Random Stuff

[Tober]

Unbelievable!

When Johnny and I broke up our band, we drifted apart. He started hanging out with all those rock star hairhead types, like the late Bobby Black. And when they needed money to get high, they did 'Rock Against Drugs' commercials.

- The Adventures of Ford Fairland

[griffin]

Commercials showing up on TV this week by facebook, promoting their "charity" to bring affordable internet to people in parts of the world who don't have it... which is rather self-serving, because if they can get more people on the internet, they can make more money from them joining Facebook.

I guess they've gained all the money they can now from the markets that have affordable internet that Facebook have reached saturation point, to now need to get more people from developing markets onto the internet so that it opens up more markets, or else their profits will plateau/stagnate or drop off.

It's like a drug dealer setting up a charity to give out free needles to the community... and leave it up to the drug-users to find something to use them with, which the dealer can then profit from.

For my own amusement, I had a look to see what sort of financial return Facebook are looking at with this Charity...

http://internet.org/press
It says that 2/3s of the world do not have internet access.

http://www.worldometers.info/world-p...on/#milestones
Global population is currently estimated to be about 7.3B.

That equates to 2.43B who have access to internet.

http://www.statisticbrain.com/facebook-statistics/
There are currently 1.3B users of Facebook, which equals 53% of those people who have internet access. (I doubt they will get too much more saturation, like maybe 60-70%, which means they need other means to increase Revenue & Profit, as it's not enough to keep earning Billions of Profit each year, Shareholders demand an increase in the Profit amount, or else they'll sell up and buy something else, which lowers the total value of the company and drive off other Shareholders)
Facebook was worth US$104B in February 2012.
Revenue from things like advertising on Facebook and on the other entities they have bought-out, earned them US$6B in 2013.

If their "charity" succeeds in getting affordable internet to the other 2/3s of the population in the world, and continues with a minimum of 53% saturation of the internet marketplace, that's a potential increase of US$12B annual revenue, taking it up to US$18B every year, back into the pockets of Facebook shareholders.

Charity?
Due to a conflict of interest, or just the ulterior motives of greed, Facebook is looking at a potential return of US$12 Billion profit from a "charity" venture that should be done without the hope for a reward... so who's really benefiting from this so called Charity?

And why do people in developing and impoverished conditions "need" internet so desperately?
Facebook (and other Billion Dollar corporations) should be trying to end poverty and starvation first, then maybe help provide luxuries to the world like internet and personal devices/computers for them to profit from.

Their true motives are clearly being spun to look like the impoverished people in the world would rather have internet access than food or shelter, or living free of fear from the injuries, raping or death of war.

(unlike Microsoft's founder who is spending half a Billion US Dollars trying to eradicate Malaria... which isn't being done to generate future sales in Windows computers)


Okay... that was a little rantish, because I hate seeing the excessive corporate greed of companies and people who already have Billions of Dollars to them, and yet, that's still not enough to satisfy their greed.
All the while, there are millions of their fellow Human Beings suffering with nothing, that they could be helping... but instead want to find ways to make money off them, like having them work for slave rates in 3rd world countries, or make them become a consumer of their products even if they can't afford it, or it is a product that is over-priced (like necessary common medications that are patented by corporations) or has poor quality... or completely unnecessary (billions were made from cigarettes that were designed to be more addictive than regular tobacco or cigars, yet became more toxic as a by-product of those added chemicals).

[Skullcruncher]

Wow, at first I thought this was for the dude http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/very-larg...item3f4a8730e2

[griffin]

Licensed ice-cube/chocolate trays from Japan.

Ultra Marginal kept recommending these, and I finally got them from HLJ with my recent order, because they were 20% off.

They are nice as a novelty, but not very effective for ice, as they are not easy to fill and keep flat, and the sculpting isn't too prominent... unless you were able to fill them with two colours of water to make the details stand out.
I think they are probably best for chocolate or candy.
They are supposed to be silicone, so should be oven-safe for cookies... but I think I'd do some research on them first before risking it.


.


The box they come in is double-sided, with Optimus on red on one side, and Megatron on purple on the other... each with a window to see the tray inside.

[tinyJazz]

Griffin! Do these!

make crystal clear ice!

Chocoley: Molding Chocolate, how to mold chocolate candy

There's instructions on how to make ones with fillings too!

[prjkt]

I do like Rook's design but with him being one arm, Blades is just not bulky enough to make the other arm look symmetrical

Im just going to leave this here

[griffin]

The Water Diviner is on Channel 7 on Monday, less than four months after it was released in theatres.
A pity that we have to wait so long for other movies to appear on TV or DVD here.

[Paulbot]

Weird but I see from your link that the Seven Network was behind the production which explains it. (I think there was another film recently that aired quickly for the same reason). And of course they'd want to rush it on for ratings while Anzac Day is on people's minds.

[griffin]

Weird but I see from your link that the Seven Network was behind the production which explains it. (I think there was another film recently that aired quickly for the same reason). And of course they'd want to rush it on for ratings while Anzac Day is on people's minds.

Yes, the Seven Network part-funded the movie, but I don't know why they can get a movie onto TV screens within 4 months, but other Movie producers can't... or won't.

[Paulbot]

They want to so they can make advertising revenue for their core television business. Other producers want to sell the DVD, rental, on demand, streaming, and pay tv rights first before the low end of the pool tv rights.