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Darwin Country (W3)

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"Darwin Country" is an educational resource for lifelong learning. It will enable you to explore a wide range of topics and themes 'through space and time'. The first phase of this project was given the name 'Cradle of Science, Technology and the Better Life!'

Initially, you were able to explore the natural and human history of part of the West Midlands of England and adjacent parts of Wales (broadly centered on Shrewsbury, the County Town of Shropshire) during the 18th and 19th Centuries.

The periods of time covered have been extended as the site has been developed. You will be able to explore the links between the area and the wider world including the influence of naturalists such as "Charles Darwin" and social reformers such as Josiah Wedgwood.

The name "Darwin Country" was chosen because of the strong links with "Charles Darwin", his grandfather "Erasmus Darwin" and other members of the Darwin family. "Erasmus Darwin" of Lichfield, Staffordshire sent his son Robert to be a doctor in Shrewsbury, Shropshire in the year 1786. "Robert Darwin" married "Susannah Wedgwood" of Maer (near Stoke-on-Trent) in 1796. "Charles Darwin", their second son and the author of Origin Of Species, was born in Shrewsbury in 1809.
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discovery-channel
Discovery-Channel

List:

• #: 15 Years of the Web | 1940's House | 2006 Discovery Rewind | 5 Days of Blood, Sweat and Tears | '9/11 | 9/11, 5 Years On
• A: Abraham Lincoln | Aerial Phenomena | AH-64D | Aids, 25 Years On | Airbus A380 Tour | Alien Planet | Allianz Arena | Altamera Caves | Alternative Energy | Altitude, Effects of | American Casino | American Chopper | Amish School Shooting | Anatomy of the Brain | Anatomy of a Mummy | Anatomy of a Virus | Ancient China | Ancient Greece | Area 51 | Atlas | Atomic Bomb | Austraila | Automobiles | Avian Flu
• B: Bali Bombing | Bangkok Mega Bridge | Batairecht | Battle of Britain | Battle of Chernobyl | Bear Grylls | Ben Anderson | Beslan Massacre | Bernie Fineman | Betsy Heulskamp | Bigfoot | Bikes | Biking events | Biking Routes | Bermuda Triangle | Blogging on the Battlefield | Bloody Britain | Blood on Our Hands | BMD | Body Spectacular | Bone Detectives | Born Survivor: Bear Grylls | Brackstone, Chris | Brazil | Brazilian Jujitsu | Bridges | British Planes | British Ships | British Vehicles | Bruce Lee | Building the Future | Building the Biggest | Building the Winter Games | Burj Dubai | Bush Fires
• C: Capoeira | Cars | Cars on Screen | Chernobyl. 20 Years Later | China | Chopper Lift | Chris Brackstone | Chuck Messer | Chuck Norris | City Police Pursuit | Cleopatra | Climate Change | Colorado River Bridge | Columbine High School Massacre | Columbus | Combat Range | Combustion Engine | Comet Impact | Comics | Computer | Conspiracies and Myths | Contact the Dead | Cowboys | Coroners | Crime and Forensics | Criminologist Interview | Crab Fishing | Crab Quiz | Crash Classic | Crop Circles | Cyberpunk
• D: Dangerous Jobs | Danny Forster | Darius Viaciulis | David Starkey's Monarchy | David Tait | Da Vinci Code | Da Vinci | D-Day | Deadliest Catch | Deanne Bell | Death Zone, The | Dinosaur | Discovery Rewind 2006 | DNA | Doug Anderson | Dress Up Your Pooch | Druids | Dwarf Planet
• E: Ed Wardle | Egypt | Egyptian Enigma | Egyptian Pharoahs and Queens | Elvis Presley | Energy, Alternative | Energy, Solar | Energy, Water | Energy, Wind | Engineering | Engineering the World Rally | Engineering Through Time | Engines, Massive | Eruption | Escrima | E-SMAW | Estonia, Sinking of | Everest | Extreme Earth | Extreme Engineering | Extreme Skyscraper
• F: F-22 | Face Transplant | Falklands: How Close to Defeat? | F.B.I. | Ferrari | Fight Quest | Finding the Fallen | Fisherman | Flight | Flight Pioneers | Flooding | Foo Fighters | Ford Cars | Ford, Henry | Forensic Scientists | Forensics | Formula One Challenge | Fred Ziel | Freedom of the Seas | Freemasons | FutureWeapons
• G: Garage, The | Genius Sperm Bank | Ghost Hunting | Global Medics | Global Warming | Goldminer | Gods and Heroes | Gotthard Base Tunnel | Grant, Dr Laura | Greatest Ever | Greco-Roman Wrestling | Greg Child | Grizzly Man
• H: Hapkido | Harland & Wolff Shipyard | Harley Davidson | Hatshepsut | Helios Flight ZU522 | Heroes & Villains | Hess, Rudolf | History of Explosives | History of Flight | History of Motorbikes | History of Sex and Love | History of Technology | History of Videogames | History of WW2 | Holocaust | How Do They Do It? | Human Body | Human Files | Hurricanes
• I: Iceburgs | IMS | India | Industrial Revelations | Internet | Internet, 15 Years On | Italy | I, Videogame
• J: Jackie Chan | Jeet Kune Do | Jet Li | Jet Planes | Jimmy Smith | John Lennon | Jordan: The Royal Tour | Judo | Jujitsu | Jungle Ranger
• K: Kalaripayattu | Karate | Katsusuke Yanagisawa | Kendo | Kevin Cook | Kew Palm House | Killing the Cocaine King | Kitchen Chemistry | Kombai, The | Krakatau | Kursk, The
• L: LA Ink | Lance Armstrong | Laser | Last Days | Laura Grant, Dr | Leeds Castle | Leepu Awlia | Lemur Street | Light Bulb | Little Experiments | Living With Tigers | Loch Ness | Logger
• M: M30 Madrid Project | M32 | Machines and Engineering | Maclaren Technology Centre | Marfa Lights | Marilyn Monroe | Martial Arts | Massacre in Madrid | Massive Engines | Medical Technology | Mek, The | Men In Black | Meerkat Manor | Mermaids | Mexico | Microchip | Military Aircrafts | Mk110 | Mogens Jensen | Mongrel Nation | Monica Piris Chavarri | Moscow Siege | Motorbikes | Mountain Science | Mount St. Helens | Mount Tambora | Mount Tambora. Buried Village Uncovered | MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) | Muay Thai | MULE | Mummification | Mummy, Anatomy of a | Mystery of Helios 522 | Mystery of the Red Queen | Mythbusters | Mythbusters Video Game | Myths, Egyptian | Myths, Native American | Myths, Shark | My Shocking Story
• N: Native American Myths | Neanderthal Genome Project | Nefertiti | New World Order | Nick Blair | NLOS-C | Nostradamus | Nuclear Weapons
• O: Obesity Pandemic | Oil, Sweat & Rigs | Oklahoma City Bombing | Olympic Games | On the Rails | On the Run | One Step Beyond | Operation Barbarossa | Orangutan Island
• P: Pankration | Paul Britton | Pearl Harbour | Pencak Silat | Peter Worthers, Dr | Pharaohs and Queens | Pioneers of Flight | Planes | Planes, American | Planes, British | Planes, Jet | Planets | Pluto | Pontianak | Pope John Paul I | Population | Protector | Psychic and Paranormal | Psychology of Speed | Puertasaurus reuili | Pyramids, Egyptian | Pyramids, Mystery of
• Q: Queen Mary 2
• R: Race 2 Replace | Racing Dynasties | Reich Underground | Real Superhumans | Reproduction, Human | Reproduction, Shark | Rob Barber | Robert Maxwell | Robin Hood | Robots | Rodeo World | Rogues Gallery | Rogue Predators | Rolls Royce | Rome | Rudolf Hess | Russell Brice
• S: Saddam Hussein, Capture of | Sars Global Killer | Savate | Scary Movies | Science Fiction in the Cinema | Science Fiction on TV | Science Fiction, Origins of | Science of Prediction | Science of Star Wars | Sci-Fi Zone | Scotty Moore | Scramjet Engine | Serial Killers | Sex and Love, History of | Shaolin Chuan | Shark Attack Map | Shark Myths | Sharks | Shark Week | Ships | Ships, British | Skyscraper, Extreme | Smart Materials | Smash Lab | Solar Energy | Southern Chopper | | South Africa | Space | Speed Week | Sphinxes | Spitfire Ace | Spitfire | St Paul's Cathedral | Stars | Steam Engine | Steel | Steve Irwin | Storm Chasers | Super Comet | Survival Zone | Synthetic Materials
• T: Taekwondo | Tai Chi Chuan | Tatsu | Technology | Telephone | Ten Ways... | Three Gorges Dam | Time Team | Tim Medvetz | Timothy Treadwell | Titanic | Top 10 Ways to Contact the Dead | Touring Bikes | Transport Networks | True Horror | | Tungurahua | Tunnel Trial | Tunnels | Tutankhamun | Tutankhamun, Assassination of
• U: UFOs | Ultrasound | Ultimates | Unearthed | Universe | Unsolved History | Urban Myths
• V: V-22 | Vampires, Female | Vancouver's Artificial Reefs | Vehicles | Video | Videogames | Virtual Dive to the Titanic | Virtual History | Virus, Anatomy of a | Volcano | Vroom
• W: Warrior Women | Water Engineering | Water Power | We Built This City | What Are They Doing? | Whirlpools | Whiz Kids Quiz | Why Do Killers Kill? | Wind Power | Wing Chun Chuan | World Population | World's Lost Tribes | World's Strangest UFO Stories | World's Toughest Jobs | World's Toughest Tribes | Worst Jobs in History | Worthers, Dr Peter | Wreck Detectives | Wright Brothers | WW2
• X: XM307 | X-Rays
• Y: Year Without Summer | Yip Man
• Z:

dumb, dumm, tumb, stumm, stammeln (W3)

excerebrose (W3)

knowledge (W3)

Misosophy (W3)

science
*skei-
*skin
*skiyen
*skeid
*skeit (W3)

• altengl. "scit" = engl. "shit"
• altengl. "shincle", then engl. "shingle" (from the notion of splitting off a thin piece of wood).
• altgriech. "schism" (meaning a division between people, often in a religious organization)
• altgriech. "shizo-", as in "schizophrenia" (literally "a splitting of the mind")
• altnord. "skið" = engl. "piece of wood"
• dt. "gescheit" = dt. "unterscheidungsfähig"
• dt. "Schere" (die "Trennschere" ist ein weißer Schimmel")
• dt. "Schiefer"
• dt. "schizophren" = "gespaltener Geist" (griech. "phren" = "Geist", "Gemüt")
• dt. "Sekretär", frz. "secrétaire", mlat. "secretarius" zu lat. "secretus" = dt. "abgesondert", "geheim"
• dt. "skandieren" von lat. "scandere" = "emporsteigen"
• dt. "Skat" (Kartenspiel) von ital. "scarto" = "Wegwerfen" (der Karten), "die abgelegten Karten"
• engl. "blatherskite" = "Quatschkopf" ("Quatsch-Abscheider"), from Old Norse skta, to defecate;
• engl. "chine" = "Rückgrat", "Kreuz"
• engl. "conscience" = "Gewissen" (from "conscire" "to know well", "to be aware", "to have on one’s conscience")
• engl. "conscious" = "Bewußtsein" (also from "conscire")
• engl. "descendent"
• engl. "escutcheon" = "Schild", "Abdeckung"
• engl. "esquire" = "Edelmann" von lat. "scutarius" = "Schilderer", "Schildträger"
• engl. "exscind" = "exzidieren", "herausschneiden"
• engl. "knife" = "Messer"
• engl. "nescience" = "Unwissenheit"
• engl. "nescient" ("not knowing", "ignorant")
• engl. "nice" = "schön" (zunächst = engl. "ignorant", then "foolish", "lascivious", "wanton" and "showy", "ostentatious", and than "refined" and then "well mannered" or "kind"
• engl. "omniscient" = "allwissend"
• engl. "plebiscite" = "Plebiszit", "Volksentscheid"
• engl. "prescient" ("knowing beforehand") = "vorherwissend", from Latin "scre", "to know" ("to separate one thing from another", "discern")
• engl. "prescind" = "absondern"
• engl. "rescind" = "von einem Vertrag zurücktreten", from Latin scindere, to split.
• engl. "saw"
• engl. "scan" = "genau prüfen"
• engl. "schism" = "Schisma" = "(Kirchen-)Spaltung"
• engl. "schist" = "Schiefer"
• engl. "scilicet" = "nämlich" von lat. "scilicet" = "man höre!" aus "scire licet" = "man darf wissen"
• engl. "sciolism" = "Halbwissen"
• engl. "section"
• engl. "segment"
• engl. "share", from the notion of dividing what you have with someone else
• engl. "sheath" (from the notion of a split piece of wood in which a sword is inserted)
• engl. "sheath" = "Scheide", from Old English scath, sheath ("split stick"), perhaps from Germanic "*skaith-"
• engl. "sheave" = "Scheibe", from Middle English sheve, pulley ("piece of wood with grooves")
• engl. "shed" (meaning "to cast off", as in "shedding skin", but not the "shed" meaning a storage building)
• engl. "shed" = "verschütten", "Schuppen" from Old English scadan, to separate, from Germanic "*skaith-", "*skaidan"
• engl. "shin" = "Schienbein", ("shinbone") (from the sense of "thin piece", though that’s a little opaque to me)
• engl. "shit" = "Scheiße"
• engl. "shiver" = "Splitter", from Middle English "shivere", "scivre", "splinter" (possibly from a Low German source akin to Middle Low German "schever", "splinter")
• engl. "shiver" = "zittern", "Splitter", "zersplittern" (in the sense of a small chip or fragment of wood)
• engl. "shyster" = "Winkeladvokat", "Gauner", from Old High German "skzzan", "to defecate"
• engl. "skate" = "Schlittschuh"
• engl. "ski" = "Schi", from Old Norse "skdh", "log", "stick", "snowshoe", from Germanic "*skdam"
• engl. "skive" = "spalten", from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse "skfa", "to slice", "split"
• engl. "squire" = "Landjunker", "Gutsherr", früher "Schildknappe", from Latin "sctum", "shield" ("board").
• frz. "science"
• frz. "scission", ital. "scissione" = "Spaltung"
• frz. "écu", von lat. "scutum" = "Schild"
• griech. "schizo-" = "gespalten", (griech. "skhizein")
• ital. "scudo" = "Schild"
• lat. "nescius"
• lat. "scandula", later "scindula"
• lat. "scientia" = ursprünglich engl. "state of knowing", "knowledge"
• lat. "scire" = engl. "to know", "to understand"
• lat. "scutum" = "Langschild"
• span. "escudo" = "Wappenschild" (lat. "scutum" = "Schild")
• verwandt mit ide. "*sek" = engl. "to cut"

• ETYMOLOGY: Middle English chiveren, shiveren.
• ETYMOLOGY: Middle English shiveren, from shivere, splinter. See skei- in Appendix I.

Science and Shit
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The root [ide.] "*skey" meant "to cut", "split", "separate". The extended form "*skeyd" became "scit" in Old English. The "sc" sequence was originally pronounced /sk/ in Old English and other Germanic languages, but it eventually became pronounced /sh/ (the "sh" sound) in Old English. The "sh" spelling came later under the influence of French scribes. But despite those minor spelling changes, the word has remained virtually unchanged in over a thousand years. You could travel back to Anglo-Saxon times, and they would understand you if you said "shit".

So how did a root meaning "to cut", "split", "separate" come to mean "feces"? From the notion of separating it from your body. The same metaphor is found in the Latin "excrementum", which employs the unrelated root meaning "to sift", "separate".

This means that "shit" probably started out as a "euphemism". Speakers of Proto-Indo-European or Proto-Germanic may have talked about needing to go separate something rather than use a more unsavory term. In English, "shit" was fairly neutral for a long while and apparently didn’t become taboo until around 1600, at which point it mostly disappeared from print. It isn’t found in Shakespeare’s plays or in the King James Bible.

"Euphemisms" often become sullied by the connotations of the thing they’re euphemizing, which leads to the need for new "euphemisms", a process sometimes called the "euphemism" treadmill. So even if "shit" started life as a polite way to talk about defecation, it eventually became a rather crude one.
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In Latin, the PIE root "*skey" gave rise to the verb "scire" = "to know", "to understand". It probably developed from "separate" to "distinguish" or "discern" (that is, "tell things apart") and then to the more general sense of "know".

A noun form of the present participle of "scire", "scientia", originally meant the state of knowing — that is, "knowledge". "Scientia" became "science" in French, which was then borrowed into English. In English it came to mean not just "knowledge" but the "body of knowledge" or the "process of gaining new knowledge" through the scientific method.

The Latin "scire" gives us a whole bunch of other words too, including "conscience" (from "conscire" "to know well", "to be aware", "to have on one’s conscience"), "conscious" (also from "conscire"), "prescient" ("knowing beforehand"), and "nescient" ("not knowing", "ignorant").

A related form, "nescius" is also, surprisingly, the origin of "nice", which is a great example of just how much meanings can change over time. Though it originally meant "ignorant", it shifted through "foolish" to "lascivious", "wanton" to "showy", "ostentatious" to "refined" and then "well mannered" or "kind". The Oxford English Dictionary records many more obsolete senses. A different descendent of "*skey" yielded the Latin "scandula", which later became "scindula" and was then borrowed into English, where it became "shincle" and then "shingle" (from the notion of splitting off a thin piece of wood).

In Ancient Greek, the root "*skey" yielded "schism" (meaning a division between people, often in a religious organization) and "shizo-", as in "schizophrenia" (literally "a splitting of the mind").

Back in English, "*skey" also yielded "shed" (meaning "to cast off", as in "shedding skin", but not the "shed" meaning a storage building).

It probably also gave us "sheath" (from the notion of a split piece of wood in which a sword is inserted).

The Online Etymology Dictionary says it also gives us "shin" (from the sense of "thin piece", though that’s a little opaque to me).

And it’s the source of the word "share", from the notion of dividing what you have with someone else.

It also gives us "shiver" (in the sense of a small chip or fragment of wood), which still appears as a dialectal word for "splinter".

In Old Norse, "*skey" yielded "skið" also meaning "piece of wood", which eventually gave us the word "ski".

And "*skey" appears to be a variant of another root, "*sek", meaning "to cut", which gives us a whole host of other words like "section" and "segment" and "saw", but I should probably cut this post off somewhere and save some things for another day.
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shiver (vb, n) = "tremble" = "zittern".

Ice kippa (to pull, snatch, quiver compulsively), Swe kippa (to snatch, to twitch). Compare the Ice use of k in words such as kona (= E queen) where the relationship of kippa to quiver becomes clear.

Wissen ist Macht (W3)

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"Wissen ist Macht", lautet die bekannte Erkenntnis Francis Bacons. Seit den Tagen des englischen Philosophen und Staatsmannes hat die Menschheit einen bedeutenden Wissenszuwachs verzeichnet.
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Bryson, Bill
At Home
A short Story of Private Life

Kurzbeschreibung
Nachdem er mit liebevoll-kritischen und unglaublich amüsant geschriebenen Betrachtungen über seine beiden Heimatländer, die USA und England, bekannt wurde, stürzte sich Bill Bryson sowohl auf andere Ländern als auch anderen Themengebiete. Ähnlich wie in "A Short History of Nearly Everything" widmet sich Bryson hier wieder dem Allgemeinwissen: den Dingen des alltäglichen Lebens und wie sie geworden sind, was sie sind. Von keinem lassen wir uns lieber die Welt erklären!

Über den Autor
Bill Bryson, geb. 1951 in Des Moines, Iowa, zog 1977 nach Großbritannien und schrieb dort mehrere Jahre u. a. für die 'Times' und den 'Independent'. Mit seinem Englandbuch 'Reif für die Insel' gelang Bryson der Durchbruch, und heute ist er in England einer der erfolgreichsten Sachbuchautoren der Gegenwart. Seine Bücher werden in viele Sprachen übersetzt, stürmen stets die internationalen Bestsellerlisten. 1996 kehrte Bill Bryson mit seiner Familie in die USA zurück, wo es ihn jedoch nicht lange hielt; er war wieder 'reif für die Insel', wo er heute wieder lebt.

Hobbes, Nicholas
England: 1000 Things You Need to Know

Kurzbeschreibung
This essential and timely guide to all things England and English, which has sold 34,000 hardback copies to date, is now available in paperback.Despite a thousand years of glorious history, the people of England know surprisingly little about the facts and fables, people and places and events and emblems that have shaped their country and its heritage.Where did John Bull come from? What is the Long Man of Wilmington? Who abolished Christmas? When did roast beef become a national dish?From the White Cliffs of Dover to MG Rover, from Newcastle Brown Ale to Royal Mail, and from John Milton to blue stilton, Nicholas Hobbes explains and celebrates every aspect of Englishness for a modern audience. The result is as entertaining as it is essential.