Ken is the official mascot for New Zealand Y2K awareness. He's going to get people to stock up. According to the NZ Y2K Readiness Commission, "Ken" can "live without water for two weeks, without food for a week, and may be the only thing left alive if a nuclear disaster occurs. As well as living at both the North and South Poles and even as low as 2,200 feet underground, one of "Ken's" relatives was found on the Apollo 11 command shuttle, suggesting it had survived a space flight... Cockroaches have existed for 340 million years - 150 million years longer than dinosaurs - and come in some 5,000 species." I feel inspired, how about you?

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), July 23, 1999

Answers

Is that the REAL Ken?

Boy, he looks a little worried!

-- raid (bugspray@for.themillenniumbug), July 23, 1999.

i do believe the roach is praying. chill guy,s=just joking.

-- wow. (dogs@zianet.com), July 23, 1999.

We don't need that kind of gimmick here in the U.S. Since 1992 we've had an insect leading our nation, "Billy the Bedbug."

-- ace (x@y.z), July 23, 1999.

Ken can not survive a 1 gallon spill of chlorosulfonic acid, like they had in Iowa this week.

If Chemicals get out of pipes accidentally due to failing or out of sequence events,

the creature that was here 150 million years before dinosaurs is gone.

-- Living in (the@real.world), July 23, 1999.

Could this explain why some of the comments of Chicken Little and Ken "La Cucaracha" Decker seem to indicate that they don't have their head screwed on tight?

The cockroach's brain is not located in its head. Instead, the head only contains a small nervous system. Most of the brain is found throughout the body, with a little in each pair of legs.

If the head is broken off, the cockroach can survive for a week and only die because it can't drink water without a mouth.

http://www.dfpress.com/science/1103983.html

Chickens have been known to flutter around for seconds or minutes after being decapitated, but after a few shaky steps, Mike the Headless Chicken fluffed up his feathers and went about his business in the barnyard with the other, heads on chickens. He went through the motions of pecking for food, preening his feathers and tucking what used to be his head under his wing when he slept. He tried to crow, but only a gurgle came out. Mike grew and thrived and didn't seem much bothered by being minus a head.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0511b.htm

-- a (a@a.a), July 23, 1999.

Now I'm anxious to meet Barbie. (The bedbug?)

-- A. Hambley (a.hambley@usa.net), July 23, 1999.

Well, I'll be!! Ken C. Decker (Mr. Decker) REALLY IS a Y2K "public figure" after all!!

My apologies, KC, I thought you were just putting on "airs"....

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), July 23, 1999.