a new way to waste time.

Go play Budget Hero.

In addition to being totally entertaining - if, like me, you're easily entertained - it's surprisingly instructive to see the costs of various things in context. Arts education? Small change. A good example of how a game is a great way to communicate some kinds of information.

My personal budget reduced debt from 38% of GDP to 16% of GDP, provided universal health care, capped carbon emissions, and generally made the world awesome. Somebody call the White House. Actually, scrap that, better wait til they care.

(from the Freakonomics blog)