Curiosity (almost) killed the cat

“Things are not always as they appear to be … Curiosity creates possibilities and opportunities.” Roy T. Bennett

I’m a curious person. It’s a trait that characterizes many journalists, and for good reason. The drive to know more or to ask just one more question to get to the heart of the issue is often the catalyst for good news articles.

According to Dictionary.com, curiosity is “a strong desire to know or learn something.”

I usually refer to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary for official definitions, but they gave the word a negative connotation. They implied that curiosity was inherently nosy!

Yes, I’m naturally inquisitive, and I’m not one bit shy about it. I often say that I learn something new every day; that’s true partly because I seek it out.

Curiosity creates possibilities. It opens doors to learning new things and discovering more about other people. Yes, it can also get a person into sticky situations sometimes, which reminds me of a story.

When I was a kid, we had one house cat. We had many farm cats, the kind that stay in the barn and eat leftover food scraps. This one, however, had a cushy life inside.

Her name was Curiosity, an orange tabby with long, soft fur and green eyes. She earned her name, and her place as the only house cat, in a rather curious way.

You know the saying “Curiosity killed the cat”? Well, she almost died when she was a kitten. She was exploring a 5-gallon bucket of used oil that was sitting in front of grandpa’s quonset, and she fell in!

We rescued her from that barrel of black oil, and we named her Curiosity. She became our family companion, and her curiosity was the one thing I loved about her.

Did you know there was a computer game made especially for curious people? “Curiosity: What’s inside the cube?” was created in November 2012 by a London-based gaming company called 22Cans, led by Mr. Peter Molyneux.

The game was rather simple: it was a giant cube with hundreds of tiny “cubelets.” The goal was to clear these cubelets by touching blocks to reveal the next layer. In the end, only one person could “win” the game.

During the lifetime of the cube, people clicked nearly 28 billion cubelets at an average rate of about 1,593 cubelets per second, according to 22Cans.

One young man, 18-year-old Bryan Henderson, was the eventual winner. It turns out the “prize” was 1 percent of profits generated by another game the company had in development. Henderson got an all-expense paid trip to the company’s headquarters, but little else.

In an interview a short while later, Henderson said he played the game because he was curious, not because he knew there was a prize. However, he was looking forward to a payday that never happened.

The game from which he was promised profit-sharing, Godus Wars, was never fully released and therefore didn’t make any profit. The game was abandoned in December 2023 after 10 years in flux and is known as one of the most disastrous crowdfunded games of all time.

Yes, curiosity sometimes has its downfalls, but 22Cans still exists today, coding other video games for people to enjoy. Failure is part of life, and that makes the successes all the sweeter.

Speaking of success, kudos to the students featured in our Collegiate Congratulations section this week. We are “curious” to know where students go after they graduate, especially the ones we follow in sports and school activities during high school. We thoroughly enjoy keeping up on their various experiences and bringing their stories to you, our readers.

Our top story in this edition features two area students who traveled to Costa Rica and provided medical care to the people there. And, for the first time, we have an article about Highway Patrol training graduates.

My oldest daughter has always wanted to know what it feels like to climb the water tower. I told her that if she’s that curious, she should consider entering the wind technician training programs at LRSC. They have an actual wind turbine she could climb on, safely. Not to mention climbers get paid a decent salary. She politely declined.

Are you or someone you know curious about printing and publishing? If so, we have a unique position open at Transcript Publishing. We’re looking for a press operator. This is a great opportunity for someone who wants to learn “how the sausage is made” in a print shop.

On-the-job training is provided for someone with mechanical aptitude and attention to detail.

What are you curious about? In today’s job market, there are plenty of opportunities to explore a new career or industry. You never know, you might just find something that you didn’t expect you would love, right here in central North Dakota.