pileofcrapola

Nearly 3 million more Nissan, Mazda and Honda vehicles have been recalled related to potentially faulty, and painful, airbag deployment issues that are currently under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Nissan, Honda and Mazda each announced they were recalling vehicles equipped with the potentially faulty airbags, bringing the total number of affected cars to roughly 10 million in the past five years, Reuters reports.

The recalls, which began last year, stem from issues with both passenger- and driver-side airbags. According to a NHTSA notification [PDF] of the original recall, a defect in the frontal airbags could produce excessive internal pressure causing the inflator to rupture upon deployment. At times, pieces of the airbag module can forcefully fly out striking occupants.

According to the New York Times, Honda is recalling 2.03 million vehicles, including the 2000-2005 Fit, Element and CR-V models. Nissan is recalling an additional 755,000 vehicles, including the Cube, X-Trail and some Infinity models produced between 2001 and 2003, while Mazda said it would recall 159,807 Atenza and RX-8 vehicles made between 2002 and 2004.

Additionally, Nissan and Chrysler are conducting regional recalls to replace the airbag inflators in vehicles located in high humidity regions of Puerto Rico, Florida, Hawaii and the Virgin Islands.

Reuters reports that since the airbag issue first came to light in 2013, BMW, Mazda, Toyota, Honda and Nissan have recalled more than 7.6 million vehicles.

The most recent issues with Takata airbags began nearly two weeks ago when Toyota reissued the 2013 recall of more than 766,300 vehicles because the company may have received an incomplete list of potentially defective airbags from the car part manufacturer.

Just a day later, NHTSA announced an investigation [PDF] into whether Takata airbags made after 2002 were prone to failing after receiving six reports of airbag ruptures in Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda and Chrysler vehicles. Regulators are also looking to determine if high-humidity climates contributed to the reported airbag explosions.

In a letter [PDF] to NHTSA on June 11, officials with Takata detail the company’s dealing with regulators and say both the supplier and car manufacturers are not admitting to any “safety defect” just yet.

During a June 5, 2014 conference call, you and other ODI officials requested that Takata support field actions by vehicle manufacturers to replace potentially suspect inflators in vehicles originally sold in or currently registered in Florida and Puerto Rico, and other states with similarly high
levels of absolute humidity. ODI proposed that the selection of the inflators to be replaced in these field actions should be based on the dates of the six incidents (separately for driver-side inflators and passenger-side inflators), with a “buffer” period of twelve months before and after those dates to maximize confidence that any potentially problematic inflators would be included.

These requested field actions would be analogous to “regional recalls.” However, at the meeting, Takata stated, and you agreed, that since the currently available information does not
indicate that any Takata inflators- other than those in vehicles that were previously recalled- contain a safety defect, neither Takata nor the vehicle manufacturers conducting these field actions would be expected to admit that its products contain such a defect.

Honda, others recall another 2.9 mln vehicles over air bag flaw [Reuters]

Honda, Nissan and Mazda Join Recall Over Faulty Air Bags [The New York Times]

Does waiting in line at Starbucks seem never-ending? Well, it might be getting worse now that the coffee shop is expanding its made-to-order soda options – essentially giving indecisive customers hundreds more choices to make.

Starbucks announced Monday the expansion of made-to-order Fizzio sodas to 16 new states, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

Consumers in Los Angeles, San Diego, Stockton and Modesto areas of California, as well as in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Hawaii can get their hands on the drinks.

The root beer, ginger ale and lemon ale sodas were first tested last year in Atlanta, Austin and Japan. Over time chains will add location-specific flavors. If you’re not interested in soda but want a little carbonation, customers can add fizz to any beverage for an additional 50¢.

A spokeswoman for the company said the soda options should be expanding to the rest of the United States over the next year. The expansion of the drink offerings is just one way Starbucks is focusing on increasing their lunch-time sales. Earlier this year, the company added two sandwiches and a plethora of tea options.

Starbucks Brings Made-to-Order Soda to 16 States [Bloomberg Businessweek]

It could’ve been worse. It could have been a truck carrying a huge load of your grandmother’s signature, made-from-scratch, super special mashed potatoes. But still, we should pour one out in remembrance of the load of instant mashed potatoes that the world lost during a recent truck accident.

No one was injured in an accident with a truck carrying its load of liquid instant potatoes in England over the weekend, though the resulting spillage did cause unsafe driving conditions, reports The York Press (h/t to Gawker).

“Instant mash is covering the road and cars have skidded as a result of the mash swelling up,” a North Yorkshire police spokesperson said.

A witness said it looked like the truck was one made for corn or wheat, but it had perhapss been converted to carry a thick liquid.

“It just came over the blind crest of the road and had to hit the brakes as we were all stopped as there was a tractor on the road about a mile in front going very slowly,” he explained, adding “When he braked hard the mash went forward and over the front of the trailer on to the tractor unit.”

Police closed the road in both directions, and the local fire and rescue service was called in to eat — err, help clean the road of the mess. Eventually, crews used freezing chemicals on the mash that remained and high-powered hoses to help clear it, after about four hours of backups on the road.

Now is the time to remind all of your grandmothers/grandfathers/talented in-laws who can’t make anything else that well not to ship massive quantities of mashed potatoes in trucks that aren’t meant for it. Because if the loss of instant mashed potatoes is causing this feeling in my heart, I don’t know what would happen if homemade potatoes were involved.

Instant mash spill blocks A64 [The York Press]

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reachforthewall.com

Vienna border war ends in tie reachforthewall.com Lakevale Estates didn't win on Saturday morning, but swam their Vienna neighbors strong. (Photo by Bryan Flaherty/The Washington Post). For as long as Lakevale Estates head coach Pat McAndrews can remember, the Dolphins have stood in the shadow of ...

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A typical dog creates three-quarters of a pound of poop every day, or 274 pounds a year, according to the EPA. (I’d guess my pups are far over that estimate.) And how’s this for scale? In the two cities of Fairbanks and Anchorage, Alaska, pups produce an estimated 20 million pounds of poop each year, while 200 million tons of kitty litter goes into landfills nationwide. You may not think the topic polite, but the reality is that all pet owners need to come up with options to manage their pet’s poop. So what’s the best way to deal with the stuff?

Meet Mojo and Buddha

I couldn’t write this without thinking about my family’s two English Mastiffs. Mojo, our petite girl, weighs in at about 135 pounds, and her male cousin Buddha tips the scales at 235.As you can imagine, they eat a whole lot. And yes — they poop a whole lot, too. (Stop blushing. In the words of one of my favorite children’s books, “Everyone Poops,” or so we’ve read.)

We certainly hope you don’t toss it in your neighbor’s yard, and you certainly can’t leave it lying around — especially if your condo development or homeowners’ association likes to collect it for doggie DNA
tests.

Cat people: don’t feel left out. While my household is partial to pups, we’ve got some tips for your kitty litter, too.

You don’t have a pet but you have a baby? They poop, too, and yes, for that you also need a plan.

CAN’T I JUST THROW IT IN THE TRASH?

For dogs, you can carry a pooper-scooper, but I prefer the bag method. Simply find a hole-free bag and put your hand inside, as if the bag is a glove. Pick up the poop and turn the bag inside out. Simple, and (usually) very neat.

After you’ve double bagged and tied off the stuff, toss it in the trash can. We’d strongly recommend using a lidded garbage can that you keep outside. Don’t use the one in your kitchen, please.

You might still find an odor wafting out of your can, so use some baking soda, a dryer sheet or some other scented solution to ward off the smells.

Then your poop will head off to a landfill.

Caveat: Even if you use biodegradable bags, some landfills have a no-poop policy because it can lead to water contamination and methane gas production. You may want to check with your town’s trash department about local regulations. (You don’t want the poop police knocking on your door.)

Also read these interesting suggestions on the proper way to pick up poop.

And lots of that litter that goes to the landfill isn’t biodegradable, so you may want to shop around for one that is.

CAN I FLUSH IT?

If you don’t mind getting a little hands-on with your poop management, consider simply dumping your dog’s stuff in the toilet and flushing it away.

Make sure not to flush the bag or any paper towels you may have used during the pick-up process, and be sure to flush one poop at a time, rather than a week’s worth of collections from your yard.

If you’re looking to flush kitty litter, you could be making a big mistake — and a big future contribution to your plumber’s bank account. Many kitty litters are made of clay, and when clay gets wet, you’ll have a cement-like substance that over time may do a job on your pipes.

The Unclog Blog says even non-clay litter can be a problem because all litter is made to absorb moisture. When it absorbs moisture, it will expand — something your pipes aren’t designed to do.

Even if you could flush litter without killing your pipes, you could be doing more harm than good for environment.

You see, what you flush gets cleaned and reused. But researchers say a feline parasite — Toxoplasma gondii — is quite hardy and can easily make it through water-cleaning systems. It’s been found infecting dolphins and other wild beasts, as well as doing a job on the health of people with weakened immune systems.

You could, though, easily dump and flush the contents of your baby’s diaper without any ill effects to your plumbing or the environment.

Just keep the diaper itself out of the bowl.

DIGESTING IT?

(No, you don’t have to do the digesting, silly.)

The folks at For Dummies recommend a contraption that works like a septic system. For $50 to $75, they say you can purchase the machine, called a digester. You’d dig a hole in your yard and install the digester. Instead of tossing your poop into the trash, put it in the digester. Add digester mix (something you’d also need to buy) and some water, and the machine will reportedly liquefy the poop and drain the liquid into the surrounding soil.

That’s one we may have to try.

Bet it would work just fine with the contents of your baby’s diapers, too. But kitty litter is a no-go.

WHAT ABOUT COMPOSTING

If you’re environmentally-conscious and you don’t mind a little work, composting may be your answer.

As defined by the Department of Agriculture, composting is “the controlled breakdown or degradation of organic material into a product known as humus. Dog waste composting is a natural process that requires air, water, organic matter, microbes and a little human intervention.”

It offers a step-by-step guide [PDF] with more composing options than you probably thought were possible.

Composting cat waste isn’t nearly as simple, so think twice before you try.

If you’re thinking about composting, you should learn more about composting regulations in your area by talking to your local composting authority.

For more about composting in general, check out this composting infographic from our friends at Lifehacker.

We’d love to hear your poop solutions. Shoot me an e-mail at notsuck@consumerist.com

Have a topic you’d like to see covered in How To Not Suck? Or maybe you’re an expert who would like to share your insight with Consumerist readers? Send us a note at notsuck@consumerist.com.

You can read Karin Price Mueller’s stories for The Star-Ledger at NJ.com, follow her on Facebook, and on Twitter @kpmueller.

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Finding a home for them is Alan Peters' No. 1 priority, he says.

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