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BullionVault's founder used to carry around a gold coin to demonstrate to people just how difficult it is to pay for something with gold. http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/interview-paul-tustain-founder-bullionvault-com-pt-2

In recent cases of hyperinflation, the market has resorted to paper currency from neighboring countries: Deutschemarks in Yugoslavia, rand in Zimbabwe.

In the post-WWII chaos in Europe, you could buy a Volkswagen with cartons of cigarettes. Forbes has suggested that bottles of Scotch could become trade goods on the same principle.

People who worry about such things often (in the US) stock up on pre-1964 coins which were actually made out of silver, on the theory that more people would recognize those than would accept, say, a Krugerrand.

So why do I have all this information on tap? Does being a security consultant make you paranoid, or vice versa?

> That is why for people who use electric heat in the winter, the electric companies WON'T turn off the electricity. Why? They could kill that former customer. No heat + winter = illness or death.

I wish that were still true these days...

A New Zealand utility company that cut off power to the home of a woman connected to an electric oxygen pump, leading to her death, has insisted it was not aware she was dependent on the machine.

While internet may not be at quite the same level of necessity, it's coming closer day by day. Are phones necessary? I'd say they are (911). The internet is gradually taking over for them. If the bandwidth for VoIP were there for everyone, the internet would probably have replaced phones already, except for cell phones (many of which come with internet access these days...).

Do some research before you assume that "oh wow that is really dated".

"Blog" entry, dated today:

      http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/dane-cook-married-another-bad-joke

That's not going to happen, Obama is already planning an end run around the constitution by establishing a Civilian National Security Force

He plans to double the Peace Corps' budget by 2011, and expand AmeriCorps, USA Freedom Corps, VISTA, YouthBuild Program, and the Senior Corps. Plus, he proposes to form a Classroom Corps, Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, Veterans Corps, Homeland Security Corps, Global Energy Corps, and a Green Jobs Corps. Here a corps - there a corps - everywhere a corps corps. Obama's Civilian National Security Force

That sounds like a lot of poorly trained "troops" on the ground not restrained by the typical constitutional limits on authority and funding that the Army is under.

Expand Service-Learning in Our Nation's Schools: Obama and Biden will set a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year. They will develop national guidelines for service- learning and will give schools better tools both to develop programs and to document student experience. Green Job Corps: Obama and Biden will create an energy-focused youth jobs program to provide disadvantaged youth with service opportunities weatherizing buildings and getting practical experience in fast-growing career fields. Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan for Universal Voluntary Public Service

So basically once anyone wanting a decent education will have to become one of Obama's brown shirts and submit to indoctrination the powers that be deem necessary. The eventual NASA cuts will just be part of the "throw the baby out with the bathwater" approach typical of radical anti-estabishmentarians.

Don't spread your FUD here without backing it up.

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/obama-campaign-disabled-credit-card-address-verification-donors
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/14/report-credit-card-fraud-for-obama/
http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=684
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-campaigns-massive-credit-card.html
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/10/official-acorn-employment-application.html
There, fixed that for you.

Ok, the last one was just for fun.

What I want to know is, will it have support for giant flying penises?

http://www.nowpublic.com/youtube_pulls_video_of_giant_penis_attack_in_second_life

Yeah, he did. Around this time last year. So did Al Gore in his book. This is old news, McCain's late on the bandwagon.

http://www.nowpublic.com/barack_obamas_nuclear_ambitions

Of course, uninformed liberals think he's off base here, while the rest realize that a combination of energy technologies, an efficient, augmented, national grid, and plug-in hybrids will solve the commuter pollution problem.

Oh, and conservatives think the rest of us are crazy... "What energy problem??? It's the liberals and the EPA and the terrorists that make gas expensive! Fix it, damnit! Oh, and give my all my taxes back."

Ok, maybe not. I'm bitter. Sorry for the flamebait. The rant filter is less effective at times...

Ahh, more 'grassroots' Netbeans testimonials.. Oh and look.. it's an AC. One of them popped up on the WebObjects mailing list a few days ago. Nevermind that Netbeans really has -nothing- to offer WO devs that even remotely approaches the functionality of WOLips.

Apparently though, spamming sites with complete bullshit is the marketing scheme du jour.

Probably.

Apparently there is a shortage:

http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/camel-prices-hump-india

I would think that you could capture them for $100 a piece, so the shipping costs would be the real important factor, and it looks like shipping a horse costs thousands of dollars, so shipping a camel is probably going to cost thousands of dollars, so it wouldn't work.

Forgot to post something- remember this? Nuclear weapons mysteriously 'lost' and sent across the country without orders- which does not happen- for reasons that were never really explained?

http://www.nowpublic.com/politics/six-lost-nukes-sent-middle-east-military-cant-seem-keep-track

This is a brilliant plan by the terrorists. See, what they do is blow up a building or something so that everyone screams "OMG TERRORISTS!!!!". Then everyone diverts all their money into "anti-terrorism" measures which are mostly just for show anyway. And while you are so busy making sure that people don't bring sippy-cups onto aeroplanes, you completely forget to cure cancer or make the roads safer.

Oh gods, I'm an idiot. Ignore me. :P

Some years ago a malicious person posted a hate letter in Art Bell's name directed at the Filipino people. Art Bell is the host of a very popular late night radio talk show. CoastToCoastAM The latest article.

Needless to say the FBI got involved and traced the letter to an anonymous terminal at a US university. Art who now lives in Manilla, Phillipines with his Filipino wife is in a dangerous position because the newspapers keep printing it even after it's been proven to be a hoax. All he can do is decry the libel and get the paper to print retractions.

How do you control internet libel?

...here's a limited range solution of sorts http://www.nowpublic.com/node/82826

Repent, you DRM sinners!

Outside of the single most established Korean based OhMyNews most, if not all of the citizen reporting web sites I've looked at, including WikiNews, have had a hard time gaining traction. I'm not sure why they're having such trouble, particularly given the popularity of WikiPedia, but it is clear however that the movement is beginning to take off, and here to stay. News will never be the same - and imho that is a VERY good thing!

What I really like about NowPublic, and what imho differentiates it from the other sites, is that the site is NOT trying to be the hub of citizen reporting itself - it's trying to create a toolset to facilitate citizen reporting. Through creative commons licensing and their really nifty 'SmartMedia' technology their goal is to facilitate the spread of newsworthy information created by people like you and I (though admittedly they need to do a MUCH better job of communicating this). Anyone (you don't need to be a member) can use the content posted on NowPublic. So if you have a blog and are writing a story and you need/want pictures or video you can use existing or request new photos/audio/video from NP members.

Being a photographer, I like the fact that through their SmartMedia my photos always show my name, and provide a way to contact me directly (actually had one person offer me a gig through this already!!) - this is all done through the image itself ensuring that anyone who uses my photos attributes it back to me (anyone who has posted a good pic to the web has most likely had it ripped off and should really apperciate this new idea). Additionally, anyone who sees the photo on any site can in turn copy it and put it on their site... it's really a great promotional vehicle for photographers. But my favorite bit is that every story is implicitly a request for citizen coverage - if you want to see a local perspective on a story, simply post it to the site. In effect every story is actually an assignment - you now have an army of people, soon to be larger than any major media organization willing to go out and get coverage of the story for you! As a photog, I'll never be at a loss for photos ideas again!

They are currently running a contest, awarding cash prizes to encourage people to go out and take photographs of newsworthy events. Their Citizen Photojournalism Awards were created to encourage people to go out and cover news stories. Any newsworthy photo uploaded to NowPublic is eligible for weekly $100 cash awards and there is a $500 grand prize. I'm hoping I win something so I can get that fish eye lens I've been drooling over.

Outside of the single most established Korean based OhMyNews most, if not all of the citizen reporting web sites I've looked at, including WikiNews, have had a hard time gaining traction. I'm not sure why they're having such trouble, particularly given the popularity of WikiPedia, but it is clear however that the movement is beginning to take off, and here to stay. News will never be the same - and imho that is a VERY good thing!

What I really like about NowPublic, and what imho differentiates it from the other sites, is that the site is NOT trying to be the hub of citizen reporting itself - it's trying to create a toolset to facilitate citizen reporting. Through creative commons licensing and their really nifty 'SmartMedia' technology their goal is to facilitate the spread of newsworthy information created by people like you and I (though admittedly they need to do a MUCH better job of communicating this). Anyone (you don't need to be a member) can use the content posted on NowPublic. So if you have a blog and are writing a story and you need/want pictures or video you can use existing or request new photos/audio/video from NP members.

Being a photographer, I like the fact that through their SmartMedia my photos always show my name, and provide a way to contact me directly (actually had one person offer me a gig through this already!!) - this is all done through the image itself ensuring that anyone who uses my photos attributes it back to me (anyone who has posted a good pic to the web has most likely had it ripped off and should really apperciate this new idea). Additionally, anyone who sees the photo on any site can in turn copy it and put it on their site... it's really a great promotional vehicle for photographers. But my favorite bit is that every story is implicitly a request for citizen coverage - if you want to see a local perspective on a story, simply post it to the site. In effect every story is actually an assignment - you now have an army of people, soon to be larger than any major media organization willing to go out and get coverage of the story for you! As a photog, I'll never be at a loss for photos ideas again!

They are currently running a contest, awarding cash prizes to encourage people to go out and take photographs of newsworthy events. Their Citizen Photojournalism Awards were created to encourage people to go out and cover news stories. Any newsworthy photo uploaded to NowPublic is eligible for weekly $100 cash awards and there is a $500 grand prize. I'm hoping I win something so I can get that fish eye lens I've been drooling over.