This Is What Happens When A Really Tall Guy Goes Grocery Shopping Dressed As An Orc

One does not simply walk into the supermarket. Wait, actually… yeah. That’s how it works.

You show me someone who’s not afraid of orcs as imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien, those slavering, soulless hordes drooling for manflesh, and I will show you a liar. So it’s not surprising that the appearance of a seven-foot tall man dressed like those fiercest of orc warriors, the mean ol’ Uruk-hai, would draw some interesting reactions when he headed out to go grocery shopping.

Mr. Uruk-hai heads off to the supermarket to pick up whatever it is orcs need — extra toilet paper for those long hauls across the Plateau of Gorgoroth and maybe some chips and salsa for nights spent in the Mountains of Shadow — and of course, startled titters and general fun ensues.

While he definitely needs some more gnarly action going on in the dental region, and maybe a bit of slime and general orc muck slathered all over that imposing frame, I can tell you without a doubt that my insides would still want to be on the outside if I ran into that guy.

(h/T to HappyPlace.com)

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Portable Air Conditioners: Not So Portable, Don’t Cool The Air

73 degrees? good luck with that.

The concept of a portable air conditioner implies that the device is portable, and that you can cool a room with it. They would be a wonderful tool if this were were true, but tests by our breezy and cool colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports show that they compare unfavorably to window-mounted air conditioners in pretty much every way, and you might be better off with no air conditioner at all.

Usually people don’t go out and choose one of these units when they could have a window air conditioner instead. It’s only when building regulations or practical concerns mean that they can’t install a window unit that people get these. (Or maybe they just don’t know better.)

The reason why they provide such crappy cooling is just physics. A portable air conditioner uses a hose to vent exhaust out a nearby window, which creates a few problems: for starters, negative air pressure that pulls warm air in from other rooms as the conditioned air gets pulled in to cool the condenser, then vented out the window. With the entire motor inside the room with you, the appliance makes more noise than a window air conditioner. They’re also very heavy, weighing 80-100 pounds, and not all that portable once you set up the window venting mechanism.

Consumer Reports says that if you have no other choice, get the Honeywell MN10CES[WW], which wasn’t a terrible performer, and only costs $400. If you have any choice at all, though, go with a window unit: you’ll get superior cooling for less money.

Are portable air conditioner claims a lot of hot air? [Consumer Reports]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

NHTSA Opens Investigation Into Defective Airbags Following Numerous Recalls

(Listener42)

Just a day after Toyota re-issued a 2013 recall because shrapnel could fly toward passengers when the airbag deploys, federal regulators opened an investigation into whether the airbags used by five automakers could hurt people in the event of a crash.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened the probe after receiving six reports of airbags rupturing in Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda and Chrysler vehicles, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Since August 2013, NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigations received three complaints concerning airbag ruptures in a 2005 Honda Civic, a 2003 Toyota Corolla and a 2005 Mazda 6.

According to NHTSA documents [PDF], regulators then received two additional reports of ruptured airbags in a 2004 Nissan Sentra and a 2006 Dodge Charger from airbag supplier Takata. Additionally, Toyota reported another passenger airbag rupture in a 2002 Toyota Corolla. In all, three people reported being injured by the airbags or its parts.

Investigators say all of the incidents occurred in the high absolute humidity climate in Florida and Puerto Rico.

Officials with Takata, who supplied the airbags for the affected vehicles, tell the Chronicle the company is cooperating in the investigation.

Back in 2013, Toyota, Honda and Nissan recalled more than 3.4 million vehicles because of abnormally deploying airbags supplied by Takata.

The new NHTSA investigation seeks to collect information from Takata and the vehicle manufacturers to determine if other vehicles contain the defect.

Probe of air bags opened [The San Francisco Chronicle]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Food Watchdog Group Threatens To Sue Campbell Over Juice Content Of V8 Splash, V8 V-Fusion Drinks

While it’s known for its 100% V8 vegetable juice, Campbell Soup knows not everyone wants to straight up chug tomatoes. That’s why it’s been peddling its V8 Splash and V8 V-Fusion drinks, which combines fruit juices as well as those healthy veggies. But one food watchdog group says the company is misleading consumers about exactly how much juice is actually in those beverages. It’s threatening to sue Campbell.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest formally threatened to sue the company [PDF] today if it continues to engage in alleged deceptive marketing with those product lines.

One issue? CSPI says that while those items showcase a plethora of pictures of fruits and vegetables, that are practically screaming “I’M HEALTHY! DRINK ME!” all those photos don’t necessarily correspond to how much actual juice is in the drinks.

Instead, it says it claims the company markets the drinks “as nutritionally equivalent to fruits and vegetables, boasting about the drinks’ antioxidant content, and encouraging consumers to ‘enjoy the many benefits that come from getting the recommended servings of vegetables every day.’ ”

But for example, V8 V-FUsion Refreshers have 20-25% juice, and V8 Splash only contains around five to 10% juice. Not exactly a cause for a fruit and veggie photo celebration, perhaps. In addition to that, the group is calling out Campbell for including artificial food dyes, high-fructose corn syrup, and sometimes artificial sweeteners such as sucralose or acesulfame potassium.

“Campbell’s motivation is that water, high-fructose corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners are cheaper to bottle than 100 percent juice made from tomatoes, carrots, strawberries, kiwis, and so on,” said CSPI litigation director Stephen Gardner. “Products like V8 Splash and V8 V Fusion Refreshers are designed to be convincing simulations of the real thing. It’s an elaborate con designed to extract money from consumers who will likely think they’re getting something else.”

CSPI also claims Campbell violates federal law by claiming that the V-Fusion drinks have “no added sugar,” contending that it actually does have added sugar.

In addition, CSPI is calling foul on what it calls misleading statements about V8 Splash’s antioxidant content, as consumers might assume that the vitamins the drink has comes from fruits and vegetables as pictured on the label. But instead, much of the A and C is added through fortification, claims CSPI.

“In fact, the negative effects of the high sugar and liquid calorie content of Campbell’s products on consumers’ health outweigh any potential health benefits from vitamins A and C,” according to CSPI.

We’ve reached out to Campbell for comment and will update you when we hear back.

Campbell Facing Lawsuit Over Deceptive V8 Juice Drink Marketing [CSPI]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

New York A.G.: Never-Ending Sales At Hobby Lobby Stores Broke The Law

(Nicholas Eckhart)

When a store runs the same promotion for 52 consecutive weeks, it’s really not a sale. It’s actually a type of deceptive advertising and that’s something the New York Attorney Generals’ office just isn’t going to stand for.

Hobby Lobby agreed to change its advertising practices, donate school supplies and pay an $85,000 civil penalty to settle an investigation into its alleged deceptive advertising practices, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says in a press release.

It was determined that the craft store allegedly misled customers into thinking they were receiving steep discounts by advertising custom framing, furniture and home decor products as on sale for more than 52 consecutive weeks. Never-ending sales of this nature are in violation of New York’s false advertising law.

As part of Hobby Lobby’s settlement, the company will give nearly 700 upstate New York schools gift cards for school supplies totaling $138,600. Additionally, the company has 60 days to change its advertising practices.

The investigation was initiated in 2013 after the A.G.’s office began tracking marketing materials advertising 50% off and 30% off sales.

A.G. Schneiderman Secures Over $220,000 Settlement From Hobby Lobby Stores In An Investigation of Misleading Advertising [Attorney General Eric Schnedierman]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Dutch Supermarket Invites Shoppers To Pop A Squat And Try Out Different Brands Of Toilet Paper

I know, I know — we’ve all got our favorite brand of toilet paper, the only one you want coming in contact with your precious rumps. But maybe you don’t really know what the difference feels like between different brands — because really, how often do you buy multiple kinds of TP and test them all out? More often if you live near one Dutch supermarket.

A magical oasis of bathroom tissue awaits shoppers at a Dutch supermarket (as seen on Reddit), where discerning consumers can sit right down and try out various kinds before deciding which one to buy in the store.

Or maybe you’ve already got your favorite brand — it’s just nice to know you can wipe with it wherever you go. Pun intended.

Test your favorites here (reddit).

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Amazon Creates Streaming Music Service, But Don’t Expect To Hear New Releases

If you’re a fan of six-month old music releases and happen to have a Prime membership, then Amazon’s newly launched streaming music service might be for you.

The e-tailer recently unveiled its latest venture – Prime Music – as a competitor to other streaming music services like Pandora and Spotify, Business Insider reports.

While the service adds a layer to Amazon’s offerings, it comes with a few downsides. New music from major labels won’t show up on the service until six months after it’s been released. And if that popular song happens to be from Universal Music Group, you won’t be getting it on the service, period.

However, officials with Amazon say the service currently has one million songs. Also, consumers won’t have to worry about their music groove being interrupted, since the service will run without ads.

The service also features a number of curated playlists, including those focused on genres, moods and compilations of specific artists.

Consumers without a Prime membership can test the new service through a 30-day trial.

Amazon Unveils Prime Music—Its Answer To Spotify [Business Insider]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Starbucks Installing Wireless Charging Stations In Stores Across U.S.

Powermats in action.

Remember those Powermat things Starbucks was testing back in 2012, where you just set your smartphone down on top of it for a bit and it gets juiced up? After its earlier trial run, Starbucks says the system is ready to roll out to stores across the country.

The Powermat Spots will be installed directly into tables and counters at Starbucks and some Teavana locations, starting with a kickoff in the San Francisco Bay Area, reports The Verge (h/T Gizmodo).

Each store will end up with about 10 or more Powermat Spots on average, the company says, with Powermat’s president Daniel Schreiber telling the Verge that “2014 will be focused mainly on the west coast, but 2015 will see expansions to major metropolises across the United States.”

What’s that you say? You don’t think your phone will be able to charge on such a thing? It might not be — there’s a fight going on in the technology world over the standards for such technology, with Powermat and the Power Matters Alliance on one side and the Wireless Power Consortium and its Qi charging standard on the other.

More smartphones have Qi technology, with PMA lagging behind in that field. But if you want to be able to charge your phone on a Powermat, you can buy a compatible back cover for certain Samsung phones. Apple also sells a Duracell Powermat iPhone case.

“Devices will come out with compatible technology, and we’ll see an industry that’s been hamstrung a bit with standards issues and conflicting implementations coalesce a common ground,” Schreiber said.

Or if you don’t have any add-ons or a compatible device, you can buy a tiny receiver ring that plugs into your phone and enables you to use the mat to recharge. It’s unclear whether or not Starbucks will sell these directly to power hungry customers.

Starbucks starts rolling out wireless phone chargers nationwide [The Verge]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Facebook Is Now Selling Your Web-Browsing Data To Advertisers

As Facebook begins selling info to advertisers about your browsing habits, it will roll out a feature that lets you see why you’re seeing specific ads. Hint: It’s because Facebook knows way too much about you.

You know how it’s really creepy when you go looking for a new TV online and then go to Facebook and the ad spaces that you typically ignore are now populated with advertising for the very brands of TV you just checked out? Until now, they’ve been the product of third-party ad networks and creepy data aggregators like Acxiom while Facebook itself had kept its hands clean by not selling the data it had acquired about your Web browsing habits. But in an effort to bring you even creepier, more targeted ads, Facebook will now be making more info about you available to advertisers.

“When we ask people about our ads, one of the top things they tell us is that they want to see ads that are more relevant to their interests,” reads an actual sentence presumably written by a human being at Facebook and not some automated copy-bot intended to mimic human speech.

Unless we’ve completely misjudged the entire human race, we doubt the first thing that pops into most folks’ heads when asked about Facebook advertising is “Please make the ads eerily specific to things that I was just browsing online!”

More likely the real top response to questions about Facebook ads is “For the love of god, please give me a way to block them and not have them track my every movement.”

“Starting soon in the US, we will also include information from some of the websites and apps you use,” continues the Facebook statement, which we hear in the voice of the HAL 9000, or maybe the woman who narrates House Hunters on HGTV. “This is a type of interest-based advertising, and many companies already do this.”

Facebook has long been following you around the Web, quietly snickering at you for the music you buy and silently cocking an eyebrow for thinking you can still fit into the same size jeans you wore in college. But until now, it had tracked users under the pretense of security. This morning’s announcement shows the site’s true intentions.

The company is making a big deal of users’ ability to opt out.

“If you don’t want us to use the websites and apps you use to show you more relevant ads, we won’t,” explains Facebook. “You can opt out of this type of ad targeting in your web browser using the industry-standard Digital Advertising Alliance opt out, and on your mobile devices using the controls that iOS and Android provide.”

However, the Alliance opt out doesn’t always work and is only specific to the browser you’re using when you make the opt-out requests. So if you go to Facebook using different computers, you’d need to go through the opt-out procedure on each computer you use. And clearing that browser’s cookies could reset your preferences, allowing you to be tracked all over again.

Additionally, while you may be able to opt out of having Facebook track you, some of the networks that place targeted ads on Facebook require separate steps to opt out.

For example, a quick check of my own Facebook page turned up creepy, targeted ads based on recent browsing I’d done. These ads were all served up by a company called AdRoll, which is listed on the Alliance opt-out interface, but for which the opt-out failed. The only way to turn these ads off was to go to a completely separate opt-out form linked on the AdRoll site, and even then I continued to receive targeted ads from AdRoll.

I just want Facebook and others who take part in targeted advertising to admit that it has nothing to do with providing users with something they want. No one comes to Facebook for the ads, no matter how well-tailored they are to a user’s interest.

Targeted ads are about being able to charge a premium to advertisers who want to know exactly who they’re reaching. Unfortunately, in order to do so, Facebook has to compromise the privacy of its hundreds of millions of users.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Wegmans Recalls Bagged Ice Because Metal Machine Fragments Aren’t Great For Cooling Beverages

(Tom Simpson)

In what may be a first for us, we bring you the news of a supermarket chain — specifically Alec Baldwin fave Wegmans — recalling thousands of pounds of bagged ice that may contain little bits of metal from the machine that produces the frozen water.

According to the FDA, the recall involves 18 lb. and 7 lb. bags o’ ice sold at Wegmans in New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania (though apparently not Erie, PA) between Jan. 1 and June 10 of this year.

Wegmans says that around 6,000 bags of ice may contain pieces of metal that broke off from the ice-making machine during production. The retailer claims that it has not received complaints from customers and says that the problem was detected during a routine maintenance check.

Customers who used their Wegmans Shoppers Club card when buying the ice will be getting automated calls from the store to alert them of the recall.

Those who still have the bagged ice in question should not use it, but should return it to the store for a full refund.

The potentially tainted ice did not make it to Wegmans stores in New York, Massachusetts or Erie, says the company.

Anyone with questions can contact the Wegmans Consumer Affairs Department toll free at 1 (855) 934-3663 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. ET.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist