And here is a dog doing laundry.

Some genius went and invented a washing machine, called “Woof to Wash,” for assistance dogs to do laundry. It’s bark activated and should make your day.

My only question is, aren’t dogs colour blind? And, if so, wouldn’t they have trouble with sorting?

And, oh look! Because this is the internet, I can find out the answer to that question right away. And the answer is that dogs do see colours, just not as richly as we do. OK, then. Carry on…

(Via Incredible Things)

Scientists claim to have invented hangover free beer.

See, the reason you get a hangover is because you get dehydrated. So some nutrition researchers at the Griffith Health Institute (GHI) have found that you can make beer more hydrating “without killing its taste,” which results in no hangover.

Associate Professor Ben Desbrow from GHI’s Centre for Health Practice Innovation said,

“We basically manipulated the electrolyte levels of two commercial beers, one regular strength and one light beer and gave it to research subjects who’d just lost a significant amount of sweat by exercising. We then used several measures to monitor the participant’s fluid recovery to the different beers.

“Of the four different beers the subjects consumed, our augmented light beer was by far the most well retained by the body, meaning it was the most effective at rehydrating the subjects.”

The electrolyte light beer was a third more effective at hydrating than normal beer, says news-medical.net.

So, it’s light beer. Loses a little of the appeal there.  But maybe you like that sort of thing .

Martin Manley committed suicide on Thursday, August 15, his 60th birthday, shooting himself in the head in the parking lot of a Kansas City police station.

Manley, a former Kansas City Star sports reporter, left behind a website, set to publish after his death, documenting his life – everything from his childhood, right up to his decision to kill himself.

It’s quite a read.

“I always thought I might commit suicide someday. When I considered the options of living to be old and all the negatives associated with that alternative, I knew there was no way on earth I was going to allow myself to deal with such an intolerable situation. In order to guarantee that I avoided it, I also knew that I had to commit the act before I was incapacitated and unable to carry it out.”

In the “Suicide – How 2″ section he goes through his options, including poisons, and why he settled on a bullet to the head. I’m guessing that part will rub some people the wrong way.

My reaction runs from fascination (What an unusual idea!) and admiration (Well, he certainly picked a project and saw it through!) to contempt (Why would anyone throw away their one life?).

Check out martinmanleylifeanddeath.com. Draw your own conclusions.  (via Laughing Squid)

Update: Yahoo took down the site , because they are assholes. Regardless of you feel about it, this guy devoted his life and death to this project and he worked really hard on it. The least you could do is have some respect and let it be. Manley’s sister is trying to get it back up.

Today a story is making the rounds about a dog who is posing as a lion at a China zoo. It’s sort of a funny story, except that it makes me wonder whether people who are shifty and dishonest are being nice to the zoo animals…I hope so.

Folks online are saying they feel cheated but the zoo says it wasn’t faking anything.

“The chief of the park’s animal department, Liu Suya, told the [Beijing Youth Daily] paper that while it does have a lion, it had been taken to a breeding facility and the dog – which belonged to an employee – had been temporarily housed in the zoo over safety concerns.” This is according to the AP, though I Google translated the Beijing Youth article and can’t figure out where they got “safety concerns.”

The zoo also has another dog posing as a wolf and something that looks like a dog or a fox in a pen marked as a leopard.

What do you mean dog? Nobody here but us leopards. Saunters away whistling…

This is little Yuan Zai being reunited with her mom, Yuan Yuan at the zoo in Taiwan.

I googled the translation of these words and learned that “Yuan” is the Chinese unit of currency and means “round coin,” so the mother’s name is, I think, “Round Coin Round Coin.” Fox News says Yuan Zai means “Child of Yuan Yuan.” Though, ”zai” means “again,” so, really, the baby’s name is “Round Coin Again.” Maybe something is lost in the translation. Can anyone who speaks Chinese confirm this or school me? Anyway, the name will be changed, as the zoo has launched a naming campaign.

“Zookeepers in Taipei had to separate tiny Yuan Zai from its mother, Yuan Yuan, last month, to be raised in an incubator as the cub needed care and round-the-clock monitoring after it was slightly injured while being bred a few days after birth.” What? Being bred a few days after birth? Oh, Fox News, did something else get lost in the translation here?

This is about a month later and it should make your heart grow a little.

Channel 7 News is there to report all the hard hitting NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW! Where do I get a job reporting on swimming kitties? I bet I could do it without laughing, and give the story the gravitas it deserves, unlike this woman who totally collapses into giggles. How terribly unprofessional. *Shakes head*

(Via Cubiclebot)

Prosecutors got no sense of humour.

Cops in the UK are under investigation for filling in a witness statement in the name of a police dog. The Daily Mail reports that the officers got frustrated after repeated requests for a statement from PC Peach, even though they’d already explained that Peach was a dog (an alsatian, apparently).

So, they filled it out in his name. It says, “I chase him. I bite him. Bad man. He tasty. Good boy. Good boy Peach.”

It was tacked to the wall at a West Midlands Police station and, of course, made its way onto Facebook, then Twitter.

Prosecutors are apparently not amused and are complaining that they’re being made the butt of a joke.

Sources apparently say the cops behind the joke are unlikely to wind up in the doghouse over it.

SEE WHAT I DID THERE?

It was only a matter of time, hours really, before someone remixed Hitchhiker Kai’s post life-saving hatchet attack interview into an autotuned track. I don’t know what it is about this kid but I just love him. He makes me both giddy and verklemt all at the same time.

See the original interview here.

Above is the dance version and below is the acoustic version. Natch.

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This interview with a homeless hitchhiker who just attacked a guy with a hatchet because the guy, who thought he was Jesus, was attacking people, has everything. Excitement! Humour! Terror! Tragedy! Pathos…

Now he just wants to go surfing. I hope he gets to.

Here’s the news story.

Source: Boing Boing