Feline flatulence and the future of civilization

My argument is that science often attempts to recreate naturally occurring phenomena by technological means, and that the results often are subject to the “law of unintended consequences”.

Over the past several decades, Hollywood has been instrumental in ‘gently’ opening the lid of the Genie’s bottle, through movies and television series designed to familiarize people with what was just over the horizon. Today, web instruments, like memes for instance, are used with similar intent.

We see hints poop up everywhere until they tend to coalesce into messages picked up and disseminated further by mass media.

Case in point, as we’ve all read and heard: the internet is made of tubes… The internet is made of cats… Fear the cat butt… Photos of cats’ eyes glowing in the dark “assuming direct control”… And now, cat farts. Why? To get a sense as to where this all might lead, let’s first have a look at NASA’s recording of solar events to analyze their occurrences and effects, using technology developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

The technology, developed to improve computer chips’ manufacturing specifications and performance, was used to great effect by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Below is a photo montage of slides taken by NASA’s vehicle:

LLNL NASA SDO Sun shots
Solar slides taken by NASA’s SDO

Now for comparative purposes is a now familiar capture of Miss Jenny’s fart using a mass spectrometer:

Jenny fart cloud
Mass spectrometer assisted photographic capture of cat poot.

While there do appear to be similarities, the shapes and energy releases (swirls and lightning) in the cat’s fart seem to display a more organized pattern, maybe even a design. But I’ll leave the potentially religious considerations to proponents of either Ceiling Cat or Basement Cat, and concentrate on the science.

The releases of energy, discovered by the LLNL scientists have been analyzed in conjunction with a researcher at Stanford’s Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), and have been shown to be ‘influenced’ by emissions of light particles popularly (and erroneously) referred to as “laser eyes”.

cat fart reacting to cat's eye photonic emission
Jenny’s fart cloud reacting to photonic emissions from Tito’s peepers

Notice the realigning of molecules and energy. An instrument developed jointly by LLNL and SLAC is used to measure the pulse by pulse levels of energy of an X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL).

Now, the XFEL’s ability to capture atoms and molecules in motion with minimal disruption led to another intriguing discovery at SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) program: molecules in cats’ farts are imprinted with data and react to photonic emissions from their eyes (the cats’, not the molecules. And if you don’t stop cracking jokes in the back, you’ll get to stay after class).

My theory is that a cat farting on a human is simply an attempt to fully communicate with us, by ‘flagging’ all of our senses, and making us inhale information, so to speak. This process, or more accurately ‘collection of processes’ is now the subject of study for applications ranging from data storage and management to renewable energy (they cannot stop farting, it seems). So if the law of unintended consequences does apply, we may well end up with complete world domination by cats and find ourselves in the litter box… Remember:

He who controls the farts
“HE WHO CONTROLS THE FARTS CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE”


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Friday Night Cats Blogging: with sadness and a whiff of disgust

Regrettably, I need to talk about the passing of two of my favorites… Let me rephrase that: the passing of gas by Mazuzu “Mace” Whang and Jenny N.
This is another dimension to the old “fear the cat butt” slogan, such as the one I wrote about in “when the nitty gets real gritty”.

Mazuzu farts, Tito is camouflaged
Mazuzu farts, Tito is camouflaged

When I grew up, our cats were indoors/outdoors with a large yard in which to romp. Our current crop of kittounes are housebound, but still get plenty of exercise. So, why they should squeeze out the foulest SBDs* on a semi-regular basis, I have no clue.
There’s no competition to eat, they all have plenty and stress-free nomming sessions.

peas in a pod farts in a box
Peas in a pod, farts in a box...

I have no idea whether Tito ever cuts the cheese, but there is no doubting the other two open up the valves of hell whenever they get heavy petting.
The most foul? Miss Jenny. That’s right, and I can tell when it’s her as the air takes on a different hue and seems to shimmer as in the summer heat. That’s just before the cloud envelops you like an overly friendly drunk who hugs you and won’t let go and follows you all the way to the window.

Jenny's fart photo using a Mass Spectrometer
Jenny's fart photographed with a mass spectrometer

You best start the fan, because the fiendish aerosol hangs about for a while and sounds travels slower through it: in her farts, no one can hear you scream. It even generates its own lightning!

No. There is no silver lining to those clouds… As to Maz, you can hear the faintest “buzz”, a bit like a distant boat motor and get a look of heavy sarcasm: “there’s more room outside than inside”, it seems to say. Then you feel like someone pelted you with rotten eggs and cat food.

* SBD: Silent But Deadly


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Meowing in the New Year: why JBoD will probably never put out a calendar

Item one: Maz Whang wants to be featured for at least all three summer months, get this, without a shirt on… And despite the fact that he does need a male bra…
Item two: Miss Jenny would do one of the winter months, being a snowshoe and all, but her papers show she’s, ahem, not of age. And this ain’t a “Little Miss Sunshine” contest.
Item three: Tito has no interest in these pursuits, still perfecting his “Scanners” routine of making heads explode on Tee-Vee, or “s’plode” as he likes to say. For an example, see here.

Naturally, Mazuzu is the one who came up with the calendar idea, and if he had his way, it would be his calendar, all twelve months of it. Ham.

Kitsune
June
Kitsune
July
Kitsune
August


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Traveling with pets: cats in cars or Lastech’s traveling circus

Recently, Rudha-an posted about traveling by air in winter by air and its dangers. We know of a Sphynx cat who died from exposure in the cargo hold of a plane, a devastating experience for its new humans.
It’s said cats don’t travel, they are creatures of habits and the risk of escape is just too great.

grand auto theft
Grand Auto Theft

On the other hand, I also remember watching this guy on the main road to Yosemite, stopping to take a picture (on timer) of himself with his cat next to the park’s entrance sign.
He was driving a Subaru Outback wagon, so if this sounds familiar, give us a shout, this was sometime around May 2008, and dude, you got me thinking…

Half Dome

Yosemite Falls

The notion of hitting the road with three cats may sound nutty, but we do live in strange times… And I love road trips, which kind of limits how far we do go, and for how long since we can’t leave the Pointy Eared ones home alone too long. Three hours into our day-cation, one of us will ask “I wonder what [insert cat name] is doing?”
A few chuckles later, thinking about their antics, the next question will be slightly more serious: “I did close the front window, didn’t I?”, “did you refill the water dish?”, and on and on.
It’s not exactly paranoia, but well yes it is. Not enough to ruin the enjoyment but spoils it just that little bit.
I’m not sure when the notion occurred to me, maybe after watching Tommy Lee Jones in “the fugitive”: it should be possible to select the right vehicle and secure the rear compartment to transport our precious cargo in comfort and safety without possibility of escape. A little bit like Scooby-Doo and the gang but with a cage in back, draped in velvet, and probably with a DVD player playing “Winged Migration” in a loop.

Beyond the fold is NSFW due to a profanity in the video title.

Continue reading “Traveling with pets: cats in cars or Lastech’s traveling circus”

Friday Night Cats blogging: New World Order

We know cats took over the internet.
We have always known this would be the beginning, and we have proof that the end is nigh for man’s dominion over this world…
Tito has been exercising his power of inflicting pain on humans who displease Him from afar. Witness Him assuming direct control over this human on TV.

Tito assuming direct control
Tito assuming direct control

Mazuzu Whang displaying His power, eyes and ears in perfect celestial alignment… Did I mention he can fly?

Kitsy eyes and ears alignment
Thus spake Mazuzu Whang

Miss Jenny Herself ripped tufts of Her fur in rage (well okay, it was a fluffy toy but the intent was chillingly clear).

Jenny furry toy
BOW DOWN! FEAR THE CAT BUTT!

Traumatic though this upheaval may seem, Cats prove themselves to be kind Masters, Ceiling Cat be praised…


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Caturday blogging: Saturday morning cattoons

Time for the Pointy Eared Superstars to shine a bit:

Maz on black blanket
I make this look goooood....
Tito Jenny in basket
Wake us when the food's ready...

There’s still the occasional bout of hissing, and Miss Jenny sounds a little bit like this (sorry about the definition, but we’re talking post WWII cartoons, here):

The little romance between Tito and Jenny is a little bit like this:


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Caturday blogging: the cute is strong

It’s Tito’s turn to feel under the weather with sniffles and sneezes galore. He is on his way to recovery, but it’s been a trying three days.

That and lay offs at work… In any event, this is our excuse for the delay in posting about our masters and mistress. The mistress who farted on me twice in less than 24 hours, the furry fiend. Oh she loves to be petted, for then she poots. Christ. Here they are in their splendor:

Jenny in tower
I'm gassy...
Tito and Jenny
Flavor flav...
Maz tail
Tail of Maz for lunch

Animals teach us many lessons don’t they?


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Friday Night Cats Blogging: in the land of Pointy Eared people

Well I was wrong: despite being a tortie mix, Jenny has not one crazy mean bone in her. We’ve now had plenty of opportunity to watch her at play with her two uncles, and heard nary a hiss.

Miss Jenny and Kitsune
Ah keess yu!

She’ll hop next to them and “bop” one in the head with a mild slap and no claws (Maz is remarkably unscathed after several romps).
Although, there was this one time yesterday when Maz sat on the bed, watching her from his meatloaf position and she approached him from the floor, sideways and all fluffed up, growling fiercely.

Miss Jenny
I’ll fart on you!

The kind of growling that says “I will end you and all that you love”. Well, Maz being Maz remained unfazed and she “deflated” soon afterwards. This afternoon, she did a half-Frankenstein, leading us to hope for a full-Frankenstein at some point in the future.

Speaking of “deflation”, the little darling’s still got the occasional case of the farts. Perhaps we out to call her Jenny Pujol? For a feral kitty with virtually no ‘social’ interaction, it did not take much more than a week for Jenny to show her cuddly, loving and playful nature. We knew it was important for her to have a safe place to hide, but also to never be alone with the other two.
As expected, Tito had a major role in making her feel safe enough to venture out and greet us, and she loves to romp with Maz, especially.

Tito
The most interesting cat in the world

Earlier, we chuckled at the computer desk crawling with them Pointy Eared folks.
We end this installment with a song we weren’t familiar with, about Freddie Mercury’s favorite cat Delilah. Enjoy.

Delilah lyrics are here.


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