• Welcome to the new Internet Infidels Discussion Board, formerly Talk Freethought.

February 12th - Darwin Day

Same birth date as Abraham Lincoln.
Christopher Hitchens called these two great (Christian) men...
"The Great Emancipators"
 
I'll spend the day killing off the weak and sickly, in order to help maximize the genetic potential which will get passed down to the next generation.

You're welcome, humanity!
 
Phylum Feast for Darwin Day | Guest Contributor | Friendly Atheist | Patheos
One way to celebrate Darwin Day is by having a “Phylum Feast” — that is, a potluck dinner where the items are as biologically diverse as possible.

Hugh Kramer has an example of a menu used for such a feast:
  • Mammalia: Minke Whale meat
  • Aves: Smoked Turkey slices
  • Teleostoma: Pickled Herring
  • Bivalvia: Mya (clams) from mouth of the Honna River
  • Gastropoda: commercial escargot
  • Malacostraca: commercial shrimp
  • Pteridophyta: commercial fern fiddleheads
  • Monocots: Onions, rice
  • Dicots: Pecans, spinach
  • Fungi: commercial Agaricus (mushrooms)
  • Bacteria: villi (Finnish Longmilk (yogurt))
Click to expand...
Thus demonstrating what omnivores we are.

Here are some additional possibilities:
  • Mammalia: bison, horse, guinea pig, kangaroo
  • Reptiles: turtle, iguana, rattlesnake
  • Chondrichthyes: shark
  • Echinoderms: sea cucumber
  • Insecta: grasshopper, cricket
  • Arachnida: tarantula
  • Cephalopoda: squid, octopus
  • Pinophyta: pine nuts
  • Fungi: Quorn (Fusarium mycelium)
  • Rhodophyta: nori
  • Stramenopiles: kelp
  • Cyanobacteria: Spirulina (the only bulk prokaryote that we commonly eat)
 
Tom Sawyer said:
I'll spend the day killing off the weak and sickly, in order to help maximize the genetic potential which will get passed down to the next generation.

You're welcome, humanity!
Click to expand...

So why do you keep me around? Entertainment?
 
Tom Sawyer said:
I'll spend the day killing off the weak and sickly, in order to help maximize the genetic potential which will get passed down to the next generation.

You're welcome, humanity!
Click to expand...

Too late! I've already reproduced.
 
Mammalia I'm sure also contains things like venison and rabbit (aka Bambi and Thumper ;) )! Yum!
 
Yes indeed, Shake.

Mammalia:
  • Eutheria (placentals)
    • Boreoeutheria
      • Euarchontoglires
        • Primates - our own species, the planners of such feasts
        • Glires
          • Lagomorpha - rabbit
          • Rodentia - guinea pig, capybara
      • Laurasiatheria
        • Carnivora - dog, cat
        • Cetartiodactyla
          • Tylopoda - camel
          • Suina - pig
          • Ruminantia
            • Cervidae - deer
            • Bovidae
              • Caprinae - sheep, goat
              • Bovinae - bovine, bison
        • Perissodactyla - horse
    • Xenarthra - armadillo
  • Marsupialia - kangaroo, opossum

Aves: birds
  • Palaeognathae - ostrich
  • Neognathae - Galloanserae
    • Galliformes - chicken, turkey, pheasant, quail
    • Anseriformes - duck, goose

Amniota: with amniote eggs: reptiles and offshoots
  • Synapsida - Mammalia
  • Sauropsida
    • Chelonia - turtle
    • Squamata - iguana, rattlesnake
    • Archosauria
      • Crocodilia - alligator
      • Dinosauria - Aves

Tetrapoda: four-legged vertebrates
  • Amphibia - frog
  • Amniota

Vertebrata - Gnathostomata: jawed vertebrates
  • Chondrichthyes (cartilage fish) - shark
  • Osteichthyes (bony fish)
    • Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish) - every bony fish that one is likely to eat
    • Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish) - Tetrapoda
 
I'll turn to the rest of the animal kingdom, the invertebrates.

Metazoa - Bilateria (bilaterially symmetric)
  • Protostomia
    • Ecdysozoa - Arthropoda
      • Pancrustacea
        • Hexapoda - grasshopper, cricket
        • Malacostraca - shrimp, lobster, crab
      • Chelicerata - Arachnida - tarantula
    • Spiralia - Mollusca
      • Bivalvia - clams, oysters, scallops
      • Gastropoda - abalone, snail (escargot)
      • Cephalopoda - Coleoidea - squid, octopus
  • Deuterostomia
    • Chordata - Vertebrata
    • Echinodermata - sea cucumber

Looking at plants, I find
Embryophyta - Tracheophyta (vascular plants)
  • Pteridophyta - ferns (fiddleheads are rolled-up stems and leaves)
  • Spermatophyta (seed plants)
    • Pinophyta - pine (pine nuts are seeds)
    • Magnoliophyta (angiosperms: flowering plants)
      • Paleodicots
      • Eudicots
      • Monocots
There are oodles of crop-plant species, but they are almost all angiosperms. The only non-angiosperm parts commonly eaten that I know of are pine nuts and fern fiddleheads.
 
I got burned out from trying to compose a phylogeny of crop plants -- even with restricting myself to the better-known ones, I had a *lot* of list-making to do.

 List of culinary nuts
 List of culinary fruits
 List of vegetables
 List of culinary herbs and spices
 Edible seaweed

So I'll take on the rest of eukaryotedom.
  • Amorphea - Opisthokonta
    • Holozoa - animals
    • Fungi
      • Ascomycota - brewer's yeast (Vegemite, Marmite), Quorn fungus
      • Basidiomycota - the most commonly-eaten mushrooms
  • Diaphoretickes
    • Archaeplastida
      • Chloroplastida
        • Chlorophyta - sea lettuce
        • Streptophyta - land plants
      • Rhodophyta - nori
    • SAR - Stramenopiles - kelp

Turning to prokaryotes, there is only one kind of prokaryote that is eaten in bulk: Spirulina, a cyanobacterium.

There are some prokaryotes that are used to do fermentation and other such tasks for preparing certain foodstuffs, prokaryotes like lactic-acid bacteria (Lactobacillus). However, all such prokaryotes, and also Spirulina, are in the Bacteria part of the Bacteria-Archaea split in prokaryotes. This is the earliest known split in the history of our biota where both branches have known survivors.
 
Lion IRC said:
Same birth date as Abraham Lincoln.
Christopher Hitchens called these two great (Christian) men...
"The Great Emancipators"
Click to expand...

Darwin on his religious views:

"Science has nothing to do with Christ, except insofar as the habit of scientific research makes a man cautious in admitting evidence. For myself, I do not believe that there ever has been any revelation. As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities."
Click to expand...

Yeah, totally sounds like a Christian thing to say. Can't possibly be that history is more complicated than you think it is. You're being deceptive, again. All this takes is to do just a little bit of research. We have Google now. There's no excuse.
 
I like to source things. I did indeed find a source for that: To Nicolai Mengden 5 June 1879 | Darwin Correspondence Project

 Religious views of Charles Darwin

He started out an Anglican, but he was a deist for some years, before eventually becoming an agnostic.
As disbelief later gradually crept over Darwin, he could "hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine."
Click to expand...
 
Keep on lying, Christians. It only helps the atheist's cause. :)
 
GenesisNemesis said:
Keep on lying, Christians. It only helps the atheist's cause. :)
Click to expand...

I have thought of myself as an atheist, but evolution turned me agnostic. If there's anything like a creator-god, evolution has to be its greatest, most elegant creation.

Neil Shubin is in Antarctica right now, looking for Devonian fossils. His FB posts are totally surreal.
 
Neil Shubin is a great guy, I had the opportunity to meet him at a dinner a few years back when he came to give a talk on his then recently published book Your Inner Fish, which we still use in our intro classes as suppl. reading. My impression is that he is a perfect portrait of a field scientist, equally at home in the academy and in nature.

I don't know what my Darwin Day plans will involve, though presumably our student club will be again hosting their annual dress-like-your-favorite-primate-taxon contest at their weekly meeting. I was thinking of maybe getting some arm extensions and going as a siamang. They're good kids.
 
Done with the crop plants. So many that I've split them up. Here are the superrosids:

Fabids
  • Fabales
    • Fabaceae
      • /Arachis hypogaea/ - Peanut
      • /Cicer arietinum/ - Chickpea
      • /Glycine max/ - Soybean
      • /Glycyrrhiza glabra/ - Licorice
      • /Lens culinaris/ - Lentil
      • /Phaseolus vulgaris/ - Green bean
      • /Phaseolus lunatus/ - Lima bean
      • /Pisum sativum/ - Pea
      • /Vicia faba/ - Fava bean
  • Fagales
    • Betulaceae - Hazel tree: hazelnut
    • Juglandaceae - Pecan tree, Walnut tree
  • Malpighiales - Cassava
  • Rosales
    • Rosaceae
      • /Cydonia/ - Quince
      • /Fragaria/ - Strawberry
      • /Malus/ - Apple
      • /Prunus/ - Almond, apricot, cherry, peach, plum trees
      • /Rosa/ - Rose: rose hips
      • /Rubus/ - Raspberry, blackberry
    • Moraceae - Fig tree
  • Cucurbitales
    • /Cucumis melo/ - Cantaloupe
    • /Cucumis sativus/ - Cucumber
    • /Cucurbita pepo/ - Squash, pumpkin, zucchini
    • /Citrullus lanatus/ - Watermelon

Malvids
  • Sapindales
    • Anacardiaceae
      • /Anacardium occidentale/ - Cashew tree
      • /Mangifera indica/ - Mango tree
      • /Pistacia vera/ - Pistachio tree
    • Rutaceae - /Citrus/ Orange, tangerine, lemon, lime, citron, kumquat, grapefruit trees
  • Malvales
    • /Theobroma cacao/ - Cacao tree: cocoa, chocolate
    • /Abelmoschus esculentus/ - Okra
  • Myrtales
    • /Psidium guajava/ - Guava tree
    • /Pimenta dioica/ - Allspice tree
    • /Syzygium aromaticum/ - Clove
  • Brassicales
    • Brassicaceae
      • /Armoracia rusticana/ - Horseradish
      • /Brassica napobrassica/ - Rutabaga
      • /Brassica oleracea/ - Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, Brussels sprouts
      • /Brassica rapa/ - Turnip
      • /Eruca sativa/ - Arugula
      • /Eutrema japonicum/ - Wasabi
      • /Nasturtium officinale/ - Watercress
      • /Sinapis alba/ - White mustard
    • Caricaceae - Papaya tree
    • Capparaceae - Caper
 
Now the asterids.

Campanulids
  • Apiales
    • /Anethum graveolens/ - Dill
    • /Apium graveolens/ - Celery
    • /Carum carvi/ - Caraway
    • /Coriandrum sativum)/ - Coriander, cilantro
    • /Daucus carota/ - Carrot
    • /Foeniculum vulgare/ - Fennel
    • /Petroselinum crispum/ - Parsley
    • /Pimpinella anisum/ - Anise
  • Asterales
    • /Carthamus tinctorius/ - Safflower
    • /Cynara cardunculus/ - Artichoke
    • /Helianthus annuus/ - Sunflower
    • /Helianthus tuberosus/ - Jerusalem artichoke
    • /Lactuca sativa/ - Lettuce

Lamiids
  • Gentianales - Coffee
  • Lamiales
    • Lamiaceae
      • /Mentha balsamea/ - Peppermint
      • /Mentha spicata/ - Spearmint
      • /Ocimum basilicum/ - Basil
      • /Origanum vulgare/ - Oregano
      • /Rosmarinus officinalis/ - Rosemary
      • /Thymus/ - Thyme
    • Pedaliaceae - Sesame
  • Solanales
    • Solanaceae
      • /Capsicum/ - Pepper
      • /Solanum/
        • /Solanum melongena/ - Eggplant
        • /Solanum tuberosum/ - Potato
        • /Solanum lycopersicum/ - Tomato
    • Convolvulaceae - Sweet potato

Caryophyllales
  • Amaranthaceae
    • /Amaranthus/ - Amaranth
    • /Beta vulgaris/ - Beet, Swiss chard
    • /Chenopodium quinoa/ - Quinoa
    • /Spinacia oleracea/ - Spinach
  • Polygonaceae
    • /Rheum rhabarbarum/ - Rhubarb plant
    • /Fagopyrum esculentum/ - Buckwheat

Ericales
  • Lecythidaceae - Brazil-nut tree
  • Ericaceae
    • /Gaultheria/ - Wintergreen shrub
    • /Vaccinium/ - Cranberry, blueberry
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom