In a Sun Times review of the movie “Dawn of the Dead,” critic Roger Ebert says, “We like to be frightened. We like a good creepy thrill.” If you like to be frightened, celebrate this Halloween by checking out one of Chicago Film Critics Association’s 100 Scariest Movies of all Time – an excellent list which includes many obscure gems and older horror films you may have missed. Better yet, let your own imagination — which can be much scarier than the most sophisticated computer-generated images — give you a good creepy thrill and curl up with H. G. Wells’ original The War of the Worlds. Just keep the lights on.

Start by going to a site used by many journalists: JournalismNet. The “Search for News” page on this site includes links to news agencies, wires, tickers and search engines, resources for searching by country or language, and many other options. Want to know what’s on the front page of today’s newspaper in Greece, China or Kenya? Newspaperindex.com offers links to the latest editions in more than 200 countries. RefDesk’s “First Things First” page identifies local and international sources for news, sports, opinion and much more. Did you miss something in yesterday’s news? You may find it in Vanderbilt University’s Television News Archive which calls itself “the world’s most extensive and complete archive of television news.”

And if a story is circulating which doesn’t quite ring true, investigate it via a debunking site like Snopes which reports on its litmus tests of various news and legends.

Catching a glimpse of the big Harvest Moon on October 6 may fill you with romantic notions of a simple life made from the land. But you may think twice if you shine some of that light on the real challenges farmers face. Farming has had a huge impact on civilization since people shifted from nomadic living and learned to cultivate crops — first for their own use and later, beginning with the agricultural revolution in the 18th century, for sale outside the community.

Realistic insights into the lives of farmers in the early 20th century can be found in such noteworthy novels as Willa Cather’s My Antonia, Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd and Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome. The Columbia Encyclopedia page 786, notes that “Agriculture is still the occupation of almost 50% of the world’s population, but the numbers vary from less than 3% in industrialized countries to over 60% in Third World countries.” Today, farmers worldwide face increasingly critical tests to meet food production needs while preserving the environment. According to Public Broadcasting System, the world’s farmers “all live on a thin edge: vulnerable to the natural forces of weather, climate, and changing soil conditions, as well as the people-imposed forces of pollution, population shifts, and political intervention.”

 Many people feel that the best part of summertime is slower, lazier days. But the six million-plus advocates of the Slow Movement feel there’s a lot to be said for slowing your pace all year long. The group points to our increasing “time poverty” and, on its website at www.slowmovement.com, explains, “We are engaged in constant fast-forward motion whereby we are often overscheduled, stressed and rushing towards the next task. This rushing is not restricted to our work environment. We rush our food, our family time and even our recreation.” In her Daily Post article “

According to In Praise of Slow author Carl Honore, “Everything we do is filtered through our obsession with time and, particularly, with not wasting it” — including vacations. In The Daily Mail piece “Why Are We So in Thrall to Time?“, Honore recommends rediscovering “the art of doing nothing” — something you might try over the upcoming summer days. Then when you return to your everyday life, take the quiz in Octavius Black’s Daily Mail article “It’s Slow Time” to determine whether you’re a “rushaholic.” If you fit the profile, then try Black’s five practical tips for slowing down: “Take pleasure. Let others rush in. Listen longer. Set an alarm. Be a time dove.”

He explains, “All goal achievers have some grander vision that drives them. To find yours, ask yourself why you are setting a given goal…(and use your answers as) motivators when you face the challenges that may come.” Next, write down your goals — an act Goodridge says is like planting seeds. Writing goals “programs them into your mind and helps you recognize opportunities for attaining them.” Step three involves quantifying your goals. “Express success in ways you can measure, touch or count.” Being specific helps you chart your progress and makes goals more tangible. Next, break goals into individual steps which can be tackled one at a time. Says Goodridge, “We often become paralyzed because we make our goals so grandiose, then get overwhelmed by their size. Starting small makes your goals believable.” In step five, develop your strategy. Include “what you will need to learn in order to accomplish your goal… (and) identify the people, groups, and organizations whose cooperation can help you. Once your strategy is complete, you’re ready for the final ingredient: action.” Find more information in Questia’s excellent goal-setting resources and consider patterning yourself after Muhammad Ali, who reportedly said, “What keeps me going is goals.”

This season finds more of us poised for significant life changes than at any other time of the year. If you’re anticipating your departure for college, you may be feeling exhilarated… and anxious. CollegeBoard.com says heading off “to explore a new place, make new friends, learn new things, and set your own priorities” means many big changes coming at you quickly — and that can cause big stress. Their “

She also offers solutions for maintaining your balance in new social situations and with roommates and friends. Anne Veigle, writing for The Washington Times, says students may find that “the freedom they longed for in high school sometimes brings moments of loneliness.” In “Leaving Home 101“, she recommends quickly getting involved in school activities and taking advantage of university programs aimed at making the adjustment a smooth one for both students and parents. Fox says, “Bottom line, college is filled with opportunities. If you make good choices, you’ll feel good about who you are, gain the respect of others, have a great time, get a great education, and you’ll grow up in the process. All of that’s included in your college tuition. What a deal!”

When you don’t have to work from an assigned reading list, you can make up your own. Questia’s Reading Room is a great place to start. Here you can find fascinating reads of topical interest such as Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations and Painting without Permission: Hip-Hop Graffiti Subculture. Switch gears with A Cowboy Detective: A True Story of Twenty-Two Years with a World-Famous Detective Agency, Tramps like Us: Music & Meaning among Springsteen Fans and Sundance to Sarajevo: Film Festivals and the World They Made. Or depart from the everyday with such intriguing reads as The Dragon Seekers: How an Extraordinary Circle of Fossilists Discovered the Dinosaurs and Paved the Way for Darwin or The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings.

Do you find reading a chore? You may simply need to ramp up your skills. In Brain Train: Studying for Success, Richard Palmer says “anyone can learn to read fast and efficiently” and offers tips to improve your speed and comprehension. Visit Mind Tools to learn how to break poor habits which make reading tedious and inefficient. Then, armed with your new competency, check out Listening to the Page: Adventures in Reading and Writing. Author Alan Cheuse’s love for reading is positively contagious and may encourage you to become, like him, “a promiscuous reader.”

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From the smallest choices to those that change lives, we all face a huge number of decisions every day. Are you adept at sizing up your options and picking one? In The Washington Times article ” ‘Blink’ versus ‘Think’; Authors Explore Different Ways to Make Decisions,” Shelley Widhalm quotes associate psychology professor Kent Norman, who explains, “Fast decision-making occurs in situations and about things that do not hold much importance to the decision-maker or that require rapid judgments for survival. For critical decisions, like deciding to buy a car or accept a new job, a quick evaluation occurs, followed by a more in-depth, analytical evaluation.” However, some people are stymied by analysis paralysis. Marcia A. Reed-Woodard’s Black Enterprise article “Make Up Your Mind: Seven Steps to Making Better Decisions” quotes leadership consultant Robert Cannon, who says, “A good decision, executed in a timely manner, will always serve you better than one implemented too late. Abandon thoughts of perfection and minimize fear by outlining alternative options.”

Making the choice now to visit Questia’s excellent resources on decision-making can help you build skills in this area. And if all else fails, consider Jen Norton’s recommendation in Polytechnic Online to always carry a quarter as a “decision making device” for those “annoying gray areas” without clear preferences. She says that letting a coin toss make your decision works because it’s quick, unbiased and “won’t make fun of you later…(and) In the end you save time and you save other people headaches. So take a small risk, and make a decision. At the very least, you’ll have a little extra time to fix things if you do indeed screw up.”

Today the call is getting louder, as demonstrated by the growing Questia collection of books and articles on environmentalism. And at least some of the news is better, say Steve Brooks, Gerald Marten and Amanda Suutari. In their World Watch piece “Environmental Tipping Points: A New Slant on Strategic Environmentalism“, they explain how small positive changes can make a big difference in promoting “co-adaptation, helping societies and ecosystems fit together sustainably.” If you’re feeling the buzz, visit TryScience’s Citizens for Planet Earth pages and World Resources Institute’s EarthTrends environmental information to learn what you can do to help. Then put your knowledge to work by checking out the ecotourism opportunities in the Conde Nast Traveler Green List.