pileofcrapola

Time and time again, we hear that money is the biggest problem for married couples, and yes, the main cause of divorce. It's a problem that starts before most couples tie the knot.

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There is noendtoallthewonderfulthings a simple bottle of white vinegar can do. We already know it's good for neutralizing odors and pet odors are no exception, even old pet odors you might discover when moving into a new place.

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Lunchables are a time-saving convenience when you're rushing in the morning to pack lunch for school or work. They can get expensive, though. Just like you can make cheaper versions of the meat and crackers Lunchables, you can make a huge batch of pizza Lunchables yourself for much cheaper.

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You probably know already that cleaning a blender after use can be as easy as a little soap, warm water, and a quick pulse. If your blender is looking cloudy or the glass (or plastic) is looking opaque, The Kitchn notes it may just be hard water build-up. Easily fixed with a little lemon.

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What's the difference between knowledge and experience, and how does you brain process both? Which is more important for creative thinking? Buffer's Belle Beth Cooper investigates.

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Getting into a new hobby like DIY electronics is an expensive endeavor. Sometimes the cheapest point of entry is a starter kit that perfectly combines a group of items you need with items that teach you about your new hobby. It's a delicate balance though, and not all starter kits are equal, so let's build a list of the best.

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When you see a Big Mouth Billy Bass mounted on the wall, running away isn’t a bad idea. We never would have thought of using one as a theft-deterrent system, but police say that a burglar ran out of a store when he or she activated the singing fish by walking past it. Naturally, the store was a bait shop.

The electronic fish can be set to burst into song whenever someone walks past, if you are a reprehensible person. At least it’s appropriate at a store that sells fishing supplies, and the owner had set up the fish to activate whenever someone walked in the door. Including when a potential burglar broke in.

“[W]hen I tried to close the door and it wouldn’t close at all,” the owner told TV station KTTC. “I just knew that Billy Bass had done his job, and let somebody know that [the store] wasn’t just empty or somethin’.”

The burglar took off without stealing anything. Well done, Billy! This may be the first documented case of one of these things being useful for any purpose.

In case you haven’t had the privilege of encountering one of these in the last few decades, here’s a video of a Billy in action:

Singing Fish Spooks Burglar [KTTC]

Earlier today, CVS surprised an awful lot of people by saying it would give up $2 billion a year in cigarette sales because it’s “the right thing for us to do for our customers and our company to help people on their path to better health.” Meanwhile, Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain, apparently wants the world to know that it will keep on selling tobacco.

We had expected Walgreens (or Walgreen Company, if you’re into proper corporate names) to not say anything about this topic and just let CVS have its moment in the spotlight, but we were wrong.

This afternoon, a rep for an outside PR firm (you can tell because she repeatedly refers to the company as “Walgreen’s”) wrote to Consumerist with a statement attributable to a Walgreens spokesperson.

Reads the statement, complete with inexplicable and unexplained interior quotation marks:

“The company has been evaluating its tobacco line for ‘some time,’ and said it ‘will continue to evaluate the choice of products our customers want, while also helping to educate them and providing smoking cessation products and alternatives that help reduce the demand for tobacco products.”

From what we can tell, the rep is actually trying to shill for some sort of smoking cessation program that Walgreens and mammoth drug company GlaxoSmithKline have put together. Because there is much more money to gained by selling people both the product they are addicted to and a program that may help them quit.

[NOTE: It's been pointed out to us that GSK holds the U.S. license on Nicorette smoking cessation products.]

We’ve reached out to Walgreens’ official PR team in the hopes of further explanation, because we’re confused why the retailer would actively want to tell the world it has given some thought to — but has ultimately decided against — getting rid of a product that is known to cause cancer and numerous other ailments.

When you catch your significant other flirting with someone who is distinctly insignificant by way of “Who the heck is that person you’re talking to and why did you feel the need to laugh so coquettishly?” it’s a very bad thing. But when it comes to brand loyalty, one study says the more you flirt with a company aside from your current steady, the closer ties you form with your favorite.

Harvard Business School behavioral scientist Francesca Gino writes at Scientific American about this effect, where a quick bout of infidelity is a good thing for the companies behind your favorite brands.

“When consumers who are in committed brand relationships flirt with other brands, they become even more attached to their primary brand,” she writes. “They are then willing to spend more money to purchase that brand’s products, and more frequently.”

You’d think that it would be bad for companies if you’re having fun with another brand, perhaps admiring it in a way your current brand doesn’t seem to inspire. But Gino says letting consumers have a little fun outside the relationship — noticing the attractive qualities of a competing product or trying it out for a short time — can strengthen your bond with your usual brand.

In one study, for example, participants were shown four favorable features of one soft drink and asked to evaluate them.

“Participants who were loyal to Coca-Cola, and who were asked to rated favorable features of Pepsi, said they intended to consume more of their favorite soft drink in the upcoming week, as compared to loyal Coca-Cola participants who rated the same favorable features of Coca-Cola.”

The same thing happened with Pepsi loyalists regarding Coke, she explains. Merely acknowledging and appreciating the nice things about someone else made the most loyal want to give back to their favorite brand, and soon.

You drink the ones you love, even if you can admit that others might have something to offer. This could be akin to flirting with someone who’s uncommitted — it’s exciting, you get a rush and feel a bit giddy. But then you take that bubbly feeling back home to your committed relationship.

Gino suggests that this could mean all the truckloads of money marketers dump on trying to lure customers away from the competition could be backfiring — in essence, it’s providing that little bit of a flirtatious tingle that’s just enough to make loyal customers stay put.

When Flirting Increases Loyalty [Scientific American]

Flashing your headlights is a well-established means of communicating any number of things to other drivers on the road. It could be a reminder for the other driver to turn on their lights (or turn off their brights). Maybe it’s a call to your traveling partners in another car to pull off at the next exit. It’s also a way for some people to alert other drivers about a police speed trap up ahead. Some towns have outlawed that practice, but a federal judge says that’s going too far.

Earlier this week, a U.S. District Court judge in Missouri issued an order that stops, for now, the town of Ellisville, MO, from ticketing drivers who flash their headlights to tip off others to the presence of a speed trap.

The ruling, believed to be the first federal court ruling related to this matter, comes in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of a driver who received a citation from Ellisville police in 2012 for flashing his headlights to warn other cars on the road of a speed trap he’d just passed.

The driver says that when he went to court and attempted to enter a not guilty plea on the charge, which generally includes a $1,000 fine, the judge allegedly “became agitated and asked Plaintiff if he had ever heard of ‘obstruction of justice.’”

Charges were eventually dropped against this particular driver, and while Ellisville police have reportedly been told by the Police Chief to no longer cite headlight-flashing drivers, the ACLU sued the town on behalf of the driver because the ordinance still remains on the books and they felt that such a law violates a driver’s First Amendment right to free expression.

The preliminary injunction issued by the court on Monday stated that the plaintiff would likely prevail in his case against the town if it went to trial. According to the judge, the officer who cited the plaintiff for the alleged offense “did not have reasonable suspicion to believe that Plaintiff had violated any law” and stated that it is not illegal to warn drivers “because a speed trap is ahead.”

There are numerous places around the country that have similar laws against tipping off drivers to the presence of a speed trap, and the ACLU is hoping that Monday’s ruling sends a message to lawmakers and law enforcement everywhere.

“It is legal in Missouri to communicate in this manner,” said ACLU Legal Director Tony Rothert after the ruling, “and detaining, ticketing or arresting someone for the content of their speech is illegal.”

Rothert contends that, First Amendment issues aside, warning people of speed traps ahead results in drivers behaving responsibly, saying that in the plaintiff’s experience, “people really do slow down when you flash your lights at them, and that’s safer for everyone.”

Is flashing headlights to warn of a speed trap protected by the First Amendment? [St. Louis Post-Dispatch via LawBlog]

So, you’re planning a much-needed vacation to a beautiful destination, but you don’t know any of the hotels in the area. You do like most consumers and turn to online review sites like TripAdvisor or Expedia. But are these hotel sites really trustworthy?

Banking your $2,000 vacation fund on hotel reviews of strangers is enought to give just about anyone heart palpitations, but an increasing number of consumers are doing just that, MainStreet reports.

Online review sites are one of the best consumer guideposts for hotels. These are real people just like you, not the paid travel writers of yester-year. What’s there to worrry about? Fake reviews, that’s what.

Basing your hotel decision on glowing reviews seems like a good bet, but experts warn consumers to be wary of overly-complimentary or negative reviews; the ones that occur when an overzealous employee offers to pay for reviews or when a hotel owner tries to scam the system.

It’s common for fake reviews to crop-up online, even with expensive analytics employed to detect them. The good news is that spotting reviews that distort the facts can be pretty simple.

Researchers have found common threads that help to identify fake reviews. Fraudulent reviews are most likely to be posted by hotels that are independent, owned by small owners, are managed by a small management company and have a competitive neighboring hotel.

When scouring through reviews, look for hotels that have a substantial amount of comments.

Additionally, look for themes in those posts. If many commenters mention the same issue, say a loud street, then it’s likely the hotel boarders a loud street.

And if you’re still skeptical, ask friends on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for personal recommendations.

Can You Trust The Hotel Review Sites? [Philly.com]

The Winter Olympics start this week in Sochi, Russia, and you might be jealous of all the reporters getting paid to attend the games watch these events live. One thing you shouldn’t be envious of are the conditions of the hotel rooms these reporters are arriving to find.

The Washington Post has a pretty hilarious roundup of Tweets from numerous reporters who have reached Sochi only to find inadequate, incomplete, or nonexistent hotel rooms.

Here are some of our favorites from that story, along with some updates from those reporters:

The Globe & Mail’s Mark MacKinnon‘s Sochi hotel isn’t quite finished yet…

Ok, so my hotel doesn't have a lobby yet.—
Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) February 04, 2014

For those of you asking, when there's no lobby in your hotel, you go to the owner's bedroom to check in. #Sochi2014—
Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) February 04, 2014

The slogan of the Sochi Olympics is "Hot. Cool. Yours." Only the last two words applied to my shower this morning.—
Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) February 05, 2014

Stacy St. Clair of the Chicago Tribune isn’t drinking the Sochi Kool-Aid just yet… and certainly not with the yellow water coming from her hotel bathroom tap.

My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, "do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous." #Sochi2014—
Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) February 04, 2014

Water restored, sorta. On the bright side, I now know what very dangerous face water looks like. #Sochi #unfiltered http://t.co/sQWM0vYtyz—
Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) February 04, 2014

Also on the bright side: I just washed my face with Evian, like I'm a Kardashian or something.—
Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) February 04, 2014

CNN sports producer Harry Reekie and his team arrived to find that months of preparation can go down the drain when the hotel rooms you booked don’t exist.

Over 48 hours after leaving London and still no hotel rooms ready for our team in Sochi. Accommodation situation here shambolic. #cnnsochi—
Harry Reekie (@HarryCNN) February 04, 2014

CNN booked 11 rooms in one @Sochi2014 media hotel five months ago. We have been here for a day and only one room is available. #cnnsochi—
Harry Reekie (@HarryCNN) February 04, 2014

This is the one hotel room @Sochi2014 have given us so far. Shambles. #cnnsochi http://t.co/RTjEkmyan3—
Harry Reekie (@HarryCNN) February 04, 2014

@richard_conway The hotels may be open but the rooms are not ready in our one. Still. From what I hear the problem is widespread.—
Harry Reekie (@HarryCNN) February 04, 2014

Reekie Tweeted the issue to Sochi Organizing Committee President and CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko:

@DChernyshenko Our media hotel is not ready Dmitry….11 rooms booked five months ago, only one ready. Please help.—
Harry Reekie (@HarryCNN) February 04, 2014

For what it’s worth, the CEO’s hotel room isn’t just in good order, it also has an awesome view:

Waiting for interview with @Sochi2014 CEO @DChernyshenko – decent view from the roof of his building. #cnnsochi http://t.co/uSHHk1WS4s—
Harry Reekie (@HarryCNN) February 05, 2014

Meanwhile, BBC Moscow bureau chief Kevin Bishop has this lovely decor in his unfinished accommodations:

The reception of our hotel in #Sochi has no floor. But it does have this welcoming picture. http://t.co/8isdoBuytl—
Kevin Bishop (@bishopk) February 04, 2014

@OllieW the lack of floor is behind the counter. If there were a receptionist she would have to make her own arrangements for standing—
Kevin Bishop (@bishopk) February 04, 2014

Drugstore chain CVS will stop selling cigarettes and all other tobacco products in its stores this year, the retailer announced this morning.

The Rhode Island-based company posted the announcement this morning on their website, with a message from company CEO Larry Merlo. Merlo said in a statement, “Ending the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products at CVS/pharmacy is the right thing for us to do for our customers and our company to help people on their path to better health. Put simply, the sale of tobacco products is inconsistent with our purpose.”

CVS plans to cease tobacco sales in all 7600 of its store locations by October 1 of this year.

In addition to stopping the sale of cigarettes, which bring in an estimated $2 billion in sales to the pharmacy chain each year, CVS plans to launch program to help smokers quit in its pharmacy and MinuteClinic locations.

Over recent years, CVS has been shifting ever more of its business to being not only a drug store and pharmacy, but also as a provider of health care: they now operate over 750 MinuteClinic locations nationwide.

Representatives for the store have told media that killing the tobacco sales will allow the clinic end of the business to enter more advantageous agreements with hospitals and insurance providers. In other words, CVS will be perfectly able to make up the lost money elsewhere in its business.

But making it through theoretically making people better, instead of making them sicker? That’s a big step. Even President Obama had praise for CVS’s announcement, saying, “CVS Caremark sets a powerful example, and today’s decision will help advance my administration’s efforts to reduce tobacco-related deaths, cancer, and heart disease, as well as bring down health care costs – ultimately saving lives and protecting untold numbers of families from pain and heartbreak for years to come.”

Washington Post

Fairfax County adopt a pet Washington Post 3Emma, left, a sweet 9-year-old gray domestic shorthair cat, is available from the Fairfax County Animal Shelter. Forest, a loving and smart 1-year-old English setter mix, is available from the Humane Society of Fairfax County. Sally, a 6-year-old ... and more »

Prince William County news in brief Washington Post PRTC bus ridership decreases. for second year in a row. Japanese figure skater Tatsuki Machida practises in preparation for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, February · Photos of the day. Camel beauty contest, California drought, classic car display and ...

Prince William County community calendar, Feb. 6 to 12, 2014 Washington Post Thursday, Feb. 6. 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 crime report Washington Post Prince William County. These were among incidents reported by Prince William County police. For information, call 703-792-7245. An opposition supporter plays the piano on barricades in front of riot police in central Kiev ... and more »

- A Harley-Davidson motorcycle donated last year to Pope Francis is being sold at a Paris auction to benefit charity.

- On any given evening, thousands of tourists stroll down the narrow canal-side streets of Amsterdam's famed Red Light District, gawking at ladies in lingerie who work behind windows, making a living selling sex for money. Now a small educational museum is opening Thursday in the heart of the district to show reality from the other side of the glass.

- A souvenir T-shirt touting Chesapeake missed the mark on the city's founding by 175 years.

- Officials are renaming the Washington Navy Yard building where a gunman fatally shot 12 people in September before he was killed by police.

- A Prince George's County police officer who was acquitted on charges stemming from the videotaped assault of a University of Maryland student has returned to full duty.

- After decades in the same Anne Arundel County location, Maryland Renaissance Festival organizers say they are looking at moving to a new venue.

- Animal rights advocates held signs and cursed a Las Vegas pet shop owner as she arrived at court Wednesday to face criminal charges and accusations that she conspired with an arsonist to burn her store with 27 puppies inside.

smoking sections.

- A Utah school district that came under fire for taking away $2 school lunches from some 40 students whose parents owed money on food accounts are vowing to make systemic changes to ensure it never happens again.

- Brands have figured out how to get Super Bowl buzz without paying Super Bowl bucks.

largest drugstore chain.

- The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars trying to save more than 1,500 animal and plant species listed as endangered or threatened.

- A woman who escaped from a Michigan prison nearly 37 years ago has been found living under an alias in San Diego, police said Tuesday.