Creating a Buzz Lightyear costume out of balloons is an interstellar idea- if you don't think about the horrifying balloon squeak that will accompany your every move.
Wear this inflated getup to a Halloween party and the guests will find themselves wishing you'd gone to infinity...and stayed there.
Imagine browsing the Halloween costume store and find that there's a costume of YOU on sale! Redditor LiarInGlass says this happened to his uncle, with photographic evidence. Link
Moviegoers are lucky enough to have not one but three terrifyingly awesome animated features in theaters this Halloween.
ParaNorman, Hotel Transylvania and Frankenweenie are all showing lots of love for Halloween on the big screen, so grab the grubs and treat yourself to a ghoulishly good time at the movies!
Most zombie flicks take the perspective of the survivors who are fighting to stay alive, but every now and then someone looks at things from the zombie's point of view or at least are sympathetic towards them. io9 has a look at 12 such movies, including the brilliant Fido -where the image above is from.
Photo: hooverdust/Flickr
You don't have to be a fan of the HBO series True Blood to appreciate how cool it would be to sip on a vampiric energy drink that'll have everyone believing you're actually drinking blood!
So what goes into a drink to give it that sickeningly sanguine appearance? Simply mix orange juice with presweetened Tropical Punch and/or Strawberry Kool Aid (or equivalent flavored soft drink packets) and you've got a drink that's lip smacking good and Dracula approved.
Photo: EricaJoy/Flickr
As far as cartoon characters go Marge Simpson is a fun and pretty easy Halloween costume to put together, but you may have some competition at the party!
One Marge is enough, two simply won't do, especially when neither one of them have the proper yellow skin tone.
And is that Barney the town drunk I see lurking in the background?
The old man in this stop motion short entitled Videotape found out the hard way that VHS is a dead medium, and now he's forced to watch his favorite TV programs in that big old den in the sky.
I wonder what TV programs are like in the afterlife?
--via JazJaz
From the look of these photos Williamsburg, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, is a rather colorful place to live, and it's hard to tell if people are dressed up for a night on the town or a Halloween party!
Good thing there's a Tumblr site called Halloween or Williamsburg to clear things up...wait, I take that back...the blurbs about each pic on the site only cause more confusion!
Oh well, I guess we're not meant to know whether it's Williamsburg or Halloween after all...
Photo: gaudiramone/Flickr
Photo: athena_vina/Flickr
When putting together the perfect gruesome getup for Halloween it's important not to overlook one crucial element- makeup!
Whether you're applying a bit of makeup detail, or you're going for that fully painted face look, it's one element of Halloween costuming that's often missing from otherwise terror-ific looks.
An overall face paint can radically change the way your face looks, especially from far away, but if you just want to add a bit of color this is one of those rare cases where overdoing it is better than being subtle, after all you want people to notice your work, right?
Wearing a desk lamp shaped costume, which was inspired by the Pixar short Luxo Jr., may not be the most comfortable option on Halloween, but you're sure to get lots of compliments on your bright idea!
The biggest problem with this creative costume- you have to hop around all night, dragging your big fat base around, which will make it really hard to trick-or-treat.
Photo: ParentingExtra/Flickr
Looking to appeal to the neighborhood kids, instead of scaring the living daylights out of them?
Then you may want to consider carving your pumpkins into cute shapes, like these adorable Bert and Ernie jack-o-lanterns complete with fuzzy hair and painted squash noses!
The kids will love them, and you'll get kudos for being a clever carver.
TV commercials can be uninspired and annoying, but this ad by Sears is surprisingly fun to watch, and features exercising zombies so it's perfect for Halloween!
Sears presents Fitness for Zombies, an exercise regimen suitable for the undead.
Watch them shamble on the treadmill and try to pedal a stationary bike without popping a kneecap, all while suppressing their appetite for personal trainers.
--via Nerd Bastards
There is perhaps nothing else so distinctive of the condition and character of a people as the method in which they treat their dead.
- William Tegg, 1876
Throughout the history of human civilization, different cultures mourn and treat the dead differently. Some, like Tibetan Buddhists, have no use for burials as they dispose the dead by feeding corpses to vultures or by burning them in funeral pyres. Most cultures, however, show their respect by burying the dead, sometimes in complex and ornate tombs, crypts, and catacombs.
This article takes a look at ten of the most fascinating final resting places around the world, from the largest prehistoric burial mound in Europe to the the tombs of pharaohs to the most beautiful mausoleum in the world:
The burial mound of Newgrange in County Meath, Ireland is definitely one of the most impressive prehistoric monuments in the world. Build between 3300 BC - 2900 BC, it is the also the world's oldest surviving building (it's older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt).
Newgrange is impressive: the circular mound is 250 feet (76 m) across and 40 feet (12 m) high. It covers an entire acre (4046 m²). A long tunnel under the mound leads to a high-domed burial chamber, a corbelled vault with ceilings made of huge, interlocking stone slabs.
The entrance to Newgrange is marked with a huge curbstone that is elaborately carved with "megalithic art," which includes spiral and concentric arc motifs chipped into the stone with flint tools.
Newgrange burial mound. Image: mike nl [Flickr]
The wall of Newgrange. Image: Barbara y Eugenio [Flickr]
The engraved slab in front of Newgrange's entrance. Image: mike nl [Flickr]
The Toraja people in Sulawesi, Indonesia, have what is probably the most complex funeral ritual in the world. When someone dies, the funeral is attended by a lot of people and can last for days! But that's not the strange part - this is: the funeral ceremony is often held weeks, months, or even years after the death (to give the family of the deceased time to raise enough money for expenses).
Torajans can wait that long because they believe that death is not a sudden event but instead a gradual process towards the afterlife (if you're wondering about the smell - the dead body is embalmed within the first few days of death, then stored in a secret place until the funeral ceremony).
After much partying (including the slaughter of one or several water buffaloes), the dead is buried in a stone cave carved out of a rocky cliff. A wood-carved effigy called tau tau, carved with the likeness of the dead person is then placed in the balcony of the tomb to represent the dead and watch over their remains.
Toraja cave tombs with balconies, filled with tau tau. Image: Kaeru [Flickr]
"In Tana Toraja, everything revolves around death. The graves can be very sophisticated yet sometimes, long after the coffins are destroyed by time, people gently place bones along natural cave 'racks'. Often, the bones are offered cigarettes or various offerings. This is supposed to prevent dead ancestors from bringing bad luck and otherwise making the lives of the living miserable."
Image: phitar [Flickr]
The gothic church Westminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom was established by Benedictine monks in the tenth century (and rebuilt in the 13th century by King Henry III) - since then it has evolved into both the coronation church for English royalty and the final resting place of monarchs.
Though at first Westminster Abbey was the burial place of kings, aristocrats, and monks, it soon became the tomb-of-choice (if there is such a thing) for the who's who in England. Poets and writers like Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, and Alfred Tennyson; as well as scientists like Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Ernest Rutherford were all interred there.
Westminster Abbey. Image: Inetours
Newton's grave at Westminster Abbey. Image: Sacred Destination
There are more than 100 pyramids in Egypt, with the largest and most famous being the complex of pyramids in Giza Necropolis, Cairo, Egypt. This complex consists of the Great Pyramid of Giza (tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu or Cheops), the Pyramid of Khafre, the Pyramid of Menkaure, the Great Sphinx statue, as well as several other smaller satellite pyramids.
Let's take, for instance, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the only surviving member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The Museum Of Modern Art presents what may be the artsiest jack-o-lantern ever carved, based on the painting Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh.
It's a brilliant display of squash carving skills, and probably looks even cooler with the lights off, just like the real stars in the sky!
Dear parents- toilet paper packaging is not an acceptable costume choice for your kids, and when you dress your baby up like a food product all you're really doing is confusing the dog!
Keep it classy parental units, or your child will hold your sloppy costuming skills against you for the rest of your life. For realsies.
