Engineering for Cats

Engineering for Cats PDF Author: Mac Delaney
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
ISBN: 1523503874
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
There may be 100 million pet cats in this country, but who says that means they’re domesticated? Sure, they clean themselves, use a litter box, and hunt rodents, but cats are also territorial beasts who think furniture is meant for claw sharpening, and that running water is always better than still. In this inventive, surprisingly funny, and highly entertaining and practical book, Mac Delaney addresses the quirks of cat behavior through the mindset of an aerospace engineer (because that’s what he is!)—and gives us 10 projects that solve the most common sources of friction affecting cats and their doting owners. Take that preference for running water. Because cats don’t trust still water (in the wild, a stagnant pool can harbor disease), they’re often dehydrated and cranky. Here’s how to build not one but two different fountains that will provide fresh, moving water. Or another problem: Cats, diminutive in stature, can feel inferior around humans, causing them to act out in negative ways. The solution: Erect a cat shelf on your wall, giving your pet a prime perch and a height advantage. And that furniture scratching problem? Construct the Cat Cave—it has angled surfaces for optimal scratching, a curved top for ergonomic lounging, a carpeted interior for perfect napping, and an escape route out back for emergency exits. For any cat lover with a modicum of DIY skills, here’s a whole new approach to living happily ever after with your pet(s).

Engineering for Cats

Engineering for Cats PDF Author: Mac Delaney
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
ISBN: 1523503874
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book

Book Description
There may be 100 million pet cats in this country, but who says that means they’re domesticated? Sure, they clean themselves, use a litter box, and hunt rodents, but cats are also territorial beasts who think furniture is meant for claw sharpening, and that running water is always better than still. In this inventive, surprisingly funny, and highly entertaining and practical book, Mac Delaney addresses the quirks of cat behavior through the mindset of an aerospace engineer (because that’s what he is!)—and gives us 10 projects that solve the most common sources of friction affecting cats and their doting owners. Take that preference for running water. Because cats don’t trust still water (in the wild, a stagnant pool can harbor disease), they’re often dehydrated and cranky. Here’s how to build not one but two different fountains that will provide fresh, moving water. Or another problem: Cats, diminutive in stature, can feel inferior around humans, causing them to act out in negative ways. The solution: Erect a cat shelf on your wall, giving your pet a prime perch and a height advantage. And that furniture scratching problem? Construct the Cat Cave—it has angled surfaces for optimal scratching, a curved top for ergonomic lounging, a carpeted interior for perfect napping, and an escape route out back for emergency exits. For any cat lover with a modicum of DIY skills, here’s a whole new approach to living happily ever after with your pet(s).

Engineering for Cats

Engineering for Cats PDF Author: Mac Delaney
Publisher: Workman Publishing
ISBN: 0761189904
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
There may be 100 million pet cats in this country, but who says that means they’re domesticated? Sure, they clean themselves, use a litter box, and hunt rodents, but cats are also territorial beasts who think furniture is meant for claw sharpening, and that running water is always better than still. In this inventive, surprisingly funny, and highly entertaining and practical book, Mac Delaney addresses the quirks of cat behavior through the mindset of an aerospace engineer (because that’s what he is!)—and gives us 10 projects that solve the most common sources of friction affecting cats and their doting owners. Take that preference for running water. Because cats don’t trust still water (in the wild, a stagnant pool can harbor disease), they’re often dehydrated and cranky. Here’s how to build not one but two different fountains that will provide fresh, moving water. Or another problem: Cats, diminutive in stature, can feel inferior around humans, causing them to act out in negative ways. The solution: Erect a cat shelf on your wall, giving your pet a prime perch and a height advantage. And that furniture scratching problem? Construct the Cat Cave—it has angled surfaces for optimal scratching, a curved top for ergonomic lounging, a carpeted interior for perfect napping, and an escape route out back for emergency exits. For any cat lover with a modicum of DIY skills, here’s a whole new approach to living happily ever after with your pet(s).

Shrinking the Cat

Shrinking the Cat PDF Author: Sue Hubbell
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618257485
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
In this timely and controversial work, Sue Hubbell contends that the concept of genetic engineering is anything but new, for humans have been tinkering with genetics for centuries. Focusing on four specific examples -- corn, silkworms, domestic cats, and apples -- she traces the histories of species that have been fundamentally altered over the centuries by the whims and needs of people.

Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People

Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People PDF Author: Steven Vogel
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393352951
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
"Full of ideas and well-explained principles that will bring new understanding of everyday things to both scientists and non-scientists alike."—R. McNeill Alexander, Nature Nature and humans build their devices with the same earthly materials and use them in the same air and water, pulled by the same gravity. Why, then, do their designs diverge so sharply? Humans, for instance, love right angles, while nature's angles are rarely right and usually rounded. Our technology goes around on wheels—and on rotating pulleys, gears, shafts, and cams—yet in nature only the tiny propellers of bacteria spin as true wheels. Our hinges turn because hard parts slide around each other, whereas nature's hinges (a rabbit's ear, for example) more often swing by bending flexible materials. In this marvelously surprising, witty book, Steven Vogel compares these two mechanical worlds, introduces the reader to his field of biomechanics, and explains how the nexus of physical law, size, and convenience of construction determine the designs of both people and nature. "This elegant comparison of human and biological technology will forever change the way you look at each."—Michael LaBarbera, American Scientist

Herding Cats

Herding Cats PDF Author: Hank Rainwater
Publisher: Apress
ISBN: 1430208309
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
This self-help guide is for programmers who need to improve their management and leadership skills.

The Ultimate Cat Book

The Ultimate Cat Book PDF Author: David Taylor
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0671686496
Category : Cat breeds
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Packed with fascinating facts, practical tips, and more than 750 spectacular full-color photos, The Ultimate Cat Book is the most beautiful and authoritative feline guidebook ever published. Full-color photos.

Frankenstein's Cat

Frankenstein's Cat PDF Author: Emily Anthes
Publisher: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 142994952X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Winner of 2014 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Best Young Adult Science Book Longlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award One of Nature's Summer Book Picks One of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Spring 2013 Science Books For centuries, we've toyed with our creature companions, breeding dogs that herd and hunt, housecats that look like tigers, and teacup pigs that fit snugly in our handbags. But what happens when we take animal alteration a step further, engineering a cat that glows green under ultraviolet light or cloning the beloved family Labrador? Science has given us a whole new toolbox for tinkering with life. How are we using it? In Frankenstein's Cat, the journalist Emily Anthes takes us from petri dish to pet store as she explores how biotechnology is shaping the future of our furry and feathered friends. As she ventures from bucolic barnyards to a "frozen zoo" where scientists are storing DNA from the planet's most exotic creatures, she discovers how we can use cloning to protect endangered species, craft prosthetics to save injured animals, and employ genetic engineering to supply farms with disease-resistant livestock. Along the way, we meet some of the animals that are ushering in this astonishing age of enhancement, including sensor-wearing seals, cyborg beetles, a bionic bulldog, and the world's first cloned cat. Through her encounters with scientists, conservationists, ethicists, and entrepreneurs, Anthes reveals that while some of our interventions may be trivial (behold: the GloFish), others could improve the lives of many species-including our own. So what does biotechnology really mean for the world's wild things? And what do our brave new beasts tell us about ourselves? With keen insight and her trademark spunk, Anthes highlights both the peril and the promise of our scientific superpowers, taking us on an adventure into a world where our grandest science fiction fantasies are fast becoming reality.

Simon and Schuster's Guide to Cats

Simon and Schuster's Guide to Cats PDF Author: Gino Pugnetti
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0671491709
Category : Cat breeds
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Describes the characteristics and behavior of various longhair and shorthair breeds, looks at the history of cats, and discusses their care and grooming.

Cats are Better Than Dogs

Cats are Better Than Dogs PDF Author: Missy Dizick
Publisher: Doubleday Books
ISBN: 9780385468480
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
Good-natured fun for cat and dog lovers alike. Cats are more economical (cats are self-cleaning; dogs are high maintenance) and better engineered (cats always land on their feet; dogs don't) and more highly evolved philosophically (cats appreciate that life brings all things in time; dogs fetch). Full color.

Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics

Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics PDF Author: Gregory J. Gbur
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300231296
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
How do cats land on their feet? Discover how this question stumped brilliant minds and how its answer helped solve other seemingly impossible puzzles The question of how falling cats land on their feet has long intrigued humans. In this playful and eye-opening history, physicist and cat parent Gregory Gbur explores how attempts to understand the cat-righting reflex have provided crucial insights into puzzles in mathematics, geophysics, neuroscience, and human space exploration. The result is an engaging tumble through physics, physiology, photography, and robotics to uncover, through scientific debate, the secret of the acrobatic performance known as cat-turning, the cat flip, and the cat twist. Readers learn the solution but also discover that the finer details still inspire heated arguments. As with other cat behavior, the more we investigate, the more surprises we discover.