Why YSK: news sites are full of popovers, videos, and ads that download multiple megabytes of fluff and distract from the reading experience. These lightweight variants contain the same articles but without all the junk.

text [.] npr [.] org
lite [.] cnn [.] com

Anyone know of others?

Why YSK: Instead of letting default algorithm feed you endless mindless content, create dedicated niche accounts and train them to serve your actual interests and goals.

-Create a separate account for a specific topic, hobby, or language you want to learn (e.g., one for cooking, one for studying a language or any hobby).

-Actively curate the feed immediately by searching for your niche terms, liking relevant videos, and saving them into organized folders.

-Aggressively reject time-wasting content by using the "Not Interested" button on any viral challenges, drama, or junk videos that appear.

-Train the algorithm for about 1 to 2 hours of active engagement, after which the feed will exclusively show high-value content related to your chosen topic.

By separating your personal entertainment account from your learning accounts, you break the cycle of passive doom-scrolling. When you open a niche account, you consume with intention, get actual value, and naturally spend far less time mindlessly drifting through the app.

Why YSK: Because I was staying at the embassy hotel and of course out of no where I get visted by my best friend, ms flow. I had nothing at all! My husband went down to the front desk and asked where he could find something. They just gave it to him. Apparently female sanitary items are apart of the toiletries that hotels and airlines are required to provide. This is very useful for women who may find themselves in a situation similar to mine!

Why YSK: My 11-year-old daughter told me she watched a “weird” movie and didn’t want to tell me what it was. I asked her where she saw it and she said “Disney Plus.” Oh! Well how bad could it be?

So I guess you should know that Disney+ isn’t just “Disney” and not to assume Disney+ is cool for your kids to just watch.

I suppose I’m just old, now, but my assumption was to expect Disney things from Disney franchises and outlets.

The movie (or show, whatever) was called Pen15. My child watched a penis movie…on Disney.

My fault, I guess, for assuming that Disney today is the Disney I grew up with.

Why YSK: This is something that helps you block telemarketers without screening out any important calls from unknown numbers. It completely spares you from an interaction with a potential scammer.

“Ask reason for calling”

https://support.apple.com/en-us/111106

Why YSK: Google products are generally considered a nightmare for your privacy due to their heavy data collection.

• Personal information: Your name, phone number, gender, date of birth
• Your email addresses
• Where you live
• Where you work
• Your interests
• Things you search for
• Websites you visit

Plus, according to their ToCs, “we store the information that we collect with unique identifiers tied to the browser, application or device that you’re using.”

Alternatives:

1. Chrome > Brave / Firefox / Tor
2. Email > Tuta Mail
3. Photos > Ente
4. Cloud storage > Nextcloud / Internxt 
5. Office > CryptPad / LibreOffice
6. Maps > OpenStreetMap, OsmAnd
7. Operating systems > LineageOS (mobile), Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora Debian)
8. Search engine > DuckDuckGo / Qwant / Startpage
9. Calendar > Nextcloud Calendar / Tuta Calendar

You can download your data from Google using https://takeout.google.com/

Reducing your reliance on Google can greatly improve your online privacy and give you more control over your digital life. Although it may seem daunting at first, tackling it gradually makes the process manageable. I started with Tuta Mail, and invested in a NAS which is use with Nextcloud. The rewards of reclaiming control over your privacy make the effort worthwhile.

Feel free to suggest other helpful resources, the degoogle or privacy guides sub also have some good places to start.

Why YSK: Last year researchers found out they could perfectly map a house and even see you, yourself, using the wifi signals from routers -> devices. I know this is somewhat known, but with the recent Comcast news that they are adding it to their routers, if you have an all in one gateway / modem combo you should totally upgrade. The Deco Mesh routers are my personal favorite. But I wanted to post this article so you could see the actual scary accuracy of the systems -- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811052857.htm

So. Though you may not "enable it" -- just by adding the feature they are, imo, violating your privacy, and lord knows what they'll do with it.

Why YSK- Albania is not fully integrated into Google's monetized advertising partner program.

Why YSK: They get shit on by end users for a living and the people they're helping act like their problem is the biggest and most important problem in the world. Some of them actually believe it.

Be an asshole once, you're quickly forgotten. Do it consistently, you'll earn a reputation for someone that nobody wants to help. Be their favorite and most will go to great lengths to help you out if they can.

You won't get preferential treatment every time but basic human decency goes a lot farther than most people think. For the same reason, be nice to every cashier you meet. They deal with a lot more BS than you can probably imagine.

Why YSK: we are led to believe most farmed animals have good lives, but this is no longer the case. This is important for those looking to minimize harm through our purchases.

Source

Why YSK: it'll make your writing much clearer to readers!

If you're writing about an item that you share possession of with someone else, you still use "my" like you would if it was only yours. For example, "my and my partner's apartment," not "my partner and I's apartment."

When deciding between "and I" and "and me," imagine the sentence without the other person/people. This will make it clear which to use.

Example: Robert and I went to the store.

Explanation: you wouldn't say "me went to the store" if you take away Robert.

Example: Rosalie took her daughters and me to lunch.

Explanation: without the daughters, you wouldn't say "Rosalie took I to lunch."

WHY YSK: A password manager is better than using the same password or slight variations of it across multiple accounts. It can generate and store a unique password for each account.

So if one website gets hacked and your password gets leaked, that password won’t work on your other accounts.

You only need to remember one master password for your password manager.

Turn on two-factor authentication for the password manager itself, keep your recovery information somewhere safe, and never share your master password.

Why YSK: Petco's employee uniform just got updated to a new design, and the "old" uniform shirts you may be familiar with, with the cute animal designs on them, are no longer allowed to be worn as the uniform by employees.

Many of the employees have a whole bunch of the different shirt designs, and now that they're unable to wear them to work there is a good chance many of them will end up in thrift stores.

As a Petco employee, I can say I got compliments on those shirts all the time and customers often asked if they could buy the shirts. Well, now you can, if you can find used ones in thrift stores.

Why YSK: What you pay and what your neighbor pays are often different for the same product on the same website. Data brokers sell your personal data to online companies so they'll know what you need, how much money you make and where you live. All so these companies can determine how much they can charge you for their products.

The value of your phone is a factor. IPhone and Mac users are often charged more than Android and PC users. Critics call the practice Personalized Price Gouging.

Here are some methods to combat this practice.

Turn off location tracking on your device and browser so retailers cannot quote prices based on where you live or your local cost of living.

Use a separate browser specifically for purchasing items, keeping it entirely separate from the one you use for general browsing and online communities.

Clear your cookies or use private/incognito browsing modes before checking out to prevent sites from recognizing your repeat visits or search history.

Test different ZIP codes or use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to see if changing your perceived location drops the price of the item.

Compare prices across independent aggregators or competing shopping apps before buying directly from a targeted site.

Leave items in your cart for a day or two; sometimes algorithms will trigger an automated discount or a lower price alert to your email to encourage you to finish the purchase.

Avoid logging into loyalty accounts automatically when just browsing or comparing base prices, as reward profiles feed real-time personal data into pricing models.

Why ysk is if you drink it when you need to sleep, it will affect your sleep.

Why YSK: when strapping down a load while it's in the middle of the tray/pickup bed, the strap is taking the shortest possible path and will stay tight. If the load is off to the side, not only is the strap path longer, but the unequal forces by the strap on the load will want to push it away from the more vertical side towards the middle, ultimately resulting in the strap coming loose.

This may not be intuitive, as evidenced by the amount of loose flapping straps or even straps and buckles I see lying on the road while driving. You can test this yourself by strapping down a box towards the side of the bed - shove the load towards the middle and suddenly the strap is loose. This is just geometry, and is further demonstrated in this diagram, where the strap length with the load in the middle is 1830mm, but when off to the side it's 1933mm.

Keep everyone else safe, and keep your load safe. Strap down your stuff properly.

(And yes this is also avoided by putting a belly strap or otherwise securing it to the side, or have the whole width of the surface filled.)

Why YSK: It can lead to some real real real problems

Why YSK: I recently bought a house. That kind of transaction is subject to public record and has a good amount of information attached (my new address, full name, closing date, loan amount, and mortgage provider at least from what I've noticed), so it's a prime target for a snail mail scam.

I've gotten multiple "we've been trying to reach you about your car house's extended warranty" letters almost every day since I moved in. They all prominently feature my mortgage provider's name (with a bit of very fine print at the bottom saying that they aren't affiliated.) I'll admit that I didn't immediately clock them as scam letters when I first opened one because I wasn't used to scam attempts in physical letters (and the homebuying process meant I was getting a good amount of important mail that looked similar.) Luckily I noticed the fine print and connected the dots before calling.

This was my first time getting a lot of scam snail mail, but I'd imagine there are other situations where this happens (probably any sort of situation that puts your address in public records.)

The advice for dealing with this kind of letter is similar to the advice for digital scams: if you know it's a scam, throw it away (you knew that). If you think it may be legit, google the contact information before taking action. If you think it may still be from someone you trust but aren't sure, look up their number on your own instead of using the one on the letter.

Stay safe!

Why YSK:

The number you see (e.g., 37%) is an estimate calculated by the phone's battery-management system. It isn't simply measuring "37% of the battery's stored electricity."

Battery voltage, temperature, charging history, battery age, and how much power the phone is currently using all affect that estimate.

That's why:

- A phone can sometimes stay at 1% for surprisingly long.

- Battery percentage can drop faster during gaming or other intensive tasks.

- An old battery may appear to drain much faster than a new one.

- The percentage can change noticeably after restarting the phone.

- 50% battery doesn't necessarily mean you have exactly twice the usable runtime of 25%.

Also, lithium-ion batteries generally age faster when they're repeatedly kept at very high or very low charge levels. Modern phones manage this automatically, but features such as optimized/adaptive charging can further reduce battery wear.

So the battery percentage is best thought of as a calibrated prediction of remaining usable capacity, not a literal fuel gauge.

Your phone isn't lying to you—it just has to estimate something it can't directly measure.

There’s a hidden button on the bottom of the aisle side armrests usually at the base, right by the joint where they raise up. Push this button in and you can raise the armrest. They’re locked in place otherwise.

Why YSK: it makes it much easier to move in and out of the aisle seat, especially if your tray table is down. Plus everyone else will look at you like your seat has super powers lol

The number in those headlines is the reading at the Kaub gauge in Germany, which everyone quotes because it sits on the shallowest stretch of the navigable Rhine. It is a water level measured against a fixed zero point that was set historically, not a measurement of the water column. That zero sits above the riverbed, so the gauge can read very low while there is still a usable channel underneath.

The rough conversion used in German inland shipping is: navigable fairway depth = gauge reading + 1.90 m - 0.78 m. So a gauge reading of 14 cm is a channel about 1.27 m deep, and a reading of 0 cm still leaves roughly a metre of water. In early August 2026 Kaub was reading around 16 to 17 cm, the lowest since records there began in 1880, with an actual navigable depth of about 1.3 m.

The reason it still matters is not that the river vanishes, it is that barges are draught limited. At these levels standard Rhine cargo barges can only load to roughly 20 to 30 percent of capacity, so moving the same coal, grain, chemicals or fuel takes three to four times as many trips. That is what raises freight costs and shows up in industrial supply chains.

Two caveats. The conversion constants depend on which reference year is used for the equivalent water level, so treat the 1.27 m style figures as approximate rather than exact. And every gauge along the river has its own zero point, so readings from different stations are not comparable with each other.

Why YSK: this number gets quoted every drought summer and it reads to most people as "the Rhine is 16 cm deep", which leads either to panic or to dismissing the whole story after seeing photos of ships still sailing. Knowing that the gauge is a reference reading against an old datum, and that the real constraint is how much cargo fits per trip, is the difference between understanding the story and misreading it in both directions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaub_gauging_station

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2026/08/12/881099.htm

Why YSK:

Airbags have been required in the US since the 1980s, with side airbags required by the 2000s. However many developing countries don't have these requirements or only recently implemented them.

Cars in developing countries may also have fewer airbags than the cars you're used to. For example, many basic cars may only have one or two airbags instead of the 6 that most modern cars have in the US. Even for the same model, automakers will include fewer safety features. This is in an effort to save cost and due to lower disposable income in developing countries.

Furthermore other features that are standard on cars sold in the US or Europe may not be found on a lot of cars elsewhere like ABS, ESC, a Backup camera, or collision avoidance technology.

In fact, in some countries, cars that were structurally designed in the 1990s are still being made and sold new, the Nissan Tsuru in Mexico for example.

Why YSK: In order to get to a cashew, the hard outer shell has to be removed, but that shell contains a substance called 'cashew nut shell liquid' or CNSL. This consists of phenolic compounds including anacardic acids, cardol and cardanol. In simple words: CNSL contains compounds that can irritate and sensitize human skin. This makes repeated exposure of CNSL to the skin very harmful.

Many workers work in unsafe conditions where they are not provided with gloves to protect their hands during the shelling process. This results in multiple, most commonly dermatological health effects like atopic dermatitis, contact urticaria and dry skin. In time, it often prevents them to be able to work and even do basic household tasks because their hands are always in pain.

How the hell can you know which cashews to purchase?

• Fairtrade-certified cashews are your best bet, label wise. This often means that workers who shelled them did so with sufficient protective equipment.
  

• Look for information about the origin on the website/packaging of the seller. If nothing is disclosed, chances are high that they 1) aren't processed in safe conditions for the workers, and 2) that the seller doesn't care.

  source 1 (video), source 2, source 3,

Why YSK: Today is National Check the Chip day in the US. It is a good reminder to check your pet’s microchip registration and confirm your contact information is accurate.

I work at a shelter and one of the most frustrating parts of the job is seeing pets that should have gone home but didn’t.

Most people assume that if their pet is microchipped, they’re good. A microchip only helps if the chip is actually registered. A lot of pets that come in are chipped, but the chip isn’t registered anywhere, so we have no way to contact the owner.

These are clearly well cared for pets that end up sitting in the shelter taking up space and resources from other animals who need help, all because we can’t reach the owner.

If you know where your pet is registered, log in and check that your phone number, email, and address on file are accurate.

If you have no idea where your pet is registered, search their microchip number through the AAHA microchip lookup tool which will tell you which registry they are with. Check the details that are on file with the registry are accurate.

If they aren’t registered, please register them! It takes a few minutes.