The Periodic Table of Elements in the form of deliciously iced baked goods!

Who knew imbibing toxic elements could be so much fun!

Skull #11 ('80s Metal), 2006. by Brian Dettmer. Photo: Andrew Huff via Flickr.

It’s not too late to get in the Halloween spirit!

Halloween is almost here (tomorrow), so it’s time to get your haunted house in gear. We’ve got some suggestions for freaking out the kids (and adults) in your neighborhood in our collection of articles below.

And remember, if you have extra tips for some gruesome, ghoulish mischief, log in and share your knowledge by contributing to the Wired wiki (or here on this blog in the comments).

Choose from the following options of frighteningly easy DIY (ha-ha, had to get a bad Halloween joke in there):

1 Make Fake Blood

2 Make Fake Smoke

3 Build a Giant Spider Web

4 Download Some Freaky Sounds

More at Wired

Spook all your trick-or-treaters and keep all the candy for yourself!

From GeekDad:

GeekDad perennials Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories have been thinking up neato Halloween projects forever.

Who could foret the Jack-o-Dalek, light-up Lego headless horseman or Punkin’ Cylon? Well, Lenore and Windell are at it again. This time they’ve dreamed up a simple part-Lego robot that fits inside a pumpkin. The Rovin’ Pumpkin is a simple robotic pumpkin. After a minute, its green eyes start to glow, and it creeps… moving about one foot to the left… and stops.

Click for video and more details on the spooky creation. Or just skip that and go directly to the project page.

September 26th is Annual Museum Day, and lots of museums and parks are offering free admission in celebration. Read on for more:

On Sept. 26, as part of the fifth annual Museum Day program, Smithsonian magazine has convinced more than 1,200 other museums, zoos, and arts and cultural attractions across the country to also welcome visitors for free.

In California, you’ll can use your Museum Day admission card to visit the classic cars displayed at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento (regular adult admission: $8), in New York City you can use your pass at the South Street Seaport Museum (regular adult admission: $10), and in Dallas, your pass will get you into the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza (regular admission: $13.50), which explores the assassination and legacy of President John F. Kennedy. 

To see the full list of all the participating museums so you can plan your day, visit the Smithsonian’s Museum Day 2009 Web site and poke around. Be ready to be a bit overwhelmed.

The blogger at Design*Sponge loves “a good dessert, and love it even more when the dessert is in some way clever or unexpected. so when i heard from brandy and rebecca from The Regional Assembly of Text about this typewriter cake they had at their 4 year anniversary party i couldn’t resist.”

the regional assembly of text cake

the company’s friend Allison Chambers made the cake by hand.

Nom, Nom, Nom, ding*

Wjat a cool idea!

Artist and medical student Satre Stuelke founded the Radiology Art project to explore the hidden contents and structures of everyday things with X-rays. Here’s a sampling of what he found:

Slideshow

radiologyart.com

 This one’s a little creepy:

come and play with us Danny...

This one’s cute…

He's happy to see you!

There are also images of food, tools, and other not toy items!

Newly released mugs crafted to look like your favorite characters from Star Wars.

It’s crafty. It features a landmark in science fiction cinema. I say it counts.

From John Booth at GeekDad: “I guarantee your favorite Force-user doesn’t have one of these cool Hasbro Mighty Mugg pieces brought to my attention by Bonnie Burton over at Lucasfilm. All of the custom vinyl figures in the charity auction known as “The Empire Muggs Back” project are one-of-a-kind, and they range from mainstream characters like the Emperor to old-school faces from the original Marvel comic line – I’m looking at you, Jaxxon – to more conceptual pieces like this Death Star battle interpretation.

There are creations up for grabs by “Clone Wars” director Dave Filoni, former Go-Go and well-known Star Wars nut Jane Wiedlin, Fanboys director Kyle Newman, and a slew of other artists, comic book creators and toy designers. Bonnie’s been doing a series of interviews with them about their works.”

I also feel sort of bad because I’ve been sitting on this article for awhile, not realizing that these were up on auction as part of the Make a Wish Foundation that closed last Friday.

Oops.

Well, now you know they exist. Although I have no idea which part of these sculptures is the actual mug…I’m guessing the head?

Check out all the different art pieces here.

Literally. Leave it to the Japanese; I know they have a culture that is much more comfortable working side-by-side with machines, or letting machines do all the grunt work, but as an American who gets creeped out by her cell phone, I’d rather just boil my own noodles, thanks.

From Reuters:

Wish WordPress could host this type of video but it can’t, so you’re stuck with a link.

As compiled by Wired Science:

Music can make the driest scientific concepts entertaining, or even hilarious. Catchy tunes about DNA blend genetics with jokes. Ballads about the heart and pi bring dull facts to life. Here are some of our favorite videos that show how hard science rocks.

Click here for their list.

My personal favorite? The Nano Song. Why? Because it’s got puppets! Puppets are so much better at explaining the values of a healthy diet, the ABCs, and making political turmoil laughable!

Cue the music! Cue the splattered frosting! It’s CAKE WARS!

From GeekDad:

Cake Wrecks highlighted some great Star Wars themed cakes recently as a celebration of Star Wars Weekend at Disney.

One of the featured cakes is this amazing replica of the Millennium Falcon from Cakes by Jyl.  She claims that everything is edible.  I am not sure if I want to eat it, or pick it up and fly it around the house.  (Maybe both!)  Cake Wrecks features some other great cakes, including a Star Destroyer, R2-D2 and an AT-AT in its Sunday Sweets collection of Star Wars cakes.

In comparison to the Star Wars cakes of the non-wreck variety, you can check out some of wreck variety in the Star Wars Weekend collection.  Be forewarned:  there is a cake that indiscriminately combines features of both Star Trek and Star Wars.

Read the other cake-related posts and see more Star Wars cake pics.

 This is someone’s wedding cake. Awesome!