Hassan
People can tell me that killing cats is wrong while munching on a chicken burger. Cats happen to be the only animals on the planet that kill for fun. Apart from humans of course. Perhaps thats why people take such offense. Stray domestic cats in the our cities, especially Karachi, have ravaged the natural fauna. We once had a host of local birds flying in our skies. Not any more. My grandmother tells me how this tiny yellow bird gave eggs in a beautiful woven nest in her garden, but the cat came and ate them. This happened thrice, before mama bird was eaten herself or she committed suicide as protest in this unjust world. Crows as well feed on bird eggs. Most people cringe when I tell them that i have killed crows and cats in cold blood. Who gives me the right to make such decisions? They ask me how I would feel if I was in the place of the cat. Touchy. But the real question is touchier. This planet cannot support the current population at any acceptable standard of living. We need to lose several billion people. Do I opt in to opt out? If guaranteed that the right number goes and its just not me being shot in the head for idiotic ideas, then yes, any day.
Hassan
8 Comments
Kamil
2/15/2010 04:46:29 am
Hassan, for pete's sakes!
Reply
Kamil
2/15/2010 04:48:51 am
Not that there aren't ALREADY lots of things wrong with all this, but doesn't the feeding on birds thing mean that you'll kill every predator on the planet?
Reply
Hassan
2/16/2010 01:18:08 am
Did you miss the killing for fun bit? And no only the overpopulated ones. We helped select cats by producing tons of waste, and domesticating then in the first place. Cats were deemed fitter than birds by nature and so they were selected. Why is it wrong to change the parameters in a way which favors the birds and makes the cats less fit to survive. Especially as this will be careful and calculated whereas the first scenario was simply the result of too much left over food after shaadis.
Reply
Kamil
2/16/2010 05:18:44 am
I didn't miss the killing for fun bit. I knew you'd point that out, but when you said crows feed on birds eggs, it really just came off as you saying you had an issue with predation.
Reply
Muneeb
2/16/2010 05:38:35 am
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html
Reply
Anum
4/12/2010 10:37:57 pm
By "use ... cats productively" do you mean cat burgers? Cause I could get on that train.
Reply
Ali
4/13/2010 12:54:35 am
well what i know of predation, which has absolutely nothing to do with the actual essence of hassan's ideas, cats are not the type of carnivores that kill for fun. What i have learned, after years of Nat-Geo watching as a kid, the dog family, which includes the wolves are the predators that would just kill, even if they are not hungry. But the cat family, which includes lions, tigers, cheetas etc kill only when hungry or when their young ones need food. So im not really sure if the cat would kill for fun
Reply
Hassan
4/26/2010 06:30:57 am
DOMESTIC CATS, tigers can do what they want. I DONT LIKE DOMESTIC CATS.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
The Box Move blog is no longer active since the founding team has graduated. The archives will remain online.
AFFILIATES: The SPROJ Forum for the SSE 2012 batch. Discuss potential Senior Projects here.
Brain Talk is an online resource and forum for all things Psychology and Neuroscience.
MUSIC FOR GEEKS:
Featured: Art Tatum Three Letter Word ON THE FRINGE:Learn something
The story of a how a YouTube video of a blind man biking down a mountain inspired good non-fiction writing on echolocation. You may find it useful for your own writing. Read here. An awful waste of space?
Amidst NASA's budgetary cuts and scientists' renewed vigor in justifying Space Programs, it is important to shed some light on the background. Click here for a succinct overview of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence(SETI) project. Manto ka Muqaddama
Pakistaniat.com publishes, on the anniversary of Saadat Hasan Manto's death, a sampling of his works, a tribute to him as well as articles chronicling the obscenity trial he was tried for. Read all three parts of the series here. Not Another 2010 List
The folks over at The Last Word put up their list for the best non-fiction in the past year, including 'The Mind's Eye' which is very hard to find in bookstores, indeed! Read the full list here. Bird Conspiracies
Leslie Kaufman at The New York Times tells us exactly why those birds flying above are dropping to their deaths. Click here to read the article. Spontaneous Solar Growth!
Reported at MadScience, scientists at MIT have found a way to create solar cells that can regenerate themselves like living organisms. Read more here. Lessons from Chernobyl
Decades after the radiation disaster at Chernobyl, scientists elucidate how plant life has been thriving in the highly radioactive environment. Read more here. Rolling Ribbons
MIT Scientists revisit Galileo's famous inclined plane experiment, this time with polymer ribbons and discover complex results. Read here. A Lifetime, Washed Away
Pakistani author Daniyal Mueenuddin writes in the NY Times about the aftermath of the flood and displaced people. Read more here of the article posted by 3QD. On String theory and Materials Science
Click here to find out how physicists at MIT are using ideas of gauge/gravity duality to explain properties of superconductors. That's why you're irrational!
Newsweek's Sharon Begley provides a fascinating argument for why evolution may favor irrationality. I particularly liked the examples she picked. Read here. Just when you wanted a gene kit
The US Food and Drug Administration held hearings n the 19th and 20th of July to talk about the validity of tests which were sold directly to the public which gives consumers direct access to to their genomes. Should it be regulated? Read more here. On Trees and Prisons
In a 6 minute talk on Ted.com, Nalini Nadkarni (shown above) talks about her ideas of incorporating conservation into prison programs. Watch the talk and read Nadkarni's fascinating biography here. These Lungs are made in USA
Stem Cell Biology takes huge leaps forward with the new advances made in lung transplants based on using the lungs extracellular architecture. Read more from Nature here. Economist Special Reports
Ten years after Craig Venter revealed the first working draft of the entire Human Genome, this special report demonstrates how Biology is now at the brink of something brilliant - just recently, the draft of the entire genome of the Neanderthal was revealed. Suck on that, sceptics! Orbit Stories
Bobby Satcher, astronaut, the first orthopedic surgeon in space. Read all about his tales here on MITnews. Craig Venter Creations
Researchers create world's first fully synthetic self replicating, living cell. Massive fuss about limitless monster potential possible. Read the NewScientist article here. Watch the Ted.com talk by Craig Venter here. TAGS
All
FEEDS:
ARCHIVES
January 2013
|