We have a winner for the cat scan contest, whose object was to produce the most bizarre/funniest image obtained from putting your cat on a computer scanner. There were thirty entries, so the prize of an autographed copy of WEIT is on offer. Three of them were close to the top, but unfortunately we can offer only one prize. I’ll put up the top three today, and the other entries will be displayed in the next week.
Each image was scored by me and the two celebrity judges of our previous kitteh contest: Brother Russell Blackford and Miranda Hale. Scores were tabulated and the cat with the highest total score was deemed the winner.
That WINNER happened to be Tom D. from California. He didn’t include the name of his cat (he should post it below), but the image impressed all three judges. Tom, write my email address (easily found on the web) and claim your prize:
A close second was this image, contributed by Theo Bromine and Eamon Knight. They graciously disqualified themselves from the contest as they’d already won a book, but they did nab a prizeless but honored second place:
Finally, the third place winner was blogger Catilin Burke, who sent in this disturbing image with the note, “I got my cat on the scanner once. I doubt it will ever happen again, though!”
Thanks to judges Russell and Miranda, and all the entrants. Watch for the other scanned cats to appear soon.
Those are priceless! I especially like the three headed white cat! Amazing!
I think Russell was chasing the moving light across the scanner bed.
Playtime! This is fun!
The winner looks as if he’s drowning. Poor thing.
The 2nd place one is great too, the color contrast is nice.
The third, well, I can see why the cat won’t get on the scanner again.
Congrats to all! Especially to Tom D and his unnamed kitteh. Tough decision. All 3 of those are great.
Caitlin posted a link to that scan on the original announcement, so I figured that was the standard to beat. I knew I wasn’t close. My scanner just won’t pick up anything more than an inch and a half from the glass, so I could never get their faces in, no matter how I lit it. Merlyn was a good sport about letting me experiment, though.
The pics are hilarious. Congrats to Tom D. Those glowing, golden eyes are soooo basement cattish.
BTW, speaking of cats and evolution, there’s a new clip of Maru wearing a box. He’s becoming a hermit crab…
The winning (Tom D) cat looks like Ophelia from Hamlet.
I take it you lose points if you close the lid?
No, you GAIN points, the ones on the ends of four legs. These points are embedded in your hands/arms.
All amazing. The winner does seem to be in a bit of a bad way. The White cat is beautiful, but Burke’s photo looks impossible to replicate. Impressed with both scanners & subjects.
The winner kinda reminds me of the baddie in my favorite horror film . . . Night of the Demon.
These are hilarious. Thanks everyone for the morning laugh.
Hi! I am Tom D., the cat-scan winner!
My cat’s name is “Pepper”, she is a 16 year old female (spayed, of course) that I got almost as many years ago as a stray. (Poor thing was pregnant, beat-up, and hungry after spending some time on the street).
Although she looks terrified, I promise that “NO CATS WERE HARMED IN THE TAKING OF THIS SCAN”!
We live in Costa Mesa, California and Pepper has numerous cat companions that come to visit, as my garden seems to be a local cat hang-out.
Thanks to Dr. Coyne for having this fun contest!
P.S. Look for the book, “The Three Failures of Creationism”, coming out in February of 2012. I worked with the late Walter M. Fitch on that book. I was a lowly assistant, but Fitch was a certifiable genius: member of the National Academy of Science, many awards and honors, and he pioneered the use of Molecular Biology in Evolution (his 1967 paper on “Phylogenetic Trees” is a classic).
I love the little pink toes!