Outsource Insource This!

As the United States continues to move further from a strictly manufacturing and agriculture-based economic power to one that depends increasingly on service-related industries, the outcry of concern for many was that suddenly white-collar jobs as well as blue-collar ones were migrating overseas. Customer service and tech support would become chief sources of income for firms based out of India, which hosts a large population of college-educated, tech-savvy, English-speaking citizens for whom the U.S. dollar goes much farther.


However, according to this article in techlogg.com, what goes around comes around: some Indian IT companies have exhausted their supply of available workers, and now they are forced to -- wait for it -- outsource jobs to the United States:

“The market has already seen the first signs of this trend. For example, the Indian embassy outsourced its visa collection and delivery services to a U.S. company. Many Indian IT firms with operations spread across the U.S. and Europe are now outsourcing a part of their administrative work locally” Roy said.

The irony is that as India booms, it may be forced back to western countries to find suitable workers, workers who were most likely put out of work when companies chose India to offshore its IT & T services in the first place.

I, for one, welcome our new Indian overlords, and would like to take this opporunity to compliment their ancient culture, beautiful actresses and multi-armed deities.

P.S. Outsourcing tech support overseas isn't always an ideal solution for U.S. companies.

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Attorney Insists Vick Ate Every Dog He Killed

K-WHAT? Unbuilt Maui TV station lands questionable call letters

A broadcast company just acquired the call letters, "KUNT" and "KWTF." Apparently this kind of thing is a byproduct of everything being computerized.

From Skokie, Ill., comes a sincere apology "to anyone that was offended," said Kevin Bae, vice president of KM Communications Inc., who requested and received KUNT and KWTF. It is "extremely embarrassing for me and my company and we will file to change those call letters immediately."

The call letter snafu was a source of great mirth for Bae's attorney.

"I can't tell you how long he laughed at me when he learned of my gaffe," Bae said.

Broadcasters for generations have joked among themselves about call letters resembling off-color words or acronyms knowing the FCC would never approve their assignment -- but that was before computerization.

KCUF-FM near Aspen, Colo. got its F-word-in-reverse call letters in August of 2005 and has been on the air since December, "Keeping Colorado Uniquely Free," its Web site says. Uh, yeah.

File under Things I'm Surprized Haven't Happened Before, and Please Insert Your Own Jokes

Jesse Walker finds the science headline of the year:

Tiny brain no obstacle to French civil servant

Religious Persecution in China

The Chinese government is set to blow up a historic shrine to Our Lady. Story.

Old Bill Gets Frustrated Pretty Easily These Days

This video is for those who like turtles. Or dislike Bill O'Reilly. Or both.

Feel Safer?

If you know anything about search patterns, you should not be surprised to find that airport screeners are too preoccupied with water bottles and nail clippers to actually look for something that might be, you know, dangerous. Not only are these fake security measures a waste of time, but they actually make it more likely that we will get blown the %$#@ up.

Security was porous last week at Albany International Airport, when officials from the Transportation Security Administration were able to slip fake bomb components past screeners at a passenger checkpoint. In Wednesday's editions, an exclusive story by staff writer Brendan Lyons revealed that the TSA inspectors had concealed the components in carry-on luggage, along with a bottle of water, which is also prohibited under TSA rules. But while the Albany screeners did confiscate the water bottle, they missed the bomb materials. In all, the inspectors managed to get four banned items through the airport's main checkpoint, while security measures failed in five of seven tests.

Whole article here.

Via The Agitator.

World's tallest man meets world's shortest

They were also supposed to be met by the man with the world's smallest penis, but Chamomiles Davis was unavailable.

Jam band fan or Taliban?

Steve Chapman on the War on Terror:

Crime is a serious national problem that used to be even worse. At the height of the mayhem, more than 24,000 Americans were murdered annually—a Sept. 11, 2001, attack every six weeks. Yet even when the toll was at its worst, we insisted that police respect the constitutional rights of suspected criminals. We maintained the limits on the power of the president and other law enforcement officials to investigate and imprison people. For the most part, we kept our perspective.

After the World Trade Center came down, by contrast, we let ourselves be convinced that many restrictions were an unaffordable luxury. Any concern for civil liberties was met with the retort: "We're at war." And in war, anything goes.

Whole thing here.

Arachnids, Tripping Balls (Fun Link)

Just watch it and wait. This gets progressively bizarre in no time flat.

It's a masterpiece.

Pore wittle Gore

You have to read about how Reuters covered the story of Al Gore's son being arrested. Jane Galt points out how it reads like an Onion article.

Give me Liberty or give me Death

I either never knew it, or it had simply been a long time since I have read the whole thing, but the full quote of Patrick Henry's famous line is even more striking when you read the whole thing:

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

It is also as important now as ever.