Life

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How to Update Your Bathroom to Reduce the Risk of Mold

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Once mold starts taking over your bathroom, it’s not easy to get rid of. If the growth is alarming, paying to have it cleaned can cost hundreds of dollars, but it’s often worth it because getting rid of mold can be challenging (and exhausting). Your best move is to prevent mold from taking root in the first place, which usually involves reducing dampness and being vigilant with cleaning.

A better approach might be to design a mold-free bathroom from the get-go. If you’re considering renovating your bathroom, you can choose materials and make design decisions that will make it a lot harder for mold to take up residence.

Go groutless

Mold loves grout because it’s porous and absorbs moisture—and its porous nature means mold can penetrate under its surface, which makes it even harder to clean. The more grout you have, the more potential breeding ground you have, so consider eliminating it:

  • Wall panels. Acrylic wall panels are continuous sheets, meaning there are no grout lines to deal with. You can purchase panels that mimic the look of tile, but they come in a wide range of colors and designs, giving you a lot of design flexibility without the grout—or the potential for mold.

  • Vinyl or laminate flooring. Kkip the grout on your floor by avoiding traditional tile and opting for vinyl planks or laminate. Similar to the wall panels, you can find vinyl flooring that resembles tile or stone so you can get the look you want.

  • Shower pan. Instead of a tiled or stone shower floor, installing an acrylic shower pan eliminates all that grout and makes it a lot easier to clean and a lot harder for mold to take root.

Go freestanding

Mold and mildew loves to colonize caulk, which can get so unsightly as a result that you wind up just tearing it out and re-caulking. Anything that sits flush with or attached to your walls in a damp area has to be caulked, so you can reduce the amount of caulk (and with it, the amount of mold) by choosing freestanding items, like a freestanding tub or vanity.

Go metal

If you want storage in your shower for soaps, bottles, and everything else, a traditional tiled niche is an invitation to mold, especially if the pitch isn’t quite right and water ponds in there. Opting for a metal insert instead (like this stainless steel shower niche) eliminates that problem.

Go resistant

Painted walls and ceilings in bathrooms are prime targets for mold and mildew because moisture condenses on those surfaces. Steam rising from the shower often results in those tell-tale brown dots on the ceiling above, and over time, even walls outside the shower area can become stained with mold.

Using antimicrobial primer and paint is one key to eliminating mold from your bathroom, and it’s one thing you can do even if you’re not ready to renovate. Cleaning the walls and ceiling thoroughly, sealing them with a mold-resistant primer and painting them with a mold-resistant paint can greatly reduce the chances you’ll be scrubbing mold out of your bathroom in the near future.

Ventilation

Finally, when transforming your bathroom, don’t forget the less exciting but crucial aspect of mold resistance: ventilation. Make sure you determine the correct size of exhaust fan necessary for the space, and consider installing a model that has a humidity sensor. Also think about other ways to boost airflow in there, like adding a window (or a larger window) or a dedicated dehumidifier.

The Cheapest Ways to Get Your Protein Right Now

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Eggs used to be one of the cheapest protein sources out there. Back when they cost $2 a dozen, the 84 grams of protein in a carton of extra-large eggs worked out to just 48 cents per 20 grams of protein. But we are having a major bird flu outbreak, and when the virus is found on a farm, often the entire flock needs to be slaughtered to prevent its spread. That’s why eggs are in demand and egg prices are up now, and the USDA’s Economic Research Service expects egg prices to rise 20% this year. (The CDC has more information here on the bird flu outbreak, but it’s worth noting that the Trump administration has already interfered with the publication of bird flu research despite this crisis.)

Public health aside, let’s look at the grocery prices we’re now facing. Eggs are no longer your cheapest bet, although fortunately the price of whey powder has come down since the last egg price spike in 2023. So I figured it’s time to recalculate the price we pay for a serving of protein, across a variety of grocery items. I’m including the classic meat, eggs, and protein powder, as well as a few underrated options like tofu and peanuts.

Methodology

The following calculations are not from an exhaustive national survey of prices. After failing to find a good source of up-to-date prices that could be fairly compared to each other on deadline, I instead used non-sale prices from chain grocery stores in Pittsburgh, checking Amazon and Walmart as well for a few items that weren’t available in store. I did most of my price lookups via Instacart. When there were multiple packages or brands available, I chose the cheapest reasonable-looking item, the thing I would most likely grab if I were shopping for myself on a budget. I didn’t use bulk prices. If one store had a drastically cheaper price than the others in town, I skipped that one and picked a more typical price from among its competitors. Basically, I’m trying to be fair, using my judgment as to what prices are most representative of the market we’re in.

The prices in your location may be higher or lower than the specific ones I found, but I’m hoping the relative prices—which items are cheaper than others—will be similar in your area. You can calculate your own with this formula:

(price per item) / (grams of protein in the whole package) = price per gram

As we go through the list, note that I’ve calculated the price per 20 grams of protein. (Multiply the number you get above by 20.) That would be enough for a small snack, or you can double or triple it for a big protein-rich meal. For comparison, a chicken breast is about 40 grams of protein.

The cheapest protein sources overall

Nothing on my list matches the cost-effectiveness of $2 or even $2.50/dozen eggs (RIP), but the following are all under $1 per 20 grams of protein:

  • Chicken thighs (bone-in, skin on), 62 cents ($1.99/lb, 64 grams of protein)

  • Skim milk, 65 cents ($4.29/gallon, 133 grams of protein)

  • Black beans, dried, 66 cents ($3.29/lb, 100 grams of protein)

  • Peanuts (!), 71 cents ($3.99/lb, without shells, 112 g)

  • Whole milk, 81 cents ($4.99/gal, 123 g)

  • String cheese, low-moisture mozzarella, 88 cents ($3.69 for a 12-pack, 84 g)

FARAON Black Beans, 4 Pound

FARAON Black Beans, 4 Pound


$6.36
at Amazon

Tuna didn’t make my list this year, coming in at $1.29 for a can with 20 grams of protein. (It was slightly cheaper last time I made up a list like this.) Chicken breast and canned black beans are both honorable mentions at just over a dollar per 20 grams.

The cheapest meats to get your protein

Chicken is cheap enough that it made our overall cheapest list above. Chicken breast is expensive per pound, but you get a lot of protein for that money. Bone-in, skin-on chicken legs are, by contrast, dirt cheap—but that price includes bones, which are inedible, and plenty of fat in the meat and skin. Some of that fat may drain away, depending on how you prepare the chicken.

  • Chicken thighs (bone-in, skin on), 62 cents ($1.99/lb, 64 grams of protein)

  • Chicken breast, $1.01 ($6.99/lb, 139 g)

When it comes to cuts of meat, you’ll be making a similar tradeoff. In terms of protein price, more expensive cuts of meat can still be cost-effective if they are lean. We’ll let you run your own numbers for your favorite steaks and such, but here are two common types of ground beef:

  • 80/20 beef (20% fat), $1.58 ($5.99/lb, 76 g)

  • 93/7 beef (7% fat), $1.46 ($6.99/lb, 96 g)

At the moment, several other meats are coming in cheaper than ground beef, although meat prices vary a lot, and you may find something different. Here’s what I found at my local stores:

  • Pork tenderloin, $1.43 per 20 grams of protein ($5.99 per pound, with 84 grams of protein)

  • Frozen tilapia, $1.22 per 20 grams of protein ($9.76 per pound, for 160 grams of protein). Note that fish prices vary, and that you can usually get better prices if you buy frozen—so this one might move up in the rankings if you can get a good deal in the frozen section.

  • Ground turkey, $1.73 ($8.29 per pound, for 96 grams of protein).

For comparison, here are two items that worked out to be more expensive than the others. One I expected, one not so much:

  • Salmon, $2.10 for 20 grams of protein ($9.66/lb for 92 grams of protein—and that’s cheap for salmon!)

  • Canned chicken, $2.17 for 20 grams of protein ($2.41 for a can that includes 18 grams of protein)

Cheapest vegetarian protein options

What about things that aren’t meat? Besides eggs, it’s good to know that dairy, beans, and tofu are also great protein sources. Peanuts and dried beans were the only plant-based items that cracked our under-$1 list above (alongside milk, for you lacto-ovo folks). Here are a few more non-meat items with their prices, many of them a better deal than the meats (mostly cheaper than beef but more expensive than chicken):

  • Dried black beans, $0.66 for 20 grams of protein ($3.29/lb, 100 grams of protein)

  • Canned black beans, $1.03 for 20 grams of protein ($1.29 per can with 25 grams of protein)

  • Eggs, $1.12 for 20 grams of protein if you buy them at $4.69/dozen (extra large). Prices are volatile here, so calculate your own: large eggs have 6 grams of protein each, extra-large have 7 grams.

  • Cheddar cheese, $1 per 20 grams of protein ($2.79 for an 8-ounce block of cheese with 56 grams of protein)

  • Extra firm tofu, $1.16 per 20 grams of protein ($2.49/lb, 43 grams of protein)

  • String cheese, low-moisture mozzarella, 88 cents ($3.69 for a 12-pack, 84 g)

  • Whey protein powder, $1.10 per 20 grams of protein ($38.25 for a tub that contains 696 grams of protein)

  • Egg whites in a carton, $1.41 per 20 grams of protein ($3.53 for a 16 ounce carton with 50 grams of protein)

  • Greek yogurt, $1.50 per 20 grams of protein ($5.99 for a 32 ounce container that includes 80 grams of protein) Yogurt is another one of those items where the price varies a lot by brand and variety, so shopping around is especially important here.

As with any price comparison, check the numbers at your local store. Prices vary across the country, and some items (like those eggs!) are changing from day to day. Sales, coupons, and frozen items can also help you find cheaper prices than these, so if you manage to beat what we found, we’re happy for you.

Five Asian Sauces That Make Everything Taste Better

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Growing up, I was obsessed with helping my mom cook. Though she would dabble in making Italian food or try out popular boxed ingredients of the time, most nights featured what she knew best—giant pots of Thai comfort fare and heaping mounds of jasmine rice.

My childhood of ad hoc cooking lessons taught me two things: Jasmine rice goes with everything, and anything can taste good with the help of one of five bottled Asian sauces. I’ll assume you have the rice covered, so let me tell you about these sauces.

Fish sauce

This sauce gives you the most flavor bang for your buck. The thin, reddish-brown liquid is made by fermenting small fish, like anchovies, with salt for up to two years. The juice extracted from the mixture is a pungent sauce that brings a blast of umami to any and everything it touches. Add a few drops to fill out the flavor profile of your stir fry, or use it as a major ingredient, like in Thai som tum salad. For fish sauce newbies, just add a few drops to a hearty dish with many components.

You’ll notice a difference in flavor, but you won’t be overwhelmed by fishy flavor. I don’t consider myself much of a fish-head, and this sauce really does taste like fermented fish, but somehow it just works. You can use fish sauce during cooking or as a finishing sauce while eating. I like to add a few dashes to hamburger meat, or make a nam jim with chili peppers and sliced garlic to drizzle it over eggs and rice; and Claire likes to use it to funk up butter, tuna, and chili.

Whichever fish sauce you find will be the best one, but if you have a choice, I like: Squid Brand Fish Sauce

Oyster sauce

The name might include another sea-faring friend, but oyster sauce is entirely different from fish sauce. There are a few sauces that might be described as “oyster sauce,” but in this case I’m talking about a dark brown sauce that’s so thick it’s almost gelatinous. Oyster sauce is often made with oyster extracts, soy sauce, and thickeners, and is both sweet and salty. Add a tablespoon of oyster sauce to deepen the flavors of a dish, or use a few tablespoons as the primary ingredient of a sweet and savory sauce. I add oyster sauce to beef stews in the winter, and use it to build the quintessential sticky glaze for chicken pad see ew.

My favorite oyster sauce: Mae Krua Oyster Sauce

A plate of vegetable stir-fried noodles.
I usually use a combination of two or three sauces in a noodle stir-fry like this one.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Mushroom soy sauce

It might be easy to box-in soy sauce as a mere salty condiment, but this liquid gold is as nuanced as wine. I usually keep at least three different types of soy sauce on hand, because they all provide something different. And I need them. All of them.

Mushroom soy sauce can range from thin and medium-brown in color, to slightly viscous and nearly black. Mushroom soy sauce is made using dried black mushrooms and a light soy sauce, and though it doesn’t taste exactly like the fungi, it does taste notably earthier than standard soy sauce. I use light brown mushroom soy sauce rather liberally in dishes, or as a replacement for “regular” soy sauce. If I’m making a pot of turkey chili and looking for a salty, earthy flavor, I’ll splash this in to add some depth to the tomato base.

My fridge houses: Dek Som Boon, also called Healthy Boy Brand Mushroom Soy Sauce

Black mushroom soy sauce

Sometimes, if you’re adding fish sauce and regular soy sauce to a dish already, you don’t necessarily need another salty component. A teaspoon of black mushroom soy sauce, however, gives an entire stir fry a beautiful dark brown color with a touch of sweet, earthy umami, and much less salt. This type of soy sauce still uses dried black mushrooms for added flavor, but the mushroom extracts are added to dark soy sauce, instead of a light one. Dark soy sauce is usually aged longer than the light variety, and some bottles might even include molasses. I like Pearl River Bridge superior black mushroom soy sauce for its dark color and sweet flavor. I splash it (lightly!) into my fried rice, along with regular soy sauce and Golden Mountain Sauce.

My go-to: Pearl River Bridge mushroom flavored superior black soy sauce

Golden Mountain Sauce

The four products I’ve mentioned so far are types of sauces, and you could explore different brands to find your favorite, but Golden Mountain Sauce is a brand of very special seasoning sauce. The ingredient list consists of “soybean sauce,” made from soybeans, corn, water, sugar, and salt. The flavor is salty, malty, savory, and ever-so-slightly sweet. It’s incredibly flavorful, and it’s my favorite all-purpose sauce by a long shot. There’s just something about it that tastes like nothing else around. It’s perfect dashed upon leftover rice with an egg. (A little dose will do it, but when I was a kid I had to make sure every grain of rice had a pool of this sauce around it.)

Golden Mountain Sauce is great in stir fries, as a dipping sauce for dumplings, and is an exceptional partner for eggs, but you can sprinkle it over anything to improve the flavor. If you can’t find Golden Mountain Sauce, you can try the very similar Maggi Seasoning, but keep your eyes peeled for the real deal with a green and yellow label at your local Asian grocery stores.

Or you could order it, of course: Golden Mountain Sauce

How to Get Your Hands on One of Nvidia’s New Graphics Cards

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Soon after Nvidia’s new RTX 5080 and 5090 gaming GPUs went up for sale last week, they sold out pretty quickly—which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has tried to buy one of its graphics cards before.

According to PC parts seller Newegg, the company’s stock sold out “within minutes,” and none of the big-name retailers I’ve checked today have cards available. While that might sound like a success on Nvidia’s part, consumers and reviewers alike are responding to the short supply with ire, accusing Nvidia of a “paper launch,” a term for when a company only releases enough units to say that a product released on schedule, without actually making it readily available.

Starting at $999 for the 5080, these products were always going to be for a premium market, but buying them now can mean going through resellers, which could cost you twice as much and means supporting the same scalpers that make stock so hard to find in the first place.

Luckily, there are still a few steps you can take to get a new Nvidia graphics card through official means, although it will take some trial and error. But with enough diligence, you can be sure to get in line for a new card as soon as stock opens up.

Sign up for notifications

Best Buy notifications UI

Credit: Best Buy

It’s boring, I know, but major retailers including Newegg, Best Buy, Amazon, and B&H offer the opportunity to sign up for stock notifications when a product is in limited supply. (You’ll usually see this to the right of or underneath a grayed out buy button on the product page.) These will often be incorporated into a wish list feature, so you can quickly check in on all of your desired products and keep track of them—useful if you have a specific PC build in mind.

Try visiting your local Microcenter

Microcenter is a popular electronics store that sets itself apart by offering the majority of its goods only in-store. Currently, its stock is as sold out as everyone else’s, although a big banner at the top of the store’s website says it’s working hard to restock as soon as possible.

Shopping at your local Microcenter drastically reduces your competition: rather than having to compete with the entire world, you only have to compete with your local community. Even better, you can still look products up online to ensure stock is available before making the trek to the brick-and-mortar location. Simply visit the product page, input your store (assuming your cookies don’t tip off your location for you), and you’ll know before visiting whether your visit will be fruitful. Some products will also let you reserve a unit for in-store pickup before arriving, although for new GPUs, Microcenter is more likely to take a first-come, first-served mentality.

Follow the right social media accounts

Getting notifications when a product comes into stock is well and good, but ideally, you’re getting prepped to click the “buy” button well before it’s even available. That’s where industry insiders come into account.

These are social media users who, through protected sources, sometimes know when sales happen before they go live. There are entire publications and newsletters dedicated to this, although you sometimes have to use your best judgment when knowing who to believe.

My favorite account for this purpose, personally, is @Wario64 on X and Bluesky. Down-to-earth with a good (but not overbearing) sense of humor, they haven’t let me down yet. In-Stock-Alerts-US has also proven reliable in the past, as has journalist Matt Swider. Unfortunately, many accounts that have been useful in the past have since stopped updating.

Alternatively, you can also use a stock tracking website like NowInStock.net or TrackaLacker to track stock across various storefronts.

Avoid resellers whenever possible

Going through the above process might seem annoying, but trust me, buying through a reseller is only going to make things worse for everyone. Yes, eBay is where you’ll find the most stock, but it’s also going to cost you way more than going through official sources, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll end up getting the real deal, or a GPU that hasn’t been used.

That said, when it comes to GPUs, Amazon can be as bad as eBay. Third-party sellers are abundant there, and it can be easy to confuse a legit seller with one that’s a little more dubious. If you want to go through Amazon, be sure to check the “Sold by” tag underneath the buy button before you add anything to your cart. That will tell you who you’re actually buying the product from.

Just buy a pre-built PC

Maingear custom PC

Credit: Maingear

It might sound like sacrilege to a hardcore PC builder, but if you’re looking to get your hands on a new GPU as soon as possible, it can be easier to bite the bullet and go with a pre-built model. That’s because manufacturers like Maingear and Cyberpower often get special stock earmarked for them, and because their PCs are customizable, more expensive than a GPU alone, and are just all-around harder to stack in a warehouse somewhere, they’re less attractive to scalpers.

You’ll still pay a premium with this route, but you’ll get a whole PC alongside your GPU, plus save yourself the labor of construction. And if you price it right, you might actually still save money over what you’d pay for a resold card alone.

Amazon Prime Members Can Get Two Free E-Books in February

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You can get thousands of free e-books over the course of 2025 if you know where—and when—to look. All year long, Amazon is offering free Kindle e-books to readers, with new opportunities popping up every month. In February, Prime members can get two free Kindle e-books from Amazon’s First Reads program.

What is Amazon’s First Reads?

Amazon First Reads is a program aimed at Prime members that offers early access to new e-books across many genres, as curated by First Reads editors (one of your many Prime Member benefits). Prime members can choose to download one free e-book every month from a rotating list—though some months that number is bumped up to two—and non-members get them for a discounted price. These e-books can be read on any compatible Kindle device or via the free Kindle app.

Amazon Kindle (16 GB)
Display size: 6⁠″ glare-free, Resolution: 300 ppi, Storage: 16 GB, Battery life: Up to 6 weeks.

Amazon Kindle (16 GB)


$109.99
at Amazon

How to get your free Amazon Kindle e-books in February

Go to the First Reads landing page to see the full list of e-books available this month. Once you find a book that seems interesting, click the “Shop Now” button from the First Reads landing page. Make sure you’re not being redirected to the Kindle or Amazon mobile application, because you won’t see the free book option there; instead, use your internet browser on your phone or computer.

Make sure you’re not clicking the ”Pre-order for…” button, as that will direct you to pay; instead, click the “Read for Free” or the “Buy Now with 1-Click” button under the “First Reads” banner on the book’s Amazon page (don’t worry, you won’t be charged). This will send the e-book directly to the Kindle linked to your Amazon account.

You can see what it should look like from the screenshot below.

Screenshot of Amazon page on phone from the web browser showing the "read for free" button.

Credit: Daniel Oropeza

You’ll know you did it right when you see a “Thanks, [your name]!” order summary indicating the e-book is being auto-delivered to the Kindle Cloud Reader.

Free Amazon Kindle e-books available in February 2025

This month, you can choose one from eight new Kindle e-books plus a free short story, The Fall Risk. Amazon notes the genre for each of the books above the title, offering a quick way to narrow down your options. (If you hover over the “See Editor Notes” under the “Shop Now” button, you’ll be able to read a short description from the First Reads editor who picked the book.)

Here are your options for February 2025. You can choose one of these e-books, plus the short story The Fall Risk:

Romance Short Story by Abby Jimenez.
The Fall Risk: A Short Story

The Fall Risk: A Short Story


$1.99
at Amazon

Police Procedural by Andrew Mayne.
Mr. Whisper: A Thriller (The Specialists Book 1)

Mr. Whisper: A Thriller (The Specialists Book 1)


$5.99
at Amazon

Women’s Fiction by Julie Hatcher.
Not Quite by the Book: A Novel

Not Quite by the Book: A Novel


$4.99
at Amazon

Psychological Thriller by A.M. Strong and Sonya Sargent.
Gravewater Lake: A Thriller

Gravewater Lake: A Thriller


$4.99
at Amazon

A Coming of Age by Amy Lea.
Something Like Fate: A Novel

Something Like Fate: A Novel


$4.99
at Amazon

Action by Audrey J. Cole.
Missing in Flight

Missing in Flight


$4.99
at Amazon

Romance by Ali Rosen.
Unlikely Story

Unlikely Story


$4.99
at Amazon

Gothic by Sarah Beth Durst.
The Warbler: A Novel

The Warbler: A Novel


$4.99
at Amazon

Suspense by Madeleine Henry.
Name Not Taken: A Novel

Name Not Taken: A Novel


$5.99
at Amazon

Baking Soda and Vinegar Are Good for Cleaning, Just Not Together

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From viral hacks to your grandmother, someone or something has, at some point, told you to clean with baking soda and vinegar. Even I have told you to clean with baking soda and vinegar. Yesterday, sadly, I learned that this approach isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Let’s discuss.

Why you shouldn’t mix baking soda and vinegar to clean

The good news is that this mixture isn’t toxic or dangerous in any way. You’re not poisoning yourself over time if you mix vinegar and baking soda to get a bubbly paste to scrub onto your walls, countertops, or tile. The bad news is that it just doesn’t do much.

See, yesterday, I wrote about the best methods for cleaning water stains off white walls. As I expected, I got better results when I cleaned the water stain with a mixture of lemon juice, baking soda, and vinegar than I did when I just went at it with soap and water. The famous combo won again—or so I thought.

The reason it was so much more effective, though, is because the true cleaning power was likely coming from the lemon juice at best and the sheer wetness of the solution at worst, not the baking soda and vinegar. In fact, these two products cancel each other out, according to some pro cleaning websites I read and Reddit threads I browsed.

Baking soda is a base, vinegar is an acid, and when bases and acids get together, they neutralize each other. The results are water, carbon dioxide (which escapes in the form of fizz), and a salt called sodium acetate. The vinegar and baking soda are reacting with each other, not with your dirty surface, which is why this combination is usually no better a cleaner than water. You’re really just wetting and (hopefully) scrubbing, not cleaning. If that’s all you want to do, fine. If you want to actually clean, you’ll need soap or something else to make a difference.

What to use instead of vinegar and baking soda

First of all, don’t overlook the power of bubbles. The classic trick of pouring baking soda down the drain and following it up with vinegar produces a lot of them, for instance, and while that doesn’t really do much to battle actual clogs deep in the pipes, it can bubble out some dirt closer to the surface, at least.

Second of all, vinegar and baking soda do each have a purpose in your cleaning arsenal. Think of this like an amicable divorce: They work better separately, but they’re both still great on their own. Vinegar’s gentle acidity can sometimes loosen grime from surfaces when you aren’t ready to reach for the big guns like, say, a hydrochloric acid-based toilet bowl cleaner.

Baking soda makes a great scrub because of its rough, gritty texture, and is also a solid odor eliminator, which is why you probably have an open box in the back of your fridge already.

If you’re looking to replace what you thought were the cleaning effects of baking soda and vinegar mixtures, just opt for regular cleaner. I’ve had great results with the double-concentrated formulas of Fabuloso and Pine Sol and they’re not very expensive. If you liked the feeling of scrubbing those abrasive, gritty bubbles into surfaces, consider plain soap and water on a sponge or, if the material can handle it, steel wool.

The Beatles’ ‘Now and Then’ Was Made With AI (and That’s Okay)

I happened to catch some of the Grammy Awards last night, and while pop, rap, and country definitely took center stage, it was the Best Rock Performance category that most caught my attention. The award went to The Beatles for their song “Now and Then,” which is a confusing sentence in 2025. You might be aware The Beatles operated largely in the 1960s, not the 2020s, and seeing as only half the group is still alive, winning a Grammy for a new song might sound a bit strange.

Nevertheless, the song is new—at least, as new as a Beatles song can be. The track dropped towards the end of 2023, and is built from a demo John Lennon recorded shortly before his death. In the ’90s, the living three Beatles members (Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison) attempted to finish the song, but never completed it, as the original audio quality was too poor. Modern technology, however, made it possible to create the product you hear today.

I love The Beatles, but the song itself isn’t really what I paid attention to. (I didn’t really give it much thought until Sunday.) Instead, an announcer made it clear the song was produced with AI, a statement that, in 2025, elicits anything from an eye roll to a heavy sigh from this tech editor. AI-generated music is very much a reality today. While there are some convincing results from these AI-generated tools, there are plenty of tells to look out for. The idea that The Beatles would put out a song with some level of AI generation didn’t sit well with me, and I bet many others out there.

However, it’s important to note the difference between AI-generated, and AI-produced. They sound the same, but they’re not. I want to be clear: “Now and Then” is not an AI-generated song: No one is tapping AI to recreate the voice of John Lennon to make another award-winning song.

Not that kind of AI

AI doesn’t just mean the artificially generated content we’re all accustomed to. While it feels like AI took over our lives with the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022, companies have embedded the tech in our products and services for a lot longer than that.

AI is, perhaps, a bit of a misnomer. In this context, machine learning is a bit more accurate. Machine learning is, very simply, when a program is able to adapt and grow based on the data it experiences—similar to how our minds work. You feed the program training data, and it adjusts its assumptions and outputs accordingly. While the actual process is much more complicated than this, machine learning empowers programs to do some great things.

One of those things is audio track separation: Part of the reason the “Now and Then” project was shelved was because they couldn’t properly mix the song, since Lennon’s original recording was so rough. But using an audio editing tool powered with machine learning, producers were able to separate Lennon’s vocals from the piano. Neither the piano nor the vocals were generated with AI—rather, the tool was able to break these tracks apart, so producers, along with the two living Beatles, could build upon them to record, mix, and ship a completed song. McCartney posted as much on X the summer before releasing the song:

For many reasons, I’m happy this “AI Beatles song” didn’t artificially bring back John Lennon. It’s genuinely sweet to have a song Lennon started decades ago, properly finished by his former bandmates, with Lennon’s son accepting the award on the band’s behalf.

The music video, on the other hand, definitely pushes things a bit further, juxtaposing archival footage of deceased Beatles members John Lennon and George Harrison alongside current footage of McCartney and Starr. (It was produced by Peter Jackson, who both produced Now and Then, as well as the 2021 Beatles documentary Get Back.) Still, it’s more weird than anything else, and certainly isn’t a product purporting to represent reality—as opposed to much of the AI-generated content you encounter in the wild.

Microsoft 365 Is Raising Prices and Ditching Its Free VPN

Paying more and getting less seems to be standard operating procedure these days. Certainly that’s what Microsoft 365 (the fancy new name for Microsoft Office) users are about to experience, as the service’s included VPN is being dropped as of February 28.

According to a support note on the Microsoft site, the company “routinely evaluate[s] the usage and effectiveness of our features” and has decided that the VPN is no longer a necessary part of Microsoft 365. 

As VPNs go, it was only OK

In truth, it’s not a major loss. Microsoft’s VPN came with a 50GB monthly data limit and didn’t allow you to trick your browser into thinking you were elsewhere in the world, making it arguably less useful than even some of the best free VPNs. It obscured your traffic, sure, but not much else.

Still, it’s a bit of a slap in the face, as it follows the first Microsoft 365 subscription price hike in 12 years. Both the Personal and Family plans now cost $3 more per month, a roughly 43% increase. Supposedly the increases are justified by the addition of limited Copilot AI features, which used to involve paying for a $20 add-on.

That add-on still exists if the limited AI credits included with the new subscriptions aren’t enough for you, but my fellow AI skeptics have only one way to avoid paying more for the now VPN-less service: For the next 12-months, existing subscribers can downgrade to a “Microsoft 365 Personal Classic” or “Microsoft 365 Family Classic” plan, which has all the same features as the current plans, minus AI (and the VPN, of course). The company says it’s “assessing the length of availability of these subscriptions,” though, so they may not be around for long.

New customers, meanwhile, have no choice but to go along with the new prices. On the plus side, despite its lack of a VPN, the current 365 plan does still include identity theft protection and credit monitoring.

How I Removed Stubborn Water Stains From My Wall

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Unsightly water stains will kill the vibes in even the most beautiful bathroom, to say nothing of what they do to the look of other parts of your home. From shower humidity to internal leaks and ventilation problems, these stains have all kinds of causes. But after you’ve identified what made the mark on your wall in the first place, you still need to remove it without making the problem worse.

Water stains typically won’t appear on tile; they need a more absorbent surface, which is why they show up on bare walls. Since your walls are probably painted, this presents a problem: How can you wash a wall without damaging it and risk needing to repaint the entire room? A few days ago, I was presented with this very issue when I noticed a water mark on my walls. How did it get there? Hell if I know; it’s always something around here. As a renter, I wanted to remove it without causing more damage.

Method #1: Soap and water

Before you try anything more complicated, experiment with a simple solution of dish soap and warm water, at a ratio of about one to two. Use a cloth dipped in the mixture to apply the soapy water to your stain. Gently rub it in from the top down, then rinse with plain water and dry thoroughly with a hair dryer on a cool setting.

I gave this a shot, scrubbing at half the stain with a soapy water mix. The stain faded somewhat, but it wasn’t really magical and it required a lot of elbow grease on my part. I don’t own this home, so I resent having to break a sweat here. I moved on to the next step.

Method #2: Lemon juice, vinegar, and baking soda

If that doesn’t work—like it didn’t for me—I tried a mixture of vinegar, lemon juice, and baking soda. This is a classic solution that goes a little like this: Shake it up and spray it on the stain. Leave it for about an hour, then use a damp cloth to rub it away. You may have to repeat this process a few times to get the stain all the way out, so do this when you have time for multiple hour-long soaking intervals.

So this worked—but it came at a price. As I was filling my container, I forgot every lesson I learned in third-grade science class. It bubbled up and out of the bottle all over my table. My dining area reeks like vinegar now.

Eventually, the reaction calmed down and I was able to proceed with the wall-cleaning. And it worked: The rubbing required was also significantly less than when I was going the soap-and-water route. I easily cleared the half of the stain I designated for this test, then used the excess on my rag to go over the other side again, too. The stain disappeared and I went back over everything with a dry rag to make sure I didn’t leave any wetness behind and cause any more problems on an already problematic day.

Method #3: Lemon juice and water

After I finished this method, however, I found a lot of online conversation about how vinegar and baking soda cancel each other out, as baking soda is a base and vinegar is an acid. Which makes sense. (Again, I have forgotten my grade-school science lessons.) My conclusion, then: The lemon juice is what helped me. If soap and water aren’t working for you, you can try adding four tablespoons of lemon to a cup of water and using that first.

Here’s a triptych of my progress, though the stains were light enough that this image isn’t going to win any awards for contrast. Still, you can see that the middle picture, which shows my attempt to clear the left part of the stain with soap and water, is nowhere near as streak-free as the right picture, which shows what I got out of using the bubbled-up lemon juice/vinegar/baking soda combo.

Water stains being cleaned on a wall
Me vs. water stain
Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

How to get water stains out of wood

If you have wood paneling or cabinets that have water stains, too, you have a few options for removing the marks on your wooden surfaces.

  • You can cover the stain in mayonnaise and let it sit on there overnight, then wipe it away in the morning and polish your wood afterward.

  • You can also mix equal parts vinegar and olive oil and apply to the stain with a cloth, wiping in the direction of the grain until the stain disappears. Afterward, wipe the surface down with a clean, dry cloth.

  • Try placing an iron on a low heat setting over a cloth on top of the stain. Press it down for a few seconds and remove it to see if the stain is letting up, then try again until you’re satisfied. (Be advised that this works best for still-damp stains.)

Nine of the Best Valentine’s Day Dates That Aren’t Eating at a Restaurant

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Heading out to a dazzling restaurant for a lovely meal is certainly the traditional option for a memorable Valentine’s Day, but I’ve heard more complaints of plans gone awry rather than romantic stories. There are many stress points: reserving a table weeks in advance, unpredictable restaurant atmosphere, holiday price gouging, not to mention that you might get rushed out the door because the place is trying to turn over tables on a tight schedule.

Luckily, eating out is hardly the only option for treating yourself (or your valentine) on February 14. Here are nine of my favorite alternatives to dining out at a restaurant for Valentine’s Day.

Cook an at-home meal kit together

Cooking can be meditative solo activity, or a fun project to do with a companion. (Plus, you get to eat the project at the end). The beauty of a meal kit is that every step is mapped out, so even novice cooks have a fighting chance at making a restaurant-level meal, and the ingredients are portioned to the recipe, so if you’re a once-a-week sort of cook, you don’t end up with a fridge full of leftover ingredients destined for the trash. Tons of companies offer different types of kits for differing palates and varying interest levels. For those who’d like to try cooking scallops for the first time, try Blue Apron. For a refreshing and satisfying dinner, try a sushi kit from Williams Sonoma.

Dinner at the movies

According to the internet, dinner-and-a-movie is terrible and horrible for Valentine’s Day, and I agree. Why waste time doing two separate things when you can do them at once?

The first time I set foot in an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, I enjoyed a cocktail, a plate of buffalo cauliflower, and a pizza all while watching a movie. I’ve since deleted other “normal” movie theaters from my mind. Even if you don’t have an Alamo Drafthouse nearby, select locations of AMC, Regal, and other theaters offer a dine-in movie experience. My advice, go see the latest weird horror movie, order some carbs, and get buzzed off a fruity cocktail.

Make a charcuterie board

Grazing as a meal is a valid choice, and a selection of cured meats and aged cheeses might be all you need for a romantic Valentine’s Day. Harry and David offers many a meat and dip kit, that you can slice and arrange with your special salami.

For those who don’t enjoy indecisive moments in the wine store, try a kit that includes it already. Most of these kits include the pieces, but rarely are they presentation ready. Try your hand at artistically arranging the sliced meats, tapenade, and crackers, and get ready to snack for the evening. (Read here for more ways to give the gift of meat.)

Hire a chef

A restaurant date isn’t in the cards, and you’ll be damned if you have to turn on the stove. Get a little bougie and hire a chef to come and cook for you. You can receive the ultimate food pampering without having to do any work yourself, so you can spend quality time with your valentine. There is a great range of pricing when it comes to bringing in a professional, so do a bit of research.

You can cut costs by offering to gather the ingredients before they arrive, search for individual chefs who run their own catering, or try companies like Cozymeal. If your budget is real tight, hit up the local culinary school. Schools, like the Institute of Culinary Education, will offer job postings for their students to respond to for extra work and real-life experience. You can post the opportunity and rate, and see if you get any bites.

Host a potluck with friends

Valentine’s day might be “special day” for couples or whatever, but if love is what you want to celebrate, why not gather your chosen family for a meal instead? Ask folks to bring a small side dish, warm up the air fryer with some of these recipes, batch a pink cocktail, and throw on a perfectly cheesy rom-com in the background. Whether it’s one friend or 12, it’ll be a truly memorable Valentine’s Day. The dress code: sweatshirts and stretchy pants.

Sign up for a cooking class

For more of a shared experience, sign up for a cooking class. You get the guidance of a chef instructor, top-notch ingredients, and maybe you’ll even learn something new. One-time classes, especially themed ones, are usually fun, light-hearted, and low-pressure events. It’s an opportunity to work as a team with your significant other, or be passive aggressive in public if that’s your thing. Introverts, worry not, you can even keep things cozy at home and do an online cooking class instead. This isn’t a cooking competition show (unless you want it to be) but you will get a food prize at the end.

Do a wine tasting and pairing

Wine used to be grapes, and grapes are food, so you can do a wine tasting as your dinner with no argument from me. Fine, you can do a wine pairing; after all, wine tastes even better with snacks. It can also taste god-awful if you pair it wrong, and that’s where the professionals come in. Check out your local wineries or wine stores to see if they’re hosting any Valentine’s Day tastings. (And again, similarly to cooking classes, you can do a virtual pairing class at home.)

Make a tinned fish board

Preserved fish is having a moment (or, ya know, a couple centuries). Why leave all the fun to cured meats? Go to the local fishmonger for advice, raid the canned fish shelves of your supermarket, or order a spread of specialty sardines, cockles, mackerel, and salmon to put together your own board. I respect keeping things protein-forward, but add a smattering of crackers, bread, and vinegar-pickled items to keep the oils from overwhelming your palate.

Order delivery (It needed to be said.)

At the risk of seeming obvious, ordering delivery needs to be on this list. It’s the go-to option because it’s brilliant. You pay a fair price for a host of people to create and deliver exactly what you want, straight to your door. No need to make reservations, unearth charcuterie boards, see other people, or even put on pants. To some folks, nothing is more romantic than that.

Some date night-worthy restaurants even offer delivery so even if you couldn’t get a reservation you can still have a beautiful, perfectly prepared, three-course Valentine’s dinner. Be a real hero, and use a service like Goldbelly to secretly have your partner’s favorite NYC ramen shipped to them (even though you both live in LA now).