pileofcrapola

When the wine bottle is empty, don't throw away the cork that came with it. If you've got a fireplace, wine corks can easily be turned into ready-to-use fire starters to warm you up in winter, says Mrs. Adventure.

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A coiled cable can be easier to manage than a long cord that gets tangled up. If that's what you want with your USB cable, then Instructables user pizzidave has a quick way to do that with just a pencil, tape and a blow dryer.

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Not everyone can afford a separate computer or tablet for each member of the family, so you have to learn to share. It's not that difficult, as long as you set things up right and are willing to cooperate.

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One of the best ways to increase your income is through salary negotiations, either when you're first offered the job or during a performance review. It may make you uncomfortable, but it's extremely important. Here's how to get what you want out of a negotiation.

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When you're new in a big city, everyone says you should join a local group or club to meet new people—but this is easier said than done. Here's a quick tip to make that a bit simpler.

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Look at this gorgeous wood plank floor. Except, wait. The floor is actually made from brown paper.

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I don't know about you, but I will never outgrow my child-like desire to have secret passages and hidden rooms in my house. This sliding door bookshelf may be one of the most clever and least destructive ways to accomplish this we've seen yet.

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I’m going to play it to you straight — this is not one of those cases where it’s like, Read This Post And Your Life Will Forever Be Changed By What Happens because I don’t think easily squirted mustard falls under that kind of description. But still, getting sauces flowing when you need them? Super handy.

Generally awesome food guy Alton Brown has a dramatic reimagining (I can only hope, because otherwise it’s crazy how prepared his camera crew was) of how he came to conquer unsquirtable mustards.

If you don’t want to watch the entire two minutes of intensely acted refrigerator revelations, it’s simple: Take an egg carton (remove eggs first, obviously) and cut off the top, leaving only the scooped out egg cradles.

Set that in your fridge door’s shelf and stand various mustards or other condiments upright in it and voila — the next time you need a squirt it won’t be such a chore. My mind isn’t blown and my life has remained fairly the same since this knowledge was first revealed to me, but I am jonesing for a hot dog.

Usually, we try to stay at the forefront of Grocery Shrink Ray news, letting you know when we learn that a company has reduced the size of a product while keeping the price the same. Frito-Lay has been rolling out a massive shrinkage of Sun Chips, zapping bags from 10 ounces to only 7 ounces. Removing a third of the chips by weight? Noooo!

It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were bemoaning the shrink-rayage of Frito-Lay’s Sun Chips from 11.5 ounces to 10.5 ounces. Turns out it was six years ago. This time, the change is dramatic, and the brand has a Facebook page where customers can rant about the change.

It’s not like Americans need large quantities of corn chips laden with salt and flavoring powder. We’d probably be better off not eating them at all. While such a dramatic decrease is probably better for our health, but any Shrink Rayage makes us sad.

We contacted Frito-Lay to confirm this shrinkage, but they didn’t get back to us. They have been asking customers who complain about the difference to call their customer service line, where they will presumably receive coupons that don’t make up for losing a quarter of the chips in each bag.

After months of searching for a home, going through the process of applying for a mortgage, providing support for every speck of dust in your piggy bank (often multiple times), you finally get to closing day, where you’re often rushed through hundreds of papers of documents you’ve never seen before, hoping that you’re not inadvertently signing away your firstborn. Isn’t there something that can be done to make the closing process less daunting and more transparent?

A new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau outlines problems in the current process and suggests an alternative in the form of a new Electronic Closing pilot project.
The report [PDF], “Mortgage Closings Today”, highlights the frustrations consumers have encountered when completing the mortgage portion of their new purchase and just how technology could ease some of those burdens.

“Mortgage closings are often fraught with anxiety,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray says in a news release. “We have taken action to address some of the problems consumers face, but more needs to be done.”

The key challenges that consumers and industry stakeholders reported there was not enough time to review closing paperwork, the paperwork often proves overwhelming and the documents often contain jargon not easily understood by consumers.

In many instances, consumers reported they were unable to see the closing package until they arrived at the closing table. This proved too late to digest the information, ask questions about changes in fees, or correct errors, without delaying the closing. Additionally, consumers felt there was a disconnect between themselves and key participants in the process.

The CFPB report points to two root causes behind consumer’s feelings of stress and confusion in the closing process: large, complex packages and inconsistent closing practices across transactions.

Of the responses received by the Bureau in their research regarding closing practices, nearly 33% of all stakeholders stated that documents were too large. Consumers described the process as tedious and stressful when trying to figure out where to sign, while others had to slow down the settlement agents in order to have them explain the paperwork sufficiently.

In an attempt to lessen the frustrations that consumers encounter when going through the mortgage closing process, CFPB has identified “a more streamlined, efficient, and educational closing process that would be beneficial to consumers” in the in the form of a Electronic Closing system.

eClosings are already happening in the market today, but adoption is low, CFPB reports. A pilot program is set to launch later this year and is designed to enable the Bureau to better understand the role eClosing can play in the mortgage process.

The implementation of an eClosing system could address challenges by shifting the experience toward a paperless process. The CFPB believes that eClosing solutions could provide increased flexibility to provide documents prior to the closing and could include embedded educational tools that would highlight key information or link to additional resources. Additionally, consumers could utilize eClosing to access an eVault that would house their previous documents.

While some consumers reported encountering errors in their information during the closing process, CFPB contends that eClosing could help such errors be spotted before closing takes place.

The new report and pilot program have been designed to promote best partitives in the marketplace ahead of the CFPB’s “Know Before You Owe” mortgage initiative. The initiative was designed to improve the home-buying experience for consumers by requiring new, raiser-to-read disclosure forms that lay out the terms of a mortgage to a homebuyer. The new rule is expected to be implemented in August 2015.

CFPB Report Highlights Pain Points for Consumers in Mortgage Closing Process [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau]

In an effort to ease the transition from military service to the private sector — and help former servicemembers find jobs that match their skills — the Dept. of Veterans Affairs has launched a new service on its website that it hopes will allow employers to connect directly with veterans looking for work.

The new section of the VA’s eBenefits site was announced today by First Lady Michelle Obama at a veterans jobs summit at Fort Campbell on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee.

The VA’s Employment Center aims to help out the anywhere from 700,000 to 800,000 armed forces veterans who are looking for a job at any given time, by not only allowing them to post their resumes and sort through job listings. It also provides functionalities like a resume-builder and a Military Skills Translator that can show the job-seekers how their particular skill sets can be used in non-military employment.

This was a point the First Lady mentioned in her talk with soldiers at the Fort Campbell job summit — don’t minimize the things you learned while in service to your country.

“If you want a job, you can’t be modest about your qualifications,” she explained. “Anyone out there would be lucky to have you on their team.”

Likewise, employers who use the database to find job candidates have access to a translator that works in the opposite direction, telling them what types of military training would be applicable to their business.

[via Tennessean.com]

All-inclusive trips to resorts or on cruise ships can be a convenient and relaxing, since your major expenses are already taken care of. They can suddenly become a lot more stressful when you learn that the things that make a vacation fun––excursions, fancy beverages, memorable meals––aren’t part of the package that you signed on for.

Adapted from a slideshow about all-inclusive vacations over at Marketwatch, here are six things that your all-inclusive vacation might not include.

1. Savings. Yes, an all-inclusive stay might be more relaxing if you aren’t hauling your wallet out every few minutes, but it’s not necessarily a money-saver. This is especially true if the all-inclusive price includes activities that you might not be interested in, or food and drinks when you’d rather eat somewhere else anyway.
2. Beverages. One cruise fan Marketwatch spoke to recounted a recent Princess cruise where her drink options were limited to water, lemonade, iced tea, juice, and brewed coffee. If you imagined yourself drinking fancier things on vacation, you’ll have to pay extra for a drinks package, and that extra charge recurs every day. Some resorts and cruises also charge extra for non-crappy food.
3. The room pictured in the brochure. Your accommodations might be a lot less fancy. Brochures might depict rooms not yet built or under renovation. Check out message boards and recent reviews online, looking for accounts from travelers on the same ship or to the same resort.
4. Tips. Find out whether gratuities are included or not: staff may be required to refuse tips, or may be happy to receive them. On cruises, a daily gratuity for all staff will be added to your bill.
5. Excursions. You might want to travel off the ship or outside of the resort, supporting the local economy directly and seeing sights, but often that will cost you extra.
6. Refunds. If bad weather or another disaster strikes, you might have to cancel or reschedule your trip. If you were planning to eat at traditional restaurants, well, you don’t pay for food until you’ve ordered it. At an all-inclusive resort? Watch out for fine print that might mean you’re out the entire cost of a night’s stay if you decide to stay away because of crappy weather.

10 things all-inclusive vacations won’t tell you [MarketWatch]

Marshmallow Peeps and Reese’s peanut butter eggs have branched out into other holidays and are available more or less year-round. Depending on your opinion of these treats, that’s a wonderful thing or a terrible one. What you may not know is that candy-makers are trying to turn other treats into year-round confections, which is how we’ve ended up with Fourth of July Candy Corn.

There’s nothing wrong with this, exactly. Corn is a vegetable native to North America, so there’s nothing wrong with celebrating one of the world’s greatest grains in honey-laden form. It just has fruit flavors and doesn’t resemble the natural corn that we’re used to. (Red and blue corn do exist, but not on the same kernel.)

As we looked into this, we learned that alternate-holiday candy corn is nothing new. It’s been around for a few years, and Brach’s and other companies have tried some new ideas in the category of candy corn for holidays other than Halloween. How about pastel Easter candy corn?

SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 4/22/2014 [The Impulsive Buy]

Yesterday it was like you couldn’t turn around on the Internet without running into the hubbub about Palcohol, a powdered alcohol meant to be mixed with water sort of like Kool-Aid, but boozy. The astonishing thing? The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau had apparently blessed the product with its approval. That approval proved fleeting, as the agency reversed itself last night.

The agency’s director of congressional and public affairs, Tom Hogue, said in an email that the group had approved the powdered vodka, rum and other booze mixes “in error.” But he didn’t respond to further questions, reports CNNMoney.

The company behind Palcohol, Lipsmark, says that “there seemed to be a discrepancy [about] how much powder” is in each packet, and that it will resubmit the product for approval.

“We have been in touch with the TTB and there seemed to be a discrepancy on our fill level, how much powder is in the bag. There was a mutual agreement for us to surrender the labels,” says a statement on the Palcohol site. “This doesn’t mean that Palcohol isn’t approved. It just means that these labels aren’t approved. We will re-submit labels. We don’t have an expected approval date as label approval can vary widely.”

Critics of Palcohol say it could be dangerous due to its portability and the fact that it hasn’t been proven safe for use with food, which was reportedly something the product’s site mentioned before that recommendation was taken down yesterday.

The product would now need to get not only approval at the federal level (again), but states would also have to sanction it as well.

Regulator reverses approval of powdered alcohol [CNNMoney]

Fairfax County Animal Watch Washington Post FAIRFAX COUNTY. The following incidents were reported by the Animal Control Division of the Fairfax County Police Department. For information, call 703-246-2253. epa04176175 Shane Red Hawk of the Sicangu Lakota band of the Rosebud Sioux (L) ... and more »

Thief nabs parakeets and eggs in Manassas Washington Post Thirteen parakeets and six parakeet eggs were stolen from a home in Manassas — the second parakeet theft in the city in recent months. Adrienne Helm, a Manassas police spokeswoman, said that the homeowner, a resident of the 9700 block of Bragg Lane, ... and more »

- To put it in social media terms, the New York Police Department got trolled.

- Criticized by one group as the "guns everywhere" bill, Georgia took a big step Wednesday toward expanding where licensed carriers can take their weapons, with the governor signing a law that allows them in bars without restriction and in some churches, schools and government buildings under certain circumstances.

- The Supreme Court on Wednesday said a federal law limits how much money victims of child pornography can recover from people who viewed their images online, throwing out a nearly $3.4 million judgment in favor of a woman whose childhood rape has been widely seen on the Internet. Two dissenting justices called on Congress to change the law to benefit victims.

The U.S. middle class has for years been the most affluent in the world. But that's no longer the case.

- Authorities say a man fatally shot by a Portland officer last month had been stalking young women in a van that he converted into a "moveable dungeon" with chains and handcuffs after one of his victims managed to escape from it in January.

McCHORD, Wash. (AP) -- A U.S. soldier accused of deliberately killing two unarmed teenage boys as they herded cattle in Iraq seven years ago is due in military court.

- Virginia transportation officials want Interstate 64 travelers to know that there is a less-congested route between Richmond and Hampton Roads.

- Police say 13 parakeets and six parakeet eggs have been stolen from a Manassas home.

- The number of baby lobsters settling off the rocky coast of Maine continues to steadily decline -- possibly foreshadowing an end to the recent record catches that have boosted New England's lobster fishery, scientists say.

- Authorities say a man fatally shot by a Portland officer last month had been stalking young women in a van that he converted into a "moveable dungeon" with chains and handcuffs after one of his victims managed to escape from it in January.

- Police detectives in Portland, Ore., say a man fatally shot by an officer last month had been stalking young women in a van containing ropes, zip ties and pornographic magazines featuring teenage girls.

- The Supreme Court says an anonymous tip can be sufficient to justify a decision by police to pull a car over on suspicion of reckless or drunken driving.

- Baltimore County Police say a 2-year-old boy was mauled by the family dog.

- Domino Sugar is taking its iconic sign along Baltimore's harbor solar.