How cats drink
15 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
in Cats, Science Tags: Cats, Physics, Water
This was supposed to be the only post (before I heard Dave Barry, that is) for today because with four cats anything and everything about them is fascinating. We have one cat who plays with water and will drink from any place. Mr. Bunter, like a dog, has been known to try to drink out of the toilet. He also drinks out of the fish tank. He used to drag the water bowl (a large heavy bowl glued to an old dinner plate) around the pantry. Then we got a fancy waterfall drinking fountain and he tries to move that also. The other three are more normal.
But now we have the physics of how cats drink. Delicately without wetting the whiskers. I went to get my glasses adjusted today at lunch and the optician, who also has cats, asked me if I had seen the story. So cat lovers everywhere are talking about this discovery. I always assumed it had something to do with the roughness of the tongue, but that would be wrong.
Cats, both big and little, are so much classier, according to new research by Pedro M. Reis and Roman Stocker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined by Sunghwan Jung of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Jeffrey M. Aristoff of Princeton.
Writing in the Thursday issue of Science, the four engineers report that the cat’s lapping method depends on its instinctive ability to calculate the point at which gravitational force would overcome inertia and cause the water to fall.
What happens is that the cat darts its tongue, curving the upper side downward so that the tip lightly touches the surface of the water.
The tongue is then pulled upward at high speed, drawing a column of water behind it.
Just at the moment that gravity finally overcomes the rush of the water and starts to pull the column down — snap! The cat’s jaws have closed over the jet of water and swallowed it.
The best part of the story is how they calculated the lapping speed based on cat size. Who knew? But then, who knew anything about how cats drink before this week?
Puppies, Cats and Filibusters
13 Feb 2010 2 Comments
in Cats, Congress, Politics Tags: Cats, Filibuster, Puppies, Rachel Maddow
Last night Rachel Maddow did this weird segment launching her contest to come up with a word that is less boring that filibuster. Her theory being that the process won’t change until people understand what it is and they won’t understand it until we come up with a word that doesn’t put everyone to sleep.
Rachel explained this while running unrelated video of a puppy who kept falling asleep in a large pan of water.
So I tried an experiment. Peter, one of the cats, was asleep on the end of the sofa. I called his name. He woke up and looked at me. I told him I wanted to have a conversation about filibusters. He promptly closed his eyes and went back to sleep. Coincidence? Probably. I didn’t say the magic word, “food”, for one thing. But it was kinda cute.
I’ve written about the filibuster several times in the past and despite what Harry Reid seems to want to do (which is nothing) something has to happen. Did everyone hear President Obama mention many things which have passed the House and not the Senate during his State of the Union Address? And it is sad that the Senate has to be threatened with recess appointments before they begin to confirm nominees.
Of all the suggestions, I think the best is not changing the 60 vote rule itself, but instituting the old talk until you drop rule. No more going on to other business. No more going home. If you call for a filibuster, be prepared to talk.
Come on, Senate Democrats. Stop looking like sleepy cats and puppies.
Socks the Cat
17 Dec 2008 Leave a Comment
in Cats Tags: Bill Clinton, Socks the Cat
Remember Socks the Clinton cat. Socks went to live with Betty Currie, President Clinton’s secretary.
According to the New York Times article, Socks is still with Currie but is now 19 years old and has cancer.
Donkeys, Elephants and your money
14 Oct 2008 Leave a Comment
in Cats, Politics Tags: 2008 Election, Democrats, Economics, Republicans
I’m still struggling to understand basic economics, but the New York Times had an op-ed chart today which was very revealing:
Since 1929, Republicans and Democrats have each controlled the presidency for nearly 40 years. So which party has been better for American pocketbooks and capitalism as a whole? Well, here’s an experiment: imagine that during these years you had to invest exclusively under either Democratic or Republican administrations. How would you have fared?
As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.
See the graphics here. The author, Tommy McCall, used to work for Money Magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/10/14/opinion/20081014_OPCHART.html
So who has the better economic ideas? Can it just be an accident that the Democrats do better even forgetting about poor Herbert Hoover? I somehow don’t think so. I think this means that a vote for Barak Obama is a good idea. I’m starting to look at quarterly statements and see retirement fading off into the distance.
On a totally personal note, I had the closest brush with fire this afternoon that I’ve ever had in my 60+ years. The house next door – separated by a narrow grassy area and a tree – caught fire this afternoon. I had been at a conference and after a late afternoon meeting was cancelled decided to just drive home and stay there taking a personal hour. Suddenly the doorbells to the house starting ringing frantically. It was a neighbor trying to find someone to call 911. There were flames shooring out of the roof of the house next door. We rounded up our four cats and put them in carriers. I found our passports and then went out into the park across the street to watch. I have to say the Boston Fire Department was pretty amazing. They wet down our house, the house on the other side which was attached to the one on fire and put out the active fire. It took a suprisingly long time as they had to tear the parts of the neighboring roof and attic area apart to find all the fire. I think they considered this pretty minor and routine, but I certainly didn’t. I couldn’t even count the fire trucks on our little one-way street – 7, I think. So three families are temporarily homeless… The whole thing was really, really scary.
Cats in the House
07 Aug 2008 Leave a Comment
- Mr. Bunter (l) and Lord Peter Wimsey find sun
We currently are owned by 4 cats. Three are Dorothy Sayer’s cats: Lord Peter (Wimsey) who just happens to be the alpha cat, Harriet (Vane), and Mr. Bunter (who just happens to be a tuxedo cat. The four is Smudgy, a long-haired calico inherited from Bob’s mother.
