Anti Gravity: C-A-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T; March 2000; Scientific American Magazine; by Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

"The fog comes on little cat feet," wrote Carl Sandburg. The great poet and historian may merely have been attempting to animate water vapor, but he presciently put his finger on one of modern life's more vexing problems. Feline feet can indeed induce a fog, as when you return from grabbing a cup of coffee and find that the cat has done a foxtrot all over the computer keyboard. Four furry paws can turn the "Now is the time for all good men" that was left on screen into "Now is the time for all good mennnnnbbbbbbbvcccccccxzzzzzzxcvbnm,;///////// ppoooo," a decidedly less cogent, if more original, thought.

We human beings are not completely without our wiles, though. Faced with this epidemic of cat hacking, a member of our species named Chris Niswander set his mind to cat-proofing computers for the benefit of all humanity. What sparked his thinking, Niswander says, was his sister's cat, whose footwork crashed a running program and uninstalled some software. "It was kind of impressive," he said of the cat feat.