Just a brief constructive criticism on Rudy's survey on life expectancies (meant in good spirit, not as a criticism - so no flames). I think it is a luadable thing for Rudy to offer to do (not to mention a lot of work), but I am afraid the answer would be statistically biased. The survey would be conducted among internet-types and, while I think that access might still be growing rapidly among all segments, is biased towards young people (remember - it started in academia, which is just full of college students. As a result, many of these readers may not have had ferrets long enough to live out their life, unless it was unusually short. As a result, you may get a boas towards shorter life spans. This doesn't say its not worth doing the survey, only that there may be a bias in the answer. Best - Mason (Slinky and Leila have nothing to say about statistical matters, and Pogo doesn't have a lot to say about very much at all yet!). [Posted in FML issue 1150]