On learning that French gold was being held by the U.S. Federal Reserve, French President Charles de Gaulle is reported to have said, "I could hardly sleep easily with such an arrangement." So in 1965 he ordered French navy ships to cross the Atlantic to pick up $150 million in gold held in the Fed's New York vaults and deliver it to the Banque de France in Paris.

It was a prudent move by de Gaulle. And it was consistent with the advice I have long given: Do not leave your gold in the care of somebody else. Take physical possession of your gold.

De Gaulle realized the United States was running an international con. It had promised that holders of U.S. dollars would always be able to redeem them for gold at the official rate of $35 per ounce. But like someone writing bad checks, it was clear that the U.S. was printing more dollars than it could possibly redeem at that rate.

A worldwide day of protests and cyber attacks against governments, banks and security firms has been launched by Hacker collective Anonymous to mark Guy Fawkes Day. Hundreds of people marched in London, while another rally hit Washington, DC.

Around 200 Anonymous supporters, according to RT's London Bureau, assembled in London's Trafalgar Square for Operation Vendetta, a march to the Houses of Parliament. The group itself claims over 9,000 people joined the action.

The demonstrators were carrying banners reading, "We are Anonymous. We are the legion" or "Stop creating imaginary debt!" At the Houses of Parliament they were stopped by police.

Minor scuffles broke out outside parliament as a few protestors attempted to push police lines back, but the bulk of OpVendetta remained peaceful.

Even though it is usually celebrated on the other side of the ocean, the protests of Guy Fawkes Day (November 5, 2012) has far-reaching implications. The troubled spirit of the very late Guy ("Guido") Fawkes and the failed Gunpowder Plot is still reaching us some 407 years after. Google News and BBC News have reported that the hacktivist team Anonymous has taken down some very notable websites. These include/d the NBC website (which is back up now), PAYPAL and Lady Gaga's website. Others were included in the hacktivist protest.

If you do have a PayPal account you might still be concerned - some "28,000" PayPal passwords were posted online. We checked ours to be safe and you may want to check yours. Time's newsfeed also reported that the Anonymous organization announced plans to hack Facebook and Zynga this day. Facebook seems to be "normal" - for now - and we have not checked into Zynga. The computer/security firm Symantec is reportedly looking into the hacks. We'll be keeping an eye on Threatpost to see if they report any hacktivism.

In Sunset Park, a predominantly Mexican and Chinese neighborhood in South Brooklyn, St. Jacobi's Church was one of the go-to hubs for people who wanted to donate food, clothing, and warm blankets or volunteer help other New Yorkers who were still suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. On Saturday, Ethan Murphy, one of the people heading the kitchen operation, estimated they would prepare and send out 10,000 meals to people in need. Thousands and thousands of pounds of clothes were being sorted, labeled, and distributed, and valuable supplies like heaters and generators were being loaded up in cars to be taken out to the Rockaways, Staten Island and other places in need. However, this well-oiled operation wasn't organized by the Red Cross, New York Cares, or some other well-established volunteer group. This massive effort was the handiwork of none other than Occupy Wall Street - the effort is known as Occupy Sandy.

The scene at St. Jacobis on Saturday was friendly, orderly chaos. Unlike other shelters that had stopped collecting donations or were looking for volunteers with special skills such as medical training, Occupy Sandy was ready to take anyone willing to help. A wide range of people pitched in, including a few small children making peanut butter sandwiches, but most volunteers were in their 20s and 30s. A large basement rec room had become a hive of vegetable chopping and clothes bagging. They held orientations throughout the day for new volunteers. One of the orientation leaders, Ian Horst, who has been involved with a local group called Occupy Sunset Park for the past year, says he was "totally blown away by the response" and the sheer numbers of people who showed up and wanted to help. He estimated that he'd given an orientation to 200 people in the previous hour.

Even though we gained an hour in the morning, awaking to a sunny sky. It will be dark before dinnertime. So why, again, do we do this?

To some degree, we may have Benjamin Franklin to thank.

Franklin, who penned the proverb "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," was among the first to suggest the idea. In a 1784 essay he wrote that adjusting the clocks in the spring could be a good way to save on candles.

The practice of changing the clocks has had a somewhat bumpy history in the United States. It was first established in 1918, but then repealed a year later. During World War II, the country again took up the practice to conserve energy from 1942 to 1945.

In 1966 the United States officially adopted the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which outlined Daylight Saving Time to begin on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday in October.

Hurricane Sandy is another reminder of just how incredibly fragile the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted on a daily basis really is.Many of the hardest hit areas along the Jersey shore and the coast of Long Island have descended into a state of anarchy.

More than 7 million people live on Long Island, and millions more live along the Jersey shore and right now they are getting a taste of what life would be like during a total economic meltdown.

At the moment, there are still approximately 4.7 million homes and businesses that do not have power. Officials say that some of those homes and businesses may not have their power restored until the weekend of November 10th and 11th. Meanwhile, it is getting very cold at night.

This weekend the low temperatures on Long Island are supposed to dip into the upper thirties.

There have been reports of people diving into dumpsters behind supermarkets in a desperate search for food, and there have been other reports of roaming gangs of criminals posing as officials from FEMA or Con Edison and then robbing families at gunpoint once they have gained entrance into their homes.

A recent study noted that the majority of people have enough food in their pantries to feed their household for about three days and that seemingly stable societies are really just nine meals from anarchy.

With most of us dependent on just-in-time transportation systems to always be available, few ever consider the worst case scenario.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, (FEMA) has placed a rush order of two million meals to be delivered to Floyd Bennett New York Harbor Parks and Lakehurst New Jersey.

The solicitation was placed at 2:30 pm EST on 2 November 2012, with a response time of no later than 8 pm on the same day.

The solicitation was amended less than four hours later for providers to provide a quote of four million meals, preferably of the self-heating variety.

The request is for self-heating Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) with a 13-month shelf life preferred, delivered wrapped and palletized by 4:30 PM local time on Monday, 5 November 2012.

Dozens of gunmen have occupied Libya's parliament to register their anger over the formation of the new government.

The militiamen are demanding some of the ministers be removed because they have links to the late Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

At least a dozen trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns are lining the main road to the parliament.

Libya held a peaceful election in July and finally agreed the composition of a government on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Ali Zidan gained the support of the National Congress for his choice of ministers.

His list included liberal figures and Islamists in an attempt to forge a coalition acceptable to all parties.

The number of lives lost and families shattered from Hurricane Sandy continued to climb Saturday, with the death toll now at more than 110.

The number of lives claimed in New York from the super storm was reduced by one to 48, after medical examiners determined two deaths initially linked to the storm were not, and another body was found during the recovery effort.

Hardest-hit parts of the state are still buried in rubble and tunnels in metropolitan New York still flooded, leaving officials to wearily expect that the number could keep climbing.