Just in time for Happy Halloween!

Kate Beaton's Young Goodman Brown.

The history of spooky movies.

The Great Pumpkin (or Spooky), the asteroid passing by Earth today.

Meme costumes.

Cats v Aquarium and other such matters

Cat v aquarium.

A cure for Alzheimer's?

Gary Younge:  be careful of a polarizing debate over the causes of terrorism.  Nothing is that simple.

Ahmed Merabet's eulogy of his policeman brother:

One must not confuse extremists with Muslims. Madness has neither color nor religion. I want to make another point: stop painting everybody with the same brush, stop burning mosques or synagogues. You are attacking people. It won't bring back our dead, and it won't appease our families.

How long would you survive on other planets without a spacesuit?

BooMan: Why we are not Norway.  (Excellent list of questions)

Does there have to be historical accuracy in movies?

Sleepy time.

Monday mumbles

The first year of Parenting.

What others think about the US.

Reading between the lines ... historically.

Things that nom on radiation?!

Apparently this dude thinks rape can be enjoyed.

Noah... as a movie... subtitled God is PISSED.

Google supports solar.

From Cats to Jellyfish to Chickens

Friday cat blogging on Sunday.

A wonderful perspective on religion and God from a religious man.

Sexy avatars in games affect players in the real world.

I may not want to eat anything ever again.... besides... we're all gonna die anyway.

Invasion by jellyfish the world over... could it possibly be because the oceans are warming?  If not death by jellyfish, how about being choked to death by weeds?

Can you spell hypocrite?

A sensible horror film.

Elizabeth Smart is just that.  Googling women and a verb.

Republicans went crazy in stages.  Tea party logic.  Lies told in Texan charter schools.

Changing oceans.

How historically correct is 12 Years a Slave?

One way to deal with the homeless.

Infected chickens sold by Foster Farms were not recalled.

A Widow's Mite...

Cops out of control.

Indepth story of Jeff Bauman, one of the many who were wounded in the Boston Marathon bombing.

Ass-hat takes on a whole new meaning..

Oregon bans insecticide after bee deaths.

People talking about wonderful books.  And fun books being made into movies and tv shows. And plays.

Forever doomed

The film industry... and their hysterical reaction to every new technology that 'threatens' their very existence.  (via Bryan of Why Now?)

Lions and volcanoes and Brits

Lions and tigers and ... LIONS!

Rapidly Inflating Volcano Creates Growing Mystery

Uturuncu is a nearly 20,000-foot-high (6,000 meters) volcano in southwest Bolivia. Scientists recently discovered the volcano is inflating with astonishing speed.

[snip]

Researchers realized about five years ago that the area below and around Uturuncu is steadily rising — blowing up like a giant balloon under a wide disc of land some 43 miles (70 kilometers) across. Satellite data revealed the region was inflating by 1 to 2 centimeters (less than an inch) per year and had been doing so for at least 20 years, when satellite observations began.

"It's one of the fastest uplifting volcanic areas on Earth," de Silva told OurAmazingPlanet."What we're trying to do is understand why there is this rapid inflation, and from there we'll try to understand what it's going to lead to."

The peak is perched like a party hat at the center of the inflating area. "It's very circular. It's like a big bull's-eye," said Jonathan Perkins, a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who recently presented work on the mountain at this year's Geological Society of America meeting in Minneapolis.

Scientists figured out from the inflation rate that the pocket of magma beneath the volcano was growing by about 27 cubic feet (1 cubic meter) per second.

Mississippi tries to retreat to the Dark Ages with their 'Personhood Amendment'.

Delightful review of the upcoming Sherlock Holmes Part 2.

Trying to understand the British.

Dammit. I didn't know some grapes and kiwi fruit were being treated with a growth hormone.

Weirdness and wizards

The Guardian liked the last Harry Potter movie.

Haboob!! (The video is silent but astonishing)

24 types of libertarian.

Neptune celebrates first anniversary on July 12, 2011

On Tuesday, July 12, 2011, the planet Neptune completes its first revolution around the sun since its discovery on September 23, 1846. Neptune finally reaches this milestone at 22:27 Universal Time today. It takes Neptune 164.79 Earth-years to go full circle through the constellations of the Zodiac, whereas the Earth goes full circle in just 365.256 days.

Russian trilobites.

And speaking of fossilized brains...

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) became the first presidential candidate to sign a pledge created by The Family Leader, a conservative, Iowa-based Christian group that opposes same sex marriage, Sharia law and pornography.

By signing the pledge (PDF), Bachmann vowed to support a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage, as well as agreeing that same sex marriage was akin to polygamy.

The document also implies that homosexuality is a choice.

Things I shouldn't read... but do anyway...

Tracking food... inside your body: NutriSmart edible RFID tags.

Rep. Paul Ryan's vouchers are actually worthless.

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes is afraid ... so afraid of the gays. I guess he thinks he'll catch their cooties...

Daily SMH: Racist Group Boycotting 'Thor' Movie Over Black God

This Is What A Police State Looks Like

How to save money on a pet....

Last battle of Harry Potter and Hogwarts

Here.

Update 4/29: More discussion.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

YAAAYYYY!!



Keeping track on Peter Jackson's facebook.

The Hobbit

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Filming has started on director Peter Jackson's production of "The Hobbit" in New Zealand.

I guess I'm going to have to go see Thor

He was my favorite comic book hero anyway...

Council Of Conservative Citizens Calls For Boycott OfThor Over Black Actor

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Just be quick to mute the ad at the end of the scene....

Update 11/19:



Update: And then there are those who dislike it...

Dave

The movie that shows what a government could do if it really felt like governing:

OOooo!

The Deathly Hallows

San Francisco just before the 1906 quake

4 days before:

This film, originally thought to be from 1905 until David Kiehn with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum figured out exactly when it was shot. From New York trade papers announcing the film showing to the wet streets from recent heavy rainfall & shadows indicating time of year & actual weather and conditions on historical record, even when the cars were registered (he even knows who owned them and when the plates were issued!).. It was filmed only four days before the quake and shipped by train to NY for processing. Amazing but true!

A shot afterwards...

I always KNEW pigeons were dangerous!

Nothing you see is real....