Some construction work was ongoing in the neighborhood, and it disrupted the underground cable services. Verizon and the electric provider fixed their wires within a day. Cablevision couldn't figure out how to fix their underground wiring, so they proceeded to run a coaxial cable out of the pedestal on my front property, up a tree in my front yard, where it was tied on with some copper wire, thrown across the street, tied to a lamppost head again with copper wire, dropped back down the lamppost, into another pedestal. It sat like this for well over a month and Cablevision insisted there was nothing they could do about it...

I made three service appointments to fix it and each time I was told my picture quality was fine. I eventually got them to fix it by lying through my teeth that I was about to cut down my tree. There was absolutely no lighting protection, and in addition there were exposed conductors from the previous underground installation hanging out right in the open. But also, no one from Cablevision ever asked to use my tree as an ad-hoc telephone pole, and in fact, when they were installing the wire in the tree, one of the technicians gave us a hard time about accessing our own driveway. Am I surprised? Not at all. But I did promise Cablevision I was going to get them some press over it.

Happy to oblige.

Cul-de-sac’s Cut Cable Causes Cablevision Craziness

Continental Airlines, for example, issued two bulletins last year expressing concern over the number of refueling stops that some flights were making en route to Newark, N.J., one of which observed that "adding fuel indiscriminately without critical thinking ultimately reduces profit sharing and possibly pension funding."

The reports do not represent a valid statistical sample, for example, because they are voluntary and by definition incomplete. And they are redacted to conceal the identities of the pilots, making it impossible to verify individual statements. But NASA, which maintains the Aviation Safety and Reporting System, says it considers the database a reliable and conservative snapshot of events.

Following local news reports late last year that some airliners were arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey with dangerously little fuel left in their tanks, Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the FAA, said: "We don't have any indication right now that airlines are flying planes with less than the required amount of fuel."
 
But Schricker said, "Management is juggling, and what they do by doing that is they decrease the margin of safety."
 
As a result, said Russ Miller, an air traffic controller at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, aircraft now often sound minimum-fuel alerts while they are in holding patterns.

Hey Consumerist,
 
I've been using Apple products for years. I've always been satisfied with their customer service and exceptional products. Naturally, I was upset when I noticed the MagSafe power adapter on my Intel Core Duo Macbook (ca. 2006) was fraying by the magnetic port, rendering it mostly useless (or at least, useless if I didn't want to set my house on fire charging my Macbook with exposed wires).

Cursing my luck, I tried to reconcile making myself buy a new charger when it was just this small part of the product that was faulty and wondered how this could have happened after extremely meticulous care of my notebook (to the extent that I can count on my hands how many times it's left the house). I went to Apple's online store to check the price ($79) only to discover that there appears to be literally hundreds of complaints from people claiming to have used their adapters for even shorter periods of time, or at least very carefully, before being forced to replace them, and demanding that Apple address the issue of its poorly fortified MagSafe ports.
 
Forcing that many people who have already invested a large amount into a reliable product to buy replacement parts so soon seems like an easily resolved situation that would save Apple a lot of headaches in the future and, more importantly, goes against their image as a company that sells sturdy, easily managed products.
 
Please help! I've resigned myself to the fact that I have to spend that money so I can actually use my notebook but would sleep sounder knowing that the money was going toward something that would last me longer than a Dell charger would. I certainly feel like I've paid for that privilege.

Right now I am typing this trying not to move my computer too much so the 2 steel wool thin wires that are still attached will charge my computer. I am in love with this computer... with power. I smell melting plastic too.
 
The Magsafe adapter on my MacBook Pro, unlike the one on my deep fat frier, has an extremely limited life span. The one on my frier has a reinforced neck where the wire meets the adapter.
 
the adapter never laaves the house.....however, base connecting point of the AC adapter's nifty magnetic head just started to smell of melted rubber; now it is looking melted and i can see the wires inside!

We travel full time, so to get our prescription meds we have used Walgreens, because they transfer prescriptions to any of their stores. In Dec of last year I had a prescription filled (for high blood pressure) at a Walgreens store in Dallas...I noticed that the pills looked different, but thought they must have changed to a generic. When I finished that 90 day supply, I got a refill at a Walgreens in Florida. Now the pills were back to what I'd taken for years...an oval green pill. I had 2 left in the old bottle, white round pills...not what that bottle label said they were suppose to be. Acckk! So now I had taken 3 months of the wrong mystery medicine.

I checked the PDR, no matches...I went to the local Walgreens and they couldn't identify it. Nor could the Poison Control Center. The local Walgreens gave me a phone number for Walgreens Corporate office, which led to another phone number and another, climbing the corporate ladder, finally speaking to the CEOs office (but not the CEO). I couldn't get anybody to understand that this was serious...that the pills needed to be identified, that it was important to know what I had taken, who else might have gotten the wrong med, how had this happened and more importantly what was being done to assure this wasn't still happening.

I tried to explain that if this had been a case of product tampering it would have presented like this...a pill not matching the description on the label. That in a case of product tampering people could have died waiting for their corporation to respond.

It ended up taking Walgreens six weeks to get the pill identified. It was a generic allergy pill that was a Wall Mart brand. There was no explanation of how it got in a Walgreens bottle. No explanation about any of this. And no assurances that they have improved any part of their system.

I wanted Walgreens to tell me what had happened... and what they were doing in the future to deal with this sort of mistake. People faced with this situation should immediately be given access to a person or department who will take this seriously. They should not have to wait SIX WEEKS to have a medication identified. And it should not have taken so much persistent effort on my part. Walgreens should have recognized this as an immediate problem, and responded quickly... with concern for my safety and others. They did not and have not done that.

(We're not kidding—it gets Itchy & Scratchy violent without warning at the end.)

Fly Jumpers Junior [Metafilter]

RELATED
FlyJumper product page at Amazon.co.uk
PoweriZers at American Amazon site

Police arrested 47-year-old Davis Katlaps of Lake Oswego, Ore., and charged him with driving under the influence after he reportedly blew .283 on an Intoxilyzer

Apparently, Katlaps "drove the wrong way through the drive-through and crashed into the building. Police estimate the damage to be several thousand dollars." It just goes to show when a drunk needs his burritos, nothing, not even an Arby's, can stand in his way. —MEGHANN MARCO

Drunken Driver Crashes Into Arby's, Goes To Taco Bell [KOIN]

DeWalt has received four reports of the lower guard failing to close, including three reports of lacerations. One consumer received lacerations to the hand and two others received lacerations to the leg, all required medical attention."

The framing saw was sold at major home centers and hardware stores nationwide from January 2003 through August 2006 for about $170. The circular saw was sold from May 2006 through September 2006 for between $380 and $800, depending on the kit.

Please for the love of Christ, if you have one of these saws... don't cut your fingers off. Call DeWalt for a free repair. — MEGHANN MARCO

Model Numbers and Other Complicated Info [CPSC.gov]
DeWalt (866) 854-5214 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday