The Memory Palace
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Published
Jul 24,2009
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The bookending music is “Ptah, the El Daoud” from Alice Coltrane’s album of the same, very-1970 name. Then there are two, slightly chopped up songs from Broadcast (both on “Work and Non-Work”), Phantom and The Book Lovers.
You can read about Acoustic Kitty (yes, that’s actually what they called the project) all over the place–there were lots of news articles when the files were declassified several years ago. However, my favorite thing on the web is an actual declassified document. Even after the cat dies and the mission’s a total failure, the scientists clearly feel pretty awesome: despite being “convinced that the program would not lend itself to [their] highly specialized needs,” they declare victory in the quest to train a cat to go short distances, even if they can’t control to where, and proclaim it “a remarkable scientific achievement.” To which I say: way to go. You spent millions of 1966 dollars. Sliced open live animals. Inserted wires and microphones and zapped them with electrical charges and now they can go short distances. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
6 Comments | Leave a Comment
I love these stories! Keep making them!
Love the story – although as a one-time Washingtonian, hearing Wisconsin “Street” instead of “Avenue” made me cringe. I probably shouldn’t nitpick though.
thanks for the catch. I’ll get in there and fix it….
The CIA provided yet another way (and reason) to skin a cat…
excellent!
peanut now lives on with us. amazing tale. thank you.