FOUR DARWIN VIDEOS FROM CSU, CHICO

(1) © [All Rights Reserved.] Placed on the WWW on February 12, 2004, for presentations on February 12 and February 19, 2004 at The Anthropology Forum at CSU, Chico.

ABSTRACT: Charles R. Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 and died on April 19, 1882. While famous primarily for his epoch-making 1859 publication entitled On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life , Darwin is also noted for his 1871 publication entitled the The Descent of Man And Selection in Relation to Sex. [2nd edition of 1882]. The presentation today and next week (February 19, 2004) will show the four "Darwin Videos" created on this campus. The four videos are also available at: http://rce.csuchico.edu/darwin/darwinvideo.htm. Video # 1 (1997): Charles Darwin - Reflections: The Beginning [In England]. [To be shown February 12, 2004.] Video #2 (1999): Charles Darwin - Part One: The Voyage [From England to South America]. [To be shown February 12, 2004.] Video #3 (2001): Charles Darwin - Part Two: The Voyage [South America to the Galápagos and Back To England]. [To be shown February 19, 2004.] Video #4 (2003): Charles Darwin - Reflections: A Man of Science [In England]. [To be shown February 19, 2004.] [Photo by Charles F. Urbanowicz, Natural History Museum, London (1999).

ABSTRACT (Above)
INTRODUCTION: THE CONTEXT OF THE VIDEOS (CONTENT, CONDUIT, CONSUMER, AND COORDINATION!)
ON DARWIN
DARWIN AND ORIGIN (1859+)
A BRIEF STATEMENT
ON-GOING CONCLUSIONS
SPECIFIC URBANOWICZ DARWIN ITEMS
SEVEN OTHER DARWIN-RELATED WEBSITES
FEBRUARY 2004 POSTSCRIPT: SEARCH ENGINE REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION: THE CONTEXT OF THE VIDEOS (CONTENT, CONDUIT, CONSUMER, AND COORDINATION!)

"The rationale of collaborative research is the synergism of two or more minds working towards the solution of the same problem (two or more people working together can accomplish more than the sum of what would have been possible if those same people had been working on their own)." Sir Peter Medawar, 1986, Memoir of a Thinking Radish (Oxford University Press), page 107.

Initial videotaping of "Urbanowicz as Darwin" took place over a four day period in April 1996 in Studio "A" in the Meriam Library at CSU, Chico. I was first encouraged to "perform" as Darwin in the first person by Professor Lou Nevins (now retired from the Instructional Media Center, or IMC, at California State University, Chico). That presentation as Darwin was for the (now defunct) closed circuit television campus network known as ITFS (or Instructional Television For Students). That Darwin presentation was made in February 1993. Prior to the 1996 videotaping, Ms. Donna Crowe (also of IMC) did extensive research and wrote the script for four-day videotaping in 1996. After videotaping was completed, Donna coordinated and edited the creation and quest for graphics to add to the four videotapes and my interpretation of Charles Darwin was only possible because of a tremendous teamwork approach, spearheaded by Donna, who was the writer, producer, and co-director of the production. The other Co-Director was Mr. Clark Brandstatt (also of IMC). The narrator was Dr. Lynn Elliot (Department of English, CSU, Chico) and additional voices were provided by the following individuals: Alicia Croyle, Kris Frost, Brantly Payne, Michelle L. Smith, Alice Burkart-Roberts, Nanette Quintero, Jeff Hoheimer, Michael D. Jordan, Ryan Palmer, Karen Adelman, Steve Herman, Clark Brandstatt, and Terry Nolan. Camera operators were Kathleen Myers, Tony Bergman, and Karen Adelman. Costume and make-up were provided by Ms. Martha Acuña (now retired, from the Department of Theatre Arts, CSU, Chico). The teleprompter was handled by Karen Adelman and run-through readers were Marilyn Cervantes and Lou Nevins (both of IMC). Computer Graphics were created by H. Chris Ficken, Randy Wall, Derek Krauss, and Rachel Jupin (all of IMC). My appreciation and special thanks are also given to Dr. Randy Wonzong and Professor Marty Gilbert (Theatre Arts Department, CSU, Chico).

The content was Darwin and the conduit to deliver the information was a multimedia production. The eventual consumer or client was thought to be any individual (singly or in a classroom situation) who would have an interest in Darwin: this interest could be in anthropology, biology, history, or a host of other disciplines that have been influenced by the ideas put forward by Darwin. With all of this in mind, there is obviously the need for coordination! And Donna Crowe was the masterful coordinator of completing the production! Without coordination one inevitably has a fifth "C" and that is CHAOS! Below you have a brief diagram which may be useful in numerous teaching situations.

I bring to my interpretation of Charles R. Darwin (1809-1882) a passionate attempt to humanize the man. The idea of appearing as Darwin, in costume (and shaved head) is not a new one: Zoology Professor Richard Eakin (1910-1999), University of California (Berkeley), portrayed a variety of individuals, including William Harvey (1578-1657), Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), and Charles Darwin, to inspire students about science (R.M. Eakin, 1975, Great Scientists Speak Again). Part of the rationale for creating instructional videotapes (as well as a DVD) dealing with Charles R. Darwin is an attempt to not only convey the content of Darwin's work within the context of his times, but also to demonstrate the impact his ideas have for contemporary students. In many respects, the videos are an attempt (through the use of multimedia) to convey what Freeman Dyson wrote about Albert Einstein: "This book shows him as he was--not a superhuman genius but a human genius, and all the greater for being a human being" (In Alice Calaprice, 1996, The Quotable Einstein, page xiii).

ON DARWIN

"The fact is that Charles Darwin was in almost all respects a fairly standard example of the nineteenth century student, well off, active in field sports, working hard enough to avoid academic failure, but a long way from academic success." Peter Brent 1981, Charles Darwin: A Man Of Enlarged Curiosity (NY: Harper & Row), page 89.

Charles R. Darwin (1809-1882) definitely proved many individuals wrong, and nothing is as clear as his monumental 1859 publication (and subsequent editions of 1860, 1861, 1866, 1869, and 1872): On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life [Note: this is the on-line version of the 1859 edition]; Darwin himself was to write in his Autobiography that the Origin "is no doubt the chief work of my life [stress added]" (Nora Barlow, 1958, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882: With Original Omissions Restored Edited With An Appendix And Notes By His Grand-Daughter, page 122).

On February 10, 1993, I made my first presentation as "Charles R. Darwin" (in costume) on the campus of California State University, Chico, and a question was raised from the audience as to "why did you [Urbanowicz] place so much emphasis on Darwin's use of the term Creator" in his writings?" The answer given then was the same one I hold today: at times, people discuss Darwin without ever having read Darwin or if they have read something by Darwin, "they" interpret his writings for their own purposes. Darwin wrote of a "Creator" and was not an atheist. Charles Darwin also wrote with clarity and he presented a tremendous amount of information over numerous years and he also re-wrote numerous items, resulting in the six editions of Origin in his lifetime. One additional point must be made: Darwin did not write about human beings in his 1859 publication (or the five revised editions which followed). All he had to say about human beings in Origins was the following, taken from the 1872 conclusions of the last, 6th edition of Origin: 

"In the future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be securely based on the foundation already well laid by Mr. Herbert Spencer, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Much light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history."

Charles R. Darwin was an interesting individual and it is wonderful to read about his influence in so many areas; one intriguing parallel concerned John Muir (1838-1914), of Yosemite fame, and Charles Darwin:

"In 1837, at the age of twenty-eight, Darwin jotted in his notes, 'animals . . . may partake of our origin in one common ancestor--we may all be melted together.' At twenty-nine, Muir left home to explore the natural world and eventually to express himself even more expansively: 'When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.' Yosemite became to Muir what the Galapagos Islands were to Darwin: a place where personal experience and visionary thought came together to influence broader concepts pursued for decades thereafter in other parts of the world. Both men looked closely at the primordial struggle for existence long observed by others; both saw not something life-threatening and destructive, but a creative, life-giving process. Darwin liberated biologists from looking at a species a fixed entities. Muir freed first himself, then generations of his disciples, from the venerated tradition of adapting land to human needs, urging instead a new ethic of adapting human behavior toward preserving the natural state of the earth" [stress added] (Galen Rowell [Editor], 1989, The Yosemite [The original John Muir text], page 19.

Finally, two final statements for this brief paper:

"Darwin taught us all to see more clearly what everyone had seen, and Darwin also taught us to think, along with him, what no one else had thought. No branch of science is more dominated by a single theory, by a single great idea, than is the whole of biology by the idea of evolution by Natural Selection." J. Livingston and L. Sinclair, 1967, Darwin And The Galapagos, n.p.

The second closing comment comes from my "inspiration" to perform as Darwin, in costume, in February 1993 and I cite the words of Richard M. Eakin who is making a statement as Charles Darwin:

"If I had any advice to you it is just this: love science but do not worship it. Put science in its proper place, ranking it along with philosophy and history, music and religion, literature and art. If I had my life to live again [Darwin says], I would make it a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week." Richard M. Eakin, 1975, Great Scientists Speak Again, page 107.

DARWIN AND ORIGIN (1859+)

"The first fossils recognized as Neandertals were found in August 1856. Two quarrymen were shoveling debris from a limestone cave near Dusseldorf, Germany.... The quarrymen were digging in a cave in the Neander Valley. (In the nineteenth century, the German word for valley was thal, but the spelling was changed to tal at the beginning of the twentieth century, since German does not have a th sound.) The valley was named after a seventeenth-century composer and poet named Joachim Neumann (Newman in English), who signed his compositions with the Greek version of his name, Neander. Thus the irony of Neandertal man's literal translation: 'man of the valley of the new man.' The timing of the discovery could not have been better. Three years later Charles Darwin [1809-1882], in his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, broached the unthinkable [stress added]." Steve Olson, 2002, Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company), pages 76-77.

When what is commonly called Origin was published in 1859, it was an immediate (and controversial) success. In attempting to understand Darwin, and the impact of his ideas through time, the following information should be of interest: every edition of Origin published in Charles R. Darwin's lifetime is different! He re-wrote every-single-one and all are different! The reason it is important to point out the various editions of Origin is demonstrated by the following chart, based on information in the excellent 1959 publication of Morse Peckham [Editor] entitledThe Origin Of Species By Charles Darwin: A Variorum Text). The concept of change is definitely vital to an understanding of Darwin, whether you are reading Darwin himself or reading about him and I include the following tabular information on Darwin's Origin in virtually everything I present or write:

YEAR/Ed.	COPIES	Sentences	Sentences	Sentences	TOTAL	% CHANGE
1859/1st	1,250				3,878
1860/2nd	3,000	9 eliminated	483 rewritten	30 added	3,899	7 %
1861/3rd	2,000	33 eliminated	617 rewritten	266 added	4,132	14 %
1866/4th	1,500	36 eliminated	1073 rewritten	435 added	4,531	21 %
1869/5th	2,000	178 eliminated	1770 rewritten	227 added	4,580	29 %
1872/6th	3,000	63 eliminated	1699 rewritten	571 added	5,088	21-29 %

If one is reluctant to read ALL of Darwin's Origin as indicated, there is a delightful book by Maurice Sagoff (1970) which is called to your attention: Shrinklits: Seventy of the World's Towering Classics Cut Down To Size (New York: Workman Publishing) wherein the following appears on page 99:

Incidentally, Charles R. Darwin took great care not to write about Homo sapiens in Origin in 1859 and all he had to say about "man" was the following:

"In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history. [Chapter XV: "Recapitulation And Conclusion"]

By the 6th edition of Origin in 1872, Darwin had re-written the above passage as the following:

"In the future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be securely based on the foundation already well laid by Mr. Herbert Spencer [1820-1903], that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Much light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history. [Chapter XV: "Recapitulation And Conclusion"]

Even with this modest passing reference to "man" Darwin caused problems (and inspired individuals!).

A BRIEF STATEMENT

"The [1937] Hungarian Nobel Prize winner [in Physiology/Medicine], [Albert] Szent-Györgyi [von Nagyrapolt] [1893-1986], once said that a scientist should see what everybody else has seen and then think what nobody has thought. Nobody did this better than Charles Darwin, who first realized that the evolution of life took place by Natural Selection. Darwin taught us all to see more clearly what everyone had seen, and Darwin also taught us to think, along with him, what no one else had thought. No branch of science is more dominated by a single theory, by a single great idea, than is the whole of biology by the idea of evolution by Natural Selection [stress added]." J. Livingston and L. Sinclair, 1967, Darwin and the Galapagos, no page number.

While visiting a friend in London in December 1881, Charles R. Darwin suffered a mild heart seizure. On the 12th of February 1882, his 73rd birthday, Darwin wrote to a friend that "my course is nearly run" and within two months, on Wednesday, the 19th of April 1882, he had a heart attack and died. Darwin's remains are not in the community of Down (where he lived from 1842 until 1882), but are localed in the chapel of St. Faith in Westminster Abbey, in London. Upon his death, twenty members of Parliament requested that Darwin be buried in the Abbey and his four-horse funeral carriage (accompanied by his sons Francis, Leonard, and Horace) made the 16 mile journey to London on the 25th of April 1882..

Darwin was interred a few paces away from the final resting places of Sir Isaac Netwon [1642-1747], Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875), Michael Faraday (1791-1867) and William Herschel (1738-1822). His pall bearerers includeed the president of the Royal Society, as well as Robert Lowell (the American Minister to the British Isles), the churchman Cannon Farrar (1831-1903), an earl, two dukes and three leading British biologists of the times who were also Darwin's closest scientific friends: Thomas Huxley (1825-1895), Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), and Sir Joseph Hooker (1817-1911), of Chico's "Hooker Oak" fame. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), from whom Darwin had borrowed the phrase "survival of the fittest" even thought the occasion of Darwin's internment at the Abbey worthy enough to attend to suspend his own objections to religious ceremonies. If one considers how fiercely Darwin had been attacked by certain of the orthodox clergy during his lifetime it does seem somewhat interesting that he once intended to become a clergyman and that he is, in fact, buried in one of the most symbolic religious structures of the British Empire.

I use Darwin's own words to answer the question posed at the beginning of this presentation, namely "Why are there so many different kinds of living things?" In his closing words of the 1860 edition of Origin Darwin had the following:

"Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object of which we are capable of conceiving, namely the production of higher animals directly follows. There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator 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 [stress added]."

Huxley wrote Darwin's obituary for the April 27, 1882 issue of Nature (London) and he wrote that the words applied to Socrates "Apology" were appropriate for Darwin and the words ring:

"...in our ears as if it were Charles Darwin's farewell:--'The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways--I to die and you to live. Which is the better, God only knows.'" Thomas H. Huxley, 1882, Charles Darwin. April 27, 1882, Nature (London); reprinted in Thomas H. Huxley, 1896, Darwiniana Essays [1970: New York AMS Reprint], pages 253-302, pages 244-247, page 247.

 

ON-GOING CONCLUSIONS

"The unit of survival [or adaptation] is organism plus environment. We are learning by bitter experience that the organism which destroys its environment destroys itself. If, now, we correct the Darwinian unit of survival to include the environment and the interaction between organism and environment, a very strange and surprising identity emerges: the unit of survival turns out to be identical with the unit of mind" [italics in original; stress added]." Gregory Bateson [1904-1980], 1972, Steps To An Ecology of Mind (NY: Ballantine Books), page 483.

Darwin did his work within the context of a certain physical and social environment and I write (and teach) within my own environment, Bateson's words are very powerful, for as thinking organisms we are part of the environment. Darwin taught us that. (Incidentally, for a January 2004 paper entitled "Teaching About Darwin: Towards the Bicentennial (As Well as the Sesquicentennial) of Charles R. Darwin, 1958/1959" please see http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/TeachingAboutDarwinJan2004.html).

SPECIFIC URBANOWICZ DARWIN ITEMS (in reverse chronological order):

The Darwin Videos (all available at http://rce.csuchico.edu/darwin/darwinvideo.htm or):

2003 Charles Darwin: - Part Three: A Man of Science. [ ~Twenty-four Minute Video. Darwin from South America, through the Galápagos Islands, and back to England.] [http://rce.csuchico.edu/Darwin/RV/darwin4.ram] Produced and Edited by Ms. Donna Crowe: Instructional Media Center, CSU, Chico. Available via the Internet with REAL PLAYER [http://www.real.com/player/index.html].

Within a few years of his return to England, Charles Darwin happily settled into marriage, moved to a quiet house in the country, and begun a routine of research and writing which would occupy the rest of his life. In this episode discover why Darwin (Professor Charles Urbanowicz) waited over 20 years to publish his groundbreaking work Origin of Species, and learn how ill health, family tragedies, friends, respected colleagues and ardent supporters shaped his life and career.

2001 Charles Darwin: - Part Two: The Voyage. [ ~Twenty-seven Minute Video. Darwin from South America, through the Galápagos Islands, and back to England.] [http://rce.csuchico.edu/darwin/RV/darwin3.ram] Edited by Ms. Vilma Hernandez and Produced by Ms. Donna Crowe: Instructional Media Center, CSU, Chico. Available via the Internet with REAL PLAYER [http://www.real.com/player/index.html].

The second half of the historic journey of the HMS Beagle finds Charles Darwin exploring more of South America and several islands in the Pacific. In this episode, Charley Darwin (Professor Charles Urbanowicz) views several active volcanoes, experiences an earthquake, treks to the Andes, explores the Galapagos Islands, and then heads for home.

1999 Charles Darwin: - Part One: The Voyage. [ ~Twenty-two Minute Video. Darwin sailing from England to South America.] [http://rce.csuchico.edu/darwin/RV/darwinvoyage.ram] Produced and Edited by Ms. Donna Crowe: Instructional Media Center, CSU, Chico. Available via the Internet with REAL PLAYER [http://www.real.com/player/index.html].

Sail along with Charley Darwin on the first half of his historic journey around the world aboard the HMS Beagle. In this second video in the series, Charley Darwin (Professor Charles Urbanowicz ) travels from England to unexplored reaches of South America and along the way he confronts slavery, rides with gauchos, experiences gunboat diplomacy, encounters a future dictator of Argentina, explores uncharted rivers, and discovers dinosaur bones.

1997 Charles Darwin: Reflections - Part one: The Beginning. [ ~Seventeen Minutes Video. Darwin in England]. [http://rce.csuchico.edu/darwin/RV/darwinreflections.ram]. Produced and Edited by Ms. Donna Crowe: Instructional Media Center, CSU, Chico. Available via the Internet with REAL PLAYER [http://www.real.com/player/index.html].

Imagine that you could visit with Charles Darwin as he remembers his youth. Perhaps you could learn what early experiences sharpened his power of observation and contributed to his unique perspective of the world. Join Dr. Charles Urbanowicz as he portrays the fascinating and very human Charley Darwin in the first program of the series Charles Darwin: Reflections: The Beginning.  

Urbanowicz-Generated Darwin Self-Tests:

2003 http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/SelfTesting/DarwinTestThree.htm (Darwin Self-Test Three).

2001 http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/SelfTesting/DarwinTestTwo.htm (Darwin Self-Test Two].

2000 http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/SelfTesting/DarwinTestOne.htm (Darwin 2000-2001 [Self]Test One).

Others Urbanowicz Darwin-Related Sites:

2004 http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/TeachingAboutDarwinJan2004.html [For a workshop on January 10, 2004, sponsored by the Outreach Programs of the California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco) and held at the Museum of Anthropology at California State University, Chico].

2003 http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/Jan2003Hawai'iDarwin.html [Teaching As Theatre Once Again: Darwin in the Classroom (And Beyond). (For the Hawai'i International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Honolulu, Hawai'i, January 12-15, 2003.) [Also published in The Conference Proceedings, CD-ROM: ISSN#1541-5899.]

2002a, http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/DarwinDayCollectionOneChapter.html [There Is A Grandeur in This View Of Life. Darwin Day Collection One: The Single Best Idea Ever (2002) Edited by Amanda Chesworth et al. (Albuquerque, New Mexico: Tangled Bank Press), pages 67-70. [NOTE: This is a shortened version of 2002b below.]

2002b http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/DarwinSacFeb2002.html [On Darwin: Countdown to 2008/2009]. For "Darwin Day" activities, sponsored by HAGSA [The Humanist Association of the Greater Sacramento Area], Sacramento, California, February 10, 2002].

2002c Teaching As Theatre. Strategies in Teaching Anthropology, Second Edition (2002), edited by Patricia Rice & David W. McCurdy, Editors (NJ: Prentice Hall), pages 147-149. [NOTE: This is a shortened version of 2000a below.]

2001a http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/CorningSp2001.html (For a presentation to the 7th grade "Life Science" classroom of Ms. Tiana Scott, Maywood Middle School, Corning, CA, February 28).

2001b The Galápagos Islands: Every Little Bit Helps. The Chico Enterprise-Record, Sunday, February 25 (page E1 and E2) and see: http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/GalapagosIslandsoilspill.htm.

2000a Teaching As Theatre: Some Classroom Ideas, Specifically Those Concerning Charles R. Darwin (1809-1882) for the 99th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, CA (November 15-19).

2000b http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/darwinvisualsonly.htm [Darwin Visuals} November 10, 2000].

1998 Folklore Concerning Charles R. Darwin. Presented at the 1998 Meetings of the Southwestern Anthropological Society and The California Folklore Society, Sacramento, CA, April 16-18.

1990 A Letter To The Editor [Concerning Charles R. Darwin]. [Chico Enterprise-Record], September 26, page B4.] 

http://www.darwinday.org/ [The Darwin Day Program]

http://www.ncseweb.org/ [National Center For Science Education]

http://pages.britishlibrary.net/charles.darwin/ [The Writings of Charles Darwin on The Web]

http://www.literature.org/Works/Charles-Darwin/voyage/ (The Voyage of the Beagle)

http://www.literature.org/Works/Charles-Darwin/origin/ (The Origin of Species)

http://cc.owu.edu/~librweb/f2darwin.htm (Darwin's Paper Read at the Linnean Society Meeting [1858])

http://www.darwinfoundation.org/ [Galápagos Islands} The Charles Darwin Foundation]

In 2000 there was a delightful book entitled Dear Mr. Darwin: Letters On The Evolution of Life And Human Behavior, wherein the author has Darwin saying:

"I am so glad you have taken the time and trouble to write to me. It is one of the saddest aspects of human existence that, as soon as one passes away, it is generally assumed that the deceased has no further interest in what he or she spent a great part of life investigating. From what you tell me of the Darwin industry of scholars in your day, busy seeking out every nuance of my life and thoughts, I have to conclude that there is indeed life after death [stress added]." Gabriel Dover, 2000, Dear Mr. Darwin: Letters On The Evolution of Life And Human Behavior (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson), page 3. 

For-virtually-every web page I do I try to "update" the following information concerning "Darwin" and "Search Engines" on the World Wide Web. Before examing the "Search Engine References" below, please consider the following:

"Google--or any search engine--isn't just another website; it's the lens through which we see that information, and it affects what we see and don't see. At the risk of waxing Orwellian, how we search affects what we find and by extension, how we learn what we know [stress added]. Lev Grossman, 2003, Search And Destroy. Time, December 22, 2003, pages 46-50, page 50.

On February 12, 2004, "search engine hits" for "Charles R. Darwin" resulted in the following information: Google had 271,000 items; Alta Vista Search had 90,780 items; WiseNut had 26,209 items; and AllTheWeb had 530,114 web pages.

On January 4, 2004, "search engine hits" for "Charles R. Darwin" resulted in the following information: Google had 251,000 items; Alta Vista Search had 89,979 items; WiseNut had 26,209 items; and AllTheWeb had 568,418 web pages.

On September 27, 2003, "search engine hits" for "Charles R. Darwin" resulted in the following information: Google had 278,000 items; Alta Vista Search had 81,607 items; WiseNut had 39,116 items; and AllTheWeb had 463,572 web pages.

On November 27, 2002, "search engine hits" for "Charles R. Darwin" resulted in the following information: Google had 143,000 items; "Power Search" by Northern Light had 2,720 items; Alta Vista Search had 84,274 items; MonkeySweat had numerous items; and WiseNut had 76,294 items (and AllTheWeb had 516,281 web pages for "Charles R. Darwin").

On May 2, 2002, "search engine hits" for "Charles R. Darwin" resulted in the following information: Google had 130,000 items; "Power Search" by Northern Light had 2,623 items; Alta Vista Search had 36,608 items; MonkeySweat had numerous items; and WiseNut had 64,940 items.

On February 6, 2002, "search engine hits" for "Charles R. Darwin" resulted in the following information: Google had 118,000 items; "Power Search" by Northern Light had 2,587 items; Alta Vista Search had 40,131 items; and MonkeySweat had numerous items!

On October 17, 2001, "search engine hits" for "Charles R. Darwin" resulted in the following information: Google had 120,000 items; Northern Light had 51,939 items; Alta Vista Search had 65,975,088 items; and MonkeySweat had numerous items!

Two things should be obvious: (#1) interest in Darwin continues and (#2), obviously, just as with people, all "search engines" are not created equal and there is "cultural selection" involved in everything we do! How does one "evaluate" and "use" this wide range of information? One does it just as Darwin did, carefully, patiently, and slowly, for as Darwin wrote:

"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 every one 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." Charles R. Darwin, 1871, The Descent of Man And Selection in Relation to Sex[1981 Princeton University Press edition, with Introduction by John T. Bonner and Robert M. May], Chapter 21, page 385.

 [~5,025 words]} 12 February 2004

Copyright © 2004; all rights reserved by Charles F. Urbanowicz

12 February 2004 by cfu