mascot_p

[Robert J. Hansen]

First -- yes, I would love to see Terry the Tinfoil-Hatted Terrapin
become our mascot.  We've got a very businesslike logo; a mascot is an
opportunity for playfulness.  And what better way to poke a little
good-natured fun at ourselves?

Second -- okay, if the Tinfoil-Hatted Terrapin strikes a little close to
home (maybe some of us *are* terrapins: certainly, though, no one on
this list could ever be accused of wearing a tinfoil hat), I'd propose
something else entirely: the coelacanth.  Why?  Well, because I've got
this really weird and inexplicable fondness for them.  They're a fish
that's been around for 400 million years or more, has basically given
evolution the middle finger and dared Darwin to kill it off more times
than a Bruce Willis action movie, and ... well ... it has *style*.

The coelacanth also suggests Time, big-T Time.  (Like 400 million years'
worth.)  Given how often we wind up talking about brute-force analysis
and the megayears and megatons required and how much of an
extinction-level event it would be, a fish that's survived four hundred
megayears and several mass extinctions would be ironically appropriate.

Here, have a cool photo of a coelacanth:

http://bio1151.nicerweb.com/Locked/media/ch34/34_18Coelacanth.jpg