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Charles Darwin Has a Posse
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These stickers are being introduced to spread awareness and appreciation of Charles Darwin, whose theory of natural selection provided a simple, non-supernatural explanation for how life evolves. Although this stickering project is probably futile, it will hopefully delay our slip into Dark Ages II by several days. Maybe a week. Instructions and tips can be found below, and examples of stickers in action on my flickr site. And if you're into Facebook, there's a group there, too.
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How to make stickers in the privacy of your own home
Download the "Sheet o' Darwins" PDF file and print it onto a "full sheet" label page (e.g., Avery 5265). Or, if you need stickers as door prizes for your Darwin Day party, try this. Peeling the sticker backing off the resulting squares is indescribably annoying, but at least we have opposable thumbs, for reasons we don't have to go into. I also have had great success, and fun, printing out these files onto magnetic inkjet paper (you can "sticker" ferrous objects without damaging the surfaces). Note that you can also surprise your date this weekend by using the PDF to make temporary tattoos. It's the perfect way to terminate the relationship with a closet science hater. And if you're totally hot, please consider sportin' a temporary Darwin tattoo at the beach or the gym for the educational benefit of lustful gawkers. Finallly, if you know how to use spray paint, here's a stencil for you.
How to buy stickers
If you need a high-quality, weather resistant bumper sticker for your Hummer, FPDImages produces a 2 1/2" vinyl version in a family-sized set of 15...enough left over for your skateboard, wheelchair, and one dozen close friends (or whatever you call them). Highly recommended for hard-surfaced luggage and your kid's lunch box. FPDImages also offers microDarwins, megaDarwins, and psychedelic Darwins.
Who needs stickers?
PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: Giving one of these beauties to a student says "Good job!" much better than one of those pathetic smiley faces. Also wonderful for Darwin Day celebrations on February 12th.
COLLEGE BIOLOGY TEACHERS: Motivate your students by offering a Darwin sticker as a prize. They'll go bonkers with enthusiasm.
LABORATORY SUPERVISORS: Leaving out a pile of Darwin stickers improves lab moral faster than a box of Krispy-Kremes, and they won't cause heart disease and obesity.
PARENTS: Stickers make great stocking stuffers and party favors for your children and their friends.
LOVERS OF CAR ART: This sticker has been carefully designed to be pro-science, not anti-religion like the ubiquitous "evolution fish". You can, therefore, stick one of these on your car's bumper without worrying when Flanders is going to let the air out of your tires. In fact, I bet Flanders would love one!
EVERYONE ELSE: If you are not a teacher, don't run a research laboratory, hate kids, despise cars, and generally couldn't care less about science, you should still value the production of students (i.e., future voters, future Presidents) who lean toward natural explanations of reality and favor, in general, rational approaches to life's challenges. So use a sticker to show you care.
Support button for your web page or blog
Just paste the code below where you want the button to appear.
<a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/evolk12/posse/chazhasaposse.htm"><img src="http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/evolk12/posse/RSS-POSSE.png" alt="Charles Darwin Has A Posse" width="80" height="15" border="0"></a>
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Buttons, t-shirts, etc.
If you need Darwin's face on stuff, I set up a Cafepress site. If you think a particular product/image combination needs improvement before you're interested, send me a note and I'll try to fix it.
Avatar mutants for your online presence
Click on image to see options.
More about the image, if you're at all curious
The portrait of Darwin is from an 1881 photograph taken around the time he published his blockbuster, "The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms." I thought the image had good potential to be virally attractive. The overall design shamelessly emulates the "Andre The Giant Has A Posse" art project that popped up around Providence in the late 1980s when I was a graduate student at Brown University. Did Darwin really weigh 163 pounds? Well, he was 10.5 stone after The Beagle adventure, and "overweight" in his later years, and 163 lbs is my best guess at his fighting weight. Regardless, at one point in his life (if even for only a day) he did weigh 163 pounds. He was actually 5' 11 1/2", if you want more of the gruesome details. By the way, Chuck's dad weighed 24 stone; definitely supersized, but not as heavy as André the Giant (37 stone). And yes, using his image is, indeed, just a lame ploy to increase the face recognition of Darwin among children.
PS
If you want to become an official Friend of Charles Darwin (FCD), pop over to http://darwin.gruts.com/ and they'd be happy to induct you.
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CREATED 2004, UPDATED:
November 10, 2008
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