Space Rabbit - Precaution - Rhubarb - Rabbit Meets Moon Man - News

Now we are going to cover Space Rabbits!
This conversation took place between Houston and the Apollo 11 crew just before the first Moon landing in 1969:
        Houston: Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, is one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit.
        An ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-O has been living there for 4,000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband.
        You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not reported.
        Michael Collins: Okay. We’ll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl.
Having said that, lets look a little deeper into Rabbit's in space.
Now from Wikipedia, Animals had been used in aeronautic exploration since 1783 when the Montgolfier brothers sent a sheep, a duck, and a rooster aloft in a hot air balloon (the duck serving as the experimental control).
The limited supply of captured German V-2 rockets led to the U.S. use of high-altitude balloon launches carrying fruit flies, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, cats, dogs, frogs, goldfish and monkeys to heights of up to 144,000 feet (44,000 m). These high-altitude balloon flights from 1947 to 1960 tested radiation exposure, physiological response, life support and recovery systems.  The U.S. high-altitude manned balloon flights occurred in the same time frame, one of which also carried fruit flies.
Animals in space originally served to test the survivability of spaceflight, before human spaceflights were attempted.  Later, animals were also flown to investigate various biological processes and the effects microgravity and space flight might have on them.  Bioastronautics is an area of bioengineering research which spans the study and support of life in space. To date, seven national space programs have flown animals into space: the Soviet Union, the United States, France, Argentina, China, Japan and Iran.
A wide variety of animals have been launched into space, including monkeys, dogs, and insects.  The United States launched flights containing monkeys and primates primarily between 1948-1961 with one flight in 1969 and one in 1985.  France launched two monkey-carrying flights in 1967.  The Soviet Union and Russia launched monkeys between 1983 and 1996.  During the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet space program used a number of dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights.
Back in the late 1950’s space programs in the Soviet Union (Russia) and United States used animals to make high altitude and orbital flights.  Tragically, many times they were one-way trips. It was inhumane on a lot of levels.
Marfusha, the first rabbit astronaut, made a high altitude test flight on July 2, 1959 aboard an R2-A rocket.  Following this on August 19, 1960, another rabbit was sent into space on the Soviet Sputnik 5 and returned alive along with its fellow animal astronauts, which included dogs and mice.
There are a few photo's of unlikely space travelers, such as a white dog and a grey rabbit, ad two dogs and a rabbit available on line.
Otvazhnaya (the dog) and Marnushka (the rabbit) braved a high altitude test flight on July 2, 1959 aboard an R2-A rocket.  Another dog, Snezhinka, also went on the flight.  Fortunately, all three animals were recovered successfully.  This rabbit went on to make five more successful high altitude test flights in the following year. Then in August 1960, two dogs, Belka and Strelka, an unnamed gray rabbit, 40 mice and 2 rats, were launched in Sputnik 5. Again in September 1962 a rabbit was aboard the Artemis that made 12 complete earth orbits. However, Artemis collided with space debris and sustained critical damage. Fortunately, the rabbit was recovered unharmed 933 miles off the east coast of Brazil.
NASA’s History of Animals in Space web page states, after the manned lunar landing of Apollo 11, the role of animals was limited to the status of "biological payload." The range of species broadened to include rabbits, turtles, insects, spiders, fish, jellyfish, amoebae, and algae. Although they were still used in tests dealing with long-range health effects in space, tissue development, and mating in a zero-g environment, etc., animals no longer made the front pages. One exception to this was one of the last Apollo flights, Skylab 3, which launched on July 28, 1973. On board were Anita and Arabella, two common Cross spiders. Tests were set up to record the spiders' successful attempts to spin webs in space.
Now this is also from NASA.
Most recently, Animals go into space to help conduct scientific research only when absolutely necessary. Researchers prefer to research with computer models, or by involving the astronauts directly. For some experiments, however, only animals will work. Sometimes the situations need to be closely controlled-such as a monitored diet. Human astronauts generally aren't willing to agree to eat the same amount and type of food, so this experiment would be a burden to them.  Animals, however, always have monitored feedings.
Taking animals into space requires special considerations. If a group of laboratory mice were to fly aboard the next Space Shuttle mission, what would be needed? Traditional aquarium-style cages don't provide enough traction for mice to walk around; instead, space mice have wire mesh cages so their toes can grip a rougher surface. Wood chips couldn't be used for bedding; they wouldn't stay in place. Gravity-feed water bottles wouldn't work; pressurized water containers are needed instead. Bowls of dry food aren't practical, so compressed food bars are provided instead. As for how to clean the cages, a special waste containment system has been created to keep everything in its place.
Do the animals like living in microgravity? Does floating instead of walking confuse them? "Amazingly, they adapt very quickly," says Laura Lewis, a member of NASA Ames Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. "Within 5 minutes, mice are floating in their living spaces, grooming themselves, and eating, just as they would on Earth."
"Good science sets up hypotheses for an experiment, but sometimes the result is not what you expect," says Lewis. "While we test our projects on the ground and in simulators, once we get into space, we are sometimes surprised by what we learn."
Baby mammals have a hard time in space because they normally huddle for warmth-and in space, it's hard to huddle when bodies drift and float. It's also difficult for babies to nurse when they can't locate their mother's nipple.
Animals that travel in space are cared for ethically and humanely, Lewis says. "The Institutional Animal Care and Use Community looks at the most humane alternatives for taking animals into space," she says. "Regulations for animal research are more intense than for using people in research because people can give consent. Animals can't object, so people need to work on their behalf. Animal housing rules are more extensive than the requirements for human children day care centers. NASA facilities that house animals for research are accredited by an organization that requires proof that animals are cared for in a facility that meets those standards." The United States Department of Agriculture Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Services Policy Act protect research animals and set minimum standards.
"Animals don't go into space very often," Lewis says. "There are so few flight opportunities for a mission to include animals, so the project has to be pretty important to earn a spot on any trip into space. When animals do make the trip, their welfare is a key concern."
There are a couple of websites touting the use of rabbits as a food source for human space colonies on Mars.
Over the past 50 years, American and Soviet scientists have utilized the animal world for testing. Despite losses, these animals have taught the scientists a tremendous amount more than could have been learned without them. Without animal testing in the early days of the human space program, the Soviet and American programs could have suffered great losses of human life. These animals performed a service to their respective countries that no human could or would have performed. They gave their lives and/or their service in the name of technological advancement, paving the way for humanity's many forays into space.
http://history.nasa.gov/animals.html
http://hopperhomebunnyblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/one-hop-for-mankind-rabbits-in-space.html
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/9-12/features/F_Animals_in_Space_9-12.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_in_space
http://www.china.org.cn/top10/2011-11/22/content_23976223_7.htm

Word of the Week: Precaution
Plant of the Week: Rhubarb
Story of the Week: Rabbit and the Moon Man
http://www.native-languages.org/mikmaqstory3.htm
This is a Mi'kmaq Native American Tale
The Mi'kmaq Nation is a member of the Wabanaki Confederacy that controlled northern New England and the Canadian Maritimes. The Micmacs are original natives of the Nova Scotia/New Brunswick region. They also settled in locations in Quebec, Newfoundland, and Maine. Today, most Mi'kmaq people live on the Canadian side of the border, but the Aroostook Micmacs live in northeastern Maine.
Long ago, Rabbit was a great hunter. He lived with his grandmother in a lodge which stood deep in the Micmac forest. It was winter and Rabbit set traps and laid snares to catch game for food. He caught many small animals and birds, until one day he discovered that some mysterious being was robbing his traps. Rabbit and his grandmother became hungry. Though he visited his traps very early each morning, he always found them empty.
At first Rabbit thought that the robber might be a cunning wolverine, until one morning he found long, narrow footprints alongside his trap line. It was, he thought, the tracks of the robber, but they looked like moonbeams. Each morning Rabbit rose earlier and earlier, but the being of the long foot was always ahead of him and always his traps were empty.
Rabbit made a trap from a bowstring with the loop so cleverly fastened that he felt certain that he would catch the robber when it came. He took one end of the thong with him and hid himself behind a clump of bushes from which he could watch his snare. It was bright moonlight while he waited, but suddenly it became very dark as the moon disappeared. A few stars were still shining and there were no clouds in the sky, so Rabbit wondered what had happened to the moon.
Someone or something came stealthily through the trees and then Rabbit was almost blinded by a flash of bright, white light which went straight to his trap line and shone through the snare which he had set. Quick as a lightning flash, Rabbit jerked the bowstring and tightened the noose. There was a sound of struggling and the light lurched from side to side. Rabbit knew b the tugging on his string that he had caught the robber. He fastened the bowstring to a nearby sapling to hold the loop tight.
Rabbit raced back to tell his grandmother, who was a wise old woman, what had happened. She told him that he must return at once and see who or what he had caught. Rabbit, who was very frightened, wanted to wait for daylight but his grandmother said that might be too late, so he returned to his trap line.
When he came near his traps, Rabbit saw that the bright light was still there. It was so bright that it hurt his eyes. He bathed them in the icy water of a nearby brook, but still they smarted. He made big snowballs and threw them at the light, in the hope of putting it out. As they went close to the light, he heard them sizzle and saw them melt. Next, Rabbit scooped up great pawfuls of soft clay from the stream and made many big clay balls. He was a good shot and threw the balls with all of his force at the dancing white light. He heard them strike hard and then his prisoner shouted.
Then a strange, quivering voice asked why he had been snared and demanded that he be set free at once, because he was the man in the moon and he must be home before dawn came. His face had been spotted with clay and, when Rabbit went closer, the moon man saw him and threatened to kill him and all of his tribe if he were not released at once.
Rabbit was so terrified that he raced back to tell his grandmother about his strange captive. She too was much afraid and told Rabbit to return and release the thief immediately. Rabbit went back, and his voice shook with fear as he told the man in the moon that he would be released if he promised never to rob the snares again. To make doubly sure, Rabbit asked him to promise that he would never return to earth, and the moon man swore that he would never do so. Rabbit could hardly see in the dazzling light, but at last he managed to gnaw through the bowstring with his teeth and the man in the moon soon disappeared in the sky, leaving a bright trail of light behind him.
Rabbit had been nearly blinded by the great light and his shoulders were badly scorched. Even today, rabbits blink as though light is too strong for their eyes; their eyelids are pink, and their eyes water if they look at a bright light. Their lips quiver, telling of Rabbit's terror.
The man in the moon has never returned to earth. When he lights the world, one can still see the marks of the clay which Rabbit threw on his face. Sometimes he disappears for a few nights, when he is trying to rub the marks of the clay balls from his face. Then the world is dark; but when the man in the moon appears again, one can see that he has never been able to clean the clay marks from his shining face.
News stories of the Week:  2-4-17
Forty-foot Peter Rabbit statue built to mark Beatrix Potter’s 150th anniversary burnt down in suspected arson.  A 40ft straw statue of Peter Rabbit built for Beatrix Potter’s 150th anniversary has been burnt down in a suspected arson attack.  The tribute to the children's book character was unveiled last year to mark the anniversary of the Lake District writer's birth.  Police and fire chiefs are investigating the cause of the blaze that destroyed the artwork in a Cheshire field, But now there is nothing left after it caught fire at around 5pm on Thursday, in its field at Snugburys farm in Hurleston, Cheshire.  "It's wonderful to see that Peter Rabbit was loved by so many.  We certainly won't let this stop us!"family that run Snugburys farm.  For more than 10 years, staff at Snugburys have been building sculptures in their field. The giant Peter Rabbit was made last summer.  The farm wrote on its website: "The whole Snugburys family grew up listening to the stories of Peter and his friends.  "They therefore felt it was only fitting to dedicate this year's straw sculpture to Beatrix Potter. In total around 1,000 man hours have been spent creating the feature.  "The inspiration for the blue jacket came from recycling the blue bags our packaging arrives in.  We hand wove a thin layer of blue bags over the straw and we are really pleased with the outcome.  "The whole structure weighs in at an impressive 8 tonnes and Peter stands at 38 ft tall, with his 10 ft carrot and 10 ft ears!".  In a statement, the farm said: "We are very sad to confirm Peter was set alight last night by an arsonist.  "Thank you all - we are truly overwhelmed by all the support from everyone far and wide in the last few hours.  "It's wonderful to see that Peter Rabbit was loved by so many. We certainly won't let this stop us!"  Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed a crew from Nantwich was sent to the scene. Fire investigators are now liaising with Cheshire Police into the case of the incident.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/03/forty-footpeter-rabbit-statue-built-markbeatrix-potters-150th/

Where top rabbit keepers go for lessons
Neat cages made of timber and stainless weldmesh hosting dozens of animals welcome one to the Ngong National Rabbit Breeding Centre.  Successful rabbit farming depends on three things, first is the right structures in terms of houses, cages and pens. Two, a good feeding regime from when the animals are young to maturity and three, prevention and control of diseases,” says Vincent Maritim, the Deputy Officer in-charge of the centre.
The article goes on to discussed housing, feeding and suggested meat breeds.
Rabbit Keeping on the Rise
There are no payments or registration for farmers when they visit the Ngong Rabbit Centre. Payment is made when there is training, where they part with Sh2,500 for three days.  “This is a breeding and training centre. We train farmers on how to raise rabbits and how to go commercial with rabbit farming. The training should be free, but there are costs that have to be incurred like lunch and stationery,” says Vincent Maritim, the deputy officer at the centre.  They sell rabbits to farmers who come for the breeding stock. They include individuals, institutions, farmers’ associations and farmers from neighbouring countries like Tanzania as well.  “Most farmers buy our rabbits for breeding. We only sell the non-productive rabbits for eating to farmers. We sell weaners at Sh750 and three-month olds at Sh1,500.”  Rabbit farming is fast spreading in the country due to its vast potential and ease of management.  The increasing cost of beef, mutton and poultry have motivated many farmers to rearing rabbits, which they slaughter themselves.  The meat is also sought in niche market
http://www.nation.co.ke/business/seedsofgold/Where-top-rabbit-keepers-go-for-lessons/2301238-3798512-4ogggtz/

Del. Fariss' tall tale of rabbit hunt brings down the House
Del. C. Matthew Fariss, R-Campbell, brought down the House (of Delegates) on Friday as he spun a tall tale of a bipartisan rabbit hunt on the grounds of the state Capitol.  The House gave preliminary approval to House Bill 1900, sponsored by Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford, in spite of Fariss’ yarn in opposition to the bill. The bill would set civil penalties for people who knowingly and without permission let their hunting dogs roam over landowners’ property after notice is given.
http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/article_516d81af-5c64-5220-a76f-1c2afd7b421b.html

Snaring plan for Carmanville rabbit problem called off
The central Newfoundland town of Carmanville has abandoned a plan to snare wild rabbits that are overrunning their community.  Wildlife officers will no longer be setting up rabbit snares next week, in response to the rabbit problem plaguing the town.  The town posted on Facebook Friday night that another plan would be developed.  The problem began about 10 years ago when someone's pet rabbits escaped and started breeding outside with other wild animals.  In recent years, the numbers have escalated to the point where residents in the Carmanville area are regularly complaining about their gardens being destroyed.  However just hours after the town posted the notice about the snaring, another notice was posted saying the plan had been abandoned and that "alternate solutions" would be explored
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/carmanville-rabbit-problem-1.3966159
Belmont bunny predicts 6 more weeks of winter
BELMONT - The rabbits of Belmont Community Day Care sought to continue their three-year streak of showing up groundhogs when it comes to predicting the duration of winter.  "We decided to cheat off of Groundhog Day and have Hare Hog Day, because we aren't allowed to have groundhogs," says Richard Doren, the day care's executive director.  The Belmont bunny Carmel set out to see its shadow -- or not -- much like the famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil
http://bronx.news12.com/news/carmel-the-rabbit-of-belmont-community-day-care-predicts-6-more-weeks-of-winter-on-groundhog-day-1.13056506
Rabbits, large and small, strut their fluff at Stock Show
Exhibitors showed nearly 800 rabbits, representing 28 different breeds, on Saturday. There were Californians and New Zealands, prized for their meat; Lionheads, named for the distinct wool mane around their head; and Checkered Giants, known for their black and white fur and large stature.  Rabbit show Superintendent Tom Bell said judges evaluate rabbits by a number of qualities, from the sheen of their fur to arch of their back.  “Everything depends on the breed, and no two rabbits are identical,” said Bell, who has raised and shown rabbits since 1980
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/fw-stock-show/article129358299.html#storylink=cpy

Brave rabbit fends off a falcon in a showdown for the ages
The wild is a scary place, but unlikely heroes emerge as a result.  In this video posted on Youtube by user DUB TV, a rabbit combats an attack from an aggressive falcon in a dramatic fight of life and death.  Even though the falcon has height on its side, the scrappy hare puts its dukes up and shows the falcon who's boss.  For now, this rabbit reigns on as King of the Prairie.
http://mashable.com/2017/02/02/rabbit-fends-off-falcon/#o8RQ5O9_Vaqa

'Thousands' of feral bunny rabbits run rampant in Las Vegas communities
Pet bunnies might seem like a good idea but many end up dumped in the wild, becoming feral. The abandoned household pets are now multiplying and taking over communities across the Las Vegas Valley.  Animal advocates estimate there could be thousands of feral bunnies throughout the community. Although it's not clear how the dumping sites started, the problem is only getting worse.
http://news3lv.com/news/local/thousands-of-feral-bunny-rabbits-run-rampant-in-las-vegas-communities

Thief dressed in bunny onesie steals hundreds worth of supplies from Jacksonville nail salon
by: Amber Krycka, Action News Jax Updated: Feb 2, 2017 - 8:23 PM
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A local business owner is trying to find the person who broke into his nail salon dressed in a onesie.  This week, Kenny Do, with China Nails in North Jacksonville, said someone shattered his front door, crawled inside and stole more than $500 worth of nail supplies. The entire crime was caught on surveillance video.  Dressed in a bunny-like onesie, the thief wastes no time. He smashes the glass door, crawls in and quickly grabs as many items as possible.  But this bunny snatcher wasn’t after money. He passed the cash register and went straight for the nail supplies.
http://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/thief-dressed-in-bunny-onesie-steals-hundreds-worth-of-supplies-from-jacksonville-nail-salon/490421663