Happy Darwin Day! (almost)
Darwin Day has become a tradition of food, friends, drinks and science for about 3 years now. It started as a small gathering of a couple close friends eating a store bought cake with the Darwin Fish drawn out in icing on top.
Well, the size is still about the same with the same core group, only about 3-4 of us, but our activities and menu has changed quite a bit. Last year me and Jess made up a drink called Primordial Booze, a mixture of vodka, blue curacao, orange juice, and redbull. The drink comes out a wonderful green color and is extremely yummy. Since Jess is an amazing cook, she typically is in charge of the food and I tag along for simple stuff that’s easily tossed together.
For those of you who may not know what I’m talking about, Darwin Day is the celebration of Charles Darwin’s birthday, February 12th, and a celebration of the theory of Evolution. The reason this is so important is because evolution is still not completely accepted and very often is vastly misunderstood.
As a big fan of the theory of evolution and science in general, I love participating in this awesome day of science appreciation and literacy. To find out more about Darwin Day, you can check out the official website to get more information.
Last year really set the bar for festivities and had to have been my favorite Darwin Day so far. I spent the better part of a month putting together a long playlist on YouTube of any evolution education videos I could find. Turns out there are a LOT of them and a good chunk are very well done. Videos from SciShow, It’s Okay to be Smart, PBS studios, and a ton of others made up the list of about 20+ short videos, each about 2-10 minutes long.
I’ll put a link to my playlist at the bottom with all the other things I want to include in this rambling of science admiration.
The best part was that Jess had set up her nifty projector in the backyard, and we all huddled together in the slightly chilly February weather to watch every single one.
Awesome night of nerdy fun.
This year we’re doing something pretty similar since we had so much fun, but instead of YouTube videos we’re going to watch one of the videos that comes recommended from the Darwin Day website. I’m torn between a documentary starring Sir David Attenborough talking about Charles Darwin’s life, or the BBC drama about Darwin’s inner struggle with his findings verses his religious beliefs.
Edgy stuff, man.
I’m also going to be making “fossil cookies”, which is something I’ve seen online that’s staggeringly simply to make. It’s cookies with dinosaur footprints in them, and since you can buy dough already made and I have all kinds of different dinosaur toys...well...that’s about as easy and it can be. Boom. Done. Dinosaur fossil cookies.
I’ll post pictures, but yeah...it’s not rocket surgery.
Since I found out about DD in 2012, there have been a lot more celebrations and activities popping up all over during this time. It used to be a handful of celebrations across the US, but not there are tons all over the world, which is really inspiring. There’s a big event happening in Austin Texas this coming up weekend that I really wish I could go to. Austin is usually the only area in Texas having these kind of events, which isn’t shocking.
One of these days I’m going to put something bigger together, but I just don’t have the manpower to do something like that.
That’s a lie. I think I could actually make something amazing happen in the DFW area, but it’s more the time/funding that trips me up each year. Maybe that can be my 2017 goal for next year is to do something amazing and big for Darwin Day. For now though, it’s just another amazing gathering of friends I’m looking forward to.
Are you guys going to be doing anything to celebrate? You should totally let me know! I’d love to have some great ideas for next year. I'll do another post and actually take some damn pictures this time and do another post-Darwin Day blog about how it went.
Is this your first year celebrating? Your tenth? Share!! I wanna hear all about it.
Here are some pictures from past events, some book recommendations for those who want to read up on evolution, and/or a video playlist if you’d rather get your info that way.
Happy Darwin Day, everyone!!
-M
- Pictures from years past!
I honestly don't know why I don't have more pictures.
 |
| First Darwin Day 2012 |
 |
| Last year 2015 with Primordial Booze!! |
- Darwin Day links and books
Links and Videos:
Book Recommendations:
- Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
- The entire book can be read for free online here!!
- Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne
- Greatest Show On Earth: Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins
- Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin
- Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye
No comments:
Post a Comment