Darwin, Darwin, a festa acabou chérie…

The Party's Over

By Jonathan Wells on 12.22.09 @ 6:08AM



The party's over, it's time to call it a day.
They've burst your pretty balloon and taken the moon away.
It's time to wind up the masquerade.
Just make your mind up -- the piper must be paid.
The party's over, the candles flicker and dim.
You danced and dreamed through the night, it seemed to be right just being with him.
Now you must wake up, all dreams must end.
Take off your make up, the party's over. It's all over, my friend.

-- "The Party's Over" (Words by Betty Comden and Adolph Green; music by Jule Styne; performed by Nat King Cole)

Darwin Year is drawing to a close.

The festivities went into full swing on February 12 (Darwin's 200th birthday), with parties at hundreds of locations in scores of countries. There were birthday cakes galore. At least two (in Wagga Wagga, Australia and Sopot, Poland) boasted 200 candles; one cake (in Pune, India) was shaped like a finch. At two parties, guests were served "primordial soup."

In Arcata, California, the Department of Biological Sciences at Humboldt State University invited partygoers to bring ornaments representing their favorite organisms to put on the "tree of life," and it offered a prize to those who came dressed as Darwin. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy sponsored "the largest party in town," including birthday cake, 200 free drinks, and"science-themed student rock bands."

The New York State Museum in Albany not only served birthday cake in Darwin's honor, but also presented four cooking demonstrations by local chefs paired with biologists, each demonstration to "focus on a different branch of the Tree of Life: vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, and fungi."

For those wanting to honor Darwin online, New York-based Internet consultant Phil Terry set up a "Join Darwin on Facebook" site where well-wishers could record videos, pen poems, draw pictures, and otherwise wish the Father of Evolution a happy 200th. According to Kendall Crolius, who assisted Terry, volunteers working on the project referred to themselves as "proud monkeys."

For those wanting souvenirs, the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution in England sold "limited edition Darwin and Beyond mugs" for £7.50 each. The American Association for the Advancement of Science offered "Viva la Evolución" T-Shirts, with Darwin wearing a Che Guevara-style beret.

Celebrations continued throughout the year. In England, the Rambert Dance Company put on a show that was "a distillation of Darwinian ideas about evolution, particularly sexual selection." The Linnean Society of London [15] hosted Kelley Swain, who was inspired by the works of Charles Darwin to write a book of poetry, Darwin's Microscope, and read selections from it in a talk titled "The Poetry of Science." Tea was served in the library, followed by a wine reception.

The list goes on. And on. And on. And on.
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Read more here/Leia mais aqui.

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NOTA IMPERTINENTE DESTE BLOGGER:

Graças a D's, oops, a Darwin que 2009 está acabando e junto com ele o fim das louvaminhices, beija-mão e beija-pé de Darwin. Ufa, la maládie du siécle, oops du post-modernism, chérie, est trés sei lá o quê!