Cat religion

Over at Mother Jones, Kiera Butler didn't like the answer she got when she asked whether cats were bad for the environment. Here's a bit of what she discovered:

Domestic cats, officially considered an invasive species, kill at least a hundred million birds in the US every year—dwarfing the number killed by wind turbines ... They're also responsible for at least 33 avian extinctions worldwide. A recent Smithsonian Institution study found that cats caused 79 percent of deaths of juvenile catbirds in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Bad news, since birds are key to protecting ecosystems from the stresses of climate change—a 2010 study found that they save plants from marauding insects that proliferate as the world warms. What's more, feral cats can carry some heinous people diseases, including rabies, hookworm, and toxoplasmosis, an infection known to cause miscarriages and birth defects.

What's the solution? Some people advocate for trap-neuter-return (TNR). Butler listens to scientists who have concluded that this is an illusory solution. Real solutions include A) don't feed strays and B) don't let your own cat outside.

Butler's article (and video) touch on the emotion and misinformation rampant among cat-lovers. I've experienced this attitude found in cat people, both in the comments to this post and with regard to a string of neighbors who have lived next door to me.   Perhaps I originally chose to read  Butler's article because I'm highly allergic to cats--they have caused me significant medical woes. I'm also not keen about cats, generally--I don't know why. I've had dogs much of my life, and I've enjoyed having them around, so I'm not anti-pet. I confess that for me, the unceasing allegedly cute cat YouTubes make me even more wary of cat owners.

About 15 years ago, I got into a cat-battle with next-door neighbors who insisted that there was nothing wrong with having 12 indoor cats, one of them being a 55 pound African serval that ate one of their siamese cats (I saw the serval with my own eyes). I didn't agree with their assessment--I thought it was bizarre to own so many pets, and it was also against the municipal code where I live (you are allowed to have only up to four animals in St. Louis). [More . . . ]

Continue ReadingCat religion

Free Speech Above All

Johann Hari on Religious Censorship This video is an impassioned declaration on the importance of not allowing "sensitivities" and an unwillingness to offend become a force against free speech.  It is also, underneath, an argument for rejecting the pseuodthink of irrational defenses of absurdity.

Continue ReadingFree Speech Above All

Open source knowledge…what a novel concept

Thirty years ago, give or take, I read Lucifer's Hammer (by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle) for the first time. Published in 1977, it has a few dated elements, but apart from those, it holds its own in my mind. The novel describes a near future after a comet hits the Earth. I enjoyed it, but one very small reference stcuk in my head. One of the characters has a library (that he preserves from the anarchy) and the one book he takes as currency to the outpost central to the novel is "Volume Two of The Way Things Work." Google "The Way Things Work" now, and you'll likely find mostly hits on David Macaulay's illustrated book. Nice...and informative, but not the one Niven and Pournelle were talking about. I searched for years, pre-internet, before finding my copy. It's an eighth edition of the one originally published in 1963 by Simon and Schuster; subtitled "An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Technology." It's a single volume, not two, and although also dated (vacuum tubes), it is still an enormous, condensed wealth of knowledge. I'm not an end-of-the-world type person, but I have several survival books of this nature (Back to Basics, The American Boys' Handybook, etc.) for my children and descendants...just in case. Not in case of the end of the world, but in case they get stranded or what have you. Driving around to look in on various construction projects today, I listened to a few TED videos and one, very short by TED 18 minute standards, conveyed in four minutes one of the more amazing ideas I've seen at TED, host of hundreds of amazing ideas. Marcin Jakubowski, a Polish American with a PhD in fusion physics, founded Open Source Ecology, "home of the Global Village Construction Set, developing community-based solutions for re-inventing local production" after starting a farm. I'll let him describe what he's done: I'm adding this to my various "Way Things Work" works. It's free, brilliant, full of maker ideals, and can deliver affordable technology to the world. Maybe I'll even be able to contribute.

Continue ReadingOpen source knowledge…what a novel concept

How LCD screens work

I like to understand at least the basics of how the machines around me work. I'm don't feel compelled to understand enough to design or build the gadgets I use--far from it. But I do seek to understand the fundamentals. Until tonight, I hadn't ever thought about how LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screens work, but now I know the basics, thanks to Bill Hammack, the EngineerGuy:

Continue ReadingHow LCD screens work