Free Urdu English Islamic, IT, Urdu Story , Ebooks Library | PDF Docx Format | Learn Online

At Consumerist, we take burgers very seriously. So much so, that we wanted to share some tips we gathered from an expert about the basics every burger lover should know before they fire up their grill. We spoke to Chef Howie Velie, Associate Dean of Specializations at the Culinary Institute of America, and here are a few things he says every home cook should keep in mind: 1. Use ground beef with an 80/20 lean-to-fat ratio If you want something to be moist, like a burger, you have to maintain the moisture within the product. To do that, Chef Velie says, it’s important to use a ground beef with high fat content, because fat equals moisture. He adds that whatever heat source you use, whether it be a grill or a pan on the stove, heat transfers very well through fat. That means the fattier the burger, the faster it will cook, Chef Velie explains. 2. Charcoal grills are great — but propane works too Chef Velie says his personal preference is using lump charcoal in a charcoal grill, in...

Preventing food waste is good, but not to the point of dumpster-diving for deer brains at a wild game butcher. The former owners of a Chinese restaurant in Pennsylvania are accused of dealing in illegal deer meat, at least some of which came from the trash at butchers that process deer for hunters. PennLive.com reports that back in 2015, the state Game Commission found hundreds of pounds of deer parts at the restaurant , which included heads, brains, and parts that the Game Commission couldn’t identify offhand. The couple who owned the restaurant ultimately pleaded guilty to restaurant violations and paid a fine. They no longer own the restaurant, which is still open. In Pennsylvania, restaurants are allowed to serve venison, but only from animals raised on commercial farms. Butchers process wild deer for the hunters who killed them, but those hunters are only able to keep and eat the meat themselves, or give it away. It’s illegal to buy, sell, or barter meat from wild animals. “No...

Look, we’re not wildlife experts by any stretch of the imagination, but there is one very easy way to avoid injury by head-butting or other aggression from our large animal friends : Don’t get too close, even if it means the difference between an amazing selfie and one that is only great. The National Park Service is reminding people to steer clear of park animals after two visitors were injured by a bison in Yellowstone National Park on Wednesday. The married couple was taking photographs on a boardwalk at Mud Volcano when a bison lumbered over. It butted the woman, who then fell into her husband, sending them both to the ground. Park rangers immediately evacuated the couple from the trail and transported them to a clinic. The husband had minor injuries, while his wife was flown to a hospital in Idaho, where she was reported to be in stable condition. The visitors were not cited, but park officials are stressing the importance of taking “safe selfies,” and staying at least 25 ya...

If you have been in the vicinity of any children between roughly ages 6 and 18 lately, you have been in the vicinity of fidget spinner toys. They are everywhere, and so when someone says, “Wow, fidget spinners are exploding” you could be forgiven for thinking they mean it figuratively. Alas, it seems that “exploding” is now true in both senses of the word. Parents in at least two states have recently gone to local news outlets, alleging that their kids’ chargeable fidget spinners burst into flames while plugged in. Because nothing can just be left alone, these fidget spinner models don’t just have movable parts you can mess around with, but also have internal batteries that power bluetooth speakers. Sure, why not. But batteries are a problem. As we’ve seen with everything from hoverboards to laptops and smartphones , if there’s a battery inside a thing, that thing can catch fire when you least expect it. As at least two of these spinning, singing, song-pumping toys have now done. ...

This holiday weekend is a long one, giving people everywhere ample opportunity to stock up on all manner of fireworks from not-at-all sketchy roadside vendors conveniently situated near the state border. But are you actually allowed to set off those Big Bang Boomers and Star Spangled ‘Splosions, or are you limited to staring into the glinting abyss of a sparkler, hoping to recapture the simple joys of youth? As usual, that largely depends on where you live. There are two rules — conveniently both on the same page of the Code of Federal Regulations — that govern fireworks on a nationwide level. The first rule — Title 16, Part 1500.17(a)(3) for those keeping track — prohibits: “Fireworks devices intended to produce audible effects (including but not limited to cherry bombs, M-80 salutes, silver salutes, and other large firecrackers, aerial bombs, and other fireworks designed to produce audible effects, and including kits and components intended to produce such fireworks) if the audib...

For many people, this Fourth of July weekend is sure to be a busy one — Parades! Picnics! Parties! But when the fireworks have all stopped and you’ve been rendered immobile after consuming too many grilled things — or if you just need a few hours to not talk to your family and friends about the definition of “patriotism” — you can still get into the spirit of the weekend with some movies. Here’s a list — far from encyclopedic, but a good start — of holiday-relevant viewing available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu (some are admittedly a bit of a stretch, but not every movie can be 1776 ) on July 4: Netflix American Genius A National Geographic series that “depicts some of America’s fiercest scientific and technological rivalries, including Colt vs. Wesson, Edison vs. Tesla, and Jobs vs. Gates.” American Hero A reluctant superhero named Melvin is all about crime, womanizing, and drugs, until he inevitably goes through some kind of change of heart that makes him see everything...

The trend continues: As consumers increasingly cut the cord and back away from traditional pay-TV, they still want to watch content. And rather than let all the money go to Hulu, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube, cable and satellite companies are cautiously wading into the all-online world. This week, CenturyLink and possibly Charter are joining the fray. First up, CenturyLink. As DSL Reports has observed , CenturyLink’s own over-the-top streaming service has officially launched, although it’s still technically considered a beta test. Packages start at $45 per month and are available to anyone, not just existing CenturyLink subscribers. However, customers who also have CenturyLink broadband can get a $5 per month discount by bundling the two. CenturyLink Stream includes a Cloud DVR, for recording programming to watch later, and can be used on a Roku, via an iOS or Android app, or a dedicated CenturyLink player, which is basically CenturyLink’s version of a Roku or similar device. The p...

Just over two years ago, venerable but bankrupt electronics chain RadioShack cut a deal with mobile carrier Sprint to save thousands of jobs and keep 1,740 stores that were formerly part of RadioShack open . Only the unsecured creditors in RadioShack’s second bankruptcy now accuse its pal Sprint of using information from the contract to open hundreds of stores near the strongest RadioShack locations, dooming the reborn RadioShack.. Reuters reports that in a lawsuit filed in Delaware state court, the committee of unsecured creditors in this 2017 bankruptcy accuses Sprint of breaching its contract with RadioShack, not providing the phone inventory and employees that were part of the contract that the two companies signed to create the SprintShacks. Instead, the unsecured creditors allege, Sprint used information it obtained from the deal with RadioShack to learn which locations were the “best” ones, then opened its own stores near those Shacks. The unsecured creditors committee accuse...

Proving that a guilty conscience can be a powerful thing, a convenience store clerk in South Carolina shamed an armed man who was trying to rob the store into backing out of the dastardly deed. Horry County police responded to the store on June 18 after a man walked in and demanded man while brandishing a knife, reports The Sun News . But the night clerk — who police say remained “unfazed” by the threat — refused to hand over any cash, and instead ordered the suspect out of the store. Stymied in his robbery efforts, “he apologized to the clerk,” put the knife away, and left. Police are now asking the public to help find the suspect, who is described as a white man in his early 30s, about 5’9” and 130 pounds. He was either driving or was the passenger in a Chevrolet Suburban. Recognize him? Contact the Horry County Police Department . This isn’t the first time a would-be criminal or an actual thief has felt bad enough to apologize for their misdeeds, actual or attempted: • An apol...

It’s never been easier to split the bill with your friends — from “Venmo-ing” $20 for a birthday gift or Facebook messaging $12 for your share of last night’s pizza. But brand new peer-to-peer (P2P) payment systems backed by big players, including established banks, are hitting app stores this year. Apple plans to debut its own P2P app this fall , while the big banks are banding together for a product called Zelle. With so many competing services, how will you decide which system (if any) to use? Sure, you might be confident enough to download an app based on your friends’ recommendation (or simply because they owe you money), but you might be better served if you do a little investigating on your own. From knowing your legal rights, to understanding just how long you have to wait before your cash is available to withdraw, there’s more to P2P systems than silly app names and convenience. Here are five questions to ask when looking for a peer-to-peer payment system. Can I Talk to a ...

Although streaming music services are currently duking it out for listeners’ ears, there will always be people out there who insist to their friends, “You know, this actually sounds a lot better on vinyl.” For those folks — as well as many other music fans who enjoy tunes produced by a solid hunk of plastic — Sony has decided to resume pressing vinyl records for the first time since 1989. Sony wants to keep up with demand from not only from aging hipsters, but also younger people who might be discovering vinyl for the first time. Production will start in March 2018 at a plant in Japan run by a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment, reports Nikkei . The last vinyl record Sony pressed in-house was in 1989, when CDs were beginning to replace cassettes as the dominant format. Sony will be pressing popular older albums, mostly Japanese music it holds the rights to, as well as newer hit records. The company will also field offers from other record labels, as one of only two record manufa...

With Republican lawmakers unable to reach a consensus on how to replace the Affordable Care Act, President Trump and some influential senators are now calling for a straightforward repeal of the law, with any replacement to come at some later date. President Trump, as is his tendency, made his suggestion in an early morning Tweet, saying that if GOP senators can’t reach a deal on their current repeal-and-replace legislation, they should “immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!”: If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017 Shortly after this remark, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — who has decried the Senate bill as being “Obamacare Light” — claimed to have spoken to the President about this issue and that they are of a like mind about moving forward with simply repealing the 2010 healthcare law: I have spoken to @realDona...

Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness. Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here , and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool. by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

UPS is testing package delivery drones on trucks so a single driver can make multiple deliveries at once, but how can it make short-range deliveries now , without buying more trucks? A new law in Kentucky allows for package deliveries by golf cart on public roads. Yes, golf carts. In theory, UPS can begin using its special golf carts to make deliveries starting today, the Wall Street Journal reports . However, the vehicles and the part-time, lower-paid drivers who drive them will mostly be deployed during holiday shopping season to help UPS keep up with shipping demand. The company’s drivers aren’t very happy about the new vehicles, though. Golf carts are included in the UPS drivers’ union contracts. Until now, deliveries using them have been limited to places like retirement communities in Florida where people get around primarily using similar carts, and the paths don’t accommodate cars. However, union representatives point out that even if the carts are retrofitted with seat be...

As we mentioned in our coverage of the Congressional Budget Office’s review of the Senate proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the ten-year focus of the CBO analysis could not fully illustrate the impact of Medicaid cuts that wouldn’t come until the latter half of that decade. Today, the CBO released a separate report that estimates what effect those cuts might have ten to twenty years from now. In the CBO’s initial report, it said that the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act would lead to a 26% cut in Medicaid spending by 2026. Today’s analysis [ PDF ] predicts that this gap would continue to grow over the subsequent decade, reaching 35% by 2036. Opponents of the BCRA said the typical 10-year window for a CBO report was inadequate for the senate GOP proposal, since many of the long-term changes to federal involvement in Medicaid don’t begin until the latter portion of that window. For instance, starting in 2025, the BCRA would change how the government calculates its pe...

No matter what field you work in, we all have the right to make at least minimum wage. But phone-sex operators working for a Florida-based company claim in a lawsuit that they’re being paid far less for their intimate chat time. In a complaint [ PDF ] filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the plaintiff claims that Tele Pay USA — a company whose overly bland name is incongruously attached to an image of a lingerie-clad model — pays its workers as little as $4.20 per hour, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act . The national minimum wage is currently $7.25/hour, though a number of states and cities have set higher minimums. The workers contend that the allegedly low wages they receive are a small fraction of what Tele Pay charges. According to the lawsuit, callers pay as much as $5 per minute for the intimate chit-chat. That would be $300 for an hour of Tele Pay talk, per these numbers. The plaintiffs say that Tele Pay portrays itself as a “booking agent” for actors w...

Though Senate leadership recently decided to delay a vote on its plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the GOP is still hoping to get the details of that bill ironed out before the holiday. One possible change involves a controversial tax on the wealthy that has long been a target of repeal advocates. The current version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act would eliminate a 3.8% tax on investments that only applies to individuals earning more than $200,000 per year or married couples earning a total of $250,000, and only on earnings from things like capital gains, investment interest, dividends, and annuities. Critics of this tax cut — which would total more than $172 billion over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office — have characterized it as a giveaway to the wealthy, especially as the tax repeal offers no apparent direct benefit to the insurance markets. Multiple reports now indicate that the GOP is leaning toward keeping this tax in p...

Of all the industries to be rocked by scandal, you probably never expected that Big Tuna would be a hotbed of conspiracy. And yet, another fishy exec has agreed to plead guilty to his part in a price-fixing scheme that resulted in American shoppers paying more at the store. The Department of Justice says that the former senior vice president of sales at StarKist was part of a conspiracy of three executives who, according to the federal government, illegally discussed the prices of their products and agreed on prices, keeping the cost of shelf-stable fish artificially high from at least 2011 to 2013. The StarKist executive is the third executive who was part of the conspiracy to plead guilty: The other two worked for competitor Bumble Bee . He will be sentenced at an undetermined later date, and in the meantime will pay a fine and cooperate with the investigation. “With today’s plea, the Antitrust Division continues to send a strong signal that senior executives will be held accounta...

Just because you can arrange every item you own into a patchwork rooftop tower of furniture, household items, cleaning supplies, blankets, and bungee doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. The best you can say about it is that your efforts will make for a good photo when the police pull you over. In fact, the New Hampshire State Police did just that after pulling over the above minivan whose owners should probably be congratulated for their ingenuity, but still ticketed because they posed a danger to themselves and everyone else on the road. There appear to be several large pieces of furniture in the mix — draped in towels and other fabric — like book shelves, dressers, and chairs; a flat screen TV box with other stuff shoved inside it; a broom or two, a rake, and a dolly — all topped off with a bike. But wait, there’s more. The stuff then spills down the back in a veritable waterfall of furniture, lamps, and cleaning supplies. All of this amounts to a potentially unsafe driving situat...

With Amazon set to merge its massive delivery network with Whole Foods’ existing retail business, more supermarkets are beginning to realize they have to start offering food delivery to their customers. While some chains already offer delivery in certain markets, the easiest answer may be to partner with an existing service, whether it’s a personalized shopping platform like Instacart or companies like Peapod and FreshDirect that act more like online supermarkets. Now that Amazon is set to become a bona fide competitor, the Wall Street Journal reports that these services have been racing to make new or expanded partnerships with regional grocery chains.   Analysts believe that Amazon could eventually double Whole Foods’ 466 stores as distribution centers and cut prices to make goods more attractive to online shoppers. “This gives them another way to drive up penetration in grocery purchasing and ultimately delivery,” Bill Bishop, co-founder of Brick Meets Click, an e-commerc...

If you fill in a web form and hit “submit,” you expect your data to get whisked off into the great ether, and probably from there to be shared with third parties. But you probably don’t expect your keystrokes — and form auto-fill fields — to be captured and sent away as-entered, before you hit submit. And yet, a new report claims, that may be exactly what’s happening. Gizmodo recently delved into a startup you’ve never heard of that may be sharing data — even sensitive medical data — that you never even knew you were giving up, just based on how you fill in fields on the web. It started out with a dive into a company called Acurian Health, which recruits participants for clinical drug trials. The company, Gizmodo writes, has targeted individuals with freakish accuracy based on internet activity users would have thought to be anonymous. One particularly troubling example was a family that received a letter for their young son from Acurian “accurately identifying his medical conditi...

McDonald’s continues to tease most of the country, dangling the promise of garlic fries — not some caked-on garlic-and-puke-flavored powder but real garlic — then pulling them away, and now bringing them back, but only in the San Francisco area. SF Gate reports that 250 McDonald’s restaurants in the San Francisco area have once again begun serving Gilroy Garlic Fries,  named after the California town of Gilroy, the “Garlic Capital of the World.” The new item builds on McDonald’s traditional fries, but come tossed in a purée of garlic, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, parsley, and salt. McDonald’s isn’t just using the Gilroy name as a reference. The company says it’s actually sourcing the garlic from the city, located about 80 miles down the coast from San Francisco. Once again, it seems unlikely that the garlic fries will go national, as McDonald’s continues placing an emphasis on its local ingredients. Those in search of McDonald’s Gilroy Garlic Fries, can do so online.  C...

Even as the number of remaining RadioShacks dwindled to below 100, the once-popular retailer held off on closing the one store left in its hometown of Fort Worth, TX. But when that lone holdout shutters this weekend, it will leave a huge swath of Texas without a RadioShack for the first time in decades. Let’s review some RadioShack corporate history. The retailer began in Boston, and was acquired by the Tandy Corporation of Fort Worth in 1962. Officially, the company’s name was still Tandy Corporation until 2000. The new owners expanded physical stores and shut the retailer’s mail order business, and brought the chain into its glorious peak in the middle and end of the 20th century. Now, though, the company that was once a proud local business with a beautiful riverfront headquarters in Fort Worth won’t even have a store in the region anymore. The last one, in the Fort Worth suburb of Weatherton, closes tomorrow . The chain is down to fewer than 70 corporate-owned stores across the ...

Deserved or not, the Transportation Security Administration doesn’t usually get much affection on social media, so it must have been a nice change of pace for the TSA recently when it had a minor Instagram hit with a photo of a massive, 20 lb. lobster found in a cooler at a Boston airport. Alas, the TSA has not escaped criticism, as the man who owned this oversized crustacean — and the market where he purchased it — both say the airport security folks mishandled his future meal for the sake of a photo op. Just to remind anyone who isn’t up on the latest lobster gossip (lobsgoss?), earlier this week the TSA’s Instagram account posted this photo of the large sea creature, explaining that it was legal to ship the beast but that the agency had to open the cooler after it triggered an alarm: First, the Connecticut seafood market that sold this lobster to the customer raged against the TSA. In a Facebook post , she asks, “When is it okay to go through someone’s checked baggage and take ph...