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Wild Hairs & Brainstorms

Water cooler seems like the proper place to enter this wide open topic. I hope I'm correct about that (... I'm just brainstorming, after all.)

Here's an example of the kind of thing I'm thinking belongs under this topic:

Is there any reason that AtheistNexus couldn't become a pseudo-charitable business similar to those of the religious groups? If we gathered together a hundred good recipes, for example, is there anything that would stop us from publishing an Atheist Family Cook Book and selling it for profit to generate money for our organization? And better yet, could we eventually aim ourselves toward become an Atheist Publishing House to earn money through the works of those popular authors we all tend to read anyhow... Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens and the like? Could we sell other things? What do you think?

It's just a thought, of course, but lets kick it around and talk about it's possible merit. Or... let's discuss you're Wild Hair idea...

Tags: brainstorms, ideas

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Permalink Reply by Carolyn R on January 31, 2010 at 9:11pm

I would very much like both to buy and to contribute art for atheist coloring books. Right off the top of my head, I'd like to see a general one on evolution, and one on the history of folklore / religion.

I'd also absolutely love to see a kids' book (coloring or no) following the evolutionary path of humanity, all the way from the slime to modern humans.

I have some other ideas, but these are the one's I've boon looking around for, without success, although there are some cool kids books out there on the subject of evolution.

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Permalink Reply by Johnsky on January 31, 2010 at 9:26pm

I cannot think of a reason that the owners of Atheist Nexus wouldn't want to branch out the business into areas of publications or charity.
Provided that we don't expect them to do all the work.

We should therefore brainstorm next on the what and how.

Perhaps the administrators could be so kind as to designate an area specifically for ideas of expansion?

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Permalink Reply by Gary Burk on February 9, 2010 at 11:28am

"Wild Hairs & Brainstorms" invokes a topic that should not be - NO - Must not be ignored! To wit, the common yet senseless use of the term "wild hairs".
All Hair I know off is non-sentient and rather passive when compared to, say, a Tasmanian Devil or even
most pond snails. It is true that most of us have had "bad hair days" when certain annoying strands refused to behave as ordered. Yet, if this rebellion results in those offending hairs being judged to be "wild", the accuser must have an extremely mild and passive demeanor.
The expression was first coined to serve as a colorful description of an excitable person, especially one who seemed to flit abruptly from one position to another. In this usage, such a person was said to
"have a wild hare up his ass". A "hare" is a rabbit-like critter known to move in sudden and unpredictable bounds. In the unlikely event that such a hare would become so unenviably positioned, its host was imagined to bound about in a similar manner.

Ergo, the title of this discussion topic should be "Wild Hares and Brainstorms ". We must keep in mind that, although all hares have hairs, not all hairs have hares.

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Permalink Reply by Dan DuPree on February 9, 2010 at 1:03pm

This sounds like many doable ideas and I don't mean to be a killjoy but.....the local atheist group I belonged to for several yrs managed to get tax exempt status so donations could be deductable and that took them almost a yr. Gov't agencied weren't very helpful to an atheist group seeking this designation. To get and maintain that status, they had to present themselves as an educational group and avoid political activities, which Evangelical xtians may get away with but we would not have. If we don't get tax exempt status, there will be taxes to pay and we should have an attorney on retainer for copyright and other issues associated with book and periodical publishing. Also, at least the board owners would need to incorporate and be subject to audits and gov't red tape.

My son had a not for profit publication with tax exempt status and received local free legal help. The lawyers loved his stuff so they still help him out and can't wait to go to trial the first time he gets sued. Not if but when. He has now converted to a for profit and is making decent money on a distribution of about 4000 issues per month. You can see a little of his stuff on line at QuarterRat.net. The paper is distributed in New Orleans and is nasty arsed funny shiite that also takes on the rotten politics, cops and mobbed up(He's not stupid, he's very careful to make those funny and not give details)businesses.

I'm just saying that getting tax exempt not for profit can make your life easier but it takes a while.