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Tourists are a growing market for these elaborate toilet seats, especially tourists from China. Panasonic, already a big name in other electronics, manufactures installable toilet seats and small battery-powered bidets, for people who aren’t interested in going to the effort of installing a whole toilet seat. People from all over the world want to bring these seats home…once they’ve experienced them.
Americans have never really taken to high-end toilets. with heated water and scented air, and sync with your phone via Bluetooth to learn your preferences.
You might get to see these electro-bidets in action the next time you buy a toilet, because Japanese toilet-maker Lixil has acquired a major U.S. toilet-maker, American Standard. The company plans to make their luxury butt-washers part of the company’s higher-end toilets, bringing this technology to the American mainstream. They might even be available at more reasonable prices than the $6,000 that Kohler charges for its Numi automated toilet.
Japan’s New Souvenir: The Toilet Seat [Wall Street Journal]
Using a variety of deer parts, geese, dogs, blood, fur, concrete, overturned cartons of fruit and other props, prosecutors say the owner of an auto-body shop (and alleged mob associate) and his group staged elaborate scenes in order to defraud auto insurance companies, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.
A grand jury called the scheme the business of “fictitious deer accidents,” wherein the shop owner told workers to pull weeds from the river and create “Hollywood photos” of fake accidents.
He allegedly preferred making it look like single-vehicle accidents because those would more likely be dubbed “no-fault” situations by insurance companies, making it likely that they’d pay the claims without raising the owners’ premiums.
Witnesses for the grand jury said he’d say, “I live my life to cheat insurance companies.”
He and 40 other people have been charged with fraud after 16-month investigation by a Philadelphia grand jury.
Grand jury: Auto-insurance scam involved deer parts [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Officials for the city unanimously dismissed both the October 2013 lawsuit and the public nuisance declaration, months after the odor emanating from the factory ticked off many residents, reports the Pasadena Star-News.
Everything was decided during an informal meeting this week between Huy Fong owner David Tran and city officials, where Tran assured the council with a written statement that the company would address residents’ complaints of odors coming from the plant.
“We forged a relationship. Let’s keep that going,” City Councilman Julian Miranda said Wednesday.
This means, of course, that the city will keep the economic boost it could see from the factory, a boost other states like Texas were pursuing with much fanfare.
The town’s chamber of commerce will also embark on a new marketing effort “to talk about the positives of doing business” in Irwindale, ostensibly to keep residents on board with keeping Huy Fong around.
While there are new filters in place that are stronger, in order to allay the smelly effects of the factory, it won’t be clear if those work well enough for residents until chiles are processed starting in August.
“At the commencement of this year’s chile harvest season, if the air filtration system does not perform well, then Huy Fong Foods will make the necessary changes in order to better the system right away,” Tran wrote in a letter to the council.
Mayor Mark Breceda sounds optimistic about the developments as well when he asked the council to dismiss the public nuisance order.
“I believe he stands by his word,” Breceda said of Tran. “I will say that I believe that not always lawsuits are good for any business or any community. It’s not only hurtful but expensive. I don’t believe at this point that it was the right way to go, but certain things had to be done.”
Cue the joyful shrieks of sriracha lovers everywhere who were worried about losing their precious red sauce.
Sriracha hot sauce factory no longer considered a public nuisance in Irwindale [Pasadena Star-News]
This photo, provided by the CPSC, shows the risk associated with the Nap Nanny.
The tragic saga of the recalled Nap Nanny Infant Recliner continued this week as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission confirms a sixth baby has died while in the product.
The latest death, which occurred in Hopatcong, NJ, involved an 8-month-old girl who was secured by the seat’s belt and found partly hanging over the side of the Nap Nanny recliner, trapped between the product and a crib bumper.
“Our Safe to Sleep experts urge all parents and caregivers who own a Nap Nanny or Nap Nanny Chill recliner to stop using it immediately,” officials with CPSC say in a news release. “We do not want any other family to suffer the loss of their child or experience serious injury to their child.”
The Nap Nanny, which was manufactured by now defunct Baby Matters LLC, has been at the center of a massive recall and lawsuit, beginning in 2010, after five infant deaths were attributed to the product.
The CPSC reports that the six infant deaths linked to the recliner occurred in either two ways:
While the product was first recalled in 2010 and is no longer sold at stores, CPSC officials urge families with the products to dispose of them immediately and to stay away from the products at garage sales.
In December 2012, the CPSC took the unusual step of filing a lawsuit against the company when investigators felt the company did not do enough to make its product safe for small children. The lawsuit was only the third in 11 years that the agency had filed related to a recall.
At the time, the agency said it attempted to work with Baby Matters to come up with a voluntary recall plan “that would address the hazard posed by consumer use of the product in a crib or without the harness straps being securely fastened.”
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Baby Matters fought back asking the court to dismiss the case. All legal proceedings were stopped when the agency and company reached a settlement for a voluntary recall in June 2013.
Another Death Reported in a Nap Nanny Infant Recliner [U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission]
Beats is now part of Apple.
Listen up, music fans. If you use Beats headphones or listen to Beats streaming music service, there’s a new company in charge of servicing your ears: Apple has confirmed that it’s buying Beats Electronics LLC for $3 billion, which includes both the streaming-music service as well as its headphones business.
Not only will that hefty sum bring in the headphones and streaming customers, but it will also fold Beats’ co-founders into the Apple mix, Dr. Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine, reports the Wall Street Journal. The price tag includes $2.6 billion in cash and $400 million in stock.
Those big names in the music business will serve to make Apple “cool” again, see? Apple can use Iovine and Dre’s pop culture credibility and bend it to its will to shill music to all those hip young people with money, say industry insiders.
“Apple was starting to lose their edge,” said Sony Music Entertainment Chief Executive Doug Morris, who used to be Iovine’s boss back in the day.
The Beats brand will stay alive instead of being subsumed by Apple, which is somewhat of a first for the Cupertino company. But CEO Tim Cook sounds like he’s ready to join the cool kids at their lunch table, and connect Silicon Valley to Hollywood.
“We think these guys have a very rare talent,” Cooks told the WSJ of Iovine and Dr. Dre. “We love the subscription service that they built—we think it’s the first subscription service that really got it right.”
Apple Buys Beats for $3 Billion, Tapping Tastemakers to Regain Music Mojo [Wall Street Journal]
On Saturday, a man walked into a Starbucks store in Texas and created a legend. Technically, he asked the baristas to create a legend, or at least something that everyone on the Internet wouldn’t stop typing about for three days. Last night, he finally drained the last of the Sexagintuple Vanilla Bean Mocha Frappuccino.
It took five days, because while drinking a beverage that includes 60 shots of espresso probably won’t kill you, drinking 128 ounces of sugared coffee beverage goodness just might.
A Starbucks spokesperson told Seattle Weekly that they hadn’t heard about the beverage before Tuesday evening, which is funny because Consumerist had contacted them about it long before noon on the west coast. Maybe they just didn’t get around to checking their e-mail yet.
The important thing that we learned from the Starbucks statement is that this is not an officially condoned way to use up one’s free drink coupons, on birthdays or otherwise. Starbucks doesn’t encourage customers to create their own super-beverages. “[T]his type of beverage order is totally excessive and not something we encourage people to do. After they make that beverage, it’s pretty inedible. Nor is it safe,” noted the spokesperson. Baristas are not encouraged to cater to the deranged whims of caffeine junkies, Gold card holders or not.
Anyway, Andrew the drink-orderer is still alive. Perhaps he was wise not to show his face in any of the drink photos, based on the reaction that his drink received from baristas.
Aaaaaand done. Took 5 days, but I drank it all. #MostExpensiveStarbucks http://t.co/auscv0MtNV—
Andrew Chifari (@ACIFH) May 28, 2014
PREVIOUSLY: New Starbucks Free Drink Record Set With $54 Sexagintuple Vanilla Bean Mocha Frappuccino
Arkansas-based Tyson Foods, one of the largest producers of chicken, pork and beef products, offered $6.8 billion for Hillshire, the company known for its Jimmy Dean breakfast sausages and sandwiches and a plethora of flavored hot-dogs, The New York Times reports.
“We believe that there is a strong strategic, financial and operational rationale for the combination of Tyson and Hillshire,” Donnie Smith, Tyson Foods President and CEO, says in a news release.
The new bid tops the Colorado-based Pilgrim’s Pride bid of $6.4 billion, but comes with many of the same caveats; namely the end of Hillshire’s purchase of Pinnacle Foods.
Less than two weeks ago, Hillshire announced it would acquire Pinnacle Foods, the company behind brands like Vlasic and Duncan Hines, for $4.2 billion. But that’s a move neither Tyson Foods or Pilgrim’s Pride wants anything to do with.
“Our interest is in the Company on its own, and not as combined with Pinnacle,” Smith says in a news release about the offer terms.
According to the Times, Hillshire has long been a target for an acquisition. Pilgrim’s Pride privately approached the company about a merger several months ago but was rebuffed.
Smith, Tyson Foods CEO, wrote in a letter to Hillshire Brands CEO Sean Connolly that the company would have preferred to keep its dealings out of the spotlight but recent events prohibited that.
“We would have preferred to make this proposal to you privately, but in light of current circumstances we believe that it is in the best interests of your and our shareholders to have current and accurate information about our proposal and the reasons we believe that it is a compelling opportunity for both of our companies,” Smith wrote. “For this reason, we are making this letter public simultaneously with my sending it to you.”
Tyson Foods Swoops In With Offer for Hillshire [The New York Times]
The satellite TV operator said it’ll take bitcoin from those customers who want to pay their bills with it starting July 1, reports Reuters.
Dish is now keeping company with businesses like Overstock.com, Zynga and even NBA team the Sacramento Kings, who also all accept bitcoin as legal tender for goods.
Dish will be using Coinbase as the payment processor for any bitcoin transactions customers perform online to pay their bills, using whichever bitcoin wallet they’d like.
Again, bitcoin isn’t backed by any government or central bank and is instead bought and sold on a peer-to-peer network.
There’s a lot of skepticism out there from the U.S. government and others as well, especially in light of the bankruptcy of Mt. Gox, the one-time biggest player on the bitcoin exchange scene. It stopped trading in February after hackers cracked its computer system and stole nearly half a billion dollars worth of the currency.
For more on the basic facts of bitcoin, check out our guide to the cryptocurrency.
Satellite TV operator Dish Network to accept bitcoins [Reuters]
