Darwin Day is February 12th, the date of birth of Charles Darwin in the year 1809, at Shrewsbury, England. On this date, and throughout the month, people from all over the world are honoring the life, work and influence of Charles Darwin with events and activities which celebrate science and our shared humanity.
http://www.darwinday.org/
Originally posted by rwingettIs that where everyone makes out with their cousins 🙂 ?
Darwin Day is February 12th, the date of birth of Charles Darwin in the year 1809, at Shrewsbury, England. On this date, and throughout the month, people from all over the world are honoring the life, work and influence of Charles Darwin with events and activities which celebrate science and our shared humanity.
http://www.darwinday.org/
Originally posted by rwingettGeesh, and I didn't even get my wife a card😕
Darwin Day is February 12th, the date of birth of Charles Darwin in the year 1809, at Shrewsbury, England. On this date, and throughout the month, people from all over the world are honoring the life, work and influence of Charles Darwin with events and activities which celebrate science and our shared humanity.
http://www.darwinday.org/
Originally posted by Crochey-don't mock the dead man with the beard! apparently, he's the most important britain EVER! according to the BBC, anyway. maybe it's good that their chairman persons resigned?...😕
Hey Boys dont knock it till you tried it ???? sounds like the voice of experience. ha ha! 😛😛😛
happy charles darwin day rob and everyone!!
below are some quotes (with sources where possible) from this amazing being - who i might add with a certain amount of pleasure, apparently adopted a vegetarian diet 😉
in friendship,
prad
"It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the external conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed ["by the Creator" inserted in later editions...] into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
(The last paragraph of The Origin of Species 1859)
"Let theory guide your observations, but till your reputation is well established, be sparing in publishing theory. It makes persons doubt your observations."
(The Moral Animal p. 299)
"False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for everyone takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness; and when this is done, one path towards error is closed and the road to truth is often at the same time opened."
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
"There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties... The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery."
sadly commenting on the recapture of black slaves at ithacaia:
"... the whole were seized with the exception of one woman, who sooner than again be led into slavery, dashed herself to pieces from the summit of the mountain. In a Roman matron this would have been called the noble love of freedom; in a poor negcess it is mere brutal obstinacy."
(the voyage of the beagle ch 2)
"But can we feel sure that an old dog with an excellent memory and some power of imagination, as shewn by his dreams, never reflects on his past pleasures ... Who can say what cows feel, when they surround and stare intently on a dying or dead companion?"
(The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals where he dared to speculate about the emotions of animals - scientific heresy in his time)
advice to young naturalists on travelling:
"In a moral point of view, the effect ought to be, to teach him good-humoured patience, freedom, from selfishness, the habit of acting for himself, and of making the best of every occurrence ... he will discover, how many truly kind-hearted people there are ..."
(the voyage of the beagle ch 21)
"The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man."
Originally posted by pradtfI hate to say it, but sometimes he sounds a little like St Francis of Assisi in some of these quotes.
happy charles darwin day rob and everyone!!
below are some quotes (with sources where possible) from this amazing being - who i might add with a certain amount of pleasure, apparently adopted a vegetarian diet 😉
in friendship,
prad
"It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on ...[text shortened]... le ch 21)
"The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man."
Originally posted by rwingettMy all-time icon! Here's my super geeky Darwin fact. After natural selection, the great man came up with sexual selection too - basically selection for things like the peacock's tail, which have no use apart from to make the opposite sex fancy you. No one quite understands how it works, but these days it's a pretty well accepted facet of evolution. But a while ago, I was reading my grandad's old biology book from 1906, and it slagged off sexual selection as Darwin's big cock-up and said it had been comprehensively discredited.
Darwin Day is February 12th, the date of birth of Charles Darwin in the year 1809, at Shrewsbury, England. On this date, and throughout the month, people from all over the world are honoring the life, work and influence of Charles Darwin w ...[text shortened]... e science and our shared humanity.
http://www.darwinday.org/
So it's interesting how theories come in and out of fashion. And Darwin hey? How brainy was he to come up with theories people still couldn't get their heads round fifty, and now a hundred and fifty, years later... 😉
Rich.
Originally posted by kirksey957he does, doesn't he?
I hate to say it, but sometimes he sounds a little like St Francis of Assisi in some of these quotes.
he is so highly regarded for his theory of evolution, that it is easy to lose track of how highly evolved he was in so many other ways.
here is a link to online editions of his major works:
http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/
and this is about him:
http://www.aboutdarwin.com/
and finally this stirring summation of darwin's place in science by julian huxley providing hope for the future of the species (http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Science/Darwin.htm):
"Darwin's work has enabled us to see the position of man and of our present civilization in a truer light. Man is not a finished product incapable of further progress. He has a long history behind him, and it is a history not of a fall, but of an ascent. And he has the possibility of further progressive evolution before him. Further, in the light of evolution we learn to be more patient. The few thousand years of recorded history are nothing compared to the million years during which man has been on earth, and the thousand million years of life's progress. And we can afford to be patient when the astronomers assure us of at least another thousand million years ahead of us in which to carry evolution onwards to new heights."
in friendship,
prad
Originally posted by pradtfOne of the saddest things I've ever read is a letter from Darwin to his wife about the death of his daughter. He comes across as a thoroughly nice, and totally heartbroken, bloke.
he does, doesn't he?
he is so highly regarded for his theory of evolution, that it is easy to lose track of how highly evolved he was in so many other ways.
here is a link to online editions of his major works:
http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/
and this is about him:
http://www.aboutdarwin.com/
and finally this stirring summat ...[text shortened]... ears ahead of us in which to carry evolution onwards to new heights."
in friendship,
prad
Rich.