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July 2, 2015 2:48 AM Subscribe
This is one of the strangest stories I've seen in some time. I have some idea how these people got their cat wedged into the scanner, but not why.
Na-na na-na na-na na-na CATSCAN!
very hard post to write with autocorrect on a new phone
posted by tilde at 3:11 AM on July 2, 2015 [6 favorites]
very hard post to write with autocorrect on a new phone
posted by tilde at 3:11 AM on July 2, 2015 [6 favorites]
They're sure the cat is okay? Seems like it might be an awful big dose of x-rays.
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 3:22 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 3:22 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
For harmless and eyebleach, please enjoy the cat scan tumblr, where cats sit on scanners and are possibly annoyed by the light.
posted by bile and syntax at 4:49 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by bile and syntax at 4:49 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
Did the dude seriously not know his cat was in there, or was this just some bonkers idea to take the cat on the trip?
posted by easily confused at 5:14 AM on July 2, 2015
posted by easily confused at 5:14 AM on July 2, 2015
does anyone read the posts down here?
posted by leotrotsky at 5:15 AM on July 2, 2015 [14 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 5:15 AM on July 2, 2015 [14 favorites]
Poor XRayCat. That guy is a tool.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 5:20 AM on July 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Kitty Stardust at 5:20 AM on July 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
Two weeks ago I watched a TSA agent insert his entire body into a x-ray machine to unstick a suitcase. Not his hand or his arm - he climbed into the machine. The agent at the x-Ray monitor was cracking up and looking away from the screen because of what she was seeing. Wow, just wow.
btw - this cat/ scanner related news is about a week too early.
posted by photoslob at 5:40 AM on July 2, 2015 [4 favorites]
btw - this cat/ scanner related news is about a week too early.
posted by photoslob at 5:40 AM on July 2, 2015 [4 favorites]
why did the officers start screaming, is my question.
posted by angrycat at 5:41 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by angrycat at 5:41 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
There is a cat scanning me right now.
posted by rtha at 5:45 AM on July 2, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by rtha at 5:45 AM on July 2, 2015 [8 favorites]
Poor kitty. Poor me, because I now have this earworm fixed in my brain for the rest of the day. (Scroll down, if you dare. Bandcamp, if you double cat dare.)
posted by maudlin at 6:03 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
Bastide and Fabbri came to the conclusion that the most durable thing that humanity has ever made is culture: religion, folklore, belief systems. They may morph over time, but an essential message can get pulled through over millennia. They proposed that we genetically engineer a species of cat that changes color in the presence of radiation, which would be released into the wild to serve as living Geiger counters. Then, we would create folklore and write songs and tell stories about these “ray cats,” the moral being that when you see these cats change colors, run far, far away.(Yeah, X-rays are not quite the same as radioactive byproducts from nuclear weapons manufacturing and nuclear power plants, but the earworm centre of my brain don't give a shit.)
posted by maudlin at 6:03 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
TSA officers removed the cat from the bag and determined that it had not been harmed by the machine.There is really no end to their abilities, is there? A vet might have wanted to do some tests and look into the effects of a sizable dose of radiation on a house pet before issuing a prognosis, but these guys with their tin badges and walkie-talkies sussed it out on the spot.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:05 AM on July 2, 2015 [17 favorites]
This Is Just To Say
I have scanned
the cat
that was in
your luggage
and which
you were probably
hiding
from the TSA
Forgive me
it was a surprise
so cute
and so irradiated
posted by blurker at 6:42 AM on July 2, 2015 [39 favorites]
Carry-on luggage scanners use low-dose continuous fluoroscopy, so the cat probably received a fraction of a millirem dose.
The passenger told a TSA supervisor that he did not know animals were not supposed to be placed through the X-ray machines, Nettles said.
Yeah, the guy's moron.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:46 AM on July 2, 2015
The passenger told a TSA supervisor that he did not know animals were not supposed to be placed through the X-ray machines, Nettles said.
Yeah, the guy's moron.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:46 AM on July 2, 2015
Don't you think it's time for an oral history of these cat scan posts?
posted by thelonius at 7:44 AM on July 2, 2015
posted by thelonius at 7:44 AM on July 2, 2015
I like to imagine that the cat snuck into the suitcase overnight and the guy didn't know it was there until the scan. I mean, cats love suitcases.
posted by maryr at 7:49 AM on July 2, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by maryr at 7:49 AM on July 2, 2015 [7 favorites]
maryr: "I like to imagine that the cat snuck into the suitcase overnight and the guy didn't know it was there until the scan. I mean, cats love suitcases."
That was my assumption as well. I know it could easily happen with my cats, though they'd be yowling so loud during the drive to the airport I'd be sure to notice before I got out of my neighborhood.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:58 AM on July 2, 2015 [3 favorites]
That was my assumption as well. I know it could easily happen with my cats, though they'd be yowling so loud during the drive to the airport I'd be sure to notice before I got out of my neighborhood.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:58 AM on July 2, 2015 [3 favorites]
They're sure the cat is okay? Seems like it might be an awful big dose of x-rays.
Googling suggests only a millirad or less.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:00 AM on July 2, 2015
Googling suggests only a millirad or less.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:00 AM on July 2, 2015
But why were the TSA officers screaming? About a cat? Shouldn't we want them to have a little better composure?
posted by bleep at 8:02 AM on July 2, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by bleep at 8:02 AM on July 2, 2015 [5 favorites]
If something moved in the middle of your scan it would probably surprise you too.
posted by maryr at 8:21 AM on July 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by maryr at 8:21 AM on July 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
But why were the TSA officers screaming? About a cat? Shouldn't we want them to have a little better composure?
It has not always been my finding that airport security officers are paragons of offering thoughtful, reflective responses to unforeseen circumstances.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:38 AM on July 2, 2015 [11 favorites]
It has not always been my finding that airport security officers are paragons of offering thoughtful, reflective responses to unforeseen circumstances.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:38 AM on July 2, 2015 [11 favorites]
Blep. Blop. Blup. Everytime you lolpost lite, God kills a kitten in a kimono.
posted by y2karl at 9:04 AM on July 2, 2015
posted by y2karl at 9:04 AM on July 2, 2015
But why were the TSA officers screaming? About a cat?
Scan Cat found their lack of faith in his new powers...disturbing.
posted by yoink at 9:07 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
Scan Cat found their lack of faith in his new powers...disturbing.
posted by yoink at 9:07 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
TSA officers removed the cat from the bag
Seriously, though, how do you not write "TSA officers let the cat out of the bag"?
posted by yoink at 9:08 AM on July 2, 2015 [14 favorites]
Seriously, though, how do you not write "TSA officers let the cat out of the bag"?
posted by yoink at 9:08 AM on July 2, 2015 [14 favorites]
Hilarious thread, thanks Mefi!
Are these scanned cats about to become our new overlords?
posted by marienbad at 9:10 AM on July 2, 2015
Are these scanned cats about to become our new overlords?
posted by marienbad at 9:10 AM on July 2, 2015
I used to lawyer and I had a lot of mentally ill clients, and as I got to know them, I sort of forgot that they had a diagnosis, even though a given client would say, not pay his rent because his electric bill was incredible because the guy had 800 plugged in light bulbs.
Anyway, I took a flight and saw that one of my clients had got a job as a TSA agent, and emailed my office, 'hey, i saw so and so' and the response I got was 'one of your clients?'
posted by angrycat at 9:10 AM on July 2, 2015 [3 favorites]
Anyway, I took a flight and saw that one of my clients had got a job as a TSA agent, and emailed my office, 'hey, i saw so and so' and the response I got was 'one of your clients?'
posted by angrycat at 9:10 AM on July 2, 2015 [3 favorites]
(Alternative Buzzfeed Headline for above: "Check out this one weird trick cats are using to become our new overlords!")
posted by marienbad at 9:11 AM on July 2, 2015
posted by marienbad at 9:11 AM on July 2, 2015
Alternative Fox News Headline for above: "Isis training terrorist cats to take over American planes!"
posted by yoink at 9:31 AM on July 2, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by yoink at 9:31 AM on July 2, 2015 [5 favorites]
TSA officers removed the cat from the bag and determined that it had not been harmed by the machine.
TSA are also veterinarians apparently, as well as expert lie detectors.
posted by BungaDunga at 12:01 PM on July 2, 2015
TSA are also veterinarians apparently, as well as expert lie detectors.
posted by BungaDunga at 12:01 PM on July 2, 2015
TSA are also veterinarians apparently
For one thing, that is presumably the reporter extrapolating from the TSA agent saying something like "well, the cat looked o.k. when we let it out of the bag!" And for another thing, what test, exactly, would a veterinarian do to determine whether or not the cat had suffered some sort of cellular-level damage from exposure to the X-ray machine? In this instance I think a TSA agent's "eh, the cat looks o.k. to me" is of pretty much equal value to a veterinarian's "eh, it looks o.k. to me--and here's a bill for $200."
posted by yoink at 12:07 PM on July 2, 2015
For one thing, that is presumably the reporter extrapolating from the TSA agent saying something like "well, the cat looked o.k. when we let it out of the bag!" And for another thing, what test, exactly, would a veterinarian do to determine whether or not the cat had suffered some sort of cellular-level damage from exposure to the X-ray machine? In this instance I think a TSA agent's "eh, the cat looks o.k. to me" is of pretty much equal value to a veterinarian's "eh, it looks o.k. to me--and here's a bill for $200."
posted by yoink at 12:07 PM on July 2, 2015
They also could well have called a vet who said that much radiation isn't a problem (assuming it isn't, and it is a very small dose).
posted by thefoxgod at 12:34 PM on July 2, 2015
posted by thefoxgod at 12:34 PM on July 2, 2015
It seems like to me that the guy was intending to bring the cat on the plane in a carry-on bag (even though it was not an official pet container.), but didn't realize he shouldn't put it through the scanner. Not that the cat had stowed away in his bag.
posted by larrybob at 2:51 PM on July 2, 2015
posted by larrybob at 2:51 PM on July 2, 2015
The first link said the cat was in his CHECKED baggage. Maybe there were two separate incidents, one of which involved a carry-on cat.
posted by 4shortlegs at 3:32 PM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by 4shortlegs at 3:32 PM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
i think that the dude was taking care of somebody's else's cat and the thinking was
1) how am i going to get this cat on the plane
2) goddamn cat
3) i bet they'll charge me extra
4) let's try to sneak it through
5) oh i forgot about the x-ray. well, only one thing to do
6) *hears screaming* goddamn cat
posted by angrycat at 4:17 PM on July 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
1) how am i going to get this cat on the plane
2) goddamn cat
3) i bet they'll charge me extra
4) let's try to sneak it through
5) oh i forgot about the x-ray. well, only one thing to do
6) *hears screaming* goddamn cat
posted by angrycat at 4:17 PM on July 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
6) *hears screaming* goddamn cat
posted by angrycat at 7:17 PM on July 2
[+] [!]
Eponyterrific.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:23 PM on July 2, 2015 [5 favorites]
The first link said the cat was in his CHECKED baggage.
I think that was a mistake. That story also shows a tweet from someone who says "Standing in front of guy at TSA. I hand him a bin. I turn away and go through the scanner. I hear screams. HE PUT HIS CAT IN THE BIN." which sounds like it was the carry-on line.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:29 PM on July 2, 2015
I think that was a mistake. That story also shows a tweet from someone who says "Standing in front of guy at TSA. I hand him a bin. I turn away and go through the scanner. I hear screams. HE PUT HIS CAT IN THE BIN." which sounds like it was the carry-on line.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:29 PM on July 2, 2015
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Cat-Scan Rebooted
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Nyan Cat-Scan
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posted by oneswellfoop at 2:53 AM on July 2, 2015