![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenak
prettygoodwordnetgirl_y2k![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
lifehacker_feedWe may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news.
Right now, the Arlo 2K Essential Indoor/Outdoor Camera (2nd Generation) is available in a three-pack at 59% off, bringing it down to $109.99 and marking its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. If you’re looking to boost your home security system and cover multiple vantage points, this is a strong option.
This security camera bundle features 2K video resolution, which is a step up from many cameras that only have 1080p resolution—like this indoor Arlo camera, which received an “Excellent” rating from PCMag. And unlike that model, this one can be used both indoors and outdoors. It’s weather-resistant and features a wireless design. Plus, it has a rechargeable battery. For low-light conditions, the camera has a built-in spotlight and color night vision. Its field of view is around 130°, and it can zoom in up to 12x, letting you identify minute details. (This zoom is likely digital rather than true optical zoom, so quality may degrade if you’re zooming in too closely.)
The spotlight doesn’t just illuminate the coverage area—it acts as a built-in deterrent (as does the integrated siren), upgrading this system from passive recording to actively dissuading intruders. Like most cameras, it features two-way audio that lets you listen and speak, but smart features like person and vehicle detection, which can cut down on false alarms, require a paid subscription, as does cloud storage. If you have a smart home ecosystem like Google Home or Alexa, this camera bundle can integrate seamlessly, allowing for features like automation and voice control.
That said, there are some limitations. This camera only works on 2.4 GHz wifi and may require frequent recharging if there’s excessive motion or the postlight is being activated often. Additionally, a subscription is required for many features, like smart detection, that come for free from brands like Blink or Wyze. Still, if you want a versatile, easy-to-install setup that can monitor your home’s exterior or interior and cover more than one area, the Arlo 2K Essential Indoor/Outdoor Camera Bundle (2nd Gen) offers solid bang for your buck.
lifehacker_feedDid you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source.
I usually focus on something a subset of the population gets wrong, so the rest of us can feel smart, but this week, I’m going bigger and broader, and describing something that you, me, and everyone we have ever met has been wrong about in the past, is currently wrong about, and will be wrong about in the future: mistaking correlation for causation.
People have been repeating some variation of "correlation is not causation" since at least 1739, when David Hume articulated the concept in A Treatise on Human Nature. To paraphrase Hume: Just because two things happen at the same time doesn’t mean one is causing the other. Every smart person already already knows this, and it's repeated constantly, but we all still get it wrong.
Here are some examples:
The last 20 years of research on "gut biomes" could be wrong, partly as a result of both scientists and the media mistaking correlation and causation. (I've always had a gut feeling—get it?—this research was suspect.)
For years people believed that drinking alcohol in moderation is good for your health. But it isn't. It's correlated with better health in some populations, but it doesn't cause better health.
Defenders of mistaken beliefs derived from the correlation/causation fallacy will often compile volumes of data that shows a nearly exact correlations between, say, higher rates of autism and higher rates of vaccination, which makes it totally understandable to believe one causes the other. But there's no evidence that vaccines cause autism, and the correlation is probably because children received vaccines around the age autism is generally diagnosed, and we've gotten better at both vaccinating children and diagnosing autism. But "probably" is doing some lifting in that sentence. While no causal link between vaccines and autism has ever been demonstrated, there could be any number of reasons the rates line up.
Classic debunking examples of correlation and causation, like the link between ice cream sales and shark attacks, tend to offer a pat explanation for the causal link—it only seems like ice cream causes shark attacks because both ice cream sales and swimming in the ocean rise when the weather is warmer—but even that is potentially mistaking correlation for causation. It makes sense, but we don’t actually know why those two numbers line up. And sometimes there just isn't any reason for connection between two pieces of disparate information.
Check out the chart below. It's proof that the ratings of Two and Half Men directly correlates with the amount of jet fuel used in Serbia.
Or check out the exact connection between people googling "my cat just scratched me" and U.S. fruit consumption.
I made the second example on Tyler Vigen's Spurious Correlations, with a tool that will lets you make random connections all day. Not only that, the site uses AI to generate bogus "research papers" to explain the connection.
In the case of the cats, ChatGPT offers this as a possible explanation:
"Health-conscious households (those that track diet, buy fruit, etc.) are more likely to treat even minor injuries cautiously. A person who eats more fruit is not more likely to be scratched, but they are more likely to Google 'my cat scratched me' to check for infection risks or treatment steps."
Even though I know it's bullshit, it still tracks. That's why we can never really stop being wrong in this specific way. Our brains want to believe. A neatly phrased explanation, a tidy chart, a plausible-sounding theory—it's so satisfying. A simple "we don't know" can't hold a candle to that certainty.
Mistaking correlation for causation makes us go on fad diets and believe we're being healthy by drinking wine at dinner. It shapes health advice, public policy, and personal decisions in ways that can actually hurt people. The best we can do is try to be aware of it—when we read a headline that says "X causes Y," to assume this is a "cat scratches cause fruit consumption" situation until there's evidence that it isn't.
drglamcakewrecks_feedYesterday we learned that writing names on cake can result in some pretty unfortunate nicknames.
But what if you already have an adorable nickname? Like "Briana Banana?" How do you wreck that up?
Well, in that case, I suppose the baker could always misspell it.
But that's kind of boring, right? So, let's see... what if - hypothetically - the baker misspelled "banana", but then also, instead of drawing a banana on the cake, she tossed a real, unpeeled banana on top?
No, wait - first she should shrink-wrap the banana and draw a smiley face on it with a Sharpie. Eh? And then tie a bunch of curly ribbon around the banana stem. Totally.
And then - THEN - just because all of that makes way too much sense, the baker could sprinkle something really ridiculous all around the shrink wrapped smiley-face banana with curly ribbon tied on its stem. Something like...I dunno...little tiny dog bones.
Yeah. That would be one AWESOME wreck. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
Right, April A.?
*****
And from my other blog, Epbot:
lifehacker_feedWe may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news.
The second-generation Arlo Video Doorbell is currently down to $59.99 on Amazon, a big drop from its usual $129.99 price and the lowest it’s ever been, according to price trackers.
PCMag named it the best video doorbell of 2024, which says a lot considering how crowded the smart doorbell space has become. This is a wireless doorbell with a built-in camera that gives you a sharp 2K head-to-toe view of your doorstep. You can either hardwire it into your existing doorbell wiring for trickle charging or just stick with the built-in battery, which lasts up to four months before you need to recharge with the included USB-C cable. The housing is weather-resistant, so it’s fine outdoors, and the design is simple: white casing, glossy black face, backlit button, and a speaker tucked underneath.
Day to day, it works a little differently than most. When someone presses the button, your phone actually rings like a call. Pick it up, and you’re instantly looking at whomever’s outside with options to talk back or play a quick pre-recorded message. The 180-degree lens is wide enough that you don’t just see floating heads but the full head-to-toe view, and motion detection makes sure it’s recording when someone shows up, even if they don’t press the button. Video looks sharp in the daytime, and while there’s no color night vision, the black-and-white feed still holds detail out to a decent distance, notes this PCMag review. Audio is clear enough for quick back-and-forth conversations, and there’s a built-in siren you can trigger from the app if you want to deter unwanted visitors.
While live video is free, you’ll need an Arlo Secure subscription to unlock recorded event storage and smart alerts. At $7.99 a month for one camera, you get 60 days of video history, object detection for people, packages, and vehicles, plus animated alerts that help you see what triggered the notification without opening the app. Compatibility is solid with Alexa, Google Home, SmartThings, and IFTTT, though Apple HomeKit is missing.
drglamlifehacker_feedI love finding new ways to use apps to make my life easier, but sometimes, I find that I'm using so much tech in my real life that I get a little bogged down. That's been true with my workouts and health for a while: I weigh myself in the morning on a smart scale, which distributes the data to a nutrition app, Apple Health, and Peloton. I go to the gym and use my Apple Watch's Workouts feature to track my cardio, then open up Strong to track my lifting. At home, I use Peloton to track my cycling workouts, stretching, yoga, and much more. It all gets to be a little much!
That's why I was pumped when I found an overlooked feature on my Peloton app recently: I can track my non-Peloton workouts with it, meaning I don't have to fiddle as much with some of my other apps. I can keep more of what I'm doing in one place, easy to reference, and streamlined.
When you open your Peloton app, you'll see a bottom menu with five options: Home, Classes, Track, Community, and You. Most of these are pretty obvious and I'm guessing that the majority of the time, you're hitting Classes to follow along with one of the thousands of guided workouts the app offers for up to $44 per month. But a few weeks ago, I decided to hit Track just to see what it was all about.
Tapping Track brings up a screen that says Track an activity. You have options and those will depend on what types of classes or workouts you use the app for most often. For me at this very moment, the app suggests Outdoor Walking, Cycling, and Strength, but you can hit More options to see a whole slate of choices that include running, yoga, cardio, meditation, and more. When you select one of these, they'll be filed as "Just" classes in your Peloton history, like Just Ride or Just Walk.
If that reminds you of the Apple Watch's built-in Workouts app, that's because it's basically the same thing. If you select one of those choices on Peloton, a screen pops up with a timer, start and pause buttons, a prompt to share your location "for accurate metrics," a calorie counter, and a heart rate tracker. Basically, the same stuff the Workouts app monitors, too.
This is most useful if you've paired a heart rate tracker or wearable to your Peloton app, which is something I think everyone should do, since that will help the app better estimate your calorie burn and heart rate.
First and foremost, I like to keep data in one place. I ride my Peloton bike frequently, for instance, but I also teach in-person spin classes, and I want to know how those two instances of cycling match up in terms of output, not only for my fitness goals, but for my continued success and employment as a teacher. Tracking my in-person classes with the Peloton app makes these two categories of cardio much easier to compare.
Plus, I get better data this way. I tracked a lift the other day using the Peloton app, trusting it to monitor my heart rate and effort. I got a detailed graphic showing my heart rate over the two-hour span of my workout, a "strive score" (a Peloton-specific metric that measures your output), and a breakdown of how long I spent in each heart rate zone. You get different kinds of data depending on what you do, too. If you do a Just Walk, for instance, you get a little map of your route and can even see what your pace and elevation were at every point along it. Moreover, the strength workout was automatically added to my Workouts and Apple Health data, helping me satisfy the (admittedly arbitrary) goals I set within those apps for daily active minutes and daily burned calories.
That leads to another reason I like this setup: I use apps not just because it's important to track what I'm doing and monitor my progress, but because they force me into some accountability. As I mentioned, I try to meet my pre-set Apple Health goals every day by "closing my rings," but I also am dedicated to continuing my Peloton "streak" of active days. Do these things really matter? No, but doing them motivates me—and the threat of failing to do them on a given day forces me to action when I might otherwise choose to remain sedentary.
spikedluvtamaranth
“Why won’t you let me remember?” I dared ask.
She blinked. “You deserve to be real in this world. It’s not an easy thing to be stuck between worlds.” But stuck I was, and ever have been. [loc. 286]
Ru George grows up in Calcutta [sic] in the 1990s. He's the child of immigrants, and lives with his grandmother and his parents. Ru's father is a failed fantasy author: his novel The Dragoner's Daughter (about dragonriders on a distant planet using their mounts to traverse multiple realities) sold only 52 copies. Ru's grandmother tells him fantastical stories about his grandfather having started life as a woman (Ru can see the truth of this in old photos). Ru's mother administers the Tea of Forgetting after meals, and before bedtime.
( Read more... )
savagelove_feedA man in a poly triad has a girlfriend. His girlfriend has a boyfriend, and they all live together, share a dog, and plan to have kids. The caller and the other guy will be at a wedding full of normies who don’t know the nature of their relationship. Should he just say they’re a … Read More »
The post Pretend Your Girlfriend is a Watermelon appeared first on Dan Savage.
savagelove_feedI hate to admit this, but I have a hard time feeling comfortable having sex or even talking to guys unless I’m drunk or high. I’m a trans man. I’m a sexual assault survivor. Admittedly, I’m also a bit insecure about myself. And while I’ve been in therapy for years, I don’t feel I’m making … Read More »
The post Making the Upgrade appeared first on Dan Savage.
guardian_wishlist_mod posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
guardian_wishlistguardian_wishlist_mod posting in guardian_wishlisttimeasmymeasure
