pileofcrapola

Leaving the country for the first time can be a bit scary to think about, but a little preparation can go a long way. Here are a few things to think about before you depart so that you'll be ready for adventure.

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Cats love to jump up on to things. If you're having trouble keeping your cats off certain places, you have to train them by positively reinforcing a "yes" areas for every "no" area.

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Planning a road trip is rarely just about finding the fastest route between two points. You also have to consider stops for gas, bathrooms, food, or entertainment. Alongways is a Google Maps mashup that lets you plug in your origin and destination, and search for anything you want along the way, from "pizza" to "dog parks" and everything in-between.

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With the advance of phones, tablets, and ereaders, ebooks have become a popular reading standard. Still, there's something about the feel of an old-fashioned paper book. We asked you which one is better and why, and here are some of the best arguments we heard.

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Prioritization is an important part of a productive day, and Harvard Business Review reminds us that an important aspect of that is cutting out the people who don't matter so you can get the things done you have to.

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If you feel like you're always being taken advantage of, and it seems like you're on the losing end of every situation, it's time to turn things around. Here's a few ways you can change your mindset and become the strong, assertive person you want to be.

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For many recipes, firm tofu requires pressure to squeeze out the moisture. Pouring boiled salt water over the tofu gives you similar results in a fraction of the time.

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If you're camping or have guests over, inflatable mattresses are handy. If you can't find a pump, you'll tire quickly inflating it yourself. A trash bag inflates your mattress and saves your lungs.

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Many recipes call for you to hold ingredients together with kitchen twine. If you don't have any on hand, dental floss makes a great substitute.

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The makers of GoPro, the portable camera consumers can use to capture their every adventure, have ventured into the world of the unknown: a dog’s exploits.

The canine-specific product, called GoPro Fetch, aims to provide an inside look at just what man’s best friend does when man isn’t around, Business Insider reports.

GoPro Fetch comes with a dog harness, a camera tether and the software to set up the new product with any model of GoPro camera. The kit doesn’t actually come with the camera; that’s something you have to buy separately.

Officials with the company say the device can be mounted either on the dog’s back or hanging from its chest for a variety of views including running, jumping, playing catch and terrorizing the cat – you know, whatever the pooch does in his/her spare time.

The harness, which fits all sizes of dogs from 15 to 120 pounds, is reportedly comfortable (we have yet to hear from any actual dogs on their thoughts) and won’t prevent any dog-like activities.

Unfortunately, it looks like the animal-themed GoPro is only targeted to dogs. Don’t get me wrong, I like dogs, but I’d be much more interested in a GoPro for cats.

They might not be as adventurous as their canine-brethren, but cats are sneaky and calculating, so it would probably do a lot of good to watch their every move and make sure they aren’t planning some kind of hostile takeover.

There’s Finally A Way To See Exactly What Your Dog’s Doing Throughout The Day [Business Insider]

In the Recall Roundup for August, dangerous beanbag chairs and overheating heaters could lurk around every corner, and there could be a defective car in your garage right now. Don’t be scared, though. The CPSC is here to protect us all from toppling bar stools and overheating night lights.

Home
Ace Bayou Corporation bean bag chairs – can be unzipped, so children crawl inside
SolarWorld solar panels – may corrode and pose electric shock or fire risk
Vornado Air Electric Space Heaters – may overheat, melt, and catch fire
ESL and Interlogix brand 400/500 series smoke detectors – may fail to alert users to a fire, which is kind of the point
DD Brand Tin Candles – high flame may ignite container
Lea Industries Lighted Night Stands – may overheat and scorch carpet
Spencer Bar Stools (Costco) – footrest may break
Pottery Barn Donovan Bar Stools – footrest may break
Philips “Lightolier” Decorative Glass Lens – lens may shatter
Far East Brokers Glass Beverage Dispenser Set (Publix) – metal stand may break
Nantucket Distributing (Christmas Tree Shops) Wicker Outdoor Patio Set Chairs – rear legs may break

Pets
Top Fin aquarium heaters (Petsmart) – electric shock hazard

Sports & Outdoors
Attwood Kayak and Watersports Storage Hanger – may “release unexpectedly,” or drop your kayak for no reason
Arctic Cat snowmobiles – risk of fuel leak
JPC Equestrian Stirrup Leathers – strap may crack and break
Avigo 20 Inch Turn N’ Burn Youth Bicycles (Toys ‘R’ Us) – front wheel may detach
Kawasaki Teryx4 Recreational Off-highway Vehicles – sticks may poke through floorboards
Trayl TRN Mountain Bikes (Sports Authority) – brakes may suddenly fail
GT Brand Mountain Bicycles – wheel hubs may break, causing brakes to fail

Electronics
Vizio E-series 39- and 42-inch Full-Array LED flat panel televisions – TV might fall
Popkiller USB car charger adapters, power adapters and 8-pin charger (Apple Lightning) cables – fire and electric shock hazard

Babies & Kids
Brita children’s water bottles with cartoon characters – bottles may shatter or crack
Franklin & Ben Mason 4-in-1 Convertible Cribs – child may become trapped between front panels
L.L. Bean Fisherman’s and Open Stitch Children’s Sweaters – choking hazard
Tommee Tippee Monitor with Movement Sensor Pad – baby may pull sensor pad cord into crib
Dream On Me Dinah High Chairs – baby may fall through leg opening and become trapped
Oeuf Sparrow cribs – top rail may detach from crib

Toys
Buckyballs and Buckycubes – magnets may stick together in the digestive tract

Vehicle Recallapalooza
2015 Honda Fit – recalled to improve crash resistance
2013 and 2014 Ford Focus ST and Escape – wiring problem could cut power to the engine
2012 to 2014 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX – cars may fail to stay parked
2013 to 2014 Ford Flex and Taurus; Lincoln MKT and MKS – cars may fail to stay parked
2010 to 2015 Land Rover LR2 and 2012 to 2013 Range Rover Evoque – front passenger airbag may fail to deploy
A whole bunch of Buicks, Cadillacs, Chevrolets, Saturns, and Pontiacs – various electric, safety restraint, brake fluid problems
2006 to 2007 Buick Rainier, Chevy Trailblazer, GMC Envoy, Isuzu Ascender, and Saab 9-7X – vehicles may catch fire, even while parked
2001 to 2006 Hyundai Santa Fe – rusted coil spring could shatter
2011 Hyundai Sonata – brake line could leak
2011 to 2014 Hyundai Sonata – car may not stay parked
2007 to 2012 Hyundai Veracruz – oil may leak
2002 to 2004 Infiniti and Nissan Maxima, Pathfinder and Sentra – may have defective airbags
Various Chevrolets, Cadillacs, and Buicks – at this point it may be more effective just to list the cars that aren’t recalled.

Do you enjoy Pizza Hut’s products, but wish they could be served up by someone with a surly, anti-customer attitude, no food service or management skills, and with a generous sprinkling of cat hair on everything? Perhaps you would enjoy the fantasy world in current Pizza Hut ads in Japan, where cats have been hired to run a Pizza Hut franchise because OH MY GOODNESS LOOK AT THE KITTY.

It is exactly as difficult as you might think for a cat to dress itself in a restaurant uniform.

You don’t have to speak Japanese, or even speak cat, to understand these videos.

How does a cat deliver a pizza? We’re glad you asked. Very slowly.

After thoroughly studying a map of the neighborhood.

Sorry if you’re somewhere that you aren’t able to watch videos. Will it make you feel a little better if we made a GIF of one of the Pizza Cat working on a spreadsheet?

It Looks Like Pizza Hut in Japan Is Now Totally Being Run by Cats [AdWeek]

If you’ve used the Internet for more than a few minutes, you know what clickbait is: headlines written to entice you to click on a link, boosting its traffic and its visibility on Facebook. Now Facebook is fighting back…and you’ll never believe how they’re doing it!

In true clickbait fashion, that first paragraph was misleading. You will, in fact, believe how Facebook is trying to figure out which links are worth their users’ time, and which aren’t, by keeping track of how long a link that you’ve clicked on held your attention. Say you clicked on a post that promised “1 Amazing Trick To Paying Off Your Mortgage In 5 Years Or Less!” but when you clicked through, the only advice was to earn more money and spend less of it. Sure, that’s good advice, but it’s not very interesting. You close the window and go back to Facebook.

That doesn’t matter: the site has what it needed from you. First, it needed your click: the act of clicking on something on Facebook that looks interesting boosts its visibility to other users, giving crappy, clickbaiting posts visibility out of proportion to their quality. Until now, Facebook’s algorithms assume that if a certain percentage of people who see something on their feed click on it, more people will want to click on it too. Where you have to click through to the post to find out what it’s even about, this concept doesn’t work.

Facebook announced today that they’re changing how things work in order to stop rewarding sites that practice the dark art of clickbait. How they’ll do that is simple: Facebook will simply keep track of how long it takes you to return to Facebook after you check out a link. In their blog post about the change, the company explains:

If people click on an article and spend time reading it, it suggests they clicked through to something valuable. If they click through to a link and then come straight back to Facebook, it suggests that they didn’t find something that they wanted. With this update we will start taking into account whether people tend to spend time away from Facebook after clicking a link, or whether they tend to come straight back to News Feed when we rank stories with links in them.

Makes sense. Another thing that Facebook will keep track of is whether people comment on, share, or discuss stories with their friends. While this would seem to feed the plague of people commenting on stories after they only read the headline, it also keeps track of how engaged users are with the content they’re reading. “If a lot of people click on the link, but relatively few people click Like, or comment on the story when they return to Facebook, this also suggests that people didn’t click through to something that was valuable to them,” Facebook explained in their blog post.

Meanwhile, the Consumerist staff had far too much fun coming up with even more godawful headlines for this post:

• Facebook’s Latest News Feed Experiment Will Shock You
• 1 Weird Trick That Facebook Is Going To Do To Your Newsfeed (Your Friends Hate Them!)
• The 5 Times Facebook Changed Your Newsfeed
• At 2 Minutes In, Facebook Changed Everything
• Here’s The Article About Facebook’s Changes To Your Newsfeed That Everyone Is Talking About
• The Super Bowl Starts At 8:30 ET February 1, 2015

News Feed FYI: Click-baiting [Facebook]

While it would be great for companies if all consumers agreed to go steady with just one of its suitors, choosing say, one fast food restaurant above all the rest and devoting themselves entirely to that relationship, that’s just not how it works. We consumers like to play the field, especially millennials, and that’s bad news for companies like McDonald’s.

The fast food chain is in the middle of its worst slump in ten years, reports the Wall Street Journal in an in-depth look at McDonald’s recent sales losses.

To blame? Millenials, the young customers who are daring to disperse favors among the many food options, including new favorites Chipotle and and Five Guys, according to data the WSJ had restaurant consultancy Technomic Inc. compile.

These millennials don’t want to commit, and are often looking for healthier fare than what has been the mainstays of fast food.

“The millennial generation has a wider range of choices than any generation before them,” McDonald’s Global Chief Brand Officer Steve Easterbrook said in an interview. “They’re promiscuous in their brand loyalty. It makes it harder work for all of us to earn the loyalty of the millennial generation.”

That’s why we’re seeing things like the McWrap, points out Gothamist, which isn’t exactly new, novel health food, but apparently works as millennial bait anyway. Because nothing says, “be mine alone” like a 600-calorie snack.

McDonald’s has been having a tough go of it in the media recently, along with its disappointing numbers. A growing effort to push fast food chains like McDonald’s to raise the minimum wage has kept the company in the news. Not to mention bad feedback over its tone deaf advice about how workers should tip the pool cleaner during the holidays and a sample budget provided to employees that seems wholly unrealistic.

That, and the fact that Consumer Reports subscribers rated McDonald’s burgers as the worst-tasting of 20 burger chains, and you’d better believe McDonald’s is really wishing its customers were ready to go steady right about now.

“Diners, especially younger adults in the millennial generation, may be more willing to go out of their way to get a tasty meal,” Consumer Reports pointed out.

McDonald’s Faces ‘Millennial’ Challenge [Wall Street Journal]

We asked, and we received: After putting out the call for evidence of Arby’s new off-menu “Meat Mountain” sandwich, featuring an array of meats stacked like a towering, $10 homage to carnivores everywhere, one of our obliging readers has provided a snap of the sandwich in the wild.

Consumerist reader Joe from San Antonio sent in proof of his recently spent $10, and says he feels more like a patriot now than he did before.

“The trickiest part was trying to keep the chicken fingers on there while eating it,” he explains. “That being said, it could be done if you just compressed it a little bit. With the amount of meat you’re getting, it seemed easily worth the $10.”

No need for fireworks and flag-waving, Joe adds.

“As far as taste goes, it was like a big mouthful of ‘Murica/Freedom. Getting a bit of a headache, but 10/10 would order again.”

I’ve gotta say that while it is indeed, a large pile of meat, it also appears a bit sad and haphazard, like it knows it’s supposed to be this big mountain and everything? But it just feels exhausted trying to hold up all that meat.

Again, if anyone out there decides to take on the Meat Mountain, please feel free to send pics to tips@consumerist.com, post them on our Facebook page or tweet them to us at @consumerist on Twitter.

We would all be a lot richer if we could each invent our own money but alas, that’s just not how it works (I’d be a millionaire if only I could buy stuff with high fives, sigh). Which is why officials are none too pleased with the operators of two Taco Bell locations in New York, after a worker claimed she was forced to pass fake cash to customers as change.

The mother of a 17-year-old who worked at both restaurants has filed a class-action lawsuit in Manhattan federal court on behalf of her daughter against the operators of the two Taco Bell locations, reports the New York Post.

The teen claims that her bosses “manipulated” her into handing out scammy money while worked at the counter, and is demanding $5 million in real money damages in the lawsuit.

“The girl has been quite distraught since this happened,” said the family’s lawyer, calling the fake bills “terrible” copies that were smaller than real $20 bills, something that appeared to have been printed at home and dried to wear them out.

At the heart of the scheme was a move by the restaurants to accept bigger bills like $50s and $100s, something many businesses have explicit policies against. Then, the lawsuit alleges, cashiers could pass back fake $20s.

The girl claims she was taken to task by her bosses and accused of accidentally accepting two fake bills. She claims she was told she’d have to either pay it back out of her own money or give the fake cash to customers.

She refused to continue the alleged charade after two weeks, the lawsuit claims, and was subsequently called into a meeting with four supervisors who told her undercover police officers were there to arrest her.

What they didn’t know is that she was taping the meeting, as well as another conversation allegedly capturing her bosses ordering her to hand out fake money, the Post reports.

“Fearing for her freedom and safety,” she took the tapes and a fake bill to the police as evidence.

Both the NYPD and the franchisees are staying mum so far.

Taco Bell forced workers to give out bogus money: suit [New York Post]

UPDATE: We’ve got photographic evidence of the Meat Mountain in the wild from one of our intrepid readers. Check it out here.

Like my Uncle Kevin used to say, “if you build it, they will come.” And if you build a mountain out of meat and show people pictures of it, some people are probably going to want to eat it. Hence, the birth of Arby’s new off-menu Meat Mountain offering.

Arby’s wanted to make sure everyone knew it didn’t only sell those roast beef sandwiches slathered in cheese, so it made a poster showcasing a stacked tower of all the other meats on the menu, reports the Washington Post.

Once they built it, the calls started to come.

“People started coming in and asking, ‘Can I have that?’” Christopher Fuller, the company’s vice president of brand and corporate communications told the Post.

The answer is now yes; yes, you can have a $10 pile of meat between two buns, but you’ll have to know to ask for it as it won’t be on the menu.

That mound includes: 2 chicken tenders; 1.5 oz. of roast turkey; 1.5 oz. of ham; 1 slice of Swiss cheese; 1.5 oz. of corned beef; 1.5 oz. brisket; 1.5 oz. of Angus steak; 1 slice of cheddar cheese; 1.5 oz. roast beef and 3 half-strips of bacon.

If any of you strong-hearted readers decides to take on the Meat Mountain, please feel free to send pics to tips@consumerist.com, post them on our Facebook page or tweet them to us at @consumerist on Twitter.

*Thanks for the link, David!

The $10 “Meat Mountain” from Arby’s: It’s exactly what it sounds like. [Washington Post]

For the last two decades, one slot machine in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has been the darling of players, with someone reportedly giving it a whirl every five seconds. But it’s never coughed up the big jackpot in all its years… until now.

Gamblers from around the world would do things like kiss the machine, caress it, wait in line for 30 minutes to play it, and generally fawn over the thing, reports the Las Vegas Sun, all in an effort to coax it to cough up the jackpot.

And now a couple from New Hampshire can claim to have conquered the stingy machine, walking out this weekend with a $2.4 million jackpot, after playing it for just five minutes on $100 with a maximum bet of $3.

The signs aligned, and bang, instant millionaires.

“MGM Grand is delighted to award this historic jackpot to the lucky winner of the ‘Lion’s Share,’ and we couldn’t be happier for the winners and their family and friends,” said Scott Sibella, president and COO of MGM Grand.

The couple is planning on using the money for their children and grandchildren’s college educations.

“It was surreal when it happened. I just sat there thinking it hadn’t actually happened,” he told The Sun.

After 20 years, ‘Lion’s Share’ slot machine at MGM Grand pays out $2.4 million jackpot [The Las Vegas Sun]

Airlines have long since discovered that they can make billions by charging consumers for everything, from daring to have luggage to calling customer service. Now, it seems, their travel partners up the line are joining them in the bold new future, as hotels find ever more creative ways of adding to your bill.

Hotels have found a way to bounce back from the recession, Mashable reports, and that way is through fees, fees, and more fees. And while we all know that you’ll pay way more than you need to for taking a can of Coke or a candy bar out of the mini-fridge, the current era of surprise surcharges goes way beyond sugar fixes and tiny liquor bottles.

Need to leave your bag in the bell closet for a couple hours since you’ve got a late flight? There’s a fee. Some hotels now tack on a fee for the safe in your room, despite the fact that you might well never use it. And then of course there are the hotels that charge for internet access… despite the fact that the Starbucks or McDonald’s across the street will have wi-fi you can use for free.

$1 or $2 here and there add up. According to Mashable, in 2014 hotels will take in $2.25 billion — yes, with a B — from add-ons and fees. That’s about double what they were getting a decade ago, and it’s a 6% increase over last year.

Las Vegas is the place to be for every possible add-on fee, it seems. The major resorts on the strip have been figuring out every possible way to get even more cash out of their hopefully-newly-flush customers. For example, several put water and snacks on trays that are loaded with weight sensors. If you move an item — even just to gawk at its ridiculous price tag for ten seconds and put it back down — you get a charge automatically added to your room bill. (Yours truly can confirm this was happening as long ago as 2008, when we declined to buy the $8 bottle of water sitting on the dresser.)

There are $30 fees for checking in early or checking out late, or another $30 for guaranteeing a room-type preference (like two queen beds or one king). Want to use the mini-fridge for your own stuff? Add $25 to the bill for a “personal use fee.”

And when you’ve had enough of Vegas bleeding you dry and want to get the heck out of town with what’s left of your wallet and your dignity, there’s a kiosk in the hotel lobby where you can print your boarding pass. That’ll be a mere $7.95, please.

Hotels Are Making Record Profits From Extra Fees on Stuff You Don’t Use [Mashable]

Prince William County news in brief Washington Post Freedom High School and Fred M. Lynn and Godwin middle schools recently received a grant totaling $554,853 to have 21st Century Community Learning Centers at their schools for the next three years. The centers, which provide after-school and summer ...

Prince William County community calendar, Aug. 28-Sept. 3, 2014 Washington Post “Angles and Curves,” lotus photographs printed on metal by Gerry Gantt, jewelry by Sherry Chaples of Springfield and carved eggshells by Tina Kannapel of Fairfax. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, through Monday, Artists' Undertaking, 309 Mill St., Occoquan. Free. and more »

Prince William County crime report Washington Post These were among incidents reported by Prince William County police. For information, call 703-792-7245. BRISTOW AREA. THEFTS/BREAK-INS. Dawkins Ridge Lane, 11700 block, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 14 to 8:45 a.m. Aug. 15. A video game system was stolen ... and more »

Three playful lion cubs made their public debut Wednesday, pouncing their way into a large enclosure at the Johannesburg Zoo.

ear-old firing-range instructor was killed Monday while showing a 9-year-old girl how to use an Uzi submachine gun. Charles Vacca's death at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range in White Hills, Arizona, has raised questions about allowing young children access to such weapons at firing ranges.

Kids in Maryland and D.C. are back in school this week. Students in northern Virginia return next week. It's a good time to get the homework habit right.

Richard Attenborough was a lord, an Oscar-winning director for the much-lauded "Gandhi" and an unflagging pillar to British cinema. But Attenborough, who died Sunday at 90, was best known as Dickie.

Man's best friend deserves a little recognition on Tuesday, which is National Dog Day.

This week the Brookeville, Md.,celebrates its role as the U.S. capital for a day after Capital was set ablaze by the British.

Researchers say a whale that died in the Elizabeth River had ingested a piece of plastic that perhaps prevented it from eating.

Authorities say a total of six arrests have now been made in the gang-related death of a man whose body was found wrapped in a carpet in Manassas.