Here I am, thinking that the Morning Coffee is something that I don’t do anymore, and then this pops up:

And now it’s back.

Whatever you might think of the whole Occupy Wall Street movement, what they’re up to now is incredibly awesome. They have started something that they are calling The Rolling Jubilee. Far better than the Jubilee we saw in London this year, the idea is that they raise money, use that money to buy debt, and then forgive that debt.

It’s a brilliant (and simple) idea. Debt can be bought for pennies on the dollar, making every donation received go a long, long way.

For those of you looking for (free) further education, Stanford is offering an introductory course on Cryptography online. For free. I would be doing this if I thought I could find the free 5-7 hours a week to complete the coursework. Plus an extra 5-7 hours in the next week, to make up for the fact that it started a week ago.

Coffee image is of a mug on sale from Diesel Sweeties.
The astronaut in the Apple store is a photo by James Nord.
Webcomic is Cautionary Tales, by Bill Taylor.

The following post is by regular Big Bad Blog contributor, Pete. It has, as requested, been heavily edited.

Have you heard of 1% Monopoly?

It’s a variation on the traditional game of Monopoly, inspired by the Occupy movement. It consists of a house rule that will make a frustrating bored game (not a spelling error) infuriating for all but one player – if you pass GO while having the most money, you get to “Lobby the Government”, allowing you to change one rule. The richest player will quickly gain a huge advantage and more money, while everyone else will be disadvantaged, losing everything. I doubt playing with this rule will make anyone happier in the long run, but it will illustrate the unfairness of our current political/economic model.

(Editor’s note: I’m not entirely sure if this 1% Monopoly is a creation of Pete’s mind, or something seen elsewhere. I hope it’s the former. Though there are rules online for another Occupy-inspired Monopoly ruleset: Occupy Boardwalk.)

Here at the Big Bad Blog, we are always interested in how we can trash other people’s stuff, and not have to deal with the consequences. America is teaching us some important lessons this week. For instance, on one hand closing your bank account can now get you arrested in New York. So speaking ill of banks is definitely off the menu of consequence-free actions.

On the other hand, apparently there are no standards in place when it comes to trashing other people’s property while it is in police custody!

So there you go! Destroying items that are in police custody is protected under the law. Unless that item is related to a bank, presumably.

Photo by ram photography.
Webcomic is a softer world, by Emily Horne and Joey Comeau.