pileofcrapola

Sometimes you're stuck in the middle of the woods with a bottle of vegetable oil, some popcorn kernels, and nothing to pop them with. Fortunately, with an aluminum can and a knife, you can be on your way to Popcorn Town.

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Talking during the movie theater, while occasionally fun if done right , will probably earn you a place in a special level of hell. Using your phone during a movie is even worse. Theater chain Cinemark wants to train away this behavior with positive reinforcement by rewarding users who turn off their phone during the movie.

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You may have heard about these milk shot glasses made from cookies that were all the rage at SXSW last week. Well, they're not horribly difficult to make, so if you want your ice cold milk in a shot glass made of cookie, here's how you can make them at home.

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You probably already know "What to Expect When You're Expecting." Maybe your female friends and relatives can't stop giving you advice. Maybe you've been pregnant more than once. Regardless, there are some things we don't discuss very readily when it comes to pregnancy. It's time to spill the beans.

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Readers offer their best tips for getting your full nap time, sharing selected content on web pages, and speed reading web pages.

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Sometimes candles drip wax beyond their designated area and said wax hardens on your table. Scraping it off can take some work and leave a residue, but you can avoid all of that trouble with an ice cube and a plastic card.

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When you move to a new place, you might have trouble finding a good and trustworthy mechanic to work on your car. Redditor TrevHolland has a suggestion.

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Most of our go bags only borrow the name, featuring the things we like to carry on a regular basis. Reader Scott Kelley takes his gear a little more seriously and has a "bug out bag" system that's versatile and geared towards survival.

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If college prices are sending chills down your spine, join the club. With the priciest schools charging over $40,000 in just tuition—and that doesn't even touch room, board or book costs—financial planning for higher education can feel like a 24/7 anxiety nightmare. The good and bad news is that assessing whether a school is affordable goes far beyond looking at sticker price. Shake off your fears, take a deep breath, and read up on how to find out a school's real price.

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Acting naturally at your workplace is always a bit tough. You typically want to present a professional demeanor, and often that comes at the cost of censoring yourself. So, we want to know, do you self-censor at work?

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Grief, whether it's losing someone we love, the end of a relationship, or whatever else, is a complicated emotion. While we all tend to deal with grief in different ways, The Atlantic points to research that shows just how much personal rituals can help you deal with your grief.

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Say hello to Yuval Mor, the CEO of Beyond Verbal. The Beyond Verbal team specializes in analyzing and decoding emotions from the sound of a person's voice. Non-verbal communication is a huge part of your everyday life—whether you're interviewing for a job or are on a first date, you're always giving off indications of your mood by how you behave and sound. Yuval is here to share his expertise in the analytics of emotions for the next hour—ask away!

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The new Google Maps has some pretty cool features built-in, but on some machines it can cause some graphical glitches. Thankfully, its hidden "Lite Mode" can solve these problems.

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Dear Lifehacker,
I'm on a budget, and I don't have a lot of money for furniture. I have some pieces that work for me, but I tend to shop at department stores and IKEA to get my stuff. Is there any way to make that furniture last longer, or strengthen it so it's more resilient? I don't want it to fall apart the next time I move!

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Starting next week, Walmart shoppers looking for something to do with those Batman: Arkham Origins discs they no longer play will have one more option for unloading their used video games, as the nation’s largest retailer aims to likely become the largest purchaser of customers’ old games.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Walmart will soon start buying used video games from shoppers at 3,100 locations. Of course, this being Walmart, you don’t get cash your old game, you get a Walmart gift card. The value of that card will be tied to the value of the game in question.

Unlike some major retailers who have trade-in programs but don’t directly resell used games back to its shoppers, Walmart will reportedly be selling these old titles at its stores; and the company says it will soon be doing so at lower prices than people pay for used games elsewhere.

For Walmart, it’s a way to get a slice of the still-lucrative, $2 billion/year used game market at a time when an increasing number of game-buyers are getting their new games digitally, thus bypassing retailers like Walmart and Best Buy. Walmart also sees it as a way to let customers cash in on games they aren’t playing — and then spend that “found” money at Walmart.

One might assume that GameStop — until now, the retail market leader in used game sales — would be shaking in its boots at the notion of Walmart stomping on its business.

“We win those market share battles because we’ve been at it a long time,” CEO Paul Raines tells the Journal, presumably while flipping through the help-wanted ads.

Walmart hopes that shoppers will choose it over existing competitors because you can’t trade in a copy of Borderlands 2 for a head of lettuce or a pair of sweatpants at GameStop.

Raines cautioned that big retailers might not understand the logistical nightmare they face when jumping into the used game business, saying, “there are lots and lots of risks when you’re buying a preowned product.”

Who doesn’t like a multi-tasking appliance/ The difference between a refrigerator and a freezer is just the temperature, so it shouldn’t be surprising that there’s now an appliance that can switch between the two according to your needs. Mostly, we’re surprised that we had never heard of such a thing.

This Transformafridge (we made that name up) would work best as spare cold-stuff space and not in your kitchen. That’s because it’s not a refrigerator and freezer, like most people have so they can keep both guacamole and frozen burritos close at hand. You have to pick one temperature for the whole unit and stick with it, so most households would probably use it as a standalone freezer.

If you were going to have a party, though, or needed to very gradually defrost a dozen turkeys at the same time, this would definitely be the appliance for you. The list price of the Frigidaire FKCH17F7HW is $770, and our frost-free colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports say that it performed well as both a refrigerator and a freezer on all of their tests. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes for the appliance to chill its way from the refrigerator configuration down to zero degrees Fahrenheit. You can adjust the actual temperature yourself.

In a first, Frigidaire freezer converts to a refrigerator [Consumer Reports]

Carly was shopping at Target and captured this example of the confusing math for which the retailer is known around here. Here, you can get two small boxes or one large box of the same snack food item for the same price. That’s where it stops making sense.

“2 for $5 for 20 strips, or $4.99 for 25…hmm….” writes tipster Carly. Yes.

Of course, if you’re shopping with only $2.50 in your pocket and must have fruit right now, the better deal is obvious. The 10-pack the only deal that makes sense.

At least this is one case where buying in smaller quantities and buying in bulk are equal: usually, in cases of Fuzzy Math, the smaller package ends up being the better deal.

I’ll be the first to admit it: At one point in my life (read: college) drinking beer dyed green on St. Patrick’s Day felt like my genetic right as a Midwesterner with an Irish surname. And to be sure, every year there are probably millions of people eating and drinking green food and beverages to celebrate the day. But green food has another meaning for the Irish, one that makes the American dyeing tradition kind of… sad.

To be sure, there are plenty of other St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans we Americans enjoy that elicit an exasperated, if not defeated sigh from anyone actually hailing from the Emerald Isle. Like say, depositing the contents of one’s stomach on a busy city street corner in the middle of the day while a parade goes by.

But NPR’s The Salt blog points to the dark past of green food in Ireland as an even more unsettling example of how some of us just don’t get it over here. As a historian explains, the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, which killed at least a million Irish in six years, pushed starving people to the edge.

“People were so deprived of food that they resorted to eating grass,” she explained. “In Irish folk memory, they talk about people’s mouths being green as they died.”

She adds that the happy green tint we add to our cookies, cakes and drinks might seem to conjure the rolling green hills of Eire, it can still seem odd to actual Irish people.

“Before I came to America, I’d never seen a green bagel.” She says. “For Irish-Americans, they think of dying food green, they think everything is happy. But really, in terms of the famine, this is very sad imagery.”

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!

You can follow MBQ on Twitter while she seeks out a Guinness real quick-like: @marybethquirk

The Dark History Of Green Food On St. Patrick’s Day [NPR's The Salt]

We consider it our duty to keep you updated about the finest and most exciting international fast food available, like Marmite pizza and apple burgers. We’re not so sure that this new pastry offering from Starbucks in Hong Kong will have Americans longing to buy plane tickets, though. It features…vegetables?

That’s not a birthday candle sticking out of the muffin: it’s a green bean. This is a savory muffin that contains cheese, spinach, broccoli, and green beans. Why? They probably have some kind of good reason to create a savory muffin, but we’re pretty sure this special item isn’t going to come stateside.

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Around the World: Starbucks Hong Kong Gives You Veggies IN Your Muffin [Brand Eating]

General Motors Co announced three new recalls affecting 1.5 million vehicles for airbag deployment and other issues. The announcement comes on the same day it was revealed that the company faces its first class action lawsuit tied to February’s massive recall of vehicles for ignition problems. The company will also take a $300 million charge against earnings to pay for repairs as part of an initiative to be more responsive to problems with its vehicles.

The Detroit automaker announced three recalls on Monday totaling more than 1.5 million crossover sports utility vehicles, full-size vans and luxury vehicles.

Nearly 1.18 million crossover sports utility vehicles have been recalled for an issue with wiring under the driver’s seat that can crimp and cause a “service air bag” warning light to trigger on the dash. Impacted models include some 2008-2009 and all 2010-2013 Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia crossovers, as well as all 2010-2013 Chevrolet Traverse and some 2008-2009 and all 2010 Saturn Outlooks, according a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall report.

The company reports that the issue could lead to the nondeployment of side airbags. Dealers will repair the wiring harness of seat mounted airbags.

Additionally, the automaker is recalling 303,000 model year 2009 to 2014 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full-size vans to replace plastic material in the passenger instrument panel to meet federal head impact crash standards for unbelted passengers.

The final recall affects 63,900 Cadillac XTS sedans from the 2013 and 2014 model years for a corrosion problem in the brake booster electronics that could cause an engine compartment fire. Dealers will apply sealant to the connector cavity plugs, re-route the vacuum pump vent hose and replace the front body wiring harnesses as needed.

The company says it is aware of two engine compartment fires in unsold vehicles at dealerships and two cases of melted components.

GM reports it has not received reports of accidents or injuries related to the new recalls.

Reuters reports the new recalls resulted from General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra’s push for a comprehensive internal safety review following the ignition-switch recall last month.

That recall affected 1.18 million compact cars and has been tied to between 12 and 300 deaths.

Earlier Monday, it was announced that the company faces what is believed to be the first suit against related to the February recall.

General Motors and the NHTSA have come under fire for not recalling the compact vehicles sooner after it was revealed that GM knew about possible ignition issues as early as 2001 and received numerous complaints from customers and dealerships.

GM recalls another 1.5 million vehicles, to take $300 mlm charge [Reuters]

Many smartphone or tablet owners have done it, whether we have kids of our own or not: handed our devices over to a youngster that we’re tasked with entertaining. Now Android users can lock kids and other guests out of accessing their real wallets with in-game currency purchases.

The trouble is that children (or, heck, adults) who don’t understand the difference between in-game currency and real-world cash, leading to infamous stories in the annals of consumer reporting like the 8-year-old who spent more than a thousand bucks on Smurfberries.

Fortunately, Google is here to save us all. Over the weekend, a new version of the Google Play Store app came out that provides a fix for this problem by providing an option to require your password for every in-app purchase. It’s probably a good idea to update the app and turn the option on right now, before you even think about pulling up Angry Birds and handing the phone to your niece.

Of course, it’s kind of sad that it took a class action lawsuit to prompt Google to do this, but at least the option exists now. Before, there would be a half-hour window after you typed in your password where anyone using the device could make purchases on your behalf without knowing your password. This change eliminates that possibility…but only if you activate it.

Download: Latest Google Play Store 4.6.16 / 4.6.17 With Batch App Install, New ‘Require Password’ Option, Tweaked UI, Forced Self-Update, And More [Android Police]

I have been in some weddings. And each and every one of them, I wanted to be a bridesmaid because I dearly love the people involved. But there’s no shame in any bridesmaid admitting that the expense of an often $300 (or more) floor-length robin’s egg blue chiffon concoction that you’ll never wear again is often a sigh-worthy affair. Take heart, ye of the faint of bank account heart — bridesmaid dress rentals could provide a welcome alternative.

Frugal women who nevertheless want to look classy at special events will likely find the idea of Vow to be Chic a lot like Rent the Runway, which ships customers designer dresses on a rental fee basis. The idea being: You can wear a pretty dress and not feel a twinge of sadness at seeing it sit forlornly in your closet until you finally decide to chuck it.

A 28-year-old six-time bridesmaid started the business after her personal experience with fancy dress induced wallet pain.

“Many of my best friends aren’t engaged yet, so I have many more to come,” she tells Yahoo’s The Exchange. “It’s an honor, but it’s an expensive honor.”

Brides sign up their bridesmaids on the company site, where the women can then pay only about $95 to $125 to rent a designer dress for the special day. Once the party’s over, the dresses go back, and your wallet doesn’t feel quite so thin nor your closet quite so full of discarded gowns.

Here’s how it works: Brides select the dress online for their bridesmaids, who then send in their measurements (something you should definitely have a tailor do so you don’t muck it up). Long before the wedding, bridesmaids receive two sample dresses to try on at home and send them back with final sizing selections. Final dresses arrive before the wedding, then get sent back after the big event.

“The idea of renting bridesmaid dresses — or, for that matter, dresses you’d wear as a guest, like via Rent the Runway — is fantastic,” Jen Doll, wedding attendee extraordinaire and author of Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest tells Consumerist. “You won’t feel like you’ve had to spend a ton of money on something that will just take up room in your closet afterward, which is great for your overall attitude going into an event.”

The idea of rented formal wear is even better for those who go to multiple weddings a year (again, raising my hand in delight and yet fearing the inevitable hit on the old wallet), she points out.

“If you’re going to a ton of weddings in a season, you can wear a bunch of different things without going into credit card debt, which is almost as beautiful as the happy couple’s love,” notes Doll.

On that note, if anyone is interested in a once-worn, previously beautiful long gray dress with a few heel holes and Champagne stains on it, I know where you can get one free. It starts with a “My” and ends with “closet.”

The bridesmaid dress nightmare ends — with online rentals [The Exchange]

You’re probably wondering: Where the heck am I when researchers decide to study the healthful effects of dark chocolate, and how come I can’t be the one gobbling on chocolate pills? Scientists launching a big study on the nutrients in dark chocolate want to see if those cocoa flavanols can help prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Of course, ingesting these choco-pills won’t be anywhere near the experience of slobbering on a candy bar, but it’d still be pretty awesome to let everyone around you know it’s time for your medicine… CHOCOLATE MEDICINE!

Anyway, the Associated Press says there are enough nutrients in each pill that you’d have to basically live on candy mountain, proclaim yourself the ruler of the chocolate kingdom and shove candy bars down your gullet all day to try to equal the capsules’ effects.

About 18,000 men and women will be enlisted to help with the chocolate study, which is the first large test of cocoa flavanols. Other studies int he past have shown the ingredients can improve blood pressure, cholesterol, artery health and other things.

“People eat chocolate because they enjoy it,” the chief of preventive medicine at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston said in pointing out the obvious, so researchers want to take out that sugar and fat (read: otherwise known as “the fun part of chocolate”) and see what health effects the other ingredients provide.

It is interesting to note that the study will be sponsored partly by Mars Inc., maker of M&Ms and Snicker bars, along with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Mars has a patented method for pulling out flavanols from cocoa in high concentration and putting them into capusles, which will be quite useful for the purposes of the study. These capsules will have a lot more of the active ingredient than other versions of cocoa extracts that some candy companies sell.

“You’re not going to get these protective flavanols in most of the candy on the market. Cocoa flavanols are often destroyed by the processing,” said one of the study’s leaders.

Those in the study will take either placebo pills or two pills of (unfortunately, tasteless) cocoa flavanols every day for four years. It’s unclear whether outside candy consumption will count as extra credit.

You can follow MBQ on Twitter and rest easy knowing she always has plenty of chocolate “vitamins” on hand: @marybethquirk

Big study will test chocolate extract pills for heart health; multivitamins, too [Associated Press]

Prince William County crime report Washington Post Prince William County. These were among incidents reported by Prince William County police. For information, call 703-792-7245. TOPSHOTS A protester waves a black flag during clashes with riot police in Kadikoy, on ... and more »

Prince William County community calendar, March 16 to 22, 2014 Washington Post Sunday, March 16. “Operation Urgent Fury: Invasion of Grenada,” an exhibit featuring photographs and artifacts chronicling the multinational invasion of the island of Grenada. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, National Museum of the Marine Corps, 18900 Jefferson ... and more »

Water Tower Demolition Public Hearing Rescheduled Patch.com A public hearing scheduled for Monday night at Manassas City Hall has been rescheduled for March 24. Several speakers were expected to address the council on the proposed demolition of a water storage tank. "There is concern that the weather conditions ...

- Ever since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, a fascinated public has asked: Why can somebody in the cockpit shut off the transponder?

- Nothing sparks consumer demand like the word "free," and politicians in some states have proposed the idea of providing that incentive to get young people to attend community college.

Diagnosed with celiac disease, a local pastry cook has fought for the job she loves and has turned her condition into an asset for a D.C. eatery and others with dietary restrictions by creating tasty gluten-free treats.

Covered in bruises and scratches, a man named Henry is forced to meet with a court-appointed psychologist after allegedly being attacked by a group of muggers.