Why Cats Knock Stuff Over (2023) | Hacker News Reader

Why Cats Knock Stuff Over (2023)

gwern.net

23 pointsdavikr19 comments

I love the design of this page! This is how most text int the internet should be presented.

They even have a section in the site about its design: https://gwern.net/doc/design/index

Edit, ok, I'm going in a rabbit hole. I just found their demo page with a display of all the future they support in their pages.

How cool is this inline inflation adjuster? https://gwern.net/lorem#inflation-adjusters

This does not explain a cat's ability to choose the thing to knock over that is most likely to annoy you and therefore most likely to get your attention.

I think most cats secretly attend Cat University whenever their humans are away to devise new ways to be as annoying as possible. I suspect a few cats have earned triple doctorates.

I think that they knock stuff over to cause noise, that would send mice that are hiding in corners running, and then they could pounce on them. They are not hunting the stuff that tey are knocking over, they are using it as lure for the hidden mice. The same reason they like to squeeze into tight spaces, that is where the mice are likely to be.

I like that hypothesis.

I have another one. They are removing variables from the environment. Any unfixed object in a high position can potentially lead to a fall if they try to walk over it. It could also alert prey/predators if it falls at the wrong time. Better to get rid of it now and be sure it won't cause problems later.

I don't think that makes any sense. Many of the objects make little sound (how loud is a q-tip hitting the ground, exactly?), you wouldn't watch the falling object if you were expecting to flush out prey elsewhere - nor, for that matter, have I ever seen hiding animals scared out by a falling sound. (Whenever my cat has caught a mouse or other animal and it successfully hid in a crack or between the wall or under the refrigerator, it has been quite difficult to extricate the animal.)

>Q-tips have many uses. Like cleaning earwax from an ear

Note that Q-tips should never be used for that purpose[0][1][2][3].

0. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cotton-swabs-qtips-kids-injurie...

1. https://www.quora.com/What-happens-if-you-touch-your-eardrum...

2. https://www.allure.com/story/q-tip-cotton-swab-ear-damage-da...

3. https://audiologyisland.com/blog/the-dangers-of-cleaning-you...

We know. Nobody cares and they are going to keep doing it forever.

Cotton swabs can easily and safely be used to remove wax from the outer ear. You just shouldn’t jam them into your ear canal.

Anecdotally, I call bullshit. I cleaned my ears for decades with q-tips and never had an issue. Then I stopped due to the advice that they’re harmful and my ears began clogging up with earwax to the point that I stopped hearing. This happened so often that I required frequent trips to the doctor to unclog the ear canal. I eventually decided to say “screw it” and resumed using q-tips. Haven’t had an issue since. It frankly baffles me to see stories of people rupturing their ears drums with them. Maybe don’t shove them in your ear like you’re a knight driving a lance through a dragon’s heart? Be reasonably careful and listen your body and cotton swabs can be a useful tool.

This stories are all made up. To make you stop using it and go to doctor often. How one could even rupture the ear drum with that? I mean, what do you want that deep there.

I think if you are careful there is little risk of rupturing your eardrum. That being said...

I have ruptured my eardrum with a q-tip.

It wasn't my finest moment. My wife was behind me and said something. I turned to ask her what she had said and I hit my elbow, jabbing the q-tip into my eardrum.

That hurt like hell, but it didn't actually rupture on the spot. It wasn't until later that evening, when my wife and I were watching TV, and it suddenly sounded like the television was under water. I looked at my wife and asked what the hell happened to the TV, she freaked out and said blood was coming out of my ear. Interestingly, I did not feel any pain when that happened.

It took over a month before everything sounded normal again

I'm sorry to read that. Accidents happen. I'm sure, qtips have also been used in fights and killings already. It's an external object that we insert into a cavity.. we must take care. (Sorry, I'm watching to much of these Kong-Fu 'I fight you with chopsticks" movies)

But, beside that, how far must a men go deep before you can call him an idiot? It hurts. It's a curvy way. Sometimes, my qtips are of low quality missing the cotton - I notice it with pain, if...

To all my fellow q-tips-friends:

May the rupture be far, but the dirt go away.

reddit is full of hivemind alarmist positions like this that is impossible to change anyone's mind on.

- qtips will rupture your ear drum and there is never adequate justification for using them inside the ear

- flushable wipes can never be flushable and will always damage your pipes/sewer

- cpvc water pipes will destroy your entire house in your sleep unless you rip it all out immediately

etc...

Thames Water, the company that maintains sewer pipes for the millions that live in London and surrounds also has strong pragmatic opinions grounded in real world experience that "flushable wipes" should never be flushed and will always make up a large proportion of pipe blockages ...

https://www.thameswater.co.uk/about-us/responsibility/bin-it

https://www.thameswater.co.uk/news/twenty-four-million-peopl...

But, of course you're correct, after all what would actual engineers from a company that recently spent > 5 billion on sewer upgrades know about pipes?

They should just hire dismissive internet commenters to hand wave such things away.

Not sure if the irony is lost on you, but this is a zero sum game. For every bit of research one posts against it, there are at least equally as many FOR it. Nobody can win.

> But these wipes contain plastic

Thames should know better that not all of them do, for example Cottonelle.

Most wipes accumulating in wastewater and sewers are baby wipes, hard-surface cleaning wipes or other wipes NOT designed to be nor marketed as flushable. The people running these operations do not have the knowledge or equipment to test which exact manufacturer's product line caused a problem beyond a reasonable doubt.

https://www.charlestonwater.com/DocumentCenter/View/2120/Wip...

https://charlestonwater.com/civicalerts.aspx?aid=222

> Charleston Water System (CWS) settled its class action lawsuit against all remaining defendant wipe manufacturers and retailers. This ensures that nearly all flushable wipes available to consumers across the country will truly be flushable and that packaging for all non-flushable wipes will clearly indicate they should not be flushed.

> Thames should know better that not all of them do, for example Cottonelle.

So .. they should advocate for people being better at sorting out what they flush down a toilet along with sorting their recycling?

Real world experience demonstrates that doesn't work.

They only winning strategy here is keep working to denormalise flushing anything down a toilet, washing anything into sewer lines that isn't paper, piss, or poo.

Sure, there are possible exceptions but once a door is opened other things are shoved through and we're back to fatburgs that bog up the system and backflow neighbourhoods.

are you saying you now accept that "flushable wipes should never be flushed" might have been a bit incorrect? and you are just moving the goalposts now?

No, and no.

I'll leave you to work your way through that, it's correct and considerably easier to deconstruct than the papers of Alonzo Church or Scott–Strachey semantics.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com