Schrodinger the Cat

I stand corrected - there IS a named cat in Bioshock 2.

I was scavenging in the frozen Imago gallery, melting things - as you will when you're scavenging, and I melted a pile of ice to discover another Bioshock cat.

This one was upright, not tipped over. Like a living cat would be, except he's frozen. I moved my reticle to see if any word would come up for this kitty.

And laughed. I found Schrodinger the cat! 

He's an Easter egg I'd heard about and forgotten, so I was very pleased to have stumbled upon him. (Being frozen, he is both alive and dead at the same time = Schrodinger's cat.)

If the upcoming Bioshock Infinite doesn't have this cat in it, I shall be highly disappointed. 

Cats in Minerva’s Den

The mystery of Bioshock’s cats deepens….

Okay, if you follow this blog, you know that there is one specific dead cat populating both the original Bioshock and Bioshock 2.

No dogs, no other cats. Just one black & white kitty who can be discovered in corners all over Rapture. And who wears solely the designation “corpse” – if anything at all.

Well.

I was playing the Bioshock 2 DLC Minerva’s Den and I found the cat again.

AND THIS TIME IT HAS A NAME:

His name is Babbage!

Much later in the adventure, I found another cat.

I had already jumped through this hole in the floor before I noticed him, so you don't have a good view of the cat's body. But you can see that he, too, has a name.

A DIFFERENT name!

This cat is named Turing!

Now, I immediately recognized that as a reference to famous British codebreaker, computer scientist, mathematician, and father of artificial intelligence Alan Turing.

So I looked up Babbage and - as you may already know - Charles Babbage was a British "mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer," according to Wikipedia.

So now we know the theme of the cat names in Minerva's Den. But...

HOW MANY CATS ARE THERE?

If you have spotted a named cat in Bioshock, please comment here with the name. It would be interesting to collect them all.

And we still don't know whose idea these cats were.

Yes, the Bioshock cat mystery deepens….

Bioshock Cats UPDATE

For all of you who have wondered about the prevalence of dead cats – or rather, one dead cat in particular – in Bioshock, the mystery continues….

Remember my blog post about this cat in original Bioshock? Well, the same cat appears in Bioshock 2. And this time, I have photos. (It’s like the Loch Ness Monster! Pictorial proof!)

Okay, here is your typical Bioshock cat:
















See how it looks like it just tipped over? Not like the icky corpses of people.

That circle you see over its front paws is my PS3 reticle. You’ll notice no descriptive word has come up to identify the being.

Now here is a Bioshock cat you can uncover if you melt a specific pile of ice. This cat appears to have been frozen with some fish and a fisherman (perhaps its owner?).

















This time, when the reticle is placed on the kitty, it is labeled “Corpse.” Same as the person.

And here is a kitty in a baby buggy. It is also merely labeled "Corpse."

In case you’re wondering, there are some models of dogs in Bioshock 2. They’re statues (possibly broken animatronics) located on this museum/ride thing that teaches children why Rapture was necessary. But no real dog bodies. Only real cats.

So the cat mystery continues.

We all live in a … underwater city that’s not actually yellow

Welcome to Rapture, the underwater city where Bioshock and Bioshock 2 are set.

Although this is one of those Utopias Gone Very, Very Wrong, let’s pretend for a moment that Rapture actually turned out okay.

It’s beautiful, little bathyspheres float you around to different areas, there’s lots of lights and glass – lots of views of the sea life.

Of course, you’re always inside/enclosed (otherwise you’d drown) and there is no sunlight this deep.

So my question for you is this:

Could you live in an underwater city?

Ever Wonder About Coffee Roasts?

A quality coffee post by enderrr:

Yes, folks, this is a coffee post. At least once a day someone comes in and asks me which different roasts we have, or tells me they’d like a cup of the dark roast because they ‘like strong coffee’. I politely tell them we have ‘medium’ roasted coffees exclusively. Why? Unlike many shops, we buy our coffee from a roaster who cares about quality, flavor, and integrity. This is not true with all shops, for many reasons (some valid, some not). However, we are lucky enough to work with truly specialty coffee. So, what exactly are the differences between roasts?

A light roast is characterized by a 426-435 degree rumble tumble in a roasting drum, and can last as short as 3 minutes. Roasters will listen for what’s called “first crack”; when the bean itself reaches about 405 degrees internally, it makes a soft cracking sound similar to popping corn (but softer in volume). These coffees mostly accurately present their origin flavors, and are put to excellent use in cuppings.

From 435-440 degrees, the beans will be classified as a medium roast. Roasted this way, a coffee will still be able to show off many individual characteristics of origin, as well as process and method of roasting chosen by the roastmaster. For this reason, most true artisan coffees are medium roast. They are sweeter, smoother and more balanced in acid, aroma, and complexity than any other roast.  ... 

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For the rest of this fascinating article CLICK HERE