I'm not really worried that some GMO food will poison ME. I'm more concerned about the effects of the introduced gene escaping into the wild and having some unforeseen consequences.

The issue I remember recently was about farmed salmon. The new gene made them fatten up faster. The regulatory safety qualifications were only based on the food produced and didn't even take into consideration what might happen if some of the gm salmon escaped into the wild.

Then of course there are all the problems of industrial agriculture and vast expanses of genetically identical crops, but that's an issue with old fashioned genetic tinkering. The GMO thing just turns it up a notch.

Let's just assume, for arguments sake, that all the technical claims are correct. It's untraceable, and verifiable. One can trust that a transaction involving bitcoins behaves like a transaction involving physical objects. The payer had the coins before the transaction, and didn't have them after, the receiver ends up with them and can spend them later. It's as if they are trading in atoms of unobtainium.

Governments will not need to outlaw bitcoin specifically, all they need to do is spread FUD. The existing financial establishment has such a vested interest in preserving the existing system that they will effectively prevent exchange between national currencies and bitcoin. This will involve FUD and freezing out any known bitcoin traders.

If you feel like you are doing business with crooks when you transact in bitcoin then you will not really be motivated to use it for anything but black market items. All I need to say is "Bitcoin is just used by perverts to buy child porn". It doesn't really have to be even close to accurate. It just has to smell plausible.

You know the traditional form of currency used by black markets around the world is US $100 bills.

This system was originally invented by Harold Hill in Gary, Indiana and required no glove. It's called the "think system".

Regardless of whether you take a cut now to telecommute, unless everyone, or nearly everyone, at work telecommutes you will find you won't get the raises that you would have working physically close to the ones that make the decisions about pay. This is really untestable, and there are bound to be exceptions, but I think it is probably the case most of the time. The other thing to note is that it's harder to move up the org chart if you are telecommuting. That said, I have been a happy and distant telecommuter for almost all of the last 20 years.

I remember a quote from the old VW repair book by John Muir (not *that* John Muir!) defending the driving position on a VW microbus of old. "Everyone should drive as if they were strapped to the front of their car"

I think cars and driving are really safer than they once were, but the paradox is that we all drive with less care now that we can.

In general the more "efficient" we make roads and cars the less attention we need to pay to use them. This can also mean that the roads become less safe for other road users like pedestrians, cyclists, and equestrians.

The problem is that we are not paying enough attention to avoid an accident when the extraordinary event inevitably happens.