The Kids Halloween Candy Code. I’m afraid I’ll go from “miserly portions” to “out of candy and giving out sauce packets from Taco Bell.”
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How hate transforms your brain. Hatred heightens your judgment and your ability to assess what other people are likely to do next, while romantic thoughts just befuddle you.
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TIME Magazine presents their picks for the 50 Best Inventions of 2008. The home DNA test comes out on top.
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Riff Offs: 10 Songs That Resemble Other Songs. It has to be near impossible to write a song that’s completely different from any other song before it.
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History of Science presents From Cave Paintings to the Internet. Explore the history of information technology by year or by category. (via Metafilter)
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Ghosts in the Library! The American Library Association has collected stories of more haunted libraries than you can shake a book at.
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Caramel & Candy Apples. Sweet treats that taste like autumn.

Many of you might recall our interview with the very talented, always funny Zach Kanin, one of the wildest cartoonists ever to grace the pages of The New Yorker. Well, not long after his collaboration with the _floss, he started blogging over at The New Yorker’s site, The Cartoon Lounge. To help promote their annual cartoon issue, Zach recently interviewed Dilbert creator Scott Adams (and, very kindly, linked to our great Chris Higgins’ post describing the time Adams lost his voice due to Spasmodic Dysphonia). Below is a short excerpt from that very entertaining (especially if you’re a Dilbert nut, like many of us) exchange. For the full interview, be sure to head over to The New Yorker’s blog.

Scott Adams is the genius behind the comic strip “Dilbert,” and behind every genius is a stalker, lurking in a crawl space. I like to think that each of our readers is like that stalker: hungry, semi-naked, and scratching at an itch that doesn’t exist. I’m almost choked up now.

And now, the man, the legend, Scott Adams:

Cartoon Lounge: Scott, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. I’ve already buried your fee of fifty gold doubloons in your back yard, as per your instructions. You have a very beautiful garden.

Scott Adams: (Nods, lips sealed tightly.)

C.L.: How does it make you feel that “Office Space,” “The Office,” the American version of “The Office,” the German version of “The Office,” and the animated television show “Dilbert” all stole your idea?

S.A.: I would feel bad if I hadn’t stolen the idea of a loser with a talking dog from Charles Schulz. My contribution to the creative process was realizing Dilbert would starve if he didn’t have a job.

C.L.: When you first started drawing “Dilbert,” were people in your office mad? Was your boss like, “Wait a second…I have pointy hair…”?

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In response to one of my pleas for recommendations of female artists, reader Jessy suggested Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807), one of the most successful female artists of the 18th century. Since today would be Kauffmann’s 267th birthday, we’ll take a look at her life alongside her 1790 painting, “Venus Induces Helen to Fall in Love with Paris.”

1. Truly a child prodigy, Angelica Kauffmann began demonstrating artistic skill by age 6 while studying under her father. Although her father has been described as being “of mediocre talent,” his instruction and connections were good enough that Kauffmann was “summoned” to paint a portrait of the bishop of Como, Monsignor Nevroni, before she was even 12 years old.

2. Kauffmann’s first marriage was to a Swedish “rogue,” also described as “an adventurer who passed for a Swedish count,” Count Frederick de Horn. One source says of their marriage, “Her vanity made her the victim of a cruel deception,” while another alleges she was “seduced into a clandestine marriage.” After the man was revealed to be an impostor, Kauffmann separated from him, extracting herself from the marriage with the help of her good friend and fellow painter Sir Joshua Reynolds.

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Aw, tomorrow is Halloween. I mean, it’s exciting, but it’s simultaneously sad. I’m like those people who get the post-wedding blues – you know, you’ve been planning and planning and planning and then the event is over, and you’re left with a void.

I didn’t actually get the post-wedding blues, but I do get the post-Halloween blues. Yes, I’m weird. Anyway, since tomorrow is the last day I can do Halloween posts for another 11 months or so, it’s time to regale you guys with tales of my September trip to Sleepy Hollow. I’ve been holding on to it for over a month! Bear with me; I might be a little long-winded.

1. Sleepy Hollow was made famous by Washington Irving, the author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Actually, he may have named the town – his term “Sleepy Hollow” is the first recorded use of the name. The town was originally called North Tarrytown, but voted to legally change its name to Sleepy Hollow in 1997 (their school athletics teams are called the Horsemen. Love it.). Nearby Irvingtown is named after him – in fact, it took its name while he was still alive, which is a little unusual. Usually those types of things are posthumous. It just goes to show what a beloved character he was in the area. Oh, one other quick Irving fact: in 1807, he coined the term “Gotham” for New York City – it’s an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “Goat’s town.”

2. The cemetery looks like one cemetery, but it’s actually two and is owned and maintained as two separate entities. There’s the Old Dutch Burying Ground, which is on the grounds of the Old Dutch Church; and there’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which surrounds the Old Dutch property. The people Irving used as his inspiration are located in the Old Dutch Burying Grounds; Irving himself and lots of other illustrious people are located in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The two cemeteries put together are huge – about 88 acres. Most of that is Sleepy Hollow Cemetery – the Old Dutch Property is only about three acres.

3. Washington Irving wasn’t really one to reveal the true identity of the people behind his stories, but he wasn’t too difficult to decipher. (more…)

Here’s a re-post of a Halloween favorite from last year. Be sure to check out the comments!

Although I haven’t gone trick-or-treating for almost two decades, I still remember the greedy delight I took in collecting, cataloging, and ultimately bingeing on Halloween candy each year. Now that I’m officially some sort of grownup, I feel it’s important to consider my Halloween Giveaway Strategy — in other words, fit myself into the landscape of treat givers that I remember from back in the day.

These are the archetypes I remember:

The One Piece of Candy Per Kid Rule (aka The Walter Sobchak “There Are Rules” Approach). This method generally involves a big bowl of “fun size” goodies monitored by a stern taskmaster. Each child follows the universally agreed-upon process of saying “trick or treat?” and his or her hand is allowed to grasp a single treat from the bowl. Any child attempting multiple treats is immediately disciplined/shamed.

The Monty Hall Mom. These folks generally go for a bit more costume-related chat, then offer a “handful” of candy, which makes it a game of skill for kids with little hands. Strategy is key — using a scooping method can yield more candy than closing your fist around the goodies.

The Absentee Landlord (aka the Leave Me Alone Family). These people leave a tray of stuff by their front door, sometimes with some lame rule (like “take only one, please!”) on a sign. Because of the inherent greed issues here (see: tragedy of the commons), the goodies are usually apples or something equally disappointing.

The Fruit Peddler. I really wish there was some kind of hobo code for kids to identify these houses. At best, you get an apple, tangerine, or box of raisins. At worst, you get a weird lecture about how fruit is better than candy. (On the bright side, when you grow up you’ll sort of understand. But you’ll never forgive.)

Here’s a Nickel, Go Buy Yourself a Clue. These people give you money — in pitiably small quantities. Perhaps they’re hoping you’ll start a college fund. In my day the going rate was a nickel. Do kids get quarters now?

The Slightly Unsettling Proselytizer. I only encountered this once, when trick-or-treating in a fancy neighborhood in Sarasota, Florida — but it has stuck with me. My fellow trick-or-treaters and I were greeted at the door by a smiley couple who gave us full-sized candy bars with Jack Chick tracts wrapped around them.

The “I’m Totally Not Home” Guy. Dude, we see that your TV is on in your otherwise darkened house…couldn’t you just leave some candy by the door?!

So let’s have it. What’s your Halloween Giveaway strategy? And I’m also dying to know: what candy/fruit/money/tracts are you giving away this year?

See Also…

10 Epic Halloween Costumes
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Costumes for Your Babies & Pets
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38 Essential Facts About Frankenstein
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What’s Your Halloween Giveaway Strategy?
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The George Costanza Candy Identification Quiz

A friend just sent me this link to Asylum’s fantastic round-up of video game cakes. Now I’m hungry and want to save the Princess. (Both of these cakes came from Kotaku.com.)

It only takes one cool statistical tidbit to turn an associate professor of political science into a cable news election analyst. Here are some of the more interesting things political scientists have recently learned while crunching the numbers.

1. Traffic Deaths Increase on Election Day

You might wants to buckle up before heading to the polls on Tuesday. University of Toronto’s Donald Redelmeier examined traffic accidents and deaths on Election Day over the past 28 years—from Carter in 1976 to George W. Bush in 2004. They compared the number of accidents on election Tuesdays to the Tuesday before and after Election Day. On average, 24 people die in car crashes on Election Day and 800 people suffered disabling injuries. This 18 percent increase in fatalities and injuries is higher than other days known for accidents, such as Super Bowl Sunday and New Year’s Eve.

The increase in crashes could be attributed to drivers distracted by the emotions of elections and trying to squeeze voting into a busy schedule. Election Day accidents occur more often during the day than night, leading Redelmeier to believe drunk driving isn’t to blame. “In light of these findings, the U.S. president owes a larger debt to the American people than is generally recognized,” says Redelmeier.

2. Some Kids Think It’s Illegal for Minorities or Women to be President

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This is a re-post of one of my spooky favorites from last year. As much as I’d love to have a ghost story of my own to tell, I’ve at least been lucky enough to live in places that are filled with ghost lore, most notably my undergrad college. Read on, and be afraid!

I went to a bucolic liberal arts college in Ohio, one of the oldest colleges in the midwest. One of the things Kenyon College is famous for — besides being the alma mater of actor Paul Newman and Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson — is the unsettling number of ghost stories which seem to have coalesced around it since being founded in 1826.

There are a few possible explanations for this. One is that at an isolated, rural school where the preponderance of students major in English and until the late 1960s were all male, telling stories around a campfire is an excellent way to distract one another. Another is the long-kept legend that a gateway to Hell exists on campus, which naturally would produce all sorts of angry spirits and other nasty supernatural beasties. Whatever the cause, the school is stuck with them, and it’s become tradition for much-beloved professor of English Timothy Shutt to recount them every year around Halloween, as they have always been recounted: by a roaring fire.

Recently I was thrilled to discover that six or seven years ago, while a student at Kenyon, I had videotaped one of professor Shutt’s evocative ghost story roundups. (He himself has been known to quip that he “doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he believes that other people believe in them,” a skepticism which does nothing to dull the humor and chills of his spectral storytelling abilities.) I’m sharing two of my favorite Kenyon ghost stories here with you, in the hopes that you’ll share some of your favorites with us!

Caples Dormitory Haunting
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In the movie Sliding Doors, John Hannah suggested that everyone is born knowing the Beatles and suggested they be named “The Fetals.” So let’s test how well you really know the Beatles. Match the song to the album it came from.

Take the Quiz: Name That Beatles Album

We’re back with another 5-day trivia hunt!

To remind you of the rules: Every day this week, I’ll be presenting a specific challenge. Your job: come up with the answers and hold onto them! Why? Because on Friday, you’ll need them to solve a short puzzle. The first person to email in the correct answers and successfully show how you arrived at them (thus the title: How Did You Know?) wins a choice of any t-shirt and book from our store.

As with last month, we’re also adding some special prizes this time around for those who come really close, but don’t get all the answers in time. We’ve previously awarded some shirts and books to a couple contestants who impressed us with charts, diagrams, and other complex methods of recording and organizing the clues/answers. So we’ll be on the lookout for the creative among you, as well. This is all to say: it pays to play whether you nab the grand prize or not. And remember, we’re also giving away a really big, sa-weeet prize to any winning contestant who can defend the title three months in a row. Details on that as they develop, if they develop. (Avery Dale, Ken Laskowski and Colin Utley are our current champions. You can read about them here.)

As with previous How Did You Know? posts, comments have been turned off, but I definitely encourage you to work in teams like our present champions did. Write your friends, send around each daily challenge, conspire, work together, whatever it takes to make sure you’re armed with the right answers going into Friday’s puzzle. If you missed Day 1, check that out here. Day 2 can be found right over here and Day 3 here.

Today we’re playing Camouflage. Yesterday you were asked to name five TV/movie clips featuring famous musicians. Today you need to find six TV/movie titles camouflaged in the puzzle on the next page. Your only hint is this: each camouflaged TV or movie title stars one person seen in one of the clips from yesterday’s challenge. (That’s to say that every title can be connected to the same person who appeared in one of yesterday’s clips.)

Remember: Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the final puzzle, going up at 2pm ET, 11 PT.

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