If you hear a loud thud tonight  it most likely will be me dropping my
computer from the top of the Washington Monument.
 I apolgize for the strange posting
 
The real letter
 
The FWS should include high schools in that list of  criteria for accredited
scientists. My high school shouldn't be rated higher than a pig pen.  However
there are some schools that do have research facilities but I believe are
being under used. For example one of the brand new HS's in the area has a
direct link to te GOES 8 and GOES 9 satellites.  The next question is How
often do you believe this will be used.  How many students will really get
anything out of having that. Most people in charge think its a great thing but
I know that a great deal of the current students don't care about it or the
opportunities given to them If I had my way I would use it at least once a
week but thats because I would be a physics and atmospheric sciences major if
I wasn't a biologist.  Enough on that. I do have an amusing story my professor
told me the other day about imports and customs but it doesn't have anything
to do with the postal services.
 
  A few years back (before I was born) My professor went on a trip (I believe
it was during his graduate years) to the Sea of Cortez. One of the students on
the trip was working with Hermit crabs and had collected a great deal of them.
Unfortunatly for him, the Hermit crabs live in Snail shells.  On the way back
to the states, He was stopped at the border and told he couldn't bring what he
had collected in the country. The student Told the Border Patrol that he was a
scientist doing research on hermit crabs. The BP said he didn't care, and that
snail shells were not allowed to be brought in. The student again explained
that they wern't snails but hermit crabs. The BP took one of the shells out of
the bag and held it up. He said "this looks like a snail to me."  Apparently
the BP had been told about freshwater snails and the risk thay had of carrying
Schistosomioses (don' think I spelled that correctly) and he assumed it meant
all snail shells regardless of whether they were marine, dead, or had hermit
crabs.
 
 Just think folks,  That was your tax dollars at work paying this BP's
paycheck. However the guy was doing his job so we can't complain too much. I
have a feeling this is the case behind  some of the problems with shipping.
You may have missed one little question on the forms and Customs has to send
the bomb squad in.  Or you may have done everything correctly and the villege
idiot was in charge or you package. Either way   these things happen.  I sent
a box containing a birthday present to Australia (it was a bunch of *
american* stuff.  I sent it 2 months ago and she still hasn't recieved it.
Maybe customs thinks that salt water taffy is illegal down there.
 
Sarah *a computer Killer by night* Watson
Silver Spring MD
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Tidepool/8845