Although the World Health Organization only recently declared the end of the mpox global emergency, the virus is not gone. Chicago health authorities, for one, have identified up to 31 cases of the disease formerly known as monkeypox since the beginning of April, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is raising awareness ahead of the summer. 

A full schedule of two doses of the Jynneos vaccine can be up to 89 percent effective, but the CDC urges high-risk communities to take extra precautions to avoid a health crisis like we had last summer. Understanding how the virus spreads and how to prevent infection is key to complementing the protection provided by vaccines.

It’s worth noting that mpox seldom requires hospitalization and is rarely lethal: The US reported 30,235 confirmed cases between May 2022 and March 2023, with 38 deaths, the majority of both among Black people. Last year, access to treatment was limited, but there’s no reason to believe that will be the case this year, especially in major cities, as the health system is currently better equipped to respond to new mpox surges. But prevention is still crucial as the skin lesions that are one of the most common symptoms of the virus can be extremely painful without proper medication. 

Matching last year’s domestic and international trends, the recent small surge in Chicago has mainly been concentrated within the community of gay, bisexual, and queer men who have sex with other men (GBMSM, in short), and their sexual network. Whether you identify as such or are currently at low risk of contracting the virus, you should know how mpox spreads and how to stay safe.  

“​​Let’s say you touch a lesion and the virus gets on your hand. Unless you have a break in the skin, you should be ok,” says Scott Roberts, assistant professor of infection prevention at Yale University’s School of Medicine. The problem is that we tend to touch our mouths, eyes, and faces throughout the day, which means you can infect yourself with viruses lingering on your digits, he explains. 

“The reason that we’re seeing the spread through sexual contact is not that it’s a sexually transmitted infection, but rather the close, prolonged contact in an intimate encounter, where you’re touching parts of the skin, kissing, sharing bodily fluids,” Roberts says. “All of that is a good scenario for a virus to spread.”

Several studies have found traces of the mpox virus in semen, but only one of them, published by Italian researchers in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, showed the virus in the sample could replicate and actually infect another person. Unfortunately, there still isn’t enough evidence either way, so we still don’t know if mpox can spread directly through the exchange of semen, feces, or vaginal fluids.

Keep in mind that skin-to-skin contact doesn’t mean you’ll get infected by shaking hands with someone who has mpox—you’d need a high viral load for that to happen. 

“It definitely requires a much longer time of close and prolonged contact if you don’t touch somebody’s lesions,” says Roberts.

But mpox is not airborne, and it doesn’t behave like COVID-19, where microscopic droplets can infect you if enough of them get into your nose and mouth. Researchers including those who worked on the Lancet study have said that the viral load in a mpox patient’s airways is nowhere near as high as the one from lesion secretions. That means transmission from respiratory fluids may be possible, but a lot less likely.

How to prevent mpox

As mentioned above, because the current and 2022 outbreaks have been mostly contained within the GBMSM community, authorities have given its members priority access to vaccines and treatment options. But even with that and greater availability of inoculations compared to last year, the CDC says only one in four people eligible to get the Jynneos shots actually have received them. 

It’s because of this low vaccination rate, aggravated by the fact that vaccines are not 100 percent effective, that even if you’ve received your two doses, you should still strive to reduce your own risk of contracting mpox as much as possible.

You should also keep in mind that there are a lot of ways to have sex, and some don’t require touching or even being in the same room with your partner. Take this as an opportunity to be creative and explore these options as sexual alternatives.

Anonymity is another problem. We know the thrill of having sex with strangers is, well, the “strangers” part. But it’s better to stay in the know when it comes to stopping the spread of a virus. Anonymous sex rarely gives people the chance to have honest conversations about their levels of mpox exposure, potential symptoms, and vaccination status. Talking to someone before tearing off their clothes will allow everyone involved to stay safer, make informed decisions, and clearly establish how much risk you’re comfortable with. 

And since you’re already having a conversation, don’t forget to exchange real names and contact information with potential partners. These include people you kiss, have penetrative sex with, and do everything in between. This will make it easier to get in touch if you end up with mpox symptoms in the future. 

And if you don’t trust yourself to break the spell of anonymity, try to avoid contexts where anonymous sex is most likely to happen, like sex clubs, sex parties, and any other contexts where on-site casual sex is common.

“Mpox is actually a pretty easy virus to kill,” Roberts says. “Alcohol wipes, soap and water, disinfectant, all of that really easily kills the virus.”

In general, you should regularly disinfect surfaces like kitchen counters, door knobs, and light switches, the CDC says. You should also wash your hands frequently with an alcohol-based sanitizer, or soap and water. If you’re not sure whether your cleaning products will do the trick, the Environmental Protection Agency has a list of approved disinfectants. 

The post What you can do to prevent the spread of mpox appeared first on Popular Science.

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It’s never too late to get better handwriting. We don’t mean calligraphy level, which would make your doctor’s office check-in forms look like royal decrees from the 1500s. We mean legible and consistent, regardless of whether you use print or cursive. 

Just like most aspects of life, you can improve your handwriting with practice. Repetition will help you gradually change your style, and you’ll eventually reach a point where letters flow naturally and beautifully from pen to paper. We can’t promise the words will make sense, but at least they’ll look pretty. 

Avoid thick or spiral notebooks and instead opt for one with a flexible binding that you can open flat. This will prevent the heavier side of your book from trying to pull the whole thing closed, and eliminate any wrist discomfort a thick spiral may create as you approach the end of each line. Thinner notebooks will also keep your hand from losing support as you write the final lines on a page. 

Next, find a paper layout angle that suits your writing. Don’t fall for the notion that the only correct setup is vertical, as that can force your hand and wrist to adopt an unnatural writing position, which could lead to pain and even injury. There’s absolutely no shame in positioning your sheet of paper or notebook at a 45-degree angle or even a totally horizontal alignment. The best way to find out what angle works for you is to start with your paper laid vertically and then rotate it to the left (if you’re right-handed) or the right (if you’re left-handed) until you’re comfortable. This is why having a spacious surface to write on matters, as you won’t want to knock down any desk trinkets while you play around with your paper. 

Take as much time as you need to ensure your setup is to your liking. You’ll find this will not only help you improve your handwriting but it will also be relaxing. You’re welcome. 

The best way to know if a pen is right for you is to try it. If you can, go to a stationery store and take your time sampling the pens there—write a couple words on the provided pads and see how each pen feels. Maybe buy two or three to keep testing at home. If you have no idea where to start, you can always give some fan favorites a test drive. 

Many people swear by the Pilot G-2, for example. It comes in several formats, but the tried-and-tested version has a built-in grip, is retractable, uses quick-drying gel ink, and comes in myriad colors. If you want to go with a classic, try BIC’s Cristal or Round Stic pens. You’ve probably written with these a million times before, and they’re a staple because of how comfortable and reliable they are. Some more ideas: Uniball’s Signo, Pentel’s RSVP, Sakura’s Pigma Micron, or any gel pen at Muji. These are all inexpensive writing tools with their own fan bases, so you should be able to find something that works among them. 

If you want to try your hand at fountain pens, start with something designed for beginners that—hopefully—is compatible with disposable ink cartridges, or even comes pre-loaded with ink. This will prevent you from having to buy a bottle of ink and a refillable cartridge, unless you’d really like to. Pilot’s Kakuno or Schneider’s Ray fountain pens are solid, inexpensive choices—they’re light and comfortable, and can prepare you to move on to more serious fountain pens in the future. 

When you write, do it at a normal pace (not too fast, not too slow) and mind your hold on the pen. If your nails are white from the force you’re exerting, your grip is too strong—relax your hand and try again. This is important because an excessively strong grip will lead to pain and discomfort, which can result in hand and wrist cramping, as well as injury. On top of that, pain will also affect the consistency of your handwriting and eventually deter you from putting pen to paper at all, rendering this whole process useless. 

Once you have a comfortable grip, check it every few minutes and correct it if you need to. If you’re having trouble controlling your pen, you can always change your tool or try a pen grip—one of those small rubber tubes that slip right onto your pen or pencil for better control. 

These are the elements you’ll need to focus on to improve your handwriting. No matter if you do cursive, print, or a combination of the two, you want a style that anybody can read clearly, is mostly the same across the page, and has letters that look more or less consistent. This doesn’t mean your handwriting should be perfect or resemble words on a screen (let alone calligraphy)—your handwriting is unique to you and you should embrace it as such. 

If there are aesthetic elements you want to change, or if you want to alter the way you write altogether, draw inspiration from others. A quick web search will turn up thousands of handwriting enthusiasts sharing their own pristine note pages. Take a look at them, find what you like (loose elements or entire styles), mimic it, and make it yours. 

A helpful way to practice is by making your exercises a part of your everyday life. You can do this by taking up a hobby like journaling or meditative writing. This will give you the opportunity to sit down for a couple of minutes each day and put your growing skills to good use. 

If you’re not into journaling, you can just set aside some time to practice every day. Find books, poems, and songs you like, and transcribe them. You can also write down your own train of thought if you can keep up with it. Your writing doesn’t have to be good, or even make sense—the point is to write, and as long as you’re putting words together, you’re getting some practice. 

On top of that, take every opportunity you have to write instead of typing. Keep notepads and pens around your desk and home, and pick them up to write reminders, and lists. If time is not an issue, forgo emails and opt for writing a letter or sending a postcard instead. It’s not only extra practice, but it’s a nice, old-fashioned thing to do and people love it.

A reminder: take your time and be patient. Speed will come once your hand learns the movements you’re teaching it. The more you write, the faster and more organically your lines will come. In the meantime, focus on form and consistency. From time to time, take a moment to analyze your handwriting to see how much you’ve progressed and what you still need to improve. Don’t forget about your grip, either, and check on it often to see if you need to loosen up. 

For the more independent learners, there’s also a lot of practicing material online, like worksheets and guides, that you can download at a cost or even for free. Some of them have slanted lines that can help you keep your angles consistent, and some of them have full instructions on the best ways to join letters and use spacing. 

It bears repeating: handwriting is not calligraphy, and it’s as unique to you as your fingerprints. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and it doesn’t have to look like someone else’s, so make embracing the chaos part of your process. 

The post How to improve your handwriting appeared first on Popular Science.

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But before you start, there are a few things you should keep in mind before you craft homemade hand sanitizer. First, it’s crucial that you understand that proper hand washing will always be better than simply rubbing your digits with hand sanitizer. Using the right amount of alcohol-based disinfectant (3 milliliters) for 25 to 30 seconds is fine in a pinch, but soap, water, and a good scrub are the absolute best way to protect yourself against contagious diseases.

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Knowing how to make hand sanitizer is useful if you ever find yourself in the middle of a health emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic. But these and other DIY recipes are only for extreme cases when hand washing is not an option and supplies are low. Professionals use these formulations in underserviced healthcare settings, and if at some point hand sanitizer is not available at local stores, you can use them too.

Lastly, your homemade hand sanitizer won’t last forever. The main active ingredient in the recipes below is isopropyl alcohol, a volatile compound that will evaporate over time and compromise the effectiveness of your hand sanitizer. When alcohol concentration drops below 60%, your hand sanitizer won’t be able to kill COVID-19 or influenza, for example. The shelf life of store-bought hand sanitizers can vary—the industry standard is three years, but it can go up to five. How long your DIY hand sanitizer lasts will depend on the type and size of the container you use and how often you open it, along with room temperature and humidity. Unfortunately, all of these factors make it hard to predict exactly how long your hand sanitizer will be good for, so proceed with caution. 

The WHO has a comprehensive guide on how to make hand sanitizer—the only problem is that if you follow their instructions, you’ll end up with a lot of it. Like, exactly 2.6 gallons of it. If you want to make enough to last you, your family, and all your friends through a zombie apocalypse, you definitely can. But if you want to keep things on a smaller scale, we’ve adapted the measurements for you.

5. Sanitize your spray bottles and pour in your hand sanitizer. Spray some of your leftover alcohol into your bottles and let them sit until the alcohol has evaporated. Then pour in your sanitizer.

6. Label your bottles. Hand sanitizers pose a real risk of involuntary alcohol poisoning, especially among children, who were largely affected by it during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. You don’t want anyone to accidentally ingest your newly made hand sanitizer. Take the time to label your bottles with their contents and the date, and keep them away from unsupervised kids.

6. Label your containers. Hand sanitizers pose a real risk of involuntary alcohol poisoning, especially among children, who were largely affected by it during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. You don’t want anyone to accidentally ingest your newly made hand sanitizer. Take the time to label your bottles with their contents and the date, and keep them away from unsupervised kids.

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THE INTERNET is vast, and we all have our own ideas about how we want to interact with it: Some livestream their every move, while others keep their daily activities to themselves. This would be perfectly fine if we all lived on our own isolated virtual islands, but we most definitely don’t.

When we share something about ourselves online, we’re also revealing details about those around us—just ask the victims of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, or the incredibly private people who’ve had their real identities revealed by TikTok sleuths. It’s beyond time we started looking at online privacy not as a personal decision, but as a collective issue.

To keep this conversation going, the Opt Out has created a code of conduct everyone could abide by. Of course, we can’t actually control what you do online, but we can help you understand that your actions on the internet have offline consequences, often for people other than you. 

So read these rules, take what applies to your life, and share it with your friends. The more people think about how everyone’s data and personal information is connected via the web, the more attainable privacy will be for all of us. 

1. Consent is king 

Consent is crucial to respecting people’s boundaries. Before you share a photo, a video, a personal story, or anything that depicts or describes someone else, ask them if they’re comfortable with you posting it. 

This includes images in which they’re featured prominently, as well as those where they’re visible only in the background, so be careful when you pan your camera—you might be unwittingly outing a secret relationship people have been speculating about for months. But it’s not only about images: You should also ask for permission when sharing written posts that include a person’s name or details that might identify them. You’ll want to be especially careful with information people might use to contact the person mentioned in your post, like their email address, phone number, location, and place of employment. You don’t want to inadvertently help stalkers get closer to their victims.  

[Related on PopSci+: When you should and shouldn’t accept a website’s cookies]

Content involving children is particularly sensitive. If you’re not the parent or guardian, make sure you ask the person who is before you hit publish. Even if they agree, consider hiding the kids’ faces as much as possible. 

Finally, just don’t post about someone who’s intoxicated, asleep, unconscious, or unable to provide clear consent. In fact, don’t take any pictures or videos of them at all—that’s just creepy.

2. Think carefully about filming or recording random people on the street

Listen, we agree with you: It’s not OK to be mean to people. And as much as you might enjoy the occasional Karen video, you should know that filming people like that is also not OK.

There can be truly good intentions behind such footage, and videos of rude people have probably made some viewers reconsider how they treat others. But once a video is online, you lose control over it. TikTok users have built followings by finding anyone they believe deserves comeuppance and calling their employer to get them fired or reprimanded. Others go even further and dox them, resulting in disproportionate consequences for them and their loved ones, including stalking, harassment, and even assault. Social media rarely makes the distinction between a truly awful person and someone who’s just making a huge mistake. 

That said, there are exceptions. Sometimes whipping out your phone and hitting record could help bring justice to a victim of assault, a hit-and-run, or even murder. Use your judgment to gauge whether you’re in an extreme situation like that and stop to think about the best way you can help—it may be filming at your own personal risk, but it may also be calling 911 or attracting the attention of other bystanders. 

And if you choose to hit that red square on your screen, you’ll have to figure out what to do with the video once you have it. In the great majority of cases, you shouldn’t publish it to social media. The harm you cause when the video leaves your control may be magnitudes greater than whatever clout, following, or emotional boost you gained by posting it. The rare exceptions include when you want to help someone but can’t contact them because they were arrested or removed in an ambulance. Even then, you may want to take some time to see if you can track them down and hand the material over personally.

Keep in mind that even in a court of law, your footage will take on a life of its own once it leaves your hands. Despite your best intentions, your video may not have the effect or result you intended it to.  

3. Don’t share one-to-one messages

As a general rule, treat all texts, photos, and videos you get through one-on-one chats and private message groups with the same care an international spy treats confidential orders from their handler. The people sending those messages meant for you alone to see them, so you shouldn’t send or show them to anybody else. The best example of this is nudes: If you get one, you can save or delete it, but that’s all.

4. Share contact information only when it’s consensual or public

A lot of people have their contact information on websites or their social media accounts. For example, you can email a PopSci writer by clicking the letter icon in their bio at the bottom of a story. This allows readers to send us comments and questions.

But that doesn’t mean other contact information is also public. If you need to disclose someone’s contact information, share only what’s publicly available on their official channels. If they have none listed, always ask them before you share their contact information: Tell them what you plan on sharing and with whom, and proceed only once they say they’re OK with it.  

5. Avoid revealing more information than you need to 

Sometimes we share more information than we think we’re sharing. Without realizing it, your long-awaited unboxing might have given all your followers your home address, and an innocent photo with your colleagues taken during lunch might have revealed your place of employment just because one person forgot to take off their badge.  

This is bad enough when it comes to your own information, let alone when it involves others. So be careful with what you share and look out for details about yourself and the people around you that reveal more than you’d like. 

Be careful with pictures featuring packing labels, official documents, license plates, and boarding passes—if you must share them, blur or cover sensitive information. Don’t forget the background—you’d be amazed at how much you can learn about someone by pausing a video and peeking at their corkboard. You should also take a good look at screenshots before posting, as they may include location data or even a rogue notification you didn’t notice popped up at just the wrong time. When taking photos near windows or outside, pay attention to landmarks, street signs, and anything else that might make your location evident. If you want to go the extra mile, consider erasing the metadata from image files before posting or sharing them online.

Finally, mind the words you use and avoid those that describe a direct affiliation with someone. Going back to that lunch with your colleagues, a sweet post about how much you like them might reveal a lot more than your appreciation for them. Just calling them colleagues reveals everyone’s place of employment (remember that one who didn’t take off their badge?) and if you mention how happy they’ve all made you for the past three years, viewers now have an approximate period of employment. It might not be a lot of information, but it accumulates with every post. 

6. It’s OK not to share your passwords with your partner. It’s also OK if you do. 

You have the right to privacy, and you don’t owe your partner unlimited access to your accounts. Lots of couples share their credentials for the sake of transparency and practicality, but that’s not necessarily a sign of a good and healthy relationship.

[Related on PopSci+: Stop choosing bad passwords, already]

Whether you share your passwords and passcodes with your significant other is your decision and yours alone. If you feel comfortable doing it and think it might make the relationship better, go for it. Just know that you should be able to keep your own space and say no if your partner asks you to open that door.

7. You’re the only one responsible for setting your boundaries

You may have someone in your life who’s very much online—the one who takes a picture of everything and posts multiple updates on social media throughout the day. So the next time you go out with this person and they whip out their phone to take a group picture, don’t just hide from the lens—take some time to have a conversation about what you’re OK with when it comes to being featured in someone else’s online posts. 

They may not understand or agree with your stance at first, and you might have to have the same conversation more than once. But you cannot expect to be comfortable going out with them if they don’t know what you want. Setting boundaries will make it easier for your friend to respect your needs and for you to enforce them. 

8.  Post about what you’re doing but not whom you’re with 

We understand if you don’t feel like having a conversation about online privacy as your food is making its way to your table. It’s a bit boring and certainly not the reason you and your friends got together. So if you haven’t had a conversation about expectations and boundaries when it comes to social presence, you should feel free to post about whatever you’re doing—just as long as you don’t disclose whom you are with.  

The idea is to include only you, the one person definitely providing consent to appear on social media. If someone else also consents, you may include them as well, but be mindful of those who opt out—don’t include them in group photos, and don’t tag or mention them. Be careful to leave out any identifying details, such as tattoos, cars, or anything that might hint at whom you’re out and about with.

9. No consent, no tag

Some people may be comfortable with appearing in your posts but not with you including a link to their social media account or accounts. Again, just ask them what they feel comfortable with. 

This rule also applies to other situations like contests, promotions, friends’ posts, and even using hashtags. Most social media platforms group hashtags and generally make identically tagged content easily accessible to people who may or may not be directly connected to us. For someone who wants to keep to themselves, this can be an unwanted reservoir of information about them.

10. Consent can be given and consent can be taken away

Your friend’s priorities regarding privacy may have changed since the last time you saw them. Even if they frequently post to Instagram and you think they’ll have no problem with you sharing a photo, don’t assume, and always ask them before you post. 

[Related: Everything you need to cure your smartphone addiction]

Tell them what you plan to write as a caption, if you’re planning to mention them, and make them feel comfortable by showing them the picture or post before hitting publish. Give them veto power and options.

And if you’re going to make assumptions about how someone feels about popping up on your timeline, it’s always a good idea to err on the side of caution. Assume the person beside you is private and doesn’t want anything about them online, until you learn otherwise. 

Read more PopSci+ stories.

The post The Opt Out: 10 rules for better internet etiquette appeared first on Popular Science.

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If you’re reading this, you’ve either encountered several pages claiming they know exactly how to remove sticker residue, or this is your first one. Either way, we don’t think you’ll have to look further. 

There are a lot of options for getting sticker residue off of surfaces, but all of them fall under one of three types of approaches: mechanical, chemical, or thermal. Understanding how each of these works will provide you with the best chance at vanquishing your sticky enemy.

A warning before we begin: there’s no one type of adhesive you’ll find behind a sticker, so results may vary. Also, all of the following methods have caveats, and you may risk damaging the surface underneath the sticker. Use your judgment to determine the best approach in your specific case, and always do a small test in an inconspicuous area to make sure you’re not damaging the underlying material.

You might be tempted to use your nails, but we advise against it, as they might break or get pulled back, and you definitely don’t want that. You also shouldn’t use a tool made out of metal, like a sharp kitchen knife. Not only is it dangerous, but you could damage the surface under the sticker.

[Related: The five smells Americans hate most (and how to get rid of them)]

Instead, opt for a less abrasive tool like a dull plastic knife or a hard plastic spatula. If your sticker is paper, a rubber eraser can be incredibly useful. And before you go to town with it, try your scraper in a small, inconspicuous area. Start gently and use incremental force to see if there’s any damage to the surface beneath. The moment you notice you’re scratching more than you’d like, stop and try another approach.

Scratching is a good idea if you’re trying to get sticker residue off glass, metal, or another hard, sturdy surface. But continue to be careful, as you always risk removing way more than adhesive gunk: paint, enamel, or even a functional coating like Teflon may go with it. 

This approach is usually a great place to start, but it often won’t be enough to complete the job—especially if you reach a point where you’re not able to push that stickiness away. 

To use oil to remove sticker residue, choose one of the substances mentioned above and soak the surface in it, if possible. Peanut butter and mayonnaise have the added benefit of being able to hold their shape, so a dollop of either will be able to stay in place for longer, giving you more control over the affected area. If you don’t have any of these foods at home, you can also use WD-40. It’s not an oil, but the product specializes in water displacement (that’s what the “WD” is for!), so it’ll dissolve water-repellent adhesives. If gravity is working against you, use a rag or sponge to dab some oil on the sticker residue until it’s saturated. Let it sit for a couple of minutes, then use a clean rag, paper towel, or sponge with some water and dish soap to rub the residue off. The detergent will trap the fatty gunk, and the area will become squeaky clean as you rinse. 

Oils work better on non-porous surfaces because there’s nothing to absorb them, and you should absolutely not use them if you want to get sticker residue off clothes—they will definitely leave a stain. 

A word of warning though: alcohol (no matter its concentration) and acetone are powerful solvents and can be corrosive, especially on plastics and treated woods. There’s a reason specialists don’t recommend using alcohol to clean your gadgets’ screens, and if acetone can help remove an ever-resistant gel manicure, you can be sure it’ll remove a whole lot of other things, too. Finally, be careful when removing stickers from electronics, as rubbing alcohol has water in it. 

If you want to make sure you won’t destroy the surface you’ll be working on, make sure you do a patch test in an inconspicuous place. Apply the liquid you’re using with a cotton swab and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Look at the surface and touch it with your fingers to make sure there’s no noticeable damage. Keep in mind there can always be damage you can’t see or feel, so if you’re dealing with a delicate material or something that might be expensive to fix, it’s better to abstain.  

But the fact that vinegar is natural doesn’t mean there are no caveats. Acetic acid is perfectly capable of damaging surfaces, so avoid using it on cast iron, waxed wood, aluminum, stoneware, or marble. That being said, if you’re working with ceramic or glass surfaces, white vinegar may be all you need to say goodbye to sticker gunk.

Vinegar is also the best way to remove sticker residue from clothes and other textiles: Saturate the area and let it sit for a few minutes, then use a toothbrush or a scraping tool to get rid of the loose adhesive. Repeat the process as necessary. If that doesn’t work, you can also try this technique with nail polish remover. Don’t use acetone, though: this strong chemical won’t just stain your clothes, it might burn a hole through them, depending on the fabric they’re made of. Some nail polish removers can stain and bleach fabrics, but it’ll depend on which one you use and the type of textile you’re dealing with. To be safe, do a patch test to make sure the solution is not worse than the problem. 

When it comes to removing sticker residue, you can use temperature to your favor by submerging or carefully exposing the material to boiled water for a few minutes. Protect your hands to prevent burning them, remove the item from the water, and use the scratchy side of a sponge with some dish soap to remove the remnants. Repeat the process if necessary. 

You can also use a hair dryer: Set it to high, keep it 2 inches away, and aim it directly at the affected area for 30 seconds. Turn off the appliance and carefully try removing the remaining gunk—it’ll be hot. If you can safely touch it, use your fingers, or grab a scraping tool if it won’t damage the underlying surface. If the sticker residue won’t budge or if there’s still some left, repeat the process. 

[Related: Use citric acid to clean your dishwasher and other gross household items]

As with all the approaches mentioned above, heat has its caveats, too. For example, if you’re removing sticker residue from a metal surface, make sure to protect yourself and handle the item carefully, as it might get dangerously hot during the process. If you’re lifting adhesive gunk from glass or ceramics, make sure they’re heat-resistant, as pouring hot water on them might break them. Needless to say, hot water is not the best approach when dealing with electronics, but then again, neither is dry heat. Normally, hair dryers shouldn’t produce enough heat at a 2-inch distance to damage hard plastic surfaces, but that will depend on which one you have. To be on the safe side, keep an eye on your work and stop immediately if you see any lifting, warping, or bubbling.

The post How to use science to remove sticker residue appeared first on Popular Science.

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Knowing how to find your IP address is a useful skill, even if you don’t know exactly what an IP address is or what it’s for. Whether you want to set up a new 3D printer or don’t want to sound ignorant while on the phone with your internet service provider, there are a couple of ways to easily get this information.

Get to know these methods in case you ever need them, and while you’re at it, maybe learn what this string of numbers is and why it’s important.

There’s a reason why Windows computers and some other devices have two IP addresses. Internet protocol version 4, also known as IPv4, is the original system invented back in 1980 to identify computers and other devices. But IPv4 only has 32 bits, which means there are only so many addresses available and not nearly enough for the hyperconnected future we live in today. Enter IPv6—the 64-bit solution that provides many more addresses to make space for all the new devices hitting the market every day. The problem is that the rollout of this 1998 protocol took a long time, and some older servers and programs are not compatible with it. This is why some devices use a workaround and have two IP addresses to bridge that gap and avoid any service interruptions. 

In general, an IP address is a unique series of numbers that identifies a device with the ability to connect to the internet. Every gadget has a private or internal IP address assigned by its manufacturer. If the internet were a town, this would be your home address. When you watch a movie on a streaming service, your device sends a request to whatever platform you’re using, which in turn knows where to send the reply (i.e. the movie) thanks to your IP address. This specific piece of data is very useful, which makes it very valuable. Treat it as your social security number and don’t disclose it.  

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How to set up a passkey for your Google account

Remember that at the moment, passkeys are only available for individual users, so you won’t find them on any Google Workspace account. To see what all the fuss is about, go to your Google Account page, look to the left-hand sidebar, and go to Security.

Under How to sign in to Google, click on Passkeys, and provide your password before you make any changes—this may be the last time you use it. On the next screen, you’ll notice a blue button that says Start with passkeys. Click on it and you’re done: Google will create the necessary passkeys and automatically save your private one to your device. The next time you log in, you’ll need to provide one of the authentication methods you’ve already set up for your computer or phone: your face, your fingerprint, or a personal identification number (PIN). 

[Related: How to secure your Google account]

If you have Android devices signed into your account, you’ll see them listed on the passkey menu as well. Google will automatically create those passkeys for you, so you’ll be able to seamlessly access your information on those devices. 

You can also use passkeys as backups to authenticate a login on another computer or smartphone. If you’re signing into your account on a borrowed laptop, for example, you can validate that new session by choosing your phone from the list that pops up when you choose passkeys as your authentication method. Then just follow the prompts on your phone, and you’ll be good to go. 

Now, a word of caution

Apple-exclusive environments have it easy. The Cupertino company syncs users’ passkeys using the iCloud keychain, so your private keys will all live simultaneously on your MacBook, iPhone, and iPad, as long as you’re signed into the same iCloud account. Add a Windows computer or an Android phone to the mix and things start to get messy—you may need to use a second device to verify your identity. This is when the backup devices mentioned above may come in handy. 

The post Ditch your Google password and set up a passkey instead appeared first on Popular Science.

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Android users are proud of our devices’ versatility, but many of us have been low-key jealous of Apple’s AirDrop, which allows iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers to seamlessly swap files within a certain physical distance. Google, naturally, came up with its own version of the feature—Nearby Share—but until recently it was only available on the company’s operating system.

Thanks to a new beta app, anyone with an Android device can now also share photos and documents with Windows 10 and 11 computers. Consider this your sign to get your PC and your Google-powered phone closer than ever.  

You will, however, need to have the right app on your PC. You can download it by going to Android’s official website and clicking on Get started with Beta. As you might have noticed from the site, the Nearby Share link between Android and Windows is only a beta program at the moment. This means you might find some bugs, and things might change a bit between now and the moment the feature officially launches. Don’t be scared though, as beta programs are common and the fact they’re open to the public means you shouldn’t run into too many serious problems.

[Related: 5 security questions to ask before installing any app]

Once the app is installed, it will prompt you to sign into your Google account. If you have multiple, using a different account from the one on your phone won’t prevent you from sharing files, but it will add a few steps. When you’re using the same account on your phone and PC, Nearby Share will assume you’re sending files to yourself so the process will happen automatically. 

Keep in mind that this name will appear on the devices of the people you’re sharing files with, so if your personal computer is named something like “HELL_RAISER_PC,” you might want to opt for a neutral one if you plan to share stuff with professional contacts. 

Next, you’ll be able to set the visibility of your device by clicking the Receive from drop-down menu. It’ll be set by default to your contacts, meaning only people you’ve saved to your phone will be able to send you things. You can also opt to receive files from everyone, which will allow you to connect with all non-Apple phones and computers around you, or from your devices, which will make your PC visible only to gadgets signed into your Google account. Your last option is the more secure Device is hidden, which means you’ll have to manually change this setting every time you want to share anything through Nearby Share. 

Click the cog icon on the top right of the app’s interface to find more options. Under Save received files to you’ll be able to change the folder where Nearby Share items go—it’ll be set to your Downloads folder by default. Lastly, if you want to keep some privacy, toggle off the switch next to Send usage & diagnostics data, which will prevent Google from getting information on how you use this feature. 

From your PC, just drop a document into the open app or click on the Select files or Select folder links at the bottom of the interface. Once you do that, Nearby Share will list all eligible devices around you—pick the one you want to start the connection. If you’re sending and receiving from the same Google account, the process will be automatic, and you’ll get a notification on your phone to open the file either in Google Photos (if it’s an image) or in your phone’s Downloads folder. If the accounts don’t match, the same notification will prompt you to accept or reject the document.

[Related: Wireless sharing with Apple, Android, and Windows devices made easy]

Sending files from your phone to your PC is equally easy. Open a file in any app on your handheld device, tap Share or the share icon (a less-than symbol with circles on all points), and select Nearby. As long as your PC is unlocked, you’ll see its name on the screen—tap it and the transfer will begin either automatically or after you accept the emerging prompt on your computer screen. 

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WITH A FEW infamous exceptions, it’s safe to say most of the content we see about children on social media has a positive spirit behind it. Your friend’s photo of their first sonogram and your cousin’s lengthy ramble about their toddler’s temper tantrums each come from a good place: the desire to mark a milestone, seek support, share happiness, or build community. But shifting the focus from the people who make the posts to the kids portrayed in them reveals a problem. 

The emotional, psychological, and developmental consequences of having one’s childhood—and all its growing pains—shared online are still unknown, as the first generation of kids conceived in the era of social media is only now coming of age. But studies and specialists are already warning that oversharing information about the kids in our lives might be fraught—both from an ethical and an online privacy point of view. 

“All of that seems innocuous, so you must be talking about influencers and mommy bloggers posting photos and videos of their children 24/7,” I hear you saying. Nope. Sharenting goes beyond the people making a profit off the content they share—the possibility of exploitation and what some may consider digital child labor is only a fraction of the problem. 

Think of it this way: A lot of the time, the kids in social media posts haven’t consented to having their picture or video taken and seen by people they know, let alone millions of others around the world. And even if they say it’s OK, they’re children. We cannot expect them to fully grasp the consequences of having their likeness and sensitive information posted online. Even educated adults have a hard time figuring out what terms and conditions and privacy policies mean, or gauging the social and psychological effects of broadcasting their lives. 

The obvious negative consequences of sharenting are the criminal and illegal activities it can lead to. Consider a post made by a new parent that includes a photo of their newborn, the kid’s full name and date of birth, and the name of the hospital. All that information will probably still be there when that infant becomes an adult, readily available for anyone who wants to bypass the security questions for one of their online accounts. And problems won’t wait for adulthood: A 2011 Carnegie Mellon CyLab study found that child identity theft was 51 times more common than adult identity theft. This is likely because a child’s identity is a clean slate with no credit history, Harvard Law School faculty member Leah Plunkett says in her book Sharenthood. 

Then there’s the possibility that the pictures you took of your child’s bath or your niece’s gymnastics tournament will end up on the wrong side of the internet. In 2015, an investigation by Australia’s children e-safety commissioner found that one image-sharing website for pedophiles contained at least 45 million files and “about half the material appeared to be sourced directly from social media.” 

Beyond these clear risks, the effects of sharenting on the psychosocial development of children are unclear. Data is scarce as we wait for the first children raised on social media to become adults, says Stacey Steinberg, a professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and author of Growing Up Shared. “Research, for the most part, is anecdotal—it is desperately needed,” she says. In her book, Plunkett theorizes that sharenting may thwart a child’s essential ability to explore, and that long-lasting posts may alter their personal narrative and sense of self, as many people they meet will go online and learn about them.

“Most parents do not overshare because they are trying to be malicious,” Steinberg says. “Most just have not yet considered the importance of their child’s digital footprint.” On the contrary, adults generally sharent with good intentions. Studies show sharenting is a way for parents to find validation and social support, and to help each other in an increasingly isolating landscape for child rearing. So instead of stopping everything and eliminating even the benefits of sharenting, Plunkett suggests four ways to post about the kids in your life in a more responsible way.

This is why getting kids involved in the decision-making process before you post something online can be formative in their digital education. Steinberg advocates giving children veto power over what you post about them online. Meanwhile, Plunkett says doing research with them and explaining—in a developmentally appropriate way—how social media works “models and supports practical and ethical digital citizenship.” This could also help them grow into adults who know the consequences of oversharing and have healthier relationships with online platforms. But whatever approach you take, keep in mind that as the only grown-up in this situation, you’re the one making the call to share or not to share. Kids are minors, and by definition, they cannot grant informed consent. 

It helps to think about children not as a source of entertainment or an opportunity to harvest likes, but as individuals who will one day face the consequences of our decisions to share moments of their lives. You might think you shared something silly or cute, like a video of them falling asleep on the toilet when they were three, but for them it may turn into a social debacle in the school cafeteria. Or maybe you run into an issue with something else—something you can’t even think of right now—that prevents them from getting into the college of their dreams. That’s the scary part: the not knowing. 

Read more PopSci+ stories.

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Disk space is always at a premium, so you should take every opportunity to free up as much of it as you can. One of the best ways to do this is to back up a bunch of files to the cloud, then remove them from your computer entirely.

Stashing your data in the cloud will allow you to access your files while still having hard drive space on your computer. The process is relatively easy, but don’t let this be your only form of backup: keep your files on another cloud service or an external hard drive (or two) in case something catastrophic happens.

Cloud storage and syncing apps can help you manually choose which files live locally on your computer, but they can also do the job automatically. In some cases, you can keep a folder online-only, but still have placeholders for its contents on your hard drive. As soon as you try to access them, they’ll download from the cloud and open as normal.

All these services also have web interfaces, which allow you to log in and view your files on any computer with a web browser and an internet connection. In some cases, web access might be all you need.

When deciding what kind of files to store where, think of the cloud as your basement—a place where you store things you don’t want to throw away, but wouldn’t keep in the middle of your living room. As such, it’s best to make older files and folders online-only—those you want to keep backed up but don’t need to access regularly, such as vacation photos and videos. You should locally store any files you constantly need access to, especially if you can’t rely on internet connectivity.

To make some files online-only, right-click on the OneDrive icon (a cloud) in the Windows taskbar notification area, then choose Help & Settings and open up the Settings tab. Go to Sync and backup, then open the Advanced settings. Finally, locate Files On-Demand and select Download files as you use them.

You’ll find there are three types of files in OneDrive. First, there are online-only documents, which you’ll recognize by the blue cloud badge that sits on top of the file icon in File Explorer. These live in the cloud, but open normally as long as you have an internet connection. The second type are locally available files, which have a green check mark on them and live both on your device and in the cloud. Finally, there are locally stored files. These are marked by a white check mark in a green circle and they stay on your computer no matter what.

The last two types are practically the same, and you’ll be able to open and edit them normally, even if you’re offline. The only difference is that locally available files will automatically become online-only after a set period of time if you enable a Windows 10 and 11 feature called Storage sense, which uploads files to the cloud when you’re running out of space on your computer.

OneDrive will handle some of this automatically (by downloading files when you open them, for example), but you can also manually set up what the platform does with specific files and folders by right-clicking on them in File Explorer.

How to save space with iCloud

Apple has two different storage systems: iCloud and iCloud Drive. The first one syncs information on your Mac devices, including music and videos purchased through the iTunes Store, plus contacts, calendars, and pictures. The second, iCloud Drive, is Apple’s version of OneDrive or Dropbox. You can install it on Apple and non-Apple tech, use it to store any file or folder, sync that data across devices, and share your files with anyone.

To see how much of your iCloud storage you’re using on your Mac, open the Apple menu, choose About This Mac, click More info, and scroll down to click Storage Settings. Under Recommendations, you’ll see a Store in iCloud button. Click it, and you’ll have the option to save all the files and documents from your Desktop and Documents folders in the cloud so you can access them from any Apple device where you’re signed in with your Apple ID. You can also move all your messages to the cloud rather than storing them locally.

Under Optimize Storage, click Optimize to remove any local iTunes movies and TV shows you’ve got on your Mac that are marked as watched—you can always download them again if you need to. 

Finally, open System Settings, go to the Apple ID tab, and choose iCloud. If you toggle the switch next to Optimize Mac Storage, macOS will start to clear your hard drive of older files you haven’t opened in a while, whenever you start to run out of space. These files won’t disappear from iCloud and you can always redownload them.

This feature will let you uncheck some or all of the folders in your Dropbox to prevent the platform from downloading and syncing them to your computer. If you uncheck a folder, it will disappear from that device, but will remain in the cloud and on any other computers you’re using Dropbox with. You can follow the same path and undo this preference if you want to restore access and syncing capabilities to certain folders. 

Then there’s the feature formerly known as Smart Sync, which is only available to paying Dropbox customers. It works like Selective Sync but it’s more automatic: it lets you move files to the cloud, making them online-only, but the platform will put placeholders for them in the Dropbox folder on your computer. You can easily view online-only documents when you’re offline, but if you need to edit them, you’ll need an internet connection to download them. Changes will sync to the cloud, but if you want to keep the file online-only after that, you’ll need to manually enable the feature again.

[Related: 6 essential Dropbox tools you might be missing]

To make a file or folder online-only, go to your Dropbox folder, right-click on the file or folder you want to only store in the cloud and choose Make online-only. You can also make all new files online-only by default: go to Dropbox Preferences, click Sync, open the dropdown menu next to New files default, and select Online-only.

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When you finally decide to settle in and figure out how to roll a joint, it will seem simple enough—until you try and realize it’s way more complicated than you expected. Even when you succeed, you’ll discover there’s a huge difference between a joint that holds together and one that’s actually good.

We’re not going to lie: it’s a long way between weed wrapped in a piece of paper and your first properly rolled joint. But everyone’s got to start somewhere, and the right tips and tricks can help you make joints with precisely ground cannabis within perfectly rolled rice paper. Consider this guide the first stop on your trip to better trips. Just make sure marijuana use is legal where you are before you start rolling.

Rolling paper

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the paper options you’ll see online or at your local smoke shop, but there are some characteristics you’ll want to look out for. 

“The most important factor in choosing a paper is getting the thinnest one, so you can taste the flower better,” says Ta’Lor (who prefers to go only by her first name), a budtender at The Astor Club, a hidden cannabis smoke lounge in New York City.   

[Related: Can you overdose on weed?]

Ta’Lor, who’s the weed equivalent of a sommelier, recommends rice paper from popular brands such as OCB and Vibes. Ali Jamalian, founder and owner of Sunset Connect, a cannabis product manufacturer in California, says your choice of paper will be personal preference, but that thin rice paper is a great place to start. 

Then there’s size. Some brands have several dimensions to choose from but if you want to make a classic cone-shaped joint, you’ll need king-size paper. The exact length will depend on the brand, but it’ll always be somewhere around 10 centimeters, which is a little under 4 inches. 

Tips

You can definitely roll a joint without a tip, or choose your favorite from a large range of materials, from glass to cotton—it’s all personal preference. That said, both Jamalian and Ta’Lor advise using a tip, and recommend beginners stick to the classic cardboard ones. Glass is a bit too heavy and cotton requires a stronger draw. 

Tips play multiple roles in smoking. The first is to provide a barrier between you and the cannabis, which will prevent weed from getting into your mouth. They will also save you from charring your lips and fingers as you finish your joint. Finally, a tip will be indispensable while rolling a joint, as it will provide structure and shape.  

You can buy a bag of pre-rolled tips or a booklet of perforated tips you can roll yourself. Both offer about the same smoking experience, and the one you choose will come down to personal preference. The main difference between these two types of products is cost—a few cents per tip depending on brand and quantity. Buying in bulk, of course, is cheaper. 

If you don’t have a tip, Jamalian says you can use whatever piece of soft cardboard you have at home as long as it’s not laminated or printed on. But the budtenders at The Astor Club are even more cautious.

“Honestly, if you don’t have a tip, don’t use one, because you don’t necessarily know what paper you’re gonna be burning,” says Ta’lor. Her coworker, Calia, who also prefers to go by her first name, agrees: “When high heat hits something and then enters your lungs, you’re smoking those particles and that could affect you in the long run. We’re already smoking—you want to keep your smoke as clean as possible.” 

Other than rolling paper and tips, the sources we talked to recommended having a rolling tray and a good grinder at hand. You can use almost anything as a rolling tray (a plate, a cutting board, or an actual tray), but make sure you clean it before every use. Its main purpose is to catch any weed that falls out while you roll—and that will happen if you’re a beginner. Since you’ll either put that cannabis back into your joint or smoke it later, you don’t want there to be any crumbs, dust, or gunk that could eventually make it into your lungs or ruin the taste of good weed. 

Calia stresses that contrary to popular belief, grinders are absolutely reusable, and if you think it’s not shredding as well as it used to, it probably just needs a good cleaning. She suggests separating the grinder into as many pieces as possible and letting them soak in alcohol for a day. To clean hard spots or difficult nooks and crannies, like the rim, she recommends using a paper towel with alcohol. 

Old weed will crumble to dust when you grind it, which, according to Ta’Lor, makes it harder to put into a joint. “When you roll with a really great, really fresh bud that sticks together and forms itself, it’s way easier,” she says. 

To test your cannabis, Ta’Lor says you should squeeze the bud between your thumb and index finger. If it bounces and there’s little to no fallout, you should be good to go. 

Instructions

1. (Optional) Roll your tip. If you’re using a pre-made tip, you can skip this step. Otherwise, start by ripping a tip from your booklet. If you chose tips with perforations, you’ll be able to make folds where the dotted lines are and roll the rest of the tip around that shape. 

If your tip doesn’t have any guides, you’ll need to pick the shape you want to start with—the classics are an “S” or a “W.” For either one, you’ll need to start by making a tiny fold of around 1/8 of an inch (around 3 millimeters) on one of the short ends of the paper and then make an equal fold in the opposite direction: it should feel like you’re folding a very tiny accordion. 

2. De-stem your cannabis and grind it. A king-size paper should be big enough to roll a gram of weed, which is approximately two to three buds, depending on the size. Starting with that amount is a good baseline, but don’t be surprised if you can’t fit it all in there at first—more on that later. 

Take a close look at your buds and pick out any stems you might find. These will not only ruin your joint by possibly puncturing the paper or interrupting an otherwise even burn, Ta’Lor says, but might also damage your grinder in the long run. If it’s plastic, a stem might break the little teeth inside, and if it’s metal, it might blunt them quicker.

All of our experts agree that the cannabis you want in a joint should be on the finer side but not totally pulverized. The latter is more likely to happen if you’re grinding old weed. If you’re nervous about overgrinding, check on it as you go.

3. Clean your cannabis. Dump the weed onto your rolling tray (or whatever you’re using as one) and lightly roll it between your fingers. You’ll be feeling it out for any particles that are not supposed to be there: stems you might have missed in the previous step, plastic teeth or bits that might have broken off your grinder, seeds, and seed shells. 

“When seeds pop—oh, it’s the worst smell in the world. You don’t want that in your joint,” says Calia. 

4. Set up your paper. When you tug your rolling paper out of its packaging, you’ll notice it has a crease. This is where you’ll place the cannabis. Position the paper, making sure the glue line is on the inside of the folded paper and facing you the entire time. Handle the paper with both hands by placing the tips of your index fingers on the inside of the crease and using your middle fingers and thumbs on the outer sides of the paper. Your thumbs and index fingers should hold the paper tight, while your middle fingers act as supports to keep the glue side of the paper upright. 

Before you place any weed on the paper, get a feel for tension—the paper should be taut, but not so much that it feels like it’s going to rip. If it does (and the budtenders at The Astor Club say this will happen a couple of times) don’t get discouraged—just grab another paper and try again until you establish some muscle memory. 

• Pro tip: Take the folded paper between your thumbs and index fingers and roll it up and down to curl it along the crease, leaving a margin of around 1/8 of an inch on each side. This will give the paper more of a “U” shape that might help you roll the joint later. If the paper keeps slipping and you need more grip, lightly wet the tips of your index finger and thumb. If you lose any trace of the original crease, find it again by rolling the paper so that the front side facing you is only slightly below the glue line on the back side. 

5. Add your tip. With the paper between your fingers as explained in the previous step, choose a side to place your tip—this will be the bottom of the joint. A lot of people choose their dominant hand side, Jamalian says, but you should do whatever feels comfortable. For example, even though he is right-handed, he likes to place the tip on the left side of his joints. 

Put the tip on the paper so both edges are aligned, and use the index, middle finger, and thumb on one hand to keep it in place. 

• Pro tip: If you have a hard time keeping the tip in place, slightly lift the loose end of your tip and slide a half an inch of the paper into the roll. Finish by slightly rolling the tip upward. This will prevent the tip from moving around and will provide structure, which will later make the rolling easier. If you’re rolling a straight joint, though, this technique will leave you with less space to put your cannabis in and will make it a bit harder to pack it tightly toward the tip. If you want to create a cone shape, insert the rolling paper into the tip at a slight angle.

6. Add the cannabis. With your fingers holding the tip in place inside the rolling paper, use your other hand to put the weed in. From time to time, stop to secure it in place and pinch the joint to give it shape. Using fresh cannabis will make this a lot easier, as it’ll stick to itself and quickly take whatever shape you give it. 

Make sure you get rid of any air pockets, especially around where the cannabis and the tip meet. Any empty space will make for an uneven burn, creating what is known in the weed world as a canoe: when one side of the paper burns before the other because there’s nothing there to stop the heat from consuming the paper. This not only wastes cannabis, but will also ruin your experience as the smoke from the burning paper will alter the taste of your weed. 

Take your time shaping your joint. The ultimate goal is to pack it tight and evenly, which will come more easily with practice, Calia says. If you notice cannabis falling onto your tray from the top of the joint, Jamalian suggests you leave it there for the time being. “Beginners should know it’s totally ok to have half of it fall out while you’re learning. Eventually, it’ll stop happening,” he says. 

7. Roll your joint. Now is the moment you’ve been waiting for: the rolling. Using your middle fingers as support, use your indexes and thumbs to roll the front side of the paper down so it can only cover the weed and tip. 

Reposition your index fingers to cover the insides of the joint with the front side of the paper and slightly roll it up upward. This is by far the hardest part: Your goal is to securely tuck the front side of the paper between the cannabis and the back of the paper as tightly as possible, so you can continue rolling up. While you try this, you’ll probably lose a lot of the tension you’ve been building up to this point, so don’t be afraid to go back and forth until you get the tucking right. Just know that it’s OK if you can’t make it as tight as you want: this is all part of the process and it’ll become easier with practice.

Once the front of the paper is tucked behind the cannabis as tightly as you can, release your index fingers and continue rolling your joint up to the glue line. Finish by licking the line and securing the joint by rolling it until the end. 

8. Pack your joint. It’s possible that your joint is still not nearly as tight as you’d like it to be, but that’s OK. First, it’s part of learning, and second, you can still make it a bit tighter if you want. 

Pick up your joint by its tip and light tap it against a flat surface. Gravity will push the cannabis farther down. Here you can also pick up some of that fallout from Step 6 and put it back into the joint. Use your fingers to fit as much of it as you can through the opening at the top, and then use a toothpick, a slim pencil, or any sort of thin tube to gently push it down. You’ll want to be delicate and work slowly, as any aggressive move can throw away all the effort you’ve made so far to roll a quality joint. 

9. Finish by twisting the top. When you feel like you cannot put more cannabis into your joint and it’s as tight as it’ll ever be, it’s time to close up shop and enjoy. Use your index finger and thumb to twist the paper at the top of your joint. The more you twist, the farther down you’ll push the weed, so be careful not to do it too much—you might rip the paper. 

If you had a lot of paper left over and now you have a long tail at the top of your joint, you can cut it before you light up.

[Related: Is growing weed sustainable? The answer is complicated.]

Everyone we spoke to emphasized that a lot of personal preference goes into rolling a joint. If you later find that something in this guide doesn’t apply to you, go ahead and change it up. They also underscored the importance of being patient and practicing. At the end of the day, there’s a reason why there are so many tutorials on how to roll a joint: as simple as it looks, it’s definitely not easy. So do it repeatedly and try new implements now and then. It’ll serve as a helpful learning experience, but also a process where you find out what you really like in the end.

The post A step-by-step guide to rolling a joint appeared first on Popular Science.

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If you’ve upgraded your Apple devices to iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or macOS Ventura 13, you may have seen a new app floating around. It’s the collaborative Freeform, and it’s essentially a blank canvas. You just have to know how to make it come alive. 

The tool was announced at the 2022 Worldwide Developers Conference and hit iPhones, iPads, and Macs six months later. You can use it for brainstorming, journaling, stylized note-keeping, or just plain old doodling. Freeform, as its name suggests, lets you do pretty much whatever you want, but if you get a bit overwhelmed, we’ve chosen five ways to start exploring the app. 

1. Create customized shapes

Just like Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint before it, Apple’s Freeform has a wide range of shape presets you can use as if they were digital stamps. You can browse the available options by tapping the shapes icon at the top of the screen—it looks like a square in front of a circle. Choose a category by sliding their names to the left or right along the top of the window, select the shape you want, and move it around the canvas as you see fit. You’ll be able to easily resize it and change its color by tapping on it and tweaking the options on the emerging menu. 

Out of all the available categories, Basic (which you’ll find all the way to the left) has the fewest shapes to pick from, but it offers many more customization options. For example, choose a star and notice that, when you select it on the canvas, two green dots appear on top of it. The one closest to the center of the shape will allow you to edit its radius—slide it all the way inward to get a small star with very long points; slide it all the way out outward to get a decagon. 

[Related: Right on cue, Apple Music Classical is here to liven up your music library]

You can use the other green dot as a dial to edit the number of points on your star—slide it clockwise to get up to 20 points, and counterclockwise to go as low as three. Using these two functions, you’ll be able to create a wide range of stars and sparks to customize your canvas. 

All shapes in the Basic category will have one or more green dots: the ones on dialogue bubbles allow you to round up corners and play around with the shape and width of its point, while the one on arrows will let you adjust the thickness of the shaft. 

2. Add descriptions for a more accessible Freeform file

To make your Freeform canvas more accessible, you can write descriptions for each item you add to it. This allows Apple’s VoiceOver to help people with visual impairments navigate Freeform documents by using Siri to describe what’s on the screen.  

To create a description, tap on any element on your canvas. From the emerging menu, tap the three dots on the right to see more options. Pick Description, and a text box will emerge where you can add details about the selected element. You can do this at any time and can always go back to edit your description as necessary. 

3. Break shapes apart

While the elements in the Basic category are the most customizable, the “break apart” function will let you play around with shapes in other categories as well. 

As you might imagine, this option lets you treat each piece of a shape independently, so you can color, resize, reshape, and relocate them around your canvas. This feature is not available for all shapes though—you’ll only find it associated with objects made from multiple, smaller pieces. 

To use it, pick a breakable shape. The Geometry category, for example, has a bunch of fun ones you can choose from. Insert the element into your canvas, tap it, go to the three-dot menu, and choose Break Apart. Immediately, Freeform will give each piece of the shape its own customizable features. Notice that once you tap the option, all the pieces will be selected, so trying to move one will move all of them. Deselect everything by tapping on blank space, then tap a piece individually to work on it. As with any shape, you can tug the corners of the selected piece to resize it and tap on it to summon a menu that will let you add an outline, change its color, and even add text on top of it. 

4. Use Freeform in Split View

Apple introduced Split View for iPadOS in 2015, and four years later expanded support for it to macOS. The feature allows you to use two apps at once, and if both are native to the company’s ecosystem, you can seamlessly drag elements from one to the other. 

Using Freeform in tandem with Apple’s Photo app, for example, allows you to insert images and videos from your local storage. To open Split View on an iPad, open Freeform and tap the three dots at the very top of the screen and choose Split View from the emerging menu. On a Mac computer, open Freeform and hover over the green button in the top left corner of the window. Then, from the emerging menu, choose either Tile window to the left of screen or Tile window to the right of screen, depending on what you want. On both operating systems, your screen will unsurprisingly split in two, and on the second half you’ll see your desktop (macOS) or your home screen (iPadOS), where you’ll be able to choose the Photos app. 

From there, you can use the grid view on Photos to choose whatever item you want to use in Freeform and just drag it into place. As you’d expect, you’ll be able to reposition and resize it however you want. Opening other native Apple programs will give you similar options. For example, open Notes and you’ll be able to select text or images and drag them into Freeform.

5. Select multiple elements at once

Your Freeform canvas will likely get pretty busy pretty quickly. With all the shapes and color options you get, plus anything you scribble on your iPad with the Apple Pencil, being able to edit elements in bulk can make your work a lot easier. 

[Related: Which iPhone 14 should you pick for your next upgrade?]

To do this, tap and hold on an item, then use your free hand to select other elements. Once you’re done, let go of your selection and tap it again to see what you can do with it. Tap the three-dot menu and go to Select Objects to add more elements to the group—this comes in handy if you realize you forgot something and you’ve already let go of your selection. Just tap on anything you want to add and finish by touching Done.

The post 5 ways to get started with Freeform, Apple’s app for creative thinkers appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Best Overall		Pentel GraphGear 500		SEE IT	This reliable classic provides great control and comes in four lead sizes.
Best for Precision		rOtring 600 Black Barrel Mechanical Pencil		SEE IT	This sturdy metal pencil is designed to last and comes in a hexagonal shape that keeps it from rolling.
Best Ergonomic Design		Pilot Dr. Grip G-Spec Shaker Mechanical Pencil		SEE IT	Designed with a combination hard and soft grip that’s easy on the hands even after hours of use.

If you’re an artist, an architect, or a person who prefers much more analog note-taking, chances are you have at least one mechanical pencil in your arsenal. These tools are versatile little pieces of engineering that come in a wide range—from the most basic plastic designs to more sophisticated, metallic models. Not all writing tools are created equal, and diving into a market as varied as this one can certainly be overwhelming. Worry not—even though the best pencil for you will ultimately depend on what you particularly like, there are certain specs you need to look out for. In the meantime, here are our picks for the best mechanical pencils.

• Best overall: Pentel GraphGear 500
• Best for precision: rOtring 600 Black Barrel Mechanical Pencil
• Best for drawing: Koh-i-Noor Mechanical Hardtmuth Lead Holder
• Best ergonomic design: Pilot Dr. Grip G-Spec Shaker Mechanical Pencil
• Best budget: Tombow MONO Graph

How we chose the best mechanical pencils

Newcomers to the pencil world might get their senses saturated with the sheer amount of mechanical pencils available in the market right now. After all, a pencil is a pencil. Except that it’s not. That’s why we scoured the internet, including office-supply stores and specialized sites, to see what’s out there, read dozens of user reviews, and tried product after product to find the best one in each category. To make decisions easier, we broke down the winners based on different factors—best overall, best value, precision, best for art and drawing, best comfort, etc. Whatever your favorite notebook, there’s a mechanical pencil to match.

The best mechanical pencils: Reviews & Recommendations

We considered design and comfort, paying special attention to how these tools feel in your hand and if their weight and girth make it easy to write and draw. We also considered precision, durability, extras such as erasers and rubber grips, and price points. One of our choices should be a perfect match for you.

Best overall: Pentel GraphGear 500

Sandra Gutierrez G.

SEE IT

Why it made the cut: Yes, Pentel already launched the GraphGear 1000, an allegedly better and improved version of this classic mechanical pencil. But the original GraphGear 500 is really all you need—it’s more affordable, reliable, and unlike its successor, still looks like a classic mechanical pencil. There’s a reason why Japanese retailer Muji made their gravity mechanical pencil line look (and feel) exactly like it.

Specs

• Body material: Plastic
• Built-in hardness indicator: Yes
• Sleeve size: 4 mm
• Lead size: 0.3mm, 0.5mm, 0.7mm, and 0.9mm sizes

Pros

• Incredibly durable
• Precise
• Built-in lead hardness indicator

Cons

• Body made of light-duty plastic
• The metallic tip is one piece, so it’s not the easiest to clean

The metallic mesh grip in the GraphGear 500 allows for great control and embeds the pencil with added weight towards the tip, providing a low center of gravity. This feature is super pleasant to the touch and stays cleaner for longer, unlike those gunk-gathering rubber grips. The metal tip also allows for great precision and incredible durability—I’ve been writing and drawing with my GraphGear 500 for over five years, and it still feels like it did on the first day. 

The GraphGear 500 releases the lead through a 4mm lead sleeve, which provides greater paper visibility, making it perfect for working on small details or using rulers. This mechanical pencil comes in four different sizes (0.3mm, 0.5mm, 0.7mm, and 0.9mm), and the writing on the barrels is color-coded to reflect that, making it easier to find the exact tool you need for the job. To help with this, the GraphGear 500 also has Pentel’s signature lead grade indicator built into the eraser cap, so you can know exactly what you’ve loaded your pencil with at all times. 

No matter how many iterations of this pencil are out there, the original GraphGear 500 is a true classic. If you don’t lose it first, you’ll be putting your ideas on paper for a long time.

Best for precision: rOtring 600 Black-Barrel Mechanical Pencil

Rotring

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Why it made the cut: In 1989, rOtring established a new benchmark of precision with the launch of the 600-series pencils. These writing tools were designed specifically for technical drawing and durability, a standard that continues today.

Specs

• Body material: Metal
• Built-in hardness indicator: Yes
• Sleeve size: 4 mm
• Lead size: 0.5mm and 0.7mm

Pros

• Extremely durable
• Lead hardness indicator
• Gnarled grip

Cons

• Expensive
• Hefty
• Non-retractable lead sleeve

The rOtring mechanical pencil can easily last you a lifetime. It’s designed with a full metal body that gives it its 0.8-ounce weight heft. This provides a clear center of gravity, which results in cleaner, more precise lines. Still, this mechanical pencil is more than twice as heavy as the Pentel GraphGear 500, so if you’re not used to this weight, it may take you a bit longer to get used to it. 

In addition, the hexagonal shape of the rOtring 600 prevents it from rolling if you’re using an inclined surface and makes it easier on your hands to draw or write for hours. The gnarled metallic grip is comfortable, making it easy to hold the pencil without slipping. A lead guidance sleeve helps prevent breakage and gives you an unobstructed view of the page, perfect for working out details. Finally, the rOtring 600 has a brass internal mechanism that provides high precision in lead advancement. This means the pencil will push the same length of lead with every press of the button and will keep the lead in place regardless of the pressure you apply. 

Best for drawing: Koh-i-Noor Mechanical Hardtmuth Lead Holder

KOH-I-NOOR

SEE IT

Why it made the cut: OK, technically, a lead holder is not a mechanical pen, but it shares enough characteristics that it can pass as one. The Koh-i-Noor Mechanical Hardtmuth Lead Holder is a must-have if you don’t want to get your hands dirty while you sketch.

Specs

• Body material: Metal
• Built-in hardness indicator: Unknown
• Sleeve size: Unknown
• Lead size: 5.6mm x 80mm leads

Pros

• Durable
• Thick and steady
• Full metal body

Cons

• Little control over lead advancement
• Short
• Hefty

At only 4-and-a-half inches long, the Koh-i-Noor Mechanical Lead Holder may be a little short, but it’s thick enough to provide great grip and control. Its inner metallic mechanism holds 5.6mm leads in place no matter how far out you’re using it—you won’t be able to push it or twist it without engaging the push button. This feature can easily make up for the short length of the barrel if you need to handle your pencil from a greater distance. 

The full metal body of the Hardtmuth gives it an impressive 1.48-ounce weight—this can be a problem if you’re not used to such a chunky tool, but it’ll be right up your alley if you need a lower center of gravity for your sketching and shading. And the metal clip on the Koh-i-Noor Mechanical Hardtmuth Lead Holder is also sturdy, so you can take it anywhere you want without fear of losing it.

Best ergonomic design: Pilot Dr. Grip G-Spec Shaker Mechanical Pencil

PILOT

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Why it made the cut: Pilot’s Dr. Grip line was created to reduce fatigue and enhance comfort while writing. The ergonomic design behind the Dr. Grip G-Spec mechanical pencil makes writing for hours a breeze.

Specs

• Body material: Plastic
• Built-in hardness indicator: Unknown
• Sleeve size: Unknown
• Lead size: 0.5mm and 0.7mm

Pros

• Designed for comfort
• Affordable
• Shaker mechanism

Cons

• All plastic body
• Bulky
• Lightweight

If you take a lot of notes every day, then you can’t go wrong with the Pilot Dr. Grip G-Spec Shaker mechanical pencil. Its ergonomic design consists of a thick body and a rubber grip with a soft inner layer and harder outer layer that provides stability and comfort even after hours and hours of writing. 

Just like the Tombow, the Dr. Grip features a shaker mechanism that pushes the lead down the barrel when you shake the pencil up and down. You can also advance the lead the traditional way by pressing the push button on the top, so you always have the option depending on what you find most comfortable at the time. 

The Dr. Grip comes in various cool colors, including frost red and frost blue. It comes with an eraser at the top that’s refillable. The body is entirely made out of plastic, so it may not be the most durable mechanical pen, but the forgiving design of this pencil makes it very much worth it if you suffer from pain in your wrists and joints.

Best budget: Tombow MONO Graph

Sandra Gutierrez G.

SEE IT

Why it made the cut: The Tombow MONO graph mechanical pencil is a durable, affordable writing tool full of features you won’t have to splurge on. 

Specs

• Body material: Plastic body, metallic tip
• Built-in hardness indicator: Unknown
• Sleeve size: Unknown
• Lead size: 0.5mm and 0.7mm

Pros

• Lead lock
• Shaker mechanism
• Twist eraser
• Affordable

Cons

• Full plastic body
• No grip
• Weak clip
• Non-retractable lead sleeve

Tombow is well-known among artists and stationery enthusiasts for its brush pens and markers, and the Japanese company has also developed its own line of mechanical pencils and erasers under the brand MONO. Their signature MONO graph is a comprehensive writing and drawing tool that will give you a lot of bang for your buck. 

It’s designed with a shaker mechanism that pushes the lead out when you move the pencil rapidly up and down. This feature is very convenient, as it doesn’t require changing your grip on the pencil. If you’re too used to using your thumb to push the lead, you can use the clip as a push button. To avoid mishaps, you can also push the clip up to block the mechanism altogether. This is perfect for storage, as you won’t have to worry about lead breakage. 

Another great feature of the MONO graph is its eraser, which you can twist in and out easily. The eraser is over an inch long, and you can buy eraser refills, so you’ll always be able to fix your mistakes. 

The body of the Tombow MONO graph is almost entirely made out of plastic, which is something some people don’t like. Still, the material is durable, and the body is on the thicker side, so the pencil has a certain heft that provides control and comfort. The tip is made from a light metallic alloy, and the lead sleeve is not retractable, which may be a bother if you carry the MONO graph in your pocket.

What to consider when buying the best mechanical pencils

Not all mechanical pencils will fit your needs. Although we can’t help you become a better writer, we can help you point out what makes a great mechanical pencil. Here’s what to know when shopping for the best mechanical pencils:

Size of lead

The first and most important thing to consider before buying a mechanical pencil is the lead size. This will determine the type of lead you can load into the pencil—the lower the number, the finer the lead. Most pencils come in at least two sizes: 0.5 is the most common, followed by 0.7. The size you get will depend on what you’ll be using your pencil for. 

Keep in mind when considering leads that you’ll have the widest range of options when you choose a 0.5-size mechanical pencil. If you want to experiment with colored leads, for example, it’s unlikely that you’ll have a lot to choose from in a 0.3 size.

Material

Next, you’ll need to consider the material the pencil is made of. Full metal-bodied pencils are much more durable than ones made totally or partially out of plastic, but they tend to be more high-end, making them heavier and pricier. But that doesn’t mean you’ll compromise quality for a full plastic body. Some of these polymers are thick and durable, while others are cheap and easily breakable. Most of the time, the price point is a great sign of what you’re dealing with, but reading reviews will also help you avoid splurging on a low-quality tool.

Location

Finally, think about where your pencil will live. If you plan to keep it on your computer desk, then you’ll prefer a hexagonal-shaped body to prevent your pencil from rolling off and falling to the floor—possibly to its death or that of the lead within it. If you’ll be folding up your portable desk and carrying around your mechanical pencil in your pocket or in a pencil case, you’re better off with a tool with a retractable lead sleeve. This will avoid lead breakage and the threat of constantly getting stabbed in the thigh or your ribs or poking holes in your pencil case.

FAQs

Final thoughts on the best mechanical pencils

• Best overall: Pentel GraphGear 500
• Best for precision: rOtring 600 Black Barrel Mechanical Pencil
• Best for drawing: Koh-i-Noor Mechanical Hardtmuth Lead Holder
• Best ergonomic design: Pilot Dr. Grip G-Spec Shaker Mechanical Pencil
• Best budget: Tombow MONO Graph

It may not seem like it, but the writing or drawing tools you choose to use are our very personal decisions. They don’t necessarily have to be pricey, highly specialized mechanical pens. Depending on what kind of work you do, if you’re on the move a lot, and whether you prefer heavier or lighter tools, your perfect mechanical pencil may not even be among our picks. Still, if you’re new to the wide and varied world of writing instruments, you definitely will not go wrong by choosing any of the items on this list. 

And whenever you find something you truly like, stick with it. We recommend purchasing a couple of extra pencils to have in storage, just in case yours gets misplaced, discontinued, or you use it so much it falls apart in your hands—not a bad way to go.  

Why trust us

Popular Science started writing about technology more than 150 years ago. There was no such thing as “gadget writing” when we published our first issue in 1872, but if there was, our mission to demystify the world of innovation for everyday readers means we would have been all over it. Here in the present, PopSci is fully committed to helping readers navigate the increasingly intimidating array of devices on the market right now.

Our writers and editors have combined decades of experience covering and reviewing consumer electronics. We each have our own obsessive specialties—from high-end audio to video games to cameras and beyond—but when we’re reviewing devices outside of our immediate wheelhouses, we do our best to seek out trustworthy voices and opinions to help guide people to the very best recommendations. We know we don’t know everything, but we’re excited to live through the analysis paralysis that internet shopping can spur so readers don’t have to.

The post The best mechanical pencils of 2023 appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

IT MAY SEEM as if websites suddenly started displaying banners telling us they were using cookies and asking if we were cool with it. Maybe you didn’t think too much about it—just clicked “accept all” and moved on. And maybe that’s what you’ve been doing ever since.

But you really should stop and think about it. We’ve been dealing with these notifications for almost five years now, and some folks still don’t know what it means to accept or reject all cookies, or even what those yummy-sounding files do. Tech companies don’t make it easy to understand either (perhaps on purpose). But consent isn’t really consent if we don’t know what we’re saying yes to.

Cookies 101

It’s right there in the Cheers theme song: Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. And if the internet were your friendly neighborhood bar, having folks greet you and hand you your favorite drink before you order would be possible only with cookies.  

These small text files are generated on websites and saved in your browser. When you return to a site, the page will retrieve the relevant cookies from your computer to provide a more seamless experience—your preferences will be the same as the last time you were there, the weather information will match your location, and the shoes you were not so sure about two nights ago will still be waiting in your virtual shopping cart. These cookies, also known as HTTP or first-party cookies, are incredibly convenient, and since they’re typically a data transaction between you and the website you’re visiting, they’re mostly harmless (unless a hacker intercepts them via an unsecured website or public WiFi network, but that’s rare).

Cookies in general get a bad rap because of one type: third-party cookies. These are usually generated not by the website you’re visiting but by the advertising networks and data brokers working within that site. These cookies are designed to gather marketable information about you (what you like, what catches your eye, what ads you click on) that can be used to sell you stuff. This data can also be sold to other actors, potentially with nefarious results. “That’s part of the magic of big data,” says Carissa Véliz, author of the book Privacy is Power. “It draws out inferences that we would’ve never guessed. So it’s very hard to predict what the consequences are for sharing that personal data.”  

What’s worse is that third-party cookies can track you across the internet. Let’s say you are a stylish baseball fan with a weakness for high-quality perfume. So you wake up, and the first thing you do is go to your favorite sports website to check the scores of yesterday’s games. Two hours later, while on a break between meetings, you browse a perfume blog to read a review. What you don’t know is that the ads on the sports website were managed by the same company that showed you ads on the blog, so now the advertising network knows you’re willing to splurge on a nice woody scent and also good seats for the next Mets game. Because advertising networks work with countless websites, those third-party cookies keep adding up, feeding more data to advertisers and their clients.

What European law has to do with everyone’s cookie notifications

When the European Parliament approved the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, this bill teamed up with previous regulation to, in part, give EU citizens the right to be informed about a website’s use of any unnecessary cookies, consent to the tracking and use of their data, withdraw that consent whenever they want, and access platforms even after rejecting all cookies. What makes the GDPR different from earlier rules is that it protects EU citizens no matter where they are, where tech companies are headquartered, or where data is processed.  

[Related: When it comes to privacy, smart devices are not the smarter choice]

Because there’s no way to determine if a user is an EU citizen, and running two versions of a website is hard and expensive, tech companies avoided million-dollar fines by adopting a “better safe than sorry” approach, which meant they started asking everyone for consent to use cookies on their websites. That resulted in everyone in the world getting a bit more control over their data online. But know this: Unless you’re an EU citizen, or some other privacy regulation applies to you (like the California Privacy Rights Act), you do not have the right to withdraw consent when it comes to tech companies or data brokers collecting and using your data. Jon Callas, director of public interest technology at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says some companies, like Twitter and Apple, decided to make things easier for everyone by providing GDPR rights to all their users no matter their nationality. But those are the exceptions. In most cases, if you’ve consented to data collection, a company can use whatever it already has on you however it likes—no law allows you to demand the immediate and total deletion of that data just because you want to. 

You can, however, turn off the informational faucet and sever websites’ access to more of your data. 

The best cookies are the ones you choose

Start by clearing the cache on your browser. This will get rid of all the cookies currently stored on your device and will prompt websites to ask you about cookies again, giving you a chance for a semifresh start. The steps will be different depending on your browser, but you can check out our guide to clearing cookies and web history on all the major browsers. 

With a clean slate in your browser, you’ll want to be more selective when it comes to consenting to cookies in the future. When deciding whether to accept cookies, the fastest, easiest, and most secure answer is to always reject them all. Most of the time, you’ll have to dig into the pop-up banner’s options and find your way to the right button, but you can also use your browser’s settings to reject all cookies from all websites all the time.

You’ll notice most browsers will try to warn you against rejecting all cookies. This is not only because doing so will prevent them from serving you personalized ads and will make your online experience a little less streamlined. They warn you because some websites were built with cookies in mind, and rejecting them all may result in glitches or limited functionality. This is where you must gauge your personal situation and decide what level of risk you’re comfortable with. 

After you reject all cookies, most sites will still be fully functional, just slightly harder to use than you’re used to. You may have to set your preferences every time you visit a page, remember your username, and scroll down to the exact point where you left off reading that lengthy article at lunch. Maybe that sounds like a price you’re willing to pay to protect your data from malicious third parties, but it may also sound absolutely unbearable. Neither response is wrong—you just have to do what’s best for you.

If banning all cookies forever seems right for you, follow these steps:

• On Chrome: Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data > check the box next to Block all cookies.
• On Safari: Settings > Privacy > check the box next to Block all cookies.
• On Firefox: Settings > Privacy & security > find Enhanced tracking protection > choose Custom > find Cookies > open the drop-down menu > All cookies.
• On Microsoft Edge: Settings > Privacy, search, and services, find Tracking prevention > Strict.

Microsoft’s browser is different in that it doesn’t let you block all cookies, only “the majority” of them “from all sites.” This doesn’t give you a lot of control over or transparency about what cookies Edge is actually blocking—but this may just be its way to prevent some sites from breaking without them.

Not willing to live in a cookie-free world but still want to protect your data? You’ll likely need to take time to personalize your privacy settings whenever you visit a new website. There’s no one way to do this, as every website is different. But the main strategy is to reject anything that says “tracker,” “third-party,” “targeting,” or “social media” next to it. 

You’ll also have to beware of dark patterns—weaponized web design elements meant to sway your behavior one way or another, sometimes without you noticing. For example, placing a big, noticeable “accept all” button next to a tiny link in a noncontrasting color that says “reject all” is a dark pattern. These can be even more subtle, like when your only options are “accept all” or “edit preferences.” “It’s not giving you the choice of ‘yes’ versus ‘no’—they’re making you look for ‘no’ so you’re more likely to click ‘yes,’” says Callas. “Close” or “X” buttons may also be considered a dark pattern. Because these notifications act as a final hurdle between you and the content you’re interested in, it’s natural for you to click that “X” as soon as possible to get past the banner. But some sites might consider that consenting by omission. Callas says some websites are explicit about this, but others might not tell you what you’re actually doing when you close the disclosure notice without making a choice. That would not be considered proper consent under GDPR, but Callas says some might be willing to take the risk: “The websites are gaming the rules to get the most information out of you, because information is money.” 

Keep in mind that the GDPR forces companies to provide options only when there are unnecessary cookies involved. So if you stumble upon a page that is not explicitly asking for your consent, that’s because there’s nothing to consent to—only information about the site’s use of HTTP or first-party cookies.

As with most things in life, there’s no right or wrong answer to the cookie dilemma. If you find value in targeted ads and are OK with companies potentially abusing the data they collect, you can accept all cookies forever. But there is certainly a middle ground where it’s possible to enjoy a streamlined experience online and still keep your data out of the reach of bad actors. Tech companies don’t make it easy (privacy policies are somehow both dense and vague, Véliz says), which makes us wonder if the GDPR-given right to consent is real and not an illusion. Whichever the case, one thing is still true: Those cookie notifications can be annoying, but they sure are better than nothing.

Read more PopSci+ stories.

The post The Opt Out: When you should and shouldn’t accept a website’s cookies appeared first on Popular Science.

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If you’ve owned a PC, you may think you have no need for Microsoft Word tips. After all, it’s been around for 40 years, surely all of its secrets have long since been laid bare. Boy, do we have news for you.

Whether you use Word all the time or only open it when you need to dust off your resume, you’ll need to wade a little deeper beyond bolding and underlining to truly get the most out of it. Luckily for you, we dipped our pan into the river of options and pulled out some advice that’s pure gold.

If you’re more inclined to design documents rather than write them, or like to procrastinate on drafts by messing around with the page format, you can use lorem ipsum in Word. You don’t even have to open a menu—just type =Lorem() somewhere on the page, hit Enter, and you’re all set. 

By default, the command will create five short paragraphs of text. If that’s not enough for you, you can tell Word how many you want by adding a number inside the parentheses. So, if you want 12 paragraphs, type =Lorem(12), and enjoy your free text.  

You can add a timestamp to a document by going to the Insert tab and clicking the Insert date and time tool—it’s a small icon showing a calendar with a clock on top, to the left of the Equation button. 

In the emerging window, you’ll be able to choose from a long list of time formats, such as the classic two-digit “month/day/year,” or even one that includes the exact second you inserted it into the document. By default, this function will be static unless you check the box right below the list next to Update automatically. Once you’re done, click OK and you’ll be good to go. 

If you collaborate with people in other countries or are working in a language other than your system’s default language, the Insert date and time window will provide a dropdown menu where you’ll be able to change the lingo and the date format options with it. Microsoft will immediately show you the languages you have added to your operating system, so if you need to use one that’s not listed there, you’ll need to add it through Settings, followed by Time & language (Windows), or System Settings > General > Language & Region (macOS).

Go to the Insert tab, click on Shapes, and choose the squiggle under Lines. This will allow you to use your cursor as a pen to draw your signature, which you’ll then be able to move throughout the document and even copy/cut and paste it whenever you want. Of course, drawing your signature with a mouse is not the easiest or most comfortable task, but it’ll get easier with a little bit of practice. 

On the other hand, if you’re signing an important document and cannot bear the sight of your shaky signature sitting there for all of time, there’s another option. If you’re a Office 365 subscriber and have a PC, you can use your trackpad to sign using the Draw feature. 

Go to the Draw tab and turn on the toggle switch above Draw with trackpad. Word will show you a rectangular area on screen—fill it by drawing on your trackpad with your finger. You don’t have to press down or anything, just slide your digit around. Use two fingers to move the area to another place on the screen (useful if you need to check a box) and press any key when you’re done. Your scribbles will then behave like objects you can resize and copy/cut and paste across the document. 

With words already on the page, go to Tools, Spelling and Grammar, and select Editor. A sidebar will appear to the right of your screen showing you an overall score for your writing and three areas where you can improve: Spelling, Grammar, and Conciseness. Click on each one to see Word’s suggestions. Keep in mind that this is only a program, so it’s perfectly possible that some of its recommendations don’t make sense to you at all. If that’s the case, you can choose to ignore them.

At the bottom of the sidebar is where the magic happens: click on Document stats, and after a couple seconds you’ll see a window with details about your document, like the number of words and sentences, and the average characters per word. 

But the really fun part is under Readability. There, Word will show you your text’s score based on the Flesch Reading Ease and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level indexes. Respectively, these systems aim to determine how easy it is to read a document, and what school grade reading level your audience should have to fully and easily understand it.

In the case of the reading ease score, the higher the number, the easier it is to understand. In general, you want whatever you write to be between 70 and 80, which means it should be fairly easy for the average adult to understand. The Flesch-Kincaid index, meanwhile, uses the US education system’s grade levels as its parameters, and can help you gauge whether your text suits your audience—if you’re speaking at an academic conference, for example, a high score won’t be a problem. 

From the top of the page to the paragraph above, Word says this story has a readability score of 65, which is not ideal, but this is why we still have human editors. (If you were wondering, the score improved after my editor worked on it.)

You probably use shortcuts like Shift + arrow to select text character by character, and Shift + Option + arrow (Mac) or Shift + Control + arrow (Windows) to go at it word by word. If you’re a butcher editor, you might just triple-click on a paragraph to select and kill the whole thing. But Word offers yet another option: selecting a single sentence with one click. The trick is to hold Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) while you do it. 

This is incredibly useful if you’re revising a particularly long document, or are in the last stages of editing, when changes may be scarce and far removed from one another. 

You see, most things in a document have a character, even the space between paragraphs. If you need to see what you’re dealing with, you can ask Microsoft to show you by hitting Command + 8 (Mac) or Ctrl + Shift + 8 (Windows). When you do, you’ll see a bunch of new characters appear in a different color. Some of the most common are a suspended point between words, which stands for a single space, and a left-facing “P”, which means there’s a single paragraph break. 

You probably won’t use this shortcut with simple documents, but if you use a template you found on Word or online, it might help you understand what’s wrong if the file starts misbehaving. 

Depending on the version of Word you have, you may find this option by clicking File, Info, and then Protect document. The following menu will give you a list of things you can do, like restricting editing or only giving certain people access to the file. But if you want to go a more secure route, choose Encrypt with password and follow the instructions. 

But all that freedom sometimes makes it hard to tell if the graphs you’re adding to your yearly report are actually aligned properly. And you’ve spent too many hours working to let an image ruin your day. 

To make sure everything’s where it needs to be, use a grid. Under the Layout tab, click Align, and from the dropdown menu choose View gridlines. This option will immediately overlay a grid on the working area of your page, which you can use as a reference to see exactly where to place objects or make sure they’re all the same size. On the Align menu, you can also click Grid settings to customize options like what area of the page objects will snap to or the size of the grid. When you’re done, click OK to save your settings. 

The post 10 Microsoft Word tips you need to learn right now appeared first on Popular Science.

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When choosing a messaging app, it’s easy to just fall in line with whatever your friends and family have on their phones. Whether or not the platform is secure isn’t often a major factor in the decision. But maybe it should be, given the sheer amount of sensitive information we share with our contacts every day.

Not all messaging apps are the same, especially when it comes to your privacy and security. If you’re in the market for a more secure messaging app, we can help. The web is wide and diverse, and there are plenty of platforms that will satisfy your texting needs without asking you to disclose everything about yourself. It’s just a matter of looking.

You’ll be on your own when talking everyone else into moving to another platform, but we believe in you.

Signal is free, open-source, and operated by The Signal Foundation—a non-profit with a mission to “develop open source privacy technology.” Brian Acton, one of WhatsApp’s founders, left Facebook (reportedly on bad terms) after the company acquired his platform, and donated $50 million to create the foundation. It’s one of the main reasons users trust the app, as there’s no big tech company behind it.

The platform supports texting, video and voice calls, as well as file-sharing. Privacy-wise, you can set your messages to self-destruct at any time from one second after they’re read to four weeks after you send them. End-to-end (E2E) encryption protects everything you share through Signal by default, and the foundation says it doesn’t store any sensitive information. The US government subpoenaed user data in 2016, but authorities only got their hands on the dates accounts were created, dates of last connections, and phone numbers.

Of course, handing over a phone number to create an account—and automatically sharing it with anybody who might find you through the app—means you won’t be entirely anonymous. Signal’s developers say they’re thinking of a way around it, but as of writing, there’s no date or specific project in the works to resolve this.

WhatsApp also supports group chats with up to 1,024 members. The platform had a higher limit in the past, but that turned into a problem when the app became an effective tool for the propagation of misinformation and other illegal material. As a result, WhatsApp eventually limited the ability to forward messages and the size of group chats.

The app supports texting, voice and video calls, public channels, and file-sharing, with an interface highly similar to WhatsApp’s iOS appearance, so switching over from Meta’s messaging app should be seamless.

The lack of widespread E2E encryption is meant to give users instant access to backups on multiple devices, no matter when they joined a channel or group chat, Telegram says. Pavel Durov, one of the app’s founders, also argues that government agencies might target users using “niche apps” such as Signal, assuming that anyone opting for that high level of privacy has something to hide. Having less-secure encryption as the default, Telegram says, protects users from unwanted surveillance.

As opposed to WhatsApp, which uses third-party servers like iCloud or Google Drive to store backups—giving Apple and Google the ability to manage that information—Telegram’s backups are broken into pieces and live on its own servers around the world. It claims chats, no matter what type, are all secured the same way, but because Telegram technically also has access to the encryption key, they can decrypt your messages… even if they say the key and the data it decrypts are never in the same place. 

Even though Telegram emphasized its commitment to security by updating its privacy policy to protect the identity of Hong Kong protesters in 2019, that commitment should be taken with a grain of salt, according to Gennie Gebhart, acting activism director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

“Telegram doesn’t have a great track record of responding to high-risk users,” she says. “My impression is that a lot of Telegram’s ‘secure’ reputation comes from its association with the Hong Kong protests, but the app was also useful in that environment for a lot of specific reasons, like no phone number requirement or the support for massive groups.”

By default, messages (or “dusts”) disappear from the app’s servers right after you send them, and chat histories are automatically erased from your phone every 24 hours. On top of that, you (or your contacts) can delete messages on both ends of the conversation with just one tap, and you can sign up by using only your phone number.

Just like Telegram, Viber also has public channels called Communities, and these messages are only SSL encrypted. This protects data in transit, but once it’s on the app’s servers, it’s readable by Viber or any other member of the community, allowing new members to access all backlogs.

Because iMessage doesn’t play nice with other messaging apps, it immediately switches to the not-so-good-ol’ SMS message whenever it cannot use Apple’s protocol, turning chat bubbles from blue to green. This type of message is reliable, as it doesn’t require your device to have lots of bars to work, but it’s neither secure nor private—SMS messages can be traced, intercepted, and stored by your service provider, who can gladly hand them over to authorities, if asked politely.

This is also an issue for interactions between Apple users, though. By default, iMessage switches gears also when connectivity is low. The problem is that you won’t actually know if this has happened, as individual bubbles in your chats won’t change color to show how they were delivered.

The post 7 secure messaging apps you should be using appeared first on Popular Science.

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Menstruating is living in constant fear of ruining your best pair of underwear or making a spectacle of yourself the day you decide to wear white pants. And that’s only the least important reason to learn how to properly track your period. 

There are a lot of apps out there that promise to make your life easier in this regard, but you may not want to rely on them. Luckily, you can learn how to track your period without an app by using the good ol’ calendar method.

Menstrual cycles are highly susceptible to changes due to illness, lifestyle, and even stress levels. Add to that the fact that each body is different and the theoretical model goes out the window. 

Well, not entirely—the 28-day menstrual cycle is a good parameter to compare your own particular cycle to, and people have used it for decades to track their periods and detect any anomalies. 

How to manually track your period

The calendar method is more than just circling a day on your calendar and then circling another 28 days later. To fully understand not only how to track your period on paper but how you can make it work for you, you first need to understand how your cycle works. It may seem like a lot, but you’ll need to trust the process.

You can divide a menstrual cycle into two parts—the pre-ovulation stage or follicular phase, and the post-ovulation stage, or luteal phase. These two episodes are separated by ovulation, the main event in every cycle where the ovary releases an egg into the fallopian tube.

In the follicular phase, the egg matures in a follicle within the ovary. Once it’s ready, estrogen levels signal to the brain that it’s time for the egg’s debut in society, and the noggin responds by releasing luteinizing hormone to trigger ovulation. The egg is now free to try and fulfill its purpose.   

The empty follicle that remains in the ovary turns into the progesterone-releasing corpus luteum. This tiny structure is key to understanding your specific menstrual cycle because it’s one of the only elements in this whole process that mostly remains constant for all menstruating people. If the egg doesn’t find a companion to join it in the dance of life, the corpus luteum will die after 12 to 14 days, abruptly cutting the supply of progesterone and triggering the shedding of the uterine lining, also known as your period. 

Now that you understand how the menstrual cycle works, it’s time to learn how to track your period without an app, so go ahead and write down the first day of your cycle—you can use a digital or analog calendar, your planner, or even a piece of paper. Keep in mind that the first day is when you start with full-flow bleeding—spotting doesn’t count. 

Starting on the first day of your period, go back 14 days on your calendar. That’s your ovulation day—mark it down. Knowing how long it takes your body to ovulate will help you determine when you’ll be at your most fertile, a crucial piece of information that, depending on how you use it, will help you get pregnant or avoid it altogether. 

Finally, jot down details about each day of your period. Take note of the amount and color of your flow, plus any other symptoms such as tender breasts, backache, headaches, mood swings, high sex drive, and low energy. Tracking symptoms throughout the rest of your cycle will eventually allow you to find patterns that will help you project ovulation, pre-menstrual syndrome, and, of course, your period. 

The problem is that when it comes to your period, the only data that matters is yours—the periods of people in Asia, Europe, the next state, or even the house around the corner from yours, don’t say much about when your next period will come.  

[Related: How to make your period more eco-friendly]

The post How to track your own period—without an app appeared first on Popular Science.

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Your passwords are probably terrible and you need to make them stronger. Yes, we know there are few things more annoying than brainstorming a fresh credential every time you need to do the tiniest task, but they’re one of the most practical ways to keep hackers and other malicious actors out of your business.

Tech companies, journalists, and organizations concerned with cybersecurity awareness have spent years underscoring the importance of secure passwords. Sadly, it seems there has been little payoff. A 2022 report by credential manager NordPass is truly embarrassing, listing “password,” “123456,” and “123456789” as the three most common passwords. It doesn’t get much better than that as you go further down, either: “Password1” ranks at No. 192.

It’s worth noting that the tech industry has spent decades imagining a password-free world, and some companies are already offering options to circumvent or ditch this type of authentication altogether. But as long as passwords remain the primary way to access our data, we’ll need to up our game to properly protect our information and money.

Of course, attackers aim for efficiency, so they’re not manually typing on a laptop somewhere. They’re using software to automatically try every entry in a common password dictionary, for example, or using information from known data breaches to try leaked passwords and/or their potential iterations. This is because people don’t update their passwords as regularly as they should (they do it once or twice a year instead of the recommended every three months), and when they do, they tend to make only minor changes to the ones they already have.

This is why strong passwords are unique, long, and peppered with special characters like punctuation marks, numbers, and uppercase letters. When we say unique, we mean words you can’t find in the dictionary. Common or famous names are out too—the more original the password, the better. The length of a password and the use of special characters both increase the odds that it is truly unique. It’s just math—the greater the number and variety of characters you use in your credentials, the more possible combinations there are, and the harder they will be to guess. 

A lot of people come up with their own secret code to develop passwords using easy-to-remember phrases from songs, poems, and movies. A classic approach is to replace letters with numbers (like 4s for A’s and 0s for O’s) and alternate uppercase and lowercase letters. If this is what you do, you’re on the right track, but you actually need to make your personal cryptography even more complicated to truly add security to your passwords. We won’t tell you how we encrypt our credentials, but you can create your own written language or alphabet by replacing letters with other characters. Just keep in mind that Klingon was built from utter gibberish, so the sky is the limit.   

Naturally, the cost of added difficulty is a higher cognitive burden. This means that the further a password is from a word or phrase you commonly use, the harder it’ll be for you to remember. That’s complicated as it is, but if you consider that the average person has around 100 online accounts, the feasibility of remembering all of those encoded unique passwords goes violently out the window.  

Basically, these tools allow us to outsource the whole credentials problem out of our lives, on the condition that we remember one good master password—or hold another type of authentication key, such as a fingerprint. And it works. Depending on the password manager you get, you’ll find features like good design, syncing across devices, and the ability to choose when fields autofill. 

Still, sometimes these measures are not enough. In December 2022, LastPass, another popular password manager, reported a security breach that included users’ names, phone numbers, emails, and billing information. As if this weren’t concerning enough, the company’s crisis management at the time was lacking, and it only disclosed details about the breach and what steps should customers follow in a blog post published more than two months later. 

Beyond breaches, some features in password managers are generally less than secure. In a 2020 review, researchers from the User Lab at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, mentioned autofill as one of the most concerning. This is especially true when password managers automatically enter credentials without any input from the user. In cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, hackers inject malicious scripts into a website’s code to steal a password as soon as the right fields are populated. “If a password manager autofills passwords without first prompting the user, then the user’s password will be surreptitiously stolen simply by visiting the compromised website,” explain study authors Sean Oesch and Scott Ruoti.

The likelihood of a successful XSS attack varies depending on factors like whether the site is using a secure connection (HTTPS, for example). But it’s always best to opt for a password manager that either requires user interaction for autofill or allows you to manually disable the feature. Most browser-based password managers don’t require user interaction before filling in credentials, but there are some exceptions. Mozilla Firefox automatically populates fields by default, but you can turn this feature off by clicking the main menu (three lines), going to Settings, Privacy & Security, and scrolling down to Logins and Passwords. Once you’re there, uncheck the box next to Autofill logins and passwords. An even easier solution is to use Apple’s Safari, which always requires user input for autofill. If you’re on a PC or don’t want to switch browsers, the study found the browser extension of the popular 1Password app will also require a click before it reveals your information. 

Just know that even though most modern platforms offer some kind of multifactor authentication, you won’t find every type every time. The most common option is authentication via a code sent over SMS text, followed closely by authentication via a code-generating apps. These are essentially the same, but the latter method uses the internet instead of phone networks to deliver the code. It’s worth noting that text messages traveling through the electromagnetic spectrum can be intercepted, and according to Ruoti, the low standards US telecom companies use when authenticating users make it possible to port someone’s phone number to a SIM card and receive their authentication codes on your device. If this concerns you, you can opt for more sophisticated alternatives, like security keys. These work exactly like your home keys—just plug them into your gadget’s USB port when prompted, and you’re done. We have an entire guide solely dedicated to helping you choose the best multifactor authentication method for you, if you want to do a deep dive into your options.

But even if some approaches are better than others, one thing will always be true: Any multifactor authentication is better than none at all. So if you have a phone, it’s an excellent idea to set up SMS codes for whenever a new device tries to access your account. Just make sure to disable the ability to preview message content on your lock screen, or somebody could use your codes by just stealing your phone. On Android, you can do this by going to Settings, Notifications, and turning off Sensitive notifications under Privacy. On iOS, open Settings, go to Notifications, tap Show Previews, and choose Never. If you want to see previews for less sensitive notifications on your iPhone, you can turn off previews for individual apps instead. If you receive codes via the Messages app, for example, open Settings, go to Notifications, tap Messages, find Show Previews, and choose Never.  

The post The Opt-Out: Stop choosing bad passwords already appeared first on Popular Science.

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Microwave ovens are so commonplace that it’s hard to imagine you’re missing out on tremendous cooking potential every time you pop in some leftovers, set it, and forget it. But you are. They don’t do anything that, say, a conventional oven or a stovetop can’t do, though they can do it faster, more efficiently, and with way less hassle.

But first, how do microwave ovens work?

Microwaves are not perfect, though. As you might have noticed the last time you tried to nuke a hefty plate of rice, they don’t always warm up your dinner evenly, leaving some bits cold or undercooked, and others extremely hot. This is because—just like all waves—microwaves have peaks and valleys where their power fluctuates.  

[Related: The best indoor herb gardens of 2023]

Take four or five sprigs, put them between two sheets of paper towels, and heat them in the microwave for 30-second increments on high power until they’re dried. When they’re done, take them out, let them cool, and use your fingers to break the leaves. Store them in an airtight container. 

The quick spurt of heat has an effect similar to blanching, which preserves the color and aromatics of your herbs. The water in the leaves evaporates rapidly due to the effect of the microwaves, rendering perfectly dried flakes you can use year-round. 

The heat softens the juice-holding membranes, so you’ll get more juice when you squeeze them than you would from room-temperature fruit. 

• Pro tip: Before using the microwave, roll your unpeeled citrus on the counter while applying light pressure. This will loosen the membranes even more. 

It won’t save you a lot of time though. As I mentioned before, microwaves are not perfect and sometimes leave cold spots in your meals, or fail to penetrate all the way to the center of denser foods. And this is in a normal setup. Having an irregular one might make it harder for your microwave oven to cook your dishes evenly, so stop the heating, give your food a stir, and pop it in for an extra minute or two to make sure no one gets stuck with a cold meal. 

The principle is simple: the heat produces steam when it contacts the water molecules inside the garlic, separating the skin from the flesh.  

Something similar happens with tomatoes. First, wash your tomatoes and cut an X shape with the tip of a sharp knife on the side of the fruit opposite the stem. Microwave them for 25 to 30 seconds and then cool them. Finish by pulling on the corners of the X to remove the skin. 

I’m not here to tell you you can’t eat an entire cake by yourself, but whenever you want just one slice, you can make a mug cake. These sweet treats are single-serving cakes you can prepare without preheating the oven or dusting off your baking equipment—a microwave will suffice. You can choose chocolate, or vanilla, experiment with other flavors and even try a cookie in a mug. The best part is that you won’t have to scrub baking sheets or cake molds afterward. 

If you’re into more savory stuff, maybe you’d like to cook a potato—that is, without boiling any water or having to wash a pot afterward. First, poke your spud with a fork to allow for even cooking and prevent any explosions. Then, put your potato (one, two, more—you do you) in a microwave-safe glass or ceramic bowl with some olive oil, salt, the dried rosemary you made before, or whatever other aromatics you’d like to add. Heat up your tater for five minutes on high power, and when that’s done, carefully take it out of the microwave (it’ll be hot!) and turn it over. If you’re only cooking a single potato, nuke it for an extra three minutes, but if you’re eating more than one, do a second five-minute round, and enjoy. The microwave is truly the best appliance for solo living.

This serves two purposes, and the first one is pretty obvious if you’ve ever stuck your head inside the microwave and looked up (Have you? It’s gross). The paper towel will prevent your food from splattering all over the inside of your microwave, so it stays clean for longer. A damp paper towel will also help retain some of the moisture in your food so it cooks more evenly, and doesn’t dry out and become chewy. 

Slice a lemon in half and squirt some of the juice into a microwave-safe bowl with about an inch of water. Toss the lemon halves into the bowl (make sure the water doesn’t cover them) and microwave them for three minutes on high power, or until the water comes to a boil.

The post How to get more lemon juice, and 8 other genius microwave hacks appeared first on Popular Science.

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The smell of lemon is the smell of cleanliness. There’s nothing like the scent of a freshly cleaned bathroom (lemon), a stack of spotless dishes (lemon), or a floor so pristine that five-second rules easily become three-minute rules (yes, again, lemon).

It’s marketing, for sure, but there’s also a reason for it. Lemons and other citrus fruits contain citric acid, and this natural compound also happens to be a great cleaning agent. You can make your home smell like a citrusy paradise with lemon-scented cleaning products, but you can also get cheap citric acid for cleaning assistance in some of the most problematic corners of your home.

You won’t actually get that signature aroma—citric acid in its pure, crystalline form is odorless. But who cares about that when you can actually see through your glass shower door for the first time in years?

(Also, please don’t eat off the floor—no matter how clean it looks or how lemony it smells.)

Why citric acid is good for cleaning

Citric acid has become a staple in household products mainly because of its disinfectant and chelation properties, which make it really effective against hard water.

“Chelation means that the molecule binds very strongly to metal ions. Since hard-water scales and rust have metal components, binding the metals breaks up the materials and makes them dissolve in the water,” explains Patrick Holland, professor of chemistry at Yale University.

[Related: A bare minimum guide to spring cleaning]

Just as in chelation therapy—which doctors use to eliminate heavy metals from the bloodstream in patients suffering from heavy metal poisoning—citric acid binds to calcium and lime, which are abundant in hard water. This allows other cleaning agents and surfactants to work better, and if you use the white crystals in higher concentrations, you can actually eliminate solid mineral deposits in your appliances.

Dishwasher manufacturer General Electric recommends crystallized citric acid for cleaning the interior of dishwashers—also known as sour salts. Put 3 to 4 tablespoons of the compound in the detergent cup, close it, and run a normal cycle without any dishes. After that, GE suggests following up with another cycle (this time with regular dishwasher detergent).

How to use citric acid to clean an electric kettle

If you’re a fan of tea, you probably have an electric kettle, and it probably has some mineral buildup inside. Using filtered water instead of tap helps prevent this (or at least slow the process down), but if you have a hard water source in your area, it’s highly likely metals and minerals coming straight from your faucet have created a white crust. This residue can even crack and end up in your tea. Gross.

But because of its chelating faculties, using citric acid to clean your electric kettle is both fast and simple. Mix a tablespoon of citric acid with a liter (4 ⅓ cups) of water, and stir until dissolved. Boil the mixture and then let it sit for 15 minutes. After that, dispose of the solution, rinse the inside of your electric kettle, and stand in awe of your brand-new-looking appliance.

Rinsing after cleaning is important, but you shouldn’t worry too much about a smidge of leftover residue. Citric acid is widely used in the food industry, and it’s not only present in all kinds of fruit (including strawberries and pineapple), but also in jams as a preservative, and even in fizzy candy.

“A little bit [of citric acid] ingested wouldn’t hurt anyone,” says Holland.

How to use citric acid to clean showerheads and faucet aerators

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that low water pressure can be counted as one of the horsemen of the apocalypse. Having just a single thread of water to clean yourself (or that pan with burnt lasagna ends stuck on the sides) cannot be defined as anything but a nightmare.

Low water pressure depends on a lot of factors—some of which are out of your control—but one you can definitely do something about is clogged showerheads and faucet aerators (the same thing, but in your kitchen sink).

The cleaning method is similar to that of the electric kettle. Just unscrew your showerhead or aerator (or both, if you want to multitask), and submerge it in a solution of 1 tablespoon of citric acid per 4 ½ cups of boiling water. Showerheads are hollow and will float, most likely with the holes facing up—which clearly defeats the purpose of this strategy. Use anything heavy and heat-resistant to keep it submerged. I used a jar of olives, but I’m sure you can come up with something better.

How to use citric acid to clean an espresso machine

You probably spent a lot of money on that fancy-looking appliance you use to make your delicious coffee, but what’s the point when your cup of morning glory has a slight taste of rust and metal? If you want to find the likely culprit of this travesty, look no further than the minerals in the water you’re using.

I’m sure you’re on to it by now, so let’s cut to the chase and get rid of that mineral residue. To descale your espresso machine, just fill the water reservoir with a solution of 2 tablespoons of citric acid for every quart of water, stir it to fully dissolve the crystals, and run the machine normally.

[Related: Are your cleaning products really green? Here’s how to tell.]

How to use citric acid to clean shower doors

I don’t think I need to keep singing the praises of citric acid, but on top of everything else, citric acid will also help you get rid of hard water stains on shower doors. That gunk is basically just mineral buildup.

You’ll need a little help from high temperatures, though. Using a citric acid to water ratio of 2 1/2 tablespoons per 1 cup of hot water, pour the solution on the door. Let it act for 15 minutes before rinsing. You might need to scrub a little with a sponge or rag, but the buildup should be loose and the stains should come off easily.

This story has been updated. It was originally published on November 5, 2020.

The post Use citric acid to clean your dishwasher and other gross household items appeared first on Popular Science.

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Twitter plans to remove text-message two-factor authentication (2FA) from all accounts except those subscribed to Twitter Blue, effectively putting an essential user protection feature behind a paywall. The good news is that the site offers two other more secure methods of authentication that will remain free.

If you don’t want to pay $8 a month for Twitter Blue ($11 if you’re using the platform on your phone), you can easily move away from SMS authentication to security keys and authenticator apps. You can set up one or both so you don’t have to choose between security and savings.

On the web, click the More option on the sidebar, open the Settings and support menu, and choose Settings and privacy. Next, go to Security and account access, Security, and finally, Two-factor authentication. If you’re on your phone, the steps are pretty much the same, but you’ll need to start by tapping your profile pic in the top left corner of your screen. Then go to Settings and support.  

[Related: Protect all of your accounts with two-factor authentication]

Once you’re in the two-factor authentication menu, you’ll see three methods you can activate by selecting the checkbox next to them: Text message, Authentication app, and Security key. Since the first one is about to cost money, let’s start with the second one. 

The moment you check the box next to Authentication app, Twitter will ask for your password again. This is an extra security measure to make sure it is you making the changes and not someone taking advantage of the fact that you left the library in a hurry and forgot to log out of your account. Click Get started on the next window and the platform will show you a QR code. Keep it open while you set up the app on your phone. 

Download and install your authentication app on one of your mobile devices. There are a lot of options to choose from in your gadget’s app store, but we’ll go with the Google Authenticator app (available for Android and iOS) because it’s free and easy to use. If you want to try something else, don’t worry—you’ll find the setup process pretty similar. Once the app is ready to use, open it, tap Get started, and it’ll offer you two options: Scan a QR code and Enter a setup key. The first is the easiest: tap it, give the app permission to use your device’s camera, and use that to scan the code Twitter gave you. Immediately, Google Authenticator will create a new item on a list where you’ll see the name of the account and a six-digit code that expires every 30 seconds. 

Back on your computer, click the Next button under the QR code you just scanned, and type in the six digits you see on your authentication app. If the code is blinking red, it will expire soon, so we recommend you wait for the next one to avoid any syncing problems. Click Confirm and you’ll be all set. 

If for whatever reason you can’t scan a QR code (maybe you dropped your phone and the cracked glass over the lens won’t let you), you can configure your app using a setup key. On Twitter, right under the QR code, click on Can’t scan the QR code? to reveal a 16-digit key. On Google Authenticator, choose Enter a setup key and type in the code you see on your computer. You’ll also have to provide an account name, just so you know where you’ll be able to use your code in the future. Finish by tapping Add, and on your computer click Next. On the following screen, type in the six-digit code you see on your authentication app, then hit Confirm.

Before you click Done in the next window, Twitter will offer you a single-use backup code to log into your account in case you don’t have access to your authentication app—it’ll come in handy if you lose your device or get locked out of it. Write down your code and store it in a safe place.

You can add as many accounts as you like to your authentication app, and if you get another phone or set up shop on another device, you can easily move your data using a QR code. Just tap the three-dot menu in the top right of your screen and choose Transfer accounts (Android) or Export accounts (iOS).

If you’re prone to losing your phone, you can use USB-compatible gizmos that act like a regular key: every time you sign into your account from a new computer, you’ll have to plug in the gadget and tap it to prove you are who you say you are. Depending on the device you have and the ports you have available, you can find security keys that are lightning-, USB-A-, or USB-C-compatible—the last of those three is especially useful, as you’ll also be able to plug it into most mobile devices. Prices vary depending on the brand and the compatibility, but you can find these keys for anywhere between $15 to $70. Whichever you get, make sure they’re compliant with FIDO standards, a protocol widely used in the tech industry and known for its high level of security.

But if you don’t feel like buying a security key, you can always use a phone or tablet as one. Using a device is similar to using a security key: whenever you log into your Twitter account from a new computer, for example, the platform will show you a passkey similar to a QR code. You can then use the camera on your mobile device to scan the code, and you’ll be good to go. 

To protect your Twitter account with a security key, click the checkbox next to the option in the Two-factor authentication menu. On the emerging window, click Get started, go to Add key, and you’ll see two options: USB security key and A different device. For a USB key, click the former, plug the key into the relevant port, and touch it to activate it. On the next screen, give your key a name, then click Confirm. 

[Related: The most transformative security innovations of 2021: Encrypted biometrics at your fingertips]

To set up a phone or tablet as your security key, select A different device, and scan the passkey with your device’s camera. It’s possible your device will ask you for a biometric or passcode to unlock it. This will also happen every time you want to use it as a security key. Back on Twitter, name your device, and click Confirm.

Before you’re completely done, both of these options will give you a single-use backup code for whenever you don’t have access to your security keys. Write them down and keep them in a safe place in case you ever need them. 

Unlike authenticator apps, you can have as many security keys as you want. Back in the Two-factor authentication menu, click on Manage security keys, go to Add another key, and follow the instructions. You’ll also see a list of the keys you’re already using on your account—click on each of them to rename or delete them.

The post How to keep using two-factor authentication on Twitter for free appeared first on Popular Science.

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With time, monitors have grown wider and wider to give us more space and more resolution for videos and gaming. Setting up your screen horizontally may come naturally to you—that’s how it’s shown on the box anyway—but it might not be the most efficient option when you’re working.

Changing to a vertical monitor setup is easy to do and can make more efficient use of every single inch of your screen. When you’re using programs like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, or looking at traditional scroll-down webpages, there’s only so much a wider screen can do for you. It’ll come to a point when having more room only means more space between columns or a larger grey area between the document you’re working on and the scroll bar on the right. 

A vertical monitor will display more condensed versions of your browser, but it’ll allow you to fully fit two windows on your screen instead of one more comfortably. This means that if you use a monitor as your laptop’s second display, you’ll have immediate control over three applications or tabs at the same time. 

How to set up a vertical monitor

There are two sets of steps you’ll have to go through to set up a vertical monitor—one involving hardware, and the other involving software.

Let’s start with the first one. If you’re using your monitor with a stand, physically changing the screen orientation into a vertical position should be easy. The exact process will depend on the manufacturer, but some Dell monitors, for example, can be easily rotated into portrait mode, or have some sort of a lock on the back you can press to rotate your screen. Desk mounts are easy too, and even basic ones let you change your display orientation however you want. 

[Related: The best vertical monitors of this year]

Once that’s sorted, you’ll have to deal with the software setup. First, make sure your monitor is properly connected and set up to work with your computer. If you don’t know how to do that, PopSci has all the instructions you need. No matter the make of your computer, the monitor you connect will be in a landscape or horizontal position by default—you’ll need to change that.

Set up a vertical monitor with Windows

Set up a vertical monitor with macOS

On Macs, go to the Apple menu, choose System Settings, and then on the sidebar choose Displays. Unlike Windows, there’s no manual way to push a Mac to detect a second screen. This happens automatically, so if you don’t see your monitor in the Displays menu, it’s not connected. Once you see your monitor, select it and at the bottom of the window you’ll find Rotation. Click the drop-down menu to the right and change the default Standard to either 90° or 270°, depending on whether you flipped your display clockwise or counterclockwise. 

But if you prefer to keep a long row of endless tabs on your browser or need to focus on one thing at a time, a vertical monitor setup may be too stimulating for you. Still, if this is your case, it’s always a good idea to keep your primary screen (be it another monitor or your laptop’s built-in display) locked to a landscape view. That way, whenever you need to concentrate, you can turn off your vertical monitor and pour all of your attention into the task at hand. When you’re finished, you can easily go back to that comfortable bird’s-eye view.    

This story has been updated. It was originally published on September 14, 2021.

The post How a vertical monitor setup will change your life appeared first on Popular Science.

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IT’S HARD to find pleasure these days. Our fast-paced, tech-centric lives can give us little space for intimacy and satisfaction in bed. But instead of leaving us to our own devices, innovators around the world are taking on the challenge of making sex better for anyone who’s experienced childbirth, reproductive health problems, or the erosion of romance.

Founded in 2014, UK-based MysteryVibe is one company filling that niche. Using robotics and other facets of engineering, it set out to create a durable sex toy that could adapt to a variety of bodies, shapes, and desires. What it didn’t know was that its first creation, a flexible six-motor vibrator called Crescendo, would also end up as a certified medical device for conditions like pelvic floor pain. A 2022 MysteryVibe-funded study at the Murcia Institute of Sexology in Spain found that exercises performed with the handheld model could significantly reduce discomfort in patients suffering from chronic pain during sex. The same institution later saw that the penis-hugging Tenuto improved erectile dysfunction after one patient’s colo­rectal cancer surgery. At the moment, the UK’s National Health Service is looking into the ability of the G-spot-targeting Poco to ease long-term vulva discomfort, with results expected later this year. 

↑ MysteryVibe’s team of four engineers develops all of the company’s prototypes at an inconspicuous farmhouse in Thursley, England. One of the steps involves using a hot plate and a hot-air soldering technique to manually tweak the printed circuit boards, or PCBs, that control the sex toys. The high temperature allows staff to reassemble the electronics as they evolve.

↑ Legato (set to be released in summer 2023) was devised based on a request from a medical professional to help menopause patients overcome vaginal dryness, a common symptom that makes penetrative sex more difficult and potentially painful. It’s the first sex toy designed to stimulate the labia by increasing blood flow around the vulva, improving natural lubrication.

↑ Medical research has found specific vibration frequencies can effectively treat pelvic floor pain. As part of their own product development, MysteryVibe constructed its own testing rig to measure how the motors in their products interact with each other, and the exact vibrations they deliver. These efforts are still only experimental. 

↑ While designing silicone-covered devices with multiple hinges inside, the MysteryVibe team learned that versatility comes at the cost of durability. This became a major engineering hurdle, as one of the original driving missions of the company was to make a sex toy that would last. The entire product line has a 24-month warranty, but with proper care, the products should survive for at least five years, says CTO and co-founder Rob Weekly.

↑ During the years-long trip from conception to online retail, MysteryVibe’s offerings go through multiple transformations that take into account customer and medical feedback. The Thursley research and development center is filled with boxes of old models that engineers use to ensure software updates work seamlessly with discontinued models.  

↑ Tenuto’s largest arm sits against the highly sensitive perineum, stimulating blood circulation to the genitals. With customizable oscillations from three other motors, the result can be a longer-lasting erection and an overall more blissful experience for the user and their partner.

↑ 3D printers play a big role in helping the company develop, test, and refine products—from silicone molds to working parts. Once the design process is complete, the newly minted prototypes are shipped to China, where, after some back and forth with the research team to improve efficiency, they go into the production line for mass manufacturing. 

↑ When building samples, MysteryVibe staff members use a metal stencil to apply two soldering pastes with different melting points to the PCB plates. This allows them to work at a lower temperature to affix the electrical components to one side of the panel, protecting the hardware already assembled on the other end.

↑ Next, the PCBs get transferred to a “pick-and-place” machine that can build 10 boards in one move. A robotic head creates a vacuum to suction up components from the paper reels on the left and position them exactly where they belong on the panel. From there, they get wired up to the motors.

↑ Another new release in 2023, Molto is crafted to arouse the prostate by simulating the standard approach adopted by pelvic floor therapists. Besides generating pleasure, this technique also has possible health benefits and can be used to improve conditions like erectile dysfunction and enlarged prostate.  

↑ Tenuto 2 posed a particular manufacturing challenge, as it’s the company’s only “over-molded” product. While the skeletons of other MysteryVibe toys are pushed into fully dried silicone pieces, in this case, the bare electronics go into a special cast and are then sealed in the molten material. If the device accidentally turns on from the pressure, or heats up too much, the team needs to reset the whole process.

↑ When Crescendo launched nearly a decade ago, its six motors set it apart from the competition. More machinery means more targeted vibrations and flexibility, and customers can’t seem to get enough. The model and its successor (seen here) still hold the record for maximum motors in the industry: “I don’t think anyone’s touching that at the moment,” says Weekly. “I think the most I’ve seen is three.”

Read more PopSci+ stories.

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The day has come. Tomorrow, on Valentine’s Day, Microsoft is officially putting the legendary Internet Explorer out of commission. If you still have bookmarks stored on this doomed program, you’ll need to move them to Edge or another browser before it’s too late.

Microsoft stopped supporting Internet Explorer last year after deciding to focus all efforts on IE’s successor, Microsoft Edge. Now the company is finishing the job. The final nail in the browser’s coffin is an update that will redirect all PC Internet Explorer icons to Edge. The shortcuts will stay put, at least for a few months, but after that, it’s goodbye forever. 

In the next window, select the checkbox next to Export to a file and click Next. The wizard will ask you what you want to export. If you’re only saving the websites you’ve bookmarked, check the box next to Favorites. If you also want to export your RSS feeds, click the box next to Feeds; if you’d like to export privacy settings, preferences, and other options related to frequently visited websites, check the box next to Cookies. Hit Next when you’re ready. 

In the next window, you’ll have to choose what bookmarks folder you’re exporting. If you’ve organized your collection of websites in specific locations, you can select them all here, but if you only have random links saved to your bookmarks bar, select Favorites Bar. With your selections made, click Next. Now you’ll have to choose where you want to save the HTML file once it’s ready. Internet Explorer will show you the latest location you used, which may be the downloads folder on your PC. If that’s OK with you, proceed to the next step. But if you want to export the file elsewhere, click Browse and use the file explorer to find a new location. Hit Save to go back to the wizard, and once you’re there, click Export and Finish.

How to move Internet Explorer bookmarks to Chrome

Since Edge was built on the same underlying code as Chrome, you’ll be able to easily move your information there as well—but only your bookmarks. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to transfer your Internet Explorer feeds or cookies to Chrome.

The import process for Google’s browser is similar. Click the three-dot menu in the top right corner of your screen, go to Bookmarks, and then Import bookmarks and settings. Chrome will open a new tab and display a new window where you can choose the program you’re importing your information from. From the dropdown menu, select Bookmarks HTML file and then click Choose file. Use File Explorer (PC) or Finder (Mac) to locate the correct file and import it. When it’s done, you’ll see your bookmarks as a new folder titled Imported at the end of your bookmarks bar. To edit its name and contents, open the Bookmarks manager: go to the three-dot menu, and click the Bookmarks option to find it. 

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Ever since Elon Musk officially became the owner of Twitter, user experience on the platform has been… interesting. The company has endured massive layoffs, glitches, and scandals, and the also-owner of Tesla and SpaceX has taken it upon himself to manage things from the comfort of his own Twitter polls. Needless to say, some people have had a problem with all this.

Twitter hasn’t imploded (yet), despite predictions its collapse is imminent, but if you don’t want to stay to witness that, you might want a place where you can re-create the pre-Musk Twitter experience. 

Well, we checked, and some of the countless available social media platforms do have the potential to feel a bit like Twitter. If you’re thinking about where to set up shop next, these should be your first stops. 

People can tip or pay a creator on a post-to-post basis using a point system that translates into money: one point equals one cent. You get 50 points for free upon signing up, but you’ll need to start spending your own money if you want to keep tipping. That’s when the currency conversion gets a little iffy. For example, a bundle of 10,000 points, which should translate to $100, is actually $127 (with a discount, because buying in bulk is cheaper). Logically, that $27 difference goes to expenses like taxes and operational costs, but since we didn’t see any ads in the time we spent there, it’s easy to assume this is one of the ways Post makes money. Even if some of the initial payments go to the platform, Post’s developers say tips go entirely to creators.  

[Related: 11 Twitter bots that will make the most of your timeline]

Aesthetically, Post looks like a put-together version of Twitter: as soon as you create a profile, you can start scrolling a curated feed that gets refined the more you click and scroll. The interface is clean and the site uses a legible serif font. You can share original content and like and repost stuff from other users, but instead of Twitter-like replies where everything you say is in the form of a new tweet, you can comment the old-fashioned way—publicly, but not showing as a new item on your personal timeline.

Overall, things are generally civil over at Post, and even though you can find a large variety of wholesome content, there’s a lot of politics and journalism from reputable sources going around. 

If you never experienced the good ol’ days of peak Tumblr, the best way to understand the platform is to think of it as Twitter’s and Instagram’s forbidden love child. Its design makes it more of a visual-first platform than Twitter, but you can post all sorts of content: text, photos, videos, GIFs, and even audio. You can also interact with posts from people you follow by reposting (retweeting) them and replying to them just like you would on Twitter. 

In the beginning and during its heyday, this platform was a haven for women, fandoms, artists, and the LGBTQI+ community, who were free to post all sorts of content. Tumblr’s decline began when Yahoo bought the platform in 2013, but the biggest hit came when Verizon acquired the site in 2017. The telecom company set up stricter community guidelines that purged adult content from the site (including that of an artistic or educational nature), driving a lot of users onto other platforms, like Twitter. 

Pillowfort was highly attractive to those users for two main reasons: its interface is similar to Tumblr’s (especially because it gives more space to photos and videos) and community guidelines are more flexible, which is why the platform currently has a thriving fandom community. 

The site emphasizes content filtering and giving users the ability to interact with a handpicked group of people. Sign up, and you’ll be able to blacklist bothersome accounts, preventing them from seeing your posts or contacting you in any way—even through reposted content or instant messaging. 

Right now, Pillowfort is still in an open beta stage, and new users can only create accounts by paying a one-time $5 fee or by signing up for the waitlist, which promises to send you an invitation code in less than an hour.

If you don’t want to pay or wait, you can take a tour of the platform as a “demo user,” which will give you a pretty good idea of what you’ll encounter if you decide to join. 

With an easy-to-use and retro-looking interface, Cohost works a lot like Tumblr, but there’s no algorithm. This means you’ll only see the content from accounts you follow and tags you’ve bookmarked. As an anti-spam measure, new users cannot post or comment until a day or two after opening their accounts, but you can bypass that if you have an invite code from an existing user. 

Because there’s no algorithm, the easiest way to find people and posts you’re interested in (and make it easy for other users to find you) is by using tags. Users are encouraged to slap as many as possible onto each post, even if they’re super niche or more of an extra comment than a label. 

Cohost also attracts the artistic and LGBTQI+ communities, and has a strong population of Furries. In general, users are nice and respectful, while looking to make friends, show their work, and share humor. A cute extra feature is Cohost’s mascot, Eggbug, a round magenta bug who’s the star of a lot of fan art and merchandise.  

People can interact freely with each other at a “federal” level—meaning regardless of what community they belong to—or join more than one server at a time. If you change your mind, the platform allows you to move your entire account, including your followers, from one community to another. 

All this makes the Mastodon concept a little difficult to understand upfront, so the learning curve for new users is a bit steeper than for other platforms. Still, the best way to truly see if Mastodon is the Twitter alternative for you is to create an account and dive in head first. 

What makes CounterSocial different from other platforms is its claim to have a zero-tolerance policy for bullies, trolls, ads, and fake news. The network takes this so far that it has completely banned entire countries for being “well known to be origin points of an overwhelming majority of bots and trolls.” The list currently includes Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and Syria, and the platform reserves the right to add and remove territories to this list at its own discretion. 

[Related: 8 tricks for making your Twitter feed less toxic]

CounterSocial (also known as COSO) puts a particular emphasis on news and politics. You’ll see MSNBC’s news ribbon at the top of your screen, and Counter Pro accounts even have access to news video clips on the homepage. Something you won’t see anywhere else is COSO’s current overall network sentiment—you’ll see it in the form of a thermometer at the top of the first column. This tool is constantly taking the pulse of the platform, measuring its level of toxicity. By looking at it you can be sure that people are, indeed, on edge, and it’s not just you. 

In terms of community, CounterSocial has a variety of folks sharing things like random thoughts, music, and the latest decal they’ve stuck to their bikes. Still, in the time we spent there, most posts were about politics, and all of them were very clearly from the same blue side of the US political spectrum. 

As an added bonus, COSO Pro users ($4.99 a month) get access to Counter Realms, which is a virtual reality iteration of the social network. There, users can create spaces or join those formed by others, and talk to other people using their avatars. If you have a VR set, you can use it in Realms, but if you prefer to keep it old-school, you can also access the platform with only your computer. 

This story has been updated. It was first published on April 27, 2022.

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With egg prices rising and concerns over food security increasing, some folks have taken a step toward self-sufficiency and opted to raise chickens in their backyards. Whether for meat or solely for eggs, having your own coop may be a great solution if you’ve been struggling to find ingredients for your breakfast omelet.

But tending a flock requires work, time, space, and above all, shouldering the responsibility of caring for the health and well-being of animals. It’s no joke. That’s why it’s important to know exactly what you’re getting yourself into before you welcome chickens into your life. 

“People see the adorable coops on social media and the cute fluffy chickens and it’s something they automatically want. But chicken keeping is work,” says Nikki Husted, author of the upcoming book Chicken Keeping Pure and Simple: A Fun, Friendly Guide to Backyard Chicken Keeping. 

[Related: Why you should build a swing for your chickens]

Husted, who’s also known to her almost 250,000 TikTok followers as @purelychickens, explains that there’s a learning curve to raising birds where you’ll be constantly troubleshooting and adjusting your caretaking techniques. The process can quickly become frustrating, which may be why some folks trying it for the first time at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic ended up giving up their chickens or even abandoning them. 

This is why it’s important to do thorough research before you set off on this new adventure. But don’t be discouraged: they’re very much worth it and not only for the food.   

“[Chickens] provide so much more than just eggs,” says Husted. “Not only do they give us laughs and companionship, but they have helped [me and my husband] teach our children about kindness and respect for animals.”  

“Chicken upkeep doesn’t take much time at all,” says Lisa Steele, author of The Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook and fifth-generation chicken keeper. 

Once you’ve perfected your routine, it should only take about 10 minutes each morning and night to let the chickens in and out, feed them, and check for eggs. That’s it. This should be pretty easy if you’re working from home, but as long as you provide your birds with enough food and water, as well as a safe coop and run, there’s no need to have anyone supervising the flock during the day, she says. 

If you need to go somewhere for work, Husted recommends using large gravity feeders and five-gallon waterers. That way you won’t have to worry about your chickens starving if you run late at night. 

But you will have to worry about temperature in the colder months. “Eggs tend to freeze in the winter if you don’t collect them in a timely manner,” she explains. If that happens, the egg can crack, making it vulnerable to germs, and it’s as good as gone. 

For the coop, you’ll need to consider 3 to 4 square feet per chicken. This is especially important in the colder months when they’ll spend most of their time indoors, or if there’s not a large area for the run. And don’t forget about furniture. Yes, chicken furniture. Steele recommends a minimum of 8 inches of roosting bar per hen (they perch on it to sleep), and one nesting box for every 3 to 4 hens to lay their eggs. Keeping your flock entertained and stimulated is also a good idea, as bored birds can start pecking their roommates. For this, consider making your own chicken swing out of branches and rope.

All the sources we consulted for this story recommend getting a coop that can house more chicks than you actually plan on buying. If your flock outgrows its shelter or you end up purchasing more chickens, you’ll have to upgrade your setup, and that’s not only annoying, but can also get expensive. 

As for chicks, Steele says they can cost between $4 and $15 each depending on the breed. But high demand for the hobby has slightly increased prices in the past two years and made some varieties harder to find. 

The main other expense you’ll have is chicken feed. Amy Barkley, livestock and beginning farm specialist with Cornell University Cooperative Extension, explains that hens will eat about 1/3 pound of feed per day, which equates to a yearly cost of about $50 per bird. This calculation is based on 50-pound bags of feed, which Barkley says you should be able to find for around $20. But prices will vary depending on where you are and what kind of food you get—you’ll find varieties like GMO-free or organic can be slightly more expensive than generic. Steele says you can also reduce your feed bill by sharing some kitchen and garden scraps with the flock or allowing them to forage for grass, weeds, and bugs in the yard.

“The cost to keep chickens is relatively low, but the reality is that it’s still probably cheaper to purchase eggs from the store,” says Barkley. If you find that’s the case for you, you may want to reconsider your flock-keeping endeavors—and that is absolutely fine. 

“​​Breeds in this category are large-sized chickens that will lay well and are easy to manage,” she explains. These include Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Island and New Hampshire Reds, Orpingtons, Ameraucanas, and Leghorns. 

Then there’s the question of how to start: should you get chicks or fully grown hens? There are pros and cons to both approaches. With chicks, there are fewer things in the world cuter than a baby yellow fluff, they’re inexpensive, and raising them from a younger age will make it easier for them to get used to you. Familiarity will prevent you from sharing your property with some very aggressive tenants. 

On the downside, you’ll have to wait between 5 and 6 months before your chicks are old enough to lay eggs, and they need more equipment and care than older birds, including heat lamps, brooders, and chick dust. And then there’s the wild card factor: telling a chick’s sex is tricky, so even if you buy females, there’s still a 10 percent chance that you’ll end up with a rooster instead of a hen, says Barkley. That can easily become a problem, not only because they can be more aggressive than hens, but because some urban areas don’t allow keeping roosters because of noise concerns.

If you want to make sure your flock comprises egg-laying hens only, you can get ready-to-lay birds. But it’ll cost you—they can go for $20 to $50 each, more than three times as much as a chick from the most expensive breeds. Also, adult hens are more set in their ways, so you may get more than one less-than-loving peck every time you enter the coop.

If you have a pupper, getting them to peacefully coexist with your flock is not impossible, but it’ll highly depend on their breed, as some are genetically wired to hunt fowl. Knowing your pooch’s limits and slowly introducing them to your birds in a supervised environment will be key to helping them get along. Just keep in mind that it may never happen. In that case, providing a secure shelter and run for your flock is essential to protecting them.

Other than a proper roof, The Happy Chicken Coop, a website dedicated to providing information about backyard chicken keeping, suggests using wire mesh with openings no larger than a ½ inch for the bottom 3 feet of the fence around your run. 

“If you have a building that has a dirt floor, line the perimeter with cinder blocks or bury hardware cloth 12 inches below the ground to keep baddies from digging under the walls,” Barkley says.

Some counties and municipalities have people apply for permits, fill out applications, or pay a fee to set up a chicken coop on their property. They may also have specific requirements as to how big it can be and where it can be located. Sometimes they’ll even send inspectors to make sure everything’s in order. 

[Related: We don’t know what a happy chicken looks like, and that’s a big problem]

To save yourself money and trouble, check the requirements for keeping chickens in your area. You’ll usually find that information in your state’s or city’s health code or by asking the wildlife or parks department. Barkley also recommends reaching out to your local university’s extension office. In New York City, for example, the city’s regulations allow people to have hens, not roosters, in all five boroughs without a permit, but the coop and run have to be at least 25 feet away from the nearest building. 

If you live in a communal building or have close neighbors, informing them about your plans ahead of time can also help preserve the peace. Steele says that even if you only keep hens, they’ll still make noise, especially after laying, so you’ll need to be prepared if that becomes a problem. But the promise of fresh eggs delivered to their door may be enough to convince your neighbors. It might be a small price to pay to keep everyone happy. Especially your chickens.

The post 6 things to know before deciding to raise backyard chickens appeared first on Popular Science.

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IT’S BECOME COMMON for social media platforms and other online services to offer you a way to find, edit, and delete the data they have on you. The steps aren’t always obvious, but if you dig deep enough into a site’s settings, you’ll likely find a page full of information the company has gathered in an attempt to serve you more relevant ads.

What you see will vary, but you should find data points such as your gender, marital status, education, income bracket, and various interests. Platforms make this data available for the sake of transparency, but also to tempt you into refining it—if only to stop seeing ads about football games when you’re more of a basketball person.

But be careful: A more complete profile may result in ads you find more relevant, and that doesn’t benefit you. It benefits them—the platforms that earn billions of dollars from advertisers to show you banners and autoplay videos they hope will get you to spend your money on things you may not need.

Transparency is always good news

For more than a decade, the biggest players in the digital advertising industry have been Google and Meta. In 2021, these powerhouses respectively held close to a third and a quarter of the market share. Their dominance may be why they have both created dedicated sites that people can use to see information each company has gathered for its advertising purposes. 

In the case of the Big G, the site is My Ad Center. For a long time, this was an options menu you could find only through your main account page, but the company recently gave it more prominence with a user-friendly makeover and its own URL. While signed into your Google account, you can visit the site and tweak ad-related settings for all of the company’s products, including YouTube. 

[Related: When it comes to privacy, smart devices are not the smarter choice]

Meta has something similar. In the past, users had to go through a labyrinthic process to find their Facebook ad settings, but getting to the right menu is a lot easier now. (On the web, go to Settings and Privacy, Privacy Center, find Ads, and click on Get Started.) You can even bypass those steps by going directly to the platform’s ad settings website while signed into your Facebook account. Changing your preferences here might also affect the ads you see on Instagram because both sites are owned by Meta. 

These are not the only ones: Microsoft, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and some others also give users the ability to see information these platforms have gathered. If you’re not sure where to find it, your best bet is to go to your account settings and look for any menus related to privacy or ads. 

Putting all this information at our disposal mainly helps with one thing: transparency. Tech privacy is a conundrum, and a hairy one at that. Not only is there a huge power disparity between the actors involved—you vs. lawyered-up, tech-savvy, billion-dollar companies—but also because it poses different challenges in different contexts. User privacy is intimately related to mass surveillance, including face recognition software, spying apps, and blabber-mouth speakers. There are also future problems we can’t even imagine at the moment. For people who talk and think about this for a living, it’s hard to keep up; for users who are not specifically attuned to the matter, it’s practically impossible. So having tech companies create a space to show us a potentially sanitized version of how the sausage is made is a big step in the right direction.  

Editing your ad preferences is a trap

But don’t get the wrong idea—this is not just a user perk. If you’ve ever had to undergo a serious medical procedure, your doctor might have sat you down and walked you through the process step by step. They do this so you’ll go into the operation feeling like you understand what’s going to happen.

The same principle applies to ad settings and user privacy in general. Some tech companies show you how they use your data to get you to trust them. This, in turn, may appease privacy concerns from certain reluctant users and some people advocating for regulation that would hinder the companies’ primary source of wealth. A little less mystery around data-harvesting can reduce questions about the services, making it easier for these companies to operate.  

You may feel relieved after Google tells you it’s not selling your personal information and Meta assures you it doesn’t share the content you post with data brokers. Even more than that—you may feel like you have control over what happens to your data. Up to a certain point, that’s true: These companies also give you the choice to personalize your experience and even turn off targeted ads altogether. But that’s not a lot of control. Personalized ads are on by default on many platforms, so unless you turned them off the second you created your account, the app has already used your data to try to sell you stuff. 

The chance to edit your ad profile can also be misleading. You can cull topics, accounts, and even specific brands you’re not interested in, but in doing so you’re helping make your data more accurate. There’s not really a way to win here, but refining your data may actually be worse than doing nothing. 

Still, there’s no harm in trying

Yet, having the ability to edit, omit, and add data can also be an opportunity. After all, if you can input data, you can input wrong data. This could mess with the algorithm and obscure real information, leading to ineffective ads and more privacy as a result. 

While this is a possibility, the somewhat disappointing truth is that we don’t know for sure whether this type of data obfuscation actually works. We can’t see what happens behind the scenes of social platform companies and their ad tech relationships, and without that access it’s hard to determine if changing our ad preferences to something that misrepresents our true selves does anything at all. 

[Related: How to uncover what Facebook knows about you]

We must also consider that online platforms use a vast variety of aggregated data to try to understand who you are and what you’re interested in, beyond what you input into its forms. This includes geotags you might have included on some of your posts, the language you speak, and the accounts you follow. That is a lot of information, so stating that you are not actually interested in sports might not counterbalance the fact that you follow a lot of sports-related accounts and constantly post about your favorite team. The good news is that trying won’t cost you a thing—using ad settings to protect your privacy might be a shot in the dark, but it’s one worth taking. 

Other than that, there’s not a lot you should do on the ad settings page of any given app. Anything you do there is really just free labor, whether it’s confirming your age group or trimming a long list of topics and interests. Some may think it’s fair—after all, these companies provide services, like Google Maps and WhatsApp, free of charge. But you’re definitely paying for them, just not in cash. You don’t want to do these companies’ work for them too.

Read more PopSci+ stories.

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Eggs are one of the most practical and efficient foods known to humans and an essential ingredient in cuisines around the world. But due to a series of unfortunate events (and, some say, corporate greed), eggs are now pricey and scarce. It’s enough to make you rethink your love for fluffy omelets at breakfast.

Luckily, many egg replacements are foods you might already have at home. But what you use as a stand-in will depend on what you’re making and the role eggs play in that particular concoction. 

To give you first-hand knowledge, we tried different egg replacement options with the same simple vanilla muffin recipe to see which ones work and which ones stink like a rotten egg. 

To choose the best replacement for any recipe, Lourdes Castro, a registered dietitian and director of the Food Lab at New York University, says you first need to figure out what the eggs are doing in the food you’re making. For that, a good understanding of how eggs function in food preparation comes in handy.

[Related: We made pancakes with substituted ingredients so you don’t have to]

Keep in mind that eggs are multitaskers and might be playing more than one role in the recipe. In that case, get yourself a replacement that tackles those needs, and don’t be afraid to experiment by adjusting the quantities of the other ingredients if you need to.

This is possible thanks to lecithin, which egg yolks have in abundance, Castro explains. Lecithin molecules have a hydrophilic (water-loving) and a hydrophobic (water-hating, fat-loving) side. This structure gives this nutrient the ability to simultaneously bind to oil and butter, as well as non-fatty substances like milk, making it an excellent emulsifier. If your recipe contains these two conflicting types of ingredients, your eggs are likely serving as an emulsifier.

Think of meatballs, for example. Cook a clump of ground beef and it’ll crumble. Add some eggs, and the roundness will last until the meat is fully cooked. This is because the high protein content in the eggs acts as glue, keeping everything together even in the presence of destructive heat. Anytime you’re making a quiche or adding seeds as a finishing touch to your buns, you’re using eggs as a binder.

When you whisk egg whites, you mix air into them. The stirring motion also creates an elastic web of proteins that traps air bubbles in place, allowing the gooey whites to expand. 

“[Eggs are] able to function like a leavening agent, bringing volume and height to a baked good, or whatever it is that you’re making,” says Castro. Egg yolks also have this ability, but because of their high fat content, they can only foam up to a certain degree, she adds. So any time you’re making a fluffy sponge that requires a lot of mixing and beating, eggs are there to add volume.

The glossy bronze finish is partially due to the Maillard effect: the reaction responsible for the browning of proteins that are exposed to heat. But how dark your baked goods get will depend more on the amount of pigment in the egg yolk. 

Aquafaba

• Ratio per egg: 3 tablespoons 
• Ideal for: volume and binding
• Overall performance: 🥚🥚🥚🥚🥚

Aquafaba, also known as the water that comes along with canned chickpeas, is a staple in vegan cuisine for a reason. This seemingly innocuous substance is full of protein, and its ability to foam makes it the perfect ingredient to make vegan meringue. This is also what makes it an ideal replacement when you want to add volume to your baked goods. In this experiment, it worked great. 

Depending on the chickpeas you get, the aquafaba could be a bit watery; you want it to be thick and resemble an egg-white consistency. You’ll never get a perfect goo like that, but you can get pretty close by reducing the aquafaba in a small saucepan on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes. Castro explains this is an easy way to increase the protein concentration in the liquid, as heat will eliminate the excess water. 

We reduced the aquafaba and waited for it to cool down before using it. We also made sure to mix it thoroughly with the rest of the liquid ingredients, beating it by hand for a minute or two. If you have an electric mixer, you might be able to get more volume than we did, but even two minutes of whisking by someone with very questionable upper body strength did the trick perfectly, so you don’t actually need one.   

The result was an almost perfect dupe of the control batch. The texture, volume, and flavor were spot on, with the only difference being that the aquafaba muffins were a lot paler than their eggy counterparts. Still, this was one of our favorite replacements, and we ended up with a can of chickpeas we later used to make a delicious salad with onion and feta cheese. Waste not, want not. 

Carbonated water

• Ratio per egg: ¼ cup
• Ideal for: volume
• Overall performance: 🥚🥚🥚🥚🥚

Listen, this one surprised us too. Water is certainly not the same as an egg, but when it comes to baking, the added bubbles in spicy water can provide a similar leavening effect, creating volume for your baked goods. Since water adds no flavor or fat to the batter, you may notice the taste of other ingredients more, so you may want to account for that when using this replacement. 

The finished muffins were actually very close to the control batch, and looked a lot like them. There was no noticeable change in flavor, either.

Fruit puree

• Ratio per egg: ¼ cup (65 grams) 
• Ideal for: binding
• Overall performance: 🥚🥚🥚🥚

When using fruit as an egg replacement, most sites recommend pureed apples or bananas, but you could technically use any ripened fruit as long as it’s not excessively watery (please don’t try watermelon). 

The key ingredient that fruit is adding to your batter is pectin, which a lot of recipes for jams and jellies use as a gelling agent. Simply put, it makes things thicker. In baking, pectin is a pretty good binding agent.

“Bananas are very good at delivering that,” Castro says. “The color is pretty benign, there’s not a lot of seeds, it’s pretty easy to use, and there’s not a lot of water, so it tends to be a good ingredient.”

As easy and accessible as it might be, using fruit as an egg replacement also means the stand-in’s flavor will come through in the finished product. This is not necessarily bad if you like the flavor, but it’s not the best option if you want something more neutral. 

We used mashed bananas, which we could faintly taste at the end of the experiment. But the rest of the variables were pretty stable: they looked the same as the control group, and the texture was only slightly denser.  

Baking powder and vinegar

• Ratio per egg: 1 teaspoon baking powder + 1 tablespoon vinegar 
• Ideal for: volume
• Overall performance: 🥚🥚🥚🥚

In cooking, the baking powder and vinegar combo is used to add volume. The foaming reaction between these two ingredients produces carbon dioxide, which pushes the batter outward to create height. 

Castro explains that this reaction in the oven is sort of a head start to the rise. The CO2 bubbles expand the mix while the gluten coagulates, and if all goes well, they will hold the structure long enough to fix it in place, giving your baked goods size and an airy texture. 

You will notice the difference between a muffin with eggs and one using baking powder and vinegar mainly because the latter has no fat, so the texture won’t be as soft. Luckily, our recipe had a healthy amount of butter that counteracted the absence of the egg fat, so the difference was only noticeable against the control batch. 

Full-fat, unflavored yogurt

• Ratio per egg: ¼ cup (65 grams) 
• Ideal for: binding
• Overall performance: 🥚🥚🥚

Yogurt has a lot of protein, but it’s different from egg protein because it doesn’t coagulate as easily with heat, Castro explains. This doesn’t make it a good replacement when it comes to binding things together, but in this particular case, the presence of milk changes that. 

“Milk does respond to acid, so the yogurt coagulates the milk and then removes a lot of that water,” Castro says. The result is a more concentrated form of protein that was able to keep our muffins from falling apart. 

We ended up with soft, pale-ish muffins that didn’t rise as much as the control group, so the crumbs were a bit denser overall. Yogurt also gave the muffins a faint tangy flavor, which counterbalanced the sweetness of the sugar. This could be perfect if this is your kind of thing, but if you like your muffins with a more neutral flavor, you’re better off choosing another replacement. 

Chia seeds

• Ratio per egg: 1 tablespoon seeds + 3 tablespoons water
• Ideal for: binding, structure
• Overall performance: 🥚🥚🥚

You can use chia or flax seeds to replace eggs, as both grains gel in the presence of moisture. To use it, soak the seeds in water for five minutes before adding them to the batter. You can grind them or use them as-is, the only difference being that using whole seeds will give your baked goods a specific texture you won’t get when using eggs.

Chia and flax seeds have fat and protein, so they’ll provide structure and bind ingredients together. This happens because the seeds take up more space and absorb a lot of the liquid in the batter as they gel. 

This was clear to us as the resulting muffins were indeed drier, denser, and visually lumpier than the control group. The chia seeds provided some minor added sweetness, but it was hard to get past the denseness of the muffins themselves. That said, you may be able to adjust or add other ingredients to add moisture if you’re willing to experiment. 

Castro recommends you stay away from replacements if you’re making mayonnaise or hollandaise sauce, as no other ingredients will make up for everything eggs do in those particular foods. Browning and color are two other fronts where replacements won’t do as well, she says. The protein in foods like aquafaba will give you some color and gloss, but you’ll only be able to achieve the bronzed look of a brioche with the golden pigments of an egg yolk.  

The post 6 egg alternatives for these trying times appeared first on Popular Science.

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A new year is always a fresh opportunity to start your fitness journey. This can mean anything, whether you’d just like to get off the couch more often, want to run a 5K, or are hoping to win a bodybuilding competition by 2024. 

You may not be sure about how to achieve your goals, but that’s ok. Having the motivation to get out there is half the battle, and we want to help you along your way. 

PopSci has a number of science-backed fitness stories to guide you in this new era. You’ll learn how to make the best of your workouts, how to get gains safely and consistently, and how to keep your body healthy along the way. 

Our guide on how to get muscle gains will walk you through that process and explain how resting is as important as going to the gym, and how protein is a crucial element your body needs to build more mass.

[Related: You should definitely rotate your workouts]

Food restrictions like veganism can seem like an added layer of difficulty when it comes to including enough protein in your diet, but getting those gains doesn’t require you to become a carnivore. If you need guidance, head on over to our vegan guide on how to get muscle gains and learn about the foods that will give you the nutrients you need to achieve your fitness goals.  

But before you repeat the same stationary stretches you might remember from PE class, give dynamic warmups a try. These exercises will not only tell your brain it’s time to move—which is especially important after sitting at a desk for a while—but will also prepare your body for physical activity by getting your blood flowing and your heart rate up.

But other than resting, there are other techniques you can use to help your muscles feel better after a heavy workout. That annoying and painful soreness you feel around 24 hours after your last gym session is a result of muscle damage, and recovery techniques can help you handle the pain and help tissue heal faster. 

From classic stretching to foam rollers, ice baths, and massages, our guide on what works when it comes to recovery can be exactly what you need when your muscles are so sore that getting off your chair comes with excruciating pain. 

Knowing your maintenance rate—the number of calories you burn simply by existing—can give you a baseline to adjust the number of calories you eat every day to keep the muscles growing and fat-burning going. 

It’s important to know that monitoring your food can be a slippery slope to unhealthy habits, so make sure to do it only for short periods of time, and to follow experts’ recommendations regarding calorie surplus and deficit. And if you don’t know what those are, don’t worry—it’s all in our guide. 

Getting a fitness tracker can help compile all the statistics you need to keep going and improving—all you need is to put it on and go do your best. And if you don’t know which wearable to get, we have some recommendations that might lead you in the right direction. 

The type of device you get will highly depend on your budget and your preferred activity, but there are a lot of options to choose from, and they can all give you that extra motivation you need to face another day of your fitness journey.  

When it comes to building muscle and improving performance, science has only found two supplements that will help. Learning how to take them and how they work for your body will help you have a better understanding of your process. Keep in mind that you may need to consult a doctor before you start supplementing your nutrition, and also remember supplements don’t do miracles. Moving, resting, and, above all, patience, will keep you on a good path to your fitness goals. 

The post It’s time for your 2023 fitness journey—here’s how to get started appeared first on Popular Science.

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THE TECHNOLOGY in modern home appliances has breathed new life (and plausibility) into the old saying “If these walls could talk.” Your fridge and smart speaker may not have mouths, but they have an internet connection, and that can be more dangerous than the sharpest of tongues. 

Tech companies and manufacturers have made it seem like privacy is just a matter of digging into your device’s settings and disabling cameras and microphones. But after years of data breaches and high-profile reports of secret recordings, maybe you don’t trust that approach and are looking for analog solutions that neutralize the hardware rather than the software.    

This is not just guesswork. A 2018 investigation by researchers at Northeastern University found that out of the 17,000 most popular apps on the Google Play Store, only a small handful of them surreptitiously listen to you. There are exceptions, but research shows most apps are well-behaved and don’t eavesdrop without your knowledge. To soothe our fears even more, both Android and iOS have launched on-screen features that let you know whenever your phone’s mics or cameras are operational.   

So when it comes to spying gadgets, the true wildcards are devices hooked up to the Internet of Things (IoT): smart fridges, washers, dryers, bulbs, and thermostats. For the past decade, people have been welcoming these gadgets into their homes, often not realizing that their data may be poorly protected or that malicious actors may be able to take control of the device itself. Even those who know about the potential security risks have reported difficulties finding specific information about them. 

Then there are smart speakers. The sole purpose of this type of gadget is to respond to your voice commands, but to do their job they need to be listening at all times. And according to manufacturers such as Amazon, they also need to record everything you say after the trigger word. They do this so their systems (and sometimes a team of humans you don’t know) can analyze your words and use them to help the artificial intelligence powering your speaker improve with time. 

That makes sense—after all, algorithms are only as good as the data we feed them. But even if you don’t have a smart speaker at home, you know trigger words can be tricky. It’s not that rare to “Hey Google” your heart out without the gizmo ever acknowledging you, and sometimes the most random conversation can summon Siri—even if no one said anything that sounds remotely like the name of Apple’s digital assistant. Nonverbal sounds can also invite Alexa to the party, and Amazon’s product has been caught sending private conversations to strangers.

Luckily, a lot has changed in the last couple years. Amazon’s latest generation of Echo devices now comes with a built-in button to turn off the mic, preventing any listening or recording. This also defeats the purpose of a smart speaker, but it’ll allow you to have that intimate family talk in private—if you remember to press the button first. Don’t worry if you’re stuck with an older Echo model: the company also changed its privacy settings so you can manage the recordings, transcripts, and usage history Amazon has on you, and even delete them. No matter which model you have, you can choose to prevent Alexa from saving any future recordings of you, and tell the company not to use your data to improve its smart assistant.  

After Alexa kept making headlines due to privacy concerns, Google and Apple took measures of their own. The Big G incorporated new management tools to give users more control over their Google Assistant usage history and put a switch on its speakers to turn off the mic. Both companies paused human review of users’ recordings, but Apple stepped it up a notch when it announced Siri would start handling commands locally. This means Apple’s HomePod would not need to send any recordings to the company’s servers to process a query. 

When it comes to protecting users’ privacy, these are all undeniable steps in the right direction. But it’s still fair to wonder if any of this would’ve happened had it not been for independent investigations and reports shedding light on sketchy situations. It’s also fair to wonder whether there are other ways in which these IoT devices are spilling the beans, laying messy groundwork for unexpected consequences in the future. More than that: These concerns are perfectly sensible.

Disabling microphones, though, is another story. The mics on smart speakers and home appliances are built to detect and understand human speech. For that purpose, they’re equipped with an AI-powered speech system that allows them to focus on one sound source, effectively isolating your voice. So even if your huskies decide to come together in song in the same room, there’s still a pretty good chance your gadgets will understand their trigger word. That means that to prevent your devices from spying on you, you’d have to drown out their mics with constant loud sound. Not the most practical task in the world. 

That’s not to say there aren’t solutions. Take Project Alias, for example: an open-source, 3D-printable gizmo that sits atop your smart speaker and constantly drowns out the microphone to prevent recording. It won’t totally neutralize your speaker, and you can rename your device so that when you say the trigger word, the microphones will work again. That means if you rename your Echo speaker “PopSci,” Project Alias won’t allow it to hear “Alexa” but will grant you access if you say, “Hey, PopSci.” The bad news is that Project Alias was designed to fit a previous tubular-shaped version of the Echo, and the discontinued Google Home, so it’ll only help if you buy these speakers secondhand or already have one at home. Needless to say, it won’t work with other IoT devices.

Short of options, the next step we can take to protect our privacy against snooping devices is to just not buy smart home devices. This may sound like an extremely disappointing solution, especially when you’ve already splurged on a washing machine that texts you when your laundry is ready for the dryer—but that’s what we’ve got. The research team at Northeastern University is looking to determine just how much data these gadgets are harvesting, but as long as manufacturers hide information under the guise of proprietary technology, we’ll never have full transparency as to what they’re actually doing. And just like with smart speakers, changes are most likely to come only after abuse has been exposed and harm already done. 

In the meantime, if you’re in the market for new appliances, ask yourself if you really need your lightbulbs connected to your WiFi network, or how much value fridge notifications bring into your life. Sure, being able to peek through your doorbell camera on your phone can be incredibly useful, but the price you pay may not only be in dollars—and you’ll be paying it for as long as your device is online. 

Read more PopSci+ stories.

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In your language-learner dreams, you may be asking a local what time the train is coming in a perfect Parisian accent, or ordering scialatelli as if you’ve spent your entire life vacationing on the Amalfi Coast. But knowing the words is one thing. Sounding like a native is entirely different.

“From a learning perspective, you don’t need to sound like you have lived in Paris your whole life in order to speak French and be understood, and have a great time communicating,” says Blanco.

[Related: The language you speak changes your perception of time]

It’s totally valid to want to eventually pronounce everything perfectly and have people ask you if you’ve spent a lot of time abroad. But the true goal of learning a second or third language should be communication, which is often unrelated to pronunciation. 

So the next time you’re having trouble with a particular sound, ask yourself if it changes the meaning of words at all. If the answer is no, your attention and focus will be better served elsewhere. 

Blanco explains that communication generally happens in two layers: first, you think of a concept or desire, then your brain translates that into words you can express to others through sounds. 

“When you’re learning a new language, we don’t automatically map the new words to the concepts, we map them to our own language. So we create an extra layer,” Blanco explains.  

So, you think of a concept, then think of the words to express that concept in your mother tongue, and then you consciously look for the equivalent of those words in the language you’re learning. And that’s just at a conceptual level. Once you have the words, your brain has to tell your face muscles to overcome decades of use and move in strange and unfamiliar ways to emit the sounds of these new words. It’s a lot. 

Slowing down on the spot will give you more time to manage the internal process of thinking and speaking in a new language, while slowing down across the board will give your brain time to better adjust to something new.  

“The goal of learning is to have so much practice with the new language that you start mapping it directly to the concept. That’s what people mean when they talk about thinking in the language—you want to skip the translation in your head,” says Blanco. 

Thinking about your brain as a muscle and a new language as physical activity might help—picking up swimming when you’ve been running your entire life is hard. Muscles you didn’t even know you had will be sore, and maybe you won’t even know how to breathe correctly. Don’t worry—your skills will grow with time and practice.  

When it comes to vowels, Blanco recommends that English speakers think of these sounds as shorter and sharper. For example, the Spanish “O” sounds like only half of the aforementioned English “oʊ” phoneme, which in turn sounds like the pairing of two Spanish phonemes: “O” and “U.”  

For English speakers, there’s no doubt that the Mount Everest of Spanish pronunciation is the rolling or trilled “R”. If you’ve felt the frustration of not being able to replicate this sound, Blanco says you can just skip it. More often than not, an inability to trill your Rs will not affect communication. Yes, you’ll sound like an American speaking Spanish, but locals will still be able to get what you’re saying. 

If you’re going to stress over Rs, your energy is better spent mastering the single “R” sound in Spanish—the one you’ll encounter in words like “para” and “arena.” This one’s especially tricky because it actually exists in English, but under a different letter, Blanco explains. 

“We just don’t think of it being an ‘R’—we think it’s a double ‘T’ or a double ‘D,’ like in ‘ladder’ or ‘matter,’” says Blanco. 

In cases like this one, turning off the subtitles and skipping the transcripts when you’re listening to Spanish content can be a good idea, as it will let you concentrate on the sounds and not get tricked by the words.  

Moving your face and mouth muscles in a way that may feel exaggerated is necessary for good English pronunciation. And even if it feels like you’re doing a Jim Carrey impersonation, you’re not—you’re just moving your face in an unfamiliar way. The other problem is that mastering English vowels is necessary because unlike the rolling Rs in Spanish, these sounds can change the meaning of a word, like in “bit” and “beat.”

Blanco explains that the main challenges are rounded vowels. These are the sounds that require you to round your lips, which can feel extremely unnatural for English and Spanish speakers since these sounds are nowhere to be found in those languages. 

To get better at this, your best bet is to observe the mouths of francophones and try imitating them. Blanco recommends streaming a French show and paying close attention to how people move their lips when they speak. You can also have a mirror at hand and try to imitate the sounds and movements on the spot. Don’t do this without a reference—you want to be able to compare the correct form to what you’re doing and tweak it as necessary.  

Just like Spanish speakers learning English, English speakers learning French will feel like they’re contorting their muscles a lot more, which can lead to feeling self-conscious. But there’s no need to—you’re probably not moving excessively, just moving in a way you’re not used to. Keep at it until it becomes natural. 

But there’s a catch—or more. While Spanish is a category 1 language on the difficulty scale, Japanese is a category 8 (the highest). Among the reasons for this discrepancy are stress patterns, long vowels, double or geminated consonants, and rhythm.  

[Related: 5 great apps for learning a new language]

Japanese has a different stress pattern than English, explains Blanco, and while Americans usually stress one syllable, native Japanese speakers tend to stress syllables more consistently throughout, making words sound somewhat flatter. Geminated consonants, also present in Italian, add to longer vowel sounds that prolong the basic phonemes to create new ones. And if that’s not enough, the rhythm of Japanese is completely different from English, which forces learners to unlearn even how they breathe when speaking. 

Doing a lot of listening and thinking about intonation and rhythm can help, Blanco says, as it can make it easier for a Japanese listener to break apart what you’re saying.

Blanco recommends focusing your attention on watching native speakers’ mouths, and listening exercises. This time, forgo any transcripts, as German has sounds that are present in English but are represented by different letters. This can result in written words being more confusing than helpful. 

The post Learning a new language? Here’s how to perfect your pronunciation. appeared first on Popular Science.

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We all deserve more secure internet connections, and if you splurged on one of Google’s latest phones, you already have one available. The Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro come with a built-in VPN, giving users a private and secure network for no extra charge. 

The feature has been available for some time to Google One users on the Premium tier ($100 a year), so if you’re renting cloud storage from the big G, you can also use this feature, no matter what device you have. 

Setting it up the first time is not as intuitive as you’d hope, but once you’ve enabled it, it’ll be way easier to turn on and off whenever you need an extra layer of security. 

On a new Pixel, once Google One is installed, the device will prompt you to sign in using the main account on your phone. On the next screen, the app will show you a pop-up message saying you have access to a VPN and inviting you to set it up. Tap Manage to do just that.

If you’re not on a Pixel 7, log into the app using the account linked to your Google One subscription. On the Home tab, scroll down and tap Manage on the VPN tile.

On the next screen, tap the toggle switch next to Use VPN to turn it on. Accept the connection request that follows, and your connection will automatically become private. You’ll know the VPN is active because you’ll see a tiny key icon to the left of the clock in the upper right corner of your screen.

Remember that the Quick Settings menu only has 16 slots. When you open the notifications drawer (pull down from the top of your screen with one finger) you’ll only see the first four; if you fully open the menu, you’ll only see the first eight; and you’ll have to slide that group to the left to see the remaining eight. If you will be using your VPN on and off throughout the day, we recommend you drop its corresponding tile into one of the first four slots, to save yourself some slide gestures and ensure you always have easy access to it. 

This virtual globe-hopping feature has helped users access content that’s not readily available in their region, like titles in Netflix’s French catalog that you can’t get in the US. To prevent this workaround, some apps just block VPNs altogether—you can open them, but they won’t load until you turn your VPN off. If you have one of these restrictive apps on your phone, it won’t make any exceptions for Google’s VPN, but you’ll be able to give these apps the ability to bypass the private connection so you can keep using them while the VPN is on.

To do this, open the Google One app and tap on the VPN tile. Under Using apps when the VPN is on, tap Update settings, then hit the plus sign next to each app you want to ignore the VPN. Once you’re done, Google One will prompt you to restart your connection and you’ll be good to go. 

VPNs can be extremely helpful whenever you have to access sensitive information while using a public network. So, if you need to check your bank balance and the only way to connect to the internet is through a store’s WiFi, you’ll definitely want to protect yourself from potential attacks by using a VPN. Setting it up now will let you have it handy whenever you need it. 

The post Pixel 7 users can now activate Google’s mobile VPN for free appeared first on Popular Science.

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If you want to skip all that, there’s an easy way to avoid making a mistake that might not only result in irreparable damage to your screen but to your entire device. According to Joe Silverman, owner of New York Computer Help, a tech repair center in New York City, no matter how much money you spent on your computer or tablet, it probably has an LED or an LCD screen if you bought it within the last three years—and neither type benefits from window cleaner or highly concentrated alcohol. 

[Related: The complete guide to spring cleaning your computer]

And if that doesn’t sound bad enough, think about what happens when the protective layer is completely ruined.  

“Underneath there it’s the most intelligent part of the laptop,” Silverman explains. “What happens is that the liquid will get through that first line of defense, and when it does that it’s going to really affect the sensors.” 

Things get even trickier when you’re dealing with touchscreens. On models like the Microsoft Surface, the display is the main input—as opposed to your mouse or trackpad on a regular laptop—so it’s ultra-sensitive, Silverman says. Using a strong liquid cleaner like a degreaser or a bleach-based disinfectant can obliterate the top layer on the screen. Combine that with high pressure, and you can kiss your fancy touchscreen computer goodbye.

Another downside to newer computers is their size and weight. If you decided to splurge on a new laptop, for example, you probably found one that has top-notch components, but also a slick, lightweight design. This format is only possible if everything in your laptop is smaller and thinner. In the case of your display, a thinner screen means a weaker barrier between your computer’s guts and the elements in the outside world. 

First, turn off your computer and disconnect the charger. This might sound paranoid, but the benefit is twofold—you avoid any chance of triggering an electrical surge, and your screen will remain black, which will make it easier to see any dirt and grime.

Pour a couple drops of water on your cloth. Forget paper towels or the sleeve of that soft cotton t-shirt you love—microfiber is your best bet. Still, no matter how soft it is, a dry wipe could always leave micro-abrasions on your screen. The moisture will also help gather dust and particles while lifting grease from your display. 

Use circular motions starting in the center of your screen and moving outward, so you don’t leave any streaks. If you can see any droplets or water traces on the glass while you clean, you’ve used way too much water. Gently dab the residual H2O with an absorbent cloth or tissue paper and start again. 

If you’re dealing with next-level gunk, you can use isopropyl alcohol at 70 percent or lower, Silverman says. “That percentage is very important,” he explains. “We’d only use 90 percent or higher on dummy parts that don’t have sensors, like top cases and keyboards.” In these extreme cases, spray the alcohol on the cloth, never directly on the screen, and wipe it gently. 

Maybe you can get away with using a high percentage of alcohol or even a window cleaner on your computer screen once or twice. But if you keep at it, eventually you’ll see the deleterious effects. 

“You’ll see discoloration, lines (vertical and horizontal); sometimes it looks pretty and rainbow-like,” Silverman says. “Sometimes it’ll blink and sometimes you’ll see droplets of water or liquid in the back of the screen. There’s a lot of ways in which damage appears.”

And here is the bad news: you cannot fix it. The only way to get rid of that damage is to replace the screen. 

The best way to avoid damaging your screen while cleaning it is to simply keep it from getting dirty in the first place. If you have a laptop, cover the keyboard with a thin microfiber cloth before closing it to prevent finger grease from transferring to the screen. If you have a touchscreen, wash your hands often before you use it, but make sure you let your hands dry completely before you start tapping—the soapy water or liquid hand cleanser from your fingers can easily end up on the screen and corrode it. 

Wet, newly washed hands can also be detrimental to regular computers. Silverman says he often sees such victims in his shop—computers completely dead after hand sanitizer rubbed off the owner’s hands, seeped through the keyboard, and ruined the inner guts of the machine. 

[Related: Best monitors for home offices]

Silverman explains that most iPhones and Samsung phones, for example, have screens made out of one thick piece of glass. These, as opposed to computer screens, have all the LCD layers fused together, making them much more difficult to damage. Still, if you’re using alcohol, he recommends keeping the concentration at 70 percent or lower, using a soft cloth, and applying only low pressure to get rid of any accumulated gunk there. 

Be especially careful with charging ports, as contact with water (also present in rubbing alcohol) can damage the electronics inside your smartphone. Newer models often are resistant to liquids, but there’s always a threshold to how much they can withstand. And you probably don’t want to know what that is.

Replacing the screen of your computer or smartphone can be expensive, and even if that’s not an issue for you, no one wants their devices to fail when they need them the most. So remember these tips well—we hope you never have to read this article again.

This story has been updated. It was originally posted on October 13, 2021.

The post How to clean a computer screen without destroying it appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Best for walks		Volt Lava Boots		SEE IT	If you need to hotfoot it somewhere but it’s cold outside, you’ll be fired up to get where you need to go once you get your feet in these heated boots.
Best for beverages		Ember Travel Mug		SEE IT	Keep your coffee or tea steamy for up to three hours on the go—or indefinitely while on the included charging coaster—thanks to a seven-sensor heating system and built-in battery pack.
Best for bedtime		Eddie Bauer Flannel Sheets		SEE IT	Achieve maximum coziness with these sheets, but they come with a warning: May make you not want to get out of bed.

For some people, the holidays are far from the most wonderful time of the year, temperature-wise. While others are going on strolls to enjoy the crisp fall air or playing in the snow of a winter wonderland, these folks just don’t seem to be built to withstand the dipping temperatures. Just like bears, they seem to spend the last months of the year hibernating in the warmth of their homes, dreading the very thought of setting a single foot outside. You can convince them to leave their home, though, by giving them the proper gear to keep them warm and cozy. Here are some of our hottest picks for the best gifts for the perpetually cold:

• Best for people with cold feet: Heat Holders Thermal Socks
• Best for techie coffee and tea drinkers: Ember Travel Mug
• Best shoes for winter walks: Volt Lava Boots
• Best hoodie: Chrome Merino Cobra Hoodie
• Best slippers: Glerups Wool Slip-On
• Best for the couch potato: The Comfy Wearable Blanket
• Best heated blanket: Bedsure Heated Blanket
• Best space heater: De’Longhi Ceramic Tower Heater
• Best for cold sleepers: Eddie Bauer Flannel Collection
• Best jacket: Oros Atmos Jacket
• Best for campers and commuters: Hydro Flask 16oz Insulated Cup
• Best for the cook: Fuego Box Spicy Box of Awesome
• Best fire pit: Solo Stove Bonfire
• Best for cold hands: Öjbro Karg Glove
• Best for dry hands and chapped lips: Aquaphor’s Healing Ointment
• Best blanket: Brooklinen Cashmere and Lambswool Throw Blanket
• Best personal heater: Ostrichpillow Heatbag

Best for people with cold feet: Heat Holders Thermal Socks

Heat Holders

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When you’re cold, it makes sense to heat yourself from the bottom up, which is why everyone should have a pair (or six) of thermal socks. Heat Holders socks are made out of yarn that’s been developed in-house, and knitted to hold in warm air without cutting off your circulation. Yes, the socks will add some bulk to one’s feet, but that’s kind of the point. Nobody wants sweaty feet, but that shouldn’t be an issue since the yarn Heat Holders uses automatically wicks away moisture. The company says its socks are over seven times warmer than traditional cotton pairs, which is reason enough to stuff them in a stocking. — Brandt Ranj

Best for techie coffee and tea drinkers: Ember Travel Mug

Ember

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Ember’s 12-ounce Travel Mug can keep beverages between 120 and 145 degrees Fahrenheit for up to three hours thanks to a seven-sensor heating system and built-in battery pack. One can set the mug’s temperature through an app or by using its touch-sensitive display. Ember bundles its Travel Mug with a coaster, which doubles as a wireless charging pad. The mug will keep beverages warm continuously when it’s on the coaster, which is great for anyone who works at a desk. And it will warm your heart to know there are also options if you’re looking for a more “traditional” 10-ounce coffee mug or 6-ounce espresso cup. — Brandt Ranj

Best shoes for winter walks: Volt Lava Boots

Volt

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Volt’s Lava Boots take the concept of the Ember Mug (above) and extend it to your feet. The boots feature a rechargeable 8V battery that can power their integrated heating elements for up to 14 hours depending on whether they’re set to low, medium, or high. One can change between these settings by using the Volt app or through a controller on the shoes themselves. The best part about the Lava Boots is that they don’t scream “gadget.” Other people walking around won’t notice your high-tech shoes—in fact, the Lava Boots are actually pretty fashionable depending on your style. Looking for something more low-profile but still extremely comfy? Check out the 3V Camp Heated Slippers, which keep your toes toasty whether you’re on your deck or at your desk. — Brandt Ranj

Best hoodie: Chrome Merino Cobra Hoodie

Chrome

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Hoodies and sweaters may be one of the first things that come to mind when you think of warmth and comfort. A hoodie made out of wool is better. And a hoodie made of Merino wool is the best. The prized material is breathable, odor-resistant, totally biodegradable, and oh, so soft. Chrome’s Merino Cobra Hoodie features all the properties of this natural fiber in an all-black, classic design that will match any outfit. Your ever-frozen friend can wear it as a cozy garment indoors, or as an extra layer to insulate from the biting frost outside.

Best slippers: Glerups Wool Slip-On

Glerups

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Let’s admit it, satisfying feet is no mean feat. Sometimes they’re too cold, but overcompensate and they’re swampy. The solution? Enter the self-regulating wonders of wool. The Glerups felt slip-on (with 100% pure natural wool) naturally absorbs moisture while keeping your extremities warm. At the same time, they’re breathable—so just as comfy in the summer—and protect against odor. Available in multiple colors with either leather or rubber soles (the latter being better if you use them, like I do, to walk the dog and do other lite outdoor activities), they’re also available as a shoe and a boot, if a slipper isn’t your thing. — Tony Ware

Best for the couch potato: The Comfy Wearable Blanket

The Comfy

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The Comfy looks ridiculous, but any semblance of pretension melts away whenever one puts it on. This is basically a blanket masquerading as a one-size-fits-all oversized hoodie. The Comfy is probably best recommended for at-home use, but it’s well worth a look if you’re shopping for someone who just wants to binge-watch shows all winter without freezing. The Comfy’s sherpa inner lining and microfiber outer lining are soft to the touch, which makes it easy to wear for hours at a time, while the centered pouch gives one a place to put their hands. The Comfy is objectively ridiculous, but it’s also ridiculously warm. — Brandt Ranj

Best heated blanket: Bedsure Heated Blanket

Bedsure

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Bedsure’s Heated Blanket is an essential gift for anyone who wants to make it through the winter without being tempted to reach for the thermostat. The flannel blanket’s heating coils are arranged to provide even heating, and a large controller lets you adjust their intensity between 104 and 113 degrees Fahrenheit. If one falls asleep with the blanket on, the heating coils will automatically shut off after three hours to prevent overheating. Surprisingly, Bedsure’s Heated Blanket is machine washable, so it can be kept clean without a big hassle. The only difficult decision will be whether to get this blanket in a single-person throw size or one that covers the entire bed. — Brandt Ranj

Best space heater: De’Longhi Ceramic Tower Heater

De’Longhi

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A cold room can put anyone in a bad mood, which is why De’Longhi’s Tower Heater is such a thoughtful gift. The 1500W oscillating heater was very effective in our tests, appreciably raising the temperature of the bedroom we were in within minutes. One can adjust the heater’s settings by pressing buttons on its face or using its remote. The Ceramic Tower Heater’s safety features, which include an override that shuts it off if it gets too hot, a switch that disables it if it tips, and a timer, provide ample peace of mind. If anything, the space heater worked too quickly and effectively. We were also surprised at how quiet the heater was unless it was cranked to an ultra-high setting, which means it can be used in a living room without disturbing anybody. — Brandt Ranj

Best for cold sleepers: Eddie Bauer Portuguese Flannel Sheets

Eddie Bauer

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It can be hard to fall asleep in a room that’s too cold, especially if you’ve got poor circulation, but that’s exactly what Eddie Bauer’s Portuguese Flannel Sheets are designed to prevent. The sheet set is made from double-brushed imported cotton and comes in nine styles. Each set includes a fitted sheet, top sheet, and a pair of pillowcases. Eddie Bauer offers its flannel sheets in twin, queen, full, and king sizes, too. The only downside to these sheets is that they may make it more difficult to get out of bed in the morning. — Brandt Ranj

Best jacket: Oros Atmos Jacket

Oros

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OROS used materials developed at NASA called SOLARCORE to insulate its hooded Atmos Jacket, and we can vouch for its incredible insulating properties. Traditionally, jackets needed to be thick to create a large enough buffer between you and the elements to keep you warm, but that’s not the case here. The jacket was surprisingly thin and light while still providing ample warmth and comfort. Plus, much like the Lava Boots, the Oros Atmos Jacket looks perfectly innocent. It’s only when you put it on that you notice a difference. Oros says the jacket is designed for temperatures as low as 25 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes it an ideal top layer for winter months in many parts of the world. — Brandt Ranj

Best for campers and commuters: Hydro Flask 16oz Insulated Cup

Hydro Flask

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Hydro Flask’s Insulated Cup is a double-insulated stainless steel mug made from proprietary materials that allow it to keep beverages hot for several hours without requiring any fancy technology. The cup is available in over a dozen colors and three sizes, but we’re partial to the 16-ounce option as it’s the equivalent of a medium-sized coffee or tea from popular cafes. The leakproof lid creates a tight enough seal that Hydro Flask’s Insulated Cup can be stored in a bag or purse without spilling all over the place. The fact that this mug can be cleaned in a dishwasher is the icing on the cake. — Brandt Ranj 

Best for the cook: Fuego Box Spicy Box of Awesome

Fuego Box

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Sometimes you want to be heated from the inside out, which is why a Fuego Box’s Spicy Box of Awesome is the ideal gift. The box comes with three hot sauces, jalapeño and garlic rub, and Himalayan ghost salt. The site also offers a subscription service that sends between one and three hot sauces to the recipient’s door every month. Sauces can also be purchased a-la-carte and each is branded with a heat level from one to four peppers, so you know whether the bottle you’re picking is mild or extra hot. One of our favorite parts about the Fuego Box is that sauces are sent in a wooden crate, which makes it a lot more fun to open before you get to the gift itself. — Brandt Ranj

Best for the backyard: Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0

Solo Stove

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We’ve all sat around a fire pit that didn’t provide enough heat unless you were close enough to be pelted with eye-watering smoke, but Solo Stove’s Bonfire fixes all that. The fire pit provides ample warmth while keeping smoke to a minimum thanks to a unique design that catches ash in a pan rather than letting it smolder at the bottom of the pit. We’ve seen the Bonfire 2.0 in action, and the results were impressive—there was still some smoke, but not nearly as much as we’d experienced on a traditional fire pit. Solo Stove’s big innovation with this iteration of the fire pit was building it with a removable ash pan, which can be lifted (once cooled) to dispose of ash in one fell swoop. It’s the type of convenience feature that’ll make whoever you gift it to much more inclined to bust it out more frequently. — Brandt Ranj

Best for cold hands: Öjbro Karg Glove

Ojbro from Sweden

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You can find gloves and mittens in any of its multiple formats (fingerless, convertible, etc.) for myriad prices, but investing in a high-end pair is absolutely worth it. Öjbro Vantfabrik has a wide range of knitted products, but their four-layer Merino wool gloves and mittens are really something. They’re designed in Sweden with Nordic winters in mind, which means they can keep your hands warm in the coldest climes. Their mittens are even called Varning Varma Vantar, which translates to “warning, warm mittens.” If your friend isn’t a fan of having their hands reduced to tongs, you can always give them a pair of four-layer gloves with mobile-friendly material lining on the index finger and thumbs.

Best for dry hands and chapped lips: Aquaphor’s Healing Ointment

Amazon

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Let’s face it, there are parts of your body you just can’t put Merino wool on. And since frosty air really does a number on your skin, it’s important to bring out the big guns when it comes to dry hands and chapped lips. Aquaphor’s Healing Ointment is a great low-budget solution both to prevent and treat the whiplash from wintry winds. Its versatile ingredients allow you to use it on most of your body. It also acts as a protective layer to help a healthy dermis stay healthy, while healing already damaged skin.

Best blanket: Brooklinen Cashmere and Lambswool Throw Blanket

Brooklinen

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If you couldn’t coax your friend outdoors with four layers of mittens, it’s okay. You can still treat them to the perfect gift to stay inside: a throw blanket. For the most luxurious of choices, go for the Brooklinen’s Cashmere and Lambswool Throw Blanket. This irresistible wool-and-cashmere combo is as soft as butter melting on a steamy piece of oven-warmed bread. If your friend is planning to hibernate on the couch and watch their favorite shows, this will keep them company while you’re outside making snow angels.

Best personal heater: Ostrichpillow Heatbag

Ostrichpillow

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If your friend constantly talks about getting a dog that will double as a warm cushion in the winter months, but their landlord doesn’t allow pets, gift them the next best thing. Ostrichpillow’s Heatbag is literally a squishy, energy-radiating pillow your friend can put their arms around. It won’t bark or wag its tail when they come home, but its clay interior can be reheated an unlimited number of times. Plus, it’s soft to the touch, and its memory foam shell will help conform to every weird sleeping position they adopt. The bag can also be used for physical therapy—heat it in the microwave and place it on sore muscles or strained joints for slow relief.

The post The hottest gifts for that friend who is always cold appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Environmental factors can have a profound effect on the quality of our sleep. Bright lights in your bedroom can disrupt your slumber just like loud noises can. Some other variables that affect how many hours you sleep, however, aren’t so obvious. Temperature also plays a crucial role when it comes to achieving restful sack time. Cooler temps lead to better sleep and that’s where the Chilisleep Ooler Sleep System bed cooler comes in. Here’s our Chilisleep Ooler Sleep System review.

The Chilisleep Ooler Sleep System promises to give you a better night’s sleep by helping your body reach lower temperatures at night. It then raises the temperature in the morning to wake you in a more natural way—no alarms are needed. Even the best mattress cooling pad can’t do that.

Chilisleep Ooler Sleep System review: What is it?

Sandra Gutierrez

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The Ooler consists of three pieces. It includes a cool pad that covers your bed, a control unit, and the Ooler mobile app. The cooling mattress topper goes over your mattress and under your fitted sheet. You can choose a smaller size if you don’t want the cooling mat to cover the entire mattress. It houses a network of zig-zagging tubes in the textile. Even though you can actually feel the piping when pressing down on the pad, it’s definitely not harsh or uncomfortable. If you’re particularly sensitive to the sensation, a thicker sheet will almost definitely solve it. 

The second element, the control unit, has a tank that stores water, cools it, and continuously pumps it into the pad through a hose to help you sleep better at night. The unit is the size of a large shoebox and it’s designed to fit easily under your bed. This creates a slight problem for small bedrooms where space is at a premium. Having a bed frame with built-in storage, for example, will force you to place the Ooler unit next to your bed instead of under it. Even beyond the box itself, the control unit is basically a tiny bed air conditioner. As such, it needs 18 inches worth of space around it to ensure proper air circulation. This means you’ll need to clear out more or less half of the space under your bed for proper installation. In my case, this didn’t make the Ooler Sleep System very friendly with my tiny, closet-less Brooklyn apartment. 

The Ooler app ties the system together with Bluetooth connectivity. The platform is intuitive and easy to use. It allows you to set and design schedules so that your bed is already cold for you at bedtime, and starts warming up when it’s time to wake up.

Setting up the Chilisleep Ooler Sleep System

You’ll have to go through some trial and error to dial in the perfect settings. The app will recommend baseline temperatures you can start with. Then you can tweak the settings until you find your sweet spot. Finding that ideal temperature for you may take a while, especially if you run hotter or colder than most people. 

I’m the kind of person who’s always cold. I thrive in summer, look like a yarn ball during winter, and don’t mind a hot yoga class. I typically only set up my AC unit the second or third week of July. This is why the Ooler’s recommendation of 68 degrees Fahrenheit was a little low for me to start with, especially in May. I found myself waking up in the middle of the night to turn the whole thing off. Back then, I didn’t see the point in having a device that cooled down my bed. I thought I’d get much more use out of it come winter. But that was until the real New York summer began. 

Then came the heat wave

As soon as the first heatwaves started hitting the northeast coast, the Chilisleep Ooler Sleep System quickly became the only company I wanted to share my bed with. Sliding in between cool sheets is extremely refreshing as it is, but the fact that they would actually stay like that throughout the night was amazing. It took some getting used to. Our bodies are always warm and, as thermodynamics go, everything we touch will try to find an equilibrium. 

The Ooler sleeping schedules not only let you set a bedtime and a wake-up time but also add events in between. These are points throughout the night where you’d like the temperature to change. For example, if you want a low temperature to sleep in, but you don’t like the idea of having cold sheets waiting for you when you go to bed, then you can set up one temperature at bedtime and then add an event 30 to 45 minutes later (depending on how long it usually takes you to fall asleep) and set it for a more chilly vibe. 

Chilisleep Ooler Sleep System review: Our experience

When I first installed the Ooler Sleep System, I was looking forward to saying goodbye to my alarm. Unfortunately, the wake-up temperature is something that, personally, I still have not figured out. This feature starts warming up your bed at a specific time. It continues doing so for 30 minutes before turning off the entire Ooler system. By that logic, you’d need to set your wake-up time for half an hour before you actually have to get up. Personally, I register the temperature increase an invitation to stay cozy and sleep in. Maybe adding a wake-up light to your setup will finally crack the code.  

Who should buy the Chilisleep Ooler

The concept behind the Ooler Sleep System is great, but it’s inevitable not to feel intimidated by its steep price. Depending on your sleeping configuration and whether you’re purchasing for one or two, the Ooler goes from $799 for a half queen-sized pad with one control unit, to $1,699 for a full king bed with two separate units. But whether you use it to either cool down or warm up your bed, this gadget gives you unprecedented power to control the temperature between your sheets, which can dramatically improve your sleep and, by extension, your quality of life. 

This certainly isn’t the only way to try and stay cool while sleeping. The Sleep Foundation named Helix’s Midnight Luxe as the best cooling mattress for hot sleepers. Starting at $1,099 for a queen-sized bed, the Midnight Luxe is not exactly cheap, but for a good mattress that will last years, it is definitely within the market’s price range. On top of three layers of foam, the Luxe tops it all off with an ultra-breathable cover, which according to Helix was designed with technology to provide maximum airflow. Still, this kind of passive cooling typically can’t match a powered system like the Ooler. 

The BedJet is another option. Starting at $469, these devices stand at the edge of your bed and blow cool air between your fitted sheet and duvet. It relies on airflow rather than liquid cooling, which may not be to everyone’s liking. 

The DIY alternative

If money is too tight to afford a bed cooling system and acquiring any of these products will break your bank, you might want to take a more frugal DIY approach to this thermal conundrum and just hang a wet bed sheet or towel over an open window. This is what the Egyptians did to cool off in the middle of hot desert nights—and if it worked for them, it just might work for you. The warm air from outside chills as it goes through the wet textile, turning into a refreshing breeze once it makes it inside your bedroom and hits your skin. This is cheaper than a cooling mattress or the Ooler system, though definitely a lot messier. Good luck connecting your phone to the wet towel, though.

Ultimately, while Chilisleep Ooler Sleep System is pricy, it delivers on its promise of cool sleeping. It’s up to you (and probably whoever you share a bed with) to decide if it’s worth the cash.

The post Chilisleep Ooler Sleep System review: A liquid cooling system for your bed appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Thanksgiving is over, which means the holiday shopping season is officially here—and with it the excitement and stress of trying to hunt down everything on your list.

If you like to plan ahead, you probably already nabbed a few things during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, but now you have a bunch of orders to track. And if you prefer to live on the edge and save your holiday shopping for mid-December, you’ll need inspiration, tracking bots, and some good old-fashioned lists. You can get all three from your phone—just equip it with these apps to turn it into a pocket-sized Santa’s little helper. 

This Apple-only app lets you set a general budget for your holiday presents and manually keep track of the items you’ve bought, wrapped, or ordered, plus which ones are still pending. You can add as many items per person as you want, and keep track of all gift ideas, even if they’re homemade. 

[Related: The best Secret Santa platforms, ranked]

On the main screen, you’ll see your current spending in relation to the amount you set as a limit at the beginning of the holiday season, and whether you’re over or under budget. The same screen will also show you how many days there are until Christmas, which may be your deadline. But if you don’t celebrate, this feature may mean nothing to you, as it’s the only holiday available and you can’t change it. You can, however, change Santa’s skin tone—just tap the cog icon in the upper right corner of your screen, go to Settings, and find Santa skin tone.

The platform is an email manager, or client, which means you don’t have to have a Yahoo email address to use it—you can sync your Gmail, Outlook, or iCloud accounts and it’ll work just fine. Conveniently, once you download the app and set it up, you’ll see two tabs at the bottom of your screen that will be your best shopping buddies. 

Tap the Shopping tab to see all the marketing messages you’ve received, in chronological order. You can also organize them by brand, as well as categories like food, clothes, beauty, and travel. You can sort your messages even more by picking one of the labels at the top of your screen. Tap Deals, and you’ll be able to see all the promotions, discounts, and coupons in your inbox. If you have a savings code for a present, this is where you’ll find it. The very last label is Gift Cards, which you can check to see if you have any unused credit for a particular store. 

Back at the bottom of your screen, tap Receipts to see all the purchase confirmations you have in your inbox. The app will show you a short preview of each one instead of the entire message, so you’ll only see what’s important: what you bought and how much it cost. This feature makes it easier to distinguish between different receipts from the same store and can come in handy if you need to make any returns after the holidays. As an added bonus, this tab will also tell you when a free trial is about to expire and how many days you have left. Three days before the deadline, you’ll see a prominent notice appear above your inbox, which reappears every day so you cannot miss it. 

The most unique part of Google’s shopping features is augmented reality, which rolled out earlier this year. Right now, this feature will mostly help you shop for furniture by letting you virtually introduce 3D renderings of chairs and tables into your space so you know what they’ll look like before you order. If you’re planning to gift your family room a new, comfier couch, search Google and open the Shopping tab. You’ll see all the items that match your search and every angle of the AR-compatible products (they have a 3D icon in the upper left corner of their image). If you want to see how a piece looks in your place, tap the image and choose View in my space to let the magic happen. The company has said the same feature is available for shoes, but because it’s relatively new, you may not see it on many items yet. Google plans to expand it to work with other clothing items, too. 

But the holidays are not only about shopping—they’re also about eating. And you’re hosting this year, you might be dreading the prospect of banishing yourself to the kitchen for hours before your guests arrive. Google can help you cheat by tracking down specific dishes you can order from restaurants near you. 

Inventory Bot is an app that tracks hard-to-find items and entire product categories for you. You won’t need to keep the app open for it to work, and the app will let you know when an item—either a highly coveted one or something more specific—is back in stock so you can swoop in and take it home. 

[Related: 5 tips for tracking out-of-stock items this holiday season]

To get live push notifications on your phone, you’ll need to pay a subscription starting at $4.99 a month, but you’ll get a three-day free trial first. If you decide this cuts too deeply into your holiday budget, you can still track items for free and get notifications via the app’s specialized Twitter accounts (@BotConsoles for gaming, and @InvbotFunko for Funko Pop figurines, for example). But keep in mind that these posts go live with a delay of 45 to 90 seconds, so if you’re looking for a precious item that might be off the shelves as soon as it’s available, you might want to pay for a subscription. 

The post 4 apps to make your holiday shopping more joyful appeared first on Popular Science.

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We don’t need to tell you it’s been a wild few days in the Twitterverse. But over at Mastodon, things have been chill. That is, of course, as long as you’re not struggling to understand how to use a social network you may not have even heard of a month ago.

We get it. For the past week, we’ve been among those new Mastodon users trying to understand what a federated timeline is and what server to sign on to. And after seven days of dumping every fleeting thought onto the platform, we’ve learned a number of things that may help you decide whether the decentralized network is a good place to set up shop, no matter what happens with Twitter.

But as you might have read elsewhere, that’s not exactly how this platform works, and you can never really be sure who’s seen your posts. Mastodon is a decentralized social network, which means that there are lots of different spaces (called servers, or instances) that work independently but are slightly connected at the same time. Mastodon’s creator Eugen Rochko likens the system to email—you can have a Gmail account, your friend can have a Yahoo Mail account, and you can still send messages to each other even though both platforms are different. That means that even though you and your friend have accounts on different instances (like mastodon.social and universodon.com) you can still follow and message each other.

[Related: Former Twitter employees warn of platform’s imminent collapse]

That sort of explains it, but not quite. You see, there’s no way for your posts to reach every Mastodon server unless someone on each one follows you or republishes your post. This platform is designed as a group of like-minded communities, as opposed to Twitter’s huge public square where everyone’s trying to be heard by everybody. Because of that design, it will be hard for you to reach each and every Mastodon user, and you may not want to—they won’t all be interested in the same things you are. What helped us understand this better was a helpful chart and the handful of guides we read on how to use the site. 

The annoying conclusion is that yes, Mastodon is more convoluted than Twitter, so you will need to adjust. You’ll get there, but you’ll definitely have to put in a little bit of work. If you’re not willing to do that, maybe you’re better off staying away.

The biggest similarity is the Home timeline full of posts from people you follow, but there are also two other timelines: Local and Federated. The former is a stream of posts from people within your instance, so if you signed up for Mastodon.social (the biggest, most diverse one), it’s where you’ll see the posts of every other member of the community. Federated, on the other hand, is a feed featuring posts from people outside your server, but not everyone on Mastodon. For posts to make it there, someone in your instance must follow that user or repost their content. The federated timeline is a good place to get a sense of what’s going on beyond your interests and find new people to follow, so it’s a great starting point if you want to build your following. 

On Twitter, you get 280 characters to express yourself, whereas Mastodon gives you 500. And you can still post polls, photos, GIFs, and video, but the platform doesn’t support the large variety of files Twitter does. Things like the number and heft of the documents you can upload are also more limited. You’ll notice you can easily reply to and repost (reboost) content from accounts you follow or that pop up on your federated timeline, but you can’t quote them in a new post. Rochko designed it like this deliberately, to avoid increased toxicity. The idea is that you interact directly with the author of the post, not talk to your audience about somebody else. 

Lastly, direct messaging is not as private as it seems to be on Twitter. There, you always have the choice to message someone privately, in a place that seems separate from your main timeline. But on Mastodon, you can choose who sees each of your posts, and DMs are just posts with a highly restricted audience visible only to the people mentioned in them. These posts are not end-to-end encrypted, which is something Mastodon reminds you of every time you click the earth icon in the compose window and set your audience to Mentioned people only. Just a reminder—Twitter’s DMs are also not end-to-end encrypted, so even though they live as private messages, people at Twitter or with access to Twitter’s servers may very well see their contents. This is why some people talked about deleting DMs when Elon Musk took the reins. 

The problem is that some users (as Sarah Jeoung at Vice pointed out first in 2017) actually like some of the toxicity associated with Twitter. No, they’re not masochists—it’s because witnessing even the most nonsensical takes within any debate is interesting and can provide fresh points of view you hadn’t even considered.

Coming from a brash, in-your-face environment like Twitter, you may be surprised that the people on your server seem to dislike political banter. On mastodon.social, for example, users will kindly thank you when you post political content behind a warning. That may change with the influx of Twitter users and the eventual creation of specialized servers where this kind of contentious debate could take place. But as of the time of writing, mastodon.social and most other servers on the platform are still very non-political places, and it seems they’ll stay that way.  

Not having the platform constantly suggesting the same kind of accounts and content means you won’t be further siloed into a smaller bubble of like-minded people. You’ll already be in a semi-independent community of users with similar interests, so why compartmentalize even more? But the lack of an algorithm also makes it hard to know who to follow, and grow your following if you want to reach a bigger audience. 

This is where hashtags come in. They’re the main way you have on Mastodon to categorize your posts and make it easier for other people to find them. In fact, the search engine within the platform only works with hashtags and won’t search within the rest of the words or content of the posts as Twitter does. Apparently, this is also by design and prevents users from easily finding people they can harass. 

Even following people from other instances whose content you have right in front of you can be difficult. When you click or tap the follow icon next to their name (a person with a plus sign on top), you’ll see a pop-up alert with two options. You can either log into that person’s instance so you can follow them there (Mastodon allows you to join as many servers as you like), or you can copy the person’s full Mastodon address so you can manually paste it into the search bar on your profile, find them, and follow them from there.

[Related: 3 Twitter alternatives, in case you’re looking]

Yes, it’s not a ton of work, but it’s definitely tedious, and it’ll be even more annoying to new users who will have to go through that process over and over as they build their timelines. If you find yourself following a lot of people from one particular instance that is not your own, you can transfer your profile to that instance. It’s an easy process but, as with a lot of things on Mastodon, you have to know how to do it. 

Start by creating a profile on the server you want to move to. Keep in mind that some servers have special requirements or don’t allow new members at all. Once your new account is set up, open Mastodon in a web browser, go to Preferences, Account, and scroll down to Moving from a different account. There, click Create an account alias and follow the steps. From your old server, go to Account, scroll down to Moving to a different account, and click Configure it here. Follow the prompts and you’ll be golden.  

More Twitter alternatives might be popping up in the coming months. Whether Mastodon will turn into the world’s new watercooler is yet to be seen, but if you find yourself in need of a place to pour your thoughts, this one might be as good as any—at least for the time being.  

The post 5 key lessons after a week on Mastodon appeared first on Popular Science.

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Luego de cuatro años, la Copa del Mundo llega nuevamente a nuestras pantallas. Esta vez, el evento tendrá lugar en Qatar, donde 32 equipos de todos los rincones del mundo, incluyendo a los Estados Unidos, y a favoritos como Brasil, Argentina y Francia, lucharán por ganar la codiciada copa dorada.

El primero de 64 encuentros será entre el país anfitrión, Qatar, contra la selección de Ecuador, y se llevará a cabo el domingo 20 de noviembre a las 7pm hora local (11am ET, y 8am PT). Y luego de la fase de grupos y las etapad eliminatorias, la gran final tendrá lugar el 18 de diciembre a las 6pm hora local (10am ET/7am PT). 

Ya seas fan de toda la vida o si te mata la curiosidad por saber de qué se trata el torneo, hay varias maneras de ver el Mundial de Qatar 2022: ya sean partidos en vivo o compactos con los mejores momentos en la cancha. Pero tal como te podrás imaginar, FIFA, el ente rector del fútbol internacional y el principal organizador del Mundial de Qatar 2022, tendrá la cobertura del evento bajo estricto control para maximizar las ganancias por derechos de transmisión.

Como es de costumbre con este tipo de eventos deportivos, las licencias para transmitir Qatar 2022 varían ampliamente dependiendo del país donde te encuentres. Aquí te daremos un vistazo a las opciones que tendrán los espectadores en los Estados Unidos, pero es posible que tengas alternativas similares en tu país, por lo que revisar las guías de transmisión local para más detalles es siempre una buena idea.

Cuando se trata de aplicaciones para ver el Mundial, tienes varias opciones. Primero, están el sitio web y la app de Fox Sports. Esta última está disponible en una multitud de dispositivos incluyendo smartphones, tablets, computadoras, las plataformas Android TV y Apple TV, y las consolas Xbox. Además, también están todas las apps de servicios como YouTube TV, las cuales están disponibles para la gran mayoría de las plataformas, además de tu navegador web favorito.

Si quieres ver los partidos en vivo con comentarios en español, deberás sintonizar las señales de Telemundo y Universo, las cuales puedes obtener a través de tu cable operador y una gran variedad de servicios de suscripción, incluyendo Hulu. Otra alternativa es el servicio de streaming Peacock TV (gratis hasta el 24 de noviembre y luego disponible por $5 al mes), que transmitirá todos los encuentros en vivo y en español. Puedes acceder a  Peacock TV a través de una variedad de plataformas, incluyendo apps para Android, iOS, y Roku.

También puedes ver partidos completos de manera gratuita a través de Tubi, pero sólo una vez que estos hayan terminado. Esto puede ser un problema si tu plan es levantarte de madrugada para apoyar a tu equipo, pero si ese no es tu caso, Tubi puede ser una gran opción ya que gracias a la diferencia horaria con el Medio Oriente, la mayoría de los partidos del Mundial de Qatar 2022 se llevarán a cabo durante la noche Norteamericana. Puedes ver Tubi a través de un navegador web en tu computadora personal o instalar la app en tu iPhone o celular Android. También hay apps disponibles para otras plataformas, incluyendo dispositivos Roku.

Si estás fuera de los Estados Unidos o justo te encuentras de viaje, estas aplicaciones y servicios no funcionarán. La mejor solución es usar un servicio de VPN, el cual puedes instalar en tu teléfono y otros dispositivos para disfrazar tu ubicación y hacerla pasar por una dentro de los Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, los grandes canales y los servicios de streaming a veces son capaces de bloquear los VPN. Antes de hacer cualquier pago, asegúrate de aprovechar las pruebas gratis que ofrecen la mayoría de los servicios de VPN para ver si funciona con tus apps favoritas.

Aún estamos a unos días del puntapié inicial de Qatar 2022, por lo que aún no sabemos exactamente la cantidad de acción futbolera que estará disponible online. Sin embargo, definitivamente vale la pena ponerle un ojo a los canales oficiales de YouTube de Qatar 2022 y FIFA. Si quieres ponerte al día con los mejores momentos de cada partido, lo más seguro es que es ahí donde podrás encontrarlos. 

Es probable que encuentres contenido similar en otras plataformas de redes sociales. Qatar 2022 y FIFA World Cup tienen cuentas oficiales en Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, y en el caso del ente rector, también podrás encontrarlos en TikTok. Si ya no aguantas por el inicio del certamen, en Twitter podrás encontrar mucho material histórico disponible para empaparte con el espíritu mundialero.

Como era de esperarse, Google también está listo para el Mundial de Qatar 2022: busca en Google “copa mundial” para ver una lista de los próximos encuentros entre los diferentes países y los resultados más recientes. Podrás revisar los detalles de cada equipo y partido, y el marcador de los duelos llevándose a cabo en el momento. Además, podrás seguir todas las noticias y novedades de las escuadras y jugadores, y podrás activar notificaciones para estar al día con lo que pasa en Qatar.

The post Todas las formas de ver el Mundial de Qatar 2022 appeared first on Popular Science.

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There are lots of reasons why you’d want to delete some or all of your tweets. You might want to make yourself look more professional to potential employers, or maybe you’re unsure about Twitter’s direction after the platform’s recent ownership change. 

If you’ve been on the bird app for a while you’ll have a lot of data in your archive, so get ready to wait anywhere between 24 and 36 hours before the file is ready to download. 

A lot of content also makes for a hefty file, so don’t be surprised if your archive is more than a couple gigabytes. Downloading it (and later uploading it to a tweet-deletion platform) will likely take a while.

And as if that were not slow enough, there may also be a lag between an app asking Twitter to delete your tweets, and the actual deletion. This will depend on the number of posts you want to trash and the capabilities of the app you’re using. It can take 5 minutes, 6 hours, or, like in our experience, an entire day. 

All in all, there’s no saying exactly how long it will take to get rid of your tweets, but it’s safe to say it’s not instantaneous. If you have any reason to believe your potential future employer will be looking at your tweets by the end of the week, start the process now. 

Bulk-deleting anything always comes with the risk of accidentally removing something you liked. So if there are some tweets you mean to keep, be really careful about the tools you use.

This may happen when, for example, you retweet something that was later deleted, or the account that originally posted it was removed, suspended, or made private. Your retweet still exists, but Twitter cannot fetch it, so it’ll reflect on your counter even if your profile is squeaky clean. 

If you don’t run into any issues logging into Semiphemeral (you’ll need your Twitter credentials), you’ll find the platform is bare-bones simple, which makes it easy to nuke a large chunk of tweets. Unlike other apps on this list, Semiphemeral will immediately ask Twitter for your archive, which, as detailed above, takes some time. In my case, it took a little over 48 hours to download more than 35,000 tweets (don’t judge me—I’ve been on there for a while). Semiphemeral won’t notify you when it’s ready to delete your tweets, so you should keep the site open in a browser tab and monitor it from time to time.

While you wait, you can’t do anything but tweak the Settings, which will determine what Semiphemeral can and cannot delete. There are three customizable sections, and every option is thoroughly explained to avoid any mistakes. First, check the box next to Delete all tweets, and determine how old a tweet must be to get deleted—anything younger will stay online. Here, you’ll notice a slight annoyance: you won’t be able to pick a specific date. Semiphemeral counts time in days, so if you want to, say, delete everything older than roughly five years, you’ll have to type in 1,825 days. The next section will allow you to unlike and unretweet posts after a certain number of days, and the last section will let you request Semiphemeral delete your direct messages. The platform warns that it can only automatically delete DMs sent in the last 30 days, so you’ll have to follow the instructions under the DMs section if you want to go beyond that. 

Back in the navigation bar at the top of your screen, you’ll find the Tweets section, where you’ll be able to see your posts and save them from doom by checking the box next to Exclude from deletion. The list is not in chronological order, so you might want to use the bar at the bottom of the screen to filter your tweets by word. A warning: add a space at the end of a word to use it as a filter. Not doing so will dredge up tweets that not only have the word “car” in them but also the words “carnation” and “carnivore.”

When you’re done adjusting the settings, go to Dashboard and click on Start Semiphemeral. The platform will put your request in the queue and all you’ll have to do is wait until it’s done. Once deletion is complete (you’ll need to check your dashboard), the platform will automatically queue up another round of deletion for the next day. If you don’t want to have the app delete tweets for you every day, hit Pause Semiphemeral, but otherwise, it’ll keep running, removing tweets every 24 hours according to the parameters you set up. 

Premium accounts ($15), meanwhile, can run an unlimited number of automatic tasks. These might include a task that deletes week-old tweets with the word “cat”, and another that removes month-old tweets with a particular hashtag. Your tasks will run in tandem, so everything will get done at once.

Another difference: free-tier users will have to go back to their TweetDelete accounts at least once every six months to keep the deletion going while paying users will have their tasks running forever until they disable them. 

No matter how much you pay, TweetDelete will only be able to get rid of 3,200 of your likes—just like Semiphemeral. As mentioned above, this is an access limitation Twitter built into its API, so at the moment there’s nothing these or any other apps can do beyond that. The same goes for waiting times—TweetDelete processes tasks every three days, which might add an extra 72 hours’ worth of tweets to every batch set for automatic deletion. 

If you feel like deleting your entire Twitter history in one fell swoop, premium TweetDelete users can do that by uploading their archive file. The platform offers an interface that will make it easier for you to find any exceptions you want automatic tasks to skip, as well as an advanced search mode that will let you erase specific posts using their ID numbers—the 19-digit number at the end of every tweet URL. This, and the ability to run multiple simultaneous automatic deletion tasks, make this service worth your hard-earned cash if you want to regularly curate your tweet history. But if you don’t plan to delete more tweets in the near future and just want to get rid of your old ones, sticking with a free platform like Semiphemeral may be a better choice. 

On TweetDeleter, you can search and delete tweets, set up auto processes (the equivalent of TweetDelete’s tasks), trash everything, and see old Tweets you have already removed. 

[Related: 11 Twitter bots that will make the most of your timeline]

This last option is the one thing you won’t find on any of the other platforms on this list. While TweetDelete will allow you to open your Twitter history as a spreadsheet, TweetDeleter provides a space for them within its platform so you can access your deleted tweets in a prettier, friendlier interface. As we’ve mentioned, this doesn’t mean you can reinstate those tweets—only save them as a reference. The only way to get them back on your account is to post them as new tweets. 

Unfortunately, this “Twitter cemetery” feature is an entirely different product that only paying users have access to for an extra $4.99 a month. The splurge might be worth it if you keep going back to your archive to relive the glory of Twitter’s past, but if you have no attachment to the thoughts you had when you first opened your account, you might want to skip this app and feature altogether. 

This is important from a privacy standpoint—the fewer apps with access to your accounts, the better. But you also don’t know what might happen in the future. If control over one of these apps falls into the wrong hands, bad actors might have direct access to your information. 

To revoke a third-party account’s permissions to your data, open your Twitter profile on the web, and in the left sidebar go to More, Settings and support, and Settings and privacy. On mobile, you’ll find the same options after tapping your avatar (top left corner of your screen). Once there, click or tap on Security and account access, then Apps and sessions. Finally, go to Connected apps, and you’ll see a list of the third-party applications that have access to your account. To remove them from the list, click on each one and choose Revoke app permissions.

If you ever need to delete more tweets in the future, you can easily access these tools again, so you won’t be losing much, if anything, by telling them to get lost.

The post A complete guide to bulk-deleting tweets appeared first on Popular Science.

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ALGORITHMS are what they eat. These intricate pieces of code need nourishment to thrive and do accurate work, and when they don’t get enough bytes of good-quality data, they struggle and fail. 

I encountered a malnourished algorithm when I looked at my 2022 Spotify Wrapped and saw my favorite artist was Peppa Pig. I frowned, befuddled. Why did Spotify think the cartoon piglet was my latest obsession? Then I remembered I’d spent a week with my 2-year-old niece over the summer, and how playing Peppa Pig songs on my phone was the only way to keep her entertained. 

Well, that made more sense. 

But I soon realized that the little porker had mucked up even more than my year in review: My recommendation algorithm was a mess as well. For weeks, at least one out of the four Daily Mix playlists the platform put together for me included compilations of music for kids. 

It was annoying, but I wondered if, maybe, my niece’s obsession was actually a useful way to deal a staggering blow to the detailed profile tech companies have on each of us. After all, if Spotify, Instagram, Google, or any other platform thinks I’m someone I’m not, they’ll show me ads that are relevant to that fake version of me—but not to the real me. And if they happen to provide my data to a third party, like a data broker, they’ll be handing them details describing someone who doesn’t exist, with my true likes and interests buried in a mountain of Peppa Pig songs. Weaponizing this mistaken identity can help us hide in plain sight and, by extension, protect our privacy.

A camouflage suit made out of bad data 

Feeding the algorithms in your life bad data is called data poisoning or obfuscation, and it’s a technique that aims to obscure your true identity by generating a large quantity of inaccurate information. The concept refers to synchronized attacks that deliberately seek to erase or alter the datasets fueling a platform’s algorithms to make them underperform and fail. This requires specific skills and know-how, as well as a lot of computing power.

You may not have any of those things, but you can use the same principle to protect yourself from constant surveillance online. The images you see, the posts you like, the videos you play, the songs you listen to, and the places where you check in—that’s all data that platforms collect and use to build a profile of who you are. Their goal is to understand you as much as possible (better than you know yourself) so they can predict what you’ll want and need. Tech companies and advertisers don’t do this for altruistic reasons, of course, but to show us ads that they hope will manipulate us into spending money—or make us feel or vote a certain way. 

The easiest way to engage in data poisoning is to use a name, gender, location, and date of birth that is not yours when you sign up for a service. To advance beyond that baseline, you can like posts you don’t actually like, randomly click on ads that don’t interest you, or play content (videos, music, movies, etc.) that’s not to your taste. For the last of those options, just press play on whatever platform you’re using, turn off your screen, turn down the volume, and let it run overnight. If you want to throw off YouTube, use the autoplay feature and let the site go deep down a rabbit hole of content for hours and hours while you sleep or work. Finally, whenever you have to answer a question, like why you’re returning an item you bought online, use “other” as your default response and write whatever you want as a reason.

Where data poisoning can fail

If this all sounds too simple, you’re right—there are some caveats. Using fake information when you sign up for something might be pointless if the platform builds and refines your profile by aggregating numerous data points. For example, if you say you’re in California but consume local news from Wisconsin, list your workplace in Milwaukee, and tag a photo of yourself on the shore of Lake Michigan, the platform’s baseline assumption that you live in the Golden State won’t matter much. The same thing will happen if you say you were born in 1920, but you like content and hashtags typically associated with Generation Z. Let’s face it—it’s totally plausible for an 82-year-old to be a huge Blackpink fan, but it’s not terribly likely. And then there’s the risk that a service or site will require you to provide real identification if you ever get locked out or hacked.

Playing content that doesn’t interest you while you sleep may throw off the recommendation algorithms on whatever platform you’re using, but doing so will also require resources you may not have at your disposal. You’ll need a device consuming electricity for hours on end, and an uncapped internet connection fast enough to stream whatever comes through the tubes. Messing with the algorithms also messes up your user experience. If you depend on Netflix to tell you what you watch next or Instagram to keep you updated on emerging fashion trends, you’re not likely to enjoy what shows up if the platform doesn’t actually know what you’re interested in. It could even ruin the entire app for you—just think what would happen if you started swiping left and rejecting all the people you actually liked on a dating app.  

Also, just as eating one salad doesn’t make you healthy, your data poisoning schemes must be constant to make a long-lasting impression. It’s not enough to click on a couple of uninteresting ads here and there and hope that’s enough to throw off the algorithm—you need to do it repeatedly to reinforce that aspect of your fake profile. You’ve probably noticed that after browsing an online store and seeing the brand or product you were interested in plastered on every website you visited afterward, the ads were eventually replaced by others. That’s because online ads are cyclical, which makes sense, as human interest comes and goes. 

But the biggest caveat of all is uncertainty—we just don’t know how much damage we’re doing to the data tech companies and advertisers are collecting from us. Studies suggest that poisoning a minimal amount of data (1 to 3 percent) can significantly affect the performance of an algorithm that’s trying to figure out what you like. This means that even clicking on a small percentage of uninteresting ads might prompt an algorithm to put you in the wrong category and assume, for example, that you’re a parent when you’re not. But these are only estimates. The engineers behind Google, Facebook, and other big online platforms are constantly updating their algorithms, making them an ever-moving target. Not to mention this code is proprietary, so the only people who know for sure how effective data poisoning is are working for these companies, and it’s highly unlikely they would reveal their vulnerability to this technique. In the case of Google’s AdSense, for example, advertisers pay per click, and if they knew their money was paying for fake clicks (even just a few), it could jeopardize Google’s authority to reach audiences and sell products. 

Does any of this matter?

Not knowing whether poisoning your data is actually doing anything to protect your privacy might make you think there’s no point in trying. But not all is lost. Anecdotal evidence—my Spotify Wrapped, YouTube’s sometimes wacky recommendations, Netflix’s occasionally baffling genre suggestions, and ads that think you’re interested in buying a product because you clicked on something accidentally—makes it clear that platforms are not immune to our white lies, and bad data is not innocuous. There’s also a very telling experiment by privacy researchers Helen Nissenbaum and Lee McGuigan at Cornell Tech, that proved AdNauseam, an extension banned from the Chrome Store that automatically clicks on all ads on a page to throw off Google’s profiling algorithm, is effective and that the Big G cannot tell the difference between real and fake clicks.

Maybe you need to read this to believe it, but we don’t need to comply with everything online platforms ask of us. Data poisoning is neither dishonest nor unethical. It’s us users reclaiming our information in any way we can. As Jon Callas, a computer security expert with the Electronic Frontier Foundation told me, we have no moral obligation to answer questions tech companies have no right to ask. They’re already accumulating thousands of data points on each and every one of us—why help them? 

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether data poisoning is highly or barely effective. We know it does something. And at a time when companies don’t have our best interests at heart and regulation is light years behind thanks to the billions of dollars tech companies spend lobbying elected officials, we the users are on our own. We might as well use every strategy we can to protect ourselves from constant surveillance. 

Read more PopSci+ stories.

The post The Opt Out: The rewards and risks of lying to tech companies appeared first on Popular Science.

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It’s October already, which means we’re on a bullet train to the holiday season. But with inflation in the US currently surpassing 8 percent, it’s getting harder and more expensive to celebrate as we’ve done in years past. 

But a little planning can go far. Tracking prices ahead of the big holiday sales can be incredibly helpful when it comes to getting more bang for your buck. And if you start early this year, you can even skip the lines, the rush, and any stock or supply chain problems that may arise. 

Pulling all the relevant information you need from Amazon (such as price, photos, dimensions, and reviews) and plastering it onto a spreadsheet is easier than you think—you just need the correct function to do the trick for you. 

The ImportFromWeb function is one of them. This add-on will automatically pull specific details from a webpage and copy them seamlessly onto a spreadsheet for you. It’s optimized to work with Amazon, so in one column you can just copy the URLs of the products you want to keep an eye on, and the function will display relevant information about them, like the price, the average review score, and other specs you might want to track. 

Using this function, you can easily create a holiday wish list for the items you want, which will serve as a basic budget and a useful baseline parameter in case prices change. 

Continue by assigning descriptors to each column. If you’ve ever used a function in a spreadsheet, you’ll know that you need to give the tool some parameters so it can understand what to fetch specifically, and from where. ImportFromWeb is no exception, and to use it, you’ll need descriptors that tell it exactly what you want to copy from an Amazon product page. If you’re budgeting for the holidays, the most relevant descriptors for you might be an item’s name, price, review score, and image. 

ImportFromWeb has all these descriptors, but you’ll need to use the correct names for them, which you’ll type in the first row of each column. A product name is called title, while the price is sale_price, or list_price, if you want to know the original amount the manufacturer priced the item for. 

This all sounds like a lot, but don’t worry: the developers of the add-on created a handy selector library for Amazon web pages you can consult at any time. (They also have a similar resource for Yahoo! Finance, if that’s something you’re into.) You can use as many descriptors as you want, but remember that the more you add, the harder your spreadsheet will be to navigate, as it’ll have more columns. 

Your formula will need two parameters, and the first one tells the function where to go to fetch the information you need. For this, you will use the coordinates of the cell where you pasted your first Amazon product link—in this case, I used A3.

Separate the parameter with a comma, and type in the coordinates of the cells where you want the data to display. You can add these coordinates one by one, but using a range is easier. For that, type in the coordinate for the first cell in the range, and after a colon, type the coordinate of the last cell in the range. For example, if your descriptors go from columns C to H, you’ll type C2:H2.

Notice how we used C2 instead of C3, which is the actual coordinate of the highlighted cell in the image above. This is because your descriptor row is officially row number 1 (we told you that detail would be important later). You can save yourself some confusion if you, unlike the example above, use the first row in the spreadsheet as your descriptor row. Still, it’s useful to know how this all works if, for whatever reason, you want to start your table further down. 

Finish setting up your formula by closing the parentheses and hitting Enter or Return on your keyboard. In a moment, you’ll see data magically appearing in your spreadsheet. Congratulations—you’ve got your first row of data lined up and ready! Give yourself a pat on the back. You’re doing great.

Technically, this limitation is true, but there’s an easy workaround—type dollar signs before each character of the coordinates determining the range of cells where you want the data to display, and the formula will work with any other web page address you paste under the first one. Following the previous example, your coordinates will go from C2:H2 to $C$2:$H$2. 

Now, paste more URLs in your Link column, and then click on the cell where the formula is—the one to the right of the first link. You’ll notice a blue outline appears around the cell with a blue square in the bottom right corner of it. Click that square and drag it down so that it extends down the column to the length of your list of links. Wait a couple of seconds and voilá—you’ve got data.    

First, make sure that one of the descriptors you used when setting up your spreadsheet was featured_image_source. This will tell the function to fetch the URL for the main photo Amazon uses to promote a product. In a new column, summon the IMAGE function by typing =Image, and then use the coordinate of the cell displaying the image URL as a parameter. Close the parentheses, hit Enter or Return, and see the photo appear. 

Most of these problems happen when you don’t use the correct Amazon URL. ImportFromWeb needs a specific product page to work properly, and as you might have noticed from browsing this massive marketplace, sometimes prices change depending on the specific model or size of a product. Book pages, for example, often require users to choose from paperback, hardcover, or Kindle options to provide a final price. Something similar happens with shoes, where some specific colors may be on sale, but others might be at full price. Going back to Amazon and making these choices before you copy and paste the URL in your spreadsheet will solve most of these problems.

[Related: 5 tips for tracking out-of-stock items this holiday season]

You might see the same error when using the correct product pages, but that just might be an error on the back end of the Amazon page. Unfortunately, if that is the case, there’s nothing you can do to fix it. 

If you see an #EVALUATION_FAILED or #ERROR_IN_SELECTORS notice, that means there’s something wrong with the formula you’re using. Go back, look at it carefully, and make sure the parameters you used are correct and that you altered the formula so it works with links in other cells. 

As you paste more links to your spreadsheet, you can just select the last cell in the formula column and drag the blue square to tell ImportFromWeb to go fetch the corresponding data for that new item on your list. Use this file as a baseline and don’t forget to complement your holiday shopping strategy with other methods to track down sales and hard-to-find products.  Happy savings!  

The post This spreadsheet trick will simplify your holiday shopping appeared first on Popular Science.

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Contrary to what some might believe, everybody poops (yes, even women), making it one of the most ordinary and universal human experiences. Bowel movements are an essential part of our digestive health, and they’re really not something you should put off. 

But sometimes you just can’t get to a toilet. Maybe you’re in the middle of a job interview, a traffic jam, or your own wedding. Whatever the case, we’ve all endured a situation where we’ve had to grit our teeth, tense up, and hold our poop. And during those excruciating minutes, there’s only one matter more important than the location of the nearest bathroom: How do I make this easier? 

To hold your poop, you’ll instinctively engage your pelvic floor muscles, which will put pressure on your rectum, pushing your stool up and back into your colon. Your bowels can accommodate this overstaying guest for a little while as you hunt down a toilet, but your large intestine will keep doing what it’s supposed to do: absorbing water from your waste. Eventually, your colon will absorb so much water that your poop will become dry and hard, making it more difficult and painful to release when you finally hit the john. Most of the time, this comes with mild consequences, like stomach pain, bloating, and discomfort, Khlevner says. But pushing too hard can both tear your rectum and cause hemorrhoids. Although the latter can be confused with warts, they are simply swollen veins that result from straining your anal muscles. 

Worse, if you hold your poop constantly or for too long, hard stool can literally block you up and you’ll need medical attention to get unplugged. More dramatic outcomes include distended bowels, which may make it impossible to hold back the brown stuff at all, and a perforated colon, which can spill gastrointestinal bacteria into your abdomen and possibly kill you. 

Bowel movements are all about relaxation and release. That’s why we feel relief when we can finally let go and, er, do our business. Clenching your muscles is the opposite of relaxing, so it can help you bar the back gate a while longer. 

Squeezing your buttcheeks together also engages your pelvic floor muscles. These tissues cradle the organs in your pelvic region, including your bladder, rectum, and uterus, if you have one. Engaging them will also help you keep the poop chute closed by contracting your outermost anal sphincter, which is both the last barrier between your intestinal waste and the outside world and the only sphincter you have some control over. 

Kegel exercises can help, too. These repetitive actions are commonly associated with women’s health and the prevention of ailments such as uterine prolapse, but men can do them as well. If you’ve never been physically aware of your pelvic floor, try recreating the movement you make when you’re trying to hold your pee. That upwards compression in your pelvis is the result of your pelvic muscles tightening up, and it’s exactly what you’ll need to do if you find yourself in a situation where pooping is not an option. 

Squatting is the most efficient position, as it straightens your rectum and makes it easier for poop to go down. (If you can’t squat, using a toilet stool can replicate the effect of squatting while in a seated position.) Sitting down is a less effective posture, but if you live anywhere in the western world, you likely learned to use a pedestal toilet, so this is how you’ve been draining two-pointers most of your life. 

Because these are positions your body sees as signals that you’re ready to take a dump, you absolutely do not want to reenact them if you need to hold it in. Instead, lie on your stomach until the urge subsides. This position is utterly unnatural for pooping and is especially useful if you’re, say, riding in the back of a car on your way to a proper bathroom. 

If you’re on foot in a public place, riding a bus or train, or otherwise in a situation where going prone is not an option, stand up and lightly push your hips forward. This will engage your butt cheeks and help you keep your posterior exit door shut. 

This poop version of the pee dance also works as a distraction that signals you’re too busy to relieve yourself. But your brain won’t take that bait for long—you can only control your anal sphincter for a limited time before it opens against your will and, well, you know how that story ends. So if at some point you feel the need to poo is overwhelming, there will be no wiggling around or lying down that can help you.

We sincerely hope you never have to use any of these tips. May you always have a glorious, clean bathroom available to you, with a warm seat, plenty of the softest toilet paper, and the most effective scented candles your nose can handle. But chances are you won’t always be so lucky, so do your Kegels and make sure to poop before you leave home.

The post What to do when you’re trying not to poop appeared first on Popular Science.

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When you want to deliver polished, relevant, and meticulously crafted memes, a cropped screenshot is not enough. The same goes for when you’re trying to come up with a Slack emoji that’s so good, your entire team will be using it within a week. To really make that reaction hit home, you need to get rid of your photo’s background. 

In the old days, pulling the subject of a photo out of its environment required a steady hand and some Photoshop knowledge. Today, both the newest iOS update and several photo editing tools provide more than one way to deliver high-quality WhatsApp stickers, for free and with minimal effort.

The feature is easy to use and works exactly like copying and pasting text. Open a photo from your camera roll, the Photos app, or the web, and long-press on the subject of the image. A dialog box will pop up giving you the option to Copy (or Copy subject if you’re using a photo from the web) or Share—tap the former to copy the cut-out subject to your phone’s clipboard, or the latter to send it directly to a specific app. You can then paste the image wherever you want, including a group chat, the Notes app, and a social media post. If you choose the Files app, your subject will automatically become a PNG file with a transparent background. 

[Related: How to use the new lock screen customization features in iOS 16]

Whether you’re using this or any other tool on this list, the accuracy of the underlying artificial intelligence (how well it can separate the subject from the background) will depend on a couple of factors. For one, there’s the level of contrast between your subject and whatever’s behind it. If you want to cut out a bride who’s standing on a snowy hill, it’s possible the AI won’t be able to tell where the wedding dress ends and the snow begins. There’s also the definition of your subject’s outline. For example, getting a clean line around a sleek pit bull will be easier than extracting a fluffy-haired German Shepherd. 

Overall, the “copy subject” feature is a good example of Apple’s powerful phone-based AI capabilities, but it still has a hard time creating accurate outlines, especially without a stark contrast between the background and foreground. Still, this tool is much faster than anything else on this list—perfect if you want to make a quick emoji and cannot be bothered to open your laptop.  

To get started, go to Picsart’s Quicktools website and click Select files. Choose a picture from your computer’s storage and the platform will automatically remove the background in a matter of seconds.

Picsart is pretty good at removing backgrounds neatly, but if there’s anything the platform missed, you can use its manual editing tool to delete it. To do so, click the eraser icon in the upper left corner of your image’s preview. A window will pop up within your browser tab where you’ll be able to use a paintbrush to clean the edges of your subject. And if for some reason it removed too much, flip the toggle switch to Restore to bring back whatever you need. Make sure to play around with the Size slider so you don’t erase any more than you have to, and the Hardness slider, which determines how much you erase with each stroke. There’s also a Zoom tool in the bottom left (it magnifies by up to 300 percent) and Undo/Redo tools for when you realize Cmd/Ctrl + Z does absolutely nothing when you mess up.

Once you’re done, click Apply. This will take you back to the previous window, where you’ll be able to choose the right dimensions for your creation—depending on where you want to share it—or hit Download to save it to your computer. 

Although you can use the background remover for free within a web browser, deleting a photo’s background on the go requires a Picsart Gold subscription that will leave a $4.66 hole in your wallet every month. You can access the tool in a mobile browser, but you’re stuck with whatever outline it draws—there’s no option to manually edit the extracted image.

On your phone, start by opening the app, signing in, and tapping the plus sign at the bottom. The next screen will give you a preview of the images saved on your phone—pick a recent one or tap See all to get more options. Continue by tapping the Remove BG button at the bottom of the screen, and—just like on the web—the app will automatically select the main subject of the image and remove everything else. 

The main difference between the mobile and web interfaces is that the Picsart app gives you a ton of options when it comes to replacing the background you just removed. You can choose a plain color, a gradient, or an image from their wide background gallery, including a series of landmarks that will get you traveling with only a few taps. 

To refine the selection, tap the eraser icon at the top of your image, and you’ll find it works exactly as described above. The downside here is that depending on the size of your device, working on a phone can be uncomfortable. The app doesn’t allow you to rotate or angle the image to make it easier to trace the edges, for example, and you’ll depend on the pinching gesture to zoom in and out and move your attention to other corners of the picture. This is a little tedious and frequently results in accidental brushstrokes that you’ll have to undo using the buttons at the top of your image. 

When you’re done, tap the check mark in the top right corner of the screen to save your changes, then the arrow icon in the same place to continue. As you might imagine, Picsart will prompt you to post your creation on their platform, but if you tap Skip (top right corner), followed by Save, you’ll be able to access your new photo from your phone’s gallery. 

No matter which version of the platform you use, Picsart won’t automatically add a hideous watermark to your images (unlike some other free browser-based photo editing tools), so you can rest assured that all your work won’t be ruined at the very end. 

Remove.bg proved to be surprisingly accurate, easily selecting fluffy hair or flyaways in the wind, even without manual editing. If you’re satisfied with the outcome, you can click Download or Download HD. The latter option will result in a larger file and come at a price. But if the platform misses something, you can click the Edit button in the upper right corner of your image.

To refine your subject’s edges, click on Erase & Restore. Just like on Picsart, you’ll be able to tweak the outline to get rid of any residue from the background. The difference is that Remove.bg’s tool is more limited. Here, the only slider you have is Size, which—you guessed it—determines how big or small the brush you’ll use to remove the remnants of the picture’s background is. There’s a zoom option at the top of the picture, but there’s no undo button, so if you make a mistake, you’ll have to correct it by hitting Restore. This option transforms your eraser brush and it’ll make parts of your picture reappear with each stroke. 

After you’re done, click Download (or Download HD)to save your work as a PNG file on your computer. Remove.bg doesn’t slap watermarks on your pictures either, so you can easily use them for memes and stickers. 

To start, go to the Adobe Express background remover page and click Upload photo. The platform is much more complex and goes far beyond removing backgrounds, but Adobe created this shortcut in case all you want is a quick meme. The platform will open a new tab where you can drop an image from your hard drive or click Browse on your device to find what you need. 

As with other tools on this list, Adobe Express will do the heavy lifting for you and automatically eliminate everything except the subject of your photo. The results are surprisingly accurate, and if you’re happy with them, you can go ahead and click Download to save your creation. If you think there’s a bit more tweaking necessary to make your image flawless, click Customize and enjoy all the Adobe Express tools. 

[Related: Make your own Instagram filters]

To edit the cutout and enjoy the full range of the Adobe Express toolkit, you’ll need to create an Adobe account or sign in with an existing one. Once you do, the platform will open your image and you’ll be able to trim the edges by clicking on the subject and then Edit cutout. You’ll have a not-so-comprehensive tool similar to that of Remove.bg—you’ll be able to customize the size of the brush and switch between Erase and Restore, but not calibrate hardness or opacity, like you can on Picsart. As a bonus, you’ll get an Invert cutout feature, which will keep the background and remove the main subject, leaving a hole in your picture. 

When you’re done, click the check mark in the top right corner of your screen. If you want, you can continue playing around with your image and add text, filters, brush strokes, and other images. But if you’re satisfied with the results, click Download in the upper right corner of the screen and choose PNG (transparent background) as the file output format—this will ensure that the background of your image is not a solid color when you save it to your hard drive. 

The post 4 free apps that remove photo backgrounds with little fuss appeared first on Popular Science.

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This story has been updated. It was originally published on February 2, 2021.

Some people just cannot play first-person video games, no matter how much they like them. It’s not a question of talent—the games just make them physically ill. We’re talking about gaming sickness, a kind of motion sickness some people experience specifically when playing video games, and that comes with all the symptoms you probably already know: dizziness, nausea, sweating, headaches, and even vomiting.

If you suffer from cybersickness and are looking for a solution that will let you play long enough to finally finish Elden Ring, let us break the bad news: Unfortunately, there’s no scientific evidence that you’ll ever free yourself from the annoying grasp of gaming-related motion sickness.

Video games can mess up this sensory balance and affect certain people in different ways. If you’re prone to motion sickness while gaming—especially when playing titles from first-person series such as Call of Duty, Dishonored, and Borderlands—there may be a disconnect between what your eyes see and what your inner ear detects. On one hand, you see realistic movement on the screen designed to make you feel immersed in the game. On the other, your inner ear tells your brain there’s no movement at all—that you’re just sitting on your couch or your very expensive gaming chair. Those mixed messages make the brain freak out and generate a stress response, and that’s when gaming sickness occurs.

“Training users to become immune to motion sickness is an intensely active area of research. Although we have no Holy Grail, we have learned a lot,” Weech says. “The best safeguard is to avoid challenging the sensory systems in the first place.”

That’s why struggling through the discomfort won’t help you—it overloads your senses. Instead, take a break as soon as you start feeling sick, wait until your symptoms have subsided, and only then try again.

Your previous experience with video games and the particular title you’re playing is key to whether this method will work for you, and how well, says Weech. These variables are the reason why there’s no saying how fast you’ll be able to increase your play time or how long it will take you to get fully used to the game you’re playing—if ever.

Smaller screens are better: they won’t take up your entire field of vision, constantly reminding your brain that you’re actually in a room and the movement you see is only an image on a screen. “The room provides a stable visual reference that keeps the player grounded in the real world, which will reduce sensory conflicts,” says Weech.

If you already have a big flat-screen TV or monitor that is now making you nauseous, you don’t need to throw it away—sitting farther away from it will have a similar effect.

But don’t go too small and confine your gaming to your smartphone. Tiny screens require you to strain your eyes to make out fine details, so you’ll most likely end up with a headache, another common and annoying symptom of gaming sickness.

Some studies show that ginger can have a therapeutic effect on nausea, though whether it brings significant or mild relief varies from person to person. You can try ginger tea, ginger beer, or even ginger candy. If you prefer to try ingesting it as a supplement, be sure to consult your doctor before you do so.

Another method designed to fight regular motion sickness but is also used by gamers is wearing acupressure wristbands. These bracelets look a lot like something John McEnroe might have worn on a tennis court in the ’70s, but they have a plastic insert that applies pressure to a point on the underside of your forearm, just below the wrist. Known as the P6, this acupressure point is three fingers (about 1 to 2 inches) below the base of your hand, and pressing it constantly can help relieve nausea and dizziness. If you don’t have these bands, you can achieve the same effect with your thumb.

Motion sickness glasses like the Seetröen use liquid to act as a visual reminder to your brain of the location of the horizon line. Citröen, the French car company that developed them, say they cure 95 percent of motion sickness, but there is no evidence whether or not they will work for cybersickness. If you already have some or are running out of options, though, they may be worth a shot. 

Gaming glasses, on the other hand, reduce eye strain and blue light, so they may be able to prevent headaches. But just as with motion sickness glasses, there are no studies that prove these spectacles are good at calming or preventing cybersickness. 

But before you give up your favorite game, see if it’s possible to change the sensitivity settings or the player’s point of view. Going from only seeing your character’s hands to seeing their entire back can help a lot, while reducing the speed of the camera movements and the bobbing of the head and guns can also make a huge difference. Don’t forget to check your screen’s settings, too—high refresh-rate displays can be nauseogenic, so bump those frames-per-second down a bit or change your display to something slower.

And if you’re still getting motion sickness, you may want to try another kind of game: third-person narrative, puzzle games, a vintage 2D title, or pre-Nintendo 64 Mario Bros., to name a few. It might be disappointing, but you may have to build up your tolerance so you can finally play titles like Halo or Apex Legends. Getting your body used to less-complex games first is a great segue into highly realistic graphics and fast camera movements.

Remember: torturing yourself by enduring your symptoms won’t help them go away any faster. Take it slow and enjoy your playtime. Games should be fun, after all.

The post 6 ways to fight back against motion sickness while gaming appeared first on Popular Science.

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At-home tests have been a critical tool in humanity’s efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19. You may have purchased some at your local drugstore, or ordered them for free through the program the US government launched in January. But they may expire by the time you show symptoms.

The good news is that the Food and Drug Administration—the agency responsible for authorizing COVID tests—is constantly using new data to extend the shelf life of these useful products. This means the ones you have at home may be good for up to 14 months beyond the expiration date on their packaging. All of this information is on the FDA’s website, but you’ll need some guidance to navigate it. 

If the expiration date on your test is long gone, go to the FDA’s list of authorized at-home COVID tests and check the database at the bottom of the page. You can use the search bar by entering your test’s make and model, or you can display all the entries on the list by clicking the dropdown menu on the right and selecting Show all entries. At the time of writing, the FDA has authorized only 22 tests in the US, so displaying the entire list won’t force you to scroll ad nauseam.

[Related: This week is the last chance to order free at-home COVID tests]

Next, find your test. A previous version of this database only had the names of the tests in the first column, but the FDA has since included some visual aids in the form of thumbnails showing the packaging for each test. This makes it easy to see which entry corresponds to what you’ve got at home, and you can scroll down the list until you find the right box. When you do, confirm the make and model of your test match the entry.

On each entry, you’ll find all sorts of useful information for each test, including who can use it, what kind of sample it requires, and how long it takes to get results. The information you’ll need to find out when a COVID test expires is in the last column, all the way to the right, under Expiration date. There, you’ll see the shelf life of the test, and whether it has been extended. If it has, you’ll see the word (extended) right next to it, and a link to a PDF with a list of all the updated expiration dates. 

If your test’s shelf life has been extended, you’ll need to confirm that extension applies to the specific group of tests (the lot) yours comes from. Open the PDF to find a list with three columns: from left to right, you’ll see lot numbers, original expiration dates, and extended expiration dates. To find your test’s lot number, you’ll need to look at the box—you’ll most likely find this six-digit number on the back or one of the sides, usually on a sticker next to the word LOT. 

Go back to the PDF and use your browser’s “find” function to locate the lot number: if you’re using a Mac computer, hit Cmd+F, and if you’re a Windows user, press Ctrl+F at the same time. On the emerging search bar in the top right corner of the browser screen, type in your test’s lot number. Your browser should automatically scroll down to where the number is and highlight it. Note that the original date (middle column) matches the date printed on the box, and then look at the third and last column to see the real expiration date. If that hasn’t passed yet, you’re good to swab away—hopefully, the test comes out negative. 

If your lot number is not on the list, you should abide by the expiration date printed on the box. And if that’s already in the past, the FDA says the test may provide inaccurate or invalid results, so you should throw the test away and get a new one. 

With the first testing method, manufacturers just let a batch of tests sit for a period of time (seven, 13, or 19 months), and then see if the tests still perform as well as they did when they were fresh out of the factory. This method is the most reliable way of ensuring tests work properly, but it’s slow because it requires actual time to pass before manufacturers can, well, test the tests. 

[Related: You can, and should, order more free COVID tests from the US government]

But back at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we couldn’t wait nearly two years to be sure tests were up to standard, so manufacturers used accelerated stability testing. This method consists of storing a batch of tests for a shorter period of time at a high temperature and then checking whether they’re still performing accurately. Tests are made to work ideally between 59 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (15 and 30 degrees Celsius, approximately). Extreme temperatures can degrade them more rapidly, mimicking the effect that sitting on a shelf for a long time would have. 

This method was useful early on because it allowed the FDA to approve tests and get them into our homes quickly to help us curb the spread. But because accelerated stability testing is not as accurate as just letting time pass, the agency only gave tests a four- to six-month shelf life that could be updated once manufacturers provided more data on stability. 

That is what’s happening right now, and we may continue to see extended expiration dates for at-home COVID tests as more time goes by. For now, though, make sure you check the FDA website before you toss your tests, and take precautions to protect others if you need to go to a public space to get a new test. 

The post How to check if your at-home COVID test has expired appeared first on Popular Science.

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Your phone is generally responsible for determining essential system details such as time and location, and sharing that data with all the apps on your device. Language used to be one of them—if your phone was set to English, everything on it would be in English too.

Android 13 put an end to that. The latest iteration of Google’s mobile operating system started rolling out last week (first on Pixel phones, as usual) and features a new option to set each app to whatever language you want. This means you’ll be able to keep your system language to English, for example, but use individual apps of your choice in Spanish, Mandarin, or any other language your phone knows. 

If your phone is not Google-made, you’ll likely have to wait a bit before you get the OS update. You can wait until your device lets you know there’s an update ready, or you can check manually. The path for hunting down system updates on your phone should be similar to the Pixel’s, but if you can’t find it, try searching for “system update” in your device’s search bar.   

Android 13 is a bit of a hefty update, so before you install it, make sure you’re connected to a secure and reliable WiFi network and an outlet, or have enough charge to prevent your phone from dying mid-update (you don’t want that—it can be terribly annoying). 

Once Android 13 is up and running, you can change the language of an individual app by going to Settings, Apps, and choosing the platform you want to change. Scroll down, and right below Battery you should see an entry for Language, which will be set to System default. Tap it, and on the next menu, choose the language you want to change the app to. You can pick from all the options Android offers (58 at the moment). 

Keep in mind that for this feature to work, the app has to support it, and since this is a new Android feature, you may have to be patient. Otherwise, you can play around setting different languages for your Google apps and see how you like your phone being bilingual. 

There’s also the problem with translations. Some apps—especially those for specific countries—were not created in English, but were translated after the interface was built. This can result in a series of problems, like forgotten and untranslated menus, or literal translations that don’t mean what the developers think they do. If you’re fluent in the language those apps were created in, you would be able to bypass the inconvenience, while still using the rest of your phone in a language you’re more comfortable with. 

Language learners can benefit from this too, in the form of limited exposure. Maybe switching your entire phone to Korean isn’t the best idea if you’re not yet fluent—just imagine how many hours you’d have to spend changing it back. But having some apps force you to get used to new lingo can acclimate you faster and add words to your vocabulary you might not otherwise get from a teacher or training app. 

The post Android 13 lets you change the language in individual apps. Here’s how. appeared first on Popular Science.

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Thanks to our changing climate, summer means three months of sticky, humid, scorching heat waves that much of our infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle. And even though it cools off a bit at night, falling asleep under a blanket of unrelenting heat is no easy task. 

If you have an air conditioning unit at home, you may not have a problem at all. But keeping it breezy all night long can be an expensive waste of energy, so you might want to get your bedroom comfortable with as little help from your AC as possible.

Pro tip: Get some high-quality black-out curtains. Some claim to be able to deflect 90 percent more sunlight and heat than regular drapes, but that will depend on a variety of factors, such as color, thickness, and material.

To get an extra boost, you can turn on the fans around your home (including the ones in your bathroom and above your stove). If you have ceiling fans, set them to rotate counterclockwise to keep hot air up and create a cooling downdraft. 

Other appliances shouldn’t be raising the temperature either. Make sure the vents on all your electronics are clean and unobstructed, and if you need to dry some laundry, confirm your machine is not overheating due to lint accumulation.

This kind of textile allows air to circulate more freely, and will prevent excess sweat from pooling on your body. That last point is why wearing light pajamas is actually better than sleeping naked when it comes to staying cool. When you choose your pajamas, go for a loose fit, and make yourself comfortable with a nice, soft fabric. 

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THE WORD “surveillance” can conjure up amorphous images of shadowy activities: spies locked in clandestine combat, security forces keeping tabs on anyone they deem dangerous. But surveillance also applies to governments knowing where your gym is and multinational corporations monitoring your shopping habits. Just thinking about how gargantuan the players are can leave you feeling powerless, insignificant—or a little of both.

The idea that these faceless organizations care about your penchant for scouring Etsy for the softest alpaca yarn (uh, just an example) can seem somewhat absurd. You commute to work, order takeout, hang out with family and friends, and generally lead a fairly normal, uneventful life. But they do care. Where you see basic information about yourself, they see dollar signs—a lot of them. Ad tech companies collect 72 million data points on the average American child by the time they’re 13, and Facebook alone is rumored to track 52,000 data points per user. They sculpt all of that info into a unique profile that companies can use to get you to buy stuff. What can you do about it? They have millions, even billions of dollars in resources, and you barely have the time and energy to work out three times a week. Well, there’s actually a lot you can do.

You are not insignificant

It’s easy to think that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. Tech companies have even implied that wanting to keep things to yourself means those things may be wrong. In 2009, when a CBS journalist asked then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt whether people should treat the company as their best friend, he famously replied: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Putting aside the fact that this assertion is patently wrong in the physical world—who wants someone watching them in the bathroom?—it implies we have no right to privacy at all in the digital world.

A lack of privacy only helps the powerful: The digital bread crumbs you leave behind as you putter around the internet are a coveted delicacy to corporations. They can use it to make lots of money off you—whether they’re targeting you with ads or selling your information to other companies and data brokers, which may share those details with anybody who’ll pay them, including governments and law enforcement agencies. But getting you to spend money on things you probably don’t need may be one of the most benevolent uses of your data. Tomorrow, your location may give away how fast you drive, increasing your car insurance payments, and your smartwatch data might be interpreted as proof of poor health, limiting your access to vital healthcare.   

No matter how boring you think your life is, everything you do leaves a valuable data trail that’s actually more of a web. We live in a highly interconnected society where each of us is a node in an intricate network that blankets the world; that means it’s not just your data you’re sharing when you geotag your Instagram photos or give your contacts to any app that asks for them. Your data web includes you, but also the people around you—people who may not spend much time online, and even folks who have gone to great lengths to protect their own privacy.

Knowing that, you start to see the unrelenting push to share everything in a new light. The countless engagement options—such as emoji reactions, likes, comments, reposts, and even blocking—are also tools for apps and services to collect as much information as possible.

You are not powerless

With all the ways governments and corporations have to collect your data, protecting it might seem futile, especially if you haven’t given privacy much thought until now. Many of us who witnessed the dawn of social media didn’t know any better, and we ended up with embarrassing email handles and our entire college experiences memorialized on 60-photo Facebook albums posted by people we haven’t thought about since 2009 (uh, again, just an example). Even today, it’s all too easy to get excited about the latest shiny social toy as we share our every move with a sea of strangers online. So give up—they’ve got you, right? No. It’s never too late to fight back.

Take your dusty Facebook photos: For starters, you are not the same person you were a decade ago. You don’t like the same things, and your spending patterns have probably changed a lot too. If someone tried reaching you at the phone number you used to create your accounts back then, it’s possible a complete stranger would pick up the call. So just like the contact list on your old bedazzled Razr, that data is largely useless to Big Tech. 

Even a tweet, purchase, or upload you make today has an expiration date. The data you create now and in the future—the things you buy, where you go, where you get your information, the podcasts you listen to, the apps you download, the columns you read—is data you can do something about.

You matter

Not caring about what corporations or other potentially nefarious unknown parties do with your data is not an option. Data nihilism only puts us all on the worst end of a shitty deal. Day in and day out, we read about new glitches in app codes and unintentionally open backdoors, and we even welcome deliberately voyeuristic platforms that peep into our lives without our knowing. It’s scary enough to know how dangerous data can be today, but it’s even scarier to think about all the ways your information could be used to track and manipulate you in the future. 

And at a time when we’re overly primed to be polarized in our opinions—from our response to viruses to our hot takes on the latest Marvel movie—protecting our privacy is a battle that calls for all of us. We must join in a collective effort to protect it. 

We created this column, The Opt Out, to empower you to take back control of your data. If you don’t know where to begin, this is the starting line. In the coming months, we’ll be looking into how to protect your kids’ data when their school’s apps and programs are just as hungry as everything else, and how (if at all) providing false inputs can help you access what you want without giving away your personal details. We’re on this privacy journey together and, hopefully, your information will be a bit safer every month.

We hope you enjoyed The Opt Out, a new monthly column from PopSci+. Check back in September for the next in this series.

The post The Opt Out: You have the power to protect your data. Own it. appeared first on Popular Science.

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It really seems like Google wants to provide a solution for all your problems. These days, that’s a big job, but the big G can certainly help you with minor daily challenges with some of the tools built into the company’s famous search engine. 

The platform has long sought to give answers before you finish typing your questions, but not every problem has a google-able answer. For those, Google Search has tools that provide simple functions you’d otherwise need apps for. And honestly, who needs more apps on their phones, anyway?

Google’s tool is set to 100 beats per minute by default, but you can use the slider bar below it to increase or decrease the BPM to suit your needs. When you’re ready, click the play button and get into the groove. 

If you’re making your way into coding, for example, or setting up your printer for some high-quality photographic visuals, and you need a tool to nail down the right hues, Google has got you: type in “color picker,” choose the color you want, and see it automatically codified into different formats. You can also plug in a specific code to see what color it represents and all the other code variations it can have.

To use it, though, you’ll need to give Google access to your phone’s or computer’s microphone. Once you do, make sounds with your voice or an instrument and the platform will identify the pitch for you. It will also show you how close you are to the note you want, so you can adjust up or down as needed. 

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Over the past few months, climate change, the supply chain crisis, and the war in Ukraine have combined to create a major mustard shortage in France, the No. 1 world consumer of the yellow stuff.   

There are no signs of the shortage hitting American homes just yet, but in case it does, this may be a good time to get a bag of mustard seeds and learn how to make your own. It’s surprisingly simple, highly customizable, and the science involved in managing mustard’s spiciness is a lot cooler than you may have imagined. 

A good starting point, in our opinion, is the basic American mustard recipe: mild, strikingly yellow, and perfect on a ballpark hot dog. You’re welcome to make your own adjustments to spiciness and texture. The sky’s the limit. 

Instructions

1. Soak the mustard seeds in water. There are three kinds of mustard seeds: yellow, brown, and black. The darker they are, the spicier they are. American mustard is made with yellow seeds, classic Dijon mustard is made with brown, and the black ones get you something like the relatively obscure Swedish Skånsk senap. You can, of course, experiment with flavors by combining two or all of them.

3. Add the dry ingredients. Once the seeds have been ground into a paste, mortar and pestle users can add the rest of their dry ingredients. Anyone using an electric grinder will have to add all of them. If you’re using turmeric powder (responsible for American mustard’s bright yellow color) or any other spice or herb, this is your chance to pour them in and mix.

4. (Optional) Add water. If you took the mustard powder shortcut (there’s absolutely no shame in it) add water now. The temperature principle we explained in Step 1 also applies here: the hotter the water, the milder the mustard. Room-temperature or warmer water is perfect for American mustard. 

5. Add vinegar or wine. Vinegar has the crucial role of setting the level of spiciness in mustard (more science coming ahead). If you want to give your condiment the biggest kick you can, wait a couple of minutes before you add the vinegar. 

6. (Optional) Strain the mustard. If you want mustard with grain and texture, you can leave it as-is. But if you want a creamy paste, you must use a fine mesh strainer to sift the mustard from the crushed seeds. There’s no easy shortcut for this, but some condiment creators recommend using the pestle against a metal strainer to get more out of your effort.   

When you crush a mustard seed in a wet environment (like your mouth, or a mortar and pestle with a couple tablespoons of water) the interaction between myrosinase and sinigrin triggers an enzymatic reaction that forms a third compound called allyl isothiocyanate (AITC). This is a highly volatile compound that gives mustard and other hot bites, like wasabi, their signature kick. But if you’ve ever felt wasabi’s unmistakable nasal burn, you know that AITC doesn’t stop at your tongue. Its volatility gives it the ability to travel through your airways and stimulate pain receptors in your nose, too. This is actually a defense mechanism for the mustard plant, ensuring anything that eats its seeds gets a spicy kick in the gut instead of a tasty meal. 

“If they were to remove it, the product would spoil very quickly,” Lim explains. “The presence of that blob of wasabi can put a stop to microbial growth for a significant time.” 

That’s not to say you should start washing your hands with mustard, but hopefully, you’ll close this window with a newfound appreciation for that spicy gold. And hopefully, you try making your own because it’s fun, and not because shelves have been stripped of this delicious, creamy condiment. 

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When the temperatures rise, panting dogs seem to get all the attention. But people seem to forget heat is a problem for cats too, and a good summer scorcher can kill them. 

Thankfully, making felines comfortable during the hottest months of the year is simple, and your kitty will appreciate your efforts to make sure they stay the cool cats they are at heart. 

Water is not only refreshing—it helps cats sweat. Just like dogs, felines only sweat through their paw pads; but unlike pooches, cats lick their feet to stimulate sweating and cooling, which is why they need to drink more than usual when it’s hot out. And although a cat’s risk of succumbing to heat stroke is lower than that of their canine counterparts, it can still happen.

If your cat refuses to come home and has found a place to hide in, say, a tree or shed, make sure you check on them regularly and keep fresh water available to them at all times.

If you live in a particularly hot area, clipping your cat’s hair—even just the fur around their bellies—can be a good next step to keep them comfortable. But unless you’re a professional animal groomer, never clip your cat’s hair yourself. Your furball’s skin is delicate and can rip very easily, so one wrong cut can turn into a bloody trip to the vet. 

If you don’t want to buy one, you can turn any bed or blanket into a cooling pad by freezing a bottle of water and wrapping a towel around it. Put it in your cat’s favorite spot and watch them chill. The towel must be thick enough that it’s comfortable for your pet and the pad isn’t too cold. To test this kind of DIY cooling device before you put in your cat’s favorite spot, hold it in your hand or keep it on your lap for a couple of minutes. You should feel a chill, but it shouldn’t be uncomfortable or feel like you’re putting an icepack on an injury. If it does, wrap the bottle in a bigger or fluffier towel, or wait until the ice has thawed a little.

Keep in mind that condensation will eventually soak the towel and your cat’s bed, so having a second water bottle in the freezer to replace the first one before everything gets drenched is a good idea. 

If you want, you can also make your kitty some icy treats. Freeze some tuna brine or chicken broth in an ice cube tray or a popsicle mold, and serve it as a tribute to your feline overlord. Just make sure to put it inside a bowl or container so your entire place doesn’t reek of tuna for the foreseeable future.

You can dab it on their pads, chin, underarms, and outside their ears, or you can gently stroke them with it. If your kitty doesn’t like the feeling of a wet cloth, you can produce a similar effect by wetting your hands and petting them.

[Related: Why do cats—and so many other animals—look like they’re wearing socks?]

Needless to say, if your cat doesn’t like the towel or your wet hands, they’ll let you know. For their sake (and your safety) stop any attempt to cool your furball down if they start scratching or biting you.

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Order pizza, and there’s a good chance it’s gone within hours. Something about that round wheel of dough, melted cheese, warm tomato sauce, and seemingly countless topping possibilities is simply irresistible. If only pizza would stay that way forever.

Still, it’s hard to resist the temptation of a leftover slice as you rummage through the fridge for food the next day. Maybe you like cold pizza—there’s no shame in that—but if you’re looking learn how to reheat pizza in a way that restores some of that fresh-pizza magic, you’ll need to know what you’re doing.

So, Popular Science’s DIY team tracked down the most popular strategies, bought a whole lot of pizza, and put them to the test. We sought the ultimate method—The Way.

To truly understand pizza, you must know how it dies

The very moment pizza is born out of the oven, it’s too hot to eat and might not even be done cooking. But right around 140 degrees Fahrenheit—the temperature experts recommend you dig in so you don’t burn your mouth—it begins its inevitable march toward complete decay, just like everything else on Earth.

If you can’t (or won’t) eat your pizza when it’s fresh, all you’ll be able to do later is damage control. You see, cheese only likes to be melted once, because when it does, it loses its integrity. When exposed to high temperatures, cheese loses fat and water, and there’s just no way to get it back.

“That water isn’t going up,” says bread and pizza expert Francisco Migoya, head chef at Modernist Cuisine. “The dough is like a sponge, so it’s just going to absorb it all, making it soggier and gummier as time goes by.”

Over time, the moisture from the sauce and water, plus the fat from the cheese (and any meat), seeps into the crust, creating what pizza connoisseurs know as “the gum line”—that layer between the sauce and crust that looks like raw dough. The thicker the pizza, the more pronounced the gum line will be, and the longer it sits there uneaten, the thicker it will get. This, Migoya says, changes the crust permanently.

You should never leave pizza out on the counter or in the oven overnight (because of bacteria), but putting it in the fridge doesn’t do it any favors. Low temperatures congeal everything the dough has absorbed and accelerate the staling process, or retrogradation. In short: The starch in the crust recrystallizes, and all that fresh-pizza chewiness goes out the window.

How we did it

PopSci is based in New York City, so we tested each method with the thin-crust style of pizza the Big Apple is famous for. If you’re reheating Chicago-style deep-dish pizza or another variety, your results may vary.

Top tier 🍕🍕🍕

Reddit’s favorite

The official reheating method of the /r/pizza subreddit, this calls for placing your cold pizza on an oiled, preheated non-stick pan and cooking it for two minutes over medium-low heat (or until the bottom of the slice is crispy). Then, pour two drops of water (less than a teaspoon) into the pan as far from the pizza as you can get. Cover the pan with a lid and turn the heat to low. Cook it for another minute.

Using a cast-iron pan, however, amplifies a number of factors you may not want to deal with while heating up a quick bite. Depending on your stove, it may take what feels like forever to warm the thick metal pan. And if it’s not properly seasoned, tossing a cold slice onto hot, dry iron is a recipe for burned crust (more on that later). Even if you get the pan hot with a thin sheen of oil, the crust will become extremely crispy before the cheese has much of a chance to melt.

Hot tray in a hot oven

Put a baking tray in your oven and heat it to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. If you don’t want to clean the tray later, you can line it with foil. Once the oven has reached the proper temperature, use an oven mitt to take the hot tray out and put your slices on it. Place the tray on the middle rack and cook it for five minutes. If your oven runs hot or your ‘za is a little too crisp for your liking, cook it for the same amount of time at 450.

The results

We had to let the pizza sit for a minute or two to cool down before we could eat it, but when it passed between our lips, we experienced excellent crispiness, melty cheese, and a slice that was almost as good as new. For what it’s worth, one author considers this the best way to reheat pizza.

You can play around with different temperatures, but you should always make sure the tray heats up with the oven. We tried it at 375 degrees for 10 minutes, and while the first bite was crispy and tasted great, the slice became hard to chew the closer we got to the end—more like a cracker, less like a pizza. A cheese slice came out quite dehydrated, but a pepperoni one was fine—the fat in the meat likely helped keep the cheese moist. The crust on the pepperoni slice was better too: It was the right amount of crisp and wasn’t tough to chew as it got thicker.

Air fryer

If you want to reheat pizza in an air fryer, we’ve got you. Put a slice of pizza into a cold air fryer, turn the heat to 400 degrees and let it cook for five minutes. We put it directly on the air fryer tray, no foil, and it didn’t make too much of a mess. The drip tray caught any excess, too. This combination of heat and time worked best for us, but given the variety of available air fryers, you may find your sweet spot lies somewhere between 360 and 400 degrees, cooked for four to eight minutes.

The results

This is by far the fastest of the top-tier methods. You won’t have to wait for a pan or oven to heat up—just pop it in the air fryer and go. Five minutes later, you’ve got a crisp, bubbly, delicious slice. There are some downsides, though: you can really only heat one slice at a time, and more fragile ingredients (such as vegetables), may begin to burn after five minutes. At eight minutes, even at 360 degrees, the whole crust was burned. So don’t delay getting it out of the fryer and onto your plate.

Middle tier 🍕🍕

Straight-up rebaking

This method suggested placing the pizza directly on your oven rack, but Migoya strongly advised against that. “There is no food I would put in an oven like that,” he said, appalled. “The risk of the cheese melting off is too great, and all that grease in a hot environment is the perfect recipe for a fire inside your oven. You don’t want that.”

We did it anyway. For science (with a sheet of aluminum foil on the rack below to catch any drippings and hopefully prevent a fire). But you definitely shouldn’t.

The results

The best iteration of this strategy was baking the pizza on a sheet of foil (not directly on the rack) at 450 degrees for five minutes. The crust was crispy, the cheese was warm—solid all around, but not as good as rebaking it on a hot tray. You can also do it at 350 degrees for 10 minutes for a slightly less-crispy slice, if that’s your thing. Our worst results with this method came when we put the pizza directly on the oven rack. We didn’t start a fire (we had a fire extinguisher on hand), but the crust was unevenly cooked due to the lack of a solid heated surface underneath. Ultimately, this isn’t the best way to reheat pizza, but it’s not the worst, either.

The microwave + oven combo

We were pretty skeptical about this technique, but it surprised us. First, put the pizza in your microwave for 30 seconds. Then, put the pizza in a tray in a cold oven and set it to heat up to 350 degrees. Once the oven tells you it’s done preheating—when you’d normally put food in—take the pizza out.

Low and slow in the oven

Place cold pizza slices on a baking sheet and cover them tightly with aluminum foil. Place them on the lowest rack of your oven and set the temperature for 275 degrees. Let it bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

The worst 🍕

A very hot pan

Heat a pan on your stovetop over high heat for a couple minutes until it’s really hot. Add the pizza and reduce the temperature to medium-high. Cook for two or three minutes.

Cast-iron was worse. In a dry pan, the crust began smoking the moment it hit hot metal. The smell of disastrously burned bread hung heavy in the air for hours. Somehow, the pizza was still cold on top. If Hell ever freezes over and we get the chance to taste it, this is probably what it would be like: scalding, burnt, and covered by a layer of cold, congealed fat.

We oiled the cast-iron to give this strategy a second chance and it didn’t start to burn immediately—that took about three minutes. The crust was better (maybe too crispy), but the cheese was still lukewarm at best.

Microwaved with a mug of water

Simply put your pizza in the microwave with a microwave-safe mug of water and heat them both up for a minute.

Microwave disasters

Several microwave methods fall under this mess of a heading:

1. Set your microwave to 30 or 40 percent power and heat the pizza for 45 seconds. Check it out and repeat as often as necessary.
2. Put a wet paper towel over your pizza and microwave it for 100 seconds.
3. Heat it upside down on a plate for 145 seconds (2.5 minutes).

[Related: I spent 13 hours trying to make mac and cheese in a bag. It was a disaster.]

The results

1. The crust was gummy—not crispy at all. The cheese melted but was highly dehydrated, so it didn’t have much taste and its consistency was rubbery at best. No matter the topping, they tasted as if they had been reheated in the microwave for two minutes. Total waste of delicious food.
2. Our paper towel was barely damp and it still soaked the pizza. The bottom was super wet, the whole thing was limp and floppy, and biting into the crust was like trying to eat an old shoe. Plus, we couldn’t pick up our slice for several minutes because it oozed steam and hot water at the lightest touch.
3. This method actually wasn’t bad for the cheese if you ignore the fact that a lot of it ended up stuck to the plate. But the crust? Just awful: leathery, rubbery, and we had to snap the thickest part like a twig.

Is your head constantly spinning with outlandish, mind-burning questions? If you’ve ever wondered what the universe is made of, what would happen if you fell into a black hole, or even why not everyone can touch their toes, then you should be sure to listen and subscribe to Ask Us Anything, a podcast from the editors of Popular Science. Ask Us Anything hits Apple, Anchor, Spotify, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every Tuesday and Thursday. Each episode takes a deep dive into a single query we know you’ll want to stick around for.

This post has been updated. It was originally published on February 7, 2020.

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WHEN METALS first entered West Asian and Eastern Mediterranean kitchens in the form of bronze knives and copper cauldrons, only the wealthy could afford these tools. Today, such cookware and cutlery are staples—but with widespread use come common misconceptions.

Microwaving metal is dangerous: FALSE (in some cases)

If you’re wondering why you hear a loud zap when electromagnetic radiation hits a stainless-steel fork, know that it’s the shape, not the material, that’s the problem. Microwaves heat up food by vibrating water molecules, but if you raise the temperature on a knife or fork, the loose electrons on the metal will get stirred up, accumulating on sharp edges and potentially producing sparks. Set a spoon on the turntable instead, and the energy will disperse, resulting in nothing but a scalding utensil.

Soap ruins cast-iron skillets: FALSE

The nonstick powers of cast iron come from the seasoning process, whereby a thin layer of fat is heated to form a strong, elastic polymer that prevents food from adhering to the cookware. Dishwashing liquid can cut through most types of grease—including these slicks—but since the majority of them no longer contain lye or other abrasive ingredients, they’re not strong enough to strip the coating off properly prepped skillets.

Aluminum foil makes silverware shinier: TRUE

Tarnish on fancy flatware comes from silver sulfide, which is created when metal molecules combine with sulfur gases from the air. To banish the dullness, place a ball of aluminum foil in the dishwasher. The warm water and the salts in the detergent will coax the sulfur to chemically bond with the foil, resulting in utensils that sparkle again.

Using metal utensils on Teflon is unhealthy: FALSE (in some cases)

Some nonstick pans have a coating that flakes off when scratched by hard spatulas and tongs. The responsible chemical, Teflon, has been linked to cancer, infertility, and thyroid disorders, among other problems. But you don’t need to worry about ingesting it unless you’re still using older cookware, which was made with perfluorooctanoic acid, a cancerous compound. Nonstick kitchen items produced in the US after 2013 aren’t coated with the harmful substance.

Stainless steel removes some bad odors from skin: TRUE

When you handle garlic and onions with bare fingers, the sulfuric compounds from the juices can make you reek for hours. Soapy lathers won’t help, but rubbing your skin against a stainless-steel utensil or sink under an open faucet will. The wet metal creates chromium oxide, which can bind to sulfur, liberating you from allium fumes.

The best meringue comes out of metal bowls: TRUE

Beating eggs vigorously will introduce air and rearrange their proteins into a delicate meringue. But the tools you use matter as much as the method. When you mix your sweet white peaks in a plastic vessel, you risk contaminating them with residue from other ingredients. A smooth, scratch-resistant surface like stainless steel won’t present that problem. Copper is even better: The red metal bonds to sulfur in the egg proteins and prevents them from sticking together too tightly, helping the meringue retain its moisture and fluffiness.

This story originally ran in the Summer 2022 Metal issue of PopSci. Read more PopSci+ stories.

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Summer is officially here, which means the United States of America is preparing to celebrate its No. 1 event of the season: the Fourth of July. 

If you’re the proud parent of a baby or share your home with a four-legged friend, you may be excited to enjoy a day of sunny weather and outdoor activity with them. But you may not be as thrilled about nighttime, when the loud explosions of colorful fireworks threaten your toddler’s precious sleep or your pet’s mental sanity. Preparedness is key to ensure all members of your family can enjoy firework season.

For adventurous families who enjoy a bright spectacle in the sky, the first step is to get your baby earmuffs to protect their tender young ears. These coverings won’t drown out all noise, but they will reduce it enough to be manageable, and whatever sound does get through won’t cause permanent hearing damage. 

Most firework shows also happen after bedtime, so following your baby’s routine no matter where you are can help them feel safe and comfortable. They may even sleep through the show. Make sure they eat right on schedule and put their pajamas on before you go out. If you can—and it’s part of your routine—take the time for a bedtime story in a quiet place, like a car. Once you’re out and about, consider tenting the stroller with a blanket to block the light and help them sleep. 

[Related: For better sleep, borrow the bedtime routine of a toddler]

If your baby can’t doze off, do what you need to do to soothe them—every baby’s different, so make sure you’re doing whatever will help them feel safe. And if your baby’s inconsolable, it may be time to retreat. Going back to a car can provide enough soundproofing for them to fall asleep, but if that doesn’t work, you will probably have to head home and call it a night. 

Now, if you and your family prefer to avoid the boisterous crowds and just stay home, the only risk you run is having those fireworks interrupt your child’s sleep and, consequently, yours as well. 

Just as you would any other day, make sure to follow your kid’s bedtime routine, as that will prompt them to fall asleep more easily. If they enjoyed themselves all day playing with friends and family, they’ll probably be tired enough to sleep through the show. If you have a noise machine, this is the perfect time to use it—crank up that volume to help drown out the explosions outside. But don’t overdo it. Use your phone to make sure the sound is below 50 decibels in your baby’s room, as that is the maximum recommended noise level for infants. 

The good news is that, depending on how old your baby is, there’s a good chance they won’t even notice there are loud explosions in the distance. Starting at three or four months, babies start to go through longer stretches of deep sleep during the night, meaning that they might be seriously out when the fireworks start. Here’s hoping yours is one of those kids. 

Some cats seem to be scared of thunder and fireworks, but dogs are especially likely to react negatively to them. 

“Dogs hear more than twice as many frequencies as people, and they also hear about four times farther away,” says Jerry Klein, chief veterinary officer at the American Kennel Club. “Fireworks are loud, unpredictable, and threatening to many dogs, though some dogs have less sensitivity to them.”

The loud noises and bright lights might induce severe bouts of anxiety, which in the worst cases can result in your beloved four-legged friend bolting away from you in fear. If your pet has a history of severe anxiety, leave them indoors during fireworks. Make sure all windows, doors, and pet flaps are secured, so that they cannot go out and run the risk of getting lost or run over by a car. 

Before any explosions happen, make sure you close the curtains and turn on the TV or radio to drown out as much noise as possible. Then, build a den so your pet can hide if they want to. It can be a crate or any nook in your home where they can lie down and feel safe. Make sure you make the space as cozy as possible—add a bed or blankets, and leave treats and toys around so they can distract themselves. 

“Bathrooms are often places that are pretty soundproof,” says Katherine Houpt, professor emeritus at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “Some dogs will go there and even jump in the tub.” 

If you can, ensure the room where you’re building their den is a dark, quiet space. Klein also suggests people with cats confirm there aren’t any inaccessible areas where their pet might choose to hide—open holes in the wall, for example—as they might be able to get in but have a hard time getting out. Some dogs and most cats will prefer to seek out comfort and safety by themselves, so if that’s the case with your fur baby, make sure they’re OK, and leave them alone until they feel it’s time to come out. 

On the other hand, some dogs will want to stay close to their humans. If that’s the case with your pooch, be empathetic and give them the attention they need. Containing an anxious dog while fireworks explode outside may end up being frustrating, but Klein says you should never scold a dog when it is stressed. 

“Consider giving basic commands such as ‘sit’ or ‘down’ to give them a feeling of order, or give them a toy or puzzle treat to divert the attention as much as possible,” he explains.

If you have a cat that needs extra help, Klein says catnip can make your feline friend feel “almost drunk.” But to achieve that effect, you’ll have to give them the herb at least 30 minutes before the fireworks, and timing can be tricky. Houpt doesn’t recommend catnip at all, as it is not a sedative and can make kitties even more excited. 

Other preventive tactics for both dogs and cats focus first on keeping your pet from running away and providing enough information to find them if they do. Start by making sure you’ve equipped your fur baby with a microchip embedded by your veterinarian, and checking that the information associated with the device is up to date. Then, equip your best buddy with proper external identification—make sure their tag is legible and all the information (ideally, your phone number and address) is up to date. 

Next, make sure their collar is durable. If it looks like it might rip if caught on a branch or nail, it’s time to get a new one. Likewise, you’ll need to make sure the collar is on properly. That means snug enough so it doesn’t come off over your pet’s head, and loose enough to be comfortable. If you want to go the extra mile, buy an AirTag- or GPS-compatible collar so you can locate your pupper or kitty-cat more easily. 

[Related: Best dog collars of 2022]

No matter if you’re in someone’s backyard or a public space, it’s always a good idea to keep your dog tightly leashed and nearby during a firework show. And never tie your dog up, Houpt says, noting that there have been cases of tied-up dogs that jump over a fence or down a porch and end up choking to death from the restraint around their necks. 

If your dog doesn’t have a history of anxiety and you feel comfortable enough to let them off-leash, only do so in an enclosed space after making sure that all entrances and exits are blocked. Keep in mind that dogs may dig their way under fences and yard doors, so be aware of all potential escape routes. 

“Because [fireworks are] a much stronger stimulus [than thunder], usually the owner is not enough to calm them down—the dog just tries to get away from it,” says Houpt. 

The best place for you to be during a fireworks show if your dog has severe anxiety is indoors with them, so you can show them they’re safe. But if you have to leave them behind, your pet might need some extra help. 

Research has shown that dogs start producing endorphins whenever they feel moderate-to-deep pressure against their back and sides, and that can help them manage anxiety. Compression shirts or anxiety wraps can cause this effect, making them the first option for noise-reactive canines. Houpt doesn’t recommend cannabidiol (CBD) products for doggos, as studies have found it to be ineffective against anxiety and noise reactivity. She doesn’t recommend over-the-counter medications either, as you may need to give them to your dog for weeks before you see results, and that’s a much more expensive solution. Even then, these types of medication might calm your dog down under normal circumstances, but do absolutely nothing when louder, more intense noises come into play. 

For a more serious solution, Houpt recommends talking to your vet about selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which humans also take to manage anxiety. This type of drug also works on dogs, and it might be especially important if your pooch will be exposed to fireworks while home alone.

The post Babies and pets might freak out during fireworks shows, but you can help them relax appeared first on Popular Science.

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We’ve all wondered what people think of us. Do they find our jokes funny? Are our stories fascinating or insufferably pretentious? The truth is: we may never know. As a consolation prize, though, we can all find out exactly what Google thinks of us, no potentially awkward conversation required. 

It’s common knowledge that the tech company monitors your browsing habits to paint a picture of who you are, then uses that portrait to show you ads you might be interested in while you search the web, watch videos on YouTube, or find your way home on Google Maps. But what’s not well-known is how easy it is for you to see that profile for yourself and opt out of some or all of the company’s data-collection process.

Maybe you like the convenience of a big tech company knowing your habits, but if you’re looking to regain a little bit of privacy, take a minute to tell Google what it can and can’t know about you.

By default, you’ll see the toggle switch for ad personalization is on, which means Google is using your data to refine the palette of ads you see on its services. But before you tap the switch to turn it off completely, feel free to scroll down and take a look at the categories the big G has used to describe you and how accurate they are. 

The first major ones are age, gender, and language. Tap or click on any of these if you want to Update or Manage them. With the last of those three descriptors, you can add the languages you speak or turn the feature off to prevent Google from automatically adding more languages in the future based on what you read or type. With age, if you haven’t already, the platform will ask you to enter your birthday. If the company already has this information, however, there’s no way to remove it, but you can add to it. 

[Related: The government won’t protect your internet privacy, so here’s how to do it yourself]

The next categories are interests the platform thinks you have, including what type of news you’re interested in and the sports, movies, and hobbies you enjoy. Don’t expect these to be highly accurate or say a lot about you. Google can get many of these wrong, and they can be so random that they’re funny. For example, according to Google, I am a man interested in football, classical music, and combat sports. Now, as a woman who strongly believes football is soccer, can’t tell Bach from Mozart, and has no idea what MMA stands for, I find all that hilarious. 

If you’d rather Google be confused about what you’re actually interested in, you might want to keep these as-is. But if you want to rectify this information, you can disable your interests completely by clicking each one and choosing Turn off. You don’t get the opportunity to edit them. If you want to turn everything off in bulk, you can scroll up and toggle off the switch next to ad personalization. 

The post Here’s what Google knows about you—and how to change it appeared first on Popular Science.

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Our society doesn’t do a great job teaching people about sexually transmitted infections. Sexual education classes, doctors, parents, and pretty much everyone who talks about sexual health tends to emphasize the importance of condoms, testing, and talking to your partners. But if you’ve ever had an STI, you know things can be more complicated than that.  

Viral infections such as human papillomavirus (HPV), herpes (both oral and genital), and HIV are a little more complicated because there’s currently no cure for any of them. In the case of HPV and herpes, most patients are asymptomatic, and those who show symptoms may develop lesions that heal with treatment, and warts that are easily removable with cryotherapy. 

“It might feel a bit scary at first because there’s so much stigma around STIs, but if you’re healthy, then you are not going to see too many outbreaks,” says Sofia Jawed-Wessel,  co-director of the Midlands Sexual Health Research Collaborative at the University of Nebraska Omaha.

In the case of HIV, what was once known as a death sentence is now a disease that millions of people around the world manage day-to-day with antiretroviral therapy. This usually entails taking daily medication to reduce their viral load, which can shrink to a point where HIV cannot be detected in their blood. 

Now, don’t take this as an excuse to stop trying to keep you and your partners away from STIs. You should always aim to take care of yourself and stay healthy, but it’s good to know that getting an STI is not the end of the world. As long as you seek timely medical treatment, you’ll be fine in no time, Jawed-Wessel says, and yes—you’ll be able to have sex again.    

If STI testing is part of your yearly checkup with your primary care physician, keep in mind that you’re likely not getting tested for two of the most prevalent and well-known STIs: herpes, and HPV. That seems counterintuitive, but there’s a reason for that.

Herpes, for one, is diagnosed with visual confirmation of bumps and lesions, which doctors can swab to detect the virus. There is a blood (serology) test for herpes, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—and most physicians—don’t recommend it. 

“When someone’s not having an outbreak, we have to rely on serology, and those tests are not as reliable,” says Hillary Reno, medical consultant to the CDC’s STD prevention division, and medical director of the St. Louis County Sexual Health Clinic in Missouri. “You get false negatives and false positives, and both of those have consequences for people.”

When asymptomatic, there’s a 10 percent chance you’ll transmit herpes to a partner, but those odds decrease significantly when you use a barrier such as a condom or a dental dam. If you haven’t had any symptoms, the best way to take care of yourself and protect your partners is to watch for signs of an outbreak and seek medical attention as soon as anything seems off. 

Each time one of those asymptomatic people has sex, there’s a 70 percent chance they spread the virus. The good news is that 90 percent of all cases go away on their own within two years, and there’s an effective vaccine that can prevent infection. Only some of the 100 known types of HPV are associated with cervical and anal cancer, but Jawed-Wessel says you should not be alarmed, as those cancers grow slowly. Observant doctors should be able to catch them before they spread too far.

These kinds of barriers significantly lower your risk of contracting an STI, but they’re not completely effective.   

“It’s not that the condom isn’t fully protective,” Jawed-Wessel explains. “It’s just that it doesn’t cover all the external genitalia where a wart might be present.” 

This is especially true with HPV and herpes, which you can transmit via simple skin-to-skin contact. Additionally, herpes can easily go from the mouth to the genitals, and vice versa, when performing or receiving unprotected oral sex, which is what the majority of adolescents and young adults do in the US, according to a 2018 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health. 

Regardless of whether they’re a longtime partner, a sporadic fling, or a one-night stand, you should always have a conversation about your—and their—STI status. Having an STI doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to have sex again—it means you have a responsibility to provide your partners with all the information they need to make their own decisions about the risk they’re willing to take. 

If you discover you have an STI while in a monogamous relationship, tell your partner so they can get tested and treated if they need to. With more information and an updated STI status, you can make decisions about how to move forward—what risks you are willing to take, what activities are off-limits, and what precautions you’ll take to prevent future infections. 

Starting with new partners is similar: before things get hot and heavy, take the time to hit pause and have a conversation. It doesn’t have to be serious and awkward. Remember—consent is sexy, and if you want to have a quick conversation about health without killing the mood, you certainly can. 

Make sure that before there’s any skin-to-genital contact, you tell your partner about your STI status and ask them about theirs. Ideally, this conversation should happen in a neutral context, where no one is intoxicated or distracted by the heat of the moment, as that can prevent you from thinking clearly. But again, ideal scenarios don’t actually happen as often as we’d like, so just keep in mind that having the conversation at some point is what’s most important. 

Finally, even though full disclosure is absolutely necessary, it’s crucial to understand that depending on who you are and who you’re having sex with, revealing that information can be more than awkward—it can be dangerous.  

“We can say ‘Yes, disclose 100 percent of the time,’ but you can’t give that advice without respecting and honoring that it’s a different level of risk that people take just by giving that information,” says Jawed-Wessel. “A trans person or a trans person of color who is about to engage in a sexual activity is in a different threshold of risk than say, a white cis[gender] man.”

She explains that the CDC offers health professionals comprehensive guidelines to treat and inform patients about their sexual health, and the agency updates those every few years to match the latest research. The problem is this information doesn’t reach all medical workers, and some don’t even know it exists. This is why people who get tested for STIs at their yearly checkups with their primary care physician might not have the best experience, and—not knowing what to ask—leave the office scared and confused. 

Both Reno and Jawed-Wessel say it’s important to ask your doctor all the questions you have, be that during the visit or later through email or a phone call. If you still have questions or don’t know what to ask, Reno says asking for a referral to a specialist is a good idea, while Jawed-Wessel also suggests reaching out to specialists directly. 

“Just because you didn’t get your test done at Planned Parenthood or another specialized health clinic doesn’t mean you can’t call them for a consultation, education, or treatment,” she says. “They’ll set you up with somebody who is informed and trained on how to have this conversation with you, and they’re going to do it right.”

Keep in mind that the information you need might not be health-related only, but more closely related to your lifestyle or sexual goals. This is why talking to a doctor may not even be necessary—sexual educators, nurses, and other trained specialists can also give you the answers you need. 

She recommends not only looking at your naked body in the mirror consistently but also touching it in any way you want so you know each and every one of your bumps. 

“Not all bumps are warts or lesions! We have moles around our penises, vulvas, and testicles. Those exist. Know where they are. Being really familiar with your body is going to help you understand when something might not be right. And this goes beyond STIs,” she says.

Sex with another partner is also a good opportunity to take a closer look at them, as there are rarely other instances where you’ll be more up close and personal. You can help each other keep tabs on the changes in your bodies, as there are parts of your own body you simply cannot see as well as someone else can. 

Withdrawing from sexual contact until both you and your partner have been tested is the best thing you can do. But even then, sneakier viruses such as HPV and herpes may be a part of the equation without either of you knowing it. 

So make sure you know the level of risk you’re willing to take. If you’re healthy, using protection, and don’t mind a potential 1-in-10 chance that you might get herpes from having sex with someone you really like, that’s great for you. If to the contrary, you don’t like those odds and would prefer to abstain, that’s your choice as well. 

It may require some soul-searching to decide what you want, but knowing the facts and communicating with your partners openly and honestly is crucial to having a fulfilling, pleasurable, and healthy sex life. 

The post A guide to preventing, spotting, and managing STIs appeared first on Popular Science.

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This story has been updated. It was originally published on November 10, 2021.

In the last two years, vaccines, rapid tests, and a growing body of scientific research have allowed us to get back some sort of normalcy as the COVID-19 pandemic trudges on.  

With vaccination rates still growing around the world and many major airlines are dropping on-board mask mandates in the US, people are flying again, both domestically and internationally. As we move toward an endemic phase of the pandemic, some countries have relaxed their COVID travel requirements, while others have eliminated them altogether, making it easier for travelers to go abroad even if they’re not vaccinated.

But there’s still an abnormal level of uncertainty. The fluctuating nature of this health crisis, plus massive flight cancellations and an industry-wide understaffing problem, ominously threatens to spoil your long-awaited vacation, so your best bet is to stop improvising and prepare well in advance.

COVID-era requirements are easing and even disappearing

Depending on your destination, you may not be able to travel or do much at all if you’re not fully vaccinated against COVID. “Fully vaccinated” means you’ve received the correct number of shots (two for mRNA vaccines like Moderna’s and Pfizer’s; one for mono-dosage inoculations like Johnson & Johnson’s), and that at least two weeks have passed since the last one. Boosters are not a part of a complete vaccination schedule in the US, so if you don’t have any, you’re still good to go. This may not be the case in other countries, though, so make sure you know what “fully vaccinated” means at your destination.

[Related: You still probably have to wear a mask while traveling]

It used to be that some places wouldn’t recognize certain vaccines, but some countries have been adding more brands to their approval list—Australia, for example, has added Novavax. (You can check if your shot is accepted where you’re going by using Visa Guide World’s handy reference page.) Americans have it easy, as most of the world will accept any vaccine approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization, but you may still have to validate your shots with authorities at your destination. 

In some countries, like Chile, the validation process takes place online before you arrive. It can take up to 48 hours, and it’s absolutely necessary if you plan to do anything indoors. In others, like France, you can take your Centers for Disease Control and Prevention card and your passport to any pharmacy to get your shots validated, though you’ll only need to do this if you’re stepping into a hospital or any medical establishment during your stay.

Vaccines are not technically mandatory in most countries, but they’ll definitely make your life easier. And depending on your destination, you may not need a vaccine or even a test. As of June 1, Italy lifted all of its COVID travel restrictions, which means you could be untested and unvaccinated and still be able to visit the Colosseum. The central Mediterranean peninsula is only the latest country to do this, and joins a list of European territories that include the UK, Sweden, Iceland, and Croatia.  

Do your research and stay up to date 

What you need to do in order to travel will depend on where you’re going, but can also change depending on where you are. As the pandemic evolves and waves come and go, restrictions that were once lifted may be reinstalled, so you’ll need to keep up. 

Once you have your tickets, most airlines do a good job of informing you about what you’ll need for your trip, and alerting you of any complications. Still, it is your responsibility to stay up to date with guidelines and regulations, so keep an eye out for announcements from the CDC, the Department of State, and the local health authority at your destination. 

Traditional news outlets and specialized traveling sites like Frommer’s, Lonely Planet, and Sherpa are constantly publishing stories and resources as news develops, so checking them regularly is also a good idea. 

Book in advance

The travel industry has been hit hard by COVID, and even though people feel safer taking a plane and going abroad, that doesn’t mean tourism has bounced back. 

“It’s a strange time to travel. A lot of attractions, resorts, or restaurants are still understaffed, so there’s not the same availability you’d expect,” says Pauline Frommer, the editorial director at Frommer’s. 

Due to shortages, a lot of places are functioning at a lower capacity—some that used to be open throughout the week are now only open on weekends or accepting fewer people in an attempt to keep travelers safe while also accommodating them correctly. 

This is definitely not the time to be a “winging it” kind of traveler, and Frommer says it’s more important than ever to make bookings and reservations in advance: from hotels and tours to museums and other spots of interest. 

Understaffing is also one of the major reasons airlines are canceling huge numbers of flights. Frommer says one of the culprits is a pilot shortage that predated COVID, but that has worsened with airlines forcing some of their staff into retirement. Even if this shortage is not directly linked to COVID, it is a result of a crisis deeply intertwined with the pandemic, and makes it even more likely that your flight will be canceled or delayed. That’s why being cautious is key. 

Consider getting travel insurance

You might have gotten the gist of it already: things, they are a-changin’. At the beginning of the pandemic, airlines waived fees and implemented extra-flexible measures to lure people into traveling. And even though some of those measures are still in place, travelers no longer have such an upper hand. 

American Airlines, for example, will refund you for the full price of your ticket if your flight gets canceled for any reason, but will not book a seat for you on a competing airline. This means you may get stranded during a layover or end up paying a lot more money for a new ticket on a new airline to get to your final destination. 

[Related: What’s next for China’s zero COVID policy]

This is why travel insurance is more important than ever, and Frommer says more and more people are getting it when planning a vacation. Keep an eye out for prices, as high demand might have driven them up. You can always go for the insurance your airline or online travel agency offers you, but it’s better to shop around and read the fine print to find an insurance policy that works for you.

And when you step out of your home to embark upon your trip, know that things are still far from normal. Wherever you’re going and whatever your vaccination status is, we encourage you to wear a mask on planes, in airports, and anywhere social distancing is not possible. Abiding by local regulations and doing your homework will help make your trip a truly fun and relaxing experience.

Updated June 13, 2022 at 11:04 AM: This story has been updated to reflect that as of June 12, 2022, the US has lifted its mandate requiring all international travelers to test negative for COVID-19 before entering the country.

The post Your up-to-date guide on international travel during COVID-19 appeared first on Popular Science.

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We all like new, shiny toys, which is why our hands get a little itchy whenever a new version of our phone’s operating system is announced. Will it have innovative features and tools? Will it look different? You’ll need to wait until the roll-out process hits your phone. Unless, of course, you find a way to sneak a peek early.

Android users can do exactly that with the upcoming Android 13 update. The newest version of Google’s OS is currently in its third beta version, and it’s open to the public. This means you don’t have to be a savvy developer to download it—all you need is an eligible device. 

If you enroll in Android 13’s beta, it’s possible that you’ll run into problems with your favorite apps, or with tools and features that are essential to your day-to-day. With that in mind, if you’re curious about the newest Android version but don’t want to shoulder too much risk, it might be a good idea to test it out on an older phone. Or you can hold off entirely and wait for the official release.  

Android’s developer site has listed some of the challenges you’ll face with this third beta. On top of some apps not playing nice with the OS just yet, accessibility features remain a little rough, so if you need those to use your device, you might want to sit this one out. Developers have also reported a detailed list of issues in case you want to know the nitty-gritty details.

Finally, even though you can jump ship from the beta process if you don’t like it, you’ll need to fully reset your phone before you can go back to the latest backup. 

All of these potential drawbacks sound scary, but public beta testing is mostly safe, as the developers have likely already worked out the most important problems. Of course, anything is possible, as even final releases have come with major issues, but you should really only encounter minor quirks—nothing that would put your data in danger or make you lose everything you have on your device or in your cloud storage.    

Click on the logo of your phone’s manufacturer and sign in to your Google account. The next page will show you the devices associated with the account and whether or not they are eligible. If they are, click Opt in below the device you want to enroll, and follow the instructions. Within the next 24 hours, you’ll get a prompt to download Android 13 just as you would with any other OS update. If you don’t get a prompt after that time, go to Settings, System, and System update to check for an update manually. 

Once your phone is running Android 13, you’ll be able to report problems right from your phone or communicate directly with Google’s developers and beta community on Reddit. Also, you can vent your heart on Twitter—just make sure you “@” the official account of Android Developers.  

The post How to test drive Android 13 before its release appeared first on Popular Science.

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Check the Viewer trend tab to see how many visits the document has had in a given period of time. Use the dropdown menu in the upper right corner to change the default 14-day view to an all-time visual, or narrow the timeframe down to the last seven days. You can also slide the dotted blue lines on the graph to create a custom range. The Comment trend tab shows a similar graph, this time depicting the daily frequency of comments and replies, and how many of them were left unresolved. 

Note that both of these trend tabs display only numbers, not names, so if you were thinking about using this feature to call out your coworkers on something, that’s not going to work. 

Fortunately, Google Docs now has the Compare documents feature, which you can find under the Tools menu. This functionality allows you to fuse two files together, and Google will highlight the differences between the two. 

To use it, open a document in Google Docs—it can be a native file or a converted Word or PDF file. Then go to Tools, Compare documents, and use the emerging explorer window to dive into your Google Drive and find the file you want to compare the current one with. Docs will then open a fused document in a new tab and will underline the changes as if they were added suggestions. 

If you need to consolidate more than two documents, you can do so from the new, combined, file and repeat the process until you’re done. It’s the perfect tool for an utterly tedious task. Now go try to convince your colleagues to start working in the cloud. 

You can still do that, but the “@” character has become a lot more useful, and you can even use it as a sort of master shortcut for many popular actions within Google Docs. The moment you type it, you’ll see an emerging menu with a list of possibilities that start with the classic mentions. The platform will show you two names you can click on and insert into the body text, but you can click the arrow next to People to get six more recommendations—usually people you’ve been in recent contact with.

The menu continues with other elements such as Meeting notes. This function shows Google Docs’ integration with Google Calendar and will allow you to choose from a list of events in your personal calendar. Once in your document, this content block will include links to the event you picked, the date on your schedule, and the names of everyone in attendance. Finally, you’ll see a space for the notes and action items you can fill out with what you discussed at the chosen meeting. 

You can also insert shortcuts to recent or important documents in your Drive. This is useful if you’re submitting a report with links to other files, for example. 

If you keep scrolling down the @ menu, you’ll find more elements to personalize your document, like a link that’s always updated with today’s date, calendar events, horizontal lines, checkboxes, headings of various sizes, drawings, tables, and more. 

This menu is especially useful if you like intricately designed documents and use actions that don’t have a keyboard shortcut (like adding images). It also comes in handy if you simply are not a keyboard shortcut kind of person.

Now that you know how quietly some useful features find their way into Google Docs, make a habit of checking the main menus on the navigation bar. Be on the lookout for a blue label that says New. This is how Google labels new tools, and who knows, maybe the next one you find will change the way you work on the platform forever. 

At the beginning of the year, the company announced Docs’ new pageless feature, which allows users to use the space in the platform’s interface more efficiently. This mode can come in handy if your writing will live online instead of print, and it will prevent you from seeing page breaks in the middle of your text. Google Doc’s pageless mode will also allow you to insert wider pics into your document, or even insert full-sized images side by side without constraints. 

To activate the pageless feature, open a new document and go to File, then Page setup. On the emerging window, click the Pageless tab, followed by OK, to make your choice stick. You can also click Set as default to make every new Google Docs file a pageless one.

As a fun extra feature, the Page setup menu also allows you to easily change the background color of your screen—or your page if you decide to stick to the old-school style. Just open the Background color or Page color dropdown menu, and choose whatever hue your heart desires. 

The post 4 Google Docs features you didn’t know you were missing appeared first on Popular Science.

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We all know how exciting it can be to watch a new season of your favorite show and the subsequent urge to post about that jaw-dropping surprise ending. But the people who haven’t been able to finish those episodes or even start them will certainly hate you for it. Rightfully so, if you ask us. 

Fortunately, Twitter is making it easier to add content warnings to your posts. That way, you can keep on tweeting whatever your little fan heart desires while still protecting those who’re in the dark from getting seriously spoiled.

And keep in mind that content warnings only work with media (images and video), so if you’re planning to use your 280 characters to talk about that nerve-wracking cliffhanger in episode six, people will still be able to read it, no matter how many warnings you place on your tweet. Get ready for a bunch of angry replies.

It’s also worth noting that Twitter uses automation to flag potentially sensitive content. Some users don’t like this feature so the platform made it optional, allowing people to disable the tool from their settings. But even if someone chooses to turn this feature off, your content warnings will remain, hiding potential spoilers from everyone. 

To start, write a tweet. On the web, use the What’s happening? box at the top; on mobile, tap the plus sign in the bottom right corner of your screen, followed by the Tweet button. It can be whatever you want—even nothing at all. Just don’t be a jerk. 

Next, upload your media. Remember that—like any other platform out there—Twitter has community guidelines you agreed to follow when you created your account. Placing content warnings on your tweets will not exempt you from following Twitter’s rules, so be careful what you post or you may be suspended or permanently banned from the platform. 

On the next screen, Twitter will offer to put a content warning on your tweet, and you’ll have to select one or more reasons why you think your tweet needs to be hidden. Do so by checking the boxes next to nudity, violence, and sensitive. The platform will show you a preview of what your tweet will look like, and if you’re OK with it you can click Done and Save (mobile) or just Save (web) in the top right corner of your screen. 

Twitter will take you back to the composer so you can tweak your tweet if you need to. You’ll see a light blue flag at the bottom right of your photo or video, which means the content warning is activated, and only users who click on it will be able to lift the veil. Finish things off by hitting the Tweet button. 

Content warnings will certainly not remove all problematic images from Twitter, but it’s still an easy way to make sure other fans can feel as awed and excited as you did when you first saw something that blew your mind. Sometimes not sharing actually is caring. 

The post Tweeting a spoiler? Put a content warning on it. appeared first on Popular Science.

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As vital and fun as breasts are, they can also be a real pain. Wearing the right bra size can solve a lot of the problems that come with an ample bosom, but utterly confusing sizing systems and an overall lack of education about the functional role of these garments prevent large swaths of people from getting the chest support they need. 

Picking the right bra size for you is easier said than done, but knowing what to look for can help you avoid garments that look nice but do little, and go for the ones that will take a load off your shoulders—literally. 

It’s not about fashion—it’s about health

Bras are definitely an iconic fashion item: they can be haute couture, made out of precious jewels, come in myriad colors, and even have your favorite cartoon characters all over them.  

What we often forget is that bras were conceived as functional garments first. Stylish bras are nice, but they’re no good if they’re not doing what they’re supposed to do. A 2014 study found 50 percent of its participants reported suffering from breast pain, while research published in 2018 identified neck, shoulder, and back pain as other effects stemming from a lack of support. These issues can eventually result in bad posture, permanently grooved skin under the bra straps, spinal problems, unnecessary breast reduction surgeries, and even neurological issues. And it makes sense: breasts can weigh up to 2 pounds each. 

[Related: The best sports bra uses non-Newtonian fluid]

“You have nerves in your arms where the bra strap sits, and if there’s really high pressure, sometimes it can cause numbness, and pins and needles, down the arm and into the hand,” says Joanna Wakefield-Scurr, professor of biomechanics and head of the Research Group in Breast Health at the University of Portsmouth in the UK. “We’ve even seen cases of complete paralysis in the little finger because of the pressure of the shoulder strap.” 

Breast structure also makes them prone to stretch marks. The glandular tissue—one of the three types of breast tissue—is only attached to the body by delicate skin and ligaments. Lack of proper support forces the skin to stretch and rupture with gravity, leaving permanent scarring, Wakefield-Scurr says.   

Then there are the psychological consequences of wearing an ill-fitting bra, which can have their own health repercussions. 

“Women with large breasts tend not to exercise as much,” says Jenette Goldstein, founder of Jenette Bras, a specialized bra store with locations in Los Angeles and Atlanta. “It starts when they’re young girls—can’t find a good sports bra, they’re bouncing around, they’re embarrassed, so they don’t exercise. It’s harder to run with large breasts.” 

This is not only based on anecdotal evidence. A 2018 study, for example, found that larger breasts are associated with less frequent and less intense exercise. The 355 Australian women who participated in that research said their breast size was one of the reasons why they were not exercising as much or as intensely as other women.

How to find a bra that fits

Ideally, everyone who needs a bra would go to their local bra store and get fitted by a professional once a year, Goldstein says. Unfortunately, this is not an option for many people, and because there’s no standard level of competency for bra fitters at stores, the trip may end with the purchase of yet another ill-fitting bra. This is why it’s important to know what to look for so you know if it’s a match or if you should continue swiping left. 

Try on every bra

There’s no way around it: the best way to know for sure if a bra fits is to try it on. This can be a problem if you’ve reduced your shopping to scrolling through websites, but if your goal is to find a well-fitting bra, doing your business IRL is your best bet. 

Keep in mind that once you find the bra equivalent to your personal Holy Grail, you may not be able to get the same fit, even within the same brand. Manufacturers sometimes change materials and patterns, so a specific size and model that fits great one day might feel a little big a year later. And the more elastic a fabric is, the less support it provides, Goldstein says. Even dyeing processes can affect sizing, with darker colors making for denser, more supportive fabrics, Wakefield-Scurr explains. You’ll need to keep trying bras on before you buy them.

Get the band right

You might think the straps provide most of the support, but the unsung hero of the bra is actually the band (or under-band). This is the piece that goes around your body and is actually responsible for providing 90 percent of the support when you wear a well-fitting bra, Wakefield-Scurr says.

Start by making sure it stays in position, she says. When you try on the bra, first make sure you latch it to the loosest hook—this will extend the life of your garment as you’ll be able to get a snugger fit as the fabric gives with wear and tear. Then, lift your arms and move around: If the band rides up your back, the bra is too small. 

If the bra passes this test, pull the band out, away from your side. If you can pull it more than 2 inches (5 centimeters), it’s either too big or too stretchy and not the right style of bra for you. 

A well-fitting band should feel snug but comfortable, Goldstein says, but what that means will depend entirely on you. “What feels like pinching to someone may feel right and snug to somebody else,” she explains.

Adjust the straps 

Just like eyebrows, boobs are sisters, not twins. Breast asymmetry is common and Wakefield-Scurr says 97 percent of all pairs are unequal in size, volume, position, or form. This is why it doesn’t make a lot of sense for you to try to adjust your bra straps at the same height and expect your breasts to be level. 

Since every body is different, you’ll have to adjust the straps until they look and feel right for you, keeping in mind that they shouldn’t dig into your shoulders. 

“It’s like a backpack—the more weight you have on the front, the more you need to put that waist strap on,” Goldstein says. “So, if you feel [the bra straps] digging into your shoulders, it means your band needs to be snugger.”

When you finish, double-check each strap’s length by pulling it up at the top with your thumb—you don’t want a gap of more than 2 inches (5 centimeters).

Don’t let the cups spill

The most challenging part of finding a well-fitting bra is getting the cup size right. 

Start by making sure all of your breast tissue is in the cups. You can use the good ol’ scooping technique: once the bra is on, slip your hand into the cup and use it to lift and scoop your breast to the front. Or you can get a little help from the force—not the one you’re thinking about, Star Wars fans. 

“You want to put a bra on while leaning over: gravity takes your breasts naturally and makes them go to the center,” Goldstein says.

Once the bra is on correctly, stand up straight and pay attention to the very edge of the cups. If your breasts are spilling out, the cups are too small; if there’s a gap, they’re too big. 

While you’re at it, if you’re wearing a bra that separates the breasts, make sure the separator sits flat on your sternum. If it doesn’t, you may need to try a bigger cup size. 

Goldstein recommends choosing cut and sewn bras (made from fabric pieces that, as their name suggests, are cut and sewn) over molded models made with pre-shaped foam. The latter types, she explains, do not adapt as well to the body and its movements, so it’ll always be harder to find a great fit.

Underwires are your friends—no, really

A lot of people have sworn off underwire bras after getting poked and even outright stabbed by these sneaky pieces of metal. This usually happens with bras manufactured with cheap fabrics that are incapable of holding the wire in place and preventing it from digging into your flesh when you least expect it. 

But both Goldstein and Wakefield-Scurr say underwires are actually useful and help provide the support you need, especially if your breasts are on the larger side of the spectrum. To make sure you buy the right size, Wakefield-Scurr suggests making sure the underwire is not sitting on any breast tissue. 

[Related: What you should know about birth control and breast cancer]

“The best place to check that is under the arm—push in the underwire and if it hits bone, then you’re in the right place,” she explains. “If it hits squishy or sort of fleshy tissue, then it’s probably sitting on breast tissue.”

You should also make sure the wire sits flush against the root of each breast, Goldstein says. This is right where your boobs and your abdomen meet.

You’re not a size—you wear a size

Because of their particular structure and the cyclical nature of our bodies, breasts are changing all the time, so you should probably make peace with the fact that the search for the perfect bra might not actually be a goal, but an ongoing adventure. 

It’s a good idea to have a couple of different-sized bras at hand to make sure you’re comfortable throughout your menstrual cycle, especially the two weeks prior to your period when breasts tend to increase in size and become more tender. Then, when your period is over, you can go bra shopping, knowing your hormones won’t be there to ruin the fun. 

Despite what the fashion industry, advertising, and societal pressure may say, remember that sizes exist so we can find garments that fit our bodies—not the other way around. 

The post It’s time to figure out your real bra size appeared first on Popular Science.

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Every month, 8 million people go live on Twitch, broadcasting their passions and talents to the entire world. And at any given moment, there are 2.5 million people on the platform watching content including video games, music, cooking, and art. 

If you’re one of those viewers, you’ve probably wondered about putting yourself out there and becoming a streamer yourself. You definitely can, but there are some things you need to know first. 

If buying a new computer is not an option and you have an old, but still-functioning laptop lying around, you can use your most powerful machine solely for gaming and the other for streaming. Dual computer setups are slightly more complicated than running everything off a single machine, so you’ll need a capture card to bridge the gap between the devices. You’ll also need to buy one if you’re streaming console gameplay or using anything other than a webcam for your video feed. 

When you’ve got the proper processing power, you’ll be ready to step things up. If you want people to see and hear you while you’re streaming, you’ll need a camera and a microphone. But if you have a working smartphone, long-time streamer and pro-gamer Tyler Blevins, better known as Ninja, says you already have all you need.  

“You can use your phone as your camera and simply buy a mount for as little as $8,” he says in his MasterClass, How to become a streamer. 

From there, you can build a setup as intricate as your budget will allow. It’s a good idea to start with a proper microphone, as streamers agree faulty audio is a bigger deal-breaker for viewers than a subpar video stream. After that, upgrade your camera and invest in better lighting if you haven’t already done so. These elements are especially important if you’ll be streaming something other than video games—like cooking or art. 

Finally, pay close attention to your internet connection speed. Good streaming quality requires a high upload speed, as opposed to a fast download speed, which is better for, say, a smooth Netflix experience. The bare minimum amount of bitrate you’ll need to stream is 5 megabytes per second, says Ninja, and anything above 10Mbps will get the job done. If you don’t know how fast your actual upload speed is, you can take an online internet speed test to find out.

For that, you’ll need to work on your content and decide what kind of streamer you want to be—a gamer, a cook, an artist, a musician, or whatever else. The good news is that you don’t have to make up your mind right away, and you can try different things along the way. 

“From my experience, streaming is a constantly evolving art form, so finding your ‘thing’ as you go and being open to trying new things has always made sense to me,” Ninja says over email. 

Once you decide what you want to stream, it’s time to figure out what kind of entertainer you want to be—your persona. Most people think of streamers as loud, outgoing people who jump up and down every time something cool happens on the screen. If that’s who you want to be, great, but it doesn’t have to be. Maybe you’re not that interested in talking and only want to show your gaming or cooking skills, or maybe you’re a bit shy and prefer more wholesome interactions with your viewers. Whatever your streaming persona is, make it authentic. 

“I only talk about things I’m actually hyped about,” Ninja says. “If I was faking it, my audience would read right through that and it just wouldn’t feel right. That’s why whenever I’m asked to give advice to upcoming streamers, that’s what I emphasize—just be you.”

If you ever second-guess yourself, remember the internet is vast, and there’s space for everyone, no matter how quiet or wacky. Also, you can change your mind whenever you want. After all, at least as of the time of writing, there’s no streaming police.

“The majority of the time, [people] find you through the game that you’re playing, not through who you are,” he explains in his class. 

When it comes to choosing the game, he says it’s better to go for something that’s not so mainstream that a zillion other streamers play it, but is also not so obscure that no one will want to watch. He also explains that every time you switch games, no matter the size of your community, you’re likely to lose half of it, as many people may be tuning in not for you, but for what you’re playing. He only recommends making this jump once you’ve established a following that watches you for you, regardless of what you’re actually doing on camera.  

Another element you should consider in your strategy is promoting your content on social media. If you have any video editing skills, set aside some time to go through your streams and post videos to platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. 

“TikTok is nice because people post clips and it’s the algorithm that shows their stuff to an audience who’s predisposed to liking it”, says Jess Boddy, special projects editor at Popular Science and a streamer known on Twitch as JessCapricorn.  

But maybe you’re not in it for the clout or the sponsorships. Maybe you just want to share your skills with the world and have a good time—and that’s totally fine. If that’s your goal and numbers make you a little queasy, Boddy suggests turning off your viewer count. At the start, you’re likely to go live for entire streams without a single view, which can be discouraging given you’re probably not sure what you’re doing yet. She says not knowing how many people (if any) are on the other side of the screen can be calming and make it easier to just have fun. 

But that’s not necessarily true, Boddy says. Moreover, it can even be highly detrimental for your mental health. This is why she suggests setting a schedule with specific days, times, and duration for your streams.  

“Being live for at least an hour and a half is good because it takes time for people to trickle in—I notice that I hit my average viewership an hour into my stream,” she explains. 

Ninja also believes having a schedule is crucial to protect you from burnout, but he stresses that flexibility is key. If numbers mean anything to you, he says staying just a bit longer on specific occasions might come in your favor. 

“Riding the waves is important,” he explains. “Sometimes you’ll be getting close to your end time and you’ll get a raid or your viewership count will go up. Keeping your streaming up can be beneficial for you: it could result in a higher viewership average and get you closer to being a [Twitch] partner.” 

Still, this is not an excuse to go overtime on every single stream, so he’s adamant you should treat this as the exception, not the rule. 

Setting a schedule also has an extra benefit, Boddy explains: consistency. “I’ve gotten to a point now that my community knows when I go live and they’ll be in the chat before I do, which is a crazy thing to think about, but it’s also very comforting,” she says.

Ninja recommends jumping into the streaming pool and setting daily or weekly goals for yourself. You don’t have to make your debut with a three-hour stream—start small by going live for 30 minutes, and only move to an hour when you’re ready.

Boddy mentions some people can get self-conscious if they know people they know in real life are watching, so they prefer not to tell their friends and family about their streaming until they feel more comfortable doing it. On the flipside, you might want the support of your immediate IRL community when you’re starting out. Do what feels right for you and keep going until you find your comfort zone. 

Finally, be patient. Becoming a big deal online always includes a huge luck factor, and that applies to streaming as well. What’s most important is that you have fun and take this as an opportunity to share your beautiful self with the world.

The post Anyone can be a streamer. Here’s how to start. appeared first on Popular Science.

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No matter who you are, you could probably be using your keyboard better. Maybe you spend a lot of time working on spreadsheets and could use some extra shortcuts. Maybe you’re multilingual and want to quickly switch between alphabets. Or maybe you just love efficiency and hate wasting milliseconds moving your hand to press far-flung keys. Remapping your keyboard is the answer.

For the uninitiated, remapping a keyboard generally means assigning new functionalities to existing keys. If there’s a special character you use a lot, for example, you can assign it to a key you don’t use as often—maybe one of the bracket keys if you’re not into coding. That way, you can save yourself from learning the shortcut for that character on every program you use. 

But remapping your keyboard also allows you to assign tasks to whatever keys you like. For example, hitting the “M” key by itself will result in the letter “M” appearing on your screen. But if you press it along with a function key, you might use it for muting your device. Combine it with another function key, and you can make that “M” do basically whatever you want. 

It’s cliche to say it, but the possibilities are truly endless.

Make sure you actually have a customizable keyboard

It sounds obvious, but to remap a keyboard you need hardware that grants you the ability to customize it—and not all peripherals do that. 

As a general rule, customizable keyboards tend to be more expensive than the basic ones you’ll find at megastores. Depending on the brand, the layout you choose, and the quality of the keyboard and its components, this type of hardware can cost anywhere from $30 to more than $1,000. But before you have a heart attack, understand that if you’re dipping your toe in the customizable keyboard pond for the first time, you should set your budget between $50 and $200. Peripherals on the lower end of this spectrum will tend to be made entirely out of cheap plastic and won’t allow you to easily swap switches or keycaps. Toward the $100 mark, you’ll find more high-quality materials, and as you go up the price range, you’ll usually find more versatile gadgets and more durable materials.   

[Related: Best 60 percent keyboards of 2022]

If you’re not sure if you can customize your keyboard, a quick online search using the brand name and model will point you in the right direction. If you’re getting a new keyboard for the sole purpose of personalizing it, make sure the product description says it’s customizable. If you have any doubt, it’s always a good idea to check out user reviews and poke around online to see if there’s any mention of your keyboard on specialized message boards or other spaces where enthusiasts post. 

Figure out what app or software you’ll need

As you might have imagined, you’ll need specific software to access your keyboard’s brain and reprogram it. 

This can go one of two ways. If you buy a keyboard from a major brand like Logitech, for example, you’ll probably need to download specialized software the manufacturer created specifically to customize their products. If you’re new to remapping keyboards, this will make it super easy, as most of these apps are designed with a particular peripheral in mind and will give you highly detailed instructions during the customization process.

If you buy from smaller manufacturers or build a keyboard yourself, you’ll likely have to use Via or Qmk. These are free, open-source programs commonly used to customize keyboards. Although there is a steeper learning curve with these apps, they are easy to use once you understand how they work. There’s a lot of literature and tutorials online, and Qmk even has an online configurator you can use straight from a browser tab. 

Learn how to create macros

Remapping your keyboard may seem intimidating at first, but you can start small and take it from there. 

Once you’ve mastered reassigning keys, you can move on to the oh-so-satisfying art of creating macros. These customized key combinations can help you make most tasks—like navigating an audio or video file, for example—easier, or even replace known convoluted shortcuts with simpler ones.

To do this, you’ll need to learn about keycodes, which are a code version of a specific key on your keyboard. This is also the language in which programs like Via and Qmk can read shortcuts. We can’t get into all of that here, but imagine “KC” precedes every key on your keyboard. So if you want a certain key to take over for the classic Windows Ctrl + Z combo for “undo,” you’ll have to plug something like [KC_LCTRL, KC_Z] into your remapping software and assign it to your preferred button.

[Related: How to clean your keyboard without breaking it]

But even though some coding knowledge can come in handy in keyboard customization, you don’t actually need to know how to code or learn an entirely new coding language to do it. You can find a full list of keycodes on the Qmk website, where you can also find a detailed tutorial that will walk you through everything you need to know when using the platform. Via’s website is not as beginner-friendly as Qmk’s, but keyboard manufacturer Keychron put together a comprehensive tutorial for how to use Via with their products, which you can easily extrapolate to other keyboards with a little online research. 

Whatever peripheral you buy or platform you use, there’s a lot of content out there to help you remap your keyboard. Nobody was born knowing, so don’t be afraid to ask for help and take the “throwing things at the wall and see what sticks” approach. If all else fails, you can just reset your keyboard to get a clean slate and try things all over again. 

The post 3 things to know before remapping your keyboard appeared first on Popular Science.

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If you’re looking for the right way to dive head-first down a mechanical keyboard rabbit hole, the Keychron Q2 is a fantastic introduction. This luxurious Windows- and Mac-friendly peripheral might well be the perfect first step into the hobby. 

With a hot-swappable 65-percent design, the fully customizable Q2 is a slightly trimmed-down version of its predecessor, the Keychron Q1. The Q2 is highly versatile and easy to use, so even new enthusiasts can quickly learn how to tweak it for whatever use they want to give it. 

Mechanical keyboards and kits, particularly those made for enthusiasts, tend to be more meticulously made than those coming from major manufacturers. At $170, or $150 for a barebone kit without switches and keycaps, the Q2 is built (and priced) to be appreciated. If you come from years of hitting the built-in keys of your laptop, or typing on a $20 peripheral that came with a mouse and a webcam, the Q2 is definitely an upgrade.  

Sandra Gutierrez G.

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Keychron Q2: Design and features

At approximately 13-inches long and 4.7-inches wide, the 65-key Keychron Q2 keyboard is compact and has the basics for a good typing experience. The layout doesn’t include a number pad or the classic function key row at the top, which may be a deal-breaker if you use those extra keys to model large volumes of data or navigate convoluted spreadsheets. However, the Q2 does have two small function keys to the right of the space bar, which you’ll be able to use to unlock multiple macros possibilities. If you use your keyboard mostly for writing, you’ll be pleased to find the always useful Delete and Home keys which definitely help you move through a document more easily.  

Weighing in at 3 pounds and 6 ounces in its barebone state, the Q2 is not exactly an accessory you want to carry in your backpack to work on the go. Some might expect wireless functionality, but wireless mechanical keyboards are still relatively uncommon, especially among hobby-grade mechanical models. Having a cord is definitely not a deal-breaker.

The Q2 comes in three color schemes: Carbon Black, which features a black body and a set of purple, black, and red keycaps; Silver Grey, featuring a silver body and keycaps in two tones of grey, plus yellow caps for the Enter and Escape keys; and Navy Blue, the most colorful of the bunch, featuring a bright blue body with keycaps in dark and bright blue, plus cyan. 

As for the keyboard itself, you can get it in one of six versions: Fully assembled ($169.99), a barebone base without keycaps or switches, and a barebone base for ISO keyboard layouts. With each version, you can choose between adding a programmable knob in the top-right corner, or an extra “Insert” key. The knob is a great addition, whether you use it to control your volume or configure it to control another sliding setting, such as zooming in and out or changing your monitor’s brightness.

As with all Keychron boards, the Q2 is fully compatible with both Windows and Mac. The keyboard features a small toggle on the back so you can easily switch back and forth between operating systems. It also includes keycaps for each layout, which you can easily swap depending on which system you use the most. 

OK, but does it sound good?

If you’re new to the world of mechanical keyboards, there’s one thing you need to know: Functionality is only part of the appeal of a peripheral. The rest is sound.

The Keychron Q2’s steel plate and printed circuit board, or PCB, are separated by a sound-absorbing layer of foam, and its aluminum body has a double-gasket design with silicone pads. Both of these features aim to minimize as much as possible any unwanted noise, so most of what you hear while typing actually comes from the switches and keycaps. After over a month of heavy typing on the Q2, I can say these features drown out a lot of what would otherwise definitely muck up a clean typing sound. It’s definitely a step up for Keychron.

The fully assembled version of the Q2 comes geared up with Gateron G Pro switches in one of three flavors: red (linear), blue (clicky), and brown (tactile). Just like classic Cherry Reds, Gateron’s red switches are linear, which means they have a very light touch and provide very little tactile feedback. They’re a little bit too sensitive for my taste, though maybe perfect for gamers who look for a quick response peripheral that can keep up with a fast-paced game. After only a day with the red switches, I quickly swapped them out for the “clicky” blues. The force required to actuate these switches was spot on for a heavy typist like myself, but their signature clacking was too loud. It doesn’t help that the Q2’s pre-lubed stabilizers (also compatible with Cherry or Durock parts) give the larger keys a dry clack sound. I finally settled for a set of Gateron G Pro tactile brown switches, which need slightly weaker force to actuate them but are pre-lubed, so they feature a more well-rounded sound and a lot less clicking-and-clacking. 

Ultimately, switches are very much a personal choice and respond to the type of user you are and what you use your keyboard for the most. Being a hot-swappable keyboard, the Q2 will allow users to try out a number of switches with either three or five pins, without any soldering, making it perfect for beginners and picky typists. 

With the fully assembled version of the Q2, you’ll also get PBT keycaps with an OSA profile, which, according to Keychron, is a variation of the OEM profile, featuring a similar height and an SA-like shape. The keycaps are definitely an improvement from the more old-school-looking caps on the Q1, where you could clearly notice the shine and the corroding effect of skin oil after a few weeks of use. These keycaps are also easily swappable and the Q2’s body has enough space to fit a wide range of keycaps in the market. And if you’re thinking about investing in keyboard building accessories, worry not—included in the Q2’s packaging you’ll find basic tools including a keycap puller, a switch puller, a hex key, and a screwdriver.

Easy customization with VIA and QMK

What Keychron has gained in terms of size going from the Q1’s 75-percent layout to the Q2’s 65-percent, they have not lost in functionality. If you’re an Excel power user, for example, you’ll definitely miss the F keys row at the top of the keyboard at first but that doesn’t mean you should rule out the Q2. 

Using VIA or QMK, a pair of open-source configuration apps, you can remap every key on the keyboard, as well as program two extra layers of shortcuts per operating system (four in total). You can easily navigate using the Fn keys to the right of the spacebar. That’s plenty of room to create combos for every key you’d normally have on a larger keyboard, with plenty of room left over to play with. The layers also work independently of each other, so if you constantly connect the Q2 to a Mac and a PC, you’ll be able to customize the keyboard with specific shortcuts and macros for each operating system.

If your day-to-day computing requires hitting those F keys often, downsizing to a 65-percent layout may take some getting used to. Still, after a week of typing with the Q2, I found it easy to access my personalized macros and all those physically absent keys. That said, it isn’t without hurdles; VIA still doesn’t recognize the Q2 automatically, so you’ll need to download a keymap from the Keychron website and manually load it onto VIA. It’s a bit of a drag if you’re constantly tinkering with your profile. Your keyboard will save changes but you’ll need to keep that JSON file on your computer to make further edits. 

Technically, that process is more complicated than the proprietary configuration app offered by major manufacturers like Logitech and Razer, which you can download and use to make changes and save multiple profiles without manually handling files. Still, the app’s not hard to learn and Keychron has a lot of educational content on its website to help even the greenest users find their way around and customize RBG patterns and shortcuts. 

No Bluetooth support—the biggest drawback 

Overall, people seem to agree that having Bluetooth support just makes a gadget better, but that is not necessarily the case. When it comes to mechanical keyboards, Bluetooth is not a common feature, so it’s not even surprising the Q2 doesn’t have it.

The keyboard comes with a USB-C cable (and a USB-A adapter should you need it), which won’t help if you have a ton of accessories to plug into your computer and still haven’t gotten a hub. The length of the cable allows for a certain level of mobility (how much will only depend on your setup) but at 3.6 pounds, the Q2 is not a peripheral that allows users to change positions a lot. Even if it had Bluetooth support, balancing this keyboard on your lap, for example, is a workout on its own, so maybe you’re not missing out on a lot by being tethered to your machine. 

So, who should buy the Keychron Q2?

The Keychron Q2 keyboard is a comfortable, durable mechanical keyboard that allows for great customization. If you’re already into building keyboards as a hobby, the barebones version offers a shortcut to a sturdy and durable body, with great compatibility between operating systems. If you’re a beginner, the Keychron Q2 is a great example of what a powerful, fully customizable keyboard can do, and how much it can enhance your experience and interaction with your gadgets. 

According to experts, a high-quality mechanical keyboard should cost somewhere between $150 and $200, which doesn’t account for all the hours of research you have to put in to get the right parts. But if you want to skip the hours spent on online message boards trying to decipher mechanical keyboard lingo, you can probably spend $150 on the Q2. It sure can be a great entry point to the hobby and that delicious first taste of a superior typing experience that you’ll never be able to come back from.

The post Keychron Q2 mechanical keyboard review: Making the Switch appeared first on Popular Science.

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Google Docs has been adding lots of goodies to its platform lately—like Markdown support, a master shortcut, and an activity dashboard. And the new features just keep coming. 

These days, the big G is in the midst of rolling out emoji reactions on Google Docs, which allows users to respond to specific chunks of body text with smiley faces and or Spanish dancers. You may think there’s no use for emojis in text processing tools, but the collaborative nature of Docs actually warrants the ability to easily show how much you like your colleagues’ additions or passive-aggressively request changes. 

First, make sure you have emoji reactions

The company announced the rollout of the feature on April 5 and said all users (whether you pay or not) should be able to see and use the tool within the next 15 to 20 days.

[Related: The greatest Google Docs shortcut you’re probably not using]

To make sure you have access to emojis, all you have to do is select some text and see if the pop-up menu on the right margin includes a yellow smiley face. If it does, you’re good to go. If you can only see the shortcuts to enter suggesting mode or add comments, you may have to wait a few days before you get the option. You can also try closing any open Docs, restarting your app, or refreshing your browser to see if that changes anything.     

How to add emoji reactions to Google Docs

Emoji reactions in Google Docs work very similarly to how they do in text messaging apps. But in this case, instead of long-pressing on a block of words to bring up the emoji options, you just need to highlight what you want to react to and click the Add emoji reaction button—the yellow smiley face we mentioned earlier.

Now it’s time to pick your emoji. As on most platforms, you’ll be able to scroll and choose any reaction you like. If you also use Google Chat, you’ll notice the last row of emojis is fixed and shows your favorite responses with the skin and gender specifications you’ve already set up. These two platforms are now interconnected, so if you change preferences on one, they’ll carry over to the other.  

Clicking on an emoji will post your reaction and, just like a regular comment, will highlight the text you selected so other users will know what the emoji is connected to. If you or anybody else with access to the document wants to add a reaction to the same chunk of text, you can click on it and then hit the smiley face to open the emoji menu and pick another icon. You can also second somebody else’s reaction by double-clicking the emoji they added, which will add a number to the count on the right. All the reactions will accumulate on the margin and you’ll be able to see who added what emoji by clicking a specific one and hovering your mouse over it. 

[Related: Emojis and reaction GIFs make Slack better. Here’s how to create them.]

Clicking a phrase someone you or anyone else has reacted to will also bring up Google’s classic three-dot menu. Click it, then choose Resolve to delete any emoji, no matter who added it. You can also get rid of an emoji you added by clicking on it twice.

Unfortunately, this new feature won’t allow you to easily react with emojis to written comments in a Google Doc. Still, if you don’t mind the extra work, you can do this by copying an emoji—not the written character translation, but an actual emoji like this one 👋—and pasting it as a reply to a comment. Google Docs will read it and display it properly so your colleagues know when you think something in the document is 🔥 or 💩. 

The post How to use emoji reactions in Google Docs appeared first on Popular Science.

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Every iPhone or iPad user knows the sound their device makes when it starts charging. It’s simple, lets you know your gadget is plugged in, and does its job well. But it’s… boring. You can, however, change this mundane audio cue and add another level of personalization to your phone or tablet—if you know where to look.

How to change your iPhone or iPad’s charging sound

If you haven’t dived into automations on an Apple device, know that these are a series of actions that occur automatically when you trigger them. If you have smart home gadgets, you can use these unique commands to turn on the lights or play a specific playlist from your smart speaker once your iPhone connects to your WiFi, for example. You can also set up different actions that will only affect your device—like the one we’re talking about today. 

[Related: The easiest way to cue up calming sounds on your iPhone]

To create the automation, open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone or iPad, look to the upper left corner of the screen, tap Shortcuts, and then Automation. Then tap the plus sign and choose Create personal automation to link the process directly to the device you’re currently using. (The other option, Set up your home, ties an automation to your entire smart home ecosystem, and that’s not what we want to do here.)

Now it’s time to choose what you want your phone or tablet to say when you connect it to power. Scroll down to Charger and tap Is connected, so the action will only happen when you plug in the power cord. Hit Next and continue by tapping Add action—the following screen will show you a comprehensive list of actions to choose from. 

For this particular automation, tap All actions, then scroll down until you find Speak text, which will make your device read something you write out loud. Don’t get distracted by the Make spoken audio from text option, which is higher up on the same menu. It sounds similar, but it’ll create an audio file instead of reading words aloud. 

Back on the Speak text menu, you’ll see a blurred Text option next to Speak—tap on it and write the phrase you want your gadget to say. We chose “Ohh yeaaaah! Gimme some juice!” but you can use whatever you want—the sky’s the limit. 

Then, tap the arrow to the right of your phrase to further customize the automation—you’ll be able to choose the pitch, speed, and voice you want your iPhone or iPad to use, and even change the language. By default, you’ll hear the voice you chose for Siri when you first set up your device, but there are other alternatives if that doesn’t work for you. 

[Related: Hidden iPhone tricks that will change the way you use iOS]

To check that everything is exactly as you like it, tap the play icon at the bottom of the menu and listen to an audio sample of the action. If you’re satisfied, go back to Edit automation and tap Done. 

Just remember that if you use a dirty joke as a sentence, your device will say it out loud for everybody to hear even if it’s silent or in Do Not Disturb mode. So if you’re running out of juice while at a meeting with a client, you might want to disable the automation (open your automation in the Shortcuts app and toggle off the switch next to Enable) or switch to a more wholesome phrase. Unless you want to start a conversation, in which case, you do you. 

The post How to make your iPhone say ‘Gimme some juice!’ when you plug it in appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

There’s always something happening in the world that you just don’t want to know anything more about. Maybe it’s some rich guy floating the possibility he might buy a social media platform. Maybe it’s a deluge of stories about an incident involving two or more celebrities. Or maybe it’s an out-of-touch influencer saying something incredibly cringeworthy. The list goes on. 

Sometimes annoying news is inescapable, but most social media platforms and news services provide tools and settings you can use to filter a large chunk of it out.  

To set it up, open Twitter on the web and go to More, Settings & Privacy, Privacy & Safety, and then Mute & Block. Once you’re there, go to Mute words and click on the plus sign in the upper right corner of the menu. You’ll be able to use the text field there to add a username, hashtag, word, or phrase. Then, you can use the checkboxes and toggle switches below to specify what you want Twitter to do. You can mute words only when they come from people you don’t follow, for example, and choose how long you want the platform to use the filter for: 24 hours, a week, a month, or until you decide to turn it off. When you’re done, click Save. 

Note that news stories tend to have a handful of keywords: the names of people involved, the name of the place where the news took place, the media outlet that broke the story, etc. Repeat the process above for each keyword related to the news you’re trying to avoid. It might be a tedious task, but the more thorough you are, the better your filter will be. 

How to remove news stories from your Instagram feed

Instagram doesn’t have a straightforward way to filter out content like Twitter does. But you can tell it when you don’t like something and the algorithm will put posts like that at the very bottom of your feed. 

Whenever you see something related to the news story you’re trying to avoid, tap the three dots in the upper right corner of the post. Then, on the emerging menu at the bottom of your screen, choose Hide. 

[Related: The best hidden Instagram tricks]

Instagram will then hide the post and let you know that “You’ll see posts like this lower on your feed.” Now, what that means exactly is uncertain—the platform may filter out posts by that account, or maybe posts that include any kind of news stories. Also, it’s not clear how far lower posts like that will be—lower as in “technically invisible” or lower as in “you might still find them if you’re at the doctor’s office and they’re running late with the previous patient?” It’s in your best interest to believe that after repeating the process a couple of times, Instagram will understand your needs and start filtering out a specific news story. Here’s hoping.