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Spread The Love (And Pay Us)
Digitus1337 writes "Wired has an article up about a new online service known as 'FunHi.' You sign up and join a community, and give your fellows gifts, but as Wired has reported, 'these are not ordinary gifts. They're purely digital: little flashing icons of cars, planes, diamond rings and other virtual representations of expensive items included in messages members send each other. And FunHi members don't seem to care that the real money they're spending on the gifts, at prices as high as $30 an item, is going straight into the company's coffers." This leaves just one question unanswered... why didn't I think of this?" It sounds like an April Fool's Joke, but then, so does online trading of Everquest loot.
RTFA: It's $30 for a faux CREDIT CARD. In real life, they're free. (Also, when you buy it for someone, they get $28.00 in credit to spend on more worthless imaginary stuff. What a deal!)
By comparison, the second most expensive item is a faux private jet, valued at $14.99
PUBLIC SPLIT ON WHETHER BUSH IS A DIVIDER -CNN scrolling banner, 10/15/2004
Yeah, sure. Diamonds are real scarce.
mod up!/ 8202diamon d1.htm
i amond.h tml
Excellent article about DeBeers scumbags
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/82feb
Wired had an article about artificial/cultured diamonds; decent read.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/d
Also, if you care about exploited children in Africa, watch Child Soldiers. It's really depressing; Congo, Angola, Sierra Leone, etc. use diamond money to buy weapons and send kids to war.
I guess DeBeers' would defend themselves by saying that those kids would otherwise have too much free time on their hands and get in trouble hanging out at schools, playgrounds and working on their families' farms.