Funny, but a tangible item is much easier to market.

It's only been in recent human history that we have decided to accept currency sources that are technically not backed by a physical equivalent and. Even then, until bitcoin and other recent crypto-currencies started appearing, we required the force of a large body behind it like a government.

At least with items like gold and silver, people knew that it was an unknown new item that had limitless potential. Imagine a person coming up to you ages ago and saying, "I've filled an empty mine with rocks, but every 1000th rock is blue. I am the only one that can allow access to the mine, so I can manage the rarity of the blue rocks. What I want you, and the other people to do, is treat these blue rocks as valid trade items." I can almost guarantee that you, or anyone for that matter, would say that you would do that only if that person speaking to you guaranteed to make the blue rocks redeemable for valid currency from him at your discretion.

That is one of the problems many have with crypto-currency, the guarantee factor of being able to convert to a more recognized form of monetary unit. It's changing now, but it is still going to be a rough road since the only true guarantee at the moment is that multiple places are starting to recognize it as currency. It could be amazing, but it also has massive potential to financially cripple a lot of people if they trade goods/services for it and it flops.

Radio: My favorite discovery of 2012 is "Radio Lab", a story telling show reminiscent of another favorite, 'This American Life', but with a much more sophisticated sound design. All episodes are available for free in the podcast section of iTunes.

Music: I fell in love with the New Orleans second line scene after Issy and I paid a visit to the crescent city this year. We saw the 'Rebirth Brass Band' live and had a great time. We also had a mini-meetup at the show with @dotdude. New Orleans music culture is like no other.

Music: Louis Cole & Genevieve Artadi: Highly unique and energetic electro-acoustic music. Hard to explain.

Music: Austin Texas band 'The Black Angels' - Dark, bluesy rock obviously influenced by the Doors. To be honest, I'm not crazy about blues rock or the Doors, but 'The Black Angels' manage to meld these influences into something I really dig.

Music: UK band, 'Metronomy'. Their sound is eclectic, hooky and heavily influenced by all the cool British 80's bands I loved as a kid. Goes down easy. Works in the background as well as the fore.

Movies: Django and Looper were the two films that captivated me from start to finish. Both films by gifted auteurs, one at the top of his game, the other on the rise. Great writing. Great Directing. Great performances.

Horror movies: The Cabin in the Woods (A clever and absurd meta-horror mashup) and the The Lady in Black (A classic, classy ghost story) both satisfied. It's nice that there were a couple of diamonds in sea of Paranormal-Activity-esque-found-footage detritus.

TV: same stuff that everyone else likes - BB, GoT, DoAb and Sherlock. I also got into Always Sunny in Philadelphia this year - very dark, very funny.

Books: Started a bunch, finished very few. Nothing to recommend. "Checklist Manifesto" is pretty interesting so far - it's about how the brain functions (or fails to function) in the information-dense present.

Games: 'Xcom' was a worthy update of the original. Loved all the detailed micro/macro strategy. 'Journey' was beautiful and fairly moving for a videogame.

Jazz; blues; rock and roll. This phenom has been around in a while: white american and world culture embracing black american music.

Hip Hop is everywhere. I visited a large and not well known city in china a few years ago. While walking through a mall, I randomly ran into a performing b-boy group. I am not even sure that these folks knew about the origins of hip hop. For all they know; it could be a chinese creation. That's all right, though.

>> ^enoch:

they are also called yo-yos.
ok..lets put aside for a moment that the classification of "whiteness" is a fabricated term.
let us instead look at the history of american culture.
over the past century and a half there has been a few waves of immigration to america and each of those waves took approximately 2 generations to assimilate.
the italians assimilated,the irish assimilated.polish and dutch.the ONLY culture that was having trouble assimilating was the black culture and they had been here for almost two hundred years longer.the reasons for this is a far longer discussion but i use this point as a perspective tool.
blacks had been here for hundreds of years and generation after generation remained socially stagnant UNTIL...the advent and consequent popularity of hip-hop.
it was this genre of music which was so uniquely tied to black culture which ushered in the assimilation of black culture.now i do not propose that this has been a smooth transition nor has it been complete but rather pointing out the immense impact of this musical genre.what civil rights and basic decency could not do over the years hip-hop managed in only a few.
so is it any wonder that we now find other cultures participating in the creation of hip-hop?
not at all.music is the greatest form of sharing cultures' and styles and genres will bleed into each other.if you look at the history of music this is played out over and over and over.
there is poetry in that my friends.
music will always traverse stereotypes and cultural divisions.
so we should not be surprised to see white kids,latin kids and even the odd asian kids paying homage to hip-hop in the ways that humans always do.
either by copying or mocking.
in either case it means that hip-hop has reached global status.

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Nice blues rock and r&r:)
*jazz

Peter Green is a Blues-Rock GOD!

Swampgirl: Lindsey and Stevie joined at the same time (they were dating at the time), a few years after Peter Green went nutso and left the band.

The ultimate blues/rock jam: Before they yelled "Freebird" it was "Whipping Post!!!