Cue Eerie Music

And so, gentle readers, we come to the end of Halloween. A day of terror, an evening when the dead, reputedly, walk among us. So it is only fitting that we honor the spirits and visit some reputedly haunted abodes.

From novelist Edith Wharton's palatial mansion in Lenox, Massachusetts, to a Gold Rush shack in California where rocking chairs rock by themselves, www.thisoldhouse.com on Tuesday profiled 15 of the nation's spookiest houses — and offered some tips on how to hire a reliable ghostbuster.

Some of the haunted houses are still privately owned and occupied despite the poltergeists and organ music streaming from the electrical sockets.

Others have been turned into restaurants or inns, like the Wildflower Inn in Falmouth, Massachusetts, where toilets flush and mirrors are pulled of walls.

Wharton, who died in 1937 at the age of 75, is said to still haunt her estate, called The Mount, sending indoor temperatures icy when she appears.

In California's Kern River Valley, the Gold Rush era Apalatea/Burlando house is said to be haunted by a woman who lifts shot glasses in the air and the sounds of '49ers partying, shuffling cards and laughing.

The Web site also give advice on supernatural renovation advice and took a look at some of the latest gadgets aimed at detecting the paranormal by measuring electrical or magnetic fields and spotting radio and microwaves.

"Let me assure you, though, that ghosts are not present to hurt anyone and in almost every case, a family can peacefully coincide with a spirit," wrote Troy Taylor, founder of the American Ghost Society.

You can tour the haunted houses here. But of course, the most frightening haunted house right now may be the Headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. Yes, they have to deal with that horror of horrors.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Um?

We will punish you. We will bring you to your knees. Your actions will bring certain retaliatory vengeance down upon your heads. You will regret ever having crossed us.

We will stop taking all that aid money you send us.

PAPUA New Guinea is threatening to dramatically reduce the money it receives from Canberra, suspend all official visits by Australians or impose onerous travel restrictions, and recall its high commissioner.

Whether it does so, the Herald understands, depends on what response it receives to a strongly worded aide-memoire delivered to the deputy secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, David Ritchie, yesterday afternoon.

The diplomatic note demands an explanation for the bans Australia put on visits by PNG's Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, and its Defence Minister, Mathew Gubag, as well as its decision to cancel the next ministerial forum between the two countries. The letter also expresses disappointment at the "unilateral" actions taken by Australia.

The bans were announced by the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, a fortnight ago, after the escape of the Australian fugitive and Solomon Islands attorney-general designate Julian Moti on a PNG military aircraft.

The aide-memoire gives the Australian Government a week to respond. If no satisfactory response is forthcoming, PNG will retaliate, instituting a range of measures that promise to create havoc for Australia's $300 million annual aid program to PNG.

The most serious step being contemplated is the suspension of significant elements of Australian aid deemed not essential to PNG, the Herald understands.

PNG is also considering refusing Australia's demands for Australians to be appointed in the positions of deputy police commissioner and solicitor-general under the troubled Enhanced Co-operation Program. The developments signal a further deterioration in relations with PNG, and follow the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji last week attended by the Prime Minister, John Howard, where Sir Michael accused Australia of being arrogant and of treating leaders in the region with contempt.

Other measures being threatened by PNG include suspending official visits by Australia entirely, or forcing officials to obtain diplomatic notes seeking PNG's approval when applying for visas. A fourth measure involving the recall of the High Commissioner, Charles Lepani, was flagged by Sir Michael last week.

Am I missing something in this supposed dire threat?

UPDATE: Wretchard explains it.

Danger, Will Robinson, Danger

Ah, the classics.

In hacker culture and in English-speaking society generally, this catch phrase currently serves as a facetious method to inform an associate that they are about to make a stupid mistake—that there’s a factor he or she overlooked which ought to be taken into account.

And so it is with the Kerry implosion. Kos is trying to shore up the walls, but he sees it. Andrew Sullivan sees it. The AMVETS are calling for an apology. Every, single blogger in the whole, wide world is slamming into this story.

And the Democrats just got shot, in the head, by a Democrat. And it is almost certainly too late to stop the damage now. If Kerry had apologized - at once - this would be a dead issue. Now it has legs.

This one will cost votes. The far left can try to deny it, they can lionize Kerry. But this one hurt the Democrats. The smart ones know it, I suspect.

UPDATE: The final word on the entire hooraw: Bulldove. Chester wins!

UPDATE: Okay, you really didn't think "Bulldove" was the last word, did you? (Even though it does enter the pantheon of super-ginormous-coined-words). The excrement has hit the air moving device as the first (of what will be many) Democratic candidates for office has canceled an appearance by John Kerry.

DES MOINES, Iowa A Democratic Congressional candidate from Iowa is canceling a campaign event later this week with Senator John Kerry.

Brucy Braley says Kerry's recent comments about the Iraq war were inappropriate.

Braley is running against Republican Mike Whalen in Iowa's First District congressional race. It's a contest considered to be one of the most competitive House races in the country.

Braley's decision to distance himself from Kerry came as a furor grew from comments Kerry made about the Iraq War during a campaign stop in California on Monday.

Kerry said if you make the most of your education, you "can do well." The Democrat went on to say that is you don't, (quote) "you get stuck in Iraq."

Major H/T to Leaning Straight Up for this one. Thanks.

Intelligence Via Wiki

A Wikipedia for intelligence agencies. In what is both a smart and a risky move, the US intelligence agencies are using a format very much like Wikipedia for sharing intelligence between agencies. It is smart because the format works rather well. It is risky given the all-too-large number of intelligence agents and officials who take their oaths far too lightly. But the "Intellipedia" sounds like a very good start.

The office of U.S. intelligence czar John Negroponte announced Intellipedia, which allows intelligence analysts and other officials to collaboratively add and edit content on the government's classified Intelink Web much like its more famous namesake on the World Wide Web.

A "top secret" Intellipedia system, currently available to the 16 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community, has grown to more than 28,000 pages and 3,600 registered users since its introduction on April 17. Less restrictive versions exist for "secret" and "sensitive but unclassified" material.

The system is also available to the Transportation Security Administration and national laboratories.

Intellipedia is currently being used to assemble a major intelligence report, known as a national intelligence estimate, on Nigeria as well as the State Department's annual country reports on terrorism, officials said.

Some day it may also be the path intelligence officials take to produce the president's daily intelligence briefing.

But the system, which makes data available to thousands of users who would not see it otherwise, has also stirred qualms about potential security lapses following the recent media leak of a national intelligence estimate that caused a political uproar by identifying Iraq as a contributor to the growth of global terrorism.

"We're taking a risk," acknowledged Michael Wertheimer, the intelligence community's chief technical officer. "There's a risk it's going to show up in the media, that it'll be leaked."

If the agencies involved can get the politically motivated leakers under control, this will be a rather good vehicle for information sharing between agencies. If they cannot, it may be a real problem. Let's hope they can make progress on the former front.

Instability

One is just not quite sure what to make of the news today. There appear to be a number of things backfiring rather badly on the Democrats today. It must be a day for Halloween madness, I guess. So we had Kerry's implosion, an ambush stunt against George Allen that won't work because the press revealed it was a pre-planned attempt to provoke an incident and this item. The self-styled "Democratic Activist" who leaked George Bush's DUI just days before the 2000 election was just arrested. Why you ask?

For donning an Osama Bin Laden costume and waving a fake AK-47 at traffic from a highway overpass.

Tom Connolly, 49, was charged with criminal threatening, a misdemeanor, and was released after posting $500 bail. He said he intends to plead not guilty.

"There was a First Amendment this morning when I woke up. I don't know how it evaporated with the dawn," Connolly, an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor in 1998, told reporters after his release.

Police said the costume included plastic dynamite, grenades, and a replica of an AK-47 assault rifle.

"The whole thing is just incredibly bizarre," said Police Chief Ed Googins. "It just crossed the line."

The chief said there was no way to tell from a distance if the gun was real or fake.

Connolly also was carrying a sign that said "I love TABOR," a reference to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights on the Maine ballot, but at least one person who saw it thought it said "I love the Taliban," Googins said.

Mr. Connolly is very, very lucky that the police were not jumpy. This is a totally bizarre stunt that raises serious questions about the stability and judgment of this man. On top of being quite dangerous to himself, he could easily have caused an accident. I'm pretty sure his first amendment defense will not wash with this one.

Step Away From The Gator

Ok, try and follow this: Cops make a drug bust. Cops confiscate drugs. Drug dealer apparently owed money to someone for the drugs. With the drugs gone, the dealer could not pay. So the creditor sent someone around to collect the debt. This did not help because the drug dealer had no money or drugs. So the collection agent took the next best thing.

The alligator.

"I think he was going to hold (the gator) for ransom, or something," Crawford County Sheriff Kirk Wakefield told the Traverse City Record-Eagle for a story Tuesday. "It's really weird."

The alleged gator-napping arose from a Sept. 25 drug bust at a house west of Frederic, a rural village 200 miles north of Detroit, Wakefield said.

Police confiscated a cache of drugs, including marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, crack cocaine and Ecstasy pills, plus $900 in cash and two handguns.

"Apparently the guys we took this from owed somebody for what we took," Wakefield said. "That somebody hired this guy to go get that money."

The drug dealers from southern Michigan hired Gary Lee Gugin, 39, to round up a couple thousand dollars from the house near Frederic, the sheriff said.

Just after midnight Sunday, "he walked inside with a sawed-off shotgun and said he was there to collect that money," Wakefield said.

Finding none, he took the gator instead, the sheriff said.

Deputies were dispatched to Gugin's home north of Frederic and found him unloading the alligator from his vehicle, Wakefield said.

Please tell me they got video of that arrest. Please? Can't you just see the deputies telling the guy to step away from the alligator?

Here’s A Shocker

The heckler who tried to accost George Allen at a campaign appearance was a Kos diarist who was trying to provoke a response against Allen. Now that isn't at all surprising in this utterly awful campaign season. What is very, very surprising is that the AP is reporting it straight - including the man's threat to try to provoke a response.

Mike Stark, a liberal blogger and first-year University of Virginia law student, approached Allen at an event in Charlottesville, loudly asking, "Why did you spit at your first wife, George?" according to witnesses.

Three men, all wearing blue Allen lapel stickers, immediately grabbed Stark, dragged him backward and slung him to the carpet outside a hotel meeting room, according to video captured by WVIR-TV in Charlottesville.

Stark said later in a telephone interview with The Associated Press: "I am a constituent. I am allowed to ask my U.S. senator questions."

A new statewide poll conducted for CNN showed Allen's Democratic challenger, former Navy Secretary Jim Webb, with a slight lead in a bitterly contested race that could help determine whether the GOP retains control of the Senate.

In a Monday posting on "Calling All Wingnuts," the blog Stark publishes, he hinted that he would attempt to provoke Allen before the TV cameras.

"Im also trying to `Roger and Me' George Allen whenever I can," Stark wrote, referring to director Michael Moore's 1989 documentary in which he repeatedly tried to confront former General Motors' chief executive Roger Smith about the company's downsizing.

That just wrecked the photo-op Stark planned it to be. Once people are informed that it was a straight-up stunt, they won't like the tactic. By trying to make it into a media event, including the interviews, he needed the press not to report that fact. But they did not cooperate this time. Interesting.

UPDATE: Ok, not as big a shocker here. The WaPo covers up the fact that it was preplanned, but does mention that Stark was shouting unsubstantiated charges from "liberal blogs"

Did Kerry Torpedo The Democrats?

There is a distinct possibility that John "Magic Hat" Kerry just single-handedly severely damaged the Democrats. Even if Kerry made a mistake, he completely blew it when he went on the nearly deranged sounding attack in his press release. Tom Bevan over at Real Clear Politics calls this an absolute gift to the Republicans.

Nowhere in the statement does John Kerry address the substance of what he said. I understand that Kerry has been eager to show off his tough new, "I WONT BE SWIFT-BOATED AGAIN!!!" strategy that he thinks will help convince Democrats to give him another chance at the brass ring in 2008, but to trot out this tripe to defend an insult against U.S. troops is breathtakingly arrogant - and it's an absolute gift to the GOP seven days before an election.

Kerry over the top response assures that he'll dominate the news chatter for the next 24 hours or more. And you can bet that Republicans in Congressional and Senate races around the country are prepping press releases as we speak (if they haven't already been sent out), calling on their Democratic opponents to disavow Kerry's remarks. It'll be interesting to see how that little drama plays out in the coming days.

Well, Diana Irey has already done so. Kerry is finished as a presidential contender, no matter what. But if the Dems do not win either chamber, he will be a good candidate to be run out of town on a rail - by his fellow Democrats.

This is a disaster for the Democrats. And it's still October!

(H/T Diva for pointing to the RCP post).

UPDATE: This is interesting. I've been looking at comments in a number of places and it struck me that the Left has almost no idea what damage this does. There is a lot of admiration for how hard Kerry struck back. Just as they misjudged the impact of the Foley matter because they thought they knew how people would react, they are misjudging this. They are not understanding how people will react to this one completely. Had Kerry apologized, it would have gone away. Now, I don't think it is going to.

UPDATE: The Anchoress linked with this gem:

There is an art to good politics and there is a rule, too - and it’s a really simple one, but so many politicians can’t follow it, particularly if they have delusions of genius. The Rule goes like this: If you screw up, whether because you’re an idiot, or you’re just having a bad day, or a mic was left on - whatever - and you say something deplorable (even if it just sounds deplorable but you meant it well…) you admit it, you make a joke at your own expense and you apologize - even a half-assed apology will usually do.

Anchoress expects that Kerry WILL be the scapegoat if the Dems fail to gain control. I suspect that is spot on.

UPDATE: Courtesy of an email from Diva, ABC News is reporting that at least some people in the Democratic party get it.

What's unclear is if Kerry's comments will help rally Republican voters or help their party portray Democrats as against the troops to score victories next Tuesday. A Democratic congressman told ABC News Tuesday, "I guess Kerry wasn't content blowing 2004, now he wants to blow 2006, too."

Kerry now has lots of admirers on the hard left, but he has lost the center. His career is done. The question now is how bad did he hurt the Dems in one week. I think he did a lot of damage.

UPDATE: And it keeps getting worse. Bush has been given a club and he is using it. Effectively. The American Legion has demanded an apology. This one is really going to hurt. (Video at STACLU via the link).

Limousine Liberal Gets Latte’d

It seems all is not smooth sailing for Barbara Streisand and her concert tour. She continues to have her George Bush imitator show up during the show to bore people to tears. Well, some people don't cry, they get angry. Last time she got heckled and told the heckler to "Shut the **** up". This time someone launched an unspecified beverage at her.

Barbra Streisand's politics didn't find a wholly agreeable crowd during her Monday concert at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise.

As Babs traded political barbs with a George W. Bush imitator, a fan of the songstress who apparently disagreed with her politics pelted her with a beverage. And as her anti-GOP riff ended, another man in the crowd found himself being escorted out of the center as he shouted at Streisand.

Streisand shrugged both incidents off, saying some people would do better to buy her records than come to her shows.

I know these folks like Streisand and the Dixie Chicks have a pathological need to force their opinions out onto their fans. Too bad they don't see that all they are doing is losing fans - they are not changing people's minds with their antics.

UPDATE: The AP has picked up the story.

Streisand's publicist, Dick Guttman, said a paper cup filled with some sort of liquid was thrown on stage but apparently did not hit Streisand during her second performance in this Fort Lauderdale suburb.

Streisand's manager, Martin Erlichman, said she shrugged off the incident and responded to the angry audience member by saying: "It's a free country and they're entitled to express their opinion."

It's at least the third time the skit, which includes a George W. Bush impersonator, has angered Streisand's audience. A heckler targeted her at the Philadelphia opening of her 20-city comeback tour, Guttman said, and Streisand made headlines with her response to a jeerer at Madison Square Garden last month.

Erlichman said Streisand, 64, believed the skit was in good fun and noted impersonator Steve Bridges, who wrote it, is a Republican.

Why does that sound familiar? Oh, yeah. Some of my best friends are…….

The Kerry Implosion

Via Leaning Straight Up, this comes from John "Magic Hairnet" Kerry.

Washington – Senator John Kerry issued the following statement in response to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, assorted right wing nut-jobs, and right wing talk show hosts desperately distorting Kerry’s comments about President Bush to divert attention from their disastrous record:

“If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.

The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.

Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they’re afraid to debate real men. And this time it won’t work because we’re going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq.”

In case anyone does not know what this is about, John Kerry spoke these words:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

These words are not made up, nobody is "smearing" Kerry. He is being chewed on for his own words, freely spoken. And he has jumped the shark, well and truly this time.

UPDATE: Others: The Influence Peddler, Hotline, Iowa Voice, Say Anything, Jawa Report, Sister Toldjah,

Sister Toldjah also reports that Diana Irey has demanded that John Murtha condemn Kerry's word (great move in that part of PA where the military is very highly regarded.)

MONONGAHELA, October 31) — Washington County Commissioner and Pennsylvania 12th district Republican Congressional nominee Diana Irey — responding to remarks by U.S. Senator John Kerry (the most recent presidential nominee of the political party to which Jack Murtha owes his allegiance), who yesterday declared before a gathering of students that, “You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq” — today released this statement:

“Will Jack Murtha stand with the men and women of the American military and TODAY demand an apology on their behalf from his good friend Senator John Kerry? Or will Jack Murtha continue his cut-and-run campaign and refuse to take a stand on this matter of honor and respect?

“Senator Kerry’s comments suggesting that only the less-educated and less-smart ‘end up in Iraq’ are insulting in the extreme to every man and woman who has worn our nation’s colors in Iraq — and, frankly, they are insulting in the extreme to every man and woman who has EVER worn our nation’s colors, period.

“Insulting, yes. Surprising, no. Given the records of men like John Kerry and Jack Murtha — both of whom claim that their prior records of military service give them license to say whatever they wish about the men and women now serving in our armed forces — it’s not surprising at all that John Kerry would insult our armed forces.

“Jack Murtha, after all, declared in May that U.S. Marines in Haditha had ‘killed innocent civilians in cold blood’ before the first Marine was charged, before the first court-martial was convened, before the first Marine was convicted.

“And Jack Murtha said last year that ‘the military is broken,’ and said he would not join today’s military.

“Today’s question for voters in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District is simple — what will we learn today about Jack Murtha? Will he stand up for the men and women of our armed forces by demanding that his good friend John Kerry withdraw his offensive statement and apologize? Or will Jack Murtha continue to turn his back on his constituents, and continue to curry favor with the ultraliberals who now run the national Democratic Party?

“The choice is up to Jack, and that choice comes today. VOTERS here in southwestern Pennsylvania, on the other hand, will get to make THEIR choice one week from today.”

Did John Kerry just provide an October surprise?

An Indecent Haste

Christopher Hitchens on Iraq and the calls for a precipitous withdrawal:

I am glad that all previous demands for withdrawal or disengagement from Iraq were unheeded, because otherwise we would not be able to celebrate the arrest and trial of Saddam Hussein; the removal from the planet of his two sadistic kids and putative successors; the certified disarmament of a former WMD- and gangster-sponsoring rogue state; the recuperation of the marshes and their ecology and society; the introduction of a convertible currency; the autonomy of Iraqi Kurdistan (currently advertising for investors and tourists on American television); the killing of al-Qaida's most dangerous and wicked leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and many of his associates; the opening of dozens of newspapers and radio and TV stations; the holding of elections for an assembly and to approve a constitution; and the introduction of the idea of federal democracy as the only solution for Iraq short of outright partition and/or civil war. If this cause is now to be considered defeated, by the sheer staggering persistence in murder and sabotage of the clerico-fascist forces and the sectarian militias, then it will always count as a noble one.

Hitchens point is that regardless of what the critics say, we have accomplished a lot in Iraq. Moreover, we have an obligation to these people not to leave them to die. We have to keep from leaving them to a descent into savagery. Not because of our invasion of Iraq. No, our culpability here goes back much, much farther.

But the many disappointments and crimes and blunders (the saddest of which is the utter failure to influence Iran, and the corresponding advantage taken by Tehran-backed militias) do not relieve us of a responsibility that is either insufficiently stressed or else passed over entirely: What is to become, in the event of a withdrawal, of the many Arab and Kurdish Iraqis who do want to live in a secular and democratic and federal country? We have acquired this responsibility not since 2003, or in the sideshow debate over prewar propaganda, but over decades of intervention in Iraq's affairs, starting with the 1968 Baathist coup endorsed by the CIA, stretching through Jimmy Carter's unforgivable permission for Saddam Hussein to invade Iran, continuing through the decades of genocide in Kurdistan and the uneasy compromise that ended the Kuwait war, and extending through 12 years of sanctions and half-measures, including the "no-fly" zones and the Iraq Liberation Act, which passed the Senate without a dissenting vote. It is not a responsibility from which we can walk away when, or if, it seems to suit us.

Those who call for a precipitous withdrawal will have blood on their hands if they succeed. Not on someone else's hands. On their hands.

A Whole New Breed

One hopes the Australians are planning ahead here. They need to seriously consider petitioning for an entirely new dog breed designation should this scheme work out. It seems that there has been enormous damage done to a colony of penguins on a small island off the coast. Foxes have been wading or swimming the short distance to have a nice meal of fresh penguin. But the ingenious Aussies have come up with a solution!

The Great Australian Penguin Dog.

Authorities are desperate to prevent the annihilation of a fox-ravaged colony of penguins on Middle Island, off southwest Victoria state, whose numbers have been slashed from 5,000 five years ago to 100 today.

They plan to station a bird-friendly breed of sheepdog on the island, 100 metres offshore, to ward off the predators.

"Over the past four years the population has been absolutely decimated … this is innovation borne of desperation," Craig Whiteford from Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment said of the last-ditch attempt to save the birds.

Predators have been able to walk to the island at low tide and last year a fox was shot while swimming to it, the Australian Associated Press reported.

"If we didn't do anything, they wouldn't last this season," Whiteford said Tuesday, adding that past efforts to fend off foxes — including baiting the pests and fumigating their dens — had come to nothing.

The trial of a maremma sheepdog — a breed that has been used to protect free range chickens from foxes in the past — will begin on November 13.

Maremma sheepdog is obviously false and misleading. I like Great Australian Penguin Dog for the name, but feel free to suggest alternatives in the comment section.

Hubba, Hubba, Hubble, Hubble!

NASA just announced that the Hubble repair mission is a "go".

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA will send a space shuttle to repair the 16-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, agency Administrator Michael Griffin announced Tuesday, reversing his predecessor's order that had nixed the mission.

Griffin's announcement was greeted eagerly by astronomers who feared Hubble would deteriorate before the end of the decade without new sensors and replacements for its aging batteries.

The rehab mission, likely launching in May 2008 using space shuttle Discovery, would keep Hubble working until about 2013.

The Hubble has captured some of the most spectacular images of the universe, popularizing astronomy while at the same time advancing our understanding of space.

It has enabled direct observation of the universe as it was 12 billion years ago, discovered black holes at the center of many galaxies, provided measurements that helped establish the size and age of the universe and offered evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

"The Hubble telescope has been the greatest telescope since Galileo invented the first one," said U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., a fierce champion of Hubble, which is operated out of Maryland. "It has gone to look at places in the universe that we didn't know existed before."

The repair mission crew will include three veterans of the last Hubble mission, in 2002, and four astronauts on their first space trip, Griffin said.

Former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe had canceled a Hubble repair mission in the wake of the Columbia shuttle disaster that killed seven astronauts in 2003. O'Keefe believed the risks were too great and the remaining shuttle missions should focus on completing construction of the international space station.

Griffin, however, said Tuesday that he was convinced the Hubble mission could be conducted after the last three shuttle flights demonstrated astronauts' ability to inspect the spacecraft inflight and make repairs, even in hard-to-reach places.

That news will generate much joy in the astronomy world. I know quite a few space enthusiasts will also be happy. Excuse me a moment, I have to go do a happy dance.

Vote In Your Dead

In a new variation on the old stories about the "dead vote", Alaska has voted in the dead.

Katherine Dunton, who died of cancer on October 3, the day of the local election, was re-elected to the Aleutian Region School District board after her opponent, Dona Highstone, called "heads" on a coin toss that landed "tails," state and local officials said.

"This is the first that I have ever heard about, not only in our state but in any other," said Whitney Brewster, director of the Alaska Division of Elections.

The coin toss was held on Friday, in accordance with state law, to break the tie since both candidates had 19 votes.

Well, that's embarrassing for the other candidate. To lose by a coin toss is bad enough.

Happy Halloween

A small roundup of things Halloweenish. Item: We all know that Halloween is supposed to be a night for the dead, but the French press has declared Halloween itself dead.

"Halloween pretty much buried," the daily le Monde reported, quoting Benoit Pousset, head of costume company Cesar, who attributed the festival's demise in France to "a cultural reaction linked to the rise of anti-Americanism".

"Our Halloween sales have been falling by half every year since 2002," Franck Mathais of toys retailer La Grande Recre told the newspaper.

A group called "Non a Halloween" set up to fight the trend, which it saw as an unwelcome intrusion fostered by purely commercial interests, even wound itself up last year.

"There was no need for the group to exist any more," former president Arnaud Guyot-Jeannin told Reuters.

….

Introduced in France during the 1990s, it aroused strong opposition from many who found it artificial and over commercial and the festival never caught on properly. The Catholic church was particularly sceptical.

The daily Le Parisien painted a desolate picture of abandoned pumpkins and sorry displays in isolated restaurant doorways and declared "Halloween is dead".

Ah, the French. So tolerant. But not to fear, all is not lost in Europe! Item: The Germans have introduced their newest Halloween tradition. Dumping pig heads all over the highways!

BERLIN - A truck spilled two tons of pigs' heads on a road in western Germany, giving passing drivers a shock on the night before Halloween, police said Tuesday.

The accident happened Monday night after the truck turned off a highway in Herne, in the Ruhr region, police in Bochum said.

As the driver accelerated away from a traffic light, the door of his trailer opened, spilling the severed heads onto the road.

"Hans! That speed bump is STARING at us!"