Progress?

I was reading what seemed like an ordinary article about coming attractions in the biotech revolution when I came across the casual statement:
Cats that glow like jellyfish, now in labs, are just the beginning.
Wait.  What?

Yes.  It hardly seems a sporting thing to do to an animal that likes to hunt at night.


I know I said I like innovation in resource use, but I don't believe cats are merely a resource for us to use as we please.

17 comments:

Tom said...

I don't know, that seems to be how they think of us. Maybe turnabout's fair play?

Texan99 said...

If I get to judge my own morals by the standards of my cat . . .! Then, yes, it seems fair enough. But when cats perform vivisection, they don't use anesthesia.

E Hines said...

Frankly, that image looks filtered, with a light shining on the cat.

Eric Hines

Texan99 said...

Maybe so--I don't trust images from the Net not to be photoshopped, but that one came from Scientific American, which hasn't lost 100% of my confidence yet. (Close.)

Tom said...

To be fair, they won't admit cats to anesthesiology school, so it's hard to blame them.

Texan99 said...

Dang licensing requirements and their disparate impacts.

MikeD said...

Unless the cat is hunting under the right lighting, you'd never know it "glows":

"The result is visible to the naked eye (under blue light)."

Plus, if those cats are anything like mine, the only "hunting" they'll do is for bugs that get into the house.

DL Sly said...

Spd may beg to differ with your opinion.
As for myself, is there anyway to make that glow form a crosshair target? Not that I dislike cats....just the one that currently resides on the Dark Side.
0>;~]

Grim said...

Maybe it's just sporting.

MikeD said...

So Grim, you're saying I shouldn't adopt a third cat, because since my two girls only hunt bugs, the third would be a murderer?

:P

MikeD said...

Meet my cats...

Sophie and Velvet

Grim said...

You can adopt a third cat if it seems prudent to you. I'm just saying, if it is a glowing cat the cardinals will have a sporting chance.

MikeD said...

If I install blue lights outside my house, at least. Or if birds can see in a different wavelength that lets them see the glow without the blue lighting. But either way, it was a lame attempt at a joke.

Kind of like my Father-in-Law's explanation of why he only had four children. He heard that every fifth child on Earth was Chinese, and he didn't want to have to have his wife cheat on him just for another kid.

E Hines said...

the cardinals will have a sporting chance.

Sporting chances only run up the friendly casualty rates. No. No sporting chances.

And: spot on, Mike.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

Cats may be allies in the war on Order Rodentia, but I'm not sure how many of them are "friendlies."

Although I did meet a cat up in DC that was a functional service animal. Could do all the usual dog tricks, plus woke her owner up when the owner -- a 100% service-disabled vet with PTSD -- had nightmares.

So that's one.

E Hines said...

I've never met a cat who wasn't at least potentially one. Including the bobcats I've encountered.

There's also this. You can skip past the Baba Wawa nonsense and pick up the tale at around 0+28.

Unusual, certainly. But it's another.

Eric Hines

E Hines said...

And now, here's the right link.

[Fershlugginer touch pads....]

Eric Hines