Excited Delirium

Stories about Excited Delirium, the Shock Economy and a little fiction here and there.

Daily Archives: February 3, 2008

6:30EST+: Speculation on Super Bowl Events

A lot of buzz is going on right now about the status of communications in the Middle East. Iran is showing with ZERO internet capability (this has lasted about 4 days).

What does this have to do with the Super Bowl? Lots of stories are emerging with speculation that something will happen during the Super Bowl. Some say it will be a dirty nuke, others are saying that there will be some kind of wacky PNAC operation taking place in Texas City, Texas. Who know what will really happen?

Story 1

Story 2

For years, a lot of pundits have been predicting something will happen during a “Big Game”. Black Sunday. The Sum of All Fears. etc. It’s a conspiracy theorists wet dream.

Let’s hope everyone is wrong (again) and that the only disaster is where the Giants upset the Patriots.

Heavily Armed Officers in NY Subways

Research Credit: crytpgon.com

New York Time article.

I simply can’t understand how much longer the people will fund this, as all of the cost if being fronted by the city of New York.

There’s no mention of won the lucrative contract, but my guess is it’s someone with friends in high places.

What’s next? Tanks driving down highways chasing people that follow a little too close?

Internet Cut Off In the Middle East

Over the last week, this story was very ‘under-reported’:

http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/much-of-the-middle-east-is-internet-free/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7222536.stm

Story 3

The concensus seems to be that Iran is being literally cut off from the rest of the world. Kevin F at Cryptogon.com speculates that it could be related to the launch of the Iranian Oil Bourse . It’s obvious we’ll never know, but when that puppy opens, there’s no doubt that it will kill the US dollar.

I’m a visual person, so if anyone has a map or visual showing affected areas, that would be really useful.

Armsflow

A unique visual trend of the flow of arms, developed by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI):

http://www.armsflow.org/

To get a closer look at some of the data points, simply click on any country and then the program will show top arms export/imports for a specific year.

The numbers are astounding:

  • $2.3 TRILLION projected to be spent in Iraq by 2016
  • Roughly $1.3 TRILLION spent per year on military expenditures

I remember an article from about 10 years ago where WIRED magazine did an extensive coverage on the cost of converting the entire US economy to hydrogen. The price tag? About $100 billion. A mere ‘drop in the bucket’ compared to some of these figures.

Some other charts to check out with this site are those related to M&A activity in this industry. Not only are we spending more, we’re funneling the funds to fewer companies.

For some final thoughts on what this is all about, read this:
The Worst Addiction of Them All, Kurt Vonnegut

If Western Civilization were a person, we would be directing it to the nearest meeting of War-Preparers Anonymous. We would be telling it to stand up before the meeting and say, “My name is Western Civilization. I am a compulsive war- preparer. I have lost everything I ever cared about. I should have come here long ago. I first hit bottom in World War I.” Western Civilization cannot be represented by a single person, of course, but a single explanation for the catastrophic course it has followed during this bloody century is possible. We the people, because of our ignorance of the disease, have again and again entrusted power to people we did not know were sickies.