pileofcrapola

Here is the most amazing thing I read today: According to retail analysts, only 5% of consumers bother getting the price of an item lowered by holding a retailer to their price-match policy.

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Cheese is delicious, and if you spend a little money on a nice piece of specialty cheese, you want it to stay fresh and tasty as long as possible (if you don't eat it all in one sitting.) Ditch the plastic wrap or baggies—the folks at Food52 have a better way to store your cheese so you can continue to enjoy it.

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If there's anything many of us have an abundance of right now, it's snow and temperatures well below freezing. You may not want to go out in it, but if you can, it turns out that the snow and cold can help you clean area rugs and mats that need a scrub.

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When my wife and I became first-time parents recently, we made a decision to split up child-rearing responsibilities throughout the week. While avoiding daycare in favor of extra morning-time snuggles is a wonderful thing, working and caring for a baby simultaneously can be a truly daunting challenge.

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Who doesn't have old USB drives lying around just waiting for something interesting to do? Fortunately, a USB drive can make a great identification device should your dog ever get lost.

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One of the most important conversations you can have with your children—especially at an early age—is about the pressure of conforming to society's beauty standards. Because, as this video shows, they'll be bombarded with it all too soon enough.

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Dating new people is fun and exciting. It's also likely to cause even the most rational, level-headed people to make really dumb decisions. Don't worry, though. Your brain is supposed to do that. Sort of.

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If you still have some VHS cassettes lying around, we hope you're digitizing them for safe keeping. Once you're finished with them though, Instructables user M3G has an interesting use for them: secret stashes for keys, USB drives, and documents that most people wouldn't think to open up.

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If you got a juicer, or you're using one because you want to eat healthier in the new year, you probably have a lot of leftover pulp and leavings from the fruits and veggies you've been juicing. This video from CHOW shows you how to use those leftovers, instead of tossing them in the trash or compost heap.

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Alinea in Chicago is an expensive molecular gastronomy restaurant. It is so exclusive and fancy that most adults probably imagine that they aren’t allowed inside. Apparently the question of “can I bring my infant?” has never come up…until this weekend.

Here are a few things to keep in mind: reservations at Alinea have to be made far ahead of time, usually a few months. You pay for a ticket to a multi-course seating, and must pay in advance. A couple can expect to pay at least $400 for their meal on an average night, which is not a typo. Tickets are transferable, but not refundable. If the parents just didn’t show, they would lose not just their reservation, but the money that they paid in advance.

That’s the background information: here’s what happened, according to owner/head chef Grant Achatz.

Tbl brings 8mo.Old. It cries. Diners mad. Tell ppl no kids? Subject diners 2crying? Ppl take infants 2 plays? Concerts? Hate saying no,but..—
Grant Achatz (@Gachatz) January 12, 2014

Yes, the 8-month-old baby started to cry, but Achatz felt conflicted about asking the party to leave. Should he have? The reaction on Twitter was mostly wonder that someone would even try. To foodies, hearing that someone took a baby to Alinea is like telling them that you took a baby to a metal concert or white-water rafting. It just doesn’t make sense.

One local food blogger says that the couple’s sitter canceled at the last minute. That’s a likely explanation, but still controversial.

We checked with our new Washington, D.C.-based editor Kate Cox, mother of Consumerist’s current staff baby. “Nice restaurants are an excellent excuse to let friends make good on all those babysitting offers,” she observes. When the restaurant is not only nice but also non-refundable, line up a few layers of backup babysitters, too.

A Baby Walks Into Alinea… [Eater]

For some people, bad credit is a result of being irresponsible. For others, it’s a matter of bad luck and overwhelming circumstance. Alas, the credit reporting agencies don’t make such distinctions, meaning someone whose house went into foreclosure because he lost his job and also had to be hospitalized is treated the same as the person who stopped making mortgage payments because they didn’t feel like it.

A new study by the National Consumer Law Center says there’s always more to the story, especially when it comes to the aftereffects of foreclosure during the recent recession.

Americans are still hurting from the collapse of the housing market, the subsequent recession and foreclosure fest, a crisis that resulted in more than 4.5 million people losing their homes. The long-term damage to these former homeowners’ credit means they will likely not be able to secure a new mortgage for another decade.

And the recession’s effect on American consumers’ credit is more than just the inability to get a loan. Bad credit can keep those consumers from getting jobs, affordable housing and insurance.

Not every home lost to foreclosure is the result of people buying properties they couldn’t afford or taking out loans they weren’t qualified to repay. Many foreclosures occurred because consumers lost their jobs, or fell victim to predatory lending and exploding Adjustable Rate Mortgages.

Even with circumstances out of consumers’ control, their credit histories are forever tainted. Foreclosures, which can lower a credit score by several hundred points, typically stay on a consumers’ report for seven years.

The NCLC is hoping its new report [PDF] is a step to changing the way consumers’ credit histories are viewed .

“For millions of Americans, bad credit records are the result of bad luck, not bad character,” Chi Chi Wu, National Consumer Law Center attorney and author of the report, wrote. “We hope this paper will prompt the development of methods to judge consumers so that they are not unfairly penalized by job loss, illness, or other life circumstances outside of their control.”

The report notes the recession created a vicious cycle of economic harm.

Economic harm causes low scores, which in turn prevents recovery and consumer’s lack of recovery continues to drag down the economy as a whole.

So how is the vicious cycle stopped? How do consumers get passed their credit history?

The NCLC lays out a number of options and ideas to lessen the negative impact on consumers:

• Revise the amount of time adverse mortgage information appears on credit reports – no more than three years;
• Prohibit insurers, employers and landlords from considering credit reports;
• Create exceptions or models to consider extraordinary life circumstances;
• Consider alternatives to traditional credit scores.

While more research is needed to improve credit judging methods, the NCLC maintains consumers should not be unfairly penalized for economic and life circumstances that are out of their control.

Solving the Credit Conundrum: Helping Consumers’ Credit Records Impaired by the Foreclosure Crisis and Great Recession [National Consumer Law Center]

Surely passers-by are familiar with LOST fliers seeking the safe return of a beloved pet. It’s not uncommon for these posts to advertise a monetary reward for wayward dogs and cats, but one dog owner found success dangling a different kind of bait: Beer and cigarettes for the safe return of her pooch.

The 23-year-old Dayton, Ohio woman (full disclosure: Dayton is my college town and I will love it forever) put a flier in a local grocery store offering up a case of beer and pack of cigarettes for her dog, reports the Dayton Daily News, and it worked.

Zoro came home 10 days after he’d escaped from her yard, along with her other pup. She’d had luck finding the other dog at a local shelter, but was still missing Zoro when she got a line on Zoro from a frequent customer at the sub shop where she works.

That customer said he’d seen people walking a dog they’d found and intended to keep it, so when he saw the flier he thought it could be her dog. The descriptions matched, and she found Zoro at the home described by her customer.

She explains that she offered the booze and smokes reward because it was something she could afford, and figured it would stand out as unusual among other kinds of traditional rewards. It’s a smart play — how many fliers have you seen offering up beer and cigs for a dog? Exactly.

But since the Good Samaritan has refused to accept it, she says she’ll instead treat him to free food at the sub shop. All’s well that ends with a happy reunion under one woof. I mean roof. Yay, safely returned pets!

Case of beer and cigarettes offered for return of Dayton dog [Dayton Daily News]

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., today released a ruling that strikes down key provisions of the FCC’s net neutrality rule.

Verizon filed the lawsuit challenging net neutrality in January, 2011. The net neutrality rule, formally known as the FCC’s Open Internet Order (PDF), prohibits broadband providers from blocking any legal content or “unreasonably discriminating” in transmitting “lawful network traffic.” Translated from the legalese, that means your ISP can’t give any one internet traffic source (like RedBox) preference over another (like Netflix).

The gist of today’s ruling (PDF) is that the FCC could make such a regulation if it classified internet service providers as common carriers, like telephone providers. But since they don’t, the FCC is overstepping its bounds (emphasis added):

The Commission … has reasonably interpreted section 706 to empower it to promulgate rules governing broadband providers’ treatment of Internet traffic, and its justification for the specific rules at issue here—that they will preserve and facilitate the “virtuous circle” of innovation that has driven the explosive growth of the Internet—is reasonable and supported by substantial evidence. That said, even though the Commission has general authority to regulate in this arena, it may not impose requirements that contravene express statutory mandates. Given that the Commission has chosen to classify broadband providers in a manner that exempts them from treatment as common carriers, the Communications Act expressly prohibits the Commission from nonetheless regulating them as such. Because the Commission has failed to establish that the anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules do not impose per se common carrier obligations, we vacate those portions of the Open Internet Order.

The CEO of advocacy group Free Press said in a statement:

“The compromised Open Internet Order struck down today left much to be desired, but it was a step toward maintaining Internet users’ freedom to go where they wanted, when they wanted, and communicate freely online. Now, just as Verizon promised it would in court, the biggest broadband providers will race to turn the open and vibrant Web into something that looks like cable TV. They’ll establish fast lanes for the few giant companies that can afford to pay exorbitant tolls and reserve the slow lanes for everyone else.”

Delara Derakhshani, policy counsel for Consumers Union, called on lawmakers and FCC Chairman Thomas Wheeler to take action: “The court’s decision strikes a serious blow to a free and open Internet.  It leaves consumers at the mercy of a handful of cable and phone providers that can give preferential treatment to the content they profit from.  Chairman Wheeler needs to take action quickly to keep the Internet accessible and competitive, and Congress should get in the game.”

As for pending legislation, there is currently a proposed bill in the Senate that would make it illegal for ISPs to throttle streaming video traffic.

In a statement following this morning’s ruling, FCC Chair Thomas Wheeler left open the option for appealing the case to the Supreme Court.

“We will consider all available options, including those for appeal, to ensure that these networks on which the Internet depends continue
to provide a free and open platform for innovation and expression, and operate in the interest of all Americans,” said Wheeler.

Wheeler, who took over the position in November, has previously expressed his clear endorsement of net neutrality rules.

It sounds hard enough to be a medical professional, what with all that blood and guts on the job, but even when you’re not at work, it’s like you’re always on call. And thank goodness for that, after two nurses on a recent United Airlines flight had to step up and treat the plane’s pilot during a medical emergency in midair.

As anyone who’s ever had need of medical help on a plane knows — yours truly included, and yes I was just fine, thank you — it’s a great relief to hear an affirmative when the call goes out on the intercom: “Does anyone on board have medical training?”

That’s when one of the nurses, a registered nurse traveling home from Iowa with her husband and teenage daughter stepped up to help. Right before another call came out on the intercom — “Anyone know how to fly a plane?” reports KTLA.com.

She volunteered to help out, and was led to the cockpit where the pilot was slumped over, mumbling and barely responsive. It appeared he could be having a heart attack, as his heart was beating irregularly.

The woman and another nurse on the flight pulled him into the galley, where they set up a diagnostic defibrillator and administered an IV.

Meanwhile the co-pilot had taken control of the airplane while the call went out asking for anyone with flight experience.

“I turned to the co-pilot and I asked her, ‘You know how to land the plane, right?’ And she said yes,” the nurse explained. “I felt immediately comfortable. That was just one thing I didn’t have to think about, so I could focus more on what was going on with the patient.”

Paramedics were awaiting the plane in Omaha upon its safe landing, and the pilot survived.

“She did her job,” her husband said. “She jumped at the opportunity, didn’t hesitate. And she did it at 30,000 feet, knowing that the person who was supposed to be flying the plane was her patient.”

Nurse Helps Treat Pilot With Mid-Flight Medical Emergency [KTLA.com]

Realizing that maybe there’s a limit to the appeal of cheese-injected crusts, Pizza Hut’s latest attempt at remaining relevant to consumers is something that many pizzerias have been doing since before most of us were born — selling pizza by the slice.

The AP reports that the Pizza chain will begin testing slice sales this week at two locations — one in York, NE, and the other in Pawtucket, RI. The slices will cost between $2 and $3 and will apparently be pulled from the Hut’s thinner pies, rather than the thick, multilayered pies most associated with the chain.

Many Pizza Huts have long sold small, “personal” pizzas aimed at individual customers and the to-go market, but the idea with the by-the-slice test is to offer something that’s higher quality but doesn’t require sitting down or waiting a long time for the order to be made.

The company also has to compete with newer, higher-tech pizza companies that can provide custom pizzas without the long wait. For example, Chipotle’s new project — upstart chain Pizzeria Locale — claims that its ovens can bake an entire pizza in only two minutes, about four times faster than Pizza Hut.

Pizza Hut says the two test locations for the slice sales will have newer ovens that will heat up slices in only a few minutes, but that the existing ovens will continue to be used for the other pizzas.

Additionally, the Nebraska Hut will feature a new design that incorporates salad and pasta bars.

Yesterday, the backers of Charter Communications made a $37.3 billion offer to purchase Time Warner Cable. It was Charter’s third cash offer to TWC and it was quickly rejected by the larger cable company’s board as “grossly inadequate.” But that doesn’t mean this is the end of the road for Charter’s bid to merge with TWC.

John Malone, CEO of Liberty Media, which owns 27% of Charter and about 1% of Time Warner Cable, has been pushing for the acquisition and for the need for new leadership at TWC since at least the middle of 2013. Since then, Charter has made three offers to TWC, all of which have been ignored or rejected by the board.

The latest offer of $37.3 billion plus another $25 billion in debt, would have left current TWC shareholders with 45% ownership in the merged entity. It would have paid $132.50 per share, only $.10/share above Monday’s closing price for TWC stock.

“In essence, these guys are just trying to get a premium asset at a bargain basement price,” explained recently installed TWC CEO Rob Marcus about the Charter offer. “This makes the job of fending it off rather straightforward. Our shareholders will see it as what it is, an attempt to steal the company.”

Marcus said the board responded to Charter by saying it might be open to selling the company at $160/share, a substantial increase over this most recent offer.

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge, who previously spent more than two decades working for TWC, was not thrilled with that number.

“[Time Warner Cable] came back to us with a design to be dismissive. They have not engaged with us,” said Rutledge. “All of the conversations have been one way.”

Since Charter and the TWC board are so far apart — and don’t really seem intent on compromise — Charter says it will take the matter to TWC investors and let them decide whether the offer is sound and if Charter’s leadership would do a better job running the company than the current TWC power structure.

“The purpose of going to the public is to talk to Time Warner shareholders and to ask them to consider how valuable this deal is and to ask management and the board to engage,” explains Rutledge.

The timing of the latest offer appears to be calculated to come shortly before TWC investors will have the ability to name new members to the cable company’s board. Charter admits it is considering the idea of asking shareholders to vote in new TWC directors who would be more amenable to Charter’s offer.

But TWC’s Chief Financial Officer says that any board member who signs off on Charter’s asking price would be failing to do his/her fiduciary duty.

Even though TWC is one of the largest cable company in the U.S., it has been hemorrhaging customers at a high rate, losing 300,000 customers alone in the wake of its prolonged blackout of CBS in three major markets; a blackout that did nothing to lower the cost that customers will pay for watching CBS programming on Time Warner Cable.

Meanwhile, it has a notoriously bad customer service reputation, recently scoring dead last in the American Customer Satisfaction Index for cable TV providers and next-to-last (by a single point) for Internet service providers.

Comcast has been a rumored suitor of TWC, but it’s highly unlikely that federal cable and antitrust regulators would allow such a massive merger to occur.

Charter takes rejected Time Warner Cable bid to investors [Reuters]

- Recreational marijuana may be legal in Colorado and Washington, but debates over the drug are far from over. Here's a look at debates emerging in the states where the drug is already legal without a doctor's recommendation:

- Alexandria, a Northern Virginia city steeped in Civil War history, is considering repeal of an old law requiring certain new streets to be named for Confederate generals.

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. RIBNOVO, BULGARIA - JANUARY 12: Bride Fatme Inus, her face painted white and ...

PotomacLocal.com

6 New Manassas Police Officers Sworn In PotomacLocal.com MANASSAS, Va. – Manassas has a batch of new police officers on the city's streets. They new officers were sworn in a at city council meeting. Here is information about the new officers as provided by city officials: Officer Ashley “Nikki” Bowman is a ...

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- Authorities say a father threw his 2-year-old son off a second-floor, hotel balcony in central Florida before jumping himself.

Sure, your pet is adorable, but swaddling him or her in clothing can be a recipe to for the perfect pet photo -- and Tuesday may be just the excuse you need to indulge.

- A state report says Virginia doesn't provide the same level of service to mentally ill people in jails that it does to those in the community.

Sure, your pet is adorable, but swaddling him or her in clothing can be a recipe to for the perfect pet photo -- and Tuesday may be just the excuse you need to indulge.

Show Him the Money: City of Manassas Welcomes Finance Chief Patch.com Comment Recommend. Paul York is the new finance and administration director in the city of Manassas. He begin on Feb. 10. (City of Manassas.) Loading... x. ×. Next Previous Slideshow Download. Manassas government staff are preparing to welcome a ... and more »

NBC4 Washington

Manassas Babysitter to Serve Five Years in Death of Toddler NBC4 Washington News4's Erika Gonzalez spoke with the father of a toddler who was killed by his babysitter. Va. Babysitter to Serve Five Years in Death... Link; Embed; Email. Copy. Close. Link to this video. http://www.nbcwashington.com/video/#!/news/local/Va. and more »

Scam Alert: Thieves Posing as City Utility Workers Target Residents Patch.com Some Manassas residents have received calls from scammers threatening to cut off their power service unless payment is received. Posted by Jamie M. Rogers (Editor) , January 13, 2014 at 03:37 PM. Comment Recommend. Manassas City Seal. (Patch file.).

Job-search networking meetings return to Manassas Inside NoVA The group meetings, which are free and open to anyone, are from 1-3 p.m. every Monday at the House of Mercy, a nonprofit humanitarian organization, 8170 Flannery Court, Manassas. “With the discontinuation of unemployment extended benefits to ...