[R] How about a mascot for R?

[Jari Oksanen]

On 4 Dec 2004, at 16:19, Martin Maechler wrote:

>>>>>> "DScottNZ" == David Scott <d.scott at auckland.ac.nz>
>>>>>>     on Fri, 3 Dec 2004 15:04:52 +1300 (NZDT) writes:
>
> 	  <........>
>
>     DScottNZ> As to an animal mascot, I think a New Zealand
>     DScottNZ> mascot is a must,
>
> well, thinking that "must" is bit strong, I agree that
> I have had the same idea (NZ animal) before your post.
> I first thought of the obvious Kiwi, but hoping for something
> more beautiful had been googling around for "New Zealand animals",
> then had been side tracted by the Kakapo which I found nice,
> intriguing, but in his fight against extinction didn't seem to
> fit to my notion of R..
>
Firstly, Kiwi is a rip snorter for a bird. Secondly, there are other 
kind of kiwis than the kiwi bird. I'm living about as far a away from 
NZ as is it is possible (you're getting closer if you try to get away), 
but even I've heard of 'kiwi fruit', 'kiwi bear' (brushtail possum) and 
'kiwi' as people. So it could be something 'kiwi'. I do think that a 
kiwi bird would be mascotty like a creature: cuddly and round and 
easiesh to draw. One parallel story brought about here is the penguin 
as a Linux mascot. Actually, this is a not-so-pleasant story: Linus 
Torvalds told somewhere that a penguin (hardly gentoo but some other 
species) tried to bite off his finger in a zoo, which made him to like 
those animals (he's a Swedish speaking Finn which helps to explain this 
attitude). With this attitude, you could pick a gray, mouse-like 
nocturnal bird as a mascot. Naturally, this is none of my business, so 
you should not let this message influence your opinion (it wouldn't 
anyway).

cheers, jari oksanen
--
Jari Oksanen, Oulu, Finland