Halloween thoughts Oct 29, 2009
A few thoughts about Halloween: 
  • I like how we have a national holiday to celebrate candy.  I'm all for that.  I go to the stores and walk up and down the "holiday" aisle, which is usually full of crappy decorations and other stupidity, but for this holiday it's full of beautiful, wonderful candy.  God bless America.
  • I'd like to reiterate my point from two years ago:  Enough with slutty costumes.  We get it.  You're a slut.  High five.
  • I remember being a kid and suddenly figuring out how inefficient the tradition of candy collection is.  I lived in a fairly spread-out neighborhood with hills and no sidewalks.  On a typical Halloween night, I would walk about three miles, most of which was in the dark, usually in cold weather.  I discovered I could quite easily buy all that candy myself for about $10, and I wouldn't get stuck with things I didn't like.
  • From Shoebox:  "Costume Rule #13:  Unlike women, men can't just pick a profession and wear less clothes."
#sociology
Radioactive rabbits Oct 29, 2009
Helicopters recently flew over parts of the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state to record the GPS coordinates of radioactive rabbit poop that could later be scooped up and properly disposed of.  Several animals and plants showed traces of nuclear contamination, but "roaming rabbits appear to account for the overwhelming bulk of the radioactive excrement."  You can say that again.  As a rabbit owner, I can attest to the fact that rabbits poop a lot.  And as a student of pop culture, I can only imagine rolling fields filled with gigantic radioactive rabbits standing on their hind legs and shooting laser beams from their angry, red eyeballs. #nature
Rental goats Oct 29, 2009
Apparently, there are companies out there who provide goats for rent for the simple task of clearing brush.  Rent-a-Ruminant, Goats R Us, and Eco-Goats are three such companies whose goats eat everything from grass and weeds to thorny plants and poison oak.  A few months ago, Google decided to ditch their lawn mowers and go the way of the goat.  Very cool, though expensive.  (via Boing Boing) #nature