it makes perfect sense that the government should intercede to stimulate job growth
Not if those jobs won't last. The trick is to stimulate in areas that will eventually be able to sustain those jobs WITHOUT government help. Solar is not one of those areas.
The only reason it's profitable is because the government is artificially inflating it with shitloads of subsidies. If it were TRULY profitable, it would have been developed without those subsidies long ago.
Exactly, it's the kind of political measure that politicians love to cite when they pump government money into pipe-dream bullshit like solar. It's the same bullshit you used to hear when they were approving big subsidies for duds like hydrogen fuel and ethanol.
James Cameron's period lasted from Terminator (1984) until True Lies (1994). He's actually a rather ideal example (truthfully, I'm being a bit generous, there was a notable decline even by True Lies). Titanic and Avatar were simple, overrated garbage in comparison to his earlier work. Titanic is just your typical love story (and surprisingly boring) and Avatar is just a flashy rehash of the tired "outsider meets with, comes to admire, and ultimately joins, the noble savage" story structure used in everything from Little Big Man to Dances With Wolves.
In his heydey, Cameron was incredible at mixing traditional action with great characters and character interaction. He was sort of like the John Sayles of action movies. The scenes in Aliens where the marines are just sitting around bullshitting are more interesting to me than any CGI'ed flight scene in Avatar, no matter how visually impressive the latter. He had an incredible knack for creating realistic characters, throwing them together in the most stressful of situations, and making you feel for them all. He could flesh out a whole roomful of characters, in a few opening scenes, better than most directors could flesh out their single protagonist over the course of their whole movie.
Lol, I had a friend back in the day who was too stupid to realize that Walmart sold edited CD's. Until we broke it too him, he honestly believed that NWA and Ice Cube albums all came from the studio with those bleeps. It earned him the nickname "Cheesy E" at school.
Looks like someone is still angry he didn't get to play Portal 2 multiplayer for a month after the 360 owners got it. Perhaps you need a time out and nappy-nap.
The millions and millions of duplicate Xbox 360s sold over the past few years has helped Microsoft inflate their sales numbers in the US
That must explain why 360 games still routinely outsell their PS3 counterparts. Obviously all the fanboys are buying duplicate software as well. Damn those fanboys!
Politicians don't believe in anything (yes, that includes your guy too, whoever he is). The only thing they're thinking about is the next election. And, in this case, Republicans have a vested interest in keeping the economy in the shitter through the end of 2012 (because it hurts Obama's reelection potential). In other words, they're not religious, they're just immoral opportunists who won't hesitate to throw the entire country under the bus just to advance their own short-term political interests.
It was my understanding that the ISS *can't* maintain its orbit without periodic boosts (I could be mistaken there). So since when it leaving it as "space junk" even an option? If you stop maintaining it, it's going to deorbit one way or another. It's really only a question of whether or not it's a *controlled* deorbit.
Out of your entire list, only Scorsese is an exception to that rule. He got about 20 years instead of the usual 10.
And the only influence that Lucas ultimately had on the "art and science of making movies" was in the influence that the special effects innovators working *FOR* him had.
This may be hard for a lot of younger people to believe, but there was actually a time in Hollywood when George Lucas was considered an incredible up-and-coming young director. Coming off of American Graffiti, a lot of people were thinking he would be the next Francis Ford Coppola. He was widely regarded as being in the same league (maybe an even better one) as Martin Scorsese coming off Mean Streets.
But then the greed got him. An afterthought merchandising deal on Star Wars meant that his big money-maker from that point on was toys and merchandise, not movies. He stopped directing and let his best years pass him by. The ten-year-rule for directors is that, give or take, most directors have about 10 years of truly creative energy. And with the mountain of money he was sitting on from toys, he just sat back and let his expire. Now we'll never know what he might have done if he had to struggle, if he had kept working.
That's a great lesson for you young creative types out there. Careful what you wish for.
Right now it's easy to dismiss this as a Chinese oppression thing. But how long until this spreads to the "free" countries too. Many are already passing laws mandating logging and monitoring at the ISP level. It's only a matter of time before this filters down to hotspots too.
Slashdot Mirror
How do you think he was able to brainwash all those elves?
No, he's just insanely honest.
Mr. President, we *must* develop our own glowing dog before the North Koreans develop this technology too.
it makes perfect sense that the government should intercede to stimulate job growth
Not if those jobs won't last. The trick is to stimulate in areas that will eventually be able to sustain those jobs WITHOUT government help. Solar is not one of those areas.
I just hope the North Koreans don't develop a glowing dog of their own.
a real (profitable) industry
The only reason it's profitable is because the government is artificially inflating it with shitloads of subsidies. If it were TRULY profitable, it would have been developed without those subsidies long ago.
Exactly, it's the kind of political measure that politicians love to cite when they pump government money into pipe-dream bullshit like solar. It's the same bullshit you used to hear when they were approving big subsidies for duds like hydrogen fuel and ethanol.
James Cameron's period lasted from Terminator (1984) until True Lies (1994). He's actually a rather ideal example (truthfully, I'm being a bit generous, there was a notable decline even by True Lies). Titanic and Avatar were simple, overrated garbage in comparison to his earlier work. Titanic is just your typical love story (and surprisingly boring) and Avatar is just a flashy rehash of the tired "outsider meets with, comes to admire, and ultimately joins, the noble savage" story structure used in everything from Little Big Man to Dances With Wolves.
In his heydey, Cameron was incredible at mixing traditional action with great characters and character interaction. He was sort of like the John Sayles of action movies. The scenes in Aliens where the marines are just sitting around bullshitting are more interesting to me than any CGI'ed flight scene in Avatar, no matter how visually impressive the latter. He had an incredible knack for creating realistic characters, throwing them together in the most stressful of situations, and making you feel for them all. He could flesh out a whole roomful of characters, in a few opening scenes, better than most directors could flesh out their single protagonist over the course of their whole movie.
It's simple fixes like that that attracted my grandma to Linux. "It's so simple to use, once you master the command line interface" grandma told me.
Lol, I had a friend back in the day who was too stupid to realize that Walmart sold edited CD's. Until we broke it too him, he honestly believed that NWA and Ice Cube albums all came from the studio with those bleeps. It earned him the nickname "Cheesy E" at school.
Looks like someone is still angry he didn't get to play Portal 2 multiplayer for a month after the 360 owners got it. Perhaps you need a time out and nappy-nap.
The millions and millions of duplicate Xbox 360s sold over the past few years has helped Microsoft inflate their sales numbers in the US
That must explain why 360 games still routinely outsell their PS3 counterparts. Obviously all the fanboys are buying duplicate software as well. Damn those fanboys!
Politicians don't believe in anything (yes, that includes your guy too, whoever he is). The only thing they're thinking about is the next election. And, in this case, Republicans have a vested interest in keeping the economy in the shitter through the end of 2012 (because it hurts Obama's reelection potential). In other words, they're not religious, they're just immoral opportunists who won't hesitate to throw the entire country under the bus just to advance their own short-term political interests.
I got a pretty big field out in back of my house. Y'all can use that if you want.
Jobs could bring world peace and end of hunger, and I'd complain he is hurting the economy.
Well, good thing then that he's an legendarily selfish fuck who doesn't give squat to charity then. So I guess I don't have to complain.
Who's the bigger fool? The troll, or the anonymous coward who follows him?
It was my understanding that the ISS *can't* maintain its orbit without periodic boosts (I could be mistaken there). So since when it leaving it as "space junk" even an option? If you stop maintaining it, it's going to deorbit one way or another. It's really only a question of whether or not it's a *controlled* deorbit.
Out of your entire list, only Scorsese is an exception to that rule. He got about 20 years instead of the usual 10.
And the only influence that Lucas ultimately had on the "art and science of making movies" was in the influence that the special effects innovators working *FOR* him had.
Of course. I was the one who wrote the original post, not him. I'm sure *he* also thinks his shit doesn't stink.
Yes, he made a lot of money before his directing career had even begun to mature. I'm just glad Scorsese didn't.
His failure was in never coming even close to living up to his creative potential.
This may be hard for a lot of younger people to believe, but there was actually a time in Hollywood when George Lucas was considered an incredible up-and-coming young director. Coming off of American Graffiti, a lot of people were thinking he would be the next Francis Ford Coppola. He was widely regarded as being in the same league (maybe an even better one) as Martin Scorsese coming off Mean Streets.
But then the greed got him. An afterthought merchandising deal on Star Wars meant that his big money-maker from that point on was toys and merchandise, not movies. He stopped directing and let his best years pass him by. The ten-year-rule for directors is that, give or take, most directors have about 10 years of truly creative energy. And with the mountain of money he was sitting on from toys, he just sat back and let his expire. Now we'll never know what he might have done if he had to struggle, if he had kept working.
That's a great lesson for you young creative types out there. Careful what you wish for.
Those being "Whenever the hell we feel like it."
Right now it's easy to dismiss this as a Chinese oppression thing. But how long until this spreads to the "free" countries too. Many are already passing laws mandating logging and monitoring at the ISP level. It's only a matter of time before this filters down to hotspots too.
Greek? You expect me to help translate Ptolemaic period shit?!?!? Do I *look* like Alexander the Fucking Great to you?
You want my help, you better throw down some hieroglyphs, bitch!