I recently received a bill from my local utilities company stating that they had accidentally undercharged me for the last year. Now they want me to pay 438.53. Here’s the letter, is there a way out of this? [Link]
safety
Self-Check Kiosks Pose Airline Safety Threat
Having conquered the imminent threat of self-immolating shampoo, airline safety has returned to “iron-clad” status. Yeah right, all the terrorist need is a credit card with the same as someone flying that day. Using such a card, one can print a boarding pass and get on the aircraft. Creating the card would require access to a credit card writer, which hasn’t proved an obstacle for numerous identity thieves and ATM hackers.
Hardee’s Unfazed By Water Cut-Off
Bunnyspatial wrote to us about a local Hardee’s that was conducting business with its water turned off, and the fascinating implications that raises:
![U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Warns: “Kids Are Idiots.”](../../../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/hangman-anti-tip-kit-200px.jpg?w=200&h=198&crop=1)
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Warns: “Kids Are Idiots.”
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s newsfeed is a daily source of hilarity. “Barbecue recalled for fire hazard!” it warns. “Trampolines recalled for falling risk!” it hollers and cries. I rarely click though: the actual details could only disappoint. I like living in a world where the government needs to issue daily reminders verbalizing common sense.
![2006 Jeep Cherokee Is The Best Car Ever… To Run Over Little Kids](../../../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/jeep_cherokee.jpg?w=180&h=165&crop=1)
2006 Jeep Cherokee Is The Best Car Ever… To Run Over Little Kids
It’s debatable, the best automobile in the world. So many contenders. Do you go for gas efficiency? Sleek looks? The powerful throbbing of its engine? Whether or not it can transform into a giant robot?
Top 10 Non-Mutating Cell Phones
That gigantic pulsating growth bulging out of the side of your head sure is socially awkward, isn’t it? Your fellow movie theater patrons incessantly complain about the fluorescent glow. The erratic squirting of radioactive goop has ruined many a bar mitzvah. And you certainly aren’t comfortable with what you suspect is the growth’s nascent sentience, exhibited in the hypnotically commanding undercurrent of murderous thoughts which you can hear sometimes at night.
![Avian Bird Flu Got You Down? Don’t Reuse That Surgical Mask!](../../../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/israeli-civilian-gas-mask_small.gif?w=150&h=167&crop=1)
Avian Bird Flu Got You Down? Don’t Reuse That Surgical Mask!
The oncoming avian flu pandemic is set to turn our nation’s metropolises into apocalyptic nightmare cities filled overturned buses, conflagrating skyscrapers and Starbucks filled with corpses whose doorways have been hastily marked with a chalk cross; where the only sound will be phlegmatic hacking, the ululation of orphans and the incessant tolling of a hand-rung bell.
![How Not To Use A Trampoline](../../../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/trampolineplummet-thumb.jpg?w=150&h=224&crop=1)
How Not To Use A Trampoline
Years ago, when I was a daredevil lad, I once used a pair of pogo stilts to jump off of the roof of my house and onto my backyard trampoline. It seemed like a great idea at the time. For a brief moment, I was Icarus, soaring godlike into the stratosphere. The next thing I know, the nose cone of an oncoming Logan-bound Airbus had exploded into my crotch. As I plummeted a truly terrifying distance back down to the earth, I realized that my options were not really very good: either I fell, allowing the impact with the black asphalt below to trigger the nasal expulsion of my own gelatinated pelvis, or I braced with the pogo sticks and risked jumping even higher. Possibly directly into the sun.
The Flying RyanAir Horror Show
Although I personally love RyanAir for allowing me to fly anywhere in Europe practically for free, I’ve known enough people who’ve worked behind the scenes to know it’s a pretty horrific company to work for — or even fly with — if you know what they know. Cheapness, apparently, doesn’t come cheap… it comes with a huge cost in customer service and, more importantly, competence and safety.