Many of you betrayed me on that cat/puppy poll, but here you stand corrected: the experiment has been done.
Proof! Take that, cat lovers!
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Many of you betrayed me on that cat/puppy poll, but here you stand corrected: the experiment has been done.
Its because cats have only four legs.
Put that cleaver cephalopod on dry land and teach it what a harsh mistress gravity can be.
Dammit! “Clever” cephalopod!
Okay, you have us there.
ID science for the win!
Glen Davidson
Very cute – until I hit the brain twitch at them calling that a squid.
Ah, a fan of calamari.
=========
PZ, cats are far more intelligent than cephalopods. They have enslaved an entire species who now cater to their every need. Those octopi? Stuck doing the work for themselves.
Well, it is true that cats are fascists, but that doesn’t mean they’re intelligent, just made of pure evil (and stupidity).
Some of us are terrible mindless sheep.
Um, I mean, some unspecified individuals.
Hey! I’m down to only 2.5 cats.
Fascists? Cats?
The furry little things with pointy ears and pointy teeth that are anti-authority to the core? those cats?
Now, dogs…dogs I can totally see fawning over a leader and marching in lockstep.
Not even going to ask.
Dogs? Marching? I can barely get mine to walk on a leash! :C
Troy Britain: There are videos of them on land!!!
Cats are, at the very least, anti-authority, and possibly anarchistic. Depends on the cat, of course, which is further evidence of their individuality.
Look, talk to Ogvorbis over there if you don’t believe me. I don’t claim to understand why they are so thoroughly evil.
Yes. They want you to respect their authority, but won’t submit to any other. You act like they’re libertarians or something. While that would be a slight improvement, this doesn’t work for two reasons: 1) it wouldn’t have allowed me to godwin the thread, but in fact I did; and 2) libertarians aren’t generally furry little things with pointy ears and pointy teeth.
I rest my case.
Dust, our large cat, has half a brain (seriously, he is really not that bright) but is the size of three normal cats (30 pounds). So he counts as 1.5 cats.
Hahahahahahaha. I likes it.
Stacy:
Pfffft, cats are lazy conformists. If you want anti-authoritarian, free-thinking heretics, it’s rats you want. Also, rats are great swimmers and can tread water for 3 days.
I ran the same experiment with two empty aquariums and five mice each. The mice in the squid aquarium gained an average of eight ounces each, and the mice in the cat aquarium lost so much weight that measurements could not be done.
Professor Zapinsky – PZ – I see what he did there!!!
I second rats!
Because they give me kissies.
Ferrets too, for they also give me kissies.
That’s a real mark of intelligence. Two-thirds of the planet is covered in water, so one would expect an intelligent animal would learn to swim in it. But sprinkle a couple of drops on a cat, and it practically wets itself. They clearly think too highly of themselves.
Funny, I didn’t envisage it quite that way.
– – – – –
“Calamari 2: The Revenge”
Quadruple the limbs.
Quadruple the pain.
Tonight it’s YOU on the menu.
Asking that cat to predict the winner of the FIFA World Cup was unfair.
Paraphrasing old Seinfeld joke: If extraterrestrials came and saw one creature walking behind another picking up its poop, who’d they think is master?
I hate how hipster it makes me, but I liked Wulffmorgenthaler better in the beginning. Possibly the lack of pants, since that seems to be what’s been added for the international audience.
Anyway, things might turn out differently, if the ‘pod wasn’t given the advantage.
[mutters to self]Damn it! consciousness razor has bested me with hir crafty reasoning and impeccable logic.[/mutters to self]
And there are videos of cats in water (of the non-drowned sort).
Regardless; of course some cephalopod can make short squishy forays onto terra firma but soon the tiring effects of relentless gravity on their boneless carcasses (the “cuttle bones” of certain species notwithstanding) and a lack of water to bath their delicate gills soon drives them back into their moist, weightless, sanctuary.
Caine, three days?
That’s impressive. Hardy li’l critters.
Not necessarily. http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
Bah!
Stacy:
Yep. They can also swim 1/2 mile in open sea and they can dive 100 feet underwater and hold their breath for as long as 15 minutes.
They are indeed. They impress me every day, my fuzzy li’l heretics.
You wonder that you have been betrayed?
Land–sea–we’re all related.
http://comicstriplibrary.org/display/9
The cat used is not the appropriate species. Cats developed catfish for just this type of problem. Also to eat.
Reminds me. What if I were to reply to “Praise Jesus!” with “Cthullu FTGN! may you be consumed first!” ?
This looks like a Muslim science experiment.
If cats in general are inclined towards libertarianism, then I estimate that in fact the vast majority of libertarians are furry little things with pointy ears and pointy teeth.
Yet some animals also seem to have a similar problem
What’s all this talk of cats?
That’s not a squid – it’s an octopus, cthulhudammit!
Trebuchet, 31, & Troy, 32, i see that link is associated with the Wild Haggis Conservation Society. Not bad.
Cat obviously is related to magician Teller. Pretending to be dead in the water, clearly made a deal with octopus. They are plotting something…
Cat’s are lovely sociopaths. Who can’t love a sociopath?
I have no clue what that user name was above, but I do enjoy sociopaths.
@sc
#45
Hm… that would explain cat’s propensity to adopt dwarves. Sociopathic pets for sociopath.
They also love cat-meat roast, with cat tallow, cat heart, cat liver. And wear cat leather armor with cat bone bolts to battle.
My cats are definitely not fascists. I have an easily-startled codependent cuddle monster and a surfer dude in a cat’s body (“Hey, Hyoomin, what’s happening? Cool, catch you later.”). Any honest to goodness fascist would hate them, one for being a decadent, weak coward, and the other for being an anti-authoritarian who refuses to recognise hierarchy. My cats are also not believers in a palingenesis of catkind, or the inherent inferiority of women.
I mean, just ponder the fact that cats domesticated themselves, and have the overarching mission of infecting the entire human population with toxoplasmosis so we’ll give them endless amounts of food, snuggles, and soft places to sleep. (Sounds like a great weekend to me, but I’m already a thrall.)
How does Schrodinger’s equation apply in such situations?
Is a clear box an allowable deviation for Schrodinger and his cat/not cat?
Og –
They’re ferociously smart biochemists – what else could explain their creation of toxoplasmosis?
Ogvorbis, you have OBVIOUSLY not become an octopus food slave … ;>)
It should perhaps be pointed out to those people complaining about it being called a squid that the comic makes are Danish, and in Danish the word for squid and octopus is the same (“blæksprutte” = ink squirter).
I told you to mark my words, PZ…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcNJVBB8Dow
mmm, num num squid!
“PZ, cats are far more intelligent than cephalopods. They have enslaved an entire species who now cater to their every need. Those octopi? Stuck doing the work for themselves.”
By this logic, wheat is even more intelligent. It’s managed to not only enslave an entire species to be devoted to it’s every need, we even completely rebuild the environment, to our own detriment at times, just to suit it.