Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: extinctions
Message-ID: <1989Jul23.070623.3848@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <351@aeras.UUCP> <2983@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <23692@prls.UUCP> <1566@bucket.UUCP> <7310@bunny.GTE.COM> <24043@prls.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 89 07:06:23 GMT

In article <24043@prls.UUCP> gordon@prls.UUCP (Gordon Vickers) writes:
>Every extinction, whether animal, mineral, or vegetable, hastens our own demise.

Including that of the species known as "variola major"?  Unlike most
extinctions, which arise from lack of concern, this creature was
deliberately stamped off the face of the earth, about 15 years ago, by a
systematic campaign specifically aimed at rendering it extinct.

Good riddance, too.  It caused smallpox.
-- 
1961-1969: 8 years of Apollo.  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1969-1989: 20 years of nothing.| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu