Entries Tagged 'Awful Concepts' ↓

It appears that we’re not the only ones in the world who hate (and don’t abide by) Wal-Mart’s policy of checking your receipt as you leave the store.

A website called “Can I See Your Receipt: Someone’s Stealing and it Could be You” has been launched to bring publicity to this awful practice. (standuptowalmart.com)

Visitors are encouraged to share their receipt-check horror stories, and the site provides links to articles on receipt-checking and the law.

The site’s owner has a goal of getting Wal-Mart to stop this practice by Christmas of this year… somehow, we just don’t think that is going to happen.

What is the best way for dealing with this annoyance? Well, we’ve been doing this for years and have tried every imaginable response. The best is really the most simple - slowly keep walking past the receipt-check employee, and calmly and politely say “no thank you” when asked.

Mississippi politicians have proposed a bill that would prevent restaurants and other food establishments from serving food to anyone who is obese. Under the legislation, establishments that serve food would be monitored for compliance under the State Department of Health and violators could have their business permits revoked.

Here is the text of House Bill 282:

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An act to prohibit certain food establishments from serving food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the state department of health; to direct the department to prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese and to provide those materials to the food establishments; to direct the department to monitor the food establishments for compliance with the provisions of this act; and for related purposes. Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi:

SECTION 1.

(1) The provisions of this section shall apply to any food establishment that is required to obtain a permit from the State Department of Health under Section 41-3-15(4)(f), that operates primarily in an enclosed facility and that has five (5) or more seats for customers.

(2) Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies. A food establishment shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when determining whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person.

(3) The State Department of Health shall monitor the food establishments to which this section applies for compliance with the provisions of this section, and may revoke the permit of any food establishment that repeatedly violates the provisions of this section.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2008.

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If this bill manages to pass, can you imagine what would happen? Restaurants would have to have scales at their entrances to weigh you. Have a BMI of 30 or higher? You won’t be served. Also, here goes your privacy, because restaurants will have to keep records of their customer’s BMI counts.

Think this cuts a little too closely to your personal freedoms? Let the bill’s lead author, Representative W.T. Mayhall, Jr., know:

Capitol Address

W.T. Mayhall, Jr
P. O. Box 1018
Jackson, MS 39215

Home Address

W.T. Mayhall, Jr
8417 Cedarbrush Drive
Southaven, MS 38671
(662)393-2069 (H)
(901)734-9540 (C)

E-Mail:

tmayhall@house.ms.gov

Hershey candy company will be halting production of its new line of mints called Ice Breakers PACS after sharp criticism from law enforcement officials that say the candy looks like illegal street drugs.

The mints, which first arrived on store shelves in November, are dissolvable pouches that contain a powdered sweetener. These pouches resemble the bags that are often used to sell powdered street drugs, like cocaine.

Members of the Philadelphia Police Department Narcotics Squad had commented that there was great danger to children if they were familiar with the mint candy product, and then came across a similarly-sized bag that contained cocaine. Lisa Wagner, a Philadelphia narcotics officer told CNN that “I will not buy a Hershey’s product again. I think they were really irresponsible” in marketing the product.

The company has not recalled the mints, but will just allow stock at stores to deplete over time. They estimate that all supplies of the candy should be gone in a few months as the candy was distributed on a limited basis.

The California Energy Commission has advanced a proposal that would require the installation of thermostats that allow the government to control the temperature of homes and businesses in case of high energy prices or shortages.

The proposed regulations would require all residential and non-residential buildings to have a Programmable Communicating Thermostat (PCT).

The regulations say that thermostats will be configured with a non-removable radio communications device which can be used by utilities to send adjustment signals. For pricing events, thermostats could be offset by as much as four degrees, but customers would be able to override the offsets and thermostat settings at any time during these price events.

What is scarier is that when the unit gets a signal of an energy shortage, it will set the thermostat to a government-defined setpoint that the customer cannot reset or control.

Frightening? You bet. You can read the full text of the regulations in this PDF file.

AT&T is mulling over the idea of using Internet filtering technology to stop pirated content from traveling on its network, Senior Vice President James Cicconi announced during a discussion at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

The ISP is said to be in talks about the possibility of using filtering technology with content companies such as NBC Universal.

“We are very interested in a technology-based solution,” Cicconi said in a blog on the New York Times website, “and we think a network-based solution is the optimal way to approach this. We recognize we are not there yet but there are a lot of promising technologies.”

AT&T faces a very difficult fight in the consumer marketplace if they’re to take this route, however. A massive outcry occurred last year as a result of cable operator Comcast shaping BitTorrent traffic. The Chairman of the FCC said Tuesday that an investigation will be launched to see if Comcast had violated any FCC policies.

A coalition of consumers and scholars approached the agency in November to urge them to stop Comcast from discriminating against certain types of data. Two other groups also asked the FCC to fine the nation’s No. 2 Internet provider $195,000 for every affected subscriber.

“Sure, we’re going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked,” Martin told an audience at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

Groups that oppose filtering and shaping are of the mind that the Internet should be kept “neutral,” and that allowing ISP’s to research your traffic to look for copyrighted content could start us on a slippery slope to Internet censorship.

Peer-to-peer file (P2P) sharing is a common way to swap copyrighted files illegally, but many companies are also beginning to use it for legal distribution of many kinds of content, including videos, music, and games. If service providers start to play traffic cop with that data, in essence they become the gatekeepers of Internet content.

The FCC’s response to the Comcast, and eventually AT&T issues, will be a test of its willingness to enforce “Net Neutrality,” the principle that all Internet traffic must be treated equally by all carriers. The agency already has a policy on the books supporting the concept, but its position hasn’t been tested in a real-world case yet.

The FCC’s policy statement makes an exception for “reasonable traffic management,” and Comcast has said its “shaping” practices fell under that exception.

What do you think about this? Tell AT&T and Comcast how you feel.