Felicia, the Pipe-Cleaning Ferret of Fermilab (1971) | Hacker News Reader

Felicia, the Pipe-Cleaning Ferret of Fermilab (1971)

history.fnal.gov

70 pointssamclemens31 comments

>The ferret is an animal filled with curiosity and seeks out holes and burrows. Its instinct is to find out what's at the other end of a burrow, or, for that matter, a tube or a pipe.

A true scientist at heart :) The ferret was among its peers.

Just curious, isn't more "sterile" to use robot? I mean, a ferret can poo in the middle, it can leave fur and feet traces inside the tube.

This is in the links at the top of the page: http://history.fnal.gov/felicia.html#TheTrib

This is on the linked page:

> As part of her contribution Thursday, Felicia went through a 300-foot-pipe dragging a string. When she came out the other end, technicians tied a swab dipped in a chemical cleanser to the string. They pulled the tight-fitting swab through and when it came out it was covered with dust and steelspecks.

Thanks for the insight. When I read the title, for some reason, I thought the fur on the Ferret was used to do the cleaning.

> When she came out the other end, technicians tied a swab dipped in a chemical cleanser to the string. They pulled the tight-fitting swab through and when it came out it was covered with dust and steelspecks.

Poo would be unfortunate but look at the title. It's from 1971. People barely had colour TV back then, let alone pipe cleaning robots.

http://history.fnal.gov/felicia.html#TheTrib

> This good life may soon end for Felicia. The laboratory scientists have designed and built a mechanical ferret, a device activated by compressed air and controlled by wires. They don't need Felicia anymore. This was always the plan, with Felicia to be used only temporarily, while they built her robot.

> Source: The Tribune, December 22, 1971

i wonder what has happened to her. I remember how in childhood it was frequently mentioned about the first dog in space, yet nobody mentioned (and i never even asked about) the ending of the story, nor planned, nor what really happened - the "Layka" dog succumbed pretty torturously to heat due to failed equipment instead of the planned "happy end" - poisoned pill that should have been fed automatically to her. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika

I had a quick web search.

http://imgur.com/POrxEqv

Google, Duck Duck Go, Bing, Blekko, etc etc: you really need to start delisting the fuckers who pollute search results with made up shit. How is this possibly useful to your users? Companies who want to cram their URL in front of me at every opportunity should pay to place it in ads.

(I don't use an ad blocker. I even click relevant ads, although I've never bought anything from one yet.)

This is Google themselves IIRC. If you don't turn it off they will show your ads next to terms which they deem "related" to the ones you've chosen supposedly via some deep Googly machine-learning analysis.

Said analysis seems to have worked because I don't see any ads at all for that search on either desktop or mobile - presumably everyone carrying out that search knew exactly what they were looking for & it wasn't any of the displayed ads so Google stopped displaying them.

Thanks for the information - I'm about to trawl through the google settings to find it and turn that off.

I can understand ebay turning up. I use ebay. I have no idea how a geneology site turns up - I have no interest in it and have no relevant searches and haven't, as far as I can tell, visited any pages or watched any videos that are relevant.

Also, just to be really clear: you're saying that Google is inserting paid ads into organic search results with no indication that they are paid ads?

Edit: if this is true, and if there is a setting to turn it off, where is that setting?

Assuming your image was of Google ads, not organic search results: eBay might be keying off Ferret (ie pet supplies) I'd guess, whilst the genealogy site would probably be keying off Felicia, on the principle that Felicia Ferret might be someone's name.

You're saying that Google is inserting paid ads into organic search results with no indication that they are paid ads?

No, definitely not - the ads I'm talking about are shown in the sections marked as such. It's just that Google can expand the keywords that the ads respond too in ways that can surprise ad buyers that aren't aware of it.

It wouldn't surprise me if large websites play SEO games as well, but Google will respond to the behaviour of searchers when shown these results and push unhelpful results down the search order - if no one ever clicks on the eBay Felicia Ferret link, even though it starts off being the first result, then it will receive a penalty that ought to push it off the first page of results quite quickly.

(I have no internal knowledge of Google's processes; this is all inferred from watching Google over the years.)

I am not sure how you could think I was talking about ads.

Look at the image - it is clearly not ads. Look at the words I wrote - I talk about pollution of search results and offer the solution of putting these things into ads.

Mea culpa. You're right - Google marks ads with a yellow Ad icon on mobile.

DDG works as intended for me: http://imgur.com/dJGt3NV

I know a Mr and Mrs Ferret. It is a real surname.

Ferrets are awesome. I wish they were legal in California.

How/why are they illegal?

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/nongame/nuis_exo/ferret/ferre...

EDIT: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/nongame/nuis_exo/ferret/ferre...

"Recent Proposed Legislation Regarding Ferrets

For many years, ferret owners and enthusiasts have been lobbying for a change in California law to allow importation and ownership of ferrets for pet purposes. Assembly Bill AB 2497 (Goldsmith) was introduced in 1994; Senate Bill SB 55 (Kopp) was introduced in 1995; AB 363 (Goldsmith) was introduced in 1997; and Assembly Bill AB 854 (Cunneen) was introduced in 1999. all failed passage. "

"1. Ferrets may bite or scratch children, as well as adults.

2. Ferrets also carry rabies, and there is no proper vaccine against the rabies which attacks it.

3. Ferrets can also threaten native wildlife. "

Source: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100517033547A...

There is a rabies vaccine that's USDA approved for ferrets: http://imrab.us.merial.com/imrab/index.shtml

Maybe you could get some other mustelid native to california instead? They wouldn't have 2500 years of domestication behind them, but e.g. stoats (short-tailed weasels) are sometimes kept as pets, and are native to california (and much of the northern hemisphere). Likewise the (much closer to ferret-sized) mink, various american mink subspecies are native to california.

The marten is an other california-native mustelid, though I don't know if they can be tamed easily.

One last option (that I know of) could be the tayra, it's apparently easy to tame and although it's not native to california its range goes up to mid-mexico. Could be more acceptable than invasive europe-originated ferrets.

Speaking as a former ferret owner, I would advise very strongly against trying to domesticate a wild mustelid. Given the right circumstances, even pet ferrets can be dangerous, and they have a nasty bite; running foul of a wild one would probably be a bit like falling into a wood chipper, except that a wood chipper won't run up your pant leg.

Stoats are quite a bit smaller than ferrets though, 25~30cm and 250g versus ~50cm and ~1.5kg

I doubt their teeth are any less sharp.

What, are ferrets not legal in CA? How can an animal be illegal?

By being a banned for import non-native species?

Not sure if you are serious or not but there are many illegal animals in the US. Rhinos, Elephants, and Hyenas come to mind for family pets.

Here is a link for CA.

http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2012/02/29/pets-you-cant-legally...

The question may have looked stupid, but it was an honest question. Thanks for answering.

Great, being down-voted for asking a question. This community is just adorable.

There is quite some build-up of residue in my warp drive's plasma conduits. Is there a ferret lending service somewhere? My EMH Mark 1 is offline.

I am suprised that there was only one. I knew someone who kept ferrets (to catch rabbits for her hawk) and was told that, as social animals, being kept in isolation would send them crazy, while all-female groups didn't get along well. Was spaying Felicia not an option in 1971?

It's not exactly true that ferrets need other ferrets around to keep from going crazy; frequent, interesting interaction with humans easily suffices to satisfy their need for stimulation. Between the tunnel runs, and the fact that happy ferrets are endearing, friendly little creatures in general, I doubt she lacked for enough to keep her mind active.

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