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July 31, 2005
The Mark Steel lectures : Darwin
I've just finished watching Mark Steel's lecture on Charles Darwin on BBC World. Steel is a stand-up comedian who has appeared on "Have I Got News For You" and has written for the "Guardian" newspaper, among other things.
These half-hour lectures combine his brand of sardonic wit and sequences of throwaway visual jokes to explain the ideas and personalities of great scientists (Aristotle, Darwin, Newton, Einstein, Freud), artists/musicians/authors (Byron, Beethoven, Da Vinci, Shelley) and figures of social and political change (Paine, Pankhurst, Marx).
In one sequence, Steel is at the zoo, with a grazing giraffe in the background, illustrating how Lamarckianism explains the origin of the giraffe by jumping up and down trying to grab a packet of cheese and onion crisps being held on a string over his head. Halfway through the explanation, the curious giraffe turns its head, and just stops and stares, mouth hanging open.
Posted by daen at July 31, 2005 03:15 AM