One of my colleagues is in graduate school.  A couple of weeks ago, she was asked to carry out a survey of her fellow students – the topic doesn’t matter, but it was relevant to all of the group.  She sent out her first query, politely and clearly asking for responses to her brief survey, and hardly anyone replied.  Additional queries – almost nothing.  As of a few days ago, five people in total had filled out the survey – useless.

What did she do?  She sent out one last email with one difference.  It  said, in essence, “If you answer this survey, I will send you a cute picture of a kitten.”  Suddenly she had dozens more complete responses, right away.   Kitten thank-you emailed; problem solved.

Which demonstrates (a) that the Internet rests on a foundation of cats and (b) very possibly our modern society rests on a foundation of cats.

Above, by the way, is one of our family’s cats, whose thoughts on this matter, if they could be characterized as such, would be: “Eh.”