Dvorak News Blog

Should Taxpayers Bailout the Newspaper Industry?

By McCullough Monday September 21, 2009

The president said he is “happy to look at” bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has introduced S. 673, the so-called “Newspaper Revitalization Act,” that would give outlets tax deals if they were to restructure as 501(c)(3) corporations. That bill has so far attracted one cosponsor, Cardin’s Maryland colleague Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D).

In early May, Gibbs said that while he hadn’t asked the president specifically about bailout options for newspapers, “I don’t know what, in all honesty, government can do about it.” “I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding,” he said.

I don’t know about you, but I feel a little tapped out at the moment.

Pic of the Day Dept. – Hotel Ass

By hhopper Sunday September 20, 2009

26 Comments

Women are Wired Differently than Men

By hhopper Sunday September 20, 2009

20 Comments

Mark Gungor

EU funding ‘Orwellian’ artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for “abnormal behaviour”

By John C Dvorak Sunday September 20, 2009

22 Comments

EU funding ‘Orwellian’ artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for “abnormal behaviour” – Telegraph __ Maybe they can scan DU and figure out what’s wrong with a couple of the commentators. :)

A five-year research programme, called Project Indect, aims to develop computer programmes which act as “agents” to monitor and process information from web sites, discussion forums, file servers, peer-to-peer networks and even individual computers.

Its main objectives include the “automatic detection of threats and abnormal behaviour or violence”.

Project Indect, which received nearly £10 million in funding from the European Union, involves the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and computer scientists at York University, in addition to colleagues in nine other European countries.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of human rights group Liberty, described the introduction of such mass surveillance techniques as a “sinister step” for any country, adding that it was “positively chilling” on a European scale.

Obama Takes Media to Task — Demands Happy News!

By John C Dvorak Sunday September 20, 2009

30 Comments

Obama Takes Media to Task for Coverage of Racial Controversy, Wilson – FOXNews.com — He wants more civility. Nothing outrageous like shooting off your mouth abnout Harvard cops or calling a singer a “jackass” to get a cheap laugh. Oh, wait that’s what he did. So what is he talking about?

Diplomat. Financial regulator. Cheerleader. Doctor. President Obama’s worn all these hats since taking office. Now he’s assuming a new role: media critic. The president of the United States used the Sunday morning talk shows to broadly scold the news media for playing up what he called “rude” and “outrageous” political comments, and urge the 24-hour news networks to consider giving more of a platform to those who demonstrate decency and civility.

And now, back to real (meta-)news…

By Jacob Galt Sunday September 20, 2009

110 Comments

This is what the American media is all about. And for anyone who hasn’t figured it out yet, they all lie.

Obama on talk shows discussing health care

By Jacob Galt Sunday September 20, 2009

10 Comments

You can think whatever you want about his policies, but Obama is a great motivational speaker. Read the NYT article on this story.

President Obama saturated the television talk shows on Sunday to promote his health care agenda as he seeks to build public support for the plan and allay fears that the government is seeking to take over the nation’s health care system.

The president, appearing in interviews on five television networks, said the health care fight had been more difficult than he anticipated and conceded that he has struggled “breaking through.” He said he remained confident he would sign a health care bill into law and welcomed Republicans to the effort, but added, “I don’t count on them.”

“He is the devil dressed as an angel!”

By Eideard Sunday September 20, 2009

59 Comments

She was an exotic dancer at a Miami strip club called Porky’s. He showed up wearing a Hawaiian shirt, eager to share a night in the VIP lounge.

They began a torrid, on-and-off love affair that ended for good in January, after she gave birth to a daughter she says is his. Now, she wants child support and has filed a restraining order against him.

It might be a routine, if tawdry, court case if not for respondent David Dueppen’s job: Catholic priest with the Miami Archdiocese.

The sordid story line inflicts another black eye on an Archdiocese already embarassed in May, when popular Miami television priest Alberto Cutié admitted to an affair with a woman, whom he quickly married…

“He is the devil,” said Beatrice Hernandez, 42, of Miami, who provided DNA test results naming Dueppen as the father. “He is the devil dressed as an angel.”

RTFA. Better than the average soap opera – though I’m not certain if the soaps focus as much on the hypocrisy in one of our bastions of Christianity.

UN: Swine flu could kill millions and result in anarchy unless rich nations give £900m

By Jacob Galt Sunday September 20, 2009

27 Comments

The swine flu pandemic could kill millions and cause anarchy in the world’s poorest nations unless £900m can be raised from rich countries to pay for vaccines and antiviral medicines, says a UN report leaked to the Observer.

The disclosure will provoke concerns that health officials will not be able to stem the growth of the worldwide H1N1 pandemic in developing countries. If the virus takes hold in the poorest nations, millions could die and the economies of fragile countries could be destroyed.

What’s wrong with this picture?

By Jacob Galt Sunday September 20, 2009

47 Comments

You’ll either get it immediately or spend one, two minutes on it.

From scripting.com.

HTC Touch Pro2 — Not as good as I expected

By Marc Perkel Saturday September 19, 2009

42 Comments

I’ve been fooling with this new HTC Touch Pro2 all day and I almost sent it back. The phone itself is good but Windows Mobile totally sucks. I had been using a Palm 700p running PalmOS and when I originally got it for the most part it just worked. With Windows mobile almost nothing worked at first.

The user interface is poorly designed to the point of being unusable. If not for it having a keyboard and arrow keys it wouldn’t work. It can’t be used with just the finger and requires the stylus for about everything. It lacks scroll bars in critical places and you have to flick the screen to scroll. If you don’t flick it just right, you either select the wrong thing or you flip past what you want.

Telluride Blues and Brews Festival: Free Beer!

By McCullough Saturday September 19, 2009

17 Comments

Day Two: Free beer will bring out the crazies.

Author of Rich Dad on the Fed and saving money

By Jacob Galt Saturday September 19, 2009

75 Comments

This is an old video, but this is a guy who got it right.

The Telluride Brews and Blues Festival: Mad Dogs and Microbrews

By McCullough Saturday September 19, 2009

9 Comments

Joe Cocker, still crazy after all these years
At 8800 ft. altitude and squeezed into a box canyon surrounded by 13,000 ft peaks, The Telluride Blues and Brews Festival is an annual tradition in the Four Corners area of the US. Over the years the modest stage has seen the likes of BB King, James Brown, The Allman Brothers, Taj Mahal, and Bonnie Raitt, just to name a few. At night the bands move into small local venues where you can experience some of the worlds best blues guitarists, just feet away. Last night for the second time in my life, I was treated to the spastic genius of the great Joe Cocker. Today is the free beer tasting where 53 different breweries and 150 beers will compete for the prize of Telluride’s finest. Blues and beers combined with the thin air at this height, and I think it’s going to be a good day.

Photos thanks to Susan Skewes

Aussies think Vaccine could be ‘more dangerous than swine flu’

By Jacob Galt Saturday September 19, 2009

38 Comments

The Australian Vaccination Network lobby group says more testing of the swine flu vaccine needs to be done before it is given to the public.

Australian Vaccination Network president Meryl Dorey has previously urged the Government not to make vaccinations compulsory for children. She says the H1N1 vaccine could prove more dangerous than the disease itself.

“If we find that swine flu is milder than normal seasonal flu, and we have normal seasonal flu every year, and all the government does is simply offer a vaccine for those who want it, why should this flu be treated any differently,” Ms Dorey said.