September 5, 2008

What do you pack for a journey around the world?

Well, if the year is 1831, guns. Lots of them.

Charles Darwin wrote his sister Susan 177 years ago tomorrow with a packing list for the H.M.S. Beagle voyage, and fears that he’s a bother for asking for more and more stuff. Or maybe that’s just Victorian manners, hard at work.

Eight shirts? Make that twelve. He needs his microscope, good shoes, and taxidermy guide. Oh, and pack that microscope in cotton.

Captain FitzRoy advises that he bring a case of pistols, and assures Darwin that guns are the one thing never to skimp on.

In other news, Darwin-mania can only grow; as a new movie is in the works.

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Salman Rushdie.

Noam Chomsky.

That guy from “Stuff White People Like.”

And now Future Imperfect author David Friedman has journeyed to Mountain View, California to appear on Authors@Google.

It’s a great talk! Watch after the jump.

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