On 17 Jul 2011 14:12:14 +0100 (BST), (Alan
Braggins) wrote:

In article , Albert Ross wrote:

Ours didn't bother too much with birds, they preferred small mammals,
which they would sometimes bring me as a gift.

I was less impressed when one climbed out the window onto the roof and
returned with a bat it had hooked out of the air. Worse still it was
not completely dead

A friend of mine once had his cats bring a rabbit in through the bedroom
window to leave on his bed as a gift. But the jump across from the shed roof
to the window was too much holding a whole rabbit, so they had to chew it
in half first.

Are you sure the cat did that? I've found half rabbits which were
amputated by a fox, maybe the cat just picked such a half rabbit up
and made like it had caught it itself?

(Ours mostly just catch mice, with the very occasional bird. I've seen them
with live ones often enough to know that the "99% carrion" thing is ********,
unless you count pet food as carrion.)

Nowadays petfood is mostly Healthy Whole Grains™ which is why there's
an "epidemic" of pet obesity and diabetes alongside the human
equivalent

On Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:42:01 +0100, Tim Lamb
wrote:


No stats. but my belief is that cats pose the biggest threat to
nestlings of those species nesting within jumping distance of the
ground. Of course Foxes and Mustelids may also be blamed.

Grey squirrels, and to some extent magpies

On 16 Jul 2011 22:23:58 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

On Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:32:47 +0100, Albert Ross wrote:

Cat #2 was terrified of the vacuum cleaner hose but couldn't back away
from it. Maybe she thought it was a snake.

We had a cat like that. We called the vacuum cleaner 'the evil carpet
snake'.

Funny sequel. We were visiting my sister-in-law and her husband. She is
an accountant, and loves board games (you get the picture). We were
persuaded to play Pictionary for the first time.

My wife and I were on one team, SIL and husband on the other. We had one
of those points where you have to describe an item to your partner and
they must guess it before the opposition. SWMBO drew a scared looking cat
and a vacuum cleaner. I said "snake", which was correct. I don't think
SIL has ever forgiven us.

Heh heh.

Dogs tend to freak out at the air current rather than the hose itself.
Water hoses too, one of next door's dogs tries to catch the water when
he's spraying the garden. It also tries to kill the lawnmower and
needs to be locked indoors for its own safety.

In message , Albert Ross
writes
On Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:42:01 +0100, Tim Lamb
wrote:


No stats. but my belief is that cats pose the biggest threat to
nestlings of those species nesting within jumping distance of the
ground. Of course Foxes and Mustelids may also be blamed.

Grey squirrels, and to some extent magpies

Of course. I was thinking of domestic garden losses.

regards

--
Tim Lamb

On Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:12:21 +0100, Albert Ross
wrote:

On 17 Jul 2011 14:12:14 +0100 (BST), (Alan
Braggins) wrote:

In article , Albert Ross wrote:

Ours didn't bother too much with birds, they preferred small mammals,
which they would sometimes bring me as a gift.

I was less impressed when one climbed out the window onto the roof and
returned with a bat it had hooked out of the air. Worse still it was
not completely dead

A friend of mine once had his cats bring a rabbit in through the bedroom
window to leave on his bed as a gift. But the jump across from the shed roof
to the window was too much holding a whole rabbit, so they had to chew it
in half first.

Are you sure the cat did that? I've found half rabbits which were
amputated by a fox, maybe the cat just picked such a half rabbit up
and made like it had caught it itself?

(Ours mostly just catch mice, with the very occasional bird. I've seen them
with live ones often enough to know that the "99% carrion" thing is ********,
unless you count pet food as carrion.)

Nowadays petfood is mostly Healthy Whole Grains„¢ which is why there's
an "epidemic" of pet obesity and diabetes alongside the human
equivalent

My present cat enjoys food intended for humans: chicken thighs poached
overnight in a slow cooker, and tuna in spring water, both from
Sainsbury's. She does have some cat food but mainly for the gravy or
whatever.

She has never caught a bird. She has never attempted to catch a bird.
There are lots of birds in the garden because of the trees and the many
birdfeeders I have. If she is lying quietly in the garden, even within
striking distance of the feeders, the birds will carry on feeding as
normal.

Previous cats have behaved more normally.

--
Peter Duncanson
(in uk.tech.digital-tv)

Albert Ross wrote:
On 17 Jul 2011 14:12:14 +0100 (BST), (Alan
Braggins) wrote:

In article , Albert Ross wrote:
Ours didn't bother too much with birds, they preferred small mammals,
which they would sometimes bring me as a gift.

I was less impressed when one climbed out the window onto the roof and
returned with a bat it had hooked out of the air. Worse still it was
not completely dead
A friend of mine once had his cats bring a rabbit in through the bedroom
window to leave on his bed as a gift. But the jump across from the shed roof
to the window was too much holding a whole rabbit, so they had to chew it
in half first.

Are you sure the cat did that? I've found half rabbits which were
amputated by a fox, maybe the cat just picked such a half rabbit up
and made like it had caught it itself?


For sure rabbits are our cats favourite food.

And for sure they catch em. Cos they bring em in alive.


(Ours mostly just catch mice, with the very occasional bird. I've seen them
with live ones often enough to know that the "99% carrion" thing is ********,
unless you count pet food as carrion.)

Nowadays petfood is mostly Healthy Whole Grains„¢ which is why there's
an "epidemic" of pet obesity and diabetes alongside the human
equivalent

On Monday, July 18th, 2011 at 12:07:40h +0100, Albert Ross wrote:

Good grief!

Complete set of "pet" pictures at

http://www.pieterhugo.COM/the-hyena-other-men/

One has to click the "" underneath the photograph to
move on to the next one.

In message , The Natural Philosopher
writes
That seems odd for a "carrion eater"
as I doubt carrion has to be hunted at night for fear that it will see the
cat coming and fly away.
So I am curious about the idea that cats are "carrion eaters" and the
strange "one in a hundred" claim. Seems quite contrary to what I've seen
over the years. However maybe some cat-huggers like to believe such things.
Maybe some cat OWNES bother to observe their cats closely, and dont
talk rubbish.
I've got five cats, three are carpet huggers and only venture outside
for a minute to turd or pee, one I'm not sure about but the last one is
definitely a hunter. He regularly brings in live mice, after dark, and
proceeds to eat them. Whilst think I've only ever seen him with a bird
once or twice. The feathers make a terrible mess and are hard to shift
even with a good vacuum cleaner.
--
Clive

In article , Albert Ross wrote:
On 17 Jul 2011 14:12:14 +0100 (BST), (Alan
Braggins) wrote:

A friend of mine once had his cats bring a rabbit in through the bedroom
window to leave on his bed as a gift. But the jump across from the shed roof
to the window was too much holding a whole rabbit, so they had to chew it
in half first.

Are you sure the cat did that? I've found half rabbits which were
amputated by a fox, maybe the cat just picked such a half rabbit up
and made like it had caught it itself?

He'd certainly seen the cats catch rabbits themselves on other occasions.
And they left both halves on the bed, and from the blood it had been
chewed in half not long before. So fairly sure, yes.

(Just as I'm fairly sure that piles of feathers and dead bird on our
kitchen floor weren't left by the fox that TNP suggested, even though
I don't _know_ that a fox couldn't have come in through the dogflap
and been ignored by the dogs....)

Alan Braggins wrote:
In article , Albert Ross wrote:
On 17 Jul 2011 14:12:14 +0100 (BST), (Alan
Braggins) wrote:

A friend of mine once had his cats bring a rabbit in through the bedroom
window to leave on his bed as a gift. But the jump across from the shed roof
to the window was too much holding a whole rabbit, so they had to chew it
in half first.
Are you sure the cat did that? I've found half rabbits which were
amputated by a fox, maybe the cat just picked such a half rabbit up
and made like it had caught it itself?

He'd certainly seen the cats catch rabbits themselves on other occasions.
And they left both halves on the bed, and from the blood it had been
chewed in half not long before. So fairly sure, yes.

(Just as I'm fairly sure that piles of feathers and dead bird on our
kitchen floor weren't left by the fox that TNP suggested, even though
I don't _know_ that a fox couldn't have come in through the dogflap
and been ignored by the dogs....)
I never said never, only that IME the ratio of mammals to birds is about
100:1

In article , The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
Alan Braggins wrote:
In article , Albert Ross
wrote:

(Just as I'm fairly sure that piles of feathers and dead bird on our
kitchen floor weren't left by the fox that TNP suggested, even though
I don't _know_ that a fox couldn't have come in through the dogflap
and been ignored by the dogs....)
I never said never, only that IME the ratio of mammals to birds is about
100:1


Erm... you may be suffering from an oddly selective 'senior moment' here.
What you actually wrote was:

On 15 Jul in uk.tech.digital-tv, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
The trouble s cats are carrion eaters. For every 100 birds that cats
actually brings home, the chance is that only one was actually killed.

And of those, probably the vast majority were wounded in some way. Or
fell out of the nest and would have been easy meat for anything else.

So you did not "only" say what you now claim.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
Alan Braggins wrote:
In article , Albert Ross
wrote:

(Just as I'm fairly sure that piles of feathers and dead bird on our
kitchen floor weren't left by the fox that TNP suggested, even though
I don't _know_ that a fox couldn't have come in through the dogflap
and been ignored by the dogs....)
I never said never, only that IME the ratio of mammals to birds is about
100:1


Erm... you may be suffering from an oddly selective 'senior moment' here.
What you actually wrote was:

On 15 Jul in uk.tech.digital-tv, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
The trouble s cats are carrion eaters. For every 100 birds that cats
actually brings home, the chance is that only one was actually killed.

And of those, probably the vast majority were wounded in some way. Or
fell out of the nest and would have been easy meat for anything else.

So you did not "only" say what you now claim.


but the two statements are not inconsistent.

Of each 100 kills only one is a bird, of each 100 birds brought home,
only one is a kill.

Slainte,

Jim

In article , The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
Alan Braggins wrote:
In article , Albert Ross
wrote:

(Just as I'm fairly sure that piles of feathers and dead bird on our
kitchen floor weren't left by the fox that TNP suggested, even
though I don't _know_ that a fox couldn't have come in through the
dogflap and been ignored by the dogs....)
I never said never, only that IME the ratio of mammals to birds is
about 100:1


Erm... you may be suffering from an oddly selective 'senior moment'
here. What you actually wrote was:

On 15 Jul in uk.tech.digital-tv, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
The trouble s cats are carrion eaters. For every 100 birds that cats
actually brings home, the chance is that only one was actually killed.

And of those, probably the vast majority were wounded in some way. Or
fell out of the nest and would have been easy meat for anything else.

So you did not "only" say what you now claim.


but the two statements are not inconsistent.

Of each 100 kills only one is a bird, of each 100 birds brought home,
only one is a kill.

Maybe part of your problem is with the comprehension of English. e.g. Look
up the word "only". :-)

BTW those who can still be bothered to read what you write about this are
still waiting for you to provide statistical evidence to back up your
claims about "1 in 100", etc. So far you just keep repeating such
claims as if we have to accept them as articles of faith in your
infallability. I can't see much point in you continuing to wriggle around
your wordings until/unless you present stats that could be assessed to see
if your claims stand up. So far, no sign of that...

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

On Jun 24, 5:23*pm, "Rick" wrote:
"J G Miller" wrote in ...

On Friday, June 24th, 2011 at 15:46:26h +0100, Rick wrote:

I reckon its still got enough suction to lift a house brick :-)

That is impressive.

Do you think that if enough of them were combined together, they
could be use to deflect the trajectory of an asteroid?

Somehow I don't think that even the most powerful vacuum cleaner imaginable
would be much good in space :-)

Where the bloody hell else do you get vacuums?

On Jun 25, 2:01*pm, Peter Duncanson wrote:
On Sat, 25 Jun 2011 13:33:13 +0100, "Max Demian"





wrote:
"Peter Duncanson" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:32:29 +0100, "Steve Thackery"
wrote:

"Rick" *wrote in ...

Somehow I don't think that even the most powerful vacuum cleaner
imaginable
would be much good in space :-)


That's OK, we'll just take some compressed air up with us, so it's got
something to suck on....

OK... let's get practical about this.

So far we have vacuum cleaners floating about in space. If one finds an
asteroid to suck on it will just attach itself without noticeable affect
to its path. Using a long piece of cable to tether a vacuum cleaner to a
suitable planet, or whatever, is a trifle impractical. The solution is
to attach a rocket to each vacuum cleaner to pull the vac and attached
asteroid in the required direction.

The rocket's exhaust gases will surround the cleaner where it is
touching the asteroid thereby giving it something to suck on.

All we need now is an asteroid, a vacuum cleaner and a rocket with which
to perform a proof-of-concept experiment.

Plea to doubters: restrain yourselves until the research grant has been
obtained.

I've just invented a new kind of vacuum cleaner that uses no energy. Just
attach one end of a very long tube to a satellite in geostationary orbit,
with the other end dangling down to Earth. There's a stopper in the bottom
end which you remove to suck up all the dust into space.

If space elevators [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator] work, why
not this?

It will work nicely until the pressure in the tube equals the pressure
outside the tube. Then it will stop sucking. After that you would need
to pull the tube up into space, empty it, put the stopper back in and
lower the end back to the surface.

Unfortunately, both the dangling sucker and the space elevator require
energy for their construction and use.

A clean and preset dangler.

This thread has no end.
Oh just suck it too errrm.

On Jun 25, 2:36*pm, (Richard Tobin) wrote:
In article ,

Max Demian wrote:
I've just invented a new kind of vacuum cleaner that uses no energy. Just
attach one end of a very long tube to a satellite in geostationary orbit,
with the other end dangling down to Earth. There's a stopper in the bottom
end which you remove to suck up all the dust into space.

A tube to space won't suck air up. *Gravity would hold the air in the
tube down, just like it does the rest of the air.

Yes but only at the bottom. If you remove the stuff below that it
could, feasibly, work in reverse.

On Jul 15, 12:34*pm, Albert Ross wrote:

NEVER shake hands with a dog walker

Ooh. I need to get out more. I just misread that last word.

On Jul 15, 1:24*pm, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
Albert Ross wrote:
On Sun, 3 Jul 2011 10:06:28 +0100, Tim Lamb
wrote:

In message , The Medway Handyman
writes
On 02/07/2011 22:17, Bill Wright wrote:
Snip excellent tails:-)
I think I’ll get a dog.
There is a book in there Bill!
Don't get a dog.

They have even bigger routine Vets bills than cats. They need emptying
twice a day. This may seem to be an advantage over cats who take care of
their own toiletries but actually involves carting a plastic bag
containing brown lozenges of consistency determined by diet for 90% of
your walk. Dog poo bins are never where you need them and, as we all
know, dogs will not **** on their own doorsteps.

NEVER shake hands with a dog ******

OTOH our dog only needs emptying once a day, and since he is always on
agricultural land, the poo stays right where he dumps it, with the
landowners blessing 'good fertiliser'

Oh ****, tell me I am not eating your peas.

On Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:38:44 -0700 (PDT), Weatherlawyer
wrote:

On Jul 15, 12:34Â*pm, Albert Ross wrote:

NEVER shake hands with a dog walker

Ooh. I need to get out more. I just misread that last word.

The advice still applies.

--
Peter Duncanson
(in uk.tech.digital-tv)

Weatherlawyer wrote:
On Jul 15, 1:24 pm, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
Albert Ross wrote:
On Sun, 3 Jul 2011 10:06:28 +0100, Tim Lamb
wrote:
In message , The Medway Handyman
writes
On 02/07/2011 22:17, Bill Wright wrote:
Snip excellent tails:-)
I think Ill get a dog.
There is a book in there Bill!
Don't get a dog.
They have even bigger routine Vets bills than cats. They need emptying
twice a day. This may seem to be an advantage over cats who take care of
their own toiletries but actually involves carting a plastic bag
containing brown lozenges of consistency determined by diet for 90% of
your walk. Dog poo bins are never where you need them and, as we all
know, dogs will not **** on their own doorsteps.
NEVER shake hands with a dog ******
OTOH our dog only needs emptying once a day, and since he is always on
agricultural land, the poo stays right where he dumps it, with the
landowners blessing 'good fertiliser'

Oh ****, tell me I am not eating your peas.

His wheat, or rape, most likely.

Huge wrote:
On 2011-07-25, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Weatherlawyer wrote:
On Jul 15, 1:24 pm, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
Albert Ross wrote:
On Sun, 3 Jul 2011 10:06:28 +0100, Tim Lamb
wrote:
In message , The Medway Handyman
writes
On 02/07/2011 22:17, Bill Wright wrote:
Snip excellent tails:-)
I think Ill get a dog.
There is a book in there Bill!
Don't get a dog.
They have even bigger routine Vets bills than cats. They need emptying
twice a day. This may seem to be an advantage over cats who take care of
their own toiletries but actually involves carting a plastic bag
containing brown lozenges of consistency determined by diet for 90% of
your walk. Dog poo bins are never where you need them and, as we all
know, dogs will not **** on their own doorsteps.
NEVER shake hands with a dog ******
OTOH our dog only needs emptying once a day, and since he is always on
agricultural land, the poo stays right where he dumps it, with the
landowners blessing 'good fertiliser'
Oh ****, tell me I am not eating your peas.

His wheat, or rape, most likely.

Besides, why worry? Where does he think all the wildlife "goes"?



Exactly so. worry about dog crap when there's fox crap down every path
and dogs consider it a sort of 'lynx for dogs'

On Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:19:01 -0700 (PDT), Weatherlawyer
wrote:

On Jun 24, 5:23*pm, "Rick" wrote:
"J G Miller" wrote in ...

On Friday, June 24th, 2011 at 15:46:26h +0100, Rick wrote:

I reckon its still got enough suction to lift a house brick :-)

That is impressive.

Do you think that if enough of them were combined together, they
could be use to deflect the trajectory of an asteroid?

Somehow I don't think that even the most powerful vacuum cleaner imaginable
would be much good in space :-)

Where the bloody hell else do you get vacuums?

Comet