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The Rajya Sabha has finally passed a constitutional amendment Bill enabling the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been touted as the biggest tax reform in India since independence.The Government has set 1 April 2017 as the deadline for its implementation. This article explains GST and its impact in a simplified manner.What is Goods and Services Tax (GST)?GST is a single tax that will replace all the existing indirect taxes levied in India. These taxes include Sales tax (VAT), Excise duty (CENVAT), Service tax, Octroi, Entertainment tax, Luxury tax etc.GST is proposed to have a dual structure. It will have two components: Central GST and State GST. Central GST will replace Central excise duty, services tax and additional customs duties etc. and will be levied by the centre. State GST will replace VAT, Central State Tax, entertainment tax, luxury tax, lottery tax, electricity duty etc. and will be levied by the states.GST will be charged on the value-added at each stage of sale/ purchase in the supply chain. To illustrate: Let us say that the GST rate is 10 %. A chipsmanufacturer buys raw materials worth Rs. 10 (potatoes etc.), makes chips andsells it to a retailer at Rs 20. The value-added by the Chips manufacturer is Rs. 10 (20-10). Thus, GST payable by him is Re. 1 (10 % of 10). Similarly, if theretailer sells the chips to final consumers at Rs. 25, the value-added by him is Rs. 5 (25-20). The GST payable by the retailer is Rs. 0.5State GST will follow the destination principle that is it would be applied in the state where the product is sold.GST will replace all indirect taxes and will be levied on all goods and services. The exceptions are: petroleum product, Entertainment and amusement tax levied and collected by Panchayat/ Municipality/ district council, alcohol, stamp duty, customs duty, tax on consumption and sale of electricityWhat are the benefits of GST?GST has been adopted by around 140 countries around the world. It’s benefits are:Simplified tax regime: Currently there are multiple indirect taxes (around 15) levied by the Central and the State Government and they differ across states. GST will simplify and rationalise the tax structure of India by bringing in a regime of a single and uniform tax.Increased revenues: A simple tax regime will reduce the cost of compliance and hence increase the number of taxpayers. This will help increase tax revenues. Also, the tax base will be comprehensive as all goods and services will be taxed with a few exemptions.Reduce the cascading effect of taxation: As mentioned earlier, GST is a uniform tax levied on value-added. Levy at each stage of sale/ purchase will be set-off against taxes paid by the supplier in the previous stage. Through this set-off mechanism, GST is levied only on value-added. To illustrate: Let’s say GST is 10 %. Continuing with our earlier example, if you make a packet of chips (manufacturer) and sell it for Rs. 20 it should be 30, your GST should come out to be Rs 3 (10 % of Rs. 30). But, this tax is levied only on value-addition and so you’ll be allowed to claim a tax credit to the value of GST already paid by the supplier in the previous stage. Let’s say you bought raw materials (potatoes etc.) worth Rs. 10 for making chips. The supplier of the raw materials has already paid Re. 1 (10 % of Rs. 10) as GST. So, the chips manufacturer can claim a tax credit of Re. 1 and pay only the remaining Rs. 2 as GST. Thus, there is no cascading effect and no burden of ‘tax on tax’.Improve ease of doing business: Currently, doing business across state borders is very difficult due to differences in tax procedures. GST will lead to a unified economy and allow businesses to expand its operations with ease. It will alsoimprove manufacturing in India, attract foreign investment and lead to job creation. The founder of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal has described GST as a reverse brexit moment for India.Boost GDP: The economists forecast that the roll-out of GST will boost GDP by 0.5%-2%. This is because of the positive impact on tax revenues and economic effects of a unified tax regime.Optimal supply chain decisions: Currently , all supply chain decisions are guided with the view to reduce the burden of indirect taxes. GST will do away with the interest rate differentials and lead to seamless movement of goods and serices between states. Read this article to appreciate the importance of optimal supply chain: India’s reverse Brexit: GST will create million of formal jobsWhy do the states not want the GST to be implemented?Because of the fear of loss of fiscal autonomy and revenues. To allay the concerns, the centre has agreed to compensate the states for the first 5 years for any losses.Why is the constitutional amendment necessary to implement GST?It’s necessary to enable central and states to levy all kind of taxes. The GST will subsume all indirect taxes. But, as per the constitution, Central could not levy taxes on goods apart from manufacturing (excise) and primary import (customs) and States did not have the power to levy tax on services. The amendment fixes this problem.Now that the consitutional amendment bill has passed, what next?Though it is a mere technicality, the bill will have to tabled again in Lok Sabha with the amendments made in the Rajya Sabha and finally approved by the President50 % of the states will have to ratify the consitutional amendment for it to become valid. The centre will have to get the states on board and allay their concerns.Now that the constitution has been amended, actual GST bills will have to passed in the parliament. The opposition wants the bills to be introduced as finance bill and not money bill. The procedure of passage of money bill gives greater power to Lok Sabha than Rajya Sabha. So, Lok Sabha can override the decisions taken by the the Rajya Sabha. The oppposition has majority in Rajya Sabha. Hence, they want the bill to be passed as Finance Bill and not money bill.. To know about it in detail, you can refer to this article What is Money Bill and Finance Bill?A GST council will be set up (as per the bill) to adjudicate dispute arising due to GST.A GST rate will have to be finalised by the GST council which is neither too low nor too high. The concept of Revenue Neutral rate has been introduced. It is that rate when applied will leave all states with the same revenue as before. The National Institute of Public Finance has estimated this rate to be 27 % which is quite high and will not be acceptable to the tax payers. Read more about RNR (Revenue Neutral Rate)A GST network ( IT system for GST) will have to be launched to facilitate online registration, tax payments etc.The centre and the states will have to work together in harmony to put in place a system for GST collection. We will need a common platform to replace around 15 indirect taxes which are collected separately. The Government’s chief economic adviser, Arvind Subramaniam, warned that the new single tax will be “fiendishly, mind-bogglingly complex to administer”Thus, the bill passed in the Rajya Sabha is just a beginning of the whole process to implement GST before its deadline of April 2017. Also, the economy might slow down after the implementation of GST as it takes time for the system to stabilise and the benefits will emerge gradually.To read more such posts, subscribe to my blog: FeedBurner Email Subscription

Thank you very much, Kris Craig, for your A2A: What are pros and cons of owning a cat? This answer has taken a lot more time to research and write than I had expected and I apologize for the delay in writing it but I wanted to be as comprehensive as possible.I’ll start off by saying I’m biased in favour of cats. I’ve had cats for over 65 years. We call ours our “cat children.” Thus, while I am trying to give both sides to the issue I wanted to avoid a charge of conflict of interest by openly declaring a bias. Also, since Peach contributed a small portion of this answer he wants readers to know that he is biased in favour of his species.CONSI’m going to start off with the cons. Cats poop and pee and they expect you to clean their litter boxes when they are indoors. That can involve work (cleaning litter box, changing litter likely once a month, cleaning the litter box then with soap and putting it outside in the sunlight to air out) and expense (buying fresh bags of litter, around here about $18 per bag or $216 for the year). Sometimes, when things don’t go a cat’s way, it may pee or poop outside the litter box, which could muss up your carpet, bed, or wherever the cat happened to eliminate its waste.Cats have claws. You may get scratched if you annoy a cat or if the cat happens to catch you instead of its toy if you are playing. Scratches hurt. You may need Polysporin, but hopefully not stitches. Oh, and they also bite, especially when ticked off. Say “OUCH” again and grab the Polysporin. Claws also get used on furniture. You just got a new leather upholstered chair and the cat decided to mark it as its own by clawing it and shredding the surface? New carpet getting scratched and fibres torn up? Welcome to the world of cats. In all fairness, though, cats can be taught to use a scratching post so you shouldn’t really have to worry about the carpet or the leather furniture - but if you don’t educate your cat about scratching posts, watch out.Cats are predators and still have that instinct. Yes, they live in houses now, but they were the ones who chose to be domesticated, and on their terms. That means that there is still a lot of the wild animal in a cat. Cats often let loose and tear through your house, galloping as if being chased by a demon or as if they are in pursuit of a phantom menace. You can usually wear a cat out with interactive play which taps into the hunting instinct, but cats will never lose that predator drive and, if you allow your cat to go outside, expect a few gifts of headless birds and rodents to be brought to your door. If you love birds, keep your cat indoors so you don’t get carcasses at your door.Did I mention that cats domesticated themselves on their terms? That’s right. The cat is a pretty willful creature. A cat does what it wants, when it wants, and how it wants. A cat listens to no one. It comes when it feels like coming, not necessarily when you call it. A cat is driven by survival and territory. It does what it sees is best for it. Cats love routine and hate to step outside of it and they hate change. A cat is also highly intuitive. It knows even before you say anything that you are planning to take it to the vet or take it with you on vacation. If it doesn’t agree, it hides. In Ancient Egypt cats were treated as gods. They have never forgotten that. A cat knows that when it domesticated itself it agreed to do minimal work in the mousing department in return for food, water, a safe place to sleep, and service from humans to change litter or otherwise meet it’s needs. Think of it from the cat’s point of view. You are in the cat’s house, it is not in your house. You are there to serve the cat. It is not there to do anything special for you. Cats will remind you umpteen times of these things. They are the bosses, humans are the servants.Cats have fur. They shed in spring and fall. Cat fur is soft. It gets into and onto just about everything. Their fur will get on your clothes, your bedding, your carpets, and even in your mouth as you eat. They will tell you it is an extra source of fibre. They will also want you to clean the place up. If you are getting a cat, also get a good brush and a strong vacuum cleaner. You’ll need them.Cats vomit. They do it in public areas. You are there to clean the rug or floor. Use cat friendly products. Grooming can control furballs, which are most common during shedding and do not indicate illness, Cats seem to throw up more than most animals. Oh, and, yes, sometimes when they throw up they are sick. They ask that you not step in it but clean it up immediately. Being sick means a trip to a veterinarian and those visits are not cheap. That was also part of the cat’s domestication contract. You are to be there in sickness and in health, with an open wallet or a credit card. Oh, yes, the cat also expects you to pay for regular vaccinations and other necessities.There are other expenses as well that should be considered so a prospective cat person needs to consider the costs of things like food and water bowls, a good litter box, a cat bed per cat and maybe one extra (ours sleep in several places in the house), the cost of food (around here averaging perhaps $25 per bag for premium food) and the cost of cat toys. These expenses can add up.Then there are health questions that I wrote about on December 14th 2018 on Quora. The most common problem humans have with cats is breathing: asthma or allergies. You likely know already from your own life experiences whether or not you are prone to allergies with the effects of wheezing, coughing, sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes and other irritating symptoms. If so, a cat can make them worse. Not all people will have allergies to cats, but some will. What a person is allergic to in a cat would be proteins found in the urine, saliva, and dander shed by a cat. You should likely beware of claims for hypoallergenic pets as no pets are fully hypoallergenic and a 2011 study done on homes with regular dog breeds compared to ones with hypoallergenic breeds revealed no difference in allergen levels. Animals and pets as asthma triggers | Asthma UK and Information on Cat AllergiesThere’s also the question of various sicknesses. One good thing to know is that you cannot catch a cold or the ‘flu’ from a cat. “The common cold virus that affects humans is specific to humans,” explains Dr. Shelley Rankin at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, and “different animal species have different strains of influenza virus that affect them.” Can Your Dog or Cat Make You Sick? You may, however, get diarrhoea from your cat if your cat has salomonella or campobacter and you touch the poop but don’t follow good hygenic practices like washing your hands thoroughly after touching it and then handling food or touching your mouth. Animal saliva is something else you should be careful of when with your pet. While many bacteria in a cat’s mouth are not harmful, some may be so it is wise not to let your cat lick your mouth or lick an open wound. These could be especially dangerous if you are already immune-compromised. Another concern might come from the bacteria associated with cat scratch disease, an illness that can be caught from a cat which appears to be healthy looking. If you get scratched, wash the wound and put Polysporin or some other anti-bacterial agent on the wound almost immediately. Cats rarely scratch without reason, so know your cat and don’t provoke it nor play roughly with it. Ringworm, a fungal disease, is transmissible from an infected cat to a human. Chances are you would notice if your cat had it. Be careful in dealing with stray or feral cats as they are more likely sources. Again, thoroughly washing your hands is highly recommended. You don’t want ringworm, nor do you want your own cat to get it. The odds are, however, that you are more likely to get sick from contact with another person than from your cat. Can Your Dog or Cat Make You Sick? As long as you was your hands with soap and running water after contact with cats, their poop, their litter box, and their food you should be well protected. However, people who are elderly, who have compromised immune systems, pregnant women and young children may want to be especially careful “just in case.”One potentially very serious parasite may be spread by cats: toxoplasma gondii. Pet cats are less likely to be carriers than are outdoor, wild, or feral cats and tend to get a bad reputation that is not fully deserved as an individual cat will shed harmful oocysts only once in its lifetime. However, the oocysts packets of parasites can persist in soil and water for years, making the parasite a threat in gardens, on farms, and in water reservoirs and get to people through unwashed fruits and vegetables or dirty water. Indeed, toxoplasma gondii may inhabit the brains of as many as three billion people worldwide and molecular and cellular evidence suggests that it has a widespread and lasting effect on the minds of rodent hosts, modifying the brain and behaviour to reduce fear, but it is still unclear what the extent and impact may be on humans who contract it. It is possible that it is subtly changing human health and human personalities. Infected men tend to be introverted, suspicious, and rebellious, while infected women may be extroverted, trusting, and obedient. The reason why genders react differently is presently unknown. Toxoplasma gondii has been linked to brain cancer. Cat parasite linked to brain cancer A blood test can reveal whether or not you carry toxoplasma gondii. The best advice to avoid an infection is again through basic good hygenic practices: cleaning fruits and vegetables, thoroughly cooking meat, and regular thorough hand washing. Only time and further large research studies on multiple groups will identify how serious this parasite is. Arrizabalaga, Gustavo and Sullivan, Bill, “Played by a Parasite” in Scientific American: The Science of Dogs and Cats, Vol. 27, no. 4All that having been said, you will still love your cat. That is perhaps the biggest con. Cats live finite lives, much shorter than humans. When you love a cat and it dies, a small part of you will also die with it and it will break your heart to lose the cat, despite it fitting all the above cons. If it doesn’t break your heart, if you are the sort of emotionless, insensitive type who doesn’t care, then you should never get a cat as it just won’t be fair to the cat. Unfortunately there are a lot of owners out there who just don’t try to understand cats and who don’t treat them well. That is a con for the cat. It deserves better. It deserves love, affection, kindness, attention, and an open heart as big as the sky.PROSThere are many pros to cat ownership, or perhaps it is wiser to say cat servanthood.Cats are good for the human soul in many ways. On 20 December 2018 my cat Peach posted this on Quora about how cats can spirtitually help humans in his post Are cats good for the soul?:Adaptability - We throw a lot of curves at them. They think they own us. That’s stupid. We are the ones who run the show. They tell us not to wash our backsides in front of company. We do it anyway. They tell us not to jump up on the dresser. They don’t say why not. Heck, cats like heights, so naturally we’ll jump up. They think we should obey by getting off the couch, not batting decorations off the Christmas tree, not chewing on things, and so on, PFFFFTTTT! It’s always the “nots” that they emphasize. We cats just tell it like it is - give us food, give us fresh water, clean our litter boxes. They tell us. We tell them. Which one is obedient? Exactly. The humans! We teach them that life is a long and winding road with nothing sure and that they will have to adapt when things don’t go their way. They don’t always see the value in what we teach and how we act, so their adaptability is something they don’t always realize we are teaching them, but we know it’s good for them when we don’t always do what they tell us. We can take credit for improving how humans cope with life.Unconditional love - That’s one of our specialties. Humans need love and other humans often mean mouth them or stab them in the back so to meow. Well, we cats welcome humans into our lives and hearts with a kind of innocence and reverence that makes them think twice about how the world works. We just give them the sort of thing that they should be giving each other and build up their self-esteem.Devotion and Loyalty - Us cats are humans #1 cheerleaders. We accept them for who and what they are (though we do have a few misgivings if the food is a bit stale or the litter box doesn’t get cleaned after we use it). We love them anyway. We are devoted and loyal and, quite frankly, humans are lucky to have us in their corner. How many others would tolerate what they are like? Heck we sit on their chests, meow to them for help, and generally just get underfoot all the time. They benefit from knowing we are there for them.Non-judgmental - We don’t sit in judgement on humans. It’s a sort of simple focus in life that we have. Our lives are filled with more joy and less fretting. Watch us as we gallop through the house and jump up on counters. Life is fun. Cats live for fun. Look at me in the picture at the start of my post. I’m playing in my tunnel. It’s just a ball! Life isn’t meant to bring you down. We help humans to see fun and experience it rather than being weighed down by cares. If humans try to look at life through the simple lens we use they can then focus on what is really important for their happiness and experience more joy and less fear.Contentment - We teach humans to be content with what they have. We don’t care if we win ribbons at cat shows, though humans do. We just sort of go with things and make the best of what we’re given. The state of happiness and total satisfaction is hard to describe but pretty fulfilling once you have it. We have learned we can’t have everything, but that you can feel pretty good getting a tickle behind the ears or a few pets down the back or across the cheeks. We purr! Life can be good. When we purr or cuddle we show love and can calm humans and when they pet us they lower their blood pressure. We actively help them when we ate contented. We teach humans that it’s all in how you see the world.The Value of Intuition - Cats make decisions in a natural and instinctual manner. We know what we want and what we need. Humans often mention having a “gut feeling” about something. That’s how we live our lives. We know ourselves and our needs. We go for it. Our inner-wisdom guides our way. We try to teach humans that they need to know their inner selves. Unfortunately humans often out-think themselves, but we do our best to try to show them how life should work.Awareness - Cats live in the moment. We are constantly aware of our surroundings, possible threats to our safety, sounds near us, smells in the air, all kinds of things that touch our senses and change in the blink of an eye. Humans, even ones who are present and try to be attentive, seem to focus on what the call the “quality” and “variety” of their focus over, say, a minute. We are aware of much, much more and are multi-sensory. Humans stay locked in one thought but we can have dozens of things that we focus on in such a period. Unfortunately this is one of the hardest things we face with humans. We try and try to let them sense multiple experiences but they just call us flaky and think we are inattentive when we process more information instinctively than they can. They just have to learn to embrace the moment and everything in it and that it can improve what they call their spiritual health. And, by the way, when you see my picture in my bed at the end of the post, remember I may look like I’ll be sleeping but if anything connects with any of my senses, you know I’ll be up and at’em in seconds. We cats don’t just preach awareness, we live it.My post on Quora on December 14th, 2018, added specific positive benefits to human health and well-being:POSITIVE HEALTH EFFECTS FROM CATSYour cat can offer some very positive health benefits. Cats help people to cope with losses. Many cat owners talk to their cats, and they talk to their cats about anything and everything - how the day at work went, loss of a family member, a relationship break-up, and so on. Cats make for good social support. They listen and never offer contradictory ideas. Indeed, they often look at you and look like they understand, something people who are venting or who are in mourning really appreciate. Sasha, shown here in 2015, was my best friend and listener.Need romance and love? A British poll found that “a whopping 90 percent of single women said that men who own a cat are “nicer” than other guys.” Cats, apparently, are a great help in finding what is seen as a great significant other.Cats are also good at lowering stress levels in people. It has been reported that petting a cat can lower your blood pressure by 10 basis points and “one study found that over a 10-year period cat owners were 30 percent less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than non-cat owners (although this might just be because cat owners are more relaxed and have lower stress in general).” Not only do cats lower your risk for cardiovascular disease but their purring can help to heal bones, tendons, and muscles.Cats provide good companionship. “An Austrian study conducted in 2003 found that having a cat in the house is the emotional equivalent of having a romantic partner. As well as initiating contact much of the time, studies have shown cats will remember kindness shown to them and return the favor later.” I have earlier noted that cats listen well and offer social support. They also remind people of family and evoke parental qualities: “After thousands of years of domestication, cats have learned how to make a half purr/half howl noise that sounds remarkably like a human baby’s cry. And since our brains are programmed to respond to our children’s distress, it is almost impossible to ignore what a cat wants when it demands it like that.” Cats are also very affectionate and are often happy to cuddle with people, purr to them, and sometimes sit on their laps. I know my Velvet is a lap cat and likes to be by my side and my wife’s side on the bed. Sasha frequently lay on my chest and licked my face.Watching a cat can be fun. Ours gallop through the house, roll on the floor, knock toys back and fort with me, hide in boxes, crawl into tunnels, rest in my lap and make me laugh as they play or just reveal their unique personalities. I just can’t imagine not breaking up in laughter with all the sorts of crazy things they do. Cats are born entertainers, and some of them, like our Velvet, can be real clowns. One of her favourite tricks used to be to climb the scratching post backwards. It was something I never caught on camera, though I once got a shot of her just as she was about to start.Here Peach plays with a toy ball. He really enjoys games, especially ball toss, and he gives me 10 solid minutes of exercise most nights.Cats also seem to have an effect on human personalities. Maybe it is because a certain type of person tends to like cats, or maybe your cat just has an strong effect on your personality, but “cat owners are quieter and more introverted than dog owners. However, they score very highly when it comes to how trustworthy they are and how much they trust other people. Cat owners are also less manipulative and more modest.” Those are generally considered to be good qualities and it is nice as a cat person to read such things.Sleeping with a cat can produce sounder sleep. Velvet often cuddles with my wife. My late Sasha used to sleep beside me, her head on my tissue box while my head was on the pillow, her long Maine Coon body parallel to mine and her paw in my hand. The problems of the whole world were as nothing. I slept like a rock. On cold nights now Peach sleeps at the foot of the bed beside and above the heating vent. “Several studies in the UK have found that people (especially women) prefer to sleep with their cats over their partners, and they even report sleeping better with a cat than with a human bed companion. A recent study from the Mayo Clinic Center for Sleep Medicine was able to confirm those findings: 41 percent of the people in that study indicated that they slept better because of their pet, while only 20 percent said that it led to disturbances.”Under the heading of Cons I noted allergies. An interesting fact, though, is “according to Marshall Plaut, M.D., chief of the allergic mechanisms section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, ‘high pet exposure early in life appears to protect against not only pet allergy but also other types of common allergies, such as allergy to dust mites, ragweed, and grass.’” Also, “experts say that by changing your cat’s litter box every day and keeping the animal indoors, you should be safe and allergy free!” So, if you already have allergies, getting a cat may make them worse, but a getting a cat, especially when young, may help you to avoid allergies later in life.Cats have also proven to be very helpful to their human owners in potentially dangerous situations. I have written before how my late Sasha spotted water coming into our basement, got my attention, and led me to the problem so that we could move things and save them. Cats who bond with their owners have displayed helpfulness on many occasions. Cats have an undeserved reputation for being uncaring and aloof. Yet “one cat in the United Kingdom warns her human when he’s about to have an epileptic seizure, while a cat in Montana woke up its two humans when a gas pipe started leaking. Firefighters told the couple that the house could easily have exploded if not for cat’s intervention.” Maybe you have also heard of or known someone who has benefitted from a cat’s intervention in a challenging situation. Many have.Cats are also important to people other than their owners. I have written previously on Quora about the role our cats play in pet therapy with seniors in nursing homes. Pet therapy cats are used to help with mentally, emotionally, and physically ailing humans to help with relaxing and healing. They lower blood pressure, reduce stress, and promote a feeling of happiness among people they visit in nursing homes, hospitals, schools and prisons. Here's How You Can Certify Your Cat As A Therapy Animal and How to Get Your Cat Certified as a Therapy Cat | CatsterHere’s Velvet on her cart while visiting residents at the local Caressant Care nursing home.I think it is also worth mentioning that, despite some of the things in the Cons section above about costs and the need for vaccinations, cats are generally low maintenance pets. Sure, you need to scoop the litter box regularly. However, you don’t need to take them for walks (although many will walk on a harness and leash) unless you want to and you can go away for a couple of nights leaving them with sufficient food and water. (Any more than two nights and it is generally recommended to have someone come in to clean the litter box, change the water and top up the food.)Cats are also very fastidious animals. They frequently clean themselves. This is excellent, since you really do not want to have to give a cat a bath unless you have to. Trust me on that. Cats and water do not mix well, but under normal circumstances they won’t need to mix.Cats are independent. They think for themselves and follow their own path in life, something that can be quite refreshing to see and experience. As they said in the ‘60s, “They do their own thing in their own time, man.”Cats are great communicators. They use body language involving their ears, eyes, whiskers, backs and tails to send signals to each other, but if you watch and learn or google “cat body language” you, too, can figure out what they are saying. And cats meow. Actually they meow, trill, chirp, purr, hiss, and yowl and each cat has slightly different sounds. Nevertheless there are subtle variations in what you might think is the standard meow to say “I’m hungry” or “I want my litter box cleaned” or “It’s playtime, hooman, get with it and let’s go!” Once you have a cat and learn to listen to it you can understand what it is saying and you and the cat can get on the same page in regards to conversing. That’s something you can’t do with a pet goldfish, snake, or hamster and it’s really quite amazing because you are really learning to talk to the animals when you both understand the message, kind of like being Dr. Dolittle..Cats are excellent hunters. If you have creepy crawly little critters in your house now you likely won’t after introducing a cat. Peach watches every little thing and would be happy to terminate every little thing’s existence. Sasha once showed me her collection of 17 dead silverfish that she’d arranged in two rows near her bed in the laundry room. Sasha has been dead for just over four years, but we haven’t had silverfish since she was our exterminator. Mind you, some cats seem to be too well fed to bother, but most cats, especially young cats, will enjoy catching your mice and insects.Cats thrive in a variety of settings. Just over a hundred years ago they lived in barns. Slowly they became outdoor/indoor cats in houses and now, especially in urban settings, cats have become largely indoor only pets and have taken to apartment living. Indeed it is because cats are low maintenance and can adapt to new surroundings so easily that cats have become the number one pet in the world, pushing dogs into second place.So there you have it, the cons and pros of having a cat. Like I noted before, I am hesitant to say cat ownership especially since a cat does what it wants, when it wants, and how it wants and, while there are certainly some logical reasons against having a cat, especially if it isn’t going to fit your preferred lifestyle, I think these are outweighed, at least for me, by the positives that cats bring to your life: coping, support, better overall health, companionship, personality, allergy protection, adaptability, cleanliness, and a strong emotional bond that may save your life or your home.Most of these points were taken from over 65 years of cat experience plus previous Quora posts by myself and my cats plus web sites noted in the text and these web sites: The Pros & Cons Of Cat Ownership, and The Pros And Cons Of Cat Ownership while the positive health effects of cats were drawn from 10 Scientific Benefits of Being a Cat Owner and 7 Scientifically Proven Health Benefits Of Being a Cat Owner - Goodnet. In this post I have mentioned material from Scientific American: The Science of Dogs and Cats, Vol. 27, no. 4, Fall 2018. It was available on news stands until 27 N 2018. Its ISSN is 1936–1513. It can be ordered from Scientific American, a division of Springer Nature America, Inc., 1 New York Plaza, Suite 4500, New York, N.Y., 10004–1562 for $US13.95 if in the United States or $US17.95 from abroad. If you are a dog or cat owner this is very good reading and arguably one of the best reference items I’ve seen of late.Normally I write Quora articles about cats and prefer to write about cats. Feel free to click on my profile to see them and hopefully read some. Hopefully you will find articles that are helpful and enjoyable.Thank you for taking the time to read this. I try to answer questions I think I can effectively answer but may pass if I don’t know the answer, or if I have previously answered a very similar question, or someone else may have answered the question as well or better than I could, or the answer can be found easily by googling the topic. I hope you understand and are not offended if I don’t post an answer to your question(s).

Original Answer: What would happen if the Warhammer 30k Imperial Fist fleet arrived at Reach after Gamma Station was destroyed.(Cue the greatest music in any game ever. Thanks Bungie. Taken from Halopedia)This is actually a really interesting scenario to consider. The Battle of Reach was just about the coolest battle in the entire Halo universe. It was so awesome, in fact, that they made an entire game centered on it. (The Best Halo game, IMHO)So, while I’ll do a technical run down later, right now let’s get a timeline of events going.First, the Covenant track commander Keyes’ ship, the UNSC Iroquois to Reach.Before unleashing their full wrath against the planet, the Fleet of Valiant Prudence, comprised of several SDV-class heavy corvettes and the CSO-Class Supercarrier, Long Night Of Solace was deployed. Clandestine operations were carried out on the ground at this time.The lid was blown off the Covenant’s presence when SPARTAN Noble team engaged a team of Sangheili Zealots at the Visegrad relay outpost.After that engagement, WINTER CONTINGENCY was declared by the UNSC, and a period of skirmishing and minor engagements began. Of note, was SPARTAN Noble team’s assault on the Long Night of Solace, which ended in the Supercarrier’s destruction.(UNSC Ground forces at Szurdok Ridge. Taken from Halopedia.)At this time however, the full Covenant armada arrived, and the Space battle as seen in Fall of Reach (the novel) began in earnest.The Covenant Fleet of Particular Justice, headed by Supreme Commander Thel ‘Vadamee was comprised of 315 ships, including large numbers of SDV-Class Heavy Corvettes, DAV-Class Light Corvettes, CRS-Class Light Cruisers, CCS-Class Battlecruisers, CAS-Class Assault Carriers, and an unknown “Sniper Ship” that wielded supercharged energy projector turrets.The present UNSC fleets accounted 152 warships under the command of Admiral Roland Freemont, as well as Vice Admirals Michael Stanforth and Danforth Whitcomb. The UNSC fleet included large numbers of Destroyers, Frigates and Corvettes, as well as one Valiant-Class Super Heavy Cruiser, one Carrier, three Cruisers, and one Punic-Class Supercarrier.The UNSC forces adopted similar tactics to those that won the battle of Sigma Octanus, and volley-fired their MAC cannons, maneuvered Orbital repair stations as shields against Covenant fire, and played to the strengths of their orbital SuperMac platforms.It wasn’t enough. Between Covenant forces getting planetside and neutralizing SuperMac power generators, the “Sniper Ship” destroying major UNSC capital ships, and the overwhelming Covenant numerical advantage, the battle was ultimately lost.(The Covenant armada preparing to glass Reach. Taken from Halopedia.)130 UNSC ships were lost, and an estimated 700,000,000 civilians and military personnel died. Though, the Covenant’s aggressive tactics led to them being rather bloodied as well. Most if not all of the Fleet of Valiant Prudence was lost, including a nearly irreplaceable Supercarrier. Their primary fleet, meanwhile, lost over 100 ships, a full third of it’s strength.The UNSC gave the Covenant hell, and made them pay for every inch… but it wasn’t enough.Now then, let’s back up a bit.The Long Night of Solace is destroyed.Gamma Station begins detecting slipspace signatures approaching the Epsilon Eridani system enmasse.Soon, the Fleet of Particular Justice arrives in all it’s splendour.Scattered UNSC fleets manage to scrape together about 100 vessels to face them.Then, Gamma Station begins registering an anomaly. Strange radiation and things that Science quite frankly has no words for begin to light up their sensor screens, rapidly intensifying in magnitude.A lone satellite in Reach’s orbit manages to turn it’s cameras towards the area, and watches as space… unravels.Impossible colors ignite the void, as a churning, flickering vortex of energy manifests itself.All eyes are now upon it, and be they Human or Unggoy or Sangheili feel something wrong within it’s depths. All can feel a tug upon their souls, and can hear the voices of the damned inside their minds.The anomaly swells, widens, and suddenly disgorges something before vanishing.A fleet of strange, alien warships hangs in the void.(HUMANITY FUCK YEAH! Taken from Lexicanum.)Meanwhile, Primarch Rogal Dorn and his attendant fleets and forces have just finished bringing a new set of human systems into compliance.A standard warp jump suddenly goes horribly wrong, and the entire fleet finds itself spat out in strange new territory, facing two opposing fleets of unknown ship designs.Attempts at standard Vox communications meet with utter failure. Their technologies seem to be incompatible. The Astropath begins to scream that ‘The Astronomicon’s light is gone”, over and over, until he can be sedated.Finally, Dorn commands that they downgrade their comms attempts, using simple radio waves that any species can possibly detect.The Tech-Priests cheer as successful contact is made. They can only communicate with the other ships’ cogitators in binary, but it is enough. The holy tongue of the Omnissiah is understood universally.Their probes encounter an alien intelligence inside the organic, purple ships, that are already swiveling to face them, lateral lines beginning to flicker with arming plasma.Finally, the cogitators upon the grey, metallic ships make a breakthrough. The standard language packets, written in High and Low Gothic have been deciphered, and a rough translation algorithm is in place. A vocal channel is established.Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the VII Legion, makes contact with a human Admiral. Brief information is exchanged. Omnicidal Xenos empire, beleaguered humanity. His course of action is clear.(These Xenos picked the wrong species to genocide. Taken from Lexicanum.)His expeditionary force, comprised of a standard naval battlegroup, as well as his personal force of VII legion ships deploys into attack formation.The Imperial Fists order of battle is arranged as follows.His flagship, the Gloriana-Class Battleship, Eternal Crusader and several Battle-Barges and Strike-Cruisers hold the center of the line. Arranged in a spearhead formation around his core, are the fifty warships of the Imperial Navy. This force is led by an Emperor-Class Battleship, and contains several Grand Cruisers, and multiple squadrons of Cruisers and Destroyers, as well as flotillas of escort craft.(Covenant ships firing plasma volley. Taken from ModDB SinsoftheProphets.)With little more communication, the human political entity known as the UNSC welcomes Dorn’s aid, and gives his Tech-Priests as much information on Covenant combat capabilities as possible.The Archmagos upon the Eternal Crusader’s bridge relays his conclusions to Dorn. Enemy vessels use guided plasma bolts for primary ship-to-ship combat, with an estimated salvo yield ranging from to one hundred Gigatons to twenty five Teratons. All in all, significantly inferior to Imperial weaponry, though not outside the area of presenting a threat.This xenos ‘Covenant’ also use short ranged pulse lasers for point defence, and some manner of plasma beam projector for planetary bombardment.His weapons officer announces that the Xenos ships are spiking in power levels. Globs of plasma can be detected pooling on their sides, shimmering an incandescent lilac.Dorn transmits a firing solution to the fleet.The xenos ships release their plasma bolts, ionized globs gliding through the void towards the Imperial Fists.Simultaneously, hundreds of torpedoes are launched to meet them, while lance batteries cut crimson beams across the night sky, cutting through xenos shields and burning through the hulls below.A dozen lesser xenos ships are laid low, lance batteries having simply cut straight through their hulls.Then, the torpedoes reach the xenos formation. Pulse lasers flicker out, yet to the Covenant’s shock, the torpedoes are heavily armored. Certainly not enough to be immune to their point defence, but armored enough that it takes more than a mere tap to destroy them.Many are destroyed, but many more slip through the xenos defences and strike home. These torpedoes are monstrous things, almost the size of UNSC frigates, and when they strike home, Covenant vessels are simply sheared apart, shields overloading within moments. Then the explosive payload within detonates, reducing the impacted ships to nothing more than debris fields.Meanwhile the Covenant plasma torpedoes impact, only to splash against void shields that manifest before them. To the UNSC’s stunned awe and shock, their shields do not fail. The Covenant volley is weathered without incident.Then, the lance batteries target new ships, and fire again.(CAS-Assault Carriers at the battle of Reach. Taken from Halopedia.)To Commander Thel, it is becoming abundantly clear that the Covenant are losing the ranged engagement. These strange new ships, bedecked with human statues and other blasphemous iconography simply outgun his own fleet. He still has a nearly six to one numerical advantage over them, but if the situation continues at this pace, both fleets trading fire at maximum range, then that will soon change.Fifty of his ships are already lost. Corvettes and frigates, to be sure, but their loss is still worrying.He needs a new plan.A lance of fifty vessels, led by the Assault Carrier, Sublime Retribution are commanded to preform an in-system jump, to the flank of the enemy ships, and engage them in close quarters.The Sublime Retribution complies, and within moments, slipspace portals appear before it and it’s attendant lesser ships, and they vanish. Moments later, they appear again at extreme range, right on the strange ships’ flank.Unfortunately for them, they have just placed themselves within macrocannon range of the Imperial ships.(Imperial screening force. Taken from Lexicanum.)Imperial flanking elements spring into action at the xenos ships sudden maneuver. Dozens upon dozens of macrocannon emplacements are directed towards the xenos ships.As a hurricane of plasma fire streaks towards the Imperial fleet, a storm of hypersonic shells roar to meet them. A macroshell is about as massive as a small UNSC ship. Launched at hypersonic velocities, it operates very similarly to a MAC gun, except with a vastly larger shell.When they strike the covenant ships, the vessels simply cease to exist, torn to shreds and then vaporized by reactor eruptions.The Covenant lance swiftly loses almost all of it’s ships. Those that do not die in the opening salvo are targeted and carved apart by lance batteries.The plasma travels on, however. Targeted in greater concentration on single targets, they begin to overwhelm the shields of Imperial escorts. Several escort craft lose their shields, and have chunks of hull vaporised and melted. Yet, they carry on, regardless of damage.Damaged and torn, the Sublime Retribution moves straight into the Imperial lines, targeting all of it’s weapons banks on two damaged and unshielded escort ships. Plasma bolts coalesce and glide forth, as pulse lasers begin to rake exposed hulls.In the moments before it is torn apart by a second macrocannon salvo, the Assault Carrier claims two kills.Meanwhile, Dorn’s formation inexorably grinds on, slowly whittling the xenos ships apart with measured volley after measured volley. The Glorious Crusader has claimed nearly thirty five kills, and it’s crew is keen on tripling that number before the battle is through.(UNSC Trafalgar and attendant ships leading the charge. Taken from halopedia)Emboldened by their strange allies' staggering success, and the Covenant’s disregard of them, the UNSC begin their offensive. Spearheaded by the Punic-Class Supercarrier UNSC Trafalgar, the entire UNSC fleet of 100 ships begins an offensive at the rear of the Covenant formation.At the start of maneuvers, a full size lance of ships held the Covenant’s rear, but with the loss of 100 of their ships, the lance was repositioned to plug holes in their lines, leaving their rear exposed.The UNSC exploited this mercilessly. At first, they formed a massive firing line, and emptied as many salvoes of MAC rounds into the Covenant rear as they dared.Then, as corvette packs detached to engage them, they broke formation and withdrew to the safety net of their Supermacs. Ten Covenant ships were destroyed in the initial volley, and a further twenty were damaged to some extent. The UNSC had lost ten ships in the exchange.(Charon-Class frigate firing at oncoming Covenant vessels. Taken from halofanon wiki.)Commander Thel was incensed and despondent. His gambit had seen fifty ships dead within moments, and now the wretched humans were strafing his rear like eaters of carrion.At this point nearly half his fleet was dead, and all he had to show for it was a handful of the enemy’s escort craft. His modified long range engagement cruiser was proving invaluable, as it’s lasers could shred enemy hull armor, so he was using plasma torpedoes to wear down enemy shields, then having the ship go in for the kill.This tactic was irrelevant to the battle’s outcome, however. He had only one such vessel, and it had already narrowly escaped enemy counter fire.Withdrawal was always an option, as he was clearly outmatched, but his warrior’s pride rankled at it. Still, committing two hundred and ten ships to death against a superior foe was foolish. Perhaps a more rash Fleet Master would have ordered such a thing, but the waste of resources was not something he was willing to do.With a heavy heart, Thel commanded his second to take half of the fleet, containing all of the most valuable vessels, and withdraw from the system, taking all knowledge of these new foes to the Hierarchs.He would remain, commanding nearly a hundred lesser craft to guard their escape.An argument broke out, but finally, the Assault Carriers, and Battlecruisers, and Ranged Cruiser fled the field.Opening a frequency to every remaining ship, gripping the handrail with all his strength, he gave a single command. “Charge.”(SDV-Class Corvette moving to engage Imperial Forces. Taken from halopedia.)Rogal Dorn watches impassively from the bridge of the Eternal Crusader as half of the remaining xenos vessels engage their warp-drives. For a few moments, they sit in place, vulnerable, and at his command fire is directed towards them. A dozen major vessels are destroyed before the rest disappear.Picket forces are vigilant, but no maneuver assault falls against them. The enemy ships do not reappear.“They have withdrawn.”, The Primarch mutters.Just then, the remaining xenos flagship, and the rest of their lesser vessels accelerate towards his fleet, firing wildly as they go.Dorn commands interceptors to be deployed, and for the fleet to present broadsides.As the xenos draw closer, a hurricane of macrocannon fire sweeps through them. Moments later, squadrons of interceptors and packs of escorts plunge into the remains of their formation, destroying whatever remains.The battle of Reach is ended.Six Imperial escorts are lost, with a further ten heavily damaged.The UNSC has lost forty ships, with a further twenty damaged.The Covenant have lost two hundred and sixty ships. The survivors move with all speed to High Charity, to report their failure.With this success, Rogal Dorn makes contact with the UNSC, and begins preparations to assimilate them into the Imperium.Now for technical stuff.I think we can all agree that Imperium>Covenant. Technical ramblings would certainly be fun to quibble over, but I kinda ended up making this into a story. Maybe next time.In other news, if you like Warhammer fluff, you may be interested in checking out a blog I’ve put together: The Legion of MutationIt’s a repository for the lore of a Thousand Sons army myself and a friend are working on. Much of it is written in a similar format to this, and if you’re a fan of the space wizards, or 40k lore in general, check it out.