Comcast and NBC will officially be merging. CC by 惟①刻¾/Flickr

In a move approved by the FCC, Comcast and NBC will likely be merging. This merger is being lauded by industry advocates. The Comcast/NBC merger is not all good, however. Consumer advocates are saying it may be a disaster.

The Comcast NBC merger information

Comcast made an announcement recently. About 51 percent of NBC will be taken over. Currently, NBC Universal is controlled by General Electric. Comcast is going to buy that stake for about $30 billion. There are a lot of people with a personal interest in Comcast right now. They include 23 million cable subscribers and 17 million internet subscribers. NBC Universal owns NBC, CNBC, Bravo, Oxygen, Universal Studios and 30 percent of Hulu. The Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department anti-trust unit have given approval for the purchase.

The good part of the Comcast/NBC merger

Conditions apply to the FCC approval of the Comcast/NBC merger. Comcast has promised to add 1,000 hours of informational and news programming. Low-income households can get internet through the company for only cost $9.95 a month. Specific regulations have also been put in place to help prevent the Comcast-controlled NBC from using its control to kill competitors in both internet and television programming arenas.

NBC Comcast merger cons

Though Comcast has promised to take action to prevent unfair competition, many consumer advocates are concerned about the merger. One statement by the FCC Commissioner who voted against the deal said, “concentration of media under Comcast’s control would put too much power into one company that controls the access consumers have.” There is also concern that the company will be able to put walls around content. There are more chances for abuse with vertical integration even though costs may be reduced. There isn’t any net neutrality regulation in place yet. That means the merger might be harder for the FCC to control than it believes.

Information from

NPR

Washington Post

People with Asperger's disease are often highly intelligent but lack social skills. Image from Flickr.

Asperger’s disease — the focus of last night’s episode of “Parenthood” on NBC — is a form of autism. It is commonly referred to as “high-functioning autism.” Asperger’s disease is a complex and hard to understand syndrome, but as celebrities, the media and several organizations have strived to raise awareness about autism in all its forms, people are starting to understand. It takes a lot of study to really understand Asperger’s disease, but here is a crash course to get you started.

Asperger’s disease affects behavior

The main way in which Asperger’s disease manifests itself is through social interaction — or lack thereof. People with Asperger’s disease might appear to have some type of strange obsessive-compulsive disorder, as they engage in repetitive behavior patterns. For instance, they might meticulously reread an installment loan application before submitting it.They also often have restrictions, such as refusing to eat specific  foods, be around particular objects or go to certain places.

As you can already see, Aperger’s disease can be very difficult to diagnose, as behaviors such as refusing foods are very common in children. So don’t go around diagnosing people with OCD or picky eaters with Asperger’s syndrome. Leave that to the professionals.

Aperger’s disease and social interaction

The reason social interactions with people who have Aperger’s disease seem strange is that Asperger’s causes an inability to feel empathy, lack of interest in others and an absence of emotional connection. This is confusing because Asperger’s syndrome can also cause people to have disproportionate emotional reactions, such as extreme anger, to seemingly small events.

People with Asperger’s disease often don’t pick up on social cues, such as noticing when others are bored or irritated. Asperger’s syndrome is considered a high-functioning form of autism because those who have it can generally function in society, just with a certain degree of awkwardness. Also, people with Asperger syndrome are often very intelligent; many could understand no fax loans better than I. For more information, such as who discovered it and what causes Asperger’s disease, check out part 2.