The Hobbit as 419 scam. Via Cynical-C.

Other links:

* This post on the Golden Age of Blogging from 11D is circulating pretty widely, and generally comports with my sense of things as a longtime C-list blogger. The first-mover advantage in the blogosphere is hard to overstate, yet this is one of its more overlooked characteristics; it's still possible to "break through," but much harder, and it's nothing like it was in the glory days of 2001-2003. I often wish I'd started earlier.

* Is C-list too generous? Is there a D-list?

* Of course the real problem with this blog is its utter lack of focus, as will now be demonstrated forthwith.

* 200 Characters from Dick Tracy, 1931-1977.

* U.S. gets second-to-worst grade on emissions from the WWF. The worst? Blame Canada.

* Dear Plagiarist.

* 200-year-old cipher cracked; Jefferson pwned.

* The psychology of scams. Via Schneier on Security, via this AskMe on the Craigslist check kiting scam in Canada, via Neil.

* Worst case scenarios: A bar examinant's $400,000 student loan debt (and admittedly poor history of repayment) has blocked their ability to practice law in the state of New York (and therefore ever hope to pay the loan back). Via Steve.

* And good news from India: Delhi's high court has decriminalized homosexuality. Via MeFi.

Mitch sends along this fascinating article about North Korea and reinsurance fraud.

"The exact scale of the fraud is hard to determine . . . because the insurance industry has been so gullible," Asher said. North Korean insurance fraud "was absolutely something I should have been looking into more when I was running the [State Department's] illicit activities initiative," he added.

Some details emerged in London last year when lawyers for German insurance giant Allianz Global Investors, Lloyd's of London and several other reinsurers disputed a North Korean reinsurance claim for the 2005 crash of a helicopter into a government-owned warehouse in Pyongyang. According to court documents, the companies alleged that the helicopter crash had been staged, that a North Korean court's decision to uphold the claim had been rigged and that the North Korean government routinely used insurance fraud to raise money for the personal use of Kim Jong Il.

A British appeals court allowed the case to go forward, but as it went to trial in December, the insurance companies agreed to a settlement that amounted to a nearly complete victory for the North Koreans: The insurers retracted all allegations of fraud against Korea National Insurance Corp. (KNIC) and paid out about $58 million, or 95 percent of the North Korean claim for the crash.

'The wrecking crew: How a gang of right-wing con men destroyed Washington and made a killing.' This is from August, but I only got to it on the plane last weekend—and it's fantastic.

Grad school vs. the recession. The short version is "Don't go," but you knew that already. Via Marginal Revolution.

1. Grad school pointlessly delays adulthood.
The best thing you can do for yourself is take time to figure out who you are and where you fit in the world. No one teaches you that in school. You need to do it yourself. Grad school is a way to delay this process, rather than move you forward, according to Thomas Benton of the Chronicle of Higher Education. So instead of dodging tough questions by going back to school, try being lost. It’s normal, and honest, and you will end up with more self-knowledge and less debt than your grad-school counterparts, and in many cases, you will be similarly qualified for your next big job.

2. PhD programs are pyramid schemes
It’s very hard to get a job teaching at a university. And if you are not going to teach, why are you getting a degree? You don’t need a piece of paper to show that you are learning. Go read books after work. Because look: In the arts, you would have a better chance of surviving the Titanic than getting a tenure-track position; and once you adjust for IQ, education, and working hours, post-PhD science jobs are among the most low-paying jobs you could get.

Check and mate. I'm out of here.

Atrios breaks the year's most important story: Some alien force is kidnapping all of our hedge fund managers. For more, consult McSweeney's.

3. Your mother gives you x dollars to put gas in the family car. Your father gives you y dollars to get a haircut. You lose x + y dollars betting against your high school's undefeated football team. Explain to your familial investors how "that's life."

Potpourri.

* Incoming Energy Secretary Steven Chu hates coal. I sort of love this guy.

* The Battlestar Galactica webisodes have started up again.

* "Would you rather be a novel or a poem?" Answer wisely and you could go to Oxford. Via Bookninja.

* Every so often the veil of ideology drops.

* Classic albums get LEGOized.

* 'Whedon: Dollhouse Problems Are My Fault.'

* Ron Moore's promising-sounding Virtuality may never see the light of day.

* The natural history of mythical creatures.

How (and how not) to cheat in in online poker. Related: confessions of a golf hustler. At MetaFilter.

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

(via Boing Boing)

Warren Buffet recently made a one million dollar bet that a hedge fund "won't beat the returns of S&P 500 after their extremely hefty fees are accounted for." The bet was made using the Long Bet mechanism set up and operated by the Long Now Foundation.

Of course, we're talked about the more scammy aspects of hedge funds before. Via Boing Boing.

Are hedge funds scams? Dean P. Foster and H. Peyton Young report in the Washington Post. Via Matt Yglesias.

Dissociative fugue update: A British man who reappeared five years after he was thought to have drowned in a canoeing accident has been arrested on suspicion of fraud, police confirmed Wednesday. Thanks to Neil, always the first to smell a scam.

* Oscar buzz for Darjeeling? And does that suggest it will be good or bad?

* George Lucas on track to ruin another classic movie franchise: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is very nearly the worst possible title for Indy IV, with almost any variant (...and the Crystal Skull, ...and the Kingdom of Crystal, ... and the Kingdom of the Skull) being superior. I'm quite suspicious about the alien connection, too—it's got to be a Chariot of the Gods situation, because Close Encounters just isn't going to work. MetaFilter has a little bit more.

* Only the best need apply. $21k for full time June 25 - Aug 20 employment.

* Analyzing the logos of terrorist organizations.

* Bitter Laughter duckspeak thoughtcrime doubleplusungood 9/11.

Two years ago when I taught 1984, I realized that not a single person in my class knew what Osama bin Laden really wanted--what his grievances were, what his ideology looks like, etc. All they knew was that he was inimical to "us," and that he was the enemy. "Enmity" is mightily empty category, and a dangerous one at that, if you refuse to allow it to have content.

And that's exactly what bin Laden is for Americans, an enemy without content. The fact of the matter is that Osama bin Laden is not isomorphic with himself. That is, "Osama bin Laden," as that name is understood in this country, is a simulacrum of the actual man. We do not need to listen to what he has to say because we know what he is -- after all, he is our creation. He represents for us something to fight against, the implement against which we sharpen our knives and define ourselves. His words are not relevant since they communicate a version of himself that does not square with our understanding of him. Why would we both listen or give credence to his video musings?

* Michael Tomasky on Citizen Gore.

* George Saunders on the teevee.