For the last couple of weeks my laptop malfunctioned repeatedly, until it got to the point that my dad finally had to wipe the whole thing clean. The machine runs smoothly and feels bare and empty, as if the past four years never happened (thankfully I have important files backed up on an external hard drive).

Meanwhile it seemed that I had columns, exams, and projects all overdue at once. It’s amazing how difficult it is to get things done when you need a decent computer for everything. For my Renaissance & Reformation class, my group was instructed to complete a presentation on The Catholic League and France’s Wars of Religion. Of course, I had to insist on an elaborate presentation (a miniature history documentary) that was almost a disaster due to my computer problems. At the time I had to sit on the front porch in forty-something degree weather in order to keep my laptop from overheating while I uploaded the masterpiece to YouTube.

If you learn anything from it, it’s that every other parent in 16th century Europe named their son Henry. Was that really necessary? It gave me a research headache…

Oh, and then Charles Darwin’s (and Abraham Lincoln’s) 203rd birthday came and went without my gratuitous input. To make up for it, here’s my Darwinian treasury, dedicated to respectfully and historically understanding the mind and impact of one of the most famous and controversial names in science:

DARWIN: DEFINING THE ORIGINS DEBATE

Written for an English literature class in 2010, this essay of mine dissects the rhetorical strategies of Darwin.

ORIGIN OF THE UNORIGINAL: EPISODE I

Alright, perhaps excessively theatrical, written when I was a teen – and I never did get around to that darn Episode II – but here’s a fun glimpse at what some forgotten scientific minds as well as the 19th century public first thought about Darwin’s big idea.

Perhaps also of interest…

"The sad confession which every true scientific man learns to make is, 'I am ignorant; I want to learn'" - Louis Agassiz

“YOU PRESUME EVERYTHING, PROFESSOR”

and…

“Together with Marx’s materialistic theory of history and society and Freud’s attribution of human behavior to influences over which we have little control, Darwin’s theory of evolution was a crucial plank in the platform of mechanism and materialism – of much of science, in short – that has been the stage of most Western thought.”
– Douglas Futuyma

Armin Cifuentes/Ronald Martinez (Getty Images)

DARWINOCRACY: THE EVOLUTION QUESTION IN AMERICAN POLITICS

Does Darwin rule the electorate? Why does a stigma surround those who are skeptical of Darwinism, and how should candidates respond? See also: DISSECTING ‘DARWINOCRACY’

If you enjoy this debate along with a good dose of humor, check out www.PiltdownSuperman.Com and the “Question Evolution Day” Facebook page!

I’ve had some technical difficulties with the publishing system for my TWTC column lately, but we’re getting the problems worked out and hopefully I will be getting more articles out regularly. I did manage to publish my recent interview with homeschool pioneer Mary Pride, who talked to be about the homeschool demographic and the presidential candidacy of Ron Paul.

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