TIL: Today I Learned

[MaryKB]

It looks like a perfectly normal colony of Chinstrap penguins, just going about their daily lives...

Xena: Warrior Princess was a TV show in the 1990s, one of the spinoffs of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. I should have specified that there were actually two promoters, but one of them did all the planning. That one was female and her sidekick was male.

No, Gene Wilder was not in this.

Oh I'm sorry, I was making a comment because that story you described sounded a lot like The Producers, which starred Gene Wilder. From what you're saying, especially with two promoters, really sounds like Xena was making an homage episode

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Would you turn down an extra $25,000 a year?

No, but I'd rather come away with a three album recording contract if we're talking "either/or." A lot of talented people who lack the sob story and only make it into the top five or ten are coming away with that kind of payoff, so they do better than the "winner" in a lot of cases.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Not really as well as they pretend. The million dollar prize is an annuity paid over forty years, so it's really $25,000 per year. In the US that's a nice bonus, but not really enough to even live on. On the flip side, the people who actually do have talent get enough exposure, and most likely a contract with Simon Cowell's management and production company, so they will generally make more than the winner gets.

A million bucks invested in a 3% CD will throw off $30,000+ a year. Pay out only $25,000 a year and you are still making money off the winners and get to keep your capital. Nice racket.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Not really as well as they pretend. The million dollar prize is an annuity paid over forty years, so it's really $25,000 per year. In the US that's a nice bonus, but not really enough to even live on. On the flip side, the people who actually do have talent get enough exposure, and most likely a contract with Simon Cowell's management and production company, so they will generally make more than the winner gets.

$20,220 (CAD) is what a single adult on AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) is expected to live on for a year. That's after the $97/month raise earlier this year in the final months of Rachel Notley's time as Premier of Alberta. The NDP also decided to index AISH benefits so recipients would receive cost-of-living increases.

In the recent budget, Jason Kenney rescinded the cost-of-living indexing, using the excuse that Alberta's disability benefits are more than other provinces (not caring that our rent goes up every year just like other people's).

My take on that is so what? Living in Alberta is not cheap, particularly for people who need accessible and affordable housing and access to a host of other things like clinics, hospitals, social agencies, and affordable groceries. And that doesn't begin to touch things like utilities and affordable/accessible transportation. Every three years I have to jump through bureaucratic hoops to prove I still qualify for disabled transit, and city hall thinks that 30 days is more than enough time to get a doctor's appointment (If I were to book an appointment today with my doctor, I likely wouldn't get in until January unless it was an emergency; last time for this particular kind of appointment I had to really argue with the receptionist to make her understand that I had a narrow window of time for this, it would take about 5 minutes and require the doctor's signature on a couple of pieces of paper, and it was critical to my having transportation for the next 3 years).

In the meantime, he's giving tax breaks to major corporations and is happily planning his $30 million "war room" against anyone who dares hint that climate change is real and that the environment really does matter in the quest for pipelines.

Oh I'm sorry, I was making a comment because that story you described sounded a lot like The Producers, which starred Gene Wilder. From what you're saying, especially with two promoters, really sounds like Xena was making an homage episode

It could very well have been an homage episode. It wouldn't have been the first such episode, as there were others. "Ten Little Warlords" comes to mind, and I think there was another one that was an homage to a Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney movie (I'm blanking on the title, but it was on the theme of "let's put on a show"). They've done a couple that were homages to Indiana Jones, although they were reverse-gender (Renee O'Connor, who normally played Gabrielle, played a tough-talking, fedora-wearing, whip-wielding archaeologist while Lucy Lawless, normally playing Xena, instead played a meek secretary who becomes the archaeologist's sidekick in a series of adventures as they try to outwit the villains in their quest for artifacts pertaining to the legend of Xena).

 

[Timsup2nothin]

$20,220 (CAD) is what a single adult on AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) is expected to live on for a year. That's after the $97/month raise earlier this year in the final months of Rachel Notley's time as Premier of Alberta. The NDP also decided to index AISH benefits so recipients would receive cost-of-living increases.

Like anything else my "not really enough to live on" falls immediate prey to "where?" A single person, where I live in Palmdale, should expect to pay about $14K per year in rent for a moderately shabby apartment, leaving them a little under a thousand a month to eat and otherwise muddle through. Without car expenses that would be doable, but tight. Moving out to the boondocks could save a bunch of rent, but living in the boondocks makes a car a necessity with all the attendant expenses so that might be a wash. Moving into a more urbanized city the rent would probably be a deal breaker. And obviously any thoughts of raising a family pretty much anywhere would be dependent on adding income to the annuity.

Obviously, these mostly young people winning on AGT would be expected to be able to generate income so the 25K is a nice annual bonus and that's great, but it isn't the "here's a million congratulations go buy your mom a house" that it is often portrayed as.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

A single person, where I live in Palmdale, should expect to pay about $14K per year in rent for a moderately shabby apartment

I just did the math, and for me, with my current lease (that's up on March 31 next year), rent is $14,028 for the year. That includes water, heat, basic cable, and basic internet (the last two aren't offered to new tenants now; I'm grandfathered under an old set of incentives and without that I would not be able to afford TV or internet). Any extra channels I want or any data over my cap is my responsibility. At present I have one extra channel so I can watch my favorite science fiction/fantasy shows, plus an occasional movie marathon. I never get anywhere near my data cap.

I also pay for electricity, and I'm desperately hoping this winter will not be like last year when my bill shot up so badly in February and March. I had to borrow a space heater because the apartment was freezing (later discovered to be due to no insulation between my suite and the outdoor parkade below) and it cost a lot. As in over $100 more than my normal bill. The rental company gave me a break for February but not for March. The manager's boss sneered, "People can run any appliances they want" as though I'd used the heater for a frivolous, optional reason. I'd say that wearing FIVE layers of clothing, including socks, winter housecoat, and knitted gloves to bed is a damn good reason to want extra heat! And even with those extra layers I was still cold. Even Maddy spent most of those two months either in front of the heater or under a fleece blanket on my bed. I'm told the insulation issue has been fixed, but there were a couple of really cold days last week...

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Generally here the only utility included in the rent is water.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Generally here the only utility included in the rent is water.

And winter is not much.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

And winter is not much.

Right. Gas bills go up in the winter, but generally not as much as electric bills do in the summer.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I also pay for electricity, and I'm desperately hoping this winter will not be like last year when my bill shot up so badly in February and March. I had to borrow a space heater because the apartment was freezing (later discovered to be due to no insulation between my suite and the outdoor parkade below) and it cost a lot. As in over $100 more than my normal bill. The rental company gave me a break for February but not for March. The manager's boss sneered, "People can run any appliances they want" as though I'd used the heater for a frivolous, optional reason. I'd say that wearing FIVE layers of clothing, including socks, winter housecoat, and knitted gloves to bed is a damn good reason to want extra heat! And even with those extra layers I was still cold. Even Maddy spent most of those two months either in front of the heater or under a fleece blanket on my bed. I'm told the insulation issue has been fixed, but there were a couple of really cold days last week...

Based on the early storm in Manitoba, I not be surprised if it was even worse.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Based on the early storm in Manitoba, I not be surprised if it was even worse.

Well, Manitoba is two provinces east, and there's a very good reason why Winnipeg's nickname is "Winterpeg."

Out here, we do get occasional chinook winds (courtesy of the Rockies), which means things warm up considerably in a short time, and it stays for awhile. But on the flip side, we get arctic blasts which make me do when the Americans complain about getting cold weather from Canada. Hey, Alaska is up here, right next to the Yukon. Where do you think northern BC gets its cold weather from?

In this part of Canada, what goes on in the Pacific has quite an effect on our winters, even this far inland.

Right. Gas bills go up in the winter, but generally not as much as electric bills do in the summer.

My electric bills in the summer are normally quite low. I don't own a fan and since all my windows face west, I get lots of natural sunlight. Even in winter, as long as it's not too cold, I don't usually turn on the lights until the sun goes down.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

My electric bills in the summer are normally quite low. I don't own a fan and since all my windows face west, I get lots of natural sunlight. Even in winter, as long as it's not too cold, I don't usually turn on the lights until the sun goes down.

West facing windows are like a death sentence here. With the afternoon sun boiling in no amount of electric bill could keep a house livable. Our house has two west facing windows, both under a patio cover so the sun can't hit them until it's almost sunset.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

West facing windows are like a death sentence here. With the afternoon sun boiling in no amount of electric bill could keep a house livable. Our house has two west facing windows, both under a patio cover so the sun can't hit them until it's almost sunset.

This was the case in the previous building I lived in. But that was a basement suite and the windows faced the parking lot. There's no way I was going to keep the windows open there, due to pollution and the danger of break-ins (it's one of the high-crime areas of town). I moved in there in September, and that year was unseasonably hot. We do not normally get temperatures in the high-20s and 30s here in September. It was like a sauna, so I made sure the cats had lots of food and water and a place to sleep in the kitchen (the only room not hit by direct sunlight) and took myself off to the air-conditioned mall.

What a difference seven years makes. The last couple of years have seen snow in August in my province (at the higher elevations). A quick early snow in September isn't a big deal since it usually doesn't stick around more than a day or two, and I'd far rather have that than the crazy temperatures years ago.

 

[Kaitzilla]

TIL the IRS does have a sense of humor.

Mail your 2018 tax return, payment, and Form 1040-V to the address shown on the form that applies to you.

No checks of $100 million or more accepted.
The IRS can’t accept a single check (including a cashier’s check) for amounts of $100,000,000 ($100 million) or more.
If you are sending $100 million or more by check, you’ll need to spread the payment over 2 or more checks with each check made out for an amount less than $100 million.
This limit doesn’t apply to other methods of payment (such as electronic payments).
Please consider a method of payment other than check if the amount of the payment is over $100 million.

Who was this rule made for anyway?
We all know the big corporations are proud about their $0 tax burden.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I know it's not how it works, but I just had the mental image of a poor bank clerk counting out $100,000,000 in small bills.

 

[MaryKB]

I know it's not how it works, but I just had the mental image of a poor bank clerk counting out $100,000,000 in small bills.

There's a machine that can count bills for you ... it's also reasonably good at detecting counterfeits. Tellers use that when verifying federal reserve shipments.

But counting $100k cakes about five minutes using that ... so $100MM would still take like over two weeks

 

[Zkribbler]

West facing windows are like a death sentence here. With the afternoon sun boiling in no amount of electric bill could keep a house livable. Our house has two west facing windows, both under a patio cover so the sun can't hit them until it's almost sunset.

When I lived in L.A., in summer I'd cover the west-facing windows with aluminum foil.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

West facing windows are like a death sentence here. With the afternoon sun boiling in no amount of electric bill could keep a house livable. Our house has two west facing windows, both under a patio cover so the sun can't hit them until it's almost sunset.

My last apartment was West-facing and the AC was on heavy duty most of the time. On the other hand, the amount of light we got was phenomenal and we never used the lights during the day. My new apartment faces interior to the complex and gets no direct light. It's nice that things are much cooler and there isn't any glare on the TV but turning on the lights to read is kind of depressing. I try and pretend it is cozy and not gloomy but the lack of sunlight is hard to adjust to.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

All the windows in my apartment face south. My computer desk is on the north wall (and I can't move it). It can be a little annoying sometimes.

 

[MaryKB]

When I lived in L.A., in summer I'd cover the west-facing windows with aluminum foil.

Did you find drapes or blinds to not be effective?