Meow!

Athanasius Kircher first described the cat piano in his landmark 1650 work Musurgia Universalis.

In order to raise the spirits of an Italian prince burdened by the cares of his position, a musician created for him a cat piano. The musician selected cats whose natural voices were at different pitches and arranged them in cages side by side, so that when a key on the piano was depressed, a mechanism drove a sharp spike into the appropriate cat’s tail. The result was a melody of meows that became more vigorous as the cats became more desperate. Who could not help but laugh at such music? Thus was the prince raised from his melancholy.

From the Kircher Society weblog

Further thoughts on bankruptcy laws...

Before New Zealand introduced the defacto relationships bill, gay couples had the security and spending power of being in a relationship, along with the social security of being a single person. For example, an unemployed but happily partnered homosexual (AKA 'housewifebear') could claim the full 'single person' unemployment benefit without lying on the application form. As far as the government was concerned, if you lived with a person of the same sex they were merely roommates.

Which, given that the US doesn't appear to recognise same-sex couples, brings up a few intriguing questions;

-In the US if you're married and file for bankruptcy, is your partner's income considered along with your own?
-Are your spouse's personal debts considered along with your own?
-Do you both have to file for bankruptcy as a couple?

Which leads me to wonder;

-Since same-sex couples aren't recognised, could one partner apply for bankruptcy, write off their debts, and become a kept partner/housebear?
-Could a smart man, for instance, apply for as much unsecured credit as they could, wipe out *their partners debts* with it, quit their job and file for personal bankruptcy, leaving themselves as a couple with one full income and no debt?
-If this was the case, and started happening frequently, would finance companies start to lobby government to recognise same-sex partnerships?