Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's a little early for season's greetings, but the season did start with Thanksgiving, and I see Christmas lights up everywhere (probably, unusually warm winter is helping people). I am doing this because I am leaving for Vizag in a couple of days, and I likely will not be sharing my ramblings until the fist week of Jan.08.

This trip is totally dedicated to my dad and I have no plans of traveling anywhere from Vizag. I am looking forward to tending to his needs while he is fighting to restore his vibrancy in physical health.

I wish you happyness in this season, in the new year, and all years to come. I enjoy performing a small ritual before leaving to Vizag every time. My New Orleans buddies Sanjay and Lionel introduced me to the music of Ozzy Osbourne. A couple of days before I leave, late evening, I switch off the lights, kickup my feet in the couch, and enjoy this neat Ozzy's song - I get a great feeling from it. I have been listening to this song once a year, and I am looking forward to an opportunity of doing it more often!

Peculiar, Missouri

A few years ago while driving in New Mexico, I saw road signs for Truth or Consequences. That made me curious about cities with weird names. Here are some:

Bald Head, Maine
Buddha, Indiana
Hell, Michigan
Hot Coffee, Mississippi
No Name, Colorado
It, Mississippi

Recently, one of my peers sent me the following odd city names in Texas.

Need to be cheered up?
Happy, Texas 79042
Pep, Texas 79353
Smiley, Texas 78159
Paradise,Texas 76073
Rainbow, Texas 76077
Sweet Home, Texas 77987
Comfort, Texas 78013
Friendship, Texas 76530

Love the Sun?
Sun City, Texas 78628
Sunrise, Texas 76661
Sunset, Texas 76270
Sundown, Texas 79372
Sunray, Texas 79086
Sunny Side, Texas 77423

Want something to eat?
Bacon, Texas 76301
Noodle, Texas 79536
Oatmeal, Texas 78605
Turkey, Texas 79261
Trout, Texas 75789
Sugar Land , Texas 77479
Salty, Texas 76567
Rice, Texas 75155

And top it off with:
Sweetwater, Texas 79556

Why travel to other cities? Texas has them all!
Detroit, Texas 75436
Colorado City, Texas 79512
Denver City, Texas 79323
Nevada, Texas 75173
Memphis, Texas 79245
Miami, Texas 79059
Boston, Texas 75570
Santa Fe, Texas 77517
Tennessee Colony, Texas 75861
Reno, Texas 75462

Feel like traveling outside the country? Don't bother buying a plane ticket!
Athens, Texas 75751
Canadian, Texas 79014
China, Texas 77613
Egypt, Texas 77436
Turkey, Texas 79261
London , Texas 76854
New London, Texas 75682
Paris, Texas 75460

No need to travel to Washington D.C.
Whitehouse, Texas 75791

We even have a city named after our planet!
Earth, Texas 79031
And a city named after our State!
Texas City, Texas 77590

Exhausted?
Energy, Texas 76452
Cold?
Blanket, Texas 76432
Winters, Texas
Like to read about History?
Santa Anna, Texas
Goliad, Texas
Alamo, Texas
Gun Barrel City, Texas
Need Office Supplies?
Staples, Texas 78670
Men are from Mars, woman are from
Venus, Texas 76084
You guessed it... it's on the state line...
Texline, Texas 79087
For the kids...
Kermit, Texas 79745
Elmo, Texas 75118
Nemo, Texas 76070
Tarzan, Texas 79783
Winnie, Texas 77665
Sylvester, Texas 79560
Other city names in Texas, to make you smile..... :
Frognot, Texas 75424
Bigfoot, Texas 78005
Hogeye, Texas 75423
Cactus, Texas 79013
Notrees, Texas 7975 9
Best, Texas 76932
Veribest, Texas 76886
Kickapoo, Texas 75763
Dime Box, Texas
Telephone, Texas 75488
Telegraph, Texas 76883
Whiteface, Texas 79379
Twitty, Texas 79079

The Anti-Al Gore City
Kilgore, Texas 75662

And, of course, there is a place in Texas that
is......
KNOTT, TEXAS

And last but not least.
Farewell, Texas

Evolution Kills!

An astute observation based on the finding that chicken probably evolved from dinosaurs!

Five-Second Rule

According to the proven Five-Second Rule, we can eat cookies, candy etc. dropped on non-carpeted floors, if we manage to pick them up within five seconds of dropping!

This (kind of gross) 53-second video made a persuasive comment on this rule:-) I say, a video is worth a thousand pictures!

Change is the Only Constant!

Here is a 1946 advertizement of Western Electric.

I am sure people are going to giggle when they come across advertizements for iPod and iPhone, and the name "Goolge", 20 years from now!

Speeches of Swami Vivekananda

I came across these speeches delivered by Swami Vivekananada in the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago, USA in 1893. I thought I should compile these in one place. The following are 17 files (audio with video transcripts) totaling about 31 minutes. Thanks are due to the person who uploaded these to You Tube originally. I heard only few minutes so far. What an eloquent and persuasive speaker!

Swami Vivekananda Speech at Chicago - Welcome Address (3:46)


Part 1 - Religion of Vedas (2:17)


Part 2 - Law of Creation (1:31)


Part 3 - Why Should People Suffer (1:44)


Part 4 - Mind and the Matter (00:39)


Part 5 - Life After Death (1:43)


Part 6 - Evolution of Soul (1:04)


Part 7 - how to Get Rid of Problems (2:12)


Part 8 - Nature of God (00:28)


Part 9 - How to Worship God (00:59)


Part 10 - Incident from Epic Mahabharata (00:57)


Part 11 - Mukthi - the Ultimate Freedom (3:52)


Part 12 - Science and Religion (1:14)


Part 13 - Polytheism, Pantheism, Idol Worship in Hinduism (4:38)


Part 14 - Contradictions in Hinduism (1:23)


Part 15 - Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism (00:22)


Part 16 (Final Part) - Universal Acceptance of all Religions (1:54)

US Presidential Trivia

I though these trivia are pretty interesting, in addition to what I posted earlier.

Three of the first five U.S. Presidents died on July 4th. They were John Adams, the second President; Thomas Jefferson, the third President; and James Monroe, the fifth President.

No president was an only child.

No president has ever died in the month of May.

Classic Marketing Technique?

Long time ago, I used to read Reader's Digest (RD) religiously. The RD I fondly remember used to have excellent articles with tolerable number of advertisements. I don't feel motivated to read RD any more, as many articles are of mediocre quality and it contains tons of advertisements.

Anyway, I was reminded of an RD article on marketing, when I visited IKEA for the first time earlier this year. According to this article (I read it while I was in Intermediate):

The classic marketing technique was to place bread at one end of the store and milk at the other. Pretty much everyone needs milk and bread on a regular basis. So, they likely will walk the whole store for these items, and they pass rest of the products while doing so.

On visual contact, the customers will likely remember/get tempted to buy some products that they were not planning on buying originally. So, more sales, more $$. This article also talked about things like the optimum height (depending on the angle at which we generally keep our eyelids open) at which the products should be placed on shelves to maximize their exposure; pretty interesting reading.

The layout of IKEA-Round Rock (below) reminded me of the above-mentioned marketing article, and, the way Abhimanya probably felt after entering Padma Vyuham! I feel intimidated in the store as it takes for ever to reach the exit. But I am very impressed by their inventory management, and some of the innovative and space-saving products they sell.

Sportakrobatik - Die 5 Disziplinen

Amazing!

3 Year Old Solves Rubik's Cube in 114 seconds

Inspiration

Euphemisms

This is a follow-up to EEO - a few alternative descriptions I loved.

Dog Catcher - Canine Relocation Specialist

Security Guard - Loss Prevention Officer

Truck Driver - Logistics Manager

Sanitary Worker - Commode Commando

Georgia's Rain Prayer

From Daylight Atheism:

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue stepped up to a podium outside the state Capitol on Tuesday and led a solemn crowd of several hundred people in a prayer for rain on his drought-stricken state.

"We've come together here simply for one reason and one reason only: To very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm," Perdue said after a choir provided a hymn.

The logic behind intercessory prayer makes no sense. Does Gov. Perdue suppose that Georgians' prayers will bring to God's attention a need of which he was not previously aware? Is God forgetful, so that he needs to be reminded to send rain each year? Or did God knowingly cause the drought for reasons of his own - and if so, what arrogance it would be for a Christian to assume that they know better than God what God should do and that they can persuade him to alter his plan!

About 20 years ago, I had the same though process. Now, I believe that God is everywhere and hence He (She/It) is within us too. So, I think that our thoughts can result in physical manifestations.

Technically, I am with separation of church and state; faith-based initiatives shouldn't costs tons of tax payer's money. However, I prefer to see these Atheists show some compassion and respect the beliefs of these poor farmers who are desperately looking for some comfort; faith is a great healer. Unlike wars, this prayer didn't cost billions of dollars. If it resulted in even a slight relief to a segment of adversely-affected population, shouldn't we all be happy for them?

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black!

Talk about hypocrisy! This guy went to a preemptive war, occupied a sovereign country for all wrong reasons, caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, and coolly calls on Musharraf to go easy on the State of Emergency! What Musharraf is doing is his business (be it right or wrong). W is the last person who should be poking his nose into other's affairs.

EEO

Been through mandatory EEO training and testing in the office today for about two hours - painful, but every government employee is required to go through this once in two years. I must admit that I do enjoy some of the new things and euphemisms these folks keep coming up with.

Calling someone handicapped used to be OK. It is not politically correct now, as the word originated from hand in cap. Even though hand in cap is not derogatory Per Se, as it sounds like cap in hand (which is begging), we are being told to avoid this word. Now we need to call it disabled.

The other interesting thing I learned is, it is not OK for an employer to ask the question Have you ever been arrested?, on employment applications. This is because minorities get arrested more than Caucasians. Therefore, based on answer to this question, an employer can potentially commit racial discrimination. To look for employees with no criminal background, an employer is allowed to ask Have you ever been convicted? Neat! Conviction is a solid record, whereas arrests can be made on illegal racial profiling.

దీపావళి శుభాకాంక్షలు!&#33

Navras - Juno Reactor

I don't think that I will ever get tired of the movie The Matrix, and techno music in it.

Mars, Venus Thing

Don't Judge Too Quickly!

Data-Storing Bacteria

A Japanese university announced scientists there have developed a new technology that uses bacteria DNA as a medium for storing data long-term, even for thousands of years.

Keio University Institute for Advanced Biosciences and Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus announced the development of the new technology, which creates an artificial DNA that carries up to more than 100 bits of data within the genome sequence, according to the JCN Newswire.

The universities said they successfully encoded "e= mc2 1905!" -- Einstein's theory of relativity and the year he enunciated it -- on the common soil bacteria, Bacillius subtilis.

While the technology would most likely first be used to track medication, it could also be used to store text and images for many millennia, thwarting the longevity issues associated with today's disk and tape storage systems -- which only store data for up to 100 years in most cases.

The artificial DNA that carries the data to be preserved makes multiple copies of the DNA and inserts the original as well as identical copies into the bacterial genome sequence. The multiple copies work as backup files to counteract natural degradation of the preserved data, according to the newswire.

Bacteria have particularly compact DNA, which is passed down from generation to generation. The information stored in that DNA can also be passed on for long-term preservation of large data files, the scientists said.

Twelve Angry Men

Watched this must-see 1957 Black and White movie recently. The story was superbly built, and it sure is one of my favorites now. Here is one of the funny dialogues.

Juror #10: Bright? He's a common ignorant slob. He don't even speak good English.
Juror #11: Doesn't even speak good English.

దసరా శుభాకాంక్షల&#3137!

Dancing Cockatoo

This one reminds me of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Amazing!

Sick Leave is Sick

One of the things that I am not comfortable with, is calling-in sick. Conventional wisdom says that avoiding negatives is good for the spirit. Even though I am guilty of using negatives (old habit) from time to time, I try to avoid them to the extent I can.

In the West, the majority are careful with the choice of words and expressions. Many avoid negatives, and are pretty creative in coming up with euphemisms. This, I believe is a good thing. Examples I can think of? Red Indians became Indians then American Indians and ultimately Native Americans. Similarly Negros became Black and are African Americans now. I find it amusing that Negro, which means black in Spanish, is considered derogatory, while the English word Black is almost acceptable!

Anyway, talking about using euphemisms, I suggest that we substitute the term Sick Leave with something like Vibrancy Restitution Day (VRD) as it is more positive. In my mind, sickness is any condition that prevents us from working effectively. It could be anything from high fever to euphoria from winning a lottery. In either case, one may not be able to work to the best of his/her abilities.

I think showing up to work when we are sick is no different than picking pockets. I mean, due to ill-health, we work @ say 60% efficiency. However, we take 100% of our salary for that time, just for showing up to work. So, it is like stealing 40%! Some might argue, "hey my company exploits me and this is a way of making it even". I say, an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

So, if I get tempted to go to a museum and see a rare exhibit during work day, I would simply use VRD. This way, I would avoid working with a distracted mind. This creates a win-win situation (good for my spirit and good for the company). I am against the policy that allows Sick Leave only when we are sick in conventional sense.

Mottainai Grandma

One way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is through conservation — living small and smart. Japan has a strong tradition of conservation, but it's also a country that likes the good life. And the good life requires electricity and lots of it.

Although a single hotel room in Japan can have four remote controls, a talking bath and heated toilet seats, a new popular children's book called Mottainai Grandma sends a different message about energy conservation.

Mottainai roughly translates as "Don't waste." In the drawings, Grandma looks a little stern with her hair up in a bun and cane in hand. And there's no avoiding her eyes. Mottainai is an old Buddhist word. Kawanishi says it also ties in with the Shinto idea that objects have souls.

"The whole idea that we are part of the nature, and should be in a very harmonious relationship with nature is very much a deep part of Japanese psychology," Kawanishi says.

In Japan, it's cool to be environmentally friendly. Many streets are lined with trash bins for recycling.

There's also Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. She's not Japanese, but rather, from Kenya, Africa. But she has become a kind of a celebrity in Japan, teaching the Japanese about their own word.

Dedication

Juggling for Beatles

This guy sure can walk and chew gum at the same time! Amazing mind-body coordination.

Life Takes Visa

It is hard to escape from watching Life Takes Visa ad (see below) on TV these days. It basically encourages people to spend more money faster - like Americans need this lesson! Also, it looks down on people who save up and pay cash. With over $ 9 trillion national debt and ~$8,000/household personal debt, the US sure can live without ads like this one.

Shania Twain has wonderfully brought this sad state to our attention in the song Ka Ching. These days, this song applies to Indians too.

Pint-Sized Pollock?

Marla Olmstead made her first abstract painting while still in diapers, crouching on her parents' dining-room table. She was not yet 2. Her big break came when she was 3, and a family friend hung her paintings in a coffee shop in her hometown of Binghamton, N.Y. By the time she was 4, she was scarfing down cookies at the packed opening of her first solo gallery show. A local reporter covered the story, and the New York Times picked it up. Soon, news crews from all over were rushing to report on the adorable blond moppet and her colorful canvases, calling her a "budding Picasso," a "pint-sized Pollock." Within a few months, she sold more than $300,000 worth of paintings.

I don't think that I will ever understand the art world. Just before Marla's 5th birthday, CBS reported that her dad probably was helping out on her paintings. That's it! Her paintings suddenly became pretty much worthless. So, the value of the art was in the associated story (like in Whistler's Mother?!) rather than in the beauty (which I fail to see, to begin with) of creation.

Colossal Cribs

The enormity of the house Arnold Chase is building on Avon Mountain isn't fully apparent from the outside, where only 17,000 square feet of it lies in plain view.

It's the two-level, 33,500-square-foot basement complex, complete with a 103-seat movie theater, ticket booth, concession stand, game room and music annex, that will make it New England's largest occupied single-family home.

At nearly 50,900 square feet, the Chase home will be slightly larger than billionaire Bill Gates' home in Washington, about 4,000 square feet smaller than the White House and 20 times larger than the average-size home in America.

The largest private home ever built in the United States (above) is the Biltmore House in Asheville, N.C., comprising more than 174,000 square feet.

While we were searching for a home recently, I found that one of the most expensive homes on market in Austin right now (photo above) is at 12021 Selma Hughes Park Road. The asking price is $13.5 million for this 9 bed room, 10.5 bath, 15,859 square feet single family home. Not a bad deal. A house of this size (if available) in any major metropolitan city in India would cost a lot more, I think. But then, Austin is a small city.

We decided to buy a slightly smaller home instead :-)

Columbus Day

Today is Columbus Day, a Federal Government Holiday in the United States. Columbus' discovery of the United States (albeit by accident) in 1492 is a brilliant achievement. However, as I believe and many of my colleagues agree, his character doesn't deserve any envy.

After five centuries, Columbus remains a mysterious and controversial figure who has been variously described as one of the greatest mariners in history, a visionary genius, a mystic, a national hero, a failed administrator, a naive entrepreneur, and a ruthless and greedy imperialist.

In 1493 Columbus returned with an invasion force of seventeen ships, appointed at his own request by the Spanish Crown to install himself as "viceroy and governor of [the Caribbean islands]and the mainland" of America, a position he held until 1500. Setting up shop on the large island he called Espa–ola (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he promptly instituted policies of slavery (encomiendo) and systematic extermination against the native Taino population. Columbus's programs reduced Taino numbers from as many as eight million at the outset of his regime to about three million in 1496. Perhaps 100,000 were left by the time of the governor's departure.

His policies, however, remained, with the result that by 1514 the Spanish census of the island showed barely 22,000 Indians remaining alive. In 1542, only two hundred were recorded. Thereafter, they were considered extinct, as were Indians throughout the Caribbean Basin, an aggregate population which totaled more than fifteen million at the point of first contact with the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, as Columbus was known.

Balance of Brains

I recently watched an interview with Karl Iagnemma on PBS and he is amazing!

The 30-year-old Cambridge resident leads the kind of split-personality life that’s sure to make him a media darling: Iagnemma inhabits a divided world in which he spends his days working as a researcher in the mechanical-engineering department at MIT, then goes home to write award-winning fiction. In fact, Iagnemma’s short stories have garnered the Paris Review Discovery Prize and first place in the Playboy fiction contest, along with inclusion in the Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize collections. In his first collection of fiction, On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction (Dial Press), published last month, Iagnemma explores the intersection of science and emotion, research and relationships.

Which is Worse?

Not believing in holocaust, or ...


...Causing one?

Ahmadinejad by no means is a saint. The leader of the free world isn't one either.

Damned Lies and Statistics

A recent John Kelso's article (an excerpt below) on Panhandlers reminded me of the one I see occasionally near Fiesta (under I-35 Upper deck). He is always happy with a big smile, says "God Bless you" as cars pass by him (I read his lips), and holds a sign that says "Why lie? need a buck for beer. God Bless you!"

In case you haven't been following along at City Hall, some City Council members want to make it illegal for panhandlers to do their thing on roads and sidewalks, and within 1,000 feet of schools.

When you stop and think about it, aren't toll roads a high-tech form of panhandling?

Besides, panhandlers working near schools is a better educational tool than Career Day. Just having the panhandlers out there looking ugly says, "This could happen to you if you don't finish your algebra homework."

Anyway, Council Members Brewster McCracken and Jennifer Kim point to statistics that show there are lots of traffic accidents at intersections where panhandlers commonly hang out.

Of course there are lots of accidents at intersections where panhandlers hang out. This is because they are busy intersections, which is why panhandlers pick them. Where there are cars, there is more loose change. This is why you rarely see panhandlers in the Sam Houston National Forest.

I think John Kelso made a good point about unintentional biases we sometimes induce while interpreting statistical data. It reminded me of Andrew lang's funny quote:

An unsophisticated forecaster uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts - for support rather than for illumination.

Indian Sports

The Tyranny of Expectation prompted me to check into the remuneration received by famous Indian (non-cricket) Sportsmen.

For his magnificent feat of earning the World Chess Championship, Anand received a meagre $390,000 prize money. With an earning of $7,550 per minute in 2005, Kobe Bryant earned this much in about 52 minutes!

On an average, India spent about $35,000 per athlete who represented the country in Athens Olympics. This pales when compared to $210,000 spent on each UT student athlete on University team, per year!

UT Football Players Locker Room!

In 2007 UT Athletics Department is projected to spend $107 million. At Rs. 39.675 per USD, it amounts to about INR 425 Crores! And UT Football Coach Mack Brown earns $2.5 million per year!

Cubism

Cubism is one of the arts forms that I have been trying to develop an appreciation for, with no much luck so far.

Cubism (a name suggested by Henri Matisse in 1909) is a non-objective approach to painting developed originally in France by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque around 1906.

Between 1909 and 1911, the analysis of human forms and still lifes (hence the name -Analytical Cubism) led to the creation of a new stylistic system which allowed the artists to transpose the three-dimensional subjects into the flat images on the surface of the canvas. An object, seen from various points of view, could be reconstructed using particular separate "views" which overlapped and intersected. The result of such a reconstruction was a summation of separate temporal moments on the canvas. Picasso called this reorganized form the "sum of destructions," that is, the sum of the fragmentations. Since color supposedly interfered in purely intellectual perception of the form, the Cubist palette was restricted to a narrow, almost monochromatic scale, dominated by grays and browns.

Here is the cubism that I am familiar with [fortunately, never had to experience it first hand (knock on wood!)]

Keep the Faith

Based on my experience, I believe that most opportunities are disguised as obstacles. I managed to recognize and benefit from them sometimes, and probably have totally missed them on others.

The precision with which a series of events have happened in one of my good friend's life in the recent past, made me believe that the Divine has created him all the right conditions, and is telling him pursue bigger and better things. I am writing this post (as always) wishing him the very best.

Here is a relevant story from Pastor Joel Olsteen's Sermon at Lakewood Church (that I watched on TV).

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost.

He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, "God! How could you do this to me?" Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island!

It had come to rescue him! "How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

Moral of the Story:

It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad or things have caused undue stress, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain, suffering, or stress. Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground, it just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.

On reading a quote from the Bible on my blog last year, one of my childhood buddies (and a distant relative) wondered about my reason for quoting Bible, when so much wisdom is available in Hinduism.

My answer is, if we find some water when we are really thirsty, we probably will not be finicky and try to find if it was extracted from an aquifer or river of our choice. If it looks good and tastes good, we would gladly quench our thirst with it. Finally, I love the following song.

Men Vs. Women

According to two studies by professors at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania, the results are in, and it turns out that men are happier than women. On average, the studies showed, women are unhappy about 90 minutes more per week than men.

I think the following photo pretty much answers the question "why so?"

Just kidding! I think women take things a lot more seriously than men, and they make less impulsive decisions than men. In addition to the burden of greater family responsibilities they take, their tendency to analyze things in many angles may be one of the causes for their dissatisfaction (because, the world makes no sense)! I will leave it here. If I continue analysis any further, I will be crossing the boundary:-)

Drive by Snaking

Weird things happen everywhere. But when they happen in Austin, they get special attention.

Three Taco Bell customers threw a python through a drive-through window at an unsuspecting worker who is very afraid of snakes. Bryant Simmons, 20, was handing food to the men in a pickup Sunday night at the restaurant at 1108 N. Interstate 35. Someone inside the truck tossed the 3-foot snake at Simmons. It hit him in the chest but did not bite him.

Simmons was still terrified when officers arrived, Round Rock police spokesman Eric Poteet said. Simmons couldn't be reached for comment Thursday, but Don Barton, vice president of human resources for Austaco Ltd., said Simmons "is shaken up but just fine." The snake will also be fine: Officers gave it to a known python fan who works at a nearby Thundercloud Subs restaurant. They said the reptile is harmless.


"As soon as I saw it, I had to have it," said Mandie Page, who has two other ball pythons. "I can't believe someone would throw it like that, because they could have hurt him." (She meant the snake.) Page said she's friends with one of the officers but said it took a little bit of coaxing to get the snake. She named it Joker.

This reminds me of a lady I saw at Lady Bird Lake a few years ago - she was speed walking with ~ 6 ft python coiled around her neck! I wish I had a camera then. I thought it was weird!