Calling Collect as easy as being ripped off
This paper in Kansas City has an article about a collect calling company who use numbers like 800-CALLL-AT and 800-COLLETC to target customers who misdial those popular dumb numbers. The calls will go through, but your friends or family will get stuck with a nice fat fee every time (something like $4+ per minute)
Sprint is involved somehow in this, because they have some sort of connection to the company, ASC. Sprint - involved in something annoying? No way!
See the goofy MSNBC TV Report
Todd - We love Todd
My 'happyrobot wants todd' plan worked beautifully. Peer pressure is what finally did him in, I think, but nonetheless, Todd has agreed to syndicate his editorials for happyrobot. Woo! Thanks doooood!
Check it out now: endtimeworks
Frontier House
I think I may like this show... it's 'Survivor' for people who can't stand Survivor. Mrs Robot suggests that next season, they make the Osbornes do the show - that would be a good idea.
I have to hand it to PBS, though. This is a really interesting and fun show, and being on PBS means that you actually kind of learn things - about frontier people.
Here is a review - I don't think this guy likes it as much.
Bust Knits
Hey Liz. The new Bust magazine (the actual newstand edition, not online) apparently has a whole thing about knitting in it. Or so the kids tell me.
Pony
hi!
NYT Magazine
The New York Times magazine is always good, but sometimes it's really good and every article is amazing and/or disturbing. This past weekend was one of those great editions with two articles I really liked.
The first is about this young college age girl who committed suicide while attending MIT, and now her parents are suing the school for not contacting or alerting them regarding her condition. The law part of it is interesting, but I found the whole concept of the university not contacting the parents odd. The university's point is that this person is 18 years old, and should be treated as an adult and that the student can tell or not tell their parents. I can agree with that - when you are 18, you are definitely an adult. But, should you still have those rights if you are still living with your parents and they are still supporting you 100%?
When I was 18, I sure wouldn't want my parent's snooping into what I was up to, but on the other hand I feel like the fact that I was 100% financially dependent on them also should give them some sort of rights. And if I was feeling suicidal (from listening to Morrissey) and the university knew about it, alerting my parents should be a standard practice.
Then again, maybe this one girl and her family were all freaks, and they knew the whole time and just denied it.
Who knows.
The 14-Year-Old Hit Man
The other article is about 'child assassins' in Columbia. This would make a great Disney movie in the bizarre-o world, but here in this world it's just a scary/sad story. The whole gist is that kids in Columbia who commit crimes are tried as juveniles, but their laws for juveniles pretty much don't exist - so, the kids can kill someone, and if they get arrested, they may get released within a week or two. Slap on the hand, and it's given these kids immunity. Kind of.
Squalor and Chaos in brooklyn
Not that any of us think that living in a home for the mentally ill would be fun, but you don't expect it to be anything like this
