Dead cat found with bird flu in Germany

Alertnet ^ | 2-28-06

[JavaTheHutt]

The WHO said the case of the dead cat in Germany had not raised its concern about the threat to human health.

I'm on pins and needles waiting to hear what ZZ Top has to say about the issue.

[gotribe]

How come that works for cats and not for, say, dogs? Larger mass?

[vetvetdoug]

Angel Memorial Hospital did a study about ten years ago of cats that had fallen out of high risers. Basically any cat that fell out of the fifth story or higher went splat. The study listed the injuries from those that fell from the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. After the fifth story the animals had too many injuries or the fall was fatal. There were a couple of exceptions of cats falling out of ten stories and surviving but there were just a few. I think the study had a population of around three hundred so it was statistically significant. The study was published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

[kstewskis]

It's the one on the end, isn't it?

Correct!

(he's the one who was out a little later than the others last night....see those dark circles around his eyes? :o)

[vger]

How about with a nice bottle of chianti?

[Mears]

And fava beans!

[Bon mots]

Q: Does a cat always land on its feet?
A: When you drop it from 52 stories up, does it really matter?

I thought of a perpetual motion machine.
You take a slice of buttered bread and attach it to the a cat's back - butter side up.
Then you drop the cat - buttered bread and all. It will spin forever because cats always land on their feet and buttered bread always lands butter-side down.

Does anyone know a good patent lawyer?

[Tucson]

Works for me! I don't recall whether the Natural History article was more what-if conjecture or if it included an actual analysis of available data. It was an end-of-magazine article which often were more folk lore than a peer reviewed study.

[grey_whiskers]

Why yes, yes it does. Natural History Magazine had an article some 15 years back or so which found that cats will survive a fall from anywhere above about seven stories. What happens is they will fairly quickly get into their falling stance similar to a skydiver. Because of their weight distribution, they will reach terminal velocity, become relatively calm and relaxed prior to landing. The stance evenly distributes the weight and the calm state relaxes their muscles and they land with only minimal injury. Cats routinely survive falls from higher than about 70 feet. Lower than that, they never reach terminal velocity, remain rigid in panic and generally the outcome is not pretty.

I am appalled. I wonder what happens when you do the same experiment on Natural History Magazine researchers.

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