A REAL ADVENTURE

Sven Yrvind is willing to pay a big price for some alone time.

The Swedish sailor wants to cruise nonstop around the world by himself in a sailboat slightly larger than a bathtub.

Armed with a stack of books and 880 pounds of mainly sardines and granola, the 73-year-old seasoned boat builder plans to wedge inside what he affectionately calls a "survival capsule," and spend up to a year-and-a-half reading, writing, thinking and soaking up the wonders of nature. Mr. Yrvind is knee deep in the building of his boat. (click below to read more)

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

Police say a 21-year-old man climbed to the roof of the Spirit Halloween store  and pilfered a 30-foot inflatable pumpkin.
On Monday, State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons charged Kohl Verstreater with theft over $500.
The alleged heist took place on Saturday.
Police Lt. Scott Evers said Verstreater climbed up onto the roof, unhooked the jack-o'-lantern  from a blower, and somehow managed get it off the business' roof to haul it over to a birthday party for his girlfriend at her home.
The woman returned to Spirit Halloween the next day and asked if she could return it.
“She must have felt guilty about it,” Evers said.
Officers went to her home and brought Verstreater back to the police station for questioning.
Verstreater confessed that he stole the giant pumpkin and put it up in his girlfriend’s yard for the party, Evers said.
The pumpkin is being held at the police station as evidence.

TOO LATE TO RUN

DO IT YOURSELF DIGITS

Lost fingers are an occupational hazard for people who work with power tools, but sophisticated prostheses tend to be expensive. So Ivan Owen, an American designer, and South African woodworker Richard Van As—who lost four fingers—have teamed up to design a prosthetic device that can be made cheaply at home. First they built prototypes out of molded plastic, commonly available parts and toys, including an Erector set. Mr. Van As controls them with what's left of his fingers. Thanks to an Internet fund-raising campaign, they've since acquired a milling machine for making more precise, custom-made parts, and are working toward acquiring a 3-D printer as well. The home-brew version is based on simple pulleys and pivots.

WELCOME

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

A specialized amusement park in southern Minnesota offers paying customers an experience that’s “ideal for satisfying one’s inner Rambo,” said Jeff Baenen in the Associated Press. At Drive a Tank (driveatank.com), $399 buys you a chance to maneuver a military tank around a wooded course and fire a historic machine gun. For an additional $549, you can use the tank to smash a junk car, and for about $3,500, you can crush a trailer house like a pancake. Every package includes a sit-down lesson on the history of armored vehicles, which you’ll appreciate later. Even a simple spin through the woods turns out to be a “loud, grinding, hot, and dirty” ride, but there may be no better way to get “a firsthand sense of what armored warfare might be like.” Better still, the adventure will nourish a fantasy you’ve no doubt had at least once while sitting in traffic—that you were granted the power to “roll over everything in your path.”

TODAY IN HISTORY

OCTOBER 31

 1941:Gutzon Borglum's Mount Rushmore, the massive sculptural monument to honor four venerable U.S. presidents, is completed in South Dakota. Or at least, funds for the project are exhausted, and the 60-foot high granite monument to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, originally intended to depict the presidents from the waist up, has remained incomplete ever since.

1926: Magician and escape artist Harry Houdini dies of complications from a ruptured appendix, likely aggravated by an incident in which a college student punched the illusionist in the stomach to test the strength of his abdominal muscles. Houdini was 52.

1984: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated outside her home in New Delhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards, in retaliation for her orders to raid the Golden Temple in Amritsar, a Sikh holy site.


1920:Anoka, Minnesota celebrates first Halloween in United States

1913:Dedication of the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across United States

1954: For the first time in history, Color Television sets are available to the public.

1864:Nevada is accepted as the 36th state of the United States.

HAUNTED PUMPKIN GARDEN

AND I QUOTE

"The best thing about the future is that is comes one day at a time."-Abraham Lincoln

NOW YOU KNOW

The term jack- o’-lantern was first applied not to pumpkins, but people. As far back as 1663, the term meant a man with a lantern, or a night watchman. Just a decade or so later, it began to be used to refer to the mysterious lights sometimes seen at night over bogs, swamps, and marshes.

These ghost lights—variously called  jack-o’-lanterns, hinkypunks, hobby lanterns, corpse candles, fairy lights, will-o’-the-wisps, and fool’s fire—are created when gases from decomposing plant matter ignite when they come in contact with electricity or heat or as they oxidize. For centuries before there was this scientific explanation, people told stories to explain the mysterious lights. In Ireland, dating as far back as the 1500s, those stories often revolved around a guy named Jack. (click below to read more)

THE FIRST WORD

pericoronitis
If left in, wisdom teeth may harbor bacteria, which can damage the bone that supports neighboring teeth, or develop cavities that are impossible to repair. They can also cause a painful condition called pericoronitis, in which the gum around the tooth is infected, which often leads to removal.

Pericoronitis comes from Latin roots meaning "around" and "crown." Is is a stomatognathic disease (from Greek roots meaning "mouth" and "jaw") and may cause trismus (from a Greek root meaning "a scream"), a condition in which the mouth cannot open normally.

YOU BE THE JUDGE

THE NEXT BIG THING?

A Dutch firm's 3-D device can make molded plastic objects the size of a small room.
The KamerMaker (Dutch for "room maker") is being tested on smaller objects but eventually should be able to turn recycled waste plastic into furniture, small boats or anything else approaching 600 cubic feet. Its creators, working at Amsterdam-based DUS Architecture, hope such large 3-D printers will let disaster-stricken communities put out temporary housing made from recycled plastic.

MINDFUL OF MARSHMALLOWS

First developed by psychologist Walter Mischel, the now-famous "marshmallow test" found large differences in how long 4-year-olds could wait before consuming a treat—with self-control strongly linked to higher SAT scores and other positive outcomes later in life. (click below to read more)

EYE TO EYE

SNAPSHOT

GET YOUR BOO BERRY...WHILE YOU CAN

October is the coolest month for Roger Barr. For a few happy weeks, grocery stores stock the object of his desire: Boo Berry. That is the berry-flavored cereal that turns milk bluish, delighting generations of American kids—and some adults, too. The 35-year-old Mr. Barr eats a bowl of it nearly every morning, and for Halloween dresses up as the blue ghost with a porkpie hat seen on the front of the cereal box. (click below to read more)

TODAY IN HISTORY

OCTOBER 30

 1944:Aaron Copland's score for the ballet Appalachian Spring debuts at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., with choreography by Martha Graham. Appalachian Spring would be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1945.

1864: The Montana town of Helena is founded by miners trying to strike it rich at Last Chance Gulch. The name "Helena" beats out competing suggestions to call the town "Pumpkinville" or "Squashtown," in honor of the Halloween holiday the following day.

1938: Orson Welles panics countless radio listeners with his radio play adaptation of H.G. Wells's 1898 science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds. Thousands of people turning into Mercury Theatre on the Air on CBS believe that the pseudo-newscast is broadcasting a real-time report of the Earth under attack from Mars.


1982:Ali vs Foreman "Rumble in the Jungle"

1964:Roy Orbison's 'Pretty Woman' single reaches gold, selling 500,000 copies

1960:Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

1922:Benito Mussolini is made Prime Minister of Italy.

MENSA Q & A

What three early American statesmen contributed to The Federalist Papers?
(click below for the answer)

BOSSES MATTER,

Bosses matter a lot, according to a study of a large technology firm whose operations, closely monitored by computer, provided ready measures of productivity. Going from a boss in the bottom 10% of quality to one in the top 10% improved productivity among the supervised employees by as much as adding another worker to a nine-member team. More surprising, the boss made his or her biggest contribution not by motivating workers but by teaching more productive skills.
The study found, counterintuitively, that it pays to assign the best workers to the best bosses, because that strategy results in the largest productivity gains.

"The Value of Bosses," Edward P. Lazear, Kathryn L. Shaw, and Christopher T. Stanton, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 18317 (August)

THE NEXT BIG THING?

Back injuries accounted for roughly 6% of all workplace injuries in 2010. Getting mechanical assistance when lifting heavy objects can go a long way toward preventing such injuries. But for many lifting chores, a big forklift is overkill, and there are few lightweight, portable alternatives.That's where Lift'n Buddy, from Ergologistics LLC, comes in. It's small and light enough to be stowed in the back of a delivery truck, but can raise up to 500 pounds from the floor to the height of a counter. (click below to read more)

NYC, NIGHT AND DAY

DO YOU REMEMBER?

It was the first Gothic daytime drama, ABC’s first soap opera shot in color, and appealed equally to Goth-loving teenagers and their housewife moms. Debuting in 1966, this half hour of ghostly thrills and otherworldly storylines made Dark Shadows one of the most unique – and popular – shows on television.

The series was created by Dan Curtis (who would later make viewers cry with the mini-series’ The Winds of War and War and Remembrance), who said the idea for Dark Shadows came to him in a dream. The story begins with a young governess who moves to the seaside village of Collinsport, Maine to take care of the Collins’ small son at the creepy Collinswood mansion. (click below to read more)

WHERE DID EVERYONE GO?

SNAPSHOT

BATH OR WALK

TODAY IN HISTORY

OCTOBER 29

 1998:Sen. John Glenn briefly returns to work for NASA, lifting off into space as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery. At age 77 Glenn is the world's oldest astronaut, setting another record alongside his 1962 achievement as the first American to orbit the Earth.

1929: The Crash hits the New York Stock Exchange on a day remembered ruefully as Black Tuesday. The carefree and prosperous Roaring '20s come to an end as 16 million shares are traded in panic. Thousands of investors lose their entire savings when stock prices plummet, leading to bank closures, unemployment and the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s.

1966: The Feminine Mystique author Betty Friedan leads the organizing conference of the National Organization for Women in Washington, D.C., with the aim to bring "women into full participation in the mainstream of American society."


1969:First computer-to-computer link established on ARPANET, precursor to Internet.

1863:16 countries form International Red Cross

1996:AOL stops charging for time spent on the web - and instead switches to a flat rate monthly rate - changing the web forever.

1682:Famous Quaker William Penn lands in what will be Pennsylvania.

AND I QUOTE

"Fun is like life insurance: The older you get, the more it costs."- Kin Hubbard

THE FIRST WORD

banging the beehive
One reason for the irregular activity is a strategy known as "banging the beehive," in which high-speed traders send a flood of orders in an effort to trigger huge price swings just before the data hit.

This is an example of "momentum ignition" in high-frequency trading, where an algorithm initiates a series of trades to try to influence other algorithms.

LINKING TODAY WITH YESTERDAY

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. They also say that a photo can capture a memory. Which partially explains why we're so fascinated by photographer Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse's haunting overlays in the "Ghosts of War" series (link here), which takes images of locations today and overlays them with people-filled images from World War II. The series showcases locations in France, Auschwitz, Poland, Germany and Amsterdam. Dutch historian Teeuwisse found negatives at an Amsterdam flea market and had the idea to begin this series, the Daily Mail reported. Each photograph and location is researched before being put together. We're fascinated by the idea of seeing modern-day locations in historic and haunting context.

AND THE 50-50 WINNER WAS...NOT MARK OR RED

JUST FOR PUN

I didn't like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.

By Dr. Francis “Tusu” Tusubira, Rotary Foundation Chair for District 9200 and a member of the Rotary Club of Kampala-North, Uganda
Rotary to me is about going into the trenches with communities and working with them. I like my feet and hands community muddy. So I had serious reservations at first about packaged grants. It sounded like The Rotary Foundation would do all the work and it would be handed to Rotarians as a done deal. (click below to read more)

TODAY IN HISTORY

OCTOBER 28

 1980:Republican nominee Ronald Reagan faces off against sitting Democratic President Jimmy Carter in their one and only pre-election debate. Reagan famously asks the Cleveland audience the rhetorical question: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" The answer must have been no, because Reagan would be elected in a landslide a week later.

1922: Princeton University narrowly upsets the University of Chicago 21-18 in the first college football game broadcast nationwide by radio, allowing East Coast fans to tune in to the play-by-play at Chicago's Stagg Field.

1962: The Cuban missile crisis officially ends, pulling the world away from the brink of nuclear war. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agrees to President John F. Kennedy's demands that the Soviet Union remove its missile bases from Cuba, while the United States lifts the threat of military action against Cuba, privately promising to remove its own ballistic missiles from Italy and Turkey.


1971:Britain launches the satellite Prospero into low Earth orbit.

1929:Black Monday, a day in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

1886:In New York Harbor, President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.

1538:Universidad Santo Tomas de Aquino, world's first university, founded

IS IT 'the" OR 'The" ?

The Beatles once sang, "Have you heard the word is love?" In a Wikipedia war raging around the group, the word is "the."

For some eight years, editors at the online encyclopedia have been debating whether the article "the" should be uppercased when referring to the band. Is it "the" Beatles or "The" Beatles? (click below to read more)

MENSA Q & A

What animalistic term geographically identifies someone who is left-handed?
(click below for the answer)

LET'S CALL IT CHICKEN POOP BINGO

AUSTIN, Texas—It was a typical Sunday evening at Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon and Bob Gelernter was enjoying the bar's weekly game of bingo. "There you go! Right to 22!" shouted Mr. Gelernter, an occasional patron and president of a local surveillance-equipment company. 
The recipient of his encouragement wasn't a cage of numbered balls. It was Henny, a brown hen clucking around a plywood board with a grid of numbers on it. The game hinged on where she decided to leave her mark. "Turn the curve!" Mr. Gelernter yelled. (click below to read more)

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME

NO PREZ, NO PROB

THE CUTENESS FACTOR

Adorable photos of baby animals may seem distracting, but they can actually aid concentration in the workplace, Time.com reports. (click below to read more)

SNAPSHOT

WHERE WILL YOUR NEXT VACATION TAKE YOU?

Set to launch November 1, GetGoing is a new website that takes the hassle out of trip planning and budgeting while giving sizable discounts.Travelers simply input their travel dates and what kind of trip they want, and the site searches hundreds of destinations, including ones they may not have thought of that could be a great fit. Users can input information about the region, like Europe or Asia, or interest, like history, beach or culture. From the generated list of 10 possible trips, users then choose their top two choices, as well as times, stopovers and prices. GetGoing will then choose one the trips and handle the booking. (click below to read more)

TODAY IN HISTORY

OCTOBER 27

1962:U.S. Air Force pilot Maj. Rudolf Anderson Jr. becomes the only combat fatality of the Cuban missile crisis, when his U-2 reconnaissance plane is shot down by a surface-to-air missile near Banes, Cuba. President John F. Kennedy would posthumously award Anderson the first Air Force Cross.

1904: Mayor George B. McClellan sits at the controls of the inaugural train of New York's underground and underwater subway system, built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company under chief engineer William Barclay Parsons. The nickel-to-ride subway makes 28 stops between Lower Manhattan and Harlem and is ridden by 150,000 people on its first day of operation.

2004: The Boston Red Sox clinch their first World Series championship since 1918 with a win over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 4, breaking the "curse of the Bambino" that had seemingly plagued them since the 1919 sale of Babe Ruth to the rival New York Yankees. The Red Sox would win the World Series again in 2007.

1971:Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.

1925:Water skis patented by Fred Waller

1829:First patent for a baby carriage issued

1810:Spain hands over West Florida to the United States.

AND I QUOTE

"Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible."-John Wooden

THE FIRST WORD

Hibernian

PRONUNCIATION:

(hy-BUR-nee-uhn) 

MEANING:

adjective: Of or relating to Ireland.
noun: A native or inhabitant of Ireland.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Hibernia, the Latin name for Ireland. The word hibernate is from Latin hibernare (to spend the winter). Earliest documented use: 1632.

USAGE:

"This lively bar is long on Hibernian charm, and patrons are smitten with the pub's thick Irish stew."
Indianapolis Monthly; Sep 2008.