Marty's Ƀent Issue #858: Bitcoin: timestamping history This is a pretty great way to help prevent the censorship and whitewashing described above.
Marty's Ƀent Issue #618: If you're interested in learning more about mining, mining pools, and how they operate at a technical level, I would not miss this AMA.
Marty's Ƀent Issue #386: Alien technology It looks like after a couple of months of a continued decrease in the mining difficult has caused hashrate to level off and even begin to increase a bit as the price stabilizes in the $3,200 - $4,500 range for a bit here.