It doesn't work to give the franchise to a smaller competitor. As soon as the smaller competitor wins the contract, it just gets bought-out by whatever mega-corp you were trying to keep out in the first place.

This happened twice in the small town where I grew up. Every time the city tried to get rid of Charter by picking someone else, Charter would just by that other company out after the contract was awarded.

The FCC isn't reading FCC comments either.....

That works until at&t buys directtv, and then merges with comcast-time warner

You really want Eric Holder (who thinks backdoors should be left open for police, and that search warrants shouldn't be neccesary for drone use or cell-tapping) controlling our countries information infrastructure?

We would end up with rules requiring all new TV sets to have always-on cameras built in, in order to spy on the TV viewers (like the viewscreen from 1984)

The FTC is waiting to see what the FCC decides.

"However, the companies said that they are in different regions and are not going to suppress the competition."

Technically, they are telling the truth, because they had already suppressed all competition the BEFORE merging, and there isn't any left to suppress.

To get rid of the stupidity once and for all?

I'm pretty sure even the most diehard and outspoken anti-vaxxer would change their tune, as soon as their own child ended up stuck in a wheelchair or on a ventilator because the child was never properly vaccinated.

The barrel should have been clearly marked with bio-hazard labels. Who pours a bio-hazard barrel into a regular drain? It doesn't matter what is in the barrel, it shouldn't go into the drain under any circumstance if it has that label on it.

Either the liquid got transferred into an unlabeled barrel, or someone working in an infectious disease lab doesn't know what a bio-hazard label looks like (which is a scary thought).

The Scottsman Prodigy commercial ice machine has built in functionality to disable the ice machine if the leasing company isn't paid.

In Grand Rapids MI (I think it's Grand Rapids anyway) there are several intersections where left turns are not allowed. Instead, they provide dedicated turn-around spots in the middle of the block, with the intention that you drive past your turn, turn around, and then turn right.

It costs an absolute fortune to sent something to another planet (regardless of weight), so why does NASA spend so much time and money designing and building rovers that are only expected to last 3-6 months?

It's like a person complaining about having a food budget that is too small, when they buy nothing but high-price, pre-packaged, ready-to-eat meals.

You definitely need to press your case further with the Weights & Measures people, because this falls squarely into their territory. At&t is clearly selling you a specific amount of product for a specific price, and the main purpose of the W&M department is to test the accuracy of commercial measuring equipment.

If you are actually able to get a live person with relative ease, just keep calling back until you get someone that agrees with you.

If W&M can test the gas pump, why can't they test the internet pump too?

It doesn't matter anyway, since China will have hacked the encryption keys within minutes of generating them.

Or the NSA will have hacked them, passed them them on to Israel (NSA gives Israel raw intelligence access), who will then sell them to China in exchange for whatever weapons they can't get from the US.

Cats explore everything. They will eventually go where you want if you wait long enough.

This sounds like a modern cyber-warfare version of the Soviet anti-tank dogs or the American bat-bombs.

If a cat collar can sniff wifi, it can run an automated exploit script too.