SYP Says

Swine Flu and The Real Science Behind the News

As you may remember, a couple of months ago, I was Darwin-*crazy*. 

The result of all the hard work of the Happy 200th Birthday Darwin Facebook Group was that the success has led to a series of free science webinars with prominent scientists aimed at the general public.

Our first free webinar is on the science behind the news of the swine flu outbreak this Friday, May 8 at 1pm-2:30pmET (10amPT; 6pm London). 

Speakers include professors and experts from Cambridge, the National Institutes of Health, and The Cleveland Clinic. The webinar is sponsored by organizations like Scientific American, The Cleveland Clinic, and Constant Contact, and made possible by the technology donation from Citrix Online.

Register for the free webinar here:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/598005577

For future events, register for our Darwin group newsletter here:
http://tinyurl.com/DarwinNewsletter

And good grief already, join our Facebook group (our new mission is to get 1 million by Nov 24 to cheer 150 years of Origin of Species):

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53320310123

Here's the full webinar info and details on the speakers:

Join professors from Cambridge, the National Institutes of Health,
and The Cleveland Clinic for a *free* webinar on the science
behind the news of the swine flu outbreak Friday, May 8 at 1pm - 2:30 pm
EDT time (10am California; 6pm London).

Hosted by the 250,000 members of the Darwin Group on Facebook
and sponsored by organizations like The Cleveland Clinic and
Scientific American - and made possibly by the technology donation
from Citrix Online - this will be a great way for the general
public to learn much more about the science and medicine of
the swine flu virus.

To register for this free webinar click here:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/598005577

To add yourself to the newsletter for future webinars, click here:
http://tinyurl.com/ReadingOdysseyNewsletter

This is a global public webinar - please forward this invitation
to anyone you would like to invite.

Speakers include:

- Professor Derek Smith, Professor of Infections Disease, Cambridge
University, advisor to the World Health Organization, and a leading
specialist on the flu virus. Links:
http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/zoostaff/smithd.html ,
http://www.antigenic-cartography.org/cam/

- Jonathan Yewdell, MD PhD, Laboratory Head, Laboratory of Viral
Disease, National Institutes of Health, and an international expert
on the flu virus and a well respected leader in science education.

- Dr. Tallman, Cleveland Clinic. Featured in the media this week,
Dr. Tallman will be able to answer questions from attendees about
the medical and clinical aspects of this swine flu outbreak.

Several others may join us including from Mexico.

This event is being hosted by the 250,000+ members of the Darwin
Facebook group and the Reading Odyssey, an informal community
dedicated to public reading, learning and discussion of science,
literature, philosophy - i.e. the big ideas of humanity.

Special thanks to the sponsors of this webinar:

- Citrix Online (special, special thanks for donating their webinar
technology and for the support from the whole company)
- The Cleveland Clinic
- Constant Contact
- Life Technologies
- Scientific American

For future events, register for our Darwin group newsletter here:
http://tinyurl.com/DarwinNewsletter

P.S. If you have not done so already, please join our Darwin group
on Facebook. Join here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53320310123

Happy 200th Birthday, Darwin: The Aftermath

*** Newsflash: We are continuing our successful work with Darwin as part of The Darwin 150 Project. Science superstars Sean Carroll, E.O. Wilson, Everett Mendelsohn, and Jonathan Weiner are all participating in our free lecture series. Don't miss it! ***

---------

What started as an innocuous social experiment to get 200 people on Facebook to join in wishing Charles Darwin a Happy 200th Birthday turned into a 2-week sprint to get 200,000 members and as much press and interest as humanly possible.

It ended on Thursday, 2.12.09, Charles Darwin's 200th Birthday, with an amazing, hour-long conference call put together so hundreds of fans could listen live to some of the most brilliant scientists alive today speak about Darwin, his legacy, and his impact on their work.

Here's the mp3 recording (skip forward the first 5 minutes) and the powerpoint presentation from the call! Download DarwinFacebook-2-12-09-PhonePres-1

I am still amazed we pulled it all off. :)

Not only did we hit 200,000 members just in time (11:49pmPT on Wednesday, 2.11.09), but we got a ton of press coverage and support, especially given the short period of time we ran this campaign, including:

* Scientific American's sponsorship and promotion of the group throughout their site and Facebook messages and magazine group. Here's their Darwin material on the site.

* The New York Times Science Blog write-up

* The Wall Street Journal technology blog, Digits write-up

* BBC Science podcast mention and interview with Phil

* Popular techie geek blog Reddit.com write-up (and special Chuck graphic!)

* Indie liberal paper, IrregularTimes.com, gave us a write-up and changed their Darwin Shop to link to our Facebook group

* ThinkGeek.com's sponsorship--they not only gave our members an exclusive discount, but emailed their entire customer file about the group

* Citrix Online who donated the phone lines for the conference call also put out a consumer press release about the group

And support from the scientific community was awesome in part perhaps because this was a chance for them to connect with regular folk and teens--not scientists, not even necessarily science fans who had heard of them before--but people who were just inspired by Darwin in some way and wanted to get involved with this crazy effort. Here's the final lineup of scientists who joined us for our hour-long call on Darwin's Birthday. These are real heavy-hitters. Each spoke for about 5 minutes. It was amazing that we got them all on the phone at the same time! See below for full list.

So what's next? Well, membership is continuing to grow--we're at over 222,000 members now and over 3,500 wall posts, and 70 discussion threads.

The volunteers have decided to keep going throughout the bicentennial year.

Visit http://www.darwin150.com for more info.

Activities:
* Monthly lectures with prominent scientists (Sean Carroll has already agreed as have several others)
* New goal: *1 million* members by November 24, 2009, the 150th Anniversary of Darwin's On the Origin of Species

Do you want to help?

* We need help promoting the group and the lectures
* We need more help monitoring the Facebook page
* We need volunteers to help run local meetups
E-mail Phil if you want to help at [email protected]

Thanks so much to my close friend, Phil Terry, for starting and leading the group. It was a blast to meet and work with such smart people on a common goal for a wonderful cause (long live science!)--many of whom I did not know until this project: Chris Farnet, James Falvo, Colin Purrington, Kurt Koller, Gerardo Camilo, Melea Seward, Jen Frazier, Joe Ranft, Beth-Ellen Keyes, April Posavetz, and 300 others.

FINAL LIST OF SCIENTISTS ON THE CALL

Sean Carroll is Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Wisconsin, and award-winning author of the new book Remarkable Creatures : Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), The Making of the Fittest (2006, W.W. Norton) and of Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo (2005, W.W. Norton).  

Professor Hidde Ploegh is member of the Whitehead Institute and Professor of Biology at MIT.
One of the world’s leading researchers in immune system behavior, 

John Rennie, appointed editor in chief of Scientific American, is only the seventh editor in chief in the nearly 164-year history of the magazine.

Professor Paul E. Olsen is the Storke Memorial Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University.

Professors Andrew Baker and Peter Glynn, both at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. T

John Dowling is the Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University and the director of the Dowling Lab. Dr. Dowling's current research focuses on the vertebrate retina. 

John Durant is Professor and Director of the MIT Museum.

George Amato is the Director Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History.

Rodolfo Dirzo is Professor of Biology at Stanford University and director of the Dirzo Lab.

Peter Raven is the George Engelmann Professor of Botany, Washington University - St. Louis and President of the Missouri Botanical Garden.    

Pulizer-prize winning Professor Jonathan Weiner spent twenty years as an independent writer, and joined the Columbia School of Journalism in 2005.

Darwin Day 200 Birthday Call

Do you want to be on a call with some of the most prominent scientists in the world? See below for details on our Darwin 200th Birthday Celebration Call tomorrow Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 at 1pmET/10amPT. 

To join the Facebook group and find out how to register for this free event, go to:

http://tinyurl.com/darwin200

**********************************************
THURS., FEB 12 @ 1PM EASTERN GROUP CALL WITH SCIENTISTS
*************************************** *******
Prominent scientists will attend our call on Thursday, Feb 12 at 1pm New York time. Below are the names of our special guests - or those that have agreed to support our group and have their names listed below.

- Dr. George Amato, American Museum of Natural History
- Professor Baker, Columbia; Director, Coral Research Lab
- Professor Rodolfo Dirzo at Stanford
- Professor John Dowling at Harvard
- Dr. John Durant, MIT Museum
- Professor Marc Hauser at Harvard
- Professor Jonathan Losos at Harvard
- Professor Olsen, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
- Dr. Ploegh, Whitehead Institute, MIT
- Professor Peter Raven at Washington University, President Missouri Botanical Garden
- John Rennie, Editor-in-Chief, Scientific American
- Professor Maryellen Ruvolo at Harvard
- Professor Laurie Santos at Yale

Again, on Thurs, Feb 12 group at 1pm New York time we will come together via free teleconference to hear from the scientists above ... join the Facebook group Can we find 200,000 by Feb 12th to wish Darwin a happy birthday?

and register for this free event. 

http://tinyurl.com/darwin200

Sponsored by Citrix - they are donating the phone lines so 1,000 of us can call in at the same time! http://www.citrixonline.com

Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Darwin Music Mix

We just passed the 140,000 mark in our Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Darwin Facebook Group! To celebrate the big occasion on Thursday, I created a Darwin-related playlist just for fun--see widget below. Enjoy!

In the process of creating this mix, I found a band called The Low Anthem that released an album last year called Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. I added their song "Charlie Darwin" to the mix, natch.

Darwin 200th Happy Birthday Facebook Group Hits 100,000 Members!

More great news! We passed the 100,000 mark earlier today! Unbelievable. This social experiment is getting very interesting. :)

The 100,000th member to join, Diego Giraldo, won one of the evolution playsets that ThinkGeek has donated (see left).

Here's some recent news on what's happening with the group--we're starting to get some real traction.

Help us get to 200,000 in time for Darwin's 200th Birthday this coming Thursday, 2.12.09 and show our support for this great scientist.

Visit http://www.happybirthdaycharlesdarwin.com or go to our Facebook group directly here:

http://tinyurl.com/darwin200

Recent News:

- Thurs, Feb 12 group happy birthday sing-a-long to Darwin...join our event on Facebook for more about this free phone call. (If you're not on Facebook, visit HappyBirthdayCharlesDarwin.com for more info).

Sponsored by Citrix - they are donating the phone lines so 1,000 of us can call in at the same time! http://www.citrixonline.com

- ThinkGeek (http://www.thinkgeek.com) is sponsoring our video and photo contests and will be giving $50 gift certificates to winners of both (submit your videos and photos on this page!)

- Scientific American (http://www.sciam.com) is promoting our Facebook group across their site and on their Facebook page. Please visit these sections on evolution and their Jan issue to read some good articles:
http://www.sciam.com/sciammag/?contents=2009-01
http://www.sciam.com/topic.cfm?id=evolution

- Other major scientific sites are thinking about covering us or promoting our group

ThinkGeek is offering a discount to Darwin group members go here:http://www.thinkgeek.com/darwin/

***************************************
DARWIN BIRTHDAY STATISTICS
***************************************
Day 1 (Jan 29, 2009): ..............556 Darwin supporters 
Day 2 (Jan 30, 2009): ...........1,713 Darwin supporters
Day 3 (Jan 31, 2009): ...........3,470 Darwin supporters
Day 4 (Feb 1, 2009): ...........10,001 Darwin supporters
Day 5 (Feb 2, 2009): ...........20,000 Darwin supporters
Day 6 (Feb 3, 2009): ...........40,263 Darwin supporters
Day 7 (Feb 4, 2009 ): ..........59,128 Darwin supporters
Day 8 (Feb, 5 2009):............76,123 Darwin supporters
Day 9 (Feb, 6 2009).............92,278 Darwin supporters

My goal for Day 10: 110,000

Help us get to 200,000!

Belief in Evolution

Reposted from The Economist. Interesting.  

IT IS 150 years since the publication of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which suggested that all living things are related and that everything is ultimately descended from a single common ancestor. This has troubled many, including Darwin himself, as it subverted ideas of divine intervention. It is not surprising that the countries least accepting of evolution today tend to be the most devout. In the most recent international survey available, only Turkey is less accepting of the theory than America. Iceland and Denmark are Darwin's most ardent adherents. Indeed America has become only slightly more accepting of Darwin's theory in recent years. In 2008 14% of people polled by Gallup agreed that “man evolved over millions of years”, up from 9% in 1982. 

Darwin 2009 Facebook Birthday Group Progress

Believe it or not, our Facebook Group dedicated to finding 200,000 people by 2.12.09 to wish Darwin a Happy 200th Birthday is growing by 7.5 members per minute! 

We just passed the 8,000 mark in members!! I think we're going to meet our goal of getting 10,000 members by the end of the day. Wow.

Join the Darwinian fun at http://tinyurl.com/darwin200

You can also find out more at http://www.happybirthdaycharlesdarwin.com

This Facebook Group was only launched a few days ago. Pretty crazy, I know. Here's a fun little chart that Phil put together to show our growth rate. It's the new member per minute growth from 2am to 2pm New York time today, 2.1.09, for the Darwin Birthday group. 

The volunteers for our group--Team 200,000--had our first conference call today to discuss logistics and more ideas to get the word out, as well as thoughts about what we'll actually be able to do for our event on Darwin's Birthday. We're using and sharing Google Docs to keep up with it all. We'll see how that goes.

This is a fun social experiment that has really taken off! Join here: http://tinyurl.com/darwin200

P.S. Did you know Darwin and Lincoln were born on the same day in the same year? February 12, 1809

http://www.happybirthdaycharlesdarwin.com

Help Wish Charles Darwin a Happy 200th Birthday!

Charles Darwin's 200th birthday is February 12, 2009. 

I have somehow been named CMO of the Happy Birthday Darwin Facebook group dedicated to finding 2,000 people who want to wish him a Happy Birthday by Monday 2/2/09. Obviously this is not a serious title--Phil likes to have fun with me from time to time. Anyway, our lofty goal is to have 200,000 people join by 2/12/09.

As of this post, we're up to 1,750 members!

Please join us. Here's how you can help:

1. Be one of 200,000 people to join the Happy Birthday Darwin group on Facebook. Note: you have to join Facebook, if you are not already a member. If you’re one of the 17 people on earth that hasn’t joined, it’s a fairly painless process to do so.

2. Volunteer to help in any of the following ways:

• Tell all your friends and family to join - give them the link to this page: http://tinyurl.com/ch3lkr
• Post the link everywhere: your status update, your blog, Twitter, your office lunch room, your classroom, your dorm room bathroom, your faculty lounge, etc. You can also use the website http://www.happybirthdaycharlesdarwin.com
• Update your Facebook status frequently with the latest number of members (and always post the link)
• Tell bloggers, press, universities, churches, synagogues, mosques, and everyone else to post the link
• Take pictures of yourself with white beard and hat and upload to the Facebook group
• Take video of yourself singing happy birthday to Darwin and upload the video to the group
• Host a birthday party, or a Happy Birthday Lunch, for Darwin at your office, your home, your classroom, your synagogue, church, mosque,college dorm room… and take pictures and video post them here

And if you feel really passionate, then get in touch with me directly. 

This weekend, I am going to try to find a Darwin beard to wear for the big celebration. :)

Need a Darwin refresher? Check out these sites:

* http://www.aboutdarwin.com

* http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96feb/darwin.html

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin

* http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/

No, that's MY birthday

In a strange coincidence, my new boss, the EVP of Marketing at Musician's Friend, has my birthday--December 23rd. I have never met anyone in my whole life with my birthday (and neither had he), so this is truly odd. According to Discover Magazine,

In a group of 23 people, the odds are better than even  that at least two of them will share a birthday.

By Alex Stone DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 05 | May 2006

Seems as if you'd need many more people before you'd find a shared birthday, doesn't it? But consider the reverse situation, in which nobody shares a birthday. Since all birth dates are equally likely, then the odds of picking 23 different ones out of 365 aren't that good—less than fifty-fifty. Among 200 people, there is a 99.9999999999999999999999999 percent chance that two birthdays will match! So why don't you meet more people who share your birthday? That's because a specific match is less likely than an arbitrary one. For any two people to share a birthday, any day will suffice; for someone to share your birthday, only one does.

Phobophobia

I actually don't have a fear of phobias (aka phobophobia), but I do admit that other things give me the creeps. Some people's loves and hobbies are other people's phobias. Maybe I've seen too many bad movies, but watching "Chucky" gives me the willies, "It" made me forget Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, and I regret ever having watched "Magic" with Anthony Perkins as an alcoholic ventriloquist. (The '80s movie "Mannequin" starring Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall was scary for an entirely different reason.) I've got a poll running on the right column of my site--vote and let me know what you're afraid of.