As Dawkins said this morn.

[P J Thompson]

It's interesting to me that so many people on the internet are against fractional reserve banking, despite it being the standard in all countries (that I know of).

Now why would FR and it's cohorts the central banks be the standard in all countries? Cui Bono?
And what happens when a country stands up and opposes the idea? When it flies in the face of the Bank of International settlements?

Maybe ask Gaddafi?
Or maybe not actually...

 

[P J Thompson]

I've managed to read the second half of this post properly now

GNU/Linux: the most common web-server operating system - open source.
Apache : the most common web-server - open source.
jQuery: one of the most common javascript libraries on the web - open source.
Bootstrap: one the most common css libraries on the web - open source.
OpenSSL: The thing responsible for the heartbleed bug (a problem because everyone used it) - open source.
There are probably others, but the internet does seem to have a lot of people giving their stuff away - i.e. not using currency.

It's like the geeks are already in your "money, that's just like your opinion, maaaaan" world.

Perhaps I'm just behind the curve eh?

There are indeed others and yes, giving stuff away/open source is growing. You're right that the internet is the focus for a lot of it and as you'd expect I'm onside. There are non web based modular technologies being spread with open licenses for anyone to use and develop. There are numerous 'do stuff for each other free' sites and groups. Things like guerilla gardening have been growing (haha a pun). There's plenty going on and it's expanding. I think you could even throw stuff like credit unions into the mix. Co-operatives are coming back. 'Good' stuff is happening that doesn't fit into the status quo box. It's not exclusively geek centred but you're right, a lot of geeks are doing things to try and move things forward. And all power to them!

 

[btiw2]

So what is the difference in somewhere like Switzerland, which practices semi direct democracy? Or even Ireland which regularly has referenda?

Individual referenda are expensive, but you're right other countries can ask more than one questions. We could ask these direct questions during a general election.
I think the US has other direct-democracy questions on their ballot papers too. Isn't that how some states legalized pot?

It would depend on who approves the questions, but if we had a real direct democracy then before long.

• PM's question time would follow the rules of "just a minute".
• The monarch would be "Queenie McQueenface".
• Our national anthem would be composed by Chumbawumba.
• Oh, and maybe some real stuff too.

I think it'd be great.

 

[P J Thompson]

That doesn't address the question at all does it
But yes, in both the US and Switzerland extra questions are added to ballot papers.
In Switzerland I believe it's quarterly.

And you're wrong, the national anthem would obviously be, Burn all the scummers (sung to the tune of Take That's fantastic hit, relight my fire)