Dollari, Euro e guerra

Lungo e ragionato articolo, molto ben documentato, su The Sierra Times, dal titolo “The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War with Iraq: A Macroeconomic and Geostrategic Analysis of the Unspoken Truth“.Cito il nocciolo:

“The Federal Reserve’s greatest nightmare is that OPEC will switch its international transactions from a dollar standard to a Euro standard. Iraq actually made this switch in Nov. 2000 (when the Euro was worth around 80 cents), and has actually made off like a bandit considering the dollar’s steady depreciation against the Euro” (Note: the dollar declined 17% against the Euro in 2002.)

“The real reason the Bush administration wants a puppet government in Iraq – or more importantly, the reason why the corporate-military-industrial network conglomerate wants a puppet government in Iraq – is so that it will revert back to a dollar standard and stay that way.” (While also hoping to veto any wider OPEC momentum towards the Euro, especially from Iran – the 2nd largest OPEC producer who is actively discussing a switch to Euros for its oil exports).

Furthermore, despite Saudi Arabia being our ‘client state,’ the Saudi regime appears increasingly weak/ threatened from massive civil unrest. Some analysts believe a “Saudi Revolution” might be plausible in the aftermath of an unpopular U.S. invasion of Iraq (i.e.. Iran circa 1979) (1). Undoubtedly, the Bush administration is acutely aware of these risks. Hence, the neo conservative framework entails a large and permanent military presence in the Persian Gulf region in a post-Saddam era, just in case we need to grab and secure Saudi’s oil fields in the event of a Saudi coup by an anti-western group.

“Saddam sealed his fate when he decided to switch to the Euro in late 2000 (and later converted his $10 billion reserve fund at the U.N. to Euros) – at that point, another manufactured Gulf War become inevitable under Bush II. Only the most extreme circumstances could possibly stop that now and I strongly doubt anything can – short of Saddam getting replaced with a pliant regime.”

Mi chiedo però se il passaggio all’Euro non sia stata invece una mossa di Saddam per indebolire una eventuale coalizione anti-Iraq e mettere in difficoltà gli Stati Uniti…

L’ultimo gadget da valigetta



E’ portatile, anche se pesa due chili e mezzo, questo disco rigido esterno da 500GB (hai letto bene, sono cinquecento miliardi di byte). Viene con interfaccia FireWire ed è installabile su Mac o PC. Qui i dettagli, e stavolta sono in inglese.

Costa meno di $ 2 per Gigabyte (segnalato con stupore da The Shifted Librarian).

Windows Server 2003 Release Criteria

  1. All known Security issues resolved.
  2. All known WER/Reliability issues resolved.
  3. Zero OTG open critical issues with all relevant escrow fixes validated.
  4. Zero JDP deployment blockers.
  5. Zero OEM deployment blockers.
  6. Reliability better than Windows 2000 & XP in all areas.
  7. No Application RC2 regressions.
  8. No Device RC2 regressions.
  9. All known IEHARD issues resolved & documented.
  10. All teams hit longhaul uptime goal of 21 days.
  11. All test teams have completed passes across test buckets & met sign-off criteria.
  12. All key server scenarios deployable in profuction.
  13. Datacenter HCT meets 90% pass rate.
  14. Exchange Titanium Beta* deployable & stable on Server 2003.
  15. Itanium 2 Workstation Meets OEM ship requirements.
  16. All resolved bugs are verified and closed.
  17. All legal deliverables complete (EULAs, Compliance).
  18. No Geopolitical or Accessibility blockers.
  19. All teams signed off.
  20. Media Validation.

Questo è il testo del cartellone che si trova nella Windows 2003 War Room di Microsoft, dove si decide il codice della prossima versione di Windows. Grazie a Robert Scoble per la foto.