pileofcrapola

When you order clothes online, do you order two different sizes, figuring that one will fit you and you can take the other back? Joke’s on you, over-ordering person! That consumer behavior is one of the reasons why women’s clothing manufacturers are switching clothes from numbered sizes to small, medium, and large.

Need to fit people outside of that size range? No problem; just slap on an X and sell extra-small. Switching to what people in the biz call “alpha sizing” saves manufacturers money and resources, making it easier to stock clothes when they arrive and to sell out of a given size once they hit the racks. The Wall Street Journal reports that some clothing companies are making this switch with some or all of their items.

Why is that? Each size in an alpha sizing system replaces two numbered sizes. Think of a typical size run of one item that you might see on a rack at a mall clothing store: you would find sizes 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16. Nine different sizes. Alpha sizing cuts that same size range down to five sizes: XS, S, M, L, and XL. (The Wall Street Journal ignored plus-sized clothing for the purposes of this story, maybe because most plus-sized clothes are already sold in a numeric extension of the alpha size scale: 1X, 2X, 3X and so on.) Stocking fewer sizes makes manufacturing the clothes and running a retail store easier.

It’s not easier on the end user, of course. Even a simplified sizing system isn’t consistent from one manufacturer to another, because that would be too easy. Alpha sizing does give consumers an additional nightmare: clothing specifically designed to fit a wider range of people. Wrap dresses, elastic and drawstring waists, stretchy blazers, and baggy tops are all designed to accommodate a wider range of people than one numeric size.

If you’ve been thinking about learning how to tailor your own ready-to-wear clothes, now may be the time to do it.

Shopping for Clothes? Forget a Size 4, You’ll Have to Try a Small [Wall Street Journal]

When we saw that Ford announced a recall of 1.39 million cars and sport-utility vehicles, we had to check back in the archives. Hadn’t we just posted about a Ford recall? Yes, it was only earlier this month that 692,000 vehicles were recalled because their airbags might not deploy. This latest batch mainly involves power steering failure in SUVs.

Ford reports that that they know of fifteen crashes that may be the result of loss of power steering in Explorer SUVs. According to the company, no one sustained serious injuries in any of these crashes, which all occurred at low speeds.

Here are the Ford vehicles recalled:

Ford Explorer, model years 2011 to 2013 – 195,527 vehicles recalled for power steering issues

Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner, model years 2008 to 2011 – 915,216 vehicles recalled for power steering issues

Taurus, model years 2010 to 2014 – about 200,000 vehicles recalled for a mysterious “corrosion issue”

Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Lincoln Zephyr and MKZ, model years 2006 to 2011 – 82,576 vehicles recalled for floor mats that may interfere with the accelerator

If you’re the original owner and your information is on file with Ford, you should receive a notification about the recall: if not, and if your car is one of the model years listed, give your friendly local Ford dealer a call.

Ford recalls 1.39 million vehicles in North America [Reuters]

Strap on your jetpacks and shine up your moon boots, because we’re going to space, y’all. Maybe not this minute or even this year, but if you can dream it, you can achieve it. At least if you’re super rich Sir Richard Branson and the U.S. government just told you you can start planning space flights.

Branson’s Virgin Galactic has been revvings its engines to take to the stars (or at least the Earth’s orbit) and now it’s got official clearance to start mapping those flights out, reports CNNMoney.

The company has said in the past that it’d like to send the first commercial flights up by the end of this year, with Branson and his family traveling on the initial voyage on SpaceShipTwo.

Flights will take off from New Mexico’s Spaceport, which was built solely for the purpose of sending off commercial space flights.

The Federal Aviation Administration is also on board, as it were, and will figure out particulars with local air traffic control to make sure those flights aren’t interfering with any others in the airspace.

It’ll be a bustling business for Virgin, as the company says it’s already received more than $70 million in deposits for spots from around 580 people.

Despite the appearance of cracked glass on a clear ledge oft frequented by tourists to Chicago’s Willis Tower (which will always remain the Sears Tower to many no matter what anyone says), officials for the building say no one is in any danger of plummeting to the ground by leaning, sitting or walking on it.

One visitor said he thought he was about to fall 103 stories when the pane of glass started to crack as he sat on it posing for pictures with his family, reports the Chicago Tribune.

“I had my palms on the floor and I could feel it cracking,” he said. “Honestly, I was in shock, in disbelief. I was scared.”

Officials say he was always safe, however, as it was only a protective coating on the glass that had cracked, and not the three half-inch-thick layers of glass underneath it. Those can hold up to five tons, which is a heck of a lot of tourists.

“This protective coating occasionally cracks,” said Willis Tower spokesman Bill Utter. “Usually when someone has something sharp in their pocket and it gets poked. It did what it was designed to do.”

Despite the family group feeling like “there was only cracked glass between us and 103 floors down,” as one of the visitors said, this isn’t an abnormal occurrence.

“It’s happened in the past,” the spokesman said, confirming there is no structural damage to the ledge. “We hope they come back.”

Scare of a lifetime in just a few seconds at the Willis Tower [Chicago Tribune]

Some things seem utterly pointless until you experience them. Most people aren’t interested in an electric toilet that can pre-warm the seat and blast your nether regions with warm water. They fail to see the point…until they visit Japan, where such contraptions are common. Then, some tourists never look back.

Tourists are a growing market for these elaborate toilet seats, especially tourists from China. Panasonic, already a big name in other electronics, manufactures installable toilet seats and small battery-powered bidets, for people who aren’t interested in going to the effort of installing a whole toilet seat. People from all over the world want to bring these seats home…once they’ve experienced them.

Americans have never really taken to high-end toilets. with heated water and scented air, and sync with your phone via Bluetooth to learn your preferences.
You might get to see these electro-bidets in action the next time you buy a toilet, because Japanese toilet-maker Lixil has acquired a major U.S. toilet-maker, American Standard. The company plans to make their luxury butt-washers part of the company’s higher-end toilets, bringing this technology to the American mainstream. They might even be available at more reasonable prices than the $6,000 that Kohler charges for its Numi automated toilet.

Japan’s New Souvenir: The Toilet Seat [Wall Street Journal]

Anyone who’s seen the aftermath of a car-on-deer collision knows the scene is far from a pretty one. But officials in Pennsylvania say a group of 41 scammers took the time to stage similar gory tableaus to fake single-car accidents and defraud insurance companies out of $5 million total.

Using a variety of deer parts, geese, dogs, blood, fur, concrete, overturned cartons of fruit and other props, prosecutors say the owner of an auto-body shop (and alleged mob associate) and his group staged elaborate scenes in order to defraud auto insurance companies, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A grand jury called the scheme the business of “fictitious deer accidents,” wherein the shop owner told workers to pull weeds from the river and create “Hollywood photos” of fake accidents.

He allegedly preferred making it look like single-vehicle accidents because those would more likely be dubbed “no-fault” situations by insurance companies, making it likely that they’d pay the claims without raising the owners’ premiums.

Witnesses for the grand jury said he’d say, “I live my life to cheat insurance companies.”

He and 40 other people have been charged with fraud after 16-month investigation by a Philadelphia grand jury.

Grand jury: Auto-insurance scam involved deer parts [Philadelphia Inquirer]

On Saturday, a man walked into a Starbucks store in Texas with a vase and created a legend. Technically, he asked the baristas to create a legend, or at least something that everyone on the Internet wouldn’t stop typing about for three days. Last night, he finally drained the last of the Sexagintuple Vanilla Bean Mocha Frappuccino.

It took five days, because while drinking a beverage that includes 60 shots of espresso probably won’t kill you, drinking 128 ounces of sugared coffee beverage goodness just might.

A Starbucks spokesperson told Seattle Weekly that they hadn’t heard about the beverage before Tuesday evening, which is funny because Consumerist had contacted them about it long before noon on the west coast. Maybe they just didn’t get around to checking their e-mail yet.

The important thing that we learned from the Starbucks statement is that this is not an officially condoned way to use up one’s free drink coupons, on birthdays or otherwise. Starbucks doesn’t encourage customers to create their own super-beverages. “[T]his type of beverage order is totally excessive and not something we encourage people to do. After they make that beverage, it’s pretty inedible. Nor is it safe,” noted the spokesperson. Baristas are not encouraged to cater to the deranged whims of caffeine junkies, Gold card holders or not.

Anyway, Andrew the drink-orderer is still alive. Perhaps he was wise not to show his face in any of the drink photos, based on the reaction that his drink received from baristas.

Aaaaaand done. Took 5 days, but I drank it all. #MostExpensiveStarbucks http://t.co/auscv0MtNV—
Andrew Chifari (@ACIFH) May 28, 2014

PREVIOUSLY: New Starbucks Free Drink Record Set With $54 Sexagintuple Vanilla Bean Mocha Frappuccino

There’s a meaty war brewin: just two days after Pilgrim’s Pride made a bid to take over Hillshire Brands, Tyson Foods crashed the party and upped the stakes with a bid of its own.

Arkansas-based Tyson Foods, one of the largest producers of chicken, pork and beef products, offered $6.8 billion for Hillshire, the company known for its Jimmy Dean breakfast sausages and sandwiches and a plethora of flavored hot-dogs, The New York Times reports.

“We believe that there is a strong strategic, financial and operational rationale for the combination of Tyson and Hillshire,” Donnie Smith, Tyson Foods President and CEO, says in a news release.

The new bid tops the Colorado-based Pilgrim’s Pride bid of $6.4 billion, but comes with many of the same caveats; namely the end of Hillshire’s purchase of Pinnacle Foods.

Less than two weeks ago, Hillshire announced it would acquire Pinnacle Foods, the company behind brands like Vlasic and Duncan Hines, for $4.2 billion. But that’s a move neither Tyson Foods or Pilgrim’s Pride wants anything to do with.

“Our interest is in the Company on its own, and not as combined with Pinnacle,” Smith says in a news release about the offer terms.

According to the Times, Hillshire has long been a target for an acquisition. Pilgrim’s Pride privately approached the company about a merger several months ago but was rebuffed.

Smith, Tyson Foods CEO, wrote in a letter to Hillshire Brands CEO Sean Connolly that the company would have preferred to keep its dealings out of the spotlight but recent events prohibited that.

“We would have preferred to make this proposal to you privately, but in light of current circumstances we believe that it is in the best interests of your and our shareholders to have current and accurate information about our proposal and the reasons we believe that it is a compelling opportunity for both of our companies,” Smith wrote. “For this reason, we are making this letter public simultaneously with my sending it to you.”

Tyson Foods Swoops In With Offer for Hillshire [The New York Times]

In our May Recall Roundup for food, supplements, and even a few over-the-counter drugs, there’s dairy in the dairy-free pancakes, Salmonella in the chili powder, and always a few precription drugs hiding in the “supplements.”

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, 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
Tryst Gourmet and Target, Trader Joe’s, and Giant Eagle hummus and bean dips – possible Listeria contamination
Strong & Kind Bars, Kind Healthy Grains Maple Pumpkin Seeds Bars – may contain peanuts
Haque Brand Golden Raisins – undeclared sulfites

DAIRY
Silk Light Original Soymilk – may contain undeclared almondmilk
Stonyfield YoBaby Peach/Pear Yogurt – possible Klebsiella pneumoniae contamination
Raclette du Haut Livradois, Montboissie du Haut Livradois cheeses – possible Salmonella contamination
Blue Bunny Premium Bordeaux Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream – may contain undeclared egg
Private Selection Chocolate Hazelnut Mascarpone and Caramel Hazelnut Fudge Truffle Ice Cream (Kroger family stores) – may contain undeclared egg
Organic Traditions Dark Chocolate Golden Berries and Dark Chocolate Sacha Inchi Seeds – may contain undeclared milk
Private Selection Sweet Strawberry Sorbet – may contain undeclared milk
Archer Farms Chocolate Hazelnut Swirl Gelato (Target) – may contain traces of undeclared peanuts

PACKAGED FOODS
Market Basket Dairy-free, Gluten-free Pancakes – may contain undeclared milk. No gluten, though.
LiveGfree Gluten Free Blueberry Pancakes (ALDI) – may contain undeclared milk
Cinnamon Crunch Granola – may contain vanilla almond granola
Grandma’s Potato & Bacon Perogies – undeclared soy

CONDIMENTS AND SPICES
US Trading Company Crushed Chili Powder – possible Salmonella contamination
Caravelle Chili Powder – possible Salmonella contamination
Miravalle Achiote Molido Ground Annato – possible Salmonella contamination
Fernandez Chile Company Chile Molido Puro and Chile Rojo – possible Salmonella contamination
Lisy Sweet Basil – possible Salmonella contamination
Hickory Farms Chipotle Ranch Sauce – may contain undeclared milk

MEAT
Oscar Mayer “Classic” hot dogs – may contain cheese

SUPPLEMENTS
LiteFit USA and Thinogenics – contain sibutramine, a drug taken off the market in 2010
Super Arthgold – contains unapproved new drugs (NSAIDs)

SEAFOOD
Ocean’s Catch Crab Meat – possible Listeria contamination

PET FOOD
Bravo Pet Food – possible Listeria contamination
Abady Highest Quality Maintenance & Growth Formula for Cats – possible Salmonella contamination

Don’t think you care about the porcine epidemic diarrhea hitting farms around the country. Consider your bacon: If you like eating pork, it’ll be a lot harder to buy it if pigs keep dying from the virus. And now that one farm has come out to confirm that it’s been hit a second time when many believed an initial sweep would immunize pigs, it seems that pork might get a bit pricier.

The good news is, PEDv, as it’s called, can’t hurt humans who ingest an infected pig, and isn’t a food safety issue. So there’s that.

But in order to have that pork chop or ham sandwich in the first place, a healthy pig population is necessary on hog farms. And that might be a bit harder if the virus can spread through previously infected farms, as one Indiana farm confirmed, reports Reuters.

Since PEDv first showed up a year ago, it’s wiped out around 10% of the hog population — about 7 million pigs — and pushed up pork prices. And while many farms reported initial outbreaks, none had publicly acknowledged a second, until now. The Indiana farm confirmed the news through its veterinarian this week.

The assumption held by officials was that pigs could develop immunity to PEDv after getting it once, sort of like the chicken pox, or at least not get it again for several years. It’s almost always fatal to baby pigs, prompting researchers to try to extend immunity to piglets through female hogs.

“It happens and it could happen again,” Chief Veterinary Officer John Clifford of the U.S. Department of Agriculture told Reuters of secondary outbreaks. “We need to practice good bio-security, cleaning and disinfection, all-in all-out, in order to break the cycle and prevent its re-emergence.”

Retail pork prices have set record highs since the outbreak, records which could likely be broken themselves if there’s a second wave of outbreaks, killing even more hogs.

“If you have that disease, it causes a huge death loss, and then you get it again,” said Josh Trenary, executive director of Indiana Pork. “It’s pretty clear why it would be concerning.”

Exclusive: Deadly pig virus re-infects U.S. farm, fuels supply fears [Reuters]

Comcast’s been irking a large segment of the internet again this week. This time, though, it doesn’t have anything to do with their pro-merger mania, their stance on net neutrality, or the problems with their actual service. The latest kerfuffle is all about a thirty-second commercial — one that doesn’t even seem to get the basics of its own technology right.

The ad (YouTube) targets a tech-savvy early-20s male gamer audience… and those gamers are exactly the group that can see through the many problems with the spot immediately.

It starts in a giant Xfinity booth in a shopping mall. A Comcast representative speaks with several different young men.

“Do you find that when you’re playing games online with your current service that it’s slow?” helpful Mr. Comcast asks the gamers.

“Yes,” says one, they do! “I get some lag,” another regretfully confirms.

This is a real thing that happens: inconsistent connectivity, at low speeds, can create a situation where a player experiences lag, stuttering, or disconnection from an online game. As a huge number of online games are competitive, player-vs-player environments, that results in a lot of losses and a lot of virtual deaths. And when that occurs, it is frustrating and really does suck for players.

That kind of lag is in fact something that stable, consistent, high-speed internet service can mitigate. So far, so good. But then the commercial starts to go off the rails.

Mr. Comcast gets the gamers playing Trials Fusion. The game is indeed a shiny new title, released on PC and for the major gaming consoles (Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4) just a few weeks ago. The motorcycle tricks-and-racing game launched to generally positive reviews that lauded its mechanics and features. But reviewers also mentioned one notable feature that the game does not have: an online multiplayer mode.

No online mode, no net connection. No network connection, no network lag.

“Do you notice any buffering?” Mr. Comcast then asks.

The gamers happily reply that they do not! And of course they don’t: the game ships on a disc or as a one-time digital download. It’s not on a streaming or cloud service like a Netflix or YouTube video; there’s nothing to buffer. That would be akin to asking if you see Microsoft Word buffering when you type a report on your work computer. Your software might be running slowly, but “buffering” is definitely not the issue.

Of course, the unstated implication in the commercial is that the game is actually streaming. Although the players appear to be using Xbox One controllers, that “console” on the podium in front of them, next to Mr. Comcast, is an Xfinity X1 set-top box. And Comcast does in fact have some tentative plans to launch a set-top video game streaming service in partnership with EA.

Too bad, then, Trials Fusion is published by EA rival Ubisoft, who have their own multiplayer platform.

The criticisms levied by gamers around the internet may seem nit-picky. And sure, really, they are. Computers, gaming, and tech in general get misrepresented in advertising and in media all the time; this ad is not unique or special in that regard.

A lot of people don’t really understand what the tech in their homes is or how it works. This ad, though, is directly targeting the folks who do understand that. And gamers, as a broad generalization, are a group that can be pretty exacting over minute details.

Gaming isn’t Comcast’s business. But targeting a demographic with complete disregard and disrespect for who they are and what their actual needs might be? Now that’s got Comcast written all over it.

Comcast commercial [YouTube, via Reddit]

Every store and every industry has its own cycle of sales, and by timing your purchases just right, you can take advantage of them. There are two different things to keep track of: the ways that sales cycle every year, and also current trends in retail.

Here’s what our friends over at DealNews say that you should consider buying, but only if you’re in the market:

Lingerie
DealNews reports that they’ve seen fab deals on underthings at mall stores like Frederick’s of Hollywood and Maidenform, and June is also the time of year when Victoria’s Secret has its annual sale.

Touchscreen Laptops
Deals on these are a little early for back-to-school season, but deal-spotters have found some great ones if you’re in the market for a new computer.

Tropical Vacations
Cruises and travel packages to the Caribbean start to get a lot cheaper once hurricane season kicks off, because you do run the risk of having your vacation canceled out from under you due to crappy weather. Get some solid travel insurance, though.

Here’s what the deal-watchers at DealNews say you shouldn’t buy just yet:

Grills
If you really want a new grill but also want maximum savings, try to scrape a few more weeks out of your old one: the best sales on these will be during and after Fourth of July sales.

Trips to Disney World
The cheapest hotel stays close to the various attractions around Orlando are in August: the weather might be hot, but the deals are great.

Apple products
Computers are due for their pre-back to school season refresh, so hold off on buying any new computers if MacBooks or iMacs are your thing.

The Best and Worst Things to Buy in June [DealNews]

Here is an example of a joke: Why can’t you trust atoms? Because they make up everything. Here is an example of not a joke: Anything making light of serious crimes that can hurt and kill people, including a sign linking domestic beer to domestic violence that caused a furor after a patron at a Texas bar spotted it and posted it online.

The Plano, Texas bar featured a handwritten “joke” on a blackboard that read: “I like my beer like I like my violence. Domestic.” With a heart after that, because what? Sigh.

One woman tells WFAA-TV that she couldn’t believe what she was reading on the chalkboard, and snapped a photo of it.

“How does someone think it’s OK to put something like that up there?” she asked.

She says she asked the female bartender who had apparently written the sign to erase it, as well as two managers, and no one would take it down. So she went home and posted the details of her visit with the photo on Facebook — and it seems the bar is now paying attention.

A regional manager told the news station that the message was erased, and the manager on duty that day was indefinitely suspended without pay. The bar’s owners say it will now use a new system to make sure any sign that’s posted is approved first. In an attempt to make up for any offense, the business will also donate to a local women’s shelter in Plano.

The bar also posted the below message on its Facebook page to apologize, writing:

“It has come to our attention that one of our female employees wrote something offensive without owner’s approval. Domestic violence is something our family unfortunately has overcome in the past, therefore this subject is one we don’t take lightly. We are currently investigating the situation and proper actions will be taken immediately. We thank you for your patience and again want to ensure this is not our stance.”

The customer who snapped the pic says the donation and pledge to work with the women’s shelter is the step in the right direction. And for critics who think she overreacted to the “joke,” she says she did it for survivors of domestic violence.

“I want to give them a voice,” she said. “It can be a really powerful thing for change.”

Sign ‘joking’ about domestic violence sparks outrage at Plano bar [WFAA-TV]

If you’ve felt like there hasn’t been a day in the last year without a warning of some new hack on big businesses and services you use and have had to change your passwords and keep an eye on your accounts as a result, you’re not alone — not by a long shot. A new report says about half of American adults were the victims of hackers in the last 12 months.

Hackers have dipped their fingers into the personal info of about 110 million Americans, reports CNNMoney, citing numbers from Ponemon Institute researchers. That all adds up to a total of 432 million accounts hacked, when taking into account all the various accounts held by the hacked.

It’s worth pointing out that saying exactly how many accounts have been hit by hackers is a tricky thing, and might not even be possible. That’s because many companies don’t want to fess up and reveal all the details of each breach.

But one thing we do know is that the hacks keep company, accessing names, addresses, email addresses, credit card information, phone numbers, passwords and basically anything you’ve got out there online.

It’s that very prevalence that presents a new danger, experts warn, from something called “data-breach fatigue.” It’s that feeling of “another day, another hack, shrug.”

Now is not the time to let your vigilance slip, however, because the hacks won’t stop. The more we move our lives online, the more open we are to villains seeking to crack the system. Keep your software updated for all apps and make sure you always change your password when a service you use has been hacked. Because saying it can’t happen to you just doesn’t make sense with odds like these.

(Photo credit: Pixteca | Len & Pix【ツ】)

Half of American adults hacked this year [CNNMoney]

Back in the day when I worked at places where writers were allowed to receive free promotional crap (mostly DVDs and vodka… so much bad vodka) from PR companies, I got all manner of bizarre stuff, the strangest probably being a box that allegedly contained a few of Troy Polamalu’s signature curly locks. But if I received a tiny unmarked safe with a note to “check your voicemail,” and which beeped when I tried to open it, I might have gotten freaked out enough to call the police.

And that’s exactly what happened at the offices of Australian media company ninemsn on Tuesday, when a PR stunt for new Ubisoft video game Watch Dogs went horribly awry.

A reporter at the office received the tiny black safe — the kind you’d see in a hotel room — with only the above note about checking voicemail. The reporter doesn’t actually have voicemail, but had received an odd, unexplained hang-up call the night before. Add that to the beeping noise made by the safe when ninemsn staffers tried to open it, and it quickly became bring-in-the-police time.

And so four police cars and a rescue vehicle raced to the ninemsn offices, which were evacuated while authorities pried open the safe… only to find a copy of Watch Dogs inside.

“There was a bunch of reasons this ended up looking weird,” ninemsn publisher Hal Crawford said. “The PR company no doubt got carried away with their creativity and ended up sending us something the bomb squad had to open up.”

Now, if this were some game that needed more hype, we could possibly understand going through the hassle and expense of sending out the safe, etc. But given that people have been writing about Watch Dogs for about a year, and it’s received huge amounts of coverage in the media and in advertising, there really wasn’t a need for this sort of idiocy when a simple download code wold have done… especially since ninemsn doesn’t cover video games.

[via Ars Technica]

While both MasterCard and Visa have zero-liability policies for fraudulent transactions made by swiping a card or using the card number online or over the phone, that same level of protection has not been afforded to all cardholders for bogus ATM withdrawals or PIN-based purchases. However, MasterCard announced today that it is extending the zero-liability policy in the U.S. to include these two types of transactions.

Card networks have not always fully protected cardholders in these transactions because they require the use of a PIN that only the customer should know. So if a criminal steals someone’s card, that thief shouldn’t be able to use it to use it to withdraw money or make purchases where a PIN is required.

But in addition to the growing number of hacks on retailers and e-commerce sites that have put consumers on edge about potential ID theft, many new card-skimmers — illegal devices placed on ATMs, gas pumps and other widely used point-of-purchase machines — not only steal the relevant info from the card but also employ cameras to record the customer entering the PIN. This data can then be matched up so that the thief can help himself to cash withdrawals.

Until now, it’s been up to the individual card issuers as to whether or not to fully protect customers in cases of fraudulent ATM or PIN transactions, but the MasterCard decision means that all of its cards will receive this benefit regardless of issuer. So far, Visa has not commented on whether or not it will also extend this level of protection to all cardholders.

In addition to the zero-liability policy update, MasterCard is adding something called Identity Theft Resolution assistance to all of its cards in the U.S. The company says the program will help cardholders who may be victims of identity theft go through the hassle of canceling missing cards and alerting credit reporting agencies, as well as targeting searches to detect if stolen personal and confidential data appears online.

Firefighters might do the work of superheroes, but just like other humans, even they like to chow down during Memorial Day cookouts. So when a group of firefighters had to abandon their groceries at Costco to respond to an emergency call, one good Samaritan didn’t want to let them go hungry.

While the crew was shopping at a California Costco over the weekend to stock up for a Memorial Day party, an emergency medical call came in and they left the store right away, reports KTVU.com.

Left behind at the store was their entire haul — steak, corn, watermelon and all the fixings. When they were able to get back to the store, they found that the entire $123.25 bill had already been paid in full by a fellow shopper.

“The note said ‘thank you firefighters for all you do have a good day’ and it was signed by an Air Force wife,” said the battalion chief of the fire department.

The woman didn’t leave her name, but the crew hopes she’ll make herself known to them.

“We’re hoping that that person would come by and let us thank them for it,” said the chief.

Instead of simply walking off and filling their bellies, however, the crew decided to pay the kind act forward, and bought Memorial Day flowers for an elderly couple and planned to cook dinner this week for a local World War II vet.

Woman gives Vacaville firefighters a special thanks [KTVU.com]

Operating a car is a relatively simple process for a driver — you get in, turn the key, push the gas and brake pedals as needed and steer it where you want it to go. But Google thinks it can get even simpler, removing the steering wheel along with the accelerator and brake pedals entirely in its newest self-driving prototype.

The thing is, Google writes in a blog post about its new prototypes, driving is such hard work that no one should have to deal with it.

“Ever since we started the Google self-driving car project, we’ve been working toward the goal of vehicles that can shoulder the entire burden of driving,” the blog explains. “Just imagine: You can take a trip downtown at lunchtime without a 20-minute buffer to find parking. Seniors can keep their freedom even if they can’t keep their car keys. And drunk and distracted driving? History.”

Of course, this is all very much in the Jetsonsesque future, because of the simple fact that all of the cars on roads today have drivers inside them. That would make it pretty tough for self-driving cars to avoid all the normal vehicles on the road and ferry passengers safely to their destinations. Because that’s kind of what these prototypes sound more like — chair lifts or tiny, personal ferry pods.

“They won’t have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal… because they don’t need them. Our software and sensors do all the work,” the blog explains. “The vehicles will be very basic—we want to learn from them and adapt them as quickly as possible—but they will take you where you want to go at the push of a button.”

These first models can only go as fast as 25 mph and are equipped with sensors that see all around the car and detect objects as far off as 200 hundred yards in all directions. Inside is just the basics — two seats with seatbelts, room for your stuff and buttons that make the car go and stop, with a screen showing where you’re going.

The next step, Google says, is to test the prototypes this summer and roll out a pilot program in California at some point in the next few years.

PotomacLocal.com

Weekend Events: Comedy and Magic, Moms to be Pampered PotomacLocal.com From comedic magicians to pampering for moms, there's a lot happening in our region this weekend. Here's your Top 5 Weekend Events list. An evening of comedy and magic with Scott Alexander, Friday – Tickets $60 per person. Scott Alexander brings his ...

Fairfax County volunteer opportunities Washington Post ArtSpace Herndon needs volunteer docents to greet guests, answer phones and ring sales during normal gallery hours. Flexible two-hour shifts. Training is provided. A volunteer is also needed a few hours each month to manage the Artisans Gallery shop. Week in FairfaxVirginia Connection Newspapers all 4 news articles »

Prince William County community calendar, May 29 to June 4, 2014 Washington Post Thursday, May 29. Manassas farmers market, 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursdays, Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St., and 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays, Parking Lot B, West Street (next to the train station visitors center). 703-361-6599 or www.visitmanassas.org. and more »

In a stately neighborhood of Boulder, a city known as the Berkeley of the Rocky Mountains, a bull elk named "Big Boy" had become a treasured fixture.

Navy veteran Ken Senft turned to the Department of Veterans Affairs for medical care in 2011 after his private insurance grew too costly. It could have been a fatal mistake, he now says.

Residents of California's largely rural, agrarian and politically conservative far northern counties long ago got used to feeling ignored in the state Capitol and out of sync with major urban areas.

Pediatricians in the D.C. area are noticing an uptick in hand, foot and mouth disease.

What appeared to be an effort from Washington Metro Area Transit Authority to engage with its customers through social media, was actually a well-informed Twitter campaign that had no connection to the transit authority.

A young black bear in Virginia that can't be released into the wild has found a new home in Tennessee.

The National Park Service is setting the record straight about coyote-wolf hybrids after an outdoors publication says the breed is invading D.C.'s Rock Creek Park.

CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg says think outside of the box when it comes to destination and means of transportation.

PetSmart Inc. says it's closing a distribution center in Hagerstown that employs more than 50 people.