I know, I'm a computer nerd and when I first heard of Bitcoin, I thought that I could pull some sort of mining operation together, but when I looked at the upfront and operating costs needed for an almost practical mine, I refrained from getting involved.

One interesting characteristic of a Bitcoin "mine" compared to more traditional mines is that there is no visible pollution outside the door of a Bitcoin "mine". These "mines" are not polluting nearby air or water resources and there is no slag to dump somewhere. The pollution occurs elsewhere and the "mine" looks clean. Of course there is a steady stream of quickly obsolete hardware to dispose of, but this can be done almost unnoticed.