Category: Life

Cell Phone Carriers Target Hispanics

Cell Phone Carriers Target Hispanics – Forbes.com
cell phone companies and other technology providers that are increasingly targeting a young, tech-savvy Hispanic population – at 43 million, the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S. – that is expected to have $1 trillion in buying power by 2010.

Latinos, on average, used 979 voice minutes per month in the third quarter of 2005, trailing only blacks in that area, according to estimates by Telephia Inc., a consumer research firm. Asians or Pacific Islanders used 845 minutes and whites used 632 minutes.

Fake Halloween Plane Crash Fools Police

News 8 :: KFMB Stations, San Diego, California
A shocking Halloween display is creating some extreme reactions in one Los Angeles-area neighborhood.

The display features a fake plane crash so realistic even the police were fooled.

“It caught my eye. I thought a plane had crashed, and when I spoke to the owner he advised me that he was setting up a Halloween display,” said Greg Andrachick with the Los Angeles Police Department.

The homeowner is an aircraft mechanic in training and the parts are from a real Gulfstream jet.

Just about everyone who’s seen the display so far likes it, once they realize it’s not a real accident.

The only complaint the homeowner says he’s received is that the display is creating a traffic jam in the neighborhood because so many people want to see it.

Here is a slide show if you want to see it

RECIPE for making truly gross and disgusting Kitty Litter Cake for Halloween

RECIPE for making truly gross and disgusting Kitty Litter Cake for Halloween

1 spice or German chocolate cake mix
1 white cake mix
2 large pkg vanilla instant pudding mix, prepared (I like Bird’s® dessert mix)
1 large pkg vanilla sandwich cookies
green food coloring
12 small Tootsie Rolls®

1 new kitty litter pan
1 new plastic kitty litter pan liner
1 new pooper scooper
Thank Chip Welfeld for this

Continue reading “RECIPE for making truly gross and disgusting Kitty Litter Cake for Halloween”

Fossilized Finds Prompt Rethinking of Natural History

Fossilized Finds Prompt Rethinking of Natural History
The discovery of a group of half-billion-year-old fossilized embryos in China has given a glimpse of the very first animals to evolve on Earth, overturning the accepted picture of how life evolved.

We’ve completely characterized the embryos, and we see no features of any living animal group,” Philip Donoghue of the University of Bristol, one of the team, said. “In fact, we argue that these are embryos of a grade of animal evolution preceding all living groups. There is going to be a huge scrap over this.” “The really big deal is that we see no evidence of more complex animals, indicating that at 580 million years ago, they had not yet evolved.

Jalapeño-eating contest one hot time

Star-Telegram.com | 10/08/2006 | Jalapeño-eating contest one hot time
In the most impressive gastrointestinal display this side of Fear Factor, professional eater Rich “The Locust” LeFevre swallowed 247 peppers up to their stems in eight minutes to take the title. The 60-year-old retired Nevada accountant, who drives across the country entering eating contests, won $2,000. His wife accompanies him on his trips.

The pros knew a few tricks the amateurs didn’t. Erik “the Red” Denmark said he took Pepto Bismol beforehand to coat his stomach. All four pros took their own drinks — milk and juice — knowing that the water that was provided didn’t stand a chance against the acids and oils in the peppers.

Huang, meanwhile, went into the contest with a strategy he called “all heart, no talent.” He downed 53 jalapeños, although he was unable to talk about it for several minutes. He could manage only guttural groans.

When he regained the ability to form words, the first thing Huang said was, “I can’t feel my face.”

Iraqi version of Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.”

The Seattle Times: Iraqi comedy show pulls no punches
— The year is 2017, according to the opening credits of the fake news broadcast, and the last man alive in Iraq, whose name is Saaed, is sitting at a desk, working as a television news anchor. He sports an Afro, star-shaped sunglasses and a button-down shirt.

Saaed joyfully announces that the Americans are finally leaving Iraq. Referring to the U.S. secretary of defense, Saaed, sitting behind his news desk, says: “Rums bin Feld said the American forces are leaving on 1-1,” referring to Jan. 1.

He’s giddy, raising his arms in the air. Then he realizes he’s made a mistake. The soldiers are leaving one by one, not on 1-1. He computes in his head what leaving one by one means and announces that the soldiers will be gone in 694 years. He starts to cry; Iraqis watching the show howl. Click to enlarge picture.
The Americans are still here, the government is still bumbling and the anchor wants his viewers to drink their tea slowly so they don’t burn themselves. “You cannot go to the hospital during the curfew,” he warns. For Iraqis, the remark is outrageously funny, if only because it’s so close to being true.

After a summer of the worst violence since U.S. troops toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime, tens of thousands of Iraqis are finding solace and amusement in a new television show whose dark satirical humor makes it an Iraqi version of Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.”

Get a Human on the Phone!

gethuman list of Company phone numbers & how to get a human
If your Compnay isn’t in this database then, once you have a phone number, here are some tips to try to get through the computer to get to a live human:

  1. Interrupt. Press 0 (or 0# or #0 or 0* or *0) repeatedly, sometimes quickly. Unfortunately the same keystroke does not always work for each company. Many IVRs will connect to a human after a few “invalid entries”, although some IVRs will hangup. 🙁
  2. Talk. Say “get human” (or “agent” or “representative”) or raise your voice, or just mumble. 🙂 The IVR might connect you to a human after one of these key or unknown phrases.
  3. Just hold, pretending you have only an old rotary phone.
  4. Connect to account collections or sales or account cancellation; they always seem to answer quickly. First ask them for their name and rep number (so they know you are writing it down, and thus so they are more likely to help you.) Then ask them to transfer you to the department you need. Sometimes they will put you ahead of the queue, although sometimes they will send you to the end (and thus in those cases this tip is useless).
  5. Toll call. For credit cards, if the expected wait time is too long, hangup and try to call back on their non-toll-free number, as they often have shorter queues.
  6. Selecting the option for Spanish will sometimes get you a bilingual human more quickly than if you just waited for an English-only operator.

When you do finally find a human, ask them how to connect directly the next time (in case your call gets disconnnected etc),