Best of the Tube!

Been wanting to do worst and best of the tube.

Been worried about comparing the same thing...that is videos that youtubers do themselves vs things they've just copied from somewhere else vs things they are just quoting.

I've been in a quandary ... I'm not doing a worst of the tube this time -- only a best of the tube.

There's a video I came across recently that is just a quote of someone else's work -- Chapter 6 of the origin of species is read by a user named Gisburne2000. This fellow has a very pleasant voice and emphasizes the right syllables as he's reading so that it makes sense as you're following along. I don't for second believe that this is sufficient. I'm still committed to the idea of one day doing an Origin Redux, even though I realize that the project really needs and is worthy of the voice of a fellow like Mr. Gisburne. Still, while I don't think his contribution is sufficient, I do think it's necessary. In fact, this is one of the more important contributions to youtube. It's not likely to convince any fanatics, but he has made Darwin accessible to those who are already evolutionists, but have never read Darwin, as well as to those who are doubtful of Darwin, but genuinely confused about what he actually wrote. That set formally included myself.

Gisburne2000 is reading from edition 6 of the book -- I've only read edition 3 and that's the version I tried at first to follow online. Not easy to do. If you want to follow him as he reads, use version 6 as project Gutenberg.

Chapter 6 is particularly interesting. The title is "Difficulties of the Theory." I have said several times that any time a creationist starts a sentence with "Even Darwin said X" you can just BET YOUR ASS he has not actually read any Darwin. Chapter 6 is perhaps the one that is most often quoted out of context. The fact that Mr. Gisburne has selected this particular chapter to start with indicates he has some familiarity with creationist scholarship.

In short Mr. Gisburne has provided us with a treasure. This must be an enormous effort, and yet one that is vital and necessary. I hope that he is inspired to do the entire book.



Gisburne2000 reading Origin of Species, Chapter 6
Part 1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=6iCYOiSREPQ (48:11)
Part 2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=YDKZ7ofaAL4 (50:50)
Total Time = 1 hr 39 min 1sec

Edition 6 at Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/otoos610.txt

You can see Mr. Gisburne's blog at:
http://www.gisburne.com/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Origin
• Species
• evolution
• darwin
• gisburne2000
• best
• of
• the
• tube

[Gisburne2000]

Thanks for the tremendous reception you've given to this. Yes, I am going to be recording the whole book, and yes it is a huge effort - to get the quality, I reject a tremendous amount of what I record. As you can imagine a 90-minute chapter therefore takes a lot of editing.

My web site has MP3 versions of the audio for anyone who prefers to listen in the car or on an MP3 player etc, and I may sent up an RSS feed for that too.

More will definitely follow!

[TheFallibleFiend]

Elated to know there will be others!

[TheFallibleFiend]

Seriously - I understand the effort involved with producing something of this good is immense, but the positive is incalculable. Unfortunately, you're in the position of a good teacher. You never know what kind of effect you've had - or even if you've had an effect, until some decades later some fellow comes up to you and says, "Ya know ... you really mattered."

[InReasonWeTrust]

Nick does read well--slowly and effectively. His accent remains a bit distracting for me though, more so than others from the UK.

[TheFallibleFiend]

I understand his video better than my own mumblings. Didn't realize how distrait I sound until I recorded myself. Your speaking voice is also good, btw.

[Ender1zero1]

I'm glad to hear that you aren't going to be doing a worst of, I hope you never do, highlighting someone's failings publicly is harsh. Praise, well heck none of us get enough of that.