Re: It's Sunday and there's a hurricane coming...

[attila <attila@hun.org>]

    careful, Bob --they'll be saying this reeks of another
    philosophical argument which has two CPers MIA.

    Big Brother is watching the list --or at least the IRS-CID is.

	attila out...

    P.S. BTW, IMNSOHO, good fiction and worth the read!


On Sun, 20 Sep 1998, Robert Hettinga wrote:

>
>--- begin forwarded text
>
>
>Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 15:13:53 -0400 (AST)
>From: Ian Grigg <iang@systemics.com>
>To: dbs@philodox.com, e$@vmeng.com
>Subject: It's Sunday and there's a hurricane coming...
>Reply-To: iang@systemics.com
>Sender: <dbs@philodox.com>
>Precedence: Bulk
>List-Subscribe: <mailto:requests@philodox.com?subject=subscribe%20dbs>
>X-Web-Archive: http://www.philodox.com/dbs-archive/
>
>It's Sunday and there's a hurricane coming.  We're prepared
>with the Pringles and Jamaican ginger beer, and are now just
>watching the action on screen and out the window.
>
>One of the things about living in the Financial Cryptography
>Capital of the World is that occasionally we get visited by
>The Powers That Be, and flattened in the process.
>
>More nuisance than a TLA hate campaign, noisier than
>professors' mailing list, and more water than a broken
>pipe in a Cyber.  Hurricane Georges is coming to town.
>
>The funny thing is that all along, or at least for many
>years, we have known how to control hurricanes.  It was
>inevitably one of those cold war US defence contracts, run
>by the USAF.  There was some justification based on annoying
>naval flotillas at sea, although it wasn't clear whether the
>fly-boys were intending to annoy the USN or the Ruskies.
>They kept the whole thing quiet, as nobody needs to know that
>huge amounts of money can be saved and/or advancing armardas
>can be sunk without using the other expensive toys developed
>by the other programs.
>
>Trials did occur, but the technology failed to make it into
>the commercial market.  In order to hide the true potential,
>the brass hats put a strict 56-miles limit on the application
>for civilian purposes, thus revealing that you could only move
>the beast around, you couldn't really tame it.
>
>The real problem with the technology was that hurricanes still
>wanted to go in roughly the same direction, and all one could
>do was to pay the fee to the Air Force to get it moved 56 miles
>up or down the coast.  Needless to say, the Generals were
>surprised to receive competing bids for services in the first
>live civilian hurricane.
>
>After a lot of confusion and multiple contradictory bids being
>accepted, the hurricane entered, destroyed, and left.  As did
>the Generals, with the loot.  This misuse of what were now public
>funds was considered sufficient to slap the exec order on the
>whole deal, conveniently making illegal any class action suits
>over the misused private funds.
>
>Working on this problem for some time has led to a solution.
>Using an anonymous cash protocol, we have built an Internet-based
>solution for setting the market-driven price for a hurricane path.
>Conveniently, we have also contracted delivery services from the
>specialists, those very same Generals, who are now living in the
>islands near here under assumed names and ranks.
>
>Up until now, the whole idea was received with less than religous
>fervour.  Either nobody believed we could do it, or the locals
>were simply playing on island time.  Just as we were about to give
>it up and retire to banana growing, Georges showed up and contracts
>started winding in.
>
>Market operators have a duty to track activity and ensure
>that no insider trading occurs (those pesky Generals).  This
>responsibility has expanded into advice for traders of attractive
>opportunities for investment, either in the future positions
>market or in our line of lamps, air-dropped generators, and
>emergency supplies of Pringles.
>
>We've also been able to track geographical trends for governmental
>statistical purposes.  Georges was nominally slated to cross the
>islands at Guadeloupe, but heavy market pressure backed by church
>collections on thursday night purchased a shift north in track.
>Getting in early was profitable for the Guadeloupians.
>
>St Martins then bought heavily and shifted it back on a close
>to due east track.   Unfortunately the French fluffed it last night
>by downgrading their alert to a warning, so all the world knows now.
>
>Antigua, being stuck in the middle, then bought in, backed up by
>Monsterrat (who raised funds by threatening the Brits with another
>thousand refugees).  Since then Georges has been yoyoing across the
>map and the market has gone to hell in a hand basket.
>
>The Generals had been raking in the delivery contracts, but have
>posted an aircraft maintainance alert and tripled the premium.
>
>Antiguan alternate government types, engaged in a power play
>with their legal counterparts, have traded a mammoth contract to
>have the hurricane move _towards_ them.  Unhappy at the Generals'
>reluctance to fly, they've issued an options contract of another
>kind on the market operators, that will be 'in the money' if their
>other contract is not fulfilled.
>
>Meanwhile, a catholic mama in the US virgin islands had a little
>flutter on the market to help her more easterly daughter.
>
>Failing to spot mama's anonymous currency transaction form, the IRS have
>declared the area in general and hurricanes in particular to be a major
>money laundering effort, and have a SWOT team flying in.  At least, the
>men in black will fly in once they complete negotiations with the Generals,
>who previously contracted all airports for the hurricane season, and
>are prepared to deal in exchange for an amnesty for previous picadillos.
>
>The market still goes strong, having at this stage traded 10% of
>the GDP of the East Caribbean.  We're prepared for the long run,
>with defense in depth by redundant UPS and generators, multiple IP
>and interlocking 50 cal machine guns.  If only we could stop our
>shareholders from killing each other, we could advance our plans
>to open trading in Florida.
>
>Phew.  This Jamaican ginger beer is strong stuff, and we're already
>out of Pringles.  Oh, and there's a hurricane coming.
>
>
>El Generalissimo.
>
>--- end forwarded text
>
>
>-----------------
>Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
>Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
>44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
>"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
>[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
>experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
>

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_________________________________________________________________ attila__

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