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As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul
31–40 of 63 posts
Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul
#32Are 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?
Why would it be in the tech category? Nature, ecology, sure. Tech? Only if indeed it’s more about sensationalizing a buzzy tech company would a story about cats and owls be in a tech category.
Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul
#33Are 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.
the only part more confusing is that this was upvoted to the front page of HN
Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul
#34TL;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 bir…
Destroying biodiversity is a stretch, it's only three owls...
Also, burrowing owls are Least Concern on IUCN red list. (Least Concern is their terminology, not mine, I don't agree with it)
So it's not like there's really any merit to the claim that a few cars they fed, who then killed three owls, is "destroying biodiversity"
It's not that slippery a slope. It's just cats. If they were teaching them and hunting these owls, obviously thatd be different, but they're not.
Gosh, I hate Google too but it's like they literally can't even feed stray cats without some sort of controversy from the media or online pseudoactivists.
Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul
#35It’s dawning on me that news beat on what Google employees is similar to the one that seems to ask what Ivy League students think of current trends.
Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul
#36In other news, Australia just finished building the world largest cat-proof fence: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-44235185 Maybe that owl park could be fenced?
yes, and Google can pay for that.
Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul
#37Are 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?
John Deere has about 66K employees and Google has about 85K. Also, the former literally makes money by altering the environment whereas the latter is generally web-based.
I think this is the exact point the OP is talking about: Google seems big because it's bigger by profits. Also, not unrelated, some people here and elsewhere feel more emotional about Google. So take some otherwise small-town public-interest story and push it for views.
Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul
#38In other news, Australia just finished building the world largest cat-proof fence: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-44235185 Maybe that owl park could be fenced?
yes, and Google can pay for that.
Nope. Australia is building a fence to keep the cats out and the cats are going to pay for it.
Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul
#39Outdoor cats kill billions of birds annually. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_predation_on_wildlife
I wonder if it offsets the surplus birds created by bird feeding. According to USA WILD BIRD FEEDING INDUSTRY YEARLY RESEARCH 2015 [1] US consumers spend about $6B on bird seed annually. I pay about $1/lb (or a pound per kilogram ;-) for seed. A house finch weighs about 20 grams and will eat about 10 grams of seed a day. Say 100 days of winter feeding and that is 1kg of seed per bird. So something like 3 billion song…
Relatedly: Anna's Hummingbirds' winter range has changed (likely) because of home feeders and urbanization.
[1] http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royprsb/284/1...
Re: As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul
#40Clearly they need some Coyotes out there too.
When I was at Sun, the 'main' campus early on was at 2550 Garcia ave, (now Intuit) and we would walk around shoreline at Lunch. There were lots of signs to be aware of and not to disturb the burrowing owls (which once was misspelled the borrowing owls and so we had a lot of pan handling owl jokes for a while).
When I worked at Google (on Amphitheatre way) there was a cat there that had a badge. But I think that one stayed indoors.
If Google has chipped the cats as they say in the article, then an RFID reading station in the owl territory would allow them to identify and eliminate those cats predating on the owls I expect.