SpotHero is an app that lets you reserve parking in advance. It seemed like a cool idea, so I installed it and gave it a try when I had a business lunch on Tuesday. I entered the name of the restaurant in Hollywood and SpotHero showed me a map of parking spots near the restaurant. I found one on the corner of Argyle and Sunset for $6.

When I arrived at the parking lot, I found that the entrance was barricaded. A worker standing by the entrance told me that the entire lot had been rented for the day. I showed her my SpotHero reservation, and she called for the lot attendant who came over told me the same thing. He said I could go to another lot at the corner of Hollywood and Vine and that I "might be able to work something out with them." He described the lot, but when I drove there I couldn't find the lot he was talking about, and I had my doubts that they would let me park there anyway.

At this point, I was already late for my meeting. Fortunately, I found a metered spot in the street, which is rare for this area, and paid $8 for 2 hours. So I ended up being late and paying $14 for parking.

After my meeting, I contacted SpotHero through Twitter to let them know about the problem with the lot. I received a reply on Wednesday morning:

This is Emily from SpotHero, our Social Media Monitor passed your information along to me.

Having difficulties using a butter knife or rubber spatula to get the last ounce of peanut butter out of the jar? Or maybe you're sick of having your too-soft bread being ripped apart by peanut butter (wait, what?). Not to worry first-world citizens, inventor Andy Scherer of Burbank, California has got you covered. His Peanut Butter Pump promises to clean the jar for you.

The jar-cleaning gadget won't, however, clean itself.

But, it will squeeze out peanut butter in ribbons or in a stream.

Get one of Scherer's patented gizmos for $25 through his Indiegogo campaign. Over 1400 backers have already funded the project.

images via The Peanut Butter Pump/Indiegogo

(Delish) Read the rest

Scott Smith and his family moved from the USA to the Netherlands and discovered that despite living in the most heavily surveilled moment in human history, neither his old country nor his new one can figure out how to relate to them. Read the rest

Say, I'll bet our readers will love this wonderful thing! I'll just spend 20 minutes meticulously creating this gif. Sure hope no one else saw this wonderful thing yet. ::rechecks scheduled posts:: Read the rest