http://www.aneclecticmind.com/2007/01/28/the-planets/ Web site and blog for Maria Langer, freelance writer, commercial helicopter pilot, and serious amateur photographer. Sat, 19 May 2012 12:28:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://www.aneclecticmind.com/2007/01/28/the-planets/#comment-567 Maria Langer Sat, 03 Feb 2007 14:25:15 +0000 http://www.aneclecticmind.com/2007/01/28/the-planets/#comment-567 Peter, thanks SO MUCH for sharing all this additional information. What struck me on reading Sobel's book, The Planets," is how much the topic touched upon topics in her other books. Longitude remains one of my favorites and I think it's her best work. Peter, thanks SO MUCH for sharing all this additional information. What struck me on reading Sobel’s book, The Planets,” is how much the topic touched upon topics in her other books. Longitude remains one of my favorites and I think it’s her best work.

]]> http://www.aneclecticmind.com/2007/01/28/the-planets/#comment-566 Peter McGrath Sat, 03 Feb 2007 01:33:02 +0000 http://www.aneclecticmind.com/2007/01/28/the-planets/#comment-566 Darwin's trip with FitzRoy was remarkable in many respects - FitzRoy took against the shape of Darwin's nose and nearly didn't take him for this reason. The trip wass caused by FitzRoy kidnapping five Fuegians on an earlier voyage - he brough them London to be baptized civilised and to return to the own land a missionaries but scandal ensued and they had to be returned sharpish. FitzRoy's family had an history of mental illness and he feared his fragility might re-emerge on a long voyage, hence the fateful decision to ship Darwin. FitzRoy later blamd himself for helping Darwin bring the evil - as FitzRoy saw it - of evolutionary theory into the world. He committed suicide. Longitude affected Beagle, too - during her 1831-36 voyage with Darwin she carried 22 chronometers for accurate measurement of longitude and FitzRoy was so solicitous of them that he refused to fire the boat's cannons lest they disturb the mechanisms. Darwin’s trip with FitzRoy was remarkable in many respects – FitzRoy took against the shape of Darwin’s nose and nearly didn’t take him for this reason. The trip wass caused by FitzRoy kidnapping five Fuegians on an earlier voyage – he brough them London to be baptized civilised and to return to the own land a missionaries but scandal ensued and they had to be returned sharpish. FitzRoy’s family had an history of mental illness and he feared his fragility might re-emerge on a long voyage, hence the fateful decision to ship Darwin. FitzRoy later blamd himself for helping Darwin bring the evil – as FitzRoy saw it – of evolutionary theory into the world. He committed suicide. Longitude affected Beagle, too – during her 1831-36 voyage with Darwin she carried 22 chronometers for accurate measurement of longitude and FitzRoy was so solicitous of them that he refused to fire the boat’s cannons lest they disturb the mechanisms.

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