Can you imagine the United States issuing a coin like this?

Sigh. Yeah, me neither. This is a special issue £2 coin from the UK, which came out in 2009 commemorating the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth (and the 150th of the publishing of Origin of Species). I missed this somehow, which is too bad. Wish I had picked one up when I was over there for TAM London!

I would love to live in a country where science and scientists enjoy this sort of celebration, instead of being attacked by their own government because they won’t toe an ideological fantasy-based line.

Poland has used to have Copernicus on their money. Copernicus! I’d love to see a Feynman quarter, or an Einstein dollar coin. If something like inspired a kid to look at it and think, I wonder who that is and why they’re on a coin, then it would be worth it.

Tip o’ the white lab coat to reddit.

If you read the skeptical blogs, then you probably already know that actor-turned-über-evangelist Kirk Cameron and the bananaman himself, creationist Ray Comfort, are going to hand out copies of Darwin’s Origin of Species with an extra 50 pages claiming that Darwin led to Hitler, racism, misogyny, Windows Vista, cats and dogs living together, and Vegemite.

This stuff is the usual pack of creationist misinformation, distorted facts, and out-and-out lies that you can find debunked almost everywhere on the web (like here, and here, and here).

While I don’t lean towards insults and yelling myself, I can understand the sentiment. But sometimes, I think gentle mockery is the best way to go. It’s hard to imagine TMZ being understated, but in fact I like what they did here. They ended that article perfectly.

Tip o’ the banana peel to A.M.

This is the International Year of Astronomy, but we must give squishy science its due: it’s also the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On The Origin Of Species, a work that forever influenced biological science. His observations aboard the HMS Beagle led to this seminal work, as Darwin voyaged across the planet observing plants and animals in various environs.

In honor of that, why not read Darwin’s Beagle diaries… as a blog? This is a very clever idea. The entries are posted in blog form, with geocaching and images to help you see what’s what. It’s actually very engaging and wonderful.

I have long said that science is a process as well as a compendium of information. Here is your chance to see it not only as a process, but a very human one, and to see how the observations of science changed the human who made them, and the rest of us as well.

Tip o’ the allele to Laurie Tarr.