Dear Kim-

I promise you I have NO INTEREST whatsoever in the Asian Bird Flu
study. Didn't read it, don't have an opinion. I was only addressing
your statement that "a scientific study is NOT a representation of the
real world." I think your motivation for that statement is possibly
related to some views that you have previosuly expressed regarding THE
TOPIC THAT WE ARE FORBIDDEN TO DISCUSS. (You know the one.) Were your
statement true on its face, we'd still be cursing the bad air down by
the swamp for malaria. And the mosquitoes would snicker, and pick us
off, one by one. (Oh, and we wouldn't have gin and tonics, either.
That would be a stone cold shame.)

There is a lot of good science being done, some of it with ferrets
as test subjects. I realize that the idea of animal testing in and
of itself is repugnant to some on this list. If the subject interests
anyone, it's always possible to Google "Ferret+test subject." That
gets a lot of hits.I will say that were it not for studies done with
ferrets, there would be *no* ADV test. Nope. And there would never be a
cure. Were it not for work done by scientists, the Black Footed Ferrets
would pass from this earth, as nobody would have figured out the role
the role of the bacterium Yersinia Pestis, and Travis would be at home
with April, and not on the plains at night (with or without loincloth)
fighting the Black Plague. And thanks to some solid scientific studies,
if Travis happens to *catch* the Plague, he won't die, and leave April
bereft.

There are a few nutcase scientists out there who publish fake results.
They get caught. There are some who pass worthless results on for a
quick buck. (The cold fusion guys.) They are a very, very small
minority. And they get caught, because some ethical scientists puts
his nose to the grindstone, and tries for that "reproducable result."
And fails, and fails, and the word spreads.

We live in an age where a good chunk of our population has come to feel
threatened by anything that has the adjective "scientific" attached to
it. Some because they have been burned by bad scientific reporting in
the media, some who feel that we have begun to tread some pretty shaky
territory because the potential of our technological growth is
galloping along faster than our ethical development. Some have come
to feel that the very term "scientific" is a threat to their deeply
cherished religious beliefs.

Well....I look at it this way. I view properly concucted scientific
study as one of the very best tools we will ever have for being able to
look into the mind of the one some have styled "The Great Architect."
We make a connection that has never been clear to us before, never been
revealed, view a previously unrecognized articulation of matter and
energy and we can marvel and realize just how *astounding* creation
is, and how wise the Creator.

And sometimes, what a remarkable sense of humor the Creator appears
to have. Did you know that cockroaches run away and *wash* themselves
after touching *us*? Some observant scientist figured it out. And it
made me spit out my coffee laughing, the first time I read that. I have
never looked at a cockroach the same way, again. Now when I see a big
honkin' one in Mexico I don't shriek, I feel empowered. I hiss "Go
away, or I'll *touch* you!" And Senior roach obligingly runs away in
terror, shrieking , in a tiny voice too high pitched for my monkey
ears. It's all about perspective.

And I suspect that most of us here have a deep reverence for Creation,
every time we hold a beautiful, soft-furred ferret in our arms, and
look into those delicately fringed eyes, stroke the blunt little ears,
marvel at the intracacy of the whiskers and the cunning articulation of
the tiny toes, each with its single arched claw. A miracle that Jehova
neglected to mention when he was chewing Job out...A miracle, even
without a cecum.

Alexandra
Back in MA. 

I *must* be alive after all, because I am actively suffering from the
lack of palm trees, blooming bouganvillia, and soft tropical breezes.
Instead I have bare trees and frozen salted road sand. Maybe I've died
and gone to....a really unpleasant afterlife...hmmm. I'll have to think
about it.

[Posted in FML 6249]