pileofcrapola

Tool rolls make a handy alternative to lugging around a tool box or bag, especially if you only need a subset of your tools. Sure, there are commercial products, but why not make your own for just a few bucks?

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As the old adage goes, time is money. But how much, exactly, is an hour of your time worth to you? When is it worth it to hire help? Is it better to scale down your hours or take on additional work? This tool from Clearer Thinking reveals all that and more.

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In the off chance you have leftover french fries, this is probably the best thing you can do with them: Reheat them in a waffle maker.

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When the news that Dropbox was moving to forced arbitration to resolve issues between itself and customers—and that they were giving you a way to opt out—some asked what the problem with arbitration was, and why it's important to opt out if you can. Our friends at The Consumerist sum up the problem beautifully.

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Prior to the Great Recession, it was fairly easy to buy a home with no down payment. But the mortgage crisis and the financial crisis shook things up a bit. Credit requirements—especially for home loans—tightened substantially.

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Peeing in swimming pools may be hazardous to your health. That's the message from scientists who have found that compounds in urine mix with chlorine to form chemicals that have been linked to respiratory effects in swimmers.

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Eggs last awhile, but not forever. If you need to preserve yours a little longer, you can stick them in the freezer. Of course, you don't want to just toss them in, shells and all. That's where an ice cube tray can help.

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By now, you probably know that a salary is negotiable. But that's just one of the workplace policies and perks up for discussion. Whether it's explicitly said or not, things like flexible working arrangements, maternity leave, and even the projects you get to work on may not be set in stone.

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At first, reading words like “oozed with sizzling fat” or “extra-tender meat” conjures up a tempting culinary event. But what if those words were linked with “fish heads”? That kind of dining experience is what many experts say could be a key component to reducing the world’s food waste. Yes, eating fish heads.

After all, it’s not uncommon in many other countries in the world to eat the parts of a fish we Westerners tend to go for, which is usually a boneless fillet. As NPR’s The Salt explains, with the above tantalizing description, there’s a lot of meat to be had in the head — including the eyeballs and softer pieces of cartilage.

But because so many people shun fish byproducts, a whole lot of heads, tails and other bits are either fed to livestock, made into fertilizer or just tossed out. That practice is wasteful, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said recently.

“We must ensure that these byproducts are not wasted,” Audun Lem, chief of FAO’s products, trade and marketing branch, said in a statement.

But… the whole fish? What is there even to eat in there? A lot, a scientist with the FAO tells The Salt — fish bones, brains, cartilage and fat are nutritious, containing extra-high levels of vitamin A, omega-3 fatty acids, iron, zinc and calcium, he says. And if we’re eating that stuff, we’re reducing pollution from processing facilities.

“From the nutritional, environmental and economic points of view, it makes perfect sense to use all parts of the fish,” he explained, except for shark orange roughy, swordfish and some tuna heads, which could contain high levels of mercury and other toxins.

Even if the idea of chowing down on a fish head makes you want to never eat anything ever again because your stomach just couldn’t take it, you could already be eating them anyway. One Alaskan company renders salmon heads into oil, that’s then sold in capsules as a nutritional supplement.

The co-owner of the company says that’s probably the best way to go about it for Americans.

Co-owner Richard Mullins says that seems to be the most effective way to market the nutritional goodness of fish heads to Americans.

“We have a thing in our culture about eating things with eyes,” he says.

Indeed. Thank goodness this wasn’t a lunchtime post.

You can follow MBQ on Twitter but you should know she probably won’t be eating fish heads anytime soon: @marybethquirk

Why We Should Quit Tossing Fish Heads And Eat ‘Em Up Instead. Yum! [The Salt]

Even as mall staples like RadioShack and Sbarro find themselves shutting down stores, and malls elsewhere across the land are rendered useless by online shopping, the Mall of America is planning on expanding in the next 10 years. So how is this megamall surviving in the midst of mall meltdown?

The Mall of America isn’t our nation’s largest — that honor goes to the King of Prussia mall near Philadelphia, in terms of leasable retail space — but it’s set to get even bigger, Fortune.com reports: It just closed financing and will start a new expansion project this month, with plans to double its size over the next decade.

Does this mean malls can be saved? Well, sure, if they create enough of a hullabaloo with things like the largest indoor theme park in the country, and an aquarium with 10,000 sea creature, which are just a few of the other attractions touted by the Mall of America.

“The future of malls is about experience, creating a destination,” says Maureen Bausch, executive vice president of business development for Mall of America. “It’s about giving the customer an experience they’ll leave their laptop for.”

That reason to visit a brick-and-mortar mall isn’t that malls have things we want to buy — we’ve got the Internet for that. With 40 million visitors annually — a large bulk of those tourists making trips just to visit this one mall — the Mall of America has gone beyond a place to eat a slice and watch teens try to steal from that one novelty store that everyone steals from.

But once those visitors are lured to the mall by the Barbie Dreamhouse attraction or the Snoopy coaster (is that still there? It was when I was 12 and I loved it), the Mall of America still has stores that are very shoppable, in a best of both worlds kind of scenario. Stores that peddle jewelry, apparel, home improvement and sporting goods, in particular, things many people still want to buy in the physical world.

As one real estate firm associate points out, the focus now is not on the store, but the experience. Regional malls and high-end shopping centers have fared better than others recently, he points out, likely because just going there provides entertainment.

This all means that perhaps in the future, there won’t be anymore malls like those in days gone by, but we’ll instead have sprawling meccas of glitzy attractions, theme parks and carnival rides along with the kinds of stores that can actually compete with e-commerce.

It’s survival of the fittest — or in this case, survival of the mall with the best rollercoaster.

You can follow MBQ on Twitter and let her know how that Snoopy coaster is doing these days: @marybethquirk

Why Mall of America is expanding as many retailers implode [Fortune.com]

Twenty years ago, the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series brought anthologies of heartwarming and inspiration stories to the top of the best-selling book rankings. They’re still putting out new books, and even licensed the brand to lines of pet foods. Now what’s good enough for our cats and dogs is finally good enough for us, as Chicken Soup for the Soul brand chicken soup hits shelves.

Oh, but it’s not just chicken soup. The line also includes chicken broth, pasta sauces, gravies, barbecue sauces, whatever the hell a “soup topper” is, and jars of “meal builder” sauces in various flavors.

We learned about this product from the intredpid shelf-spotters over at The Impulsive Buy. Having come of age in the ’90s, we wonder what took so long.

SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 3/5/2014 [The Impulsive Buy]
Foods [Chicken Soup for the Soul]

A new minute-and-a-half long commercial for Chevrolet grabs the viewer’s heart and stomps on it a few times with the story of a young woman and her childhood pet going through life together as best friends and making their final trip to the veterinarian. It’s a beautifully-made ad, currently going viral. But is it real?

It’s a real video, of course, posted by the production company on their Youtube and Vimeo pages. Here’s the thing, though: it’s not on Chevy’s Twitter or Facebook accounts, where they would normally post new ads. It isn’t on the Chevrolet YouTube channel, either. We checked Chevrolet Canada, too, since the production company is based in Vancouver. No Maddie. That leaves us with the theory that it was either commissioned by GM but never used, or created by the agency specifically so pet lovers online would share it.

Anyone who has ever euthanized a beloved pet doesn’t want to associate that moment with shopping for a new car.

Perhaps all this time, The Herd Films has really been shilling for Big Golden Retriever.

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Bank of America is in the news because it’s testing a new debit card that won’t let customers overdraft. For that privilege, cardholders will pay a $4.95/month fee and they won’t be able to write paper checks. Thing is, anyone with a bank account can turn off overdraft protection without being required to pay a fee.

Numerous news reports are making the addle-brained claim that BofA’s Safe Balance account would be good for “chronic overdrafters,” but apparently the people who wrote these stories ignored the fact that there is no need to have a special no-overdraft checking account just to make sure you don’t incur overdraft fees.

As part of the 2010 banking reforms, debit card users are now required to opt in to overdraft protection, meaning you must give the bank permission to let you spend more money than you have in your account. And even if you do choose to get overdraft protection, you can still later choose to opt out if you’re worried about over-spending and subsequently running up sizable fees for each transaction that takes you below a $0 balance.

So if you are someone whose bank balance tends to hover close to the overdraft line and don’t want to incur fees, don’t go signing up for some ridiculous, fee-laden card from the nation’s second-largest bank.

Take your money to another bank or a credit union that has truly free checking and make sure you do not opt in to overdraft protection. Be careful of sketchy attempts to upsell or auto-enroll you into overdraft protection, and don’t let the bank talk you into the protection.

A 2011 study found that a majority of those who opted-in to the protection in the wake of the rule change were mistaken about what they were getting.

Nearly 2/3 of those people who chose to accept protection said they did so because they wanted to avoid paying a fee if their debit card was rejected. But the truth is that you are not charged a fee if a debit card is declined while you are charged a fee if overdraft.

Growing up, I was lucky enough to not face many food battles because I happened to like the food my parents made (most of the time). But when confronted with the remnants of a bowl of raw cake batter or a fresh batch of raw cookie dough, I’d wage a full-scale rebellion against the advice of my elders and lick/eat the heck out of those sweet treats, despite the threat of salmonella poisoning. Turns out it might not have been that risky of a business.

Slate’s L.V. Anderson edits the site’s food and drink sections and writes that she’s had a long history of licking raw batter and eating dough in her baking experience through the years, and not once has she gotten salmonella.

While that seems to fly in the face of all the warnings your parents, grandmas and anyone else would tell you about eating raw eggs, Anderson dug into the legend of egg salmonella, and came to the conclusion that you’re probably going to be just fine licking that spoon.

The paranoia over salmonella poisoning in eggs started in the mid- to late 1980s during egg-associated outbreaks of salmonella in the northeastern United States. Because Salmonella Enteritidis, the subtype of salmonella that usually causes salmonella poisoning, doesn’t produce visible symptoms in egg-laying hens, it can pass through henhouses sneakily and doesn’t show up until consumers catch it and complain.

The outbreaks killed dozens of people and sickened hundreds more, prompting egg producers to change their prevention methods and keep salmonella transmission among hens down using various measures. Pennsylvania was on the forefront of this movement with its Pennsylvania Egg Quality Assurance program, and many other states followed.

The amount of salmonella-infected henhouses was considerably reduced from 38% to 8% in Pennsylvania and other voluntary programs showed similar results. It’s still a danger, with an outbreak in Iowa henhouses in 2010, but federal restrictions have also tightened at the same time, at a great benefit to consumers.

In addition to bringing down the amount of henhouses infected with salmonella, it’s also rare to catch it from eggs for other reasons: Even if a hen is infected, it might not always lay infected eggs. Using data from the 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that one in 20,000 eggs is internally contaminated with salmonella. With all the improvements that has have happened since then, it’s likely that the number is even lower now.

And if you do get an infected egg in your kitchen, keeping it at or below room temperature will keep that bacteria from growing. It’s when you leave an egg out on the counter that the salmonella can really tuck in and feast on all those eggy nutrients.

If it’s kept at the right temperature, it’s likely that any salmonella in an egg would be small enough that you wouldn’t even eat it while licking a spoon, and that the infected part would just get baked out in the oven.

Even if you do eat a little bit of the bacteria, your body will probably be able to fight it off.

“Salmonella, like a lot of food-borne bacteria, are what we think of as opportunistic organisms, in that they really don’t compete very well with a lot of other bacteria and microbes that are not only in nature, but also are in the human intestinal system,” David McSwane, a retired public health professor at Indiana University and the co-author of Essentials of Food Safety and Sanitation, told Anderson.

Of course it’s always good to be careful because if you do eat a lot of salmonella, your gut won’t save you — especially if you’re a child, elderly, pregnant or have any immune-compromising medical condition. It’s best to eat pasteurized eggs, if you’re worried.

When it comes down to it — and we’re no doctors or health experts — if you want to lick that spoon, go for it. You’ll probably be okay.

You can follow MBQ on Twitter where she will no doubt chronicle the next batch of raw cookie dough she attacks: @marybethquirk

Go Ahead, Lick That Spoon [Slate]

As long as there are fast food restaurants, there will be attempted burglaries. And because not all crimes happen when there are people around, we’re especially thankful to the Philadelphia Burger King that caught two bumbling buddies who forced their way inside in the wee hours of the morning and proceed to generally be incompetent.

Police are looking for the two suspects featured in the security footage (H/T to Deadspin) for breaking in and damaging a cash register monitor. They didn’t take anything else or cause much damage besides that, unless you count roughing up hamburger buns a crime.

The bad part about surveillance videos? There often isn’t any sound, which is why I’ve taken it upon myself to provide a potential script for the conversation that may have ensued between these two clumsy pals. Feel free to follow along as you watch the video.

THE SCENE: Burger King, 2:50 a.m.
CAST: Hat Guy and Patch Jacket

Hat Guy: Open, Sesame! (throws doors open)
Patch Jacket: This place looks different at night.
HG: Weee, watch me slide gracefully over this counter (belly flops). This cash register monitor looked at me funny (pushes it off the counter). Ha, got ya.
PJ: Wait why did you — oh well, that sliding thing looked fun (slides over after his friend who has disappeared into the back)
HG: COME IN THE BACK I AM LOOKING FOR FRIES!!!
(Walking around, pointing at an ordinary restaurant kitchen) Look at all this restaurant stuff! I can count everything in here and point at it!
PJ: Wait for me, hang on –
HG: HAMBURGER BUNS! I LOVE HAMBURGER BUNS I WANT THEM! (starts grabbing at bag of hamburger buns like he’s been wandering a foodless dessert for days)
PJ: No no no, those aren’t your hamburger buns. Come here, shhh, let me hug you from behind and soothe you like you’re a startled newborn pony.
HG: But… I want the hamburger buns.
PJ: Okay you hang on to that one and we’re going to walk out together still entwined (bear hug walkout)
HG: (Resisting) But… buns.

PJ steers his pal back out to the front to once more cross the silver barrier.

HG: Stupid stuff under the counter, YOU ARE NOW OVER THE COUNTER! TAKE THAT! (throws stuff)
PJ: Haha, yeah you really showed that stuff, now let’s get you over this thing as gracefully as before, okay? You can do this.
HG: I can do this! (Slowly slides over on his belly) And I’m taking this thing from the counter, whatever it is.
(walks through the doors triumphantly in front of his friend) I showed those buns what for, didn’t I?
PJ: Sure, sure you did, lil buddy.

They walk off into the night, secure in their friendship and counter sliding skills.

END SCENE

You can follow MBQ on Twitter but know that she’s not accepting any playwriting commissions as of yet: @marybethquirk

Prepare for the “save the date”, because there’s another marriage on the way. This time between the second- and fifth-largest grocers in the United States.

Cerberus Capital Management, owner of No. 5 grocer Albertsons, has agreed to buy No. 2 grocer Safeway in a deal valued over $9 billion, Forbes reports.

Officials with Safeway say the potential union will allow the grocer to continue improving customers’ shopping experience.

“Safeway has been focused on better meeting shoppers’ diverse needs through local, relevant assortment, an improved price/value proposition and a great shopping experience that has driven improved sales trends,” Safeway CEO Robert Edwards said in a statement. “We are excited about continuing this momentum as a combined organization.”

For their part officials with Albertsons say the merger will create opportunities for the stores to offer a cutting-edge shopping experience for customers.

“This transaction offers us the opportunity to better serve customers by adapting more quickly to evolving shopping preferences in diverse regions across the country,” Bob Miller, CEO of Albertsons, tells Forbes. “Together, we will be able to respond to local needs more quickly and deliver outstanding products at the lowest possible price, more efficiently than ever before.”

But don’t pop that champagne just yet. There seems to be another suitor waiting in the wings.

Kroger, the country’s largest grocer, is reportedly considering making its own offer for Safeway. Last year, Kroger outbid Cerberus to buy the Harris Teeter chain of supermarkets for $2.4 billion.

Ceberus Buys Safeway, Merges Albertsons For Over $9 Billion [Forbes]

Just like Colorado doesn’t want drunk drivers swerving all over its roads and endangering people, the state doesn’t want anyone getting stoned and trying to operate a car, now that marijuana is legal in the state. Because if what we’ve learned from the movies about reefer is true, there are plenty of distractions when you’re stoned — food (Funyuns specifically), the way Willie Nelson’s braids sway just so and oh what’s that thing I must stare at over there?

While you probably have that one friend who insists, “No, it’s fine — I’m way more focused on the road when I’m stoned!”, Colorado disagrees: The state is spending $1 million on TV ads for the Colorado Department of Transportation’s new “Drive High, Get a DUI” campaign that make fun of pot users who already space out under normal circumstances.

The point there being that driving a potentially deadly hunk of metal around other people could be a really bad time to space out. For example — one ad shoes a guy (with huuuuge hair, because obviously the more cartoonish of a character, the better comedic value!) trying to operate a grill while high and not realizing what the problem is, because he’s stoned. The idea being, you wouldn’t want him driving a car if he can’t turn a grill on.

It’s the first time since marijuana was legalized in 2012 that Colorado has pushed such a campaign to remind drivers to treat marijuana like alcohol, reports the Associated Press. The state has also recently started tallying impaired driving violations due to marijuana, while in previous years those just fell under the same category as drunk drivers.

And also? The ads are actually pretty funny:

You can follow MBQ on Twitter if you can find her oh wait, here: @marybethquirk

Colorado launches campaign to stop stoned driving [Associated Press]

Two lots of Pfizer’s Effexor antidepressant and one lot of its generic form, Venlafaxine, have been recalled by Pfizer after a pharmacist discovered a different medicine inside one large bottle of the drug.

According to the recall notice, a pharmacist recently reported finding a capsule of Tikosyn inside one container of Effexor XR capsules. Tikosyn, also produced by Pfizer, is an antiarrhythmic agent given to cardiac patients with abnormal heart rhythms.

Accidental use of Tikosyn could result in serious adverse health consequences that could be fatal, says the FDA.

Pfizer says it knows of no other instances of Tikosyn being found mixed in with Effexor or Venlafaxine capsules, and believes the odds of a consumer unintentionally receiving a Tikosyn in with their other meds is unlikely. However, it is recalling these lots out of caution.

The FDA is asking pharmacists to immediately quarantine and return all recalled lots, as well as notify any customers to whom they distributed the recalled products. Patients with affected product should notify their physicians and/or return product to their pharmacies.

Patients with questions regarding this recall can contact Pfizer Medical Information at 1-800-438-1985 (Monday to Thursday 9am to 8pm ET or Friday, 9am to 5pm ET). Those who have questions about returning recalled capsules should contact Stericycle at 1-888-345-0481 (Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm ET).

Patients should contact their physician or healthcare provider if they have experienced any problems that may be related to taking this drug product.

As you can see from the images above, Effexor and Tykosin are very different in appearance and size. The Effexor pills are nearly twice as long as Tykosin and come in dark orange capsules. Tykosin’s capsules are peach in color. If your Effexor bottle has an odd-looking capsule inside that doesn’t match the others, you should not take it and you should contact the pharmacy that filled the prescription.

Cedar chests are a common heirloom furniture item – maybe you inherited one from a relative, received one as a gift, or picked up one at a thrift store or estate sale. They might be the perfect place to store your winter clothes during the off-season, but chests from Lane or Virginia Maid before 1987 have a flaw: they latch automatically when the lid is closed.

That’s not a problem when you’re putting away your sweaters, but it is a problem if you’re a kid playing at home who climbs in the chest and closes the lid. Yes, that does really happen.

Earlier this year, a brother and sister, 7 and 8 years old, locked themselves in a cedar chest in their home in Massachusetts. Their father was the only adult at home, and he was watching TV in another room while his children suffocated to death.

According to the CPSC, there have been 36 known deaths resulting from people locked in auto-latching cedar chests. Lane and the CPSC estimate that while twelve million cedar chests subject to the recall were sold, there are still six million out there in need of a new latch.

The repair is simple: for chests made since 1940, it just changes the chest latch so that someone has to press a button on the outside to latch the lid closed. For chests made before 1940, the new hardware doesn’t latch closed at all.

If you have a Lane or Virginia Maid chest in your home, get a replacement lock by filling out this website form or call the company at (800) 327-6944. Have your chest’s style and serial numbers handy–the website shows you where to find them.

CPSC, Lane Home Furniture Urge Renewed Search for Cedar Chests: Two Recent Deaths Reported [CPSC]
Hand-me-down hope chests pose a danger to kids [Consumer Reports]
Two Franklin children die in hope chest [Boston Globe]

Are you craving a meatloaf sandwich? Be sad that you don’t live in Japan, where Subway has introduced a meatloaf submarine sandwich. We don’t understand how this is a thing in a fast-food environment where there’s no leftover meatloaf to use up.

Putting a meatloaf sandwich on menus in the United States is at least plausible. Maybe not this particular version, which includes way more vegetables than most Americans could cope with: peppers, soybeans, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms. Any plant-based foods beyond onions and ketchup and it wouldn’t register as meatloaf to most people here.

Another limited-time offering at Subway in Japan has layers of prosciutto and potato anchovy salad. Depending on your food preferences, that will either sound like an unspeakable horror or amazing.

Around the World: Subway Japan Offering Meatloaf Sub [Brand Eating]

Police search for bank robber in Nokesville Inside NoVA A man with a red mustache, and wearing a "South Park" hoodie, robbed the Carter Bank and Trust in Nokesville late Thursday morning. The robber walked into the bank at 12912 Fitzwater Drive around 11:30 a.m., implied he had a weapon and demanded ... Carter Bank Robbed in NokesvillePotomacLocal.com all 2 news articles »

Glass Shattered at Wireless Jungle PotomacLocal.com At approximately 9:31PM on March 4, 2014 Manassas City Police responded to an alarm at Wireless Jungle located at 9526 Liberia Ave. Upon arrival, officers discovered that someone(s) had gained entry by breaking the glass of the locked front door with a ... Note to Burglars: These Aren't the Phones You're Looking ForPatch.com all 2 news articles »

- A pregnant South Carolina woman who drove a minivan carrying her three young children into the ocean surf off Florida was charged Friday with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse, though she has denied trying to harm anyone, authorities said.

- An 8-year-old western Montana boy who spent about an hour buried in the snow after a deadly avalanche roared into his backyard says he tried to "lick and bite" his way out before becoming tired and falling asleep.

Nearly three-quarters of us - 71 percent - sleep with our pets, according to a survey done by the mattress company Novosbed.

- Critics are raging after an energy giant offered pizza coupons to a community near a natural gas well that exploded last month, killing a worker.

- A celebratory gunfire bill inspired by the tragic death of a Virginia boy last summer is heading to Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

- Virginia is planning its first official commemoration of K-9 Veterans Day.

- Lehigh Valley Dairy is voluntarily recalling orange juice because it may contain milk, a common allergen.

- A federal appeals court in Virginia has revived dozens of lawsuits by soldiers and others who claim they were harmed by improper waste disposal while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.