There’s New Hope for an HIV Vaccine

A trial vaccine has succeeded in generating low levels of antibodies needed to target HIV. It’s a first but much-needed step toward preventing infection.

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Five Types of Trees You Can Safely Plant Close to Your House

If you would like to plant a tree in your yard but you’re not sure that you have the space because you've heard it's a bad idea to plant a tree too close to your house, you’re in luck.

While some types of trees definitely shouldn't be planted near your home because their roots can damage your foundation, other varieties actually are safe to plant, even relatively close to a structure. Here are five of your best options, as well as a few to avoid.

Crabapple

Crabapple (Malus sp.) trees usually mature at a height of about 20 feet and have a non-invasive root system, meaning it’s not likely to damage your foundation. There are about 1,000 varieties of crabapple, of which about 100 are commonly available for planting in the U.S. These trees can thrive in U.S. agricultural zones 3 through 8, and will produce white or pink flowers in spring, and fruit that’s usually less than two inches in diameter. If you choose a plant that’s native to North America, like Malus coronaria, Malus fusca, or Malus ioensis, the flowers are good for pollinators and the fruit is good for native birds, so they can bring wildlife to your yard as well.

Dogwood

Twelve species of the flowering Dogwood (Cornus sp.) are native to North America and can flourish in USDA zones 5 through 9. They grow at a moderate rate, about 12 to 24 inches a year, and reach a height and width of 15 to 20 feet in the sun, and 40 feet or more in the shade. Because of their slow growth rate, relatively gentle roots, and easy pruning, dogwood trees are considered safe to plant near your house.

Serviceberry

Serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.) is native to North America, and there are varieties that can thrive in USDA zones 2 through 9. This tree can grow as small as six feet or as tall as 25 feet, and between four and 25 feet wide. They can be trimmed to the size and height of a shrub, or allowed to mature to their full height. Their relatively small size and non-invasive root structure makes them good for planting near your house, and the flowers, berries, and autumn foliage color make them a wildlife friendly and aesthetically pleasing addition to your landscaping.

Crape Myrtle

You can plant varieties of Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia sp.) trees in USDA zones 6 through 11, and they can grow to be anywhere from six to 30 feet tall and between four and 15 feet wide. These trees, with their brightly colored blooms, are good for planting near structures because their roots aren’t invasive and they tend not to get big enough to cause damage. If you have limited space, you will need to stay on top of pruning the tree, as they can grow up to three feet in a single season. Also take care to check the specific variety of tree you’re choosing to account for the space you’ll need.

American Holly

While the American Holly (Ilex opaca) tree can grow up to 60 feet tall, it can also be pruned and kept to about 25 feet in height. This variety of holly is native to North America and can be planted in USDA zones 5 through 9. It will produce light green to white flowers and its signature bright red berries and is an evergreen, for winter color. It’s known to be safe for planting near structures and makes an excellent habitat for local wildlife.

Trees to avoid planting close to your house

Trees to avoid planting near your house include the white ash (Fraxinus Americana), poplars (Populus sp.), and weeping willows (Salix babylonica). These trees have wide-spreading root systems that can damage foundations, sewer lines, driveways, and slabs. Give them a wide berth of at least 40 or 50 feet from structures to avoid damage.

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The Race to Buy TikTok Is On—but There Might Not Be a Winner

Investors are interested in buying TikTok so that it can avoid a US ban. But even if ByteDance accepts, a takeover will be far from simple.

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You'll Soon Be Able to Use Gemini to Search Your Google Photos

At I/O 2024, Google announced a great new AI feature for Google Photos, simply called Ask Photos. With Ask Photos, you can treat the app like a chatbot, say, Gemini or ChatGPT: You can request a specific photo in your library, or ask the app a general question about your photos, and the AI will sift through your entire library to both find the photos and the answers to your queries.

How does Ask Photos work?

When you ask Ask Photos a question, the bot will make a detailed search of your library on your behalf: It first identifies relevant keywords in your query, such as locations, people, and dates, as well as longer phrases, such as "summer hike in Maine."

After that, Ask Photos will study the search results, and decide which ones are most relevant to your original query. Gemini's multimodal abilities allow it to process the elements of each photo, including text, subjects, and action, which helps it decide whether that image is pertinent to the search. Once Ask Photos picks the relevant photos and videos for your query, it combines them into a helpful response.

Google says your personal data in Google Photos is never used for ads and human reviewers won't see the conversions and personal data in Ask Photos, except, "in rare cases to address abuse or harm." The company also said they don't train their other AI products with this Google Photos data, including other Gemini models and services.

What can you do with Ask Photos?

Of course, Ask Photos is an ideal way to quickly find specific photos you're looking for. You could ask, "Show me the best photos from my trip to Spain last year,” and Google Photos will pull up all your photos from that vacation, along with a text summary of its results. You can use the feature to arrange these photos in a new album, or generate captions for a social media post.

However, the more interesting use here is for finding answers to questions contained in your photos without having to scroll through those photos yourself. Google shared a great example during its presentation: If you ask the app, "What is my license plate number?" it will identify your car out of all the photos of cars in your library. It will not only return a picture of your car with your license plate, but will answer the original question itself. If you're offering advice to a friend about the best restaurants to try in a city you've been to, you could ask, "What restaurants did we go to in New York last year?" and Ask Photos will return both the images of the restaurants in your library, as well as a list you can share.

When will Ask Photos be available?

Google says the experimental feature is rolling out in the coming months, but no specific timeframe was given.

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Jane Schoenbrun Wants to Blow Up Your TV

Growing up, director Jane Schoenbrun escaped into shows like X-Files and Twin Peaks. Their new movie is about the relief, and danger, of getting lost in screens.

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This Is the Best Free App for Managing Your MacBook’s Battery

Your MacBook has a few features built in to ensure that its battery's health stays intact. It will automatically shut down the laptop if it gets too hot, since higher temperatures reduce the battery's life and capacity to perform. It'll also slow down charging when the battery is at 80% if it determines you won't need a full charge. While these features are good enough for most people, there are some battery management apps that will allow you far greater control over your MacBook's battery health.

Battery Toolkit is the best free app I've found to manage your MacBook's battery. It allows you to keep your MacBook's battery percentage between two predefined values, lets you stop charging your MacBook even when it's connected to power, and even lets you force your MacBook to charge to 100%. Some of these features require you to pay on other battery management apps, such as AlDente. 

Battery management apps are best used by people who like to keep their MacBook plugged in all the time. Plenty of people use their MacBooks with the lid shut, where the laptop is connected to a monitor, an external keyboard, and a mouse. In these situations, plugging in and unplugging the Mac repeatedly to prevent overcharging is a little cumbersome. Why put in all that effort when an app can manage your battery for you?

Installing Battery Toolkit on your MacBook

To start, download Battery Toolkit from its GitHub page. Your Mac may prevent you from installing the app because it's not from a well-known developer, but it is safe to use. Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway to install it. 

Set up the app for optimal battery management

Credit: Pranay Parab

Once the app is running, set it up in a way that works for you. Click Battery Toolkit's icon in the menu bar up top and select Settings. Go to the Power tab and set a minimum and maximum percentage value. That way, your MacBook will start charging when it hits the minimum value and stop charging at the maximum. I've set it up to keep my MacBook between 30 and 80%, but you can choose the values that work best for your use. Click OK when you're done.

Note that the app doesn't allow you to let the minimum percentage drop below 20%, and the lower limit for the maximum charge is 50%. This is to prevent damage to the battery.

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Explore additional features

Credit: Pranay Parab

With the initial setup done, Battery Toolkit will run in the background and do what you've asked. You can keep the MacBook plugged in all the time and the app will ensure that its battery stays within the predefined threshold. But there are times when you need to change things around, and the app lets you do that too. Click Battery Toolkit's menu bar icon to see these features.

You can toggle on Disable Power Adapter to temporarily stop the MacBook from charging while it's plugged in. There are two more options here that you should know about:

• Request Charging to Full

• Request Charging to Maximum

These options can be confusing because of the way they're worded, but it's quite easy to understand. Charging to full will force your MacBook to charge to 100%, which you should use when you know you're going to be away from a power adapter for a long time. Charging to maximum will charge the laptop to the upper limit you've specified in the app.

You can also temporarily disable all of Battery Toolkit's settings by clicking its menu bar icon and selecting Quit Battery Toolkit.

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Instead of a Single Tree, Plant a ‘Pocket Forest’

If you’re thinking of adding a tree to your landscape, whether you want to create shade, provide an animal habitat, or just for looks, there’s a better alternative you might not have considered. Rather than just one, why not plant a few trees spaced closely together? A "pocket forest" like this can add increase the biodiversity of your yard, provide runoff control for water, and cool the surrounding landscape. Here’s how they work, and how to go about planting one.

What is a pocket forest?

A pocket forest is a densely planted mini-forest that’s made up of multiple native species of trees. The goal of this compact forest is to add dense plants for shade, animal habitat, and erosion control to your yard. (If you don’t have space for trees, you can grow a thicket, or a densely planted grouping of native shrubs.)

Mini forests are also nice to look at, and they can improve the view and enjoyment of your yard without the intense maintenance required by a lawn. Although the initial investment in a pocket forest might be more than a lawn, they can save you money and time on maintenance while using less water.

How much space do you need for a pocket forest?

A pocket forest can be planted in as little as 200 square feet of space, and though common wisdom says that trees can damage nearby structures, this is not always true, and depends on the species of tree and the growing conditions. With a little pruning, you can safely plant a variety of species relatively close to buildings as long as the trees are properly maintained.

How to choose trees for a pocket forest

In order to plant a pocket forest, you’ll need enough one and two-year-old native tree and shrub saplings to plant your area while leaving two to four feet between each specimen. If you plan to plant near a building, make sure to choose saplings that don’t have invasive root systems.

In order to determine what plants are native to your area, you can consult your local university extension. Your municipal government might also have listings for trees that are native to your location, and be able to recommend trees that are less likely to cause damage if you plan to plant them near a building.

When to plant a pocket forest

Planting should happen during the dormant season in your area to allow plants to establish themselves. Dormancy occurs at different times of year and depends on seasonal temperatures and rainfall in your area, so consider this another opportunity to consult your local university extension for information particular to your climate.

If it’s not dormant season now, luckily there are some things you can do to prepare, like removing existing plants and planning your space.

A timeline for planting a pocket forest

Four months before planting

Choose your space and measure it to plan for how many saplings you’ll need. Plants should be placed between two and four feet from each other, so you can estimate your plant spacing based on that. It’s a good idea to contact your local nursery at this point to let them know in advance approximately how many plants you’ll need and to make sure they have some in stock. At this point, you can also begin removing any existing plants from your chosen area to create optimal conditions for future planting.

Three months before planting

Three months before planting, you should use the “lasagna method” to prepare the ground for your saplings and kill off any remaining plants. To accomplish this, lay down a layer of cardboard over the whole area, followed by a layer of leaf compost or leaf mold. Cover the compost with two to three inches of wood chips.

One month before planting

Now’s the time to pick your plants. Choose native plants that are appropriate for your area, keeping in mind the size of their root systems and sun needs. Since you’ll likely have a pretty big order, getting your plants a little bit ahead of time is a good idea.

Planting

Lay out your plants and arrange them so that they are between two and four feet apart to plan spacing, then then dig your holes and plant your saplings. Though small saplings only require a shovel’s depth hole, you can still save yourself some time by arranging your plants in their containers ahead of time so you don’t run out of space while you’re planting.

After planting

Once your saplings are in the ground, make sure to mark them with a surveyor stake or another easily recognizable marker for future identification and weed removal. This will help to keep from getting your sapling confused with a weed. You can also add some compost to the soil surface or use compost tea to improve the soil to give your new trees a boost.

You should perform structural pruning on your saplings as they grow, removing less healthy, lower branches and branches that are not able to support their own weight. Otherwise, your trees can be left to grow on their own. You can choose to take a hands-off approach to watering your growing pocket forest, knowing that a few of your saplings might die, or you can improve their chances by watering them for the first two or three seasons they’re in the ground. You shouldn’t need to water your native trees once they are established (that is, after the first three years).

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15 Top New Android 15 Features (2024): How to Install, Features, Release Date

Android 15 is creeping closer to its release date. Here are the notable features and upgrades Google has in store.

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What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: 'Reality Shifting' on TikTok

Social media platform TikTok's misinformation policy is fairly robust, at least on paper. It explicitly bans content that contains "medical misinformation about vaccines or abortion" and "misinformation about voting," as well as a general prohibition on content that "undermines public trust." (You have to go to Twitter/X for that kind of thing.) But TikTok's community guidelines don't ban more esoteric bullshit about "reality shifting," "manifesting," and a whole lot of other esoteric beliefs. As a result, these out-there ideas are finding a new audience among the mostly young people who use TikTok. And TikTok is doing nothing about it. Which is good.

What is reality shifting?

Simplified, reality shifting is the belief that we can shift our consciousness to alternate realities. It's (very loosely) based on the "many-worlds interpretation" of quantum mechanics that posits that all possible outcomes of quantum measurements are realized in some universe, and thus there are an infinite number of realities—like in that movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once. The leap that TikTok's reality shifters make is thinking there's a way to visit these alternative realities, either corporally or just mentally. As far as anyone can prove, there is not, but if you'd like to try, you can check out this video for instructions or watch every video on the hashtag in some alternative dimension where you have all day.

What is manifesting?

Reality shifting has the sheen of novelty to it, but it's actually a close cousin to the older idea of "manifesting," another belief with a strong fan base on TikTok. While it's often surrounded by exhortations to meditate or visualize, manifesting, at its most basic level, is the belief that you can have whatever you want if you believe you can have it. It's wishing, with extra steps.

Where does all this come from?

It seems that each new generation finds a way to talk about manifesting, reality shifting, and other fringe spiritual beliefs. Since it was published in 2006, over 35 million copies of the book The Secret have been sold. (Spoiler alert: The secret of the title is "if you wish for something hard enough, you'll get it.") The Secret was a modernization of the new-age beliefs that were popular in the 1990s, which were based on the "human potential movement" of the 1970s, which was based on the esoterica of the hippy generation in the 1960s. If you keep going back in time (literally, if you want to reality shift), you arrive at the "second great awakening" of the early late 1800s-early 1900s, where spiritualism, freemasonry, and transcendentalism were on-trend.

What's the harm in wishing?

While it seems pretty obvious that people can't have whatever they want just because they want it—just look at everything—but is it a bad thing? Yes and no.

On the harm side of the column: Believing that the universe delivers whatever you order only really works if you're privileged. It's way easier to think, "I have all this money because I really wanted it!" when you already have all this money than it is to ask, "Where's that car I ordered?"

It's also a pretty callous belief system. Manifesters like to pose as compassionate, but a belief in a generous universe or the present-giving God of the "prosperity gospel" movement (less popular on TikTok, more popular on Facebook ) means that anyone in an unfortunate situation must want to be in it—that kid who has cancer must want to have cancer, or he didn't pray hard enough.

Also on the negative side of the ledger: the gurus, preachers, and politicians who prey on the gullible. And when believers try to make laws based on their beliefs. And UFO cults with suicide pacts. So there are a lot of negatives.

Why we shouldn't do anything about it (except feel smug)

But on the other hand, there has always been a counter-current of occultism informing American beliefs. You can see it in the longtime popularity of astrology (another TikTok favorite), the ready availability of Ouija boards in toy stores, and the existence of your local palm reader. People are meeting some basic need, whether it's through horoscope and vision boards or Sunday morning church services. I don't understand it personally, but like Sinatra said, "I'm for whatever gets you through the night."

There have been attempts to rein in new religious movements in the past, and they tend to be disasters. After the Jonestown mass suicide for instance, anti-cult sentiment was strong enough that a cottage industry of "de-programmers" sprung up, and there were actual court cases where serious people argued that it was lawful to kidnap your relatives if you really didn't like what they believed and really didn't approve of who they hung out with.

Wringing your hands about the people who believe weird things on TikTok—and the grifters and frauds getting rich off them—isn't the answer. First, it's boring, like the confrontational atheism that was popular online a decade ago. But more importantly, Western culture, when it's working correctly, is built on the idea that people should be able to believe and say whatever they like. even if it's stupid—freedom and all that shit.

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These Are the Best Free Gardening Apps

While one point of gardening is to be enjoying the great outdoors, using tech doesn’t take anything away from that. In fact, I’d argue it enables being outside, because you don’t have to be tethered to paperwork or books—all you need is on your phone or tablet. Although I had long embraced using spreadsheets for charting what I was planting in seed trays or Adobe Illustrator for mapping my garden beds, I was slower to embracing gardening apps. I had, somewhat naively, waited for “the one,” the app that would do everything, for while I’d happily pay for. What’s happened instead is that I use a variety of apps in small ways for almost every aspect of gardening, depending on what I need.

The best, free way to identify plants

It never fails to amuse me how many friends send me pictures of plants asking me to ID them, because usually, I have no idea what I’m looking at. In my own garden, I figure out what I’m looking at by using a plant ID app, and I benefit from Plantnet weekly. It has rarely disappointed me in being able to identify plants, even from a less-than-stellar picture, and immediately links to information about the plant. You can use it offline, too, so you don't need service. 

ADHD-proof succession planting

Succession planting (or planting crops every few weeks so you have crops ready to harvest at various times instead of all at once) is a test of best intentions. Keeping track of when you should seed, when you should harvest, and then actually following through is a test for anyone, but I really struggle with it and need reminders to stay on track.  While Seedtime is advertised as a planting app to help manage your whole garden, and is incredibly popular, I really just use the succession planning aspect. While you could much of the same result using spreadsheets, Google Calendar and your own research, Seedtime does a lot of the legwork for you, plotting out a customized calendar based on the crops you want to grow. There are paid tiers, but you can remain on a free plan and get a lot of the functionality, including one planting calendar. Paid tiers will net you more functions to use Seedtime as a gardening journal (which is a great idea) and the ability to save more data from your gardens, like yields and germination rates. 

Eliminate crowdscaping

Almost every gardener I know grows or buys too many starts and then packs their beds too full. It’s easy to do when the plants are so small—the beds can look sparse at this point. Apps like Planter help you understand how much space each plant really needs, as they all grow to different sizes, and some grow vertically while others grow horizontally. To really get a sense of what you can pack into a particular bed, this is the app I use to help me come back down to earth and get real about spacing. Like Seedtime, Planter tries to be an app that does everything for your garden, so you can also use the growing calendar, but I think Seedtime does that aspect better, while Planter is better for planning your beds. Planter has plans that start about $1/month, which is great, but you’ll get most of what you need on the free plan. 

Companion planting on the fly

Over time, you can learn what crops benefit from being planted together, and more importantly, which crops can’t be interplanted. While there are great charts to detail this, they’re hard to refer to while out in your garden. Instead, I use the Seed to Spoon app. I can quickly, from the garden, look up a specific vegetable or flower and get data on what to interplant and what to avoid, as well as a bunch of other growing info about a particular plant. There are some other features I like about this app, like the general reminders about what to plant now, or what to plant soon, on the home page, but mostly, I use this app as a reference library for interplanting. Seed to Spoon can be used for free, but you can upgrade for $47 a year to get access to more features, like an AI garden chatbot. 

Take advantage of free online tools

While not an app, Johnny Seeds has a ton of free tools that you should use. I use the seed quantity calculator to figure out how many seeds or starts of a particular plant I should get based on the space I have. There’s also a seed planting scheduler that does many of the calculations for you based on frost dates. Take time to peruse the tool list for planning, growing and harvesting. Gardenate is a free online tool that will tell you what to grow in your zip code right now, and whether to direct sow or plant starts. 

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Today’s Wordle Hints (and Answer) for Wednesday, May 15, 2024

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for May 15, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is medium difficult; I got it in four. Beware, there are spoilers below for May 15, Wordle #1,061! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.

How to play Wordle

Wordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.

Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

---

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)

They're almost all common letters today! Three are in our mnemonic, and the other two are also pretty common.

Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?

What leprechauns do if you don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day.

Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?

There are no repeated letters today. 

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There is one vowel. 

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with P. 

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with H. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is PINCH.

How I solved today’s Wordle

After RAISE and TOUCH, I tried LIMAN to eliminate common consonants. I then had four of five letters and a handful of possible solutions, and I guessed PINCH as the most likely.

Wordle 1,061 4/6

⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛🟩🟩
⬛🟩⬛⬛🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

---

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle was harder. The hint was “to collect” and the answer contained four common letters and one fairly common letter.

The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was AMASS.

A primer on Wordle basics

The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word. 

Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)

• Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)

• Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)

With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.

The best starter words for Wordle

What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.

How to win at Wordle

We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.

The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.

One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.

Wordle alternatives

If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:

• Wheeldle, which lets you play one puzzle after another

• Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.

• Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.

• Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.

• Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.

• Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the day’s solution. You’re required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.

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How to Use Google's New 'Find My Device' Service to Track Your Android

Last month, Google officially rolled out its Find My Device network for Android—not to be confused with Apple's Find My network, of course. But the similar names are appropriate in this case, since Google's service works just about the same as Apple's—and Tile's, for that matter. Google's service helps you find devices you've left behind or misplaced by leveraging the greater network of Android devices. Sound familiar?

How does Android's Find My Device work?

Find My Device allows you to find the approximate location for any connected, compatible device by relying on a network of over one billion Android devices around the world. (At the onset, however, Find My Device only works in the United States and Canada.)

When you leave behind a connected device, those devices can passively connect to any nearby Android phone through Bluetooth. That connection updates the device's location in the Find My Device network, giving you a good idea of where that device is—at least, where it was the last time an Android user came within Bluetooth distance of it (roughly 30 feet). If you have a Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro, this works even when your device is offline. If your phone loses all its battery, you can still locate it using Find My Device.

But it's not just other people's devices that can help you find your missing items: You can also use your personal devices to find others. If you're close enough to the missing device, you'll see a Find nearby option appear, which walks you directly to your device's location using an on-screen radius. Your Nest devices can also act as beacons for your missing devices: If they're close enough to one of your Google smart home devices, that will help you locate those missing items as well.

For now, Find My Device only works with Android phones and tablets, but Google will expand the network to support compatible Bluetooth devices starting in May. That includes Bluetooth trackers from Pebblebee and Chipolo, and Google says companies like Motorola, Jio, and Eufy will be making compatible tags later this year. Google will also let you share items with other people, so you can share a TV remote with your friend who is house sitting, or your keys with someone borrowing your car.

How about the security of Find My Device?

You may have seen reports that Find My Device is a security risk. Sure, the idea that all of these Android devices are sharing location data with each other sounds like a field day for stalkers and other bad actors. But, the truth is, both Find My Device on Android and Find My on iOS are perfectly safe to use.

Google says all location data, including aggregated device location reporting, is end-to-end encrypted, so no one should be able to see your items' locations but you—not even Google. That goes for the people whose devices are sharing their location with your items: Their data is end-to-end encrypted, so you can't see that it was their device that shared the location, and they can't see they shared it to your device. The company even asserts that if one of your devices can help find your missing item, it will disregard all aggregated location data in favor of using your device as a tracker.

Google also says it doesn't start saving location info until it senses multiple devices around yours, and limits the number of refreshes to minimize the risk of malicious real-time tracking. In other words, the feature works great for stationary objects, such as keys left behind in a coffee shop, but it won't offer live updates if you left those keys in the back of a taxi. In addition, if you're near your home and have your address tied to your Google account, your device won't contribute to the crowdsourced location data used to locate other devices.

Finally, Find My Device works with the established anti-stalker protocols both Android and iOS are a part of. If your device detects a strange tracker, it will alert you and offer instructions on how to find and disable the tracker. In fact, Apple and Google recently rolled out a new standard for detecting trackers: Whether you use an iPhone or an Android, your Find My service will help you locate a strange tracker should it be following you.

How to use Find My Device

To get started, you'll need an Android device running at least Android 9 and the Find My Device app from the Play Store. Alternatively, you can log into the Find My Device site on desktop.

If you're looking for your own device, you can hit Continue, but if you're helping a friend, choose Sign in as guest and have your friend plug in their credentials. From here, choose the device you want to find: You may need to confirm your device's PIN or provide your Google password instead. Once confirmed, this action will send a notification to that device.

Now, you should see your device on the map. You can choose to get directions to your device, or, if you're close enough to the device, you can use the Find nearby feature.

You have a few other options as well: You can choose to play a sound from your device, which will make it ring at max volume for five minutes (be careful with this one). You can also lock your device with your PIN or password using Secure device to make sure no one can access it: If you use this feature, you can leave a message for anyone who finds your device to help get in contact with you.

Finally, if you can't find it, you can delete the device from your account.

How to turn off Find My Device

If you ever want to disable Find My Device for your Android devices, it's easy to do. To start, pick up the device you want to disable the feature for, then open Settings > Security & privacy > Find My Device. From here, disable Use Find My Device, and your Android device will stop using the feature.

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Why You Should Start Planning Your Fall Gardening Now

Though Mother’s Day is traditionally when tomatoes and other warm weather plants go in the ground for many zones across the U.S., email promotions from all the gardening companies are already talking about fall. Bulb catalogs have started landing in my mailbox, and it’s perfect timing—because, believe it or not, right now, amidst the craziness of getting your summer garden in, is when you need to plan for fall garden tasks.

The blooms you see now were planted in fall

Gardening, I find, is about backtracking. If you want sunflowers in July and they need six weeks to grow, you need to start them in early May. If you want tulips and color next spring, you need to get those bulbs into the ground this fall, and to have the widest selection available to you, you need to shop now. By the time fall rolls around, you’re incredibly unlikely to remember what bulbs you need or what areas to fill in, because they bloomed so long ago. Now, while bulbs are still blooming or have just finished, is the perfect time to take note of what you’ll need, marry it to what’s available for fall planting, and place orders. 

Start record keeping all spring and summer

I’ve advocated for garden journaling multiple ways. I have a well-worn notebook where I jot down observations, plans and garden sketches, but I also keep a visual diary of my garden every week or so. No matter what kind of learner you are, there’s a method out there that will fit you—whether it’s voice notes or making a list. The idea is to take a record of the garden as it changes, so you have notes to refer back to long after the season has changed. Your garden is an always-evolving landscape.

For instance, though there are hundreds of tulips in the ground at my house, we had an unusually hard winter this year and many did not come back. The ice also caused many colored tulips to revert, a process in which tulips that were bred from red or yellow to be wilder colors will go back to standard red and yellow. I’ll be adding and replacing some bulbs this year, but since they’ll have died back by September, having overhead photos of the areas I want to replant, with the bulbs in bloom, is essential. Otherwise, I’ll be flying blind in the fall. Even if I can find the bulbs in the ground, I won’t have any idea what color flowers each one produces without these photos. This process of taking photos to help you plant in fall is really important for blank spaces you want to fill in. While they seem obvious now, they won’t be in fall as they fill in with summer blooms. 

Build in earlier blooms

Spring is when bulbs start to pop up—the irises, tulips, and daffodils. To extend the season longer, begin planting bulbs that bloom earlier, all the way into late winter. There is a dazzling array of crocuses to be planted, across a color spectrum of purple, blue, orange and yellow. Snowdrops may seem pedestrian, but in late winter any sign of life is welcome. Anemone follow shortly thereafter, with flowers that look like low poppies, and then come the parade of daffodils. If daffodils seem too generic, you have to see the new varieties where shades vary from pale pinks to orange, and double-blooming faces have all sorts of distinctive characteristics. Use a bulb blooming calendar to start blooms as early as possible. 

Define a color band for your garden

For a long time I wasn’t deliberate about my color choices and indiscriminately threw flowers in the ground. If you do this, you’ll come to notice that your garden is mostly white, pink and purple flowers. Over the last few years, I’ve developed a rule that white flowers are no longer allowed. But more specifically, I only plant bold colors: orange, red, yellow, purple, blue and magenta. When I choose bulbs, I ensure that they’re within my palette, and I try to ensure they’re distributed in a way that works: an ombre across the front yard, or a solid line of purple and red up the driveway. This can only be achieved by keeping notes year to year as everything blooms. For instance, as much as I love my yard flooding with irises right now, they’re universally purple blooms. I’ll be pulling out about two thirds of them this fall and replacing them with blue, red and yellow irises for more variety. I have made arrangements to trade a few of my pink peonies for yellow and red versions that gardeners nearby have. 

Add planters to help move color across the yard

Bulbs like tulips and peonies tend to come up when the rest of your yard is still sleeping from winter and looks bare. This color helps make the yard look alive, but only where you have bulbs planted. Planters can help fill spaces with color where a planting bed doesn’t exist. Pay attention to the yard now, looking around where a pop of color would help your yard look more alive. Grab a colorful ceramic planter while on sale this summer, and then come this fall, use a lasagna method to plant it with bulbs. 

Bulbs will still be available in the late summer and fall, even if some varieties are sold out. You don’t have to rush right now to place orders. What you do need to do is stop and take a look around every week or two—literally stop and smell the roses. Take pictures and notes, enough reference material for you to go back to in fall, when you are ready to make a plan and place orders. The payoff in spring is worth it.

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The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: What's 'BBL Drizzy'?

The rap war between Kendrick Lamar and Drake seems like it’s over. The winner by unanimous decision: Kendrick Lamar. But the beef is so culturally all-encompassing that even the secondary drama is going viral this week. Let me break it down for you. I'm also going to talk about the "Block Party" campaign, whether you should put pickles in your Dr. Pepper, and introduce you to my favorite new phrase: "That's poop from a butt."

What is “BBL Drizzy?”

This week’s viral videos are the thousands of version of the song “BBL Drizzy” that are blowing up all over social media. Let me explain: On one of the open salvos of the war between Drake and Kendrick, Drake put out the track “Push Ups,” where he tell Kendrick associate Metro Boomin’ to “shut yo ho-ass up and make some drums." So last week, Metro took him up on the offer and released a track called "BBL Drizzy," a remix of a song by King Willonius. “the “BBL” part of the title refers to Drake having supposedly undergone Brazilian butt-lift surgery. Anyway, Metro removed the copyright from the song, and told the public that he’d give $10,000 to whoever who made the best verse for the track. It all went viral, and literally the entire world started recording songs that attack Drake. Essentially Metro started handing out free bats and saying, “I’ll pay you to beat that dead horse over there.”

Here are only a few of the highlights of the tens of thousands of versions of BBL Drizzy:

• The original version’s laid-back 1970s vibe.

• YouTube rapper Packgod’s take. 

• Jokey YouTube rapper Yukon’s version. 

• Japanese version of BBL Drizzy. 

• A merengue cover. 

• A harp version of BBL Drizzy.

If you had any doubts about who won the Great Rap War of 2024, Drake is out there getting dissed by a harp. 

Kendrick vs. Drake feud encouraging literacy?

All wars have unintended consequence, and this one might be resulting in literacy. Or so says Ms. C., a teacher with a TikTok account. On a recent video she said: “I have students who hate reading that are doing the most meticulous, close reading of these lyrics that I have ever seen. They’re finding subtle quadruple entendres and explaining them eloquently to their peers.” 

Why is “Blockout 2024” trending?

Earlier this week, TikTok user blockout2024 posted this video where they suggest that celebrities will lose money if people block them on social media. In a followup video, they explains "When we hate on them, they make money. When we praise them, they make money. But when we block their social media accounts and completely forget their names, they lose it all.”

The trend, alternately called “Celebrity Block Party” quickly caught on on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and everywhere else. Although the initial video seemed to have been posted in response to displays of wealth at the Met Gala early this week, a larger concern quickly coalesced: some celebrities, blockers believe, are not using their platforms to sufficiently support Palestine in its conflict with Israel. The main targets: Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift, both of whom are fairly centrist, bordering on apolitical. 

It's too soon to tell whether it's working or not, but I’d put a lot of money on “It is not working.” Online activism doesn’t have a great track record. People online tend to overestimate their importance, and the Block Party campaign relies on fans of Taylor Swift caring about Palestine more than they care about getting updates from Swift. Maybe I’m cynical, but I don’t see that happening in large enough numbers to matter. If even a million followers blocked Taylor Swift because of this campaign, she’d have 282 million left. And that’s just on Instagram. Without commenting on the specifics of Middle East politics, the whole thing has a #Kony2012 vibe.

Bumble unveils the terrifying future of dating

Whitney Wolfe Herd, the CEO of dating site Bumble, unveiled a terrifying potential future for online dating in a recent interview with Bloomberg. Herd foresees a future where each user has an AI wingman/woman to help them connect. You'd tell your robot deeply personal things, and it would scan every other person’s AI wingperson to find a match. “There is a world where your dating concierge could go and date for you with another dating concierge. And then you don’t have to talk to 600 people,” Herd said.

While I’m generally in favor of not talking to people, as many have pointed out online, this is like a Black Mirror episode. Not in a general sense, but a specific episode: season 4, episode 4, “Hang the DJ.”

What’s the deal with Pickle Dr. Pepper?

Weird culinary TikTok trend of the week: pickles and Dr. Pepper. This video from TikTok’s Kayleeh109 has been viewed nearly 3 million times. It advises you to go to Sonic, fill a cup halfway with pickles, add Dr. Pepper, and then, presumably, drink it. My stomach is turning thinking about it, but I haven’t tried it, so how can I say? Judging by the response videos, people seem to like it. People down south, mainly. I'm still not convinced. It could be an elaborate prank designed to get me to drink something gross.

My favorite Gen-Z phrase ever: “That’s shit from a butt.”

There are bazillions of insults hurled online daily, but occasionally, a turn-of-phrase so perfectly captures a sentiment that it takes on a life of its own. Case-in-point: “That’s shit from a butt.” Although it was originally used to describe food (that looks like shit from a butt) the phrase is now used to describe anything that’s bad. A song you don’t like? Shit from a butt. Jerry Seinfeld’s new Netflix movie? Shit from a butt. Putting pickles in Dr. Pepper? Shit from a butt. 

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Secrecy Concerns Mount Over Spy Powers Targeting US Data Centers

A coalition of digital rights groups is demanding the US declassify records that would clarify just how expansive a major surveillance program really is.

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Why You Should Embrace a Chaotic Garden

Here’s a secret: Gardening isn’t about plants. Plants don’t need us puttering around or deciding where they should live; they do a better job of it on their own. Gardening is about our hopes and expectations: planning a summer yield of tomatoes with nary a bug bite, or a solid hedge of sunflowers that the squirrels won’t use as scaffolding. For inspiration, we check out Instagram accounts of flower gardeners holding impossibly large snapdragon bouquets standing in a flower field, or the kitchen potager out of a Meryl Streep movie where the garden was so perfect, it turns out it was achieved using an entire team of gardeners who glued vegetables in place. Instead of aspiring to an impossible garden standard, I say we embrace chaos gardening as a way to reduce stress and bring fun back to growing things. 

You can't control plants or the weather

The reality is that gardening can get messy. To realize a precise plan you have to be constantly weeding and feeding and pruning and planting, all within the tight confines of the summer season. You can’t control the sun or snow or rain in any given year, nor can you do much about viruses or fungus. If a crop fails, it can feel like personal failure. While gardening has been shown to reduce stress, it can also certainly cause it if you are too rigid in your plans, as many new gardeners are. Chaos gardening suggests that you just start sticking plants into empty spaces and see what happens. 

It helps to know about co-planting and invasives

Before you give in to total chaos, there are some rules you might want to think about. First, some plants coexist better than others. For instance, fennel does not enjoy the company of other plants. Brassicas prefer to stick together, as do nightshades. But within companion planting are wonderful bedfellows: Cucumbers love being with beans, and onions and tomatoes grow spectacularly together. Sweet alyssum and flowering dill benefit the vegetables around them. While thinking too hard about companion planting can be overwhelming, it can be as simple as looking at the empty space where you’re about to plant, say, a cabbage and seeing what’s around it. If there’s an eggplant, plant the cabbage somewhere else. 

You should also know if a particular plant will spread easily, like mint, foxgloves or berry canes, because they can easily take over a space. Invasives like bluebells can seem charming at first, but they’re very, very hard to control once they take root. While herbs like dill and parsley can perennialize, meaning they just spread and come back year to year on their own, they don’t take over a space and crowd out other plants like mint does. You can use plant identification apps to tell you what you’re planting, what’s near it and if it will spread. 

If you keep throwing plants at the ground, some are going to stick

What you plant will always be a mix of perennial and annual plants, meaning that some will come back year to year, and some will likely die after a season. It’s been my personal experience that if you just keep sticking plants into empty spaces, over time spaces feel fuller as the perennials take hold and you’ll find a few plants that should be annuals that perennialize anyway as you’re trying them in different spots. That’s the thing: Plants are excellent at finding the right spot for themselves. 

Chaos gardening creates less vulnerable plants

By spreading plants out across the garden you eliminate monocultures. This means it will be much harder for a crop to get taken out by a pest or virus, because there isn’t one giant target to hit, and the plants are spread out, so problems can’t spread as easily. In fact, spreading the plants out is better for soil health and plant health. An entire bed of peas is great, because peas fix nitrogen, but it doesn’t benefit any other plants, like the corn next door that desperately needs nitrogen. But if you interplant, they can benefit each other. 

Through chaos gardening the landscape takes on a much more interesting texture of different colors and heights and patterns. Around every corner is a new discovery or delight and plants that aren’t doing as well don’t make the same impact. If something dies, tear it out and plant something else, doesn’t matter what it is. 

Parameters can make chaos feel more comfortable

If you still want some control, give areas themes or loose rules. The area in front of my house is strictly for cutting flowers, but there is no order to what kind. Perennial echinacea mixes with annual zinnias and bulbs of every height and texture.  My flower wall along the edge of the property has only one rule: planting is by height, so the tallest plants go at the back. Asparagus and artichokes mix with 16-foot sunflowers and free growing foxgloves and tulips. In the vegetable garden, slow bolting cabbage lives with Egyptian walking onions and shiso, resulting in a show-stopping mix of colors and structure. When the cabbage is done, I yank it out and plant something else that’s around. Each empty space is just an opportunity to grow something new. You can even designate some areas for chaos and some for more orderly planting, if it’s important to you. 

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that gardening, while addictive, is supposed to be relaxing. While formal gardens with clean lines and obvious themes are beautiful, entire teams are required to maintain them. If you can relax a little and embrace a little more chaos, you may find more joy in your garden.

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Today’s Wordle Hints (and Answer) for Monday, May 13, 2024

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for May 13, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is easier; I got it in four. Beware, there are spoilers below for May 13, Wordle #1,059! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.

How to play Wordle

Wordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.

Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

---

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)

They're almost all common letters today! Three are in our mnemonic, and the other two are pretty common.

Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?

You'll find this in your spice cabinet.

Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?

No repeated letters today. 

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There are two vowels today. 

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with C. 

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with N. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is CUMIN.

How I solved today’s Wordle

After RAISE and TOUCH, I tried PLUMB to eliminate likely consonants. From here, I had four of five letters, and CUMIN was the best solution.

Wordle 1,059 4/6

⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛
⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

---

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle was easier. The hint was “opposite of inner,” and the answer contained all common letters.

The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was OUTER.

A primer on Wordle basics

The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word. 

Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)

• Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)

• Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)

With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.

The best starter words for Wordle

What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.

How to win at Wordle

We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.

The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.

One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.

Wordle alternatives

If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:

• Wheeldle, which lets you play one puzzle after another

• Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.

• Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.

• Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.

• Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.

• Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the day’s solution. You’re required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.

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Time Is Running Out in the Hunt for Rare Bitcoin

A small band of collectors is finding and collecting rare fragments of bitcoin worth many times the face value. But their window of opportunity is closing.

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Welcome to the Laser Wars

Amid a rising tide of adversary drones and missile attacks, laser weapons are finally poised to enter the battlefield.

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These Artificial Blood Platelets Could One Day Save Lives

Platelets help blood clot, but they have a short shelf life. With blood in short supply, synthetic platelets could help meet demand.

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Reading Has Hurt Me for Years. With a Tablet Holder, It Doesn't

Cysts in both wrists made reading a literal pain. But Lamicall’s Tablet Holder takes that pain away by holding up my Kindle for me.

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The Best Sheets (2024): Linen, Percale, and Budget Bedding

Which material should you buy? Percale or linen? We tested dozens of sheets to find our favorites and break it all down.

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An Innovative EV Motor Used by Lamborghini, McLaren, and Ferrari Is Being Mass-Produced by Mercedes

Compared to the usual EV power plants, axial-flux motors are smaller and lighter, and have more torque. But they're hard to make at scale. Now Mercedes is bringing them to the masses.

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NASA’s Quest to Touch the Sun

The outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere are a blistering million degrees hotter than its surface. NASA sent a probe to find out why—by getting closer to the star than ever before.

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The Best Period Underwear, Menstrual Cups, and Reusable Pads (2024)

Aunt Flo doesn’t have to suck (that much). These menstrual cups, absorbent underwear, and reusable pads are eco-friendly and comfortable.

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Best Registries for Weddings and Baby Showers (2024): Advice and Tips

Getting married? Having a kid? Getting gifts to mark the milestone is easier with an online registry—but not all are made equally.

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The Earth Is About to Feast on Dead Cicadas

Two cicada broods, XIX and XIII, are emerging in sync for the first time in 221 years. They’re bringing the banquet of a lifetime for birds, trees, and humans alike.

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36 Best Graduation Gifts (2024): For College Grads

Ring in their special milestone with useful gadgets, outdoor gear, subscriptions, and modern conveniences.

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6 Practical Tips for Using Anthropic's Claude Chatbot

Anthropic recently launched an iOS app for its Claude chatbot. We asked the company’s head of product design how to get the most out of the AI helper.

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The Conspiracies Swarming Campus Protests

Disinformation and conspiracies spun out of control last week when police departments raided college campuses across the country during pro-Palestinian protests.

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Sell Lab-Grown Meat in Alabama and You Could Go to Jail

Anyone found guilty of selling or manufacturing cultivated meat in Alabama will face up to a three-month jail sentence and $500 fine.

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12 Best Vibrators (2024): Cheap, Powerful, Flexible

Gender? I don’t even know her! No matter what you’ve got, these tools promise good vibes for all.

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FTX Creditors Say Payout Deal Is 'an Insult'—and Plan to Revolt

FTX has a plan to repay its former crypto customers more than the billions of dollars they lost in the latest bankruptcy proposal. But some will reject it anyway.

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10 Great Deals on Last-Minute Mother’s Day Gifts (2024)

Does Mom need a KitchenAid or new headphones? Some of our favorite gear is on sale from Amazon and Target.

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19 Best Sex Toys (2024): Gender Inclusive, Couples, Solo

These are our favorite gender-inclusive vibrators, wand massagers, and sleeves to give you and your partner(s) a helping hand.

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Why You Should Clean Your Faucets More Often (and How to Do It Right)

When you’re cleaning your kitchen sink, or deep cleaning your bathroom, there’s an often-overlooked place you might be forgetting. Your kitchen and bathroom faucets can become a breeding ground for mold, bacteria, and damaging mineral build-up.

How often you should clean your faucet head

The faucet head on your sink should be cleaned once to twice a year. If you have hard water, you can clean it as often as once every three months to prevent mineral build-up. The goal is to prevent damage, so giving your faucet a good once-over as soon as you notice any reduced water pressure or irregular flow pattern will help keep your fixture in good working order and extend its life.

Soak your faucet head in vinegar

Using a plastic bag of a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water, submerge your faucet head in the solution and then hold it in place with a rubber band. You can then leave most faucets submerged for about a half hour to an hour, but take care not to leave delicate finishes like chrome, matte finish colored metal, or burnished brass in the bag for more than a half hour to avoid causing damage. Once your faucet is done soaking, use a neutral multipurpose cleanser or some soapy water and a small cleaning brush or a toothbrush to scrub away any dirt, build-up, or debris that’s left. Once you’re done cleaning, make sure to rinse the faucet head by running warm water through it for a minute to wash away any soap or vinegar residue.

Steam your faucet head

You can loosen up mineral build-up as well as take care of dirt on your faucet with steam. Bring water to a boil in your kettle and then aim the steam from the kettle towards your faucet head. Hold it there for a few minutes, allowing the steam to heat up the surface of the faucet. Once the steam has had the chance to work, you can use a toothbrush or small cleaning brush to scrub build-up off of your faucet head. Finally, run warm water through the faucet to rinse it.

Clean your aerator

For this step, you should remove your faucet head. First, turn off the water at the shut-off valves under the sink. Then, twist the head of your faucet counter-clockwise to release it from your tap. You might have a nut that holds the faucet head in place, so if the head doesn’t attach directly to the tap, look for a nut that holds it in place and turn that counter clockwise. Once the head of the faucet is free, you should be able to see the aerator. It will look like a screen with a rubber gasket on the tap side to seal it. This is also a great opportunity to check your rubber o-ring to see if it’s worn and replace it with a new one if it is. Check the aerator for mineral deposits, mold, and debris. You can soak the parts of your faucet head in a 50/50 vinegar solution or use warm soapy water to clean it and then replace the parts, making sure that the faucet head is screwed in snugly and properly seated before turning the water to your sink back on. Run some warm water through the tap for a minute to rinse the aerator and faucet head.

Important tips for cleaning your faucet

Make sure to check manufacturer recommendations when choosing a cleanser for your faucet to avoid damaging the finish. Since some metals can be sensitive to acids or to particular chemicals, you should take care to protect the finish of your fixture when cleaning. Also, it’s a good idea to avoid using harsh cleansers on your faucet—not only to protect the finish, but to avoid damaging the rubber o-rings, valves, or other delicate parts that might not hold up to abrasives or highly acidic substances.

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Apple May 2024 iPad Event: iPad Pro, iPad Air, M4, Apple Pencil, Magic Keyboard

Apple has launched a new M4 chipset, new iPad Air and iPad Pro models, and even an Apple Pencil Pro.

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How to Split an Apple in Half With Your Bare Hands (and a Way to Cheat a Little)

Five years ago I split my first apple in half, inspired by a video clip on the internet and the audacity to think that maybe, if I really believed in myself, I might be able to join the ranks of the apple-splitters. I achieved glory and success (the apple did in fact break in my hands) and I've been riding that high ever since. Today, I return to retell that story and provide an innovation: a way to cheat if your apple-splitting is not going as well as you hoped.

What do you mean, split an apple?

I mean you break it in half, in a way that looks like it could have been cut with a knife. Right down the middle. Here's a video of Paul Rudd wowing the internet with this feat. Amazing! What human being can do that? Surely nobody but Paul Rudd!

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I love a good feat of strength and/or skill. In fact, the only thing I love more is hearing that it may be more accessible than at first I assumed. (See also: my brief obsessions with bending nails and flipping kettlebells.) So I was intrigued when strength coach Adam Fisher provided a different perspective:

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I don’t mean to diminish the accomplishment of cracking open an apple. It is a feat of strength, and not everybody can do it. But far more people can do it than probably suspect they can. It turns out, Adam is right.

I saw his tweet while I was at a conference, and there was a giant basket of apples in the lobby, so I could test out the apple-splitting trick ASAP. I watched a few YouTube videos on apple splitting, but ultimately it is the apple that teaches you.

How to crack that apple

First, if you have small hands, choose a small apple. And make sure the apple is a crunchy one; a fresh Honeycrisp works well. (My first try was a medium size Gala, and it was tough but I got it.) Consider removing the stem, not for any mechanical advantage but just so it won’t poke you as you are squeezing.

Then:

1. Locate the squishy, meaty muscle at the base of your thumb. Wedge the thumb meat of both hands into the divot at the top of the apple.

2. Compress the apple top to bottom as hard as you can. It may help to press the apple against your knee or another convenient surface.

3. While doing this, pull the apple apart, like opening a book.

If you run into trouble, try a smaller or crispier apple.

And don’t get discouraged. I grabbed three Gala apples from the basket at the hotel, and was only able to crack one of them. Later, when I got home, I bought a bag of small Honeycrisps and was able to split them so easily that I did a few in a row for my kids and then encouraged them to try. None of them quite managed, but I told them all to try again next year when they have grown a bit bigger. Then, suddenly nobody wanted to eat any of the apples, so I’m over here gnawing on them all by myself. Anyway. Give it a try—you might surprise yourself!

How to make the apple easier to split (aka how to cheat)

Look closely—there are two fingernail gouges on the top surface of the apple. Credit: Beth Skwarecki

I sat down with an apple today, thinking my only job was to take a new photo to update this post. But the apple I had on hand--a Kanzi--wasn't cooperating. What to do? I could get some different apples at the store. I could treat this as a strength performance (which it kind of is) and schedule an apple-splitting session for a day I was better rested. Or maybe I could just cheat.

I know from experience that the apple-splitting phenomenon starts with a small, audible crack. You'll hear a soft noise as it begins to split apart, and if you keep applying pressure, all of a sudden the rest of the apple will give.

So what if I give that initial split just a little bit of help? I didn't have a knife within reach, so I dug my thumbnail into the top of the apple, along the line where I imagined it would break. Then I returned to my apple-splitting efforts.

As I predicted, the cracking noise began almost immediately. My cheat didn't make the apple easy to split, but it seemed to get my foot in the door, so to speak. I kept the pressure on, and soon the apple cracked in half just as I was hoping. A few fingernail gouges would be easy to apply surreptitiously if you're doing this trick in front of friends, and honestly you're still splitting an apple in half with no tools other than your bare hands. I hereby deem this a not-too-cheaty-cheat. So go forth and split an apple, ya cheater.

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