February 13, 2011
Everyone knows about Darwin's Finches, of the Galapagos Islands. But of course, Darwin made observations of birds throughout his travels on The Beagle. Here, I present a number of passages from The Voyage that include some of these observations.
Read the rest here
February 13, 2011
Charles Darwin wrote a book called Geological Observations on South America. Since Fitzroy needed to carry out intensive and extensive coastal mapping in South America, and Darwin was, at heart, a geologist more than anything else (at least during the Beagle's voyage), this meant that Darwin would…
February 13, 2011
We're half way through Darwin Month, and only a tiny ways through the voyage. Need to hurry up! So, let's skip ahead a bit and hit the Gauchos.... (This is a modified version of a post from my old blog).
Well, you don't really want to hit at Gaucho ... they hit back rather hard....
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February 13, 2011
OK, maybe the argument is a bit weak, but still...
February 12, 2011
Thousands of Nokia workers walked off the job for the day in protest of the Microsoft-Nokia deal.
First there was the "Burning Platform" memo:
In Elop's 1300-word memo ... the ex-Microsoft exec likens the company to an oil platform burning at sea while the hands try to put out the fire by dousing…
February 12, 2011
Eventually, the Beagle headed south to the area of Uruguay and Argentina, still on the Atlantic Coast, where extensive mapping of the coastal waters was required.
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February 12, 2011
When reading the Voyage, it is impossible to miss the observation that much of the time Darwin was engaged in adolescent boy behavior: Pulling the heads off insects, noting how long they would wiggle after cut in half, closely examining the ooze and guts, occupied much of his time. Obviously,…
February 12, 2011
What do you eat when you are travelling the world in search of truth about the natural world? Most of the time Darwin ate pretty well...
While traveling through the interior near Rio, Darwin makes note of some of the agricultural practices of the region. He is visiting farms ... plantations ..…
February 12, 2011
I became acquainted with an Englishman who was going to visit his estate ... more than a hundred miles [north] of Cape Frio. As I was quite unused to travelling, I gladly accepted his kind offer of allowing me to accompany him.
And so was the case with a number of Darwin's excursions into the bush…
February 12, 2011
The first time I read the following passage from The Voyage, I was reminded of my own first experience in a rain forest (in Zaire). Evident in this passage is at least a glimmering of Darwin's appreciation for the complexity of ecosystems. Darwin could be considered the first scientific ecologist.…
February 12, 2011
Behold this humble passage by Darwin, which is what immediately follows his discussion of the octopus. This passage is a touchstone to several important aspects of what Darwin was doing and thinking, and is a poignant link to what Darwin did not know:
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February 12, 2011
Of his time on the Beagle (1832 - 1836), Darwin wrote, "The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career." Of the manuscript describing that voyage, he wrote, "The success of this my first literary child always tickles my vanity more…
February 12, 2011
And, for your birthday I'm going to repost my epic (as in long) series on Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle. And, to save electrons, each of the following (see above, because this is the blogosphere where everything is upside-down) will be a pointer to the original post. Enjoy!
February 12, 2011
... by not having a blog that gets lots of spam.
The following items were trapped in my spam filter over a period of several minutes, this morning. Each from a different IP address, each signed by a different author, each has a different fake email (provided), each points to a different web site (…
February 12, 2011
In 1833, Darwin spent a fair amount of time on the East Coast of South America, including in the Pampas, where he had access to abundant fossil material. Here I'd like to examine his writings about some of the megafauna, including Toxodon, Mastodon, and horses, and his further considerations of…
February 10, 2011
If you do something wrong, you should be fired or killed. Whether you should be fired or killed has nothing to do with what you did, but rather, the context in which you did it. If you do something wrong in the presence of a legal gun owner with a Conceal Carry permit and a loaded weapon, you…
February 10, 2011
And I have proof:
The Idaho Press Tribune has an abysmally stupid editorial for you to read and discuss. Do you know what "Tribune" means. Clearly, they don't at the Idaho Press Tribune.
Why is there so much hype about finding "life-friendly planets" (Page A7, Feb. 3)? Because evolutionists want…
February 10, 2011
Just as I suspected. Viewed in a different light, North America vanishes. In the upper left is the North American Nebula as seen in the visible light spectrum. Obviously, it looks just like North America:
But when viewed in different parts of the spectra, it goes away. Read the story and see the…
February 9, 2011
As a member of MNCSE I object to Steven Newton gratuitous opening statement but otherwise you might find this useful.
February 9, 2011
I just posted the following comment on this article in MinnPost:
Thanks for covering this. As Randy says, this has been known for decades, but for some reason every time it hits the news (because of a new study that shows the same thing again) everyone seems to have just heard it for the first…
February 8, 2011
A Better Grip: T Cells Strengthen Our Hand against Influenza Clinical Infectious Diseases, 52 (1), 8-9 DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciq018Flu vaccines are important and useful, but also relatively ineffective compared to many other vaccines. Immunity is imperfect, there are many 'strains' of influenza in a…
February 7, 2011
I went to the gym today and spent about an hour on the treadmill (yeah, I know, good for me) and from where I was I could see the CNN-playing TV and the Fox-playing TV. I usually position myself so I can't see Fox because I find it disturbing and annoying, but the gym was crowded so I did not have…
February 7, 2011
Why Does the Superbowl Hate America?
Watch the girl sing while you follow the ... revisions below:
Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming reaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts…
February 6, 2011
He is the author of NM House Bill 302 which is designed to protect teachers who want to teach anti-evolution or climate change denialism. This is not too different than the bill Michele Bachmann, who is also an idiot, introduced when she was a Republican member of the State legislature in…
February 3, 2011
The Superbowl of Birding is out, and by that I mean I and the Bird Web Carnival number CXLIII. Pronounced like Cthulhu but with an "i" sound at the end. You will find it here at the Slugyard blog.
The next edition of I and the Bird is set for February 17th, and I will be hosting it here, so…
