[R] How about a mascot for R?

[Robert Gentleman]

On Dec 6, 2004, at 3:15 PM, Richard A. O'Keefe wrote:

> Thomas Yee <t.yee at auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
> 	ps. Ross has Maori origins, so a native NZ animal is a better idea
> 	than usual.
>
> The native animals of New Zealand include no mammals except for
> - marine mammals in the coastal waters, such as the Hector's dolphin
> - a few species of bat which got blown over from Australia.
> Otherwise, there are birds, reptiles, insects, and a few oddballs.
> The most notable oddballs would be Tuataras, famous for their third  
> eye.
> We have some onychophorans, of which it has been said that
> "Contemporary Onychophorans are able to predate organisms several times
> larger than themselves" (take _that_, SAS!)....
> Wetas are quite interesting; they are basically grasshoppers some of  
> which
> played the ecological role of (and are about the same size as) mice.
>

Hi,
   We had a brief discussion and narrowed it to two, coincidentally  
among those named by Richard. The tuatara (there is some charm in  
associating a software product with what is essentially a slow moving  
dinosaur) and the weta (for those unaware, one might also describe it  
as a grasshopper designed by the Pentagon - these have some serious  
armor plating and a ferocious grip). Of course this is one of many  
views, kiwis, kokakos etc have lots of charm as well - and I think New  
Zealand might lay some claim to the giant squid. No need to stick with  
non-extinct things either - I suspect the dodo is up for grabs. And on  
the NZ front the Moa or the Haast eagle.

Ross and Robert

> I suspect that only birds have the "cuddly" appeal required of a  
> mascot.
> Perhaps it's worth pointing out that Kiwis are a kind of Ratite.
>
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| Robert Gentleman              phone: (206) 667-7700            |
| Head, Program in Computational Biology   fax:                          
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