Wisconsin Couple Gets Free Wedding Dinner After Lift On Gay Marriage Ban

(Click to expand, via WISN News)

The big news in Wisconsin recently is all about a federal judge striking down a ban on same sex marriage in that state, with gay couples in a happy rush to the courthouse to obtain marriage licenses. In the spirit of those celebrations, a restaurant in Milwaukee comped one couple’s meal, delivering a check reading “$0.00.”

While many wedding feasts end up costing an arm and a leg — especially if you’re feeding all your friends and family — one pizzeria gave the gift of food to a couple who’d just gotten hitched, reports WISN News (h/t to Jezebel).

The Milwaukee men were among the first to get married after the ban was struck down last Friday as unconstitutional.

“We saw the news on WISN 12 NEWS around 4 pm,” he posted on Facebook, saying he called up his partner and they headed to the courthouse.

The next day, he posted about his wedding night on Facebook, saying after he and his husband were married, they stayed to witness other marriages and then went to a local pizzeria to celebrate with some friends.

“When the check came, our server, Melissa, told us that our bill had been taken care of by the staff.”

Indeed, a photo posted to Facebook shows a cost of $0.00 on that bill, with a total saved of $54. Sure, it’s not a huge bill, but it’s always nice when strangers do something just to make others happy.

“It was an amazing day that we (will) never forget,” he adds, nothing that it’s even more so due to how the “restaurant and staff made it even more wonderful.”

Gay couple wed in Milwaukee gets wedding dinner surprise [WISN 12 News]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Here’s A Video For Anyone Who’s Dared To Wonder What’s Inside A Slim Jim

I still remember eating my first Slim Jim, at the age of 5, purchased from the concession stand at my neighbor Mitch Mitchell’s softball game. In the three decades since, I’ve probably consumed enough of the salty meat-like sticks to feed a small island nation for a few weeks, but I’ve never once wanted to know what goes into making one of them.

Thanks then to the folks at Wired, who put together the above animated video detailing the various ingredients — mechanically separated meats, salt, grain and soy products, salt, chemicals, and salt — that go into the slender, edible cylinder and keep it from turning into a rotten gray mess.

It’s actually much more informative than it is shocking or surprising, and worth a watch for anyone curious about packaged foods.

[via Eater]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Banks Report Possible Credit Card Breach At P.F. Chang’s

(Dave Dugdale)

There’s a fresh new batch of stolen credit card numbers on the market! The same online store that offered numbers pilfered in recent national breaches, including the massive one at Target, has a fresh batch of thousands of numbers available. Banks report that what these cards have in common is that they were recently used at P.F. Chang restaurants.

We’ve been through this drill before, several times just since the Target attack that changed everything in the retailscape. This report comes courtesy of the blog Krebs on Security, which checked with the company about the banks’ claims. If they are indeed the source of these numbers, the chain isn’t ready to go public about it yet: the company e-mailed Krebs that it “[takes] these matters very seriously and is currently investigating the situation, working with the authorities to learn more.”

If you’re wondering, the card numbers sell for $18-40 each. Numbers are worth more early on, before the fraudulent transactions start rolling in and banks and customers become aware that the number has been breached.

Banks: Credit Card Breach at P.F. Chang’s [Krebs on Security]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Mayor Of California Town Caught Tossing Poop Onto Neighbor’s Yard

Tossing a bag of dog feces on someone’s property is the kind of thing you’d expect from an adolescent, or maybe some intoxicated adults acting like adolescents. It’s not the kind of behavior you’d ascribe to the mayor of an upscale town in Southern California.

And yet, Mayor Dennis Kneier of San Marino, CA, has been caught on video lobbing a sack o’ doggie diamonds onto the lawn of one of his neighbors. He claims it’s merely a mistake, while the homeowner believes it’s political payback.

Security camera footage shows the mayor and his wife strolling down the sidewalk on Saturday. In the mayor’s right hand is a tied-up bag of poop (which everyone assumes is from a dog). As he passes by the house in question, the mayor tosses the bag up the walkway and onto the yard.

After he was identified in the footage, the mayor, who apparently doesn’t own a dog, says that he spotted the bag of excrement against a lamppost elsewhere on the property and that he should have been more thoughtful about where he tossed it.

“I made a mistake of putting it in his walkway,” Kneier said. “Rather than leaving it, I should have walked on by or disposed of it properly.”

The homeowner contacted police, who agree that the tossing off the bag appears to be intentional. The video doesn’t show when or where the mayor picked up the poop used in his dirty bomb.

“This was a mistake, for which I apologize,” wrote the mayor in a letter the homeowner. “It won’t happen again.”

But the homeowner isn’t having any of it. He says the apology letter only makes matters worse by trying to put some of the blame on the homeowner — who also owns no dogs — for allegedly having dog poop on his property to begin with.

“I don’t care where it was — if it fell from heaven and he got it,” the homeowner tells the Pasadena Star-News. “Chances are he had picked it up from the park. There is a dog waste station about 20 feet into the park… That would be logical because there are lots of bags of dog poop. He brought it all the way and dropped it on our property.”

The homeowner believes that he was targeted because of his recent opposition to a dog park that the mayor supports. The mayor tells the Star-News that he is offended by the allegation, saying that people are free to have their own opinions.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

eBay Launches Partnership To Offer Full-Priced Designer Clothing

If you’re seeking a steal of a deal on a pair of designer jeans on eBay, you better look closely. That’s because the online auction site just launched a page dedicated to full-priced designer clothing.

Instead of settling for a pair of designer jeans on the e-commerce site’s auction platform, consumers can snag a new, full-priced pair through the Designer Collective, The Los Angeles Times reports.

Officials with eBay say the new collective expands eBay’s offerings of high fashion by partnering with designer labels instead of competing against them.

The new partnership allows consumers to buy men and women’s clothing and accessories directly from 16 labels including True Religion, Calvin Klein, Cynthia Rowley and House of Harlow.

Officials with eBay say the designers manage their own inventory and storefronts through the site.

Just for comparison’s sake, a pair of men’s True Religion jeans on the new site goes for $290, while a similar pair on the traditional auction site labeled as new with tags has a Buy It Now price of $81.

EBay launches full-priced destination for designer labels [The Los Angeles Times]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

FDA Promises To Work With Cheesemakers On Safety Of Using Wood Ripening Boards

(Mr Moss)

Earlier this week, cheesemakers across the country seemed to be collectively freaking out over the Food and Drug Administration’s announcement that it wasn’t cool with cheese ripened on wooden boards, saying the bacteria in the boards could be a potential a food safety issue. Now the agency is clarifying its stance in an apparent attempt to quell that freakout.

The FDA issued a statement on the cheese kerfuffle, noting that there’s no “new policy” that bans wooden shelves outright in cheese-making, and it’s not about to go after anyone who uses such boards to age cheese.

Via the blog Cheese Underground (because clearly a blog of that name is going to have the lowdown [and it's based in Wisconsin, where the cheese buffalos would roam free if they existed]), the FDA’s new statement reads in full:

“The FDA does not have a new policy banning the use of wooden shelves in cheese-making, nor is there any FSMA requirement in effect that addresses this issue. Moreover, the FDA has not taken any enforcement action based solely on the use of wooden shelves.

In the interest of public health, the FDA’s current regulations state that utensils and other surfaces that contact food must be “adequately cleanable” and properly maintained. Historically, the FDA has expressed concern about whether wood meets this requirement and has noted these concerns in inspectional findings. FDA is always open to evidence that shows that wood can be safely used for specific purposes, such as aging cheese.”

The FDA will engage with the artisanal cheese-making community to determine whether certain types of cheeses can safely be made by aging them on wooden shelving.”

That’s likely good news for the cheese community that has rallied to the cause of artisanal cheesemaking, including those who not only make the products, but those who well them.

Tracy Kellner, who co-owns two shops under the name Provenance Food & Wine in Chicago with her husband, tells Consumerist that the FDA is barking up the wrong cheese tree with this particular issue.

“There are so many truly harmful things about our food system that the FDA seems to be pretty slow to correct: almost daily recalls of processed prepared foods, antibiotic use, CAFOs [Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations], even GMOs,” Kellner says. “Our food system is broken, yes. But don’t go after the cheesemakers who work diligently to make better food — come down harder on the guys who knowingly poison our food system with contaminated peanuts, eggs and meat.”

FDA Further “Clarifies” Stance on Aging Cheese on Wooden Boards [Cheese Underground]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Amazon Is Only Hurting Itself In Standoffs With Book, Movie Companies

The only way to currently purchase J.K. Rowling’s upcoming book (written under the pen name Robert Galbraith) is to pre-order the audio book versions of the title.

Amazon is an incredibly important player in the retail marketplace, especially when it comes to selling books and movies. But its ongoing efforts to strong-arm publishers and movie studios into better pricing are going too far and may only end up biting the e-tailer in the butt in the future.

In addition to its headline-making standoff with Hachette Book Group — which has resulted in delays and shortages of existing titles and the inability to order upcoming books like J.K. Rowling’s new book — Amazon is currently embroiled in a showdown with Warner Home Video.

As the NY Times’ Bits blog points out, this means that highly anticipated DVD/Blu-ray releases like The LEGO Movie are not available for purchase on the site; an attempt by Amazon to deprive Warner of revenue and compel it to the bargaining table.

Amazon presumably doesn’t care that much about missing out on the money it could be making off these items, as it has millions of other books and movies — not to mention appliances, music, food, tools, and mini-tanks — that it can still sell.

But there are ways that Amazon’s hubris could come back to kick the company in the derriere.

1. Losing the Loss-Leaders

Amazon has always done a good business of using paper-thin margins on book and movie sales as a way to get people on the site and looking around for other things to buy.

So think of the many thousands of customers who will come to the site looking to buy The LEGO Movie, only to find they can’t order it on Amazon. What is the likelihood that many of these customers will then go “Oh, while I’m here I might as well buy some full-price video games and a dishwasher”?

2. Bad Word-of-Mouth

The Amazon disputes have begun making headlines, and millions of people are sharing these mostly negative stories on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. Some shoppers aren’t even looking at Amazon for the affected books and movies, meaning they aren’t seeing that third-party marketplace sellers sometimes have them for sale or that these titles are still available in e-book and digital download formats.

It also puts Amazon in the position of being viewed in the same light as the large bricks-and-mortar retail industry that it has spent nearly two decades trying to disrupt. One has come to expect that Walmart would cut off a publisher’s access to Walmart shoppers in order to force a better deal for itself, but Amazon has generally been the place you can get just about anything at any time; removing high profile products from its virtual shelves just highlights that it is ultimately no different from any of its competition.

3. Overestimating Amazon’s Importance

There’s a reason why strong-arm efforts from big box stores like Walmart are more effective than Amazon’s attempts to force better pricing for itself, and it boils down to the difference between one-stop shopping online and in the real world.

When Walmart decides to not carry a book, it means that all those shoppers who do one-stop shopping at the store — getting groceries, some clothing, housewares and some entertainment — will have to physically go to another store to get that book. That’s a pretty substantial impediment, especially once you’ve got your car loaded up with perishable food.

The Internet offers the experience of one-stop shopping, even if it means having to shop at a few different stores. If someone goes to Amazon and can’t find a book or movie, there are countless other online retailers — including those run by the big box stores — that are selling what the customer wants. So yes, it requires putting in your payment details on a second site, but it doesn’t require the time and effort of driving to a second store, parking, waiting in line, etc.

J.K. Rowling’s new book will still sell a huge number of copies. DVDs of The LEGO Movie will still make their ways into the homes of those who want it. The people that will be hurt the most are the smaller titles that rely on impulse purchases from Amazon shoppers, which does nothing to help the negative publicity for the e-tailer.

4. Aiding the Competition

While we know plenty of people who consider themselves fans of Amazon, even these shoppers aren’t going to not buy a book or movie they want just because they like the website.

Walmart and others have already jumped on the ongoing disputes in an effort to lure customers who can’t find what they’re looking for on Amazon. And some of the customers that take this bait will continue to do their shopping at someplace other than Amazon.

It’s a huge risk for a retail operation to let customers get a taste of the competition. Sure, the experience might be so bad that they come running back, but some will inevitably be lost.

Jeff Bezos should ask the folks at Time Warner Cable how well their 2013 standoff with CBS went. TWC thought it could blackout CBS and CBS-owned stations in major markets like L.A. and New York City in order to win a better deal on the fees it pays to the broadcaster.

But what TWC didn’t realize is that CBS had the product that people want — TWC is just a way to obtain that product. The standoff ended after a month and the cable company lost hundreds of thousands of customers (in markets where it has no competition) and it still had to pay exorbitant fees to CBS.

Amazon is not very different from TWC in its current disputes. Amazon is just one of many ways to buy a book or movie, and the company is only making that fact more apparent by continuing to put up roadblocks to content that consumers want.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

San Francisco Voters To Consider $15/Hour Minimum Wage

(Bill Binns)

In the wake of the Seattle City Council approving a plan to gradually increase the local minimum wage to $15/hour over the next three-to-seven years, the residents of San Francisco will be asked to decide on a 4-year schedule for raising pay in the city to the same level.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that city lawmakers, business interests and labor leaders hammered out the plan on Tuesday that would increase the city’s $10.74/hour wage floor to $12.25/hour on May 1, 2015. This would then increase to $13/hour in July 2016, followed by $14/hour a year later and the ultimate goal of $15/hour by July 2018.

Unlike the Seattle plan, which provides a longer rollout schedule for employers who contribute directly to workers’ health plans, the San Francisco proposal asks that all businesses face the same wage regulations.

“All San Francisco employers will be paying $15 an hour by 2018,” says Supervisor Jane Kim. “These are pure wages workers will be bringing home to their families.”

Of course, this all still requires the approval of voters, who will have their say on the wage increase when it shows up on the ballot next November.

It may also face legal challenges if certain types of businesses feel they are being unfairly targeted by the change. In Seattle, a trade group representing franchisees is trying to block the $15/hour plan, claiming that the city ordinance puts too much of a burden on them by putting franchises, which may have only a handful of employees, in the same group as large corporations with more than 500 workers.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Waffle House Sort Of Sorry For Refunding Waitress’s $1,000 Tip

(DCvission2006)

Yesterday we told you about the Waffle House waitress in North Carolina whose $1,000 tip was automatically refunded to the customer who’d left it because of a policy at the restaurant chain. After being shamed in the media for keeping one of its employees from keeping money that would have greatly improved her life, Waffle House is now saying that maybe it should reconsider things.

“This has given us cause to review our procedures so we can get tips to our associates quicker in these unusual situation.,” reads a post on the Waffle House Facebook page about the incident. “It says a lot about this customer that he was willing to tip our associate this generous amount. Our intentions were for the associate to get her tip all along. We are sorry that our associate and the customer are having to go through this.”

As we mentioned yesterday, Waffle House has a policy that automatically refunds large credit card tips. The company figures it’s less of a hassle to annoy servers by taking away tips than it is to deal with customers who may later dispute an extravagant tip left in the throes of a 3 a.m. waffle binge. The company recommends that customers wishing to leave sizable tips do so in cash or with a check.

On Mother’s Day weekend, a Raleigh businessman attempted to leave his Waffle House waitress with a tip totaling $1,500 with the instruction that she keep $1,000 and give the remaining $500 to a customer in the neighboring booth.

The tip was sent back to the customer’s account, meaning neither the server nor the other intended recipient received anything.

When the customer found out what had happened, he sent the waitress a personal check for the $1,000.

[via newsobserver.com]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Tutorial para crear buenas infografías con Piktochat (vídeo) #infografia #infographic

Hola:

Os dejamos con un vídeo de una Tutorial para crear buenas infografías con Piktochat.

Un saludo

Archivado en: Diseño, Infografía, Sociedad de la información Tagged: Diseño, Infografía, internet, tic



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