Dvorak News Blog

Rhode Island strip club to host job fair

By John C Dvorak Friday March 20, 2009

Rhode Island strip club to host job fair – Yahoo Finance I’d like to see who shows up for this.

Here’s a job opportunity you won’t need to buy a new wardrobe for.

Hoping to take advantage of Rhode Island’s floundering economy, owners of the Foxy Lady strip club in Providence plan to hold a job fair on Saturday.They say they’re looking to fill around 30 positions, from strippers and waitresses to disc jockeys and bartenders, at that club and two others in Massachusetts.

“I need more managers, I need more competent staff, and I need more attractive waitresses to go along with the ones I have right now,” said co-owner Tom Tsoumas.

The naked truth is that Rhode Island’s economy is among the worst in the nation, with an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent in January.

Online game gets license to be a bank

By Eideard Friday March 20, 2009

18 Comments

Online game Entropia Universe has been granted a licence to be a bank. Issued by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, the licence means the game can be more closely tied to the real world finances of players.

Mindark, the developers of the game, said it aimed to launch a fully-functioning in-game bank within the next 12 months.

At current exchange rates, 10 PED (Project Entropia Dollars) are worth one US dollar.

Players pay real money to get at in-game items, such as guns, armour and other gear, and the micro-payment system pays for Entropia’s running costs.

“We will be in a position to offer real bank services to the inhabitants of our virtual universe,” said Jan Welter Timkrans, boss of Mindark. It plans to offer players interest-bearing accounts, let them deposit their salaries and pay bills or lend cash via the in-game bank.

When will they start offering mortgage-based derivatives?

“Your baby looks stunning in her high heel cowboy boots. Now if only she could walk…”

By Uncle Dave Friday March 20, 2009

12 Comments

Just when you think you’ve read about or thought up the stupidest thing you could think of, along comes something even stupider.

The cowboy-style high-heeled boots are made more for crawling than walking as they are aimed at infants aged from newborn to six-months-old.

The six-inch high boots are made from patent leather, have silk lining on the inside and some even come with silver spurs on the back.

They come in two colours of black or pink and the designers claim they are “sassy” and bring “hysterical laughter” to both baby and mother.

They have soft heels but are otherwise designed to look exactly like the adult version.

Children’s organisations have branded them “ridiculous” and “totally inappropriate” for youngsters.

The boots have been designed and manufactured by US firm Heelarious and are available to buy over the internet for £30.

A British shoe shop that already stocks the stiletto shoes for babies is set to start selling the bootie version.

How Did We Get Into This Mess?

By Uncle Dave Friday March 20, 2009

71 Comments

How to Destroy the Government in Three Easy Steps

In eight short years, conservatives have effectively bankrupted many state governments and left the fed in shambles. And now citizens have to “make tough decisions” and share the suffering equally across the land (unless of course, you’re part of that lucky 1 percent who co-opted the functions of government to serve their own ends … they’ll be cozy with their offshore bank accounts, golden parachutes and permanent tax holidays).
[…]
Ever wonder how conservatives did all this?

Well, here’s your very own how-to manual for getting Big Government out of the way so you and your buddies can horde all the wealth to yourselves and build your empire.

Step 1: Blame the Individuals
[…]Step 2: Cut Taxes
[…]Step 3: Exploit Disaster

Read the article for the details. It’s short and very to the point.

House Passes Bill Taxing AIG Bonuses, Who’s Next?

By KD Martin Friday March 20, 2009

78 Comments

The government giveth, the government taketh away.

Taxcashblog.com

Denouncing a “squandering of the people’s money,” lawmakers voted decisively Thursday to impose a 90 percent tax on millions of dollars in employee bonuses paid by troubled insurance giant AIG and other bailed-out companies.

The House vote was 328-93. Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate and President Barack Obama quickly signaled general support for the concept.

Republicans took Democrats to task for rushing to tax AIG bonuses worth an estimated $165 million after the majority party stripped from last month’s economic stimulus bill a provision that could have banned such payouts.

AIG has received $182.5 billion in federal bailout money and is now 80 percent government-owned.

Obama administration special envoy Richard Holbooke was on AIG’s board of directors in early 2008, when the insurance company committed to the bonuses, and during the previous years of aggressive investment strategies that brought the firm to brink of collapse. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Thursday: “Mr. Holbrooke had nothing to do with and knew nothing about the bonuses.”

Will this make things better, or is it just a “look good now” tactic for Congress and the White House?

Unlocked iPhones for Sale?

By John C Dvorak Thursday March 19, 2009

34 Comments

MSFT IE8 supposedly great.
Cisco to buy vid cam company.
New iPhone models coming? Someone thinks so.
Google backs Sony reader.
AT&T to sell iPhones without contracts.
Birds dying off, they say.
New Mozilla mobile browser.
Dell Adamo made in China by Quanta.
Apple sells HD now.
Safari hacked.
IBM-Sun merger called anti-competitive. By who?
Sony freezes salaries.
Google apps to be shut down by government? Why?
Cadillac has Internet in the car itself.
Visit: www.Squarespace.com use the code “Tech.”

click ► to listen:

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

Texas High school held cage fights with troubled teens

By John C Dvorak Thursday March 19, 2009

20 Comments

High school held cage fights, records show – Education- msnbc.com — I think they should have commercialized it rather than hide it.

A Dallas high school staged “gladiator-style” cage fights among troubled students, making them settle their differences with bare-knuckled brawls inside a boys locker room, according to school district documents.

The principal and other employees at South Oak Cliff High School “knew of the practice, allowed it to go on for a time, and failed to report it,” according to a 2008 report revealed Thursday. The fights, unleashed inside a steel utility cage, happened between 2003 and 2005, the report said.

Found by John Ligums.

Trucker saves heart attack victim

By Eideard Thursday March 19, 2009

12 Comments

Sometimes, the video takes a while to load. Don’t be impatient.

Over the road hero!

Video – Rolling Bomber Special

By Gasparrini Thursday March 19, 2009

9 Comments

Short movie parody of a Japanese ‘Power Ranger’ type show. Quite amusing.

So much for “work that Americans won’t do”

By Eideard Thursday March 19, 2009

26 Comments

Wages and employment increased for legal workers after raids on six Swift & Co. meat-packing plants in several U.S. states in 2006.

Noting that the plants raided were back in production within five months, Jerry Kammer of the Center for Immigration Studies said there was “good evidence” that the number of U.S.-born workers increased, concluding that the plants “could operate without the presence of illegal workers,” The Hill reported.

The non-partisan center examined what happened after raids on Swift & Co. facilities in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas and Utah, in which 1,300 undocumented workers were arrested. Another 400 workers without authorization to work in the United States were found through company screening.

“At the four facilities for which we were able to obtain information, wages and bonuses rose on average 8 percent with the departure of illegal immigrants,” Kammer said.

Over the last decade of employers in meat-packing bringing in illegals as scabs, average wages dropped at least 40%. Folks still have a way to go.

Family Pet Eats Mom’s Hard Earned Cash

By McCullough Thursday March 19, 2009

15 Comments

“Augie” the Cash Munching Doggie

APEX, N.C. – A North Carolina family’s dog didn’t eat the children’s homework, he ate mom’s money.

Kelley Davis said she had an extra $400 in cash to deposit after working extra hours as a physical therapist. She told the News & Observer of Raleigh that on Friday she planned to deposit the money, but it wasn’t in her pocket.

She remembered leaving it in the bedroom and it occurred to her that the family’s 2-year-old greater Swiss mountain dog, Augie, might have eaten it.

Davis, 42, said when she took Augie for a walk Saturday, she found parts of three $100 bills and five $20s in his leavings. She washed them with a garden hose and hopes to find enough pieces to exchange them for cash.

A professor at the North Carolina State University Veterinary School said the money shouldn’t hurt the dog.

Ewwww! That cash needs to be laundered.

An adventure holiday – in Mexico

By Eideard Thursday March 19, 2009

12 Comments

In El Alberto, a small village over 1000km from the border between Mexico and the US, tourists can pay to experience what it’s like being an illegal migrant. Jo Tuckman joins a group as they attempt to enter ‘America’.

Surely, you can think of someone to send on this vacation of a lifetime.

Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?

By Uncle Dave Thursday March 19, 2009

22 Comments

Of course, this assumes we want to find him. Blackwat… er, um… Xe can’t make any money if there aren’t wars going on somewhere.

How long might it really take to find al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden? U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggests the FBI’s 17-year hunt for convicted Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski as a reasonable guide.

Or worse still, Gates said on Wednesday, consider the fate of Americans taken hostage decades ago in Lebanon who died before the United States could find and rescue them.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Gates dismissed the notion that something might be amiss because bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, remain free more than seven years after the September 11 attacks.

“To a certain extent, I think too many people go to too many movies. Finding these guys is really hard, and especially if they have some kind of a support network,” he said.
[…]
But Gates drew a historical parallel between bin Laden’s hide-out and the mountain cabin in Montana where federal agents found Kaczynski in 1995, after he had killed three people and injured 23 others in a bombing campaign that began in 1978.

“Look at how long it took … years and years — in the United States,” the U.S. defense chief said.