pileofcrapola

You want to work on your car yourself? Great. Here are ten tools you're going to need to wrench in your garage, driveway, parking lot, or wherever else you fix your car.

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Whenever I ask people what the most difficult habit is for them to break, late night snacking is often the first thing they say. We're all susceptible to curling up with a snack while we wind down our day, but it can be an unhealthy habit that's hard to kick.

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Here's a cool project for anyone who bikes after sundown: Turn an IKEA lamp into a solar powered bike light, complete with extra bright LEDs and light animations.

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A well-stocked pantry can make all the difference when it comes to making fast, healthy meals. Let's make a list of the "quick fix" ingredients that help us cook more quickly without sacrificing flavor or quality.

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The IIHS' list of best cars for a teenager recommended some safe cars, but not much in the way for fun. These are the ten best for a young auto enthusiast.

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I scream, you scream, we all want to make loud noises over that frozen dessert made of sweetened milk fat. So hearing that Uber is offering an on-demand ice cream delivery in certain cities today is no doubt quickening many hearts. But at $5 a pop, is the stuff even good?

The headline is a lie, first of all, because there are many more than two ice creams involved [list of cities here].

Menu items also vary by city, so it’s understandable that some offerings are more delicious than others (hope you’re representing with frozen custard, Wisconsin) and it sounds like those getting soft serve are faring better.

Consumerist heard from friends in Boston and New York City today (full disclosure: I know these people), with Mary sending her $50 receipt for herself and coworkers reading, “Well, this just happened” and Liz saying she also “got cool shades” with her choice of vanilla or chocolate soft serve with sprinkles from a Mister Softee truck.

There’s also Consumerist reader Kelly, who’s pretty pleased, tweeting to us: “We’re in great shape here in Detroit! Made to order ice cream sandwiches.”

While those folks had a good experience, others aren’t so lucky. Hence, the two kinds of tales, or whatever. Dickens!

Reader Karen wrote to us on Twitter, saying, “This is the Uber_BOS ‘ice cream’ that was delivered to me. It’s not even noon! This is liquid & sticks.”

Update: Karen’s tweeting paid off.

Oh my Gosh! So much better. Thanks, Nick & Co. at @Uber_BOS/@uber for the fresh #ubericecream! We’re a happy office! ow.ly/i/6h8z9—
Karen Galvez (@karen_g) July 18, 2014

On the one hand, this is way more convenient than having to stalk the ice cream man — you just choose ICE CREAM on the app instead of Uber or UberX and it shows up.

But my 7-year-old self is slightly sad at the thought of not feeling that immediate adrenaline kick as soon as the ice cream truck’s song tinkles through the air, and of having to chase it down the block screaming “MOOOOMMMMM!!! I NEED MONEY!!! MOOMMMMM!”

In our July Recall Roundup for food, the Great Chia Seed Recall of 2014 continues, ice cream has mismatched flavor labels, and there are mysterious substances in the ham. Oh, and Foster Farms finally recalled some of the chicken blamed for a recent salmonella outbreak.

Our monthly Recall Roundups have grown so expansive that we’ve had to separate them into two separate posts: one for consumer goods, and one for consumables.

If you have any of these listed items in your pantry, refrigerator, or freezer, first check the varieties and flavors against the ones listed on the recall site or press release, then check expiration date or lot numbers.

When there’s a match, don’t panic! If an item is listed as having undeclared walnuts and you’re not allergic to walnuts, for example, you don’t have to do anything at all. You can keep the item, eat it, not eat it, or return it to the store or the manufacturer for your own peace of mind.

Items that may be contaminated with pathogens or foreign objects are worrisome for everyone, and you should return them to the retail store where you bought them, or contact the company for a refund and further instructions.

DESSERTS AND SNACKS
Organic Traditions Ultimate Superfood Trail Mix – possible Salmonella contamination
Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Chocolate Chip Ice Cream – may contain delicious, dangerous peanuts
Oriya Organics Superfood Protein Medley – possible Salmonella contamination

PACKAGED FOODS
Uncle Ben’s Garden Vegetable with Peas, Carrots & Corn pouches – may contain undeclared gluten (barley)

CONDIMENTS AND SPICES
Richard’s Too Good BBQ, Hot, and Teriyaki sauces – may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum (botulism)

SUPPLEMENTS
Organic Traditions Sprouted Chia Seed Powder – possible Salmonella contamination
Organic Traditions Sprouted Chia & Flax Seed Powder – possible Salmonella contamination
Organic Traditions Chia Seeds – possible Salmonella contamination

MEAT
Foodmaxx, Foster Farms, Kroger, Safeway, Savemart, Sunland, and Valbest chicken products – possible Salmonella contamination – no longer on the market but may lurk in customers’ frezers (also read our posts about this delayed recall and why it may hurt Foster Farms financially)
Wegmans Food You Feel Good About Organic Ham – may be contaminated with “extraneous materials.”

If you’re getting an email from Petco trumpeting a “Black Friday In July!” promo that’s only serving to tick you off, you’re not alone. Consumerist readers Matthew and Kelso both forwarded their sighs along with a Petco email that is very, very excited about a not-so-great deal that just serves to make people cranky. Because it’s not Black Friday. It’s just Friday, in July.

And the exciting, email-worthy promotion that’s supposed to mirror the excitement (?) of lining up outside stores in the wee hours of a cold November morning to get your hands on a severely discounted big TV or a really sweet [fill in other electronics thing people like]? You have to spend $75 to trigger the promo and get free shipping, and it doesn’t even include dog or cat food, or lizard food if your lizards eat crickets.

“Can we please not make this a thing? It’s bad enough already around Thanksgiving,” writes reader Matthew, not realizing that it’s already too late. “Plus, this doesn’t seem quite so good – first, you have to spend $75 to get free shipping AND it ‘Excludes dog food, cat food, litter, and more.’ Apparently so much more that they couldn’t fit it all in the the footer of the email. Ugh.”

Other items you cannot buy online for your pet with this breathless promo: cat litter, dog litter, ice melter, wild bird food, live fish & rock, aquatic gravel and accents; crickets, live food and frozen food; out-of-stock items, Donations, Petco Gift Cards and eGift Cards. As well as really heavy things and certain delivery methods.

Kelso feels the same way about this whole thing, adding, “It’s Black Friday in July — again. And it’s only 30% (exclusions apply — I didn’t bother to look at what they are) [editor's note: now you do], which honestly isn’t all too much in terms of actual Black Friday deals, just saying’…”

Yes, you can still buy cat toys and dog collars and bird stands or whatever, so that’s great if you’ve got $75 to burn there. But let’s not get crazy and call something Black Friday just because you happen to have a minor discount on a Friday in July.

Caity Weaver of our estranged former parent site Gawker made a deal with her editor: if she could stay at TGI Friday’s from the start of the lunch hour until 1 A.M., munching on a single order of all-you-can-eat appetizers, she would get a week’s vacation. Apparently, eating mozzarella sticks is an endurance sport. At least at TGI Friday’s, where, Weaver reports, the sticks are bland and not good. At least you can get a lot of them?

Here we would normally summarize the post and quote highlights, but trust us: you need to go read the whole thing yourself.

We won’t even tell you whether she survived the ordeal (14 hours during which she wasn’t allowed to read a book, use the wi-fi, or anything else that would make 14 hours in a TGI Friday’s bearable) or finished all of the mozzarella sticks (she ordered 7 plates, and no one cut her off.)

Suddenly I’m very hungry, which I don’t think was supposed to be a reader’s reaction to this piece.

My 14-Hour Search for the End of TGI Friday’s Endless Appetizers [Gawker]

You want to wear a colander on your head in your driver’s license photo and call it a form of religious expression as a Pastafarian of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Go for it, say Austrian authorities. But first, you might have to prove you’re sane enough to be driving in the first place.

An Austrian atheist claiming his right to wear a pasta strainer as “religious headgear” in his official photos will be able to do so, after reading three years ago that you could only wear headgear in official pictures for confessional reasons and filing an application with the colander pics, reports the BBC.

When he applied back then, he said it was a requirement of his pastafarianism religion. It’s taken three years for his license to come through, but now that it has, a police spokesman explained that it wasn’t issued on religious grounds, but simply because he fulfilled the requirement of having his whole face visible.

“The photo was not approved on religious grounds. The only criterion for photos in driving licence applications is that the whole face must be visible,” said a Vienna police spokesman. He adds that it’s been ready since October 2009, but “it was not collected, that’s all there is to it”.

Authorities did require the man to get a doctor to sign off on his application, saying he’s “psychologically fit” to drive. Because the first thing someone might wonder when you insist on wearing a colander on your head is, well… never mind, who am I to judge?

“I didn’t know I was guilty of not collecting it,” the man explained of the delay. “That doesn’t alter the fact that it still took nearly a year [to be issued]“.

Austrian driver allowed ‘pastafarian’ headgear photo [BBC]

First of all, let’s all bow our heads and acknowledge the culinary efforts of a group of Harvard students who figured out how to put cake batter in a spray can [pause for acknowledgement]. Now that that’s done, don’t be silly, college kids! I don’t need to bake a cake — in the microwave, no less — with that invention, just spray it directly into my mouth for maximum tastiness.

Spray Cake started as a class project for the students, reports CBS Boston, and seemed kind of like a no-brainer to fill that important niche of sprayable edibles. Cheez Whiz, you are alone no more.

“Honestly, we were kind of shocked that it hadn’t been done before,” one of the students explains. “In the process of getting the patent made we were basically looking everywhere we could, high and low, for anyone who had done something like this in the past, but we couldn’t find it.”

The can is similar to a whipped cream container, and comes out of the nozzle pre-risen to cut down on baking time. Once you pop it in the microwave for a minute, it’s ready to eat.

The students say it’s organic and contains fewer chemicals than traditional box cakes. They’re now just looking for a local manufacturer, as they’ve already found a seller.

Again, get rid of the microwave. I’ll bake a cake in my stomach. That came out weirder than I meant it.

You can watch the video below if you’d like to see a guy dance near a microwave for a minute.

Spray Cake: Microwavable Cake Batter Invented By Harvard Students [CBS Boston]

When the barn’s a rockin’, farmers know not to come a-knockin’. But all those stinky animals might want to get it on outside, too, so rural residents who are against a new housing development near their farms are fighting back by warning people what they might potentially see, hear and smell.

The rural residents of a Florida community don’t want a proposed housing development of about 80 homes to move in, reports WWSB, saying it would impact their lives and anyone else who wants to buy in the area. And besides, it just won’t fit in with all the animal stuff they’ve got going on.

There are about 20 mini farms in the Englewood area, “hobby farms,” as the woman who put up the signs explains. She raises sheep, chickens, horses, and peacocks, all for visitors who want to come and see animals.

The land is currently zoned for eight homes, which is just right, she says.

“They want to put 80 homes on what used to be an equestrian farm. We just don’t want to be changed in the zoning. We are farms, and Englewood should have farms.”

Her sign reads:

NOTICE
THIS PROPERTY IS A FARM
FARMS HAVE ANIMALS
ANIMALS MAKE
FUNNY SOUNDS
SMELL BAD
& HAVE SEX OUTDOORS
UNLESS YOU CAN TOLERATE NOISE, ODORS & OUTDOOR SEX
DON’T BUY PROPERTY
NEXT TO A FARM!

“People like it. Nobody is offended,” she says, adding it’s meant as a warning to those who might move into the development who will likely want to get rid of any disturbances nearby.

“It’s like moving next to an airport and complaining about the traffic patterns. If you move next to a farm, we have animals that make noises and they smell,” she explains. “A lot of people enjoy them but they are not meant for everybody.”

At least planes can’t get busy with each other, right? Or… CAN THEY? (They can’t, they’re planes.)

Englewood sign warns of farm animals having sex [WWSB]

Over on Reddit, one poster in the the /r/personalfinance subreddit shared the terrible thing that happened to his fiancée when she visited her local Department of Motor Vehicles to change the address on her driver’s license. It’s not clear what happened or exactly how, but what they know is that someone issued a new license with her name and information and a different ID number. This person also has her Social Security number.

As you might know, that information can lead to untold mischief, and the identity thief has had a lot of fun. They opened credit card accounts at major retailers like Lowe’s, Macy’s, and Kohl’s. Well, they tried to, but by then her account had been frozen. More on that in a bit.

Not that his fiancée is alone in being a victim of identity theft: it’s one of the top crimes that people complain to the Federal Trade Commission about. What should you do when you’re a victim of identity theft? So far, the couple has done everything that one should after identity theft takes place:

File a police report, even if the theft or breach occurred outside of your local area. You’ll need to start a documentation trail for the future as you swat down bogus accounts, maybe far into the future.

Get it on tape. If cards are opened in your name and/or used at a brick-and-mortar store, contact that store right away to find out whether they have surveillance cameras. Stores sometimes don’t save that footage for long.

Don’t pay for identity theft protection. You can do much of this yourself for free, by having a free service like CreditKarma alert you when you take out a new line of credit (or someone else does under your name.) Pull your credit report from one of the three bureaus every four months from AnnualCreditReport.com to check for anomalies. Another inexpensive option is to freeze your credit report, which prevents anyone, including you, from opening new lines of credit.

My fiancee had her identity stolen by the people at the DMV… [Reddit]

Three years ago, Cargill recalled 36 million pounds of Salmonella-tainted ground turkey (followed by a later recall of another 185,000 pounds of the stuff). The particular strain of Salmonella involved in these recalls and the subsequent outbreak that sickened at least 134 people in 36 states, is resistant to antibiotics, likely because of all the drugs put into the turkeys’ feed solely because it has th side-effect of encouraging tissue growth. Yet only now is the agribusiness giant thinking maybe it shouldn’t carelessly shove antibiotics down the throats of the birds it sells to consumers.

Cargill announced yesterday that it is removing antibiotics from its signature Honeysuckle White and Shady Brook Farms turkey brands.

Wait — I misspoke.

Cargill says it will no longer use antibiotics for growth promotion in these turkeys. That’s a big difference, as the company is still keeping the door open for use of the drugs for “treatment of illness and disease prevention.”

Ahhh… the beloved disease prevention loophole.

See, any doctor worth her wall full of degrees will tell you that it’s a bad idea for humans to constantly be given antibiotics for “disease prevention” because it will reduce the drug’s effectiveness and encourage the development of drug-resistant microbes; instead of preventing a disease, you’re opening yourself up to worse ailments.

But when it comes to farm animals, the big meat and big pharma industries are of the mind that feeding livestock a steady stream of antibiotics will somehow keep them from getting sick. Of course, this drug-filled “prevention” diet — which accounts for around 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. — will still result in bigger poultry, pigs, and cattle.

Cargill’s president of its Turkey & Cooked Meats business, says that “ending the use of antibiotics to promote growth in turkeys is an important step that provides consumers with nutritious and affordable options,” but it’s all just smoke and mirrors if the company continues to allow large-volume preventative use of the drugs.

The folks at Keep Antibiotics Working, a group seeking to curb the unnecessary over-use of antimicrobials in farm animals says it’s good that Cargill is at least acknowledging that its customers may not want drug-filled meat, but is concerned that the new policy isn’t strong enough.

“By failing to extend its pledge to antibiotics used for routine disease prevention — which can be identical to growth promotion in terms of dose, duration, and prevalence — the company is leaving open a giant loophole in its policy,” writes KAW in statement. “Unless Cargill addresses this important oversight, its policy will do little to curb the risk of antibiotic resistant bacteria in their turkeys, or protect their consumers.”

Two weeks ago, a funeral home in Fort Worth, Texas received a “notice to vacate” letter from their landlord, and they moved their business from the premises. The problem is, some customers were allegedly left behind. By “customers,” we mean eight people who are deceased were found in the building. Now the mortuary is being treated as a crime scene.

The brothers who own the business insist that they haven’t done anything wrong. The confusion, they told CBS Dallas, is the fault of their landlord, and all of the bodies were embalmed and waiting for their final disposition. “I have some embalmed bodies back there, which ya’ll had seen them bring out,” one of the owners told a reporter. “They were already in the casket; already had a funeral [and] one was ready to go to Nairobi.”

Police continue to investigate the situation, whether it’s a misunderstanding or not. The unattended deceased are now in the care of the county medical examiner’s office, which is trying to identify them. Families who believe their loved ones may have still been in the funeral home when it closed have been asked to contact the medical examiner.

Fort Worth Police Find Dead Bodies Inside Vacant Funeral Home [CBS Dallas]

Paranormal team to hold seminar, investigation at Ben Lomond Inside NoVA On July 21, 1861, the day of the First Battle of Manassas, Confederates commandeered the Ben Lomond House in Manassas for use as a field hospital. It was soon overwhelmed with the dying and wounded. Many believe the suffering at the house laid the ...

Fairfax County Animal Watch Washington Post The following incidents were reported by the Animal Control Division of the Fairfax County Police Department. For information, call 703-246-2253. Wounded raccoon euthanized: Richelieu Dr., 2200 block, 7:27 a.m. July 2. An animal control officer ... and more »

An unlicensed funeral director accused of stealing more than $12,000 from an elderly couple could face more charges after authorities found 12 bodies and the cremated remains of more than 40 others in two self-storage units he rented, authorities said Friday.

A Connecticut state trooper has been found guilty of charges he stole cash and jewelry from a dying accident victim.

What the Veterans Administration failed to do for double amputee Michael Sulsona in two years, some New York hardware store workers delivered in an hour: They fixed his broken wheelchair.

A 26-year-old man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter more than a year after he hugged a 14-month-old child so tightly that the boy stopped breathing and died, Orangeburg County Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said Wednesday.

The National Zoo says it has euthanized its Sulawesi macaque, the last of a group donated to the zoo almost two decades ago.

The Redskins offered to build a skate park for the Fort Yuma Kwatsan Tribe this week, but the head of the foundation leading the drive to build the park rejected the offer, calling it a "bribe."

With the Silver Line opening soon in Virginia, WTOP is answering some of the questions you will have.

A week's stay in a cabin or campsite is up for grabs in a photo contest sponsored by the Virginia State Parks system.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command is conducting exercise in the National Capital Region until 5:30 a.m.

At a time when election officials are struggling to convince more Americans to vote, advocates for the disabled say thousands of people with autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy and other intellectual or developmental disabilities have been systematically denied that basic right in the nation's largest county.

Maryland state police say a trooper shot a pit bull that grabbed her baton and then bit her.

WTOP anchor Michelle Murillo moonlights as a historical reenactor when she's not working at the Glass-Enclosed Nerve Center. This is her story.

A new report is aiming to get teen drivers behind safer, affordable used vehicles.