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Welcome to The Crunch, our weekly roundup of stories from around the web. With Halloween just around the corner, èßäÉçÇø! Staff have put together some spooky news and stories to get you in the Halloween mood.

The upside of fear

Have friends who love horror movies? Does it make you wonder if they might be sociopaths? They’re (probably) not; here’s the science behind why they like the blood and guts. (via )

What happens to people who laugh at clowns

Want to experience some of fear’s positive side-effects? Here’s a collection of ghost stories you can listen to help get your blood curdling—er, moving. (via and )

Modern ghost stories

Has technology killed the traditional ghost story? Telling spooky tales around the campfire seems to be a thing of the past, but people on the NoSleep subreddit are using the web to help keep person-to-person horror tales alive.  (via )

Scary sweets

A study released this past Tuesday showed that cutting most added sugar from kids’ diets dramatically improves the health of children at risk for diabetes—in just 10 days. Maybe a pillow case full of candy isn’t such a great idea. (via )

Bird? Plane? Space junk?

Scientists are awaiting the arrival of some space waste they believe to be man-made. The object is expected to land in the Indian Ocean in mid-November, so most humans won’t notice. But it could be debris from mission Apollo, meaning a piece of history is headed straight for us. (via )

Speaking of things falling out of the sky

Leaked government documents recently surfaced on the Middle East drone strikes that have been the subject of intense scrutiny across the political sphere. In this interview, Amy Goodman speaks to The Intercept about what the documents mean. (via

Too hot to handle

Parts of the Persian Gulf are expected to rise to heat levels uninhabitable to humans by the end of the century if carbon emissions stay at levels they are today. (via )

All photos from .