It may not necessarily be strange by your standards, but maybe by other people’s standards. For me, it was blue crab innards. My friends and I were having a blue crab boil and I saw my good friend from northern China eating everything inside the opened crab shell – I had never seen that before. My curiosity was piqued so I tried it. It wasn’t bad and I didn’t get sick or anything.

So, what weird thing have you eaten? Did you decide to eat it randomly or for another reason?

V's monologue at the beginning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OB6EsUP4tU

V's TV speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLD3Z6sJWA

Evey finding strength in her time of difficulty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxnlNb3QrgQ

These a just to name a few....

I come home today and one of my neighbors informs me that a naked woman’s body was found not 100 feet outside my bedroom window, obscured by the empty house that no one lives in that is next door to mine. I keep thinking about the fact that I tend to leave my bedroom window open most nights with the shades open to let in a fresh breeze since no one lives on that side of my house. No one can tell me if the body was decomposing or not, but I recall a taking a nap one evening last week and being awoken by a racket outside my window in the other house’s yard. I peeked to see what was going on and I saw the shadow of some guy (I couldn’t clearly see him because it was so dark out) fiddling with something in the other yard and he must have seen my silhouette because he stopped what he was doing and high-tailed it away from there. I am trying right now to convince myself that these two events are completely unrelated.

I’m sorry that the woman lost her life, but that doesn’t stop me from being creeped out that someone would dump a body so close to my home.

Companies are increasingly sending IT work to hubs outside India. They're saving money but facing a whole new raft of challenges

by Rachael King

After 10 months of working with software developers in Bangalore, India, Bill Wood was ready to call it quits. The local engineers would start a project, get a few months' experience, and then bolt for greener pastures, says the U.S.-based executive. Attrition rose to such a high level that year that Wood's company had to replace its entire staff, some positions more than once. "It did not work well at all," recalls Wood, vice-president of engineering at Ping Identity, a maker of Internet security software for corporations. Frustrated, Wood began searching for a partner outside India. He scoured 15 companies in 8 different countries, including Russia, Mexico, Argentina, and Vietnam.

That path is being trod by a lot of executives, eager for new sources of low-cost, high-tech talent outside India. Many are fed up with the outsourcing hub of Bangalore, where salaries for info tech staff are growing at 12% to 14% a year, turnover is increasing, and an influx of workers is straining city resources.

...

Yet many companies can't resist the lure of cheaper labor. "Ninety percent of all outsourcing deals in the market today have been structured around cost improvement only," says Linda Cohen, vice-president of sourcing research at consulting firm Gartner (IT). By the third year of an outsourcing deal, after all the costs have been squeezed out, companies get antsy to find a new locale with an even lower overhead.

...

The move reduces costs by 60% to 75%, Gett figures, letting Optaros offer competitive pricing to customers. "We're going to where the most cost-effective talent is in the world, but it has to be feasible," he says. "It can't be where there are economic, time zone, or language barriers." In fact, Gett needs his application developers to interact directly with customers in the U.S. and Western Europe, so he appreciates that Akela workers speak English and French and are closer to the Optaros Geneva office than workers in India would be.

...

Threat to U.S. Workers

And while a technically skilled global labor force is a boon to companies, the picture isn't so rosy for U.S. workers. Instead of competing with just India, now U.S. IT workers will need to go up against workers all over the world. In 2005, about 24% of North American companies used offshore providers to meet some of their software needs, according to Forrester Research (FORR). Over the next five years, spending on offshore IT services is set to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 18%, according to IDC.

The effect in the U.S. is that starting salaries in the engineering field—when adjusted for inflation—have stayed constant or decreased in the past five years or so, says Vivek Wadhwa, executive in residence at Duke University. "It doesn't make much sense to get into programming anymore," says Wadhwa, who worries that a lack of talent in certain industries, such as telecom, along with the outsourcing of research and development will erode U.S. competitiveness (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/7/06, "The Real Problem with Outsourcing"). But U.S. companies say that hiring programmers in India, who might make a fifth of what programmers do in the U.S., allows the companies to survive in a globally competitive economy.

...

<snip>

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/con...

Whether it’s the characters that creep you out, that you love to hate or that merely intrigue you, who or what are your favorite fictional villains?

Mine in no particular order:

Kevin – Sin City


John Doe – Se7en


Sweet Tooth – Twisted Metal Series


Alien – Alien Series


Kakihara – Ichi the Killer


Pyramid head or The Red Pyramid – Silent Hill franchise


...I tend to prefer the really twisted ones....

I don’t ever post a picture of my female cat Bandit (as in One Eyed Bandit ) because some may find it disturbing to see a one-eyed cat, but she’s beautiful to me. I believe that her original owner abandoned her and left her to starve in the streets. Anyways, she was a skinny little something when she adopted me by coming up to me to rub my leg and meow at me. I began feeding her to fatten her up a bit and now she is a permanent member of the family.

Here she is right here:



I do tend to indulge her with the food now as you can see....

So, how did your animal friends come to be members of your family?

I'm not talking about re-runs of old episodes, but still producing new episodes and new seasons. For me, I wish that Arrested Development and Mr. Show were still on tv. How about you? And good morning!





.... the chicken dance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyk3xYN1jMw

It’s from a 1979 episode of Rainbow, a popular kids’ tv show.

Here is the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyqEPgRc6IE

Here is info about the clip and show:

http://www.rainbow.arch.scriptmania.com/ra...
http://www.answers.com/topic/rainbow-telev...

Hopefully you’ve seen it before, but if you haven’t it’s great for a laugh.

Sunday evenings are always my most dreaded nights because they mean that I have to go back to work on Monday --! Who else is not looking forward to tomorrow morning? (It's not that I hate my job or anything like that -- I just want to continue relaxing and doing what I want to do.)

I'm pretty plain. I like to walk in the evenings just before sunset especially in the fall when the air has a little bit of a bite to it. To change it up, I may jog a little.... Also, I like weight-training -- not with gym equipment but with regular old dumbbells.

Holidays tend to throw off my schedule, but I don't mind that much since I get to see family and friends that I don't normally see.... So, what do you like to do?

Baby Panda Sneeze

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtLzvOsQ80k

or

Sleepy Kitten

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXmXLPxG6k0

or

Talking Cats and Dogs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXvTg3ISDoQ

or

Other: (Please specify)

Please weigh-in on this very serious debate.

By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - He's known as the "Secret Santa," a white-haired man in a red flannel shirt who gives no name or explanation as he stuffs $100 or more into a stranger's hand.

He's given a couple of hundred to a homeless woman, a little more to a mother of two stranded at a bus station, $1,000 to an elderly man in a tattered sweater and $5,000 to the widow of a fallen firefighter.

The smallest gift was $5, given 26 years ago. The largest gift was $10,000, in 1999. In all, the man who has traveled the United States each holiday season to spread some of his wealth estimates he has handed out about $1.3 million.

"We are all supposed to share our blessings. This is just one way," said 58-year-old Larry Stewart, who is giving away money to fulfill a pledge he made in 1971, when he was hungry and homeless and a stranger gave him $20.

Now a millionaire through investments in cable and telecommunications, Stewart said he has never forgotten how "it feels to be hopeless." He wants his donations to both help people who appear to be needy, and help spread a sense of hope and faith in humanity.

...

Stewart said he had hoped to stay anonymous. But after being diagnosed in April with advanced cancer in his esophagus and liver, he started to share his story, hoping others will pick up the task as he starts a 13th round of chemotherapy in January.

He has four "Santas in training," who will help him give away $165,000 this December, with the first stop in Chicago.

He has also set up a "society of Secret Santas" (http://www.secretsantausa.com /), whose members must pledge to commit at least one "random act of kindness." More than 2,700 people had joined the society within two days of Stewart announcing his goal of encouraging others to give.

...

"This has never been about me," he said. "This is about the kind of giving, random and without the expectation of anything back... that can change a person."

<snip>

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.... -2&rpc=92

Thank goodness, I have all the food bought, prepared, and waiting to be cooked. But, I have to finish cleaning up the house – my least favorite task.... So, what are your last minute preparations for Thanksgiving?

and the dental industry to scare you into buying useless appliances and pastes. Now, I've read the arguments on both sides, and I haven't found any evidence yet to support the need to brush your teeth. Ever.

18/11/2006 23:12 - (SA)

East London - A 24-year-old man has been arrested at Butterworth for carrying a human head in his luggage at a bus rank in the Eastern Cape town on Saturday, said police.

Captain Jackson Manatha said the man was arrested about 11:00 after a tip-off.

The man had already been on a bus when police found him and was taken to the police station where a human finger was found in his pocket.

During questioning, the man told police he was going to Cape Town and his luggage was still on the bus.

"Police chased the bus to Ndabakazi station.

"The man was ordered to fetch his luggage and when he opened it an old woman's head and her two arms were found," said Manatha.

...

"It is alleged the man murdered his 85-year-old grandmother on Friday by cutting her throat like a goat in a village near in Butterworth."

People in the area became suspicious when someone saw the man pulling "something" towards a secondary school about 10pm, said Manatha.

<snip>

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/...