A micronation, sometimes referred to as a model country or new country project, is an entity that claims to be an independent nation or state but is not officially recognized by world governments or major international organizations. Micronations are distinguished from imaginary countries and from other kinds of social groups (such as eco-villages, campuses, tribes, clans, sects, and residential community associations) by expressing a formal and persistent, even if unrecognized, claim of sovereignty over some physical territory. Several micronations have issued coins, flags, postage stamps, passports...

The Prosperity Bonus, also nicknamed Ralph bucks, announced in September 2005, is the name given to a program designed to pay money back to residents of the Canadian province of Alberta as a result of a massive oil-fuelled provincial budget surplus. Alberta Premier Ralph Klein announced that each person in Alberta would receive $400 sometime in January 2006. This represented $1.4 billion (20%) of the $6.8 billion surplus. The money was not taxed by either the federal or provincial governments. All Albertans who were residents of the province as of September 1 and filed a 2004 tax return with the...