Rice Rationing?

Costco and Sam's Club are rationing rice. WTF? According to the story from Huffingtonpost there is no rice shortage. The story mentions another more likely scenario. These companies know that a rise in the price of rice is coming soon and are trying to stock up for when that hits. Of course, anyone who really suffers from this rice rationing are probably small business owners, mom and pop restaurants, etc., so you know, as long as it isn't hurting those who matter bring on the market manipulation.

Cable Five Is Down!

Under sea cable number five is down according to Khaleej Times Online. "These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria." Ok, can we call this a conspiracy yet? [Giz via Slashdot]

Under-Sea Cables Are Anchor Magnets

So a fourth under-sea cable, this time connecting Qatar to the interwebs, has been taken offline. Now, one cable I can understand being an accident. Two cables is an unfortunate coincidence. Three cables arouses suspicion. Four cables? The first were attributed to ship anchor dragging. The latest, it is unclear what caused them. The severed cable has resulted in reduced access to the webbernets for Qatar- down to 40%. I smell a conspiracy. What do you think?