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Pentagon Lets You Bid on Terrorism?
Elysdir writes "DARPA is creating an idea futures market, the Policy Analysis Market, to try to predict events in the Middle East. See Bloomberg article for more info." Read this article. I mean it. This is amazing.
Update: 07/29 14:45 GMT by J : The
NYT story
claims "The White House also altered the Web site so that the potential events ... that were visible earlier in the day ... could no longer be seen," but those example images are still being served:
Jordanian overthrow,
bidding on assassinations,
cool graphics... Update: 07/29 16:44 GMT by M : Looks like the publicity was too much.
Please place all american-bashing statments under this comment. Thank You.
I can't wait for a few middle east specialists to start skewing data to make their bets pay off.
"Woot! Car Bomb in Riyadh! That pays 100-1, guess I shouldn't have sat on that report about Saudi terrorists."
If al-quieda sign up will they get taken to court for insider trading?
Working for the (other) man
And you thought that the "short the dying guy" strategy on Hollywood Stock Exchange was a slightly sick game to play.
So this is what they mean when they talk about a "peace dividend". I never realised it was quite so literal.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
They're just looking to nab the people that post "There will be a Jihad and DEATH TO AMERICANS!!!".
"Read this article. I mean it. This is amazing."
I had a spam that started that way once... You don't have a secret job as a 'bulk mailing marketer' by nighttime do you?! *peers closely*
They want the same people who made the dot com bubble decide what happens in the middle-east?
Just tell them about Wi-Fi startups in the middle east and they'll throw money at it...
It would be great to rig this thing somehow so I'm the predicted supreme overlord of the Earth by the year 2010.
The campaign buttons will read:
Bet for me in 2010.
Upon becoming the supreme ruler of the Earth, I promise to give out much land to all who bet for me.
Who wants control over a former country?
Bueller? Bueller?
Rumsfeld: How is it going?
Expert: Not very good.
Rumsfeld: What do you mean, "not very good"??
Expert: Well... The market experts all seem to think attacking Iran is a bad idea, that staying in Iraq is a bad idea, and the probability that G.W. Bush will lose the 2004 election has reached 94.7%
Rumsfeld: All Right! They have told us exactly what the surrender cheese-eqting monkeys don't want us to do! Therefore, let's do it!! Iran, here we come -- let's blast some mullah back to Kingdom come!
Expert: But uh, sir...
Rumsfeld: Great work, Johnson! Keep an eye on those Frenchies and Arabs for us, and you'll get that nice little raise we talked about! Ah, who needs the CIA when you can have contrarian web sites to point the way at the best interests of the USA?!
[Donald Rumsfeld leaves the room with his entourage]
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
# Don't complain about lack of options. We're running out of countries. Those are the breaks.
# Feel free to suggest coup ideas if you're feeling creative. I'd strongly suggest reading the past history first.
# This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic campaign managers, firebombs. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.
PC moderators can suck my White pierced, tattooed dick. If you think pride == hate, s/dick/Aryan meat mallet/g.
Yeah, it's also called "Poll the Audience" on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
Eeww! It's a .doc file! You disgusting pick, this is even worse than the goatse guy!
Capture of Osama Bin Laden 10 to 1
Death of Osama Bin Laden 2 to 1
Capture of Saddam Husein 7 to 1
Death of Saddam Husein 3 to 1
Terrorist Bombing in Isreal 1 to 2
Terrorist Attack on the US 15 to 1
Assaniation of Jordan's King 25 to 1
fubar1971 getting laid tonight 4,000,000 to 1
Phone rings... Vinny: Vinny's Pizza, Vinny speackin'
fubar1971: Yeah vinny, I would like a Lg peperonni pizza.....and do a little...trading.
Vinny:Sure, Wat d'ya like?
fubar1971:Give me a nickle on Husseins capture, a dime on the Isreal Bombing, and a 1 Million of fubar1971 getting laid.
Vinny:You sure 'bout this kid?
fubar1971:Yeah I'm sure (he says with a big grin on his face)
Vinny:Ok kid, I gotch ya down. I hope you knows whatchya doin'.
Vinny hangs up the phone
Vinny:What a bafoon, I knows fubar1971's wife, and he definetilies is not gettin' any tonight or any time soon.....BUUUWWAAAAHHHHAAAAHHHAA!
You don't know any statisticians do you....
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away" -Tom Waits
The oil isn't going to last forever. This is a perfect investment opportunity for rich Saudis funding the terrorist activities. Talk about win-win -- kill infidels and make your money back, courtesy of the US government.
1. Train fanatics in suicide bombing
2. Invest in appropriate futures
3. Execute the attack
4. Profit !!
Tired of being "punished" by the Slashdot $rtbl since 2002. I'm now over at http://soylentnews.org/ .
What a concept! Why, if we applied this logic to the conomy at large we could have predicted the bursting of the tech bubble on the market or the accounting fraud at places lik Enron and Worldcom... if we only had a more general economic futures mar- oh wait, nevermind.