Current Events in November 2014

Three out of four minivans recently tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) came up woefully short, with only one vehicle performing acceptably.

The Nissan Quest, the Chrysler Town & Country and its twin, the Dodge Grand Caravan, all earn poor ratings. The only exception is the 2015 Toyota Sienna, which earned an acceptable rating, joining the Honda Odyssey, which last year earned a good rating in the small overlap crash test, in the ranks of TOP SAFETY PICK+ award winners.

“Minivans are popular among parents, a group that tends to be safety conscious,” said David Zuby, IIHS executive vice president and chief research officer, “but we've only seen two so far that offer decent protection in small overlap crashes.”

The small overlap test replicates what happens when the front corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle or an object such as a tree or a utility pole. The crash forces bypass the vehicle's main energy-absorbing structure. These crashes may be especially difficult for minivans to handle because minivans are typically built on car platforms, but are wider than cars. As a result, more of the vehicle is located outside the main structure. Minivans also are heavier than cars.

Sienna the exception

In the case of the Sienna, Toyota modified the front structure of the 2015 model to improve small overlap protection. Still, it didn't hold up that well in the test, with intrusion measuring as much as 5½ inches at the upper door hinge pillar and instrument panel. The dummy's head contacted the front airbag but immediately slid off the left side. The safety belt also allowed the dummy to move too far forward.

On the plus side, the side curtain airbag deployed and had sufficient forward coverage to protect the head from intruding structure. Measures taken from the dummy showed that the risk of any injuries would be low in a crash of this severity.

Quest

While the Sienna managed an acceptable rating despite subpar structural performance, all bets were off for the Quest. The structure was pushed in nearly 2 feet at the lower hinge pillar, and the parking brake pedal moved 16 inches toward the driver. The dummy's left leg was trapped between the seat and instrument panel, and its right foot was caught between the brake pedal and toe pan. Following the tests, technicians had to cut the entire seat out and then use a crowbar to free the right foot.

The Quest receives a good subrating for restraints and kinematics, but that is deceiving. This component of the rating measures how well the safety belt and airbags work to control the dummy's movement. In the Quest, the dummy was held in place by the intruding structure, and the airbag was shoved into its face.

"That kept the measured risk of head injury low, but that's about the extent of what can be expected from the restraint system when the basic structure collapses so completely," said Zuby.

The forces measured all along the dummy's left leg, from the thigh to the foot, were very high, in some cases exceeding the limits of the sensors.

"A real person experiencing this would be lucky to ever walk normally again," Zuby points out. A broken right femur also would be possible. The Quest's poor rating applies to 2011-15 models.

Town & Country

The Town & Country's structure also collapsed around the dummy. Intrusion measured 15 inches at the lower hinge pillar and the instrument panel. The skin on the dummy's left lower leg was gouged by the intruding parking brake pedal, and its left knee skin was torn by a steel brace under the instrument panel.

The head barely contacted the front airbag before sliding off and hitting the instrument panel, as the steering column moved to the right. The door sill and the steering column both moved in toward the driver. The side curtain airbag deployed but lacked sufficient forward coverage.

Measures taken from the dummy indicate that injuries to the left hip, left knee and left lower leg would be likely in a crash of this severity. As with the Quest, some of the forces were off the scale.

These results apply to the 2008-15 Town & Country and the 2008-15 Grand Caravan. (They also apply to another, discontinued twin, the 2009-12 Volkswagen Routan.)

The only minivan sold in the U.S. not rated by the Institute is the Kia Sedona. The manufacturer has told IIHS it plans to make a change to the vehicle in the coming weeks to improve small overlap protection, so it will be tested shortly.

Ratings criteria

The IIHS introduced the small overlap front test in 2012. In the test, which is more challenging than either the head-on crashes conducted by the government or the Institute's moderate overlap front test, 25% of a vehicle's front end on the driver side strikes a rigid barrier at 40 mph.

Vehicles with a good or acceptable small overlap rating, along with good ratings in the moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests, qualify for the 2014 TOP SAFETY PICK award. Vehicles that meet those criteria and also earn a basic or higher rating for front crash prevention qualify for the TOP SAFETY PICK+ award.

The Sienna earns its "plus" on the basis of an advanced front crash prevention rating. Its optional system includes forward collision warning and an automatic braking function that reduced impact speeds by an average of 9 mph in the Institute's 12 mph test and by 7 mph in the 25 mph test.

President Obama has nominated a candidateto fill the vacancy at the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): Dr. Mark R. Rosekind, a psychologist who specializes in the study of human fatigue and its effects on people's ability to perform various intellectual or mechanical tasks.

Rosekind is currently one of five members of the National Transportation Safety Board. Last year, when the NTSB recommended that the blood alcohol standard for drunk driving be cut down to .05 from the current .08, Rosekind was credited with leading the scientific work leading to that recommendation.

However, critics including Mothers Against Drunk Driving have suggested that Rosekind's .05 recommendation is too harsh; even a single glass of wine with dinner could put a small-framed woman over that limit.

Rosekind's nomination for NHTSA head might also face opposition because, for all that human psychology and behavior (especially behind the wheel) remains a significant factor in many car accidents, the NHTSA's focus lately has been on technological issues: for example, overseeing recalls of vehicles with dangerously flawed electronic-ignition or airbag systems.

Critics of NHTSA have charged that the agency hasn't keep pace with technological changes in the vehicles it's supposed to oversee, in which case the agency might arguably be better served by a leader with more technological expertise than Rosekind, with his doctorate in psychology.

Even if the Senate does confirm Rosekind's nomination, this might not happen before it adjourns in December, meaning Rosekind wouldn't take over as head of the NHTSA until sometime in 2015.

In a harshly worded complaint, Arizona has sued General Motors for $3 billion, accusing it of deliberately concealing serious safety defects, most notably the faulty ignition switches that have led to 2.6 million recalls and more than 30 deaths but also including dozens of other defects that have led to recalls in recent years.

“Under Arizona law, companies have a basic responsibility not to deceive and mislead, but instead to act honestly and in good faith. As this lawsuit illustrates, General Motors failed to do that, endangering too many Arizonans,” said state Attorney General Tom Horne.

It's the first lawsuit filed against GM by a state alleging that the safety defects amount to consumer fraud. Last May, GM agreed to pay a $35 million fine imposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency. It also faces a mounting stack of class action and individual lawsuits.

The Arizona suit claims that by concealing known defects, GM enticed Arizona consumers to purchase vehicles under the false pretense that they were safe and reliable.

Besides alleging that GM products were sold under deceptive conditions, the suit charges that owners of GM vehicles have suffered financial damages because their cars and trucks have lost market value owing to the large number of recalls and the resulting damage to GM's reputation.

Concealed important facts 

The lawsuit, which runs to more than 100 pages, lays out the allegations supporting the claim that GM misrepresented and concealed important facts in its efforts to sell cars, thereby violating the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.

The maximum penalty for each violation of that law is $10,000. 

“GM manufactured and sold unsafe vehicles in Arizona and knowingly concealed information about safety hazards from the driving public, and its own customers,” said Horne. “As a result, hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting owners and lessees in Arizona continued driving unsafe vehicles, posing a danger to themselves, their passengers and loved ones, other drivers, and pedestrians — all while GM knew the truth about the defects.”

The complaint alleges a consistent pattern of delay that followed every defect discovery by GM and seeks to hold GM liable for its actions and alleged omissions after July 10, 2009, which is the date New GM acquired virtually all of the assets and selected liabilities of the previous, bankrupt GM.

In the complaint, Horne makes short work of the claim that New GM should not be held responsible for actions taken -- or not taken -- by its predecessor company.

"New GM was not born innocent," the suit asserts.

When 2015 arrives in a few weeks millions of Americans will resolve to lose weight. What will be their first step in planning a strategy?

For many it will be sitting down at their computer and using a search engine to find the best weight loss programs. But it may surprise them to learn that to get the best advice, they need to go beyond the first few results that pop up.

A study appearing in the American Journal of Public Health shows that when using a common search engine like Google, the first page of results on the subject of diet and exercise is likely to display what the authors call “less reliable sites,” instead of more comprehensive one. Further, the results may contain sponsored content that makes unrealistic weight loss promises.

The research started from a personal observation. François Modave, chair of the Department of Computer Science at Jackson State University, led the study after hearing friends and family spout information they got from the Internet – information he knew to be hokum.

It didn't take long to put 2 and 2 together, since he knew the first links that appear in an Internet search, no matter what the topic, get nearly 90% of all clicks.

Putting it to the test

We decided to put Modave's observation to the test. Using Google, we entered “weight loss programs” in the search field.

The first three results were clearly marked as advertisements. The first non-sponsored link was for Dr. Oz's 2-Week Rapid Weight-Loss Plan Instructions, perhaps not the most authoritative source. Next was an article in US News about The Best Weight-Loss Diets. That was followed by Nutrisystem's corporate website.

The fourth entry was Healthy Weight Loss, a page on the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) website.

When we conducted the same search using Bing, there were no government health websites or independent medical authorities among the first page of search results.

Note to government webmasters

The researchers say federal agencies, academic institutions and medical organizations need to work a lot harder at search engine optimization (SEO) to get their links on top of searches.

Until that happens, Modave says it's up to consumers to be more critical when doing online searches for important health information.

In 2012, Modave and his team looked at 103 websites for questions about weight loss and rated the content based on available evidence-based guidelines for weight loss.

They found medical, government and university sites ranked highest, along with blogs. They also found a lot of dubious information. Most of the websites couldn't manage a score above 50%.

Additional research

And it's not just weight loss where an Internet search can present you with some less-than-objective information. As we reported earlier this year, researchers at the University of Florida (UF) found overall health information obtained online was not only lacking in quality, but could be hazardous.

The UF researchers made an interesting discovery. The broader the search topic, the more reliable the web sites in the search chain. For example, “ear infections” linked to reputable sources higher in the list than a highly specific topic, such as “vaccines for newborns.”

The takeaway? It's similar to what the Jackson State study concludes.

“Based on these results, health consumers and patients may feel assured that they can find some high-quality health information when using a search engine,” said study co-author Christopher A. Harle. “However, consumers and patients should know that searches for some health topics, such as nutrition or fitness, may result in more information that is potentially lower quality.”

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission shut down an alleged “tech support” scam operating out of New York. This week, the FTC announced a similar shutdown of two more supposed tech-support companies, this time out of Florida.

Here's what the FTC had to say about the companies' standard operating procedure:

"Your computer is damaged ... we'll help you fix it." It’s the latest twist on tech support scams: Scammers sell software online that claims to increase your computer’s performance. They lure you to their websites with pop-up ads or web searches. Then, they tell you to call a phone number to activate or register the software. On the phone, they ask for remote access to your computer and then tell you that your computer has many errors that need to be fixed immediately.

It’s all part of their plan to sell you bogus "security" or "technical support" products or services. Really, your computer is fine. They want to charge you – possibly hundreds of dollars – for software and services that you don’t need and that doesn’t help.

In October, the feds went after New York-based company Pairsys. This week, they went after Inbound Call Experts (ICE) and Vast Tech Support, both based in Florida.

Unfortunately, there are still plenty of similarly scammy tech-support services out there, ready to sell services which are useless at best, and harmful to your computer at worst. Perhaps the best way to protect yourself is simply to never give any strangers remote access to your computer — even if those strangers say they'll help fix whatever ails it.

Or, as the FTC says: “Don’t give control of your computer to someone who says they need to activate software. Instead, look carefully at the software instructions to learn how to activate the software yourself.”

What if you got a letter from a world-renowned psychic telling you that you should play a certain number in the lottery? All you have to do to become a multimillionaire is fill out a form and send a few dollars to the supposed psychic.

Well, unlikely as it sounds, many consumers fall for this and rush to the post office to send in their money so they can learn which number is about to hit it big.

The U.S. Justice Department today filed civil complaints in a New York City federal court seeking to shut down two operations that run similar schemes.

“The complaints filed today charge that the companies and individuals made blatant misrepresentations in order to reap financial gain by scamming thousands of Americans, many of whom were elderly and in a vulnerable financial condition,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Joyce R. Branda for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Our job at the Justice Department is to put a stop to fraud schemes that seek to take advantage of vulnerable Americans.”

The court action also seeks a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to immediately put a stop to the ongoing schemes.

Mail fraud

According to the complaints, the defendants operate two mail fraud schemes in which they send solicitation letters purportedly written by world-renowned psychics to consumers through the U.S. mail.

The first scheme, operated by Destiny Research Center and the Canadian company Infogest Direct Marketing, sends direct mail solicitations allegedly written by psychics Maria Duval and Patrick Guerin. The second scheme, operated by Christine Moussu through New York companies CLGE Inc. and I.D. Marketing Solutions Inc., sends direct mail solicitations allegedly written by psychics David Phild, Sandra Rochefort, Antonia Donera and Nicholas Chakan.

The complaints allege that in the letters, the purported psychics state that they are contacting the recipient based on a specific vision or psychic reading revealing that the recipient has the opportunity to make millions fast.

The solicitation letters appear personalized, repeatedly referring to the recipient by first name and often containing portions that appear handwritten. Many victims not only sent money but also wrote personal, handwritten letters back to the purported psychics, which were never opened, and received worthless, mass-produced trinkets and further solicitations after sending these payments.

“Relying on superstition and fear, the defendants defrauded tens of millions of dollars from thousands of vulnerable citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch for the Eastern District of New York. “We have, and will continue to, use all means at our disposal to protect our citizens from such schemes to defraud.”

“These mass solicitations containing purportedly personalized messages to unsuspecting victims were blatant fraud,” said Acting Inspector in Charge Troy Raper of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Criminal Investigation Group. “Postal Inspectors aggressively investigate any operations that use the U.S. mail to fleece unsuspecting victims.”

Caging service

Metro Data Management Inc., doing business as Data Marketing Group Ltd., a company on Long Island, New York, along with its president, Keitha Rocco, performed “caging” services on behalf of both mail fraud schemes. According to the complaint, these services consisted of processing victim payments and maintaining databases of consumers who responded to the fraudulent solicitations.

The government alleges that Data Marketing Group processed as much as $500,000 in victim payments in a given two-week period for the Destiny Research Center scheme, resulting in annual gross receipts of at least $13 million.

The CLGE scheme brought in annual revenue of $1.5 to $2 million. Evidence presented by the United States in support of its motion indicates that victims of the mail fraud schemes were elderly, ill and in perilous financial condition.

Martha Stewart has gone from cakes and towels to pets. She already has a line of pet products in PetSmart called "Martha Stewart Pets." That line has clothes, dog and cat beds, grooming supplies and other items. But wait! There's more to come.

At a trade show earlier this week, Stewart said that pet products were one of the fastest-growing parts of her business and said she will be launching another line called "Best of Show," again teaming up with PetSmart. You can be sure it won't be linens. My guess is food. It's just a guess, though. It could be a number of things.

No word what will differentiate the two lines but the new line "Best of Show" will launch in May of 2015.

Stewart herself does have dogs that have shown and that have won in the Westminster Dog Show. In 2012 her dog, Genghis Khan II, won the blue ribbon for Best in Breed.

I guess it really doesn't matter what it is that she is launching since there seems to be no limit on what consumers will spend for their pets. So whatever it is, people will buy it.

Paws on ice. It's not a new Disney show at the coliseum. It's something you really need to watch out for now that we have seen the snow fall from the sky and blanket the streets and sidewalks in many parts of the country.

That first snow is beautiful, but here is the reality -- and you know it all too well -- it turns into ice and when there is a great deal of ice, out comes the salt.

The main ingredient in most icemelt products is either sodium chloride or calcium chloride. Both sodium and calcium chloride can irritate a dog's paws or be harmful to the animal if ingested.

Once you take your dog outside be sure to clean their paws right away. Even if you don't see the salt or the topical product they put on the ice it is most likely there and if your dog licks its paws it could get very sick and start vomiting or get diarrhea.

Everything melts and puddles may contain the salt also -- it's just not yellow snow you want to stay away from. Any snow could have the salt in it. So don't let them drink from the puddles or eat the snow.

It's just not something you want to mess with. A dog that ingests 4 grams (less than 1 oz.) of sodium chloride per 1kg (2.3 lbs.) of body weight could die. That would mean a dog that weighs only 4 lbs. would only need to eat about 2 ounces of icemelt containing sodium chloride before getting fatally ill. 

You can try the dog boots if you want. Your dog may walk a little funny at first but they do get used to them and the boots can protect their feet from getting ice burn as well.

If you are salting your driveway or sidewalk use a safe non-toxic product such as Safe Paws or Morton Safe-T-Pet. These products do not contain salt or chloride

Starting next month, Mozilla and Yahoo will both be implementing some changes to their respective business models: Mozilla will abandon Google in favor of making Yahoo the default search engine on its Firefox browser, and Yahoo will start honoring some of its customers' Do Not Track requests for a change.

Mozilla first made this announcement in a Nov. 19 post on the Mozilla Blog, noting that “Search is a core part of the online experience for everyone — Firefox users alone search the Web more than 100 billion times per year. … Google has been the Firefox global search default since 2004. Our agreement came up for renewal this year, and we took this as an opportunity to review our competitive strategy and explore our options.”

For now, any Firefox browser comes equipped with a Google search window (usually in the upper-right corner of the toolbar). Of course, any Firefox user is free to that setting, so that the search window instead goes to Bing, DuckDuckGo, or other options. Starting sometime in December, the default will change from Google to Yahoo Search, powered by Bing – though, again, Firefox users will have the option to change those default settings if they wish.

Mozilla added that “Under this partnership, Yahoo will also support Do Not Track (DNT) in Firefox.”

That is a significant change from Yahoo's previous policy. Last April, Yahoo made a point of announcing that it wouldn't even allow Do Not Track requests to be made — which, arguably, was a better (or at least more honest) policy than what it had before: allowing Do Not Track requests, then ignoring them.

Not that Yahoo was or is unique in that regard: most browsers that accept “Do Not Track” requests tend to ignore them. Google Chrome's Do Not Track Page, last updated in October 2012, says this:

Does Chrome provide details of which websites and web services respect Do Not Track requests and how they interpret them?

No. At this time, most web services, including Google's, do not alter their behavior or change their services upon receiving Do Not Track requests.

"Personalized experience"

So in April, when the “Yahoo Privacy Team” updated Yahoo's policy blog, it boasted about making “a personalized experience” for users: “As of today, web browser Do Not Track settings will no longer be enabled on Yahoo. As the first major tech company to implement Do Not Track, we’ve been at the heart of conversations surrounding how to develop the most user-friendly standard. However, we have yet to see a single standard emerge that is effective, easy to use and has been adopted by the broader tech industry. … The privacy of our users is and will continue to be a top priority for us.”

So what happened to change Yahoo's mind about Do Not Track since then? The Do Not Track initiative thus far has (unsurprisingly) proven spectacularly unpopular with advertisers, presumably because they figure that the more data they have on you, the greater their chances of making money thereby.

Last June, an ad-industry trade group called the Digital Advertising Alliance urged a web-standards group to abandon their Do Not Track efforts, for fear that ordinary web users like you and me might be tricked into inadvertently having our online activities not-tracked when we'd actually prefer everything we do be tracked non-stop, or something:

Microsoft, for one, now turns on the do-not-track signal automatically for some Internet Explorer users.

The ad industry says that do-not-track signals set by default don't reflect a user's preference to avoid tracking across Web sites. But the industry also says there's no good way to distinguish between a signal set by a user and one set by a developer.

So, as of last summer, Microsoft's policy set it apart from such companies as Google and Yahoo: they wouldn't honor Do Not Track requests even when they received them, whereas Microsoft made Do Not Track a default setting.

Fast-forward to this month and Mozilla's upcoming changes to its Firefox browser: the Yahoo Search function coming to Firefox is powered by Microsoft Bing. Will Yahoo henceforth honor Do Not Track thanks to a newfound appreciation for user privacy, because they can't avoid it with Microsoft, or for some other reason?

She's inspired

Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer didn't say one way or other, in her blog post trumpeting the new arrangement between Yahoo and Mozilla, Meyer made no mention of privacy or Do Not Track, but discussed how the new arrangement was sure to be wonderful for Mozilla, Yahoo and all customers thereof, and added:

Our teams worked closely with Mozilla to build a clean, modern, and immersive search experience that will launch first to Firefox’s U.S. users in December and then to all Yahoo users in early 2015. The interactive and integrated experience also better leverages our world-class content and personalization technologies.

Search inspires us because we think it’s something that will change and improve dramatically, and because fundamentally, search is about human curiosity — and that is something that will never be finished.

Consumer prices were unchanged in October, thanks largely to declining energy costs which offset increases in other prices.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was steady last month, holding the increase over the last 12 months to just 1.7%.

Energy and food costs

Gasoline prices fell 2.0% in October, the fourth decline in as many months, while natural gas prices dropped 2.7% and fuel oil plunged 4.0%. Electricity, on the other hand, inched up 0.5%. Overall, energy prices declined 1.9% for the month and are down 1.6% over the past year.

Food prices rose edged up 0.1% in October, the smallest increase since June. Fruits and vegetables were up 0.9%, nonalcoholic beverages jumped rose 0.6%, dairy and related products posted an 0.5% increase, and cereals and bakery products rose 0.3%. In contrast prices for meats, poultry, fish and eggs -- which had been rising sharply in recent months, declined 0.4 percent. The cost of food at home is up 3.3% over the last 12 months -- the largest 12-month increase since April 2012.

Core rate

The core rate of inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy categories, increased 0.2 percent in October. Contributing factors were higher prices for shelter, airline fares, household furnishings and operations, medical care, recreation, personal care, tobacco, and new vehicles. Costs for used cars and trucks and for apparel declined.

The core rate for the last 12 months is up 1.8%

The complete CPI report is available on the Labor Department website.

Jobless claims

After taking into account the revisions to the previous week's reports, initial applications for state unemployment benefits were lower in the week ending November 15.

First-time applications totaled a seasonally adjusted 291,000, a drop of of 2,000. The previous week's level was revised upward by 3,000 -- to 293,000. The consensus of analysts surveyed by Briefing.com was for the claims level to drop to 285,000.

Even with the upward revision, the claims level continues to remain below 300,000 which is normally associated with full employment.

The 4-week moving average, which removes the volatility found in the weekly numbers, rose by 1,750 to 287,500.

The complete report is available on the Labor Department website.

Sales of previously owned homes rose in October for the second straight month and are now above year-over-year levels for the first time in a year

Figures released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) show total existing-home sales -- which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, rose 1.5% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.26 million.

Sales are now at their highest annual pace since September 2013 and are above year-over-year levels for the first time since last October.

“Sales activity in October reached its highest annual pace of the year as buyers continue to be encouraged by interest rates at lows not seen since last summer, improving levels of inventory and stabilizing price growth,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Furthermore, the job market has shown continued strength in the past six months. This bodes well for solid demand to close out the year and the likelihood of additional months of year-over-year sales increases.”

Prices and inventories

The median existing-home price for all housing types in October was $208,300, up 5.5% from a year ago -- marking the 32nd consecutive month of year-over-year price gains. The median is the point at which half the homes were priced higher and half lower.

Total housing inventory at the end of October fell 2.6% to 2.22 million existing homes available for sale, representing a 5.1-month supply at the current sales pace -- the lowest since March. Unsold inventory is now 5.2% higher than a year ago, when there were 2.11 million existing homes available for sale.

“The growth in housing supply this year will likely prevent the drastic sales slowdown and coinciding spike in home prices we saw last winter due to low inventory,” said Yun. “However, more housing starts are needed to increase supply, meet current demand and keep price growth in check.”

Sales regionally

• Existing-home sales in the Northeast climbed 2.9% last month to an annual rate of 710,000, and are 4.4% above a year ago. The median price was $246,900 -- 1.2% above a year ago.
• In the Midwest, jumped 5.1% to an annual level of 1.24 million, and are 2.5% higher than October 2013. The median price in the Midwest surged 6.8% from a year ago to $164,100.
• Sales of previously-owned homes in the South increased 2.8% to an annual rate of 2.17 million, and are now 5.3% above their year-ago level. The median price was $178,000 -- up 5.1% from a year ago.
• In the West, though, sales fell 5.0% to an annual rate of 1.14 million, and remain 3.4% below a year ago. The median price rose 5.0% year-over-year -- to $296,800.

“Be a smart consumer. A frugal life is a comfortable life.” When discussing such themes the usual emphasis is on life, and how to make a better one for yourself and the people you love.

But life eventually has to end, even for yourself and the people you love. It ended last week, for my mother-in-law. Hers wasn't entirely a bad death, by the miserable yardstick that measures such things — but she didn't have the death she'd wanted or planned for, either. A mistake here, an oversight there, and all her carefully made arrangements unraveled at the end, making things worse for her and for those of us she left behind.

Sandra -- “Sandee” to her friends and family -- spent her childhood and working adult life in New England before she and her late husband eventually retired to an “active adult” community outside of Myrtle Beach. Her health had been in decline for the past couple of years; generally active living punctuated by evermore-frequent hospital stays. She actually went into hospice last Christmas, though she recovered well enough that the doctors released her a week or so later. My brother-in-law Dave lived with and helped care for her, though he and my husband Jeff both knew that sooner or later, she'd probably have to leave her “active adult” community and move into an assisted-living facility.

That was the status quo until the weekend before Veterans' Day.

The phone rang while Jeff and I were making Sunday dinner; the nurse/social worker who helped care for his mother called to say she'd had a major setback and needed a full-time live-in assistant. Her insurance should eventually cover that, except paperwork problems prevented that coverage from kicking in immediately; long story short, Jeff called a sort of medical babysitting service down there and arranged for someone to stay with Mom overnight (at $18 per hour) so Dave could get some badly needed rest. Hopefully, by Monday morning the insurance paperwork would go through and she could get a permanent full-time assistant.

Cardiac arrest

Dave called back a few minutes later to cancel the babysitter – Mom had gone into cardiac arrest and was en route to the hospital. She'd filled out a Do Not Resuscitate form, but Dave couldn't immediately find it, so of course the EMTs went to work on her. By the time he found the DNR six minutes later, she had a pulse again. (A doctor later apologized to him, saying that the EMTs “should have” respected his medical power of attorney without seeing the actual DNR. Still, you truly can't fault the EMTs here.)

When I first heard this story, I dared hope the DNR snafu would turn out for the best — she'd wake up, walk out of there and have another decade or so of rip-roarin' ahead of her. She'd beaten the odds before: how many ex-hospice patients do you see walking around, anyway? Jeff thought the same thing; some time that night he smiled wryly and said, “She's going to be really pissed to wake up in a hospital again.”

But she wasn't. She never regained consciousness.

Dave called Monday afternoon to say the doctors were taking her off the respirator; she'd shown no response except occasional finger-twitching. The next morning, Jeff and I drove down from our home in northern Virginia. While we were still an hour outside of Myrtle Beach, his brother called to say the doctors were doing something to her pacemaker with magnets, something to help ease her passage out.

Piteous moans

But she still held on. She was alive – technically, at least – when Jeff and I got to the hospital around six that night. The second we saw her, we abandoned our previous hopes that the DNR mixup would have a happy ending. She remained unconscious, and thoroughly unresponsive except for the piteous moaning sounds she made with almost every exhalation.

“She sounds like she's in pain,” I said.

“She probably is,” the nurse replied. “I'll give her more morphine.” She spoke again, in a louder voice: “Mrs. P, I'm going to give you some pain medicine, okay?” No response. The morphine dampened the moans but didn't make them stop.

They moved her out of the ICU into a regular room an hour or so later. No change.

“The doctors don't know how long she'll stay like this,” Dave said. “They're amazed she's lasted this long.”

We three took turns holding her hands or smoothing her hair, in case any part of her still craved human contact. We said comforting things, in case any part of her could still hear them. We have no idea if this made any difference at all.

Finally, around ten, we all wished her good-night, and left for my mother-in-law's house. The night nurse promised to call us if anything changed. Just after one o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, November 12, it did.

Reverse mortgage

We mourned as well as we could, but our grief almost immediately had to take a backseat to more practical matters. As soon as she passed, a clock started ticking – she had a reverse mortgage on the house, which had to be entirely emptied out in . . .  how long did we have, exactly? Hard to say when we couldn't find where she kept the paperwork.

For homeowners of a certain age contemplating a reverse mortgage, there are many factors to consider: should you get one, are they a good deal for you, what are the financial downsides, and what about your eventual heirs? But here's two additional factors: how much stuff does your house actually contain, and how organized is that stuff — do you keep important paperwork (like your reverse-mortgage deed or Do Not Resuscitate form) where it's easy to find when needed?

Unfortunately, my mother-in-law did not. Her house by the end contained far too much stuff, hardly organized at all. She'd filled out a Do Not Resuscitate form specifically to avoid lingering in unconscious pain — yet still did so for more than two days, since nobody could find the DNR when it mattered.

Nor could we easily find anything else that mattered. Where'd she keep the key to her safe-deposit box? We looked in jewelry boxes and junk drawers, through countless envelopes and files she'd kept stacked in plastic bins — but eventually, purely by good luck, I found it at the bottom of one of four department-store shopping bags she'd had overflowing with half-used arts and craft supplies. Important documents from her life-insurance and pension companies were mixed in with files full of crossword puzzles she'd cut out of magazines. So we couldn't just throw away any boxes of junk, but had to go through every individual piece of it first.

We've all heard the jokes about evil or at least hyper-critical mothers-in-law, but none of those applied to me — my MIL and I had always got along spectacularly well. Until after she died, and I spent several days and collected several bruises helping to clear out the enormous piles of magazine articles, junk mail and loose beads interspersed with the very occasional important-or-valuable keepsake she'd stashed in there.

So, yeah: first I'd get annoyed with her, for leaving such a godawful mess behind. Then I'd get mad at myself for having such mean thoughts about a sweet old lady at this of all times, and likely as not I'd tear up again to remember anew just why I was here emptying out her house in the first place.

I take comfort in her son Jeff's observation: “If she knew you were writing an article with her as a Cautionary Example, or what a pain in the ass it was to handle her affairs afterward, you know she'd laugh and print out copies for all her friends.” He didn't exaggerate — I found the purple plastic file labeled Jennifer Articles in her handwriting.

Rest in peace, Sandee.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is calling for a national recall of vehicles with certain driver’s-side frontal air bags made by Takata.

The agency says it's basing the decision on its evaluation of a recent driver’s-side air bag failure in a vehicle outside the current regional recall area and its relationship to 5 previous driver’s side air bag ruptures -- all of which are covered by existing regional recalls.

“By demanding this national recall, NHTSA has demonstrated once again that it will follow data and evidence to protect the lives of Americans on the road and to hold manufacturers accountable,” said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

NHTSA contacted Takata and the vehicle manufacturers this week to call for the national recall of these vehicles after evaluating a recent incident that involved a failure in a driver’s side air bag inflator outside an area of high absolute humidity. Based on this new information, unless Takata and the manufacturers quickly agree to this recall, NHTSA will use the full extent of its statutory powers to ensure vehicles that use the same or similar air bag inflator are recalled.

More information demanded

The agency also issued a General Order to Takata and all ten of the vehicle manufacturers that use Takata air bag inflators -- BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota -- requiring each manufacturer to file, under oath, a detailed report and produce all related documents about completed, ongoing or planned testing of Takata inflators outside the current regional recall areas.

The agency is demanding this information to compel Takata and the affected industry to be frank with not only NHTSA, but the American public, as to what testing and additional steps they have done and plan to do to control and mitigate the risk associated with Takata’s defective inflators.

Additionally, NHTSA issued a Special Order to Takata -- the second it has issued to the manufacturer regarding this defect -- compelling it to provide, under oath, documents and detailed information on the propellant used in Takata’s inflators. In recent days, Takata has publicly conceded that it changed the chemical mix of its air bag inflator propellant in newly designed inflators. As part of the investigation, the agency will analyze the information received to determine if the chemical composition of Takata’s propellant mix may be a cause and/or contributing factor in the air bag inflator ruptures.

“We now know that millions of vehicles must be recalled to address defective Takata air bags and our aggressive investigation is far from over,” said NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman. “We’re pushing Takata and all affected manufacturers to issue the recall and to ensure the recalls capture the full scope of the problems.”

More testing needed

While NHTSA is not aware of either field incidents or test data suggesting that the problem affecting passenger-side air bags in the areas of persistently high humidity extends beyond those areas, the agency has been pushing the industry to perform testing to ensure that current recalls effectively cover vehicles with air bags that could be potentially affected by this defect.

The information the agency receives from Takata and the auto manufacturers will provide further information and details needed to continue its investigation into this complex issue. Responses to the General Order and Special Order are due to NHTSA by December 5.

It wasn't long ago that having a website was considered an option, if not a luxury, for small businesses, professional practices and local organizations. Those days are long gone. Today a robust, reliable and responsive website is a necessity.

Fortunately, it's easier and less expensive than ever. Web-hosting services have become more affordable while content management systems like WordPress now make it easy for anyone to build an attractive site and keep it up to date.

A word about WordPress

Before you get around to picking a web-hosting provider, it's important to decide how you will build and maintain your site. There are numerous site-building "kits" and platforms on the market, some free, some pretty pricey. By far the most popular is WordPress, an open-source database-driven platform that relieves you of having to learn HTML, CSS, PHP and all those other mysterious programs and languages.

Since it was originally designed as a blogging platform, WordPress just instinctively makes it easy for you to add the new content that's essential to keeping your name in front of whatever slice of the universe is your market. After all, the websites that attract the most visits are the ones that are updated most often. 

WordPress itself is free and there are professionally designed "templates" -- many of them free or modestly priced -- that will give you the exact look and feel you're looking for.

Just because it's free doesn't mean it's third-rate. Some notable brands using WordPress include the New Yorker, TechCrunch, BBC America, Variety, Sony Music and Best Buy, to name just a few.

WordPress’ highly intuitive interface makes it easy to work with, but choosing the wrong hosting company can negate the benefits. The dependability of the site is determined largely by the hosting company. Choosing the wrong host could lead to frequent and extended downtimes and could make your site slow to load. 

There are thousands of web-hosting companies out there, many of them quite small. While small is sometimes good, in web-hosting, it's the larger players who have the sophisticated automation and highly redundant infrastructure that make it easy for you to keep things running smoothly with little need for tinkering or help from tech support.

What kind of automation? Well, one-click WordPress installation for one thing. Intalling WordPress yourself is fairly simple but make one mistake and you can spend the rest of the day getting things straightened out. 

There are many other ways large hosts can make your life simpler and save you time and money. Most provide one-stop shopping for domain names, hosting plans, email services, regular backups and other essentials. What you want to avoid are companies that make extravagant promises, rock-bottom prices and soaring rhetoric that sounds too good to be true because you know what we say about things that sound too good to be true.

In fact, many smaller hosting companies that claim to be "boutique" firms that tailore their services to you are really just reselling the services of larger companies and often doing so in a way that ends up degrading performance and decreasing reliability.

Size matters

Everyone knows that if you need major surgery, you want to find the surgeon and hospital who perform the operation more than anyone else. The same is true of web-hosting; you want a massive globe-girdling operation that has the facilities, staff and sheer scale to keep your site running responsively under the most adverse conditions. 

Looking at the vast array of sites out there and drawing on our experience of more than 20 years of buiding and running web sites, we've picked our five favorite hosting companies for WordPress -- GoDaddy, HostGator, FatCow, MochaHost and 1&1 Hosting.

Although there are subtle differences, each of these companies offers a wide range of hosting plans, realistic pricing, 24/7 tech support and highly evolved management tools to make the process as easy as possible.

In putting our recommendations together, we compared mid-range business-class hosting plans. In each case, we went for a plan that has room for growth without being wasteful. While it's always possible to transition from beginner to intermediate level, why bother? For a few dollars per month, you can have the extra capacity in reserve when you need it. The last thing you want is for your website to be unable to keep up with your customers' demands when things get busy.

Keep in mind that prices and features are changing constantly and each company has many more plans than we review here. Frankly, it would be hard to go wrong with any of these companies but each has its own flavor and style. While the inner workings may be similar, you're more likely to be happy with a provider that sees the world as you do -- maybe with a touch or irony, some light barnyard humor or simply a clean and elegant look, the choice is yours. Happy hunting.

GoDaddy

GoDaddyis perhaps best known to the world at large for its sponsorship of auto racing superstar Danica Patrick. To the rest of us, it's known for its domain registration services. It has for years been the largest domain registrar and has steadily expanded into web-hosting and related services.

GoDaddy is one of those companies that has gotten so big that at times, it has been difficult to navigate its various menus. But a recent top-to-bottom redesign has put everything in its logical place and usability is now about as simple as anyone could ask for a provider with such a wide range of products and service levels.  

For a growing business or organization looking for WordPress hosting, we'd choose the WordPress Pro package. For $29.99 per month, you can host up to 25 websites handling millions of visitors per month.

The price includes one free domain name, "unlimited" storage and a one-click migration service that makes it easy to move your site from another host to GoDaddy. If, by the way, you have ever tried to do this, it is one of those things that's not really difficult but it requires careful planning and very close attention to detail. Successfully automating it is a neat trick, assuming it works. We haven't had a chance to try it as of this writing but will do so soon and post an update when we do.

The $29.99 also includes a number of items that will become very familiar as you look at hosting packages  -- 24/7 tech support, automatic backups, thousands of WordPress themes and plugins, 99.9% uptime and so forth. They'll become familiar because just about everybody offers them.

GoDaddy and most other big hosting companies also keep your WordPress installation up to date, automatically updating WordPress each time a new version is issued. It's a small thing but it's also easy to forget, so it's great to not have to worry about it.

HostGator

HostGator claims to be the world's largest hosting company, with about 8.5 million domains on its servers. HostGator's size allows it to offer significant savings to accounts of all sizes. 

HostGator's Business WordPress plan goes for $10.36 per month and includes "unlimited" domains, disk space and bandwidth, a free SSL certificate and a free 800 number.

FatCow

FatCow entered the web-hosting business in 1998 and has built a loyal following. Its WP Essential package sells for $6.95 per month, which includes "unlimited" disk space and bandwidth, free domain registration, "unlimited" email accounts, 24/7 support and a wide variety of pre-installed WordPress themes and plug-ins. A perhaps unique FatCow attribute is that it claims to be 100% wind-powered. No bull.

MochaHost

MochaHost is one of the few big hosting companies headquartered in Silicon Valley. Most of the others are in Texas. And, come to think of it, MochaHost's primary data centers are located in Dallas and Houston. 

This privately-owned company hosts more than 1 million domains and has been growing rapidly. 

MochaHost's WP Advanced plan goes for $6.48 per month and includes "unlimited" disk space and domains, one free domain name and thousands of WordPress themes and plug-ins.  

1&1 Hosting

1&1 Hosting, although not as well known to the outside world as GoDaddy, is a huge company with nearly 14 million customers worldwide and a long track record of growth and stability. 

1&1's Performance plan sells for $14.99 per month and includes "unlimited" disk space, bandwidth and domains, a free domain name and SSL. It also includes 1&1's content delivery network -- a system that deploys your content on multiple servers in widely separated geographic areas, thus speeding delivery to users in those areas. 1&1 is the only host reviewed here that offers CDN service at such a reasonable price.  

So how do you choose?

It would be hard to make a wrong decision by picking any of these five companies. All are excellent -- literally world leaders. Prices are similar and the included feature lists are nearly identical. Perhaps the harder decision is picking the right package. 

Assuming you plan to use WordPress, any of the mid- to high-range packages mentioned here should be more than adequate, assuming you don't become an overnight sensation attracting millions of daily visitors, in which case your first step should be hiring a world-class IT department to handle your web development.

It's always best to buy more capacity than you need. Things grow. Especially anything related to the web and digital data. You will soon be "hitting the overhead" -- a painful experience -- if you cheap out on your hosting plan.

What's "unlimited" mean?

You may have noted that in describing the various plans, we are careful to put the word "unlimited" in quotation marks. That's because, very simply, no one is going to offer truly unlimited bandwidth, storage or anything else. If you have enough endurance to read the terms of service of each hosting plan, you will find words like "customary" and "reasonable," meaning that your plan is unlimited as long as you don't abuse it. Common sense, really.

There was a time when states like Nevada and Arizona had no speed limits. But they had laws that said drivers should operate at "safe and reasonable" speeds, meaning that blazing along at 110 mph was an invitation to visit the local judiciary.

That pretty much describes where the web-hosting business is today. For nearly nothing, you can set up an attractive, responsive and reliable website and cruise smoothly along the Internet's highways and byways while being alert for occasional bumps and potholes. Run your site safely and reasonably and you should enjoy unlimited success.   

We're coming up on the busiest air travel day of the year. On the day before Thanksgiving, more people take a flight than any other day of the year, resulting in long lines and cramped cabins.

What if every day was like that? The U.S. Travel Association says it soon will be.

The group partnered with Cambridge Analytics for an annual study of the U.S. air travel system, assessing the adequacy of air travel infrastructure and the amount of airport congestion.

“The already bad news about our overwhelmed air travel system has gotten worse since last year,” said association president Roger Dow, in a conference call with reporters.

Nightmare scenario

The study tried to answer this question. When will we get to the point that the congestion of the day before Thanksgiving is found at every U.S. airport every day of the year?

“Compared to last year 26 of our top 30 airports will reach Thanksgiving levels in terms of congestion on a daily basis sooner than expected,” Dow said.

Dow says the only good news wasn't really very good. The airports that registered a slight improvement are already the busiest facilities operating at capacity, like JFK and San Francisco.

“Everywhere else the news is pretty horrible,” he said. “Some places like Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Newark, Reagan Airport in DC will now get to the Thanksgiving level tipping point decades sooner than we projected last year.”

Demand still growing

The problem is getting worse because of the steady increase in passenger demand for air travel. But instead of improving airports and systems to keep up with demand, Dow says the can is getting kicked down the road.

“The point of doing all of this is to demonstrate to our political leaders the urgent need for action,” Dow said.

And it's more than a matter of inconvenience for the traveling public. Dow says jobs and economic growth are at stake because the U.S. system is losing ground as the rest of the world has improved.

“Today not a single U.S. airport is ranked in the Top 25 world wide,” he said.

Airlines not helping

At a time when airport infrastructure is in a holding pattern, it should be noted that the airlines are not doing a lot to make flying more pleasant. As demand has increased, airlines have trimmed capacity to try and more exactly meet demand by limiting flights and destinations.

The same day Dow briefed reporters on the state of U.S. airports, United Continental CEO Jeff Smisek, in an interview with CNBC, was unapologetic about crowded planes.

“It would be great to get on an airplane and be the only passenger. You'd have a huge spacious cabin to yourself. But nobody could make money with that,” Smisek said. “What we're doing is turning this into a business. Now I understand that people would like to have an empty middle seat and we'd be happy to sell them that empty middle seat if they'd be willing to pay for it. Although they value it, they're not willing to pay for it.”

His comments add to the gloomy outlook for consumers when it comes to air travel. While the Air Travel Association study sees a rather small increase in air travel demand in the next year – around 2% – Dow says that increase will present huge problems for the system.

“It's dire because we're already at capacity at so many airports,” he said. “You begin looking at the delays that work their way across the country every day, passengers tell us right now, with zero growth, the cancellations, the delayed flights are a nightmare.”

JetBlue likes to say its core mission is "to inspire humanity" and insists that its "differentiated model of serving underserved customers remain[s] unchanged."

Perhaps so but meanwhile it's jamming in more seats and imposing a checked-bag charge, insisting all the while that the changes will benefit its "three key stakeholders." As Robin Hayes, JetBlue's president, put it: "It delivers improved, sustainable profitability for our investors, the best travel experience for our customers and ensures a strong, healthy company for our crew members." 

Hayes, by the way, is succeeding longtime CEO Dave Barger, who was widely seen as clinging to JetBlue's customers-first way of doing things.  

Investors have had it with this approach. They have long been restive about what they see as passengers living it up at their expense -- crunching away on blue potato chips and enjoying free wi-fi while stretched out with all that legroom as their bags loaf around down below. 

But no more.

"Today we announced actions that we've been working for some time to enhance JetBlue's revenue performance, control costs and reduce capital commitments through 2017," said Mark Powers, JetBlue's chief financial officer. "As we execute this plan and continue to grow, we also seek to drive significantly improved returns for our shareholders. We believe our strategy, in combination with the additional initiatives discussed today, keep us on a path to enhance long-term shareholder value."

Buckle up

In other words, buckle up, keep your credit card handy and bring a book with you.

JetBlue said it will add 15 seats to its Airbus A320 aircraft, bringing the total to 165 and reducing legroom by about 5%. On the cost side, adding those 15 seats will require a fourth flight attendant, since federal regulations require one attendant for every 50 seats.

The company said it will introduce three new fares in the first half of 2015 to help in its mission of extracting more money from each customer. It described the new fare structure this way:

"The first of these will be designed for customers who do not plan to check a bag, while the latter two will offer one and two free checked bags, respectively, along with other attractive benefits, including additionalTrueBlue points and increased flexibility. This new merchandising platform will enableJetBlue to tailor its offering to individual customers' needs in a way that is simple and transparent."

The airline is also deferring the purchase of 18 new airplanes. Instead, it says it will "refresh" its A320 cabins.

When gift-giving time rolls around I always avoid buying Barbie-themed stuff for any of the little girls in my life, and this latest facepalmer from Mattel explains why.

Barbie's book I Can Be A Computer Engineer, one of many offerings in the I Can Be … series, teaches little girls that they can indeed work with computers when they grow up – provided there's boys around to help them handle the hard stuff:

At breakfast one morning, Barbie is already hard at work on her laptop.

“What are you doing, Barbie?” asks Skipper.

“I’m designing a game that shows kids how computers work,” explains Barbie. “You can make a robot puppy do cute tricks by matching up colored blocks!”

“Your robot puppy is so sweet,” says Skipper. “Can I play your game?”

“I’m only creating the design ideas,” Barbie says, laughing. “I’ll need Steven and Brian’s help to turn it into a real game!”

Tee hee. It gets worse: read on, and discover that Barbie the supposed computer expert can't so much as reboot a computer by herself and doesn't even seem to know what a virus is, let alone why computers need to be protected from them.

Barbie infects Skipper's computer, causing Skipper to lose her homework assignment and all of her music files, which astonishes Barbie the computer expert because who could've guessed that viruses even exist, let alone lurk in the heart-shaped flash drive (seriously) Barbie wears around her neck?

And even after she learns these things, she still needs Steven and Brian's help to fix her virus problems, because that's how stupid Barbie is according to the Mattel corporation's own officially sanctioned and ostensibly pro-Barbie propaganda.

Pamela Ribon, a writer at Walt Disney animation studios, first discovered the book's awfulness while visiting a friend with two Barbie-loving young daughters.

Flip the book and you can read “Barbie: I can be an Actress,” where Barbie saves the day by filling in for the princess in Skipper’s school production of “Princess and the Pea.” She ad-libs and smiles her way through her lines, and charms the entire audience. Standing ovation, plenty of praise. At no point did she need anybody’s help. She didn’t even need lines! Just standing there being Barbie was enough for everyone in attendance. See, actors? It’s not that hard. Even Barbie can do it.

When you hold the book in your hands to read a story, the opposite book is upside down, facing out. So the final insult to this entire literary disaster is that when you read “Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer,” it appears that you are so fucking dumb, you’re reading “Barbie: I Can Be an Actress” upside down.

Nicely condensed

The reviewers on Amazon were no happier with the book. One man called it “generations of damaging stereotypes nicely condensed into one short children's story,” and said: “While it used to take years of negative messaging to teach women and girls that they are second-class citizens in technology fields, this little gem can give you a great head start at a tender young age. As a computer scientist, and as the father of a little girl (named "Ada"), I am viscerally nauseated to encounter a children's book so utterly inappropriate in the modern era.”

Though the book did collect a handful of glowing five-star reviews, as well, A woman named Misty wished she'd had access to such quality literature in her own girlhood:

WHY WHY WHY didn't I have this jem of a book before I went to school to be a software engineer!!! After almost 20 years in the field, working my behind off, I had no idea I just had to flick my long blonde locks and have Steve and Brian do all the work for me. What the heck have I been thinking all these years! I can't believe all of the long hours I have put in and all the hard work. I could have had life on easy street this whole time.

That's it. For the rest of my career I'm putting on pink glasses and having the men do the work for me and sweetly letting me take the credit! Now I can get that huge raise I have been wanting, all thanks to guys like Steve and Brian. Thank you, Barbie, thank you for showing me that it's A-OK for women to sit back and let men take care of everything. Now I can eat my bon bons in peace.

It's shaping up as a very busy holiday travel season, with more than 24 million passengers expected to fly on U.S. airlines domestically and internationally between Nov. 21 and Dec. 2. That's a 1.5% jump last Thanksgiving -- or 31,000 more passengers per day.

So if you are planning on going anywhere you'd better book your flights ASAP and if you are planning on taking Ralph the dog make no bones about it -- you might need a few tips.

Book online. It's much easier to compare fares by booking online, but even if you do go that route call your carrier and make sure that there is room for your pet in the cabin or cargo hold of that flight. Then call back and make the reservation for your pet.

Direct flights are the best bet. Only do a layover if there is no direct flight. Keep your layover to 2 hours. I know some of this is out of your control but in an almost perfect flight pattern this is what you are after. Do not change airlines if you are traveling with a pet. You will have to claim and re-check your pet. Changing planes is OK (but not great); changing airlines is not even close to OK.

Don't fly to the big one. Sometimes it's easier and cheaper to book to the smaller airport near your destination and then rent a car to drive the rest of the way. It might be easier on Ralph as well. He can stick his head out the window and let the fresh air blow on his whiskers. Plus it's better than those bumpy rides in the little airplanes -- the ones where your head hits the overhead storage bins when you sit down.

Traveling on the weekend? Book it on a Tuesday by 3:00 PM. This is when the airlines have re-priced their seats on flights for the following weekend. ALWAYS make sure they tell you if there is room for your pet in the cabin or cargo area.

Best day to fly. Wednesday is usually the best flying day, since most people tend to fly on Mondays and Fridays. This year, the airline trade group Airlines For America says the busiest day to fly will be Sunday Nov. 30, followed by Monday Dec. 1, and the day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday Nov. 26. The least congested travel days will be Thanksgiving Day and Friday Nov. 28.

A red eye is OK. A red eye flight or first flight out in the morning will get you the best ticket prices. Be aware though if you are flying internationally, you want your flight to be during the day and during the week so you don't have to pay extra for a veterinarian to clear your pet.

Flexibility is the key. If you are willing and able to be a little flexible you will have a better chance of getting a cheaper fare and if you have a large dog traveling with them can really be expensive. So being creative with your schedule may save you some bucks.

It's an undeniable fact of modern life: any Internet connection can be hacked. Therefore, anything you wirelessly and remotely control over the Internet is vulnerable to hackers, everything from smart meters to computers and smart TVs(with their microphone and camera attachments) and your wireless home-security and baby monitor setups (ditto).

There's no reliable way of knowing exactly how many such networks have already been hacked, though you'll see the occasional warning story in the news. Last April, for example, a family discovered that a hacker had hijacked their baby monitor and used it to spy on their infant daughter – but they only discovered this after the hacker announced his presence by screaming obscenties at the baby in the middle of the night.

So anything with an IP (Internet protocol) camera has the potential for hackability — yet there's no need to make things too easy for the hackers. Anytime you purchase a new password-protected device, you need to actually assign it a password rather than stick with the standard default password that comes installed on such devices.

Too obvious

Such advice almost sounds too obvious to mention, yet on Halloween, Vice's Motherboard tech blog reported its discovery of an unnamed website dedicated to streaming camera footage from unprotected personal IP cameras.

Last week, I sat at my computer and watched a young man from Hong Kong relaxing on his laptop; an Israeli woman tidying the changing room in a clothes store; and an elderly woman in the UK watching TV.

All of these people were completely unaware that I was spying on them, thousands of miles away, through devices that were inadvertently broadcasting their private lives on the internet. … This particular website exposes IP cameras. These are external devices typically bought to keep an eye on valuables, act as a baby monitor, or make up a home or business security system. Some of these devices come with a default password that many users do not change, which is how this site is able to access them.

For those who know how, it's quite easy to write software that automatically searches for IP camera feeds (or anything else) set with default passwords. Consider how many password-protected remote-wireless devices might be found in a typical modern home: a wi-fi router, wireless modem, perhaps a baby monitor or home security-camera system, remote-controlled HVAC systems, smart TVs and even smart smoke and fire alarms, all in addition to your everyday communication devices.

All of those password-controlled items came with default password settings — and if you haven't changed the passwords on your devices, anyone who knows the default password can easily take control of them.

Also remember, as always, to give each device a unique password all its own; avoid using the same password across multiple devices, so if someone manages to steal the password to one of your accounts or devices, he won't be able to access any more of them.

The unnamed voyeurism site claims to be engaged in a form of white-hat hacking: discovering and pointing out security flaws so they can be fixed before any “bad guys” can use those flaws for bad ends. That said, the idea of exposing live feeds into people's homes is the sort of bad end white-hat hackers traditionally help people avoid.