According to India’s Economic Times, Indian workers employed by the country’s reserve bank this week held demonstrations to protest possible plans by the bank to outsource some routine jobs to the private sector. The Times provides the following quote from K K Sharma, secretary of the All India Reserve Bank Employees Association: “We have two main demands–implementation of the revised pension scheme and no outsourcing of jobs from RBI.”

Back-office workers at the RBI are worried about their positions going to a private group called the National Payments Corporation of India. They’re concerned that the private sector will pay less and provide shoddy work. Does this sound familiar? I don’t know much about NPCI, but with salaries increasing across the board in India, maybe it’s also planning to move RBI jobs to China, or Vietnam, or some other lower-wage country.

No doubt U.S. opponents of outsourcing will help themselves to a delicious piece of Schadenfreude over this news. They’ll see it as a perfect example of what-comes-around-goes-around. Maybe, but it also puts the lie to the notion that outsourcing represents a conspiracy against American workers. In fact, it’s just a business practice that’s currently in vogue not just in North America, but across the whole flat world.

Sometimes, I don’t even have to try to make fun of New Jersey. This article is hilarious.

Critics of a shift to self-service say pumping their own gas would be especially hard on the elderly, could create a safety hazard as inexperienced motorists try to fill their tanks and cost many station attendants their jobs while doing nothing to lower prices.

Bill Dressler, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline Retailers Association and Allied Trades, says there are safety concerns. While attendants are trained, many motorists would be novices. “It could be put in the wrong container,” says Dressler, whose group represents about 2,200 of the state’s 3,800 gas stations. There could be “somebody getting out and smoking and they didn’t turn the engine off.”

Source

In other news, I just started listening to Josh Groban, and was blown away at how awesome his voice is. I spent an hour watching his videos on YouTube because I couldn’t get enough.

Right now, I have a COLD. But when I dress like this, I almost feel OKAY.

Pink has made it into my wardrobe… accidently…

I don’t recommend buying red shirts with white stripes. The white will inevitably turn to pink.

[edit]: Guys who wear tight jeans, are Hard Gay