The 1998 movie, "Fight Club', based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk, published in 1996, may have seemed far fetched, but it struck a chord with men who say they feel emasculated by the mundaneness of the corporate, high-tech world. ESPN reported that since 1998, a fight club has been meeting once a month in Cornell educated software engineer, Gints Klimani's, garage. Fifteen men, mostly white, middle-aged technology workers meet to beat each other using fists, toilet seats, and cookie sheets. The group improvises weapons, even stabbing each other with dulled knives.

Teaming up with real estate developer Live Smart Home, furniture giant IKEA has built Britain's first flat-pack village at St. James in Tyne and Wear, northeast of England. Amazingly, almost all of the 93 timber-framed homes, the price of which range from $180,000 to $320,000, were immediately cornered by first-time buyers.

It's the Chinese Year of the Rat but it is unlikely the animal's status could be elevated above the sewer and loathsome level. Never mind that last year's hit film Ratatouille showed their humorous - and culinary - side and that Mickey Mouse and Tom and Jerry have been a long-time favorites.

A woman managed to escape from a house fire in the nick of time, thanks to the warning from her dog. Cathy Minnig of Eagan, Minn. was exercising on the treadmill located at the basement of her home Wednesday, noticed her Labrador puppy, Riley, jumping up and down the couch, and acting in an unusual manner. Minnig, who was listening to her iPod during the time, took of her headphones to hear the sounds of fire alarms.

A 200-pound potbellied pig named Romeo is living as a major part of the household of a family in St. Albans, Queens. The part-Vietnamese potbellied, who was bought from a farm in Long Island, was described by the Cummings family to be completely housebroken, and has never brought any complaints from the neighbors. He was reported to consume three pounds of pellet food daily, and is taken for a walk four times a day without a leash.