Dvorak News Blog

Jobless rate hits 9.7%; broader unemployment jumps to 16.8%

By Jacob Galt Friday September 4, 2009

The lay-offs are slowing, but jobs are being lost at a still rapid pace.

YAHOO – The unemployment rate jumped almost half a point to 9.7 percent in August, the highest since 1983. While the jobless rate rose more than expected, the economy shed a net total of 216,000 jobs.

HUFFINGTON POST – By a broader measure that includes forced part-timers and people who’d like to work but aren’t looking, the national unemployment rate reached 16.8 percent — up a staggering 6 percent from this time last year.

My Squirrel Ganesha likes his new home

By Marc Perkel Friday September 4, 2009

30 Comments

http://ctyme.com/pics/ganesha/DSC02010.JPG

(Click to embiggen.)

I built a new squirrel house for my pet squirrel Ganesha. I was at Lowes and bought 2 hanging flower baskets, mounted the top one upside down and wired it to the bottom one. Inside is lined with paper towels and a towel. I cut a hole in the top so he can crawl in and out. He’s big enough to jump to the tree and back.

Squirrels normally live in hollowed out trees. This is a hollowed out tree simulator. It was also cheap and easy to build.

Would you be willing to die on Mars?

By SN Friday September 4, 2009

59 Comments

Lawrence M. Krauss, author of “The Physics of ‘Star Trek,” writes in the New York Times that if we ever attempt to send people to Mars, we should leave them there because it’s simply too expensive to bring them back. That sounds pretty cold, but Krauss says,

While the idea of sending astronauts aloft never to return is jarring upon first hearing, the rationale for one-way trips into space has both historical and practical roots. Colonists and pilgrims seldom set off for the New World with the expectation of a return trip, usually because the places they were leaving were pretty intolerable anyway. Give us a century or two and we may turn the whole planet into a place from which many people might be happy to depart.

Krauss also points out that he knows people who would be willing to go right now.

If it sounds unrealistic to suggest that astronauts would be willing to leave home never to return alive, then consider the results of several informal surveys I and several colleagues have conducted recently. One of my peers in Arizona recently accompanied a group of scientists and engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a geological field trip. During the day, he asked how many would be willing to go on a one-way mission into space. Every member of the group raised his hand. The lure of space travel remains intoxicating for a generation brought up on “Star Trek” and “Star Wars.”

Would you guys be willing to travel to Mars knowing you’ll never come back? Would Michele Bachmann being elected president help in your decision? Four more years of Obama? Vote below.

Hilarious comment from Mr. Glum, “Um, pilgrims and colonists were going somewhere with an oxygen atmosphere.”

Good point!

Wanted: Facebook Friend. Will Pay Top Dollar!

By Uncle Dave Friday September 4, 2009

7 Comments

I think I can whip up a name generating program to create ‘buddies’ who are personal friends of mine and cash in!

Are you totally reprehensible and feeling lonely? Or maybe you’re just a struggling business looking for some instant online companionship? The firm Usocial has the answer for you — buy Facebook friends and fans.

For a piddling 7.6 cents per friend, Usocial will deliver 5000 new buddies to your Facebook account. That’s $654.30 worth of lovin’ from people you’ll never meet and who aren’t concerned whether you live or die.

If having Facebook fans is more up your alley, you can buy 10,000 of those for 8.5 cents a pop, which comes to a meaty $1167.30. How’s that for a Facebook status update? Thumbs up?

Usocial claims that each Facebook friend is worth $1 to your business in return revenue. The idea is that Usocial creates a Friends List of potential customer to market to via Facebook updates and mail. With Facebook friends like that, who needs spam?

What Would PETA Think Of Genetically Modified, Pain Free Livestock?

By Uncle Dave Friday September 4, 2009

20 Comments

“Whadya think, Fred. Ya buyin’ this?”

With “hormone-free”, “cage-free” and “antibiotic-free” becoming common labels on our supermarket shelves, might “pain-free” be the next sticker slapped onto a rump roast?

As unlikely as that may seem, progress in neuroscience and genetics in recent years makes it a very real possibility. In fact, according to one philosopher, we have an ethical duty to consider the option.

“If we can’t do away with factory farming, we should at least take steps to minimise the amount of suffering that is caused,” says Adam Shriver, a philosopher at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. In a provocative paper published this month, Shriver contends that genetically engineered pain-free animals are the most acceptable alternative (Neuroethics, DOI: 10.1007/s12152-009-9048-6). “I’m offering a solution where you could still eat meat but avoid animal suffering.”
[…]
Progress in understanding and manipulating the molecular and genetic bases for pain means ethics and economics, not technical feasibility, may end up determining whether Shriver’s proposal becomes a reality.

Attention WalMart Shoppers: Please Do Not Slap Another Shopper’s Unruly Child for Crying… That is All

By McCullough Thursday September 3, 2009

64 Comments

Mr. Cranky

(CNN) — A Georgia man allegedly slapped a toddler at a Walmart store because she wouldn’t stop crying, authorities said. Roger Stephens, 61, was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree cruelty to children. An incident report obtained from police in Gwinnett County indicated Stephens did not know the 2-year-old girl he stands accused of hitting.

The confrontation happened shortly before noon at the Walmart in Stone Mountain, a suburb of Atlanta. According to the arresting officer, the child’s mother said her daughter was crying as they walked down one of the aisles. The mother said a stranger later identified as Stephens approached them and said, “If you don’t shut the baby up, I will shut her up for you.” A few moments later, while the mother and the crying child were in another aisle, Stephens allegedly grabbed the girl and slapped her across the face. Police said he hit her four or five times. “See, I told you I would shut her up,” the suspect allegedly told the mother.

This type of behavior is to be avoided, no matter how tempting it is.

Xperia Pureness. Worst Name Ever.

By John C Dvorak Thursday September 3, 2009

6 Comments

IPhone to finally get MMS later this month.
HTC Hero phone going to Sprint.
Toshiba finally rolls out Blu-Ray.
NJ Apple store robbed in 31 seconds flat.
Forrester says e-book reader should be $50.
Mt. Wilson is saved.
Sony-Ericsson shows very hot phone with very dumb name.
Too many planted stories about Xbox360.
Microsoft wants you to throw Win7 parties.

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First US internet addiction center opens

By Jacob Galt Thursday September 3, 2009

13 Comments

ASSOCIATED PRESS – Alexander, 19, needed help to break an addiction he calls as destructive as alcohol or drugs. He found it in this suburb of high-tech Seattle, where what claims to be the first residential treatment center for Internet addiction in the United States just opened its doors.

The center, called ReSTART, is somewhat ironically located near Redmond, headquarters of Microsoft and a world center of the computer industry. It opened in July and for $14,000 offers a 45-day program intended to help people wean themselves from pathological computer use, which can include obsessive use of video games, texting, Facebook, eBay, Twitter and any other time-killers brought courtesy of technology.

Maybe if we had imlemented John’s “computer license” idea, we wouldn’t be needing this.

GOURMET ALERT: Finalists for State Fair’s Big Tex Choice Awards include Deep Fried Butter

By John C Dvorak Thursday September 3, 2009

18 Comments

Apparently served with buttery dipping sauce

Finalists for State Fair’s Big Tex Choice Awards include Deep Fried Butter | Star-Telegram — What is the point of this??

The place that brought you deep-fried Twinkies has taken fat food to a whole new level.

Since 2005, the State Fair of Texas has invited its vendors to create new and interesting food offerings. In recent years, we’ve seen such artery cloggers as Texas Fried Cookie Dough and Chicken Fried Bacon.

On Tuesday, State Fair officials released the eight finalists for this year’s fifth annual Big Tex Choice Awards, and on the list is this gem: Deep Fried Butter. It’s exactly as it sounds, butter that’s seasoned, battered up and deep-fried. For those counting, a stick of butter has 810 calories— before it’s deep-fried.

Long-Legged Mack Daddy Defined in Detail

By John C Dvorak Thursday September 3, 2009

50 Comments

DISCLAIMER: The following is from preacher James David Manning, who apparently does not like Obama and never did. This video was done long before the election, so he is no newcomer to this position. This guy was highlighted on today’s No Agenda and he kept using this term “long-legged Mack Daddy” in reference to Obama. Here he defines in great detail the term and it has nothing to do with Obama having long legs. I run it because it does have some interesting cultural relevance.

This sort of thing will increase as time goes by. Some will find this perspective offensive (and tedious).

There Are Jobs Americans Won’t Do: Fact or Fiction?

By Uncle Dave Thursday September 3, 2009

47 Comments

The recession has caused some people to take jobs they could never have imagined working in. But in ‘normal’ times, what does this study mean for the immigration reform movement?

Most illegal workers in the US are Mexicans who mow lawns, clean motel sheets, butcher hogs, pick strawberries, and otherwise toil away at tasks that, as George W. Bush once said, “Americans won’t do.” And they often are paid less than the minimum wage.

A widely held assumption in Washington’s debate about immigration is that native-born Americans avoid menial and dirty work. Laid-off autoworkers wouldn’t really wash dishes at a Denny’s or milk cows on a dairy farm, would they? Such a notion has long helped justify a flow of foreign workers into the US – or possibly an amnesty for those hiding from the law.
[…]
With people desperate for income, downward mobility may be on the way up.
[…]
Maybe it’s a myth that Americans won’t take certain jobs. In fact, a study by the Center for Immigration Studies used 2005-07 data to look at 465 occupations. Only four had a majority of immigrants in them.

Whatever Happened To… Sketchpad, One of the First Graphics Programs

By Uncle Dave Thursday September 3, 2009

11 Comments

Ivan Sutherland is a computer graphics pioneer who developed some of the first visually interactive concepts that eventually made their way into the Mac, then Windows, plus video games.

Worst Ad Concept Ever?

By Uncle Dave Thursday September 3, 2009

26 Comments

UPDATE 2: The video is back. This article describes it.

I love the show Mad Men about a Madison Avenue ad agency in the early 60’s. Things have changed so much in society it seems like you’re watching what’s happening on another planet. The insensitive idiots who thought up this ad must be from another galaxy.

Turns out that it wasn’t the work of the World Wildlife Fund, but an ad agency who mocked it up. After presenting the concept and being summarily rejected by the activist group, the forsaken ad made its way online, thoroughly pissing off the WWF. They condemned the plane-raining creative and the loose-lipped agency that posted it, issuing the following statement:

“WWF strongly condemns this offensive and tasteless ad and did not authorize its production or publication. It is our understanding that it was a concept offered by an outside advertising agency seeking our business in Brazil. The concept was summarily rejected by WWF and should never have seen the light of day.”

Aussie Man faces child-abuse charges over dumb video download

By John C Dvorak Wednesday September 2, 2009

23 Comments

Man faces child-abuse charges over MA15+ video — The more Internet-related stories that come out of Australia, the more loony the Australian government seems to be. Loony and dangerous. All he did was download a dumb video and now this makes him a child abuser!

Queensland Police want to send a father of four to jail for up to 20 years on child-abuse charges over a video the Federal Government’s own censors have classified as MA15 .

Chris Illingworth, 61, from Maroochydore, was charged late last year with accessing and uploading child-abuse material after he published, on a video-sharing site, a video of a man swinging a baby around like a rag doll.

Despite having no involvement in the creation of the three-minute clip, he was committed to a trial by jury in the District Court on July 8. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment for each of the two charges.

Illingworth’s solicitor, Chelsea Emery, of Ryan and Bosccher Lawyers, has said that, if the case goes ahead, every Australian who surfs the net could be vulnerable to police prosecution.

Spanish Burger King Ad Denigrates Hindu Goddess Lakshmi as Pun

By John C Dvorak Wednesday September 2, 2009

18 Comments

Spanish Burger King Ad Denigrates Hindu Goddess Lakshmi – Eat Me Daily — Fantastic. Burger King is out of control.

Burger King Spain is really knocking them out of the park these days — first they set off an international incident over their Texican Whopper ads with a tiny luchador wearing a Mexican flag, but that apparently wasn’t enough. So some Burger Kings over in Iberia started displaying posters that show the Hindu goddess Lakshmi sitting on top of a meat sandwich with the tagline “La marienda es sagrada” roughly translated: “A snack that’s sacred”. Cute and all, except for the part where Hinduism dictates strict avoidance of the consumption of meat. Hindus everywhere are insulted and upset, and jumping the issue over to our side of the pond, the Hindu American Foundation is called for Burger King to pull the ads and for an apology.