Posted on 07/26/2003 10:38:39 PM PDT by Hildy
By law, all ferrets sold as pets must be neutered. Unfortunately there are some sadistic individuals out there. We found out the hard way after adopting a really sweet female ferret from a local shelter. They assured us she was spayed before we brought her home, but alas, she was not. She died of aplastic anemia despite our Vet's most valiant attempts to save her.
The concern was not damaging spacesuits... which can handle the natural process of passing gas. It was the gasses themselves! Some people produce enough methane and hydrogen in their wind to be flamable! The early spacecraft were planned to use pure Oxygen for air. This was changed after the three astronauts died in the tragic Apollo I fire.
Like a variety of food products, legumes have been associated with flatulence. Little was known about the specific causes of flatulence until the planners involved in the space program became concerned that astronauts could conceivably poison themselves with flatulence, as there was originally no place to get rid of methane and hydrogen sulfide gases produced by flatulence. In the study of flatulence, it was learned that flatulence is about 1/2 nitrogen and 40% carbon dioxide. The nitrogen comes from air which is swallowed while eating and drinking. The carbon dioxide is the product of aerobic respiration by intestinal bacteria. The other 10% of flatulence is composed of hydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulfide gases produced by anaerobic intestinal bacteria. All bacteria produce ammonia and the highly odorous indoles and skatoles. The amount and composition of flatulence varies among individuals, and astronauts were once (maybe still are!) subject to criteria as to the amount of flatulence they produced and the percent of flatulence that was composed of methane and hydrogen.
Apparently, that is no longer a concern.
From NASA archives chat with Nasa engineers David Flowers and Scott Colloredo held on March 3, 1998:
[ LTCexpert - 27 - 10:48:48 ]
RE: [Ellen/Gateway] Gateway Elementary is in a small town called Travelers Rest, S. C. that is near Greenville, in the northwest part of South Carolina. We are very excited to be on-line with you. The class wants to know how long you have been in this job? What is the favorite "space" food?
Scott has been working at Kennedy Space Center for 12 years mainly in the Design Engineering Office and I've been at KSC for 11 years in the Shuttle Operations Office and Space Station Integration Office. I'll have to ask what the favorite space food is, but every time we launch a shuttle mission we have a big bowl of "BEANS".
This one is true...
Ferrets have a long season which can last four to six months. But you wouldn't have to deal with it that long, because a prolonged heat of over a month will almost surely kill a female ferret without imediate medical attention.
Ferrets come out of heat by ovulating, and they only ovulate when they're either bred, or exposed to the chemicals breeding them releases.(a 'jill jab', a hormone needle)
Your female ferret may contract a desease through her weakened immune system, or a bacterial infection in her vaginal region, or she may become anemic from the constand blood flow to her uterus and vagina. Any way you slice it, a ferret in heat is a ferret in trouble.
Stay Safe !
UNTRUE!
Rule of thumb: check the dictionary
CMAJ 1998;158:1014
In the article "MDs have key role in bringing ugly secret of wife abuse out of closet" (CMAJ 1997;157[11]:1579-81 [full text / en bref]), by Nicole Baer, I was most perplexed to read the old chestnut that the expression "rule of thumb" is derived from an American law permitting a husband to thrash his wife with a "rattan no wider than his thumb." Although the derivation seems plausible, your readers can be thankful that this macabre yarn is a fabrication, first published in July 1986 in a letter to Ms. magazine from the creative mind of Claire Bride Cozzi. Within only 11 years even that version has evolved: Cozzi cited an undated "English common law" permitting a man to chastise his wife with a "switch" that was to be "no thicker than his thumb."
The true derivation of the term "rule of thumb" has never been in doubt. As the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles indicates, a rule of thumb is "a method or procedure derived entirely from practice or experience, without any basis in scientific knowledge; a roughly practical method." It first appeared in 1692. In his book Not Guilty, D. Thomas explored the origins and significance of this persistent urban myth.1 As Georges Braque has observed, "Truth exists — only falsehood has to be invented."
Legal researchers have been unable to find any references in law or common law that pre-date this invention of the derivation of the phrase.
I think that was 8 track tapes...
What a sad, sad story about little Margaret Henley, the six year old friend of JM Barrie. Sorry, just the childhood nostalgia of the Peter Pan story and the lament for that innocent bygone age when a man could have a little six year old friend and no nasty suspicions raised.
No one really knows the origin of this word. It is possible that it arose from the butter-yellow color of common European butterflies called sulphurs.
Simply aint so. I had a traditional English education, and my favorite teacher, Mrs. Harvey was a wonderful older lady straight out of the Victorian Era. She routinely called those wonderful insects "flutterbys". And think, what does a butterfly do? It flutters by.
Then don't ask about Alice Liddell and Lewis Carroll... you don't want to know.
The REAL Alice in Wonderland.... Photo by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
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