Pharyngula: Miss Prism has a brilliant idea

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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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As an active Humanist for almost fifty years, I am astonished at the wild statements of LaHaye and Wine. Humanists have unfortunately remained a minority in the United States. The American Humanist Association has never had more than 6,000 members, and that number at present is approximately 3,000. The AHA has no more than half a hundred small chapters throughout the country. Of course, there is quite a large number of Humanists who do not belong to the AHA, and multitudes more who do not realize they are Humanists and multitudes more who do not even know the word. Our philosophy (or religion) does wield considerable does wield considerable influence throughout the civilized world; Humanists would indeed rejoice if it possessed the powers ascribed to it by the Moral Majority.

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« Tangled Bank #72 | Main | Now this is nerdiness »

Miss Prism has a brilliant idea

Category: History • Weblogs
Posted on: January 31, 2007 3:32 PM, by PZ Myers

You all recall the Beagle Project that I recently mentioned was trying to raise money to reconstruct the Beagle and sail off to Patagonia (with me hiding belowdecks, of course). Miss Prism had a terrific idea: she's knitting a Darwin puppet that she'll sell off to some lucky commenter on Darwin's birthday, with all the proceeds sent off to build the Beagle.

I should get in on this, although I have no talent for knitting. Any suggestions? Is there some little personal Pharyngula tchotchke I could convince people to bid on, knowing that their pennies would go to the construction of a boat? I was thinking that one possibility would be to draw a cartoon about the lovable character, Squidbert, and get the Dilbonians lining up to buy it so they could put it on the web for mocking/savaging purposes (since I have no talent for cartooning, either, that would be easy to do.) It seems a little unfair to give those baying hounds a bit of red meat to sate their appetites, when others here are more deserving of reward. Make suggestions, and I'll see what I can do.

Comments

Posted by: Zohn | January 31, 2007 3:39 PM

I would gladly bid on the first copy of your upcoming book, personalized and signed by you and if possible, Richard Dawkins.

Posted by: dustbubble | January 31, 2007 3:46 PM

Ar, d'ye mean Squidward Tentacles, ye lubber? Long-suffering minion of Mr Krabs?
Or be he some as-yet-unknown (over here) genetic improvement of yon Dilbert?

Posted by: Bronze Dog | January 31, 2007 3:50 PM

I think I might try my hand at little Image Dogtoring again, with Dilbert strips. Suggestions would be appreciated. My gmail address should be pretty easy to guess if you'd like to drop me some. (No numbers, underscores, or special characters)

Posted by: dhonig | January 31, 2007 4:07 PM

I do some cartoons, and would be happy to put one together on my sites, Hypnocrites and Left 'Toon Lane, with a link to the project. Ideas welcome, or I can come up with something myself. I did raise a bit of cash for the South Dakota abortion fight with this cartoon. And speaking of knitting, here's one more. (I can't seem to post pictures here in comments, so links only).

Posted by: commissarjs | January 31, 2007 4:14 PM

You could raid Darwin's tomb and incorporate some of his DNA into your army of zombie squid men.

Posted by: Amy Russell | January 31, 2007 4:25 PM

This is somewhat off-topic, but have you seen the criticism of ID in the latest issue of Quarterly Review of Biology? It's written from a philosophy of biology perspective, and is quite interesting. Want to bet that Dembski, Behe, et al. are going to use a citation in QRB as proof that their ideas are part of mainstream biology?

Posted by: Poseidon | January 31, 2007 4:30 PM

You could raid Darwin's tomb and incorporate some of his DNA into your army of zombie squid men.

So PZ is going to be responsible for the Atheist Conspiracy's army of anonymous mutant thugs, then? Glad that project is still on schedule.

Posted by: clheiny | January 31, 2007 6:22 PM

Obviously, it would have to involve cephalopods. Custom built plush PZ autograph edition squid, maybe?

Posted by: Cat Faber | January 31, 2007 6:23 PM

I should get in on this, although I have no talent for knitting. Any suggestions?

It seems to me you should stick to your strengths on this one. For instance, you could offer to write a blog entry on the biology topic or question of the high bidder's choice.

#10

Posted by: Jiggavegas | January 31, 2007 7:10 PM

ooh- I like Cat Faber's and Zohn's suggestions.

Maybe one of those "Squid Overlord" T-shirts signed by PZ?

#11

Posted by: bargal20 | January 31, 2007 7:16 PM

I used to live in a city named after Charles Darwin. How many of you can say that? Nyah, nyah...

#12

Posted by: Scott Hatfield | January 31, 2007 9:31 PM

I start the bidding on a signed P.Z. Meyers first edition sight unseen at $40.00....!

#13

Posted by: Scott Hatfield | January 31, 2007 9:32 PM