Happy Halloween readers! I hope you had a lovely evening of festivities, because it’s always fun to be a little silly for a night.

  • Gay marriage has been approved in Connecticut and couples can begin marrying on or after November 10th. (Read it at The Advocate)
  • The Big Money has recently begin posting excerpts from the diaries of Ben Roth, demonstrating parallels between the current economy and the depression era economy. (Part 1 and 2 at The Big Money)
  • Whether you think it was to much regulation or the lack thereof that caused the sub-prime meltdown, a major factor was transparency. After all, it’s harder to steal with everyone watching you. To that end, Chris Carey created a website called “BailoutSleuth” to keep the public informed on the details of the bailout, especially since the bailout was financed with tax dollars. (BailoutSleuth via Boing Boing)
  • How you speak plays a significant part in how people perceive you, especially if you don’t know them. In highschool I took a class on public speaking (with the talented forensics instructor Robert Holmes, rest in peace) and since then have trained others to speak well on the radio. To that end, Lifehacker has started a great series on public speaking. I’d add train yourself to stop using verbal ticks by snapping a rubber band on your wrist whenever saying words such as “Like”, “uh”, “you know”, and “um”. If you’re looking for ways to start improving your public speaking skills though, this is a good place to begin. (Read it at Lifehacker)
  • With the holiday season approaching and fuel surcharges still in place, like the name suggests Freeshipping.org provides shipping coupons to numerous stores. Though I like to buy locally, having friends and family scattered across the country makes it tough so these coupons sound like a welcome respite.
  • We’ve already mentioned the idea of calculating the cost of an item as original price divided by times used. If you use a product enough times, the cost of the product can be less than a dollar per use. But when it comes to calculating the cost of a product in terms of hours work required to purchase it, J.D. offers a good formula for determining your Real Hourly Wage. (Read it at Get Rich Slowly)

Queercents Flashback: J.D. isn’t the only one writing about your hourly wage. Melissa weights in on how much is your time worth.