The Asphole: 06/29/06

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Senate Panel Rejects Net Neutrality

A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday, with a tie vote, rejected a proposal that would have required broadband providers to give their competitors the same speeds and quality of service as they give to themselves or their partners.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s 11-11 vote means the net neutrality amendment will not be added to a wide-ranging broadband bill as it goes to the Senate floor. The amendment, offered by Sens. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, and Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, would have prevented broadband providers such as AT&T and Comcast from charging extra based on the type of content transmitted by Internet-based companies.

Late Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said he’ll place a hold on the broadband bill because it lacks strong net neutrality requirements. By placing a hold on the bill, Wyden is saying he may object to the Senate beginning debate on that legislation. A hold on a bill can lead to a filibuster, if Senate leaders aren’t able to fix the senator’s objections.

"If [broadband providers] get their way, not only will you have to pay more for faster speeds, you’ll have to pay more for something you get for free today: unfettered access to every site on the World Wide Web," Wyden said on the Senate floor. "To me, that’s discrimination, pure and simple."

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Hooters boat involved in chase

A 38-foot fishing boat emblazoned with the Hooters restaurant logo is back in the hands of its North Carolina owner after a highway chase that led to the arrest of a Mobile-area hunter and sport fisherman, according to the Mobile County Sheriff's Office.

Edmund H. "Eddie" Smith IV was released on a $2,050 bond Tuesday on charges of menacing, reckless endangerment and carrying a pistol without a permit, sheriff's spokesman Chad Tucker said.

Alabama State Troopers called the Sheriff's Office at 5 p.m. Monday after witnessing the end of a chase between Smith and Alden Thornton of North Carolina.

Thornton, who was towing the boat, and Smith, who was chasing him, both "flew into the median" of Dauphin Island Parkway, near Interstate 10, Tucker said.

"A trooper had actually witnessed Edmund Smith beating a .45-caliber pistol against the window in his vehicle," Tucker said, adding that Smith was "tapping the gun on the window toward" Thornton.

Thornton had repossessed the boat from Smith, Tucker said. At the scene, however, Smith told authorities that Thornton had stolen the boat from him.

"At the scene on I-10, we were unable to determine who was the rightful owner of the boat, so we impounded it," Tucker said.

A judge later ruled that the boat, a Fountain Tournament Edition with four 250-horsepower engines, belonged to Thornton. Authorities released the vessel to him, Tucker said.

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Marijuana use worldwide is out of control

A U.N. report says marijuana use worldwide is out of control.

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime, says that's because the plant grows everywhere, marijuana is in high demand and erroneously is considered by many to be harmless. But he says marijuana, also known as cannabis, is a danger because it contains THC, a banned substance.

Costa made the comments at a news conference.

But the U.N.'s 2006 World Drug Report generally was upbeat, boasting some gains. For example, it says opium poppy cultivation was down 22 percent in 2005. It attributed the decline to cutbacks in the three main source countries of illicit opium in the world: Afghanistan, Myanmar and Laos.

But on the negative side, the report found that cocaine use is reaching alarming levels in Western Europe.

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Drunk surgeon naked on letterbox

The children's doctor was sitting naked on an eastern suburbs letterbox masturbating, when the two women spotted him.

They called police, who found him fully dressed at a bus station on Carr Street, Coogee, reeking of alcohol, dazed and confused early on a Saturday morning.

Sanjay Warrier, 28, had been on a drunken night out with a group of doctors and returned to an address he had lived at two years before.

He said he remembers nothing of the incident.

Yesterday a magistrate believed him, agreeing with a medical report that Dr Warrier was neither a pervert, nor had a personality disorder - just had alcohol-induced delirium.

Magistrate Brian Maloney told the Downing Centre Local Court that Dr Warrier "had much to offer society" as a skilled surgeon.

"Society as a whole will benefit from being treated under the hands of Dr Sanjay Warrier," Magistrate Maloney said.

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Castro's niece behind revolution in sexual politics

Mariela Castro is leading a Cuban revolution less well-known than her Uncle Fidel's -- one in favor of sexual tolerance within the island's macho society.

Castro, 43, is leading the charge from her government-funded National Center for Sex Education, based in an old Havana mansion.

As director of the group, she promoted a soap opera that scandalized many Cubans in March by sympathetically depicting bisexuality. The controversial show depicted, among other story lines, the life of a construction worker who leaves his wife and children for the man next door.

Now President Castro's niece is pushing for passage of a law that would give transsexuals free sex-change operations and hormonal therapy in addition to granting them new identification documents with their changed gender

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New Freedom Tower design unveiled

The tower will be surrounded by groups of steps leading to the entrance, serving as a public plaza and security buffer zone. A series of thigh-high rectangular slabs on the site's perimeter -- resembling tombstones in an artist's rendering -- will guard against truck bombs.

The antenna, to be used by radio and television broadcasters, has been given a more sculptural feel by Kenneth Snelson, a sculptor best-known for his Needle Tower, installed in New York's Bryant Park in 1968.

The antenna raises the building from 1,338 feet -- the height of the original World Trade Center's 110-story twin towers -- to the full 1,776 feet.

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Clerk who urinated in soda sentenced

The former convenience store clerk who urinated into a Mountain Dew bottle that was later gulped by an unsuspecting customer was sentenced to six months in jail this morning.

Anthony Mesa, who has already served half his sentence since he pleaded no contest to tampering with a consumer product, also will remain on a form of house arrest for two years after he is released. Circuit Judge James R. Clayton withheld adjudication for the 22-year-old, which means he will not be considered a convicted felon if he abides by his sentence.

Mesa was working at a Pix store on Howland Boulevard in Deltona in August when he and a co-worker decided to play practical jokes. They put eggs in beer cartons, and Mesa thought it would be funny to urinate into a drink, according to arrest reports.

Mesa admitted he urinated into a Mountain Dew and placed it back into the refrigerator.

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