Word: ferrets
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...cloning has any relevance to the routine management and conservation of endangered species," says David Wildt, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Institution's Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Va. Instead, Wildt favors low-tech methods, like the artificial insemination used to breed the endangered black-footed ferret, which is now being reintroduced to the American West. "Our laboratory works all over the world with the rarest of species," he says, "and not once have I ever heard a real wildlife manager or wildlife scientist say, 'Gee, we must attempt to save this species using cloning...
...cutting out the whining and focusing on real solutions. First I homed in on a single goal: figuring out how to get great deals on flights. Then I recruited a crack panel of experts--everyone from Travelocity CEO Terrell Jones to CheapTickets vice president Ron McElfresh--to help me ferret out the best insider tricks. Finally I torture-tested their advice to see if it really flew. Here's what I learned...
...understandable that we should want to ferret out the deepest motives and incongruities of the people we choose to represent the nation. But the public search for intangibles has led not to intangibility at all, and instead, to a series of soft "facts"--a tearful hug, a passionate kiss, a supporter who has traveled the country to be here tonight--meant to stand in its stead...
...more dazzling, personal, unorthodox, paradoxic your assumptions (paradoxes are not equivocations), the more interesting an essay is likely to be. (If you have a chance to confer with the assistant in advance, of course--and we all like to be called "assistants," not "graders"--you may be able to ferret out one or two cosmic assumptions of his own; seeing them in your bluebook, he can only applaud your uncommon perception. For example, while most graders are politically unconcerned, not all are agnostic. This is an older generation, recall. Some may be tired of St. Augustine flattened by a phrase...
...something. Ferret ownership has doubled in the past five years; 6 million are now in U.S. homes, placing them third in popularity among mammals, trailing cats (55 million) and dogs (50 million). Adult ferrets weigh between 1 1/2 lbs. and 3 lbs., perfect for compact living spaces, and the species' record of good behavior--according to the Animal Health Institute, ferrets are 200 times less likely to bite than dogs--makes them ideal first pets. Then there's the ferret's hip intellectual profile. "They're not pack animals," says Shefferman, "and they don't learn by rote, like dogs...