Q:  Can you tell us more about the ferret research?
 
Q: Are you really going to Europe?  Is that why you have started to post
again?
 
A: Hey, Bill doesn t let me make jokes about posts.
 
Well, I have been very busy lately and so I have a rather large backlog
of quest ions, so I am trying to get as many of them done as possible
before leaving.
 
My primary reason for going to Europe is to speak at the ferret symposium
in the Netherlands.  I highly recommend attendance for ALL ferret owners
in Europe.  Please attend and introduce yourself.  Mainly, it is
important to attend and build a brotherhood and network of cooperation
that will help all.  Plus, it will be fun, and you don t want all us
North Ameri cans getting all the credit!  Put EU ferret people on the
map!  I ll have phrase books and dictio naries in six different European
languages, including English, so come and laugh about how I m assacre
your language.  I ll have some new cattle punchin on ferrets postcards
with me, so just ask for one.
 
Basically, the research will ultimately be used to show feral New Zealand
ferret s are no longer domesticated.  To do that, I will be identifying
the skeletal characteristics th at define the two groups.  That has never
been done before, but thanks to the generous donations o f friends, I now
know what to look for.  That is about all I can say at the moment, but if
you go to the ferret symposium at Amsterdam, I ll fill you in with the
analysis of my findings, tenta tive though it may be.  I won t leave the
rest of the ferret community in the dark; when I return, I ll share my
findings with everyone.
 
I am hoping to prowl museums and universities in Britain, Scotland,
France, and Germany.  I am trying to add museums in Spain and Poland to
the list.  I may, might, hopefully add a trip to measure some specimens
in Morocco, which are claimed to be ferrets, but I suspec t they are not.
Unfortunately, I found out this week that one of the science grants I was
expect ing to pay for the costs of the research was withdrawn, so I am
scrambling for funding (no, not my fault; funding was granted, then
withdrawn from a whole class of researchers).  Nonetheless, I am c
onfident things will work out.  Any ladies want to donate scientific
research funds in trade f or lap dances?  I didn t think so.  I guess I
ll have to stand at the off-ramp with my sign, Will Do Science for Cash,
next to the astronomers.  Who cares about stars when you have skeletons!
 
Bob C
[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 4649]