Why Is A Hotel Minibar’s Vodka Often Cheaper Than The Peanuts?

(R.Duran)

It’s getting late. You’ve had a rough day, what with that sprint to catch your connecting flight through Atlanta and then that thing with the cab and the monkey, ugh — time to kick back and relax in your hotel room. So what do you reach for first, the almost $20 can of peanuts or the more reasonably priced, albeit tiny bottle of vodka?

Yes, the vodka is often cheaper at a hotel minibar, reports Quartz, using data from a recent TripAdvisor survey that looked at the prices of in-room orders. That can include anything from a sandwich to a can pf peanuts, a bottled water or that tempting little mini-bottle of booze.

Hotels included in the survey were the 10 four-star hotels most popular with TripAdvisor’s users in cities like New York, Oslo and Toronto. And at many of those, not only are the peanuts more expensive than vodka, but even pricier than a bottled water. To be fair, a mini-bottle of booze in a hotel room is usually smaller than a bottle of water. Otherwise that is a great deal.

But why would hotels price it that way? Maybe to use the vodka as sort of a gateway purchase: Drink that vodka after a long day just to wind down, because it’s the cheapest thing in there, and suddenly you’re hungry for a salty snack. Cue the peanuts. And then $18 later, you’re thirsty. Here comes that water, price be damned!

Or you can do what the smart people do — just bring your own tiny bottles and snacks and charge yourself nothing for the pleasure of consuming it all, while pointing at laughing at the disconsolate, neglected minibar fridge.

The inexplicable prices in hotel minibars around the world [Quartz]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Could Google Be Getting Into The Wireless Business?

While Google is busy laying expansion plans for its Google Fiber Internet and TV service a new report claims the company is investigating the possibility of offering wireless data to consumers.

According to a pay-walled report on The Information [via The Verge], Google is looking to possibly offer wireless service to customers in areas where it’s already begun offering Fiber service.

Rather than trying to build another new network, Google is reportedly talking to the big wireless providers about buying chunks of access wholesale that it can then resell to its customers, much like the deals that many prepaid wireless providers have made with the larger networks.

While Google, in theory, could use this to sell phone service to customers, that seems like an odd decision, given how small a footprint the company has right now; Fiber is only currently active in the Kansas City and Provo, UT, areas, and even its big expansion plans will only bring fiber to a total of around a dozen markets.

Google could offer service that uses WiFi access when a customer is in a Fiber-connected city and then uses wireless when outside of that system. But the company would have to dangle incredibly low prices or lightning-fast data in order to get customers to bite. While that would help to encourage competition in the wireless market, we don’t see the Verizons and AT&Ts of the world being too eager to sell Google a tool that could be used against them in the long-run.

Of course, Google did recently agree to unload its Motorola device subsidiary on Lenovo, meaning that the Internet giant could get into the wireless business without having to worry about concerns that it would be both a service provider and a handset manufacturer.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Pizza Hut Stuffs Crusts With Fish Eggs

Pizza Hut is a global menace. They simply won’t stop stuffing terrifying and unusual things in their pizza crusts. While nothing will ever top the horror of the Marmite-stuffed crust, the new Flying Fish Roe Salmon Cream Cheese Pizza is even stranger to Americans: its crust is stuffed with salmon-flavored cream cheese dotted with salmon roe. Yep, fish eggs.

Here’s the TV ad for this limited-time monstrosity. Even if you don’t speak Cantonese, swirling fish eggs and pretty ladies are an international language that everyone understands.

The toppings themselves sound quite appealing. The fish egg pizza comes in two versions. There’s the Crayfish Seafood Deluxe, which features, as you might imagine, seafood. Toppings include crayfish, scallops, shrimp, clams, cherry tomatoes, peppers, red onions, and Thousand Island sauce. For people who want less fish on their fish egg pizzas, there’s the Sausage, Pepperoni & Pomelo. Pome-what?

A pomelo, as it turns out, is a very large pear-shaped citrus fruit native to Southeast Asia that tastes like a milder, less bitter version of a grapefruit. People do put them in salads, so it’s not a completely wacky pizza topping. that’s not the only fruit on this pizza: it also has sausage, pepperoni, cherry tomatoes, peaches, mushrooms, peppers, and berry sauce.

Around the World: Pizza Hut’s Latest in Hong Kong is Crust Stuffed with Fish Eggs [Brand Eating]

Specials [Pizza Hut Hong Kong]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Got A Hankering For Genetically Modified Salmon? You Might Be Waiting For A While

(elpresidente408)

While consumers are growing more aware of the genetically modified organisms in our vegetable and grain crops, there’s another food frontier looming on the horizon — genetically modified animals for human consumption. But if you’re into the idea of an engineered salmon, well, you’ll be waiting for a while.

Here’s the thing: While there’s no evidence that genetically modified foods have bad health effects, the government is still wishy-washy on regulations that would be necessary to sell fish or other animals on the retail market.

It’s been four years since the Obama administration took on the task of engineered animals, and it’s still undecided, reports the Associated Press.

Proponents of this fast-growing salmon, which would be the first GM animal approved for human consumption, say doing so can create animals that are free of diseases, cleaner in their environment and grow faster.

But critics have been rallying against GM foods in the years since the government first started weighing the salmon issue, leading to Safeway and Kroger pledging not to sell the fish if it’s ever approved.

Those opponents say GM organisms could potentially wreak havoc in the wild if they end up mingling with native species, and no one knows exactly what that could do.

“These are fundamental questions we have to ask of society,” says a rep from Friends of the Earth, an advocacy group that’s asked retailers not to sell the salmon and warned consumers against eating it. “Where is all of this going to end up? Where do we draw the line? Let’s look at the full implications and the full costs.”

The Food and Drug Administration said in 2010 that it seems like the salmon would be safe to eat, and in 2012 that it wouldn’t pose a threat to the environment, probably. But again, if you’re licking your chops, hang on a few: “It is not possible to predict a timeline for when a decision will be made,” an FDA spokeswoman said in regards to the GM fish.

Even if the salmon get approved, it’ll take about two years to get them to a market, one that might not be so welcoming.

Engineered salmon may be a tough sell [Associated Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Supreme Court Rules Airline Had Right To Dump Frequent Flier For Excessive Complaints

(Martin Rottler)

It’s official: being a bad customer can get you booted from loyalty programs. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided it was within Northwest Airlines rights to dump a rabbi from the airline’s WorldPerks loyalty program for complaining too often.

The decision puts an end to a five-year battle between the Minnesota rabbi and Northwest Airlines (now Delta), USA Today reports.

The case began in 2008 when the man was removed from the airline’s WorldPerks frequent-flier program. In 2009, he filed a class action suit against the airline claiming it had revoked his membership arbitrarily as a cost-cutting measure to look better for its impending merger with Delta Air Lines.

According to court records, the man sought damages in excess of $5 million, as well as injunctive relief requiring Northwest to restore the class members’ WorldPerks status and prohibiting Northwest from future revocations of membership.

The airline’s argument hinged on the Airline Deregulation Act, which prohibits parties from bringing state-level claims dealing with the price, route or service of an air carrier. In 2009, a California district court said the federal law preempted the passenger’s complaint, but in 2011, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling saying the legislation was not intended to “immunize the airline industry from liability for common law contract claims.

On Wednesday, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his decision that travelers have protection from being mistreated because they can sue for possible breach of contract, just not for the covenants that the rabbi had argued were implied by participating in a loyalty program.

“They can avoid an airline with a poor reputation and possibly enroll in a more favorable rival program,” Alito wrote in the decision. “Moreover, the Department of Transportation has the authority to investigate complaints about frequent flyer programs.”

Northwest contented that it had the right to remove the man from the frequent-flier program based on a provision in the WorldPerks agreement that stated the airline had full discretion to terminate a member’s account due to abuse of the program.

The airline said the man complained as a way to seek additional rewards, including repeatedly seeking compensation the airline considered unfair.

According to court records [PDF], the man contacted the airline offices 24 times between December 2007 and June 2008.

“[Y]ou have contacted our office 24 times since December 3, 2007 regarding travel problems, including 9 incidents of your bag arriving late at the luggage carousel.. . . . . Since December 3, 2007, you have continually asked for compensation over and above our guidelines. We have awarded you $1,925.00 in travel credit vouchers, 78,500 WorldPerks bonus miles, a voucher extension for your son, and $491.00 in cash reimbursements. . . . Due to our past generosity, we must respectfully advise that we will no longer be awarding you compensation each time you contact us.”

A lawyer for the man said the decision doesn’t block breach-of-contract lawsuits against airlines, but it could still hurt consumers.

“Today’s decision gives airlines greater freedom to act in bad faith in performing their contracts with consumers, to the detriment of the millions of consumers,” she says.

Chris Nemeth, a lawyer who works on contract disputes, called the case a victory for airlines but doesn’t expect there will be changed in how loyalty programs work.

Consumers who have an issue with an airline’s loyalty program can alway file complaints with the Transportation Department, which investigated 289 cases in 2012, rather than file a lawsuit, USA Today reports.

Supreme Court: Airline can drop frequent flier [USA Today]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Samsung Indifferent About Exploding Washing Machines

Maybe my standards are low, but I do expect my home appliances not to explode. When that happened to one Missouri couple, they called up Samsung for help. Since the couple had owned the machine for 14 months, the warranty was up and Samsung didn’t particularly care. They had spent $1000 on the machine, and expected more from Samsung.

This story does have a happy ending, but only because local news station KMOV got involved. Samsung will haul away and replace the couple’s pricey matching washer/dryer set.

The company’s theory as to what happened? There may have been an off-balance load in the machine, which caused the violent “explosion” as the internal parts hurled around at a very high speed. That’s possible, but conveniently puts the blame on consumers.

Another customer had the same thing happen to her washer, which was a lot newer and still under warranty. That didn’t make the experience any less scary, and she made a YouTube video showing the aftermath.

Couple calls Colombo after expensive washing machine explodes [KMOV]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Banks Warned About Massive ATM Frauds, Attacks On Websites

(Todd Kravos)

It’s hard to feel bad for the banking business, but financial institutions can take a huge hit when consumers are the victims of large-scale fraud or ID theft. Replacing debit and credit cards, issuing refunds, investigating sketchy transactions can all add up — and of course that cost ultimately gets passed on to customers. This is why federal regulators are putting banks on alert to be mindful of increasingly popular ATM fraud and to be prepared for attacks on their websites.

Yesterday, the interagency Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council issued two statements to the nation’s banks regarding to forms of cyber attacks that can wreak havoc.

The first deals with a type of ATM fraud referred to as “Unlimited Operations” by the Secret Service.

This type of cash-out heist begins with the nogoodniks installing malware on the networks of a financial institution, most likely through an e-mail phishing scheme. Once they have access to the bank’s inner-workings, they are able to get a peek under the hood of the ATM system, while also stealing bank employee login credentials.

With this information in hand, the criminals can then manipulate the system to remove cash withdrawal limits, overdraft restrictions, fraud alerts, and other roadblocks to the money they want to steal.

Using a pilfered debit card account and PIN (most likely stolen via a skimmer attached to an ATM), the jerks can then create a duplicate card, go to an ATM and withdraw massive amounts of cash without setting off alarm bells.

According to FFIEC, one group of fraudsters managed to steal $40 million with this method and only needed a dozen debit accounts to access that mountain of cash.

Thus, regulators are asking banks to tighten up security on their networks, perform more frequent and more strenuous checks for intrusion, and to have a tested response protocol in place in case an attack is detected.

The second alert from FFIEC to banks was about distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on the websites of financial institutions. During a DDoS attack, a websites is crippled under an avalanche of bogus data requests, often making it difficult or impossible for the public to access the site. For banking sites — which consumers depend on for paying bills, transferring money, and other important uses — such attacks are especially problematic.

According to FFIEC, while DDoS attacks are often political or ideological in nature, they can also be used by cybercriminals as a distraction, diverting a bank’s security resources away from a more malicious, financially motivated intrusion.

To that end, regulators are asking that banks be fully prepared to prevent, respond to, and weather DDoS attacks in order to maximize the public’s access to these sites and to minimize the risk to the institutions.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Un mundo infinito de Apps musicales educativas

El mundo de las Apps está cada día más presente en el entorno educativo. Lo estamos viendo gracias a las experiencias de docentes que investigan sobre el tema y publican sus impresiones y resultados en la red. En Educa con TIC nos hemos hecho eco de muchas de estas experiencias innovadoras publicando numerosos artículos sobre este tema. El más reciente ha sido de Fernando Trujillo, bajo el título "Pon una tableta en tu aula... pero que no sea de chocolate" hace un repaso de algunos de dichos artículos y nos ofrece sabias recomendaciones para el uso de las tablets en el aula. En este artículo me gustaría mostrar algunas aplicaciones interesantes para el trabajo docente en clase de música, tanto para crear materiales por parte de los profesores como para la práctica y creación musical de los alumnos.

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Yahoo Announces New Security Measures To Keep Snoopers From Snooping

(Morton Fox)

If security is a blanket, Yahoo is trying to roll itself up in more layers of that blanket to make a nice little cocoon for its users, designed to keep the government and others from snooping. Following Google’s recent new security measures, Yahoo says it’s also completed a new system that encrypts all info going from one Yahoo data center to another.

This kind of action makes it a lot tougher for anyone outside of the system to pick through emails and other digital information, including hackers and government wire taps.

Another layer of security was also added to searches on Yahoo’s home page, which are now also automatically encrypted, reports the Associated Press, and the company says it’s in the midst of beefing up other services, like video chats, in the next few months.

“Whether or not our users understand it, I feel it’s our responsibility to keep them safe,” Alex Stamos, Yahoo’s recently hired chief information of security (recently as in, hired a month ago), told the AP.

The technology industry has been speeding up its security efforts after last year’s revelation of widespread government surveillance under the National Security Agency. The stickiest part for big technology companies like Yahoo and Google was perhaps the news that the government had been collecting information from lines leading in and out of companies’ data centers.

Yahoo vowed to make the change to encrypt its centers late last year by March 31, so this announcement comes right about on time. The company still has work to do to catch up with Google’s security measures, saying it hasn’t yet because some of its services need content and ads provided from outside sources which may be difficult to encrypt without a little convincing.

The company says it’s well on the way toward doing just that.

“Some partners already understand this is the way the wind is blowing,” Stamos said. “We are moving to a world where all content is encrypted all the time.”

Yahoo finishes encrypting data centers, some searches in effort to thwart government spying [Associated Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

10 años de estar juntos.- Atrapado en el tiempo

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