I used to be a werewolf but I'm alright nooooooooooooowwwww

Happy Halloween!

Martin Luther posts 95 theses

On this day in 1517, the priest and scholar Martin Luther approaches the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation.

I would never die for my beliefs, cause I might be wrong.

Bertrand Russell(1872-1970) English Philosopher, Mathematician, Essayist

“The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.”

Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

“Money is like manure. If you spread it around it does a lot of good. But if you pile it up in one place it stinks like hell.”

Well?

“When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the heart is right, 'for' and 'against' are forgotten. No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions: Then your affairs are under control. You are a free man.”
Chuang Tzu, Chinese scholar, defining figure in Chinese Taoism.
I am a free man.

Billie Piper

She plays Rose Tyler on the New Doctor Who, what a babe.

Sartre wins and declines Nobel Prize

October 22, 1964
In his novels, essays, and plays, Sartre advanced the philosophy of existentialism, arguing that each individual must create meaning for his or her own life, because life itself had no innate meaning.
Thought you would like to know.

Book of the Week

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson

A hacker and a journalist investigate the disappearance of an octogenarian’s
niece 40 years ago.

“The first and wisest of them all professed To know this only, that he nothing knew.”

John Mlton (1608-1674)
No wonder I like this guy.

India launches first unmanned moon mission

NEW DELHI – India launched its first mission to the moon Wednesday, rocketing a satellite up into the pale dawn sky in a two-year mission to redraw maps of the lunar surface.
Clapping and cheering scientists tracked the ascent on computer screens after they lost sight of Chandrayaan-1 from the Sriharikota space center in southern India. Chandrayaan means "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit.
Do I need to comment?

Stephen King

Dear Stephen,
I am not amused. Not one god damn little bit.
Yours Truly,
Constant Reader

Earthquake rocks San Francisco

October 17, 1989
The deadliest earthquake to hit the San Francisco area since 1906 strikes at 5:04 p.m. and lasts for 15 seconds. The quake measured 7.1 on the Richter scale, and its aftermath was witnessed on live television by millions of people watching the third game of the World Series of baseball between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, held at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The tremor hit moments before the start of the game, and sportscasters were soon performing the duties of news anchors as they reported on the resulting pandemonium in the stadium. The earthquake killed a total of 63 people, while more than 3,000 others were injured and more than 100,000 buildings were damaged.
I remember.

Google Wants You to Think Before You ...

Google's e-mail service Gmail just introduced an unusual new feature, called "Mail Goggles," designed to help keep people from sending emails that they'll later regret.

That's right, the new email feature is an effort to help keep people from emailing after they've had a drink or two too many. Turn this new widget on and Gmail will make you perform a few simple math problems, within a short time limit, before you can hit "send" on that outgoing e-mail. When activated, the service acts as your e-mail traffic cop on Friday and Saturday nights between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m.

Mata Hari executed

October 15, 1917
Mata Hari, the archetype of the seductive female spy, is executed for espionage by a French firing squad at Vincennes outside of Paris.
I love history.

Hey ISCC, Try These!

Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

The Pendergast Novels:
Relic, the first novel to feature Agent Pendergast
Reliquary is the sequel to Relic
The Cabinet of Curiosities is the next Pendergast novel and stands on it's own
Still Life with Crows is next and is a self contained story
Brimstone is next, and is first in the informal Diogenes trilogy
Dance of Death is the middle Diogenes novel, but may be read alone
The Book of the Dead is the culminating novel in the Diogenes trilogy, the reader should at least read Dance of Death first
The Wheel of Darkness is a stand alone novel which takes place after the events of The Book of the Dead

The non-Pendergast Novels
Mount Dragon
Riptide
Thunderhead which introduces archaeologist Nora Kelly, who appears in later Pendergast novels
The Ice Limit introduces Eli Ginn, who appears in Dance of Death and The Book of the Dead

I recommend all. You can find these and other fine books at your local library.

Shroud of Evidence

Oct. 13, 1988
Three research labs, working independently in Arizona, England and Switzerland, release a report concluding that, based on carbon-dating, the Shroud of Turin was produced in the Middle Ages and therefore couldn’t be the burial cloak of Jesus Christ. Believers argue that the samples tested had been contaminated.
Yep, contaminated.

It's official: John McCain has become Negative Man.

The latest round of comprehensive polling from ABC News suggests that the senator's fusillade of attacks on Barack Obama, launched with a large assist from running mate Sarah Palin, have damaged his campaign and his stature in the eyes of voters. Almost 60 percent of voters surveyed by ABC said McCain is more interested in tearing down Obama than offering any ideas of his own.
It's just politics as usual for Republicans.

Alaska Probe Says Palin Abused Her Authority

A long-awaited Alaska legislative report concluded that Republican Sen. John McCain's vice-presidential running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, abused her authority and broke state ethics law by trying to remove her former brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper.
The report, by investigator Stephen Branchflower, was a potential setback to Sen. McCain's lagging presidential campaign. It was released late Friday in Anchorage by the state legislative panel that commissioned it. The bipartisan panel, with two members absent, voted 12-0 to release the findings to the public.
Is anyone surprised?

If You Like Stephen King...

Dean Koontz (1945-)
For you good people at ISCC, and anyone else who thinks "Stephen king pretty much ruined me for any other poor author" try the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz, you won't regret it, I promise.

Best Book Ever!

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse, by Victor Gischler
Mortimer Tate was a recently divorced insurance salesman when he holed up in a cave on top of a mountain in Tennessee and rode out the end of the world. Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse begins nine years later, when he emerges into a bizarre landscape filled with hollow reminders of an America that no longer exists. The highways are lined with abandoned automobiles; electricity is generated by indentured servants pedaling stationary bicycles. What little civilization remains revolves around Joey Armageddon's Sassy A-Go-Go strip clubs, where the beer is cold, the lap dancers are hot, and the bouncers are armed with M16s.
Accompanied by his cowboy sidekick Buffalo Bill, the gorgeous stripper Sheila, and the mountain man Ted, Mortimer journeys to the lost city of Atlanta -- and a showdown that might determine the fate of humanity.
A must read.

McCain-ism: The Neurotic, The Sycophant, and The Know-It-All

McCain-ism #1: "My Friends" - The Neurotic-Last night, John McCain repeated the phrase 'my friends' 19 times.

McCain-ism #2: "My Hero" - The Sycophant- Last night, McCain repeated the phrase 'my hero' only twice, but the impact was noticeable:
President Reagan, MY HERO
MY HERO is a guy named Teddy Roosevelt

McCain-ism #3: "I Know How To" - The Know-It-All-Over the course of last night's debate, Sen. McCain repeated the phrase 'I know how to' seven times

McCain-ism: The Neurotic, The Sycophant, and The Know-It-All-If anything lost the debate for McCain it was the repetition of these three key phrases, each of which gave the the impression that he was an insecure politician rather than a confident leader.
duh

Ozone hole grows in 2008

The ozone hole over Antarctica in 2008 is larger in both size and ozone loss than last year, but not as large as in 2006, the European Space Agency said Tuesday
The hole is a thinning area in the ozone layer over Antarctica and the size of the hole varies every year depending on weather conditions.
This year, the size of the thinned area reached about 27 million square kilometers (10.4 million square miles), compared to 25 million square kilometers (9.65 million square miles) in 2007.
In 2006, the hole was a record 29 million square kilometers (11.2 million square miles), larger than North America, the ESA said.
You people should know this stuff.

Cubs Suck!

Sad, but true. The curse lives.

AP poll: Obama takes a 7-point lead over McCain

Likely voters now back Obama 48-41 percent over McCain, a dramatic shift from an AP-GfK survey that gave the Republican a slight edge nearly three weeks ago, before Wall Street collapsed and sent ripples across worldwide markets. On top of that, unrelated surveys show Obama beating McCain in several battlegrounds, including Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Iowa — four states critical in the state-by-state fight for the presidency.
Several GOP strategists close to McCain's campaign privately fret that his chances for victory are starting to slip away.
Thank God!

Classic Meatloaf

Another favorite food.

Favre Announces He Will Return To College Football

HATTIESBURG, MS—Quarterback Brett Favre responded Saturday to the question of whether or not he had any football left in him by announcing that he would return for at least one more season at a major college program. "I'd like to win one more championship before I retire for good, and Southern Miss, Tennessee, and Florida all have talented young squads that could make a real run to number one next year," said Favre, who has been recruited by several top programs but will wait until after Signing Day to commit to a school. "I know I still have a ways to go with my decision-making, but I know I'd be the kind of quarterback that could grow along with a program." Although scouts from several Division I teams are interested in Favre, they noted that he played an option scheme in high school and seemed noncommittal about maintaining the required 2.25 GPA.
I think he'll be just fine!