Fast enough on right of people?

Putting Bavarian housewives before disadvantaged children

Published: 9 Nov 11 15:46 CET

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Bavarian conservatives’ insistence on paying parents to keep their children out of public day care has made a mockery of Angela Merkel’s family policies, writes Der Tagesspiegel’s Hans Monath.

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As Chancellor Merkel’s centre-right coalition held torturous deliberations to hammer out contentious tax cuts last weekend, Germany’s finance minister was naturally there.

The country’s family minister, however, wasn’t at the table as Merkel’s conservatives, their Bavarian allies, and the Free Democrats agreed to implement a subsidy for families opting out of sending their children to day care known asBetreuungsgeld.

The fractious coalition has decided to introduce this hefty state entitlement with wide-ranging societal implications at a time when its coffers are empty.

Rather than building day-care centres and improving other facilities for children, the government has chosen to increase direct payments to single-earner families, which are already afforded tax breaks and subsidized health care premiums. 

Mistaken fathers can find out who's the daddy

Published: 10 Nov 11 07:22 CET

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German men who have been paying financial support for children they wrongly believed to be theirs, have been awarded the right to find out who the real fathers are.

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The Federal Courts of Justice ruled on Wednesday that mothers no longer had the right to keep the mistaken men in the dark – and had to tell them who the real daddies were.

This continues a legal trend in Germany of making it increasingly difficult for mothers to hide the identity of the father of their children – the Constitutional Court recently ruled that children had the right to discover who their fathers were. Its judgement put the right of the child to know, above the right of the woman to keep the secret. 

Apple patent suggests new iPod features

By Christina Bonnington, WIRED November 11, 2011 -- Updated 1626 GMT (0026 HKT) | Filed under: Innovations

The ipod nano and shuffle could have a speaker added to the clip according to a newly published patent by Apple.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• A patent shows how Apple could add a speaker to the clip on the iPod shuffle or iPod nano
• Apple CEO Tim Cook said iPod is a "large and important product" for the company
• NPD analyst Ross Rubin says future nanos could be worn on wrists with social media updates

(WIRED) -- Passing earwax-tainted earbuds between friends is nobody's favorite way to share iPod tunes. An integrated speaker in the smaller iPod nano and iPod shuffle models could end that practice for good, and provide opportunity for a host of new iPod possibilities.

A newly published Apple patent describes how Apple could add a teeny speaker dome to the clip on the iPod shuffle or iPod nano. It's a sneaky way to add some extra functionality to Apple's smallest media players -- all without adding any extra bulk.

According to the patent, which was broken down by Patently Apple, the addition of a speaker would be a "natural evolutionary step for their media players."