Big Lots Recalls Ottoman

Recall Summary

Name of product:

Wilson and Fisher brand Cayman Resin Wicker Ottoman

Hazard:

The center of the ottoman can collapse during normal use, posing a fall hazard to consumers.

Remedy:

View Details

Refund

Consumer Contact:

Big Lots toll-free at (866) 244-5687 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or online at www.biglots.com and click on “Recalls” at the bottom for more information.

Recall Details

Units

About 14,000

Description

The Wilson and Fisher brand ottomans are dark brown resin wicker with cream colored cushions. They are part of a six-piece Cayman Resin Wicker seating set consisting of two ottomans, two chairs, a sofa and a table.  The recalled sets will have item number DA13-015-6S-2CO and SKU 810140754, which can be found in the instructions that accompany the sets.

Incidents/Injuries

Big Lots has received 19 reports of consumers falling through the centers of ottomans.  Six reported minor injuries such as back strain, scratches, bruises or contusions.

Remedy

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled ottomans and return them to any Big Lots store for a $50 refund each.  Customers will be allowed to keep the remaining pieces in the sets.

Sold exclusively at

Big Lots stores nationwide from February 2014 through March 2014 for about $320 per set.

Importer

Big Lots, of Columbus, Ohio

Manufactured in

China.

All information on this recall obtained from CPSC.Gov

R.I.P. Casey Kasem Dies at 82

LOS ANGELES — 

Casey Kasem, the smooth-voiced radio broadcaster who became the king of the top 40 countdown, has died at age 82.

Danny Deraney, publicist for Kasem's daughter, Kerri, says Kasem died Sunday morning, June 15, 2014.

Kasem's "American Top 40" began on July 4, 1970, in Los Angeles. The No. 1 song on his list then was "Mama Told Me Not to Come," by Three Dog Night.  

The show continued in varying forms, and for varying syndicators,  until his retirement in 2009. In his sign-off, he would tell viewers: "And don't forget: keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars."

Arrested For Having Sex With What????

 An Ohio man who admitted last year to having sex with a pool raft has been arrested again for the same alleged behavior.

Police charged Edwin Tobergta, 35, of Hamilton, Ohio with felony public indecency after a passerby observed him nude having simulated sex with a pink life raft by the side of the road, Fox 19 reports. This is the fourth time Tobergta has been arrested for this kind of offense.

In 2011, Tobergta was caught with his pants down in an alley with his neighbor's pink, inflatable raft.

He went to jail, but was arrested again in 2013 for having sex with the EXACT SAME RAFT, which had inexplicably not been thrown out. The 2013 offense occurred at Tobergta's own home, but he was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, public indecency because it happened within the view of children during the day.

It is unclear if Tobergta's most recent alleged offense took place with the same pool raft.

In 2002, Tobergta was arrested for publicly pleasuring himself with an inflatable pumpkin. That object wasn't a pool toy, though, because come on, a man needs a little variety.

In his newest mugshot, Tobergta is wearing a T-shirt that reads, "I'm out of my mind. Please leave a message."

Two people dead after a woman dropped her cell phone into a toilet.

Two people suffocated and several others were reportedly injured after a woman dropped her cell phone into a cesspool in Xinxiang City, Henan province, China.

According to the South China Morning Post, the woman's husband climbed down into the open-pit toilet to collect the phone, worth about $300. He was reportedly overcome by the stench, lost consciousness and fell in. The man's mother reportedly jumped in after her son, but she also fainted.

Neighbors were called for help after the owner of the phone tried to save her husband and mother-in-law. She also lost consciousness. Several other people were injured in an attempt to help the victims.

“The smell was too strong. I lost consciousness before I could see anything,” a neighbor told Dahe Daily, according to a SCMP translation.

Neighbors found a rope and used it to haul the people out. In total, six people ended up being pulled from the cesspool, which was reportedly filled knee-deep with waste.

The husband and his mother both had pulses when they were rescued, but died after it took medical responders more than an hour to arrive on the scene.

"Two lives have gone in five minutes and my cousin's wife is still in coma, leaving a partially-paralyzed old man and a one-year-old son at home." the husband's uncle said, according to Shanghaist. "What are we supposed to do?"

Say What????

 

1. 

Source: imgur

2. 

Source: winter_storm

3. 

Source: beheadingboredom

4. 

Source: thestuccobungalow

5. 

Source: beingamyk

6. 

Source: imgur

7.

Source: vitamin-ha

8. 

Source: hamovhotov

9. 

Source: ihmsdiscovery

10. 

Source: keepbusy

Could Your Phone Camera Be Used to Spy on You?

In his recent television interview with NBC's Brian Williams, former NSA analyst Edward Snowden outlined the kind of spying techniques government agencies are capable of.

One segment was particularly troubling. In it, Snowden described how a hacker could potentially hijack the camera in Williams' pre-paid smartphone and use it to capture photos, video, and audio without his knowledge.

But is something like that really possible? Can someone really activate your camera without your consent? Several recent revelations seem to suggest that the answer is yes.

Using the exploit DROPOUTJEEP, the NSA could allegedly gain remote access to iPhone cameras way back in 2008. [Credit: Flickr user "reticulating" (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)]

Back in December, German news magazine Der Speigel published alleged NSA documents that it claimed were sent by Snowden. Buried in those documents, which date back to 2008, was mention of a method for gaining complete access to iPhones, dubbed DROPOUTJEEP. (It's important to note, however, that it's impossible to know whether the same methods apply to current iPhone models.)

Apple responded to the allegations in a statement to AllThingsD, claiming that it has "never worked with the NSA to develop a backdoor in any of  its products, including the iPhone."

According to the alleged NSA documents:

"DROPOUTJEEP is a software implant for the Apple iPhone that utilizes modular mission applications to provide specific SIGINT functionality. This functionality includes the ability to remotely push/pull files from the device, SMS retrieval, contact list retrieval, voicemail, geolocation, hot mic, camera capture, cell tower location, etc. [...] All communications with the implant will be covert and encrypted."

According to the documents, the initial release of DROPOUTJEEP was to be installed via "close access methods," which All Things D interpreted as direct physical access to the device in question. The slide, now more than six years old, said that future versions of this hack would focus on developing the ability to install the exploit remotely.

But if you don't have an iPhone, you're fine... right? No, not quite.

The same documents also claim that the NSA has (or, more likely, had) a special working group dedicated to accessing Blackberry devices, though there's no specific mention of means for activating the camera on a Blackberry. Of course, since 2008 Blackberry has fallen and Android has risen to control more than 80% of the smartphone market. It seems safe to assume that hacks like these are also being developed for Google's OS.

Indeed, just a few days ago Szymon Sidor, whose LinkedIn page states that he's a former engineering intern with the Google Analytics team, demonstrated in a video how it's possible to activate the camera on an Android device remotely. The only visible evidence that the camera application is running is a single pixel that's almost impossible to detect, even if you know it's there.

Though this new video isn't proof that the NSA has access to Android phones, it's strong evidence that they could. With that said, it's important to remember that this type of hacking must be done on a targeted basis. It's extremely unlikely that such an exploit is running on your phone now.

Either way, it's clear that, at least at one point, government agencies had the ability to remotely view the world through private individuals' smartphone cameras.