Andy Baio: "If we look strictly at the acquisition cost per user, Facebook got a relative deal with the Instagram purchase, paying roughly $28 for each of Instagram’s 35 million users. (The median cost across all the acquisitions is about $92 per user.)" "But if you look at the payout per employee, Instagram is completely off the charts."

"The key issue, as hinted at in the (somewhat facetious) examples above, is that the Metropolitan Police is a huge organisation: it has more than 35,000 officers and PSCOs, plus more than 13,000 civilian staff. Even trivial amounts of spending per officer quickly adds up." On spending at scale.

Skud: Economist on bitcoin, well researched and accurate: http://t.co/Xrh5xBS

'Asked what aspects of the 12th-century economy should be exported to modern Britain, Boyle said: "Debt-free living; a lot of holidays and parties and a lack of work ethic; the idea of a 'just price' for goods; some aspects of the medieval guilds and the importance of craftsmanship; and a more spiritual response to money."'

Baffling. [[ Argentina in general—and Buenos Aires in particular—is presently in the grip of a moneda, or coin, shortage. Everywhere you look, there are signs reading, "NO HAY MONEDAS." As a result, vendors here are more likely to decline to sell you something than to cough up any of their increasingly precious coins in change. ]] Is this what happens when the shared hallucination that is money frays at the edges?

Thoughts on money, smartcards and so on. "It is possible to ride on [London buses by] recording the oyster-beep [and playing] it when you touch-in" has the ring of truth.

A good post. Two comments: calories as currency comes up in Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. Secondly, is belief in money a rational or irrational religion? "Religion" may seem a bit strong, but money certainly relies on a certain amount of faith.

I heard about this on Radio 4 this morning but forgot to see the coins, until I saw this link. First reaction: what? More considered: the Mail are going to hate it, but nobody else would do something so nifty with their coins.

"It's a simple, clever thing that tells you how much electricity you're using." ... "The big problem with it at the moment is the unit price, it's a lot, £150. That makes it mostly a bourgeois indulgence." Will smart meters bring these to the masses?

"Apart from environmental frugality, innovation and the arts, what have cities ever done for us? There is one more thing and it is growing ever more important as global trade demands that our economies become more flexible: cities are resilient."

Well, he got another one.

Shock as US continues with "not all bloody green" money