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Whatever.
This forum isn't the place for it.

Yeah. I couldn't resist.

So, what else can we say about the death cat? Cat Kevorkhian?

NAG wrote:

Yeah, without actual data this is kind of a silly story. Not to mention you'd have to put healthy people into the mix since, lets face it, people in the nursing home are all on their way out.

The story is from The New England Journal of Medicine, not The Weekly World News (but boy, if they'd thought of it first...)
I haven't read the NEJOM story yet, but it usually takes some scientific observation and data to get published.
Healthy people in the Nursing Home? You forgot about the staff. Apparently, the cat is not the cuddly type, but more the aloof and independent type that doesn't really care for human interaction.(Unless, of course....)
I want to hear what Craig Ferguson has to say. He has been going on for a long time about how cats are just waiting for you to die so they can eat you. "It's truuue"

So, to make it a study, at the least, a few people would have to lie in beds at the hospice for month or so, hooked up to machines and pretending to die, then noting if the cat  comes in and sits on their bed.

Creepy.

Then the damn cat would get bored and decide to just sit there, licking his butt.

NAG wrote:

DukeofNuke wrote:

NAG wrote:

Yeah, without actual data this is kind of a silly story. Not to mention you'd have to put healthy people into the mix since, lets face it, people in the nursing home are all on their way out.

The story is from The New England Journal of Medicine, not The Weekly World News (but boy, if they'd thought of it first...)
I haven't read the NEJOM story yet, but it usually takes some scientific observation and data to get published.
Healthy people in the Nursing Home? You forgot about the staff. Apparently, the cat is not the cuddly type, but more the aloof and independent type that doesn't really care for human interaction.(Unless, of course....)
I want to hear what Craig Ferguson has to say. He has been going on for a long time about how cats are just waiting for you to die so they can eat you. "It's truuue"

Okay, it is a common mistake but not everything posted in a journal is a study.

link wrote:

He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Essay ≠ study. Therefore I am right in pointing out how it is merely an observation of what one perceives to be a pattern.

About the nurses and such, are they routinely treated like patients there? If so that is most interesting.

I'm sorry but many people don't have the first clue when it comes to experimental design. I was pointing out that this shouldn't be taken as a study, because it is not. It is an essay.

Nobody said there was a study. It's a story. Written by a Doctor, who is a scientist.
Nobody is trying to prove that the cat has supernatural powers or anything, just observing the unusual behavior, and observation is the first step in the scientific method. There are lots of people on Oscar's floor of the nursing home, both healthy (staff), and sick, hooked up on machines, ect. as User said. The cat ignores everyone, except those within a few hours of death. This has been observed enough times to be considered as perhaps more than just coincidence.
I don't believe anyone is even suggesting an experiment at this time, but I bet Oscar's behavior will be observed much more closley now that he has gotten a little media attention.
Now if we can just find a dog that can identify Al-Qaeda members with 100% accuracy.

NAG wrote:

So why are you going off on me? I was just saying it was interesting but needed more to actually interest me. I find that just having a bunch of anecdotes is no better than having one. A study would be much more interesting. That is how studies start, someone sees a pattern or finds something interesting and they go and study it.

Yeah, I mean, No, man, I ain't yankin' ya chain. NBD, 'ya know?

It's still kinda creepy, no?

This is creepy - it's like the old wives' tale about cats being able to suffocate babies.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/catsuck.asp

So it's the elderly and very young they target - it's good to in my 20's!

Last edited by geekette28 (2007-07-28 9:24 am)