Wanted: Good Home for 1,000 Rats. No Cats Need Apply.

If you don't like rodents, stop reading right ... now.

This probably isn't the story for you.

There's an effort going on in California to find good homes for 1,000 rats.

I would have guessed finding a home for even a couple would be tough. But a thousand?

I suspect a few zoo workers would love to get their (thickly gloved) hands on these rats to feed a few snakes or other critters that see rats as a nice snack. There might be some school teachers who think these would be great for the classroom. And a few university labs might be wondering how they can get them for a few experiments.

But instead, the plan is to save rats, maybe give them nice homes where they may go forth and multiply.

Multiplying was what led to this problem in the first place.

A man who lives in Los Angeles had made the mistake of allowing his daughter to bring home one pregnant rat, according to an article in the San Jose Mercury News. (http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16675119?nclick_check=1)

And thus begat the next generation ... which begat the next generation ... and begat  the next generation, until a thousand rats had taken over this guy's place.

According to the Mercury News:

The rats escaped into the man's house and began reproducing. This was no small matter, because rats give birth after only three weeks of gestation, and can have litters of as many as 20 babies. And those offspring are ready to start breeding -- or in this case, inbreeding -- within 30 days.

"He had all these rats reproducing until they had destroyed his entire house," Paul said. "They chewed all the way through the walls."

The rats burrowed into the ground underneath the home and soon were running loose on the property. Instead of contacting animal control, the man's neighbors contacted the company that produces "Hoarders," an A&E reality show about people who have become captives of their collectibles.

When the rat rescue people moved in, they found themselves walking on droppings and insulation torn out of the walls that formed a creepy carpet an inch and a half thick. "There were cages in the house, but the doors were all open," recalled Paul. "When you walked into the house, you were standing in crowds of rats. They were all around you."

Suddenly, the cuteness of the rats has disappeared. Remember, these aren't friendly, lovable, talking rats that have a flair for cooking extravagant dishes, like in Disney-Pixar's movie Ratatouille (http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/ratatouille/). 

So, anyway, the reality TV show "Hoarders" thought this would make a great show and rushed off to film it (probably much cheaper than making animated movies about rats), a rescue organization and volunteers went to save the rats, and instead of showtime it's now show over for this large rat family.

Of course, this should serve as a valuable lesson for anyone who brings home new pets.

I speak from experience.

When I was growing up, my younger brother kept bringing home various animals his friends had given him.

One Easter, he brought home two rabbits he swore were two males.

They weren't.

Within a year, we had 160 rabbits (that we know of) hopping everywhere we looked all over our farm.

But that's a story for another day.

Volunteers for One-Way Trip to Mars? Anyone? Anyone?

Forget the International Space Station. Forget the moon. There's a new frontier to dream about moving to or building futuristic condos on to escape our planet.

You might want to start saving your money and jot into your calendar that you plan to do a trip in a couple of decades. Make that a big trip. After all, it will take six to eight months to get to your destination (just a little bit longer than trying to get through traffic jams in China).

The catch is after you get to your destination, you might have to stay there a while. Like, forever. And you might have a tough time getting Wi-fi access in some locations on the planet. Or food. Or air.
Christian Science Monitor had an article this week (http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/One-way-ticket-to-Mars) about how people could be 20 years from now traveling to Mars on one-way tickets. It cited a peer-reviewed article in the latest issue of the Journal of Cosmology (http://JournalofCosmology.com/Contents12.html) about The Human Mission to Mars Colonizing the Red Planet.

This wasn't a Halloween horror movie script or an April Fool's Day joke: the journal had thought- provoking articles from impressive contributors such as Edgar D. Mitchell (Apollo 14 Lunar Module pilot, sixth person on the moon) (http://journalofcosmology.com/Mars104.html) who wrote Our Destiny — A Space Faring Civilization?

Along with Robert Staretz, Mitchell wrote:

"We stand on the threshold of becoming a space faring civilization shedding the bonds that have tied us to Earth since the very beginnings of the planet’s history. In the last 40 years, we have looked back at Earth from space, walked on our moon, sent robotic probes to most of the planets, moons and even some of the asteroids of our solar system. We have explored the depths of our galaxy and the visible universe with both Earth and spaced based telescopes and instrumentation. Later this century we will very likely walk on the surface of another planet. Why? Humanity has always had an insatiable appetite to know, for adventure and a remarkable curiosity to explore the unknown. In spite of the sacrifices and challenges required, history has shown over and over the benefits and rewards of exploration have always far exceeded expectations and mostly in ways that were impossible to predict."


If our mere curiosity wasn't enough to inspire us to seek new homes beyond our Earth, they gave us a gentle reminder that we are doomed as a planet.


"Already the sun’s output is 15% greater than it was a few billion years ago and eventually it will destroy all life on the planet. The long term prognosis is that the sun will expand to such a large degree that in due course it will cause our oceans to boil away into the vacuum of space leaving an uninhabitable desert wasteland behind."


Oh well, in that case, what are we waiting for?


There are still some minor details that need to be worked on. 


This includes the best way to transport the "Mars settlers" (which must include people of child-bearing age), including how to provide necessities and comfort to them for the long trips they would need to do. Once they get there, more preparations are needed on how to help them adapt to various things we take for granted here: such as gravity, air and water.


That's before we even think about the absence of cable TV, cell phones, chocolate, and Starbucks (for now. New location coming soon with a fly-through!)


The trip would probably have to be one-way, went on the CSM article. The article said costs would be reduced by having the trips be one way, since "The most costly and tricky part of any manned space mission is providing life-support for its human crew: food, oxygen, and protection from radiation and other hazards of space travel. On a human mission to Mars, most of the cost – some 80 percent of it – would involve returning the crew to Earth..."


So, therefore, the idea is people should stay on Mars when they get there. A comparison was made of European settlers in the past who traveled by ship to America: they didn't have expectations of ever returning home.


Or say, today's university students when they first move away from home.


Of course, another side of this whole one-way ticket to Mars debate is there are probably people eager to buy tickets for other people they'd like to send. Start your wish list now: who would you like to never see again? Besides the cast of certain reality shows?


Parents coud even use new threats to convince their children to behave. "If you don't shut up/clean your room/quit bugging your sister/do your homework, I swear I'm going to send you to Mars!"


Perhaps one of the biggest challenges will be how to encourage people to travel and exist there as "citizens of Earth" who will work together to survive, rather than bitterly isolating themselves by race, geographical origins, religion, political leanings and which college football team they support. 


Things could get really ugly fast if there isn't a rule book on the latter.