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LONDON (Reuters) – Tweeters are being invited to submit questions for the spirits of departed celebrities including Michael Jackson and William Shakespeare as part of the world’s first Twitter seance.

A psychic medium will then try to contact the stars — who were chosen along with actor River Phoenix and Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain from nominations sent in by the public — at the London-based seance on Friday, the day before Halloween.

Other prominent dead figures nominated by tweeters keen to pose questions during the “tweance” included John Lennon, Marilyn Monroe, Abraham Lincoln and Houdini.

Twitter users will be able to follow the seance live on the micro-blogging site, which psychic Jayne Wallace will use to relay any responses she receives from the spirits

Source from:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091027/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_britain_twitter

Local tattoo artist Scotty Savell wants your help to break a Guinness World Record while raising money for cancer awareness and education.

Ink has been Savell’s passion for the last 13 years, and now he’s using that passion in an attempt to break a world record.

Starting Friday Oct 23rd at noon, Savell will tattoo customers for 24 hours straight at Freakys Tattoo and Body Piercings. They are located on Colfax Avenue and Ivanhoe Street in Denver.

Savell says it’s not just about the record. It’s about giving back.

“I have quite a few people in my family who have been affected by cancer. Breast cancer, stomach cancer, brain cancer. Mostly it wasn’t about breaking a record. A lot of it was, how do we hold an event to make money for cancer awareness and education,” he said.

Available designs will be awareness ribbons in a certain size based on Guinness World Record guidelines of 3.72 x 3.72 inches, but customers can pick a cause and a color.

Event organizers say if you’re too “manly” for an awareness ribbon they’ve got a crossbones design for you.

The current record for the most tattoos in a 24-hour period is 801 tattoos set in 2008 by Arizona tattoo artist Hollis Cantrell.

All participants must be over the age of 18.

Ribbon tattoos cost $30 (or $20 between the slower hours of 1 to 6 a.m.), an off-the-street savings of almost 500 percent. Though walk-ins are welcome and encouraged, interested parties can e-mail tatsforacause@yahoo.com to schedule an appointment. It all goes down at Freaky’s, 5701 East Colfax Avenue. Get more information at www.freakys.com or by calling 303-765-2628.

Considering Halloween is my favorite holiday of all times I thought I would share with you all it’s origin and traditions.

ANCIENT ORIGINS

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints’, All Saints’, and All Souls’, were called Hallowmas.

HALLOWEEN COMES TO AMERICA

As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there.

It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland’s potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft.

At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday.

TODAY’S TRADITIONS

The American tradition of “trick-or-treating” probably dates back to the early All Souls’ Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives.

The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as “going a-souling” was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

AROUND THE WORLD

Halloween, one of the world’s oldest holidays, is still celebrated today in several countries around the globe.

The autumn rite is commemorated in the United Kingdom, although with a surprising and distinctive British twist. In Mexico, Latin America, and Spain, All Souls’ Day, the third day of the three-day Hallowmas observance, is the most important part of the celebration for many people. In Ireland and Canada, Halloween, which was once a frightening and superstitious time of year, is celebrated much as it is here in the United States, with trick-or-treating, costume parties, and fun for all ages.

EL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

In Mexico, Latin America, and Spain, All Souls’ Day, which takes place on November 2, is commemorated with a three-day celebration that begins on the evening of October 31. The celebration is designed to honor the dead who, it is believed, return to their earthly homes on Halloween. Many families construct an altar to the dead in their homes to honor deceased relatives and decorate it with candy, flowers, photographs, samples of the deceased’s favorite foods and drinks, and fresh water. Often, a wash basin and towel are left out so that the spirit can wash before indulging in the feast.

Candles and incense are burned to help the deceased find the way home. Relatives also tidy the gravesites of their departed family members. This can include snipping weeds, making repairs, and painting. The grave is then decorated with flowers, wreaths, or paper streamers. On November 2, relatives gather at the gravesite to picnic and reminisce. Some gatherings even include tequila and a mariachi band! Celebrations honoring departed loved ones and family members are found as far back as ancient Egyptian times.

GUY FAWKES DAY

On the evening of November 5, bonfires are lit throughout England. Effigies are burned and fireworks are set off. Although it falls around the same time and has some similar traditions, this celebration has little to do with Halloween or the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The English, for the most part, stopped celebrating Halloween as Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation began to spread. As followers of the new religion did not believe in saints, they had no reason to celebrate the eve of All Saints’ Day. However, a new autumn ritual did emerge. Guy Fawkes Day festivities were designed to commemorate the execution of a notorious English traitor, Guy Fawkes.

On November 5, 1606, Fawkes was executed after being convicted of attempting to blow up England’s parliament building. Fawkes was a member of a Catholic group who wanted to remove the Protestant King James from power. The original Guy Fawkes Day was celebrated right after his execution. The first bonfires, which were called “bone fires,” were set up to burn effigies and symbolic “bones” of the Catholic pope. It was not until two centuries later that effigies of the pope were replaced with those of Guy Fawkes. In addition to making effigies to be burned in the fires, children in some parts of England also walk the streets carrying an effigy or “guy” and ask for “a penny for the guy,” although they keep the money for themselves. This is as close to the American practice of “trick-or-treating” as can be found in England today. Guy Fawkes Day was even celebrated by the pilgrims at the first settlement at Plymouth. However, as the young nation began to develop its own history, Guy Fawkes was celebrated less frequently and eventually died out.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

In Ireland, where Halloween originated, the day is still celebrated much as it is in the United States. In rural areas, bonfires are lit as they were in the days of the Celts, and all over the country, children get dressed up in costumes and spend the evening “trick-or-treating” in their neighborhoods. After trick-or-treating, most people attend parties with neighbors and friends. At the parties, many games are played, including “snap-apple,” a game in which an apple on a string is tied to a doorframe or tree and players attempt to bite the hanging apple. In addition to bobbing for apples, parents often arrange treasure hunts, with candy or pastries as the “treasure.” The Irish also play a card game where cards are laid face down on a table with candy or coins underneath them. When a child chooses a card, he receives whatever prize is found below it.

A traditional food eaten on Halloween is barnbrack, a kind of fruitcake that can be bought in stores or baked at home. A muslin-wrapped treat is baked inside the cake that, it is said, can foretell the eater’s future. If a ring is found, it means that the person will soon be wed; a piece of straw means that a prosperous year is on its way. Children are also known to play tricks on their neighbors, such as “knock-a-dolly,” a prank in which children knock on the doors of their neighbors, but run away before the door is opened.

Source from: http://www.history.com/content/halloween/real-story-of-halloween

With Halloween just around the corner I thought I would post the Top 10 Halloween costumes for 2009 (if you want to be original then stay far far away from this list!).

List of the top ten Halloween Costumes for 2009
With this year’s many events, great losses and historical makings it’s not hard to come with up with what kid’s will be wearing this year on the day of the dead.

Top ten kid’s costumes:

1.
Michael Jackson (was there any doubt?)

2.
Barack Obama

3.
Transformers

4.
G.I. Joe

5.
Hannah Montana

6.
Tinker-bell and friends

7.
Spiderman

8.
Harry Potter and friends

9.
American Girl Characters

10.
Ironman

Dressing your kids up and taking the around the block, too families and friends and too carnivals can be fun for the kids and even a little fun for the parents. But this list is for those of you who want to get out there and win the 2009 costume contest!

Top ten adult costumes:

1.
Michael Jackson

2.
French Maid

3.
Vampire

4.
Fairy

5.
Gangster

6.
Pimp

7.
School girl

8.
Mermaid

9.
Naughty Nurse

10.
Devil

No costume list could be complete without a couples list, so here you go.

Top ten couple’s costumes:

1.
Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley

2.
Fred Flintstone and Wilma Flintstone

3.
Romeo and Juliet

4.
Cop and robber

5.
Plug and socket

6.
Popeye and Olive Oil

7.
Batman and Sexy Robin

8.
Doctor and Naughty Nurse

9.
Little red riding hood and wolf

10.
Dracula and Vampirella

And finally one last lovable member of the family has his or her pick of a top ten Howl-o-ween costume!

Top ten pet costumes:

1.
Devil

2.
Pirate

3.
Pumpkin

4.
Biker

5.
Chile pepper

6.
Prisoner

7.
Bee

8.
Zorro

9.
Hot Dog

10.
Sailor

There you have it. Top ten list for everyone in your family!

List courtesy of http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2091015/list_of_the_top_ten_halloween_costumes.html

The Orionid meteor shower is expected to put on a good show tonight into the predawn hours Wednesday, weather permitting.

This annual meteor shower is created when Earth passes through trails of comet debris left in space long ago by Halley’s Comet. The “shooting stars” develop when bits typically no larger than a pea , and mostly sand-grain-sized, vaporize in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

“Flakes of comet dust hitting the atmosphere should give us dozens of meteors per hour,” said Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office.

People in cities and suburbs will see far fewer meteors, because all but the brightest of them will be overpowered by light pollution. The best view will be from rural areas (the moon will not be a factor, so dark skies will make for ideal viewing).

When and how to watch

The best time to watch will be between 1 a.m. and dawn local time Wednesday morning, regardless of your location. That’s when the patch of Earth you are standing on is barreling headlong into space on Earth’s orbital track, and meteors get scooped up like bugs on a windshield.

Peak activity, when Earth wades into the densest part of the debris, is expected around 6 a.m. ET (3 a.m. PT).

Some meteors could show up late tonight, too. Late-night viewing typically offers fewer meteors, however, because your patch of Earth is positioned akin to the back window of the speeding car.

The Orionids have been strong in recent years.

“Since 2006, the Orionids have been one of the best showers of the year, with counts of 60 or more meteors per hour,” Cooke said.

Some of those counts come in flurries, so skywatchers should find a comfortable spot with as wide a view of the sky as possible. Lie back and allow 15 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness, then give the show at least a half hour to play out through spurts and lulls. Meteors could appear anywhere in the sky, though traced back they will appear to emanate from the constellation Orion.

Telescopes and binoculars are of no use, because meteors move too quickly. Extra warm clothing is a must, and a blanket and pillow or lounge chair allows comfortable positioning so you can look up for long stretches.

Reliable event

Predicting meteor showers is tricky because the debris comes from multiple streams.

Each time comet Halley passes around the sun on its elongated orbit – every 76 years – it lays down a fresh track of debris for Earth to plow through in subsequent years. Those tracks spread out and mingle over time, and we pass the tracks each October during our 365-day, nearly circular trek around the sun.

Japanese researchers Mikiya Sato and Jun-ichi Watanabe say activity in recent years is related to debris put in place from 1266 BC to 911 BC, and this could be another good year, according to NASA.

Even if that prediction does not hold, the Orionids will almost surely put on a decent show. Prior to 2006 and going back many years, the Orionids have produced a reliable 15 to 20 meteors per hour at the peak, for skywatchers with dark skies.

As a bonus, this time of year you can expect an additional five to 10 sporadic meteors per hour – those not related to the shower.

Original Story: Get Out: Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks Overnight

Glossary of meteor terms

Fireball: A bright meteor with an apparent visual magnitude of -4 mag. or brighter.

Limiting Magnitude: Generally denotes the faintest star visible during an observation and evaluates the quality of the sky as well as the observing technique. The magnitude of the faintest meteor visible can be different from the stellar limiting magnitude, particularly for photographic and video observations. Visual observations assume about the same limiting magnitudes for stars and meteors.

Magnitude: The brightness of stars and other celestial objects. Smaller numbers are brighter (negative numbers are the brightest). The scale assumes dark skies. Venus is -4.4, and the faintest star visible to the naked eye is about +6.0.

Meteor: The light phenomenon which results from the entry into the Earth’s atmosphere of a solid particle from space.

Meteorite: A natural object of extraterrestrial origin (meteoroid) that survives passage through the atmosphere and hits the ground.

Meteoroid: A solid object moving in interplanetary space, of a size considerably smaller than a asteroid and considerably larger than an atom or molecule.

Meteoroid Stream: Stream of solid particles released from a parent body such as a comet or asteroid, moving on similar orbits. Various ejection directions and velocities for individual meteoroids cause the width of a stream and the gradual distribution of meteoroids over the entire average orbit.

Meteor Shower: A number of meteors with approximately parallel trajectories. The meteors belonging to one shower appear to emanate from their radiant.

Micrometeorite: A small extraterrestrial particle that has survived entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. The actual size is not rigorously constrained but is operationally defined by the collection procedure. Micrometeorites found on the Earth’s surface are smaller than 1mm, those collected in the Stratosphere are rarely as large as 50 micro-m.

Radiant: The point in the sky where meteors from a specific shower seem to come from. (Technically: The point where the backward projection of the meteor trajectory intersects the celestial sphere.)

Sporadic Meteors: Those not associated with a particular meteor shower.

UT, or Universal Time, is 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, and 4 hours ahead of the East Coast during Daylight Savings Time. UT is the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the 0 hour beginning at Greenwich mean midnight.

Zenith: The point in celestial sphere directly overhead from an observer.

ZHR (Zenith Hourly Rate): The number of shower meteors per hour one observer would see if his limiting magnitude is 6.5 magnitude and the radiant is in his zenith.

SOURCE FOR GLOSSARY: International Meteor Organization

NEW YORK – A cat who rode two miles through New York City while stuck in the engine compartment of an SUV has lived to meow about it.

Wilfred Rodriguez heard rattling while he was driving Monday in the Bronx. After he parked, he spotted a bushy tail and a paw sticking out of the SUV’s front end.

His initial reaction: “Oh my God! I killed a cat.” He was relieved when the paw moved.

Detectives with the New York Police Department’s Emergency Service Unit freed the grease-covered kitty by removing the SUV’s battery and other vehicle parts.

Richard Gentles of New York City Animal Care & Control says the tan-and-white stray appears to be in good physical shape.

Source from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com

BERLIN (Reuters Life!) – German police are investigating a chilli sauce to determine whether it was so spicy that it was capable of causing grievous bodily harm when used in an attack.

Police took a sample of the sauce from a kebab stand in Bremen’s central train station after a kebab salesman threw it into the eyes of a customer during a fight over napkins.

“Legally, the question of whether the spiciness of the kebab sauce constituted ‘normal’ or grievous bodily harm must be addressed,” local police in the northern city said on Friday.

Officers broke up a scuffle that kicked off after a 23-year-old wiped his kebab-soiled hands on the stand because the salesman refused to give him a paper napkin. The seller responded by flinging a ladle of sauce in the man’s face.

The victim’s eyes became bloodshot and police are investigating why the napkin dispute broke out, a spokesman said. Both men could end up facing charges, he added.

Source from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091019/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_germany_sauce

Ay, Caramaba! Ageless blue-haired mom Marge Simpson will appear on the cover of the November issue of Playboy, according to E! Online.

As Playboy founder Hugh Hefner teased on Twitter in August, Simpson will appear nekkid in a three-page pictorial, which will also feature an interview and data sheet. The spread celebrates The Simpsons‘ 20th anniversary.

Don’t worry, fellas: If yellow-skinned mommies don’t do it for you, there will still be the traditional Playmate of the month.

Marge Simpson | Photo Credits: courtesy FoxTV Guide

Source from: http://omg.yahoo.com/news/marge-simpson-to-grace-the-cover-of-playboy/29275

On a side note… who wants to bet that Marge will be the LEAST photo-shopped bunny?

GAZA (Reuters) – Two white donkeys dyed with black stripes delighted Palestinian kids at a small Gaza zoo on Thursday who had never seen a zebra in the flesh.

With their long ears, drooping heads and sleepy eyes, the impostors probably would not have fooled the zoo’s only lioness. But the effect achieved by the zoo owners’ dye job looks not so bad — to the unpracticed eye, and from a distance.

On closer inspection it resembles the classic striped convict suit of cartoon strips.

Nidal Barghouthi, whose father owns the Marah Land zoo, said the two female donkeys were striped using masking tape and women’s hair dye, applied with a paint-brush.

“The first time we used paint but it didn’t look good,” he said. “The children don’t know so they call them zebras and they are happy to see something new.”

A genuine zebra would have been too expensive to bring into Israel-blockaded Gaza via smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt, said owner Mohammed Bargouthi. “It would have cost me $40,000 to get a real one.”

Gaza’s Palestinians are impoverished by their isolation under an Israeli embargo against its Islamist Hamas rulers, who refuse to give up armed resistance against the Jewish state.

Bargouthi’s zoo charged an entrance fee of just $15 for a full busload of children.

Source from:http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Gaza-zoo-dyes-donkeys-like-zebras/ss/events/lf/100809zebradonkey#photoViewer=/091008/ids_photos_wl/r2904375171.jpg

CASSELTON, N.D. – Boomer may be a buster: Measuring 3 feet tall at the shoulders and 7 feet long from nose to destructive wagging tail, he might be the world’s tallest living dog. Owner Caryn Weber says her 3-year-old Landseer Newfoundland keeps all four paws on the floor when he drinks from the kitchen faucet in her family’s eastern North Dakota farm house.

Boomer stares into car windows eye to eye with drivers. A 20-pound bag of dry dog food lasts the 180-pound canine a couple of weeks.

Weber says her furry black and white dog “comes into the house and his tail is so high everything gets knocked around.”

Weber plans to send Boomer’s measurements to Guinness World Records. The previous record holder was a nearly 4-foot-tall Great Dane that died this summer.

AP – In this Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009 photo, Boomer, a 180-pound Landseer Newfoundland dog, drinks water from …

Source from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091008/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_biggest_dog