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1. DirecTV and Viacom Settle, Nary an Episode of Hip Hop Squares Missed.
The nine day battle over how much DirecTV really wanted to pay for Snooki-based entertainment ended this week when Viacom backed off its price of $1 billion to around $600 million over the next five years. The only casualty in the fight was Viacom’s newest network Epix, which means that DirecTV subscribers won’t get to watch William Shatner’s “Get a Life” premiering July 28th at 8pm Eastern. Sorry, folks!
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-20/business/chi-viacom-directv-reach-deal-end-blackout-20120720_1_derek-chang-directv-dispute-directv-customers
2. Your Four Year Investment in Bitcoins Is Finally Paying Off.
Bitcoins, the first really vague attempt at creating an official “online currency” has seen its price per coin spike up to $9 this week, after the bitcoin market crashed in 2011 due to security concerns. Which I cannot believe coming from a currency that runs entirely off servers originally set up to run Magic: The Gathering online games. But still, now we can finally move off the Linden Standard.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/bitcoin-price-soars-above-9-for-the-first-time-in-almost-a-year/
3. Fighting Back with LOLCats
In an attempt to diffuse extremism on terrorist message boards, several groups with U.S. Government support have sprung up with one mission: to troll the users into submission. They have been going on jihadist message boards and mocking their most vocal leaders, causing the board to clear out or abandon the cause. At last, a counter-terrorism strategy I finally understand.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/07/counterterrorism-trolls/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wired/index+(Wired:+Top+Stories)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
4. By This Scale, I’m Worth at Least Quintuple What I’m Paying Me.
The LA Times released an interesting survey this week, determining how much networks are paying their show’s stars against how many viewers those shows draw. The big winners? Ty Burrell from “Modern Family” (8 cents per viewer) and Snooki ($0.16 per, so maybe Viacom was onto something there). The biggest losers? Anderson Cooper ($13.54 per) and Chelsea Handler ($16.70, ugh).
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-star-pay-interactive,0,4636389.htmlstory#/rank1
5. Something Awful Sends Rapper Pitbull to Alaska
Pitbull was running a contest last month to see what Walmart in the United States could get the most “likes” to get him to do an autograph signing. Well, people should really know better than to trust the internet with this sort of thing. SA’s David Thorpe got together with some of the rest of Something Awful’s staff and they blew up the page for the most remote Walmart in the country, the one in Kodiak, Alaska. For his part, Pitbull has been very gracious about the whole thing, though he did sort of menacingly imply that Mr. Thorpe should come with him.
http://www.uproxx.com/music/2012/07/well-done-internet-pitbull-is-headed-to-a-walmart-in-the-frozen-wilds-of-alaska/
(related
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/54205/i-know-you-want-me/)
Matt: Top Movies
The MMPA says No.
,
Dan: Top Games
Laura: Top Books
http://books.usatoday.com/list/index
Matt: Top Songs (iTunes)
Dan: Illegal Top Downloads
And now, a Hock Show exclusive, we sat down and talked with William Shatner at Comic-Con about his documentary “Get a Life” airing July 28th at 8:00pm, only on Epix!
