Who developed the cat with no taste for mice?
I think that cat downed two pints of vodka before they made that video.
That story should more appropriately be titled “Japanese scientists create retarded mice”
Zep–
I’ve seen mice that aren’t afraid of cats before; they’re called gerbils.
That cat seemed more afraid of the mouse in the first part.
I like how they had to explain what’s up with the cat: “This cat was selected because she is exceptionally docile. She was not genetically modified.”
Sure she wasn’t. I call mutant cat.
Still, it’s nice to see Japanese scientists devoting all that research to making what amounts to YouTube videos of cute stuff happening. Look, it’s a mouse running around a cat’s legs! Way to go, Japan!
-TomI wish I could shut off some of my olfactory bulb receptors during road trips.
I get so frightened by some gas station washrooms.
You have no clue what this technology means for Cat-Mouse relations!
DOGS AND CATS* LIVING TOGETHER… MASS HYSTERIA!
- and mice
it was going for the cat’s junk. (wait it’s not a tom…the cat’s naughty bits?)
I second that. I’ve never seen a cat so completely disinterested in tracking movement. Even a docile cat will paw a toy halfheartedly. There’s something else going on with this cat.
Mice without fear – my wife’s absolute worst nightmare (she’s verrrry rodent-phobic – we had to keep pausing the Ratatouille DVD so she could catch her breath).
I do like RichVR’s suggestion that they got her liquored up before shooting the video. Poor cat. I can imagine her years from now, explaining to other cats that she was young and needed the money.
-Tom
And now that I think about it, why the fuck would you want to make animals not afraid of their natural enemies?
Off the top of my head, they could use this to take out pig smell receptors, to get closer to the holy grail of the pig that doesn’t care about suffering. It’s an honest-to-god research problem to figure out how to make them less stressed about living in a small cage in their own filth. See Dominion.
Edit: Ah, here we go (god help me, I’m linking to National Review)
The most-appalling example I came across while writing Dominion is a project among agricultural scientists to genetically engineer pigs so they’re less “stressed” in factory-farm conditions and during the mayhem of industrial-scale slaughter.
… which all leads us to the cow at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. (at least I think it was a cow, been a while since I read that one)
It was a pig I think. Cool - lets meet the meat.
Found it:
A large dairy animal approached Zaphod Beeblebrox’s table, a large fat meaty quadruped of the bovine type with large watery eyes, small horns and what might almost have been an ingratiating smile on its lips.
“Good evening,” it lowed and sat back heavily on its haunches, “I am the main Dish of the Day. May I interest you in parts of my body?” It harrumphed and gurgled a bit, wriggled its hind quarters into a more comfortable position and gazed peacefully at them.
. . .
“I think I’ll just have a green salad,” he muttered.
“May I urge you to consider my liver?” asked the animal, “it must be very rich and tender by now, I’ve been force-feeding myself for months.”
“A green salad,” said Arthur emphatically.
“A green salad?” said the animal, rolling his eyes disapprovingly at Arthur.
“Are you going to tell me,” said Arthur, “that I shouldn’t have green salad?”
“Well,” said the animal, “I know many vegetables that are very clear on that point. Which is why it was eventually decided to cut through the whole tangled problem and breed an animal that actually wanted to be eaten and was capable of saying so clearly and distinctly. And here I am.”
It managed a very slight bow.
“Glass of water please,” said Arthur.