the other one can't add up

I bagged Victoria Beckham for not reading a book in her life back on 15 August 2005.

Now it is David Beckham's turn. He told the UK's The Mail on Sunday Life magazine that he found his six year old son Brooklyn's maths homework difficult.

Just as well he is good at soccer/football and earning lots of money which they spend extravagantly. He will dread the day when he will need to keep to a budget. At least he can read to his children and Victoria can do maths.


Damn,what comes after 2, is it 3 or 5?

At least in that marriage, Posh and Becks complement each other with half a brain each!

Reported in - The Mail on Sunday

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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I had a good day today, napping on my mat on the deck, and also on my human's lap. Come to think of it, he didn't do much today, but I helped him to watch Commander In Chief. How cool would it be to have a real woman in the White House as president?

I was finally given a raw corn fed chicken wing for dinner. Woohoo. The tinned pink salmon might be good for breakfast, but for dinner and another breakfast (3 meals in a row) was too much. Variety man, variety!

keisercat@wildmail.com

February, and Winnie

I have decided to launch a new cause. It is called 30 days for February.

I think that this month has been shortchanged by at least TWO days.

There are four months with 30 days (April, June, September and November).

The rest have 31 days (seven months).

It would be equitable to redistribute a day each from August and January towards February, so that there are seven months of 30 days, and five months of 31 days.

In leap years, there would be six months of 30 days and six months of 31 days.

I mean really, why February? It has been a long time since the old Julian calendar when emperors decided to lengthen the days of the months named after them (Julius Caeser and Augustus).

We must rectify this historical megalomanic anachronism (I bet Cooper will like that).

Speaking of calendars, no Tintin ones were available this year, so one from my football team is in the study (yay!) and a free Leunig from the newspaper is in the kitchen.

I also wish to pay tribute to my dear Catster friend Winnifred. It was with sadness that I learnt yesterday of her passing. Winnie was one of my oldest Catster friends and I very much enjoyed reading her diary which she dictated to her servant. We also catmailed about all manner of things. Her servant and my human also work in similar fields.

Rest in peace Winnie. I will miss you.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

I was so confused when my human left early today. He promised me that he had the week off work. But he returned just after midday following business in the city (legal and financial).

He also came back with a new Bach recording for me. It is the new Truls Mørk recording of the Bach cello suites. You can hear samplers from Amazon.



The last time Bach cello suites were played this good was back in the 1930s when pablo Casals did it.

Truls Mørk is Norwegian and the new recording is wonderful. My human put it on for me and I napped to it. Mind you, he did interrupt it when he did chores like clean the floor (using the vacuum cleaner) on account of it being a cooler day today.

Tonight is TV night, Numb3rs, Supernatural, and taped, Desperate Housewives and Commander In Chief. I hope to get my fur brushed too.

keisercat@wildmail.com

Broadway, another feline

We thought the Lloyd Webber production of Cats was a bit silly and not what TS Elliot had in mind at all, but it played on Broadway and the West End for a long time.

Now comes a new play about an indoor cat called Samantha who wants to be an outdoor cat, and she even talks.
Indoor/Outdoor explores the character of Samantha, a talking housecat who shares her memoirs and feelings about feline and human relationships with her audience.

Indoor - Outdoor
Plays at DR2 Theatre
103 E. 15th St., NYC

See - Playbill

Unfortunately, the cat Samantha is not being played by a feline thespian, but by a human. Dang!

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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Today was another lazy day, but I did go outside when my human hung out the washing around midday, and again late afternoon when I supervised my human pruning the over-grown quince bush.

That disaster tele-movie called Category 7: The End of the World is on at the moment. I think my human will 'half' watch it (it is really silly) until Abre los Ojos (Open your Eyes), later remade as Vanilla Sky starts, on a different channel.

keisercat@wildmail.com

living in a box

There was an interesting story on Beyond Tomorrow the other night about this compact house which is only 2.6 cubic metres in size.



This was designed by the Technical University in Munich. It seems that units are already in use (in the form of a student village) in response to cheap student accommodation shortages in the city.



I'm not sure that my human and I could live in such a tiny space. For a start, the designers did not factor in an area for a kitty's litter tray.



Check it out - micro compact home

In any case, there is something to be said about the inventiveness of German design.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

Today was a very lazy day. My human and I slept in until 9am, and we just lounged around vegging. Perfect Saturday activities.

keisercat@wildmail.com

so where the bloody hell are you?

Actually, "so where the bloody hell are you?" is the official Australian invitation to visitors to come and visit Australia.



You can view the TV spot commercial - HERE.



It seems to have caused a stir here at home with the use of the word "bloody" in case it offends visitors.

They obviously haven't heard our politicians speaking in parliament. Hee hee hee...

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

I thought I was having a good run with my human's company for the day, but not so. He went to work today. When he came home in the afternoon he did tell me that he has next week off work. Woohoo! He needs all that time to plan for my big 16th birthday next week (1 March). Party time!

keisercat@wildmail.com

it's only a movie...

There was a really cool article by Larry Williams in the Connecticut Courant of 12 February 2006 about stupid things in movies.
Only in the movies does everybody take their coffee "black." And people are always saying "keep the change" when they buy something.

And where else do you see people take aspirin without water? Or look over their shoulder while driving to see if the car chasing them is catching up?

He makes a good point. Just like those women who wake up in bed without bad hair. Or shows like 24 in "real time" but nobody ever eats or goes to the toilet.

The worse one which annoys my human is when people see off their friends or family at the airport for an international flight, and everyone seems to go right through to the boarding gate itself without having passed through passport control or customs (where non-passengers are not allowed).

Just as well most people never believe everything they see on TV or films. Or do they?

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

My human had another day with me, which I really like. We even had a nap together on the couch.

keisercat@wildmail.com

happy as a cat

I don't usually read the horoscopes (should that be horror-scopes?) as they tend more to do with humans and their superstitions.

But I do like this one:
Gemini (May 21-June 20) **** Many people have a distinctive style and way -- you included. Sometimes your unique style might drive others away. Others will make the effort to reverse their processing and understand where you are coming from. Tonight: Happy as a cat.

It is from the Monterey County Herald (California) of 22 February 2006.

It actually sums up my human pretty well.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

My human stayed home with me all day as he wasn't well and didn't get out of bed until after midday. Although I didn't help by going out and coming in at 4am and he heard my scurrying and realised he'd better get up and check my butt fur. Just as well.

I continued napping long after my usual breakfast time, and by midday it was so warm, I didn't feel like any.

My human did go out and leave me in the evening as he had a meeting/dinner with his AA group (not that AA, but an academic/writers group thing as the convenor was visiting from Melbourne). He told me it was a cool group and it was nice to put real faces to the names on the AA e-list.

keisercat@wildmail.com

we LOVE Jennifer LOVE Hewitt

Today is Jennifer Love Hewitt's birthday and we wish her a very happy 27th birthday.

JLH deserves to be a much bigger star. We love her in Ghost Whisperer and Heartbreakers (with Sigourney Weaver).

She would have been wonderful in Charmed. In fact, she was offered a role to replace Shannon Doherty but declined it. Just as well as she should have been cast originally instead of Shannon Doherty.

JLH was also in the music video as Enrique Iglesias' girlfriend in Hero. She was pretty good in that.

Most of all, we love her because she has a cat named Don Juan!

Official site - www.jenniferlovehewittonline.com


Anybody who can cope with Garfield is cool in my book.

*THANK YOU so much Camilla (my cat sister across the Pacific Ocean) for my gifts. You are so thoughtful.

**As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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My human came home a bit early from work this afternoon because he has a sore throat, a headache and feels faint. I better nurse him better.

keisercat@wildmail.com

healthy fries...

McDonald's are in big trouble about milk and wheat in their french fries.

Those most upset are vegans and gluten-intolerant.

Link - 'McDonald's Fesses Up to Milk, Wheat in Fries' from www.consumeraffairs.com of 19 February 2006.

Hmmmm... for healthy food, go to McDonald's.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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Monday night is now an über TV night. Not only for Supernatural, but Numb3rs (which returned today for season two) and Desperate Housewives (which has to be taped as it clashes).

If only my regular fur brushing is also resumed!

keisercat@wildmail.com

uh oh

the cat's got my tongue again. nothing to report today.

mind your manners

Once upon a time, to mind one's manners was to remember to be courteous and polite. Now, it means to mind one's own business.

An Australian woman was charged with assault and fined $176 (that might be in Australian dollars after conversion) after trying to shush an American movie goer who was on a mobile/cell phone.

Halfway through the movie, a woman in the audience answered her phone and began talking.

The Australian woman was annoyed by this intrusion so put her finger to her mouth, signalling to the woman to shush, then touched her on the shoulder twice.

The other woman stood up and shouted abuse before storming out of the cinema.

Police arrived and escorted the Australian woman out of the movie theatre.

The very rude woman told officers that the Australian woman had been "invading her private space" and accused her of assault.

So our poor woman (the Australian) was arrested and charged with assault.

As long as she avoided any traffic violation or touching anyone again in 90 days, there would be no conviction.

See The Australian, article from 16 February 2006

Somebody please cancel this rude American woman's passport! She should never be allowed out of the US and ruining other people's vacations, particularly in Europe and Asia.

My human told me that he knows this type of person well (to be avoided). They are the type who demand things while on vacation in a foreign country and say things like "you can't do that to me, I'm an American" (such arrogance).

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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After last night's excitement, today was a quieter day, but it was very warm. My human left me for a few hours in the afternoon and reported back to me on his afternoon coffee session with Nell and Declan.

I did get to go outside to chew on some grass when my human hung out the washing this morning. Terribly exciting isn't it?

keisercat@wildmail.com

hello possums

Another birthday today. Barry Humphries turned 72 today. He is an Australian cultural icon. Definitely, as he has an entry in the Australian government's culture and recreation website - cultureandrecreation.gov.au.

Barry Humphries is best known as the 'manager' of Dame Edna Everage (actually she is his alter ego - just don't call him a female impersonator!).

Dame Edna started out as Mrs Norm Everage (the late Norm was her husband), an average Australian housewife from Moonee Ponds, a Melbourne suburb. Along her travels she acquired a Damehood (like a knighthood for women) from the Australian prime minister at the time.

Over time, Dame Edna became a MEGAstar and hosted her own talk show in the UK.



LINK - Dame Edna - official site

Dame Edna has had a successful career on stage in the US (notably Broadway), even though many Americans don't quite understand her subtle irony and satire.

My human went to see Dame Edna on stage once (along with the other alter egos like Sir Les Patterson), and he thought she was brilliantly funny. My human also sat in the row in front of Barry Humphries once, on a domestic flight, many years ago.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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I had visitors tonight. Woohoo! Susan came over about 7pm and I had a long chat with her, though I'm not sure she understands cat-speak as I was asking her what she thought about the Australian wheat-sale to Iraq scandal. Then Merlin's human, Kim came over about half an hour later. I also got to sit and lie on both their laps! They came over and had Mongolian lamb hokkien noodles for dinner. With blackberries and King Island honey/cinnamon yoghurt (a good choice brought over by Susan), or vanilla icecream with chocolate sauce for dessert.

Today was also a very warm day, and it doesn't seem to be cooling down very much tonight. My human finished watching Serenity which he seemed to enjoy a lot.

keisercat@wildmail.com

the world's tallest building

It is so hard to keep up with which is the world's tallest building.

At one stage, it was Malaysia's Petronas Twin Towers, but was overtaken by Taipei 101 in Taiwan. And even that will be shortlived. Once completed, the Burj Dubai will become the world's tallest building.


Burj Dubai - artist impression

So the tallest buildings in the world has shifted from the United States, to Asia and soon to the United Arab Emirates.

LINK - Burj Dubai

At one stage a developer was proposing to build the "world's tallest building" in Australia. Thankfully he took his project to Dubai.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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I forgot to mention that when Michelle was here, there was a huge huntsman spider on the ceiling in the bathroom above the tub/shower. My human told her that the spider was welcome to stay there and that her name was Marlene, as he felt guilty committing arachnicide a week earlier vacuuming up all her babies.

But Michelle refused to use the bathroom with Marlene there. As she wasn't allowed to murder her, she had to get a dust pan and take her outside. For an arachnophobe (who actually screamed when she saw Marlene), it was rather fun to watch.

Today was another boring day. Last night my human started watching Serenity so I ignored him as it was too hot. He opted to tape Prison Break.

keisercat@wildmail.com

Galileo

Galileo Galilei was born on 15 February 1564 (allowing for calendar conversion to Gregorian).

Galileo was considered to be the father of modern physics and his work was greatly assisted by the prevailing intellectualism of the renaissance period in Italy.

Galileo is well remembered for the Catholic Church's condemnation of him as a heretic for believing that the earth revolved around the sun when at that time, Christians believed that all heavenly bodies revolved around the earth.



Galileo was very brave in separating the beliefs of the Church from his scientific work.

In much the same way today, the study of biology and evolution should also not be tainted by religious tampering with their notions of 'intelligent design'.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

I don't think I will be given lamb again for a long time. Last night's dinner didn't agree with me and I stayed outside on my mat on the deck this morning so my human wouldn't find out. But my human insisted on checking my butt anyway, and off to the bathroom I was marched for some butt grooming with paper and water. How undignified!

Today was a warm day. I can't wait for the cooler weather as I can then just lie on my human's lap all the time.

keisercat@wildmail.com

40 years of dollars and cents

Apart from St Valentine's Day which is a myth perpetuated by the greeting card, chocolate and florist industries, today also marks 40 years of dollars and cents in Australia.

Decimal currency was introduced in Australia on 14 February 1966 (way before my time and my human's time).

Before Australians bought goods and services in dollars and cents (in our own country), we bought using pounds (£), shillings (s.) and pence (d.).

One pence was a penny. There were even half penny coins.

12 pence made up one shilling. 20 shillings made up one pound. So technically you could change 240 pence into a pound (that is a lot of change), and those big copper pieces would have weighed a lot!

So the price of something might be 1s. 4d. (so you needed a one shilling coin and 4 pennies). As there were also threepence and sixpence coins, this might have been two sixpence, one threepence and one penny. Or if you had a lot of change, 16 pennies.

The coins used were halfpenny, penny (which was huge), threepence (which was tiny), sixpence, shilling, two shillings (or florin).

When Australia converted in 1966, the halfpenny sort of became 1 cent, the penny became 2 cents (and shrunk in size), the threepence became 5 cents, sixpence became 10 cents, the shilling became 20 cents, and there was a new 50 cent piece.

In 1966, we had paper notes in 1 dollar, 2 dollars, 5 dollars, 10 dollars, and 20 dollars, and 50 dollars.

In 1984, the 1 dollar note became a coin, and in 1988, the 2 dollar note also became a coin. At some stage, a new 100 dollar note was introduced. Then later, the paper notes were phased out in favour of polymer notes (which are difficult to forge).

I think it would have been fun to stick with the old pre-decimal currency, especially to confuse tourists. Speaking of currency, I haven't received my allowance this week. Hmmm, perhaps I could receive this in old currency instead of Australian dollars? Nah, I'd have to go back in time to spend it!

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

Last night I slept on my other bed all night long with Michelle. I think my human was upset about that this morning, but he still fed me. Michelle left this morning anyway so I don't know why my human would be upset with me, I get to cuddle him nearly every night.

Tonight I got a really special treat for dinner. Lamb! My human even gave me the best pieces! He must have forgiven me. I watched him cutting the meat off a leg of lamb so I would have been furious if I had not been given any.

keisercat@wildmail.com

the quail's revenge

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow shooter while hunting for quail.

See - CNN

Were they killing the quails for food? Why is killing living creatures a sport? That is so sick.

If they wanted to eat quail, they can buy it from the supermarket or go to a restaurant.

The poultry shop at the markets (where my human buys my chicken wings) sells four (farmed) quails (ready plucked and gutted) for $10. One time he bought some and he coated it with a soy, orange marmalade and preserved lemon marinade and baked them. And he forgot to give me some!

What sort of a society condones killing living creatures for sport? If you ain't gonna eat it, leave it alone.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

Even though Michelle has taken over my day bed and put her stuff all over it, I still had a cuddle with her last night, until my human went to bed.

Tonight, my other human came over and they all went out somewhere (something about duck pancakes), but I got to sit on my other human's lap, woohoo! When they came back Michelle and my human watched Supernatural on TV and I snuggled up to her.

keisercat@wildmail.com

cat sidekicks to superheroes

Back on 13 May 2005 I suggested that when the new Wonder Woman movie is made, they should cast a cat as her new sidekick, Wonder Cat. And that should also be me.

I never heard from the casting agency, so it probably won't happen.

There have been cats who have helped out superheroes.

He-Man (in Masters of the Universe) had a sidekick called Battle Cat. When Prince Adam uttered the words, "By the power of Grayskull...I have the power!", he changed into He-Man and his wimpy green tiger called Cringer turned into Battle Cat.


He-Man and Battle Cat

Dar who is the Beastmaster has a friend called Ruh who is a tiger. Dar and Ruh are very good friends and can communicate with each other. Ruh is the king of the jungle and knows who is good and who is evil.


Ruh and Dar

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

I napped a lot today, first on my day bed, then on my deck while my human did chores like clean the floor and walls. It was also quite warm.

Later, Michelle (former human of that Himalayan cat, Bella) from Melbourne arrived. I spent a bit of time on her lap or lying next to her while she watched Sin Eater (released as The Order in the US) - not a bad movie, interesting concept.

My human made a risotto for dinner using the usual ingredients but this time he tried it with Gorgonzola cheese at the end. The humans were pleased with the result.

keisercat@wildmail.com

cats can keep secrets

Unlike dogs who spread gossip through the twilight bark (explanation in 101 Dalmations) and in their urine markings, cats do not gossip.

In fact, there are cats working in the highest echelons of the most secret intelligence agencies.

Boing Boing which has got to be one of the best blogs around, recently reported that the National Security Agency (NSA) has a new Crypto Cat. Mind you, she is in CryptoKids which is a club for kids, but I suspect she is a lot more than that, but I can't say as that would be revealing a secret, even worse, national security matters.


Crypto Cat - keeping your secrets

Crypto Cat unfortunately has a best friend called Decipher Dog. It figures, that the dog would be more interested in finding out secrets and telling others, not keeping them.


The 'old' Crypto Cat who was fired from the NSA after being framed by Decipher Dog

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

My human was up early for a Saturday which I didn't mind. When he hung out the washing, I got to go outside and he let me stay there so I had a nap on the grass near the washing line for a little while. When I came back in, all the boxes were gone. I'm so confused. I'm sticking very close to my human, lest he also disappears and abandons me, like my other human did (who is still my favourite though - but shhh, don't say anything). If only everything was how it used to be. Sigh!

keisercat@wildmail.com

ecological footprint

I was interested in what impact my household (my human and I) make to the ecology and environment.

You can take the quiz here -
Ecological Footprint Quiz (Earth Day network)

Here are the results (they are in uppercase, in case you think I am YELLING at you)

CATEGORY in GLOBAL HECTARES
FOOD 1.5
MOBILITY 1.3
SHELTER 1.3
GOODS/SERVICES 2
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 6.1

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 7.6 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 3.4 PLANETS.

I say strip mine Mars now...

Seriously, we use low energy globes in our lights, a front loader washing machine (which uses less water), hardly eat processed food (except the tinned tuna for me, the occasional tinned tomatoes that my human uses for cooking etc), and our weekly wheelie bin is only ever less than one quarter full.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

It was really cold last night and this morning I went under the covers for a cuddle. Not only that, but tonight I even got cooked corn fed chicken for dinner. Woohoo!

keisercat@wildmail.com

cat typing

According to Word Spy,

cat typing means, (noun) - the random keystrokes made by a cat as it walks across a computer keyboard.

Example Citation:
Incidentally, "cat typing'' is also worth a mention. It refers to the prose produced by cats walking over computer keyboards and can be used in a derogatory fashion to describe a human effort.
—Beth Pearson, "The word on the street is a dog watching TV," The Herald (Glasgow), May 3, 2003

Earliest Citation:
BitBoost Systems now offers software that will keep your cat from typing on your computer by "analyzing keypress timings and combinations to distinguish cat typing from human typing," blocking keyboard inputs and sounding an alarm to scare the cat away.
—Zay N. Smith, "Cat got your keyboard?," Chicago Sun-Times, December 2, 1999


I am mortified. Who here reading this thinks that my keystrokes are random? Paul McFedries and Logophilia Limited, responsible for Word Spy, do not realise that it takes me a long time to type and it takes considerable effort to type using paws with claws and my nose.

Hmmmppphhhhhhhhhhhh!

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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My human was home with me today, along with my other human who now lives abroad. There was a lot of frenetic activity involving boxes. I hope I don't have to move house again.

keisercat@wildmail.com

health or morals?

It looks like there is a chance that the ban on the drug RU-486 may be lifted in Australia, by taking control of the drug away from the health minister, and giving it to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which is similar to the US FDA. This will be by a vote of the parliament. Of course, there are always the moral questions about abortion which will influence the politicians' votes.

Then there is the vaccine against cervical cancer which was developed by Professor Ian Frazer from the University of Queensland (in Australia). It seems that some doctors and politicians (in the US and other places) are against it as it would encourage girls to have sex. Oh please! They'd rather let young women die than accept the fact that other people have different moral standards that are not so puritanical.

There are also true stories about pharmacists in small towns who refuse to sell birth control like pills and condoms, so that these young people need to travel for hours or days get these. Or just end up getting pregnant. Better to have a teenage pregnancy than prevent it. Sure.

If only everybody else wasn't getting any, just like the upstanding moralistic puritans. But that is not the case.

Thank goodness I got neutered. I would be climbing the walls to get out if I was on heat. Then there would be the unwanted kittens... Why are humans any different? Maybe those puritans should think about bringing back those chastity belts (whatever they are).

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

It was so cold this morning. It was 20 degrees Celsius inside the house. After my breakfast I even went back to bed. But I got up after my human got out of the shower (for my post-breakfast tidbits).

keisercat@wildmail.com

human people's dog and cat fights - those cartoons

Humans are really strange. They seem to fight more than dogs and cats do.

All that violence and destruction of Danish embassies doesn't exactly help with the image of Islam being a religion of peace. The trade boycott and embassy attacks punish a whole nation of people for the action of one private newspaper company. Freedom of the press means that the government does NOT control the media.

On the other hand, while freedom of the press should be upheld, it comes with responsibility and judgement. The newspaper surely understood the consequences before it decided to publish the drawings. If it understood and still went ahead to make a point, then the editorial staff are idiots. Provoking a reaction to make a point is really immature. People have died.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

Today was a cooler day. Last night, not only did I get lap time, I also had a thorough brushing of my fur.

Last night, something terrible also happened, my human was updating his iPod with another CD and it crashed the computer and wiped his iPod of about 4,500 songs. What a tragedy!

keisercat@wildmail.com

how much is my fur ball worth?

The "Weekend with four blokes in Sydney" with beer, snags (sausages) and a good time (successful bid $13,000) - about which I wrote on 26 January made me think of selling one of my fur balls on eBay.

How much would anyone pay for one of my fur balls?

I don't have too many fur balls, so the regurgitation of one is a rare event. I usually deposit these on the floor and it is accompanied by water which helps to lubricate the passage to enable its expulsion. I enjoy hearing my human stepping on one of these with a loud "EWW... KEISER... WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU HAD A FUR BALL?".

Anyway, why wouldn't an irritant that cats expel be of value?

After all, an irritating object inside the shell of certain mollusks makes them deposit calcium carbonate or calcite around it, and some humans pay lots of money for these pieces of mollusk irritants. I understand these are called pearls.

Then there are sperm whale poos which form in the intestine due to the irritation of giant squid beaks. These get washed up on shore and not as smelly as when they are first shat. In fact, some people find them olfactorally alluring. Those who find such sperm whale poos at the beach or shoreline can sell them for money to perfume makers. In fact, there is even a special name for it called ambergris.

I think there are lots of uses for my fur balls. They can be dried and framed as a work of art.

So how much?

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........

Today wasn't a bad day. I spent most of it napping. I didn't even hear my human return home from work as he was earlier than usual.

But tonight is a special night. It is the return of Desperate Housewives. This means that with a 10 minute clash with Supernatural, that one will have to be taped.



Woohoo! LAP TIME!

keisercat@wildmail.com

Kilkenny cats

Kilkenny is a town in Ireland. Hmmm, reminds me of South Park and that line "they've killed Kenny" (again).

Anyway, there is a limerick about Kilkenny cats:
There wanst was two cats of Kilkenny
Each thought there was one cat too many
So they fought and they fit
And they scratched and they bit
'Til instead of two cats there weren't any.

What a horrible limerick. People who fight to the end (to the death) are described as fighting like Kilkenny cats.

A story goes that, some people from Kilkenny enjoyed tying the tails of two cats and watching them fight till only their tail was left behind. I hope not.

Some say that the story is actually a parable of a contest between Kilkenny and Irishtown which fought about their boundaries till little more than their tails were left.

If you hear of any cruelty to cats in such a manner in Kilkenny, please report it to the ISPCA.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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Today was a another pleasant day. I spent most of the time napping on my mat out on the deck.

I slept on my human's lap while he watched the first two episodes of Prison Break (taped from Wednesday night). Looks like it is going to be a regular, but I don't mind (if it is not too hot) as it means LAP TIME. More "conspiracy theory" stuff!

The steak was too good to be true. I was only given cooked chicken tonight (from that batch of wings) but waited for the steak, which my human duly cooked and ated. I am not amused.

keisercat@wildmail.com

animal entitlements and dignity - Martha C Nussbaum

I wrote about about Professor Peter Singer on 12 April 2005.

Professor Martha C Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics has written an interesting book called Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership. In her book, Nussbaum writes about notions of social justice in the way that humans treat animals.



There is also an interesting article by her in The Chronicle Review which is rather academic (she talks about Kantian theories). But there is a link to an online discussion on animal rights.

An influential ethics professor thinking and discussing animal rights is a good thing. It adds to the work of Peter Singer. It is such a shame that this sort of thinking aren't even considered remotedly by global fast food companies which think certain animals are just a commodity. See PeTA's KFC campaign - Kentucky Fried Cruelty.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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Today was a much more pleasant day. I even had an afternoon nap with my human on the couch! I love snuggling and resting my chin on his chest, and discussing world affairs.

We watched the first episode of the new (second) season of Lost taped from Thursday night. My human has decided that it is best to tape this to fast forward all the adverts and boring bits.

I, on the other paw, have decided that it is a very silly show. Last year, I wrote about all the flaws in the research (like airports, and shrimp sellers etc). The BIGGEST flaw in the show is that, despite being 1,500 km off course, no government would abandon a search (even for the wreckage) of a large passenger aircraft, particularly as most of the passengers are American. Not only that, surely the black box has a transponder. And the most obvious thing is that the fuselage was on the beach of that island, highly visible, so why hasn't satellite imagery picked it up? There is simply no logic in it at all.

Science fiction, supernatural and horror on the other hand are all make believe. Or are they?

Lastly, I want to boast that I was given sirloin steak for dinner. FINALLY!

keisercat@wildmail.com

a feline perspective on the American State of the Union address

President Bush said something very sensible in his State of the Union address. It was the part on the Advanced Energy Initiative.

You can read about it here - White House media release - 31 January 2006
The address itself is here - State of the Union 2006

Mr Bush said "America is addicted to oil". Very true.

I think that work on alternate energy sources is great. This work should have continued after the "oil shock" of the 1970s.

It is not just finding alternate energy sources. People in the United States and other highly developed countries should also try and conserve energy and not waste it.

Large buildings where nobody works after 9pm and on weekends can turn all their lights off, and airconditioning. People can turn off lights and appliances in their homes if they aren't being used, and use the low energy light globes. They can also not have such long showers as hot water requires energy to heat.

The most important idea might be to get people to be less dependent on their automobiles. Once upon a time, people car-pooled. So many cars on American freeways only have one person in them. City and urban planners should have designed cities and towns based not on roads and cars, but on pedestrians (like say New York city, San Francisco etc, not Los Angeles).

All those cars stuck in grid lock not only waste energy/oil but people's time as well.

Perhaps some thought should be given to a holistic approach.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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Today was another warm day. My human stayed with me a bit longer this morning as he had a doctor's appointment around midday and couldn't go to work beforehand (for medical reasons). It was cool as I had settled on my couch for the day, and he gave me a kiss on the forehead.

Later on this afternoon, when he came home, Devi was with him. She wouldn't let me sit on her lap. Yes I knew it was hot, but I only wanted to say hello.

My human cooked up a Mongolian lamb stir fry (using hoisin and some other sauce, not one of the instant jars) served with rice. They seemed to enjoy it. Mind you, this was not cooked until after I had my wing for dinner. What a missed opportunity for lamb... again. I didn't even notice my human cutting the meat off the bone from a leg of lamb.

keisercat@wildmail.com

the zero movement

According to the zero movement:

Why can't you have a sick of work day? Or why can't every weekend be long? And how good would it be if relationships came with a gap year?
The zero movement is about living life your way, a life free of limits and consequences.

And yes, it is inspired by Coca Cola. In particular, Coca Cola Zero, the new version of Diet Coke marketed at young males who are too embarrassed to drink Diet Coke.

Coca Cola thought their marketing campaign was clever and targeted towards the techno-savvy young. The thing about techno-savvy young males is that they are also a very cynical bunch, and saw through it straight away.

The thing is, Coca Cola tries to get as many people in the world drinking their "refreshing" over-sugared fizzy beverage with no nutritional value at all through marketing.

Then, they come up with another message associated with a sugar free Coke telling the same people they should do their own thing. What if they do NOT want to drink fizzy beverages with no nutritional value?

See
- 'Coke gets a zero for effort' in Sydney Morning Herald of 25 January 2006
- the zero coke movement
- the Zero Movement Sucks
- Coca-Cola Zero/the zero movement

Coca-Cola thought they'd be taking on Pepsi Max, but the campaign has failed disastrously. The only people drinking Coke Zero are Diet Coke drinkers trying it out (so they are "cannibalising" their own sales). My human told me that he had asked people he knew if they had tried it and their response was that Coke Zero tasted like a cheap imitation of Pepsi Max.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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It was another hot day. Another 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit). Yes, I still ate all my raw chicken wing in one go (I did chew and crunch). Why do humans lose their appetite in hot weather?

When my human was having his shower this morning, I went in and sat on the bath mat and we had a long chat. He thought I was asking him to stay home with me today. In reality I was talking to him in cat-speak about US Supreme Court, Justice Samuel Alito. He is so thick sometimes!

keisercat@wildmail.com

the nipplegate affair

Two years ago during the 38th Superbowl halftime entertainment, Janet Jackson bared her breast during her duet with Justin Timberlake. He apologised for the wardrobe malfunction.


(I make no apology if this picture offends some readers. The question to ask is why you would be offended in the first place.)

Lots of people complained, and there was an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission.

You'd think that somebody had committed murder on stage. Actually, if that had actually happened, the reaction would probably not have been as great. In puritanical United States, it is okay to have a violent gun culture as long as there is no nudity involved.

You'd think all these people had never seen a woman's breast before! My goodness, if I had kittens (well I never did as I was neutered), I'd prefer them to watch people naked on TV than seeing a person's head being blown off.

In any case, the incident turned the United States into a laughing stock in Europe where the people have a more mature attitude to such things in general.

The American puritanical attitude is the cause of a lot of the problems they cite, and the more puritanical the solution that these puritans devise, the greater the problems become.

*As always, please check out Cooper and Camilla who always have interesting things to say.

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It was so hot today. It got up to 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit). I was still hungry at dinner time though and ate all my raw chicken wing in one go (I did chew and crunch).

Today is the first of February. This means that I will be 16 years old (roughly) in four weeks time. That would be another milestone. Maybe we will get aircon before next summer in acknowledgement of my elderly status.

keisercat@wildmail.com