Both the Max Kaiser and the Winkelvoss twins gave BTC much needed publicity a few months ago and Bitcoiners should not forget that in all of a sudden. Those who had invested in the Winklevoss BTC ETF are currently sitting at 600% net gain, despite yesterday's crash. So no hard feelings towards them.

China will be vulnerable against nuke attacks by the allies of Japan (read the US).

China doesn't have the capacity to successfully counter an American nuclear attack (either missle-based or aircraft-based).

Also, it doesn't have the capacity to strike back at the US. The Chinese ICBMs are noway near the American and Russian ICBMs.

I don't know much about SR (was never a member). But even at its peak, less than 50% of the merchandise items were drugs, weapons and other illegal stuff. The rest consisted of Bullion, BTC to Cash offers, Bitcoin miners.etc

It was almost established beyond doubt that the Czech guy Tomas was the one who stole USD 100 million worth of BTCs. The evidence was so overwhelming. I think the online tracking process is over and the drug vendors are planning their physical actions.

It seems that the guys in reddit have close the tracking. A message was posted in r/SheepMarketplace saying "Any posts containing personal information of any kind will be immediately removed". Some of the earlier posts were deleted. 

Hmm... Mexican drug lords are not that intelligent. Most of the drug vendors in SR were from Canada and the EU (especially Netherlands and Germany), in addition to those in the US.

Can't trust Western Union. But lots of people are using it in Localbitcoins to buy and sell BTCs. I hope WU will not ban users and take away their money as Paypal is doing right now.

Hmm... people who pre-ordered their mining rigs from Butterflylabs were also telling the same. 

BTW... I think the only negative point with Trezor is its pricing.

Earlier it was posted in the PRESS Section. But don't worry... this is a major news item for users in England and Wales.

Also, check this: UK Tax Authority HMRC Rethinks Stance on Bitcoin

First heard about Bitcoin while reading about Wikileaks donation in 2011. At that time I didn't took it that seriously (for which I am still cursing myself). Then I again read a few articles on December 2012. I told to myself, well... this one seems like some HYIP... and seems to be taking off. But even then I didn't had the courage to invest some "real" money in to it. I was closely following the exchange rates though.... However, the exchange rate began rising rapidly in January 2013. I had enough... quickly bought a dozen coins from localbitcoins. Cost me $15 a coin.

I don't have any problems with the "going away for a while" part. I am just saying that you should at least occasionally check and secure your wallets... and may be you should check the exchange rates and the major news articles.

Also, post here occasionally. 

The only group of people who have gained from the closure of Silk Road are the Mexican drug mafias. Earlier, the drugs which were available from the SR were cheap and safe. Those you get on street are adulterated with toxins and a part of the revenue is going towards the organized crime.

Mandela did whatever he could to improve the living standards. But others in the ANC soon took over and destroyed everything.

How was your experience in South Africa? I know that the crime rate is sky-high there. Will be glad to hear that you didn't had any bad experiences.

What happens if someone hacks in to your wallet and steals all your Bitcoins? I can understand if you are getting constant headaches due to the wildly fluctuating exchange rates... but forgetting your assets altogether is not a very wise thing to do.

Nout Wellink? Oh... I remember. The guy who wanted to destroy the ABN Amro. He has proven many times that he represents those typical fat greedy bankers, not the common people whom he is intended to serve.

20 years? Really? I think that the 10K mark will be reached before 2014 December. Mining difficulty is exponentially increasing and the supply is thinning out. The demand, on the other side has grown many times. A lot of important markets (Brazil, India.etc) are yet to be explored.

What they'll do when Mt Gox break the $1,000 mark again in a few hours? Did they predicted that the crash will only last a few hours?

Definitely. Every other day I am hearing about some individual being "accused" as Satoshi. If media can't find his real identity (they don't even know whether Satoshi is a single individual or a group of individuals), then why they are trying to fry our brain?

Not that sure about Germany. Since they are a part of the EU, the European banking rules have to be obeyed. The EU can ask Germany anytime to withdraw the recognition of BTC.

Unfortunately wider acceptance and volatility are directly proportional to each other. The more BTC gets popular, the more stable it will become. Also if people stash more and more BTCs in cold storage for use as an investment, the selling pressure can ease and the value can stabilize.