Boing Boing » cat

Caturday: cat vs. printer (video)

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 19:27:41 +0000

An internet classic from 2010 by Chris Cohen. (via @nytjim @janinegibson @bengoldacre)

Joy Division's "Atmosphere," accompanied by slapped cats

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:14:17 +0000

[Video Link]. Yes, this remix video is months old, but you probably missed it—and it's not like stuff this weird ever grows old. The song is here. (Thanks, Tara McGinley!)

Kitties and Titties (NSFW)

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 02:36:01 +0000

A Tumblog of Greatness: kitties and titties (NSFW). Contains nudity, both female and feline. Not for kids, or for adults browsing the web while at work. BB mod Antinous points out that they omitted one obvious image (that one's safe for work). (thanks, Tara McGinley)

Video: What's it like to go face-to-face with a lioness?

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:19:35 +0000

[Video Link] National Geographic wildlife photographer Mattias Klum tells a funny story about the day a lioness got a little too close.

He was lying on the ground near her in an effort to get a good shot.

"I like the perspective, it's like, in her realm," Klum recalls, "I'm not in a platform, or in a jeep, I'm there with her. And it felt really good. Until she started walking towards me."

Filmed at a recent National Geographic event. You can buy Klum's photos here, and follow him on Twitter here.

(thanks, Marilyn Terrell)

Video: Kittens in Space, by Jonathan "Song A Day" Mann

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:49:19 +0000

[Video Link]. I'm recovering from yesterday's chemo infusion (my fifth!), and feeling kind of lousy. Jonathan Mann asked me this morning if he could write a song for me as his daily song project, and if so, if I had any theme requests. I was like, duh! Kittens, and space. And like a beautiful internet miracle, bam! Just hours later, he created the wonderful video above: "Kittens in Space."

More about Jonathan: YouTube channel, Facebook, Downloads, Twitter, mailing list, Soundcloud, blog, G+, app.

Lyrics follow.

Lyrics:

Maybel and Jeremy
They put their space helmets on
Many months of training are about to pay off
They are feeling excited
And proud to be representing all the Kitten race
Maybel and Jeremy are going to space

Fuel gauge!
CHECK!
Banana!
Double CHECK!
Laser pointer!
Ahhhh CHECK!

Kitties in space!

We're getting close to Mars
Send a message back to base
One small step for kittens
One giant leap for kittens in space!

Video: The Pinky Show, "The Desert is Quiet"

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:56:07 +0000

[Video Link] Hard to explain this web series, and this particular episode. Cats. Philosophy. Emptiness. Best to just watch. (via Andrea James)

Video: Cat likes to swim in the sea

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:47:38 +0000

[Video Link]. Also contains an attractive woman in a bikini. (thanks, Tara McGinley!)

Maru, internet-famous cat, goes to the 2012 Oscars

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:11:52 +0000

Everyone's favorite internet cat goes to the Academy Awards. Well, in poster form. You can't buy the posters, or the cat, but you can buy the book. More about the legend in this previous Boing Boing post.

(Cheezburger via Swintons via Bricorama via @antderosa)

Nyan Cat orchestra: composer creates classical music variations on a meme theme

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:54:42 +0000

[Video Link].

Craig Davis Pinson, a composer who is a Boston Conservatory student, writes in the liner notes for the video embedded above:

This is a set of variations written on the melody heard in the Youtube video Nyan Cat. It is an experiment, in which I tried to find the limits of how far I could transform the melody before it begins losing its identity. The theme is known as Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!, originally posted by username daniwellP on the Japanese video sharing website, Nico Nico Douga. The Nyan Cat phenomenom has become ingrained in popular culture, and amazes me both in its sheer absurdity and its freakishly colossal popularity. However, fascinating as they are to me, the origins of the theme are not played upon in this composition. Instead, I treated Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! as pure musical material from which to generate music. The motivation to use this theme came from my repeated viewings of the video, and slowly realizing that it is a strangely alluring melody. Therefore, this is my tribute to Nyan Cat. Credit goes to daniwell-p for creating this theme, prguitarman for creating the gif animation, and saraj00n for joining them. Theme used for non-commercial purposes as per daniwell-P's request.
On a large scale, the work is structured along a simple alternation pattern. The theme and its variations alternate, similarly to rondo form. However, the theme is progressively dissolved, meaning that each time it returns it contains less percentage of the source material. This chipping-away continues until there's nothing recognizable left. In the variation episodes, more tools are employed to change the essence of the theme, especially, pronounced changes of duration, texture, harmonic character, and of the intervallic makeup of the melody. Each of the variations has its own defined character, and they contrast sharply with one another in mood and technique. Despite of the contrast of its sections, the piece exploits a long-scale narrative arc, playing on the contrast between the theme's duration - which remains essentially consistent at each iteration - and the durations of the variation episodes, which seem to grow out of control as their proportions become subverted.

This is a recording of the Juventas Ensemble performing the premiere of the work, on the Composer Recital Series 12, February 9, 2012 at Seully Hall in The Boston Conservatory. Many thanks go to this amazing ensemble for valiantly performing a very demanding score! I really appreciate it!!  
Juventas New Music Ensemble:
Lidiya Yankovskaya, Conductor
Zach Jay, Flute
Marguerite Levin, Clarinet
Julia Scott Carey, Piano
Yohanan Chendler, Violin
Drew Ricciardi, Viola
Rachel Arnold, Cello

(thanks, @parches!)

Mickey the firefighting cat

Dean Putney — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:24:07 +0000

Thanks Frycook! via Submitterator [Video Link]

Breaded Cats

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:42:04 +0000

The Breaded Cats (or Breading Cats, or Cat Breading) website has been making the rounds for some weeks now. Like a fine wine, or a cat, but not a loaf of bread, it seems to improve with age.

Cat Breading How To:
1) Take a piece of bread
2) Cut a hole approximately 1 inch larger than your cat's head. This trips some people up. Remember: the bread has to fit around not just the cat's head, but it's ears, too.
3) Gently place the bread around your cat's head.

Warning: NSFGF (Not safe for the gluten-free).

(via Sean Bonner and many others)

Monk and Tiger share a meal

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:38:05 +0000

Here is the most wonderful photograph you'll ever see of a Buddhist monk sharing food with a tiger. Shot by photographer Wojtek Kalka at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

Worth noting: animal rights advocates do not think the temple itself is wonderful, as the afore-linked Wikipedia entry explains, because the big cats there are kept in abusive conditions. (via Bill Gross)

First World Cat Problems

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:27:31 +0000

I approve of this meme. (thanks, Antinous!)

Caturday: Alfalfa Haz a Hungry

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:34:59 +0000

Image: Alfalfa, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike (2.0) image contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr pool by photographer David W. Oliver.

Cat is hat

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:36:22 +0000

[Video Link]

Look at that!

(via @joejanecek+@popurls, video by Katie Westlake)

Cat-themed birthday pizza arrangement

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:01:03 +0000

Kevin Nutt (who loves pizza, cats, and Boing Boing) writes,

I wanted to share this awesome (I think) picture. My wife's co-worker (who happens to be named 'Cat'), just celebrated her birthday. Her husband sent over this special pizza order for the office to share. Pretty clever I thought. I love how they arranged the toppings for her name, and then there's the finishing touch of the pizza that looks like a cat!
So this is Cat's Cat & Cat pizzas! (that's the best I could come up with...sorry)
I'm a HUGE fan of Boing Boing! Since the site is 'Cat Friendly' I thought I would be a good place to share. Oh, and I know it's Friday and not Caturday...
Have a great day!

Puppy gives cat a massage (video)

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:41:38 +0000

[Video Link, thanks @kaepora]

What's the fallout for pets abandoned in Japan's Fukushima hot zone?

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:40:52 +0000

PBS NewsHour's Jenny Marder wrote a really interesting feature about the abandoned pets inside the Fukushima evacuation zone in Japan. I encountered some of them when I traveled to the area with Safecast and PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles O'Brien (our resulting PBS NewsHour report video is here).

Jenny digs into what happened with the volunteer effort to rescue and adopt the abandoned pets, and talks to scientists about the effect of fallout on animals (including intergenerational and genetic changes, like what the world saw within bird and wild animal populations after Chernobyl). Snip:

At the tail end of Miles O'Brien's latest NewsHour report on radiation in Japan, a golden dog with a thick red collar trots into the street of the abandoned town, Katsurao, and weaves along the center divider.

Miles asks, off camera: "Do we have anything to feed him?"

The piece, which airs tonight, reports on the group Safecast, which has measured, mapped and crowdsourced data on radiation levels in locations throughout Japan, particularly in the hot spots near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The dog was one of several scrawny, undernourished dogs and cats they encountered, most likely abandoned by their owners during rapid evacuation.

Read more: What's the Fallout for Dogs Near Fukushima? (The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour)

(Photos in this post by Sean Bonner: all iPhone snapshots of abandoned pets we encountered in the evacuation zone, shot during our drive from Tokyo to Fukushima in August, 2011)

Caturday: "Starting Out Small"

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 15:06:40 +0000

Starting Out Small, a photo by The Mighty Womble, shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool.

Caturday: Bodhi

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:20:51 +0000

Bodhi, a photo by TomorrowGirl contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool. Boing Boing's Caturday cover-kitten of the week is available for adoption at Friends of Animals Los Angeles.

NONONONO Cat

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:22:18 +0000

[Video Cat]

Today's weird animal viral video is, like all great examples of the genre, equal parts funny, creepy, cute, and sad. Apparently, the cat in this video is having a fear/anxiety/aggressive reaction to the presence of a young girl (sounds like under 5 years old?), a friend of the daughter of the guy who shot the video. Or I don't know, hairball?

I've never seen this behavior before, and wonder how the owners might best deal with it. But also, I couldn't stop laughing.

And is that a Maine Coon? They're usually so mellow and sociable.

(thanks, Tara McGinley)

I am Maru: bio-book on world's most internet-famous cat, now in English

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 19:49:56 +0000

One of my greatest regrets about my recent trip to Japan? I didn't manage to meet Maru.

Today, there's news that provides some consolation. The story of Maru, a Scottish Fold cat of great internet fame, will soon be available in book form for English-language audiences.

In I Am Maru (out Aug 23 in hardback), the kitty's owner mugumogu "gives readers a peek into the low-key life of the world’s most famous cat," and an insider's view on all his favorite hiding places around the house: trash cans, cupboards, cereal boxes, you name it. "If it’s cozy, he’s there."

Thank you for making the internet a sweeter place, Maru. Let's hang out sometime, when you're done promoting that new Mac operating system? As one YouTube commenter put it, "Some people want to meet Justin Bieber or Barack Obama. I just want to meet this cat."

Here's an Amazon link for the book (don't miss the book trailer videos on that page, they're hilarious). Here is the Maru blog, and here's the publisher's feature page (Harper-Collins).

Video Link from mugumogu's channel: Below, "A Box and Maru." And there are many more Maru videos here. I recommend watching them any time you need happiness.

(thanks, Susannah Breslin!)