. 

Underwear logos and the butterfly effect

I doubt we're seeing an example of a parallel universe that’s just like ours, except the logo of an underwear company is different. I think we’re seeing something closer to the Butterfly Effect. Something happened, maybe some tiny thing, at some point in time, and it resonated within the complicated inter-connected systems that make up our collective memory and managed to create a strong enough signal that most people associate a cornucopia with the Fruit of the Loom logo. But no one has identified what that something is. It sounds crazy, but there’s at least one example that’s similar where the cause was found and identified.

The colors of letters and synesthesia

Research suggests that about 3% of the population have synesthesia, a phenomenon in which stimuli is perceived simultaneously through more than one pathway. Synesthetes might taste mint when they hear the word “floor,” or know what yellow sounds like. Certain kinds of connections are more common than others, and grapheme-color synesthesia, the association of colors with letters and numbers, is the most often reported. In 2012, MIT scientist Nathan Witthoft was studying this form of synesthesia and found that a greater-than-average number of participants grouped the same color and number, and the results became even more striking for people of specific ages. 

(Before you read on, what color is E?)

Taken as a single data point, there’s no “this is silly” explanation for different people connecting the same letters with the same colors. You could account for this by theorizing a collective unconscious, or an as-yet-undocumented connection between different senses, but there’s a more mundane theory too: Fisher-Price magnetic letters.

Back in the early 1970s, Fisher-Price released its first set of magnetized alphabet letters. It became very popular. The E was blue, and that was the kind of connection that about 15% of participants born between 1970 and 1985 made. (It’s a little more complicated than this, as some researchers haven’t been able to make similar connections in other cultures, but for the sake of argument, it’s what I’m going with.) 

So the release of a toy in the early 1970s determined generations of people’s ideas of what color different letters are, and helped explain aspects of synesthesia, but no one nailed it down for more than 40 years. So it is, I believe, with the cornucopia. There was some, maybe totally unrelated, cultural stimuli that was commonly experienced involving a cornucopia, maybe that connected it with briefs, but we collectively forgot about it, and now we only have the echoes left.

I associate cornucopias with Thanksgiving. It seems to be the only time they're a "thing," and Thanksgiving is exactly when Fruit of the Loom might have release commercials aimed at Christmas shoppers. So maybe that's where this connection comes from. Or maybe it’s something else entirely.

How to Win at 'Strands,' the NYT's Latest Word Game

Strands, the New York Times’ still-in-beta word search game, is now on its 10th puzzle. The first two or three puzzles were relatively tame, with solvers complaining that the hint gave too much away and the game wasn’t very challenging. But you and I know better, right? As I pointed out last week, the puzzle’s creators have dropped hints that it’s going to get a lot trickier. That’s begun, and hoo boy, people are mad. 

Before you read any further, know that this article includes spoilers and outright answers for the March 13, 2024 game of Strands. Here is the link to play today’s game, so you can suffer along with the rest of us. Then come back and we’ll discuss what you just experienced. (And if you’re catching up later, here’s a fan-created archive where you can play the March 13 game even if you are reading this from the future.) 

Strands #10
“One thousand followers”
🔵🔵🟡🔵
🔵🔵🔵🔵


Alright, friends. We need to discuss a few things about how the puzzles are constructed, and what expectations and assumptions are built in. This puzzle is new, so it’s okay if you haven’t figured everything out yet! We’re learning together. 

Think of the “theme” like a crossword clue

If you solve crosswords, especially NYT crosswords, you’ll have a huge head start over everyone else when it comes to understanding tricky Strands themes. Remember, in Strands, “today’s theme” is the clue you get when you open the page. I think of it as being the title of the puzzle.

Here’s what you need to know: the theme is a clue for the spangram (the yellow word or phrase). The spangram, in turn, describes what the blue words have in common.

Sometimes the theme is a pretty straightforward clue: for example, 

  • “Mark my words” went with the spangram PUNCTUATION. (Blue words: COMMA, APOSTROPHE…)

  • “She’ll have a ball” went with the spangram CINDERELLA. (Blue words: PUMPKIN, SLIPPER…)

  • “I gotta dip!” went with the spangram GUACAMOLE. (Blue words: AVOCADO, JALAPENO…)

Simple, right? That’s because they’re starting us off easy. There have been some trickier ones: 

  • “To put it mildly” was EUPHEMISMS.

  • “Ruler’s decree” was MEASUREMENTS. (That’s “ruler” as in a yardstick, not a king)

I’m convinced that this is a word search designed for crossword aficionados. Personally, I’m here for it: I love NYT crosswords, especially ones like Thursdays and Sundays that are full of clever themes and wordplay. For example, here are some crossword clues that I’ve chuckled at in the past week: 

This is what’s going on when “One thousand followers” becomes GRAND FINALE, as in the March 13 Strands theme. A grand is one thousand, and a finale is an ending. The puzzle asks us to find endings for the phrase “GRAND ____.”

Expect fill-in-the-blank categories

Now that we’re getting the hang of it, the blue words are sometimes wordplay based on the theme/spangram. Just as in Connections, words aren’t always grouped together for being members of a category or synonyms for each other. We’ve seen all kinds of tricky combinations there, including homophones and anagrams. (Remember ATE, FOR, TOO, WON as homophones of the numbers 8, 4, 2, 1?)

So what kind of wordplay can we expect in Strands? (Fortunately, anagrams won’t really work.) Recall that the NYT hinted we might see “fill-in-the-blanks” someday. That’s happened twice already. Just a few days ago, we had this puzzle: 

  • Theme: “FRAGILE: Handle with care” 

  • Spangram: BREAKABLE

  • Words: HEART, SILENCE, PROMISE, BREAD, MOLD, SWEAT, RECORD.

Get it? They all refer to idioms where we “break” something: you can break bread with somebody, or break their heart, or you can sound like a broken record. 

The reason March 13’s puzzle is so tricky is that it uses both a crossword-style clue for the spangram, and Connections-style fill-in-the-blanks for the blue words. I’m going to spoil it all here, since you were already warned: 

  • Theme: “One thousand followers” 

  • Spangram: GRAND FINALE

  • Words: [grand] PRIZE, [grand] JURY, [Grand] CENTRAL, [Grand] CANYON, [grand] SLAM, [Grand] RAPIDS, [grand] PIANO.

Get it? Get it??? I’m sorry, I was tickled by this once I figured it out. It also took me a good long while to get it, because this is a tough puzzle! It takes a few leaps of logic to get those “aha!” moments.

Anyway, people who were expecting a simple word search are mad. Here’s a Reddit thread full of complaints that the spangram doesn’t match the theme, or that “finale” should have been a word on its own. (It could have been, but then you don’t get the cute construction of GRAND + [synonym for ending].) 

Many of the complaints on this and other hard puzzles are from people who aren’t native English speakers, and that’s a totally valid criticism. (Lots of folks were stumped by GADZOOKS the other day—you kind of had to read a certain era of comic books for that to even register as a word.) Hard word puzzles are not always accessible to everyone, which is both a problem and the whole point of the puzzle. If you solve something by reaching into your brain for some obscure knowledge or by connecting two concepts in an outside-the-box kind of way, that’s an amazing feeling, and makes the whole puzzle worth it!

I’m impressed with Strands (and have high hopes for it graduating from beta) because it can run that whole gamut from easy to devilish, depending on how sadistic the constructor is feeling that day. Getting the “aha” moment on a tricky one is the kind of thrill I live for (I don’t live a very exciting life). Bottom line: This is not an easy puzzle. If you know and love the wordplay tricks of both Crosswords and Connections, you’ll be into Strands. Just don’t expect it to be easy.


The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: John Cena's Naked Oscar Walk

Sometimes, there just isn't much happening. Youth culture this week seems to be hibernating, but it's a good opportunity to take a look at the kind of minuscule micro-trends that you might otherwise gloss over. Maybe these tiny, no-one-thinks-about-them things reveal more than the groundbreaking things everyone notices. Probably not, but you never know.

Viral video of the week: John Cena at the Oscars

I’m sure you’ve seen the video of John Cena presenting the Academy Award for Best Costuming at the Oscars on March 10. After being broadcast live and posted online, the wrestler-turned-actor’s naked appearance has been seen by millions of people. It represents a rare moment of cultural relevance among young people for the “no-one-really-cares-about this-anymore” film industry. People were moved enough by something at the Oscars to shoot reaction videos, and make jokes and memes. The bit is certain to go down in history as one of the most memorable moments at an Oscar presentation, and it even touched the fringe-iest fringe-conspiracy theorists, the remnants of Q-Anon. Q-Anon doesn't see anything funny about Cena’s appearance. “This is not just a humiliation ritual — the Hollywood pedophiles, rapists and perverts are certainly getting off on this. I’m sure Jimmy Kimmel is as well!” Reported Liz Krokin on Twitter, “Kimmel ran another skit on his show featuring an FBI-identified pedophile symbol in it and a pizza. Pizza is pedophile code that’s  been confirmed by the FBI, DOJ records and local law enforcement agencies,” they continued. “Absolutely disgusting…Nobody wants to see a naked John Cena on TV.” Twitter user American Mama opined, with her finger on the pulse of popular culture. It's interesting how Q-Anon seems to view Cena as a victim in all this, as if Jimmy Kimmel forced him to disrobe against his will.

Stanley announces new products at South By Southwest

Austin, Texas hosts the South By Southwest festival every spring in order to “celebrate the convergence of tech, film, music, education, and culture.” This year, one of the highlights of the festival was a new cup-holder.

At a standing-room only panel on Saturday, Stanley 1913, the company behind the immortal, fireproof coffee cup, announced a new, hands-free cup caddy and a mini soft cooler, to the collective excitement of its many, mostly young fans. 

Stanley’s story is fascinating if you’re the kind of person who’s interested in the minutia of late capitalism. They’ve been kicking around since 1913, when William Stanley Jr. invented the vacuum seal technology behind vessels that maintain the temperature of liquids. Stanley, the company, was known mostly for making thermoses to keep your coffee hot while camping or on a job site, so it was pretty much a dude company, a maker of something to take fishing. But recently, the company decided to focus on women, specifically young women on TikTok, and went from annual profits of around $70 million a year in 2019 to around $750 million a year in 2024. The company’s flagship product, the 40-ounce Stanley Quencher, has become a must-have for Gen Z and Millennials, both for its many colors and the fact that it's actually a really great cup. 

The Satana Trend, explained

Sometimes I like to dig deeply into the minutia of the youth culture, and this week I’ve uncovered the micro-trend of Satana, which I'm willing to bet you've never head of. Satana comes from the Balkans, where TikToker @stafon71 posted a video of himself scuffing the floor under his desk with his heel, set to the tune “"Satana Eto Ona.” The video was viewed nearly 36 million times. Variations on the theme quickly appeared, including this impressive half-circle, this video of a black-shoe wearer making a scuff and having it erased by someone in white shoes, and this video that depicts the imagined reaction of the person who has to clean the school’s floors. What does it all mean? Probably nothing, but it’s impressive how a school kid scuffing a floor with his shoe could gain international attention. 

Stock image at center of cultural debate online

stock photo of "real young man"
Credit: istock

The unassuming photo you see above is from iStock, and is at the center of a small debate about the loneliness crisis among young men. Entitled “real young man,” and published on iStock in 2011, the image came to light when it was posted on Twitter by @orbitves with the caption “the ‘male loneliness crisis’ is a good thing actually, because why would i ever want to date a guy that looks like this?”

Reactions were mixed. Many posted comments like “ha, that’s funny and a little true.” Some pointed to hypocrisy behind the post, like @TheStrxggler, who tweeted, “Body positivity crowd is shaming bodies again.” Or expressed sympathy for the model, like @WheelchairUser8 who tweeted, "imagine being this poor mf just trying to make a couple bucks from a stock image shoot and out of nowhere every fuckass radfem on twitter is blasting your face everywhere saying no one should ever date you."

The “looksmaxx” crowd had a more constructive take on the matter, and pointed out a number of ways that the stock photo model could improve his appearance, like if he lost 30 pounds, and got a better haircut, he might end up looking like this:

Improved stock photo of real young man
Credit: KnowYourMeme

What does “green fn” mean?

The last stop of my trip through the minutia of youth culture this week is the phrase “green fn.” People have been spamming it all over TikTok's comments lately, and here's what it means: "Green fn" is an interjection you might scream when you’ve done something impressive or cool, but it’s also what someone else might say when you’ve done something clumsy or inept.

Its origin is obscure enough that it’s a good bet that most people who use it don’t know where it came from, but here’s the story: The “green” part is a reference to the NBA 2K series of video games, where the quality of a basketball shot is measured using color and green is as good as it gets. 

The “fn” part is short for “fuck n*gga.” It comes from this video, where “Green fn” is used to comment on a missed basket. From there, it began to be featured in ironic memes and sincere memes as well as showing up in many, many TikTok comment sections. Like all youth slang, it’s important that you not use it. Stick with “boo-YAH!” instead—the “green FN” of your youth.

What to Do if the Police Seize Your Cash or Property

There’s nothing more nerve-wracking than being pulled over by a police car, or answering the door to find the police on your front porch. Even if you’ve done nothing wrong and have never broken a law in your life, interactions with suspicious law enforcement officers are incredibly stressful. You’re supposedly innocent until proven guilty, but in these situations, the cops don't always act like it.

But that stressful situation can become a real nightmare if the police seize your property. Whether it’s cash you’re bringing to the bank, your car, or other valuables you thought were safe on your person, it’s not uncommon for the police to seize your property during an encounter—even if you’re not ultiamtely charged with a crime. Worse, the cops can often legally keep your property and cash, again, even if you’re never charged with any crime, or are later found to be not guilty.

Civil asset forfeiture

In most of these encounters, the police rely on something called civil asset forfeiture. Initially designed as a tool to deprive drug dealers and organized crime figures of their ill-gotten gains, these laws empower the police to seize cash and property if they suspect it’s involved in a criminal enterprise—but because this is a civil action and not a criminal one, the burden of proof is much lower. In a weird twist of the law, it’s the property itself that is the subject of a lawsuit from the government—not a criminal charge against you. That’s how you can go free without being charged, but your property remains seized.

This is big business for many police departments—the Institute for Justice estimates that close to $70 billion has been seized by police in the last few decades. Laws governing civil asset forfeiture vary wildly across the country, but even when states have laws on the books that require convictions or limit seizures to values over a certain threshold, they often have too many loopholes to be truly effective. For example, New Jersey technically requires a criminal conviction for police to keep assets valued at or below $10,000, or less than $1,000 in cash. But this leaves innocent people stuck with having to prove their innocence in court as opposed to the state having to prove their guilt—and the police still have a huge incentive to seize property, because they can keep 100% of it if they secure a conviction.

Local police can also evade state laws in many cases by using a program called “Equitable Sharing,” which transfers the jurisdiction of the seizure to the federal government. This often causes delays for people trying to get their money back, as they have to figure out where to sue—delays that sometimes mean they miss legal filing deadlines. After a period of time, the federal government will return as much as 80% of the money to the local police department.

There are plenty of nightmare stories of people who had cash or property seized by police and spent years trying to get it back—and even when they win, they usually don’t get it back with interest, or their legal fees covered, despite being completely innocent of any crime. This is because federal law requires individuals to “substantially prevail” in court—i.e., win their lawsuit—to get legal fees covered. If it looks like you might actually win your case, the local government will often return the initially seized property in order to avoid that, leaving you with no interest and lots of legal bills for your troubles.

The Supreme Court is currently deliberating a case that could change how civil forfeiture works in the U.S., but hasn’t yet rendered a decision. Until it does, the practice goes on.

What to do if police seize your property

So you were pulled over, or the police executed a warrant at your residence, and your cash or valuables were seized. You were not charged with a crime, but your property wasn’t immediately returned. What can you do? Be prepared for a long fight, because until the Supreme Court (maybe) takes action, the odds remain stacked against you.

But here’s what you need to do:

  • Take notes. Record as much information as you can at the moment of seizure. Take photos and video. Make a note of the names of the officers involved, along with badge numbers and the precise time that everything happens. Also ask the officers what their justification for the seizure is—they don’t need much, and just about everything you do can be considered a sign of illegal activity, including having a large amount of cash on you in the first place.

  • Get a receipt. No matter the circumstances behind the seizure, the police are obligated to provide you with a receipt that details the property and money seized from you. Make sure you get one before you part ways, and check that it’s accurate.

  • Don’t sign a waiver. The police often encourage or pressure you to “disavow” cash or other property by signing a waiver that states it isn’t yours and you don’t know anything about it, which eliminates your claim to it. Often people are presented with the choice between spending hours being searched and questioned, or signing a waiver and being released immediately. Don’t do it—signing a waiver like that might set you free in the short term, but it will complicate your efforts to get your property back later.

  • Act immediately. Once you’ve been released, don’t waste time. Contact the local county courthouse to find out how you can petition for the return of your property, and to determine who has jurisdiction over the seizure. You might consider seeking legal advice, but keep in mind that paying for a lawyer might mean getting your money back is a Pyrrhic victory at best.

These Makita Tools Are on Sale for up to 70% Off Right Now

Beginning a cordless tool kit or updating your existing one can be pricey. Even if you've got a good set going, batteries tend to be expensive, and need to be replaced after a while to keep your tools running well. Getting good-quality tools is important, though—a cheap set won't last and will just end up costing you in the long run. Here are a few deals from Makita so building out your tool kit won’t break the bank.

Batteries and chargers

The Makita 18V LXT Lithium-Ion Battery and Rapid Optimum Charger kit is on sale for $148.80 right now, 70% off its usual price. The set is a good deal if you need new batteries for your existing cordless set or if you want to update your existing set. It comes with a rapid charger that will charge batteries in 45 minutes, two 18 volt batteries and a tool bag.

Saws

For a good cordless tool kit, you’ll need a circular saw and a jigsaw. The Makita Rear Handle 7-1/4" Circular Saw is on sale right now for $121.42, 68% off its usual price. It’s a bare tool, so it doesn’t come with batteries or blades, but it’s a good deal if you already have a Makita battery set. The Makita cordless jigsaw is on sale for $114.95, 60% off its regular price. This is also a bare tool package, so you’ll need 18-volt Makita batteries for it to work.

Drills and drivers

A good quality drill and driver set is central to a cordless tool set. The Makita Sub Compact Impact Driver is on sale for $86.82, 57% off its normal price, and the Makita ⅜” 12 volt impact wrench is on sale for $57.99, 65% off its regular price. The sub compact impact driver is good for getting into tight spaces since it’s a little smaller than the regular impact driver. Both the driver and the impact wrench are bare-tool-only packages, so you’ll need batteries to use them. The Makita impact driver and drill kit is on sale for $347.69, 54% off its usual price. The kit comes with a drill, impact driver, charger, two batteries and a tool bag, so it’s a good deal for starting a cordless kit.

Bits and accessories

For adding to your kit, or for expendables like bits and blades that will need to be replaced over time, Makita has included some accessories in its sale. A two-pack of Impactx T27 Torx 2″ Power Bits is on sale for $3.49, 50% off its usual price. The bits are designed to drive torx screws with an impact driver, so keep that in mind. The Makita 14” contractor tool bag is on sale for $15.99, 66% off its usual price. It has a shoulder strap and a handy tape measure pocket. The Makita Outdoor Adventure LED flashlight is on sale for $43.90, 49% off its regular price, and it’s perfect for camping or for a vehicle emergency kit. The flashlight has a 160 lumen output with a rotating head so you can set it up as a lantern or use it as a handheld flashlight. The Makita ratchet and bit set comes with 46 bits and a hand held ratchet driver and it’s on sale for $24.20, 43% off its regular price.

These Are the Best Backyard Bounce Houses Money Can Buy

Par : Jason Keil

Bounce houses are usually the highlight at any child's birthday party, and an item that I had believed cost a pretty penny to rent. Imagine my surprise when I went to a playdate with my sons and saw a smaller version of the heavy-duty air-filled nylon structures in their friends' backyard. As I investigated further, I soon realized that these items, guaranteed to tire out even the most unruly of children, are readily available and surprisingly affordable. 

If you're looking for a bounce house to get you through spring break or summer vacation, we've collected some of the best available with different features and for varying budgets. Remember that some may require an additional purchase of an air pump to inflate it or sandbags to keep it down. Read the description carefully so your bounce house doesn't arrive on your doorstep with an extra delivery of disappointment.

For the budget-conscious

  • Jump-O-Lene bounce house ($47.99): This one's as no-frills as it gets, but it gets the job done. Built to support preschoolers who weigh a combined 120 pounds, it is small yet durable enough (according to reviewers) to be used indoors during winter and outdoors when the weather warms up. It also comes with a repair patch should something rip or tear.

  • Bountech Inflatable Castle Bouncy House ($99.99): This is a little bigger and stronger than the Jump-O-Lene, which means kids as old as 10 can join in. It even includes a small basketball net. While the description states that this bouncy house is portable enough to be taken anywhere, even to your local park (not sure who would want to haul their kids and a 30-pound bounce house to the playground), some reviewers have said it's too big for their apartments. 

Bounce houses with slides

  • Action Air bounce house ($269.99): Get ready to be the most popular parent in the neighborhood. Up to three kids can safely play in this inflated castle, which has shoe storage and a dart game on the outside.

  • Bounceland bounce house castle ($231.59): Sit on your throne and watch your little royals take it to the hoop in this inflatable castle. In addition to the basketball net, this playset boasts a two-minute set-up time, with some reviewers boasting it fits conveniently in their downstairs playroom for rainy days. 

  • Bounceland royal palace bounce house ($439): Why put your kids in a castle when they can bounce around in a luxurious palace? Five kids can romp around inside this roofed structure and slide down a slide that's nearly as tall as the structure itself.

  • Action Air bounce house ($499.99): Up to this point, we've used the term "house" liberally. But this air-filled structure is actually shaped like a home and has quite the amenities to boot, including a ring toss, ball pit, tunnel, basketball hoop, miniature obstacle course, and dart game. Its best perk is the foldable sunroof, which will come in handy during the dog days of summer. 

Structures with pools

  • Honey Joy bounce house castle ($129.99): The best castles have moats, but this palace-shaped bounce house, designed for kids three to five years old, has a small pool to guard your child's kingdom.

  • Baralir bounce house with slide and pool ($384.99): You can use this bounce house with a long slide and large pool all year round. In the summer, fill the splash pool and watch up to three kids splash around and spray the water canon all afternoon. In the winter months, the manufacturers claim you can take the structure inside and turn the pool into a ball pit for your kids. With a hidden cave and a trampoline included, actual sleep during nap time is all but guaranteed. 

  • Wellfuntime inflatable water park ($639.99): If your young ones aren't tall enough to go down your local water slide, then blow this one up in your backyard. It has multiple water park-themed sections, from long removable slides that spray water to a pool and a climbing wall. This massive set also includes three sports balls and four water guns. 

Bounce house obstacle course

  • Bounceland obstacle bounce house ($443.27): Let the games begin! Siblings can race through this obstacle course bounce house to see who gets dibs on the Switch, or you can use it for a fun activity at their next birthday party. The two slides on the other side of the dual tunnels are velcroed down for safety, and with a 400-pound capacity, it's suitable for older kids, too.

Top rated

  • Blast Zone magic castle ($269.99): This one is worth calling out because it boasts a nearly five-star rating with over 2,000 reviews. It inflates quickly inside and outdoors and is designed to be safe for older kids. The only drawback is your preschoolers might have to wait to use it. 

You Can Get Promova Premium on Sale for $80 Right Now

You can get a lifetime subscription to Promova Premium on sale for $79.99 right now (reg. $299.99). Promova is a top 10-rated language-learning app in the App Store and top 20 on the Google Play store, and while it’s more designed for people learning English as a second language, you can practice nine other languages for far less than other platforms. (Languages include English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, and Ukrainian.) The app includes features like five-minute lessons, gamified quizzes, grammar exercises, speaking practice, and reading. There’s even a specialized mode for people with dyslexia.

You can get a lifetime subscription to Promova Premium on sale for $79.99 right now (reg. $299.99), though prices can change at any time.

Everything You Should Know About Solar-Powered Security Cameras

Choosing the right security camera can be tough. Most of the time, you have to choose between running wire to power them or make sure to charge the batteries regularly to keep them going. Solar-powered cameras, however, can combine ease of installation with dependable coverage by keeping the battery charged without ever needing to be plugged in.

Recharge batteries with sunlight

A solar-powered camera can be installed without running any wires and also without needing to be accessed for charging. With at least two full hours of sunlight per day, most solar-powered security cameras can keep running indefinitely, allowing you to “set and forget” your cameras. You can also stop climbing a ladder every few months to retrieve cameras for charging or battery exchange.

Wifi monitoring

Solar-powered cameras usually send security images and data via a secure wi-fi connection. They can also sometimes run on a cell network, like the new Eufy 4G solar cam, or they can sometimes use a local Bluetooth connection. Since solar security cameras use a wireless signal to transmit information to your phone or local smart home device, you don’t need to run cables for that part, either.

Continuous monitoring

Because solar powered cameras don’t need to go into standby mode to conserve battery life, they can record continuously instead of intermittently when they detect motion. Setting the scope of the motion detection on your battery-powered cameras to a large enough area for you to monitor pets or vehicles in a larger space can drain the batteries even faster. A solar-powered camera can allow you to take a look at what’s going on on your feed regardless of whether the motion sensor has been triggered without worrying about running out of power.

Choosing the right battery

In order for your solar-powered security camera to keep working on cloudy days, it will need to have a battery with enough storage to keep it working even under cloudy conditions. Look for a battery that will run for at least one day on one charge. If you live in an area with lots of cloudy days, you should look for a longer-lasting battery. When choosing a camera system that runs on solar power, make sure to confirm that your system’s battery capacity allows it to run for a minimum of 12 hours on a single charge.

Set your cameras up for success

To make sure that you have enough sunlight for continuous operation, using a solar charger that can be placed on the roof or on a south-facing wall is ideal. Getting the best sun exposure will keep the batteries on your camera charged for cloudy days and overnight. Cameras should be placed with the view you want, and high up enough so that they can’t be reached and removed by strangers. Since your solar-charged cameras don’t need to be retrieved to change or charge the batteries, placing them in a hard-to-reach spot won’t present as many difficulties down the road.

What to look for in a solar-powered security camera

To begin with, when choosing a wireless security camera, you should look for one that’s compatible with the smart home devices that you already use. Rather than installing multiple apps to access, choosing a camera that’s compatible with your existing system will allow you to integrate your cameras into the rest of your house. You should also choose a camera that has a high resolution—HD or better—so that the footage will be clear when you need to access it. The higher the wattage of your solar charger, the faster it will be able to charge your camera’s battery. Look for six watts or above for faster charging.

Save Money on Childcare by Starting a Babysitting Co-op

Par : Jason Keil

The cost of babysitting has drastically changed since I was a kid. We recently hired a babysitter to watch our two boys so we could go out for my birthday, and her hourly rate was in line with what other parents in our area are spending. When it was all said and done, the woman we hired cost almost as much as the dinner and movie we enjoyed sans kids. We were happy to have a few hours to ourselves, but it underscored the point that babysitting doesn't cost $20 to $25 a night anymore, which I charged as a teenager back in the day. (Yay, inflation.)

For parents on a budget, there's another option. A neighborhood babysitting co-op, a cost-free alternative to the high cost of babysitters, is exactly how it sounds: families in the community working together to share child-rearing duties. This arrangement provides parents with some much-needed peace of mind, knowing their kids are safely supervised by someone they trust, all while enjoying some quality time with your partner (or yourself) at no cost. 

Setting up a babysitting co-op has numerous benefits, from socializing opportunities for you and your kids to the assurance of emergency care. It's a win-win situation, but forming a co-op requires careful planning. To assist you, we've compiled some tips on how to get started with your fellow parents. 

Make some ground rules

Once you find some parents to establish your neighborhood's babysitting co-op, you will want to determine how it will work in the real world so there are no misunderstandings later. Here are some topics you should discuss:

Size

Parents love free, reliable babysitting, so once word gets out around the neighborhood that there's a co-op, you may have more members than you originally intended. To ensure your group is manageable, cap the number of members your co-op will have so everyone knows who will care for their children. 

You'll also want to decide if the co-op will be open to everyone or only to select parents you and your friends trust with your children. Feelings could get hurt, but the co-op won't work if everyone is worried about your kids while you are out.

Who will be involved?

Tweens and teenagers looking for experience in childcare can help parents by assisting with caregiving or other duties, such as keeping the group's record book (more on that below). However, your co-op should decide whether to hand off that responsibility to a non-parent.

Other items up for discussion

  • How often will you hold co-op meetings?

  • How will co-op duties be rotated, and how often?

  • Establishing a fair system (see below)

  • Can/should you discipline a child?

  • How will weekend babysitting be divided?

  • Can a member refuse services?

  • What if a sick child needs a babysitter?

  • How will you communicate with each other?

  • Will there be dues (for unexpected expenses and events)?

Establish a system that works for everyone

The idea behind any co-op is to help each other and not take advantage of anyone, so you and your fellow members must devise a system that allows everyone to reap the benefits your group offers. The Yes we can! Project, created by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, shared three examples that can assist your co-op in developing its system. 

30-point start secretary system

Whoever is designated secretary will award each co-op member a 30-point base. Points will be deducted for each hour of babysitting and awarded when members perform babysitting duties. 

Zero-point start secretary system

Like the previous system, points are earned when members babysit and deducted by the secretary when using a babysitter. However, everyone starts at zero points instead of starting with a base number. A scale should be established, with members earning or using points. The amount of points will depend on the time of day and length of care.

In both point systems, the secretary position is rotated every few months. They'll be phoned when members need babysitting and to keep track of records. For their service, they will be compensated with points. 

30-card system

Instead of a point system, each member is given 30 cards, which a volunteer makes. The cards represent increments of time and are used as currency whenever babysitting is required. However, if a member has 15 cards, it's probably time for them to babysit. Those with 60 or more cards should find others to share child care. In this system, the parents, instead of a secretary, keep up with how the cards are distributed. 

You can also use spreadsheets and apps to help keep your co-op in order. 

Hold a neighborhood event

To help you get to know the parents and children you might be caring for in the co-op, consider holding a gathering that will allow you and your fellow caregivers (and their kids) to get to know each other. Your event could be something as simple as a potluck or as elaborate as a block party. It can even be an optional playdate held every few months. You can even get the neighborhood involved to spread the word and recruit more members.

Spread the word

There are plenty of ways to let the community know about your co-op. You can try the old-fashioned way with flyers and word of mouth. However, thanks to social media and apps like Nextdoor, there are plenty of ways to spread online awareness of your group. You can also hold a block party (see above) or work with your HOA (if your neighborhood has one) to spread the word.

Childcare costs aren't going down anytime soon, so don't expect your co-op to be a secret for long.

You Can Get Rosetta Stone and StackSkills Unlimited on Sale Right Now

You can get a lifetime subscription to Rosetta Stone and StackSkills Unlimited on sale for $151.99 right now (reg. $849) with promo code ENJOY20. Rosetta Stone includes 25 languages like Spanish, French, German, Mandarin Chinese, and Arabic, all featuring interactive lessons, speech-recognition technology, and topics from conversations to business and travel. 

The other half of the bundle is StackSkills Unlimited, an e-learning platform with more than 1,000 courses and new materials added all the time. It includes subjects like IT, marketing, business, graphic design, or additional language courses with expert-led instruction.

You can get Rosetta Stone and StackSkills Unlimited for life on sale for $151.99 right now (reg. $849) with promo code ENJOY20 through March 10 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.

The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: the Disastrous Willy Wonka 'Chocolate Experience'

The themes for this week examination of what's going on with kids is failure and fiasco. There's the ever-expanding story of the disastrous Willy Wonka rip-off in Scotland, a dubious theory about the history of America's "culture wars," and Reddit making a doomed attempt to monkey-wrench AI. There is a success to even the scales, though: a YouTube deep dive into the Barbie cinematic universe.

The second level of Wonka-Gate drama

I'm sure you're already aware of the drama around "Willy's Chocolate Experience," the Willy Wonka-like "immersive experience" that went terribly, hilariously, Fyre-Festival-wrong in Glascow, Scotland. The imbroglio has so captured the imagination of the world that a second level of drama is emerging, beyond the tales of the ripped-off parents and horrified children who attended the event. The internet's curious amateur investigators are digging up every detail of the Wonka-nightmare, and here are some of the treasures they've uncovered.

  • The actress who played "The Unknown," an unsettling, AI-generated villain created for the Willy experience that has no connection to Willy Wonka, has spoken out about her experience playing the part. Her name is Felicia, she's 16, from Glascow, and this was her first acting gig.

  • Actor/comedian Paul Connell, the actor who played Willy McDuff, has gone public as well, but he may regret it. A woman claiming to be a former student of Connell posted then deleted several videos accusing him of engaging in a romantic relationship with her when she was 16 and he was 22. (This news really darkens the "isn't this wacky?" vibe of the whole experience.)

  • As you might have guessed, some of the actors who worked on the Willy Chocolate Experience say they have not been paid the amount they were promised, and they may sue the event's organizer.

  • A Scottish production company has announced it is working on a horror movie centered on The Unknown. Whether anyone will remember this whole thing when the film is released in late 2024 is an open question, as is the issue of who owns the rights to the character of The Unknown.

  • If you're looking for a costume for Halloween, you could do worse than dressing as The Unknown. Here are links to all you need to be the king/queen of trick or treating.

What does "neurospicy" mean?

If someone describes themselves as "neurospicy," they're calling themselves "neurodivergent" in a cute, slang-y way. Since it's not a real word, the term doesn't refer to any specific mental illness, but can refer to OCD, autism, depression, or really anything. It's almost always used to refer to oneself instead of others.

Are we trapped in 2014?

There are a growing number of people online who think we're trapped in 2014; not in a literal "Time is a conspiracy!" way, but culturally. The idea of "The Long 2014" is that that year marked the start of the current "culture-war," and we have not moved past it in a decade. Ten years ago, the argument goes, a cultural argument about inclusion kicked off with GamerGate. Back then, people on the "lets not be assholes to people" side were derided as "social justice warriors" and now they're called "woke," but the arguments have not changed, and we've been rehashing and repeating them on endless loop since, never making progress.

It's an interesting theory, but a product of people who lack historical perspective. It's young people confusing their own awareness of a cultural trend with the trend's beginning. The truth is, we've been having versions of these same arguments in different forms for a lot longer than a decade. Back in the 1990s, people who were in favor of social justice were derided with the term "politically correct," instead of "woke," and before that, they were called "women's-libbers," "bleeding hearts," "abolitionists," "suffragettes," and any number of other invectives that basically mean the same thing. Like William Faulkner wrote back in 1951, "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

Why is everyone on Reddit saying "Bazinga"?

If you're noticing the word "Bazinga" popping up in confusing ways on Reddit memes, you're not witnessing a resurgence of fandom for The Big Bang Theory. Instead, it's Redditors trying to confuse artificial intelligence. Recently, it was revealed that Reddit will be working with Google to train Google's AI using comments from the site. But in the past, ChatGPT has gotten "hung up" on words if it has no context for them, giving gibberish responses when asked about them. So the idea is to repeat "Bazinga" in different context, completely randomly, with no explanation, in order to trip up the AI.

Sadly, it's not likely to work. The words that confused AI in the past were things like "SolidGoldMagikarp" or "TheNitromeFan," Reddit usernames that were frequently posted, but without definitions. But "Bazinga" already has an established meaning, (ie: "that annoying, manufactured catchphrase from The Big Bang Theory."), and even if it didn't, Redditor's usage of the phrase isn't actually random. AI is smart enough to figure out that "Bazinga," in a certain context, can mean "a word redditors use to try to trick artificial intelligence" and will probably be able to add its own "random" usages too.

Viral video of the week: I Watched Every Barbie Movie Ever Made

YouTube's most important contribution to our culture might end up being videos that take a deep dive into pop cultural detritus that would otherwise go unexamined. It's always good when people ignore the things that people tell you are "serious" in favor of things they've decided to take seriously. Like this week's viral video, where YouTuber Ted Nivision watches all 42 Barbie movies in order to "develop a concrete and airtight theory on what the true lore of the Barbie Cinematic Universe, also known as the BCU, is." Clocking in at nearly two hours, this video really goes deep, incorporating a classic "strings connecting papers on a whiteboard" organizational structure, and actually coming up with a workable framework for the BCU.

The Best Smart Locks to Secure Your Smart Home

About a year ago, I traveled home to see my mother and was met with a strange new addition to my childhood home: All of the doors now had smart locks on them (she quickly registered my fingerprint to them so I wouldn’t get locked out of my own bedroom). She said she got them because some of her friends were being nosy when they came over, but instead of interrogating her about the people with whom she chooses to spend her time, I looked into smart locks and found that they’re extremely useful—and pretty affordable.

With a smart lock, you no longer need to stress all day about remembering if you locked the door. You can quickly check your phone to see whether you remembered to lock up, which you can do from anywhere. Plus, there’s no concern about ever getting locked out, as long as your phone is charged or you know the right passcode. If you want to upgrade, here are some great options. 

The best smart-locking door handles with fingerprint technology

First up, these locks recognize your fingerprint, like iPhones used to do, and unlock when you touch the handle. It’s all very futuristic and, in my experience, convenient. 

  • The one I’ve used is by Gekrone ($69.99) and it has a bunch of features that justify the price point: In addition to using your fingerprint, you can also use a PIN (on a numerical pad that appears down the length of the door handle when prompted), an app, or an actual key (which is nice if the batteries die). 

  • For something less expensie, try the Aibocn smart door lock ($49.99) which has the same features and allows you to generate temporary passcodes for guests. 

The best smart locks for front doors

If you want something a little more robust than just a locking door handle, try these, which are hefty enough to secure your front door. 

  • The Hornbill keyless entry door lock ($58.49) is a deadbolt lock that still works with fingerprints, an app, a passcode, and mechanical keys. My mom set hers up to link with her Amazon Echos and can now command Alexa to lock her front door, which gives real Smart House vibes. 

  • If you’re just looking to bypass keys and don’t want anything too tech-y, try the TEEHO TE001 keyless entry lock ($32.78), which unlocks with a predetermined passcode. I’ve used ones like this before and have a word of warning: Keep the real key on you just in case, because if the battery dies, you’re screwed. 

  • The Eufy Security Smart Lock ($94.99) also packs a big punch, with an app that enables you to lock and unlock the door from anywhere, plus a keypad and physical key, Apple Watch connectivity, and Alexa/Google Voice Assistant functionality. It also pairs with Eufy doorbells within the brand’s app, so you can set routines and controls for both at once. (Eufy also sells a combination lock/video doorbell for $269.99 if you just want to bundle right off the bat.)

  • Schlage’s Encode Smart Wi-Fi Deadbolt ($211) has the dual honor of being recommended by both the New York Times and my mother, with the former heralding it as “easy-to-install” and “sharp-looking” and the latter calling it “great for the back door.” It comes in multiple sizes and finishes (so you can actually match it to your door), gives you the option to create up to 100 access codes for friends and family, and can be locked and unlocked from anywhere using your phone. Plus, of course, it works with your smart home devices, too. 

How to Raise a Healthy Gamer, According to a Psychiatrist

There’s so much parenting guilt and anxiety around the subject of screen time. If you let your kids play video games as much as they want to, they may disappear into a virtual world, never to be seen again. If you set limits, you get to listen to endless negotiations for more screen time. 

You probably know from your own experience that digital gaming isn't all bad: It can be a relaxing way to zone out, build skills, or spark your imagination. So how can you let your kids experience those benefits without fear of breaking their delicately wired little brains?

Dr. Alok Kanojia, psychiatrist and founder of the Healthy Gamer coaching program, had his own struggles with gaming as a young person, eventually dropping out of college and moving to an ashram. Eventually, he went back to college and medical school, and now he works with families to find the balance between the entertainment of playing games and the danger of gaming overtaking other pleasures and necessities in a child’s life. Kanojia recently wrote a book on the subject, How to Raise a Healthy Gamer: End Power Struggles, Break Bad Screen Habits, and Transform Your Relationship with Your Kids.

He shared some warning signs of unhealthy gaming and tips for parents to promote a good gaming relationship.

Spot the red flags of unhealthy gaming

You might be wondering if your child’s gaming habits amount to an “addiction”—a frightening label for any parent to grapple with. “At the end of the day, it doesn't matter and is not necessarily helpful to label it as an addiction or not. If it’s causing a problem, then it is a problem,” Kanojia says.

These are the signs that gaming might be causing a problem for your child:

  • Neglecting other activities or responsibilities in favor of gaming

  • Isolation from friends and family in favor of gaming

  • Sleeping too much or not enough

  • Neglecting hygiene

  • Not enjoying things they used to enjoy

  • Lying about gaming

  • Increased irritability or moodiness when not gaming

  • Trouble interacting with people or participating in class

  • Overspending on games

“Remember, these are indicators, not absolutes, and open communication is key to understanding the underlying reasons and seeking help if needed,” Kanojia says.

Top tips for raising healthy gamers

Whether you’ve recognized signs of a gaming problem or you are hoping to prevent one, Kanojia has pointers for parents to keep gaming habits healthy.

  • Keep communication about video games open. 

    • Talk openly about gaming, like your experience with video games, what games they are curious about, what they like about them.

    • Set clear expectations about when and where gaming is allowed, and what games are acceptable.

    • Listen actively, reflecting and affirming what you hear, asking questions for clarity.

    • Avoid shaming. Try to understand what they enjoy about gaming rather than judging or dismissing.

  • Prioritize balance and other activities. 

    • Encourage diverse interests in other media, hobbies, books, physical activities, socializing, or community engagement.

    • Set realistic screen time limits. 

    • Set aside family time without screens. 

    • Lead by example with your own healthy tech habits.

  • Build trust and collaboration with your gaming kid. 

    • Involve your child in creating gaming rules. Offer your ideas and ask for their suggestions. If you clearly communicate your concerns while they clearly communicate their desires, you can more easily find a solution that suits everyone.

    • Offer alternatives to fulfill their needs. Understanding what your child gets out of gaming will help you brainstorm other activities that can scratch the same itch.

    • Seek professional help if needed. A third party like a therapist may be able to guide both of you toward a healthy solution.

  • Get everyone on the same page. Expectations should be clearly defined and communicated, including boundaries around gaming time, content, and in-game purchases.

“Build trust and collaboration by working together on solutions, offering alternatives, and celebrating their progress,” Kanojia says.

Age-by-age tips for healthy gaming

Kids’ brains and abilities change so much throughout childhood. Your approach to gaming will change too. Kanojia shared some tips for handling video games for children at different ages.

Elementary school

This is likely when children will first be exposed to games unless they’ve been watching you play since birth (no shade). Here’s how to get them started on the right foot:

  • Make sure the games they explore are age-appropriate.

  • Stick to short, supervised gaming sessions.

  • Encourage active play.

  • Talk to kids openly about online safety.

Tweens

Kids in their tweens are savvy about devices and are probably getting interested in playing games they learn about from friends. Here’s how to help them explore:

  • Supervise while they venture into different games and genres.

  • Negotiate and agree on appropriate screen time.

  • Encourage social gaming while emphasizing safety.

  • Monitor their online behavior.

Teens

They are on the threshold of adulthood, so teens need to practice independence with the safety and support of actual adults behind them. Here’s how to help them be healthy independent gamers:

  • Respect their autonomy. You’ve been openly communicating about what they want from gaming and what your expectations are. This is where they test the waters and apply your guidance in their decisions.

  • Discuss responsible choices. Gaming all night before a final or gaming to let off steam after the final? Help them see the difference between a choice that is in their best interest and one that is not.

  • Promote responsible communication and positive online interactions.

  • Offer support and guidance.

“Remember, these are general guidelines,” Kanojia says. “Adapt them to your child's individual needs and maturity level. By focusing on communication, balance, and trust, you can help your child navigate the world of gaming in a healthy and enriching way.”

How to Turn Your Juliet Balcony Into Functional Space

In the hands of a skilled realtor, every confounding aspect of a home can be spun into something desirable. There’s no clearer example of this than the Juliet balcony—those narrow, not-really-a-balcony things bolted to the sides of buildings. (They're named for Romeo and Juliet, although Shakespeare didn’t actually refer to a balcony, making deception just one more crime these so-called balconies have perpetrated.) If you’ve ever gone to a real estate listing promising “private outdoor space” only to puzzle over a railing slapped over a tall window, you know the dark mystery of these “balconets.”

Any access to fresh air and more sunlight is a good thing, of course—but Juliet balconies are only marginally more effective than any old window when it comes to ventilation and natural light. So you wouldn’t be the first person to wonder how, exactly, you’re supposed to use your tiny scrap of outdoor space. Like a lot of modern “innovations” that don’t actually add much value, making a Juliet balcony work requires just a little creativity.

Garden

The most common way to make your Juliet balcony into something useful is to transform it into a garden. If you have a shallow floor to work with, some narrow planters with vertically-growing plants will work nicely, and some railing planters will add even more visual interest. If the railing has spokes, you could also consider a climbing vine to provide a natural privacy screen.

Your garden could be decorative, or you could put it to work as a vegetable garden, relying on dwarf fruit and vegetable plants (there’s even a tomato variety literally called the Patio Princess) to provide fresh food in addition to natural beauty. And if your Juliet balcony overlooks a busy city street, your lush balcony garden will hide the urban sprawl behind a much more peaceful wall of nature.

Dining area

If you enjoy eating out in the fresh air but your Juliet balcony is your only access to it, you can create a comfortable dining area with a folding rail table and some folding chairs (that can also be stored out on the balcony). Open the doors or windows to your balcony, fold out the table, and set out your meal (or coffee, or cocktails). When you’re done, everything folds up and you can close your doors or window until next time.

You could also turn your Juliet balcony into a nice little reading nook. A comfortable chair, a folding table for a beverage or a pile of books, and an arc reading lamp will make your Juliet balcony a cozy spot to catch up on your reading list while enjoying the breeze.

Outdoor kitchen

If you love to grill, having a Juliet balcony as your only “outdoor space” is disappointing. But don’t let a narrow space stop you—get yourself a rail-mounted grill and a folding rail-mounted table and you’ll be grilling up a storm in no time. Get a folding dining table and some chairs you can set up just inside, and you can serve a feast to a guest or two without smoking up your whole apartment.

If you’re not into cooking, a rail-mounted outdoor bar cabinet can transform your Juliet balcony into a great outdoor bar area for get-togethers or a quiet cocktail after dinner on your own.

Storage

If you’re living in a small space that’s bursting with stuff, a Juliet balcony might be more useful to you as a slice of extra storage. A vertical bicycle stand, for example, will allow you to store your bike on a Juliet balcony as long as there are a few inches of floor space out there. A narrow, water-resistant deck box will let you safely store a lot of stuff out there, freeing up valuable indoor storage or floor space.

Extend the balcony

If you really wish you had a real balcony but had to settle for a Juliet balcony, consider extending the balcony into your interior space. Get some wood deck tiles, start them out on the balcony, and extend them into the room a few feet. Add some container plants and a table and chairs and you have a full-size balcony and patio experience despite the fact that most of your patio space is located indoors. It's a little unconventional, but it works.

A Juliet balcony isn’t the most useful architectural feature you can have in your home—but with a little effort it can be a lot more useful.

What’s the Ideal Temperature for Your Refrigerator?

Have you noticed your milk getting frosty? Meat spoiling quickly? It’s likely your refrigerator is set to the wrong temperature. The FDA recommends keeping your refrigerator at or below 40° F (4° C), and your freezer at 0° F (-18° C) to keep your food fresh for longer and to prevent the growth of bacteria that could cause food-borne illnesses. Here are some more tips to help you ensure your perishables don’t perish.

The best temperature for a refrigerator

Avoid the "danger zone." If you want to ensure your food isn’t developing harmful bacteria that may make you sick, keep it out of the cold-but-not-cold-enough “danger zone” in which bacteria thrive. According to Good Housekeeping, the ideal fridge temp is between 35° F (1.6° C) and 38° F (3.3° C).

How to monitor your fridge's temperature

Get a thermometer for your fridge. “I never trust an appliance’s self-reporting temperature; I’ve had enough ovens with hot spots to always be wary,” advises a user on the food safety forum at Stack Exchange. “With our fridge, our crisper drawer regularly frosts and partially freezes our veggies, and with a thermometer I was able to determine why: it’s significantly colder down there than the 35° F the rest of the fridge is set on. By at least 5-8 degrees.” Move the thermometer around to check for cold and warm spots, and arrange your food accordingly.

Bulb thermometers, the kind with red liquid that moves up and down, are easy to read, reliable, and you don't need to change their batteries. If you don't have one, you can still check if your fridge is too cold. Place a container of water in the back of the fridge on a low shelf (usually the coldest part) for about 24 hours. If it freezes, then that's a sign you may want to raise the temperature a couple degrees.

Keep your refrigerator full

If you’re opening your refrigerator and freezer regularly, then keeping them stocked may help keep the temperature consistent. “With an empty fridge, every time you open and close the door you cycle most of the air in it, replacing the cooled air with warmer air, which has then to be cooled again,” say fridge enthusiasts on The Naked Scientists. “With a full fridge, there’s not only less air to be cycled and re-cooled, all the other items that have been cooled stay in the fridge. The presence of many items in the fridge may also reduce the airflow, meaning even less air is exchanged each time the door is opened and then closed.”

But don’t overstuff it

Keeping the fridge and freezer full is more efficient, yes—but packing it too tightly will restrict circulation and air flow, ultimately forcing it to work harder to keep things at the right temperature, according to Hunker. Another risk: jamming too much in the fridge can block air vents, leading to a host of temperature and moisture issues, and potentially causing some foods to spoil more quickly.

Check the air vents

To expand upon that last point: Air needs to pass unimpeded between the freezer and refrigerator in order to keep the temperature steady. If you’re seeing frost in your fridge, make sure there isn’t a wayward loaf of bread stuffed up against the air vent, preventing circulation. You should be able to find a guide for your particular refrigerator model online.

Know your fridge’s naturally coldest areas

“The temperature within your fridge can vary rather significantly with normal usage,” says Stack Exchange’s hobodave. “The coldest parts of your refrigerator are the back, and the bottom. The back because the cooling element is there, and the bottom because warm air rises. If items you don’t want frosty are getting frosty, then move them away from the back of the fridge.”

Don’t put spoil-prone items in the door

The fridge door is likely to be one of the warmest areas of the fridge, and a spot where the temperature fluctuates the most—so don’t store anything likely to spoil there. “The items in the door of your fridge can easily get as high as 59° F (15° C), and do so often,” says hobodave. “Putting milk and eggs in your door will significantly decrease their shelf life.” In fact, speaking to Well and Good, dietitian Lisa DeFazio recommends never storing milk, eggs, dairy or meat in the door. Instead, keep those items toward the rear of the fridge, where temperates are colder and more stable.

Consider Adding a Solar Water Heater to Your Home

You know how expensive energy can be—and it’s not getting any cheaper. Bills piling up is one reason why people look into solar energy solutions for their homes, but when people think solar they tend to focus exclusively on generating electricity and getting off their local grid. And while traditional solar panels are a great idea and can have a huge impact on your utility bills, there’s another option you shouldn’t sleep on: aolar water heaters.

Solar water heaters are exactly what they sound like: water heaters that use the sun’s energy. If you’ve ever left a beverage sitting out in the sun you know that it's very good at heating up liquids, and adding a solar water heater to your home is a simple, straightforward way to cut your energy bills. As an added bonus, using a solar water heater also has a positive impact on the environment, because you won’t be using traditional energy sources.

How solar water heaters work

Solar water heaters have two parts: a collector and a circulation system. The collector is mounted on the roof and stores and heats the water, and the circulation system transfers the water to your taps. The circulation system can be active, using pumps, or passive, relying on gravity or convection to move the water from one place to another.

Solar water heaters will work in any climate, but the type of collector and circulation system used is determined by the climatic conditions in your local area. For example, solar water heaters using an evacuated tube collector, which surrounds the water with a vacuum to prevent heat loss, can maintain water temperature even in very cold climates—but they’re typically the most expensive system to install. How much sun your roof gets, the likelihood of freezing temperatures, and other factors all affect which collector and circulation system is the best choice.

Benefits

Installing a solar water heater will run you anywhere from $3,000 to $8,000, depending on your location and the type of system being installed. Which ain’t cheap—but as with solar panels, the up-front cost is an investment that will pay off over time in three big ways:

  • Bills. About 18% of the energy you use in your home goes to heating up your water. A traditional electric water heater costs about $438 per year to operate, while a gas water heater costs about $224 annually on average. Going solar reduces those costs to about zero.

  • Tax break. Solar water heaters qualify for a 30% tax credit, so your cost of installation will be reduced significantly.

  • Environmental concerns. Whether your traditional water heater is gas or electric, it’s relying on some portion of fossil fuels and other polluting sources to heat up your water. A solar water heater removes about 4,000 pounds of CO2 from the atmosphere every year.

If you live in an area that gets a lot of sunlight and you’re considering solar energy—or already have solar panels in place—a solar water heater is a great idea. Even if electricity and gas are relatively cheap where you are, that may not always be the case, and a solar water heater will save you some money in the long run no matter what. You can explore the models and available rebates in your area and other information using the government’s Energy Star website.

How Low-E Windows (or Coating) Can Save You Money

Your home’s windows can be a major source of heat loss in winter and can absorb heat from sunlight during the warmer months. While using shades and drapes can help cut down on heat transfer from your windows, there are times when you want to pull them open and let the light in. When you do, there’s a type of window and coating that can prevent heat transfer through your windows without obstructing the view: Low-E windows.

What are Low-E windows?

Low-E windows are made from glass that has a microscopic metallic coating on it that is barely visible. You likely won’t notice the coating because it doesn’t change the way your windows look very much, but it insulates windows from heat transfer by reflecting UV and infrared light. Low-E coating narrows the wavelength of light that can come through your windows, cutting down on the wavelengths of light that transfer the most heat through the glass. By preventing heat from being absorbed through the windows, Low-E glass can keep the inside of your home cooler in summer and warmer in winter.

Windows with a Low-E coating can reduce heat transfer by 70%. That means that one of the biggest sources of energy expenditure on temperature control can be reduced by 70% with a low e coating. Low-E windows can save you 12% to 33% on energy by providing reflective insulation. Depending on where you live, this can amount to an annual saving of between $70 and $500. While the initial investment in Low-E windows can be 10% to 15% more than regular windows, the savings can be worth it if you live in an area with higher energy costs or where your HVAC is running year round.

Since Low-E coatings reflect UV light, having Low-E windows can prevent sun damage to carpets, artwork, and furniture. Cutting down on UV light can also help prevent bleaching on hardwood floors and woodwork. Some types of plastic can also be damaged by UV rays, so adding a Low-E coating can save you money on replacing or repairing furniture, flooring, and textiles by preventing that damage.

DIY Low-E coating versus new windows

Low-E windows can either come pre-coated from the manufacturer, or an e coating film can be applied on site by a homeowner. The DIY type of window film can be time consuming, and as with any window film, it can be tricky to get right. The upside to the DIY approach is that you can apply it to your existing windows for around $1.44/square foot or around $9 per window. The DIY type of Low-E window coating will last about 10 to 15 years if properly installed. While new windows with Low-E coating on them are significantly more expensive than the film, if you have older windows, they can be worth it for sealing up leaks and gaps that the film won’t fix.

Unlike other types of spectrally selective window coatings that can frost or tint windows, Low-E windows don’t need to have a visible tint. While in some cases, there can be a very slight tint, for the most part, the coating is invisible. That means you can have all the benefits of natural sunlight, plus a clear view while still keeping heat transfer to a minimum and reducing your home energy bill.

How (and Why) to Mark and Monitor Minor Cracks in Your Home

Most homes have a few imperfections or quirks that have been there for as long as you can remember: One replacement bathroom tile that doesn't quite match the others, an old doorknob that sticks, or perhaps a gouge in the wainscoting. There are also the minor defects that make you second guess your memory; more specifically, whether they're new, or they've always been there, but you've never noticed them before.

Hairline cracks in walls and ceilings often fall under the second category. It can be difficult to determine whether they're recent—and possibly a sign that something is amiss—have long gone unnoticed, or disappear and reappear seasonally based on temperature fluctuations. That's why it's a good idea to mark or document these cracks when you first see them, instead of relying solely on your memory.

How to mark and monitor cracks in your walls and ceilings

Living in a rented apartment on the top floor of a nearly century-old building, I've seen—and marked—my fair share of wall and ceiling cracks. Like many apartment buildings constructed at this time, mine has lath-and-plaster walls and ceilings. Often highlighted in marketing brochures of the era for their fire- and sound-resistant qualities, plaster walls and ceiling are also more prone to cracking than those made using drywall, which are more common today. Here's how I keep track of mine:

Mark the endpoints with a pencil

First, I put light pencil mark at each of the crack's endpoints, and write the date—including the year—next to one of them. Though I write directly on my walls using a pencil that I know erases well, that may not be an option for everyone.

crack on white wall with pencil marks on each end
Credit: Elizabeth Yuko

To avoid marking the wall or ceiling itself, Alexandra Cooper, an architect and interior designer at Planner 5D, suggests placing a piece of transparent tape over the crack first. "This can help prevent the crack from widening further, and also provide a clear surface for marking," she says.

In addition to marking cracks that you've noticed for the first time, you may also want to consider doing the same for those that you've been aware of for a while, in order to determine whether they grow or change over time.

Take photos

Next, I take well-lit photos of the crack standing directly in front of it, as well as from a few other angles and distances. Not only are the images helpful visual references for monitoring the crack, but they also provide another record of the date and time. This is especially handy if you're a short person with tall ceilings that you can only reach using the extra-tall ladder that you have to borrow from your building's maintenance person, for instance.

Check it periodically

If the crack appeared after some extreme weather, for example, you'll probably want to check it on a near daily basis—at least for the first week or so—to see whether there's any active movement or additional shifting resulting from the event. Once you're convinced that it's relatively stable, or if there wasn't a clear cause and you've just noticed what was probably an existing crack, check it every month or two. If you haven't observed any changes, you can probably cut back to every six months or year.

The key, at least for me, is to put reminders to check the crack in my calendar, immediately after marking and photographing it on the day I first notice one. Otherwise, if it's not somewhere directly in my line of vision, I will probably forget.

Document any changes

As soon as I notice that a crack now extends beyond its previous endpoints, I mark and date the new ones and take a few new photos showing the growth. I haven't seen much movement over the years, so this is the extent of what I do.

But if you are noticing changes (or just a fan of record-keeping) there are better ways of doing this. For example, Cooper recommends keeping a physical or digital document recording the crack's length and any other relevant measurements or observations, like the direction of the movement, whether it's also widening, and so on.

Also, if you notice that the crack is shifting fairly regularly, Cooper suggests making note of the temperature and humidity levels each time it moves to get an idea of whether the changes are seasonal.

When to be concerned about a crack

Though hairline cracks in walls and ceilings typically aren't cause for alarm, it's important to know how to spot the signs of a potential problem, including those that may require professional attention.

Changes in width

According to Korey Gregory, a licensed general contractor and the superintendent of ASAP Restoration, the most important thing to monitor is the width of the crack. "Think of cracks in a home like a windshield," he says. "You almost expect the crack in a windshield to grow in length, but if it started to widen out and let in air while driving, you’d be concerned. Cracks in the walls of your home work the same way."

When a crack grows in width, that means there's been substantial movement, which could be a sign of structural issues. "If a crack grows from more than a hairline fracture to an eighth of an inch or more, I would be concerned and call an expert right away to be safe," Gregory says.

Growth in length

Unlike its width, there isn't a specific length or amount of growth that clearly demarcates when a hairline crack has become a concern, but Cooper says that significant lengthening over a short period could indicate structural movement. As Gregory points out, cracks can get longer for a variety of reasons, including years of doors closing, people walking above that area, kids playing upstairs, or even heavy winds that move the home slightly. But unless these cracks are also growing in width, they're typically not cause for concern, he says.

Location of the changes

When you notice a crack is getting longer, pay attention to the direction of the growth. For instance, according to Gregory, a crack that continues up vertically through a doorway header could be the sign of a problem. Because doorway headers are thickened with supporting beams that tie into the foundation or slab, if you notice that the header is shifting, it means that "major issues are happening with the structural integrity of the home," he says.

Along the same lines, Cooper says that cracks near windows, the corners of a room, load-bearing walls, or where the wall and ceiling meet might also signal settlement or structural issue, and "should raise more concern."

Also make note of the direction of the crack's movement. "Vertical or diagonal cracks are typically less concerning than horizontal cracks, which could signify foundation or structural problems," Cooper says.

Cracks on the walls of the second floor (or above)

Additionally, if there are cracks in the walls of the second floor in a home, then it might be a sign that the builders didn’t follow the proper methods for securing the second story to the first and the foundation. With most two-story homes, the studs from the first floor extend upwards and become the studs of the second floor.

Occasionally, builders will sister in studs on the second floor which aren’t as structurally sound. In extreme weather situations, the studs connecting the first and second floor can act as a pivot point causing stress cracking. As with cracks on the first floor, and above doorways, if the width increases, you should have it professionally checked out.

The shape of the crack

According to Cooper, if what starts out as a single-line crack goes on to branch out or form a web-like pattern, it could be a sign of increasing stress on the structure.

Accompanying issues

When you first notice a crack, check to see whether there are any other new issues, like sticking doors or windows, uneven floors, or gaps between walls and floors, which Cooper says could be another sign of structural problems.

How to repair minor cracks

According to Gregory, the best way to fix elongating cracks that aren’t increasing in width is to use silicone caulking. "The reason for this is because silicone will stretch and shift with the crack, whereas drywall mud will eventually reveal the same crack again, especially if it is growing in width too," he says.

When to contact a professional

For cracks that are widening or growing in a concerning shape, location, or direction, your best bet is to bring in a professional for a thorough inspection of your home. If you're uncertain about the seriousness of the crack, or if it's rapidly changing, Cooper says that it's better to be cautious and consult an expert. Additionally, if you have an older home, or one with a history of structural issues, she says it's advisable to involve a professional as soon as you notice any potentially concerning cracks.

These ‘Pathways to Hope’ Can Improve Your Mental Health

If experiencing a mental health problem were plotted like a line on a graph, it might look like a low-level shallow wave, or a dramatic fall and rise with a few roller coaster bumps scattered in between. When people who have made it through a mental health struggle describe their experience, there is often an inflection point when something “clicked” and they started to feel better.

In her book Little Treatments, Big Effects, clinical psychology professor and therapist Dr. Jessica Schleider writes about her research into single-session interventions for mental health care. Through surveying and interviewing 98 people and analyzing their stories, Schleider identified five “pathways to hope”—elements from stories of mental health recovery that represented the turning point from struggling to wellness:

  • Surprising yourself

  • Feeling seen

  • Seeing others

  • Reclaiming your narrative

  • Giving back

Schleider defines these turning points as “specific, brief moments that made a lasting impact on [the]journey toward mental health."

“The clearest connector across virtually all the turning points was the experience of realizing hope that change might be possible, where little such hope had existed before,” Schleider wrote.

If we extrapolate a bit more, someone experiencing mental health problems may find it beneficial to look for—and even actively cultivate—these "pathways to hope" as a way to help break them out of a funk. If you are living with depression, anxiety, addiction, obsessive compulsive disorder, or other psychological problems, there are ways to try and create your own turning point toward recovery.

Pathways to hope

Surprising yourself 

This means doing something, even something very small, that you once believed you could not do. You not only get a confidence boost from doing the hard thing, you gain evidence that thinking something is impossible is not proof that it’s impossible.

  • Try a skill you learned in therapy. Even if your therapist’s suggestion makes your eyes roll, give it a try. Their techniques are usually research-backed.

  • Go out and do something that you are nervous about. By coping in a new environment more successfully than you thought you would, you learn that your anxiety is not a reliable predictor of how dangerous new situations really are.

  • Face a fear. It might look like exposure therapy with a professional or DIYing your own exposure experience. Exposure therapy can be helpful for anxiety, OCD, or PTSD.

Feeling seen 

When you share your experience and receive validation from others, feeling understood can shed a layer of shame or fear from your mental health struggle.

  • Talk to understanding people. Do you have someone in your life whom you can count on to be a judgment-free zone? That may be a therapist, a friend, a family member, or any trusted person in your life. Feeling sympathy and acceptance from a caring person could be the first step to feeling better.

  • Not ready to share your feelings with another person? Take a self-evaluation to recognize your experience within the diagnostic framework. While these assessments are not equivalent to a diagnosis and do not replace formal mental health care, they can reassure you that you are not the only person with your experience.

  • Read about your suspected condition or symptoms. Reading articles or personal accounts have the effect of reminding you that you are not alone.

  • Try online forums, Facebook groups, or even Reddit threads related to your diagnosis or symptoms. Share your story in a low-stakes way or just read what others have experienced.

Seeing others 

Seeking to be seen will inevitably lead to learning about other people who are going through or have recovered from feelings similar to yours.

  • Look for stories you can relate to, either through online forums or articles. This step could occur along with your efforts to feel seen.

  • Validate and affirm others. When you encounter something you can relate to, tell the other person. You are part of the seeing and being seen cycle.

  • Recognize your own empathy. You may encounter stories you never thought you would relate to, but you do. Acknowledge the part your own empathy plays in creating your turning point.

Reclaiming your narrative 

Living with disruptions to your mental wellness can make it feel like things are out of your control. It might seem like others know what you need but you don’t have the agency or energy to choose for yourself. 

  • Do the “next right thing.” This can be a tiny step. The key factor is that you decide what direction you want your life to go and make that step. 

  • Be the bus driver. In acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), the bus driver metaphor means each of your experiences are passengers boarding the bus as you go through life. If your bus is full of loud, negative passengers, you may develop a habit of appeasing the negative thoughts rather than determining your course. You are the driver and you decide where to go.

  • Explore your identities. Schleider writes about a survey respondent who experienced a turning point diving into research about their personal identities and their intersections. What parts of your culture or self have gone unexplored?

Giving back 

Supporting others who have experiences like your can empower you to keep making progress on your own recovery.

  • Share your story publicly. Much like seeing others and being seen, sharing your story adds to the cycle of validation. If you are comfortable talking about your experiences to a few people, consider sharing on a larger scale. Speak in a group session or write a blog.

  • Engage in peer support. Consider the communities or settings where you have received support and look into how you can contribute in a formal or informal way. Working in the community where you feel understood and validated reinforces your motivation to work toward wellness.

Be on the lookout for meaningful moments

The power of a turning point is only fully realized if you notice it happening (or create meaning by reflecting on it later). One of Schleider’s interview subjects (cited in Little Treatments, Big Effects) pointed this out: “I think they’re probably there, but it would take some level of noticing to see them and respond to them in a way that makes them have an impact,” they said. “I’m imagining a literal turning point in a road—if you’re not paying attention, you can just keep driving, but if you’re looking for it, you can see the turn-off, and you can go in a different direction. So part of it might be showing up, paying attention.”

These Milwaukee Tool Sets Are Up to 55% Off at Home Depot

If you are looking to build out a cordless tool set, getting started can be tough. Buying the tools individually can cost more than buying a set, but buying set requires a lot of money all at once.

Right now, Home Depot is having a sale on tool sets that will make it easier to build out your own library. Here are a few of the best deals.

M18 18V Lithium-Ion Cordless 9 tool combo kit

This 9 tool kit is $599 right now—50% off its regular price. The kit comes with a drill and an impact driver, as well as a high torque impact wrench for tackling larger nuts and bolts and driving lag bolts.

Also included are a circular saw, a reciprocating saw, and an oscillating tool; these three are a good starting point for a home tool kit, as they will allow you to handle larger, longer cuts on flat surfaces like plywood, quick cuts with the sawzall, and a variety of smaller, more specialized cuts with the sawzall.

A cut-off grinder rounds out the kit's cutting capability; you can use it for making cuts to metal and grinding off nails and screws. There’s also a light, a blower, and a tool bag, as well as a battery charger and three 18 volt batteries.

M18 18V Lithium-Ion Cordless 7 tool combo kit

The 7 tool kit is on sale for $499 (55% off) and comes with a drill and driver set as well as a reciprocating saw and a circular saw. It also has an oscillating tool, as well as a cut-off grinder for making a variety of cuts. A light and tool bag round out this set along with two 18 Volt batteries and a charger.

M18 18V Lithium-Ion Cordless 5 tool combo kits

This 5 tool kit is $279 right now, 53% off its regular price. The kit has a drill and impact driver set as well as a circular saw. It also comes with an orbital sander that’s great for finishing work. Also included with the kit are a light, a tool bag, and two batteries with a charger.

Another 5 tool kit includes a different tool combination for $379, 53% off its normal price. This combo kit comes with a drill and driver set as well as an impact wrench. It also includes a cut-off grinder and a reciprocating saw. The light and carrying case finish out the set, which comes with two 18 volt batteries and a charger.

M18 18V Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless 1/2 in. Compact Drill/Driver

If you just need a drill, the Milwaukee drill set is on sale for $99, 50% off its regular price. The set comes with the drill, battery, charger, and tool bag. You can also opt for an impact driver set if you’re interested in expanding your kit or just looking for a good quality driver. The impact driver set comes with the driver, a battery, charger and tool bag and is also on sale for $99, 50% off its regular price.

Your Tool Kit Needs a Magnetizer

If you’ve ever opened up an appliance, you’re probably familiar with the frustration of screws and small parts rolling away or falling inside an opened-up machine. And for working on cars, magnetic bits and wrenches can help you keep from dropping parts into your engine. If you’re thinking of tackling a repair project that has lots of small screws, a magnetizer might be for you.

How do magnetizers work?

A tool magnetizer uses a magnet with positive polarity to rearrange the electrons in the metal of a tool to align with the magnetic field of the tool magnetizer. This increases the strength of the magnetic field in the metal of the tool, thus “magnetizing” it. A demagnetizer uses a magnet with negative polarity to rearrange the electrons in the metal of a tool to align with the magnetic field of the demagnetizer. This decreases the strength of the magnetic field in the metal of the tool, thus “demagnetizing” it. A magnetizer can use either a built-in magnet, arranged so that the tools will be ideally positioned when placed in the slot or hole, or it can use electricity to generate a magnetic field in order to change the magnetic polarity of your tool. Magnetizer/demagnetizers only work on ferromagnetic metals like iron, cobalt, nickel, and some steel. A magnetizer won’t work on non-ferromagnetic metals like aluminum, copper, brass, or stainless steel.

What can you use a magnetizer for?

A magnetizer can be helpful when you’re dealing with small hardware like screws from an appliance or nuts and bolts under the hood of your car. Magnetizing your screwdriver or wrench can help you to keep from dropping parts while they’re being installed or removed. A magnetizer can also be used on bits for an impact driver or drill, allowing you to work with screws and nuts on a ladder without needing to hold onto hardware as much. You can also magnetize the ends of tweezers to hold onto really small parts. A magnetized tool can be used to help retrieve dropped parts, especially smaller parts that are hard to grab with your fingertips.

What can you use a demagnetizer for?

A tool demagnetizer can be useful to use on tools before you work on electronics that can be damaged by magnetic fields like hard disc drives, electronics with magnetic sensors like laptops, or older style monitors with cathode ray tubes. To avoid damaging your electronics, you can demagnetize your tool before using it on these items as well as around vintage media recordings on cassette or video tape.

How to use a tool magnetizer

A tool magnetizer will have slots or holes labeled either “magnetize” or “demagnetize.” You can also use a larger, plug-in model that will accommodate slightly larger tools if you plan to use your magnetizer on wrenches or other larger tools. Just put the tool through the slot with the label that corresponds with the function you’re trying to use. Once you pull the tool out, it will be properly set up for your task. You can reverse your magnetization when you’re done, if you don't want magnetic tools all the time.

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