Last week I was spotlighting some bad press that Sprint was getting. Verizon was getting some bad press by pursuing an $18,000 charge on data usage from a single month. On one hand, it’s obvious that the family screwed up and I believe Verizon when they say that the family should have known what the bill would look like. But seriously. $18,000 because they neglected to sign up for a $30 plan? Well, Verizon finally backed off… but decided to do so in a manner that will destroy the customer’s credit rating.
William Shatner is worth nearly $600,000,000 dollars and largely has Priceline to credit for it. Seems a little ridiculous until you consider that he took a chance on stock options rather than simply demanding money up front. Apparently, pre-priceline, he was living in a trailer making only a little money on party appearances here and there.
We tend to think of television’s affect on culture in the negative, but there’s an argument to be made that soap operas are making the lives of women better.
The most recent election in the United Kingdom has put the issue of fair democracy back into regular conversation. The New Scientist makes a great point that there is no fair system. It goes back to an idea that’s been riding around my head more and more loudly, which is that fairness itself is inherently subjective.
How the economy is affecting our movie choices. More than just economics, this is an area where it will really be quite interesting to see what, if any, effects piracy has. It’s the same sort of thing. The potential is there to force studios to become much, much more conservative on what movies they will greenlight.
A star high school athlete in Texas was actually 22.
In an article I’m stunned that Half Sigma has not capitalized on, SMU is paying firms to hire their law school grads.
A star high school athlete in Texas was actually 22.
A man named James Hogue famously pulled off a similar scam in the 1990s.
“In an article I’m stunned that Half Sigma has not capitalized on, SMU is paying firms to hire their law school grads.”
Half is too busy flogging the gays today, spurred on by politically incorrect physicist Jonathan KAtz.
Comment by stone — May 18, 2010 @ 2:32 pm
On fairness being subjective - You might be interested in this article from Less Wrong: http://lesswrong.com/lw/ru/the_bedrock_of_fairness/
Though I must warn you that site can be as addictive as TV Tropes if you find that even a fraction of it is up your alley. Happy reading.
Comment by Nanani — May 18, 2010 @ 5:16 pm
Holy cow, Nanani, that may well be the best post on the entire Internet.
Comment by trumwill — May 18, 2010 @ 11:12 pm
Does that mean I can welcome you to Less Wrong?
Check out the Sequences on the wiki if you have a few weeks to spend absorbing articles of similar quality.
Comment by Nanani — May 19, 2010 @ 5:31 pm
Unfortunately, it may fall into the same category as another website I ran into recently. There’s so much good stuff that I end up avoiding it simply because I want to read and write a comprehensive post on every single item. I’ll add it to my blogroll, though.
Comment by trumwill — May 19, 2010 @ 7:49 pm
I doubt if Shatner was poor and living in a trailer pre-Priceline. At the time he had residuals from two hit shows, Original Star Trek and T. J. Hooker, plus his salaries from the Star Trek movies. And then he was cast in Boston Legal and had that salary for many years.
He’s owned a large stable of thoroughbred horses for ages, and they aren’t cheap.
However the Priceline thing shows a lot of business acumen.
I read that he has just gotten another new TV show. The guy is like television crabgrass.
Comment by Maria — May 20, 2010 @ 10:15 am
http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/celebrities/2010/04/30/13774051.html
“After starring in the iconic role of Captain Kirk on Star Trek in the late ’60s, he later could find no work and lived in a truck he’d park on the street in the San Fernando Valley area of L.A…”
Comment by ? — May 24, 2010 @ 9:53 am