"Oh So Very Many Questions Than Before Not Worth Their Own Thread" Thread Vol. XXVI

[Synobun]

You have to know how to watch it, and, well, I'd rather watch Dragon Ball than, say, anything involving small-sized antropomorphical equines.

"Know how to watch it"? What more to it is there than having your eyes and ears focused on the content matter?

Do I need to hit myself over the head with a hammer?

Close my eyes?

Do jumping jacks?

 

[Traitorfish]

Why is Breaking Bad so slow and depressing? I'm almost tempted not to even watch the fifth season because of how long I have to wait for any kind of payoff. At this point it's just a way to keep the show going on a minimum of content, not anything as artistically respectable as "pacing" or "realism." There are episodes where literally nothing happens to move the plot forward. It reminds me of nothing so much as a soap opera.

Breaking Bad is a tragedy, which means it's character-driven rather than plot-driven, so developing the characters is naturally going to be more important that advancing the plot. That might not be to everyone's taste, but it's basically just how the genre works, like how martial arts films are going to involve a lot of punching. Look at Hamlet: four hours long by the original script, but most productions cut it down to half the length without missing any major plot points.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Can someone explain what's the deal with Eastern Europe and Algeria on this map? Why is the former involved and the latter not?

 

[Flying Pig]

Eastern Europe owes a great deal, legally and constitutionally, to Napoleon - it's no accident that Romania's flag is a tricolour.

 

[Takhisis]

He still loses to the Supe.

To whom?

"Know how to watch it"? What more to it is there than having your eyes and ears focused on the content matter?

Do I need to hit myself over the head with a hammer?

Close my eyes?

Do jumping jacks?

You have not accepted enlightenment. I cannot teach you until you have, and that is a path you must walk by yourself.

 

[Hygro]

I don't think that's the whole picture. That's the picture that focuses on the currencies. Yes, the US imports goods cheap, but that isn't the entire ramification of what it does. It has to do more than that, or the Chinese wouldn't do it. Other things it does include the realities on the ground regardless of what the currency does. It creates a humming manufacturing economy in China. It pulls millions out of poverty to somewhat more. It gives China access to direct production of things it wants and creates infrastructure. It gives China leverage to acquire access to raw resources while also creating ravenous demand for such. China BUILDS. That's one result of this. Another partial result is that large players in the US economy save a lot of money on labor. Large capitalists make a lot of money. The rest of the US economy shifts towards being service based(this isn't only a China thing, it's just China is such a big player). So you can blame some of the prevalence of dead-end minimum wage jobs being what's available for the young on this. Right? I mean, it looks nice when all you take is the upper middle-to high brackets and get the cheap stuff, but doesn't it hurt everyone else? Sort of like how everyone complains about American grain on international markets? Hope we like working in retail.

There are lots of advantages China gets by having access to dollars. Here's two big ones for them keeping a large treasury reserve.
1) They can buy our technology (both physical capital and human capital)
2) They can borrow dollars against treasuries.

But also they have a policy of wage suppression so as to increase investment. It's a classic method of economic-catch up. Japan and Germany are famous for it, and it worked well for them. Wage suppression can lead to a current account surplus by accident. Fast growth requires advancing up the tech tree, so to speak, and that means having your people learn how to use the technologies you acquire, so offering yourself as cheap labor in exchange for the stuff that can buy further tech is a win-win way to upgrade the technology of your human and physical capital.

This is a true supply side economy. It's not the winning strategy when you're already on top.

 

[Farm Boy]

This is a true supply side economy. It's not the winning strategy when you're already on top.

Then you have to identify who is winning because they're already on top. Hint: it isn't simply Americans.

 

[Quackers]

I watched series one of Breaking Bad. Never got into it. Cut your losses Mouthwash.
Overrated much?

 

[Tee Kay]

Can someone explain what's the deal with Eastern Europe and Algeria on this map? Why is the former involved and the latter not?

Eastern Europe owes a great deal, legally and constitutionally, to Napoleon - it's no accident that Romania's flag is a tricolour.

France had a lot of political and cultural influence in the area throughout the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. The Little Entente for instance. Romania in particular heavily looks to France for inspiration in every sphere after independence. To this day a quarter of Romanians are French-speaking.

Algeria was and still is in denial about its French heritage, its own extensive Francophone population notwithstanding.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

France had a lot of political and cultural influence in the area throughout the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. The Little Entente for instance. Romania in particular heavily looks to France for inspiration in every sphere after independence. To this day a quarter of Romanians are French-speaking.

I'm hoping a perusal of Romanian history will clarify this for me then.

Algeria was and still is in denial about its French heritage, its own extensive Francophone population notwithstanding.

I'm just surprised by the contrast with Vietnam.

 

[Tee Kay]

I'm hoping a perusal of Romanian history will clarify this for me then.

It's an interesting subject regardless.

I'm just surprised by the contrast with Vietnam.

Perhaps because France is so much closer to Algeria than Vietnam, and French control was much more direct and in-your-face (it was governed as part of the metropole, for instance, not as a colony... even though indigènes status applied to Algerian Muslims) and the legitimacy of FLN rule still rested to some degree on its role as the liberator party.

 

[Traitorfish]

It might also help that the Communist Party of Vietnam traditionally maintained a close relationship with the French Communist Party- Ho had actually been a founding member of the CPF- so there's a certain necessary recognition of French heritage built into the official history of the Communist Party regime.

 

[Tee Kay]

Ho Chi Minh himself actually referenced the déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen in the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence; specifically how much the French colonialists completely suck at protecting those rights.

 

[Darth Caesar]

I'm planning on watching Blade Runner for the first time pretty soon. Now which version would you guys recommend watching first?

 

[Cutlass]

I'd say go with any of them. Doesn't really matter.

 

[Traitorfish]

How many versions are actually available? All I can see on Amazon is the 1993 "Director's Cut" and the 2007 "Final Cut", and I think the only major difference between the two is that they cut some of the voiceover for the "Final Cut".

 

[sophie]

Why is Breaking Bad so slow and depressing? I'm almost tempted not to even watch the fifth season because of how long I have to wait for any kind of payoff. At this point it's just a way to keep the show going on a minimum of content, not anything as artistically respectable as "pacing" or "realism." There are episodes where literally nothing happens to move the plot forward. It reminds me of nothing so much as a soap opera.

Read up on cinematography, editing, and the visual language, then come back and try again.

You're missing what makes the show so remarkable.

 

[Traitorfish]

World-class pizza-tossing?

 

[Takhisis]

Fried or baked?

 

[Traitorfish]

Baked. Fried pizzas aren't actually that hard to toss; they're basically cheese-laden frisbees.