Now I have TOO MANY tags, right?

[beandelphiki]

The July 2007 issue of Scientific American has an article called, "The Evolution of Cats." It's unfortunately not available online, though, or I'd link you guys.

From the "key concepts" summary:

• The family history of the cat has been murky because cat fossils are sparse and difficult to tell apart. But advances in the study of DNA have made it possible to construct the first clearly resolved family tree for cats.
  
  
• The DNA evidence shows that all living cats trace back to a pantherlike predator that lived in Southeast Asia 10.8 million years ago. The great roaring cats were the first to branch off; seven other lineages followed.
  

...And apparently the domestic cat comes from the most recent branch ancestor, which lived 3.4 million years ago!

I opened the magazine to the page showing the "cat family tree" and held it in front of Callisto's nose today. (See my icon; that's Callisto, the biggest of our four.)

ME: Look, Callisto! It's your genealogy!

CALLISTO: *sniffsniff* *looks at me: IZ NOT EDEEBALL!*

ME: Well, you're not supposed to eat it, cat.

CALLISTO: *disdain* *rolls over* *look: PLZ TO BE RUBBIN MAH BELIE*


Conversations with him generally go something along those lines.

In other news - because everyone's doing it, and it's actually rather attractive - my personality.info badge:




I USED to score as an INTP with a very weak preference for P; now I score as an INTJ with a weak preference for J. That makes some sense, and resolves the issues I always had with INTP profiles.

I think this result has come about by gradually separating out what are ADHD coping mechanisms, what are ADHD symptoms, and what are my REAL preferences. (I get nearly no real enjoyment from anything unless I can mark in some way what I am completing, for example. The process holds no inherent interest, but progression does.)

I think this is also actually USEFUL in my day-to-day life, because some advice for ADDers has always frustrated me (i.e. find a career that lets you "go with the flow,") and I think that's because it's advice that is very P-ish. Which, unbeknownst to me until fairly recently, might actually NOT be my true preference; just the actions my neurology has led me to practice.

So now I have to find some way to balance this with my ADHD, but knowing WHY that is so frustrating...I can definitely see this helping me construct more concrete coping strategies.

Also re: multiple intelligences. I love how "interpersonal" doesn't even make it onto the badge.

Comments

[teyla]

Ohhh I remember doing evolution in school. Fascinating stuff! And cats are always = win. There's this German author, Akif Pirincci (he's written Felidae, you might know the novel) - he's a cat geek and he's written books upon books about cats. One dealt with their evolution, too, and I even read it, but sadly, I've forgotten all about it :P.

Your cat reminds me of my cat. Well, my parents' cat, really. He's a little neurotic - we got him from the shelter when he was half a year old, and he didn't really learn the stuff kiddie kittehs are supposed to learn in their first half year - but absolutely adorable. He almost never hisses at anybody/anything. And if he does, he turns his head away and hisses into a corner ;). He likes his food, too *gg*.

Also re: multiple intelligences. I love how "interpersonal" doesn't even make it onto the badge.
Ahah! I was confused because I saw interpersonal everywhere but on my badge, it read intrapersonal and no sign of anything inter. Gah, brainstrike lol ^^.

[siegeengine.livejournal.com]

that really is a lot of tags.
it's almost... well...

hmm.

maybe I just don't appreciate them because I haven't tried them, and also maybe their inherent use isn't one that appeals to me.

[theclamsman.livejournal.com]

:P

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

Whoa. That would make you the second -nowait, third - ISTJ who I can stand. (I probably know more. I just make a mental note every time I'm made explicitly aware of it. See, my dad was the first ISTJ I've ever known. So now I'm like - wow! An ISTJ I don't want to back a truck over! ...My dad's a dick.)

Also: your interpersonal score is too low to show up, too. My friendslist is full of sarcastic antisocial geeks, apparently.