Halloween Links

The 12 Most Convincing Real-Life Ghost Stories.

Who Was Dr. Frankenstein?

Absolut Frankenstein.

Ten Vampire Cats.

Check out this silly Halloween ecard I received. (Thanks, John!)

The House of Blood. It can be yours!

The Night of the Vampire.

How Do You Make a Monster? Dissecting Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies.

From Human To Corpse: Walking Dead Make-Up. It takes hours to become a zombie, and then they have to wear that stuff all day!

Your mother warned you about guys like these, but you still fall for them. Our Favorite Vampires. Does not include sparkly vampires.

Sleepy Hollow (and its Legend). Stacy actually went there and brought back a list of fascinating facts.

The Hidden Haunted History of 7 American Landmarks.

Have you ever guessed a Halloween costume embarrassingly wrong? This guy had the best story.

The Most Excellent Halloween. (via Buzzfeed)

13 Horror Movies and the 'True Stories' They're Based On.

Vintage Kids in Halloween Photos. Amid all the modern hype, some things never really change.

In the modern world, you can wear a “virtual costume.” Just sport the proper QR code, then anyone who cares can see you in costume on their device of choice.

10 TV shows with the best Halloween specials. Sitcoms love the opportunity to break out of their formula and do something weird and different.

7 Burning Halloween Questions: Answered! Now you’ll know why you do the silly things you do on this silly holiday.

Halloween Links

The Lost Masterpiece. How the Spanish version of Dracula came to be so much better than the one we saw.

Smashing Pumpkins in Slow Motion. Flying pumpkin guts are cool, as long as someone else has to clean up the mess!

9 Creepy Places to Visit For a Good Scare.

Why Our Brains Love Horror Movies. The more you know, the more pleasure you can squeeze out of this weekend’s offerings.

Horror Movies and Ghost Stories.

The 7 Most Ridiculous Ghost Stories from Around the World. (NSFW)

25 Zombie Cakes.

The 6 Creepiest Places on Earth.

Where Monsters Come From.

All Kinds of Vampires.

The Story of Stingy Jack and the Devil.

Top 10 Badass Vampires.

38 Facts on Frankenstein (Including the Aerosmith song it inspired and the reason the Munsters never got sued). And then nine more!

The Most Epic Halloween Gaming Pumpkins of All Time.

Who Was Dr. Frankenstein? Mary Shelley dreamed up the monster, but she had plenty of influences for the scientist who made it.

Historic Vampires

While researching the tale of Mercy Brown for the Cemetery Stories post, I read that she was the only accused vampire ever exhumed in the United States. The very idea that this is a notable fact gave me the willies. Is this so common in other countries? As it turns out, exhumation over supernatural suspicions happened quite often in our history, and many people have been accused of vampirism during their lives. There are so many such people that I limited this list I posted at mental_floss to examples of the different reasons people became known as vampires. Warning: these stories are all gruesome.

Good Reads

The Physics Book by Clifford A. Pickover. I'm glad I already have a copy of this!

This thread at Metafilter lines out so much of what's wrong between employers and employees now. Oh, yeah, there's an article attached, but it's not all that helpful.

Jon Bon Jovi has opened a restaurant without fixed prices. You pay if you can, and help out at the restaurant or somewhere else if you can’t.

A military dad reads a bedtime story to his daughter via prerecorded video. It gets more adorable and poignant as it goes along.

Why Being a Jerk at Work Pays. In the workplace, rudeness tends to be respected and rewarded, more so if you are a man.

Being Elmo: 5 revelations about Sesame Street’s star. That would be Kevin Clash, who has given Elmo his personality for 25 years.

Twelve years after the fact, two families found out that their babies were switched at birth. This turns out to happen relatively often in Russia.

The Cost Of Daylight Saving Time. A hassle twice a year for an extremely small payoff.

Scientology’s super-creepy South Park investigation. The church took retaliation measures against the show after an unflattering episode in 2005.

A Voice From the 1%. One of the wealthy explains what difference taxes on the rich will make. (via Boing Boing)

Here's what you should know about the soldiers who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

Who knew that Mt. Ranier could throw a shadow onto the sky? Luckily, some talented photographers knew, and now you can, too.

Boys Will Be Boys

Al Jolson in a short clip from the 1934 film Wonder Bar.

Links for Fun

The Macramé Owl Rescue & Sanctuary Organization. (via Laughing Squid)

Nostromo Crew Portraits. (via Metafilter)

Joss Whedon cast, directed, and filmed an entire movie in secret, in just 12 days while he was directing The Avengers. As if that’s not strange enough, it’s a play by William Shakespeare.

You might be pretty good with a puzzle, but can you solve a Rubik’s cube with one hand while juggling two others with your other hand? David Calvo can do just that!

15 Incredible Flower Praying Mantis Pictures. They survive by looking as fancy as the plants they live upon.

This house has a computerized Halloween light show that plays “Party Rock Anthem” and other songs. Why wait until Christmas season to annoy the neighbors?

Gettin’ Sugar High. Trick-or-treaters are serious about their sweets, so cough ‘em up or else!

Don’t mess with Crabs! You’ll see this one coming a mile away, which doesn’t make it any less funny.

J.R.R. Tolkien drew more illustrations for The Hobbit than were printed with the book in 1936. Now you can see some of the others.

7 lies people tell about their pop culture tastes. The truth is I have actually seen Citizen Kane and …it’s not all that.

Cirque du Soleil employees do a dance tribute to Michael Jackson. The cast includes performers from their far-flung global production.

The Plumber

A 1967 'toon by Shamus Culhaine. (via Your Daily Cartoon)

Historic Werewolves

The idea of a person turning into a dangerous animal has been part of folklore ever since folklore was invented. It’s quite popular today, at least in fiction, since the transformation makes a great special effect. But there have been real people in various parts of the world who went down in history as practitioners or victims of lycanthropy. In other words, werewolves. Read about some of them in this article I posted at mental_floss.

Interesting Links

Pssst: There's a giveaway going on at Miss Cellania!

MLC Productions was on Nikoi Island in Indonesia last month to shoot a commercial when a nest of sea turtle eggs hatched! So they recorded the babies on their all-important first journey from the sand to the ocean.

It's official: The rich get richer, and everyone else gets poorer. (via Breakfast Links)

The Saga of Amanda Knox’s DNA. (via Carl Zimmer)

The 25 Worst Cities to Be Young. The numbers that were crunched included unemployment, education, debt, and marriage among the young adult populations.

Google+ To Allow Pseudonyms, with no actual explanation that makes any sense. But it means I can now admit that I am on Google+.

The Ancient Tradition of Fishing With Cormorants on China’s River Li. Not a natural way of life for the bird, but he’s fed and the tourists take nice pictures.

A new study says certain areas of the brain are bigger in people who have a lot of Facebook friends. Of course, correlation is not causation, and it might not apply to people who have a thousand friends they don’t know.

The Origins of 7 Musical Instruments. If you’re gonna play one, you should know where it came from.

The Eunuch Admiral. In the 15th century, Zheng He commanded a fleet that put any European explorer to shame. (via Metafilter)

The Strange Tale of a Gucci Murderess. After 13 years in prison, Patrizia Reggiani turned down a parole offer because she doesn’t want to work.

12 of sports’ most hated teams (and why). Because sports fans are like everyone else, and only rally together behind a common enemy.

Seven revelations from the new Steve Jobs biography. That should be just enough to make you to want to read the whole book.

The 5 Most Extravagant Ways Cities Have Been Wiped Out.

How to Confuse Your Rat

Show off your juggling skills! He'll try to follow it, because he thinks you're playing three-card monty. (via Arbroath)

Fun and Funny Links

Attack of the Killer B-Movies! The story of Roger Corman and his many, many films.

CSI: Legoland. It’s just like the CSI you see on TV, puns and all, except Lego gore is easier to watch. Enhance!

The 8 Most Wildly Irresponsible Vintage Toys. I remember some of them from my own childhood, the one with no seat belts or bicycle helmets are minimum age for working as a babysitter.

“Fulci put a stuntman dressed as a zombie in a tank with a live shark and made them fight – it’s one of the craziest, most insane and irresponsible scenes ever put on film.” The 1980 film Zombie is doing a round at theaters.

America’s greatest superhero, 3D Man, invades NY Comic Con. He’s trying to get a movie deal like the other superheroes.

The Muppets will be in theaters on November 23rd for the first time in years. But some are not happy with what Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller, and James Bobin have done to Jim Henson’s beloved characters.

The odds of a set of lottery numbers coming up like this are astronomical! Too bad they didn’t win you any thing.

Your favorite comic book heroes explain their views on the Occupy Wall Street protests. Each one has a background story and specific concerns that lend credence to their positions.

What Would Happen if Zombies Invaded Stephen Spielberg Films? Artists from all over let their imaginations run wild with that idea.

Kitty Vs. Boston Terrier. They may look like they’re having a spat, but you know they’re really best friends forever.

Blow me Down

Popeye the Sailor Man, from 1933.

Hamm's Beer Bear

From the 1950s.

Xanadu

Olivia Newton-John and the Electric Light Orchestra welcome in the 1980s with the movie Xanadu. Roller skates, big hair, harem pants, lighted dance floor, mirrors, disco moves -it's all here!

Informative Links

Behold, a wheelchair that can be completely controlled just by facial muscles. This could mean movement, freedom, and so much more for paralysis victims.

Blood and sex: TV’s inaccurate portrayal of forensic nursing. This is not to demean the shows, but you should know how crime investigation works in the real world.

America’s shameful child abuse problem. Why is our rate of death from abuse so much higher than other industrialized nations?

There is no pink light. I have a string of plastic flamingo patio lights that I will now describe as infrared-ultraviolet.

Even if there is no pink light, there are Blue People. They have actual medical conditions that cause their skin to appear blue that don’t even involve body paint.

Eight people lived in Biosphere 2, a self-contained ecosystem, from 1991-1993 and lost a bunch of weight in what was supposed to be a healthy, if restricted, diet. Near-starvation is supposed to make you live a longer but apparently unhappier life. (via Boing Boing)

Top 20 College Sex-Ed Programs. How high does your school rank?

Personal trainer Drew Manning gained 70 pounds in six months on purpose, so he could understand what it’s like. Getting back in shape is not going to be easy with those new fat cells he never had before.

Student Loan Debt Nears $1 Trillion. I hope that’s spread out among a lot of students, because a trillion is $1,000,000,000,000.

13% of parents aren’t getting their kids vaccinated on the recommended schedule. Here are four theories as to why they are rejecting conventional medical wisdom.

Should celibate gay men be allowed to donate blood?

Big Food makes Big Finance look like amateurs. (via John Walkenbach)

Six Seriously Spooky Cemetery Stories

It’s that time of year, when we look to graveyards for tales that scare the Dickens out of us. Ghosts, unexplained phenomena, and even vampires figure in these stories of graveyards from all over, in an article I posted at mental_floss.

Links for Fun and Entertainment

The Pathology of Classical Sculpture, or Where Did the Penises Go?

Bricks of War. When the video game Gears of War meets Lego, neat stuff like this happens.

The Video Game as Art. A new generation of experimental game designers are putting aesthetics in your shoot-em-ups (with video evidence).

The Midnight Sun. This time-lapse video consists of thousands of photographs turned into a technicolor dream, with the never-setting sun moving sideways across a gorgeous landscape in Iceland.

The Incredible, Interchangeable Films of Steven Seagal. Since they are all so alike, you can limit yourself to the ’80s films when he was at least eye candy.

The Passing Cloud concept vehicle is a cluster of balloons you ride on top of, drifting along with the wind. What could possibly go wrong?

The 20 Cutest Baby Meerkat Pictures On The Entire Internet. You just want to pick them up and cuddle them and go all “awww.”

7 things women look for in your personality (if you’re a guy). Or at least young adult women; the older you get, the less picky you are.

Sweet Halloween costume: The Pixar Lamp. Homemade in 2010 by a 15-year-old.

Aussie Good Luck: 6 Australians who caught lucky breaks. All great stories, but don’t move to Oz just for the luck.

Sweet Child O' Mine

Played by Zoe Thomson. She was seven years old when this was recorded. Now she is eight and plays with her band, The Mini Band.

Good Reads and Information

Mrs. A.J. Young and five of her 11 children worked in the mills of Tifton, Georgia in the early 20th century. Joe Manning found out what became of Catherine Young and her Family. (via Metafilter)

The Origin of Frankenstein.

The Cassini-Huygens mission sent back awesome images of Saturn and its moons. They look even better set to dramatic music.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at how they filmed boxing robots for the movie Real Steel. All this effort and expense for a feel-good family-bonding film.

Check out the list of the most-downloaded movies of all time (which is not all that long, considering). Then for a strange contrast, the Netflix top-ten of all time is included as well.

When dreams kill: The phenomenon of sleep paralysis. A new book tells us about research that may keep you up at night.

The Zany History of Mini Golf. It started out for ladies, but everyone likes a cheap shot.

Women Who Kill the Men They Love. Filmmaker Olivia Klaus has new documentary about domestic violence and a culture that gave some women no choice.

New Biofuel Cell Can Make Electricity From Your Insides. It won’t power your home, but if can keep your pacemaker going, we have a significant breakthrough.

The death of the American chain restaurant. With fewer disposable dollars, Americans want to spend their bucks on food that’s good.

What’s a Trade Secret? (And What Would Happen if You Stole The Colonel’s?) Well, then your fried chicken would be tasty, but still not as good as mine.

A study shows that American many college students are graduating without improving their critical thinking or reasoning skills. But we can’t yet lay blame because there are many possible reasons.

Swimming Cap Fashions

A fashion show of swimming caps from the 1950s. (via Dangerous Minds)

NeatoShop Giveaway!

There's a giveaway going on at Miss Cellania, where you can win some of the neat (but weird) new art items from the NeatoShop!

Check it out here.

8 Brilliant Halloween Costumes

Last week you saw 10 Brilliant Halloween Costumes, but there’s more! Just look at the variety of ideas creative people come up with for the one occasion we can be anything we want, in this list I posted at mental_floss.

Fun and Funny Links

What kids should be taught in their senior year of high school.

My husband is a House fan, but he didn’t believe me when I told him Hugh Laurie was a British comedian. I had to show him some clips, like these I posted at mental_floss.

Reddit Comments Lead to a Movie Deal. See? Wasting time on the internet sometimes pays off!

Famous Plastic-Surgery Look-Alikes. The guy who wants to look like Superman is just the latest in a long line of body-modifying fans.

Cuelight is a pool table that uses augmented reality to make its own video effects. It’s cool-looking, but if pool is too boring as it is, you should try another game.

30 super awesome pumpkin carvings. It takes a steady hand, alright, but imagination is the most important ingredient.

Grant Woolard sang all the parts to 22 Beatles love songs and blended them together in a medley. Can you name them all?

13 HallowMeme Costume Ideas, just in case you want to be a meme and explain yourself to 90% of people you see on Halloween. Or you can attend the HallowMeme party in New York.

The Walken Dead. It’s the parody you wished for every time you heard the name of that TV show.

Jedi Turtles not only fight with light sabers, but can also levitate! In fact, they go up faster than they go forward.

Whoever says American football is not entertaining didn’t see Michigan backup quarterback Devin Gardner play Saturday. Then again, the actual game didn’t have a Yakety Sax soundtrack.

10 Foods That Should Exist. They’re just fusion cuisine, yummy delicious mashups; someone should be on them by tomorrow.

Jolly Fish

A Dick and Larry cartoon.

Interesting Links

Occupy Everywhere: America’s Uprising Was a Long Time Coming.

The Raven stars John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe in the final days of his life. The trailer shows him as perfect for the role.

Watch out, Japan, other nations are developing amazing robots now. In Korea one walks like a dog, while in China, they even play ping pong!

In a new book, The Secret Lives of Wives, women talk about their marriages and how they keep them going. Some say flirting with other men or even an affair can help.

But do women need to be married at all? More are staying single; here are six reasons why.

How Cereal Transformed American Culture. First it was good for us, then it became a convenience and a marketing bonanza.

Hi-tech sidewalk tiles transform the footsteps of people walking on them into electricity. Since they’ll be installed at London’s Olympic stadium for the the 2012 Olympics, they’ll see a lot of power sources.

Riding a Great White Shark. It’s not something you train for, but when the opportunity presents itself, you’d better be ready.

10 Absurd Movie Remakes. Footloose begins a string of unnecessary new films that we already have, in color even.

Scarlett Johansson’s phone was hacked, nude pictures leaked, and a man has been arrested. Here’s the short version of the story, including how he did it.

7 Things I learned reading North Korea’s newspaper. Three years later, my guess is that nothing has changed.

How Tourism is Taking Cuba Out of the Red.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Leaving Your Big Predatory Bank.

Utica Club Beer Ad

I don't know what year this is from, but I would guess the 1960s. (via Buzzfeed)

Friday Fun Links

Head on Brain in Brain. It will start to make sense when you read it. Or maybe not.

Ridiculous Tips for a Miserable Sex Life. Nerve has a monthly throwdown of advice from magazines.

Ghost Hosts of the UK and the US.

Jeff Wysaski printed up a public service announcement based on the HBO series Game of Thrones.

The challenge is to define what a “sandwich” is without running into logical exceptions. If you aren’t careful, you’ll include a pop tart but not a grilled cheese.

The fifth Die Hard movie is set to film next year. See a list of wonderfully punny title suggestions and what they are really going to call it.

A battle between Maggie The English Mastiff and Dude The Chihuahua. Size doesn’t matter when they’re both this cute!

How about a floor show with your drink? A bartender pours twelve martinis at once and doesn’t mix or spill them. And no glass was broken.

Real News Dumbed Down explains the Occupy Wall Street protests in simple terms. This is for young people who don’t understand big words like “filibuster” or “economics” but intimately understand “bandwidth.”

Fake English. Or else I'm hard of hearing.

The 32 Wittiest Comebacks Of All Time. They may not all be true, but they are are memorable. NSFW text.

To put you in the mood for The Walking Dead season premiere this Sunday, here’s a supercut in which you can see zombies being shot, over and over and over.

The Sandwich Routine

Abbott & Costello from the 1941 film Keep 'Em Flying.

Ten Terrific or Terrifying Treats for Halloween

All year long, we try to make food that is appetizing and pleasing to the eye. Then for Halloween, we reverse that and serve food that is ugly, scary, or otherwise appropriate for the holiday. While most of these treats are more cute than scary, they are part of my annual creative Halloween food roundup at mental_floss.

Informative Links

Chilean Miners Fight Their Demons. A year after their rescue, we see that the effects of being trapped underground for months are debilitating and possibly permanent.

New York Magazine has an extensive article on the growing number of women in their 50s and 60s who, with the help of modern technology, are becoming mothers for the first time.

The Most Disappointing Upgrades in Tech. Some innovations make you rethink your decision to be an early adopter.

8 Vaguely Named Professions: Explained! Once you understand them, you’ll see how hard they work.

The Mars Rover Opportunity has been exploring the red planet for seven years now. Watch what’s its been doing for the past three in a cool time-lapse video produced by NASA.

Research suggests that taking vitamins and other supplements may raise you cancer risk. But of course, not getting enough of these things is bad for you as well.

Sixteen zombies were hurt in an accident on the set of the new Resident Evil film. Medical personnel had trouble figuring out what was an injury and what was movie makeup.

The World’s Largest Virus is Appropriately Named “Megavirus.” It’s so big you can see it with an ordinary microscope, but it’s only dangerous to bacteria.

Dr. Pepper’s ad campaign for its new diet drink says it’s “not for women.” Will it reach men or just generate controversy and therefore publicity?

6 Utterly Loyal Dogs. Warning: reading these stories requires you to have a hanky handy.

This recession may be worse than the Great Depression.

Topeka, Kansas Considers Decriminalizing Domestic Violence. To save money.

18 Things You Should Know About Genetics

This animated video doesn't have any basic information I didn't aready know, but the statistics and facts sprinkled along the story impressed me. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Links for Fun

The cast of The Princess Bride reunited for a photo shoot, and I found out that a generation of people who venerate the movie never really knew who starred in it. Yes, that’s Forrest Gump‘s Jenny, Susan Sarandon’s ex, Spinal Tap‘s guitarist, and Jason Gideon of Criminal Minds.

In which I review a book called Crafting With Cat Hair.

It takes a strange mind to reimagine John Carpenter’s film The Thing as a musical with Frank Sinatra. NSFW lyrics.

8 actors that most personify manliness. The only argument I have is that more research may be needed.

This road crew was under time constraint to dismantle a bridge before the road underneath opened to traffic. They did it! The music was a big help.

Among the many Steve Jobs tributes, a practical question arises: who will play him in the movie? I cast my vote for Noah Wylie.

Before their new movie comes out next month, the Muppets want to explain to you how to behave in a movie theater. Turn your cell phone off and mind your manners when they come to your town.

The first trailer for the Marvel Comics/Joss Whedon film The Avengers is out now. It appears to be every superhero film of the past ten years rolled into one.

The Seven Deadly Sins as illustrated by the keys on your keyboard. Hey, if you’re going to live your life on the ‘net, it makes a pretty fair explanation.

Who’s ready for ski season? Colorado got 44 inches of snow last weekend, and BroBible’s got some videos from the first days to get you primed.

10 Things People Say Without Having Any Idea What They’re Talking About, And What They Should Be Saying Instead.

10 Brilliant Halloween Costumes

Modern technology makes dressing up for Halloween (or any costume occasion) more fun than ever! Not only do we have materials to make special effects (affordably, with a little imagination), but the internet gives us access to some great ideas -plus, if you post your awesome costume, it may be referenced and emulated for years after you wear it. Here are ten costumes that turn imagination and creativity into something awesome in an article I wrote for mental_floss.

Good Reads and Information

In 1959, Marine Corps pilot William Rankin was cruising at nine miles above the earth in an F-8 Crusader combat jet when something went wrong and he had to eject. Between him and the ground was a big, black storm.

Essays on the trap of US student debt. Crunch your numbers before you sign on the dotted line.

Steve Made Me Famous. Meet some of the specific people and companies who owe their success in part to Steve Jobs and the company he created (some will surprise you).

The new movie The Ides of March has disturbing yet familiar political shenanigans that will make you cringe. Plus, it’s got George Clooney and Ryan Gosling, so there’s that going for it.

The ‘fantastical’ exoskeleton that could help patients walk again. Not only did test monkeys move the machine with their brains only, they felt sensations coming from it.

7 Unsung Events That Deserve Your Attention. Even if all they do is make your jaw drop.

There are two or three different film versions of Snow White preparing to hit theaters in 2012. See pictures from one featuring Julia Roberts and a Village People cast of dwarves.

James Cameron often provided voices and sound effects in his films. A montage of those sounds reveals that he was the voice of the Alien Queen.

In 1897, doctors buried a time capsule containing common bacterial spores. Now scientists are planning to resurrect them to see how they differ from the current version of the species, which may tell us what effect antibiotics have on microbial evolution.

The ‘exotic’ viruses that live in your sewage. Scientists have found 43,381 viruses so far, and they’re just getting started.

Monkey-Men, Dancing Plagues and Other Mass Hysterias. When one goes crazy, everybody goes crazy!

Charging for Debit Cards Is Robbery. And another reason I don't use debit cards.

Fun and Funny Links

Starry Night is Everywhere! A roundup of how Van Gogh's masterpiece is used by people for all kinds of projects.

11 Horrifying Examples Of Inbread Animals. They’re actually kind of cute.

Why Cleavage is Bad for Crimefighting addresses the practical problems with the way superheroines’ costumes are designed. I don’t think logic was ever the reason behind the look.

Batman Meets the Riddler. And then takes all the fun out of being an insane themed supervillain.

The Mini Band is composed of 8- and 10-year-old kids from the Newbury Rock School in Berkshire, England. Listen to their performance of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and recall what you were doing at that age.

The Jetsons‘ daughter Judy was a boy-crazy teen who was hip to the coolest lingo. But when you compile her clips into one video, she sounds hysterically promiscuous.

A little girl gets the happiest surprise of her life. She even cries adorable tears -and you might, too.

Some folks don’t know when to stop with the automobile hydraulics. Have you ever seen a car jump rope?

How many different songs can you include in a mashup and make it sound good? Chris from Ithaca Audio proves that if you know what you’re doing, the answer is “all of them.”

7 of the worst ways to propose to a woman. Yeah, the one at the funeral is a no-brainer.

I never expected to post a badminton video in this column. But these guys are hardcore.

Arnim Dahl

Arnim Dahl was a German stuntman in the 1930s.

Angkor, Cambodia in the 1930s

An old travelogue.

Informative Links

Apple founder Steve Jobs died Wednesday at age 56. A special roundup tells of his life, his achievements, and the future of his company.

The War in Afghanistan began on October 7th, 2001. Here are some statistics on how veterans and the U.S. public feel about the conflict ten years later.

The USO is seventy years old, and still entertaining troops around the world. However, the tours are somewhat different now from those in Bob Hope’s day.

The day Elvis met The Beatles.

What’s the Most Important Lesson You Learned from a Teacher? Steve Silberman asked around and got some inspiring stories.

NASA is looking for the next generation of astronauts. If you’re qualified, you might start to work on something or other in 2013.

You Got Your Sperm Where? More and more potential parents are trying do-it-yourself insemination with underground advice and free sperm donors found online.

Amanda Knox was convicted of murder in Italy, a verdict that was overturned this week. Here are five lessons to take away from the case.

10 Things Your Body Can Do After You Die. Well, maybe not your body, but some body has done each of these after dying.

Sugar the retriever goes on a goose hunt with a dog-cam strapped to her head. It doesn’t affect her performance, but you get a hunting dog’s point of view.

Sesame Street’s new ‘poverty-stricken’ Muppet. Lily, who doesn’t always know where her next meal will come from, will be introduced in a prime-time special this Sunday.

9 People Who Refused to be Limited. Amazing stories, ranging from the blind-from-birth painter to the quadruple amputee wrestler.

10 Pumpkin Sports

When you think of pumpkin competitions, the first thing that comes to mind is the race to grow the world’s largest pumpkin. Or even the largest at your local county fair. Professional growers are closing in on the Holy Grail of a 2,000 pound pumpkin! But if you can’t spend all year nursing your garden fruits, there are plenty of other fun things to do with a pumpkin. And some people take those things very seriously. Read about Pumpkin Sports in a list I posted at mental_floss.

Image by Flickr user Chiot’s Run.

Links for Fun

A simple experiment answers that old question about which came first, The Chicken Or the Egg.

The TV series Arrested Development will be resurrected for nine or ten new episodes before the movie is released. They’ll have the same cast and characters, but they will be different from regular sitcom episodes.

Remember Tommy Wiseau, who was responsible for the movie The Room? Believe it or not, he’s got his own webseries now, and it’s all about video games.

Emergency Teddy Bear has everything you need. But only if these are the things you need.

The insane couch gag on this week’s episode of The Simpsons was done by Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi. In case you missed it, it’s online for your confusion and enjoyment.

In Russia, when they take the show on the road, they literally take the SHOW on the ROAD.

Chopping onions will make you cry.

Sleep Tight! a reassuring bedtime story for toddlers. Or actually nothing of the sort.

Pac-Man: The Musical. Adorable claymation ghosts sing about the joy of eating Pac-Man’s “tasty yellow head.”

The NBA lockout has affected video games as well. What do game characters do when they can’t do what they …do?

Wear a marching band uniform, carry an instrument, play well, and dance, too. The Ohio University Marching 110 show off their shuffling skills while playing LMFAO`s “Party Rock Anthem.”

Military police carry out a training exercise in which they raid a porta-potty. It might not be clean, but by golly, it’s clear!

Links to Good Reads and Information

Mysterious Rappings, the story of the hoax that started the spiritualist movement.

Lori Dorn is a cancer patient and the wife of Laughing Squid's Scoot Beale. Her horrific experience getting through airport security made me cry. (via Boing Boing)

Graduate student Noah Jafferis built a magic flying carpet using SCIENCE! Actually, it floats on air magically powered by electricity.

Twenty years later, Chelsea Clinton remembers her father announcing his run for president. She was only eleven, but knew more about the world than you’d expect.

People were not sure what to think about a cancer comedy film, but 50/50 pulls it off. Even a cynical film critic got all emotional watching it. (NSFW language)

8 Famous Stutterers. This list includes some who went on to speak for a living.

Why big business needs unemployment benefits. You might not like giving people money for not working, but if you don't, what's left of our economy might implode.

If a nurse or a pharmacist earns a PhD, they would be addressed as “Doctor,” right? Not if medical doctors have anything to do with it!

10 Ruthless Rock Managers. Where there’s money to be made, there are always people who will do anything to get more than their share of it.

Watch Free Solo Climber Alex Honnold Scale Yosemite’s Steepest Rock Face — Without Ropes. One slip or wrong move can mean death (but not during this particular video).

Rachel Mayeri’s “Primate Cinema: Apes as Family” art project involves making movies about apes, starring humans in ape suits, for apes to watch. The apes seem to like it, but will humans?

A Dream For My Daughter. A professional woman in Yemen describes living and working under never-ending civil unrest and government crackdowns.

Unexpected Experience of Two Girl Hitchhikers

A comedy short from the 1940s. How much do they have to take off before they get a ride?

The 2011 Zombie Invasion Schedule

Zombies make their appearances here and there all through the year, but you will see more of them this month. Between World Zombie Day on October 8 and Halloween on October 31, the nation and even the world will be crawling with zombies. If you are a zombie (or want to be one), find out where you should be and when with this handy guide to zombie walks, parades, dances, pub crawls, festivals, and gatherings that I posted at mental_floss.

Fun and Funny Links

How Scandinavians make fun of each other's languages.

Charlie Bird made friends with some young seals in Antarctica. This is several hundred pounds of adorable.

10 of the dumbest million dollar ideas of all-time.

The evolution of human ambition.

An Orca Talks to a Motorboat.

The 47 Society is dedicated to exploring the phenomenon that is 47.

Lego Megaman vs. a Cat. Right there are three of your favorite things, so how could this video lose?

The 6 Craziest Roads In The World. Some just look that way; others you’d have to be nuts to drive on.

McGill University in Montreal gathered scientists, students, and various geeks to make a dancing lipdub video. Their sponsor, Medicom, is making a donation to the Goodman Cancer Research Centre for each view the video gets at YouTube.

The difference 10 years makes.

Top Pick-Up Lines Used by Star Wars Fans.

Cute Boys With Cats. You might want to bookmark this so you can peek in after reading a bummer post.

Why geeks love geeky girls.