uPilots Report Seeing Drone In The Path Of Several Planes Near Newark Airportr

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  Not the drone in question. (Northwest dad)

  It’s not a bird and it’s not a plane, but a drone is a very dangerous thing to have in the air when it’s not supposed to be, as officials in New York and New Jersey would like to remind people after a spate of recent drone sightings. In the latest incident, crews on four different flights spotted a drone in the path of airplanes near Newark Airport on Sunday.

  The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said a drone was found on the final approach path to a runway at Newark Liberty International Airport between noon and 12:30 p.m. Sunday, reports CBS New York.

  Such unpredictable machines are dangerous to commercial aircraft, as they can interfere with a flight or even take one down, much like a bird strike. But made of metal instead of feathers and flesh, making them even more hazardous.

  “Attention all aircraft use caution,” an air traffic controller warns in audio from Sunday. “Drone activity reported left side.”

  Pilots of four commercial flights, which were between 2,000 and 3,000 feet in the air, spotted the drone somewhere within eight and 13 miles of the airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

  None of the flights had to take evasive action, and each one landed safely, the FAA added.

  This is the most recent incident in a troublesome trend, the FAA says: Last week there were three reports in as many days near John F. Kennedy International. The FAA points out that even the small, hobby-type drones can be dangerous to planes, and that it’s illegal to operate them in a way that interferes with manned aircraft. Like, say, flying them near a major airport.

  If you’re caught flying a drone where you shouldn’t be, the FAA can could hit you with fines ranging from $1,000 to $25,000. Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said he’s going to take a more aggressive approach to finding and prosecuting people who fly drones near local airports, after the incidents at JFK last week.

  Some passengers at Newark yesterday approved of moving toward tougher regulations.

  “I don’t know what kind of point you would be proving by flying around near an airport,” one told CBS New York. “I just think it’s probably stupid people doing stupid things.”

  Drone Spotted In Path Of Planes At Newark Liberty International Airport [CBS New York]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uFamily Claims Delta Air Lines Lost Cat At San Diego Airportr

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  A family says Delta Air Lines failed to secure the cage their cat was in during transport, leading the animal to escape.

  Over the past several years, Delta Air Lines has been at the center of numerous tragic stories of regarding pet transports. Now, a family who was flying their cat on the airline from San Diego to Baltimore is hoping their tale of loss ends on a happy note.

  ABC 10 News reports that an hour after a San Diego couple dropped off 5-year-old Mickey at the Delta cargo office Friday night for his trip to be reunited with his owner – the couple’s 12-year-old niece who recently moved out of state – he was missing.

  The couple says they received a phone call from the airline informing them that the cat had escaped its cage and was wandering the tarmac.

  “My heart dropped, I just said ‘where is my cat, what happened?’ ‘He opened the cage,’ that’s what they said, he opened the cage,” the girl’s aunt tells ABC 10 News.

  

  A photo the couple snapped of the cat in its crate. [click to enlarge]

  The couple claims that the cage – which they took a picture of before leaving – was not secured with zip-ties by Delta employees.

  A spokesperson for Delta says the airline is aware of the missing animal and has worked with the family to locate it.

  Since learning of the cat’s escape, the couple has been at the San Diego International Airport setting up traps and handing out flyers with Mickey picture in hopes that the animal will be found safe.

  Couple claims Delta Airlines lost niece’s cat [ABC 10 News]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uUber Admits It Failed To Follow Procedure In Hire Of Driver Accused Of Raper

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• Last week, it came out that an Uber driver in Dallas had used a bogus, expired city permit when he applied for a job with the ridesharing service. Now, Uber is finally explaining how it failed to catch this red flag during the vetting process.

  Dallas requires that all for-hire drivers — whether they are traditional taxis or new services like Uber or Lyft — get a permit from the city. Drivers can not obtain this permit if they have been recently incarcerated.

  The Uber driver in question, accused of following a female passenger into her home and sexually assaulting her, had been in prison as recently as 2012 on a federal weapons conviction, and would have been ineligible for a city permit. The city claimed he used someone else’s permit that had expired in 2010.

  In a letter obtained by WFAA-TV, Uber explains to the city how this driver slipped through the company’s net, in spite of supposedly beefed-up screening protocols.

  The screw-up began in Jan. 2014, when the convicted felon signed up with Uber — not as a driver, but as a “partner” to help drum up business for his family’s limousine service that was on the UberBlack platform. That’s when he presented the bogus permit, but since he was listed as “Will Not Be Driving,” on the account, it appears the company did not do any further screening.

  But then the real gaffe, one that would have devastating consequences, happened in April 2015, when someone at Uber “mistakenly” gave him access to be a driver for the company.

  “Our internal investigation has shown that while we have strict policies and procedures, these were not properly followed,” reads the letter from Uber.

  “In this instance, we failed to live up to our own high standards, for which we are truly sorry,” a company rep tells WFAA. “We are determined to learn from the mistakes that were made so we can do better in the future. Our thoughts are with the victim and her family.”‘

  The controversial company then detailed steps it had taken to make sure that all remaining Dallas Uber drivers are in compliance:

  • A manual review of each City of Dallas limousine permit that has been provided by either owners or drivers as a means of identification when signing up to use Uber.

  • A cross-check of the City’s registered limousine drivers against our internal database to identify any abnormalities or incorrect information.

  • A review to confirm that every driver or limo company owner in Dallas using the platform has been put through Uber’s background check process.

  Going forward, Uber says it is introducing additional spot-checks on driver-related documents to make sure that everything is accurate and current. There will also be a new layer of driver approval in Dallas before drivers are given permission to pick up passengers.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uColumbia Pictures Firm Demands Takedown Of Videos With Word “Pixels” In Titler

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  Just like he didn’t invent the concept of a lovable, sporadically violent manchild, Adam Sandler is not the first to use the term “Pixels” to describe a video.

  Believe it or not, the term “pixels,” was not created solely for use as the title of an underwhelming Adam Sandler movie. But don’t tell that to the copyright enforcement firm hired by Columbia Pictures who stupidly — and perhaps illegally — demanded the removal of several videos only because they dared to use “pixels” in the title.

  TorrentFreak reports on a takedown notice sent to video-sharing site Vimeo that succeeded in removing ten videos, most of which had absolutely nothing to do with a movie about aliens attacking Earth in the form of classic video games.

  The copyright holders of one video, posted by an arts organization in Cyprus, tried to argue to Vimeo that the 2006 was made by the author “using his own photos and sounds/music on a shoestring budget and infringes no copyright.”

  They pleaded with Vimeo to “check the video in question and confirm for yourselves that it breaks no copyright laws and that it has nothing to do with the latest multi-million blockbuster which prompted this notification.”

  The wonderful response from Vimeo wasn’t “Oh crap. You’re right. This doesn’t have anything to do with a bloated cash-grab starring that guy from the Paul Blart movies. Sorry.” Instead, a site staffer would only say “This is in the hands of our trust and safety team and we unfortunately our support team cannot help you with this issue.”

  Interestingly, one of the removed clips is actually about a similar topic to the recent box-office dud. It features 8-bit video game characters raining down destruction on Manhattan. But this award-winning video from Patrick Jean, which has been viewed more than 1.3 million times on YouTube, can’t have infringed on the Pixels copyright — because it pre-dates the movie by five years and doesn’t feature Peter Dinklage in a mullet wig.

  Luckily it’s still available on YouTube so you can judge for yourself whether or not the artist somehow traveled back and forth through time and space to proactively infringe on a copyright that didn’t exist:
  

  As of now, all of the clips removed from Vimeo are still down. We’ve reached out to Vimeo to ask why the company obliged an obvious error and if it’s doing anything to resolve the issue. If we get a response, we’ll let you know.

  The bigger question is whether the firm, Entura International, that sent out these takedown notices on Columbia Pictures’ behalf, is breaking the law.

  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows companies like Entura to enjoy this “shoot first, ask questions later” approach to copyright claims, also requires that companies sending takedown notices do so only after having done their due diligence and determined that infringement has likely occurred.

  In fact, the DMCA clearly states that “Any person who knowingly materially misrepresents” that something infringes on copyright “shall be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, incurred by the alleged infringer… who is injured by such misrepresentation, as the result of the service provider relying upon such misrepresentation in removing or disabling access to the material or activity claimed to be infringing.”

  Unfortunately, abusers of DMCA claims rarely get held to account for the damage they do. Just ask the Pennsylvania woman who has been fighting Universal Music in court for eight years over her 29-second YouTube clip of her young child daring to dance to a barely audible Prince song in the background.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uDunkin’ Donuts Customers Pay It Forward Every Single Friday At Pennsylvania Drive-Thrur

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  (m01229)
  

  We’ve heard a good share of “pay it forward” stories at coffee shops and elsewhere, where customers ask to pay for the next person’s order, sometimes leading to a chain of people willing to brighten up a strangers day. But one Pennsylvania Dunkin’ Donuts has probably seen more of these pay it forward acts than others: the manager says it happens every Friday, no matter what, like clockwork.

  Sometimes only two customers participate, sometimes 12 — and sometimes, the chain of giving would last even longer, if only there were enough customers in the drive-thru line that day, the Dunkin’ Donuts manager tells the York Dispatch.

  He started noticing the Friday pattern after he started work as a manager at the Dunkin’ Donuts, which includes a drive-thru window. One customer would ask how much the next order was and then pay for it. Then the next person would find out they’d had their order paid for, and pay for the person behind them.

  And this happened every week, on Friday.

  “I’ve never experienced anything like it at other locations,” the manager said.

  The generous mood reached its peak a few weeks ago when 32 people participated on one day. It would’ve kept going, too, but there were no more cars in the drive-thru. The most expensive order someone paid for was $9.32.

  “We wanted to keep it going, there was just no more customers,” the manager explained. “My employees did everything they could.”

  He gives credit to the speed of his workers and how they excited they get for the Friday tradition that has evolved this year.

  “We have a hardworking crew here,” he said. “And the best part is they love doing it.”

  Doughnut lovers regularly pay it forward [York Dispatch]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uTesla Reportedly Loses More Than $4,000 On Each Car It Sellsr

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  (Atwater Village Newbie)

  The base price for a new Tesla Model S with all-wheel-drive will run you about $70,000. While that price tag isn’t for the faint of heart, its doesn’t quite represent how much the electric vehicle maker is putting into its products, as a new report shows the company is losing more than $4,000 on each car it sells.

  Reuters reports that the Silicon Valley automaker has burned $359 million in cash in just the last quarter – mostly due to operating losses – leading the company to cut its production targets for the next two years.

  CEO Elon Musk said last week that he’s considering options to raise more capital, and didn’t rule out selling more stock, while continuing to promise that the first quarter of 2016 will see the company making enough money to mass produce a number of model vehicles.

  Tesla says that its operating costs and research and development spending rose during the second quarter of this year, while the average prices for its Model S vehicle dropped slightly – a combination that led to the losses.

  The funds being lost by Tesla likely stem from the production of its upcoming Model X SUV, as Reuters notes that engineering, assembly line equipment, testing and meeting safety and emission standards related to a bringing a new vehicle to market can cost more than $1 billion.

  And the company estimates it will spend even more this year – about $1.5 billion – than in the past, as it works to launch its new vehicle.

  Despite the $4,000 loss on each vehicle, Tesla has a valuation of $31 billion, more than many major automakers like Fiat Chrysler, Reuters reports.

  Of course, the losses aren’t necessarily a sticking point for the electric car company, as it’s faced downturns in the past.

  Back in 2012, the company recovered from a cash crunch by selling shares and renegotiating the terms of a federal loan, Reuters reports.

  Tesla burns cash, loses more than $4,000 on every car sold [Reuters]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uAugust Food And Supplement Recall Roundup: Pieces Of A Conveyor Belt?r

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• In this month’s Recall Roundup for food and supplements, turkey sausage might contain parts of a conveyor belt, a variety of products may be contaminated with nuts, raw pet foods keep testing positive for foodborne bacteria, and mozzarella cheese might be contaminated with egg.

  Our monthly Recall Roundups have grown so expansive that we’ve had to separate them into two separate posts: one for consumer goods, and one for consumables.

  If you have any of these listed items in your pantry, refrigerator, or freezer, first check the varieties and flavors against the ones listed on the recall site or press release, then check expiration date or lot numbers.

  When there’s a match, don’t panic! If an item is listed as having undeclared walnuts and you’re not allergic to walnuts, for example, you don’t have to do anything at all. You can keep the item, eat it, not eat it, or return it to the store or the manufacturer for your own peace of mind.

  Items that may be contaminated with pathogens or foreign objects are worrisome for everyone, and you should return them to the retail store where you bought them, or contact the company for a refund and further instructions.

  ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES
  Angry Orchard Hard Cider – Bottles may explode when opened.

  SNACKS
  KellBran Caramel Popcorn – Contains undeclared milk
  Vic’s Original Popcorn – Contains undeclared milk
  Veggie Evolution Kale Crisps Zen Nori – Contains undeclared soy.
  CocoNoNut Cacao-Nectar Bar – May contain undeclared almonds.
  Natural Grocers brand Caribbean Nut & Fruit Mix – May contain Macadamia nuts contaminated with Salmonella.

  NUTS
  Mahina Mele Farms Macadamia nut products – May contain Salmonella.
  Maya Split Cashews – May contain Salmonella.

  CANDY
  Kilwin’s Milk Chocolate Caramels – May contain undeclared cashew.

  DAIRY
  Bella Rosa Grated Parmesan Cheese (BJ’s Wholesale Clubs) – May contain undeclared egg
  Kraft Singles – Packaging poses choking hazard

  VEGETABLES
  Real Foods Harvest Slaw Kit and Broccoli Salad Kits (Salads sold in Haggen stores) – May contain undeclared peanut ingredients

  PACKAGED MEALS
  Good Food Made Simple breakfasts containing turkey sausage – Imported from Canada without proper inspection
  Golden Gourmet French Toast Sticks with Turkey Patty & Peaches – Sausage may contain pieces of a conveyor belt

  CONDIMENTS AND SPICES
  Kroger Garlic Powder, Cinnamon, Pepper, and “artificial bacon covered chips” – Possible Salmonella

  SUPPLEMENTS
  Nutrition Resource Services Whey and Casein Products – De not declare that the products contain dairy.

  FISH
  Osamu Corporation Yellow Fin Tuna Chunk Meat – May contain Salmonella

  PET FOOD
  Bravo Chicken Dog and Cat Food – May contain Salmonella
  Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw Chicken Formula for dogs – May contain Salmonella
  The Natural Dog Company 12″ Tremenda Sticks pet chews – May contain Salmonella.
  Vital Essentials Frozen Beef Tripe Dog Treats – May contain Listeria.
  Stella & Chewy’s Dog and Cat Foods – May contain Listeria.
  Boulder Dog Food Company Turkey Sprinkles – May contain Salmonella

  MEAT
  Aspen Foods (Koch Poultry, numerous private-label brands) Stuffed Chicken Breasts – Possible Salmonella
  Barber Foods stuffed chicken breasts – Possible Salmonella
  Ambassador Beef Summer Sausage – Contains undeclared pork
  The Sausage Factory sausages – Misbranding

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist