The Friday Link for Halloween, 10/31/25!!!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Let's scare everyone today!  Of the many accomplishments of writer/director Ryan Coogler, making an old Irish drinking song into the surprise hit of the year could be the most incredible.  Generation Z seems to LOVE this scene from the great movie Sinners.  I do too. 

Next is the scariest movie I've ever seen, Jaws.  It did not help that I was a kid in Rhode Island when this came out, and they filmed a lot of it off of Block Island, just south of the Rhode Island coast. This was like watching a documentary.  This movie played for 2 years at my local movie theater. 

The best horror isn't demonic villains and teenage slaughter fests. The best horror is the kind where it feels VERY real.  Sharks are a thing on the coasts, and the all-star cast of this movie, plus Spielberg's brilliant direction, made the scariest movie of all time (in my opinion).

Here is the scene where they realize what exactly they are dealing with, and particularly, watch the great Robert Shaw's eyes when he comes out and finally sees the shark.  His eyes actually get wider, with an undeniable shock for even this old fisherman. THAT'S acting! Then the theme kicks in.  I hid under my movie seat!

From make-believe scary to real scary, I have two more for you. 

Hurricane Melissa was a monster, and as the Caribbean nations it targeted recover, I am reminded of how scary hurricanes are. When Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey in 2012, it was MASSIVE.  Here is a video from Madison, Wisconsin, nowhere near New Jersey, and throughout the day, you see the edge of the hurricane come in from the east. Apparently, it ended up being visible from Minnesota (a weather person I know said you could see the edge from the Minnesota side of the St. Croix River). 

This is terrifying when you think about it. Ghosts and goblins don't scare me.  Nature terrifies me.  Nature ALWAYS wins! 

Finally tonight might be the scariest video yet! Jon Stewart, on his weekly podcast, talked with Professor Geoffrey Hinton from the University of Toronto about AI.  The first half of this video is a great explanation of what exactly AI is, and why it makes standard computing look like a calculator from 1975.

The second part is the scary part. Hinton talks about how, really, it is already too late to stop AI and how it is already, in some cases, exceeding human beings. The potential for good is undeniable, but the VERY REAL threat of danger is also undeniable, whether by evil people deciding to wipe a portion of the population out, or AI itself evolving past a point of any ability to control.

Happy Hallowween, everyone! 

Make sure you get vaccinated and stay safe.