I almost missed it—today is Thomas Henry Huxley's birthday. There are some good photos at that link. The man certainly had a fine beard in his younger days, but I admit the cleanshaven look is how I always picture him.
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During his 1876 tour of the United States, the famed anatomist and popularizer of science Thomas Henry Huxley stopped to see the American paleontologist O.C. Marsh at Yale. Marsh provided his esteemed guest with access to his ever-growing stores in the Peabody Museum, showing Huxley toothed…
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No doubt Huxley would appreciate this:
A Split Emerges as Conservatives Discuss Darwin - (New York Times)
Appreciate, as in rolling on the floor and laughing his ass off... :-)
I was reading a biography of Huxley a few years ago, and the more I read, the more I admired the man... until it was revealed that he had a fanatical hatred of the Irish, and led a committee of prominent British scientists to oppose home rule for Ireland on "scientific" grounds. When someone invokes science in a political argument of this sort, you can bet your last dollar they are racists trying to come up with a rationalization for their racism.
Since PZ is also a Mac fan, he may already know about this, but Huxley is also honored in "HEXLEY", the cute platypus mascot for the Darwin open source Apple OS project. As the website explains, the name was the result of an error on the part of software developers not sufficiently versed in the history of science.
Probably even more to PZ's liking, Hexley is taken as one of the proofs of the inherent godlessness of Apple!! ;-)
And there's our buddy Mr. Gilder, shooting his mouth off again, associating "Darwinist storm troopers" with Nazism and communism.
After clicking that last link and reading all that, I WANT to go out and by an Apple.