My personal computer is in the shop for a dead DVD/CD drive, the second one that died in a week. The Apple guy thinks there might be a problem with the motherboard. It should be fixed early next week after both are replaced. Because of this, I have done very little emailing of late. My computer time is courtesy of my son, but not enough to answer my recent back log of email. I'll get to it after this weekend. Extremely important stuff I'll answer with my son's machine, such as working out the details of the TLE Challenge, or messages to Ferret Project people, but I am limited to times and the amount of time. ---------- I leave for New Zealand in less than a month (March 13). My trip itinerary sequence is: North & South Islands (New Zealand), Melbourne, Sidney, & Brisbane and other locales in Queensland (Australia), Singapore, Edinburgh and other locales (Scotland), London and other locales (England), Paris & Angers (France), Casablanca (Morocco), Madrid (Spain), Amsterdam and other locales (The Netherlands), Warsaw (Poland), Berlin & Frankfort (Germany), Budapest (Hungary), Vienna (Austria), and Rome and other locales (Italy). I will probably travel to Switzerland, Sweden and Norway to talk to experts on carnassial teeth, polecats, and farm ferrets, but only if time and money allow. There is a good chance I might go to Ukraine to check out ferrets there and collect DNA. There is a small chance I will go to one of the Balearic Islands to check out the ferrets and collect DNA, but the cost might be prohibitive even though the information could have a great deal of importance DNA-wise. These locations are priorities, BUT I can stop at ANY town accessed by Eurail, or even by bus, should ANY ferret person request. The museums are very important, but so are pet ferrets, so I am trying to divide my time equally for both. I would greatly appreciate it if clubs and individuals from these countries would contact me -- but be patient for my reply because I HAVE to have the information for some areas before I can answer questions for other areas. Right now it seems like I am caught in a ferret loop where people are waiting on me to respond while I am waiting on other people to respond. It will sort out soon. This trip is like a long line of dominos, where each one has to fall in sequence to allow me to move down the line. I have to know where the 3rd domino is before I can place the 4th one. Also, this is the last research I will do on this project, so I HAVE to finish the work in one area before leaving for the next. These two problems makes it very, very hard to predict exactly when and where I will be at any particular time. I plan to send out weekly notices of progress to the FML, and notices several times a week to those involved in the project, and those I plan to visit. The need for all the visits is simple. First, I want to document ferret husbandry in places other than the USA. I will be documenting diet and scoring the teeth and health of the ferrets consuming it. I'll be photographing the ferrets to create an international database of ferret coloration and variation. Also, I will be collecting ferret hair and cheek scrapings for DNA analysis, which could help identify genes/markers that might be responsible for or indicate possible disease in ferrets. It might also show the relationships between groups of ferrets better, or perhaps give clues that might be useful in identifying the origin of the ferret. I need as much DNA as I can collect (like with my skeletal and dental studies, I am trying to sample to redundancy), so please, contact me as soon as possible so that I can schedule a visit. I can and will go anywhere for this project until the money runs dry and my banker cancels my credit cards. I think this project is that important! I think it is so important that if a single person contacts me to visit their ferrets in any European country, I will do everything possible to insure I can make the trip to that location. The DNA work alone makes this extremely important to the world ferret community. Thanks to all for their help and support! Just remember that I am scheduling things in sequence as much as possible, so it might take a week or two before I respond. I promise I will respond to each and every email, but please be patient. Bob C [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML 5885]