Thank you for an informative post. The scaling problem looks like a deal killer, in terms of adoption as a generally used currency.

Or perhaps he "lucked out" and his account with Mt. Gox came out whole with a clean transfer to the outside, while everyone else's bitcoin "disappeared" with the sinking ship. It has the whiff of fraud, even if we do not know without more details.

There has been a suspicious whiff coming from Mt. Gox for about a year. That suggests (but does not prove) that Mt. Gox was aware they were leaking bitcoin. There most likely was a point in time when Mt. Gox still held substantial bitcoin, yet they kept the problem mum, rather than shutter their doors and figure out how to partially compensate their account holders. Even nice guys can be sorely tempted to back their little white lies with bigger lies and their big lies with things that might be fraud, when the ship is sinking.

Oregon does not need to change the behavior of Larry. Two trophic levels are directors whose bonuses will be badly dinged when the check does not arrive from Salem -- getting their attention will be helpful.

Bipedalism is a completely terrible starting point from which to build a machine for heavy lifting, most especially on less than sturdy/clean footing.

You are missing the bigger picture. Without some kind of bombers in sufficient numbers to squash the Royal Navy, an invasion was utterly hopeless. Defeating the RAF was merely the opening move. But since the Luftwaffe could not accomplish such, the next steps became irrelevant.

Yours is the important point. Germany could only win the Battle of Britain by adequately protecting the various bombers they had on hand. A high speed interceptor might have a lot of value to the RAF, but only very limited value to the Luftwaffe while flying over England.

The Luftwaffe's mission was not to shoot down RAF craft. Its mission was to cripple the RAF AND maintain a bomber force that could smash the Royal Navy. Shooting down every single British plane matters little if the German bomber force crumbles.

Your argument is somewhat misleading. In most years there is a tremendous flood of water coming through the delta towards the SF Bay, quantities of water which cannot be stored without massive infrastructure improvements. Using it to grow rice in those flat natural flood plains is perfectly sound. This year is different, so examining the water usage of particular crops makes sense.

Doing anything mindlessly because other people are is not a good idea. Likewise, refusing to consider what other people seem to be able to do is also a kind of mindless behavior. Reducing your utility usage could save you a few bucks, so there is a natural incentive. Is thinking about your habits really such a burden?

On the nose: bitcoin is not really a currency. It has several of the desired properties of a currency, and a few interesting extra properties added on. But it lacks the usual natural means of stability. In the Real World, most even barely competent governments do not have trouble managing their currencies to fluctuate in a highly predictable manner. Bitcoin lacks that property.

Suppose the ENTIRE industry nets $100 profit. Apple nets $87 profit. Samsung nets $30 profit. "Other" loses $17. What is the correct way to describe Apple's profits? Obviously Apple and Samsung are choosing this statistic because it tells a story they like. Apple likes to fool people in believing they own almost 90% of the market. Samsung like to imply they are not all that far behind Apple (cuz if you did not think carefully, you would guess that 30% for Samsung implies Apple must only be 50something%).

No. A "bank run" is when a loss of confidence for a rational or irrational reason causes many depositors to withdraw cash, thereby causing other depositors to very rationally lose confidence that they could withdraw cash if they wanted to. Because banks only carry cash or liquid assets for a portion of the depositors who could legally demand immediate payment, the snowball effect can be lethal.

Please mod parent up. (It is a rant, but it is a rant that hits the nail on the head.)

Curves are a means for teachers to avoid explaining to anyone what is required to earn a particular grade. So they hide behind their aura of authority and cook up a post hoc rationalization.

Probably zero. The intention was to make a show, by terrorizing Israelis. To do that they launched several every night, and kept that up as best they could.

Yours is a strong argument. BMD may or may not be a wise use of our tax dollars, but it is not a bad idea because Russia or China can overwhelm our BMD -- the system we have was never intended to accomplish that.