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Pennies are an annoyance to carry around and to use?and they cost more to make than they?re worth. There?s always a shortage of them because people either throw them away or collect them in jars. But if the penny was eliminated, as some economists suggest, would rounding prices to the nearest nickel end up costing consumers more money? Economist Robert M. Whaples has discovered it wouldn?t and says, “It’s time to eliminate the penny.”

Whaples estimates that the US loses about $900 million a year on penny production and handling. The cost is mainly due to the rising cost of zinc, the metal that makes up 97.5% of the penny, as well as to the costs of minting and transportation. Whaples says, “The cost of making our money, the penny, is now more than 1 cent (per penny).” read more

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It’s vacation time for most of us, but a select few will be taking their vacations in SPACE. These trips will begin as early as 2 years from now.

Space.com reports that designer Philippe Starck and actors Victoria Principal and Bryan Singer have booked their flights aboard the new Virgin Airlines Virgin Galactic craft. They will join 200 other space tourists. Tours will begin in 2008, and tickets cost about $200,000 each.
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Anne and I have had quite an interesting time recently, with regard to anomalous experiences. She is becoming a sort of communicator. Not exactly a psychic, but rather somebody who initiates needed action at the right moment.

It started a few weeks ago when we had an apparent missing time experience while out walking. I believe that I’ve reported it before, but I’ll recap it briefly: it was quite simple–we were living at the time in Los Angeles (we have a small flat there but stay here in Mexico most of the time), and walking across town when suddenly one of the streets simply didn’t happen. We were at one streetcorner one second, at another the next.
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Two months ago, we reported on a Stonehenge that has been discovered in Brazil. Now archeologists are learning more about it. Here’s what points to the idea that the huge rocks may be a calendar, like Stonehenge is: on December 21, which is the shortest day of the year, the shadow of one of the blocks disappears.

It was important for early humans to keep track of the shortest and longest days of the year, because when the days began to get longer, they knew that the harsh winter was over for another year and that their lives would therefore continue. Scholars say that we don’t know the real date of the birth of Jesus, but that December 25 was chosen because it’s a date when calendar-watchers would be assured that spring was again coming to the earth.
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