this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] purrtastic@lemmy.nz 96 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Sponsored by toxoplasmosis

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 45 points 2 months ago

You can't tell me what to


oh, a pretty cat!

[–] Donkter@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

If toxoplasmosis reduces my heart attack risk and stress with no discernable side effects sign me up!

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago

toxoplasmosis saw all the microbes in our gut living in harmony and wondered why the fuck everything else isn't doing that, hell yeah let's just make the humans feel happy and they'll ensure our survival FOREVER

[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 66 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Cat people have 40% less risk of heart attack.*

Cat people are also overrepresented cohorts of wealthy people and women, two cohorts who have a much lower risk of heart attack than the most at risk cohort of poor men.

[–] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 86 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

So what you are saying is the more cats I get the richer I will be?

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 35 points 2 months ago

Yes that's exactly how causation and correlation work, go for it!

[–] Avessandra@lemmy.ml 32 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] superkret@feddit.org 24 points 2 months ago

You don't have to convince me, I was already sold.

[–] CrazyLikeGollum@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

But I'll get cat hair on my programmer socks!

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

But I still have lots of cats, right?

[–] dangling_cat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 2 months ago

Scientists have discovered that having more cats reduces the risk of heart attacks and increases wealth with no upper limit*

*study sponsored by toxoplasmosis foundation

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Correlation and Causation are just fancy-pantsy words used by experts to lie to us common folk!

[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No but cats are correlated with wealth, I’m not implying any sort of causation, unlike the post lol.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 1 points 2 months ago

Because they’re famously expensive to keep?

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[–] zout@fedia.io 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Isn't it also that pet owners in general have better health?

[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Possibly. It would make sense, people with poor health who tend to also be poorer financially are less likely to have the ability to take care of a pet.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 52 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I have 2 cats.
One of them seems to sense when I'm upset or unwell, and will come to hug me, wrap herself around my neck and purr in my ear.
Then the other one will sneak up on us from behind, jump on her back, and start a cat fight on top of my head.
I love them both, but sometimes I wonder whether getting a second cat was the right decision.

[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Some cats are grade A dingdongs!

Still love them all.

[–] simple@lemm.ee 37 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Petting a cat calms down & relieves stress.

There's a 50/50 chance that a cat will try to claw your eyes out if you rub their belly, but yes.

[–] OpenStars@discuss.online 31 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Survivorship bias: those who live through the encounter have lowered stress.😁

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The calming down and stress relief all happens once the petting session ends.

[–] OpenStars@discuss.online 3 points 2 months ago

Knowing that you survived probably gives you a nice hormonal boost:-).

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Depends on the cat. There's some that will let you do just about anything and at most bat you with a paw, claws retracted. Then there's others that if you don't pay attention and pet them just a fraction wrong will take your arm off. Know your cat.

[–] SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 months ago

This is true, I had both living with me at the same time for years.

Sort of still do but the bitey half is more playful now (different cats)

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[–] FreudianCafe@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago

Your stress will reduce to 0 if you die, so

[–] corvi@lemm.ee 25 points 2 months ago

My cat learned I can’t see when I have the VR headset on and knocked a lamp over onto my head.

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 17 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Wholesome. Except the 4th-panel propaganda. That poor woman is dead after that...

[–] Venator@lemmy.nz 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Depends on the cats personality, some will tolerate, others will kill.

[–] mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 months ago

Look at the cat's eyes! She is about to die. That's why no 5th panel

[–] Slovene@feddit.nl 5 points 2 months ago
[–] Jumi@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

My neighbours cat sleeps on my couch when the door is open and he always wants me to scratch his belly.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Nice, that's basically free healthcare.

[–] Jumi@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Yeah, it's pretty great. All I have to do is feed their cats when they're away.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

normalize communal cats
why should people just have one or two cats when everyone could have 35 cats?

[–] Jumi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

RIP local bird and mice population

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[–] jlow@beehaw.org 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So someone better than me at maths could probably figure out how many cats I'd need to heat my with them room (and if the catfood etc needed would be cheaper than heating) ...

[–] superkret@feddit.org 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

I can answer the second question:
Generally, hot-blooded mammals transform 90% of the energy they get from food into heat.
So using a cat for heating your room is about 90% as effective as burning cat food in an oven.

Here's some napkin math for where I live:
1kg of firewood has 4kWh = 4000 kcal
which is about equivalent to 1kg of really cheap dry cat food (mostly carbohydrates)

1kg of firewood costs about 40 cents
1kg of cheap dry cat food costs about 1,20€

So, cat-based heating is about 3.3x more expensive than burning pre-dried, commercially purchased firewood.
(all of these prices heavily depend on how much you buy in bulk, though. And if you care about your cat's well-being, you're gonna spend 2x more on its food)

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How would it affect the math if you sold cat videos as NFTs?

[–] superkret@feddit.org 7 points 2 months ago

In a market economy, the value of a good increases with demand and decreases with supply.

On the Internet, there is an unlimited supply of cat videos, therefore their market value is 0.

[–] morrowind@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago

c/theydidthemath?

[–] rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 months ago (4 children)

But cat based heating has a lower efficiency, they do not turn all energy into heat.

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[–] gregor@gregtech.eu 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Does it really heal wounds and stabilize blood pressure? That seems a bit far-fetched.

[–] webpack@ani.social 9 points 2 months ago

according to Google, cat purrs are at a specific frequency that somehow helps you heal faster

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago

One of it's purrrposes is to shake wounds and increase bloodflow. This is why cats sometimes pur after conflict; they're licking their wounds in multiple ways.

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[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Guinea pigs are kittens that never become cats

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago

wheekwheekwheekwheekwheekwheekwheekwheekwheekwheekwheekwheek

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