# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Zarinah Agnew lives at the Red Victorian, a modern-day commune in San Francisco's Haight neighborhood. Six months ago, as an experiment, she and her roommates thumbtacked $80 in cash on three different corkboards (at the Red Vic and another local intentional community called The Embassy). They then attached small pink signs that read, "Take what you need, leave what you don't!"

They called each of their experimental corkboards, the "Great Wall of Money."

Here's what happened next, according to Agnew:

We left them up in our houses and watched. It was kind of amazing.
I watched them stay pristine for a few days, and slowly gain extra funds. Once they had been touched, the notes started to move and disappear. The $1s went first, but again once a $20 had gone, the others followed suit. But they oscillated back and forth in a healthy manner.

Then one night the board was cleared, presumably by a single person. It was full at 3am and gone by 6am that morning. I was sort of delighted by this as it demonstrated to me that the board wasn't remaining replenished through politeness. People were using it as it was intended. And lo, after a week, the empty board, started to collect notes once more...

Before long the Red Vic Great Wall of Money collected bart tickets, maps, notes, and all sorts of things. Eventually, the community moved it out onto the street where it collected even more goods and services - half smoked blunts and items of clothing were pinned to the board.

Read the rest

The Palo Alto Weekly in Silicon Valley asked more than 250 residents of that city "How do you define your social class?" From the survey results ( PDF):

Seventy-five identified themselves as "upper middle class." Their self-reported incomes ranged from $50,000 to $400,000 or more (with one retiree reporting $35,000-$49,999)... Eighty-one people considered themselves "middle class." Their self-reported incomes ranged from $10,000 to $399,999....Seventeen considered themselves "lower middle class" or "working class." Their self-reported income ranged from $35,000 to $349,999. Four reported being in the "upper class," three of whom reported earning $400,000 a year or more (the fourth is retired).

Eighty-nine people declined to answer the question or wrote their own answers, including that they were "disenfranchised," "former middle class" and "survivors in an unjust capitalist society."

" The meaning of 'middle class'" (Palo Alto Weekly)

Read the rest

If you have something to sell, and a buyer asks to pay using Venmo, you could lose both your money and your item. Jennifer Khordi is one of many who got scammed and wants to help others avoid her fate. Read the rest

Anna Rosling Rönnlund, co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation, asked Swedish students where they thought they fell on the global income spectrum. They guessed somewhere in the middle; they were wrong. After having 264 homes photographed in 50 countries and collecting 30,000 photos, she made this tool to help everyone understand the world - and how they fit in - a little better.

Want to see how people at your income level live in other countries? Of course you do.

It's the perfect antidote to Instagram-induced envy. Actually, I'd like to see someone curate a Selby or Apartmento-style lookbook from these images. Anyone? Read the rest

"A recent study conducted by Hasbro revealed that nearly half of game players attempt to cheat during Monopoly games, so in 2018, we decided it was time to give fans what they've been craving all along - a Monopoly game that actually encourages cheating," Jonathan Berkowitz, senior vice president of Hasbro gaming told Insider.

The object of the game is still to be the player with the most money at the game's end, but it may be a little tougher to accomplish. The Cheater's Edition will ask players to get away with cheating as many times as they can during game play. That means players can skip spaces, try to avoid paying rent, and slip a few extra bills from the bank when no one's looking.

Yes, it comes with handcuffs too. Read the rest

Apple is way ahead of the pack, but even the losers at Oracle are making $279 a second. The original graphic, by Pablo Gomez, is interactive and a must-see. Read the rest

McClatchy DC reports that the FBI is investigating whether a Kremlin-tied Russian banker illegally funded money to the National Rifle Association to help Trump win the presidency.

FBI counterintelligence investigators have focused on the activities of Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia's central bank who is known for his close relationships with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the NRA, the sources said. It is illegal to use foreign money to influence federal elections.

AKs for everyone!

Last year, WaPo wrote about the gun-toting end of American conservatism palling around with Putin. Read the rest

Bluehands's Coin Box is a super-cute, spring loaded cardboard coin-box: put a coin in it and it bursts apart, flinging away your money to remind you that, thanks to the imminent collapse of capitalism, saving is futile. ( via Geekologie) Read the rest

Switzerland and Singapore are among the most expensive places in the world to grab a mug of coffee-overpriced as it already is in the United States. But there's more to the matter than mere inconvenience for tourists. The Wall Street Journal reports on Starbucks becoming an indicator of currency trouble.

The financial community uses dozens of metrics to determine how much a currency should be worth-and which currencies to buy and sell. These often tell starkly different stories. One measure created by the Council on Foreign Relations shows the U.S. dollar is 11% overvalued.

A rival to the Starbucks index is the Big Mac index, as devised by The Economist. Finding it inadequate, the Council on Foreign Relations came up with a Mini Mac index, with the international prices of Apple gadgets as the benchmark: "Minis are a global product that, unlike Big Macs, can move quickly and cheaply around the world."

Photo: Camila Tamara Silva Sepúlveda (cc) Read the rest

More about "the evolution of Queen Elizabeth II, as shown by banknotes" in this Washington Post article from 2015.

(via r/interestingasfuck)

Queen Elizabeth's life in banknotes. https://t.co/ZHx71FuubN pic.twitter.com/cfO8TnxmS7
- Cliff Pickover (@pickover) October 2, 2017

Read the rest

Information is Beautiful has updated their comparison of artist payments on streaming services, estimating that 2.4 million plays on YouTube will net a whopping $1,472 for an unsigned artist. That's $0.0006 per play!

Read the rest

Because of the UK's dramatic shift from student grants to loans, a startling report from the Institute for Financial Studies predicts that 77.4% of university graduates in the UK's class of 2017 will not repay their full student loan obligations. This is up from 41.5% just six years ago in 2011.

Read the rest

You might think every American state is overrun with tech billionaires, given the amount of press they get, but Forbes shows that the richest person in each state is more likely to have made their fortune in fashion, retail, finance, or investing: Read the rest

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Zarinah Agnew lives at the Red Victorian, a modern-day commune in San Francisco's Haight neighborhood. Six months ago, as an experiment, she and her roommates thumbtacked $80 in cash on three different corkboards (at the Red Vic and another local intentional community called The Embassy).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
BY MANDY DONOVAN // PHOTOS BY JOSH CAMPBELL
This is the third in our "Dear Zipcar" series, where we take members' questions, then tap into our employee knowledge base to share expertise. Got a city-living question of your own? Ask us in the comments below, and you just may see it in a future post. Dear Zipcar,
Hi Mom on a Mission, I don't own a car, so I usually walk or bike with my kids. I'm going on my first solo car trip with them this weekend. How do I keep them occupied so I can focus on driving?
- Mom on a Mission
I hear ya, sister. As the parent of a very active toddler, I've had to figure out how to keep him engaged in the backseat so I can stay focused in the front seat, too. To help other parents rule the driver's seat, I've compiled a few helpful hints.
Happy (and safe) driving!
Mandy Donovan
Zipcar Associate Creative Director, Copy
As with most things in parenthood, it's 90% preparation, 10% perspiration (or 9% perspiration, 1% hand sanitizer). If you live in the city, check out our 5 secrets of kid-friendly city living. Once you're in the car and on your way, follow the seven tips below to keep everyone happy-including you.

Please let us know how it goes! And everybody else, share your tales and secrets of success below. It takes a village to raise a child (especially an opinionated four-year-old).

Tip #1: Safety First.

The #1 and most important rule of driving: Get there safe! Did you know are not installed correctly? (Of course you did, because you obsessively read articles about stuff like this on your cell phone in the middle of the night.) Finding the right car seat and making sure it is installed correctly is foremost on many a new parent's mind. If you want to be extra cautious, in some towns you can bring your new car seat to the police station and have them teach you how to properly install it. Why the police are experts at child car seat installation is beyond me. I don't see them teaching this at Police Academy (but then I'm only going by those Steve Guttenberg movies, which are probably not 100% accurate).

Once you've got the right car seat (installed by Steve Guttenberg), the second most crucial aspect of safe driving is YOU. Driving is serious business and you need all your faculties focused on the task at hand. If your child drops a toy while you're going 60 mph on the highway, that toy is staying on the floor, tears or not. So keep your cool. Or pull over if it's safe to do so. And if you're late? Pull out the Kid Card-it trumps all other excuses for tardiness.

If you're not a car-owning family and your kids aren't used to being in a moving vehicle that goes faster than a bike trailer, then the novelty of riding in a Zipcar might distract them for a good little while. Let them hold the Zipcard, scan in, and listen for the doors unlocking (like magic!). Once inside, you can let them pretend to drive (no key in the ignition, of course) and move the steering wheel around-even honk the horn if your neighbors won't mind. (Okay, once or twice, even if they do.)

Now the prelim is over, it's time to strap that kid into his or her car seat, bust out the applesauce pouches, and get this show on the road.

Please tell me you haven't driven for several hours while listening to the Disney Kids channel on Sirius? There's a better way! There are a slew of actual, cool real musicians who are putting out kids' music these days. If you're not aware of these sanity-saving albums, you should be! They Might Be Giants, Jewel, Andre 3000 (shake it like a... rattle?), even Johnny Cash make music for kids. Admittedly, none of this will rock your socks off, but it is solidly listenable for the time period you and your precious offspring are the car. And while not everyone loves him, I am always up for a round of Down by the Bay, by Rafi. "Did you ever see a llama, wearing pink pajamas?" (You have to admit. That's a hilarious image.)

Tip #4: Accept That Screen Time Is A Necessary Evil.

If you're okay with the kids taking in a little screen time in the backseat (I am), then this organizer is a great way to hold an iPad and other diversionary items to keep kids busy. Get some kid-friendly headphones that cap the volume so as not to harm little ears. A word to the wise: Don't let your kid hold a tablet in the backseat and watch a movie that way. I learned from experience that watching a screen while it's bumping around can make a kid nauseous-not what you want in a car packed with all your stuff for a beach trip. Yeah, that seriously happened. Ah, parenthood. It's a messy business.

Tip #5: Converse With Your Kids.

As much as we joke about the kids driving us nuts in the car, it can be a special time to have your child's undivided attention for however long the car trip lasts. (This may be even truer if you've got teenagers.) Ask your kids about whatever they are super excited about these days. I asked my toddler about his friend Kyle's love of owls and discovered that my boy had developed an encyclopedic knowledge of raptors. "There are screech owls and barred owls-not barn owls. Everybody thinks it's barn but it's barred. With a D..." What a hoot! I had no idea this kid was such a bird nerd. The following summer we went to see a raptor exhibit at the zoo and he was thrilled. He was also an eagle for Halloween. It was so fun hearing about something he is so passionate about-and so cool that HE was teaching ME something I didn't know. (I'll tell him when he's older that there are also barn owls. Why confuse the kid?)
Got great tips of your own? Share your city parent insights in the comments below.
Okay, the wee one(s) have grown tired of movies, or you're not fond of the idea of letting them watch 13 episodes of Curious George in a row... that may be a genie you can't put back in the bottle. Here's what to do: Pack a backpack just for the kiddo. They are usually pretty excited to carry it themselves-additional bonus for you. Inside the pack, put a Magna Doodle (the modern day Etch-A-Sketch), books they can flip through or the non-driving parent can read them, and paper and crayons. Add the power of suggestion from you: "Hey, how 'bout you draw a picture of that boat we just saw?" and voila! Twenty minutes of silence! If a kid gets deep into an art project, time can fly by, and before you know it... "Hey, we're at Nana's house!" Bonus points: Take the drawing inside (with your child's permission) as a gift for Grandma. Parenting double-win.

Tip # 7: Go The Bleep To Sleep!

When all else fails, stop talking, keep quiet, turn the fan up to high for some white noise, and let the little cherub(s) get some sleep. Cars are powerful put-you-to-sleep machines. (Some parents rely daily on what my friend calls the "nap n' drive" to get a cranky or colicky infant to sleep.) Somehow, as long as the car's moving, the kid stays asleep. It's kind of magical. Sometimes you can even pull up into the driveway and get some reading, texting, or even a nap of your own in. (Miracle of miracles.)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Driving With Kids (Without Them Driving You Nuts)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This is the third in our "Dear Zipcar" series, where we take members' questions, then tap into our employee knowledge base to share expertise. Got a city-living question of your own? Ask us in the comments below, and you just may see it in a future post.