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Was Venezuela's 5-Day Blackout Caused By Cyberattacks -- or Wildfires? (apnews.com)
What caused a devastating five-day blackout in Venezuela? Two engineers with expertise in geospatial technologies believe the answer lies in images from a NASA weather satellite showing thermal activity, which they superimposed onto Google Earth, the AP reports:
Within hours of the attack, the government of embattled President Nicolas Maduro began accusing the U.S. of a cyberattack. Maduro has stuck to that narrative, saying hackers in the U.S. first shut down the Guri Dam and then delivered several "electromagnetic" blows. Engineers have questioned that assertion, contending that the Guri Dam's operating system is on a closed network with no internet connection.
Several consulted by The Associated Press speculated that a more likely cause was a fire along one of the electrical grid's powerful 765-kilovolt lines that connect the dam to much of Venezuela. The transmission lines traverse through some of Venezuela's most remote and difficult to access regions on their way toward Caracas, making it difficult to obtain any first-hand information that could back up or pinpoint the location of a fire. Working with an expert at Texas Tech University's Geospatial Technologies Laboratory, Jose Aguilar, an expert on Venezuela's electrical grid, said satellite data indicates that on the day of the blackout there were three fires in close proximity to the 765-kilovolt lines transmitting power generated from the Guri Dam, which provides about 80 percent of Venezuela's electricity...
Engineers have warned for years that Venezuela's state-run electricity corporation was failing to properly maintain power lines, letting brush that can catch fire during Venezuela's hot, dry months grow near and up the towering structures.
Several consulted by The Associated Press speculated that a more likely cause was a fire along one of the electrical grid's powerful 765-kilovolt lines that connect the dam to much of Venezuela. The transmission lines traverse through some of Venezuela's most remote and difficult to access regions on their way toward Caracas, making it difficult to obtain any first-hand information that could back up or pinpoint the location of a fire. Working with an expert at Texas Tech University's Geospatial Technologies Laboratory, Jose Aguilar, an expert on Venezuela's electrical grid, said satellite data indicates that on the day of the blackout there were three fires in close proximity to the 765-kilovolt lines transmitting power generated from the Guri Dam, which provides about 80 percent of Venezuela's electricity...
Engineers have warned for years that Venezuela's state-run electricity corporation was failing to properly maintain power lines, letting brush that can catch fire during Venezuela's hot, dry months grow near and up the towering structures.
Was Venezuela's 5-Day Blackout Caused By Cyberattacks -- or Wildfires?
... or was it caused by the best and the brightest fleeing the country and those left behind shorting out the grid because they have a very limited clue of how it works nor do they have the equipment to find that out or the materials to make proper repairs?
There's lots of money. You can even use it as toilet paper.
Fiat money seems to be a problem for socialism and other regimes. With fiat money the government can print as much as it likes, running up inflation and driving the country into ruin. Some historians say this happened to the Romans once they started polluting their coins with base metals, and is probably what caused Germany to start WWII.
Since you brought it up, let's ask the obvious question: if a country's money is *not* fiat based, would this be enough to allow socialism to thrive?
Suppose you created VenCoin on the BitCoin model. BitCoin (and therefore VenCoin) has the ability to add new coins that the miners would find, so the country could implement a fixed rate of inflation(*). Suppose the inflation rate is fixed into the model and can't be changed. (I don't know how this might be implemented, but suppose it were. Perhaps a fixed inflation based on the current year and a fixed estimate for the average GDP growth.)
Would that be enough to allow socialism to thrive?
I ask this because, as a society, it appears there's a growing trend to transition to cashless payments using blockchain technology. Now is the time to point out fundamental problems. I'm aware of the privacy issues (cash is anonymous, BitCoin is not), but these might be overcome with careful implementation.
It seems that this would prevent the sorts of "runaway inflation" that is caused by a corrupt government printing too much money.
Would that be enough?