World News(Stuff to Discuss) Free For All

[maxbailey]

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I say if you touch my kid I'll knock you clean out, I'll punish her/him accordingly if and when it happens. You may think that the message you send to my kid encourages social responsibility but what about the kids doing the hitting? Don't you have a responsibility to them too? Are you sure you want to encourage violence in kids of that age? If my kid is being violent I will be the one to sort out that behaviour.

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That^^

[Predator24]

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Netflix is for suckers and now the messiah (The FCC) wants to raise taxes on it.


Consumer group wants to tax Netflix to pay for rural broadband
By Sara Jerome - 02/24/11 10:29 AM ET
Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), says Netflix should have to pay into the Universal Service Fund.

"The Internet is not an infant industry anymore. It can certainly bear the burden of making sure that wires and the communications mediums are there," Cooper said.

Phone companies pay into the Federal Communications Commission's $8 billion telecom fund, which subsidizes phone service in high-cost and rural areas. They write off the cost on consumer telephone bills.

The FCC is trying to migrate the subsidies to fund broadband rather than phone calls this year. As it begins the overhaul, the question of who must contribute into the fund is heating up.

It would be "legitimate" to force Netflix and other high-bandwidth companies to contribute to the fund, Cooper, a longtime consumer advocate, said Wednesday during a panel discussion.

"Notice that when I suggest we tax Netflix ? which is using the network ? to help pay for the network, we get this complaint: Wait, you're hitting consumers," he said.

But this framework has a precedent, he said. Providers of toll and business phone services, who provided "discretionary services," traditionally paid into USF.

"The exact same logic that was in used in the old days for whacking a toll could actually be used to impose legitimate costs on high-bandwidth users and say 'that's discretionary consumption,' " he said. "But we have difficulty bringing ourselves to do that."

Former FCC official Blair Levin said rural phone companies have make it a habit to say the solution is to "tax Google."

"That's an appropriate debate to have, I'm all for it," said Levin, who served as executive director for the commission's broadband agenda.

He stressed, however, that the FCC must address the mechanisms for distributing the money ? before it overhauls contributions. Tackling these questions simultaneously is a recipe for "political stalemate."

"If we have [the contribution] debate at the same time we're doing distribution, I absolutely guarantee they won't have it done by the end of the year," he said.

The rural phone industry reiterated the long-held view that websites should pay into the fund.

"Netflix takes up about 10 percent of every telco's bandwidth," said Shirley Bloomfield, chief executive of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association.

[maxbailey]

Brazilian woman finds alligator behind sofa

A woman in Brazil was shocked to find an alligator hiding behind her sofa after heavy rains flooded her house in the town of Parauapebas, in Para state.

She said she was alerted to the reptile's presence by her three-year-old son, who was patting its head.

The woman snatched the child away and called the fire brigade, who trapped the 1.5m-long (5ft) alligator.

The firefighters said the family was lucky the reptile was not hungry.

Firefighter Captain Luiz Claudio Farias said it could have seriously hurt or even killed the boy.

Capt Farias said it was not uncommon for animals such as alligators and snakes to enter people's houses in towns such as Parauapebas which are built very near rivers and the rainforest.

He said the reptile had been released in a less populated area of the town.

[maxbailey]

Breast milk ice cream goes on sale in Covent Garden

A restaurant in London's Covent Garden is serving a new range of ice cream, made with breast milk.

The dessert, called Baby Gaga, is churned with donations from 15 women who responded to an advertisement on an online mothers' forum.

One of the women, Victoria Hiley, 35, said if adults realised how tasty breast milk was more new mothers would be encouraged to breastfeed.

Each serving of Baby Gaga at Icecreamists costs 14 pounds.

Mrs Hiley's donation was expressed on site and pasteurised before being churned with Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest.

Icecreamists founder Matt O'Connor placed an advert appealing for breast milk donations and believes his new recipe will be a success.

"If it's good enough for our children, it's good enough for the rest of us," he said.

"Some people will hear about it and go yuck - but actually it's pure organic, free-range and totally natural."

Mrs Hiley, who gets 15 pounds for every 10 ounces of milk she donates to the company, said it was a great "recession beater".

"What's the harm in using my assets for a bit of extra cash?" she added.

"I teach women how to get started on breastfeeding their babies. There's very little support for women and every little helps."

Mr O'Connor said health checks for the lactating women were the same used by hospitals to screen blood donors.

"No-one's done anything interesting with ice cream in the last hundred years," he added.

[strommsarnac]

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I agree with your first point. A teacher should NEVER be the one to met out a punishment (assigning detention excluded). That's what "Dean of Students" and administration are for.

Sadly, parents are not held accountable for what their kids do at school.

Personally, I think "corporal punishment" needs to be put back in schools. Too many parents "drop their kids off" at school and forget them. They don't want to be bothered with anything that happens at school and I can't count how many times I've heard a parent say "It's YOUR responsibility when he/she is in school". Then when the kid goes home and whines enough, the parent flips and says "you can't do that to my kid, that's my responsibility".

The sad truth is the majority of parents DON'T give a shit what their kids do "away from them". School, work, at the park, whereever.

Kids of those types of parents KNOW this and take advantage of it.

[Eccles]

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On a related note: is it odd that I'm from London but didn't know this building existed until a few weeks ago?

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I had a whole rant that would have taken paragraphs to explain, but in the end, I don't agree with corporal punishment. I'm a fan of parents strapping on a set, and doing right by the responsibility they took on when they had kids to begin with. And busybody know-it-alls in the politically-correct crowd can suck a dick and babysit these brats until they understand that corporal punishment begins at home.
/endrant

[strommsarnac]

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Having had to work from home today due to the nasty weather, I forgot to add one piece of my humble opinion: If corporal punishment existed in schools, kids and parents would be more responsible. The ones who actually end up getting punished would be the ones whose parents haven't/don't taught them to behave.

It sounds like you wouldn't put up with your kids getting in enough trouble to be punished like that, so as a parent you wouldn't have to worry about it.

[Predator24]

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Passenger crawls into airliner's cargo hold through the bathroom and steals $238,000

A airplane passenger stole $238,000 during a flight in the Caribbean by sneaking into the cargo hold that was loaded with cash through the bathroom.
The unnamed man complained of feeling unwell at the start of the flight and spent most of it in the bathroom.
He was, in fact, removing panels separating the toilet and the cargo hold, according to reports.
A Brink's security employee had placed three sacks of cash containing a total $1.6million in the hold of the Air Antilles plane before it took off from the French island of Guadeloupe, Fox News reported.
The security guard took his seat on the ATR-42 turboprop plane to enjoy the flight.
Bbut when the flight landed on the Franco-Dutch island of Saint Martin 40 minutes later it was discovered that $238,000 was missing.
Shortly before landing, the alleged thief, who was accompanied by a woman who appeared concerned about his health, asked a flight attendant for an ambulance to meet him on the tarmac, witnesses said.
When the ambulance arrived, the man said he felt suddenly better and managed to walk out of the airport without having to go through the normal security checks, police said.
The woman traveling with him was questioned in the baggage arrival hall but did not have any of the missing money.

[pympton]

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Do I see the next Ocean's 14 movie?