Wikipedia has an elaborate process in which they choose the content that gets slated as a “featured article“—less than 1/10 of a percent of all articles on the site. (Listen to this interesting discussion—really!—among some Wikipedia power-users to get an idea of the standards used and the kind of people who have devoted so much time to Wikidom.)

Here are the business, economics, and finance articles that have been featured. Of historical significance to the current state of the U.S. economy: The Panic of 1907 and Tulip mania, a 17th century speculative bubble in tulips that arose in what is now The Netherlands.

This isn’t about the economy, but the potential impact on the Big Daddy of user-generated content is so great the topic is worthy of a post. Wikipedia, founded on the concept that anyone can edit any entry on any topic at any time, has announced an upcoming change in the way it will allow edits to articles about living people to appear online. From the New York Times:

The new feature, called “flagged revisions,” will require that an experienced volunteer editor for Wikipedia sign off on any change made by the public before it can go live. Until the change is approved — or in Wikispeak, flagged — it will sit invisibly on Wikipedia’s servers, and visitors will be directed to the earlier version….

“We are no longer at the point that it is acceptable to throw things at the wall and see what sticks,” said Michael Snow, a lawyer in Seattle who is the chairman of the Wikimedia board. “There was a time probably when the community was more forgiving of things that were inaccurate or fudged in some fashion — whether simply misunderstood or an author had some ax to grind. There is less tolerance for that sort of problem now.”

The BBC also sees the change as highly signficant, calling it “a radical shift.”

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It’s official. Cabin fever has officially set in. My mind is increasingly wrapped up in thoughts of gold, of mountain streams, rocky canyons and tricky descents into the same. At the Salem Gold Show this weekend one of the vendors dropped 7.5 ozt of fine gold on the floor, and while I felt terrible for them and hoped they could recover it all, part of me spied that jagged crack in the concrete floor under the pile of pretty pretty gold and thought about coming back with some crevicing tools… The mind wanders. There are so many possibilities and so little time in the day. Why isn’t retirement at age 45, or even 40? Who says I can’t make it happen early?

That post from the Gold Prospecting Blog captures the animating spirit driving many a seeker of the yellow metal. And now, it seems, with the more conventional American dream on hold for so many and the price of gold at a 20-plus year peak, a new rush to experience that “Eureka!” moment is on. The Washington Post reports:

While there is no way to quantify the trend, anecdotally it is clear that the jobless are showing up not only in California but also elsewhere around the country where gold has been found in the past.

“I have been seeing a lot of it this year, with so many people getting laid off or hours cut way back,” said Tim LeGrand, owner of TN Gold & Gems in Coker, Tenn. Permits for prospecting in the nearby Cherokee National Forest, named for the tribe pushed westward after gold was discovered in the early 1800s, have more than doubled since 2007.

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Just got a strange phone call:

“Attention Americans – are you aware of the recent tea party events that are occurring across the nation, as a result of recent governmental actions? Please take notice today!”

I thought it was a friend of mine and started to play along, but the caller   hung up.

Turns out it was a robo-call and a lot of people have received them. The choosydad got one back in April, and here’s a discussion about them on a bulletin board devoted to topics affecting the borough of Queens in New York City. An excerpt:

Bluth Banana: Anyone else get a strange phone call today asking if you’ve taken notice of the Tea Parties going on around America and if you haven’t, to please take notice today? It was so strange and I want to see if there is anyone else out there getting the same strange phone call.

Shopgirl: Yes, yes! This morning the first thing I heard when I woke was a man yelling “America wake up”! Then something about a tea party, then I hung up. Ugh!

Talbotresident: Is it Lipton, Tetley or Arizona Ice Tea that they’re throwing overboard? Although with what’s going on lately up in Albany it’s only going to be a matter of time before people start taking tea parties seriously.

ShaynaMadel: I’m thinking Lipton–it’s so bitter.

Nanook: What’s wrong with Lipton? I like Lipton.

ShaynaMadel: It really does taste bitter to me.

FattyArbuckle: My natural reaction to a political robo-call pushes me towards whatever position is opposite that of the caller.

Gotta love New Yorkers…

Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich writes an oft-cited blog on which he posts thoughtful commentary on economic and political issues. Lately, he has been advocating for a public health care option and debunking some of the dubious claims being made about the bills currently under consideration.

Reich also created a short-lived 2007 video log, or vlog, in which he wryly revealed at the end of each of the first four episodes what happened on his one date with Hillary Clinton, back in their college days. (Spoiler: They went to see Antonioni’s Blowup.)

The Cash for Clunkers program is ending on Monday. Although a lot of people took advantage of the government subsidy to trade in their low gas-mileage car for a more fuel efficient one, many seem to have done so with a good dose of regret and a whole lot of anthropomorphizing. Here’s a guy, for instance, who writes as an intro to his YouTube video called “The End of the Muscle Car, Goodbye Old Friend“:

got a new CAR! but have to give up an old friend to do it, Obama offered me 4500.00 for it, i feel like a cheap prostitute cause i jumped at the money.

And here’s a guy who seems to be in charge of making sure traded-in clunkers will never put rubber to road again. He has documented dozens of such mercy killings and enjoys his job as the Dr. Kevorkian of polluting vehicles about as much as any pet owner who has to accompany his sick dog or cat on that final journey to the vet. “As much as I don’t like doing this, I gotta do it,” he laments before he administers a fatal dose to the engine of a Ford Explorer. “It’s fighting,” he says of a Cadillac Deville that refuses to seize up.

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The prolonged recession has made the potential loss of a home a painful reality for millions of formerly comfortable owners. Today, the Mortgage Bankers Association released more unwelcome news on that front: A record-high 13% of mortgage holders are either behind on their payments or in foreclosure. That’s a scary number of people facing an extremely stressful situation. What, exactly, is it like to go through something like that?

Love in the Time of Foreclosure is the chronicle of Stephanie and Bob Walker’s experience navigating the rocky waters of financial collapse after Bob’s high-paying work as a computer consultant dried up—after the couple had bought an $800,000 Los Angeles home. Written with a deep sense of hope, the blog is sub-titled “Two people deep in debt, working our way out and happier than we ever have been. What? Yes. In debt. Still happy. Happier, in fact. Strange? Not really. Follow us on our journey as we share our secrets with the world.”

That might sound off-puttingly Pollyanish, but Stephanie’s posts are so unflinchingly candid and full of practical information, they should provide a tonic for anyone feeling buffeted by the emotional ups-and-downs of hard times. “How we avoided foreclosure” details the nail-biting process of selling their place in the middle of an historic real estate crash while under threat from their bank.

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WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show has created an online section called “Uncommon Economic Indicators” where people submit signs of the recession observed around the New York City area. These won’t show up in any government statistics or charts, but they turn the abstract gloom of macroeconomic numbers into a concrete picture of what’s happening in the community. Some examples:

A young man from Jersey City reports:

In my neighborhood some families stopped feeding their pets because they could not afford to do so because of job lost or decrease in the income. I have started feeding these pets as they show in front of my door. This money is my pocket money I get from my parents. I think we should learn to share to get over with this difficult times.

From a mom:

Four years ago every birthday my daughter attended was an elaborate affair held at a party-place (except her own!). Now, my younger daughter has gone to home parties with hot dogs on the grill and home-made cakes.

And from a Brooklynite:

Unfortunately in our neighborhood, there have been a lot of store closings. What I have noticed recently is that every time one of these business closes, a psychic moves in. What that means, I can’t quite figure out.

Straight from the front lines.

Supporters of one or other of the current health care reform proposals wending their way through Congress might have gotten a vicarious thrill when a Democrat—in the person of Barney Frank—finally gave as good as he got at a town-hall confrontation.

WOMAN: “Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy, as Obama has, expressly supported this policy? Why are you supporting it?”

FRANK: “When you ask me that question, I am gonna revert to my ethnic heritage and answer your question with a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time? … As you stand there, with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler, and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis, my answer to you is, as I said before, it is a tribute to the First Amendment that this sort of vile contemptable nonsense is so freely propagated. Ma’am, trying to have a conversation would like be like trying to have an argument with a dining room table — I have no interest in doing it.”

Here’s a video of the encounter from CNN.

Comments the Progressive Fitchburg blog: “Barney Frank is Awesome. He really needs to teach every other Democrat to do this.” Fair enough. But a response to a post about the incident on The Health Care Blog asserts that the woman has ties to perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, whom some have called the leader of a cult.

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Perhaps, in the middle of this national free-for-all of a health care debate, you’ve found yourself in an argument with friends, family, or a stranger on the Internet masquerading as the same avatar your 13-year old uses. Here is one such mini-drama, spied on Facebook. (Disclaimers: Certain emoticons have been changed to protect the innocent, and rants have been truncated to prevent readers from falling into a coma, for which they may or not may not be insured.)

Enter LEFTY, who posts Rachel Maddow’s report on astroturfing town-hall protesters.

Enter LIBERTARIAN.

Libertarian: So does this invalidate my opposition to this “Healthcare” catastrophe our President is trying to cram down my throat?

Lefty: And you would prefer to keep the broken down crap that we have now???

Libertarian: You think THIS is broken? (Unconvincingly) I don’t want to argue. (Convincingly again) We’re going to get government controlled health care, regardless, and you’ll understand then.

Lefty: Let me guess…you are a Republican, right?

Libertarian: I am a registered independent. And a libertarian. I’m still reeling that you feel it should be illegal for a company to not insure someone. By your reasoning, why should I have health insurance? Just wait until I need it, then buy it. It would be illegal for it to be denied to me. Private healthcare insurance will disappear when Obama-care becomes law. You should research all of the details.

Lefty: Obviously, private insurance companies are not going away anytime soon, so we need to fix their strong hold on such policies as denying anyone with pre-existing conditions, or at least offering something to people who are denied through private insurance.

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