Glad to see Bob Church adding his smarts about the subject of Domestication,
but I think he stopped just a little short, or maybe better written, he
burst out of the starting blocks a little too fast.
 
KISS, my watchword which I apply to myself, and which means KEEP IT SIMPLE
STUPID, is a watchword I admire greatly.  So on that springboard, consider
what follows as simplicity in itself.
 
Consider the difference between taming and domestication: there's only one
difference I know of, and that is seen quite clearly in the definition of
the two terms.
 
Taming: to put a creature to man's use without the need for intimacy
between man and the creature (or plant).
 
Domestication: to cause the creature to desire intimacy with man and for
man to use the creature for his own benefit.  Please note here domestication
is almost never a direct benefit to the creature, except by accident when
that benefit accrues to both man and the creature.
 
One may conclude that the Egyptians TAMED the ferret and started the PROCESS
of domestication.  Human beings have applied PRESSURE on the ferret from the
time of those Sphinx builders to this very day, as when today I allowed the
copulation of a viripotent hob to a fertile jill.  Germ plasma (as well as
somatic plasma) was transferred from male to female in the ejaculate bath.
Male and female nuclei coalesced.  Little messengers are now transmitting
orders to the fertilized egg on just how to grow, and maybe, just maybe,
somewhere in this army of little messengers is one little guy who's going
to change (read PRESSURE) all those ferret babies and make them "different"
from all other ferrets that have ever been born so far.  That little
messenger guy and typically others like him are responsible for your being
here today and giving you the ability to read these words.
 
What I did today, or what my two lover ferrets did today was 1 times 10 to
the minus 1000 power-sized-step to advancing (inhibiting?) the PROCESS of
domestication.  Most would agree with me that domestication is not a fixed,
completed, unalterable state (excepting of course the Marshall Farms
butchery upon 4 week old kits and all those plants and animals that are
extinct.)
 
Marshall Farms and extinction do one sad thing: they (it) fixes and stops
the PROCESS OF DOMESTICATION.  Does it not seem rational then that
domestication is only a fixed and final state when the creature can no
longer adapt and becomes extinct, or is denied the ability to pass on its
germ plasma by being neutered or spayed?
 
Some of my critics have stated that our ferret IS domesticated, as though
the ferret is in a fixed, unalterable state of descendent change.  All I
believe is that our ferret is domesticated in name only, as in the name
"domesticated house ferret."
 
Perhaps we could be a bit more precise (who cares?) and refer to our ferret
as the" domestic house ferret," rather than the "domesticATED" house ferret.
Didn't Bob Church touch on this too?
 
You may agree with me (I know that hurts some of you out there who never
been to Frettchenvergnueganland) that there is room for improvement* in our
domestic house ferret, and the ferret of today is certainly not going to be
the same ferret 20,001 years from now.  Why is this?  Some refer to it as
genetic drift, evolution ... domestication.
 
Actually I think this process of improvement (read DOMESTICATION) will
proceed much more swiftly when Ferrets NorthWest FNW gets on board with the
University of Hawaii's Sensei Teruhiko Wakayama, author of the "Honolulu
Technique" for cloning of mice (also read ferret) clones from parent clones
from grandparent clones.  This "Honolulu Technique" will permit our cloning
of ferrets extending at least three generations.  Thus the genetic drift
resulting will be 3X if not more.
 
Hence, with each transfer of ferret genetic material that is slightly
altered through genetic engineering, from F1, F2, and F3 generations, the
process of domestication of the ferret for our own benefit may not require
waiting 20 millenia, but may be accelerated in our lifetime instead of what
would've "normally" taken 20,001 years.
 
*improvement=eliminate traits such as predator response to certain sounds
that have resulted historically in the maiming of human infants, generalized
biting that one reads about continuously on the FML, tail flicking that
preceeds an attack by a ferret, the wildness still in the ferret, as
typified by ferrets scooting for cover in a room that is suddenly entered
by a human being (lack of intimicy), and lastly, but of greatest import,
enhance the ability of ferrets to resist the many different kinds of
uncontrolled cellular growth we call cancer.
 
Der Ausgang kommt als die Vorbereitung und die gunstig Gelegenheit
zusammentrefft. [G.] Success is when preparation and opportunity meet.
 
Edward, Der Wahrheitskaempe von Frettchenvergnuegenland dabei, Lipinski,
der sagt, "Frettchen ueber Alles !"
Edward, the champion of truth from ferret joy land, Lipinski, who says,
"Above all else  ... Ferrets !"
[Posted in FML issue 2383]