It'ss not a bug in the software...it's Rat(s)

by ericjohnson.

We spent several days early in this trip getting all of our connectivity in order. Michael worked hard to set up our broadcast site, while I spent time getting our editorial workspace together. We tested all of our connections quite thoroughly, and things were looking great - so we settled down and had a great night of sleep knowing that everything was going smoothly from a technical standpoint.

The next day we starting getting things going and discovered that our ISDN connectivity, which we were using to transmit our audio back to Los Angeles, had stopped working. Michael looked at our ISDN interface and had found that the little light that confirms the line status had gone dark.

After getting in touch with our China-based producer to translate with the technicians here at the hotel, it was discovered that sometime overnight, our ISDN lines had actually been severed.

The technicians went around the building, and back into the phone closet, and discovered that in fact rats had chewed through the cabling. Rats!

Thankfully after a short while, the hotel engineering staff was able to get our connectivity restored and the broadcast was saved again!

...rat's teeth are so strong they can chew through concrete, cables? easy street.

Dracula and 11,000 rats?

The Alamo Drafthouse continues its Werner Herzog retrospective with one of Herzog's best-known works, the vampire film "Nosferatu" (1979). Based on F.W. Murnau's legendary 1922 German film of the same title, Herzog's "Nosferatu" is known for its striking cinematography, frightening images and stellar acting. Klaus Kinski stars as Dracula, with French actress Isabelle Adjani and Bruno Ganz portraying the hapless couple who encounter the Count.

A fun, yet disturbing movie fact: Herzog and his crew in Delft, Holland, used 11,000 rats in making the film and were careful to make sure none of the rats made a break for it. 7 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, 409 Colorado St. $5-$6.50. 476-1320.

...all those movie rat stars.

Rats don’t race, we do !

“The trouble with the rat race is that, even if you win, you’re still a rat” (Lily Tomlin)

All this is unfair to rats: as a biologist, I can assure you that, in normal and natural life, rats do not race. We do, or at least some of us do! A ‘rat race’ is a term used for an endless, self-defeating or pointless pursuit. It conjures up the image of the futile efforts of rats in a laboratory trying to escape whilst running around a maze or in a wheel. They make lots of noise bumping into each other, but ultimately go nowhere, i.e. achieve nothing, either collectively or individually. Like people, it seems, in some modern settings.

The ‘rat race’ is a term often used to describe competition at work, in schools and universities, business, commerce and industry, show-biz and “professional” sports, politics and research, even amongst NGOs and religious sects and, of course, in life in general. If one is constantly competing for everything, with “beating the adversary” (at any cost?) as the main aim, one is in the ‘rat race’.

...rats in The Rat Race...I don't think so...

Its not The Running of The Bulls...but The Running of Rats

Written by misha marinsky

NEW YORK – At a press conference held here at the Javits Convention Center, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that New York City was inaugurating an annual Running of the Rats, to compete for tourist dollars with Pamplona, Spain and Mina, Saudi Arabia.

“Then,” Mr. Bloomberg went on to say, “once a horde of rats has gathered, and everyone is running and screaming down Broadway, city officials will release a pack of Jack Russell terriers. Pamplona and Mina will pale in comparison. The scene will be a pure, un-distilled New York City Rat Race. We will get immediate world wide attention.”

Mr. Bloomberg said he hoped this event will quickly take on the stature of Pamplona and the reverence of the hajj trampling in Mina. “I do not know if a latter day Hemingway will write about it with such eloquence, but I believe our hope for world class journalists to come here and publicize it, will be realized. We are going to offer complementary airfare and lodging to journalists who will not only write about it, but also participate in it as Hemingway would have.”

...only in America