Dvorak News Blog

The Party displays its Nas-Tea side

By Eideard Sunday March 21, 2010

The tea party movement is disturbingly racist and reactionary, from its roots to its highest branches. On Saturday, as a small group of protesters jammed the Capitol and the streets around it, the movement’s origins in white resistance to the Civil Rights Movement was impossible to ignore. Here’s only what the mainstream media is reporting, ignoring what I’m seeing on Twitter and left wing blogs:

Civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis was taunted by tea partiers who chanted “nigger” at least 15 times, according to the Associated Press (we are not cleaning up language and using “the N-word” here because it’s really important to understand what was said.) First reported on The Hill blog (no hotbed of left-wing fervor), the stories of Lewis being called “nigger” were confirmed by Lewis spokeswoman Brenda Jones and Democratic Rep. Andre Carson, who was walking with Lewis. “It was like going into the time machine with John Lewis,” said Carson, a former police officer. “He said it reminded him of another time…”

Ride The Bus? Time For A Full-Body Drug And Weapons Check, Buddy!

By Uncle Dave Sunday March 21, 2010

6 Comments

I wonder if they took these people’s DNA while they were at it?

Hundreds of police officers were on the streets of Nottingham throughout Saturday night in an effort to tackle knife crime in the city.

The major operation involved 200 officers as part of a Home Office project targeting 13 to 24-year-olds.

Officers and a specially-trained dog met young people coming off a number of bus routes. Metal detectors were used in an effort to find concealed weapons while drug testing was also carried out. A search centre was set up where a full body scanner checked suspects.

Drug dogs were also deployed on the streets and traffic officers used automated number plate recognition technology to identify vehicles wanted in connection with a crime, stolen vehicles and vehicles or motorists driving without insurance.

You know this is just giving cops in the US ideas, don’t you Britain? Of course here things like this are done to make money.

Although 92 percent of transit summonses result in some payment, they are a modest moneymaker: after expenses, the system netted about $5 million from tickets last year.

The Pope Forgives The Children Who Caused Priests To Molest Them

By Uncle Dave Saturday March 20, 2010

33 Comments

What does it say that this was written back in 2002 and things have only gotten worse? Or that it doesn’t sound as satiric these days as it did back then given some of the statements made recently?

Here’s one article that says the Pope should do more than just saying pedophilia is sinful.

UPDATE: Since there are so many who apparently aren’t smart enough to click links or recognize satire when they see it — DISCLAIMER: THIS IS SATIRE except where it represents the truth. Yes, that last part was satire, too. Maybe.

Calling forgiveness “one of the highest virtues taught to us by Jesus,” Pope John Paul II issued a papal decree Monday absolving priest-molested children of all sin.

“Though grave and terrible sins have been committed, our Lord teaches us to turn the other cheek and forgive those who sin against us,” said the pope, reading a prepared statement from a balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square. “That is why, despite the terrible wrongs they have committed, the church must move on and forgive these children for their misdeeds.”

All You Ever Wanted to Know About RFID

By John C Dvorak Saturday March 20, 2010

9 Comments

Brought to you by the Chaos Computer Club. Listed for informational and research purposes only.


RFID hacking

 http://events.ccc.de/congress/2006/Fahrplan/events/1576.en.html
 http://chaosradio.ccc.de/23c3_m4v_1576.html

A Hacker's Toolkit for RFID Emulation and Jamming

 http://events.ccc.de/congress/2006/Fahrplan/events/1597.en.html
 http://chaosradio.ccc.de/23c3_m4v_1597.html

OpenPCD / OpenPICC

 http://events.ccc.de/congress/2006/Fahrplan/events/1566.en.html
 http://chaosradio.ccc.de/23c3_m4v_1566.html

RFID - overview of protocols, librfid implementation and passive sniffing

For complete list click here.

Tea Party Hasn’t a Clue What They’re Protesting Against

By Uncle Dave Saturday March 20, 2010

47 Comments

On March 16, Tea Partiers from around the country gathered (in disappointing numbers) in front of the Capitol building for their final protest against health care reform. Also in town, appropriately, was Barnum & Bailey’s actual circus.

What a frightening lack of knowledge. Other than what they got from Fox News, etc.

5.6-Magnitude Quake Strikes Guantanamo… Was it Adam’s Earthquake Machine?

By Jacob Galt Saturday March 20, 2010

11 Comments

This just broke:

The quake was centered 27 miles southwest of Guantanamo and had a depth of 14 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. A magnitude-5 quake can cause considerable damage, but Chief Petty Officer Bill Mesta, a spokesman at the base, said there was none reported.

The U.S. base in southeastern Cuba was used to transport supplies and personnel to the aid effort after the devastating 7.0-magnitude January 12 quake in Haiti, about 200 miles away.

I’m eager to know what Adam has to say about this.

Cops have Visited Elderly Brooklyn Couple’s Home 50 Times for Criminals

By Jacob Galt Saturday March 20, 2010

13 Comments

NY Daily News reports on this sad story:

Brooklyn World War II vet Walter Martin and his wife, Rose, aren’t at the top of the NYPD’s most wanted list – it just feels that way.

Cops have swooped down on the law-abiding couple’s modest Marine Park home at least 50 times in the last eight years hunting bad guys – only to learn they were chasing a bad address.

They’ve come looking for murder and robbery suspects. Once, cops came hunting for one of their own – an NYPD officer accused of raping his 14-year-old stepdaughter.

Unsanitary Hospitals Killing Thousands. New Threat Emerges.

By John C Dvorak Saturday March 20, 2010

15 Comments

UK Deaths from C-Diff shown above. USA is worse still.

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, are bacteria that can’t be treated with common antibiotics. They are often harmless as they ride on the skin, but become deadly once they get in the bloodstream. They enter through wounds, intravenous lines and other paths.

C-diff, also resistant to some antibiotics, is found in the colon and can cause diarrhea and a more serious intestinal condition known as colitis. It is spread by spores in feces. The spores are difficult to kill with most conventional household cleaners or alcohol-based hand sanitizers, so some of the disinfection measures against MRSA don’t work on C-diff.

Deaths from C-diff traditionally have been rare, but a more dangerous form has emerged in the last ten years. Still, MRSA is generally considered a more lethal threat, causing an estimated 18,000 U.S. deaths annually

Does Catholic Child Rape Disprove Relationship with God?

By Marc Perkel Saturday March 20, 2010

65 Comments

This is a Letter to the Editor I wrote today. Is this a fair test?

I have a message for my believing friends and it’s something that believers should really listen to and think about. As a realist who doesn’t believe in God I am often challenged to open my heart and let Jesus in. I am reluctant to do so without any evidence that God exists.

I am told that when one becomes a believer that they have a personal relationship with God and the God transforms you and you become one with the Lord. So from my point of view I should be able to see the difference in the behavior of those who believe as compared to those who don’t believe. But I’m not seeing it. Especially in the latest news coming out about the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church.

RFIDing the World

By Uncle Dave Saturday March 20, 2010

14 Comments

RFID tags are in many of the products that we already buy today and the promise of RFID in the future is that we may not even have to stop at the register to checkout at the store. In the future, with prolific RFID tags more powerful than what we have today, all we might need to do is walk out the door with our carts and our total would be computed automatically. Today’s RFID technology, however, is prone to hacking, which was demonstrated when researchers were able to clone an RFID passport while driving by it.

Before we can get to the point where store inventories are able to be done in real-time using RFID tags, we need to have cheaper and more efficient methods of producing the tags and the tags need to hold more information and use less power. Researchers at Rice University and Sunchon National University in Korean are working on a joint project using RFID tags that are printed on a roll-to-roll process that uses inks embedded with carbon nanotubes.
[…]
The team is also working on increasing the range that the tags can be read from. Currently the printed tags can only be read from a very close distance to the transmitter. To be useful in inventorying an entire store or warehouse the tags need a range of about 300 meters.

Just imagine when everything you buy, wear, eat, etc. is tagged and can be read from a fifth of a mile away. Then with readers on every street corner like cameras are now, advertisers can flash ads customized to you. Stolen cars can be found instantly since each will have multiple tags. Same with a shoplifter’s items. And, as an added bonus, the police could jump in and protect you from that subversive book you just bought or that Twinkie which could eventually increase your health costs. And those selfish deviants who break every RFID tag they get would stand out like an untagged ghost in need of our help.

You’re always safe with your every move monitored. I can hardly wait!

Coming Soon? CSI-Facebook

By Uncle Dave Saturday March 20, 2010

2 Comments

Time to change the name of the FBI to Facebook Bureau of Investigation?

What’s the only thing better than Mafia Wars on Facebook (which boast 25 million players, reportedly)? Real life Mafia on Facebook.

[…] Apparently the Mafiosi share the same addiction to the world’s top website and largest social network that the rest of us do.

That addiction led to this week’s arrest of mobster Pasquale Manfredi. Manfredi, 33 years-old, was the boss of the notorious ‘Ndrangheta mafia organization from the Calabria region in southern Italy.
[…]
Manfredi reportedly loved Facebook and had over 200 friends. He would regularly log in from his safe house where he was hiding from police and chat with his buddies. He went by the name “Georgie” and logged in, reportedly, using a pre-paid wireless internet thumb-drive. In the end, his frequent chats allowed police to locate his secret hideout and storm it. When the police made their entry, Manfredi reportedly had just been in the middle of an intense Facebooking session. He tried to flee to the rooftop, where he was apprehended.

The Italian authorities are thrilled to finally have the dangerous criminal in custody. They’re also investigating his Facebook friends list to see if it provides clues that would help them track down other fugitive Mafia members.

ObamaCare – Do You Want It?

By KD Martin Saturday March 20, 2010

77 Comments

What do you think about ObamaCare?

This vote could change the entire country, according to The Wall Street Journal

With the House’s climactic vote on ObamaCare tomorrow, Democrats are on the cusp of a profound and historic mistake, comparable in our view to the Smoot-Hawley tariff and FDR’s National Industrial Recovery Act. Everyone is preoccupied now with the politics, but ultimately at stake on Sunday is the kind of country America will be.

The consequences of this bill will not only be destructive for the health-care system and the country’s fiscal condition, though those will be bad enough. Inextricably bound up in a plan as far-reaching and ambitious as ObamaCare are also larger questions about the role of government, the dynamism of American enterprise and the nature of a free society. Above anything else, this explains why Democrats have had such trouble convincing the public, let alone their own Members.

Once the health-care markets are put through Mr. Obama’s de facto nationalization, costs will further explode. The Congressional Budget Office estimates ObamaCare will cost taxpayers $200 billion per year when fully implemented and grow annually at 8%, even under low-ball assumptions. Soon the public will reach its taxing limit, and then something will have to give on the care side. In short, medicine will be rationed by politics, no doubt with the same subtlety and wisdom as Congress’s final madcap dash toward 216 votes.

Why Do the Republicans Feel the Need to Pull Crap Like This to Defeat the Health Care Bill?

By Uncle Dave Friday March 19, 2010

19 Comments

Read about the “hoax memo”.

California Could Require Pornstars to Wear Condoms

By Jacob Galt Friday March 19, 2010

25 Comments

LA Weekly reports:

Condoms, porn and safe sex come to the heart of Orange County Thursday as the state’s Department Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) holds a Standards Board meeting that will hear arguments for mandating condoms on the sets of adult film shoots in California.

In other words, AHF wants the state (and the county of L.A., for that matter) to require condoms in porn so that actors don’t contract HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. While the county has been resistant to the idea, the state here is leaving the door ajar to the possibility.

Porn industry insiders, however, argue that such a requirement would simply push the industry further underground — and into other states and countries. Porn’s own voluntary system of asking working actors to be tested regularly and have on-set current test results has flaws but mostly works.