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Pat Paulson ran a spoof campaign every presidential election year for decades. Dave Barry also threw his hit into the ring a few times. The new celebrity taking up the spoof campaign mantle is Paris Hilton. That's hot! -Thanks, CheeseDuck!

This Old House is having a Jack-o-Lantern contest, and you can vote for your favorite of the submitted entries until noon Thursday. I was quite impressed by this multi-pumpkin display. I'm sentimental like that. https://youroldhouse.thisoldhouse.com/pumpkincarving/index.jsp -Thanks, Betsy Andrews!

Companies have integrated ads into video games for quite some time now, but this is the first time election campaign ads have been used in virtual reality games. Is this a good idea? Will it be effective? The ABC World News Webcast takes a look. Link to segment. Link to entire webcast.

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I hope my cats never see this video. If they learn how to open bottles, I'll be in a world of hurt. -via Arbroath

Dark Roasted Blend has beautiful pictures of caves around the world. See caves made of limestone, ice, and crystals, plus caves used for living and working. Pictured is an underground pool in a Brazilian cave. Link

What's neat about these vanity license plates inspired by the Harry Potter books is not their cleverness, because you would expect that, but the sheer number of them! http://www.mugglenet.com/plates.shtml -via Geek Like Me

When I saw today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, I had to check the calendar to see if today was Friday the 13th! No, this quiz is about the series of horror movies that might be on your playlist for Halloween. I scored 38%, which is pretty good considering I haven't seen any of the movies. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/19696

The Rubitone is a concept Rubik's cube where the object is not to solve the puzzle, but to select colors that might look good together. That couldn't be any easier than the classic puzzle. Link -Thanks, kid_1carus!

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TMCO manufactures metal products in Lincoln, Nebraska. At a recent open house, they used one of their factory robots to pour beer for visitors. A you can see, the robot encourages tipping! -Thanks, beerorkid (steve Ramos)!

This is no Jack-O-Lantern, it's a pumpkin grown in a mold shaped like a human face! Creepy, huh? The clipping is from 1938. Link -Thanks, Dana!

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You know people who turn into certain characters when they've had too much to drink. This funny ad is part of a public service campaign from Heineken, called Know the Signs. Go to the site and play a game of spotting the people who've had too many. Then learn how to handle them and even send a warning to a person who fits the profile. Link -Thanks, Paul van Veenendaal!

Talk about absentee voting! US citizens Michael Fincke and Greg Chamitoff are 220 miles above the earth in the International Space Station. But thanks to a bill passed in Texas in 1997, they will be able to vote by secret ballot on election day.

A secure electronic ballot, generated by the Harris and Brazoria County Clerk's office, is uplinked by NASA's Johnson Space Center Mission Control Center. An e-mail with crew member-specific credentials is sent from the County Clerk to the crew member. These credentials allow the crew member to access the secure ballot.

The astronauts will cast their votes and a secure completed ballot is downlinked and delivered back to the County Clerk’s Office by e-mail to be officially recorded.

Almost all NASA astronauts live in Houston. Link -Thanks, Jerse!

Steven Martin collects pictures of Halloween from long ago.

"My theme is 'Halloween in the Time of Cholera,'" collector Steven Martin told Wired.com in an e-mail interview. "The idea being that people back then were probably on a more intimate level with death — and that would have affected the way they celebrated Halloween."

See a gallery at Wired. http://www.wired.com/culture/art/multimedia/2008/10/gallery_old_halloween http://www.flickr.com/photos/opiummuseum/ to Martin's Flicker stream.

A 26-year-old man dropped his phone into a toilet on a French train and reached in to retrieve it. His arm became stuck, and firemen had to rescue him!

The high-speed TGV train had to stop for two hours while firemen cut through the train's pipework.

The man was carried away by emergency services, with the toilet still attached to his arm.

"He came out on a stretcher, with his hand still jammed in the toilet bowl, which they had to saw clean off," said Benoit Gigou, a witness to the man's plight.

This is why you should not carry your phone in your pants pocket. Use a secure clip. Link -Thanks, Christophe!

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Macs don't get viruses! OK, it has to happen sooner or later, and when it does, it will be worse than you ever imagined. -via Viral Video Chart