Current Events in August 2014

Ford Motor Company is recalling 83,250 model year 2012-2014 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX vehicles manufactured September 2, 2010, to November 30, 2013; 2013-2014 Ford Taurus and Lincoln MKS vehicles manufactured August 25, 2011, to November 30, 2013; and 2013-2014 Ford Flex and Lincoln MKT vehicles manufactured September 12, 2011, to November 30, 2013.

The halfshaft retention circlip in the affected vehicles may not have been properly installed, and as a result, the halfshaft may move outward and disengage from the linkshaft while driving and without prior warning. If the halfshaft and linkshaft become disengaged while driving, power will no longer be transmitted to the wheels, increasing the risk of a vehicle crash.

Additionally, if the parking brake is not applied before exiting the vehicle, the vehicle may roll away despite the transmission being placed in 'Park', increasing the risk of injury to exiting occupants and bystanders.

Ford will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the vehicles to make sure that the halfshaft is properly retained. If it is not, dealers will replace the linkshaft and also replace the halfshaft if it shows evidence of spline damage, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin by August 29, 2014.

Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-800-392-3673. Ford's number for this recall is 14S10.

Perdue of Gainesville, Ga., is recalling approximately 15,306 pounds of frozen, fully cooked chicken nugget product.

The product may be contaminated with extraneous materials. The firm received consumer complaints that small pieces of plastic were found in the product.

There are no reports of injury or illness from consumption of the product.

The following product is subject to recall:

• 8-oz. box of “APPLEGATE naturals CHICKEN NUGGETS” bearing the establishment number “P2617” and the “BEST BEFORE” date of “02/05/15”.

The product was produced on Feb. 5, 2014, with a sell by date of Feb. 5, 2015 and bear, the establishment number “P2617” inside the USDA Mark of Inspection. It was shipped to retail outlets nationwide.

Consumers with questions may contact Gerry Clarkson of Applegate Consumer Relations at (800) 587-5858.  

There've been plenty of warnings about how something as apparently innocuous as clicking “Like” on a Facebook post can lead to bad consequences: that new page dedicated to a recent tragedy in the news might actually be the bait hackers useto steal your identity or plant malware on your computer.

And what about those pages you see solely to tug at your heartstrings? “This poor little bald girl has cancer and lost her hair to chemotherapy. Click 'like' to cheer her up and let her know she's still beautiful!” There's a good chance that page is simply “like farming,” and once the page gets enough likes to qualify for a high Facebook ranking (and thus be more likely to be seen by other Facebook users), its heart-wrenching content will be erased, and the page will be used to promote anything from spammy pharmaceutical products to dangerous malware infections.

Still, for all the “like” warnings we've passed along, we've concentrated on the anti-scam aspects, with no consideration of the social implications of indiscriminate like-ing.

The thing about Facebook is that your own personal experience there tends to be self-feeding: any post you “like” will result in “related” posts appearing in your feed. Thus, if you “like” a news story about Congressman X's statement regarding Issue Y, you'll see a lot more news stories, opinion pieces (and some outright falsehoods) about Congressman X as well as Issue Y.

Very likeable

If you “like” the news that your friend had a baby, you'll see more baby pictures, news stories about babies, blog posts about babies, and ads for baby products. If you “like” the knitting pattern your aunt just posted, you'll see other knitting patterns, knitting-related articles and ads for needles and yarn, among other things.

And also: if you “like” anything on Facebook, any of your Facebook friends might see this in their own respective Facebook feeds. The more stuff you “like” on Facebook, the more likely it is your friends will see at least some of it.

So Mat Honan, a writer for Wired, decided to try an experiment: what would happen if he indiscriminately “liked” every single thing he saw on his Facebook feed – even the things he actually hated?

The like and the favorite are the new metrics of success—very literally. Not only are they ego-feeders for the stuff we put online as individuals, but advertisers track their campaigns on Facebook by how often they are liked. A recent New York Times story on a krill oil ad campaign lays bare how much the like matters to advertisers. Liking is an economic act.

I like everything. Or at least I did, for 48 hours. Literally everything Facebook sent my way, I liked—even if I hated it. I decided to embark on a campaign of conscious liking, to see how it would affect what Facebook showed me. I know this sounds like a stunt (and it was) but it was also genuinely just an open-ended experiment. I wasn’t sure how long I’d keep it up (48 hours was all I could stand) or what I’d learn (possibly nothing.)

He liked everything

It started out easily enough: he “liked” Facebook's “Living Social” online marketplace (which appeared on Honan's feed because one of his friends had already “liked” it in turn). He “liked” a couple updates from his friends. Less pleasantly, he also “liked” a joke he thought very bad, or very dumb.

But his plan to like everything without fail soon ran into a problem, thanks to Facebook's habit of promoting “related” posts:

Relateds quickly became a problem, because as soon as you like one, Facebook replaces it with another. So as soon as I liked the four relateds below a story, it immediately gave me four more. And then four more. And then four more. And then four more. I quickly realized I’d be stuck in a related loop for eternity if I kept this up. So I settled on a new rule: I would like the first four relateds Facebook shows me, but no more.

He also refused to “like” a friend's announcement of a death in her family — “It was a bridge I wasn’t going to cross” — but he liked everything else: department stores, mail-order companies, online coupon offers, politicians and their pet causes (regardless of his actual opinions of them). It took less than an hour for the results to show on his News Feed:

After checking in and liking a bunch of stuff over the course of an hour, there were no human beings in my feed anymore. It became about brands and messaging, rather than humans with messages.

Likewise, content mills rose to the top. Nearly my entire feed was given over to Upworthy and the Huffington Post. As I went to bed that first night and scrolled through my News Feed, the updates I saw were (in order): Huffington Post, Upworthy, Huffington Post, Upworthy, a Levi’s ad, Space.com, Huffington Post, Upworthy, The Verge, Huffington Post, Space.com, Upworthy, Space.com.

He had also “liked” a political post with a pro-Israel theme, and “By the next morning, the items in my News Feed had moved very, very far to the right.” He continued to “like” it all, and after awhile the very-right-wing content was soon accompanied by very-left-wing content — nothing from the moderate middle.

But maybe worse than the fractious political tones my feed took on was how deeply stupid it became. I’m given the chance to like a Buzzfeed post of some guy dancing, and another that asks Which Titanic Character Are You? A third Buzzfeed post informs me that “Katy Perry’s Backup Dancer is the Mancandy You Deserve.” According to New York magazine, I am “officially old” because Malia Obama went to Lollapalooza (like!) and CNN tells me “Husband Explores His Man-ternal Instincts” alongside a photo of a shirtless man cupping his nipples. A cloud that looks like a penis. Stop what you’re doing and look at this baby that looks exactly like Jay-Z. My feed was showing almost only the worst kind of tripe that all of us in the media are complicit in churning out yet should also be deeply ashamed of. Sensational garbage. I liked it all.

Meanwhile, Honan's Facebook friends had their own feeds cluttered by constant updates about all of Honan's “likes.” One friend warned Honan that maybe his account had been hacked; another mentioned that her own Facebook feed had become almost 100% announcments about what Mat Honan most recently liked.

By the time Honan quit his experiment, he'd added more than 1,000 likes to his Facebook activity history. As for how many friends and "friends" he's lost, no one knows.

There's a very simple reason that if you ask many consumers about the economy, they'll tell you the recession that began in late 2007 has never ended.

In the latest Gallup Poll of consumers' confidence in the economy, 38% said the economy is getting better while 56% said it is getting worse.

Officially the Great Recession is ancient history. It ended in June 2009. Since that time the economy has added the 8.7 million jobs wiped out by the recession. Employment has finally surpassed its pre-recession peak, reached in 2008.

So what are people complaining about? The answer is in black and white, in a new report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

National pay cut

The report finds that the average annual wage of all the jobs lost between 2008 and 2009 – when most of the recession's job cuts occurred – was $61,637 a year.

The jobs added since the end of the recession, through the second quarter of this year, paid an average wage of $47,171 a year. That's a gap of 23%, meaning a lot of people took really big pay cuts. Since prices haven't gone down that's required them to significantly lower their standard of living.

“This wage gap of 23% is significantly larger than that of the earlier recession and recovery (2000-2006), and implies $93 billion in lower wage income,” the authors write.

How about the population as a whole, not just the people working in a newly-created job? Those results are disappointing as well.

Back to the 1990s

In 2012, 3 years after the official end of the recession, the median household income was $51,017 – the lowest since 1995. In other words, the median household income in the U.S. is back where it was about 17 years ago.

The report also shows the much talked-about income gap has gotten bigger. In 1975 the top 20% of income-earning households earned 43.6% of all income. By 2012 it was 51%. Most of the gain was among the top 5%.

There do not appear to be any big raises in the near future either. The mayors' report forecasts the median household income will increase by 2.5% in 2014, barely keeping pace with inflation.

Cause for sleepless nights

So it's no wonder many a consumer is up pacing the floor at night. A poll conducted for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) in July found 79% said personal finances kept them awake at night. The next most common reason for a sleepless night was job insecurity, at a distant 4%.

“There are two pieces of good news that can be gleaned from the poll,” said Gail Cunningham, spokesperson for the NFCC. “First of all, the respondents were able to identify the source of their distress, and secondly, they went to a reliable and trusted resource, www.DebtAdvice.org, for help. Their next step should be to reach out to an NFCC member agency for customized and solution-oriented assistance.”

That might help in managing finances but it is unlikely to put more money in consumers' pockets. A robust economy will be needed for that, and no one is predicting one any time soon.

Well it's happened -- you can now buy pot for your animals.

Cannabis Therapy Corp., a development stage company which has developed what it says are safe, all-natural, ultra-low THC, cannabinoid-based medicinal therapies and supplements, is now offering a pet product called Canna-Pet.

Canna-Pet products, which are made from hemp rather than marijuana, are all available over-the-counter, without a prescription or authorization. Originally available only in capsule form, they now include Canna-Biscuits treats for dogs, and the company aims to make Canna-Pet Max CBD -- containing cannabidiol, which is said to provide medicinal benefits without the high of THC available as a nutraceutical additive for pet foods in late 2014.

The company recommends these products as a daily food additive for all pets, but especially for those with inflammation, allergies, anxiety or behavior issues, compromised immune systems, digestive issues, nausea, chronic pain, cancer, seizures, and palliative care.

According to the company's website, there is almost zero THC and your pet will not get "high" or get in trouble with the law.

To date, the products are only sold online and through referrals. It's covered by Trupanion pet insurance, the company says.

Remember how they cloned Dolly the sheep? Some people have cloned their dogs as well. Now there's a new app that does almost the same thing. It won't actually clone your dog but it will be a very close second, at least in terms of looks.

It's called PetMatch and it lets you upload a picture of a dog or cat, or use one from its gallery. It then tries to find you a pet available for adoption that is the closest possible match to the one you posted, using patented image recognition technology.

PetMatch scans your photo, registering details like the shape of an animal's mouth, the distance between its eyes, its coloring and its general size and shape. Then it looks on Petfinder.com and finds the closest matches in your area. The app is from a start up company called Superfish.

It hasn't mastered the craft of duplicating the exact look. If your picture you upload is blurry or shot at a weird angle there is no telling what it will say is a match. Tech news site The Verge claims a photo of Lady Gaga produced a "matching" image of a hamster.

So maybe it still needs a little fine tuning. So do lots of other things.

American Heart Association experts are warning that the neck manipulations often used by chiropractors and physicians may be associated with stroke.

The association can't be proven but a small tear in a neck artery, called a cervical dissection, is among the most common causes of strokes in young and middle-aged adults. A dissection can lead to a blood clot that travels to the brain and triggers a stroke.

In a statement published in the heart association's journal Stroke, Dr. Jose Biller of Loyola University Medical Center said that while the association isn't proven, it is grounds for concern.

"Most dissections involve some trauma, stretch or mechanical stress," Biller said. "Sudden movements that can hyperextend or rotate the neck -- such as whiplash, certain sports movements, or even violent coughing or vomiting -- can result in a cervical dissection, even if they are deemed inconsequential by the patient."

Although techniques for cervical manipulative therapy vary, some maneuvers used by health practitioners also extend and rotate the neck, and sometimes involve a forceful thrust.

"Although a cause-and-effect relationship between these therapies and cervical dissection has not been established and the risk is probably low, a dissection can result in serious neurological injury," Biller said. "Patients should be informed of this association before undergoing neck manipulation."

Biller is chair of the Department of Neurology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. He is an internationally known expert on strokes, especially strokes in children and young adults.

The association between cervical artery dissection and cervical manipulative therapies was identified in case control studies, which aren't designed to prove cause and effect. Thus, it's not clear whether other factors could account for the apparent association between manipulative therapy of the neck and a greater incidence of cervical dissection/stroke. The relationship is difficult to evaluate because patients who are beginning to have a cervical artery dissection may seek treatment to relieve neck pain.

What to do

You should seek emergency medical evaluation if you develop neurological symptoms after neck manipulation or trauma, such as:

• Pain in the back of your neck or in your head
• Dizziness/vertigo
• Double vision
• Unsteadiness when walking
• Slurred speech
• Nausea and vomiting
• Jerky eye movements or other eye movement disorders
• Limb weakness on one or both sides
• Disorientation, memory loss or altered level of consciousness

"Tell the physician if you have recently had a neck trauma or neck manipulation," Biller said. "Some symptoms, such as dizziness or vertigo, are very common and can be due to minor conditions rather than stroke. But giving the information about recent neck manipulation can raise a red flag that you may have a cervical dissection rather than a less serious problem, particularly in the presence of neck pain."

Neck manipulation is widely used to treat a variety of musculoskeletal complaints, with nearly 85 percent involving adjustment or manipulation of the spine. With cervical manipulative therapy, a force is applied to the spine.

Anyone who has to write -- whether for work, school or pleasure -- knows that interruptions take a toll. Now a couple of academic studies show just how steep that toll can be.

Researchers at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., conducted two stsudies in which participants were asked to write independently graded essays.

While the control group in each worked unfettered and uninterrupted, the experimental groups were interrupted with one minute of basic math problems during their outlining and writing stages (though all groups had the same total amount of time to write).

The results were pronounced: fewer words written and lower quality essays, up to a half-point drop on a six-point scale, for those who were sidetracked. Even when the amount of writing time for all groups increased, the results were almost identical.

No noise

“There was no noise on the other side,” doctoral student Cyrus Foroughi said; no one who was interrupted wrote a better essay than those free from distraction.

Foroughi points out two trends in the research that highlight how disruptive even an interruption perceived as minor can be: Either participants’ writing tended to wander away from their thesis entirely, or they moved on from their previous train of thought without finishing it.

Deborah Boehm-Davis, dean of George Mason’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, says she was unsurprised by the findings. “Earlier work hinted this might be true,” she said.

Still, aside from the study’s results and its popularity (it’s been cited in a number of articles and radio spots), Boehm-Davis finds the research significant for another reason: “Cyrus is the only student I’ve mentored who has published a paper as a first author in the first year of doctoral studies.”

Foroughi says he has taken the findings to heart. When he needs to write something he now makes sure to turn his phone notifications off and place the screen face down so even the flashing light won’t distract him.

The study was published in the journal Human Factors.

Mortgage applications were down 2.7% the week ending August 8.

In addition, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey shows the Refinance Index dropped 4% from the previous week to the lowest level since May 2014. That took the refinance share of mortgage activity down 1% -- to 54% of total applications. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity was unchanged at 8% of total applications.

Contract interest rates

• The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) was unchanged at 4.35%, with points unchanged at 0.22 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 30-year FRMs with jumbo loan balances (greater than $417,000) dipped 2 basis points from 4.26% to 4.24%, with points dropping to 0.19 from 0.35 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 30-year FRMs backed by the FHA slipped to 4.04% from 4.06%, with points increasing to 0.03 from 0.02 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 15-year FRMs was down 3 basis points -- to 3.48%, with points rising to 0.30 from 0.28 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs dropped to 3.24% from 3.32%, with points increasing to 0.45 from 0.35 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.

The survey covers over 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has awarded the redesigned 2015 Chrysler the top rating of good in its small overlap front crash test -- a step up from the previous generation's rating of acceptable.

The midsize moderately priced car received good ratings in all five of the IIHS crashworthiness evaluations. That, plus an available front crash prevention system that earns a superior rating, qualifies the 200 for the IIHS "TOP SAFETY PICK+" award.

'Low risk' of significant injuries

In the small overlap test, the driver's space was maintained well, and injury measures recorded on the dummy indicated a low risk of any significant injuries in a real-world crash of this severity, IIHS said. The dummy's head was well controlled by the frontal airbag, which stayed in position during the crash. The side curtain airbag deployed and had sufficient forward coverage to protect the head from contact with side structures.

The 200 earned a good rating in every measurement category for small overlap protection including structure, restraints and dummy kinematics, and injury measures for the head and neck, chest, pelvis, and legs and feet.

The small overlap evaluation was add to the IIHS testing lineup in 2012. In the crash, 25% of a vehicle's front end on the driver side strikes a rigid barrier at 40 mph. It replicates what happens when the front corner of a vehicle strikes another vehicle or an object such as a tree or a utility pole.

The 200 earns a superior rating for front crash prevention when equipped with its optional forward collision warning system with auto brake, part of a package called Safety.

In track evaluations, the system completely stopped the vehicle in the Institute's 12 mph test and significantly reduced the vehicle's speed in the 25 mph test.

To qualify for TOP SAFETY PICK+, a vehicle must earn a good or acceptable rating for small overlap protection, good ratings in the Institute's moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests, plus a basic, advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention.

Sunfood of El Cajon, Calif., is recalling Organic Carob Powder, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with this problem.

The recalled product, which was distributed nationwide in retail stores and through mail orders, comes in 1-lb, 20-lb & 55-lb white poly bags.

The following lot numbers were affected: 140321,140416,140509,140516,140609,140616 & 140623.

Expiration date is 6/5/2015 and UPC Code 803813-04429 8.

Consumers who have purchased the affected Organic Carob Powder should return it to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact Sunfood at 1-888-RAWFOOD between 8am and 5pm PDT.

The news in early August that Russian hackers had stolen over 1 billion user names and passwords has created more anxiety around the security of log-in credentials consumers use for everything from online shopping to banking.

Security experts have long advised that every account should have a unique password. But who can remember all those different passwords – much less remember which accounts they are for?

One option for consumers who want to beef up their online security is to employ a “password manager” software. They all work in different ways but what they have in common is you don't have to remember all those passwords – the program does it for you.

LastPass

One of the most popular of these apps is LastPass, which promotes itself by saying you only have to remember one password – the one to get into the LastPass system. The software integrates with the major browsers – Explorer, Safari, Chrome and Firefox.

Since you are no longer required to remember your passwords, they can be as complicated as you want. Instead of using the name of your dog or youngest child, one of your passwords can look something like this: 8rZ!k4g9”3$.

To test the strength of your password, run the software's “Security Check.” It identifies any weak or duplicate passwords, tells you if any sites were affected by Heartbleed, and gives you an overall “security score” so you can understand how you’re progressing with your password security.

Multifactor authentication provides another layer of security by requiring that you confirm “something you have” – like a Google Authenticator code -- after submitting “something you know” --your LastPass email address and master password. LastPass supports 10 multifactor authentication options, giving you the flexibility to choose one that suits your work flow best.

LastPass is free, with ads, but also offers an ad-free premium version for $12.

1Password

1Password is another password manager that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and Android. It provides a place for consumers to store their various passwords, licenses for software and other vital information is what amounts to a virtual vault. It requires one master password to get in.

You only have to install 1Password on one device. It can sync to all your other devices using Dropbox. Once you complete the sync process, you'll be able to open the password vault on any device.

Like LastPass, 1Password also offers a password generator. It also provides a way to store a master password hint, in case you forget your master password.

iVault

iVault is a password manager for both mobile and desktop devices. The company says it protects all your private information in a secured online electronic vault.

The online web editor runs only on your browser so no unencrypted data goes through the Internet. It's designed for faster, smoother editing and updating. After a simple restore, your vault is updated directly on your smartphone.

Why do you need a password manager? Because almost all of us are using passwords that just aren't strong enough to stand up to the increasingly sophisticated methods even an average hacker employs. If you need convincing, try one of your passwords – or one similar to one of your real passwords – at the testing site, How Secure Is My Password?

Encryption experts say we all tend to be a bit predictable in the way we construct our passwords. Using a password generator probably won't make you bulletproof, but you'll be a lot more secure than you are now.

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The book publisher Hachette isn't the only media company whose physical offerings cannot be pre-ordered on Amazon.com; as of last week, Walt Disney Home Video can't either. Maybe Amazon is selflessly trying to get lower prices for the benefit of home-media consumers everywhere (as its executives have previously argued) … or, perhaps, Amazon's very survival as a business requires it to get lower wholesale prices from its vendors.

Here's some background: Amazon's feud with the publishers at Hachette has been ongoing for at least three months now. In early May, Amazon started delaying shipments of Hachette titles for no stated reason — a book that Barnes and Noble shipped within 24 hours would take several weeks to arrive if you ordered it on Amazon. But why? Not until May 27 did Amazon admit, in an announcement posted in its Kindle Forum, that it was having a contract dispute with Hachette over what prices to charge for books.

Now it appears Amazon is giving Disney properties the same treatment. HomeMedia Magazine first noticed late last week that the pre-order option for almost every upcoming Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment DVD or Blu-Ray title (such as Captain America: the Winter Soldier and Maleficent) vanished from Amazon.

Amazon customers can still pre-order these movies in streaming video form; they just can't pre-order a DVD, Blu-Ray or any other physical copy of the movie. You can also order or pre-order just about any Disney movie at Walmart.com and plenty of other outlets.  

Hachette job

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), that sounds very similar to an earlier ploy Amazon attempted in its Hachette feud: in mid-July, several weeks after it stopped selling certain Hachette titles, Amazon offered to resume selling Hachette books again — but only in e-book form, and with 100% of the money going to the authors themselves (meaning no money going to Hachette to cover operating costs, let alone potential profits).

So, to recap: Amazon is having contract disputes with various media companies — books from Hachette, movies and videos from Disney. In both instances, Amazon expressed willingness to sell non-physical copies of artistic or literary works – e-copies of books, streaming video access to movies – but is playing hardball where physical media such as paper books or plastic movie discs are concerned. Why?

Nobody other than a few highly placed Amazon executives can say for sure. But here's a possibility: perhaps Amazon is discovering its current business model can't handle physical media.

Big but not very profitable

Paradoxically, for all Amazon's size it still isn't a particularly profitable company. The excuse so far has been that the company is re-investing any potential profits to further develop the company. In December 2013, for example, an analyst for International Business Times noted that, despite having been in business for almost 20 years, Amazon still isn't making money — yet investors keep pouring theirs into it:

The company barely ekes out a profit, spends a fortune on expansion and free shipping and is famously opaque about its business operations.

Yet, investors continue to pour into the stock, pushing up the company’s share price to $388, a nearly 400 percent rise since the end of the company’s third quarter in September 2008.

At that time, Amazon’s net profit margin was 2.8 percent. By September 2011, that number fell to 0.6 percent. A year later, it was losing $274 million on net sales of $13.8 billion. And in the latest quarter, ended Sept. 30, the massive e-tailer reported a $41 million loss on $17 billion in sales. 

The rest of the analysis went on to explain that essentially, Amazon stockholders were investing in the company's potential future earnings (as opposed to buying a share of whatever money the company is earning right now).

That's not necessarily a bad strategy. Even start-up businesses destined for great success usually operate at a loss at first: if you spend money to start a company, you obviously can't make any profit until after you make back your initial start-up money plus ongoing operating costs.

So, yes, you will operate at a loss for awhile. But how long is that “while” supposed to last, anyway? In Amazon's case, it's already been longer than the time it takes for a typical child to be conceived, born, and raised to full legal adulthood. How long before a reasonable investor should think, “Either I start showing some profit here, or I consider the possibility this wasn't such a good investment after all?” And is it possible that Amazon investors are approaching that point?

A charitable organization?

In September 2013, an econ blogger writing for Slate called Amazon “a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers. The shareholders put up the equity, and instead of owning a claim on a steady stream of fat profits, they get a claim on a mighty engine of consumer surplus. Amazon sells things to people at prices that seem impossible because it actually is impossible to make money that way.”

What's so impossible about Amazon's business model? All that free shipping, for starters. International Business Times pointed out the especial problems caused by the immensely popular Amazon Prime program:

[It] offers customers free two-day shipping for a one-time annual fee of $79 and is another loss leader affecting fourth-quarter estimates. Amazon is characteristically hush-hush about its profits (or lack of them) from this program and won’t even disclose how many customers are signed up for the service.

But the number of Amazon Prime customers is growing.

In business terms, a loss leader is something a company sells at a loss in order to win customers; in this case, Amazon (as of the end of 2013) was willing to lose money shipping items to Prime customers, presumably in the hope that those customers would buy enough additional Amazon items to make up the difference.

Shipping costs

On the other hand: in March 2014, we told you about two then-new lawsuits filed by Amazon Prime members against the company. The lawsuits alleged that, in order to get around its free shipping offer, Amazon charged Prime members higher prices for items, to cover the shipping costs: “[I]f the price of an item is advertised for $10 with $3.99 shipping and the [vendor] wishes to match or top their price, the [vendor] would charge $13.99 or higher.”

In other words, an ordinary non-Prime customer buying that item and nothing else from Amazon would pay a total of $14: $10 for the item and $4 for shipping. But if that customer bought at least $35 worth of items at once, thus qualifying for free shipping, the total cost of the item would only be $10. Yet an Amazon Prime member, who paid a fee for “free” shipping this year, is charged a base price of $13.99 for the item no matter what.

Two months after those lawsuits first made the news, Amazon started its feud with Hachette, which has since expanded to include Disney. And in both cases, Amazon is offering to sell ethereal copies of digital media, but refusing to sell physical copies.

Incidentally, if you're selling e-books or streaming video access, there are no shipping or postage costs involved: your customers use their Internet connections to receive the media they paid for, rather than rely on the post office or FedEx. But paper books and plastic movie discs can't be delivered through the Internet: you have to actually mail those things and pay postage costs, too.

So if, hypothetically, you're a mail-order company who offers free shipping on everything yet can't afford to cover these shipping costs, urging your customers away from physical media in lieu of e-books and streaming videos is a strategy you might want to try. But it's not known whether this explains any of Amazon's motivations surrounding its Hachette and Disney disputes.

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UPDATE: 8/13 A few hours after this article went live, an Amazon spokesperson wrote us to say “I saw your article 'Amazon Stops Pre-Ordering Disney DVDs; Streaming Orders Still Accepted' on ConsumerAffairs, and wanted to note some corrections that need to be made.” What follows is three quotes from our article, coupled with Amazon's commentary about them.

We wrote:

Here's some background: Amazon's feud with the publishers at Hachette has been ongoing for at least three months now. In early May, Amazon started delaying shipments of Hachette titles for no stated reason — a book that Barnes and Noble shipped within 24 hours would take several weeks to arrive if you ordered it on Amazon. But why? Not until May 27 did Amazon admit, in an announcement posted in its Kindle Forum, that it was having a contract dispute with Hachette over what prices to charge for books.

Amazon's response:

We aren’t delaying shipments. As noted in our May 27 post, we are currently buying less (print) inventory and "safety stock" on titles from the publisher, Hachette, than we ordinarily do. Can you update this point?

We wrote:

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), that sounds very similar to an earlier ploy Amazon attempted in its Hachette feud: in mid-July, several weeks after it stopped selling certain Hachette titles

Amazon's response:

This is incorrect—we have never stopped selling any Hachette titles.

We wrote:

Amazon offered to resume selling Hachette books again — but only in e-book form, and with 100% of the money going to the authors themselves (meaning no money going to Hachette to cover operating costs, let alone potential profits).

Amazon's response:

This is incorrect. The offer was as follows, which can also be found here:

• If Hachette agrees, for as long as this dispute lasts, Hachette authors would get 100% of the sales price of every Hachette e-book we sell. Both Amazon and Hachette would forego all revenue and profit from the sale of every e-book until an agreement is reached.

• Amazon would also return to normal levels of on-hand print inventory, return to normal pricing in all formats, and for books that haven’t gone on sale yet, reinstate pre-orders.

Kids starting a new school year often get plenty of safety advice before they head out the door. Don't talk to strangers, look both ways before crossing the street, steer clear of the class bully.

But Jamie Varner, an instructor with the Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension Service Center for Technology Outreach, says parents shouldn't forget about digital dangers.

“The No. 1 thing parents can do is communicate with their children about what they should and should not do when they are online,” Varner said. “The Internet can be a good source of information, but it poses some risks. Innocent searches can bring up websites with harmful malware, software, viruses or inappropriate content.”

To help monitor kids while they are online, Varner suggests setting up the child's computer in a family area – perhaps near the kitchen – and not in their room. Other steps to help control content when children aren't supervised are Internet filters and passwords.

Filters

Internet filters reduce the possibility children can access material that isn't appropriate for them. Filters are usually customizable to meet individual needs.

Some filters can also manage instant messaging software and social media sites. They let parents know if their children are being bullied or subjected to potential dangerous activities. These filters can be purchased or downloaded for free from the Internet, Varner said.

“Keeping kids safe on smartphones and tablets can be a bit more difficult, but it’s not impossible,” Morgan said.

Features on both the Apple and Android operating systems allow parents to limit online activity and app purchases on mobile devices. A parent can set content filters in both the Google Play and iTunes stores to prevent app purchases.

Free apps may also be unwelcome. Parents can block these by installing a password or personal identification number. App downloads from websites can be disabled in the settings menu.

Traditional viruses are a threat too

Besides digital safety, parents can also take steps to look out for a child's physical health, by confronting germs in an unlikely place – a lunch box. Unlike a virus that disables a computer, these viruses can disable a child for a few days.

Natasha Haynes, a family and consumer sciences agent for the MSU Extension Service, warns that lunch boxes and bags can be fertile ground for bacteria.

“Kids don’t always wash their hands before handling their lunch boxes and food,” Haynes said. “Since most lunches include finger foods, it’s easy to see how germs and bacteria can make kids sick.”

It's also a good idea to discuss with children how germs get transmitted. Stress the importance of hand-washing and provide a small container of antibacterial gel for times when they don't get the chance to wash. Also, remind them that in a crowded, public place like school, germs can lurk everywhere.

Germ awareness

“Once in the cafeteria, kids should avoid setting down their food on the table,” she said. “Include a paper towel, a piece of wax paper, or even a small fabric place mat that can be washed at home to help children keep their food off surfaces that may have been used by multiple people.”

Haynes says getting children involved in packing their own lunches will help them learn and follow good hygiene and safety practices. Letting them choose what they want to eat, she says, can lead to less food waste.

Regardless of who does the packing, a lunch box needs to be washed after every use. If they aren't, crumbs and spills can accumulate and result in a build-up of bacteria.

The automobile world was in shock last year when Consumer Reports gave top marks to the Tesla S, awarding the pricey electric sedan a customer-satisfaction score of 99 out of 100.

But the shine seems to be wearing off.

The magazine now says its 2013 Model S test car has had "more than its share of problems," including a total shutdown of the electronics that control the car.

"Just before the car went in for its annual service, at a little over 12,000 miles, the center screen went blank, eliminating access to just about every function of the car," the magazine said in a statement.

The problem was fixed with a "hard reset" but other problems and glitches have popped up during the nearly 16,000 miles the magazine's staffers have driven the test car.

Most are minor but could be vexing. They include:

• A broken seat belt in the back seat. It was replaced at no charge.
• The front trunk lid stopped responding to the virtual button on the center screen.
• A charger adapter came apart.

The car has also gone in for one routine service visit at about 12,000 miles. That included fluids, the cabin air filter, key fob batteries and tire rotation. The tab: $636.

Still love it

CR insists that most of its staff members still love the car despite the problems.

"Car nut or not, EV fan or not, everyone has raved about this car, impressed with its smoothness, effortless glide, and clever, elegant simplicity," it said in its statement.

In last year's reliability survey, the Tesla got an average score but that may not hold up this year.

"Given the number of bits and pieces Tesla has replaced on our car, it might be tempting to guess that its reliability score will go down. The reality is, it might—depending on the frequency and severity of problems reported by our subscribers and whether they show that reliability is below average," said CR staffer Gabe Shenhar.

Edmunds.com has also noted some issues with its Model S, including a frozen touchscreen. It also said it has had to replace the main battery pack after incidents in which the car stalled, Automotive News reported.

Does your dog have a nose ring? How about your cat -- have you pierced its ears? Been thinking of a nipple ring?

Well, think again. If you live in New Jersey, your metalhead animal could get you in the ringer. Assemblymen Carmelo Garcia, Jason O’Donnell and Raj Mukherji (all D-Hudson) introduced a bill to clarify that under New Jersey law, tattooing or piercing a pet amounts to animal cruelty.

Apparently there is a trend lately of tattooing and piercing animals. It's not just in the United States. In Russia, cat owners get their felines tattooed with elaborate, colorful designs.

A bill in New York prohibiting pet tattooing passed the state legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to ink it. Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal introduced the measure in 2011 after noticing "gothic kittens" with tattoos and piercings for sale online.

Farm animals can still get "Got Milk?" as a tattoo as well as sheep and goats because they sometimes get branded or marked for identification.

In March, the ASPCA said in a statement that it condones the use of small tattoos on animals that are used exclusively to mark them as having been spayed or neutered. The New Jersey bill does not have an exception for those types of tattoos.

No word yet on gold teeth.

Satellite radio was a novel concept when it debuted in 1990. You could get hundreds of stations, reflecting all types of programming, and no matter how far you drove, you would never go out of range.

Even so, as a business model satellite radio has struggled. In the U.S. the two competing providers, Sirius and XM, merged into one company in 2007. Selling subscriptions starting at around $8 a month, the company has faced continued strong competition from terrestrial radio stations, which are free.

Now technology has served up even more competition – smartphone apps.

Bluetooth is a game-changer

Most new cars now provide Bluetooth connectivity between mobile devices and the vehicle's entertainment system. The primary purpose is safety – when a call comes in on a connected smartphone, it plays through the entertainment system speakers, providing hands free capability.

But that same connectivity provides some entertainment options. Free smartphone apps like I Heart Radio and TuneIn allow users to play hundreds of radio stations on their phones.

If the programming can be played on a phone, it can also be played through the vehicle's entertainment system. Someone driving on I-95 in North Carolina can listen to their favorite jazz station in Los Angeles if they want.

Abundant programming

Besides the hundreds of terrestrial radio stations available through both apps, both offer access to Internet radio stations that have few, or no commercials, just like many of the satellite stations. They may not have Howard Stern, the big draw for Sirius, but these apps have hundreds of podcasts from up and coming comedians or an archive of public radio programming, like This American Life.

Unlike satellite radio, access to this content costs nothing, except for the data you consume through your wireless plan. If you have T-Mobile as a carrier, that's not even an issue since T-Mobile now has a policy that the music you stream doesn't count against your monthly data allowance.

Satellite radio does provide traffic reports for major markets, which is fine if you happen to be driving in one of those cities. But more than likely you're on an Interstate highway when you need to know if there is an accident a few miles ahead.

Waze

Fortunately, there's an app for that. Waze is a community-based traffic and navigation smartphone app. Its content – information about road conditions – comes from other users who happen to be on the same road at the same time.

After typing in their destination address, users just drive with the app open on their phone to passively contribute traffic and other road data, but they can also take a more active role by sharing road reports on accidents, police traps, or any other hazards along the way, helping to give other users in the area a 'heads-up' about what's to come.

This doesn't help solo drivers, because as we all know drivers should not be looking at their phones while behind the wheel. But a passenger looking at the Waze screen can track the movement of the vehicle on the road and be aware of upcoming hazards, like accidents or broken down vehicles on the shoulder.

The map also shows rest stops and other travel landmarks as they approach on your route. The interface tells you how many other users – they're called Wazers – are in the vicinity. A chat feature lets you communicate directly with them or ask a question.

Waze even offers advice on where to fill up. Users can post the location of the cheapest gas they've encountered.

While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mulls new regulations of electronic cigarettes, the attorneys general of 29 states are urging the agency to adopt even tougher rules than it has already proposed.

“E-cigarettes have all the addictive qualities of regular, combustible cigarettes, yet they are completely unregulated by the FDA,” said New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, one of the author of a letter to the FDA signed by the 29 AGs. “While we applaud the FDA’s proposal to start regulating these tobacco products, it falls far short of what is needed to protect our youth.

Among other recommendations, the attorneys general pressed the FDA to prohibit flavors in e-cigarettes, and to restrict advertising and marketing for e-cigarettes in the same manner as for cigarettes.

"Each year, electronic cigarette companies spend millions of dollars advertising their product – often on prime-time television -- glamorizing smoking in the same way combustible cigarettes did before those commercials were banned. And each year, more and more youth try electronic cigarettes, exposing themselves to the proven dangers of nicotine,” the AGs argue.

While some claim that e-cigarettes may have the potential to help smokers quit using combustible cigarettes, the FDA has not approved them as smoking cessation devices, the AGs note, and they say they're concerned that e-cigs will cause teens to become addicted to nicotine and ultimately to start using cancer-causing combustible products that do contain tobacco.

In 2013, e-cigarette advertisements on television reached over 14 million teens, and magazine advertisements reached 9.5 million teens. In just one year, the five largest e-cigarette companies increased their marketing expenditures by 164%.

Over 35 years ago, tobacco companies recognized that flavored cigarettes were attractive to younger smokers, leading the FDA to ban flavored cigarettes.

“Today, we urge the FDA to do the right thing and protect our youth from yet another tobacco epidemic,” the letter continues. “We don’t need these e-cigarettes aimed at our youth. What we need are strong FDA regulations that protect the public health and protect our youth from a lifetime of nicotine addiction. The FDA should ban all flavored electronic cigarettes and should prohibit e-cigarette advertising on television, radio and youth-oriented magazines.”