The Pennsylvania Game Commission would like you to know that it is not legal to hunt deer in the Burrell Township Walmart parking lot, and, by extension, any other Walmart parking lot. [More]
Amazon To Buy Goodreads, And Owns Part Or All Of Its Competitors, Too
By 3.29.13
Social book review site Goodreads is growing quickly, with 16 million members, partly because of its reputation as a source for independent user reviews of books. It’s main competition, Shelfari and LibraryThing are both partly or completely owned by Amazon. Yesterday, Goodreads announced that they were joining their competitors at the seller of cat litter and fine literature alike. [More]
Please Stop Almost Killing People Because You’re Staring At The Awesome Driverless Google Car
By 3.29.13
Businessweek has an article by a Mountain View, California denizen whose neighborhood is besieged by the notorious driverless Google cars. The problem is not what you’d assume. The cars drive just fine. In fact, they are better than the people, says the author. His issue is that the fleet of robot vehicles have an unintended side-effect: They cause nearby humans to lose their own ability to drive. [More]
Facebook's New Mobile Ad Network Uses Your Data To Target You In Other Apps And Sites
By 9.19.12
Yesterday, Facebook announced that it’s new mobile ad network (the one that analysts are counting on to rescue the company’s stock price) would allow advertisers to pay to use your Facebook data to target you with ads outside the Facebook environment. So, for example, if you’ve authorized Facebook on an outside mobile website, you’ll begin to see ads targeted to your Facebook profile data. [More]
Ask The Consumerist: Is There Any Point To All These Stupid Surveys?
By 9.19.12
Rachel is sick of surveys and writes in to ask if we think they serve any purpose. [More]
Facebook Stock Down More Than 50%, Schadenfreude Still Rising
By 8.31.12
Facebook stock has reached a new low following news that analysts at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and Bank of Montreal have lowered their price target for the stock. [More]
Microsoft Updates Service Agreement To Make It Easier To Read The New Mandatory Binding Arbitration Clause
By 8.31.12
While we appreciate that Microsoft has made its online services agreement much easier to read, the update comes with a questionable addition: a shiny new mandatory binding arbitration clause with class action waiver. The clause states that you agree to settle any legal disputes (except intellectual property rights disputes) in either the small claims court in your county of residence or Microsoft’s, or through the arbitration procedure outlined in the agreement. Microsoft announced that this change was coming awhile back, and has already added similar language to its XBOX Live service. [More]
People Are Allegedly Preparing Salmon And Potatoes In The Dishwasher
By 8.31.12
Real Simple has a list of things you can and cannot put in your dishwasher (Caution: annoying slideshow.) One of the suggestions stood out. Potatoes…? [More]
Job Interview? Your Potential Future Is More Interesting Than Your Past
By 8.31.12
Ready to impress a hiring manager with a list of your past accomplishments? That may be a flawed approach. According to studies conducted by Stanford’s Zakary Tormala and Jayson Jia, and Harvard Business School’s Michael Norton, people prefer potential rather than achievement when evaluating others. [More]
Apple Is Having Trouble Getting Enough Screens For The iPhone 5
By 8.31.12
If you’re planning on getting and iPhone 5 when it launches in a few weeks, you might want to be proactive about pre-ordering, because Apple is allegedly having trouble getting enough screens. [More]
Employee Kills Coworkers At New Jersey Pathmark
By 8.31.12
The Newark Star-Ledger is reporting that two workers are dead after an employee of the Old Bridge Pathmark supermarket in New Jersey entered the store with two guns and began shooting. The worker then took his own life. [More]
Madonna Booed For Showing Up 2.5 Hours Late For Own Concert
By 8.29.12
Concerts usually start later than the time on the ticket, but apparently 2.5 hours later (with only a DJ as your opening act) is a bit too late for the people of Philadelphia. The CBS affiliate in Philly is reporting that the crowd turned on Madonna when she finally took the stage at 10:30 pm (for an 8 pm show) but the boos were probably quieter than they could have been… because some concert-goers had already given up and left. [More]
Top 3 Insect Repellents For Avoiding West Nile
By 8.29.12
Our brainy cousins over at Consumer Reports test insect repellant… And yeah, people actually let mosquitos bite them in the name of science. It’s pretty nasty, we’re not going to lie. CR doesn’t want you to get West Nile, so they’ve made their ratings of insect repellents free on their site. We’ve grabbed the top three: [More]
Tell The FAA What You Think About Using Electronics During Take Off
By 8.29.12
We’ve mentioned this before, but if you’d like to keep playing Fruit Ninja (or whatever people are doing now) while you ascend into the heavens, you’ll probably want to take note of these instructions for letting the FAA know your feelings about electronics use during take off. [More]
You Should Really Use Google Two-Factor Authentication
By 8.29.12
If you haven’t heard of it, Google Two-Factor authentication is a simple process that combines something you know (your password) with something you have in your possession (your smart phone.) You may think you don’t need something like this, but we suggest you read this completely terrifying article from Ars Technica that explains that with every password breach, the bad guys are getting smarter. [More]
Who Is Really Making Money When We Don’t Buy The Music We Listen To?
By 6.19.12
The new 21-year-old intern on NPR’s All Songs Considered claims to have only purchased 15 CDs in her entire life. This amounts to shocking news for some, probably because it doesn’t match our collective mental image of a true music enthusiast, especially one who works on a national radio show about music. [More]
2.5 Internet Connections For Every Person On Earth By 2016
By 5.30.12
According to an annual survey by Cisco, the number of Internet connections will reach 18.9 billion by 2016, driven by a proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other handheld devices. That’s 2.5 for for each person on Earth. [More]
Sprint Sets Nextel Execution Date: June 30, 2013
By 5.30.12
Remember 2004-2005? Let’s go back there now… Remember… back when people still thought Revenge of the Sith was going to redeem the prequels… Ok, let’s not remember, it’s too painful. Anyway, in late 2004, Sprint and Nextel announced a “merger of equals.” And now, after billions of dollars in mistakes, they’ve finally announced that Nextel will officially die on June 30, 2013. What does this mean for Nextel customers? Yes, apparently they still exist! [More]
