Cats have been ruling the internet for as long as anyone can remember, and now a scientist is harnessing online’s love of all things feline to bring attention to world news.
Justinas Butkus has created News By Cats which adds a moggy element to stories making the headlines.
“I realised how detached from the real world events I was. Instead of spending the little free time I had for news I preferred fun and silly content such as cat memes,” he told Press Association.
Headlines have included: “Melania Trump in hospital: undergoes kidney opurration” and “US Geological Survey raises Hawaii’s volcano alert: prepurr for major eruption.”
“It’s been like that of Marmite,” Justinas joked. “People see it and either think it’s glorious or they despise it. Probably unsurprisingly a lot of negative comments come from dog lovers. They think cats are not all that great and entertaining but clearly, they are wrong.”
For all News By Cats is a side project, “catifying” can take Justinas between an hour and two each day with the site’s science and tech stories closest to his heart.
He wants to raise NZ $300 (about £152) to pay web developers to introduce a few extra features, and help cover the cost of website hosting.
If the funding drive isn’t successful, he’ll still push ahead with NewsByCats.com but scale back plans for additional features.
