Subject: RE: Seeking your advice for Darwin Day Celebration worldwide

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 17:36:18 -0700

1.yes
2. will do
3. Ecuador  'Carlos Montufar' [email-masked]
4. yes
 
   William H. Calvin                         WilliamCalvin.com
<http://williamcalvin.com/> 
     [email-masked]      faculty.washington.edu/wcalvin

  _____  

From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]] 
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 4:34 PM
To: Patrick Bateson; William H. Calvin; Helena Cronin; Richard Dawkins;
Daniel C. Dennett; Steve Jones; Robin McKie; Steven Pinker; Eugenie C.
Scott; Michael Shermer; Colin Tudge; Edward O. Wilson; Carl Zimmer
Subject: Seeking your advice for Darwin Day Celebration worldwide

Dear Dr. Calvin, 
  
As a Darwin Day friend and supporter you will be interested to hear that we
have now completed a very successful Celebration of Science and Humanity on
Charles Darwin's 196th birthday, Feb. 12, 2005.  For instance, 143 EVENTS in
13 different countries were registered on our Website and they represent
many thousands of participants! 
  
Nevertheless, that's just the beginning -- we have an ALL NEW website
<http://www.DarwinDay.org <http://www.darwinday.org/> > and you are
personally invited to examine it and send us any comments that you think
would improve its appeal for promoting our cause.  In addition, according to
the web site MSN, we are 'linked to' by over 1200 other websites, a major
feat for a site such as ours. 
  
Perhaps the best news, however, is that during the past three months we have
been improving the automated features of our Website so that we can greatly
expand our outreach efforts this coming fall to include many more
universities, museums, libraries, educators, professional scientists, and
science enthusiasts everywhere.  Importantly we will also include notifying
a large number of print and electronic media outlets with the hope of
attracting their attention.  
  
We are also very hopeful that our website will be available in additional
languages before the end of 2005.  This reminds me that we are eager to
identify appropriate individuals or groups in other countries who would be
willing to cooperate with us by taking the responsibility to promote Darwin
Day in their own country by translating our website, which we will then make
available, on our website, for them to use in their promotional efforts. 
  
 We have 4 years left to build our project into a truly International
Celebration and we here at DarwinDay.org are committed to making significant
progress every year.  To do this we would like to ask for a little marketing
assistance from you.  Here are 4 things that we believe would not take much
of your time and that would help us immensely in accomplishing our ambitious
goal.  Can you suggest other actions? 

1. We will be making our first announcement about the upcoming 2006 Darwin
Day Celebration about the second week in October 2005 via an automated
emailing to many thousands of potential participants -- particularly science
educators.  This will give them plenty of lead time to develop their own
Celebrations.  We would appreciate it greatly if you would permit us to use
your name or signature as a Darwin Day Advisor on such announcements for
2006.  Would you permit us to use your name in this manner? 
  
2. It would be of great value to us if you would write a brief Statement,
Paragraph or Essay about Darwin Day, and the importance of celebrating
Science and Humanity, over your signature so that we could use it on our
website and for publicity.  Would you be willing to do this? 
  
3. If you can help us identify appropriate individuals or groups in
non-English speaking countries that we could contact to assist us in those
countries specifically, by translating the DarwinDay site into their
language and by helping us with correspondence in their language, this would
be very helpful in our efforts to become multilingual.  If you can send us
names to contact, we will take it from there. 
  
4. Finally, I would like to know if you would be so kind as to be available
to answer inquiries about Darwin Day from the press during next years
celebration, should we need to refer them to you? 

If you are able to participate in one or more of these items we will be very
pleased.  With your assistance we believe we can make a 10 fold increase in
the number of Darwin Day Events each year leading up to a Grand Global
Celebration on Darwin's bicentennial birthday in 2009. 
  
Sincerely yours, 
  
Robert J. (Bob) Stephens, Ph.D. 
President, Darwin Day Celebration

---

From: "Steven Pinker" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2005 10:52:51 -0400

Dear Bob,

I’d be happy to lend my name as a scientific advisor to Darwin Day.
Unfortunately, I won’t have time to compose some verbiage for your site,
though if you wanted to quote something from chapters 1 or 3 of How the Mind
Works, that would fit the theme. Best of luck with plans.

Sincerely,
Steve Pinker

---

From: "j.s.jones" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 12:10:56 +0100

>emailing to many thousands of potential participants -- particularly 
>science educators.  This will give them plenty of lead time to develop 
>their own Celebrations.  We would appreciate it greatly if you would 
>permit us to use your name or signature as a Darwin Day Advisor on such 
>announcements for 2006.  Would you permit us to use your name in this manner?

Of course

>website and for publicity.  Would you be willing to do this?

Charles Darwin turned biology into science, rather than stamp-collecting. 
Before 1859 many clever people were hard at work on fossils, on anatomy, on 
sheep-breeding and on the infinite variety of life but nobody realised that 
they were all studying the same thing: evolution. Now, every piece of 
biological information - from studies of the Pre-Cambrian to the new 
comparative anatomy (otherwise known as molecular biology) and even to much 
of medicine - can be added to the great edifice known as evolution which is 
so familiar to and accepted by all biologists that they sometimes forget 
its central im.jarne@portance. Darwin Day reminds us of its great 
architect, and is time to celebrate his ideas. They place us firmly within 
the living world, and not above it.

>language and by helping us with correspondence in their language, this 
>would be very helpful in our efforts to become multilingual.  If you can 
>send us names to contact, we will take it from there.
Could you try the Academie Francaise in Paris? There are evolutionists at 
the CNRS in montpellier: [email-masked] might be an 
appropriate contact.

>
>4. Finally, I would like to know if you would be so kind as to be 
>available to answer inquiries about Darwin Day from the press during next 
>years celebration, should we need to refer them to you?

No problem

steve jones

>
>If you are able to participate in one or more of these items we will be 
>very pleased.  With your assistance we believe we can make a 10 fold 
>increase in the number of Darwin Day Events each year leading up to a 
>Grand Global Celebration on Darwin's bicentennial birthday in 2009.
>
>Sincerely yours,
>

---

From: Carl Zimmer <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 15:30:17 -0400

Dear Bob--

Thanks for the email. The site looks great. I'm too swamped to deal  
with a statement (I can't even answer my email promptly anymore!) but  
you could certainly put me down to talk to the press. However, I  
should note that technically I *am* the press.

Best,

Carl

Carl Zimmer

email: [email-masked]
web: http://www.carlzimmer.com
blog: http://www.corante.com/loom

Soul Made Flesh
A 2004 New York Times Notable Book of the Year
"A tour-de-force"--The Sunday Telegraph
For more information, visit http://www.carlzimmer.com/soul_1.html

On Jun 17, 2005, at 7:34 PM, [email-masked] wrote:

> Dear Dr. Zimmer,
>
> As a Darwin Day friend and supporter you will be interested to hear  
> that we have now completed a very successful Celebration of Science  
> and Humanity on Charles Darwin's 196th birthday, Feb. 12, 2005.   
> For instance, 143 EVENTS in 13 different countries were registered  
> on our Website and they represent many thousands of participants!
>
> Nevertheless, that's just the beginning -- we have an ALL NEW  
> website <http://www.DarwinDay.org> and you are personally invited  
> to examine it and send us any comments that you think would improve  
> its appeal for promoting our cause.  In addition, according to the  
> web site MSN, we are 'linked to' by over 1200 other websites, a  
> major feat for a site such as ours.
>
> Perhaps the best news, however, is that during the past three  
> months we have been improving the automated features of our Website  
> so that we can greatly expand our outreach efforts this coming fall  
> to include many more universities, museums, libraries, educators,  
> professional scientists, and science enthusiasts everywhere.   
> Importantly we will also include notifying a large number of print  
> and electronic media outlets with the hope of attracting their  
> attention.
>
> We are also very hopeful that our website will be available in  
> additional languages before the end of 2005.  This reminds me that  
> we are eager to identify appropriate individuals or groups in other  
> countries who would be willing to cooperate with us by taking the  
> responsibility to promote Darwin Day in their own country by  
> translating our website, which we will then make available, on our  
> website, for them to use in their promotional efforts.
>
>  We have 4 years left to build our project into a truly  
> International Celebration and we here at DarwinDay.org are  
> committed to making significant progress every year.  To do this we  
> would like to ask for a little marketing assistance from you.  Here  
> are 4 things that we believe would not take much of your time and  
> that would help us immensely in accomplishing our ambitious goal.   
> Can you suggest other actions?
>
> 1. We will be making our first announcement about the upcoming 2006  
> Darwin Day Celebration about the second week in October 2005 via an  
> automated emailing to many thousands of potential participants --  
> particularly science educators.  This will give them plenty of lead  
> time to develop their own Celebrations.  We would appreciate it  
> greatly if you would permit us to use your name or signature as a  
> Darwin Day Advisor on such announcements for 2006.  Would you  
> permit us to use your name in this manner?
>
> 2. It would be of great value to us if you would write a brief  
> Statement, Paragraph or Essay about Darwin Day, and the importance  
> of celebrating Science and Humanity, over your signature so that we  
> could use it on our website and for publicity.  Would you be  
> willing to do this?
>
> non-English speaking countries that we could contact to assist us  
> in those countries specifically, by translating the DarwinDay site  
> into their language and by helping us with correspondence in their  
> language, this would be very helpful in our efforts to become  
> multilingual.  If you can send us names to contact, we will take it  
> from there.
>
> available to answer inquiries about Darwin Day from the press  
> during next years celebration, should we need to refer them to you?
>
> If you are able to participate in one or more of these items we  
> will be very pleased.  With your assistance we believe we can make  
> a 10 fold increase in the number of Darwin Day Events each year  
> leading up to a Grand Global Celebration on Darwin's bicentennial  
> birthday in 2009.
>
> Sincerely yours,
>