they are the parking meters of the future but only few countries in europe make use of them. in my country estonia we use them. drivers in tallinn can pay for a parking space by sending a text message from their mobile phones. i have not seen them anywhere in other european cities. i think we need more of them

A vending machine that uses the traffic light system to label various food options. The machine still sells junk food like chips and soda, but it adds a 5-cent surcharge for each one, which is then donated. The University of Virginia is already using one and managed to collect $7,000 which was donated to a children's fitness clinic. Not bad idea for collecting money!

If you drop a $100 bill in the street anywhere in the US almost everyone will pick it up. Almost. Certainly more people than if you drop the equivalent of a $100 in a foreign currency. Not everyone will pick it up even though it's money convertible into dollars and has value. It's an interesting question I post to people I interview: value or money? When I pose the question without the example most people say value for money but as they leave my office very few people pick up the value of $100 in foreign currency I had deliberately left at the exit. When it's $100 in dollars I tend to lose money most of the time. My value for money pays off when people pick up the foreign currency bill, these are usually the ones I like to hire!

Usually merit-based scholarship is given if the student maintains a minimum GPA. How about changing this rule and make merit-based scholarship available based on the improvement a student makes on any subject from one semester to the next? If a student last semester got a C in math and this semester improved her grade to B she gets $1,000, if the grade was improved to A she gets $2,000. If she got the highest grade she can get and managed to maintain it then the scholarship will be a fixed amount, say $500 or something. If the grades drop she gets no money. (read more)

I just did a Google search for the NASA acronym and I found that it has at least 37 different meanings starting, of course, with National Aeronautics and Space Administration to National Association of State Archaeologists (USA) and to Navy Alpine Snowsports Association in..Australia!!! The only use of the acronym I didn't see was that of a commercial airline. NASA is so famous all over the world, don't you think it would be clever to launch a new airline whose acronym would be NASA? How about New Age Service Airlines for example?

Here's an idea on how the unemployed can help the unemployed start new businesses. The government will stop taxing unemployment benefit paychecks. Instead what is paid in tax will go to a Re-employment Ventures Fund that will invest in projects and business ventures started by people who lost their jobs and currently receive unemployment benefits. (read more)

Say you won $100 million in the jackpot. What will you do with the money after you buy all the things you wanted in your life? I'd like to spend $50 million to buy 10 million new tickets to see if I can win another lottery. $50 million! The odds of winning it again must be very good. But then, if the odds are really that good, why wouldn't most rich people invest their money in the lottery? And if they all did that, wouldn't that bring down the odds of winning it again? Apparently rich people get brutally "discriminated" from playing the lottery and buying in bulk. We've just discovered the one market where your millions can't buy you millions. In life, there are some money, money can't buy :)

Since GM is now owned by taxpayers, I would like to institute that I don't need to pay for my car loan anymore. Technically I own a portion of the company that produced my car, right? I don't like the fact that I purchased special order non-returnable domestic car parts for my damn taxpayer owned car. I'm pretty sure that had I brought my car to the dealership, the wiper blades would cost more to fix than the wipers on the Audi. When I can find 321 ways to spend that money every month instead of paying for something that won't even be made in 4 years, the temptation to stop paying the loan now that I own a portion of the company is just too strong to let go...

If we could trade products and services with aliens, in what currency should the transactions be made? Can you suggest a cool name for the new currency?

How unusual can you think as an investor, entrepreneur or collector? Forget stocks, bonds, art, real estate and gold for a moment. What about brick and mortar that is not about construction but destruction! Did you know that following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 a brisk trade emerged in the West for pieces of the Wall which sold as souvenir paperweight at prices as high as high-grade silver ore? (read more)