Halloween Links

A List of Halloween Horror Movies and TV Show Marathons. My kids will be on sugar overload, fighting over the Travel Channel vs. Cartoon Network.

The Horror of Trick-or-Treat.

Ten Epic Halloween Costumes. How will yours compare at the local costume contest?

I vant to suck your broccoli: 23 unusual vampire variations. (via Gorilla Mask)

Top 25 scary Halloween movies. From the Chicago Tribune. This would have been such a nice list, but they had to make it a slide show to annoy you and get their page views up.

The Kids Halloween Candy Code. I'm afraid I'll go from "miserly portions" to "out of candy and giving out sauce packets from Taco Bell."

Ghosts in the Library! The American Library Association has collected stories of more haunted libraries than you can shake a book at.

Halloween Theme

(via Metafilter)

America’s Most Haunted: Six Seriously Spooky Sites

Having recently bought a 103-year-old house with some scary stories of its own, I approached this subject with some trepidation. After doing the research, I probably won’t sleep for days.

read more | digg story

Political Links

It turns out that if you've seen one presidential debate, you really have seen them all. And now you can see them all at once!

I Am A Real American.

I Am the Angry Left.

Some early W.Va. voters say touch-screen machines in the county clerk's office in Ripley kept switching their votes from Democratic to Republican candidates. Like on The Simpsons.

See a West Virginia voting machine in action.

Joe Sixpack and Joe the Plumber discuss tax policy.

Friends Don't Let Friends Vote Third Party.

Barack Obama Eats Babies. (via YesButNoButYes)

The Hauntening

Good Reads and Information

Don't miss the Halloween Sky Show, October 31st through November 3rd, starring the moon, Venus, and Jupiter, with special guest Earthshine! NASA has details on what to look for while you munch trick-or-treat candy.

After 65 years on Malaga Island, Maine, the descendants of community founder Benjamin Darling were suddenly evicted and sent to a home for the feeble-minded. Almost 100 years later, the island is still uninhabited. (via Metafilter)

To every thing there is a purpose: The Stink in Farts Controls Blood Pressure. Alrighty then.

Gorgeous underwater footage of wildlife in the Galapagos, set to appropriate music. Don't miss the whale shark in the last minute!

The Ten Signs of Intellectual Honesty. I know some people who show these characteristics; no wonder I can't help but respect them.

Static electricity and gasoline fumes are a deadly combination. About 100 static-sparked fires occur at gas stations each year.

The Haunted Hospital. Waverly Hills Sanatorium has been a TB hospital, a nursing home, a failed religious monument, and now a paranormal investigation site.

Our world is a big, beautiful, and sometimes scary place. Learn more about it with 82 Epic Elemental Phenomena and Natural Disasters.

Trick or Treat

Starring Donald Duck. 1954.

More Halloween Links

It's Almost Halloween! By Panic at the Disco. Everybody do the Trick-or-Treat!

The 15 Sexiest Halloween Costumes Based On Pop Culture. (via Gorilla Mask)

Homestar Runner's Costume Ad. (via Fark)

Alex Komarnitsky's Controllable Halloween Decorations for Celiac Disease. (Thanks, Alek!)

Body in a Bag Costume. (via Everlasting Blort)

Assault with a deadly pumpkin.

LED Ghosties for Halloween.

How to have a green Halloween.

Gruesome Halloween Party Food. Prepare these and hope your guests are brave enough to try them.

Sweet Candy Corn, a blog about nothing but the Halloween candy everyone either loves or hates.

Fun Links

A close look at donuts. Their past may be a mystery, but their present is sweet. (via YesButNoButYes)

Stop Motion Chess. With just the touch of violence the sport of kings needs.

Cunnilingus in North Korea.

Dolls and Toys that Creep us Out. It's that uncanny valley thing gain.

Run is a simple game that will drive you mad. The object is to not fall into the abyss of space while you run at a steady pace.

5 Reasons Luke Skywalker Is a Complete Idiot. No, you're not the only one who always thought so.

The McCain-Obama Dance Off. No matter what your politics are, you have to admit this video shows some sweet editing skills.

A sold-out art show in San Francisco pays tribute to LOLcats. You've made the big time now, kitteh.

A politician's chair breaks during an interview. He's not much of a "chairman", is he?

Halloween Links

DIY Halloween Decorations. They're always better than the store-bought kind!

10 Stories About the Real Dracula.

The Twelve Creepiest Hotels. In real life, not the movies. Be warned it's a slideshow with one item on each page. I hate that.

The Ten Creepiest Masked Killers of All Time. From the movies.

Eight Real-Life Doctor Frankensteins Who Pushed the Boundaries of Life and Death. Warning: this post may induce nightmares.

How good are you at separating myth from fact? Take the Mythbusters Halloween Quiz. (via Interesting Pile)

World of Warcraft Pumpkin carving contest.

34 Geeky Pumpkin Faces, featuring scenes from movies, comics, computer logos, and video games.

Ray Villifane's pumpkin carvings.

The History of Torture Devices

May be disturbing. OK, it IS disturbing. (via Milk and Cookies)

The Work Out

James the chimpanzee and his dog Pan work out together for Japanese TV. (via Neatorama)

Good Reads and Information

How 10 American Towns Got Their Weird Names. They all have great stories but I think they were all looking ahead to internet fame.

The largest snake ever found was over 40 feet long and probably weighed over a ton! The good news is that was they found was a fossil. (via Boing Boing)

5 Enormous Cracks. There are places on earth where tectonic plates are moving, sometimes too slow for humans to discern, sometimes rather suddenly.

The 10 Deadliest Earthquakes in U.S. History. A magnitude of 9.4 is almost beyond comprehension.

6 of the World's Greatest Missing Treasures. Maybe they're behind the dryer.

Gorilla conservation began in 1921 with a scientist who recognized them as our closest relatives. It's been an uphill battle ever since.

I had wondered why banks didn't just adjust mortgages to allow residents to keep their homes instead of foreclosing and losing a ton of money as the housing market tanks. Looks like banks are beginning to do just that.

When urban sprawl meets sacred ground, unusual things happen. Here are seven instances of preserved cemeteries surrounded by parking lots!

Famous People Who Have Been Homeless. More people than you realize have been homeless at one period of time in their lives, including 33 who have gone on to find fame and fortune.

The World's Grossest Candy

Be sure to stock up for Halloween! (via YesButNoButYes)

Halloween Links

Who Was Dr. Frankenstein? Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus is considered by many to be the first science fiction novel. It was written in 1816-1817, during a time when bringing the dead back to life was a serious endeavor in scientific circles.

Bram Stoker's great grand-nephew, Dacre Stoker is preparing a sequel to the original Dracula novel. Look for it in a bookstore near you next October. And a film, too.

Clarifying 8 Horror Myths.

Halloween food.

Top Ten Worst Halloween 'Candies'. These are the treats you give out if you don't want those pesky trick-or-treaters to come back next year. (via the Presurfer)

Fantasy Pumpkins. A how-to guide.

Hallowindow. Decorating for Halloween in the digital age. At least, I HOPE it's a window decoration!

Links for Fun

LOLcats go to the movies! I can has Oscar?

Upgrading a Mac: it's quick and easy.

30 Skills Every Woman Should Have Before Turning 30. I have them. (Thanks, Duke!)

Test your reaction time. My average was 0.291 seconds. I be you can do better.

Entrances to Hell. Submit yours if you have one.

A little boy gets excited about a shipment of lobsters. And he doesn't even know how expensive they are!

The new line of Sony robots get down on the dance floor. This makes doing "the Robot" a lot tougher for us mere mortals.

10 Weird Psychology Studies. I'll bet some of these received grant money just for their sheer ballsiness.

The Fly and the Eye

This surreal video is to advertise a clothing line by OCB rolling papers. I don't see that. (via Ursi's Blog)

Halloween Costumes of the Past

Scaramouch is trying to scare up readers' past Halloween costumes for a photo post over at YesButNoButYes. To encourage such shenanigans, I posted the pictures I could find from long ago when I managed to go to parties for Halloween. Take a look and leave a comment!

Information Links

A million residents of the Chelyabinsk Province in Russia found out what happens when radioactive waste is not properly stored or cooled between 1948 and 1990 -not that they were told what was happening. The Worldwatch Institute calls it the "most polluted spot" in history.

An Antarctic expedition is setting out to find an explanation for why there is a great mountain range buried under the White Continent. The mysterious Gamburtsevs lie underneath up to four kilometers of ice. (via Metafilter)

The Science of Gossip: Why We Can't Stop Ourselves. Because a good dish is as satisfying as ...a good dish.

Displays of altruism or selflessness towards others can be sexually attractive in a mate. I have one thing to say about that study: duh.

Statistic on Global Wealth and Poverty. A guaranteed eye-opener.

The Cocaine Factory. The drug itself is bad enough, but look what other nasty thing they use to process it!

Despite the Wall Street meltdown, here are 10 Things That Are Going Right for the economy that consumers can rejoice about. (via Consumerist)

People keep coming up with ideas for controlling hurricanes. Hurricanes are so big they just laugh at such efforts.

Halloween Links

Vintage Halloween Postcards (via the Presurfer)

More Top Vampires from the Movies.

The Stories Behind Three Classic Halloween Movies.

The Stories Behind Three More Horror Classics. More than you ever needed to know about The Omen, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Poltergeist.

Haunted Castles of Europe.

Yes, We Carve. (via Everlasting Blort)

Paparazzi Costume.

Why Halloween will suck this year.

Baby Costume. Cookware not included.

Megaman costume with authentic megabusters!

Richard Simmons Walks It Out

(via YesButNoButYes)

Information Links

Blogging college students can try for a $10,000 scholarship! Enter yourself or someone you know, but hurry -the deadline for entry is October 30th.

The AIDS pandemic in Africa is leaving an entire generation of children without parents. Over a quarter million in Kenya are living on the streets, getting high on inhalants.

Can brain damage help you quit smoking? It did for some folks when the damage included a certain small area -the addiction center.

Having both love and sexual desire is nice, but according to this story they don't always correlate. Bonus: learn the separate body language cues for each.

The classic 1985 Frontline episode entitled A Class Divided is available online from PBS. It covers the daring 1968 classroom experiment a teacher conducted to teach what discrimination is like to third-graders in an all-white community.

How a Mega-Shredder Reduces a Sedan to Scrap. It's not only satisfyingly destructive, it's also some major recycling.

6 financial milestones you should reach before age 30. Even if you're over 30, you can still work toward these goals. (via Consumerist)

A third photo has emerged of Robert Johnson, the legendary bluesman with the long, long fingers. Along with the story of the photo, read the story of the musician himself. (via Metafilter)

US Celebrities in Japanese Ads

(YouTube link) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bW_cHfnOXM
Ben Stiller mugs it up in a Japanese drink ad. It's just one of a slew of videos in The Top U.S. Celebrities as seen in Japanese Commercials. Also see Madonna, Harrison Ford, Britney Spears, Anthony Hopkins and many more. (Thanks, chris!)

Fun and Funny Links

Upside Down Dogs is a website full of pictures of upside down dogs. It may not sound like much, but you'll laugh when you se it.

People who still use analog TVs without cable can get instructions for digital conversion over the internet. Like that's gonna happen.

Animal Planet has teamed up with the makers of Wallace & Gromit to produce a series of 10 short claymation films promoting green living. That's all well and good, but I'll never forget the jet-propelled farting cow. (via the Presurfer)

Kentucky Man Sets Cockroach Record.

Greatest Eye-Take Ever. (Via J-Walk Blog)

The 6 Most Disastrous Uses of Work Email Ever. True cautionary tales of ruined careers and laughing websurfers. (via Geek Like Me)

25 Famous Redheads. I honestly didn't know Bernadette Peters and Malcolm X were redheads. (via Interesting Pile)

More funny names of real people. Or are they? (via Arbroath)

It's the Same Old Song

legend has left us. Levi Stubbs, lead singer of legendary Motown band The Four Tops, has died at his home in Detroit, aged 72.

The Horror of Bunnies: 8 Rabbits to Avoid

As Halloween approaches, you’ll be hit from all sides with tales of ghosts, witches, vampires, monsters, and other assorted scary icons. But none can be more terrifying than ...bunny rabbits!

read more | digg story

Political Links

The son of William F. Buckley will vote for Obama.

The Bush administration this month is quietly cutting off birth control supplies to some of the world’s poorest women in Africa. Thus the paradox of a “pro-life” administration adopting a policy whose result will be tens of thousands of additional abortions each year — along with more women dying in childbirth.

Three reasons to takes political polls with a grain of salt. Pollsters themselves are worried that they'll be wrong, wrong, wrong.

Consumer Reports compares the health care plans proposed by John McCain and Barack Obama. (via Simply Left Behind)

The Sarah Palin Sex Doll. You knew it was gonna happen. (via YesButNoButYes)

Election Rap Battle '08. Even if you're tired of politics, this is funny!

The Name Game. Who shares YOUR name?

Palin As President. Don't click on the red phone! (via Cynical-C)

Ten Trillion Dollars

Opportunity Cost of George W. Bush and 10 Trillion Dollars

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: olpc opportunitycost)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

For more information , go to the Human Rights Action Center.

John Cleese on Sarah Palin

Monty Python could have written the scrip for this election.

Fun Links

There are so many different stories about the Three Stooges' origin. Here's one that sounds good.

Internet Superstars: Where Are They Now? (via Geeks Are Sexy!)

Scattered across the farm-belt of the United States of America are acres upon acres of the craziest corn mazes that mankind has ever conceived. Take a look at some from above. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

The Brokers With Hands On Their Faces Blog.

Diary of an Sick Bird. (via Gorilla Mask)

Check how well you can orient without measurement by playing the Eyeballing Game. I scored a miserable 4.29, probably because my eyesight is failing. (via Neatorama)

A wedding they'll all remember forever! The best man trips and pushes the bride and minister into the water.

The 10 Greatest Floating Heads of All Time. Like I've always said, you can never have too many floating heads.

You can be a part of the GMT Project! Volunteers will take photographs around the world at the exact same tim eon Wednesday to record one moment everywhere.

Good Reads and Information

Ten Ways To Look Fabulous in Pictures. Memorize these tips for those occasions when someone suddenly feels the need to snap your picture. (via Geek Like Me)

Douglas Prasher discovered a gene that creates glowing protein, and gave it away freely to other scientists. Now three of those scientists have won Nobel prizes, and Prasher drives a shuttle for a car dealership. (via Terra Sigillata)

The pros and cons of restaurant tipping. Is there a better system? Could it ever be changed?

Surviving a rattlesnake bite. With pictures that may give you nightmares.

As the national economic meltdown takes its toll on local economies, some out-of-the-way states are enjoying unprecedented prosperity. Wyoming, West Virginia and North Dakota are doing surprisingly well.

Courts sometimes have to determine what a minor really wants, without undue influence from either parent. A case involving a 13-year-old's circumcision gives us a primer on how they do it.

Scenes from the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. Don't you wish they were televised the way the Olympics were?

How to Embalm a Body. This may be disturbing for the sensitive. (via Cynical-C)

How well could you eat on $25 a week? In some parts of the country, that challenge is rather difficult, as these volunteers found out.

Ten Meetings that Rocked the World. The sum of collaborative minds is sometimes more than anyone imagined.

Friday Fun Links

Whack-A-Bone will test your memory of the skeletal system. If you're good enough, you get to hit those bones with a mallet! (via Everlasting Blort)

Do It Yourself Molded Pumpkins. A personal experiment.

Interns on Scrubs told to do Space Invaders. Why? Because it's fun to be the boss!

A landslide caught on video. Fastest trees I've ever seen.

The 26 Hottest Star Trek Babes.

Nothing but the truth: Internet hoaxes. I honestly can't believe anyone fell for these. (via Metafilter)

The Dark Knight meets Toy Story 2. Why so serious, Buzz Lightyear?

The 15 Nuttiest Celebrity Stalkers Of All Time. If this is what it's like to be famous, I'll take a pass. (via Gorilla Mask)

Offbeat Animal Competitions. You and your pet can share some quality time winning prizes together.

The Violent Book Trailer.

Eight Stories of Locked-In Syndrome

Imagine losing control over everything. You can’t move on your own. You can’t scratch an itch. And worse still, you can’t tell anyone around you that you have an itch. You can feel pain, hunger, loneliness, and fear, but you can’t react to those sensations. You are totally aware of your surroundings, but you can’t communicate your feelings or desires, or even your basic needs. The term for this horror is locked-in syndrome. Someone with locked-in syndrome suffers from paralysis of all voluntary muscles except for those that move the eyes. This can be caused by neurological disease such as ALS, strokes, injuries to the brain stem, or drug overdose. The term locked-in syndrome has only been in use since the 1960s. Before that, people who suffered such traumatic injuries generally died from them, or else they were considered to be brain damaged. Here are the stories of eight people who have lived this nightmare.

read more | digg story

Information Links

People Love Angry-Faced Cars (even if they don't realize it). Take a look at the Prius and see how wimpy those headlights are.

The centuries-long controversy over Yom Kippur's Kol Nidre. The most recognizable prayer of Judaism is often taken out of context by anti-semites.

The 10 Most Mysterious Cyber Crimes. The best hackers never get caught, or glorified.

Footprints from 570 million years ago have been found in Nevada. We don't know what kind of animal left the oldest tracks found so far.

Thomas Wheeler watches his electric meter go backwards! He produces more than he uses and sells the excess to the power company. And they pay him!

Intelligent men are more appealing to women. Duh. In a recent study, this turns out to be true whether it's a one night stand or a long-term relationship.

How to make your own butter at home. It's not cheaper than store-bought, but who cares -you made your own butter!

There are many resources for understanding the current economic crisis. Understanding won't make it better, but we may be able to keep it from happening again down the road.

The most immediate consequence of global warming may be a rise in deadly infectious diseases. When the balance of nature is upset, microbes are the most likely winners.

10 American Financial Meltdowns in the Past Century. However painful, what Wall Street is going through now is nothing new.

Shaft

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performs Shaft. Damn right. (via Neatorama)

Political Links

Sarah Palin, Guardian of the Northern Frontier.

Bargain basement reading, or collector's item? (via J-Walk Blog)

What happens if a presidential candidate passes away at the last second? Or between the election and inauguration? We could end up with a surprise president.

Yes We Can (Hold Babies). A blog devoted to pictures of Barack Obama holding babies. (via Metafilter)

Down Home Political Talk.

This is Your Nation on White Privilege. (via Metafilter)

Voting registration snafu in Ohio. (via NYC Educator)

Election 2008: Star Wars Version.

Election Day in Springfield

Homer Simpson tries to vote for Obama.

Informative Links

The Phoenix Mars Lander has observed snow falling on Mars. No wonder it stayed passed its planned mission schedule.

Wired's Guide to Green Travel. You can see the world without destroying it -if you plan ahead a little.

Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel turn 16. Yes, they had to take the driver's test twice.

What can you do with $700 billion? Buy seventy Hubble telescopes, pay off all the student loans in the country, or a lot of other things.

The telescope was patented 400 years ago. Although it took a while for people to trust the observations of scientists, the instrument changed out entire point of view.

There are only about 400 North Atlantic right whales left on earth. A research team from Boston's New England Aquarium knows them all, either by sight or by DNA.

The 200-year-old operating theater at the Pennsylvania Hospital is preserved as it was during its early use. Be thankful we only get a small taste of what surgery was like before anesthetics and antiseptics.

10 simple things you can do to improve your writing. I know I'm guilty of some of these, but seeing someone violate #8 drives me crazy!

Food companies are pushing cheaper foods. It turns out that cheap food products with a higher markup are altogether more profitable for them.

7 Abandoned Architectural Wonders of Modern Asia. Each with a different reason for abandonment.

Fun and Funny Links

The $1.25 Remote-Controlled Ghost. A very nearly universal experience you may relate to.

The Barbershop Quartet from the Starship Enterprise. The impressions are funny, and they can sing, too!

Kung Fu Election. Choose your fighter, and pray you don't die as fast as I did! (via Metafilter)

Headline of the week: Hookers lining up for their BJs.

The 10 Most Famous Preserved Body Parts. Don't bother looking for Rasputin; he's not here. (via Look at This)

If you enjoyed Periodic Tableware, you'll enjoy More Periodic Tableware. The periodic table can be adapted to many purposes besides elements.

Watch cats slide on a floor in slow-motion, the way it should always be shown. It's short, but you'll want to watch more than once. Needs some Three Stooges music.

Are you plagued by Stuck Tune Syndrome? Maim That Tune will help you get that song out of your head by finding an alternate tune to replace it with.

Desktop Blues. I like to keep this handy. Hint: keep the radio on.

They're Coming to Take Me Away

By Napoleon XIV.

All The Cats Join In

Disney, 1946.

Gondoliers in Venice for Obama

Boobie-Thon 2008

Every year, bloggers all over the world all showing their breasts to support the fight against breast cancer. Today, the seventh annual Boobiethon opens!

In the past six years we have raised over $40,000.00 for Breast Cancer Research and we are back to do it all again on October 1, 2008!

The 2008 event kicks off on Wednesday October 1, 2008 and will run for one full week, ending at 11:59 pm on Tuesday October 7, 2008. Just as we have done in the past, the first $359.00 raised will go towards the Bloggers-Helping-Bloggers portion of the event. All remaining money will go to Komen.

As in years past, you can see the gallery of (sometimes barely) dressed boobies, absolutely free (but please make a donation anyway) or donate at least $50 and see the full nude gallery. I think there may still be time for lady bloggers to submit their photos. I wonder if they still have my photo from last year? Oh yeah, all galleries are NSFW.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so you might as well start by raising your awareness of what we are trying to save.

Information and Good Reads

A privately developed rocket, the Falcon 1 by Space X has made it into space. It passed above the International Space Station on Sunday. With video.

9 Mental Math Tricks. I'll never be able to remember all of these, but I so admire the beautiful patterns of math.

Ancient Fish Had Primitive Fingers and Toes. They had arm bones and leg bones resembling ours, too, but lost them over time.

Metaphors of the Mind: Why Loneliness Feels Cold and Sins Feel Dirty. Also contains some observations about creativity and self-identity.

Scientists have found a safer way to make versatile stem cells from everyday adult skin cells. The "biggest stem cell breakthrough in a decade" could lead to actual use in human patients.

Sea Shanties were work songs sung on ships during the age of sail. Some have survived for you to listen to today.

Einstein's 23 Biggest Mistakes. Like I tell my kids, if you don't make mistakes, you won't learn anything new. (via Geek Like Me)

Despite the name, slime molds can be beautiful.

12 Greek Words You Should Know. You probably already use them, but do you use them properly?

The Night the Knickerbocker Theater’s Roof Collapsed. One man's eyewitness account of a disaster that killed 98 people.