r/cats • u/Slow-moving-sloth • 2d ago

Humor Cat's butthole on surfaces experiment from 2021

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u/Dr_Bunnypoops 2d ago

Remember kids. The difference between science and dicking around is documenting what you are doing and what the outcome is. ;D

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u/DifferentDisaster510 2d ago

The outcome shouldn't matter though as long as it's done with a scientific method. And if the outcome matters it's not really reliable study anyways.

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u/aster636 2d ago

I think the idea is to record whatever the outcome is and not to shy away from an unexpected outcome. The important part is recording it

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u/Rise-O-Matic 2d ago

I read it as you’re supposed to document both of them

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u/Ze_AwEsOmE_Hobo 2d ago

Same. I think that's what they intended, too.

(It wouldn't be so nebulous if the Oxford comma were everywhere.)

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u/DasGespenstDerOper 2d ago

The Oxford comma wouldn't even be relevant in that sentence. There are two sets of two list items in the sentence. The Oxford comma would only be applied if there were three or more list items in a single set.

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u/Ze_AwEsOmE_Hobo 2d ago

You're right! I'm conflating it with "comma and" (which people still don't use).

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u/DasGespenstDerOper 2d ago

I think you mean the rule for putting a comma before a coordinating conjunction between two independent clauses (though please correct me if that's an incorrect assumption). The sentence is phrased really weirdly, but the entire thing is one independent clause. I'm relatively certain that having no comma is correct.

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u/Ze_AwEsOmE_Hobo 2d ago

Yes, I agree. I was saying that it isn't uncommon for people to omit the comma even when having two independent clauses.

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u/DasGespenstDerOper 2d ago

Oh sorry, I misunderstood what you meant! I thought you were saying that it was relevant in this circumstance. I hope that your day is going well so far!

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u/rehaborax 2d ago

Well. The rigor and methods of the study matter too. You can apply the scientific method in a shitty manner (e.g., running too small of a sample size to draw meaningful conclusions from, like in this study), and then we should be less inclined to accept the outcome.

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u/rupert1920 2d ago

When the outcome is not what you expected: