jeromec

Apparently not. Try spending dollars in a store (both in the U.S. and many places besides) and see if it works.

They are only worth something because people accept them as payment.

Including the U.S. government as payment for debt. If the most powerful government in the world says dollars have value, it's not so easy to lose all of that value, even without it being a backed currency.

Is he saying that dollars are the only solid currency in the world, and everybody should convert all their assets into dollars as fast as possible?

Most of the world uses non-backed fiat currency now, not just the U.S. People do convert their assets into and out of dollars (and other currencies) all the time.

Rushing to convert "old network" BitCoins into the new network (or dollars, or whatever), and businesses stopping acceptance of them is exactly what will happen. Don't forget the primary function of money is to allow people to trade it for things they want. Unless you're a staunch ideological libertarian you will want as much of your "money" as you can get in whatever system offers the most goods and services. Otherwise you have lost value. That system will certainly not be the one containing only sparsely geographically spaced libertarians.

Yes, authors can use pseudonyms, initials, etc. for their pen name.

Please do send in your writing!

I thought I heard about a project nearing one million dollars, but the iPad listing was what came to mind.

Crowd funding is proving to be a very powerful fundraising model. For example, the record, so far as I know it, is currently $190K for an iPad stand listing on Kickstarter.com:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jay-design/padpivot-lap-...

Edit: Also, successfully raising funds is just the start, as this would be a great indicator of ready market demand for the book.

Rewards are offered in contribution levels, and every author has a thank you page which lists all contributors.

So if I talk to a few Catholic priests who tell me the priesthood is about molesting underage altar boys, should I then go out and claim that is how Catholic priests see the priesthood?

I suggested two things: first, that the opinionated people at the Vatican would probably do well to take note of the results of that particular poll -- for whatever it's worth; second, that the poll appeared to support my observation. I never said it was scientific. I would very much welcome the conducting of an actual scientific poll on the subject.

I have other reasons to argue in favor of science and objectivity, which certainly don't stem from a Web poll.

Hacker News is obviously home to a very large sample size of "hackers", and the poll I linked clearly appears to support my observation. I never said there were no religious hackers, just as it can't be said there are no religious scientists.

Also, I would call "hackers see such and such" as speaking for, not celebrating hackers.

Given that logical reasoning is usually a strong trait common to hackers, it's a bit ironic to have the Vatican attempt to speak for hackers. Perhaps someone should email them this poll http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1486594.

On your other point, I'm thinking that short unwanted quips can rear their ugly head anywhere along threads.

To add to that, lionhearted posted a comment about inevitable site decline because of open membership and equally weighted voting. What if only accounts over 1 year could vote (or diminish their vote weight)?

Wouldn't instituting a min. length requirement and taking away new user voting improve the problem significantly?

Edit: I like my later thoughts on this better (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2404267)

It occurs to me you may be under challenged. It seems your academic life comes easy enough for you to simply go through the motions, allowing for listlessness to set in. To remedy that I'd find some challenge to take you out of your comfort zone like a marathon, for example, or trying to master something such as a game/sport or new skill. Done correctly, you won't really have time to stare at a screen for 30 minutes. Find something constructive that interests you. If it's something that scares you (because you may fail) even better. It may just be that you're in a rut and need to be shaken out of it. One thing is for sure: you can't regularly challenge yourself to scary things outside your comfort zone, succeed in such enterprises and remain depressed all the while. At least I sincerely doubt it.

Good luck!