What’s with the plush toys? John at Cosmic Variance displays “The Particle Zoo” and then Chad at Uncertain Principles goes all squishy with some animal toys, presumably for futurebaby.

I gotta say, the fundamental particles creep me out a little — x-ed out eyes signifies “dead” in cartooning, and it upsets my sensibilities that you can purchase individual quarks, and in any color. What kind of message is that to send to a young physicist, getting asymptotic freedom and color charge wrong right out of the gate?