…and this is a 
One good name rescued from the trash bin
Category: Kooks
Posted on: October 6, 2008 7:33 AM, by PZ Myers
You will all be pleased to know that the Brazilian UFOnuts who named their organization after Carl Sagan have backed down and removed Carl's name from their masthead.
They've named it after Galileo instead.
Oy vey. Couldn't they name it after a more appropriate historical figure? I recommend calling it the Bozo Institute. Or if they want to be more subtle, how about the Arthur Conan Doyle Institute? He saw things that weren't there, too.
Comments
Posted by: Snark | October 6, 2008 7:42 AM
The well known portuguese Astrologer Ernesto Da Dumbo Fukko might have been most appropriate as a popular mastheadfor the.
Posted by: Richard Harris | October 6, 2008 7:52 AM
Arthur Conan Doyle believed in fairies & was conned by two schoolgirls who took photos of cut-out fairies in their garden. Yeah, really!
But we ought to be careful - Alfred Russel Wallace believed in spiritualism.
Posted by: cervantes | October 6, 2008 7:59 AM
How about Ezekiel? Or "John" of the Book of Revelation? Or Bernadette Soubiroux? Lots of excellent possibilities.
Posted by: druidbros | October 6, 2008 8:08 AM
Careful PZ. At least there are pictures of UFO's. And remember this does not mean they are aliens,just UFO's.
Posted by: Masks of Eris | October 6, 2008 8:09 AM
Or Bertholletia Excelsa Institute?
Posted by: Andrés Diplotti | October 6, 2008 8:14 AM
So, what's next?
The Christopher Hitchens Spirituality Institute?
The Sally Kerns Center for Civil Rights?
The Institute for Creation Research?
Posted by: genesgalore | October 6, 2008 8:31 AM
the chicken little institute lives. i always taught my students to think: yes, i believe in space aliens but i seriously doubt that they have ever been to earth.
Posted by: Joshua | October 6, 2008 9:20 AM
I think "Rorschach Institute of UFOlogy" has a certain ring to it...
Posted by: CosmicTeapot | October 6, 2008 9:23 AM
The Ken Ham institute seems most appropriate to me.
Posted by: decrepitoldfool | October 6, 2008 9:24 AM
Playing the Galileo gambit right in their masthead.
Posted by: Feynmaniac | October 6, 2008 10:17 AM
Is there a law which states that once someone starts comparing themselves to Galileo they have earned the title of 'crackpot' and have forfeited the right to be taken seriously?
Posted by: zaardvark | October 6, 2008 11:16 AM
Instituto Percival Lowell?
Posted by: JJR | October 6, 2008 12:27 PM
How about the H.G. Wells Institute?
Isn't it interesting they can't come up with a name of a noted UFO-logist that is instantly recognizable and that everybody in their "field" can agree upon?
Posted by: SimonG | October 6, 2008 1:42 PM
Von Daniken would be fairly recognisable. Although I guess they really need someone who's dead, (and not just from the neck up).
Posted by: Ichthyic | October 6, 2008 2:01 PM
Oy vey. Couldn't they name it after a more appropriate historical figure?
no, and I'll tell you why:
Not enough creativity or knowledge; combined with absolutely no sense of irony.
Posted by: Sili | October 6, 2008 3:40 PM
Actually, unless my memory is completely screwed up, Giordano Bruno would be pretty appropriate.
Wasn't his heresy claiming that the universe is infinite and that there must be life elsewhere exactly because when God had the power to create it, he would have?
Posted by: Lurky | October 6, 2008 4:48 PM
#6
ROFL! :D
Posted by: ام الهول | October 6, 2008 6:42 PM
But it's Brazil, where they play fast and loose with people's names. There are six Barack Obamas running for office there now, and a Bill Clinton, a Jorge Bushi, a Kung Fu Fatty, and The Second King of Prawns.
Posted by: Clara | October 7, 2008 4:44 AM
Let`s not concentrate the nationalities, portuguese, brazilian, it doesn`t matter!
Try to find a proper name, please!
Posted by: Purple | October 8, 2008 7:25 PM
=[ I liked Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. I feel sad that an author of such a rational and logical character wasn't so rational or logical himself.