pileofcrapola

Surprise! Many of the things we think we're doing correctly are actually not the best ways to do them. This includes even basic, everyday things like cooking , driving , and even shaking hands (separately, of course). Let's take a look.

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Whether you have kids living at home or just the occasional child visitor, you should know about your home's danger zones. This infographic takes you room by room in the house to identify hazards.

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Writing a personal mission statement is a great way to decide what you really want to do with your life , but it's hard to know what to include in that statement. Fast Company has a few ideas to get you started.

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What parent hasn't lost their temper when a kid misbehaves? Of course a parent who hasn't lost their cool from time to time is a rarer than a unicorn, but losing your temper and yelling can be ineffective parenting. It's better for everyone if you keep your cool.

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Vegetable gardening is both an art and a science. Figuring out when and where to plant the vegetables, what pests to look out for, when to harvest, and all the other fine details could be enough to make anyone dizzy. Luckily, there's this infographic with all the info.

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Reserve America lets you reserve spots at campgrounds and public spaces around the country the same way you would book a room in a hotel. It's been connecting campers with campgrounds for years.

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If you plan on selling or donating your smartphone and want to make sure all of your data is off of it, make sure you do more than just factory reset through the phone's OS. Security researchers picked up several phones "wiped" this way, and found tons of data.

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One of the joys of camping is cooking round the fire, and eggs make a great start to the day. To avoid breaking eggs in a bag or cooler, pre-scramble them and pour them into a resealable plastic bottle. They'll survive the trip, and won't make a mess when you cook them.

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When you're going out, you want to keep your child occupied but don't want to lug around a bunch of heavy and odd-shaped toys. A good alternative is to custom-make this "portable activity kit" that is colorful, lightweight and compact.

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Staying at a hotel can be one of the most expensive aspects of traveling, especially if you go at the wrong time. Hotel search site trivago researched the price changes for 46 cities around the world to offer us these travel advice calendars—so you'll know when you'll get the best hotel rates.

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Ask your colleagues for their resumes and show them yours in return. You'll learn how you can better describe your job or company, and get insights on the skill sets you need for your career.

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Firefox: Some web sites don't let users copy text or paste their own, like PayPal which won't let you paste a password. This Firefox settings tweak gives you copy-paste functionality when sites try to take it away.

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Visitors to Disney World may have been a bit disappointed yesterday to find the Pirates of the Caribbean ride temporarily out of operation, but probably not as disappointed as the man who lost pieces of two fingers on the ride.

WKMG-TV in Orlando reports that the incident occurred early Thursday morning. The ride was shut down for inspection after an adult male was injured.

A friend of the man confirmed to WKMG that the man lost the tips of his right pinky and ring fingers, though it’s unclear exactly how.

Disney officials reopened the pirate-themed boat ride after determining that it was safe for park visitors.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you what you can and can’t be, friends. The world is your oyster, the sky is the limit, the cliche is yours to abuse and the rules are made to be broken. So when you’re a retailer, don’t think the only store that can have Target math.

Walmart and Home Depot aren’t holding back, adding to their own repertoires of weird pricing that makes you scratch your head and just go, “What the heck? I’d rather keep as much money in my wallet as possible, thanks.”

Consumerist reader Adam, who sounds like a delightful person and we’re so glad he wrote to us, snapped a few pics while shopping that show exactly why it’s good to read closely and do quick math in your head.

First, you can get 64 ounces of weed killer for $45.98 in one jug, or save yourself some moolah and grab two 32 ounce bottles of the stuff for $18.88 each. That’s $37.76, which means there must be $8.22 worth of magic in that 64-ounce bottle. Because otherwise why would you pay so much more? Because Target math. At Home Depot.

Moving on down the road to Walmart, we find the mysterious case of the more expensive two-pack, an occurrence which is all too common, in Consumerist experience.

Want two sticks of Right Guard? You can buy them in a twin pack for $5.97, which isn’t bad, or grab two single sticks of the same stuff for $2.97 each and spend only $5.94.

Maybe it’s only a few cents, but as wise men say, only fools fall in love and a penny saved is a penny earned. And a stitch in time saves nine, but that’s just more math and is unrelated.

The most we’ve ever received from an airline for being stuck on the tarmac for hours was some water and repeated assurances that we’d be moving shortly. But not so for passengers on one diverted Frontier Airlines flight where the pilot treated everyone on board to free pizza.

9News in Denver reports that the Frontier jet was en route from D.C. to Denver when it had to be diverted to Cheyenne, WY, because of bad weather on Monday night.

Knowing he and his passengers would be stuck in Wyoming for a while before being allowed to continue on to their destination, the pilot ordered 50 pizzas from Domino’s which were delivered to the plane and paid for the entire mega meal himself.

“If the need arises you need to take care of your family; you need to take care of your passengers,” explained the captain. “They are my responsibility the moment they step on the aircraft until they get off the aircraft.”

Have you seen the ads for Drain-FX, a product for unclogging pipes stuffed with things that really, really shouldn’t be in the plumbing of your house? You might wonder whether it’s all TV hype, or an infomercial product that does what it promises. Our colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports did, too, and they crammed their drains with a variety of substances to find the answer for all of us.

The answer is that it does work. The concept of the Drain-FX is that it takes water from your faucet and shoots it down the drain through a tube: sort of like a combination of a Water Pik and a pipe snake. Consumer Reports testers devised clogs out of kitchen and bathroom debris, and even stuffed one drain with nothing but human hair.

The good news is that the product cleared obstructions made from lard and rice and from soap, toothpaste, and hair easily. However, the 100% hair clog proved too tough for the product: it allowed some water to flow through the middle, but wasn’t able to dislodge the wad of hair.

Can the Drain-FX unclog your pipes? [Consumer Reports]

Former "Saturday Night Live" star Tracy Morgan has been released from a rehabilitation facility as he heals from serious injuries he suffered in a car crash that left a fellow comedian dead, his spokesman said Saturday.

hirds of the immigrants were ordered deported, while about 17 percent qualified for relief. Four years earlier, about 82 percent of the initial cases decided by the courts ended in deportation, according to agency statistics.

Federal law enforcement officials are investigating after a 48-foot female whale well-known in the waters of southeast Alaska was killed in a collision with a boat.

The gun manufacturer Remington Arms Co. will replace trigger mechanisms on Model 700 bolt-action hunting rifles, or provide economic relief for purchasers, as part of a settlement of class-action lawsuits.

Halfway up the 264 stairs leading to the top of the world's tallest waterslide, it was clear this was the most breathtaking ride I'd ever encountered.

With a long, slimy body and beady eyes, North America's largest salamander wouldn't top any cutest animal lists. The hellbender's alien appearance and mysterious ways have earned the big amphibian a bad reputation and unflattering nicknames ranging from snot otter to devil dog.

Colorado is smoking pot by the ton, and visitors are, too.

The newest graduates going on duty with the Maryland State Police will help sniff out bombs before they are set in place.

An injured hawk that's spent three months in a rehabilitation center is set to be released into the wild at Turkey Run Park along the Potomac River in Northern Virginia.

It's a new approach to medical training: A special high-tech center where doctors from around the region can learn new skills or improve their technique without touching an actual patient.

A fugitive treasure hunter's company has lost its bid to stop deep-sea explorers from bringing up gold and other artifacts from a ship that sank off the South Carolina coast in 1857 and has been the subject of legal fights for nearly 30 years.

ound. Each is regulated by a county racing commission rather than the state. The tracks are not required to report greyhound injuries.

Planning a visit to the White House? Bring your kids and camera. But please, don't feed the animals.

A plan to remove Confederate battle flags from a chapel on Washington and Lee University's campus is drawing mixed reactions from members of the community.