Slush pool was under DDOS attack last 2 days and almost unable to mine. I wonder how likely it is for attackers to DDOS some major pools and meanwhile take over 50% of the bitcoin network computing power. Will be interesting to watch how bitcoin infrastructure will handle this. Bitcoin's popularity is getting some criminal minds to be very interested 
How do they profit?
Following the money, isn't the only logical party to profit from a mining pool being DDOSed a rival mining pool?
I could believe that, but a mining pool wouldn't want to do a 50% attack.
Anyone who goes for a >%50 attack to profit is either very stupid (if they do it for more Bitcoins) or they are interested in destroying confidence and value in Bitcoin and thus profiting from driving interest into some other asset.
this
EDIT:
for a meaningful post; i believe bitcoin price is consolidating here around $100 and we may see stagnation or a small rise but no more falling. We'd see a higher rise if a more stable exchange/news/expectation of how/where people will buy bitcoins was established
