pileofcrapola

What: About 1 million Fitbit Force wireless activity monitors sold at AT&T, Apple Stores, Best Buy, Brookstone, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Radio Shack, REI, Sports Authority, Target, and other stores nationwide, and online at Amazon.com and Fitbit.com from October 2013 to February 2014 for about $130. The affected units have model numbers FB402BK, FB402BKS, FB402SL and FB402SLS.

Why: Users can develop allergic reactions to the stainless-steel casing, materials used in the strap, or adhesives used to assemble the product, resulting in redness, rashes, or blistering where the skin has been in contact with the device.

Remedy: Consumers should contact the manufacturer for a full refund.

For more information: Contact Fitbit at (888) 656-6381 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern or online at www.fitbit.com and click on Recall/Safety Info on the right side of the page.

What: About 27,000 Design Ideas and Neatlife Rubber Ducky, Blowfish, and Splat Magnets  Model numbers 3205121 and 993205114 (duck), 3205122 (blowfish), or 3205078 (splat) are printed on the bottom of the packaging.

The duck magnets were sold at Nordstrom’s Rack stores, novelty and gift stores, book stores and art stores nationwide from March 2007 through September 2013 for about $10. The blowfish magnets were sold at novelty and gift stores, book stores and art stores nationwide from March 2007 through March 2011 for about $10. The splat magnets were sold at CB2 stores, novelty and gift stores, office supply stores and art stores nationwide from November 2012 to February 2014 for about $10.

Why: The small magnets can easily detach from the product. If swallowed, magnets can link together inside a child's intestines and clamp onto body tissues, causing intestinal obstructions, perforations, sepsis, and death. Internal injury from magnets can pose serious lifelong health effects.

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled magnets place them out of reach of children and contact Design Ideas for a refund.

For more information: Contact Design Ideas at (800) 426-6394 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday, or online at www.designideas.net  and click on “Safety Notices and Patents” for more information.

What: About 14,000 Canon PowerShot SX50 HS Digital Cameras sold at retailers nationwide, including OfficeMax, Sam’s Club, Staples, Target, Walmart, and on various websites, including Amazon.com, Best Buy.com, and BHPhotoVideo.com, from October 2013 through January 2014 for about $430.

Why: A chemical used in the rubber part of the viewfinders on the camera can cause skin or eye irritation or an allergic reaction to the user.

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled cameras and contact Canon to arrange a free repair. 

For more information: Contact Canon at (855) 226-3277 between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday, or online at www.usa.canon.com and click on "Recalled for Repair" for more information. 

For more information about product recalls, visit the Consumer Product Safety Commission website, CPSC.gov. Additional information can be found at Recalls.gov.

Kind of like Lyft, but for your packages, Barnacle hooks you up with people who drive long routes and will accept a little extra cash to deliver your packages on their way. Alternatively, you can deliver packages for others and make some money yourself.

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Tons of things can clue you in to whether someone else is your perfect match. How does he or she feel about kids? Gay marriage? Which way the toilet paper should roll ? According to data from OKCupid, there are three questions in particular that could suggest you and your partner really will get along for the long haul.

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Nobody likes to say "no" to a friend or colleague, but sometimes we just have to say it. The word's surprisingly tough to say for most of us, and The Wall Street Journal dug into why that is.

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What's up, Kotaku? Welcome to the latest installment of Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating advice column that understands what to do when your prince or princess isn't just in another castle, they're also not returning your calls.

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One of the most common criticisms leveled at millennials is the claim that we're selfish and shallow, and I've never been able to understand that. This is, after all, the generation which witnessed "going green" become a basic expectation, and which has made terms like "social justice" commonplace.

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We've already shattered the myth that longer working hours somehow means you're more productive —the truth is usually longer hours mean less good, solid work. Now there's also research that strongly suggests long hours are also bad for your health—we mean premature death kind of bad. Here's the data to back it up.

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If you have a little time to spare, there are tons of interesting, informative, and actually useful talks and lectures all over the web that you can enjoy for free. The best can teach you a new skill, inspire you to do something new, or just expand your horizons. Let's build a list of the best ones for a lunch break or commute home.

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Most of us, if left to our whimsy, could conjure up a pretty impressive list of adventures to attempt before we kick the bucket. In the film "The Bucket List" two men were able to check items off their life's to-do list that most of us can only fantasize about. That's because Jack Nicholson's character was rich enough to grant both his and Morgan Freeman's wishes. However, extravagant experiences don't have to cost a fortune.

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William used his FedEx account to send a package. It only weighed a few pounds and wasn’t going far, and it cost him $13.75. They charged his credit card: all done. Then charges of hundreds of dollars from FedEx started hitting his card, and he had no idea where they came from. What was happening?

It began with a charge of $280.97 that appeared on his card from FedEx. William checked his account, and the only package he sent was that domestic one, for $13.75. He tried customer service chat, and the representative wasn’t helpful at all. “The representative said the list of charges are on my online account,” William wrote to Consumerist. “I replied that I [was looking at my online account] and the total is $13.75. She said there was nothing she could do and refused to get a manager.”

Then something changed in his account. The good news: he could finally see what the charges were for. The bad news: they were for sending heavy packages internationally. The first was from Canada to Japan, and others were similar distances. The largest charge for a single package was $304.64.

William doesn’t live in Canada, and didn’t ship these packages. He pleaded with Consumerist to help sort this out, so we contacted FedEx, sending over his statement, account number, and the other documentation that William had sent us.

Finally, the answer came: it was the logical solution, that someone had been using William’s account. By mistake, claims FedEx. “Apparently an international customer wrote down this customer’s account number instead of his own (one digit off),” a company representative told Consumerist.

The good news is that, as the representative put it, “the situation has been resolved” and William will be getting a refund and a letter of apology from FedEx.
“I’ve confirmed that the situation has been resolved. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience to [William].”

That’s great news: it’s not every day, even here at Consumerist, that we help get someone $856 back.

T-Mobile may offer competitive pricing and be an important disruptive factor in a wireless market otherwise dominated by two much larger players, but the company’s network doesn’t yet provide the level of LTE coverage offered by AT&T and Verizon. But T-Mobile is now promising to rid itself of its sludge-like 2G Edge network in favor of LTE by mid-2015.

In an announcement this morning, T-Mo said that it expects to finish half of the LTE upgrade in 2014, with a goal to be “substantially complete” within 18 months.

T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere takes issue with the perception of his company’s network as second-tier to the bigger providers.

“Our competitors want you to believe our network doesn’t measure up. But that just isn’t true,” claims Legere in a statement. “And American consumers are going to see right through the spin and half-truths when given the facts.”

T-Mobile is inarguably in a much better position, network-wise, than it was after the collapse of its plan to merge with AT&T. At that point, the company wasn’t offering any LTE service, but it was able to begin building out its current network, thanks in no small part to the $4 billion in cash and spectrum it received from AT&T when the deal failed.

The company says it is has issued a cease-and-desist to Verizon Wireless regarding its current series of ads comparing coverage maps of the various providers. Legere claims these commercials “massively understate our coverage.”

If you’re in the mood for free ice cream and long lines, mark your calendar: free cone day at Ben & Jerry’s is coming in less than a month. Mark your calendars for April 8. All of the snow might even have melted near company headquarters in Vermont by then. [Ben & Jerry's]

Last month, Graco and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recalled 3.7 million of the company’s car seats for faulty buckles. Today comes news that an additional 403,000 seats have been added to the recall.

The initial recall had been for seats produced and sold between 2009 and 2013. In a notice [PDF] dated March 7, the company explains that some of the additional 403,222 seats were manufactured before 2009.

Seats added to the recall, from model years 2006 through 2014:
Argos 70 Elite,
Ready Ride,
Step 2,
My Ride 65 with Safety Surround,
My Size 70,
Head Wise 70 with Safety Surround,
Nautilus 3-in-1,
Nautilus Plus,
Smart Seat with Safety Surround.

The problem with these seats is that the buckle can become gummed up if food or liquid gets into the mechanism. Some parents have been unable to unlatch the buckle under such conditions and have had to cut the harness in order to get their child free.

Graco is offering to replace the buckle with a new design, free of charge. Registered owners will be notified beginning around early April 2014, and offered the free replacement buckle. All other owners may contact Graco at 1-800-345-4109 (toll-free) or 1-330-869-7225.

In addition to the recalled seats, Graco has previously said it will allow owners of an additional 1.8 million car seats not yet involved in the recall to get replacement buckles.

Recall Notice [NHTSA]

Okay, double-decker burgers are nothing new. Chicken patty sandwiches are nothing new either. Big Mac clones are nothing new. Heck, even wacky fast food genre-bending creations from KFC are nothing new. Yet we’re fascinated with this new offering from KFC, the Big Boss. It’s exactly like the Big Mac, but with fried chicken filets instead of beef burgers. Unfortunately, you can only get it in Canada.

The good news is that often foreign outposts of fast food outlets often serve as test kitchens for items that will eventually migrate to trays and bags here in the United States. Maybe that didn’t work out so well for Mighty Wings at McDonald’s, but maybe the Big Boss has the right appeal and a price point that makes sense.

Naturally, Canadian news outlets have announced this new sandwich with all kinds of puns about KFC “doubling down.” Please. This is nothing like the Double Down: there’s no bacon.

Take Our Poll

KFC’s Big Boss Burger Looks Like a Big Mac with Fried Chicken [Foodbeast]
Big Boss or Big Mac? KFC doubles down to attract young customers [Hamilton Spectator]

Prince William County news in brief Washington Post Neighborhood Services Division wins award. The City of Manassas Neighborhood Services Division recently won a Communitas Award for Corporate Social Responsibility for its work with the Manassas City public schools, AmeriCorps Vista program and ... and more »

Prince William County community calendar, March 13 to 19, 2014 Washington Post Thursday, March 13. “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 ...

- Zeb Postelwait of Washington state always wanted to build a treehouse for his sons. He got the chance last summer after moving into a Wenatchee home with a big tree in the front yard.

- A coroner says a 78-year-old Mississippi man has died two weeks after he woke up in a body bag at a funeral home after being mistakenly pronounced deceased.

- A 27-year-old Arizona man accused of fatally stabbing his 12-year-old half brother reportedly told police he "just felt like killing."

- An independent commission led by a former U.S. surgeon general has concluded there "is no compelling medical reason" for the U.S. armed forces to prohibit transgender Americans from serving and that President Barack Obama could lift the decades-old ban without approval from Congress, according to a report being released Thursday.

year-old female relative who had come from Florida in May 2013 to work with him on his truck, the "Twilight Express."

- Military researchers put dozens of soldiers, both women and men, through a series of drills Wednesday aimed at helping the Army develop a unisex test to decide which troops are fit for combat, regardless of gender.

- An Indian diplomat whose arrest and strip-search spurred an international flap had the case against her dismissed by a federal judge on Wednesday, but prosecutors suggested they might refile the charges stemming from claims she exploited her housekeeper.

- A Louisiana woman has been arrested on a charge of first-degree murder after police say she injected alcohol-based hand sanitizer into the feeding tube of her 17-month-old son, who had Down syndrome.

- A Pittsylvania County man faces more than 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to moonshine charges.

The phone has been ringing off the hook at the water company.

D.C. will soon see what it's like to experience tiny living in an apartment with the boom of interest in micro-units.

- A one-of-a-kind locomotive is being added to Norfolk Southern's fleet.

- The Maryland House has joined the Senate in passing a compromise measure on dog-bite liability.

What better way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day than with a new friend?