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As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul

nytimes.com

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Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul

#21

Post by ihatecats666 »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #16
pervycreeper wrote: post #10

Cats, especially feral cats, commonly carriers of Toxoplasma gondii, are a public health hazard to humans. The city could potentially employ this fact as a consideration.

You pretty much have to directly interact with cat shit to catch toxo, and cats instinctively shit in out-of-the-way places, so your odds of actually getting it from a feral cat are pretty slim.

That’s not difficult when cats you don’t own crap all over your property. I’ve put my hands and knees into cat crap way too many times. Fsck cats.

Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul

#22

Post by [deleted] »

Ensorceled wrote: post #18
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You pretty much have to directly interact with cat shit to catch toxo, and cats instinctively shit in out-of-the-way places, so your odds of actually getting it from a feral cat are pretty slim.

Out of the way places like kid’s sandboxes.

[deleted]

Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul

#23

Post by ihatecats666 »

WalterBright wrote: post #4
joejerryronnie wrote: post #3

You can't take on cat lovers and expect to win. If there's one thing humans enjoy, it's a subservient apex predator who curls up on your lap and purrs.

My cat looks at me with "If only you were smaller" eyes. Should I be concerned?

Screw your cat.

Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul

#24

Post by pervycreeper »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #16
pervycreeper wrote: post #10

Cats, especially feral cats, commonly carriers of Toxoplasma gondii, are a public health hazard to humans. The city could potentially employ this fact as a consideration.

You pretty much have to directly interact with cat shit to catch toxo, and cats instinctively shit in out-of-the-way places, so your odds of actually getting it from a feral cat are pretty slim.

Google employees (and anyone else) who have to interact with GCat participants, or happen to touch the same surfaces that they do, are also put at risk.

Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul

#26

Post by wpietri »

throwaway080383 wrote: post #8

Are the most trivial of topics publishable if they say something negative about a big tech company? I think NYT would not have gone with this if say, John Deere employees were feeding cats outside their headquarters.

Gosh, it's almost like Google is a company 10x the size of John Deere, one used by billions of people (and the great bulk of the NYT's readers).

And you might note that this is in the section specifically devoted to covering the technology industry. Do you also object to the Times having that and not an agriculture section?

Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul

#27

Post by pervycreeper »

slimsag wrote: post #13
pervycreeper wrote: post #10

Cats, especially feral cats, commonly carriers of Toxoplasma gondii, are a public health hazard to humans. The city could potentially employ this fact as a consideration.

Owls, and birds in general, also carry lots of disease. Psittacosis for example. So I don't see why that should be a consideration (unless you advocate something crazy like a complete sterilization of all non-human life?).

Presumably, the relative risk of infection from owls to people who don't seek them out is much lower than it is from cats. My point is only that the health risks could conceivably be used as a pretext to take action against the cat "rescue" operation.

Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul

#28

Post by RIMR »

slimsag wrote: post #13
pervycreeper wrote: post #10

Cats, especially feral cats, commonly carriers of Toxoplasma gondii, are a public health hazard to humans. The city could potentially employ this fact as a consideration.

Owls, and birds in general, also carry lots of disease. Psittacosis for example. So I don't see why that should be a consideration (unless you advocate something crazy like a complete sterilization of all non-human life?).

kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out.

Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul

#29

Post by notacoward »

paulcole wrote: post #19
msabalau wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who work at John Deere don't make journalists feel that they've badly failed at career planning.

I’ve often heard how Silicon Valley tech bros aren’t capable of empathy. But here you are, perceptively realizing how everyone who doesn’t work at Google is constantly aware of and jealous of those who do.

It's not a lack of empathy. It's a recognition of the fact that a lot of journalists see Facebook, Google, etc. as rivals negatively affecting their own livelihoods, and that it's human nature to by hyper-aware of a rival's failings. They seize on tech-industry missteps the same way a Democrat would seize on a Republican's or vice versa.

Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul

#30

Post by baryphonic »

TL;DR: Six owls that burrow underground (how's that for an adaptation?) used to live in a Mountain View park. Over the past three years, three of these have been killed or gone missing. Environmental activists have traced these deaths and disappearances to cats nurtured by a Google employee group that feeds feral cats, along with spaying or neutering them. Google has devoted significant resources to helping these birds survive in other places, but environmentalists feel that Google is not doing enough about the feral cat population; in particular, activists worry that the large number of feral cats represents a slippery slope toward destroying biodiversity in this particular park.
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