Eco Tip #1

I've decided that I should make a blog entry series about eco tips. They won't be as regular as picks of the week, but will hopefully now be a recurring entry type on my blog.

Tip: refill old travel toothpaste containers by putting them head to head with a full size tube and squeezing the full size tube. Note that you might have to finesse this a little bit.

Pick #236

Them Two - "Am I a Good Man" from Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label

Band of Horses used this song as their encore this past weekend. I guess they've recorded it and some people think it's their song. It's a little bluesy for BoH, but they pull it off nicely.

Tally Bike Routes

Here's a map showing lots of different kinds of bicycle routes in Tallahassee.

Sharpen Your Knives on a Coffee Mug

So, I was recently reminded that you can sharpen knives on the bottom of a coffee mug. This is good since I've been complaining that my santoku knife is getting dull. Over the weekend I tried sharpening it by honing the blade on the unglazed portion of the bottom of a coffee mug. In the process, I managed to cut my finger. I stopped short of an optimal sharpening, but the difference was very noticeable.

Today my roommate cut his finger with the knife; a cut that probably would not have happened had it been duller. He cut himself in the same spot I did. Strange coincidence. Anyway, you should try coffee mugs for sharpeners. That way you won't have to buy a sharpener. Save money, save space in your house, save resources.

Large Bills Not Accepted

While I'm on the subject of legal tender, I want to vent. It pisses me off when gas stations, or any business for that matter, says that they don't accept bills over $20. Isn't my money legal tender for all debts public and private? Don't they have to accept my money?

I can understand that sometimes at a garage sale or if I owe a friend that the individual might not have change for a large bill and that issue has to be worked out person to person. However, businesses need to be prepared to take large bills. I want to go to a gas station and slap a Benjamin down on the counter and say I want to fill up on pump 5 and see what they do. Could I get them in trouble for not accepting my money? Maybe the FBI could get involved like it did with the Liberty Dollar.

Does anyone know anything about the legality of "not accepting" large bills?

Minting Mayhem

I would have believed that this article I just read came from The Onion. Instead, it's on the FBI's website. It's about a guy fined and put in prison for minting his own money (well, it was part of an organization) and trying to mix it in with the US money supply. The Liberty Dollar coins do kind of resemble US currency, but the bills are far from it.

The Supreme Court said that Liberty Dollars are not legal tender and that use of Liberty Dollars as circulating currency is a federal crime. Now, I certainly understand that it's not legal tender. But I don't think that it should be outlawed as currency. It was backed by the gold standard and I think the value was supposed to be pegged about 1:1 with the USD. If I want to trade you something for a Liberty Dollar or a pack of cigarettes or one of your used DVDs, that mutually agreed upon transaction makes us both better off. Of course it's way more common to trade USD for goods and services in this country, but people can barter favors or have plenty of other ways to pay for things than using greenbacks.

The Liberty Dollar coins maybe should have been altered a bit so as to be obviously different that the money put out by our government. I do not believe that making your own money is a federal crime, but I could get behind that sort of label for counterfeiting. The problem is that these notes were good. They were not fraudulent. They were backed by gold and you could cash them out for precious metal. There are tons of other examples of privately minted money. One of the earliest examples I learned about was babysitting vouchers. The vouchers allow you to redeem one hour of babysitting for a 1-hour note. It was a way for families in an area to trade babysitting services with other members of this group instead of paying teenage girls.

There's no reason that I can't print money that says Tallahassee Treasury and circulate it around town. As long as a value is agreed upon (I think I'd like to peg it to the US Dollar), then everyone can use it. Maybe it'd only be accepted in Tallahassee where people know that other Tally residents will take the TT notes for payment. I realize that these notes would not be legal tender and that's certainly ok. Anyway, I believe the FBI is out of hand in this case.

Pick #235

Michael Behm - "Apple In Her Hand" from Michael Behm New Music!