Daily Shizu... hmm... not a daily... not a shizu... wha...?!

It's just like starting over, but not quite. This post is apparently the 101st entry in the abomb&thecorpse blog, if the edit-counter in blogger is to be trusted. (Yes, I pander to Luddites.) Yet: still no idea what we're doing here. So: same old, I guess.

First, an important public service announcement: Set your clock back one hour this Saturday, November 1st! (Unless you are in the Peace River region, which does not observe DST, or in the East Kootenays, which observes mountain time and syncs with Alberta.) (GovBC)

Since it's Halloween today, you may be interested to learn the carbon remains of the creator of The Monster Mash, the late Bobby (Boris) Pickett, has been super-compressed into a .44 carat colourless diamond, and set into a white-gold solitaire ring worn by his daughter. (ChartAttack) If you're into that sort of thing, the company that performs this service is LifeGem.

On the other side of the spectrum, it turns out an unpublished and forgotten 1953 experiment designed to mimic early-Earth life-brewing conditions actually produced some amino acids. It's a facinating story about how this forgotten experiment, originally considered a "dud" because the technology to accurately analyze the results didn't yet exist, was found. (Wired) (Science)

And before we leave the (sometimes-marginally-related to) Halloween-ish sort of topics, take a look at the Geek-o'-Lantern pumpkin-carving photos from Wired. My favourite is Heath Ledger as The Joker, by Chris Soria.

So moving on, instead of talking about scary dead things, let's talk about dead things. I mean... "history."

Actually, I don't know if Alice Smith, the lady pictured in this 1941 BC Electric transit poster, is actually dead or not, and I apologize in advance if I've started any rumours of the "greatly-exaggerated" variety. It was a cheap and easy segue, and I takes what I can gets. (Buzzer)

I do, however, know this fellow is quite dead: the tomb of Marcus Nonius Macrinus, the Roman general said to be the inspiration for the protagonist in the Gladiator movie, was discovered in Rome. (CBC)

Going back even further, a city being excavated that overlooks the valley the Bible says David defeated Goliath may alter our understanding of the period King David ruled over the Israelites. (As in Between 1050-970 BCE) Regardless of religious perspective or persuasion, this is some fascinating archaeology. (NYT)

And going back even further, it turns out the Tyrolean iceman (Ötzi), does not match any known existing genetic linage. (CBC)

Jumping forward, and a little closer to home, Cosmo Canuck posted a 1951 J. Planadin drawing of the "Russian People's Home" (now the Russian Hall) on his flickr photostream. (CosmoCanuck)

Finally, let's end with another great kottke find: a video on making globes in a globe factory.