The Mexico Connection: a survey of mainstream media reporting on U.S. military aid, the "drug war," and human rights in Mexico. From MediaAlliance.

Bird of Doom...Or Was It? Remember the uproar over the spotted owl? Everyone said the roof would cave in on the Pacific Northwest economy. Here's what really happened. From Amicus Journal.

"My girlfriend came up to me the other day and introduced me to one of her male friends, and at first I didn't mind, since I'm not the jealous type. I just wish she hadn't started calling him 'Sweetie' and living with him and having his kids and marrying him and stuff. It's really starting to make me wonder if she wants a future with me or not."
--- Derek Maness

Can Chiapas Change? From MotherJones.

October 31 was Samhain for the ancient Celts--the death night of the old year. Druids (priests) lit huge bonfires, while people dressed as demons and witches paraded noisily through the streets to frighten off the roving souls believed to be seeking new homes for the new year.

20 Ways the World Could End
From gamma ray bursts to rogue black holes, alien invasions to divine intervention. From Discover.com.

"When you cut your finger, that's a tragedy. When you fall down a man hole and die, that's a comedy".
--- Mel Brooks

Why do we grow old and die?
The human life-span has shot up over the past century, despite our ignorance of the underlying biochemistry. From Nature.com.

The word skeleton comes from the Ancient Greek word for dry.

Media, Metaphor and Revolution
The fall of communism is a story that needs to be told properly. It wasn't about the free flow of capital, but rather the free flow of information. From MediaChannel.org.

"The nation which reposes on the pillow of political confidence, will sooner or later end its political existence in a deadly lethargy."
--- James Madison

In creating his paintings and sketches, John James Audubon refused to use stuffed models. Instead, he used real birds that had been freshly killed and wired into natural-looking poses. To keep his models fresh, he was known to shoot dozens of birds per painting.

I could have a problem here.

A Horse with No Shame
Racehorse Zippy Chippy has never won a race in his life, reports Failure Magazine, a quirky online publication committed to "humankind's boldest missteps." Sometimes the beloved thoroughbred is too slow, sometimes he stops dead in mid-race and sometimes he simply refuses to leave the starting gate.

"Now consider the hamburger bun. It requires a certain type of mind to see the beauty in a hamburger bun. Yet, is it any more unusual to find grace in the curved silhouette of a bun...than in the arrangement of textures and colors in a butterfly's wing? Not if you view the bun as an essential material in the art of serving a great many meals fast."
--- Ray Kroc, the man who brought McDonald's to the world

San Cristóbal de las Casas. From RoughGuide .

Witches seek to halt church's Baptist-flavored Halloween production.

Have you traveled south of Mexico City? If so, I'd love to hear from you.

When upwind of their enemies in battle, the Aztecs would set fire to chilies and use the smoke as tear gas.

Cannibalism hardly raised any eyebrows, but when Jared Diamond talked of circumcision with New Guinea friends, they were horrified... From Nature.com

GOV. BUSH: Because the picture on the newspaper. It just seems so un-American to me, the picture of the guy storming the house with a scared little boy there. I talked to my little brother, Jeb—I haven't told this to many people. But he's the governor of—I shouldn't call him my little brother — my brother, Jeb, the great governor of Texas.
JIM LEHRER: Florida.
GOV. BUSH: Florida. The state of the Florida.
From The News Hour with Jim Lehrer

The fate of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence. From Serendipity.

I am sitting at a table, holding a flyswatter.
Ten flies are on the table. With one swat - I kill three flies.
How many flies are left on the table?

At the Final Curtain, clients are encouraged to develop site-specific works of passage -- their own tombstones, mausoleums, caskets, or urns -- as homage to their lives and their spirit.

The world's slowest drip.

Has the era of the electric car finally arrived? And, if so, what does it mean for us? Designer Dan Sturges views the electric car as the key to a community-based vision of transportation that goes beyond issues of air pollution to tackle problems of congestion, urban sprawl and even declining civility. From MetropolisMag.

A Halloween Poem
Ruth and Artie, side by side,
Went out for an auto ride.
Artie hit a bump.
Ruth hit a tree.
And Artie kept driving,
Ruthlessly.

Recommended Reading for the Twenty First Century
What books might help shape our thinking as we enter the new century?

Cool Word: etiolate [v. E-tee-uh-late]
To cause something to grow weak or sickly by stunting its growth, or draining it of its color or vigor, is to etiolate it. First used in English in the late 1700s, etiolate is from the French etioler (to make pale). This was probably derived from the French eteule, from the Old French estoble, which was a variant on the Vulgar Latin stupula (also the root word of stubble which means any short, rough growth).

"Work is the curse of the drinking class."
--- Oscar Wilde

Why did the chicken cross the road?
At the fourth annual Chicken Crossing Conference in Chicken, Alaska, a team of distinguished scholars met to consider this matter in depth. Here follow the various reasons given to explain the behavior of the chicken.

Hans Berger created the electroencephalograph (EEG) in 1924. By attaching 2 pieces of silver to his son’s head and connecting wires between them and a galvanometer, he recorded electrical signals emanating from the brain.

Rethinking Fluoride
Yes, fluoride helps prevent cavities in children, but it also is a toxic substance, which in small quantities can kill vegetation, fish, mussels, crabs, shrimp, cattle. Environmental columnist Donella Meadows asks, "why fluoridate the whole water supply, the millions of gallons with which we flush toilets and take showers and water lawns, if our only target is children's teeth?" From AlterNet.com .

Diary of a dot-com junkie
I have a high-paying job at an e-commerce site. I have stock options that should make me rich. And I'm a heroin addict. From San Francisco Bay Guardian.

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside a dog it's too dark to read."
--- Groucho Marx

A tongue-in-cheek look at the meaning of God in the modern world from the perspective of a Deist, a Catholic, an Atheist and an Agnostic. From Flak Magazine.

It's likely that you enjoy the taste of bee vomit.