Teas made from the tea plant come in four basic varieties: black, oolong, green, and white. They differ in flavor and color depending on how the leaves of the plant are picked, rolled, crushed, and exposed to air before drying. For example, black teas are exposed to the air for an extended period before being…
Editors of the environmental chemistry journal Chemosphere have posted an eye-catching correction to a study reporting toxic flame retardants from electronics wind up in some household products made of black plastic, including kitchen utensils. The study sparked a flurry of media reports a few weeks ago that urgently implored people to ditch their kitchen spatulas…
Among CR members surveyed, the most commonly reported washer problems were tangled or balled-up clothes (9 percent), excessive vibration over time (5 percent), odor (5 percent), nonspinning drums (5 percent), water drain failure (5 percent), and becoming noisier over time (4 percent). Mold, mildew, and odor complaints were much more common among owners of many brands…
To make the cut to be considered among the best new cars for teens, vehicles must have: • A Consumer Reports recommendation, meaning that it meets our stringent standards for reliability, safety, and road-test performance. • Good ratings in IIHS crashworthiness tests: Driver- and passenger-side small overlap front tests, updated side test, and either a…
The YubiKey 5, the most widely used hardware token for two-factor authentication based on the FIDO standard, contains a cryptographic flaw that makes the finger-sized device vulnerable to cloning when an attacker gains temporary physical access to it, researchers said Tuesday. The cryptographic flaw, known as a side channel, resides in a small microcontroller used…
I wish there were more options here. For example, it would be great if the end of one album could result in the start of a similar album, or if I could turn the feature off for albums and on for playlists. Still, it’s nice to have the choice, and I choose to keep this…
I was surprised to learn that canned cocktails aren’t a new invention but have existed since the early 20th century. They’re descended from bottled cocktails, which saloons sold in the 1860s and perhaps earlier, according to David Wondrich, a cocktail historian and author of “Imbibe!”, which won a James Beard Award. By the 1890s, ready-to-drink…
There’s a caveat: You’ll have to roll up your sleeves and play amateur chemist by diluting the cleaner with the exact amount of water needed for your particular cleaning job. For most of these cleaners, you’ll either need a set of reusable spray bottles and a few labels to keep everything organized or a large…
THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Dry conditions across Southern California in early January 2025 set the stage for a series of deadly wind-driven wildfires that burned thousands of homes and other structures in the Los Angeles area. Ming Pan, a hydrologist at the University of California-San Diego’s Center…
The Biden administration is updating the US government’s blueprint for protecting the country’s most important infrastructure from hackers, terrorists, and natural disasters. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden will sign a national security memorandum overhauling a 2013 directive that lays out how agencies work together, with private companies, and with state and local governments to improve…