pileofcrapola

Hooray! Google has brought back the option in Google Maps to right-click anywhere for quick directions or the latitude and longitude (in the What's here? option). [Google Maps on Twitter]

Read more...

Green tea is an amazing elixir . You might be able to reap even more health benefits from your cup of tea by adding lemon, according to a few studies.

Read more...

This sounds like a bizarre thing to do, but we're talking about less bacon shrinkage! Rinse your bacon before you cook it and you'll have longer strips to enjoy.

Read more...

A laundry chute will save you time and energy with fewer trips up and down stairs. The pros at The Family Handyman show you how to find a wall location and install one.

Read more...

A recent study found that cheating and creativity have a lot in common: in fact, cheating may actually increase your creativity.

Read more...

If you're like most people, you probably spend a good amount of money on things like laundry detergent, dishwasher soap, and other consumables. Saving money on them doesn't have to be just about finding a sale or switching brands—odds are you're just using too much. Let's take a look at how much most people actually use, versus how much is needed to get the job done.

Read more...

There are certainly easier ways to hide your valuables in your home than to build a secret compartment into a table, but if you do want a personal safe, this one built into a chess table is a good one to build—not just because it's well hidden, but it requires you play the right moves before it unlocks.

Read more...

On January 17, 2014, my little sister died unexpectedly. She was just 46 years old. I got the call late in the day on that Friday afternoon, just as I was wrapping up my workday and figuring out the upcoming week's deadlines.

Read more...

There are other things a boyfriend can do beyond hold a purse: After a woman’s boyfriend saw another guy allegedly taking photos with his cell phone up her skirt while she was shopping at a Georgia store, he took matters into his own hands. As in, he started a fight with the accused peeper and restrained him until cops arrived.

While we aren’t in favor of vigilante justice, of course, the police say the avenging boyfriend did the right thing after he witnessed a fellow shopper putting his cell phone underneath the dress of the woman, who was shopping with a young girl, reports 11 Alive News.

The boyfriend then hit the suspect in the head and kicked him twice, then held him until a police officer arrived.

“He went to the rescue of his girlfriend…and he did the right thing,” the sheriff said.

He added that the suspect had confessed to peeping in the store, and called him self an “idiot” for “doing something stupid.”

Other customers were also in favor of the smackdown.

“I probably would have beat him a little more before the police got there,” said a fellow shopper.

The suspect is facing one felony count of eavesdropping and illegal surveillance. The sheriff says that since both the suspect and the victim had a young child with them during the incident, there could be additional charges.

Coweta phone Peeping Tom beaten by victim’s boyfriend [11 Alive News]

When General Motors announced its recall of hundreds of thousands of Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G5 vehicles for concerns about the ignition switch, it said the defect was tied to as many as six fatalities. Now the car company says the recall is significantly larger than originally believed and that a total of 13 people may have died as a result of the defect.

On Tuesday, General Motors expanded the three-week-old recall to include the Saturn Ion, Chevrolet HHR, Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky, CNN Money reports.

Initially, General Motors recalled 778,000 compact cars after reports of five frontal impact crashes and six fatalities related to ignition switch failure in the 2005 to 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt and 2007 Pontiac G5s. Now, the company reports there have been 13 fatalities as a result of 31 frontal crashes associated with the problem.

The recall warns that vehicle’s ignition switch may fail by switching out of the run position if a key rink is carrying added weight, the vehicle goes off-road or experiences some other jarring event, GM reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The expanded recall comes less than a week after General Motors and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration were criticized for not acting quickly enough to resolve the issue, even though several fatalities were reported.

A Georgia attorney, who is suing the car company on behalf of a woman who died while driving a 2005 Cobalt, has petitioned NHTSA to fine GM for not addressing the issue as soon as it knew of the problem, CNN Money reports.

According to a deposition provided by the Georgia attorney, a GM engineer experienced the problem while test-driving one of the vehicles in 2004.

Automakers are required to report safety defects to NHTSA within five days of discovering them. Failure to do so carries a maximum fine of $35 million.

On Monday, General Motors filed a chronology of events confirming the company knew of a potential ignition problem as early as 2004.

According to the chronology, the company issued service bulletins in 2005 and 2006 telling dealers how to fix the problem with a key insert, and advising dealers to tell customers not to dangle too many items from key chains. Records provided by the company show only 474 vehicles received key inserts.

The chronology shows the company was told of at least one fatal crash in March 2007. By the end of that year, the company knew of 10 cases in which Cobalts were involved in front-end crashes and the airbags did not deploy.

A 2007 NHTSA investigator’s report [PDF] shows both the agency and GM were aware of the possibility of ignition failure.

At the time, a NHTSA investigator was tasked with looking into the cause of a crash that took the lives of two teenagers in a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. The investigator’s report included the possibility that the driver’s and passenger’s seat airbags did not deploy as a result of “power loss due to movement of the ignition switch prior to impact”.

When the investigator looked at the vehicle’s Event Data Recorder, which keeps track of the vehicle’s various systems while in operation, it was found that the ignition switch was not in the ‘on’ position at the actual time of the accident. The investigation reveled that inadvertent contact with the ignition switch or a keychain could result in engine shut-down and loss of power.

Following the release of the report last week, NHTSA officials said the special crash investigation did not determine a cause for the airbag non deployment or that the failure to deploy was a result of a vehicle design defect or noncompliance with federal motor vehicle regulations.

Still, consumer advocates say more could have been done about the issue.

“They knew by 2007 they had 10 incidents where the air bag didn’t deploy in this type of crash,” Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the consumer advocacy group Center for Auto Safety, tells CBS News. “This is a case where both GM and NHTSA should be held accountable for doing a recall no later than the spring of 2007,”

Officials with General Motors maintain the company handled the recall accordingly.

“The chronology shows that the process employed to examine this phenomenon was not as robust as it should have been,” General Motors president Alan Batey said in a company statement. “Today’s GM is committed to doing business differently and better. We will take an unflinching look at what happened and apply lessons learned here to improve going forward.”

GM expands recall, cites 13 deaths [CNN Money]
GM adds 842,000 vehicles to recall linked to fatal crashes [CBS News]

Despite much fanfare and ballyhoo over McDonald’s attempt to woo wing lovers last fall with its Mighty Wings, the almost $1-per-wing price instead led to many customers shunning the fast food chain’s effort. The result of that tepid response was $10 million in frozen, unsold Mighty Wings, an outcome Mickey D’s is hoping to avoid this time around with lower prices.

Yes, the Mighty Wings will be back for another limited run, McDonald’s confirmed on Twitter:

We’re taking the ordinary & making it MIGHTY. See how #MightyWings can make your everyday delicious. http://t.co/0EFMImSW0i—
McDonald's (@McDonalds) February 25, 2014

The difference this time around is you’ll get five wings for $3, a price shift that CEO Don Thompson alluded to last October when he pledged that the Mighty Wings would rise again, reports BurgerBusiness.com.

“Mighty Wings resonated with consumers but performed at the lower end of our expectations,” he explained, saying that adjusting the price could fix that. “One dollar per wing was still not considered to be the most competitive in the current environment.”

It’s unclear if the recipe has changed as well — Thompson said some customers might not have taken to the spiciness of the wings, but this newest iteration also advertises its flavors as “spicy, bold, delicious.”

If they’re the same recipe, get those defrosters ready, McDonald’s franchisees. We imagine at least $10 million in unsold, frozen Mighty Wings is coming your way.

Mighty Wings Return at 5 for $3 [BurgerBusiness.com]

When you might be in trouble, it’s good to get ahead of the story. We’re not sure whether that’s what led a woman in Tampa, Florida to contact the authorities when a restaurant allegedly served her an uncooked waffle. Did she call the health department, or the Board of Breakfast Foods (which should be a thing)? Nope. She dialed 9-1-1.

People really enjoy calling emergency services for non-emergencies. Of course, what seems like an emergency to someone right this minute may not objectively be one. The police department in Tampa has decided to fight non-emergeny 9-1-1- calls with a tool designed to reach the widest spectrum of people possible: YouTube videos.

They released the waffle video yesterday, and it was an instant hit. It’s silly, and it’s also very fun to say “raw waffles.”

As far as any sober person can determine, the caller was having a disagreement with a restaurant employee over whether she should have to pay for an uncooked waffle.

In the recording, she tells the dispatcher:

I told him I don’t want the waffles, could he take it off my bill, he’s all, ‘oh I can’t take nothing off your bill, ma’am’, but you sold me something that was uncooked, I’m already paying for the whole waffle that was uncooked, you want me to pay for the half a waffle too that was uncooked? No, he’s all ‘well I’ll call the police, you been drinking alcohol’, well come on bring me a breathalyzer and everything, I am ready.

9-1-1, ever-helpful, sent over a police officer to help mediate the waffle dispute. The operator reminded the woman that serving raw waffles is “a civil matter,” not a crime, though.

How about when your car alarm fob doesn’t work?

Tripping over a wire is not a crime.

This is why it’s good to store the non-emergency police number for the town or city where you live in your phone’s contacts. You might need to use 911 to reach emergency services while out of town: that is the reason for the nationwide number, after all. For gosh sakes, though, try not to.

Or you’ll join these other members of the Misusing Emergency Resources Hall Of Fame:

Do Not Call 9-1-1 To Request Beer Delivery
McDonald’s Customers, Employee Call 9-1-1 On Each Other Over Missing Hash Browns
Calling 9-1-1 Will Not Convince Mall Security To Push Your Wheelchair To The Apple Store
Police Arrest Woman Who Called 9-1-1 Six Times To Complain About Bar Full Of Drunk People
Calling 9-1-1 Won’t Help You Find The Red Jell-O When It Disappears From The Fridge
Do Not Call 9-1-1 When You’re Overcharged By A Penny For Beer
Blogger Admits He Maybe Overreacted By Calling 9-1-1 To Report Cell Phone Use In Theater
McDonald’s Customer Arrested After Calling 9-1-1 About Mixed-Up Order

LISTEN: Woman calls Tampa police over uncooked waffle [WFLA]

We’ve all got our culinary predilections — I will fight you if you touch my cheese curds — but there are favorite foods and then there are extreme acts of food devotion. To wit: A guy who’s claimed he’s only eaten pizza, and only pizza, every day for the last 25 years.

Vice’s Justin Levy interviews his friend Dan, a 38-year-old diabetic who hates vegetables and survives entirely on that beloved combination of carbs, cheese and sauce. Mmm, pizza. Anyway!

Here’s what we learned about Dan, the “I only eat pizza” Man:

1. He has only been eating pizza — just cheese, no other toppings — every day of his life for the past 25 years, after deciding to become a vegetarian. But he hates vegetables, so he chose pizza.

2. He usually eats an entire 14″ pizza in one day.

3. All pizzas are not the same: “If I go to one pizza shop or another brand, it’s like eating a completely different meal.”

4. His favorite pizza is a Rochester, N.Y.-based chain called Pontillo’s.

5. He sees a therapist for what he calls both his “food aversion” and his “pizza addiction.” But he still hasn’t tried any other foods… yet.

6. He has diabetes — but most doctors seem okay with it besides the endocrinologist he met with at first, he says: ” But all the other doctors have said, “Your cholesterol is fine. You seem healthy. Keep doing what you’re doing.”

7. Dan feels great, despite your expectations to the contrary: “I must say, even though I sound like a horribly unhealthy and fat person, I’m not. I’m thin. I have tons of energy, and I feel great every day, so there might be something to the exclusive pizza diet.”

8. It’s doubtful he’s eating a lot of homemade pizza, at least by his own hands, as he “never really understood cooking.”

9. He does want to someday eat something other than pizza, though he’ll never give up his “love and passion” for the pie. Mostly because it’d be nice to eat out at a non-pizza restaurant with his fiancée: “I would like to be able to go to a restaurant where they didn’t serve pizza and order off the menu, which I can’t really do right now. “

*Thanks for the tip, Friend of Consumerist Jim!

You can follow MBQ on Twitter where she will no doubt recount any fights she has over cheese: @marybethquirk

THIS MAN HAS SURVIVED ON PIZZA ALONE FOR 25 YEARS [Vice]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a federal lawsuit against a well-known for-profit college chain, alleging the company exploited its students and pushed them into high-cost private student loans that were likely to end in default.

The complaint [PDF] charges that between 2009 and 2011 ITT Educational Services, Inc., pressured students into predatory loans and mislead students on future job prospects and salaries, CFPB director Richard Cordray announced during a news conference Wednesday.

The suit seeks restitution, a civil fine, and an injunction against the for-profit college chain.

“ITT marketed itself as improving consumers’ lives but it was really just improving its bottom line,” CFPB Director Richard Corday said in a news conference Wednesday. “We believe ITT used high-pressure tactics to push many consumers into expensive loans destined to default. Today’s action should serve as a warning to the for-profit college industry that we will be vigilant about protecting students against predatory lending tactics.”

The CFPB’s lawsuit alleges that between July 2009 and December 2011, ITT encouraged students to enroll by providing them with a zero-interest loan called “Temporary Credit.” The credit was used to close the tuition gap between a student’s federal aid and the school’s high tuition rate.

Typically, the Temporary Credit had to be paid in full at the end of the student’s first academic year. When students were unable to repay their first year Temporary Credit, ITT allegedly pushed high-cost private student loan programs to cover the costs of repayment and second-year tuition gap.

The suit alleges that ITT’s CEO revealed in investor calls that converting the temporary loans to long-term loans was the company’s “plan all along.”

The Indiana-based technical education school, which enrolls tens of thousands of student online and at its 150 institutions, has one of the highest tuition costs among the country’s for-profit colleges. Earning an associate’s degree at the school can cost more than $44,000, while a Bachelor’s degree program can cost $88,000.

The suit also alleges that ITT’s representations led students to think they would land jobs with enough salary to repay their private student loans.

“This is truly an American tragedy,” Cordray said. “Students may think they are climbing a ladder to success when instead they are getting knocked down, crushed by student debt that does not help them gain a better job or a better life.”

Attorneys general from Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, and New Mexico are conducting investigations into major for-profit colleges, including ITT.

“Some of these colleges are thriving on selling a dream to someone…once the ink is dried on the financial aid paperwork the nightmare begins,” Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway said during the conference. “We will be working tirelessly to be certain that the industry as a whole understand their business is education and not just flattering the bottom line.”

Wednesday’s complaint is the first action the CFPB has taken against a company in the for-profit college industry. However, for-profit colleges have come under greater scrutiny in the last several years. The Government Accountability Office has conducted investigations into a number of schools that use high-pressure enrollment tactics and misleading promises to attract students.

Earlier this month, Consumerist reported on a federal lawsuit filed by former employees of accusing the Harris School and its parent company, Premier Education Group, of misleading students — who paid more than $10,000 a year for various programs — about career prospects, and falsifying records to enroll students and keep them enrolled in order to continue receiving government grant and loan dollars.

Last October, the California Attorney General filed suit against Corinthian Colleges, Inc., the operators of 111 North American campuses and three online programs, claiming that it lied to students about the prospect of job-placement and to investors about the success rate of graduates.

In December, a court ordered a for-profit school in Kentucky to pay $1,000/day for avoiding a subpoena related to the state’s investigation into for-profit National College schools.

Imagine that you were hiking on your property and saw the rusty old can pictured at left. Me, I’d probably grumble about previous generations’ approach to trash disposal and pick the can up to throw it away. When a California couple saw a can sticking out of the ground, they checked it out…noticing that it had a lid. What could be inside? Not century-old creamed corn.

Nope: it was a hoard of gold coins. Experts believe, based on the age and condition of the coins, that the original coin-stasher must have built the hoard over a period of years during the 19th century, then left it behind. What were coins with a face value of $5, $10, or $20 are now much more valuable to collectors: one piece is valued at about $1 million by itself. The entire hoard could be worth about $10 million.

In a press release from Kagin’s, the company selling the coins on the family’s behalf, the staff senior numismatist is quoted saying, “Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine coins coming out of the ground in the kind of condition that I saw in front of me. Many pieces were finer than anything known in major collections or museums.”

The family decided to stay anonymous, allowing Kagin’s to publish an interview with them. According to Kagin’s, which refers to them as “John” and “Mary,” the couple are self-employed, around 40 years old, live somewhere in the Sierra Nevada, and really, really don’t want treasure-hunters swarming on their property.

California Family Discovers Buried Treasure – Hidden Cache of 19th Century U.S. Gold Coins May Be Most Valuable Hoard Unearthed in North America [Kagin's]

Earlier today, Target released the eagerly anticipated earnings info for the financial quarter ending Feb. 1. As expected, the massive data breach that saw some 110 million customers’ info stolen by hackers had a disastrous effect on the bottom line for the retailer.

In the last three months, Target’s net earnings were $520 million, down 46% from the $961 million earned by the company during the same time a year earlier. That quarterly dip accounts for nearly half of the $1.02 billion drop in profits for the entire year (from $2.99 billion to $1.97 billion, a decrease of 34.3%).

The total number of transactions in the last quarter were down 5.5%, reports the retailer. Much of that is being blamed on the data breach that lasted from Black Friday weekend in late November to the middle of December. That’s the largest such decline for the store in the six years that it’s been reporting that statistic.

Another problem for Target was its recent expansion into Canada, which hasn’t gone as rosily as the retailer might have hoped.

All of these things said, Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel is confident that the company can win consumers back and plans to do so by being “aggressive” with enticing offers.

We’ve definitely got to up our game on all fronts,” Steinhafel said. “We’re going to deliver… just some eye-popping irresistible deals.”

Target’s 4Q profit falls 46% after breach, Canada expansion [StarTribune.com]

Target Profit Declines on Data Breach Fallout [WSJ.com]

For those living in cities that lack convenient supermarkets, or for whom a trip to the supermarket is a huge pain in the rear-end, online grocery delivery services like FreshDirect or Peapod can be a godsend. But the ease of using these services also can result in some bad habits.

While it’s incredibly easy to shop around and place items into your shopping cart on sites like these, it’s just as easy to over-spend, buying all sorts of things you don’t need, won’t finish, or don’t have room for. At the same time, you’re just as likely to forget a couple of the essentials. You won’t realize until after you’ve gone through all the bags that you can’t make lasagna because you forgot to buy the tomatoes.

The biggest problem we’ve found with making the adjustment from bricks-and-mortar supermarkets to online grocery services is that we were treating the two as if they were completely different things, when the best practices for sensible shopping are mostly the same:

1. Make A List: Just like you would when you’re going to the bricks-and-mortar supermarket, be prepared with a list of everything you think you’ll need for the week to come.

2. Stick To The List: While there will be some specials that are too tempting to resist and an item or two you’d forgotten to put on the list, it’s best to stick with what you know you need rather than clicking around.

3. Don’t Just Automatically Re-Order: Some services will let you pull up previous invoices so you can quickly re-order some or all of those items. While that is incredibly convenient, it also means you aren’t comparison shopping or looking at the specials to see if there are comparable products on sale for less that week.

4. Pay Attention To The Unit Price: Comparing unit costs at the supermarket can be a pain, as many stores put the cost per pound/ounce/liter in tiny type. The online sites often make it easier to compare unit prices for similar products, so use this information to your advantage. But at the same time…

5. Be Size-Sensible: Sure, the unit price for a gallon of milk is going to be less than the unit price for a quart. But if you’re only buying milk to put into your coffee a couple times a day, that gallon might spoil before you finish it. So when buying larger/family sized products, think about whether you’ll get to enjoy those savings or if you’ll be tossing them in the trash.

Some things, like family-size packages of chicken or beef, can be frozen and saved for later. Remember not to jam an entire 5 lb. pack of ground beef into the freezer, or you’ll have to thawa out the entire thing at once just to make a meatball. It’s best to divvy up and store in portion-size bags and containers. Which reminds us, you should always…

6. Know How Much Room Is In Your Freezer: Before you buy 10 frozen pizzas because they’re on sale for $1 each, check your freezer to make sure you have the room. When the delivery driver leaves you with 20 bags of quickly thawing groceries, you don’t want to be scrambling to rearrange your ice cube trays.

Checking your freezer in advance of an online order also helps to remind you of what exactly you’ve got stowed in there. You might have some perfectly good chicken breasts that you’d forgotten about; that’s one fewer thing you won’t need to buy.

7. Be Flexible With Your Delivery Times: While most of these services offer 2-hour delivery windows, some will offer customers a discount if they are willing to accept a larger window. This may not be a possibility for you because of your work schedule, but some services offer both day and evening discounts so make sure you look into the option.

8. Know That You May Not Get Everything You Order: The biggest drawback we’ve experienced with online grocery delivery is that you don’t always get everything you order because they run out of stock. Problem is, you often don’t find this out until the day of delivery. So you need to be aware that you might not get that key ingredient to the big meal you’re planning on making. That’s why it’s a slight risk to use one of these services when you’ve got a tight deadline to host a dinner or a party (or a dinner party).

9. Remember To Figure In The Fees: If you’re looking at one of these sites to decide whether you’d benefit from getting groceries delivered, remember to calculate in any delivery fees and/or tip you might pay. At the same time, factor in a dollar value for the time you would have spent shopping. If these services come out as being more expensive after all that, then you may want to stick to the old-fashioned practice of doing your own shopping in person.

The country that put thong bikinis on the map would rather not put out the wrong message about its citizens during the 2014 World Cup. Brazil has nixed two graphic T-shirts from Adidas for being too suggestive, saying the country doesn’t want to promote sexual exploitation.

One shirt reads “I [heart] Brazil,” with a heart that looks like a female’s behind in a thong bikini flipped upside down, while the other read “Lookin’ to score” with a bikini-clad cartoon standing with a soccer ball.

“Sexual exploitation is an unacceptable crime and cannot be confused in any way with any kind of tourism. We want to make it clear to our major trading partners in tourism that Brazil does not tolerate this type of crime in its territory,” Flavio Dino, president of Brazil’s Tourism Agency, said in a statement (via CNN).

Adidas decided to pull the shirts from its website this week after the backlash, saying the company listens to what its customers and stakeholders want. Shoppers had also been complaining about the shirts, Adidas said.

“Having taken on board their feedback, we have made the decision to withdraw this product line,” a spokeswoman said, adding that the shirts were only available in the U.S. as part of a limited edition.

The FIFA tournament will be held in multiple Brazilian cities this year from June 12 to July 13.

You can follow MBQ on Twitter and see how little she knows about soccer come June: @marybethquirk

Adidas T-shirts too sexy for Brazil [CNNMoney]

Washington Post

Fairfax County Animal Watch Washington Post FAIRFAX COUNTY. No incidents were reported by the Animal Control Division of the Fairfax County Police Department. For information, call 703-246-2253. In this picture provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, 19-month ... Hollywood Comes to FairfaxVirginia Connection Newspapers all 4 news articles »

Prince William County community calendar, Feb. 27 to March 5, 2014 Washington Post Thursday, Feb. 27. County student art exhibit, works by elementary-, middle- and high-school students from the central area of the county. 7 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, through March 14, Edward L. Kelly Leadership Center, 14715 Bristow Rd., Manassas. Free. and more »

Prince William County news in brief Washington Post Project Mend-A-House has a new executive director. Jennifer Schock-Bolles was recently named executive director of Project Mend-A-House. She replaces Kristin Hull, who moved to Oregon. In this picture provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore ...

- A judge has sentenced a Wisconsin man to a total of five years in prison for sexually assaulting his severely abused younger stepsister and another girl in an unrelated case.

- Two police officers in an oil-rich West Texas city spent weeks competing to see who could take the most cardboard signs away from homeless people, even though panhandling doesn't violate any city law.

- An overhaul of the National Aquarium's centerpiece exhibit is boosting attendance and raising the profile of the Baltimore attraction.

- Standing just over 5 feet, Army Spc. Karen Arvizu is barely a foot taller than the anti-tank missile she carries in both arms and loads into an armored vehicle. She stands on her tip-toes to wrestle open the 300-pound top hatch.

- Maryland's Senate has advanced a measure that would hold dog owners liable for bites, but protect any owner who didn't know a dog was dangerous.

A memorial fund established for a woman killed by a dump truck on Monday morning has been a tremendous success.

- South Carolina troopers say they have taken a Virginia man into custody after finding his mother in the trunk of his car at a rest area on Interstate 95.

District of Columbia officials are announcing new steps to protect transgender residents from discrimination in health care.