Dvorak News Blog

Community of Sex Offenders Forced to Live Like “Animals” Under Miami Underpass

By McCullough Monday May 4, 2009

MIAMI, May 3 (UPI) — A growing colony of sex offenders says members are being forced to live as outcasts under a Miami causeway because of strict sexual predator laws.

In 2006, there were seven convicted rapists and child molesters who had registered with Miami-Dade County officials as living in tents and shacks under the Julia Tuttle Causeway connecting Miami Beach and the mainland. Now there are 65 men and one woman among the colony, The Miami Herald reported Sunday.

They say they’re forced to live there because of a county ordinance prohibiting sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of where children congregate — leaving nowhere in the county to live except the airport, the Everglades or under the causeway, the newspaper said.

“People call this place a camp, like it’s pretty and fun,” Osvaldo Castillo, 29, who was convicted of molesting a 6-year-old boy, told the Herald. “It’s not fun at all. We are living like animals and trying to make the best of it.”

“Now, we gotta be our own city,” added Juan Carlos Martin, convicted of exposing himself to a 15-year-old girl. “Every attempt we’ve made to fight this has failed, so we have to make this work.”

I can think of better place to put them, but since we already have them all in one convenient location……well, I’m just sayin’.

Can a big-screen Kindle save your daily newspaper?

By Eideard Monday May 4, 2009

35 Comments

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

The iPod stemmed losses in the music industry. The Kindle gave beleaguered book publishers a reason for optimism.

Now the recession-ravaged newspaper and magazine industries are hoping for their own knight in shining digital armor, in the form of portable reading devices with big screens…

Read on, dear friends. Let’s see if newspaper publishers can be as uncomprehending and foolish as, say, the RIAA and MPAA?

Such e-reading devices are due in the next year from a range of companies, including the News Corporation, the magazine publisher Hearst and Plastic Logic, a well-financed start-up company that expects to start making digital newspaper readers by the end of the year at a plant in Dresden, Germany.

But it is Amazon, maker of the Kindle, that appears to be first in line to try throwing an electronic life preserver to old-media companies. As early as this week, according to people briefed on the online retailer’s plans, Amazon will introduce a larger version of its Kindle wireless device tailored for displaying newspapers, magazines and perhaps textbooks.

An Amazon spokesman would not comment, but some news organizations, including The New York Times, are expected to be involved in the introduction of the device, according to people briefed on the plans…

Home foreclosures sprout green pools — can West Nile be far behind?

By Eideard Monday May 4, 2009

13 Comments

In the arid Southwest, the backyard pool was the equivalent of the white picket fence: a sign the homeowners had achieved middle-class status. But as the foreclosure crisis emptied neighborhoods, the once-gleaming pools — caked with algae and infested with mosquitoes — became fetid reminders of all that was lost…

Robert Cole, 36, is an environmental health specialist with the Southern Nevada Health District. He and six others are charged with stopping the pools from becoming disease incubators. In recent years, as Sin City turned into Foreclosure City, the team has been swamped…

“As the economy went south, the number of green pools went north,” said Chris Conlan, supervising vector ecologist in San Diego County’s Department of Environmental Health, which stages weekly helicopter flyovers to spot rancid pools.

California, Arizona and Florida also rely on Gambusia affinis, or mosquitofish. The inches-long creatures can survive for months in stagnant water, and to them a batch of larvae is a prime-rib buffet.

RTFA. My guess is folks who really didn’t qualify for the storefront sub-prime mortgages they eventually defaulted on – are also those who leave the property damaged deliberately or at least conditions like these – a disaster waiting to happen over time.

Just think. We can reintroduce Yellow Fever and Malaria, give West Nile Virus a headstart for the summer.

Remember Myst? It’s Now Available On The iPhone

By Uncle Dave Monday May 4, 2009

13 Comments

Originally published on HyperCard (remember that?) on the Mac by Cyan, it was the most successful video game of it’s day and now on the iPhone. You can still get it for the PC.

So, when will Riven be out on iPhone?

The Se7en Deadly Sins By State & County

By Uncle Dave Monday May 4, 2009

11 Comments

Click those maps with repentant fury, sinners, to see the other 5, plus read about how Kansas State University created them. Or evolved.

Will London host the Super Bowl?

By SN Monday May 4, 2009

42 Comments

ESPN.com – News – May 3, 2009:

London has launched an audacious bid to stage the Super Bowl within the next eight years, a move that would see the United States’ biggest sporting event played overseas for the first time, the Sunday Telegraph has reported.

According to the newspaper, representatives from the Mayor of London’s office and Visit London, the city’s official visitor organization, have received assurances from the National Football League of a commitment to hold the event in London.

The NFL has already staged two sellout regular-season games at Wembley Stadium, with a third scheduled for this October.

“We are looking at 2014, 2015 or 2017,” David Hornby, the commercial director for Visit London was quoted as saying.

Talks have been ongoing with the NFL, which has identified London as the outstanding candidate city to host the event outside of the United States, according to the report.

Queens Day Videos — Amsterdam

By John C Dvorak Sunday May 3, 2009

15 Comments

As many of you know Queens Day in Holland took place last Thursday and I just got back. Here are a couple of videos to give you a feeling for the event. The first was done in the morning. The second later in the afternoon. The weather was remarkably nice.

No Agenda #94 Now On Cage Match

By KD Martin Sunday May 3, 2009

5 Comments

Click image to go to No Agenda.

John and Adam discuss the news of the day from an international perspective

Queue / cue / Q the closing credits — We hope you enjoy the show!

No Agenda

Running time: approx. 90 mins.

Jacqui Smith’s secret plan to carry on snooping in UK

By John C Dvorak Sunday May 3, 2009

8 Comments

Jacqui Smith’s secret plan to carry on snooping – Times Online — This is how you can get control and maintain control of a populace for political and economic reasons. Can you imagine what kind of money you can make if you had access to anyone’s phone calls and email whenever you wanted it? Wow!

SPY chiefs are pressing ahead with secret plans to monitor all internet use and telephone calls in Britain despite an announcement by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, of a ministerial climbdown over public surveillance.

GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, is developing classified technology to intercept and monitor all e-mails, website visits and social networking sessions in Britain. The agency will also be able to track telephone calls made over the internet, as well as all phone calls to land lines and mobiles.

The £1 billion snooping project — called Mastering the Internet (MTI) — will rely on thousands of “black box” probes being covertly inserted across online infrastructure.

Amsterdam Cab Rip Offs Abound

By John C Dvorak Sunday May 3, 2009

34 Comments

The creep driving cab number 1195 should be avoided.

For a one mile ride to the hotel from this spot near Central Station this cabbie demanded 15 Euro ($19). This is ridiculous since licensed cabs should be using the meter. Most cab rides in Amsterdam were oriented towards gouging the tourists. The Amsterdam government should put a stop to it. Why bother even licensing these cabs if they can do whatever they want? This was cab 1195 (above). I simply got out and some new sucker (above) came along.

Sean Hannity Volunteers to be Waterboarded for Charity, Olbermann Offers $1K Per Second, Hannity goes Silent

By McCullough Sunday May 3, 2009

67 Comments

OLBERMANN: Sean, my offer still stands, 1,000 dollars a second. This is not a stunt nor game. Prove to those families you are a man of your word. In fact, prove you are a man.

For that kind of money, I could hang in there for a while……or barring that, how do I contribute?

Quote of the Day: Kurt Vonnegut

By SN Sunday May 3, 2009

15 Comments

iPhone App Tracks Swine Flu “Pandemic”

By McCullough Sunday May 3, 2009

11 Comments

Yesterday, we talked a bit about how some companies are clearly trying to capitalize on the Swine Flu craze that is sweeping the nation. Naturally, someone just had to make an iPhone app.

And the winner is IntuApps, which has Swine Flu Tracker, waiting for approval from Apple before it’s released into the App Store. IntuApps’ Barry Schwartz, who is also a blogger, sent along some screenshots of the app. In it, you can see the current Threat Level for the disease, a map showing confirmed and suspected cases, a symptoms area to inform people, and an alert page for breaking news on Swine Flu.

Everyone is joking about Swine Flu because of the whole pig angle, but it is at least somewhat of a serious threat. And while this iPhone app may be the latest thing to capitalize on it, it’s also pretty useful as a way to know what areas to avoid on the go. It’s good to know that IntuApps will be giving the app away for free when it is available in the App Store.

Meh, by the time it’s available, swine flu will be old news. Seems like it is already.

No one ever said pirates were brighter than any other crook!

By Eideard Sunday May 3, 2009

32 Comments

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

French soldiers inspect pirate attack boat. Nivose in the background.

The French Navy said they seized 11 pirates Sunday after they apparently mistook a French military vessel for a commercial ship and made a run at it.

Two pirate assault boats approached the Nivose “at great speed,” Capt. Christophe Prazuck said, but a French helicopter intervened before the attackers had time to fire at the French Navy ship.

The helicopter fired warning shots, he said.

The pirates, who had a mother ship as well as the two assault boats, are being held for questioning on the Nivose, Prazuck said. The vessels were carrying AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, but the pirates did not fire, he said.

At least they weren’t suicidal.

In the past three weeks, the Nivose has intercepted 24 suspected pirates as part of a European Union anti-piracy operation off the coast of Somalia, which has become a piracy hotspot.

Over the past year, more than 100 suspected pirates have been picked up, Prazuck said. Of that total, 27 have been released, and more than 70 taken to jail in France, handed to authorities in Somalia or taken to Kenya under an EU agreement with the government in Nairobi.

Essay: The Idea of the Company Town Revisited

By John C Dvorak Sunday May 3, 2009

14 Comments

An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone and Come
By John C. Dvorak

All that’s missing from the hi-tech scene is creative exploitation. Exploitation the way they used to do it in the old days — with a company town.

Some people are already beginning to think in these terms. One company is planning a hi-tech community in Japan. This is to be a pre-planned silicon valley replete with malls, fancy transportation, a big airport and everything you’d supposedly want. Instead of a one-company town, though, this thing would be a valley of companies. This will never work as well as the one company town. The one company town can really put the screws to the hapless employees. Lock them in. Force them to be happy.

Historically company towns have a bad reputation. Some years ago, when Steve Jobs was still with Apple, he advocated something called Apple-town or Appleland — a company town to be built near Gilroy or in some other dusty agricultural site where land was cheap and there was plenty of room to expand. When this concept was first mentioned I ridiculed it, but now I’m beginning to think that a few screwball company towns might be a great remedy to declining American productivity. If nothing else they make for interesting sociology.