Dvorak News Blog

Obama to let health institute decide day-to-day policy on stem cells

By Eideard Monday March 9, 2009

President Barack Obama will lift his predecessor’s restriction on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research on Monday and will give the National Institutes of Health four months to come up with new rules on the issue.

Obama will not lay out guidelines himself but will let the NIH decide when it is ethical and legal to pay for embryonic stem cell research, science adviser Dr. Harold Varmus said.

Researchers and advocates have been invited to a White House ceremony at which Obama will make the announcement, said Melody Barnes, director of Obama’s domestic policy council. He will also sign a pledge to “restore scientific integrity in governmental decision making,” Barnes said.

“And the president believes that it’s particularly important to sign this memorandum so that we can put science and technology back at the heart of achieving a broad range of national goals.”

Former President George W. Bush was accused by scientists and politicians of injecting politics and sometimes religion into scientific decisions regarding not only stem cells, but climate change policy, energy policy and contraceptive policy.

Barnes said scrapping the restriction on federal funding imposed by Bush would help to create jobs and strengthen national security.

How’s this for an earthshaking precedent in American politics? Letting scientists lead the way for policy on science.

Check This Out. Pick Me!

By Uncle Dave Monday March 9, 2009

18 Comments

Religion In Sharp Decline In US

By Uncle Dave Monday March 9, 2009

164 Comments

The percentage of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely.

These dramatic shifts in just 18 years are detailed in the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), to be released today. It finds that, despite growth and immigration that has added nearly 50 million adults to the U.S. population, almost all religious denominations have lost ground since the first ARIS survey in 1990.

“More than ever before, people are just making up their own stories of who they are. They say, ‘I’m everything. I’m nothing. I believe in myself,’ ” says Barry Kosmin, survey co-author.

Among the key findings in the 2008 survey:

• So many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists. In a nation that has long been mostly Christian, “the challenge to Christianity … does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion,” the report concludes.
[…]
Meabh Fitzpatrick, 49, of Rutland, Vt., says she is upfront about becoming an atheist 10 years ago because “it’s important for us to be counted. I’m a taxpayer and a law-abiding citizen and an ethical person, and I don’t think people assume this about atheists.”

Trip Log

By hhopper Sunday March 8, 2009

31 Comments

(Click photo to enlarge.)

Two Ways to Open a Bottle of Beer with a Helicopter

By McCullough Sunday March 8, 2009

13 Comments

The Hard Way:

The Easy Way:

Any Questions?

If the Watchmen had been an 80s Saturday morning cartoon!

By SN Sunday March 8, 2009

16 Comments

No Agenda #78 — Now on Cage Match

By KD Martin Sunday March 8, 2009

18 Comments

100% Guaranteed Zero Yanni

Click image to go to No Agenda.

John and Adam discuss the current news with an International Perspective

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

Running time: approx. 85 mins.

No Agenda

Obama, Mullen discuss Mexico’s drug war

By Eideard Sunday March 8, 2009

24 Comments

Daylife/Reuters Pictures

President Obama and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on Saturday discussed how the U.S. military can assist Mexico in addressing growing violence from drug cartels, according to a military official.

The conversation, which Obama initiated within hours of Mullen’s return to the United States from a visit to Mexico City, underscores the growing concern with which the United States views the situation…

The president expressed interest in military capabilities that the U.S. has that could help Mexican forces, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technology, the official said…

This week, a U.S. citizen was among the three decapitated bodies found in Tijuana, Mexican authorities said Saturday. Growing drug violence has made beheadings in Tijuana, Juarez and other Mexican towns more commonplace over the past year.

Mexico has become the focus for everything cruel and inhuman about the so-called War on Drugs.

The Death Penalty Is Dying

By Uncle Dave Sunday March 8, 2009

47 Comments

After decades of moral arguments reaching biblical proportions, after long, twisted journeys to the nation’s highest court and back, the death penalty may be abandoned by several states for a reason having nothing to do with right or wrong:

Money.

Turns out, it is cheaper to imprison killers for life than to execute them, according to a series of recent surveys. Tens of millions of dollars cheaper, politicians are learning, during a tumbling recession when nearly every state faces job cuts and massive deficits.
[…]
“It’s a waste of time and money,” said [Donald McCartin, a former California jurist known as “The Hanging Judge of Orange County”] the 82-year-old, self-described right-wing Republican whose sonorous voice still commands attention. “The only thing it does is prolong the agony of the victims’ families.”
[…]
The most recent arguments against it centered on the ever-increasing number of convicts cleared by DNA evidence.
[…]
“It’s all about money,” said McCartin, the former California judge. “The reasons I changed my mind were between that and how the victims’ families just get raped during appeals.”

Did You Know You Can Find Hookers On Craigslist?

By Uncle Dave Sunday March 8, 2009

24 Comments

I’m shocked! Shocked, I say. You mean the random ad I just clicked on there that had pictures of two women doing I’m not sure what with each other and said, “if you horny and want to test your fantasy limits, and paying a fee is not an issue. we waiting in my room all alone and wet…” is about… Oh, my!

And the one with the title, “in search of morning wood” isn’t from a girl who needs her fireplace stoked? Golly, who could have guessed?

The owners of craigslist had a federal lawsuit filed against them on Thursday by an Illinois sheriff accusing the popular national classified-ad Web site of knowingly promoting prostitution.

“Craigslist is the single largest source of prostitution in the nation,” Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said. “Missing children, runaways, abused women and women trafficked in from foreign countries are routinely forced to have sex with strangers because they’re being pimped on craigslist.”

According to Dart, the FBI has discovered over 2,800 child prostitution ads on craigslist, with Chicago, Illinois, ranking in the top 10 cities as far as juvenile prostitution. Dart also mentioned cases of child neglect, which have occurred while parents were taking part in activities solicited on the Web site.

One e-mailed statement from craigslist read that, “Craigslist is an extremely unwise choice for those intent on committing crimes, since criminals inevitably leave an electronic trail to themselves that law enforcement officers will follow.” The statement also said that craigslist had not seen Dart’s complaint.

Circuit City stores closing ahead of schedule

By Eideard Sunday March 8, 2009

18 Comments

Daylife/Getty Images

Circuit City will disappear from the retail landscape by Sunday night. All of the retailer’s remaining 500-plus stores will close by then, ending an era for a chain that began in a small downtown Richmond storefront in 1949 and later became the nation’s largest consumer-electronics chain…

A consortium of four liquidating companies has been conducting going-out-of-business sales since mid-January at Circuit City’s 567 U.S. stores. They were selling off the Henrico County-based chain’s remaining $1billion-plus worth of inventory at reduced prices. The group initially thought the stores would close by late March, but sales have gone better than expected, Circuit City spokesman Bill Cimino said.

About 70 stores already have closed, he said…

The demise of Circuit City will flood the commercial real estate market with about 22 million square feet of retail space at more than 600 locations nationwide.

They weren’t very sharp. They rarely paid for competent help. They relied on discount pricing to turn the inventory. But, then, there probably is a spot in the marketplace for stores just like that.

When folks can afford to buy stuff.

Not One, BUT TWO Bountiful teachers arrested for sex with student

By John C Dvorak Sunday March 8, 2009

33 Comments

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

ksl.com – 2 Bountiful teachers arrested for sex with student — Bountiful indeed!

Bountiful police have arrested two teachers from Bountiful Junior High School for having sex with one of their students.

Valynn Bowers, 39, was arrested Thursday evening, and officers took 46-year-old Linda Nef into custody Friday afternoon.

With the suspects being so much older than their victim some wonder what would prompt them to commit the crime.

University of Utah psychology professor Don Strassberg says that would be an easier question to answer if the teachers were men. With men, he says, it’s probably about the sex.

Found by PG Kelly.

World Builder — The Future Of 3D Holographic Graphics?

By Uncle Dave Sunday March 8, 2009

18 Comments

Suppose Google’s exceptional and easy to use 3D drawing program, SketchUp were just a tad more powerful than today’s version. This video provides just a bit more interesting take on the future of computer usage than Microsoft’s.

And here is a different example of world building today for a car commercial.

UK Law: No Laughing While Driving. Motorist Stopped by Police.

By John C Dvorak Saturday March 7, 2009

26 Comments

Motorist stopped by police for laughing – Telegraph — It’s amazing to me how the UK public, the one that fought the Nazis and the bombing of London, puts up with this crap.

Gary Saunders, a company director, was using a hands-free phone when he burst out laughing at a joke told by his brother-in-law, who he was talking to.

A few moments later he noticed a traffic officer flashing his lights at him and gesticulating at him to stop his Renault. When Mr Saunders got out of his car, the policeman told him: “Laughing while driving a car can be an offence.”

The officer spent half an hour questioning his suspect before reluctantly allowing him to carry on his way. However, he took another hour-and-a-half of Mr Saunders’ time by ordering him to produce his licence and other documents at a police station.

Mr Saunders, the managing director of Spontex Workwear, of Liverpool, said the delay meant that he missed an important appointment. “I couldn’t believe it when he told me I’d been pulled over for laughing,” he said.

Found by Kevin McKay.

Army captain charged with $700K theft

By Eideard Saturday March 7, 2009

15 Comments

No, that ain’t his Hummer; but, who would notice, right?

A U.S. Army captain faces trial for allegedly stealing $700,000 from an emergency fund in Iraq and sending it home in boxes…

Dan Wardlaw, a spokesman for the Internal Revenue Service, said that Nguyen triggered an investigation by going on a spending spree that was clearly above his pay grade after he returned from Iraq, The Portland Oregonian reported.

“Buying a brand-new BMW and a Hummer will attract attention,” Wardlaw said.

Do you really think so? Obviously Captain Nguyen didn’t.

Of course, the classic observation is never steal anything small. The schmucks who made off with billions ain’t been touched.