pileofcrapola

Most of us have a knife block in our kitchen, but not everyone has the knowledge of a master chef. This graphic explains the proper use of teach type of kitchen knife, along with a few useful tips.

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Your grill has served you well over the long summer, so make sure you treat it right with a good cleaning. If you don't have a wire brush handy, here's a quick and natural way to clean your grill grate.

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That speedy new car might look cool, but there's a good possibility you'll earn yourself a ticket with it. According to a recent report, these are the most ticketed cars in the US.

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Spills are inevitable in any workshop or garage. For quick cleanup use leftover sawdust as a poor-man's desiccant.

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Whether your daily dress is a pair of jeans and a t-shirt or a neatly pressed skirt or suit, odds are you put at least a little thought into how you look before you leave the house. Luckily there are a few easy things you can do to look your best, no matter what you wear, that are worth remembering when you give yourself that final look in the mirror in the morning. Let's make a list of them.

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While you’re sitting there wondering if you can just fly this goshdarn plane itself, there could be some very interesting reasons for your flight to be delayed. Sure, there are crew issues and mechanical problems, but there’s also the very real threat from live seafood seeking to escape their confines in a plane’s cargo hold.

A US Airways flight from New York LaGuardia to Charlotte Douglas International in North Carolina left about a half hour late last night, which in itself isn’t news, and really isn’t that bad.

But the reason for the delay is definitely going to be one of those stories passengers will relay with glee: Some live crabs from a shipment of seafood apparently escaped their container, spilling out into the plane’s cargo hold and forcing the airline to clean’em up before the flight could leave, reports the Charlotte Observer.

“They were small, not Alaskan King crabs,” a US Airways spokesman said, adding that there were “a decent number of them.”

The plane had originated in Charlotte, but it’s unclear who shipped the crabs and whether or not any crabby lives were ended prematurely that day, and if so, how many.

Live crabs get loose, delay US Airways flight to Charlotte [Charlotte Observer]

Do you sit and read every word of every document that you sign? Probably not. Maybe you should, but it would take up valuable time that could be spent “liking” pictures of your friend’s new puppy on Facebook. Jacob Goldstein of NPR’s Planet Money decided to read all 23 pages of his new insurance policy, and he had some questions. Mostly about the likelihood of volcanic eruptions in Brooklyn.

Insurance policies are very, very specific about what they do or don’t cover. How specific? Goldstein’s policy and most others, will cover the loss of his home and possessions if a volcano spews lava into his house, but not if it is destroyed by a missile during a declared war. If there’s no war on and his house is struck by a missile, then it’s covered.

There are good reasons for these seemingly random distinctions between what insurance will and won’t cover. One of those reasons is “moral hazard,” which is why insurance companies don’t cover, say, bedbugs. Otherwise, you might haul in furniture from the street and not take sensible anti-bedbug precautions.

The other reason is “correlated risk,” the risk that other homes would also be destroyed at the same time as yours. Think of it this way: your house or your town being hit by a missile when there’s no war is pretty unlikely, and might be an isolated incident. If someone has declared war on the United States, your house and your town probably won’t be alone.

Here’s another way to think of it: spelling things out in an insurance policy pre-empts lawsuits. A 23-page insurance policy is 23 pages’ worth of things that won’t end up in court if there’s a dispute between you and your insurer.

Bedbugs, Lava And Bowling Balls: Inside My Homeowners Insurance Policy [NPR]
Episode 570: The Fine Print [Planet Money]

“Oh, goodie! I get to sit in coach for X amount of hours! I can’t wait to stretch out and relax,” said no one ever before flying, because in economy class, luxurious leg room and a sweet ratio of cushion to rump comfort is not what you’re paying for. That being said, some airlines are better at pleasing our behinds than others, according to a new poll released this week.

Fare-comparison site Airfarewatchdog polled people to find which domestic airline has the most comfortable seats in coach — because of course, business or first-class seats are like treating your bottom to a spa day in the air in comparison, but that’ll cost you — and picked JetBlue as the winner, reports the Chicago Tribune.

JetBlue came in at 21% of respondents saying it has the best coach seats, nabbing the crown from the major airlines that didn’t even come in near the top.

Next up was Alaska Airlines (17%), Hawaiian Airlines (14%) and Frontier (13%).

Falling toward the bottom were the rest of the U.S. carriers, who all came in with only single-digit percentages. In order from meh to lowest ranked: Allegiant, Southwest, AirTran, Delta, United, Spirit, American and US Airways.

As one would guess, leg room is a big factor — JetBlue has 33 inches of pitch in its cabins, which is the space between the rows, while 31 inches is the norm for many airlines flying Boeing 737s.

“Apparently, even 1 or 2 inches makes all the difference,” George Hobica, president of Airfarewatchdog said. “JetBlue is famous for giving passengers more legroom than any other domestic airline in all economy class seats, so it’s no surprise that consumers recognize them as having the most comfortable seating.”

Spirit Airlines fared surprisingly well, he added, by not coming in dead last with only 28 inches of pitch.

Other airlines are cutting down on space by slimming the size of their seats with reduced padding, which sure, doesn’t shrink leg room, but is nonetheless not necessarily a boon for your bum.

Poll: JetBlue, Alaska Air have most comfortable seats [Chicago Tribune]

Sure, everyone giggled when they saw the headline that a man in Florida was arrested for “molesting [a] vending machine.” While you may have pictured a humiliated man caught performing unspeakable acts with a coin return slot, the real world is out to ruin the strange places where our imaginations go.

The real crime was more violent than that. Police say that a man was caught on surveillance video using a sledgehammer and an ax to force a vending machine open at a car wash in Daytona Beach. We assume that he was after money, because nobody brings a sledgehammer to harvest some free air fresheners. Police used evidence from that incident to arrest a man who was already a suspect in similar crimes against car wash vending machines. He has now been charged with felony criminal mischief and molesting a vending machine, and remains a suspect in the other car wash crimes.

The words in laws don’t always mean the same thing as in everyday life: people in Florida can also be charged with “shooting or throwing a missile into a vehicle,” which simply means throwing a thing into someone’s car. Any thing. Not a piece of artillery.

We generally use the word “molest” in the context of sex crimes against minors, but that isn’t what it means here. “Molest” simply means to interfere with the normal operation of the machine by damaging it or reaching inside to steal things. Here’s the actual statute:

Whoever maliciously or mischievously molests, opens, breaks, injures, damages, or inserts any part of her or his body or any instrument into any coin-operated vending machine or parking meter of another, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

Okay, the “inserts any part of her or his body” part could get interesting, but in this case, “molesting” a vending machine just means tampering with it in some way.

Volusia man charged with molesting vending machine [News 13]

The ride-sharing app Uber is an immensely popular wherever alternative to taxis wherever it expands. It has one feature that is great for keeping up with demand during busy times, but less great if you’re cost-conscious: prices multiply according to demand for cars. Now a popular restaurant in San Francisco wants to try that idea…with delivery fees.

Sprig is a restaurant that’s delivery-only, and charges a flat fee per meal, plus a delivery charge. Sometimes that delivery charge goes down to zero during slow meal times. Now Sprig has announced that instead of shutting down orders when things are too busy, they’re going to experiment with “dynamic delivery fees.”

It makes sense: I know that I tend to tip delivery drivers more when it’s, say, Super Bowl Sunday, or the busiest pizza times on Friday nights. Sprig’s plan is to take that system and make it mandatory. If customers don’t want to pay the higher fees, they can just wait until the sustainable and organic feeding frenzy is over: one option within the mobile ordering app is to receive a notification when delivery fees fall again.

Part of the reason is the company’s ambition to expand outside of San Francisco. To do that, they’re also no longer covering the 8.75% sales tax on meals in addition to charging more according to demand for meals.

Take Our Poll

THOSE TASTY SPRIG MEALS, NOW WITH A SIDE ORDER OF DYNAMIC DELIVERY FEES [FastCompany]
Growing Sprig [Medium]

Even as a growing number of people — from consumers to scientists to physicians — expressed concerns about the overuse of antibiotics in animal feed, a new FDA report shows that farmers continued adding more drugs to their animals’ diets, and that almost every one of those antibiotics was purchased and administered without a prescription.

Antibiotics given to farm animals already account for around 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S., and according to the FDA’s latest report [PDF, between 2009 and 2012, the total quantity of just those antibiotics deemed medically important to humans that were sold or distributed for use in food-producing animals increased by 16%.

More than two-thirds (67%) of the medically important drugs fed to animals in 2012 were tetracyclines, which are used in humans to treat everything from urinary tract infections to chlamydia to Lyme disease, but whose use has declined because of the prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria.

Various forms of penicillin accounted for 11% of these drugs, macrolides — used to treat strep, pneumonia, staph infections and other ailments in humans — made up 7% of the drugs fed to animals, while sulfonamides (6%), aminoglycosides (3%), lincosamides (2%), and cephalosporins (less than 1%) brought up the rear of the drug train.

The FDA gives no specific reason for the jump in sales of these important antibiotics. But even if, as the drug and livestock industry now claims, these antibiotics are being used judiciously and for disease prevention, only a tiny fraction of them are actually prescribed by veterinarians.

During the same three-year time period in which sales increased by 16%, the FDA says that the percentage of medically important antimicrobials sold over-the-counter to farmers effectively remained flat at around 97%.

And the FDA data seems to call shenanigans on this “disease prevention” mantra that the industries trot out to defend their use of antibiotics. In 2012, antibiotics with a proven use for growth-promotion outsold antibiotics with only a therapeutic use by a ratio of 2.2:1.

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter from NY, a vocal opponent of the use on antibiotics in farm animals, says that the FDA report backs up warnings from the scientific community about the too-frequent use of these drugs.

“We know that the overuse of antibiotics on the farm is leading to more antibiotic resistant pathogens that threaten humans – and FDA’s own figures show that the agency’s inaction is making the problem worse,” Rep. Slaughter said in a statement. “Twenty-three thousand Americans die every year from antibiotic-resistant pathogens, and until the FDA enacts a mandatory regulation that puts human health before industry profits, Americans will continue to live under an increased threat of untreatable infection.”

“Antibiotic use in U.S. livestock is huge and continues to escalate, even while many leading meat exporting countries have halved their livestock usage,” says David Wallinga, MD, from Keep Antibiotics Working. “If the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services are serious about addressing the threat to the American public from worsening resistance, it cannot adopt a ‘wait and see’ stance. It must push the U.S. livestock sector to lead, not follow in reducing use of precious antibiotics.”

Two weeks ago, an act of vandalism and animal cruelty occurred in a shed housing chickens belonging to meat producer Foster Farms. Someone entered a farm through a hole in the fence and clubbed 920 chickens to death for no clear reason.

No one is pretending that the chickens were being raised for any purpose other than becoming meat, but modern methods of chicken slaughter are generally quicker and a lot more humane than clubbing the birds to death with blunt instrument. In a statement, a Foster Farms representative called the crime an “unconscionable act of animal cruelty.”

This week, four suspects were arrested for the chicken clubbing, and they were charged with felony burglary and felony cruelty to animals. Three of the suspects are under 18.

“It would take a long time to do it,” one detective investigating the crime told the Los Angeles Times. “People should be alarmed at something like that.”

Authorities used tips from the public to find the suspects. It probably helped that Foster Farms and the Animal Legal Defense Fund had each offered $5,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest of the people responsible for this crime.

“It is the express policy of Foster Farms to treat its birds humanely and with compassion,” a company representative told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Any intentional act to the contrary is unacceptable.”

What we don’t know yet is why the suspects massacred chickens. It’s also a strange coincidence that 920 chickens were killed, and the crime occurred on September 20th.

Fresno teens arrested in 920 chicken deaths [San Francisco Chronicle]
Intruder uses golf club to kill nearly 1,000 Foster Farms chickens [LA Times]

Proving that a walrus emergency is an emergency for everyone, the Federal Aviation Administration is taking preventative measures to make sure no baby marine mammals get stampeded, rerouting flights around an Alaska beach where a big cluster of 35,000 walruses have gathered.

If an airplane flying overhead were to spook all those walruses — I really just want to call’em walri — the whole gang could up and start moving around in a panic, putting the wee baby bairn walruses in danger as well as the whole group, reports The Guardian.

The walruses ended up crowding on that beach in northwestern Alaska because of melting sea ice, prompting officials to warn not only gawkers away but also pilots flying nearby.

It’s the largest group of walruses to flee to land ever observed in the Arctic under US control, scientists say.

“You have all these animals that are normally distributed on a flat surface. When they lose their sea ice habitat and come ashore in places that are accessible – like flat, sandy beaches – they gather in large numbers, and it becomes like a giant pig pile,” Margaret Williams, managing director for the World Wildlife Fund’s Arctic program told The Guardian. “When they are disturbed it can cause stampedes in large numbers.”

As such, the FAA wants pilots to stay more than 2,000 feet in the air and half a mile away from the walrus pod. And helicopters have to stay up even higher at 3,000 feet and a mile away, as they’re louder.

US reroutes flights around Alaska beach in attempt to avoid walrus stampede [The Guardian]

Anyone familiar with Costco knows about the wide variety of free food samples that shoppers can score when pushing their oversized carts around one of the wholesale clubs. But as you’ve probably guessed, these samples aren’t just about providing free piecemeal lunches to customers.

The Atlantic’s Joe Pinsker recently took a look at the psychological underpinnings of free samples at Costco. Of course, since the company is so tight-lipped about a lot of the things it does, he had to rely on research and observations of others.

Here are some of the highlights from the Atlantic piece…

1. The samples may engender a sense of obligation in consumers
When you snack on that free sample of summer sausage, or wash it down with some free coconut water, there’s a chance you might feel like you should buy something.

“Reciprocity is a very, very strong instinct,” explains Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University. “If somebody does something for you… you really feel a rather surprisingly strong obligation to do something back for them.”

2. The samples might lead you to buy something similar
Maybe that coconut water didn’t knock your socks off, but it might have caused you think about another beverage that you do want, but that you hadn’t planned on buying.

“What samples do is they give you a particular desire for something,” says Ariely. “If I gave you a tiny bit of chocolate, all of a sudden it would remind you about the exact taste of chocolate and would increase your craving.”

Sure, the company that is sponsoring the samples might care that you buy something else, but for Costco, an impulse purchase is a definite win.

3. You’re more likely to buy when others are around
Pinsker cites a 2011 study from the UK on sampling that found that “Samplers with a heightened awareness of the presence of others at the sampling station may feel a level of social ‘pressure’ to make a post-sample purchase.”

So if a sample table just had free cookie bites sitting there without anyone to smile and hand them to you, shoppers wouldn’t feel as pressured to buy.

4. It’s ultimately about creating a distinct “Costco” atmosphere
Sure, other stores give out samples, but few are as linked to the notion of sampling as Costco. It’s something fun that brings shoppers back and makes the shopping experience more pleasant. Much like many Costco shoppers look forward to bargain (but reasonably tasty) hot dogs and pizza during their visit, they have come to associate the samples with a day at the ‘Co.

You should definitely check out Pinsker’s entire article for more insights on sampling and its role in Costco’s identity.

Because there is nothing more appealing than a slab of dark gray meat on a dark gray bun, McDonald’s Japan has followed Burger King’s lead and introduced a burger that doesn’t look like anything you’d really want to eat.

McDonald’s “Halloween” burger is a limited-time offer that follows only weeks after BK Japan unveiled its black Kuro Burger to much Internet buzz.

The McD’s offering is slightly more colorful than the BK competitor, since it uses good ol’ yellow cheese instead of the eerie jet-black slices. Additionally, the sesame seeds on the bun add some variation to the grayscale breading.

The above photo, Tweeted by Elite Daily, doesn’t seem to show it, but this other photo of the McDonald’s ads for the burger indicate some sort of black sauce between the beef patties and the bottom bun:

マクドナルド西武新宿駅前店でイカスミバーガー発見。奇妙で手はつけなかったけど一部店舗のみ先行？ http://t.co/3ZOSVmzBrM—
たくろう (@takuro88) September 25, 2014

As the NY Daily News points out, while McDonald’s might be trailing behind BK on this particular promotion, the company has used squid ink to darken its burgers before. In 2013, its Hong Kong restaurants sold a Black Burger with two beef patties, mashed potatoes and truffle sauce on a squid ink bun.

When something needs to get done, it needs to get done. And it’s awfully nice to hear that lately, local law enforcement have been stepping up to help finish jobs that can’t finish themselves. There were the cops who delivered a pizza after the delivery driver was in a car crash, and now some friendly firefighters have put themselves forward as lawn guys, mowing a man’s front yard after he lost consciousness.

Emergency personnel called to the scene in Corona, Calif., first provided lifesaving treatment to a man who had passed out while mowing the high grass on his lawn in the sun, reports CBS Los Angeles.

“I was cutting grass here, I feel dizzy a little bit, so I stand over by the car here,” the man remembers, noting that the grass was “so, so high.”

That’s when he fell face forward in the driveway, prompting someone to call for help.

After the ambulance pulled away to take the man to the hospital, the firefighters on the scene decided to stay at his house for a while.

“We all kind of looked at each other, kind of looked around at the lawn equipment and realized this family was going through a very traumatic event right now and they need some simple acts of kindness,” said a Fire Dept. Engineer.

So the five firefighters there finished mowing his lawn and cleaning up the grass, to the great appreciation of the man who says he fainted due to the heat and effort of mowing.

“I never had the experience like that before. I feel like safe,” he said.

It’s sort of like when I fall asleep eating cheese and wake to find that my cat has done me a solid and finished the job. But much, much better and kindhearted. Kudos, nice people of the world!

Corona Firefighters Save Man — And Then Finish Mowing His Lawn [CBS Los Angeles]

A wave of severe respiratory illnesses has swept the country in the last two months, propelled by what was long considered an uncommon germ.

A Swedish doctor says a woman has given birth to a baby after receiving a womb transplant, a world first.

A pit bull owner whose dogs fatally mauled a woman walking near his house faces the unusual prospect of spending up to life behind bars.

Deputies have arrested four young men -- one adult and three juveniles -- suspected of breaking into a Foster Farms chicken ranch and killing more than 900 birds with a golf club in California.

Red sports car have long been thought to incur the most traffic tickets, but a new study reveals which vehicles get the most traffic tickets.

The Metro Richmond Zoo says a second cheetah cub born last month has died.

Fairfax County Animal Watch Washington Post No incidents were reported by the Animal Control Division of the Fairfax County Police Department. For information, call 703-246-2253. FAIRFAX CITY. The following incidents were reported by the animal control section of the Fairfax City Police Department. and more »

Prince William County news in brief Washington Post The free Saturday bus service between eastern Prince William County and the Franconia-Springfield Metro Station has been extended until construction of the Interstate 95/395 Express Lanes is completed. Initially, the Potomac and Rappahannock ...

Having the perfect tool for a job doesn't do you any good if you can't find it when you need it. Here are a number of different toolbox options for keeping the right tools close at hand.

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Firefighters are always a call away, ready to tackle potentially dangerous situations. But while their job probably carries a ton of stress and responsibility, their methods and tricks can still apply to your job and everyday life.

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Some of us find it hard to just walk up to strangers and start talking—we get anxious and overthink the situation. Avoid the stress by making the decision to go up to the person within 3 seconds.

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Chrome: Many of you probably know how to create a site specific search within the Chrome Omnibox. You may not know that you can actually do it from lots of sites with a simple right click.

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There's a lot of momentum behind standing desks these days, and I happen to love mine. But if you want to be able to stand comfortably for more than a few hours at a time, you absolutely need a good anti-fatigue mat.

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Even though we learn a great deal in school, some of the most essential skills we need as adults aren't universally, formally taught. Here are some of the subjects and skills we wish we'd learned in school early on (and which you can still learn now. It's never too late!).

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