Posts

On the other side of the country, Seattle, Portland, and Spokane are also expected to see temperatures creeping above 100 degrees. The National Weather Service has already put out an alert to advise people from doing strenuous activities in the hottest hours of the day and to stay extra hydrated. The West Coast has already been battered by drought and wildfires, with the Dixie fire searing across California and gaining a spot as the second largest fire in the state’s history at 510,227 acres burned and 30 percent containment....

If you’ve ever watched stock cars compete around a track, you get the general idea of what goes on at the National Championship Air Races near Reno—except the cars in this case are different types of airplanes, the race courses are in the air, and the planes must bank around points that pylons mark on the ground. Judges hang out near the pylons to ensure the aircraft don’t cut corners....

As research in psychology, neuroscience and behavioral science has unveiled, regret can have a huge impact on our lives. Money and relationships are arguably the two issues that consume most of our emotional and mental resources, and regret affects our behavior in both. When it comes to money, a famous bias linked to regret is the “disposition effect”. This describes how investors hold on tight to losing assets. Whether it be a mutual fund, a specific stock or even the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, we are extremely reluctant to sell an asset at a loss....

From shamanic ritual to horoscopes, humans have always tried to predict the future. And while some of those practices may sound arcane, modern life still relies on prophecy. From the weather forecast to the time the GPS says we’ll reach our destination, our lives are built around futuristic fictions. Of course, while we may sometimes feel betrayed by our local meteorologist, trusting their foresight is a lot more rational than putting the same stock in a TV psychic....

But accidents do happen and if you don’t mind covering up the sleek look your phone has when it au natural, an extra layer of protection wrapped around your $1,000 (or more!) mobile device isn’t a bad idea. Here’s how to pick the right one that fits with your personal daily risk taking. depending on what you’re hoping to accomplish with your phone’s new duds. Protection This used to be the key reason to get a case in the first place....

Know what all the connection ports do Before you start plugging in cables, get familiar with the ports on the back of your soundbar. If you’re not sure what something is, check the included instruction manual, and if you don’t have a hard copy you can usually download a digital one from the manufacturer’s website. The soundbar featured in the photographs accompanying this article is the Sonos Beam (Gen. 2), but no matter which soundbar you’ve bought to upgrade your home theater setup (and whichever TV you’re connecting it to), you should find much of the setup process is similar....

Step up to the ’bar An entry-level soundbar can be had for less than $100, and there are plenty of options under $300, or even under $500, etc. Conversely, the best soundbar for a TV (for example, the Sennheiser AMBEO, which has the newest HDMI 2.1 port) will cost you well over $2,000. Regardless of the price, there can be some confusion regarding how to connect a soundbar to a TV....

This kind of functionality is expanding to more and more devices, and Sonos speaker voice control is now a reality. This feature is only available on the most recent Sonos models specifically the Sonos One, the Sonos Move, the Sonos Roam, the Sonos Arc, and the Sonos Beam (Gen 2). So, if you have an older version, you may be out of luck. Instead of using the Sonos app to pick what music you want to listen to, you can use voice commands instead....

We can’t help ogling because there’s something a little unnatural about these lawns. Maybe it’s because many of them are created at nature’s expense. Of the 29 billion gallons of water American homes consume daily, 30 percent goes to outdoor work like landscaping. On top of that, gasoline-powered yard and garden equipment belch out 242 million tons of air pollutants each year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Instead of aspiring to a flat green expanse, try a more environmentally-friendly way to decorate your yard....

Social media networks know a lot about you. In fact, that’s their primary job. They want to collect information about you and use that to sell advertisements that you can’t resist. In return for your data, these companies give you a chance to interact with other users and share your life no matter how interesting or banal. Think about all the secret interests Facebook thinks you want to see ads about....

Thankfully, the IPCC has an answer to that as well. The AR6 Working Group I Interactive Atlas, officially released earlier this week, allows anyone with internet access to dig through troves of stats and projections to look at the present, past, and future of climate change. At first glance, the high-tech map might seem overwhelming with dozens of variables, scenarios, and datasets. So, we’ve provided a little guide on what all the numbers, terms, and scenarios mean to make exploring the atlas easier for you....

Why online radio is the answer to an algorithmic rut Algorithmic playlists aren’t all bad—we’ve talked about finding the best Spotify playlists, for example, and the results can be great. But there’s something about a good radio station that even the best automated playlist can’t give you. A few things stand out: Don’t get me wrong—I love melancholy indie songs. But there’s more to me. I contain multitudes. That’s why I try to get out of my algorithmic bubble and listen to something new....

Today, almost two years into the pandemic, the answer to that question remains shaky—but new COVID research is guiding my informed approach to fitness each day. If you’re in similar straits, perhaps my experience will help you find your footing in recovery. To add to my anxiety, I immediately had to stop exercising upon our diagnosis. I was 31 and had long used fitness to distract from the stress of everyday life, but it would not be able to help me through this....

With more than 2 billion users to its name, Facebook is buzzing with activity—particularly if several hundred of those users happen to be friends with you. Between wedding photos of friends-of-friends-of-friends, angry articles from your political uncle, and all-caps updates from the girl you haven’t seen since middle school, your News Feed can get cluttered with information you couldn’t care less about. Don’t settle for reading every other post—here’s how to streamline your feed so it will only show the people and news you actually care about....

There’s been a real uptick in gluten-free labels at the grocery store, including on drinks and snacks you know shouldn’t have any gluten to begin with. But if you’ve made fun of gluten-free oats, you might want to take back that joke. Oats don’t naturally contain any gluten, but research suggests the vast majority of the bags you see in supermarket aisles have high enough levels to poison someone with celiac disease....

As tempting as it may be to just toss your sausages and frosty beverages into an insulated box with some ice, a little planning and the right stacking strategy will help your food and drink stay cold longer. You’ll also stymie bacterial growth, which the Department of Agriculture says occurs rapidly between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit (4 to 60 Celsius). And a weekend marked by legendary levels of bacteria is one you’ll remember for all the wrong reasons....

No, Google did not reach deep into your personal device to hold some apps hostage until you stop using DuckDuckGo. You accidentally hid or deleted the home page yourself. There’s no grand conspiracy, and it’s easy to recover what you’ve lost. Now, tap the dots at the bottom of your screen to open up a similarly wiggly display of all your home screens. You can press on one and drag it to rearrange the order, but if you want to hide or delete one, tap the check mark under it....

Most people blame recirculated air when they catch a cold after a flight. But researchers have found that this likely isn’t the case. After surveying 1,100 passengers—half of whom traveled on planes with recirculated air; the other flyers used 100 percent fresh air—they found that nearly 20 percent of travelers developed a cold within a week of flying, whether they breathed recirculated air or not. In other words, those in-cabin HEPA filters seem to really do their job well....

Strategy no. 1: Ask the cashier, nicely In 2016, CVS finally gave its 70 million ExtraCare members the option to go paperless. To do so, customers would have to pull out their rewards card at checkout and give a valid email address to the cashier. From there, customers would receive all coupons in their inbox, resulting in shorter receipts at the register. Members could use the coupons or ExtraBucks by sending them to their cards via a button in the message, pulling them up on a smart device, or less intuitively, printing them at home or at kiosks in the store....

So when you buy a ticket to see your favorite artist on tour, it’s fair to ask whose pocket that money is going into—is it theirs or somebody else’s? How much are they getting? And how do you make sure they get the biggest cut? Different singers and bands have different deals with different actors in the industry, so unfortunately the answer to all of those questions is: it depends....