They say you learn something new every day, and here's what I've learned today: antlion larvae have no anus. None whatsoever. They sit there at the bottom of their sand traps, catching ants, sucking them dry, flicking away the husks; and saving it all up for when they finally pupate. For an antlion, nothing says "Now you are a man!" like one's first poop.

so not the professor slater lady.

I am finding info that says one is Lauren Aboulfia and one is Lauren Stamile.

OMG. I just ran out of candy, and I don't think I am out of trick or treaters. Neighbor FAIL

Since y'all already know I'm an electric power geek, I'll point out that if you'd like a really geeky summary of the electricity and gas situation in the Sandy-damaged area, the DOE does situation reports. Here's this afternoon's: [link]

Yes! Community! Thank you, msbelle.

I wanted to find that tumblr picture of John Barrowman with the puppies for Steph, but I discovered that there is no simple solution to that. TUmblr is full of Arrow squee, and "How did I miss the signing????" bemoaning, and google--it's full of things like this [link] and this [link] and stuff. It's FRUSTRATING.

I had actual trick or treaters this year! There was a tiny little girl who was some sort of goblin. It was an awesome costume, I gave her like, half the bowl.

billytea: New bird taxonomy charts all 10,000 species of birds.

Ooh, nice. I discovered the other day that the penguin lineage had split off while the dinosaurs still dominated the land, though they may not have become flightless until the Palaeogene.

Two other notes: it looks like the New World vultures are back with the raptors. For a time they were often classified as being related to storks. One apparent omission too: I can't find the Corvidae on that graphic. No crows.

I am in a hotel, and had to drive from LA to Santa Barbara with a migraine, so when I got here I collapsd in bed and slept for almost 4 hours. I'm awake now, but took more drugs and expect to be back asleep shortly. So much for Halloween. Though I didn't get any trick or treaters the past two years, so I don't figure my roommate needed to bother with candy. Kinda sad. One of these days I want to do that, as a homeowner! But they go to other neighborhoods.

le Nubian, that's sad, though! I don't understand this whole "lets reschedule! Lets do its at the mall! Lets have official hours!" stuff. Halloween is Halloween, man...

Kids drive up to my sister's neighborhood from the flats, because it's wealthier and has nice safe sidewalks. So we get a lot of kids up here.

I just had my last kids: full-on teenagers, at 9PM, and it's raining, so after they left I shut off the porch light and locked the door.

And now I'm going to watch last night's Frontline and learn all about dark money.