Yes, Those Are Real Cars Poking Out Of This Dumpster

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Car dealerships are always looking for the next great way to get potential customers to look in their direction and think about maybe buying a shiny new car. Balloons, air dancers, signs: any way that they can get our attention. One way to get some attention: toss some cars in a dumpster. That’s what Pacific Nissan in San Diego did, and the promotion is working out for them.

Reader Ashi in San Diego spotted a striking display outside of a local Nissan dealership and had to stop and take a picture. “Only in America do we throw cars in the trash,” he observed. Is that what the display is meant to say? Where did this thing come from? Are those cars even real? We had to find out.

First, we had to track down the dealership where this was. Ashi identified the dealership as Mossy Nissan, and so did Redditors when a photo of the same display was posted to /r/mildlyinteresting, a popular subreddit, a few months ago. It’s not. We used the street signs visible in the photo to track down the identity of the dealership. The display is at Pacific Nissan, not Mossy. VP of Marketing Andrew Hagstrom cleared up some things about the car dumpster for us.

“We were trying to think of a way to get some eyeballs on us and and attract attention,” he says. The dealership is on a strip surrounded by other car dealerships, and Mossy dominates the Nissan market in that area. They aren’t the first dealership to ever put together a display like this, but they did make it themselves. The cars, Hagstrom says, are real cars that were traded in but that didn’t pass safety inspections and wouldn’t sell for much at auction. The team removed the oil, water, and other fluids so they wouldn’t leak when the cars were turned sideways. For the record, the cars in the dumpster aren’t old Nissans.

The display is meant to get attention, and to make people think about trading their old cars in (if not necessarily tossing them in the trash.) “We’ve had people ask about it, and ask if they can have the cars in it,” Hagstrom told Consumerist. You know, because they’re just throwing them out anyway.

The display will probably stay out there for another few months. They will probably not give you the cars when its run is complete.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Tinder Gets Ad Money From Gillette Without Actually Displaying Ads

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(matthrono)

You might be hard pressed to find a dude with a clean-shave face these days, so it might come as no surprise that razor companies are interested in whether or not beards, stubble and other facial hair styles are a fad or have staying power. That’s why Gillette turned to cool kid on the block Tinder to find the answer, spending advertising bucks without ever placing an actual ad.

Ad Age reports that Gillette paid the dating app, which heavily relies on first impressions, to test the theory that unkempt facial hair wasn’t as desirable on Tinder as a clean-shaven or well-groomed face.

The two companies worked together to anonymously analyze 100,000 male Tinder users to see which group scored more positive responses from suitors.

According to Gillette, the study found that well-groomed men received 74% of the total right swipes (in Tinder world that means they were desirable) and 37% more matches than men who displayed photos sporting facial hair. The results of the Proctor & Gamble razor brand’s study can be found online at shavetest.com.

Despite the fact that Gillette didn’t purchase traditional advertising from Tinder, the dating app was still compensated, although an exact figure wasn’t released.

“Tinder is obviously something that’s really connected to that college audience,” Kurt Iverson, senior communications manager for Gillette, tells Ad Age. “It’s where our user is right now. They live to see who’s given them the swipe right overnight. When we started talking to them, it was a little edgier, more of a hookup app. But I think it’s gone a lot more mainstream now. All age groups are aware of it.”

The unlikely partnership between the razor brand and Tinder shows the unusual ways in which apps are now raking in revenue.

IAC/InterActiveCorp, the parent company for Tinder, announced last July that it planned to start making money from the dating app at some point.

And it appears that started early this year with the app beginning to take part in native ads through a profile for Domino’s Pizza and a match-making effort for Mindy, the main character on Fox’s “The Mindy Project,” Ad Age reports.

Internet analysts estimate that Tinder will receive 20 million active users this year, a number that is no doubt desirable to brands. But only time will tell if Gillette’s investment in the Tinder study will pay off.

Tinder Gets More Brand Dollars … by Testing Sex Appeal of Facial Hair [Ad Age]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Congress Lines Up FCC Commissioners-Turned-Lobbyists For Hearing To Say Why Congress’s Bad Net Neutrality Proposal Is Great

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photographynatalia

Depending on your point of view, Congress has been either promising or threatening to come up with a legislative solution to net neutrality, which would do an end-run around the current FCC debate. As of this afternoon, the first draft of the bill is out and the first hearings are on the schedule. So how does it look for fans of an open internet?

The first draft of the bill that Sen. John Thune and Rep. Fred Upton said earlier this week that they would be creating is now available.

The text (PDF), is a discussion draft, not yet formally introduced into either chamber. But it’s the draft that the House and Senate Commerce Committees will be looking at when they have their hearings and it basically exists to do one big thing: strip the FCC of its current and future authority to regulate broadband access in any way.

The first section of the bill starts out with the actual open internet rule. It specifies that, subject to reasonable network management, broadband providers:

• may not block lawful content, applications, or services


• may not prohibit the use of non-harmful devices


• may not throttle lawful traffic by slectively slowing, speeding, degrading, or enhancing traffic based on source, destination, or content


• may not engage in paid prioritization

That sounds like a lot of the FCC’s stated goals, but as analysts at Public Knowledge have pointed out, the proposal is written in such a way as to leave tons of loopholes for ISPs to engage in bad behavior in the future.

But the proposed draft bill then goes farther, and explicitly removes the authority of the FCC to regulate internet openness at all. The text rigidly defines broadband as an information service, then forbids regulators from using either Section 706 or Title II of the Communications Act — the two options the FCC has before it — to regulate broadband.

As far as the internet is concerned, the FCC instead is reduced to a complaints board, which “shall enforce the obligations … through adjudication of complaints alleging violations” but “may not expand the Internet openness obligations … whether by rulemaking or otherwise.”

Section 706 is the bit of law under which the FCC would have authority to pre-empt state laws forbidding the construction or expansion of municipal, fully or partially publicly-owned broadband networks. If the FCC can’t use section 706 to regulate broadband, they probably can’t make their move on that, either.

Massachusetts senator Ed Markey, a consistent, vocal supporter of net neutrality, municipal broadband, and related pro-competition regulation, issued a statement calling the proposal the “Big Broadband Baron Act.”

Of the draft bill, Markey said, “It is a legislative wolf in sheep’s clothing, offering select few safeguards while undermining basic consumer, privacy and accessibility protections. It would harm low-income, disabled, senior and rural consumers, and undermine competition in the telecommunications marketplace.”

But wait — what of those hearings?

Both the House and Senate committee hearings on the open internet will be taking place next Wednesday, January 21. The agenda and witness list for the Senate version isn’t out yet, but the House’s is. And among the expert witnesses the House Commerce Committee is calling to testify on the best way to protect and promote an open internet are Michael Powell and Meredith Attwell Baker.

We have written about both before. Powell (son of former Secretary of State Colin Powell) was once chairman of the FCC, the position currently held by Tom Wheeler. He is now the president and CEO of the NCTA, the trade and lobbying association that represents cable and telecom companies like Comcast and Verizon.

The NCTA this year has been very busy astroturfing and publishing op-eds about why we don’t need net neutrality. He’s also the one who admitted that usage-based pricing and data caps aren’t about alleviating network congestion, but instead are about making more money.

Baker also once was an FCC commissioner. She was one of the four commissioners (of five) who voted in 2011 to allow Comcast to purchase NBCUniversal … after which she promptly accepted a cushy new job with the newly merged Comcast/NBCU.

Baker is no longer with Comcast. Instead, she took over as the president and CEO of the CTIA — the wireless industry’s answer to Powell’s NCTA. The CTIA has funded some of the same odious op-ed arguments that its wired peer has engaged in this year.

The two will be joined by other executives representing both the established internet corporate presence (Amazon) and the scrappy modern start-up (Etsy), as well as Dr. Nicol Turner-Lee of the Minority Media and Telecom Council, a nonprofit that advocates for diversity and civil rights in the media.

The FCC is unlikely to stop its current rulemaking proceeding while Congress works on the proposal.

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

Dead Mall Overtaken By Fish Will Be Torn Down

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(Jesse Rockwell)

Here in the United States, we’ve been solving the problem of how to re-develop our dead and dying malls into something beneficial to communities and to businesses. Over in Thailand, though, a former mall took a strange turn before being completely demolished. The building filled with water, forming a pond, and local residents stocked that pond with fish to keep mosquito infestations down.

The mall was flooded in the first place because the developer defied its original building permit, building an 11-story mall when they had only been given permission to build a four-story one. The mall closed and the city government in Bangkok tore down the seven illicit floors on the mall, leaving the rest of the building in place…with no roof. The first floor flooded, and a business owner in the neighborhood explains that locals stocked the pond with fish about ten years ago to prevent mosquitoes from hatching in the big expanse of uncovered, still water. The fish multiplied in their strange, illegal semi-indoor aquarium.

A travel blogger wrote about the mall in 2013, posting stunning photos, taking pains to point out that tourists should not go there. People kept visiting and locals continued to feed the fish, and the city finally ordered the building demolished.

Authorities estimate that there are about 3,000 fish inside. Now that their home is being torn down, workers from the federal and provincial government are catching the thousands of fish in nets, and they will be held in quarantine before being released into appropriate streams and reservoirs. It’s not clear whether they will be able to survive in the wild, but at least someone is taking the care to remove them.

Fish pulled from New World pond [Bangkok Post] (via The Verge)

The Secret Of The Abandoned Fish Mall [A Taste of the Road]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Judge Rules BP’s Maximum Fine For Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Could Reach $13.7B

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(Bob Reck)

A U.S. judge ruled Thursday that BP will face a maximum fine of $13.7 billion – nearly $5 billion less than what the government sought – for its part in dumping million of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The New York Times reports that Judge Carl J. Barbier of Federal District Court in New Orleans issued the ruling in a 44-page finding of fact that anticipates the coming third phase of the federal case.

Barbier wrote in his findings that BP actually spilled four million barrels of oil into the gulf, but that because the company attempted collection it should only be held responsible for a discharge of 3.19 million barrels or 134 million gallons of oil.

The ruling represents a substantial loss for the federal government, which estimated nearly 4.19 million barrels were spilled after collection efforts. However, the judge’s finding was still more than the 3.26 million barrels BP officials said was released in total.

Barbier previously found that BP was grossly negligent in causing the spill and could face a maximum penalty of $4,300 for each barrel spilled under the Clean Water Act.

According to the new findings, the company could now face a maximum fine of $13.7 billion.

The Times reports that Barbier’s finding did not elaborate on how he came to the 3.19 million barrel figure. He wrote that the evidence from the government and from the company was “voluminous, dense, highly technical, and conflicting.”

He went on to say that both sides presented evidence to support their cumulative flow estimates and mounted effective attacks on each other’s findings.

“There is no way to know with precision how much oil discharged into the Gulf of Mexico,” he wrote before saying that once all arguments were weighed he came to the four million barrel figure.

Officials for BP and the federal government tell the Times that they are currently reviewing the judge’s ruling.

The third phase of the years-long trial, which will focus on the penalties to be assessed, is set to begin next Tuesday.

To date, BP says it has spent $27 billion since the spill, including more than $14 billion on response and cleanup, as well as $13 billion in damage claims.

Judge’s Ruling on Gulf Oil Spill Lowers Ceiling on the Fine BP Is Facing [The New York Times]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

The U.S. Is Not At War With China: Hacked NY Post, UPI Twitter Accounts Post Fake News

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Despite fake reports on the Twitter accounts of both the New York Post and United Press International, no, the United States is not at war with China. And no, the Pope did not say it’s the start of WWIII. So, shew.

According to the news sites themselves, both were briefly hacked this afternoon, with both accounts tweeting fake news about the U.S. Navy engaged in combat with China.

The fake Pope even fake weighed in on the fake story:

Everyone included is breathing a sigh of relief because war, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing, says UPI in acknowledging the act with a tweet linking to its story about its hacked tweets:

.@UPI website, Twitter account hacked along with @nypost
http://t.co/8t6w1i2qGy
(World War III has not started, thankfully)

— UPI.com (@UPI) January 16, 2015

The NYP acknowledged it without running a story online that we can find:

Our Twitter account was briefly hacked and we are investigating.

— New York Post (@nypost) January 16, 2015

Thus far it’s unclear if any hacking group has taken responsibility for the attacks. The UPI says in its story about the attack that around the time the tweets started popping up, editors noticed that a ‘breaking news’ banner touting the Federal Reserve story was published to the UPI.com homepage.

“UPI’s technology support team quickly shut down access,” UPI reports.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Strawberry-Flavored Honeycomb Cereal Will Return To Stores

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The children of the ’80s are now adults with jobs, who have occasional disposable income between student loan payments. Makers of sugary breakfast cereals are capitalizing on this, re-releasing our childhood favorites for us to eat as snacks or inflict on our own children. That’s why Strawberry Honeycomb is back on shelves in some areas to tempt the nostalgia-stricken.

Strawberry Honeycomb debuted in 1983, and was taken off the market…well, no one seems to know when it was taken off the market, including Post in its own press release. We would guess sometime in the ’90s. Now Post wants us to know that it’s back in “select” stores. Which stores those are isn’t clear, since the company directs customers to a product finder that doesn’t yet list strawberry as a valid Honeycomb flavor. At the same time, the flavor isn’t on their “discontinued products” page, either, leaving it in a strange cereal limbo.

Strawberry Honeycomb follows General Mills’ French Toast Crunch back onto the shelves and into the cabinets of cereal-loving millennials.

(Thanks to Brand Eating for the heads-up!)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

USPS Proposes Price Increase For Postcards, International Mail; Cost Of First-Class “Forever” Stamps Unchanged

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(Stephen Butterworth)

The United States Postal Service’s quest for financial stability might be hitting consumers’ pocketbooks come April if the agency’s proposed price increases gets the go-ahead.

The Associated Press reports that the USPS’ proposal includes slight increases for mailing letters and postcards, but would leave the first-class “Forever” stamp at its current price point.

According to a filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission, the increases would raise the cost to send intentional letters to $1.20 from the current cost of $1.15. Postcards would also increase from from $0.34 to $0.35.

For first-class mail, every ounce over one ounce would cost an additional 22-cents, an increase from the current $0.21 cost, the AP reports.

If the proposed increase is approved it would become effective on April 26.

Officials with USPS tell the AP that the potential price increases are an attempt for the agency “to achieve financial stability.”

Postal Service proposes price increases [The Associated Press]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Yes, You Can Freeze Milk, Eggs, And Cheese For Later Use

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(Tambako The Jaguar)

Yes, buying items in bulk definitely saves money, but what if you don’t use five gallons of milk per week? If you have the storage space in your freezer, it can be a good way to save trips to the store and get even more savings out of your membership to a bulk-buying club like BJ’s or Costco.

I get home milk delivery and have accidentally frozen a few half-gallons in my day, which doesn’t end well. You can do it on purpose, too, and also freeze other dairy products like cheese, eggs, and butter if you find a good sale and like to stock up.

Milk: Pour out a small amount–you really only need to remove less than a cup–so the container doesn’t expand and explode. It will keep for about a month. Remove your next gallon about 24 hours before you need it. Don’t drink half-thawed milk because it will taste watery and gross.

Cheese: Freeze in bricks, or shred it first! It can last about six months, but cheese that you plan to slice for a party or for grilled cheese sandwiches shouldn’t be frozen, because it will end up crumbly.

Eggs: You can freeze them, but as anyone who has accidentally turned their fridge temperature too cold can tell you, you need to crack them first. This video demonstrates eggs being lightly whisked and stored in an ice cube tray. Eggs can keep for about a year.

Butter: Unsalted butter lasts a month or so, and salted butter can last up to six months. This one’s easy: just put the containers in the freezer.

How To Freeze Dairy Products [YouTube] (via Lifehacker)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Crowdfunding Page Seeking Tips For Pizza Delivery Guy Hits $20K In Donations

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He didn’t get the $7 tip he was forced to return for delivering pizzas, but now it seems a pizzeria worker who was stiffed the first time around by a Massachusetts car dealership will be doing just fine: A GoFundMe campaign set up by a stranger who saw the video and was outraged has hit $20,600 (as of Friday afternoon) in donations in just two days.

With a $50,000 goal and around 1,840 donations (again, as of this moment), the page created Jan. 14 has been seeing a steady flow of money coming in.

To recap, if you don’t feel like clicking to the original post: A video apparently shot by workers at car dealership shows employees demand that the pizza guy hand over change for the $42 and some change pizza order, after handing him two $20 bills and two $5 bills as payment. Why give someone two fives only to ask for a full bill back?

The Internet wasn’t pleased, leading to an outpouring of support from those who believed he was treated poorly.

“I believe Jarrid should be rewarded for dealing with such crappy people,” the woman who started the page writes. “Please watch the video and donate. Even if it is $1, it will make up (maybe a little) for him having to deal with idiots like this.”

Since then, the sales manager at the dealership has issued a statement and apologized for the workers’ actions, though he says the video wasn’t released by the staff at the dealership.

“We will [sic] like to apologize for the actions that led to this situation, this embarrassing video gone viral on the Internet, was not released by any employee [of the dealership],” he said in a oddly worded statement via CNN.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Regulators Investigating Jeep, Nissan SUVs After Receiving Fire, Airbag Complaints

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(Van Swearington)

Having your car fill with smoke while driving down the road or finding that the airbags don’t deploy properly during an accident are most definitely causes for concern. That’s why the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened investigations into thousands of Jeep Cherokees and Nissan Rogues.

The Associated Press reports that regulators are investigating engine compartment smoke and fire complaints in Jeep Cherokees and airbag issues in Nissan Rogue vehicles.

NHTSA officials say the first probe, which involves approximately 50,000 model year 2015 Jeep Cherokees, was initiated after the agency received reports from two consumers regarding fire and smoke engulfing the vehicles.

One driver in California reported that he smelled oil from under the hood of his vehicle while driving on January 4. Shortly after he parked the Cherokee at home, white smoke began filtering out from under the hood.

“Within seconds the entire car was engulfed in fire, flames 20 feet high,” the owner said in the complaint. “Burning oil or fuel ran down the street over 50 yards.”

In a second complaint, the owner of the a Jeep Cherokee reported that he noticed smoke under the hood while driving 60 miles-per-hour.

In both cases, the vehicles had less than 100 miles on them. NHTSA reports that no injuries occurred in either incident.

A spokesperson for Fiat Chrysler tells the AP that the company is working with NHTSA to resolve the investigation.

The agency’s second investigation into nearly 195,000 model year 2013 Nissan Rouges was initiated after NHTSA received two complaints alleging the airbags deployed up to a minute after crashes and either inflated slowly or didn’t inflate fully. No injuries were reported as a result of the issues.

A spokesperson for Nissan says the airbags were not made by Japanese parts maker Takata and that the car maker is working with NHTSA on the investigation.

US probes Jeep Cherokee engine fires and slow-deploying air bags in Nissan Rogue [The Associated Press]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Elon Musk Donates $10M To Help Save Humankind From The Robots

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(Dan Coulter)

Don’t believe that artificial intelligence will one day rise up against the humans who brought it into being and become robot overlords reigning over Earth like cruel, undying gods? Well, Elon Musk does, and he’s willing to put $10 million where his mouth is in order to safeguard humans from the inevitable robot revolution.

Tweeting the announcement yesterday, Musk says the money will be going to The Future of Life Institute, a non-profit founded by scientists that says it’s “working to mitigate existential risks facing humanity.”

Funding research on artificial intelligence safety. It's all fun & games until someone loses an I http://t.co/t1aGnrTU21

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2015

“Here are all these leading AI researchers saying that AI safety is important”, Musk says in the press release. “I agree with them, so I’m today committing $10M to support research aimed at keeping AI beneficial for humanity.”

Read: “I’m trying to save all your asses from extinction, after those smart refrigerators turn on you.”

FLI will be in charge of administering the program’s open grants competition. Anyone with a good idea can apply through an application portal that is slated to be open Jan. 22.

“Anybody can send in a grant proposal, and the best ideas will win regardless of whether they come from academia, industry or elsewhere”, FLI co-founder Viktoriya Krakovna explains in the announcement, but the plan is to award the majority of the grant funds to AI researchers,.

The rest of Musk’s money will go toward AI-related research in other fields such as economics, law, ethics and policy.

Here’s Musk talking about robots:

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

IRS Free File Program Open To Qualifying Taxpayers Starting Today

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(JimmyBionic)

While the Internal Revenue Service won’t be accepting electronically filed tax returns until Jan. 20, the agency’s Free File program is open starting today for those taxpayers who make an adjusted gross income of $60,000 or less. The Free File site features free access to federal tax preparation and e-filing software from 14 different tax-prep companies, and offers helpful links to help guide taxpayers through the process. [IRS.gov Free File]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Microsoft Temporarily Dropping The Price Of Xbox One To $349 Again

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(katherinemuchadoo)

After cutting the price of the Xbox One $50 ahead of the holiday season, it seems Microsoft is still in the holiday spirit, as it’s offering the console for $349 again as of today.

The Xbox One outsold the PS4 when it dropped the price in November so it’s trying that tack again with a “new promotion” at the “special price” of $349.

“I want to thank all of the Xbox fans who contributed to our record-setting holiday and making 2014 such a successful year,” Phil Spencer of Xbox’s Major Nelson blog writes. “The Xbox One deals were quite popular and have inspired a new promotion starting January 16 where fans in the U.S. can buy an Xbox One for $349 at their preferred retailer.”

That language makes it likely that the price cut will just be a temporary one, and indeed, Microsoft Executive Mike Nichols said as much to Polygon, but wouldn’t say when the sale price will go away.

“Looking at just how much engagement there was over the holidays with usage of the system and the advocacy from our fans, led us to do a new promotion,” he said.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Virgin Mobile Introduces Shared Prepaid Data Plans At Walmart

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We learned yesterday that T-Mobile is introducing new prepaid plans that offer unlimited data as long as you’re content with unlimited access to the carrier’s slower 2G network. Their competitor in the prepaid market, Sprint’s Virgin Mobile brand, also has a new prepaid product that might work for some families who want to share a pool of data, but prefer a prepaid plan.

The new data share plans hit the market tomorrow, and will be available only at Walmart. The plans are actually quite similar to the new ones from T-Mobile in that once users gobble up a set amount of data, they still have data access, but only at slow 2G speeds. The plans allow 2 to 3 GB per user on average.

• Two users share 4 GB of data for for $65 – 2 GB and $32.50 each


• Three users share 8 GB of data for $90 – 2.67 GB and $30 each


• Four users share 12 GB of data for $125 3 GB and $28.75 each

CNET points out that T-Mobile’s plans are cheaper, but aren’t set up to let multiple people share a pool of data: that might work for your family. The first few months of the year are an important time in the mobile phone industry, especially for prepaid services where consumers buy their phones outright, because people tend to take their tax refund money and upgrade their phones.

As postpaid carriers ditch phone subsidies, that may also be the case in the rest of the mobile phone industry, but companies believe that prepaid has more room for growth, which is why they’re introducing so many new and exciting plans right now.

If shared data plans are

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Surprise: Sprint Tells FCC That Title II Is Just Fine By Them

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(Maulleigh)

Ever since the (current) net neutrality fight got started a year ago, the battle lines have been pretty predictable: the companies that sell you access to data don’t really want stronger regulations, and groups that sell things that need you to have access to someone else’s data plan do. But in a surprise move this week, Sprint just broke ranks with the AT&Ts and Verizons of the mobile world to tell the FCC that actually, they’re cool with Title II regulation.

Tech news site GigaOm spotted the filing, a letter from Sprint’s CTO Stephen Bye to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler and the rest of the commission. In stark contrast to the doom and gloom cries from the rest of the industry, Sprint’s letter says that light touch common carrier regulation in the past is what allowed their company to grow and innovate to begin with, and that they will be just fine going forward if the FCC continues that approach.

Specifically, Bye’s letter begins by saying that Sprint “does not believe that a light touch application of Title II, including appropriate forbearance, would harm the continued investment in, and deployment of, mobile broadband services.”

Sprint then references the origins of mobile service pointing out that the first attempt, a licensed duopoly in the early 1990s, was a flop of “slow deployment, high prices and little innovation.” Later regulation, allowing companies including Sprint to enter the mobile market, was more effective.

But, Bye continues, “some net neutrality debaters appear to have forgotten … that this light touch regulatory regime emanated from Title II common carriage regulation.” And yes, they do indeed seem to forget that whenever it’s convenient.

“So long as the FCC continues to allow wireless carriers to manage our networks and differentiate our products,” Sprint concludes, [we] will continue to invest in data networks regardless of whether they are regulated by Title II, Section 706, or some other light touch regulatory regime.”

Verizon and AT&T, the nation’s two biggest wireless companies by far, have both been extremely vocal opponents of any move by the FCC to regulate either wired or mobile broadband services as common carriers — despite admitting that Title II regulation would not actually harm their ability to invest in their network.

In surprise filing, Sprint endorses net neutrality [GigaOm]

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

Publishers Pulling Book About Boy Dying, Going To Heaven Because Boy Didn’t Die, Go To Heaven

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Almost five years after the release of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, publisher Tyndale House says it’s yanking the book from shelves immediately. This, because the “boy” and co-author of the tome, Alex Malarkey, says the book is literally malarkey because he didn’t die and thus, did not go to heaven.

The story was based on his experience as a then six-year-old, who, after being injured in a bad car crash, said he had gone up to hang out with the angels. Tyndale had called it “a supernatural encounter that will give you new insights on Heaven, angels, and hearing the voice of God.”

Now Tyndale House has confirmed to NPR that it is taking “the book and all ancillary products out of print,” because Malarkey wrote in an open letter this week that he lied about everything in the book, which was co-authored with his father, Kevin.

“I did not die. I did not go to Heaven,” Alex wrote in a letter to bookstores that carry his book. “I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible… Those who market these materials must be called to repent and hold the Bible as enough.”

He’s now a teenager, and his parents are divorced. His mother had already come out against the book last year, claiming the profits hadn’t been going to her son, either.

“Alex’s name and identity are being used against his wishes (I have spoken before and posted about it that Alex has tried to publicly speak out against the book), on something that he is opposed to and knows to be in error according to the Bible,” she wrote in a blog post last year.

Boy Says He Didn’t Go To Heaven; Publisher Says It Will Pull Book [NPR.org]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Couple Sues Caramel Apple Company, Supplier And Walmart Following Woman’s Listeria-Linked Illness

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(Chris Goldberg)

Less than a month after a California family filed a lawsuit against Safeway for selling caramel covered apples linked to an outbreak of listeria, a second California couple has filed a similar suit against one of the candy apple makers, Walmart and the producer where the apples came from.

The St. Louis Business Journal reports the lawsuit, filed in Superior Court of Sacramento County, claims that Happy Apple Company, Bidart Bros. and Walmart breached their duties in ensuring safe, growing, manufacturing and processing of apples and failing to warn the public about the “dangerous propensities of the caramel apples, particularly that they were contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

Happy Apples, which has issued a recall of its treats, used Bidart Bros., whose apples have been linked to the same two strains of listeria that has killed seven people and sickened more than 30 others.

According to the lawsuit, the couple claims a woman fell ill in October after eating a caramel apple purchased form a Walmart store in California. Several weeks later she collapsed and was taken to the hospital, where she tested positive for listeria bacterium. Shortly after returning home, she collapsed again on January 10.

The couple’s lawyer tells the Business Journal in a statement that the lawsuit is a step in determining “exactly how the outbreak occurred and will force those responsible to daily compensate the victims and take all necessary steps to make sure a similar situation never happens again.”

The widespread listeria outbreak came to light in mid-December when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning about caramel apples.

According to the CDC, seven people have died and 32 were sickened as a result of an outbreak of listeriosis infections.

The CDC reports that a majority of the people infected by listeria fell ill after eating packaged, caramel-coated apples.

Three companies – Happy Apples, California Snack Foods and Merb’s Candies – have each announced recalls of commercially produced, prepackaged caramel apples since news of the contamination began in late December.

Washington, Mo., apple seller sued after listeria outbreak [The St. Louis Business Journal]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Anheuser-Busch InBev Launches App That Brings Bud Light To Your Door (But Only In D.C.)

http://ift.tt/1BbEPzB

(AB InBev)

The distance from the couch to the beer store often proves simply too great to overcome, despite great thirst that is known to come upon some. For those who don’t feel like getting up during the Big Game or the Big Fight (and by that I clearly mean those reality TV shows), Anheuser-Busch InBev is testing a Bud Light Button app that’ll do the beer fetching for you.

AB InBev launched the app with an alcohol-delivery startup in Washington D.C. yesterday, reports the Wall Street Journal, which promises to deliver 24-packs of cans of Bud Light for $19.99 and 12-packs of cans for $10.99 within an hour.

In an attempt to get in good with the cool kids and support its tagline, “The perfect beer for whatever happens,” the company will also throw surprise parties with DJs for random Bud Light Button customers.

Youngsters who’ve exhausted the good will of their older siblings with IDs won’t be able to sneak in a delivery, as the app uses credit card info to verify a customer’s age and delivery people will be checking identification before handing over the booze.

“We’re being extremely cautious,” Lucas Herscovici, Anheuser-Busch vice president of consumer connections told the WSJ.

Now someone just needs to invent the app that opens the door for the delivery guy and/or moves the couch over so I really don’t have to move. Also, the app should bring beers that are not Bud Light in a can.

AB InBev Joins Beer-Delivery Market With New App [Wall Street Journal]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds

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Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

(Curtis Perry)

(Eric BEAUME)

(Joel Zimmer)

(Mike Mozart)

(吉姆 Jim Hofman)

(Josh Street)

(Francesca Giugno)

(Steve)

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Google, Apple, Intel And Adobe Systems Agree To Pay $415M To Resolve Anti-Poaching Lawsuit

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(bnilsen)

An ongoing lawsuit filed by former employees of Google, Apple, Intel and Adobe Systems accusing the tech companies of conspiring to not hire away each other’s employees as a way to keep wages low appears to be reaching its end. As part of a settlement proposal the four companies have agreed to pay $415 million to resolve the antitrust lawsuit.

CNET reports that the proposed settlement, the second to be presented in the case, is $90.5 million more than a pervious offer that was rejected by a federal judge. The new proposal is awaiting approval by the court.

Despite the companies’ proposition to fork over such a hefty settlement, they continue to deny they engaged in wrongdoing or violated any laws.

“We deny the allegations contained in the suit and we deny that we violated any laws or that we have any obligation to the plaintiff,” Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said in an emailed statement to CNET. “We elected to settle the matter in order to avoid the risk, burdens and uncertainty of ongoing litigation.”

Representatives for Apple and Google declined comment to CNET, while Adobe did not return a request for comment.

The lawsuit began in 2011 when a former Lucasfilm software engineer filed suit alleging that seven companies conspired to keep wages low by refraining from poaching each other’s employees.

CNET reports that several similar lawsuits followed and they were all consolidated into a $3 billion class action lawsuit covering nearly 65,000 employees who worked for the companies between 2005 and 2010.

Some of the evidence presented in the lawsuit focused on emails sent between executives at the companies.

The suit cites an email exchange between late Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs and then-Google CEO and Apple board member Eric Schmidt, in which Jobs asks his fellow CEO to stop trying to hire one of Apple’s engineers.

According to the exchange, Schmidt sent the request on saying, “I believe we have a policy of no recruiting from Apple and this is a direct inbound request. Can you get this stopped and let me know why this is happening? I will need to send a response back to Apple quickly so please let me know as soon as you can.”

In 2013, Lucasfilm, Pixar and Intuit settled their portions of the suit by paying a combined $20 million covering about 8% of the employees named in the suit.

Shortly after the first settlement, Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe proposed a settlement of $324.5 million to avoid a costly, drawn-out trial. However, U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh rejected the offer calling it too low.

Apple, Google offer $415 million to settle antipoaching suit [CNET]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist