Of Darwin . . .

General Discussion
1

In my continuing quest to avoid working on a couple half finished AGW articles, I been surfacing YouTube for fun stuff - for me
(when my gals out of town) that would be interesting lectures or documentaries, lately natural history and
human history of exploration. I thought I found a great series: “Voyage of Darwin’s Beagle: One Small Step For Man”
a retracing of the Beagles voyage by “Darwin’s great granddaughter and a crew of authors, artists, and scientists.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKt32xxDPJw
But sadly, it turned out too superficial, nothing intellectually compelling about it, like home movies of a vacation -
maybe I’ll watch the others, but I’d prefer to learn new stuff about the voyage, the man or the science.
Still, that sent me off on a search that eventually arriving at this talk by John van Wyhe, Ph.D. apparently the man
to go to if you want to learn about Darwin. His talk: “Charles Darwin: The True Story” was fascinating.
As someone who listens/watchs a lot of professors speaking I’ve found that too many are suboptimal public speakers
(so am I, so I’m just saying!) and that part of enjoying these lectures is learning to get over distracting superficialities
and to work with the speaker, accept their mannerism, or enunciation or accents to focus on the substance of the talk.
I think I’m decent at it, but I tell you it is such a pleasure listening to a really smart person who’s comfortable at the
podium who speaks, communicates well. John van Wyhe get’s an A from me.
Plus he’s got some very intellectually compelling information to share.
If you want to test your Darwin Myth awareness it’s worth your time.
Uploaded on Apr 24, 2009
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zS1UexfnLA

He also turned me on to these websites that are worth sharing:
<strong>http://darwin-online.org.uk</strong>
<blockquote>The world's largest and most widely used resource on Darwin.
Edited by John van Wyhe
• Darwin's Complete Publications
• Darwin's Private Papers &amp; Manuscripts
• Supplementary Works
<span style="color: green;"><em>{Carrying forward the magnanimous spirit of Darwin, there's even a link to "Wallace Online".}</em></span>
<strong>http://wallace-online.org</strong> edited by John van Wyhe
Wallace Online is the first complete edition of the writings of naturalist and co-founder of the theory of evolution Alfred Russel Wallace.
Including a comprehensive compilation of his specimens - much of it never before seen. The project is directed by John van Wyhe,
assisted by Kees Rookmaaker, at the National University of Singapore, in collaboration with the Wallace Page by Charles H. Smith.
Biography
Illustrations
Wallace in Singapore
Newly published:  Dispelling the Darkness: Voyage in the Malay Archipelago and the discovery of evolution by Wallace and Darwin and
Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters from the Malay Archipelago.</blockquote>
<strong>. . . </strong> means that this thread is open to aimless ramblings if anyone wants...
2

CC this would be a good thread to experiment on by going back in and editing the line lengths by inserting line breaks to fit the margins here. You’ll also have some very short sets of text on some lines so you’ll have to use ‘delete’ to get rid if the excess spaces and the incorrect line break the program put in.
Occam

3
CC this would be a good thread to experiment on by going back in and editing the line lengths by inserting line breaks to fit the margins here. You'll also have some very short sets of text on some lines so you'll have to use 'delete' to get rid if the excess spaces and the incorrect line break the program put in. Occam
Actually I did that, guess not narrow enough. I'll try shorten them more… but later, I gotta get away from this computer for a while. Tell me, how many characters wide is a Standard CIF Page Line? Very weird, earlier I thought this problem was perhaps because I wrote some posts in a Pages doc and would cut and paste - but I've stopped doing that. Very short text on some lines are bullet point lists of said webpages
4

CC, two books on Darwin’s life I would like to recommend:

  1. Janet Browne’s two volume bio, Voyaging and Charles Darwin, The Power of Place.
  2. A historical fiction based on his book The Voyage of the Beagle titled To the Edge of the World by Thompson. This book is based on the original “Voyage” with added dialogue and is one of the best adventure stories I’ve ever read. It details his turbulent early years, arguments with his father and the relationship with the Beagle’s Captain Robert Fitzroy who later committed suicide. Believe me, you won’t put this one down. Also, Browne’s books are considered to be the most detailed about the voyage and his life. Personally, I consider Darwin to be THE pivotal figure of the 19th Century. Down House is on the top of my list of places to visit when I go to England next Spring.
    Cap’t Jack
5

It seems to be about 85 spaces per line, CC, although you could probably do about 100 if the person just scrolls left through the data column.
Occam

6
It seems to be about 85 spaces per line, CC, although you could probably do about 100 if the person just scrolls left through the data column. Occam
From the looks of it now, I was close. :) Cap't thanks for the tip, I just ordered To the Edge of the World by Thompson
7

You’ll be standing with Darwin on the Patagonian Plains and eating grilled meat with the Gauchos. Damn what an adventure he had! The book will draw you in immediately. It’s historical fiction at it’s finest and it fits exactly with Darwin’s account of the voyage. Enjoy.
Cap’t Jack