pileofcrapola

LinkedIn is a popular tool for business networking and job searching. However, recruiter Stéphane Le Viet says Facebook might be an even better too for finding a job.

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All you need to do in the food business to create buzz? Take one beloved item (bourbon) and add it to another (bacon) and voila, the world will fall at your feet, sliding in a puddle of its own drool. A distillery here in the U.S. is trying to do just that by breeding special, whiskey-flavored pigs.

While you might imagine a bunch of farmers sitting around a sty chanting, “Shots! Shots! Shots!” the reality isn’t nearly as fun: The Templeton Rye Distillery in Iowa instead feeds its 25 purebred Duroc pigs with dry distillery grain leftover from the whiskey-making process, reports WQAD (h/t to Quartz).

The hope is that the pork will have the same flavor as Templeton Rye, an idea that has all the whiskey-loving bacon fans out there likely salivating.

“We have a little motto here. My dad always told me, ‘Nothing good happens after 12 p.m.’ So, it seems like that’s when this idea was probably thought of — after we had a few drinks,” the distillery’s co-founder joked, adding that he hopes this idea can prove the motto wrong.

There’s already been enough interest from big name chefs across the country that the distillery is confident it’ll sell all 25. But if you’re hoping to get a taste, you’ll need to be a member of the Templeton Rye Bootleggers Society, which is holding a tasting at the end of June to see if whiskey bacon can be a real dream come true.

Iowa distillery raises pigs to taste like whiskey [WQAD]

A number of different banks operate branches inside more than 1,000 Walmart stores in the U.S., and many of these banks market themselves to consumers who may not be targeted by larger institutions because of low income or lack of savings and credit. A new analysis of the institutions most frequently found at Walmart found that these banks are also the most reliant on charging fees to their customers.

The Wall Street Journal looked at the U.S. banks where fees make up the highest percentage of revenue. Five of the top 10 also happen to be the five banks with the most branches located inside of Walmart stores.

The average bank in the U.S. only gets about .7% of its revenue from fees charged to customers. But the five banks with the highest number of in-Walmart branches get anywhere from 11.3% to 20% (median 12.7%) of their revenue from these fees.

And while the bank with the highest percentage of revenue from fees (Sunbank, at 20.9%) only has 12 branches, all 12 of them are in Walmart stores.

Banks generally don’t break out which particular fees contribute to this chunk of revenue, but overdraft fees are widely believed to make up the largest portion of any bank’s revenue from fees.

The CEO of Texas-based Woodforest bank, with more than 700 Walmart locations, tells the Journal that around 78% of his bank’s $271 million in fees comes from overdrafts.

While some bank customers look at overdraft fees as a low-cost alternative to payday lending — allowing them to bounce a check for a couple hundred bucks then pay a fee for the privilege a week or two later — when you actually do the math, there isn’t much difference.

The Journal talks to one Woodforest customer who knowingly overdrew her account, aware that when her next paycheck was deposited it would be dinged for a $30 fee. She believes this is cheaper than a payday loan, but the equivalent APR is around 300%.

While federal regulators have previously issued guidance calling overdrafts a form of credit, they have allowed these fees to remain exempted from the federal Truth In Lending Act, which provides some consumer protections and often requires a formal credit agreement.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been probing the topic of overdraft fees for the last couple of years, to consider whether the more than $30 billion taken in annually in fees might be doing more harm than good, and if the price tag for these fees is in line with the actual cost to the banks.

The 2010 financial reforms has curbed some overdrafting by requiring banks to get customers’ permission before enrolling their debit cards in automatic overdraft programs. In response, many banks have simply raised the fees they charge for people who cross the line into overdraft territory.

When you order a certain brand’s product on Amazon and end up with a fake version of the real thing, who’s to blame? Some companies say it’s Amazon’s fault for commingling its inventory at some warehouses in the name of expediency, mixing up products that come directly from them with third-party sellers who also use the e-commerce giant’s warehouse order-fulfillment services.

The Wall Street Journal gives the example of the company that makes Tovolo-brand ice-cube molds and trays, ICI USA LLC. The company sells its products to Amazon directly but there are also third-party merchants sending Tovolo trays through the Internet retailer’s fulfillment warehouses. And that method is allowing fakes to squeak through, ICI says.

For example, one customer said his wife bought him a specific cube tray from Tovolo, listed as sold by Amazon. But the couple claims the tray was flimsy, water slopped out of it and it just basically sucked. When he bought the same tray at a kitchenware store, he realized he likely had a fake.

“The ice cubes slide out much more easily, and it’s more stable when full of water,” the man explained. “I definitely wish I’d gotten the correct tray the first time.”

So just to make sure customers aren’t getting faked out with seemingly identical Tovolo products, chief executive Matthew Frank will temporarily slow down shipments to Amazon and conduct test buys when the supply is running low. He says there are more knockoffs mixed in when there isn’t as much of the real thing available directly from his company.

Part of the problem is with Amazon’s inventory system, critics say. Third-party sellers sign up to shill stuff through Amazon’s order-fulfillment services. All those products often get pooled together by bar code, regardless of whether they come from the brands themselves or other distributors. That way, Amazon can grab whichever product that’s ordered at the nearest warehouse to the customer.

That means even if you buy something that is technically sold by Amazon under the brand’s name, you might end up with a product supplied by a third-party merchant, which may or may not be the real thing. And that doesn’t make brands happy, because it makes them look bad to consumers who receive counterfeit goods.

“It’s very frustrating to see this happen,” Tovolo’s Frank said.

ICI USA complained to Amazon about the fake trays over a year ago, Frank says, and asked that Amazon keep Tovolo’s merchandise apart from those that aren’t from authorized distributors. He hasn’t heard back yet, he says, but the company told him third-party sellers now have to slap a label on their stuff so the products can be traced back to individual sellers in the case of a complaint.

The WSJ said Amazon declined to comment on its story, which is a pretty interesting read you can check out in the source link below. If this happens to you, be sure to request a refund from Amazon, and hope that the company does the right thing.

Do You Know What’s Going in Your Amazon Shopping Cart? [Wall Street Journal]

While parents who let their kids run wild in public are often the object of (much-deserved) scorn and derision, moms and dads whose youngsters behave themselves rarely get the high-five they deserve for reducing the world’s general level of brattiness. But yesterday, a restaurant in Canada decided that a family with a non-rowdy kid deserved a break on their bill.

Last night, a parent in Calgary posted the above receipt from an area Japanese restaurant to Reddit.

The family had celebrated Mother’s Day with some brunch, and their one-year-old daughter apparently was so non-fussy that the eatery took five dollars off the $54 CAD ($49.63 USD) bill.

This is a huge improvement over a 2013 Father’s Day incident in which a waitress in Missouri included “F**king Needy Kid” as a line item on a customer’s bill.

[via Eater]

How does Duncan Hines chocolate cake, Vlasic pickles and Jimmy Dean sausage sound for breakfast? While the line-up has always been a possibility for those with, ahem, interesting cravings, now those seemingly different menu items have something pretty big in common: their parent company.

Chicago-based Hillshire Brands Co., the company known for its sunny Jimmy Dean breakfast commercials and plethora of flavored hot-dogs, announced it is purchasing Pinnacle Foods Inc., the company behind Vlasic and Duncan Hines, for the hefty price tag of $4.3 billion, Bloomberg reports.

Serving more than 85% of American households, Pinnacle currently has the No. 1 or No. 2 market position in 10 of 13 grocery categories. The acquisition will give Hillshire its largest presence at the grocery store with name brands such as Hungry-Man frozen dinners, Birds Eye Frozen foods and Pinnacle’s recently purchased Wish-Bone salad dressings.

(FYI: Pinnacle is the answer to three different questions in this recent Consumerist Quiz about the corporate owners of your favorite food brands.)

Officials with Hillshire expect the purchase to create $140 million in annual savings because of supply chain improvements and consolidation expenses. Both Hillshire and Pinnacle’s boards have approved the recent deal, which is expected to close by September.

The acquisition marks the third in less than 12 months for Hillshire. Last month, the company purchased Van’s Natural Foods for $165 million. In September 2013, it purchased gourmet jerky maker Golden Island for $35 million.

And the purchasing-blitz doesn’t appear to be quite done for Hillshire. Both Hillshire and Pinnacle were the rumored front-runners for Unilever’s Ragu pasta sauces.

Hillshire Brands to Buy Pinnacle Foods for $4.3 Billion [Bloomberg]

Are all the kids still into vampires these days? Because forget those sparkly bloodsuckers or the ones gobbling up synthetic blood — the home of the original famous vampire, Dracula himself, is up for sale.

The castle in Transylvania that served as the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula is only going to a serious buyer, if at all, reports The Telegraph.

“If someone comes in with a reasonable offer, we will look at who they are, what they are proposing, and will seriously entertain the idea,” says a rep of the New York law firm handling the sale.

The fortress’ real name is Bran Castle, and has been in the record books since 1211. The home on a hill boasts enough bedrooms for an archduke and duchess and their entire retinue, though the plumbing apparently leaves something to be desired. Might want to hold off on moving the entourage in right away if there’s going to be a line for the bathroom.

And while Count Dracula was a work of imagination, Vlad “The Impaler” Tepes was doing his thing around the area in the 1500s and supposedly was imprisoned at the castle for a few months.

You’ll have some work on your hands if you do buy shell out the estimated millions for the place — the owners want it to operate as a tourist destination in the future as well.

“What you have to remember is that this castle is the real thing. We don’t need men going around dressed up in old-fashioned costumes; the place speaks for itself,” the real estate rep says.

Wait, so they don’t want people sidling up to visitors in a black cape whispering, “I vant to suck your blood”? Where’s the fun in that?

Buy a stake in Dracula’s castle [The Telegraph]

Prince William police Inside NoVA Michael Francis Smith, 47, of Woodbridge, is charged with three counts of possession with intent to distribute a schedule I or II narcotic and one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana. mugshot Diasian Noakes. Prince William police ...

The green-cross storefronts of medical marijuana dispensaries are common in much of Washington, and the state is plowing ahead with licensing people to grow and sell recreational pot to adults.

National Park Service officials approved $3 million in illegal construction projects over a decade that damaged one of the nation's most sacred American Indian burial sites, but few have been punished for the bureaucratic failure, records show.

Fiona, this week's Pet of the Week, is all about the love.

Virginia Beach is testing a way to prevent people from sleeping on benches.

Health officials in the northern U.S. say the long, cold winter did nothing to reduce the thriving tick population, and they are primed for an increase in the number of Lyme disease cases again this year.

Apparently, eating clay is good for you.

Just in time for spring cleaning, One Good Thing By Jillee shares what is possibly the easiest way to clean dirty cords of venetian blinds—or well, any similar cord.

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Got a tune stuck in your head? Fire up your favorite music player or YouTube and play the song through to the end to get rid of that "earworm", suggests Dr. Fredric Neuman, Director of the Anxiety and Phobia Center at White Plains Hospital.

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Once they are wet, matches are useless. As a precaution while camping or for any other use, waterproof matches are the way to go. No need to buy special matches though, Food Storage And Survival shows how to make your own with some nail polish.

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To save on mechanic costs , a DIY approach can help. And there are plenty of car repairs you can do yourself . For example, over at Imgur, user sxpnthr uploaded a guide on how he fixed a car dent with boiling water.

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From dry cleaners to house cleaners, thousands of services exist to make our lives easier. Oftentimes, we think those services cost an arm and leg, but in reality, most of us can afford them. With that in mind, let's make a list of the services you thought were only for the rich.

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Google recently rolled out an update that added Google Now support to its Chrome browser on both Windows and Mac. That's great if you use Google services. If you don't, it tends to just repeatedly tell you the current weather. Here's how to disable it.

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As a motorist, you are one of the good ones. You're part of the solution; you do the right thing. Alas, you have the situational awareness of a half-grapefruit, so you make moves in the moment that could get someone killed. Here's how not to let that happen.

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Whether it's for the kitchen, the garage, or the office, finding tools that stand the test of time isn't always easy. Finance blog The Simple Dollar suggests that one way to find tools that will last longer than a year or so is to shop for the ones that already have by checking out thrift stores.

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Sand all over your blanket at the beach is no fun, so reader Fred sent in this tip to turn a fitted sheet into a sand-free blanket box. The photo tells the tale, but all you need is a fitted sheet, and the coolers or other items you're probably taking to the beach with you already. Fit the sheet up around the coolers, and spread it out.

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Public speaking is hard enough for most of us . You've memorized, rehearsed, and gone over it a million times in your head, but there is no guarantee those brilliant words of yours are going to flow out of your mouth the way you want them to. These exercises can help.

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You've probably heard about the popular "tech support" scams making the rounds these days. Someone claiming to be from Microsoft calls you, asks you to accept a remote connection, then they take control of your computer. You may be smart enough to avoid this, but your friends and family might not be—so take this time to educate them.

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Chrome is the most popular browser around, but even with its large extension library, one size does not fit all. Thankfully, there's a treasure trove of web browser brilliance built on Chrome's solid, open-source foundation—from browsers aimed at the security conscious to the multimedia hobbyists. Here are four Chrome-based alternatives worth checking out.

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PotomacLocal.com

Call to Action: Food Pantries in Haymarket, Manassas Need Help PotomacLocal.com ... · Good morning – Here are some great ideas for the beautiful weather we are finally getting: Merrimac Farm needs volunteers for their next workday on Saturday May 24th at 10am. Gather your shovel, tools and gloves to help plant and mulch the garden.

Phobias may soon become a thing of the past thanks to a new app.

The FCC’s pending net neutrality proposal would allow Internet service providers to provide “fast lane” access to websites and online services willing to pay a premium. In response to this idea, which is counter the entire notion of an open Internet, the folks at one web hosting service have decided to open a “slow lane” just for people working at the FCC.

In a blog post yesterday, web host NeoCities explained that, through correspondence, it had identified the FCC’s internal IP block and “throttled all connections from the FCC to 28.8kbps modem speeds” to the NeoCities.org homepage (but not to any of the sites hosted by NeoCities, because that would not be cool to do without their say-so).

“The FCC isn’t doing their job of protecting American consumers, or producers like Neocities users,” writes the company’s Kyle Drake. “Perhaps they got a dump truck full of money from the cable corporation lobby, or perhaps they’re too busy surfing Neocities sites. Well either way, it looks like they need some help remembering what their job is.”

Drake says he won’t lift the throttling “until the FCC pays us for the bandwidth they’ve been wasting instead of doing their jobs protecting us from the ‘keep America’s internet slow and expensive forever’ lobby.”

To that end, NeoCities is offering Wheeler, et al, what it dubs The Ferengi Plan:

The Ferengi plan is a special FCC-only plan that costs $1000 per year, and removes the 28.8kbps modem throttle to the FCC. We will happily take Credit Cards, Bitcoin, and Dogecoin from crooked FCC executives that probably have plenty of money from bribes on our Donations page (sorry, we don’t accept Latinum yet).

Granted, it’s not like the NeoCities homepage is Buzzfeed or TMZ, both of which we just assume are bookmarked on FCC Chair Tom Wheeler’s browser, but the company has posted the code it used for this protest on Github in case any sites want to throttle FCC access for fun.

[via ArsTechnica]

After years of friendly coexistence as tall-ass Chicago buildings with top-floor viewing areas that attracted tourists looking to test their acrophobia, the Willis (nee Sears) Tower threw down the gauntlet at its crosstown rival the Hancock Tower (technically, the John Hancock Center) by adding “The Ledge” — transparent boxes that jut out several feet from the building’s Skydeck, giving the visitor a truly knee-weakening experience. So what could the Hancock folks do to out-thrill the Willis’s boxes in the sky? How about a window that actually tilts you out over the Windy City’s streets?

Check out the above video just for the joy of seeing grown, presumably professional men and women scream in terror as they go on preview ride of Tilt on the Hancock’s 94th floor.

Personally, it’s not the tilting or the altitude that I dread, it’s the worry that my grip will loosen and I’ll sprawl forward onto the angled glass, making a public spectacle of myself and, knowing my klutzy luck, probably bloodying my nose in the process.

Though the Hancock is still not as towering as the Willis, this is definitely an escalation in the relatively blood-free Observation Deck War of Chicago, leading one to wonder what sort of Fear Factor-like response will come.

Perhaps those Ledge boxes at the Willis will become like the Six Flags Tower of Doom and suddenly descend at rapid speeds? Maybe the Tilt will start having Bucking Bronco nights, with the window’s operator trying to hurl people from the handrails. Maybe the Aon Center will… do something interesting for a change.