Your own article says in the beginning "Maybe someday the Model 3 will be the mass-market car Tesla claimed it would be, but it isn't one yet." Because it costs 49 thousand instead of the promised 35. Tesla cars are luxuries - toys for virtue-signalling rich people.
The best selling car in America? Period? It's not even in the top 20 so far. 16 of those are trucks, SUVs and CUVs, including the top 6. The top 3 are big, gas-guzzling, Earth-destroying trucks. https://www.businessinsider.co...
"Every major carmaker has plans for electric vehicles to cut greenhouse gas emissions". Not because the market demands it or because their customers want it.
For people who want electric cars, they have their Priuses, Volts, Teslas, etc. That market is served by several manufacturers and it expands as the demand grows. However *every* manufacturer has to comply with government regulations like CAFE and such. So everyone makes at least one "compliance" model to reduce the average fleet emissions to within regulations. Otherwise - fines, more expensive cars, consumers pay more or the company can't compete and goes bankrupt.
Even a driver-friendly company like Mazda, recently had to kiss the ring and announce "compliance" models. Which no customer of their usual fast-and-fun-to-drive cars wants. So these models fill fail in the market and the costs will be paid by the customers.
For 10%, ask your financial consultant, there are ways. For 5% to 10% IN THE LONG TERM, as I said in 2 comments above, index fund. Have in mind that this gain does not account for inflation, so it's not that big of a number. And it is taxed. Ask your "money guy" anyway - there are ways around it if you are saving for pension. Don't have a financial consultant? Your pension fund or your bank will likely provide you one for free. Pension funds in Europe are required to. Or you can find an independent one for a second opinion.
You guys are latching on to the strangest things in my post. Don't you think that a multi-billion dollar corporation like Disney can hire financial experts that can provide low risk high gain investment advice for those 4 billion in 2012?
Star Wars was the best IP in show business - The Force Awakens gathered 2 billion at the box office, not counting toys and other stuff... We all went to see our favorite characters in our favorite fantasy world and we got crap. With a competent management and creative crew that listens to fans, this could have been a cash cow like the Marvel series of films.
Over *long term* the market beats depressions, recessions, bubbles, whatever. Over almost a century, S&P 500 index fund returned on average 10% per year. That 4 billion in 2012 with 10% annual interest would have been more than 7 billion in 2018.
Guys, haven't you seen this infographic? https://img.4plebs.org/boards/... I thought this was common knowledge, because it raised quite a noise on the youtube Star Wars channels, which are critical of Disney's direction. Also on those channels, it's common knowledge that the merchandise of TLJ remained in the stores. So much is still there, on discount, that there is very little merchandise released now for Solo - the stores don't want to take the same risk.
Here are come channels for your entertainment: Geeks + Gamers, Mindless Entertainment, Comicbookpro Secrets, Ivan Ortega, WorldClassBulshitters, Tha Gospel According to Mark with a Cee, That Star Wars Girl. Those will lead you to other similar channels, it's a tightly knit community. Hilarious, insightful, creative (Ivan Ortega is making a re-cut of TLJ, "fixing it"). Even if you don't agree with these people, they'll make you think.
The costs:
Initial production budget was 250 mil. The movie was 80% done when the directors were fired and the new one re-shot most of the movie. So I'm adding 150 mil. The promotional budget for these movies is about the same as the production, so another 250 mil. Totaling 650 mil.
The revenue:
264 mil so far, not likely to go up by much. The second week's drop was quite heavy, so I expect 300 mil in total. Of which Disney's share is anyone's guess. Roughly half, 150 mil. Pathetic. Toy sales, TV rights, DVDs? Can't be much, judging by what The Last Jedi did. It basically broke Toys'R'Us! No one but ultra-geeks and collectors were exited about those toys. The regular fans, the general public, kids... are either "Meh" about it or actively hate Disney's Star Wars. The Last Jedi killed the golden goose.
The big picture:
Disney paid cool 4 billion for the franchise. A completely safe long-term investment in index funds will bring 5-10% annually. Therefore, Star Wars needs to bring 600 million to 1 billion every year to be on par. Disney needs The Force Awakens kind of film every year. So far, the investment has been a colossal failure. Disney can eat the loss because of the Marvel movies, theme parks, etc, but Star Wars will be a case study in failure for years to come.
Maybe the best move for Disney right now is to hire new talent behind the camera and produce a "real" Star Wars movie, fateful to the characters created by George Lucas.
Ethan Van Sciver has probably the best idea - Obi One Kenoby, played by Ewan McGregor, runs from Vader after Epizode 3. Eventually manages to escape by faking his death. That could be a great movie which will return the fans to the theaters and toy stores.
You don't agree with the critics, or you don't understand them? The latter is hard to believe - the Net is full with explanations why people don't like TLJ. There are *literally* dozens of Youtube channels dedicated to just this topic - criticizing Disney's Star Wars, mainly The Last Jedi.
Most of them are OK with people who like the film. They just explain why they think it's crap.
Logic and facts don't matter much in such cultural conventions. There are only two ways for change:
1. Governmental mandate - start teaching the new system in schools.
2. Persuasion trough fashion, pop culture, movies, celebrity gossip, etc.
That’s how these conventions spread. F*cking “Daylight Saving Time”!:)
As for the left-side traffic, there have been a number of studies showing that it reduces accidents. Most people have dominant right eye and hand and this helps when overtaking and when holding the wheel with the right hand (while changing gear or whatever with the left hand). 78 countries still use it despite the obvious advantage of joining the rest of the world in right-side driving. Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, UK, Ireland, about 1.5 billion people in total.
Take this kind of consistency further. Use the same divider for everything - letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters... No bueno.
Why not use the same dividers for the same type of elements and bigger dividers for bigger elements: no space between letters, one space between words, two spaces between sentences, new line between paragraphs, new page between chapters... Is that so hard to understand - clear visual guides to tell us the level of importance of each element.
I believe the problem exists only due to habit and emotional response to change. Like for the metric system. Or temperature degrees. Or which side of the road to drive on... If you give it some thought and read a few opposing points of view, you will reach the logical conclusion that one system is better than the rest. For the record: the metric system, Celsius, left-side driving.
Dude, why "nonsense"? Did you hear the thing about 200 Billion GALAXIES? We have limited ability to see star systems in enough detail to determine if they have earth-like planets. What we see is encouraging, though - Earth-like planets are not rare.
Mars is an Earth-like planet, it possibly had life in the past. Liquid water and organic compounds essential for life have been discovered on asteroids and on some satellites of the big planets. There are bacteria that thrive in radiation, high acidity, pressure, cold, heat... They discovered bacteria in the vacuum and 170 degrees temperature amplitudes on the surface of the International Space Station! "Life finds a way". Life fills open space, as soon as the conditions are good enough to support it. We had a number of catastrophic events on Earth, that killed up to 90% of all species. And every time there was a species explosion afterwards.
We are talking probabilities here, derived from incomplete data. What we believe in is more indicative of our personality than what the data suggests - there is not enough data for a certain answer. I chose to believe we are not alone. You believe what you want to believe. Peace.
What is more inconceivable?
1. We are alone in the Universe. Life originated only here and developed sophisticated beings capable of advanced civilization only here, and only once. We are the center of the universe. IT'S ALL ABOUT US, a speck of dust on the edge of a galaxy - one of 200 Billion galaxies we currently estimate!!!
2. The world is full of life, and full of intelligent advanced beings. They have been here in the past and will come again.
I pick option 2.
FRIST!! Apparently nobody mentioned it yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The Thorium Reactor operates at almost 100% fuel consumption. And some of the waste materials are used for cancer treatment, space batteries, etc.
Current technologies use about 1% of the nuclear fuel. Not only that, but LFTR can use the already accumulated spent nuclear fuel, mixed with the Thorium, to produce energy and reduce the accumulated nuclear waste.
The problem is that you can't upgrade to Windows 7 anymore. Also, you can't buy a new computer with Windows 7.
You have to go to Windows 8. Which it's crap, compared to Windows 7. Whoever upgraded to Windows 7 is holding on to it and isn't going to move to Windows 8 until... never.
Come to think of it, our whole society is one big Stanford Prisoner Experiment. The uniformed "civil servants" around us have no more power than what we have allowed them to have.
Sorry for the ASE overlook, I should have looked that up.
You want stability for the currency? It should not be attached to a commodity, because it can fluctuate, right? And then you base it on some abstract value, that changes with time and is subject to influence from many factors, including foreign ones? An abstraction, that has no fixed way of measurement and can be interpreted any way the Feds want? That's some stability!
Yes, I think that cows, goats and beaver skins are better currencies than manufacture-measured-knowledge-power-whatever money. I grew up under Communism (in Eastern Europe) and witnessed its collapse. Worthless money was part of it. Our leaders thought they could fool the economy with reports and statistics, the way the Federal Reserve is doing it now.
Precious metals backed money is backed by a combination of metals. If a new gold deposit is discovered and the price drops, the next day a platinum mine is depleted and its price rises. The more diverse the backing the better - lets put some diamonds in the portfolio, land shares, whatever is available to the state issuing the money. Silver-backed notes are issued by private enterprises and accepted as payment in some US towns even today. Food stamps are used as money nationwide. The system works, and why shouldn't it? It is simple, understandable by its users without university diplomas, it was tested for centuries from China to Europe.
Slashdot Mirror
Your own article says in the beginning "Maybe someday the Model 3 will be the mass-market car Tesla claimed it would be, but it isn't one yet." Because it costs 49 thousand instead of the promised 35. Tesla cars are luxuries - toys for virtue-signalling rich people.
The best selling car in America? Period? It's not even in the top 20 so far. 16 of those are trucks, SUVs and CUVs, including the top 6. The top 3 are big, gas-guzzling, Earth-destroying trucks. https://www.businessinsider.co...
"Every major carmaker has plans for electric vehicles to cut greenhouse gas emissions". Not because the market demands it or because their customers want it.
For people who want electric cars, they have their Priuses, Volts, Teslas, etc. That market is served by several manufacturers and it expands as the demand grows. However *every* manufacturer has to comply with government regulations like CAFE and such. So everyone makes at least one "compliance" model to reduce the average fleet emissions to within regulations. Otherwise - fines, more expensive cars, consumers pay more or the company can't compete and goes bankrupt.
Even a driver-friendly company like Mazda, recently had to kiss the ring and announce "compliance" models. Which no customer of their usual fast-and-fun-to-drive cars wants. So these models fill fail in the market and the costs will be paid by the customers.
For 10%, ask your financial consultant, there are ways. For 5% to 10% IN THE LONG TERM, as I said in 2 comments above, index fund. Have in mind that this gain does not account for inflation, so it's not that big of a number. And it is taxed. Ask your "money guy" anyway - there are ways around it if you are saving for pension. Don't have a financial consultant? Your pension fund or your bank will likely provide you one for free. Pension funds in Europe are required to. Or you can find an independent one for a second opinion.
You guys are latching on to the strangest things in my post. Don't you think that a multi-billion dollar corporation like Disney can hire financial experts that can provide low risk high gain investment advice for those 4 billion in 2012?
Star Wars was the best IP in show business - The Force Awakens gathered 2 billion at the box office, not counting toys and other stuff... We all went to see our favorite characters in our favorite fantasy world and we got crap. With a competent management and creative crew that listens to fans, this could have been a cash cow like the Marvel series of films.
I said "long term".
Over *long term* the market beats depressions, recessions, bubbles, whatever. Over almost a century, S&P 500 index fund returned on average 10% per year. That 4 billion in 2012 with 10% annual interest would have been more than 7 billion in 2018.
Guys, haven't you seen this infographic? https://img.4plebs.org/boards/... I thought this was common knowledge, because it raised quite a noise on the youtube Star Wars channels, which are critical of Disney's direction. Also on those channels, it's common knowledge that the merchandise of TLJ remained in the stores. So much is still there, on discount, that there is very little merchandise released now for Solo - the stores don't want to take the same risk.
Here are come channels for your entertainment: Geeks + Gamers, Mindless Entertainment, Comicbookpro Secrets, Ivan Ortega, WorldClassBulshitters, Tha Gospel According to Mark with a Cee, That Star Wars Girl. Those will lead you to other similar channels, it's a tightly knit community. Hilarious, insightful, creative (Ivan Ortega is making a re-cut of TLJ, "fixing it"). Even if you don't agree with these people, they'll make you think.
The costs:
Initial production budget was 250 mil. The movie was 80% done when the directors were fired and the new one re-shot most of the movie. So I'm adding 150 mil. The promotional budget for these movies is about the same as the production, so another 250 mil. Totaling 650 mil.
The revenue:
264 mil so far, not likely to go up by much. The second week's drop was quite heavy, so I expect 300 mil in total. Of which Disney's share is anyone's guess. Roughly half, 150 mil. Pathetic. Toy sales, TV rights, DVDs? Can't be much, judging by what The Last Jedi did. It basically broke Toys'R'Us! No one but ultra-geeks and collectors were exited about those toys. The regular fans, the general public, kids... are either "Meh" about it or actively hate Disney's Star Wars. The Last Jedi killed the golden goose.
The big picture:
Disney paid cool 4 billion for the franchise. A completely safe long-term investment in index funds will bring 5-10% annually. Therefore, Star Wars needs to bring 600 million to 1 billion every year to be on par. Disney needs The Force Awakens kind of film every year. So far, the investment has been a colossal failure. Disney can eat the loss because of the Marvel movies, theme parks, etc, but Star Wars will be a case study in failure for years to come.
I second that.
Maybe the best move for Disney right now is to hire new talent behind the camera and produce a "real" Star Wars movie, fateful to the characters created by George Lucas.
Ethan Van Sciver has probably the best idea - Obi One Kenoby, played by Ewan McGregor, runs from Vader after Epizode 3. Eventually manages to escape by faking his death. That could be a great movie which will return the fans to the theaters and toy stores.
You don't agree with the critics, or you don't understand them? The latter is hard to believe - the Net is full with explanations why people don't like TLJ. There are *literally* dozens of Youtube channels dedicated to just this topic - criticizing Disney's Star Wars, mainly The Last Jedi.
Most of them are OK with people who like the film. They just explain why they think it's crap.
Logic and facts don't matter much in such cultural conventions. There are only two ways for change: :)
1. Governmental mandate - start teaching the new system in schools.
2. Persuasion trough fashion, pop culture, movies, celebrity gossip, etc.
That’s how these conventions spread. F*cking “Daylight Saving Time”!
As for the left-side traffic, there have been a number of studies showing that it reduces accidents. Most people have dominant right eye and hand and this helps when overtaking and when holding the wheel with the right hand (while changing gear or whatever with the left hand). 78 countries still use it despite the obvious advantage of joining the rest of the world in right-side driving. Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, UK, Ireland, about 1.5 billion people in total.
Take this kind of consistency further. Use the same divider for everything - letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters... No bueno. Why not use the same dividers for the same type of elements and bigger dividers for bigger elements: no space between letters, one space between words, two spaces between sentences, new line between paragraphs, new page between chapters... Is that so hard to understand - clear visual guides to tell us the level of importance of each element. I believe the problem exists only due to habit and emotional response to change. Like for the metric system. Or temperature degrees. Or which side of the road to drive on... If you give it some thought and read a few opposing points of view, you will reach the logical conclusion that one system is better than the rest. For the record: the metric system, Celsius, left-side driving.
We used to know that in the past. Graham Hancock, Lloyd Pye, Erich von Däniken... and a bunch of others have reminded us what we forgot.
Dude, why "nonsense"? Did you hear the thing about 200 Billion GALAXIES? We have limited ability to see star systems in enough detail to determine if they have earth-like planets. What we see is encouraging, though - Earth-like planets are not rare. Mars is an Earth-like planet, it possibly had life in the past. Liquid water and organic compounds essential for life have been discovered on asteroids and on some satellites of the big planets. There are bacteria that thrive in radiation, high acidity, pressure, cold, heat... They discovered bacteria in the vacuum and 170 degrees temperature amplitudes on the surface of the International Space Station! "Life finds a way". Life fills open space, as soon as the conditions are good enough to support it. We had a number of catastrophic events on Earth, that killed up to 90% of all species. And every time there was a species explosion afterwards. We are talking probabilities here, derived from incomplete data. What we believe in is more indicative of our personality than what the data suggests - there is not enough data for a certain answer. I chose to believe we are not alone. You believe what you want to believe. Peace.
What is more inconceivable?
1. We are alone in the Universe. Life originated only here and developed sophisticated beings capable of advanced civilization only here, and only once. We are the center of the universe. IT'S ALL ABOUT US, a speck of dust on the edge of a galaxy - one of 200 Billion galaxies we currently estimate!!!
2. The world is full of life, and full of intelligent advanced beings. They have been here in the past and will come again.
I pick option 2.
Except, hate speech is free speech - protected by the First Amendment. Says the Supreme Court.
Next question.
OK, you might not listen to the Linux Action Show or similar podcasts, but come on... google "open source AI" before asking.
FRIST!! Apparently nobody mentioned it yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... The Thorium Reactor operates at almost 100% fuel consumption. And some of the waste materials are used for cancer treatment, space batteries, etc. Current technologies use about 1% of the nuclear fuel. Not only that, but LFTR can use the already accumulated spent nuclear fuel, mixed with the Thorium, to produce energy and reduce the accumulated nuclear waste.
The problem is that you can't upgrade to Windows 7 anymore. Also, you can't buy a new computer with Windows 7. You have to go to Windows 8. Which it's crap, compared to Windows 7. Whoever upgraded to Windows 7 is holding on to it and isn't going to move to Windows 8 until... never.
Come to think of it, our whole society is one big Stanford Prisoner Experiment. The uniformed "civil servants" around us have no more power than what we have allowed them to have.
Nitpicking. The word "democracy" comes from Greek, while "republic" comes from Latin. They mean the same thing: rule of the people.
Bloody Romans!
I think he is with the Popular Front...
Splitters!
Irrigation?
He-he :) http://xkcd.com/386/
Sorry for the ASE overlook, I should have looked that up.
You want stability for the currency? It should not be attached to a commodity, because it can fluctuate, right? And then you base it on some abstract value, that changes with time and is subject to influence from many factors, including foreign ones? An abstraction, that has no fixed way of measurement and can be interpreted any way the Feds want? That's some stability!
Yes, I think that cows, goats and beaver skins are better currencies than manufacture-measured-knowledge-power-whatever money. I grew up under Communism (in Eastern Europe) and witnessed its collapse. Worthless money was part of it. Our leaders thought they could fool the economy with reports and statistics, the way the Federal Reserve is doing it now.
Precious metals backed money is backed by a combination of metals. If a new gold deposit is discovered and the price drops, the next day a platinum mine is depleted and its price rises. The more diverse the backing the better - lets put some diamonds in the portfolio, land shares, whatever is available to the state issuing the money. Silver-backed notes are issued by private enterprises and accepted as payment in some US towns even today. Food stamps are used as money nationwide. The system works, and why shouldn't it? It is simple, understandable by its users without university diplomas, it was tested for centuries from China to Europe.