By Emily Amburn | Webmaster, Staff writer
A term once used for a computer programmer’s shortcuts ad tricks, “Life Hacks,” has been coined to represent brilliant, clever, and sometimes ridiculous solutions to everyday dilemmas in our lives.
“Life Hacks are rad, some of them are seriously life-changing”, said Raisa Ahmed, a Biotech senior.
It is quite hard to describe what a life hack actually looks like, but since they are all over the internet lately, you are sure to have seen one.
Take these 15 examples below. Have you ever been pressed for time and your phone battery was low? Switch it to airplane mode! Have you been in a situation where you ate ice cream too fast and now are stuck with an incredibly painful brain freeze and don’t know how to cure it? Your very own tongue is the answer! Life Hacks range from fairly simple ideas to downright brilliant ones. Hopefully the knowledge gained from them will help make your life a bit easier:
1. If you put your phone in airplane mode, it will charge twice as fast. Also use airplane mode when playing games with ads; they will not appear in this mode.
2. Cure a brain freeze by pressing your tongue firmly against the roof of your mouth. The pressure will make it vanish instantly.
3. When filling up your car with gas, hold the trigger half way. You will get more gas and less air in the tank.
4. If you ever have to park in a city at night, park in front of a bank. Why you might ask? They are lit up and have cameras everywhere. It’s safer for you, and your things.
5. Glue a rock to the top of an empty pill bottle, and bury the bottle so that only the rock shows. Inside you can hide money, keys, etc.
6. Oh no! You accidently put permanent marker where it should not be. What do you do? If you got it on clothes, then use hand sanitizer; if you got it on walls, use toothpaste or hairspray; if you got it on wood, use rubbing alcohol; if you got it on carpet, use white vinegar; and if you got it on dry erase board, use dry erase markers. Nothing is ever really permanent.
7. You can shrink a pimple in minutes by putting a dab of Listerine on it. The alcohol will dry it up and cause it to fade.
8. If you happened to get burned, apply toothpaste. It soothes the pain and stops the burning.
9. Exhale on alternate feet while running to avoid cramps. This prevents adding extra stress to one side of the body.
10. If your throat itches scratch your ear. Doing so stimulates the nerves in your ear that also reflect in the throat. This causes a muscle spasm that kills the itchy feeling.
11. Googling a computer problem? Add “solved” to the search query to find the answer much faster.
12. If you accidentally close a tab, ctrl+shift+t reopens it.
13. Stop using Google.com to search information for school essays, use scholar.google.com instead. You will find more relevant information right away.
14. If you download a “PDF” file and you see that it ends in “.exe” delete it. It’s a virus.
15. If you bought something on Amazon and the price goes down within 30 days, you can email them and they will send you the difference!