Happy Halloween!

New stories:

• Addict 3 by Shade
• Ethan and the Jocks by Peterbilt
• First Time(s) 3 by Richard Jasper
• Hunter: P.D.A. by Aardvark
• The HIMS.3 2 by F_R_Eaky
• My New Buddy's Arms 8 by BBMSN
• Old Man Stevens 7 by Londonboy
• Picture Perfect by in2other
• Take on Me by zulator
• What Goes Around by purejetfuel

Vote Machinations

• Paper Ballot Has Md.'s, Va.'s Vote--It is apparent that electronic voting is still not easy, robust nor mature enough to handle the job required.
• Lab that Tests and Certifies Voting Machines Suspended--"Hanging chads" are better than these.
• Vote watchdogs warn of troubles on election day
• Republican Voter Suppression: A Guide
• Gov. Crist extends early voting hours statewide--What do you think?

Halloweenies

• No Tricks, No Treats: Halloween Ain't What It Used to Be
• The 5 Creepiest Urban Legends (That Happen to be True)--And here are six more
• Wall Street Pumpkin Carving
• Czech court to rule on fairy-tale kingdom
• Kansas Gym Ghost Mystery Solved

Science by the Numbers

• Ten things you don't know about the Earth
• Top 10 Scientists Killed or Injured by Their Experiments
• 5 Really Weird Things About Water
• The 5 Scientific Experiments Most Likely to End the World
• Five science fiction movies that get the science right

New stories by Clarence591, dymondbolt, Jaypat, muscl4life, recipe113 and xyggurat

New stories:

• Blue Dust 3 by Clarence591
• Green Legacy 3 by Jaypat
• Johnson Financial Advisors, Inc. by dymondbolt
• Misspelled 3 by muscl4life and recipe113
• Uneven Desires 3 by xyggurat

'No' on 8

• Gavin Newsom: "It's not too late to defeat Prop. 8"
• Apple donates $100,000 to defeat California ballot measure
• Seven-year-olds sing against same-sex marriage Salon
• Calif. gay marriage ban becomes big money race
• Turnout could affect same-sex marriage bans

Brain damage

• India's use of brain scans in courts dismays critics
• Homeland Security Detects Terrorist Threats by Reading Your Mind
• Experts able to plant false memories in minds
• Uncle Sam Wants Your Brain
• Gone in a ZIP: researchers erase long-term memories with chemicals
• Virtual Hallucinating Device Drives Police Insane for a Day
• 6 Brainwashing Techniques They're Using On You Right Now
• "[T]he Truman Show Delusion is a combination of paranoia, grandiosity and ideas of reference, which means that patients believe they are receiving signals specifically meant for them..."
• Physical decline caused by slow decay of brain's myelin

Think about it

• For the Brain, Remembering Is Like Reliving
• Straight Men, Gay Women Have Similar Brains--"So which group is defective?"
• Sad Brain, Happy Brain--What cognitive neuroscience is uncovering about the fascinating biology behind our most complex feelings
• Right Brain vs. Left Brain
• Brain has thin line between love and hate, scientists reveal

New stories by baboonfan, BBMSN, Londonboy, Richard Jasper and Shade

New stories:

• Addict 2 by Shade
• First Times(s) 2 by Richard Jasper
• My New Buddy's Arms 7 by BBMSN
• Old Man Stevens 6 by Londonboy
• Stupid Cupid 6 by baboonfan

Ugh

• Cavemen and their relatives in the same village after 3,000 years
• Neanderthals speak out after 30,000 years
• How to Solve Toddler Tantrums: Think Like a Neanderthal
• First Neanderthal genome completed
• The Neanderthal murder mystery
• Why Neanderthal man may not have been as stupid as he looks

Evolution

• Leading geneticist Steve Jones says human evolution is over
• Corpus 2.0 by Marcia Nolte--Redesigning the human body to adapt to today's technology
• Why Doesn't Evolution Get Rid of Ugly People?
• Why Darwin Would Have Loved Botox
• Five things humans no longer need
• Love Evolution--I'd wear this on a shirt.

Genetics

• U.S. military practices genetic discrimination in denying benefits
• President Bush Signs Landmark Genetic Nondiscrimination Information Act Into Law
• Created Equal

New stories by Clarence591, dymondbolt, muscl4life and recipe113. Flashpoint and scot158, and xyggurat

Click to embiggen

New stories:

• Blue Dust 2 by Clarence591
• Family Traits 2 by dymondbolt
• Misspelled 2 by muscl4life and recipe113
• Talisman 2 by Flashpoint and scot158
• Uneven Desires 2 by xyggurat

Storm Troopers

• Bad day at work--Here's the original uncaptioned pic taken by Johnny Chiang
• Death star
• A life of service
• Admit It, The Stormtrooper Hoodie is a Little Tempting

Star Charts

• Star Trek Flick Pics--Geeking out.
• Star Wars ABC
• Mr. and Mrs. Vader
• 'Rise'
• Millennium Falcon cake
• Sci-Fi Starship Size Comparison
• Earth-like planet in Epsilon Eridani? It is logical, Captain

Sci-fanatics

• Fan Films Reclaim the Whedonverse
• Done the Impossible: The Fans' Tale of Firefly and Serenity
• Gallery of Sci-Fi Fans at home [c/o kottke.org]
• "Oh look, a space warrior..."
• Mr. Stewart Loves His Trekkies

New stories by baboonfan, Flashpoint, Richard Jasper, Shade and Ventrego

New stories:

• Addict by Shade
• A Change Could Do You Good 7 by Flashpoint
• Do As I Say by Ventrego
• First Times(s) by Richard Jasper
• Stupid Cupid 5 by baboonfan

Star Wars

• How Star Wars Changed the World
• George Lucas: Mr Emperor strikes back
• The Lord of the Light Side: George Lucas May Be a Cinematic Force, But Is He a Dramatic Heavyweight? Far, Far From It.
• The Unsung Heroes of Star Wars
• Star Wars Jedi Knights course offered by Queen's University Belfast
• Science of Star Wars
• Steam Punk 'Empire Strikes Back'
• Meet Leland Chee, the Star Wars Franchise Continuity Cop
• Harrison Ford Improvisations
• Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo--*groan.*

Vote Machinations

• The Electronic Voting Machine Glitches Begin--It's just gonna get worse.
• Some voters 'purged' from voter rolls
• What is happening to GOP electoral tactics? Salon

Happy Hallo-Week '08; New stories by Clarence591, dymondbolt, muscl4life and recipe113. Flashpoint and scot158, and xyggurat

Click to embiggen

New stories:

• Blue Dust by Clarence591
• Family Traits by dymondbolt
• Misspelled by muscl4life and recipe113
• Talisman by Flashpoint and scot158
• Uneven Desires by xyggurat

Hooray for Science!

• Long List of Weird Science Facts
• Periodic Table of Videos Makes Chemistry Extremely Watchable
• The Igneous Petrology of Ice Cream
• 'He Looks Like A 'Bob'' Is True
• Do subatomic particles have free will?
• Throw caution to the wind and flip open that phone
• Vials From Miller-Urey Experiment Offer New Hints on Origin of Life

Science under seige

• How Anecdotal Evidence Can Undermine Scientific Results
• How Our Culture Keeps Students Out of Science--"What the movement most commonly yields is a surfeit of college freshmen who 'feel good' about themselves for no discernible reason and who grossly overrate their meager attainments."
• Scientists decrying 'politicization of science'

New stories: Green Legacy 2 by Jaypat and Ursa Major 3 by xythan_shadow

New stories: Green Legacy 2 by Jaypat and Ursa Major 3 by xythan_shadow

Elections '08

• Wassup 2008--Eight years later...
• Want To Know Just How Bad Security Is For E-Voting Machines?
• Voter Registration Databases and Purges Part I
• Where the GOP could get dirty Salon
• Wisconsin Court Rejects Lawsuit Challenging New Voters; AG Vows to Appeal
• Florida Man Sells Voting Machines and Chads from 2000 Election
• Tweets Give Race-Baiting Hoaxster a 'B' for Effort--White Republican woman makes up story of being attacked by black Obama supporter. How's that for race baiting?
• Researchers say voters swayed by candidates who share their looks
• Undecided--Seriously, still?

UK not OK

• UK appeals court rejects encryption key disclosure defense
• Passports will be needed to buy mobile phones
• Row over UK 'Big Brother' e-mail database
• Police told off for investigating crimes
• No barbed wire...it might hurt the thieves, allotment holders told

New stories: The HIMS.3 by F_R_Eaky and My New Buddy's Arms 6 by BBMSN

New stories: The HIMS.3 by F_R_Eaky and My New Buddy's Arms 6 by BBMSN

Music

• Radiohead reveal how successful 'In Rainbows' download really was
• The online music rip-off
• Album-loving artists blame iTunes for changed music tastes--Don't they know they can opt to sell their music as albums only?
• Music stars unite to seek control
• The music industry abuses us and we're to blame

Indie

• The Indie Band Survival Guide, new book on how to succeed on your own
• Indie bands talk digital music and life without the labels
• MySpace Music Signs IODA, Gains 6,000 Indie Labels And 50,000 Artists

Discs

• CD Turns 26 and It Still Won't Die
• Why DVD would fail--An not-to-prescient article from 1996
• Why Blu-ray will be dead by 2012--Here we go again though it's not doing so well now despite HD-DVD's demise.

New stories: You Reap What You Sow 2 by purejetfuel and Stupid Cupid 4 by baboonfan

New stories: You Reap What You Sow 2 by purejetfuel and Stupid Cupid 4 by baboonfan

'No' on Prop. 8

• Gay Haters in CA Blackmailing Businesses Opposed to Prop 8
• Opposition to gay marriage: fragmented but intense
• Reneging on a right: By banning same-sex marriages, Prop. 8 would create second-class citizens.
• Bungling The Marriage Fight In California?
• Voters split in many ways on gay marriage ban
• Obama vs. McCain vs. Gay Marriage--In California, the presidential race is taking a back seat to gay marriage.
• Obama and Prop 8

Gays and Politics

• Palin breaks with McCain on gay marriage amendment
• Gay is a choice?
• Gay Marriage Is Ruled Legal in Connecticut
• Georgia transgender politician wins legal battle

Gay Celebrity

• 'Dirty' Man is Number One Gay Fantasy Guy
• EastEnders kiss causes complaints
• The 1960s' gayest show Salon

New morph: Olaf

New morph: Olaf

Bailout

• Who is to blame? - Economy in Turmoil
• Bush, Paulson reverse course in bailout plan
• Freddie Mac lobbied against regulation bill
• Deutsche Bank Executives Give Up 2008 Bonuses
• Hedge manager's hearty hasta la vista--Andrew Lahde comes out on top and thanks 'idiots' for success
• Just stop paying your mortgage

AIG

• Cuomo Seeks Recovery of Bonuses at A.I.G.
• AIG to claw back executive payments, reform ways
• AIG to Halt Lobbying Efforts--"AIG has spent millions to lobby states to soften the licensing provisions, even after taxpayers loaned AIG more than $120 billion to prevent its collapse"

Voices

• Fukuyama: The End of America Inc.
• Zakaria: There Is a Silver Lining
• Buffett: Buy American. I Am.--He says, "A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."

New stories: Hunter: C.Y.O.C. by Aardvark and Gossip Guy by jobberinnyc

New stories: Hunter: C.Y.O.C. by Aardvark and Gossip Guy by jobberinnyc

Vote Machinations

• Some early W.Va. voters angry over switched votes--"When I touched the screen for Barack Obama, the check mark moved from his box to the box indicating a vote for John McCain."
• Record your vote for YouTube? Not in Kentucky
• Report: Operatives Will Use Internet to Suppress the Vote
• Ontario police arrest Republican in voter fraud case
• ACORN controversy: 'Stupid joke' or fraud?
• Right-Wing Pundit On Voter Fraud Claim: Never Mind

Signs of the Times

• "Get the Obama signs off your property—now. Failure to obey this order will result in the immediate death of all family members."--Stay classy.
• Bear found dumped at WCU with Obama signs
• Seven reasons not to vote for Barack Obama
• If signs count, Obama wins race
• "Vote for a terriost Obama"--"Yeah, I know it's misspelled."
• "The Mavrick"--You betcha.

Rethuglicans

• National Discussion About Anti-Obama Display
• McCain supporters heckle early voters
• Tires slashed during Obama rally

New story: A Change Could Do You Good 6 by Flashpoint

New story: A Change Could Do You Good 6 by Flashpoint

Powell endorses Obama for president--And denounces McCain's sleazy campaign.

Gambling

• Aussie exposes online poker rip-off--Follow the money.
• Judge upholds state statute: Playing online poker for money still illegal
• Illinois Attorney Says Virgin Islands Casino Didn't Pay Up on Slot Machine Win
• 'Fat Man' sues top casinos for millions--After losing £191 million, he claims "they illegally allowed him credit."
• Kentucky tries to seize gambling site domain names--What's with the double standard with online horse racing betting?

Melamine--When greed and profit overrides social responsibility.

• Chinese lawyers pressured to drop milk cases
• China orders milk product recall
• Courts Compound Pain of China's Tainted Milk

New stories: Old Man Stevens 5 by Londonboy and Uberteen 6 by muscl4life

New stories: Old Man Stevens 5 by Londonboy and Überteen 6 by muscl4life

Religion

• Weymouth church to start ''woof 'n' worship,'' where dogs are welcome to the Sunday service--Does that mean all dogs do get to heaven?
• Gospelr: Twitter For Christians
• Scholars Hunt for Missing Pages of Ancient Bible
• 6 Saints Who Could Kick Your Ass

The hot-button issue of child pornography lets governments introduce the systematized invasion of privacy that, through its overreaching and overbroad implentation, ensnares innocents, all in the name of "Protecting the Children", and there's no question this will be abused the same way the War on Terror was in eroding our rights.

• ISPs pressed to become child porn cops
• No opt-out of filtered Internet in Australia--"Illegal is illegal and if there is infrastructure in place to block it, then it will be required to be blocked -- end of story." Not everything they think is illegal is illegal is the problem.
• New Zealand's copyright minister starts screaming when asked whether it's fair to cut people off--She "said that it had been done for child pornography and that ISPs need to apply the same standards [to Internet piracy]." How long before these "same standards" be applied to the Freedom of Speech?
• Finnish Internet censorship--PrideSites has also been censored in Italy.
• Help stop the Philippines' Anti-Obscenity and Pornography Senate Bill--Even in a country like the Philippines where millions are living in poverty, its government decides to legislate good taste.
• McCain's Sex Offender E-Mail Registry Signed Into Law--Why does a drunk pissing in public get tagged as a sex offender?

New stories: Teacher's Pet 9 by Redkage and Ursa Major 2 by xythan_shadow

New stories: Teacher's Pet 9 by Redkage and Ursa Major 2 by xythan_shadow

Politics

• Palin's e-mails? That'll be $15 million
• John McCain's Campaign Robots Hit the Phones--Since it worked so well against him before.
• Despite ACORN focus, widespread voter fraud unlikely, experts say--Just ask Florida Republican governor Charlie Crist, former US attorney David Iglesias, House Judiciary chair John Conyers, who's especially concerned that the FBI is looking into it, and even the Supreme Court.
• Voters say they were duped into registering as Republicans
• When McCarthyism rears its head--You're either Pro-American or Anti-American.

Wingnuts

• The Angry Right--It's time for some self-reflection over where they've gone wrong these past eight years, but it appears that their hate is being intensified by the campaign.
• The Man Behind the Whispers About Obama
• Top Tampa GOP Figure Circulates Joke About Killing Obama
• GOP Site Endorses E-mail Smears, Said 'Waterboard Obama'
• In N.C., parking lot owner says Obama supporters aren't welcome
• Baby named Sarah McCain Palin
• Candidate speaks at Hitler birthday party--Republican Tony Zirkle's best solution for Iraq is to "Stop glorifying adultery by enshrining neo-Baal porn worship in the heart of the 1st Amendment. Porn-adultery appoints 'terror' to us. Lev. 26:16. Remember, slave-raping extended the Civil War."

New story: The Writer by F_R_Eaky

New story: The Writer by F_R_Eaky

Online accounting

• Bank Web sites full of security holes, University of Michigan survey finds
• British Bank Bans Man's Password
• Why are bank security questions so monstrously stupid?

Banking on your privacy

• Day of Reckoning? Super Rich Tax Cheats Outed by Bank Clerk
• Whistleblower prompts review of German data protection laws
• Bank customer data sold on eBay

Taking credit

• Mythbusters Gagged: Credit Card Companies Kill Episode Exposing RFID Security Flaws--On the advice of his lawyers, Adam Savage backpedals.
• PBS: Secret History of the Credit Card
• Credit Cards Rates Increase Despite Payment History

New author and story: You Reap What You Sow by purejetfuel

New story: I've been following and enjoying the stories purejetfuel's been posting on NCMC and CYOC, and I'm pretty happy that he decided to start posting them here too. Read You Reap What You Sow by purejetfuel.

Obama

• The Choice
• Sorry, Dad, I'm Voting for Obama--The endorsement of Christopher Buckley, son of conservative icon William F. Buckley, gets him "fatwahed" by the Right.
• Not that it matters
• 106-year-old voter chooses Obama
• You stole our Obama sign...

Bush

• Discontent Buffets the Nation; Bush Craters--He even broke his 25% approval rating from two weeks ago.
• The Cult of the Presidency: Who can we blame for the radical expansion of executive power? Look no further than you and me.
• Who Are the 10% Who Think U.S. on Right Track?

Politics

• Palin Makes Troopergate Assertions that Are Flatly False--And downright Orwellian.
• Verizon and AT&T Provided Cell Towers for McCain Ranch--Tantamount to bribery? Update: Verizon caught lying.
• McCain/Palin campaign angry over bogus DMCA takedowns--Hoist by their own petard.

New story: Hunter: W.W.E. by Aardvark

New story: Hunter: W.W.E. by Aardvark

Money, money, money

• A New Dollar Bill for our Economic Crisis
• Change We Can Believe In
• Refacing Government Tender
• Man Successfully Used a $200 bill
• Universal Currency Symbol

Censorship

• Censorship in Modern Times - Banned Books
• Judge orders woman to return two library books or go to jail
• YouTube bans knife and gun videos--For UK users
• Cheerleaders to unveil demure uniforms after complaints
• After vote, no more naked plunges

New stories: Uberteen 5 by muscl4life

New stories: Überteen 5 by muscl4life

Telco Trouble

• Comcast to increase rates
• New Lobbying Group Calls for Internet Filtering
• The Facts & Fiction of Bandwidth Caps--It's not like anyone's complaining... right?
• Congress questions high cost of texting--About frickin' time.
• AT&T buries customer rights in 2,500-page 'guidebook'--And "informs" customers via email which ends up in their spam folders

Verizon

• Verizon Refuses To Help Locate Body Of Missing Woman For Four Days--Spying on US citizens? Not a problem! Helping the police locate a missing person? Fuggedaboutit.
• Verizon Rejects Abortion Rights Group's Messages--They realized their foolishness.
• Verizon Wireless to charge content vendors 3-cent fee for text messages--If you guys want to pay closer to what it really costs (which is way cheaper... but they don't want you to know that), you better start complaining.
• Verizon plays fast and loose with the wrong 1,200 e-mail addresses
• Verizon Tech Accused Of Making $220K In Sex Calls

New story: A Change Could Do You Good 5 by Flashpoint

New story: A Change Could Do You Good 5 by Flashpoint

Don't call us...

• FTC targets prerecorded telemarketing drivel
• Trouble with customer service agents? Try this.
• Attorney General Sues Telemarketers
• Angry telemarketer calls back, berates man after he hangs up
• The Greatest Prank Call Ever

Just the fax, ma'am

• Man Tells Fax Spammers To Go Fax Themselves...
• Talking Back To the Junk Fax
• Resources for Junk Fax Victims

New story: Stupid Cupid 3 by baboonfan

New story: Stupid Cupid 3 by baboonfan

World religion

• Pope defends WWII pontiff's role
• Saudi cleric favours one-eye veil
• Jewish 'modesty patrols' sow fear in Israel
• Jordan 'honour killings' cover for other crimes
• Scientology Facing Murky Future in France

Atheists

• Atheist who threatened to behead Christian women will lose his eye, police say--Where is his God now?
• Atheist group sues Bush over national prayer day--I'm offended they're offended.
• God prefers atheists?