Getting a package delivered is easy. Sending it back is not. Repacking, printing labels and shipping it back up to the seller is an increasingly familiar experience for online shoppers. In America 21% of online orders, worth some $218bn, were returned in 2021, according to the National Retail Federation, up from 18% in 2020. For clothing and shoes it can reach around 40%. It is a headache for retailers.

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A pile-up of factors has increased the cost of financing a vehicle to a point where the average monthly loan payment hit a record $781 in July, according to the analytics company J.D. Power. In personal finance terms, the average numbers make financing a new vehicle look close to insupportable.

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To help job-seekers find the best remote jobs that allow them to work from anywhere in the world, FlexJobs has identified the top companies hiring for work-from-anywhere jobs in 2022 by analyzing its database and seeing which companies had the highest volume of work-from-anywhere job postings between January and June 2022. 

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“Interviews are like dating and you might as well be honest at the outset,” says Kelli Mason, chief operating officer of JobSage, an employee transparency platform. “We also know that people are scared, and they’re scared for good reason. There are questions that hiring managers don’t like, and if the hiring manager doesn’t like a line of questioning, they might consciously or subconsciously penalize the candidate for asking. In an ideal world, a candidate should not be afraid to ask a question, but we don’t live in an ideal world.”

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We've narrowed down the supplements that are worth trying to help you reach your fitness goals.

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Thor is dropping workouts on the regular now, so it was only right I put one to the test

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When Jurassic Park stomped into theaters during the summer of 1993, audiences suddenly became familiar with predators of the past like Dilophosaurus and Velociraptor. Right around that time, real-life paleontologists were figuring out an even bigger velociraptor relative, a dinosaur that has become a rock star in its own right.

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To understand what was going on at the genetic level among look-alikes, scientists collaborated with the Canadian photographer François Brunelle. Since 1999, Brunelle has been traveling around the world to capture intimate portraits of strangers who look nearly identical to one another for his "I'm not a look-alike!" project.

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8:30 a.m. I work at a university doing events, so my summers are a good time to refuel the tank.  For me, that means waking up, making coffee, and sitting on my porch and reading. I’m surrounded by really smart people and often I feel self-conscious about not being well-read enough. Today, I’m trying to finish The Sympathizer.

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Lately, my back has been hurting. I did something weird in the gym, resulting in a dull ache, and now I’m taking it easy. I appreciate the feedback the pain provides, because I would like to be able to walk upright for a few more decades and don’t want to risk a more permanent injury. Still, I don’t enjoy it, so I’ve been taking acetaminophen to blunt my discomfort.

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Investing can feel very good when things are going well. It can also feel very not good when things are not going well. Case in point: If you were investing (or, let’s be honest here, speculating) in crypto in the fall of 2021, you probably were much happier with the situation than, say, if you were doing so in the summer of 2022.

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The graphic is of data from the sixth edition of the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy's "Who Pays" series, which tracks tax data for all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The last time the nonprofit released data was in 2018, but it is expected to release updated findings later this year.

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"Oooooooooooooooh," the audience gasped at the image of a manila envelope splayed across the screen before them. It was 2008, and Steve Jobs, the digital messiah himself, was holding court at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, dressed in his signature presentation attire of turtleneck, jeans, and New Balance sneakers. At the time, laptops looked mostly like squished cinder blocks, with thick and bulky frames and about as much sex appeal as Donald Trump on a golf outing. Jobs had a tradition of saving big announcements until the end of a presentation—"one more thing" for the faithful followers—and this year was no exception. "It's so thin, it even fits inside one of these envelopes that we've seen floating around the office," Jobs said as he pulled the first MacBook Air out of a manila envelope, like a doctor delivering a baby. This, of course, ushered in more "oohs," "aahs," claps, and cheers from the audience as they beheld a silver laptop—the thinnest computer ever made.

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There is a better E-Mail Client in the Market

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After 75 years of Indian independence, we have a low-quality, pro-private, hierarchical school systemImage: ShutterstockWhen India became independent in 1947, Indian leaders were aware of the dismal state of education in the country. Crude literacy in undivided India was only 16 percent because of the low penetration of basic education, which could be attributed not only to the British government's apathy towards the development of the Indian masses but also to the culture of denial of education to the underprivileged sections of society, including women. Therefore, while enacting the Constitution, pro-education and anti-caste groups demanded that education be made a fundamental right. However, others were not interested in changing the status quo, citing the non-availability of resources to fulfil a constitutional commitment. In this competing political atmosphere, the Constituent Assembly in 1949 adopted Article 45 as a non-judicial provision of India’s constitution which directed the State to provide, within ten years, free and compulsory education to all children until they attain the age of fourteen years.  

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Read on to explore and examine how singlehood has been defined throughout history and pop culture, as well as how demographic factors, office culture, and tax codes can contribute to disparate experiences of single people. Plus, the importance of life choice representation, and the power and pleasure of eating, traveling, and thriving solo.

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Welcome, once again, to the upside down. As the Premier League enters its third season of cut-and-shut schedules, relegated again to an insistent voice at the edge of larger things, it is tempting to wonder exactly when this state of flux is going to end; at what point the self-proclaimed world's most important league will ever find its way back from the dark place. Or, indeed, if things will ever quite be the same again.

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This year's trade deadline had it all. Here are grades for all 30 teams, based on how much they improved and other factors.

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Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal is a puzzle-box show with no easy answers.

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Over six seasons, Koffee With Karan has seen it all: A poker-faced Salman Khan claiming to be a virgin and saving himself for marriage; a guileless Alia Bhatt hazarding a guess that Prithviraj Chauhan was the president of the country; an impish Kareena Kapoor Khan quizzing Priyanka Chopra about where she got her accent from—only to be breezily rebuffed, “The same place where your boyfriend got his from.” For almost two decades, the iconic couch has served as a coveted confessional, drawing millions across the country into its lacquered echelons of celebrity gossip and scandal—and it is easy to see why.

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If you’re anything like me, the last time you bought apple cider vinegar, it was part of some dubious cleanse or wellness scheme. I bought a bottle of Bragg’s—the gold standard for neo-hippie purity tonics—in the hopes that the murky brown fluid would reverse the effects of too much decadent living.

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Juicy, tender shrimp packed with plenty of garlic.

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We will never find the Fountain of Youth people fantasized about centuries ago, but, out of our woe, we can make games. Games let you live again and again in eternally perfect, preternaturally strong bodies, and for the friends in novelist Gabrielle Zevin’s latest book Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, this is more than enough.

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Space exploration game No Man’s Sky is a famous example of redemption for developer Hello Games. The game launched to mixed reviews in 2016 but eventually became far more than what players could have expected. Featuring over 18 quintillion (!) planets, an endless universe to explore, space combat, intergalactic trading, base-building, customizable mech suits, and over 20 free major expansions, it’s clear No Man’s Sky is truly a one-of-a-kind video game. Even more impressive is the fact that No Man’s Sky is available on Valve’s Steam Deck handheld, allowing you to take the entire universe with you on the go. While No Man’s Sky is a blast on any platform, it’s best on Steam Deck. Here’s why.

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NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic. This information is shared with social media, sponsorship, analytics, and other vendors or service providers. See details.

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Should we tell her?

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FBI agents who searched Mar-a-Lago removed 11 sets of classified documents, including several marked top secret, according to documents unsealed in Florida federal court on Friday. The warrant and list of items taken were made public after Trump said he did not object to their release. read more

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It was a revealing sign of the times when the Supreme Court last week, in response to a lawsuit from the Republican state attorneys general in Texas and Louisiana, blocked President Joe Biden's administration from changing a key element of federal immigration policy.

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Joey Hadden expected her first cruise to be relaxing. But she found the boat to be too crowded, the lines too long, and the tour buses too hot.

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On an overcast August afternoon, Henry Sanford guides a small, wooden boat through Nantucket Harbor, passing Alerion sailboats and Hinckley yachts to reach the island’s Easy Street basin. He cuts the outboard motor when he reaches Old North Wharf, and points out a row of tiny waterfront cottages. Ranging in size from about 350 square feet to approximately 2,200 square feet, these quaint cabins have sold for as much as $6.7 million each, putting them in line with some of the most expensive real estate in the world on a square-foot basis.

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While building his first company, RentLinx, throughout his 20's, Schneider lived a very modest lifestyle. He still brags about the 1999 Ford Explorer he bought used and how he paid himself a low salary of $36,000 per year despite being a CEO and living in a high-cost-of-living area. All the while, he was still persistent about investing the way his parents had taught him at 16 years old — in low-cost index funds inside a Roth IRA.

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Store brands are shrouded in secrecy. Who makes them?

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Need resume help? Jermaine Murray, a career coach and recruiter who has helped people land jobs at companies like Google, Facebook and Uber, says that skills over three years old are consider "outdated." He offers insight into what hiring managers never want to see on resumes.

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#1 Money does grow on trees

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With her husband near death from an antibiotic-resistant superbug, a scientist found a cure no one had used in the US -- intravenous injections of viruses called phages -- and convinced the medical system to save his life.

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NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic. This information is shared with social media, sponsorship, analytics, and other vendors or service providers. See details.

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Newton’s third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, when a human takes a step, we push against the Earth and the Earth pushes back, propelling us forward. But this only works thanks to friction. Without friction (or with minimal friction, for example, when there is a slimy banana peel on the ground) there is no push – we just slide straight over the ground and can’t move forward, falling unceremoniously back to Earth.

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The moon's about to become a busy place. Following the Artemis 1 launch scheduled for next week, on subsequent missions NASA and its partners will send astronauts to explore the surface and assemble a station in lunar orbit. China's and Russia's space agencies plan to survey the moon's water ice and build a shared research station. And companies like Astrobotic and Moon Express seek to send landers, experiments, and eventually cargo for paying customers.

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Expert productivity tips and procrastination-busting hacks to keep you in the zone.

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It's impossible to be 'real' on social media – and embracing that is the only way it can be fun anymore.

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Student loans can take a toll on a person’s bank account, but they can be just as taxing to one’s mental health. “It definitely can be a huge weight,” says Jonathan D. Friedman, a clinical psychologist with Baker Street Behavioral Health. And that weight, he explains, can spread out across a person’s life in a variety of ways, affecting everything from their self-worth to their relationships with money, family, and self-care.

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Although fears of a serious economic recession—or worse—have eased a little, no one can agree on how healthy the U.S. economy actually is. The numbers are all over the place. The stock market is in a bear market, inflation has gone down a bit but is still painfully high, consumer spending is down; but unemployment remains surprisingly low, job growth is soaring, and overall Americans’ debt-to-savings ratio is...pretty good?

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There is growing recognition that rapid technology development is producing society-scale risks: state and private surveillance, widespread labor automation, ascending monopoly and oligopoly power, stagnant productivity growth, algorithmic discrimination, and the catastrophic risks posed by advances in fields like AI and biotechnology. Less often discussed, but in my view no less important, is the loss of potential advances that lack short-term or market-legible benefits. These include vaccine development for emerging diseases and open source platforms for basic digital affordances like identity and communication.

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In Mashable’s new three-part episode of our series on the digital age's dark side, Kernel Panic, we explore a startlingly advanced computer network developed in Salvador Allende's Chile of the 1970s. Called Project Cybersyn, the network was a centerpiece of Allende's effort to modernize the Chilean economy. It was developed in parallel with the American networks that would become the internet, at a moment in time in which President Nixon was trying to undermine the Chilean economy and overthrow Allende, the first democratically elected Marxist leader in Latin America.

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If you’re unfamiliar with the term, nepo babies (short for “nepotism babies”) are essentially celebrities who have been ushered into stardom through Hollywood’s back door, propped open for them by one or two rich and famous parents. Obviously, nepo babies are not a Gen Z-specific phenomenon – there’s Angelina Jolie, Liza Minnelli, Sofia Coppola, etc etc – but interest in celebrities’ backgrounds has piqued in recent years. There’s even a whole community on TikTok dedicated to ‘exposing’ nepo babies where videos rack up millions of views.

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More than 2,000 years ago, in a temple in the city of Borsippa in ancient Mesopotamia, in what is now modern-day Iraq, a student was doing his homework. His name was Nabu-kusurshu, and he was training to be a temple brewer. His duties involved brewing beer for religious offerings, but also, learning to keep administrative records on clay tablets in cuneiform script, and preserving ancient hymns by making copies of worn-out tablets. These daily tasks, and his devotion to beer, writing and knowledge, made him part of an extraordinarily resilient literary legacy.

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Among the six million Black people who moved out of the Deep South from 1916 to ’70, the “Great Migration” chronicled by Isabel Wilkerson in The Warmth of Other Suns, were the parents of Huey Newton, who would go on to head the Black Panther party, and the parents of Jimi Hendrix, who would go on to set his electric guitar, and the rock world, on fire.

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Quarterback Tom Brady was retired during the 2022 NFL offseason for just 40 days before opting to return for a 23rd season that could (maybe?) be his last, tight end Rob Gronkowski recently decided to hang up his cleats and defensive tackle Aaron Donald inked a massive contract extension this summer to make him the game's highest-paid non-QB after considering retirement himself. It all got us thinking about where these legends of the game stack up all time at their respective positions.

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Not all hobbies are created equal: Some people spend years chasing mythical beasts, while others track down strangers' graves or collect rare Cheetos and old beer cans. Dive in for a delightful exploration of some truly eccentric preoccupations.

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What do 'Disney homes' reveal about us?

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From regrowing vegetables (no soil needed!) to deliciously repurposing leftovers, there are plenty of creative ways to stretch out the lifespan of your food.

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Emily Mayhew, PhD, an assistant professor of food science and human nutrition at Michigan State University, told Healthline, "It's very common in the food industry to link 'liking' to specific sensory properties. If you work on ice cream you might want to know if its creaminess makes people like it more or like it less. This is just taking it one step further to find the specific molecules in the food that are driving the liking."

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Last week, Wizards of the Coast announced its plans for what the world’s most popular roleplaying game, Dungeons & Dragons, will look like in the next few years. Alongside a refresh of the rules (which Wizards promises will be fully compatible with every fifth edition book that’s been published previously), some long-neglected, fan-favorite settings are finally making a return. What’s more, a new digital toolset that uses Unreal Engine 5 to render maps and miniatures will do all of the imagining, and maybe the math, for you. New rules will get debated and can always be cast aside in favor of house rules, so that doesn’t concern me. A push for a more complex set of 3D tools, however, I think runs the risk of altering not just the game, but potentially the hobby itself.

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Ed. note: Out May 11, Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry is author Jason Schreier’s second book investigating the inner workings of the video game industry. In the book, he dives into how a number of high profile game studios fell apart — and below, we have an excerpt covering some of the challenges BioShock Infinite studio Irrational Games went through when making the game. Copyright © 2021 by Jason Schreier. Reprinted with permission of Grand Central Publishing. All rights reserved.

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Parenting advice on screentime, birthday parties, and tipping.

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I was in the kitchen making my world-famous dragon eggs dinner (eggs scrambled with cut-up hot dogs and cheese) when I felt a vibration in my pocket. It was an app notification from our local school. My twelve-year-old daughter, Ruby, had missed turning in her Spanish assignment, which had been due exactly twelve seconds before.

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It has now been six months since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Since then, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed and millions more people displaced in a brutal war that has upended international politics. Stay informed with this curated guide to the best reporting and analysis about the unfolding conflict. Plus, resources for understanding the historical and global context of the war in Ukraine. Updated: 8/25/22, 5 p.m. ET

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Here Lever brought to life his dream: a beautiful model village to house his workers, named Port Sunlight after his company’s most popular product. Comprising 800 houses and amenities like a hospital and art gallery, Lever’s workers also benefited from welfare, educational and recreational schemes funded by their employer. It was a far cry from the existence of the average Edwardian factory employee, crammed into grimy and overcrowded accommodation. 

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Natacha de Mahieu arrived at the edge of Obersee, a remote lake surrounded by lush green mountains and dramatic waterfalls in a south-east corner of Germany, in August 2021. It was chilly; rain pelted down. "It was not so fun to be there. It was so cold and everything was wet," De Mahieu, 26, says from her home in Brussels, laughing.

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On September 7, 1822, on the shores of Ipiranga Brook, a young prince drew his sword and shouted, “Independence or death!” thus proclaiming the sovereignty of Brazil. Precisely two hundred years later, the country will solemnly celebrate the bicentennial of its independence. Most likely, Dom Pedro I, the protagonist of this story, would love to attend these celebrations with all his heart. And most astonishingly, he will.

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Mind mapping has been used to bring out the best of a person’s creativity and potential. It’s an important technique for visual brainstorming, as well as idea development. Mind maps can also help to bring out more creativity into your day to day life and enhance memory. Get started mind mapping by picking a medium, starting in the center, allowing yourself to draw or write as you need to, and making connections, as well as other techniques.

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Most people want to be nicer, yet when it comes to performing acts of kindness for others, they hold back. Researchers are now pinpointing a few simple, yet surprising, reasons why and motivating us to overcome them.

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In March 2021, the whole world saw one of the largest cargo ships in existence - 400 metres long, weighing 265,000 tonnes, loaded with 20,000 shipping containers - get stuck in the Suez canal. For six days, tiny tugs tried to nudge the EverGiven off a sandbar. Waiting at both ends of the canal were more than 300 cargo ships and tankers, carrying petrol, semiconductors, microchips, scrunchie hair bands, sneakers, hand-held travel steamers, ice-cream-makers, novelty socks and electric milk-frothers. As the global supply chain ground to a halt, we became aware that 90% of everything in our homes - clothes, appliances, food - has, at some point, been transported by sea.

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A minute before midnight on 21 July 2021, as passengers staggered sleepily through Manchester airport, I stood wringing my hands in the glow of a vending machine that was seven feet tall, conspicuously branded with the name of its owner - BRODERICK - and positioned like a clever trap between arrivals and the taxi rank. Standard agonies. Sweet or savoury? Liquid or something to munch? I opted for Doritos, keying in a three-digit code and touching my card to the reader so that the packet moved jerkily forwards, propelled by a churning plastic spiral and tipped into the well of the machine. My Doritos landed with a thwap, a sound that always brings relief to the vending enthusiast, because there hasn't been a mechanical miscue. Judged by the clock, which now read 12am, it was the UK's first vending-machine sale of the day.

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After more than 30 years in business, there is one thing I can guarantee: rapid change. The business world is like an ocean current: in constant motion as industries innovate and technology changes at an ever-increasing rate. The most effective leaders embrace change and don’t hesitate to adapt. Change is constant, but I also believe there are foundational building blocks of leadership that stand the test of time. Regardless of the industry, company, or moment in time, the characteristics that most successful leaders embody remain the same. I share my point of view on this topic of leadership in hopes that readers can learn from it. That being said, I also welcome different perspectives as I continually evolve as a leader myself. Whether it’s younger, aspiring leaders full of passion and curiosity or experienced leaders eager to sharpen their skills and approaches, I hope you will find this article useful and relevant.Here are 12 keys to becoming an effective leader:

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One of the big benefits promised by remote work is the end of "productivity theater." If an employee is a hundred miles away from the boss, why should they bother creating yet another project-tracking document or scheduling pointless meetings just to appear busy? Instead, why not slip in 20 minutes of yoga or feed your cat until you actually have something to do? 

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When Tae Bo was all the rage in the late 1990s, Amanda Biers Melcher dove in head first. Living in LA, she says she’s tried “all of the workouts” — cardio barre, Bikram yoga when it was the (literally) hot thing, etc. But there was something special about the martial arts-inspired cardio fitness craze.

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Julia Hawkins insists we should all try new things. She would know—she started running at 100 and became an age-group ace by 101.

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The rise of powerful new technology means that humanity must confront the risk of its own demise. The invention of nuclear weaponry, for example, has already shown just how quickly humanity’s destructive power could grow. The atomic bomb was a thousand times more powerful than conventional explosives; many hydrogen bombs were a thousand times more powerful again. Within decades, the USA and USSR between them had created over ten thousand nuclear bombs. The next generation of weapons of mass destruction, such as bioweapons by engineered viruses, could dramatically increase humanity’s destructive power again—to the point that an all-out war could threaten all human life.

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