Halloween at Flickr. The zeitgeist in pictures last night. The collage of fine jack-o-lanterns above is a nice way to get into it.

A more sober collection: E&P's 7th Annual Photos of the Year Contest

Reversing a trend: Now On Saturdays: More Stock Listings. Minneapolis Star-Tribune brings back stock listings. Well, some of them. On Saturday. Still... it's bucking entropy.

Although an increasing number of people are using the Internet to track their investments, we recognize that a number of people aren't online or prefer to review their portfolios in the newspaper. We've heard from many of them in the months since we reduced the listings, and this restoration of stocks and mutual funds is intended to meet their needs.

Good. It's still about the readers.

Naturally selecting: This crop revolution may succeed where GM failed

Gene splicing has been made obsolete by a cutting-edge technology that greatly accelerates classical plant breeding.

Access to Tools: Best of the Best Web 2.0 Web Sites

Counting the votes: Miami Herald: Glitches cited in early voting

...Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist.

That's exactly the kind of problem that sends conspiracy theorists into high gear -- especially in South Florida, where a history of problems at the polls have made voters particularly skittish.

A poll worker then helped Rudolf, but it took three tries to get it right, Reed said.

''I'm shocked because I really want . . . to trust that the issues with irregularities with voting machines have been resolved,'' said Reed, a paralegal. ``It worries me because the races are so close.''

Broward Supervisor of Elections spokeswoman Mary Cooney said it's not uncommon for screens on heavily used machines to slip out of sync, making votes register incorrectly. Poll workers are trained to recalibrate them on the spot -- essentially, to realign the video screen with the electronics inside. The 15-step process is outlined in the poll-workers manual....

ATMs don't go out of synch and start giving money instead of depositing it. A computer can change anything, easily. How can there be a double check without running two separate voting systems?

Is it over yet? In this sour and sullen election season, I wish somebody would strike up the band and play Happy Days Are Here Again and mean it.

IIt seems unrealistic to expect Iraq to settle its internal differences peacefully when politics here is so nasty. How could demonizing the opposition offer an appealing model of democracy to countries new to it?