On the major planks in Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign is the abolishment of the Federal Reserve and a return to the gold (or hard currency) standard.

…

after reading this article on Chinese gold farmers in World of Warcraft it occurred to me that we don’t have to guess what would happen. We could model the effect on a World of Warcraft server

At the time I was interested in testing Ron Paul’s assertions that returning to the gold standard would cure all of America’s economic ills, but as part of my thought experiment I threw out the a couple other suggestions:

It would also be interesting to see some variations on this theme in which an ulimited amount of gold can be purchased from Blizzard but items are strictly limited. Huge inflation I would bet. Or items and gold can be purchased from Blizzard. My bet there is the local trade economy would tank (Globalization analouge).

Well it turns out that Blizzard went ahead and tested the theory about unlimited gold and limited goods even if it was by accident:

in the last few months, various outposts in that world (Diablo III) — Silver City and New Tristram, to name two — have borne more in common with real world places like Harare, Zimbabwe in 2007 or Berlin in 1923 than with Dante’s Inferno. A culmination of a series of unanticipated circumstances — and, finally, a most unfortunate programming bug — has over the last few weeks produced a new and unforeseen dimension of hellishness within Diablo 3: hyperinflation.

Basically Blizzard created a virtual economy in which infinite amounts of gold could be accumulated very quickly and it drove the prices of goods through the roof.  Precisely what just about anyone would have expected but since I wrote about this back in 2007 I am claiming prescience and genius.

It should be noted that as soon a Blizzard cracked down on the gold supply prices began to drop.  The author of the Zero Hedge article thinks this proves the need for a gold standard.  I think in my own uneducated way that it proves Friedman’s theories about control of the monetary supply more than it makes the case for a specie based currency, but as I said in the title I am a drooling mouth breathing moron so what do I know?

It’s Salon and AlterNet so the article is not the high praise that many of you would probably expect from the title.

Marie-Clare via Hacker News– When Geeks Attack

A report on sexual harassment in the tech industry.  I can’t say that I have ever seen behavior like that described in the article when I have attended conferences, but then again when I (very occasionally) do go to a conference I am not one of the guys who gets invited to after hours events so my perceptions can be very skewed.

(The initial blog post referenced in the article – A Hell of A Time)

NY Times – Chinese Hackers at it again

Three months after hackers working for a cyberunit of China’s People’s Liberation Army went silent amid evidence that they had stolen data from scores of American companies and government agencies, they appear to have resumed their attacks  using different techniques, according to computer industry security experts and American official

The Register – Securo-boffins uncover new GLOBAL cyber-espionage operation

Spear-phishing attacks with possible links back to China (There’s that word again).  Utilizes a vulnerability that had a patch issued last year.  Update your F’in computers people.

Slashdot – Uptick in Whooping Cough Linked to Subpar Vaccines

‘Nuff Said

If you want to see what kind of turrist wepinz this monster deals in, do a GIS for Perazzi.  Wear a bib.  So pretty.  So shiny.

The utterance launched numerous tweets and re-tweets, and, predictably, a backlash against an out-of-context quote.

Let me charitably re-phrase what Pfeiffer was probably trying to say — That, regardless of the whether the IRS actions were technically illegal, they were definitely wrong, and the Obama administration will be working to rectify the problem.

That’s about as generous as I can be.  But it’s still a problematic and revealing statement.  The administration’s broad strategy is to direct the media away from inquiries about illegality.  You know, because it almost certainly was illegal.

These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.

This. Is. EPIC.

Open a small arms history book, Twat, odds are good you’ll see this curiosity,

The FP-45 Liberator…we cranked out a million of these in WWII with the idea being airdrop them into occupied Axis territory so resistance fighters could plug Fritz in the back of the head and take his Mauser.  The US didn’t end up following through with using many of these, and most were destroyed after the war.  The concept was revisited in Vietnam, with the Deer gun, but the CIA quickly ditched the idea after a limited run of 1000.  3d printed guns and components may mean in the future that occupied and oppressed peoples have the means to fight with such weapons, without relying on a foreign power supplying them.  All the screeching about ZOMG THE GLOCK 7 METAL TECTERZ!!!! is a sideshow. Of course Frum probably knows that, which is why he’s a twat…

The ad is even more haunting considering foreign service officer Gregory Hicks testified that he failed to answer his phone because he didn’t recognize the number on caller ID. Not that it would have made a lick of difference how quickly he answered his phone since there was no intention on the part of our federal government to send aid to our consulate.

I’m feeling like Romney did everything he could to throw the election short of giving a donkey a blowjob on national television.

Ooops, awkward. 

Seriously though I think if you thought this thru you kind of had to see it coming.  China is aging itself out of competition with it’s one child policy, and there have been rumors about them cooking the books on their economic growth for a long time.  This reminds me of the “Rising Sun” era in the 80’s and early 90’s when the fear was Japan was going to dominate the world and buy out the US.  Look how well that worked out. 

If I was betting on a country that might (might mind you) eventually supplant America as the dominant world power I would bet on India, except they are so damn resource poor, but the have the population and it is a growing young population and they have the educational infra structure and are making market reforms that have already substantially expanded their economy.  If they play it right they could really explode over the next few years.

Endgadget – So about those Indian reforms (subtitle “Chad you F’in idiot”)

A new system for monitoring almost everything that’s going on inside India’s telecoms network has been quietly launched. The Central Monitoring System will offer tax collectors, law enforcement and and other agencies the ability to scrutinize phone calls, text messages, emails, social networking and general web activity.

So possibly a little hiccup in the general reform policy, but I think in general my theory still holds since I offered the massive qualifiers about them playing their cards right. 

Gizmodo – Be a superspy like the NSA

Following a Freedom of Information Act request by MuckRock, the National Security Agency has been forced to make public a book it produced called Untangling the Web: A Guide to Internet Research. Understandably, it’s full of gems

Whoo-hoo let the games begin.

New York Times – Stephen Hawking joins anti-Israel boycott.

Personally I am not a fan of Israel, purely on the basis of some of their past actions not because I think the state is illegitimate of some simmering anti-Semitism, but when comparing the two sides to decide that the Palestinians are the good guys is just retarded.

TechCrunch – Watch the Earth change on Google maps.

a series of interactive time lapse images that progress year-by-year, showing exactly how things have changed in key areas like the Brazilian Amazon Rain Forest, booming metropolitan areas like Las Vegas and Dubai, and the progress of large bodies of water like the Aral Sea.

Interesting.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived at a Beverly Hills gala to much fanfare on Wednesday as she prepared to accept an award for her public service.

Local volunteers from a national organization called “Ready for Hillary 2016″ were organized outside the Beverly Wilshire hotel, where the Pacific Council on International Policy would be honoring the secretary.

The Council awarded Clinton with the inaugural Warren Christopher Public Service Award, named after the former secretary of state who served under her husband, former President Bill Clinton, from 1993 to 1996.

[...]

The award in his name honors “the public service of others whose work reflects his distinctive leadership qualities,” according to the Pacific Council, which considers itself “the premier international affairs organization focused on policy issues of special resonance to the West Coast”, according to its website.

Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods were all unable to attend the gala for some reason.
 
You know, we could ask questions about whether any of the people involved in this ceremony had anything like “shame,” “decency,” or “honor” here, but at this point, what difference would it make?