History of Halloween

Antique postcard with common images of Halloween.

Halloween conjures up images of jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, witches, sweet treats, and children dressed in costumes for an evening of trick-or-treating. Across the United States an estimated 36.8 million children between the ages of 5 and 13 will participate in trick-or-treating. The United States produces 805 million pounds of pumpkins that get carved into jack-o-lanterns. Every October 31^st porches across the United States get decorated with jack-o-lanterns; windows with images of ghosts, black cats, and witches; streets are filled with children in costumes who go from door to door with open bags yelling, “trick or treat” in hopes of receiving their favorite candies and treats. Millions happily participate in Halloween traditions each year, but what are the origins of the holiday?

The Halloween we know today began in Ireland centuries before Christ. Warriors called the Celts lived throughout the British Isles and north of France. The Celts lived off of the earth and like anyone who lives off of the earth knows, nature can be both friend and foe. They were at the mercy of the elements and winter was the scariest time of all. For the early Celts, once their harvest time was in, that was it; there was no way of getting more food. When winter began to set in, the Celts would begin thinking about their own mortality. As winter started, the Celts would ask the druids, or high priests, to pray for them. The most important night of prayer occurred at the end of their fall harvest. The Celts believed that on that night, the boundary between the living world and the spirit world was unusually thin-so thin that the souls of the dead could roam freely back and forth. This night was called Samhain (pronounced “SOW-in”) and was very important to the Celts. Samhain represented the transition from the summer to the winter. This transitional time was very magical to the Celts. On Samhain night only, the Celts believed that the dead could walk the earth once more. Not every visiting ghost was friendly so the Celts devised ways to appease these spirits. The Celts would travel to the edges of their villages with offerings. This would coax any evil forces away from their homes. They would leave foods and sweets outside as gifts for the dead. This tradition would eventually become trick-or-treating. This is also the origin of the fear of the dead that is associated with Halloween.  There’s more!  Keep reading…

Fall TV: “My Name is Earl” Season 3 Spoilers

Catalina, Darnell, Joy, Earl and Randy

Earl Hickey (Jason Lee), once a guy who did a lot of bad things, is now a firm believer in karma and seeks to right the wrongs he once committed.

When we last saw Earl, he was finally getting his life together. He landed a sales job, got an apartment, obtained a GED, and even had a girlfriend. Then, his pregnant ex-wife, Joy (Emmy winner Jaime Pressly), was facing mandatory time in prison for stealing a truck. This would have been Joy’s third strike. Earl did not want Joy to have to leave her family, so he took the blame for the crime and ended up getting sentenced to two years in prison.

My Name is Earl will be back with all new episodes beginning on Thursday, September 27^th at 8/7c on NBC. The season premiere will be one hour long. Here are some spoilers for the new season of My Name is Earl.

Fall TV: Spoilers for Season 4 of Desperate Housewives

  Bree, Susan, Lynette and Gabrielle

When we last saw the housewives at the end of season three, Edie had hung herself, Gabrielle and Carlos were re-sparking their romance on her wedding night to Victor, Susan and Mike finally got married, it was revealed to the viewing audience that Bree is faking a pregnancy, and Lynette is dealing with both having cancer and forgiving her mother who has come to live with the family.

The fourth season of Desperate Housewives begins on Sunday, September 30^th at 9/8c on ABC. These are spoilers for the upcoming season of Desperate Housewives. If you don’t want to learn any new scoop about the fourth season, then you will probably want to stop reading now. You have been warned!  Read the spoilers here.

Carlos and Gabrielle

New neighbor, Katherine Mayfair

Fall TV: “The Office” Season 4 Spoilers

Season 4 of The Office. The Fun Run with Jim, Pam, Kevin, Andy (with bleeding nipples!) and Michael.

NBC’s hit show, The Office, comes back with new episodes for the loyal fans of the Dunder Mifflin team on Thursday, September 27^th at 9/8c. The fourth season of The Office is going to start off bigger than ever with hour long episodes the first four weeks.

Season 3 of The Office left viewers wondering if Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) might finally start dating, if Karen (Rashida Jones) actually got dumped by Jim because the audience did not actually see it happen before he asked Pam out, if Michael (Golden Globe winner Steve Carell) and the now unemployed Jan (Melora Hardin) are going to live together, if Ryan (B.J. Novak) will become Michael’s boss from hell now that he has Jan’s job at corporate, and fans are always wondering what Dwight (Rainn Wilson), Angela (Angela Kinsey), Meredith (Kate Flannery), Andy (Ed Helms), Phyllis (Phyllis Lapin), Stanley (Leslie Baker), Creed (Creed Bratton), Toby (Paul Lieberstein), Oscar (Oscar Nunez), Kevin (Brian Baumgartner), and Kelly (Mindy Kaling) will get into next.

The first episode of the fourth season of The Office is called “Fun Run”. A freak accident leads Michael to believe that the office is cursed. Michael then explores the religious beliefs of his employees before deciding to hold a 5k fun run for charity. Michael is as ridiculous as ever. The t-shirts for the event read, “Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer…keep reading…

Dwangela returns! Dwight and Angela

Jam! Jim and Pam

Don’t forget that the fourth season of The Office starts on Thursday, September 27^th at 9/8c. The first four episodes of the new season will each be an hour long.

Bin Laden’s beard is real, video is not

by Robert Vamosi

On the Friday before the sixth anniversary of 9/11, Osama bin Laden appeared in a new video, his first since prior to the U.S. presidential elections in 2004. In analyzing the video, Neal Krawetz of Hactor Factor, an expert on digital image forensics, said in his latest blogs that the video contained many visual and audio splices, and that all of the modifications were of very low quality.

Most striking is bin Laden’s beard, which has been gray in recent images. For this video it is black. “As far as my tools can detect, there has been no image manipulation of the bin Laden portion of the image beyond contrast adjustment. His beard really does appear to be that color.” The Washington Post has the full video here.

Krawetz says the inner frame of bin Laden was resaved at least twice, and not at the same time. The images show fine horizontal stripes on bin Laden and a background indicating these came from interlaced video sources. In contrast, the text elements, such as the As-Sahab logo, appear to be from non-interlaced sources.

The September 7 video shows bin Laden dressed in a white hat, white shirt and yellow sweater. Krawetz notes “this is the same clothing he wore in the 2004-10-29 video. In 2004 he had it unzipped, but in 2007 he zipped up the bottom half. Besides the clothing, it appears to be the same background, same lighting, and same desk. Even the camera angle is almost identical.” Krawetz also notes that “if you overlay the 2007 video with the 2004 video, his face has not changed in three years–only his beard is darker and the contrast on the picture has been adjusted.”

More important though are the edits. At roughly a minute and a half into the video there is a splice; bin Laden shifts from looking at the camera to looking down in less than 1/25th of a second. At 13:13 there is a second, less obvious splice. In all, Krawetz says there are at least six splices in the video. Of these, there are only two live bin Laden segments, the rest of the video composed of still images. The first live section opens the video and ends at 1:56. The second section begins at 12:29 and continues until 14:01. The two live sections appear to be from different recordings “because the desk is closer to the camera in the second section.”

Then there are the audio edits. Krawetz says “the new audio has no accompanying ‘live’ video and consists of multiple audio recordings.” References to current events are made only during the still frame sections and after splices within the audio track.” And there are so many splices that I cannot help but wonder if someone spliced words and phrases together. I also cannot rule out a vocal imitator during the frozen-frame audio. The only way to prove that the audio is really bin Laden is to see him talking in the video,” Krawetz says.

Another bin Laden video was released on September 11 and was much more straightforward. There was a still image of the black-bearded bin Laden (oddly, using a frame not used in the previous video), and then, as has been a tradition at al-Qaida , there was a long, unedited video of a statement read by Azzam Al Amriki, also known as American-born Adam Pearlman, who is currently being sought for treason and thought to be living in Pakistan. That doesn’t mean the 9/11-released video wasn’t doctored.

Click here and mouse over the image to see Krawetz’s 75 percent error level analysis of one image. The white frame around Azzim reveals that his video was composited against the drawing of the World Trade Center being attacked. As Krawetz presented at this year’s Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, al-Qaida has a history of doctoring background either to present propaganda or simply to disguise locations. In a separate interview, Krawetz talks with CNET News.com about some of the tools he used in his analysis.

How Much Money Do Celebrities Make for Giving Speeches?

Donald Trump

It is not uncommon for organizations to hire motivational and entertaining speakers for events. The idea is to combine live entertainment while delivering a message that the organization wishes to promote. Various celebrities are often hired for speaking engagements. A fascinating aspect of celebrity speaking engagements is the fee that they charge. Some, often lesser known, celebrities charge a few thousand dollars for the privilege of having them grace an event and give a formal speech. However, the more famous celebrities require hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for their services. Here is an entertaining list of celebrities and the fees that they charge for speaking at events. Keep reading…

Star Jones

A Scrupulous Writer…

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? -George Orwell

Life is like…

Life is like a photograph; we use the negatives to develop.

Halle Berry is Pregnant!

Halle Berry has confirmed to Nancy O’Dell on Access Hollywood that she is 3 months pregnant! This will be Halle’s first child. She and her model boyfriend, Gabriel Aubrey met and first started dating in 2005.

Celebrities from Tennessee

Johnny Knoxville

Justin Timberlake

Dolly Parton

The state of Tennessee has a rich history. Tennessee is one the states linking the North to the South. Historically, pioneers crossed the mountains in Tennessee to settle into the wilderness, bringing with them the spirit of independence and daring that has become a part of Tennessee’s great history. Nashville, the capital city, is known nationally as the center for country music. Tennessee’s largest city, Memphis, is the birthplace of urban blues. Tennessee’s rich history includes being the birthplace for some famous, even legendary, people. Here is an entertaining list of celebrities who have called Tennessee their home.