Easy Ways to Help Avoid Wi-Fi Drops

Wi-Fi drops, especially in the middle of something important, are incredibly frustrating. Simply rebooting your router can fix tons of connection issues. Rebooting resets your router's memory, clears out any temporary glitches, and reloads its firmware and settings. It also releases any unresponsive connections and expired IP addresses that your router's DHCP server might be tracking. You don't have to set a reminder to do this manually, either. Most routers have a scheduled restart setting that automatically restarts the router at a time you specify. I recommend setting your router to reboot late at night when you won't be using the internet. This way, any temporary downtime for your smart home devices won't affect you. For instructions on how to do this for your router, type "auto schedule reboot [router model]" without the quotes into Google. Doing the setting takes about 2 minutes. Some other helpful tips in preventing Wi-Fi drops can be found in this MUO article.

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Things Not to Cook in Cast Iron

Next to our air fryer, our cast iron pan is our favorite thing for cooking. But, while cast iron is tough, some acidic foods will damage it by stripping away the cast iron's surface and even leave an unpleasant metallic smell in your meal. As explained in this cnet article, here are the top offenders which should never be cooked in cast iron: tomatoes; vinegar; citrus; and wine-based sauces. Speaking of wine-based sauces, I almost always cook with wine, and sometimes I add it to the food.

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New Lenses for Your Existing Glasses

Say your prescription changes or you want to change from clear to sunglasses but want to keep your existing frames. If I understand how Overnight Glasses works (and I can't be sure or vouch for them), they will make custom lenses to fit your existing frames. And the prices look great.

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A Plaintiff, a Plaintiff, My Kingdom for a Plaintiff

The stupidity of the Supreme Court's decision, letting the hideous ballroom construction continue, where even Chief Justice Roberts said the project was illegal, and where the Court made no determination on anything, defies credulity. Talk about holding two head-scratching, conflicting thoughts at the same time: The Court had no difficulty saying the plaintiff "might not" have standing because it could not find injury to any plaintiff while at the same time the Court had no difficulty finding irreparable harm to the White House if the project were delayed until the legality of the project could be ruled on. But here's what I really don't get: What makes the project illegal is that it lacks the necessary congressional approval. So, if that's the case, why doesn't any member of Congress (including any single Dem) have standing to bring suit to stop the project.

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A Term Joey Martella's Father Didn't Know and Didn't Teach Us

The term walk-off home run has been around for a while, and other offensive walk-of terms have been added. With two outs in the bottom of the Ninth, and Baltimore leading 2-1, one man on base and the batter facing a 3-and-2 count, this is what a walk-off grab looks like.

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Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Laptop

When my last computer unexpectedly died, I bought a 14" Samsung Galaxy Book 5 because it was the only laptop at Costco or BestBuy that had the specs and a price that were acceptable, and where I could walk into the store and get it immediately. I have come to really like it. The Samsung Galaxy Book 6 just came out and, if I were looking today for a new laptop, it certainly would be one of my finalists. The only complaint I have is that it used to boot up in 18 seconds or fewer ever time, and now sometimes it takes 27 seconds and it's driving me nuts trying to find out why.

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S&P 500 Momentum Index

Momentum trading is based on a rather simple observation: Investments that go up tend to keep outperforming; those that underperform often remain laggards. This kind of trading might seem too simple a stock-picking strategy to work. Yet it often has. Returns can be amplified when investors don't just go long on outperformers, but also short underperformers. The S&P 500 Momentum Index soared 44% in the second quarter, its best quarterly performance on record, and it surged 133% over the past five years, nearly double the broad market’s performance. Alas, as any believer in regression to the mean would have predicted, as this WSJ article reports, suddenly, the trade is a loser. The momentum index has tumbled more than 9% since July 1, lagging behind the S&P 500’s 2.8% gain. The index—which tracks stocks in the S&P 500 based on a “momentum score”—is on track for the biggest quarterly underperformance in 25 years. July was the second worst month for the momentum trade in around 40 years--the only month worse was April 2009, in the teeth of the global financial crisis.

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Cancel for Any Reason Trip Insurance

I cannot vouch for this, but Travel Insured International looks to have a straight-forward way to buy as an add-on 75% of the trip cost where there is interruption for any reason or you choose to cancel for any reason. 

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Microplastics in 3 Things Often Not Thought About

Here are three things that are most likely leaking microplastics into your food:

Tea bags: It may come as a surprise, but microplastics could be hiding in your tea bags. When you brew tea, the bag is exposed to extremely high temperatures that can release its microplastics. This comes from polypropylene, a key component in the manufacturing of tea bags. Researchers at Spain’s Autonomous University of Barcelona found that billions of microplastic and nanoplastic particles are released from a single tea bag for every millimeter of water it is submerged in. Research has shown that a single plastic tea bag can release billions of microplastic fragments.

Certain spices: Depending on how it is packaged, that bottle of paprika may contain microplastics. Many spices today are packaged in plastic, which is concerning because a recent study found microplastics in all plastic containers tested. This can result in food contamination, which has increased in recent decades.

Plastic straws: Plastic straws are especially concerning because studies show that they release microplastics and nanoplastics, which can then be directly inhaled. Unfortunately, plastic straws are extremely prevalent, with about 8 million metric tons of plastic found in waterways each year. Once these straws and other plastics enter the water, they can affect not only the water but also the soil and animals found in or on it.

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Two Simple Windows Changes to Make It Look and Run a Little Better

If you have Windows Transparency or Animations effects turned on, they are doing nothing to make your Windows experience better. Turning them off is simple, and you likely won't notice anything except except perhaps your computer running a little better and faster. Go to Settings/Personalization/Color and toggle off Transparency, and then  go to Settings/Personalization/Accessibility/Visual Effects and toggle off Animation effects.

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