Chick Fil-A Claims Henson Toy Recall Unrelated To Same-Sex Marriage Controversy

Chick Fil-A Claims Henson Toy Recall Unrelated To Same-Sex Marriage Controversy:
As you have probably already heard, the Jim Henson Company announced last Friday that it was severing ties with restaurant chain Chick fil-A because its leadership has recently affirmed its stance against same-sex marriage. Now there is murmuring on the Internet that Chick fil-A pulled its existing inventory of Henson toys from stores, claiming an unrelated safety recall.
A photo taken at a Chick fil-A in a Texas mall has become huge on Reddit in recent hours. For those who can't make out the above image, it reads, in part:

We apologize for any inconvenience but as of 7/19/2012 Chick-fil-A has voluntarily recalled all of the Jim Henson Creature Shop Puppet Kids Meal toys due to a possible safety issue. Please be advised that there have not been any cases in which a child has actually been injured, however there have been some reports of children getting their fingers stuck inthe holes of the puppets.

Unsure of whether or not this was legitimate, I contacted Chick fil-A HQ, which confirmed that it did issue a voluntary recall of the toys and that "the two issues are unrelated... the voluntary withdrawal happened before the Jim Henson announcement."
However, things get a bit murkier when I attempted to confirm with the Jim Henson Company, where a rep first said there was no further comment beyond the initial Facebook post, and then later simply told me to "check with Chick fil-A," which I already had.
I checked with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is usually the one issuing the statements regarding recalled toys. A rep at the CPSC told me that the agency has no record of any recall related to these toys. I've asked Chick fil-A for comment on why it chose not to involve the CPSC in the recall and will add any statement the company provides on the topic.
UPDATE: In spite of the language on the above sign, a rep for Chick fil-A says "This is not a recall – it is a voluntary withdrawal."

ATM skimmers that fit in the card-slot

ATM skimmers that fit in the card-slot:


Police in an unidentified European nation have retrieved wafer-thin ATM skimmers that are so small that they can be fitted inside the credit-card insertion slot. Brian Krebs describes the finding:

That’s according to two recent reports from the European ATM Security Team (EAST), an organization that collects ATM fraud reports from countries in the region. In both reports, EAST said one country (it isn’t naming which) alerted them about a new form of skimming device that is thin enough to be inserted directly into the card reader slot. These devices record the data stored on the magnetic stripe on the back of the card as it is slid into a compromised ATM.

Another EAST report released this week indicates that these insert skimmers are continuing to evolve. Below are two more such devices. Insert skimmers require some secondary component to record customers entering their PINs, such as a PIN pad overlay or hidden camera.

ATM Skimmers Get Wafer Thin

ACLU’s “Police Tape” App for Android Lets You Discreetly Record and Backup Police Interactions

ACLU’s “Police Tape” App for Android Lets You Discreetly Record and Backup Police Interactions:



I don’t know about you, but whenever I get pulled over by the 5-0, the first thing I do is reach for my cell phone, and open up my voice recording app. That, or I have my passenger record everything on video using their cellphone. Call me paranoid, or just plain overly cautious — I like to keep my bases covered should I end up on the hood of a cop car with a tazer up my you-know-what.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered a brand new app by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey called “Police Tape” that was just uploaded to the Play Store. Using the app, an Android user can easily — and most importantly, discreetly — record police interactions using either video or audio recording. Once an option has been selected, the app will seemingly close, but actually remain open in the background, recording the entire, hopefully, peaceful interaction. Should things head south and you find your phone confiscated by the police, you wont have to worry about a crooked cop deleting the evidence. The app can back up the video, uploading it to the ACLU’s servers where it can be further analyzed for civil liberty violations at the user’s discretion.
What’s more is the app provides all kinds of useful legal information on your citizen’s rights when interacting with the police. I can’t tell you how many episodes of Cops I’ve seen where someone voluntarily agreed to a search of their car — without probable cause — only to then end up in the slammer. Now, I have much respect for our men in blue. Really, it’s a tough job, no denying that. But to say there aren’t a few overzealous cops with chips on their shoulders would be naive. Now you can protect yourself — with the power of Android.
[Google Play Store]

The 6 Ways Booze Saved the World

The 6 Ways Booze Saved the World:
By Aaron Cheesman

A long, long time ago, on a planet called Earth, a tribe of thirsty nomads happened upon a mysterious nectar made from fermented vegetation. They found it really got the hunting party started, but it was also hard to come by. That’s when humankind really got its act together.
1. Alcohol started civilization and kept on rocking

Having tasted and experienced naturally occurring alcohol, man’s first attempts at agriculture–the first important step toward civilization–may have been an effort to recreate that old magic feeling.
Archaeologist Patrick McGovern found neolithic pottery shards in China with traces of tartaric acid, suggesting early man was making the beverage from grain as far back as 9,000 years ago. The process was probably initiated by chewing on wild rice, turning the starch into malt sugar.
Centuries later, Greeks continued the practice.
Early farmer/brewers would rate the resulting mash on a scale of “mildly repulsive” to “extremely revolting” and mix the best of it with honey, wild grapes and hawthorn fruit — all ingredients that could be found in their miserable surroundings.
Not only did alcohol make it easier for hunters to go talk to basket weavers, it also provided valuable calories in a commodity easier to produce, store and consume than bread. Millennia later, 20-year-old mankind still thinks that on Friday nights, a beer-only dinner will be “all good, no problem.”
Alcohol later turned out to to have other advantages, too.
2. Alcohol made humankind more creative

The world of art has had more celebrated drunks than one can count. Think Poe, Coleridge, Bukowski, Winehouse. Though alcohol may have destroyed people’s lives and livers, science indicates it also made them more creative. In a recent study published in Consciousness and Cognition, men who got moderately drunk did better on tests of inspired thinking.
Researchers divided their test subjects into two groups. One was served vodka and cranberry juice. The other group was offered a tall glass of shut the fuck up. All were then given a battery of word association questions such as “What is the common word linking arm, tar and peach?”
The study found that if you’re drinking right now, you’ve got about a 30 percent edge on guessing the correct answer (which is pit, by the way). If you’re smoking weed right now, you’ve got about a 55 percent chance of forgetting the question altogether and moving on to the surrounding pictures of boobies.
Warning: Marijuana use may also increase your chance of co-starring in the next Seth Rogan film.
The buzzed group not only solved a significantly higher number of problems, they also solved them nearly four seconds faster and reported the answers frequently “came to them” in a flash, rather than through systematic thinking. Unfortunately, this unleashing of creative capabilities does not improve math scores, dating skills or driving ability. Trust us on this one.
3. Alcohol saved innumerable lives from painful death on land and sea

The ancients called alcohol “aqua vitae,” Latin for “water of life,” because it sure as shit was safer to drink than water itself, which was actually often called “water of crippling diarrhea, followed by death.” That’s because it often carried a stunning constellation of parasites and pathogens. There were two known processes to make water safe for consumption: boiling it for tea (safe & boring) or turning it into an alcoholic beverage (safe and awesome).
In the golden age of exploration, low alcohol beer (also known as small beer) was essentially the British sailor’s Gatorade. After all, the already sketchy water supply wasn’t going to improve over months of storage in unsanitary wooden casks. They might as well have put out deck chairs for all the worms and germs to sun themselves on before ushering them into the all-you-can-eat sailor intestine buffet.
Eventually, seafarers’ fondness for small beer gave way to large Long Island iced tea.
When cholera epidemics broke out in Victorian London, those with strong survival instincts knew it was better to shun the well and hunker down in the local pub. No one knew exactly what it was about the water that made people sick, but eventually alcohol merchants would step in to fix that, too.
4. Wineries protected their investment and accidentally advanced medicine in the process

As late as 1856, wine makers didn’t know what caused perfectly good product to turn to vinegar. So one manufacturer commissioned a bright young scientist named Louis Pasteur to determine the cause. Pasteur looked closely at good wine and spoiled wine under a microscope and observed particular microbes were to blame–and that heat could kill them.
Die, microbes, die!!
Pasteur determined the exact time and temperature required to preserve the wine without changing its taste in a process he called–wait for it–Pasteurization. Years later, he would apply the same concepts to the origins of disease, leading to some of his greatest contributions to science and medicine, including vaccines for anthrax, rabies and chicken cholera.
I made you my specialty: Chicken cholera vaccine and a trough of gravel & grubs.
5. Alcohol has also saved man from starvation–on at least one occasion

One fine Sunday afternoon in December 2011, Alaska man Clifton Vial decided he’d hop in his pickup truck and explore how far north a road would take him. After about 40 miles, he got his answer.

When in doubt, ask yourself, “What Would Ice Road Truckers Do?” Then do the opposite.
Vial had gotten his truck irrevocably stuck in a snowdrift. Apparently, he also hadn’t told anyone where he was going on his one-way adventure. While this may seem an astonishing lapse of judgement to readers from the Lower 48 (and other sane regions) this approach aligns with what Alaskans call the “Frontier Total Lack of Self-preservation Spirit.” He did, however, have the presence of mind to bring beer–also a strong Alaskan trait.
While Vial waited three days for people to notice he was gone and search the most illogical route imaginable, he survived sub-zero temperatures and fought starvation by eating frozen Coors Light like tinned food.
Cold Activated Can, pretty goddamn activated.
This is, of course, the only acceptable way of ingesting Coors Light without the aid of a lawnmower and a scorching hot sun.
6. Alcohol saved the White House from total destruction

Andrew Jackson was the first truly popular President, swept into office after new election laws had tripled the number of registered voters from 365,000 to a nearly million. When it came time to swear him him in, the literally swamped capital became figuratively swamped with about 20,000 rowdy frontiersmen who wanted to personally shake Old Hickory’s hand. Immediately after a speech at the Capitol that no one could actually hear, the mob surged through street barriers and followed the president back to his pad. Jackson wasn’t in a celebratory mood–he was still mourning the recent death of his wife, but that wasn’t going to get in the way of an epic White House Par-tay.
Our “inalienable rights” originally included Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Major Ragers.
The crowd poured into the presidential palace and immediately began trashing it. Invited guests described the scene as rife with “scrambling, fighting and romping.” Men were seen with bloody noses. Ladies fainted. Mountain men in mud-caked boots stood on upholstered chairs for a better view. So many squeezed inside that the whole building creaked and shuddered. Loyal friends of the new president formed a ring around him so he wouldn’t be crushed. At 4 P.M., Jackson escaped through a first floor window and hid out in a hotel while the party raged on.
It wasn’t until around sundown that servants figured out the perfect solution: They passed barrels of liquor and ice cream out the window in order to get the revelers out onto the lawn, where they could do less damage. It worked. Problem solved, liberty preserved. The whole affair was no skin off Jackson’s nose. He soon got Congress to approve a $50,000 budget to fix the place back up. It’s good to be the President.

Related on The Smoking Jacket:

8 Booze-baking Recipes for a Boozy Summer

On the Sauce: Cuba Libres in My Living Room 

On the Sauce: Kentucky Derby Mint Juleps 

FDA Says Ya Know What? High-Fructose Corn Syrup Ain't Corn Sugar

FDA Says Ya Know What? High-Fructose Corn Syrup Ain't Corn Sugar:


Dealing what is surely a might blow to proponents of those in the corn industry, the Food and Drug Administration denied the Corn Refiners Association's petition today to allow for high-fructose corn syrup to be renamed "corn sugar." The FDA laid it all out in the form of a letter to the group's president, Audrae Erickson.

In the letter dated May 30, 2010 and titled "Response to Petition from Corn Refiners Association to Authorize "Corn Sugar" as an Alternate Common or Usual Name for High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)" Michael Landa, Director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition explains the reasons why the Sept. 14, 2010 petition is being denied.

We picked out some of the pertinent parts below:

As explained below, your petition does not provide sufficient grounds for the agency to authorize "corn sugar" as an alternate common or usual name for HFCS.

First, you contend consumers are confused by the name "high fructose corn syrup" and that the proposed alternate name "corn sugar" more closely reflects consumer expectations and more accurately describes the basic nature of HFCS and its characterizing properties.

This is based on consumers' perception of HFCS that it's higher in calories, fructose and sweetness than sugar, and that "corn sugar" is more accurate as to how the common folk see it, among other reasons, according to the CRA.

Too bad, says the FDA.

However, FDA's regulatory approach for the nomenclature of sugar and syrups is that sugar is a solid, dried, and crystallized food; whereas syrup is an aqueous solution or liquid food.

Then the FDA goes all chemistry, explaining different kinds of dextroses and such. Basically, that all isn't going to fly with the FDA, as corn sugar would imply that HFCS isn't what it is, which is that "aqueous solution sweetener."

Here's where our brains went a bit fuzzy with the rest of the reasoning, but it all boils down to the fact that according to the government, high-fructose corn syrup just ain't corn sugar.

Response to Petition from Corn Refiners Association to Authorize "Corn Sugar" as an Alternate Common or Usual Name for High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) [FDA.gov]

Target Claims Tech Exec Created His Own Bar Codes To Buy LEGOs On The Cheap

Target Claims Tech Exec Created His Own Bar Codes To Buy LEGOs On The Cheap:


You're never too old for LEGOs! But it is possible to take those beloved brightly colored building blocks to a bad place where you're resorting to crime in the pursuit of said toy. Millionaire tech executive Thomas Langenbach has been arrested for allegedly creating bar codes and using them to buy LEGOs at Target for his own special discounted price, and then selling them.

Langenbach lists himself on LinkedIn as a vice president at Palos Altos, Calif. software giant SAP Labs Integration and Certification Center, reports NBC Bay Area. He's been arrested in an the odd scheme involving the purchase of LEGO toys, after he was discovered because Target was keeping its eye on LEGO sales.

Authorities allege he'd make his own bar code stickers, switch the tags at the store and then cash out for steep discounts. The police say he was caught on Target's security camera performing the bar code switcheroo, after the store had already been watching LEGO sales.

When police searched his multi-million dollar home, cops found hundreds of boxes of LEGOs stashed away. A deeper look into Langenbach unearthed an alleged sale of around 2,100 LEGO items since last April totaling about $30,000. There were also reportedly 32 pre-made barcode stickers in Langenbach's car.

"This probably happens more often than you'd think," said Mountain View police spokeswoman Liz Wylie. "But this is the first time we've ever had a case like this," adding that LEGOs are "very popular and expensive."

She only charged him with four burglaries totaling a worth of $1,000, while investigators try to figure out which items were likely stolen and which are legitimately his.

And, lest you doubt that, NBC Bay Area notes that a similar crime occurred in 2005, when a man was arrested in connection with using switched out bar code labels on LEGO boxes at Target. Very familiar, indeed.

*Thanks for the tip, Kendrick!

VP of Palo Alto's SAP Arrested in LEGO Bar Code Scam [NBC Bay Area]

Arkansas Court Tells Ticketmaster It Is Bound By Anti-Scalping Laws

Arkansas Court Tells Ticketmaster It Is Bound By Anti-Scalping Laws:


The Arkansas Supreme Court has issued a legal kick to the gut of the fee-happy folks at Ticketmaster and Live Nation, confirming that the ticket seller is bound by the same state laws that prevent scalpers from piling on fees and charging exorbitant prices.

Ticketmaster is the subject of a lawsuit brought by an Arkansas man who says the $49 in fees -- on top of the $42.75/ticket -- he paid for four tickets to a concert by country singer Jason Aldean violated the provision of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act that forbids the sale of tickets above their face value plus reasonable credit card or handling fees.

The perennial Worst Company In America contender argued that the law is intended to regulate scalpers, and not licensed ticket sellers like Ticketmaster.

The lower court ruled last month that the Act does apply to Ticketmaster, but the matter was booted up to the state Supreme Court for confirmation. There, the panel split 4-3 against Ticketmaster's petition.

The Supreme Court's ruling, issued without comment, only confirms its position that licensed ticketing agents are bound by the Act. It does not necessarily mean that the court believes the plaintiff's claims that Ticketmaster violated the Act. The lawsuit is still pending.

Court won't reconsider Ticketmaster ruling [ArkansasNews.com]

Arkansas Supreme Court won't rehear Ticketmaster suit [AP]

Thanks to Augustus for the tip!

Why Gas Prices Are Too Damn High

Why Gas Prices Are Too Damn High:









Created by: Online Bachelor Degree Programs

Stephen Hawking Is a Badass Dude

Should Restaurants Be Able To Restrict Diners To Pricier Groupon Menu?

Should Restaurants Be Able To Restrict Diners To Pricier Groupon Menu?:


Getting a great deal using online deal sites that issue vouchers for local businesses can be pretty sweet. But by now, many customers are finding out that there are plenty of trials and tribulations involved when it comes to redeeming deal vouchers, as businesses scramble to keep up with the onslaught coupons.

One couple relays a story of epic ridiculousness on their LiveJournal blog, after dealing with a restaurant that imposed a limited menu on its Groupon customers. While a limited menu is all well and good, actually doubling the prices for someone using a voucher is really not acceptable.

They were expecting some limitations, as avid users of online voucher programs, and decided to call ahead and make sure everything was squared up before dining. The $50 Groupon Now! voucher was for use the day after its purchase, and included a 5-course meal for a party of two for that price. Calling ahead was a good idea, as the hostess explained that there was a separate menu, with a few things excluded from the usual menu. Great! All systems go!

We go to the restaurant tonight and the first thing I tell our hostess is that we're using a Groupon. She informs us the Groupon is only for yesterday, and that it expired and can't be used today. I had to pull the original deal and the voucher up on my phone to prove to her that yes, it WAS for today, she called over the front manager who also looked at it, agreed and said fine, we could use it. Again, no biggie.

We also tell our waitress the deal with the Groupon and that we were told we had to order off a special menu. She left the regular menus with us, then hunted down the Groupon-only menus. We started perusing the regular menus just to see what they had to offer. The waitress brings back the Groupon-only menus, takes our drink orders, and leaves. The very firs thing we noticed when we started looking through the Groupon menu was that EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING, was MORE than double the price on the regular menu! So say the regular menu has pasta faggioli for $14, the Groupon menu had it priced for $32. Never mind we wouldn't have even known had the waitress not left the regular menus with us. WHAT!

Whatever, the voucher is supposed to cover the entire meal, and it's not a price thing. We confirmed this with the waitress when she came back with our drinks, and she assured us that yes, the voucher covers everything and she really didn't know why the prices were on the menu or why they were more expensive. Okay... I'm a little nervous, but I figure she knows what she's talking about.

Dinner goes great, the food was awesome, and our waitress was a sweetheart; there were maybe 2 tables besides us, so she would sit and talk with us about whatever while we waited for the next course. All in all, a really good experience, and we both agreed we'd definitely come back, Groupon or not.

And then the bill came. The front-end manager brought it out to us instead of our waitress, dropped it and said someone would be back shortly. I said something about how we had a Groupon, and he yelled back that the waitress would handle that as he was walking away. Okay.. so we open the bill, and low and behold, we're being charged DOUBLE THE PRICE OF THE REGULAR MENU for our ENTIRE meal, $156!, when it was supposed to be covered by the Groupon! Our waitress comes back and we explain the situation, and she apologized profusely and went to find the front-end manager again. It took 15 minutes for him to finally make it out front, and which point he explained that the Groupon was for $50 off of our meal, not for the entire meal. I pull up the voucher and again show him what the terms of the deal are, and he literally waves his hands like he's brushing me off and says, no, Groupon is wrong, this is what the deal is. Okay, so wait, I paid $50 for $50 in credit, and you're charging me TWICE what you would charge me if I DIDN'T have a Groupon? He says well, we have to cover our expenses, we can't just give away free food to anyone with a Groupon. Uh, yes you can, because that's what your Groupon says. And he just walks away again, no apology, no resolution, just.. whatever, you're on your own.

Our waitress comes back and asks if everything's settled, and obviously, it's not. My husband gets this bright idea that if we nix the Groupon voucher, we should hypothetically be charged the regular price for our meal ($78) and we'll just get a refund from Groupon later. The waitress, who already has bent over backwards trying to make this work for us, agrees that this makes sense, and immediately goes to fix our bill. Magically, the front-end manager suddenly appears again and is now irate that we've apparently "worked the system." My husband lied and said that the Groupon thing was a mistake - it actually did expire yesterday, so we can't even give it to you to use it, and it was our fault, sorry for causing so much trouble, we just want to pay the regular price and be gone. The waitress backed him up, said she read it herself, she tried to enter it in the computer and it came back expired, etc (god bless her). After a few minutes of back-and-forth with the manager, he finally relents that since we don't actually have a Groupon, it would be fine for us to pay "regular price" if we don't apply the Groupon to our bill and that's that. Thankfully, we had enough cash on us, so we pay our bill with cash just in case someone tries to get creative and add more charges to our card, leave the waitress a huge tip and a thank-you note for jumping in unprompted and essentially lying to her boss for us, and go out to our car to go home.

So there are multiple levels of shenanigans going on here. The couple called Groupon and got their money refunded back to their credit card, and found out there was already another complaint against the restaurant. Perhaps there should be a formal Groupon rule against raising prices for Groupon customers -- after all, it is supposed to be a deal.

Bad Service [LiveJournal]

FDA Warns About Potential For Chipped Teeth, Eye Injuries From Crest/Arm & Hammer Spinbrush

FDA Warns About Potential For Chipped Teeth, Eye Injuries From Crest/Arm & Hammer Spinbrush:

If you ever looked at an Arm & Hammer Spinbrush (formerly the Crest Spinbrush) and thought "a toothbrush with all those moving parts could potentially wreak havoc if something goes wrong," the folks at the Food & Drug Administration have confirmed your concerns.

Yesterday, the FDA issued an announcement to consumers about the number of complaints from Spinbrush users who had experienced a wide variety of injuries after parts of the brush popped off while in use.

"It's important that consumers know how to avoid the risks associated with using the Spinbrush," says Shumaya Ali, M.P.H., a consumer safety officer at the Food and Drug Administration. "We've had reports in which parts of the toothbrush broke off during use and were released into the mouth with great speed, causing broken teeth and presenting a choking hazard."

Among the damage done by rogue Spinbrushes:

* chipped or broken teeth

* cuts to the mouth and gums

* swallowing and choking on broken pieces

* injury to the face and eyes

"In some cases, the brush head popped off to expose metal pieces underneath that can--and have--poked individuals in the cheek and areas near the eyes, causing injuries," explains Ali.

Even the Spinbrush for Kids models, which do not have removable brush heads, have also been linked to cut lips, burns from the batteries, and bristles falling off and lodging in a child's tonsils.

FDA is alerting the public about the potential for injury while using the following models of Spinbrush:

Spinbrush ProClean

Spinbrush ProClean Recharge

Spinbrush Pro Whitening

Spinbrush SONIC

Spinbrush SONIC Recharge

Spinbrush Swirl

Spinbrush Classic Clean

Spinbrush For Kids

Spinbrush Replacement Heads

Last year, Church & Dwight Co. Inc., which manufactures the Spinbrush, received a warning from the FDA after it was discovered that the company had not reported numerous consumer complaints about the product.

The company says it has taken steps, like creating better labels to caution consumers to change the brush head at least every three months, and new bristles that change color with wear, to improve the product.



The FDA says that before using the Spinbrush, you should inspect it for any damage or loose brush bristles. If you find any, do not use the brush. Report it to Church & Dwight, which can be reached toll-free at 1-800-352-3384 or 1-800-561-0752.

Make sure the brush head is connected tightly to the brush handle, and test the brush outside of your mouth before using. If the connection feels loose or the brush head easily detaches from the handle, do not use the brush. Report it to Church & Dwight.

Toothbrush Can Chip Teeth and Cause Choking [FDA]