Dvorak News Blog

800,000 swine flu shots recalled; gov’t says they “were not strong enough”

By Jacob Galt Tuesday December 15, 2009

Hundreds of thousands of swine flu shots for children have been recalled because tests indicate the vaccine doses lost some strength, government health officials said Tuesday.

The shots, made by Sanofi Pasteur, were distributed across the country last month and most have already been used, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 800,000 pre-filled syringes that were recalled are for young children, ages 6 months to nearly 3 years.

Lost some strength, sure.

Federal workers owe more than $3 billion in income taxes

By Jacob Galt Tuesday December 15, 2009

19 Comments

Federal workers owe more than $3 billion in income taxes they failed to pay in 2008. According to Internal Revenue Service documents, 276,300 federal employees and retirees owe $3,042,200,000.

The IRS tracks the voluntary compliance rate of federal employees and retirees each year, and each year feds come up short. The one bright spot in this year’s report is that after several years of a steady increase, the amount owed by feds is down from the previous year. Federal employees and retirees owed $3,586,784,725 in unpaid income taxes in 2007.

The Future of Mercedes-Benz Revealed

By John C Dvorak Tuesday December 15, 2009

30 Comments

The Future of Mercedes-Benz Revealed — Here is the 2013 Benz. It doesn’t look that good to me.

Lecture on Global Warming. It’s the Sun.

By John C Dvorak Tuesday December 15, 2009

49 Comments

This guy is a research analyst who does the most wonkish job of slamming global warming fears thus far. This lecture is from 2008. About one hour long.

Happy Bill of Rights Day!

By Jacob Galt Tuesday December 15, 2009

65 Comments

Today, December 15, is Bill of Rights day. Let’s examine the amendments:

Free speech – FCC, libel laws
Bear arms – federal regulation on guns
No quartering – maybe the only one being followed
No unreasonable search – “PATRIOT” Act
Due process – “PATRIOT” Act again
Speedy trial – Gitmo
Civil trial by jury – Gitmo
No cruel punishment – Gitmo
Rights not enumerated – most laws violate this
Powers of States and people – ditto

Happy Bill of Rights Day!

Need A Vacation? How About Staying In A Nazi POW Camp Simulation — $3500

By Uncle Dave Tuesday December 15, 2009

16 Comments

POW Escapes is a “Reality Tourism” experience. A World War Two prisoner of war camp of the type operated by the German Luftwaffe in World War Two has been recreated near Warsaw in Poland, and our goal is give people the chance to experience what it was like for Prisoners of War in these “Stalag Luft” camps. Everything in and around the camp has been faithfully recreated in consultation with experts and veterans.

Lest anyone think this might be in bad taste:

POW Escapes does not support, condone or endorse the actions of the Nazis or any other extremist political or racist organization past or present.

“I order you to have fun!”

If Volcano Blows, What Will Happen To The World’s Carbon Footprint?

By Uncle Dave Tuesday December 15, 2009

20 Comments

WWAGD (What Would Al Gore Do)? Who’s cap and trading to deal with this!

One of the world’s most perfectly formed volcanoes oozed lava and ash overnight, threatening to explode over a picturesque tourist town in the Philippines.

Many of the 50,000 villagers living within the 6-8 km (4-5 mile) danger zone around Mount Mayon, around 310 miles (500 km) south of Manila, the capital, were evacuated earlier today. The glowing volcano loomed large over the town of Legazpi, in the Albay province, spewing lava and ash that reached a height of about 100 metres (330 feet).

Renato Solidum, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said magma has been rising at the volcano over the past two weeks and an explosion could be imminent.

“Now lava is trickling down, but if the ascent of magma is sustained there will be laval flows,” Mr Solidum said. “There is also the possibility of an explosion.”

Internet Censorship Plan Approved In Australia. Sites to Be Blocked.

By John C Dvorak Tuesday December 15, 2009

41 Comments

Internet Censorship Plan Approved In Australia | Stephen Conroy — This is the lead-up to political site blocking.

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said today he would introduce legislation just before next year’s elections to force ISPs to block a blacklist of “refused classification” (RC) websites for all Australian internet users. The blacklist, featuring material such as child sex abuse, sexual violence and instructions on crime, would be compiled using a public complaints mechanism, Government censors and URLs provided by international agencies.

Senator Conroy also released results from a pilot trial of ISP-level internet filters, conducted by Enex Testlab, which he said found that blocking banned material “can be done with 100 per cent accuracy and negligible impact on internet speed”.

“Most Australians acknowledge that there is some internet material which is not acceptable in any civilised society,” he said.

He said about 15 western countries had encouraged or enforced internet filtering, and there was no reason why Australians should not have similar protection. It is not clear how – or if – the filters will distinguish between illegal RC material and that which is perfectly legal to view. An earlier version of the Government’s top-secret list of banned sites was leaked on to the web in March, revealing the scope of the filtering could extend significantly beyond child porn.

About half of the sites on the list were not related to child porn and included a slew of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist.

No Agenda Show. The Science is In. Part Two

By John C Dvorak Monday December 14, 2009

12 Comments

This Episode’s Executive Producer: Felix Shudel

Listen to show by clicking ►

Direct link to show.
Show notes here.
Donate to show here.

EU Mocks Intel

By John C Dvorak Monday December 14, 2009

14 Comments

Google phone is the talk of the town.
Nook e-reader has potential as a tablet PC.
iMAC 27-inch display having issues.
Is a text message private? The courts to decide.
Facebook privacy settings are screwed up.
New URL shrinkers appear.
Al Gore predicts end of polar ice.
Apple redesigned the App store.
iPhone design may be poor.
Super thin hard disk coming.
MSFT may have stolen code. We’ll see.
New Nintendo games.
EU mocks Intel and the USA.

Brought to you by eHarmony.
Go out this week! Check it out at www.eharmony.com
and use the code EHTECH for a free month…

click ► to listen:

Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.

Thwarting Cops From Using Microsoft’s Forensic Snooping Tool

By Uncle Dave Monday December 14, 2009

30 Comments

Bet you didn’t know Microsoft was enabling an invasion of your privacy by making your computer less secure. Aside from their usual, sloppy coding, of course.

Hackers have released an application designed to thwart a Microsoft-packaged forensic toolkit used by law enforcement agencies to examine a suspect’s hard drive during a raid.

The hacker tool, dubbed Decaf, is designed to counteract the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor, aka Cofee. The latter is a suite of 150 bundled, off-the-shelf forensic tools that run from a script. Microsoft combined the programs into a portable tool that can be used by law enforcement agents in the field before they bring a computer back to their forensic lab. The script runs on a USB stick that agents plug into the machine.

The tools scan files and gather information about activities performed on the machine, such as where the user surfed on the internet or what files were downloaded.

Blair: we must take action even if the science is not correct

By Jacob Galt Monday December 14, 2009

136 Comments

Louise Gray of the Telegraph reports:

Speaking in Copenhagen on Sunday Tony Blair, the former prime minister, said the world must take action on climate change even if the science is not correct.

What the deuce?

Monsanto’s Business Practices Affect The Food You Eat

By Uncle Dave Monday December 14, 2009

31 Comments

This has long been a No Agenda topic for John and Adam which the Main Stream Media is just now getting around to.

Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.’s business practices reveal how the world’s biggest seed developer is squeezing competitors, controlling smaller seed companies and protecting its dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered crops, an Associated Press investigation has found.

With Monsanto’s patented genes being inserted into roughly 95 percent of all soybeans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S., the company also is using its wide reach to control the ability of new biotech firms to get wide distribution for their products, according to a review of several Monsanto licensing agreements and dozens of interviews with seed industry participants, agriculture and legal experts.

Declining competition in the seed business could lead to price hikes that ripple out to every family’s dinner table. That’s because the corn flakes you had for breakfast, soda you drank at lunch and beef stew you ate for dinner likely were produced from crops grown with Monsanto’s patented genes.

Iran’s Nuclear Trigger

By Uncle Dave Monday December 14, 2009

40 Comments

Confidential intelligence documents obtained by The Times show that Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb.

The notes, from Iran’s most sensitive military nuclear project, describe a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion. Foreign intelligence agencies date them to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons programme.

An Asian intelligence source last week confirmed to The Times that his country also believed that weapons work was being carried out as recently as 2007 — specifically, work on a neutron initiator.

The technical document describes the use of a neutron source, uranium deuteride, which independent experts confirm has no possible civilian or military use other than in a nuclear weapon. Uranium deuteride is the material used in Pakistan’s bomb, from where Iran obtained its blueprint.

“Although Iran might claim that this work is for civil purposes, there is no civil application,” said David Albright, a physicist and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, which has analysed hundreds of pages of documents related to the Iranian programme. “This is a very strong indicator of weapons work.”

Copenhagen climate talks suspended as countries walk out of the conference

By Jacob Galt Monday December 14, 2009

16 Comments

Reports the Australian news.com.au:

The Copenhagen climate summit is in chaos after poor countries walked out of negotiations en masse today. The G77, a group which represents 130 developing countries, walked out because it is concerned the existing Kyoto protocol will be abandoned.

Australia’s Climate Change Minister Penny Wong confirmed that organisers were trying to fix the problem and coax back the developing world. Many countries at the UN climate summit want a brand new treaty to tackle climate change, but the developing world wants the Kyoto protocol to continue as well.