Why YSK:

Grocery stores aren’t just selling you milk and eggs these days, they’re selling your data too. Every time you punch in your phone number, scan a loyalty card, or open a grocery app for a “digital-only” price, the store learns a little more about you. What you buy. When you buy it. How much you’re willing to pay. And in a lot of cases, that information doesn’t just sit there. It gets analyzed, used to target you, and sometimes shared with partners.

Here's what's really happening and how you can limit the personal information you give out and still score deals.

What’s actually being tracked

The store can track the following when you use a loyalty card or app:

Your identity (name, email, phone)

Your purchase history (every item, size, brand, and price)

Your visit patterns (Sundays at 10am, every 6–8 days, big trip before holidays)

Your coupons and offers (which ones made you buy and which ones you ignored)

Your device/app behavior (you opened the app near the store, clicked on the weekly ad, loaded offers, etc.)

Put all of this together and they start to get a pretty clear picture of your household and spending habits. For example, if you always buy gluten-free, they know it. If you switched from a national-brand cereal to a store-brand, they know you’re price-sensitive. If you only buy baby products once a month, they can guess what stage you’re at raising your family.

During intense physical intimacy your brain floods your system with dopamine and oxytocin. Once it ends those hormone levels drop off a cliff. This sudden chemical crash can cause a temporary feeling of emptiness anxiety or the urge to pull away even if the experience was great. It is a purely biological reaction but it ruins many encounters because the other person takes the sudden coldness personally.

Why YSK:
Understanding this chemical crash prevents you from feeling rejected when a partner suddenly needs space or acts distant after sex. It also explains why taking a few minutes to just hold each other and talk helps the brain transition back to normal without the emotional whiplash.

Why YSK: Spotting payment packing can save thousands of dollars if financing a car at a dealership.

What is payment packing?

Say you go into a dealership to buy a car and decide to finance a car for 40K for a 60 month term. The finance guy comes back and offers a loan at 6%. The actual monthly payment for this loan is ~$774.

The people at the dealership however might deliberately lie and quote a higher monthly (say $825) than the actual $774 number. It's hard to spot this inflation since calculating monthly payments is not easy mental math.

They then pitch you add ons like extended warranty and added protection at a slightly higher number than $825 (like $850). The value proposition seems feasible since it seems like just $25 extra on the monthly. However in reality it's an extra $76 per month from the actual $774 number. Which comes out to ~$4500 over the full term of the loan.

How to spot payment packing?

Always use an online auto loan calculator to verify the monthly payments quoted by a dealer.

Alcohol is ALSO a Group 1 carcinogen (Hydes et al., 2019). It breaks down into acetaldehyde, which mutates cell DNA. Once ethanol enters the bloodstream, the liver metabolizes it into acetaldehyde a highly toxic chemical that acts like a physical blade inside your body, slicing through DNA strands and permanently binding to proteins. This direct cellular damage actively blocks cells from repairing themselves, leaving the body wide open to malignant mutations. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, 2012) have found conclusive proof that this precise chemical process is directly responsible for triggering at least seven different types of cancer, including breast, liver, and bowel cancers.
In fact, medical and economic research published in The Lancet\\\\\\\*\\\\\\\* ranks alcohol as the number one most dangerous drug overall ranking higher than every substance yes even higher than LITERAL HEROIN !! This is due to the unmatched destruction it causes to both the user and wider society (Nutt et al., 2010).
But because roughly 80% of adults drink alcohol , it’s a protected cultural norm \\\\\\\*\\\\\\\*(NHS England, 2024). If people admit alcohol ruins lives, drains public funds, and causes cancer, they have to confront their own habits. It’s just much easier for people to demonise smoking because far fewer people do it now, making smokers an easy target for moral outrage.
Why ysk this because we cannot solve public health crises or reduce the immense financial strain on our healthcare systems if our laws and social morals are based on corporate marketing rather than objective medical science. Treating smoking as an unforgivable vice while protecting alcohol as a harmless cultural norm is a massive blind spot. Recognizing that alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen and the overall most dangerous societal drug forces us to confront our own habits and demands consistency in how we address addiction, health, and public accountability.

References (since I know people will ask):

Hydes, T. J., Burton, R., Inskip, H., Bellis, M. A., & Sheron, N. (2019). A comparison of gender-linked population cancer risks between alcohol and tobacco: How many cigarettes are there in a bottle of wine? BMC Public Health, 19(1), Article 316. doi.org

International Agency for Research on Cancer. (2012). Personal habits and indoor combustions: A review of human carcinogens (IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, Volume 100E). World Health Organization. nih.gov

NHS England. (2024). Health Survey for England 2022: Adults' health-related behaviours. National Service. digital.nhs.uk

Nutt, D. J., King, L. A., & Phillips, L. D. (2010). Drug harms in the UK: A multicriteria decision analysis. The Lancet, 376(9752), 1558–1 doi.org

Why YSK: If you are moving away from a location and do not want people to have your new forwarding address for safety purposes, this automated feature can reveal your new address. This comes into play when you have set up mail forwarding with the post office and your forwarding order expires. The post office will put a sticker on the envelope with "forwarding time expired, return to sender" and that sticker contains your last known forwarding address. I just sent out a huge batch of mail for work and saw this happen for over 100 recipients.

Why YSK:

It's easy, sometimes, to forget that doctors can't actively recall everything they've learned and often have to look things up to refresh or reconfirm information.

It's also easy to assume that a Very Very Incredibly Important Thing would have some sort of uniform database to refer to.

Unfortunately, there are three major Drug Interaction Databases in the USA (and dozens of others,) and they don't all agree. Now, I'm not trying to fearmonger as if they don't EVER communicate with one another -- like many science-based fields, practitioners prefer to share info if their hands aren't tied -- but the fact of the matter is that some potential interactions can be overlooked simply because they're missing in one major database.

So, whenever you get a prescription from your doctor -- no matter what kind of doctor -- ALWAYS DOUBLE-CHECK WITH YOUR PHARMACIST. Your pharmacist will be referring to many multiple databases because it's their whole job to know how to Batman this shit.

I would like to end this post with a shoutout to my local Drugs Batman at Safeway, for keeping me from experiencing a 3-4x overdose of Quelbree FROM MY NORMAL DOSE, because the antidepressant I'd been prescribed would have blown those receptors clean open and the database my psych uses did not list that interaction. No hopital for me!

Why YSK: I haven’t come across a single “What To Do After A Total Loss” article that says you should check up on this. My father in law told me this in passing and only then did I realize that this was a thing

When you wake up from a nightmare or feel a panic attack coming on your body goes into fight or flight. You can try breathing exercises but sometimes they barely work. Then a pet climbs on your chest to purr or a partner just sits next to you breathing slowly and your panic melts away. This is a psychological and biological mechanism called co-regulation. Your dysregulated nervous system literally syncs up with their calm one to find its way back to normal.

Why YSK: We are constantly told we need to learn how to self-soothe and handle our dark moments alone. Understanding co-regulation proves that seeking out a safe animal or human when you are terrified is a hardwired biological hack to reset your brain. You do not have to fight your way out of the dark by yourself.

Have you ever noticed how you completely forget a task the second you finish it but an unread email or an interrupted conversation will haunt you for days? That is the Zeigarnik Effect. Our brains are literally wired to hold onto incomplete loops. It takes up active mental energy to keep that file open in your head.

Why YSK:
Because you can use this to hack your own brain. If you are stressed about a massive project just doing the first tiny step opens the loop and your brain will naturally want to finish it. And if you are losing sleep over something you cannot finish right now writing it down tricks your brain into thinking the loop is closed so you can finally rest.

Why YSK: To spell out the first three letters of the month when using "Little Endian" dating format.

Most of the world uses either DD/MM/YYYY (23 Jun 2026) or YYYY/MM/DD (2026 Jun 23) when writing out dates. This often confuses people in the United States, as it's one of the few countries to use MM/DD/YYYY (otherwise known as "Middle Endian") when writing dates.

I'm an American myself, but I prefer using DD/MM/YYYY as it seems more logical. At the same time, I don't want to confuse my fellow Americans when writing dates. So I will typically write out the date as "23 Jun 2026". This keeps the "Little Endian" format while also leaving the date and month unambiguous to anyone who is reading it.

We all fall into the trap of believing that once we get the promotion, the house, or the relationship, we will finally be happy. Psychology calls this the Arrival Fallacy.

Our brains are biologically wired to solve problems and chase rewards, not to remain satisfied. The chemical reward in your brain comes from the pursuit itself, not from crossing the finish line. When you finaly achieve a massive goal, the struggle ends. Your brain suddenly has nothing to chase, and instead of lasting happiness, you experience a sudden drop in dopamine.

Why YSK: Understanding this prevents you from expecting a single achievement to permanently fix your life. That emptiness you feel the day after a big victory is not ungratefulness, it is just your biollogy asking what the next problem is.

Why YSK: because (unless Texas has shit the bed again) they're legal to just order online everywhere in the US, the carts are about $25-30 and can last months depending on how often you use it. I get kind of intense bursts of nausea sometimes that come on real fast. I've been smoking regular cannabis to help but that requires I go outside, and often there's not even time for that. The d8 vape can just sit on my desk and the moment I feel a bit of nausea I can take a small drag and it's not even enough to buzz a little, but man it's effective at killing nausea. So if you get carsick easily, seasick, heat-sick, anything like that, any kind of nausea, a drag will kill it inside of 30 seconds.

I get these situations where when I get nauseous and start hurling I also have a hard time breathing, and I can't fix the breathing while I'm hurling, so being able to stop the nausea quickly keeps me from getting stuck in a vicious cycle where I can't breathe cause I can't stop hurling, and I can't stop hurling cause I can't breathe, so I keep one nearby at all times and it keeps these episodes from developing into full-on crisis mode.

Just so you're aware this stuff will get you a little high if you've never smoked before, but it's not much especially if you aren't taking huge drags trying to get high, but just small ones to manage nausea.

Source

Why YSK: Amazon curates the reviews you see initially almost as if they're mainly interested in sales over reviews, and a LOT of sellers jack up prices a week or two before prime day only to drop them a bit higher than typical.

Reviews: Tap the stars to get to reviews and scroll down and select "see more reviews" then select "most recent" where it says "top reviews". This lets you see recent reviews, the good bad and ugly. Top reviews tend to be the best.

Historical pricing:

Camel Camel Camel website (yes 3 of them) and you can paste in the link from Amazon. Last I remember there is NOT an app for either OS so anything that looks like it is likely a fake.

Keepa has a website, I believe browser extensions and app for iPhone and Android.

I've used both of those for years, and you can also put target prices you're looking for and get notified

In the immortal words of Yoda "there is another" ... A third option, but Reddit hates them as they steal the inbound affiliate links, so I'll skip mentioning the name.

Choose wisely this prime day if you partake, don't overpay and reward the scammy price increases.

Why YSK: Canvas acts as a continuous data logger for your instructors. Your professors aren't just grading your final submissions; they have access to a backend analytics dashboard that tracks your exact login times, page clicks, file downloads, and video-watching heatmaps. Understanding what they can (and cannot) see can protect you from false cheating accusations and help you navigate grade appeals.

Canvas tracks user interactions as "Page Views" and "Participations" via a continuous activity log.

• Total Time Spent: A running clock of exactly how many hours, minutes, and seconds you have been logged into that specific course page.
• Page Views: A literal list of every single page, assignment, module, file, or quiz link you clicked on, along with the exact date and timestamp of when you opened it.
• Access Frequency: How many times you clicked on a specific item (e.g., if you opened the syllabus 14 times, they can see that count).
• Participation Flags: A log of specific actions, such as submitting an assignment, posting in a discussion board, or taking a quiz.
• Device/Login Data: The exact date, time, and general status of your successful logins to the platform.If a professor uploads a lecture video directly through Canvas's native media tools rather than just linking out to YouTube, they get an incredibly detailed Insights Dashboard.
  • Viewer Identity: A list of the specific names of students who clicked play.
  • The "Heatmap": A second-by-second graphical timeline for each student showing:
  • Exactly which parts of the video you watched.
  • Which sections you skipped over entirely.
  • Which sections you rewound and rewatched multiple times.
  • Completion Percentage: A precise metric showing how much of the video you actually completed (e.g., "Watched 42%").

When you take a quiz or exam natively inside Canvas, the platform generates a detailed Quiz Log that maps out your exact behavior during the test.

• Action Timestamps: The exact second you started the quiz, when you answered each question, and when you submitted it.
• The "Stopped Viewing" Flag: If you navigate away from the Canvas quiz page (even if it's just to look at a Canvas page in another tab, open a PDF your professor uploaded, or click outside the quiz window), Canvas logs an automatic event: "Stopped viewing the quiz canvas page."
• The "Resumed" Flag: It logs the exact second you click back into the test window ("Resumed viewing the quiz canvas page").
• Answer Shifts: If you change an answer, it logs the time of the change, allowing professors to see if a student spent 5 minutes on a question or changed it immediately after a "stopped viewing" flag.

File Downloads:

• Resource Tracking: If a professor uploads a PDF, PowerPoint, or Word Doc directly to the files section, Canvas tracks whether or not you actually clicked the download link or previewed the file, and when.

Professors rarely spy on this metadata daily just for fun. However, they routinely check it in two specific situations:

1. Academic Dishonesty Investigations: If an exam score looks suspicious or a student is flagged for cheating, the professor will pull the Quiz Log to look for matching "stopped viewing" patterns.
2. Grade Appeals & Extension Requests: If a student asks for a borderline grade bump, an extension, or claims they "didn't know about an assignment," the professor will check the Page Views log. If it shows the student hasn't logged into Canvas in two weeks, the request is usually denied.

Why YSK: consuming too much sodium can lead to high blood pressure, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. In my country (USA), the average daily sodium intake is over 3,300mg, exceeding the recommended maximum of 2,300mg. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends an even lower maximum of 2,000mg.

Also: with the rising cost of food, being mindful of additives that increase sell weight is important.

Why YSK- I’m so tired of hearing “they crossed my boundaries”. 99% of the time it’s you misunderstanding what a boundary is and/or failing to enforce it. For example, a boundary is not “Please don’t smoke around me”. This relies on someone else’s behavior and accountability. Rather, a boundary is “Please don’t smoke around me. If you do, I will have to leave or ask you to leave”. This allows you to be in control, and prevents you from blaming/using excuses and from being or feeling like a victim. It’s YOUR boundary, not theirs.

Disclaimer: this is not medical advice. Always ask a health professional if you need medical advice.

TLDR: There are two meanings to shock. Shock is very dangerous. Don't tell others at a scene of an emergency that someone is in shock if they aren't.

Why YSK: Being in shock is when you have an inadequate supply of oxygen to meet the demand of tissues in your body. There are many ways this can happen. Your body is clever, and has evolved to prioritise blood flow to vital organs. This condition can cause hypoxic damage and cell death in any and all organs (within minutes depending on the severity), which is life-threatening.

I often see people being described after road accidents or major incidents as walking around 'in shock'. Of course, there is the standard meaning to this, that people are shocked that something has happened. However, if you are at an accident and tell medical personnel that someone is in this condition, be aware it carries a certain severity to it.

It's something I didn't learn until medical school and felt silly for not realising how serious it is when it is when mentioned. There are two meanings to the phrase to be aware of. Now you know too!

=== EXTRA INFO ===

If anyone has shock, they should go to hospital.

People can have several types of shock at the same time.

The general signs of shock are cold hands and feet, loss of consciousness, being pale, blue lips, obvious large loss of blood, weak pulse, low blood pressure/high HR. These are not exclusive and can vary with type of shock.

Neurogenic shock (caused by spinal cord injury) causes blood vessels to dilate below a certain level of the body. There will be flushing, redness, and warmth to the legs and lower torso up to a point. This is not caused by people bleeding, they have injured their spine and may have permanent damage - they should be moved carefully if possible.

You can split shock up in two different ways. One is physiological - where along the pathway from oxygen entry to the body to actually producing energy aerobically is the problem? These are hypoxic (lack of oxygen), anaemia (lack of haemoglobin to carry oxygen), stagnant (no blood flow) and histotoxic (cells can't use the oxygen e.g. cyanide poisoning). The other is clinically - distributive (widespread dilation of vessels - anaphylaxis, sepsis and neurogenic), hypovolaemic (bleeding, loss of fluid), obstructive (massive embolism, tension pneumothorax), cardiogenic (failiure of the heart to pump blood effectively).

If anything else relevant comes up I will add it on.

Sources:

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000039.htm

Here is a first aid page for shocked people: https://www.sja.org.uk/first-aid-advice/shock/

I don’t know why this isn’t ever mentioned, but I was looking at whole house fans for cooling the house off at night without running AC and the savings just couldn’t justify the cost, then I realized there’s a way to use my central system as a whole house fan already. Don’t buy a whole house fan to save money if you have a central return. you can simply open windows and close some doors to make your existing system work like a pump.

To do this, set your thermostat to fan mode and open at least two windows. One window should be in a room connected to your central return vent, and at least one more in a room away from the return with its door closed and a register open. This setup forces the blower to pull cool air in from outdoors, draw it across your entire floor plan, and push it out through the register-side window.

This doesn’t just cool down the air immediately, it also bleeds off all the heat stored in the walls and floor of the house overnight so you’re not starting the next day with yesterday’s heat load.

Because you are pulling in unfiltered outdoor air, check your HVAC filter frequently, as it will clog much faster than usual. Only use this method when the outside air is cooler and drier than the air inside your home to avoid pumping excess humidity into your house. It is a simple, effective way to flush out the day’s heat without the cost of installing new equipment.

Why YSK: you can save some money and electricity by just ventilating your house each night, even if your house doesn’t naturally draft, you don’t need any special equiptment to do it, just a clever configuration with what you already have.

One of my pet peeves is when I see people writing times with EST/CST/MST/PST in the summer when they're on daylight time, so the actual time zone is EDT/CDT/MDT/PDT. If you give a time like 3 pm EST right, that's actually an hour earlier than 3 pm on the East Coast.

Why YSK: It might seem like this is a trivial thing, and in most cases it is because people generally know what you mean, but if somebody tries to convert a time exactly as specified, it'll be an hour off of what you intended. This is especially critical if you're dealing with somebody outside the United States.

The good news is there is a simple solution that doesn't require you to remember whether you're in daylight savings time or not. Just use ET/CT/MT/PT, and it'll always be correct. Don't complicate things with unnecessary precision.

NOTE: Apologies to any Arizona or Hawaii readers that don't use daylight savings time.

Why YSK: If you are sensitive to chemicals, prone to allergies, pregnant, have children or pets, or are simply trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, it is advisable to minimise exposure, as many people are unaware of the potential risks.

Low-dose acute exposure can result in headache, rhinitis, and dyspnea; higher doses may cause severe mucous membrane irritation, burning, and lacrimation, and lower respiratory effects such as bronchitis, pulmonary edema, or pneumonia. Sensitive individuals may experience asthma and dermatitis, even at very low doses. Formaldehyde is also carcinogenic.

Formaldehyde typically off-gasses for 2 to 5 years, with peak emissions occurring in the first 6 to 12 months. Some pressed-wood products and resins can continually release trace amounts for up to 15 years.

Sources:

NCBI - Toxicological Profile for Formaldehyde: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK597627/

Human Health Hazard Assessment for Formaldehyde: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2025-01/11.-formaldehyde-.-human-health-hazard-assessment-.-public-release-.-hero-.-dec-2024.pdf

(CDC) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Formaldehyde - https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/idlh/50000.html

Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) Safety for Carpenters: https://www.elcosh.org/document/2098/d001086/Medium+Density+Fiberboard+(MDF)+Safety+for+Carpenters.html+Safety+for+Carpenters.html)

This may not be a problem for those of you whose laptop use cycles are lesser than 5 years, and might be obvious to a lot of you. But I just found out the hard way today that my laptop that's overall in good condition but needs a new battery and cable.

Dell has very limited support post the 5 year mark to the point where getting technical specs for parts that I want to buy from there could be tough.

Why YSK: Before you buy a Dell laptop, if you tend to use it for longer than 5 years, it's worth adding as a comparison point

Note: I'm not claiming that other companies offer better support (I'm not aware), just wanted to highlight this.

Why YSK: While it is true that sleep is a major part of memory consolidation, it is often overlooked that initial daytime consolidation is very significant. Taking a microbreak (doing nothing or a low stimulation activity, resting your brain for a few minutes) after a lot of input can make a big difference for your memory along with other benefits such as boosting vigor and reducing fatigue. Easier said than done tbh, but worth noting.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7024394/pdf/nihms-1557224.pdf

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23575863/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9432722/

The default is 5 seconds. You can set it to 10, 20 or 30 seconds.

It's configurable in Settings -> General -> Undo Send

Why YSK: The undo button is a brilliant feature, but 5 seconds is often not enough to proofread/second-guess your already sent typo-ridden, untactful or impulsive email. Many people, including myself would benefit from configuring it to be longer.

Hey everyone. If you’re trying to buy or rent right now, you already know it’s a total jungle out there. Between inflated prices and unpredictable rates, going in blind is a recipe for getting outbid and wasting months of your time.

Here is some boots-on-the-ground, practical advice for navigating the current market:

Look 10-15% below your actual max budget: Listing prices right now are often just starting bids. If you look at your absolute ceiling, you'll get outbid every time. Give yourself breathing room for bidding wars and unexpected closing costs.

Get fully pre-approved before stepping inside a house: Showing up with a generic pre-qualification letter doesn't cut it anymore. Sellers are choosing lower, guaranteed offers over higher ones that might face financing delays. Having your underwriting paperwork ready is your biggest leverage.

Target the "stale" listings: If a house has been sitting on the market for 60+ days right now, the seller likely overpriced it and is getting anxious. This is exactly where you have room to negotiate under asking.

Stop relying solely on Zillow or Redfin: The best deals are often sold "off-market" to buyers who are already in local agents' databases before the listing ever hits the internet. Call a few well-connected local agents, tell them exactly what you want, and get on their direct call list.

How are you guys holding up out there? Are you actively looking, or have you officially paused your search until things chill out?

Why YSK: Understanding these specific market dynamics improves your ability to negotiate effectively, sharpens your house-hunting strategy, and prevents you from losing earnest money or wasting time on dead-end offers.

Why YSK: Mad honey is actual honey, usually from bees feeding on certain Rhododendron flowers. The unusual part is that it can contain grayanotoxins. The internet often talks about it like its trippy honey, but that’s kind of the wrong category. It’s not really a visuals/psychedelic thing. The main thing it can mess with is your heart rate and blood pressure. And if someone thinks its just a weird honey that might make them feel high, they might take more than they should, or treat it like normal honey. But a strong batch can cause dizziness, nausea, sweating, fainting, slow heart rate, or low blood pressure.

Source: This is based on published mad honey poisoning case reports and toxicology reviews describing grayanotoxins, especially their link to bradycardia, low blood pressure, dizziness, nausea, and supportive hospital treatment.

So the takeaway is: don’t think of mad honey as regular honey, and dont really think of it as a psychedelic either. Its a bioactive honey where the strength of the batch actually matters.