Tausi Insider

A worker in protective clothing keeps watch near metal barriers set up around shuttered shop houses that were locked down as part of COVID-19 controls in Beijing, on Nov. 10. Andy Wong/The Associated Press China on Friday eased some of its strict COVID rules, including shortening quarantines by two days for close contacts of infected people and for inbound travellers, and removing a penalty for airlines for bringing in too many cases. The loosening of curbs, a day after President Xi Jinping led his new Politburo Standing Committee in a meeting on COVID, cheered markets even as many experts warned that the measures were incremental and reopening probably remained a long way off. Under the new rules, centralized quarantine times for close contacts and travellers from abroad were shortened from seven to five days. The requirement for three further days in home isolation after centralized quarantine remains. China will also stop trying to identify “secondary” contacts – a major annoyance...

Photo : Jelena Stanojkovic ( Shutterstock ) Some people are pristine packers who dutifully Ziplock their toiletries, fold outfits together, and arrive at their destination with everything they need organized conveniently. Others are more haphazard, to say the least. If you’re in that second category, you’re surely familiar with the experience of getting somewhere, opening your bag, and finding that your clothes are covered in conditioner, moisturizer , or god-knows-what-else, thanks to the jostling of your bag and air pressure changes on the airplane. You don’t have to completely overhaul your personality to find the kind of security pristine packers have. All you need to avoid a big mess on your next vacation is a common household item: p lastic wrap. Plastic wrap your toiletries When packing your travel-sized bottles for a trip, grab some plastic wrap from the kitchen, Life Savvy suggests . Cut a small piece of cling wrap, unscrew the top of your bottle, wrap the plastic sheet a...

Photo : Gorodenkoff ( Shutterstock ) Home security cameras were once rare comforts for people with considerable means , but these days, many of us can have them . T here’s a difference, though, between owning something useful and really utilizing something useful —and if you’re not pointing those cameras toward the right spots, you’re not getting the best security bang for your buck. Here’s where you should (and shouldn’t) put security cameras in and around your home. Do point one at your front door If you live in a home you own, put a camera outside and point it at your front door. Burglars aren’t always as stealthy as crime dramas make them seem; in fact, 34% of them go through the front door, not a window or side entrance, according to the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors . A front door view also helps you out in the event of package theft. If you live in an apartment or rent from someone, chat with your landlord about the security camera placement aro...

Photo : Vadim Sadovski ( Shutterstock ) The European Space Agency has a challenge for you: Spot asteroid 2015 RN35. They’re calling it the “Christmas Asteroid,” and it’s in view of much of the earth from December 15 through December 19, if you have a telescope and know where to look. The space rock is roughly the size of the Pyramid of Giza, and at 3:12 a.m. ET tonight it will be at its closest point to earth, speeding by only 430,000 or so miles from us ( about twice the distance to our moon) . This is as close as the object will get to the planet for the next decade. How to see the Christmas Asteroid Unlike the Star of Bethlehem that announced the birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Christmas Asteroid will not light up the sky. Even though it will fly close to us in asteroid terms, you’ll need a telescope of at least 11 inches to see it. To help you spot it (and other near- earth objects) , the European Space Agency’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC) h...

Photo : VGstockstudio ( Shutterstock ) The past year saw a number of cleaning trends, hacks, and tips come from a cross TikTok, Facebook, Reddit, and, of course, us . Some were wack, but others turned out to be great. Here are ten of our favorites, for the next time you need to do a massive clean-up. https://www.tausiinsider.com/our-10-favorite-cleaning-hacks-of-2022/?feed_id=327210&_unique_id=6412a709a2e0d

Photo : Andrey_Popov ( Shutterstock ) This year, we went over how you can actually make kitchen fires worse by not responding to them correctly. The thing is, though, that a lot of the tips were counterintuitive: When a fire breaks out in the microwave or oven, you want to open the machine to start doing battle, but you shouldn’t. When a grease fire pops up, you want to douse it with water, but you shouldn ’t. Doing those things can spread the fire, which is bad news. Keep your doors shut, suffocate grease fires, and study up how to tackle every kind of kitchen fire before it happens. https://www.tausiinsider.com/10-of-tausiinsiders-favorite-home-safety-tips-of-2022/?feed_id=327040&_unique_id=6410c4985f4be

Photo : rafapress ( Shutterstock ) Back in July, T-Mobile agreed to pay out $350 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by a number of the company’s customers over a 2021 data breach . At this point, it’s still possible to claim a piece of the payout, but time is running out. Here’s what to know. Why was a class-action lawsuit filed against T-Mobile? In an August 2021 statement , T-Mobile confirmed that there had been a “highly sophisticated cyberattack” against the company’s systems, which had compromised data files with personal information from roughly 7.8 million current customers, as well as 40 million former or prospective customers. This information included first and last names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license/ID information. In May 2022 , a group of T-Mobile customers affected by the data breach filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, in which the plaintiffs allege that the number of current, former, and prospective cust...

Photo : Vadim Sadovski ( Shutterstock ) The European Space Agency has a challenge for you: Spot asteroid 2015 RN35. They’re calling it the “Christmas Asteroid,” and it’s in view of much of the earth from December 15 through December 19, if you have a telescope and know where to look. The space rock is roughly the size of the Pyramid of Giza, and at 3:12 a.m. ET tonight it will be at its closest point to earth, speeding by only 430,000 or so miles from us ( about twice the distance to our moon) . This is as close as the object will get to the planet for the next decade. How to see the Christmas Asteroid Unlike the Star of Bethlehem that announced the birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Christmas Asteroid will not light up the sky. Even though it will fly close to us in asteroid terms, you’ll need a telescope of at least 11 inches to see it. To help you spot it (and other near- earth objects) , the European Space Agency’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC) h...