Now we’ll never know

[From PopCrunch]

Five strange Halloween facts

Happy Halloween!  Here is a short list of little-known trivia about the scary holiday.

Photo: geekus.org

Margaret and Helen

I’m not sure about the other 29 Helens*, but this character’s got a feisty tongue and a unique voice as a blogger who just happens to be 82.  With the help of her grandson, Helen started this blog as a way to share posts with Margaret, her friend since their college days.  She writes her posts with a funny, modern, almost youthful vibe.  The election has really gotten Helen fired up as you’ll see from recent posts about VP nominee Palin.  Her writing tells it like it is and pulls no punches, and as a result the number of visits to the blog has skyrocketed.  These ladies show just how little one’s age matters in the spaces comprising the blogosphere.

[Via Andrew Sullivan]

Table of condiments that periodically go bad

Self-explanatory.

Before it was fire

More than a half million years before proto-humans first referred to it by a spoken name, they were building and using fire.  That means our ancestors cultivated fire at an earlier, more primitive stage of human evolution than previously theorized.  Archaeological evidence of fire-making implements from nearly 800,000 years ago has been found near the Jordan River in Israel, whereas early language is believed to have developed only 200,000 years ago.  It makes one wonder when many of our traits and talents took root in our developmental history, and whether much of what we deem “human” doesn’t originate from deeper evolutionary wells.

[Via enjoy your life]

Economic stimulus that actually stimulates

Not all economic stimulus packages are created equal.  The graph below shows which options are most likely to pump up the economy.  Not surprisingly, measures that provide help to those most in need have the most impact, as do infrastructure projects that result in a tangible benefit while injecting cash into the economy and creating jobs.  Notice which measures actually cost more than they yield in economic benefit.

[Via Ezra Klein]

Daughter of former slave votes for Obama

There’s not much I can say to add to the poignancy of a 109-year-old woman, daughter of a man who was born a slave, voting for a black man to become president.

[Via Bitch Ph.D.]

Demolition porn

Structures brought down by controlled explosives, for those of you into that sort of thing.

[Via Dark Roasted Blend]

Today’s cuteness

New baby giraffe at the Memphis Zoo.

[Via Neatorama]  Photo by Karen Pulfer Focht

Perroquet

By fashion photographer Sølve Sundsbø, a series of images and slow motion films of a macaw in flight.

[Via My[confined]Space]