Subject: Re: Gathering useful information at Darwin Day events

From: "Frederick W. Schueler" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2005 10:24:09 -0500

"Dr. R. Stephens" wrote:

> Attached is a Microsoft Word format file (you can use OpenOffice or
> StarOffice as well) of a sign up sheet to use at your Darwin Day event.
> If you print some copies of this sheet (each copy will hold 20 names)
> and place them where people can sign them, we will know how to contact
> these interested people next year.

* okay - consider it done. 

A group I'm in is reading some 'Faith & Science' books in which
'Darwinism' is uniformly used as a synonym for 'modern evolutionary
science,' and this led me to compile the appended list for distribution
at our Darwin's Day event - it might be 'useful information' to see how
others would modify this list (which is admittedly not very explicit for
someone who's not a Darwin scholar in its present tersely worded draft -
for example the user-friendliness embodied in the writing of the
Barnacle monograph isn't widely recognized in the literature - but in
1988 I had to identify a Lepas, Darwin's book was what was available in
the Univeristy of British Columbia library, and I was flabbergasted by
the care that had been taken, in a diversity of ways, to make it easy to
use - unlike so many taxonomic monographs where it seems that the author
would be the only one who would find it really useful).

fred.
------------------------------------------------------------
           Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad, Jennifer Helene Schueler 
      RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0 
   on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W 
     (613)258-3107 <[email-masked]> http://pinicola.ca
------------------------------------------------------------
A dozen ways in which biologists try to mimic Father Darwin:

* Barnacle monograph kindness,

* slave owner-defying humanitarian boldness,

* Linnean Society co-operation & mutual subordination,

* sixpence-accepting devotion to offspring,

* Book-slashing/no-telephones mastery of information technology,

* study-skin innovation in museum technique,

* appreciation for the work of 4th- & 5th-rate workers,

* twining-plant experimentation,

* Pangenesis model-building boldness,

* mysterious-laws-of-correlation black boxes in theories,

* Orchid-contrivance testing of diverse consequences,

* Watching the worms!

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 11:08:17 -0800

Hi Bob!
Thanks for your e-mail.
I'll be happy to have a signup sheet available at our Darwin Day party this
weekend,
as well as give you a report on how it went this year.  I expect we'll also
have some
nice digital pictures to send to you.  One of our annual features is a
Jeopardy
-style game called "Evolutionary!" - If you like I'll send you the
questions we use for that
as well.  Thanks again for all the great work everyone at DarwinDay.org is
doing!
All the best,
-David Fitzgerald

Dear David Fitzgerald,

We at DarwinDay.org are still discovering how best to do things, often
with helpul suggestions from supportive people like you.  We recently
realized that if you collect names of interested persons at your
Darwin Day celebrations, and send us a copy, then we can communicate
with them in the future.  We can announce your future events and keep
people inspired about this movement to honor Science and Humanity.

We would also appreciate it if you sent us brief reports of your event,
with an estimate of how many people attended.  If you have a few
digitized photographs that you would like to share, you can attach them
to an email.  If anyone has a transcript of an inspiring talk, debate,
or sermon, we'd appreciate that too.  Basically we would like to
encourage other people next year to join this important and enjoyable
movement.

Thank you for your kind assistance.

Sincerely Yours,

Robert J. (Bob) Stephens, Ph. D.
Chairman of the Board, Darwin Day Celebration, a Nonprofit Corp.
http://darwinday.org

PS If you do not want to receive additional e-mail from Darwin Day
Celebration, simply reply to this e-mail at [email-masked].

David G. Fitzgerald
Broker Representative
Marsh Risk & Insurance Services
One California St.
San Francisco,  CA  94111
phone (415) 743-8442
fax (415) 743-8082
[email-masked]
"Is fearr Gaeilige briste na Bearla cliste"
(It's better to speak broken Irish than perfect English )

---

From: "James Underdown" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 12:27:08 -0800

Dear Bob,

We're happy to be one of the groups participating in the Darwin
celebrations. I'll try to remember to send you a note about how our event
here went with Eugenie Scott.

Please send future announcements directly to me here at CFI-West and I'll
see that they get forwarded to our readers and members.

I hope this weekend is filled with science and recognition for Darwin!

Best regards,

James Underdown
Executive Director
Center for Inquiry-West
(323) 666-9797 ext 101
www.cfiwest.org

> Dear Jim Underdown,

---

From: "Elizabeth Lawlor" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 12:28:46 -0800

Dear Dr. Stephens,

Thank you for listing our event at the Darwin Day website.  I've printed out
the signup sheet and will collect contact info at the event.  By the way, I
wasn't aware that this was a coordinated effort until Eugenie Scott (who
will be our speaker) suggested registering our event at your web site.  It's
great to know that we're part of a larger effort!

Sincerely,

Betsy Lawlor

Elizabeth J. Lawlor, Ph.D.
Anthropology
Department of Biological Sciences
Mt. San Antonio College
1100 N. Grand Ave.
Walnut, CA 91789
(909) 594-5611, x4009

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. R. Stephens [mailto:[email-masked]] 
Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2005 9:19 PM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Gathering useful information at Darwin Day events

Dear Betsy Lawlor,

We at DarwinDay.org are still discovering how best to do things, often with
helpul suggestions from supportive people like you.  We recently realized
that if you collect names of interested persons at your Darwin Day
celebrations, and send us a copy, then we can communicate with them in the
future.  We can announce your future events and keep people inspired about
this movement to honor Science and Humanity.

Attached is a Microsoft Word format file (you can use OpenOffice or
StarOffice as well) of a sign up sheet to use at your Darwin Day event.
If you print some copies of this sheet (each copy will hold 20 names) and
place them where people can sign them, we will know how to contact these
interested people next year.

We would also appreciate it if you sent us brief reports of your event, with
an estimate of how many people attended.  If you have a few digitized
photographs that you would like to share, you can attach them to an email.
If anyone has a transcript of an inspiring talk, debate, or sermon, we'd
appreciate that too.  Basically we would like to encourage other people next
year to join this important and enjoyable movement.

Sincerely Yours,

---

From: Robert Segedi <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2005 09:53:40 -0500

Bob,

I'm forwarding your message to my supervisor Carin Miller, Maire Graf the
Museum Director of Communication, and Pam Keiper who is organizing a
workshop for educators on teaching evolution, for their review and
response.  It is too close to our Friday program and other work deadlines
for me to attend to any more details.  Sorry not to be more affirming for a
program that shares our mission, but my plate is full at the moment.

best regards,

Bob

At 09:18 PM 2/6/2005 -0800, you wrote:

>Dear Robert Segedi,
>Attachment Converted: "c:\program files\eudora\segedi\attach\Signup.doc"
>
Robert R. Segedi
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History
1 Wade Oval Drive
Cleveland, OH 44106

tel:        (216) 231-4600 ext. 3251
Toll Free:  1-(800) 317-9155

fax: (216) 231-9960

---

From: Bronda Silva <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 09:13:23 -0800 (PST)

We will have the sign-up sheet at our event this Saturday and will pass it on to you soon. Thank you for doing this.
 
Bronda

"Dr. R. Stephens" <[email-masked]> wrote:
Dear Bronda Silva,

Sincerely Yours,

> ATTACHMENT part 2 application/msword name=Signup.doc

---

From: Kirby Moore <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 13:24:37 -0500

This e-mail is for anyone who needs interpretative services or physical
accommodations due to disability.

For other requests please contact the Department of Biology at
(978-542-6236). 

On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 21:18:40 -0800 "Dr. R. Stephens" 
<[email-masked]> wrote:

> Dear Darwin Festival Committee,
> 

-----------------------------------------
Kirby Moore
Email: [email-masked]
Salem State College

---

From: "Ron Sala <[email-masked]>" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 13:07:55 -0800 (PST)

Dear Dr. Stephens,
 
Unfortunately, our event was over before I received your email, and we currently don't have any plans for future Darwin Day events (though that may change). I do, however, have a copy of our order of service (including the reading we took from The Descent of Man) and my sermon. I've attached both to this email.
 
Best wishes for your efforts!
 
The Rev. Ron Sala

Dear The Rev. Ron Sala,

Sincerely Yours,

> ATTACHMENT part 2 application/msword name=Signup.doc

__________________________________________________________________
The Rev. Ron Sala
Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford
20 Forest St, Stamford, CT 06901-1819
Office: 203-348-0708  Fax: 203-358-0029
[email-masked]  [email-masked]  www.uusis.org

---

From: Steve Mullin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 12:25:58 -0600

Dear Bob,

   Thanks for your message of 6 February concerning the Darwin Day 
events that we hosted over the past week.  We were pleased with the 
attendance for each of the program components listed below:

#1 -- 7 February @ 1600 h
Film: "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" (from the PBS Evolution series)
ATTENDANCE: 25 people

#2 -- 8 February @ 1900 h
Lecture: "Evolution: Is it a logical fallacy?" by Massimo Pigliucci, 
State Univ. of New York at Stony Brook.
ATTENDANCE: 100 people

#3 -- 9 February @ 0900 h
Lecture: "Why do living organisms look the way they do?" by Massimo 
Pigliucci, State Univ. of New York at Stony Brook.
ATTENDANCE: 60 people

#4 -- 9 February @ 1500 h
Presentation: "Conversations with the Past: Charles Darwin" by John 
Wagner, Field Museum of Natural History
ATTENDANCE: 38 people

#5 -- 9 February @ 1900 h
Lecture: "An Evolving Creation: No Oxymoron" by Keith Miller, Kansas 
State Univ.
ATTENDANCE: 100 people

#6 -- 10 February @ 1000 h
Lecture: "Darwin, Common Descent, and the Fossil Record." by Keith 
Miller, Kansas State Univ.
ATTENDANCE: 40 people

#7 -- 10 February @ 1600 h
Lecture: "Eye of Newt and Filet of Fenny Snake: The Witches' Brew of 
Coevolutionary Arms Races" by Edmund Brodie, Indiana Univ. at 
Bloomington
ATTENDANCE: 75 people

#8 -- 11 February @ 1500 h
Film: "What About God?" (part of the PBS Evolution series)
ATTENDANCE: 23 people

   Additionally, John Wagner (in the character of Darwin) and one of 
EIU's geology professors visited classes at Jefferson Elementary 
School and Charleston Middle School to participate in the students' 
units on fossils on Thursday, 10 February.  We estimate that they 
interacted with 135 6th and 8th graders during this time.

   We also displayed a variety of items related to Darwin and 
evolution (e.g., fossils, books, skeletal preparations, homonid 
skulls, a beetle collection, etc.) in a pair of glass-fronted 
cabinets in the lobby of the main campus library at EIU.  These 
displays were viewable throughout the two-week period surrounding 
Darwin's birthday.  The entire week's worth of activities was covered 
in at least four different articles appearing in the campus 
newspaper, and at least one article appearing in the local (county) 
newspaper.

Event coordinators:
Gary Fritz = 217.581.2514 (office); [email-masked]
Ann Fritz = 217.581.6907 (office); [email-masked]
Steve Mullin = 217.581.6234 (office); [email-masked]

   Only one other individual signed one of our DarwinDay.org sheets:
James Doss; [email-masked]
[We figured that we'd just provide you with this info., rather than 
mail you the hardcopy of the sign-up sheet.].

   Please let me know if you have any questions about the Darwin Day 
program that we hosted at EIU.  Thanks again for your support.

Cordially,
-- 
SERPENTESERPENTESERPENTESERPENTESERPENTESERPENTESERPENTESERPENTES
   Stephen J. Mullin, Ph.D.      www: <http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfsjm/>
   Department of Biological Sciences	email: <[email-masked]>
   Eastern Illinois University		tel: 217.581.6234
   Charleston, IL  61920.3011		fax: 217.581.7141
SERPENTESERPENTESERPENTESERPENTESERPENTESERPENTESERPENTESERPENTES

---

From: Mark Pallen <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 17:30:57 +0000

>Dear Professor Mark Pallen,
>
Bob,

Check out http://www.infection.bham.ac.uk/BPAG/Dub/origin.html and
http://www.infection.bham.ac.uk/BPAG/Dub/media
Hope I don't get some nut from Montana coming to 
shoot me for saying that the US had lost it 
lately with presidents on the American airwaves:
http://www.infection.bham.ac.uk/BPAG/Dub/media/AirAmericaRadio%201.mp3

>Attachment converted: ErasmusDarwin:Signup.doc (WDBN/«IC») (000A5A58)

-- 

Mark

Professor Mark Pallen
Professor of Microbial Genomics
Bacterial Pathogenesis and Genomics Unit
Room 542, Institute for Biomedical Research,
The Medical School, University of Birmingham, BIRMINGHAM, B15 2TT
[email-masked]
tel ++44(0)121 414 7163
fax ++44 121 414 3454
http://www.infection.bham.ac.uk/BPAG/staff/mpallen.html

---

From: Baldo Conti <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 20:03:33 +0100

Dear Dr Stephens,

Thank you for your message and attachment. The DD in Florence and Pisa 
had a very interesting success, about 150-200 people in Florence 
(University, Tribuna di Galileo), and 200-250 people in Pisa (Scuola 
Normale Superiore). I provided to collect e-mail addresses according to 
your form that you can find as attachments with our plybills. The 
reports of DD in Italy with the cooperation of our association (UAAR, 
Unione degli Atei e degli Agnostici Razionalisti, www.uaar.it) will be 
published in the next issue of our periodical "L'Ateo" (written in 
Italian), that I will provide to send you by air mail to your address 
at Redwood City. Best wishes,

Baldo

P.S. - By air mail I am sending you also the originals of e-mail 
addresses and our plybills drawn by a well-known Italian cartoonist, 
Sergio Staino, member of our Comitato di Presidenza.

----------------------------------------

Il giorno 07/feb/05, alle 06:18, Dr. R. Stephens ha scritto:

> Dear Mr. Baldo Conti,
> <Signup.doc>

**********************************************************
Baldo Conti, Redazione de L'Ateo
Casella Postale 10, 50018 Le Bagnese S.G. (Firenze)
Tel-Segr-Fax 055 711156, Cell. 335 5464512
E-mail: [email-masked]
Universita' (diretto) 055 2288.201/307
**********************************************************

---

From: "Alyssa (Russell) Fralick " <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 14:52:55 -0600

Please see attached note.
Thanks.
Alyssa Fralick

Quoting "Dr. R. Stephens" <[email-masked]>:

> Dear Alyssa,

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 14:51:46 -0800

Hi Bob!

Here's the things you asked for in your last e-mail:

-Brief Report
We had an excellent Darwin Day Party this year, our fourth annual!   In
fact, we
had such a great turnout, we really needed a bigger room!  The party was at
a
local Italian restaurant, Bucca Di Beppo.  We started off with food and a
short
intro to Darwin Day, followed by a tribute to Ernst Mayr and an amusing
guide
to Creationist Debate tactics.  Our feature presentation was a debate
between
Charles Darwin (portrayed by biologist Dave Seaborg) and "famed Creation
Scientist
Dr. Eustace J. Paluxy" (portrayed by SF Atheist's Dave Fitzgerald) The mock
debate
was fun and educational, and the audience really enjoyed it -I think it was
the most
popular Darwin Day activity we've ever done!  Afterwards we had a Birthday
cake for
Darwin and played "Evolutionary!"  the Darwin-themed "Jeopardy!" -styled
game.
All in all, a very successful Darwin Day celebration, and I'm looking
forward to an
even bigger event next year!

-Signup sheet
Here's a copy of our Darwin Day signup sheet.  If you'd like me to send the
hardcopy or are having trouble with any of the names, please feel free to
let me know.

(See attached file: Darwin Day 2005 Signup Sheet.pdf)

-photos
We have several photos on sfatheist.com - let me talk to our webmaster
about sending them to you directly.

-Evolutionary!  Here's a few  different versions we've used over the years.
A few of the questions pop up more than once;
I particularly love the one about Harriet, the galapagos tortoise Darwin
brought back aboard the beagle that ( at last report anyway) is still
living at a zoo in Queensland, Australia.
(See attached file: zzEvolutionary! Stockpile doc.doc)

-Debate Transcript
(See attached file: zzDarwin Day 2005 Debate Draft.doc)

If there's anything else we can do to support the Program, let us know!
Take care,
-D

David G. Fitzgerald
Broker Representative

---

From: "HSGP" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 20:36:25 -0700

Hi Bob,

We had our fourth annual Darwin Day Dinner, at Joe's Crab Shack (for the 
third year in a row).  We prefer not to have members sign in, as we like to 
keep this informal.  So we did not do a sheet with names and addresses.

We had approximately 20 members of HSGP (Humanist Society of Greater 
Phoenix) in attendance, not bad for a cold, rainy evening in Phoenix (we 
don't do rain well here!).  The only photos were taken with a 1 megapixel 
cell phone.  I don't hold great hope for this, but if any photos should turn 
out, I'll try to get copies.

We had a lot of fun, as we always try to keep it light.  I printed up 
several items to hand out, things I found through links on your website and 
from Google searches.  I printed copies of your front page, with the photos 
of Darwin at various ages.  Everyone got a copy of this.  I also printed up 
some other information to hand out, that I found on other websites.  I also 
did a Google and found the Darwin Quiz. 
http://www.juliantrubin.com/quiz/darwinquiz.html  Four people got perfect 
scores, and I bought them all a dessert as prizes!

We capped the event off by having the wait staff do their usual rowdy 
Birthday cheering and singing, only the "birthday boy" was Charles Darwin. 
Since the staff is mostly students at ASU, they were very enthusiastic.  A 
good time was had by all!

Suggestions:
Your website has some very exciting and useful information about Darwin. 
However, it is difficult to navigate.  For example, it is hard to find the 
events for 2005.  When clicking on EVENTS in the navigation bar, one must 
wade through a paragraph and then click further to get to the actual list of 
events.  This should be a button alone, not buried within a paragraph. Then, 
once this is discovered, the sorting by country, state and city is difficult 
to read and scroll through.  The country names are embedded in the text. 
They should be at the top of the listing as HEADINGS, making it easier to 
find what one is looking for.  Also -- while I can understand the need for 
an international listing, wouldn't it be better to have the United States 
listings first, since this entails more than 50% of the events?  And list 
them under STATE headings.  This is more important information than the 
title of the event for people trying to locate and attend events in their 
home state.  The U.S. listings should then be followed by INTERNATIONAL 
CELEBRATIONS:  COUNTRY NAME, then the information.

I think it would also be helpful to have a dedicated LINKS button in your 
navigation bar, with a page full of nothing but great links.  An example of 
this can be found at our website: www.HSGP.org -- click on Links and you'll 
see an example.

I know this is a labor of love and you have done an excellent job. Thank you 
for organizing this!

Sincerely,

Susan Sackett
President, Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix

---

From: Jo Ann Mooney <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 08:01:45 -0600

Dr. R. Stephens,
The Heartland Humanists are having two events in honor of Darwin Day.  
The first occurred this past Saturday, Feb. 12 at a local restaurant.  
Over 15 people join in the fun.  We briefly talked about some of the new 
scientific findings that, once again, support evolution and special 
attention was paid to some of the new tv shows that are doing a great 
job of demonstrating the importance of evolution.  We ended by wishing 
Darwin a happy birthday.  Our next event will be a talk on Friday, 2/25.
Jo Ann Mooney
I'll see if I can get pictures of the talk.

---

From: Ron Steelman <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:57:49 -0500

Dr. R. Stephens wrote:

> Dear Ron Steelman, President,
>
Red Bank Humanists is just over a year old and we were pleased to have 
our largest meeting yet (33 people) on Sunday, February 13, 2005, when 
we celebrated Darwin Day by offering a lecture by Avital Pilpel, Ph.D. 
entitled, "What the Fundamentalists Got Right About Darwin." (you 
already have our press release).

Attached please find a photo of Dr. Pilpel chatting with RBH members 
following his talk.

The privacy policy of Red Bank Humanists does not allow me to share 
names and addresses of our members. However, if you  want to send any 
special announcements to us, please send to 
[email-masked].  I would be happy to forward the 
information. Additionally, on our website we offer a link to the Darwin 
Day website.

It was a good beginning. We hope to make Darwin Day our Forum topic 
every February.

Best regards,
Ron Steelman, President
Red Bank Humanists, Inc.

---

From: "Victor Bien" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 11:43:48 +1100 (EDT)

On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 21:18:40 -0800, Dr. R. Stephens wrote:

|Dear Victor Bien,
|
|We at DarwinDay.org are still discovering how best to do things, often
|with helpul suggestions from supportive people like you.  We recently
|realized that if you collect names of interested persons at your
|Darwin Day celebrations, and send us a copy, then we can communicate
|with them in the future.  We can announce your future events and keep
|people inspired about this movement to honor Science and Humanity.
|
|Attached is a Microsoft Word format file (you can use OpenOffice or
|StarOffice as well) of a sign up sheet to use at your Darwin Day event.
|If you print some copies of this sheet (each copy will hold 20 names)
|and place them where people can sign them, we will know how to contact
|these interested people next year.
|
|We would also appreciate it if you sent us brief reports of your event,
|with an estimate of how many people attended.  If you have a few
|digitized photographs that you would like to share, you can attach them
|to an email.  If anyone has a transcript of an inspiring talk, debate,
|or sermon, we'd appreciate that too.  Basically we would like to
|encourage other people next year to join this important and enjoyable
|movement.

  This year about 60 people attended our Darwin Day for students.  A class of about 15 senior high school students from a leading Sydney high school attended which was gratifying.  They did not say they were coming until two day before the event before which another school pulled out the last minute and we were depressed that we'd have no students!

  Because of the focus on students the event was held on Monday the 14 Feb rather than on the day which this year of course was a Saturday.

  We are focussing on students because we feel our Humanist movement is having trouble surviving for the long-term because we seemingly cannot attract "younger people" to it for "succession" to be able to happen.  So my/our strategy is to make DD a means of building awareness amongst the up coming generation why something like the Humanist Society is necessary.  Another reason is to model it a little after the "Summer school" concept our Sydney University's unique and brash (now retired) physics professor Harry Messel use to run for such students except for physics.  After all DD is meant to be a _celebration_ of science and humanity   :-)

  The teacher from the school pointed me to a part of the syllabus which I missed.  This will help thinking for next year.

  This year due to organisational difficulties we weren't able to run the DD program in a way we really would have liked.  However, we still had vital support from the Australian Skeptics.  Prof Colin Groves is a member of the Skeptics and it is a great plus to be able to ask him to speak like a buddy!

  Up to now Sydney Humanists have not related well to the idea of promoting evolution, not because they don't believe in it but because they haven't felt that it is a core practical concern.  They have felt it is too "academic".  Humanist interest have been in the social areas such as the abortion and euthanasia debates.  With the development of evolutionary psychology I felt that here was the means to connect facts about humankind's evolutionary biological past to Humanist's central interests.  The flow of evolutionay biology into evolutionary psychology becomes a new reason why Humanists should sharpen their understanding of biological evolution, i.e. in short why Humanists should be interested in evolution!

  In the event I was not able to obtain a speaker to talk on some aspect of evolutionary psychology so I resorted to showing a video produced by WGBH.  Two episodes were shown.  The one shown before lunch to the students and the public was the one entitled "The Minds Big Bang".  This showed evidence of how the mind of modern humans exploded into the archeological record about 350 000 years ago.  Although I had seen this video before a new realisation hit me during the occasion - so the convenor learnt something new at an event he himself convened.

  Prof Groves in a slide in his talk graphed how the brain size of human precursors grew from about 0.4L 6 million years ago to the present day size of about 3L 300 000 years ago.  His intention was to show contra the creationists that the number of "missing links" was steadily (and impressively) accumulating but what hit me in dramatic clarity was that the biological evolution of increasing brain size produced the basis for mental evolution to take over from biological evolution.  As you may know the episode finished with comments by Richard Dawkins and Sue Blackmore about memetic evolution.  This realisation coupled with other reading I happened to have been doing caused a big bang in my own mind!

  After lunch hard core Humanists and Skeptics voted to watch the episode "What about God" to gain a sharper understanding of the reason why so many people desparately clutch at the straw of creation or creationism.

  Last Saturday night, one month after Darwin Day itself, the Australian Skeptics held a dinner to celebrate DD (for adults!  :-)  ).  Dr Alex Ritchie spoke about the politics of creationism and showed how sophisticated, determined, childish and ridiculous fanatical creationists are.  (They may write their own report to you about that occasion).

  The e-mail address of Sydney speakers for future DDs are in the cc header of this message.  I have asked the Skeptics to ask one of their members who appears qualified to talk on aspects of evolutionary psychology whether he would be able to speak next year.

Victor Bien

|
|Thank you for your kind assistance.
|
|Sincerely Yours,
|
|Robert J. (Bob) Stephens, Ph. D.
|Chairman of the Board, Darwin Day Celebration, a Nonprofit Corp.
|http://darwinday.org