Lead in Stanley cups, solar eclipse stress, and Costco says get out: Lifestyle news roundup

Law enforcement in Kansas recorded the front of a man’s home for 68 days straight, 15 hours a day, and obtained evidence to prove him guilty on 16 charges. The officers did not have a search warrant, using a camera on a pole positioned across the street to capture Bruce Hay’s home. A federal court ruled that it was fine for law enforcement to do so, in what’s potentially a major reduction in privacy law.

Read More

A CT scan of Stanley’s viral Quencher cup has confirmed what the company has been saying all along: There’s only lead at the bottom of the cup. The lead is covered by a stainless steel cover, which Stanley says makes it “inaccessible to customers.” In the end, though, lead exposure might come down to a matter of luck.

Read More

Pondering the scale of the cosmos can feel as if you’re peering over the edge of the brink. It can be daunting enough to make you want to flee to the comforts of working, commuting, and other quotidian endeavors. But in Waves in an Impossible Sea: How Everyday Life Emerges From the Cosmic Ocean, theoretical physicist and science communicator Matt Strassler doesn’t flinch in the face of the universe.

Read More

I’m suffering from an acute case of solar eclipse anxiety; maybe you can relate. The promise of this historic celestial spectacle, an event I’ve been looking forward to for years, has begun to fill me with dread. Let me explain.  

Read More

The Kate Middleton saga has been a boon for tabloids and cat nip for internet conspiracy theorists. Since Middleton had abdominal surgery in January and then failed to show up at a number of annual and/or scheduled events, the internet has been flooded with theories about what might have happened to her. Then came the doctored photos, making things even worse. Despite myriad claims from the royal palace that Kate is alive and well, public speculation persists.

Read More

What does it mean to “poke” someone on Facebook? Is it flirty, friendly, or even annoying? The answer is all of the above, and somehow, none at all. The ambiguous feature was largely invisible for many years, but now Facebook is reporting a 13x spike in poking in the last month.

Read More

Couples may be in love, but they’re holding off on getting engaged. Diamond retailer Signet Jewelers’ stock fell by more than 11%, putting it on track to reach its lowest level since September 2022. That’s after the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report, when it warned of a grim outlook for its 2025 fiscal year.

Read More

The phrase “members only” is not taken lightly at Costco. In recent years, the wholesaler has made multiple efforts to ice out freeloaders who try to mooch off friends’ memberships. Now, Costco is turning its sights on keeping non-members out of its beloved food courts, allowing only those who pay an annual membership fee to enjoy the classic $1.50 hot dog combo.

Read More

Our brains are in rougher shape than we might think. New research from the World Health Organization and others estimates that nearly half of people globally are living with neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, or epilepsy, just to name a few. Collectively, these neurological problems are now thought to be the single largest leading cause of disability and illness worldwide.

Read More

A customer is using TikTok to force Shein and FedEx to explain how they allowed a glass vial of human blood and a can of Goya beans to be inserted into her online order.

Read More