It always sucks to get a gift that requires batteries and not have any on hand. So, if you're looking to give the best for those gifts that require batteries this year, Consumer Reports did a bunch of tests to figure out which worked best for different electronics.
    
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Dear Lifehacker,
I don't know much about cholesterol, other than it's in foods and I don't want high levels of it in my body. But what is it, exactly? What does it do and why do I need to care about it?
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After you learn this trick, you'll never need to peel an orange again and get your hands all messy.
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Put simply, there are too many Android phones out there. The only way to know which ones are worth your time is to follow tech news every day. For those that have other things to do, here's what matters when buying a new device.
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If you need to share encrypted files regularly, we've shown you some of the best tools for the job before. However, if you just need a one-off, Securesha.re can make encrypted file transfer dead simple.
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Let's face it. We all wear clothes. We all have to store those clothes and even clean them eventually. We'd like to see any clever tips you've come up with in the process.
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Ever go to the post office only to find a line out the door that makes the DMV seem inviting? Plan your visit strategically: Real Simple says the best time to go is about a half hour after it opens.
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Many of us fantasize about buying a house, getting married, having a baby, then retiring at 65—specifically in that order. In fact, according to recent research, these are the things we define as the American Dream in 2013. But the one thing that all four of these goals have in common is that they're expensive. So, if you have a major life event you're saving up for, how do you get your finances in order to achieve it?
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Created as a post-war offshoot of a Swedish aircraft manufacturer, Saab crashed to the ground in recent years, with the bankrupt luxury vehicle brand being kicked around between various new owners before finally landing at the feet of investors from China and Japan. Now the once-great car brand is back in production, but don’t hold your breath waiting to see new Saab vehicles in your neighbors’ driveways in the near future.
Saab’s new ownership, National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB, announced yesterday that it had begun production on the Saab 9-3 Aero Sedan at the company’s plant in Trollhättan, Sweden.
But rather than focus on re-breaking the American market, the car will be sold online and primarily in Sweden and China, which NEVS has designated as its target audience.
(Tangent: Kurt Vonnegut opened the first Saab dealership in the U.S. in 1957. He was only able to keep it open for about a year, which was ultimately a good thing for 20th Century literature.)
NEVS is being cautious about churning out too many cars, only manufacturing about 10 per week to start and then ramping up if customer demand is there. The company may also be limited by its remaining stockpile of GM-supplied 2-liter engines that remain from when the American car biggie sold Saab to specialty car maker Spyker in 2010.
The new 9-3 will go on sale online next week, selling for about $42,000.
Though the NEVS name would imply that this Saab is an electric vehicle, the first 9-3s to be produced will be gas-powered, with an EV version set to come in the new year. The company will market that car heavily in China.
“Our aim is to be a front runner in the automotive industry, with focus on electric vehicles, where China is our initial main market,” writes NEVS in a statement. “The pace of change towards cars powered by fossil free fuels will increase and China currently has the most ambitious efforts for electrification of the vehicle fleet.”
Most of the headlines we come across and pass along to you fine folk that involve energy drinks are usually not of the good kind. And here comes another media blast warning us that energy drinks are perhaps not something you want to ingest: A new study from a team of cardiac radiologists says when you guzzle an energy drink, it prompts your heart to contract a lot faster than it was before you tipped your head back.
In a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration this year, the cardiac experts noted that in your run-of-the-mill energy drink there’s up to three times as much caffeine as coffee or soda. Drinking that much caffeine can cause rapid heart rate, palpitations, a spike in blood pressure and even seizures or death, one of the researchers said in a statement.
He and his colleagues looked at the hearts of 18 people with an MRI scanner and then had the participants drink a beverage with high amounts of caffeine and taurine and then had their hearts scanned again, reports the Los Angeles Times.
An hour after glugging the drink, researchers found that radiologic measurements of heart strain were significantly higher than at baseline. They focused on the heart’s left ventricle, which pumps oxygenated blood from the lungs to the aorta and then throughout the body. There was a big change in the strain rates there, meaning that the heart was contracting faster.
“We don’t know exactly how or if this greater contractility of the heart impacts daily activities or athletic performance,” said one of the researchers, noting that the study is still ongoing. “We need additional studies to understand this mechanism and to determine how long the effect of the energy drink lasts.”
Monster Beverage Corp. issued a statement responding to the study, calling it “alarmist and misleading.” It said the paper definitely banged the nail on the head by noting that taurine “helps the heart function more efficiently by improving the pumping force of the heart without any changes in blood pressure or heart rate.” But instead of being a bad thing, that result is “is widely considered to be beneficial.”
Energy drinks speed heart contractions, MRIs show [L.A. Times]
The winners? Big brand names. Among lithium batteries, Energizer took the top prize. Alkaline batteries are much cheaper, but don’t last as long. The best performance came from a Duracell battery, and the best buy for your money a 48-pack of Kirkland brand batteries at Costco. This presumes that you use a lot of batteries, but between digital cameras and every other gadget in your home, 48 batteries may not last that long.
Which battery is right for you? It depends on what kind of device you want to power. For a relatively low-power device like a flashlight or a toothbrush, the best choice is probably an alkaline battery. If you’re shopping for batteries for a power-slorping device like a digital camera or a handheld gaming device, lithium batteries might be a better choice.
AA batteries that shine [Consumer Reports]
And you thought you only had to worry about bananas infested with deadly spiders. Ha! Silly you, because now bunches of grapes are the new cool hangout spot for venomous critters, specifically Black Widow spiders. It’s the latest in extreme eating.
The Modern Farmer says there’s been a rash of Black Widow-in-grapes situations recently, with the little critters ambushing consumers from within the grapey embrace of the bunch.
So why is this now the thing for venomous creepers? It could be because farmers are trying to go green and wean themselves off pesticides. Spiders are natural bugeaters, so many farmers are trying to use them instead of chemicals to keep their crops safe. But once you put a spider on a plant, it’s not so easy to convince it to leave its home.
After three such surprise incidents back in 2002, a Tesco Supermarkets spokesman admitted it was probably due to this practice, saying: ”We do use natural predators on grapes in the vineyards because they prevent insects from puncturing the grapes. The spiders are very effective. All I can do is apologize for any distress this may have caused.”
But black widows aren’t the most helpful at patrolling produce because they like to eat cockroaches, crickets and other walking bugs, as one study points out, so perhaps it’s time to switch spiders.
Because the best way to get black widows out of grapes is to use pesticides, which would defeat the purpose of using spiders as natural pest controllers, it seems the best you can do now is just be careful.
Be your own spider inspector: Look closely at that bunch of grapes, especially right in the middle where the black widows like to burrow in and blend with darker grapes. While a black widow bite won’t kill you on the spot, it will send you to the hospital for a few days and make you wish you never bought those grapes in the first place.
Careful out there, folks. Don’t let spiders scare you from your snack of choice.
Venomous Spiders Are Hiding in Our Grapes [Modern Farmer]
Granted, these methods will be familiar to veteran deal-hunters, but the majority of shoppers don’t know about them. The blog where we heard about them, The Greenbacks Gal, even calls them “secret.” We wouldn’t go that far, but they are pretty great.
It’s those last few words that take you where you want to go: if you know of a lower price, let Amazon know and try to get them to match it.
Find cart filler items. If you aren’t quite at the $35 threshold for Super Saver Shipping, go hunting for an item you might need that can get your total just above $35. There are a lot of sites that can provide this service for you – Filler Item Finder is just one example.
Retailers with a huge coupon list the exclusions to that coupon when manufacturer deals or other factors keep them from lowering the price too far on a given item. We understand that. What we understand slightly less is why Dick’s Sporting Goods bothers to publish their exclusions at all.
See, the list of things that the coupon actually covers would be much shorter. If you don’t believe us, go check out the list of exclusions on the Dick’s site.
This is the drone Amazon showed off last night, but we think there are better ideas.
1. Amazon HotAirPrime
Why use new-fangled octo-copters that can only carry a few pounds at a time when you can go retro and pack significantly more in the basket of a hot air balloon? Sure, you’re not going to get into the nooks and crannies of densely populated urban settings, but who said the balloon needs to land? Surely, Amazon could rig up a dropping mechanism that allows the package to fall safely to the ground at 9.8 meters per second per second. Think of the fun games the neighborhood kids could play trying to catch their Christmas gifts before they hit the ground!
Think of how many people would come out every day just to see the Amazon balloons fill up with parcels… and hot air, of course (photo: Don)
2. Amazon PrimeCannon
30-minute delivery? Ha! If you live within the PrimeCannon’s firing range, you’ll have your package in a matter of seconds. And for those times when a customer’s signature is required on delivery, Amazon can just pack the cannon with one of its daredevil employees who will come screaming to your doorstep with a smile on his/her face.
It’s not just delivery, it’s a daredevil show! (photo: Christine Jackowski)
3. Amazon PrimeParatrooper
It’s the holiday season and UPS/FedEx/USPS trucks are currently snaking around city streets, burdened with Amazon packages. We recommend cutting out the middle man and just loading up those packages on a plane and putting them into the hands of skilled paratroopers, who will descend from the heavens and bring them right to customers’ homes and offices. Then these brave men and women can catch rides back to the depot on the reasonably empty UPS/FedEx/USPS trucks.
With tandem dives, you can deliver twice as many packages! (photo: Monkey Nacho)
4. Amazon PrimeVacations
Have you ever tracked an Amazon package coming from some other part of the country and thought, “Hey, I’ve always wanted to see that place”? Well, for a slight, few hundred dollar upcharge in your shipping fee, Amazon could fly you to the warehouse, where you’ll enjoy an all-inclusive vacation package, pick up your order, and deliver it yourself!
You’ll never have to worry about trusting the delivery driver, when YOU are doing the delivery! (photo: MyToenailCameOff)
5. Amazon PrimeSanta
Since Amazon is always looking to expand its network of distribution centers, may we suggest placing one directly on the North Pole? Not only does it put the company in a decent position to deliver packages to customers all over the Northern Hemisphere, the area is also fully stocked with magical flying reindeer who have been known to circumnavigate the globe in a single day. There is also a manufacturing center there, though they only seem to specialize in rag dolls, wooden trains, rocking horses and other stuff that was never particularly cool. So maybe Amazon can get them to pump out the next generation of Kindles — the Kris Kindle! (Sorry… it seemed funny when I thought of it.)
It’ll be Christmas all year round when Amazon takes over the North Pole operations from Saint Nick. (Photo: Jaime Chapoy)
Police say a woman was dressed almost entirely in pink when she robbed a bank in Landover on Monday night. 
"I just needed my spirits lifted and everyone at the Chart House did it," she said. "It was hard for me to leave. They made me feel like a member of the family."
