Here is a belated but very welcome spinoff of our Moving Naturalism Forward workshop from 2012: Jerry Coyne was clever enough to bring along a copy of his book, Why Evolution Is True, and have all the participants sign it. He subsequently gathered a few more distinguished autographs, and to make it just a bit more beautiful, artist Kelly Houle added some original illustrations. Jerry is now auctioning off the book to benefit Doctors Without Borders. Check it out:
Here is the list of signatories:
- Dan Barker
- Sean Carroll
- Jerry Coyne
- Richard Dawkins
- Terrence Deacon
- Simon DeDeo
- Daniel Dennett
- Owen Flanagan
- Anna Laurie Gaylor
- Rebecca Goldstein
- Ben Goren
- Kelly Houle
- Lawrence Krauss
- Janna Levin
- Jennifer Ouellette
- Massimo Pigliucci
- Steven Pinker
- Carolyn Porco
- Nicholas Pritzker
- Alex Rosenberg
- Don Ross
- Steven Weinberg
Jerry is hoping it will fetch a good price to benefit the charity, so we’re spreading the word. I notice that a baseball signed by Mickey Mantle goes for about $2000. In my opinion a book signed by Steven Weinberg alone should go for even more, so just imagine what this is worth. You have ten days to get your bids in — and if it’s a bit pricey for you personally, I’m sure there’s someone who loves you enough to buy it for you.
I like the white glove.
Nobody’s gonna bid much for this, because it’s just scientifically minded people.
Scientists are mostly boring to the public, certainly not worthy of large monetary payments for their signatures, even personal documents, don’t embarrass them and yourself with public auctions, please.
You need to have someone like Picasso, who painted stuff in weird geometric shapes, for fun really, without any boring mathematical background to justify it, to get the peeps really interested.
Peeps prefer mysterious people who barely say anything deep, and do so in a confusing way – scientists are just very annoying people trying to be very precise about stuff.
I’m going to be straight honest as any respecting person in pursuit of scientific truth should be: the book signed by all these people is not worth $60 and never will be. Dawkins is a science populizer more than a scientist. Dennett is a Philosopher. Weinberg is the heavyweight on that list. But not going to ever be worth 2k.
It looks great, but you to offer it to MIT, Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, Yale, etc. You get the idea. Have them bid for it and then but it in a display case.
You left out a signatory: Baihu Goren. That’s his print to the left of the finches….
b&
Sounds like James Gallagher is disappointed Deepak Chopra isn’t on the list. That or he and Adam are trying to keep the bidding down. It’s over $1K after 3 bids, so it’s out of Adam’s league.
I hope readers are at least promoting this even if not bidding themselves.
I’ve read Jerry’s book and it’s great and Doctors Without Borders is one of the charities my wife and I support. We are on their mailing list. On another topic: I was on SciAm Bright Horizons 23 with you. I recently sent you an email to the Gmail adr that we all were sent from Insight Cruises. There’s news about Chris & Annika you might like to know and also that you were in the Fall issue of the Wheaton College Alumni magazine along with Billy Craig about the God & Cosmology conference at NOBTS. My reaction letter was published in the Winter issue. No need to write a response but I would like to know whether or not you received it or did it end up in the Spam mail folder.
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@James Gallagher… “Nobody’s gonna bid much for this”?
You kidding? It is already up to $1,225.00.
Thanks to Sean for posting this. And for Adam and James: despite your dire predictions that nobody would pay squat for this, the bidding is already at $1275 on the first day. A book is worth what it sells for, so you sourpusses are simply wrong.
Correction: $1625.
b&
Corrected correction $3,050 and rising fast….
b&
lol, if they had got Banksy to spraypaint the cover it probably would reach $100K
Or get Bono to sign it for an extra $10k at least
Nobody cares about clever scientists and the like.
Not sure if Bono believes in evolution though…..
Gallagher, you really are a piece of work. First you say that nobody is going to bid much for the book, and then when it goes over $3000 on the first day you say that it would be worth more if Banksy spraypainted it (true), or if Bono signed it (supposedly adding $10k). You don’t seem to be aware that Bono signatures go for a few hundred bucks at most.
The escalating price of the book shows that people do care about clever scientists. And one of them is the host of this blog, Dr. Carroll. Just admit you were wrong.
“Not sure if Bono believes in evolution though…..”
That made me laugh. 🙂
Frank
if this goes for over $10,000 I’ll admit I was wrong, I know it won’t though, so stop bugging me.
James, it’s already over $4,000, and it’s only halfway through the second day. And it’s the weekend. And the only publicity it’s received has been on sites like this one.
You might consider what type of sauce you’d like with your crow.
b&
Does anyone know how efficient and effective Doctors Without Borders is financially?
It won’t beat $10,000, trust me
Regarding the Banksy comment, I’ll just leave this here: Two Banksy originals purchased for just $60 each in Central Park during graffiti artist’s NYC residency set to fetch $160,000 at auction
I guarantee you it won’t read past $4060.
You know, if you’re casting doubt on Doctors without Borders as a charity (for you could have looked it up in 5 seconds as I just did), it gets a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, a 92% rating, and 87% of the money it raises is spent on its programs.
Google is your friend: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3628#.VQ6hPDTF_38
As for “physics fan”‘s “guarantee” that it won’t go past $4060, well, this morning it’s at $4150, with 7 days to go in the auction. Any other predictions?
James, you’re already wrong. It is clear that your statement that “Nobody cares about clever scientists and the like” is false given how much this book is already going for.
Jerry Coyne,
Yeah, I predict that you’re incapable at detecting a joke. Relax.