Solyndra used to make thin-film solar cells, but they could not make any money. The Department of Energy tried to help with a $535 million “Green” loan guarantee but the DOE missed the memo that says
EBITDA needs to be in the black if they expect to keep taxpayers out of the red. Private investors kicked in another
$70 million eventually but only after the DOE
primed itself. As White House economic advisor
Larry Summers noted, “…[government] is
a crappy vc [venture capitalist]…" Thanks to the DOE though, 40 employees and 150 contractors got to keep their jobs for an extra week last year according to the
WaPo.
posted by otto42
on Nov 15, 2011 -
45 comments
"But it is the worry that the key source of corporate profitability — Chinese labor — may no longer be docile and cheap for much longer that mainly nags at the country's corporate guests as well as its rising capitalist class. And many fear that the very ruthlessness that Zizek talks about — the iron fist that the Chinese state has deployed over the last three decades in order to achieve the unbeatable 'China price' —
has become a central part of the problem."
posted by notion
on Jul 9, 2011 -
30 comments
Diversity counterproductive to "social capital?" James Wilson's article in Commentary magazine talks about Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam's essay recently published in Scandinavian Political Studies. In the essay, Putnam publicizes the findings of his research, conducted in rural districts, towns, and cities, whose conclusion establishes that diverse neighborhoods show less "social capital" because ethnically diverse residents seem to distrust each other.
[more inside]
posted by gregb1007
on Nov 2, 2007 -
37 comments
A recent article in Reason magazine discusses a World Bank report that comes to some unexpected conclusions, not the least of which is that "human capital and the value of institutions (as measured by rule of law) constitute the largest share of wealth in virtually all countries." Worldwide, the study finds, "natural capital accounts for
5 percent of total wealth, produced capital for 18 percent, and intangible capital 77 percent." In other words, rich countries are not rich because they have cheap natural resources (or exploited those of other countries), they are rich because of their social institutions.
[more inside]
posted by woodblock100
on Sep 11, 2007 -
31 comments
Greek Temple Architecture: They were houses--houses for cult statues, storehouses of treasures given to the gods--they were not churches. Worship consisted, by and large, of
sacrificial ritual--
animal sacrifice:
killing animals and eating them, for the most part--and, hence, it was done out of doors.
The Internet Ancient History Sourcebook's Accounts of Hellenic Religious Beliefs and
Accounts of Personal Religion give additional flavor and context. Greek religious architecture evolved from
wooden structures and was tradition bound--they built in stone as they had in wood according to variations on a traditional canon called the
orders, first and foremost, the
Doric Order , the
Ionic Order and the
Corinthian Order. Here are some
restorations. I love restorations, on paper or models rather than at the actual sites.
The first in a series.
posted by y2karl
on Jun 19, 2003 -
15 comments
PK Interactive receives funding from idealab According to the article on Yahoo News, "New York's PK Interactive, best known as the owner and publisher of popular "dot-com deadpool" site, F---edcompany.com, has received $18 million in private funding from idealab and its existing investors, Chase Capital Partners, Flatiron Partners and TechFund Capital."
Sort of a strange turn of events, no?
posted by ph00dz
on Apr 1, 2002 -
2 comments
