Dvorak News Blog

His Religious Right To Wear A Pasta Strainer

By Uncle Dave Thursday July 14, 2011

If Scientology can legally stretch the concept of what is a religion into being classified as one, you should be able to make any belief, real or made up, into a religion, right?

An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as “religious headgear”.

Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons. Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism.

DU Poll: The “Caylee’s Law” Enactment Debate

By Uncle Dave Thursday July 14, 2011

22 Comments

From New Jersey:

Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean, Jr., R-Westfield, introduced legislation to the New Jersey Senate on Wednesday that makes it a crime not to report the death or disappearance of a child.

From Massachusetts:

It started with a click of the mouse. When 22News reported last week on the movement to create Caylee’s Law, an online petition had just over 200,000 signatures. As of Wednesday that number had quadrupled- over a million people pleading with lawmakers to make it a crime not to report a child missing. Now legislators are listening- and responding.

From California:

California legislators are seeking to increase the penalty for parents who fail to report their children missing in the wake of the controversial verdict handed down in the death of a young Florida girl.

It’s happening all over the country. In response to the not guilty verdict, there’s a push to make not reporting a child’s death or disappearance a crime. Good idea? Not needed? Over reaction to a specific, unusual case where the prosecution fell down on presenting enough evidence so the verdict was correct? Still needed despite that? Political grandstanding to mob outcries or a reasonable idea that should have already been law? Sound off.

Woman De-schlongifies Her Hubbie – Big Time!

By Eideard Wednesday July 13, 2011

29 Comments

Garden Grove police Lt. Jeff Nightengale said Catherine Kieu Becker drugged a meal and served it to the victim, whose name was not released, shortly before the attack Monday night.

Nightengale said the 51-year-old man felt sick, went to lie down and lost consciousness. The 48-year-old Becker then tied the victim’s arms and legs to the bed with rope, removed his clothes and attacked him with a 10-inch kitchen knife as he awoke, Nightengale said…

Nightengale said Becker put the penis in the garbage disposal and turned it on.

The lieutenant said Becker called 911 to report a medical emergency and told arriving officers “he deserved it” before pointing to the room where the victim was found tied to the bed, bleeding profusely. Authorities did not release details on a possible motive in the attack…

Nightengale said Wednesday the couple was married in December 2009 and that the victim filed for divorce six months ago.

Bail for Becker was set at $1 million after she was booked at the Orange County Jail for investigation of aggravated mayhem, false imprisonment, assault with a deadly weapon, administering a drug with intent to commit a felony, poisoning and spousal abuse…

Eeoough – that’s gotta leave a mark.

DU Poll: Resolving The Debt Ceiling Issue

By Uncle Dave Wednesday July 13, 2011

79 Comments

How should the debt ceiling crisis be handled? What should the Congress and President do to avert what will happen on August 2nd if we default? Who should blink first? Or should neither side give in, keep the ceiling, tax levels, etc. as they are and screw the result? Do you have an alternative that neither side has proposed? Speak up!

How Banks, Credit Cards Will Get Around Restrictions On Selling Your Info

By Uncle Dave Wednesday July 13, 2011

9 Comments

Greed knows no bounds.

Credit card companies are sitting on a wealth of information about their clients — they have a running record of everything they buy. Due to strict rules entitling consumers to financial privacy, though, banks are limited in the secondary use of that data. However, they’ve happened upon a rather ingenious way to work around that restriction.

The Chicago Tribune reports on banks’ “billion dollar plan” to “sell your shopping data.” The story starts off (rather salaciously):

Many of the nation’s leading banks and card issuers, including Wells Fargo, Citi, USAA,* Sovereign Bank and Discover, are selling information about consumers’ shopping habits — how much they spend, where they shop and what they buy — to retailers.

That’s a misleading description (and CNN Money later revised that article). Banks don’t actually hand any information about their users over to retailers. They’re “selling” shopping habits the same way Facebook “sells” personal data about its users: in-network.

It’s a clever privacy work-around. Just as Facebook allows advertisers to specifically target certain kinds of users based on their profile information (without actually providing that profile information to the advertisers), banks plan to allow advertisers to send deals and coupons to their customers based on what they’ve bought before. That way, no user data actually leaves the network — instead, deals just enter the network. Each time a customer cashes in on one of those deals, the bank gets a commission.

Pretty Lights

By John C Dvorak Tuesday July 12, 2011

14 Comments

The Arctic Light from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

Principal Under Scrutiny for Hypnotizing Students

By McCullough Monday July 11, 2011

54 Comments

NORTH PORT, Fla. (AP) — High school principal George Kenney acknowledged using hypnosis to help people: students who needed to relax before tests, a basketball player having trouble making free throws and even school secretaries who wanted to quit smoking.

But now the popular 51-year-old principal’s future at North Port High School is in question since it came to light that he had hypnotized two students before their separate suicides this spring. There is no indication their deaths were any more than a tragic coincidence. However, Kenney acknowledged conducting the sessions after being warned by his boss to stop such one-on-one hypnosis with students at school. In April, according to the Sarasota County School District report, he hypnotized a 16-year-old student to help him better focus on a test. The next day, the boy committed suicide. Kenney was put on leave in May when the boy’s parents, who had given their permission for the sessions, raised concerns after his death.

The administrator’s situation then got stickier when an investigation showed that he had also hypnotized another student five months before her May 4 suicide, initially lied about it and had defied three separate verbal warnings to stop the sessions with students.

A 134-page independent investigative report released by the district last week includes an interview with Kenney, who acknowledged defying the orders and then lying.

“I’m not saying I used great judgment all the time here,” he told an investigator. “I think I used poor judgment several times.”

Poor judgment would be an understatement, sheesh.

See your doctor for a prescription for cigarettes

By Eideard Monday July 11, 2011

69 Comments

“I think Iceland can be a test tube to try out progressive things because we are a small country and we don’t have a massive lobby for tobacco,” said Thorarinn Gudnason, a cardiologist at Landspitali University Hospital in Rejkyavik. ”We are taking care of people who are dying of this disease in their 40s and we’re fed up with it.”

Iceland’s smoking rate is already one of the lowest in Europe. Just 15 per cent of the population lights up compared to an average of 31 per cent across the continent. However, the story among young Icelanders is more worrisome: 20 per cent of children and teenagers smoke. Dr. Gudnason hopes the new plan will dramatically reduce that figure and cut overall smoking rates to less than 10 per cent…

Tobacco and nicotine would be classified as addictive drugs and second-hand smoke would be treated and controlled like other carcinogenic substances. Lighting up in public places such as parks and in cars with children would be outlawed.

Eventually, smokers who are unable to kick the habit through treatment and various addiction programs — or those smokers who simply refuse to quit — may get a prescription for tobacco from their doctors. Once cigarettes become available only through physicians, the price will go down again — as it would be unfair to tax those unable to quit supporters of the plan say.

“Tobacco is very addictive and we would recognize them as addicts,” said Ms. Fridleifsdottir.

Bravo! It would force a lot of people with lazy personal ethics to confront a personal problem. They can still maintain their addiction if they wish.

Saving their lives is a side effect.

No Agenda Podcast
Dead Man Walking

By John C Dvorak Sunday July 10, 2011

7 Comments

Executive Producers: David Hewitt, Mr. Smith, Kent Zieser,
Brian Furgeson, Guy Boazy, Steven Pelsmaekers
Associate Executive Producer: Donald E. Silva
333 Club Members: David Hewitt, Brian Furgeson, Guy Boazy, Steven Pelsmaekers
Art By: Chris Johnson

Donate to show here or here.

Listen to show by clicking ►

Direct link to show.
Show Notes here.
Show forum here.

Sign up for No Agenda Mailing List here.

Kitty Commando

By McCullough Sunday July 10, 2011

7 Comments

And don’t miss “The Making of Kitty Commando“.

Radioactive Flotsam Heading for Left Coast

By McCullough Sunday July 10, 2011

35 Comments

I think the time to address this is now…..but, I won’t hold my breath.

New Day Care Rules Include Dolls Must Be of Three Different Races

By Uncle Dave Saturday July 9, 2011

55 Comments

Good idea to have rules governing day care centers, but who said they were supposed to be indoctrination centers?

The Colorado Department of Human Services has proposed that all day care centres in the state make dolls available that represent three different races.

A lengthy list of new rules – 98 pages to be exact – has just been released by the department which feature a slew of changes.
[…]
Many critics have taken to blogs and forums to voice their disbelief over the three race dolls proposal. Saelic posted: ‘What about disabled dolls, transgender dolls, deformed or elderly dolls? If they really want to include everything why not these?’ Pollysunshine said: ‘Many studies have found in the past that most children always pick up the white doll anyway and rarely notice the different races.’ Paulo84 wrote: ‘Yeah that’s right, instil political correctness or racism in them before then even get to school. So does that mean only the black kids get to play with black dolls and Asian kids Asian dolls etc?’

“What about me, a psychotic clown doll?”

Speaking of dolls…

Is That an iPad in Your Pants, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

By McCullough Saturday July 9, 2011

19 Comments

From CNET – Are you the type of airline passenger who, when your hand luggage goes through security, tries to peer all the way into the machine, just to check that nothing will be tampered with?

You may have good reason to do so, if a story from Florida holds up in court. In one incident, Broward County Sheriff’s Office says that Nelson Santiago, 30, allegedly removed an iPad from a passenger’s suitcase and then, well, stuffed it down his pants.

This was allegedly witnessed by a Continental Airlines employee at Florida’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport. In total, Santiago is alleged to have stolen around $50,000 worth of passengers’ possessions over a six-month period, mainly gadgets of one kind or another. In one case, he is alleged to have stolen a GPS.

He has been charged with grand theft and apparently no longer works for the TSA.

How We’re “Helping” Greece With Their Financial Crisis

By Uncle Dave Saturday July 9, 2011

14 Comments

The IMF is delighted to announce that it just approved a €3.2 billion disbursement of cash for Greece, its fifth, as part of the €12 billion in money that Greece needs in order to continue operating in the months f July and August. And just for what purpose will this money be used, one may ask? Well, as explained a few weeks ago, in Greek Math: €12 Billion In, €18.2 Billion Out the entire amount will be promptly recycled by global financial institutions in the form of debt maturities and interest payments, which amount to €18.2 billion in the months of July and August. Simply said ECB, EU and IMF money in, money owed to bankers out. The kicker: 17.09% of the money coming from the IMF, comes from, that’s right dear US taxpayer, you (and since 21% of the quota contributions allocated to the IMF are deemed “non-usable”, the actual number funded by the US is likely much higher). But this plot has a bonus kicker: as we reported on Wednesday, the actual Greek debt is no longer owed by European banks to the extent it had been previously expected: a development that threatens to scuttle the entire second Greek bailout plan as currently proposed. So as the banks have been selling Greek debt, who has been buying? Mostly hedge funds, such as everyone’s favorite John Paulson. So to recap: US taxpayers have just paid out about $780 million of the $4.6 billion in order to fund interest owed to… hedge funds.

How to Get a Wee Snip of a Car – in India

By Eideard Saturday July 9, 2011

10 Comments

Indian health officials have taken an unusual step to slow the nation’s birth rate – offering prizes that include a car in return for being sterilised.

One lucky man or woman can win a free Tata Nano in exchange for ending their fertility.

The first person to volunteer for sterilisation in Jhunjhunu, west of New Delhi, will be given a Nano, the world’s cheapest car, with other prizes including motorcycles, televisions and food blenders…

Reports also suggest that those volunteering to give away their baby-making ability will be paid a cash incentive of Rs1000, and Rs200 to those who urged them to go under the knife.

The move comes as India tries to control its rapidly growing population, which a recent census estimating it at more than 1.21 billion people.

Times change. When I got my vasectomy as a young man in a very Catholic state, the surgery had to be “underground” because it was illegal. As was the sale of contraceptives.

My urologist had me swear I’d say I had it done in Rhode Island. :)

Thanks, Honeyman