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[MetalSlimeHunt]

I can't believe it's not butter!

[Bauglir]

I mean, there's nothing exactly wrong with having an unusual thought process, it just makes it hard to have a conversation. I'm making an effort here, but I tend to have a lot of trouble figuring out implications you make, antecedents you refer to, and the relevance of some statements you make or questions you ask. I'm getting a real sense that your posts are heavily embedded in a stream of consciousness, but we don't have access to the surrounding context that gives the posts meaning to you. It's like talking to a really well-made chatbot - I get the feeling that there's some logic behind the responses I see, and they follow all the usual structural rules, but I'm not actually getting any meaning out of it.

Trying to be helpful here, not sure if am.

[LordSlowpoke]

yeaaaaaah

once i let myself slip a fair bit regarding thought processes, i actually got called out for it and as such things are happening and i'm more or less making sense lately (i hope at least)

please try to make this easier on people because conversations are a two-sided thing

[GlyphGryph]

i actually got called out for it and as such things are happening and i'm more or less making sense lately

I've noticed a marked improvement on your part lately, personally.

And a marked detoriation on Novel's part. >_>

[Scoops Novel]

I'll try, but i dislike the tendency in forums for everyone and their mother to barrel in after a point has already been made and settled. How many people need to grumble about my mistakes, unhelpfully, after i apologize? Thank you Bauglir and LordSlowpoke.

The question is, "tell me more about why he's an interesting fellow".

[Owlbread]

He's an interesting fellow because he stands out from the rest of the "princelings" in Chinese politics (the guys who are descendents of past-influential figures in the Communist Party). He is the champion of the Chinese New Left, a group of social democrats and Maoists who disagree with the hyper-Capitalist route the rest of the Chinese leadership are taking. He wants to revive the so-called "red culture" from the time of the Cultural Revolution.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Somehow, I have my doubts that social democrats and Maoists are going to be able to get along.

[Sheb]

I actually doubt it. Bo Xilai himself is rich and shows no way of disliking the hyper-capitalism way, at least so long at its lining his own pockets. The Red Culture and New Left things were mostly cosmetics used in the party struggle for leadership. With Xi Jinping getting into power, another factions won, and Bo Xilai is paying the price of loosing the power struggle.

On other news: Germany gives Bitcoins some recognition. Mostly it means a business using Bitcoins can now be taxed.

[Baffler]

Bitcoins always seemed dubious at best to me. The only thing that gives them value is speculation on their value, as I understand it (and I could be wrong here, haven't looked in on it in awhile). You might argue that basing a currency's value on that of some arbitrary commodity like gold or "trust" is just as dubious, but at least they have some resemblance of stability. Bitcoin value parity dropped from $230 at the beginning of April to $50 at the end: that isn't an unusual occurrence either. They are pretty neat as a concept but there are darn good reasons that they aren't officially recognized by anyone. At least until now. I wonder what prompted this descision...

[LordSlowpoke]

You realize that just about every currency in the world right now has its value based on trust? Were we to suddenly revert to the gold standard, no economy in the world would be able to survive the absurd amounts of inflation we'd be dealing with - and even if, the globalized economic links would fuck it up further. Actually, I'd see Lebanon surviving that...

[Baffler]

I realize that trust is what is behind currencies, but my point is that those currencies are STABLE.

[10ebbor10]

Actually, most modern currencies are based on debt. All banks loan money from a central bank, which creates it from nothing.

[Leafsnail]

The thing is, there is something backing up most currencies.  The dollar, for instance, is backed by the fact that there's an understanding that the US government will use their considerable power to make sure that the dollar does not crash and burn.  Bitcoin just has the software.  Interestingly, someone could actually seize control of Bitcoin as a currency if they were able to take half of the blockchain, according to my understanding (that would require having more computing power than all the other miners put together).

The main problem with Bitcoins is that they're staggeringly inconvenient to use, though.  Trades take ages, and the Bitcoin client takes ages to download because it has a complete log of everyone's transactions with it.  You could use a digital wallet, but then you'd have to put up with the fact that your Bitcoins will be stolen sooner or later.

[Baffler]

I still don't understand the German Bank's reason for (sort of) recognizing bitcoins as a unit with value. Maybe they want to expand on the concept at some point in the future.

[LordSlowpoke]

It was right there in the article: you can't tax something that you don't officially recognize. Apparently someone was doing some tax evasion using imaginary currencies so they had to step up.