Why Facebook's Stock Is In The Tank

So here I am minding my own Facebook page, and I see that there are some advertising things for me to look at (see right).

Now Hiring.

Now Hiring.

Now Hiring.

Guaranteed Approval for some credit card.

And a PSA for Nurse Practitioner Clinic*.

Anyone who wonders A) how Facebook is going to make any money and B) why their stock is tanking should consider the quality of these advertisements, the frequency with which they will entice click-through yielding value for the advertisers, and the halo effect that these quality advertisements have on other, future advertising that will inevitably follow.

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*== NPCs are a whole other problem.  They are inevitably only going to be only marginally better than Telehealth is, in that NPCs will at least be able to put a band-aid on your minor boo-boo before defaulting to the advice to "go to the emergency room" if there's anything even remotely possibly wrong with you.  How this eases pressure on emergency rooms is beyond me.

Hollywood

So Jenn and I went to see The Dark Knight Rises last night.  The previews show to us were:

• the upcoming Twilight movie (which I didn't understand at all)
• The Bourne Legacy (which I also didn't understand at all)
• Taken 2 (which I only barely understood because I'd seen the first one)
• The Hobbit (complete with singing -- which was cool, but I don't want to watch three hours of it)
• The Campaign (a Will Farrell movie, so no understanding at any level is required)
• Man Of Steel (a Superman reboot?)

Now maybe this is an unfair sample.  I was at a Batman franchise movie, after all.  But by my count, that's five "franchise" movies, and a Will Farrell movie -- and let's face it he keeps making the same movie over and over again so it might as well be a franchise movie.

Wonder why Hollywood is in trouble?  This.  No new ideas are worth anything unless they are presented in a framework that is somehow familiar, that demands credibility based on something that has come before.

Even if that credibility link is weak -- witness "Battleship".  Oh, and Total Recall -- The Total Recallering.  Who the hell thought that was a good idea?  I don't think I have read a single positive review of it.  Anywhere.

Combined with my problems with the feature presentation last night -- the picture was gorgeous, but the sound wavered between incomprehensibly loud, incomprehensibly soft, and just plain incomprehensible (I don't think I understood more than about 30% of what Bain said) -- maybe I'm just too old for the movies now.

I Love Engineering

The MRO team nailed it:

That's MSL "Curiosity" descending to Mars in the parachute phase on Monday morning.

Just think: math made this picture possible.  This is so cool.

(Previously: 1, 2)

Called Shot

The MRO team is going to try to repeat the feat of taking a picture of one space probe from another.

(Previously.)