RenoVous

 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has quite a collection of creepy creatures and strange science. There's even some Scary Stories as told by scientists, of times when they were conducting research. Six Shorts Mummies have long been a subject of Halloween costume and decor, even a horror movie or two.  What could be worse than a long-dead body shambling towards you? One that's turning to black ooze. The Chinchorro mummies are the oldest intentionally mummified human remains, and they're from the Atacama Desert in Chile. With climate change, the humidity is rising, and opportunistic microbes are taking advantage, which deteriorates the mummies' skin. About 100 mummies are housed at the Universidad de Tarapaca Museum, but others are still preserved in their original Arica region burial sites, and they cannot be protected with humidifiers and climate control.

  I was able to finish The Pit and the Pendulum  and I've started The Fall of the House of Usher . I'm no longer entirely sure I have actually read this, I believe I was just vaguely familiar with the tale. I added a fourth to read, but I'm not sure I'll make it. Ligeia  is one I've never even heard of. *** In other Halloween spirit, we did our pumpkins last night.  I have to show off the face my nephew drew. Boo!

  It all started in 1958, when President Eisenhower created the Advanced Research Projects Agency. UCLA Professor of Computer Science, Leonard Kleinrock, was working on developing an information transfer technology called "packet switching," which broke information into smaller bundles.  This made the info easier to transmit and could be reassembled on the receiving end. ARPANET was launched in September of 1969, when the networking hardware was installed. And on this day, the first electronic message was successfully sent from UCLA to Stanford.  The message was supposed to be "LOGIN" but the system crashed after the first two letters, so it was simply "LO." The next nodes added were at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah, followed by Harvard and the University College of London.

  Prague, the capital of Czechia, which is celebrating an independence day today. Czechoslovakia was established in 1918 following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It had been the Kingdom of Bohemia since 1198, becoming crown land in 1867. The Czech Republic and Slovakia split in 1993. *** It was 1787, the night before the premiere of Don Giovanni  in Prague, and Mozart was still working on the overture.  With no time to rehearse, the orchestra had to sight-read in the concert hall.

  Iman Teyana Taylor Leslie Bibb Sydney Sweeney Maitreyi Ramakrishnan Henry Golding

This is Eternal Flame Falls in Orchard Park, NY. As the name suggests, a small fire behind the falls burns uninterrupted.   It burns about 8 inches high, on a bed of shale rocks rich in organic matter.  As the matter breaks down, it produces highly flammable gases - such as hydrogen sulfide and methane - which seep through the cracks. The grotto space protects the flame and holds the gas in this particular seep. The gas comes from a geological formation called the Hanover Shale, which dates back to the Devonian Period.

 My first and forever favorite. I've been into horror movies since I was too young.  I started pulling from my mom's collection and found this, which confirmed my penchant.  I watched it often, along with The Haunting and The Changeling. When I was in elementary school there was an 89¢ Video rental and we found some goodies.  One I remember in particular is: When it comes to slasher films, I've seen nearly all of them, but I prefer the weirdness of Texas Chainsaw Massacre .  There's more to it than just a maniac killing teenagers. I watch it almost every year for my birthday, which is also Texas Chainsaw Day.  ^_^ In newer horror, I found Hereditary  surprisingly good.  Not in the sense that I expected it to be bad, but it had moments I did not expect, and the entire theater was shook. Revenge  is another one I quite liked. Even though women in horror are subjected to violence, they also persevere, and that taught me a strength at a young age...

  Facebook memories from a favorite local place that we miss dearly. They had the best shows. But my photos weren't all that great back in those days, action shots on stage, for example.... You can tell this guy from Larry and His Flask is wild with his bass though. I've mentioned the  Newsted  show before. For a bit there was a local band we really enjoyed seeing, Courtesy Call. Audio is rough on these, this one's best. We were supposed to see Fu Manchu one night, but a storm stopped them on the pass, so we enjoyed their opener, Electric Citizen. Good times, good memories.

  My sister is joining me again, this time for some spooky season Poe. We're going with: The Cask of Amontillado The Fall of the House of Usher The Pit and the Pendulum The first I've never read, the second a long time ago, and the third....I'm not entirely sure. The Girl Who Played With Fire  certainly had some elements of horror.  The real life sex trafficking kind, failures of government systems to protect its citizens.... Will you read-along, or do you have something else for the holiday?

  Chase Infiniti Demi Moore Greta Lee Maude Apatow Jenna Ortega Colman Domingo Joey King Tessa Thompson Elle Fanning Kaia Gerber

  Nobel Prize in Physics John Clarke, Michael D. Devoret, John M. Martinis  "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantisation in an electrical circuit." Their experiments on a chip revealed quantum physics in action . Nobel Prize in Chemistry Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, Omar M. Yaghi "for the development of metal-organic frameworks." Their molecular architecture contains rooms for chemistry . Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, Shimon Sakaguchi "for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance." They understood how the immune system is kept in check . Nobel Prize in Economics Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt "for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress." They show how new technology can drive sustained growth .

  It is both Global Cat Day and National Feral Cat Day. This is Burroughs, he's not mine, but he's family.  I haven't had a cat since I was a kid. But in our current neighborhood, we have some free range cats. One in particular seems to like our tree and isn't too scaredy cat when we come outside, or when the dogs give slight chase.  Maybe it's helping with field mice.  I think he has a home, he just likes to wander. If you know of actual feral cats though, it's best to report to your local humane society.  There are programs in place to help control and support these populations. Community Cats

This is a throwback to a weekend in Tahoe 8 years ago. Fallen Leaf Lake

  There's some claim that Columbus Day is meant to celebrate Italian-American immigrants, and that is a basis of why the day became mainstream - but there are other ways we can observe that. Such as this event which took place over the weekend.  It's a sauce competition - bring (or buy) some bare noodles to try as many as possible and then vote on your favorite. Of course, other Italian foods are for sale, as well as a farmer's market. There's also music, which included Those Darn Accordions. Not only is there a wine walk to taste samples from Tuscany, Sicily, Piedmont, and more - there's also grape stomping. The age-old tradition was first represented on a Roman sarcophagus from the 3rd century AD. The grape harvest is known as vendemmia. October itself is Italian-American Heritage Month.

 With the continued insistence on Columbus Day, I wanted to acknowledge the real heritage of our country, which comes from the people who were here before. Many of us were raised with stories of how, in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue - but much of the narrative was fictionalized.  They left out the murder, enslavement, and cultural destruction. In recent years, more of that culture is being reclaimed and celebrated. To keep it on Monday's usual topic, there was a strong showing at New York Fashion Week last month, a stage that hasn't really been given to Indigenous designers before. Jontay Kahm is Plains Cree, born in Saskatchewan and now living in Santa Fe, NM. Lily Gladstone wore this piece.