jikRingling Bros.’ Elephants To Be Out Of Work After 2018de

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(Rick Drew)

In response to increasing public concerns about the treatment of performing animals, the parent company of the world-famous Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has announced that it will cease using elephants in its shows by 2018.

Feld Entertainment, which also runs family-friendly shows like Marvel Universe Live and Disney on Ice, has previously defended the treatment of circus animals and operates a Center for Elephant Conservation in the Ringling Bros. name. But the company tells the AP that it will no longer use the large mammals after the current crop retires.

“There’s been somewhat of a mood shift among our consumers,” explains Alana Feld, the company’s executive vice president to the AP. “A lot of people aren’t comfortable with us touring with our elephants.”

The decision to phase out elephant performers is not just about audience concerns. There are also a growing number of local governments that restrict the use of circus animals. It is easier for Ringling to drop the elephants altogether than try to fight or abide by varying local ordinances, explains Feld president Kenneth Feld.

“All of the resources used to fight these things can be put towards the elephants,” he explains to the AP. “We’re not reacting to our critics; we’re creating the greatest resource for the preservation of the Asian elephant.”

There are currently 13 touring Ringling elephants. When they retire, they’ll join the 30 others at the conservation center in central Florida. As of now, that center is not accessible to the public. That could change as the company looks for ways to subsidize the $65,000/year cost for each elephant in its care.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikCourt: Man Burned By Fajitas While Praying Can’t Sue Applebee’sde

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(JeepersMedia)

An Applebee’s customer who says he was burned while leaning over a plate of hot fajitas to pray before his meal can’t sue the restaurant, an appellate court ruled yesterday, because the hot food presented an “open and obvious” danger.

A New Jersey man had been seeking damages from his local Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar after an incident dating back to March 2010, reports the Courier-Post.

He claimed that as he bowed his head “close to the table,” he heard a “loud sizzling noise followed by a ‘pop noise’ and then felt a burning sensation in his left eye and on his face.”

According to an incident report, the man said he was burned on his face, neck and arms after “grease popped” on the fajitas.

His lawsuit alleges that the waitress didn’t warn him ahead of time that the dish was hot, and that as a result, he suffered “serious and permanent” injuries “solely as a result of (Applebee’s) negligence when he came in contact with a dangerous and hazardous condition, specifically, ‘a plate of hot food’.”

A trial judge had already dismissed the suit, saying that Applebee’s wasn’t required to warn the customer “against a danger that is open and obvious.”

The customer appealed, but the two-judge appellate panel agreed, noting that the risk from a plate of hot fajitas was “self-evident,” the court ruled, saying Applebee’s had no duty to warn [the customer] that the food was sizzling hot and should be approached with due care.”

The thought here being, if you’re ordering fajitas, even if you’ve never heard of them before, putting your face close to an obviously hot dish spitting oil is not a good idea.

Man burned by fajitas while praying can’t sue Applebee’s [The Courier-Post]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikAppeals Court: Insurance Doesn’t Have To Pay For 2008 Burrito Recallde

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(Martijn Venhuizen)

You might remember the Foster Farms Salmonella outbreak last year, which made hundreds of people sick. The company’s insurer, Lloyd’s of London refused to pay for their losses from the outbreak and following recall because the company waited a very long time before officially recalling any meat. The federal government was able to shut down poultry plants, but not recall the meat, since it wasn’t “contaminated” by any substances that you don’t normally find in chicken.

An appeals court has ruled in a similar case that also involves Lloyd’s and an American meat company. This situation dates all the way back to 2008, when 143 million pounds of beef were recalled from a plant that was found to be slaughtering cattle too sick to walk, or “downer” animals, moving them around using forklifts. Animals that are too sick to stand need to be checked out by a veterinarian and treated or euthanized, not butchered and sent to be served up in school lunches and frozen burritos.

The bad practices at this particular slaughterhouse were captured on a hidden camera by a mole working for the Humane Society of the United States, leading to the recall and a lot of consumers freaking out about mad cow disease. What Windsor Food Quality Company has been freaking out about since 2008 is their loss of $3 million when they had to recall Jose Ole burritos made with beef from the infamous Westland slaughterhouse. Windsor is now trapped in a similar trap to Windsor Farms: while meat that could have potentially come from downer cattle isn’t safe for human consumption, it’s not “accidental product contamination” or “malicious product tampering,” which is what the company’s policy covered. The burrito-maker and its insurance companies have been fighting this out since 2008.

A state appeals court in California ruled this week that Lloyd’s and QBE do not have to pay out, since while the product was contaminated and couldn’t be sold, the contamination didn’t fit the insurance policy. In its decision, the court noted:

Lloyds responds that Westland’s ground beef was not an ‘Insured Product’ under the policy and—even if the ground beef was an insured product—it was not ‘tampered with’ or the tampering was not ‘malicious.’

Lloyds Avoids Payout for Beef Recall Losses [Courthouse News]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikInventor Of The Keurig Doesn’t Own One, Regrets Inventing Itde

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(Earth2Kim)

Keurig’s K-Cup coffee pods are popular brewing devices that you can find in homes, offices, and waiting rooms. There are even refrigerators with a machine built right in. Do you know where you won’t find one, though? The home of the man who invented the machine back in the ’90s, John Sylvan.

This week, The Atlantic looked at the practical and environmental problems that the Keurig causes, and started from the very beginning, when inventor Sylvan was just a guy who wanted to invent a better way to dispense coffee in the office. He figured that people would buy the pods, but didn’t foresee how popular his invention would become. He sold his share of the company (“Keurig” is the Dutch word for “excellence”) for $50,000.

K-Cups are complicated; Keurig-licensed cups can theoretically be disassembled, but only in rare cities that recycle #7 plastic and if you have the patience to take the cup apart, tossing out the foil top, paper filter, and coffee grounds, and recycling the tiny cup.

“It’s like a cigarette for coffee, a single-serve delivery mechanism for an addictive substance,” he explained to the Atlantic. Very few people want to disassemble a convenience pod so it can be recycled.

Single-serve pod machines may not be as wasteful as they seem at first. You save electricity by not keeping a whole pot of liquid warm, for one thing. The coffee is measured out perfectly to the gram, which is better than I can do while waving a bag vaguely toward my French press while half-awake. You’re paying $40 per pound for that ground coffee, sure, but you’re guaranteed not to waste any of it. The accumulation of trash is a problem, but some third-party pods can be composted and recycled.

A Brewing Problem [The Atlantic] (Thanks, Rowell!)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikHBO Streaming Service Reportedly Dubbed ‘HBO Now,’ Aiming For Launch Before Game Of Thrones Premierede

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One of the most anticipated launches of 2015 is the debut of HBO’s standalone streaming service. The name, price, timeline and availability are still unconfirmed but a new report claims to have uncovered many of these details.

The International Business Times reports that the service will be called HBO Now, though it’s worth noting that this particular phrase has not yet been trademarked.

The actual launch date is still uncertain but the Times’ source says the plan is to have it up before the April 12 launch of the fifth season of Game of Thrones.

As we mentioned before, HBO has enlisted the help of MLB Advanced Media, the group at Major League Baseball responsible for streaming services like MLB.tv and WatchESPN. Anyone familiar with MLB.tv knows that the service is not without its issues, particularly when stressed by a large number of users.

While previous comments by HBO have indicated that the service would be sold through participating broadband providers, this report also claims that HBO will sell access directly to consumers. Additionally, HBO is talking to Apple about making Apple TV a launch partner.

The story cites the expected monthly price of $15 though it’s unclear if that’s information from HBO sources or just from previous reports on the service.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikIllinois Car Museum Giving Away ‘Back To The Future’ DeLorean — If The Cubs Win The Next World Seriesde

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“I said I wish I could go back to the beginning of the season, put some money on the Cubbies!”

If Marty McFly saw it happen, maybe it’ll happen: In the movie Back to the Future Part II, Michael J. Fox’s character travels forward in time to the year 2015, where lo and behold, miracle of miracles, he finds that the Chicago Cubs have finally won the World Series, after more than a century without a championship title. If that happens in real life, an Illinois car museum says it will give one lucky winner the exhibit model of a 1981 DeLorean — complete with flux capacitor.

Volo Auto Museum in Illinois says the car is worth about $85,000, reports ABC News, and it’s not just a pretty prop from a movie set.

“The car is fully functional. It’s a running and driving car,” museum director Brian Grams told ABC News. “Though we don’t guarantee time travel with the car, its flux capacitor and other board lights light up just like the movie’s car.”

(Volo Museum)

The DeLorean was acquired from a custom car builder who made various car props for movies, and has been on display at the museum since the late 1990s.

“We thought it would be a really fun promotion for the auto museum and the Cubs,” Grams told the Daily Herald. “We’ve had the car here for many years, and always a crowd pleaser. So, we decided to take a bit of a risk and have fun with it.”

This all hinges on those Cubbies winning after going since 1908 without nabbing a World Series title. Heck, the team hasn’t even played in the championships since 1945.

If the Cubs can’t defeat the curse, a fan will instead take home the museum’s hover board prop instead.

Entries will run through the end of the baseball season, until “the Cubs are out, or until they win.” To enter the raffle, you can visit the museum and register there, or get a wristband from your visit and register online starting March 21. For those unwilling or unable to head to Volo, IL, you can send a self-addressed, stamped envelope and the museum will mail you back an eligible registration number.

Chicago Cubs Hold the Keys to the ‘Back to the Future’ DeLorean Car [ABC News]

You could win ‘Back to the Future’ DeLorean if prediction comes true [Daily Herald]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikUber Must End Pilot Ride-Sharing Program In Japande

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(Ken Shelton)

Ride-hailing app Uber does a small amount of business in Japan. Until now, their drivers have been existing drivers of taxis and private cars for hire. The company has been experimenting with a ride-sharing service in the city of Fukuoka. They thought it would get around regulations by not having passengers pay for their rides. That did not work.

Many cities and entire countries have problems with the more revolutionary product that Uber sells. While using an app to hail a licensed taxi or private car is a growing practice, the aspect of Uber that regulators and taxi drivers alike have an issue with the service where regular people drive other regular people around. Uber’s expansion around the world and even into some taxi-heavy cities like New York hasn’t gone well, as regulators say that peer-to-peer taxi service doesn’t fit existing transportation laws.

Uber Ordered to Halt Ride-Sharing Pilot Program in Japan [Bloomberg]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist