How to Tell Time Using a Cat

While in Japan for New Year's Day, we encountered a shrine dedicated to cats. The place was the former residence of a progressive feudal lord who experimented with bringing western technologies to Japan. How to tell time using a cat The compound was an eclectic mixture of sites: the remnants of an early steel-making furnace sat next to a classic Japanese garden with its tranquil Koi pond. (I guess they didn't have zoning laws.) On a hillside there we found the cat shrine.

A plaque at the shrine tells of the seven cats who accompanied Lord Yoshihiro into battle (not willingly, I imagine) to serve as his timepieces. By looking at their eyes, Yoshihiro could tell the time of day.

My cats are best at telling temperature. On a cold day, they're tight little knots of fur, nearly spherical. With warmth, they gradually uncoil to a straight line. Stretched before the fire, they lengthen more, becoming little bows. (Cats are the only known particles that move slower rather than faster when heat is applied. That's my contribution to the physics of cats.)

I've recently read (and reviewed below) the two most recent books in the Murderbot Diaries. The angsty cyborg is always fun to read, so I was excited to see that it's coming to Apple TV as a ten-episode series starring Alexander Skarsgård. If they stay faithful to the books it should be great fun (with periods of mayhem). It will be interesting to see how they handle Murderbot's snarky inner monologue, which makes up so much of the character of the stories.