[HN Gopher] Cats are (almost) liquid
___________________________________________________________________
Cats are (almost) liquid
Author : lnyan
Score : 205 points
Date : 2024-10-17 11:43 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cell.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cell.com)
| wormlord wrote:
| Before I had cats, I used to think of them in terms of other
| animals. What I mean is that a dog or a horse is very defined by
| its skeletal structure. They are like popsicle stick armatures
| with some flesh thrown on.
|
| Now I think of cats more like amorphous blobs with some hard bits
| stuck on. I think anyone who owns a cat will know what I mean by
| this.
| bl4ckneon wrote:
| My cat often lays down twisted 180 degrees or more. Just doing
| whatever they want, defying laws of nature.
| 9dev wrote:
| Well, dogs also do this--I present to you my majestically
| twisted creature: https://imgur.com/a/5WcYzSw
|
| I have _no clue_ how that is even possible.
| bayindirh wrote:
| I _almost_ sprayed all my tea to my monitor and keyboard.
|
| Wish both of you a happy and derpy life together.
| debo_ wrote:
| Your dog is the inverse of the Firefox.
| lisper wrote:
| Clearly your dog has been possessed by a demon.
| squarefoot wrote:
| Brought memories of one of my cats (now silent meow) who
| also added the Italian equivalent of a middle finger.
|
| https://imgur.com/a/GFukfFP
| hugocast wrote:
| Dog Yoga
| voidmain0001 wrote:
| I'm also stupefied by a human doing it.
| https://imgur.com/a/W7bcLZo
|
| Taken from: https://www.gq.com/story/aleksei-goloborodko-
| real-life-diet
| johnnyanmac wrote:
| Yeah, nope. If I get like that, I'm never coming back.
| Probably have to bury me in that pose.
|
| Is this really just a matter of stretching? I read the
| article and he sums it down to he needs to stretch every
| day (he said himself thst his diet doesn't matter too
| much) He was also in the circus since 4, but this doesn't
| seems like something I could do in a lifetime of
| practice.
| Volundr wrote:
| You probably couldn't. There are lots of forms of hyper
| mobility, and extreme versions come with health risks.
| With practice and training you can probably do a lot more
| than you imagine, but for most of us the whole "fold
| yourself in half backwards" thing is beyond the limits of
| our spine, and it's for the best.
| bayindirh wrote:
| I, for one, know, understand and welcome our almost liquid
| feline overlords.
| wiredfool wrote:
| Purring bags of mostly water.
| nonameiguess wrote:
| For what it's worth, their hips and shoulders are actually
| limited in range of motion compared to humans, due to the very
| high muscle attachment points that are also what make them so
| amazingly strong and explosive for their small size. But an
| extremely flexible spine combined with the ability to dislocate
| key joints means they can still fit into very small, narrow
| spaces, presumably an adaptation allowing them to hunt small
| rodents that burrow and hide out in underground dens. Which I
| assume is why they have the instinct to immediately jump into
| and check out any box or cabinet or other enclosed space you
| open. You never know if there might be some voles in there.
| stavros wrote:
| > You never know if there might be some voles in there
|
| I like to think I always know if there might be some voles in
| my boxes and cabinets.
| Volundr wrote:
| That's just what the voles want you to think.
| psunavy03 wrote:
| They actually prefer to jump in a box because to them, it's a
| safe space to hide and watch. Cats look for spaces like that
| because their wild ancestors (and feral cats now) are small
| enough that they are both predators and prey.
| refulgentis wrote:
| > _actually_
|
| I spit my coffee out
| fluoridation wrote:
| Yup. Same reason why they like to climb to high places.
| They can feel safe and survey the surroundings.
| Additionally, cats will hide in confined spaces when ill or
| in pain; a sudden desire to hide for prolonged periods is a
| sign that it needs to see a vet.
| kijin wrote:
| I think a lot of oddities we attribute to cats can be
| explained by the fact that they are both predator and
| prey. No other animal we spend a lot of time with
| occupies such a schizophrenic position in the food chain.
| jerf wrote:
| I've noticed free-range chickens have some
| characteristics that derive from a similar position;
| chickens are not "predators" but they will happily
| predate if the opportunity arises, and they are also
| prey. Being birds and natural flock animals, it manifests
| differently, and there's some interesting behaviors I've
| noticed.
|
| "Chicken" as a synonym for "total, utter coward" is
| slander. Yes, running is their first play, but they do
| not just roll over and die like a sheep or a rabbit; if
| running isn't working they can and do fight back for all
| they are worth. And they don't have to be "backed into a
| corner" and only fight if it's the absolute last option,
| it just has to be as I phrased it: "running isn't
| working".
| armada651 wrote:
| We owned a small chicken that roamed in our garden, but
| not long after we got that chicken our neighbors got a
| cat.
|
| We were worried their cat would attack our chicken at
| some point, until one day we saw their cat running for
| its life while a small chicken chases after it trying to
| keep up with the agile predator using its tiny chicken
| legs.
|
| From that day forward the neighbor's cat understood its
| place in the pecking order.
| shawn_w wrote:
| A rooster in full on attack mode can be pretty scary.
| jeffbee wrote:
| Horse is practically all air. That's their secret. They are
| blimps with legs.
| alamortsubite wrote:
| When I pick up my cat and he's relaxed, it feels like I'm
| picking up a tube sock full of pudding.
| toss1 wrote:
| A stray cat I adopted as we could not find his owner was named
| "Beanbag" for exactly this quality.
|
| After a few days of recovery and starting to get comfortable,
| he started to snooze and literally poured off the couch, like a
| bag of beans... and he loved to stretch in my lap while I
| coded, putting up with all the typing & mousing... Truly
| liquid, indeed! Wonderful little guy, I still miss him.
| pmahoney wrote:
| Calvin vindicated
|
| https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/04/20
| accrual wrote:
| I love C&H and am blown away there was something so applicable.
| Felt like an XKCD moment!
| cosmojg wrote:
| C&H moments are the original XKCD moments!
| dhosek wrote:
| Bill Watterson was absolutely brilliant at depicting the
| weird positions that cats will lie in.
| joshuamcginnis wrote:
| FYI, the cats are not literally almost liquid in body
| composition.
| t-3 wrote:
| "Almost" is a bit vague and probably too strong, but they are
| _mostly_ water, just like other mammals.
| krapp wrote:
| Therefore they are more properly classified as soups.
| maxbond wrote:
| Noted ontologist Pirate Software would argue that cats are
| a Wellington, not a soup.
|
| https://youtube.com/shorts/MnAegCmJ7Xk
| krapp wrote:
| I can't refute his logic.
| orangeartist wrote:
| I'm surprised to see this guy show up in a positive light
| after his false flagging campaign.
| sleazebreeze wrote:
| What false flagging campaign are you referring to? I am
| not familiar.
| orangeartist wrote:
| He's taken down at least a dozen videos criticizing him
| by using his position as a youtuber with a million+
| subscribers. Originally it was just videos referencing
| his "maldavius figtree" fursona, but now it's anything
| that portrays him in a negative way.
| fluoridation wrote:
| Save for their skeletons and other dry structures like hair
| and shells, animals are in fact gels.
| WJW wrote:
| Maybe they're more broth-like? Also the paper at
| https://www.drgoulu.com/wp-
| content/uploads/2017/09/Rheology-... seems to indicate
| that they are "active rheological materials" and
| therefore probably non-Newtonian.
| joshuamcginnis wrote:
| That's a lot of ambiguity for a scientific paper. Even if
| it's true (Cats are about 60-70% water), that's not the point
| of the title.
|
| I suspect its because it makes for a catchy headline.
| accrual wrote:
| I agree. I think it's a bit of nod into the playfulness
| most associate with cats. I don't mind though, cats are one
| subject I'm okay with some leeway in the rigorousness of
| the article title.
| aithrowawaycomm wrote:
| Catchy headline, but also in a fluid in a dynamical sense -
| cats "flow" into spaces when exploring by trial-and-error
| testing openings with their body size, but they are also
| only "almost" liquid in that for especially narrow openings
| they are reluctant to poke their heads in, presumably
| because they might get stuck.
|
| The contrast with dogs in the introduction is instructive:
| dogs tend to hunt over open fields rather than chasing prey
| into narrow dens, so it makes sense they would tend to make
| conservative eyeball judgments about whether they can fit
| into certain spaces. But cats will try to corner their prey
| in a tunnel/etc, so they have good reason to rely more on
| touch and experimentation ("ecologically-valid strategy").
| pvg wrote:
| Missing a cite to some pioneering work on this in the 30s by
| A.S.J. Tessimond [1]
|
| _Cats no less liquid than their shadows
|
| Offer no angles to the wind.
|
| They slip, diminished, neat through loopholes
|
| Less than themselves; will not be pinned_
|
| [1]https://www.blueridgejournal.com/poems/asjt-cats.htm
| evilotto wrote:
| Not to mention Fardin, 2014.
| jmspring wrote:
| Having 7 cats, they are all different. My oldest mail holds
| himself rigid. The youngest male - still a kitten - is a noodle
| of murder and destruction.
| zafka wrote:
| Nice Description. A black noodle just joined our other 5 cats.
| jmspring wrote:
| Black cats are the best. She is one of two sisters (oldest
| cats at 9 at this point). 17 pounds of chunk loving. Annoying
| as all get out, but will literally roll around on the arm of
| the couch and "accidentally" drop into my lap.
|
| My wife and I go between two locations, today will be the
| first time 4 of the cats meet the murder noodle.
| 0x1ceb00da wrote:
| We need a documentary.
| damontal wrote:
| This sounds like something Karl Pilkington would come up with.
| tencentshill wrote:
| I wonder if the same experiment could be done with big cats -
| Would an opening that touches the mane of a lion have the same
| results?
| wildylion wrote:
| The cat will just get annoyed - it's a shaggy tangly thing that
| always gets in the way.
|
| Speaking from personal experience >:3
| stef25 wrote:
| There's no mention of their whiskers, I was under the impression
| that this is what they use to become aware of their body size in
| tight spaces.
| dist-epoch wrote:
| Wiskers are mentioned, but using the scientific name -
| vibrissae
| move-on-by wrote:
| > While dogs slowed down and hesitated before they attempted to
| use an uncomfortably small opening, in the case of cats, we did
| not detect this change in their behavior before their attempt to
| go through even the narrowest openings. However, remarkably, cats
| showed hesitation both before they attempted to penetrate the
| shortest openings, and while they moved through it.
|
| I just skimmed, but I didn't see any mention whiskers. It's seems
| to me that cats can make highly precise measurements of width
| just by sticking their heads in a space, but height judgments
| requires additional consideration.
| melvyn2 wrote:
| > Cats are also aided by their large and sensitive vibrissae,
| which are positioned on such locations of their head that the
| cat can detect nearby obstacles in closer encounters. Vibrissal
| sensation can compensate for the somewhat weaker vision in cats
| from closer distances or in poorly illuminated environments.
| Therefore, it is possible that cats approached the narrow
| openings in our experiment without differential hesitation, and
| they could use their vibrissae to assess the suitability of the
| apertures before penetrating them.
| move-on-by wrote:
| Oh thank you! I'm just a lowly cat owner and did not know
| what vibrissae are.
| diggan wrote:
| From skimming the HN comments:
|
| > Wiskers are mentioned, but using the scientific name -
| vibrissae
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41870897
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| If you have ever put a cone on a cat (which lasts about five
| minutes), you see they get crazy. They hug the walls.
|
| Their whiskers are a _major_ factor in their perception.
|
| I think they can also dislocate their spine.
|
| My cat likes to sit in what we call his "Buddha" position, with
| his back bent about 90 degrees, and his paws in front. This
| seems to be a common position. He'll sit like that for an hour.
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| My cats are weird and loved their cones after they got
| neutered. One would stick his head back in the cone after I
| took it off.
| ninalanyon wrote:
| I think all cats are weird in their own way. Our cat often
| sunbathed in the middle of parking space across the road.
| We occasionally had to go out to fetch him because he would
| refuse to move when someone started to drive into the
| space.
| Halfwhit wrote:
| I have a ginger tomboy who does exactly this. He loves
| just rolling around in the fine layer of dirt while
| keeping an eye out for birds or frogs
| pfdietz wrote:
| Orange cats sharing their one brain cell.
| Optimal_Persona wrote:
| I think the cones must also screw up their aural spatial
| sensation (changing their perception of sound from fairly
| omni-directional, to seeming like all the sounds are coming
| from in front of the cone).
| somnic wrote:
| I've seen a few people use a soft inflatable or plush collar
| that's more flat, and doesn't go up around the face, instead
| of an actual cone. That way the cat's the whiskers aren't
| disturbed while still preventing the cat from worsening
| wounds by licking. At least some cats seem to be a lot more
| tolerant of that style.
| dekhn wrote:
| See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z30eLocTnU
| pugworthy wrote:
| The overhead view of figure 3 in particular is noteworthy to me.
| The 3 human subjects are represented as abstract ovals, and the
| cat drawn as a cat who is staring up as if to look through the
| fourth ceiling at the reader.
|
| The reader becomes, in a sense, a greeble.
|
| This paper would have been a fun project for a scientific
| illustrator.
| pugworthy wrote:
| For reference, in the cat realm a greeble is what cats are
| looking at when they stare up at the ceiling or wall and there
| is nothing there. At least that you can see.
|
| So instead of the real cat staring at the imaginary greeble, we
| the reader are the real greeble staring at the imaginary cat.
| Who is staring back because it can see us.
| runxel wrote:
| Oh but that is old news!
|
| "On the Rheology of Cats":
|
| https://www.drgoulu.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Rheology-...
| ChoHag wrote:
| Now that is what a dry academic paper about cats is supposed to
| look like. Cat pictures on every page.
| sandebert wrote:
| This seems relevant:
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lastquarte...
| anonu wrote:
| Here's the podcast:
| https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/52350e74-f4b0-42d9-a1...
| carabiner wrote:
| This is why they flow out of our grasp.
| tirant wrote:
| These are old news for those of us that grew bonsai kittens in
| the late 90s.
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20050203111131/http://bonsaikitt...
|
| Obviously it was a hoax, probably one of the first ones reaching
| the first generation of internet users. But lots of people fell
| for it.
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| Anecdotally my cat is always very cautious before going through
| cat flags, which are not particularly narrow but very short, but
| never hesitate to run into narrow but deep stuff...
| penguin_booze wrote:
| Obligatory Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/catsareliquid/.
| kator wrote:
| Interesting because I have recently been trying to catch a stray
| cat for a capture-release process and the cat will not walk into
| a typical trap-door type wire mesh trap. Watching him on video
| the roof of the trap seems to freak him out. It seems a better
| trap would have a narrow gap with high door that lets them
| confidently walk into the trap and trigger would just block the
| slot perhaps with some sort of sliding door blocking the exit.
| theginger wrote:
| This science paper could have been a cat meme video. Never
| thought I would be saying that and meaning it literally.
| colechristensen wrote:
| I mean I've seen the cat challenge meme video done a dozen
| times.
|
| https://youtu.be/O7PkYkXdKwc?si=-8BTPVvAK19WVEF
|
| This is like "hey what if this cat video was a research paper"
| metalman wrote:
| I watched as a cat dove through a narrow opening (stair
| baulsters)only to wedge its aft end,stop dead,do a totaly ignoble
| face plant,and then sort of oooze through to land gracelessly. So
| in this case there was no hesitation,and cats regularly missjudge
| and get run over by cars,so at best the data is just that...data.
| UniverseHacker wrote:
| > If the opportunity was given to them, dogs opted for a detour
| in the case of uncomfortably small apertures
|
| Except in the case of one very sweet but not exactly brilliant
| large dog I know that legitimately believes his entire body is
| just the tip of his nose that he can see. I've seen him walk
| straight through a 2" hole in a screen door, and he will
| repeatedly try to sit on e.g. a chair armrest and not understand
| why it doesn't work.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-10-17 23:00 UTC)