2. Hashtags, the only two legitimate hashtags being used by bloggers in Iran are #iranelection and #gr88, other hashtag ideas run the risk of diluting the conversation.

3. Keep you bull$hit filter up! Security forces are now setting up twitter accounts to spread disinformation by posing as Iranian protesters. Please don’t retweet impetuosly, try to confirm information with reliable sources before retweeting. The legitimate sources are not hard to find and follow.

4. Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches. If we all become ‘Iranians’ it becomes much harder to find them.

5. Don’t blow their cover! If you discover a genuine source, please don’t publicise their name or location on a website. These bloggers are in REAL danger. Spread the word discretely through your own networks but don’t signpost them to the security forces. People are dying there, for real, please keep that in mind…

The Austrian town of Worgl also tried out Gessell’s idea, in 1932. Like most communities in Europe at the time, it suffered from mass unemployment and a shortage of money for public works. Instead of spending the town’s meagre funds on new works, the mayor put them on deposit as a guarantee for the stamp scrip he issued. By paying workers in the new currency, he paved the streets, restored the water system and built a bridge, new houses and a ski jump. Because they would soon lose their value, Worgl’s own schillings circulated much faster than the official money, with the result that each unit of currency generated 12 to 14 times more employment. Scores of other towns sought to copy the scheme, at which point - in 1933 - the central bank stamped it out. Worgl’s workers were thrown out of work again.

Similar projects took off at the same time in dozens of countries. Almost all of them were closed down (just one, Switzerland’s WIR system, still exists) as the central banks panicked about losing their monopoly over the control of money. Roosevelt prohibited complementary currencies by executive decree, though they might have offered a faster, cheaper and more effective means of pulling the US out of the Depression than his New Deal. --The Guardian

Could a stamp scrip issued by the Federal or State governments for issuing tax refunds be useful to get money back into our economic system? It might be worth some serious consideration.

As usual the truth is somewhere in the middle. While the ripple effect of the failure of the auto industry would be serious, it would not have the same effect as it would have 40 years ago. The auto industry no longer employs the vast numbers of US workers that it once did. In 2007, Ford and GM were the 13 & 14 largest employer in the US, behind companies such as Walmart, Home Depot, and Target; companies which did not exist 30 years ago.

Of course, the auto industry isn’t completely at fault for their lack of innovation. Every administration since the Carter administration has had an opportunity to address our energy infrastructure. In particular the current Bush administration missed a opportunity after 911 to call for a ‘energy-freedom tax’. An tax which would have established a minimum price for a barrel of oil. A minimum price which would have provided innovators with the confidence to invest in an otherwise wildly fluctuating market.

But, I would like to tell the US auto industry to take a powder. When the industry asks for $25 billion in order to “innovate”, I would suggest that they have had 30 years to innovate since the last oil crisis. No other industry comes hat-in-hand to the American taxpayer for funding for innovation. As Tom Friedman suggests: we ought to put Steve Jobs in charge of GM. Given a free hand, Mr. Jobs would build the next iCar, kick some ass to get it done fast, and done right! Of course, it is unlikely that Steve could be coaxed into such a task, but it seems like wild idea!

Seriously though, the current financial and economic crisis may provide an opportunity to innovate by addressing several concerns through one wide ranging initiative for the incoming Obama administration. The administaration should agree to a auto bailout with several strings attached:

• Current senior management must go.
• Immediate commitment to develop and bring to market a product line of all electric vechicles, and/or plugin hybrids.
• Product lines must be slashed. (Think Apple’s laptop product line not Dell’s)

The bailout would actually be part of a larger initiatve to develop an all electric energy infrastructure over the next 15 years.  Al Gore has proposed a 10 year program which will take an aggressive approach to energy independence by:

• Creating an alternative energy economy utilizing wind, solar, and geothermal sources
• Developing and deploy a intelligent electrical grid
• Encouraging energy efficiency
• Creating an all electric energy transportation system

Come to think of it.. Al Gore IS on the Apple board. Perhaps Al can convince Steve to get involved after all.