Butt. Hurt. Ow. Ow. Ow. Jealous much?

For you in your nice cushy Western economy with clean, smiling bank tellers and an account for every stage of your life, there isn't much point to bitcoin. You'll be the last of us to figure it out.

For the rest of world, it's a different story. Bitcoin's volatility is already less than that of a few "real" currencies.

Because it is a hassle to get bitcoin unless you either (a) link your bank account to Coinbase or (b) ... uhhh live outside the US?

I use bitcoins regularly for daily purchases such as groceries. The transaction fees are noxious, but the volatility makes up for it and then some.

As for hoarding, this is a basic restatement of the Paradox of Thrift. The economic models that use this are not sufficient to describe bitcoin. There are other models which DO suffice, of which you seem to be oddly ignorant.

Both of those were and are highly regulated and proprietary technologies. Bitcoin is not. Bitcoin is more like Linux, at which people laughed and laughed and laughed ... until Android made pretty much everything else obsolete or niche.

You're funny. Now is the time to be getting into bitcoin. Nothing is broken except sentiment, and there is massive new infrastructure for actually paying for real things with bitcoin.

The MtGox scandal is a good thing. MtGox is the single worst source of bad bitcoin drama and it is good for them to collapse before bitcoin actually becomes a really big thing. The bans in Russia and China are setbacks, but nothing particularly unexpected. After all, bitcoin is antithetical to centralized currencies. As for the IRS regulations, how can you even think this is a bad thing? This is legitimate recognition, and is a necessary step for full corporate and Wall Street adoption. Now the bean counters know how to treat bitcoin.

Prussian (Prussia became Germany). Students were marched under armed guard. So by that standard, quite a lot of the heavy-handed features were dropped. Yet it is still compulsory (less so in recent years) and the purpose is not to educate but to make good citizens for Democracy. Who work. And obey.

Today, schools are certainly used as child storage, by parents. You are absolutely right.

Actually, one of the principle purposes of the public school system is to inculturate immigrants and disparate populations.

Also to make good factory workers, which is a great idea until the factories go away and now your workforce has nothing to do. :(

Obedience to authority is a part of (a) and (b). It is true, but that's not the stated purpose and most people with any understanding of the history of public schooling will look at you like you don't know what you are talking about because it is a bit of a leap between inculturation and obedience training.

You sound like you work for a company I would choose to avoid. I say this with 12 years of professional experience under my belt and a BS. If you arbitrarily cut off people without a BS, you are missing some of the cream of the crop, particularly those students coming from a homeschool or alternative schooling background. If your company allows you to categorically screen people as you claim to, I would avoid working there.

Of course, personally I think you are full of shit. Anybody looking for programmers these days is going to take a long, hard look at anyone that seems competent, regardless of academic background. Programmers are hard to find, and nobody I know screens for college degrees over experience. That's just dumb.

Incorrect. Microbes came (long!) before plants, include microbes capable of breaking down each other.

As I understand it, coal essentially came from peat bogs, where decomposition is largely halted. Outside of those peat bogs, decomposition would have run apace.

No, actually. De Beers hired Edward Bernays to promote their products, and our modern association of diamonds with marriage, love, and sexuality is entirely a result of Bernays' work. Here are some other things Bernays is directly responsible for:

* Women smoking as a symbol of feminine power and equality

* Bacon is a great breakfast food

* Communism is bad and should be feared

* Fluoridated water prevents cavities

* The 1954 Guatemalan coup, a model that is currently being used in the Middle East and the Ukraine.

There are many more. Of particular note is that Goebbels used Bernays' template to generate popular German support for the Holocaust, in a very similar fashion to the way American sentiment is being moved against Muslims.

But the demand for diamonds is purely a result of his paid promotional work for De Beers.

Because it invalidates the idea of scarcity governing value. It is human desire that governs values. It is important to remember this because desire changes, and can be engineered.

Actually, diamonds are valuable because a corrupt, immoral industry has been running propaganda campaigns to convince us of their value for generations.

In civilized countries, security agencies watch you sleep.

Wake me up when they implement namespaces correctly. With a syntax that doesn't look like Satan's diverticulitis.

It is nice to see that PHP is starting to grow up a little bit. They have long way to go.