Too Kwell: Human Genre Project; Cool Horses

huge hattip to Biology in Science Fiction - HUGE

The Human Genre Project is a (proposed) collection of fiction, flash fiction, and poetry relating to the human genome - yeah, that genome, the one they've just finished mapping. They're still taking contributions.

This is so cool.

(Related: Micheal Swanwick's Periodic Table of Science Fiction)

A different post on the Biology in Science Fiction had me scratching my head to remember the title of a book I'd read -

- read at least part of, and that twenty odd years ago -

but could remember nothing of the title or author's name - but possibly what the cover looked like.

The cover I remembered was Rowena's Project Pope. Do you have any idea what fraction of Rowena artwork sites come up as listed under 'pornography'? (Not that I disagree, but sheez. All I wanted was a perfectly clean pic of two fully dressed robots - one in bishop's robes, for crying out loud - and I kept getting hit with 'your filter blocks this site.') And those that weren't so listed (yet!) generally didn't have titles associated with the pictures.

(There's a joke about looking at art for the text in here somewhere but I can't make it come out straight.)

And that wasn't the right book (Project Pope by Clifford D. Simak). So I thought some more, and the idea of a human confronting a man (robot) on a rearing mechanical horse came into hazy focus. Back to google I went.

And I eventually found it, via TV Tropes and it's Cool Horse page. TV Tropes is a listing of plot elements used in TV, literature, movies, just about anywhere. In addition to cool horses, they also discuss Hell Horses, Mechanical Horses, and Horses of A Different Color.

This is just neat.

(The book I was looking for was James P. Hogan's Code of the Lifemaker. And yes, one of the old mass market books had a man in a space suit confronting a robot on a rearing mechanical horse. Success!)

Cats, Fat and Otherwise

I will not post cat pictures in this blog.
I will not post cat pictures in this blog.
I will not post cat pictures in this blog.

(I have no idea where my camera cord is right now, so I can't post cat pictures in this blog.)

***

I worked for quite a while for an outstanding feline practitioner, but I am not a cat person. And small animals are not my primary interest.

I still ended up with four household cats.

The story of how I ended up with four cats is too long for this space. I'll just say that it involved 9 years, Italy, a genuine crazy cat lady, two roommates, a series of vet clinics, and three couches.

***

You find all sorts of things on Amazon: Is your pet fat?

The answer, if you live in the USA, could easily be yes. And it's as damaging for our pets as it is for us humans. True malnutrition is fairly rare in the USA for pets, due to the multitude of well-balanced commercial diets that are all most pets eat. But excessive body weight due to too many calories is not uncommon, and in cats can lead to a multitude of issues, including joint problems and diabettes.

***

Are cats really domesticated? - Not really, according to the study cited in this article. The theory (which I've heard before, and think is sound) is that cats are actually niche-dwellers, and their niche is 'within the physical environment controlled by humans'.

Which reminds me of a joke:

The dog and the cat are contemplating their lives as members of a human household. The dog thinks: "The humans feed me, care for me, provide for my every need, and I sleep on their bed. The humans must be gods."
The cat thinks: "The humans feed me, care for me, provide for my every need, and I sleep on their bed. I must be God."

***

There is another difference between dogs and cats: in my travels around the world, people's reactions to dogs can vary widely. Some places (America, for instance) people readily take dogs into their house and even refer to them as 'kids' (much less 'man's best friend'.) Other places, such as large portions of the Arab Muslim Mideast, many people treat dogs as vermin, barely more tolerable than swine. In parts of Asia, dogs are a traditional food animal.

Just about everywhere, people are okay with cats in a vague, stand-offish sort of way. A moderate like or tolerance, but not the passion that dogs evoke.

Which is probably just how the cats want it.