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Howdy howdy howdy have I got a deal for you. Do you spend a lot of your time thinking about your own demise? The inexorable march of time towards some finite oblivion? Do you find yourself saying, "I wish there were some way to dispose of my lifeless corpse other than hiring a fat man to hurl it over a waterfall?" Now let me ask you, do you think there just aren't enough Christian symbols here in the good ol' USA? You drive past the whattaburger and see the big statue of Jesus waving at you electronically, but it's not really enough is it? Well, buddy, I've got both your problems solved in one neat little package: A giant gently caress off cross in the middle of the Nevada desert where we can put your goddamn bones when you die!  Great Cross Alliance posted:The Great Cross itself will enclose a volume of 8.6 million cubic meters. It will be 3,000 feet (914 meters) long, and 1,845 feet (562 meters) across. Its members will be 570 feet (174 meters) wide, and 183 feet (56 meters) high, to the top of the masonry structure. At the top of the glass dome, the structure will be 213 feet high. Great Cross Alliance posted:The project must reach a critical level of funding before construction can begin. This level is set at the sale of 400 spaces. If this level is not reached by April 1, 2014 the project will be cancelled. If this happens, all spaces purchased and all donations of over $100 will be refunded. If the 400 space mark is reached, purchasers will be notified of the date that remains can be accepted. So they need to sell only 400 internment spots to gauge the interest, and then can get to building some half mile long by 1,845 foot wide structure that's 213 feet high in the middle of the desert. Their cheapest plots are 4,000$ and their most expensive are 30,000$. So they're planning on building this for between 1.6 million and 12 million dollars. That seems reasonable. Hold onto this photo for posterity - it'll be fun to see how much their faces have changed in the Dateline special when the FBI finally catches up to them in Turks and Caicos: 
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Aug 19, 2013 16:07
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Die as you lived: in a giant fucken mall What are the little black dots meant to be, are those people? Are they marketing it under the notion people will be travelling out to the middle of nowhere en masse to just sort of hang out on top of your catacomb? Otherwise all I can figure is maybe they're supposed to be some kind of scavenging animal roving over the detritus of the second largest building in the world.
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Aug 19, 2013 16:12
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pathetic little tramp posted:So they need to sell only 400 internment spots to gauge the interest, and then can get to building some half mile long by 1,845 foot wide structure that's 213 feet high in the middle of the desert. Their cheapest plots are 4,000$ and their most expensive are 30,000$. So they're planning on building this for between 1.6 million and 12 million dollars. That seems reasonable. I think that's just supposed to be startup funds: quote:It is expected to take twenty to thirty years to complete. Apparently it's the hyperreligious version of keeping up with the Joneses, or in this case, the Ramses: quote:The Great Cross is a massive columbarium and mausoleum that will be a physical memorial to Jesus Christ. This Christian monument will be much larger than the Great Pyramids at Giza and Cholula, making it the largest religious edifice ever built. Edit: ah ha ha ha holy poo poo. quote:The Great Cross Alliance will protect itself from inflation, bad investments, changes in tax laws, or other monetary mishaps by building the structure as funds are received. 
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Aug 19, 2013 16:13
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Avast gives me a warning about a trojan horse from their website. Not sure if it's just Avast being poo poo or if their website is seriously trying something.
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Aug 19, 2013 16:33
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DancingPenguin posted:Avast gives me a warning about a trojan horse from their website. They're trying to put the Spirit of Our Lord Jesus in your computer. Open up to arms to J3sus.exe and let The Lord into your OS. Edit: and in case anyone is waiting, the 9 Year Old Builds Her First RPG... TRUTH & TROLLS! game is now approx 3 weeks overdue and there's been no updates for a while. I guess her brothers were right all along. 
Snowglobe of Doom has a new favorite as of 17:24 on Aug 19, 2013 |
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Aug 19, 2013 16:35
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I'm pretty sure I have built that thing in Minecraft. It's just next to the giant, burning Swastika, the pink wool dong and the painstakingly huge copy of a Mario sprite.
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Aug 19, 2013 17:56
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You know when I first skimmed it and I thought the giant cross was made out of your and everyone else who paid into the project's bones I was almost onboard. Instead its just a big boring internment space with no desire to creep the gently caress out of future generations in their post-apoclayptic cave-man society.
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Aug 19, 2013 18:01
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I would actually fund a modern day ossuary - the world needs more awesome bone cathedrals. 
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Aug 19, 2013 18:23
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Someone PM'ed me about the Kickstarter that hasn't completed only one of its "backer items" and its been a year, I was pissed I blew 75$ on actually two backer tiers and neither came through, and asked for a refund. Anyways, they balked forever and I finally emailed their whole team rather than just the guy who did the kickstarter as well as their financial backers or something, and the guy rather angrily agreed to give me a full refund. I don't want to give them negative press so its resolved and they'll remain anonymous, but for real, even real businesses/ventures etc that can complete 99% of the thing yet don't have the talent/resources to complete something you pledged will claim you are a misanthropic hate-beast bent on destroying their lives if you ask for a refund.
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Aug 19, 2013 19:44
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Not an Anthem posted:Someone PM'ed me about the Kickstarter that hasn't completed only one of its "backer items" and its been a year, I was pissed I blew 75$ on actually two backer tiers and neither came through, and asked for a refund. Double edged sword. I bet a lot of people asking for refunds are the misanthropic hate-beast type of person. You unfortunately got lumped into the same category.
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Aug 19, 2013 20:12
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Not an Anthem posted:Someone PM'ed me about the Kickstarter that hasn't completed only one of its "backer items" and its been a year, I was pissed I blew 75$ on actually two backer tiers and neither came through, and asked for a refund. I am a consumer researcher, so I'm not talking out of my rear end when I say that there is a small subset of people with legitimate problems that will actually complain when something goes wrong. The number varies in relation to the relative dollar value or amount of "face" that has been lost. I am talking out of my rear end to suggest that there must be a LOT of companies out there that have the policy of either ignorning complaints, or just flatly disallowing or contesting someone's complaint. Then if they complain again, or make threats or something, they give up the refund. Seriously, by the time you get the person who is writing two or three times to complain, you've narrowed the pool considerably and saved yourself a TON of money. For companies that do one-shot deals (TV gimmicks, most of these Kickstarter projects, etc.) they really don't gives a poo poo if people hate them, so good luck getting your money back on a Ginsu knife.
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Aug 19, 2013 20:18
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Protocol7 posted:Double edged sword. I bet a lot of people asking for refunds are the misanthropic hate-beast type of person. You unfortunately got lumped into the same category. I have a paper trail which showed I wasn't just being a jerk and followed a miserable wait to the end politely before simply asking for a refund. I think its absurd there isn't more recourse available but now I understand Kickstarter a little better. I don't regret any of my backed things besides that one, in fact all the others have been totally awesome and wouldn't have worked outside Kickstarter. edit- yeah I am like, a bad company's worst nightmare. I just have a habit of documenting things well, comes from my background with product design.
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Aug 19, 2013 20:18
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For some reason, this one really bothers me: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-encore-cinemas It's for a cheap movie theater near where I live. For starters, the entire point of the kickstarter is they don't have enough capital to update their business. But they use flex funding. So even if they don't get enough money to update, and therefore stay in business, they're still going to run off with your money. On top of that, all their rewards are predicated on them staying in business. If you pledge to get movies for 6 months, they don't make their goals, and they're not in business for 6 months they just ran off with your money and you get poo poo. Flex funding in this case is complete bullshit. Those projectors have a finite cost. You know exactly how much money you need to update the theater as a whole. If each projector is $50,000 and you need 2, that's $100,000. It's not like if you raise $25k the people selling the projectors are going to go "oh, ok, you tried your best... here's a cookie and a projector." So why the gently caress would you do flex funding when you know it's impossible to deliver if you reach below your goal? Oh... ya, because that way you can run off with people's money when you close shop. The entire thing just screams "Hey, I'm going to run off with your money". At least if they didn't use flex funding it wouldn't scream scam. But then they'd never get their money.
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Aug 19, 2013 20:38
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Happitoo posted:For some reason, this one really bothers me: I go to this theatre a lot and I agree. The people running it are super nice and the theatre isn't even that bad (I actually got a tour of the upper floor where the projectors are by my friend who works there), but they make such bad decisions. For reference, they're maybe an hour walking distance from the art college down the street and nobody here even knows that theatre exists. It's far cheaper to go here than the other cineplex theatres in the area since Encore only charges about $10 a ticket versus $20. A large popcorn and drink combo is only $10 or so in comparison to the normal $20-30. The screens and sound quality are average, nothing to write home about but nothing terrible. So why don't the students, especially animation ones who will go several times to see one movie, not know about this place? It's because they don't advertise at all. This theatre is literally less than an hour walk from the school but it took me over 4 years of living here to even hear about it from someone who works there. I don't know whether it's worth donating or not seeing as they can't even be bothered to put up some flyers advertising their theatre.
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Aug 19, 2013 21:14
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Happitoo posted:For some reason, this one really bothers me: Really, the problem seems to be entirely that they used Flexible Funding instead of Fixed. A theater near me did a Kickstarter for exactly the same thing with similar rewards, and it worked for them.
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Aug 19, 2013 21:19
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Happitoo posted:For some reason, this one really bothers me: I'm kind of conflicted when it comes to Flexible Funding. Before Kickstarter, someone seeking donations online would just set up a Paypal account and take as much money as they could raise. About five years ago, my local historical theatre went around town soliciting donations and nobody was upset that their ten dollar donation didn't come with a guarantee that it would keep them in business. Kickstarter changed all that, not only by using an all-or-nothing goal, but mostly by popularizing donation incentives. People started to treat their donations as pre-order purchases rather than donations. People started to price their rewards at lower prices than the potential product would sell at retail because if they priced them higher, it would draw complaints. It should have been treated like PBS fundraisers where you had to donate $100 for a tote bag or whatever. But at least with Kickstarter you knew the minimum amount of money that could be raised. You could make your own judgement of whether or not they could deliver on their promised rewards with the money they requested. With Indiegogo those rewards can be really misleading. I kind of wish they would not allow rewards on flexible funding campaigns. Although the theater project you linked is actually one of the least offensive ones I've seen. The rewards do depend on them staying in business, but they are things that don't cost them much so you know they won't blow their money on them or fail to deliver if they DO succeed. Also it doesn't sound like they will go out of business if they don't raise their goal, so they could put that money to use elsewhere or hold on to it and look for other investors to complete their digital conversion. I was kind of sad to see this line in there: quote:Over the past six months, we have experienced backlash from guests who insist on digital presentations or 3D where we can only play 2D.
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Aug 19, 2013 21:21
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wa27 posted:
3D is a fad, yes, but according to the theater near me who only just recently finished a Kickstarter of their own so they could upgrade, if they didn't then soon they wouldn't be able to screen any new movies, because they're not really making them on 35mm print anymore. So even if switching to digital doesn't save this theater, not switching would pretty much be a death sentence.
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Aug 19, 2013 21:25
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Happitoo posted:For some reason, this one really bothers me: I think the idea is they try to crowdsource donations and then take out a loan to make up the rest. It's a lot easier for them to approach a bank and say "we need 30k of the total 100k to go digital". At least, that's my take on it...
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Aug 19, 2013 22:26
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Mass production of color film stock for printing movies on to project is being halted early January 2014. This has been set in stone since about 2011 and was planned as early as 2009 (though at that time there was still 12 months leeway either side of it, so basically 2015 at the latest). All theaters have had plenty of time to understand that relatively cheap and available movies on film would be going away. Theaters that chose to hold out on getting the funds to upgrade to digital until now, but still were palnning on making a business of showing new movies, can really only blame themselves. It's a bit different for theaters that are all about showing old movies, they'll be fine with film projectors for a long time. But absolutely any theater that was relying on showing new movies is hosed if they didn't get their poo poo in line for digital.
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Aug 19, 2013 22:38
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Horrible Smutbeast posted:It's far cheaper to go here than the other cineplex theatres in the area since Encore only charges about $10 a ticket versus $20. A large popcorn and drink combo is only $10 or so in comparison to the normal $20-30. Holy poo poo those are some expensive tickets. Here in central MA I pay $8-12 per ticket and like $12 for a drink and popcorn (and I sneak in my own candy). My cousin came to visit from Pontiac and was amazed at how high our prices were. If I had to pay $20 for a ticket, I would just not go and buy the DVD when it came out.
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Aug 20, 2013 04:50
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wa27 posted:3D is a fad that won't be around much longer Even if this is true (it wasn't more half a decade ago when it first started and it still isn't now), if you want to show new films you pretty much have to upgrade to 3d because studios mandate that you show a certain number of 3d screenings if you want to get the film at all. Same with digital, studios have been phasing out physical 35MM film in favor of digital film on copy-protected hard drives for years. Even if you don't like it, the studios have drawn the line in the sand and the writing has been on the wall for years. wa27 posted:I don't even know the visual difference between a "digital presentation" and a 35mm print Side By Side is a pretty accessible and entertaining explanation of the differences between digital and film.
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Aug 20, 2013 08:38
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...of SCIENCE! posted:Even if this is true (it wasn't more half a decade ago when it first started and it still isn't now), if you want to show new films you pretty much have to upgrade to 3d because studios mandate that you show a certain number of 3d screenings if you want to get the film at all. Same with digital, studios have been phasing out physical 35MM film in favor of digital film on copy-protected hard drives for years. They've been reopening movie theaters in my neck of the woods and they've been doing the switch-over to digital. The recently reopened Texas Theater, where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested, is now a digital theater. I think they pretty much reopened as a digital theater. Young Freud has a new favorite as of 09:43 on Aug 20, 2013 |
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Aug 20, 2013 09:17
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pathetic little tramp posted:Turks and Caicos: This is a place that exists and I never knew 
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Aug 20, 2013 09:23
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Alan Smithee posted:This is a place that exists and I never knew It's no St. Kitts and Nevis.
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Aug 20, 2013 09:29
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Alan Smithee posted:This is a place that exists and I never knew You and taxes both.
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Aug 20, 2013 09:43
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Machai posted:Holy poo poo those are some expensive tickets. Here in central MA I pay $8-12 per ticket and like $12 for a drink and popcorn (and I sneak in my own candy). My cousin came to visit from Pontiac and was amazed at how high our prices were. If I had to pay $20 for a ticket, I would just not go and buy the DVD when it came out. Yeup, it's probably $30-40 regularly to go to the cineplex theatres for my husband and I. We usually get a free ticket and combo though since we have that stupid scene card, otherwise we'd never go. I actually liked that Encore didn't have so many 3d showings because it really hurts my eyes, but I really don't see how they couldn't have upgraded until now. It has maybe 6 theatres while the AMC that got converted to a Cineplex has well over 25. Even if they had the traffic they don't really have the room to show off the movies, and they end up having to cut a good portion of new releases out of their lineup because of it. Anyway, Encore theatre is really decent it's just that they need to step it up and upgrade 2+ years ago, else they're going to fail even if the indiegogo campaign is successful.
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Aug 20, 2013 15:20
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...of SCIENCE! posted:Side By Side is a pretty accessible and entertaining explanation of the differences between digital and film. There's also just the fact that digital projectors are on a whole a lot more reliable and need less babysitting by projection staff. Bad news for you if your job was to be an assistant projectionist, good news for the audience, and good for the theater's bottom line.
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Aug 20, 2013 16:08
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Are you a lonely virgin who can't talk to women? Have you been friendzoned more times than you can count? Can't you ever get laid no matter what? Well, get ready to stop spending hundreds of dollars on PUA handbooks and pheromone sprays, forever! We bring you the WINGDOG, a cute little shelter puppy that forces you to go outside every few days or so. It's a scientific fact, women just LOVE puppies. They'll practically explode their clothes off at the sight of one, leaving you to fill up your phone with thousands and thousands of phone numbers. Remember, your problems do not stem from the fact your personality is rotten to the core. It's the fact that you do not have a disposable* fashion object at your side to help you win over the ladies! * Disposable fashion object has a lifespan of 10-20 years and is in constant need of care and attention. But you promise to be responsible, don't you?
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Aug 21, 2013 20:41
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Zybourne Clock posted:Are you a lonely virgin who can't talk to women? Have you been friendzoned more times than you can count? Can't you ever get laid no matter what? Well, get ready to stop spending hundreds of dollars on PUA handbooks and pheromone sprays, forever! We bring you the WINGDOG, a cute little shelter puppy that forces you to go outside every few days or so. It's a scientific fact, women just LOVE puppies. They'll practically explode their clothes off at the sight of one, leaving you to fill up your phone with thousands and thousands of phone numbers. Thank god they clearly state in their first sentence its a mockumentary being made to, well mock, this exact kind of behavior. If this was a legitimate project than yeah it would be loving terrible, as it is its actually pretty hilarious. Edit: Wow I am totally wrong sorry man, they actually do plan on just giving dogs to lonely men and filming them. I just got a puppy and I can tell you it is so much work that I don't think I would have time for dating so this is just ridiculous, I am seriously sorry for calling you out without knowing what I was talking about.
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Aug 21, 2013 20:49
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It's $50 just to get a copy of the darn movie. Why do people put absolutely no thought into their tiers?
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Aug 21, 2013 21:32
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Rosalind posted:It's $50 just to get a copy of the darn movie. Why do people put absolutely no thought into their tiers? They don't usually put any thought into the rest of their pitch, why would the reward tiers be any different?
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Aug 21, 2013 23:50
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I'm not sure they understand what the word "mockumentary" means. It's a fake documentary where everyone involved is an actor, not a real documentary that mocks it's subjects
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Aug 21, 2013 23:53
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Sure, but what would YOU call such a documentary? I'll just go ahead and propose "documockery."
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Aug 21, 2013 23:55
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I would suggest some sort of mix of documentary and satire, but satire is supposed to be aimed at making people change. How about we just call it an awfulmentary.
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Aug 22, 2013 00:05
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Bad Munki posted:Sure, but what would YOU call such a documentary? Borat?
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Aug 22, 2013 00:50
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My old theater director put up this IndieGogo, asking for donations to help fund her stage adaptation of Ayn Rand's "Anthem.". I used to laugh at her for running a non-profit theater company that exists on state tax money while claiming to be an Objectivist, but now she's literally resorted to handouts.
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Aug 22, 2013 01:39
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Dynastocles posted:My old theater director put up this IndieGogo, asking for donations to help fund her stage adaptation of Ayn Rand's "Anthem.". I used to laugh at her for running a non-profit theater company that exists on state tax money while claiming to be an Objectivist, but now she's literally resorted to handouts. That's perfectly in line with Ayn Rand's writing. In one part of Atlas Shrugged, [girl protagonist] talks about her grandfather refused government loans and worked for the money to build his railroad! By going door to door to get handouts himself. Confusingly hypocritical and consistent at the same time.
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Aug 22, 2013 02:11
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WickedHate posted:That's perfectly in line with Ayn Rand's writing. In one part of Atlas Shrugged, [girl protagonist] talks about her grandfather refused government loans and worked for the money to build his railroad! By going door to door to get handouts himself. I've got a rare unopened DVD of Atlas Shrugged that includes the controversial ideology error (thanks to my brother in law  who gave everyone a copy for Christmas). When the controversy hit I emailed demanding a new copy, they said they would mail a new insert (or perhaps provide a link so you could print a .pdf?) and, well  Edit: Also, "rare".
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Aug 22, 2013 02:52
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JDM3 posted:I've got a rare unopened DVD of Atlas Shrugged that includes the controversial ideology error (thanks to my brother in law Haha this is almost a case study in the failures of Rand's philosophy, which would hold that a truly great business who made such a basic mistake would be quick to go the extra mile and correct their mistake so that their reputation isn't damaged at all. That's basically the entire plot of Atlas Shrugged: the brother fucks up and the sister steps in and fixes it. They should have fired the person who made the mistake (he or she can pull themselves up by their bootstraps after they learn from their mistake) and sent you an even better copy made of a new type of DVD that the government is trying to suppress. God, learn from your own movie.
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Aug 22, 2013 05:31
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I love how the AVclub's Sean O'Neil put it http://www.avclub.com/articles/producers-of-atlas-shrugged-movies-stand-up-for-se,95476/ quote:In keeping with the fundament of self-interest that underscores its source material, the producers of the Atlas Shrugged movies have confirmed that a third film will be made—a film that will, again, primarily interest themselves. Both previous installments in Ayn Rand’s vision of a world righted by corporate poo poo-fits have earned far less than they cost, taking in a combined $8 million at the box office for the approximately $30 million that was spent on them. Such numbers would lead most filmmakers to see this as an edict from the free market to just yield their work to some other’s control already, were they not still subscribed to Rand’s definition of objective thinking as “harboring hate-filled petulance for things that get in your way.” Dynastocles posted:My old theater director put up this IndieGogo, asking for donations to help fund her stage adaptation of Ayn Rand's "Anthem.". I used to laugh at her for running a non-profit theater company that exists on state tax money while claiming to be an Objectivist, but now she's literally resorted to handouts. Seriously though how the hell did they even get that much? I imagine half the people involved in its production are half the people who tossed in
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Aug 22, 2013 08:36
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