If smoking near your computer turns it into a biohazard, what does urinating on it do? According to local police, a Pennsylvania elementary school found out when an 11-year-old student emptied his bladder on a cart full of MacBooks. This hilarious prank destroyed more than $36,000 worth of computers. [More]
Government Policy
The U.S. Government Wants To Make Sure You've Written Your Social Media Will
By 5.2.12
The United States government is hip to social networking, and because it knows all about the Facebook and the Twittering, it wants you to be prepared with a social will in the event of your demise. After all, there have been reports of the families of deceased people having trouble gaining access to those kinds of accounts. [More]
Too Bad We Can't All Blame Jury Duty Summonses On Computer Glitches
By 5.2.12
For 1,200 people in California that were told to show up for jury duty this week, there was good news and bad news. The good news was they really didn’t have jury duty that day. The bad news? About 800 of those notified hoofed it all the way to the courthouse just because of a computer glitch. [More]
Judge: Return $1 Million Lottery Ticket Found In Trash To Original Owner
By 5.2.12
If you found a million dollars sitting in a convenience store trash can, would you take it? In that case, it’s probably better to call the police. But when an Arkansas woman scanned her lottery ticket and learned it was a loser, she tossed it in the garbage. Another customer who likes to check discarded tickets for small winnings found the ticket and learned that it was worth one million dollars. [More]
Try Your Hand At Stabilizing The National Debt
By 5.2.12
Everyone agrees that the U.S. debt has risen to scary heights. What not everyone agrees on is what needs to be done to keep the debt from going past the point of no return. Now comes a new interactive tool that lets you try your hand at deciding what sacrifices we all need to make. [More]
FTC Wins Judgment Against Makers Of 3 Get-Rich-Quick Infomercials
By 5.1.12
We don’t know why people still fall prey to infomercials promising easy paths to riches. And yet, the Federal Trade Commission says a trio of popular get-rich-quick programs — all backed by the same two people — took consumers for a total of $450 million by misleading them into believing they could quickly earn piles of cash in real estate or Internet marketing. [More]
Fight Discriminatory TSA Profiling With Your Smartphone
By 5.1.12
It’s hard to find any travelers with nice things to say about the Transportation Safety Administration, but members of the Sikh faith really have a grievance. They claim that they’re singled out for secondary screening at airport security to an extent that’s discriminatory, and frequently ordered to allow inspections or removal of their turbans. So they’re fighting back in 21st century fashion: with a smartphone app. [More]
New Jersey Goes After Woman For $73 Debt From 1977
By 4.30.12
Thirty-five years ago, the state of New Jersey accidentally overpaid on a teenager’s unemployment claim to the tune of $73. Now the Garden State wants that money back. [More]
Federal Lawmakers Introduce Social Networking Online Protection Act
By 4.30.12
While some states are taking steps toward protecting workers against current or potential employers from snooping around in Facebook accounts, federal lawmakers are also pushing similar legislation. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and and Rep. Eliot Engel, of New York, both Democrats, have introduced a new bill to Congress regarding the matter. [More]
Court Orders UK Internet Providers To Block Pirate Bay
By 4.30.12
File-sharing in the United Kingdom just got a little bit more difficult, as the nation’s High Court has ordered the country’s largest internet providers to completely block access to BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay. [More]
CFPB Creates New Office To Focus On Diversity In The Financial Industry
By 4.30.12
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a new appointment today, that of Stuart Ishimaru as the leader of the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion at the bureau. Previously, Ishimaru was the acting chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. So he knows his stuff, ostensibly. [More]
4.5 Billion Spam Texts Sent To U.S. Cellphones Last Year
By 4.30.12
If you think you’ve seen an uptick in the number of spam texts showing up on your wireless phone in recent months, you’re not crazy. A new report claims that the number of those unwanted messages jumped 45% last year, totaling 4.5 billion texts in the U.S. alone. [More]
Atheist Group: Movie Theater Discriminated Against Us By Pulling Ad
By 4.30.12
An atheist group in Texas is claiming discrimination after a local movie theater backed out of an agreement to run ads for the organization during pre-movie slideshows. [More]
Newark Airport Terminal Evacuated Over Unchecked Baby
By 4.27.12
The week of little children posing a threat to the travelers of the world concludes with this story about how officials evacuated and temporarily shut down an entire terminal at Newark International Airport because a baby didn’t receive a second screening. [More]
Group Alleges 'Good Morning Vietnam' DJ Misled Troubled Homeowners
By 4.27.12
Though he bears little resemblance to the record-slinging, Nixon-impersonating prankster played by Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam, former Air Force radio DJ Adrian Cronauer is still closely associated with the 1987 comedy. Now, Cronauer is making a different sort of headline after the National Community Reinvestment Coalition has filed a pair of complaints against the law firm that bears his name. [More]
FCC Approves Anti-Cramming Rules For Landlines, But Nothing Yet On Wireless
By 4.27.12
It’s been almost a year since the FCC finally got around to considering rule changes to keep landline phone service providers from padding customers’ bills with charges for third-party services that range from long-distance service to yoga classes. Today, the commission announced some new regulations — but they only goes so far in protecting consumers. [More]
A Few More Recalls: Bunny Sippy Cups, Plastic Rattles, And Instant Knives
By 4.27.12
The Consumer Products Safety Commission announced these three recalls were announced too late to make yesterday’s Recall Roundup, but we wanted to share them as soon as possible since two of them could affect small children. We don’t want to see anyone get hurt, ever, but a little kid getting poked in the eye by an Easter-themed sippy cup shaped like a smiling bunny? That’s particularly undignified. [More]
Between 36-122 Million Americans Have Pre-Existing Conditions That Would Restrict Health Insurance Coverage
By 4.26.12
Health insurance providers have a long history of telling individual policyholders — and people shopping for individual policies — that their care isn’t covered or their policy is voided because of a pre-existing condition. Starting in 2014, that is all supposed to stop when a condition of the Affordable Care Act kicks in, making it illegal for health insurers in the individual market to deny coverage, increase premiums, or restrict benefits because of a pre-existing condition. Question is: Just how many people are we talking about? [More]
