I just hope Nintendo doesn't turn into ...

*removes glasses*

Super Mari-troll

I have to agree. I'd assume flamingo would taste like chicken and giraffe probably tastes like water buffalo/cows. I think the Chinese and Japanese eat sea urchins to this day, so that isn't nec. too exotic except by western standards.

I grew up in Malaysia from 4yo to 7yo, and didn't have a problem with durian. My father used to bring home lots of different fruits etc that were available in Malaysia that are not available in Australia. I think durian might be worse for grown ups, but like a lot of foods, if you start a child on it young enough they grow to like it (acquitted rase) if they don't like it to begin with. I don't mind durian flavoured lollies (Had some in Indonesia) but when I tried durian flavoured ice cream in Malaysia last time I was there it didn't work for me.

Now here is one thing he correctly predicted. Leela's home!!!

"Futurama" may well display vistas of underground cities complete with light- forced vegetable gardens.

Spring Snow - Yukio Mishima

The Outsider - Colin Wilson

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

Ringworld - Larry Niven

Junky - William Burroughs

The Plague - Albert Camus

Nausea - Jean-Paul Sartre

Fox in Sox - Dr Seuss

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez

Shogun - James Clavell

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

We don't have Thanksgiving in Australia, but you are correct that most IT departments (whether in retail or not) put a freeze on changes over the Xmas period. Companies I work for usually had them start the week (or week before) of Xmas (i.e., if Xmas falls on a Wednesday, then the Monday before, 23rd is when the moratorium on changes happen). Depending on the company, the freeze will usually run for two or four weeks. (To get past January 1st). Mainly as it is also when summer holidays occur, and most workers take the time off to coincide with when their kids are off from school for the summer break. In order to get a change put through during this time it has to be a major emergency (like the website going down and not being able to be brought back up again). Most departments I notice ignore the freeze and submit changes anyway, most of which get postponed, much to the yelling and screaming of managers from the departments that ignore the freeze. :-)

I doubt it is a load issue or DoS. Would more likely agree with the parent that the IT department was treated as a cost centre and not much was done to ensure that the site remained workable. Companies I worked for in Australia often make statements like ,'When you can get the 10/100 switches to run at 1 GB we'll consider upgrading the switches.' or 'I don't see why we have these firewall things? They just cost us money. I think we should sell them and put the money to better use elsewhere.' or (concerning IT security) 'I'm a manager and you're just an IT worker. You have no idea how a company really runs.'