We got an e-mail at work yesterday informing us that, pursuant to a CDC-issued Level 3 travel warning, we are not allowed to travel to Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone. Or at least, not on the company dime. Apparently there is also a Level 2 travel warning issued to “…travelers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, urging them to protect themselves by avoiding contact with the blood and body fluids of people who are sick with Ebola.” I’ll keep that in mind. I’m not a doctor or a contagious disease expert (or even an MBA), but I’d think “avoiding contact with the blood and body fluids of people who are sick with Ebola” would be a good idea no matter where your Halloween party is located. Like, “sorry, but if you’ve got the Ebola, no apple-bobbing for you.” On the bright side, travel to Nigeria has now been downgraded to Alert – Level 1. So if you’re headed there for Thanksgiving, you should be good to go.

There’s good news for you if you happen to need a heart transplant. Previously, the protocol called for a still-beating heart to be removed from a donor and then put in a cooler full of ice. This meant donors had to be in one of two categories: Chinese prisoners (such as the one that Dick Cheney no doubt had harvested), or the brain dead. But Australian doctors have found a way around that.

Two months ago, doctors in Australia transplanted a “dead heart” — a heart that had stopped beating inside a donor’s chest — into a 57-year-old woman, reports the BBC. The operation, which has been deemed success, was unlike any other, because for the first time, it didn’t involve a brain-dead donor who’s heart was still beating.

This shows us two thing: first, you don’t gotta write good English to publish stories at “The Verge,” and second, you no longer need to get your heart transplant from a brain dead Republican, and can instead opt for a dead Liberal.

Big news yesterday as we got our first area Costco. Previously, you’d have had to drive to Kingston, ON. This would be great for me, were it not for the fact that my union worked out a deal for BJs (perhaps I should say, “at” BJs) which is like Costco in that you have to pay for the privilege of going there to spend money. We not only get a reduced rate, but we get a 15-month membership instead of 12.

I’d prefer to go to Costco, because it looks like they have some good shit, their gas is even cheaper than BJs, I hear they treat their employees well, and they have really big Teddy bears. So hopefully the union will reach out to them and at the very least ignite a bidding war.

It’s not a particularly pleasant-looking day out there today, but I’m gonna try and cut the grass one last time and get ready for winter. Not a pleasant thought, really, but the snow could fly at any time now. I really should get the storm windows in and see if the heat still works, too.