Jul

The Cat’s Out of the Bag: Some Interesting Cat Facts

by Janine Boylan on July 22, 2013

illustrating a sense of curiosity about recent cat research

You want facts? Whatever it was, I didn’t do it.
© Thinkstock

A Sense of Curiosity About the Facts

Cats. People tend to have a lot of opinions about them.

So my sense of curiosity took over: How do the facts about domestic cats stack up to what we think we know? I tackled some recent cat research to find out, and the interesting cat facts provided many “Oh, I see” moments!

Cats vs. Dogs

Cats are the most popular pets. Or are they?

The U.S. Pet Ownership and Demographic Sourcebook states that there were more than 74 million pet cats in the United States in 2012 and just under 70 million pet dogs.

So the cats win!

BUT 36.5 percent of U.S. households own dogs, while just 30.4 percent own cats.

The average number of dogs per owner is 1.6; the average number of cats per owner is 2.1.

I think we can call the popularity contest a draw . . .

Cats Are Hunters

We know cats hunt. They remind us of this by lovingly leaving dead lizards or mice for us to step on.

hunting cat, showing a sense of curiosity about recent cat research

The University of Georgia and National Geographic collaborated on a study of what cats do in the great outdoors. They fixed tiny cameras, called “kitty cams,” to the feline collars and let the cameras roll.

Just 44% of the cats in the study killed prey. And the hunting felines averaged two captures during seven days outside.

The study revealed that, contrary to popular opinion, these cats did not capture many birds. Most of their victims were lizards, small mammals, and insects.

The researchers—and most lizards, small mammals, and insects—recommend keeping cats indoors to minimize the hunting.

Cats Like to Roam

Outdoor cats seem to wander for miles. Or do they?

The BBC and the Royal Veterinary College in England joined forces for some recent cat research. Like the Georgia study, this British team used small cameras on cats’ collars to reveal what the felines do during the day.

While the study collected footage of cats stalking prey, defending their territories, and getting out of laundry hampers, GPS trackers in the collars tracked how far cats roamed.

cat chasing off another cat, illustrating a sense of curiosity about recent cat research

A cat defends his territory from another who has roamed too far.
© Thinkstock

Researchers found that different cats had a variety of habits—some roamed with clear intention clear across town or deep into the woods; some went no farther than their own yards.

Use this interactive feature to see the roaming maps and videos of some of the British cats. For more interesting cat facts, view the BBC documentary about the research here.

Cats Cheat!

When your cat disappears for a day or so and then casually returns and turns up his nose at dinner, it’s easy to suspect that he has a hidden life—perhaps another family to feed him.

Both of the cat-camera-research teams confirmed this scandalous truth. Four of the cats in the “kitty cam” study actually had adopted a second family to love and feed them.

Cats in the British study would regularly crawl through their neighbors’ cat doors and consume food.

The BBC study also revealed another surprise. One sly feral cat would come into a home for several hours at a time to lounge and consume food without the homeowner’s knowledge!

cat food ad, illustrating a sense of curiosity about recent cat research

Even this cat food ad questions your cat’s trustworthiness!
© Kristie Feltner

Cats Rule the Internet

One thing is for sure, cats (or kitteh) rule the Internet.

Ben Huh, creator of the I Can Has Cheezburger network, declares, “We have created weapons of mass cuteness. We’ve been doing it for 10,000 years and everybody’s surprised: ‘Oh my god I can’t believe we love cats!’ We biologically engineer them to be the object of our affections.”

OK, ok. But give me the facts.

Huh reports that people submit ten times as many cat images to his site than dog images.

Blogger Arron Santos devoted a post to calculating the number of cat images on the Internet. He determined there are between 1.5 x 10⁷and 2.5 x 10¹¹images of cats online. Since he did this calculation a few years ago, the number has surely gone up.

Cats, showing a sense of curiosity about recent cat research

Kittehs, kittehs, and more kittehs
© Thinkstock

Perhaps one of the obvious signs that cats rule the Web is the fact that there is now an Internet Cat Video Festival.

Henri, Le Chat Noir (played by Henry with voice by creator Will Braden) won the People’s Choice Golden Kitty award there for his video.

If the video does not display, watch it here.

The Facts Stack Up

Oh, I see—the facts about cats are just like the animals themselves: familiar with a few surprises. Even with a sense of curiosity and continued research, we may never truly know all the facts about our fuzzy feline friends.

Except that cats do rule the Internet.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Janine Boylan 12 Comments

Discoveries

Jul

Personal Growth Inspired by Ramadan

by Janine Boylan on July 18, 2013

reading the Quran during Ramadan, illustrating cultural traditions

Boys in Saudi Arabia read the Quran during Ramadan.
© Abdullah Alshathri

Learning From Cultural Traditions

The month-long observation of Ramadan began earlier in July, when the thin crescent of the new moon was spotted. This celebration is particularly important to Muslims because it is believed that the Quran was revealed to the prophet Muhammad during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. This month, known as “Ramadan,” lent its name to the holy celebration.

Janine Boylan Comments

Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Middle East

Jul

Housing Innovations: The Tiny Mushroom House

by Janine Boylan on July 8, 2013

Mushroom tiny house, showing an example of housing innovations

The house that mushrooms built
© Ecovative Design

The Assignment

Last April, Sam Harrington was given an assignment: grow a house.

Mycelium, used to grow the mushroom tiny house, an example of housing innovations

Mycelium, shown under an electron microscope
© Ecovative Design

Harrington works at Ecovative Design, where they create innovative and environmentally friendly products ranging from packaging to construction materials.

But grow a house?

Yes, like other Ecovative Design products, this house would be built—and grown—with the help of fungus fibers called mycelium.

Ecovative Design has discovered a process that uses mycelium to tightly bond things, like wooden boards, together. They would now apply the process in housing innovations.

The Plan

Harrington decided to build a “tiny house,” a home under 500 square feet. The tiny house movement has been growing in popularity since Sarah Susanka published The Not So Big House in 1995.

Harrington’s tiny house, like many others, would be built on a trailer so it could be moved around easily. It would also have space-saving features like a bed loft.

Harrington learned that the first annual Tiny House Fair would be held in June, 2013, and he was determined to attend with the completed tiny house in tow. So, he had to put his innovative ideas to work quickly!

Building the Frame

Harrington started the mushroom tiny house with a simple four-corner frame that marked the edges of its outer perimeter.

Tiny house frame for the mushroom tiny house, an example of housing innovations

Then he screwed on two parallel layers of pine tongue-and-groove boards with three-and-a-half inches of air between them. The mycelium, or mushroom mixture, will later fill this space.

There are no supporting studs in the mushroom house. The mycelium bonds the two layers of boards so tightly together that it doesn’t require the additional structural support beyond the corner boards.

Growing the Walls and Ceiling

To fill the wall cavities, Harrington and team packed layer after layer of moist mushroom mix (made from corn stalks and mycelium) into the cavities to serve as insulation.

The Mushroom® Insulation has several advantages. Since there are no studs, it is continuous, preventing colder spots in the walls that occur when standard insulation is fitted around studs. Also, the mushroom mixture even grows around and seals the electrical outlets, which are notorious for leaking cold air in tradtional construction.

Filling the walls of the mushroom tiny house, an example of housing innovations

Each layer of Mushroom® Insulation grew for about three days and turned mycelium-white. That’s when Harrington knew that the mix was tightly fused to the pine boards.

Mycelium growing inside the walls of the mushroom tiny house, an example of housing innovations

Does the house ever stop growing? Harrington explains, “The Mushroom® Insulation slowly dries through the pine boards, so it is important not to make a structure out of plastic! The fungus eventually runs out of moisture and stops growing. But if you have a roof leak in the house, a mushroom might grow there to indicate the leak.”

(Oh, I see an added benefit of Mushroom® Insulation—surprise home-grown mushrooms!)

Mushroom ceiling tiles in the mushroom tiny house, an example of housing innovations

A tiny window in the wall shows the Mushroom® Insulation.
Ceiling tiles are made of the same material.
© Ecovative Design

The team also used their mushroom technology in the ceiling tiles. Harrington reports that the tiles have excellent acoustic properties. Plus, the mycelium material is highly fire retardant.

Future Innovations

Eventually, the team also hopes to use the mycelium to grow furniture. They have plans to create engineered-wood-type products that could be put together.

But that’s in the future. This year, they finished just in time to get to the Tiny House Fair and show the world their housing innovations.

Oh, I see—with innovative ideas, even growing a home is possible!

Mushroom tiny house, an example of housing innovations

In this video, Harrington and Ecovative CEO Eben Bayer explain their mushroom technology and the mushroom tiny house project.

Watch this video from Derek “Deek” Diedricksen, host of HGTV’s “Extreme Small Space,” to take a tour of the mushroom tiny house.