To my surprise, it turns out I have some influence over which animal will appear on the cover of the book. So I threw the question out on the internal YUI team IRC channel. As expected, the results were unsatisfactory.

To protect the guilty, all IRC nicks have been further anonymized.

• [3:12pm] evangoer: Okay, important business.
• [3:12pm] evangoer: My editor tells me that while I cannot choose the O’Reilly animal for the cover,
• [3:12pm] evangoer: I can send her a list of suggestions.
• [3:12pm] evangoer: So: floor is open
• [3:12pm] MrPink: NARWHAL
• [3:12pm] evangoer: ooh good start
• [3:12pm] MrPink: Failing that, Moby Dick.
• [3:12pm] MrPink: Or, really, any albino sperm whale.
• [3:13pm] MrBrown: t. rex
• [3:13pm] MrWhite: camel spider?
• [3:13pm] evangoer: I was going to say velociraptor, but T Rex > Velociraptor
• [3:13pm] evangoer: way too scary, Mr. White
• [3:13pm] MrPink: If there’s a camel spider on the book, it will never enter my house.
• [3:13pm] MrWhite: Has someone taken the angler fish?
• [3:13pm] evangoer: yup bad marketing
• [3:14pm] MrBrown: ditto
• [3:14pm] evangoer: female or male angler fish?
• [3:14pm] MrWhite: haha
• [3:14pm] MrOrange: Velociraptors are scarier than T. Rex, IMHO.
• [3:14pm] MrBlonde: Yeti Crab
• [3:14pm] MrBrown: If they want a list, we should put both
• [3:14pm] evangoer: yes but T. Rex kicked their butts in Jurassic park 1
• [3:14pm] MrWhite: velociraptors are a fad (like the internet). T Rex has stood the test of time.
• [3:15pm] MrOrange: True. But T. Rex couldn’t enter the computer room and kitchen.
• [3:15pm] MrBrown: Mr. White: Good point.
• [3:15pm] MrPink: YUI is clever. Like a raptor.
• [3:15pm] MrPink: Also, learning YUI will help you open doors.
• [3:15pm] MrOrange: Mr. Pink++
• [3:15pm] evangoer: YUI will crunch through your problems like the jaws of a T. Rex.
• [3:16pm] MrBlonde: Red Panda ‘(“shining cat,” from a Latinized form of the Greek, ailouros, “cat,” and the participial form of the Latin fulgere, “to shine”)’
• [3:16pm] MrPink: Also, it’s modular. The modules work together to overcome problems, in much the same way that raptors work together to eat your face.
• [3:16pm] MrWhite: Isn’t there a flying snake?
• [3:16pm] MrPink: Mr. White: HOLY HELL WHERE KILL IT
• [3:16pm] MrBrown: I think its a common misnomer that the T Rex is not as smart as the v-raptor. A consensus of paleontologists agree the T Rex is as smart as they come.
• [3:16pm] MrPink: That said, as awesome as raptors are, narwhals are infinitely awesomer.
• [3:17pm] MrWhite: 9 out of 10 paleontologists agree…
• [3:17pm] MrBrown: Apparently, they are the most intelligent hunter evah
• [3:17pm] evangoer: oooh the red panda is cute!
• [3:17pm] MrPink: 1 out of 1 paleontologists I live with would agree with Mr. Brown’s stance on T-Rexes.
• [3:17pm] evangoer: “its population is estimated at fewer than 10,000 mature individuals.” Well that’s YUI for sure.
• [3:17pm] MrBlue: So, technically an animal: the YUI J-Pop star in illustration format on the cover?
• [3:18pm] MrPink: 1 out of 1 paleontologists I live with would also like me to recommend the humble compsognathus, which she thinks is cute: http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compsognathus
• [3:18pm] MrBrown: Mr. Blue: thread winner!!!
• [3:18pm] MrPink: Mr. Blue: Ha.
• [3:18pm] MrBlonde: We should get the “Distinct George” on the cover..
• [3:21pm] evangoer: Alright, well fantastic work, gentlemen. Will send this out to O’Reilly post-haste.