Happy Halloween!

Mars to Swing Close to Earth This Weekend

Mars is ready for another close-up. For the second time in nearly 60,000 years, the Red Planet will swing unusually close to Earth this weekend, appearing as a yellow twinkle in the night sky.

Mars' latest rendezvous will not match its record-breaking approach to Earth in 2003, when it hovered from 35 million miles away. But more skygazers this time around can glimpse the fourth rock from the sun because it will glow above the horizon.

On Saturday, Mars' orbit will bring it 43.1 million miles away from Earth, with its closest pass scheduled for 11:25 p.m. EDT. The two planets — normally separated by about 140 million miles — will not be this close again until 2018.

Mars will still seem small to the naked eye, appearing about the size of a penny seen from 620 feet away. The rust-colored planet will be at its brightest this weekend, and no celestial body in that part of the sky will be as luminous, Beatty said.

Most backyard telescopes will see Mars as a small, brilliant ball. Observers with more powerful instruments might be able to discern details on the planet's surface, including its southern ice cap and white clouds.

By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer

Anyone Else Completely Sick Of Her?

Rome Bans Goldfish Bowls

Round goldfish bowls are out and daily dog walks are in for all law-abiding citizens of Rome.

City councillors in the Italian capital voted on Tuesday to ban spherical goldfish bowls, saying it's in the best interest of the fish.

Rome's daily newspaper Il Messaggero reported that round bowls cause fish to go blind. Animal activists call the bowls cruel, while fish experts say the bowls don't provide enough oxygen.

The bylaw also prohibits giving away goldfish or other animals as prizes.

"The civilization of a city can also be measured by this," city councillor Monica Cirinna told the newspaper.

Rome also followed in the footsteps of the northern Italian city of Turin, making it the law for dog owners to exercise their dogs daily. Failure to comply could cost dog owners a fine of $700.

The Roman bylaw also prevents animal owners from clipping dogs' tails or trimming cats' claws for visual appeal or leaving animals in hot vehicles or store windows. It also offers legal protection to people who feed colonies of cats.

Goodbye Rosa

Rosa Lee Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday. She was 92.

Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement."

Mrs. Parks refused, despite rules requiring blacks to yield their seats to whites. Two black Montgomery women had been arrested earlier that year on the same charge, but Mrs. Parks was jailed. She also was fined $14.

Her simple reply when asked by the bus driver if she was going to give up her seat was, "No."

"Well, by God, I'm going to have you arrested," the driver said.

"You may do that," Parks told him.

That simple refusal to buckle to the hated whites-only laws in the American South would erupt into a boycott of the city's bus system by African-Americans that brought the company to its knees.

But more importantly, it focussed the world's attention on the unjust laws and discrimination faced by African-Americans every day.

"At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this. It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people joined in," she once said in an interview.

The 381-day boycott was organized by a little-known black leader, Martin Luther King Jr.

It would also be the first real attack on the hated Jim Crow laws that had been in place in the South since the end of the Civil War. Those laws required separation of the races in buses, restaurants and public accommodations. They also legally sanctioned racial discrimination that kept blacks out of many jobs and neighborhoods in the North.

Eventually, the civil rights movement that grew out of the Montgomery bus boycott was successful in lobbying for the passage of the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act.

For her part, Parks received so much attention that she was unable to find work in Alabama and moved to Detroit in 1957, where she went to work for Congressman John Conyers for the next 31 years.

She was the recipient of both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor in the U.S.

Rosa Parks was 92.

She died of natural causes at her home in Detroit.

CBC News Online

Engrish Pic of the Week

The one good thing about the none stop mind-numbing exposure of...

Bennifer 1
Bennifer 2
Brangelina
and now Vaughaniston is, it totally made me forget about this gruesome twosome!

Grey's Anatomy

I am still totally addicted and in love with this show!

Top Ten Signs You Have A Bad Job

10. "It's a 12-hour commute each way"

9. "You know the guy who refills the ketchup bottles in the prison cafeteria? You're his assistant"

8. "You're Courtney Love's Publicist"

7. "For insurance purposes, Boss personally administers a daily physical"

6. "Sign outside your door reads, 'Jim's Office/Men's Room'"

5. "You're taken to and from work in the trunk of a car, blindfolded"

4. "Word 'throb' appears with surprising frequency in job application"

3. "You're working on Labor Day"

2. "Your name is George W. Bush (I'm Sorry, that's a sign you're doing a bad job)"

1. "You're the idiot who has to change the gas prices on the sign every 5 minutes"

The New Bond?

I'm not a huge fan of the movies but I know a bad choice when I see one.

I mean really, he looks like one of the bad guys.

Lost Boss

I didn't put this together but Hurley & Locke have the same boss!

Crazy Fashion Pic of the Week

An Apology

I have to say I'm pretty blogged out at the moment.

It's been raining here for what seems like weeks, I feel blah and tired.
I hate my job and I'm just pretty grumpy all around at the moment.

Sorry to my regular visitors, I know my blog has been less than thrilling as of late.

I'll hang in here if you will.

Over Population Anyone?

Arkansas Mother Gives Birth to 16th Child

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Michelle Duggar just delivered her 16th child, and she's already thinking about doing it again.

Johannah Faith Duggar was born at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and weighed 7 pounds, 6.5 ounces.

The baby's father, Jim Bob Duggar, a former state representative, said Wednesday that mother and child were doing well.

He said Johannah's birth was especially exciting because it was the first time in eight years the family has had a girl.

Jim Bob Duggar, 40, said he and Michelle, 39, want more children.

"We both just love children and we consider each a blessing from the Lord. I have asked Michelle if she wants more and she said yes, if the Lord wants to give us some she will accept them," he said.

Michelle Duggar had her first child at age 21, four years after the couple married.

By MELISSA NELSON, Associated Press Writer

Their children include two sets of twins, and each child has a name beginning with the letter "J": Joshua, 17; John David, 15; Janna, 15; Jill, 14; Jessa, 12; Jinger, 11; Joseph, 10; Josiah, 9; Joy-Anna, 8; Jeremiah, 6; Jedidiah, 6; Jason, 5; James, 4; Justin, 2; and Jackson Levi, 1.

How Can This Be???

Man accused of killing pregnant wife released on bail

An Edmonton man accused of killing his four-month-pregnant wife has been released from jail on $10,000 bail.

Michael White, 28, was granted bail last Friday. The Crown has filed an appeal of that decision.

White has been charged with second-degree murder and committing an indignity to a body in the death of his wife Liana who went missing July 12.

White had organized a search party that found his wife's decomposed body northwest of St. Albert five days later.

He had earlier made a televised plea for his wife's return, saying he would do anything to find her and thanking police and volunteers for their efforts.

According To Conans' If They Mated...

Jaw-Dropping Fossils More Proof of "Hobbits"

Australian paleontologists say they've found more bones of a new human dwarf species, popularly known as prehistoric hobbits.

Last year, Prof. Mike Morwood, of the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, and his team announced the discovery of what appeared to be an adult female less than one metre tall that walked upright with a grapefruit-sized skull.

The skeleton, called LB1, was dated to about 18,000 years ago, meaning modern humans may have shared the planet with other hominids much more recently than thought.

The remains were found on the Indonesian island of Flores, east of Java, leading the team to call it Homo floresiensis or "Man of Flores."

The find touched off a scientific debate over whether the specimen:

• Is a naturally tiny species of early human as the team proposes.
• Is a modern human that suffers from microencephaly, a genetic disorder resulting in small brain size.
• Is a pygmy human, not a new hominid species.

Now, Morwood's team describes more fossil remains, including a jaw, arm and other similarly small bones that they say came from nine individuals. Two mandibles also share dental features and lack a chin, a portion of the jaw common to all Homo sapiens regardless of size.

"We can now reconstruct the body proportions of H. floresiensis with some certainty," the researchers write in the Oct. 11 online issue of the journal Nature.

"The finds further demonstrate the LB1 ... is not just an aberrant or pathological individual but is representative of a long-term population."

Building fires, making tools

The paleontologists suggest the new species evolved its small size because of the limited resources, small populations and predators on the island.

"What captures the imagination is that dwarfing might have occurred in humans, who often buffer themselves from natural selection through cultural means such as tool production and fire-making, both evident at [the fossil site]," wrote Daniel Lieberman, of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University in a journal commentary.

Lieberman suggests the island-dwarfing hypothesis could be tested by finding more, older fossils from Flores. Three-dimensional analysis of the shape of the fossils independent of size could also help reveal if Homo floresiensis is simply a scaled down version of another early human species, he said.

CBC News Online

Rock & Roll Public Service Announcement

"We are completely devastated"

Our gear was stolen on Friday Oct. 7 in Brooklyn, NYC. So much has been lost, but these 4 guitars & basses listed underneath are truly the things that matter most to us... like Wagner's Jazzmaster from 1961 that he has lived & traveled with, played & written on for the past 12 years. And Sharin's beloved Gretsch from 1967. If you see or hear anything about these 2 guitars and 2 basses please email us immediately at info @ theraveonettes.com and you will be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams.

Yours,
Sharin

Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 1965 Guitar Orange V89V391
Fender Jazzmaster Guitar, Sunburst 55820
Fender Precission 1974 Bassguitar L. Tan 317392
Rickenbacker 4001 1974 Bassguitar OK 7546"

This was my absolute favourite book growing up.
Volume One of Childcraft Children's Encyclopedia set 1976.
I used to spend hours reading these books.
The artwork in Volume One is amazing.

I loved my Childcraft encyclopedia set so much that when I would get in trouble my parents would punish me by taking them away for a week.

I have no idea what happened to my set but a few years ago I tracked one down on Ebay.
Mint condition all 12 Volumes for $40. You gotta love that Ebay.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone (in Canada) has a great Thanksgiving long weekend.

Guess Who

Azu got it! ~ David Duchovney

TomKat Expecting!

All I can say is: EEEWWW!

Artwork courtesy of galleryoftheabsurd.com

Top Ten Signs Your Supreme Court Pick Isn't Qualified

10. "Lost 10 grand yesterday in the 'case' of Jets vs. Ravens"

9. "Spends most of her time trying to fit the gavel into her mouth"

8. "Her legal mentor: Oliver Wendell Redenbacher"

7. "Asks courtroom stenographer to, 'Quit that annoying tapping!'"

6. "Instead of Constitutional law books, consults set of 'Garfield' paperbacks"

5. "Keeps shouting, 'When does mama get to hang somebody?!'"

4. "When Scalia walks by, she pretends to cough and says, 'Rogaine'"

3. "Authored the book: 'I'm Not Qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice'"

2. "The closest thing to courtroom experience was being an extra on 'Matlock'"

1. "Glowing letter of recommendation from former FEMA director Michael Brown"

Crazy Fashion Pic of the Week

I'm Appalled

On October 1, 2005, Florida becomes a more dangerous place. That's when the Shoot First Law goes into effect, giving the people of Florida the right to use deadly force as a first resort when they feel threatened, even in a public place. But the Shoot First doctrine isn't just staying in Florida — it's about to become a national disgrace.

In a country where thousands die needlessly every year in gun accidents and violent confrontations, this law is an enormous step backwards in civic responsibility and public safety. What's more, it envisions a society in which fear and distrust are the rule, and reason and responsibility are an endangered species.

If you live in Florida, or plan on visiting Florida, get the facts on the Shoot First Law. Know when you're safe, and how to avoid misunderstandings. Learn about when the people of Florida can shoot to kill... and when they think they can.

Tell Governor Bush he made a mistake. The people of Florida deserve better than to be gunned down by the short-tempered and trigger-happy. They deserve better than to have the law put into the hands of private citizens.

Courtesy of shootfirstlaw.org

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Quaint:: shop
   
2. Rind:: orange
   
3. Disease:: scary
   
4. Queer:: as folk
   
5. Pork:: roll
   
6. Soaked:: miserable
   
7. Skeleton:: key
   
8. Mold:: gross
   
9. Finished:: basement
   
10. Buffalo:: wings
    

Thanks to Luna Nina

Copy and paste your answers in the comment section.
If you want to, I'd like you to but I don't want to sound bossy.