The Off Topic Topic

[CountDeMoney]

I got my CableCard paired up over the weekend, but they never authorized the premium channels.  I tried getting hold of them earlier in the week, but after waiting for 20 minutes to get through to somebody, I find other things to do.

Talked to one chick who figured out what the problem was, and then transferred me to the next available representative, who said he saw "a mix up in the codes, i'm going to put you on hold", and ten minutes later, viola'!  DO DO DO

It is truly surprising that more cable companies don't see more shootings and bombings.

[derspiess]

I got my CableCard paired up over the weekend, but they never authorized the premium channels.  I tried getting hold of them earlier in the week, but after waiting for 20 minutes to get through to somebody, I find other things to do.

Talked to one chick who figured out what the problem was, and then transferred me to the next available representative, who said he saw "a mix up in the codes, i'm going to put you on hold", and ten minutes later, viola'!  DO DO DO

It is truly surprising that more cable companies don't see more shootings and bombings.

I have three different cable card devices with tuning adapters.  When I call Time Warner, I just ask for the cable card self-install helpdesk.  That gets me level 2 or 3 support without going through the "first, unplug your device" bullshit.

[Ed Anger]

I loathe the Time Warner Indians.

[CountDeMoney]

I have three different cable card devices with tuning adapters.  When I call Time Warner, I just ask for the cable card self-install helpdesk.  That gets me level 2 or 3 support without going through the "first, unplug your device" bullshit.

They know they have to activate it the proper codes;  two people have told me so tonight.  They just can't do it without hanging up on me first. 

[CountDeMoney]

I heard they trimmed their customer service staff by 30%

Well, at least Yi will be happy.  Now that's customer service, shareholder style!

[CountDeMoney]

Finally got it sorted out.  Must've been shift change at the call center.

[11B4V]

Finally got it sorted out.  Must've been shift change at the call center.

My other half picked up a part time gig at Amazon handling return orders and such. Loads of tools an idiots.

[CountDeMoney]

I put in an app for the local FYE for weekend work, LOL, working in a mall with stoners.  Who knew it'd be 1989 all over again?

[Ideologue]

Kumar Pallana, the actor best known for small but memorable roles in Wes Anderson's films, has died at age 94, according to a source close to his family. Pallana first came to filmgoers' attention with Anderson's Bottle Rocket, in which he played one of Owen Wilson's inept partners in crime with charming guilelessness. (It helped that Pallana looked like he wasn't exactly aware he was in a movie.)

Anderson and Wilson "discovered" Pallana at the coffee shop owned by Pallana's son Dipak, who has also appeared in Anderson's films. The elder Pallana went on to memorable scenes in both Rushmore—as Mr. LittleJeans, the groundskeeper—and in The Royal Tenenbaums, in which he played Gene Hackman's sidekick (and eventual stabber). His work in Anderson's films led to small parts in other Hollywood movies, including The Terminal and Another Earth.

Pallana led a massively interesting life before hitting the big screen at nearly 80. Born in colonial India, he lived all around the world, and first made a name for himself as an entertainer in America in the 1950s. Back then he was known as Kumar Of India, and his specialty was spinning plates—he even appeared on Captain Kangaroo in 1961. (Other feats included magic, balancing, swordplay, and juggling—you can see him do a handstand in The Royal Tenenbaums.)

Pallana had settled into a relatively quiet life in Dallas as he got older, selling Indian spices and food at his son's coffee shop. Anderson and the Wilson brothers would frequent Cosmic Cup—to play chess and cards and take pictures, according to Pallana—and eventually they drafted him for bit parts. (As he tells it in this excellent Believer interview, they didn't give him much of a choice.) He became an integral part of Anderson's singular filmic universe. Though Anderson created that universe, Pallana clearly belonged there. "What'd you think of the play, Mr. LittleJeans?" "Best play ever, man."

[jimmy olsen]

I wonder who won? 

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/iran-deploys-sniper-teams-in-tehran-to-battle-mutant-rats

Iran deploys sniper teams in Tehran to battle 'mutant' rats

Michael Theodoulou
March 4, 2013

For the first time, snipers have deployed in Tehran to combat a plague of "mutant" rats that are increasingly resistant to poison and have grown so big that cats are scared of them.

Ten teams of sharpshooters armed with rifles equipped with infra-red sights have bagged more than 2,000 of the brutish rodents in recent weeks, city officials told state media.

That's a drop in the ocean: Iran's rat population easily outnumbers the sprawling capital's 12 million inhabitants. The city council is now boosting the number of sniper squads to 40, officials said.

"It's become a 24/7 war," a grim-faced Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh, the head of Tehran municipality's environmental agency, declared on state television last month. "We use chemical poisons to kill the rats during the day and the snipers at night."

Tehran city authorities exterminate nearly one million rats a year and annually declare new, multimillion dollar campaigns to control the pest problem. But the rats are proving to be natural born survivors.

"They seem to have had a genetic mutation," Ismail Kahram, an environmental adviser to the city council, said. "They are bigger now and look different. These are changes that normally take millions of years of evolution," he told the website Qudsonline.ir last month. He said cats are now smaller than some of Tehran's rats, which can weigh up to 5kg.

The problem gets worse with the onset of warmer weather when the snows on the nearby Alborz mountains begin to melt, raising water levels and flushing rats out of their subterranean lairs.

Many flourish in the open water channels that criss-cross the capital, such as the roadside streams flanking Ali Asr, the Middle East's longest street. It is a bustling tree-lined thoroughfare, packed with fast-food outlets and restaurants, running from upmarket north Tehran to the city's poorer southern suburbs.

In this latter part of the capital, the rat population is thought to be six times higher than the number of people living there, state-run media reported in 2010.

The tons of poisons used each year are meant to make the rats feel thirsty, so they return underground in search of moisture, reducing a possible health hazard from the corpses.

The bodies of the rats blasted by snipers are either incinerated or taken to the Kahrizak district in southern Tehran where they are covered in lime and then buried.

The rat problem has been such a major issue for several years that a newspaper once ran a cartoon in which a rat tells a man: "Our numbers are more than yours, so you leave Tehran."

[Ed Anger]

I put in an app for the local FYE for weekend work, LOL, working in a mall with stoners.  Who knew it'd be 1989 all over again?

Just think of the jailbait coming in.

[CountDeMoney]

I don't think I could tolerate that environment without hurting somebody.

[derspiess]

I heard they trimmed their customer service staff by 30%

Well, at least Yi will be happy.  Now that's customer service, shareholder style!

I may or may not have completely made that up.  Didn't get the reaction I wanted.  I'm 0-2 in the past couple days

[derspiess]

I loathe the Time Warner Indians.

My local line must go to a different call center.  I never get furriners.

[Malthus]

I wonder who won? 

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/iran-deploys-sniper-teams-in-tehran-to-battle-mutant-rats

Iran deploys sniper teams in Tehran to battle 'mutant' rats

Michael Theodoulou
March 4, 2013

For the first time, snipers have deployed in Tehran to combat a plague of "mutant" rats that are increasingly resistant to poison and have grown so big that cats are scared of them.

Ten teams of sharpshooters armed with rifles equipped with infra-red sights have bagged more than 2,000 of the brutish rodents in recent weeks, city officials told state media.

That's a drop in the ocean: Iran's rat population easily outnumbers the sprawling capital's 12 million inhabitants. The city council is now boosting the number of sniper squads to 40, officials said.

"It's become a 24/7 war," a grim-faced Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh, the head of Tehran municipality's environmental agency, declared on state television last month. "We use chemical poisons to kill the rats during the day and the snipers at night."

Tehran city authorities exterminate nearly one million rats a year and annually declare new, multimillion dollar campaigns to control the pest problem. But the rats are proving to be natural born survivors.

"They seem to have had a genetic mutation," Ismail Kahram, an environmental adviser to the city council, said. "They are bigger now and look different. These are changes that normally take millions of years of evolution," he told the website Qudsonline.ir last month. He said cats are now smaller than some of Tehran's rats, which can weigh up to 5kg.

The problem gets worse with the onset of warmer weather when the snows on the nearby Alborz mountains begin to melt, raising water levels and flushing rats out of their subterranean lairs.

Many flourish in the open water channels that criss-cross the capital, such as the roadside streams flanking Ali Asr, the Middle East's longest street. It is a bustling tree-lined thoroughfare, packed with fast-food outlets and restaurants, running from upmarket north Tehran to the city's poorer southern suburbs.

In this latter part of the capital, the rat population is thought to be six times higher than the number of people living there, state-run media reported in 2010.

The tons of poisons used each year are meant to make the rats feel thirsty, so they return underground in search of moisture, reducing a possible health hazard from the corpses.

The bodies of the rats blasted by snipers are either incinerated or taken to the Kahrizak district in southern Tehran where they are covered in lime and then buried.

The rat problem has been such a major issue for several years that a newspaper once ran a cartoon in which a rat tells a man: "Our numbers are more than yours, so you leave Tehran."

Article is missing any blame of the Israelis for mutating the rats.