Stacy!  Glad to see there are other Stat majors out there!!!
I'm really feeling alone and overburdened by the amount of WORK I'm
having to do to get my degree, but it will be worth it come June of 96.
Now, as to your suggestion that the ages of Ferrets are distributed
normaly N ~ (4,2.5) in stat language.  I would like to offer the
hypothesis that Ferret life-expectancy is distributed Exponentially with
parameter 4 years.  This is because most living things (Humans, cats,
even light bulbs(!)) have exponential life expectancy distributions.  Now
for all you non stat majors out there - here's an explanation:
 
A normal distibution is symetric about it's mean:  This means that as
many 7year olds die as 1 year olds (if the mean is 4 years)
 
An exponential distribution with parameter 4 has mean 4, but is not
symetric.  It fits life expectancy data better than a normal curve does
because it allows a low mean while accounting for large positive deviations.
(Example, there are a few Ferrets who have lived over ten years and quite
a few who die before age 1 year.)
 
Anyway, just a thought, but if any serious statistical study is going to
be done, I would love to help out!
 
Cheers!
[Posted in FML issue 1154]