How cats conquered the world
Link here. This first large scale study of the DNA of ancient cat remains tracks how felines initially spread through human society in the ancient world.
The article and the researchers appear to make one mistake, however, in questioning whether cats have been domesticated. Anyone who owns a cat can answer that question unequivocally: No! Cats merely agree to live with us, on the condition that we treat them as they demand.
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Link here. This first large scale study of the DNA of ancient cat remains tracks how felines initially spread through human society in the ancient world.
The article and the researchers appear to make one mistake, however, in questioning whether cats have been domesticated. Anyone who owns a cat can answer that question unequivocally: No! Cats merely agree to live with us, on the condition that we treat them as they demand.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Cats a domesticated creature? HA!
In my 50+ years of life there has always been a cat in the mix. My parents had them and when I was growing up and when I went out on my own, one of the first things I did was acquire a cat.
I can tell just by the inflection of a meow what it wants from me that is when it wants to interact with me in the first place! The old saying goes that a human does not own a cat but rather is eventually trained to serve it and in my experience that is indeed true.
4,000 and 5,000 years ago, and probably much earlier, similarities between humans and cats and other animals were not strange at all. This until a few hundred years ago. And even today with humans riding horses. Pretty strange stuff!
Dogs have masters, cats have staff…
As always, I’m open to (almost) anything that helps Cat’s, expand their reach, into Space.
“The Naming of Cats” in T S Eliot’s own voice
https://youtu.be/TXkLgtusza4
I have always felt that we should send a cat to the Space Station.
This would be the one time I would favor declawing … at least till we know the result.
Michael–
You mean… they don’t already have one? (HAR)
>They will need their claws to hunt for escaped lab-rodents.
I’m not sure however, how we attach those Velcro-booties to their paws, while maintaining claw-extension, so they can perch in a stable fashion. (But that’s for the engineering-department.)
ok, I can’t resist–
Slow Motion Flipping Cat Physics | Smarter Every Day 58
https://youtu.be/RtWbpyjJqrU
not to mention that classic Nasa video from the… what is it, the Vomit-Rocket (?)
A dog looks at its Human and thinks, he feeds me, gives me shelter and cares for me, he must be a God.
A cat looks at its Human and thinks, he feeds me, gives me shelter, and cares for me, I must be a God.
Michael
I have always felt that we should send a cat to the Space Station.
This would be the one time I would favor declawing … at least till we know the result.
One of the earlier SF authors (Clarke?) once recounted an experiment conducted to determine how cats would orientate themselves in zero G, the original plan was to send a cat up in something like the vomit comet, but that was decided to be too expensive way back then, so the plan was changed to sending the cat up in a fighter jet inside the cockpit with the pilot.
As recounted, the video showed the cat clinging to the pilot as the aircraft climbed to altitude, then when the pilot throttled back to achieve zero G he pulled the cat off him, and released it in free air inside the cockpit, magically the cat was able to seemingly teleport itself across the cockpit and re-attach itself to the pilot, the pilot tried it again and the same thing happened, on the third attempt that cat WAS NOT GOING TO LET GO, so little was discovered other than than in unusual situations cats instinctively cling to humans as a point of stability.
Couldn’t find the video but:
https://miepvonsydow.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/studying-the-effects-of-weightlessness-on-a-living-mammal-at-25000-ca-1958/
September 20, 2016 at 7:04 pm
You read my mind, Andrew_W, and beat me to post it!
I am not so fond of cats because they are serial killers of birds and I am allergic to them but I do think dogs need to go to space. The question arises that when we bring our animal friends into space, how will we deal with allergies and the things that cause them?
I guess all the air is filtered anyway but those filters are going to get clogged with hair every single day. Do we send hairless cats and dogs or make them wear clothes?
Andrew_W,
Nice point about the differences between cats and dogs. Such a small difference in point of view gives such a large difference in conclusions!
Cheers, Edward.
I say cats in space are fine, just don’t forget the cucumbers!
I knew a guy that trained his cat for space. You could tie this cat into a knot and he would stay that way until you lifted him up. His training method? He put the cat in a toilet bowl, closed the lid and flushed it repeatedly for about an hour.
Not that I recommend it, but this was the least neurotic cat I’ve ever met in my life.
Ken, the cat was dead.
I’d like to see how an octopus reacted to weightlessness. Probably would adapt easily as it is used to the buoyancy of water. And it would likely be able to withstand higher Gs than us air breathers.
PeterF,
I’m not so sure. Fish take a few days to adapt to zero G, so octopuses and squids may also. Here is an abstract to a science paper describing an experiment on Skylab 3:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1156300
Here is a video of a fish on a parabolic flight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oibjzDjhmLg (1 minute)
I found a YouTube short describing some results of the Skylab 3 experiment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Im03PgFYU (16 seconds)
But if there are fish or octopuses up there, too, the cat will have something to watch or to do.