Top 5 Websites of 2007 We’re Tired Of

Day-in, day-out, we get inundated with news around here about every website and company under the sun. Launches, re-launches, “we changed the color of our banner!”, we hear it all. But, some companies are worse than others: everything they do, every little insignificant change they make, and the entire blogosphere is writing about it like there’s no tomorrow. And, of course, we do, too. So, ladies and gents, here you go, the five websites even WE are tired of discussing.
Top 5 Websites of 2007 We’re Tired Of

Lifehacker's 2007 Guide to Free Software and Webapps

Throughout Lifehacker's archive of over 14,000 posts, we've mentioned hundreds of free web and desktop apps that help you get things done—but which are the best? As we wrap up the year 2007, it's the perfect time to put together an authoritative guide to our favorite pieces of free software and web services for common computing tasks on every platform.
Lifehacker's 2007 Guide to Free Software and Webapps

David Allen: Three Cheers For Sloth, Indolence, And Procrastination!

"Folks, can we hear it for sloth, indolence, and procrastination!!!!!???" (Thunderous applause and raucous cheers.)
David Allen: Three Cheers For Sloth, Indolence, And Procrastination!

14 Stress-Free Ways to Kick Weight Loss in the Butt

Let’s be honest: Losing weight isn’t the easiest thing in the world. All our best intentions end up doing nothing.
14 Stress-Free Ways to Kick Weight Loss in the Butt

World Inmate Populations

The U.S. has the world's largest prison population: 2,245,189 prisoners (including pre-trial detainees/remand prisoners) as of mid-2006. China followed with 1,565,771; Russia 889,598; Brazil 419,551; and India 332,112.
World Inmate Populations

Many of us procrastinate. Now we know why.

According to a ten-year-plus study by Canadian psychologist Piers Steel, postponing things is a serious problem and he has four primary reasons why it is such a serious problem for many people.
Many of us procrastinate. Now we know why.

127 Foods That Fight Fat

Weight loss starts with shopping. Taking control of what you eat begins with taking control of what you buy.
Every time you toss a low-calorie food into the cart, you're taking responsibility for losing weight—even before you sit down to a meal.
127 Foods That Fight Fat

Top 10 ways to un-bake your brain

Feeling stressed, anxious, overwhelmed or fatigued? Having trouble making decisions, falling and staying asleep and solving problems? A bit low on energy, just all-around baked? Life does that to us sometimes. The good news is…there’s a short list of simple practices that, done regularly, can pretty quickly un-bake your brain…and your body!
Top 10 ways to un-bake your brain

Best of 2007: Trends That Shaped the Web

The web, even at this age, is still an ever developing landscape. New trends come and go, some of them will last, some won’t. This is a list of five we felt shaped this year, and probably will in 2008 also.
Best of 2007: Trends That Shaped the Web

20 Signs You May Be About to Die

I recall reading about an obscure native culture in which the concept of death is fluid rather than fixed. You might be “dead” (somewhat sick), “very dead” (extremely ill) or “completely dead” (actually deceased) according to their terminology. The following 20 funny photos have been organized by these darkly funny and fatalistic categories!
20 Signs You May Be About to Die

15 Can’t-Miss Ways to Declutter Your Mind

The world of stresses and worries and errands and projects and noise that we must all endure inflicts upon us a mind full of clutter and chaos.
A mind that sometimes cannot find the calm that we so desperately seek.
15 Can’t-Miss Ways to Declutter Your Mind

6 Steps to Deflate Self-Defeating Fears

Have you ever justified your lack of success towards a goal with the excuse that you lacked the experience? Or that you lacked the resources: money and time? Did you give up before you even tried?
6 Steps to Deflate Self-Defeating Fears

Southern Australia has its hottest year

Southern Australia is on track to have its hottest year on record, say weather experts.
Southern Australia has its hottest year

AskEraser Keeps Your Searches Private - Or Does It?

A couple of days ago search engine Ask.com unveiled the AskEraser option, which erases all of your data (IP addresses, user IDs, cookies, search queries) from their servers in a couple of hours, thus - in theory - securing your privacy. However, as InformationWeek points out, things may not be exactly as they seem here.
AskEraser Keeps Your Searches Private - Or Does It?

Even though it's sometimes stressful to have to give gifts, turns out that it's important to happiness.

I’ve always been fascinated by gift exchange – in particular, potlatch. It was my preoccupation with potlatch that eventually led me to write Profane Waste.
But although I’m intellectually interested in the impulse toward gift-giving, I don’t like gift-giving much, myself.
Even though it's sometimes stressful to have to give gifts, turns out that it's important to happiness.

Holiday Gifting: 14 Ways to Give More Meaning and Less Stuff

It's the time of year when gift-giving is on everyone's mind. I don't know about you, but it drives me nuts to give and receive so much meaningless stuff, just out of tradition.
14 Ways to Give More Meaning and Less Stuff

Google Zeitgeist 2007

We're bidding adieu to 2007 with a look back at the breaking news, the big events and the must-have gadgets that captivated us this year (give or take a few weeks; we compile this list by early December). To get a glimpse of what's been on our collective consciousness, we mined billions of search queries to discover what sorts of things rose to the top. We encourage you to check out our findings to see if you, too, reflect the zeitgeist — the spirit of the times.
Google Zeitgeist 2007

Six Tech Predictions for 2008

It’s only a matter of days until 2008, and next year promises to bring some significant changes that will affect web workers. In this post are six predictions that may affect you next year, in some cases possibly profoundly.
Six Tech Predictions for 2008

Best Of 2007: Lifehacker's 2007 Software Superlatives

Who had the Most Obnoxious Icon, Best Splash Screen, and Best Easter Egg of the Year? Find out after the jump, where we'll also hand out our Most Likely to Make You Downgrade and Most Likely to Turn Completely Evil honors.
Best Of 2007: Lifehacker's 2007 Software Superlatives

Quarterly updates - Oxford English Dictionary

Every quarter, a range of entries in OED Online will be replaced by updated versions produced by the OED's revision programme. New entries will also be added across the alphabet.
Quarterly updates - Oxford English Dictionary

Sellout Songs

The Moby Quotient, generated by the formula below, determines the degree to which artists besmirch their reputations when they lend their music to hawk products or companies.
Sellout Songs

Windows Vista Service Pack 1

The Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate (RC) is now available to the public. In addition to previously released updates, SP1 contains changes focused on addressing specific reliability and performance issues, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several new technologies. SP1 also addresses some management, deployment, and support challenges.
Windows Vista Service Pack 1

6 Simple Steps to Achieve Laser-Like Focus

Does focus elude you? Do you multi-task at the cost of focusing on your more important projects? Have you ever wished that you could have laser-like focus? Ever thought, "Hmm, I wish I could just take a pill that would help me focus." Well, as we all know, there is medicine for this type of need. But I think even people who take focus-enhancing medicine will attest that unless you have a good process and discipline, you're still not going to have great success with just a pill.
6 Simple Steps to Achieve Laser-Like Focus

11 Tips for Nuking Laziness Without Becoming a Workaholic

Rest is important for productivity. Trying to work straight without recovering your energies leads to a wandering attention, procrastination and, in extreme cases, death. But when does “recovering your energies” just become an excuse to waste time? How do you draw the line between constructive rest and laziness?
11 Tips for Nuking Laziness Without Becoming a Workaholic

Zoho Tackles Powerpoint With Zoho Show

The folks at Zoho just don’t seem to get tired: they announce new features, products and services for their online office suite on an almost weekly basis, which is what we usually expect from Google. This time, they’ve launched a new version of Zoho Show, an online tool for creating presentations, which we can most easily describe as the online version of Microsoft’s Powerpoint.
Zoho Tackles Powerpoint With Zoho Show

Are you an over-buyer or an under-buyer?

A quiz--Are you an over-buyer or an under-buyer?
I love a good self-diagnosis quiz. What kind of clutterer are you? Are you organized or disorganized? Are you at risk for dropping out of your exercise program?
Are you an over-buyer or an under-buyer?

Why pregnant women don't fall over

Women do not tip over during pregnancy because their spines are built differently from men's – and have been ever since our ancestors began walking upright. The difference allows a pregnant woman to lean backward to counterbalance the weight of her developing fetus.
Why pregnant women don't fall over

7 Stupid Thinking Errors You Probably Make

The brain isn’t a flawless piece of machinery. Although it is powerful and comes in an easy to carry container, it has it’s weaknesses. A field in psychology which studies these errors, known as biases. Although you can’t upgrade your mental hardware, noticing these biases can clue you into possible mistakes.
7 Stupid Thinking Errors You Probably Make

Earth From Above

French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand's beautiful images of the planet have become a coffee table favorite across the world. Today we are excited to present a new Google Earth layer of nearly 500 of his images, many taken from hot air balloons and all taken from above the earth.
Earth From Above

3 Riddles

How are these three phenomena possible, and how could they be reproduced?
3 Riddles

Lifehacker Gift Guide 2007

It's not easy finding the right gift for everyone on your list, especially if you've got a lot of people to buy for, so today we're taking a look at gifts small and large—from under $10 to the over $50 set—perfect for the life-hacking loved one on your list (even if that's you).
Lifehacker Gift Guide 2007

Why Are You Reading All That News?

You’re feeling stress about your RSS feeds? Talk about self-created problems. The real solution to managing RSS feeds is to stop reading RSS feeds. It’s simple … when a purely optional “convenience” technology is causing stress, it’s time to re-evaluate at a pretty fundamental level.
Why Are You Reading All That News?

Sleep, Attention, and Memory: Not (Maybe) What You Thought

Most of us can remember at least one occasion on which we sat in class, half asleep, trying to pay attention and learn what we were being taught – to no avail. Why is this?
Sleep, Attention, and Memory: Not (Maybe) What You Thought

Reminders as Effective as Trainers at Exercise Enforcement

Find yourself falling behind on your fitness goals? A reminder system can be just as helpful as having a personal trainer to report to. That's according to researchers at Stanford University, where a study found that a group of exercisers who received reminder phone calls exercised an average of nearly 40 minutes per week more than those who were left to their own willpower.
Reminders as Effective as Trainers at Exercise Enforcement

Absurd Windows Errors Invade Planet

Reports all over the world confirm the worst: the best Windows error ever was just the beginning of a planetary invasion by alien forces using time-space-twisting software code. There's no other explanation for this gallery of demoniacally absurd errors.
Absurd Windows Errors Invade Planet

» Complete This Sentence

If anyone would like to try completing this sentence by figuring out the missing letters, please help out.
» Complete This Sentence

The Only 4 Principles of Weight Loss You Need To Know

Visit a nearby newsstand and I am sure that you will come across some magazines promoting miraculous weight-loss formulas. Sometimes they turn to the mythic properties of fruit, like with the “Lemon Diet” or with the “Papaya Diet.” Other times they just create special nutritional plans, say the “Low-Carb Diet.” There are also the magic workouts and exercises that are supposed to reduce your belly circumference by 10 centimeters in three days – while toning your muscles….

Come on!

The Only 4 Principles of Weight Loss You Need To Know

What Makes Us Moral

If the entire human species were a single individual, that person would long ago have been declared mad. The insanity would not lie in the anger and darkness of the human mind—though it can be a black and raging place indeed.
What Makes Us Moral

MySpace, Facebook a danger to our children?

Recently parents at an Australian private school received a notice from the principal advising them that incidents of cyber bullying at the school had been discovered. The letter went on to warn parents that they should closely monitor the online activities of their children and stop them from joining social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. Is this sound advice or unnecessarily alarmist?
MySpace, Facebook a danger to our children?

25 Easy Ways to Fit in 10 Minutes of Exercise

Experts recommend working out 45 minutes to an hour a day (30 minutes for beginners) for weight loss and fitness. But if you're like most women, you don't always have a block of 30 to 60 minutes a day to devote exclusively to doing your workouts.
25 Easy Ways to Fit in 10 Minutes of Exercise

Is it healthier to be fit and fat—Or lazy and thin?

Are you a thin couch potato? Think that because you're slim, you don't have to work out? Wrong.
Is it healthier to be fit and fat—Or lazy and thin?

Strictly No Photography

Features user-submitted photos taken in all the places where photography is strictly off-limits. Concerts, museums, classified government installations, etc
Strictly No Photography

The 5 Myths of Positive Mental Attitude

Okay, so there’s no myth that I am a positive person, or at least striving to be one. However, I am aware that I’m not positive all the time. I am continuously working to become conscientious of my choices, thoughts and reactions. I frequently get asked about positive thinking, and I wanted to first clear up some points of confusion.
The 5 Myths of Positive Mental Attitude

Negative Calorie Foods: 15 Foods That Actually Burn More Calories Than They Contain

No, we’re not advocating the battle to see how few calories you can consume each day or promoting crash diets in any form or function; however, if you’re a snack-o-holic who can’t stop munching and crunching in between meals, try snacking on one of these negative calorie foods instead of gobbling down a cupcake or big bag of chips.
Negative Calorie Foods: 15 Foods That Actually Burn More Calories Than They Contain

I'll be so happy once I'm thin. Or rich. Or successful. Or engaged. Right?

Kate Harding makes several interesting arguments, but her key point is the tendency for people to think, “When I’m thin, I’ll be different. I’ll be more adventurous, or more sociable, or happier in my relationship.” Her message: No, you won’t. You’ll still be yourself.
I'll be so happy once I'm thin. Or rich. Or successful. Or engaged. Right?

What we learn from the dying

My first day of medical school was a series of inspirational talks. The tone, set by the anesthesiologist who led off, was lighthearted. His subject was "Everything you will ever need to know about medicine." This turned out to be just three things, which he had us all recite: Air goes in and out. Blood goes round and round. Oxygen is good. Just keep these in mind, he said, and you'll be okay.
What we learn from the dying

Tip of the Week: Leave Your Desk Messy «

Spend too much time worrying about getting your desk perfectly clean and your work perfectly excellent and you might put yourself at risk for psychological problems.
Tip of the Week: Leave Your Desk Messy «

May I take your order?

It was a night like any other - people inviting us out to a steakhouse. We get there, we are seated in a private room. All was well. Niceties aside, we prepare to order. I ask my wife what I should get. She says, “Go ahead and look at the menu - it’s in English.”
“Oh Really?”
May I take your order?

New Words on the Block: Back When "Movies" Were Young

When we think about new additions to the English lexicon such as locavore or tase (or other candidates for the New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year), it’s easy to forget that some of our most common vocabulary items were once awkward newcomers, like transfer students desperately trying to fit in with the other kids in class.
New Words on the Block: Back When "Movies" Were Young

Cool Tool: BookGem

Reader-diners know the pain of trying to balance a thick book and a meal without losing your page or spilling food.
Cool Tool: BookGem