Federal Trade Commission sues AT&T for slowing internet speeds for its "unlimited data" customers. Some 25 million times since 2011, apparently; some users found their data slowed to dial-up speeds, which I'm sure didn't make them nostalgic. AT&T calls this "normal network management," which is rather like saying all the other kids do it.
Maybe David Brooks thinks he's clever for belching forth this whinefest about how there's so much "political discrimination" in America anymore right before an election, but I find "clever" to be a low bar, almost a back-handed compliment, and one he hasn't met here. If Mr. Brooks really thinks it's so horrible that liberals hardly want to talk to right-wingers anymore, maybe he should visit his Mind Palace so he can recall all the obnoxious crap right-wingers say to us all the time.
John Nichols worries that a Senate with fewer Democrats and more Republicans -- the widely-expected result after November 4 -- won't be able to hold the line on Social Security. He suspects Maine Independent Angus King could organize a caucus of "centrists" who would broker a "grand bargain" that would, among other things, raise the retirement age. While I suspect Mr. King loves exactly this sort of drama, much larger Republican caucuses haven't been able to do that, mainly because of opposition from the public, which we can mobilize again.
Ralph Nader writes a lengthy open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, taking Mr. Cook to task for (among other things) using Apple profits to buy back stock, instead of improving working conditions at the factories Apple uses, or giving a pay hike to Apple's own workers. This is similar to the argument we made against WalMart's stock buybacks late last year, which were large enough to provide a $10.10/hour wage to all of its workers. Mr. Nader's missive, of course, has received a lot of ignorant commentary (not just at the above link, but elsewhere) from folks very proud of themselves for pointing out that those folks in China aren't really working directly for Apple, as if Apple wouldn't have reasons for wanting it that way.
Finally, a study finds that flavanols in cocoa can reverse age-related memory deficits. Don't get too excited, though, not just because flavonols have no apparent effect on Alzheimer's, but because you'd have to eat upwards of 20 chocolate bars a day to reproduce the effects found in the study, and you have plenty of reasons not to do that. Can anyone else imagine an enterprising start-up creating a relatively healthy flavonol shake, but then finding their product banished to the same warehouse as the Ark of the Covenant?
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