Everything really does taste better with bacon.

This is why IT huddles rock.

EDIT (06/04/08): Curious folks have asked. Yup, it’s homemade. It’s a rum-brown sugar cream base with candied bacon bits. And yes, it’s delicious!

In the middle of the intense four-week orientation, Zappos gives new employees a bribe to walk away from it all. If they accept “The Offer,” the company will pay them for the amount of time worked plus give them a $1000 bonus. Why is Zappos paying new hires to quit?

Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick—and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later.

Innovative thinking! How much does disengaged employee hurt our bottom lines?

Last week the AP reported on the “Crazy Rasberry Ants,” and I thought it was a belated April Fool’s Day joke. No way could tiny ants be attracted to industrial electronics…what biological need could gadgets possibly satisfy in these bugs?

I swear to you, it’s not a joke. It is a festering reality.

Scientists are still unclear of the motive, but there is speculation and real fear about the dangers of these buggers, especially as they spread through Houston, moving ever closer to NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The Crazy Rasberry Ants have already ruined sewage pumps, gas meters, and fire alarm systems in Texas. The only upside is that they eat fire ants, which sting humans. But for a nerd like me, a species of ants rampantly F-ing up the electronic elements of modern civilization that we take for granted is a far worse sting.

Eli over at the aadl uncovered this gem of a recipe from the Ann Arbor Cookbook, 1904:  ”The following is all I know about cooking squirrels. First catch your squirrel. Skin him, etc. Parboil in a little water in a kettle, add salt, pepper, and enough butter to fry it brown. Then eat. If the animal is tough parboil a little more till he is tender”  -Contributed by: F. A. LYMAN

I’m totally inspired and looking forward to our next IT Dinner, 1904 style.  You can view the scanned original of this recipe and other historic Ann Arbor cookbooks at the Ann Arbor District Library’s Cookbook Collection.