TWiT’s Sad Slide Toward the Green Screen

Possible shooting location for TWiT
Possible shooting location for TWiT
It’s been widely reported that Leo Laporte is losing his million-dollar studio to a bar and brewery. Unable to cover the losses from Alex Lindsay’s Pixelcorps leaving their space ($10,000 per month), multiple cost-cutting measures have been implemented, such as the unceremonious firing of Mike Elgan and the cancelling of many shows, including those of possibly-racist Megan Morrone.

Expect more of this
Expect more of this.
During the latest TWiG’s preshow, Leo explains how he and Lisa are going to drop video from new shows — plus possibly dropping it from existing shows — as he’s threatened many times before. Leo Laporte goes on to explain that he has instructed John (JammerB) to film the studio for hours at a time during all times of the day so that he can downsize the TWiT operation to a sad green screen chroma key.

Pricing for the same ship during next year's New Year's Eve cruise.
Pricing for the same ship during next year’s New Year’s Eve cruise.
Will this be enough to pay for more two-story suites on cruise ships that cost $20,000+ per week (360 video)?

Will Leo have to force EffenDumb to drive for Uber in his down time to make up the slack?

Will Carly have to — God, we don’t want to even imagine. Hopefully TWiT lands on its beetus-ridden feet soon.

85 thoughts on “TWiT’s Sad Slide Toward the Green Screen”

  1. TYFYC.

    My only question is: where is the sex swing in the cruise suite?
    Because of Leo’s pear shaped body and small weenus (we know because we saw) and Lisa’s board-like body, he can’t possibly have sex without the sex swing, right ? Well, right ???

    No sex on the cruise ship make Leo a frustrated cunt.

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  2. Leo should go on a donut diet, that alone will save 8k to 12k a month. I would suggest Leo fire his gold digga wife. Why does she need to collect a salary and spend Leo’s cash? Let her do it like the house wives of X well to do city style.

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  3. $10,000 a month does not make sense.

    I think it was reported in that brochure when building was on the market that total rent was 13k (jumping in April 16 or 17 to 20k) and with Pixel Corp as a sub tenant sharing that cost. I doubt pixel Corp paid 10K and TWiT paid 3K. Twit can’t afford pixel cops share and increase in rent but….

    There was a comment that said (Lisa Google+) TWiT grew 27% or 28% in 2015.
    The math doesn’t work, if they grew 25% (they said that for 2014 year too) in 2015 that is an additional million easily. I don’t see the costs going up 25% in this business. What costs increased, payroll and staff and rent either decreased or stayed constant. I know cache fly is charging now too. So basically besides taxes he made an additional million and he can’t afford a rent hike and video. This company needs a CEO badly.

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  4. It’s almost as if someone is not telling the truth here. Could it be that there is some cooking of the financials and that they are not making as big of a profit as they say? Or is someone hiding a bunch of money in a separate account and using that money to support their extravagant lifestyle cars and cruises? In any case, TWIT will not exist as is does today in 2016.

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  5. Green screens have no business in news or talk shows. They always look worse than the real thing and the supposed initial savings only ever materialize if you skimp on the digital assets.

    It’s telling that Mr Gumpel is horrified by the idea, probably having the most hands-on experience with the green screen functions of their current broadcast and production pipeline.

    Just don’t.

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  6. Supposedly BYB’s product reviews will be done in other existing shows. How can you do that if your audio only ? The reason i and many have turned against Twit is the constant and pathetic lies that Leo keeps telling that his audience is far too intelligent to believe.

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    1. I doubt that. If he can keep this Leo Cult alive to be able to sell all these dumb ads with made up stories and out of place laughs across all the shows, the majority of the audience can’t be this bright. If the audience questions in shows like TTG and TNSS are a representation of that , then it underscores this even more.

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  7. well they did say some shows wouldn’t go audio only so i guess shows that had reviews like ios today wouldn’t lose video. either way twit is sinking fast. hes now even conscious of how his on air comments are getting on peoples nerves. oh i shouldnt say stuff blah blah . well you just did u moron.

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    1. It’s the shows that Leo does that won’t go to audio only. The ones that will will be the other shows especially the crap that the Priest is pumping out. They spend half their production time with him trying to hide his earpiece wire behind his head and hold in breathtaking blasts of anal gases.

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  8. Wow things have really gotten bad for Twit. Now they’re thinking of getting rid of video? Would that mean they wouldn’t be able to charge as much for advertisers?

    Whoever their CEO is, I hope he resigns because he’s obviously done a shitty job over the last few years. Or at least a pay-cut.

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  9. Getting rid of video would cut downloads by about 10% , but CEO Lisa has done the calculations, and by reducing costs, they would actually save money.

    They will go solar, and have all audio edited in India. And with the addition of a green screen they don’t have to build a set.

    It’s everything she learned at the Phoenix university school of business. Don’t you know, she has 20 years experience with start ups specializing in new media.

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    1. Really? This is the kind of “journalism” that makes Fox News look like the shining example of writing. How on Earth they’ve not gotten sued yet for this nonsense.

      I pop back in now and again to see if this has been taken down yet.

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  10. Also the NY studio is never gonna materialize as visioned. This whole “NY studio” fir Jeff Jarvis is the DUMBEST idea I’ve ever heard yet. Why the fuck does Jeff Jarvis need a studio?
    Srsly guys, the idea is dumber that deciding to hire Gum to be a news anchor/director.

    Fuck You Jef Jarvis!

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    1. The NY studio is too funny for words. Leo bull shits as normal about expanding to a NY studio. Jarvis believes his bull shit. Jarvis actually talks people into a studio. Studio is built. Leo has no use for studio and makes a fool of himself and Jarvis.

      This is too funny, total drama material writes itself.

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  11. Their prime Video show TNSS has between 3k – 6k downloads on average over the last 3 month on YouTube and this with pimping it on their other shows and on radio. I would consider YouTube to be a major video hub. Where are all those downloads hidden for this prime show or is there some video distribution on other major sites ? If 5000 views is all they get I would call this a bad return and they just keep it alive for Leo’s ego so he hasn’t to declare it a major failure.

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  12. So why drop $20k on a cruise? The stepkid looks miserable as per the photo someone posted in the last thread, and Leo will clearly not enjoy himself as all we heard was him ridiculing the whole trip from the fact that it leaves from Jersey or that they nickel and dime for everything.

    Come to think of it he didn’t even enjoy his last summer cruise, all we heard was how slow and boring it was.

    Why go through these motions? For bragging rights? Maybe donate some money to the needy and relax at home next time? He has all the toys he could want at home, from tech toys to sex toys.

    Oh right, he takes these trips so he can use his overpriced photography gear since his daily life in Peatluma is so deathly boring… also he’s Theeeeeee Tech Guy and he just has to test the fast marine internet on this new boat to see if it’s as fast as they claim.

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    1. The stepkid never smiles. I’ve never seen him smile when he’s at the brickhouse. I think there may be something wrong with him like some form of autism or something. It’s never mentioned on TD even though TD routinely diagnoses non-existent diseases of other TWiTs, including Leo’s 2 real kids so it’s not a question of leaving children out of it.

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  13. It all sounds like BS to me. He sounds like he’s absolutely lost and has no idea where he is headed. They have no deal for a new studio and supposedly have a set designer waiting in the wings. Why do you need a set designer if you’re looking to make most of your shows audio only? It’s approaching January 2016 and you have no new location and expect to have all the details ready for when the lease is up in April 2016?

    Sorry Leo but no one is buying what you’re trying to sell. The ship is sinking. What was once a promising alternative in tech broadcasting in the digital age is now crashing down on you. People believed in you and wanted to see you succeed in the post-TechTV era. Unfortunately for them, up until that point, they had never seen a side of you that was neatly hidden away during the TechTV years. When you started up TWiT you made yourself more available to your fans but it was through being so open and “unfiltered ” that you began to show everyone who the real Leo was. Because of ego and/or stupidity you thought it would be smart to let the audience be on the inside. Well it failed and many now feel duped into having followed such a fraud. On top of that once the CEO took over the reigns, greed became the number one priority. Ads selling mattresses and sheets got shoved down people’s throats. 10 minute diatribes with guests about the products that TWiT was hocking were disguised as native ads. Viewers were even asked to throw some money into a tip jar for two a-holes that were constantly flaunting their wealth to the audience.

    Sorry Leo but your time is up. Do us all a favor and close up shop. Put your tail between your legs and waddle home.

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    1. I believe the lease is until April 2017. Leo did say they want to move out early to a better studio, but as he finally mentions in this video it looks like the real reason is because of Pixel Corps moving out.

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      1. That’s right. It’s 2107 not 2016.
        But with the video for at least some shows being phased out (I heard Leo and Steve on SN discussing this for SN and they both said there was no reason for video on that show) if I were one of the 25 TWiT employees, I’d be getting my resume together and making calls.

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    2. LaporkeOnAFork
      I agree with you

      LaCunt knows what they are going to do next, he’s doing the same PR crap lie he always does when LaCunt is diverting our attention away from something already written in stone by Mrs LaCunt.

      Example when Jeff asked Leo not to fully abandon video shows LaCunt quickly replied ..”no no were not” yet the previous 5-10 min in the video LaCunt was trying to convince us video podcast were unimportant except for a few shows and we would be better off without video. WTF Leo?? What drugs r you and Mrs LaCunt smoking?

      Not sure about the rest of you guys but after listening to talk shows since I built my first crystal radio in 1969 at the age of 11 and reworking my steel cuffling box into a small pillow speaker so I could listen to talk shows like Garner T Armstrong or Art Bell at bed time because back then we only owned 1 TV and was parked in the living room.

      i feel just going back to audio podcasts as LaCunt wants and he’s going to do is a huge step backwards!!!
      been there done that
      Ever since I’ve owned a TV small enough to fit in my pocket back in the 1980’s I’ve never looked back.. I’ve never download an audio podcast or listened to talk radio( unless it was (Howard Stern) ever and I have yet to see a young kid today say”gee I’m bored of netflix/YouTube and porn let me download an audio podcast hosted by some creepy fat guy named Leo who talks about gadget shit he has no clue how to use, all the while trying to sell me a mattress every 15 min”
      It not going to happen!!!!!
      Leo may have younger listeners on his TTG radio show listen and call in but that’s live not podcast at that time. Besides kids calling into LaCunts radio show are 100 times smarter than LaCunt and already know their answer to the question they asked, the kids calling in use LaCunt get a plug or fame for themselves, like a selfie with Leo without the camera.

      Sure LaCunt current audio podcast listeners won’t care or be affected by no video, but in today’s visual age he is not going attract any new & young listeners..Period!!! Kids are to smart to waste their time on audio only, their eyes need stimulation as well ..this is why every tech company is researching VR Leo!!! They know it’s going to be what young and old viewers / listeners want now. Not some creepy old men voice podcasting from a $900 Iphone 6Plus.
      Wow are u stupid LaCunt, you brag how smart you are and u play chess , guess what we all did back in the 60’s/70’s there was nothing else to do back then,play chess and learn trivia.
      LaCunt can’t even attract 5,000 views on his YouTube video crap , but guys like Lamar Wilson gets over 10,000 plus likes/ views for showing a what shirts he bought on a recent X-mas shopping trip.

      My point is the LaCunts already know their next move and it really won’t involve their listeners & followers until they need the monies from us.

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      1. I agree video is far better, it even helps Leo with the shows that are information poor – like This Week in Google, or TWiT, as it provides a kind of distraction from the low quality content.

        I love video, it’s great to see the hosts and connect with them. Audio is dead and limited, a picture is often worth a thousand words …

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  14. Does anyone have any predictions for Twit in 2016? Maybe this time next year they’ll have completely turned it around?

    If I can be honest for just a moment, I don’t think Lisa married Leo for his charming personality. I could be wrong, but I think she might have been more motivated by his money.

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    1. It’d be interesting to timeline Lisa’s arrival and the resulting events that, it seems, could be attributed to her slow but steady takeover of Leo’s business. Leo has stated many times as far back as the little net cam posited on his desk in the cottage for the TTG show on KFI, that all he wanted to do was to come in… Do a show and go home. Dane allowed Leo this freedom but shortly after Lisa arrived, Dane was cut loose, surly Lisa’s doing, but Leo still wanted his studio(Brickhouse) and Lisa went along as the project manager and we know what a disaster that was, months behind schedule and six figures in cost over runs. The shit house was Lisa’s project, but by that point in TWiT’s time line, Leo and Lisa were hiding their bedroom antics. Erik must have run into this office romance not knowing (he states he didn’t know about the affair) Lisa’s pull with Leo and that was his demise. I’m also wondering if Amber had either seen L&L together off site or figured out something was up because Leo extracted himself from what otherwise was one of the better TWiT programs( Net @ Nite), if you go back and listen to those old shows, you can see that Amber drove the content and conversation, but the rapport between the two was genuine! Maybe, Ambers boyfriend/husband detected, not hard really, Leo’s creepy side and like a normal guy would do, insisted Amber extract herself away from the creep that Leo is!!! It would be interesting to see Lisa’s marriage timeline, I think she was married when she started at the cottage?? She must have figured out very early on the cash cow Leo was sitting on and wanted in on it!!! I need to ponder a bit more….

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  15. Are we sure that they really have that suite on the ship? Maybe they just green screened it . We don’t know its not fake and we know Leo has in depth knowledge of photoshopping a live video feed. Could this be TWiT’s version of “Capricorn One” ? Maybe Leo was trying to tip everyone off in the TWiG opening? Perhaps it was a desperate call for help?? Nah, that’s a different show …

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  16. Yep looks like the Podtrack affiliate ads that every other podcast also has are not sustaining the millions in revenue Leo claims TWiT is making. Even the Icecast listener numbers are dropping considerably. In the early days he would average 150 listeners and up. Today his average has dropped to about 30 to 40 listeners. There are little nobody guy with a microphone shows I listen to that have that many listeners, and all they do is play music to a group of friends.

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  17. Here’s what the so called CEO should do: Fire all the employees of TWiT. Move Leo’s podcasting rig to his guest room at home. Since all the host Skype into the shows anyway, it’ll work just as well as any of the other 1,000 podcasts who’s level of tech support is to tell listeners to just buy a new one. The only real problem is the only crowd that still needs advice on what cell phone to buy are all over 50 years old and still using flip phones from 1999 and Diamond Rio MP3 players. He’ll have to actually give tech advice though because anyone that isn’t a complete dolt already knows what cell phone to get because of the 5,000 cell phone commercials on TV daily. If you are one of the very few that still doesn’t know what cell phone to get, the answer is either Android or iPhone. Which one you get depends on which app store you want to give money to. Both brands do generally the same things. The next move his so called CEO should do once Leo’s podcast microphone is moved into his guest room is, sign up for Patreon. Oh wait, Leo snubbed Patreon, so that’s out. Maybe he can collect Bit Coin? Oh wait, all the bit coin banks have been shut down for fraud. I guess it all depends on how long the executives at Premier keep his contract alive to sell cell phones to 60 year old people. Back in the late 90’s yeah ZDTV and Tech TV was avante guard because computers were new and the internet was new, but these days telling people to buy a new one is not as relevant, because everybody already has one, and in 2 years when their cell phone contract is up, they’ll get one that their carrier offers.

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    1. Thank you for simultaneously insulting Leo and anyone over 40. It’s the older folk that are the most pissed off at him the younger ones never really gave a damn. They just tap shuffle on their Iphone and move on to the next Adele song.

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      1. Well being that I am over 40, then I am insulting myself. However being that Leo’s tech support answer to everything is just buy another one, wouldn’t Leo be the one who is encouraging the throw it away and move on to the next Adell song crowd?

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    2. Remember when they kept quoting the steve jobs line over and over, “we are in a post PC era” . At the time I knew that couldn’t be further from the truth because there is way to much stuff you can’t do on a tablet that you can do on a Laptop or Desktop. They finally stopped quoting it but wow, they just kept pushing and pushing it.

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      1. Steve said some asinine things (nobody wants to watch video on a small screen, no one wants a big iPhone, nobody wants a 7″ tablet), but that was the dumbest thing he ever said.

        So long as a keyboard is the best input method we have, a tablet will never be as productive as a laptop or desktop.

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    3. Summary of all TTG listeners in the last year:

      “Should I accept this Windows 10 offer?”
      “Should I get the Galaxy or iPhone?”
      -A call that happens to be a perfect excuse for Leo to shill an ad for Car-bo-nite.

      Those call screeners are really earning their keep. Seriously – fatty can’t be bothered doing real tech support. That’s for the smelly basement-dwelling nerds and not the fashionable ones who spent a weekend with Steve Jobs in 1994 where his daughter Lisa was there and very much a part of Jobs’ family.

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      1. You left out Elliot. Elliot is the 11 yr old kid that calls in every weekend by Skype. His parents sit their and hold his hand everytime. It seems like a waste of resources. The kid’s obsession with Leo is becoming very creepy.

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  18. He said Alex paid a third of the rent and rent is going up, maybe Alex paid 3K and increase is 7K? However The other lie:

    Video is 30% of DL and he is gonna dump that? Another lie, even Lisa isn’t that dumb.

    Dropping video will kill the trolls though. No one is DLing this shit.

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    1. Do the figures even matter?

      The point is the business visionary Lisa didn’t bother asking herself what would happen if PixelCorps decided to move somewhere else.

      Obviously what happens is they can’t afford the space without PC and they are now scrambling like chickens with their heads cut off.

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  19. If you follow my link below, you will see the actual lease amounts from a third party. It states clearly that total rent was 13K. (Cask 132 AKA social club at 132 Keller was neighbor tenant paying 7K) How is Alex’s share of 13K a full 10K? Please amend the article and give yourself 20 lashes for relying on anything Leo says.

    Real Estate is very simple math. It is beyond the scope of reason why TWiT did not buy the property. When he moved in, the ask price was probably less. When he retires. He would have had an additional property worth 3 million with a mostly paid off mortgage instead of a pile rent receipt. This is math all business owners should do. And, for security he could have taken on a partner in real estate.

    https://totaldrama.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/keller-realtor-info.pdf

    Whoever had the foresight to store the brochure on your server – good job.

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  20. Leo will never admit it however:

    Him and his Wife/CEO have made huge mistakes. What could have been a 100 million dollar exit, is now drivel.

    They built the MILLION dollar studio, and tried to set up a big dog and pony show, while wagging their tail around trying to get someone to buy them.

    No-one wanted that tail.

    Why? Because it is mostly the Leo network. Why is that? Because Leo and Lisa are terrible managers and leaders. They don’t inspire people, they stifle them.

    So after spending all that money and trying to make big shots of themselves, They are now realizing that the expenses are way too high.

    But can they admit that what they did was a mistake, and after all it turns out Leo and Lisa know nothing about setting up a network, and creating new shows, and growing a NEW audience? No.!! They could not admit that.

    Although it is very very true. Leo has been coasting for years on his TV fame + his early shows (that used to be good), and his ability to plug his network on the radio.

    They know now that the emperor has no clothes. They don’t know how to make a success of anything new. So where does that leave them?

    Retreat! But they cannot admit defeat. So they have to FOLD things into things, and RE-EVALUATE their video offerings, and they have to create new companies like ART IS ANAL.

    This is all just to hide the simple fact that:
    A) CEHO does not know what she is doing, and has done nothing but make mistakes.

    B) They are not creative and energetic enough to do anything new.

    Ooooopsie.

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      1. Yup that’s what always puzzled me – when I used to listen to Twit, Alex would sometimes talk about the large number of Macs they had (like, dozens, from what I remember), in the office. Why? What for? And how is the African education stuff related to the old Pixelcorp website which spoke of how Pixelcorp was a new type of guild for digital media professionals?

        It’s just always puzzled me. Alex doing educational programs in African schools is one thing; Alex setting up a professional guild, with large numbers of computers and an office costing several thousand dollars a month, that’s something else.

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        1. I figure he got disillusioned with the computer animation field, and is flooding the industry with lots of labor… for some reason, so no one can earn a good wage? That is my theory. Alex himself has a creepy vibe so I can do without him altogether.

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  21. The one show they never going to cut video is TTG.
    For this show Leo needs all the help he can get in case a question slips through the call screening other than a little chat about a phone or fax machine. Video is one form of communication with the “in his words” useless chat-room from which he gets a substantial amount of help and TheTechFraud would be exposed otherwise

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    1. That was on TWiT Fit, Leo quickly realized a name change would have to take place: TWiT Fat … So he just shit house canned the show , one of the first if not the first TWiT show to be shown the exit door.

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  22. You would think if you have a major move in April 2016 you would be looking for a new place and setting up the studio now isntead of going on a overpriced vacation.

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    1. GAME ON wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t given time to find its groove. L&L decided to pull the plug after a handful of episodes because the viewers weren’t there, but they never did an ounce of advertising to promote the show. Not many knew it even existed. It could have developed into something. I loved that show, flaws and all.

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    1. Oh that’s any easy one, Mrs Bucket.

      They’ll do deals with education authorities that love to splash cash on hi tech contracts. These will likely be private schools (UK-speak for “not financed by the state”) where there’s lots of money around. Like in all countries, there will be plenty of parts of Rwanda (I remember he was there for quite a while, and marvelled at how good the Internet connection was – this was NOT the sort of school for kids growing up in poverty) that have loads of wealthy elites wanting good education for their kids.

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  23. I just noticed that Jarvis tries, 3 times, to talk about the New York studio, and Leo ignores him every time. It’s probably cos of different audio levels etc., but it was really noticeable that all Jeff was interested in was the New York stuff, but Leo didn’t say a word about it.

    Talking of which, is there a chance that the New York studio might actually happen? Isn’t it being (part-)funded by CUNY?

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