Incredible to see how the quality of stories on HN front page has degraded over the years. Literally a 4 paragraph "article" about some useless piece of trivia.
From an HN perspective, this is a fascinating article that gives more weight to the intelligence and compassion of animals, especially ones usually marked as disinterested and selfish.
> don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it. Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead. If you flag, please don't also comment that you did.
>Throwaway accounts are ok for sensitive information, but please don't create accounts routinely. HN is a community—users should have an identity that others can relate to.
It's roughly the middle of a workday on a Tuesday, a time in which one may expect a lull in what you may think as "higher quality" posting. You've also created a throwaway account just to complain about this - unless you don't actually post and contribute to this community, but for some reason felt the need to complain about it now.
Personally, with regards to "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." - I believe that some HN users, who have cats as pets and know some of their more antisocial/unconcerned behaviors with regards to humans, may have found it interesting based on the headline with the thought of "huh, my cat probably would've left me to die - what was the difference here?"
I will say, I did find the article slightly lackluster vs the headline, but it's by no mean terrible and something that should be outright shamed from HN
> "Black cats are usually considered bringers of bad luck, but the circumstances over the weekend couldn't have been more fortunate."
No, they're not usually, but some superstitious people are adequately dimwitted to subscribe to that. I volunteered with rescue animals for years, and overheard some adult European lady with unplace-able accent malign black cats to her daughter, who was of a different mindset.
The others standing around who overheard it were like "what. the. fuck?".
Anyway, that NPR and whoever Josie Fischel (the author) is decided to publish and thereby perpetuate this nonsense, shame on them both.
That they pointed out this was a black cat being heroic: good on them.
Shelters don't need more nondiscerning humans fearful of black cats.
You could easily start a discussion about cognitive capabilities of cats for example. How did the cat know that this was a situation that their owner could not get out of on their own? Why did the cat know that other humans could be of help? Why did it even care?
Yeah weird stories like this sometimes lead to great discussions, as someone with deep scientific knowledge shows up and provides a whole new level of insight.
Is it likely to happen here? Nah. (Cat scientists, where you at?)
11 comments
[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 38.3 ms ] threadFrom an HN perspective, this is a fascinating article that gives more weight to the intelligence and compassion of animals, especially ones usually marked as disinterested and selfish.
I hope you find wonder in something today :)
> don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it. Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead. If you flag, please don't also comment that you did.
>Throwaway accounts are ok for sensitive information, but please don't create accounts routinely. HN is a community—users should have an identity that others can relate to.
It's roughly the middle of a workday on a Tuesday, a time in which one may expect a lull in what you may think as "higher quality" posting. You've also created a throwaway account just to complain about this - unless you don't actually post and contribute to this community, but for some reason felt the need to complain about it now.
Personally, with regards to "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." - I believe that some HN users, who have cats as pets and know some of their more antisocial/unconcerned behaviors with regards to humans, may have found it interesting based on the headline with the thought of "huh, my cat probably would've left me to die - what was the difference here?"
I will say, I did find the article slightly lackluster vs the headline, but it's by no mean terrible and something that should be outright shamed from HN
No, they're not usually, but some superstitious people are adequately dimwitted to subscribe to that. I volunteered with rescue animals for years, and overheard some adult European lady with unplace-able accent malign black cats to her daughter, who was of a different mindset.
The others standing around who overheard it were like "what. the. fuck?".
Anyway, that NPR and whoever Josie Fischel (the author) is decided to publish and thereby perpetuate this nonsense, shame on them both.
That they pointed out this was a black cat being heroic: good on them.
Shelters don't need more nondiscerning humans fearful of black cats.
Your own reply references the aversion to black cats that you argue isn’t there.
You could easily start a discussion about cognitive capabilities of cats for example. How did the cat know that this was a situation that their owner could not get out of on their own? Why did the cat know that other humans could be of help? Why did it even care?
Is it likely to happen here? Nah. (Cat scientists, where you at?)