Yes the latest Carnival of Evolution is up and running, this time over as The Eeb and Flow. You know the drill…

Previous Carnivals of Evolution:

• Carnival of Evolution #42 (The Hitchhikers Edition)
• CoE #41 CoE #40 CoE #39 CoE #38
• CoE #37 CoE #36 CoE #35 CoE #34
• CoE #33  CoE #32 CoE #31 CoE #30

If you missed any of these you’ll definitely want to go check them out!

I love the part were Daddy silverback pulls the young gorilla away from the funny looking hairless ape. I can almost hear him saying; “stay away from that, you don’t know where its been!” Click here for more on the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei).

Hat tip to Michael Barton at The Dispersal of Darwin.

*technically no cup of tea is my cup of tea, as I loathe tea.

Yep, it’s time for the Carnival of Evolution (#42)!!!  This month it is being held at The Ocelloid and in case you can’t tell there is a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy theme. So grab your towel, pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster and head on over for the latest batch of evolutionary goodness.

It’s either that or Vogon poetry…

Previous Carnivals of Evolution:

• Carnival of Evolution #41
• Carnival of Evolution #40
• Carnival of Evolution #39
• Carnival of Evolution #38
• Carnival of Evolution #37
• Carnival of Evolution #36
• Carnival of Evolution #35
• Carnival of Evolution #34
• Carnival of Evolution #33
• Carnival of Evolution #32
• Carnival of Evolution #31
• Carnival of Evolution #30

Life! Don’t talk to me about life.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

[More shirts can be found at Evo-T's.]

As with pretty much everything else in life lately I was feeling rather unmotivated about Halloween this year, especially, my thinking went, given the fact that Halloween fell on a Monday. I figured there wouldn’t by much trick-or-treat traffic in our already low traffic area, so I was not really planning to do much in the way of decorating.

However my motivation was restored by a trip to the annual LA Live Steamers Halloween Ghost Train in Griffith Park (Los Angeles). One of our tenants, ‘Pineapple’, works for the railroad and volunteers for various railroad activities and charities and knowing my fondness for all things Halloween he invited me to be amongst the friends and family of that get to ride the first couple of Ghost Trains for the evening (the Saturday before Halloween).

On my way down to Griffith Park I wanted to make a stop at a favorite used book store in Pasadena, Archives Books (a theological bookstore with a ‘healthy’ selection of creationist books) but I got a bit lost on some side streets and ended up getting a rare glimpse of the Ghostbusters mobile (I’m sure Halloween is a busy time of year for them):

Anyway once I got to Griffith Park it was still a bit before sunset so Pineapple showed me around the Ghost Train circuit, here are just a few of the sights one might encounter on the train (note the ‘trains’ are scale models of trains that can be ridden, see pictures for size):

Creepy tree at the beginning of the ride.

Cackling old witches.

Undead wedding tunnel (note the train on the right-hand side).

Frankenstein's monster scene. I was particularly amused by the plumbers helper halves used in the decor (upper left-hand corner).

Signage at the entrance area with people lined up to get in (and there were a lot of them).

Pineapple.

Above is Pineapple handing out key-chains and coloring books for Operation Lifesaver  (a highway & railway crossing safety program) at the Ghost Train exit.

It was a lot of fun and I highly recommend it to anyone in the So. Cal. area during October.  Much thanks to Pineapple and the volunteers of the LA Live Steamers for having me.

The fun of Ghost Train revived the dying embers of my holiday spirit and so when the big day came I went ahead and threw up some of my yard haunt decorations (including a new skeleton I recently acquired):

As it turned out  we had quite a few more trick-or-treaters I had anticipated so it was a good thing that I changed my mind, fun, fun, fun…

This be the likeness of Pirate Queen, Scarlett Harlott, cast yer eyes upon her site or be cursed fer certain!

May yer seas be calm, yer rum flow freely and yer booty be bountiful!

There are a couple of new additions, one serious and the other not so much. First we have a great quote from noted physicist Stephen Hawking:

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. – Stephen Hawking

Perfect! This shirt comes in basic black with white print, in sizes for both men and women.

Next we have an anonymous “so bad, it’s good” biology joke:

Support Bacteria! They’re the only culture some people have.

Come on, you know that’s funny! Now, I command you to go buy one! They come in both men’s (dark green) and women’s (lighter green) sizes, with white print.

As always:

Please, I don’t want a repeat of the last time. Yellow down and gore everywhere (yuck).

[Hat tip to the WhyEvolutionIsTrue channel on YouTube.]