Another Internet Stock Price Bubble Building?

Anonymous Coward writes "The Economist has a column looking at the valuations of some of the Internet's darlings, with a particular emphasis on Google. From the column: 'Valuations are, in fact, better founded than many of them used to be. But around 50 times next year's expected profits is still quite a leap of faith. At the levels seen in recent days, the price of Google's traded shares implies that it is the world's most valuable media company, with a market cap comfortably in excess of Time Warner's $76 billion, even though the latter had $42 billion in sales last year to Google's $3.2 billion. True, Time Warner's business is increasing at a snail's pace compared with Google's. But putting so high a price on future growth only makes sense if all's for the best in this best of all possible worlds. And it isn't.'"

Comments

Maybe in February?

[Anonymous Coward]

With nihilistic aphorisms and near-poetry, the story is told by the narrator (Edward Norton, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/movies/oscars/ edward_norton.htm), whose name we never learn, although he has aliases. Call him Jack. After suffering from insomnia for sixth months and developing a dependence on a comically wide array of support groups (testicular cancer, brain parasites, tuberculosis, and various 12-step groups), Jack first encounters another faker at the support groups, a derelict young predator named Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/filmg rph/helena_bonham_carter.htm) and soon after an alter ego who blows up his condo unit (unbeknownst to him). Condoless, he moves into a dilapidated house in the warehouse district with his new friend, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt, washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/filmgrph/ brad_pitt.htm). Thus he begins a series of adventures: fistfighting with a growing circle of other men for fun, giving assignments of starting fights with strangers, becoming increasingly more defiant at work, making premium soap from the fat discarded by liposuction clinics, and ultimately building an army of gray-collar workers to wreak havoc around the unnamed city (perhaps Los Angeles) -- first in a transgressional way and then more and more destructively.

In a twist that will catch most viewers by surprise, Tyler Durden turns out to be a fragment of Jack's personality, but this is merely a device to have this mysterious and powerful character (and manifestation of wish fulfillment) appear in Jack's life. (An analysis of Tyler Durden's name reveals that in antiquated English, "Tyler" means gatekeeper or house builder. "Durden" has the word root dour meaning hard (as in "durable"). His initials, T.D., invoke Todd or death in German or perhaps D.T. (delirium tremens), since Tyler is a hallucination of Jack, the waking person. Although a second viewing shows that the first understanding of the film meshes successfully with subsequent viewings, the narrative device of the alternate personality is just that and does little to tap into what is understood about multiple personalities. One of few consistencies with psychological literature is that Jack, the waking self, is depleted and becomes less powerful as Tyler becomes more dominant. An aside, it's interesting to note that this is the second film in Norton's short but meteoric career in which he has played a character with multiple personalities, the first being Primal Fear (1996) (www.aboutfilm.com/movies/p/primalfear.htm), in which Norton made his film debut.

Fight Club is really about what it is to be a man who serves others (as women have traditionally) and how such men construct identity and meaning in their lives. That women now can take most of the jobs that men can is certainly a background fact, but the film explores other issues or sources of masculinity. The first of three pivotal scenes in this film is a moment of intimacy between Jack and Tyler when they confide that their fathers are distant and disengaged. Jack's father left when he was a small boy and married subsequent wives and had subsequent families. Tyler says that his father didn't go to college and so this was very important for Tyler to do (and Jack comments that this sounds familiar.) He says that his father was not able to adequately answer his series of questions of "now what?" Later, when Tyler subjects Jack to a deep chemical burn on his hand (which leaves a scar curiously like puckered lips), Tyler makes this empty silhouette where the father-deity should be more explicit, asking Jack, "What if God doesn't want you? What if you are one of his unwanted children?" This is echoed when the Tyler personality "leaves" (and Jack must pursue him) and Jack laments, "My father dumped me. Tyler dumped me."

Totally unrelated

[Anonymous Coward]

How can I find out how many users slashdot has?