Home team advantage

After years of tweaking, polishing and adding features, the guys at EA Tiburon have finally pinned most of the elements of simulated college football down, leaving the developers free to focus on what really matters. Mascot games. No, seriously, while it’s certainly hysterical to watch a front line of Bucky Badgers side-flipping through the hapless […]

Got scrip?

Hear that giant sucking sound of greenbacks whooshing down voracious twin vortexes of grocery store and gas station? Consider getting rid of currency altogether and trading directly with your fellow citizens. What I found, taking a dip in the local barter scene, is a bit more complicated. Bartering can be a one-time event or a […]

The taxman cometh

Looming over the barter economy is the specter of tax liability. Caroline Wilson, enrolled agent and master tax advisor for H&R Block in Charlottesville, says, “Bartering for us from a tax standpoint is very simple: It’s income. Scrip currency is treated for tax purposes as though it were U.S. cash.” She says most people wouldn’t […]

If you want to join

SBN currently has around 40 members with an active website and frequent e-mails. Join by clicking on the Yahoo! group’s link on their website (search “Scottsville barter network”), though you don’t have to be a member to access the directory of goods and services (sustainablescottsville.com/barter). The group has an open meeting the first Tuesday of […]

In Ithaca we trust

All modern local currencies trace back to Ithaca Hours, the oldest, largest and most successful system of scrip in the U.S. Established in 1991 in Cornell University’s hometown, it was the spawn of a quintessential “granola community.” Alas, as is the way of many socially conscious movements, a schism occurred and founder Paul Glover’s ithacahours.com […]

The few. The proud. The marine life photos.

Dear Ace: The photos hanging in the trees on the Downtown Mall were really cool. Where did they go? And can I get one?—John I. Candy John: If anyone’s getting one, pal, it’s gonna be yours truly. Those photographs were awesome, and Ace thinks one would look perfect hanging above the fireplace in his bedroom […]

What's in your backpack?

Jordan Taylor Age: 31 Year: Graduate student Jordan Taylor Concentration: EnglishHometown: RichmondWhat’s in your backpack? Moleskine notebook, Landscape and Race in the United States by Richard Schein, bandanna, glass, 25 cent flipbook from a kid at Milano, keys, CD from WTJU, map of MoMA, condoms, dust jacket for Kalooki Nights by Howard Jacobson, Monument Avenue […]

Western State violated patient's civil rights

On August 1, the State Human Rights Committee (SHRC) affirmed a ruling that Western State Hospital in Staunton violated the civil rights of a Spanish-speaking mentally ill patient by keeping him in seclusion for the last 15 years. Fifty-seven-year-old Cesar Augusto Chumil’s treatment plans and medication-related information were always delivered in English, which he barely […]