Thursday is Darwin Day.

[Lionel Mandrake]

The great naturalist and evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin was Born on Feb. 12, 1809 (200 years ago) and published Origin of Species in 1859 (150 years ago). The bicentennial of his birth and sesquicentennial of his most famous publication will be celebrated on Thursday, February 12, 2009. Here is a link to find more information about Darwin Day, including many public events:

http://www.darwinday.org/index.html

[TZ]

1. I think having a newly inaugurated President who

believes in science and rationality is a pretty good lead up to Darwin Day...:)
Although perhaps we could consider the previous President the "Missing Link"

[Lionel Mandrake]

3. Heh heh.

W's reaction to Darwin Day would be something like the following:

Ooh ooh ooh EEE EEE EEE EEE EEE EEE EEE

[Strong Atheist]

2. Tuesday and Thursday are

So
Happy
It's
T/T


... otherwise known by their acronmy...

[LiberalEsto]

4. Darwin was a Unitarian

http://www.famousuus.com/bios/charles_darwin.htm

[Lionel Mandrake]

5. Darwin's views on religion changed as he grew older.

He grew up in a family that was mostly Unitarian, but was baptized in the Church of England. He went to an Anglican boarding school as a child. As a young man he intended to become an Anglican parson, but was more interested in geology and natural history. His scientific studies and personal tragedy (the death of a child) caused him to lose faith. As an old man he was probably an agnostic.

[Swede]

6. I hate award season.

They're all too long and too boring.

[Lionel Mandrake]

15. Congratulations; you have won the Mandrake Award for Candor.

Information about how you can pick up your award certificate will be sent shortly. It will involve waiting in a long line and attending an interminable ceremony along with the thousands of other winners, each of whom will give a long-winded speech.

[Lionel Mandrake]

16. duplicate

duplicate

[Lex]

7. And Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday too.

nt

[Lionel Mandrake]

9. Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin have a lot in common.

They were born on the same day.

Darwin was an abolitionist, and Lincoln freed most of the slaves in the USA.

[pink-o]

24. They both fought clinical depression.

Both were traditional, and felt the heavy weight of responsibility re their roles in extraordinary lives.

I'll leave it to the astrologers to speculate their parallel paths and the personalities that dealt with those amazing events.

[LaraMN]

8. In observance, I'm gonna back into my garage door again.

x(

[Lionel Mandrake]

11. That's not as bad as what some morans did in 2004

- voting for W again.

[pokerfan]

10. I have been reading On the Origin of Species for the first time

along with http://scienceblogs.com/bloggingtheorigin/2009/01/coming_out.php">this biologist who also has never read it. For the last month, he's been reading and blogging his thoughts. Not too late to get caught up between now and Thursday!

http://scienceblogs.com/bloggingtheorigin/2009/01/coming_out.php">

Tomorrow night Nova is re-airing http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/program.html">Intelligent Design on Trial where a couple of school board members in Pennsylvania tried to sneak Creationism into the school's science curricula.

[Lionel Mandrake]

12. Thank you.

"Blogging the Origin" looks interesting. I'll check it out.

And the Nova program is excellent.

[pokerfan]

13. And of course Origin of Species is public domain

http://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/pdf/Origin_of_Species.pdf">

http://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/pdf/Origin_of_Species.pdf">PDF of the first edition

[Lionel Mandrake]

14. You can also read all six editions at the same time.

The Origin of Species
A Variorum Text
Charles Darwin. Morse Peckham, Editor
816 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Paper 2006 | ISBN 978-0-8122-1954-8 | $29.95

Darwin's changes were extensive. His book grew by a third as he rewrote many passages four or five times, and in this edition Morse Peckham has recorded every one of those changes. A book of such distinctive dimensions, on a subject of such profound importance, will be of intense interest to historians of biology, evolution, science, literature, and cultural development. It will be an invaluable aid to the clarification and full comprehension of this complex and renowned scientific classic.

http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/440.html

[Lucian]

17. Do you read Pharyngula?

The author of that website - PZ - is a former Biology prof of mine. :)

[Lionel Mandrake]

18. No, I read mostly English, plus a little German

I never heard of Pharyngula before, but I did find a web site:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/ ;)

[Lucian]

21. Haha.

;)

[Lionel Mandrake]

22. Sorry, couldn't resist. nt

[pokerfan]

19. Yeah, I discovered Pharyngula about this time last year

When Expelled was in the news. So what's he like in person?

[Lucian]

20. He's awesome in person.

Very approachable. He wasn't even boring in class.

[pokerfan]

23. Cool

His is a great blog. One of the first things I read every day.