Could you please provide links showing 'lefties' 'justifying' the massacre?
Not trying to be rude, but please ensure you understand what I am requesting. If you are uncertain, kindly let me know.

This is not entirely true. Social conditioning and the perceived link between sexuality and male self worth is a strong deterrent against male sexual experimentation. However, when placed in close proximity inside foreign social environments, like in prisons and boarding schools, men have been known to experiment.

In fact, experimentation in the military during times of conflict and war is quite well documented throughout the ages. I remember reading a particular case in the Borneo and New Guinea during WWII where American and Australian commanders became worried as too many soldiers were experimenting in the open! Accepted social model and expectations slowly crumbled in the two secluded locations, leading to hundreds of soldiers willingly and openly carrying out courtship rituals and sexual relationships.

As society continues to evolve and move away from patriarchal and religious models, you will undoubtedly see a greater number of men experimenting sexually.

ps: Hi Fab!

You have a point, but Stamp's financial health looks okay as of the last published auditing cycle: http://companycheck.co.uk/company/08157033/BITSTAMP-LIMITED/company-summary

Not quite. Tristan made a 12% (or so) across-the-board deduction of every account with a BTC balance.
Repayments were then made weekly for a few months.
And I seem to remember another hack there involving Counterparty by a Brazilian hotel cleaner, IIRC.


Stamp is mirroring its whole system to a location in San Francisco. I don't know if this is for auditing, a redundancy measure or a prelude to a move from Slovenia.
But it involves the entire system, not just the Bitcoin infrastructure. The process was estimated to take between 24-48 hours.

Stamp initially thought it was a server-related issue, and did not immediately react to the situation. Investigations, with the involvement of local LEAs, are underway.


Interestingly though, the thieves were very generous to miners. In this tx, the fee is 1 BTC.

~Off-topic~

BCX, I've mentioned before that I appreciate some of the work you do in the Alt section. But in this instance, you are ill-informed on the subject of Techshare and his removal from Depth Level 2 of the Trust list. I need to make it clear that I don't know Techshare, and I have never conducted any business with him before. And as the admins can attest, I am not an alt of anyone

Techshare started a sales thread. Another member began posting persistently in the thread, questioning his price and accusing him of marking it up (my memory is a bit hazy on the details). After a long back and forth, Techshare left him a negative rating for trolling and unwisely added 1BTC as the risked amount. Perhaps in his mind (just speculating), the amount is from lost sales - I don't know. But that error in judgement led to a prolonged meta argument resulting in Techshare amending his feedback and removing the risked amount. Nevertheless, two DefaultTrust members removed him from their trust list, which consequently, took him off Level 2.

~On topic~

If you've read some of Techshare's stuff in the Politics section, you would understand what a principled person he is. I disagree with a lot of his politics, but it is nonetheless illuminating.

I've nothing against Vod personally. In fact, he removed a neg rating against a friend of mine after I messaged him. However, I think Vod was annoyed that Techshare used him as a point of argument against the Trust system, leading to the negative rating. Techshare was making a point, and Vod was his point. Hence the negative feedback, which I personally think is unwarranted.

Whoa. This changes everything. If we go by Theymos' standard, a number of people on the DefaultList and Depth Level 2 is liable to be penalized.

No argument. I gave my opinion to Theymos, and someone challenged one of points I brought up.

Why are you asking an obvious question? Also, we are not talking about 'bad members'. We are talking about DefaultTrust members.
Can you please link me to the profile of the DefaultTrust member you claim to have seen being removed?

CanaryInTheMine is still on the DefaultList. What is your point?

Aah, so you are not an impartial observer. You have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. For the record though, you are not on the DefaultList - just depth level 2. You're not in the super class league. Since you brought up CanaryInTheMine, has his status changed yet with all the notice he received?


Edit:
Can you link me to the profile of the referred DefaultTrust member?

It gets noticed alright, but does anything actually happen mate?
I could be wrong, but in my time here, I've never seen anyone on the DefaultList removed.
But on a more fundamental level, aren't you the least bit uncomfortable by the very presence of a super class of users?

Vod, you didn't leave a reference thread in your rating of Techshare.
I'd like to see some of those links.

What makes you think its not happening now - but instead of an army, only involving a handful of people? Because that's all it takes.

Theymos, why do we need a DefaultTrust list in the first place, either the existing one or the proposed modified one?
Why do we need to create a class of users who are more equal than the rest?
What practical purpose does it serve? Shouldn't all of our ratings be equal?
I can understand (and in fact support) if you and BadBear are given extra trust privileges.
But for everyone else, shouldn't we have a level playing field?

Simplify the trust system. Let all trust ratings be equal.
'Trade with extreme caution' should appear only when members accumulate more negative than positive ratings.
Don't leave the power in the hands of a few select individuals.

The OP is impressive, @The Sound and Fury, especially the first half. You should take a deep and deserved bow for that.
I'll even close one eye at the excessive intermezzos and purple proses.
However, you seem to be missing several pertinent points concerning Greek tragedies - pride at the Gods, catharsis, and ultimately (most importantly), the nobility of the redeemed but still tragic hero.

That Bob Surplus is the tragic hero of your tale is clear; that your eyes see favor with several of his lieutenants (of which you appear to be one) is perhaps a reminder of the esteem received by Idomeneus, Nestor and Palamedes during the brutal Trojan War while serving the psychopathic Spartan king Menelaus.

But Bob Surplus, his lieutenants and the foot soldiers - or rather ronins - are not tragic, misunderstood heroes. The lot of you, starry-eyed brothers-in-arms,  are not even mercenaries. You are thieves, sophisticated ones no doubt, but still no different from your street brethren. The BTCs all of you made were on the back of lies and deception. You guys, to put it very frankly, are part of the disease that is destroying crypto. Every single one of you.

Forgive me for being so blunt, but this entire piece seems to be an elaborate PR spin to absolve Bob Surplus et al over the BitSwift debacle. An excuse to permit Bob Surplus to reappear without being hounded for compensation by his ronins. Snigger. There is no honor among thieves, despite protestations to the contrary and cries of omerta!. And the only Renaissance metaphor that comes to mind here is Machiavellian in nature, in its most corrupted and depraved form.

Speaking of noble ronins, I'm quite sure that none of the ronins of Kamakura shogunate paid a one-time registration fee of 1BTC to be part of a gang of fraudsters. So instead of ronin, may I suggest a more appropriate term - greedy, immoral schmucks.

In my experience, losers tend to have more character than honest winners. Dishonest and unscrupulous winners, on the other hand, have no character at all. In fact, some of them are sociopaths. Based on your descriptions alone, I'd say it's fairly certain Bob Surplus is a sociopath.

I apologize again for being so harsh, but this needed to be said. Before I leave, I have two questions:

(i) Cambodia: I find the entire account to be hilarious. Did no one conduct preliminary groundwork before setting up shop there? Are the whole Surplus and BitSwift crews completely and utterly detached from the real world? And even after the fact, did no one think of hiring headhunters?  Considering the presence of several dozens universities there, I find it impossible to believe the entire country had no programmers for hire. If a salary of $80 is enough to support six family members AND pay for college expenses, I can't imagine salary being an issue

(ii) What role did Lin/BTER have/played on the whole saga? After the NXT robbery a few months ago, I've always had a few nagging questions about him.

In the spirit of the season, I'll leave you with a beautiful rendition of Ave Maria as salve to soothe your open wounds. But fear not, your affection of Bob would've surely caught his eyes, and you will be part of his next caper. After all, as you've pointed out, SSDD. Happy Holidays!

You said this is important to you. Yet you persist in trying to change the meaning of an ancient language. Who am I to stop you? It's your website.
Just keep in mind you visitors will also share my opinion.
And yes, Pons is certainly not better, as you said, than Notre Dame or Tufts.
No, there are no "7 kinds of Latin", no matter what Wikipedia tells you. Or did your 'Latin Professor' tell you that? Follow up question: which type of Latin does your definition falls under?

But again, this really doesn't concern me. Carry on, since you are dead set on it.

Hang on.
So when you thought Obama said it, he was stupid.
Now that you know that it was Bush, the term has multiple meanings. 

Wrt Bush, come on. In years to come, people will look back at his presidency as one of the worst ever in American history. As of 2011, he is ranked ~#34, but as more information starts to trickle down to students and the general public, he will probably end up near the bottom.  His two terms in office almost cost the nation a generation in lost income. From his failed tax cuts, credit card wars, economic policies that led to the worst depression in 80 years, and worse, documented lies* (I'm not talking about empty accusations and conspiracy theories), the United States will continue to pay for his policies for another decade at least.

*My favorite Bush administration lie (as in documented, hard facts)/ Sen. Bill Nelson, January 28, 2004

The fact that the only casualty from his administration is Wolfowitz leaving after one term boggles the mind. Even Reagan had 120 staff and aides who were either jailed, placed under probation, fined or censured for the lesser crime of secret arms sales (including biological weapons) and kickbacks.

Alternatively, you could implement a two-tier system as seen on some other forums - one exclusively for trade, and the other for reputation (examples: 1, 2, 3)
The reputation system will be based on individual post ratings by fellow forum members (examples: 1, 2). This would also 'reward' quality posters through the accumulation of votes/ratings, and create a deterrent against low quality, misleading or trollish posts.

This implementation would eliminate existing ambiguities between trading and suspicious behavior and discard with the need for a default list. If necessary, you could also assign bonus voting/rating powers to admins and global mods when they deal with escalated cases.

It was not in Bush's prepared speech, IIRC.

You're right on the other count as well. But the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) are kinda ahead of the pack. They all share a very violent and jealous God, as reflected in the commandments contained within the Torah, Bible and Quran.

Except that Bush said that.
He's the smart one, yes?

Blazr, PayPal is an intermediary agent that facilitates fiat transfers between two parties.
While it may use cryptography in its security protocol (just like Visa, Amex, Western Union, etc.), it is not a currency by itself.