Where's George? ® 2.2

Where's Willy? ® 2.4 Powerstick.com The Lifespan of A Dollar Bill | Where Has That Dollar Bill Been? Ever thought about the spare that dollar bill before you pass it through the drive-up window at your local Starbuck’s? If you’re like most people, probably not much. But consider this: that dollar bill might have traveled the world. Other unlucky bills may have never left your home town. Some bills are marked with ballpoint graffiti; with poor old George Washington have a new pair of glasses. While dollar bills get around, they don’t live long. The Brief Life of a Dollar Bill The average dollar bill has an estimated life span of 5.9 years, according to the Federal Reserve. Dollar bills get roughed-up a lot by cashiers, beaten on doughnut counters, exposed to misbehaved children at supermarkets and run-over by your car. The $5 bill has a life span of 4.9 years while the $10 comes in at 4.2 years. The $5 bill has a life span of 4.9 years while the $10 comes in at 4.2 years. The $2 What? If you think that the U.S. Comments comments

Bitcoins: Why They're More Than a Bubble The volatile rise-and-fall of Bitcoin has prompted lots of stories explaining why the online virtual currency is a classic bubble. Many compare it to tulip mania in 17th century Holland, where prices of rare tulip bulbs soared to absurd heights and then crashed, ruining the speculative investors who had bought them. But the Bitcoin phenomenon is more than a bubble. It says something important about the current and future state of the global economy. The scale of the recent boom-and-bust has been staggering indeed. Such monumental appreciation and volatility are clearly the result of speculation — people buying the online currency just because they think its value will rise, not because they want to use it to purchase goods and services. (MORE: No Money, No Problems: Canada Considers Completely Digital Currency) The technicalities of the Bitcoin system are complex, but to make this online currency more successful than previous versions, the designers overcame two key challenges.

Blogging grows up In the spring of 2001, Mena Trott, a Web designer in San Francisco, began a quirky Web log called Dollarshort. This was a time when hundreds of young Web designers in San Francisco were starting their own quirky blogs, and so the historical significance of Trott’s effort might at first seem difficult to appreciate. “I didn’t win many awards as a kid,” Trott began in her first post, on April 3, 2001. Hard though it may be to believe, Mena Trott’s early posts can be seen, in retrospect, as a kind of flashpoint for the blogging frenzy that now consumes so much of the tech-enabled planet. Blogger, the preeminent blog-building software of the time, was easy to use but limited in its functionality. These are the humble origins of Movable Type, now widely considered to be the world’s most powerful blogging tool, the system that sits at the heart of the Web’s busiest blogs. Six Apart weathered the controversy and, according to its executives, emerged only stronger. That was on Sept. 3, 2001.

EuroBillTracker - Follow your Euro notes in their tracks Urban Dictionary Feds seize money from Dwolla account belonging to top Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox The Department of Homeland Security has apparently shut down a key mobile payments account associated with Mt. Gox, the largest Bitcoin exchange. Chris Coyne, the co-founder of online dating service OKCupid, tweeted out an e-mail he received from Dwolla this afternoon. The e-mail states that neither Coyne, nor presumably any other Dwolla user, will be able to transfer funds to Mt. Dwolla confirmed the change to the New York Observer , which first reported the story. "The Department of Homeland Security and US District Court for the District of Maryland issued a ‘Seizure Warrant’ for the funds associated with Mutum Sigillum’s Dwolla account (a.k.a. It isn't yet clear why this seizure happened, and Dwolla isn't saying anything beyond confirming the court order. Using a payment service like Dwolla is one of the easiest ways for US residents to buy Bitcoins.