MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT MONDAY!
Don't miss it at 7:10 AM... We're announcing what could be our biggest giveaway ever! You'll be able to qualify right after we announce it!
DON'T THINK A LIFETIME IS A LONG TIME?
Last night, on England's Channel 4, there's going to be a documentary called "Human Footprint", which, basically, will break every aspect of your life into a statistic. Here are some of the numbers they calculated:
--On average, you have 2,475,576,000 seconds on Earth. (--In years, that makes you 78-and-a-half years old.)
--As a baby you used 3,796 diapers.
--You'll cry 15 gallons worth of tears.
--You'll eat 10,866 carrots and 10,354 chocolate bars.
--You'll know nine people who die in car accidents
--You'll produce foul gaseous emissions an average of 15 times a day.
--You'll say 123,206,750 words, or about 4,200 words every day.
--You'll use 4,239 rolls of toilet paper, 276 tubes of toothpaste and 198 bottles of shampoo.
--You'll make 1,700 friends (Take that, MySpace!)
--You'll read 2,455 newspapers.
--You'll have 104,390 dreams.
--You'll get 628 Christmas presents.
--You'll spend $60,521 on new clothes.
--And you'll blink 415 million times.
$10 AIRLINE TICKETS?
On Tuesday, a new airline called Skybus launched in the U.S., and it's opening up with one MAJOR hook: On every flight, tickets start at $10. And that's GREAT! But now for the catch... let's look at the MONSTROUS amount of fine print we dug up.
1) The $10 seats sell out very quickly. After that, the prices still aren't bad. . . one-way tickets for $50, $75, $100 or $125. . . but that's not $10. In a search of flights from L.A. to Columbus, Ohio, only TWO days between now and December have $10 flights left.
2) There are about $10 worth of fees and taxes that double the price of the $10 tickets.
3) All the flights route through Columbus. Which is GREAT if you live in Columbus. Otherwise, it's pretty inconvenient. . . for example, to fly from Seattle to Los Angeles, you'd have to go through Ohio.
4) One of the ways they're keeping costs down is by using minor airports. So you don't fly into L.A., you fly into Burbank. You fly into Bellingham, not Seattle, which is about 80 miles away from Seattle. For Boston, you fly into Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Maybe they'll start Bakersfield service sometime...
5) They are BANNING all outside food and drink on the plane. . . so if you want to eat, you have to buy their food and drinks.
6) Another major cost-cutting move is only having a website, and no phone number. Call centers cost a fortune. And usually that'll be fine. . . until there's a weather issue and your flight is cancelled and your only option is to E-MAIL them for help.
7) There isn't going to be much customer service at the airports either. You'll HAVE to check in at an automated kiosk, and there won't be anyone helping out at the gate until the flight attendants get there right before the plane leaves.
8) It costs $5 to check a bag, another $5 for a second bag and $50 for a third bag. The seating is Southwest-style, first-come, first-served. . . but you can jump to the front of the line for $10. (No word on what happens if EVERYONE pays to jump the line.)
9) Their starting salary for pilots will be about $65,000. That's HALF of what starting pilots make on other airlines. . . which means you're possibly looking at REJECT pilots who can't get jobs on major airlines.
10) And finally, there's no in-flight entertainment. . . no movie, no DirecTV in your seat, not even an episode of "Boy Meets World".
BUT... if all that sounds worth it to you to fly for a fraction of what it costs on another airline.... that, frankly, offers just a SLIGHTLY more pleasurable experience... Skybus is booking flights on its website right now. Hop on it fast before all the $10 seats are gone.
"IDOL GIVES BACK" RESULTS
SO FAR, THE "IDOL GIVES BACK" SPECIAL HAS RAISED OVER $60 MILLION FOR CHARITY:
Yesterday, Fox announced that the "American Idol" special "Idol Gives Back" has raised at least $60 MILLION for charity so far. (At the end of Wednesday's broadcast, they announced a total of over $30 million just for the East Coast.)
The $60 million includes a $5 million pledge from Fox's parent company News Corp., which promised to give 10 cents for each vote cast by "Idol" viewers up to 50 million votes. (--More than 70 million votes were cast on Tuesday night.)
The money will go toward helping impoverished children in Africa and the U.S. And since donations are still coming in, "Idol" will announce an updated total on next Tuesday's performance show.
