Yay Science

Wild Cats and Tamed Deere

New cat just dropped, and also we are wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on over-policing cities as a revenge tactic. But still, KITTY

Endeavorance

01 Oct 2026 — 8 min read

I considered my options before making a choice, but Stuff still Happened.

So, what's up?

New Cat Dropped

Scientists found a cat in Bolivia. End of story.

Okay—there's more to it than that.

Researchers poured over the complete genome sequences of 38 kitties from the Leopardus genus; I assume to find out what part of their DNA makes them want to bop small fuzzy things.

Anyway, while they were playing with the cats (that's not what they did; they did impressive science stuff) they found that there was a novel species among them: a type of cat previously unknown to us.

They dubbed it L. tilcayo, and it is basically a small leopard-like feline, smaller than the average house cat. And it is ADORABLE.

Our new friend lives in the foggy forests of Bolivia, slinking around pretending like they don't want us to find them and go "pspspspspspspspspsss" at them.

Note: I am not a wildlife expert. Please to not pspsps at wild cats.

We only know of a few of these lil guys right now. That doesn't mean there aren't tons more out there, but we only have one in captivity at the moment, and it genuinely does look like someone is just keeping a house cat at the zoo

So, new cat just dropped. You probably aren't getting one in your home in this fiscal year—but give it a little while and who knows? Maybe we'll all have mini leopards running around soon enough.

…probably not.

Memphis' Criminal Task Force

The federal government of the United States of America—at the direction of Republican President Donald Trump—has been sending what amount to occupying federal forces into municipal jurisdictions around the country.

One of the highest profile targets has been the nation's capital of Washington, D.C., where uniformed members of the US National Guard can be routinely seen meandering around the city carrying weapons of war. Despite spending hundreds of millions on the occupation of the city by the national guard, there's been virtually no impact on violent crime and murder, which is what Republicans have claimed were running rampant in these "Blue Cities."

But now, let's turn our attention to Memphis, Tennessee, where the government has sent in what they're calling the "Memphis Safe Task Force": a collection of federal agents, local cops, and National Guard members who would be tasked with helping to subdue rampant crime in Memphis.

Notably, Memphis' crime rate was already dropping over the course of 2024 and 2025 before this task force was sent in. But, hey! There was crime, and sending in a flood of federal agents and trained members of the military reduced crime! Run the headlines!

Yeah, this created a bunch of articles about lowered crime rates in Memphis after the Task Force was sent in. I mean, true! Not the whole picture in the slightest, but sure thing dawg.

Unfortunately, "crime go down" is not the whole story, because of course it's not.

The Memphis Safe Task Force has been essentially occupying Memphis, killing people, harassing brown folks, and generally making life worse for residents who—get this—might not be super into the idea of unaccountable federal agents and members of the military being used to aggressively sweep their home town, which also overwhelmingly did not vote for the current President who is the one forcing all of this to begin with.

On August 30th, the ICE raided a bar in Memphis, arresting 121 people, throwing them into buses, and taking them off to detention centers.

At time of writing, at least four people have been shot and killed by members of this "Task Force," which again spans several federal agencies (ICE, HSI, FBI, etc) as well as National Guard. One of the victims, Tyrin Johnson, was killed by a member of the US National Guard. The Task Force held that Johnson was dangerous and reached for a gun.

Yes. That Tennessee. The one where having a gun is akin to wearing pants.

So according to the Task Force, Johnson pulled a gun, prompting a National Guard member to shoot him in the chest. Problem is, the autopsy report confirms that Johnson was not shot in the chest; he was shot in the back, with an exit wound in his chest. Meanwhile, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) states they were not the source of the report that Johnson pointed a gun at a Guardsman, raising further questions.

Another case involves a DEA agent shooting and killing a man named Darrin Pigram while he was at work at a Burger King. Agents were executing an arrest warrant and for whatever reason, none of them wore body cameras. The security cameras in the building didn't capture the actual shooting on camera. The District Attorney announced that no charges would be brought, as the use of force was "justified" based largely on the offending officer's account.

"We understand that some residents are concerned about the recent number of fatal shootings involving task force personnel, as well as the deployment of the task force more generally. But our office must consider each individual case separately based on the facts and the law."
— Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy

In response to the occupation, local businesses in Memphis have been standing in solidarity against the agents harassing their people. On July 11th, a pizza shop in Memphis refused service to National Guardsmen, prompting a very expected outcome: violent outrage from the usual right wing suspects. Conservative social media accounts started rallying people to boycott the pizza shop, which I cannot imagine actually reached anyone who would've actually stopped going to the pizza place.

Despite online harassment and death threats, the owner of the pizza shop continued operation, going on to report a spike in sales in the following weeks. Other businesses in Memphis joined in, which helped to bolster local businesses a bit after months of the Task Force's presence having a chilling effect on general daily life, which includes spending money out and about, of course.

Perhaps—and this is just me spitballing—but perhaps when you send federal forces to a city that didn't ask for it to harass people who they consider to be loved community members, neighbors, and family, the people of that city won't be downright thankful for your occupation. What a concept: pride in your city.

It's like the HP of Farm Equipment

John Deere is pretty much synonymous with "heavy-duty farm equipment." Whether you are tilling earth, sowing seeds, harvesting crops, or returning the mayor's lost underpants, you're probably using Deere equipment in some capacity.

If you've ever had the displeasure of owning a printer from HP, you've likely run into some kind of issue with their ink cartridges. HP is infamous for pressuring users to use their specific ink cartridges, in some cases blocking you from printing if you try to self-serve. This, scientifically speaking, sucks ass and is bad.

John Deere is basically the HP of farm equipment. Two related complaints were brought against Deere over two parts of their shitty business practices. First, a complaint from farmers that Deere had been intentionally designing their products to require official Deere repair services by way of proprietary, diagnostic software and repair tools. The second complaint came from the FTC, which alleged that Deere was creating a monopoly on repair services, landing a bit of a one-two punch.

Together, the lawsuits alleged that Deere made it artificially more difficult to repair their machinery while also limiting who has access to the parts required in the first place. Fun! (lie)

With the settlements, Deere must make all repair equipment available at reasonable prices to third party vendors, including for future products. Their dealerships will also be "instructed" to promote the sale of repair parts. At time of writing, John Deere has agreed to the settlements, though finalization remains.

Of course, part of the settlement means that John Deere officially does not admit fault for what they were doing. Instead, they settled a $99 million class lawsuit, paid legal fees, and agreed to the stipulations. I do not put it past them to have new, even more creative ways in mind to further strip-mine their customers' wallets.

Yosemite's Birthday (Sorta)

Today marks the kinda-birthday of Yosemite National Park in the US. I say kinda-birthday because it really happened over a few stages.

First, there was a land grant authorized in June of 1864 which identified some of the sections of the modern-day park as reserved for public use. On October 1st, 1890, federal law combined more areas around Yosemite into a different federal reservation. This created a sort of patchwork public space.

In 1906, the separate chunks o' park were formally merged into one, though some land was removed from the park designation and instead went to the federal Sierra Forest Reserve.

The history of Yosemite is a decent reflection of US history overall: pretty wacky to say the least.

1851 - Sparked by the gold rush, a state-sponsored militia raided Yosemite Valley in an attempt to remove the Native people living there. Despite multiple attempts, the militia was unsuccessful in displacing all of the Native people, though still caused a lot of carnage
1903 - Then-President Teddy Roosevelt spent several nights camping in Yosemite. That camping trip is said to be the genesis of his push to expand the park's official boundaries
1913 - President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill into law which grants rights to San Francisco to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley within the park to use for municipal water. The bill became law despite opposition from conservation groups. Construction completed about a decade later
1914 - The US Army, which had been stewarding the national park, handed management over to a federal civilian organization, later the National Park Service
1970 - Park rangers in Yosemite ambushed a large group of park visitors dubbed "hippies" in an attempt to drive them out of the park. Rangers unleashed tear gas on visitors, sparking a riot as the visitors fought back throwing rocks and bottles. Afterwards, many young visitors were turned away from entry to the park based on appearance

Got some gold rushin', some genocidin', some Rooseveltin', some resource claimin', and even attacks on civilians for enjoying themselves to boot. Real microcosm of America.

Side note: apparently there used to be a routine event in Yosemite where workers would push glowing embers over a cliffside to make a sort of glowing waterfall effect. This stopped in 1968 because OBVIOUSLY. It has since been "replaced" with seeing a naturally glowing waterfall illuminated by the setting sun.