Happy Darwin Day!

Alternet: Sunday is Darwin Day. How Will You Celebrate It?
February 12 is Darwin's Birthday -- a holiday for the reality-based community
By Glenn Branch
February 10, 2012

Despite the white beard, Charles Darwin isn’t Santa Claus, but like Christmas, Darwin Day comes once a year, and when it comes it brings good cheer. Across the country and around the world, at colleges and universities, schools and libraries, museums and churches, people assemble around February 12 to commemorate the life and work of the British naturalist. But it’s not just about Darwin: it’s about engaging in—and enjoying—public outreach about science, evolution, and the importance of evolution education.

Where are they celebrating? Where aren’t they celebrating! You may not be able to make the trip to Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, to participate in a discussion of life on other planets, or to Perth, Australia, to hear a lecture on “some really odd evolutionary features in tortoises,” but no worries, mate (as they say in Dnepropetrovsk): the Darwin Day website, operated by the International Darwin Day Foundation, maintains a useful registry where you can find a Darwin Day event near you and spread the word about your own.

More at the link, including details about the state of the teaching of evolution in education throughout the nation, as well as suggestions about how to improve it. I hope the readers of Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Darwin's Birthday 2012 edition) on Daily Kos, where I first posted the above link and excerpt, follow through in their home states.

As for how I'm going to celebrate the day, you're looking at it. According to the list of events, there are none here in Michigan. This makes me a sad Panda's Thumb.