What is a cat?
 

When I look at my Assignments, there's a tab called Current Cat and one called Original Cat. What does this mean?

The categories are described here:
[url]https://www.mersenne.org/thresholds/[/url]


"Original cat" was the category of the exponent at the time when it was assigned, "current cat" is the current category.

:cat:

:ross:

When I first saw the thread title, "What is a cat?" I thought it might contain replies like

"a means of converting hard earned cash into hairballs on the carpet"
"the creature that lets you live in its house as long as you serve it well"
"a lion to a mouse, a friend to a child, and to a coyote, fresh hot lunch"

[QUOTE]Cat: A hell of a nice animal often mistaken for a meatloaf.[/QUOTE](more or less)

:thread:

[b]Cat[/b], [i]n[/i]. A soft, indestructible automaton provided by nature to be kicked when things go wrong in the domestic circle.

This is a dog,
This is a cat.
This is a frog,
This is a rat.
Run, dog, mew, cat.
Jump, frog, gnaw, rat.

-- [i]Elevenson[/i]

Ambrose Bierce, [u]The Devil's Dictionary[/u]

A cat is a small animal, often domesticated, that is kept for its meat. It is a good source of protein.

Synonyms: Little tiger.

[url]http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1561037/its-sweeter-and-tenderer-dog-meat-vietnams-taste-cat-leaves-pets-peril[/url]

"The enduring popularity of “little tiger” as a snack to accompany a beer in Vietnam means that cat owners live in constant fear of animal snatchers, despite an official ban.

At an unassuming restaurant next to a carwash in central Hanoi, a cat is prepared for hungry clients: drowned, shaved and burned to remove all fur before being cut up and fried with garlic."

[QUOTE=kladner;489530]Cat: A hell of a nice animal often mistaken for a meatloaf.[/QUOTE]
They're both very delicious, but cats appear to be in higher demand.

"“When I first started working here, I was surprised so many people ate cat. But now, fine, they like it,” he said, adding that [b]demand appeared to be increasing each year.

“Eating cat meat is better than eating dog as the meat is more sweet, more tender than a dog,”[/b] Thien said.

A cat sells for between US$50 and US$70 depending on how large it is and how it is prepared."

"Such is the demand from restaurants that cats are sometimes smuggled across the border from Thailand and Laos."

[QUOTE=kriesel;489515]When I first saw the thread title, "What is a cat?" I thought it might contain replies like

"a means of converting hard earned cash into hairballs on the carpet"
"the creature that lets you live in its house as long as you serve it well"
[/QUOTE]
Yes, they are sometimes kept as pets.

"people manage to reconcile society’s dual affection for cats.

Le Ngoc Thien, the chef at one Hanoi cat meat restaurant, keeps a cat as a pet – but [b]when it is big enough he will cook it and get a new kitten to repeat the cycle.[/b]"

Cats do share some similarity to humans, who are also quite tasty:
[url]https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/8p5xlj/hi_all_i_am_a_man_who_ate_a_portion_of_his_own/[/url]

"[b]I taste like buffalo, but chewier.[/b] Super beefy and little fat"

"[b]On a scale of 1-10, how good was it?[/b] How does it compare to steak, or bacon, or other meats?

[b]On this scale I would give it a solid 6.5[/b], but keep in mind that I have had a lot of good food. So it’s way better that a hot dog or regular burger. Maybe equal with regular bacon, which is pretty decent. But no where near as good as butter seared sea scallops or a rare sous vide tenderloin seared in grape seed oil in a cast iron pan."

A diiferent meaning, probably more familiar to most denizens of this Forum than to me is

[code]cat -- concatenate and print files[/code]

Cats (the animals) have long been valued for destroying mice (and sometimes, rats) which eat and spoil grain stores. However, by the 14th Century, cats were suspected in Christian Europe of being "familiars" to witches. And so it came to pass that when the Black Death ravaged Europe, cats were killed in great numbers, whereby the Europeans deprived themselves of an ally in controlling the disease.

I am somewhat surprised at cats being prized as food. Most mammals raised for food are herbivores. I have of course heard of dogs being eaten.

I once heard an anecdote from a UK-er who had as an undergraduate student started the weekend drinking in pubs, followed by getting some cheap vindaloo, a purveyor of which was right across the alley from his flat (apartment). At the time, rumors were rife about local sourcing of meat for such establishments. He said that, the next morning, he would be very hung over, and sometimes would puke out the window into the alley, whereupon a bunch of alley cays would appear to lap it up. He said he would marvel at the wonders of recycling...

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;489580]I am somewhat surprised at cats being prized as food. Most mammals raised for food are herbivores. I have of course heard of dogs being eaten.[/QUOTE]

As cat staff, the thought of eating such lovely little fur balls disgusts me. Cats are a bit like an ideal gas: they quickly occupy all available space.

It might be worth pointing out that coveted meat (to humans) are crab and lobster, which are carrion eaters. They also will eat shit; that's what makes them so tasty!

[QUOTE]Originally Posted by [B]Dr Sardonicus[/B] [URL="http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?p=489580#post489580"][IMG]http://www.mersenneforum.org/images/buttons/viewpost.gif[/IMG][/URL]
[I]I am somewhat surprised at cats being prized as food. Most mammals raised for food are herbivores. I have of course heard of dogs being eaten.[/I][/QUOTE][QUOTE=chalsall;489583]As cat staff, the thought of eating such lovely little fur balls disgusts me. Cats are a bit like an ideal gas: they quickly occupy all available space.

It might be worth pointing out that coveted meat (to humans) are crab and lobster, which are carrion eaters. They also will eat shit; that's what makes them so tasty![/QUOTE]
Dogs are known to eat their own.
Source of attached:
[URL]http://theoatmeal.com/comics/dog_paradox[/URL]

EDIT: Also beavers, but they have to.

[Crocodile Dundee voice]That ain't a cat.

[attach]18499[/attach]
Now THAT'S a CAT.[/Crocodile Dundee voice]

[QUOTE=kladner;489530](more or less)[/QUOTE]
(Identification key)
Meat loaves do not have furry handles.

[QUOTE=chalsall;489583]It might be worth pointing out that coveted meat (to humans) are crab and lobster, which are carrion eaters. They also will eat shit; that's what makes them so tasty![/QUOTE]
And, of course, many fish prized as food eat flesh; bottom-feeders eat darn near anything. That's one reason I specified "mammals."

Crabs eat just about anything they can grab with their claws and bring to their mouths -- often, as you point out, carrion. I had a great-aunt who absolutely would not eat crabmeat. During WWII, she had seen a lot of crab-eaten human corpses...

Cats, on the other hand, seldom scavenge carrion (though big cats will feed off the dead flesh of one of their own kills, which they cache).

Cats are notably lacking in mechanisms to detoxify what they ingest. As a result, they are susceptible to fatal poisoning by many chemicals that wouldn't cause us humans, or even dogs, any trouble. Sticking to live prey helps cats avoid being poisoned. If a cat is scavenging carrion, it's probably starving.