“Bitcoin’s importance can’t be exaggerated. Encrypted currency has been at the Altair stage of development. If Bitcoin isn’t actually the Apple II – and it may not be – we’re very close to it. If Bitcoin isn’t the Messiah of the darknet economy, at the very least it’s John the Baptist preaching its immanent arrival.”
“Definitely not for the faint of heart, those skilled and experienced venture capitalists entering the arena will be playing with fire. This is not a game of targeting an app and throwing seed money at developers located in Silicon Valley or Silicon Alley. Nor is it like catching the social media wave or jumping on the mobile payments bandwagon. Bitcoin is the quintessential disruptor for not only does it disrupt established primary-level players in the field of payments, like VISA, Mastercard, and PayPal, but it disrupts the very nature of monetary authority. Bitcoin is disruption within supreme disruption.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/08/11/my-answer-to-a-vcs-bitcoin-question/
“State Representative Mark Warden recently added a Bitcoin donation system to his campaign website (www.markwarden.com), the first state representative in New Hampshire to utilize this emerging technology. According to Warden, Bitcoin will allow online transactions without the need for any third-party approval. ‘This is a cutting-edge technology that is market based, voluntary, and extremely innovative. I have constituents and vendors who prefer this medium of exchange, so it’s natural to want to respond to the marketplace,’ said Warden.”
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=99968.0;all
“Gold covered food is not new — [it was used by] elites in the past, especially for confections. Europeans have used it since the Renaissance, and various Asian cultures have long used gold to accent their eats. But eating costly foods has always been a way for the wealthy to show off. Although, unlike actual gold, the extravagant snacks of the past may have been prized according to availability and seasonality.”
“The Tages-Anzeiger newspaper says the problem lies with LandQart, a company based in the Graubünden town of Landquart, which supplies paper to Orell Füssli, a firm that has printed Swiss money for decades. LandQart, taken over by the Canadian company Fortress in 2006, is apparently having difficulties producing paper of the right quality on a consistent basis, the newspaper says. The central bank did not go into details.”
http://www.thelocal.ch/page/view/faulty-paper-blamed-for-new-banknote-delay
“Turns out Canada’s new $100 and $50 bills can’t stand the heat after all. Under certain conditions they will curl up like bacon in a frying pan. According to various reports, the so-called indestructible polymer bills will shrink under intense heat, be it the inside of a car or placed next to a heat source. The new $100 bills, which were introduced in November, underwent scientific tests to make sure they withstood various conditions, the Bank of Canada says. The new $100 bills cost 19 cents each to produce — almost twice that of paper bills.”
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1225532–plastic-bills-quick-spend-them-before-they-melt
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1225532–plastic-bills-quick-spend-them-before-they-melt
“Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. (OMEX), a deep-ocean exploration company, said it recovered about 48 tons of silver from a World War II shipwreck three miles (4.8 kilometers) beneath the Atlantic Ocean. The company retrieved 1,203 silver bars, or about 1.4 million ounces of the metal, from the SS Gairsoppa, a 412-foot (126-meter) British cargo ship that sank after being torpedoed by German U-boat in February 1941, Tampa, Florida-based Odyssey said today in a statement.”
“In the investment world, this is known as the ‘carry trade’ – borrowing at low rates to invest at higher rates. The same logic applies to the personal finances of your everyday life. Looking out three years from now… if we keep our cash invested and borrow the money for our outdoor kitchen from our credit union we will have a balance of roughly $41,686 in our investment accounts, and we will have paid out $37,200. We will be ahead of the game by nearly $4,500. The Federal Reserve is giving all of us a no-brainer opportunity: Borrow at cheap rates today and let your investable assets continue to grow for tomorrow.”
http://sovereign-investor.com/2012/08/01/why-you-should-borrow-money-today/