Very cool, if true

Gosh that was ranty.

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Israel puts Godwin's Law on the books.

Yeoch. On the one hand, I really don't like limiting freedom of speach, even for superficially good reasons (I don't think its inherently bad, but it's normally leads to laws drawn way too loosely.) On the other hand, I'd sort of hoped that committed religious jews might be the population on the planet LEAST prone to randomly comparing things to the holocaust, but no, that ultra-orthodox group dressed children as holocaust victims in Israel, to protect not being able to attack an eleven year old girl in the street. It was seriouosly about the least tactful thing I've ever seen. And Israel has been getting more and more worrying theocratic, so any push-back from the non-ultra-orthodox majority is maybe a good sign, even if it manifests itself in potentially problematic laws...

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I think you'll also find that numerous people have compared the keeping of a people confined, under armed guard, in an area surrounded by large walls and razor wire, to the holocaust.

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Hm. Yeah, the law fails to have an exception for being right (or at least, if there was, it wasn't mentioned in the headline). Although there is some truth that comparising even genocidal things to the holocaust may be counterproductive, even if it is valid :(

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nancylebov.livejournal.com

That law is proposed legislation-- it isn't on the books.

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George Lucas is such a fucking douchebag. This story has been kicking around for about a week now and every time it comes up I have the same reaction.

I seriously doubt that Hollywood refused to fund this thing because it has a black cast. It's much, much more likely that they know George Lucas has completely destroyed his reputation and that the words "George Lucas Production" at the start of a film have roughly the same effect on audiences today as "A M. Night Shyamalan Film" does.

Plus, and I wish I could find the article where some of the studio bosses responded but Skywalker Ranch Productions had more than enough money to finance this thing themselves and a lot of studio execs were like "Why the fuck should we invest in this film if George isn't willing to throw a bunch of his own money behind it?"

Beyond that there is ample evidence that Hollywood will enthusiastically back movies with all black characters and themes when they have respect for the script and think it will make them money. Think "Dream Girls."

If Spike Lee, Stephen Spielberg or Eddie Murphy had been pitching this film it would have gotten financing. The reason it didn't is because George Lucas is a turd.

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The words "George Lucas Production" at the start of a film have roughly the same effect on audiences today as "A M. Night Shyamalan Film" does.

Name a George Lucas Production that didn't make a staggering profit.

Edit: Found a list.

Last flop looks to be Radioland Murders, in 94. Everything recent has made hundreds of millions of dollars.

Edited Date: 2012-01-13 12:08 pm (UTC)

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Did you notice that all of the films that made a profit had the words "Star Wars" or "Indiana Jones" in the title?

If he was pitching "Star Wars Episode 7 - Lando Strikes Black" and set the entire story on Lando's planet with an all black cast he would have had financing in a second.

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I know very very little about it so maybe I shouldn't guess, but my WAG is that both are right: that Hollywood is inclined to massively overestimate the (admittedly already large) tendency of average viewers to play it "safe" and see films with white male lead, white female love interest, etc, etc. But also that this specific Lucas idea may not be much of a pull for wider audiences.

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Except that Will Smith is the most highly paid actor in Hollywood. And Halle Berry is one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood.

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I was thinking of http://www.cracked.com/article_19549_5-old-timey-prejudices-that-still-show-up-in-every-movie_p2.html, which is not exactly very accurate, but I thought they were probably right about the incidence of non-white-male leads (that yes, Will Smith definitely made it to the top, but he's essentially the only one). I'd be very very very happy if you can persuade me I'm wrong...

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Denzel Washington.

And before he became a weird insane tax exile Wesley Snipes.

Samuel L. Jackson.

All three of which are considered A List enough to "open" a movie.

If there seem to be more white male leads then people of color leads recently I think it's more a matter of the fact that over the past five or six years Hollywood has been basing their blockbuster movies on comic books and Young Adult Fiction - two genres that heavily skew white. But they haven't done that for racism it's just that people seem to like comic book based movies and Harry Potter/Twilight/Hunger Games. I.e. they are guaranteed money in the bank.

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a-pawson.livejournal.com

Not forgetting Jamie Foxx, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr or Eddie Murphy. Halle Berry aside, I can't name any A-list black actresses though.

It's possibly also down to numbers - 72% of the US population is white.

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Beyonce.

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Angela Bassett. Pam Grier. Jennifer Hudson. Vanessa Williams. Queen Latifa. Whoppi Goldberg. Oprah.

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I'm more concerned at the moment with not being able to get refunds on mp3s as opposed to not being able to sell them second hand

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Particularly when they make mistakes sometimes.

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Well yes, that was my point :-D

Of course, I remember not being able to return computer games and music CDs once the seal was broken (since the assumption was that people would copy them and then return them) so I guess it is to be expected.

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How are companies dealing with ad-skipping technology? For example, things like Tivo and the other products like that, and the prevalence of adblock etc?

Is it just by increasing product placement and persuading adblock to display ads that are totally ok because people really want to see ads if they're alright ones?

Of course, saying this, I don't know if people actually use Tivo and Sky+ to skip ads, or in fact to watch ads they particularly like. People often seem to enjoy adverts at the cinema, at least.

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I'm not sure how they're dealing with them. Probably by hoping most people don't bother.

I'm actually very happy that Adblock recently added a setting that allows non-intrusive ads. Because I'm happy to have ads that are small and non-animated.

When I watch TV with ads in it (which is about twice a year at the moment) I fast-forward the ads. The 30-second-skip is very handy for this.

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I would be happy to allow non-intrusive ads, if they were accurately targeted and not utterly irrelevant to me.

I have yet to see such ads anywhere online. The companies that supposedly have the most information about me are honestly the worst at targetting ads.

I also only just realised that you could use adblock to block the facebook plugin that pops up on random websites saying "oh hey, 5 of your friends liked this comically oversided sex toy/biased news story - do you want to like it and comment about it?"

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khbrown.livejournal.com

The MP3 article doesn't say anything about moving a file from one device to another, doing a cut and paste rather than a copy and paste. Or is that just taken to be another form of copying?

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Yup. You're still placing a copy of the file on someone else's computer.

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phillipalden.livejournal.com

What would George (Jar-Jar) Lucas know about Black films? Or Black people in general?

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Judging by this rather a lot:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/magazine/george-lucas-red-tails.html?_r=3&hpw=&pagewanted=all

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phillipalden.livejournal.com

I've read about the Tuskegee Airmen years ago. The fact that Lucas seems passionate about the project does not mean he understands Blacks.

But it could. So I'm going to give the old guy the benefit of the doubt.

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It was more the fact that I was assuming that his black girlfriend of five years, or one of the many famous black people that are working with him on this has probably clued him in at some point.

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phillipalden.livejournal.com

I guess I missed that part of the article. That'll teach me to "skim."

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doubtingmichael.livejournal.com

"Are smart people ugly?" Interesting article, but I think it misses one source of selection bias that could make people think this. If you watch a lot of television, on average you will see pretty people who are less smart than the ugly people you see. Because there's very little demand for ugly, stupid people on TV.

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