You dont have to be rich to do a bit of this actually
RIP Medical Debt is a charity (and therefore takes donations). They buy the rights to medical debt and then forgive them. So far they’ve forgiven over 1B in medical debt.
So a little ray of hope for someone out there today.
Oliver then proceeded to detail how with $50 and knowledge of the law he was able to successfully apply online to create a debt buying company named “Central Asset Recovery Professionals,” or as Oliver put it, “CARP” named after “a bottom-feeding fish.”
After setting up a rudimentary website for CARP, the satirical, but still real company was offered a $15 million package of medical debt for $60,000.
Oliver explained that the debt was out of statute, which means it is the kind of debt that a collector can only continue to collect, but not sue the debtor for.
Then, instead of chasing down the 9,000 debtors in the debt package as a normal collection agency would, Oliver decided to stage the largest one-time giveaway in television history and work with the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt to forgive the $15 million with no consequences for the debtors.
If you can, please donate to the Internet archive, links in the description. The loss of the archive would be devastating for dozens of reasons.
I know the Library of Alexandria comment sounds like an exaggeration. It absolutely is not. As of May 7, 2022, the Internet Archive holds over 35 million books and texts, 7.9 million movies, videos and TV shows, 842 thousand software programs, 14 million audio files, 4 million images, 2.4 million TV clips, 237 thousand concerts, and over 682 billion web pages in the Wayback Machine. It’s been operating since 1996, the loss of knowledge would be impossible to ever completely come back from.
The lawsuit from Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley Sons, and Penguin Random House alleges there have been significant revenue losses because of their controlled digital lending program. For context, most libraries in the US also use CDL to distribute books to their patrons wherever they are but those programs are run through for profit companies and the libraries are often paying a very high fee to so their patrons can have access to digital books. The Internet Archive’s program is completely free but they have a policy of not digitizing and lending anything less than 5 years old.
The lawsuit goes on to note that authors often own larger shares of their revenue of digital vs. print copies of their books. So the publishing companies, seeing that they’re underpaying their authors, are essentially blaming a library for being free instead of bumping up what authors earn on print copies. The Internet Archive’s 5 year policy is designed to protect authors anyway as that’s when books typically make the most money.
Hey by the way The Internet Archive is also one of the most cited places on Wikipedia. If it goes down a good chunk of Wikipedia will go back to “citation needed” or citations will lead to dead links.
This blue bird fainted and fell into some laundry in Poe’s living room. It was flailing around like a fish. It would’ve died, but Poe came out of his study and noticed the movement. He stopped his pacing to investigate.
“The hell?”
The blue bird said, “Help!”
Poe reached down and scooped the critter up in his hands.
“The hell are you doing in my laundry?”
“Suffocating,” it said. “What do you do? Those clothes are rancid.”
“I suffer,” said Poe.
The blue bird lifted its wing to its forehead and leaned so far back it flipped out of Poe’s hand and onto the floor.
“Shit,” said Poe. “You alright?”
“No,” said the blue bird. “Which way to the exit?”
“Well, I think—Hey, stick around, please? I’d like someone to talk to.”
The blue bird stretched its long legs. One was slightly shorter than the other, so it leaned to one side.
“You want I should listen to you talk?” it said.
“Yes,” said Poe.
“What about?”
“Oh, the things.”
“That sounds dirty-minded. I don’t go in for those chats.”
“It’s not! And anyway, what’s wrong with dirty-minded things?”
“That’s for the right company, and no offense, but it’s not you,” said the blue bird.
Poe covered his mouth. He held it there longer than he should have.
The blue bird flew up to the stove. It looked in the pan.
“I heard tell that there was once a princess who asked for one gift from her father the king. He promised it before she even said it (which you ought not do). She asked for the gift of flight. The king had his people investigate. Turns out we have light bones, light as empty twigs. That’s how we get about.”
Poe sat on the floor. His eyes were red, his lids puffy.
“The king explained the findings. Light bones, aerodynamics, all that. The princess held him to his word. A promise is a promise is bondage. The king knew it. He had them make a feather suit for her with wide flaps between the wrist and ribs. There was also a tail of sorts between the ankles. Finally, the king sucked innards from her bones. She was light but brittle, and her head was still like a rock. So he scooped out all he could, just enough.”
“He murdered her!” said Poe.
“See, now, I’m not finished. Settle down. The king took these parts of her and kept them safe in the basement where it was cold and rainy. Well, drippy. That old moisture. So she was preserved, you see. And then she was carried to the top of a ridge, held up by the wrists and ankles, and thrown to the wind.”
The blue bird nudged the meat in the pan. It was cold. The grease was congealed.
“Quail?” it asked.
“Well? Did the princess fly?”
“Uh, yeah, pretty far. As far as ducks. And the king never saw her again. That’s quail, right?”
Poe stood up. He wiped his face and looked at the pan.
“No, I um, I think it’s chicken.”
The blue bird looked up, then flew to the window.
“Do your laundry,” it said. “And clean your pan.”
“Hey, what was that story about?” asked Poe.
The blue bird held its wing to its head again and fell out through the window. It yelled “It’s about whatever!”
ALT
