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Ralph repents? Or something? The man many Democrats see as just a few steps short of an evil spawn of Satan for being a 2000 election spoiler has issued statements of support for 13 non-Green candidates in tight races. These are all Democrats, including Jean Carnahan (Mo.), Tim Johnson (S.D.) and Tom Strickland (Co.). "I certainly don't want Republicans controlling Congress," Nader said. What happened to the "things have to get worse before they get better" theory? Or has the situation in D.C. indeed grown so bad that at least some Dems. are turning far enough left for Nader? (Note: He'd thrown support behind Wellstone, even though there's a Green candidate for Senate in Minn.)
posted by raysmj at 10:40 PM PST - 44 comments

Listen to a true ready made Halloween horror story about a David vs Goliath type struggle. On her October 24th show Caroline Casey creator of the VisionaryActivism Radio show interviewed Percy Schmeiser a canola farmer from Saskatchewan Canada whose organic Canola fields were genetically contaminated with Monsanto's Round-Up Ready Canola. Schmeiser a 40 year organic canola seed saver is in the fight of his life against the powerful Monsanto corporation. This powerful interview should make you cry and provoke you to clean your pantry and refrigerator and rethink food choices like I did.
posted by thedailygrowl at 10:33 PM PST - 17 comments

Friday Fun (posted early). "Do It Yourself" virtual building blocks (similar to the virtual Legos a while back). Addiction Rating: Mid-Range (no worries--it won't eat your life like Bookworm did). Very simple blocks can make surprisingly beautiful, even complex creations (awfully tough to approximate a Gothic groin vault with the available shapes, but trying's half the fun). (Signup 'membership' is free.)
posted by Shane at 7:39 PM PST - 7 comments

This isn't about agriculture. Today, twelve prairie farmers have surrendered themselves to RCMP, rather than pay a fine for their illegal activities. Their mutual crime was choosing to export their wheat crop independently, rather than through the Canadian Wheat Board. Are state-run agricultural monopolies appropriate, especially when their authority is exerted unevenly throughout the country? Do you think the action taken by these farmers is justified?
posted by vesper at 5:45 PM PST - 17 comments

Halloween isn't just for kids anymore. Even bigtime celebrities got all dressed up this Halloween. Well that's not exactly true - photoshoppers with too much time on their hands did the work for them. Vogue Magazine, take notes.
posted by hidely at 5:20 PM PST - 5 comments

Today's Special Quiz is Horror and Gothic, naturally. But tomorrow it could be Nabokov, Orwell, Beckett, Virginia Woolf, James Ellroy, Lorca or a lot of other writers featured in these amusing literary quizzes from The Barcelona Review. Just choose your own. Most quizzes are in English or Spanish; none are too easy or too erudite and, best of all, most of them have answers too.
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 5:15 PM PST - 2 comments

andy goldsworthy's current project
over the course of a month, artist andy goldsworthy will create works each day in the countryside surrounding his home in scotland, photograph them, and email the photographs to a gallery in san francisco where they will be printed out, and hung on a wall.
in a time when much conceptual art seems increasingly abstract and difficult, goldsworthy's work feels -- at least to me -- accessible, comforting, and wonderful.
what are some other artists that elicit that response in mefi readers? who's work do you like and want to share?
posted by dolface at 3:50 PM PST - 13 comments

Tunes are over-rated.
If you have the type of mind that rejoices in complex mathematical patterns, obscure terminology, and the blurred line between Science and Art, you will find the peculiarly English art of Change-ringing intriguing.
posted by Catch at 3:31 PM PST - 19 comments

French McDonald's ads: Don't 'abuse fast food' - McDonald's France runs ads suggesting that children not eat its food more than once a week.
posted by stevengarrity at 3:16 PM PST - 32 comments

Literary Gothic offers up a splendid smorgasboard of literary ghosts, ghouls, goblins, and, of course, gothic. As a Victorianist, I have a particular predilection for their ghost stories. Many more Victorian tales of the terrifying--and just plain weird--can be found at this site, which also features an ongoing reading group. [more inside]
posted by thomas j wise at 3:02 PM PST - 8 comments

Most people think of trick-or-treating, costumes, and jack-o-lanterns, but for me, and a lot of other Southern Californians, Halloween was always about Oingo Boingo's Dia de los Muertos concerts. With t-shirts inspired by Jose Guadalupe Posada, huge paper-mache skeletons jerkily moving to "Dead Man's Party", xylophone games and at least three hours of madcap music, you could always be guaranteed an excellent time. Unfortunately, the band broke up in 1995, so all we have now is tr ibute bands, Danny Elfman's filmmusic career, and a heck of a lot of really cool t-shirts .
posted by Katemonkey at 2:08 PM PST - 12 comments

"When my mom was a teenager, one of her most gratifying hobbies was sneaking into morgues to see dead bodies." Baltimore City Paper's Suz Redfearn takes us along on Georgetown University's Mini-Med School's trip to the dissection lab, for Human Anatomy: The Inside Story.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:03 PM PST - 5 comments

Ewww... Even for Halloween this one's a bit creepy. I don't think I'd ever want a plasma screen above my casket providing "a lively counterpoint to the display of an open casket." And what healthy person has time to record their life in such a fashion? They should be out living it.
posted by MediaMan at 1:16 PM PST - 7 comments

The Devil's Bridge. For Halloween, tales of bridges where the devil took a hand in the building: "If I help you, I'll have the soul of the first who crosses the bridge!" But the devil gets fooled... [more]
posted by languagehat at 1:15 PM PST - 9 comments

The faboo world of New York high society revealed! Bizbash.com reviews the "cheapie centerpieces" at the Lord of the Rings DVD party, the hot-pink truffles at Ivana's disco bash and the stilletto-shaped Manolo Blahnik cookies at the 'Sex and the City' premiere. NFL ice sculptures, Scrabble serving trays and bone-shaped doggie breath mints in silver bowls are among the delights. Those hand-tied veggie crepe bundles at the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards sure do look de-lish. Be sure to check the cocktail menu at the venture capitalists' "Back to Reality" bash - held at McDonalds - and the "funky registration area" at last January's World Economic Forum. [more tackiness inside]
posted by mediareport at 1:15 PM PST - 5 comments

It's not too late to carve a pumpkin tonight, and the pumpkin lady has got you covered. Included on the site are full instructions and a pattern to create the most l33t pumpkin on your block.
posted by mathowie at 1:13 PM PST - 9 comments

"DO NOT EAT" The Secrets of Silica Gel Exposed! What's in this tiny little packet that comes with almost everything? "these little packets which seem to have more "DO NOT EAT" warnings on them than, for instance, rat poison or antifreeze..." Mmmm Who's Hungry?
posted by devo at 11:35 AM PST - 46 comments

Against the Grain (A Rebours) by Joris-Karl Huysmans, 1884. Virtual Reality 19th Century style with illustrations--the quintessence of decadence.
posted by y2karl at 11:15 AM PST - 14 comments

Medieval Wall Painting in the English Parish Church A growing, and already comprehensive resource, with many (occasionally gruesome) images and scholarly commentary. A directory of images which can be seen in parish churches. Some interesting sub-pages :- Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Works of Mercy, Scenes from Genesis, and the Warning Against Idle Gossip.
posted by plep at 10:15 AM PST - 5 comments

What would have you done differently? A collection of regrets that run the gamut from silly ("Cut the blue wire.") to poignant ("Not let her go.") to just plain inspiring ("Taken that chance.").
posted by Polo Mr. Polo at 8:52 AM PST - 31 comments

Popular Weed Killer Feminizes Native Leopard Frogs Are feminized frogs a canary in the cage? Loss of amphibians in its own right is unacceptable. But are there problems yet unknown higher up the cornbelt food chain?

"Native male leopard frogs throughout the nation's Corn Belt are being feminized by an herbicide, atrazine, used extensively to kill weeds on the country's leading export crops, corn and soybeans, according to a survey conducted by University of California, Berkeley, biologists and reported this week in Nature." [...] "Atrazine has been used on crops since 1956 and currently is the most widely used herbicide in the nation". [...] "Hayes suspects that atrazine boosts the activity of an enzyme, aromatase, that converts male sex hormones, or androgens, to female hormones, or estrogens. The lowered androgens and increased estrogens allow egg cells to grow within the testes, which is normally impossible. Atrazine's effects on aromatase have been demonstrated in fish, reptiles and mammals, but not yet in amphibians.
posted by fred1st at 8:52 AM PST - 9 comments

How gay panic gripped 1960s Royal Navy One sailor reportedly picked up a prostitute who he believed to be female. Realising he wasn't who she appeared to be, the sailor reportedly declared: "Blimey, you're all there!" Nevertheless, he apparently became "infatuated". This kind of incident led admirals to argue that most of the men accused were only inadvertently homosexual, rather than dangerous "perverts".
Just-released documents from the UK Public Records Office show some interesting attitudes among the Navy hierarchy at the time. The rationalising of the various activities uncovered is actually quite creative, and weirdly more tolerant than that in subsequent decades, when gay activity got people summarily thrown out of the forces. Even this particular 'crisis' eventually triggered a new 'education' programme on the evils of homosexuality though. In this instance, the pendulum seems not so much to have swung as to have careered wildly in all directions. A bit like the sailors.... (sorry).
posted by jonpollard at 8:41 AM PST - 11 comments

100 scariest movie moments Retrocrush is listing their top 100 scariest movie moments, and so far, the quality is pretty high -- well-chosen scenes, and interesting writeups. And one exploding head. You've been warned. Happy Halloween!
posted by GaelFC at 8:41 AM PST - 80 comments

"There was only one giant golden spruce in the world, and, until a man named Grant Hadwin took a chainsaw to it, in 1997, it had stood for more than three hundred years in a steadily shrinking patch of old-growth forest in Port Clements, on the banks of the Yakoun River, in the Queen Charlotte Islands." A fascinating read, from this week's New Yorker.
posted by GriffX at 8:11 AM PST - 24 comments

eBay Prevents Musician from Selling Own CD-Rs
posted by entrustNoOne at 7:43 AM PST - 17 comments

FCC chairman Powell urges overhaul of radio airwave policy. Did the universe of available media just get smaller again? AP says "consumer advocates praised [powell's] position", but did the AP talk to the right consumer advocates ?
posted by jfc at 7:30 AM PST - 8 comments

"You will have heard, Dr Sir I doubt not long before this can have reached you that Sir W. Howe is gone from hence. The Rebels imagine that he is gone to the Eastward. By this time however he has filled Chesapeak bay with surprize and terror." - Sir Henry Clinton

Spy Letters of the American Revolution is an excellent site offering such gems as a captured letter written from Rachel Revere to husband Paul, a message from a colonial scientist written in invisible ink, and Benedict Arnold's encrypted message to the British offering to surrender West Point for £20,000. The site includes photos of the documents, back-stories on each letter, profiles of the people involved, and descriptions of methodology, as well as a timeline and route map.
posted by taz at 7:02 AM PST - 8 comments

Infinite Wheel is a fun interactive dub music playground. If you have speakers, enjoy!
posted by adamms222 at 5:52 AM PST - 10 comments

The Mastodonte Project is a way of inserting comments into the referrer logs of the company who are inserting adverts into blogger's referrers... they were not expecting Mastodonte to publish the results!
posted by LMG at 5:09 AM PST - 26 comments

Chinese culture. Calligraphy, and Chinese rural architecture.
posted by hama7 at 5:08 AM PST - 13 comments

Nineteenth-century drug paraphernalia has been found by archaeologists working at Ottawa's LeBreton Flats. The LeBreton Flats was a working-class neighbourhood just west of the Parliament Buildings. The find is from the notorious Occidental Hotel, and predates the 1900 fire that burned the neighbourhood to the ground. It was rebuilt, and carried on until the National Capital Commission tore it all down in 1962. It's been an empty field ever since, as proposals to make use of this prime space have come and gone. (Maps and images.) This year they finally began decontaminating the soil -- the new Canadian War Museum is planned for part of the site (campaign) -- whereupon this discovery was made.
posted by mcwetboy at 5:08 AM PST - 9 comments

Reply To All button considered harmful An employee (called a manager in the headline but a millwright in the article) was fired from Eastman Kodak in Rochester, NY when he replied to an email announcing "National Coming Out Day" (hint: he wasn't in favor). But in addition to the sender, his message went to about 1000 other employees. Kodak says he was terminated when he refused to admit that sending it to all those people was wrong, not for it's content. Is this Political Correctness run amok or justifiable?
posted by tommasz at 5:00 AM PST - 53 comments

80's ROCK IS DEAD (LONG LIVE 80'S ROCK) Holy crap, I saw an ad on the teevee for a new BOSTON album called Corporate America. A new Boston album! A self-described "in your face" indictment of big business and what it is doing to our world. You'll be comforted to know that the music is still way overproduced and the political content has all the impact of Mike + the Mechanics "Silent Running." In other words — don't change a thing! It turns out all the big 80's rockers have 2002 albums, even the little king himself: Phil Collins. Testify. I'll be damned if one of his new songs doesn't sound like "Take Me Home (Redux)." Def Leppard's "X"? Same. Poison's "Hollyweird"? Same! Poison even does a party rock version of The Who's "Squeeze Box." Wonderful. Bon Jovi, Rush, Robert Plant — what year is this again? Who cares. Let's rock. As soon as this Family Ties is over.
posted by Dok Millennium at 1:54 AM PST - 36 comments

Googie? Does your bowling alley have an inexplicable Tiki motif? Does your neighbor's house vaguely resemble a flying saucer? Does your coffee shop suggest, architecturally, that the secrets of the atom are being exploited within? Well now, you can call it by name. Googie. Who knew?
posted by condour75 at 12:44 AM PST - 39 comments