We're on the COVER, baby!

Beyond the Blackboard, an educational supply company in Colorado, just released its new catalog and --

oh my --

what is that? --

could that be? --

is that a Giant Evolution Timeline on the cover!?

Why yes, yes it is!

Those folks at Beyond the Blackboard sure are savvy, intelligent, street-smart and probably very good-looking too.

Here's the Timeline in their web catalog. They're selling it for 5 cents less than I am on my site. Hmmm, anybody up for a price war?

When is "evolution" not evolution?

So you're looking for toys or games about evolution. You casually go online and -- whammo -- you find about a thousand kids' products that use the word "evolution." Hooray!

But look closer, friends. Zillions of fun products use the word "evolution," but they aren't talking about the history of life or science. Here's a sampling.

1. Evolution Board Game: Designed for teens, this involves trivia, charades, and drawing challenges. Nothing about the science.

2. Pokemon: These little guys and their friends "evolve" from one form to another. But it's not about the evolution of life, it's more like maturing: as each individual critter grows, its features change.

3. Star Wars: This package is called "Clone Wars Evolutions Pack - The Sith Legacy." Enough said.

4. TGS Evolution Bones Ripper Multisport Helmet: Rock on, dude, awesome skull!

5. Evolution Dude Rides #007: My personal favorite. Seems to be a green jalopy pickup truck with a high-tech rocket launcher in the back. Yee ha!

Oh no! They Might Have been Wrong!

Back in May we posted the big news about Ida, a fossil that supposed to be a long, long lost ancestor of ours. There were skeptics and now experts are saying Ida's not even close to a relative.

it turns out that Ida is more closely related to lemurs. We'll keep you posted as Ida's story unfolds.

A Giant Timeline in its natural habitat

Shhh....

Be careful not to disturb these small, cute homo sapiens as they interact with the Giant Evolution Timeline in their natural habitat: the playroom.

Behavioral anthropologists please note: the Timeline seems to inspire happiness and snuggling.

(Many thanks to Trudi for the stunning wildlife photography.)

Oh my. Two more awards.

The wonderful Tillywig program in Illinois has awarded the Creature Cards with a "Top Fun" award and the Giant Evolution Timeline with their "Brain Child" award!

Check out the winners' page here. (Scroll down for our entries.)

Hooray, we are so happy!

Where is God?

We got this message from someone on our website the other day:

"I have read some of your resources and was just wondering where is God in your Philosophy? Do you not believe in a higher power? Just curious."

Here's what I wrote back:

"Thanks for your note and your question. We're just presenting science to kids, so we don't really have any position on religion. All our products can be used from any number of religious or nonreligious perspectives.
Best wishes,
Kate"

Another award! Kumbayah.

Hooray for Dr. Toy!

She just named the Giant Evolution Timeline one of the Best 100 Toys of 2009 AND one of the Ten Best Socially Responsible Toys of 2009!

See her press release and her Charlie's Playhouse entry. Thanks, Dr. Toy, you're the greatest.

Move over Lucy - Here's Ardi!

Lucy has been dethroned as the oldest human-like skeleton. Discovered in 1974, scientists believe that Lucy lived more than 3 million years ago. She was quite the catch at the time as her discovery showed evidence similarities in brain size to that of an ape, and yet evidence of upright walking like that of humans. At the time, scientist were psyched to see new evidence that bipedalism, walking upright on two legs, happened before an increase in brain size on the path of human evolution.

But now there is Ardi, a 4-foot,110-pound female discovered to have lived more than 4.4 million years ago. Ardi has shown scientists that humans may have evolved not from apes, but that both humans and apes may have evolved from a common ancestor 6 or 7 million years ago, however, their evolutionary paths split long ago. Read more about Ardi here and here, and catch a refresher on Lucy here.