Are Pennies Useful?

What follows is an incredibly insightful yet entertaining rant against the penny (and the nickel). He makes a compelling argument against the production of pennies and nickels, and also points out that it is a non-political issue, which could help facilitate bi-partisan communication:



As I see it, pennies are all but useless. The only thing I use them for are putting in the "give a penny, take a penny" plate at registers, the Salvation Army red buckets during the Christmas season, and for throwing at people.

So I ask: Do you think the penny is a good thing to keep around? What are some reasons for keeping it?

Google is Good

In a recent Good Magazine article that lists 100 good things (some of which I disagree with. They list Hilary Clinton, for goodness sake) Google was listed as a good thing.

They gave several projects that give us reason to believe Google intends to stand by it's "do no evil" inentions:

Online energy consumption readings for your house and a project attempting to make Renewable energy cheaper than coal (aptly named RE < C), but the one that struck me the most was Project 10^100.

Google took submissions for ideas that would "change the world," and they've been weeding them down since last year. Right now they're at the final 16, some of which are less inspirational than others, but I find it really encouraging that a major company is offering $10 Million to help 5 of these projects.

$10 Million! That isn't enough to solve each one, but that's a huge starting point and hopefully others can find it in their hearts and wallets to give similarly?