science … SCIENCE!

Comments (32)

1. Ha! I hadnt seen the rest of that series. I agree, the ‘Oh God, what have I done??!!??’ is the best.

2. From the look on that kitten’s face I am betting some scientists experienced a painful death or at a minimum traumatic claw injuries once it was free of that contraption.

3. Awwwwwww! Ceiiling Cat as a baby 😀

4. I can haz PTSD?

5. From the days before Ceiling Mouse was cast out of paradise.

6. So this was his plan to get into ELE?

7. “Spider Kitten, Spider Kitten, Does whatever a Spider Kitten does.”

8. There are some extremely funny captions to this picture from other people over at my Tumblr: http://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/790012782/caption-this-please

9. That’s one way to keep the pets off of one’s new parquet floor. Next step – anti grav litter box.

10. Early experiments to cross the cats innate instincts to keep its feet planted on a surface and its supernatural ability to flip its paws towards the earth and hopefully result in cat levitation.

11. That muthafucka’s lying and getting me pissed. What I want to know is, how does that work?

12. The scientist looks vaguely like Connor Trinneer.
    The cat? Just looks homicidal.

13. Dr. John Aperture, founder of Aperture Science, attempting to harness the power of lolcatz to make his newly theorized Portal technology a reality.

14. You know why they used a kitten? Because they knew that a full-grown cat would claw their frickin’ eyes out if they tried to tape magnets to its paws. Brave men of science these are not – simply kitten abusers. For shame. 😛

15. I can haz mah gravity back now??

16. Of course they only gave the mouse magnets so they could get the static-cheese off the ceiling.

17. “It’s life jim, but not as we know it.”
    *cough* sorry

18. “And so Dr. Jones and his crack team of scientists, not content with merely observing natural selection in action, decided to raise the stakes.”

19. A corollary to the now classic “Tie some toast to the cat” experiment that worked off the assumption that toast will always fall butter side down and the cat will always land on its feet. Unfortunately, like cold fusion, cat levitation remains an elusive concept despite the hopes raised by some clever fakes: http://www.pictures-of-cats.org/images/Salvador-Dali-Dali-Atomicus.jpg

20. In all seriousness —
    I’ve seen one of these pictures; the “Oh God what have I done” one is in Time-Life’s book THE MIND from their 1960’s “Science Library” books. According to the caption, this whole thing was an experiment meant to determine whether cats would a) notice or b) care if they were upside down.
    They absolutely do.

21. Oh — and the caption in the TIME LIFE book goes on to say that the cat was brought back down “after a few frenzied minutes”.

22. OK, Wil, I’ve stewed on this for a day because I’m really disappointed in you. I expected better.
    How is this science? Because they’re wearing lab coats and horn-rimmed glasses? What’s missing in this picture are ethics, and oh yeah, a damned point. Scientists today are expected to have a valid hypothesis (and no, “Wouldn’t it be funny if…” is not a valid hypothesis) and all proposed use of live animals is first validated by an animal care committee to ensure there is no cruelty or unnecessary stress. And, no, I’m not talking about all your poor bunnies in cosmetics labs unless you can claim that’s what’s happening in this picture.
    So thanks for your “help” in improving the image of “science” for the million-plus people who follow you here and on Twitter.
    Epic Fail.

23. I may be mistaken, but I thought that the palpable sense of WTF?! was rather the point here and the “SCIENCE!” a riff on how at first glance this makes absolutely no sense. There is no question that this experiment was super bizarre, but even at the time (c.1958, I believe) it was still subject to ethical review, though it’s entirely possible that what passed back then might not today. In re having a point, this was one of a number of Navy experiments for the early space program investigating possible physiological effects of non-standard environments on biological organisms.
    http://www.stormingmedia.us/18/1852/0185272.html

24. How’s the weather up your ass?

25. Dude, review Wheaton’s Law. As I understand it applies even in cases of misinterpretation bolstered by zero research.

26. I partly agree with you and partly with Judith.
    I wouldn’t say that this is an “Epic Fail” on Wil’s side, however, these are two innocent cratures that don’t know what’s happening to them, being used by a person who doesn’t care.
    Even considering Wil’s irony (or palpable sense of WTF?!, which is the best descrption of it) and even considering that these are experiments for the early space program (so the purpose might be noble), this picture is not really funny.
    Maybe the animals wheren’t harmed in the end, which I doubt, but thinking about the poor creatures makes me cringe.

27. You’re blinding me!

28. Hey, I’m not the one who went on a tirade about pictures of a kitten with magnet slippers. Believe me, I’m familiar with Wheaton’s Law. In fact, by asking what the weather was like with her head up her ass, I was pointing out what I felt to be her dickishness. Maybe telling people who are acting like idiots that I think they’re acting like idiots makes me a dick, but i don’t think so.
    But if my previous statement offends, then please, let me amend: Judith, I think you’re being ridiculous. It’s a kitten with magnet shoes. Chill out.

29. It’s bizarre, I could have sworn you had posted this before (either here or via twitter) with a similar caption but I couldn’t find it anywhere.
    It could have been someone else, though.

30. Science!

31. And more science!
    http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/11/tesla_coil_super_mario_du.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

32. When I first read the title I couldn’t help but imagine that old man saying “SCIENCE!!” Ahhh the joy the one hit wonders of the 80’s brought us.

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